Come And See Jesus (John 1:43-51) Series

This week, starting in John 1:43, we find ourselves on day 4.

Let's just start there:

(43) On the next day, he (Jesus) wished to depart to Galilee,

and he finds Philip,

and Jesus says to him,

"Follow me."

Already in the gospel of John, we've seen a number of people take the first steps toward becoming Jesus' disciples. They've "come to" Jesus; they've "followed" Jesus; they've "abided with" Jesus. They've started doing the verbs that mark people as Jesus' disciples.

And what all of these people have had in common, so far, is that they've come to Jesus through the faithful witness of other people.

First, we saw John the Baptist lead two of his disciples away from himself, toward Jesus. Then Andrew, one of the two men, led Simon to Jesus.

Here, Jesus takes the initiative. Jesus wants to leave for Galilee, but before he does, there's someone in particular he wants to come with him-- Philip. Why does Jesus find Philip, in particular? AJ doesn't tell us. But Jesus knows something about Philip that we don't. Philip is the kind of person Jesus wants to seek out.

So Jesus finds Philip, and says to him, "Follow me."

Verses 44-45:

(44) Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, from the city of Andrew and Peter.

(45) Philip finds Nathaniel,

and he says to him,

"The one about whom Moses wrote in the law and the prophets we have found -- Jesus, the son of Joseph, the one from Nazareth."

Why did Jesus seek Philip out? Philip's words here reveal something about himself. Philip is an Israelite who has been living in anticipation of the Messiah's coming. Philip knows his OT-- when he talks about the "law and the prophets," an Israelite would understand that that, together, means the entirety of the OT. And so Jesus, who knows Philip's heart, and knows that Philip has been seeking him, went to find him.

Now, from Philip's perspective, who found whom? AJ told us that Jesus found Philip. But look at what Philip says: "The one about whom Moses wrote in the law and the prophets we have found."

Francis Moloney reads these words, and he says that Philip lies here. And I agreed with him, originally. But there is a sense in which both are true-- and both of these are true, in a way that is core to Christianity. At a lower level-- from our human perspective-- when we choose to "receive" Jesus as Messiah, and "follow" Jesus, it feels like we do so because we have found the truth. We have come to Jesus, and seen enough to know that Jesus truly is the Lamb of God-- the one who takes away the sin of the world.

But from a higher level-- from God's perspective-- all of this looks different. Jesus found Philip. And what we will see is that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him (John 6:44).

How do we put these two ideas together? We find ourselves teetering on the edge of talking about Calvinism and Arminianism. And what both of those systems do is take half of the verses-- half of the truth-- and filter out the other half, and create a perfectly ordered, logical, systematic theology.

But maybe we are better off remembering that John is a 2 story story. There are higher and lower levels of truth.

Let's reread verses 44-45:

(44) Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, from the city of Andrew and Peter.

(45) Philip finds Nathaniel,

and he says to him,

"The one about whom Moses wrote in the law and the prophets we have found -- Jesus, the son of Joseph, the one from Nazareth."

Who is Jesus? Philip says, Jesus is:

(1) the "son of Joseph

(2) the one from Nazareth."

Here, again, we know that on a lower level of truth, that what Philip says is technically true.

We, as AJ's readers, are already familiar with Matthew's gospel (apparently). We know that Jesus' earthly father was Joseph. We know that Jesus spent time in Nazareth (John 6:42). This isn't all new to us-- we are reading John's gospel as a people who have committed to Jesus as Messianic King.

But we also recognize, that Philip here doesn't know the higher level of truth. Who is Jesus' Father?

John 1:14:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus' Father is (also) the Glorious God in heaven.

And where is Jesus from? At a lower level of truth, you could say he's from Nazareth. But we know that from the beginning of the world, that Jesus is from his heavenly Father's side.

So we read Philip's words, and we realize that there are things Philip doesn't understand. Is Philip trying to lie? Is he trying to be deceptive? No. But Philip is trying to understand Jesus on his terms. And we, as readers, know that there is a higher truth to all of this that Philip hasn't yet reached.