Beginnings & The Twelve – How Jesus Trained the Twelve Disciples

I don’t think you caught that. Thomas has had it. ‘There’s Matthew. I don’t care if we’re going to have a kingdom. This whole thing is going mad.’ Does Matthew have a heart for the Lord? Does Thomas? Be patient with one another. Be patient with one another.

I’ve got a burden, and that is that the church in Goleta has more twelve-size experiences; a lot more. I really do. I think we’re going to have to learn to count as the Lord counted. I didn’t understand this some years ago, but experience shows that we have to count the way the New Testament counted. They always counted by men. Did you notice? Almost always. There were five thousand men, not counting women and children.

So I would say twelve men. Twelve men. Because after all, a wife is somewhat of an extension of her husband anyway. The sisters can all have their twelve-size problems in the same situation. We need brothers who don’t match one another. We really do. We need a Matthew and a Thomas. We really need a Matthew with a Thomas, and then we need a little time. We all need to learn how to be human, and we all need to know the Lord and know nothing but the Lord. That’s what the Lord subjected them to for three and a half years. You may think that that doesn’t appear again. Brothers, hide and watch. The principle won’t move. The principle won’t move.

The church here, and any church, must go through many, many stages. Don’t write it off at any stage. Give it time to learn to be human and get to know the Lord. We must not prejudge anything. I have said this once or twice before; I want to say it again, and I was hoping you could answer me quite frankly. If you walked into a fellowship of the body of Christ, and the first meeting you went to was the Lord’s Supper, and everybody got roaring drunk on the Lord’s Supper…I guess some of you may not think that’s possible. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s not only possible that it did happen, but it’s also still possible that it can happen. I’m very grateful that one night we had grape juice when we took the Lord’s Supper out here. Do you remember? Were you there? Boy, if that had been wine, we would have had ourselves a problem. It was all joy.

You stay a few days, and you find out there are four factions in the church. There’s the Jesus group, the Paul group, the Apollos group, and the Peter group. You stay a little longer and find out gross immorality has broken out, and nobody will name it. You go to the next meeting, and ten men get up at the same time and start preaching. And while they’re doing that, six or seven others are speaking in tongues, and two or three others are interpreting. That must have been quite a meeting, right?

You’ve all recognized the church by now, haven’t you? I could go on and on and on and on and on about that church and say things about it you wouldn’t believe. I really believe most of you have no idea what was going on in that church. Now you tell me how old it was when that happened. How old was that church when it was in that kind of a mess? And it was a mess. That church was six years old. I really mean this: unless the Lord gives us some real insight and revelation and opens our hearts, I’m afraid most of us in this room would pack our bags and leave. Would you not say so? Who said no? All right. Praise the Lord, I said, most of you.  Be careful that you don’t get caught being a silent figure because, brother, I’ll tell you, sometimes when the situation gets bad, you can cave in fast. I mean, I really admonish you all. Sometimes when a situation gets bad, you can cave in fast.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s been very merciful to us up until now; I really mean that. May His mercies continue, but we’re going to have to learn some of those other passages of Scripture in the New Testament that say something like being patient, forbearing, forgiving, you know, and waiting until our brother gets to be thirty years of age.

I want you to know something. I have not seen anything that disturbs me. I’ve seen brothers cut off their hands, pluck out their eyes, and pull a Thomas and all these other things, but just give everybody a chance to be thirty years old. Take a little time, and we’ll make it. We’re going to make it. With real confidence in one another, learning to be human, and if we give our time less to doctrines, thoughts, or concepts and more to knowing the Lord Jesus, we’ll make it.

Alright, this was the twelve-size group, and this is what the twelve went through. This is what the twelve went through.

Now, just one more word: brothers, in those last few days, the Lord threw off all things. This is the end of the train. He threw off all interest in everyone else. It has been estimated that Jesus Christ spent the last four months of His time with the twelve. The last week, except for coming into the city of Jerusalem on the donkey, He was never seen anywhere except with the twelve. I mean, the twelve were not seen anywhere but with the Lord. He spent almost all the last few months of His ministry with those twelve men, and at this time, He reveals the deep things. Brothers and sisters, you can praise the Lord for every one of those fellows, because each of them made a contribution.

Two apostles wrote Gospels. Who were they? Matthew and John. What kind of a Gospel did Matthew write? He wrote an outward Gospel. Are you grateful for that? What kind of Gospel did John write? An inward Gospel. Yet they saw exactly the same thing. I praise the Lord we had a John and a Matthew.

Praise God. Those men reached thirty years of age, brothers. They grew up in the Lord Jesus. But if you notice, so much of what they say they learned in those last few months is because the Lord began to put deep confidence in them. It takes some time to really lay down the heavy things.