back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 8.6.23
00:18:44.280 |
And as you guys know, we have a retreat coming up next week. 00:18:48.280 |
And so I want to remind you that next Sunday, we only have service at 11 o'clock. 00:18:56.280 |
Pastor James Lee from Cross Life is going to be preaching. 00:18:58.280 |
And Pastor Peter Chung will also be here to help out with the service and lead worship. 00:19:02.280 |
And so because of that, I want to remind you that if you are coming to the 11 o'clock service, 00:19:10.280 |
We have it up at the retreat site, but we won't have it here. 00:19:13.280 |
And along with that, we do not have shuttle service. 00:19:16.280 |
So I'm sure there will be enough parking in the area so you don't have to worry about that. 00:19:23.280 |
And if you are in the middle of membership class right now, 00:19:28.280 |
the membership class won't be taking place next week either. 00:19:31.280 |
We'll pick it back up on the following Sunday. 00:19:35.280 |
And then we have a men's prayer breakfast that we have quarterly that's coming up in September 9th. 00:19:41.280 |
So sign ups are going to start taking place not after we come back from the retreat. 00:19:44.280 |
But I wanted to give you a heads up so that it doesn't catch you off guard. 00:19:48.280 |
Again, 9/9, so September 9th on Saturday morning at our cafe. 00:19:55.280 |
So please look out for that and sign up for that. 00:19:57.280 |
If you haven't signed up for the Galatians Bible study, please do that as soon as possible. 00:20:02.280 |
Sprouts PTA meeting is also happening on September 10th. 00:20:06.280 |
So if you're a parent of a Sprout student, there is a meeting that's happening at 2 p.m. 00:20:11.280 |
So you're going to go grab lunch and then come back. 00:20:15.280 |
And then intentional sisters fellowship, ISF, they're still taking sign ups for that. 00:20:20.280 |
And that's going to be starting on August 25th. 00:20:28.280 |
I'm going to be explaining a little bit as we get ready. 00:20:31.280 |
But the communion, again, the reason why we celebrate the way that we celebrate 00:20:38.280 |
is because we want people to be intentional about coming up. 00:20:41.280 |
That this is not just some--you know, there's no superpower within it, 00:20:44.280 |
like you came in and just took it and something happened to you. 00:20:47.280 |
It is meant so that we would take time on our normal schedule 00:20:52.280 |
and to think through the meaning behind it and what it means and the significance of it 00:20:56.280 |
so that we can kind of recalibrate our spiritual lives according to what the table represents. 00:21:02.280 |
And so during the service, through the preaching, through the singing, 00:21:06.280 |
that you would ready your hearts so when we ask to open the table 00:21:10.280 |
that you would be able to come up and participate in it. 00:21:13.280 |
I'm going to pray for us and we're going to take a minute to give the offering. 00:21:17.280 |
But the offering time is, again, we'll give you a minute to do that. 00:21:21.280 |
But also if you are here and you need to give a physical offering, 00:21:24.280 |
there is a box in the back on the way out. You can drop it off there. 00:21:28.280 |
Okay? All right, let me pray for us and we'll begin. 00:21:31.280 |
Father, we thank you for the blessing that we have in you. 00:21:38.280 |
I pray that you would help us to lift up our eyes, 00:21:43.280 |
to know, believe, follow, and worship Christ who suffered and has given so much for us. 00:21:52.280 |
Lord, if we have brought in a heart of ingratitude, 00:21:56.280 |
or if we have been entangled with things, Lord God, 00:22:00.280 |
that really does not have much to do with eternal things, 00:22:04.280 |
help us, Lord, to open our eyes, soften our hearts, 00:22:10.280 |
that we may hear and be willing, Lord God, to be searched by you. 00:22:15.280 |
I pray that you would bless our time of corporate worship. 00:22:19.280 |
I pray that even in this giving, that we would give as an act of worship 00:22:23.280 |
and may it be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for the sake of your kingdom. 00:23:17.280 |
Church family, let's all rise together as we sing these songs to our God. 00:31:49.280 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 6. 00:31:58.280 |
And we're getting into the second half of the 12 disciples. 00:32:05.280 |
And the second half obviously is going to go much faster because we don't have a lot of information about the disciples, 00:32:14.280 |
with the exception of maybe a few at the tail end. 00:32:19.280 |
But I want to again refresh our memory of the text and the names of the disciples before we get started. 00:32:27.280 |
