Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Well, let us go to the
Lord in prayers. We're going to come
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to his word here in a moment, and we need to ask God's illumination
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on this word to let us pray. And now our God and Father again,
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we do approach you in the name
of our one and only blessed Savior,
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the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
himself for us and died for us,
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that we who were sinners, lost
without hope in the world, might
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be called and chosen by you,
even as those will read about in the
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text this morning, Lord, we
thank you that you have called us out
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of darkness into your marvelous light,
that you have translated us out of the
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kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom
of your dear son. We're all is
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light, and so Lord we ask
for light. Lord, we ask that
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your word would be a light to
our path. We ask, oh God,
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that you would just illuminate it to
us as we look at a text
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that is probably very familiar year to
us. But Lord, I pray that
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you would enlighten new truths out of
it, that you would speak to us
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and Lord encourage us in the area
of prayer. And Lord, I asked
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that your blessing would be upon it. As I read it this morning to
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your people. I prayed in Christ
name. Amen. And Luke chapter six,
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we've moved on and beginning in verse
twelve, have a fairly short text
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this morning that I will be reading
to you, beginning with verse twelve and
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going through verse sixteen. So I
remind you again this is God's word.
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In these days. He went out
to the mountain to pray, and all
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night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called
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his disciples and chose from them twelve
whom he named Apostles, Simon whom he
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named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John and phil Betholomew
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and Matthew and Thomas, and James
his son of Alpheus, and Simon who
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was called the Zellot, and Judas, the son of James. And Judas
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is Scariot who became a trader.
Amen, that's why, and the reading
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of God's word, and you may
be seated. So we moved to uh.
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Verse twelve. Luke chapter six is
we're making their way towards um the
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I guess I'm not going to get
to the end of Luke's I won't even
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pretend that we only have a couple
of weeks left. But nonetheless, I
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found in my studies this week for
this passage of scripture that many of the
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writers, uh, actually there's quite
a bit of material they give on these
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verses because they kind of use it
as a springboard to speak about the different
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disciples and the characteristics of the disciples
and all of those things. So,
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um, I found they did that. But I don't want to do that,
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because, like I said, if
I did that, I wouldn't even
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get through that, and so I
would leave not even having finished this text.
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So I decided not to do that. But I do want to make
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a few notes about this list as
we go through it, and I want
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to talk about a few things about
the disciples that I think are interesting.
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But there's much more that could be
said about all these disciples, but I'm
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not going to be doing that this
morning. So here in verse twelve,
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as we begin the text today,
we see again what we've seen all along
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here, which is the indefiniteness of
Luke. Luke doesn't give us definite things.
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He just kind of uh speaks and
kind of generality. So he says,
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in those days well, what days
are you talking about, Luke,
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Well, we don't know what days
he's talking about. He goes up into
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a mountain. Well what mountain,
Luke? Well, Luke doesn't want to
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tell us what mountain he goes into. He uses the definite article, although
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in this passage he says that he
went up into the mountain, which would
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indicate to us it was probably a
very well known mountain. But which one
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of those, we really don't know, because Jerusalem, like Tucson, had
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a few mountains around it, so
we're not sure. And again Luke is
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not interested in telling us the story
of Jesus in a chronological fashion. Now
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it is mostly chronological, but it
doesn't follow an exact chronological order. As
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we go through this, he has
other things in mind and how he is
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telling the story of Christ. And
through this um we have learned in the
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passages before this that the enemies of
Jesus are increasing. We saw that in
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the last two stories at the enemies
of Christ are increasing. Not only are
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they increasing, but they are intensifying
in what they want to do to Jesus.
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And so there is much that is
happening here. Mark particularly tells us
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in this account that at this point
they were seeking how to put Christ to
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death, already trying to do that
at this point. Now Matthew, Mark,
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and Luke all record to us the
calling of the twelve Apostles, but
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it is only Luke who tells us
that before Jesus did this momentous thing,
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that he spent the night in prayer. One of the things that Luke is
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much more interested in talking about than
the other gospel writers is the prayer life
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of Jesus. Not all the gospel
writers, of course mentioned prayers of Jesus,
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and John in particular gives to us
the longest prayer we have of Jesus.
