Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - After Prayerful Consideration - Luke 6:12-16

We are continuing our series in Luke examining Luke's gospel account. Our series is

called the Orderly Account of Truth, where Luke gave us an eyewitness testimony laid

out from his careful examination and investigation into the life, death, and resurrection

of our Lord Jesus. And last week Pastor Duncan taught out of the first

handful of verses in Luke chapter six where we're gonna be picking up today,

and last week we saw Jesus being challenged by the religious elite about keeping the

Sabbath, and in our reading we found that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

and it's in him that we find our rest. Right Duncan, Yeah,

So today, if you have a Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter

six, verses twelve or sixteen. If you need a Bible, we have

some on that table in the back. We're gonna be looking at Jesus spending

a lot of time in prayer and actually an entire evening in prayer to consider

and choose who out of his group of many disciples are going to be appointed

into the office of apostle. So let's pray and then we'll get into it,

Lord, I ask as we examine your scriptures from your servant, Luke,

I asked that you would humble us so that we can receive the truth

of your word with hope in you. Lord. Your word is the truth.

It is good for us. It teaches us who we are in Christ.

It teaches us how to be a good servant, a loyal follower.

So help us to do that. I love you, I love you,

we love you. Thank you for your word today, Signed Jordan Ell Langer.

Okay, sometimes you just got to lean into the joke, right,

all right. My title for my servant today is after prayerful Consideration. Don't

be dismayed by the title. I know some of you have read this says

after careful consideration and then be really bummed by the news. This is not

the case. This is really good news because after a long prayerful consideration of

Jesus, he chooses twelve men out of his disciples to be his apostles.

Let's read through the text first, and then we'll break it down and get

into it. One of those days Jesus went out to the mountaintops to pray

and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his

disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

Simon whom he named Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John Philip,

Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alpheus, Simon who was called

the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas is Scariot who became a

trader. So I know this passage is very short, but if you know

me, it's not going to be short. Well, no, that's not

true. My sermons are usually pretty short. There's more here than you might

think at first glance. Yeah, Gabe got it right. Short. So

it is a short passage, but it has massive significance for us as Christians

and for the Church because on this occasion Jesus anointed twelve of his disciples and

gave them the office of apostle. And history shows us that this small handful

of men turned the world upside down. What God did with this handful of

people and is still doing is an awesome reality. So the passage begins by

saying, one of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray.

Now Jesus separating himself from his disciples and the multitudes of people that were always

gathered around him. Is not unusual. But Luke as the detail, can

you go back one verse? Sorry to throw you off? He adds the

detail, and spent the night praying to God the entire night. Answer this

question in your own minds? Have you ever prayed all night for the entire

night, the entire night? I have not, although I suffer from bad

insomnias. Maybe I should try it. That's a long time to spend in

prayer, and Jesus reserved this kind of prayer. Marathon will call it for

really important decisions. You may recall the intensity of Jesus's prayer in the garden

before he was betrayed, before he was put on trial and killed. But

here we see Jesus wrestling all night in prayer before God the Father, as

he's about to select his apostles who will carry on his ministry after he ascends

to heaven. We read in verse thirteen, when morning came, he called

his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

Now, before we look at the twelve men Jesus promoted from disciple to

apostle. I'm going to talk briefly about the role of an apostle. Thus

far in our series, we've talked a little bit about these disciples, and

we're going to read a lot more of them. More about them as we

continue in our series, But first we need to ask what the difference is

between a disciple and an apostle. In the New Testament, disciple means a

learner, So a disciple is a student in this period. In this period

of Jewish history, disciples were not merely students. They were also a supporter

of certain leaders, like rabbis. In the case of John the Baptist,

for example, his students were called John's disciples. So you could say that

the disciples of Jesus were enrolled in like Jesus School. They were students.

Let me know if you think of a better name of the school than that.

It shouldn't be too difficult. Maybe Christ College. I don't know,

the best school ever. That's the tagline best school ever, the only school

you'll need well, go to school kids, Okay, But from this group

of his students, which were many, as we'll eventually see when we get

to Luke chapter ten, he selected twelve of them to be his apostles,

and the role of an apostle was of huge significant and authority, whereas the

role of a disciple or a student, as we've learned, was considered a

somewhat low position, more like servanthood. But the role of an apostle held

authority. Apostle comes from the Greek apostolos, which means one who was sent.

