Transcription
Good morning. Good morning. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen? Amen.
Alright. Everyone's here. If anyone shows up at eleven, we know who didn't listen to the, stetatia. So if you've been following along as our kind of progression through the series the twelve, you might think you know who we're talking about today and you'd only be half right. This is the only, sermon we're gonna do where we're actually gonna cover two of the apostles.
So as we've been doing this whole series, every apostle's kind of had a theme we've we've learned from their life and their their times in scripture. With Peter, we saw that when you step out of the boat in faith, you keep walking in faith. That scene of him on this walking on water, we think it's just the the getting out of the boat that's the miracle, but it's every step in between. And we're called in our walk of faith to every day keep the faith and trust in God, not just the initial, coming to faith and coming to know Christ. We learned from Andrew that we're all called to share the gospel no matter how that looks.
That look like different things for some people. Some are preachers. Some are sharers. Some are inviters. We all share the gospel differently, but we are all called to share the gospel.
We learned from James how to walk in humility. That we're all called to not be, the greatest with the least. Because then in the kingdom of heaven, those values are flip flopped. And we learn to walk in humility. From John, we learn what's about god's love.
He was the beloved disciple and we learn about Christ's love and how to live that love. From Philip, we learn, that god goes to prepare a place for us. That there we are not a mistake. That we have a plan and prepared place in heaven, that he cares for us and he knows us, that he's invited us home. From Nathaniel, we see that god sees me, that he saw him under the fig tree.
We see that name Elroy out of Genesis, the god who sees me. From Thomas, we learned that we were all at some point doubters before we came to know the lord. And, from Matthew, we learned that god sees us where we are, and he brings us to where we need to be himself. So every apostle has had a theme. Something we can learn from their life and the stories we see from them in scripture.
Well, the next two apostles we're gonna listen, we're gonna learn about today are unique. And the the fact that they share something that no other of the apostles in the list have. We're gonna be learning about James the Lesser and Thaddeus. Now, what makes these two unique among all the other apostles and the things they share and why I lump them together is because we know for certainty almost nothing about them. Besides their names, anything we know about them is pure speculation.
They don't show up anywhere else in the gospels except in the lists of who's the disciples of Christ. And all other history is speculative. Everyone argues about this, that, and the other. Like, so we're gonna dive into their back story. So James, we call him James the younger, or James the lesser, or little James.
The only time we see him is so these are the three verses of the list of the apostles. In Matthew ten three, we see him called James the son of Alphaeus. In Mark three eighteen, we see him again. And it listed as James the son of Alphaeus. And in Luke six fifteen, we see him listed as James, the son of Alphaeus.
And that's the most we have to glean from James, the son of Alphaeus. We don't see him pop up anywhere else in the scene. We don't see him speak. We don't even see him designated as being a part of a particular event. He's just in the list.
So people have lots of speculation about him. Some speculate that the name the son of Alpheus might ring some bells for a couple of you. If you read in, in Mark two, 14, it says, when we introduced to Levi, we were introduced to Levi as Levi, the son of Alphaeus. So there is some speculation, well maybe they're brothers. But there's no agreement on that.
Some people think he might have been, they don't even know. They can't agree on anything about his life, about who he's from, about who he's related to, about where he even served, and how he even died. All of it is speculated church history and tradition, and even that doesn't agree. The same for Thaddeus. Thaddeus in all of these three accounts is listed as Thaddeus Thaddeus, except for Luke six, 16 where he is listed as Judas, the son of James.
And then immediately after, there's the listing of Judas Iscariot who became a traitor. So the only time he's not listed as Thaddeus is the one time he's listed as another Judas. And they really quickly distinct him from the other. So the, the only thought around that is they went by Thaddeus was to completely separate him as far as possible from Judas Iscariot because once that name got that kind of title, no one wants to name their kid Judas anymore. It's kind of a similar thing back in the day with Hitler.
There used to be a common name or Adolf used to be a common name in Germany. No one's name would not get that anymore. Once you kinda get that black mark, you wanna separate yourself as far as possible. So we know him as Thaddeus, and sometimes he's called Jude the apostle or Judas Thaddeus the apostle. Some people thought, hey, maybe he's Jude, the brother of Jesus.
