So as we return back to the chronology of the gospels, one of the things that, as we've said from the day one, is that we're going to be moving around, obviously, from book to book. And we're covering this, we're trying to cover it on a timely basis. And we're actually going to go back a little bit in time, actually, because I felt like I wanted to talk about the calling of the apostles, which really kind of happened more towards the middle of the second year of the ministry. I wanted to cover it at the end of the second year of ministry, and then next week we'll start the third year of ministry. But the reason I wanted to do that is because it kind of brings a climax to this thing that we've been talking about in the second year of ministry, which is living in anticipation of the kingdom. And that's really what Jesus was telling people to do. That's the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mountain. That was really what he kept telling everyone whenever he had the opportunity that the kingdom is at hand. And so, In that process, he said to the disciples, and we're going to go to the book of Matthew today, so if you go to Matthew, and go to the end of chapter nine, and then we'll get into chapter 10. Interestingly, we've already covered half of chapter 10 already, we just skipped over the first part of chapter 10, so just be aware of what we're doing here, and recognize I know it's out of order. But again, I just felt like this is gonna work very well as we look into the third year of ministry. So in Matthew chapter nine, starting in verse 36, the Bible says this, or Matthew wrote this, he said, and seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like a sheep without a shepherd. And then he said to the disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, I pray that the Lord of harvest send out workers into his harvest. And having summoned his 12 disciples, he gave them authority over clean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness And then he's going to name the names. And I want to just kind of take a break there, and then we'll get into the actual 12 choices here in a minute. But I love this particular section because it starts out with, Jesus saw the multitudes. Now, that may not sound like much. Most people will probably just skip over it, just keep on going and show it. And by the way, there'd be nothing wrong with that. But it really got my attention when I started to read and study the scriptures years ago, that Jesus saw stuff. He didn't miss stuff. You know, I don't see a lot. I really don't. I miss stuff all the time. I mean, a good example, my wife and I are in Greece with the group. She fell over, got hurt. I didn't see it. I never saw it happen. I was busy doing something else. It's just a fact. I didn't see it. In fact, I heard, the only reason I knew it even happened is I heard a whole bunch of people started screaming, and I went, geez, I wonder what happened. Maybe I should go check it out. I'm serious. That's precisely what happened. And the next thing I know, I go over there, and there's my wife laying on the floor. You know, we don't see stuff the way Jesus did. He saw people. He didn't see a multitude. He saw people. That's what he saw. And so, to him, these were not just faces in the crowd. They were individuals. The Bible tells us that the Lord knows every hair on your head. Isn't that incredible? So he saw, he had the ability to dig a lot deeper into people. And it says that he had compassion on them. And I'm reminded of, later on in the book, we'll be covering this later, but just before he enters into Jerusalem and ultimately is going to lose his life, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killed the prophets and stoned those whom he sent to you, how I wish that I could gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you wouldn't let me. Isn't that incredible? That to me is just an incredible section of scripture because it shows the heart of the Messiah. We talk a lot about caring and loving and so forth, and we always should. Never, ever stop doing that. But if you really want to understand what love is all about, all you got to do is look at the way Jesus cared for people. and looked at people and was able to see what was really going on. Even when Jesus was angry with people, he loved them. One of my favorite Bible verses is a two-word verse. Anybody know what that two-word verse is? Jesus wept. Yeah, isn't that great? So Jesus saw the people. He didn't, you know, yes, the word is multitude, but he saw people, he saw individuals, he saw people within that crowd, and he had compassion on them. And look at what it says. He says he had compassion upon them because they were distressed. They wanted something more. And people have all, we all want something more. Think about it. I mean, everybody really in life is trying to figure out what else can I do? What else can I get? What else can I care about? I love this word in the King James, because in the King James it says, and they fainted. They were faint. In other words, they just didn't know. They were just there. And so he says they were distressed because they were scattered as sheep without a shepherd. Imagine, you know, if you've ever seen anything more silly than sheep without a shepherd, but the truth is, whenever you have sheep and the shepherd isn't around, you better have fences. Because those boys and girls are running. They are going every which way but where they're supposed to go. So they're going to have fences all over the place when you see sheep that are out of pasture. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with sheep being out of pasture. But they better be pinned somehow or they're going to run away. And what happens is, and also by the way, they're going to get attacked by other predators and so forth and so on. They're going to be out of protection. And so he says they're distressed. They're downcast like sheep without a shepherd. You know, to me, this is where Jesus separates himself from the crowd. He cares about people. He cares about everybody in the crowd. Look, we don't care about everybody in the crowd, let's just be honest. Okay, we were just in Rome on Wednesday, and we went into this piazza called Navone. And if you've ever been to the Piazza Navone, it's right in the middle of town. It's just outside of where the Pantheon is. It is this insane plaza. people, humanity, everywhere. And as I was walking through that section, I was reminded of this verse, because I didn't see anybody. I walked in there, I just didn't see anybody. It was just weird. It was like, it was this massive humanity, but all of a sudden it just like, you know, Don, just start paying attention. And all of a sudden I started paying attention. And it was like, it was crazy cool. It really was. If you ever get the opportunity to pay attention, it sounds weird, but you should do it. And so I'm in this piazza and all of a sudden I started noticing people and seeing them and just, you know, thinking to myself, what's going on with that person and how are they feeling and what, you know, what was their day like today? What, you know, did they have, what trauma? It was weird. I don't know how to explain it. I just don't. but it was because I was thinking about this particular idea that Jesus saw people and he had compassion, and I wanted to feel that a little bit. And it was easy, once I started thinking about it, how easy it is to actually start seeing people and noticing detail and so forth and so on. Crazy stuff, but I could go for hours, but I'm not. But he says, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. You see, there's all sorts of people out there and they all want to know. They all have questions. I was watching an interview yesterday on TV of the guy that, there's a new movie out called The Conclave, and it's all about selecting a pope, and there's a pretty famous guy that plays the lead role in this particular thing, and he was being interviewed afterwards, and the guy asked him, he said, you know, what's your relationship with religion? And he said, I have a very tough relationship with religion. I have just questions. I have questions about, I'm a fallen Catholic, he said. And he said, I just, I struggle with it. And, you know, it just, I just can't really get, I would like to know it, but I just can't figure it out. And so the guy asked him the follow up question. He said, well, did this movie bring you closer to a relationship with God? And he said, no, the movie just made me question it even more. Isn't that interesting? And when I was watching this, I was like, that's some serious honesty going on in this conversation. It was just really interesting. Then they went on to other things and so on, but people are out there and they want to know, but they're just not people out there telling them. Now, there's enough people to tell them. There's just nobody telling them. And people think, I hear people say to me all the time, well, I don't know how to witness. I don't know how to share my faith. I don't know how to do that. And I say to them, can you share an experience that happened in your life to anybody at any time about anything? Pretty much. If it happened in your life, you can share what happened in your life. That's all witnessing is. This is what happened to me. I don't know what will happen to you, but I can tell you this is what happened to me. And I will never forget, I'm going to pick on Ken because he's not here. But I will never forget when I first met Ken, and I just assumed that Ken had been a believer for 100 years. I just assumed that, right? But he looked at me and he says, no, I just gave my life to Jesus. I just gave it to Jesus. And then he began to share this insanely cool testimony. about really more about Sandy than about him, if you want to know the truth. But it was an incredible thing. And I thought to myself, people need to hear this story. Would you agree with that, Sandy? People need to hear this story. This is a guy who was an elder in his church and was not a believer. Isn't that incredible? But you see, that's a story that needs to be told. So Jesus is saying that the harvest is plentiful. In other words, in another place it says that the fields are white unto harvest. And if you've ever been to the Midwest, you know what that expression means. Man, when the corn is going, that's great, but man, when the wheat is up, actually when the wheat is bowed, is when it's just the most. Incredible experience. And I've seen that. I've been blessed to have seen that. I know you guys have seen it. I mean, many of you have seen it. It's just because literally the whole entire mountain hill is just white. It's so cool. And until I had seen that, I really didn't understand that verse, really, that the fields are white under harvest. But somebody's got to pick it. Or what happens to those fields that are white under harvest if nobody picks it? They just rot. They just go to nothing. And that is a tragedy that we don't want to waste. So the Bible here in Matthew says, and having summoned his 12 disciples, but what it misses is what Luke told us, because Luke tells us in chapter six of Luke, when he shared this story about, I'm not going to turn it, I'm just going to tell you what it says. What he said was, it says, Jesus went off into a private place, this actually says to a mountain. And it says, Luke says, he prayed all night about who he was gonna choose. All night. Now, I don't know about y'all, I have never prayed all night. I'm just being honest, I've never done it. I prayed for a long time, but I've never prayed all night and never gone to sleep. It's just never happened, but Jesus did. Jesus prayed for who he was going to have as his key people. Why was that important? Because these 12 people that he picked were the people that had to be picked. Because they were the people that were going to be able to do what he needed them to do, which was beyond anything that anybody had ever really thought about doing prior to that. And