Secrets of the Apostles: The Stories You Do Not Hear in Sunday School
By W.C. Hinzie
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This study describes the lives of the twelve disciples called by Jesus Christ for training, repentance, and transformation into effective and spirit-filled apostles. They were charged with establishing the Church of Jesus Christ in the hostile world of Jewish, Greek, Roman, and many other groups of intense unbelievers.
They were laymen, untrained in deep Jewish doctrine but practiced as businessmen and filled with zeal for the Jewish Messiah to return. They wanted to be a part of his new kingdom and expected major roles in ruling Israel. They became the first of many converts to see that the Jews had missed the heart of Gods message and the new message was that they would die to their own minds, wills, and emotional structures and replace it with the will of their Father through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus taught them for more than ten thousand hours of practical ministry, teaching, and supernatural endowment during their time together. This is considerably more hours than it takes to achieve a doctorate in theology today. In this time, they were still incapable of standing up to the Jewish authorities, until endued with power from on high at Pentecost. These secrets, which the apostles found in their ministries, will help the disciple who is serious about transforming his or her life and knowledge of the Gospel into effective ministry.
W.C. Hinzie
W.C. Hinzie has been a layman and teacher of the Bible for the past thirty-five years, with the majority of studies in the New Testament Church formation, structure, and growth in the first century. He has owned several businesses, served in Vietnam, and been a teaching elder in several churches. You do not have to be around "W C" long to realize that his heart has been captivated by Jesus and is a passionate Christ follower. It is within the pages of this book that the transparency of his passion is realized as he takes us on a journey into discovering the hearts of the twelve apostles. I invite you to join this journey and get to know the followers of Jesus in such an intimate way that you may find yourself woven within the tapestry of this journey. Pastor and friend, Dave De Haan, Community Life Pastor, First Assembly of God, Cedar Rapids, IA
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Secrets of the Apostles - W.C. Hinzie
Secrets
of the
Apostles
The Stories You Do Not Hear in Sunday School
W. C. Hinzie
missing image fileCopyright © 2011 W. C. Hinzie
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ISBN: 978-1-4497-2186-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-2219-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-2346-0 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011913074
Printed in the United States of America
WestBow Press rev. date: 09/02/2011
To my beautiful wife Liz and children Angela, Deborah, Kimberly, Carriee, Kristina, Kara, and Christopher, who all sacrificed because of my historical studies.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One The Fate of the Apostles
Chapter Two The Political and Religious Climate in Israel
Chapter Three Peter
Chapter Four James Son of Zebedee (James the Greater)
Chapter Five John, the Evangelist
Chapter Six Andrew
Chapter Seven Philip
Chapter Eight Bartholomew or Nathanael
Chapter Nine Matthew
Chapter Ten Thomas (or Ditymas which means ‘twin’)
Chapter Eleven Simon the Zealot
Chapter Twelve James son of Alphaeus and Judas son of James or Thaddeus
Chapter Thirteen Judas Iscariot
Chapter Fourteen Repentance is the Key
Chapter Fifteen Step One in the Journey towards a Calling
Chapter Sixteen Step Two – The Maturing Disciple
Chapter Seventeen Step Three - Learning To Deal With Sin
Chapter Eighteen Hungering and Thirsting For What Is Right
Chapter Nineteen Forgiveness and Mercy Are Not Optional
Chapter Twenty Purity of Heart
Chapter Twenty One Becoming a Peacemaker
Chapter Twenty Two More of the Apostle’s Secrets - including Paul
Introduction
The title apostle creates many different reactions from people both in and outside of the Church of Jesus Christ. Before you consider e-mailing, faxing, writing or calling me, please read over this explanation of how I use and define the word.
This book is primarily about the original twelve apostles of Christ, called personally for a specific purpose regarding the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Paul is added to the list late in the last chapter.
I recognize the five fold ministry gifts as listed in Ephesians chapter four. I agree that they are a calling to ministry and some believers have more than one gift through which they minister. These gifted people are essential to the maturity and growth of the Church. The apostle in the New Testament is one who could both plant new fellowships and assemblies in the name of Christ as well as confirm his ministry with signs, wonders and mighty deeds.¹ According to some, this day has passed but the necessity of planting new works across the globe is as important in this day as then. The five fold ministry apostle of today is a Church planter, a trainer of leaders and an administrator of the leader’s progress after their appointing. Some say this is the work of denominations and their leaders and this is true to some extent. But their work seldom parallels those of a Paul or Peter or the other early apostles.
I have known of three modern day apostles, who were fulfilling the New Testament model through their work. One in India continues today planting, appointing and training leaders as well as financing and building Church buildings, Schools of Ministry and providing vehicles. Also, there are numerous signs and wonders following his ministry among the people of NE India. His name is Phughoto Sema and he lives modestly and continues to expand the gospel into people groups who have not heard the word of God. He also has established a pastor’s school for training new pastors who will be ready to move to where a new Church can be developed.
Phughoto pours out his life for these fellowships with little gain for himself or his family. I am part of a ministry in Iowa that supports his work with volunteer evangelists, workers, donations and intense prayer. The original apostles poured out their lives similar to how he spreads the Gospel of Christ in NE India.