Verse 12, "It was at this time that he went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. 00:32:33.280 |
And when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also named as apostles, 00:32:39.280 |
Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, 00:32:45.280 |
and Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Aphaeus, and Simon, who was called Zealot, 00:32:50.280 |
Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor." Let's pray. 00:32:55.280 |
Father, we pray that you would give us understanding, that your word would speak to us, 00:33:01.280 |
that it was your word and your word alone. Help us, Lord, not to simply be hearers, but to be doers of your word. 00:33:07.280 |
May your word and your word alone go forth and not return until it has accomplished its purpose. 00:33:15.280 |
You know, a few weeks ago, again, when we were out in Korea, 00:33:23.280 |
we had an opportunity to speak with a group of Mormons out on the streets. 00:33:27.280 |
And one of the things that I noticed clearly about this encounter 00:33:32.280 |
is that how much of what they profess to believe, even 10, 15 years ago, they've altered. 00:33:39.280 |
And so whether it's polygamy or certain rituals that they have, they say, "Oh, we don't practice that anymore." 00:33:43.280 |
You know, our elders or leaders have decided that the interpretation had to be tweaked, 00:33:49.280 |
which is interesting because their book, according to record, has had 4,000 separate revisions 00:33:57.280 |
within the 150-some years that they've existed. 4,000 revisions had to be made in the New Book of Mormons. 00:34:06.280 |
Our text that we have, the Bible that we have, according to all records, with archaeological finds and what we have, 00:34:16.280 |
we pretty much have 99.9% of what they had in the first century is the exact same thing that we have today. 00:34:23.280 |
There's no other historical document that has been preserved to this extent. 00:34:28.280 |
That we know, whether you are a believer or not, we know that this is the text. 00:34:33.280 |
These are the letters that were handed from the apostles to the churches, the individuals, 00:34:38.280 |
and pretty much these are the letters that we have today. 00:34:42.280 |
And the reason behind this wasn't because of technology, it wasn't because of smart men got together 00:34:48.280 |
and found out what's the best way to preserve the literature. 00:34:52.280 |
It's because men and women literally gave their lives because they were convicted by this truth. 00:35:01.280 |
So the preservation of this truth came through blood of martyrs, people who gave their lives. 00:35:07.280 |
No other historical document, again, whether you are a believer or not, 00:35:12.280 |
is as accurate as when it was originally written 2,000 years later than the Bible itself. 00:35:17.280 |
Not even close. There's no other historical things that we believe today 00:35:21.280 |
that is based upon as much accuracy, as much evidence, than what we have today. 00:35:29.280 |
We know this because men and women literally gave their lives 00:35:33.280 |
in order to preserve the word of God and to preach it for the next generation. 00:35:38.280 |
I want to introduce to you as we jump into the text, a young lady. 00:35:45.280 |
I know from that picture you can't really tell how old she is. 00:35:48.280 |
She's about 23, 24 years old in that picture. 00:35:51.280 |
Her name is Ruby Kendrick. She was born in 1883, died in 1908. 00:35:57.280 |
The reason I have this picture, or I have, is because while we were in Seoul, Korea, 00:36:00.280 |
we went to one of the churches where they have all the missionaries who labored in Korea 00:36:06.280 |
the last hundred and some years, were buried here, or at least a lot of them. 00:36:10.280 |
This young lady really stands out because she only labored for about nine months out in Korea. 00:36:18.280 |
Typically, most of the people who are buried here have literally given their lives, 00:36:24.280 |
their children's lives, and some of them, even their great-grandchildren, continue to stay and labor, 00:36:28.280 |
and that's why they were buried in the cemetery. 00:36:30.280 |
But this young lady was only in Korea for about nine months before she passed away. 00:36:34.280 |
But the reason why she's there is because she went at such a young age. 00:36:39.280 |
She wanted to go when she was at the age of 20, right out of college, 00:36:46.280 |
So she had to wait a few more years, and afterwards had to be trained a couple years. 00:36:51.280 |
And then in 1907, she was finally commissioned, and she went out to Seoul, Korea. 00:36:55.280 |
