All right, we're going to continue with the subject we were on last week with, are we ready as a church to grow? I forget how I phrased that. Because are we ready to grow? God's given us this building, lots of room, but are we ready? We could have a small building like we were in Forstow, were we still ready to grow? You know, even down there. So I've got a lot of things I've been thinking about this, and I thought about some of the first members of the first church. And I thought I knew something. It probably won't take me as long to give out what I've learned this week, but this has been neat. I thought about the disciples, the 12 disciples, apostles, And I'm going to booger up names, so just bear with me. But it was a neat study. And I think you ought to look into it. Because what I thought I knew, I didn't know. And some things I thought I didn't know, I found out. So it's kind of, you know, it's really, really neat. We're going to start in John Chapter 1. And the first members that Jesus called, he called the disciples out, or the first one, his apostles, he went personally and called. And I thought, as I thought, well, there's 12 of them, I should be able to find something on them. Well, I don't know much about any of them. But the main ones we know about are Peter, James, and John, Andrew. I encourage you to go look up these guys, each one individually, and go study them out. Some there's not much, but then others, there's a lot more. But here in John chapter one, in verse 35, John chapter one, verse 35, And again, the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking unto Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speaking and followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? And he saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw and were where he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah, thus thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. We'll stop right there. So here, and this is something I always wondered, but I'll give you that in a minute. the two disciples of John the Baptist. That was what I thought was kind of neat. It's John the Baptist, Andrew and Peter followed. Well, the two disciples of John the Baptist, they were talking to John the Baptist, and then they went and followed Jesus. And then you go to Luke chapter five, Luke chapter 5 and verse 1. Luke chapter 5 and verse 1, we'll start here. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he spake by the lake of Generatron and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thresh out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your net for to draw. And Simon answered and said, Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, Well, I let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fish, and their nets break. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, and they should come and help them. And they came. fill both the ship so that they begin to sink. That's a lot of fish. Then Simon Peter saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinner. Sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished at that were with him at the draught of fish which they had taken up. And so was also James and John, the son of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And you see this, the two different, here, it's neat, John, Jesus was preaching in the right place. He knew where he was gonna be. He needed to be there for John, actually for John, Peter, James, or Peter, James, and John, and Andrew. And that's what was kinda, I'm gonna get ahead of myself if I don't watch it. But here, Jesus is speaking. So they went out, they got all these fish, And I think, too, this ties back to John the Baptist, because they were also, I think, one of the disciples that followed Jesus, my thinking. And I've often wondered, when you go to Matthew 4, Matthew chapter 4, Matthew 4, verse 17. Yeah, verse 17. For this time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net, into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him, and going on thence, he saw another two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. I've often wondered how four men in their profession, when Jesus walked by, they'd automatically follow. I've always wondered about that. Why would you just walk off? Well, it goes back to John chapter one, when the two disciples were talking, was with John the Baptist, left and went and talked to Jesus and they spent the day with him. Then in Luke, Jesus taught from their ship. And then he comes by late. I don't know if it was later. I don't, I'm speculating my opinion, but it, but it could be the same day as they caught all those fish that Jesus came by and they left. They knew that this was where they needed to go. They had time. They had spent with Christ too beforehand. That's what I see. he called these four. And it's kind of neat when you think about it, when we think about growing our church and the future members, who are they? The first church, they were, the first four that God called right here were all fishermen, common working people. There's a lot more of us working people out there than there are you know, executives. But I've often wondered, you know, it's like, why did they just go? They spent some time. They were with John the Baptist. They had went and they were baptized. And I learned a few things about some other folks, too, in reading and doing this study about these men. Because in Matthew, Yet here in 18, Jesus called, you know, James, John, son of Zebedee. They were just common people. And then in John chapter 1, John chapter 1 and verse 43. John chapter 1 and verse 43. The day following. Alright, this is after the two disciples have been with Jesus for a day and they met Peter. The following day, Jesus would go forth unto Galilee and find Philip and saith unto him, follow me. Now, Philip was a