Timing it well Just in time. Yeah, good manufacturing processes. Well, we're happy to hear everybody here this morning For those of you who are visiting with us this morning. We welcome you For those of you who have friends who aren't here with you this morning. Go get them All right How many of you saw the advertising video that we did for the the cove last couple of weeks, right? It was really good and So we wanted to talk that up amongst our neighbors and friends Wherever they might be Just a couple of things. I'll remind you that we we still have old I call them old for previous sessions on CDs that you can get Also if you weren't here last week for some reason and you're not going to be in the service this week for any reason There's some interesting flyers back here on the plant on the table that we keep all the literature on and Therefore the the be the answer program that we're running right now and these are left over from the service that we broadcast in here last week, but they're the The different individual forms that show you what you can buy and bring to the church because we're having a huge food drive as the be the answer Program associated with the delicious series that the pastors are doing right now up in the church services So if you want to get one of those you missed it last week or you like say you're not going to be in the services each paper is Different they're different colors. They have a different item that you can bring as a food item next week. I think it is so be sure and get one of those and Find something that you can bring To the to the be the answer program because I heard Kathy this morning. It was so great. I don't think she even knew I heard her but she said a phrase that Applies to what we're doing. You know, that's the be the answer. We get to be the answer for someone. This is the get the answer Session, thank you. I overheard that She doesn't even remember she said it, but this is the get the answer program and so we're gonna do that I'm gonna say a prayer and then we'll get started Gracious Lord, thank you for Having an opportunity to study your word this morning. We just look into it and we see your majesty or Your kindness to us your grace and Your love for us. We thank you so much from Mark as he comes to teach this morning. We ask that you empower him to to bring that message that passage We're gonna look at today just alive in each of our hearts today in Jesus name. Amen Thanks, Dennis Good morning. We're looking at a passage in Luke this morning. It's just a list basically. So what do you do with a list? Well, the list has a lot to teach us about what God is doing in the world and what the message of the gospel of Luke This past summer we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the moonshot if you were saw it on the news 40 years ago Neil Armstrong made that one small step for man one giant step for mankind the culmination of a Space race as they called it the space race started when the Soviets launched the sputnik how many of you remember that there's some people in 1950. Yeah, I do I do I was Well sort of I wasn't born till two years later, but I
1957 they lost that once the first satellite into space and then Shortly after shockingly the first man space flight in 1961 with Yuri Gagarin the US who always viewed themselves as superior Technologically was caught off guard so on May 25th, 1961 President Kennedy announced the goal that within a decade within ten years they would land a man on the moon and They mobilized millions of scientists and engineers at a cost of 25 billion dollars and that was a lot of money back then, you know now Billion here billion there trillion trillion there and then in July 1969 of course Neil Armstrong made that Very famous moonwalk. It's amazing that Neil Armstrong could could do that all by himself go all the way to the moon by himself But of course he did it. There were enormous Resources that went behind him thousands of scientists. I remember watching that moon moonwalk. I was a kid in Let's see nine nine years old So what would be that be about fifth grade? I suppose fourth or fifth grade and in Huntsville, Alabama was where I was I mentioned that before here in Huntsville, Alabama built the bottom stage of that Saturn five rocket that went to the moon and so my father's church was full of scientists that were working on that project So a sign of great pride as we watched the alarm strong from that school classroom make that walk on the moon the greatest Achievements in human history and never the work of one individual are they they're the work of teams of people coming together Of pooling their resources and in many cases in many ways the coming of Jesus Christ was just that even though Jesus alone Would accomplish our salvation when he was on the cross. He did it alone He suffered and died for our sins, but he could not get that message out alone and he do that When he came to earth and so what did he do? He chose a team a team to enable him to come accomplish his purpose and the passage We're looking at today is the choice of that team the Master's plan of discipleship is where is what we're calling when Jesus left this earth He only left about a hundred followers How are they going to transform the world? How are they going to accomplish the purpose and mission that he had? He chose 12 individuals to do that together with many others, but these 12 special Disciples known as apostles and so in this passage in Luke chapter 6 Jesus selects those 12 from among his many disciples Before we get into that, let's review because the choice of the 12 is Related to the progress of the narrative in Luke's gospel. We want to review each time Where we are in Luke's gospel Jesus has been proclaiming and revealing God's kingdom Here's the central point of Luke's gospel We've said this over and over again that God is acting in human history that God is accomplishing his purpose That all the promises of the Old Testament has have are coming to fulfillment The salvation that he promised since the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden is coming to fulfillment So Jesus is announcing his kingdom He comes to the Nazareth synagogue and he proclaims good news for the poor Freedom for the oppressed and then in his ministry that follows he demonstrates what that means Good news to the poor that means those who are spiritually poor those who have a desperate need of God Freedom from oppression is freedom from those who are oppressed by Satan who are demon possessed or oppressed by disease In other words, he's reversing the results of the fog. He's reversing the results of our fallen Humanity and this fallen world. Jesus then goes on to demonstrate his authority over and over again And that that means challenges with the religious leaders as he announces that he is able to forgive sins as he demonstrates Affarity over the Sabbath last week. That's where we got remember Jesus was talking about the Sabbath and he said The Sabbath was made for mankind not mankind for the Sabbath in other words The Sabbath was meant to be a blessing for us Not something that to to to control us and then he said though something even more amazing He said the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath Jesus