LIFE'S INDIVIDUALITIES
Poul Madsen
Reading: John 1:29-51
GOD is a God of repetitions, as we saw in a previous article [Life's Repetitions, Vol. 13, No. 4]; but He is not a God of uniformity. He has created millions of human beings, and all of them have two feet, two hands, a nose between two eyes, and two ears. That is repetition on a huge scale. Yet each of those [115/116] beings is unique: none of them is exactly like the others. This, then, is what our God is like; He is the God of repetition who hates uniformity.
Satan is just the opposite. He insists on uniformity, and he often seems to have his way. All the big political powers are built on uniformity. Sometimes this principle seems to enter into the Church, so that people in a particular church seem just like one another. They are without originality; they have become copies; they do the same things, speak the same language and use the same phrases. This is quite boring, and it is certainly not what is meant by being holy. Such sameness, far from being of God is very, very human and lacks vitality. True life demands individualities.
John's account of the first calling of the disciples speaks of two men without giving any names. From 1:40, however, he goes on to give us the names of four of them. The first is Andrew: "One of them that heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother". He is identified in this way, that he was the brother of Simon Peter, and with one exception this is always the case (Matthew 10:2; Luke 6:14; John 6:8). Almost the only place where he is not so described is in Mark's Gospel which, of course, was written under Peter's guidance; there he is just called Andrew (Mark 3:18).
I feel sorry for him. Nobody would wish only to be known as somebody else's brother. He was not so important as Peter, we know, but still he became just as indispensable. He became a real man in his own right, a unique personality, as the Gospels make quite clear. He first heard about Christ without the help of Peter. He heard for himself, and then he followed for himself, without the help of Peter. Indeed, it was all the other way round, for the Scriptures go on to report that "he findeth first his own brother, Simon ...".
The word 'first' indicates that he found others after Peter. It was he who found the lad with the five loaves and the two fishes (John 6:9), for that is the kind of man he was. Humanly speaking he lived under the shadow of his brother Peter, but really he lived in the light of the Lord, so he had his own personal testimony which he had not learned from Peter. He heard for himself John's words, "Behold, the Lamb of God". He heard that without Peter's help, and then he was able to exclaim: "We have found the Messiah".
It is tremendous to appreciate this that, without Peter's help, he understood that the embodiment of weakness was also power incarnate; the Lamb is the Almighty. It made his personality, to know this for himself. How had he learned it? By revelation of the Spirit through the Word of God. We know that John the Baptist and his disciples had seen the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus and rest upon Him: "John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him" (v.32). Andrew, the brother of Peter, came to the Lord himself, and the Lord gave him the words about the resting Spirit: "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him" (Isaiah 11:1-2).
Andrew did not learn this from his brother Peter; he learned it from God Himself. The Spirit rested, abode, on the Lord Jesus and Andrew, the brother of Peter, understood this and was able to identify Him as the Christ. He did not say, 'We have found a man and I think that he may be the Messiah', or 'We have found one and I should not be at all surprised if he turned out to be the Messiah'. No, there were no doubts in his mind so that he was able to say: "We have found the Messiah" and in saying so he became a real man. He had found the Messiah, and in doing so he had found himself. Like Paul, he could now say, "By the grace of God I am what I am" -- I am Andrew. But he did not say, "I have found the Messiah". He was big enough to forget himself, which he did by asserting that it was "we" who had found Christ.
Andrew was now a new man and unique, even though he was still called the brother of Peter. He was an example of Biblical renewal by which common men are made unique, real personalities. In our limited understanding we think of renewal in two ways. One is by repair. When my wife repairs my shirt, I say that it is like new. But repair is not Biblical renewal. The other way is by substitution, starting with new material. I buy a shirt and of course it is a new shirt. But neither is this the Biblical way of renewal, as though we had put Andrew aside and created another man. No, it is not repair and it is not substitution; it is the miracle of renewal so that Andrew is still the same Andrew and yet is an altogether new Andrew, a real man. [116/117]
This makes man the most interesting being on earth, and shows that the Creator respects what He has created. The Lord had made Andrew a different man from all others, and then had given him a God-given personality. From the outside he had been unique, but now as an inner personality he was unique too. He had heard the wonderful message that the sin which was the self-centredness of the world had been taken away by the Lamb of God. Through that message, Andrew was liberated, delivered from self-centredness and given a new centre. His personality was no longer centred in his ego but in Christ, and so he had become the real Andrew, though he remained the brother of Peter.