Bethesda, the city of Andrew and Peter. Well, I looked up this word where he, where Philip was, it was the house of fish. So the same town is where the same city of Andrew and Peter. So he being either a fisherman or he could have been where they took the fish to sell. I don't know. But I thought it was kind of neat. They're fishermen. The first five disciples that Jesus called were all fishermen. And what did he tell Peter? I'll make you a fisher of men. You know, he used what they understood to call them. And if you go on down, well, let's see. That's when I quit writing 1, 2, 3, where I was supposed to be going. But the next one that was called was Thomas. John chapter 20. Well, let's not go there right now. Let's just stay right here in John chapter 1. And John chapter 1, and go down to verse, here, verse 44. Here, Philip, finding, well, Now go on. And saith unto him, Nathanael, findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, we have found him whom Moses in the law and the prophets, prophets did, did Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, can there any Good thing come from Nazareth. Philip saith unto him, Come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, Behold, it is the light indeed in whom is no guile. And Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, then, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. And Jesus answered and saith unto him, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And Jesus saith unto him, very, very, I say unto you, whenceforth ye shall see heaven open and the angel of God ascending and descending unto the Son of Man." Here, Nathaniel, And when you look him up, you don't see Nathaniel in the line of the disciples, but it's known that he is Bartholomew, that he is, that's the same person. And I tell you what, you get into looking these names up, they change. I got confused. I spent more time going over, to get into this far than what you've heard, but it's really neat. And you see certain places, they list all the disciples, all the apostles, and they're all different. You know, their names, and they call each other names, different names. I know I work with a lot of Spanish people, and they don't do their names like we do. We have a first, a middle, and a last name. And I have my dad's last name. That become my last name. In some countries, your mom's maiden name is your last name. And your mom and dad's maiden name and dad's last name are both in there. And you may have four to five names. I can't even keep up with two. But yeah, it's very interesting. I encourage you to look these guys up. We're very blessed that we have a computer that I can look these names up. They tell me, and there's references on the side of the Bible. I was using everything, but I use Strong's was what I use for word search and all. But the next one we'll look at is Thomas in John chapter 20. John chapter 20. John chapter 20 and verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Denimus, was not with them when Jesus came. This is the only verse I could find that doesn't have him listed with the disciples, that I could find. There may be some out there. I just, I didn't find it. But this is one of the mentions where it mentions him by himself. And I don't, I know they did something. That's the neat thing about it. I looked at it. And you know, it's like, you know, they, they were sent out, the 12 disciples were sent out to God gave them power to go heal, cast out devils. The 12 were sent. And also, Christ sent out the 120 to go out and preach. And we'll get into that in a minute. But one of them, we're going to go to looking at Matthew. Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9 verse 9 and 10. And Jesus passed forth from thence, and saw a man named Matthew sitting at at the receipt of customs, and he saith unto him, follow me, and he arose and followed him, and it came to pass, as Jesus said at meet in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. This is when he called Matthew, he was a tax collector, and he just left his job. God called each one of them. I got a thought going. And you wonder why these people, these men just walked away. But if you go, let's go to Acts. I got, this helps tie this to me, Acts chapter one. I'll need to find it real quick. They needed to have the 12, they, Judas's carrot killed himself. He wasn't part of them. Peter says, hey, we need to get somebody else. We need another one. And what was the, qualifications to be called. Okay, for it is written in the Book of Psalms let us have it be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and blaspheme let another take. Therefore of these men which came company with us all the time that the Lord Jesus was within, and when went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John the Baptist, and to the same day in which he was taken up from us, must one be obtained to be a witness with us of his resurrection." So Peter here says, hey, we gotta call a new one, but this is the qualifications. He has to be baptized by John, to be an apostle, and he has to have walked with Christ. And it's like, that's when it's like, wait a minute. You see, there couldn't have been just 12 people following him around. And that's why, you get to adding all this up, and another, so Why would they just walk away from their jobs where they were? Because they had been with John the Baptist. They had been already being taught. They were saved prior, I think, but they were baptized with John the Baptist. They walked with him for a while. Then Jesus came along and they were willing because God had already prepared their heart. Just like we have people come here, God will prepare them. And I think it's neat when you see over in chapter two of Acts, as I was looking these people up on the different, where they came from, when God called them, and you get over