The King chooses apostles, gives them work to do and teaches them how to behave
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📚And when he had called his twelve disciples✭ to him, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out, and to heal every kind of sickness and disease.2 📚Now the names of the twelve apostles✭ are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, his brother Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, his brother John, 3 📚Philip, Bartholomew✭, Thomas, Matthew✭ the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, Lebbaeus, who was named Thaddaeus✭, 4 📚Simon the Canaanite✭, and Judas Iscariot✭, who also betrayed him.
5 📚✭These twelve Jesus sent out, and commanded them, saying, “Do not go on any road of the Gentiles, and do not enter any Samaritan city. 6 📚Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 📚And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 📚✭Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
9 📚✭“Provide no gold or silver or copper for your money belts, 10 📚or a bag for your journey, or two coats or sandals or staffs. For the workman is worthy of his food.
11 📚✭“And whatever city or town you enter, enquire who is worthy in it, and stay there with them until you go away. 12 📚✭And when you go into a household, greet it. 13 📚And if the household is worthy, let your peace come on it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 📚✭And whoever does not receive you or listen to your words, when you leave that house or city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 📚Truly I say to you, in the day of judgment✭ it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah✭ than for that city.
16 📚“Look, I send you forth like sheep among wolves.✭ So be as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. 17 📚✭But beware of men! For they will hand you over to the Councils, and they will beat you with whips in their synagogues, 18 📚and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, to give testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 📚✭But when they hand you over, do not worry about how you will speak, or what. For at that very hour what you should say will be given to you. 20 📚✭For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
21 📚✭“And brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rebel against parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 📚And you will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. 23 📚✭But when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For truly I say to you, you will not have gone over the cities of Israel before the Son of man comes.
24 📚“The disciple is not above his teacher, or the servant above his master.
25 📚“It is enough for the disciple that he is like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the owner of the house Beelzebub✭, how much more those in his household.
26 📚✭“Therefore, do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 📚What I tell you in darkness speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear preach on the housetops. 28 📚✭And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Instead be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 📚✭Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 📚But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 📚So do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
32 📚✭“Therefore whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. 33 📚But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
34 📚✭“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 📚✭For I have come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 📚And a man's foes will be those of his own household.
37 📚✭“Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and anyone who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 📚✭And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 📚✭Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 📚✭“Anyone who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. 41 📚Anyone who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. 42 📚And if anyone gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward”.