← ArchiveThe Mind of a DiscipleThe Mind of a Disciple: The Available Disciple – Philip (John 1:43-46)DateAugust 6, 2023SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextJohn 1:43–46Passages in this sermonJohn 13:35John 1437:21John 1:438:33John 517:05John 6:517:14John 1223:32John 1427:50John 14:828:00Revelation 332:17TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00*music*0:30Welcome to the church that gathers at Bethel. My name is Josh and this is your second week with us I was not here last week, but I am back. Thank you for being a sending church Thank you for sending me and the team to Nashua, New Hampshire because you believe that people in New Hampshire need to know that Jesus loves them We gather for this reason. We gather in New Hampshire. We gather in Zambia. We gather in Dominican0:58We gather in St. Clair County for the gospel and we say here often that the gospel is this phrase Jesus in Our place and if you are new if you consider yourself new if you're just now checking in mentally for the first time We want to welcome you everyone who is worshiping online in church. Let's let us know let them know how thankful we are We believe that you're here1:26Everyone is here because God is bringing you and drawing you near to know Him and experience His goodness in your life Well today we are concluding a summer series in the apostles and the disciples It's a summer series we've called the mind of a disciple and last week Pastor Jared preached on the beloved disciple the disciple John which leaves only one more disciple left and that is the man1:55And as we've done every week or pretty much every week, we're going to try to name the disciples A poll last year in America found that only seven percent of Americans could name all twelve disciples not even in order Just get it at some point. So here we go. We're going to go first four second four third four2:20First four the easiest Peter Andrew James John Okay, take a breath Philip Bartholomew doubting Thomas. He's not the doubter. He's the questioner and then the gospel writer Levi. You know him as Matthew Matthew and then we have another James James the lesser We have Thaddeus we have the zealot named2:48Simon and then we have the betrayer named Judas and then you have the replacement Matthias, but we will deal with him at a later Time so you are now in the seven percent category. You are the chosen people Because you know the twelve disciples and as we finish this series We're going to look in the life of Philip and I believe it's a trait that encompasses the mind of every disciple not simply in the New Testament3:12but those who follow him today and that's the virtue of availability The virtue of availability so I have called Philip the disciple the available disciple So if you had your Bibles join me in the book of John chapter 1 today As you turn there I want to tell you this story3:41Father's Day 2005 was not a joyful day for the Hawkins family Because They realized that their son Had gone missing on a camping trip that they had planned and prepared and anticipated for many months months At this point 3,000 of the local community plus law enforcement plus Emergency response and rescue could not find their son. He'd been missing for4:11two days a local house painter from Salt Lake City Saw on the news that this young boy was lost So he took the day off on a Tuesday and joined the search Now this man's name was Forrest Nunley and Forrest did not join the entire group He actually took his atv and went five miles away from where everyone was searching and as he rounded the bend4:37He saw on the trail a young boy around the age of 10 Muddy from head to toe Saturated from head to toe because he had been walking in the marsh for now four days By God's grace this young boy was unharmed and was able to make a full recovery I believe that this story5:06Teaches us something about availability One man's choice to be available Potentially rescued that young man that young man's life is still here today because one man said I will be available I will join the mission. I will join the search Jesus described availability like this In the New Testament Jesus said actually summed up the whole law He said here's the law love the Lord your God with all of your5:37Heart your soul that's faith. That's believing in God being available in faith Your mind and your strength meaning be available I believe strength encompasses everything your will Your emotions and your mind So for Jesus and for the disciples to be available means that you are available by in faith and soul And you are available in strength So those are your two availabilities soul and strength because you can be available in faith6:06But not in presence You can be available in body But not in soul And to be a follower of jesus christ You must be available with all your heart With all your soul With all your mind and with all of your strength Availability in the kingdom looks like this and here's the the webster's definition of availability To be unoccupied6:36And to be useful Kingdom availability is to be unoccupied And to be useful for the kingdom because we know this you're here today