And Scott, I forgot to mention during the announcements, lost and found item or multiple items actually during our Sabbath school class last Sabbath, the children made some nice little candle holders here. And a lot of these were left in the room. I think everybody rushed out of there as soon as word got out that the chili was ready. So there are about 10 of these that were left in there.
If you would like to retrieve those that your children made last week, please come up and see Connie afterwards. We have a box up here with all of those in there, so I'm sure that kids would like to retrieve those. And now we'll get on with our study.
I have a fairly long title, as you can see here. Jesus chooses Peter, Andrew, James and John. Heals a possessed man and teaches with authority. We're going to try to cover a fair amount of territory in our message today, continuing in our study of the Gospels.
We will discuss several incidents that take place immediately after, or a short while after Jesus moves to Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It makes that the center of his ministry. We talked last time quite a bit about why he chose Capernaum. It came to better understand the background and the culture of the peoples around that area, and why he chose that. Why that would have been an ideal place, both from prophecy and from practicality, why Capernaum was his best option as the center of his ministry there in Galilee.
So we now come to a portion of Scripture that some people think is a contradiction. And it's really not. We'll be on page 17 of our Harmony of the Gospels today on the bottom half of that page. So we'll begin reading here. Some people think that this is a contradiction with what we read considerably earlier, quite a while back in this series, on page 12 of the Harmony, which covers John 1 and verses 35 through 51. And there we saw that two of the disciples of John the Baptizer were Andrew, the brother of Peter, and John, the apostle John.
And although John isn't specifically named there because he's the one writing the account, some of the details make it clear that he is the other disciple who is talked about there, who becomes one of the earlier followers of Jesus. And Andrew and John start following Jesus then, and Peter and Jesus also invites Peter, Simon Peter, and also Philip and Nathaniel to follow him.
We read about that again page 12 of the Harmony, discussing John 1 verses 35 through 51. Now we tend to assume, as I did for a long time, that Jesus called all 12 of the disciples or the apostles within a relatively short time, maybe a few days or a few weeks apart. But again, that is just an assumption, and it's an incorrect assumption, as we'll see today. Because we'll soon see that Jesus starts calling others who have not been mentioned yet.
We should also note that we aren't even told who all of Christ's disciples were. Think about that for a minute. We tend to equate disciples equals apostles. As we'll see in a few verses here, that is simply not correct. Jesus had many more disciples than he had apostles. Most of these disciples simply are not named. We don't know who they were. And I'll prove that to you in just a minute here.
So again, a concept I've talked about before, disciples in Hebrew, in the language they would have been using, Hebrew or Aramaic, Talmadim is the word. So I'll use disciples and Talmadim interchangeably here. Talmadim are those who were followers of someone. They weren't students, as we would normally think of, of disciples, but people who wanted to become just like the rabbi they were following in every way. They didn't want to just know what the rabbi knew. They wanted to become like the rabbi in every way.
And that was the whole point of this system. I didn't discuss this, but this is actually another reason why Jesus chose to settle in Galilee and conduct his ministry there. That is where this system of rabbis and students existed. That did not exist down in Judea, around Jerusalem. So let's pick it up now and look at proof that there were more disciples and there were apostles. We'll begin reading in Luke 6 verses 12 through 16.
And it says here, now, it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And this is where Jesus is going to choose his 12 apostles. And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself. And notice this wording, and from them, from the disciples, he chose 12, whom he also named apostles. So what this is telling us clearly is he has a group of disciples, and from that group, he chooses out 12 who are going to be apostles. And then it goes on to name them Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John the brothers, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, called the zealot.
We talked about him quite a bit last time with the zealot movement in Galilee, actually the last two times. Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor. So we see here that the 12 apostles were chosen from a larger group of Talmadim, or disciples. How many? We don't know. We'll be coming to this in the Gospels later on, but in Luke 10 we read that at one point Jesus sent out how many people to teach the Gospel?
Sent out 70. Those 70 aren't named. Presumably they would include these 12. We would certainly assume that to be the case, but we just don't know. We also know that at a later point many who had followed him turned away and stopped following Jesus because of some of the hard things that he said. They just couldn't handle it, couldn't process some of his teaching, so they abandoned him and walked away from that calling. So clearly there were more than just the 12 that Jesus chooses to be apostles.
And apostles discussed before is a word that simply means messengers. We see some more proof of what I've just talked about here in Acts 1, where, to pick up on the story a little bit, the apostles choose someone to replace Judas, the betrayer who went out and hanged himself after betraying Jesus, knowing that he had betrayed innocent blood.
They knew that they needed to replace someone so that there would be 12 apostles. So it says in verse 15 of Acts 1, And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, Talmadim. Altogether the number of names was about 120, so here we see there are at least 120 who were called his disciples at Talmadim.
And he said, skipping down to verse 21, Therefore all these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, referring to his ascension from the Mount of Olives there just outside Jerusalem, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they proposed to Joseph, called Bar-Sabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go into his own place. And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
So he becomes the twelfth. So what do we see right here? We see that there were at least two others who had been with the twelve from the beginning of Christ's ministry. But these two, and there were obviously others because they chose these two out from a larger group, there were obviously others who had been with Jesus, but yet who were never named in the Gospels. We just simply do not know. So they narrow the candidates, you might say, down to these two and then cast lots to choose one to take Judas' place.
Now my point again in mentioning these examples is to show that when we talk about Jesus' disciples, or his Talmadim there, that they were a larger group. And perhaps I gather from the Gospels a somewhat fluid group.
In other words, there are some who are following at one time, some who leave and drift away for whatever reason, and then others who come in and follow him as well. So there's some coming and going among these disciples, these Talmadim, and from this larger group, a somewhat fluid group, Jesus does choose 12 who will be called apostles. And as we know from prophecy, we'll be ruling over the 12 tribes in the kingdom of God. We know that later. So let's keep that somewhat fluid background in mind and this information that we've just talked about as we look at this next section here on the bottom half of page 17.
Now between the events that were recorded back in John 1, going back to page 12, and those we come to now, it's possible that as much as a year or so has passed. And what we've covered so far, a lot has happened. Let's just notice a few of the things that have happened that indicate that a fair amount of time has passed from when Jesus first invited Peter and John and Andrew and others to follow Him. So what are some of the things that have happened? You don't have to write these down, but this is just to help cement in our minds that a lot has gone on.
