Luke 6:12-16

The book of Luke and chapter 6 this morning, I want to look at verses 12 through 16 as we consider the choosing of the 12 apostles. And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. and when it was day he called unto him his disciples and all of them he chose 12 whom also he named apostles Simon whom he also named Peter and Andrew his brother James and John Philip and Bartholomew Matthew and Thomas James the son of Elfius Simon called Zollatus and Judas, the brother of James, and Judas Ascariot, which also was the traitor. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. There are several religious groups that tell us that there are apostles today. Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church speak about apostolic succession, that the line of the apostles continues generation after generation after generation. However, our text reveals that our Lord must choose you to be an apostle, where you cannot be an apostle. And therefore, the only apostles which are real, which are genuine, are those listed here. And Paul, who we read in scripture, was one born out of due time, 1 Corinthians 15, and Matthias, who took Judas’s place in Acts chapter 1 and was chosen by Lot by the Lord. All others are false apostles. who assume an office they have no right to possess. They have never seen Jesus Christ, and they were not chosen by him to be an apostle. We have to be like the church at Ephesus that tried then, that say they are apostles and are not, and found them to be liars. Here we have the original 12 apostles and Christ Jesus. them out. Now, he chose his apostles from his disciples. We read in verse 13. He gather his disciples and from them, he chose these 12 men that are listed. At first, they were mere learners. They sat at the feet of Christ. They heard him teach. And that’s what they’ve been doing. They were instructed by the master. Here we have the idea that he’s preparing some to send forth as apostles. The word apostle means a set one. And so they’re going to be sent out by Christ. They’re going to continue the work that Christ has started. Christ is not going to be here much longer. And he’s going to be leaving. He’s going to be dying. He’s going to be resurrected. Of course, he’s going to enter into heaven and sit upon the throne there. And so he’s preparing these men so that they may be prepared to preach the gospel and continue what he has started when he leaves. We noted in our last study how the Lord engaged in special prayer before he chose these men. And he now is choosing them, and we see the men that he has chosen listed here by name for us and our text. I want to speak about the choosing of the 12 apostles. The 12 man chosen by Christ to serve as his ministers is found here in verses 14 to 16. The first is Simon who is also called Peter. Peter. Peter was the son of Jonas. By trade, we find that he was a fisherman. In Luke Chapter 5, we read about him fishing along with his brother Andrew, who’s second listed here. It appears at first they lived in Betheda, according to John 1.44, but later, they lived in Comparneum, Luke 4, verse 31 and 38. Both cities are really on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Not that far apart from one another. And for a fisherman, that would be an ideal location. Peter was obviously one of Christ’s most intimate friends. He was part of the, we might call the holy triumvirate, Peter, James, and John. They were honored to witness our Lord’s transgression. I was transgressive. His transfiguration on the Mount of Trans on the Mount, you recall. Our text reminds you the fact that Christ gave Simon Peter, the name, he gave Simon the name Peter, which means rock. Now, this new name that Jesus gives to Simon was not what he was when he was first called. It was what he would be by God’s grace and by the gifts given to him when Christ was done working with him. He would be the rock that we find in the book of Acts. But that’s not how he started out. Simon, when first chosen to be an apostle, and for some time afterwards, was not a person that was a person that was a model of steadfastness, or consistency, he was always fluctuating. He had enough faith to say, well, if you, Lord, I don’t know there walking on the water, let me come out. But then he doubts, when the waves are bolsterous in the wind and so forth, and he starts sinking. Why did you doubt, Jesus? He starts out one way, but he fluctuates. He was the one in Matthew 16, who openly confessed that Jesus Christ was the son. That Jesus Christ was the son of God. What a glory. profession that he made, revealed to him by the Father, God the Father, but what happens in the same chapter? He’s rebuking Christ when Christ talks about going to the cross to die. That shall not be. So we see his unevenness. Here was a man that made a vehement declaration of his loyalty to Christ that he would not deny Christ, he would stay with Christ, even if it meant martyrdom. Yet, before the cock crows twice, he denies the Lord three times that night. He’s inconsistent. He refused Christ. Remember, when he said, I have to wash your feet. No, you’re not going to wash my feet. And when Jesus explained things, he said, okay, now not only my feet, but my hands. and my head. And Jesus said, well, if you have your, if you’re already washed, you only need your feet washed. But you see how he’s fluctuating back and forth. But look at what he was. By the power and the grace of God, this changeable Simon becomes a rock. The bulk of Acts emphasizes the leadership role of Peter. It stands out. He stood up in the midst of the disciples at Jerusalem proposed that a new apostle take the place of Judas upon an understanding of Psalm 69. That