It Is Written Canada

All The King's Men, Pt 5

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Bill Santos

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Series Code: IIWC

Program Code: IIWC201225


00:02 >>Bill: I like the story of the young woman who wanted to go to college,
00:07 but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that
00:11 asked, "Are you a leader?"
00:14 Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the
00:19 application, expecting the worst.
00:23 To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear
00:29 Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college
00:33 will have 1,452 new leaders.
00:38 We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have
00:42 at least one follower."
00:57 ANNOUNCER: It has stood the test of time.
01:01 God's book: the Bible,
01:05 still relevant in today's complex world.
01:09 It Is Written,
01:12 sharing the messages of hope around the world.
01:27 In business today if somebody was coming along and saying -I want twelve
01:30 people to help build a company there would be a string of qualifications a
01:35 mile long and they would have figured out exactly the kind of person they
01:40 wanted and get twelve just like that.
01:44 Not the Lord, He picked twelve unqualified people who were so diverse it's
01:49 incredible.
01:53 And they all had problems.
01:56 And they all had sins.
01:57 Even the best of them.
01:59 It's just a list of the unqualified.
02:05 Now Jesus never intended to go through the work of proclaiming the Kingdom
02:09 alone.
02:11 That's why when He began His ministry He began it not only by preaching and
02:18 teaching but by training men with Him at the same time He began His
02:22 ministry.
02:24 He was training them all the while so that when He left they'd carry it on.
02:29 And these are the ones He chose, they are the ambassadors of the King.
02:35 What kind of people are qualified for the Lord's work?
02:39 What kind of people does Jesus use?
02:43 Well, He uses, we learned, dynamic, strong, bold leaders like Peter, who
02:49 take charge, who initiate, who plan, who strategize, who confront, who rebuke,
02:54 who command people to Christ and who frankly often talk a better game
02:59 than they play, and often act too hastily.
03:03 But are usually eager to be forgiven and restored.
03:09 And, our Lord uses humble, gentle, inconspicuous, quiet souls like Andrew,
03:15 who seek no prominence, never preach to crowds, but quietly bring
03:19 individuals to Christ.
03:22 And then He uses zealous, passionate, uncompromising, task
03:30 oriented, insensitive, ambitious dynamos like James, who wind up getting
03:35 killed because nobody can handle him.
03:39 They see only a job to do and they'll die getting it done.
03:43 And He also uses sensitive, loving, believing, intimate, truth
03:49 seekers like John, who speak in love and attract men to Christ.
03:54 Let's look at Matthew 10:3,
04:14 Let's look, first of all, at Philip.
04:17 This is not to be confused with Philip the deacon in Acts 6 who later became an
04:23 evangelist, this is Philip the disciple.
04:28 His name is a Greek name.
04:30 Now all twelve were Jews so he must have had a Jewish name but we don't
04:37 know his Jewish name.
04:40 For some reason he goes always by his Greek name, and by the way, his Greek
04:44 name means lover of horses.
04:48 This is kind of interesting because when the Greeks later on want
04:53 to see Jesus they go to Philip maybe they felt comfortable because his
04:59 name was the Greek name.
05:02 Now for a while he was a fellow townsman at Bethsaida, and you
05:07 remember that Bethsaida up in Galilee was the town where Peter and Andrew
05:12 came from, so Philip knew Peter and Andrew.
05:17 He had perhaps grown up knowing them, perhaps was a close friend of theirs.
05:22 Since they were all God-fearing Jews, Peter, Andrew, Philip and
05:28 Nathanael or Bartholomew, we'll get to him later, they probably all knew
05:33 each other.
05:35 He may well have been a fisherman.
05:39 He appears later on with Andrew and with Peter and with James and with John
05:44 in John 21 fishing.
05:48 The three gospels say nothing about him, just his name, nothing else.
05:53 But John's gospel mentions him four times.
05:57 Let's look together at John 1:43 and let's meet Philip.
06:07 And let's ask the question again - What kind of people can God use?
06:25 The 'next day' that means the day following Peter and Andrew having an
06:30 encounter with Christ, the day following the time when John the Baptist
06:35 pointed to Christ and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God," and Peter and Andrew
06:38 followed Him.
06:41 Now that is the first direct call of a disciple.
06:48 Peter and Andrew had already met Christ but they had sort of found
06:52 Him, they had sort of come along.
06:56 John the Baptist had pointed to Him and they sort of followed Jesus
06:58 along and got a chance to meet Him and so forth.