This was true liberty, and now his testimony was convincing, even to his big brother Peter. Peter might be expected to doubt his statement, replying 'How can you know? You are only my brother Andrew'. But as he looked at him, he saw a new Andrew, a man quite natural, not artificial or dramatic, but a real man whose testimony was most convincing. If you want people to believe your testimony you must be truthful, and you can only be truthful when you are yourself, and you can only be yourself when you are in Christ. If you copy others, don't expect people to believe you.
People will listen when they hear such a man. Peter was, of course, much bigger than Andrew, for he was never called Peter the brother of Andrew, yet he was ready to listen to this smaller brother and be brought by him to Jesus. I wish that this spirit could be found more in our churches. The Lord does not want us to copy one another, for that leads to the fear of man. How many clouds would disappear in our assemblies if we had faith enough in God to allow our neighbours to be just what they are in Christ.
Now let us consider Peter. "When Jesus looked upon him, he said ..." (v.42). How did He look upon him? How do you think that Abraham looked on his dear old Sarah when she was ninety? I am afraid that she must have been rather wrinkled and faded as well as barren. Well, Abraham saw the wrinkles and faded beauty, and yet he called her "The mother of multitudes". He was not looking through rose-tinted spectacles but looking at her in the light of divine promises and of divine power. That was how Jesus looked on Peter. Of course He saw Peter's barrenness, and that is why He said: "Thou art Simon", but He saw more than that. He looked upon Peter in the light of His own power and intentions, and so He was able to say, "Thou shalt be called a rock". The Lord spoke the word of faith to Peter and in doing so He imparted faith to Peter. Through the word of faith and the spirit of faith that very rocklike nature which could never have been found in Peter himself was created by God.
This is a very important matter for our church life. How do we look at those who are fellow believers? You have a brother who has come to the Lord. You look upon him, seeing his barrenness and his faults and are tempted to say that nothing of value will come from him. If you adopt this attitude, you will help to produce defeat in him and you will be culpable because you have treated him without faith. The Lord Jesus is quite different. He produced faith in those men who followed Him.
How seldom do we find the Lord correcting His disciples! Certainly you will never find Him expressing despair about them as though they were hopeless. He might well have complained that He had been trying for some years to teach them but, as it was obvious that they had made no growth or progress, it might be as well to give them up altogether. Yet the very night in which they were going to betray and forsake Him, He looked upon them in faith and said: "You are they who have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom" (Luke 22:28-29). This was not because of any virtues in them but because He dealt with them in the light of His own power. It was in this same spirit that He called Peter a rock, even when there was no reality upon which to base His words.
The Lord Jesus did not rely on any strength in Peter, but He had the grace and the power as well as the wisdom to produce a Peter out of a Simon. Now He does not expect us to be blind about one another's faults, treating everything with a blue-eyed optimism which pretends that all is well when it is not. No, it demands a life and walk with God which exercises faith in Him and so helps to reproduce that faith in others. You can never help a brother or sister by your doubts, by mere corrections nor even by setting before them a higher standard; what you need to do is encourage their faith. [117/118]
This is the basis of real fellowship, as the apostles showed. Andrew, the brother of Peter, had something to give even to Peter, and Peter, though weak in himself, was made strong by Christ to have something to give to Andrew. Andrew had no inferiority complex, even though he was always known in the secondary character as Peter's brother, and Peter had no sense of superiority even with his young brother, Andrew. They were just themselves, not trying to be like each other, and so they were able to enjoy free fellowship in Christ.
Such a life requires real faith in God, for otherwise one will impose himself on the other and try to produce fellowship on the basis of fear, whereas we can only have that fellowship in the freedom of faith and love. This does not mean that we have no standards, as if nothing mattered very much. No, far from it, but it does mean that we must learn to look on one another with faith, speak to one another in faith and encourage faith even though we may need to give some word of correction.
