The call of the first disciples

The call of the first disciples

Luke 6:13-16

Mark 1:16–20, Luke 5:2–11,John 1:40–42 

With Peter Veysie

George Methodist Church

Sunday 13th March 2022

8am and 10am with Communion.

The significance of the other nine disciples and how Jesus calls them and us and connects our character with theirs. We are not all the same !!!

I am not sure about you but I have always wondered why Christians are so different in their approach to sharing the Good news about life in Jesus. You have the quiet ones who just love and the zealous ones, the clever ones and the … well let’s not go there !!! The one’s behind the scenes and the ones always getting into trouble. In each case we will find ourselves identifying with a disciple and I want to share these characters with you especially the lessor known ones. If I was to do a quiz today I wonder how many of the 12 you would get right ?

Last week I spoke about the challenges of Jesus in the desert and his temptation by the devil and the struggles we have with three different areas – Provision status and power.

After a night of prayer on a mountain, Jesus called His followers together and formally chose twelve from them to serve as apostles:

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 (also known as Thaddaeus, the name that is used in Matthew and Mark), and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:13–16). The accounts of the calling of the disciples are also found in Mark 1:16–20, Luke 5:2–11, and John 1:40–42.

It was no accident that He chose twelve.

God’s chosen people, the Israelites, were divided into twelve tribes. And as Jesus calls out a new people for Himself, He starts with twelve men who will form the basis of a new Israel.

The power of God was clearly at work in calling these men, but it is doubtful whether they knew the full extent of what they were signing up for when they began as Jesus’ disciples. The

Jesus Announces the Good News

Mark 1:14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

19 When he had gone a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

1. Peter James and John 

Are well known and I am not going to share much about them except to say that there are three occasions in the gospel where Jesus takes three of the apostles, Peter, James and John, aside from the rest.

First, in Matthew 5, it is the raising of Jairus’ daughter from death. Jesus had the three accompany Him into the room where her body lay and he restored her to life (vs. 37).  Second, in Matthew 17, He had the three accompany Him to a mountaintop where he was transfigured. As He shined forth brighter than the sun Moses and Elijah, long gone from this world, appeared and discussed matters with Him. The Final time was on the night before His crucifixion. He asked Peter, James and John to accompany Him as He went to a secluded spot to pray for strength as He faced His hour of suffering (Matthew 26; see verse 37).

All three of these occasions touched upon the topic of death. The first showed Jesus’ power over death as the three saw Him raise the girl; “Little girl, I say unto you, get up!” The second showed Jesus supremacy over Moses, who had been dead for many years, when the Father said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, Listen to Him!” Then finally, in the garden as Jesus faced His own death, He found strength in prayer as He announced His intentions; “Father, not My will, but your will be done.” That is the only proper attitude for God’s people to have concerning God’s will. He put His trust in the Father in heaven, and so should we all. He lives again.  The grave could not keep Him.

2. Andrew

The Bible doesn’t give Andrew another name but he is the Protokletos. It’s Greek for “first-called,” because of the twelve, Andrew was the first to follow Jesus.The prototype.

In fact, Andrew was in the discipling business well before the other eleven. Before Jesus begins his ministry, Andrew follows John the Baptist. Michael Cassidy and serving on the board of African Enterprise. A call to a tougher deeper servant role with the Lord.

Saint Andrew’s Cross

According to tradition, Andrew was bound to an X-shaped cross in Achaea and crucified by the sea.

Today, you can see Saint Andrew’s Cross on the Flag of Scotland, as Andrew is Scotland’s patron saint.

 Brothers

The Bible says two sets of brothers are member of the twelve: Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Both pairs are fishermen, and both worked together before following Jesus together.

3. Philip

Of all the apostles, I’m probably most drawn to Philip. He’s a level-headed, well-educated, approachable guy. Plus, his name means “lover of horses,” which is pretty cool.

When we first meet Philip, he tells his friend Nathanael that he has found “Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote” (Jn 1:38–41). Philip may have a Greek name, but he’s decently familiar with the Jewish Scriptures—our Old Testament.

 Pragmatist

Like Andrew, Philip invites other people to see Jesus. When Jesus calls Philip

to follow him, Philip finds his friend Nathanael, saying, “Come and see”

(Jn 1:46).

Philip also helps some God-fearing Greeks meet Jesus. The Greeks approach Philip, Philip brings them to Andrew, and they both bring them to the Lord (Jn 12:20–22).

We need to 

4. Bartholomew

We don’t know much about him and Matthew, Mark, and Luke list him as one of the twelve, and that’s all we got on the name “Bartholomew.”

However, the church has generally assumed that Bartholomew is the same person as the man named Nathanael in John’s gospel. There are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, Matthew, Mark, and Luke include Bartholomew in their lists of the twelve apostles, but never mention a Nathanael. There’s no Nathanael in Acts or the epistles, either.

Secondly, John never mentions Bartholomew, but he includes Nathanael in stories that otherwise only feature other apostles. For example, he includes Nathanael in the story of Jesus meeting

Still, his curiosity gets the better of him, and Bartholomew follows Philip to Jesus. When Jesus meets him, Jesus calls Bartholomew “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit” (Jn 1:47).

It reminds me of the fact that we need discerning people who have clean hands and a pure heart because there are so many voices in our world right now.

5. Thomas

He’s remembered as “doubting Thomas,” and I find this quite hard to say as he was possibly just a bit of a skeptic and I can certainly own that as well.

Here’s the background: some of the other apostles see the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead and walking among the living. They go around telling their friends Jesus is alive, even though everyone knew he’d been killed and buried.

To be fair, Thomas isn’t the only one who doubts this story (Mt 28:17; Mk 16:11; Lk 24:38). He’s just the only one who wants physical proof.

