["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Grab a hymnal close to you and turn to page number 191.
Song number 191.
In my heart there rings a melody.
Song number 191.
Let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
I have a song that Jesus gave me.
It was sent from heaven above.
There never was a sweeter melody.
Tis a melody of love.
In my heart there rings a melody.
There rings a melody.
In my heart there rings a melody.
There rings a melody of love.
Song number 191.
We're going to do something different at the last verse, at that last chorus.
We're going to hold it a little bit longer.
So watch out for that last verse.
Alright, let's see it out on the second.
I love the cries who died on Calvary.
For he washed my sins away.
He put within my heart a melody.
And I know this is the same.
In my heart there rings a melody.
There rings a melody.
In my heart there rings a melody.
There rings a melody of love.
Sing it out on the last.
It will be my endless feeling for me.
When the angels come we'll sing.
It will be the song of glorious news.
Watch it.
Ring in my heart.
There rings a melody.
With heaven's harmony.
In my heart there rings a melody.
There rings a melody of love.
Amen. Great singing.
Welcome to Verity Baptist Church here on our Sunday evening service.
Glad to see everyone here this evening.
Let's open the service with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for the opportunity to come this evening, Lord.
Thank you for everything that you've done today.
Bless the service, bless the preaching, and bless the few moments you've come.
Lord, we love you in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
All right, now it's time for favorites where if you're selected we'll sing one song from the stanza that you pick.
All right, let's start with Miss Kimmy. Go ahead.
Song number 121 on the third.
Like a river glorious.
Song number 121 on the third.
They who trust in holy.
They who hold it true.
State of bond, Jehovah.
Hearts are fully blessed.
Finding as I promise.
Perfect peace at last.
Miss Ava, go ahead.
202 on the second.
Song number 202 on the second.
Sing it out.
I will tell a wondrous story.
How I lost Smith's sake.
In his boundless love and mercy.
In a ransom dream he made.
Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer.
In his blood he put to sleep.
On that cross he sealed my pardon.
He paid the debt.
He made me free.
CC, go ahead.
What was it?
24 on the third. Amen.
Song number 24.
Can it be that I should gain?
Let's sing it out.
On the last.
Long my prison spirit lay.
Fast found in sin and nature's lie.
Thine eye defused so quickly made.
The dungeon flamed with light.
My sings fell off.
My heart was free.
My troubles went through.
And followed me.
Amazing love.
How can it be that thou, my God,
Shovelled side over me.
Go ahead.
238.
Song number 238.
All right.
I beat myself on this one.
Sing it out on the first.
He was far from God and didn't sleep.
The light my heart could see.
But in God's word the light I found.
Now Christ living in me.
Christ living in me.
Oh, what a salvation is.
That Christ never can be.
All right.
Go ahead, Noah.
169.
Let's sing it out on the first.
Gone the fount of every blessing.
To my heart to sing thy grace.
Seems a mercy never ceasing.
But for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some my loaded son.
Some my flaming sons above.
There is a mountain fixed upon it.
Mount of our redeemer love.
Laney?
20.
Song number 20.
When I see the blood.
This will be the last song this evening.
Let's sing it out on the first.
Our redeemer died on the cross.
Died for the sinner.
Made always new.
All who receive him need never fear.
Yes, he will pass.
Will pass over you.
When I see the blood.
I will pass.
I will pass over you.
Crazy.
Amen. All right.
Well, let's take our bulletins this evening.
We'll look at some announcements.
If you did not receive a bulletin on your way in,
just raise your hand.
One of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin this evening, put your hand up.
We'll get one for you.
The verse this week, Acts 247, praising God
and having favor with all the people
and the Lord added to the church daily
and such as should be saved.
And that's a good verse there.
We like that.
If you open up your bulletin,
you'll see our service time,
Sunday morning service, 1030 a.m.
We had a wonderful service this morning.
We're glad you're back out tonight
for the evening service.
And we invite you to be with us on Wednesday night
for the Wednesday night Bible study.
This Wednesday night, we're having a special service.
We'll talk about that here in a minute.
We'd love for you to join us.
If you look at our soul winning times,
our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
and then on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 2 p.m.
And we'd love for you to join us for all of those.
We have special soul winning times this coming weekend.
We'll talk about that.
But just want to remind you, if you are a soul winner,
if you've had any salvations,
make sure you mark those on your communication card
and drop those in the offering plate
so that we can update the bulletin
if you have a map that you did not complete.
If you finish the map,
then you can go ahead and throw it away.
If we don't get it back, we count it as done
and we mark it on our big map.
But if you did not finish the map,
clearly mark what was done and what was not done
and put it in the bin in the foyer
and that way we can get that recycled back in
so that we can hand it back out and make sure it gets done.
We have a goal of knocking every door in the city of Sacramento.
So if you could help us with that, we would appreciate it.
And if you're running late to one of our soul winning times,
you can call us or text us at the number there,
916-868-9080.
Let us know your plan on being there but you're running late.
That way our team captains can make sure they have a map for you
and a partner set aside and all the things that you need.
We of course are a family integrated church.
Children and infantoids are welcome in the service.
We don't separate children from their parents for any reason.
We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service
or if you need some privacy, we would encourage you to use those rooms as needed.
If you need to be baptized, please let us know.
We'd love to baptize you.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events,
of course we are going through a series called Happily Ever After.
We took a break from that this morning.
We'll take a break from that this next week because of Easter.
But we'll get back into it after the Easter break.
And then on Sunday evenings we're going through a series called Journey with Jesus.
And we are on a journey with the Lord Jesus Christ
and we're traveling with him through the Gospel of Luke,
verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and we're going to continue that tonight.
And then of course this week with Easter being on Sunday,
we have some special things going on.
So this Wednesday is our annual Lord's Supper
and we want to encourage you to be with us on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
And don't miss it.
Don't miss this Wednesday night, if at all possible,
because we only do the Lord's Supper once a year.
It's an ordinance of the Lord that he wants us to do to remember his death.
And it's a special time, the Wednesday before Easter,
as we think about the death and the sacrifice of Christ.
So make sure you're here.
And also be looking for a text on Monday morning
that we're going to be sending out with a link to a sermon on the Lord's Supper.
So be looking for that.
Make sure you listen to it.
Prepare your heart.
Be ready to partake of the Lord's Supper.
You're probably going to get a text from us that has a link to the sermon
and also probably one that has a link to a short that we're putting out.
So make sure you click on both.
Don't skip the sermon.
If you have to choose one, pick the sermon.
Get your heart ready.
Don't just be entertained.
But make sure you do that.
If you're not getting our text messages,
give us your phone number on a communication card
and we will add you to our text list.
That way you can get all the messages that we send out and all those things.
And then of course Sunday is Easter,
and you should have one of these cards in your bulletin.
Make sure you invite someone to church on Easter,
and that will be a great time to do that.
And then we've got our big soul-winning push
that's on Thursday, April 14th at 6 p.m.,
Friday, April 15th at 6 p.m.,
and Saturday, April 16th at 10 a.m.
And I hope that you plan to make it to one of those.
If you say, I can only make one,
obviously whatever your schedule allows,
but if your schedule allows and you say,
I can only go to one, go to Saturday morning,
and you say, I can go to two,
then go to one of the other days and Saturday,
or you can go to three, go to all three of them,
and it will be a great time.
So make sure you do that.
Ladies' Tea is coming up on Saturday, May 7th at 3 p.m.,
and we invite all the ladies to come out for an elegant afternoon tea
in honor of Mother's Day.
There's a gift basket valued at over $50 that will be given away,
and it's a nice event.
And you can sign up on your communication card,
and then the next day is Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8th,
and make plans to join us for that.
The children's choir will be singing,
and we're going to be giving out the T-shirt,
and I think I got it still here,
the new Verity Baptist Church T-shirt.
This is for the ladies.
There's a new one coming out for the men as well.
We'll give that one out on Father's Day,
but this is a nice T-shirt, good quality T-shirt,
so we'll be giving those out.
We'll have sizes for little girls all the way up to the older ladies
and the adult ladies,
so make sure that you are here on Mother's Day for that.
Children's choir, they're practicing at 515 in the playroom
from now until Mother's Day.
They're singing for Mother's Day,
and then choir had their practice today.
I think they've got a practice on a Sunday morning,
so make sure you're aware of that.
If you're in the choir homeschool group,
they've got PE class on Thursday, April 21st.
Other things there for you to look at,
please don't forget to turn your cell phones off
or place them on silent during the service
if they're not a distraction to anybody.
If you look at the back of the bulletin,
birthdays and anniversaries for the month of April,
and we have Miss Emily and Julia Gessler's birthday on April 12th.
It's interesting how their birthday always falls on the same day,
so it's weird how that happened.
And then, of course, we have Daniel Santo's birthday also on April 12th,
but he's not a twin.
He's just his own guy,
and then Christine Ortiz and Jeffrey Love
both have a birthday on April 15th as well.
Praise Report, Money Matters,
all those things are there for you to look at.
And I think that's it.
So let's go ahead and take our song books.
I'm going to change the song on you if you don't mind.
And let's go to page number 145.
Page number 145, and we'll sing
It Is Well With My Soul.
Now there's only one way you can sing this song,
and that's with passion, all right?
So 145, let's sing it out on the first.
When peace like a river
Attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea
Belong forth
Whatever my what
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well
It is well with my soul
Ladies, sing it out.
Men, it is well
In my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
145, we're going to sing it out on the second right now.
I think the ladies could do a little better than that, all right?
I'm looking over there at my family.
I know they can sing.
So let's sing it out on the second.
Though Satan should buck me
Though trials should come
Let this bless the shore
Let my soul
That Christ has regarded
My helplessest thing
And hath sent
His own blood for my soul
Good, sing it out.
Good.
It is well
With my soul
It is well
With my soul
My sin
All the bliss
Of his glorious heart
My sin
Not in part
But the whole
Is filled to the cross
And not barren
No more
Praise the Lord
Oh, my soul
It is well
With my soul
It is well
With my soul
Good, sing it out on the last
And Lord hates the day
When I may
Shall reside
The clouds we roll back
As our strong
The drop shall resound
And the road
Shall descend
Even so
It is well
With my soul
It is well
With my soul
It is well
With my soul
Amen, good singing.
We'll have the guys come up
and help us with the offering at this time.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads
and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you
for allowing us to gather together today.
Lord, we pray that you bless the offering
and we ask that you meet with us
as we take time to open up your word
and say the Bible together.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Thank you.
Amen.
Let's open our mouths to Luke, chapter number six.
Luke 6, if you need a Bible to put your hand up and I'm not sure why I bring you a Bible.
Luke chapter number 6, if you need a Bible to keep your hand up, I'm not sure why I
come by.
Luke chapter number 6, we'll read verses 1 through 16.
Luke 6, we'll read verses number 1 through 16.
Luke 6, speaking of verse number 1, and it came to pass on the second Sabbath after
the first, that he went through the corn fields and his disciples plucked the ears
of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on
the sabbath days?
And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when
himself was unhungred, and they which were with him, how he went to the house
of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him,
which it is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone.
And he said unto them, That the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath.
And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught,
and there was a man whose right hand was withered, and the scribes and Pharisees watched
him whether he would heal on the sabbath day, that they might find an accusation
against him.
But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise
up and stand forth in the midst, and he arose and stood forth.
Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing, is it lawful on the sabbath days
to do good, or to do evil, to save life, or to destroy it?
And looking round about upon them all, he said unto them, unto the man, stretch forth
thy hand.
And he did so, and his hand was restored whole as the other.
And they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to
Jesus.
And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and
continued all night in prayer to God.
When it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom
also he named apostles, Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew's brother, James
and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon
called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was
a traitor.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening.
God, I thank you for your word, Lord, and for our church, and for everyone that's here
to just give us a tender heart to the message of God, and I ask you to just be with our
pastors.
Give them strength and boldness.
We love you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, we're there in Luke chapter number six, and we're making our way through the
gospel according to Luke verse by verse, chapter by chapter, in this series that
we're calling Journey with Jesus.
If you remember last week, we were in Luke chapter six.
We looked at verses one through 11, and we saw those two different Sabbath days in which
Jesus was being accused and attacked by the Pharisees, and we learned about the keeping
of the Sabbath day and what that means, and today we're going to just continue where
we left off, and we're actually not, we're not going to look at a lot of verses
from Luke.
We're going to look at a lot of verses tonight.
In fact, let me just warn you, it may feel a little bit more like a Bible study tonight,
and I would encourage you to just get ready to move with us, and there's a lot of interesting
things that I'd like you to see tonight, but we're not going to make it too far through
this passage of scripture.
In fact, if you look down at verse number 12, the Bible says this.
What you find in this passage in Luke chapter six and verse number 12, the Bible says,
And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and
continued all night in prayer to God, and when it was day, he called unto him his
disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.
What we see in this passage of scripture is the choosing of the twelve, and the Lord
Jesus Christ has been in his ministry, has started his ministry, he's developed a
group of people that he's working with, he's got some disciples, but now here in
Luke chapter six, he gathers that group of disciples together, and out of that group
he chooses twelve, which he calls apostles.
And we're going to look at that tonight a little bit, but I want you to notice, and
I'll just kind of give you up front, I've got two kind of main categories or main
points we're going to look at, and a lot of points in between those two, all right,
so don't get too excited.
But the first thing that I want you to notice, and we see it in verse 12, is we
see a prayerful preparation.
I want you to notice that when the Lord Jesus Christ had an important decision to
make, he had to choose the twelve, he had to go to his disciples and choose the twelve
that would be the twelve that would help him, the group that he would mentor, the
group that he would spend time with in order to leave them in charge when he ascends
up to heaven, when he had to make that decision, I want you to notice that the
Lord Jesus Christ, who by the way is God in the flesh, spent the night in prayer.
He was preparing for this decision, and it was a prayerful preparation.
It says, and it came to pass in those days that he, Jesus, went out into a mountain
to pray, notice, and continued all night in prayer to God.
He spent all night praying.
Why would he do that?
Here's why, because he had a decision to make, and he had a prayerful preparation.