A lot of things that took a fair amount of time. First, and this is in order that they're listed in the Harmony, first Jesus traveled to Cana and Galilee and turned water into wine. That was a miracle there at a wedding. After this, He traveled to Capernaum with his family and those first disciples whom He had called. Maybe He's just scoping out Capernaum, checking it out, something like that. The reasons aren't given, just that He went there. Next, He goes to Jerusalem at the Passover in Days of Unleavened Bread, and He overturns the Money Changers Temple there, creates some early enemies to His ministry.
During that same Passover feast, He met with Nicodemus and talked about what it means to be born again. All of these things we've covered in our previous classes here. He stays in Judea for a while with His disciples baptizing people there. After this, we find that John the Baptizer is imprisoned, and Jesus leaves Judea, recognizing the danger to Himself. What might happen to Him?
He travels up through Samaria. There's the incident of the Woman at the Well there. We spend a fair amount of time covering. Then He stays after that and teaches for several days. Then they're in the town of Sychar, a modern-day or ancient-namely named Shechem there. After this, He goes on to Galilee and begins teaching in various synagogues. We're not told where, just that He traveled around Galilee teaching there. In Cana, He performs another miracle, the healing of the Son of a royal official who lives in Capernaum. This is a long-distance healing. He's about 20-25 miles from the royal official who leaves his dying Son there in Capernaum, travels up to Cana, and Jesus says, Your Son is healed. He healed Him long-distance over 20-25 miles. After that, He returns to His hometown of Nazareth. He obviously spends some time there with His family. But then He's rejected at the Nazareth synagogue and almost stoned to death there. Then, finally, to catch us up, He moves to Capernaum as the center of His ministry. What we see from all of these different events here, these had to take at least a minimum of several months' time. Again, perhaps probably around a year, I would estimate for this. So were these same disciples that we read about earlier in John 1, namely Peter, Andrew, John, Philip, and Nathaniel, with Him all of this time, through all of these different events? Well, obviously not, as we'll see here. We do know that at least those five, possibly others, along the way started following Him shortly after Jesus is baptized down in Judea near the Dead Sea, not far from where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea, as we saw earlier. But then He returns back to Galilee. He seems to have spent considerable time with His family, going to the wedding feast at Canagh, going back to Nazareth there, and preaching in the synagogue there. And apparently during this time when He is back up in Galilee, some of His earlier followers, Peter, Andrew, and John specifically, apparently took some time off to go back to their livelihoods as fishermen. Perhaps Jesus wants some privacy to spend with His family, a fairly large family, six brothers and sisters that we know of at least. So what do they do? They take time off and go back to their livelihoods as fishermen. They're on the Sea of Galilee. Incidentally, what did they do several years later after Jesus Christ is crucified, after their leader is gone? What do they do? Same thing. They go back to fishing. They go back to what they knew how to do. They go back to fishing there. So their leader is gone, and they say, okay, I guess it's time. This is over, so time to go back to fishing.
That was the second time that they do this, go back to fishing after Christ's crucifixion. What's going on here? Why? If these men are supposed to be dedicating their lives to following Jesus Christ and becoming like Him in every way, what does this mean? Why would they leave Him for a while and go back to their occupation as fishermen? Well, I think the simple answer is just that these men were simply not converted yet. They're not converted yet. It appears that they were, you might say, more or less part-time disciples when Jesus initially invited them to follow Him shortly after He's baptized by John.
Actually, maybe it was like that for a number of us when we were first called. Maybe our individual calling and our level of commitment came in fits and starts. You might say, kind of like trying to get your car going on a cold morning. It'll go and stop and start and so on. And it's that way for some people whom God calls. It just doesn't click at once. Sometimes may take weeks, may take months, may take years of fits and starts to really get going. I see that quite regularly among people who come into contact with God's truth. People will see, they'll recognize the truth, they know it's the truth, they know what's what they ought to be doing, they read it right there in God's Word. They realize they need to commit to following it, but it's not easy. It's not an easy road. There are tough choices that people have to make.
Eventually, it either takes with people or it doesn't, and they drift away. But now, at this point in the story with Peter, Andrew, James and John, it's really serious. Because now it's time to make a choice. It's time to not waver in that commitment any longer. Now Jesus, as we'll see in the text, is calling them to leave everything and follow Him. Leave everything and follow Him. Now it's decision time, and it's all or nothing. That sets the stage for what we begin reading here in the bottom part of page 17. We'll pick up the story here. I'll read from Mark. Mark's account. Mark has a few more details than Matthew. So rather than read them both, since they're both nearly identical, I'll just read Mark's. Mark 1, verses 16 through 20. And as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, follow me, that is the invitation to become His disciples, His Talmadim, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed Him. And continuing in verse 19, and when He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James, that would be Jacob or Yaakov, and in Hebrew he would have been called the son of Zebedee, and John or Yohanan in Hebrew, his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him. Now the harmony of the Gospels that I patterned this one after, and there are actually several different ones out there commercially available, I created this one because I couldn't find a new King James version and felt that was the best Bible version for us to use. So there are others, King James version, NIV, several other translations. So this isn't the only harmony, there are others that will differ. But most of them put these events side by side, as we're looking at here on page 17, but some of them don't. Some of them think that there is talking about two different incidences, that Matthew and Mark are talking about the same thing, but Luke is describing something that happened at a different time, but which took place at essentially the same time. So let's read Luke's account now, Luke 5 verses 1 through 11. And so it was, as the multitude pressed about Jesus to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, that's another name for Sea of Galilee. Gennesaret was a town and a small area on the shore, so it's sometimes called Gennesaret as well, and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon, Simon Peter's, and asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. And here's actually a photograph taken in the late 1800s. This has been hand-tinted. So this is 120, 130, maybe 150 years old, something like that, showing some fishermen on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Again, things change very slowly in that part of the world. This would have been typical of the type of fishing boat. It's been used there for 2,000 years, so this kind of helps us visualize what is being talked about here. They say that these boats, you can see from the size, had room for about 12 people with one person outside the boat walking.
That's a joke. You're supposed to laugh at that.
Maybe you haven't had your second cup of coffee here.
That's what our guide told us in Israel, showing us one of these boats. Yeah, room for 12 and one outside walking. That was the model for the day. What we see here is Jesus gets into one of these fishing boats, pulls out a little ways from the shore because there are so many people around him that they can't all hear Him. Why, then, does Jesus get in Peter's boat and tell him to go out a little distance from the shore? Then he sits down in the boat and starts teaching them.
