Well, shalom, friends. That Hebrew greeting of peace takes on even more meaning in today's world, doesn't it? It reminds me that whether it's in trials or turmoil or war, the Lord Jesus' promise of peace is always constant. In fact, he said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I'm so glad that you're here tonight for our second lesson of this series, which is A Conversation of Parables. And this lesson is part of a greater series, which is called The Heart of Conversation, Lessons from Messiah Jesus. Now you heard in my first message that I was in Israel four months ago. And little did I think that Israel would be at war four months later. And so now I think about the places that I hiked, and the paths that I walked, and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and I think all those places are empty now. No visitors are there during those sites. So I do not take it lightly that my tour of Israel and this series on Messiah Jesus, which I designed in April, by the way, is a random occurrence. I think it was, it is, as it was said of Esther, it's for such a time as this. So I hope you don't mind if I take a few moments just to reflect on my thoughts about Israel's war, because it has become very personal to me. Our Jewish tour guide, Uncle Kenny, is how we refer to him. He lives in a kibbutz. And a kibbutz is a place of gathering. In fact, kibbutz in Hebrew means gathering. And there are about 270 kibbutzes in Israel. And typically, they're an agricultural community, anywhere from 100 members to 1,000 members. So we were concerned about Uncle Kenny, and he did get back to us, and he told us that his kibbutz was hit by missile attack, but they were not taken prisoner. So they were thankful for that. Their family is safe, and he wrote an email, and it said this, tell our friends to continue to pray for Israel and for peace. We appreciate your friendship and solidarity. So when I spoke in September, I said, I felt safe in Israel. Remember that? And I did. I did. And perhaps it was because no matter where I am, I feel safe in the arms of Jesus. But I must remember and remind myself that there are two kingdoms on this earth that are moving side by side. The world system of evil, headed up by Satan, in which the nations are constantly in conflict, and also the kingdom of God. So it's just as was written in Ephesians 6 by the Apostle Paul, that even though we see a physical war between flesh and blood, There is an even greater war going on today, and it's a spiritual warfare. So what we witnessed on October 7th was the work of Satan. According to Scripture, he hates Israel, and he wants to persecute its people and decimate its land. But he won't win. The Bible clearly shows that the Jewish nation is indispensable. And God has not cast away His chosen people. God is not done with Israel. He has a plan for Israel. Because all of God's purposes in salvation are channeled through that nation, which redemption flows. So the Jewish people are a blessing to us. And think about this. They have given us the Bible. the Holy Scriptures, and they have given us the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now what should we pray specifically for regarding Israel? That God will fight for Israel and enable the nation to defeat Hamas and restore peace in the land. Pray for Israel's leadership pray for the Israel Defense Forces and the Jewish people and those who were affected by this surprise attack as well. And also pray that this conflict will not only open the eyes of the Jewish people to their Messiah, but also people worldwide will see their need of Jesus Christ. And if you today are facing a problem, I would venture guess you are. Whether it's a health issue, whether it's financial concerns, problems in the family, problems on the church, problems on the job, pray. And I know that sounds cliché, but I can tell you that God has obligated Himself to hear the cries of His people. So let's go before the throne of grace before I begin my message. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You so much that we can always count on You, and we can count on Your Word because we stand on the truth of Your Word. And we know, Father, you are in control. And I'm so relieved to know that, that I'm not in control, but you are. So I pray, Father, we would trust in you, whether it's in our little world of our life, or a bigger world as we think of the world conflict. Thank you so much, Father, for this opportunity I have to share the word and the Lord Jesus Christ with these women. And I pray in the Lord Jesus' name, amen. Now people have asked us if we were at any of the sites that were attacked on October 7th. And we were. And even though we didn't go near the Gaza Strip, we were in Tel Aviv, we were in southern Israel, central Israel, we were at Jerusalem, and also we were at the northern border of Israel. We were at the location of ancient Hippas. We were at the crest of an isolated mountain. We were on the Mount Seseta, as it was called. And we had a panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee. But as we stood on this mountain, and this is a picture of where we were, just 200 yards to the right of us was Syria. We could take a stone, if you want, and throw it over there. That's how close we were to the border. And we know that Syria is a stronghold of Hezbollah. It's an enemy of Israel. And so at Hippas, we saw communication trenches, we saw small bunkers, we saw defense batteries, and also two permanent military structures. This was all part of the military heritage that had been left there from the 1967 Six-Day War. So as a result of that war, Israel gained control over the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus was at this site in his day. In fact, this is the Decapolis area, if you remember reading of that area in the Bible. And he was very active in this region. And it's not improbable that he walked these streets. So when I was walking these basalt flagstone street, I thought about that. And if you notice that those flagstones are arranged obliquely in order to prevent Roman wheel spokes from being stuck between the stones. because this was a Roman-controlled area, and yet the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace, walked this very area of Syria. So today we're going to be in the Galilee, that's where Hippas is actually, and I'm going to share our photos with you, I'm going to share also stories about how the Lord Jesus met the disciples, and also having conversations with others about parables in various locations. Now Jesus did not officially begin his ministry in the Galilee until John the Baptist had been put in prison. And the Jews had rejected the one who was the herald and preparing the way of the Lord for the Lord Jesus to arrive. And now our story begins where John the Baptist is in prison. We're going to read this scripture today that's going to serve as a foundation for my message. And so if you take your Bibles and turn to Mark 1, we'll be in verses 14 through 22. And if you don't have your Bibles with you, that's fine. Just look on the screen because I have the scriptures in front of you. Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. This was the gospel of the kingdom. And as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. So Messiah Jesus, as we see in this scripture, was a man of Galilee. And he spent most of his time in a place that was considered small even during his own time. He sent 60 to 70% of his ministry in the Galilee, particularly around the Sea of Galilee. And it was a place of a Roman district, and it was under the authority of Herod Antipas. It's a very green, lush area, ladies. And it's the area where the Lord Jesus preached, and He taught, and He healed for three and a half years. Nestled in the Jordan Valley, 700 feet below sea level, is the Sea of Galilee. It's about 70 miles north of Jerusalem. It's about 13 miles long, 7 1⁄2 miles wide, and in the middle of the sea, it's 150 feet deep. The sea resembles the shape of a harp. It's fed with fresh water that comes from the snow tops of Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon. It's also called the Sea of Tiberias or the Sea of Gennesaret. Now this sea has not changed since Jesus' day. The scenery, the smell, the sound of the waves is exactly the same. And I love that as I sat there at the Sea of Galilee. And just think, the Lord Jesus created this lake. He put it right in the Galilee, He scooped it right out with mountains on either side of it, and He did it when the world was created. He did it so it would be the arena of His ministry to humble people around the villages around this little lake. And the lake is so beautiful, it's so tranquil, and that's where our Savior chose to work and to teach. We had a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. It's a replica of a first century fishing boat. It was called the Faith Boat. And it had a Jewish believer in Yeshua as the captain. His name was Daniel Carmel. And he also had two other boats. He had the Hope Boat. And yes, he had the love boat, not to be confused with a romantic comedy on television with Gavin McLeod as the ship's captain. Before we set sail, we sang Israel's national anthem and also the American national anthem. The northern edge of the lake is one of the best fishing areas in Israel. At least 25 different species of fish are in the lake. And in Jesus' day, the livelihood of many around the lake depended upon the fish in the lake. Now ordinary people seldom ate meat, maybe once a week, but fish was their staple diet. And usually the fish was salted because there was no means of transporting fresh fish. So fish were preserved for export either to Jerusalem or to Rome, and the salt fish industry was big business in the Galilee. And the most important fish in the Sea of Galilee, can you guess what it is? Sardines. Yes, perhaps the little boy that had those two fishes and five loaves of bread had sardines in his lunch, which makes a miracle even more of a miracle when we think the Lord Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000 with two sardines. There are many harbors. There were many harbors around the Sea of Galilee. Over 16 ancient harbors have been discovered so far. And they were constructed to provide safe mooring facilities during those sudden storms that came up on the Sea of Galilee. And here we have the harbor at Magdala. And yes, it is a geographical connection to Mary Magdalene. And this center here was the center of fishing on the sea. And here we see these fishing installations built right there on the piers, and they were holding tanks for the storage of live fish. Now, Josephus, who was for a time the governor of Galilee, and who he is the great historian of the Jews, tells us that in his day there were 330 fishing boats that sailed the sea of Galilee. In 1986, a severe drought lowered the Sea of Galilee water level several feet below normal. And two brothers were walking along the Sea of Galilee, Moshe and Yuval, and they were searching the northwest shoreline just for artifacts. And there was the outline of a wooden boat. And by its method of construction and pottery vessels discovered with it, and the carbon-14 test, the boat could be conclusively dated to the first century. This ship could have been Peter's. Accommodating a crew of 15, this type of boat would have been transported, Jesus, from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. It's a very humble fishing boat, yet used in tremendous ways in ministry. It's 27 feet long, it's 7 1⁄2 feet wide, it's 4 feet deep. And it's made of seven different species of wood, including cypress and cedar. And it seems to have been continuously repaired over the years by a master craftsman. And in the end, the boat was abandoned on the shoreline by the fishermen. And I thought, this just has to be Peter's boat. Because I could picture him on John 21 where the Lord Jesus comes to him after Jesus had been resurrected and Peter was feeling bad because he knew that he had denied the Lord three times. And the Lord comes to him in his loving way and he says to Peter, feed my sheep. And Peter follows and leaves that boat behind. After years to preserve this boat, the boat is now on display in a special exhibition hall in Kibbutz Kinasar. It's not far from the site where it was first discovered. There were two main fishing methods on the lake in Jesus' day, fishing with drag nets and fishing with cast nets, and it's actually still used today. The kingdom of heaven, the Lord Jesus said, is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into the vessels but threw away the bad. This is an exact description of dragnet fishing on the lake. corks held up the top of the net while the bottom was weighed down. So when Jesus told this parable of the fish net, the disciples who were fishermen knew exactly what he was talking about. They knew the nuance of his parable. Because the net drew in the edible fish as well as the inedible fish. And all kinds of fish were in this net. Their tails were flopping around as they were pulling that net to shore. And many kinds of fish, though, were declared unclean according to Jewish dietary laws. You can read about that in Leviticus 11.10. Because fish without fins and scales could not be eaten and had to be thrown back into the sea. Only fish that were marketable were kept. Well, no sooner had Jesus entered into the Galilee than He decided and proceeded to build up His staff. And it began one day when John the baptizer fulfilled his purpose to identify the Messiah. And on that day, he identified him publicly, especially to two of his disciples, John and Andrew. And he says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And