The Catholic Church in Scripture

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0:30 Did not our hearts burn within us as Jesus talked to us on the road? Alleluia. Lord Jesus, from your wounded side flowed blood and water. Make the church your spotless bride. Chief Shepherd, after your resurrection, you made Peter shepherd of your flock when he professed his love for you. Increase from day to day the love and devotion of Benedict XVI, our Pope. You showed your disciples how to make a great catch of fish. Send others to continue their work as fishers of men. At the lakeside, you prepared bread and fish for your disciples. Grant that we may never allow others to die of hunger.

1:20 Jesus, the new Adam and life-giving spirit, transform the dead into your own likeness that the fullness of your joy may be theirs. All-powerful God, help us to proclaim the power of the Lord's resurrection. May we who accept this sign of the love of Christ come to share the eternal life he reveals. For he lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. Lord Jesus Christ, be present now and let your Holy Spirit bow all hearts and love and truth today to hear your word and keep your way. Give us the grace to grasp your word that we may do what we have heard.

2:09 Instruct us through the scriptures, Lord, as we draw near, O God adored. To God the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, three in one. To you, O blessed Trinity, be praised throughout eternity. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. What I just prayed from was the Liturgy of the Hours evening prayer from yesterday evening for the second week of Easter. And to tell you the truth, I thought I was on Wednesday night because tonight is Wednesday, so I thought I was praying evening prayer for tonight, the second week of Easter. But I was accidentally on Tuesday and I did not plan for this to happen, but the intercessions pertain to a passage that we're going to be covering in depth tonight.

2:58 So you'll see how the Spirit works in this Bible study. It's kind of neat how that happens. So, sister, did I get it right? Have you prayed evening prayer yet, Vespers? Yeah? So I was on the... From last night? Is this what you... Okay, good. Good. I'm still trying to make sure I get the Liturgy of the Hours correctly here. Okay, good. Okay, so tonight's chapter is chapter 28. We only have two chapters left. And the title is The Catholic Church in Scripture. And it's... This Bible study, it's kind of like we keep having the same thing over and over again because we already had the birth of the church, the new kingdom, and now we're doing the Catholic Church in Scripture. So it's like, well, how many times do we want to do this? We just keep having the same topic under different titles.

3:45 But this particular chapter, even though it's called The Catholic Church in Scripture, focuses upon what we would call Catholic distinctives. And it focuses upon three things. The first is Peter. Peter's role in the Gospels and in Acts of the Apostles. The second thing that this chapter focuses upon is councils, ecumenical councils of the church. And thirdly, it focuses upon the sacraments, where do we find the sacraments in Sacred Scripture? And so there's a lot tonight. There's a lot that we're going to be hitting at. And Barbara, are you ready to do some Bible flipping? We're going to be flipping through our Bibles very fast, so get ready tonight.

4:34 I want for you all to hold your fingers up like this, put them right in front of your face and go like this. Rub them together a little bit, get some friction going. Okay, now get ready to turn those pages on those Bibles. But before we get to the, before we get to Scripture, we have to look at the term Catholic. Because we're using this term Catholic, which comes from the Greek, kata holos, and we get the English word whole or entire from holos. So it means according to the whole. And this term first came into existence a long, long time ago, even before the New Testament. You know, it's a Greek term. But used in a specifically Christian sense, the very first time it was used historically that we have in early Christian writings is in the epistle of St. Ignatius to the Smyrnians.

5:33 And so tonight, I'd like to look at the epistle of St. Ignatius to the Smyrnians. Chapters 7, 8, and 9. And before we, before we get into Scripture, we're going to talk about the early church. And before we talk about the early church, I have to give you some background. Okay, so, you ready for a little history lesson? Okay, St. Ignatius was a bishop and he was a friend of another bishop by the name of St. Polycarp. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna. And they were both disciples of St. John the Apostle. Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch. The first bishop of Antioch was Peter. After Peter left Jerusalem, he went to Antioch and became bishop. And after that, he left and became bishop at Rome.

6:20 And Peter left in his place Avodius as the second bishop of Antioch. And then when Avodius had gone on to his reward, Peter himself ordained Ignatius to the bishopric for Antioch. And so Ignatius was ordained by St. Peter the Apostle. He saw his flock through the persecution of the emperor Domitian between the years 81 and 96. It was a very bad persecution for the early church. And there was an account written called the Martyrdom of Ignatius from which we get the historical record of his martyrdom. It was written by eyewitnesses of Ignatius' martyrdom in Rome who had gone to Rome and had seen him be martyred.

7:07 And after Domitian, you had a Roman emperor by the name of Trajan. And Trajan ordered religious unity under pagan worship. The emperors were concerned about having unity in the empire. And back then, religion and state, church and state, were not so separate. So, for instance, Constantine in 325 at Nicaea, Constantine called the council, not the pope. Because Constantine wanted order. He wanted for there to be stability in his empire. And he saw that the best way to do that would be to get the strife between the Arians and the Orthodox Christians resolved through a council. So he had these 318 bishops meet at Nicaea in 325 A.D. Well, in the same sense, Trajan wanted religious unity, but not under a Christian banner, but under a pagan banner.

7:55 So Trajan ordered a sacrifice or pinching incense to the idols. And Trajan happened to be on a pastoral visit to Antioch. And as he was there, he confronted Ignatius the bishop. And he said, you know, you need to pinch incense to the idols. And Ignatius bore witness to his faith in Christ before Trajan. The emperor ordered him to be put in chains and to be led to Rome to become food for the beasts and a spectacle for the people. And so, this is the emperor's idea is put Ignatius, this great bishop that everybody knows of in chains, have him go on a long journey stopping at various important points where he's going to see Christians to be an example for the people.

8:45 This is what's going to happen to you if you don't succumb to pagan worship and if you don't follow suit. Of course, as Tertullian, the ecclesiastical writer wrote in the early church, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. So, Ignatius' bones were gathered up in the Colosseum after he was eaten by the wild beasts. They were gathered by the Christians back to Antioch and today they're in the Basilica of St. Clement in Rome. So, at the Basilica di San Clemente in Rome, you have the bones of both St. Clement who was the third successor of St. Peter in Rome. He was a pope and Ignatius of Antioch. We still have their bones. And so, on his long journey, he met with Christians at each stop and encouraged them to remain steadfast in the faith and to reject heresy.