himself is Lord of the Sabbath God instituted the Sabbath and Jesus is I have the authority To overrule to fulfill the Sabbath Commandment and so obviously challenging the religious leaders Jesus now that the forces that have been drawn that the sides have been drawn and Jesus now is about to choose his team if you will his team who's going to take the message of salvation to the ends of the year So here's our passage. Let's just read it Luke chapter 6 starting in verse 12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountain side to pray and spent the night praying to God When morning came he called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them whom he designated apostles Simon whom he named Peter his brother Andrew James John Philip Bartholomew Matthew Thomas James son of Alpheus Simon who was called the zealot Judas son of James and Judas Iscariot who became a Trader So it's just a list and I thought what we would do is we look first of all some Principles that Jesus establishes through his choice of the 12 and then we take a look We do a little biography of each of the 12 and determine who they are and what impact they would have in the coming ministry of Jesus and in the early church and remember Jesus has been calling disciples We saw that he calls Peter remember he called Peter in that dramatic fashion with that miraculous catch of fish We saw the call of Matthew of Levi the tax collector now. He's going to among his disciples He probably has a much larger group of followers those who are interested in his ministry He's going to call 12 special disciples, but how does it start notice what it says first of all one of those days Jesus went out to the mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God Jesus spends an entire Night in prayer. It's very significant This is a major theme in Luke's gospel in fact more than any other gospel writer Luke Identifies times in Jesus's ministry when he he takes extra time to pray Let me just give you some of those examples and I want you to ask you What what's the significance of these particular times first all? He's praying only Luke identifies says that while Jesus was praying at his baptism That's when the spirit descended on him He was in prayer there when his popularity is increasing in chapter 5 verse 16 It says the crowds are thronging around him. They're coming more and more Jesus is healing and and and they're all excited about this Miracle worker and what does it say it says but Jesus would escape he'd go away to spend special time in prayer Before calling the 12 that's this episode right here We see Jesus alone in a time of prayer just before for just before Peter's confession as we will see as we get further on This is a key turning point in Jesus's ministry. Jesus asked his disciples. Who do people say that I am? Who do people say that I am and their response is some people think you're Elijah some people think you're John the Baptist Some people think you're one of the prophets and then Jesus and who do you say I am and this is Peter's famous confession He says you are the Messiah you're the promised one and Immediately after that Jesus affirms that that that statement but immediately after that Jesus then begins to teach his disciples that he's going to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die So there's a key turning point. He's been demonstrating. He is the Messiah He is the king but the king is going to accomplish salvation in an unusual way He's going to actually suffer and die so key turning point in Jesus's ministry at the Transfiguration know what the transfiguration is that's when Jesus is on the mountain with three of his disciples and his Appearance dramatically changes and they get a glimpse of his glory at that moment Jesus is praying at that moment before teaching the disciples to pray They come up to him when they see him praying and they say teach us to pray for Peter He says he prays for Peter just before Peter's denial of him When he gets to the cross the first thing he says is on the cross he says forgive them for they don't know what they're doing and then with his Last breath. He prays father into your hands. I commit my spirit. So what's the significance? What do all these things have in common? Prayer okay, yeah, very good. Excellent. Yeah, guys are paying attention. I can always tell you're on the edge of your scene with me Yeah, he's praying each time. Yeah, what's significant?
Depending on God absolutely is depending on God each of these is a key point in his ministry Most of them are key turning points other than others of them are just emphasize a particular central theme So so what's the point Jesus at key times of crisis? Jesus is seen in prayer at key times of decision Jesus is seen in prayer When do you usually pray? Troubles crisis right isn't that when you pray right why why pray when there's still time to panic That's sort of our motto sometimes and prayer is a means of last resort when everything out, you know Maybe we really ought to pray about this, you know, if nothing else is working You see, but Jesus prays before things get bad Jesus knows that this is his only source of strength. Jesus's prayer life is just what you said by the way Reveals his trust and dependence his trust and independence on God Jesus is not taking a step without consulting the father and saying show me Guide me in this next step by the way remember Jesus is living as a human being He's living in his humanity at this at this time and so he's living in absolute dependence on God There's a fascinating account in Mark's gospel We're going to turn to Mark a couple times because Mark gives us a few bits of extra information in this particular passage But in Mark chapter one Most much of Mark chapter one is one long day of ministry in cappernium or Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law And then he heals others and he casts out demons and says he's teaching laid into the night laid into the night So a hard day minister, you know when I've had a hard day of ministry I want to go home and just relax, you know get something to eat and watch some TV Jesus instead gets up bright and early at the crack of dawn. It says and he goes out to pray Because Jesus knew that his source of strength his source of power was God alone My father once told me a story One of the the most profound moments or Impacts of his life as a young boy. He said one morning. He couldn't or late into the night He couldn't sleep and he got up and he he was walking down the hallway and he walked by his father's my grandfathers My office at the time and he lived in and he saw my grandfather there sitting at his desk praying It's praying nobody around you know no one there to to notice a Time at night when you know it wasn't a public time at all and he was there praying said that made a profound impact because he said he Prayer for him was was between him and God remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees sometimes You know we talked about there's good and bad Pharisees, but what he says he says you say your prayers for everyone to hear You know and I think sometimes that's the way we pray we pray very concerned about how others pray so the Pharisee would start dear Heavenly Father and he look