He continued all night in prayer, and then in verse 13, we see the second heading or
the second point that I want to talk about tonight, and we see a deliberate designation.
Notice he chooses these men, verse 13, and when it was day, he called unto him his disciples.
Now the word disciple means a student or a follower.
A disciple is someone who was a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a student
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was being discipled by him or was learning to live
a disciplined life according to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He called unto him his disciples, and please understand this.
Being saved and being a disciple are not necessarily the same thing.
You can be saved and not be a disciple.
You can be saved and not be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These were his disciples.
He calls his disciples pretty much what we would consider his church, his congregation,
and of them, the Bible says there in verse 13, and of them he chose 12, whom also he
named apostles.
I want you to understand that word apostle is really just a transliteration from the
Greek word that means a sent one or a person that is sent.
The word apostle is a word that is used for someone that Jesus was going to send.
I know I preached a whole sermon on soul this morning, but really he's looking at
his disciples and then he's choosing 12 of them that he's going to put into a position
where he can send them out to lead churches, to start churches, to do great works for him.
He's going to begin by sending them out to do soul winning and by teaching them
about soul winning.
I want you to notice some things from this passage tonight.
If you're taking notes, I'd encourage you to write some of these things down.
Go with me.
Keep your place there in Luke.
That's our text for tonight, but go to the book of Matthew, if you would, Matthew
chapter 4.
Let's go backwards past the book of Mark into the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 4.
Matthew chapter 4, let's begin by looking at this idea of a prayerful preparation.
And it's interesting to me because when you look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you study the gospels and you study the life of Christ, you'll notice
that it is highlighted over and over and over again how much time the Lord Jesus Christ
spent in prayer.
He spent a lot of time in prayer, but I want you to notice that some of the times that
he spent in prayer were very purposeful or very specific.
Jesus, in fact, prepared through prayer, and here's the point that I want to make
and maybe you can jot this down.
Prayer holds the power to advance the work of God.
Whenever you see the Lord Jesus Christ getting ready to advance the work of God, you'll
notice that there is always prayerful preparation that goes before that.
There's always a time of specific prayer, of sacrificial prayer before he launches
something.
Notice in Matthew chapter 4 in verse 1, we have the story of Jesus going out into the
wilderness.
Matthew 4 and verse 1, notice what it says, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into
the wilderness.
Just for context, I want you to remember that this is right after his public baptism
and right before he launches his public ministry.
This is when Jesus, he gets baptized, he goes out into the wilderness, led of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil.
He's about to launch his ministry publicly as a preacher of the Word of God.
Notice verse 2, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward
in hunger.
I want you to notice that before the Lord Jesus Christ launched his ministry, before
maybe we would call it, he planted his church, and I understand he didn't plant the church,
he planted all churches.
He's the head of the church.
But before he began his ministry, before he launched his ministry, he spent time
in prayer.
He spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting and in prayer to God before he launched
his ministry.
We saw here in Luke chapter 6 that after he launched his ministry, when his ministry
had gotten to the place where he needed to hire some workers, he needed to hire a
full-time staff, he needed to pick 12 guys that were going to be with him, that were
going to leave their jobs and be with him day and night so that he could train
them, so that he could help them, so that he could develop them and mentor them.
Because these were the 12 men that were going to take his message after he ascends
up to heaven.
These 12 men were going to take his message to the world and into the first century
Here, the Bible tells us that before he made that choice, before he brought his disciples
together and said, I'm choosing the 12, he spent all night in prayer.
Why?
Because prayer holds the power to advance the work of God.
He spent time in prayer before he launched his ministry.
He spent time in prayer before he chose the 12.
Go to Matthew 26.
I want you to notice that he spent time in prayer before his death.
I mean, Jesus was here to do many things.
One was to train the 12 so that he could start the local church.
Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
But the number one thing that Jesus came to do was to die for the sins of mankind,
was to die and to resurrect from the grave.
And I want you to notice that right before he did his biggest work, his biggest task,
he prayed.
Matthew 26, look at verse 36.
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane.
This is the night before his crucifixion.
And saith unto the disciples, sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.
And there's a whole story here and a going back and forth between him and the disciples.
They keep falling asleep, like you fall asleep while I'm preaching.
They fall asleep while he was praying and it frustrated him like it frustrates me.
But look at verse 39, we'll skip some of that for sake of time.
Verse 39, and he went a little further.
This and fell on his face.
Please get this.
This is not you or me.
This is not a human being that's a sinner and fallible.
This is the sinless son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who felt
the need before his biggest work.
The Bible tells us he fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh my Father, if it be possible,
let this cut pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Look down at verse number 42, same chapter.
After he'd spoken to the disciples for a little bit, the Bible says he went away
again the second time, notice, and prayed.
Skip down to verse number 44, same chapter, notice, after he'd spoken to them for a
little bit.
The Bible says, and he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying
the same words.
And here we see in Gethsemane that Jesus spends a good majority, if not the whole
night, a good majority of the night in prayer.
When did he pray?
He prayed right before he launched his ministry.
When did he pray?
He prayed right before.
He spent the whole night in prayer, right before he chose the 12 apostles.
When did he pray?
He prayed the night before he did his greatest work on the cross, the work of redemption.
I'm here to tell you something, Jesus understood the power and the need of prayer.
And here's all I'm saying is that if Jesus, the sinless Son of God, deity in the flesh,
felt the need before he accomplished a great work to pray, how much more do you and
I need prayer?
I mean, if he spent that much time in prayer, how much time do you and I need
to spend in prayer?
Notice it wasn't only that Jesus used prayer as a time of preparation, a prayerful preparation,
but this is something that his 12 learned from him.
Go to Acts, if you would, Acts chapter number 1.
You're there in Matthew.
You'll go Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and do me a favor, put your place, keep your place
there in Acts.
We're going to leave it and come back to it.
Acts chapter 1.
Remember, he's training the 12.
And one of the things that he trained the 12 was in prayer.
I'm not going to take the time to go through it, but not too long ago, we did a whole
Sunday morning series.
I think we spent four or five weeks on a sermon, on a series called The School
of Prayer.
And if you remember the disciples, the apostles came to Jesus and they said, teach us to
pray.
So he did.
He taught them to pray.
Now, once you notice, it must have worked because that early church, like the Lord
Jesus Christ, prepared through prayer, that early church prepared through prayer as well.
They believed in prayer.
You say, when did they pray?
Well, they prayed before major evangelistic campaigns.
Notice Acts chapter 1 and verse 14.
This was right before the day of Pentecost.
And let me remind you something that the day of Pentecost is not what most people
are taught, which most people are taught that it was like a Billy Graham crusade
where Peter stood up in front of 3,000 people and he preached the gospel and they
walked down the aisle and they, you know, had Muslims and Catholics and Presbyterians
talk to them and supposedly they got saved.
No, that's not what happened at the day of Pentecost.
The day of Pentecost, Peter actually spoke to a very small group of people.
The day of Pentecost was a soul-winning church, 120 Spirit-filled soul winners went
out and they opened their mouths and they preached the gospel.