So later, Jesus appears to Thomas and the others. Jesus invites the skeptic to inspect his nail-pierced hands and the hole in his side, where he had been speared. Thomas believes, and proclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

Also known as Didymus

Like Simon “Peter” and the “sons of Thunder,” Thomas has a nickname: Didymus, which is Greek for “twin.” We don’t know why they call him that. If he has a twin, the Bible doesn’t say.

According to tradition, Thomas takes the gospel to India. He converts many, but eventually he is run through by spears for his belief in Jesus.

6. Matthew also known as Levi the tax collector. Profound in the risk that he took to follow Jesus and then lose his entire reputation and career. He lost credibility with the Jews and the Romans – “The Chosen” series shows this very clearly.You can imagine some of the struggles he would have had with the other fisherman having been the one to collect their taxes. Jesus has a party at Matthew’s house and other tax collectors are invited to join. Illus : The hells angels.

We need to get over ourselves to judge others who have been called by the Lord when their outward appearance may be different to us. God calls us with all of our wounds and all of our failures and warts and all He calls us to be disciples.

7. James, son of Alphaeus

We don’t know much about this James aside from who his father was (Alphaeus, obviously).

Because Matthew’s father was also named Alphaeus (Mk 2:14), it might be tempting to think of Matthew and James as brothers. However, Matthew specifically points out sets of brothers in his list of the twelve—and doesn’t pair himself with James (Mt 10:3).

James the Less?

The church has nicknamed him “James the Less” to avoid confusion with the son of Zebedee, or “James the Great.”

However, this probably isn’t the man Mark calls “James the Less.” “Less” in this sense means“little,”“short,”or even “junior.” (Mk 15:40)

Some of us are called to lesser roles but don’t underestimate your important role.

8. Simon the Zealot

Two apostles are named Simon: one of them is also called Peter, and the other is called “the Zealot.” We don’t know why Simon got this name, but it probably made it a little less confusing for the other apostles.

What’s a zealot?

“Zealot” means “guy with zeal.” We get the word “zeal” from the Greek word for the sound water makes when it boils. In the Bible, zeal refers to all-consuming, white-hot reverence and desire for something.

That means zeal can be good or bad, depending on what you’re zealous for. For example, Paul encourages us to be zealous for

 good deeds (Ti 2:14). But Paul was also zealous about killing off Christians before he met Jesus (Php 3:6)!

But what kind of zealot was Simon?

He might have been a member of a revolutionary nationalist party. The historian Josephus tells us that around

6 A.D. a political party called the Zealots arose. They were led by a man named Judas (not one of the twelve). Their mission: cast off the Roman government so that the Lord’s land would be returned to the Lord’s people. They were zealous for the land God had promised them.

Luke gives a nod to this party in the book of Acts (Ac 5:37). It’s possible that Simon was a member of this revolt as a young man.

Of course, “zealot” may not have been a reference to the political party. Simon may have just been an especially fervent and pious member of the twelve—so much so that they just nicknamed him “the zealot.”

Hacked in two?

According to some traditions, Simon was killed with a saw. Other traditions have him martyred with Thaddaeus (by axe).

9. Thaddaeus

We’ll call him Thaddaeus for this section of the book, but that’s only to avoid confusion. Thaddaeus is known by more names than any other apostle!

Granted, some of that depends on the manuscripts different Bible translations use—and how the translators chose to write his name. Even so, we still use at least four different names when referring to this guy.

#1: Thaddaeus

When Matthew and Mark list the twelve, they call him Thaddaeus, plain and simple (Mt 10:3; Mk 3:18). Most of today’s popular Bibles (NIV, ESB, NLT, NASB) just call him Thaddaeus and move on.

However, some Bible translations (KJV, NKJV) say his first name is Labbaeus and Thaddaeus is his surname (Mt 10:3; Mk 3:18).

Luke and John call him Judas (or Jude). Or course, they make no room for confusing him with Judas Iscariot, the one who betrays Jesus (Lk 6:16; Jn 14:22).

This is the Saint Jude who’s called the patron saint of lost causes. We may struggle with the name that we have been give but God uses us and names us as a son and daughter of the most High God.

10. Judas Iscariot

You’ve probably heard more about this apostle than any other member of the twelve (besides Peter). Human history has seen many a traitor, but nobody rivals Judas Iscariot in infamy. He’s the most iconic betrayer of all time: the man who sold his friend and mentor and God into the hands of his murderers.

Here’s how it happens.

History of betrayal

The apostle John tells us that Judas had been doing some shady business long before he turned Jesus over. Judas is the treasurer of the twelve, and he regularly embezzles from the money box (Jn 12:6).

But Judas knows how to keep up appearances. For example, one night a woman named Mary (not Jesus’ mother) anoints Jesus with costly perfume. Judas is disgusted, and says the perfume should have been sold to benefit the poor.

He cleverly advocates for the poor, but only so he can take his cut from the generosity of others (Jn 12:5–6).

A pathetic price

He agrees to hand Jesus over to the chief priests for just 30 pieces of silver (Mt 26:14–15).

To put that in perspective, Moses had told the Jews long beforehand that if a slave is accidentally killed by a farm animal, the animal’s owner had to pay the slave’s master 30 pieces of silver (Ex 21:32).

That’s right: Judas handed over the Master of the universe for the price of a common slave.

Others: three Mary’s, Paul James the brother of Jesus, Barnabas to replace Judas and Timothy amongst many others to this day.

Conclusion

• All of us are called by God for such a time as this and we need to know that the our time on earth is for a short period of time and he want to use you.

2. You have great value in the kingdom of God.God has made you authentically you and he wants you to participate in your uniqueness as you are.

3. Jesus is serious about saving the world and we need to be too.