The Dirty Dozen Part 3-Mark 3:13-19

(Please note that much of what is included in this mornings message was taken from John MacArthurs’ terrific book: “Twelve Ordinary Men” published by Thomas Nelson)

As we begin this morning, I want you to turn to the Gospel of Mark 3:13-19 and have it ready for our Scripture reading, which we will do a little later.

Last Sunday morning in our journey through the Gospel according to Mark we began a closer look at the men whom Jesus chose to be His disciples. We looked at the 3 disciples Peter, his brother Andrew and James.

From Peter we learned that God looks at each of us and is not fixated on where we are currently, but on what we can become if we simply yield ourselves completely to Him. Like He did with Peter, God has the incredible ability to transform us!

In Andrew, we learned that God can accomplish great things through our simple acts of obedience to Him and our faithfulness in giving people the opportunity to be with Jesus.

And in James we learned that God wants to take our passion and fill it with His love, that it might be directed by Him and accomplish His will.

This morning we continue looking at the disciples, 12 ordinary men, transformed by God to accomplish the unexplainable!

Will you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word? Next Slide

Mark 3:13–19 ESV

13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

As was mentioned a few moments ago, so far we have looked Peter, Andrew and James. This morning we will begin with James brother: Next Slide

John-The Apostle of Love.

John was used of God to pen The Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd & 3rd John and Revelation. He is also with Peter through much of the first 12 chapters of the Book of Acts. As a result, we actually know a good deal about who he is and of his accomplishments. He was one of Jesus 3 closest companions and was one of the dominant leaders of the early church. Additionally, having outlived all of the other disciples, in the end he was the most prominent leader of the 1st century church.

Almost everything we observed about the personality and character of James is also true of John, the younger half of the Boanerges Brothers' duo. The two men had similar temperaments, and as we noted in looking at James last week, they were inseparable in the Gospel accounts. John was right there with James, eager to call down fire from heaven against the Samaritans. He was also in the thick of the debates about who was the greatest. His zeal and ambition mirrored that of his elder brother. Therefore it is all the more remarkable that John has often been nicknamed "the apostle of love." Indeed, he wrote more than any other New Testament author about the importance of love—laying particular stress on the Christian's love for Christ, Christ's love for His church, and the love for one another that is supposed to be the hallmark of true believers. The theme of love flows through his writings. But love was a quality he learned from Christ, not something that came naturally to him.

In his younger years, he was as much a Son of Thunder as James. If you imagine that John was the way he was often portrayed in medieval art—a meek, mild, pale-skinned, effeminate person, lying around on Jesus' shoulder looking up at Him with a dove-eyed stare—forget that caricature. He was rugged and hard-edged, just like the rest of the fishermen-disciples. And again, he was every bit as intolerant, ambitious, zealous, and explosive as his elder brother. In fact, the one and only time the synoptic Gospel writers (Matthew Mark, & Luke) recorded John speaking for himself, he displayed his trademark aggressive, self-assertive, impertinent intolerance. This instance occurs later in Mark 9:38. It happened that John confessed to Jesus that he had rebuked a man who was not a part of the 12 but who had cast a demon out of a man in Jesus Name... the nerve of the guy!....So it is clear from the Gospel accounts that John was capable of behaving in the most sectarian, narrow-minded, unbending, reckless, and impetuous fashion. He was volatile. He was brash. He was aggressive. He was passionate, zealous, and personally ambitious—-just like his brother James. They were cut from the same bolt of cloth....

But John aged well. Under the control of the Holy Spirit, all his liabilities were exchanged for assets. Compare the young disciple with the aged patriarch, and you'll see that as he matured, his areas of greatest weakness all developed into his greatest strengths. He's an amazing example of what should happen to us as we grow in Christ—allowing the Lord's strength to be made perfect in our weakness.(MacArthur, John F.. Twelve Ordinary Men (p. 96). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

That is the beauty of John, in fact that is the beauty we see over and over again in the life of the Apostles, the beauty of transformation. Which is what Jesus came to do, not just for those who literally walked with Him, talked with Him, listened to His teachings and witnessed His miracles, were with Him day in and day out. He came to do the same with each of us.