9:40 especially Gnosticism, which Dan Brown has brought to our attention in the Da Vinci Code. And so, he would tell them, don't follow the Gnostics. They are not a part of the church. They're heretics. Okay, so don't have anything to do with them. And this is what he's writing to the Smyrnians in this epistle. He says in chapter 7, they, being the Gnostics, abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which the Father of his goodness raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God incurred death in the midst of their disputes.

10:28 But it were better for them to treat it with respect that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets and above all to the gospel in which the passion of Christ has been revealed to us and the resurrection has been fully proved. Avoid all schisms, all divisions, as the beginning of evils. The Gnostics thought that a lesser God and the evil God created matter, creation, like, you know, this stuff. But the better God, the God of the New Testament, created spirit. And so God couldn't have taken upon himself human flesh because that's sinful, that's bad, creation is bad.

11:15 The Manichaeans believed along the same way, along the same lines. And because of this, they said the Eucharist cannot be the flesh of Christ because Christ didn't actually take upon himself flesh, rather, he only appeared to have become incarnate. He only appeared as a man. When he was crucified, he only appeared to be crucified. Okay? So this was his heresy. And notice that the argument with the Eucharist is not whether or not it's the flesh of Christ, it's whether or not Christ had flesh. The Gnostics assume that the Eucharist is either the flesh of Christ or it only appears to be the flesh of Christ or something or other because Christ only appeared to have flesh.

12:02 chapter 8. See that you also follow the bishop, that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles, and reverence the deacons as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the church without the bishop, such as the Gnostics. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist which is administered either by the bishop or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be. Even as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the ding, Catholic Church. And so this is the first appearance in Christian writings of the modifier, or the identifier, the adjective, Catholic, katholos.

12:55 So where the bishop is, let the multitude be, such as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is a Catholic Church, and commentators of this epistle see Ignatius saying the bishop representing Jesus Christ, not replacing Jesus Christ, but representing him as a vice regent. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love feast, an agape meal. But whatsoever he shall approve of, that is pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid. In accordance with reason, that we should return to soberness of conduct, and while yet we have opportunity, exercise repentance towards God. It is well to reverence both God and the bishop. Of course, he's a bishop, so he's like, you know, it does well to reverence God and the bishop, right?

13:47 He who honors the bishop has been honored by God. He who does anything without the knowledge of the bishop serves the devil. Let all things then abound to you through grace, for you are worthy. You have refreshed me in all things, and Jesus Christ shall refresh you. You have loved me when absent as well as when present. May God recompense you, for whose sake while you endure all things you shall attain unto him. And of course, these are just three chapters of one of the epistles, and there were six epistles to various churches, and there was one epistle to Polycarp. So there's seven epistles that he wrote. One to Polycarp, his brother bishop, and six to other cities, other Christians in various cities.

14:34 There's also the martyrdom of Polycarp. I mean, I'm sorry, the martyrdom of Ignatius. There's also another early church writing called the martyrdom of Polycarp, which was written by Polycarp's followers. If you guys ever want to read these, there's a Penguin Classics called Early Christian Writings. Penguin has very good editions of these. And in this edition, Early Christian Writings, you can read Ignatius's epistles, the first epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, and the martyrdom of Polycarp, the epistle to Dionysus, the epistle of Barnabas, and the Didache, which the textbook is named after. So if you guys ever want to find this, Barnes & Noble usually has a copy on their rack. Okay, the Catholic Church in Scripture.

15:22 You guys ready? Nope, let's go a little bit more history. I'm going to read from Early Christian Doctrines by J. N. D. Kelly. He's an Anglican. He's at Oxford, or at least he was at Oxford University. It's called Early Christian Doctrines by J. N. D. Kelly. And I was required to read this for my graduate class, Historical Foundations. And what I did is I was required to do a summary of every chapter to outline it in detail. And so I have this entire thing outlined on my laptop. It's probably one of the best things I ever did in grad school. This is an incredible book. If you guys want to learn how the early church operated, how it worshipped, what it believed, this is incredible.

16:12 J. D. Kelly could be described as a high Anglican. The high Anglican would be very similar to being Catholic. Yes. In fact, the term Roman Catholic came from high Anglicans. High Anglicans wanted to consider themselves Catholics, wanted to call themselves Catholics, so they would say we're English Catholics, but you guys, you follow the Church of Rome, you're Roman Catholics. And so it's like the term Lutheran was like a bad word, it was a bad name, it was like you're queer, you know, in a certain sense. And so, but over time, even though that name was derogatory, you end up taking it as your own title, so Catholics called themselves Roman Catholics, even though at one point it was like don't call me that, and now Lutherans call themselves Lutherans, but at one point that was derogatory.

17:08 Okay, so this is what J. D. Kelly writes, Looked at from the outside, primitive Christianity has the appearance of a vast diffusion of local congregations, each leading its separate life with its own constitutional structure and officers, and each called a church. In a deeper sense, however, all these communities are conscious of being parts of one universal church, which Ignatius implies is related to Christ, as the body is to its head. So you have these regional churches, you have the one in Smyrnia, the one in Philadelphia, the one in Ephesus, the one in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, but yet they were conscious of being united to these other churches, and there was a, as the body is, and they were all united like a body is connected to its head, Jesus Christ.

18:06 As regards, by the way, this is in chapter eight of this book, as regards Catholic, its original meaning was universal or general. That's what the term means. In the latter half of the second century at latest, we find it conveying the suggestion that the Catholic is the true church, as distinct from heretical congregations. What these early fathers were envisioning was almost always the empirical, visible society. They had little or no inkling of the distinction which was later to become important between a visible and an invisible church. So, these early church fathers used the term Catholic.

