The Unlikely Ensemble

It's amazing, though, who God chooses to use.

The greatest Christian movements this country has ever experienced

! It came from other people who are

!

He could not spell well. He did not speak well.

He was a teenage shoe salesman that stumbled over his words,

but he had a Sunday school teacher that had a burden for him.

Edward Kimball paced back and forth in front of that Sunday school,

I mean, in front of that shoe store one day,

praying that God would give him the energy to speak

to Dwight L. Moody about his salvation.

When Edward walked into that store,

Dwight L. Moody was in the back in the stock room.

Edward Kimball walked back there, shared Christ with him,

and Dwight L. Moody came to know the Lord

in the stock room of a shoe store in Boston, Massachusetts.

And God used Moody powerfully

through the second half of the 19th century.

He put a fire in that man's soul

and a passion in his voice,

and he preached simple sermons that burned with evangelistic fury.

And his meetings filled music halls, filled arenas,

filled theaters across America and throughout Great Britain

with the simple gospel.

During one campaign in London of several nights,

he preached to over 2 million people who heard the gospel.

And he would say,

if you want to find fault, come and find fault in me,

but don't find it in Christ.

He had no microphone.

He had no radio.

His voice was carried by the Spirit of God.

And it's been said that no man since the Apostle Paul

has shaken two continents with the gospel

like Dwight L. Moody did.

A simple man used of God.

Last week, we looked at four ordinary men

that God used in extraordinary ways.

And those men were accompanied by seven others

that were just as faithful,

but that we're not nearest familiar with.

Just as unlikely and used just as mightily.

And these most often are overlooked.

But they shouldn't be,

and they're not going to be today.

Mark chapter 3, beginning in verse 13,

Mark 3 · chapter mention

it says,

And he went up, speaking of Christ,

went up on the mountain and called to them

those whom he desired, and they came to him.

And he appointed 12 whom he also named apostles.

So that they might be with him,

and he might send them out.

Notice this.

Three things is what he called them to.

One was that they might be with him.

Number two, and he might send them out to preach.

And three, that he might give them authority

to cast out demons.

They had a supernatural authority that God gave them,

those apostles that he called.

He appointed the 12,

Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter,

James, the son of Zebedee,

and John, the brother of James,

to whom he gave the name Barnurgus,

that is, sons of thunder.

Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew,

and Matthew, and Thomas, and James,

the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus,

and Simon the zealot,

and Judas as a carrot who betrayed him.

Last week, we spent time talking about

Peter, the outspoken,

Andrew, the inviter,

James, the thunderous,

and John, the passionate.

Next on this list is Philip.

I call him the practical.

There's a powerful passage in Acts chapter 9

Acts 9 · chapter mention

about an Ethiopian that's led to Christ

by a man named Philip.

That's not this one.

Don't get your Philips mixed up.

This one was a fisherman.

From Bethsaida in Galilee,

just like Peter,

just like Andrew,

the same areas James and John.

He was a just-the-facts,

by-the-book, practical kind of guy.

Honestly, a pessimistic killjoy.

When 5,000 men and their families

need to be fed,

Philip told Christ how expensive it was

to feed them.

Jesus got it done anyway.

When Jesus was in the upper room,

Jesus told the apostles,

if you know me,

you know the Father.

And Philip said,

show us the Father.

In other words,

he didn't get it.

He didn't get what Christ was saying.

But God can use a practical pessimist.

Pessimist.

History tells us that God used

Philip mightily in the church

and that he died a martyr.

They stoned him to death.

And his preaching reached many for Christ

before his death.

God can and will use the practical.

And then there's also the skeptic.

Philip's best buddy was Bartholomew.

John calls him Nathaniel.

That's probably his given name.

Anywhere you see Bar in front of a name

in the Bible,

Bar means son of.

And so in reality,

Bartholomew was the son of Ptomei.

And by the time you take an Aramaic name

and translate it into Greek

and then translate it into English,

you get Bartholomew out of Bartholomei.

But he came from Cana

where Jesus did his wedding miracle.

Philip is the one that brought him to Jesus.

And he was just as imperfect

as the rest of us are.

His problem was he had too much bias in his life.

He had some prejudice in his life.

And I want you to watch what happens to him

when he meets Christ.

It's found in John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 45.

And it says this,

Philip found Nathaniel,

that's the same guy as Bartholomew,

and said to him,

we have found him of whom Moses and the law

and also the prophets wrote,

Jesus of Nazareth,

the son of Joseph.

And Nathaniel said to him,

can anything good

come out of Nazareth?

And Philip said to him,

come and see.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him

and said to him,

behold,

an Israelite indeed

in whom there is no deceit.

And Nathaniel said to him,

how do you know me?

