Are you Smarter than a Disciple?
Luke 6:12-16, 9:1-6
Please turn to Luke 6:12-16
We are continuing our series this morning entitled, “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?” Today, we are asking the question, “Are you smarter than a disciple?” And I’ve got to tell you, it doesn’t take much. While they became men of courage and faith and conviction, they didn’t start out that way. What we see is a collection of ordinary guys who struggled with faith and hope and loyalty. They weren’t the cream of the crop, they were common men with faults and failures.
John McArthur wrote a book called “12 Ordinary Men”. He starts it with these words: “If you were going to recruit a team to alter the course of history, how would you begin? Jesus began with a walk by the lake. "Follow Me." The Master told them. And they did. Thus began His uncommon mission with twelve most common individuals: men who would become Christ’s very first disciples. Have you ever considered who Jesus didn’t choose for His inner circle? He didn’t select a rabbi. He didn’t recruit scholars. He didn’t look within the religious establishment to build His team. Any of these would have given Him an inside track with those in power. Instead. he assembled a ragtag bunch of folks with unimpressive resumes. Jesus wasn’t looking for religious superiority or extraordinary talent. Jesus wanted ordinary people-people with hopes and dreams of their own, but people who were willing to leave their lives behind to follow the savior. People like you.”
These were men that we would not choose if we were assembling a leadership team, and yet God saw something in them. And what I want us to do today is look at the call of the Disciples in Luke chapter 6 and the point I want to get across is that when you think you don’t have much to offer, be encouraged that you don’t have to be any smarter than the disciples he chose. You don’t have to have more talent, more fame, more intelligence or even more faith. You just have to be willing to answer when he calls.
Let’s go ahead a read out text. Luke chapter 6:12-16: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Now, there are some things we can learn about the call of God in looking at this team that Jesus assembled.
THE FIRST THING WE SEE IS THAT GOD CAN USE ANYONE!
Jesus spent time carefully considering who he would choose, and he intentionally chose a diverse group of guys. And this wasn’t a haphazard drawing of lots to see who would be in the group. It says in that first phrase that Christ spent the entire night in prayer before he assembled this group.
I think there’s a lesson here. Jesus always set an example for us and he reminds us that if you’ve got major decisions that are on your schedule, if you’ve got big plans and big thoughts and big decisions, then give major amounts of time in prayer. If God’s Son did it, we should do it as well.
ILLUS - I had a family in my church in Kentucky, and the thing that stood out to me about them was prayer. Whatever decision they were faced with, they would always say, “We’re going to take three days of prayer. We are going to pray for three days and allow God the opportunity to answer.” I like that.
Now, after spending time in prayer, Jesus chose twelve guys to be his disciples, and each of them had unique characteristics. Not exceptional characteristics, just unique characteristics.
Simon, named Peter, is mentioned first in each of the lists. It’s not by accident. Of all these guys, Peter was the born leader. He was vocal and opinionated, sometimes quick to speak, but never shy about his stance. That’s why Christ had him preach the first gospel message at Pentecost.
Contrast him with Andrew, his brother. Andrew was humble and meek, but very evangelistic at the same time. Outside of the listings, Andrew is only mentioned three other times in all the gospels, but every time we see Andrew he is always bringing someone to Jesus. That would be a good thing to be known for. He was also very humble. At the beginning it was Peter, Andrew, James and John. But soon it became Peter, James & John who were the inner circle. We don’t see animosity or bitterness from Andrew, just faithful service.
Next we have James, the son of Zebedee. He was fiery and sometimes self serving. But he was also bold and, in time, he was the first of the twelve disciples to be martyred for the faith.
His brother is next on the list. His name is John. He was probably the youngest of the disciples and he had a close relationship with Jesus. He is the disciple that the Bible refers to when it says “The disciple Jesus loved.” Jesus trusted him so much that, when Jesus was dying on the cross, it was John that Jesus asked to take care of his mother, Mary.
Next we have Philip. We don’t know a lot about him. We know he was from Bethsaida and that when called by Christ, he immediately went and told his friend Bartholomew.
Speaking of Bartholomew, who was also named Nathaniel, he is next on the list. And here we have a guy who had prejudice in his character. When he first heard about Jesus, he said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But we see that Jesus doesn’t look only at where we were, but where we can be. And he takes Nathaniel and changes him.
Next is Matthew, the tax collector, who probably sacrificed more from a financial standpoint than any of the other disciples.
Then Thomas—some people call him the disciple from Missouri, the Show Me State, because he didn’t believe that Jesus had actually come back from the dead because he wasn’t there for that appearance. He said, “I need to see it.”
