Day 4

Charles Price

“Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  — JOHN 1:45


It is a wonderful thing to be ‘lost’! Do you know why? Because to be lost is to be wanted. If you throw away an old coke can, you don’t describe it as being lost.  If you misplace something valuable, it is, by definition, lost. In Luke 19:10, Jesus says of Himself, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus is continually seeking lost souls because they are of value to Him. The fact we are of value to Him is the starting point of God’s relationship with us. Philip’s first encounter with Jesus illustrates a two-way street where Christ is seeking the lost and the lost are seeking Him.  After meeting Jesus, Philip sought out Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” That raises the question: Who did the finding? Did Philip find Jesus or did Jesus find Philip? In Matthew 7:7, Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.” As Jesus is also seeking, one side is not passive while the other is active. They found each other. 


But how does a person begin to seek Jesus?  Where do we look? The fingerprints of God are in all of creation and in our consciences, but we will only ever find the real God through Jesus, and we find Jesus in the Bible. Our appetites may be whetted by seeing Jesus in someone else’s life, but the Bible is the only revelation of Christ and the only documentation God has given us of Himself. Philip knew the Scriptures and he did not find an existential Jesus; that is a Jesus who conveniently plugs the gaps and meets the needs in his life, but the real Jesus, the One who had been spoken of prophetically throughout Scripture. And Philip recognized Him.


When a person seeks for God, they discover He is already seeking them. It doesn’t take a seeking savior long to connect with a seeking sinner! But to come to know Jesus, to grow and mature in our Christian lives, the Bible cannot remain a closed book in our homes. Had Philip not known the Scriptures, he would not have known who Jesus was and the “follow me” would have been meaningless to him. 


If we look at Jesus through the lens of our needs, we’ll get a distorted Jesus, and if we look at Him through popular culture, it’ll be a trendy Jesus, but look at Him through the lens of Scripture and we’ll get the real Jesus. And, like Philip, we’ll recognize Him!


PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for giving us your Holy Word. May it always be an open Book in my home, and may your Holy Spirit give me wisdom into understanding all that You have to say.


TO REFLECT UPON: Do I have a quiet, calm place where I let the words of Scripture sink in and meditate on them?