07:02 But Philip is the first individual to whom the Lord expressly said -
07:06 Follow Me.
07:09 He walked up and found him and said Follow Me.
07:15 But may I hasten to add that Philip also had a seeking heart.
07:20 God doesn't find people against their will.
07:24 He had a seeking heart and if you look at John 1:45 it says Philip then went
07:31 to find Nathanael, or Bartholomew same person, and said to him,
07:37 Now from the Lord's viewpoint He found Philip, from Philip's viewpoint he
07:48 Now from the Lord's viewpoint He found Philip, from Philip's viewpoint he
07:53 found the Lord.
07:57 And isn't that the way your testimony goes?
08:01 The sovereign side is that God found you, the human side is that you found
08:05 Christ.
08:08 And in order for it to happen both of you had to be seeking.
08:13 "The Son of man has come into the world to seek and save that which is lost,
08:21 if you seek with Me with all your heart you shall surely -what?
08:26 - find Me."
08:28 God seeks that true heart that seeks Him.
08:32 Jesus just came right up and said - Follow Me.
08:37 Philip's eyes and ears were open, his heart was open.
08:40 And when he heard the divine voice say - Follow Me, he ran to tell
08:44 Nathanael that he had found Him, the Messiah was here.
08:48 And you can imagine the excitement and the thrill and the joy and the
08:51 ecstasy.
08:53 In fact, he even wanted to bring Nathanel, at the end of verse 46, he says -
08:57 Come and see.
09:02 Find out for yourself!
09:04 Now what do we learn about Philip?
09:06 First thing we learn about him is he was seeking the Messiah.
09:08 He was a God-fearing Jew.
09:10 He was religious and he had an honest heart.
09:13 We also learn that his response when being found was to find somebody else.
09:19 And I'm convinced that the greatest source for evangelism is friendship.
09:25 I think friendship provides the most fertile soil for evangelism.
09:30 Don't you?
09:33 Because there's already a relationship of love.
09:35 And into that relationship of love you can introduce the reality of Christ.
09:40 Invariably when somebody becomes a Christian their first reaction in the
09:46 warmth and the joy of that new found life is to find a friend and tell that
09:51 person what has happened.
09:54 And by the way, if you've lost that then that's only a sad commentary on one of
10:01 two things, one you don't have any unchristian friends or two you don't
10:04 care anymore.
10:06 Both are tragic.
10:08 But Philip immediately went to Nathanel.
10:12 The immediate response to salvation is evangelism, find somebody else and
10:17 tell them the good news.
10:19 Now let's look at John 6 and see the next passage about him.
10:26 And I think this really cracks open Philip.
10:30 Jesus has already made wine at the marriage feast at Cana so He has
10:35 demonstrated His supernatural power.
10:38 That for sure has happened.
10:41 And there may have been other miracles and mighty deeds that he had seen.
10:46 But we come to chapter 6 and a big crowd has gathered at the north end
10:50 of the Sea of Galilee and Jesus has been teaching them all day and healing
10:54 them all day of all their diseases.
10:57 And it's been a tremendous day but it's coming to the evening now and the crowd
11:02 is hungry and there were 5,000 men which means there were probably at
11:05 least 5,000 women and 20,000 kids, so it's a big crowd.
11:11 And they're all there and you go to John 6:5
11:28 Philip, how are we going to get bread.
11:33 Why did He single Philip out?
11:34 You know what I believe?
11:37 I believe Philip was in charge of the food.
11:40 Somebody had to be in charge of the food.
11:42 We know Judas was in charge of the money.
11:45 And somebody had to be in charge of the food.
11:49 They had to eat as they traveled around and ministered.
11:52 And it seems to me that was Philip's area and so the Lord says to him -
11:57 Now, Philip, how are we going to get the bread to feed these folks?
12:00 Why did He ask him that?
12:04 Verse 6
12:14 He knew He was going to feed them miraculously and create in His own hand
12:19 bread and fish but He was testing Philip.
12:24 Now, Philip, you've seen Me make wine at the marriage supper, now we
12:28 don't have any food for this multitude, how are we going to get some food?
12:31 You know what he said?
12:35 Verse 7:
12:46 He gives Him an instant answer which, you know what that proves?
12:52 That's another thing that proves to me that he was in charge of the food, he
12:55 had already analyzed it.
12:58 I've got it figured out - it cannot be done.
13:02 You know what you learn about Philip?
13:04 It never entered into his mind that the Lord was supernatural.
