The Men God Chooses and Uses: Simon, James and Judas

Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for the wonderful salvation that comes through grace. Thank you, Lord, that you, in your marvelous mercy, have bestowed upon us the grace that saves us from our sin. Thank you, Lord, that what it is you give we cannot earn. But, Lord, it's because of your great and wonderful love you save us. Today, Lord, as we examine what it is God does with his people, may we truly come to grips with what it is you're doing in our lives, that we might live for the glory and honor of God.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. This morning, we're going to continue our study of the apostles, and we're going to end our study in the next couple of weeks by looking at the last man in the list, Judas Iscariot. But today, we begin our study of the section of the final four of these apostles. We've already covered the first eight, and we've been going through them one by one.

Hopefully, you are learning about yourself as you understand these men, because these men show us the kind of men God chooses and the kind of men God uses for his glory and for his honor. So, I don't know what it is you have learned about yourself. I don't know what you've learned at all about what it is God's trying to teach you through the study of these men. Some of you might be thinking, why don't you just read the list of men and move on so we can get through the gospel of Luke? But the bottom line is, is because they're listed in the text, they are significant men.

We already know about their destiny. We know that they're going to be on those cornerstones in the new city of Jerusalem. In the eternal city of God, each apostle has his name on the foundation stones in that new city. So, these men are very valuable when it comes to realizing the destiny that God has prescribed for them. We've been looking at their identity by helping us understand who they are, because they're listed in the Bible. But the remarkable thing about these men is that as you go through the list, there is less information about the men in those lists.

In fact, as you read through the list, you find very little information about some of them. Some of them only have their name mentioned in the Bible. You'd think that these men who have their names written on the foundation stones of the eternal city, these men that God chose to move His plan throughout the ages, these men that God chose to be the first generation of great preachers, you'd think that the Bible would be filled with information about them, but it's not.

In fact, for the most part, there's little information about these men. The Gospels is about their training ground, how it is that the Lord trained them to be used. And when you get to the book of Acts and the church is birthed, then you realize that Peter and John are the predominant ones. A little bit about James, the first apostle to be martyred, but that's all the book of Acts talks about.

What about Matthew? What about Andrew? Philip? Nathaniel? Thomas? Where are all those guys? How come they're not mentioned? How come there's an emphasis on their invisibility, in their obscurity? That baffles me, because you'd think that these men that God chose, that the book of Acts would be filled with information about how would they take the gospel and preach it worldwide. How it is these men would be used in a very heroic way, but there's very little at all known about their heroism. But yet, they are the men God chose.

And so as I have the opportunity with you to study them, I am more and more intrigued by the fact that the Lord says very little, if any, about them. Because really, truly the whole message of the cross is about Christ himself. And they provide a great example for us that it's really not about the vessels that God uses, as much as it is about the Lord God himself, and how he is portrayed through those vessels. So we begin to see these men. We study them because they're in the text, and we want to get acquainted with them because these are the ones that God chose.

And so as we go through the list, we're learning about each of these men, and hopefully you have seen something about them. Maybe you've never seen before, but you've seen yourself in the lives of these men. Today, as we embark on the final four of these men, we're going to cover three of them, three of them this morning. And then next week and the week after, we're going to look at Judas Iscariot and try to understand a little bit more about his life.

But as we've studied the identity of these men, as we've studied the destiny of these men, we need to also understand the durability of these men. These men made a strong commitment to follow Christ. Strong commitment. They were truly desirous of following the Lord God. Let me give you an example.

Turn with me to your Bible to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. We're quite a few months away from Luke chapter 9. Somebody asked me, where do you think we'll be in the new year, 2009 in January? I said, well, as it is now, we'll probably be in Luke chapter 8 in January of 2009. But who knows how long it's going to take us to get through each of these verses in the gospel. But in Luke chapter 9, we have some of the harsh words of our Lord as he explains to people the high cost of following him. It was the late great preacher and author, Henry Drummond, who was asked to speak at a very elite club called the West End Club in London.

And he was asked to come and address those who would be there. By the time he arrived, everyone was seated. Everyone was ready to hear what he had to say. And he began his message with these words, gentlemen, the entrance fee into the kingdom is free, but the annual subscription will cost you everything. Well, those words that he spoke ring true of the gospel as our Lord would preach it weekend and week out. Listen to this. Luke chapter 9, verse 57. And as he were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.

