The Calling of the Twelve Disciples

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Thursday June 27, 2024}

Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16

Father, if Jesus needed to seek guidance and wisdom from You before He made a decision, how much more should I? Please make me a man who “inquires of the Lord” before I make key decisions in my life. Amen.

Father, crowds of people have come from all over Palestine to hear Jesus teach and to be healed. It is now time for Jesus’ ministry to move to the next phase. Up until now, the ministry has been essentially Him working alone with His disciples being mere volunteers. He is now going to officially invite them to become a part of His team, giving them the authority to teach and to cast out demons (Mark 3:15).

The large crowd of people around Jesus consisted of:

1. A growing number of disciples, more than the individuals we have been introduced to thus far.
2. The people who have come to receive healing from Jesus.
3. The people who have come to hear Jesus teach.

From the larger group of disciples, it was time for Jesus to choose the twelve men who will make up His inner core of disciples. They will become the “apostles.” This was a big decision to make.

1. A disciple would need to be a man of good character (1 Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:5-9). There is no mention in the gospel accounts of Jesus’ disciples being accused of womanizing, drunkenness, or debauchery.
2. A disciple would need to be a man who would faithfully do the tasks Jesus asked him to do. There is no mention in the gospel accounts of the disciples being rebellious, refusing to follow Jesus’ instructions.
3. A disciple would need to be a man who was devoted to Jesus to the very end (at least to the cross). There is no mention in the gospel accounts of Jesus having to stop what He was doing to search for and bring back a disciple who had walked away and abandoned Him.
4. A disciple would need to be a man who was teachable and who would grow in their faith. Though these men were initially weak in their faith, eleven of the twelve would one day become strong and courageous.
5. A disciple would need to be a man who could one day be effective in ministry after being transformed by the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts details how these men built the church.
6. A disciple would need to be the kind of man who would one day die for Him. Ten of the twelve original disciples died as martyrs for Christ.
7. A disciple would need to be articulate, either writing a gospel account himself (Matthew, John), or sharing the details of their experience with Jesus for other writers (Mark, Luke).
8. A disciple would need to be able to travel to faraway places to start new churches. It is believed by some scholars that James, the son of Zebedee, started the church in Spain; Andrew started churches in Asia Minor, Greece, and what we know today as Russia; Philip started churches in what we know today as the Ukraine and Turkey; Bartholomew and Thomas started churches in India; Matthew and Simon the Zealot started churches in what we know today as Iran and Matthew also started churches Ethiopia.

Jesus also needed to choose a man unlike any of the above. He needed to choose a man who would have bad character. He would not be faithful to Jesus. He would not be devoted to the very end. He would not be teachable. He would not be effective in ministry. He would not die for Jesus. He would not tell others about Jesus. He would not build the church. However, what he would do he would do very well – selling out Jesus to His enemies so that His enemies would crucify Jesus, therefore enabling Jesus to die for the sins of all who believe in Him.

What did Jesus do before He made His selection of disciples? The text tells us that Jesus spent the night praying to You, His Father, on a nearby mountain. I can imagine that Jesus prayed, “Father, who are the men I should select as My disciples? Identify them for Me. Please make it clear what Your will is.”

In the morning, having been instructed by the Holy Spirit as to whom to select, Jesus came partially down and called for the following twelve men to come up to Him. The first eleven would be true disciples:

1. Simon (Peter).
2. James (son of Zebedee, one of the two “sons of thunder”).
3. John (son of Zebedee, one of the two “sons of thunder”).
4. Andrew.
5. Philip.
6. Bartholomew (Nathanael).
7. Matthew.
8. Thomas.
9. James (son of Alphaeus).
10. Thaddaeus.
11. Simon the Zealot.

And the twelfth would be the disciple who betrayed Jesus.

1. Judas Iscariot.

Amen.