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Who
Was the Apostle Philip?
Greg Laurie
Facts
about Philip the Apostle
1. Jesus personally reached out to him.
The
interesting thing about Philip, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, 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.
2. Philip quickly reached out to Nathanael with the good news
of Jesus.
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.
“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’” (John
1:45).
3. Philip
was practical.
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.
4. Philip
was possibly martyred.
And
according to church history, Philip laid his life down for Christ,
being stoned to death after reaching many with the gospel.
The
Apostle Philip is also often confused with Philip the evangelist.
Philip
the Evangelist
The man mentioned in Acts 8 who, in a time of serious
persecution, “went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah
there” (Acts 8:5) was
also called Philip, but this was not Philip the Apostle.
Rather,
this man is known as Philip the evangelist (Acts
21:8) or Philip the deacon.
Acts 8 tells us an angel of the Lord led Philip the evangelist to an
Ethiopian eunuch, “a court official of Candace, queen of the
Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to
worship” (Acts 8:27).
Although
the eunuch worshipped God, he did not understand the Scriptures.
Philip
explained the gospel of Christ to this man and baptized him there along the
road.
Taken from “Practical Philip” by Harvest Ministries (used by permission).
Greg Laurie is the senior pastor of Harvest
Christian Fellowship with campuses in California and Hawaii. He began his
pastoral ministry at the age of 19 by leading a Bible study of 30 people.
Since then, God has transformed that small
group into a church of some 15,000 people. Today, Harvest is one of the largest
churches in America, and consistently ranks among the most influential churches
in the country. As of 2017, Harvest has joined in affiliation with the Southern
Baptist Convention.
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