Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we love God and love people.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s Pray

Lord, help us to see you as new and fresh through your word today?

Lord, help us to see truth where we have believed lies?

Lord, speak to us through your word today.

Most of all, help us to love you and others more.

Let’s go to the book of 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

If you think you’re fooling God or your pastor’s or even your friends, what difference does that make.

God knows the heart of a man.

We should focus on the inside of us. What is seemingly hidden to others because it’s going to keep tripping us up.

But when we begin to allow God and his word to deal with our hearts, is when we will see true breakthrough and freedom will start to come to us.

Today we’re continuing the series:

What’s good for the twelve is good for me. Wk. 2

Remember our focus is on the original disciples and how each one of them was changed because of his association and time spent with Jesus.

And they would be responsible for carrying out a new spiritual movement throughout the earth.

And they were everyday ordinary people with no supernatural ability other than willingness to learn.

These are some of the things we’re looking to see in this series.

-It doesn’t matter who you are when you come to Jesus.

What matters is that you spend enough time w/him and that you allow that time w/him to transform your life.

-Once timid personalities can become a bold outspoken witnesses of Jesus’ redeeming grace.

-The mission was not about becoming rich and famous, but about Christ redeeming mankind.

-That you connect the dots to your life and see that your association, and your time spent with Jesus should produce similar fruit.

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These should be our expectations:

1. As we study the word of God we grow as disciples.

2. As disciples we expect to hear a new call to follow Christ whole-heartedly.

3. We should expect to be sent out into the world to make other disciples.

Today’s message title is:

Matthew, James, & Phillip

Let’s remember it was the testimony of these former faithless, ruthless, and fearful men that led us to believe today.

And it should be your testimony that leads someone else to believe.

Let’s study the twelve.

#1

Matthew

Matthew was a notorious sinner who worked for the Romans collecting taxes from his own people, exploiting them.

Matthew 9:9-12 ESV

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

The Roman IRS that he worked for was the lowest of the low.

For Matthew to follow Jesus, he must have had a Pauline experience.

He left the life of money and authority over his own people to become a disciple of Christ.

Question

-Have you ever thought someone was so bad that they were beyond God’s forgiveness?

Question

-As a disciple of Jesus, have you ever turned your nose up at someone who came to Christ from a seemingly very troubled past?

Matthew 9:13 ESV

13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Followers of Jesus don’t turn their noses up at sinners.

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Jesus came to call sinners. Not to call the righteous.

#2

James

As we look into how James became a disciple of Jesus, we’ll see here that James was actually kind of like a co-worker of Simon and Andrew.

Luke 5:2-11 ESV

and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

James had an association or relationship with Simon and Andrew who had just established an association with Jesus.

James was given a nickname by Jesus along with his brother.

He was called one of the sons of thunder along with his brother.

This was a reflection of their passionate, zealous, and sometimes stormy personalities.

We hear about James being one of the twelve that was one of the three disciples in Jesus’ inner circle.

But he was one of the least familiar of the twelve.

He never appears alone in the Gospels.

He’s always linked with his better-known brother, John.

We did get a glimpse of why he was called a son of thunder in an account of a journey that Jesus and his disciples took through Samaria.

Luke 9:51-56 NIV

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;

53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.

54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village.

So, I think we see where the nickname came from.

The Samaritan’s rejected Jesus and his disciples, and the sons of thunder wanted them destroyed.

How many of you have been known to respond in thunder when you feel rejected?

On the surface it looks like James and John were just standing up for Jesus.

However, when you study it out, they were rebuked because internally they had some prejudice in their hearts towards the Samaritans.

Make sure that when you respond in thunder there is not some underlying bitterness or hatred in your heart!

I would assume that James ended up keeping his zeal and winning a lot of people to Christ because in Acts 12 we see he was persecuted unto death.

Acts 12:1-2 ESV

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword,

#3

Phillip

What do we know about Philip?

Philip grew up in a Jewish home but had a distinctly non-Jewish name.

Philip is a Greek name which means “lover of horses.”

Some scholars have suggested that he was named after the best of Herod the Great’s sons, Herod Philip II.

His name may have been why some Greeks who wanted to meet Jesus came to him instead of the other disciples.

John 12:20-22 NIV

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

What else do we know about Philip?

Philip was tested by Jesus to see if he had faith to believe in the miracle working power of God that had been displayed through Jesus.

John 6:5-7 NIV

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

So, here we see Philip still lacked faith.

But I also want to point out that when Jesus tests you, he already knows if you’re going to fail the test.

So, he must be testing you to show you that you’re going to fail the test.

The question then is, what will you do with the new information you learn about yourself when you fail the test?

So, we’ve seen three different disciples today and we can learn something from all of their lives.

Don’t frown on those with a troubled pass.

Association to people who are connected to Jesus is a great thing.

If you fail the test, let it show you something about your lack of faith in Christ.

If you’re watching online or here in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?