The Faithful and Obscure

Introduction

Opening Illustration:

Role-players usually do not get all the interviews, recognitions, or celebrations for their feats. They are in the background working hard, and developing the few skills they have at their disposal.

Quick, name all the point guards with five NBA rings.  Bob Cousy.  Magic Johnson.  K.C. Jones.  Derek Fisher?

As a role player in Phil Jackson’s triangle offense, Fisher was the point on five Laker championships.  In those five championship runs, he racked up 6.9 of his 13 playoff win shares.  Fisher also has 231 playoff threes on .402 shooting percentage from behind the arc, including several game-winning buzzer-beaters.

Championships: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010

Played alongside: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Grant Rice, Horace Grant, Rick Fox, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Ron Artest

The fact is that Derek Fisher understood his role, he didn’t need the spotlight to shine on him. Instead, he played his game, helped his team and was a key role piece to five championships.

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We often forget the little guy in the course of history. We remember the key players. But the guy working behind the scenes get lost in the shuffle.

Why is that the case? Some of it is natural, we love the “stars” we are draw to greatness, especially when it involves something we know we cannot do.

When you have a baseball player throwing 98 mph, it sounds and looks different. It draws attention. A singer with an incredible voice sounds different and it draws our ears into it and we forget the harmonious voices supporting that powerful voice. We hear a great speaker with his thunderous rolling voice sharing the gospel while we forget the faithful servant sharing the gospel every day while he goes about his day.

It is a natural desire to be drawn to greatness when we see it. However, God doesn’t see greatness the same as we do.

As we have seen over the last several weeks, we know this to be true because Jesus didn’t go and select the all-star models, voices, leaders of his day. He chose ordinary men to lead the charge to change the world through the gospel message.

Today, we are looking at three men who embody and demonstrate the ultimate role-players amongst the twelve disciples.

These men have one commonality, their lives are obscure and very little is known about them.

Scripture doesn’t give us much confirmed background on these men’s lives before Christ or after Christ’s ascension.

We know they are part of the twelve because of their names being listed.

Luke 6:15–16 NASB95

15 and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Then they are referenced all together again in Acts 1:13-14 after the ascension of Christ.

Acts 1:13–14 NASB95

13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

We see here that they were faithful men. They were devoted to the Lord and praying.

Yet, outside of being listed with the disciples and this passage stating their devotion to prayer, only Judas, not Iscariot is mentioned, and it is a single question found in John 14:22.

JAMES:

When it comes to James, the Son of Alphaeus, the only thing known of him is his name. If he ever asked a question of Jesus, or did anything to stand out amongst the rest of the disciples, it has been lost. It wasn’t recorded. He simply is an obscure man with a common name.

Simon the Zealot:

The same is true of Simon the Zealot. We know he was from Canaan, and that he was associated with either great zeal for Jewish law, or he was part of a radical and strict group of Jews that rebelled against the Roman Empire and even killed some of their fellow Jews who wanted to negotiate with Rome when they were under seige in A.D 70.

In any case, Simon is virtually an unknown and we have to piece together information and understand that none of it is an absolute.

JUDAS (Not Iscariot)

First of all, Judas was a common name but an unfortunate one thanks to his fellow disciple, by the same name, who betrayed Christ. Much like the other two, we don’t know much about him other than he was faithful to the Lord and continued to be faithful after Christ’s ascension and that he did ask a question of Jesus.

John 14:22 NASB95

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?”

The question he asks of Jesus does let us see the soft and tender heart of this disciple. Yet, that is all we know of this disciple.

Common things:

Church Traditions have these men serve faithfully and suffer martyrdom for their Lord and Savior.

These three men have a lot in common with the average follower of Christ. Most of us will live our entire lives in obscurity. Just because we are living in obscurity to the world, history books, or even the public eye doesn’t diminish the impact we can have on the world around us.

These three men prove that very fact. They might be consider the last, or forgot three of the faithful disciples. Yet, they are all inscribed on one of the gates of the heavenly city.

The reason they are honored in such a way is because they were faithful with what Jesus gave them.

Key take away: “Even in obscurity, if we remain faithful to serve the Lord where he has placed us, we give him glory.”

1. We need to be willing to sacrifice everything to follow Jesus.

These three men, left everything they knew in order follow after Christ. They changed their whole lives for the sake of obediently pursuing Christ and his mission.

These men, were called and they followed. What is it in your life God has called you to serve faithfully in? Every child of god has been called and set apart for the mission field.

It’s where you work

It’s your family and friends

It’s the places you eat

It’s the places you vacation

It’s your neighbor

We are to serve faithfully in our churches

Sunday School Teachers

Greeting people at doors

Being an encourager to those at your tables

Its living in community with other believers

The list goes on. Yet, in order to do these things we must be willing to make ourselves uncomfortable so we can boldly share the Gospel.

Not only do we need to be willing to sacrifice everything to follow Jesus.

2. We need to be satisfied with being faithful role-players.

Scripture essentially gives us their names. With the only exception being Judas because he asks a question of Jesus in John 14:21-24:

John 14:21–24 NASB95

21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

It is safe to say then that these three men operated behind the scenes when it came to stories being recorded in Scripture. However, they were still part of the original twelve disciples and would go on to be foundational for the church.

They didn’t need to have the spotlight on them. They seemed to be content being faithful and in in the background. Jesus didn’t design his church in a way that we all need to be in the spotlight; instead, Jesus designed it around the principle of everyone having an important role to fill including the guys who are hidden behind the scenes.

In Film, you have role actors, you have behind the scenes people and they all are required to make a film work well.

There are no small parts! It takes everyone to make it work.

Just like the church.

3. If we are faithful with what God entrusts to us, we will receive heavenly rewards.

Matthew 20:1–16 NASB95

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 “When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. 5 “Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7 “They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ 9 “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”

In this parable, Jesus gives us an insight that helps us understand how we can celebrate even the obscure but faithful children of God.

1) Every single person who places their faith in Christ alone will inherit the kingdom of God.

2) God simply expects us to serve him faithfully with the tasks we are given.

3) A disciple of Jesus should not measure his or her worth by comparing it with the accomplishments and sacrifices of others, but should focus on serving from a heart of gratitude in response to God’s grace.

Conclusion:

These three men served the Lord faithfully using the gifts and opportunities they were given. Even if they were not highlighted in Scripture, they too had rewards for their faithfulness to the Lord.

F.B. Meyer said,

Dont' waste your time waiting and longing for large opportunities which may never come. But faithfully handle the little things that are always claiming your attention.

Will we be men known for being faithful in our current opportunities?

Pray