Tnight we begin a tw chapter sectin in Matthew s Gspel n hw Jesus prepared His disciples fr their ministries As I explained last week, Jesus has been ministering in the Galilee fr sme time drawing crwds with His teaching and miracles And during that time, He penly declared that He is the Messiah And He invited Israel t receive their Kingdm if nly they wuld receive Jesus as their King But as Matthew said last week, the peple were distressed and discuraged, like sheep withut a shepherd The religius leader f Israel deceived the peple causing them t reject Jesus and His ffer We will learn abut that climactic mment Matthew 12, when that generatin f Israel irrevcably rejected their Messiah That mment will set Israel a disastrus curse, and it sets Jesus n a new directin in His ministry But even nw, as we enter chapter 10, we find Jesus beginning t prepare His disciples fr that cming change In chapters 10 and 11 Jesus will start that preparatin prcess, but it cntinues even after chapter 12, all the way t the crss In fact, Jesus will still be preparing His disciples even after His resurrectin in the days leading up t His ascensin S beginning tday, we begin a study n hw Jesus tk twelve untrained men and prepared them t assume leadership psitins in the early church And Jesus jb is incredibly difficult, because because these men have n appreciatin f what s cming nr did they sign up fr the jb As yu ve read the Gspels in the past, yu may have nticed hw ften Jesus disciples seemed clueless abut what s ging n arund them And that s because they started in their psitins with n appreciatin f what was cming 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
2! f! 15 They didn t realize that Jesus wuld be rejected, that the Kingdm will nt be set up in their day And they never anticipated that Jesus will die n a crss r that He must leave the earth fr a time and wuldn t return until thusands f years later And even after Jesus died, they assumed His mvement had cmpletely failed But mst all, these Jewish men culd nt pssibly have appreciate hw they wuld becme leaders f an entirely new mvement f Gd s peple Of hw they wuld shepherd a wrldwide Church in Jesus name And even mre incredible, that new entity wuld be cmprised primarily f Gentiles instead f Jews They had n appreciatin f these plans, s it tk them a while t understand what Jesus was trying t teach them But in time by the pwer f the Hly Spirit it all began t make sense, and it rcked their wrld S these guys have n idea where this stry is taking them, but like Jesus, we d knw where this stry is ging S it s entertaining t watch hw Jesus wrks with these men in preparing them Russell Nelsn nce said that the decisin t serve a missin will shape the spiritual destiny f that missinary And the desire t serve is a natural utcme f ne s preparatin S if yu want a spiritual legacy f serving Jesus, than yu have t watch fr hw Jesus is at wrk preparing yu fr that service Because Jesus des the hard wrk f preparing men and wmen t serve Him He chses His candidates, He gives us ur marching rders, He designs ur training curriculum and He apprves us alng each step 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
3! f! 15 Of curse, we have a rle t, which is t engage with Jesus in the training prcess t gain the value f each experience He ffers We have t acknwledge the calling He places n ur life We have t pay attentin t His instructins, we have t fllw His rders, and we have t persevere thrugh the trials Mst f all, we have t make this prcess a pririty ver everything else in ur life s that we win the prize, as Paul says In Matthew s narrative, we re ging t see Jesus wrking these men thugh each f these stages f preparatin And we ll als watch the disciples respnding in varius ways (gd and bad) The stry begins with the first step, Jesus chsing and cmmissining His cre grup f leaders Matt. 10:1 Jesus summned His twelve disciples and gave them authrity ver unclean spirits, t cast them ut, and t heal every kind f disease and every kind f sickness. As Matthew ften des, he pens a new sectin with a summary statement He says Jesus summned His twelve, and gave them authrity t d miraculus things, and sent them ut This is Matthew s summary f what we will be hearing mre abut in the next cuple f chapters Befre we dive in, ntice that Matthew says Jesus fcuses n twelve This is the first time Matthew tells us that there was an elite grup f twelve men taken frm amng all f Jesus disciples In fact, as we ll see later, Jesus established at least three levels f leadership amng thse wh fllwed Him First there were the disciples f Jesus, which included all wh believed in Him as Messiah and fllwed Him Amng His disciples, Jesus designated twelve men t becme the leaders f the early church 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