13:08 It utterly eluded him that Christ could do a creative miracle.
13:14 The supernatural resources of Jesus Christ totally escaped his thinking.
13:17 He just calculated the whole deal.
13:19 You know what he is?
13:21 He is analytical.
13:23 He is pragmatic.
13:25 I'm sure he would sit in a board meeting today with a calculator punch it.
13:27 Can't do it.
13:28 We don't have the money.
13:29 It cannot be done.
13:30 He had too much arithmetic to be adventurous.
13:35 He was so stuck on facts and figures he missed faith all together.
13:41 One writer said, "The supreme essential of a great leader is a sense of
13:48 the possible."
13:50 Philip had a sense of the impossible.
13:55 He didn't know that God said: "That with Him all things are -what?
14:02 - possible."
14:04 Christ was trying to teach him about faith and he wasn't learning the
14:08 lesson.
14:10 You know what he should have said?
14:13 Lord, You made wine at Cana, You fed Your children in the wilderness
14:17 with manna, do what You want.
14:20 You've got this crowd here, You feed them.
14:22 You know something?
14:25 He had been healing all day long Philip had watched demonstration of
14:28 supernatural power.
14:32 The Lord had overcome all diseases possible in that multitude and Philip says
14:35 - It can't be done.
14:38 Boy, that is thick-headedness.
14:42 Philip was a materialist.
14:44 He was a man of practical common sense.
14:45 He had measurements.
14:47 He was methodical, mechanical, he had very little understanding of
14:50 the supernatural.
14:52 He was a facts and figures guy, always going by what appeared on the human
14:58 level.
14:59 Now let's see if he has any improvement in six chapters.
15:04 Go to John 12:20.
15:15 They were God-fearing Greeks, come for the Passover, and they had
15:20 come because they had been devotees of Judaism and they heard about Christ.
15:26 "And they came to Philip," because he was the Greek connection, he had a Greek
15:31 name probably that's the reason they came to him.
15:35 "And they desired him saying, Sir, we would see Jesus."
15:39 Well, Philip may have been approachable, he may have been a warm-hearted
15:47 fellow, but he didn't take them to Jesus.
15:50 He said, in affect, - Now you guys wait here, I don't know if this can
15:55 happen, I've got to go check.
15:57 So he goes and tells Andrew.
16:00 And together they go to Jesus.
16:03 You know what we learn about Philip?
16:06 He was not decisive.
16:07 He was not forceful.
16:10 Peter would have grabbed those Gentiles and dragged them into the presence of
16:14 Jesus and said, - Lord, look at these guys, they want to see you.
16:16 But not Philip, he had to check it out with somebody else.
16:18 Well, what was bothering him?
16:21 He was still living in chapter 10 of Matthew when the Lord had said, "I am
16:25 come but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
16:29 So he's saying -These are Gentiles, it's not in the minutes to bring the
16:32 Gentiles.
16:35 I don't think the constitution allows it, I am not sure that is in the
16:37 bylaws.
16:39 Isn't it wonderful that the Lord uses those kind of people?
16:45 Aren't you thrilled?
16:46 I am.
16:48 He is no genius.
16:51 He didn't get lesson one - Jesus is God - three years he didn't get it.
16:54 He needs to be in remedial class, basic has alluded him.
16:59 He is so skeptical, so unconvinced.
17:03 Here is a man of limited ability, here is a man of inadequate faith, here is
17:06 a man of imperfect understanding, here is a man who fools around with
17:09 numbers instead of meditating.
17:13 Here is a man who is stuck on the level of rules and codes and stuff instead of
17:17 seeing God.
17:21 And someday he's going to inherit gloriously in the Kingdom, beyond what he
17:26 would ever have dreamed, a pessimistic, reluctant, insecure, unsure,
17:32 analytical, skeptical man.
17:35 Saw facts and figures and missed the big picture of power and grace.
17:39 His faith was limited by money, circumstances and proof.
17:45 You know what tradition tells us about this dear fellow?
17:49 He got his act together and he wound up dying as a martyr for a Christ he
17:54 wouldn't deny.
17:58 They stripped him naked, according to tradition, they hung him by his feet
18:03 upside down and they pierced great holes in his ankles and his thighs so
18:06 that the blood would pour out and slowly he would die.
18:13 And he said he only had one request and that is that when he was dead they
18:19 not wrap his body in linen like his Lord because he wasn't worthy of that.