Apostle means one who was sent. An apostle essentially functioned as an emissary

or an ambassador or representative of someone in a high position of authority. For

example, a king would send out apostles to represent them as the king's emissaries,

and they carried The apostles carried the credentials and authority of the one who

sent them. I'm gonna repeat that again. The apostles represented the king as

their emissaries, and they carried the credentials and authority of the one who sent

them. I reiterate that point because we live in a time where there is

so much criticism leveled at scripture and the authors of scripture. You might hear

people say something like, I believe in Jesus, I believe in his teachings.

I'm not so sure about this, Paul guy. I don't really like

paul teachings. I don't really like Peter's teachings. I don't want to listen

to what John or Peter have to say something along those lines. But we

can't have it that way. Why we have to remember that the first and

greatest apostle was Jesus himself. Look at what he said in John's gospel account.

This is chapter twelve. This is Jesus speaking, for I did not

speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say

all that I have spoken. And this was the root of the debate that

Jesus had with the Pharisees in John's gospel. They said, we believe Moses,

we believe Abraham, they're patriarchs, we believe God. It's you,

Jesus we don't believe in And Jesus responds in chapter five, if you believed

Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since

you do not believe what he said, how are you going to believe what

I say? And following the same principle, Saint Ernius I may have butchered

that wrote against the heretics of his days, and this is heavenly. This

is heavily summarized because he wrote like a two page essay on this topic,

so this is heavily summarized. He wrote, you can't receive Christ and reject

his apostles because they carried the authority of the one who commissioned them in their

ministry, the Father. God the Father had given Jesus all authority on heaven

and earth, so that when Jesus spoke, he spoke with the authority of

the one who sent him. And the one who sent him was God the

Father. And likewise Jesus selected his apostles and said to them in Luke chapter

six, whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me.

But whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me. You see that hierarchy.

You can't reject the apostles, authority and teaching. When we do that,

we reject the teaching and authority of God. We also reject the foundation

of the church. Look at Ephesians two. Paul writes, speaking about Jesus,

he came and preached peace to you who were far away, in peace

to those who were near, for through him we have both access to the

Father by one spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners than strangers,

but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. Built on

the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Catch that built on the foundation of

the apostles and prophets. With Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In

him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple.

In the Lord and in him, you two are being built together to

become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. So it's the prophets

and apostles that are the foundation, and Jesus is the chief cornerstone upon which

the foundation is built one Corinthians three eleven. For no one can lay any

foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. There is

no other foundation which can be laid than that which is laid in Christ Jesus.

But the foundation is built upon and built up by the prophets and the

apostles. That's why we can't have it both ways. We can't say I

love Jesus, team I don't like Paul's it doesn't work. It doesn't work

like that. First of all, all of scripture is God breathed. It's

all inspired by the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Paul also met by Jesus in

the Road to Damascus, was given the authority to be his emissary. Catch

that, all right. Furthermore, it Psawm eleven, the Psalmist writes,

when the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? When the

foundations are being destroyed? What can the righteous do? The foundation of the

church, our beliefs, our teachings are built largely on the people that Jesus

promoted to the office of apostle. The twelve men that we see in this

text also Paul. He's not in this text, but he's one of them.

This is a side note too. I told you Greg, this will

come up. There are no more apostles, okay, and there, unfortunately

are churches. There are people who designate that role to themselves. Just run

the other way, okay, all right, no more apostles. Scripture is

complete and perfect. We don't need anything else. We don't need new revelations.

I'm not bashing on you. I'm getting off track. I'm sorry.

All right, Now that we know what the role of an apostle is,

we'll spend some time looking at each of the twelve men that Jesus appointed to

be his apostles. At this point in my sermon, We're going to look

a lot. We're going to look at a lot of eyewitness accounts from people

who didn't write scripture. Some of it will be in scripture, all of

it. The rest of it is going to be eyewitness accounts from peace people,

collected from BAM getting out track, eyewenness accounts collected and written by people

who are around, who are around at the time that the apostles were either

teaching or were killed by the authorities during that time. It's all church history.

