Twelve Ordinary Men: Lesson 1

Overview

Why the Apostles Matter

When we confess in the Nicene Creed that we believe in "one holy catholic and apostolic church," we are claiming something specific: the church stands on the teaching handed down by the twelve men Jesus chose. From the very first days, the believers "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" Acts 2:42. Christ is the cornerstone, but the apostles are the foundation through whom His message went out. To know them—who they were, how they were called, and what they witnessed—is to better understand the church we belong to and the faith we profess.

Ordinary Men Chosen for an Extraordinary Mission

The twelve were not rabbis, scholars, or religious elites. They were fishermen, a tax collector, a political zealot, craftsmen—a cross-section of ordinary, flawed people. Mark records that Jesus "appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons" Mark 3:14. He did not give them an entrance exam. He simply called them. And precisely because they were unremarkable in the eyes of the world, no one could mistake the source of the church's power. As Paul reminds us, "None is righteous, no, not one… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:10-23. God chose the weak so that the glory would unmistakably belong to Him.

It is also worth resisting the temptation to dehumanize the apostles into stained-glass saints far above us. They asked Jesus to repeat Himself constantly. Even after the resurrection they were still wondering when the kingdom would come. Yet Jesus reminded them, "You did not choose me, but I chose you… that you should go and bear fruit" (cf. John 15). Their call was not to comfort but to hardship: persecution, exile, and—for all but one—martyrdom.

The Cost of Following and the Comfort of Being Chosen

Many followed Jesus when His teaching was easy and His miracles fed them, but when He said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you," many disciples turned back. Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" John 6:53-68. The apostles stayed because they had nowhere else to go—Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Before Jesus formally appointed the twelve, He spent the entire night in prayer: "In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles" Luke 6:12-13. The Greek conveys earnest, sustained labor in prayer. Jesus did not need to deliberate over who to pick—He is God and already knew. More likely He was praying for these men, knowing the suffering and martyrdom He was calling them into.

A Word for Disciples Today

This is where the teaching lands on us. Satan accuses us of being unworthy, unholy, unfit to serve—and he is right that we are. But God's pattern from the beginning has been to call the lowly, the humble, and the ordinary so that He alone receives the glory. Two thousand years later, the gospel has reached us through the witness of twelve flawed men whom Christ made worthy. The same Christ who prayed through the night before calling them, who interceded for His disciples in John 17, who sweat blood in Gethsemane, now intercedes for us by His Spirit when we do not know how to pray. You are not chosen because you are worthy; you are made worthy because you are chosen. That is comfort enough to live—and serve—boldly.

Transcript

Good morning. 2s

So today we are studying our study on the apostles, 4s

which should be fun. 8s

I guess I've been into the history of the church this year, 12s

so we're historicizing. 17s

But we are going to, of course, begin with prayer. 20s

So let's pray. 23s

Lord, we thank you so much for gathering us here every week. 25s

I think we thank you for proclaiming your word to us every week, 28s

your word of forgiveness, your word of salvation, 33s

your word of mercy and grace. 36s

Lord, we thank you for the people who you sent to first proclaim your message, 38s

your gospel. 44s

And we ask that as we dive into this study of those men, 45s

that you would keep our hearts open, keep our minds attentive 49s

to the call that you had upon their lives, 53s

and lead us to understand better the call you have upon our lives. 56s

Lord, we lift all of this to you in the blessed, holy, and powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 61s

Okay, so question, without opening your bibles, who can name the 12 apostles? 67s

Can we start if we fall off? 77s

Can we start? And if we fall off, I'll take care of it. 80s

So, well, I ask that because when you go, oh, the apostles, yeah, Peter, 83s

and John, and James, and Judith, and it's easy to kind of like drop off and forget. 89s

And this study that we're diving into today, and we'll be doing this through the end of January, 99s

there are a couple of weeks that we're taking off for the Christmas program next week, 106s

and then for Christmas and New Year's. But so it sounds like it's a long study. 111s

It's six weeks of study or six total weeks of study. And it's based out of a book by John MacArthur, 117s

who wrote a book, 12 ordinary men. And he had done a couple of studies and presentations on the 12 apostles. 127s

And what he found was that not only the lay people, not only the lay people of his congregation, 136s

but even the staff, the other ministers, really couldn't name anything about the 12 disciples, 143s

or really knew very little about all 12. And I, of course, was convicted by that. 151s

And so I said, yeah, you know what? We should know about these guys. 159s

We should know exactly who they were, what they did, and what the call that they had from the Lord was, 162s

and how they forwarded the church. We say in the Nicene Creed, we profess a faith in the one holy Catholic and apostolic church. 169s

