Participants: Bill Santos
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. 28:36 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ |
Revised 2015-02-06