upon hearing that, John and Andrew turned to follow Messiah Jesus. And Andrew brought Peter, and he said, we've seen the Messiah. So Peter comes to the Jordan River to hear John's message, and also to meet the Messiah. And when the Messiah sees Peter, he says, I'm going to call, you're no longer Simon, I'm gonna call you Peter, which means rock. And in the Old Testament, a name change often meant a new relationship with God. It showed how Jesus looked at people. He not only sees what we are, but He sees what we can become. And as believers in Jesus Christ, what does He call us? We have this name. You are my Beloved. Because we are in the Beloved One. It appears by looking at the biblical narrative, Jesus had met several of these disciples and had several contacts with them before his final call to them to follow him. So the disciples had been off to the side and they'd been listening to him and his various conversations and also they had conversations with him as well to learn more about him. So by walking along the Sea of Galilee, this was the best way that the Lord Jesus could reach the men that he was gonna have on his staff, so to speak, the disciples. And he took time and he observed them, and he studied them, and he watched them. And when God looks for someone to use, he looks for the person who is already busy. As Mrs. Erb used to tell me, she says, Carol, if you want something done, ask a busy person. Because there are many links between their daily work as fishermen and the new task that Jesus would bring them. Fishermen understood this, that lack of teamwork would have them lose their catch. And lack of patience could leave their nets empty. So a leader must begin somewhere. So Jesus gathered a band of kindred spirits to whom he could unburden his own heart and on whose heart he could write his message. And these were not men of great scholarship, of great learning, influence, wealth, or social position. These men were poor, working-class men. But fishermen had perseverance, and they had courage, and they had an eye for the right moment. And so Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And notice how Jesus said that. It was, follow me. This was an invitation from a rabbi to a disciple. They would now become followers or learners of Jesus. And this would be a very slow, long process to learn how to become soul winners or fishers of men. But the Lord Jesus was very patient with them in this process. He was very kind to them. He was very loving to them. It's just the same way for us in our sanctification process, as Jesus is so loving, so kind, as He's conforming us to His image. And it was not merely follow me, but it was follow with me. Because he welcomes them to enjoy his companionship, just as he does with us. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. And Bethsaida means the house of fishermen. This location is one mile from the Sea of Galilee. It's a very desolate, remote site, we noted when we were there. As you see, it's in ruins today. But this hometown was the hometown, as I like to call them, of the Bethsaida boys, Philip, Andrew, and Peter. And later they would move to Capernaum to be closer to Jesus. So the next day, Jesus decided to go to the Galilee, and he finds Philip, and he says to him, follow me. Well, as soon as Philip heard those words, he found his friend Nathanael. And he said to Nathanael, we have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. And the moment Philip said the Messiah was from Nazareth, Nathanael had serious doubts. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? An interesting question. And although Nathanael, who's also referred to as Bartholomew, whichever way you want to say it, Galileans typically had two names, he was a fellow Galilean. but he held a very low view of people from Nazareth. Nathanael was from Cana, and this is where Jesus had turned water into wine at a wedding celebration, and the two towns of Cana and Nazareth were probably about three to four miles apart, and they were probably rivals. He probably knew some of the people in Nazareth, because it had a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. and it was given a very low rating by the rest of the Galileans. So here's modern-day Nazareth. It's about 15 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee, and today it's a bustling city of about 60,000 people. It has 50 churches of steeples and domes, and there are many high-rises in Nazareth, and it was a disappointment to me, I'll be honest with you. because it bears no resemblance to Jesus' boyhood town. It's the largest Arab city in Israel, with two-thirds Muslims. Now, our Jewish tour guide, Uncle Kenny, could not go into Nazareth because he was a Jew. Isn't that interesting? A Jew could not go into Jesus' hometown. Here is an authentic first century recreation of Jesus' hometown. They have volunteers that come from all over the world, and he dresses Nazarites, Nazarenes, and they walk the paths, and oh, lo and behold, what do I see there? Who's a Nazareth there? There's Faye, do you see her? I have her circled for you. How'd you get into Nazareth in there, Faye? How'd you get into that place? Although we typically picture Jesus as a carpenter, who worked with wood. The building materials of Israel were primarily rocks and cut stones, so Jesus probably worked more as a stonemason than with wood. In fact, he might have helped construct buildings in the nearby city of Sepphoris, most of which were made of limestone and imported marble. Archeologists have concluded that at the time of Jesus, only a few dozen families lived in Nazareth, who knew each other. So Nazareth would be considered a podunk village. It was made of country bumpkins. But let's not be too hard on Nathaniel, because we also associate size with importance, and we also judge on appearance and background too often. So it is hard to imagine that someone great could come from a place that is so remote and small and insignificant. For example, can anything good come out of Palo? a swampy rural area six miles from my hometown of Aurora on the Iron Range of Minnesota. I'm saying that with a Finnish accent because there are a lot of Finns in Palo. Yes, the gospel of Jesus Christ came forth out of Palo. from 13 believers and their pastor who shared the good news, and they go around the entire region and knock on every door and share the gospel. In 1958, the gospel seed was planted in Palo Marcom area, and just like a mustard seed, it has grown in great proportions all over the state, all over the country, all over the world, and it's still growing. thousands of people from every state and country have come to Jesus Christ, either directly or indirectly, from the ministry that took place in Palo. And maybe you're one of them who got saved through that ministry. I know I am. So Jesus was not offended by Nathanael's statement about Nazareth, but instead he paid him a compliment. And he said, surely here is another on whom there is no deceit. Jesus was making a contrast between the Israelite Nathanael and Jacob, the first person to be called Israel. What a compliment that was to him. So Nathanael was amazed. How do you know me? He asked. Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. What was Nathaniel doing under the fig tree? He was memorizing scripture and meditating upon it. It was impossible for everyone to have a written copy of the scripture during these days, so the Jewish people spent a whole lot of time memorizing scripture and meditating on it and what they'd learned. So to the Jews, a fig tree stood for peace. And this idea of peace was when one could be undisturbed sitting under his fig tree, a leafy and shady tree. And the rabbi said, the best place to meditate upon scripture is under a fig tree. So it shows me the importance of a scripture memorization. And Nathanael realized that Jesus knew the exact portion of Scripture that he had been meditating upon. Jesus knew his very thoughts. This comes out very clearly when Jesus says to Nathanael, verily, verily, I say to you, you shall see the heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Jesus quoted the exact Genesis story of Jacob at Bethel when he had seen the golden ladder ascending onto heaven that Nathanael had been meditating upon. Nathanael was amazed. And he said, you have to be the messianic king. Rabbi, you are the son of God. He said, you are the king of Israel. And Nathanael knew from the prophets that the Messiah would be the son of God. And so he realized that Yeshua proved his divinity by knowing his very thoughts. So Jesus had won another disciple that day. And leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum. Now, the Gospels do not mention all of Jesus' location changes, only those that play a significant part in His story. But one of the most important shifts for Him was a shift from His childhood home of Nazareth to a place that He would call His own town, Capernaum. It's a fishing village. It's on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It has a population of about 1,000 during the time of Jesus. It's in ruins today. And Nazareth and Capernaum are completely different places. The distance from Nazareth to Capernaum could be made in a short day's walk. But in one moment, the Lord Jesus left His hometown of Nazareth, never to return to His home. So why did Jesus choose Capernaum? Because it was located strategically down the international highway, the Via Maris. Jesus lived and taught in villages and towns near the most heavily traveled road of the ancient world, titled the Via Maris, also called the Way of the Sea. And it linked travel between Africa and Asia and Europe, and the travelers were forced to use this route if they were going to travel any distances from one content to another. So the most traveled routes passed by Capernaum. So Jesus was not hiding out in some remote spot. He chose this city of Capernaum as center stage for his ministry. So his message would go out and reach as many as possible around the world. Now we saw ruins and markers showing the Via Maris existence. You see a couple of our photos here. We have a Roman marker that marked the miles or distance on the Via Maris Highway. We saw that. And then we saw a pillar that had a family name of Alpheus. This is the name of the father of the apostles, James and Judas. And we saw the inscription that was written, Alpheus, son of Zebedee, son of John, place this column here. May it be ascribed to him as a blessing. It was not until 1986, excuse me, 1968, excuse me, 1968, that the town of Capernaum was fully excavated. And among the ruins was a synagogue in which Jesus frequently taught. Now Faye's gonna tell you more about this synagogue in her message in November. It has a very interesting story behind it. But Faye and I sat actually on the steps there of the synagogue and we just said to each other, do you believe this? We're sitting at the very place where Jesus taught. Many substantial archaeological excavations have also located Peter's home. It's only 84 feet from the synagogue, so it's a short walk, and this is a home also where Jesus lived. So we had a chance to peer into his home. And I hope Peter didn't mind. I felt like, oh my goodness, I hope he doesn't mind that we're peering into his home because it's very well constructed. And interestingly enough, Peter and his extended family lived here. His brother Andrew lived here. And they shared this compound. It's built of basalt stones with a pebble fill and no mortar. And the floor is consisted of beaten earth. The walls could not have been supported with heavy roofs, so they were constructed of tree branches covered by a mixture of straw and mud. And in the floor of this house, two fish hooks were found. We also looked at, oh my goodness, over here to the left was the central kitchen. And there were living quarters that are so well-preserved today. And there were individual bedrooms that we could look at. And there was one particular room off to the right that had been expanded or enlarged at some point in time. And we were told that's where Jesus stayed when he was at Peter's house. And this is also the home where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. You remember this story, don't you? Where Peter's mother-in-law came down with a fever. She was stricken with a burning high fever, and this was typical in Galilee during this time. So with a gesture of taking the mother-in-law's hand, and by the power and authority of the Word, He raised the woman up and she was healed. And she immediately got up and she prepared the Shabbat meal for everyone. And I thought, this is a woman of such dignity. And here she's so hospitable right up after she just came back from a burning hot fever. And we have so many mother-in-laws in our midst who are like this mother-in-law, so we thank you for them. Also living in Capernaum was a man whom all men hated. As Jesus was passing by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's booth, and he said to him, follow me. And he got up and followed him. Now as Jesus sees Levi, also named Matthew, sitting at the toll gate on the Via Maris, He was taking taxes for import or export taxes, because Capernaum was the place where they were collected, because there were so many ships going around the sea that he was collecting taxes from them. And Matthew worked for the Roman government. He worked for the Roman governor here at Antipas. And tax collectors are never popular in any society. I don't care what time and age you're in. But especially, they were hated in the ancient world. People never knew how much they had to pay. Tax collectors extracted from them as much as they could. So here we have the Lord Jesus coming up to a man no one else wanted. He offered friendship to a man whom all others would have scorned. And Matthew must have been at that moment with an ache in his heart. Before Jesus called him to follow him, he probably listened to Jesus in Capernaum. He heard the messages that he was giving. He maybe heard some things at the synagogue as well. And he must have listened very carefully to his message. And something must have stirred in his heart that Jesus came to me. And so as a result, it says in scripture that he forsook all, rose up, and followed the Messiah. Of all the disciples, Matthew gave up the most. He literally left all, like the Scripture said, to follow Jesus Christ. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they knew they could go back to their old trade of fishing. There were always fish to catch. But Matthew burned his bridges completely. And by one decision, at one moment of time, he put himself out of a job. He would never get back. Matthew staked everything on Jesus Christ, and he was not wrong. One thing Matthew did not leave behind was his pen. The first book of the New Testament was written by Matthew, which embodies one of the most important books of the Bible. And with his orderly mind and his systematic way of thinking and his familiarity with details, he begins a book with the genealogy of Jesus Christ to prove Christ's royal ancestry. For he is the descendant of King David. So Matthew sees in Jesus the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams of the Jewish nation. And he sees in Jesus the fulfillment of God's promises to his people. So in Matthew, the book of Matthew, he is a Jew speaking to a Jew. And so he is presenting Jesus as a messianic king, the one that they had long expected. And as he wrote, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets. So Jesus ordained 12, that they should be with him at all times. Out of many disciples from which to choose, He selected 12. And as a symbol, 12 is a very important number in the Bible. It derives from the emergence of the 12 tribes of Israel. And later in His ministry, the Lord Jesus would refer to these disciples as friends. Friendships don't just happen. It takes time to build a friendship. In fact, research says it takes more than 200 hours of close time together. So after Jesus had walked and talked and fellowshiped with these disciples, he says to them in the upper room, I call you friends. The list of the 12 disciples always places Peter at the top, because he was the leader right from the beginning. But we know from the scriptures that Peter was impetuous at times. Sometimes he opened his mouth and said things that makes us cringe, like, oh, I can't believe you said that, Peter. But let's not be too hard on him. Because a great deal of the scripture we have, we would not have if Peter did not open his mouth. And we don't give Andrew much attention, do we? I think he'd like it that way, actually. Andrew was the brother who lived under the shadow of Peter. He was not even part of the inner circle of Peter, James, and John. And it would have been so easy for Andrew to resent this. Did not Peter owe his meeting to Messiah Jesus because of him? Might he not reasonably expect a foremost place in the disciples? But that never occurred to Andrew. He was quite content to play a humble part in all of the 12. And all that mattered to him was he was with Jesus and he would serve Him as well as he could. It was Andrew's greatest joy to bring others to Christ. Then we have John and James, their brothers, the sons of thunder. We have Philip, Nathanael, Thomas, Matthew, James, Judas, also called Thaddeus, brothers, sons of Alphaeus. We have Simon the Zealot. And Zealots actively assassinated Jews who worked for Rome. And their main target? Tax collectors. And the 12th disciple was Judas Iscariot. a man from the town of Kyriot, located in southern Judah, the only non-Galilean member of the Twelve. And Judas is always mentioned last and placed there because of its infamous deed of betrayal. And there's always a shudder of the heart as we think of Judas and his betrayal of our lovely Savior. When he joined the Twelve, he had every gift which would have made him great. In fact, he was the treasure of the group. But bit by bit, his lack of faith in Messiah was his undoing. The tragedy of Judas is the greatest in history. Judas wanted Jesus to be what he wanted him to be. He was a fanatical unnationalist, and Judas had seen in Jesus the one person who could make his dreams of power and glory come true. But when Jesus took his own way, the way of the cross, Judas was so incensed, he betrayed him. Now, without a doubt, Jesus could have stopped Judas. And here's the whole human situation, ladies. God has given us wills that are free. His love always appeals to us, just as Jesus did with Judas, but there's no compulsion on Jesus' part to make him believe. And yes, we too can spurn the love of God and disregard His warning of His words throughout Scripture like thieves, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So in the end, there is no one but ourselves responsible for the decision we make regarding our eternal destination. For he who has the Son has life, and he who is not the Son of God does not have eternal life. But God seeks to love us so much that His voice is more sweetly intent than all the voices that should call us away from Him. And Jesus loved Judas to the end. But Judas had made his decision. So Jesus told him, go do what you must do. Well, only the Lord Jesus could bring such a diverse group together, and get them actually to work alongside each other. And I think the Lord Jesus is the finest example of diversity and inclusion, because He breaks down racial, cultural, and linguistic barriers. He unites people around the globe, regardless of their background, their color, their status. In fact, the Lord Jesus says, if I be lifted up, and He was talking about His crucifixion there, I will draw all men onto Myself. So we are united in Christ at the foot of the cross. So these 12 men made great sacrifices. They left their professions to become soul winners. It was a complete break from their former life, and it was a permanent one. But it would be a joint participation, walking side by side with one another and their lovely Messiah, Jesus. And a rabbi's disciples wanted more than anything else to be like the rabbi. to know what he knew, to do what he did, to walk as he walked. Oh, that sounds so familiar, doesn't it, to us as believers in Jesus Christ in this age of grace? Because the Lord Jesus has called us to the same thing. He says, I want you to be conformed to the image of my Son, and I will patiently walk with you in that conforming process, lovingly, gently, tenderly, kindly. So in some, these were ordinary