18:55 When they said the Catholic church, they didn't mean, in a theological sense, the invisible communion of all believers. they meant this distinct body of believers as opposed to this distinct body of believers. Does anybody know why we have an Apostles' Creed? Where it comes from? From the Apostles? From the Apostles? No, not Nicaea, not the Nicene Creed, but the Apostles' Creed. Would somebody grab me paper towels from that back room back there? Would you mind? Thank you, Larry. I remember you got me water once. We're going to start paying you. So, the Apostles' Creed was formulated, most probably in Rome, as a baptismal formula.

19:45 So, they would say, do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth? I do. And so, they would dunk you. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God? Thank you, Ryan. Thank you so much. You're wonderful. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father? Born of the Virgin, I'm not finished yet. Born of the Virgin Mary, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day, he rose again. He ascended into heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence, he shall come to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. Dunk. Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life

20:37 everlasting? Dunk. And so, of course, they would say, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So you're having this three-fold baptism. Now, the earliest renditions of the Apostles' Creed did not have the term Catholic in it. So, when you say, I believe in one holy church, was the oldest creeds we have. The oldest Apostle creeds were like that. It was in the year, around the year 360 A.D., when the term Catholic started being used in the Apostles' Creed, and then later on it appears in other creeds, the Athanasian Creed, the Nicene Creed, lots of different symbols of faith.

21:27 These are called symbols, because they, like a symbol, represent something, so these words represent realities. So, let's look at the patriarch, or the bishop of Jerusalem, St. Cyril, who wrote in 350 A.D., ten years before Catholic was inserted in the Apostles' Creed. And this is what St. Cyril wrote. He gives this beautiful meditation on the term Catholic. He says, it, being the church, is called Catholic then. This is in his catechetical lectures. By the way, his catechetical lectures were given to the newly baptized. It is called Catholic then, because it extends over the whole world, from end to end of the earth, and because it teaches universally and infallibly each and every doctrine which must come to the knowledge of men, concerning things visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly, and because it brings every race of men into subjection to godliness, governors and governed, learned and unlearned, and

22:28 because it universally treats and heals every class of sins, those committed with the soul and those with the body, and it possesses within itself every conceivable form of virtue, in deeds and in words and in the spiritual gifts of every description. So, this is a very beautiful meditation. You know, it's universal. It treats every class of sin. Every race of men come in. Every type of men comes in. Every occupation. Every, you know, it has all forms of virtue. It teaches every doctrine. It's everywhere. It's all over the whole world. So, this is, he's, he's, it's a beautiful meditation. He continues, uh, three verses later, or three paragraphs later. And if you ever are visiting in cities, do not inquire simply where the house of the Lord is, for the others, sex, S-E-C-T-S, of the impious, attempt to call their dens houses of the Lord, nor ask merely where the church is, but where the Catholic church, where is

23:29 the Catholic church, for this is the name peculiar to this holy church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God. St. Augustine, who's, who's Jerusalem's up here, we're, we're going to go down into Egypt, we're going to go to North Africa, to the, the city of Hippo, where the great saint, St. Augustine, uh, was bishop. He wrote in the true religion around 390 A.D. when the New Testament canon was being settled. We must hold to the Christian religion and to communion in her church, which is Catholic, Catholic, and which is called Catholic, not only by her own members, but even by all her enemies. For when heretics or the adherents of schisms, and he's talking specifically about the Donatists, the Pelagians, and the Manichaeans, the three major schisms and heresies he fought in his lifetime.

24:25 The Pelagians, the Manichaeans, and the Donatists. For when heretics or the adherents of schisms talk about her, not among themselves, but with strangers, willy-nilly, they call her, I don't know if you actually used the word willy-nilly, I think that's a translator. Willy-nilly, they call her nothing else but Catholic. For they will not be understood unless they distinguish her by this name which the whole world employs in her regard. And then, again, the Manichaeans, which were started with Manichaeus, so he has an epistle, he's writing against one of Manichaeus' writings. There are many other things which most properly can keep me in her bosom. The unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me there. Her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me here.

25:14 The succession of priests from the very sea of the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his resurrection, gave the charge of feeding his sheep, up to the present episcopate, keeps me here. And last, the very name Catholic, which not without reason, belongs to this church alone, in the face of so many heretics. So, we think that Christianity started getting divided at 1517, or in 1054, or with the Council of Nicaea, when the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches broke off, because they didn't accept the, I'm sorry, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, or at Nicaea, when you had churches break off, because they didn't accept the Nicaean Creed, or they didn't accept the Chalcedonian Christological definition in 451, they split off. No, these schisms have been going all the way back in heresies from the very beginning, even in the time of Paul, we have the Ebionites and Judaizers.

26:12 Although all heretics want to be called Catholic, when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house. So I know that you guys probably didn't come to tonight's Bible study just wanting to listen to a guy just read, so let's get into the scriptures. Okay. Sure. Sure, the three heresies that St. Augustine primarily, predominantly dealt with in his day were the followers of Pelagius, a British monk, who taught that you can be saved apart from the sacraments, apart from the grace of God. You can pull yourself up by your own moral bootstraps. And this is where the Catholic Church, where her doctrine of grace, and Augustine really formulated the doctrine of grace.

27:06 So they were the Pelagians. They were the followers of Donatus. Donatus, when you had people apostate, so you have these persecutions happening. The emperor goes, pinch incense to the idols. And Catholics go, okay, sure, I'll pinch some incense. All right. The emperor leaves, and they're like, we're still Catholic? We're okay. We were just kidding. Well, no, those who died for the faith, and those who, by the way, those who confess the faith, even in face of the persecution, and end up living to tell about it, they're known as confessors. Confessors, because they confess the faith. So you'll know of certain people like St. Maximus, the confessor in the early church.

27:52 Well, Donatus and his followers said, no, these people cannot come back to repentance. They cannot receive the sacrament of penance. They have already shown themselves as unworthy, as not predestined. And so Augustine sided with the church, the Catholic church, in saying, no, they can undergo the sacrament of penance, and they can be restored to the church, even if they've committed this grave sin of apostasy. The third group is, was, follows Manichaeus. And Manichaeus, the Manichaeus, and this, Augustine was a Manichaean before he converted to Orthodox Christianity under the preaching of St.