But notice right before their big soul-winning push, right before their big evangelistic
campaign, the Bible tells us in Acts 1.14, these all continued with one accord in prayer.
They continued with one accord in prayer in supplication with the women and Mary,
the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
The early church, they prayed.
They prayed before major evangelistic campaigns.
I want you to notice, go to Acts chapter 12 if you would.
Acts chapter 12, they prayed during times of persecution.
Acts chapter 12 and verse 4.
I'm just telling you, if we're going to pattern ourselves and model ourselves after local
New Testament churches, which I think we should, we're Baptists, we're biblicalists,
we're going to say the Bible is our authority in all matters of faith and practice.
If we're going to say that we're a local New Testament church like the church in Acts,
well I'm here to tell you something.
They continued with one accord in prayer and supplication before major evangelistic campaigns.
We're about to have what's considered for us a major evangelistic, soul-winning push
and campaign.
And I want to encourage you, show up for soul-winning, but also spend time in prayer.
Spend time praying.
Maybe you say, man I've had a dry spell in my soul-winning and I've been going soul-winning
and nobody's been getting saved and I haven't been able to talk to anybody.
Let me ask you this, how much time have you spent in prayer?
How much time have you spent in prayer before you go out and preach the gospel, asking
the Lord to help you, maybe confessing sin before the Lord, asking Him to fill you with
the Spirit to help you come to the right people to preach the gospel that they might
get saved.
That's what the early church did.
They continued steadfastly in prayers and supplications.
They also prayed during times of persecution.
Acts chapter 12 and verse 4, notice what the Bible says, and when he, this is Herod
the king, had apprehended him, this is Peter the apostle, he put him in prison
and delivered him to four quontorians of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter
to bring him forth to the people.
Peter therefore was kept in prison.
Here we have Herod who has captured Peter.
He's already put James, excuse me, he's put James to death and now he wants to put
Peter to death.
Verse 5, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the
church and to God for him, and I won't take the time to read through the whole thing,
but if you remember the story, God sends an angel and he breaks Peter out of prison
as a result of this prayer.
During times of persecution, they prayed, and look, we have not dealt with the persecution
that the early church has dealt with, but we've dealt with some persecution.
We've had the government and the society turned against us, you say, what should
we do when we suffer persecution?
Well, we ought to do what the local church and the book of Acts did, and we should pray.
What should we do before major evangelistic campaigns?
We should pray.
I want you to notice that they prayed.
They had prayerful preparation.
Not only that, but they prayed.
You'll notice this theme in the book of Acts.
Go to Acts chapter 6 if you would, Acts chapter number 6.
So notice this theme, that they also prayed before they ordained ministers.
Notice in Acts chapter 6 and verse 5, you have the ordination of the first deacons.
In Acts 6 and verse 5, the Bible says, and the saying pleased the whole multitude, and
they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus,
and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they
set before the apostles.
And when they, notice the words, had prayed, they laid hands on them, they ordained them
into the ministry.
What did they do before they ordained the deacons into the ministry?
They prayed.
You'll notice that there's a theme here.
Go to Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 13.
Not only did they pray before they ordained the deacons, but they prayed before they ordained
evangelists or missionaries.
Notice in Acts 13 and verse 2, the Bible says this, and as they ministered to the
Lord and fasted, and the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work
where I have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Notice they prayed before they ordained the deacons to serve in the church there.
They prayed before they ordained the evangelists and sent them out as missionaries.
Go to Acts chapter 14, look at verse 23.
They also prayed before they ordained pastors.
It seems like they were just looking for any excuse to pray.
In fact, any time that something big was going on, they were going to ordain a pastor,
they were going to ordain a missionary, they were going to ordain a deacon, they were
going to go into some big evangelistic push, they were going through some trials and
tribulations.
They prayed.
In Exodus,bara 18, Jesus was 12.
He prayed.
Jesus had to go to the cross.
He prayed.
Jesus had to start a ministry.
He prayed.
I'm just here to tell you.
I think that the idea and the emphasis in the Word of God is that prayer is a big
deal.
Acts, chapter 14 in verse 23, and when they had ordained them elders in every church.
What is that?
That's pastors.
Notice, and had prayed with fasting.
whom they believe. Here's all I'm telling you. Prayer holds the power to
advance the work of God. And if we're going to be a church and if you're
going to be a Christian that enjoys the power of God, we're going to have to
learn to pray. I'm encouraging you to pray. There's a reason why we, on
Wednesday nights, and I realize not every Wednesday night sometimes on a
Wednesday night we have something special going on like the Lord's
Supper and we may skip it, but there's a reason why 99% of the Wednesday nights
around here we take time as a church to pray. You say, why? Well, Jesus said that
the house of God may be called a house of prayer. And we have to understand and
we have to remember that prayer is what unlocks the power of God. Prayer,
you're there in Acts, go to Romans chapter 15 if you would, just one book
over Romans chapter 15. It always is very convicting to me because
here's what I can tell you about prayer. Prayer is one of these things that 100%
of us, none of us do enough of it, period. And if you think you do enough
prayer, you're wrong. You know, it's not like, you know, you preach about Bible
reading and if you're reading the Bible, you're reading the Bible once a
year or twice a year or three times a year, you can, it's kind of like a
guilt-free sermon, you know? Like, well, I'm reading the Bible so praise God for
that. Or if you preach a sermon on soul winning and then you're like, I'm so
glad we went soul winning yesterday. I almost skipped out, but yeah, that
sermon would have been really uncomfortable. You know, it's like you
went soul winning or you get a sermon on church attendance and
you're like, well, I haven't missed in a long time or whatever. But you know,
prayer is one of these things that every time it's brought up, you're not doing
enough. And I'm not doing enough. We don't do enough prayer, but the
interesting thing is, I don't think we really, I think intellectually in our
minds we understand prayer, but if we really understood that prayer means
that you and I have access to God. You and I have access to God. We can close
our eyes and bow our hands or bow our knee or raise our hands up to heaven
and speak to the God of the universe. Say, why would Jesus spend all night in
prayer? I think Jesus understood. I get to speak with God the Father. I think
I'll do this all night long. And he prayed. Romans chapter 15 and verse 30.
Now this morning, I showed you Philippians 1 27 where it says,
striving together for the faith of the gospel, that we as a church are to
strive and work together. When I say that word strive, I think of a group of
athletes, of men, maybe rowing together. They're striving together. They're
working to get something done. And we saw in Philippians 1 27 that let your
conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ and that we should be
striving together for the faith of the gospel. But I want you to notice in
Romans 15 and verse 30, we see another thing that we should be
striving together in. Romans 15 and verse 30, the Bible says, now I beseech
you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ sake and for the love of the Spirit
that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. See we
ought to be striving together for the gospel and we ought to be striving
together in prayer. And I just want to ask you, how much time do you spend
praying? And whatever the answer is, don't feel bad because it's not enough.
And I just want to encourage you, we ought to do more. We ought to do more time in
prayer. Especially before some big, you've got some big major decision, maybe
you've got some big decision you have to make in life, spend time in prayer.
Jesus had to choose the 12 and he spent all night in prayer. And if Jesus
needed it, then you and I need it. Go back to Luke chapter 6 if you wouldn't.