It's important for us to know and to learn, and I want to

challenge you to not let your eyes glaze over at this information. I'll try

to explain it, present it in a way that's not boring. I don't

think it's boring. Duncan doesn't think it's boring. But we're gonna get a

glimpse into these the type of men that these twelve apostles were, and all

that they accomplished for the case of the Cross. We're gonna look at the

zeal they had for the Lord and for his gospel message. Starting with Simon,

Peter the Rock, the real rock, not Dwayne. Thanks Casey.

I gotta get my dad Joe when I can, and you're a captive audience.

So Peter, we know from scripture, was kind of reckless. He

was rather hasty to do things. He was foolhardy. He was a fool

of a cook, if you will, from my Lord of the Rings fans

out there. In some ways he was unreliable and not dependable. If we

gave Peter another dad joke coming, if we gave Peter his nickname based solely

on his performance during Jesus's earthly ministry, we probably would have nicknamed him the

sand instead of the Rock. Okay, all right, But after the death

and resurrection of Jesus, hey I heard that, she said, my joke

was dumb. I'm not letting you get away with that, Wendy. But

after jesus death at resurrection, Peter was certainly the rock of the early Church.

He lived up to the name, and during the ministry of Jesus we

see the wavering faith of Peter. He was bold to walk out under the

water following Jesus, but he was also He also started to waver and sink

in the water when he doubted Peter and Matthew sixteen distinguished himself as the Sarah

of a Philippi. But you're that, I know. When Jesus came to

the region of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say

the son of Man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist,

others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But

what about you, He asked, who do you say? I am Simon.

Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the Living God.

Jesus replied, blessed are you Simon's son of Jonah. For this was

not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in Heaven.

And I tell you that you are Peter or Petra in the Greek And

on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will

not overcome it. And we see while Peter wavered while walking on the water,

and he's gonna waver elsewhere, as we'll see next. He also rightly

saw that Jesus was the son of Man, he was the son of God,

he was the Messiah. And Jesus reveals something really cool to us and

to Peter, that that revelation came from God. It wasn't Peter's own humanity

that said I know who you are. No. God gave him that revelation,

then renamed him Peter the Rock. So you might think, like,

good on you, Peter, you got it, but don't be too hasty.

Shortly after Jesus's name, Jesus names Peter the Rock. Jesus announces to

his disciples that they are going back to Jerusalem, where Jesus is going to

be tried and killed. In Matthew sixteen. Let's see what Peter says from

that time on my voice, Okay. From that time on, Jesus began

to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things

at the hands of the elders, the chief friests, and the teachers of

the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be

raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never

Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and

said to Peter, I can only imagine what that look was like. It's

just like something like that, Peter. What he says, Jesus says,

get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You

do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

Peter the Rock said, no, this will never happen. Peter rebukes Jesus's

words and declares that he won't stand for it, and Jesus cannot go to

Jerusalem. He tells Jesus, forbid it, Lord, imagine that forbid it.

No, no, Jesus, you can't do that. What a way

to talk to your Lord to his face. In response, Jesus listened,

remember his student, someone who's with him all the time. He looks at

him and sees something else in Peter and says, get behind me, Satan.

Peter sees that, in his own human understanding, Satan's using him as

a tool to tempt Jesus not to go through with what he was made flesh

to come and do. So Jesus rightly re rebukes Peter flipped it. It

was also Peter the Rock that disowned Jesus three times during his trial in Matthew

twenty six. Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard and a servant girl

came to him. You also were with Jesus at Galilee, she said.

He denied it before them all. I don't know what you're talking about.

He said, he didn't want to be associated with Jesus. Then he went

out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the

people there, this fellow was with Jesus at Nazareth. He denied it again

with an oath I don't know the man. After a little while, those

standing there went up to Peter and said, surely you are one of them.

Your accent gives you away. Then he began to call down curses and

swore to them I don't know the man. Immediately a rooster crowed. Then

Peter remembered the word of Jesus, the words Jesus had spoken before the rooster

crows, you will just own me three times, and he went outside and

wept bitterly. Can you imagine that that looks really bad? And it is

I'm not yeah, it is bad. But it was also Peter who,

when meeting the risen Christ on the shore of Lake of the Lake of Galilee

was asked three times by Jesus, Peter, do you love me? And

as he denied Jesus three times earlier, now he affirms his love for Christ

three times. Lord, you know that I love you. And Jesus said,

then feed my sheep, show me, feed my sheep. Simon Peter

the Rock on whom I am building my church, feed my sheep. And

after the ascension of Jesus, Peter indeed obeyed jesus command to feed his sheep.

