Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Mark 3:18 includes “Philip” in the list of the “twelve” (verse 14) called by Jesus to be His special messengers. This apostolic call is not Philip’s first encounter with the Savior. John 1:43-45 records, “The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, ‘We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’” This brief account reveals that Philip was clearly a serious student of Scripture. He had studied “the law, and the prophets” (a designation for the entire Old Testament) and trusted in the promise of the Messiah. We can contrast his learnedness with that of the Pharisees. Both knew what the Scripture said, but Philip believed it. He knew both the letter and the spirit of the Old Testament. The legalistic Pharisees knew the letter of the Law but saw Scripture as something to be manipulated for personal power. Philip correctly understood that God’s Word was and is absolute in its authority. To embrace this authority is ultimately to be embraced by Jesus, as Philip found out personally.