Into to Apostle Series

We are about to embark on an exciting course of study.

For the next few weeks we will be looking at the lives of the Apostles. This weekend I will present in introduction to the study. In future weeks we will study the Apostles in the order of their calling by Jesus.

We actually do not know a lot about the Apostles. The Bible mentions them by name and gives us just a few facts about their lives. After all, the Bible is God's story. The Bible tells us how God interacts with mankind. So while the Bible may reveal a little bit about them, most of what we know comes from other historic sources.

And some of what we know comes from oral tradition. That's just a fancy way of saying a story was told and passed down from generation to generation. Now you know when a story passes from one person to another person there's a great probability that someone might add little bit of this and or take away a little bit of that.

My focus doing this study will be to stick information that's corroborated by scholarly sources. To that end there are three definitive works that most scholars cite when researching the lives of the Apostles.

·       AB Bruce's "The Training of the Twelve",

·       C. Bernard Ruffin's, "The Twelve: The Lives of the Apostles after Calvary",

·       a recent publication by John McArthur, called "Twelve Ordinary Men".

I like the book by McArthur, and will use his outline as a base for this study. We’ll cover the Apostles in the same order he does in his book. If you want to go into more depth than what we cover here, the book and the study guide/workbook are available at the Christian Bookstore.

Ok, let’s get started.

What do we know about the men Jesus called to be his Apostles?

Were they great scholars?

Where they officials in the church?

Were they great speakers?

Nope, they were just ordinary men.

·       One was a former zealot. Members of the zealot party were radicals determined to overthrow the Roman rule.

·       One was a tax collector, hated by the Jews and labeled a traitor to his people.

·       At least 4 and possibly 7 were fishermen. These were close friends from the town of Capernaum and probably knew each other for longtime.

·       The others must have been tradesmen or craftsmen. Remember Jesus himself was a carpenter.

These men were chosen by Jesus and trained for a time that is measured in months. He taught them scriptures and theology. It was an intensive schedule. And when it was all over, after he had poured all that time and effort into them, on the night of Jesus betrayal, all the Disciples forsook him and fled.

We also know the rest of the story,

how Jesus rose from the dead,

spent 40 days with his Disciples in further training,

ascended into heaven, and then sent the Holy Spirit.

We know what happened on Pentecost Sunday. How the Disciples disbursed from that upper room in and went into the world with the gospel.

Before we follow the Disciples into the world and find out what happened to them after Jesus ascended into heaven let's take a look at their calling.

Let me ask your question, at what point in his ministry did he call the Twelve? This may come as a shock to many of you, but the selection of the Twelve actually came halfway through Jesus ministry.

That was my reaction too. I had forgotten that what takes place in the Bible is not necessarily in chronological order. We know for instance that Job and Abraham were contemporaries, and yet Job comes after Esther and not in the middle of Genesis. We also need to remember Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tell the story of Jesus from their own perspective, and with their own emphasis.

We know that

·       Matthew wrote to the Jews and emphasized how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament.

·       Mark wrote to new Christians in Rome.

·       Luke had accompanied Paul on his journeys and wrote to his friend Theophilus as an eyewitness to the ministry of Paul. Remember Paul was sent to the gentiles, those outside of Judaism.

·       And finally John was written to new Christians and those on the verge of becoming Christians.

So with their individual emphasis and audience, it should not surprise us that they emphasized certain aspects of Jesus ministry or organized their stories to suit that purpose.

With that said let's get back to the Twelve. The selection of the Twelve actually comes midpoint in Jesus ministry. That's about 18 months after he is baptized by John in the river Jordan. At this point in time, Jesus he has already been identified as the leader in a very controversial movement. The people from his own hometown of Nazareth have literally tried to kill him. Don't remember that?

Turn with me to Luke 4:14

14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

23Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "

24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."

28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

I didn't see anything there are about Disciples or Apostles or the Twelve accompanying him. Did you?

Okay, go back to Luke 4:31, Follow along with me.

·       Jesus goes down to Capernaum to teach, and people are amazed at his teaching.

·       Verse 33, Jesus goes into the synagogue and heals a man possessed by a demon.

·       Verse 38, Jesus goes into Simon's house and heals his mother-in-law. Does it say anything about Simon being a Disciple?

·       Verse 40, people are coming from all over to see Jesus, to be healed and delivered.

·       Verse 42, now a number of people are looking for him, and they want to prevent him from leaving.

What’s going on in the church at this time? Well maybe I should rephrase that: What's going on in the political arena at this time?

Jesus has ticked off the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and the Sanhedrin. That's the Jewish ruling party, the teachers, all the lawyers, and the high court. They were keeping a list of crimes against him. They couldn't directly arrest him because of his popularity.

Let's look the list of charges they held against him.

·       We know that prior to this time Jesus had gone through the temple with a whip and turned over the money changers tables.

·       We know that he had healed a paralytic and said he had forgiven his sins.

·       The group that followed him had walked through fields and plucked heads of grain.

·       Jesus himself had eaten and drank with tax collectors and sinners.

