These twelve men had opportunities that no other men who ever lived on this earth have had.
Each disciple that Jesus called into the ministry had special skills. Many of them were fishermen, and He took their skill as fishermen and made them “fishers of men.”
Let’s look at two things:
I. THE CALLING OF THE TWELVE
Look at verse 13, we read, “And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.”
A question that we can’t help but ask ourselves is, “WHY DID HE CHOOSE TWELVE?” Why not six, or twenty-four; why twelve?
Twelve was a number that represented governmental perfection. It coincided with the twelve sons of Jacob. There are other theories as to why He chose twelve, but no one can really be sure why He chose twelve.
Many times folks think BIGGER IS BETTER. Those who think this way may think that Jesus would be considered a failure by today's standards.
After all, the Lord spent most of His time with only twelve disciples, one of whom betrayed Him. However, Jesus knew that by concentrating on twelve disciples, He could train them and they could train others.
The idea that “Bigger is Better” is not always true, and that is a valuable lesson for a church to learn.
Illus: For example:
• If a Sunday school teacher will concentrate on ONE CLASS, she is much more effective than trying to concentrate on everyone in the church.
• If a deacon will concentrate on a particular group that has been assigned to him, he will be more effective than trying to concentrate on the entire congregation.
The Lord chose just twelve men and concentrated on teaching them so they could teach others.
By putting QUALITY ahead of QUANTITY, the Lord set a pattern for how godly leaders are to develop. There can be no shortcuts to developing leaders for the church.
Mark writes, "And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." (Mark 3:14)
Jesus focused on these twelve disciples, and immediately the time He spent with them began to pay off.
During this time, many people were amazed at the transformation in the lives of twelve ordinary men.
Look at Acts 4:13, Luke says this about them, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
We become a lot like the people we spend most of our time with. And notice, the scripture tells us people could tell that, “…they had been with Jesus.”
We can learn many things from the calling of these twelve disciples. For example, WE LEARN IMMEDIATELY FROM THEIR CALLING THAT DISCIPLESHIP MUST BE A WILLING SUBMISSION OF OUR WILL TO THE CALL OF GOD.
God is not going to MAKE YOU DO ANYTHING! Every one of us is created as a FREE MORAL BEING!
Sometimes you hear folks say, “The devil made me do it!” No! Not even the devil can make you do something you do not want to do! He can tempt you, but he can’t make you do anything.
Illus: Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said,
• "We can't keep Christians from going to church."
• "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth."
• "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior."
• "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken, so let them go to their churches; let them have their covered Dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ."
"This is what I want you to do", said the devil. "Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.
"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.
• "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"
• "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."
• "Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive...to keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."
• "Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."
• "Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere." "That will fragment their families quickly!"
• "Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about His resurrection and power over sin and death."
• "Even in their recreation, let them be excessive...have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead." "Keep them busy, busy, busy!"
• "Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause." "It will work!" "It will work!"
It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to have little time for their God or their families, and to have no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives. I guess the question is, “Has the devil been successful at his scheme?” You be the judge!
Every one of us has to make the choice: will we respond to GOD’S CALL in our lives or will we respond to SATAN’S CALL.
There is going to be a judgment, because we are all accountable for our actions. God called these twelve men but they had to be willing to follow.
To be a disciple means to be a learner. But a person can learn the scripture from cover to cover and still not know God in their heart.
Did you know that you could be a disciple and not be a child of God? Judas Iscariot is proof of that.
He was one of the Lord’s twelve disciples, but look what the Bible tells us, in John 6:70-71. “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.”
These men heard the CALL OF THE LORD and they chose to FOLLOW HIM. Mark lists these twelve disciples, but Matthew and some of the other writers give a description of how they were chosen.
We can’t go into how the Lord called all twelve of these disciples, but I would like for us to consider the more prominent men He called. Such as:
(1) PETER AND ANDREW
Matthew tells us how He called the two brothers, Peter and Andrew.
Matthew 4:18-20, “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.”
The Lord knew that these two men who sought the fish of the sea would also be as dedicated to God as they were fishing for men.
Everyone knows how dedicated fishermen are to fishing. Fishing is #1 in their life.