Over the last 3 weeks as we have looked at Jesus choosing of the 12, you have heard me use the phrase “with Him” many times. It is our times “with Him” where He begins to do in us what He did in John, in Peter, in James, He begins to transform us. And while we may not be able to physically be with Him in the way the disciples were, we can hold onto the same promise He gave to them in the Great Commission; “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Next Slide

Scripture points out at least 3 ways in which He is with us.

Through our time in His Word.

Through our time in prayer.

Through our time in fellowship together.

It is during these times with Him that the transformation takes place, but we cannot expect to be transformed apart from being with Him.

The next of the twelve we will look at this morning is: Next Slide

Philip-The Bean Counter.

Last week I mentioned that there are 4 separate lists of the 12. Each list separates the 12 into groups of 4 and Philip is always the first name in the second group. This indicates he was the leader of that group. While he is not as prominent as the 4 we have already looked at, he is, non-the-less a leader.

Philip was raised in the same town that Peter and Andrew were raised in, the town of Bethsaida. It was later in life that Peter & Andrew moved to Capernaum, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. They likely had been raised together and most likely went to the same Synagogue growing up. Scripture seems to indicate that Philip, as well as Nathaniel and Thomas were also fishermen.

What do we know about Philip? Matthew, Mark, and Luke give no details at all about him. All the vignettes of Philip appear in the Gospel of John. And from John's Gospel, we discover that Philip was a completely different kind of person from either Peter, Andrew, James, or John. In John's narrative, Philip is often paired with Nathanael (also known as Bartholomew), so we can assume the two of them were close comrades. But Philip is singularly different from even his closest companion. He is unique among all the disciples.

Piecing together all that the apostle John records about him, it seems Philip was a classic "process person." He was a facts-and-figures guy—a by-the-book, practical-minded, non-forward-thinking type of individual. He was the kind who tends to be a corporate killjoy, pessimistic, narrowly focused, sometimes missing the big picture, often obsessed with identifying reasons things can't be done rather than finding ways to do them. He was predisposed to be a pragmatist and a cynic—and sometimes a defeatist—rather than a visionary. (MacArthur, John F.. Twelve Ordinary Men (p. 121). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

We are first introduced to Philip in John chapter 1 the day after Jesus had called Andrew, John and Peter to follow Him. These 3 had all been pointed to Jesus by John the Baptist. Not so with Philip, as far as we can tell Philip was the first of the disciples specifically sought out by Jesus. In John 1:43 we read: Next Slide

John 1:43

John 1:43 ESV

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

What Jesus saw in Philip was a seeking heart.

Philip's seeking heart is evident in how he responded to Jesus. Next Slide

"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'" (John 1:45).

Obviously, Philip and Nathanael, like the first four disciples, had been studying the Law and the Prophets and were seeking the Messiah… So when Jesus came to Philip and said, "Follow Me," his ears, his eyes, and his heart were already open, and he was prepared to follow. (MacArthur, John F.. Twelve Ordinary Men (pp. 122-123). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

Beyond the seeking heart of Philip, I want you to notice the other key thing we see in the heart of Philip. The heart of a personal evangelist. The moment he was found by Jesus he sought out his good friend, Nathanael to tell him he had found the Messiah.

I am convinced, by the way, that friendships provide the most fertile soil for evangelism. When the reality of Christ is introduced into a relationship of love and trust that has already been established, the effect is powerful. And it seems that invariably, when someone becomes a true follower of Christ, that person's first impulse is to want to find a friend and introduce that friend to Christ. That dynamic is seen in Philip's spontaneous instinct to go find Nathanael and tell him about the Messiah. (MacArthur, John F.. Twelve Ordinary Men (p. 123). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

There is a third characteristic that we see in Philip’s heart. He had a pessimistic heart. We see this, among other places, in the feeding of the 5,000. As was pointed out last week, the number 5,000 only included men. If you add the women and children, the crowd was likely over 15,000. Towards the end of the day when Jesus looked over the crowd with pity, knowing they had to be hungry and in need of food. He calls Philip to Himself and said; “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat.” Reading on in John 6, we find out He said this to test Philip. We get the impression that Philip was bean counter of the group, the man in charge of the supplies, the one who made sure they had the needed food and supplies. We also get the impression that his eyes had already been drawn to the size of the crowd and not in a way of excitement at what Jesus could do in their lives, but more in a way of “Oh no, what are we going to do?!” When Jesus asked him where they were going to buy food, he already had he calculations figured out in his head, and he knew it was an impossibility! At this point in time Philip’s faith was small and the reality of the raw facts clouded his already small faith. Keep in mind that he was with Jesus at the wedding in Cana when Jesus turned the water into wine. We also know he knew Scripture, so he was familiar with the fact that God fed 2 million Jews with daily manna for 40 years in the wilderness. Did I mention He fed 2 million Jews for 40 years in the wilderness?!

