SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2021 10:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Introduction to Philip and Nathanael”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mathew 10:3a
Message of the
verse: “Philip
and Bartholomew; (Nathanael).”
I mentioned at the end of our last
SD that we would begin this SD with the second point about Philip. “Second, we learn from John’s gospel that
Philip had a practical, analytical mind” writes John MacArthur. The first evidence of this comes from
something that is mentioned in all four gospels, but only in John’s gospel did
we see that when Jesus asked the question on how that they would feed all of
these people it was Philip who came up to Jesus and told him about the young
boy who had the fish and bread or crackers.
Perhaps it was because of all the miracles that Philip saw Jesus do, like
turning water into wine that caused him to bring this little lunch to the Lord
hoping that He would do another miracle.
No one else had any ideas about feeding this many people other than
Philip and the Lord Jesus Christ.
MacArthur goes on to write “Judging
from Philip’s response, it may have been that he was normally in charge of
getting food for Jesus and his fellow disciples, just as Judas was in charge of
the group’s money. He therefore would
have known how much food they usually ate and how much it cost. But Jesus had a special purpose in asking
Philip about the food. ‘And this He was
saying to test him; for He Himself knew what He was intending to do’ (V. 6 of
John 5). If Jesus had asked about buying
food only for the thirteen men in their own group, the answer would have been
simple and practical, and Philip could quickly have given the answer. But he should have realized that, in His
asking about feeding the entire multitude, Jesus’ question went far beyond the
practical and implied the impossible.”
We can see with the mind of Philip that
he was calculating the cost of the meal for all these people because that was
the kind of mind that he had and so he calculated that the cost would be two
hundred denarii worth of bread would not even be enough to feed all of these
people. One Denarii was a day’s wages in
that time period.
One more quote from MacArthur on
this: “IT has been noted that the
supreme essential of a great leader is a sense of the possible. Like most people, however—including perhaps
most believers—Philip only had a sense of the impossible. He did not yet understand that ‘with God all
things are possible’ (Matt. 19:26; cf. Mark 9:23).
“Philip failed Jesus’ test of faith
because he was too taken up with his own understanding and abilities. He was methodical and full of practical
common sense; but those virtues, helpful as they often are, can be an obstacle
to the immeasurably greater virtue of trusting God for what is
impractical. Facts and figures are a
poor substitute for faith.”
With that said we move onto the
third point which we learn another thing from John’s gospel that Philip was not
forceful and was inclined to be indecisive.
The Scripture that speaks of this comes from one that we have already
looked at for another of the apostles and that is when some Greeks came to
Philip in order to get an audience with Jesus that Philip, who was not a member
of the first group went to talk to Andrew about it and did not go directly to
Jesus with their request.
The thing about this is that these
Greeks were Gentiles and so that may have been the reason that Philip wanted to
check with Andrew. All the disciples
knew that Jesus healed the Gentile centurion’s servant and accepted the
half-Gentile Samaritans who came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, yet he
seems to have been uncertain about whether it was proper to introduce these
Gentiles to Jesus. When Jesus first sent
the disciples out he told them “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do
not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5-6). As I
have looked over this passage I am not sure whether or not Jesus spoke to these
Greeks or not as they came to Him right at the end of His ministry as seen in
John chapter 12.
We
conclude with the fourth point that comes from John’s gospel and that is that
Philip lacked spiritual perception. We
saw a little bit of this in the feeding of the five-thousand, but when we look
at Philip during what is called the Last Supper we see this in greater degree
as after being with Jesus for three years he did not realize that he had been
in the presence of the Eternal God. We
begin this rather long quotation from the 14th chapter of John at
verse four. “4 "And you know the
way where I am going." 5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know
where You are going, how do we know the way?" 6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 "If
you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know
Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough
for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet
you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;
how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 “Do you not believe that I am
in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not
speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 “Believe
Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because
of the works themselves.
We
conclude this section about Philip by quoting the last paragraph from John
MacArthur’s commentary.
“Yet
the Lord used that man of limited vision and trust. He was more at home with physical facts than
with spiritual truth. Yet, along with
the other apostles, Jesus assured him of a throne from which he would judge the
twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28). Philip
was pessimistic, insecure, analytical, and slow to learn; but tradition tells
us that he ultimately gave his life as a martyr for the Lord he so often disappointed
and who so patiently taught and re-taught him.
It is reposted that he was stripped naked, hung upside down by his feet
and pierced with sharp stakes in his ankles and thighs, causing him slowly to
bleed to death. He is said to have asked
not to be shrouded with linen after he was dead, because he felt unworthy to be
buried as was his Lord.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things that I can learn from this
lessons on Philip is that there are times when I pray to the Lord about a
problem and then want Him to answer it in my way and not trust the Sovereign
Lord answer my request in His way which is always best.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to trust the Lord to answer a prayer
request in His own way, to His own Glory.
8/17/2021 11:39 AM
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