Now you can imagine the scene, right? I mean, Jesus had scores of people following him. He had multitudes. He had thousands of people following him. He was the most popular thing going. I mean, the miracles he performed were, there's nothing you can compare to it. The way he healed people. And so here comes Jesus. He's walking on a road and someone says to him, Hey, Jesus, you know what? I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus could have said, great, come on, join the crowd, be among the multitude.

But instead Jesus says, the foxes have holes. The birds have air birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. You want to follow me? Understand when you follow me, you got to put comfort, clothes, currency out of your vocabulary. I'm the son of man. I had no place to lay my head to follow me is the high cost. If you want to follow me, you have no place to lay your head as well. To another, Christ says, follow me.

But the man says, permit me first to go and bury my father. Let me go bury my father. For example, the connotation here is his father's not dead yet. In Judaism, when someone dies, you bury them the same day, the very day. Well, the connotation is he's not dead yet, but when my father dies, I'll follow you. My father finally kicks the bucket.

He's nowhere a part of the plan. Lord, I'll be free to follow you. Listen to what the words of the Lord said. Allow the dead to bury their own dead. As for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. Wow. Kind of harsh, isn't it? Let the dead bury their own dead. As for you, you need to follow me. And then it says, another also said, I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home.

Let me go back and spend some time with the family and say goodbye to my mom, my dad, my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt, my uncle.

And Jesus said to him, no one putting his hand to plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I say, wow, Jesus didn't say it very nice, did he? But you know what? Amidst all the people who followed Christ, they followed him because of his miracles. They followed him because of just the amazing things he did. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he immediately thinned out the crowd. He immediately drove people away. They were on the bandwagon for a while. They were excited about the movement that took place in Galilee, the movement that was happening in the regions of Judea.

They wanted to be a part of this great momentum swing in the land of Israel. So they would get on the bandwagon. And as soon as Jesus would gather the multitudes around, he'd begin to speak to them. They would leave in droves. Turn to John chapter six for a moment. Let me give you another illustration of this.

Now remember, the twelve were a part of this. Jesus said to them, follow me. Said to James and John, the sons of Zebedee, they left their nets, they left their father, they left their future. They followed him. Followed it. They began to understand the implications of following Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But for the most part, people didn't do that. And so when Christ would gather crowds and they would be gathered because in John chapter six, he feeds what is commonly called the five thousand.

It's way beyond that, more like 20,000. He fed all these people. They wanted to take him by force and make him their king. He would escape out of the crowd and he would move on. Later on in chapter six, he would walk on the water as he would send his men out into a boat. Knowing about what was going to happen in their lives, he would walk on water and he would show them once again that he was sovereign over nature. He was sovereign over all things. He's the all powerful God. He gets into a discussion in the synagogue at Capernaum about his identity, about how it is he has come down out of heaven.

He is that bread of heaven. He is the one that will feed man. He is the one that will supply all the needs of man. He's engaged in this conversation and listen to what he says in John six, verse number 53. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Christ is saying, look, if you take me in, that is, he's not talking literally about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

He's talking about how it is we accept and internalize him as our Lord and God that we embrace all there is of Christ. We embrace his humanity. We embrace his deity in the context. We are embracing the fact that it is a son of man who came down from his father in heaven and he is that bread that we are to partake of, that we are to put our teeth into and wholly accept internally. That's the emphasis. It says in verse number 59 that he said these things while in a synagogue at Capernaum. Verse 60 says, many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a difficult statement.

Who can listen to it? This is hard. See, they were willing to accept the fact that he could deliver people who were demon possessed. They could accept that. They liked that. They liked the fact that he healed those who were ill and made them well. They liked that. They liked the fact that he could feed anybody at will, thousands of people at just a spoken word. He could do anything he wanted. They liked that. But to embrace him as God in the flesh, to believe every word that he says about himself, they weren't willing to accept that.

That's not where they wanted to go. They liked the fact that Jesus did things for them, but they were unwilling to accept the words that Jesus spoke. So they found his words to be difficult. They found them to be hard. And so Jesus says these words, verse 61, but Jesus conscious that his disciples grumbled at this.

Now his disciples are not the twelve. We'll see them distinguished from this group of disciples in a moment. Remember, Christ had a multitude of disciples who followed him. People who wanted to learn from him, who wanted to follow him, and there were varying degrees of where they were spiritually, but only a few committed themselves to him. Just because you are a disciple, a learner, doesn't mean you are a Christian. But if you are a Christian, you automatically are a disciple, a learner. That's a very important distinguishing mark you need to make.

