Lesson 35

Well, if you take your Bibles, we'll turn to Luke 6. Luke 6. So we're continuing to look at Jesus' earthly ministry. We've seen the reason He came, how He came. He came to save us from our sins. He came as a virgin-born Son of God. And we saw that the first part of His ministry was to be tempted and overcome sin for us. And He was the second Adam, or the last Adam. We looked at all of that over the past couple of weeks. And today, as we're looking more into His earthly ministry, we're going to focus on the twelve disciples and Jesus' miracles that He performed, some of the miracles that He performed. And it's good for us to consider miracles. Now, what we're going to understand this morning is, in the Old Testament, and remember, Bible numerology is always important. And we looked at forty days meaning of perfect what? Come on! Who said that? Very good, Jeff. Very good. Perfect trial. Remember, Jesus was tried or tested forty days in the wilderness. Forty days and nights with Noah's ark. Forty years in the wilderness. And everything's a number of forty, chronologically throughout our history, as we see up here, whether forty, four hundred, a multiple of forty. And, but numbers mean something. We looked at three the other day, meaning of three. What does seven mean? Huh? Perfection. That's right. There's seven days in a week. What does eight mean? We were circumcised on what day? Huh? New beginning. Remember, you have seven days in a week. The eighth day is a new week. And so, the babies, the baby boys will be circumcised on the eighth day to signify a new birth in Christ. Now, this morning we're going to be looking at the number twelve. And even though this is not a class on numerology, we learn numbers as we're learning the Bible. And we're going to learn twelve, three, and four today. Man, I sort of wanted to sing like on Sesame Street. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Remember that? Alright, so, when we're looking here in the Old Testament, now three is the number of God. God is three persons that make up one God. What does the number four signify in the Bible? That's correct. Four is the number of the earth. The four corners of the earth is how the Bible describes it. The four winds. And so, four is the number of the earth. Three times four is twelve. Well, that's close. If you're on Biden's economic team, that might work. So, three times four is twelve. Twelve is God ruling on earth. God ruling on earth. That's pretty cool, huh? God ruling on earth. So, twelve is the number of God's government here on earth. When you look at Israel, how many tribes made up Israel? Twelve. Twelve is always the number of God's government here on earth. Israel was the kingdom of God operating here on earth. Now, go ahead. Yeah, I don't have anything around with something to picture. Sure, absolutely. Take a picture. No problem. Screenshot it if you need to. No problem. So, the Israelites were God's kingdom operating here on earth. They were the only kingdom that had God as their king. And so, God ruled. They went by God's law. They were not a democracy. They were a theocracy. You know what the difference is? Right, so... A democracy is ruled by man. A theocracy is ruled by God. Very good. So, you have Jonathan. Jonathan, a little boy, who knows all the answers. A democracy is ruled by man. Theocracy is ruled by God. Demo, man, crossy, the power of democracy. Theo is what? God, like theology. And crossy, power of the earth. So, theocracy is being ruled under the power of God. Israel was supposed to be a... Now, here's the thing. Today, what is Israel, politically? It's a democracy. They're trying to pattern themselves after the United States, in a sense, they want to be a democracy. They want to be diverse. They want all this other stuff. And they vote and all these other things. That's why they're having so much trouble. They proudly say that they're like the only democracy there in the Middle East. They should be the only theocracy in the world. And that's why they're in so much trouble. So, 12 in the Old Testament was God's government here on earth. He ruled through the nation of Israel. Now, when you get to the New Testament, God is going to create a new government through which he will rule on earth. It will not be the government of Abraham's seed physically, but the government of Abraham's seed spiritually. Those who do not favor Abraham and share his DNA, but those who are like Abraham and that they share Abraham's faith in God's promise to redeem man, made up both of Jew and Gentile. So, when Jesus comes, Jesus being God, come in the flesh, Jesus being king. In fact, when Jesus died on the cross, his official charge of execution was being king of the Jews, when it should have been, as they thought, Caesar. Wrong again. Should have been their God. Second time they rejected. They rejected during Samuel's time. They rejected again when the king came. But anyway, Jesus the king comes, and when he comes, he chooses disciples. Now, he has a bunch of disciples. Now, let's look here at this word, "disciple." Who can tell me... Now, Jonathan, you don't answer. Give these grown-ups a chance. Who can tell me what the word "disciple" means? Who said that? Very good. "Follower." A disciple is a follower. So, Jesus' disciples were his followers. People just following him, walking behind him, going where he goes, doing what he says. Those were his disciples. But out of those disciples, he chose 12 special disciples. As he chose 12 men to be the