someone should take the bishop prick or the apostleship, if you would, of the one who would betray the Lord. He drew from that. We need to replace Judas. He was not a genuine apostle because of that. He was the one who preaches that powerful sermon of the day of Pentecost, revealing a true grasp of who Christ is as revealed in the Psalms, particularly Psalm 16, you recall. And 3,000 souls are saved. Acts chapter 2. A short time later, he preaches at the temple. A very strong message in Acts chapter 3, and 5,000 people. or convert. He was instrumental in bringing the gospel to the Gentiles, for he was sent to Cornelius in his family in Acts chapter 10. That was an important moment. In Acts 15, Peter gave a strong support to Paul in defense of the doctrine of the justification by faith that we have. said circumcision was not required, the salvation was by grace through faith alone. Peter was inspired by the Holy Spirit and enabled to write two epistles, the first and second Peter that we have in our Bibles. Peter is classified in the book of Galatians chapter 2 by Paul as a pillar of the church. He’s always listed first. when the apostles are listed in scripture. Now, several valuable lessons can be learned from. His life is really a testimony of how God can change your life. You could start out very weak. You can start out very unstable as someone who’s new to the faith. And yet, by the grace and the power of God, you can become like a rock. in the faith. We see also in Peter’s life the dangerous self-confidence. Let him that we thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. I will never desert you. I will never leave you. But he didn’t know his own heart. How weak we are by nature. We can see this also in Peter’s life. Faith can turn to doubting. How quickly loyalty tea and a pledge of it can lead to denial. And last, I think we can see that God is a god of second chances. For Peter, upon repentance after his denial of the Lord, becomes the one who is so greatly used by the Lord in the book Acts and is really one of the major leaders among the apostles. He’s restored. So here’s Peter. And that was a quick leaning of his life. The second man that we’re speaking of today as an apostle is Andrew. Now, Andrew was Peter’s brother. The word of God speaks sparingly of him. We don’t have a whole lot about him. He was also a fisherman, and according to scripture, he fished on the same boat that Peter did. He worked on the same ship. Mark 129 also indicates he appears to have lived with Peter. He was originally, it was a disciple John the Baptist. But he heard him proclaim the message, Behold the Lamb of God, and pointed them to Jesus. And so we find that Andrew spent time with Jesus that day, got to know Jesus. And then he goes and gets his brother. Peter and he says we have found the Christ we found the Messiah and he brings Peter to Jesus Peter really exceeds him supersedes him if you would with regard to his gifts his place in usefulness to the kingdom of God but Andrew is the one who brought him to the Lord and that’s important when Jesus tested his disciples, when they were out there in the fields and the multitudes needed something to eat. They came out to hear the Lord preach. And, you know, how can we feed them? Jesus says. And it was Andrew who spoke up and said, hey, there’s a lad here that has five bar of those and two fishes. But what is this among all these people? But that led to Christ’s miracle. You remember of the 5,000 being fed? There were certain Greeks who came to Jerusalem to worship at a feast, you’ll recall. And they were anxious to meet Jesus in John Chapter 12. But being Gentiles, they were not sure that they would be received. First, they went to Philip, who took the matter to Andrew. And what does Andrew say? Well, let’s ask the Lord. And he goes to the Lord and says, hey, there’s some Greeks here that want to speak to you. And Jesus spoke to these Greeks. Talked about the gospel. And how if he were lifted up from this earth, he would draw all men, people from all nations, onto him, including these people that had come to him. Sort of a glimpse of the universal spread of the gospel and its success among the nations. When our Lord foretold of the utter destruction of the temple, Andrew was one of the disciples who asked, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and the fulfillment of this? And Jesus gives the all of it discourse. The last mention of Andrew is found in Acts 1 where he is listed among the disciples who had gathered there at Jerusalem in the upper room. We really not know anything else about his ministry or work. We know he preached, but we don’t know much where he preached, or if he just stayed in Jerusalem most of the time, we just don’t know. Let me make these practical observations. Andrew, having met the Messiah, through John the Baptist instruction, brings his brother, Peter, to know the Savior. So he sought out his brother Simon and said, we’ve found the Christ. Now this is the great privilege of every believer. To tell others of the Savior that you know. And this is eternal life that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, John 173. Now, friends, this required no seminary training or permission of the church authorities. Just love for others. All that is needed to tell a perishing sinner of the Savior as though found satisfaction in Christ yourself. Andrew did not act as a preacher here. He still. needed training. He was still going to be trained by Christ to be a preacher. But Andrew acted as a common Christian, gave an earnest witness about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and it leads to Peter being brought to Christ. Indeed, your responsibility