Matthew chapter 10 if you don't have a Bible if you just put your hand up, we'll grab you one and I would highly encourage you to have a Bible and you're welcome to take this Bible home with you if you don't own a Bible and Even if you do own a Bible you might own an old one that doesn't have commentaries in it and such I would encourage you to go ahead and keep this So if you just put your hand up, we'll get you one We all know Christmas is next Saturday and I'm I'm hopeful that We have taken on the charge of not getting caught up in the busyness of Christmas this year. I hope that you all are having a normal pace in your life, that you're not frantically running around trying to do all the things you have to do at Christmastime, that we remember that Christmas is about Jesus and his birth, Emmanuel, God with us, The coming of salvation. That's what Christmas is about. It's not about any of the trappings that we've made it be about. And while you may get or give a present, fine, but if you make it about running around to make sure the cookies are perfect and the pies are well-baked and the perfect gift is bought and you got the Cabbage Patch doll or whatever the doll is of this year, I'm not very old, am I? So don't get caught in that. And I really feel like our congregation hasn't. It sure seems to me like we have a very peaceful congregation when it comes to this Christmas season, and that our focus is properly on Christ. And I'm hopeful that's true. And I would encourage us all to consider to continue to be in that place. OK, Matthew. We're in chapter 10, verses one through four. But I wanna read Matthew 9, 35 through 38. So those of you that aren't there, it's on page 1409 of the Bibles we give out here. And we're gonna start, we're gonna just read Matthew 9, 35 through 38 so we can set up where we are in Matthew 10. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages. Remember, all the cities and villages was this area of about a 70 by 40 region in Galilee, 70 miles by 40 miles. There were about 3 million people. So Jesus was going from city to city and village to village. And what was he doing? He was teaching in their synagogues, the Daskalia. So what we're gonna see in these verses right here, if you recall, is God's plan for spreading the gospel. So Jesus was going about from villages and cities He was teaching to Daskalia. He was teaching what he was teaching scripture. He was teaching it where he was teaching it in their synagogues So he's teaching Scripture to the people in their churches Preaching the gospel of the kingdom What was he doing caruso? He was preaching he was heralding and what was he preaching? He was preaching repentance Repentance from what? Repentance from your sins. So he was teaching in the synagogues and he was preaching in the synagogues and everywhere he went, repent and turn from your sins. He was healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Why was he doing that? He was healing every sickness and every disease to show his deity, to show that he was God, to give validity to the message that he was teaching and preaching. Verse 36, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them. He looks out and he sees some of these three million people, and he's moved with compassion. Remember splach nizomai from the word splachna, which was the guts of a sacrifice? So he had this deep inner compassion for the multitudes that he looked out upon. Why? Because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. They were weary and they were scattered because they had no shepherd. They had a lot of false prophecy, a lot of false religion. They didn't have a shepherd. They were being led away to hell because of their religion. Then he said to the disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So he's looking out at these multitudes. He's got this deep burning compassion for their destitute state, their lack of being shepherded by God and by Christ. And he looks out and he has this compassion and he says, the harvest, right? The harvest is truly plentiful. He's saying, look, judgment's coming. Judgment's coming. People are going to be judged to heaven or to hell and it's coming. The harvest is coming and it's plentiful. Look at all these people. There's not very many laborers. Verse 38, therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So he calls his disciples and he says, we need to pray for laborers. This job's too big for just me. I need more laborers because the judgment's coming. That takes us into chapter 10. Because now he's going to call. Now he's got this big task, right? God's got this big task of calling people to repentance. Of these multitudes, these three million people that he needs to get to, and call them to repentance to turn from their sin. He's gotta have this message taught and preached. So he's gotta go out and get superstars. He's gotta go out and get the best of the best. He's gotta get loyal, smart, faithful, Intelligent, cream of the crop guys, right? That's what he's gotta go get. Well, as we're learning, that's just not true. The guys he went and got were just ordinary men. And we've been looking at these disciples and seeing how ordinary they are and seeing what kind of people God can use. Started out with Peter, right? Inquisitive, impulsive, always in the action. So prideful in some of his actions that he was called Satan by Christ himself. Took him from Simon to Simon Peter to Peter. Then we looked at, last week we looked at Andrew. Right, Andrew was quiet, behind the scenes. Bringing people to meet Jesus. James and John, the sons of thunder. James was abrasive and passionate and zealous. and John the same. And yet John turned out to be the love apostle, as we might think of him, because he learned to stand on that truth, zealous passion for the truth, and speaking those things in love. So this week, we're gonna look at the next seven. The next seven, and then next week, we'll talk about Judas Iscariot. This week we'll look at the next seven, the apostles, part three. As somebody commented, this is a really short title to a message, so we'll just read the scripture and it'll pretty much repeat the title of the message. Matthew chapter 10, we're gonna go verses one through four. And when he had called his 12 disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases. Now, the names of the Twelve Apostles are these. First, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Labias, whose surname was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. This is that list of twelve that's in Mark 3, Luke 6, Acts 1, and Matthew 10. That's the four times we see the list. And remember, the list is always the same twelve. First is always Peter. Last is always Judas Iscariot. There's three groups of four in the middle of that. First person listed. So