28:39 Ambrose. And Manichaeus was like the Gnostics. He taught that matter was evil and sinful in and of itself. And so Augustine taught against Pelagius, saying we need sacraments. He taught against Donatus, saying the sacraments are efficacious apart from the sinfulness of the person receiving the sacrament, is if we were holy, we would need sacraments. And he writes against Manichaeus, saying sacraments are possible because God does use nature, he uses matter to convey grace, just as he used the Incarnation to bring about the objective redemption. Carson, is this definition of schism different from the schism definition that we use now?

29:28 No, it's the same. It's the same. Schism is to, it means to rip, to tear apart. And so it means to leave the communion of it. And it's the sin against charity because one of the ways that the early Christians saw the manifestation of charity was in brotherly unity, mutual accord. And when you split that, you're ripping love. You're not loving one another. It's a sin against charity. And St. Paul condemns it in Galatians chapter 5. So if you're Catholic and lose the faith, you're scared to be in schism? If you still believe and hold to the Catholic faith, yes, you would say that you're in schism. Because you're not a heretic, because you haven't denied the faith, but you're just not in communion with the discipline of the church. So these were both heresies and schisms at the same time.

30:17 Now let's turn to our New Testaments and let's look at Peter. Let's look at Mark chapter 3, verse 16. Mark chapter 3, verse 16. We have the list of the 12 apostles when, after Jesus had summoned his apostles, and in Mark chapter 3, verse 16, who's mentioned first? Simon, whom he named Peter, and who's mentioned last? Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. And every time you have the apostles listed, you have Peter listed first, and then Judas listed last.

31:06 This is kind of how the, every single list of the apostles is like this. You can find the other lists in Luke 6, 14, and Matthew 10, 2. And let's, let's turn to a little bit further in Mark, to Mark chapter 1, verse 36. And this is often, the apostles are described in this way. What does it say, Barbara? It is Simon and those who were with him, pursued him. Simon and those who were with him. Many times, the apostles are called, you know, Peter and those who were with him.

31:53 If we turn to, at the end of Mark, to Mark 16, verse 7. We'll see how fast you guys can flip through your Bibles. Mark 16, verse 7. And these are just several examples. This is not exhaustive in any, in any sense. But go and tell his disciples and Peter. So, again, we have, we have the, the idea of the, the angel is saying, go tell his, Jesus' disciples and Peter. So, Peter is, kind of represents the group. If we look at Matthew chapter 17, verse 24. Matthew 17, verse 24.

32:44 And again, I'm going to follow the three-fold way that this chapter divides. We have Peter, ecumenical council, and then the seven sacraments. This is how we're going to divide it. Matthew 17, 24. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax? Yes, he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, what is your opinion, Simon? From whom do you, do the kings of the earth take tolls of census tax? And then, you know, Jesus has a fish give two coins, one for Peter and one for himself. And what's interesting is that when the collectors of the temple tax wanted the tax, they approached Peter as the representative of the group.

33:41 If we look at Mark chapter 8, verse 29. Yeah, you know, I believe that is a tradition, that Mark's gospel was dictated to Mark by Peter. And that, you know, Peter being a fisherman, probably didn't have the best handwriting, you know, probably stuck his fingers with too many hooks. And so, you know, Mark, John Mark, may have dictated it for him. Yes. Okay, so we have Mark 8, 29. Is that where I told you guys to go? Mark 8, 29. And he, being Jesus, asked them, but who do you say that I am?

34:31 Meaning, you know, to the apostles, in the plural, you. Peter said to him in reply, you are the Messiah. So we have Peter responding for the disciples. He also does it in the parallel text in Matthew 16. Let's turn to John 6. John 6, verse 66. Ooh, it's evil. John 6, 66. As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the twelve, do you also want to leave? Simon Peter answered him, Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. So again, Jesus addresses the twelve. Peter speaks up for them as the representative in John's gospel. Let's turn to Luke, chapter 22.

35:24 Luke, chapter 22, verse 31. Luke 22, 31. This is before the passion of Jesus. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail. And once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers. Okay, so Satan has demanded to, you know, the prophecy from Zachariah, strike the shepherd and the sheep shall, and the flock shall be scattered. Well, Satan has demanded to sift the apostles, this, this group, this motley crew that Jesus has been forming.

36:13 He wants to just sift them. And this happens at the, you know, at the cross. We have John, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other women at the cross. But then the other ones, I mean, Peter denies Jesus three times. And it looks like they've been sifted like wheat. But Jesus has a special prayer for Peter. He says, I have prayed that your own faith may not fail. And once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers. And so a lot of times, you'll, whenever, whenever the Pope will write an encyclical or an apostolic letter or an apostolic exhortation or a bull or whatever, he'll often quote this passage. He'll say, you know, in order to confirm the faith of my brethren, I am writing this. You know, there's something going on. There's some, you know, pious intent battling the synthesis of all heresies, modernism, you know, writes, you know, I'm writing to strengthen you.

37:06 You know, we want to, we want to get back to the faith. We want to get away from these, these errors that are entering, that are entering the church and that the world is presenting to us. Let's turn to John chapter 20, verse 3. John 20, verse 3. Now, John refers to himself as the beloved disciple. So you have John being referred to as the other disciple or the beloved disciple. So Peter and the other disciple, John, went out and came to the tomb. This is Easter morning. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first.

37:55 Okay, so John being the youngest apostle, you know, whenever Leonardo da Vinci or other Renaissance painters paint, paint John, back then in the Renaissance, you'd paint, you know, youth with long hair, with kind of effeminate, you know. So Dan Brown goes, it's a woman. But if you know how Renaissance painting is, no, it's not a woman. That's just how they painted youth. Well, you know, John is much more athletic, much more young. Peter's this old man. He's been a fisherman. He has this beard. You know, he's kind of cranky, you know, probably. He's just, you know, he's trying to catch up, but John gets there first. Well, we've seen in John's gospel throughout the scripture study that John, he doesn't waste any words. He doesn't waste any ink. He means something with every little word. He has great nuances in what he writes.