And after about nine months, and they don't know exactly what the cause was. 00:37:00.280 |
Some say that it was just exhaustion and fatigue, but she contracted something, 00:37:07.280 |
And in her deathbed, she writes a letter to her fellow students in Texas, 00:37:13.280 |
and in that letter, as she is facing death, one of the quotes that she says is, 00:37:19.280 |
"If I had a thousand lives to give," go back to the other one, 00:37:22.280 |
"If I had a thousand lives to give, Korea should have them all." 00:37:27.280 |
And so that was written in her letter, and that kind of caused a spark and revival, 00:37:32.280 |
and many other students ended up coming out to Korea and giving their lives 00:37:38.280 |
I wanted to read a letter that she wrote to her mom before this happened, 00:37:49.280 |
It says, "Dad, Mom, this land, Chosun," which is what they called Korea at that time, 00:37:56.280 |
"is truly a beautiful land. They all resemble God. 00:37:59.280 |
I see their good heart and zeal for the gospel. 00:38:02.280 |
I believe that in a few years, it will be a land overflowing with the love of Christ. 00:38:07.280 |
I saw children walking over ten miles on barefoot to hear the gospel, 00:38:17.280 |
Two days ago, three or four of those who have accepted Christ, 00:38:20.280 |
less than a week, had been dragged away and were martyred. 00:38:24.280 |
Missionary Thomas and James were also martyred. 00:38:27.280 |
There were orders from the mission board to return, 00:38:30.280 |
but most missionaries are in hiding and worshipping with those 00:38:36.280 |
It seems that they are all planning to be martyred. 00:38:39.280 |
Tonight, I have strong desire to return home. 00:38:43.280 |
I remember you, Mom, who resisted to the last moment of me leaving the port 00:38:48.280 |
because of the stories of the hate of foreigners in opposition to the gospel. 00:38:52.280 |
Dad, Mom, perhaps this may be the last letter I will be writing. 00:38:57.280 |
The seed that was sown in the backyard before I came out here 00:39:00.280 |
must be filling our neighborhood with flowers. 00:39:03.280 |
Another seed bear many flowers in the land of Chosun, 00:39:12.280 |
I realize that this passion for Chosun that I have is not mine, 00:39:19.280 |
This was written by a 23, 24-year-old who dedicated her life 00:39:27.280 |
And she was not martyred, but she was willing to be. 00:39:32.280 |
And she died young, and as a result of her death, 00:39:34.280 |
many other young people were willing to pick up their cross and come. 00:39:39.280 |
And so the history of Christianity is filled with young people, old people, 00:39:44.280 |
who have given their lives, shed their blood, 00:39:50.280 |
As encouraging, as challenging as that is, this is not unique to Korea. 00:39:56.280 |
Two thousand years of church history is filled with people like Ruby, 00:40:00.280 |
who met Christ and was willing to give their life 00:40:04.280 |
to get the gospel to the people who did not have it. 00:40:08.280 |
Because you and I live in a comfortable country, 00:40:12.280 |
our natural tendency is to think that God's blessing upon our lives is health. 00:40:18.280 |
It's good job, children who behave, a good retirement, 00:40:26.280 |
And so all that we do, how we evaluate God's blessing in our life, 00:40:31.280 |
oftentimes is filtered by what we have accepted as normal. 00:40:37.280 |
But two thousand years of church history are filled with people like her. 00:40:42.280 |
Thousands and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people 00:40:53.280 |
And so you and I worship here freely because of that. 00:40:57.280 |
You and I live in a free country and gather together 00:41:05.280 |
because people have given their lives to get us to this point. 00:41:10.280 |
It's important for us that the calling of Christ is a radical call. 00:41:16.280 |
We may study Philip and Bartholomew and Peter and Andrew 00:41:22.280 |
and look at that and say, wow, these guys were men of courage 00:41:25.280 |
and they did great things. They all died for their faith. 00:41:32.280 |
Philip, as far as we know, was stoned to death. 00:41:35.280 |
Nathaniel was either crucified or was drowned because of the faith. 00:41:39.280 |
And every single one of them literally gave their lives 00:41:45.280 |
Whether you are a believer or not, one thing that is sure is that they believed it. 00:41:52.280 |
there's no way that all of these people would have given their lives 00:42:00.280 |
Now they've come up with all kinds of crazy theories 00:42:03.280 |
of why they might have believed it, which I'm not going to get into today. 00:42:06.280 |
But we know for a fact that at least they believed it. 00:42:09.280 |