around no one's here yet, you know and if someone oh he'd say I'm going to start over when they get up here You know because they he wants to hear how good they pray how powerfully pray how spiritual they are It's not a matter of how spiritual you are. It's this is our source of trust and dependence when nobody is watching How do you pray when nobody is watching? Here's a takeaway for us our first takeaway Spiritual leadership which is a focus here Jesus spiritual leadership begins with an intimate Relationship with the father the intimate relationship with the father now. I'll be honest with you. I struggle with my prayer life I think It's it's a challenge for me to set aside time I mentioned last week workaholic tendencies and workaholics have a tendency to always be working Let's get it done. Let's get it accomplished I have to stop and say no I need this time. I need to set aside time and if I look at my spiritual life Those some of the times of greatest growth in my life have been times when I've set aside special time to pray and when I When I spent a site extra time to pray Remember when I first learned this I think in college college. I had some guys on my floor I was a resident assistant an RA in college and I had some guys on my floor who are Christians they really had a passion For the for the campus and really wanted wanted God's purpose and will done in that campus So one of the guys said you know, we ought to do we ought to get up at 5 a.m. Every morning We have early class. Let's get up 5 a.m. and pray We say you nuts we are college we are college students at the time, you know And I was out late the late the night before usually because I had I was teaching an alcoholism counseling agency and I'd be teaching late I'd come in I thought okay, we'll do it So I would swing by a doughnut place and pick up their day-all doughnuts at the end of the day and I bring them down We'd get some really awful coffee and every morning at 5 a.m. for the whole year We would get up and we'd come together and and pray together and it was it was amazing to see what that did in on our Floor and in that campus We had one of the one guy come to Christ in that others were really committing themselves to the Lord But you know what we also found we also found incredible spiritual attack during that during that time One of the guys went through a just amazing spiritual oppression one night I'll probably tell you the story at any time when we talk about demons because he came into my into my room And he knocked on my door and he said there's demons crawling up my back. Can you pray for me? Well, I didn't know if they were demons or not But I was gonna pray for me. He clearly needed prayer in that in that context Another person on our floor was charged with a very serious offense during that time that I think was a false accusation We had all kinds of things happen that year and I learned a couple things. First of all Spiritual things happen God works God accomplishes and purges purpose when we depend on him When we trust in him when we lean on him. The other thing I learned is Satan gets very agitated when we pray Because I don't know that I've ever felt such spiritual attack as in that particular situation in that context Because we saw the Lord working, but we also saw Incredible spiritual tax. So there's our first takeaway spiritual leadership begins and God accomplishes his purpose When we trust and depend on him when we turn to him in prayer All right, let's go then to the choice of the 12 verse 13 when morning came he called his disciples You see there's a larger group of disciples He called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them whom he designated Apostles Jesus needed to pray because he was about to accomplish or to do the most important one of the most important decisions of his life This this was the team that he was going to choose now every CEO knows every coach knows every Everyone in any kind of leadership position knows that choosing the team is crucial you get a bad team A team that just doesn't work together team that doesn't gel and you're gonna struggle You're gonna have challenges one of the reasons I love where I teach at Bethel seminary is because we have a great team I talked to my colleagues around the country and it seems like almost every school every university in the country There's this constant tension before between faculty and staff the faculty are all focused on the academics and the staff Are and the and the development people are all focused on making it successful business wise we academics We don't care about business, you know, we don't care about that We want to make sure that the quality stays high and there's this constant tension one thing great about Bethel seminary is I think it's partly because we're small, but we get along so well and we've got this team mentality this family mentality Choosing the right team is crucial and Jesus is about to choose the 12 who are going to be his special leaders Success or failure in many ways will depend on that choice Now he chooses 12 and that's significant notice. He says he chose to white 12 Was it because of, you know, 12 eggs in a dozen dozen 12 months in the year white 12? Okay, the 12 tribes of Israel. There's something in anyone. I mean remember Jesus, Jewish is disciples are all Jewish. This is a Jewish context Jesus chooses 12. There's no doubt what everyone thinks immediately everyone thinks immediately with reference to Israel the 12 Children of Israel the 12 tribes of Israel sons of Jacob remember Jacob renamed Israel The 12 tribes divided up the land after the Exodus from Egypt when they conquered the land of Canaan so there's no doubt There's just no doubt that when Jesus chose 12 he's thinking He's thinking of these 12 now what what do you think that what's the message that Jesus is giving when Jesus says I'm choosing 12 special leaders What what do you think people around him would think when they hear that he's choose chosen 12 leaders First of all Jesus all these implications of Jesus the Messiah where you're gonna One for each tribe certainly yes
Okay, there's she said I think he they thought he was getting ready to take over right? This is pretty significant I'm the Messiah what does Messiah mean it means king it means anointed one I'm gonna choose 12 special leaders. They're just happened to be 12 tribes of Israel. What's going on here? Looks as though he is reestablishing Israel look at this passage in Luke 22 Just as my father this is at the last supper by the way Jesus is teaching his disciples at the last supper just as my father has granted me a kingdom I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table that means fellowship with the king Eat and drink at my table and you will sit on 12 thrones Judging the 12 tribes of Israel now we don't see Jesus saying that public and Israel he tells his disciples Jesus in some senses reconstituting Israel recreating Israel recreating a new people of God now who created Israel on the first place who called and chose Israel God himself did Now what is also interesting scholars have pointed this out Think about this Jesus is not one of the 12 Now you might say well of course that makes sense but but think about that for a minute Jesus