foundation of his government through Israel, so he chose 12 men to be the foundation of his government through the church, through which he rules beyond earth today. When Jesus was here, he said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." He told that to his disciples. So, if you look here now in Luke 6, let me turn there real quick. Look here with me if you would in verse 12. "And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray," that's Jesus, "and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples," his followers. "And of them that is of all those followers, he chose 12. So he selected 12 special men out of all the people who were following him." "Whom also he named apostles." Now we're looking at another word here. We have disciple, that means follower. Now we have apostle. So, there were 12 special disciples. And being special disciples, they are now called 12 apostles. Who can tell me? Raise your hand if you know what the word "apostle" means. Let's give someone else a try, Gabriel. You're trying to compete with Jonathan there. You got to make up for... Yeah, who can know what the word "apostle" means? Not you, Jonathan. Anybody else? Well, that's why we have these classes, right? No. Gabriel? Huh? Yeah, someone sent. Is that what you're going to say, Jonathan? Good. All right. The apostle is someone sent out. All right? So, here's the difference between a disciple and an apostle. First of all, all apostles are disciples. But not all disciples are apostles. Make sense? He chose 12 apostles. That's all the apostles you're going to get. Okay? So, just like he chose 12 of the tribes of Israel, 12 men for the tribes of Israel. And even though you had one where Jacob adopted one of his grandsons and all that and it got a little confusing, it's always called 12 in the Bible. After Judas Iscariot betrays Christ and he dies and they replace him, and then Jesus calls the apostle Paul, you would think it would be 13. Always called 12. Always called...you'll never see anything but the 12 in the Bible. Because 12 represents God ruling here on earth. It's always going to be 12. Okay? Now, the difference between the disciple and the apostle is this. All disciples follow Jesus. But not all disciples have been sent out by Jesus. Now, when they're sent out, they're still following Jesus in the sense that they're following what he tells them to do. But they're sent out as his representatives, as his delegates. So, when you think of an apostle, think of a delegate of Jesus Christ. Sometimes you're reading the epistles, which are the letters the apostles wrote or people who were close to apostles wrote. You'll see them say, like Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and she's really saying Paul, a delegate of Jesus Christ. Just like we send delegates to go represent us and vote for us and all those things. They're delegates, okay? So, if you see somebody today and they say, "I'm an apostle," they're a liar. They're not an apostle. There were special qualifications for those apostles. In one of the qualifications where they had to be in close proximity of Christ and then after the resurrection, they had to be eyewitnesses of his resurrection because they went and gave testimony to that, what they personally saw in their acquaintance with Christ. And so, all the men were eyewitnesses to his resurrection. So, if you have someone today saying, "Yeah, I'm an apostle. I'm an apostle, so and so," and sometimes people like to give themselves fancy titles or something. I had one coming to the court a few years ago and he had a flowing mantle around his neck as he came in. Looked like he was filing bankruptcy. And he came to the bankruptcy window and I watched him. I thought, "Oh my goodness." So, I just, my curiosity, opened the door when he got through with his business. I said, "Sir, what is that around you, Nick?" I said, "That's my mantle. I'm an apostle." I'll let in that some. Here's an apostle filing bankruptcy. He can't get his doctrine right and he can't get his checkbook right. He's wrong in both accounts. So, but out of these, if you look back here in Luke 6, it says in verse 13, "And when it was day he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles. He named them his delegates." Here they are, 14, "Simon, whom he also named Peter." Sometimes you'll hear them called Simon Peter, people will call them that. "And Andrew his brother, James, and John, Philip, and Bartholomew, Matthew, and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Silotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas the scariot, which also was the traitor." Okay, so, you know, there's more than one Judas. You have to know the difference between the two, and there's more than one Simon. You got to know the difference between the two there. So, anyway, he calls these. They're now his disciples. They're also apostles. He sends them out. And so that's the choosing. Now, from there I want us to go and look at the miracles that Christ performed. The miracles that Christ performed. If you'll give me just a moment here, and I want to have to, I have all these in my notes on Microsoft Word, and sometimes, for whatever reason, it doesn't update all of my devices, which I don't like. So, I'm going to just have to get here into my Bible and look up the places that I had already marked down. Okay, so give me just a moment here. We're going to stay here in the New Testament, of course. And if you would turn to the book of Luke, chapter 8. Just go a