so these 12 people that he picked, it says that he prayed all night to pick them, and he called all of the disciples together, says in Luke, and told them who the 12 were gonna be. And when I think about that, it's amazing. Now, it also tells us in Luke that he then sent them out in pairs. Now, Matthew doesn't say that, but he says it. You say, what? Okay, he does. Look at what he says here. Now the names of the 12 apostles. Now, isn't it interesting? In verse one, he calls them the 12 disciples. But here he calls them the 12 apostles. Now, Greek is a very precise language. Disciples are not apostles, and apostles are definitely not disciples. Or, excuse me, they are disciples, but they're a lot more than disciples. Because an apostle is one who is sent out by a person in charge. by the ruler. That's what the word apostle means in Greek. And so we get a lot of words from that, but one of the words that we actually have that doesn't come from that word in Greek, it actually comes from the same word in Latin, is ambassador. So an ambassador is someone who is sent out, and when an ambassador speaks, an ambassador speaks the words of the king, not his own thoughts. And frankly, you want to get fired as an ambassador real quick, just say what's on your mind rather than what's on his mind if they're in conflict with one another. And you will get fired pretty quickly. I can give you a lot of testimony of that. I can give you a lot of choices. A lot of people have been fired as ambassadors because they didn't go the company line. But nevertheless, Jesus picked these 12 because he knew that these 12 would say what he needed them to say. that they would be the voice of him when he wasn't there, which is the idea. Now, the idea of being an apostle, a biblical apostle, is different than anything that had ever occurred before. Because to be a biblical apostle, there are certain things that had to take place. Number one, you had to be personally instructed and chosen by the Messiah himself. That's the first criteria, because he only said, these are the people that are apostles, and he never said anyone else was. Secondly, they had the authority, they were given authority, and part of the authority that they were given was that they could write what ultimately would become scripture, which is huge. Second, or third rather, excuse me, in the book of the Revelation, it says, and this is in Revelation 21, it says the apostles are who the Lord is going to, what he's going to do is he's going to put 12 foundational posts in the walls of the city. And every one of those posts are going to be named after an individual apostle. So that indicates to me that there are no other apostles. other than the ones that Jesus chose. And so we need to get that just on the table so that everybody understands this important kind of point. Because they are the 12 apostles, the Bible tells us in Revelation, the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And no one today can be an apostle because of that. And they're whom Jesus chose to build what we now call the church upon. And one of the most incredible things that Jesus did was he selected someone that he knew was not gonna make it as an apostle. He picked Judas Iscariot. And he knew that that twelfth apostle was going to become really one who abandons everything about the Scriptures. The Bible calls him the son of perdition. The son of perdition. And the idea of perdition means destroyed. And so he is the son of destruction, really. He's the son of what is going to take away the things of God. But Jesus still chose him. Isn't that incredible? Knowing that that was going to be the person that was going to betray him. After he was betrayed, a lot of people say, well, the 12th apostle has got to be Paul, right? Well, no. If you read the book of Acts, you'll see that they said, we need a replacement for Judas. And two persons came up as being selectable, I guess is the right word. And so they put it upon God, and they drew lots. And the lot fell upon Matthias, is his name. And so Matthias became the substitution for Judas. for Judas, thank you. And that's the 12. But then there is a 13th. And that 13th is the apostle Paul. He is an apostle because he meets all of the criteria except for the fact that his name is not gonna be in the in the wall. I don't believe that's true. I don't believe he would be, because it says 12, and we know that Matthias was picked as the replacement of the 12th. So Paul is not going to be in the wall. However, I will say this, and I will say this without any hesitation. There is no church without the Apostle Paul. It does not happen. You see, the Apostle Paul decided that he was going to take the command of Jesus, what we call the Great Commission, and he was going to run with it. Now, a lot of people in the Great Commission, of course, as in Matthew 28, tells us, go into all of the world and preach. I love that. go into all of the world and preach the gospel, baptizing all the Gentiles. And that's what it says. It says, baptizing all the Gentiles in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To these guys, he also gave them, by the way, it also says prior to that in, I think it's verse 27, verse 28 is where, something like that, it's chapter 28, I forget the verse number, but the verse just before where he says, go and preach the gospel, he says, all authority has been given unto me, both in heaven and in earth, Jesus said that. All authority. And the word authority there is the same word authority that's used here in verse one, and the Greek word is exousia, exousia, E-X-O-U-S-I-A, exousia. We get the word excuse from that, which is fascinating to me. Because an excuse means that you had authority to do whatever it was that you're being accused of doing. That's what the word excuse actually means. A lot of people don't realize that, but that's what it means. And so, excusia says you have been given the authority. In other words, you can say, this is why I'm doing it, because this is what I have the authority