- Well friends, thank
you for joining us again for this ongoing study
of Twelve were chosen, a study of the original apostles. I really appreciate, again, that you're a part of this class. My name is Dave Laton and it's an honor for me to
be able to lead this class. We're going to move now into
what could be classified as the second tier or the
second group of the apostles. The first group, Peter,
Andrew, James and John are always listed in the
groupings of the apostles first that being apparently
because of their closeness to Jesus and the role that they played, but that doesn't necessarily mean that these other apostles were not important. In fact, they were important and they had a very important
part of their ministry and we learn from them. So we'll do that, but we're going to be looking
at Phillip and Nathanael as we move into this second
grouping of the apostles. You know, quite often we've learned, we've heard that the best way
to bring someone to Christ is by our personal relationship with them, we have friends or
acquaintances, people we know, people we can be open
with about our faith. We've already seen it
with Andrew bringing Peter to Christ, to introduce Peter to Christ. But in this lesson as we
study Phillip and Nathanael, we're going to see that again, we're going to see how
that is very effective. So as we stated before, as we
progress through the Gospels, through the list of the apostles that we began to see less and
less mentioned about them, as far as being directly
mentioned in Scripture. I'll continue to focus on Scripture, what Scripture teaches about them, and of course then what
we learn from them. Now, remember that whether there's a lot, or not very much information, don't discount the contribution
that these 12 men made and what we can learn from them. So during this presentation, we're specifically going
to be taking a look about Philip and Nathanael, some biblical information about them, and then we're going to take a look at what each of these men teach us. Well, let's begin by looking at Philip. We'll look at the overview of some of the biblical accounts of Philip. Philip is the fifth named
apostle on the list of apostles, he's mentioned in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and Acts, but there's no details
within the Gospels about him and simply in Acts he's listed. Now, again, John doesn't
list the apostles, but he gives us insights into these men. He does give us some details about Philip. Our first introduction to
Philip is in John 1:43, when Jesus calls him. Note in this passage, it
kind of indicates that Phillip was one of the first apostles that was directly invited
by Jesus to follow Him. It's the first time we see that expression about following Him. The record also states that
Philip was from Bethsaida, the home of Andrew and Peter, and that kind of indicates that
they likely knew each other and working together as fishermen. Again, because that was the leading way of earning a living in that area, so they probably were
involved with that as well. The passage also records
Phillip immediately telling his close friend Nathanael about Jesus. Now we're going to look at that in detail when we talk about Nathanael, but we see that Philip immediately telling his close friend Nathanael about Jesus. By the way, Nathanael is
also known as Bartholomew in the other Gospels, I don't want that to be a
bit of a confusion factor. I'll touch on that when we get into the speaking about Nathanael. Now, there are some
other mentions of Philip that we see in John 6:5-6, we read of Phillip being tested by Jesus during the feeding of the 5,000. As you read this, Jesus is speaking there, and
there's this large crowd, and it gets to be time to feed them and Phillip kind of wonders, how are we going to handle this? And Jesus, it says, knew what He would do. This was a teaching moment and by the way, I often think that if Philip
had a chance to retest, if Jesus would have said, okay, let's roll the tape back here and let me ask you that question again, I think Philip would have had
the right answer at that time. I think Phillip probably would
have said something like, you know, I may not know how
we're going to feed these people, but Lord you do, you tell me
how we're going to do this. Or Lord I don't know how
we're going to feed this, I'm going to trust you
to show how to do this. And so Phillip provided by his
lack of the right response, a tremendous teachable moment for us to put our trust in Jesus. And so that's in John 6:5-6. In John 12:20-26, we read about Philip bringing
two Greeks to Andrew. These men wanted to meet Jesus and for some reason, Phillip
takes them to Andrew, and then Andrew brings them over. In John 14:8, we read where Philip asked
Jesus to show them the Father. Now this narrative there
it's actually an interaction, not just to Philip but also of Thomas, but I'm focusing on Phillip right now. It was an opportunity to teach, as a result of this it was
