Unlikely Disciples – Amazing Grace (Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16)

Genius can write a poem, paint a canvas, or build a legacy but we’re convinced there’s a greater kind of mastery: Jesus Christ taking sinners and transforming them into disciples. That’s the kind of “amazing grace” we sit with as we walk through Luke’s list of disciples and connect it to key scenes from the Gospel of John.

We start with Philip, the planner. When Jesus faces a hungry crowd in the feeding of the 5000, Philip reaches for calculations, budgets, and limits. Jesus uses that moment to press a deeper point about faith and Christian discipleship: the issue isn’t how much you can fund or forecast, but what you’re willing to place in the Master’s hands. If you’ve ever felt like your practical mind disqualifies you from being used by God, Philip’s story challenges that assumption.

Then we meet Nathanael (Bartholomew), who speaks his mind and changes it fast. His skeptical line about Nazareth turns into a clear confession when Jesus reveals He saw him under the fig tree. From there we revisit Matthew the tax collector, proof that Jesus doesn’t call the already-qualified; He calls people and then qualifies them. Finally, we give Thomas a better nickname than “Doubting”: the first disciple to say he’s willing to die with Christ, even while he later wrestles with doubt.

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Transcript

The Master Who Changes People

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I have read that Henry Longfellow could write a few rhyming lines on a piece of paper and influence a generation. We call that poetic mastery or genius. Rembrandt could paint on a canvas and it would become a masterpiece. We call that artistic brilliance. But no master on earth compares to the genius, the mastery of Jesus, who takes sinners and transforms them into disciples. We call that amazing grace. Well, in our last wisdom journey, we looked at the first four disciples chosen by Jesus, and we watch his mastery over their lives. Well, next here in Luke's list in chapter six and verse fourteen is Philip. Well, let me introduce him by giving you another key principle at work here. The Lord chose his disciples not because of their impressive abilities, but because of their availability. I can remember growing up in my missionary home where my mother drummed this principle into the hearts of her four sons. Availability is the greatest

Philip And The Math Problem

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ability. And that's true. And no disciple proves this any more than Philip. Now Philip shows up in four brief scenes recorded in four chapters in the Gospel of John. If you'd met Philip, I'm pretty convinced you you would have met a rather unimpressive man. He came from the small town that Peter and Andrew came from. In fact, they more than likely attended the same synagogue. He was a quiet thinker. He was a planner. He's the kind of guy that played it safe in life. In fact, there is one scene where Jesus is going to address that issue in the mind of Philip. There's this hungry multitude of five thousand men, plus women and children, and they need to eat. So Jesus turns to Philip in John chapter six, here in verse five, and he asks him, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? Jesus said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Well, Philip evidently stands there and starts calculating. Let's see, five thousand men plus women and children, food for person, money per person, and he does the math and says to Jesus here in verse seven, two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. Two hundred denarii was equivalent to someone's annual salary. So Philip is saying to Jesus, We don't have that much money. There's no way we can feed this crowd. Well, right about then, Andrew shows up and says, Hey, I found a little boy who's willing to donate his lunch. He's got, well, let's see, he's got five little pieces of barley bread, and he's got two little pickled fish that would have been about the size of sardines. Now Philip's probably thinking, Andrew, you're out of your mind. What good would that do? That'll never work. Well, it's almost as if Jesus aims this miracle directly at the heart of Philip. Jesus is going to teach him as he feeds five thousand people that it isn't what you can calculate. It isn't how much you have in the bank. It's how much you give to your master and then let him take care of all the rest. What a lesson to learn. And don't miss the fact that Jesus chose Philip. Jesus chose a facts and figures kind of guy, an organized thinker, to be one of his disciples. You might be uh just like him today. According to historical sources, Philip went on to pioneer the gospel outreach in what is today modern day Turkey, leading multitudes of people to Christ before he was eventually stoned to death as a martyr for his faith. Now, with that, next in the list, uh Luke mentions Bartholomew, which means son of Tolmai. Now this is the same name given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but the Gospel of John adds Nathanael. So his full name would have been Nathanael Bartholomew, or Nathanael the son of Tolmai. Now, if you didn't think there was much to read about Philip, there's even less in the Bible to read about Nathaniel. In fact, we're only given one interaction involving Nathanael, and

