Philip – On the Second Shelf

John 1

Philip probably was a close friend of Peter and Andrew because they lived in the same small area and went to the same synagogue. They were God-fearing Jews and looking for the Messiah, so they probably had a lot in common.  It's likely that Philip was a fisherman because in the 21st chapter of John, second and third verse, when Peter takes the disciples back into the fishing enterprise after the resurrection, discouraged, he goes fishing.  And Philip and Andrew go along.  So perhaps he was a fisherman too.

Only John tells us about him, in John 1. He's an illustration of a completely different kind of person. He's not like Peter, he's not like Andrew, he's not like James, he's not like John.  He's not at all like his buddy, Nathanael, [Bartholomew].  Those two are always together.  But he's really not like any of them, he's just unique. He’s in the second grouping of disciples, on the second shelf.

John 1:43

⁴³ The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

The next day after what?  Well, it’s the next day after Jesus had called Peter and Andrew.  Go back to verse 40. They heard John the Baptist preach. They followed John the Baptist.  John the Baptist points them to the Messiah.  They find the Messiah, they follow the Messiah.  Jesus changes Peter's name and here they are. They're in the group of disciples.

Now Peter and Andrew had kind of found Him, and even James and John sort of found Him.  This is the first time we actually read "Jesus found" somebody.  He went after Philip.  He is the first one to whom Jesus actually said, "Follow Me."  He did have to say that to Peter, but that was at the end of His ministry, at the end of the gospel of John, Peter still being a little reluctant in his following.

John 1:45

⁴⁵ Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Isn't that interesting?  People wonder, how do you reckon between sovereign election and human choice?  How do we resolve those things?  Well here's a perfect illustration that both exist.  The Lord found Philip but Philip felt that he found the Lord.  "We found Him."  No, that’s bad theology, Philip, He found you.

But from a human perspective this was the end of his search.  He had been a true Jew.  He had been a true seeker.  He was a student of the Old Testament.  The law and the prophets is shorthand for the Old Testament.  We've studied the Old Testament.  We know who we're looking for.  We're looking for the Messiah.  And we found the Messiah and you'll never believe it, it is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now Bethsaida was north of Nazareth, up in that Galilee area, not very far away.  Nathanael can't believe it. 

John 1:46

⁴⁶ And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

You've got to be kidding.  That's a ridiculous thing for Nathanael to say because he came from Cana. That was worse than Nazareth.  Nazareth by all measures would have been a more significant place than Cana, a little local rivalry there. Maybe some bad blood between the football teams.

But Philip had studied the Old Testament. [We'll see more about Nathanael in the future.]  No one had to bring him to Jesus.  Jesus found him.  And, of course, in truth He finds everybody who comes to Him, right?  "No man comes unto the Me except the Father draws him."  But the Old Testament had prepared Philip's heart.

What a great beginning!  No reluctance.  No disbelief.  He just was so elated, so thrilled that he just followed.  He got caught up, I think, in the emotional fulfillment of the moment.  I think his faith was real, but very weak, as the later passages about him tell us.  But it was a good beginning.  He didn't make any effort to find more information, to check things out. He just embraced the fact that the Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.  This was the end of the search.  This is Philip.  [Please don't confuse him with Philip the deacon in Acts 6 and 8, who later became an evangelist.  Different Philip.]

Turn to John 6. Let's look a little more at Philip, from the spiritual side of things.  His personality is starting to show through. 

John 6:5

⁵ When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

Why does He ask Philip? Well, you know, maybe Philip was the apostolic bean counter.  You know?  The administrator.  Maybe...this is speculation...but Philip was the guy who whether officially or unofficially was the guy who always worried about the possibility of everything.  He was the guy who in every meeting said, "I don't think we can do that."  He was the master of the impossible, and most everything fit into that category for him, maybe.

John 6:6

⁶ And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

He wasn't testing him so that He could find out what he was like, He was testing him so that he would reveal to himself what he was like.  He knew his thinking.  All of a sudden He sees this massive crowd, He says, "Philip, you're usually in charge of arrangements, could you tell us where we're going to get bread to feed this crowd?"

He knew exactly what he was thinking. He had already started counting heads.  When the crowd started moving, he was, one, two...  It's late in the day, and this is a huge crowd. They're going to be hungry, you know.  I mean, essentially life was eating, wasn't it?  And eating in those days was not an easy thing. There wasn't any fast-food.  And He says this right out of the blue, "Where are we going to buy bread that these may eat?" 

John 6:7

⁷ Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

Jesus knew. He had already calculated that. 

Philip had been there when the Lord created wine out of water.  He had seen miracles of healing, casting out of demons, those kinds of things.  And he sees this great crowd and he's already beginning to feel the impossible.  Oh boy, it's dinner time and if we could collect 200 denarii, we couldn't feed this crowd a snack.  We're in big trouble.