That sounds odd to us, but actually if you've spent any time in a boat over water, and it's a calm day and the water is still, it's amazing how much further sound carries over water. Maybe you've experienced that before. I know my dad was a big fisherman. I go out with him sometimes, and it was amazing how far sound could travel hundreds of yards over the water there. So what Jesus is doing is taking advantage of that to amplify his voice, and instead of maybe 200 people who can hear him, by moving the boat out a little ways from the shore, now maybe 500 or 1000 people can hear his voice there because of the way the voice would carry over the water here.
Jesus has this large crowd surrounding him. He notices the boats and gets into Peter's boat and asks him to bro out so the people can hear him better. So Peter does this until Jesus finishes teaching. Then Jesus tells Peter to do something. Continuing the story here.
When Jesus had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to him, Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.
Nevertheless, at your word I will let down the net. Now we see an interesting detail, several interesting details here, but when had Peter and his fellow fishermen been fishing? What time of day? It says here they'd been fishing at night, fishing all night, and they didn't catch anything. So they brought their boats into the shore the next morning. Here's an illustration of what this would have looked like. They bring their boats in, they take the wet nets, and they lay them out along the shore so the sun will dry them. Why do you do that? Well, because wet nets, if you leave them wadded up or piled up while they're wet, what will happen? They'll start rotting there. It will weaken the nets. You need to spread them out, dry them out, make any repairs, any tears, any nicks in the net. That sort of thing. So that's what they're doing there. They've hauled their nets out. They're drying them, repairing them, and letting the nets dry.
So this is what is going on. Now, why were they fishing at night here? Anybody ever fished at night? Okay, a few of you. Okay, good. But probably not with a net, though, I'm assuming. Not like this.
I'll give you a hint as to why they're fishing at night. And that is, what color are their nets?
What are their nets made of? Their nets are made out of linen.
Linen fibers. What color is linen? White. White, or at least light colored. I mean, it'll obviously get a little dingy with age here. But this is... Here's a photograph of nets that have been used there. And you can see they're light or an off-white, cream-colored there. So what happens if you're fishing in the day with a net like this?
The fish see the nets and they swim away. So why are they fishing at night?
Fishing at night because the fish can't see the net. And you can scoop them up and bring them in. That's why they're fishing at night there. It's one of those little details that we don't think about. But that's what's going on here. So the fishermen at night can sneak up on the fish and catch them. Whereas if you're fishing with these light-colored nets in the daytime, the fish see the nets coming toward them and they just swim out of the wing and escape there. So Jesus tells Peter to drop the nets anyway, even though he's been out there teaching in this boat in the middle of the day. So at some time mid-day, we don't know exactly what time, but it's broad daylight now.
And Peter kind of disagrees. He says, Master, we've worked all night and didn't catch anything. But nevertheless, at your word, I'll do what you say and I'll lower the nets here. So he does this out of respect for Jesus. And even though he knows that there's no way this is going to work, because the fish are just going to swim away. It's just a wasted effort as far as Peter is concerned. So continuing then in verse 6, here what happens? And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat. These are probably James and John. We don't know for sure. Probably they're over in their other boat still on the shore there to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. So the net has been lowered from the one boat, but it's caught so many fish that they can't haul it up. So they bring out the other boat. And even between the two of them, the net is so full of fish that both of the boats are starting to sink from the weight of all the fish. So what is the miracle? That's one of the study questions I sent out last night. Well, it's a miracle on several different levels. First of all, to catch anything in the daytime with these light-colored linen nets is something of a miracle because normally the fish would have seen the nets and swum away. But to catch so many fish under these conditions in the broad daylight is also a miracle. To catch that many, clearly it was unexpected. Peter almost lost his boat over this and James and John as well. So it's such a great miracle that they run the risk of losing both of the boats there, sinking from the weight of all the fish. So that is why Peter reacts as he does in the next verse in verse 8. Peter sees something he's never seen before. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knee, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And why does Peter have this reaction? Well, again, put yourself in his sandals. What is Peter's occupation? What's he been doing all his life? He's been a fisherman all his life. That's his expertise. He knows this Sea of Galilee like the back of his hands. He knows all the good fishing spots, all the good fishing holes. He's fished all night and he's caught nothing.
And here it is, middle of the day, getting on noonish, thereabouts. And what does Peter want to do? He's been working all night. The only thing Peter wants to do is go home, get a few hours of sack time, because he's got to get up at dark and go out and do the same thing again. So that's what is in his mind. And then he has this rabbi, this stonemason, as we've talked about before, who knows nothing about fishing and tells him to drop his nets here in the middle of the day, when you never catch anything out on the Sea of Galilee. And what happens? Peter gets the biggest haul of fish in his life. Biggest haul of fish he's ever seen. And his immediate reaction is, I'm out of my league here. I'm way out of my league here. Surely this is no ordinary rabbi.
And he knows that a miracle is taking place. And he also knows that if Jesus can do this and can get a kind of haul of fish, it might have normally taken several weeks to catch that many fish on the lake. What else can he do? He says, depart from me, Lord, get away from me, Master. I'm too much of a sinner to be around you. Here Peter's been a fisherman all his life, and yet he's been outfished by somebody who had never gone fishing in his life. This is Peter's expertise. And he's just been outdone by somebody who knows nothing about fishing. And he's blown away. And all he can say is he doesn't even deserve to be in the presence of someone like Jesus.
So he says, go away from me, Master. I'm too much of a sinner to be around you. And then Luke goes on to explain what has happened for he, and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Apparently they were the ones in the other boat, business. Apparently they had some kind of business arrangement with Peter and Andrew. There is fishermen.
And Jesus said to Simon, Peter, do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.
So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.
So now, as it says here, they do forsake everything. Now the die is cast. Now the decision is final. Yes, now there's no more part-time discipling. Now they are in it for the long haul. They give up everything. Forsake everything to follow this rabbi.
