Before Jesus came to the Garden of Gethsemene on the last night of His human life, He had spent a significant and powerful
time with His disciples – actually mainly the 12 – around the celebration of the Passover meal. He made a lot of
connections with OT Law and practices AND teaching on the new realities of the age of grace God was introducing
through His death and resurrection. And Jesus prayed at that meal – not just for the food, He prayed what we have
recorded in John 17.
There is so much stuff that is vital for a follower of Jesus to know in John 17. I want to focus on one thing Jesus prayed
about and then connect that with what He does in Luke 6. Today we are continuing to look at the Lord Jesus Christ – a
REAL human life – in the Gospel of Luke. God broke through time and came to earth to live like we have to live. Jesus
was and is God, but when He came to earth, He laid aside and emptied Himself temporarily of His God-powers and
abilities to live the way we live. And He did it without sinning, we see in Hebrews 4.
At Plattsmouth Bible Church, we want our lives to reflect and resemble the life of Jesus. We want the living Jesus to come
live His perfect life in us by His power. As we go through our REAL human life series, we are seeking to know Jesus and
allow Him full access to us so that He can make that happen. As we prepare to hear from God today through His Word
the Bible, let’s ask for His help. PRAY
In John 17, Jesus is praying and His disciples are there with Him. He prays for them and in John 17:20, He makes an
interesting request. READ. I’m not praying for these 12 (actually Judas Iscariot was already gone – we’ll talk about him),
but I’m not praying for these 11 only, but for those who will believe in Me through their word. Who are the ones who
would believe in Jesus through the words of the apostles? Everyone in history who believes – including you and me. Jesus
prayed for you and me. And He prayed for us as we put our faith in Jesus through what the apostles say.
ALL of us sitting here today plus anyone who ever has or will believe have heard of the redemption and rescue of Jesus
through the words of these men and a few other guys – Mark, Luke, James, Jude, Matthias and Paul. We can trace the
salvation message back to one of these guys. We need to get to know these guys and how and why Jesus chose them.
That’s where we are today in Luke.
Luke 6:12-16. READ. We talked last Sunday about how Jesus regularly got alone with the Father to keep His connection
with the Father right and in order. In verse 12, Jesus has just healed the guy with the withered hand and has been
confronted with the disbelief of the religious leaders. So He takes time to go recharge and renew and restore with the
Father. But He was also preparing for the next important part of His mission. Calling those who would proclaim the
message when He was gone.
As Jesus prayed that night – all night – asking God to fill Him and empower Him and work through Him, He also spent a
lot of that time bringing people to the Father and asking for God’s insight on each one. I think He prayed about more than
the twelve we see listed in the following verses. He had a flock of disciples – we see that in verse 13. In the morning, He
came off the mountain and sent out word for His followers, His disciples, to come to Him.
From among the disciples, it says, He chose 12. So there was a large group of people there at this gathering. There were
certainly more than 12. As Jesus had prayed the previous night, asking for the Father’s guidance, the Father had settled
Jesus on 12 of these people to form a small group who He would pour into and spend time with and demonstrate Kingdom
of God living in front of.
From whatever number of disciples were there, Jesus chose 12 and, it says, these He named “apostles.” The word
“disciple” means “learner, follower.” The word “apostle” means “one sent out with orders or with a message.” These 12
were disciples, but they also became messengers of the Kingdom of God.
Another part of being an apostle who was appointed by Jesus is that, after the resurrection, you would be one who SAW
the risen Jesus face to face. There were more apostles than the 12 Jesus chose here. Romans 16 names a couple of
people we don’t see in this list. Paul was appointed to be an apostle, but was not one of the 12. Matthias, who took
Judas Iscariot’s place among the 12, was not listed here. Apostles were learner/followers of Jesus who were specifically
put in place to take the message to the world.
His choosing of the 12 is another proof that Jesus did not use His God powers (although He certainly COULD have) when
He was on earth. Being God, Jesus could have set up some way of proclaiming His message and letting every person in all
of history know who He was and what His plan was. But Jesus chose a different way – actually a RISKIER way.
He left the responsibility to people who trusted Him and did what He said as the Spirit of God worked in them. He did it
the way He wants US human beings to do it. He entrusted His Kingdom message to weak and frail people – trusting the
Spirit of God to empower them and use them to proclaim the message. He still trusts the Spirit in US.
Let’s spend the rest of our time this morning looking at these people and getting to know them. Jesus chose each one
because the Father instructed Him to do so. God did not make any mistakes with any of these men and He has not made
any mistakes in choosing YOU. We’ll come back to that.
Verse 14 lists Simon first. The Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke mention Simon first. John does not have a list of
the apostles. An interesting (and I think FUN) thing to do is to try to put together a timeline of all the interactions between
Jesus and Simon and figure out when Jesus finally said, “From now on you will catch men.” It seems like Jesus had met
and interacted with Simon and Andrew and James and John several times before He called them.
Simon is referred to by several names in the NT. “Simon,” “Peter,” “Cephas.” Simon was the Hebrew name his parents
gave him. Peter was the Greek name Jesus gave him. Cephas is the Aramaic word that means the same thing as “Peter.”