Jesus answered him,

before Philip called you

when you were under the fig tree,

I saw you.

And Nathaniel answered him,

Rabbi,

you're the son of God.

You're the king of Israel.

And Jesus answered him,

because I said to you,

I saw you under the fig tree.

Do you believe?

You'll see greater things

than these.

In this passage,

what you find out about Bartholomew

is both his weaknesses

and his strengths.

His weaknesses

was that he wrote people off

because of where they were from.

Or for what they look like.

He was prejudiced.

He came from Cana.

Cana is a small,

nothing little town.

You wouldn't know anything about Cana

if Jesus hadn't done

that wedding miracle there.

But he scorned someone

who come from a rough,

unrefined little town

named Nazareth.

And Nazareth was rough.

You get your tail whooped in Nazareth,

you ain't careful.

I mean, it's that kind of place.

And he knew that.

He didn't expect much

to come out of that,

but man, he got a whole lot.

Jesus told him something

only God could know.

First, he tells him

that he's honest.

If you're an honest person,

God can use that powerfully.

It's not common today.

Second,

Jesus speaks of what he knows

about Philip.

And we're not sure

of what Jesus was speaking of,

but it really don't matter

if we know what he's speaking of.

Philip knew what he was speaking of.

I mean, excuse me.

Yeah.

Bartholomew knew who he was speaking of.

He knew.

And that is God's unique way,

and that's the way he does it,

to speak to each one of us

right where we are.

Through the Holy Spirit of God,

God can whisper something

in your ear today

that nobody else in the world

would ever understand

what that means.

But you know what that means.

That's because he's personal.

Customizes.

And he did that for Nathaniel.

And the reality is,

we don't know what he's speaking of,

but what it appears to be,

houses were small in that day.

And when we were studying

Capernaum a couple of weeks ago,

I told you that an exterior wall

was no more than 18 feet on a house,

and that was it.

So they were small,

and when they were cooking going on,

it got hot,

and they lived in the desert.

And so there was often

a shade tree nearby,

and they'd go hang out

on the shade tree,

either for rest

or possibly for study.

Theologians believe

that what he saw,

and we don't know for sure,

what he was talking about

was Bartholomew studying

the Word of God

under that tree.

Jesus had seen him

studying God's Word.

And Jesus was saying to him,

what you've read

is now being fulfilled

before you.

And in response to that,

he knew what he was talking about,

and he said,

you're the Son of God.

We don't know much else about him,

except that he was

brutally killed for his faith,

and his body was thrown into the sea.

God can and will

change and use

the skeptic.

And then there's Matthew.

And I call Matthew

the meticulous,

because Matthew

was probably

the most educated

among them.

He was the tax collector,

which was a shameful

occupation.

He had sold his soul

to the Romans

for money.

That's what the Jews

would think.

And that is until

Christ called him

and he walked away

from his lifestyle

and he invited

all his friends

to his house

and invited Jesus

to his house

and introduced

his friends to Jesus.

We basically know

two things about Matthew.

One is that he was

a publican

or a tax collector.

And we also know

that he wrote

the Gospel of Matthew.

And this is what

is interesting.

In the Gospel of Matthew,

he quotes the Old Testament

99 times.

It is in an effort

for the Jews

to see Jesus

as the fulfillment

of prophecy.

But I want you

to remember something.

As a Roman commissioned

tax collector,

his job was seen

as so sinful

that he was not

allowed

in the synagogue.

So this man's

not been sitting

under the teaching

of the Word of God.

He's not been able

to because of

what he did

for a living.

So how in the world

did he know

Scripture

so much?

Well, apparently

he studied on his own.

And by him

studying God's Word

on his own,

God began to

draw him.

God began

to work in him.

And then one day

when he was sitting

in that tax booth,

Jesus walked by.

And Jesus looked

at him and said,

come and follow me.

And the man

dropped everything

he did

and followed Christ.

No wonder

he left immediately.

God had already

been doing a work

in his life.

He seems to have

stayed humbly

in the background

of the ministry

of the Lord.

It seems obvious

that he was

journaling to me.

Obviously,

he was journaling

the words

and the actions

of Jesus

everywhere they went.

We have the Sermon

on the Mount,

Matthew chapter 5

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

through 7,

because of Matthew

and because of his

scribing

while Jesus

was speaking.

Not only did he write,

but the history

tells us

that he shared

the gospel

with the Jew

and the Gentile

alike

until he was

most likely

burned at the stake

for his strong

Christian message.

God uses

the meticulous.

Then there's also

Thomas.

Thomas is the pessimist.

You probably know him

as Doubting Thomas,

but he's more than that.

Thomas was a worrier.

He was anxious

and he was cautious

and he was a bit like

Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.