Now they are in it all the way. And as we'll see later, Peter and James and John become the three disciples, the three Talmadim, who you might say are Jesus' inner core. Clearly, as we'll see in the Gospels, those three whom Jesus is much closer to. They are the ones when he has the transfiguration on the Mount. Those are the three he takes with him. Those are the three who are with him at Gethsemane in his final night on earth. So he did have clearly an inner circle of disciples whom he felt more comfortable with, confided in more. So how then do we reconcile these two accounts? We have Matthew and Mark, who seem to be describing one thing, and Luke describing something else. Well, I think there are two possible valid explanations, or maybe more. One is simply that they are two different events. And again, some harmonies present it that way, that it's two entirely different events. And that is quite possible, considering there are some clear differences there. It's also possible that Luke's account actually happens first.
And then Matthew and Mark are just giving us the overview of it. They don't go into all of the details of the story, so they're just giving us a broad overview and speaking in general terms. Something like that Jesus is on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and he meets up with Peter and Andrew, who have been fishing and by casting nets into the sea. And then they leave out all the detail that Luke includes here. And then they just summarize it with the end result that Jesus tells Peter and Andrew and then James and John to follow him as his disciples. And then they all leave everything to follow him, including Zebedee, James and John's father, and the hired servants and boats. And then they follow Jesus for the duration of his ministry. Now, I'm not sure which of these two explanations I would say is best or most accurate. The bottom line, frankly, is that with both explanations we end up in the same place, which is with Peter, Andrew, James and John forsaking everything to follow Jesus full time as his disciples. And that's the key point that all three of the writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are making here about that. So you can take your pick among those two explanations, or maybe others as well. But I don't really see it as a conflict here, although some people will say, yes, this is a big contradiction. But either it is describing two separate events, or Mark and Matthew are just giving us the overview, and Luke is giving us the more detailed version of the story. So, any questions here? We're about to shift gears and discuss something else. So I'll do this periodically going through this. Some question times, anything's not clear here. So, okay, if not, we'll go on and let's talk and consider for a moment the individuals whom Jesus has called here. We don't know much about most of the apostles, but we do see here quite a bit about Peter, Andrew, James and John, that a third of the apostles whom Jesus calls are fishermen by trade. What kind of people does God call?
And we have this hymn that we sing about from time to time, 1 Corinthians 1, 26 through 29, that God doesn't call many wise, many noble, many mighty people.
As Paul wrote, for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. So the men that Jesus chooses to be His disciples, to take His message to the world, aren't the great thinkers. They're not the very wealthy people. They're not the socially powerful, not the mighty, not the connected, well-connected people, that sort of thing. They're just simply working people. They're salt of the earth, as the term goes. So these are the people whom God chooses to work with, for the most part. And why does He do it that way? Well, He does it that none of us should think that we are all that great, or all that mighty, or that God needs us, or to glory in His presence, as it says here. God deserves all the credit. God deserves it because He's the one doing the work. Our job is simply to humble ourselves and to submit to Him so that He will be able to work with us and through us, and to get ourselves out of the way, to be blunt about it. Not be so interested in doing our own thing, but to let us be a tool that God can use. And if we do that, if that is our attitude, then God can use us. And He can do great things through us, as we see He did with these common fishermen.
Transform the world with these 12 men. The saying goes, who would have sunk it?
There. But those are the people God calls. Those are the ones He uses here. One of the study questions I sent out was, what are some of the qualities of fisher men or fisher women that would make them useful to God as fishers of men?
Any of you come up with what kind of traits would be helpful for that?
What kind of traits are the... And I know we have some fishermen here, fisher women too, but yeah, what are some of the traits that helps you to be a good fisherman that God can use? Yes, Tony? Yes, a lot of patience. Definitely a lot of patience. That's probably the biggest thing.
I know my dad, when I was a kid growing up, my dad, every weekend, loved fishing, bass fishing, so he would go out fishing all day. A couple of times he invited me, and I was too fidgety, it just never worked. But, you know, as I tell people, once he outlawed dynamite for fishing, he just took all the fun out of it. So I never got into fishing. I just lacked the patience for it there. But it does take patience. It does take patience when God is working with us and when God is working through us to help and influence other people. It takes patience to plant seed and wait for it to grow. It takes patience to teach people and to help them to wait for those efforts to bear fruit. So yeah, patience is very, very, very key for that. Let's see, Elmer, you had your hand up. Same thing? Perseverance. Yeah, very good. Yeah, perseverance. Stick to it. When the fish aren't biting, yeah, stick to it. You just gotta hang in there. And that's a very useful trait for us as well as Christians. We are told many times not to get discouraged. Don't give up, but persevere. Hang in there. One of the seven laws of success there. Have to hang in there and keep trying. Yes, hand down here. Yeah, not afraid of getting dirty and stinky because you run into that sometimes working with people. Yeah, people aren't always what you would like them to be or what they would like to be, and yet we have to take what God gives us to work with and to help there. So yeah, very good one. Let's see, Scott, you had your hand up. Faith and things that are unseen. Yeah, that's a good one because you don't... Well, if the stream is clear enough, I guess you can see the trout there, but a lot of times when you're fishing, yeah, you can't tell where they are. So faith and things that are unseen. Yeah, good one. Yeah, Sheila, you had your hand up. Yes. Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, it's hard work. It's nasty. It's sometimes dangerous. Yeah, some of these TV shows like Deadliest Catch, the different variations of that or so on. So yeah, one thing I put on my list was Courage there. I think that's what you're talking about, Courage, because as we'll see in the Gospels on the Sea of Galilee, it's a fairly small, about 8 by 12 miles, and winds would come in off this plateau and sink down in there, and storms could just arise in a matter of a few minutes. And if you're out in your little rowboat on the middle of this lake, it was dangerous. And there are times when we'll read later, they're caught in storms and they think they're all going to drown there. So it took us a certain amount of courage there to work with that and deal with that. And it takes courage to follow God. We see what's the story of the Bible. I mean, boy, just about every biblical figure you can read about experienced real hardship. Isaiah saw one in half. Daniel, thrown into the lion's den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, thrown into the fiery furnace. All of the apostles, with the possible exception of John, martyred for their beliefs. Paul beheaded there. It's not an easy life. It takes courage to follow God, to do what He says to do. Yes, Bill?
Since you were bait-sized, huh?
Yeah, Bill's comment that when you're out there fishing, you know, all by yourself, it's just so peaceful and calm. And I think it's why a lot of people enjoy it there, especially here in Colorado, some of the beautiful scenery, the lakes and rivers and things like that. So yeah, it's time to think, to meditate to.
