Woodrow Kroll?

[scottruff]

Is he alright? I listen in from time to time. In todays message about the Apostle Phillip, Kroll seems to be reading an awful lot into the text. He calls Phillip a failure because when the Greeks came to him asking to see Jesus Phillip went to (through) Andrew instead.

Link probably good on 10-22-03 only.

http://www.backtothebible.org/radio/today/

Comments?

[Don]

Originally posted by scottruff
Is he alright? I listen in from time to time. In todays message about the Apostle Phillip, Kroll seems to be reading an awful lot into the text. He calls Phillip a failure because when the Greeks came to him asking to see Jesus Phillip went to (through) Andrew instead.

Link probably good on 10-22-03 only.

http://www.backtothebible.org/radio/today/

Comments?
I've listened to him a fair amount in the past, and have one of his series' on tape. I think he's pretty good, but he does say some strange things once in a while that I don't agree with.

[Nimrod]

I love him! Problem is that he comes on after David Jerimiah, and I have to get out of the car and go to work! When I drive in late---I listen to him every chance I get. It's great that you disagree with some things said---thats how we learn!

And to close with Woods fav closing line
....Have a good day, for what use is a good day, if it's not also a Godly day too!

Peace

[glorymj]

transcript (in case it's moved):

Philip: Disciple of Flickering Faith, Part 2
by Woodrow Kroll
There's a Lot of Philip in All of Us

Dan Norton: Ever had an experience like this.

Actor: "Hey, there is Jeff. I really should talk to him. He was asking about my faith last week. Then the phone rang. Hmm, he is on his own. I could just take my lunch over there.

No, if he doesn’t remember that conversation, it would be awkward to bring it up. But, may be…I don’t know. I guess I will just do it later."

Dan Norton: It is the moment when you know what you should do but don’t follow through. God gives the opportunity, but faith wavers and the moment is lost.

Philip the disciple had one of those moments and his faith wavered too. It flickered and failed at a time when it counted the most.

Today on Back to the Bible we will look at Philip and discover the consequences of flickering faith.

I am Dan Norton with Bible teacher Dr. Woodrow Kroll. Dr. Kroll recorded this series at the Sandy Cove Bible conference. Let’s join him again with a look at John chapter 12.

Woodrow Kroll: Now there were certain Greeks among those who came to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

Now, let me stop there. I want us to glean some truth from this passage that will help us understand why this is such a wonderful opportunity for Philip to express his faith.

The Jews had come to Passover, obviously, it was their feast. But the Greeks have come as well. Now these Greeks are there probably to buy and sell and trade.

But they are also there to be part of the great Passover celebration. These are not Hellenists. These are not Jewish people who happen to speak Greek. When it talks about the Greek, these are Hellenes.

These are not Jewish people at all. These are Greek people who have forsaken the pantheon of Greek gods to follow the one true God of Israel.

So they have come for a specific purpose. They are there to be at the Passover celebration to worship God, but they cannot help but want to see this prophet of God, this one who raises the dead, this one who teaches such things. They want to see Jesus.

And just as God’s program lays it out they come and they find one of the disciples. And guess which one they find, they find our friend Philip.

You talk about being in the right place at the right time. Philip found himself always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Philip was there and the Greeks found Philip and they knew that he was from Bethsaida. They knew he was a Galilean. And the Greeks were very familiar with Galileans because most of the Greeks who would live in that country would not live in the great citadel of Judaism, they would live in the north country.

They knew Philip was from Galilee and so they came to Philip and said, "Philip, we want to see Jesus. Take us to Jesus."

That is a wonderful opportunity for Philip. These Greeks are desiring to see Jesus. Now, let’s bear in mind that the fact that Philip is Galilean and the fact that these people are Greeks, these two facts go together like hand in glove.

Put your hand in there, John chapter 12. Turn back with me to Matthew chapter 4. There is a reason why this is important for Philip. And when we read our Bible we learn a lot about the reasons why God does the things He does.