couple chapters over. Now, when we're looking at Jesus' miracles, here's what we have to understand. Apostles, that's a big deal. We didn't know there are no more of them. We are still following the apostles' teachings, but we're not following new apostles' teachings because there aren't any. But when it comes to miracles, and a lot of times people who claim to perform miracles claim to be an apostle today, and they're charlatans, and you need to know that they're charlatans. When we're looking at miracles, you have to look at the miracles that Jesus performed in the New Testament. A lot of the people that claim to be performing miracles today claim that they're doing the works of Christ like He did, and some of them claim to actually be doing greater works than what Jesus did based on a particular verse in the Bible, not understanding what it means. So let's look. How many of y'all have seen in a Pentecostal service someone claim to be performing a miracle? TV in person? Raise them high. I want to know. Okay, who has not? Just two people. You haven't? You're not sure? Okay. So, but everybody else but other than two or three. All right. So now, you can remember your experience, right? So let's just remember your experience. We've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. We've got at least seven people in here that have seen what was supposed to have been a miracle being performed at a Pentecostal service, all right? Or whether it's TV or on person. Now, keep those things in mind, and let's watch the miracles that Jesus performed. When you look in the Bible, miracles are not normative. They're peculiar occurrences that happen at special times in the Bible. Miracles were done to confirm messages to authenticate people that were sent out by God. They were not done just on a whim. They were not done like Harry Potter and performing some kind of, you know, making something fly around the room or something. It wasn't done to be spectacular. It was done to authenticate someone sent out by God. You did not see miracles in the majority of the Old Testament. Now, you get to the time of Moses. He performed miracles some to authenticate. He was sent out by God. Some of the prophets performed miracles to authenticate the Word of God that they were sent out by God, all right? But other than that, miracles weren't just things people just went around doing. Special men at special times. Now, you get to the New Testament. There's John the Baptist. Jesus said there's been no greater prophet than John the Baptist. John the Baptist, the Bible says, performed no miracle, not one. But Jesus performs miracles. So his apostles performed miracles. And then those miracles stopped after the Word of God was authenticated. Jesus performed miracles showed he was sent forth from God. His apostles performed miracles showed they were sent forth from Jesus. They were his of delegates. So all that makes sense to you. Outside of that, there's no reason to be performing miracles. If God wanted us to be performing miracles, they would no longer be miraculous. They would actually be normative. It'd just be part of everyday life. We'll just go around performing miracles. But if you'll look here now in Luke chapter 8 verse 43, we're going to see the purpose of these miracles and that they do not only authenticate that Jesus was sent out by God, but they actually powerfully demonstrate a particular truth of why he was sent out from him. Chapter 8 43, and a woman having an issue of blood, an issue means bleeding. She had blood loss 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. Man, if you've ever had a health problem and you spent your money, gone to doctor after doctor after doctor, they misdiagnose, misdiagnose, or they give you some way that they think you can be treated and get it, and it doesn't work. They can't fix you, but you know what? When they don't fix you, they still want their payment. Man, if someone brought a car to my dad when I was growing up and it didn't get fixed, they didn't want to pay for it again. They wanted it fixed. That way the doctors and this woman for 12 years had been dealing with this bleeding issue that she had. I believe it was internal bleeding, and she's done spent all she had on physicians and couldn't get any better. So we have a woman who had just about given up. Nothing else worked in this world. Now, if you'll look here, verse 44, see what this woman did. She came behind Jesus. She says, "Came behind him and touched the border of his garment, the hem of his clothes, and immediately her issue of blood stanched." No more bleeding. She was healed immediately. Isn't that amazing? And so, verse 45, "And Jesus said, 'Who touched me when all denied Peter and they that were with him, said, 'Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee,' and says, 'Thou who touched me?' And Jesus said, 'Somebody had touched me, for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me.' And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, falling down before him. She declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, 'Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made the whole go in peace.'" What we see by this woman being healed by Jesus, we see that when everything else hasn't worked in life, Jesus is always the one who can fix your problem. When you've tried everything in life, you've tried drugs, you've tried alcohol, you've tried counseling, you've tried fun, partying, work, career, you've tried everything in life to