38:42 He's not just like, oh, this is just what happened, like, you know, he wrote it overnight. No, this was not a last minute term paper. This was well thought out and planned. So he's writing about, you know, his own encounter. Okay, the disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first. He bent down and saw the burial clothes there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial clothes there and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths, but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first. He mentions it again. He had arrived at it first. And he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

39:32 So many commentators have seen in this the prime John giving deference to Peter giving primacy saying, you know, I'm not going to be the first one to witness the empty tomb, but you are, I'm going to, I'm going to let you see that first. And who's the first apostle Jesus appears to. Let's turn to first Corinthians chapter 15. First Corinthians chapter 15. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago. First Corinthians chapter 15, verse four, that he was buried. He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures that he appeared to. Yeah. Kepha.

40:20 Then to the 12. Meaning to all of them at once. It's not like, you know, there were 12 other apostles apart from, from Kepha. And Kepha, of course, is Peter's Aramaic name. So I, well, actually, who is the first person Jesus appeared to after his resurrection? Mary Magdalene, who St. Thomas Aquinas calls the apostle to the apostles because Jesus sent her to go tell the apostles. So she's honored with that, that name, that title in the church. Okay. Let's continue to look at John. Let's look at John chapter 21. And this is the passage that I alluded to when I was talking about evening prayer from last night. John chapter 21, verse 15. Oh, and this is great.

41:09 John is such a masterful theologian as he writes. John chapter 21. And I'm going to go and give you a little, we're going to actually start in verse nine, but there's, I'm going to give you a little bit of background. The apostles are, by the way, this is going to be the gospel this upcoming Sunday. So get excited. The third Sunday of Easter in year C. The apostles are, you know, Peter goes, I'm going to go fishing and the other apostles go, we're going to go with you. So you have this idea of Peter going fishing and the other apostles going with him. And what could this symbolize? Fishing for men, evangelization. And I, and then as they're fishing, they're, they didn't catch anything all night.

42:00 They fish all night. And then someone appears on the shore and he says, cast your net over to the right hand side of the boat. So they do so and they catch a big, huge net of fish, this big dragnet, just full of fish and they can't pull it in. And then they, they recognize the voice of Jesus like sheep recognize the voice of the shepherd. And Peter goes, it's the Lord. And he jumps into the water and swims to the shore. And the other apostles stay in the boat. You know, they're a little bit more prudent. You know, Peter has, has kind of a rambunctious kind of spontaneous personality. He gets to the shore first, the other apostles come up and it says in verse nine, actually, let's look at verse eight. The other disciples came in the boat for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards. By the way, they didn't have yards back then.

42:46 That's just a modern translation. That's about the distance that he gives dragging the net with the fish. So this is known as Peter's dragnet. When they climbed out on the shore, they saw a, charcoal fire. What kind of a fire was Peter next to when he denied Jesus? Charcoal fire. How many times did Peter deny Jesus? Three times. So here's a charcoal fire again. With fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you just caught. So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of 153 large fish because we all know that John and Matthew were really good friends and Matthew was an accountant, right? So he had to get everything just right.

43:34 So I'm sure Matthew, that Levi, the tax collector went one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And Jesus, the resurrected Lord is right. Seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. That's Jesus. 10, 11, 12, 13. Do you think that that's exactly how many fish were there and they had to count them all out? No, John doesn't do that. John doesn't write like that. He writes theologically. This is supposed to have deeper meaning. Well, there are two separate, two meanings that I have found to be reasonable. St. Jerome in the early church said that Greek zoologists in his day had discerned 153 different species of fish. So if you have 153 fish, what does this represent? All of mankind coming into Peter's dragnet.

44:25 Another explanation is, just write this down, don't go back there, but in Ezekiel 47, verse 10, it's prophesying the restoration of Israel. And it's talking about fishermen. It's talking about the restoration as fishermen, fishing out for men. And one of the, and there's a, there's a place mentioned. And if you take the Hebrew consonants and add them up together, because you know they each have a numerical value like Roman numerals, some have seen that in some Hebrew manuscripts, it adds up to 153. So that you have those two different meanings that you can draw out of the Bible. And they were large fish. Good catch. Even though there were so many, the net was not schizo.

45:17 John uses the Greek word schizo. The net was not schism. It was not torn. Jesus said to them, come have breakfast. So you have the idea of Jesus feeding his apostles. And none of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you? Because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them. And in like manner, the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead. So we have this idea of three. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Peter said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs.

46:08 He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. And then Jesus gives a prophecy as to how Peter is going to give his life for him. Amen. I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands. Crucifixion.

46:54 And someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Because at this point in time, Peter has not yet attained that selfless form of love called agape. But he will attain to it. He will love the Lord with agape. Because the Lord, the first two times the Lord says, do you love me? He says, do you agape me? Peter, in those first two instances, says, Lord, you know that I phylos you. A human natural form of love, as opposed to the divine agape, selfless Christian charity. So the Lord, the third time the Lord says, do you love me? He says, the Lord says, do you phylos me?

47:46 And it says that Peter was distressed. Why do you think he would be distressed? Well, first of all, he keeps asking him the same question. But because the Lord said, it changes from agape to phylos. And he says, Peter, look. This church, this dragnet of fish that you guys are going to be bringing in, is not going to be schizo, not because of you. Not because you have this perfect love for me, even though you will have that. You will eventually give your life for me on the cross. But it's because of me. It's because I'm with you. Because when you went out with the apostles and you guys went to catch fish, could you catch a thing without me? No. They couldn't catch a thing. It was only with the Lord's grace, his protection, his help, his assistance, his direction, could that be possible. And so commentators have seen in this passage, John's commentary on how the church is going to remain one without schism.

