Tyndale Publishing is synonymous with American publishing successes of the 20th Century. But few who read the thousands of literary works put out by that company know that the name Tyndale is associated with martyr William Tyndale (1492-1536). Did you know that William Tyndale is credited with pioneering a translation of God’s Word into English? Tyndale thought it was wrong that the common man could only receive God’s Word in Latin. The “Pharisees stranglehold” over the people was secure as long as the Bible stayed in that ancient language.
Ecclesiastical power continued from the biblical days of the Pharisees into the 1500’s when the Church was forced to deal with revolutionaries like Tyndale who, against Church authority, published the New Testament into English. Finding an advocate in Germany named Luther, Tyndale published the Greek New Testament into English in 1526. His reward for such an effort? Upon completion of the New English Translation William Tyndale smuggled the Bible into England. He was captured and rewarded with excommunication, exile, and in 1535 death through strangulation and his body burned at the stake. In his final words he prayed, “…that God would open the eyes of the King of England.”1
What drove this Englishman to disobey the Church in his clandestine efforts to give us an English translation? One of the main reasons Tyndale was motivated to translate the scripture into the common language was a survey of English clergy that revealed, “…that most of the clergy in England did not even know who the twelve apostles were.”2 Have times really changed that much?
The first pages of a book are usually a credit or acknowledgment by author thanking editors, appreciating spouses who gave up time, and crediting mentors who inspired the book. Then comes the preface or introduction to the book, a brief overview highlighting the theme of and the motive behind the author’s effort. For instance, James D. Kennedy says in What If the Bible Had Never Been Written?, “The purpose of this book is to set the record straight.” And Max Lucado says in In the Grip of Grace, “My only qualification for writing a book on grace is the clothing I wear.”
Introductions to books serve to whet the appetite, stir the heart, motivate the reader, and expose the motive. That which is true of the introduction of a book is certainly my agenda for this first message, “Twelve Who Followed Jesus.”
I hope to whet your appetite, so you will think about and apply the insights during the week, even though it is summer. I want to stir your heart, forcing you to not miss a single sermon over the next several weeks. Often, the one we miss is the very one we needed most. Ouch!
Perhaps this study will motivate you to read some of the books in the End Notes. Finally, my motive is clear - to produce fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Let’s jump into a boat belonging to Peter and Andrew, push out from shore, and drop our nets and see what we catch from our first message - an introduction to the Twelve Men Who Followed Jesus.
The Twelve
Jesus chose twelve to follow Him and demonstrate that God deals in potential - not perfection, power or the proud.
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20 - NIV)
It all starts with that opening statement - “Jesus chose twelve to follow Him.”
We make thousands of decisions every day. You’ve heard it said, “The decision you make, will one day make you.” What strategies do you use for those selections? Do you draw straws? Play rock-paper-scissors? Or do you toss a coin? My kids say, “Dad, that’s old school! That’s dark age stuff.” But when it comes to discipleship it all starts with selection.
Before the masses grew and the crowds learned, Jesus took some time to select a group of leaders, or disciples. This is one of the landmark moments in Gospel history. Why is this approach so vital to Jesus’ ministry? Jesus wasn’t interested in impressing the masses; he wanted a group of men that the masses would follow.
Jesus’ plan was to select some key men who would be with Him at all times and in all places. To accomplish this, Jesus had to find men who were available. Starting with Peter and Andrew, we see several followers of Christ whose lives were barnacled to the routine of fishing and filleting. The world of these Christ-followers revolved around the quiet of the sea and crowds of the market.
Then Jesus called them, “Come follow me!” And they broke loose from fish and family to leaving and learning. Matthew 4:18-20, offers a remarkable picture of the immediacy of this life transition - “and they immediately left their nets.”
Leaving nets and neighbors, the disciples quickly discovered that the smell and cuts of the trade would be exchanged for the harsh reality of the heat and the absence of comfort and family.
Read John 1 several times this week. There you’ll get a glimpse of the early days of Jesus’ ministry as he began to let John the Baptist’s followers know that their loyalties and love would be transferred from John to Him.
This series will introduce you to the Master’s Plan - how He shaped the disciples for greatness and what He expects from us.
Plus, we as discover who these first followers of the Nazarene were, you’ll realize you look more like them that you thought.
