Episode 20 - A quick learner

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John 1:43   The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 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.”

Already we’ve seen that John the Baptist has given some of his own disciples information about Jesus and they have followed him and have quickly come to understand and believe that he is the Messiah or, in the Greek, the Christ. One of these men was named Andrew. Andrew then went and tells his brother Simon about Jesus and Jesus gives him the Aramaic name of Cephas, which means “stone.” In Greek, the word would be Petros from which we get Peter.

More on that later.

Breaking these few verses down into the primary sequence of events:

  1. Jesus decides to go to Galilee ( We are given no indication of the reason. )

  2. Jesus finds a man named Phillip and says, “Follow me!”  The author tells us Phillip is from a town named Bethsaida (House of the Hunt), the same town Andrew and Peter are from. NOTE: I don’t know if there’s any significance to John mentioning this. Bethsaida was situated on the north side of the Sea of Galilee and was a fishing village. Perhaps, the information is to indicate to us that the Messiah was selecting blue-collar workers for his disciples and not those religious experts that went to visit John the Baptist.

  3. Whatever the circumstances were, Phillip wastes no time in following Jesus and immediately goes to tell Nathaniel, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

What we see here is the same kind of rapid and confident understanding and acceptance that Jesus was the Messiah. There had been others before who’d claimed to be the Messiah and who had gained a following. There have been people in our own lifetime who’ve claimed to be the Christ or God. It’s never worked out for them. The question is are these men, who have so quickly become convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, just gullible? I believe that the author’s record of Phillip’s testimony to Nathaniel is enlightening. He doesn’t just say, we’ve found the Messiah. He says, “We’ve found the one that has met the qualifications spoken of in the Scriptures.” (My paraphrase) Then, he says, “It’s Jesus from Nazareth who is the son of Joseph.” 

Phillip seems to believe that Nathaniel knows Jesus or knows of him. Nazareth was a small community and Phillip is very specific concerning his identity. So, if these men know Jesus, but Phillip is only coming to this knowledge of him as the Messiah, something amazing has happened to Phillip. Imagine if from one day to the next you came to believe that “the guy down the street” was a divinely appointed individual who would bring justice and peace to the world. What would that take for you to come to that belief?