And what does it mean to have an apostolic church? It's based on the teachings of the apostles. 182s

And so it's important for us to understand those men, and to understand why Jesus called them, 188s

and the purpose for which they were sent. So we're going to start today with really kind of a generalization of the apostles. 196s

And then we will, in the subsequent weeks, dive into each disciple and find out his history, 205s

how he was called, how he knew Jesus, and for that, because the Bible does not have a lot of details on all of the apostles, 215s

we do look to some of the extrabiblical writings, because there is an historical story for each of these men. 225s

And they're part of history, and so we do have their stories. 237s

So we find out the name of the twelve apostles, or the names of the twelve apostles, in the synoptic gospel. 243s

So we find them in Matthew, we find them in Mark, we find them in Luke. In John, he refers to the twelve. 249s

Anytime they are speaking of the twelve, it is the twelve specific apostles. 257s

So in Acts 2, if we can open up to Acts 2, going back to talking about this apostolic church, and why we are called an apostolic church, 265s

we see that all the believers who had been converted to Christianity were devoted to four things. 278s

And this is in Acts 2, verse 42, where it says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 285s

We are an apostolic church, because the church of which Christ is the cornerstone, everything grows from Christ, from the Messiah. 295s

But the apostles, then, they taught what they knew from Jesus, they taught what they learned from Jesus, they taught what they witnessed from Jesus. 308s

And so everything that we have as a Christian church, as a holy Catholic, that is universal, Christian church, apostolic church is based on being devoted to the apostles' teachings. 320s

So that is why it is important to understand these apostles' important to understand their stories. 336s

We go into cathedrals, we don't have them in here, because we are not a cathedral. 344s

But if you go into a cathedral, you will oftentimes see beautiful stained glass artwork of these giants amongst men, 350s

these saints of all saints. And a lot of times the apostles, and they are made out to be these incredible great men, which I'm not saying they aren't incredible in great saints of the faith. 363s

But there is sort of a sacredness or a holiness that is ascribed to them in some of the Christian church, that we want to not diminish who they were and not diminish the greatness that God did through them. 382s

But just like we don't pray or venerate worship saints, we don't pray to worship or venerate the apostles. 402s

We are devoted to their teachings. We are devoted to the mission that they had here on earth. 413s

And we need to understand who they were as regular people, because if we dehumanize them and make them as deity or as angels, then we're taking away from what God really did here on earth and what God did in His church and bringing His church here on earth. 422s

In the apostles we have regular guys. We have regular guys who are flawed, some see them as ignorant. They don't hold any great power. They certainly don't hold any religious authority. 449s

The men that Christ chose were fishermen. They were craftsmen. There was a tax collector, which no, that's a sinner amongst sinners. 463s

There was a zealot, which is a politician or a political activist, wanting to overthrow Rome or Roman government. 473s

So why do you think that Jesus would choose these regular ordinary guys? It doesn't have to be a rhetorical question. You can answer that. 482s

Yeah. Oh, because he chose us. Oh, foreshadowing. Good cross section. 496s

Good cross section. It's not just for the elite. When Jesus chose His disciples or His apostles, sorry, His apostles, and we will get into the difference with the disciple and apostleship. 503s

When He chose His apostles, who gets all the glory? God. When the church is going forth and expanding, who is doing the work through the apostles? God, it's very clearly done through the strength and the power of God. 520s

God is the one who makes it possible for His kingdom to expand, for His kingdom, for His Word to go forth. 548s

And by having these men of no consequence of nothing really great or spectacular, we can't not ascribe all glory, all strength, all power to God for what has been done here on earth. 558s

In the gospel of John, Jesus is very clear with His disciples. He says, you did not choose me, but I chose you. Does anyone remember why He chose them? 577s

Who said that? Oh, okay, Steve. Yes, yes. To bear fruit. 593s

To bear fruit. Jesus chose those specific men to bear fruit. And really, we can look around ourselves right now, and we are part of the fruit, which those apostles, or comes out of those apostles and that choosing of them. 601s

So why did Jesus choose them? Let's go to Mark chapter 3. And we are going to go to verse 14. 623s

Mark chapter 3 verse 14, where it says, he, that is Jesus, Jesus appointed 12 whom he also named apostles to be with him and to be sent out to proclaim the message and to have authority to cast out demons. 640s

Jesus called these men and we give thanks and glory to God for calling these apostles. Think of the call to which they were called the Lord Jesus. 672s