Matthew chapter 4. Look with me at verse 12. Matthew chapter 4 verse 12. "Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.

"And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned.'"

"From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Now Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen."

And as Paul Harvey would say "Now you know the rest of the story." He called these two brothers into discipleship; He called James and John into discipleship and the next day he called Philip.

Now the whole point of why we are discussing Philip is--what was Philip’s response to the desire of these people for the Desire of all Nations?

Let me take you back to this passage in John chapter 12. Let’s see exactly how Philip responded. John chapter 12 represents the third time we encounter Philip in the Gospel of John, third of only four.

The Greeks come to see Jesus, verse 20. Verse 21 is the response of Philip the disciple. This is Philip’s opportunity to leap forward in strong faith, to say, "Come with me. I will show you the Messiah of the world."

Let’s see what he does. Verse 21 of John chapter 12. "Then they came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and ask him saying 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.' Philip came and told Andrew and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus."

Now I want to be fair to Philip in my explanation of this text. Because let’s face it, Philip is facing something he has never in his life faced before, actually two things.

Probably he’s never had Greeks come to him before and want to meet the Savior. He didn’t quite know what to do.

You know, is this the program of God or not? I haven’t read the manual lately. So I don’t know. He really isn’t sure whether he should take them to Jesus or not.

Now, you and I don’t have that excuse because we have a manual and we know what we ought to do. Sometimes we respond the same way Philip does but we don’t do it without excuse.

The second reason is Philip here had never been singled out by people before. Remember he was singled out by Lord Jesus in chapter 6 because Jesus was testing his faith.

But the disciples had always acted as a group before. They always did things together. It’s important you don’t just take my word for that.

I mean you’ve a Bible in front of you. You can find this out for yourself. In fact, don’t take my word. Let’s find out for ourselves. Go back to chapter 2.

Chapter 2. Let’s see if these disciples do things together. Look at John chapter 2 verse 1. "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there."

Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. So the invitation did not read "Jesus." It said, "Jesus and friends." So He brought His disciples. The disciples were at the wedding of Cana of Galilee just like Jesus was.

Look at John chapter 3 in verse 22. "After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized."

And you know from chapter 4 verse 1 "Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples, He left Judea and departed again for Galilee."

So here they are, they are up in Galilee, in Cana of Galilee where Jesus changed the water to wine. They are all together. They are at the wedding feast together.

And then they come down to the Jordan River and they are baptizing and Jesus is not baptizing, but the disciples are. And they are all together. Every one of the disciples is there.

And then look at chapter 4 in verse 8. This is the great story of Jesus and the woman at the well. I love this part of the story.

Notice in verse 8, the reason Jesus was alone with the woman at the well, verse 8. "For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food." Now, wait a minute, guys, there are twelve disciples. How many bags of groceries can there be?

I mean, hey look, you guys have laughed at women for getting up and going to the bathroom together for years. Right? These women--they can’t do anything by themselves. They have to go at the same time.

These disciples all went into the city to buy food. They had to do it together. That’s what left Jesus alone. This disciple group was so close knit that they did everything together.

Look at chapter 6 at verse 1. "After these things Jesus went over to the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of Tiberius. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up into the mountain and there He sat with His disciples."

There they are again. They are always gathered around Jesus.

Chapter 11—a great story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. John chapter 11, why don’t we start at verse 1? "A certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

"It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

"Therefore, the sisters sent to Him saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'"

Jesus heard that. He responds. He loved Mary. He loved Martha. He loved Lazarus. And He in verse 8, "The disciples said to Him, 'Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?'"

See, the disciples got together and polled the audience. They didn’t have any friends to phone but they polled the audience.

And they said, "Should You go to Jerusalem again? You could get killed if you go to Jerusalem. "And all the disciples acted in one accord.

Now come back with me to John chapter 12. The disciples are so used to doing everything together and then the Greeks come.

John chapter 12 and verse 21 says And they came not to the disciples, "They came to Philip." And for the first time in his disciple life, Philip is singled out by the crowd and he is asked a question.