chooses the 12 in a sense they represent The reconstituted Israel who does that make him if you go to the Old Testament who chooses Israel God chooses Israel so Jesus in a sense places himself in the position of Yahweh God Reestablishing Israel calling out we've used this terminology before calling out a faithful remnant a faithful remnant within Israel to reestablish the nation So hugely significant by the way and in the Jesus debates the Jesus wars we could call the historical Jesus wars You know when some people deny that Jesus ever thought he was the Messiah or was ever it was divine This is a huge issue here because Jesus choice of 12 suggests a very strong self-consciousness on Jesus's part that he is here to do something special He is here to reestablish God's people he is here once again to accomplish God's purpose And salvation so the 12 the number 12 hugely significant them Notice what he does he calls 12 and he calls them to be with him To be with him now I want to move to Mark's gospel because Mark explains what this means a little more look at Mark chapter 3 verse 14 this is the same passage the parallel to this passage in Mark's gospel He appointed 12 that they might be with him that he might send them out to preach Here's a great principle of discipleship a great principle of discipleship is the best way to be a disciple The best way to disciple others is to call others to be with you To watch you to learn from you the best way we learn is by modeling I'm a preacher's kid. I just mentioned that earlier, but I have to tell you here's a confession I listened to thousands and thousands of sermons growing up You know how many I remember A lot what do you mean yeah I Mean I sat through thousands of my dad's sermons my mom will say you remember when dad preached on this Yeah, mom I do yeah, and I struggle even because I was born in church a lot of the time Can I say that I don't know if I can say that I was born in church a lot of the time You know it's all right and I tried to learn I took notes sometimes you know when there were contests if you take notes You can go to camp or something yeah, but but you know you know what impacted me the most Those times with dad out to lunch those occasional times we'd go go out to lunch or the the backyard football We had some great backyard football or probably the most influential Influence on my life and my brothers was dinner time because dad would always be home at dinner He was out a lot. He was a full-time pastor all the time But he was always at home. We had the greatest dinner time conversations Those are the things I most remember because those are the things that most Impacted my life and changed me it was the time the personal time together That's what really changed that's why parenting is not about just buying your kids stuff It's not about just doing stuff for your kids. It's about spending time with them Parenting school is in session isn't it every day as we model for our for our kids as we model for our grandkids We model life whether that's good or bad It's to remember that old Anti-sigarette commercial when it when they were just beginning to to advertise against cigarette smoking There's a picture of a boy and his father. Do you remember that and they're walking long and it's all about father like father like son The father picks up a stone and throws it so the son picks up a throne and they're doing everything and the father lights up This cigarette and that's where the commercial ends like like father like son Jesus modeled in front of his disciples He demonstrated what the kingdom of God was he demonstrated how we live in relationship to God by living it out Before them here's our second takeaway spiritual leadership means investing our lives in the lives of others One of that I gave you a couple of bibliography normally we I've given you Commentaries on loot because that's what we've been studying, but this this week I gave you a couple of works by Robert Coleman and some other things on discipleship because that's such a key theme In this passage I want to read you a passage from Robert Coleman's classic work the master plan of evangelism It's ref the bibliographies on the back there. This is from the master plan of evangelism. He says this He says Jesus had no formal school No seminaries. I wasn't going to read that part No formal school no seminaries no outline course of study No periodic membership classes in which he enrolled his his followers Amazing as it may seem all Jesus did to teach these men his way was to draw them close to himself He was his own school and curriculum. He was his own school and curriculum. There's that example Jesus modeled he lived a life in relationship to God in front of his disciples When I was a college intern my first full-time ministry position was as a college intern at a manual faith Years and years ago. I just started in in the seminary and our college pastor now the senior pastor up there had this passion for discipleship He was always talking about multiplication ministry not addition you don't want addition ministry Don't just want to get converts you want to make disciples. It was all about making disciples So all of his interns had to get younger guys around them and disciple them and spend time with them We'd go out and we do Evangelism out on Palomar campus. We'd have Bible studies and I picked three guys three guys I thought had great promise and and I I felt like these were the guys who would be sort of the next group of leaders in the group And we did we committed ourselves to you know, this discipleship mentor in relationship and I feel like I failed terribly in that discipleship mentoring role We we often missed appointments. We couldn't get together We never really got into detailed solid the kind of Bible study I hoped and when we did do evangelism sometimes we just go in chat We never you know would get through to the guy and I was so by the end of the year I just thought what a failure I am I am the worst mentor the worst disciple or ever About a month later one of those guys came back to know it was a year later I'm saying a year after that he came back to me and we went out to lunch and he said I want you to know That year was the most most significant spiritual time in my entire life because of the spiritual growth that I had And I said and who were you meeting with helps you know who else you know Well What kind of a program were you doing outside of this relation and he said no You know it wasn't that at all it was just that we were together You see and we talked and just just the conversation it didn't have to be a serious Bible study going through this here We were just together and we were I was demonstrating and living out what it means to be a minister of Jesus Christ What it means to be a servant of Jesus Christ in that context we need to invest our lives in each other Because we really learn do learn by watching others who demonstrate spiritual leadership This is why some of the hypocrisy we've seen in some of the televangelist scandals and so forth Is so devastating for the Christian life why because it says that those who are in spiritual leadership are really phony You know, it's all about personal power. It's all about personal prestige people