Maybe he's the cousin of Jesus that no one knows and they speculate and argue and just all these church tradition. That's all we have for these two guys. And it bears the question, if why would Jesus invite these two nobodies to come and be in his innermost circle of the 12? Like we're talking about the 12 apostles. And yet we have two guys we know nothing about.
There's no no extra extraordinariness in them. No great stories. No great messages. No why do we have these two nobody's listed in the 12, the 12 apostles? Like, how how does that work?
And it can be rather confusing. What what I've been so excited waiting for the sermon because it's such a unique thing to talk about people who have no story. Because we think, well, what's how are you gonna learn about two people who have no story? Like, what are we gonna what what scriptures are we gonna dissect? What events are we gonna learn from?
How do we learn from someone who has no written story? And I I've been excited for this. I think about all the other, sermons in the series because there are millions of untold stories, millions of forgotten stories, millions of disciples who will never be recorded in scripture, whose stories will never be known by anyone but god. I think that these two nobodies were included, which is to remind us that we don't need to be famous in anyone's eyes other than Christ. That, yeah, we know nothing about these two apostles, but no one knows anything about the millions of other disciples and Christians who have come before us except God.
And we'll hear those stories in heaven. So as we learned about the the forgotten stories, the Bible and church history are filled with forgotten stories of people who've done amazing things just as amazing as the apostles and yet have have not been recorded. Just read one any letter written by Paul. If you read any of the epistles, he normally starts and finishes with farewells and goodbyes, hellos and goodbyes, and he lists people whom he wants to say hello to or goodbye to. We have never heard those people for the most part ever again.
Like maybe one or two little tiny heads, but there are hundreds of people Paul writes and says hello to or goodbye to, calls them co laborers and brothers in Christ, and we don't hear any of their stories. And yet, in Paul's eyes, they're as much as co laborers, fellow soldiers, brothers and sisters in the faith and helper and essential to his ministry as anyone else and yet we never hear of them. Again, in Paul's eyes, the Paul the apostle thinks they were invaluable and indispensable to his ministry and worthy of being at least recognized in his letter, and yet we don't know their story. The bible is full of them. History is full of them.
When I was, years ago church planner, I reread a book that is one of my favorite stories. It's a biography about a man and it's called God's Smuggler. It's a story about a man who would smuggle Bibles across the iron curtain to, the persecuted churches back in the Cold War era. And this man, he he comes over from, Eastern Europe. He comes over to England for a while to, not Eastern Holland, I believe.
He comes over to England to get some education, and he, stays with this street preacher who has a small chapel in Downtown London somewhere. And he would remember sitting there with him, and he would set up all these chairs to have no one come in. And he would just be like, man, how are you not so disheartened? He's like, hey. God knows who was meant to be there.
I will maybe meet them one day, but they're prepared for it. They've been prayed over and they don't even know it yet. And he remembered seeing this man's faith and he's like, wow. This is amazing that this man has such faith in this thing. And then years later, he would go and, he'd go and bring these Bibles to these isolated Christians, these isolated Eastern European villages.
And they went to one isolated village which took days to get to on back dirt roads and they were told, Hey, there is a church here. And I said, Well, where's the church? And they pointed to a woman's home. So she had made one of her spare rooms into a church and it was a church of one. She was the only person attending that church, the only person who was a Christian in the whole village and she was standing faithfully for the gospel in her tiny village in the middle of nowhere.
No one remembers her name. No one remembers her story. And yet, we had to encounter in this in this biography. And I remember being blown away by these these couple stories of people's faithfulness of who no one is writing books about the greatness of their ministries. And yet, what they were doing for Christ is just as amazing as what Paul or Peter or Spurgeon or Billy Graham or any of these people we think are amazing have done.
See, history is full of the forgotten stories, but Christ does not forget them. You and I might not think, I'm nothing special. I'm no I'm no Paul. I'm no Peter. I'm no Billy Graham.
I'm just me. No one's gonna remember my story in a hundred years, and you're probably right. No one's probably gonna write great stories and biographies about the great right reverend pastor Nicholas Ford. They probably never will. But god knows my story.