there's structure. There's leadership. It's the same list, just presented a little bit differently each time. So we saw two weeks ago Simon Peter, the leader. Last week, we saw Andrew, James, and John. Today, we're going to look at the other seven. We're going to start with Philip. Verse 3, Philip. Let's see what we can learn about from Philip. So first, a point of clarity is when you're reading in the book of Acts, you'll read about Philip, not the same Philip. Philip in the book of Acts was a deacon that was an evangelist, not the same Philip that we read about here, not the apostle. So just to make sure. He was the only one of the 12 that only has a Greek name in scripture. Philip is a Greek name. Means loves horses. So but that it's a Greek name only every other apostle has a Jewish name That you also then would see a Greek name or a Hebrew name Phillips The only one who has simply a Greek name and it's probably why the Greeks as we'll look at later came to him They came to him to find out about Jesus So in the three Gospels Like you'll find about a lot of these apostles, they're not mentioned anywhere in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They're mentioned in John. So let's go see in the book of John what we can learn about Philip. John chapter one. Should we turn to John chapter one? And we'll go to verse 43. John 1, 43, which would be on page 1577. verse 43 here's where we see Philip the following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him follow me so the first thing we see about Philip this is the first direct call of an apostle if you remember the next day well the day before who had he met with. Andrew met him, right? Andrew met him. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. Andrew met him and started to follow him. And then after Andrew followed him, he went and got Peter. So the next day, so those two weren't called directly by Jesus. We see that sometimes the men, the people that God uses, he calls through other people. We talked about that having people come meet Jesus this one with Philip was a direct call from Christ There are those that be saved just straight from scripture Reading scripture John Wesley would say he was reading Romans actually an introduction to Romans and reading Romans is when he felt his heart strangely warm so a direct call from Jesus as opposed to someone bringing you to meet Jesus and So, the next thing we learn about Peter, or Philip, is in verse 44. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So, like Andrew and Peter, he was from Bethsaida. What we can probably surmise from that is, if there are God-fearing Jews in Bethsaida, they probably all knew one another. Next, verse 45. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So what we know about Philip is Philip was seeking after God. He was a student of the Old Testament. He and Nathanael knew the Old Testament. They knew that Moses and the prophets had talked about the coming Messiah. So he knew that they talked about the coming Messiah. So Philip was a Jew that was looking for the Messiah. God had given him a heart to be looking for the Messiah. And then, like Andrew, what did he do when he first, Jesus called him, what was Andrew's first thing to go do? He went and found Nathanael. So he has that same heart that Andrew had. As soon as he found Jesus, as soon as he found the Messiah, as soon as he was called by him, he had an evangelistic heart that said, I'm gonna go out and get my friend. I'm gonna go tell my friend about Jesus. Question, are you like that? Do you go out and tell your friends about the Messiah? We've talked a lot about that this week around here, after talking about Andrew last week. Are we like Andrew and Philip? Do we go out and tell people about the Messiah? God can use that evangelistic heart. We can tend to become, because we know that scripture teaches us to care for one another, we can tend to become awfully inward, self-focused. And that's not having compassion, looking out at the multitudes. If we have met Jesus and the Messiah has changed our life, we ought to be out telling other people, come meet Jesus. Come and see, as Philip says. In verse 46, Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? So what happens? Nathanael is skeptical. As Philip calls him. Philip said to him, come and see. Look, Philip doesn't argue with him. Philip doesn't get into some long apologetics case. He doesn't try to beat him over the head with the doctrines of election and free will. He simply says, you don't buy it? Come and see. Many of us are faced with familial members who would say, what's going on in your life right now is a little bit weird. A little bit strange, a little bit over the top. And then we want to sometimes argue with them and beat them over the head with some apologetics or doctrinal statement about who God is. And we want to try to talk them into believing what's going on. Hey, how about just come and see? Just come and see. Come and see. Come and hear. Come and meet Jesus. See, because they can't take away your testimony, can they? And they can come see it. So, we talked about it this week. How do we have people meet Jesus? First of all, where is Jesus? Get the answer that is a very childlike answer, which is fine, he's everywhere. Okay, that's true, but where is Jesus? Well, he's inside of me. Okay, that's true. How do I have someone meet Jesus? Where else is Jesus? This is Jesus. Jesus, from the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God, and then the Word did what? The Word came to life in the flesh. This is, the Word is Jesus. So if we're gonna have people meet Jesus, We need to have them meet the Jesus of Scripture. And that can be done in a number of ways. We can live out truth and then give glory for why we're living out the truth. We can hand out CDs. We can invite people to church. If we're gonna be like people that God can use, well, Philip and Andrew were people that God used because Philip and Andrew, what did they do as soon as they found out about Jesus? They brought people to meet him. We ought to be doing that. Grace Fellowship Church. Let's go on to chapter six of John's gospel. Turn to John chapter six. Just turn forward a few pages. Now we had Philip's good attributes. Philip was a man who was seeking the Messiah. He and Nathanael would study and they were seeking the Messiah. God had given him a heart to seek him and then God had given him a heart to evangelize. Now let's see some of his shortcomings in the flesh. Coming into John six, verse five, Jesus had a huge following, right? He'd been doing all these healings and he had a big, huge following. Lots of people were following because they wanted to be healed and they were checking out the show. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, verse five, then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? So Jesus sees all these people coming, this huge throng of people. As we find out, it's about 5,000 men, and that's just the men, so there's probably as many women, and then there's probably more children. There's probably in excess of 20,000 people. So it's kind of like being in the Mark twice-filled, iWireless, twice-filled, right? That many people. And he sees all these people, and he's like, Philip, where should we buy bread that these may eat? So let's see what happens. He asked this question to Philip, verse six, but this he Jesus said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. So why did he ask Philip? We don't have the conjecture. He asked Philip to test him. to test what he would say. I'm guessing that Philip was the keeper of the, he's the one who made sure we had food. You know, Judas took care of the money for the apostles as they traveled. And I'm guessing that Philip must have taken care of food because Jesus turns and asks him, how are we going to feed all these people? Jesus knew how he was going to feed them all. He was just trying to test Philip. And what is, how did Philip do on his test? Philip answered him and said, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little. So Philip calculated and summarized the situation. He got very logical and he thought it all the way through and he said, we can't feed them. We don't have enough money to buy bread for all of these people. He was very analytical, right? He processed this and came to this answer. He failed to consider Jesus' supernatural power. So Philip had witnessed all of Jesus's miracles. He had seen all these healings. He had seen Jesus turn water into wine. And then, so when he's asked something that seems rather impossible after watching all this impossible stuff happen, he's asked by Jesus, how are we gonna feed these 20,000 people with 200 denarii? And Philip says, we can't do it. Forgetting Christ's power. His shortcoming was that he was so level-headed and so full of common sense, he failed to consider Jesus' supernatural power. We tend to think like that sometimes, don't we? We tend to think that way sometimes. We tend to think about an obstacle in our life, and we tend to think, well, I calculate it, I summarize it. Some of us like to be that way. You know, the Freymans are in the middle of having Tracy stop working. And so, roughly half their income's gonna go away. And I love to sit with Dave, and Dave says, I'm not concerned about that. Trying to be wise with how they'll steward the resources, but I trust that God's gonna provide. There's others that would sit down and put a calculator to it and say, no, you know, plug, plug, plug, type, type, type, comes down, and we're $212.14 short a month, can't do it. forgetting that God's promised to provide. If Tracy's been called to her first ministry to be a wife and a mother, and that's what God's called her to do, then he will provide. And Philip would likely to say, don't do it, doesn't add up. Forgetting Christ's power. The Jacks are going through the same situation. And I love to see the trust that they can have in God to say, this is what we're called to, I know He's gonna supply. Now, Peter, or I'm sorry, Philip surely will improve later, right? Let's see if he improves. John chapter 12, turn forward to John 12. John 12 verse 20. John chapter 12 verse 20. Now there were certain Greeks among them, among those who came up to worship at the feast. So there's these Greeks, there's these Gentiles, and they came to Jerusalem to the feast. All right? They came to Philip. They probably came to Philip again because he had a Greek name and maybe that was a Greek entry point, the Gentile entry point. They came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and asked him saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew and Philip told Jesus. So here comes the Greeks. These were God-fearing Gentiles that had come to the feast that wanted to meet Jesus. And Philip calculates it, thinks about it, analyzes it. I better go talk to Philip. I better go talk to Philip. He says, I have to go talk to him, Drew, because I can't make that decision. You know why? He's probably thinking back to when Jesus said, when he sent them out, he said what to them? We're gonna see it in a couple of weeks. He said, go first to the lost sheep of Israel. So the by the book guy, by the book, Phillip says, well, here's the thing, the process, the program is I gotta go to the lost sheep of Israel. I can't take these Gentiles to Jesus. It's not in the bylaws, not part of the plan. He's forgetting that Jesus, in chapter six of the book of John, before this, had told him, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will turn away none of them. So he's forgetting that Jesus had said, look, anyone who the Father gives me, so these Greeks had a desire, a God-given desire to come meet Jesus. They were God-fearing Greeks that were coming to the feast. But Philip says, nope, it's not in the program. I gotta go check with Andrew because I can't make that kind of decision. Philip was so stuck on the process, so analytical, so by the book. that he kind of forgot about grace. He's too practical to consider that Jesus' supernatural power could feast 20,000 people. He's too practical to introduce non-Jews to Jesus. He's too by the book. He doesn't understand God's grace. So the Messiah called him, but he seemed to be pretty clueless. Look in John 14, we find him again later. Surely he's getting it, but he's not, he's still missing it. John chapter 14, starting in verse seven. Coming into this, Jesus had just explained he was gonna prepare a place in heaven for the apostles. He said, I'm gonna go and prepare a place for you in heaven so that you can be with me and my father. And in verse seven, Jesus says, if you had known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him." What's Jesus saying? He's saying, I am the father of one. You've known me and seen me. So you've known God the father and seen God the father. Pretty clear, right? Then in verse eight, Philip says, Lord, show us the father and it is sufficient for us. Really? Really? So Jesus just told him, I and the Father are one. He's been telling him that for three years. How dull-minded is Philip? He continues to say, I don't quite, look, just show me God the Father. That'll be enough. I'll believe it then. This is a guy that for three years walked with Jesus, but he's too practical, he's too level-headed, he's too analytical. I have not seen God, the Father, so just show him to me. What's really cool about this is God uses this guy who's pretty thick-headed, pretty dull, shows not very much faith, Very practical, very analytical, questioning things that don't seem to make sense to him, and yet