Yeah, just enjoy being there. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, drowning a few worms. But hey, apart from that, let's see, what's the bumper sticker? You know, the worst day fishing beats the best day at work or something like that. So yeah, those of you who are fishermen can probably identify. Yeah, Josh? How long does it take you to cast a net?
Right. Right. Yeah, Josh's point that, yeah, you don't know what you're going to catch, if anything. You do your part, you do the effort, you drop your hook, you drop your net, but God's the one who does the calling. He's the one who ultimately does it. So we need to do our part there in that. And any other thoughts or comments about that?
Oh, jot down a couple more. Yeah, this is great. You came up with a number of them I hadn't thought about. I'll go through a few of them and bring up one or two more that I came up with. Knowing when the moment is right. You know, you study a good fisherman knows the patterns of fish, what they're doing when, and so on. When is the best time. And sometimes the fish just plain aren't body. And in spite of persevering, just it's time to hang it up and go do something else. Sometimes people are receptive to God's truth, and sometimes they're hostile to it. Sometimes God's truth will will move people, and sometimes it just doesn't affect them at all. So knowing when the moment is right is helpful for fishermen and for fishers of men. Another final one that I thought of here on my list was knowing what bait to use there. Because I know from my dad's experience, and others I've talked to, sometimes fish will bite like crazy on one type of bait and totally ignore other kinds. The next day you can go out and use the one that worked great that day.
And they know they're biting on something else that day. So knowing what type of bait to use.
In other words, an approach that works one time or with one people. We regularly have meetings for media discussions and so on, and how to best reach people and themes and topics and that kind of thing. And some people are receptive to one approach or one topic or subject or even method. And many of us here, baby boomers, grew up on TV and radio and so on. And that was the way you reach people then. Now we have many people and they get all of their information on their cell phones, on their smartphones. And if it's not on their smartphone, it might as well not exist. Because they're just not going to see it anywhere else. It's where they get all of their information. So you have to know what kind of bait to use, what kind of net to use. You might net or hook, you might say, as well. So people have different interests, different questions, different motivations there. So to be useful to God, it's helpful to know all of these things. So any other thoughts or comments about that before we move on? Yes, Faye?
Very, very good. Yes, training and experience. Yeah, a novice fisherman is probably not going to do all that well out there. It helps to apprentice to someone else. And that was the system back there. They would, the fishermen would learn the trait from their fathers, from their father. You would become whatever your father was, whether it's a farmer, a rancher, leatherworker, metalsmith, blacksmith, fisherman, whatever. That was the trait you learned. And that's what you passed on to your children for years. And that's how you became good at it. There, obviously, and that's what's so surprising to Peter here, when this rabbi from Nazareth, this stone mason, comes up and tells him where to fish and to drop his nets. And he's just blown away because this guy doesn't know anything about fishing. I know everything about fishing. I've been doing it all my life. That's one of the most surprising things. I think that's part of Peter's vociferous reaction there. He says, get away from me, Lord. I'm not worthy to be in your presence so yes, training is very good for that too. Yes, Tracy?
I sure hadn't thought, yeah, when you catch them, you have to clean them. So that's interesting. Yes, when God calls people, yeah, they've got to be cleaned up. Not necessarily gutted, but cleaned up. Certainly washed and, well, actually, in a way they do have to be gutted because they've got to get rid of the old self and be replaced with the new person, the new man, or the new woman.
They're through repentance and baptism and so on. So yeah, excellent, excellent point. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, very good one. So, okay, well, we'll go ahead and transition now to the next part. Hopefully we're going to get through about a whole page's worth of material here. Let's turn to the top of page 18 and continue reading with what happens next. Mark and Luke give very similar accounts here. So since Mark's is very slightly more detailed, we'll read from his account. So Mark 1 verses 21 through 28. Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught. I showed you this photo last time. I showed several photos of Capernaum, including the synagogue. If you go there, it's very obvious. It's the biggest, most dominant thing in the ruins of Capernaum. This particular synagogue dates to 300s to 400s AD. It's not the synagogue that Jesus taught in. A lot of people get confused about that. However, it sits on the exact foundation, which is a totally different type of stone from this limestone here. It sits right on the foundation of the synagogue that Jesus would have taught in in the first century there. You can see it's very large. It would have accommodated several hundred people. It has benches along the sides, behind the columns, which you can see here. You can see a little bit off here. People would have been seated along those benches. The person speaking would have probably been either up here or in the middle of the floor. People sitting on mats filling in all of this area. They didn't have nice folding chairs like we do today. This gives you some idea of the synagogue where this event that we are talking about looks like. The synagogue of Jesus Day probably followed the same architecture, but again, it's buried underneath this. You can actually see when they laid the foundation of this, you can see the foundation stones of the earlier one from Christ Day. They just line up perfectly there. We know Christ's synagogue that he taught in was the same size as this particular one here. Capernaum is a rather remarkable place because you know in standing and walking around places like this that, yes, this is exactly where Jesus walked. This is some of what he saw on the streets and some of the same buildings there in Capernaum.
Continuing on, verse 22. He went into the synagogue and he taught, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. We'll get back to this phrase in a few minutes here, but I want to finish off this story first.
There was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone! What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Verse 25. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him, and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. Immediately Jesus' fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.
This is our first encounter in the Gospels with demons, or as it says here, unclean spirits.
Other Bible versions might translate this as devils, depending on the translation you read.
Demons are very real beings. I've personally never encountered one that I was absolutely sure of, although I've had my suspicions a few times about individuals I've encountered.
They're not something that you want to encounter, believe me. And I won't talk about them much today, because to be blunt, the experiences I've heard talking with other elders and other pastors is that if you discuss the topic of demons with people much, some people will start, frankly, obsessing on the topic. And before long, just by talking about the subject, people start thinking about it and obsessing on it and wondering if I'm having demon problems. And before long, sure enough, they do end up having demon problems. So for that reason, I find that it's best to not address the subject publicly, not talk about it, and just keep that subject far out of our mind. So when we do encounter this, and we will from time to time, I'll discuss it without a whole lot of comment. What are demons? I know we have several people fairly new here, so I'll cover a few scriptures about this. There are... demons are angels who joined with Satan in his rebellion against God. I won't project this, but you can write down Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are two chapters that describe Satan's rebellion against God, where he's called Lucifer in one of the accounts, and he says, I will ascend above the stars, I will exalt my throne above God, above the Creator. In other words, he wanted to replace God as the rule of the universe. And in that rebellion, I will turn to a couple of scriptures here, Revelation 12, which is specifically pertaining to the demons. We see here, another sign appeared in heaven, Behold, a great fiery red dragon. This we know from other scriptures is Satan the devil, having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
Prophetically, we know from prophecy that stars are symbolic of angels. So his tail draws a third of the angels through them to the earth, where Satan has been cast out of heaven in two.