4! f! 15 Later, Jesus will single ut just three men frm amng the twelve fr an even mre intimate relatinship with Him Amng these divisins, Jesus assigns different levels f authrity and respnsibility Fr example, all f Jesus disciples received authrity t declare the Kingdm and t minister in His name t the wrld Then the twelve received additinal authrity and respnsibility t lead and teach the rest f the disciples in the church Finally, the three received even greater authrity and respnsibility t lead the twelve Speaking f grups, let s lk at the first majr divisin: the twelve Matt. 10:2 Nw the names f the twelve apstles are these: The first, Simn, wh is called Peter, and Andrew his brther; and James the sn f Zebedee, and Jhn his brther; Matt. 10:3 Philip and Barthlmew; Thmas and Matthew the tax cllectr; James the sn f Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Matt. 10:4 Simn the Zealt, and Judas Iscarit, the ne wh betrayed Him. Matthew lists these men briefly and then mves n t describe the pwer and authrity they received frm Jesus We knw mre abut sme f these men than thers, and it will be helpful t ur future studies t get them knw smething abut them, especially the tp guys Beginning with the simple bservatin that these men were chsen by Jesus They didn t sign up r apply t be elevated in this way In fact, Jesus never really asked them if they wanted t be chsen He simply tld them they were prmted In Luke s Gspel we learn that Jesus selectin f these men was preceded by an all-night prayer vigil S Jesus appealed t the Father fr clear directin n wh shuld be selected fr this special assignment And in the end, the Father made a decisin, which is hw every calling in ministry wrks 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
5! f! 15 We like t use the wrd invite a lt, but a mre biblical wrd wuld be cmmanded r burdened When Gd places a call n smene s life, it isn t an invitatin, it s a cmmand and ften a burden we can t ignre If we respnd t Gd s call, we are beying the Lrd, nt accepting His invitatin When we decline the calling f Gd, we are nt exercising ur ptins we re sinning In Mark 3:14 we learn that as Jesus elevated these twelve men, He did s fr tw purpses First, these twelve men were t accmpany Jesus at all times Althugh ther disciples in the larger grup culd cme and g at times, nt these guys The twelve wuld nw be with Jesus at all times everywhere Jesus went until Jesus departed the earth Jesus knew that His rejectin was cming and that His time n earth was shrt, s He wanted t maximize His pprtunity t prepare these guys And mre than maximizing the amunt f time tgether Jesus als wanted t maximize the quality f that time Jesus didn t just spend time teaching these men as He has dne fr the crwds, but Jesus als wanted t experiencing daily life with them Because by experiencing life tgether, the twelve culd internalize Jesus pririties and sensibilities They needed t see hw Jesus lived, hw He treated ther peple, hw He prayed, hw He gave thanks Hw He respnded t bth the needy and t the haughty That kind f intimate fellwship gave them far mre insight int Jesus character and apprach t ministry than merely hearing Jesus wrds 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
6! f! 15 It s like the difference between reading the sheet music fr Beethven s Fifth Symphny vs. hearing the symphny perfrmed S after the night f prayer, Jesus calls all His disciples tgether, and then in frnt f everyne He selects the twelve men that Matthew lists It s imprtant t nte that Jesus des this publicly The larger cmmunity f His disciples are suppsed t recgnize that these men have been given special authrity Jesus has made these twelve leaders amng equals Which reminds us that every rganizatin that desires t functin effectively must have leadership And the Church is n different frm the very beginnings f the Church the Lrd appinted leaders fr the gd f the whle Thse leaders ruled under the authrity f Christ and they were appinted publicly, s that everyne wuld respect their rle But these men were leaders amng equals, and that s als true tday Thse wh lead in the church are nt mre hly, mre wrthy, mre righteus We aren t necessary smarter r strnger, thugh we d tend t be better lking (jke) Nr are we all-pwerful r withut accuntability Leaders are simply men and wmen called int service ver Gd s flck and appinted t lead accrding t His will And f curse, the Bible als has a lt t say t the leaders abut hw they shuld serve Gd s peple Leaders must serve in humility, demnstrating upright character and self-sacrifice withut lrding ver the peple But likewise we are called t respect ur leaders authrity and submit t their leadership as an act f bedience t Christ Just the writer f Hebrews tells the Church 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