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But Luke particularly likes prayer. And
when Luke speaks about prayer concerning Jesus,
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he almost always uses the verbal form
of the word for pray, so
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he doesn't he doesn't use the prayer
words so much. And in fact,
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the noun prayer only occurs three times
in the Gospel of Luke, but the
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verse row forms of pray, pray
praying prayed occur twenty times in the Gospel
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of Luke. It seems whenever Jesus
goes apart to pray, that something spectacular
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or out of the ordinary happens after
this takes place here, we're going to
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see the calling of the twelve Apostles. Later on in Luke nine, when
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Jesus again goes up to amount of
the prey. We are going to see
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that ended with the great account of
the transfiguration of Jesus before the Apostles,
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which is a pretty momentous event in
the ministry of Christ, as both John
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and Peter mentioned it in their writings, is something that had a great effect
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upon their life. They both mention
it. And of course, who can
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forget Jesus going to pray that last
night in the garden of Caossemite, where
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he beseeched his disciples to join him
in prayer. But of course they slept
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through that. And the phrase here
that Luke uses of Jesus praying, and
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the Greek not all of the versions
translated exactly. Uh. They probably think
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it they want to do it in
a way that is more understandable in English,
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but the literal standard version actually translates
it this way. He was passing
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the night in the prayer of God, that is literally what it is in
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the Greek. In the prayer of
God. He was passing Uh the night
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there. In other words, he
was praying a prayer that is in conformity
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to the will of his Father.
It seems like in this prayer, and
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I'll talk about this through the message
this morning, that Christ is being received
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from the Father. He's receiving from
the Father the men that he should choose
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out of these large group of disciples
that is following him. That there are
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twelve in particular, that he is
to choose and to call them as apostles.
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And so in the morning after prayer
he will call the great group of
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disciples to him, and out of
those he will designate twelve to be apostles.
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And so later on in Jesus's high
priestly prayer in John chapter seventeen,
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it says this. In verse six, he speaks of these men. He
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says, I have manifested your name
to the people whom you gave me out
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of the world yours they were,
and you gave them to me, and
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they have kept your words. So
it seems like Jesus is referring to the
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fact that the Father gave those names
to him that night in prayer. Now
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again, I know there's mysteries here
with the UH dual nature of Christ and
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all of that, and I'll address
that a little later. On g Campbell,
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Morgan writes of Christ spending the night
in prayer before choosing these men.
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He said, I would like to
read that in churches where they're going to
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elect deacons and officers at the church, spends the night in prayer before that.
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But if the law needed guidance,
if our Lord Jesus Christ needed guidance,
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if he needed to know who that
should be chosen, I think we
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probably need that as well. I
think if he needed it, we can
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say that we need it also.
And so we're told that out of the
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disciples, he chooses a certain number. And I'm not gonna ask you because
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you know what you're yelling out seven
this time, because the number is actually
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twelve. I know you know that, really, But uh so we have
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the twelve apostles, which is also
very important number in scripture because we read
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of the twelve tribes of Israel,
and there are other twelves that are in
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the Bible as well, and so
it appears that our Lord is gathering together
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a new Israel is going to follow
him, and so we, uh we
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see this number very important in Revelation
twenty one, beginning with verse twelve.
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It had a great high wall speaking
of the new Jerusalem, with twelve gates,
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and at the gates were twelve angels, and on the gates and name
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of the twelve tribes of the Sons
of Israel were inscribed on the east three
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gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and
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on the west three gates. And
UH always found it interesting that one of
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the gates of the of Jerusalem,
the UH, the real city now is
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the water gate. I thought that
was an interesting thing. But nonetheless it
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says on the wall of the city
had twelve foundations, and on them were
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the twelve names of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb. Now that's going to
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be important as they go. And
I want to talk about something else,
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because well, in fact, i'll
talk about it now. Uh. The
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The idea is, remember in Acts
one, after Judas has betrayed the Lord,
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and the Lord has been with the
disciples, and he's ascended into heaven,
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and he has apparently given them some
information as to what they should do
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when they are gathered together. In
Acts one, it says they gathered together
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for the purpose of choose someone who
would take the place of Judas. Now,
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why would you need to do that? You know, Okay, we
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were twelve or eleven. We're assuming
very shortly they're going to be eleven again
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because James is going to be martyred, and so we wonder, why do
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you why did they need to do
that? But they felt that they needed
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to in indeed, put the number
to twelve, and so this happens in
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Act one. Peter says, it's
necessary therefore, of the men who went
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with us during the time in which
the Lord Jesus went in and went out
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among us, beginning from the immersion
of John. That's an interesting translation,
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but nonetheless to the day in which
he was received up from us, one
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of these to become with us a
witness of his resurrection. And so,
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in other words, we need a
twelve. We need to fill this number
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again that our Lord called to be
twelve. Now, I'm not going to
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get into the argument. I'm sure
you're all familiar with the argument. Were
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the disciples right in doing this?