I want him to remember me. And then in heaven, that's what I think is gonna be the greatest part of heaven is besides being face to face with the glory of god, getting to tell the untold stories of brothers and sisters in Christ who has stories have been written down through the centuries. Say, hey, man. How did you get to serve the lord? How did how how did Christ meet you?
Well, let me tell you about my in hearing each other's testimonies. I think that's gonna be the second greatest thing about heaven besides knowing Jesus. We're gonna see in everyone's lives what Jesus did and no one has ever heard that story yet and we get to hear them for eternity. Because they're not forgotten in god's eyes. I mean, history might not know them but, god does.
I mean, you might be saying, you know, what I'm doing isn't that important. It it's it's whatever. I'm just I I I bring the cookies for church on Sunday. I I'm the greeter. I open the door.
I go and I I I donate a couple clothes to the the shelter. Whatever. That's what does that matter? What is what am I doing is it's not important. But in first Corinthians fifteen fifty eight, it says, I'll read the whole.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable always, abounding in the work of the lord, knowing that in the lord, your labor is not in vain. I love how it translates it in the new living translation where it says, nothing you do for the lord is ever useless. I remember as a church planter, time and time again, having a church service with me, myself, and I, god the father, god the son, god the holy spirit as the only six people in attendance and wondering why am I doing this, god? Why am I trying again and again to reach this community with the gospel, to sit in an empty room with empty chairs? And I read that verse at some point.
And I'm just like it became an anthem verse for my ministry, because sometimes it feels like what I'm doing doesn't matter. It's just a little thing. Or I can't see the seeds planted, and I can't see the fruit grow. I what what does it matter? And yet the promise of the word of God is nothing you do for God is ever useless.
Whether it's a small cup of water in his name or whether it's a revival crusade, it doesn't matter. Nothing you do for the lord is useless. And remembering that even if you're not famous in the world's eyes, even if you never get the great recognition, god sees you. In Matthew six one through four, Jesus tells this story, kind of this kind of warning and teaching. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people, for it to be seen by them.
For then, you will have no reward for you from your father who lives in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpets before you do so. That does the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. They may be received by a praise by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received the reward.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your hand know or your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be done in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. God who sees in secret will reward you even though no one will see what you do. Even if you feel it's unrecognized and pointless and it's just it's a small thing. God sees it. He sees your service.
He sees what you're doing. I mean, there are countless examples through the scripture of people who did a little thing and yet they did wonders. There's, the widow who gave the last of her 2 pennies. The widow's mites. The tiniest Roman unit of money measurement.
All she had, she placed it in the altar and, you know, all the other people are bringing bags of money and big things and all these things. And yet Jesus points her out and says, wherever scriptures, wherever the gospel is shared, she will be remembered because she gave out of her need, not her access. She she gave with her heart. This this little tiny thing that no one would have thought, hey, she gave 2 pennies. What's the big deal?
But she gave with her heart. She gave and it was not useless. And Christ saw it. Christ remembered it. The little boy who who brings his two, two fishes and five loaves is, you know, a a lunch.
What is that? I gave you a couple pieces of bread and some fish. In God's hands, he didn't rip. It was soft. It was seen.
It was appreciated. It was not useless. To the woman who wept and, cleaned the feet of Jesus in Luke, seven thirty six through 15. She had nothing to bring but her tears. She had nothing to bring but her hair.
And yet Christ saw her. Saw what she was doing, saw her heart, saw her faithfulness. The woman in the book of Acts, her name was, Dorcas or Tabitha. You know, all she did was make clothes for the poor. And she said, I'm I'm just knitting.
I'm just getting clothes. But yet the community that came out for her when she died and saw the seeds planted and then the miracle that happened as she was rose from the dead, there's no small things in the kingdom of god. There's nothing useless if you do it for god. The world might not remember you but Christ does. Our stories might be forgotten but they're not forgotten by god.
The The world might not know who you are, but Christ does. There's a amazing song by, an artist named, Franchesca Manicelli, called A Thing That's in My Father's Eyes. And I wish I could play it for you on video. I might sing it, later. But it's this one line is I'm I don't care if my name is in lights.
I'm famous in my father's eyes. He knows my name. We don't need to be famous in anyone in other's eyes but Christ. The world may not remember us but he does. Our stories are forgotten by the world but not by him.