Peter's ministry was a massive blessing to the early Church. When persecution broke

out in Jerusalem against the Christians under King Herod, Peter's ministry continued in the

decade of the sixties zero zero six zero not one to nine, continued into

the eight sixty where he was arrested by the Romans and under the tyranny of

Emperor Nero, who also saw to it that the apostle Paul would be executed

the same year, Simon Peter the Rock was thrown into a prison in Rome,

where he was tortured and, according to ancient texts, was executed by

being crucified upside down because he didn't want to be crucified in the same manner

as his master. He wasn't even worthy to die the same way. The

next apostle we'll look at is Andrew, who's known in church tradition as the

first called He was initially a disciple of John the Baptist. When he heard

John the Baptist point to Jesus as the coming Messiah in the Gospel of John,

Andrew switched his commitment from John the Baptist to Jesus. I don't know

if his credits followed him over, but but don't It was Andrew who brought

his older brother, Simon Peter, who had just read about to Jesus,

and the two brothers became disciples and were both promoted to the level of apostle.

And every time we find and Andrew in the New Testament, we find

him bringing people to Jesus. That's his legacy, the people finder people bring

her. Andrew also suffered martyrdom. He was killed around seventy a d.

The same year in which Jerusalem fell, and his crucifixion was on a cross

in the shape of an ex. Tradition tells us that when he saw the

cross that had been that had been prepared for his execution. He broke out

in joy. He saw the cross and thought, my whole life has been

for this. Andrew was delighted that he could join his savior in death through

crucifixion. He was not nailed to the cross, but tied to it and

lived on for three days of torture before being martyred for the gospel message of

Our Lord God. I sound like my dad right now. He would always

gosh, excuse me, gosh, they're sound like my dad right now.

You would always cry during his sermons, making him proud. Help, Okay,

apologies. James is the next. We'll look at the first apostle,

Martyred. Are you seeing a theme here? These men lived with such zeal

for the message of Our Lord that they willingly died brutal deaths for him,

and we complain about suffering. The two other disciples mentioned Excuse me, The

other two disciples mentioned in this text are James and John. There were brothers,

just as Peter and Andrew were brothers. James and John, the Sons

of Zebede, as they're addressed, were also known by the nickname the Sons

of Thunder. What a great nickname, man, because they wanted Jesus to

bring down fire from heaven. They were not blessed meek and mild. James

and John, they were ready to turn the world upside down. These were

also the brothers who, embarrassing Lee, their mother asked Jesus when he came

into his kingdom, would bring one of her sons to sit at his right

hand, which he's like, chill, mom, not in front of Jesus.

Can you imagine? Jesus was the first apostle to be martyred in Christian

history. He wasn't the first Christian to be martyred, that was Stephen,

but he was the first apostle to be martyred. Around the year forty four

a d. James was martyred during a Jewish persecution led by Herod Antipus,

around the time when Peter was imprisoned. So James is remembered as the first

of the apostle apostles to be martyred in church history. You know, okay,

staying with me? Okay. James's brother John is known as the Apostle

of Love. John, the other thunder Brother, was the only one of

the twelve that didn't suffer a violent death. John was the only one who

died at home in peace, were told throughout tradition that all the rest of

the apostles, apart from Judas Judas Iscariot, suffered and died for their faith.

John suffered and lived for the faith. Just because John escaped martyrdom doesn't

mean that he escaped suffering. He was subjected to suffering throughout his whole life.

He became the oldest apostle to die and was buried in Ephesus. And

from what I read, you can go to his grave. I could be

wrong, though, don't quote me on that, but that's what I read.

Google wouldn't lie, right, Yeah. John wrote five books of the

New Testament, first, Second, Third, John, the Book of Revelation,

and of course his Gospel. His Gospel account named John. John was

known as the disciple whom Jesus loved, which I find really funny because he

wrote the book. And it's just funny to see the author, right yep,

Jesus, I'm the one who Jesus loved. If you go on farther,

he would. He also claimed that he was the fastest apostle he wont

to raise. Yes, it's funny, but he's called the apostle of love,

and his message to us to Christians was always beloved, love one another.

