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This morning we return to our study of the apostles, and our launching pad once again is in Luke six. Actually, I'll begin with verse 12, but this is under the heading "The Choosing of the 12, Part Five" and this is dealing with the apostle Philip, and so what we read in Luke six, beginning in verse 12,

"It was at this time that Jesus went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

"And when day came, He called his disciples to Him, and he chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:

"Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James, and John, and Philip..."

This is where we are this morning. It's been a fascinating journey, has it not, as we think about the men that Jesus shaped; he called them unto himself. He took a man like Peter, who was impulsive, and seasoned him eventually to be a controlled and seasoned leader. He took Andrew, who was a quiet, kind of non-assuming, behind-the-scenes kind of guy, content to serve in obscurity, and he turned him into a faithful evangelist. He harnessed the brashness of the Sons of Thunder - James and John - eventually causing them to become powerful, as they were able to blend truth and love. And today we come to Philip, and he's actually next on the list of very common, ordinary men that Jesus chose to be his closest companions, the official emissaries of the kingdom of God. Men who, as we have seen, whose only remarkable qualifications was that they were unremarkable, just normal guys. In fact, as we've already seen, they were prone to be prejudiced and impetuous and hard-headed, and they were uneducated, proud, cowardly, unreliable, spiritually immature kind of the most unlikely candidates that God would choose, and yet these are exactly the ones He chose to mold them into the men He wanted them to be.

And what a remarkable, remarkable impact they have had, right? They continue to impact us to this day by the power of the Spirit. Twelve ordinary men. Again, what foolishness to the world! I mean, if you were going to preach this kind of a gospel message that everybody's going to hate, you need more than 12 - and one of them who was a devil. You need at least 12,000, maybe 120,000. How about 1,200,000? But no, he chose 12. A fishermen, a tax collector, a Jewish terrorist who hated Rome, and other nondescript guys. What the world would call foolishness; but as we read in First Corinthians 1:25, "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." And as we study their lives, we all find great encouragement because if he could use them, he could use us.

You know, folks, God seeks our availability, not our abilities, and he will give us all we need to accomplish that which he puts before us, again, by the power of the indwelling Spirit. And it's fascinating to me that God selected men of diverse temperaments to be his apostles. He does the same today as he selects leaders in his church. But beloved, never underestimate your capacity to be used by God, regardless of your personality or even your issues, because the Lord can sanctify you and work with you, regardless of your lot in life, or your education, or your experience, your gender, your socio-economic situation, even your spiritual condition. Folks, all of those things are meaningless when it comes to your usefulness in the kingdom, because as long as you are repentant and humble and teachable, God will shape you into the person he wants you to be. As I think about it, most Christians fail to live up to their potential, and there's a number of factors that would contribute to that, but certainly three stand out to me as I look back over the course of my life and now some 42 years of ministry.

The first problem that most Christians have is what I would call habitual sinfulness - things they just simply will not deal with; life-dominating sins. They refuse to really examine their life and get serious about their walk with Christ. Not only habitual sinfulness will forfeit your blessings and your power to be used, not to mention eternal reward, but also habitual laziness. People that lack self-discipline. So many Christians are spiritual couch potatoes. Look for any excuse to avoid the disciplines of the Christian life. Paul said to Timothy, "Discipline yourself for the sake of godliness." And when you don't do that, you will end up being ignorant. You will be undiscerning, be self-absorbed, and so forth.

Habitual sinfulness, habitual laziness, and the third thing that I see is habitual prayerlessness. When you refuse to serve in the army of the Lord, you're oblivious to the needs around you. But when you're in the heat of battle, when you're dealing with all that God would bring before you, you will run into the presence of the Lord and seek his divine provisions. You will have a sense of divine urgency because you can see very quickly that you do not have the resources necessary.

Well, this is what eventually happened over time with 11 of the 12 apostles, excluding Judas Iscariot, of course, and as you remember, we observe the interaction between the incarnate Christ and these undistinguished men, and when we do so - we've already seen this ministry principle that I've mentioned to you before - we see the emergence of the principle that says concentration equals multiplication. You concentrate deeply on a few, and the multiplication will occur rather than going shallow with the many. Go deep with the few, not shallow with the many.