And we are going to put him over here for a little bit because we will get to him. But he did have a call on his life. And we are going to get to him. 693s

But think about the call that was put on these men's life. In calling the apostles, he was calling them to a life of hardship, a life of suffering, a life of persecution, and all but one, a life of martyrdom, giving up their earthly lives for him, for his call, for his life. 705s

And that was a life of his purpose for them. Only one of the apostles lived to an old age. And that was not an age or a life of ease. That was a life of persecution, of suffering, of being an exile. 735s

So we will get to all of them. So I am going to stop saying we will get to him because we will get to all of them. 754s

So Jesus had spent the first part of his ministry here on earth. He had spent it really building a reputation for himself. And he wasn't building a reputation as we build reputations in our careers, in our homes, in our families. 762s

We try to build a certain or in our community as a certain reputation for ourselves. And really that's what it comes down to. It's a reputation for ourselves. 778s

But Jesus was building a reputation to glorify his father and to bring forth the truth of God's love, of God's law, of his redeeming promise of who God was. 789s

So he was building this reputation. He could have easily, being God himself, said, okay, everyone, you're going to believe. And he could have brought his full kingdom in right then and right there. 805s

He has the ability to do that because he is God. But he stuck to speaking the truth, revealing the father, revealing the father's will, and revealing the father's glory through his ministry. 819s

And as he built this reputation, as he built this ministry, not only was he sharing the fullness of God's word and the truth of God's word, people were starting to really flock to him because he was teaching with authority. 836s

We read that in Luke where Jesus taught with authority unlike the scribes and Pharisees. He cast out demons. He healed the sick. He did signs and wonders that no one could really do. 856s

And the religious authorities, the religious elite, were, he was building a reputation with them as well. They were getting really irritated and very hateful toward Jesus because he spoke truth, revealing God the father, revealing who God is, was, and will always be. 872s

And it was very frustrating and caused a lot of anger for the religious authorities in that day. 897s

So Jesus was gathering, people were flocking to him, following him around. We read story after story where the crowds follow him. And he fed the 5,000, which was more than 5,000 because that's the men that are counted. 907s

And so it's 5,000 men, women and children in addition to that. So thousands of people, he fed, you know, he fed the 4,000. There were many occasions where there were signs and wonders that he performed, miracles that he performed. 925s

And so he had these followers, which are disciples. Disciples are followers of Christ. They are those who learn from Christ. And, and so the apostles then were part of these disciples. They were amongst the other disciples who were following Jesus. 943s

Jesus didn't begin his ministry with apostles. He didn't begin his ministry when we read in scripture how he calls his first disciples. There are apostles named because that's who we're really familiar with. But he didn't begin with only the apostles. 966s

So the disciples were coming together and following him. And so the 12 apostles were part of the disciples as a whole. And, and disciples came and went. It ebbed and flow. People were very attracted to what he was saying, what he was doing for others, what he was doing for them. But then they would also get disillusioned and fall off. 986s

We have one specific account in the gospel of John. If we turn to the gospel of John, the sixth chapter. That's the fourth gospel chapter six. And chapter six is a pretty long chapter. So we're going to, we're going to pick up in verse 53. But I'm going to give you a little bit of backstory. 1011s

So Jesus had fed the multitude. He had fed the 5000 plus. And then he withdrew and they followed him and they wanted more. They wanted more. They wanted more. And he says, you're following me because I did this sign. I gave you this food. But, but you know Moses and the Israelites they had mana from heaven. And that was, that was from God. But I am the bread and the life and the truth. 1036s

I am the bread. And so in 53, he says to them, very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life. And I will raise them up on the last day for my flesh is true food. And my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. 1064s

Just as the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is not the bread that came down from heaven, not like that with your ancestors ate and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever more. He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. 1090s

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, this teaching is difficult. Who can accept it? But Jesus being aware that his disciples were complaining about it said to them, does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 1111s

It goes a little bit further and then we are going to jump down to 66. Because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the 12, do you wish to go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 1136s

So he is saying to his disciples to the multitude, eat of my flesh, drink of my blood. I love using this scripture text with our confirmants because they all kind of go, eww. 1158s

I say that is exactly what the disciples, the multitude, it was a difficult thing for them to hear. There were a good many of them who went, eww, and they went off because it was difficult to understand what he was saying. 1179s

So he had this eb and flow, just like we eb and flow in our own lives of what we like and what we don't like and we may get disillusioned with things and things eb and flow. 1202s

And it was the same with these disciples but the apostles stuck around because they knew, by this time they were already called as disciples, but they also knew that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. 1219s