Should they have cast lots? Is that
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what they should have done? Shouldn't
they have waited? Because God had his
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own apostle the apostle Paul, and
he is going to be the twelve when
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his name will be inscribed on the
on the gates and not Matthias. Well,
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I'm not I'm not going to get
into that. That's that for another
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day. But again Jesus will take
these men who are called disciples. And
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the word for the cipo in the
Greek it's matth taste, and it basically
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means a learner or a follower.
The word has found over two hundred and
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fifty times in the New Testament,
and it comes from a verb that means
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to learn. We actually get our
words mind and mental and those words like
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that are actually from that Greek word. So then our Lord, out of
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this group of learners, of people
that have learned of Christ, he now
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chooses twelve apostles. Verse thirteen says
that Jesus gave the name of apostles to
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the twelve men that he had chosen. And the word apostle in Greek basically
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means a cent one, or we
could say someone who has been delegated to
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go out from somebody else and they
are given particular orders that they are to
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do. That's what an apostle is. It's kind of like an ambassador in
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that. And so in the Gospel
of Luke, we have had the Angel
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Gabriel was sent by the Lord to
come down and speak to Mary. We
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had John the Baptist, who is
called one that was sent to proclaim uh
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the word of the Lord and the
wilderness. And now the apostles are sent.
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James Edwards notes that he thinks the
word apostle like the word agape in
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Greek, which means love. That
these words were particularly appropriated by the early
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Church and given a sense that they
didn't have an everyday language at that day.
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So these are all followers of Jesus, learners of Jesus. But now
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the Lord's going to choose twelve whom
he is particularly going to send. Everybody
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can be learner of Jesus, but
there are these men who are going to
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be given a special authority. They
will be able to do great and mighty
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works, and they will also be
the ones who will write the scriptures that
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you and I call, and rightly
so the word of God. And so
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they are that. So these men
are particular delegates. Now you might also
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know there's a controversy concerning apostles in
the New Testament. There are those that
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would um divide apostles into two groups, and they would call the one group
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the capital a apostles and the other
group the small a Apostles. In the
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Capital a apostles, we would have, of course the eleven disciples that were
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there in Acts one Uh and maybe
Matthias as well, and then we would
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also have Paul included in the Capital
a apostles. In the small a apostles
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we would have people like Barnabas,
Silas, Timothy, Epathrods, different people
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like this it are identified as apostles, but did not seem to have the
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same power that the others did.
Um, I won't again make a decision
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on that one way or another for
you. But Jesus calls to disciples.
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Out of them, he he he
chooses twelve. So first he calls and
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then he chooses, just like he
does with us in salvation. Were first
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called by God in the journey past, and then we are chosen in Him
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again. And these words called and
chosen in the verbal form are only used
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by Luke Uh in talking about these
now. Even though Jesus calls them apostles,
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he never actually refers to them as
apostles. The rest of the time
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he usually says something like he called
the twelve to them or the disciples that
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are usually referred to that way,
but we see here they are designated as
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apostles. Well, let's look at
Versus fourteen through sixteen. In these verses,
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we have one of the four listings
of the hostles that we have in
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the Bible. We have a listing
in Mark ten except Matthew ten, excuse
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me. We have a listing in
Mark three, and we also have a
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listing in Acts one, which,
by the way, Acts is also written
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by Luke. And then we have
the listing here uh in uh Luke six
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as well. Now, I told
you a lot of the writers like to
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get sketches, and they might write
two chapters of writing just on Peter alone
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at this point. But I'm not
going to do that. But I do
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want to mention some things that I
think are important. It's important that when
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you compare the four listings in the
three Gospels and the Book of Acts,
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because John doesn't give us a listing, it's important to see that there are
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some things that are the same in
every list, and there are some things
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that are different. For example,
one thing that is different are the names.
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They're not the same exact names,
uh in each of those listings.