We see this from Revelation 1 verse 20, that stars are prophetically symbolic of angels, or in this case fallen angels, because they rebel against God and become the demons. This is the origin of them. This is what they are. Revelation 1.20 says, The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, skipping over a bit, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. So we see stars being identified as angels, they are spirit beings.
This is a vision of the dragon, Satan the devil, rebelling against God and bringing with him those angels who joined him in that rebellion. They have become demons. As we'll again see in the Gospels, Jesus does encounter demons quite frequently. I'll also note from having been to the Middle East several times, there do seem to be a lot of demons in the Middle East. To be blunt, that makes sense because the Middle East is a center of God's attention where he is working on his plan, which also makes it a center of attention for Satan the devil and his demonic accomplices there. So we shouldn't be surprised in particular to see Jesus encountering a number of demons in his ministry because you can bet that Satan and his demons are very interested in what Jesus is doing as the Son of God and the Messiah. But of course, Jesus, as we read here, does have the power to order demons out of individuals, to leave the people. His power is far greater than theirs, and they are forced to obey that. So demons are not something we should fear, be apprehensive, or worried about. We do have a much greater power on our side than they do on theirs to be blunt. So any questions about that before we shift gears and touch on another subject here?
Okay. If you do have any questions, by the way, about any of this, feel free to come up and catch me afterwards. In the remainder of our time, I want to talk about a particular word or concept that is used here that very few people understand, including very few Bible scholars, for that matter. But it has a great deal of meaning. It's a word that we'll see several times in the Gospels, and it's translated as authority. Both Matthew and Mark use it here at the top of page 18, as we'll see. Again, to go back to Mark's account, and I'll read this, verse 21, Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. And then it goes on to describe the casting out of the demon. And then it says again at the bottom of this account, then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority, he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. And this is from Mark. If you look across on the other side to Luke, you'll see the same two words used in describing the same events there. This concept of authority, what is this talking about? We have our own concept of authority, and this is talking about something considerably different from that. In the Jewish culture of that time, there was a particular concept that loosely translated as authority, which is the word we see here from Greek translated into English as authority. But the Hebrew word that is underlying this, the Hebrew concept that is underlying this, is something called smeka. Everyone says smeka.
Smeka. It's spelled S-M-I-C-H-A. Occasionally, you'll find other variants of spelling here. It's translated from Hebrew into English, but that's typically the way you would find it spelled. It's a word that doesn't translate well into English because we know what authority means in English. But here it had a particular religious or spiritual meaning, you might say. You could say that it meant spiritual authority, and that would be fairly close to capturing the concept.
Was Jesus a rabbi? I keep referring to Jesus as rabbi and his followers as Talmadim or disciples.
Was he a rabbi? He clearly is. I'll cover a few scriptures for you here. He's widely recognized as a rabbi by a number of different groups of people that he encounters. He's called a rabbi by his disciples. We find that in John 4 and verse 31. In the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat. So he is called rabbi by his disciples. He's called rabbi by Pharisees, or at least some of the Pharisees. John 3 verses 1 and 2. We've already covered this months ago. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, apparently a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, you might say, of the Jewish people at that time. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. So at least some of the Pharisees, Nicodemus is apparently a member of the Sanhedrin as well, also recognized that Jesus was a rabbi.
Another group, the Sadducees, acknowledged that he was a rabbi. Then some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him, saying, Teacher, and as I talked about in a sermon about a couple of years ago, Rabbi means, can be translated either teacher, master, Lord. All of these are encompassed in the word rabbi there. So it could be translated just as well, teacher, master, or Lord, any of those, or rabbi, as we'll see. So this is essentially what they're saying, rabbi. Moses wrote to us, and then goes on with a theological point there, which we'll discuss this in coming months as well.
So Sadducees also acknowledged him as a rabbi. Some of the lawyers there also recognized him as a rabbi. Matthew 20, 35 through 36, then one of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question, testing him and saying, Teacher, same comments, Teacher and rabbi and master all mean the same thing, which is the great commandment in the law. Again, we'll talk about this. I was thinking about talking about this today, but I don't have time to cover it. And then, last but not least, the general multitudes, or crowds, who follow Jesus also recognized him as a rabbi. John 6, verse 25, and when they, referring to the people or the crowds or the multitudes, found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? So notice the different kinds of people who recognized Jesus as a rabbi. There were his disciples, there was a wealthy man who was a Pharisee, Nicodemus, the Sadducees, a lawyer, the ordinary people who came to hear Jesus teach. They all recognized Jesus as a rabbi. He's widely recognized in that way.
And he does rabbi things wherever he goes. What's he doing wherever he's going? He's teaching. He's teaching in the synagogues, he's teaching in the temple, he's teaching, as we just read about, on the shore of the Sea of the Galilee. And people are coming around to hear him. He's teaching in the open fields, he's teaching in the towns, everywhere. And he uses the teaching methods that Jewish rabbis of the day used. We'll talk about that in the future as well. So he has all these people following him around listening to his teaching. So he is clearly a rabbi.
Now in first century Galilee there were two kinds of rabbis. The most common kind was called Torah teachers. Torah is the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The books of Moses. These Torah teachers knew these five books by memory. They had them absolutely memorized there. And they generally taught from them. And these people, these Torah teachers, were master teachers. And they recognized that in the communities in which they lived. For instance, I've talked a lot about Jewish education among the school children, as we might call them. It would have been the Torah teachers who would have been essentially the rabbis who were teaching the children about God's Word, the books of the Old Testament there. We do find them mentioned several times in the Gospels where they are called teachers or teachers of the law. What was the law? The law was the Torah. Therefore Torah teachers. They were teachers of the law, the five books of Moses there. That was their area of specialty there. So this is one type of rabbi. Now how did they teach? What was their teaching method? Well, they taught by quoting the text, the Hebrew scriptures, the books of Moses, other parts that they had memorized. And again, they were very smart. They knew their stuff. They had memorized this from childhood. Very brilliant, brilliant men. They would also use parables a lot to illustrate what they're reading from the text or teaching from the text. Using parables is not just something Jesus came up with. We know from historical records that that was very common teaching method among the rabbis of that day. We'll talk about that more in the future when we start getting into the parables. And we see Jesus doing both of these things. We see him quoting from the text all the time. We see him using parables all of the time. However, a difference is that to back up their point, the Torah teachers would quote from famous rabbis to back up their point. In other words, if they're wanting to say the law means such and such, they would say something like, as Rabbi Hillel taught, this passage means such and such and such and such. And therefore, this is what we must do. So they would use that to prove their point.
