2011 6-26 ‘From Disciples to Apostles’ Luke 6 12-16

“FROM DISCIPLES TO APOSTLES”
LUKE 6:12-16

I. Introduction
Have you ever made an important decision without first asking for God’s guidance and direction in prayer? I suspect your answer would be, “Well yes, at one time or another I have done that very thing.”

Have any of those decisions turned out badly? How many of them were made because you wanted to do something, go somewhere, pursue a particular course of action, enter into a questionable relationship, or take a direction contrary to the advice of your friends, family, or even Scripture? Have any of those decisions, the ones that were made without first seeking the Lord, had life-altering consequences?

Often we don’t realize until later that a decision made without God’s help has been a mis-take, or has led us into a situation that we can spend years trying to rectify or correct. But such things shouldn’t happen to Christians, should they? Then why do they? Why, when we routinely pray before something as mundane as lunch, do we so often fail to pray when we’re faced with decisions that can change the very course of our lives?

I think it’s because we sometimes think more highly of ourselves and of our own insight than we ought. In other words, I think it’s because of our human pride. We think we can do it (whatever it may happen to be) all by ourselves. We often think we’re smart enough to come to the right conclusions and make the right decisions. Have you ever been there? And have you ever gotten “burned?”

If anyone was ever wise enough to make important decisions by Himself, it would have been God’s own Son. But even He didn’t even try to operate on His own. Jesus knew better and so He continually went before His Father in prayer.

Do you sometimes wonder, “Why did Jesus pray?” He is God incarnate, why did He need to pray at all?” I think there are at least three reasons why Jesus prayed.
• First, Jesus prayed because it was the normal thing for a Jewish believer to do.
• Second, Jesus prayed because it was an example to His disciples and to all those who would follow Him down through the centuries.
• Third, the very nature of the Trinity calls for communication among its members. As God the Son, Jesus prayed to God the Father because that’s how they “talked.”

Do you pray, talk to God, at critical moments in your life? Jesus did! He prayed from the beginning of His public ministry to the end. He prayed at every critical moment of His life. Here are just a few examples of those pivotal times when the gospels tell us that Jesus went before His Father in prayer.

Jesus prayed at the beginning of His ministry when He was baptized by John.
*Luke 3:21-22
21 Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,
22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

Jesus prayed before Peter’s confession that He was the Jewish Messiah, the Christ.
*Luke 9:18-20
18 …while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He ques-tioned them, saying, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?”
19 And they answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets has risen again.”
20 And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

Jesus prayed before His Transfiguration.
*Luke 9:28-29
28 …it came about that He took Peter and John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray.
29 And while He was praying, the appearance of his face became different, and his clothing became white and gleaming.

Jesus prayed before the cross and He prayed while He hung on the cross.
*Luke 22:42; 23:34
42 “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

34 Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

The overall length of these prayers is unknown, but they all seem to be of short duration. But that’s not the case with Jesus’ prayer in Luke 6:12. Of all His prayers recorded in the gospels, this is the only one that lasts for an entire night. That fact alone should help us appreciate the gravity of Jesus decision regarding which men He would choose to carry on the ministry after His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to heaven.
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II. Review
As the first year of Jesus’ ministry came to a close, the opposition against Him was rising rapidly. He had declared Himself to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He had called Himself sovereign by declaring that He was Lord of the Sabbath, and in Luke 6:6-10, He had broken, and then publicly ridiculed, a number of the Jew’s man-made religious laws regarding the Sabbath day itself.
In Luke 6:11 the Pharisees are described as being “filled with rage” against Jesus. The word “rage” is the Greek “anŏia,” which means an anger that is so irrational and so illo-gical that it actually borders on insanity. Jesus’ very life is now at stake, and for the next two years, every move of the religious leaders will be toward the inevitable. One way or another, they must stop Jesus. Clearly, a turning point has come.

That brings us to this morning’s passage. This would be one of those times when the Son would go to the Father and seek divine guidance and wisdom.
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III. Text
The situation demands that Jesus organize His followers in preparation for the mission that is to come. Multitudes have been following Him ever since the miraculous healings began. But which followers will He call out from the crowds? Which ones will He choose from all of the men who are available? Jesus will do what He always does. He will go to prayer and ask His Father.
*Luke 6:12-16 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
12 And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
13 And when day came, He called His disciples to Him; and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:
14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew (Nathanael);
15 and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot;
16 Judas (Thaddaeus) the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Jesus was preparing to choose the twelve men that would become His “inner circle,” for the next two years. To say that His choice of men was critical is putting it mildly.
*Luke 6:12
12 And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

What time is this? It isn’t a particular day or hour. It’s the time when hatred for Jesus is reaching its pinnacle. Even though His death is still two years away, He is already begin-ning to sense the certainty of it. He is going to need to prepare His successors for the work that will come after His departure. The gospel must be preached and the church must be born, but Jesus will not be here to do those things.