He doesn’t know what to do. He had never been singled out before--never had to act on his own before. "What do I do?"

This is kind of like a lot of Christians today. Somebody says, "You know I’ve really been thinking about salvation and death and eternity and hell, how can I be saved?"

[glorymj]

You say "What do I do? I will go get the Pastor. "And that’s exactly what Philip did. And the dilemma here of this disciple is that he was acting all alone. And he wasn’t prepared to do it all by himself.

And listen, friends; it is not the responsibility of the group to live the Christian life. It is my responsibility to live the Christian life.

It’s your responsibility to live the Christian life. It is not the responsibility of the AWANA leader or the Sunday school teacher or the Christian schoolteacher to teach my children God’s Word.

It’s my responsibility to teach them God’s Word. And suddenly the spotlight is on me as an individual; I have to look the Lord in the eye one day and explain to Him why I did what I did. And so do we all, one on one with our Savior and our Judge.

And Philip, poor Philip, I mean, here Philip is all by himself. He'd never been all by himself before. He doesn’t have any idea what to do.

He has lost the comfort of the group and now he is encountering the personal pain of individuality. So notice what he does.

By the way, this is when Jesus gave him the opportunity to leap forward in strong faith. This is where He gave him the opportunity to go back to John chapter 1 and reverse the incident of John chapter 6.

And instead of going back to fledgling faith and letting it flourish and grow, this is where his faith begins to flicker. And this is what he does.

Philip came—verse 22. "Philip came and told Andrew; and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus." See, what he did was he delayed in his response.

"Shall I do it myself? Shall I take them to Jesus? Shall I introduce them to the Master or do I need a little bit of help?" He delayed in his response.

Now, listen, Philip didn’t do anything wrong as far as I can determine. Here he ultimately took these people to Jesus. That is not the problem. The problem is not that Philip didn’t do what was right or wrong.

The problem is did Philip do what was right at the right time? And the answer is no. He delayed in his response and I’ve to tell you, friends, delay is the half-brother of disobedience.

When God tells us to do something we don’t delay. We simply do it.

I’ve used this little poem in other contexts, specifically about reading your Bible and getting to know God’s Word. But it’s one of my favorite poems, because it’s called the Procrastinators Poem. I think you would probably identify.

"I had gone for a drink and sharpened my pencils;
Searched through my desk for forgotten utensils,
I reset my watch; I adjusted my chair.

"I’ve loosened my tie and straightened my hair.
I've filled my pen and tested the blotter
And gone for another drink of water.

"I’ve adjusted the calendar and I’ve raised the blind.
I’ve sorted erasers of all of different kinds.
Now, down to work, I can finally sit
Oops, too late, it’s time to quit."

Philip had a wonderful opportunity to go back from faltering faith to the fledgling faith he had the day Jesus called him to discipleship. And instead he had an "oops" experience and his faith flickered.

Now, my concern for you today, my friend, is that often God gives us the opportunity to have a great and strong faith.

And sometimes it is all by ourselves. We don’t have the company of our wife or our father, our husband, our pastor. Sometimes it is just us. And I wonder if you are prepared to exercise strong faith.

Are you prepared, if your faith has been faltering lately, are you prepared by yourself to go back to that great moment when Christ came in to your heart?

You had no idea what you couldn’t do. You were willing to go anywhere, do anything, to talk to anybody. You didn’t have all the answers. You didn’t even have doctrine 101. You hadn’t read any of the great books of Christian literature. You hadn’t been to any of the great Bible conferences.

All you knew is Jesus saved you and you want to tell somebody about it. Jesus said, "Follow Me." And you got up and went.

And suddenly now three years later having sat at the feet of Jesus, having watched the miracles, having heard the teaching, the Greeks come to you and they say, "Can you introduce us to Jesus?"

And you who’ve been with Jesus for three years, you say, "Let me get back to you on that." It’s the twenty-first century equivalent of "Oops, it’s time to quit."

