Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 141
BEGINNING THE PUBLIC WORK
1. On the first day of the week. January 19, A.D. 27, Jesus and the twelve apostles made ready to depart from their headquarters in Bethsaida...Just before leaving, the apostles missed the Master, and Andrew went out to find him. After a brief search he found Jesus sitting in a boat down the beach, and he was weeping ...Andrew ...ask: "On this great day, Master...why is it that you weep? Which of us has offended you?" And. Jesus... answered him: "No one of you has grieved me. I am saddened only because none of my father Joseph's family have remembered to come over to bid us Godspeed."
2. John's disciples never could understand why Jesus did not prevent the cruel death of their beloved leader ...During this first year of Jesus' public ministry more than three fourths of his followers had previously followed John and had received his baptism. This entire year of A.D. 27 was spent in quietly taking over John's work in Perea and Judea.
3. “I declare that the kingdom of heaven is. the realization and. acknow1edgmentof God's rule within the hearts of men. True, there is a King in this kingdom, and that King is my Father and your Father. We are indeed his loyal subjects, but far transcending that fact to the transforming truth that we are his sons.
4. “Verily, verily, I say to you, when the Father's will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom. But when the Father's will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the kingdom because the kingdom has thereby become an established experience in you.”
5. Peter, James, and John did most of the public preaching. Philip, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Simon did much of the personal work and conducted classes for special groups of inquirers; the twins continued their general police supervision, while Andrew, Matthew, and Judas developed into a general managerial committee of three, although each of these three also did considerable religious work.
6. Andrew was much occupied with the task of adjusting the constantly recurring misunderstandings and disagreements between the disciples of John and the newer disciples of Jesus ...Jesus refused to participate in any of these conferences; neither would he give any advice about the proper adjustment of these difficulties.
7. Jesus was truly a master of men; he exercised great influence over his fellow men because of the combined charm and force of his personality. There was a subtle commanding influence in his rugged, nomadic, and homeless life. There was intellectual attractiveness and spiritual drawing power in his authoritative manner of teaching, in his lucid logic, his strength of reasoning, his sagacious insight, his alertness of mind, his matchless poise, and his sublime tolerance. He was simple, manly, honest, and fearless. With all of this physical and intellectual influence manifest in the Master's presence, there were also all those spiritual charms of being which have become associated. with his personality—patience, tenderness, meekness, gentleness, and humility.
8. Jesus of Nazareth was indeed a strong and forceful personality; he was an intellectual power and a spiritual stronghold. His personality not only appealed to the spiritually minded women among his followers, but also to the educated and intellectual Nicodemus and to the hardy Roman soldier, the captain stationed. on guard at the cross, who, when he had finished watching the Master die, said., "Truly, this was a Son of God." And red-blooded, rugged Galilean fishermen called him Master.
9. The pictures of Jesus have been most unfortunate. These paintings of the Christ have exerted a deleterious influence on youth; the temple merchants would hardly have fled before Jesus if he had been such a man as your artists usually have depicted. His was a dignified manhood; he was good, but natural. Jesus did not pose as a mild, sweet, gentle, and kindly mystic. His teaching was thrillingly dynamic. He not only meant well, but he went about actually doing good.
10. Jesus spent much time with the apostles instructing them in the new concept of God; again and again did he impress upon them that God is a Father...The Jews had long conceived. of God as a king over all, even as a Father of the nation, but never before had large numbers of mortal men held the idea of God as a loving Father of the individual.
11. The Master taught them much about the whole man—the union of body, mind., and. spirit to form the individual man or woman ...From week to week and from month to month, throughout this entire year, the apostles paid more and more attention to the healing ministry of the sick.
12..James Zebedee had. asked, "Master, how shall we learn to see alike and thereby enjoy more harmony among ourselves?...Jesus...replied: "James, James, when did I teach you that you should all see alike? ...I do not desire that social harmony and fraternal peace shall be purchased by the sacrifice of free personality and. spiritual originality. What I require of you, my apostles, is spirit unity ....You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike...you. may enjoy all of this profound spiritual unity in the very face of the utmost diversity of your individual attitudes of intellectual thinking, temperamental feeling, and. social conduct.
13. “Your spirit unity implies two things, which always will be found to harmonize in the lives of individual believers: First, you. are possessed with a common motive for life service; you all desire above everything to do the will of the Father in heaven. Second., you all have a common goal of existence; you all purpose to find the Father in heaven, thereby proving to the universe that you have become like him.”
14. Many times during the training of the twelve Jesus reverted to this theme ...Again and again he warned his apostles against the formulation of creeds and the establishment of traditions as a means of guiding and controlling believers in the gospel of the kingdom.
15. Simon, Simon, how many times have I instructed you to refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those who seek salvation? How often have I told you to labor only to put something into these hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error.
16. Do not strive with men—always be patient ...Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven—God is your Father and you are his sons, and this good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation.
17. Jesus endeavored to make clear that he desired his disciples, having tasted of the good spirit realities of the kingdom, so to live in the world. that men, by seeing their lives, would become kingdom conscious and hence be led to inquire of believers concerning the ways of the kingdom.
18. Jesus made it plain that he had come to establish personal and eternal relations with men which should forever take precedence over all other human relationships. And he emphasized that this intimate spiritual fellowship was to be extended to all men of all ages and of all social conditions among all peoples.
19. Jesus laid great emphasis upon what be called the two truths of first import in the teachings of the kingdom, and they are: the attainment of salvation by faith, and faith alone, associated with the revolutionary teaching of the attainment of human liberty through the sincere recognition of truth.
20. To insure the recognition of his Father in the unfolding of the plan of the kingdom, Jesus explained that he had purposely ignored the "great men of earth."...his plan was world‑wide, even universal ...he had come on this bestowal mission, not to set an example for a few earth creatures, but to establish and demonstrate a standard of human life for all peoples upon all worlds throughout his entire universe.
21. He announced that he had come to function as a teacher…he was a teacher, not a preacher. From the human viewpoint Peter was a much more effective preacher than Jesus. Jesus' preaching was so effective because of his unique personality, not so much because of compelling oratory or emotional appeal.
22. Though the Master was easy to approach, be always lived independent of, and above, all human beings. Not for one moment was be ever dominated by any purely mortal influence or subject to frail human judgment. He paid no attention to public opinion, and he was uninfluenced by praise. He seldom paused to correct misunderstandings or to resent misrepresentation. He never asked any man for advice; he never made requests for prayers.
23. It was in Jericho that Jesus' commission to the twelve to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom and. minister to the afflicted was first fully carried into effect.
Discussion Questions
1. Why did Jesus largely ignore the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist?
2. How does the Father’s will become our will instead of our law?
3. Why did Jesus refuse help solve the problems arising between the disciples of John and the newer disciples of Jesus?
4. How will the vibrant picture of Jesus in the Urantia Synopsis of Papers change the traditional Christian view?
5. How can religious organizations escape the tendency to influence people to think alike through the use of creeds and theological positions?
6. What are the implications of Jesus’ instruction not to take things out of the hearts of people?
7. How does truth make us free and when does freedom become license?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship