Center for Evangelists

Levi, who became Matthew, was a customs official in Capernaum who taxed imports and exports based on his own judgment. The Jews hated him because he worked for Rome and betrayed his countrymen.
But when Matthew the dishonest tax collector heard two words from Jesus, “Follow me,” he left everything and obeyed.

Matthew 9:9
And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom:and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.

The interesting thing about Philip, one of the Twelve, is that he was personally reached by Jesus himself. While Philip brought Nathanael to Jesus, and Andrew brought Peter to Jesus, no one brought Philip to Jesus. Instead, Jesus came right to him. Normally God reaches people through people, but this was an exception to the rule.

We don’t know a lot about Philip. All the vignettes of Philip appear in the Gospel of John. But from that Gospel, we discover that he was a completely different kind of person than Peter, Andrew, James, or John. He is often paired with Nathanael, whom he brought to Jesus.

It also would appear from John’s account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand that Philip may have been in charge of the supplies and food, the road manager of sorts. He was the kind of guy who was practical.

And according to church history, Philip laid his life down for Christ, being stoned to death after reaching many with the gospel.

“The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow Me’ ” (John 1:43).