18:24 Aren't you glad God uses the slow, and the faithless and the
18:28 analytical skeptics?
18:32 Because some of us find ourselves there, don't we?
18:38 One more fellow for this morning, and he's only introduced to us in one
18:44 passage and then we just lose him the rest of the time.
18:48 His name is Bartholomew in Matthew 10, but that was his last name.
18:52 His first name was Nathanael.
18:54 Bartholomew.
18:56 He came from Cana of Galilee, again from a little village in Galilee.
19:02 He was brought to Jesus by Philip so he was acquainted with the rest
19:07 of the gang.
19:09 Only one passage in the Bible tells us about him and it's John 1.
19:11 Let's go back.
19:14 Verse 43, I think you're going to find him fascinating.
19:20 It says in verse 43 that
19:43 What does that tell us?
19:46 It tells us that Nathanael would have know Messianic prophecy and studied it,
19:52 he was a studier of the Scripture, a searcher for truth, a seeker for God.
19:55 But verse 46 tells us he had a sin too.
20:02 He had a weakness.
20:12 Nathanael showed prejudice.
20:16 You say - Boy, if there's one thing you don't want among the twelve it's a
20:19 guy with prejudice.
20:21 He was a good fellow, thoughtful, biblical, looking for the Messiah,
20:24 quiet, meditative guy full of prejudice.
20:29 Well, Philip offered him a solution at the end of verse 46, he says - Come
20:34 and see.
20:37 Now we're going to find out how deep his prejudice is.
20:42 If he's got the kind of prejudice that can be overcome he's going to
20:46 respond, and he did respond.
20:48 Verse 47,
21:00 What a wonderful, lovely introduction, wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if
21:05 the Lord walked up to you and said - Ah, a true Christian who is without
21:10 hypocrisy?
21:13 Nathanael responds, verse 48
21:28 Jesus is saying to him - I saw you, I saw you seeking.
21:30 Well, that's enough for him.
21:33 Nathanael verse 49:
21:43 You want to know something?
21:47 Three years later Philip wasn't sure about that, whether He was God.
21:52 Nathanael knew it immediately.
21:56 He saw deity in His presence.
22:00 So, we meet Nathanael Bartholomew, the seeker of truth, prejudice but not
22:03 bound by it, honest, open, a man of prayer, a man of meditation, a man who made
22:12 a complete surrender to Christ, a man with a keen mind and a heart of faith.
22:17 He saw.
22:19 He understood.
22:22 The Lord can use any raw material that's available, and He's in the business
22:26 of making the most out of the unqualified.
22:30 Can I ask you this in closing?
22:34 Do you qualify among the unqualified?
22:38 Because if you do the Lord wants to use you.
25:34 Let us pray.
25:36 Father, we thank You that the ability that You want from us is availability.
25:40 Thank You that You can take the unqualified and do the transforming of
25:45 their lives.
25:46 I know my own weaknesses.
25:49 All of us do.. .
25:50 our sins, our failings.
25:52 And yet You use us.
25:54 We thank You that we are the company of the unqualified who have been
25:59 transformed to useful vessels fit for the Master's use.
26:04 May the truth that we have learned today linger in our hearts and make us
26:09 better than we were had we not heard it.
26:12 For Your glory, in Christ's name.
26:17 Amen.
26:22 >>Dave: God can take a very common person and transform them into a very
26:24 uncommon apostle.
26:27 The only qualification God needs is availability - and that means he can use
26:31 anyone of us if we make ourselves available.
26:35 Pastor Bill has written a book "All the King's men", it includes all of the
26:39 messages in this series, we would love to send it to you, here is the
26:43 information you need to get your free copy.
27:34 >>Bill: I want to thank you again for joining us this week.
27:37 I hope your enjoying this series on the life of the disciples.
27:40 Like I have said before, this is one of my favorite series.
27:43 We are going to make this series available to you on DVD with a wonderful study
27:47 guide and a book.
27:51 You can go on our website and pre-order that for a donation of $50.
27:56 Those $50 will be used to keep this ministry on the air.
27:59 While on the web site visit our archive program section - all of our
28:04 programs are there.
28:06 You can find out where the It Is Written team may be appearing, you can even
28:09 make a donation online if you feel so impressed to do so.
28:13 You can visit our youtube channel youtube.com/IIWCanada, you
28:17 can also follow us on twitter.
28:21 Well, we pray that we will have the privilege of being together again next
28:24 week.
28:26 Until then remember, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by
28:31 every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Revised 2015-02-06