As I was reading yesterday in the 12th Chapter of John, these two verses caught my attention: “Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (verses 20-21) Devout Jews from all parts of the world had gathered in Jerusalem for the impending Feast of the Passover. Among those in the city on that particular day were some Greeks. It is not known if they were Jews from Greece or just Gentile worshippers who were there for the festivities. Regardless, they wanted to see Jesus and they approached Philip, one of the Disciples, to see if he would grant them their wish.
If these were Jews who were qualified to participate in the feast, they may have wanted to see and hear Jesus in advance for themselves being aware that, for whatever reason, the Jewish religious leaders of the day not only opposed Him, they hated Him as well. If they were Gentiles, they knew they were not allowed in the temple but since they had heard so much about Jesus, they may have come to Jerusalem for that very reason, to see if they could meet and know Him. However, this is the part of the story I want to focus on. It is Philip. For one reason or another, these Greeks came to the one man who they were sure could lead them to Jesus. Neither do I know if they were sure he was one of the twelve, but obviously they knew he had been with Him. I am a very simple minded person and when I read that the first word they said when they approached Philip was “sir”, to me it simply meant that he had displayed qualities that demand respect. Remembering yesterday’s blog, they liked Philip as a person even though they may have still been unbelievers. I repeat the bottom line to yesterday’s blog: If people in the world like us, it should not alarm us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
If you are like Philip and have had the experience of people approaching you requesting prayer, advice, questions about the bible or life in general, know what church you attend, or just want to know how come you’re so different than most people, I commend you. This would mean that, just like Philip, people around you either know or suspect that you belong to Christ. Whether we are like Philip or not, perhaps we can consider making this one of our prayers to God: “Lord, I want to be like Philip.”
God’s word for today: (Philippians 3:10) “that I may know Him (Jesus) and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