48:43 And it's not going to be Peter or his successors that are doing the work. But it's going to be Jesus working through them and with them and protecting them and being with them. Because it's Jesus' promise. It's his grace. It's his gift. Okay, so now we've seen kind of Peter, his preeminence and his primacy. And so he has this title of Prince of the Apostles in the New Testament, in the Gospels. And then in the book of Acts, Peter is, you know, of course, shows his leadership. He initiated and oversaw the replacement of Judas Iscariot. He delivered the first inaugural sermon of church history to the crowds in Jerusalem. He urged the repentant crowds to receive baptism. He condemned and exhorted repentance among the Sanhedrin, which was crazy.

49:37 Absolutely crazy. He handled the first recorded case of ecclesial discipline in chapter 5 with Ananias and Sapphira, who lied about the proceeds of the sale of their land to the church. He also commanded the baptism of the first Gentile convert, Cornelius, in chapter 10. And then we're told that after much debate had occurred at the Council of Jerusalem, Peter stood up, gave a pronouncement about how the Gentiles should be able to come into the church without the yoke of the Mosaic law. And then we're told the whole assembly fell silent, which is indicative of the end of debate. Everybody was debating. Peter stood up and said something. And then the whole assembly fell silent. The debate was over with. And so this is where we get the pattern of ecumenical councils. In the early church, when we had Peter and the apostles and other people who were not apostles, such as James, the greater, who was known as the Adelphos of the Lord, the brother of the Lord, when they had this question about circumcision and there was much debate and, you know,

50:46 different people had different opinions. You had those in Jerusalem, those in Antioch. You had the Judaizer party. You had people like Paul. And you had this huge debate. How was it settled? How did they come to a decision as to what would be orthodox? What would be the practice of the church according to the truth of Christ? It was just anybody unto themselves, right? It was just, well, you guys, you Judaizers, you have really good reasons. And so you guys can, you know, you guys can do that if you want to. You can make Gentiles get circumcised. But we over here, you know, Peter and Paul and some other people, you know, we're going to hold to what we believe and that's okay. Everybody prays to the Spirit for personal guidance.

51:40 And then that's, you know, you, the Holy Spirit leading and guiding you is the arbiter of truth. That's how you come to ultimate, that's how you come to resolving a dispute. No, there was a council held, an ecumenical council. And the word ecumenical comes from the Greek word, which means one house. Ecumenical. So the whole house, the whole house of the church came together, not just the apostles, but also such people who are not apostles, but were bishops, such as James the Just. And also other disciples. So it was, it was all of those who had been ordained came together and they, they debated. And then they came to a decision and then the decree was sent out to Antioch, the Antiochian Christians.

52:35 And this is the way that, uh, uh, the, the dispute over Arius was solved at Nicaea in 325. They sent out, you know, letters. You have the canons of Nicaea. This is how it was handled at Ephesus. When you had Nestorius, you had the, uh, at Ephesus, you had the, uh, different canons were created and different documents were sent out. And this is the way all the church has been handling disputes ever since the beginning is ecumenical councils and then coming to a decision and then sending out letters. Sending out the decision so that the, so that the whole church can know about that decision. Okay, we don't have much time left. We have 20, about 22 minutes. And so let's look at the seven sacraments real quick. Let's look at Romans chapter six, verses three to four.

53:25 Romans chapter six, verses three to four. And we're going to look at baptism. Romans six, three to four. And this is Paul's theology of baptism. Right in the middle of his doctrine of justification. Paul says, Barbara, are you up to reading? All right, go for it. Romans chapter six, uh, verses three to four. Are, are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death. So that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.

54:25 Wow. So, baptism, what happens when you're immersed in baptism? You go under the water, and it looks like you're being entombed, you're dying. And then you rise out of the water. And Paul says, are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were, we were united to his death. His, the, the saving effects of his death that takes care of our sin problem has been, we were united to that and that became, we became the beneficiaries of the redemption when we were buried with him. We, we, it was just as if you were buried in that tomb, in the, the tomb of, of, uh, Joseph of Arimathea, which Jesus was buried in. So that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, so when you came out of the water, by the glory of the Father, you too might live in newness of life.

55:19 So the resurrection, the new life of the resurrection becomes your own as you rise out of that water. You're united to the paschal mystery of Christ in baptism. Let's look at Galatians chapter 3, verse 24. Galatians 3, 24. This is Paul again. Galatians 3, 24. He's talking about the Mosaic Law. The first five books of the Bible. Consequently, the law was our disciplinarian for Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a pedagogue, the disciplinarian. For through faith, you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. So how do you keep covenant with God?

56:09 Faith. A life of faithfulness. Living by faith. And so does this mean that you have to get circumcised? You have to keep kosher food laws? Or can Gentiles be in covenant with God without keeping the law, the ceremonial precepts of the law? Yes, they can live a life of faith as well. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Notice he does not say, for as many of you who have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior have clothed yourselves with Christ. The criterion for being a Christian is baptism for Paul. Because he sees baptism as the moment that you are united to Christ. That he calls it being baptized into Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus lives within you. And earlier he says this in Galatians 2 verse 20.

57:02 I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me. In so far as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and gave himself up for me. If we look at Ephesians 6 verse 26. Ephesians 6 verse 26. We have Paul again on baptism. Oh, this is great theology. We have this read at our wedding. Ephesians, I'm sorry, Ephesians 5. You guys are like, there's no verse 26. Ephesians 5 verse 25. Ephesians 5 verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word. Hmm, any Christians in Ephesus ever, there was the word of God was spoken as they were cleansed in a bath of water.

58:12 We have the baptistries in Ephesus to prove that Christians took baths there as Christians. That he might present to himself the church in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. So the way the Lord brings people to himself and weds himself to people is through the bath of water with the word. Okay, the sacrament of confirmation, which we just had last night here. Bishop Gregory Amon was here and gave this sacrament. Let's look at Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 verse 17. Are you guys getting better at flipping through your Bibles? A little bit.

