THE 1662 Book of Common Prayer celebrates St Philip and St James’s Day on May 1 with a beautiful and powerful Collect:
‘O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that, following the steps of thy holy Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, we may steadfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’
The St James here was the half-brother of Jesus. He became leader of the church in Jerusalem in the 1st century AD and wrote the New Testament epistle named after him, from which one of the Prayer Book readings for St Philip and St James’s Day is taken. He was not James the Apostle who was martyred in Jerusalem in AD 44.
The St Philip here was one of Christ’s original 12 Apostles, not Philip the Evangelist who features in the book of Acts. The Apostle Philip’s calling as a follower of Jesus Christ is recorded in the first chapter of John’s Gospel:
‘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. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see’ (John 1v43-46 – King James Version).
That is an evangelistic invitation that has rightly resonated down the ages. Philip was in the unique position of being able to introduce his friend to the Incarnate Jesus Christ in person in Galilee. But any Christian anywhere after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension into heaven can encourage a friend to read one of the New Testament Gospels or invite them along to a biblically-sound church to hear the Lord’s saving message.
Christ’s invitation to anyone is to ‘come and see’ him with the eyes of faith. To offer that invitation on Christ’s behalf is surely the best expression of friendship there is.
For St Philip and St James’s Day, the Prayer Book includes a reading from John chapter 14, which contains the statement by Christ referenced in the Collect: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me’ (John 14v6).
In John 14v8, Philip says to Jesus: ‘Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us’. The request draws from Jesus a profound declaration of his own divine nature:
‘Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake’ (John 14v9-11).
The essential truth here is that a person who has seen Jesus, whether physically in Philip’s case or with the eyes of faith in subsequent generations, has seen God. That is because Jesus Christ is the divine Son of the one true God. Jesus perfectly reveals God’s truth and love, supremely in his atonement, the reconciliation between the holy God and sinful humanity that he achieved on the Cross.
As the prologue to John’s Gospel puts it: ‘No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him’ (John 1v18).
Commenting on John 14, J C Ryle, appointed in 1880 as the first Bishop of Liverpool by Benjamin Disraeli in one of his last acts as Conservative Prime Minister, wrote:
‘It avails nothing if a man is clever, highly gifted, amiable, charitable, kind-hearted, and zealous about some sort of religion. All this will not save his soul if he does not draw near to God by Christ’s atonement, and make use of God’s own Son as his Mediator and Saviour. God is so holy that all men are guilty and debtors in His sight. Sin is so sinful that no mortal can make satisfaction for it. There must be a mediator, a ransom-payer, a redeemer, between ourselves and God, or else we can never be saved’ (Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume Four, Evangelical Press).
That is why the Apostle Philip’s invitation to ‘come and see’ is so urgent and important.