that that does so much more than all that teaching to influence people Doesn't it because it's how we live our lives in front of others It's the model that we show to others all right Not only Does he invite them to be with them? He designates them as apostles as apostles Jesus doesn't call programs to follow him. He calls people to follow him Here's a second quote by Robert Coleman from that book It says Jesus's concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes but with men and women whom the multitudes would follow Remarkable as it may seem Jesus started to gather these people before he ever organized an evangelistic campaign or even preached a sermon in public People were to be his method of winning the world to God people were to be his method of winning the world to God So what did he do? He trained them and then he sent them out to accomplish his purpose. He calls them apostles Apostles the word apostle. It's now a technical term of course for the 12 apostles and some church leaders today I identify themselves as apostles But it wasn't in that context the word meant a messenger a messenger an apostle was that the Greek were at the verb Pastello means to send out to send something or to send someone so messenger is one sent and especially one sent with a special Commission to accomplish a purpose Jesus knew that he couldn't do it himself. So what did he do? He trained the 12 apostles Mark again gives us a bit more detail when he says he appointed 12 that they might be with him That he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons Now what was Jesus doing? What was his ministry? He was preaching he was healing. He was casting out demons by the way when the 12 come back It's clear they were healing as well So Mark just abbreviates in this context. So what did he do? He showed them how to do it And then he sent them out to do it And then they came back and they debriefed and he talked about it and then he he'd send them out You see he's training them then he's gradually giving them responsibility Isn't that the way we train our kids? Right? You don't just say you know first first time they go out Say out all night no problem however long you know you give them responsibilities He give them limits you bring them back how to go if they checked out good if the car You know you check the car was it crashed was it destroyed or is it still intact? Okay, then they get a little more responsibility next time This is the way Jesus is training his disciples. He's sending them out to do his ministry Now it's also significant. They're doing his ministry. Isn't that amazing? They have the power to cast out demons They have the power to heal. Why is that? Because Jesus gave them that power Later in John's gospel Jesus says something amazing to the disciples. He says you will do greater works than me You will do greater works than me because I go to the Father because I give you the Holy Spirit We can accomplish Jesus purpose on earth. Why not in our own power, but in the power Of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus chooses 12 He couldn't do it himself all his eggs are in one basket. Here's our third takeaway spiritual leadership succeeds when we reproduce ourselves in others If you lead people you get faithful sheep, right? If you lead people you get faithful sheep, but if you make shepherds If you disciple people you make shepherds who then will make more shepherds. Our role is to disciple others I just so encourage every Christian believer to think about this Who in your life do you spend time with? Someone younger in the faith or someone less mature in the faith taking the time to be with them Think one of the great catastrophes in our society is the breakdown of the family How how kids just don't have parents anymore even surrogate parents anymore the 10th anniversary of littleton, Colorado The massacre at littleton just just came and went Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold Killed 12 students and the teachers the beginning of a series remember a series of school shootings I wonder how much different it might have been in their lives if they had a mentor Someone to show them along the way to guide them as they went
Jesus says this in Luke chapter 6 verse 40 a student who is fully trained will be like his teacher Pretty simple principle, but there's a principle central principle of discipleship The disciple the the teacher models it the disciples learn from them All right, that's the first half that's Jesus's mission and purpose in accomplishing the 12 Any questions or comments with reference to that before we move on we will take more comments at the end and questions Yes, question. I can't hear I a little louder Yes Yes Yes Yeah, God could have done it himself had he wanted to he invites us to participate with him in his purpose and plan Yeah, that's a great point. Thank you. Yeah Okay, we'll pick up more I don't see any right away. So we'll pick up more at the end Okay, who were these 12 who were the 12 now this will be sort of a Classroom lecture maybe a little bit because I just want to go through the 12 and and then we'll kind of draw some principles about what we can learn from the 12 When we've talked a little bit about this already, but let's run through the 12 you may never have walked through the 12 disciples to see who they are We know some of the most famous of course. They're Simon Peters. You didn't know I had a picture of Peter actually did you that's a Who was Peter of course the most prominent of the 12 of a fisherman? dramatically called by Jesus to fish for people We saw that passage with that miraculous catch of fish in loop five Peter falls down in on his face before Jesus And says get away from me I can't even be in your your holy awesome presence Jesus lifts him up and says I'm gonna let train you to fish for people. There's that discipleship You just come with me. You just follow me. Jesus renamed him some people say rocky. I think I think the message I think the message says they called it rocky. I thought that was kind of cool Named him the rock or Petros the Greek word Petros the aramaic word is keyfoss or seaface sometimes we we pronounced it It's the same name one is an aramaic one is is Greek the two two of the language spoken then But it means the rock which is kind of shocking because Peter was anything but a rock He seemed to be pretty unstable So why did Jesus name Peter the rock? Because Jesus knew what Peter could become. He saw great potential in him Peter of course was impetuous was impetuous put in the mouth Peter we say all the time But also passionate we'll see a lot of stories we could talk about more stories Jesus saw something special in Peter and in Matthew chapter 16 He gives him the keys to the kingdom. He says what you bind on earth when we bound in heaven And he gives him he essentially says you're going to unlock the message of the gospel to many people And we see that fulfilled really in the book of Acts Of course Peter failed miserably Jesus predicted that he would deny him three times and he did But Peter was restored and then in the book of Acts he became a key leader in the early church That's when he demonstrates really the keys of the kingdom He opens the door of the gospel to the Jews on the day of Pentecost to the Samaritans and ultimately to the Gentiles What lessons do we learn from Peter's life? Well, God is a God of second chances right amen for that because we're all going to blow it Peter had one of the worst Errors the worst blew it more than almost anyone else in his life and yet he was restored and and served God greatly Peter's brother Andrew brother of Peter follower of John the Baptist. This is very interesting. In fact, why don't we turn over to there? John chapter 1
