Twelve Disciples

Theme: Calling of Twelve Disciples

Text: Matthew 10:1-4 (Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16, John 1:35-46)

Greetings: The Lord is good and his love endures forever!

Introduction: On the first Sunday, I spoke about the calling of the first disciples based on the monthly theme of call & cost of the discipleship (Matthew 4:18-22). We learned their instant obedience, in-depth involvement and indebted loyalty. Today I would like to talk about the calling of the Twelve.

They became the pioneering leaders of the New Testament ecclesia. No one was a biblical scholar or Rabbi. They had no extraordinary skills. Neither religious nor refined, they were ordinary people, taking care of their daily works.

Church History of Eusebius Book 3, the history of Jews by Josephus, Acts of the Apostles, Traditional sources of Orthodox Churches explain the life and death of the twelve disciples.

Today, let’s know about Their aptitudes, their aspirations and their accomplishments.

1. Their aptitudes and attitudes

Aptitudes means talent gift, flair, bent, skill, knack, facility, finesse, genius; ability, proficiency, competence, capability, potential, capacity, faculty; expertise, expertness, adeptness, prowess, mastery, artistry; propensity, inclination, natural ability, suitability, fitness; head, mind, brain.

Before choosing the Twelve, Jesus spent the whole night in prayer and in the morning, He called His disciples to Him and chose them, whom He also named them apostles. (Luke 6:12-13). Jesus selected the twelve to represent 12 tribes and to judge the Twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28).

The finalisation of the Twelve was after his two years of Ministry as per John 6:4 herby Passover. Luke records that he chose the Twelve before the sermon on the mount (Luke 6:13,17, Mark 6:7). He also has seventy auxiliaries to carry out his work.

We find the names of the disciples in Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:14-19 and Luke 6:13-16, and Acts 1:21-26. The twelve are named in the following order as final list by Luke: Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John the son of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Thaddeus or Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot latter replaced by Matthias.

But, Matthew and mark has little change in the order of the presentation. However, their order of calling differs. We can group them into three categories: First six, then four and finally two.

First six are:

Simon Peter was the first disciple in the synoptic gospels. Jesus gave Simon the surname Cephas which in Aramaic signified a rock or a stone (John 1:42). This was translated into Greek as Petros. In English it is Peter.

Gospel of John projects Andrew as a first disciple. Andrew comes from Andreas means man or manly.

James comes from Lakobos means Jacob. John and James were called as sons of Thunder.

John means God is gracious.

Philip comes from Philippos means Lover of horses. Bartholomew ("friend of Philip", “Gospel of John refers him as Nathanael") from bartholomaios means Son of Talmai, Talmai means plowman. These six have come from Bethsaida.

Second four are:

Matthew ("the publican", "or Levi") comes from Maththaios means gift of Yahweh; he was also called Levi.

Thomas from Aramaic te’oma means ‘twin’.

James son of Alphaeus means short.

Judas or Thaddaeus Greek meaning is gift of God but in Aramaic, it means Beast.

The last two are:

Simon the Zealot was from the rebellious party of Judas of Galilee who rebelled against Roman taxing. Simon was an ex-zealot (Heb: Simeon means hearing, he is from Kananite) Simon (Greek name) means flat nosed.

Judas comes from Judah (praise Yahweh), Iscariot is a Hebrew word ‘Ish Kerioth‘means ‘a man from Kerioth.’

We see that Jesus had people with two extremes disciples: a tax gatherer and a tax hater. An anti-Jewish patriot and a patriot. Jesus had loving disciples John and Bartholomew as well as the thunderous James. Jesus had simple fishermen like Andrew, Simon Peter, John and James as well as learned publican Mathew, Simon the zealot and Judas.

Jesus also had secret disciples such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.

What is your name, aptitudes, and attitudes?

2. Their aims and aspirations

Jesus called his disciples one by one at various occasions from their various vocations. It looks alike that they wanted to follow Jesus. But their aims were differing from one another. There are three occasions the disciples had greatest arguments, rivalry and fights over their status with Christ.

When we read Luke 9:43-50, Matthew 18:1-5, and Mark 9:30-41, show their real aims and problems. Luke 9:46 presents their arguments over who will be greatest; Mark 10:33-45 shows fight for the chairs on the right and left (37) all became indignant (41); third time during the Lord’s supper, they were worried about their seating arrangements. John 13, Luke 22:24 rivalry among them who is counted the greatest. Sometimes, we fight for the seat during the photograph. What is the distance between the main person and to me? Where am I seated is a prominent or not?