(Rough draft)
For two months, Jesus, the twelve apostles, and the former apostles of John the Baptist ministered to the sick, and preached to and baptized people throughout Galilee. They taught for several days in each of the cities of Rimmon (‘rimän), Jotapata (jō’täpəcccc), Ramah (‘rämə), Zebulun (‘zebyülən), Iron (‘ērän), Gischala (ɡis’shälə), Chorazin (kō’rāzin), Madon (‘mādän), Cana (‘kānə), Nain (nān), and Endor (‘endȯr), as well as many other smaller towns as they passed through them. This was the first time that Jesus gave the apostles free-reign to preach as they wanted, and they gave it everything they had. Jesus did tell them, though, to stay out of Nazareth and to stay low while going through Capernaum and Tiberias.
This tour lasted until March 17th, when they returned to Capernaum.
Preaching at Rimmon
Rimmon was a smaller city that had once been dedicated to the worship of Ramman, a Babylonian air god.
The Rimmonites still held many of these beliefs, so Jesus and the twenty-four spent a lot of time defining the differences between the new gospel and their older teachings.
It was here where Peter really shined when he preached on, “Aaron and the Golden Calf.”
The apostles were successful bringing many believers into the kingdom of heaven from Rimmon, but in later years these people also made a lot of trouble for their fellow believers.
The apostles learned that it’s difficult to fully shift one’s worship of nature, to adoring a spiritual ideal, in a single life time.
By using many of the Persian and Babylonian ideas of light in the later so-called doctrines of Christianity, the gospel was easier for people in the Near East to adopt.
In a similar fashion, bringing in Plato’s ideas that things visible and material are imperfect representations of invisible and ideal patterns, which Philo later adapted to Hebrew theology, made Paul’s version of Christianity more acceptable to the western Greeks.
It was here at Rimmon that Todan, one of the first people to take the gospel of Jesus past the Euphrates and into Mesopotamia and the lands beyond, first heard Jesus’ teachings.
At Jotapata
Jotapata was another small town where Jesus and the apostles had success bringing many people into the kingdom.
But what sets the time in Jotapata apart was the sermon that Jesus gave to the twenty-four apostles the second night they were in town.
Nathaniel was still confused about the difference between prayer, worship, and gratitude so Jesus took the time and explained his teachings in detail.
Here, again, the authors of the Urantia revelation have summarized that talk for us into the following points:
1. God hears all of his children, but the quality of that connection between God and the person depends on their heart: In other words, if a person keeps choosing to sin, keeps choosing to do those things they know are evil, which means acting counter to the divine ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness, then the degree of personal communion between God and the person will degenerate. The Paradise Deities despise any prayer that is deliberately inconsistent with the established laws of God regarding mind, spirit, and matter.
To make this point clear, Jesus quoted the Prophet Zechariah: “But they refused to listen and turned away. Indeed, they made their hearts hard like stone so they wouldn’t hear my law that I sent through the prophets; therefore, did their evil thinking result in a great wrath on their guilty heads. And so, it came to pass that they cried for mercy, but there was no ear open to hear.”
And then Jesus quoted the proverb of the wise man who said: “He who turns his ear away from hearing the divine law, even his prayer will be an abomination.”
2. People can make immediately available to themselves the stream of divine ministry that is constantly flowing to mortals on the worlds of time and space just by opening up their end of the channel between them and God the Father. As soon as a person hears God in their heart, God at the same time hears that person’s prayer. It’s the same with forgiveness: your Father in heaven forgives you even before you think to ask him. But that divine forgiveness is simultaneous with the act of you forgiving your fellow man. In other words, God will in fact forgive you, but you will not experience that forgiveness until you offer the same to other people. This link between divine and human forgiveness is stated in the prayer Jesus taught his apostles.
3. There’s a basic law of justice in the universe that even love combined with mercy can’t circumvent: The unselfish glories of Paradise cannot be received by a selfish person on the worlds of time and space. Even God’s infinite love for someone cannot force that person to choose eternal survival. Jesus quoted again from the scriptures, “I called and you refused to hear; I stretched out my hand, but no man took it. You don’t listen to my advice, and you’ve rejected my criticism, and because of that rebellious attitude it’s assured that when you call on me in times of suffering you won’t receive an answer.
4. Those who want mercy, must show mercy: how you judge others is how you’ll be judged. Mercy cannot completely take the place of universal fairness. In the end it will prove true, “Whoever closes his ears to the cry of the poor, will also someday cry for help, and no one will hear him.” The sincerity in a prayer is what assures that it’s being heard: it’s the wisdom it contains and the degree that it is consistent with universal law that determines how, when, and to what degree it is answered. A wise father doesn’t give unwise children whatever they want, even though the kids might have a lot of fun asking for anything under the sun.