And it wasn't just them. The next generation believed it. 00:42:16.280 |
And as a result of that, people gave their lives 00:42:29.280 |
that we don't study these men as we're studying a textbook 00:42:32.280 |
and look at that and say, "What was it about these people?" 00:42:35.280 |
It was so crazy, almost kind of like we're studying history. 00:42:38.280 |
Like God did some great things with these people, as if we're removed. 00:42:50.280 |
They must have experienced something that you and I don't know. 00:42:52.280 |
And as a result, they were willing to give their life. 00:42:54.280 |
But for the rest of us, God didn't call everybody to missions. 00:43:04.280 |
that doesn't look anything like what we see in Scripture. 00:43:12.280 |
In fact, the majority of the prejudice against Christianity 00:43:19.280 |
The culture of Christians, nominal Christians, 00:43:22.280 |
the majority of the prejudice that they have toward Christianity, 00:43:28.280 |
has nothing to do with genuine Christianity I see in Scripture. 00:43:31.280 |
In fact, genuine Christians were the ones who gave their life and fed the poor. 00:43:39.280 |
They're the ones who literally went to remote jungles 00:43:44.280 |
But today, when you talk to somebody who hates the church 00:43:52.280 |
their practice of morality is no different than ours, 00:43:56.280 |
is not a description of biblical Christianity. 00:43:58.280 |
That's a description of a church filled with people 00:44:01.280 |
who have embraced a subcategory of Christianity 00:44:04.280 |
that looks nothing like what the Bible teaches. 00:44:10.280 |
I want to highlight three things about their life. 00:44:22.280 |
Philip and Nathaniel is only really mentioned in three or four texts, 00:44:27.280 |
and in that four texts, only one text has any description of Nathaniel. 00:44:32.280 |
And his name oftentimes is referred to as Bartholomew, 00:44:45.280 |
was he going to be like some horse whisperer, 00:44:47.280 |
and is this like some prophecy about what he's going to be doing? 00:44:53.280 |
It doesn't have any significance, meaning behind it. 00:44:57.280 |
It was just something that a lot of people had. 00:45:04.280 |
at least that's what his name means, just like anybody else. 00:45:09.280 |
Don't confuse him with the deacon, Philip, in Acts 5. 00:45:21.280 |
And they most likely grew up in the same synagogue, 00:45:25.280 |
because typically in one area, they would have one synagogue. 00:45:32.280 |
most likely were friends and probably fishermen. 00:45:44.280 |
So it looks like they were really close friends, 00:45:48.280 |
and they were from Cana, which is a few miles away from Bethsaida. 00:45:51.280 |
And his Hebrew name, Bartholomew, simply means son of Tomai, 00:46:04.280 |
And again, there's nothing that stands out about them. 00:46:10.280 |
Financially, they're not necessarily significantly wealthy. 00:46:16.280 |
But what we do know, that out of the 12 disciples, 00:46:19.280 |
at least seven, possibly eight or nine, are fishermen. 00:46:23.280 |
We know at least seven of them were fishermen. 00:46:26.280 |
Just blue-collar guys who lived generationally catching fish. 00:46:39.280 |
They're not experts in sacrifice, in finance or politics. 00:46:45.280 |
And that's why I remember when Jesus is at the shore and says, 00:46:52.280 |
It's like, "We professional fishermen have been fishing all night. 00:46:59.280 |
But because it's you, we're going to try it." 00:47:01.280 |
And they do it, and they realize that Jesus knew what he was talking about. 00:47:04.280 |
If there's anything that they knew more than anybody else, 00:47:08.280 |
So how does that qualify them to be apostles? 00:47:15.280 |
There's nothing about their background that would cause them to stand down 00:47:21.280 |
In fact, not only were they just ordinary men, blue-collar workers, 00:47:29.280 |
The little that we know about the record that we have of them, 00:47:36.280 |
I mean, they're not necessarily great sinners, 00:47:38.280 |
but they weren't like giants of faith either. 00:47:42.280 |
In 1 John 6, 5-7, remember when Jesus is feeding the 5,000? 00:47:45.280 |
In verse 5, "Therefore Jesus, lifting up his eyes, 00:47:49.280 |
and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, 00:47:51.280 |
said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?'" 00:47:55.280 |
Now I want you to notice that Jesus specifically is addressing Philip. 00:48:04.280 |
"Philip, where are we going to buy bread, so that these may eat?" 00:48:07.280 |
Some people believe that maybe Philip was addressed 00:48:13.280 |
and maybe he was in charge of the food ministry. 00:48:20.280 |