He is followed by James, the son of Alphaeus. James earns the nickname, “James the Less”. Perhaps he was shorter than James, the son of Zebedee, and that’s how they kept track of him. I’m sure he loved the short jokes. I know I dearly look forward to them all the time.
The other day I was running through a practice session of our game show we played last week. Jeremy was helping me and I said to him, “Jeremy, pretend you are me for a moment.” He got down on his knees.
So, I’m sure James the less loved the short jokes as well.
And then you have Simon the Zealot. Another fiery, go getter. He was a member of the zealots, and we will talk about what a zealot is in a few moments.
Then there is Judas, the son of James, who had the same name as the Judas who ended up betraying Jesus. It’s interesting to note that a little bit later in the accounts he goes by the name Thaddeus, as if he might not want to be confused with the other Judas.
And then last is Judas Iscariot, and he is last. He is always the last one mentioned in every list. And Judas is interesting as well, because when we think of Judas, we always picture him as this shady guy with beady eyes and thick black eyebrows.
But that’s not the Judas that we see in the Bible. When Jesus said, “One of you will betray me,” they all didn’t say, “You know what? I’ll bet it’s that dude back there with the black eyebrows and the beady eyes.” Instead they said, “Is it me? Am I the one?”
Judas was probably the most trusted person in the group. We know that because they put him in charge of the group finances, and you wouldn’t put someone in charge of the money that you had any qualms about.
And so what we see here is an incredibly diverse group of ordinary people. And it reiterates that God can use anyone. It doesn’t matter what your background is.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have. The disciples came from blue collar and white collar backgrounds. Some had money, some did not. It didn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter what your political background is. Simon was a zealot, a revolutionary group that wanted to overthrow Rome. Matthew, as a tax collector, worked for the Roman government. It didn’t matter. Jesus could use them both.
It doesn’t even matter what your education is. And I think this is where we see a huge departure from the way we do things. We want the best and the smartest. When we hire we want to know a person’s education. Where did you finish in your class? What’s your academic achievement? But that’s not how Christ did it.
Christ didn’t see these people for what they had been or even what they were; he saw them for what they could become. He does the same with each of us.
ILLUS - I am traveling back in July to attend a school reunion. It’s my 21st high school reunion. Last year was my 20th and our reunion kind of flopped and so we put someone else in charge and we are doing it again this year. But in preparation for the reunion, I got out my old high school yearbook.
And in our yearbook we had a thing called, “The Prophesy”. It was a humorous prediction of where we would each be in twenty years. And so the person with no athletic ability is prophesied to win an Olympic gold. Or that shy, bookish girl is prophesied to be Miss America. It kind of makes fun of everyone and picks the absolute opposite of the type of person that they were in high school. And do you know what the prophesy said that I would be doing in 20 years. It said I would become a priest. Let your mind figure out what I was like in high school.
But God chose me, and he didn’t do it because of where I had been or where I was. He knew that willingness was all that mattered.
And with the disciples, the majority of them had no formal training whatsoever. As a matter of fact, in Acts 4:13 it says, “When (the people) 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.”
And people must’ve been saying, “Jesus, Why did you choose these guys?” But the master knew what he was doing and he chose to work a miracle through this eclectic combination of people. I think it teaches us that God isn’t interested in cookie cutter Christians who all look the same.
ILLUS - I think our congregation is a perfect example of that. We have incredibly talented, magnetic personalities like Travis Strong, and then we have Chuck…..I mean we have the whole spectrum.
Seriously, it’s the way God works. God uses everyone.
1 Corinthians 1:26 and 27: Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. … Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
And so we see in this calling of disciples that God can use anyone. You don’t have to be smarter than a disciple. You don’t have to be stronger, richer, more powerful, more important, more popular, to be used by God. God can use anyone. And the reason he can use anyone, leads us right into our second point. And it’s right here:
GOD EQUIPS THOSE HE CHOOSES.
Jesus told them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And after he called his disciples he began the process of preparing them to get ready to serve and to lead.
He knew that he would leave it in their hands and so to get them ready he equipped them to succeed. How did he equip them?
First, he led them by example. He set the example in prayer, devotion to the father, focus on the mission, compassion to the unfortunate. He doesn’t ask them to do anything he wasn’t willing to do.
Secondly, he gave them increasing steps of responsibility. He sends them out on little missions. He doesn’t ask them to preach to the masses on the first week. He gives them increasingly difficult tasks to build their faith and confidence.
iLLUS - I became a Christian at the age of 18. I didn’t have much in the way of a skill set, but there was one thing I knew I could do. I could mow the lawn. That was my first job. It was followed by helping out as kind of “crowd control” in a class. I then moved on to teaching the fourth grade class. From there I sponsored a summer camp trip. These were increasing steps of responsibility.