John experienced exile under the emperor Dimition Domitian. Domitian something to the island

of Patmos, where he received that heavenly vision that he recorded as Jesus instructed

him, which comes to us now as the Book of Revelation. In the

Book of Revelation, John gives us a marvelous vision of Christ's triumphant return over

his enemies, for his people and on all who will participate in his return.

John suffered many times. According to the writings of the early Christian author

Tertullian, John was to be executed by being boiled in oil, but somehow,

we don't know how he was able to ass escape that fate. I

don't know dodged it. Yeah. On another occasion, tradition tells us that

he was supposed to be executed and was administered some kind of poison, but

somehow he drank the well. Somehow, Jesus, he drank the poison and

it didn't affect him. He suffered, but did not die. He didn't

die until the Lord was ready to take him. Next is Philip, known

through tradition as the double martyred. I'll explain that in a second. The

New Testament doesn't give us a lot of information about Philip, but he is

introduced in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. He came to Nathaniel

and said, this is the chapter one of John's Gospel. Philip found Nathaniel

and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law,

and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son

of Joseph. So Philip, in bearing witness to Jesus, made his confession

of faith, in his conviction that Jesus was the one who had been prophesied

about, that he was the Messiah. In the upper room, when Jesus

was comforting the twelve, Jesus told them this, my father's house has many

rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I

am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and

prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be

with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the

way to a place to the place where I am going. Philip in verse

eight said this, So needy, Philip said, Lord, show us the

Father, and that will be enough for us. Bear in mind, Philip,

one of the twelve men, who has seen Jesus walk on water,

turn water into wine, raise Lazarus from the dead, calming the sea.

One of the twelve, Philip, stands there and says, show us the

Father and will be completely satisfied. There's one more thing we need. If

there was ever a time when Jesus seemed to be irritated at one of his

apostles, it was here in chapter fourteen. Jesus answered, don't you know

me, Philip, even after I had been among you such a long time.

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say

to me, show us the Father. Don't you believe that I am in

the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to

you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is

the Father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I

say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or

at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Philip. Like many

of the disciples, Philip became a missionary to the other lands surrounding lands after

Jesus' resurrection in the Day of Pentecost, and tradition tells us that the missionary

outreach of Philip carried all the way to ancient Gaul now France. He also

spent much time in Turkey, where he was despised by the pagan priests and

martyred in the year eighty fifty four. It's taught that he was double martyred.

First, he was stoned almost to the point of death, and when

finding that he had not been killed, he was then, like Peter and

Andrew, crucified for following our Lord Jesus. Next is Bartholomew, the deceit

lists Israelite. Sorry to throw you off, Patricia, that's not You're doing

fine. I thought there was a verse out anyway. Okay. Bartholomew,

who's also called Nathaniel in the Gospel of John, was the one that responded

to Philip. Remember Philip coming to Nathaniel and saying, I found him.

This is the one that was prophesied about. Nathaniel's response was Nazareth. A

guy from Nazareth is the Messiah? Can anything good come from there? Just

dogging on towns? Okay. But when Philip followed phil when Philip followed Philip,

when Nathaniel followed Philip to see this Nazarite, Jesus said this. When

Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, here truly is an Israelite

in whom there is no deceit, in whom there is no deceit. We

don't know much else about Nathaniel, but Jesus's pronouncement of his character, his

description of his character, that's a big deal. Imagine seeing Jesus and him

saying, there's Josiah, a deceitless person. I'm not saying sorry to make

you the subject of the joke, but imagine that insert name here. Nathaniel

responds to Jesus in verse forty eight. How do you know me, Nathaniel

asked. Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig

tree, before Philip called you. Then Nathaniel declared, Rabbi, you are

the son of God. You are the King of Israel. It wasn't just

Peter who made a great confession of faith among the disciples and now apostles.