because you are unoccupied But your presence here doesn't mean that you're useful to jesus christ That's the holy spirit's job Some of us are not useful because we are occupied with worries and fears and anxieties May we be people today7:06Who are useful to the kingdom and unoccupied and encumbered by the world and say god here we are Send Us Let me pray over our gathering one more time and then we'll look At the written word john 143 father May we Like philip today be men and women who are unoccupied Lord today Take all of our anxious thoughts take all of our worries the things that occupy our time and our minds and our affections and our will7:33Lord where there are hurts Habits and hang-ups remove those today That we might be willing Choice vessels For you But father we do not desire to be empty alone We desire that today you fill us Fill us with your presence fill us with your purpose8:01That we might leave here not as hearers only of your word But father that we would be doers and stewards of the kingdom Lord shine and rain down upon this gathering today We ask your favor and your blessing in jesus name Amen philip the un Occupied Disciple8:31Disciple Read with me john 1 43 43 the next day jesus Decided to leave for galilee And he found philip And he told him Follow me Follow me Verse 44 of john 1 Now philip was from besida The hometown of andrew and peter Philip found nathanael and told him9:00We have found the one moses wrote about in the law And so did the prophets jesus Son of joseph from nazareth and Nathaniel asked him can anything could Come from nazareth and philip answered come And See So in this first chapter of the gospel of john we encounter a young man from besida And the bible is very clear that this is the same hometown of andrew9:28And peter now this might not be odd to you that his name was philip But what is odd to the hebrew reader of the scripture is that philip is not an hebrew name There are two disciples that actually have greek names in scripture andrew and philip but andrew has a hebrew name philip Has none so philip is the only disciple that has a given name that is greek9:56Now that again might not register upon your sensibilities But for the jews to have a disciple with a greek name as a reminder that there was a time in their life Where there was a foreign nation who occupied and who oppressed them No, it wasn't egypt But to have the greeks rule and reign meant that god was not ruling and reigning fully in galilee10:23So you might ask well, who is philip? Why would a disciple who is a follower of the jewish messiah have a non-jewish name? And that is a great question to ask The most famous philip that was likely the culprit of his namesake was philip of macedon And you might think well, who is philip of macedon? Well, he had a son who was a great son named Alex10:53Alex And you might not know who philip is but you might have heard of a man in history named alexander the great that was philip of macedon's son And the empire grew and galilee was occupied by philip of macedon and it is likely that it is philip of macedon who Gave philip his name Very regal name but not a name of the patriarchs not a name that reminded them of the covenant11:21We know nothing of philip the disciple In scripture from the book of matthew We know nothing for philip in the book of mark and we know nothing from philip in the book of luke Or really acts, but we do know Much of philip in the book of john Now there is a philip that you might know in scripture remember the philip in the book of acts11:49the new testament philip was one of the first deacons chosen philip was the man who went and evangelized to samaria And philip was the man who god called and placed him in the chariot with ethiopian eunuch and you remember The ethiopian official was reading scripture and philip said do you know what you're reading? He said how can I unless someone explains and so philip the deacon explained that to this man12:16And he gave his life to jesus christ and he sees water and says what is keeping me from being baptized? He is baptized and then the spirit took philip away And in church history often the early church fathers Had fused the legacy of philip the deacon with philip the disciple But it is highly unlikely that luke would not mention Philip12:48Philip The disciple and acts written by luke would mention philip the disciple so I Just want you to know this today that the philip that you find in acts is not the philip that you find as a disciple So philip and acts is the deacon Philip the disciple is a disciple it's not the same individual So you might be asking well, this is going to be a short sermon No No, it's not because john fills in the gaps john the gospel writer here in verse 4313:15Reminds us that there is something we can know about philip. He's from galilee the place where jesus ministers and the word jesus forges and forms his ministry and legacy of faith and we see in john chapter 1 verse 43 that jesus finds philip and simply gives philip this direction13:45philip follow me follow me How does philip respond Is he going to be available in strength and in soul now? We know that in this