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Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we're going to conduct a few baptisms right here. There's another one too
I think there's just two yeah
Yeah, that's right you get attacked spiritually attack
Some must be praying it's stopping and it must be the same leak. It's just running down the other way
I'm trying to think of how this could relate to what we're saying Oh, Acts chapter two there it is and three thousand were baptized on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two We have to find some smooth transition here yeah Yeah, I just timed it wrong. I was just yeah We should have called for the water little earlier All right, Andrew was Peter's I wonder why it was so funny to turn to John chapter one that was Turn to John chapter one in verse 35 of chapter one it says the next stage John was there again with two of his disciples So that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist He saw in John an amazing person who was caught proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God Calling people to repent and so he attached himself to him when he saw Jesus passing by John says look the Lamb of God When the two disciples heard him say this they follow Jesus Turn around Jesus saw them following us. What do you want? They said rabbi Which means teacher? Where are you staying come? He replied and you will see Then they went and saw when where he was staying and they spent the day with him Was about four in the afternoon and drew verse 40 Simon Peter's brother was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed him The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him We have found the Messiah that is the Christ and he brought him to Jesus So really Andrew then becomes known as the one who brings people to Jesus. He brought his brother Simon name Rename Peter. He is the one who brought the boy in the feeding of the five thousand Andrew was the one who brought the boy with a few loaves and fishes to Jesus Later on in John's gospel. We see a group of Greeks who want to meet Jesus and it's Andrew who brings them So I don't need to tell you what the principle is here What does Andrew do so well? He he brings people to Jesus. He says hey, I've got someone you really need to meet He's made a profound impact on my life The third disciple named is is James James is a fisherman in fact a partner to Peter and Andrew the son of Zebedee brother of John Jesus called James and John together when he called Peter and Andrew that is in Mark chapter one He calls the Peter and Andrew. He goes a little further and called James and John Jesus nicknamed them bow and nergus. That's an aromatic word meaning sons of thunder Probably indicating their volatile personalities Let me let's let's take a look. Well, should we look at their volatile personalities? Let me show you on this is kind of humor It's turned forward to Luke chapter 9
Luke chapter 9 Verse 51 Jesus is about the head to Jerusalem at this time. This is ahead of us in this story At the time as the time approach for him to be taken up to heaven Jesus Resolutely set out for Jerusalem and he sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan Village to get things ready for him now you remember Samaritans and Jews weren't on friendly terms But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem They worshiped at Mount Gharazim not in Jerusalem when the disciples James and John remember sons of thunder saw this They asked Lord do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them Isn't that great you think you think the power to cast out demons has kind of gone to their head here a little bit You know, they're just feeling so good. They're healing people. They're casting out demons They come to this village that rejects Jesus. They go we'll get them You know, and they're like this. They're you know trying to call down fire from heaven Jesus turned and rebuked them as he should be then he And his disciples went to another village. So you can see hot heads probably probably sons of thunder means kind of hot heads We see the same thing later on when when they asked for the chief seats in the kingdom James and John come to Jesus and they want to sit on Jesus right and is left and Jesus says you don't know what you're asking me He says are you able to drink the cup that I can drink what's Jesus referring to what's the cup His death are you a willing and you know what they say? We are willing. They say okay be careful what you say all right Be careful what you say James was the first arrest of the apostles to be arrested and executed Jesus says you will drink the cup that I drink and in fact he was he was arrested in the book of acts acts chapter 12 James the brother of John is arrested executed by her at a grippa grand son of her at the gray He's the first apostle to die as a martyr That's when Peter is arrested after that and put in prison and and the angel comes and release this hymn So that's James the third disciple John the brother of James These three Peter James and John we call the inner circle that's not a term that's in the Bible But the inner circle were a group of disciples who were with Jesus on special occasions It was his executive leadership team I think if you want to think in modern-day terms these were the three that he pulled closest to him They were going to take the lead in the church that followed They they're with Jesus at very significant points when he raises a young girl from the dead When he goes up to the mountain and his transfigured his appearance changes in the garden of guessemony He takes them with them So three key events in his life. He brings those three closest to him so So James John and Peter there Traditionally John has been known as the disciple the beloved disciple the disciple whom Jesus loved who wrote John's gospel John's gospel never names its author But by seeing where the author is in the narrative we we can see that this is almost certainly John He was according to church tradition. He was the last of the surviving apostles He was exiled to the island of Patmos and he also wrote the book of Revelation and first second and third John So wrote the gospel of John first second and third John and the book of Revelation All right, the rest we have a lot less information so we'll move more quickly here fill up From Bethany You know my obsession with geography. I have to get one map in every time So there's there's Bethany north of the sea of Galilee cavernium where Where Jesus's base is a ministry is just to the left of there actually um Oh, what am I seeing? Okay, that was that I said Bethany. That's a typo. It's Betheseda It's Betheseda not Bethany Bethany is down by Jerusalem It's Betheseda. That's where