Voice of the Nazarene 5-5-24

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene, a week by week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We joined our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene.

We've been talking about the 12, the apostles. And this is my second time on a tour of the 12 that Jesus chose. And I'm combining the final three this morning the overlooked disciples, almost obscure and unnoticed. And there's a reason and I'll share it with you in a moment. Acts chapter one, verse 13. And when they were come in, they went up into the upper room, need to understand this is the same room in which the Holy Spirit swept in to that crowd.

And 120 had met and the Holy Spirit came. It's the same room that Jesus knelt down and placed a basin of water in front of him, and begin to wipe and wash the feet of his disciples. Same room. They're in that upper room were a bold both Peter, James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Nathaniel and then Matthew and then James the son of Alphaeus and Simon Zille Otis, Judas, the brother of James. And of course, Judas Iscariot is not mentioned he was already deceased. Jesus seemed to choose only 12 there had to be some unique qualities.

That would be a specialness I believe about them. We finished nine of them. And today, I want to come to the final three, I want to touch on James and Simon and Judas. When the Bible lists the apostles, there, there are four locations where it names all 12. You'll find it there in Matthew chapter 10, verses one through eight and Mark, chapter three, verse 13, and 14, then Luke chapter six, verses 12 through 19, then in Acts here in chapter one, verse 13. Get this, every time the apostles are named out the list always begins with the first four every time it's the same first four. Peter, James, John, and Andrew. Then you get to the middle section.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

This is Philip, Matthew, Thomas, and Nathaniel. Then you get to the last group, and it's always the same guys that are listed and mentioned last. And that's James, Simon, Judas and of course, Judas Iscariot. Now the three we're talking about today, just focus your mind on James, Simon, and Judas three men. And there's only a record of one of these three that said anything.

And he only spoke 16 words. The record mentions these three, and only one out of the three even speaks 16 words. And other than that, ladies and gentlemen, that's all I've got to work with. So try to build a sermon on that one. I started out, I'm glad I left him to last. About all they left to us is just names, names. That's just their name. Guy went to the judge and he said, I want to change my name. And the judge said, What's your name? He said, It's Henry Stinks. Well he said, I don't blame you. What do you want to change it to? He said, John said, I never did like Henry. So what I want you to understand, they really didn't say anything.

Didn't say anything. Be nice to be around somebody that didn't say much. Sometimes. The guy had decided to become a priest, and he went to one of these monasteries, that's a home for unwed fathers. And it was one of those monasteries where they had vows of silence. You heard the story. Only allowed to say two words in an entire year. At the end of the year, they brought him in and said, Do you have anything to say and he used his allowances said bad food. Year later they brought him back in, you get two words. What do you want to say? He said hard bed.

Now the year past, they brought him in. Said what do you wanta say he said I quit. And his superior sad well, he might as well quit all he's done since he's been here is complain. Guy said the other day that he and his wife had gotten into an argument. He said we had words, said the problem was I didn't get to use any of mine. Did you know that on average, you will use 30,000 words a day. And I know people that use more than that. Maybe I do on Sunday, I don't get too much after that.

1/3 of your life is spent talking. Today you will have about on average, 30 different conversations. Now get this three men 16 words from the three men and only one of them spoke, but they were still apostles. That's what you need to know. And let me just pause here for a moment. Pastor, What's the difference between disciples and apostles? Well, you see, you're a disciple. A disciple is the student that imitates his teacher, you're the student, you're the pupil. And that's what a disciple is by the apostles. And there were only 12 of them. They had three characteristics. One, they were definitely chosen directly by Jesus, chosen by Jesus. And a second thing about an apostle, they were empowered with special gifts, the gift of casting out demons, the gift of healing, and even the gifts of signs and wonders, if you follow the other disciples, you don't find them with all of that. It's just limited, it seemed mainly to the just the 12. And a third thing, you had to be an eyewitness of the resurrection. It reads here in Acts 1:22, beginning from the baptism of John, under that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us. of His resurrection. Somebody said, Well, what do you think about apostle, so and so, but I don't want to argue about it. But he must be awful old if he's an apostle about 2000 years old. I mean, if we're going to stick with Bible teaching, it's not what you think it's what the Bible teaches, that really matters. But Apostles one day will judge the 12 tribes of Israel with Christ, according to Matthew 19:28. And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall set up on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

Acts 1:22 Matthew 19:28

Now get this, the apostles were disciples, but not all the disciples were apostles. The apostles were chosen from among the disciples, according to Luke, chapter six, verse 13, it reads, and when it was day, he called unto him his disciples of them, he chose 12, whom also he named, apostles, apostles, 12 special, special men. And it's from these three last men that I think we can learn some real, practical lessons for our lives.

James teaches us a lesson in security. 90% of people live in insecurity. Some area of their life, they don't feel secure, they feel insecure. And I believe we can learn something from James and we learned a valuable lesson about feeling secure. You see, James is referred to in the Scripture as James The less. How would you like to go around like that?

Mark 15:40, There were also

Mark 15:40

among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less. Can you imagine? What's your name? James the less.

What's your name? Ray the less. You like that, don't you? What's your name Leslie the less. What's your name? Bob the less. What's your name? Sandy the less. What's your name?

Never the less. Whatever. Now, why was he referred to as James the less. Now you need to understand something. First of all, Jesus had an inner circle.

And in that inner circle was Peter, James and John. So there's another James, part of the inner circle. I didn't always get in on that, did you?

And then secondly, did you know that Jesus had a half brother, and his name was James, Matthew 13 verse 55, Is not this the carpenter son is not his mother called Mary and his brother and it names him. And one of them was James, Jesus, half brother, James, actually wrote the book of James. And then on top of that, you've got James in the inner circle, you got James, who's the brother of Christ. And then you have James, the less.

Matthew 13:55

Now this is what I believe. I think it's easy to feel like James the less. And maybe it's easy if you come from a family with a past to feel like James the less. Maybe with your past, you feel like you can identify with James the less. Maybe because of some impediment.

Maybe when they were choosing up teams, and you were kid you always was chosen last and sometimes left out, I don't want him on my team or her on my team. Maybe you were never the favorite. Maybe because of your looks or because of your size.

And you felt like James the less Do you know we often judge people for the next 30 years over something that happened in just 30 minutes. And that person has to go through life living under that shadow living under that rumor because something happened way back in the past.

And we feel like James the less.

Well, I think I've got good news, there's a couple things about James that you need to know. First of all, he was chosen. Just like Peter was chosen, just like Andrew was chosen, just like Nathaniel was chosen. Just like Bartholomew, James the less was also chosen.

He never says a word that ever got recorded, but he was also chosen. May I just stop for a moment and remind you that you were chosen to, God chose you.

God knows you by name. God knows what you're doing. God is interested in each and every one because we're made in the image of God. And I love what John 15:16 says he have not chosen me but I have chosen you. And I've got good news. No matter who you are, no matter what your background might be. God chose you. God's invested in you and God's interested in you. You say well, you just don't know about me. I've been in jail. I've had some bad relationships. I understand. That doesn't mean God still didn't choose you. And God has got his hand on you. It doesn't matter about all of your past God's got a plan for your life. When Jimmy Carter, I don't know if you ever heard of him.

John 15:16

But when he was elected President of the United States, he had to move from his Peanut Farm in Plains Georgia, all the way to Washington DC. And he and his family were walking up Pennsylvania Avenue and his mother, if you follow the news and ever listen to anything she says, she was a unique lady. She tried to guard her words carefully, tried to make careful decisions. And she's walking up Pennsylvania Avenue with Jimmy and Rosalie and a lady journalist put a microphone right in front of her face till she nearly swallowed it. And she said you must really be proud of your son. She said which one?

You see, she also had a boy named Billy that ran a filling station down in Plains, Georgia.

Which one, innit a great question? And I ask you the same thing. Which one? I'm glad God chose John. I'm glad that God choose Simon Peter. But I'm glad that God also chose James the less. Because I can identify with James the less. I don't have a lot to brag about, I don't have much to share about.

I can identify with James the less. So how do you deal with this security problem, this being insecure? Realize that you're chosen of God, but not only that, he was gifted of God.

But it means that he was gifted look at what the scripture said.

And when he had called unto him his now wait 12 disciples, James the less got it on that you can get in on that. He gave them power. That meant not only did John get it, and Peter get it and Nathaniel get it. But James the less also got it, to cast out unclean spirits, to heal all manner of sickness. He gifted Peter and Andrew but he also gifted James the less. You know what I know? You're a gifted child of God, God has placed within every one of us some little gift. And God wants us to use that gift in his body. Look

4 says, As ever a man hath received the gift every man that includes you and includes me. That says, When I give my life to the Lord, that God empowers me with special giftedness. And I'm to use that gift to do what God wants me to do. Is every man hath received the gift. What am I supposed to do with the gift? He said, minister the same wonder to one another. Now, I want you to understand something you've been chosen and you've been gifted.

And I learned from James, the lesson about this thing of security being insecure. When you never feel like you're good enough. Remember, God chose you, and God gifted you with the gifts that he wanted you to have. That's pretty special. And then I want to jump right off of that and go to the next lesson.

