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Through this study, I have tried to leave you with a specific trait or impression that fits each disciple so that they would become "alive" in your minds. Hopefully in the future, when you think of James the Son of Alphaeus, you will think of "sacrifice" because that is what best characterizes that disciple. The other James should bring "the Less" into your mind. Nathanael Bartholomew should bring "genuineness" or "no deceit." Andrew should bring to mind "soulwinner." Judas Iscariot should bring such thoughts as "traitor, betrayer, and thief" to mind. I also took a different tact and tried to present Thomas from a more scriptural point of view and hopefully such words as "careful, cautious but committed, and just-want-to-make-sure" will come to mind when you think of him. That is the first six disciples that we have covered described in a nutshell. Probably there are some of them that you now think of differently since studying them from scripture and that's a good thing!

And so we begin the second half of our study with the disciple simply known as Philip. If Thomas had a reputation worse than he largely deserved, then Philip is the exact opposite in that he probably should have a slightly worse reputation than he now has. Almost everything that we know about Philip comes from the Gospel of John who recorded several scenes of which Philip has a prominent part. If the Gospel of John were a play, then Philip comes on the scene with a bang and with positive traits, and then slowly fades in power and "oofmph" as the play winds down. In fact, after the first chapter of Acts where he is mentioned as being at the Day of Pentecost with the others, Philip drops out of the scriptural record and from the 6th chapter of Acts on, the Philip you read about is another Philip who was chosen to minister to the Grecian widows in the Early Church and, who like his counterpart Stephen, turned his world upside down. The two Philips are not the same, and the Philip that was of the twelve is not mentioned again in the book of Acts or the Bible by name although tradition does help us fill in the blanks.

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The story of Philip begins with a lot of promise and good things to say. From the Gospel of John (John 1:44-51 with 12:21) we know that he was from the city of Bethsaida in Galilee the city of which Jesus Christ had negative things to say:

And yet from this faithless city came not only Philip, but Peter and Andrew! We can say that Philip came from a faithless background and yet served the Lord and was looking for His Messiah, despite the way that he was raised, and that is definitely a positive thing!

We also know that Philip was the first disciple to be called to follow the Lord "full time." It was Philip that first heard that call of "follow me" (John 1:45). And so from this we can ascertain that Philip was with Jesus from the beginning and witnessed the miracle at the wedding feast of Cana and many of the other early events that the others would only hear about. He was one of if not the first disciple to totally commit to Christ and was able to take full advantage of Christ's ministry from the beginning until the end.

We also see the very positive traces of a soul winner in Philip from the very beginning. As soon as Jesus had found him, Philip went to his friend and possibly his brother, Nathanael Bartholomew and announced "we have found Him of who the prophets did write!" When his friend wanted to argue scripture about how the Messiah could possibly come from Nazareth it was Philip who gave that wise answer "come and see" and therefore led Nathanael Bartholomew to Jesus.

You may remember how that of Andrew we had nothing but positive things to say, and the similarity of Andrew's beginning walk with the Lord and Philips are startling similar. Both were the first of the disciples to meet Jesus and follow Him. Both came from and overcame the faithless town of Bethsaida to believe in Christ. Both witnessed the very first things that Christ did. Both immediately responded to the call of God by winning somebody else to Jesus. Beginning in such company, we have high hopes for Philip. He has everything that he needs to be successful in the kingdom of God, and yet from this great and positive beginning, for some reason, things begin to spiral downward.