to do it. I've been granted this authority. And so, The authority that was given to the disciples, however, here in Matthew chapter 10, is different than what was given to the disciples in Matthew 28. In other words, this is not the Great Commission. What we see here in Matthew chapter 10 is not the Great Commission. This is a commission for them to go into all of the land of Israel, we're going to see that as we get into this, does not give them, in fact it actually says they are not to speak to Gentiles, we'll see that as we get into this, but more importantly, it's saying to them that they need to do This idea of promoting the kingdom of God, which is what the whole second year of his ministry was all about, was getting people to understand that the kingdom of God is at hand. Now, when we read that expression, the kingdom of God is at hand, we have to understand what that means. Because it's a statement that I think many times we just sort of take for granted. Oh, the kingdom of God is at hand. What does that mean? Well, if you have a kingdom, you need a what? You need a king. Right? So, if the kingdom is at hand, that means the king is coming. And so the message that they were giving was, the kingdom of God is at hand, the king is coming. Wake up folks, the king is coming. And that's what they were basically saying. And so now let's look at this because he says he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. That's what their authority was. We would call that limited authority. Does everybody get that? That's limited authority. Now, it's pretty significant authority to cast out demons to heal people's sickness. That's pretty big deal. But nevertheless, it is limited authority. And their direction, which he's going to give them down here in verses 5 and 6, are very important. So I want to read now the names of the apostles, and then I want you to read what he told them they were supposed to do. Listen to this. It says, now the names of the twelve apostles are these. The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. That's team number one. Remember, they're in pairs. So he's doing this in pairs. Look at how he does it. He says, and first, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. Pair number one. James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother, John. Pair number two. Philip and Matthew, or excuse me, Bartholomew. thomas and matthew the tax collector isn't this interesting matthew does something there in that in that little pair which is fascinating to me the bible gives us these pairs in four places in scripture gives it to us in the book of luke chapter six it gives it to a mark chapter three is it here and also gives it to us in acts chapter one let me tell you something if the bible gives you something four straight times and every time it says the exact same thing it's important but i got that It only happens in the New Testament, by the way. I think it's 12 times. It's pretty amazing. So, let's keep on going. Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew. Now, what I think is fascinating about this is two things. One, he names is the only thing that he does. Matthew's writing this, remember. He puts Thomas before his name, yet the other lists always put his name before Thomas. So did Jesus pick Thomas first or did he pick Matthew first? Probably picked Matthew first. But Matthew didn't want to put his brother Thomas behind him because Matthew tells you why. He says, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, the publican. See, he knew who he was. What's fascinating about this is that everyone that's in this list is something. but the only one we know who in the list who what that someone something is is Matthew. So Matthew and Thomas are another pair. James the son of Alphaeus to differentiate him from James the son of Zebedee and And then we have this interesting word, Thaddaeus, and I'm guessing Thaddaeus would not be the name that he would go by, because that's his Greek name. That's not a Hebrew name. And so in the other list, it tells us Thaddaeus known as Judas, or the other Judas, basically. But I think to differentiate between Judas Iscariot and Judas Thaddaeus, he just used his Greek name. Okay, no problem. So James and Theseus, they're another pair. And then the most interesting pair of all, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. And there's not a whole lot about Simon the Zealot, but just the fact that he's called the Zealot should tell you all you need to know. Right? I mean, it's pretty cool stuff. And, excuse me, and understanding. By the way, some other authors actually say that that's the word for Canaanite in Hebrew. But it's sort of a roundabout way to get to Canaanite, yeah. But I don't buy that. Go. Don, do you know, with the pairing up of the individuals, is there some interesting about each person's strengths and weaknesses and his partner's strengths and weaknesses? Well, certainly we know that about some of the ones that we know a lot about. But the fact is, we don't know a lot about all of them. Like Thaddeus, we don't know anything about him, really, other than the fact that we pretty much know how he died because of Fox's Book of Martyrs, who did the research on that. We just don't know enough about them. I think it's the easiest answer to that. We can surmise, we can guess, but there's nothing in scripture necessarily that backs that up. Which, by the way, is interesting. When we were over in Greece, there's a whole lot of this, what the Bible says, and then what everybody else says. Wasn't that crazy, Sandy? I mean, it was crazy. Tradition tells us this, or this book tells us this, or this dude tells us that. Most of them weren't there. Most of the ones that we're basically getting this information from lived like a thousand years after these guys all died. It's crazy to me. So you see this. Most of what we think of in history, as history, is stuff that we can get reports that are contemporary, as close to contemporary as you can get. That's