He's,

oh,

it'll never work.

He's that kind of guy.

When Lazarus died

and Jesus was going

into Bethany

to raise him

from the dead,

the disciples

didn't want him to go.

It was a dangerous place

and they didn't want him

to go.

They were afraid

of what would happen

to him.

They tried to get him

not to go.

Jesus would not hear

of it

and Thomas said,

let us also go

that we may die

with him.

And Philip said,

do what?

And in the Greek,

that's,

huh?

But he don't stop there.

When Jesus told him

in John 14,

he would prepare

a place for them

and where he goes,

he will go also.

It was Philip that said,

excuse me,

it was Thomas that said,

Lord,

we don't know

where you're going.

How can we know the way?

And Jesus said to him,

I'm the way,

the truth,

and the life.

No one comes to the Father

through me.

What he is most known for

is not being with the disciples

in the locked room

when the resurrected Lord

appeared to them.

And later,

they told Thomas

that they had seen Christ

resurrected

and he didn't believe it.

Notice what he says

in John 20.

It says,

so the other disciples

told him,

we've seen the Lord.

But he said,

unless I see in his hands

the marks of the nails

and place my finger

in the marks of the nails

and place my hand

in his side,

I'll never believe.

Eight days later,

his disciples

were inside again

and Thomas was with them.

Although the doors

was locked,

Jesus came

and stood among them

and said,

peace be with you.

And then he said to Thomas,

put your finger here

and see my hands

and put your hand

and place it in my side.

Do not disbelieve,

but believe.

And Thomas answered him,

my Lord

and my God.

It does not say

in scripture

that he touched his hands.

It does not say

that he touched his side.

And I personally believe

he didn't have to

because when he saw

the Lord,

he knew

and he said,

my Lord and my God.

It was a life-changing

experience

for Thomas.

Many historians concur

that he shared Christ

effectively in India

and that's where

he's buried.

And if you go

to India today,

there are still churches

that were established

during the first century

during his ministry.

He's believed

to have died

a martyr

by being ran through

with a spear.

with a spear.

God can change

and use

even a pessimist.

Give your kink to God

because he can.

Then there's the obscure.

The obscure is a man

named James the Less.

He's called the Less

probably due to his stature.

That's about all we know

about him.

It is interesting

that his dad's name

was Alphaeus.

And we learn

in Mark chapter 2

Mark 2 · chapter mention

that Matthew's dad's name

was Alphaeus.

Now,

there's a lot of close connection

among the disciples.

As I've studied the disciples,

I realize they were all,

many of them

were already friends

before they ever met Jesus

and followed him.

Many of them

were from the same area.

Seven of them

are fishermen,

for instance.

So there's a possibility

that they could be brothers,

but there's nowhere

that it says that

except that Mark points out

both of their dad's names.

And he don't do that

for everybody.

History tells us

that James took

the gospel to Syria

and to Persia

where he was killed

for his faith.

Even when little see it

and it seems obscure,

God uses

those.

And then there's also

the zealous.

He was another man

named Simon.

Don't get your Simons mixed up.

This Simon is a former zealot.

That means that he's a militant,

politically motivated outlaw

that hated Rome

and wanted to bring down Rome

one man at a time.

The zealots were disruptors.

They were assassins.

They wanted to

take down Rome

and they

had men

that were called dagger men

who kept a small,

concealed,

curved,

bladed knife

in their robes,

underneath their robes.

They're bad dudes.

But you know what?

God changes bad dudes.

God doesn't work

in bad dudes.

I got to reading this

and I got to thinking

about something.

Can you imagine

you got Matthew

or Levi

who was the publican.

Now that means

that he

bought himself out

to take up taxes

for the Romans.

He aligned himself

and worked for

the Romans.

And then on the same

team

you've got Simon

the zealot

who hates the Romans.

How in the world

could two people

be on the same team

and be so different?

How can that happen?

God.

God does that.

It is believed

that Simon died

for his faith.

God can use a zealot

and he can turn

that zeal

into something

that changes people's life

for the gospel.

One more today

I want to talk about

and that's the humble.

There's another man

among the apostles

named Judas

and if you're that guy

no wonder you're humble.

You got the wrong name.

But

he was also called

Thaddeus

and I'm going to call him

Thaddeus

so we don't get

the Judas guys

mixed up.

Thaddeus

is a nickname.

It means breast child.

The modern translation

of that is

he's a mama's boy

just to be honest with you.

He is.

And I don't mean that

as a criticism

but he was soft hearted.

He was unassuming.

He was humble

and he was tender.

And he's mentioned

one other time

in scripture.

It's in the upper room

when Jesus

is telling them

that he'll ask

he will make himself

known to them.

and humbly

Judas asked him

Thaddeus asked him

Lord

how is it

that you will manifest

yourself to us

and not to the world?