·       And most recently in he had healed a man with a weathered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

These events didn't happen in one day. They happened over a span of 18 months. The other Gospel’s fill in some details for us, but they don't give us the whole picture. Remember nobody was taking notes.

You know how it is the first time you hear someone speak. You have an opinion about who they are and what you think they're going to say. Remember a few weeks ago Brother Charlie was here visiting? And he got up that night and confessed that earlier that day he was concerned because pastor asked me to teach Sunday school that morning. He didn't know who I was and was accustomed to Peter teaching.

I believe at some point he stopped hearing me, and heard the message God wanted me to deliver that morning. I also believe it was the same way with the Disciples. It took them a while to come to believe that God had a message for them and it came through Jesus.

________________

The process of choosing and calling the Disciples and turning them into Apostles happened in five distinct stages. Imagine that the Twelve went through stages of development!

Turn with me to John 1:35

35The next day John was there again with two of his Disciples.

Notice John was with HIS Disciples.

36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

37When the two Disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"

They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

39"Come," he replied, "and you will see."

So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

Notice again they only stayed a day with Jesus.

40Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.

When did that happen? At the same time or later?

When later? I don’t know, but it definitely was later.

41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

43The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."

44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45Philip found Nathanael 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."

46"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.

"Come and see," said Philip.

47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

48"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."

See there’s another time span.

49Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

50Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." 51He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Go back to Verse 49: When Nathaniel acknowledged that Jesus was the Lamb of God he received salvation. Phase one in their calling was the call to conversion.

This stage did not involve full-time Discipleship. They follow Jesus when they could, they submitted to him as teacher -- remember they called him Rabbi. Yet they remained at their full-time jobs, earning a living through regular employment. We know this because from time to time we see them fishing and mending their nets.

We know these 5 were not alone. By the time Jesus reached the halfway point in his ministry, he had many followers. Scripture tells us that one time he fed 5000 and yet another time 4000. Scripture also tells us that at one point in his ministry, the crowd was so thick, that he had to get into a boat to teach them.

Some were regular followers who had traveled with him around the region. Some were locals from the nearby towns in villages. And others were curiosity seekers who came to see the man who performed miracles.

Now imagine traveling with a large crowd following you. How effective could you be in traveling great distances and reaching more and more people if you were encumbered by people, throngs of people who wanted all of your time?

You couldn't be and so Jesus selected a group of men who would be with him at all times, who could travel with him and take his message beyond the borders of Galilee.

We must also realize that Jesus is God and He knew what was coming only 18 short months away. He knew that he would be crucified, die, and rise from the dead. He also knew that he would ascend to heaven.

They're needed to be someone to carry on after he had returned to the father. He only had 18 months to train these men for a monumental task. There was no second string, no backup players, and no plan B. 18 months! That's less than half the time it takes to gain a seminary degree.

Oh, by the way, whose boat do you think Jesus got into to teach? Peter’s.

We know this because when he finished teaching he had Peter launch out into the deep and cast his nets down. Know the story?

Peter was tired. He had been fishing all night and had caught anything. Then Jesus shows up with this monster crowd following him, borrows Peter's boat, and proceeds to teach the people. I suspect he preached for quite a while. You just don't get up and talk for 10 minutes to a crowd of 3000. So there's Peter waiting to get his boat back, so he can spread his nets out to dry before he can go home and catch a few hours sleep before he has to be back on the docks again. But Jesus instructs them to launch out into the deep, and cast his nets over the other side of the boat.

Now Jesus was a carpenter, and Peter was a fishermen. Peter knew that it was easier to catch fish at night when the water was cool and the fish surfaced to eat. And besides, fish are easier to catch in Shallow and Jesus wanted him to launch out into the deep. Nevertheless Peter let his nets down, and they were miraculously filled with so much fish that he had to call others to come help him.

Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter? "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" Matthew 4:19. 4:20 goes on to say Andrew and Peter immediately left their nets and followed him. And verse 22 says "James and John immediately left their boat and their father and followed him."

Phase 2 is a call to ministry. I want you note at this point that they left their jobs, their families, and everything that was familiar to them to follow Jesus full-time.

Shortly after their calling to leave everything behind them to follow Jesus, Jesus preaches a hard lesson. We looked at this passage a couple weeks ago in detail. It was when a Jesus told the crowd who had come looking for another free meal (they were among the crowd fed by the 5 loaves and 2 fish), "unless you eat my flesh and shrink my blood you will have no life within you."

Scripture tells us that many left that Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked them if they would leave too. We know that Peter spoke for the group when he answered,

"Lord, to whom shall we go? For you have the words of eternal life. We have also come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God."

We are not told what Jesus said to the remaining 7 (had already called 5), or when they were chosen out of the vast number of followers to enter the inner circle.

What we are told is found in Luke 6:12

12One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13When morning came, he called his Disciples to him and chose Twelve of them, whom he also designated Apostles: 14Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

I want you to note here these men did not apply for or volunteer for the position. Jesus drafted them. He went into prayer- longer intense- all night prayer. Now, If he went to the mountain before dark, say around seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and returned after dawn, say 6 AM, many pray for at least 10 hours straight.