Who does Jesus use to back up his points when he quotes Scripture? Nobody. He uses his own word as the final authority or himself. He just says, this is what it says. Period. Deal with it. He cites himself as the authority, in other words. So when the Gospel says, we just read, that Jesus taught as one having authority, this is what it's talking about. He taught as one having authority and not as the scribes or not as the Torah teachers. He doesn't need to quote anybody else to back up what he says. And that brings us to the second type of rabbi. So the first type is the Torah teachers or teachers of the laws. They're called in the Gospels. The second kind of rabbi was a rabbi with a smeka. The word we just learned a minute ago. Or forgot by now. Rabbis with smeka or rabbis with authority. Now what did this mean? This meant that these were rabbis who knew the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we would call the Old Testament by heart. They had memorized it, every word of it. They do it all by heart. They were known as great teachers. Some of them from the Jewish writings of that period were viewed as miracle workers. People who could heal someone who was blind or someone who had leprosy, for instance.
They were viewed as miracle workers too. And there weren't very many of them. If you took say the hundred years from the 30 years starting before Jesus's birth to a 30 years after his ministry and his 33 years in between, we know from records of about 10 rabbis with smeka during that hundred year period. So there weren't many of them. A few names you may recognize. Names like Hillel, Shammai, Akiva, Gamaliel, Gamaliel in the Bible. That was Paul's teacher. Paul learned at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a rabbi with smeka, one who was mentioned in the Bible. So there are a few of these, not many. These men were the theological einsteins of their day. They were the brilliant men, brilliant thinkers, widely recognized and acknowledged as such. And to this day in Jewish writings, they will go back and say, well, this is what Hillel said. This is what Shammai said. This is what Gamaliel said. This is what Akiva said.
They are great teachers. They are known as great teachers, cited to this very day in Jewish writings. Now, what is different about this is that because they were recognized as such brilliant teachers, brilliant thinkers, they had authority, smeka, to come up with and teach their own new ideas, so long as they weren't in conflict with God's Word. Obviously, there. That was never the question. That was never the issue. Torah teachers could not do that. Torah teachers could not come up with their own teaching. Yes, they could come up with new parables, new illustrations, that sort of thing. But they could not come up with new interpretations of God's Word. Whereas smeka, rabbis with smeka, could. That's where the concept of authority or spiritual authority comes in. So a rabbi with smeka could come up with new teachings, new ways of looking at God's Word, new ways of applying God's Word. They had the authority or the smeka to do this.
They were viewed, where does this come from? They were viewed as being so close to God because of their intimate knowledge of God's Word, having memorized the whole Bible as they had it at that time and were acknowledged as great teachers, explainers of it. They were viewed as God having given them special insight and understanding of His Word to be able to teach others. Therefore, because God gave them the special insight, the special understanding, they could come up with new teachings. God had given them these new teachings, new ideas, in other words. So when we read here in verses like Mark here, that He taught them as one having authority, or that they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. What is being said here, what we're being told here, is that Jesus was recognized as one of these brilliant Einstein rabbis. That's what we're being told here, that He had smeka. He was one of these rabbis with smeka. Another thing about rabbis with smeka is they are the ones who had disciples.
Torah teachers didn't have disciples. Rabbis with smeka had disciples. What does Jesus have? He has disciples. That tells us also that He is a rabbi with smeka. Now another reason that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having smeka and not as the scribes, is because of His age, because Jesus at this point is either 30-31 years old.
Here, the other rabbis, when they received their smeka, were much older. The youngest one that we know of was Akiba, who lived several decades after Jesus, and he received smeka at age 60. Some others, Hillel, was 70. Shammai, was 85 when they received their smeka. So how could Jesus have received smeka at about age 30 or 31? This is one of the things that astonished them, because here He is acknowledged with the brilliance and insight of Scripture that He's recognized as being not just a rabbi, but a rabbi with smeka at this age when He's not even half the age of other rabbis with smeka there who had gone before and who would come after. So how could Jesus have received His smeka, His spiritual authority, His insight, the understanding coming from God at such a young age? That's one reason again they're so astonished, so amazed at His teaching there. Well, if you were a rabbi with smeka authority, how did you get smeka? Where did it come from? Where did this concept of smeka originate? And how had it been such an ingrained part of Jewish thinking and culture of that day?
Well, for the Jews of that day, it actually went all the way back to Moses and Aaron.
Moses and Aaron, in Exodus 24, we won't turn there, but you could write it down. Exodus 24 didn't write down the particular voice. But you probably remember the story. Moses and Aaron take 72 of the elders of Israel up onto Mount Sinai. This is at the time of the institution of the covenant and the Ten Commandments and so on. They take 72 elders up and they have a meal with God on Mount Sinai. The thinking among the Jews and the concept of smeka was that Moses and Aaron had taken these 72 elders and officially recognized them, publicly recognized them, as having authority, spiritual leadership, spiritual responsibility, spiritual insight.
Smeka, in other words. So Moses and Aaron had smeka, having received it from God. The way you got smeka then and Jewish thinking from that point forward was to have two individuals who had smeka publicly proclaimed that you had smeka. You had this special insight, this special understanding, this special spiritual authority from God. So if Jesus has smeka and it takes two people to give you smeka, where did Jesus get his smeka? Where did it come from?
Let's turn to an incident recorded in Matthew 21 and see how this kind of plays out in Matthew 21 verses 23 through 27. Now when Jesus came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted him as he was teaching. They obviously didn't like what he was teaching and said by what authority smeka, again we're talking about Hebrew concepts, not a Greek translation. The word doesn't exist in Greek, just to be clear. But we're talking about a Hebrew concept. This is what they would have been saying in Hebrew. By what smeka are you doing these things and who gave you this smeka? But Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you will tell me, I likewise will tell you, by what smeka I do these things.