And that's Simon. All I have is this day. But I do know that he was a Zealand. And I learned a lesson on what it means to be solely focused of sole focus.

Till there's one thing on your mind and one direction you're going and you know what that is.

Simon knew what his direction was. He was a Zealand. So you got to ask yourself, what is Zealand? Who were they? They were a political party. They were a militant party. They were violent, they hated the Roman Empire. They despise the Roman establishment. They set out to overthrow the Roman rule. They wore daggers under their clothes. And in the evening when the shadows begin to fall, they would go out and search for a Roman walking in the darkness and step up behind them and either gut them out or slit their throat. They hated. It was within them an anger and an animosity and a bitterness that Rome had taken over and was ruling them. You know what I believe folk, I believe that God can take that zeal you have that you've used in the wrong way and I believe God can turn that around and help you to use that zeal and get you solely focused on the right way. If God can take a Saul, who was educated in destroying the early church and killing Christians, and give him a turn around and give him a zeal to build churches and start churches all across Asia Minor and change his name to Paul, he can give you a turn around. So you get focused on what really, really matters. Charles Spurgeon said this, if sinners are zealous in their sins shouldn't saints be zealous for the their God? If things of time can stir human passion, should not the realities of eternity have a greater more tremendous moving force? If there's anybody or anything that you're zealous for it ought to be for the Lord Jesus Christ. There's anything you ought to be passionate about it ought to be the Lord Jesus Christ. A couple of summers ago, I'll be very careful because I know we're on live stream.

But I got invited to hold a tent meeting here in the state of Ohio. Once been a camp grounds, they're great camp grounds. And now it was gone and all the buildings tore down. But somebody's got the burden to get something going and they got churches together and they use the ground and rented a large tent. I was invited and they billed me as a revivalist, whatever that word means. I'm actually more of an evangelist than a revivalist. Revivalist come in they just block your eyes and beat you to death. And I like to reach lost people. I don't like beating up on the church. So I came in, and I'm preaching. I guess teachers tell and preachers yell, at least I do. Do I like it? No, I wished I didn't. I'd like to be soft spoken. But sometimes I forget, and I get a little excited. I'm passionate about keeping people out of hell. All I want to do is get people saved, get their lives turned around and get them in the holiness way. The end.

And that tent was mainly sponsored by my friends, the Mennonites.

Their quiet folk. They didn't know what to do with me. I'm not sure I knew what to do with me.

And finally, at the end of the meeting, one of them one of the young men came up and he said you got a lot of zeal. That was his best way to sum it up. And some of them have driven over to special events here since all of that. May I say I wish I wasn't the way that I am but my focus is pretty much the same in pastoring as it was at the 23 years when I was an evangelist.

Again, what was a Zealand? it was a political power party.

They use force. You had four groups during Jesus time, you had the Pharisees and over here you had the Sadducees. The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Sadducees didn't believe the resurrection.

That's why they're sad you see?

You had the Essenes and then you have the Zealings. And Simon realize their hope was not in a political party, but it was in the Lord Jesus Christ. And ladies and gentlemen, your hope is not in a political party today. Your hope for America and for the world is the Lord Jesus.

There I go, I got excited again.

Here's what I want you to see.

James teaches us a lesson about all this insecurity that we can get secure in ourselves because God chose us and because God has gifted us and Simon he focuses and teaches us a lesson on how we can get solely focused. We don't have to be so divided in so many things. But we can get into Christ and realize that he's the hope and that's the way we live. But let me go to one more if we don't, we can't quit.

And I sure don't want to come back next week and go over this.

Judas teaches us a lesson in the secret of the Christian life.

He's the only guy that speaks out of these three, he's the only one he only uses 16 words.

And he's probably teaching us the greatest lesson of all three. His question to the Lord

23. Lord, how is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us but not unto the world?

Why you got this secret thing going with us? And why aren't we getting out of this and reaching out to the world, why? Jesus said you don't understand. He was saying, Jesus, why don't you go to the Temple Mount and why don't you overthrow the Roman government and why don't you establish yourself as king of us? Let's get our lives together and let's take this thing over.

And Jesus said, Wait about you don't get it. My kingdom is not an external kingdom, but by kingdom is an internal kingdom.

It's within the human hearts of mankind. And there in verse 23, he begins to give you the secret. If a man will love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with

14, and not only yourselves with him, but shall be in you. He said, now listen I'm about to share the secret of the Christian life. I'm getting ready to leave. But somebody's coming, there's a keeper coming and said, this comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your

26, and 27. So when you're studing the Bible and you don't get it, suddenly, the Holy Spirit shows up and he begins to open it up, and he begins to turn the lights on and your understanding begins to grasp what you're reading.

