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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.
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