Jesus gave Simon the name “Peter” – and that’s why we almost always refer to Simon as “Peter” – that’s what Jesus called
him. That’s how I’ll refer to him from now on. “Peter” means “rock” or “stone.” Peter’s father’s name was John or
Jonah. So Jesus would have referred to him as “Peter Johnson.” I don’t know if he was any relation to the Johnsons with
us today.
Peter was married and we have already seen that his mother-in-law lived with him. Peter was a small businessman, running
a small fishing business with his brother Andrew and his friends James and John and their father Zebedee. We will see that
Peter often speaks before he thinks. I have a feeling that Peter was older than Jesus and would have been a good-natured
guy – quick to wink or tell a joke or chuckle. He was probably a big guy and well-tanned. We don’t know – it just seems
like that is a picture of the guy we know from God’s Word.
Matthew calls Peter the first of the apostles (Matthew 10:2). We know from the gospel accounts of the betrayal and
crucifixion of Jesus that Peter eventually denied even knowing Jesus. BUT, we also see the forgiveness and restoration of
Peter after the resurrection. We’ll look at that in connection with another of the 12 who had a different result of denial.
That’s a quick review of things we know about Peter. There is more, but at this point, can you see any similarities between
you and Peter? Are you like him in ways? I’m sure we’re different than him in ways, too. But if Jesus was instructed by
God to chose a man like Peter to accomplish His eternal purposes, could God chose and use a person like you? I have
included some further study passages on the back page of the handout if you want more information about how God used
Peter.
Andrew is the next apostle listed in Luke 6:14. Andrew was Peter’s brother and likely one of Peter’s business partners.
From the Gospel of John, we learn that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist and was present with John at an
interaction with Jesus. Andrew went from that situation and told Peter about how he had found the Messiah. Andrew
brought Peter to Jesus and that’s when Jesus called him Peter for the first time (John 1:35-42). This may have happened
before the “mother-in-law incident” we see in Luke 4.
Mark and John tells us that Andrew lived with Peter in the town of Bethsaida (Mark 1:29, John 1:44). Andrew seems to
have a gift for bringing people together. He brought Peter to Jesus. Later some Greeks want to speak to Jesus and they
talk to Philip who then talks to Andrew who brings them to Jesus. And, by the way, this is Andrew Johnson – not
necessarily related to the 17th president of the United States.
James is the next man listed. James is the son of Zebedee and the brother of John. “James Zebedeeson” doesn’t flow very
well – but that would have been how he was known. Zebedee was part of Peter’s fishing crew along with his sons James
and John. Zebedee’s wife’s name – and James and John’s mother’s name – was Salome (Matthew 27:56). We don’t
know if Zebedee became a follower of Jesus, but James and John and their mother Salome all were.
The name “James” belonged to at least 3 of the apostles – this James, James the son of Alphaeus and later James, the
brother of the Lord Jesus. The name in Hebrew would have been “Jacob” and not James. That is why in a Spanish Bible,
the book of James is called “Jacobo.” And, by the way, this James – the son of Zebedee – is not the James who wrote the
book of James. That is James the brother of the Lord Jesus.
James is never mentioned without his brother John. Even when Herod killed James in Acts 12, he is referred to as “James
the brother of John.” James was killed fairly early in the history of the church and may not have even met Paul before his
death.
James’ brother John is the next man chosen by Jesus. John was also a fisherman and the son of Zebedee and Salome.
John was obviously younger than James and younger than probably most of the apostles. On the morning of the
resurrection, he and Peter ran to the tomb and John outran Peter, being younger. Jesus, on the cross, gave John the
responsibility of caring for Mary His mother – probably in part because John was young enough to be around for the
remainder of Mary’s life. It is thought that John lived into his late 70s or early 80s – probably the only of the apostles to die
of natural causes.
John is the writer of 5 of the books of the NT – the Gospel of John, 1, 2, 3 John and Revelation. In the Gospel of John, he
never refers to himself as I or me and never even includes his name or his brother’s name – only saying “the sons of
Zebedee” in John 20. John does include himself in his account of the life of Jesus by calling himself “the disciple whom
Jesus loved” or “the other disciple.” This is not an issue of pride, but humility. The thought is basically – “Unbelievably,
Jesus loved ME.” John is not indicating that Jesus did not love the other disciples – and John wasn’t His favorite.
The next name in the list is Philip. He was from Bethsaida – same as Peter and Andrew. When Philip met Jesus in John 1,
he immediately went and found his friend Nathanael to bring him to Jesus. We hear a few things about Philip as the story of
Jesus’ life continues – he is doubtful that they would be able to feed 5,000 people (John 6:5). He may have been able to
speak Greek because some Greeks wanted to meet Jesus and they first came to Philip. Philip may have been a good
friend of Andrew.
Luke lists Bartholomew next, as do Matthew and Mark. John talks about a man named Nathanael who is not listed by
Matthew, Mark or Luke. It is likely that Nathanael IS Bartholomew since Bart is always listed next to Philip and
Nathanael was the guy Philip first went and found. If they are the same guy, Bart was kind of prejudiced against people
from the town of Nazareth – or at least repeated a derogatory statement about people from Nazareth to Philip when Philip
told him that Jesus was from Nazareth. So he had some bigotry in him.