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And I will deal with that in
a moment. The first thing I will
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tell you about these lists it is
the same and that every single one of
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the four list there is one disciple
who is always listed first, and of
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course that is Peter. He is
the one that is listed first in those
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in all of those lists, um
and in the Gospels list when when we're
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giving him. In Luke and the
other ones he has basically called Simon,
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who is called Peter because of course
Jesus gave him the new name of Peter.
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And then in Luke and Matthew,
the second disciple that is listed is
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Andrew, and it's mentioned in both
those accounts that Andrew is the brother of
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Peter. In Mark An Acts,
however, Andrew is not listed second.
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In Mark, the second apostle listed
as James, and in Acts it is
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John. In Mark and Matthew,
James and John are listed as brothers,
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but not in Luke An Acts,
and Mark also adds to us that Jesus
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gave the name Sons of Thunder to
James and John. However, in every
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list that we have. The first
four disciples that are given in every list
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are Peter, Andrew, James,
and John. Now not in that exact
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order, but they're always the first
four that are given in every list.
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Then the next four disciples are also
always the same, although not in the
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same order. They are always the
next four that are given in every list.
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They are Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew. And in every
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single list, like the first one, the order is different, with Peters
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always first. In this one the
order is different, but Philip is always
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the first one listed in this group. And so of course, if you
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do your math right now, uh, that means that the last four disciples
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are also always going to be the
same. But again, uh, they
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are not going to be in the
same order. But in every list of
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the last four, the first one
of the four will be James, the
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son of Elpheus, and then the
others. And in case you haven't already
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guessed it, the fourth apostle in
that list always is Judas Scariot. He's
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always the one that is listed last. The man that's called Judas the son
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of James in Luke and Acts is
called Daddy Us in the other accounts,
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and Although John doesn't have a list
in the in his Gospel of the Twelve
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Apostles, he does refer to a
couple of the apostles by different name.
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The Bartholomew in our list is not
mentioned by John, but John instead mentions
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a man by the name of Nathaniel, the man that was out Uh that
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said, can anything good come out
of Nazareth? The man that Jesus said
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of such a man, there was
no guile in him, and so he
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asked, as I said, can
anything good come out of Nazareth? And
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the answer, in case you're wondering, is yes, indeed something good can
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come out of Nazareth. And then
Judas the son of James or Thaddius in
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UH and John is referred to as
Judas Uh, not scary it. Judas
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not a scary it. That's in
John fourteen. So Judas the son of
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James is called Judas a son of
James, Thaddius and Judas not scary it
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in those lists. Now it's interesting
to note again that we are told Simon
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is called Peter UH. And we're
told in the Gospels that our Lord renamed
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Simon as Peter. And everyone knows
John three sixteen but Mark three sixteen says
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he appointed the twelve Simon, to
whom he gave the name Peter. Later
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on, he'll say in Matthew sixteen
eighteen, I tell you you are Peter,
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and on this rock I'll build my
church, and the gates of house
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will not prevail against it. And
every single time from now on that Luke
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refers to this disciple, he will, all ways, with one notable exception,
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he will always refer to him as
Peter. But there's one time when
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he is not referred to as Peter. In fact, he's referred to a
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Simon, not once, but his
name is doubled. And that happens in
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Luke one, where Jesus said,
Simon, Simon behold Satan demanded to have
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you that he might sift you like
wheat. And I think it's because in
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that moment Jesus is telling the time
he's named Peter the Rock. But now
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he's thinking, Peter is coming to
time when you're not going to be a
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rock, and you're gonna fail,
and you're gonna deny me, And so
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he calls him in that instant Simon. But every other time he is referred
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to as Peter. James and John. It's interesting to note I'd actually never
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thought of this, and and uh, I kind of feel foolish that I
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had never thought about it, and
maybe you did. But we read and
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Acts twelve two that the very first
I mentioned this earlier, the very first
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apostle that was martyred was James.