They had nowhere else to go, they had no one else to turn to because he was it. So Jesus didn't have the apostles to start with but as his ministry progressed and when he called them they stayed. 1236s

And so when it was time to pass along the ministry to prepare the leaders of the church which he would establish after his resurrection he appointed the twelve apostles. 1256s

We're going to turn to Luke, the gospel of Luke. Let's go to the fifth chapter. 1270s

So Luke in chapter four and chapter five and chapter six, Luke is really building this ministry, the story of Christ's ministry. 1285s

And we see the religious leaders get increasingly agitated and increasingly hateful toward Jesus and they start the different religious authorities start banning together trying to figure out what they can do against or to take care of Jesus. 1299s

So they're all banning together to get rid of this Jesus because he is causing major problems and disrupting their authority. 1330s

So if we turn to chapter six, I think I had you turn to chapter five, sorry, turn to chapter six and we're going to start in verse six where it says on another Sabbath, so this is yet another Sabbath where Jesus is going to quote, misbehaved, unquote, on another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and talked. 1341s

And there was a man there whose right hand was withered the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the Sabbath so that they might find an accusation against him. 1365s

Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had withered who had the withered hand come and stand here. He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath to save life or to destroy it? 1376s

After looking around at all of them, he said to him, stretch out your hand. He did so and his hand was restored but they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. 1392s

So it's really reached this, we have to do something about this Jesus guy. He is just healed this man with a withered hand on the Sabbath but he challenged them before it saying, on the Sabbath, do we save lives? 1405s

Or not? So he's challenging their authority. He's challenging their rule and law but he has the authority of God as God. He has full authority. 1421s

So they get very frustrated and they're trying to figure out what they can do. They say we have to do something about this Jesus. 1438s

So then we get to verse 12. Now during those days, he went out to the mountain to pray and he spent the night in prayer to God. 1449s

And when the day came, he called his disciples and chose 12 of them whom he named, whom he also named as apostles. 1457s

So Luke is building this story of the religious leaders hate for Jesus, the disruption that he made in their lives, in their religious plans. 1467s

And then we come to find that it is in those days when these religious authorities are starting to conspire against Christ. 1477s

So we're getting into that time where they're going to go after him. At that right time, in those days, that's when Jesus chose the men who would carry out his mission here on earth. 1487s

That is when he said, okay, we're at a point in ministry where I need men to learn. I need them to live with me, to proclaim the message that they can bear fruit. 1502s

So these 12 men then shift into a new calling. They are still followers of Christ. They are still disciples. 1521s

But now they have a new and an extra, another call on their lives. They are going to be entrusted with the mission of the church. 1530s

And they don't fully understand it, at least not from what we understand. I mean, how many times are they constantly asking him to explain what he's just said? 1539s

I love, my favorite is when they're after he has been resurrected and right before he ascends to the Father or right after he ascends to the Father, then they're saying, okay, now? 1550s

No, it's right before he ascends to the Father. They're saying, now are you going to make things happen? He has just been resurrected from the dead. 1561s

And they're still wondering, now is this when your kingdom is going to come? 1571s

So this is, and that's why I love the apostles, because they are so, so flawed. It gives us great comfort as flawed Christians, as flawed people, to know that God has chosen the Lord. 1577s

And these men, and he has a call upon our lives as his disciples as well. 1591s

So something interesting, the apostles didn't have to pass a test. Jesus did not sit them down and have them write out answers to questions. 1598s

They were not rabbis. They were not rabbis in training, right? They were regular guys. And they were really undeserving to be God's spokesperson people. 1613s

By all means, they were undeserving. They were so flawed and just everything wrong. They were not perfect. They were not glorious. And yet God chose them. 1626s

But when compared to Jesus, who is perfection, who is holiness himself, no one deserves to be God's spokesperson. 1645s

No one deserves or is considered worthy in our own doing. We don't earn a position amongst the Holy. 1661s

We don't earn a position to be counted as one with Christ. In Romans the third chapter, it says, all have fallen short of the glory of God. 1674s

No one is righteous, not one. And that's true for these apostles as well. They weren't holy in and of themselves. 1685s

They weren't worthy because they were so good. And yet God called them. Jesus called them to be His spokespeople, to be His missionaries here on earth. 1698s

He chose the humble, the lowly, the meek, the weak. And because of that, there is never a question of the source of power for Christ's church. 1714s

There is never a question of who is saving, of who is transforming, and who is changing the world through His church. 1731s

I want this to be on a personal level, a moment of comfort for you as disciples of Christ. 1747s