Nathaniel also made that proclamation. Scriptures don't speak much more of this deceitless Israelite,

but from testimony in church history, we're told that Nathaniel also became a

missionary and started the first church in Armenia. Stry caused conflict with the local

pagan priests because they didn't like what he taught. He was also martyred around

a d. Seventy by being flayed with whips. He was whipped so severely

that most of his skin came off, and then he was crucified. Matthew

the tax collector kind of a bummer that he is known as the tax collector,

But that's Matthew. We examined Matthew earlier in our series. Also known

as Levi. He was the tax collector whom Jesus called away from his business,

and shortly afterward Matthew threw a party for Jesus and the rest of his

tax collector buddies that created such hostility from the Pharisees that they began to seek

ways to do away with Jesus. Matthew wrote the Gospel bearing his own name.

Of the four Gospels, it contains the most references to the Old Testament.

Because he wrote for a Jewish audience and being a task collector, he

probably had an eye for detail. Matthew became a missionary, and according to

tradition, he took the Gospel to Ethiopia and was one of the first to

visit and establish a church in Africa. He also ran into many problems with

the local pagan priest and was beheaded in eighty sixty as a martyr for the

faith. Next is Thomas the Doubter. I put question mark there because again

another unfortunate title is more than that. But he gets his name. He

certainly earned the name. I'll say that he's known as in infany as the

skeptic of the Resurrection and called doubting Thomas. If we go to John eleven

sixteen, then Thomas also known as Didymus. Side note, why not go

by Didymus? What a great name. Dinimus the Doubter said to the rest

of the disciples, let us also go, that we may die with him.

Thomas said this when Jesus told them what he was about to go do,

and Thomas steps up with zeal and fervor, says, let's follow him

to death. He stepped up and was willing to follow Jesus anywhere, even

to the point of death. He was possibly the most zealous of the disciples

at that point, after Jesus was executed, taken from the cross and buried,

Thomas would not believe that when Jesus was raised from the dead, when

his friends told him, I'm going to skip a little bit ahead, Patricia,

for the sake of time. Later, Thomas became a missionary to India

and suffered martyrdom around eighty seventy by being killed with a spear. The three

lesser known apostles these are not their titles, which is simply we don't know

a lot. Three of the four remaining include James the son of Alpheus,

Simon the Zella, and Judas the son of James. There's very little information

given in the New Testament about these men, but this is what we do

know. Versus James, known as the missionary to Syria, he's also known

as James the Less, again another unfortunate one. Something that some think that

the less refers to him being younger than James the brother of John. Others

argue that the less means he was shorter in stature, but I don't think

that's fair. Greg knows, but we hear almost nothing about James and the

New Testament. Other than on the two different occasions by a woman the name

Mary under the name Mary. By a woman with the name Mary who's mentioned,

it's said to be the mother of James. Presumably this James and tradition

tells that when James was also a missionary, he went to Syria, but

around eighty sixty three he was brought back to Jerusalem and tried by the Jewish

leaders as a heretic. He was taken to the very top of the temple

and told to publicly renounce Jesus. Instead, James reaffirmed that Christ was the

Messiah and the Son of God. He was thrown down from the top of

the temple. He didn't die, it merely broke his leg. So to

finish the job, the executioners came and hit James in the head with a

large stone that killed him because he would not disown our Lord. Next to

Simon the Zealot, the Zela is interesting because he was numbered among the party

of first century Jews known as Zealots, and they're not zealous simply because of

spiritual matters, but also political matters. These were the men who came together

and were passion committed to overthrow the Roman government in hopes of driving them out.

Tradition tells us that Simon was a missionary. He went to North Africa,

to Spain, and then Britain. In the year eighty seventy four,

he too was martyred by being sawn in half. I'm sorry that these are

graphic, but it's important for us to know what the church has gone through

by the apostles who are the foundation of our church. Next is Judas,

son of James, a fellow martyr also named Thaddeus in the New Testament.

Next to nothing is known about him, except that through tradition we understand he

was martyred at eighty seventy by being shot with arrows. Lastly, as Judas

is Scariot the trader. A lot is written about Judas, and I want

to consider his role in God's plan for redemption because in our text earlier a

reminder were still in Luke. Jesus selected him after much prayering consideration to be

an apostle. He prayed with the knowledge that one of these men would be

his betrayer. We don't know for sure if he knew that it would be

Judas, but I think he likely did. In Acts Chapter two, Luke

writes, men of Israel, hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a man

attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which which God

did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know him, being

delivered by the determined purpose, and for knowledge of God, you have taken

by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up,

having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he

should be held by it. Amen. And this verse is what I want

us to focus on when we're talking about the act of redemption being worked through

by a trader. Worked with the trader, I should say, the Bible

tells us that Jesus was delivered by the determined purpose, and fore knowledge of

God. Jesus's betrayal was not an accident, nor was it a mistake.

