Articles
Philip Followed
“The next day He purposed to go forth into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me” (John 1:43).
When Christ says “Follow me” are we willing to drop everything and do so? When you overhear a conversation between two non-Christians about a Bible matter, do you jump in? When you are confronted by atheists, do you make the time to answer their questions appropriately? When the Mormons come knocking on your door, do you give up an hour of your day to study with them? Every one of us today is in one of two conditions. Either you are a baptized Christian with the obligation to follow Christ wherever He may lead you and to be ready to spread the Gospel under any circumstance (2 Timothy 4:2 says, “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season.”) or you are not baptized and you have the obligation to follow the call of Christ and obey the commandments in the Bible to believe, confess, and be baptized. What I like about Philip is that he obeys without question. When asked to follow Jesus, he basically drops everything and does so because he seems to know what is being proposed. The Son of God has asked Philip, personally, to join in Him spreading the Gospel. I suppose if that does not motivate a person to follow, then nothing else will. Philip realizes in this scripture what is at stake – His salvation!
“Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ And Nathanael said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see’” (John 1:44-46). A couple of considerations for this section of text:
Like Andrew, Philip was eager to tell others about the message of Jesus Christ. How eager are you? Even in the face of some reluctance on Nathanael’s part, Philip is not deterred.
Philip did not consider the Messiah a legend, but viewed the Old Testament as an authoritative, historical document. Moses was a real person, as were the prophets, and their texts had meaning for their day.
I like that “Come and see.” In spite of Nathanael hesitance, Philip just nudges him along and encourages him to “see it for himself.” This is a powerful evangelistic tool because Christianity is not supposed be a religion based on blind faith, with no hint of proof and validity. In our own evangelism, it is good for us to offer firsthand evidence of the veracity of Christianity. Let unbelievers read the Bible for themselves, come to their own conclusions, and let the power of the Word do what God intended it to do.