Because as flawed humans, as we all are, as sinful humans, as we all are, Satan gets in there and he accuses us because we're not worthy and he accuses us because we aren't holy. 1760s

And he uses those accusations to discourage us because what is Satan's purpose to glorify himself, to be God himself, which he cannot be and never will be. 1783s

But he still tries to thwart God's mission here. 1800s

And so I want that to be a word of affirmation for you as disciples because if we know and can boldly state that we see the lie that Satan is attempting to accuse us with or attempting to stop us from being part of the church or from being God's missionaries. 1807s

If we know it, then we can face it. 1831s

And if we know that God chooses the weak, the humble, the lowly, so that he can be glorified. 1837s

And we know that he chose these 12-week humble, lowly, ordinary men and yet 2000 years later we are gathered here in Great Fine Texas, USA, glorifying God. 1845s

Because of the message, because of their teachings which are founded upon their ministry or the ministry that they participated in with Christ, founded upon what they witnessed in Christ's glorious resurrection and triumph over death, 1860s

then we know that the call on our lives as disciples of Christ, it is good, it is real. 1885s

And we are not worthy, but God has made us worthy to share His Word and to be His spokesperson even today. 1896s

In Luke, we are already in Luke, chapter 6, verse 12, we are going to look at that one more time. 1908s

So during those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray and he spent the night in prayer to God. 1914s

He prayed all night long. 1924s

And MacArthur in his book, he pointed out that the Greek, for this, the Greek really puts the perspective or the context of this was enduring a task all night long. 1929s

So you wouldn't say that it was dark all night long in the same way that you would say Jesus prayed all night long. 1946s

This is something he did with earnest. 1952s

He did with effort that it was something that was needed and there was a depth to it. 1955s

It wasn't just, yeah, he went out to pray. 1964s

It was something that he put effort into. 1966s

And it was a trinitarian communication throughout the night. 1970s

He was communicating with the Father, with the Spirit. 1978s

It was a night of complete prayer to God of God with God. 1983s

It was God's prayer happening. 1992s

Now, do you think that Jesus was praying over who he would choose, who he would call as his 12 disciples? 1998s

No, he would have known that. 2006s

Jesus was not plan B. The apostles weren't plan B. He knew because he is deity. He knew who would be the apostles. 2009s

I would love to know what he prayed. Maybe in eternity we will know and we will understand. 2017s

But perhaps he was praying for the men. 2029s

Think of the prayer that we have before he goes to the cross, that prayer in the gospel of John that we have. 2033s

And he is praying a depth of prayer for the disciples. 2040s

Or think of the prayer when he is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and he is bleeding sweat because he is praying so hard. 2046s

I like to think that he is praying for these men because he knew what he was calling them to. 2055s

He knew they would need strength. He knew they would need his power, endurance, 2062s

endurance, and strength for the men that they would be suffering for his name's sake, 2071s

and for the sake of his church that they would be martyrs. 2076s

And so God was communing and communicating with God as he was about to call these 12 men. 2082s

I wonder what he prayed for Judas Iscariot. 2093s

I wonder if he prayed out of the sadness knowing 2099s

who Judas was and what he was to become. 2102s

We don't know the words, 2106s

but we know that as John MacArthur says, 2109s

Jesus in his humanity needed to pray all night. 2113s

Jesus in his deity was praying the very prayer 2118s

of God. 2122s

I'd like to end by reminding you in the book of Romans 2126s

when Paul reminds us that we do not pray as we ought, 2132s

but that Jesus or that the spirit intercedes for us in prayer. 2138s

And so to know with the earnestness that Jesus prayed 2146s

before he called these 12, 2155s

the words that flow in the gospel of John 2158s

that we hear of the prayer for the disciples, his disciples, 2161s

the extreme prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane 2168s

to know that when we are praying, 2172s

that it is Christ's own spirit, the Holy Spirit, 2176s

that is praying with us 2180s

and communicating with the triune God, with and for us. 2183s

I hope that that gives you not only great comfort, 2188s

but joy knowing that you are so beloved by the Father, 2192s

that he has not only redeemed you, 2201s

not only communicates with you, 2205s

but has called you to be his very own, 2208s

just like the 12 ordinary men that we are going 2213s

to keep learning about. 2215s

So next week, I hope to see you all in there 2217s

as we celebrate the Christmas program for the youth 2220s

or with the youth, they get to tell us the nativity story, 2222s

and then we will meet back here the following week 2225s

and we will start diving into the apostles. 2228s

Maybe I'll have a candy bar for whoever can name the 12, 2232s

right at the start. 2235s

All right, thank you so much. 2237s