This act of betrayal was ordained by Almighty God from the foundation of the world.

And I know that this causes no small amount of confusion or dismay,

perhaps frustration in trying to understand it in terms of it. Believe me,

I've worked through it many times myself. The scripture is true and it's our

job to be humble in reading it and to come underneath its authority. It's

a difficult So here's the question. How could God ordain and determine that someone

would betray the innocent blood of Jesus and then be held accountable for his treachery.

It's a difficult topic to explain. I don't have time to delve too

deeply into it today, certainly not now. But I will give us this

to consider. I'm going to go late. Okay, I get one.

I want us to consider this first, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. I

think that's a point on there. Consider the Old Testament Act of Redemption,

the exodus the Jewish people from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. When God

heard the cries of his people and determined to redeem them from their slavery and

bondage. In order to affect the great Exodus of the Old Testament, God

used the most powerful man on the face of the earth as the instrument in

his hand, Pharaoh. This won't be on the string on the screen,

but hear me. This is from Exodus chapter seven, verse one. Then

the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you like God.

To Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to

say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to

let the Israelites go out of his country. Listen to this, but I

will harden Pharaoh's heart. And though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,

he will not listen to you. The following confrontation in these chapters between

Pharaoh and Moses shows us that when Moses delivered the word of God to Pharaoh,

you see Pharaoh begin to relent until you read and God heart in Pharaoh's

heart. Pharaoh remained unyielding in his resistance to the command of God. And

finally we're told that the reason God hardened Pharaoh's heart was so the people might

know and clearly understand that it was God in his grace who delivered them,

not Moses, not the will of the people or the benevolence of Pharaoh.

Salvation was of the Lord. In Exodus continuing in Exodus seven, this is

starting in verse four. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt, and

with mighty acts of judgment, I will bring out my divisions my people,

the Israelites and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch

out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it. So we

have this idea of God hardening Pharaoh's heart. And the question we have,

I think is twofold. Why did God harden Pharaoh's heart? And secondly,

how did God harden Pharaoh's heart? If you have a Bible turned to Romans

chapter nine, this won't be on the screen. But scripture is very clear

as to why God hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that it would be known plain

for anybody to see that it was God, the Lord, God Almighty,

in his mercy and grace, who redeemed his people. That was the first

of the purposes. And Romans nine, verse seventeen, for Scripture says to

Pharaoh, I raised you up for this very purpose. I raised you up

for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you, and

that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Therefore, God has

mercy on whom he wants wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he

wants to harden. Sit with that for a second. I know this is

heavy stuff. You may not have read these verses before, or really wanted

to, or have had to tackle them before really wrestle with them. But

God will bring you through it. Trust in Him, not in yourself.

The other purpose for God's hardening to Pharaoh's heart, and I want you to

understand, this was an act of divine judgment. It wasn't like Pharaoh was

an innocent, righteous bystander who had only good intentions for whatever he did to

these Jewish people. He only wanted to help these poor people. And God

hardened his heart and said, no, you're not going to do that.

No, Pharaoh was altogether wicked, just as we are from birth. In

Psalm fifty one to five, the Psalmist rites, surely I was sinful at

birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. And one of the

things that God does again and again in church history, and something that we

should be aware of, is that he exercised his judgment. He is a

just God. He will give people over to their own wicked desires, as

you'll find if you continue reading through chapter nine of Romans. But one of

the ways God exercises mercy to us is by restraint. He keeps us from

living out the fullness of our sinful desires. If it weren't for the restraint

of God, I can't imagine the degree to which I would sin, or

have already sinned. I can't imagine if we tried to create a list of

the most wicked people in the world, it would look something like Hitler,

Stalin, near Oh, Pharaoh, others. But what all these men have

in common seemingly have in common, is of a virtual absence of restraint on

their lives. They had absolute power that corrupts absolutely there was nothing to hold

him in check except the sovereign restraint of God. Martin Luther put it this

way. When God hardened Pharaoh's heart, he didn't create fresh evil in Pharaoh's

heart. There was plenty of evil already there. The way God hardens the

heart is by removing the restraints and giving one over to one's own wickedness.