have some type of fullness, some type of purpose, some type of peace in your heart, and you still can't get rid of the guilt, can't get rid of the emptiness, can't get rid of the lack of purpose. I remember talking to an atheist a while back, and this atheist said, 'There is no purpose to life.' And he's trying to do those things, career, money, whatever, fame. He's trying it all. And you know what? When you've tried it all, praise God, there's Jesus. And Jesus can make you whole. Now let's see another miracle that Jesus did. Turn here, if you would, to the Gospel of John. Actually, turn to Mark 2. Mark 2. Mark 2. We'll start in verse 1. "And again he entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house." In other words, word got out that he was in this particular house. "In straight way many were gathered together, in so much that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door, and he preached the word into them." In other words, the house was full, there's no way to get in. "And they come into him, bringing one sick of the palsy." Now, palsy was a paralytic. It means they were paralyzed, all right? "Which was born of four, and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press," in other words, because it was so crowded, "they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay." Now these are some people that want their loved one healed. They say, "Well, we can't get them into the door. We'll make a door." They get up on top of the roof. And I'm sure Jesus is in there, and he's teaching, and all these people are having a good time. Next thing you know, you see stuff falling from the ceiling, and you see sunlight coming through. What in the world is going on? Next thing you know, they're letting someone down. There's a crippled man sick of the palsy. You all know what a paralyzed person looks like, right? A paralyzed person isn't like some of these scammers you see on TV, where they're out there begging in a wheelchair, and then something happens, and the police come by, or whatever, and they get up and run away. Now, a person who's been paralyzed a long time, is that what he does? Yeah, a person who's been paralyzed a long time, they have muscular atrophy. Their muscles dry up, because they don't get used, and they're just skinny. There's nothing there. They're just skinny? Yeah. Well, so they let this paralyzed man down. He's in bed. He can't walk. Apparently, he can't even sit up. And they let him down on his bed, and there he is, laying there. He's a pitiful case. Now, let's see what happens. Verse 5, "When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.'" Now, you would think that that's not at all what Jesus would say. You would think He would say, "Oh, I see you're crippled. You want some help?" He just totally ignored the body problem. He said, "Oh, your sins are forgiven. I see you have faith in me," which He did. And so He said, "Your sins are forgiven." But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why did this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?" They didn't believe He was God. They were there to hear His teaching, but not because they wanted to learn from Him. They were there because they wanted to find something to criticize Him on, something to go, "Oh, I got you. I got you." And so something to trip Him up on. So He says in front of all of them on purpose, "Your sins are forgiven." They're saying, "Who can forgive sins but God?" Verse 8, "And immediately when Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, 'Why reason, ye these things in your hearts?'" He knew what they were thinking because He's God. And so He asked them in verse 9, "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the policy that thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, 'Arise and take up thy bed and walk?'" They said, "What is it easier for me to say, 'Your sins are forgiven?'" Or is it easier for me to say to that paralyzed man, "Get up and walk." In fact, don't just walk. You carry your bed out of here. Now, which would be easier? Yeah, just say, "Your sins are forgiven." And everyone's like, "Oh, He can't forgive sins." "Oh, yes, I did. They're forgiven." "You don't know. There's no way to prove it." And so they're all listening to them. And so Jesus said in verse 10, "But that ye may know," this is the reason He's about to perform this miracle, "that ye may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins," and He says to the sick of the policy, look in verse 11, "I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thy house." And immediately He arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw it on this fashion, or we never saw anything like this." So now Jesus proved through the performing of this miracle, through restoring this man physically, that He has the power to restore people spiritually, because one is definitely harder than the other in the eyes of man. And so when you're looking at the sick of the policy, He couldn't... Now the woman that had the issue of blood, she tried everything. She represents those people who've tried everything. The man who was sick of the policy, he represents the people who have absolutely no ability at all. They can't do anything. Their friends have to even carry them. They're completely incapable of saving themselves from their sins. They're completely, pathetically incapable of doing anything to please God. And so here's Jesus, and He says, "Though you have no ability at all, I'm telling you, get up and walk. And