So we see this prayerful preparation. Jesus prepared the prayer. Before the
launch of his ministry he prayed. Before the choosing of the 12 he prayed. Before
his redemptive work on the cross he prayed. We see that the early church
prayed. Before major evangelistic campaigns they prayed. During times of
persecution they prayed. When they ordained ministers for the ministry,
whether it was deacons or evangelists or pastors, they prayed. And what I take
away from that is that we need to pray. We need prayer. I want you to
notice secondly tonight, not only do we see this prayerful preparation, but we
see a deliberate designation. In this passage there, if you look down at
verse 13, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ chose the 12. In verse 13 it
says, and when it was day, after he spent all night in prayer, this
prayerful preparation for the choosing of the 12. And when it was day, the
Bible says he called unto him his disciples. Remember the disciples are the
students or followers. And of them he chose 12 whom also he named apostles.
And then we have a listing of the apostles here. Verse 14 we have number
one, Simon, who he also named Peter. And number two, Andrew, his brother.
Number three, James. And number four, John. Number five, Philip.
Excuse me, I'm getting my numbers mixed up here. Simon's the first, Andrew's the second,
James the third, John is the fourth, yeah, Philip the fifth, Bartholomew the sixth,
Matthew the seventh, Thomas the eighth, James the son of Alphaeus the ninth,
Simon called Zelotes the tenth, Judas the brother of James the eleventh, and Judas
Iscariot the twelfth. Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon
called Zelotes, Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also
was the traitor. We see here that the 12 are chosen and the 12 are named.
Then I want to spend a little bit of time tonight just talking to you about
these 12 apostles. And I think the study of the 12 apostles is
something, I don't know if it's interesting to you, but it's something that's very
interesting to me. And I want to just give you kind of just some
thoughts and maybe you can jot some of these things down. First of all, I want
you to know that the names of the 12 apostles are all mentioned in
three different gospels. One is the one we saw here, Luke chapter 6. The other, if
you want to jot this down for your own reference, in Matthew chapter 10, verses
2 through 4, we get the list of the 12 apostles. And in Mark chapter 3,
verses 16 through 19, we get a list of the 12 apostles. And when you look at
these lists and you compare them, you'll notice some things about them. First of
all, Peter is always mentioned first. Peter is always mentioned first because he
was the leader of the apostles. He was the one in charge. And I think it's
interesting, just know we talked about this on Wednesday night, there's always a
leader. There was always a God-given leader. When God chooses a group of men,
he puts Peter as the leader and he's always mentioned first. You also will
notice that Andrew, James, and John are always mentioned in second, third, and
fourth place, though their orders vary. So it's not like one is always the
second one mentioned and one's always the third one mentioned or one's always
the fourth one mentioned, but those three names will be mentioned in the
second, third, and fourth category. And that's because these men were known as
the inner circle. Jesus had the multitudes, 5,000 men that he fed and
multitudes that followed him, but within that big group of people that
would come out to hear Jesus preach and come out for a free lunch and have
spectators, within that big group he had a smaller group that would have been
called his disciples. And the disciples were probably hundreds of disciples that
were followers, that were students. They weren't just spectators. They
weren't just showing up for a special service because they were given
away free food. They were actually following and being disciples of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But as we saw in Luke chapter 6 of that group of
disciples, he picked a smaller group, a group of 12 that he called apostles.
And in even that group of 12 he had a smaller inner circle of Peter, James, and
John who were his inner circle. These were the men that he was closest
to. Peter as the leader of the church. John, the Bible calls him the beloved,
the one that laid his head on the breast of Jesus. And you had Andrew, the
brother of Peter, and James, the brother of John. And you'll notice that
for that reason you've got first, second, third, fourth in this category.
And I'm bringing that up because sometimes in ministry people will
criticize you. Like, well why aren't you, you know, you're close to this person.
Why aren't you close to me? Because I don't like you. Well, you know, let's move on.
The point is this, you can't be close to everybody. But I'll tell you something
people do ask, you know, they ask, well how can I get close to Pastor? How can I
get close to Ms. Joanne? Become a worker. Show up to work. Let me let you
know a little secret. You want to get close to Ms. Joanne? She's got all,
she's got all sorts of events that she puts on all the time around here.
You want to get close to Ms. Joanne? Help her decorate. Help her clean afterwards.
I'm just telling you, sometimes you get close to people because they're
just the ones that are working alongside you. Because they're the ones that are
investing their lives into the same thing you're investing into. And here
you've got these inner circle men, Peter, James, John, Andrew, and for that
reason they're always mentioned. Peter's always mentioned first. These other
men are mentioned in either second, third, or fourth category, though those
are very in orders. Then of course you always have Judas Iscariot who's
always mentioned last. And of course he's the traitor. He's the betrayer. So he's
always mentioned last. Just also for your own knowledge Judas the brother of
James is sometimes referred to as Lebes and sometimes referred to as Thaddeus
in these different references of the disciples, of the apostles. So just
know that so that doesn't throw you off. Now I want to show you just some
things here about the apostles. Go to Acts, if you would, Acts 14. And I want
you to understand something because you have the choosing of the twelve but there's some
things that confuse people about the apostles. And I want to maybe clarify
that or help you understand that. And the first is this, that there were
actually more than twelve apostles. The Bible teaches that there was more
than twelve. In Acts chapter 14 and verse 14 the Bible says this, which when the
apostles, notice Barnabas. I want you to notice that Barnabas is called an apostle
here in Acts 14, 14. But Barnabas is not one of the twelve. His name never comes
up as one of the twelve. The Bible says which when the apostles,
Barnabas and Paul, heard of they rent their clothes and ran in among the
people crying out. And I'm reading that verse just to show you that Barnabas
is referred to as an apostle and I'm showing you that there's actually more
than twelve apostles. Now the reason that you need to understand that and get
that, and I'm almost hesitant to kind of put it this way, but here's what I
want you to understand. In the early church you had the disciples. You had,
well first of all, you had just the spectators, the congregation. I mean Jesus
ministry was like any other ministry. Just like our church. We have people
that show up on Sunday mornings once every few months or whatever and
they're not really that involved. They're not, they'll just kind of come, they'll
come on Easter, they'll come on Christmas, they'll come if we send them a postcard.
And if you were to talk to those people and ask them what church do you
go to, they would say Verity Baptist Church. And who's your pastor? Pastor
Roger Jimenez. But they come like two or three times a year, you know. They're
just kind of those spectators. They're not really followers or disciples and
Jesus had those. Then you had the disciples. Those are people that come
faithfully. They're actually trying to apply the teaching. They're trying to
apply it to their lives. But then you had this other group that was called
apostles. Now you had the 12 apostles. Those were the first apostles. But then
you had more apostles than that. And this is where I'm hesitant to kind of
use it as an example. But these apostles were like the soul winners.
Because you remember the word apostle means the sent ones. And what made, you
said what's the difference between a disciple and an apostle? An apostle was
one that went out to preach the gospel. Now I'm hesitant to say that because
some of you are crazy enough to start calling yourselves apostles. Don't do that.
All right. If you want to see me upset, start calling yourself an apostle.