folk, actually. They were just ordinary people. They did not come from schools or universities. They didn't come from aristocracy. They weren't learned, wealthy. They were just ordinary people. And no one ever believed in the ordinary man or woman like Jesus did. And the Lord Jesus knew the importance of relationships. And he believed that we should be in a relationship with one another, because we need each other for mutual encouragement and joy. Because a friend loves at all times. I saw this as I'm reading the scriptures about the Lord Jesus' interplay with the disciples, and he loved them at all times. That's the way he loves us, too, you know, ladies. He loves us at all times. He loves us on our good days and our not-so-good days. And the same should be true with us as friends. We should love each other at all times. Will friends let us down? Of course they will. Will they say things that they shouldn't? Yes, they will. But we remain faithful because we love them at all times, just like the Lord Jesus loves us. And the sweetness of a friend comes from her earnest counsel. A University of Virginia study sought insight into the way friendships might help people cope with some of the less pleasant aspects of daily life. So they stopped students near a hill on campus, and they asked if they would be willing to be part of an experiment. The researchers gave the students heavy backpacks, and some of them happened to be alone, and some students were with friends. The students thought they were going to be asked to climb that steep hill with the backpacks, but instead they were told to guess how steep the slope was. And the students who were alone thought the hill was very steep, while those who were walking with a friend thought it was far less so, and guessed it wouldn't be so arduous to climb, even with the backpacks. And the study revealed something even more surprising. The longer the friendship, the gentler the slope of the hill seemed to be to both friends. Do you have friends here among you who you've been friends with for a very long time? As I'm looking at all of you lovely women, I have friends. We've loved each other for a long time. In fact, I knew you when you were young. And it's just such a beautiful thing to have lifelong friendships. Well, Messiah Jesus began to teach by the sea now, and a large crowd gathered around Him. So He got into a boat on the sea and He sat down. And the crowd was by the sea on the land, and He began teaching them many things by parables. With your Bibles, Mark 4, if you know, it was a turning point in Christ's earthly ministry. The Lord Jesus came unto His own, the Jews, and His own received Him not. At the beginning of his ministry, he teaches in the synagogues, but now he's teaching on the seashore. And it was not that the synagogue was finally shut to him, but the door was closing. This was during the second year of his ministry. The Jewish leaders were now in direct opposition to him. They were blatant unbelief. So the setting of this parable is very important. The settings of the parables are very important. Rabbis always teach in a sitting position. So when the Lord Jesus was teaching, he sat. In this case, a boat, a floating pulpit. So Jesus is teaching parables at the water's edge, and at the water's edge, there's great acoustics, so many people could hear him. 34 times in the Gospels, it's mentioned that multitudes of people followed Him. And these crowds could have been massive inside. They could have reached almost 15,000 people listening to Him at one time. But something was wrong with this crowd, this huge crowd of Jewish people. all of whom had been raised on the Old Testament law. This law governed every aspect of their lives. It governed their time from the time they got up in the morning to the time they went to bed at night. And the Jewish nation had hundreds of years of Moses and Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms, the Minor Prophets, all of this seed had been sown around Israel and Judah. And then John the Baptist comes and he sows more seed as he presents the Messiah. So they should have been ready, they should have been prepared, they should have recognized the Messiah and embraced Him because of all of the seed that had been scattered. But they had a serious problem. While seeing the Lord Jesus' miracles, they did not see While hearing the words that he taught them, they did not hear, nor understand. Galileans passionately longed for the coming of the kingdom, the restoration of God's reign over the promised land, and eventually the entire world. But many believed that when Messiah arrived, he would design a violent overthrow of their Roman masters. So when Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God has come, His hearers, no doubt, were overjoyed by that thought. But the Lord Jesus knew that military rebellion never would bring the Jews true freedom. So He used a different method of influencing them and their culture. He healed the sick, the lame, and the blind. He blessed. He forgave people. He demonstrated love to them. He knew their inner hurts and their broken hearts and their broken spirits, and He says, I come to heal the brokenhearted and to set the captive free. And no matter how much he taught, no matter how much he explained himself to the people, they still misunderstood who Jesus was and what he was saying about his kingdom. And sometimes they simply rejected that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. The crowd who had been taught the scriptures, especially the religious leaders, they thought they knew everything. And yet it was the fishermen and the humble people who saw the truth and received it. Most of the crowd was blind. They could not see all the things that God had given them around them, and the truth about the Messiah and the kingdom. Oh, those wise and prudent, they were wise about their knowledge, and they were all puffed up in their learning, and I have no problem with learning. In fact, my life has revolved around teaching and learning, and I'm very thankful for that. But there must come a time when you put learning aside and you put that learning into action. Now, I have discovered, and I really noticed this when I was an administrator, that there are students who have no intention of graduating. They just want to keep going to school. A father was asked, what's your son going to be when he graduates? And he replied, an old man. And that's the way these, Pharisees and Sadducees were. They were all puffed up in their knowledge. And if you are a teacher, you know that you cannot teach those who do not want to be taught. It's impossible to teach those who think they know it all. A teachable spirit is key. But the Pharisees, they didn't want to be taught. They didn't want the truth. And light resisted blinds. So Jesus spoke in parables. a very special kind