I have no ability at all. We have no ability at all to please God. But through what Christ has done for us, we have that ability to please Him, because He did it all for us. Jesus did the work and the man walked in the power of what God did for him. Jesus did the work for us on the cross. We walk in the power of what He did for us." We've got time for... Man, it's almost time to go. Let me tell you the other one. We don't have time to turn there. These lepers come to Jesus. The lepers come to Jesus, and they say, "Lord, there's this one particular leper." He said, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." Because in the Old Testament, if you had leprosy, you were considered unclean. Not unclean, you know, in the sense of having dirt on you, but unclean ceremonially, okay? And so they were considered unclean. And so He comes to Jesus and says, "Lord, if you will, you can. I know you can make me clean. I know you can heal this leprosy if you will." And Jesus said, "I will be thou clean." And immediately His leprosy went away. He was clean. And then He was told to go show Himself to the priest of the temple because back then, when leprosy was healed and it went away, they were supposed to show themselves to the priest, and the priest would pronounce them clean to all Israel. And so Jesus was showing us in that miracle. Can anyone guess spiritually what that miracle proved to us? Think about it. Huh? No. Sin is the true uncleanness. Sin is our true moral uncleanness. And when someone had leprosy back then, man, they just figured, "I'm done. I'll have this stuff from now on. I can't shake this stuff." But no matter how bad you've been in life, no matter what you've done, how filthy of a person you are, God can make you clean through Jesus. His blood can wash away all sins. Remember the baptism? John said, "I'm baptizing you. I'm washing you with water. Someone's going to come and wash you off with the Holy Spirit because we have to be washed on the inside." By Jesus cleaning this man physically on the outside, he shows us he has power to clean his spiritually on the inside through his perfect life and sacrificial death on our behalf. Last one. Don't have time to turn there. We should be walking out right now. There were more than one, but this one particular man was a man named Lazarus. Remember the man we looked at last time? Someone asked about three days. Was that you? Remember we said on the fourth day, his sister said when Jesus said, "Roll the stone back," she said, "Lord, by this time he stinks." Do you know what she was telling him? She was saying, "It's too late, Jesus. It's too late for him. It's too late to do anything for Lazarus. He's all rotten by now, all swelling up and bloated and everything. It's too late for Lazarus." Jesus had them roll that stone back and he said, "Lazarus, come forth." Lazarus stood up and that dead man came back to life and he said, "Take those grave clothes off of them, unwrap them and let them go." What do we learn from Jesus' miracle with Lazarus? Do you know what he's saying? You get it right away. It's never too late. You're never too far gone for God to save you. And so all of these miracles were done for specific reasons. Now, go back real quick to the miracles that you've seen in the Pentecostal services. Have you all saw someone get raised from the dead? No hands. Have you all saw someone with clear blemishes on their body like leprosy? And then the preacher speaks, "Y'all see those scars on my fingers? I scraped my fingers on some plexiglass this week." Man, they were bleeding and everything. That's nothing like leprosy, but how would you like it if someone said, "Be clean," and suddenly, "Boom!" Have you all seen anything like that in the miracles? None of you? Have you all saw somebody in these miracles not sitting in a wheelchair but someone who clearly was a quadriplegic? Quadriplegic, they're like this man laying in bed. They probably got drool coming down here. They got atrophy. You know what those people look like. And have you all saw a known quadriplegic? And the preacher say, "Rise, take up your wheelchair and get out of here." And suddenly, "Pshh!" Have you all seen anything like that? Nobody? They do things that cannot be confirmed is what they do. I've seen them. I've been to those services. Someone will come in and they'll be limping like this. Suddenly, they'll bonk them in the head and they'll, "Woooo!" You know? Jesus did perform miracles like that. Jesus healed people who were truly blind, who were born blind, and the community knew they were blind. And then they could see people that had been sitting out begging for years with crippled legs and now they can walk. The reason you don't see miracles like that today is because miracles are not being done. And the people who claim they're performing these miracles, if they want to do a real miracle, go down to the funeral home. I mean Jesus went to the cemetery, right? He went to the cemetery. Go down to the funeral home while everyone's weeping and saying it's too late. You know, not just the funeral home, go out to the cemetery and say, "Dig them up!" And say, "Whoever come forward," and that casket opened, they come out. We're not seeing that today because the people who claim to be performing these are false teachers. Don't fall for them. Frauds compare everything that you hear and see that's being taught and being said and being performed to God's Word. With that, we'll go ahead and stop. Lord willing, take back up next week.