Matthew is listed next. If you remember back to Luke 5:27-32, there was a man named Levi who Jesus called. There is
no Levi in Luke’s list or anyone else’s list. Is it that Jesus called this Levi and he was a disciple, but not chosen to be one
of the 12? No – if we compare the accounts of the calling of Levi the tax collector, we see that Matthew calls the tax
collector “Matthew.” It is the same story with the same details. Matthew refers to himself as “Matthew.” Matthew is Levi
– one of those additional names that people were known by at that time.
Mark says that Matthew’s father was Alphaeus, the same as another apostle we’ll get to in a minute, so Matthew and
James the son of Alphaeus could be brothers.
Thomas is next. All four Gospel writers mention Thomas and none of them refer to him as “doubting Thomas.” John refers
to him several times as “Thomas called the Twin.” We don’t know why. It is unfortunate for Thomas that we take his one
seeming failure and label him with that. He actually was not much different than the rest of the disciples – most of them
doubted that Jesus was risen until they saw Him.
It is thought that Thomas traveled to India after the resurrection. Connie and I visited “St. Thomas Mount” in Chennai
when we were there last year. PIC We don’t know if he was really there or not – although I think it is likely.
James the son of Alphaeus is next. Matthew was also noted as the son of Alphaeus, so they could have been brothers.
This James is also referred to as “James the Less” in Matthew 27:56. He was actually a cousin of the Lord Jesus – the son
of Mary’s sister (John 19:25).
Simon the Cananite or Simon the Zealot is listed next in Luke’s list. Matthew and Mark call him Simon the Cananite. We
mistakenly think that “Cananite” means he was from Canaan. The Aramaic word “qan ‘an” means “zealous.” It’s the same
designation. Simon was part of a group of Jews who took it upon themselves and were zealous to see that anyone who
broke the Law of Moses would get punished. He was, what we would call today, a legalist.
The last 2 men were named Judas – at least in the Gospel of Luke. Judas the son of James is also known as Thaddeus or
Lebbeus in other accounts. The KJV calls him the brother of James and possibly another son of Alphaeus. But neither the
word son or brother is in the original text. So we’ll go with son of James – and we don’t know which James that might be.
And then there is Judas Iscariot. Iscariot is not his last name, but tells what city he is from – the Judean town of Kerioth.
He is the son of Simon – a man from Kerioth. Judas was a thief, according to John 12:6 and amazingly was the treasurer
of the disciples. None of the other apostles or writers of the NT seem to have any compassion or love for Judas. Jesus
seems to be the only one who cares for Judas. There are lots of questions as to why Jesus would choose a man like Judas
to be an apostle. We will take up some of those questions next week.
As we close today, we see that we know some about some of these men. We know little about a few of them. But I think
we can see with all of them that they were people like us. Four of them were fishermen. One was a racist. One was a tax
collector. One was a legalist. One was a thief. One was a relative. Three of them we really don’t know too much about.
Why did Jesus choose these 12 men? What drew Him to them? What did the Father see in them that would cause Him to
recommend them to Jesus? Was it what THEY had to offer that lead God to choose them OR was it what GOD wanted
to accomplish with them? As we look at the ones we know something about, I think we can see that there wasn’t much in
this crew that God really needed. And yet, from all the people in all of history who believe in Jesus, God called THEM to
be the first ones to take the message to the world.
And here today, a couple of thousand years later, sit you and me. Jesus prayed for them and He prayed for you and me
who would believe through their words. They weren’t perfect, but God used them. We’re not perfect either – but we’re
no different from these men. God still has plans to reach the whole world and He still leaves the job to weak and frail
people. What if WE trusted God and did what He said in OUR day?
WAYNE – JANICE – Janice will interrupt me and start to explain the exponential explosion of people sharing their faith –
there are power point slides to go along with her. As she starts to explain, put up the first slide, then follow her as she goes.
God has taken a great risk in getting His salvation message out to the world. And now, today, the ball is in our court. How
are we doing? We can’t blame ineffectiveness on the fact that we are weak and ill-prepared people. God used these
people. As they spent time with Jesus, they learned the ways of the Kingdom of God and the ways of the Son of God and
God used them.
We can learn the ways of the Kingdom of God and the ways of the Son of God through the Word of God, spending time
with Jesus. And God uses us, too. And, as we are used by God, He reaches more and more people – and if all of us who
believe would go into all the world and make disciples, as we are called to, it wouldn’t take long for everyone in the world
to hear.
How are YOU going to get involved? There’s room for everyone with every kind of skill. God called you to involve you
in His eternal purpose. He knows you, He made you, He can USE you. Do you trust in the LORD with all your heart and
do you not lean on your own understanding? In all your ways do you acknowledge Him – elevate Him to the proper
position as Lord? When we do, He will direct our paths and make them straight – He will accomplish what He wants to
accomplish in the world.
PRAY
Next Sunday we’ll look at the choosing of Judas Iscariot and what we can learn from his sad story.