an opportunity to teach, Jesus to teach who He
was as the Son of God and how He was unified with God, both in His message and in His purpose. It would also lead Jesus to tell them, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. "No man comes to the Father." Also about if you know
me, you know the Father. So no one comes to the
Father except through Jesus, and if you know me, you know who Jesus is. So Philip provided the interaction that enabled us to
learn that great lesson. By the way, the name
Phillip was a common name. Philip the evangelist
played a very important role in the early teaching and
spreading of the church, but that's not Philip the apostle. I want to spend just a minute on that, it's just a point of note, some people do have a tendency to get the Philips mixed up a little bit. In Acts 8, the persecution
of the church had begun and the opening statement
in Acts 8, tells us that the church began to
face great persecution and the church was scattered
except for the apostles, they remained in Jerusalem, but the other Christians
were driven out of Jerusalem. A point of note, within
this point of note is that when those Christians went out, they took what they had
learned from the apostles about Jesus and they
carried it out with them, they took the gospel with them. The narrative there in
Acts 8 states that as well. And we see there though in verse five that Philip the evangelist,
not the apostle, went to Samaria and
taught them about Christ. Now, since the Scripture states that Philip the apostle
was still in Jerusalem, we make the assumption
that Philip the evangelist that went out there was
the Philip from Acts 6, the one that had been chosen to help serve the tables of those who
were being overlooked. So we see that two
different Philips there. Well, as we continue with the apostles, as I've stated there's a lot that we really don't read
about them in Scriptures, again, don't discount their role, and there certainly are things
that we can learn from them. And so what I'd like to do now is that I'd like us to talk about what is it we can learn from it Phillip. Phillip was the kind of person
Jesus really likes to use, the focus was on Jesus,
it was not on himself. Like several of the others,
Phillip was full of doubts, he was slow to understand even
sometimes simple concepts, he did not demonstrate that
he was a man of vision. And all too often though
that describes us, we're full of doubts, we have trouble grasping simple concepts that our Lord's trying to teach us, and sometimes we have trouble seeing where are we going with this, what is the direction for my life? We just lack that vision. So all too often that's
just the way we are, and we learn that we have to be willing to follow Jesus through all of it. We keep focused on Jesus, even though we may get it wrong sometimes we keep focusing on Jesus and we'll learn. And it's not just simply following, but it's following with trust. And so we learn that from Phillip, the focus was on Jesus not on himself, and even though he doubted at times, even though he may not have
understood things at times, misunderstood things, he continued to be a
faithful follower of Jesus. So again, we might not
understand everything, but we know Jesus is the
source of our salvation, and so we don't give up. We get the answer wrong sometimes, and like Philip, we continue
to learn from Jesus. And also by the way, like Andrew, we learn from Phillip to
bring others to Jesus. Phillip's first action
after he found Jesus was to find his friend Nathanael,
also known as Bartholomew. In John 12, it was Philip
who brought two Greek men to Andrew to meet Jesus,
we've already mentioned that. You know, again, I mentioned
it in an earlier lesson, but Philip really shows it here, a great lesson for us is in
bringing others to Jesus, we ourselves might not know enough or feel confident enough to do it, so we bring them to somebody else to help that person come to know Jesus. Either way, we're either the direct link in the chain to bring someone
to Jesus or an indirect link, but we're still helping
to bring others to Jesus. It's okay, so as long as we don't give up, we don't refuse the person, we find a way either ourselves or through someone else
to bring them to Jesus. We can bring them to
Bible class, to worship, we can invite them to a Bible study, we can introduce them to
someone who can teach them. We may not know the answer, but we probably know someone
who does know the answer and we can either go to that person and find the answer and relay it, or bring the person that
we're trying to answer to the person who does know
the answer to the questions. The method is not near as important as the result of
introducing them to Christ. And so Philip teaches that. Again, I talk about