59:00 You know, practice makes perfect. You know, I learned keyboarding when I was a freshman in high school and the more we did it, the faster it became. And it's really painful to begin these Bible studies and I have to wait up here for about a minute. But by the time we're at the 28th chapter, you know, it's a lot faster. You guys are a lot more on the ball. Acts chapter 8 verse 17. We have, let's back up a little bit like I always do to you guys. And let's go to verse 12. There's this guy named Philip and he's not an apostle. Philip is one of the deacons that was ordained a deacon in Acts chapter 6. Okay, so we have a deacon. They began to believe Philip, the deacon, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God. This is verse 12.

59:49 And the name of Jesus Christ. Men and women alike were baptized. Even Simon himself believed. Simon Magus, Simon the magician. And after being baptized, became devoted to Philip. And when he saw the signs and mighty deeds that were occurring, he was astounded. So we have Philip performing signs and mighty deeds. People are getting baptized. They're becoming Christians. They're now united with Christ. They're reborn of water in the spirit. Verse 14. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, you know, from Philip, They sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For it had not yet fallen upon any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

1:00:47 So how did they get the Holy Spirit? Did they pray a novena like the apostles did in the upper room? They prayed for nine days and the Holy Spirit came upon them? Or they laid hands on each other and they just really prayed for them? How did they get the Holy Spirit? Human intermediaries. And Philip couldn't do it because Philip was not, he was not ordained a presbyter. He was just a deacon. So can deacons give the sacrament of confirmation? Can presbyters, with permission, yes. Can bishops, who are presbyters as well? Because bishops are presbyters. They're presbyters that have been made overseers. Yes. And remember, this is really odd in the English language. Remember, the term, the English word priest, comes from presbyter. So when we say priest, in English, this literally means presbyter.

1:01:43 This is where it comes from. So this is the weird thing about English, is that we don't have a, we don't really have a word that distinguishes a presbyter from a Levitical priest. A Levitical, see, again, I'm using English again. It's like, every time we call them Levitical priests, we're actually calling them Levitical presbyters. Because that's what priest came from. That's what it means. Every time we call Jesus our high priest, we're actually calling him the high presbyter. Because priest means presbyter. So this is the limit, this is the, how language is limited. We need a separate English word other than priest to talk about priest. Because presbyter in the early church did not mean priest. It meant elder.

1:02:32 The elders among you. And so Timothy, who's a young, and is made a presbyter by Paul, is considered an elder. You know, this is that famous passage. Let's turn to 1 Timothy. We'll get into another sacrament, the sacrament of holy orders. 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 8. Chapter 4, verse 12. Chapter 4, verse 12. Let no one have contempt for your youth. But set an example for those who believe in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. So that's that famous passage, you know, let no one have contempt for your youth. You know, youth groups use it all the time. But why is he saying this?

1:03:18 Because he's a bishop. He's a presbyter bishop. And so he's considered an elder. But yet he's this really young guy. And so he's like, don't let anybody look down upon you just because you're a newly ordained. Until I arrive, attend to the reading, meaning the liturgical reading in the churches, exhortation and teaching, the homilies. Do not neglect the... By the way, you guys know what the term homily means? Where it comes from? It means... It comes from the word for conversation. That's what it comes from. Do not neglect... And this is the important part. Verse 14. 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 14. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate.

1:04:13 So this is a different laying on of the hands than to receive the evangelistic effects of the Holy Spirit, to have a new Pentecost. This is the imposition of hands. This is, you know, just as, you know, the sacraments are participating in Christ's life. As Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit and became a Christian in his baptism. Remember, he was a Christian. Christ was a Christian because he was Christ. And we're just at I-A-N on the end. What does that mean? You know, it's just, I'm a Christ. We're alter Christus. We're other Christ's. He's the first Christ. He's anointed with the Spirit. So in our baptism, we receive the Spirit and we become Christians. As Christ sent the Holy Spirit upon his apostles at Pentecost and they received the Holy Spirit. Not like they already didn't have it. But they received a further stirring up of the Spirit, new gifts to spread, defend, and proclaim the faith.

1:05:04 So that's what we receive in confirmation. When the bishop, you know, takes the sacred chrism and says, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then he slaps you across the face, right? Or which he used to do. He used to. Because you were a defender of the faith. And then the sacrament of holy matrimony is participating in Christ's nuptial relationship with his bride, the church. Christ ordained his apostles as presbyters, as elders, as priests, as ministerial priests. Again, we're using the term priests again, which comes from the word presbyter. And so, and to be his minister. So we have holy orders where Christ makes new ministers in the church. He makes more ministers. Just as Christ celebrated the Last Supper with his apostles, so we celebrate it with him, the eternal banquet of the marriage supper of the Lamb, with the resurrected body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

1:05:58 Just as Jesus went around healing people, not of just their physical ailments, but of their spiritual ailments, so we have the anointing of the sick. Just as Jesus went around and forgave people their sins, so we have the sacrament of penance, or confession, or reconciliation. The seven sacraments are an extension of the incarnation. They are the way that Jesus continues to minister in his church. Remember the beginning of Acts of the Apostles? It said that, you know, Theophilus in the first book, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach. But now he's continuing, you know, the implication is that now what he began, he's continuing in his church. Okay, let's turn to James chapter 5. James chapter 5.

1:06:48 This is where we get the anointing of the sick from. James chapter 5, verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Is anybody here suffering? Are you? Anybody? Yeah, it's cold. You should pray. That's what he says, you should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise. But what if you're sick? Not suffering, but if you're sick. He should summon the presbyters of the church. And they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

1:07:38 In the name of the Lord. What is that? What happens when you invoke the name of the Lord? What is that? What's the Latin word for that? Sacramentum. Which is the Latin word for oath. And oath is invoking the name of the Lord. So we have a sacrament here. And the prayer of faith will save the sick person. And the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. By the way, this is great. If you guys ever, you know, take a presbyter out to lunch. Take Father David Ivey or Father, well, Father Alberto's newly ordained. I don't know if he's had any of these experiences yet. But one time I was, we were having RCIA at St. Mary Catholic Student Center in College Station. When I was on the team there. And Father Mike Siss came in to teach on the sacraments. And somebody asked him, or he was teaching on the anointing of the sick. And he recounted a story about how he went to the hospital and someone was dying.