Now let me ask you a question. Philip is only found four times in the Gospel of John. And that’s more times than the other gospels.

If the first time we encounter Philip, he expresses to us fledgling faith and the second time we encounter Philip, he expresses faltering faith and the third time we encounter Philip, he expresses flickering faith, what can possibly be next.

I mean, where do you go from here if your faith is not getting stronger? Friend, if it is not getting stronger, it is getting weaker.

And Philip who was a wonderful disciple is giving us examples of going the wrong way in our faith.

And if you’ve been walking with the Lord for a long time but your faith is getting weaker every day, may I invite you, my dear friend, to come back to that exciting day when you trusted Jesus for the first time; an exciting day when you didn’t know all about the process of theology—that exciting day when you couldn’t answer the great theological questions, you didn’t even know what they were.

May I invite you to come back to the day when you discovered the Savior of the world? And you said, "I want Him to be my Savior." And you were willing to introduce that Savior to anybody because that was the joy of your salvation.

With apologies to, I guess, Bill Gaither, I think he wrote this song, it seems to me that Philip is now singing: "The Longer I Serve Him the Sadder It Grows."

I pray that’s not true in your life. I pray you are restored to the joy of your salvation if your faith has been faltering.

If it has been getting weaker because of all the things you’ve seen going on in the world, go back to that wonderful day when that child-like faith brought you to your Savior in the first place.

Dan Norton: When our faith flickers, we need to remember the simple desire and passion that first brought us to Jesus.

You’ve been listening to a message by Dr. Woodrow Kroll today on Back to the Bible. Dr. Kroll is back in the studio with me.

Wood, part of the test for Philip was to demonstrate faith. He didn’t do it very well. Many of us have the same trouble.

We are bright lights when we are surrounded by other Christians, but put us out in the world and we are the same as Philip.

Woodrow Kroll: Yeah, as I said, Dan, I believe in yesterday’s program, we need to begin with spending quality time each day alone with the Savior.

You know the poles that are closest to the center give off the brightest light. They give off the most heat. The Christians that are closest to the Savior give off the best testimony.

When we are alone, when we are separated from other Christians, we may not shine as brightly as we do all together.

But in the darkness of this world we still will shine. For most of us this is moving out of our comfort zones, and to make that happen we need the help of the Holy Spirit of God.

So, my friend, just ask Him. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the courage to leave a witness wherever you go. And the more you do, the easier it gets. And the more He helps you, the easier it becomes.

So, if you are struggling with this issue today, just ask the Spirit to help you.

Dan Norton: Why do you think Philip responded as he did?

Woodrow Kroll: Because he is human, you know. We often respond as Philip did when the Lord gives us an opportunity to make a difference. We defer to others. We sometimes let our faith to flicker. Sometimes it’s just our personality. But we dare not use that as an excuse.

Each of us who are born again, each of us who has the Holy Spirit within us--we’ve been transformed from being weak into being strong. And we still have the same personality, but we need to be bold in sharing our faith, as bold as we possibly can be.

And I think, the difference, Dan, is the strength that the Spirit of God residing in us brings to that boldness.

Dan Norton: Hmm. It is like our opening drama, the guy standing there in the zone, decision time, "Ah, ooh, well, maybe, mm, nay."

Our old fear comes right to grips, you know. Our first reaction is not faith. It’s all the other things: excuses, prejudice, disbelief; all the things that get in the way of demonstrating our faith. How do we conquer that?

Woodrow Kroll: Ah, I think we conquer them one at a time. You know, we isolate each reaction that you just mentioned--each thing we do not want to be a part of our lives--we deal with our prejudice, then we take our fears to God in prayer, we identify them, we isolate them.

We ask God to help us eliminate them. And then when we find that we are not really as strong by ourselves as we think we are--that’s when we understand how much we need the Holy Spirit of God.

When we take these things out of our lives one at a time, we get the experience that we need to become a better witness for Him.