So today we find ourselves examining Philip, and he's actually the leader of the second set of four apostles. Now, from the outset, may I just say that you don't want to confuse the Apostle Philip with Philip the deacon that you would read about in Acts chapter six and Acts 21, I believe, nor Philip the evangelist that you would read about in Acts eight that went to the Ethiopian eunuch and so forth. This is a different Philip.

Now, Scripture doesn't tell us his Jewish name, but his Greek name was Philip, which, by the way, means "lover of horses" interestingly enough, and he was probably from a Hellenistic family - Jews who had adopted the Greek language and culture.  And he is the fifth name on every list of the twelve that's found in the New Testament, which indicates that he was probably the leader of the second group. In John 1:44, we read that Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. He was also a fisherman, along with two others in his little group, as we will see.  Bartholomew, who was also called Nathanael, and Thomas, and they were of course all friends, and at some level, associates in the fishing industry, certainly with Peter, Andrew, James, and John, all God-fearing Jews. They would have probably all attended the same synagogue there in Bethsaida.

And it's interesting that Jesus chose a team where over half of the men were already close friends. I find that fascinating. The same cultural values, hardly any diversity, and it's been my experience that too much diversity is potentially problematic in leadership. I've served on many boards and consult with a number of organizations even to this day, and I have found that mixed cultures and mixed even economic backgrounds and doctrinal perspectives and wide disparity even of education is a recipe for disaster. You have all these varied values and perspectives and cultural preferences and so forth. But it's also interesting that he chose uneducated men, for the most part. Later on, he chose the Apostle Paul, who was very educated. But typically, educated men need to be humbled, and certainly on the road to Damascus, Paul got significantly humbled. But he chose uneducated men whose minds had not been previously shaped by error, nor had they convinced themselves of their own omniscience because of their erudite understanding of all things, you know how that works. You can get filled with pride and selfish ambition, and what we see is that it's easier to train uneducated men who are teachable than educated men who are not teachable. I would hasten to add that not all well-educated people are unteachable, like the Apostle Paul. Moreover, not all uneducated people are teachable. I've known a lot of uneducated people who are too ignorant to know they're ignorant, and they're proud of it. And you can't tell them anything.

So, before the foundation of the world, we see God choosing these men. You will recall John 15 verse 16. Jesus told them, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you." So God, in his infinite wisdom, now chooses yet another common man. They were all really common as a fence post, and sometimes equally as dense, but they were all men, apart from Judas Iscariot, who loved him and were available to him.

Now Philip's a fascinating character. There's not a lot we can glean about him, but there are some things, and I don't want to press this too far; I don't want to start a new Philip denomination here, but there are some things that we can see as we look at the New Testament record. It would appear, all things considered, that Philip was apparently kind of like the chief operating officer of the 12, kind of the administrator, the logistics guy. We see that he bought and distributed food, he secured lodging, arranged meetings and interviews with Jesus, and so from some of this we can we can learn some things about his interpersonal style of relating. And Philip appears to be, and I will demonstrate this in a moment, appears to be kind of the controlling type, kind of the paranoid, anxious, analytical, by the book kind of guy. Those of you that know me well know that that kind of a person tries my patience. I do not do well with them. I love them, but I can't work real closely with by-the-book, analytical type of people. Words like "improvise" or "maybe" or "high probability" or "change of plans" will strike terror in that kind of a person. I thrive on those words, and I'm going to exaggerate a bit here to make my point, because not everything that I say is necessarily attributed to him, but you'll get the picture.