Our next glimpse of Philip in scripture comes over a year later and obviously something has changed in Philip's walk. It is the famous feeding of the five thousand that we read about in our text in the 6th chapter of John. And John alone records that before Jesus performed the miracle, He turned to Philip and asked "where can we buy bread for these to eat?" It's sort of strange that Philip would be the one asked this question as he did not have the moneybag, and since they were currently in the hillside right out of Bethsaida, most scholars believe that Jesus asked Philip because Philip had the best knowledge of the surrounding region. But John tells us that there was more to it than just local knowledge and he tells us in the next verse:

Jesus was testing Philip! Jesus knew that He was about to do a great miracle, and so He was testing Philip to see if he would give him something to work with or express faith that Jesus could do the unforeseen supernatural act. And this test, Philip failed miserably. The scriptures say that he said:

Philip was in effect saying "we couldn't get enough bread for all of these people even if we tried, it's pointless and hopeless." And then in the next verse we find:

And suddenly Andrew has brought Jesus something small to work with and Philip is swept aside in our memory and we will forever remember Andrew as the one who brought the little sack lunch and boy to Jesus and who was the catalyst for the great miracle, but lost in all of that was that Jesus wanted Philip to be the one to have the faith to put something in his hands. Jesus gave Philip the opportunity to step out in faith and he failed to even realize that the impossibility of the task set in his lap was a test of his faith. And Andrew stepped in with something small and saw Jesus do something great.

The down-hill spiral of Philip continued as time went on. Our next glimpse of Philip is when Jesus was at Jewish festival in Jerusalem and the scriptures tell us this:

The Greeks were "proselytes," Gentiles who had become Jewish and worshipped Jehovah God. These were not "Gentile dogs" who were without the promises of God, but were at Jerusalem to participate in the feasts commanded by the laws of Moses and who believed in the Jewish religion. They were probably attracted to Philip because "Philip" is a Grecian name. A whole group of these Greeks approached Philip and said "sir, we wish to see Jesus."

It's a good thing that the Gospel of John isn't a play that we are watching because you almost want to scream at Philip: "Here's your chance, buddy, you messed up the feeding of the five thousand big time, and now you have a chance to introduce a whole bunch of people to your Messiah." You sort of want to be like my father's childhood friend who when they had finally saved their pennies to go see a movie for the first time in the country town of Oil City, Louisiana, yelled out at the screen: "look out for the bad guy behind the rock, Roy!" You almost want to help Philip out here like that. And yet, you know that screaming at the plot isn't going to do any good, and sure enough, it doesn't. Philip fails again. He hesitates. Instead of confidently bringing new people to meet Jesus, he's unsure if he should bring somebody to Jesus?! The scriptures says:

Before it's over, Jesus has received the Greeks and a booming voice from heaven has resounded it's approval over the awestruck crowd, and once again, Philip was on the verge of being the catalyst of a great miracle and event and fell short because of unbelief and hesitancy.

Sometimes watching people's lives are like that boy watching that western: you can see things coming that they cannot see, and you can clearly try to warn them, but they never notice it in time. It's a principle in God's Word that if you fail a test, you will take it again. And there are times I want to stand up and scream at the plot of someone else's life "look out, it's the same cycle. It's the same test again. You can do it, this time be faithful. This time, don't doubt." But it rarely works because people have to live or die on their own decisions. They will make their bed and lie in it and some people are just hardheaded enough that they have to go through the same thing with the same results over and over again before it occurs to them, that "maybe I ought to trust God, this time."

"Philip, you could have been known as a great man of faith." "You could have answered Jesus with a 'we don't have much money, but I can buy a few loaves and let you do the work' and we would have preached great messages of the power of being able to see what others cannot see." "You could have been known as the man who led not one or two people to Christ but who brought whole groups of people to Jesus and whose soulwinning brought a voice thundering from heaven as a witness." But instead Philip is the one who had the opportunities but let doubt and hesitancy to cause the opportunity to be truly great in the kingdom of God to pass him by and that greatness and experience went to someone else who was willing to step up to the plate.