The supernatural escapes these kind of people.  They're just material in their thinking.  So Jesus wants to give him a test so he'll see what he's really like.  And he responded with open unbelief. It can't be done. It can't be done.  A denarius is one day's wages, 200 days’ wages, or eight months’ work. That's a lot of money for this group of meager apostles in terms of money. 

One of the supreme essentials of leadership is a sense of the possible, especially if you're hanging around Christ.  Philip was more in touch with the impossible.  He knew too much arithmetic to be adventurous.  He should have said, "Lord, if You want to feed them, feed them, I'm just going to stand back and watch how You do it.  You can do it, Lord.  Do it.  We'll tell everybody to get in line. You just make the food." 

On the other hand, you have Andrew, verse 8, and every time we see Andrew, what's he doing?  He's bringing someone to Jesus.  Here comes Andrew.  "Simon Peter's brother" always has to be added there. Poor Andrew, he lived in that shadow his whole life.  I don't think it will say that on the foundation stone of his gate in the New Jerusalem.  I think it will just be Andrew, in big letters.

John 6:9

⁹ There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

Andrew had a glimmer of the possible.  And his little faith was honored.  Philip lost the opportunity and a little boy brought by Andrew seized it.

You see, Philip was a materialist.  He was the man of practical things.  He was the common sense guy.  He was the measurements guy.  He was the methods guy.  He was the mechanical guy with little understanding of the supernatural and he was more interested in facts and figures than faith. If he’s on the board he will unwittingly see to it that God doesn’t bless.

Turn to John 12, and this is confirmed for us again. 

John 12:21

²¹ The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

Again, they go to him because he’s the spearhead guy. It’s not a hard request.  " We would love to meet Jesus."

Well, Philip wasn't real sure about this. I’ll need to check the manual on Gentiles and Jesus.  But Jesus Himself first revealed that He was the Messiah to a Samaritan woman.  But Philip's got a good heart.  So he goes to Andrew. Why?  Because Andrew brings everybody to Jesus; that's what he does.  And there's something in the heart of Philip that knows that's right.  But he's not decisive.  He has what we call passive characteristics.  He only gets aggressive to stop something.  He will never lead the parade. I'll take him to Andrew and then nobody can say to me, "You didn't go by the book." 

So Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.  "There's some Gentiles to see you, Lord."  The text doesn't say but I think it's fair to assume He saw them.  He said Himself, "Whoever comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." 

Finally, we see him in the 14th chapter of John.  This is kind of sad, honestly.  We would hope by the time you get to this point...this is two years after he's been chosen and he has been being trained.  This is two years of teaching by Jesus, two years of miracles by Jesus, two years of healings, two years of casting out demons, two years of intimate day in, day out, twenty-four hours a day seven days a week fellowship with Jesus has gone by and here we meet him and Jesus says in 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by Me." 

John 14:8

⁸ Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

Oh brother, come on.  What do you mean, show us the Father?  Where have you been? 

John 14:9

⁹ Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

This is very discouraging.  What do you think has been going on these years? 

John 14:10

¹⁰ Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Don't you believe there's no difference? 

John 14:11

¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

I can tell you don't really fully believe. Fine, you believe I'm a miracle worker, but somehow your tendency toward skepticism has allowed you not to find the ultimate conclusion that you are in the presence of the living and eternal God Himself. 

He was a man of limited faith.  He was a man of imperfect understanding.  He was skeptical, analytical, pessimistic, reluctant, unsure, wanted to go by the book all the time, facts and figures controlled his life, never got the big picture of divine power.  Slow to understand, show to trust, it seemed like his life was limited by circumstances, money, rules, proof. 

If you were interviewing Philip for the job of Apostle and you looked at this you would say, he's out.

Well, Jesus said, he’s exactly what I'm looking for, and I'll make him into a preacher and I'll make him into a founder of the church and I'll make him into a ruler in the kingdom and I'll give to him eternal reward in heaven for the work that he does.

The Lord uses people like him, lots of them.  And by the way, tradition tells us that he was so faithful to Christ, so devout, so loyal that he wouldn't recant Christ under Roman persecution.  And because he wouldn't, they stripped him of his clothes, they put steel rods through his ankles and through his thighs and they hung him by those upside down.  And he said, according to the tradition, that once he was dead he did not want to be wrapped in a linen garment, because he wasn't worthy to be treated the way his Lord was in His death.

We aren’t given the details on how he made such great change. He may have been on the second shelf but he wound up being top tier! And we see with all of these guys that after the resurrection their faith was so greatly increased that they were willing to die for something. It wasn’t a lie. And then they received the Holy Spirit inside which is even better than being with Jesus in the flesh. Did you hear that? We have something even better!

Again, Jesus takes common people and does uncommon things to them, through them, and even in spite of them.