These two apostles who we know nothing about, god knows what he did. God knows why he picked them. God knows what he they were doing. And one day we will get to know it too, but they're not forgotten in his eyes. Because the point of our story isn't for, the point of our stories aren't for our glory but for Christ's.
Because that's gonna be the question. If if my story is about my glory or God's glory, Why do I wanna be remembered? Why do I want to receive that praise and acclamation? Why do I want my name written down in the annals of history? Is it for my glory or for Christ's?
Because his story will never be forgotten. It will never fade. Then Matthew twenty four thirty five, it says heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. His story could never be forgotten. People have tried to erase it time and time and time again.
Even one of the things I love to tell unsaved people, people who are atheist or agnostic or or far from God. I'm like, even if you look at the bible as just a book, not even believing that is the holy inspired word of God. This book should not exist with how many times people have tried to wipe it off the map, tried to burn it, tried to make it illegal, tried to get rid of it, and yet it is still here and it is growing. It is still the most published book in the world. It has lasted for millennium.
It has been the same from today as two thousand years plus ago. It is more, artifacts of it than any other ancient book. It is an amazing thing. Even if you just look at it as a book, this book should not be and people can't erase its story. God's word, God's story will never fade.
It will also never fail. In Isaiah fifty five eleven, it says, my word, I send it out, and I will accomplish with it all that I want it to. God's word is not a dead piece of paper and ink. It is alive and it with its will will be done. It will never fade and it will never fail.
It's also alive and with us. In Hebrews four twelve, it says, for the word of God is alive and active. This is not just paper and ink. This is not just any regular book. Otherwise, it would have been gone forever ago.
Dead words can inspire and be amazing but they can't change the world. And yet the Bible has changed the world time and time again. And it continues to do so because it is not a dead book. It is alive. In fact, we know it's really alive because in John one fourteen it said, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It is not just paper and ink. It is found in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. He literally, the word came and dwelt among us. It is not dead pages and paper. It is alive and his name is Jesus.
It also can't be contained. His story can't be contained. In John twenty one twenty five, it said, and there were so many things that Jesus did that the world itself could not contain the books if they were written. The stories of god can't be contained. They can't be stopped and they can't be broken.
Our stories, we sometimes we think too much that we're the main character. Even though we might be humble and say, I'm just myself. I'm just me. In our heart of hearts, sometimes we think that we're the main character of our story. We are just a footnote and a side character in the in the main character's story, and we get to be a part of his team.
We get to come and and and walk with him and be a part of what he's doing. And he knows our story, but we're not the main character. We're not the point. He's the point. His story will never fade.
His story will never fail. His story is alive and gives us life. There's another song and, I'm gonna I'm gonna try and play it for you on my phone because it is a song that, to this day, even though it only came out a few years ago, makes me cry like a baby whenever I hear the song. And it's sung by the artist called Casting Crowns. You might know them.
Very famous, Christian artists. And they came up with this song a few years ago simply called Nobody. And I'm gonna tell you the line that breaks me down like a baby every time just in case there's technical difficulties. But there's a the first line of the song is I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody all about the somebody who saved my soul. And that line breaks my heart every time because I am just a nobody.
The world is never gonna think the the great pastor Nicholas Ford and is that I'm never gonna be sung in the annals of history like John Wesley or Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham. I'm just I'm just a nobody. But I wanna tell everybody all about the somebody who changed my soul. Our point of our story isn't that we're remembering. It's that he is.
Because when we bring our story in line with his, we bring him the glory. And that's what we're called to do. So I think that's why we have these two apostles who we know nothing about. To remind us God knows their stories, but it's not about them. Sometimes we get confused with the people and forget who we're here for.
And it's not about our stories, but about his. So I'm gonna try and play the song for you so we can be blessed by it. But if not, that's the that's the verse, of the song that is just phenomenal. So let's see if my good luck will run. I'm thinking I'm gonna start cutting carbs.
I need to drop my belt in. That's definitely not the first line. I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody all about the somebody who saved my soul. Let's pray. Heavenly god and father, thank you for this day.
Thank you that your story never fades, never goes away, lord. That you would call nobody's to come and be a part of what you're doing, to come and make you known. Thank you, lord, for changing our souls. Praise you, Father God.