[0:00] We have two readings in the Gospel of John. First of all, Gospel of John, chapter 1. Gospel of John, chapter 1.
[0:13] We can read verses 40 to verse 51. Gospel of John, chapter 1, from verse 40. That's on page 833 of the Pew Bibles.
[0:25] Gospel of John, chapter 1, on page 833. Gospel of John, chapter 1.
[0:37] We can read from verse 35 of the chapter. Let's hear the word of God. The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, with whose disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
[0:57] Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?
[1:08] He said to them, Come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and follow Jesus was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother.
[1:23] He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John.
[1:37] You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.
[1:49] Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
[2:04] Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.
[2:21] Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
[2:32] Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree.
[2:43] Do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.
[2:57] Our second reading is also from the book of John, at this time chapter 14. John chapter 14. John chapter 14.
[3:11] We can read verses 1 down to verse 14. John 14 verses 1 down to verse 14. This is, of course, Jesus speaking.
[3:24] Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.
[3:39] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. That where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.
[3:52] Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
[4:03] No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.
[4:20] Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?
[4:32] 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 authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
[4:44] Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. What else believe an account of the works themselves? Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father.
[5:03] There you ask in my name, this I will do that the Father may be glorified in his Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Amen. And give praise to God for his holy and his perfect word.
[5:17] Let's again sing to God's praise. Again from the Scottish Psalter, this time from Psalm 32. The Scottish Psalter, Psalm 32.
[5:40] I'm seeing verses 1 down to verse 5 of the Psalm. It's on page 243 of the Psalm book. Psalm 32 on page 243.
[5:51] Blessed is the man to whom is freely pardoned all the transgressions he have done whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed not his sin and in his spirit there is no guile nor fraud is found therein.
[6:07] Psalm 32 to the double mark verse 5 to God's praise. Amen. O blessed is the man O blessed is the man who is insulin it's благ Amen.
[7:13] Amen. Amen.
[8:13] Amen. Amen.
[9:13] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[9:25] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's turn back.
[9:37] Well, we're talking about the chapter we had in John 14, but carrying on, of course, our series looking at the disciples. And just as we did last week, we're taking a whole scripture approach at the life, of course, of Philip today.
[9:51] But John 14, for the sake of a text, we can take verse 9. John 14 and verse 9. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?
[10:11] And so on. So we carried on our series. We started last week looking perhaps at the biggest name we could find, one of the most well-known, at least one of the disciples that we find out so much about in scripture.
[10:28] We had Peter last week. Well, here we are with poor Philip. Philip isn't talked about actually all that much.
[10:39] Once you start looking into it, he's mentioned quite often, but not much is really shared about him. In fact, in the synoptics in Matthew, Mark and Luke, we hardly find Philip mentioned at all.
[10:51] It's in John we see most of Philip's life explained to us. We see him, of course, also mentioned once in Acts. Now just to, maybe, I'm sure you are much with it, more with it than I am.
[11:10] For long enough, and it's a mistake I realized far too late. For long enough, when I would read Philip's name in Acts, later on in Acts, I didn't realize it's a different Philip.
[11:26] The Philip in Acts, apart from chapter one, the rest of Acts, later on in Acts, it's Philip the evangelist. He's made an evangelist, a deacon in Acts, chapter six. So the Philip you read about later on in Acts, that is a different Philip.
[11:41] So the Philip the Apostle, quite quiet. We don't see much, we don't hear much. And the truth is that the little we do hear and see about Philip, it can be summarized perhaps in two very unkind headings.
[11:59] Philip seems to have quite a small faith and quite a little understanding. He has a good start, but after his good start, the rest of his life can be summarized by having a small faith and at times a very little understanding.
[12:15] As we seek to summarize the whole of this apostle's life, the whole of this disciple, the whole of this servant's life, we can do it under two very simple sermon points.
[12:27] Two very simple points. First of all, briefly looking at the call of Philip and then seeing the confusions of Philip. So the call of Philip, then the confusions of Philip.
[12:40] Like always, just a brief word to summarize for us the takeaway point today. If you're here and if as of yet, as of yet, you can't say that you know Jesus, that you love Jesus.
[12:55] But as you look together with us at the life of Philip, hopefully you will see that even though you might think you know nothing about Jesus, you might think you don't know enough about Jesus, you might think that I can't ever be saved because I don't understand half what the minister is talking about.