But what I'm saying is that there was this different layer of people who were
apostles in the early church and there was more than 12. In fact, we talked
about this in the morning. You don't have to turn here. I'll read this for you in
Luke chapter 10 and verse 1. Luke 10 and verse 1 the Bible says after these things
the Lord appointed others 70 also and sent them two and two. Those 70 were
probably apostles. And so there was more apostles. And here's why I bring it up.
Because today you've got false teachers that will say that they are
apostles. And then you know a good Baptist will say well
there's only 12 apostles. Then they'll show you a verse where somebody else is an
apostle and you're like I don't know today. I never knew that. We just know
that there's more than 12 apostles because an apostle is a sent one. So for
example, Barnabas here and Paul are being sent as missionaries, as
evangelists. So in a way they're apostles. Barnabas is an apostle and
he's even referred to as an apostle here. He's called an apostle. So there
are more than 12 apostles. But here's what I want you to understand though.
You're there in Acts. Go to 2 Corinthians. Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians.
Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter number 11.
I want you to understand that though there was more than 12
apostles, there were only 12 chief apostles. And what I mean by that is
that the 12 were the 12 like these are the 12. In fact in the Bible
they're referred to as the 12. The interesting thing is that they're even
referred to as the 12 when there was only 11 of them. When Judas Iscariot
died, they're still referred to as the 12. So the 12 became like a name for
it was like their team. If you would think about a team, they go by a
name that's that that I don't even I can't even think I don't know anything
about sports. What's a team around here? The 49ers. The one time I'm gonna bring
up the 49ers in a positive light. The 49ers is their name right but there's
not 49 of them. Do you understand? That's actually a perfect example. Thank you.
But there's not 49 49ers and you know whenever they're swapping out
players and they're getting a new quarterback or getting rid of a
quarterback or getting a new I don't know any other position in football
other than quarterback so we're gonna leave it there and they're you know
whatever there's still the 49ers. Do you understand that? They're known as the 49ers
you know as their swap. So the 12 are the 12. It's the original 12 apostles
but there's more apostles than just the 12 apostles but the 12 is known as
a 12 even when there was 11 of them they're still known as a 12.
2 Corinthians 11. Let me show this to you. I was highlighted in the Bible.
2 Corinthians 11 and verse 5.
For I suppose I was not a whit behind. Here's what Paul, because Paul's having to defend his
apostleship. He says for I suppose that I was not a whit behind the very
chiefest apostles. So notice though there are many apostles maybe even 70
apostles he's when he's talking about the apostles he's talking about the 12.
The chiefest apostles. The main apostles. Look down at 2nd Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse 11. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 11.
2nd Corinthians 12 11. The Bible says I am become a fool in glory. You have compelled
me for I ought to have been commended of you for in nothing am I
behind the very, notice what Paul says, chiefest apostles though I be nothing.
So I want you to notice when Paul is referring to himself as an apostle he's making
sure that they understand. Paul's saying when I say I'm an apostle I'm not talking
about like I'm one of the 70 apostles he's like I'm one of the chief
apostles. I'm one of the 12 apostles. So here's what I'm just saying about the
apostles. Number one there were more than 12 apostles but number two there
were only 12 chief apostles or the main apostles or the ones that you
would think of when we think of the 12 apostles. Now the reason that I
bring this up and I preached this before but I just want to explain this
to you because I think it's interesting and sometimes people read things in the
Bible and it's a little confusing so I just want to help you understand this.
Go to Acts chapter 1 if you would. Acts chapter 1. There's a controversy as to
who are the 12 apostles or the legitimate apostles and people argue back
and forth about it. I'm gonna explain to you my position on it.
Not that it really matters it's just something interesting and we're talking
about the 12 apostles so I figured it'd be something fun to talk about or
discuss. I'll give you my ideas and if you don't agree with me that's fine
you can be wrong but I'll let you know what I think about it. There's a
controversy in regards to the apostles and who the apostles are
because of something that took place in Acts chapter 1 and verse 21. Now
remember the context okay. Jesus just you know died resurrected was with
him for 40 days and then ascended up to heaven and he's left them and he's told
him to wait because the the day of Pentecost is coming and the day that
the Holy Ghost is gonna come upon them the power of the Holy Ghost
they're gonna be empowered on the day of Pentecost. They're waiting for
that. They're in the upper room they're praying they're they're preparing but
in that they get this idea that hey we're the 12 our team's the 12 but
there's only 11 of us so we need to replace Judas Iscariot. Acts chapter 1
look at verse 21. So they come up with these they start thinking well you know
how are we gonna replace how are we gonna pick a new apostle and they get
this idea that they've got to come up with qualifications for an apostle. So
they do look at verse 21. Here's what they decided. Wherefore of these men
which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and
out among us. So they said the first qualification that we need for an apostle
is there needs to be someone that's been with us the whole time that the
Lord Jesus went in and out among us. Because remember we saw in Luke 6 Jesus
chose the 12 out of the bigger group of his disciples. So they're saying hey
let's go back to that bigger group of his disciples and see if we can find
someone that has been with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in
and out among us. Notice verse 22. Beginning from the baptism of John. So
they had to be with them from the baptism of John unto number three the
same day that he was taken up from us. So they came up with these
qualifications and said okay to be an apostle you have to have you know
been with us from the baptism of John and been with us up until the the
same day that Jesus ascended up to heaven or was taken up from us and
must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. Verse 23. And they
appointed two. So out of all the people there they're like well there's
two guys that meet the qualification. They appointed two. Joseph called
Barsabbas who was surnamed Justice and Matthias. And they prayed
and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these
two thou is chosen. So they they came up with these qualifications and then
they're like okay we got two guys that meet those qualifications and then
they're like okay well how are we gonna pick one verse 25 that he may
take part of his ministry and apostleship from which Judas by
transgression fell that he might go to his own place and they gave forth
their lots. They say what does it mean to give forth their lots? Nobody
really knows what it means to give forth their lots but it's
something similar to like pulling straws or rolling dice or playing you
know rock-paper-scissors I don't know but it's just kind of like something
they did to okay you know we're gonna pick one of these guys. They picked
someone. Notice verse 26. And they gave forth their lots and the lot fell
upon Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So this is what
the early church is like. They're like Judas betrayed us. We need to replace
there's only 11 of us and we're called the 12. So they're like thinking like
we're either gonna have to change our name or we got to find somebody else. So they
came up with these qualifications. Now here's what I want you to understand.
Here's my take on this and and you may disagree with this and that's fine.
I don't have a problem with you disagreeing. Go to Galatians if you
would. You're there in Acts, Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians. They came I think
their heart was in the right place but I think that they're overstepping
their boundaries a little bit here. I don't think that the Bible is really
because here's what you understand. Whenever you read stories in the Bible,
narratives, just understand just because somebody did something does not make it
right. The Bible just tells us sometimes what people do. Now sometimes
the narrator will comment upon what they did and tell us if it was
right or if it was wrong. But there's lots of times that the narrator tells
us that something happened and they don't tell us this was right or this
was wrong. They just tell us it's what they did. You understand that? So and
sometimes you can prove that it's wrong. For example you can look at these
Old Testament examples where someone will marry multiple wives and God
doesn't comment. He just tells us that they married another wife but we
can look at clear scriptures that tell us you're not supposed to marry
other wives. You understand that? So sometimes just because the Bible
tells you something but it doesn't tell you whether it was right or wrong
doesn't make it right or wrong. And here it's not like God is telling us
and the Lord was pleased with what they did. But let me just say this.