So these disciples, these learners, these followers of Christ, and there were a myriad of them, heard him say, this is hard for us to accept. And they began to grumble among themselves. Well, he knows they're grumbling, so this is what he says. Does this cause you to stumble? Does this bother you? Is this a problem for you? You know, every time Jesus spoke, it was a problem for somebody. I mean, Jesus didn't speak words and everybody said, oh wow, this guy is so wonderful, we just love this guy. He caused people to stumble.

It's the word skandalizzo. It's a word to scandalize someone. It's a word to cause them to fall violently. Does this cause you to stumble? Is this a problem for you? Bill St. Louis says, what then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It's hard for you to accept that I came down out of heaven. It's hard for you to accept that I am the bread of heaven. It's hard for you to accept that my Father in heaven gave me to you, that I came down out of heaven to you, that I am God incarnate.

Would you believe if I ascended back up into heaven right before you? Would you believe that? Oh, by the way, he would ascend back into heaven. It's almost like a foretaste of what's going to happen in the future. But would you believe if I ascended back up into heaven? Would you believe that I came down from heaven if I went back to heaven? Verse 63, it is a spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. That picks up on the analogy of verse 53.

The words that I give you are truly your life. They are your sustenance. And if you're unwilling to accept the fact that I tell you who I am, that I am God in the flesh, that I came down out of heaven, if you refuse to accept that, you have no life. You will die in your sins. So he goes on to say, but there are some of you who do not believe. You disbelieve. You refuse to believe in my identity. Oh, you like to believe in what I've done for you by performing miracle after miracle after miracle. You kind of like those kinds of things.

But when it comes to the reality of a commitment to follow me, hook, line, and sinker, because I am God in the flesh, that's not something you necessarily want to do. Verse 64 goes on and says, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him. And he was saying, for this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father. I want to tell you something. I know which of you who believe and which of you don't believe.

And I will let you know that there's absolutely no way you'll ever come to me unless my father grants you that path. You'll never come. People get offended by that. What do you mean I can't come to Jesus unless the father draws me? What is that? If I want to accept Jesus, I'll accept him. If I don't want to, I won't accept him. No, no, unless the father draws you, you'll never come. Now read on. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. They went away.

They wanted nothing to do with this Jesus who made demands upon their lives. They wanted nothing to do with him. And so, verse 67, Jesus said therefore to the twelve, so now we know that the twelve are distinguished from the other disciples. The twelve are disciples who will soon become apostles, the sent ones to go and preach the gospel. They are among the crowd of disciples, but these are the twelve. These are the ones that Christ chose. Jesus says you do not want to go away also, do you?

You guys going to go? Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. He speaks in the plural. This is what we believe. We believe that your words are eternal. We believe you are the holy one of God. We believe that you are the one who came down out of heaven. We believe that you will one day ascend back up into heaven. We believe your words. We embrace you as Christ. We embrace you as human, God in human flesh.

We embrace your incarnation. We embrace you as the holy one of God. Yes, Lord, that's what we believe. Jesus says are you guys going to go away too?

And they said no, we're not going anywhere. Why? Because when God calls you to himself, there's an essence of durability that keeps you keeping on because you are completely committed to the Lord Christ. Did they deny him? Yes, they did. But if truth be known, all of us deny the Lord at certain times in our lives. It's just that Peter's denial is on the face of and we can read about it all the time. Yours is not printed anywhere. Neither is mine. But there are times that we deny our Lord, maybe not with our words, but with our actions.

We deny him as Lord of our life. We deny him as a savior of our souls. We don't necessarily come out and say it that way, but we live a life that might be contrary to what it is we say we believe. That's denying Christ as master and Lord. So Christ says you guys going to go away too?

Oh no, Peter says not us, man. We believe that your words are eternal. We believe that you are Messiah. We believe that you are the holy one of God. He speaks in terms of all of the men, meaning that Peter believes that all 12 of them believe the same thing, including Judas Iscariot. Jesus answered, verse 70, did I myself not choose you, the 12? Yet one of you is the devil. Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him. See, the Lord knows what's in your heart.

That was said earlier in the text. So the Lord knows who it is who would believe in him. He knew that Judas would not believe in him. He knew that. The other 12 did not. The other 11 did not. But Jesus knew. But I say that to you because these men, amidst all their invisibility, amidst all their obscurity, there was great durability for them to continue on in their service of the king when the majority of people, when they heard his words, would leave. These men provide for us an example of true discipleship, true commitment, a true life with God.