He was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. 00:48:25.280 |
Jesus wasn't asking this question because he was genuinely asking Philip, 00:48:28.280 |
"Tell me what to do, since you're the master of feeding." 00:48:34.280 |
"Philip answered him, 'Two hundred denarii worth of bread 00:48:37.280 |
is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.'" 00:48:42.280 |
Now, Philip's response is a very typical response. 00:48:49.280 |
I think that's a response that any one of us would give. 00:48:59.280 |
is that we were able to eat together every Sunday. 00:49:01.280 |
Some of you guys, a few of you guys remember that period 00:49:03.280 |
when we had less than a hundred, or up to maybe about three hundred. 00:49:09.280 |
We started at a church, like a potluck, and then that got too big. 00:49:13.280 |
We ended up going to restaurants, so we would shut that down. 00:49:16.280 |
Then we used to go to UTC, and our whole church would go there. 00:49:20.280 |
We got too big, and then people would get irritated 00:49:26.280 |
Only recently, we've been talking about saying, 00:49:29.280 |
"Hey, we really missed that period when every Sunday 00:49:33.280 |
It's a great time of fellowship, builds community. 00:49:37.280 |
Right now, we're hovering right around a thousand, 00:49:39.280 |
and in order to feed our church requires two, three months of planning. 00:49:44.280 |
I remember our budget used to be $100 for food 00:49:48.280 |
to feed the whole church because we didn't have much money. 00:49:51.280 |
I remember some people who were in charge made pibimbap, 00:49:59.280 |
Depending on who was running it, they were able to use that $100. 00:50:08.280 |
thousands of dollars in order to just feed one meal. 00:50:15.280 |
and we need to get tons of people, dozens of people involved. 00:50:21.280 |
I can imagine if it's this hard to feed a thousand people, 00:50:26.280 |
on record, it has 5,000 men, but we know that reality, 00:50:29.280 |
including women and children, is probably 15,000 to 20,000. 00:50:34.280 |
That's the typical number that the commentators would give. 00:50:37.280 |
When Jesus says, "They didn't bring food. How are we going to feed them?" 00:50:41.280 |
The natural response of the guy who may be in charge of the food is, 00:50:46.280 |
All year's worth of salary isn't going to be able to feed 20,000 people." 00:50:51.280 |
I can't imagine if it's this hard feeding 1,000, 20,000 people, 00:50:56.280 |
all of a sudden, too, with no planning, out in the wilderness. 00:51:03.280 |
We may say that this is probably a typical, normal response of anybody, 00:51:10.280 |
By this time, all the disciples, including Philip, were eyewitnesses. 00:51:18.280 |
Not from a distance, but they had front row seats to water being turned into wine. 00:51:40.280 |
He remembered just throwing the net after they couldn't catch all night, 00:51:44.280 |
and then they bringing in hundreds and hundreds of fish. 00:51:50.280 |
He knew what happened. He was eyewitness to that. 00:51:54.280 |
Healed a man of leprosy. Healed a paralyzed man. 00:51:57.280 |
Raised the dead. Healed a hemorrhaging woman. 00:52:03.280 |
The scripture says that these are just the things that are recorded. 00:52:08.280 |
If all that Jesus said and done had been recorded, 00:52:10.280 |
there wouldn't be enough books to be able to record them. 00:52:12.280 |
So, these are only things that are recorded in the book for us. 00:52:19.280 |
So, you would think that when Jesus said, "Well, we have all these people, 00:52:23.280 |
and what are we going to do?" that his response would have been, 00:52:26.280 |
"Well, you look at all, remember all that fish? 00:52:30.280 |
You don't want to do all that, so this is nothing to you." 00:52:39.280 |
So, Philip is not the strong man of faith where he's like, 00:52:44.280 |
"Yes, I believe you. You are a sovereign God. I'm going to do whatever you say." 00:52:48.280 |
Right off the bat, the little that we know of Philip, 00:52:52.280 |
he was a man of doubting. He was a flawed man. 00:52:55.280 |
In fact, in John 14, 8-9, at the end of his ministry, 00:53:01.280 |
he told his disciples, "I'm going to go to prepare a place for you." 00:53:09.280 |
And so, Philip's response to him, in verse 8, 00:53:13.280 |
"Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.'" 00:53:21.280 |
I know that the leaders are after you, but show us the Father. 00:53:26.280 |
If you can just show us the Father, then we'll be okay with what you're saying. 00:53:29.280 |
"And Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, yet you have not come to know me, Philip? 00:53:35.280 |
He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" 00:53:40.280 |