You know, experience is a great teacher. And the more experience we get, the bolder we become in our witness for the Lord.

Dan Norton: Hmm. And I guess the only thing left is just to do it. Thank you, Dr. Kroll.

Well, Dr. Kroll’s study this week is called "There Is a Lot of Philip in All of Us" and it is available on CD with your gift of $12 or more.

You can also order it on cassette. Ask for details when you call 1-800-759-2425. I will give that phone number again in just a moment.

Walking by faith is something we learn by spending time in God’s Word and you’ll find help doing that in a daily devotional book by Dr. Kroll and Tony Beckett called Faith Walk.

Faith Walk helps you read through the Bible in a year and it is available for a suggested donation of $13. To order call Back to the Bible at 1-800-759-2425. That’s 1-800-759-2425 or stop by our Web site at backtothebible. org.

When you get in touch, remember to request a complimentary copy of our 2004 Scripture Text calendar.

Well, Wood, through this study we’ve seen Philip start well, but his faith struggled along the way. And as the Gospel of John records he had trouble finishing well.

Woodrow Kroll: Well, a lot of us do, Dan, and that’s one of the reasons, friends, why I want to encourage you to get a copy of Faith Walk, because it will help you start your year well and finish your year well. And it will also help you to understand God’s Word every day throughout the year.

Finishing well is important and tomorrow we are going to look at the last time we encounter Philip in the Gospel of John. He is only mentioned four times and the last time, well, the story is not good. But it is one that we need to hear because it is kind of where we live most of the time, Philip as a disciple of failing faith.

Now we are going to rescue Philip because he was a great man. But he teaches us lessons about faith that only Philip can teach us. And a very important lesson is going to be a part of our time together tomorrow. Plan to join us, won’t you?

Thank you so much for being here today. God bless you, friends. I am Woodrow Kroll. Have a good and godly day.

[scottruff]

Originally posted by glorymj
transcript (in case it's moved):

Philip: Disciple of Flickering Faith, Part 2
by Woodrow Kroll
There's a Lot of Philip in All of Us

Dan Norton: Ever had an experience like this.

Actor: "Hey, there is Jeff. I really should talk to him. He was asking about my faith last week. Then the phone rang. Hmm, he is on his own. I could just take my lunch over there. (much deleted)

Yup. That's what I heard. I do understand Kroll's larger point about each individual Christian's responsibilities. It is well taken. I do not find it easy to believe that Phillip, by going through Andrew, displayed lack of faith. There are cultural considerations. In some cultures one ALWAYS goes through an intermediary. I confess to being ignorant about Jewish culture, though. Maybe he simply didn't know exactly where Jesus was at that moment. Quite possibly, these being Greeks, albeit converts, Phillip wanted to run it past Andrew first since Jesus came first to the House of Israel. See! Now I am trying to read more into the text than is there. I'm not justified either.

[KrispyKritter]

Ya gotta trust someone who goes thru life with a name like "Woodrow".

[billiefan2000]

Is he alright? I listen in from time to time. In todays message about the Apostle Phillip, Kroll seems to be reading an awful lot into the text. He calls Phillip a failure because when the Greeks came to him asking to see Jesus Phillip went to (through) Andrew instead.

Link probably good on 10-22-03 only.

http://www.backtothebible.org/radio/today/

Comments?


listening to him right now and he is okay IMO

[Paul]

listening to him right now and he is okay IMO
It's about time. Poor Scott has been waiting two years for an answer. :lol

[SnoDog]

I've always enjoyed Woodrow

[scottruff]

Jesus is not the only thing that gets resurrected around here.:pound

[SeaDreamer]

It's about time. Poor Scott has been waiting two years for an answer. :lol

:lol

<--guilty of this myself on occasion.

[Ponderin]

It's about time. Poor Scott has been waiting two years for an answer. :lol



:spit

[LeahIA]

He's great. I got to see him in person a couple years ago. He has such a wonderful voice.