Peter and Andrew were actually raised as well in Betheseda Okay, Philip was the one who introduced Nathaniel to Jesus. You're in We still in John no, we're not in John turn over to John one and you'll see this as well John 145 144 Philip like Andrew and Peter was from the town of Betheseda. There it is Philip found Nathaniel and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law And about whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph So Philip was also bringing people to Jesus he appears not he doesn't show up in any of the gospels except for John But he appears in four scenes in John's gospel probably the most significant thing He's recorded as sane as he said to Jesus lord show us the father Show us the father. Do you remember what Jesus replied? If you've seen me you've seen the father probably the one of the highest statements Of Christology the high statements of who Jesus was is in that. He says I came to reveal the father If you've met me you're in relationship with the father so Philip is the one who said who set him up for that Lord show us the father Okay, Bartholomew means son of Tome This may be another name for Nathaniel Bartholomew is not mentioned elsewhere in the gospels But some people think that he's the same as Nathaniel who we just saw if that's the case Reading from that same passage. I just read for you. He introduces Philip introduces Nathaniel to Jesus and says we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law And Nathaniel says Nazareth can anything good come from Nazareth. So in a bit of arrogance He says How can anything good and irony how can anything good come from Nazareth and then of course Jesus meets Nathaniel Little later on and says I saw you why you're still under the fig tree Before and if that before Philip called you And Nathaniel declares you are the son of God you are the king of Israel. So probably the same individual as as Nathaniel Matthew Matthew was a tax collector dramatically called by Jesus. We just saw that episode He is named Levi by Mark and by Luke in Mark's gospel and in Luke's gospel He's identified as Levi and then therefore the author of the first gospel of course Jesus uses that story to demonstrate that he's come for sinners He's come for those willing to recognize their sin
Thomas what's Thomas most famous for Dowdine Thomas also known as dydamus. I don't know if you've noticed this dydamus means the twin So Thomas must have had a twin. I don't know if he doubted as much as Thomas But the name means twin probably because he was a twin Best known as doubting Thomas He wasn't there when Jesus first appeared to the other disciples And he says unless I can see with my own eyes unless I can touch his side where the spear went in I will not believe Church tradition tells us Thomas later evangelized into India and there's a tradition among Indian churches that Thomas was the founder Of those churches Now we're getting into the more obscure some of the more obscure ones James the son of alphius Probably also the one identified as James the lesser maybe the shorter We don't know what lesser means in that context His last name or his his name son of alphius is the same as Levi as Matthews and so perhaps they were brothers They're never identified as brothers nothing else is known about James Son of alphius By the way, these are traditional pictures from classic works of art I haven't been telling you which ones, but lean harder to Vinci El Greco and so forth Simon the zealot a fascinating character He's called Simon the zealot now if you haven't old king James version it says Simon the canonite the canonite a canonite is someone from canon that's actually a mistranslation Matthew and mark call him Simon the canonian And that's an aromac term for a zealot someone who zealot zealous for something So really they're all calling him the same thing. They're calling him Simon the zealot Zealot though couldn't mean different things the zealots were revolutionaries who were trying to overthrow the Roman government But it could also mean zealous for the law. We know the Apostle Paul for example identifies himself as zealous for the law of Moses So we're not really sure but if he is a zealot that's a more appropriate picture The zealots were freedom fighters Freedom fighters who sought to overthrow the Roman government And if he was one of those he would be a former one obviously because Jesus was not advocating the overthrow of the Roman government He and Matthew must have collided you can imagine the arguments around the campfire because Matthew was in collusion As a tax collector he was in collusion with the Roman authorities and Simon was seeking to overthrow the Roman authorities You know It's like a radical republican and a radical democrat Being on the same leadership team. It may not it may not work Judas there are two Judas is actually in Jesus's 12 disciples This is the most uncertain name of the 12 because Matthew and mark have a man named fattiest listed as well So they must have been the same People Jews often had more than one name. We see that our nicknames as well So probably another name for the same person. We really know nothing else about Judas and finally number 12 Judas is scary it identified as the betrayer Is scary it probably means man from Keria which was a region or a city in in Judea That was his probably a family name According to John even before he betrayed Jesus He used to pill for the group's money. He was the treasure of the disciples Betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver Eventually hanged himself in remorse for that action recorded in different ways in Matthew and in Acts I've got something on the so-called gospel of Judas. I think I'll skip it and we'll go to a conclusion here If you want that we can come back to it during question time A few lessons from the choice of the 12. Let me just give you these quickly So we'll have a few questions times for questions God chooses the most unlikely people to accomplish his purpose. We've seen that already choice is like Peter who's always foot in his mouth choices like Matthew who's In collusion with the government Like Simon the zealot and yet God Throughout history has done that here's I think a critically important one God values faithfulness far more than talent These 12 were not that would not be the 12 that I would decide on I would not choose these to carry with all my eggs in one basket to carry the message Forward Jesus knew that these were the 12 who would demonstrate faithfulness 11. I should say who would demonstrate faithfulness A third God will forgive and restore us when we turn to him. I think it's interesting to contrast Peter and Judas Right now there's no doubt that Judas is betrayal was worse than Peter's denial But still there's two ways you can go when you blow it. There's two ways you can go What does Peter do Peter repents and is restored and becomes one of the key leaders in the early church Judas in his remorse goes out and says it's all over There's no hope for me and and kills himself So God is a God of second chances God is a God who will restore us to relationship with him All right Yeah, a little fast on the disciples was I a little fast on the disciples We can go back to anything with reference