Nathanael Meets The All-Seeing Christ

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that's when he meets Jesus for the first time. We're told here in John chapter 1 and verse 45, Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So what's happening here is Philip goes and finds his friend Nathaniel, evidently sitting under a fig tree, taking a little nap, maybe. Philip tells him they've found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Well, Nathaniel sits up and says rather sarcastically in verse forty six, can anything good come out of Nazareth? In other words, nothing good's ever come out of that little village. But as he now stands before Jesus in his presence, the Lord says to him here in verse forty eight, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel is blown away here. He responds to obviously an omniscient Lord, omnipresent even in a sense, and says here in verse 49, You are the Son of God. You are the king of Israel. I love this guy. He makes up his mind in two seconds. Here's what's racing through his mind. If Jesus saw me under that fig tree and he wasn't there, he's got to be the son of God. And if he's the son of God, that would make him the king of Israel. Well, evidently Nathaniel's the kind of man who speaks his mind and who makes up his mind quickly. By the way, we know of no other family member who came along with Nathaniel. It seems like he was the only one from his family to follow Christ. Maybe you're just like that. Maybe you're the first person in your entire family to follow Jesus Christ. I want you to keep in mind that this did not handicap Nathaniel's impact for Christ. It didn't matter that he didn't have a long line of people who'd followed the Lord. In fact, historical traditions record for us that he's going to reach into northern Iran, even southern Russia, with the gospel. And he's going to leave behind a spiritual legacy of faithfulness to Christ. Well, next in the list given to us by Luke is Matthew, the disciple Matthew. He's already shown up earlier in our wisdom journey through the gospels, and we've taken time to look at him. But by way of review, Matthew, or Levi, was considered a traitor to his people. He was a tax collector. That meant he sold his soul, so to speak, to the Roman Empire to turn around tax his people. That means he effectively abandoned his people. He's extorting more than what Rome would have required in

Matthew The Traitor Turned Witness

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taxation. He's skimming off the top. He'd grown wealthy because of it, which tax collectors did. I'm convinced the other disciples would have wondered here if Jesus made a mistake in calling Matthew. But with that choice, another key principle comes to my mind here. Jesus did not call qualified people. He called people and then qualified them to serve him. The Lord will so radically change Matthew's heart that he will eventually write the gospel of Matthew, primarily to reach the nation of Israel he had abandoned earlier in life. Keep that in mind. He's going to write to them, reach out to them that Jesus Christ is indeed their Messiah. Well now let me introduce you to the disciple that shows up next in the list. His name is Thomas. In John chapter 11 and verse 16, he's called the twin Diddy Mus. Evidently he had a twin sibling. We don't know anything about his twin. What we do know is that through the centuries Thomas had acquired this rather unflattering nickname, Doubting Thomas. That name is still being applied to him, by the way, two thousand years later. It seems like he can't live that down. He

Thomas From Doubting To Daring

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does seem like a somewhat melancholy disciple. He was quick to believe the worst. Yes, he did collapse in despair. He didn't initially believe that Jesus had risen from the grave and he skipped the meeting of the disciples when Jesus showed up. But let me tell you, I think Thomas deserves another nickname. And it isn't doubting Thomas. I would suggest daring Thomas. Have you ever thought about the fact that Thomas was actually the first disciple to say that he was willing to die with Christ? It happened when Jesus decided to go and visit the grave of Lazarus, and the other disciples were reluctant because they knew the Jewish leaders were planning to kill Jesus. And Thomas spoke up in John chapter 11 and verse 16 and said, Let us also go that we may die with him. I mean, if he's going to die, well I want to die with him. This is an amazing statement of courage and love for Christ. Let me give you another key principle. Here it is. Jesus didn't choose disciples who would never disappoint him. He showed his disciples that he would never disappoint them. By the way, if the Lord didn't permit those who disappointed him to become his disciples, I wouldn't be one of them today. You probably wouldn't be either. History records, by the way, that Thomas took the gospel all the way to India. He served the Lord faithfully there in India before being martyred for his faith. I have visited the city of Chennai where Thomas was supposedly buried. In fact, to this day, many churches in southern India trace their roots back to the fearless and faithful ministry of Thomas the Daring. Not Thomas the Doubter. Well, with that, we're out of time for today, beloved. Until we set sail again, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.