The Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles

The Lord left his apostles with instructions and with great gifts. The instructions are listed in several distinct places, but the the gifts are more scattered, both in the four gospels and in the book of Acts later, being given as the apostles needed them.

First, about the apostles... just to clarify, here I'm referring to "the disciples" as including anyone who has followed along to hear the Lord, and "the apostles" to mean the twelve men that the Lord recruited specifically, as listed in Matthew 10, Mark 3, and Luke 6.

Who were the apostles? From the lists in Matthew and Mark, which are the same, we have: Simon (Peter), James and John the sons of Zebedee, Andrew (Peter’s brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew (the publican), Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, (as is Matthew, so they are brothers, too), Thaddeus, (also known as Libbeus), Simon the Canaanite (also called Simon the Zealot), and Judas Iscariot. Bartholomew is almost undoubtedly another name for Nathaniel, see John 1. The list in Luke includes another Judas, "Judas the brother of James" and doesn’t have Thaddeus.

The stories of how they were individually chosen differ, especially in the gospel of John, but that these twelve were appointed by the Lord is clear. A point of interest is that - other than Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot they are all from towns around the sea of Galilee - and perhaps those two are as well. These twelve have their names inscribed on the twelve foundations of the walls of the holy city New Jerusalem, in Revelation 21:14 in which there are also the twelve gates. These men were chosen to represent all the different states of the natural human being that can be receptive of the Lord. They are from Galilee because Galilee represents that natural state of the human mind. The number twelve in the Word represents all possible states of mankind.

What is indicated here is that all people, everywhere, can be saved or regenerated if they repent and turn to the Lord in their lives. No one is "outside" of His reach. We are born natural, everyone is, but we are so formed that our minds can be raised to what is higher, called spiritual for our conceptions of Divine truth, or Celestial for our perceptions of Divine good. But we all start in a natural state and can only move upward by listening to the Lord’s teachings in His Word, and following Him as those Apostles did.

Not all of our natural states are states of good; they can be selfish, domineering, and cruel. But the Lord said that He came "not to save the just but to call sinners to repentance". Perhaps this is why Simon the Canaanite and Judas were two that He called. Simon is little known, but in some places in the Word, "Canaan signifies an external worship without a true internal worship". (See Arcana Coelestia 1060). Can the Lord work with that - with external worship that's internally barren? Yes, as a starting point. And, even Judas, who betrayed the Lord so terribly, we are told, repented of his betrayal of the Lord. (Matthew 27:3-5)

The Lord's Instructions to the Apostles

The two most comprehensive sets of instructions are in Luke 10:1-17 where seventy Disciples are sent out two by two, apparently to a specified list of cities that Jesus intends to visit, and then in Matthew 20:1-19 where the chosen twelve Apostles are sent out to all Israel. Later, as recorded in different epistles, the Apostles go out further, through a wide region.

The basic instructions were to preach that the kingdom of heaven is near, that all should be led to repent of their sins, and that all who wish should be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles should not take any money or extra clothing along, and they were to depend entirely on the Lord’s providence with no doubt that they shall be welcomed, fed, and sheltered. If they were welcomed, they should stay and preach the good news about the risen Lord and His teachings, and if they were not, they should shake from their feet the dust of that place and go on to a place where they were welcome. See Matthew 10, 28, Mark 13, 16, Luke 9, 10:24.

There are several assurances for the twelve. The Lord has told them to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit is sent to strengthen them, and in John 20 where the ten are gathered it is said that He breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit". Also, in his long talk with them in John 14, 15, 16) He assures them that his crucifixion and death are necessary to his mission and they should even rejoice that it is coming. He shows them from scripture that it has all been prophesied from long ago, (see Mark 4:34) and that what seems to them a tragedy, is truly His glorification and the end of the work He came to do. They, His twelve, are in the same steam of providence and will be protected. "Don’t be anxious," He tells them, "I will put into your mouths what you are to say, I will bring into your memories the incidents to tell to the people".

Here is a listing of the chapters and verses in John where such things are said: John 14:1-3, 10, 16-18, 26-28, 15:11, 16, 26-27, 16:7, 13-15, 22, 26-27, 33. Or simply read the three chapters and pick out your favorites.

A marvelous gift is mentioned in Matthew 10:13, "But blessed are your eyes for they see and blessed are your ears, for they hear…".

In the book of Acts, the Lord vividly shows the apostles that when they speak in their Galileen dialect every listener will hear their words as his own language in his ears; not gibberish, but Arabic to the Arabs, Greek to the Greeks, and Latin to the Romans.

When Peter starts to preach to a gathering of sympathetic Jews he speaks clearly and unafraid, saying that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and that people should worship Him openly and repent of how they might have felt earlier. Peter’s talk in Acts 3 and 4 is a bold and powerful one. No more hiding behind locked doors.