He was so enthralled with common-sense calculations that he didn't see the opportunity the situation presented. He should have said, "Lord, if You want to feed them, feed them. I'm just going to stand back and watch how You do it. I know You can do it, Lord. You made wine at Cana and fed Your children manna in the wilderness. Do it. We will tell everyone to get in line, and You just make the food." That would have been the right response. But Philip was convinced it simply couldn't be done. The limitless supernatural power of Christ had completely escaped his thinking. (MacArthur, John F.. Twelve Ordinary Men (p. 127). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

But Philip, like the other disciples, was later transformed by his time “with Jesus”. And in the end:

Tradition tells us that Philip was greatly used in the spread of the early church and was among the first of the apostles to suffer martyrdom. By most accounts he was put to death by stoning at Heliopolis, in Phrygia (Asia Minor), eight years after the martyrdom of James. Before his death, multitudes came to Christ under his preaching. Philip obviously overcame the human tendencies that so often hampered his faith, and he stands with the other apostles as proof that "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence" (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). (MacArthur, John F.. Twelve Ordinary Men (p. 134). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

We will close out this morning by looking at:

Bartholomew (Nathanael) The Prejudice.

Our very first encounter with Nathanael in John 1, we see he struggled with prejudice. We mentioned a moment ago that Philip brought him to Jesus. But before he did, he first told Nathanael about Jesus, and Nathanael’s immediate response was “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” While Nazareth was a pretty insignificant town, the town Nathanael was raised in was even less significant. Yet still he harbored prejudice against Nazareth.

But like He did with Peter, Jesus saw beyond the current prejudice of Nathanael. Jesus said of Nathanael, “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Jesus understood that what you saw with Nathanael was what you got. He didn’t try to put on any pretenses, didn’t try to hide who he really was. Sure, at the time he may have been to quick to judge and a little rough on the edges, but one thing he wasn’t was a hypocrite. In a culture filled with hypocrisy, Nathanael had to be a little refreshing to Jesus.

This encounter in John 1 is a pretty interesting account. When Nathanael finally came face to face with Jesus, that was when Jesus said; “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” , Nathanael’s immediate response was “How do you know me?” Jesus proceeded to tell him something only God Himself would know, that before Philip told him about Jesus, that Jesus saw him sitting under the fig tree. This blew Nathanael away, I mean how could He have possibly seen that. But there was likely more to it that just him sitting under a fig tree. You see most people in that area lived in very small homes. They kept the fire going in the stove all of the time, which helped the homes stay warm at night, but in the day it made the house to hot and often made it very smokey. As a result families planted trees close to their homes for shade, and one of the most popular shade trees was the fig tree. It was not unusual for people to use these fig trees for study, meditation and prayer. Knowing the way God works, it was very likely that Nathanael was doing just that under the fig tree when Jesus saw him, not with the eyes of man but with the eyes of God. That was all it took with Nathanael, he was sold! As far as we know, outside of the night Jesus was betrayed, Nathanael’s faith never wavered.

Nathanael was quickly transformed from a man with heart of prejudice, to an unwavering follower of the Messiah.

As we close out this morning, we watched how Jesus transformed 3 of His disciples.

In John, we saw Jesus transform his passion from one that was ready to call fire down from heaven on the Samaritans, to one known more for a heart of love for others.

In Philip we saw Jesus transform him from a pessimistic bean counter, to a man who’s faith brought him to Asia Minor, where he reached great numbers with the Gospel.

And in Nathanael, we watched as Jesus transformed this once prejudice man into an unwavering follower of the Messiah.

What Jesus did with these men, he wants to do with us as well. He wants to transform us, that His strength would transform our weaknesses and liabilities into great tools in the Hands of a mighty God.