In the original Greek text the word for this is  

Di-a-nuk-ter-e-o which means that he spent the whole night in the prayer of God. He wasn't praying to God, he was in communion with God. Jesus, the Father, and though Holy Ghost, were communing with one another. They weren’t debating over who was to be chosen. But rather Jesus was receiving instruction and counsel on how the Twelve would be trained to usher in the Kingdom of God and take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Okay time for another Greek lesson here. In some translations of Scripture the Twelve are called Disciples. This would be an incorrect translation.

The word used ma-the-tes: which means learner or student. Jesus had multitudes of Disciples.

To the Twelve Jesus gives the unique title of Apostles or

A-po-sto-li in Greek. Apostoli means one with a message, or one who is sent.

This word's use in the Bible specifically refers to the Twelve and Paul.

Remember earlier I talked about how the four evangelists had different purposes in their writing?

·       Luke uses the term Apostle in his gospel and in the book of Acts only when referring to the Twelve.

·       Matthew, Mark and John each only use the term Apostle once, and in the remainder of their works referred to Apostles as the "Twelve".

In the church today, we are familiar with the five-fold ministry and the office of Apostle. In Jesus day the office of Apostle was the equivalent of an ambassador, or one with authority, or one who spoke for Christ.

Stage 3 therefore is the call to Apostleship. Apostleship begins with the sort of internship. Jesus sent them out 2 by 2. I always thought Jesus sent them out alone and stayed behind. What we must remember is that this was part of their training. Jesus was always there are for them to check back with. He was their instructor. We know that they reported to Jesus as to how things were going, because they came to him once and told him they were having trouble casting out a demon. We also know that after they returned Jesus took them away for an extended time of teaching, ministry, fellowship, and rest.

The fourth stage of their calling did not occur until after the resurrection. Jesus appeared to the remaining 11 and gave them the commission to go into all the world and make Disciples of the nations. This was the call to martyrdom. Each of the Apostles ultimately gave his life for the sake of the gospel. All but one of them was killed for his testimony. Only John lives to an old age, and that was in exile on the tiny island of Patmos.

So what made these men special? Why did Jesus choose them? Not a single one was a rabbi, or scribe, or a Pharisee, or a Sadducee. He didn't choose anyone from the religious establishment.

Why didn't Jesus c someone from the church? Well aside from the fact that the church was out to kill him,

·       The Judaism of Jesus time represented a corruption of the faith of the Old Testament.

·       Israel had abandoned Grace in favor of works religion. We know that it was legalistic.

·       We know that it was filled with hypocrisy, self-righteousness, man-made regulations, and meaningless ceremonies.

·       What was important to the Jews of that day was being related by birth to Abraham, rather than being related by faith.

Jesus’ choice of Twelve Apostles was a symbolic judgment against the Twelve tribes of Israel. Not the original tribes, but against the religion they had produced. In fact let's turn their real quick, Luke 22:29

I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the Twelve tribes of Israel.

You’ve heard me say earlier that the term Apostle comes from the Greek word Apostoli. But we also know that the common language spoken in the region of Galilee was Aramaic.

The Aramaic word for Apostle is sha-li-ah. In first century Jewish culture a shaliah

·       was an official representative of the Sanhedrin or the ruling council of Israel.

·       A shaliah exercised the full rights of the Sanhedrin.

·       He spoke for them, and when he spoke, he spoke with their authority.

·       He was owed the same respect as the council itself.

·       But he never delivered his own message; his task was to deliver the message of the group he represented.

So when Jesus appointed Apostles-he was doing something familiar to the people of that culture. They became his delegates. They were his trusted shaliah . They spoke with his authority, delivered his message, and exercised his authority.

Jesus chose twelve ordinary men just like us, unworthy and unqualified. God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there's never question about the source of power when their lives change the world.

Doesn't God do that today? Isn't that how he found you?

Now we also know, that just like us, for there were times when the Twelve worry amazingly thickheaded.

·       Jesus rebukes them several times in scripture for their lack of understanding and their foolishness, but he keeps on teaching.

·       Another problem was that they lacked humility. We know they argued about who would be the greatest in the kingdom, and then Jesus washed their feet.

·       They also lacked faith. We know the phrase, "oh you a little faith". Yet Jesus continued to perform miracles, deliberately in their presence, so that their faith could be strengthened.

·       They also lack commitment. When the crowds were many, they were the leaders; when the guards walked into Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, they fled.

·       And at times they lacked power. We know they came to Jesus and asked him why they were unable to cast out certain demons, and yet Jesus sent them the promised Holy Spirit on Pentecost and supercharged them with power.

Despite all this the Apostles became great spiritual leaders and great preachers under the power of the Holy Spirit. The power that Jesus gave the Apostles was,

·       "for the equipping of the Saints,

·       for the work of the ministry,

·       for the edifying of the body."

How did that power manifest? The working of miracles.

It is my prayer that throughout this study you will see the transformation that occurred in the lives of the Apostles through their time spent with Jesus. In the process, it is my prayer that you will desire to know God more intimately, and that you like the Apostles will be filled with a boldness to carry the gospel to the world.

If you have any doubt in your ability to carry this out, I leave you with Acts 14:13

13When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.