[13:21] I can't ever be saved because I don't read these complicated books. I can't ever be saved because I don't understand most of the Bible or any of the Bible perhaps. I can't ever be saved because my faith would never be strong enough to be a good Christian.
[13:38] As we see the life of poor Philip, you'll see, and we'll see together, that the Lord uses small faith. And the Lord blesses and keeps even those of us with very little understanding of who he is.
[13:55] For those of us who know and who love the Lord, the same is true for us. We often worry, at least many of us, if not most of us worry that we aren't progressing enough in our faith.
[14:12] I've been a Christian for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, some here have been a Christian for many years. And you think, in those many years, I should be far advanced from where I am now.
[14:26] I should be a much more bright Christian, a much more glorious, well-informed, intelligent Christian. But I look to myself and I think, I perhaps know less now than I did when I first started.
[14:40] If that's you, I'm sure that's many of us, if not most of us, then as we look to the life of Philip, be encouraged that perhaps our faith is at times small.
[14:55] And perhaps our understanding isn't what it should be. But yet, Jesus does not bar his people for small faith and little understanding.
[15:08] In fact, we'll see closer to the end, it's quite the opposite. First of all, the call of Philip starts off good. We see the call of Philip we read in John chapter 1. And we can see just two elements of the call of Philip.
[15:23] First of all, we see his call was immediate. The call of Philip was immediate. Now we looked together at this text before, during the vacancy.
[15:35] So just to briefly summarize what we read in John chapter 1. Of course, we saw that Jesus finds Philip. Jesus goes straight to Philip.
[15:47] The wording is quite beautiful. John 1 verse 43. And the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
[15:58] He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And we saw before that the wording there, it sounds so general, it sounds so normal, but that tells us something.
[16:10] The same as a woman of a will, Jesus decided to go that way. Because Jesus, eternally, in the plan and mind and will of God, Jesus knew he would meet Philip at that time, at that place and save this man.
[16:29] Philip knows immediately. When Jesus finds him, and he says to Philip, he looks at Philip, and he says to Philip, follow me. Philip knows immediately who this man is.
[16:42] He's probably heard about Jesus. We know he's heard often. Jesus, of course, at this time, his popularity was growing and there were crowds following him. Not big crowds, but still some crowds.
[16:54] And Philip sees and hears and he believes. Because we know and we see from the account of John chapter 1 that Philip did know his stuff.
[17:05] Philip had been reading about, and Nathanael, perhaps with him, this pair had been reading about and awaiting the coming Messiah. So when Philip goes to Nathanael, we'll see in a second, he speaks, the one we've been looking for, we found him.
[17:22] We found him. Philip's been waiting. Philip's been waiting. Looking. Looking. Perhaps for many years, praying the Lord would send the promised Messiah.
[17:35] And he's come. And he's spoken to Philip directly. And he's told, instructed, commanded, and lovingly asked Philip to follow me.
[17:49] So his conversion, his call, it is immediate. The power of Jesus to save anyone, any one of us, it is immediate. Now, of course, we know that for the majority of us, myself and I'm sure many here who are Christians, our call at times was slow.
[18:11] God uses means and people over many years to gradually show us who he is and to bring us to him. But there's some here, and there's many in the world around us, whose call was immediate.
[18:27] The Lord spoke into your life and he saved you right there and right there. And of course, when you look back, you see he was working in your life in other ways. Even we see that Philip, even though Philip was saved in a second here, we see that there was research going right back.
[18:44] He'd been waiting and looking and waiting and praying and waiting and pleading and waiting. But still, when Christ calls him, it is immediate.
[18:55] We also see that Philip's call was evangelical. His call was evangelical. What happens the second Jesus calls Philip?
[19:06] Verse 45, John chapter 1. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the prophets and law spoke about. Of course, Nathanael gives that answer we saw before, that confused, perhaps sarcastic answer back.
[19:26] Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And then we see Philip. Philip the evangelical, brand new convert, brand new follower, brand new disciple.
[19:38] What does Philip say? Full of faith, full of joy to Nathanael. Come and see. Come and see. See for yourself. I won't convince you.
[19:50] I'm not here to try and convince you. I am here to bring you to the living Jesus himself. Philip knows his ability. He knows limitations.