And before that is just a blank book and you don't get it. You just close the book and you lose interest because you don't have it but when the Holy Spirit comes, He makes it come alive.

The most amazing thing. I've been doing this preaching thing for a long, long time, the white hairs only from pastoring. But I can tell you, I open up my Bible almost every week and I see things I never saw before. What in the world? How did I miss that? It's the Holy Spirit suddenly begins to reveal. You say, well, so and so is the greatest teacher I've ever heard. No, no, no. The Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher.

You see, when He comes, He opens your understanding, he enlightened your heart and he brings all things to remembrance. And so many times, I don't know what in the world to say. And I'm, I'm baffled.

And suddenly, something comes to me and I share it. What was it, the Holy Spirit opens your mind and brings things to your remembrance at the right moment.

That's what the Holy Spirit does. He'll guide you, he'll guard you, he'll groom you, he'll gift you. May I say to you, you and I need the Holy Spirit more than anyone else.

You need him, i need him, we all need him. We all need him. Get this God's on the throne. And Jesus is over here on his right hand side, seated. But the Holy Spirit is right here right now with us. You better open up your mind and realize the secret to the Christian faith is realizing the Holy Spirit not only wants to be with us but he wants to be in us. I can't overcome things pastor. I know that, not in yourself, but you can in the power of the Holy Spirit.

There's no way to get through life on your own and be successful and handle the pressures of life in yourself.

You will cave in. Your marriage will come apart at the seams.

But when we open up and allow the Holy Spirit to come, he begins to work things out in our

8, says and ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come up on you.

And it's not you. It's in the power of the Holy Spirit. I cannot overcome and you can't on the outside without the help of the Holy Spirit. I'm watching for the first time in my life Church's drying up and dying on the vine because they won't allow the Holy Spirit's presence to come. We think we're gonna program God. We think that we're gonna put on some neat fancy little thing that will draw the crowd and it's not drawing the crowds anymore. Takes The Holy Spirit. Got to be open, the wind blows wherever it may and that's the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we've got to be open to allowing the breeze of the Holy Spirit to blow like it did on the day of Pentecost. The secret of the Christian life is more of the Holy Spirit. Somebody who said I need to get him, no, he needs to get you. And the more that you gave yourself of him, the more he gets of you the more power you get, the more victorious you get and the more understanding you get. And the church changes when Ephesians 5:18 and we get it right. If we

Ephesians 5:18

18 right, it'd change everything. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Holy Spirit. With the spirit be filled with the Spirit. Nobody knows how many times I've been at wits end, I live at wit's end corner in hell once in a while.

I'm half step behind the half wit. But I've been there at wit's end corner and I say, Oh God, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I don't know the next decision to make.

I've been there when adrenaline wouldn't work, but I realized I need the anointing and I've said, God, I just need a fresh anointing. I need it in every phase of my life. I needed it when I was parenting, if you're married, you need it in your marriage. If you work in the public, you need the anointing of the spirit and the guardian presence of the Spirit. Luke chapter 11, verse 13, says, If you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to them that ask., All you got to do is ask. Ask for the Holy Spirit. Ask for a fresh touch. Your marriage will never be what it ought to be without the power of the Holy Spirit. Our ministries will never be what it all should be without the power of the Holy Spirit. Some of us are trying to work things out in the human.

Luke 11:13

We're trying to think our way through we're trying to maneuver our way through. But if we slow down for a moment, and just invite the Holy Spirit, into our board meetings, into our Sunday school classes, into our music program, into our preaching agenda, when he is come, when he is come. Somebody said Well, Pastor, I can't overcome this thing in my life. I know that.

You can come by my office, I could counsel you for a year you wouldn't overcome some things.

But I want you to know when he is come. The overcomer I'm talking about he'll help you overcome. How do you know that pastor? Because the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control.

That's how I know at it against there's no law, there's no law against those things. You want peace? You want some love? You want some joy? Would you like to become a little more gentle? Not so rough? Would you like to get good? Would you like to be better? Would you like to get control over all these crazy things happening in your life?

Just invite the Holy Spirit. And you realize he's right here in the service right now. Not just wanting to be with us, but he wants to be in you. And all you've got to do is throw open the front door and invite Him in. And he'll give us all the fruit. I'll be with the Holy Spirit in me. I'll be love, joy and gentle goodness, self control, all of that. Out of the overflow of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We exercise the fruit of the Spirit. Anybody like that this morning? Say pastor. That's what I need. I need more the Holy Spirit. I'm kinda like, what he said there in Luke 11.

That if I could give good gifts to my kids, Surely God would give me fresh touch of the Holy Spirit. I need it before I leave the service this morning.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.