The early history of the Christian church shows just how well all this worked out. You know what? The Apostles preached to the peoples in the Near East 2000 years ago, and their preaching is just as relevant today as it was then: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Being at hand has nothing to do with the date or the state of political history in the world, it has to do with the inside of your mind. The Lord is just as close to you now as He was then, and He never turns away, though we might turn away from him. Remember that He said "behold I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears and opens the door He will come right in." This hasn’t changed nor will it ever change, but He leaves us in freedom to ignore His knocking, if that is what we want. We have to make the choice, but He is always ready if we choose to open the door.

365. We may gather from this that rich people arrive in heaven just as much as poor people do, one as easily as the other. The reason people believe that it is easy for the poor and hard for the rich is that the Word is misunderstood when it talks about the rich and the poor. In the spiritual meaning of the Word, "the rich" means people who are amply supplied with understandings of what is true and good, that is, people in the church where the Word is. "The poor" means people who lack these understandings but who long for them, or people outside the church, where the Word is not found.

[2] The rich person dressed in purple and fine linen who was cast into hell means the Jewish nation. Because they had the Word and were therefore amply supplied with understandings of what is good and true, they are called "rich." The garments of purple actually mean understandings of what is good, and the fine linen means understandings of what is true. ¹ The poor person who was lying in the gateway and who longed to feast on the crumbs that were falling from the rich person's table, who was carried up into heaven by angels, means the non-Jews who did not have understandings of what is good and true but who still longed for them (Luke 16:19, 31).

The rich who were invited to the great feast but who excused themselves also mean the Jewish nation, and the poor who were brought in to replace them mean the non-Jews who were outside the church (Luke 12:16-24, 14:16-24).

[3] We need also to explain who are meant by the rich of whom the Lord said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24). "The rich person" here means the rich in both senses, natural and spiritual. Rich people in the natural sense are people who have abundant wealth and set their hearts on it, while in a spiritual sense they are people who are amply supplied with insights and knowledge (for these are spiritual wealth) and who want to use them to get themselves into heavenly and ecclesiastical circles by their own intellect. Since this is contrary to the divine design, it says that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. On this level of meaning, a camel means our cognitive and informational level in general, and the eye of a needle means spiritual truth. ²

Nowadays people do not know that this is the meaning of the camel and the eye of a needle because there has not yet been any access to the knowledge that teaches what is meant spiritually by the things that the Word says literally. There is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word, and natural meaning as well; because the Word was written in pure correspondences of natural realities with spiritual ones in order to effect a union of heaven and the world, or of angels with us, once the direct union had ceased. We can see from this exactly who are meant by the rich in the Word.

[4] We may gather from a number of passages that on the spiritual level "the rich" in the Word refers to people who enjoy insights into what is good and true and that wealth means those insights themselves, which are spiritual riches: see Isaiah 10:12-14; 30:6-7; 45:3, Jeremiah 17:3; 47:7 [Jeremiah 48:7?], Jeremiah 50:36-37; 51:13, Daniel 5:2-4, Ezekiel 26:7, 12; 27:1-36; Zechariah 9:3-4; Psalms 45:12; Hosea 12:9; Revelation 3:17-18, Luke 14:33, and elsewhere. On the poor in the spiritual sense as people who do not have insights into what is good and true but who long for them, see Matthew 11:5; Luke 6:20-21; 14:21; Isaiah 14:30; 29:19; 41:17-18; Zephaniah 3:12, 18 [13]. An explanation of the spiritual meaning of all these passages may be found in 10227 of Secrets of Heaven.

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10236. 'And its pedestal from bronze' means good on the last level of the natural, which is that of the senses. This is clear from the meaning of 'the pedestal' of the laver, containing the water for washing, as the last level of the natural degree, which is called the level of the senses; and from the meaning of 'bronze' as good, dealt with above in 10235. The reason why 'the pedestal' means the last level of the natural, which is called the external level of the senses, is that 'the laver' which is above means the natural degree, in which purification takes place, and therefore that which is below means that which occupies the lowest, that is, the last place, which is the external level of the senses within a person. The natural degree within a person has an external level, a middle level, and an internal level. The external level of the natural degree is that which comes in contact with the world and is called the external level of the senses; the internal level of the natural degree is that which comes in contact with the internal man residing in heaven; and the middle level of the natural degree links the two together, for where an external and an internal exist there must be a middle linking them together. The human mind has a natural degree containing external, middle, and internal levels, see 4009, 4570, 5118, 5126, 5649, 9215.

