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The disciple that we are studying in this lesson is probably the disciple of which people know the least. If someone were to ask you to name the twelve disciples -- hopefully now after this series you could give a fair shot at it -- most people would get the ten or eleven disciples, and even remember James the Less. But if you missed one, chances are that you would miss "the other Judas." It is my desire that after this lesson, you will never forget this obscure disciple or the lesson that his life brings to us today.

We essentially know five things about this disciple from scripture: three names or nicknames, the name of a close relative, and a sixteen word question that the disciple asked Jesus the night before the crucifixion recorded by the Gospel of John. Let's take these items one by one and build up a portrait of this follower of Christ.

Several of the disciples have two names or nicknames. We have Nathanael Bartholomew, Simon Peter, and Matthew Levi, but only the disciple whom we are studying tonight has three names given in scripture. Perhaps that is why most people have trouble recalling this disciple. As you study the twelve, it becomes obvious that the most important characteristics that God wanted us to know about this particular disciple comes from the meanings of his many names.

His primary name was Judas which most of you know means "praise." The problem is that even among the disciples and the early church to think of "Judas" brought the traitor, Judas Iscariot, to mind. This is why the half-brother of Jesus who was also named Judas and who eventually wrote a short book of the Bible, shortened his name to "Jude," because they wanted to be remembered distinctly different from the Iscariot, the one who sold Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver. Luke, both in his gospel and in the book of Acts, solves this problem by introducing our disciple as "Judas the son of James." This "James" is another person that is totally different than any of the other "James" in the Bible. John solves the problem by writing the disciple's name as "Judas, not Iscariot" implying that this Judas stayed faithful to God and was thus quite unlike the traitor that shared the same name.

Even in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, the disciples needed a way to separate the two Judas' of the group and so from Matthew's Gospel, we learn that another name was used commonly for this other Judas: "Lebbaeus." It was probably a nickname. "Lebbaeus" means "courageous," or "the courageous one."

The gospel of Matthew refers to yet another nickname of this Judas which Mark uses singularly, indicating to us that this is probably what this disciple was called the most often. The third name was "Thaddaeus" and it literally means -- get ready for this -- "breast-baby" or "breast child." It would be ancient slang roughly corresponding in modern day as "youngster" or "young one." From this most Bible scholars believe that Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus -- let's just call him Thaddaeus from this point on -- was the youngest in age of all of the disciples. He was called "breast baby" as an affectionate reference to his position as the least advanced in age of the twelve.

How young was he? In studying the disciple John, we learned by doing the math backwards from his death, that John was probably no older than 19 or 20 at the cross and thus no older than 16 or 17 when he was called to follow Jesus Christ. If Thaddaeus as the youngest disciple was younger than John, then young Thad was probably about 14 or 15 years of age when he began to follow the Lord, and around 16 or 17 years of age at the cross. He was truly a "breast child" compared to some of the older disciples who may have been in their late thirties and early forties when they were called to follow Jesus. How someone in their early teens could come about serving Jesus full-time is not clear in scripture but not impossible for the time. It could be that the mention of Thaddaeus' father indicates that his father agreed with and freed Thad to go follow the Miracle Worker. Such an occurrence would not have been abnormal when you consider that, in Jewish culture, a boy was considered a man at the age of twelve, and thus Jesus Christ worked in a carpenter's shop from age 12 to 30 -- 18 years before He began His earthly ministry. When you think about it, seeing how diverse in personality the group of twelve chosen by Christ were, it would be strange if there were not some older and some younger disciples in the group. In any case, the name Thaddaeus points us to the most distinguishing feature of this disciple: youthfulness in serving God. And that is the lesson to be learned from his life.

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It is very fitting and needful to preach from this disciple's example to our local church, because we have here a large group of people who are young in age that are actively serving the Lord. I also do not believe that -- other than the pastoral ministry -- we have anyone here who has had the Holy Ghost for more than five years. That means that although some of your hair may be turning gray from how long it has been since your first birth, it hasn't been all that long ago that you were "born again." Spiritually most of us are "young" and so not only do the points from Thaddaeus' life apply to those who are literally teenagers but the same could be said for those who are just starting out in a Spirit-filled walk with God. In short, although the subject is youth, I'm preaching in this lesson to virtually everyone under the sound of my voice.

Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus was young but he remained faithful to Jesus Christ and grew up loyally serving His God. I believe that God can and will use young people to do great things. I believe that God can use people who are newly "born again" to do great things in the kingdom of God. You do not have to be young to do something great for God, but youth does not have to be a barrier. Listen to this group of people from the Bible: Abel, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Joash, Thaddaeus, John the Beloved, John Mark, Timothy, Titus, and Eutychus. All were labeled as being "young" but who also became and did great things for God. In Joash's case, he was king of Judah at the tender age of seven!

I, of course, became senior pastor of this church at the ripe old age of 24 and have been in full-time ministry since I was 20 and part-time ministry (i.e. I wasn't getting paid for it) since I was 15 or so when I preached my first sermon, taught in kid's church, organized the youth services, and played an instrument in the local church's music department. Lately with the loss of hair and the wrinkles that come from full-time ministry, I have tended to look to people a little older than my actual age. A few years back, I was at a District Conference standing around with a group of preachers that included some good friends of mine who happen to be quite a bit older. Another preacher came up and somehow the conversation got around to youth and the preacher went off on "young people" preaching and ministering and how that he thought that young men should have to wait until they were thirty to even get behind a pulpit or teach a Bible study because young people always messed things up and on and on . . . It was sort of awkward because some of my friends knew that I was about 25 and had been pastoring for two years and had probably won more people to God than the older gentleman who was berating young people. So I did what any crazy person would do, and I patted him on the back real hard and with a big goofy smile said, "You are exactly right, in fact, it's been a long time since I have heard somebody make so much sense" and right when he was taking me seriously I said something like, "Ol' Timothy in the Bible just royally messed things up in the church that he pastored didn't he!?" The other people in the group busted out laughing and the guy realized his mistake. It thought it was funny: he had literally come a few years too late to tell me that God cannot use those who are young of age!

God can use young people, but if you are to be successful in God at a young age, or even as a young believer, you will have to have the same traits of those who were young and successful in the Bible. The reason that they made it serving God in their youth will be the very same traits that help you overcome whatever handicaps youthfulness brings. Let me preach to you that to be successful as a young person in God you must:

Lebbaeus, one of the other nicknames of Thaddaeus, remember, means "a courageous one" or "to have courage." It took a lot of courage for him to step out into a man's world as a young teenager and yet make the same commitment that the others did. It was one thing for an older man such as Simon the Zealot to choose such a direction in life but for a young person, it was a gigantic leap of faith.

As young believers, you must have courage because whatever you do in God you do not have the wisdom of past experience to help you along. If you are scared of failing, then you will not make it far in the kingdom of God. I have been used since my early years in churches and I can tell you that I have made mistake after mistake after mistake. As a younger person, you can expect to mess things up and fail repeatedly at first in anything that you do because you are inexperienced. It will be some time before you are able to fulfill the obligations of the kingdom of God with skill. You are literally "learning on the job." And so you must have courage to get up and try again. And then get up and try again. And then try again. Courage, Courage, Courage. If you are going to get all distraught because of one failure or one mistake and quit, then you aren't going to make it.

I remember my first time to play the piano in church after I came home from college the first year. I had learned some really cool "tricks and licks" and diligently applied myself. Before I had gone to college I couldn't really play the piano well enough to play in church and so I was anxious to come home and "show my stuff." Sure enough, that summer, the regular piano player got sick one week, and so my mother put me on the schedule to play on a Wednesday night. I got up there, and I didn't know that you could sweat gallons out of your fingertips, but I was doing so. My hands were so slippery that I couldn't even push down a black key but kept sliding off. It seemed like the chords were changing fast, I was unaware that we sang those songs that fast. I clanked around and missed hundreds of chords, and wanted to go crawl in a hole. But I had to get up the next Sunday and try again and again. I could either quit, or practice harder and try again. Courage.