Glimpse of Andrew
Andrew. Peter’s brother. Oh, you’re the brother of Peter? Andrew lived his life in the shadow of his well-known brother. Many verses in scripture recognize Andrew, often closely tied to Peter. This is a perfect formula for jealousy, resentment, or even estrangement. Not so with Andrew. Add to the equation that Peter was very dominant and loud. Andrew lived with this all of his life. Peter was picked first. Peter finished Andrew’s sentences. Peter had favored brother status with Dad.
Andrew was clearly aware of the gift-mix his brother possessed. He knew good and well that if he brought Peter into the company of the disciples, he would soon be playing second fiddle.
Two insights stand out about Andrew that as followers of Christ we too must learn. First, some are called to bring others into companionship with the Savior and then watch with delight as they shine brightly for all to see. By the way, this says more to me about Andrews’s character then about Peter’s charisma.
Next, Andrew possesses the right kind of heart for effective ministry. Andrew is often left out of the first group’s key involvement with Jesus. In many experiences with the Master that have become so well known in Christianity - The Transfiguration, Prayer in the Garden - although Andrew is a part of the first group he seems to be excluded. Andrew shows us that it is enough to be satisfied with whatever God offers us. Now that insight is worth memorizing and writing down someplace. Andrew is the most thoughtful and least contentious member of the inner circle of disciples (remember this group often argues about who is going to be the greatest).
As a servant of God, Andrew was willing to be a supporting actor, (in the movie credits Andrew might be “second tall man”). He had a distinct advantage in learning, he was not encumbered with attitudes like the others (who is going to be the greatest; no time for children), and he was able to grasp spiritual truth more readily.
The Training
Before Jesus could send them out, He had to pull them in!
14And he appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach
(Mark 3:14 - NAS)
Instead of raising up true followers or disciples of Jesus Christ, many Christians end up as Latch Key3 believers in God’s family. A generation of children grew up being called Latch Key kids. In the 80’s and 90’s, apartments, condos, and neighborhoods were filled with elementary and high school kids who had a key to the entrance of the house but little or no daily supervision.
Many Christians today share the same experience when they receive a key to the entrance of the Kingdom of God but little or no discipleship and support to help them grow. Many share the same testimony as this young boy in Argentina. “Within six months of my conversion I knew everything everybody else knew in the church. From those six months on, I was just maintained in the congregation. I grew just so far and I stayed there.”4
When a congregation succumbs to “Latch Key Christianity” it produces weak and carnal Christians. Come on church, let’s get back to the Bible and back to Bethsaida, where those early followers of Jesus started and worked His plan.
The early method of learning associated with Jesus’ culture was practiced by the Pharisees. If you wanted in the club you would have to abide by 365 prohibitions and 250 commandments. If you washed out of the program you were forever lumped into the category of sinner.
Jesus’ life was the curriculum and methodology. As soon as the fishermen dropped their nets, they were accepted into the University of Jesus and became disciples. Class was always in session. Every experience offered life lessons. Jesus was always teaching and always quizzing. When you travel with your professor you experience two benefits - more holistic and balanced education, and lessons from everyday experiences about the kingdom of God and how it works.
On one occasion Jesus found a hill blanketed with hungry people and potential followers. This setting of the masses and their hunger taught Philip and the group about the Master’s sufficiency and tested their faith. Refresh yourself with the story; it is found in John 6.
Had this been a mid-term or final every one of them would have flunked. Each follower was left scratching his head to the question: Where are we to buy bread that all these might eat?
Philip quickly used his accounting skills and worked up a complicated answer using logarithms. Philip thought it was about finances.
Andrew went looking among the people for the answer. He thought it was about the powers of persuasion and started on a scavenger hunt. They all got it wrong, but Jesus still allowed them to eat then offered an object lesson in the end with baskets of leftovers to make his point.
Since they would be together in the hours that followed, there would be plenty of time to talk about what happened, if the disciple possessed the qualities connected with this stage of discipleship called association.
Association can be threatening
Association takes sacrifice
Association demands honesty
Association eventually tests loyalty and love.
This first study in not about facts and information, the goal is application. To avoid the first and surrender to the second, take a few moments and personally answer a couple of questions:
1. Are you a Christian? You can’t be a disciple without first entering into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ.
