Men Jesus Called: Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas

Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas (Men Jesus Called – Part 5) by Mike Campagna on Vimeo.

This is supplement #5 to the Bible study: “Men Jesus Called.”

Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas – it’s interesting their grouping together in the list of the Twelve. And if anything, it’s because they each had dual names.

Bartholomew is mentioned with Philip in three Gospels and in the book of Acts, too.
In the Gospel of John, Nathanael is mentioned with Philip, but not Bartholomew. It’s accepted that Bartholomew and Nathanael are probably one and the same, who said about Jesus, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

And then there’s Matthew which is his Greek name and Levi is his Hebrew name.
As a tax collector, Matthew worked for Greek-speaking Romans. He gathered taxes from Hebrew-speaking Jews.

And Thomas also had two names. Thomas is Didymus (the Twin) and Didymus is Thomas. It’s believed that Thomas had a twin brother or sister.

And we’ve come to know Thomas, also, as a doubter. Haven’t we?

But did you also realize Thomas had another problem, too? He was a church-skipper. Not like on Gilligan’s Island, Thomas skipped / missed church.

And, boy, what a service to not be at. Jesus shows up and after His resurrection no less. It was the most amazing church service ever.

And Thomas missed it!

And there are some gatherings that a believer misses that the Lord manifests Himself extraordinarily and because they’re not there, they forever forfeited the moment and what God wanted to do.

This is a serious point.

There are some gatherings that a believer misses that God shows up at and … wow!
And some people skip / miss church because they’re disillusioned.

Others skip / miss church because they’re just a bunch of hypocrites there anyway.
And so just what was so different that first time that Jesus showed up in that locked room to ten disciples cowering in fear, the leader of which had betrayed the Lord at the level of Judas – the rest of them had abandoned Christ in his hour of greatest need (except John)?

Sounds a little bit like your church on Sundays? Maybe?

Thomas is in church eight days later when Jesus shows up again. And aside from the doubting issue that will be put to rest, the church-skipping issue certainly is.

Thomas had no idea when and or / if Jesus would show up again. There was no guarantee.

The bottom line: Thomas has decided that he is going to be with the disciples whenever and wherever they gather. He’s gonna stick to them like glue. There’s simply no way Thomas is ever gonna miss out again on the Lord manifesting Himself extraordinarily.

Uh uh. No way.