Pharaoh's heart was already recalcitrant. And I can't remember what that word means,

but I think you kind of get the sense of it here. I can't

prepare to say like this means that anyway, it already was a heart of

stone before God had any of the plagues afflict him. Here's the point.

What man means for evil, God means for good. What man means for

evil, God means for good. The story of Joseph, Joseph and Genesis.

The brothers of Joseph, and their jealousy and treachery, sold their brother

the slave traders in Genesis fifty. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit,

but to summarize, Joseph, sold as a slave, rises to the

second most powerful man in Egypt, probably the world at that time, and

then his brothers come to him when there's a famine in the land. His

brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves,

they said. They're terrified, But Jesus, Jesus. But Joseph said to

them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God. You

intended to harm me, But God intended it for the good, for good

to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Do

you see that what man means for evil, God means for good. God

works in and through wicked people. He works through the treachery of human beings

like Judas. It's not as though God forced the brothers of Joseph Joseph to

act in that manner. The brothers of Joseph did exactly what they wanted to

do. They were jealous and wanted to get rid of their brother, and

God used their wickedness, their sin, and their jealousy to prepare the way

for God's people to be redeemed. God has never intended anything that has ever

come to pass except for good. And He defines what good is. We

don't define what good is. He defines what good is. So the logical

question we arrived to is does God ordain sin? And before I answer that,

we have to remind ourselves of the meaning of the word ordain. Ordain

means to order or decrease something. God not only ordains ends, he ordains

the means he uses to bring about those ends. That makes sense kind of

okay, So does God ordain sin? Yes? Yeah, yes. If

he didn't, it couldn't possibly come to pass. Is it wicked for God

to ordain sin? No? Sin is sin? And we don't call good

evil or evil good, but God's involvement in it is perfectly holy and righteous.

I know some of you in here, maybe all of you are like,

what did he just say? I'll encourage you don't leave here, say

I don't like that and get it out of your head. Wrestle with it,

pray about it, Spend the whole night praying about it, like Jesus

did when he selected his apostles. Wrestle with it, Go to scripture,

go to prayer, go to other wise people that are godly and read the

word and converse about it. Challenge yourself, humble yourself, but don't just

throw it away. Now going back to Judas with these examples and trying to

make sense for us what happened with Judas, Judas was wicked from the beginning.

Judas was an unregenerate, corrupt, treacherous, line sinner before he ever

met Jesus. Yet God, knowing who Jesus was and everything that Jesus would

do, used it all to bring about the greatest work of salvation in human

history. And just as it was with the case of Joseph's brothers, Judas

meant it for evil, God meant it for good. To get the band

to come up, thank you for hanging with me through this. I know

it's a lot longer than you're used to with me. You probably come up

and see, oh yeah, Jordan's preaching. We can go home. Early.

Nope, Duncan sat me down. I was like, dude, you

gotta preach longer, right, I'm kidding. We have a back and forth

thing. I make fun of him for taking that's a he makes fun of

me for being so short. So what do we do with all this information,

these texts? What's the point? What's our application? First? Pray

like Jesus prayed. Take an entire night if you have to to, pray

for wisdom for the thing you're hoping for, the thing you're deciding on,

the thing or person that you're broken up about, the decision you're faced with

making. Pray the entire night if you have to. I'm not saying,

go and do it. Spend dedicated, purposeful time and prayer. Remember that

God is sovereign, that his loving, just strong hand is over the situation.

Know that He loves you, that whatever happens, it's for our good

to his glory. Second, live for Jesus the way the Apostles lived,

except for Judas. That should go without saying, but yeah, live for

zeal for the Lord, and rejoice in suffering. We saw how almost every

one of those apostles suffered in life and suffered excruciatingly in death, all for

the zeal they had for their lord, the same lord we serve. Lord

William, will never come close to experiencing what the apostles lived and suffer through.

But whatever comes our way, let us face it the way the apostle

Andrew did. When he faced his death. He saw the cross and rejoiced.

Consider it joy to suffer for the case of Christ, just as He

suffered and died for us.