What a

what a humble statement.

He couldn't believe

that Christ

would let himself

be known to them.

It was as if he was saying

who are we?

There's a great account

in history of Thaddeus.

Thaddeus took the gospel

to Mesopotamia

the modern day Turkey

today.

And he went to a king

named Kim Abgar.

This is told to us

by Eusebius

which is a reliable historian

and we find out

a lot about

what happened

to the apostles

after the days

that scripture writes about

from his accounts.

And

in this account

he goes to

King Abgar

of Edessa

and he lays

hands

on that king

and he heals

him of a debilitating

disease

and that king

came to Christ

and he encouraged

others to come

to Christ

as well.

Thaddeus did a

powerful work

for the Lord

before he was

beaten to death

by clubs

because of his faith.

So what are we?

Think about

your traits.

Are you so practical

that you make

everybody else

around you sick?

Always shutting

them down

when they want

to do something special?

No,

that's not practical.

Well,

God will cultivate that.

He'll use that.

Are you a skeptic

questioning

everything

that comes

down the way?

God can

nurture that.

He can work

with that.

Are you one

with a meticulous

nature?

A bean

counter?

One focused

on the details?

We need

folks like that.

God has a way

of refining

that,

smoothing

that.

Or are you

a pessimist?

Ask your neighbor.

They'll tell you.

God can make

a believer

out of you

as well.

He did Thomas.

Are you one

that's behind

the scenes?

Good.

We need

folks behind

the scenes.

We need

folks who are

willing to serve

the Lord

even if they're

not recognized

for it.

God uses

such as that.

Are you

one that's

full of

zeal?

If you are

throw your

knife blade

down please

and let the

Lord sanctify

that zeal

and God

will use

you powerfully.

Powerful things

can happen

for the Lord.

Are you so

humble that

you're shocked

that God

can ever

use you?

He can

and he

will.

But hear

me.

Don't let

the devil

humiliate you

into thinking

that you

can't be

used by

God.

None of

us have

excuses.

The apostles

teach us that

God does

extraordinary

things through

ordinary

people.

God

gathers

the most

unlikely

people

together

to do

the most

unbelievable

ministry.

I started

this morning

by talking

about D.L.

Moody.

Let me

quote him

one more

time.

He said

this,

I am

only one

but I

am one.

I can't

do everything

but I

can do

something.

What I

can do

I ought

to do

and by

God's

grace

I'll do

it.

May we

all be

the same

and then

do it.

With every

head bowed

and every

eye closed.

I want

to ask

you this

morning if

you've ever

given your

heart and

life to

the Lord

Jesus Christ

you may

find yourself

with some

of the

traits of

these guys

that just

came natural

for them

and it

comes natural

for you.

And I'm

thankful that

their stories

give us hope

that God

takes us as

we are and

makes us to

be what he'd

have us to

be but we

must surrender

who we are

to him.

And if

you've never

surrendered your

life to

Christ you've

never admitted

that you're

a sinner and

you're separated

from God

that you need

him to forgive

you of your

sins and to

come into your

life and

empower you and

change you

that's never

happened to you

I encourage you

today to come

follow the Lord

in obedience.

Maybe you're

here this morning

and you have

done that but

you've never

acknowledged that

through baptism.

We're baptizing

next week and

if you've never

been baptized as

a believer I

encourage you to

come we'd love

to line that up.

Set that up

with you.

Maybe God's

drawing you to

Pickens First

Baptist Church.

God's doing a

wonderful work

here and I

just want people

to be obedient.

I just want you

to follow what

the Lord's telling

you to do.

If you feel led

to commit your

life to follow

him here I

encourage you to

come.

God's doing a

good life to

do it.

And for all

of us I hope

today through the

scope of the

Holy Spirit of

God you've seen

those traits

within yourself.

Those traits that

may not be that

good and may be

pretty good but I

am thankful through

the Holy Spirit of

God through the

sanctification that

only he can give.

that our lives

can change and we

can become

productive for

Christ.

God can use us

in mighty ways if

we're open enough

to allow him to

use us.

Will you surrender

who you are today

to the Lord?

Whether it be in

the place you stand

or whether it be at

this altar or

whether you have a

pastor praying for

you.

Lord I'm ready to

serve you and I

ask that you'll

refine me to be

everything you'd

have me to be.

I don't know what

God's telling you

but I encourage you

just do exactly what

he tells you.

Trust him.

Heavenly Father I

love you and I

thank you Lord for

your love for us and

I ask right now

Father that you'll

have your will and

your way in our

midst.

Help us to be

obedient and follow

you as you lead.

In Jesus name.

Amen.