songs that the apostles would probably have liked to sing with us. I like the song "Break
Thou the Bread of Life" I think that if Philip was
with us and singing that song, he would harken back to the memory of Jesus feeding the 5,000, he would remember how Jesus taught him with the loaves and the fishes. But we see Philip through his life, certainly breaking the bread
of life, Jesus to others, as he brought others to the Master. We've noted that the
first thing Philip did when he met Jesus and
learned who Jesus was, that he went to his friend Nathanael with the good news of
his discovery of Jesus. Well, let's leave Phillip now, and let's move on over into Nathanael. We'll start by talking about a little bit about
Nathanael and his calling. Nathanael is named
Bartholomew in the Gospels, some scholars think
it's two different men, but given the references
and the association in the Gospels with Philip and how John carries the
narrative, most scholars do think that Bartholomew and
Nathanael are the same person. I learned most of what I know
about this apostle from John and John refers to him as Nathanael, so that's how I've come to know him. John 21:2, states that Nathanael
came from Cana in Galilee, and was likely a fishermen since he went with the others to fish. Again, this shows some consistent
association with Phillip, hence the name Nathanael
versus Bartholomew. He is listed as the sixth
apostle in the Gospels and the seventh in the Book of Acts. Now, what we know about
Nathanael is found mostly there, as I said in John, in John 1:43, we find
out about his calling. Now this was an interesting calling and an interesting event. It occurred in the same time
period as a calling of Phillip, Phillip goes and brings
Nathanael to Jesus, but it's interesting that Jesus already knew about Nathanael. This is where we read
Nathanael's great question, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" And I like Phillip's response, Phillip didn't take that as a rebuff, Philip said, come and see. So we've noted that Philip
brought Nathanael to Jesus. Nathanael was sitting under a fig tree, by the way, that's not
just a passing mention about Jesus saying, I
saw you under the tree, it was customary for
Jews to plant a fig tree in the front of their house, they didn't have by and large
didn't have large houses, and so they would go outside
to study and meditate and they would plan a fig
tree, that was the custom. And as the tree grew, they were able to go
up underneath the tree, in the shade and study
and meditate and pray. And as the tree matured that gave them the opportunity for that. So this adds importance
though to what Jesus said when He initially spoke with Nathanael, he saw him sitting under the fig tree. Now, as Nathanael is approaching,
Jesus identifies Nathanael with a very important
statement there in verse 47. Reading from the English
Standard Version, it says, "Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no deceit." Now some versions say guile, but rather than say Jew or
Hebrew, Jesus said Israelite. And I read about that and it was interesting to
find out that this idea of Israelite is actually
a religious reference rather than a nationalistic reference, he's a member of the Hebrew nation, or he's a member of the Jewish nation, Israelite carried with a very
clear religious connotation. And so if you interpreted that, it's almost like you're saying, here's a man of God who is honest. Now, after Nathanael's questioning
about how Jesus knew him, Jesus identifies his
knowledge of Nathanael's habit of meditating and praying
under the fig tree as we've mentioned. Some point to this as a
divine power of omniscience, in other words, all knowing, that Jesus was part of the Godhead and having that divinity, He
would have that all knowing. Well, it's possible,
there's some evidence there, Nathanael must have thought that because note his response in verse 49. Nathanael gives us a great
statement in verse 49, he says, "Rabbi," Teacher in other words. "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! "You are the King of Israel!" That's a tremendous statement, and it shows a level of faith in Nathanael believing who Jesus was. Go back to what Phillip said when he told him Nathanael about Jesus, "I have found who Moses and
the prophets wrote about." And then Nathanael follows that up with, "You are the Son of God! "You're the King of Israel!" By the way, that statement that Phillip is making there to Nathanael, "I have found who Moses and
the prophets wrote about." That indicates that
these men were studious. We already said, Jesus knew
that Nathanael was sitting there as was customary studying
and praying and meditating. And so there was that