The list of those who follow the Lamb is a very long one and on it there is a place for us. Like Andrew, we may be connected with some other name, but we must learn to follow for ourselves. Andrew must not try to be like Peter, and Peter must not attempt to make him do so, for we must at all costs avoid artificiality or imitation. God, our Creator and Redeemer, sets great store on true individuality.
The third man brought to our notice is Philip. He may seem to have been the least important of these first three. We are never told that he had a brother; he is not called the brother of anyone. Nor is he called the son of anyone, for nothing is said of his family. The only thing that we know about him is that he came from the same city as Andrew and Peter. He had a wonderful beginning but in spite of this he seems to have been a man of slow growth. At the end of their training period with the Lord, Philip said to Him: "Show us the Father" and on this occasion the Lord Jesus felt it necessary to voice a mild rebuke, a thing which He seldom did to His disciples. "So long time I have been with you, Philip," He said, "and you do not yet know me. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).
Philip may have been slow but he was important. He was nobody much but the Lord would not go back to Galilee without him, so we read these wonderful words: "The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip" (v.43). We are impressed that the Lord could not do without this man even though he seemed unimportant. This is typical of our Lord. Whom does He choose? Not the big ones, the important ones, the powerful ones but the weak, the foolish, the despised, the things which 'are not'. Philip belonged to this group.
I like to think of my Saviour preparing His journey back to Galilee and finding everything else in order, but no Philip. So He found Philip. He looked for him until He did find him. The same is true of you and me. He will not go any farther on His way without us, for He is the Good Shepherd and we are his sheep. We know that Peter was brought to the Lord by Andrew but we are not told that anyone brought Philip. May we not presume that since Andrew and Peter came from the same city that it was they who told Jesus about Philip? There are times when we ought to bring people to the Lord, and there are other times when we ought to tell the Lord about people and leave it to Him. In any case the Lord found Philip and said to him the two words which until now we have not heard from His mouth: "Follow me". Later the Lord said that the Father would honour those who followed Christ, so we may say that Philip, the nobody, received an invitation to be honoured by the Father.
Philip was from Bethsaida, where they did not honour Christ. He did wonderful miracles there but still they did not honour Him, and He cried, "Woe unto you, Bethsaida ...". Since Philip, Andrew and Peter came from that place, this must have meant that they lost all their honour in their home town by following the Lord. This is a most important feature of the character of a man, if he deliberately accepts the dishonour of the world to get the honour of the Father. It is also a most important thing in church life. The Lord asked, "How can you believe me, if you seek honour one from another?" (John 5:44).
"Follow Me!" To do this is to receive the honour of the Father. People will not honour you. Your fellow Christians may sometimes misunderstand you, but you do not stand before men [118/119] but before God. The Lord Jesus always sought the honour of the Father, and this gave Him tremendous power. He also enjoyed marvellous liberty for He did not have to look to the left or to the right to see what others thought of Him, but simply made sure to be governed by the will of the Father. Little, unimportant Philip was called to follow; he responded to the call and, in spite of all his weaknesses, he was delivered, made an apostle and gained the honour of the Father. Some day you will find his name in the New Jerusalem as one of the most important names there, and it was all because that morning, before He left for Galilee, the Lord Jesus found him and called him.
This was the beginning of the Church. The Lord had now called three men, Andrew the brother of Peter, Peter the son of Jonas and insignificant little Philip. In a sense they were quite adequate according to the Lord's way of counting, for He said that where two or three are gathered together in His name, He is there in the midst. The Lord was with them, and where the Lord is, there is fellowship, there is power, there is prayer and there is the Church. What a gift to Bethsaida, but Bethsaida ignored it. Not that they realised that they represented the local church in Bethsaida, but that is not important. The more you are occupied with the Lord the more the Church is there. The more you are occupied with the Church, the less the Lord may be there and of course, if the Lord is not there, there is no functioning Church in reality. The Church is never self-centred; it is centred on the Lord Jesus.
Andrew was Christ-centred, and so was Peter, and so was Philip. They followed the Lord, and at that time they did not know much more than just to follow Him, but after all what is there more to know? If you know how to follow Him and do so, then you are in the way of life, spontaneous life -- life in the power of first love, life in pure light. It could have been a wonderful blessing for Bethsaida, to have this group of three men following Christ in their midst, but Bethsaida would not accept it, refusing to recognise them or to honour their Lord.