1:08:30 And their heart rate was getting slower and slower and slower. And they were just about to die. And Father Mike Siss heard their confession. Gave them a last Holy Communion. Viaticum. Which means via, on the way. Cum, viaticum. With. With you on the way. Jesus is with you on the way to heaven. Final Communion, viaticum. He hears his confession, gives him viaticum. Anoints him with the anointing of the sick. Beep, beep. He's healed. On the spot. And many priests will tell you of these stories about how the anointing of the sick. Not only helps people spiritually every single time. But also helps people sometimes physically. You know how the real physical healing will occur. It's really amazing. You know, it's so funny.

1:09:16 These people who don't believe in miracles. They're like, miracles don't occur. Get to know some. Get around. Okay, it continues. Remember, this is the same passage. Verse 16. Therefore. And whenever you see that word, therefore. Dr. Scott Hahn would always say, you should ask yourself, what is it, therefore? Therefore, confess your sins to one another. Okay, it says it, the Bible says, okay, Barbara? Here we are. The Bible says to confess your sins to one another. Let's follow the Bible. I'm waiting. You first. It was my idea, so you get to go first. I'll go later. Is that what it means? But no, that's what it says.

1:10:05 It says confess your sins. Who is the one another? What's the context of the passage? The presbyters. Presbyters. Again, we can't take verses out of context. We can't ripple them out of context. We've got to put them square, right in the context, which is the ministry of the presbyters of the church. And we have the confession of sins to the presbyters. So we saw the founding of the sacrament of confession in John chapter 20, verses 21 through 23. We're on the night of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. Jesus appeared to his apostles and said, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. This is where we get the term apostle from, one who is sent. And he breathed. He infusao, the Holy Spirit, upon them. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.

1:10:52 Whose sins you retain are retained. And then we have the practice of confession in the church recorded for us in James and also in Matthew chapter 9, which we covered earlier. Yes, sure. In saying one another, then he's talking about the presbyters confessing to each other. That's right. And so, who do priests go to confession to? But then it says, and pray for one another that you may be healed. Now, I thought that, in that sense, he was talking about the people that they were sent to. Yeah, they, well, you also, with the sacrament of reconciliation in the early church, there was a lot of healing going on. Physical healing does accompany the sacraments quite often. And this is one of the things that I was never exposed to, like in high school. I, you know, I didn't really, I thought of, okay, the anointing, okay, the bishop comes, yeah, he puts a sign across in your forehead, whatever.

1:11:43 That's just a ritual. You go to confession, yeah, somehow we know that we're forgiven. But I didn't know about all these miracles that accompanied the sacraments. When the sacraments are given in India, hoo, watch out. The Catholic Charismatic Center in, I forgot the name of the town in India. When they administer the sacraments, great miracles and healings occur along with them. Not every time, not physical healings every time, but they do occur. They are connected to them, absolutely. Okay, and finally, we have the, we have the ordination of the deacons by the laying on of hands in Acts chapter 6, verse 6. You can write that down. We just saw the ordination to the presbyterate with Timothy. And then the apostles were apostles, but when Matthias replaces Judas Iscariot, the Old Testament is quoted by Peter, and it says, let his office another take.

1:12:38 And the King James Version of the Bible translates that, this is not the KJV, but it says in Acts chapter 1, verse 20, may another take his bishopric. Judas Iscariot's office is called a bishopric, his position of overseeing. That's what episkopoi in the Greek means, is to oversee. So, this office of apostle was also called the bishopric. So, the bishops are those who take the office of the apostles. And so, we have the bishopric right there in Acts chapter 1, verse 20. That's where we get our bishops from. And then holy matrimony is all over Matthew chapter 19. And I've covered Matthew chapter 19 pretty in depth before, so I'm not going to go over it again.

1:13:29 Though there are always more insights into it that I'd love to share with you, such as when Jesus crossed... See, I'm going into it. When Jesus crosses the Jordan River into the region of Perea, in the beginning of Matthew chapter 19, that's the same region where John the Baptist preached against Herod for marrying his brother's wife, which was an unlawful marriage. It was porneia. And so, the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, why did Moses give them a bill of divorce? You know, why did they give him the bill of divorce? To test him. Because they want for him to be beheaded, just like John the Baptist, if Jesus upholds the law. And if Jesus doesn't uphold the law, then they can say, you're against the Mosaic law. And so, he loses his audience.

1:14:16 So, it's a testing. And so, you've got to read Matthew chapter 19 to find out what happens next, if you haven't read it already. So, let's close in prayer, because it is time to close. Oh, one final thing. There's a great book by Stephen K. Ray called Upon This Rock. And Stephen was a Baptist for his entire life, up and through his adult life. And then, he started reading some very subversive literature called The Early Church Fathers. And this book he wrote, Upon This Rock, is the fruit of his study of reading The Early Church Fathers. And basically, he quotes The Early Church Fathers about, it's subtitled, St. Peter and the Primacy of Rome in Scripture.

1:15:06 So, he analyzes the relevant biblical passages first, and then in The Early Church. So, he quotes St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Augustine, the epistle of, if you pay me two dollars, I'll stop. No, I'm just kidding. There you go. Stephen Ray. R-A-Y? Yes, R-A-Y. Look at this. I just can't spell today. I'm just so bad. I'm spelling like a little kid. He's also, his website is at Catholic, if you ever want to go to his website, it's Catholic Convert. .com. It's his website. And he has a forum there that I used to post on a lot. Okay, let's close in prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. And I'm going to pray from tonight's evening prayer.

1:15:58 God of our fathers, you raised your son Jesus from the dead and clothed him in glory. Move our hearts to complete repentance, that we may walk in newness of life. You have led us back to the shepherd and bishop of our souls. Keep us faithful under the guidance of the shepherds of the church. You chose the first fruits of Christ's disciples from the Jewish people. Reveal to the children of Israel the fulfillment of the promise made to their forefathers. God of mercy, you have filled us with the hope of resurrection, by restoring man to his original dignity. May we who relive this mystery each year come to share it in perpetual love.

1:16:50 Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.