That other person in these two cases was Andrew. Both Philip and Andrew came from the same background and started living for God with similar circumstances and similar experiences and zeal and yet in both cases of Philip's failure, Andrew seized the moment of faith and allowed God to work through Him. The difference between being great and not in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with your background or how you begin in serving God, but rather how you respond when God gives you the opportunities to step out in faith. How you respond when God puts opportunities in your path to do something great and be a fantastic witness for Him. Everyone has the same opportunities eventually in the kingdom of God. I believe that. I don't believe that God necessarily gives one a better chance than another to be blessed or used by Him. The difference is that some move with faith at the opportunities and others hesitate and doubt at such places. I do not believe that God has blessed me with an anointing to understand and preach His Gospel and pastor a church at such a young age just because I was raised in a pastor's home, because I know plenty of young men and women who got the same opportunity and background and yet are not used of God at all today. I think the difference is that when I was given an opportunity to do anything, whether great or small in the kingdom of God, I jumped at it with faith believing that God would use me while in the same circumstances, they hesitated. God is a fair God, and how far we rise and fall in the kingdom of God depends more upon our everyday decisions and priorities than we tend to realize.

"You started out great, Philip, with all of the potential in the world," but potential means little in the kingdom of God. Let me say that again: potential means little in the kingdom of God. God can do more with somebody bringing a little boy's sack lunch to Him than He can someone with all the potential in the world and yet who refuses to step out in faith at the opportunities given them. God doesn't need talent or potential as much as He needs someone smart enough to realize that my situation is an opportunity for God to do something great, and "I think I'll step out believing Him right here!"

You can tell whether or not you will be an Andrew or a Philip by how you view negative circumstances that pop up in your life. Remember for God to do a miracle, there must be someone in dire straits. For God to heal, there must be someone who is sick. For God to show great mercy, there must be someone in need of great mercy. And so ask yourself "how do I view things that go wrong in my life?" How do I view trials that seem impossible for anything good to happen? How do you respond when God looks at you and says, "look at this mess, how are you going to get out of this one?" Do you respond with doubt and hopelessness and not even think about the fact that it might be a test, or are you quick to respond with faith and say "I'm giving myself to you, Jesus, and believing that even though I can't see how, you are going to make a way!?" The way you view the situations in your life will determine more about how you end up in the kingdom of God than how you started out! Philip, you started out good, but you've missed some golden opportunities for God to do something great!

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And it doesn't get any better, either, because the next glimpse that we have of Philip is the famous exchange in the 14 chapter of John about the identity of the Father. This is one of the few places in scripture where you can detect a bit of exasperation and frustration in Jesus' response. For those of you who don't remember what I am talking about, let me read it to you again what we read in our text. Jesus was giving some final thoughts and instructions to His disciples and said:

Most of the disciples had gotten a true revelation of who Jesus was by this time in His ministry. They had realized that He was their Messiah and Jehovah God come in flesh as their Savior. And you would think that Philip -- having been with Jesus the longest -- would have certainly gotten this revelation also, but up Philip pops with the question of the century:

Ouch! Jesus was a little annoyed here and with good reason. "You want to see the Father, Philip?" "How long have I been with you and yet you don't know me, Philip?" "You've been with me the longest, Philip, and you haven't figured out that if Malachi 2:10 says that there is only one Father and one God, and yet I am God in flesh that I am the Father incarnate?" "Haven't you figured out that if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, Philip?" "Do you remember what you learned in school, Philip, how that the God of Israel is only 'one Lord?" "Remember that verse that your mother quoted to you every morning and night?" "Haven't you seen me walking on the waves and calming the storms?" "Haven't you heard the testimony of the devils revealing who I am?" "Haven't you heard me forgive sins, Philip?" "And you still haven't put two and two together, yet?" "How in the world can you say 'show us the Father?'" Ouch!

You can almost feel Philip wanting to disappear in the floor. You can see all the other disciples turn to look at him with thoughts such as "I can't believe that he just asked that!" Philip's downward slump had just hit rock bottom. They were receiving the final instructions before entering into the culmination and the point of Jesus' ministry, and while Jesus is giving some final promises and points, ol' Philip is struggling with the revelation of who Jesus Christ is. It's like a kid in Algebra II raising his hand and asking "so how do you multiply two numbers together?" For over three years, Philip has been beside Jesus day in and day out and yet it never fully registered who it is that he has committed to following.