[20:02] He's not going to do a 10 point argument to try and convince Nathanael. He just says, come and see for yourself. I have found the one who I've been waiting for. I have found the Savior.
[20:14] He has saved me. Come and see for yourself. I will show you him. I will point you towards him. See yourself. Philip, at this point of course, knows very little.
[20:30] What he does know is that Jesus can save and transform and change lives. He points Nathanael to Jesus. And what takes place when Nathanael of course then goes to Jesus.
[20:42] When Nathanael goes to Jesus, we see his life is transformed and changed also in that same flash, brief second. So Philip's call, it is immediate, it is beautiful.
[20:58] His call then makes him evangelical. He has to share the love of a Savior who has shown him love. Then we see some silence for a few chapters on Philip.
[21:17] He starts off so well. This beautiful call, this loud call, this glorious immediate call. But then, the next time we see Philip, the next few times we see Philip, it's just confusion after confusion after confusion.
[21:37] We have three examples we can look at, there's more, but three examples today we can look at as to the confusion of this poor man. Although his call was bold, although his beginning was promising, he has walked and been of Jesus now for a while and we find him again this time in John chapter 6.
[22:04] John chapter 6, in that glorious account of the feeding of the 5,000. Again, we've covered this text before, again in the time of vacancy, so we won't go over it in too much detail.
[22:15] But we know the account that Jesus of course miraculously provides fish and bread to the many thousands of people. But we see that when Jesus feeds the 5,000, that Philip isn't far away.
[22:33] And we see that Philip shows his confusion, unfortunately. John 6, and as we read together, John 6 and verse 5.
[22:47] Jesus speaking to Philip, John 6, verse 5. Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that the people may eat?
[22:59] He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Here we see Philip, practical though he was. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.
[23:18] Jesus tests Philip. The crowd gathers round, there's 5,000 men, probably a good few thousand more women and children. There's a massive crowd. Huge crowd.
[23:29] And bear in mind, at this point, Philip has seen Jesus do miracles. He's seen him do incredible things. He's seen healings taking place. He has seen Jesus transform lives.
[23:41] And Jesus asks Philip, how do we feed the crowd? How do we do it? Now, Jesus isn't testing the practical thinking of Philip.
[23:55] It says here, Jesus did this to test Philip. He's not testing Philip's math skills to work out how much bread. Philip answers with a maths equation. Philip is asked by Jesus, how do we feed the crowd?
[24:10] And Philip, you can imagine him getting his fingers out and planning out what costs this much a loaf of bread. And there's about 5,000, 10,000, 8,000 people, whatever, and working out. Poor Philip, he means well.
[24:23] But he answers a question from Jesus with a very worldly answer. Jesus asks him, how do we feed the people? And Philip quite simply says back, we haven't got the money.
[24:37] We can't afford to do it. It doesn't work out. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't. It cannot be done. It cannot be done. Now, Philip gives a very genuine, a very human response.
[24:52] It would, in fact, take more than 200 denarii to feed this crowd. His answer isn't wrong. But also his answer is terribly wrong.
[25:05] Again, he has seen the miracles. He has seen Jesus healing people. He has heard Jesus proclaim he is the son of God, effectively.
[25:17] He has seen the evidence before him. His own life, his friends' lives. Evidence that Jesus is who he says he is. Jesus is God. And when Jesus asks Philip, how do we feed the people?
[25:29] The response should have been, at the very least, I don't know, but Lord, you know. Or at the very most, Lord, you can feed them. You created all things.
[25:41] It's all yours. You can do it. It's not, is it? Poor Philip says, I don't know. I can't afford it. We can't afford it, Jesus. What do we do? He panics. He stresses.
[25:52] He strains. He doesn't put into practice what he knows about Jesus. He knows Jesus. He believes in Jesus. He loves Jesus.
[26:03] He is a disciple of Jesus. He follows him to the end. He knows Jesus. He is loved by Jesus. But he doesn't put into practice what he knows about Jesus.
[26:14] He knows it all. He's seen it all. But he doesn't apply that in his own life. He's faced with a problem.
[26:25] And the second he is faced with a problem he has no answer to, he just keeps trying to work it out. And he just gives up. Poor Philip, we see, relies on himself.
[26:41] He relies on himself. His own ability, his own logic, his own understanding. Quite a smart man. He does the maths here quite quickly. A practical man.