of story to awaken their interest, to try to arouse their curiosity. So they'd go home and say, hmm, what was that story about? And the more they'd think about it, the more God spoke to them. Parables healed the truth from some people, the wise and the prudent for sure, and revealed it to babes. Parables comes from two Greek words, which means to throw alongside. A parable compares something of a known truth with an unknown truth, and it throws alongside them with one another, and it quite often uses similes, like or as, in the description. And the ending of a parable, ladies, is the most important part. Jesus did not invent the parable. The rabbis had been using parables for centuries. They habitually used parables in their teachings so that Jews were quite familiar with parables. Only here's the difference. The Lord Jesus taught the parables differently in this manner. He ended his parables with grace and forgiveness. You think about the story of the prodigal son, the story parable, which ends in forgiveness. Well, Jesus spoke 43 parables, and of those 13 were the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, and both of those terms are interchangeable. Kingdom of heaven appears in Matthew. And in John's gospel, there are no parables. So Jesus chose to reach his crowd with kindness, and humility, and grace, and love, so different than the other rabbis. The Lord Jesus spoke to people, not at them, He explained truths, not by giving a lecture on theology, but by painting pictures, word pictures, that captured the attention of people and forced them to think. Most parables are known by their brevity, and in their brevity they sparkle. But he used elements of the day that they would understand, like farming and agriculture and fishing. And on that day, he spoke to them many things in parables. On what day? The same day that the national rejection of Messiah Jesus had occurred, the incident began in Mark 3 when Jesus performed a marvelous miracle. A demonized man who had been both blind and speechless was brought to Jesus and healed him, making him both to speak and see. This so amazed the gathered crowd that they exclaimed, could this be the son of David? Well, when the Pharisees of the law saw that, they came down from Jerusalem actually, and they said, he's possessed by Beelzebub, and he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebub, prince of demons. So to explain the Lord Jesus' special abilities, the Pharisees came up with a rather radical solution. They repeatedly charged Him that He was possessed by Beelzebub, that He was driving out demons through the power and alliance with Satan, the Prince of Demons. So therefore, they said, the official basis for rejecting the Messiahship of Jesus was that He was demon-possessed. And Jesus replied to them, Did you fail Logic 101? Because it makes no sense. Because if Satan casts out Satan, he's dividing his kingdom. If you remember from my first lesson, when the Lord Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit ascended like in the form of a dove from Heaven and came upon Him and anointed Him. And the Holy Spirit gave Him the power for His ministry. So when the religious leaders ascribed that Jesus had cast out demons in the power of Satan, they were sinning against the Holy Spirit. When they sinned against the Holy Spirit, who had demonstrated God's power to them, they had reached the end of the line. And there could be no more forgiveness for the nation. So now, according to Jesus, the individual could be forgiven. But for the nation of Israel, unpardonable. only the nation of Israel could commit this sin. So the Kingdom was taken from Israel and the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be given to the Gentiles who will spread it to the ends of the earth. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the message of the Gospel was spread first by the Apostles, and we know that from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. People today cannot commit the unpardonable sin in the same way that the Jewish leaders did when Jesus was ministering on earth. The only sin Today that God cannot forgive is the rejection of His Son. And that's why you hear me say repeatedly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. He took your place at Calvary. He paid for your sins with His precious blood, the blood of Christ, the blood that God demanded. And to Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. And by believing in Him, and that's all that it takes, believe in the one God promised, who died for your sins, you will receive everlasting life. So when Jesus was alone with the twelve, was the last alone, the twelve disciples, along with some others, came and asked Him, why are you speaking in parables to them? And he gave them two reasons. First, to hide the truth from the unbelievers, religious leaders who had rejected him. The truth was not going to be hidden concerning the way of salvation, but secrets of the kingdom. They had turned from the light that God had given them, Jesus said, just as Isaiah had prophesied. And so now the parables are open to Jesus' disciples and to those who believe, but shut to the unbelievers and Pharisees with their hardened hearts and hard minds. So the question is asked, well, what is the kingdom of God like? So Jesus describes it in four parables in Mark four. And when you hear the term kingdom of God, the Lord Jesus is not talking about the local church here. He's talking about the kingdom of God that was prophesied and was promised to Israel. It's very dangerous to take a portion of scripture and isolate it from its context. So we will not do that. So what is the kingdom of God like? The Lord Jesus says, well, it's like a sower who went out to sow. He said, the kingdom of God is like a lamp set on a lamp stand. And I brought here an artifact back from Israel, which is one of the lamps that they had in those days, and they knew very well what that meant. For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed by a lamp. The kingdom of God is as if a man would scatter seed on the ground, and the seed should sprout and grow, and the farmer does not know how. And then he says, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. When it sows on the ground, it's smaller than all of the other seeds. But when it grows up, it becomes greater than all the herbs and shoots so that birds may nest under its shade. The greatest of all the parables, the parables of all the parables, is the parable of the sower found in Mark 4, 1 through 20. I would trust that you're gonna read these on your own. I don't have time to read them out loud to you. So I hope that when you go home this week that you'll be reading these parables. But in this parable of the sower, the sower is the servant in this case. In actuality, ladies, it's the Lord Jesus. The kingdom