in witnessing should begin with those nearest to you, your own family members. So every believer is urged to follow Andrew’s example and point others to Christ and the salvation that is found in him. The third person we have listed here is James that is mentioned for us here. James James is an important person among the apostles as well. James and John are mentioned linked together here the second pair of disciples, Peter and Andrew, both brothers, James and John, both brothers. Because a lot of the information that we could speak about James is going to overlap with John. James is originally the same name as Jacob. It means supplanter. It wasn’t a very flattering name. The tripper-upper-upper. Remember, Jacob was the one to grab hold of. of his brother’s heel when they came out of the womb. And so we see that this is, he is the tripper upper. James commonly is given a surname. He’s called the greater or the elder. To distinguish him from the James that’s mentioned also in verse 16, the son of Alpheus, who is the lesser, or the younger. Evidently, the one James was older than the other, and perhaps a greater notoriety than the other. And so they are distinguished from one another. James and his brother John were said to be the sons of Zebedee. And you recall they were fishermen by trade and work with their father on the shipping boat. Matthew records how Christ called James and John to be his disciples and follow Hamid, we see scripture telling us this and also in John’s Gospel. We read, Going on from thence, calling of Peter and Andrew, he saw other two brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship was Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. By a process of careful deduction, if you compare Matthew 27 and Mark 15, we learned that Salome was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John. I remember Salome took the lead in approaching Christ and saying, hey, I want a position, a great position of authority for my sons, James and John. In your kingdom. In Matthew 20. Confusion reigned about the type of kingdom that Christ was establishing and it was almost as if it was like an earthly kingdom that she was thinking of. Jesus had to remind her that suffering precedes honor. James and John were distinguished by their special relationship they had with Christ. They’re part of the holy triumph for it along with Peter, the three of them. They and Peter alone were at our Lord’s Transfiguration, the restoring of Jaris’ daughter to life, and the agony of the garden. They, those three. Christ named James and John the son of Bonanurges. The sons of thunder, Mark 317. Now, I don’t believe that Jesus gave his disciples unfavorable surnames. So I don’t think it’s because they wanted to call down fire on the Samaritan village that we read about in scripture, and Jesus had to rebuke them for it. Rather, I think it seems that Christ knew by the grace and the gifts that would be given to these two men, that they would preach the word of of God with power and authority. Little is mentioned about James. In the book of Acts we have his mentioning as the first apostle who suffered martyrdom. He died as the first martyr by the hand of King Herod. In Acts Chapter 12, not about this time Herod the king, stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church and he killed James the brother of John with a sword. It was common in that day to behead, to cut off the head with a sword. So he didn’t live long after his conversion, and we know that Christ had like a three, three and a half year ministry. And then in Acts shortly after the resurrection of Christ here, we find that James is beheaded. So he didn’t have a lot of time for us, to learn much about him. He wasn’t therefore inspired to write any epistles for us. Practical application from this life, let me mention a couple of things. Jesus is still calling people to follow him. Every time you hear the word of God spoken, there’s a call that goes through the message. You may be called away from every undue attack. even the lawful business that you have in this life, or he was once a fisherman, but Christ called him a preacher. We should be willing to forsake even the nearest and dearest relations that we have to follow Christ, as James and John did. They left their father, Zebedee, in the boat, and went to follow Christ, and become preachers. We’re told that we should love, we’re not to love father or mother, wife or children, houses or lands more than Christ. We will not be worthy of Him. Whereas those who part with all for him shall receive a hundredfold in this life and in the world to come eternal life. The second thing we see here is there’s a danger of seeking earthly honor and association with the kingdom of Christ. James and John’s mother sought to have them exalted above all the other apostles. sadly I think in religious circles there’s still this vying for power or prestige or authority among the people of God. It shows something that’s improper, a vain, and worldly ambition. Thoughtless self-exaltation often occurs. But what Jesus said to James and John is also important for us to remember as Christians today because Paul applies the same thought to everyone. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. In 2 Timothy 2.12. Same thing that Jesus told James and John, are you able to be baptized with a baptism that I have been baptized. I will be baptized with a baptism of suffering. Are you willing to drink of a cup of Christ’s suffering? Because those are the ones that are held in high esteem by the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, may God raise up today many sons of thunder to preach his word. God’s voice is likened under thunder. We see it in the Psalms. We see it in the Book of Revelation several times it’s mentioned. And thus, when the real word of God is proclaimed, when someone actually opens the scriptures and preaches from them, one of his servants. God’s thunderous voice is heard through it. It is able to penetrate the heart by the Spirit. it enlightens. it awakens. it alarms. It softens. it quickens. It humbles. God thunders through his word. He can shake a person’s soul in that way. It arouses sinners out of their lefrogy and alarms the conscience. May God raise up more sons of thunder for our own generation, for we need it. Notice also here that severe judgment is meted out to those who will harm the people of God. We learned this also from the life of James. It was King Herod that beheaded the Apostle James as we read in the book of Acts. It was a calloused act of a hardened heart. And yet it behooves us to pay careful attention to what happened to Herod immediately thereafter. For the terrible vengeance of God overtook this wicked man and he was eaten of worms. He was struck by God as punishment for what he did. God’s people are precious to him. You touch them. You touch the apple of his eye. You can expect retribution. That is a lesson that we can learn from James as well. Finally, we have John. John here is Johan. It means the grace of the Lord. John is often called the beloved disciple. In fact, in his gospel, we also read the disciple that Jesus loved, often mentioned. It’s him that he speaks on. Now, it’s true that Christ loved all his disciples. John 131 says he loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them under the end. But some, he loved in addition. He loved more than others. So Christ loved John freely at first. But even more so because of the graces that he gave him later in life. John loved Christ. It was near to him on a very important occasion. Some of them we’ve already mentioned, like the Mount of Transfiguration and so forth. But I remind you that Jesus was privileged at the Last Supper to be the one that laid his head on the bosom of Christ at that time. When Christ was apprehended and all the disciples fled, there was only one disciple that returned to be with Christ during the time of his arrest and his crucifixion, the only one that was at the cross was John. John was the one Jesus said, take care of my mother. Behold thy mother. Speaking of Mary and ask him to care for her now that he is going to depart from the world. How wonderful Jesus is. Here he is dying on the cross and what is he thinking about. I’ve got to take care of my mother too. I’m going to make sure somebody is watching her. And John, take care of her for me. When our Lord was resurrected, it was Peter and John that ran to the grave site and went into the open sepulcher to investigate the report. John rushed in and found the grave site emptied, and the scripture says, and he saw and believed. He believed the resurrection. And so this is, you know, Now, this is the John that we have mentioned here. He’s mentioned a few times in the books of Acts with Peter and during the lame man at the temple, you recall, you recall. The beautiful gate. Acts 3. He’s cast into prison with Peter for preaching in Acts Chapter 4. Paul later in the book of Galatians describes him also as one of the pillars of the church. John was inspired by the Holy Spirit give us a gospel, to give us three epistles, shorter epistles, but three epistles, and that marvelous book of revelation that we’ve been studying in our Bible study. Let me make a couple practical observations. John was full of love for God and Christ. What we find in his epistles are expressions filled with love toward the Savior. And I might say also toward God’s people. The brother. That’s his favorite word, it seems like. He’s always talking about the brother. This is the most outstanding feature of John’s character is love. We ought to study to be like him in this regard. The secret is revealed in First John now. How was he such a loving person? We love him because he first loved us. that’s why. Why do he love the Savior? Because the Savior loved him. So he was the one who Jesus, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Thus he greatly loves the Savior. That one flows from the other. If Christ has loved us and washed us from our sins, it is own blood as the book of Revelation tells us, shouldn’t we love the Savior? And then, let also say that John provides an example of the mature Christian. You ought to resemble him in faith, in love, and heavenly mindedness. You ought to ascribe under the Savior the glory and dominion that Christ deserves that we find in the book of Revelation that he mentions. He’s the reigning king He’s the reigning king overall, and that’s how he presents. us in Revelation and how he deserves all these accolades that are mentioned. Worthy as the Lamb that was slain. They receive power, riches, wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Revelation 512. Well, the apostles are unique and special. There’s no apostolic succession. It behooves us, then, to look at these 12 men that Jesus has chosen. And we have, if you go through the Gospels, you’ll get any epistles and so forth, you get some type of indication of the type of men these men weren’t. We’ve looked at some of the better known apostles. Peter and Andrew, James and John. But we have to look at the other eight, and that will have to await another time. But Jesus has listed their names here for the purpose of us knowing who they were. And I think we should think about what kind of men these men were. And so I hope that was helpful as we looked through these lives of these men this morning that we consider. Let’s close.