Jesus' whole ministry was to show him who he is. 00:53:44.280 |
That's why, before he goes to the cross, he has that encounter with a disciple. 00:53:49.280 |
"Who do men say that I am, but who do you say that I am?" 00:53:52.280 |
Because that was the whole point of his ministry. 00:53:55.280 |
Not simply so that they can learn the techniques of going into villages, 00:53:58.280 |
and eating without money, and how to catch fish. 00:54:02.280 |
His whole purpose of why he gathered the disciples to himself 00:54:06.280 |
was to reveal himself to them, so that they can be his witness after he dies and resurrects. 00:54:12.280 |
So, knowing that this is at the end of his ministry, 00:54:15.280 |
and the one thing that he's been training them to do, 00:54:24.280 |
James and John are fighting to see if they can sit on the left or to the right. 00:54:28.280 |
Peter basically throws all of his other friends under the bus. 00:54:37.280 |
Then here's Philip, "Okay, just show us the Father." 00:54:45.280 |
In fact, Nathanael himself, in John 1.46, said to him, 00:54:59.280 |
So, Nathanael's first response wasn't a "yes" of faith, it was "Nazareth?" 00:55:05.280 |
Some think that maybe he was saying this because there was some rivalry 00:55:13.280 |
He came from Cana, and maybe Nazareth had some rivalry, 00:55:24.280 |
Some think that that is what's going on, but I don't think that's what's going on. 00:55:33.280 |
the Messiah, the King, the one that's prophesied in the Old Testament? 00:55:38.280 |
From Nazareth, the temple's not there, that's not the religious center. 00:55:47.280 |
Can anything good come out of nowhere like that? 00:55:51.280 |
Because if somebody's going to be of prominence, 00:55:55.280 |
even if we're selecting president, the president's like, 00:55:58.280 |
"Okay, what school did he come from? What's his pedigree? 00:56:00.280 |
What's his background? What's his experience? What has he done? 00:56:05.280 |
That's a question that you may ask if you're going to be the leader of a country. 00:56:11.280 |
And I believe that Nathanael is asking that question. 00:56:16.280 |
How can the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament come from Nazareth? 00:56:21.280 |
In fact, even John 7, 3-6, even his brothers didn't believe it. 00:56:27.280 |
And because they didn't believe it, they said, 00:56:29.280 |
"Well, if you're going to go and do all these miracles, go to Judea." 00:56:35.280 |
if you're trying to become somebody, because they didn't believe either. 00:56:47.280 |
But what distinguished them and all the other disciples 00:56:58.280 |
Now, let me distinguish between the way we understand seeker today 00:57:03.280 |
versus what I believe the Bible talks about, genuine seekers. 00:57:06.280 |
In our culture, again, because of, we call the modern day church movement 00:57:13.280 |
a seeker-friendly movement or church marketing movement, 00:57:18.280 |
the general understanding of a seeker is somebody who just doesn't go to church. 00:57:23.280 |
They don't go to church, but they want to come to church, so there's a seeker. 00:57:27.280 |
But a seeker is not somebody who feels emptiness 00:57:31.280 |
and wants to find some meaning in life, because that's the whole world. 00:57:37.280 |
They don't have an answer to life, so maybe, maybe there's some answer here. 00:57:42.280 |
But a seeker is not somebody who doesn't have purpose in life 00:57:46.280 |
That doesn't make you a seeker, because you can, 00:57:49.280 |
there's a lot of people who go to the Buddhists and different religions for that. 00:57:52.280 |
In fact, part of the reason why the cults are growing so fast in South Korea 00:57:57.280 |
is because they're seeking for meaning and purpose. 00:58:01.280 |
Many people end up coming to church because they want to belong somewhere, 00:58:09.280 |
But according to scripture, that's not a seeker. 00:58:11.280 |
A seeker is somebody who is specifically looking for Christ. 00:58:17.280 |
A genuine seeker will seek Christ despite the consequences. 00:58:25.280 |
See, that's a huge difference from what we understand a seeker is. 00:58:30.280 |
You can come to church for all the benefits and be a Ian. 00:58:35.280 |
If you remember my sermon a couple of weeks ago. 00:58:42.280 |
Because you enjoy the benefits of Christianity without Christ. 00:58:46.280 |
A seeker is not somebody who wants to belong somewhere. 00:58:50.280 |
A seeker is not somebody who wants to be a part of a community 00:58:53.280 |
and find meaning and purpose and raise our children with morals 00:58:57.280 |
and do good things and be protected from this sinful world. 00:59:02.280 |
The majority of the people in the world want that. 00:59:06.280 |