I don't think God was really angry with them either. I think God's just
like okay whatever they they chose Matthias. But I don't believe that
that's what God's choice was because I do think God wanted to
replace Judas with someone but God had already chosen somebody else. You say
who was it? It was a guy by the name of Paul or Saul. Notice Galatians chapter 1
and verse 1. Now Galatians chapter 1 and verse 1, understand this, is not a
narrative. It is the Apostle Paul speaking under the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost. It is Paul the narrator speaking but the true narrator is
the Holy Spirit of God. You understand that? Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. So we're not reading a story that we're not
sure whether this is right or wrong or whatever. This is God speaking, the Holy
Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul. Galatians 1 and verse 1, Paul said
under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Paul an apostle, notice what he
says, not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who
raised him from the dead. Paul said I am an apostle and I was not made an
apostle by men. I was not made an apostle of men. I was made an apostle by
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. See Jesus chose Paul as a replacement to
Judas. Jesus did something special for Paul. Saul, who he didn't really do
for anyone else, he came back after he'd already ascended and he spoke to Saul
on the road to Damascus. Now let me just say this, he did not get him saved on the
road to Damascus because everybody has to get saved the exact same way.
Three days later Saul lost his eyesight. Three days later a man named
Ananias who was a soul winner came and preached the gospel to him but
Jesus did appear to Saul and he told him and he spoke with him and
there's things that were said that we're not exactly sure everything that was
said there. Not everything is recorded but we know this, Paul was made an
apostle by the Lord Jesus Christ. So you know you might be asking well what
makes you think or say or what gives you the right to say that the
apostles were wrong when they made these qualifications? Well here's why I
think they were wrong. Because Jesus chose Paul as an apostle and Paul did not
meet the qualifications that they came up with. I mean the qualifications they
came up with was you had to be with us at the baptism of John, you had to be
with us all the way to the ascension of Christ, you had to have been with us
the whole time. Well here's the one thing about the apostle Paul, he was
late to the party. He wasn't there at the baptism of John, he wasn't there
during the three and a half year ministry of Christ, he was not there at
the ascension of Christ. So here's what I'm saying, if I have to choose, I love
Peter, I love these men, I think they're great men, I'm not talking down to
them or anything like that, but if I have to choose between what they decided as
an apostle and what Jesus decided as an apostle, I'm gonna go with Jesus.
Because Jesus actually chose a man that did not meet any of those
qualifications. Paul did not meet the qualifications created by the other
apostles. I think that the other apostles were simply wrong. I don't
think they were wicked or evil, I think their heart was in the right
place, I think they thought you know we got to replace Judas. They didn't
know that God already had chosen someone to replace Judas. Jesus was gonna
replace Judas with a man named Saul of Tarsus, who would later be known as
Paul. They came up with these qualifications, but let me just say this,
I wonder, because if you read the New Testament you'll notice that Paul is
constantly having to defend his apostleship. And part of me wonders if
he has to, let me show that to you, you're there in Galatians, go back past
2nd Corinthians into 1st Corinthians, 1st Corinthians chapter 9, 1st
Corinthians chapter 9, look at verse 1, 1st Corinthians 9 and verse 1, Paul says,
Am I not an apostle? He's asking this question. Am I not free? Have I not seen
Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an
apostle unto others, he's telling the church of Corinth, he says, if other
people don't want to acknowledge me or accept me as an apostle, yet doubtless I
am to you, for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. You'll
notice that Paul throughout his ministry is having to defend his
apostleship, and part of me wonders if the reason that Paul has to defend
his apostleship is because the apostles came up with these
qualifications in Acts 1 that he didn't meet. But Jesus didn't come up
with those qualifications. We don't see Jesus telling them, hey I want you to
choose somebody else and here's the qualifications. We're just told that's
something they did. Jesus just appears to Saul on the road to Tarsus and
tells him someone's gonna come preach the gospel to you, and I'm gonna make
you an apostle, and he chose him. So you say, well okay pastor, what do
you think makes somebody an apostle? Well it seems to me, and this is my
thought, that the true qualification, and by the way let me just say this, the
reason that Baptists, we like the qualifications in Acts 1 is because
we don't like all these charismatic Pentecostals that want to say that
they're apostles. So we point back at those qualifications and say, well you
don't meet those qualifications. You weren't with Jesus from the baptism of
John and to the ascension of Christ, and I don't have a problem with that.
People do that. I don't have an issue with that. I wouldn't argue with
somebody about that. But what I believe the true qualification of an apostle is
is that they were hand-picked by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Because we saw
in Luke chapter 6, how did the original 12 become the 12? Jesus spent all night
in prayer, and then he came down, and he said, you, you, you, you, not you, you,
he chose the 12. We don't see Jesus saying, well I need you guys to have
been with me, and you're gonna have to be with me until the ascension. He
just chose 12. Why is Paul an apostle? Because he chose 12. Because he chose
Paul. So the original 12 were chosen by Jesus picking them, and the apostle Paul
eventually was chosen. How? By Jesus picking them. Look at verse 1 again.
1 Corinthians 9 verse 1. Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Notice what he says.
Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? See Paul could add himself. He wasn't
with them from the baptism of John until the ascension of Christ, but he
could add to his resume the fact that he was an eyewitness of the
resurrection of Christ because the resurrected glorified Christ appeared
to him on the road to Damascus. So he says, look, have I not seen Jesus Christ
our Lord? It seems to me that the true qualification of an apostle is that
they were chosen by Jesus. Hand chosen, hand picked, personally picked by Jesus.
And by the way, that still goes against our charismatic Pentecostal
friends because when they want to get up and say, my name is apostle Sandra
or apostle Betty or whatever, it's like, well, number one, there's several problems
with that statement, but one is you weren't chosen by Jesus. Jesus chose the
apostles. Go to Matthew chapter 19. You say, well, why didn't God get
mad and angry with the qualifications in Acts chapter 1, you know, when Matthias
became an apostle? You know, here's the thing, remember there's more than 12
apostles. There's the 12, the chief apostles, but then there's more than
those 12 apostles and I think that it wasn't really that big of a deal
because Matthias could be called an apostle. He just wasn't one of the 12.