Even though we might read about them and know nothing about them, we know, we know because of those foundation stones in the eternal city of God, that their names are there. These men God chose. These men became the first generation of great preachers.

These men carried out the redemptive plan of God. These men were used in such a way that because of them we have heard and received the gospel today. And yet, for the most part, we know very little, if anything, about them. And it kind of helps me understand that, you know, we so desperately want people to know who we are. Why? Because we think we're important. And just because nobody knows who you are doesn't mean you're not important. If the Lord knows who you are, that's really all that matters.

But, you know, in our carnality that's just not enough for us. We've got to have the printed page. We've got to have the opportunity to be known worldwide. We want people to know our name. We need to make sure that people know the name of Christ. The name of Christ. That's important. That's why the name of this church is Christ's Community Church. Christ's Community Church. That's why the pastor's name is not written on the outside of the building. Christ's Community Church. Pastor Lance Bartlett.

Who cares? Who cares who the pastor is? This is Christ's Community Church. This is Christ's Church. He's the one whose name is emphasized. And that's the way we like it. Because that's the way it should be. It's about the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Enough of the introduction. Three men. James, the son of Alphaeus. Simon, the zealot. And Judas, the son of James. These three, along with Judas Iscariot, make up the last four of our list in Luke chapter 6. And you know what? Not one word is mentioned in the Bible about James, the son of Alphaeus.

So how does a preacher preach on someone of whom the Bible speaks nothing of? That's the challenge of the preacher. How do I say something about someone the Bible says nothing about?

Well, all we know is his name. James, the son of Alphaeus. We know from the gospel record that in Mark's account, Mark 15 40, he's called James the Less. James the Less. So James, the son of Alphaeus, is James the Less. The Greek word mikros is a word that speaks of little. So he's James the Little. So was he called James the Little because he was small in stature? We don't know. Was he called James the Little because he had little or no influence? We don't know. Was he called James the Little because he was younger than James, the brother of John?

And so mikros can be used of any one of those characteristics. But is that why James was called James the Little? We don't know. We know nothing about James, the son of Alphaeus. All we know is that his name is on the foundation stones of the eternal city of God. All we know is that God chose him. God chose him to live a life of invisibility. And maybe that's God's choice for you to live in complete obscurity so no one will know much at all, if anything, about who you are. But because of your ministry, people will come to know Christ, the one they need to worship and adore.

I guess I guess I'm taken back by the fact that we don't have anything about the man. One interesting note that you might want to to mark down is that in Mark chapter 2 verse number 14, remember we studied the life of Matthew? We looked at Matthew in Luke 5 when we studied through Luke, through the gospel of Luke. We looked at Matthew last week in Matthew chapter 9. But if you read about Matthew in Mark chapter 2, Matthew is called the son of Alphaeus. Could it be that James the less, James the little, is the brother of Matthew?

Could be. We don't know. All we know is that Matthew was the son of Alphaeus according to Mark 2 14. And James is the son of Alphaeus according to Luke chapter 6. So maybe he's the brother of Matthew. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? But turn with me to John chapter 19 and we'll look at something else about James that might be of interest to you.

Maybe it's not of interest to you, but it should be. It's in the Bible so hopefully it's of interest to you to some degree. Okay? John 19 verse number 25 and we're going to see something about James that maybe you did not know. John 19 verse number 25 tells us that there were three Marys at the cross. You know? Three Marys at the cross. There was Mary, the mother of Jesus. You can read it, John 19 verse 25. Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Know what your Bible says? Okay. Now think about this.

If I am the mother of Mary, the mother of Jesus and the Lord gave me another daughter, would I name her Mary? So I have two Marys. Hi, this is my daughter Mary. This is my other daughter Mary. Does anybody do that? No, people don't do that. So when it says that Mary, the wife of Clopas is the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, she's probably the sister-in-law of Mary. Mother of Jesus. You with me so far? Okay. Clopas is another word for Alphaeus. Mary, wife of Alphaeus. If Mary, wife of Alphaeus is the sister-in-law of Mary, mother of Jesus, that means that Alphaeus and Joseph were brothers, right?

Making James, the less, the son of Alphaeus, the cousin of Jesus. So if I'm James, the little, I want to be more than just a little. I want to be a lot. So I'm going to tell everybody, hey, I'm James. I'm the cousin of Jesus. I'm Jesus' cousin. I'm related to Jesus. You think that gives them some kind of clout, right? Maybe, just maybe, we don't know, in the discussions about who was the greatest in the kingdom, that maybe James, the son of Alphaeus, his argument was, well, I'm the cousin of Jesus.