And I've always known that, but it
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never struck me. But as I
was reading, it made me think about
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these things that apparently, because we're
told uh an extraal off two he killed
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James, the brother of John,
with the sword. This seems to indicate
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that James must have had quite a
bit of influence, either among the twelve
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or among the people around them,
the people they were testifying to, or
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perhaps both. That Herod would choose
James as the person, you'd think,
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well, why wouldn't you have chosen
Peter, why wouldn't have sen one of
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the other sort of appears that perhaps
James had quite a bit of influence at
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that time, and so he has
martyred. He becomes the first disciple or
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apostle to follow Jesus into heaven,
and his brother John is going to have
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to wait about seventy more years,
and he's going to be the last apostle
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that follows Jesus into Heaven of the
next or disciples. We know Matthew only
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by his calling from Jesus, which
we looked at earlier, the calling of
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Levi, and also the fact that
he wrote a gospel. That's all we
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know about Matthew. We know he
was called, we know that account,
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and we know that he wrote a
gospel. But we don't know anything else
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about Matthew. There's nothing else about
him, even in his own gospel that
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we know of Thomas, we know
primarily is doubting Thomas, even though I
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think that is extremely unfair to Thomas. I don't think if any of the
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disciples had not been present at that
first a period of Christ, I don't
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think any of them would have believed
it. So I think we're a little
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bit unfair to Thomas in that sense. So I don't like to just refer
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to him in a negative way like
that, But it is Thomas. Interestingly
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enough, when Jesus speaks about going
to Jerusalem and the disciples think he's talking
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about going to die, which he
will originally, but he's basically talking about
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going to raise Lazarus. It's interesting
in John eleven, it's tom Us who
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says to them, to the disciples
that Jesus is going. He said,
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let us go with him, that
we may also die with him. That's
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a pretty major statement, right I
think that kind of does the old doubting
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Thomas thing. I want to give
him a little bit of cred right there.
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I think that that's pretty good.
And it's Thomas who asked the Lord
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at the Last Supper, we do
not know where you are going. How
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can we know the way? Of
these last four lesser known apostles, we
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actually have one who's mentioned eleven different
verses in the Gospel of John, and
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mostly in a positive light. That
is the apostle Philip. It's Philip who
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found the apostle Bartholomey which I mentioned
our Nathaniel, and brought him to Jesus.
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It's Philip who brings the Greeks to
Jesus when they said they wanted to
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see Jesus. He brings the Greeks
to Andrew, and then Andrew and Philip
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in turn bring the Greeks to Jesus. That's Philip again. It's Philip who
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the Lord says, or he says
to the Lord, uh two hundred penning
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worth is not enough to feed these
people in the feeding of the five thousand,
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that they couldn't buy enough bread for
that. And so Philip is um
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quite often mentioned as well. And
Bartholomew, as I said, or Nathaniel
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is the disciple of whom there is
no guile, the three least known of
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the disciples. Um Simon. We
know he's a zealot, and that's basically
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it. Mazzella was somebody that believed
it was illegal for Rome to be governing
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their country, and they were willing
to engage in a revolution to cause that
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to stop. Of James the son
of Alpheus, he's called James Celeste or
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James the Younger, and a couple
other places, but we don't know anything
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else about him. The other Judas, we only have one thing written of
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him. It's in John four two, or John says Judas not a scary
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It said to him, Lord,
how is it you will manifest yourself to
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us and not to the world.
And then we have the disciple that,
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unfortunately, outside of Peter, has
probably mentioned more than any other disciple,
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and that of course is Judas,
called scariot, and is oftentimes referred to
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as the betrayer of the Lord,
and uh scariot most people think is referring
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to the fact that he came from
the city of Carryas, and so he
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was Judas from Caryas, or Judas
is scariot. Others take the more literal
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meaning, which would be a scariot
would translate into dagger man, so Judas
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would be the man that puts a
dagger into Christ, not literally, but
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basically ends up in that way.
There are contrasts between these men, but
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the only one I'm gonna mention because
I found it the most interesting in thinking
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about it, that had our Lord
not called these apostles, had they not
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been brought to him, it could
have been very likely that Matthew would have
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been murdered by Simon no Zella.
That could have that could have actually happened,
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since the Zealites were people that wanted
to do that, and since Matthew
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was of the most hated class of
people in that area. Who knows what
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would have happened. Of course,
we don't know, but it's at least
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interesting to kind of think about that. So let me mention some things now
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an application as to close this morning, I mentioned the word called and chosen.
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I just want to reiterate again that's
every believer is. In that case,
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we're not necessarily called to be apostles. In fact, we're not called
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to be apostles outside of the maybe
the small a sense that we are set
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ones with the Gospel. But every
believer is both called and chosen of God.
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But I really want this morning to
apply in the main thing, as
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I mentioned earlier in the beginning of
the service, that our Lord was certainly
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a man of prayer. As I
said, he spent the whole night in
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prayer. The result the next day, he's able to spare end or to
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choose exactly twelve men whom he knows
are to be those men that would be
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with him for the rest of his
life and ministry, and would be those
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that would be delegated to carry the
Gospel of Christ to that then known world.
