Training the Kingdom’s Messengers

138:4.1On the mor­row all nine of them went by boat over to Kheresa to ex­e­cute the for­mal call­ing of the next two apos­tles, James and Ju­das the twin sons of Al­pheus, the nom­i­nees of James and John Zeb­e­dee. The fish­er­man twins were ex­pect­ing Je­sus and his apos­tles and were there­fore await­ing them on the shore. James Zeb­e­dee pre­sented the Mas­ter to the Kheresa fish­er­men, and Je­sus, gaz­ing on them, nod­ded and said, “Fol­low me.”

138:4.2That af­ter­noon, which they spent to­gether, Je­sus fully in­structed them con­cern­ing at­ten­dance upon fes­tive gath­er­ings, con­clud­ing his re­marks by say­ing: “All men are my broth­ers. My Fa­ther in heaven does not de­spise any crea­ture of our mak­ing. The king­dom of heaven is open to all men and women. No man may close the door of mercy in the face of any hun­gry soul who may seek to gain an en­trance thereto. We will sit at meat with all who de­sire to hear of the king­dom. As our Fa­ther in heaven looks down upon men, they are all alike. Refuse not there­fore to break bread with Phar­isee or sin­ner, Sad­ducee or pub­li­can, Ro­man or Jew, rich or poor, free or bond. The door of the king­dom is wide open for all who de­sire to know the truth and to find God.”

138:4.3That night at a sim­ple sup­per at the Al­pheus home, the twin broth­ers were re­ceived into the apos­tolic fam­ily. Later in the evening Je­sus gave his apos­tles their first les­son deal­ing with the ori­gin, na­ture, and des­tiny of un­clean spir­its, but they could not com­pre­hend the im­port of what he told them. They found it very easy to love and ad­mire Je­sus but very dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand many of his teach­ings.

138:4.4Af­ter a night of rest the en­tire party, now num­ber­ing eleven, went by boat over to Ta­ri­chea.