If anybody's going to be great, it's going to be me, not you guys, because I'm related to him by birth. Maybe. We don't know. All we know is that he was chosen by God to be used in a great and mighty way, and we know virtually nothing about the man. Are you content with no one ever knowing anything about who you are? Are you content just being who you are without receiving publicity, notoriety, popularity? You know, it's a good lesson for high school students, isn't it? Boy, they want to be popular.

They want to be known. They want everybody on campus, BMOC, big man on campus, or BWOC, big woman on campus. We want people to know who we are, and we're offended when we're in obscurity, as if we don't matter, really. Teach your children about James, the son of Alphaeus. The Bible virtually says nothing about the man, except he's called James the Little. Whether it's little influence, little in age, little in stature, we do not know, because the Bible doesn't say. But God chose him, and God used him to carry out the greatest plan on earth, the presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Great story about a great man that we know nothing about. Then there's Simon the Zealot. He's next on the list. Simon the Zealot. Again, there's nothing in the Bible about Simon the Zealot. James, son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, have no record of any conversation that they had. They never asked a question. They were never used by God to do anything heroic in the gospels. You know nothing about them, except their names. Just their names. Simon the Zealot. Who is Simon the Zealot? Could it be that Simon was a part of that group in Judaism?

There were four major groups in Judaism. There were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots, right? The Pharisees were the, quote, religious people. The Sadducees were the liberal theologians. The Essenes were that monastic group of individuals who lived in the Judean wilderness, in the desert. Here are the Zealots, who were zealous for the law of God. They got that name because of their desire and hunger to separate Judea from Rome. To somehow make themselves separate so that Rome did not overtake them.

And they became a powerful group of people because they were murderers. They were assassins. They would look to kill Rome and all of their influence in their lives. And so you can understand why Simon the Zealot might get excited about Jesus of Nazareth. If this truly is the Messiah, and I follow this Messiah, I'm going to be right in the group of those who rid Israel from Roman occupancy, from Roman leadership. So maybe Simon's objective when it first began was a little different than when it was all said and done.

But these Zealots were powerful people. So powerful that Rome decided to destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD and did. And there were about 960 Jews who would flee Jerusalem, and they would make their way down the Judean wilderness to a place called Masada. Those of you who have been there know the story about the 960 Jews. They were Zealots who were on top of Masada, led by a Zealot named Eleazar. And they were able to withstand the Roman army for approximately three years until Rome was able to build a ramp up on top of Masada.

If you've been to Masada, it's an impregnable fortress. You can't just attack Masada. You have to build a ramp to get your army up there. And that's what Rome did. And all 960 people committed suicide because they weren't going to be taken by the Romans, except for two women and three children. And that's how we know the story. And Josephus speaks to us about the story of Masada. But Simon was a Zealot. Now think about this. If Simon was of that political party that wanted to rid Israel of any kind of Roman influence, and he, listen, was chosen along with Matthew, a tax gatherer, who was bought by Rome to take money from Jewish people, there wouldn't be a lot of friendship between the two.

In fact, Simon the Zealot, on any normal day, would love to have taken a knife and thrust it into the side of Matthew and be done with him. But when the Spirit of God invades a life, transforms a life, saves a soul, everything changes. And part and parcel to what Christ was doing was showing us how it is that people from different persuasions, different aspects of life, different cultures, can coexist together as one in the body of Christ. And as he was picturing to us these two men, Matthew, a tax gatherer, bought by Rome to take money from Jewish people, and Simon the Zealot, a one who hated Rome and wanted to destroy all those who came against Israel, he was putting two men together that would picture for us how it is we can live together in the body of Christ, because we have a commonality in the Spirit of God who has brought us together.

That's all we know, Simon the Zealot. The Bible records no conversation, no question, he wasn't asked to do anything, that's it. And then we have Judas, son of James. Judas, son of James. He is number 11 on the list. Judas, son of James, had several, several names. He had the name Judas, not Iscariot. Okay? He spent his whole life telling people he was Judas, not that Judas. Okay? How would you like to be known for who you're not, right? So he was known as Judas, not Iscariot, Judas, son of James.

He also had the name Labias and Thaddeus. Those presumably were probably nicknames given to him. Why? Well, Thaddeus was a name that means breast child, probably given that name through his family, because he was close to home, maybe youngest of the family, but he was close to his mother, maybe, as to why he was called Thaddeus. Labias means heart child. Okay? Some people believe that spoke of his courage, his strength, that he gave his whole heart to certain aspects, to his life and to the things he did.