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Eleven of those twelve would become pillars
of the Church. They would be
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the original evangelists who would spread the
word of God. The other one would
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also serve the purpose of God,
but in a completely different way, in
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facilitating the death of Christ upon Calvary, thus making salvation possible. After choosing
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the twelve. We didn't get that
far in the text. Jesus will also
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minister to a multitude of people,
and he'll preach the Gospel to them,
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and heal many of them. And
then he will preach probably the most famous
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sermon and Matthew, known as the
Sermon on the Mount in Luke, sometimes
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called the Sermon on the Plane or
the Sermon on the Level, and that,
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but yet very very similar to of
the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.
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What a wonderful thing is prayer.
The prayer has put our Lord to
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this place that he does all of
these things following this night in prayer.
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If there was anybody that would be
upon the earth that we would think could
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exist and do great things without praying, it would be the Lord Jesus.
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We would think he could do it. Charles Spurgeon said, if any man
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or woman born might have lived without
prayer, it was surely the Lord Jesus
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Christ. And there are parts of
prayer that we do, and we pray
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that the Lord Jesus wouldn't even needed
to include in his prayer. We might
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need to spend a couple of hours, and we were going to spend the
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night in prayer, we might need
to spend two hours just in confession,
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and sin well knocked that off.
Our Lord didn't have to do that.
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There are a lot of things he
doesn't have to pray about that we did
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spurgeon again, says yet Mark carefully, although our glorious Master did not rea
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wire to pray in some of these
respects in which it is more needful for
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us. Yet, never was there
a man who was more abundant in prayer
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and in supplication, nor one in
whom prayer was exercised with so much vehemence
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and persistence. Kent Hughes rights.
There too often we engaged not independent prayer,
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but in obligatory or routine prayer.
Jesus didn't say, apart from me,
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you can do something. Jesus said, apart from me, you can
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do nothing. Have you ever spent
a whole night in prayer? Now,
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please don't misunderstand me at this point. I'm not here to condemn. I'm
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not telling you you're condemned if you
have under you're lesser Christian or anything like
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that. I'm just asking the question, and you don't have to answer out
396
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loud or raise your hand at all. But I'm just asking the question,
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because in challenging you to do so, I might be opening up one of
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the greatest nights of your life that
you will ever have. In V.
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Two that was a few years ago
now, But I, along with a
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number of young people, scattered together
in a convent in my city of home,
401
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city of Rochester, Minnesota, for
the purpose of spending an entire night
402
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in prayer. We basically went from
seven to seven in prayer that night,
403
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and so for those hours we prayed
and we prayed. I can tell you
404
00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:38.119
personally that for me it was probably
the most life changing event in my Christian
405
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life. My wife was also present
that night, and she can talk to
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you about it as well. But
during that night I went from perhaps some
407
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of the deepest loaves in my life
to the highest highs of my life that
408
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I had during that night. I
may have referred to this earlier, but
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I prayed the prayer for the first
time, and I prayed, Lord show
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me my heart, and I didn't
like what I saw. But the Lord
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showed me my heart, and I
saw, among other things, the hatred
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I had in my heart from my
own brother. Now I'm not telling you
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that whenever we pray we should be
praying a long time, and that's always
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the way it should be, and
there's no call for short prayers or anything
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like that. Spurgeon again staid,
I do not think we are bound to
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pray long as the general rule.
I am afraid, however, there is
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no great need to make that remark, for most of Christians are short enough,
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if not far too short in private
worship. I thought that was good.
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I don't say you have to do
it, but I don't think there's
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any need for me to make that
remark anyway. Prayer is important. Why
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is it important to us? Well, it's important for us in one way,
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for the same reason it was important
for our Lord, because we need
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to know the will of God for
our lives. It's important to know God's
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will when you when you look at
this group that Jesus chooses, it's probably
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not the group we would have chosen
to be the Apostles. We probably would
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00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:07.920
have picked other people whose names we
don't even know anymore. But our Lord
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chose exactly. There isn't one religious
leader in that group. There isn't one
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scribe, there isn't one Pharisee,
there's none of those people. There's fishermen,
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there's tax collectors, there's all of
these other people that are Lord chooses.
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There's no as far as we know, there's nobody that was rich in
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that group. We don't read of
any of them that were at all.