A seeker is somebody who hungers and thirsts for God. 00:59:10.280 |
In fact, in many countries, the genuine seekers will come to Christ 00:59:20.280 |
Despite the fact that they may lose their job. 00:59:24.280 |
Despite the fact that they may be stolen going to church. 00:59:28.280 |
Those are seekers who are seeking and want Christ and want truth. 00:59:36.280 |
See, if we look at the text carefully in John 1, 43-45. 00:59:47.280 |
It says in verse 43, "The next day he proposed to go into Galilee and found Philip. 00:59:55.280 |
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 00:59:58.280 |
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him, 01:00:02.280 |
and we have found Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote, 01:00:06.280 |
The first thing that we find, why I believe they were seekers, 01:00:09.280 |
is because Jesus runs into them in the wilderness, headed to Galilee. 01:00:13.280 |
Now the reason why that's significant is because that's where John the Baptist was doing his ministry. 01:00:18.280 |
And remember, that's where Andrew was there as his disciple. 01:00:22.280 |
And so, remember, John the Baptist's ministry, whole ministry, 01:00:30.280 |
And you can imagine that every opportunity he got, 01:00:32.280 |
he was talking about his older cousin, the Messiah, the King of Israel, 01:00:38.280 |
And his primary message was, when he comes, I must decrease and he must increase. 01:00:44.280 |
He was preparing them for the coming of Christ. 01:00:47.280 |
He was instilling in them the hunger and thirsting for Christ. 01:00:52.280 |
And so they were already out there in the wilderness, 01:00:55.280 |
and when Jesus goes and he finds Philip, and then he recruits Philip, 01:01:01.280 |
So we know, just from that alone, that they were already seeking for him, 01:01:07.280 |
A seeker is somebody who wants Christ above everything else. 01:01:16.280 |
See, the challenge that we have in our culture 01:01:21.280 |
is that we kind of presented the chocolate, you know, 01:01:28.280 |
we joke about, like when pastors get together, we joke about that, 01:01:30.280 |
kind of like, "Oh, you want chocolate? We have bingsu, we have boba, come to church." 01:01:36.280 |
And then if we get enough people gathered together, it's like, "Broccoli! Jesus Christ!" 01:01:43.280 |
Or, "We want to put chocolate-flavored broccoli," 01:01:51.280 |
And so our churches are filled with people who are confused. 01:02:04.280 |
and then when Christ is taught, it doesn't match why they came. 01:02:16.280 |
where the Holy Spirit is drawing you to Christ. 01:02:20.280 |
And so your primary criteria of why you would come to any church 01:02:32.280 |
That you are worshiping Christ. You are loving Christ. You are obeying Christ. 01:02:37.280 |
Not because these people are friendly. Not because they are nice. 01:02:42.280 |
Not because it's convenient. Not because there's people just like me there. 01:02:46.280 |
A seeker is somebody who looks for a church because his primary draw to the church is Christ. 01:03:02.280 |
It's like, "Oh, how come God doesn't show up?" 01:03:05.280 |
You know, whenever we want something, we really want something, 01:03:16.280 |
If you didn't actively look for a job, if you didn't actively get a career, 01:03:26.280 |
Even at Costco, if you want to get in the line and they're serving ice cream, 01:03:33.280 |
And then you make sure your cart gets there and find out what row it is in. 01:03:40.280 |
You make active plans to get in the line and make sure that you get it. 01:03:43.280 |
They have enough of it, so you get there before everybody else gets there. 01:03:46.280 |
Just something as simple as something that they're giving out free. 01:03:57.280 |
seekers of chips, whatever it is that they're giving. 01:04:00.280 |
But you're actively making plans to get there. 01:04:03.280 |
If you're buying a house, you don't just sit there and say, 01:04:07.280 |
"I wish somebody would just give me a house." 01:04:09.280 |
You're saving down payment, seeing if the interest rate is going to go up or down. 01:04:14.280 |
Is it the right time to buy? What kind of loans should I get? 01:04:19.280 |
You're genuinely seeking to make the proper decision for all of this. 01:04:23.280 |
So everything that you do, even if you want to go on a trip, 01:04:26.280 |
when's the best time to go? When is the ticket the cheapest? 01:04:29.280 |
What kind of rewards program? What kind of hotels? 01:04:34.280 |
But for whatever the reason, when it comes to our faith, 01:04:41.280 |
So we come to church, it's like, "Nobody's reaching out to me." 01:04:47.280 |
I come to church and I just say, "Just by showing up, you think it's just going to happen." 01:04:51.280 |