We don't know for certain, but this man, Judas, not Iscariot, Judas, son of James, known as Labias or Thaddeus, did speak one time in the Bible, and that's in John chapter 14. If you have your Bible, turn there with me, if you would, please. John chapter 14, he did ask a question. John 14, verse number 21, Christ is on the eve of the crucifixion. He is speaking about comfort for his men. He was speaking about his life, their lives. Listen to what he says, verse number 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me shall be loved by my father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him.

Who does Jesus disclose himself to? Those who love him, those who keep his commandments. If I love the Lord, I obey the Lord, and if I love the Lord and obey the Lord, Jesus says, I will manifest myself to you.

I will let you see who I am. I will help you understand my identity. If you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ and don't obey his commandments, you will never understand who Jesus is, never will. So, the Bible says in verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, it's the man's name, said to him, Lord, what then has happened that you are going to disclose yourself to us and not to the world?

Only time he speaks. There it is. Now, I know he spoke a lot more than that, but this is the only time it's recorded in the Bible that he says anything at all. Lord, Lord, what's happened? That you would only disclose yourself to us and not to the world. If you're going to bring the kingdom and you're the king, don't you want the people of the kingdom to know who the king is? It would seem, Lord, that that would be the direction. Remember, this is a man who is called Leibas, heart child. Here is a man whose heart was totally committed.

Here's a man whose heart was fully consumed with that in which he engaged in, and he was engaged in the Christ. Well, Lord, why is it you would disclose yourself to us and not to the people who need to know that you're the king? Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him and will come to him and make our abode with him.

He who does not love me does not keep my words. The word which you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me. Listen, Judas, not Iscariot, Judas, son of James, Thaddeus, Leibas, breast child, heart child, listen to what I'm going to tell you. If you love me, you'll keep my words, and you will totally see and understand who I am. The reason people don't see me is because they refuse to accept me as their king. They refuse to believe the words that I've spoken to them. That takes us back to John chapter 6 that began our discussion this morning.

They refuse to believe that Jesus was sent from heaven. They refuse to believe the words that he spoke. They love the works that he did. They just hated the words that he spoke. Jesus says in John 14, listen Judas, not Iscariot, if they truly love me, they're going to keep my words.

They're going to believe my words. They're going to believe in what I have said, and I will truly manifest myself to them. That's the only time he speaks, but it helps us understand why people don't see Jesus, right? We know that Satan has blinded the mind of the unbeliever, 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. We know that John says that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, and man does not see Jesus because he loves his sin more than he loves to be saved from his sin. It's as simple as that, and therefore the Lord does not disclose himself to them, but the only way that person will ever see the Messiah is if the Father draws him to himself.

We read about that in John chapter 6 as well, but here's a story about three men, James, the son of Alphaeus, which the Bible speaks nothing about, Simon, the zealot, two men for all practical purposes who are invisible when it comes to things they did, words they spoke, and then you have Judas who's not Iscariot setting the tone for us for next week. If you love me, I will manifest myself to you. If you keep my words, you will see me, you will hear me, you will believe in me, and that sets the tone for us for the next man, Judas Iscariot.

Each of us can see a part of our lives in all 12 of these men. Some of you, some of you see yourself in Peter, others in John, others in James, some in Matthew, some in Simon, the zealot, fiery kind of people, some in James, the son of Alphaeus, no one even knows your name, you live in obscurity. Unfortunately, there will be some, even at Christ Community Church, who find themselves in Judas Iscariot, people who look like everybody else, people who claim to name Christ as the Holy One of Israel, people who even preach the gospel, cross-culturally, but yet, do not have a relationship with the living God, that's Judas Iscariot.

How can that be? How could someone so tied in to who Jesus is, having been chosen specifically by Jesus, not believe in Jesus, not love Jesus? When the Bible says in John 13, that he loved his own, even to the end.

How is it Judas, having been loved by our Lord, was not able, capable, or willing to love him in return? That's next week. You come, we'll see. Let's pray. Father, thank you for today, Lord, the opportunity you give us to study your word, so much, Lord, that we don't understand, and yet we believe in who you are and what you've done, and trust you as our God and Savior. We pray that, Lord, you do a great and mighty work in all of our lives, that we will be followers of the Jesus Christ that we know.

In your name we pray, amen.