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The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip,\xa0he said to him,\xa0\u201cFollow me.\u201d\xa0Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.\xa0\xa0Philip found Nathanael\xa0and told him, \u201cWe have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law,\xa0and about whom the prophets also wrote\u2014Jesus of Nazareth,\xa0the son of Joseph.\u201d \xa0\u201cNazareth! Can anything good come from there?\u201d\xa0Nathanael asked. \u201cCome and see,\u201d said Philip. (John 1:43-46)

In today\u2019s passage we see Jesus calling Philip.\xa0 Just as Andrew went to find Peter, Philip found Nathanael to invite him to also come and see. The invitation was too good to keep to himself. But Nathanael is unsure. Sarcastic even.\xa0 What good could possibly come from Nazareth?\xa0

Nazareth was southwest of the Sea of Galilee, a very small community which probably had less than 500 people during Jesus\u2019 lifetime.\xa0 It was not located near any major city centres and so it was not somewhere that Nathanael thought was of any importance.\xa0 Calling someone a \u201cNazarene\u201d may have been today\u2019s equivalent of calling someone a \u201chillbilly\u201d or some such word.\xa0 How then could the Messiah, the Saviour of the world come from such a back water town?

How do you perceive Jesus?\xa0 As your healer, your Redeemer, your Lord, your Saviour? As your friend?\xa0 Or do you feel like He has let you down, that He\u2019s distant, that He\u2019s difficult to talk to in prayer?\xa0 Jesus isn\u2019t who we expect Him to be.\xa0 We see that again and again in Scripture.\xa0 The Pharisees expect Him to be one thing, the disciples another and the crowds yet another.\xa0 Yet Jesus never changes.\xa0 He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.\xa0 He remains true to His own nature so we can be assured therefore that we can trust in Him.

Philip doesn\u2019t argue with Nathanael\u2019s skepticism.\xa0 He doesn\u2019t need to.\xa0 He simply invites him along. \u201cCome and see.\u201d\xa0 Philip wanted Nathanael to come and experience Jesus for himself.\xa0 Philip knows that talking about Jesus is nothing like meeting Him in person.\xa0 Philip\u2019s invitation also echoes the one that Jesus gave to Andrew and John in verse 39 when Andrew and John asked where He was staying. \u201cCome and see.\u201d

It's an invitation to us too.\xa0 Jesus promises not to turn away those who earnestly seek Him.\xa0 \u201cAsk and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.\xa0 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened\u201d (Matt 7:7-8). \xa0

It\u2019s okay to doubt and it\u2019s okay to have questions, but God wants us to bring them to Him in prayer. \xa0Even in our incredulity and doubt we are loved by Him.\xa0 We can bring all of our frustrations to Him with confidence because \u201cGod demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d (Romans 5:8).\xa0 What a wonderful God we have!