moment philip is available in strength because he hears the words Apparently philip is not so occupied with life that he does not hear jesus say to him philip follow me14:11But to be available in strength is not necessarily an availability of spirit or soul Because philip has a choice to make doesn't he Jesus invites us all to follow him but we must follow him by Faith it is faith alone in christ alone that saves So the question I have of you in the text is does philip follow14:38And the answer is we don't know explicitly Because look at verse 44 Philip was from beseda the hometown of andrew and peter and philip found nathaniel The bible never tells us That philip heard jesus had faith in jesus and followed jesus But I believe the bible gives us very deep contextual clues that philip trusted jesus as his savior15:07And acts upon his faith Because the moment philip hears jesus and follows jesus he finds other people And I believe this is the program for how the gospel spreads People who are found by jesus find others What does philip say to nathaniel when nathaniel says no nothing good can come from nazareth you found the wrong messiah15:33Philip says I have receipts come and see Philip says I have found the one that can change Your life and so I ask you today Do you have the mind of philip? Do you have a heart that is available to the purposes and the plans of god in your life? It's one thing to say we have faith16:03It is quite another to live our faith It was john stott who said it is one thing to become a christian. It is quite another to be a christian We must have availability of soul to say jesus I believe But we must have availability of strength to say lord there is no Mental objection there is no Emotional objection and lord there is no physical objection to your ways16:28Like isaiah may we say this morning Here I am In me the lord has found us come and see oh that we would have the mind of philip are You Available Are you available to the purposes of god in your life today? The next time we hear about philip he finds himself in a dilemma16:57Turn with me in the book of john again To john chapter 5 and 617:14John chapter 6 verse 5 Good news A lot of people believe in jesus and they're following jesus Bad news a lot of hungry people Are following jesus and they are hungry So jesus is gathering this following around galilee And they're following him to the point where they are forsaking their physical Needs to follow jesus the messiah17:44And one day there's a throng there's a crowd of over 5 000 people Who are Following jesus and so jesus turns to one of his most trusted disciples A man named philip and in chapter 6 verse 5 He asked philip Where will we buy bread? So these people Can eat And john reminds us why jesus asked the question18:12He asked us to test philip for jesus himself knew what he was going To do Why would he single out philip One I believe that jesus trusted philip He was from best seda Potentially Philip knew where the best stores were to go buy bread Maybe philip knew the bread maker in town and so jesus was asking philip18:41Hey philip you know best where should we go to feed These people But john macarthur gives us a different slam Macarthur says that philip was the apostolic administrator Which means when all the people started following jesus Philip is starting to count heads It's like 10 we got this 100 we got this 5 000 And they have children19:12And they brought their wives There's a lot of people here Philip is starting to count tasks and head he has his spreadsheet right he pulls out his phone And he's making the calculations and he's thinking it will take a year's wages To feed these people just for one day And he says to jesus 200 denarii would not be enough for each of them to have A little19:43A little When you think Of christ's work in your life from a human perspective It is easy to lose The reward of faith And it is easy not to see the reward of faith when you are only counting heads When you're only thinking about the task you see philip mistook the question Philip thought jesus said to him philip where are you going to get bread to feed all these people20:09That's actually not what jesus said did he look at verse 5 jesus says to philip philip where will we Because jesus is now in the equation And again john macarthur puts it well when he says philip knew too much arithmetic to be adventurous20:36Right philip's thinking a lord. I I excelled in math and my math says things do not add up But he forgot something that is crucial to the equation He forgot that jesus was there And when jesus is in your life all things are possible You see for for philip He needed to know that the situation was not hopeless and some of you are there today21:04You look at your life and you look at your circumstances you think pastor There is no way out There is nothing that I can do to change my situation and I would say you are correct But jesus doesn't tell you to fix your life Jesus says philip where are we going to get bread with christ All things are possible. Do not let earthly realism cloud your ability to see by faith21:34This is the joy and the reward of faith being available