The second man was raised in the Southern area of America and was a black slave in the early decades of this century. He hated the white race for many years because of his mistreatment. After finding Christ he was radically converted and was able to forgive all men as the scripture commands and became an accomplished musician on the organ to help accompany his singing. He had the desire and developed his capability to hear the voice of the Lord clearly and he learned to obey the correct voice, no matter what the instruction. He had an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit like few have today.
He would leave his home in Ohio and follow the Lord’s instruction to stop and minister. It could be in a town square or alongside a swamp or forest. In one instance he did get his portable organ out of the car and play alongside the road until someone came out of a swamp for ministry. He told this story in his book about his life. He visited the town square near where I lived in the 1980’s and I was fortunate to be part of a home fellowship which he originated by finding several people who wanted to find out more about his message. After he stopped singing and playing in the town square he would question those gathered and find out who had room and a desire for a meeting. His name was Robert Sadler and did this for many years at no gain for himself. Led by the Holy Spirit, he started many fellowships and would appoint leaders and then revisit them from time to time and encourage and build them up in the faith. There was no gain coming to him other than the riches he sent on ahead to heaven because of his obedience.² Robert was a layman with little formal education. Yet he answered the call to be obedient and follow God’s direction for the betterment of the Kingdom on earth.
The third man is an educated Englishman who traveled extensively and ministered as an evangelist in the United States, South America, Australia and New Zealand. He also originated a Church fellowship in America as well as authoring many books. He started a net-work of Churches affiliated with the Apostolic Church of Australia in the 1980’s and was recognized as a apostle in that denomination, which started from the overflow of the Welsh Revival of 1905. I had close contact with him over a number of years and learned much from him. He was unable to complete his ultimate dream of a collection of Churches across America, but he did touch thousands in crusades and caused many lives to find that Jesus is Lord. He expended tremendous levels of energy and personal effort to fulfill God’s will for his life over forty some years.
All of these men filled the Biblical definition of a New Testament apostle. But, when the original call came to them, this extensive work of God did not flash before them on a screen. They began as we all must, with conversion, growth and transformation from a fallen sinful creature to a believer, then a student-disciple and then to a mature Christian ready for service at the will and direction of our Lord.
The purpose of this book is to explain the lives, habits, calling, growth and transformation of the original twelve’s lives from laymen to highly effective and gifted ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These eleven men became able to establish converts who were so radically converted that they would walk away from all of life’s pleasures to follow a God they had not met or even heard of in their previous experience. Most of their converts were under threat of death for converting. They did this work without knowing the techniques or languages and dialects of foreign countries which made communication difficult. Additionally they had not read or studied the human psyche through Freud or others who have watered down the gospel and attempted to steer people away from true conversion. Today we train our missionaries in advance of sending them out. The original eleven had as their teacher the Holy Spirit of the living God and they trained by practicing the disciplines of solitude, prayer, fasting and service.
The original eleven and many who followed them, remained in close communication with their Lord, obeyed him and carried out their apostolic missions with the power, love and sound minds they achieved through transformation. Neither they nor we know where the call of God will lead us, so enjoy reading about their journeys. My desire in writing this book is that you will seek your own calling for service to your Lord. That you will do some work outside of your current sphere of influence.
The motivation for writing this work originated with questions asked by Christian disciples who admitted to me that they could never present themselves to an executioner for death based on their weak faith in Christ.
Generally their excuse for this explanation would be that they can’t understand how the early disciples and apostles could do so willingly and cheerfully as a completion of and endorsement to their ministry on earth.
I will attempt to explain the reasons why these eleven men plus Paul added in the last chapter, could consider martyrdom as a crown of victory to their earthly ministry.
A good thing to keep in mind as you read, the words missionary and apostle in the English language have the same definition. Simply put, we are not all five fold apostles, but we are called to go to someone and to do something that will better the Kingdom of God on this earth. So use the word believer, minister, priest, missionary or apostle but don’t confuse the word with the call. If you are a Christian, you are called to be doing something and now it is time to start doing it with the passion of Christ. If you are not a Christian, then there will be many places in this book where you can pause and consider where you are as a person versus where these men were as they carried out their eternal calling in Christ and consider if you should join them on this journey.
W. C. Hinzie
December 2010
Chapter One
The Fate of the Apostles
The summer night was thick in the damp dungeon and the presence and smells from the other prisoners felt like a foul spirit pressing in upon him. He wanted to escape from it, but to where? Should he venture back to Jerusalem or to Antioch for a teaching? Perhaps he could accomplish another miracle healing the Lord would perform through him? No, that was his past calling. But what lies ahead he asked himself, knowing the answer before he asked it? Perhaps I will be released and can be strengthened and encouraged by building up the brothers and sisters in the catacombs below Rome? How could I better help the poor in Rome or appoint elders through the laying on of hands? Peter may have thought these words and many more as he awaited execution at the command of Nero in the late 60’s AD.
His chains rattled as he strained at the shackles attempting to see out the bars to the little light there was. Attempting to pierce the darkness that was Nero’s dungeon was futile. Somewhere in this dark and wicked place was his friend and fellow apostle, Paul, awaiting a similar fate. After several days without food, his mind reeled from hunger. Yet he prayed almost constantly that the Church of Jesus Christ grow in maturity and size. He also prayed for Paul and all of his fellow apostles who had not preceded him in death and also those disciples still ministering among the nations without fear of Rome.
Had he run the