I remember the first time that I sang a solo in college. I had not sang in church since puberty had hit causing my voice to start squeaking. My junior year, I was put in a special trio and had to sing a solo to a fast song in a Missions conference. I practiced and practiced; I sang in the shower; I knew that solo by heart. I got up there and started singing the first words to my verse and my mind went totally blank. I can't explain it, but I could not think of the words to the song to save my life. They say that I made up something and that it sort of made sense but that it didn't rhyme. I again wanted to go crawl in a hole. But to be used of God, you must try again and again. You can't let mistakes keep you from getting back up. You must have courage!

The first time you teach a Bible study, you will do like my first time and slaughter it. The first time you teach a Sunday School class, you are not going to be very interesting to listen to. The first time you begin to pray out loud or offer to pray for someone, you will feel like an idiot. The first time you sing in church, or take charge of an activity or an outreach, or try to speak or preach or play in front of a group, you will make dumb mistakes. Welcome to the joys of youth. But you must have courage. Courage that God will help you. Courage to try again. Courage to get back up and give it your all. Jesus said "I will make you fishers of men." You will not have all the answers when you first try to witness to someone, but keep trying because through your courage to keep going, God will form you and make you into what you want to be. Thaddaeus, the youthful, was successful in living for God because he was also known as Lebbaeus: the courageous one!

Thaddaeus was also successful because he was known as "Judas" or by his "praise." With youth comes a lack of life experiences and a lack of appreciation for really everything that God has done in your life. It is only when you have truly experienced things falling apart trying to do it your way do you really become aware of the supernatural hand of God in your everyday life. I have seen many young people step out and try to be used of God and those who make it and those who don't are usually determined by whether or not they got a true revelation of praise of God Almighty. Those who make up in their mind that they are going to praise God no matter what anyone thinks tend to make it and those young people who are too caught up in pride or inhibitions to freely praise God usually don't.

Some young people tend to try to put up a front of "cool disinterest" which is really only an attempt to hide their insecurities about who they are. When I am around a young person who will not respond to normal communication or interaction and has a "too cool for school" front, then I know that I am dealing with a very insecure person who is trying through bravado and pride to fit in. It is the same in the Spirit and it applies to young believers. If you are not secure enough and strong enough in who you are in God to praise God outwardly, then you are not secure enough to make it in working for the kingdom of God. If you care about what somebody might think if you dance or clap your hands exuberantly, then you are really going to be hogtied if God asks you to do something that goes against the common culture or what everyone else is doing. If you are going to survive, then you are going to have to be a praiser.

And not just a praiser of God but a praiser of others more than yourself. The startling realization of youth is this: there will always be someone better than you at anything and someone worse than you. Always. Your attitude towards both groups will determine how successful you are in God. The youthful tendency is to tear down the people better than you and tear down the people worse than you. But remember that our youthful example, Thaddaeus, was a "praiser." He praised and complimented and admired the people better than he, and he complimented, praised, and encouraged the people who were worse off than he. I can play the piano very well, but you have never heard me criticize another piano player in another church who had limited skills. You have never heard it because I don't do it. I learned the hard way a long time ago as a young musician that when you start tearing other people down, you begin to tear up your future in the kingdom of God. In the world's way of doing things, people advance by tearing down the people above them and pushing down on the people below. But in God's kingdom, you advance by pushing forward and higher the person above you and reaching down and helping the person below you. We do that best by our choice of words: choose to be a praiser!

The life of Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus also proves to us that to be successful in the kingdom of God at a young age you must:

Sacrifice was a part of following Jesus Christ. Taking up your cross and following Him was part and still is part of believing and serving Jesus. In Thaddaeus' case, realize that his cross was not any lighter because of his age. He had to bear the same hardships and the same tests of faith and the same trials as all of the other disciples. He had to endure the same persecution as the rest of the believers.

There is a tendency among young people or young believers that they "should be babied" or "treated with kid gloves." But Jesus did not treat Thad or John any different than He treated Simon or James. The price was the same. All had to fast. All had to pray. All had to face persecution and yet still do God's will. All of them had rough days. All of them endured storms that came out of nowhere. All of them didn't understand at times. The young and the old. If Jesus' ministry proves anything to us it is that younger believers walk the same road as older believers and that there is one path that leads to eternal life and a successful ministry, not an easier path for younger people and a harder one for the more experienced.

