The Twelve Apostles: Flawed Yet Faithful

Reformation is needed in almost every day. If Paul, within years of founding the Corinthian congregation, needs to see them reformed, we can't be surprised that churches need reforming regularly in the history of the church. Sometimes that reform is more in the nature of a revitalization, but I think people have, especially in America, been too content to be satisfied with entertainment and with shallowness, and we need a seriousness about God, about Christ, and about His Word, and I think to be drawn again to a passionate interest in the Word is going to take a major reformation of the church today.

My hope is that this series will serve the church by causing people to reflect on what the church ought to be according to the Word of God. Today on Renewing Your Mind, doubting Thomas was a man of faith, but only so much faith. And the rest of his friends came and told him that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Thomas would not believe it. He was so hurt by the loss of Jesus that he wouldn't allow himself to believe anymore. His faith had hit the wall. You know, we tend to think of the apostles in glowing terms and marvel at the fact that Jesus called them and they followed.

But we realize they had feet of clay. They were sinners just like you and me. On more than one occasion, we see sin manifest itself in Peter, and as we just heard Dr. R.C.

Sproul say, Thomas's faith had, well, hit the wall. Let's learn more about some of these men and discover their true character, a study that I think will help us replace doubt with faith. Well, let's come now and stand and hear the Word of God from Luke chapter 6, verses 12 through 16. Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.

And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles, Simon, whom he also named Peter and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, since Simon called the zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor. Again, this small passage describes a momentous event in the ministry of Jesus when he selected these men whom were described later as those who turned the world upside down. You've heard the Word of God, receive it with the fullness of the authority that attends it. Let us pray. Again, our Father and our God, we beseech you for your help this morning that as we prepare our hearts for coming to the holy table of our Lord, we pray that through the Word you will prepare us for that moment. We ask that you would give us understanding of the text that we have heard and that the text may find its home within our hearts, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Last week we looked at Simon Peter and Andrew his brother and at James and John, and this morning we're going to look first of all at Philip. The New Testament doesn't give us a lot of information about Philip, but he is introduced very early in the Gospel of John when we're told that he comes to Nathanael, who is also called Bartholomew, and testifies to Nathanael that he said, we have found the one of whom Moses and the prophets spoke. And so Philip, in bearing witness to Jesus, made his confession of faith and his conviction that Jesus was the one who had been prophesied through the Old Testament law and the prophets, indeed the one who was the Messiah. And later on we see Philip again approaching Jesus on the occasion of the feeding of the 5,000, and he was the one who calculated the expense that would be involved in buying provisions to feed that vast multitude on that occasion. And because of that incidence, some people have unfairly, I believe, and unjustly dismissed Philip as just another calculating person because he should have realized that Jesus had the power and the ability to feed all of those 5,000 people without having to go and buy an enormous amount of food.

Well, I say I think that's tremendously unfair. It's just a statement made in passing and certainly is not characteristic of Philip in his whole life. Now, another thing we need to know is that Philip the apostle is not to be confused with Philip the deacon and evangelist who is found throughout the book of Acts and who meets the Ethiopian and explains Isaiah 53. That's a different person altogether. But one of the most important moments in the life of Jesus comes in the upper room when Philip says to Jesus, Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Did you hear that, Vesta? I mean, how many of you could stand up in front of all these people and say, Sufficeth?

And that takes some skill. Philip was saying, We've seen all these wonderful things that you've done. We've witnessed the turning of the water and the wine, the walking on the water, the calming of the sea, the raising of Lazarus, and all the rest of these wonderful miracles.

But there's one thing that we want. Give us the big one, Jesus. Show us the Father, and then we'll be completely satisfied. And if there was ever a time when Jesus seems to be exacerbated with one of his apostles or disciples, it was on this occasion because he said to Philip, Philip, How long have I been with you and you still don't know me?

You just don't get it. Don't you understand, Philip, that he who has seen me has seen the Father? What a powerful statement that Jesus makes regarding the significance of his incarnation.

He who has seen me has seen the Father. Well, like many of the other disciples, after the resurrection of Jesus and the day of Pentecost came, many of the apostles became missionaries to other lands. And tradition tells us that the missionary outreach of Philip carried all the way to ancient Gaul, that is to France, that he is the first to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to France. And then he spent much time in Turkey, where in confrontation with pagan priests there, he was despised and as a result was martyred in the year 54 A.D. He was doubly martyred, if that's possible.

First he was stoned almost to the point of death, and then they finished the job by crucifying him. Now the second apostle that we want to look at briefly this morning is Bartholomew, who is called Nathaniel in the gospel according to John. And as I mentioned a moment ago, it was Nathaniel or Bartholomew to whom Philip came and said, we have found the one of whom is prophesied by the law of Moses and the prophets. And Nathaniel was intrigued by that announcement, and he said, really, where is he? Where did he come from? And Philip said he came from Nazareth. Nathaniel laughed at that announcement. He said, Nazareth?

Are you kidding? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? That's like saying he came from Bitlo or someplace like that in central Florida. But Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, and he made this strange announcement as he saw him coming saying, Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile. Now again, the gospels do not tell us a lot about Nathaniel, but Jesus' pronouncement at that point is profound. What a description of a person's character. Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no deceit. He's a guileless person.

Wouldn't you love to have that on your tombstone, that this person was a person without any deception, without any dishonesty, without any manipulation, but utterly guileless? And when Nathaniel hears this pronouncement, he's shocked. And he's saying, how in the world did you know that?

You don't even know me. And Jesus said, I saw you under the tree over there, and I knew you even before then. And Nathaniel was so impressed by Jesus' display of supernatural knowledge that he immediately exclaimed, You're the Son of God. You're the King of Israel. So you see, it wasn't just Peter who made a great confession of faith among the disciples and among the apostles, but here we first hear it. You're the Son of God from Philip. Now it's Nathaniel saying, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel. Well, again, the Scriptures don't speak much more of this guileless Israelite, but from the testimony of church history and of tradition, we're told that he also became a missionary and went to Armenia and started the first Christian church in Armenia, but his ministry there got him in conflict with the local priests of pagan religion, and they didn't like what he taught. You know, he would teach such things as the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage long before Chick-fil-A faced the same kind of negative reaction.

Isn't it interesting in our culture and in our day that if you believe in the sanctity of life and in the sanctity of marriage, two things instituted by God in creation, you are now risking being accused of a hate crime. And that's how far we have come, but we understand the heart of men and how desperately wicked we are in our fallen humanity, and this is the kind of problem that Nathaniel ran into in Armenia. So he, too, was martyred in the year 70 A.D., and he was killed, first of all, by having his skin flayed with whips, that is, being whipped so severely that most of his skin came off of his body. And when they were finished with the flaying, they let him out and crucified him. Well, Matthew we've already examined because we met him earlier in the gospel of Luke. We know that he was Levi the tax collector, whom Jesus called from his tax collecting business, and how Matthew then threw this wonderful party for Jesus and the rest of his tax collector friends that created such hostility from the Pharisees that they began to seek ways to do away with Jesus. And, of course, the greatest claim to fame of St. Matthew is that he wrote the gospel bearing his name. And of all the four gospels, the one with the most references to the Old Testament is his gospel.

It is a gospel clearly written for a Jewish audience. Well, he, too, became a missionary and, according to ancient tradition, took the gospel to Ethiopia and was one of the first to visit and establish a church there in Africa. But in 60 AD, he also got into problems with the local pagan priests, and as a result, he was beheaded as a martyr to the faith. And that leaves us this morning with Thomas. Thomas, who is known in infamy as being the skeptic of the resurrection, is called Doubting Thomas.

In fact, he's also called Thomas one of the twins. But if we look at the other references to Thomas in the New Testament, we see that Thomas was not—it's unfair to consider him simply as a skeptic. When things got really bad during the last days of Jesus' life and Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be arrested and suffer and die, most of the rest of the disciples wanted no parts of that. But it was Thomas who said, we will go with you, and we will die with you. He stepped up and was willing to accompany Jesus to the point of death.

Now, of course, that didn't happen. But of all of the disciples, perhaps at this point, he was the most zealous for Jesus, and when in his zeal he saw his Savior executed, taken down from the cross, and buried, and the rest of his friends came and told him that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Thomas would not believe it, and I think it was to protect his own faith. He was so hurt by the loss of Jesus, so devastated by his execution, that he wouldn't allow himself to believe anymore. His faith had hit the wall, and there was no more room for hope in this man.