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But yet they were, though they
were those whom the Father willed our Lord
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00:33:32.039 --> 00:33:37.680
to choose. If our Lord needed
that night in prayer to discern the will
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of God, how much more do
we need prayer to discern God's will in
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our life. I think prayer is
also important because it's one of the greatest
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things we can do towards the salvation
of the lost. Jesus said in Matthew
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that we should pray the Lord of
the harvest would send forth labors into the
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field. Now, probably, like
you, I don't remember every sermon I've
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00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:07.239
ever heard, and I've heard a
lot of sermons, and I don't remember
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00:34:07.280 --> 00:34:12.079
every one of those sermons, but
some sermons, like I'm sure with you
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00:34:12.119 --> 00:34:15.679
as well, stick out in my
mind that have always been with me.
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00:34:15.719 --> 00:34:20.079
In one sermon, that's that way
is one of earlier ones I heard.
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00:34:20.119 --> 00:34:23.400
It wasn't the earliest, but it
was when I was in Bible College and
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I was working in a church in
Northfield, Minnesota, and my pastor preached
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00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:34.760
a sermon that he entitled Neglected Prayers, and I love that sermon. He
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00:34:34.840 --> 00:34:38.119
talked about prayers we are commanded to
pray in the Bible that we often don't
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00:34:38.119 --> 00:34:45.440
pray. And one that I remember
particularly that he used was Jesus UH telling
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00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:51.840
us to pray the Lord of the
harvest that he would send labors into the
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00:34:51.960 --> 00:34:54.679
vineyard. Now, I don't know
how often you pray that prayer. Maybe
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you're very regular in that prayer.
Could be I don't know. I know
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00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.960
I'm not as regular as I should
be in praying that prayer. But it's
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important for us to pray that for
the in gathering of the lost. And
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so we see that what God does
in prayer towards that. When the disciples
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gathered together on the day of Pentecost
for prayer, and they are already an
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00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:22.159
extended prayer, we read in next
chapter one it says the next one fourteen,
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all these with one accord were devoting
themselves to prayer, and the first
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thing they needed prayer for was who
were they going to choose to replace Judas
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as the apostle. Just as Our
Lord spent the night in prayer to determine
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who those twelve men would be.
And but yet immediately after these prayers that
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we read about an next one,
the Holy Spirit comes down upon them on
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00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:52.400
the day of Pentecost, and Peter
gets up, like Jesus got up after
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00:35:52.519 --> 00:35:55.559
Luke, and pray and preach the
famous sermon, the Sermon on the Plane.
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00:35:55.800 --> 00:36:00.039
Peter gets up and preaches his perhaps
most famous erman on the day of
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00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:06.400
Pentecost, and we are told as
a result of that sermon that three thousand
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people were brought into the kingdom at
that time. And so we see how
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important prayer is. In Jesus praying, we see one of the great mysteries
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00:36:20.039 --> 00:36:23.960
of the incarnation and the two natures
of the Lord. We'd say, well,
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as a second person of the God
had, of course he would want
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00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:30.159
to commune with the Father and the
Spirit and have the triune counsel. Of
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00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:35.880
course they would. But what about
his man? He also needed to pray
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00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:39.320
as man. And again it's hard
for us to totally unwrap the mystery of
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00:36:39.320 --> 00:36:44.800
the two natures of Christ, but
nonetheless identifying with us, he needed to
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00:36:44.840 --> 00:36:49.440
pray and pray he did, and
pray intently for us, and how many
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00:36:49.480 --> 00:36:54.280
times we see Jesus praying, and
sometimes he's praying extremely intently. We read
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00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:59.440
in Hebrews Chapter five it says in
verse seven, in the days of his
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00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:06.079
flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and
supplication, with loud crying and tears to
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00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:08.320
him who was able to save him
from death. And he was heard because
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00:37:08.360 --> 00:37:14.519
of his reverence incausemite we are totally
prayed, so intently that he sweat as
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00:37:14.519 --> 00:37:19.920
it were drops a blood. Hartley
Coleridge wrote in one of his sonnets about
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00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:25.039
Christ, why craven prayer? What
was his own? By might vain?