Illus: One fisherman told another fisherman, "I got a new fly rod and reel for my wife ...best trade I ever made." - (Thomas Horan)
Illus: A man calls home to his wife and says, "Honey I have been asked to go fishing at a big lake up in Canada with my boss and several of his friends. We'll be gone for a week." "This is a good opportunity for me to get that promotion I've been wanting, so would you please pack me enough clothes for a week and set out my rod and tackle box. We're leaving from the office and I will swing by the house to pick my things up. Oh Please pack my new blue silk pajamas."
The wife thinks this sounds a little fishy, but being a good wife she does exactly what her husband asked. The following weekend he comes home a little tired but otherwise looking good. The wife welcomes him home and asks if he caught many fish. He says, "Yes! Lot's of Walleye, some Bluegill, and a few Pike. But why didn't you pack my new blue silk pajamas like I asked you to do?" The wife replies; "I did, they were in your tackle box."
Listen, most fishermen are dedicated to fishing. And the Lord knew this and this might be one of the reasons he chose many disciples who were fisherman.
In Matt. 4:19, the Lord tells them, “…Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
The Lord Jesus was God in the flesh, and He saw their hearts and knew the thoughts and actions of these men before they thought the thoughts and did the actions.
God knew that they would spread the gospel to save the souls of lost men headed for Hell. They were dedicated to the Lord, even unto the pain of death. Nearly all these men died a martyr’s death, except Judas.
The Lord gave this invitation to these men to follow him and become fishers of men, and without hesitation they arose and followed him.
The term “follow me” in the Greek means “Come ye after me” implying that Disciples of Christ must take up their cross and spread the gospel in good or bad times.
(2) JOHN AND ZEBEDEE
Matt. 4:21-22, “And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”
The Lord Jesus gave these brothers the surname, “Boanerges” meaning, “The sons of thunder” (Mk 3:17). These brothers also were fishermen like Andrew and Peter.
These were known as the “Hot Head” disciples. They are the ones who wanted to call fire down from heaven and destroy some folks.
(3) MATTHEW
Matthew 9:9, “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.”
For those who were looking at the men He called to be His disciples, Matthew had to appear as His biggest mistake. Matthew was a tax collector and the Jews had no respect for these fellows.
After his conversion, the Bible tells us in verse 10 that Jesus is at meat (dinner) in Matthews house. This dinner indicates that Matthew was a man of substantial means and gave up all to follow Jesus. There were many publicans and sinners at his house with Jesus and His disciples.
Because he was considered to be a thieving tax collector, the Pharisees asked, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” (Matt. 9:11)
The Pharisees were a group of self-righteous religious “snobs” who were members of the temple.
In Matt. 9:12-13, we hear the answer and the rebuke Jesus gave to the Pharisees. Jesus saw the hearts of the self-righteous Pharisees and told them, “The whole need not a physician but they that are sick.”
Going back to our scripture passage in Mark, notice the Lord "… goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would..." They did not choose Him, but He chose them.
The Disciples "…came unto Him." The Greek means, "They went away unto Him." There is the idea that they left, forsook, went away from their former work and undertook the new work assigned by Jesus.
• Mark 10:28, "Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee."
• Luke 5:27-28, "And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him."
• Luke 14:33, "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."
• Luke 18:29-30, "And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."
We have looked at THE CALLING OF THE TWELVE, but now let’s look at-
II. THE CHARGE OF THE TWELVE
Look at verses 13-14, we read, “And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,”
This is a passage that is often taken out of context. The Lord is addressing the twelve disciples, but often what He says to them is taken out of context and given to everyone.
The Bible says He went up into a mountain and “…calleth unto him whom he would.”
These twelve men came to Him and He ordained them and sent them forth to preach. HE ALSO GAVE THEM SPECIAL POWERS. This is what is taken out of context.
Look at Matthew 10:1, we read, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”
Jesus gave His twelve chosen disciples SPECIAL POWERS. The Lord is sending these men out into the world on a divine mission, and that mission is to spread the Gospel of Christ in the world. He knew that Satan was going to throw everything that he could throw at them.
Before they go, he gives the power to oppose the works of Satan, and the power to help those in need of the blessings of God.
• This power will enable them to overcome the works of the unclean spirits of Satan
• This power will help those in need of healing of all manner of sickness and disease
Conclusion:
These were VERY SPECIAL MEN. I remind you that the Lord Jesus Himself personally trained them.
We see . . .
I. THE CALLING OF THE TWELVE
II. THE CHARGE OF THE TWELVE
