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.

"For he said, Surely they are my people… in all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them." Isaiah 63:8-9

Additional readings: Isaiah 63, John 14:1-14, Psalms 19, 20.

During the Lenten season the thoughts of the Christian world are turned to the last days of the Lord's life on earth. As illustrative of the states of mankind at that time the rejection and crucifixion of Christ was the greatest of tragedies. Yet from the Divine, point of view, it was necessary that the Lord fulfill all the prophecies concerning Himself. Only so could the Divine purpose be accomplished.

Isaiah writes, "Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever" (Isaiah 9:7).

This prophecy speaks in terms of an earthly kingdom. The Jews thought that the Messiah, when He should come, would establish them above other nations. And even after the resurrection, when the Lord appeared to the Apostles assembled in Jerusalem, they asked Him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom unto Israel?" (Acts 1:6).

His kingdom is in the world but not of it; it is far above all worldly principalities, powers, and dominions in that it is to be established in the minds and hearts of men. Even His closest disciples did not understand this, but with the passing of the years history has made it plain that if the Lord had in His day destroyed the Roman power, He would have destroyed the very means by which His Church was afterwards to spread over the world and His Word be preserved and made known.

There were many things that He could not tell His disciples, as He said, "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father" (John 16:25).

It is only as the world develops in regeneration that spiritual truths can be revealed. So what are mysteries to one age of the Church become clear to another which is better prepared to understand. When the true purpose of the Lord's Advent is known, when it is known that He came to deliver the souls of men from death, that He came not to save the people of one nation but those of all nations, Jew and Gentile alike, the reason for His suffering and death become clear. It was to overcome evil, to break its power, and to set men free. Evil and falsity are the real enemies of mankind. "Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses" (Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 8:17).

Wrong ideas concerning the Lord's sufferings and His death upon the cross have come from a misinterpretation of Scripture. John writes, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16) to save it, and throughout the story of the Lord's life in the world He is frequently called the Son of God. The finite humanity which He assumed through Mary is so distinguished from the Divine Humanity with which He gradually replaced it as He overcame temptations. But He Himself said, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," and "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9-10).

At one time it was almost universally believed in the Christian Church that Christ suffered to appease the wrath of an angry God. The teaching of the Church has always been based on Scripture. We read in Isaiah, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief," and again, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed," and, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53bb5-10) These and other similar passages teach that Christ suffered of the Divine will, and that He suffered for the sins of men.

Both of these statements are true. The misinterpretation comes from supposing that Christ and the Father are two different persons. It was God Himself who, from His own love of mankind, took on our nature that He might meet evil and overcome it. In taking on our nature He took upon Himself the inherited evils of the ages, all the evils of which the will of man is capable. So was He laden with all the evils which belong to the loves of self and the world. By taking on our nature with its association with spirits, evil as well as good, He came in contact with the hells. So He was able to fight against them, His struggles and temptations were with these powers of the hells which infested His human nature. From the eyes of the disciples of His day this struggle was hidden because they could neither understand nor help.

In the record of the temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane, the final and greatest temptation was brought to outward view. Peter, James, and John, His closest disciples, were with Him. But they could not understand what was taking place; they fell asleep. Many think that it was fear of the death on the cross at the hands of His enemies which was the cause of the agony at Gethsemane. Yet very ordinary men and women have appeared in every age who not only could not be frightened in the face of a terrible death, but who could not be prevented from offering their lives for a righteous cause. How little then must the thought of physical death have figured in the Lord's suffering at Gethsemane.

He had come to save the world from sin. As a child He recognized and declared His mission when, at His first Passover at the age of twelve, He said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49). His whole life was dedicated to this purpose. It was a task that He set for Himself; no other imposed it on Him. The depths of His inner struggles are hidden from us as they were from the disciples; we can know only something of their nature. When we are tempted, we are assaulted by only one or two evils at a time, and they are also held in check by the divine power of the Lord so that they may not be beyond our ability to resist, but with the Lord the case was different. He says, "I looked, and there was none to help me and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me."

By overcoming He redeemed man. This does not mean that because He overcame we do not have to fight against evils in ourselves. As the Lord said, we must drink of His cup and be baptized with the baptism that He was baptized with, but unless He had overcome, unless He had been "wounded for our transgressions" and "bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5) we should have been wholly unable to overcome our evils; for from Him who overcame flows forth to us the power to resist and to overcome evil. Had He failed in His great conflict, we could never succeed in our little ones. In that sense He suffered for us, and in that sense only.

There are some who do not like the thought of suffering or temptation. They would like to have life here always easy and pleasant. Such do not realize why this world was created or what we are here for. They think that this world is everything and that the future world is comparatively nothing. Yet our eternal happiness depends upon overcoming in ourselves the loves of self and the world.

To become regenerate, to develop a heavenly character is not accomplished without a struggle. Often we may have to abandon our most cherished plans. We may have to give up that on which we think our happiness depends. And sickness and suffering may overtake us. Yet if such be our lot, it is to make us wise unto salvation. The Lord said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30). This Scripture does not conflict with such passages as "Whosoever does not take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27). The lesson is that until we cease to depend upon ourselves and instead learn to look to the Lord and do His will, until we are willing to be guided by Him alone, we cannot take the first step in regeneration. It is only through this conflict, as we overcome selfish tendencies within ourselves, that we can be formed into the image and likeness of our Creator.

By His life on earth the Lord became the Good Shepherd, ever going before us and defending us from evil. As we study the later days of the Lord's life, we are enabled to see Him more clearly as a God of love, the one God, who in His love and mercy came into the world, that He might be more closely present with us and deliver us from all that hurts and destroys. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).