In the business world, this would be kind of the bean counter kind of guy, you know the bookkeeper that's going to keep everything in order, keep track of everything. These type of people are going to be consumed with protocol and process. They can tend to be the type of people that will find 40 reasons why a new idea or change is not possible. They can be hard to deal with. They're kind of the corporate killjoys. In fact, in the corporate world, I remember we used to call them the green shades guys. You know, the deal killers, not the deal makers. They tend to wear a badge, very proudly, a large one that says "cynic." And sometimes because of who they are, they can be chronically pessimistic. The word "risk" is a four-letter word to them, and they can spin out of control as soon as things move beyond the manual of standard operating procedures that they love to write and meditate on and make sure everybody obeys. Again, I'm exaggerating here, but everything by the book kind of a guy obsessed with organization, keeping everything under control. They're fastidious type of people, and that's kind of what we see here. Many times, these people can make terrible leaders because they can't take anybody where they haven't already gone, and they're scared of kind of stepping outside where there's some ambiguity and uncertainty. There's some risk, and really going to have to trust the Lord here, but they can also be terrible followers because they freak out if they're asked to do anything beyond the limits of their comfort zone, which interestingly enough is very different than Peter, James, and John. And as we're going to see, Jesus is going to deliberately ask Peter to do something that's going to cause him to freak out because he is shaping him. This is the opposite, for example, of like if you think of special forces soldiers that thrive on high stress environments, complex situations, things or situations where things can go awry. They have mental toughness and they can adapt very calmly to come up with alternative solutions in dangerous situations when plans fall apart. They kind of thrive on that kind of thing. This is the opposite of where Philip would be. You're not going to tell Philip to, "Hey, here's a knife, go survive for a week in the wilderness." You tell a special operations soldier that, and he said, "Oh, great, this is going to be fun." You know, God makes this all different, and to be fair, I'm thankful for the hyper-organized, kind of pessimistic, by-the-book bean counter type of person because they keep guys like me in line. But you don't want that kind of a person for a hostage rescue, right? Or to start a new business venture, or whatever.

Now, the Philips of the world can be a bit frustrating. I've had them in meetings before, and you submit a new idea, they look like they're having a gallbladder attack because they can see all the reasons why this is completely nuts, rather than saying, "You know, hey, we've never done that before, but let's find a way to make that work. There's some real potential here, and I think perhaps God in his grace can meet this challenge in ways that we can't even see."

Now let's go to a text. You will remember, for example, in John six, it talks about how there's 5000 men that are that are there. If you add the women and children, you got 20,000 plus people. In verse five, it says, "Jesus therefore, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip..." now this is really interesting. Again, if you think about Philip, is like, oh, this is really going to get him going. He says to Philip, "'Where are we to buy bread that these may eat?'" Philip, you're in charge, right? You're supposed to handle these things. Now, by the way, if we examine the New Testament record again, it would appear that he's kind of in charge of this type of a thing. In fact, if we go back to Matthew 14, the same context, Jesus, he's had compassion on all the sick, and he's healing people. They're all coming, and we find that it's late in the evening. The apostles are hungry. It's dinner time, and you know they're probably thinking, you know, we can't eat in front of all these people, they're all looking at us here. So in verse 15 of Matthew 14, it says, "And when it was evening, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'The place is desolate, and the time has already passed; so send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. And I'm sure they're thinking also in their mind, "so we can eat, we're hungry here." And it's fascinating again that that Jesus turns to Philip now.

We go back to John in John six and verse six, and it says, "And this He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do." I look back over my life, and I can tell you many times when I'm sure the Lord, at some level, was kind of grinning, and he put something before me to test me. And the term "test," by the way, it's just a neutral term. I mean, you either pass or you fail. You know, when God tests, we either respond in faith, believing, or in fear, retreating, right? I mean, that's kind of what we've got going on. And of course, Jesus loved him, and this was a teachable moment where he could begin to work on Philip's heart and get him to move out of that self-protective bubble that he had created for himself, and so he decides to overwhelm him. I mean, this is kind of like Philip's worst nightmare.

And notice Philip's predictable response in verse seven:  "Philip answered Him..." in other words, Jesus says - he knew what he was intending, and he's asked him now, "Where are we to buy bread that these may eat" and Philip answered him in verse seven, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little." And I'm sure, it doesn't say this, but Jesus said, "You know, that is so helpful. I didn't realize that. Thanks for giving us an inventory here, that's helpful." You see, Jesus knew his faith was weak and he needed some help here. He depends upon his own efforts to make his world work, and Jesus knew how frustrated Philip would be. I mean, this is outside proper protocol. I mean, we're not set up to feed 20, 25,000 dinner guests, and so he puts him in this position of kind of desperation and probably panic. Again, for people who are more prone this way, the term "improvise" just strikes terror in them, and that's probably what's going on here. And so Jesus, in effect, is saying, "Hey, Philip, how are you going to feed all these people?" Now Jesus, I'm sure, wished he would have answered this way, "Lord, it's simple. Obviously, I can't. I can't feed these people. I mean, you know, we don't have sufficient resources to hardly feed ourselves. But this is a wonderful opportunity for you to put your glory on display, because I have watched you manifest your glory. I've seen the majesty of your power. I have stood in absolute amazement when you've demonstrated your power over sickness and disease, made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, withered limbs made whole. I've seen your power over demons and sin and nature. Lord, obviously, no way we can feed any of these people, and I'm sure you know that, but I'm going to trust you to do what only you can do, because I am helpless." But no, Philip's kind of consumed with his own way of making life work, and so he says, "200 denarii, that's all we've got." By the way, that's eight months’ worth of a single day laborers’ wage. You see, one denarius was one day's wage.

