GregLaurie: "Practical Philip" Jan 11th

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2011

Practical Philip

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me."
— John 1:43

The interesting thing about Philip, one of the Twelve, is that he was personally reached by Jesus himself. While Philip brought Nathanael to Jesus, and Andrew brought Peter to Jesus, no one brought Philip to Jesus. Instead, Jesus came right to him. John's Gospel tells us, "The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, 'Follow Me' " (John 1:43). Normally God reaches people through people, but this was an exception to the rule.

We don't know a lot about Philip. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us no details about him. All the vignettes of Philip appear in the Gospel of John. But from that Gospel, we discover that he was a completely different kind of person than Peter, Andrew, James, or John. He is often paired with Nathanael (also known as Bartholomew), whom he brought to Jesus.

It also would appear from John's account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand that Philip may have been in charge of the supplies and food, the road manager of sorts. He was the kind of guy who was practical, always thinking about the bottom line. And on this occasion, Jesus, trying to stretch Philip's faith, posed a question to him as the crowd gathered: "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" (John 6:5). Philip responded, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little" (verse 7). Philip didn't do so well on that test. He wasn't the first to have the most faith, but he was a follower of Jesus who was used by God.

And according to church history, Philip laid his life down for Christ, being stoned to death after reaching many with the gospel.