Urantia Book 34. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua ben Joseph, Christ Michael, Sovereign God of Nebadon. The following Sabbath Jesus took the apostles back to the place where he had ordained them. After a touching message of encouragement, he consecrated them. He gathered them around him and put them into the hands of his Father, in preparation for the day when he would not be with them. He did no teaching, but his consecration charge was: “Go into all the world and preach the glad tidings of the kingdom. Liberate spiritual captives, comfort the oppressed, and minister to the afflicted. Freely you have received, freely give”(140.9.2). Jesus also gave them some advice: “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be you therefore as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. But take heed, for your enemies will take you up before their councils, while in their synagogues they will castigate you. Before governors and rulers you will be brought because you believe this gospel, and your very testimony will be a witness for me to them. And when they lead you to judgment, be not anxious about what you shall say, for the spirit of my Father indwells you and will at such a time speak through you. Some of you will be put to death, and before you establish the kingdom on earth, you will be hated by many peoples because of this gospel; but fear not, I will be with you, and my spirit shall go before you into all the world. And my Father’s presence will abide with you while you go first to the Jews and then to the gentiles”(140.9.3).******************* The evening after the consecration the group was indoors at the Zebedee home. Jesus talked to the 12 a long time, trying to show them what they must BE, not what they must DO. They only knew a religion that told them what to do. Jesus told them they must be righteous to do the work of the kingdom. They must be perfect as the Father is perfect. He explained to the bewildered apostles that salvation was to be had by believing, by simple and sincere faith. The apostles would proclaim a baptism of fellowship with God. They could preach repentance if someone needed to hear it, but for those already seeking entrance into the kingdom, open the doors wide and bid them enter into the joyous fellowship of the sons of God.************************* Another mistake the 12 made was their tendency to take highly idealistic or religious truths and to remake them into concrete rules of personal conduct. And they didn’t grasp that Jesus was working on Urantia, not only for the people of Urantia, but for everyone in his universe. (I don’t believe that non-humanoid ETs come from our universe. Jesus created the life forms on the planets, and I can’t see him creating mantids. Also, spiders as big as VW bugs came through a portal on the Outer Banks of NC, and I can’t see him creating anything like that. However, there are intelligent raptors that work with our military. According to the UB, life is allowed to progress by evolution, so its possible that reptiles evolved into the most intelligent life form on some planets. And there is now a question about whether dinosaurs were reptiles.) To continue, Jesus was working to create a high spiritual and inspirational ideal for all mortal beings on all worlds. That evening Thomas asked a not so smart question: “Master, you have told us we must become as children before we can enter the kingdom and yet you have warned us not to be deceived by false prophets or cast our pearls before swine. Now, I am honestly puzzled. I cannot understand your teaching.” Jesus replied: “How shall I bear with you! Ever you insist on making literal all I teach. When I told you to become a child as the price of entering the kingdom, I didn’t mean you would be easily deceived, but you would easily believe.” Jesus also talked to Matthew during supper, and told him that the morality of an act is determined by its intent–the individual’s motive. Does that sound like relativism? The golden rule as restated by Jesus demands active social contact. Jesus had very positive ideas about morality. Simon Zelotes asked if all men were sons of God, and when Jesus replied in the affirmative, he was quite dismayed. “Yes, Simon, all men are sons of God, and that is the good news you are going to proclaim.” But the apostles couldn’t grasp such a doctrine; it was a new, strange and startling announcement. In response to a question asked by Andrew, Jesus made it clear that the morality of his teaching was inseparable from the religion of his living. He taught morality, not from the nature of man, but from the relation of man to God (I wonder if Christian theologians know anything about this.). At last John got the Master’s attention and asked him to define the kingdom of heaven. Jesus answered: “There are 3 essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God.” And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation” (140.10.1-9).****** Finally, the time had come to do the work. It was January 19, AD 27. But Jesus was missing, so Andrew went out searching for him. He found Jesus sitting in a boat and weeping. This was the first time any of the twelve had seen Jesus weep. Andrew asked why he was weeping on the eve of their departure for Jerusalem. Andrew was afraid that one of the twelve had offended Jesus. Many of the families of the 12 had come to wish them well on their first tour, and Jesus told Andrew that no member of his family had “come over to wish us Godspeed.” The UB notes that pride, disappointment, misunderstanding and petty resentment kept them away.************************* Since Jesus was famous in Galilee, and Herod was aware of him, he decided to take his apostles down the Jordan River and through Judea. Over 100 believers wanted to follow him, but he told them to wait a few days. They stopped at Pella for 2 weeks, preaching and teaching. Several hundred people gathered around their camp from Galilee, Phoenicia, Syria, the Decapolis, Perea and Judea. Jesus did no public preaching. Andrew divided the multitude and assigned the 12 for the forenoon and afternoon teachings. After dinner Jesus talked to the 12, but he only reviewed his teachings and answered questions. The apostles did not need to baptize John’s disciples, but the disciples wondered why Jesus did nothing to get John released from prison, especially if Jesus was all that John said he was. They wondered why Jesus did nothing to prevent the cruel death of their beloved leader. Andrew carefully instructed his fellow apostles in the delicate task of getting along smoothly with the followers of John the Baptist. During the first year of Jesus’ public ministry more than three-fourths of his followers had previously followed John and received his baptism. The entire year of AD 27 was spent in quietly taking over John’s work in Perea and Judea (141.1.1-5).