God uses this man. He had a heart of evangelism, and he had a desire to know the Messiah, and God used that. Like all these men, God transformed him into something different. He changed Philip. Because Philip couldn't go out not believing in father and son being one and preach the gospel, could he? So we know that he was changed. After all this time, he was still thick-headed, but God still used that. He still transformed him. Do you know Philip? Tradition says that Philip died. He was crucified upside down with holes speared into his thighs and his ankles so that he would slowly bleed to death. And his only request was, don't wrap me in linen because I'm not worthy. That's a changed man that God used. So he used Philip, this seeker after him, this heart of evangelism, to bring his friends to meet Jesus. This slow-witted, skeptical, practical, little faith-having guy. God used all kinds. There's nothing special about Philip. Next, let's see what we can learn about and from Bartholomew or Nathanael. Bartholomew or Nathanael. Now, this is simple. You'll see now as we get into some of these names that there are multiple names because in the different listings of the 12 throughout the New Testament, there's different names given. In this case, Bartholomew is his last name and Nathanael is his first name. That's really all it is. So you see him called Bartholomew or Nathanael. Now, we only see Nathanael in one passage of Scripture. He's a lot different than Philip, we find from this one passage. He was full of faith and perceived the truth clearly right away. Turn to John 1, starting in verse 45, back to page 1577. So Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We looked at this once, same thing's true. What we know about Nathanael is the same thing we knew about Philip, that he was a God-seeking, God-fearing Jew. He was looking for the Messiah. He and Philip had talked about what Moses had written, what the prophets had written. He was an Old Testament scholar, if you will, and he was waiting for the coming Messiah. It really gives me hope. There are some people I know, my brother Steve is one of them, who is listening to messages. He asks me more questions about scripture than most of us combined in this room. He talks, we talk regularly. He is not born again, he doesn't confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but it appears to me that God's giving him a seeker's heart. That he's wanting to understand who God is. And that was how Nathanael was. He wanted to know where God was. As we'll find later, he was sitting under the fig tree. Well, under the fig tree means he was sitting in the shade and he was praying and he was meditating and he was seeking. He was wanting to see the coming Messiah. So he was seeking after the truth. But he did have a sin issue. Look at verse 46. And Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? What a question, what's in that question? What's in that question is prejudice. See, he was showing that he thought he was better than anybody from Nazareth. See, Nazareth was a uneducated, kind of dirty, small, dinky little place. Not very cosmopolitan, not much going on, not much commerce. A kind of dirty place in that time. And what Nathaniel says is, nothing good can come out of there. It's gotta come from a better, a more superior place than that. I'm reminded of how people in Bettendorf think about people from Rock Island oftentimes. Can anything good come out of Rock Island? Let's move across the river, because we won't be near that. If that's you, you need to repent of that prejudice. Bluegrass says can anything come good out of West Davenport? Now we gotta get out the bluegrass That's what Nathaniel's saying. He's showing his prejudice. Nothing good. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? He doubted that the Messiah could come from such a horrible place So By the grace of God Prejudice doesn't deter him. Here's what happens Philip said to him come and see Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said to him behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit. What's Jesus saying? He's saying an Israelite indeed Now isn't a Jew a Jew? Isn't an Israelite an Israelite Either Jew or you're not right wrong You could be a Jew and not be a true Jew. You could be an Israelite and not be a true Israelite. Look at Romans 9, 6. You can just look on the screen if you want. But it is not, this is Paul writing, but it is not the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are Israel. A truth from scripture that we get revealed to us here in this statement from Jesus about Nathanael is, Not everyone who was Israelite was a true Israelite. So in the Old Testament, you had mankind as a big set. Inside of mankind was God's chosen people, the nation of Israel. So you have a little circle inside of this big circle. And inside of this little circle is a little dot called a remnant. Remember at the time of Elijah, it was 7,000 out of 7 million. So out of 7 million Israelites, only 7,000 were true Israelites, true people of God. So that's what he's saying here. Here's one he sees, Nathanael, he says, a true Israelite, indeed an Israelite. And he says, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. So Jesus first sees Nathanael the first time he lays eye on him and says, you're truly a Jew and you have no deceit. You have a good heart. You're a good man. You're a godly man. Verse 48. By the way, Jesus looks at him and says, you're a godly man. You're a good man. Even though you had this heart of prejudice, I can change that, and I will change that, because you are truly saved. You are truly one of God's people. So verse 48, Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? That's a pretty sincere question Nathanael asks, I think. You just saw me for the first time. How do you know? I know I love the Lord. I know I love God. I know I've been looking for you, the Messiah. How do you know that? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. That blew Nathaniel's mind. Jesus knew that he was under the fig tree. By the way, I said it earlier, the shade of a fig tree. Jesus knew he was sitting under the fig tree. It was away from the house. It was away from the commotion, the hustle and bustle. It was where the Jews would go to meditate and pray and seek God. So Jesus knew that Nathaniel had been under the fig tree because Jesus knew everything, right? And this blew Nathaniel's mind. That he knew this without having seen him there. So, His prejudice was removed as he came, saw Jesus. Jesus said, I know you're a good man. He says, how did you know that? Because I saw you worshiping, chasing after God before Philip even came and got you. And then in verse 49, Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Nathanael got it right away. I mean, right away. Three years later, Philip was still saying, show me God, then I'll believe you. Nathanael makes that declaration right now. And you know what? We never see another question out of Nathanael. What a gift from God, that heart that Nathanael had, that quick belief. But I want us to understand God can use the guy like Philip, who three years later still doesn't get it, just like God can use the guy who gets it pretty much immediately. Verse 50, Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe you will see greater things than these? In other words, you think that ESPA was something? You think me knowing you were there without seeing was something? Wait till the stuff you see later. You haven't even begun to see the kingdom. And he said to him, most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. Nathaniel you think you've seen heaven You're gonna see greater things than me. Just knowing you were under the fig tree lots greater things Nathaniel Bartholomew was a seeker of truth He was prejudiced but not tied to it. He was an honest and a man with a great understanding of who God was immediately So God used this thick-headed slow-witted couldn't get it Philip. I And he used this very honest, thoughtful, meditative, got it very quickly, Nathaniel. Next, let's see what we can learn about and from Thomas. What we can learn about and from Thomas. So what's the first thing you think of when you hear Thomas? What word comes? Doubt, right? Doubting Thomas. I think he gets a bad rap. I think as we see today, Thomas really wasn't a doubter. as much as he was a pessimistic lover of God. So Thomas was not written about either in the Synoptic Gospels, just in the book of John, so turn to John chapter 11. There's three texts we're gonna look at to learn about Thomas. John chapter 11, verses 14 through 16. John 11, 14 through 16. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. So to set this up, Jesus had to flee Jerusalem because it wasn't his time to die and they were about to try to kill him. So he and the disciples fled Jerusalem and they're up by the Jordan River when they're having this conversation and words comes to them that Lazarus is dead. Jesus says I'm glad we're not there and we're gonna wait a little while to make sure he's dead But now we're gonna go to him says Jesus so Here's the problem. What are the apostles thinking at this time? They're thinking we just had to flee Jerusalem If we go back there you're gonna die This is a suicide mission. We don't want to go back there. I We can't go back there. So, what's Thomas saying in verse 16? By the way, where was Lazarus? He was in Bethany. Where's Bethany? About two miles from Jerusalem. So they know we're gonna go two miles away from them. They just tried to kill you. So they're gonna try to kill you again. And here's what Thomas says, then Thomas, who was called the twin, not a lot of significance there other than he must have had a twin brother or sister, said to his disciples, Let us also go that we may die with him. That statement has a lot in it that Thomas said. He said, let us also go that we may die with him. He shows leadership and initiative, doesn't he? He stands up and says, let's go with him. Our Lord says, let's go, let's go. He shows some pessimism. Right? What does he know is gonna happen? He says, let us also go that we may die with him. They're gonna kill Jesus. They're gonna kill us, but let's go. So he shows some pessimism. It's not doubt because if he doubted Jesus, do you think he'd go die for him and with him? He's just pessimistic. He thinks they're gonna die and that gives him Pause for cause, but not really. He says, let's go with. In this statement, Thomas shows a lot of courage. I will tell you what, I don't tend to be a pessimist, but a pessimist who will go and do shows a lot more courage than an optimist who will go and do. See, Thomas' doubt, his pessimism, it didn't keep him from wanting to go where Christ was gonna go and being willing to die with him. He knew they were gonna die, but he wanted to go anyway. So that pessimism was full of courage. The courage to go die. So I don't think that's the courage that's a doubter. I think it's a pessimistic lover of God. And I think we're gonna see that here in this question, in this statement. Let us also go that we may die with him. I believe that Thomas, as we'll see later as well, he cannot stand the thought of life without Jesus. He loves Jesus so much that he wants to go with him, even if it means death, because he can't imagine living without him. I think he's a lot like John in the love that he has for Christ. He shows in this statement he's a man of courage, a man of love, and a man of loyalty. He's going to go do this in spite of his pessimism. Look at chapter 14, verse 1 through 6. You'll see the same attitude again. Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may also be. And where I go now, and where I go, you know, and the way you know. So Jesus says, telling the disciples, look, I'm gonna go away to prepare a place and I'm gonna come back and get you. And you know the way, you'll go where I'm going and you know how to get there. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Thomas saying, Jesus, don't leave me. I don't know where you're going. And if you leave me, I don't know that I'll see you again. I don't know, we don't know the way. He's got that same pessimism of Jesus gonna leave him, and yet he's got this intense love that says, don't leave me, because I don't know where you're going. I can't live without you. He has a heart of desperation for being with Jesus. I can't live without you. Don't go away. I don't know where you're headed. So Jesus said to him in verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is reassuring Thomas, look, I will take you with me. The way to the Father is through me. But Thomas has that same pessimism he had before. That same desire to be with Jesus. He loves Jesus so much he can't stand the thought of life without him. Now let's see the last accounting of Thomas. And this is the one that's probably the most famous. John chapter 20. John chapter 20, 24 through 29. Now Thomas called the twin. One of the 12 was not with them when Jesus came. So where was Thomas? So when Jesus first appeared to the disciples after he was resurrected, Thomas wasn't there. It doesn't say this, but it's to me, Thomas isn't there because he's depressed. He's depressed and he's sad because his pessimism came through. See, I knew Jesus was gonna leave and die, and he was buried in a tomb, and he's gone from me. So Jesus appears to the 12, but Thomas isn't there. His pessimism was vindicated. Jesus died and left me alone. So down to verse 25, The other disciples therefore said to him, Thomas, we have seen the Lord. So he said