Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 Call and Selection of Disciples

 Luke 6:12-19

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God."

One of the most difficult tasks in any organization is hiring the right employee for key positions. When mistakes are made while choosing the right candidate they are extremely difficult and expensive to repair. Sometimes they can deeply hurt the organization for years to come.
Luke chapter 6 records that the night before Jesus selected his Twelve Apostles, he went out to a mountainside to pray where he spent all night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles. Through prayer, Jesus could listen to God and rest in God. Jesus began his earthly messianic ministry with prayer and finished with prayer. Jesus prayed all night before choosing the twelve disciples.
The term disciple in the New Testament means a learner or a student who were adherent to certain leaders, like rabbis. Whereas the role of an Apostle is one of great significance and great authority. In the ancient world, an apostolos was like an ambassador or representative of someone in a high position of authority. Kings would send out apostles to represent them as the king’s emissaries, and they carried with them the credentials of the very authority of the one who sent them. Notice the distinction Jesus makes between disciples and apostles. Jesus has many disciples, but he only selects twelve to be designated apostles. When Jesus separated twelve men and gave them Apostolic authority, He was assigning to them His own authority, so that what they said and taught carried with it the full weight of Jesus’ own authority. While choosing twelve apostles from among many disciples, Jesus did not choose well-educated people. Instead, Jesus chose his disciples from among people at the bottom of society. They were ordinary men who learned to walk in the Spirit to do extraordinary things. These men were far from perfect, and probably some of their spiritual acuity was less than Jesus desired. Yet, in spite of themselves, God used them powerfully to change the known world in a single generation.
Twelve represents the twelve tribes of Israel. There are many kinds of people in the world, the Twelve represent each kind. Jesus wanted different personalities who could lead various kinds of people to the Kingdom of God. When we read about these people, we realize that Jesus chose the twelve disciples in the hope of saving all people of the world. Jesus chose each different person because Peter, a man of hot temper, cannot be a good shepherd to Bartholomew. Jesus wanted to save all the Peter kind of people through Peter. Jesus wanted to save all the Bartholomew kind of people through Bartholomew. Jesus wanted to save all the Matthew kind of people through Matthew. Jesus was a man of vision. Most of all, he wanted to save all kinds of people through twelve representative kinds of persons. 
Peter who was Impulsive and outspoken, Andrew who was enthusiastic to bring people to Jesus and had the willingness to help others, James the son of Zebedee who was ambitious, loyal, and fiery, John the son of Zebedee a loving disciple whom Jesus loved, Philip from Bethsaida who was willing to lead the Greeks to Christ, Bartholomew or Nathanael the honest Israelite, Doubting Thomas, Analytical and methodical Mathew the Tax collector, James the Younger from Galilee, Inquisitive Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, zealous and passionate, Judas Iscariot the traitor
When we read about these early apostles and disciples, we see men and women who have served Christ faithfully, sacrificially, and often at serious risk to their lives, to complete the mission that God has given them. Even though you and I may not be apostles, can we serve Christ faithfully and obediently as they did?

Prayer

Lord, we fall so short of you and your ministry of power. And the world we live in is so very needy and hurting. Burden us to seek you earnestly until that power you have comes upon us, that we might minister freely for you.

Thought for the Day

“Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. It is an effort of once and for all.” — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 

Anila Thomas

South Florida Mar Thoma Church


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