If we ask what Philip did, the answer is that he did just the same as his Master had done. We read what Christ did: "He findeth Philip" (v.43) and then we read what Philip did: "he findeth Nathanael" (v.45). Then what did Philip say? He said exactly what his Master had said: "Come and see". So Philip did and said what Jesus had done and said, which is not very surprising but very natural to a man who was following his Lord. His words were the words of Jesus, and yet they were Philip's words. Jesus worked through Philip, Jesus spoke through Philip, and yet it was Philip who acted and Philip who spoke. Philip was himself, but himself as linked with Christ. One saw Jesus in Philip, for he was now a man made free to do what had not previously been possible. He is an example of true ministry.
I could, of course, paint a very different picture. I could imagine Peter going to Andrew and the two of them going to Philip, and then all three sitting down to plan the service they could do for the Lord. They might have had bright ideas as to the different tasks each would undertake and then have taken their suggestions to the Lord only to have them rejected. That is what we sometimes do. Rather than waste time and energy making plans which seem good to us and yet are bound to be set aside by the Lord, is it not better to follow Him and discover what His plans are? This is true ministry. Just look at what happened with Philip. He followed, and then he found Nathanael, and there seemed no end to the fruitful results which followed. The Father honoured Philip, his words and his work in a way which might well have astounded little Philip.
As he gave his testimony to Nathanael, he did so as a member of a body so that, although his ministry was personal, it was not detached. So he did not say, "I have found" but he said, "We have found". We may wonder if this was correct since the Gospel tells us that it was Jesus who found Philip. The truth is, of course, that although Jesus took the initiative in seeking, Philip himself was also seeking, and so he was able to affirm that now he had found. We notice that he said, "We have found Him ...". He did not try to say what he had found or how it had affected him, but gave a true testimony to Christ.
I am a lawyer by profession and can assure you that if two witnesses were brought before a judge and asked to testify and one got up and said, 'I am so happy' and the other said, 'I have been filled with joy', the judge would interrupt and tell them that their feelings were of no [119/120] interest to the court. He would tell them that they had been called as witnesses, and as such were not to speak of themselves but of what they had seen. If, in spite of this, one of the witnesses persisted in telling the judge that he was so thrilled with joy, he would probably be fined for wasting the court's time. Philip did not speak of having found peace or being happy, he said nothing about his own feelings, but focused attention on the Lord. Why draw attention to yourself when you know Him?
Philip was able to quote the great authority of the Word of God. He did not have to set himself up as an authority, for he was able to say: "We have found him of whom Moses and the prophets have written" (v.45). The remarkable thing was that he asserted that the one of whom Moses and the prophets had written was Jesus of Nazareth. This shows how completely revolutionised his life had become. The people of Bethsaida murmured, indeed people of that whole area murmured: "Is not this Joseph's son?" (Luke 4:22). They were offended in Him and asked themselves: "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? his brethren ... and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?" (Matthew 13:55-57). Philip did not question and he answered Nathanael's question with the divine invitation: "Come and see".
The encounter with Nathanael is linked up with the marriage in Cana of Galilee by the words, "and the third day" (2:1). Under the Spirit's inspiration, John said nothing there about Nathanae1's home town but at the end of his Gospel, he reveals that it was this same Cana of Galilee (21:2). This gives great point to Philip's testimony and its outcome, for it seems that the Lord Jesus was planning to give His first revelation of His glory in that town, so probably required the human link represented by Nathanael.
All that Philip did was to follow the Lamb, but his following opened the way for the initial display of Christ's glory. What an honour to help provide the link for the marriage feast and the turning of the water into wine! Little Philip shows us that ministry is a marvellous mystery of co-operation with the Lord. He could have made plans for his service and missed that link with Nathanael. Happily he was content just to follow the Lamb and bear his testimony to Him. In a sense we are all little men, but we are important to the Lord provided we follow the Lamb joyfully and do not have big thoughts about ourselves. Our following may lead to a Nathanael, a Cana of Galilee and a new revelation of the glory of the Lord Jesus. Every individual has his or her own name and his or her individual importance to the Lord who has called us. [120/ibc]
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