7! f! 15 Heb. 13:17 Obey yur leaders and submit t them, fr they keep watch ver yur suls as thse wh will give an accunt. Let them d this with jy and nt with grief, fr this wuld be unprfitable fr yu. S Matthew says Jesus designated twelve men t shepherd the early church, and Matthew s list f names is ne f fur such lists in the Bible The ther three lists are fund in Luke and Mark and Acts, and all fur give the same 12 names, naturally The rder f the names varies slightly between the lists, but we always find certain things t be cnsistent acrss all fur The higher a name in the list, the mre prminent r the mre authrity that individual had in the grup Fr example, Peter is always at the tp f every list, while Judas Iscarit is always at the bttm f every list And the secnd, third and furth names in every list are always sme cmbinatin f James, Jhn and Andrew These cnsistencies tell us that Jesus established a pecking rder within His grup f twelve that all Gspel writer recgnized Peter was the undisputed leader f the grup, while Judas was the traitr and therefre, the least amng them After frm Peter Jesus designated three men t serve as Peter s key lieutenants ver the church Jesus chice reflects a gd leadership principle: Leadership shuld always be divested amng multiple leaders serving at different levels In his list, Matthew calls these twelve men Jesus apstles This is the first use f the term apstle in Matthew s gspel and it has imprtant meaning we need t understand The wrd in Greek is apstls, which cmes frm the Greek verb apstell, meaning t send Therefre, we culd define the term apstle as ne wh is sent ut 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
8! f! 15 S based n this new name, Jesus is indicating He s ging t send these twelve men ut in an unique way They are a select grup, uniquely empwered and uniquely cmmissined fr service in the early church And nt nly these men but later in Acts and in the epistles we learn that ther men were als assigned the title f apstle Paul, Barnabas, and James, the brther f Jesus, are als called apstles in Scripture, yet thse men were nt amng the 12 Nevertheless, all apstles received their ffice in the same way: they were persnally selected and appinted by Jesus Himself Obviusly, we see that happening here, as Jesus appints these twelve But it als happened t Paul as described in Scripture Acts tells us Jesus appeared t Paul n the rad t Damascus and persnally appinted him t be the apstle t the Gentiles Paul als testifies in his letters that he was persnally appinted t be an apstle by an appearing f Jesus While we dn t have the testimny f Barnabas r James, we knw that Scripture declares they were apstles t S perhaps Jesus met with these men at sme pint during His earthly ministry Or perhaps Jesus appeared t them during the days He walked the earth fllwing His resurrectin Hwever it happened, the Bible is clear that the psitin f apstle cannt be assumed r assigned by anyne ther than Jesus After the first century, there are n mre credible reprts f Jesus appearing and appinting apstles S we cnclude that apstles served an imprtant and necessary rle in the establishment f the early church But nce that need was ver, s was the need fr men t fill that ffice The ffice f apstle came with unique abilities, pwers that n ne else in the church pssessed, as we ll see later in this study 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
9! f! 15 But their pwers weren t merely fr shw the apstles were given miraculus pwers t validate their claims t speak fr the Lrd The apstles were the New Testament prphets All scripture in the New Testament was authred r surced by apstles Which is why the 27 bks were chsen t jin the cann f Scripture they were the bks knwn t be surced frm apstles And that s why it was necessary fr these men t have miraculus pwers Remember, that fr many decades, the early church had n written Scripture ther than the Old Testament During that time, the Lrd spke t the Church thrugh the apstles But believers in this time needed sme way t distinguish between true prphets and the false teachers S the Lrd equipped His true spkesman, the true apstles, with miraculus pwers that culd nt be cunterfeited In that way when smene claimed t have the authrity t speak n behalf f the Lrd, the church culd test the persn s claims Since supernatural pwers nly cme frm Gd, anyne wh demnstrated apstlic pwers was shwing Gd was n their side But if that man culd nt perfrm the miracles cmmnly dne by apstles, then his claims f authrity were rejected He was expsed t be a fraud and the church was prtected Paul gives us an example f this principle at wrk in ne f his letters t the Crinthians 1Cr. 4:18 Nw sme have becme arrgant, as thugh I were nt cming t yu. 1Cr. 4:19 But I will cme t yu sn, if the Lrd wills, and I shall find ut, nt the wrds f thse wh are arrgant but their pwer. 1Cr. 4:20 Fr the kingdm f Gd des nt cnsist in wrds but in pwer. 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
