The Cloud of Witnesses

Former title Lessons From the People of the Bible

Set 1

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Abraham (5) — David (5) — Esther (4) — Gideon (5) — Isaac (6) — Jacob (7) — Job (6) — John the Baptist (6) — Jonah (4) — Jonathan (6) — Joseph (10) — Joseph of Nazareth (6) — Mary (4) — Mary Magdalene (4) — Mary of Bethany (3) — Moses (5) — Nehemiah (8) — Nicodemus (4) — Noah (6) — Paul the Apostle (5) — Peter (5) — Philip (4) — Ruth (7) — King Saul (6) — Stephen (6) — Thomas (4)

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The lessons of set 1 are also available as individual online lessons below.

Set 2

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PDF These lessons are available as PDFs (with the number of lessons in brackets). These PDFs have not yet been updated to the new name.

Andrew (7) — Caleb (7) — Daniel (7) — Elijah (6) — Elisha (5) — Isaiah (21) — John (22) — Joshua (16) — Leah (2) — Luke (22) — Mary Magdalene (3) — Matthew (9) — Miriam (4) — Nahum (2) — Rachel (6) — Rebekah (5) — Samson (5)

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Philip

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Lesson 4: Philip – Was Passionate About The Truth

Reading

John 14:1-21.

Was Passionate About The Truth

I love Philip because he was a real person who wanted real answers. He wanted to be sure of his faith and he was not afraid to ask the hard questions in order to get satisfactory answers.

Jesus had been talking to the disciples about the fact that He was about to leave them. He was going to return to the Father – God. He was going to die and then return to Heaven where He came from and where He belonged. He then said that He was going to prepare the place where they would be reunited.

At this point Thomas said he didn’t know how to get there and Jesus responded by saying one of His most profound statements – “I AM The Way, The Truth and The Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus was re-confirming that He was divine – He was God.

Philip replied that he knew of God but wanted to know Him as Father. He wanted Jesus to reveal Father to him. Jesus emphasised that no one could approach God or start a relationship with Him outside of accepting Jesus for who He is.

It is still true. We can know of God without Jesus – but we cannot know God as Father except through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is impossible. Yes, a relationship with God is open to all human beings but it is only possible through Jesus Christ. The reason being that if we ignore Jesus Christ we ignore the fact that our selfishness, wrong thoughts and actions separate us from God. Only Jesus was perfect enough to die to pay the penalty of our sins. Ignore Jesus, and our sins separate us from God. Accept Jesus’ death on our behalf and His resurrection and we have open access to God as Father – it’s as simple and profound as that.

I love Christianity because it is real – it is the Truth. It is a fantastic joy for me to be able to have total confidence that what I teach people is Truth.

As Christians we do not need to apologise for the Truth. We don’t need to alter the Truth or compromise the Truth – all we need do is expose the Truth and let others recognise it for what it is.

I love the analogy of gravity. It works at home, it works at work and it works on holiday. No matter where I am or go gravity is constant. It is as true for you as it is for me. I cannot say – Oh gravity – it may work for you but it doesn’t work for me. Or you may believe in gravity but I don’t. Gravity is true all the time for everyone regardless of race, age, gender or geography – painfully and expensively true sometimes! We should be very grateful – we could be hurled into oxygen-less space otherwise (or living down under just fall off!)

So with Christianity. If it is untrue, then we should discard it but if it is true we need to embrace it. If it is true, it must be true for everyone. It is so important that we base our lives on Truth.

Philip would say to us today...

God doesn’t mind being tested. Because He is True and Faithful we can express all our doubts to Him and He will give us the peace and confidence we need to trust Him for our present and our future.

Prayer

Father, thank You for being the Truth. Thank You for the fact that we can know the Truth and use Your Truth as the foundation for our lives and consequently know joy, peace, freedom and hope. Amen.

Additional readings

John 1:1-18; Colossians 1:1-20; Hebrews 1:1-4.

Questions

Why is it important to know the truth?

Where do we find truth?

How does knowing the truth affect our lives?