Now, reading between the lines here, and again, this isn't special revelation, so don't write it down between Revelation and the maps, okay, don't do that, but as we read between the lines, it's evening, its dusk, the apostles are hungry. It's been an overwhelming day. If you're around people a lot, you know how exhausting it can be, and the apostles are hungry, and they're probably at a point where they're now hangry. "Hey Philip, when are we going to eat?" You know he's probably hearing that, and again I'm exaggerating, but Philip's got his calculator and he's perspiring, and it's you know, "I don't know what we're going to do." "Hey Phil, when's dinner coming?" So the Lord puts him in this position where there's no way that he can possibly meet the need; a position where he's got to depend upon the Lord.

Verse eight, finally, "One of His disciples, Andrew..." again, here, remember, he's the quiet, kind of sensitive, helpful, behind-the-scenes kind of guy, one of the disciples, Andrew, said to Jesus, "There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" And of course, you know the rest of the story. I mean, Andrew is a big help too, right? But what a great lesson for Philip and for all of us. Jesus essentially puts us in these situations to force us to realize that we do not have the resources to function in life, especially when great difficulties are placed in our path. You know, folks, faith is like a muscle. If you don't use it, it will atrophy, and that's what the Lord wants. Sometimes I find myself identifying with that man. Remember, in Mark nine, you've got the story of the father and the demon possessed son. The disciples lacked the necessary faith to deliver him, and in utter desperation, you remember how the father pleads with Jesus to deliver his son. And in verse 22, he says, "If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us." And then Jesus responds, "If you can? All things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, 'I do believe. Help my unbelief.'" I have been there so many times. The man believed in the Lord, but he struggled with lingering doubt. Boy, don't we all? And this is a special weakness, by the way. This is especially true with new Christians who were weak in the faith. Philip was a new Christian; he had a lot to learn. And those of you that have not walked long with the Lord, you've got to learn this, and by God's grace, you will. But there is a special weakness inherent in newborn faith. We're susceptible to special dangers, especially in times of great distress.

I think of Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress," you know, the Prince of Darkness is enraged whenever a soul is delivered from the dungeon of his dominion, and he quickly assaults them as they flee from the city of destruction and begin their journey to the Celestial City. By the way, it's interesting that Bunyan very appropriately placed the Slough of Despond at the very outset of the spiritual journey. If you're a new believer, you've not walked long with the Lord, the enemy is going to place all kinds of difficulties in your path to cause you to fail. But may I remind you that God and his grace is going to test your faith, because an untested faith is a deficient faith, is a weak faith.

Of course, you will recall that Wicked Fiend tried to sink Christian and his companion in the quicksand of the Discouragement of Doubt and ultimately drowned them in Despair. Well, Philip believed, and yet not completely. He still struggled with self-protection, and we must spot the same type of thing in our own hearts. It's so easy to fall into this; to fall into this lie - this tragic assumption - that essentially says God is not enough, so I've got to take over here. So a great difficulty comes into our life, and immediately we run to the phone rather than to the throne, or we run to what we typically do to make life work, rather than falling on our knees and saying, "Lord, help me. I'm not sure what I need to do here."

So Jesus tests Philip to expose his - if I can put it this way - his radical commitment to self-protection; to demonstrate the foolishness of his own obsessions, the weakness of his faith, and he knew that he needed to strengthen him. You know, if I can put it this way, to leave the Slough of Despond, if I can stick with Bunyan, and to ascend to the alpine meadows of divine blessing, is a euphoric thing. To watch God prove himself powerful in ways that you would have never imagined. Don't you know that's what Philip felt later when all of a sudden, they feed all of those people? Ephesians 3:20 says, "Who is able," referring to the Lord our God, "Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us."