And then he goes on and he says, the baptism of John, John the baptizer, where was it from? From heaven, meaning from God or from men. And they huddled up together and they huddled up together and they reasoned among themselves, saying, well, if we say from heaven or from God, he will say to us, why then did you not believe John? But if we say John got his baptism from men, we fear the multitude for they all think John is a prophet. So they answered Jesus and said, we do not know. And he said to them, neither will I tell you, by what smeka I do these things. So this is what's going on. They don't like Jesus's teaching. So they say, where did you get your smeka? Where did you get your spiritual authority? Who gave you that authority? And Jesus says, okay, answer my question. If you don't answer, I'm going to peck on my marbles and go home. So that's what's going on here. So he says, okay, you want to answer my question, so I want to answer your question and tell you where I got my smeka.
Now, we talked about this earlier when Jesus as a 12-year-old is in the temple. One of the concepts we talked about quite a bit then is the common Jewish method of teaching then was to ask a question to make people think. So they would come up with their own answer and they would own that answer instead of you just giving them the answer. So you see a lot of dialogue in the Gospels where people will come up and ask Jesus a question and how will he respond? He will respond with a question himself. But inherent in his question that he asks them is the answer to their question.
In other words, he's asking them a question that answers their question, but they've got to think about it to come up with it. And that's what we see here as well when they come up and say, where did you get your smeka? And he says, okay, you've asked me a question. I'll give you an answer, but it's going to be in the form of a question. The baptism of John, where did it come from? From God or from men? So what's he answering? He's telling them that he got his smeka from John.
John the Baptizer. Did that happen? Let's turn back to John 1. We've covered this before, but I'll bring up this aspect of it. John 1, 29 through 34, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. And skipping down a few verses, and I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.
So what does Jesus here publicly proclaim? Because there are all kinds of people around here witnessing this. What does John publicly proclaim about Jesus Christ? Well, he says here that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
He says that he was before me, even though John is six months older than Jesus. He says that Jesus existed before I was born. In other words, he is the God of the Old Testament, as we read elsewhere in John chapter 1. And then later on he says, And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. So is that Sheikah? Is John conveying Sheikah on Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth? You bet he is! He says that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away sin, that he was before me, that he existed before John as the God of the Old Testament period. And he says that he is the Son of God. So you don't get any more spiritual authority than that. That you can take away sin, that you existed divinely in a previous period of history, and that you are the Son of God. You don't get any more Sheikah than this. So here is one conveying of Sheikah on Jesus. But there had to be two.
Who's the other one? When is the other one? Who else conveys Sheikah publicly on Jesus? Scott? Yes, yes, very good. Okay, let's, yeah. Yeah, Scott's response, the Father, when he was baptized. Let's look at that, Mark 1, verses 9 through 11. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. And immediately, coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting. And in Greek, I mentioned before, that means the heavens are ripped open, is what the word means there. It's ripped open. And the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, then a voice comes out of heaven. You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
So here is the second conveying of Sheikah on Jesus. He is given Sheikah by John the Baptizer, and he is given Sheikah by directly from Almighty God in heaven.
So our rabbi, our teacher, our master, is the only rabbi in history to receive his Sheikah, his authority, his spiritual authority, directly from the Father, from God Himself. That's pretty mind-boggling. Now we know, looking back in hindsight with the Gospels and the other books of the Bible to read, and from John 1 and Hebrews 1 and Colossians 1, we know that Jesus was the God of the Old Testament, the one who interacted with Moses, with Abraham, with Noah, but to Jesus Christ's disciples and those of his lifetime that he encounters. This is totally mind-boggling. They don't realize this. They wouldn't come to understand this until later. They would really sink in. Yes, they heard these things. They heard Jesus say, for instance, multiple times, I am, using the name of God, I am there. But they didn't understand that. It didn't really sink in. It didn't sink in when Christ told him he's going to Jerusalem and be crucified, and after three days rise again. They didn't understand that until later, much later, when they were converted and received God's Spirit. We understand that. We understand Jesus received his meekah from God because he was God.
But for them, that didn't sink in until considerably later. Do we fully realize that? Do we realize that in becoming Talmadim and becoming disciples of Jesus Christ, who want to, more than anything in the world, become like him in every way, that we are following the one who was the God of the Old Testament, the one who performed many great miracles, the one who proved himself faithful again and again to his servants over the years? That is the authority, that is the teaching of our Lord and Master and Teacher and Rabbi, Jesus Christ.
I want to close with one final passage about meekah, one that we may have crossed your mind by now with the word authority, Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20. This is where Jesus appears to his disciples, the apostles, one final time after his death and resurrection and ascension to heaven. Here he tells them about meekah and what we are to do as a result of that.
Verse 16, then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. In skipping to verse 18, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority, all meekah, in other words, has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples, and this word literally translated as awkward in English, what it literally says is, go therefore and disciple the nations. In other words, you are my disciples. You are to go and disciple the nations. You are to do to them as I have done to you. And that's why I'm spending so much time in the Gospels going through this because I've said before, how can we teach others? How can we fulfill this commission to make disciples if we are not first disciples of ourselves? If we are not striving to become like Jesus Christ in every way, how can we do that to other people? We can't. It's impossible.
So we have to become disciples first ourselves. So go therefore and disciple all the nations. It's what it literally says. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. So God the Father gave Jesus all smeka, all authority in heaven and on earth. And Christ's words here indicate, it's not spelled out explicitly, but implicitly, that he has given his church, his disciples, which is us, smeka. He has given us spiritual authority, spiritual understanding, spiritual responsibility to teach and declare his truth to all nations as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, led by God's Spirit. Therefore, he says, go therefore. What does therefore mean? It means because of what is preceded, this is what you do. So because all smeka has been given to me in heaven and on earth, this is what you are to do. Therefore, go and disciple all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. In other words, so be it, is what amen means.
So he tells us to do that, to go, to teach the nations, to make disciples, to teach them to observe all things that he has commanded us. And then he says that he will be with us as in that work, even to the end of this age of man, at the beginning of a new age, to be ushered in at his return, the dawning of a new age at his return. And then he says, amen, so be it, so be it. Any questions? I've given you a lot to think about here at the end, but our time is up, so we'll wrap it up here. I have another hymn, and if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to come up and check with me afterwards.