of heaven came by the sowing of the word of God by Jesus who came to earth. So he's the one who sows. The seed represents God's word. Seed has life in it. And seed has life and power. It's the living word. And the soil represents the human heart. It must be prepared to receive the seed before that seed can take root and produce harvest. So the parable of the sower, the sower sows seed along the path, some seed falls along rocky places, some seed falls among thorns, and some on good soil. So the disciples are standing, listening to the Lord Jesus give this parable of the sower, and I can just picture them. They're probably standing there, oh, yes, yes, of course, nodding their heads, I understand, yeah, mm-hmm, I get that, oh, good, he's making good comparisons there. Excellent, excellent, isn't he doing an excellent job there? I really like how he's preaching that. Yes, do you, yes, yes, I do. When they were alone with Jesus, though, they ask them the question, what does the parable of the sower mean? It's like a student who's sitting in the classroom, and you're, let's take a math class, it brings fear to me, but I'll be in a math class for this, and you're taking notes, and you're following the lecture, and I think, oh my goodness, and you're nodding your head like you're knowing what you're doing, you think, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I don't want, and the professor says, do you have any questions? So you don't raise your hand, but you have a lot of questions. And so finally at the end of class, you get brave and you go up to the professor and you say, could you please go over question number 12? That's the way it was here with the disciples. They'd say, could you please explain the parable of the sower to us? And the Lord Jesus will do that. The disciples do not have to pull from their shelves the Bible knowledge commentary, because the Lord Jesus is going to interpret it for them. And the Lord Jesus says this, boys, tell you, I'm interpreting the parable of the sower in this way. I'm sowing the seed of the word of God and I want you to know that most of the seed will not bear fruit. Because there is the sower who fails to think things out, he or she shows a sudden enthusiasm but can quickly become a dying fire. I wonder what Judas thought when he heard that. Then there's the hearer who has so many interests that often the most important things get crowded out. And the seed among the thorns of worry and wealth choke it out. And the hearer had initial interest in the Word of God, but then no response. Then there's the hearer who hears a message and the devil snatches away the Word that was sown, because this is the hearer of the shut mind. But here's the most important part of the parable, boys. There is the hearer who has good ground in the reception of the word. And when the mind is open and willing to learn and be prepared to receive the word of God, because faith comes by hearing, we know, don't we? And hearing by the word of God. And boys, this hearing translates into belief and action, bearing the good fruit of the good seed, just as Jesus described to them. Later, they would remember these words of the Lord Jesus when he says in John 15, I'm the vine and you are the branches. The one who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. So what does this parable say to me, to my heart? And this is what I want to share with you. Carol, don't get a hard heart. don't get a cynical heart, which can happen as we age. I want my heart to be soft and sensitive to the Word of God. I want my heart to be soft and sensitive to the Holy Spirit and my lovely Savior, Jesus Christ. Because the tendency as we age is to become cynical. We can become cynical because life did not turn out the way we had hoped, the way we had planned, the way we had dreamed. Life can, we can become cynical because somebody let me down. Somebody betrayed me. We can become cynical because somebody promised me this and this never happened. They didn't fulfill their promise. And I'm going to just plead with you ladies, don't become cynical. I'm going to encourage you to rejoice in the Lord, because when you're cynical, it robs you of joy and blessing of serving the Lord. We serve the lovely Lord Jesus, and we're even in a better place than the disciples were, who walked side by side with Him day after day. We have the very Spirit of Christ living inside of us. Christ in us, the hope of glory. His presence is real inside of us, and His presence is real around us. And so I'm so thankful that I can share Messiah Jesus with you, and I've shared so many things with you already in the first two lessons, and I brought artifacts, I'm giving you photos, and talking about the Lord Jesus and Israel, but I want to send this message to you, the Lord Jesus is the fact. He is a tremendous fact. He's the one sure fact around which everything in heaven and earth revolves. He was a fact in the beginning before the heavens and earth were made, and He's still the most powerful fact today. He's always present in the lives of those who believe in Him. He's always helping us ladies. He's always guiding us. He's always loving us. All He asks is that we would trust Him. even when we cannot see. The fact is that the Lord Jesus died, He arose and returned to Heaven, and He sent the Holy Spirit as a gift to us to make possible victory in the Christian life when everything else is falling around us. I trust that you will triumph in Christ this week, because He who has ears to hear, she who has ears to hear, let her hear. When we meet next time, Faye is the speaker, and she will speak on a conversation of provision. And these conversations are going to take place in various sites. She's going to take us to Tabthah, which is the scene of the feeding of the 5,000. And then she's going to take us to the Mount of Beatitudes, and this is where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount. and then she will take us to the synagogue at Capernaum. This is where Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. And then she will take us to Bethlehem, the house of bread. She'll bring us to the shepherd's field and the shepherd's cave, where we will be reminded of Jesus' words, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. Sophia will be back here on November 12th, actually two weeks from today, and she'll share this message of provision with you. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. And what a privilege it is, Father, to share Him with these ladies. And I just pray, Father, that we would get a glimpse of how much He loves us, cares for us, how kind He is and tender and patient with us, Father. Thank you for each woman who's here tonight and those who are listening, and I trust, Father, that Your Word would touch their hearts and lives through Christ Jesus and whose precious name