Another scriptural example will help to drive the point home. John Mark would eventually write the Gospel of Mark and become one of the second generation of leaders of the Apostolic Church. At the time of Jesus' ministry, he was a young, young man probably just at becoming a teenager or a few years younger. In the book of Acts chapters 12 and 13, we find that Saul/Paul and Barnabas began their first missionary journey and took the now young man John Mark with them. They sailed across to Cyprus and then traveled across the island and then took a boat to the mainland. John 13:13 says that John Mark decided to return to Jerusalem at that point and refuse to finish the trip. We know from Acts 15:38 that he had deserted them on the trip and that his early departure home was not planned. Probably what happened was that Mark didn't realize that every hardship endured by Paul and Barnabas had to also be endured by him. God didn't weaken the demons for his youthfulness. The unbelievers were not more generous and easy in their opposition because of his young age. The seas were not more gentle just because he was young and starting out for God on the ship. And so John Mark did what many young people do and that was to be quick to throw in the towel when the going got rough and uncomfortable. He was not quite willing to really sacrifice all that was needed to reach the world for Jesus Christ.

If you as a young person or as a young believer are going to make it, then you must realize that you are not doing God a favor by volunteering for His kingdom. Rather He is doing you a favor by allowing you to be forgiven and to do His work! Young people tend to feel that "I'm giving my life to God and so He ought to make things easy for me" but it doesn't work that way because if you have no storms, you will never truly learn to trust in Him. If you face no devils and have no fights, then you will never have great victories. If you face no hardships or overcome no obstacles then you are truly not really doing anything or taking on any responsibility in the kingdom of God! Therefore, if you are going to be successful in the kingdom of God at a young age, you must be willing to sacrifice and sacrifice more for the kingdom of God than you bargained for, and to stay with it until the journey is through. John Mark's returning to Jerusalem caused him to miss some persecution and some hardships but it also caused him to miss out on seeing some wonderful miracles and supernatural conversions and whole cities filled with the Holy Ghost! If you want to be successful in the kingdom of God then you are going to have to be able to sacrifice as much as anybody else, young or old! You must also:

In the only recorded words spoken by Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus, he asked Jesus a question about something that he did not understand. And Jesus really did not fully answer the question because it was of such a nature that Thaddaeus or any of the other disciples could not grasp at that moment.

Jesus had told them:

Jesus had promised to send "the Spirit of truth" whom the world cannot receive or know but whom the disciples knew because he dwelt with them and would be "in them." Jesus was talking the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit which would be literally the spirit of Jesus coming to live in them. He had dwelt with them in the flesh, but now He would be in them in the Spirit.

Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus asked this:

It's a fair question that is being asked. Jesus had used the term "manifest" meaning "to make visible" and said that the world would not see Him but they would and Thad --thinking in the very natural sense -- was trying to figure out how that Jesus could show Himself to the disciples and yet the world nearby not see Him. What Thaddaeus and all of the other disciples did not understand was that Jesus was coming back first into their lives in Spirit form. And therefore they would know that He was with them but the world would not be able to see the Spirit of Jesus there. Jesus was talking not of a physical manifestation but a spiritual one through the infilling of the Holy Ghost. After they received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, all of the disciples would understand what Jesus meant, but at this moment there was no way for them to grasp the true meaning of the words and so Jesus answered Thaddaeus without really answering him:

Those who obeyed Jesus' words would eventually find that they had both the Father and the Son living with them. The Father in the sense of the invisible Spirit of God that they were to receive. The Son in the image of the resurrected flesh of Jesus Christ coming back to get them at the "catching away" of the church.

The point to our study is this: "Thaddaeus, you cannot possibly understand this until later, but if you are to experience it, then you must obey whatever I have told you to do, even if you don't full understand why." "Just obey and it will make sense later."