So He must choose wisely, not as men would choose, but as God would choose. The coming two years will be a time of intense training. After Jesus is gone the men chosen will undergo stresses and persecutions that none of them can even imagine at the time of their calling. So Jesus must choose the right men.
Where you and I might be tempted to choose scholars, world travelers, or well-known and important people who would command respect among the masses, God will do some-thing entirely different. He will not choose the wise of this world, nor the strong, nor the powerful. That’s seldom who God’s people are. That’s why I asked Jeff to read the Apostle Paul’s words to us in 1 Corinthians 1:20-29 this morning.
*1 Corinthians 1:26-28
26 …consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise accor-ding to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are…

If you and I were wise, mighty, or noble in the world’s eyes, the world would embrace us. But the world thinks we are fools. Isn’t it true that the so-called wise of this world don’t understand us? I don’t simply mean “us” here at LBC; I mean all of “us” true Christians. That’s exactly as God has planned it. The “fools” know God and His truth, whereas the “wise” do not. Do you see? God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. (back to Luke 6)

So Jesus will pray all night long.
*Luke 6:13
13 And when day came, He called His disciples to Him; and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:

He will choose twelve men who are neither wise, nor worldly, nor rich, nor well-known, nor important (as the world counts importance); but foolish men, plain and simple men – no Pharisees, no scribes, no rabbis, no priests, no theologians, no college professors – just common ordinary everyday people. Jesus will choose sinners, just like you and me. Doesn’t God always choose sinners to accomplish His work? Who else is there?
• God chose Abraham, an idolater, to be the physical father of Israel and the spiritual father of all believing Gentiles.
• God chose Joseph, a slave, to preserve Israel.
• God chose Moses, a murderer, to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
• God chose Rahab, a Gentile prostitute to become one of Jesus’ own ancestors.
• God chose David, a mere shepherd boy, to kill Goliath. Then, later in life, David was an adulterer and murderer, but God made him Israel’s greatest king.
• God chose John, who wandered in the desert, to be the last OT prophet and point ahead to Jesus, who said of John, “…among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).
But there’s more. 1 Timothy tells us God chose angels. Genesis tells us He chose Noah. Deuteronomy tells us He chose Levi and all the Levitical priests. So Christians who don’t think God can use them to accomplish His work on this earth just aren’t paying attention. They’re being foolish. “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…” (1 Corinthians 1:27)

God chose you and He chose me. Why would any of us think He didn’t? And yet vast multitudes of Christians believe they chose God. They are taught, and they believe, that they decided, that they chose Christ. They could not be more wrong. Just consider the following biblical truths. Israel didn’t choose God. God chose Israel.
Isaiah 41:8-9
8 “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend,
9 “You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts, and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.’”

Why Israel? I don’t know. It was God’s sovereign choice. Out of the multitudes that were following Jesus that day why did He choose those twelve men? Why them – and why Judas? I don’t know, but it was His sovereign choice. Jesus made that crystal clear.
John 15:16a, 19 (speaking to the apostles)
16a “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit…”
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Then, out of all the people on the earth, God chose the ones whom He would use to estab-lish, build, and populate His church.
1 Peter 2:9a
9a But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…

That’s you and that’s me. Why us? I don’t know. It was God’s sovereign choice. He did not make a mistake when He chose the twelve. And He did not make a mistake when He chose you to be one of His own. The only mistake is us thinking that we chose Him. And yet the church today is filled with those who still think they decided to believe and to become a Christian. But I would ask them, “What scriptural principle or what scriptural precedent can you use to demonstrate that you chose God? Your free will?”

Did you know those two words (“free” and “will”) are only found together once in the NT? Paul uses them in reference to Philemon’s decision to send Onesimus back to Paul. And every time the word “freewill” is used in the OT, it is followed by the word, “offering”.
You and I were saved because Jesus Christ exercised His free will. We did not exercise ours. Before we were saved our will was in bondage to sin. There’s nothing free about that. Listen, the unsaved have no more freedom to choose Christ than they have to fly by flapping their arms. But God’s Son chose to save us. That’s what He does!

So whom does the Son choose? God the Father has given God the Son the right to choose anyone He wants to choose. It’s no more complicated than that!
*John 6:44, 65
44 “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

That raises a few more questions, doesn’t it? “On what basis does He choose? Who can come to Jesus?” He tells us.
*Matthew 11:27
27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills (or chooses) to reveal Him.