level of biblical knowledge that these two men had, and so now we see that knowledge coming to understanding as Nathanael says, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! "You're the King of Israel." So Nathanael went from someone, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth? To that statement, "You're the Son of God! "You're the King of Israel." He's the Messiah, they understand now. And so he enthusiastically embraces Jesus as the Messiah Himself. So that's the declaration in verse 49. So Nathanael goes from having some doubt to full conviction in who Jesus is. Well, I want to look at truly what we can learn from Nathanael, we've looked at what
we learn from Phillip, we learn from Nathanael that, we kind of moved beyond
what we think we know, our foolish pride or maybe our prejudices, sometimes again, conventional wisdom, what we think we know,
what we think we accept, we embrace Jesus fully and honestly. That's Nathanael, a man without guile, a man without deceit. Jesus came to save
humanity by establishing our relationship with God through Christ, and more importantly, Jesus came to save each
of us individually. We've talked a little bit about that, and so it's critical that we have that personal
relationship with Jesus. Well, that's what Nathanael did. Nathanael understood that, "You're the Son of God! "You're the King of Israel." He declared that Jesus was his Lord. And so we just see that
in what Nathanael did. You know, I've already
mentioned about it with Peter, but Nathanael was also a seeker. Just as a reminder, there's
two kinds of seekers, there's a seeker out there who knows that something in life needs to change, there's something bigger
and greater in life than me and I'm looking to find out what that is, but doesn't have a clear sense
of understanding or purpose, that person then as they
become knowledgeable of Jesus and accept who Jesus is, they now seek to fulfill the will of God through Jesus Christ. And based on the narrative in John 1, we see that Nathanael perhaps
was the first kind of seeker, wasn't sure about the
direction there in life and turned to our Lord and found it. I want to bring out a note
here talking about seekers and Nathanael kind of
illustrates this for us, God always answers the seeker. Hebrews 11:6, the writer gives us a
wonderful statement there, one that we're very familiar with, with our faith it's
impossible to please God, and so many times we kind of stop there, without faith it's
impossible to please God, the verse goes on to say, in fact, without faith, we
wouldn't even approach God, but the last part of that
verse is also very strong, He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. So there sits Nathanael as is his custom, in other words, it's a
habit with Nathanael, it's something he does regularly. He's sitting under that fig tree, he studying and praying and
meditating on God's Word, our Lord brought him to understand Him, our Lord knew he was there
and recognized him for that. God brings the seeker
and the Savior together. We may be the catalyst that does that, that's what Philip did, Philip brought the seeker to the Lord. We have that opportunity to do it as well. So later after finding Jesus, Nathanael became the
second kind of seeker, he now has discovered meaning in life, purpose in life through Jesus. Jesus asked him to follow Jesus and ask him to become
a disciple and he did. Nathanael never ceased to be as a seeker, discovering and following Jesus, and that that's what we need to do, we have discovered and followed Jesus, I hope anyone that's listening to this, and so now we have a purpose
in our life to continue growing and learning how we can serve the Master, becoming who our Lord wants us to be. So Nathanael grew into that. We've talked about songs that the different apostles might like, I think Nathanael would love the song, "Sweet Hour of Prayer" as he sang that song he
would have thought back on his interaction with Jesus. Well, let me conclude. Phillip and Nathanael
don't seem very impressive when we first see them, and certainly there isn't a lot of Scriptural record regarding them, but again, when you
consider their life's work, their efforts to continually
glorify the Savior, we see that he was worthy of imitation as how one person describes him. We learn that Philip and Nathanael were faithful servants to Jesus, we learn that they had
questions and concerns, maybe some doubts and
fears like anybody would going into something new
or changing something, but we also learn that they continued to be a positive instrument for God. They turned their lives over to the Lord they grew to become
instruments for our Lord. And through their example, we see that we too can use
our gifts, greater, small, whatever they are to become all that Jesus wants us to become. Well, this concludes our lesson
on Phillip and Nathanael, I titled it friends to all. So in our next lesson,
we'll continue this study and we'll look at the
apostles, Matthew and Thomas. Friends, thank you again for
joining us in this study, and remember in all things
we give God the glory. Thank you.
