It is with Jesus joy, that I greet each of you today in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is good for us to think on Him and His immeasurable goodness unto us. We owe Him praise and shall never be free of that debt and neither do we
wish to be. He has been and is now so good to us.

To those of you who participate in our weekly Thursday Around the Table with the Word bible class at 11:30 a.m. on Zoom, I offer this advance notice of homework assignment. You will be asked to choose your favorite Disciple or Apostle of our Lord in the New Testament. We have spoken about the Disciples and why they appealed to us, but today, I ask you to do a deeper dive. Choose one that most appeals to you and that you most identify with or admire. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I have just finished preparing for the sermon for this Sunday. The title of it is “Come and See”. It features the Apostle Philip. He is not one of the more familiar biblical names or personalities but I admire him for being so
focused on winning souls. 

Our first introduction of him is in John 1:43-46. Jesus calls to him and simply says, “Follow me.” Without a word or a moment’s hesitation, Philip obediently responds. Evidently, Philip knew something of the scriptures because the next thing we read about him is that he is witnessing to Nathaniel (probably a home town friend). He says to Nathaniel, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the Law, and in the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Here is this brand new convert to the faith and immediately, he goes about the business of finding a friend to tell him about Jesus. It is not enough for him to have simply found the Savior but he must share this great find and superb treasure. Would to God that we were all that excited about Jesus. If it’s true that we talk about what we love, shouldn’t we look for more opportunities to talk to someone about who Jesus is and what he’s done for us? Philip was excited and apparently was a consistent and committed witness. When Nathaniel responded with a criticism by
saying, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip didn’t allow that to dampen his spirit. He simply said, “Come and see.” He invited his skeptical friend to come and judge for himself. We too should invite people not just to a church service per se, but rather to have an encounter with the lover of the human soul. We have to get over our own personal feelings and not let a fear rejection distract us from our mission. We have to bring the people we love into loving contact with Jesus himself. Then, as the Lord has taught us, we are to go and make them disciples. Let us strive to teach and to train them, after conversion, how to walk with Jesus. I think we can learn much from Philip of Bethsaida, this man who was excited to share Jesus with his friend.

Who was the last person you told about Jesus? Who is your favorite disciple?