to those disciples if you want question questions. I think Okay, okay, yes, and the second question is wasn't Barabbas Maybe memory doesn't serve me right, but wasn't Barabbas part of the zealous Oh, Barabbas yes, Barabbas who's released was yes, okay the first question that was asked was was James Which James wrote the letter to James of James and the letter of James was written almost certainly by Jesus's half-brother James a different James James the brother of John was killed Was martyred in Acts chapter 12 James the half-brother of Jesus became the leader really of the Jerusalem church So two different James the word James by the way the name the same name is Jacob. I don't know if you knew that So Jacob is it was very common for century name and there's a number of them in the New Testament So those are two different changes the other question was whether Barabbas was an insurrectionist and yes, he almost he was It says he had committed murder in the rebellion there were constant constant rebellions against the Romans that they would come in and they would they would put down Violently almost certainly the two thieves on the cross They're called criminals or thieves on the cross that was a youth that was what the Romans used to describe insurrectionist You don't want to call them freedom fighters. You don't want to call them ins you know Insurrectionists you want to call them something lowly. They're just common criminals, you know And so so Barabbas was probably the one that gets set free the two who died next to Jesus were the two unlucky ones who didn't get Get set free. So yeah, they're these are all part of the Revolutionary movement against the Romans that culminated in the revolt in AD 67 to 74 that destroyed the temple so Oh Yeah, or to Paul was clearly chosen. Yes. Yeah, because of his skills because The the question I think the question would be West Paul chosen to fill the gap of Judas Some people the disciples get together in acts chapter one and they choose a successor And there's no indication that that was wrong that they made the wrong choice those some have said they should have waited for Paul But Paul is he possible to the Gentiles. I mean, he's specially chosen to go to the Gentiles These 12 were especially related to Israel. I think so I don't think there's a debate But I don't think that that that was a wrong decision to replace Judas with Mathias instead of with with Matthias instead of with Paul Yeah Other questions. Oh Go on as an apostle. Yeah, but even Barnabas is called an apostle at one point So it's a more general term I think so I do think there's more going on than we know in terms of God choosing and sending and The movement is much larger Luke focuses on one part of the Christian movement But there's a lot more going on that we aren't aware of yeah What one here and then we'll go there. Oh I was wondering when Jesus chose the 12 that he chose Is that a tacit way of saying that no longer are the Jews That we think of the chosen people and that God no longer had a covenant with them that he's breaking that going on Welcome to the debate. Yeah This is a whole area that we might have I didn't know how long we were going to take in terms of that We have another hour but yeah if we have another hour We'll just stay put and we'll sit down There's actually two entire large wings of Christianity both conservative Bible believing Christians One are called dispensationalists the other are called covenant theologians There's other names as well as well they use other names for each other. No And what the dispensationalists say that Israel as a nation has a future in God's plan and if you've read the left behind series That saw part of that idea that that God is going to deal with his the nation Israel in the future and the church is separate from Israel Covenant theologians would say no the church is the new Israel and his replaced Israel ethnic Israel Israel as a national Entity and it's well divided among Christians around the world So yeah, those are the two main views I don't think the choice of the 12 can confirm one or the other because if if they are the 12 distinct to establish Israel And then there's another movement for the Gentiles or they can constitute themselves the new people of God the Gentiles Then become incorporated into that people of God But this is this is a huge question and we will get into it. You can't read Luke You can't read any gospel without getting into it So as we go along if you stick with us as we keep moving there's there's lots more that can be said and I'll try to bring up comments That would relate to that when Jesus mentions Israel Obviously the statement I gave you from Luke from the the last supper where it says you will sit on 12 thrones ruling the 12 tribes of Israel now is that the the literal 12 tribes of Israel or is that the symbolic for the church? So are the apostles going to rule the church in that in that or lead over the church or are they going to lead over Israel? That's a Difficult difficult question. I don't think I'll wait in there just now Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot Would you expand on the choice of Judas as curious? That's another one Yes, I should go back to the gospel of Jews, which is a fascinating document. We'll talk about that another If please do that You know here's here's the great debate of course related to Judas is
Did Judas have a choice? now Okay now again dispensational is coming to go Calvinist and Armenians there's another great debate among Christians and that is whether we have free will or whether we are chosen by God And the Bible seems to teach both that teaches that we are chosen by God, but we also have free will Calvinist stress God sovereign choice. It's nothing you do. It's entirely God's doing Armenians Stress free will so did Judas have a choice? What depends if you're a Calvinist or an Armenian whether you think Judas actually had a choice or not I would argue that that he did. I mean, I would say that that absolutely he had a choice And he chose to betray Jesus and then he chose not not to repent I yeah Well, we none of us start off as good guys. I think the question is did he start off as a good guy I think he started off with positive motives. I don't think from the beginning he now I think he probably expected Jesus like the other disciples He expected Jesus to be a conquering Messiah So we may have gotten disillusioned with that. It wasn't working out. Jesus was in trouble with the religious leaders Maybe I better jump ship. So was he just the first to jump ship? Or you know, and and all of the Jesus movies including things like Jesus pray superstar and so forth Play with this idea of how could was Judas, you know, set up from the beginning? Was he a good guy who went bad? Was he a bad guy who just fulfilled? His his evil role. Yeah And I don't think I We're past time. Oh, that's too bad We will we will talk about Judas more because if we as we follow through we'll get into the betrayal scene and so forth So maybe we'll bring it up there and I'll bring up the gospel of Judas again in that in that context I'll stick around we're five minutes over time. I'll stick around and talk if you have any other questions you need to ask me Thanks Martin