[26:52] A pragmatic man. But a man who perhaps puts his own pragmatism, his own intellect, his own ability, before trusting fully in his Saviour.
[27:05] Yes, there's a time for us to be pragmatic. But the reality is, like Philip, if we're being very honest, we're faced with impossible questions.
[27:18] Even good questions. The question of, how do we get the gospel to every home in this district? From Cathalwood, from the Glen to the beach. How do we get every home to hear the gospel?
[27:30] How do we get those here who have no church background, no church interest, to hear about Jesus? How do we do what we've been called to do, all of us together as brothers and sisters, of being witnesses in this place?
[27:47] We think we can't do it. We can't do it. We haven't got the money. We haven't got the skills. We haven't got the time. And like Philip, we lose hope. We get stressed.
[27:58] And the answer's in front of us. We can't do it. But we worship one who can do it. And who can use us in doing and fulfilling and completing his will.
[28:11] Everything will seem impossible to us if we only rely on ourselves. But the second we rely on Jesus, nothing is impossible for him. That's not just some eerie fairy high-end belief.
[28:25] That is real. The Christians here have been Christians for many years. The Christians here who have relied on Jesus in times in their lives, they will testify when life feels impossible.
[28:37] When we put our faith in our Saviour rather than ourselves, he will show us his goodness. Again and again and again. Philip relies on himself. Very briefly then we see also he has very little, very little faith, very little flexibility.
[28:55] He stresses too much. John chapter 12. Again I'll just read it briefly. I'll just summary briefly. John chapter 12. We see some Greeks approach Jesus.
[29:06] John 12 verse 20. The Greeks approach Jesus and Greek men come and they want to see Jesus. And they come to Philip first. That famous phrase in verse 21, John 12, 21.
[29:20] They say to Philip, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip's name was most Greek. It's a Greek name really. And perhaps they saw in him someone they could approach.
[29:32] Either way, these Greek Gentiles, non-Jews, come to Philip with a very simple question. Sir, we would see Jesus. Sir, show us Jesus. Take us to Jesus.
[29:44] This is the first time we see Gentiles ask to see Jesus. And poor Philip, because he has no flexibility, because he has no ability to think outside the box for a second.
[30:01] Philip, who we saw after his conversion, was so ready to bring his friend and the final to Jesus. Come and see Jesus. Come for yourself. Well, here you see him, perhaps a year or so later.
[30:13] And the same question. This time he's being asked, show us Jesus. Bring us to Jesus. But because these are Greeks, because these aren't Jews, because this is something he's not used to.
[30:26] Poor Philip just crumbles, doesn't he? Rather than take him to Jesus, take them to Jesus, he goes and grabs Andrew. Philip went and told Andrew.
[30:38] And Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Philip has very little, as it were, gospel flexibility.
[30:52] Philip and Andrew are the same level. They're both disciples. They both have the same access to Jesus. Andrew had no greater access than Philip. Philip. Philip could take them to Jesus, just as it was Andrew, could have taken them to Jesus.
[31:05] But Philip panics when these men who aren't familiar to him, these men from outside his culture, from outside his happy, comfortable place, come to him.
[31:17] He panics and he prolongs the time. He wasn't prepared for the Gentiles to come and ask to see Jesus.
[31:29] As we see this second confusion of Philip, the obvious question has to be asked. It's a question that I don't know the answer to, but it's a question that is begged in the text here.
[31:42] Are we, and myself with you, are we as brothers and sisters, as we as a congregation of believers, are we perhaps ready to welcome different people to Jesus?
[31:55] Are we ready and perhaps willing? We pray, and we all do pray, and I know and I praise the Lord that we are a praying congregation. We pray the Lord to bring people to us, bring people to this place, bring people to faith.
[32:09] But are we ready then, when they do come to us, to interact with them and to show them Jesus in a way they will understand who he is?
[32:20] Are we ready to interact with those who are not from our culture, who are not from our background? Or are we perhaps going to be like poor Philip, who at the second single hint of someone different talking to him, begins to crumble away and has no real use in the situation and brings Andrew into it.
[32:42] The challenge for us is, unlike Philip, we must be flexible. And never flexible with gospel truth. The gospel truth remains eternally unflexible.
[32:53] God is God, and the gospel truth is the gospel truth. But as his people, we must be willing to be very flexible how we approach our changing and ever-changing community.