what good history is all about, the deeper you can get and closer you can get to it. But a lot of the so-called ways or things that we learn about these 12 in particular, by the way, is just flat out made up. It is not eyewitness, yeah. Is this the first time they were paired up and sent out? Yes. Or was there a time prior to that? No. So that's the first time. That's why we know it was actually earlier than what I'm actually laying it out in the chronology. It obviously happened before the end of the second year. But I wanted to save it because it's going to fit very nicely as we get into the third. So it's sort of my little, you know, thing. But I told you up front that I did that. So, yes, ma'am. I had written on my Bible that Bartholomew is Nathaniel. and we'll talk about that in a minute. So this is not the Great Commission. That's the first thing I want you to get from this. And he gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits, to heal every kind. That's a big deal. But he does not give them dunamis, which is power. He gives them that when they receive the Holy Spirit of God. And they have not received the Holy Spirit of God yet. So they do not have power. Now some Bibles actually for some reason, don't use the word authority. They use power in that particular verse. Anybody have that? Yep, yours does. It's not really a correct translation because power is actually dunamis, which is dynamite. We get dynamite from that. And that comes as a result of the Holy Spirit according to the Book of Acts. So, but it's exousia, and exousia is almost always translated authority in almost every Bible, except in this particular verse, because people are trying to attach this to the Great Commission, and it's not the Great Commission. This is the commission of the kingdom, big difference. So why do we see that? Well, let's look at it. These 12 Jesus sent out, that's the word, Apostolos again, so that's just that's the that's the verb version of the now a bit of Apostolos Okay, is everybody understand that so he's sending them out. So we that's how we kind of can can buy into this whole thing He says and these twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them. So what is the instruction? Well, this is the instruction he said He said, I want you to go in the way of the, excuse me, do not go in the way of the Gentiles. Do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And I want to stop right there because Jesus went in the way of the Gentiles and Jesus went into Samaria. But he did not want these 12 to do that. He wanted these 12 to go to Israel. He wanted them to cover Israel like a blanket. and let them know, because to the Gentiles and Samaritans, they wouldn't have gotten it. But the Jewish people at that time would have gotten it. So he's saying, I want you to go, and he says, and this is what I want you to do. He says, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, verse seven, and as you go, I love that, and as you go, as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. That's the message I want you to give them. Because when they hear that, they'll know the King is coming. Because if the Kingdom is at hand, that means the King is coming. That's what he's basically saying to them. He says, preach that. And then I also want you to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely receive, freely give. In other words, Use the authority that I've given you. I've given you authority to heal. I've given you authority to cast out demons. Do it. But do it amongst the Jews. Do it amongst the people of God. Do it amongst those people that need to hear that their king is coming. And then he says, freely you receive, freely give. What he's saying there is, I want you to hold everything in an open hand. I don't want you to own anything. I don't want you to take possession of anything. I want you to just go and share this gospel and be there with an open hand. Meaning, if people want to help you out, let them help you. But then I want you to help others the same way that they helped you. In other words, I want you to hold everything in an open hand. Just let it go. Don't hold it with a tight fist. And he says, to explain that, he then says in verse 9, do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts or a bag for your journey. Don't carry two tunics or an extra pair of sandals or an extra staff for the worker is worthy of his support. In other words, he's saying, if this stuff wears out, somebody will give you some. Don't worry about it. Don't carry any extra baggage. You don't have to do it. You don't have to have a knapsack. You don't have to have a backpack. Just go. And everything else will take care of itself. And this is so cool because that's how God wants us to walk. He wants us to walk, expecting Him to take care of us. Jesus had just said to him, just prior to this, in the Sermon on the Mount, that God knows sparrows, for crying out loud, and He takes care of them. If He can take care of the birds, He can take care of you. So He's saying to them, when He sent them out, He said, I want you to do this. Now, what's really important that you get here is that there is a long, there is a period of time, there is a gap of time, probably at least a year, by the way, most scholars believe, that Jesus does not have his twelve with him. A lot of people don't think about that. There is an extended period of time when, because he sent them out, that Jesus is over here and they're over there. And by the way, if they're ambassadors, well, that's what should be going on. You know, the ambassadors don't hang with the king. Ambassadors get out in the field. And so that's what these guys are doing. So they're out there working, and Jesus is out there working, but they're working in different places, and that's the way it's supposed to be. And so we're gonna see this, especially as we get into the third year of his ministry, kind of how they come back together. But it says, in verse 11, it says, and into whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is