to jesus christ into the kingdom And don't let this be lost upon you After all five thousand plus are fed And philip would probably know the exact amounts one day in heaven. I'm going to ask him philip. I know you were counting. How many was it?21:59John can't count past five thousand. I know you can count more How many and he's going to say josh? It was probably two thousand twenty thousand people and 12 And we're going to say that's an odd number Why 12? Because the leftovers of jesus christ were enough for even the disciples Church never forget this jesus even jesus leftovers22:30Are enough to satisfy your soul This is what it means to be available To the kingdom. This is why we ask parents who are dedicating their children The last thing we ask them to promise their family is So and so For me eli aaron Like you heard today knox we want you to know that we believe that jesus plan for your life is better than our best plans22:56We want you to know that the leftovers from heaven are better than the best food that we could ever cook here on earth Jesus is enough Do not let realism Forfeit the reward of faith in your life And from this moment Philip is virtually silent in the bible23:26until John chapter 12 Are we Available Are you available So near the crucifixion in john 12 verse 20 We have a festival and at this festival people from around the world are beginning to gather and to worship Yahweh as23:55Yahweh as Yahweh as the promise keeper Yahweh is the one who is the covenant maker and the covenant enforcer And among this crowd are not Jews But greeks And john tells us so in verse 20 of chapter 12 John tells us that there were some greeks who were among those who went to worship at the festival So they came to philip Who was from beseda In galilee and requested of him sir We24:25We Want to see Jesus Now again, we started off this message by saying that philip had a limitation He had a detriment He was the only one of the 12 who did not have a hebraic name His name was philip Most likely named after philip of macedon The not the king of judah or the king of israel But the king of macedon the occupier of the known world and the father of alexander the great Philip was an outsider he had a barrier24:55He had a limitation. He was a had a greek name But lo and behold at this festival. There are greeks worshiping God and they want to see jesus And if you were greek And you wanted to see jesus which of the disciples would you go to? matthew john andrew maybe judas potentially25:25potentially But there was one disciple that had a name that sounded like theirs And it was philip and they go to philip It's the reminder and scholars would say this Jesus did not grow up in urban center. He did not grow up in jerusalem He did not grow up in tiberias potentially. He grew up in nazareth most likely jesus knew Hebrew and aramaic aramaic would have been his primary language and hebrew would have been his25:51Religious language so he could read the torah but these greeks most likely did not know aramaic or They did not know Hebrew And so most scholars believe that philip would have known aramaic and greek So most scholars suggest that philip Did not only bring these greeks to jesus, but that philip was the greek interpreter for the disciples And this is the spiritual import in my life26:21God had uniquely Created philip and gifted him to reach these greek individuals The world might say of philip's name. Well, you are less than you're the only disciple without the hebrew name and you're not useful But god saw his name as useful for the kingdom Church yahweh has uniquely gifted you26:49To reach people who look and sound like you for the gospel God has given you unique loves in your heart Some of you like ice hockey You know what go be a missionary To people who love ice hockey Some of you like knitting and you think well, this is just a hobby. What if it's deeper than that? What if the things that give you great joy in life are given by god himself? Because he is using that joy that he has given you to reach people who have the same joy for jesus christ27:18God has uniquely gifted you to be a missionary to those who have joys of the kingdom May you be useful and available to jesus christ when the world said that philip was less god said that he was useful The last time you meet philip in the gospel of john27:47We see him asking a question of the father in john chapter 14 And we see philip saying These words in john 14 8 Philip says lord Show us the father And that will be enough for us Jesus said to him Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me philip the one who has seen me has seen the father?28:16How can you say show us the father? Don't you believe that I am the father and the father is in me? The words I speak to you. I do not speak on my own The father who lives in me does his work Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me Otherwise believe because of the works Themselves28:46Themselves See as an administrator Philip had riddled himself with being prepared and details and the in the task at hand Philip was in danger of looking at the daily needs and missing the entire vision Because