to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Thomas is so depressed, he says, yeah, right. Sure you saw him. He left me. He left us. I'm without him. He was a pessimist, wasn't he? I'm not gonna buy it. Before we get on Thomas for being such a doubter though, all of the disciples, none of them believed until they saw him. If you recall, they all had to see him to believe. Thomas was a loyal, loving pessimist. that God could use. Jesus honors his request. Watch this in verse 26. After eight days, his disciples were again inside. So eight days after Thomas had told them, I'm not going to believe unless I get to stick my hands in the holes. Eight days his disciples were again inside and Thomas said with them, Jesus came, the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace to you. So Jesus comes in eight days later to show himself to the apostles again. And he focuses in on Thomas. He focuses in on this apostle, the apostle who loved him so much and was so depressed because he was gone. And he says in verse 27, he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believe. So we don't know if Thomas reached in or not, by the way. It doesn't say that. It says, Jesus says that to him and immediately it says, and Thomas answered him and said to him, my Lord and my God. What a great statement. Here's this pessimistic lover, loyal of Jesus, loyal to Jesus, and he says, my Lord and my God. He affirmed Jesus' deity, he affirmed that he was the Lord, and he affirmed that he was God. So Thomas had this pessimism, doubt as people would call it, and what happened to that? Jesus allowed him to be sure. Some of you truly are born again and you continue to have these doubts. And Jesus says to Thomas and he says to us, I can use you, but you gotta be sure. So let me make you sure. And how do we know, how can we be sure? Well, if we obey his commands, that's how we can be sure. Then in verse 29, he gives a gentle rebuke to Thomas, but it's a great encouragement to us. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. So that's you and me. We haven't seen Jesus in the flesh, and yet we believe, so we are blessed. Thomas was a melancholy, pessimistic, lover of Christ. He couldn't stand the thought of his life without Jesus. He became very aware of who Jesus was and very sure of it, and then God used that greatly. Next, what can we learn about and from Matthew? Matthew. So we know a lot about Matthew because we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew, and we've talked about this quite a bit. You know, interestingly, Matthew we think we know a lot about because we've been going through it, and he wrote one of the Gospels. Do you know he's never quoted in the Bible? I mean, he wrote a Gospel, but he's never quoted. He's never even directly referred to except one place. There's only one thing really said about him in Scripture. Matthew 9, verse 9. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. So he rose and followed him. This is repeat, but it's worth talking about. Matthew was a tax collector. And what's We covered this really deeply in a sermon that we did October 24th, so you want to listen to it. But Matthew was a tax collector. And what we learned about that was, that was the vilest of all sinners. Why? Because a tax collector was a Jew who had joined forces with Rome, and with the backing of the Roman government and soldiers, they would collect taxes from their own people. So they were traitors. They were hated by Jews more than anyone else. Because they were traitors that had hooked up with Rome to extort money from their own people. Not only was he a tax collector, but remember there was a couple of kinds of tax collectors? A Gabbai. And a Gabbai collected property tax or land tax and income tax. And then there was called a MOCUS. And a MOCUS collected taxes on everything else. Consumption of food, how many wheels were on your cart, how many cows you had. They collected tax on anything they wanted. So they were even worse than the goodbye, and there was grand moccasins and small moccasins. And the grand moccasins were the kind that cared enough about their reputation, they would hire other people to go collect the money. They were kind of like the godfather. They sat back and nobody really knew who they were. They had people out collecting for them. Then a small moccasin is what Matthew was. That's the one who was so prideful and so arrogant and so disdained that they would just collect the taxes themselves. So what we learned about Matthew is he was the vilest of all sinners. What we need to understand about that is there was no one more hated than a small mochus. And when Matthew describes himself as a tax collector, he's letting all his readers know he was the worst of the worst. And what we can take from that is God uses the worst of the worst that he saves and changes, and I am that. I am the worst of the worst. My life was despicable. And yet God took me and changed me and uses me. And that's what's true of Matthew. Matthew left behind more than anyone else because as a tax collector, he had a really good income with really good job security. He had the Roman army behind him. And he left and followed him and left all of that. Matthew also had a heart for other lost people, right? He had a heart for the worst sinners. As we find out in Luke 5.29, Then Levi gave him, Jesus, a great feast. And by the way, Levi is another name for Matthew. Gave him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. Luke and Mark let us know that Jesus cared about. So just like Philip and Andrew, when he met Jesus and started following him, the first thing he did is had a feast at his house. But one of the things about Matthew I find amazing is he's so humble, he doesn't even mention that in his own gospel. Matthew 9 10. Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house that behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Matthew doesn't even mention it was his house. And I think it's because Matthew understood he was the worst of all sinners. He was the most vile of all sinners. Proud, arrogant, an extortioner, a traitor, The worst of all. Some of you sit out there today and say, God could never use me because I am the worst of all sinners. I don't tell people about it, but if they really knew what I did and who I am, God could never use that. That's a lie from the pit of hell. You need to repent and turn from your sin and God will use you. Next on the list, and this is the last of the four, this is the last four list. We're gonna cover three of those four, because we're not gonna do Judas Iscariot. What can we learn about and from James, the son of Alphaeus? James, the son of Alphaeus. Now this James is not the James, son of Thunder, son of Zebedee, we've already talked about. It's also not James, the half-brother of Jesus, who wrote the epistle. This is James, the son of Alphaeus. And we're only gonna see one thing in scripture about him. And what we see is really, we really don't see anything about him. We see that he's called the name. These last three you will see, there's nothing really in scripture about them. Here's all we know about James, the son of Alphaeus, Mark 15, 40. There were also women looking on from afar. Among those were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the less, and of Joseph, and Siloam. James the less. Micros. That either means he was small in stature or he's young in age. And we really don't know which one it is. So here's what we know about James, the son of Alphaeus, that he was small in stature and or young in age. That's it. But I want you to be encouraged by something. 