10! f! 15 In the Crinthian church there were false teachers arrgantly claiming t have apstlic authrity s they culd mislead the peple These men were cntradicting Paul s teaching and cnfusing the church, s Paul wrte t the church rebuking these fakes Paul said wrds are cheap, but Gd s Kingdm came t earth with real pwer (referring t Jesus miraculus pwer) S just as Jesus backed His wrds up with pwer, s Paul wuld d the same, since he was a true apstle And Paul said when he returned t Crinth, he wuld gladly see what pwer these s-called apstles had As Paul s situatin illustrates, the Lrd equipped the the apstles with special pwers s believers culd recgnize the true spkesmen f Gd But nce the church was established and the cann f Scripture had clsed, the need fr apstles ended S the Lrd stpped appinting men t this psitin When the last apstle Jhn died smetime during the final decade f the first century, the age f apstles came t an end Frm that pint nward, the church went frward withut apstles But we frevermre benefit frm their inspired teaching preserved in Scripture And we cntinue t fllw their leadership example S let s take a lk at each f these men, beginning with Peter Peter was the first leader f the church, and he s als knwn fr having three names frm three different languages His given name in Hebrew was Shimn, r as we wuld say Simn In Jesus day, Jews als cmmnly spke Aramaic, which they brught back frm them frm captivity in Babylnian S in Aramaic, Peter s name was Keifa, which we prnunce Cephas 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
11! f 15! Finally, Jesus calls Peter by the Greek name Petrs, which we prnunce as Peter All three f these names have a meaning f rck r stne Peter will be the leader f the apstles and the first leader f the church S in that sense his name rck is prphetic f his psitin as a crnerstne f leadership fr the early church Obviusly, Jesus is THE crnerstne f the church, and Peter s name wasn t intended t vershadw r cmpete with Jesus It simply indicated that Peter was appinted t lead the ther apstles at the beginning when leadership was mst crucial Remember, Peter was named at birth, which clear reflects the svereignty f Gd The Lrd marked Peter ut t be the leader f the church while he was still in diapers, and truly even befre he was brn And then the Lrd mved his parents t assign Peter the name rck And as we ll see in ur study f Peter in the Gspel, I think the Lrd was als indicating that Peter wuld be hard-headed Peter was persecuted by the Jews alng with James and eventually fled Jerusalem fr Antich Accrding t church traditin, he was later crucified by Ner in Rme As yu knw, the Cathlic religin has created its wn myths cncerning Peter Namely, they claim Peter was the first ruler in a dynasty f mniptent church leaders called ppes The Cathlics claim these men rule with authrity directly frm Jesus because they succeeded Peter in his rle as leader But Scripture never teaches that Jesus intended Peter s rle as leader t be inherited r passed dwn t later men 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
12! f! 15 On the cntrary, nce Peter disappears frm the recrd f Scripture in Acts 15, nthing is said abut any successr Instead, the church cntinues t perate under a plurality f lcal leaders perating mre-r-less independently thereafter We ll cme back t the subject f Peter s authrity in chapter 16 The secnd man in ur list is Andrew, wh was Peter s brther Jhn s Gspel tells us that Andrew intrduced Peter t Jesus In fact, Andrew has the distinctin f being the very first man Jesus called t be His disciple He came frm Bethesda and perated a fishing business with Peter n the Sea f Galilee At the time Jesus called him, he was living in Capernaum near a synaggue still standing tday Andrew is remembered fr being the ne t suggest a slutin fr the prblem f feeding the five thusand He nticed the yung by selling five laves f bread and tw fish We dn t knw why Andrew thught that might be a wrkable slutin but it prved t successful in the end Accrding t church legend, Andrew is said t have travelled t Asia Minr and the Black Sea t evangelize that regin He traveled as far as Hungary, Russia and t the banks f the Oder in Pland In Greece, he suppsedly frced his way thrugh a frest inhabited by wlves, bears and tigers He died f the death f a martyr given the chice f being ffered as a sacrifice t the gds r being scurged and crucified By his wn request he was crucified n a diagnal crss because like his brther Peter, he felt unwrthy t be crucified n the upright crss f Christ Suppsedly, his bnes are buried in Sctland 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