here in Acts and they go, the Jews are, when they're preaching, they go, aren't these men of Galilee? They were, they were fishermen. Well, they had a tax collector there, and they had the other 120. We don't know who all they were. But to me, it just kind of helped tie all this together on where they come, why they just left their full-time job. And we see it. Now, Dad, when he became a preacher, started preaching, he was called into it. different than these guys, he had a full-time job. We didn't see the struggle he went through. I think these men that God called to follow him as disciples, they were right there with him. They had that call, there was something that was eating at each one of these. I believe, why would Matthew, I bet you going to Matthew to have your taxes was a lot better than going to Zacchaeus. before he was saved. You think about it. I just thought of that, but we'll go on. James, the son of Alphaeus, Mark chapter two, Mark chapter two, verse 14. And he came past by and saw Levi, the son of Ophias, sitting at the receipt of customs and said unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed. This is actually Matthew here. but you don't find anything for James, the son of Elphias. From what I understand here in Mark, this Levi is Matthew. That's going by some of the strongs. So James, there's nothing out there, but his brother was Matthew. So I think it's kind of neat. They're brothers in here. Simon called Zelots is in one place. There's another name he's called too. He's called a couple of names. Simon is. There's nothing written about him. The only thing I could find was in the list of the apostles. He's found at them. Judas, the brother of James. and I'm going with a lot of the notes that I got was off of Strong's and the numbers, the numbers they put with them, is the brother of James of Alfea. So I got quite confused on some of these because, well, they're James, it could be James, it could be this one, it could be that one, but I thought it was kind of neat. And I want to look at one more real quick. That was most of the apostles. But I got to thinking, well, in my mind, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four books, they're not all written by apostles. I always thought they were. Luke is not. And that's what, I wrote the list down, I looked at it, so where's Luke fall in here? And in the, if you, my, the, it's the author's, at the beginning of Luke, it has at the front, said the author, written by Luke, the beloved physician. I thought, okay, but he's not an apostle. He was one of the 120. But I look in, Colossians chapter four, Colossians chapter four, Peter writes this. And when you're up here, these books start moving around. Chapter four. Peter wrote the book and here, verse 14, Luke, the beloved physician and Denimus greet you. It's like, oh, he's out doing, he's a missionary. And I thought about that. Just think about Luke. He's a physician. He knows about the human body as far as what they knew then of all the medicines and the remedies that they had in those days. And I believe he was one of the 120 that was sent out. He was given power to heal. How would you like to be a physician that was able to actually do something? That actually could reach down and pray and touch somebody to heal them? to know you have a patient come to you as a physician, and you know they're demon-possessed. Before Luke was called to be a missionary, he actually could lay hands on them after that, and that demon would leave. He went from one type of physician to another, but he also carried a message. But I never thought about that, because I actually thought that Luke was a disciple. I don't know why, I always thought that. But in 2 Timothy also, 2 Timothy 4, Luke is mentioned. 4.11, only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable unto me. profitable to me for the mission, missionary. So here Luke's, Luke is with him. Also in, there's some others that he's mentioned. Actually Luke goes by two different names that I could find. Luke, Lucas is the other one that he goes by. So what you think we know, we don't know something. But this took me all week. I've thought about this. I've thought about it beforehand, but I thought I knew something. But getting in here and finding these names, these people, you know, knowing they were with Christ and what they seen, but thinking about who Christ called to walk with him. He may have had personal calls to each, every, all the 12 were called personally by Christ. But he chose others to write his book. But we don't know as a church who God's going to tell to come here. And we know how diverse we are, our backgrounds, and how the different backgrounds of different people that God may call. And we all have went through something for a reason. You think about all the men that got Christ called as disciples. They all went through something. They went through something. They've seen a lot and they had a lot to give because God used their lives because they walked with Christ. They were a witness. That's what Peter said there in Acts. We want a witness. You have to be a witness of what Christ did and what Christ did. You had to walk with him. But I've always thought myself, personally, that there was 12 men that followed him, besides the women that also took care of all their needs. Everywhere they went, there was a group of women that were right there. And they didn't ask for money. All the, everything they took care of, taking care of them, of Christ and the disciples, come out of their own household. That's, I mean, pretty amazing. We don't know who they are either. But I encourage you, look up a name. It's exciting to get in and look at those, but I would hope to continue. I've got some more ideas on, are we ready to grow as a church? But we'll be dismissed with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you