2,000 years from now, there will be no other Bible, but I'm quite confident nothing will be written about Mike, the son of Duncan. However, God can use those kind of people. God can use someone who we know nothing about. Scripture tells us nothing about him, but he's one of the 12 men that God built his church on. Now there's conjecture that James was either Matthew's brother or Jesus' cousin, but that's just conjecture. Really, I want us to understand, we don't know anything about him. And yet God used him mightily. In obscurity, at least from the written word. The next, we know a little more about because he asks a really important question. Let's see what we can learn about and from Thaddeus, Judas, the son of James. Thaddeus. Now here, it says Labaius, whose surname was Thaddeus. He's called Thaddeus in Mark and Luke. Luke 6, 15, and 16. He's called Thaddeus and Mark. And in Luke and Acts, he's called Judas, the son of James. Look at Luke 6, 15, and 16. Matthew and Thomas. James, son of Alphaeus. By the way, this is the listing of the 12. Simon called the Zealot. Judas, the son of James. That's the same as Thaddeus. The only time we meet him in Scripture, other than when he's listed in names, is in John 14. So go to John 14. John 14, starting in verse 21, and Thaddeus asks a very important question that I would say is recorded in Scripture, and the reason it's recorded in Scripture is because it makes, it's another of the many verses that make the doctrine of election so true. God's sovereignty is so spelled out when he asks this question, that it really leaves not much doubt. So Jesus speaking the night before his betrayal in John 14 verse 21 He said he who has my commandments and keeps them. It is he who loves me and He who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him so so far we know that whoever keeps Jesus commandments loves him loves him Jesus and whoever loves him Jesus will be loved by Jesus and also by the father okay and manifest myself to him it's a great statement full of truth right what it is to be truly saved is obeying his commandments That's throughout scripture. Look, don't be deceived. If you say that you know him, but you don't obey commandments, you're a liar and the truth is not in you. If you are characterized by sin, you are not saved. That's what it's saying. If you live in sin, if you willfully sin, Hebrew 10.25, if you willfully sin, there's no sacrifice for sin left for you. So that's one of the truths that come out of this. But then he says, and manifest myself to him. Thaddeus understood the first part about loving him and him loving you then, and how you know you love him is by obeying his commandments. But this part about manifest, how are you gonna? So then he says, in verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? In other words, Lord, how are you gonna come preach, walk, heal? All these people are gonna see you and you're telling us you're only gonna manifest or make yourself known to some, the ones that you love. How could that be? Here's what Jesus answers, verse 23. Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and he will come to him, and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the words which you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me. Jesus answers Thaddeus' question with a huge truth that helped us know who God is. He said, if anyone loves me, He'll keep my word. Okay, repeat what he said before. And my father will love him. And we will come to him and make our home with him. Many people saw Jesus. Miracles, heard his teaching when he was here in the flesh. Multitudes, most of those three million. And we know very few were actually saved. We know most weren't. And many people will hear about Jesus, and they will see changed lives because of Christ, and yet they won't know him. Why? Because he won't come and make his home with them. Jesus made himself manifest to us, beloved, by living in us. That's how we know the truth. That's how come billions of people can hear about Jesus and not obey his words and not have him manifest to him, made real to them. Because God will give some to Jesus. Jesus will come and live in some. You are saved, you have the Holy Spirit, you have the power of Christ, you have Christ living in you. So, Jesus does not manifest himself to everyone but only those that love him Only those whose God God regenerates their hearts Many are going to hear about Jesus but only the ones who he comes and makes our home Jesus and God's home with him Are the ones who manifest who Jesus manifests himself to I? All right, lastly today, what we can learn about and from Simon the Zealot. Simon the Zealot. Now it says Simon the Canaanite in this passage in Matthew, which is unfortunately a misuse of the word Canaianos, which actually means zealous. zealot in Luke 6 15 you see how he's listed Matthew and Thomas James the son of Alpheus and Simon called the zealot in Acts 1 13 you see the same thing at the end of it you there you see and Simon the zealot and Judas the son of James so understand it's not that he was from Canaan Simon was a zealot now what's a zealot what was a zealot what a zealot was was a radical political party that was trying to overthrow the Roman oppression. They were like guerrilla warfare fighters. They would hide out and they would assassinate and kill Roman soldiers. They'd go to the hills and hide. That's what a zealot was. So, matter of fact, Josephus, in his writings, would say that the reason that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70 You know, with the destruction of Jerusalem? The reason was because they were tired of fighting the zealots. They were tired of the guerrilla warfare with the zealots, so they just squashed all of Jerusalem to kill this whole movement. So Simon was a zealot. He was prone to murder and anger and vengeance. And yet God used him. God uses all types of people. Here's what we know. We know Simon didn't keep killing people, did he? Because Jesus trained him, his heart, remember? He transformed all of them and said, no longer is it an eye for an eye. If you get hit, turn the other cheek. Put your sword away, Peter. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Jesus was a pacifist. And he taught his disciples, you're not gonna kill people. So this zealot, he took and molded and shaped into one of those 12 that he built his church on. God uses all kinds of people. Finally, let's look at the apostles' destiny. The apostles' destiny. Well, first of all, their earthly destiny. History says that Peter, we've talked about this before, was crucified upside down. James, as we've learned, was killed by Herod very early on in the gospel being spread. James, the son of thunder. Philip, he died upside down, like I told you, with cuts in his thighs and his ankles, so he would slowly bleed to death. Thomas, interestingly enough, died with a spear in his side. James, the son of Alphaeus, was crucified while he lived in Persia. And Thaddeus was bludgeoned to death with a club. So their destiny was a brutal death. That was their destiny, their earthly destiny. Beloved, I want us to understand something. Our destiny on this planet is persecution. And we don't live in China, and we're probably not gonna be killed for it, but we will be separated from family. We will have people talking badly about us. Our earthly destiny is not one of being well accepted. The world's gonna what, love us? The world's gonna hate us, is what Jesus says. The world will hate you. That's your earthly destiny. What was their eternal destiny? Matthew 19, 28. Now think about who these guys were that we've been learning about. Really ordinary men. Here was their destiny. So Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, You who have followed me will also sit on the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. These ordinary men with flaws, with personality disorders, with sins, God took them and he shaped them and he transformed them and he changed them and their eternal destiny is they will sit on the 12 thrones next to Jesus during his millennial reign and they will be judged over the world. They're in heaven with Christ. That's their eternal destiny. It's a long closing thought today. Let's follow along. Closing thought. The apostles were ordinary men that God used in extraordinary ways. God used a strong, bold leader like Peter who had to be rebuked because of his pride. He used a humble, gentle man like Andrew, who stayed in the background and brought people to meet Jesus. Then there was James, the son of thunder, aggressive, passionate, insensitive, and ambitious that God used. His brother John, a seeker of truth that was overwhelmed by Christ's love for him, who God molded to speak the truth in love. God used a skeptical, slow-witted, weak-faithed man like Philip. He used a prejudiced man like Nathanael. Thomas, a pessimistic and determined man who had some doubts, was used. God used the vilest of all sinners, Matthew, as he became clothed in humility. He used James, the son of Alphaeus, an obscure man we know nothing about. God used Judas, the son of James, who didn't understand Christ's revelation only being to his people. Finally, God used Simon the Zealot, a man prone to violence. God chose and then transformed these ordinary men into men that did extraordinary things for God, for Him. God uses all kinds of ordinary people. Here's the question. Are you remaining ordinary or is God using you extraordinarily? Are you remaining ordinary or is God using you extraordinarily? Beloved, here's the question. Beloved and others, we are all ordinary people. There's nothing special about any of us. We are all born sinners. Matter of fact, we're all born wretched and vile. There's no good in any of us. There's nothing special about any of us. We are all very ordinary, very sinful, very fleshly, that can do no good. Some of us, God regenerates our heart and makes us from like Simon to Simon Peter to Peter. He totally transforms us, and then He uses us in extraordinary ways. And the question I want you to consider is, if you're not being used in extraordinary ways, and you're just still ordinary, one of two things is true, either you're not born again, you have not repented of your sin, or you are born again and you're holding on to some of your sin. You're staying like Philip for three years. God will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. And what do I mean by extraordinary? Does that mean you're gonna be written about 2,000 years later? Of course not. You know what's extraordinary? Nick Roland's salvation is extraordinary. And God used a wretched, vile sinner like me to sit and speak the truth in love, and God regenerated his heart, and that's extraordinary. You know what's extraordinary? These two sitting in this room together. That's extraordinary. And God used this place and his people and this wretched, vile, worst of all sinners in that process. That's extraordinary. It's extraordinary that Brad has been on a medication to help him sleep that's a pretty intense medication for a lot of years, and now he's not on that. And things are actually a little smoother. That's extraordinary. Are you still ordinary? Are you humble enough that God can use you? Are you being transformed into something new and different? Many of you in this room today don't know the Lord Jesus. Many of you aren't extraordinary because you're still firmly in your sin and still loving your sin and still loving yourself. You don't get it like Matthew gets it, that you're just a tax collector. Because you love yourself so much, God would be doing himself a favor to save you. You need to repent of your sin and come under God's authority. Here's how you know if you know him or if you love him or he loves you. How? You'll obey his commandments. If you live in sin, continual, habitual sin, knowingly, you are not saved. And if you are saved, and you're not doing extraordinary things, repent and turn from your sin of whatever it is, prejudice, doubt, pessimism, pride, arrogance, so that God can use you to do extraordinary things. Father God, thank you for your word. I'm thankful for the 12 men that you called the 11 that we've looked at so far, that you called to be the human vessels that would change the world. Father, that your son Jesus came and he died and he preached the gospel and he taught And then he sent out these 11 men plus one more. He sent them out to spread that gospel. And they were ordinary men who you transformed. I'm thankful for the transformation in the lives of your people. And I'm hopeful, Father, today that you will show those who aren't being transformed that they don't know you. And they can't be used extraordinarily because they're headed to hell. Father, grant them repentance. Pray these things in Jesus' name.