And so he gave the challenge to the rest of those who were giddy in their excitement about the resurrection. He said, you guys can believe that stuff, but unless I put my finger in the wounds in his hand and my hand in the side where his spear had pierced him, I will not believe. And you know the story, how when the disciples were gathered in the upper room, and Jesus appeared in their midst, and Jesus looked at Thomas. He said, here, Thomas, come here. Put your fingers in my hand.

Put your hand in my side. That was the offer that Jesus made to Thomas. The Scriptures don't tell us if he took Jesus up on the offer and actually touched the risen Christ. I doubt very much if he did, though he said that they would take that to convince him. The presence of Jesus now with his outspread hands was more than enough to convince him.

And you talk about confessions of faith. Now Thomas is on his knees, and he gives perhaps the highest, not perhaps the highest, profession of faith of any of the disciples of Jesus. And he looked at him and he said, my Lord and my God. Now notice there are other occasions where human beings bowed down before angels or even had people bow down before them as Paul had experienced on his missionary journeys. And in every case where one who was not God was treated as God, they were rebuked. The angels would not receive worship from human beings.

Paul refused and Silas refused to accept worship from people in their adulation. But when Thomas said, my Lord and my God, Jesus didn't say to him, Thomas, don't get carried away. I'm not God. I'm God's representative. I'm the firstborn of all creation. But I'm not the eternal, self-existent second person of the Trinity.

No, no. Jesus received worship from Thomas. Thomas, who then later became a missionary to India, and in the year 70 AD suffered martyrdom, being killed with a spear. But his confession rings down through the ages even to this day.

My Lord, my God. You know, when we hear the skeptics accuse us as Christians of following a made-up religion, we should think of the apostles. After all, if Christianity were a mere man-made religion, would these men have remained firm all the way to a martyr's death? It's one thing to hold on to a truth claim when everything is going well.

It's quite another when your life hangs in the balance. Thomas' confession stands the test of time because of his faithful life. I'm glad you've joined us today for Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Lee Webb. Our study today comes from Dr. R.C. Sproul's sermon series in the Gospel of Luke. We're going verse by verse. We're in chapter 6 now, so we still have much study ahead of us. Let me recommend a helpful study companion for our time together each week. Contact us today and request a digital download of R.C. 's commentary on Luke's Gospel.

In nearly 600 pages, you'll find helpful insight into every passage. To receive it, just contact us with your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Well, we are in our 51st year of ministry, and our desire remains the same, to reach as many people as possible with the truth of God's Word. We recognize that this outrage will succeed only as long as we're dependent upon God in regular prayer. So we hope that your regular financial support is accompanied by prayer for Ligonier and for this work.

We're grateful for you. Well, I am thankful for Dr. Sproul's clear teaching about doubting Thomas today. I know that many believers struggle with doubt. You may even describe yourself as a modern-day doubting Thomas.

In an Ask Ligonier video, one of our teaching fellows, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, answered this question. What would you say to someone who still doubts his salvation after seeing its fruit in his life? I think the important thing always is—and this has been the counsel of, I think, the great masters of the spiritual life. You know, one of them put it this way, make sure for every look you take at yourself and your need, take ten looks at Christ. Because at the end of the day, we don't find the grounds of our salvation or our assurance in ourselves or in our own experience, but in Jesus Christ. The other thing I think I would say would be that you need to hold on to the promises that God has given to you. For example, a promise like this in the book of James, you draw near to me and I will draw near to you. And hold on to that promise rather than hold on to the way you feel about who you are and what you are as a Christian. So it's always important, first and foremost, to look to Christ, to hold on to Christ, and to hold on to the promises of God, not just in general as in saying, Oh God, I believe your promises, but to look for specific promises He's given that are applicable to your situation and to hold on to them. And because one of the things God is doing when we find ourselves struggling in this way is that He's disciplining us and teaching us to trust in Him even when we can't feel Him, or even when we don't see exactly what He's doing in our lives. Next Sunday, Dr. Sproul returns to Luke chapter 6 to teach us more about Jesus' apostles. So I hope you'll join us for Renewing Your Mind. .