In studying for this lesson, I read everything that I could find written by scholars about Philip, and almost all of them believe that Philip was not too bright. Such phrases as "Philip the slow-witted" and "not to smart" are common as scholars comment on the scriptural accounts of this disciple. One scholar who devoted a great amount of time and study to learning every possible thing about Philip that he could find said that this disciple was "a scholar who was dull," "a guide who could not lead," and "a disciple who lacked spiritual insight." It's hard to come away from studying these events in the Gospel of John without thinking that Philip "wasn't the smartest fry in the happy meal" so to speak. He struggled to understand the most basic concepts and grasp hold of things that the others had receive long before. He was the person in the group that was the last to comprehend what Jesus was saying and as such, most people present him as having the lowest IQ of the twelve.

I don't know if that it is true or not, but let me say that I've known some highly intelligent and successful people who were spiritually ignorant and dull in these same areas. If you are not the smartest person or the head of the class, then take comfort in the fact that Jesus chose Philip and used him in his kingdom -- you don't have to be the smartest cookie to be mightily used of God. But at the same time, I would rather be somewhat dull-witted and a little slow and yet be able to grasp the truth of who Jesus Christ is!

Hear this preacher: you can have high intelligence and yet be dumb as Philip was dumb. You can have a college degree and be spiritually ignorant. And so if the story of Philip tells us anything, it tells us that God is not so much interested in intellectual prowess, as He is in whether or not you grasp these three significant lessons. If you have all the mental power in the world and yet fail to understand what Philip failed to understand, then you are in serious trouble. Philip failed to see that:

God tests you with moments of seeming impossibility to see if you will turn to Him with faith.

John wrote that Jesus was testing Philip when He asked him about feeding the multitudes because Jesus already "knew what He would do." Jesus was planning to use little to feed the five thousand, but He asked Philip just to see if Philip would respond with faith. If Philip would have said "Lord, we don't have enough to feed them in the normal sense, but with you all things are possible," then I think that Jesus would have responded with "alright, Philip, find me a few loaves of bread and I will act upon that faith." But when Philip said "there ain't no way we can feed them," he failed to trust God in an impossible situation and therefore Jesus had to turn to somebody else for the source of faith.

You can have a Ph.D. in five different subjects from the greatest universities but if you do not believe and trust God for the impossible and the supernatural, then you are spiritually ignorant! There are a lot of smart people, who when in a situation that they cannot figure out on their own, refuse to trust God and believe that all things are possible. They refuse to cast their faith at the feet of Jesus and don't trust Him in everything. Therefore, they are dumb as Philip was dumb. And their relationship with God spirals downward as Philip's did. Don't be so smart that you forget that God is in control! Philip also failed to see that:

There's no reason for hesitancy, Philip. There's nothing to think about when the Grecians come to you. You don't even have to pray about it. It is always the will of God for you to introduce somebody to Him.

I've known some very smart people who struggled with such things as "I felt like God wanted me to invite that person to church, I wonder if that was God?" Do you think it was the devil? Do you think that the devil would ever tell you to go invite someone to church or share your testimony of what God has done for you? Do you think that the devil would ask you to teach someone a Bible study, or pray with someone? Why are you wondering about that? It's a no-brainer: it's always the will of God for you to show someone Jesus! And remember this, Philip, you will never see the supernatural until you lead others to Jesus! Phillip also failed to realize:

Oh, the intelligent people who are yet dumb as Philip was dumb in this area! How many people read the Bible but the light never truly comes on about who Jesus Christ really is? How many people believe a Godhead of tradition that uses non-scriptural language to describe a God that was invented by philosophers and that robs Jesus of His true identity!? Jesus is not one person among others, but "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). "In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9)! "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). And by the way Philip, "if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father." Father and Son refer to the Spirit of God and the flesh that His Spirit became in the Incarnation and do not refer to separate persons in the Godhead. There is only one person in the Godhead, and according to Hebrews 1:3, the Son is the "express image" of that person. Jesus is the only God you will ever physically see. He is the God of the Universe in a bodily package. He is the Word spoken about in John 1:1 that says "the Word was God" and that in verse 14 says "the Word was made flesh." Jesus is God, completely and totally, and not fractionally. And you'd better be sure that you grasp that, because it doesn't matter what your mental IQ is, your spiritual IQ will always be lacking until you fully grasp the complete and perfect identity of Jesus Christ as revealed by scripture! When Thomas, fell to his knees in front of Jesus and cried out "my lord and my God," he didn't have it wrong, Philip, and he had a revelation that you need to get. Jesus is God come in flesh to save His people! When you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father!

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And yet let the scriptural record ends on a positive upswing for our disciple named Philip. Despite the downward trek throughout Jesus' ministry, we know that Philip was still there when Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection. We know that Philip was in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost and that he received the Holy Ghost with the 120, that day. Maybe Philip just needed the Holy Ghost before it all began to make sense! That's the way some people are today. It's not until they receive the Holy Ghost for things to really start clicking together. It's not until they receive that precious gift that they began to truly understand Christianity and this way called "the cross." The reason that there are so many truly intelligent people that are yet spiritually ignorant as Philip was, is because they are trying to understand the Word of God and even live it without the gift of the Holy Ghost. God never intended for you to have to do that and that is why He has given the gift of His Spirit freely. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 tells us that some things are just "spiritually discerned" and will never make sense to you until you receive the Holy Spirit. If you are here today and you have never received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and some things about the Bible just seem foolish to you, then know that this scripture talks of you. The things of the Spirit will seem as foolish to you until you get the Spirit of God living inside of you. The reason that they seem foolish to you is that they are spiritually discerned and taught. The Holy Ghost makes the difference in your life to make the kingdom of God to make sense. And it was the Holy Ghost that made the difference in Philip's life.

We know from the book of Revelation that the New Jerusalem will have "twelve foundations" which correspond to the twelve apostles. That means that Philip made it in the end! That means that despite his downward spiral, somewhere Philip finally got it and responded in faith and responded by allowing God to use him, mightily. If you feel like Philip, today, and you feel as if the kingdom of God has been hard to grasp and understand and you felt a little slow-witted despite a good start, then know that it isn't how you start the race, and it isn't about the mistakes in the middle, that really count in the end, but it counts most how you end your run! A solid finish can make up for a lousy beginning and middle! No matter how many times you have fallen, determine like Philip that you will finish strong!

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There are many legendary traditions about Philip passed to us through the years, and some of them are so fantastic that is obvious that they are embellished or even fabricated. There are some things, though that may have an element of truth to them.

Tradition says that Philip traveled through Phrygia and into the city of Hierapolis with Nathanael Bartholomew and Philip's sister, Mariamne. Entering the city of Hierapolis, the three missionaries supposedly won to Jesus, Nicanora, the wife the Proconsul, the ruler of the area, sparking a great revival in that area. There are all sorts of fantastic miracles that were supposedly performed during this time, and no doubt Philip did see miracles in the name of Jesus during His ministry, but most of these tales are obviously embellished.

Four of the early church fathers wrote that Philip also spent some time preaching in the city of Colosse, and that he died and was buried at Heirapolis. Tradition states that he was beaten by the city magistrates for preaching against their idols and after being cast into prison, was brought out and hung by his neck on a pillar. Tradition states that after his death, Philip's body was removed from the noose and buried by his sister Mariamne and Nathanael Bartholomew and then the two left the city to preach elsewhere.

One thing is sure, Philip died as a devoted and faithful martyr to Jesus Christ and that although he struggled early in his faith, he finally "got it" and willingly died for the revelation of who Jesus Christ is. If he was somewhat slow-witted, it was better to die slow-witted and faithful to God, than to be smart and bright and be lost! And so it is today! May we learn from Philip, not only what to learn, but also how to recover from the many weaknesses of our humanity. Philip proves that finishing right, covers a multitude of mistakes!