5. When a person has reached a point where they are wholly dedicated to doing the Father’s will, all of the person’s prayers will eventually be answered because each one is now fully in line with what the Father wants, and our Father’s will is always manifested though out the universe. Whatever the true son desires, and the infinite Father wills, IS. This type of prayer has to be answered, and no other type of prayer can be fully answered.
6. The person’s efforts to be perfect as God is perfect, is the act of faith that opens the door to the Father’s truth, mercy, and goodness: gifts that are waiting for the son to come and take. Prayer doesn’t change God’s feelings to man, it changes man’s attitude to God. It’s the motive of the prayer that determines whether or not it makes it to God’s ear, not the social, economic, or outward religious status of the person offering it.
7. Prayer can’t be used to speed things up or to violate the laws of space; it’s not a way to show-off or to gain advantage over someone else. In the true sense of the word, a completely selfish person can’t pray. Like Jesus said, “Let your supreme delight be in the character of God, and he shall surely give you the sincere desires of your heart.” “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” “For the Lord hears the cry of the needy, and he will regard the prayer of the destitute.”
8. “I have come forth from the Father, so if you’re ever in doubt about what you should ask the Father, ask in my name, and I’ll present your pray according to your real needs and desires and in accordance with my Father’s will.” Watch out for the great danger of becoming self-centered when you pray. Avoid praying a lot for yourself; pray more for the spiritual progress of your friends. And don’t pray for material things; pray in the spirit and for the gifts of the spirit.
9. When you pray for the sick, don’t think that your prayers will take the place of loving and practical care for their problems. Pray for the welfare of your friends and families, but especially pray for those who curse you, and with love, pray for those who harm you. And Jesus told them, “But when to pray, I won’t say. Only your indwelling spirit can move you to express your inner relationship with the Father of spirits.”
10. Many people only pray when in trouble, which is thoughtless and misleading. Yes, it’s good to pray when you’re harassed, but also remember to talk to your Father as a son when things are going well.
Let your real prayers always be in secret, and don’t let other men hear them. Prayers of gratitude are okay for groups of worshipers, but prayers of the soul are a personal matter. There is only one prayer that is correct for all of God’s children, and that is, “Nevertheless, your will be done.”
11. Everyone who believes in the gospel should sincerely pray for the extension of the kingdom of heaven. Of all of the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus approved most of the prayer of the Psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me. Purge me from secret sins and keep back your servant from presumptuous transgression.” Jesus talked at great length about praying to control one’s speech, quoting, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” “The human tongue,” said Jesus, “is a member which few men can tame, but the spirit within can transform this unruly member into a kindly voice of tolerance and an inspiring minister of mercy.”
12. Jesus taught them that praying for divine guidance in one’s life was next after praying for knowledge of God’s will. This is in actuality praying for divine wisdom: Jesus didn’t teach that human knowledge or special skills could come about from prayer. But he did teach that prayer increases one’s ability to receive the presence of the divine spirit. When Jesus taught people to pray in the spirit and in truth, he meant praying sincerely and according to one’s enlightenment, intelligently, earnestly, steadfastly with one’s whole heart.
13. Jesus warned people that their prayers wouldn’t have any more power by fasting, penance, sacrifices or using ornate repetitions and eloquent phraseology. But he did urge people to use prayer to work their way through gratitude and into true worship. Jesus deplored that so little sincere gratitude was in the prayers and worship of his followers. He quoted from the scriptures this day, saying, “It’s a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the name of the Most High, to acknowledge his loving-kindness every morning and his faithfulness every night, for God has made me glad through his work. In everything I will give thanks according to the will of God.”
14. And then Jesus said: “Don’t always be overanxious about your common needs. Don’t be apprehensive about the problems of your earthly existence, but in all these things, by prayer with the spirit of sincere gratitude, spread out your needs before our Father who is in heaven.” Then Jesus quoted from the scriptures, “I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with gratitude. And this will please the Lord better than the sacrifice of an ox or bullock with horns and hoofs.”
15. Jesus taught people that after praying they should remain silent and receptive for a bit so that their spirit inside has an opportunity to speak to their heart. We best communicate with our spirit of God in true worship, where we are aided by our spirit within and illuminated by the spirit of truth. Jesus taught that worship increasingly makes one like the being who is worshiped: it’s a transformative process where the finite gradually reaches the Infinite.
And Jesus taught his apostles many other truths about man’s relationship with God, but few of them understood all of his teaching.
Bob