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.

30. CONCERNING THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS

This is in complete harmony if only one God is acknowledged, so that there is no thought of three persons. If, in accordance therewith, the Creed of Athanasius is read, without allowing any other idea to enter, then full harmony is effected.

1. It is denied by no one that the Divine which took on the Human was His Divine, thus that the Lord suffered Himself to be born. Thence it follows that this is the Divine of Whom it is written in Matthew and in Luke. Nor was there another Father from whom He was conceived but the very Divine which He called His Father. Nor was there any other. This accords with the words in Matthew that Joseph "touched her not," [1:25] and again in Luke when Mary said that "she knew not a man" [1:34], and when Joseph "found that she was with child, and so was minded to put her away." [Matthew 1:19.]

2. The Divine of the Lord took on the Human. If the Divine is one, it follows that the Divine Itself, which is one, assumed the Human. Nor is any good done by the idea that the Divine which created the universe put on the Human. For in the Creed it is said that the Divine of the one Person, and the Divine of the other Person are entirely equal, as in these words - "Just as the Father is infinite, eternal, uncreate, omnipotent, God the Lord, so is the Son. For no one of them is first or last, greatest or least, but they are altogether equal." What, then, matters it whether I think that the Divine of the Lord or the Divine of the Father assumed the Human, so long as there exists the same idea in either case? Yet when it is said that the Divine of the Father put on the Human, the idea today in the Christian world is opposed. Nevertheless, it is exactly the same since the one Divine is altogether equal with the other.

3. It is said that the Lord was perfect God and perfect Man. Or, concerning the Human it is said that He was perfect Man consisting of a rational soul and a perfect body, and thence that he was Man from the nature of the mother. No one who thinks about this matter from the Divine order known to everyone, is able to accept it into his faith, for it would be to say that the Lord can exist as rational Man, or perfect Man from the mother alone. For was He not from the Father? And is it not the case that life and the initiament of life is from the father and its additions from the mother? To believe that the Lord was perfect Man from the mother alone, is quite contrary to all order and to what is said. Is there not the image of the father in children equally with that of the mother? The very love or ruling affection of the father stands out clearly in grandchildren and in families. In a word, there must be father and mother that man may be perfect man. How then is it to be believed that He was perfect Man from the mother?

4. Does it not then follow that the Divine was in the Lord from conception as is the soul in the case of every man.

5. This was considered by Athanasius when he said that God and Man are one Christ, not two but a united person like soul and body. From these statements it is clear that, according to our creedal faith, the Divine and the Human in the Lord are together in one Person, and not that the Divine is outside the Human as many crazily imagine.

6. Again, it is further stated that the two natures were not co-mingled, but that the Divine took to itself the Human. Neither are soul and body co-mingled with any man; but with every one, the soul clothes itself with a body and so takes to itself that which is called the human. In this also there is agreement.

7. And so when the Divine takes to itself the Human, uniting Itself with the Human as soul and body, so that there is one united person, then also the Human participates in the Divine, namely by becoming one [with it]. Thence also it can be confirmed that the Human, too, is Divine.

8. This also is confirmed in the Word, as in the Old Testament, that a Son was born whose name shall be God, The Everlasting Father, God with us, Jehovah our Righteousness. These names refer to the Human of the Lord, for it is said that thus shall the Son be called [Isaiah 9:6]; also elsewhere, as particularly in Revelation, where such things are said concerning "The Son of Man" by which name, also, the Divine Human of the Lord is meant.