13! f! 15 Third we have James, the sn f Zebedee and brther f the apstle Jhn James shuld nt be cnfused with the secnd apstle named James nr with Jesus earthly brther, James, wh wrte the letter in Scripture His name in Hebrew is Yaakv, which is usually translated Jacb but can als be translated James The Church chses t refer t this apstle as James t avid cnfusin with the Old Testament figure, Jacb Alng with Peter and Jhn, James is amng an inner circle f apstles that Jesus gave special attentin and preparatin fr ministry Fr example, James was included in the small grup present with Jesus n the Mt. f Transfiguratin But he was als ne f the disciples wh prpsed calling fire dwn n the Samaritans, nt ne f his better mments Ntably, James is the first f the apstles t die as a martyr when Herd Agrippa kills him t please the Jews In fact, James is the nly apstle whse death is recrded in Scripture The Armenian church claims that the place f James death is lcated in their quarter f the Old City and his head is buried under an altar in a church lcated there Furth we have the apstle Jhn, whse name means Yahweh is gracius He was James yunger brther, the sns f thunder Jesus called them This is the same Jhn wh wrte the furth Gspel, the three epistles by his name, and the bk f Revelatin He t was a fishermen and the yungest f all the apstles He was the lngest living apstle and the nly apstle wh accrding t church traditin died naturally rather than as a martyr Little is knwn abut the end f Jhn s life Secnd century church writers claimed Jhn was biled alive in il but miraculus was unharmed 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
14! f! 15 He s said t be buried in Ephesus, which was the church where he was ministered after release frm exile in Patms The rest f the list is cmprised f men wh have little r n mentin in Scripture apart frm their names appearing in the list f the twelve Philip was the first t evangelize in Samaria, which tk great curage fr a Jew Nathaniel, als called Barthlmew, was called by Jesus while under the fig tree Thmas is famus fr dubting that Jesus had resurrected Then we have Matthew, the authr f this Gspel The fact that Matthew places himself lwer in the list is evidence t us that we can trust his recrd f events Because if he invented this accunt, he wuld likely have placed his wn name higher in the list t appear mre imprtant But as it is, he places himself near the bttm f the list, reflecting that he was nt amng the tp leaders f the twelve Having said that, Matthew was ne f nly fur apstles t prduce a Gspel accunt f Jesus Finally, yu have the secnd James in the list, called James the Lessr in Mark s Gspel, because the ther James was a leader This James is ntable mainly because his mther, Mary, was ne f the wmen wh attended t the bdy f Jesus Hipplytus, an early church father, claimed that James was stned by the temple, similar t James, the brther f Jesus S that s the list f twelve, which desn t mean much t us yet except perhaps fr ne bservatin these were twelve rdinary guys Fishermen, a tax cllectr, sns f rdinary Jewish hmes They had n frmal training in religius matters They were scffed at by the religius elite, mcked by their wn families 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.
15! f! 15 When it came t serving Jesus, they were usually naive, ften cnfused abut things Jesus said, unsure f what Jesus wanted Occasinally they were prne t rash ideas, prideful self-centeredness, and jealusy In at least ne case they suggest Jesus murder inncent peple in the name f Gd and religin using fire frm heaven That s nt what we wuld call an all star team If this was a kickball team Jesus selected, we wuld say Jesus picked last every time! T lead the wrldwide Church f Gd, Jesus selected a grup f belw average, blue-cllar Jewish bys And that shuld be a great encuragement t all f us Because when yu cnsider what Gd accmplished thrugh these rdinary men, yu realize that He culd use us t The nly thing hlding us back frm experiencing great things in service t Christ are ur wn dubts, fears and distractins As we mve ahead int a study f hw Jesus prepares these men, keep that in mind These were nbdies that Jesus prepared t becme the her f the faith Yet they didn t even knw that s what was happening, nt at first S perhaps ask yurself, what is the Lrd preparing yu fr right nw, perhaps fr smething yu dn t even knw is cming? Hw will the Lrd glrify Himself by using rdinary peple like us t accmplish extrardinary things fr His glry? We nly have t lk arund and jin in Him in what we see Him ding, and we ll have the answer t ur questin 2019 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal (www.versebyverseministry.rg) May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.