And when I did begin preaching I didn’t start by preaching to a congregation. You know what I did, I got together with a group of other young potential preachers, we were all freshman in college, and what we did was, every week we would preach to each other. It wasn’t even something that was done for class or at the instruction of a professor. We were all just too scared to get out and really preach, so we preached to each other for several months.
After several months, I began to go out and fill in at different pulpits. It was gradual, increasing steps of responsibility. I only had two good sermons and I would get to a church and pick which one I wanted to give. The next week I would preach the other one. And then repeat.
But it was a gradual process of increasing responsibility. I don’t know where you are at in your service to God. I certainly don’t know where you will end up, but I encourage you to take on some measure of responsibility to develop your service and giftedness to Christ.
Well, Jesus was equipping these guys and it’s fascinating to see their development as Jesus equips them to do his will. He delegated responsibilities to the Twelve but he gave them the resources and the abilities to carry them out.
He’ll do the same for you. I know it. I’ve seen it. If God is calling you to a task, he will equip you to carry it out. Well, we see that God can use anyone, and he equips those he chooses. But there one final part of the process that I want us to see and that is:
IF GOD CHOOSES YOU (WHICH HE DOES), AND HE EQUIPS YOU (WHICH HE WILL), THEN HE HAS AN EXPECTATION THAT YOU WILL BE FAITHFUL IN YOUR CALLING!
Luke 9:2-6: Jesus sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.”
So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
Now, when Jesus sent them out, He sent them out with an expectation to preach. Their job was to plant seeds. He expected them to do that. He didn’t expect them to harvest all the seeds planted, or even to make them grow. In this instance the expectation was to simply preach.
We have different jobs. God’s expectation is that we will be faithful in whatever job he gives us. In time he wouldn’t call the disciples all to the same job.
Not everyone got to preach at Pentecost. Not everyone got to help decide things at the Jerusalem counsel. Not everyone got to undertake a missionary journey.
Sometimes you plant, sometimes you water. Sometimes you harvest. What that means is sometimes you teach a class, sometimes you mow the yard, sometimes you watch the nursery, sometimes you write the check. It doesn’t matter what you are called to, but whatever you are called to, there is a level of expectation, and a call to be faithful. Are we being faithful?
Listen, Jesus showed us that he can use anyone, and whoever follows him he will equip to serve, and whatever area he equips you in, he expects you to carry it out in faithfulness. The disciples, for all their faults, remained faithful.
Joseph Parker, preacher of the City Temple Church in London, England, was once asked, “Why did Jesus choose Judas as a disciple? He knew Judas would betray him.” And Parker replied, “I admit that’s a mystery. But,” he said, “There’s an even greater mystery. Why did Jesus choose me?”
I don’t know. I don’t know why he chooses who he does, I don’t know why he chooses to use you, and I certainly don’t know why he chooses to use me. But I’ll tell you what, I’m glad he does. I appreciate that the Father loves me enough that he wants to use me in his service.
Let me close.
ILLUS - Several years ago I heard a father talk about something that his wife would do to encourage their son. I liked it, and I adopted it. Let me tell you about it.
My son Kyle is seven, and we have a little ritual that we like to go through. It’s a moment that he and I often share. But every so often, late at night, as I’m tucking him into bed and we are sharing those special bonding moments, I will tell him, “Kyle I want you to picture a long line of little boys. You’re standing in that line. And there are every kind of little boy in that line. There are tall boys and short boys, boys with blond hair and boys with brown hair. There are boys that are good at music, or good at sports. There are boys that are smart, and some that aren’t so smart. There are boys with nice clothes and boys with big smiles. And there are hundreds and hundreds of these boys. And you’re in that line with them. Now here’s the thing Kyle, I get to pick any one of those boys to be my son. I wonder which one I should choose? I could choose this boy who is tall or this one who is short. I could choose one down here, or one over there. Which one should I choose to be my son?
And we have done this ten times, and ten times, even though he knows the answer, he looks at me like “I hope you pick me.” And I play it up for a long time, and then finally, with a grin on his face, he asks as if he’s never heard the answer, “Which one do you choose dad?” And I always say, “Kyle, I choose you.”
Some of you are probably like me and you look at God and you say, “Why in the world would you choose me? I don’t have much to offer. And maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not smarter than a disciple, or braver, or more faithful, or more skilled, but he still chooses you. He still considers you special. And he still wants to build that relationship as your father I heaven.
Listen, my name is Ken Kersten, and I am not smarter, braver, more courageous, faithful or skilled than any of his disciples, but that just makes me all the more thankful that he has chosen me.
And I’ve got great news for you. He’s chosen you too. But you’ve got a part to play in this process and you’ve got to choose him in return. If you’ve never chosen Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life, we want to give you that opportunity today. Let’s stand and sing.