Why do we become so passive and expect God to show up and move you 01:04:58.280 |
and feed you and fill you and guide you while you're just passively sitting and waiting? 01:05:06.280 |
"You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart." 01:05:14.280 |
In other words, once you've made up your mind, 01:05:17.280 |
and you seek me like you seek everything else in your life that matters to you. 01:05:23.280 |
So if Christ is my pursuit, how am I seeking him? 01:05:31.280 |
I mean, whether it's Peter or John or Andrew or James or Philip or Nathaniel, 01:05:38.280 |
all these people that we've been studying, every single one of them, 01:05:48.280 |
And even though Philip says to Nathaniel, "We have found him," 01:05:52.280 |
the one that the Old Testament has been talking about, "We have found him." 01:05:56.280 |
When you read it, it says, "No, Jesus found them." 01:06:00.280 |
But when did he find them? In the context of them seeking him, he found them. 01:06:19.280 |
Is he your primary pursuit or is he a secondary pursuit? 01:06:24.280 |
Is your primary pursuit your own safety, your own health, your own comfort, 01:06:34.280 |
Again, none of these things are necessarily unbiblical. 01:06:42.280 |
I mean, every single one of us will be willing to sacrifice 01:06:47.280 |
and not buy certain things because we're seeking to buy a house. 01:06:51.280 |
We'll sacrifice our pleasure because I need that money to put a down payment on a house. 01:06:55.280 |
Or I need to go on a trip, so I'm going to reserve. 01:06:59.280 |
Or I'm going to lose weight, so I'm going to sacrifice. 01:07:01.280 |
So every single one of us, whatever it is that we're pursuing, 01:07:05.280 |
is willing to sacrifice in order to seek that out. 01:07:32.280 |
If there's anything that stands out about any of these disciples 01:07:40.280 |
They sought Christ because Christ was seeking them. 01:07:47.280 |
John 6, 44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, 01:07:53.280 |
John 15, 16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you, 01:07:56.280 |
appointing you that you would go and bear fruit, 01:08:00.280 |
so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, 01:08:21.280 |
is the only text where we have any information about Nathaniel. 01:08:24.280 |
And this is the way Jesus describes Nathaniel. 01:08:28.280 |
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said to him, 01:08:30.280 |
"Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no deceit." 01:08:49.280 |
Every single Jew, obviously, is an Israelite. 01:08:57.280 |
Remember when Jacob wrestled and God gave Jacob this name Israel, 01:09:04.280 |
and from that moment on, all of his descendants were named Israel, Israelite. 01:09:09.280 |
What is the meaning of that name, Israel, that God gave him, 01:09:21.280 |
The one who contends with God, the one who wrestles with God, 01:09:26.280 |
Of all the names that he could have chosen for the nation of Israel, 01:09:32.280 |
think about how many possibilities, every time you name your child, 01:09:36.280 |
I know some of you guys are like, "Oh, that sounds pretty." 01:09:39.280 |
Or maybe it's like, "Oh, no one has this name." 01:09:44.280 |
Whatever the name is, maybe you went because it was a meaning, 01:09:52.280 |
Maybe it may not be biblical, maybe you just like the sound of it, 01:09:55.280 |
or it's unique, but nobody just kind of like, 01:10:03.280 |
he was going to give his only begotten son through the avenue of these people, 01:10:07.280 |
and he chooses a name, the one who wrestles with God. 01:10:16.280 |
it's not because they were going to do everything right. 01:10:19.280 |
He says, "These people are going to be wrestling, 01:10:31.280 |
"Here's a true man who wrestles, who contends, 01:10:47.280 |
"Before I ever met you, I knew you under the fig tree." 01:10:55.280 |
it's not like today, if I want to do quiet time, 01:11:01.280 |
I can have quiet time, read the Bible, and pray. 01:11:03.280 |
The majority of people at that time lived in one room. 01:11:12.280 |
So in order for you to take some time away to pray, 01:11:15.280 |
you have to go outside and find probably a shaded place, 01:11:46.280 |
And that fig tree was where he did a lot of that, 01:11:52.280 |
The primary question that we need to ask ourselves, 01:11:59.280 |
"Seekers are the people who come in that don't know Christ, 01:12:19.280 |
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 01:12:43.280 |
"For I know the plan that I have for you," declares the Lord, 01:12:49.280 |
The whole reason why you're going into captivity 01:18:40.280 |
because he was pure in his pursuit for Christ.