philip had been with jesus every single day for three years And philip had looked at every single day, but he had forgotten the three years He forgotten that the grand scope of things said that jesus is the son of god29:16And philip had missed that in church. It can be the same in your life And my life it is possible for us to be so focused On today That we miss what god is doing in our lives It's so easy to think about our circumstances of today and not realize or remember that yesterday god was faithful Or not remember or think that tomorrow god is still29:47faithful So if you're the administrator If you're the task master if you need the details and the map and all the specifics that is okay But don't let that cloud your vision of faith Don't that don't let that create anxiety in your life Where you get so weighed down with details that you can't often give your plan to god and say god here is my plan But I give it to you30:16And lord if my plan is not your plan then I want my plan to be your plan And jesus this is my plan, but you have every right to change anything as you see fit May we not30:44That's what philip asked. He says jesus you show us a father and that will be enough And jesus response to philip is this Philip i've been with you three years and I am enough for You from this moment on you do not see philip in the biblical text We know That for philip jesus Was enough because philip went and took the gospel to the nations history suggests31:14history suggests That philip ministered and died in or near the turkey the turkish city of hierapolis And that might not sound familiar To you But you've most likely heard of its more famous neighbor Located roughly four miles across the valley from hierapolis was a town called laodicea Now hierapolis was known for its hot mineral springs that made the town famous as a center for health and healing31:40And because it was a town of healing and a commercial city It had a lot of greek speaking individuals in the city Which made the greek Disciple uniquely gifted to be a missionary to this greek city But do you remember what jesus says in revelation to the Neighbor of hierapolis laodicea32:10jesus says to the laodiceans In revelation 3 verse 19 As many as I love I rebuke and discipline so be zealous And repent See zealousness is a hot condition It means that your heart is is hot and Something is burning within you for a reason Jesus wants you to be zealous to burn hot for the kingdom and for hot for the purposes of the lord32:39Really, jesus is telling the laodiceans you need to be hot like the mineral springs of hierapolis And I wonder If the people of hierapolis were zealous for god because they saw philip's zeal did god commend the laodiceans to say be hot Be zealous like philip was zealous33:09Be available like philip Was available Burn bright like the people The neighbors of this church Who knew what faith Looked like Philip was a disciple who knew what it meant to be available to the kingdom To follow the savior is the call to love him with all your heart soul33:38soul mind and strength Ultimately, this is what philip would tell us today and this is the mind of the disciple When the world says I can't we can't Jesus says I can When the world would tell you you can't Jesus says Philip I can through you And when the world says it can't it is not possible34:05Jesus says with god All things are possible For those who are available To know me and follow me Maybe today like philip for the first time You have heard jesus say to you Follow me And maybe you're thinking pastor it can't be that easy I can't just leave everything and follow jesus and he forgive my sin34:34I can't just leave everything and follow jesus and He'll change my life. He'll give me Heaven and not hell. He'll redeem me and adopt me. It can't be that easy And I would simply say to you that's why it's called grace So pastor, what do I have to do to earn my salvation? Philip would say there's nothing you can do to earn it35:03But when you hear jesus call your name And say follow me Be available Love him with all your heart And all your soul All your mind And all your strength And maybe today that's the call of jesus on your life You need to follow him as your personal lord and savior You can do that right from where you sit whether it's your home Or in this pew35:33To say jesus. I need to follow you today. Forgive me of my sin I believe that you are the son of god I believe you died on the cross I believe you rose again, and I believe that you did it for me And jesus today. I will follow you No matter what it costs Maybe you're here today You say well, I i'm available in faith, but i've been unavailable36:02In my heart or in my mind Or my will for a long time And today your simple prayer needs to be the call of isaiah that says lord here. I am again send me I will go I will do Lord, I don't care where I don't need to know the plan I just need to know you because you are enough Church, are you available? Are you ready and useful for the kingdom of god?36:31Father, we thank you← Previous in The Mind of a DiscipleThe Mind of a Disciple: The Disciple Whom Jesus LovedMore sermons on John →