Well, it's a hard lesson for Philip to learn, but he's learning it. Another example we see in John 14. Remember the context there. It's on the eve of the crucifixion, Jesus knew the agony that awaited him as he would appease the divine wrath that we deserve and bear our sins - the sins of those given to him - and the apostles' mentoring now is about to end the time that Jesus has been with them, and the apostles are still confused about what's really going on, you will recall. They don't understand this whole death thing. I mean, where's the kingdom? How do we fit into it? They're still bickering over who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom, and Jesus says to them that you're foolish, you're slow of heart to believe. They got a lot of rough edges that still needed to be filed off their sinful heart. So the context here in John 14 - they’re in the upper room, Jesus has washed their feet, Judas leaves now to betray Christ, and then Jesus comforts them in John 14, beginning in verse one. He says,

"'Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

"'In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

"'If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

"'And you know the way where I am going.'

"Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?'

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

"'If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on, you know Him, and have seen Him.'"

Well, that's a fascinating response. So Jesus makes it abundantly clear that he is their God, that to know Him is to know the Father. And then notice verse eight. Here's Philip. "Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough.'" It doesn't say this, but I'm sure the Lord is thinking, "Philip, where have you been? Didn't you hear what I've just said? Haven't you seen all that I have done?" Folks, it is so hard to break away from our proclivity to somehow make sure that our world works the way we want it, and to make sure, therefore, that there are absolute guarantees for everything, and therefore forfeit the blessings of what it means to live by faith. I mean, think about it. "Yes, Lord Jesus, I've been amazed at all your miracles. I've stood in awe at your teaching. I've witnessed your love. I've witnessed the power of your majesty and all of these things that you have done, but I still have some reservations. I still have a bit of skepticism lingering in the secret recesses of my imagination, and so will you please just jump through one more hoop for me? I want to make sure that what I'm believing is certain and true. I hate risk. I need guarantees before I relinquish my well chiseled strategies to make life work and turn it all over to you." I mean, that's in essence what's going on with dear Philip, and the Lord knows this. How sad! How many Christians are just like Philip, dependent upon their own resources, and they miss the big picture, the excitement, the thrill of walking with Christ, even when we are absolutely uncertain what or why or how things are going to work out.

Notice what Jesus says to him, beginning in verse nine.

"Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, "Show us the Father"?

"'Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

"'Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.

"'Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

"'Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

"'If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.'"

There he speaks of the coming Spirit that would dwell within them and empower them. You know this is such exciting news, isn't it? I mean, again, think about it. The Lord knew what Philip was like, chose him anyway. Jesus knew that his strength would be made perfect in Philip's weaknesses. How thankful I am, as we read in Second Thessalonians two, beginning in verse 14, that God has "chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." My, what a statement! "And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." And to think that the Lord was so gracious to Philip, chiseled him into a great preacher. He will one day rule in the millennial kingdom. He will one day enjoy the glories of heaven, which he's doing now. I look forward to meeting Philip.

Tradition tells us that he served faithfully in Asia Minor. Many came to know Christ because of his availability, his love for Christ, his teachability, his willingness to learn more of what it is to trust in him; and he was one of the first of the apostles to be martyred for his faith. By the way, he was martyred, we believe, some eight years after the martyrdom of James, and evidence indicates that he was stoned to death at Heliopolis in Phrygia. O child of God, let go of all those ways where you try to make life work on your own. Learn to trust in the Lord in ways that, if he is not who he says he is, you will be destroyed. And watch what he will do. Don't allow your fears of the world to cause you to erect idols of self-protection in your heart. They will promise far more than they will ever deliver. "For whatever is born of God," John tells us in First John 5:4, "overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world - our faith."

I pray that you will see in your life that God has sovereignly ordained all of the difficulties that you face as part of his loving providential care for you, and when you see these difficulties and you cry out to him for help way beyond your ability to even comprehend, then you will enjoy the adventurous, exciting journey to heaven that is yours, and that's what we see in the life of Philip. I pray that that is what we see in your life and in mine as well. Let's pray together,

Father, we are so thankful that you love us enough to shape us the way you see fit, and Lord, to be sure, we cannot even begin to see all of the many things that we have created in our life -  all of the little idols, all of the self-protective strategies, all of the silly ideas - that cause us to think that somehow we can live life apart from you. Lord, forgive us of that, and continue to faithfully, as we know you will, sanctify our lives that we might be more like Christ and enjoy the great blessings of what it is to walk by faith and not by sight, knowing that the sight is coming one day when we enter into glory. We thank you. We give you praise for these great truths and these great promises. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.