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00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:30.559
Is the question? Christ was man, indeed, and being man, his
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duty was to pray. Kent Hughes
says, though Jesus was the eternal son
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00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:40.519
of God, though he created everything, though he is the elfin Omega,
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00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:45.920
though everything is moving toward and will
culminate in him, he could not live
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00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:52.519
his human life apart from dependent prayer. I mentioned earlier that these disciples were
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00:37:52.519 --> 00:37:59.880
basically ordinary men, and that should
give all of us hope. I don't
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00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.199
know how many of you are extraordinary
here this morning, and how many of
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00:38:04.280 --> 00:38:07.079
us are ordinary, but we could
look at ourselves and say, well,
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00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:12.360
I'm certainly not going to be a
Peter or a John. No way I'm
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00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:15.519
going to achieve to that. I'm
not going to be the apostle Paul at
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00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:20.440
all. You might remember Abraham Lincoln
said that God must have loved ordinary people
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00:38:20.519 --> 00:38:24.599
because he made so many of them. Oswald Chambers wrote, God can achieve
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00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:31.559
his purpose either through the absence of
human power and resources or abandonment of reliance
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00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:37.760
on them. All through history,
God has chosen and used nobody's because their
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00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:44.920
unusual dependence on Him made possible the
unique display of his power and grace.
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00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:52.079
He chose and used somebody's only when
they renounced their dependence on their natural abilities
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00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:58.400
and resources. We have this treasure, Paul said to the Corinthians and Jars
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00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:02.760
of Clay. He said in Second
Corinthians twelve that God said to him,
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00:39:02.760 --> 00:39:08.440
my grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.
500
00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:12.800
He said, therefore, I will
boast all the more gladly and my
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00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:16.239
weaknesses, so that the power of
Christ may rest upon me. For the
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00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:21.960
sake of Christ. I'm content with
weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
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00:39:21.960 --> 00:39:29.079
and calamities, for when I'm weak, I'm strong. Paul asked in First
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00:39:29.079 --> 00:39:32.480
Corinthians, one, where is the
wise? One? Where is the scribe?
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00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:37.519
Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the
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00:39:37.559 --> 00:39:44.039
wisdom of the world. It is
the ordinary people of this world, touched
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00:39:44.039 --> 00:39:49.880
by God, called chosen, and
have learned the secret of private prayer that
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00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.280
God uses you. See, it's
not your giftings. It's the ability for
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00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:59.000
you to rely upon the Lord,
to pray to the Lord, to spend
510
00:39:59.039 --> 00:40:04.920
time with him that causes God to
use us. And so don't look down
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00:40:04.960 --> 00:40:08.239
on yourself, don't think it's hopeless, because you can pray as well as
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00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:14.000
any other believer in this church,
and God can use you in ways that
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00:40:14.079 --> 00:40:20.199
a way beyond our understanding. Let's
pray, Father me thank you for your
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00:40:20.199 --> 00:40:23.719
word. We thank you for the
fat God that you've called us as a
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00:40:23.800 --> 00:40:29.199
people chosen us. And part of
what you've called us to is for a
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00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:34.079
life of prayer. Lord, I
would say I fall so far short,
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00:40:35.599 --> 00:40:40.960
so far short. But Lord,
just I would pray you ignite in all
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00:40:42.039 --> 00:40:46.960
of us a desire for prayer in
our own lives. Perhaps are those here
519
00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:52.719
whose prayer life is exemplary that the
rest of us should imitate and follow.
520
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:58.239
But for those of us who feel
a lack help us, Lord, because
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00:40:58.239 --> 00:41:01.960
we who are people that have been
brought to the cross, we who realize
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00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:07.599
there was no works we could ever
do to save us we have all people
523
00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:13.519
should understand that we are lost without
you, that in order to do what
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00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:15.840
you would have us to do,
we must go to you in prayer,
525
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:22.719
even as you did that night on
the mountain. So help us, Lord.
526
00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:27.159
If there are those who have never
called upon you, who do not
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00:41:27.320 --> 00:41:30.239
know your name, who have never
trusted in the blood and the death of
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00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:32.719
Christ for their salvation, Lord,
I pray that they may do so this
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00:41:32.800 --> 00:41:39.039
morning and now find the power that
they may have in prayer and changing their
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00:41:39.079 --> 00:41:45.840
life and the life of others.
We thank you God, make us above
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00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:50.599
all the people. Let's seek your
face. So when you say to us,
532
00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:54.960
seek my face, we will respond
Thy face, Oh Lord, I
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00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:00.280
will seek. I pray God you
would add your blessing to this heard in
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00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:02.199
Christ's name. Amen. Amen,