2. If you are a believer, what is keeping you from dropping your nets and completely following Jesus?
3. The disciples all came with baggage. Over time they exchanged their pasts for God’s grace. Got any baggage to get rid of?
Who hasn’t played “follow the leader” as a child? We careened off cars, jumped over benches, and rolled down hills - all to follow a leader. For the disciple of Christ there can only be one leader - Jesus. Do you want to play follow the leader?
It’s All About Potential
Douglas Hyde was a major leader in the Communist Party in England during the 1930’s and 1940’s. However, in 1948 he converted to Christianity. Later he wrote a fascinating little book, Dedication and Leadership, in which he pointed out that the means of developing leaders among the Communists were not all that different from the means of developing leaders among Christians. The only real difference, Hyde observed, was that the Communists had actually employed those means.
Hyde developed an entire chapter to a young man named Jim. Jim had approached Hyde after a lecture in which Hyde boldly asserted that the Communist Party could take anyone who was willing to be trained in leadership and turn him into a leader.
Sizing him up, Hyde took Jim to be a man who “was almost pathetically anxious to be turned into a leader.” In fact, “As I looked at him I thought that I had never seen anyone who looked less like a leader in my life.”
According to Hyde, Jim was extremely short and fat, with a pale complexion, a slightly crossed eye, and worst of all, a most debilitating handicap: “Quite literally he came to me and said: ‘C-c-comrade, I w-w-want you to t-t-t-take me and t-t-turn me into a l-l-leader of m-m-m-men.’ I looked at Jim and I wondered how I was going to do it. Then I thought to myself: ‘Well, I told the class that we could take anyone who was willing to be trained in leadership and turn him into a leader, and here is Jim pathetically anxious for me to do it. This is a challenge.’ So I set about the job.”
Then Hyde writes: “It will be observed that I had made only one qualification. This was that the would-be leader must be willing to be trained. This presupposed a certain attitude of mind, which Jim already had. That was, so far as I could see at that moment, almost the only thing I had to build on.”
What was that one qualification, that one attitude? An eagerness to learn, a willingness to be trained. It was indeed all that Jim had - but it was enough to get started.
Jim spent many months showing up to lectures and classes, listening to the leaders discuss Communist philosophy, history, and strategy. Then they put a man under Jim for him to tutor. From there they sent him into his workplace to build relationships with other men and gradually infect them with seeds of communist thought. Eventually they even enrolled him in a public speaking course.
“[Jim] was appalled at the thought,” Hyde wrote. “But he knew, nonetheless, on the basis of his experience in tutorial work that he had unsuspected potentialities. So he went. We did not turn him into a great orator, we did not even entirely cure him of his stutter, although, as he gained confidence in himself this became modified and finished up as a noticeable but not entirely unhelpful impediment in his speech.”
Jim eventually assumed leadership in his industry’s local trade union and from there went on to become a national leader and a key agent of the Communist Party. As Hyde put it, “Jim, the most unpromising-looking piece of human material that ever came my way had become a leader of men.”5
Summary Thoughts
We make thousands of decisions every day. You’ve heard it said, “The decision you make, will one day make you.” What strategies do you use for those selections? Do you draw straws? Play rock-paper-scissors? Or do you toss a coin? My kids say, “Dad, that’s old school! That’s dark age stuff.” But when it comes to discipleship it all starts with selection.
Surprising Thoughts
1. Two insights stand out about Andrew that as followers of Christ we too must learn. First, some are called to bring others into companionship with the Savior and then watch with delight as they shine brightly for all to see.
2. Instead of raising up true followers or disciples of Jesus Christ, many Christians end up as Latch Key3 believers in God’s family.
End Notes
1. Robert A. Baker. A Summary of Christian History. Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1959, pg. 237.
2. John MacArthur. Twelve Ordinary Men, W Publishing Group, A Division of Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee, 2002, pg. 9.
3. Chuck Swindoll. One-on-One Discipleship. Insight for Living, Anaheim, California, 1999, pg. 26.
4. Ibid, pg. 26.
5. Howard & William Hendricks. Iron Sharpens Iron. Moody Press, C/O, Chicago, Illinois, 1995, pg. 53-54.