Listen, this is so important. The only way you can ever know God is for God to intro-duce Himself to you. Do you want Him to introduce Himself to you? If you do He will. Do you want to know Him? Ask Him. Turn to Him. When you meet Jesus, He will reveal God to you. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

If you will look to Jesus you will see God. Trust Him and Him alone and you will find out that you are one of those whom God has already chosen. (back to Luke 6:13)

Luke 6:13 says that after Jesus had spent the whole night praying for God’s wisdom and guidance, He chose twelve of the men who had been following Him to be His disciples.
“Disciple” is the Greek word “mathētēs.” It refers to a pupil, a student, or a learner. In that basic sense Jesus had hundreds of disciples. They used His teaching as a basis for their conduct, how they were trying to live their lives. That’s the sense in which they followed Jesus. So the general designation “disciple” was given to all believers.
John 8:31
31 Jesus…was saying to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”

But the twelve men whom Jesus chose that morning were set apart from other believers. This group of twelve would become teachers themselves. They would receive miracu-lous power and authority that others would not be given. Beyond that, they would be also be given a task that others would not be given. Jesus would make them apostles.
“Apostle” is the Greek word “apŏstŏlŏs.” An apostle is one who is sent out in the name of, and with the authority of, the one who sends him. He functions as an ambassador. Just as the word disciple has both a general meaning (all believers) and a specific one (the twelve), so too does apostle. In the general sense it refers to anyone who acts as an ambas-sador for Christ. Thus when you evangelize, you are acting as an apostle. When some-one goes on the mission field, they are doing the work of an apostle.

But in the specific sense there were only twelve apostles – only twelve that held the God-given office of apostle. That office was truly unique. The point is that while many today do the work of an apostle, no one today holds the apostolic office.

Judas forfeited his office with his betrayal. He was replaced by Matthias in Acts 1:26 so there were again twelve. Later Paul was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. But he was not one of the original twelve Jesus called on that morning.

Why twelve? Most believe that there were twelve apostles to correspond to the number of the tribes of Israel, although Scripture never specifically says so. If that’s true it implies God was about to bring a new people (the church) into existence. How prominent are these men? They’re the ones upon whom the Church of Jesus Christ is built.
Ephesians 2:20
20 …having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.

Then Revelation describes the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. Here again we can see how prominent these twelve men are, and will be throughout eternity.
*Revelation 21:12, 14
12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Over the next few weeks we will look at the significance of the men Jesus chose, both as a group and individually.
*Luke 6:14-16
14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew (Nathanael);
15 and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot;
16 Judas (Thaddaeus) the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

We know a quite a bit about Peter, and a little about John, James, and Thomas and Philip.
But what do we know about the others? Who were they? What can we learn from them? How are you like them?

Are you like Peter – a determined born leader? Are you like John – a deep thinker and a careful observer? Might you be like Thomas or Bartholomew (aka Nathanael) – full of questions and doubts? What about Matthew – the practical “bean-counter” type?

Could you be like James or Andrew – direct, straightforward, and self-reliant? How about Philip – “laid back,” having a gentle heart, but struggling with a weak faith? Or could you be like the other James or Simon the Zealot or the other Judas (aka Thaddeaus) – seemingly unknown and inconspicuous, but working behind the scenes?

And do we already know everything we need to know about Judas Iscariot, the traitor? Somewhere in our study of these twelve men, you will see yourself, and you will see how much God can use you for His glory. I think you’ll be encouraged.
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III. Conclusion
What have we learned today? The lesson for each one of us about praying when we have critical decisions to make is clear, isn’t it? But this passage should speak to us at LBC for another reason as well. Someday we will need to leave this facility and move to another; possibly one of our own. That will not be a decision to be taken lightly. God already knows when that will happen and where we will be going. Shouldn’t we be consulting Him?

As the months and years go by new leaders will emerge. How will we identify them? How will we know when to raise a man to the position of elder or deacon? God already knows who they will be and when He will call them. He may be preparing them right now. Shouldn’t we ask God who they are and when they are to take their positions?

At some point a new pastor will take the pulpit and be ordained to this ministry. How will we determine who that might be? God hasn’t yet revealed that to us, but the day will come when He will. Shouldn’t we be seeking His face about such things? He is the only one with answers to all of those questions, isn’t He? Each and every one of those things will be a major milestone in the life of this church.

And what about you? Who do you turn to at the critical moments in your life? Are you in the habit of relying on your own strength and your own wisdom? Do you think you can figure it all out for yourself?

Or do you turn to other people for counsel and advice? That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. In fact, the counsel of godly people can most certainly be helpful, but the best they have to offer falls short of the counsel available from our sovereign God in prayer. Turn to Him when you are faced with dilemmas, troubles, and when you face important deci-sions. What are you facing today that calls for God’s wisdom in your life?
He knows the past, the present, and maybe most importantly, He knows the future. He is already there. And you can be sure He knows what is best for each one of us. We are weak and do not know what is ahead of us. But He is strong and knows exactly what is ahead. Shouldn’t we ask Him?
*Romans 8:26-28
26 …the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Listen Christian, you were called according to His purpose, not yours. And aren’t you glad? I have no idea what each of you thought your purpose in life was before you came to faith in Christ. But I do know this. Whatever it was, before you came to faith in Christ, it had no eternal value. It did not glorify God because, in the flesh, it could not glorify God.

But now, just like the twelve apostles, you have an eternal purpose in life. Ask the Lord today how you might glorify Him in the decisions you make in this life. Don’t try to do it on your own. Just as Jesus called the twelve to Himself, and enabled them to glorify Him, so too He has called you.

~ Pray ~