[2] Strictly speaking, the level of the senses forming the last and lowest of the natural degree should be taken to mean that which is called the flesh and perishes when a person dies, thus that which has enabled the person to function in the world, namely the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It may be recognized that the senses exist on the ground-level so to speak of a person's life, forming the terminus and base on which it rests; for they open out directly onto the world, and through them the world comes in and heaven goes out. These senses the human being shares with animals. But an external aspect of the senses which the human being does not share so much with them, though still an external aspect of the senses, is the deposit in the human memory of impressions received from the world, consisting solely of worldly, bodily, earthly images. The person whose thought and reasoning are based on these alone and not on more internal ideas is called a sensory-minded person. This level of the senses remains with a person after death, though it becomes dormant. It is the external level of the senses that is meant, strictly speaking, by 'the pedestal'.

[3] The nature of this level of the senses was represented by the pedestals of the ten lavers which were placed next to the temple. These pedestals are described as follows,

Solomon made ten pedestals from bronze. Four cubits was the length of each pedestal, and four cubits the breadth; three cubits was the height. On the panels ¹ which were between the frames there were lions, oxen, and cherubs, and on the frames in like manner above. In addition each pedestal had four wheels, and boards of bronze ² ; but its four corners had shoulders ³ . Under a laver there were shoulders ³ of cast [bronze]. The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel; their axles ⁴ , and their rims ⁵ , and their tires, and their spokes were all of cast [bronze]. After this manner he made the ten pedestals. They were all of one casting, one measure, one symmetry. Therefore he made ten lavers from bronze; each laver contained forty baths, four cubits was each laver. 1 Kings 7:27-39.

[4] Here representative objects serve to describe the nature of the external level of the senses in a person, and in particular protection provided by the Lord to prevent a person from entering from the sensory level of his mind, thus from the world, into things of heaven or the Church. To do so is contrary to Divine order. For the world cannot enter into heaven, but heaven can into the world, which happens when the Lord coming by way of heaven flows into a person by means of the Word and resides in him, and so enlightens, teaches, and leads him. The fact that entering from the world into the things of heaven is contrary to Divine order may be recognized from the consideration that those who enter into them from the sensory level of their mind, thus who do so from factual knowledge derived from the world, have no belief at all.

[5] Protection against this is meant by 'lions, oxen, and cherubs'. By 'lions' protection to prevent truths from entering is meant, for lions are truths in their power, 6367, 6369, and by 'oxen' protection to prevent forms of good from entering, for oxen are forms of good in their power, 2781. By 'cherubs' the Lord's protection against such an occurrence is meant, see 308, 9509; and by 'the shoulders' of which also mention is made power and resistance are meant, see 1085, 4931-4937, 9836. By 'the chariot-like wheels' the ability to be made wise when everything enters from heaven is meant, for in this way everything moves on according to order, 'chariot wheels' being the ability to move on, thus to learn, 8215, 9872, and chariots being doctrinal teachings which heaven and the Church possess, 5321, 8215.

[6] What a sensory-minded person is must again be stated briefly. A person is called sensory-minded whose thought is based solely on such ideas in the memory as are derived from the world and whose mind cannot be raised to more internal levels. Such is the situation with those in particular who have no belief at all in heaven or in the Deity because they do not see them; for they trust solely in the senses, and what they do not perceive through these is not thought by them to have any existence. Such people come near to having a mind no different from that of animals, which too are led solely by their external senses. They are still wily and clever in action and reasoning, but they do not see truth in its own light. In former times such people were referred to as serpents of the tree of knowledge. Most of the hellish crew are of that sort. But what a sensory-minded person is and what the sensory level of the mind is, see the places referred to in 9331(end), and also 9726, 9730, 9731, 9922(end), 9996; and what it is to be raised above or drawn away from the level of the senses, the places referred to in 9922(end).

[7] Good on the level of the senses, meant by 'a pedestal made from bronze', is an expression which denotes the pleasure and delight that influence thought and imagination based solely on such things as are earthly, bodily, and worldly. It is distinguishable from other kinds of delight by the fact that it sees no other purposes to be served apart from those indulging the self or benefiting the self. For the sensory-minded person is steeped in self-love and love of the world, and the delights that are his go with those loves. And since the loves of a sensory-minded person are such as these, it is evident that he is cleverer than others in reasoning and in doing things for the sake of gain and position. For his body is burning with the fire of that love, and that fire produces a light that is called natural illumination. And when this light flares into brightness the light of heaven which belongs to the interior man is altogether blotted out. So it is that because the things belonging to the light of heaven are in thick darkness they are said not to exist. It is different in the case of those whose actions are burning with the fire of heaven and whose thoughts are lit by the light from it. All this shows what should be understood by good on the level of the senses, meant by the pedestal of the laver made from bronze.

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