He was one of the bigger group, one of the 70 or whatever. Now you say, well, Pastor
Amanda, it seems like you're making a big deal about this. Why is it a big
deal? And here's the honest truth, it's really not a big deal. The only reason
that I even take the time to kind of talk about it is because I want you
to understand this. Remember when we talked about the 12, the chief 12, the
main 12, the 12 apostles? Well, here's where it does matter is because the
12 will receive special recognition for all of eternity. They will receive
special recognition during the millennial reign and this is where the
question of who are the 12 matters. Matthew 19 verse 28 and it's not a big
doctrinal issue, not something we would fight someone over, it's just
something interesting to consider. Matthew 19, look at verse 28. Matthew 19
verse 28, the Bible says, and Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, the,
excuse me, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, the
regeneration is referring to the resurrection when the rapture happens,
when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye, talking to
12 apostles, shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So
here we're told that the 12 apostles, because remember, during the
millennial reign we're gonna rule and reign with Christ. Believers based off
what they did and what they accomplished during their life at the judgment seat
of Christ are gonna be rewarded with ruling and reigning with Christ and
part of that reward is that you will be put in a position of authority
during the millennial reign, you know, and what that is, we don't know.
Obviously, nobody knows. I'm hoping I get to be the king of Sacramento and then,
you know, I'm gonna headquarter myself in our old building, but, you know, I don't
know, you know, what that means and all of that, but here's what
we do know, the 12 apostles are gonna rule over the 12 tribes of Israel. Not
only that, go to Revelation 21, Revelation chapter 21, look at verse 14.
Revelation 21, 14, and the wall of the city, Revelation 21, 14, the wall of the
city, and the city being referred to here is New Jerusalem coming down from
heaven, the capital city of eternity, and the wall of the city had 12
foundations and in them, notice, the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. So the 12
apostles' names are going to be on the 12 foundations of New Jerusalem. The
12 apostles are gonna say on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So the
question is, who are the 12? Now the name, you know, you might, you might
think, you might see the New Jerusalem coming down and the foundations and the
names of the apostles there and you might read it and it might say something
like this, now the names of the 12 apostles are these, Simon, who's called
Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother,
Philip and Bartholomew, Lebaeus, his surname was Thaddeus, you know, it's
gonna have Simon the Canaanite, it's not gonna have, it'll have Matthew the
publican, it's not gonna have Judas Iscariot. The question is, who's that
12 name gonna be? Is it gonna be Matthias? I think it's gonna be Paul. I mean if I
had to take a guess, I would say the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, the
guy who brought the gospel to the Gentile world, the guy who was hand
picked by the Lord Jesus Christ, where Jesus made a special appearance after
his ascension and picked him and said you're gonna be a puzzle, I got a
feeling that he's gonna be the one on that throne, not Matthias, nothing
against Matthias, I got a feeling that his name is gonna be the one in that
foundation, not Matthias, nothing against Matthias. So I just want you to
understand so you're not confused by what the Bible is saying here. There
are 12 apostles but there are more than 12 apostles. There are chief
apostles, and also it's just good for you to understand when you say the
Bible that just because you read something, that someone is doing
something, does not necessarily make it right. I don't think it was wrong, like
I don't think it was wicked or sinful, but I think that Jesus just had
a different idea. It's not gonna be Matthias, it's going to be the Apostle
Paul. Go to Philippians real quickly, Philippians chapter 4. Matthew, Mark, Luke,
John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
Philippians chapter 4. So we have in this passage these two lessons, prayer
for preparation and a deliberate designation. We see that Jesus chose the
12, but before he chose the 12, he spent a night in prayer preparing for that
decision. By the way, let me just say this, when Jesus chose Judas, he knew
that Judas was an unbeliever. He chose him and put him in that position
because he needed someone in that circle of 12 that would have an
understanding of the inner workings that they would be able to know where
Jesus would be when he needed to be arrested. He needed to have someone
close to him and he chose, he chose him for that reason and I believe that
Jesus also understood that after that he would replace Judas with the
Apostle Paul and he chose the Apostle Paul. So we have the 12, but there's
more than 12, and we have the chief 12 that will receive special
recognition. But the point that I want to make is this, and what's interesting
to me is that the Lord Jesus Christ spent time in prayer before a big
decision, before a major move in his life. And look, and we can learn from
Jesus, if you've got a big decision, you're getting married or you're
getting taken on a new job or you're thinking about moving or you're
thinking about just some major task or major decision in your life, spend time
in prayer. Spend time, if the Lord Jesus Christ spent time in prayer to God
the Father, then you and I need to spend time in prayer as well. Look at
Philippians chapter 4, we'll finish up. Look at verse 6, Philippians chapter 4 and
verse 6. The Bible says, be careful for nothing. The word careful there
means to be anxious, worried. Be careful for nothing, but in everything
notice by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be
known unto God. You and I get to bring our burdens to God. Whatever you're
worried about, whatever you're anxious about, whatever you're just not sure
how is this gonna play out, what's gonna happen here, we get to bring that
to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer. So don't
just miss this because it's easy to see this and think, oh just spent all night in
prayer then he chose the 12. No, we have Jesus the Son of God, God in the flesh
having to make a decision and he said, I'm gonna pray about this. I'm gonna
pray about this and if he had to pray, I'm sure there's things that you need
to pray about. I know there's things I need to pray about and we should
learn to spend time in prayer to God. That's why I had to have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for your word and thank you for this example from
the Lord Jesus Christ. I just know this, if Jesus had to pray then
I got to pray and if Jesus needed direction in prayer and strength in
prayer then we all need direction in prayer and strength in prayer and help
us Lord to make those decisions right before he launched his ministry,
right before he went to the cross. These were times, seasons in his life
that he spent time in prayer and help us to learn that. The lesson of
prayer and Lord thank you for giving us just examples in the Bible about these
these men, these apostles that were sent out, the chief and also the rest that
were used of you. Lord I pray that you would help us not to take on
that title but help us to take on that spirit to be not only disciples
but to be sent ones, soul winners that would go out and preach the gospel.
Help us to be a church filled with soul winners that we might have a
soul winning army that you would use to preach the Word of God and the
highways and hedges. Lord we love you. In the matchless name of Christ we pray. Amen.
Now brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song. Just want to remind you
of course Wednesday night, don't miss it, is our Lord's Supper so make sure
you are here for that. Try not to be late. Try to be here on time because if
you've never been here for a Lord's Supper service it's not like a
normal service. It's more of a somber service, more of a serious service so
just come ready and prepared. Be looking for that text message with the
link that we're gonna give you tomorrow. If we don't have your phone
number write it down on a communication card and hand it to me or hand it to
one of the staff guys and we'll add you so you can get that link. We got
the Lord's Supper Thursday, Friday, soul winning 6 p.m. Sunday, excuse me
Saturday 10 a.m. big soul winning push and then of course Easter. Make sure
you're here for Easter. Invite someone to Easter and I would ask you be in
prayer all this week. Maybe spend extra time in prayer this week for all
these events and all these things coming up. We appreciate you. If there's
anything we can do for you please let us know. We'll have brother RJ come up
and lead us at this time. Amen. Let's grab our song books and turn to page
number 281.
Song number 281.
Song number 281. Let's sing it out on the first.
Let's sing it out on the first.
Sing it out on the first.
Sing it out on the last.
Wow the spring of all my comfort.
What a night to me.
Who have I over beside me?
You won't love me.
Save your sin.
Hear my humble cry.
While on others thou art gone.
Do not pass me by.
Great singing.
Father God, thank you for the sermon.
Please let it identify us.
We'll be back on Wednesday for the union.
And we'll watch the opening effort and all that this weekend.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
Amen.