Those are words that young people hate to hear: "Just do what I tell you and later you'll realize why." That goes against the grain of every young heart whether in the flesh or the spirit. Young people want to understand. They want to question, "why?" They want to be fully convinced of why they are doing what they are doing before they obey. But as much as I know you hate to hear it, you will never realize the importance of some of the commands of scripture until you first obey them. If Thaddaeus had never obeyed the words of Jesus to go tarry in the upper room, then he would have not received the Holy Spirit and never understood what Jesus was truly speaking of that day in the fourteenth chapter of John.

So it is in our lives. There will come a time in your life where you are asked to do something or something from scripture is required of you that you do not understand why it is so important to change or to do and understanding is not given to you. The tendency of young people and young believers is to say "well, I don't see why that's important, therefore I'm not going to do it." But wait a minute. I can guarantee that if it is even hinted at in God's Word that it is very important and that if you obey it one day you'll look around and be glad that you did so! As a young person growing up active in the kingdom of God there have been thousands of times that I submitted to my parents or my pastor when I did not see what the "big deal was at the time." But now that I'm older and look back in my life, I'm glad that I did.

Many of our kids play sports and I'm not opposed to that as long as it does not detract from their church going or compromises Biblical principles in their life. But when I was growing up my father prayed about it and decided that the only sport that I could participate in was golf. It wasn't because that I was clumsy or out of shape, because I was quick and a decent athlete. The baseball coach begged me over and over to try out for the team. Some of my best friends in the school were football players and the coach would often let me out of PE to come practice with them. But I never went out for the team because my dad said "no." I didn't understand that, but my father told me "there's nothing wrong with sports and I'm glad you like them and are physically active, but I just don't feel right about it because you have the personality that whatever you do you will do with all of your might and I'm afraid that you would be consumed by sports if I let you go." He let me play golf only because the tournaments were only on Friday mornings and did not interfere with church or youth service.

At the time I didn't understand and didn't like my dad's decision too much, but I obeyed him as my father and pastor. What I didn't realize was that my father realized early on that the hand of God and the calling of God was on my life and he knew that sports would take away from me spending time in responding and developing that call. Looking back, I now can say I'm thankful that my father made such a decision. Because the hours I spent learning the piano and the word of God have paid off. Instead of going to secular college on some scholarship, I went to Bible college on a call from God. I didn't understand at the time, but I obeyed. And now I'm glad I did. God had a calling on my life that even my father couldn't completely see at the time. But God knew it and my father was sensitive to the voice of God. If you are going to make it as a young person, then like Thaddaeus, you will have to at times submit to the voice of God even when you don't fully understand why it is that He asks what He asks.

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There are only a few legends concerning the fate and final years of ministry of Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus after the book of Acts closes. Tradition has it that he journeyed to the land of Osroene with it's capital of Edessa where a King Adgar had heard of Jesus and had sent a letter to the believers in Jerusalem asking if Jesus could cure his incurable disease. Thaddaeus was the messenger sent to pray for him and traditions says that when Thad prayed in the name of Jesus, not only was the king healed, but his divine healing caused him to become a believer and a faithful member of the Early Apostolic Church and he decreed his entire country as the first "Christian country." The story goes on to say that many people of the nation were healed and converted as a result of Thaddaeus' preaching there for many years.

Tradition has it that Thaddaeus eventually left that nation, was joined by Simon the Zealot, and together the two disciples preached throughout Persia. Legend has it that the disciple known as Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus died a martyr in Persia when he was beaten to death with a heavy club. The young man had become an older man and died yet faithful to the cause. He was definitely as John put it: Judas not Iscariot!

There are many other examples of young men who were used mightily by God in the Bible and we could probably do an entire series of lessons that we could learn from each of them. There is nothing like young people that choose to sell out to God. They have the passion and energy to do whatever needs to be done and the innocence that brings very little baggage into the work. When they overcome the shortcomings of youth by praise, courage, sacrifice, and obedience, they form mighty warriors for Jesus Christ. Of all of such examples, none shines better than Thaddaeus, the youngest disciple of all, who stayed faithful through his teenage years and as he grew into a young man and then became an older man, continued simply doing the will of God and serving Christ passionately. Whether young in spirit or age, we can all take inspiration and learn from this thrice-named disciple. May we, like Thaddaeus, live our lives as an example for other young believers to come by being faithful and courageous!