axios, worthy, as the Bible, my translation says, axios. What is axios? Axios is the basis of the word axiom. And an axiom means it's level. That's what it means. So axis, an axis in a chart. You never have an axis which is like this, right? The x-axis goes this way, the y-axis goes that way. It means straight. And so he's saying those that are straight, those that are worthy. And so when you go into a choir, find out who is straight. Well, what do you mean by that? In other words, we don't need to be with people that are going to fight us on every single minute of every single day. He's saying, don't go in there and just hang out with people that are going to fight with you. Go in and find some Bereans. That's what you need to find. Find some Bereans. Somebody that's willing to debate the scriptures with you, but really wants to know what they're talking about. They're Axios. They're level. So he says, inquire who is worthy, or Axios, in that town, and abide there until you go away. That's interesting. In other words, there comes a point in time when you know you've got to move, and when you've got to move, I want you to move, he's saying. And then he's going to say, and as you enter the house, give that house your blessing. Give that house your blessing. So in other words, what he's saying is don't go in there and fight with people. Give that house your blessing. You want to know how to witness to people. That's the way to witness to people. You give them your blessing. You don't give them, you know, the, you know, God's going to come down and blow you up, baby. You know, that's not the way you witness to people, okay? So here's how you give them your blessing. And so he says, give them your blessing. Because remember, Jesus saw the people and he had compassion upon them. Go back to that. And then it says, and if the house is axios, if the house is worthy, if the house is straight, let your peace come upon it. which is great because you think about it. When people are in Israel, how do they say hi? Shalom. How do they say bye? Shalom. And so they say Shalom. And it says, your peace come upon it. In Hebrew, that would be Shalom Aleichem, which is how you basically leave. You always say Shalom Aleichem. Peace be unto you. And so we have this beautiful picture of Jesus saying, look, be with the people, but be with the people, not in a confrontational manner, but be with them on a peer level. Love them, share with them, but then share with them the King is coming. The King is coming. And He is what's going to give you shalom. He is the one that's going to give you what truly is what you need. And then He says this, but, If it is ooxous, which is a very interesting word. Ooxous means crooked. opposite of axios, right? Just uaxios. Two words, actually, not axios. U in Greek is not. You also see ah in front of a word. That's the same basic idea. It's just one o instead of two. But you got uaxios, and he says, those that are not straight, those that are not worthy, those that are not listening, and so on. Let your And I love this, let your peace return to you. Wow, it's almost like you're taking back your shalom. I mean, it's just crazy. And then he says, and whoever does not receive you nor heed your words as you go out of the house or that city, then he says something really cool that most people don't get unless they're a Hasidic Jew. He says, shake the dust off of your feet. So Hasidic Jews, even to this day, ultra Orthodox Jews, whenever they come back into Israel, having been out of Israel, they take their shoes off and they either wipe them completely clean. wipe their entire bodies, hands, arms, face, everything, everything about them, they wipe the dust of the Gentiles off of them. And in those days they did the same thing. The Pharisees did the same thing. So with the Pharisees, would come back into the country after being, let's say, in Syria or someplace like that. When they got to the place where they knew they were back in Israel, they would take their shoes off. They would wipe everything off. They would shake everything down. They would literally take their clothes completely off and shake out every single bit of dirt out of their clothing. If they had water there, they would wash them. And the idea was is that it's to cleanse themselves from uncleanness. And so Jesus is using that very expression here that these people would get. Does everybody see where I'm coming from? Isn't that great how he does that? And then he says, verily I say unto you, truly I say, truly, truly I say unto you, by the way, whenever Jesus said, verily I say unto you, pay attention. It's a very important statement. So this is what he says, verily I say unto you, it will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city that threw you out. He's saying that about other Jews. Yeah, he's not saying that about Gentiles. This is about other Jews. So this is a really incredible thing that goes on. Now, these 12 apostles, as we said, they were brought out in teams. And always in this order, Simon, Peter, We learned when we were in Rome, and no question, that he was imprisoned in a very awful hole in the dirt. That is a record, by the way, which is pretty easy to prove. He then was hung upside down on a cross because he had to watch his wife first get crucified. And then he said, I'm not going to allow myself to get crucified the way Jesus did. And so he asked to be crucified upside down, which he did. Andrew, his brother, also was crucified. And instead of him being crucified the way Jesus was crucified, he got crucified apparently about a year after his brother did. Peter was killed before Paul, by the way. And so, Peter was killed probably around 64, 66 AD. Paul was killed closer to 68 AD. Pretty much, that's a pretty easy thing to prove, even from the scripture, by the way. So we learn that Andrew was asked to be taken and the cross be put on its corners. that he would be tied like an X. Imagine that the T becomes an X, more or less. And we do that. And even to this day, the St. Andrew cross is the X. And if you ever go to St. Andrews in Scotland, you'll see these X crosses all over the place. And so that was Andrew. James, of course, the Bible tells us, was the first martyr. We read about that in Acts chapter 12. He was beheaded. cut off by the sword by Herod, most likely beheaded. He and his brother John were called the Sons of Thunder in the book of Mark. And they were because they didn't hesitate telling you exactly what was on their mind. You know, it's funny, we talk a lot about Peter being kind of the hothead of the group. The real hothead of the group was James and John. Peter was never called the Son of Thunder. So, these two were. Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael, John chapter 1 and verse 45 tells us that. He also was crucified, but before they crucified him, they literally sheared his skin as the best they could off of his body. nasty way to go uh... thomas side that the person that we call doubting times i actually calling honest on thomas as he actually said again he he he he he made the key made the questions that everybody else actually wanted to ask uh... thomas was a great man he actually uh... went off to india and was actually the first person to go east. So Paul went west, he went east. He was as important an apostle for evangelism in the east as there was. He is still, even to this day, if you go to India, you will see all sorts of things where Thomas is remembered in that area, but not remembered well enough to where he was not also murdered in India, probably around 71 or 72 AD, after the destruction of the temple. And he was impaled, evidently. And then some rumors, some people actually say he was impaled and then he was mockingly crucified after he was already dead. Don't know if that's a fact or not, but that's what the rumor, Tradition. That's a good word. Tradition. I've got to go back to tradition. We know that Matthew went to Ethiopia. There was a tremendous movement down in there because that was where so many Jews were. The largest Jewish enclave outside of Jerusalem were what were in Rome and in Ethiopia Rome because they were taken as prisoners and enslaved to build the Colosseum and then became pretty pretty big in there and And then down in Ethiopia. There was just a large part of Jesus. So that's where he went to minister Bible Doesn't actually say that but we we know historically that that's correct. He was also beheaded in uh... james uh... the others the second james james uh... of alfie is uh... was thrown off the temple, most people believe, by Jewish zealots. And so that was an interesting way to go. They had first stoned him, and then they threw him off the temple. Thaddeus was crucified and shot with arrows. Simon the zealot was crucified in Somalia. Of course, Judas Iscariot died because of his suicide, and Matthias, it says, was stoned and then given over to Herod, who beheaded him. Great ways to go, and so on, but... Yeah? You said one of the apostles died in Somalia? Yes. Don't know. I don't know. Honestly, I didn't look it up. It's a great question, but I honestly don't know. I don't think so. But it could be. But honestly, I don't know. Rome had arms everywhere. You know, it's incredible. And then that brings us to the Apostle Paul. And as I said, the Apostle Paul was as important a person in Scripture as there was. And so the Apostle Paul if you don't think the apostle paul's acute cool dude you have not been paying attention because uh... the apostle went on three separate different missionary journeys the first one was when he went up uh... to uh... to antioch out of jerusalem over to the other antioch which is in the middle of of asia over to uh... uh... to to tro as from tro as he he went he roamed around came all the way back uh... to uh... to Antioch, realized he hadn't done everything he did, so he goes back out again. While he's on these little treks, you should know that he walked, by most estimates, and this would be conservative estimates, he walked almost 5,000 miles. Now, let me just kind of give you an example of what 5,000 miles looks like. OK? 5,000 miles. Now, some of that he did go in boats. I get that and so forth. But 5,000 miles. It is 5,000 miles from Athens, Greece, by air, to Miami, Florida. That's 5,000 miles. Let me just put that in perspective, folks. How do I know that? Because that's what my frequent flyer number was. I'm sorry, not from Greece, from Rome, excuse me. 5,000 miles. I mean, it's just almost night. Now, granted, it did take him some time to do it, and he did spend some time in places, but this man was strong. Anybody that believes that Paul was weak has just not been paying attention. And there is a myth about Paul that his name, Paul, means small, which is ridiculous. It doesn't mean that at all. In Greek, The word Paul, which is the word that he took, or the name that he took, is Pavlo. Pavlo. P-A-V-L-O if you want to put, actually P-A-U, but the U sounds like a V. So, Pavlo. is the name that he took. Now, I want you to go to the book of Acts. This is incredible, because I've shown this to people, and I've had Bible scholars, teachers, I should say, who I would actually consider scholars, actually, who never saw this until I showed this to them. And it's like, what? Yeah. But we see, We see Paul, whose real name was Saul. Now the word Saul, the name Saul means asked for, asked of. And so his parents obviously, typically you don't name your son Saul or Samuel in Hebrew unless there's a really good reason, like you really have begged for this child, or you really, this child is something you wanted deeply. Saul means asked for, Samuel means asked of God. Same word, Saul, El, Samuel. So, Paul was called Saul. Of course, we all know about his conversion on the road to Damascus. He gets the experience, gets blinded, goes to see Ananias, got all that. Gets sent out into the middle of the thing. We don't hear about Paul in chapter 10, 11, 12, until 13. 10, 11, 12 is all about Peter. In chapter 13, we see Paul now being brought back on the scene. And look at verse 9. It says, but Saul, who was also Paul, who was also Pavlo, Now from that point forward, he's never called Saul again, by the way, by Luke. He's always called Paul. And you're going to see why here, because Luke was not careless with his words. So look at what he said, he said, Saul, who was Paul, Pablo, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him and said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, and by the way, the person that he's talking about here is Almas, who is the magician, who basically is trying to corrupt the whole entire work that they're doing there in Antioch, and he says, and who were full of deceit and fraud, you're the son of the devil, You, enemy of all righteousness, will not pavel. He uses his name. And the interpreter who interprets the scripture in almost every version I've ever seen, the word is what? Cease. cease, because that's what pavo means. If you go in Greek and you see a stop sign in Greece, it says, anybody want to guess? Pavo. It means stop. What happened to Paul? Paul was this man who had authority, it tells us, same word, excusios. He had the authority to kill as many Christians, those of the way, he called it. And then he went and used that expression throughout his entire ministry, by the way. He had the right to kill everyone. But once he had been called out by Jesus, he was no longer the person who was asked for. He was now the person who ceased to do what he had done before. And so Paul was not weak, Paul was not little, Paul was not this kind of inferior. Nobody does what Paul did physically unless he was, this man was beaten with a pipe 39 times, not once, not twice, but three different times. This man was shipwrecked, not once, not twice, but three different times. The man went through so much agony, it's almost hard to imagine what he went through. And yet, He did it all so that Jesus' words could be, in fact, complete. And so, Paul does three missionary journeys, the third of which He ends, he kind of shortens and goes to, Miletus, you can hear about this, go on the app and listen, if you're interested in a lot of this, listen to the recordings that we did on the Book of Acts a few years ago, and I think you'll get a real good appreciation. But I want to read something to you that I wrote to finalize our trip, and I'm not going to read the whole entire thing, but I am going to read just a little bit. Paul decided he needed to go before the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. This is after he had done his first two trips around the globe, and he was now on his third one. He decided he needed to go before the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, but this was a foreboding thought, for he knew the sort of complete divine intervention he would need because he was bound to be arrested and most likely killed or deported. Paul gave his testimony to the Jewish leaders as well as to the Roman governor, who then turned him over to Ananias, the so-called leader of Israel. And after a long process, he was given the option of appealing his case before Caesar, and he did. Indeed, I believe it was only fitting that the apostle of the Gentiles should appear before the ruler of the Gentile world. Paul thought that all believers are dikaio, declared innocent before God, but he was declared guilty by the proconsul Festus and the so-called king of that region, Agrippa, and as was his right, as a Roman, he did appeal to Caesar to hear his case. This meant he had to go back to Rome. Thus, he is sent to Rome, a place that he always wanted to go, albeit not in chains, And along the way, they're shipwrecked, and again, this guy gets shipwrecked a lot, and tormented, but as God had promised him, he was not harmed, nor any with him. Finally, he comes to Rome, where he is kept under house arrest as he awaited his appeal. And a large number of people came to see him, and he never stopped sharing his testimony, or that the Torah and the Scriptures prophesied that Jesus was the Messiah. Paul was allowed to stay in Rome unhindered, the Bible tells us. In fact, the word unhindered is the very last word in the book of Acts. He was left unhindered, awaiting an appeal to Caesar that never took place until he was put to death as a political threat to Rome. Nevertheless, without Paul, there is no modern church. He was the one who caused the last recorded words of Jesus to actually happen. And those words, of course, are, go into all the world and preach the gospel, a commission that Paul never shirked, and neither should we. I'm just telling you the apostles are something we all should know about. Unfortunately, we don't know enough about all 12, but we do know a lot about Paul. We do know a lot about Peter. We do know a lot about some of them, but I will tell you this. Pablo ceased doing what he had done before because he had a calling directly from Jesus. We should do the same thing. We should take the picture of Pavlo, and we should cease doing what we had done before, and now go forward, preaching, sharing, caring, with compassion of Jesus, and so on. All of those things, because those are not the natural things that we did prior to knowing him. But now that we know him, we can cease from those old things. The Bible tells us, Pavlo, and we can begin to walk in newness of life. So I give you all of that today. I think this is a really interesting thing. Next week when we get together, we're gonna start talking about the other things that I think are essential about this now third year of ministry that Jesus is gonna enter, because things are gonna start to change now. Jesus kind of had his way, you know, being able to just be as free as he could possibly be. Now, all of a sudden, we're going to start to see that begin to change. And that's a pretty powerful thing. So we're moving through it. I believe we're actually going to finish the Gospels maybe by 2029. And that would be fun. Let's have a word of prayer and get out of here.