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THE KING’S BUSINESS
-is a world of sacrifice involved in accept ing tfie -invitation - (Matt. 16:24; John 15:20), but there is a more vast world of blessing both here and hereafter (John 12:26). How to follow Jesus Paul makes clear.in Philippians 2 :5-8. Only a Divine Person has a right to say to any man, “Follow me ” (Jer. 17 ¡5-7). But our Lord Jesus constantly demanded that men should put the same trust in Him that they did in God (John 14:1^,-. This is one of the many incidental proofs of His Deity. The fact that Philip was from the same city as Andrew and Peter suggests that prob ably Philip had come with the two brothers to John the Baptist, and he may have been thus prepared - to accept the invitation o f Jesus to become one of His disciples. The Bethsaida here mentioned was on the west side of Galilee (cf. ch. 6:16-22; Mark 6:45), and was known as “Bethsaida of Galilee,” and is to be dis tinguished from the city of the same name on the east side of the Jordan which was known as “Bethsaida Julias.” It is a sig nificant fact that Jesus chose four of His Apostles from this insignificant city of Galilee. The Emperor, Julian and the philosopher Porphyry ridiculed the Apos tles, for following Jesus and Celsus ridi culed Christ’s Apostles as mechanics and fishermen. vs. 45, 46. “Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of Whom Moses and the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said unto him, Can there (omit, there) any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.” Everybody in this lesson who found Jesus seemed to go at once for some one else. Nathaniel means the same as our word Theodore, i. e., “gift of God.” He evidently is to be identified with Bartholomew the Apostle. “Bartholomew” is his patronymic name and signifies simply “son of Tolmai,” so his whole name was Nathaniel, son of Tol mai. Nathaniel was of Cana in Galilee (ch. 21:2). Cana is mentioned in the open ing of the next chapter as the place where
Jesus went with His disciples to the mar riage feast, and some have thought that Nathaniel was the bridegroom on that occasion. .Cana was only about five miles distant from Nazareth, and yet apparently Nathaniel had never heard of Jesus. Philip seems to have been very methodical in his thought. This comes out also in John 6:7-9. It is noteworthy how through out the gospel of John what is said about any person in one place fits what is said about him in another, even down to minute details, thus showing the minute accuracy of John and how what he tells is not fiction but real fact. Philip was also evidently a careful and thorough student of the Old Testament. He had discovered what many modern, “scholars” have not discovered even yet, that the one great subject of the Old Testament Scriptures of “the law” as well as “the prophets” was the coming Messiah, and he also saw that Jesus fitted this description. Apparently at this time Philip did not know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, nor did he know of his virgin birth. Of course, he was a new disciple and had many things yet to learn. Jesus would be known by the name of “Son of Joseph” (c'f. ch. 6:42) even though he was not in actual fact his son. The order-of the words in the Greek lays the heavy emphasis on “Him of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote.” There may be an implication that Philip and Nathaniel together had dwelt on the Old Testament pictures of the coming Messiah. Nathaniel was decidedly skeptical about Jesus being the Christ, indeed he did not believe he could be any good, coming from Naza reth, but he was thoroughly sincere, and when Philip enters into no argument but says, “Come and see,” he came and saw. When you say to the average skeptic, “Come, and let me make you acquainted with Jesus,” he won’t come. Why? Nathaniel’s skepticism ended in hearty faith. All honest skepticism ends in that -way. There is no necessary implication in Nathaniel’s words that Nazareth was a peculiarly wicked place. His words simply indicated that it was an obscure place. It
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