[33:07] And thirdly, as time goes very briefly, unfortunately the pinnacle confusion of poor Philip, the chapter we had, John chapter 14.
[33:20] Jesus here, of course, is in the upper room. His end is coming. His time on earth is coming to his conclusion. Jesus is in his final few hours with the disciples. A time of great heaviness for our Saviour.
[33:33] He knows what's coming, and he's here with his friends. Disciples, yes, but also his friends. And he's told them that he's going to prepare a place for them. He's trying to give them hope and give them comfort for the last few hours together.
[33:50] And in the middle of this hope and comfort and joy, the Lord is trying to prepare these poor men for what they're about to see and experience. The pain and the heartbreak and the worry.
[34:02] Philip then, of course, begins to open his mouth. Jesus tells them he's going to prepare a place for them. Somewhere they can follow him, and he will come and take them to be with himself.
[34:17] And Jesus says to them in verse 7, the glory of verse 7. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and see him.
[34:30] There's a whole sermon here for us. But in effect this section here is Jesus affirming and reaffirming to the disciples. But he is God.
[34:41] He is God. And him and the Father are of one essence. The same essence. Father, Son, and Spirit are triune Godhead.
[34:56] Three persons and one God. And Jesus is using this deep, eternally deep theology to try and... Well, Jesus doesn't try to assure, but the disciples try and understand.
[35:07] And he is telling them who he is. Reminding them that he is God and all things will be okay. In the middle of this time of comfort from our Lord and our Savior, Philip then says in verse 8.
[35:23] Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us. And... Jesus just finished explaining to the disciples who he is.
[35:35] That he and the Father are one. And the glory of what it is to have a God, a triune God. And Philip then... He's heard it all, but he hasn't listened to a single thing.
[35:48] He says, Jesus, show us the Father, it's enough for us. In other words, this, what you're saying to us, it's not enough. It's not enough. We want more.
[35:59] I want more comfort. I want more convincing. Poor Philip. Show us the Father. Philip just doesn't get it.
[36:12] How heartbreaking for our Savior. He's explaining to them who he is. He's giving them such great, eternal comfort. And after finishing this beautiful reality of who he is and that he will take them to be with himself one day soon.
[36:27] Philip pipes up quite the thing to say, It's not enough, Jesus. Show us the Father. That'll be enough. And you can hear.
[36:38] You can really hear the pain and the anguish in the voice of our Savior. In verse 9. Jesus said to Philip, Philip, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?
[36:57] You can hear it, can't you? You've seen the miracles. You've heard me teach. You've heard me preach. You've seen it all. And yet you still don't get it.
[37:08] You still do not understand who I am. Brothers and sisters, before we jump into judgment on poor Philip too quickly.
[37:19] How many years have you been serving the Savior? How many years have I been serving a Savior? And there's times we just seem to forget who he is.
[37:32] Not, not truly forget. Of course we don't. But, Christian for five years, ten years, twenty years, thirty years.
[37:44] And something happens in life. And you, like Philip, rely on yourself. Rely on the world. And you forget who Jesus is. Philip's just been told by the Lord himself.
[37:56] Face to face with him. He's explained to him, reminded to him who Jesus is, by the very words and mouth and voice of Jesus himself. And yet, Philip just gets it wrong.
[38:09] Gets it wrong. Gets it wrong. In Philip we have the reminder. That we must never know too much to actually listen to Jesus.
[38:27] Never know too much to actually listen to what Jesus is truly saying. Even as Christians we can have all the knowledge. Have all the knowledge. Have all the biblical and theological knowledge.
[38:41] And, and Peter, Philip seems to have that knowledge. But he never applies it. If we have all the knowledge, we never actually apply it to Jesus.
[38:52] That knowledge is wasted on us. And we see it with poor Philip. It's wasted on him. He's heard from the very lips of Jesus. Who Jesus is once more to remind him to encourage him. And it's wasted on him.
[39:04] And he distresses our Saviour in this time of his distress. Now in the Gospels, this is the last we hear of, of poor Philip. And if that was the end of it, then we would perhaps worry that Philip's final mention was his ignorance.
[39:22] The last time we hear Philip is him saying something that makes no sense. And him saying something that is distressing our Saviour as time of distress. But we praise the Lord that we find Philip once more.
[39:34] Just once more in Scripture. Where do we see him? Where do we see him? We see him in Acts.
[39:46] Listed. Verse 12 onwards. Listed. Acts chapter 1. Listed alongside the rest of the disciples. The risen Lord, Saviour.
[39:59] The risen Lord Jesus, our Saviour, as ascended in Acts. Verse 6 to verse 11. And verse 12. Then they returned. They've seen the ascension. They've been with our Saviour. Christ has gone up back into glory. Then they returned.
[40:10] And in that they, we see poor Philip being named. Yes, at times he had small faith. Yes, at times he was completely clueless. That's what he was saying, what he was doing. But yet, just like Peter. He is still one of the twelve. He still saw and met with and conversed with the risen Lord Jesus.
[40:30] Still kept by him. Still loved by him. And he was still one of the twelve. He still saw and met with and conversed with the risen Lord Jesus.
[40:42] Still kept by him. Still loved by him. And still served him. We don't have in scripture, but we know, we don't know, but from secular source and from tradition, that Philip lived a long life of service.
[41:02] He was martyred near the end of his life. He was killed pretty horrifically. And he lived a life of service. We don't know that from scripture, but we know it from history roughly.
[41:13] But we know he lived a life. But either way, we know from this small passing naming of this man in the first chapter of Acts, he was still one of the twelve. Jesus still had him as his own.
[41:24] Still kept him. Christian, you and I, with you very much, have times of small faith. Very small faith. Very small faith. Times where we find ourselves having very little understanding.
[41:38] We find ourselves and feel ourselves so clueless. But yet, Jesus keeps us. He calls us his own.
[41:50] And he still uses us to accomplish his purposes in the world. That's our encouragement this day. Start this new week. No matter how lost we might be.
[42:01] How confused we might be. No matter how much of a mess we might make of certain situations this week. Jesus loves us. Keeps us. Those of us who know him, who love him.
[42:12] He never lets us go. Even poor Philip found it out again and again. Again and again. Relying on himself. His own strength. His own ability. His own understanding.
[42:23] And failing time and time again. Yet, Jesus still calls him his own. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your word.
[42:35] The reminder we found today in it that you have your people. And that you call your people. And you use your people. And despite our own sins and failings and shortcomings. These things do not stop your gospel work in this world.
[42:49] We pray for ourselves, Lord, those of us here who know Jesus, who love Jesus. Lord, you would use us. Despite our own failings. Despite our own many shortcomings. You would use us well in this place.
[43:00] To serve you well in our homes. Our places of work. Our places of study. Lord, use us well as we seek to serve you in our own village here. Help us to come to sing our final item of praise.
[43:12] We give you praise that we have a chance to sing your word. And sing it to you. Knowing what we sing is perfect. What we sing is correct. What we sing glorifies you fully.
[43:25] Lord, be the one who leads the praise. Thank you, Lord, for those who do lead the praise week to week. Thank you for the gift you've given them. And we ask that they would know their service in their act of worship to you.
[43:37] Let's go all these things in and through and for Jesus. In the precious name of God's sake. Amen. Let's bring our time to a conclusion by singing to his praise. Sing psalms.
[43:50] Sing psalms on Psalm 65. Sing psalms on Psalm 65. It's on page 82 of the Blue Psalm books. Sing psalms on Psalm 65 on page 82.
[44:04] We can sing verses 1 down to verse 7 of the psalm. Psalm 65 from verse 1.
[44:16] And Zion praise awaits you, Lord. To you our vows will pay. To you all people will come near. You hear us when we pray. When we were overwhelmed by sins and guilt upon us lay.
[44:28] You pardoned all our trespasses and washed our guilt away. Psalm 65 verses 1 to 7. To God's praise. Psalm 66. Psalm 66.
[44:39] Psalm 66. Psalm 66. Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Psalm 66. Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Thank You, Lord, help us with him.
[45:11] When we are overwhelmed by sins and guilt upon us here, give our heart and love that trespasses and watch and kill our way.
[45:44] I pledge our hopes to choose and win within your course of this.
[46:00] We live within the saints in your hearts, and your most holy praise.
[46:17] With all and the saints of righteousness, give us to us, O God, her Savior, O God, her Savior, O God, of and of the sins and God, He and He and He and He His and His the Lord, and His He and He and He and He love and He and His him.
[47:15] As He or like a God, the Lord, the Father, the Holy Spirit, forevermore. Amen.