Twelve Remarkably Regular Dudes

Kids, you are welcome to take off for a kid’s church at this point in time. And the rest of us will be heading back to the Gospel of Luke. We’re in the Gospel of Luke for a bit more. And then we’re gonna take a break in the summer. We’re gonna have a topical series on some of your questions that you have for the Bible.

And so that’ll be a fun journey we’re gonna take together. But for now, we’re gonna be staying in the Gospel of Luke chapter six. And beginning in verse 12. So this point in the Gospel of Luke, we have seen Jesus do some amazing things. He has shown his authority over death, disease.

We have seen him conquer demons. He has shown his power over temptation. He has shown his power over all illnesses, paralysis, everything you can think of. Even religious expectations. He has shown his authority over all of it.

Because basically, when Jesus shows up, everything changes for people. How many of you can say Jesus changed my life? I am a different person because Jesus came into my life. Amen. That’s what we’re all about here at GracePoint.

Jesus changes lives. And because he does, we get to go out into the world and influence people with the love of Christ. We get to share that transformation and that joy and that love with others. And up until this point in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has basically been doing a lot of this alone. And it comes to this point in his ministry where he understands it’s time.

It’s time to choose these 12 men, these 12 what he will call apostles who will be with him for the rest of his earthly ministry. These are gonna be 12 guys who will be his apprentices. They will be right there with him as his disciples learning from him. Traveling through the streets, traveling across the countryside, going everywhere with Jesus. They’re gonna stick to him like glue and learn everything they can about the kingdom of God.

He’s also gonna delegate authority to them. We’re gonna see that later on in chapter 10 and beyond. Some of our favorite movies that we love are all about the value of a team working together. We love to see this dynamic, whether it’s the Magnificent Seven or the Avengers or Star Wars or what have you. When a team comes together, amazing things can happen.

Because when people of different strengths and different abilities match up together, they can complement each other so well and accomplish things that could not be done on their own. As they say, if you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, bring some snacks and a team. But as we all know, having a team does present its own challenges. Because now if you’re on a team, that means there’s more personalities I have to deal with than just my own.

It means that I’ve got to learn how to deploy people on the team to their strengths and learn what God has gifted them with. It means that I have to watch out for budding heads and personalities where people don’t always see things the same way. Challenges come with a team and Jesus had a team. He had a team of 12 apostles and these guys, we’re gonna see they were remarkably regular. They were very ordinary.

In every sense, these guys were not the cream of the religious crop. They were not all that impressive. They seemed to be in blue collar work or doing things for the government or whatever, but they didn’t seem to be ideal disciples. But Jesus chose these men. And just think about this, what an incredible privilege to be one of these men.

To be there in the front row to see all of the things Jesus did for the rest of his earthly ministry. He was gonna show them what it looks like to teach others. He was gonna show them miracles. He was gonna give them authority to watch out demons. Now, did they know what a privileged place they were in?

In many places, you see it in the gospels. They do seem to understand they were on holy ground just being with Jesus, hearing him talk and watching him do miracles. But at other times, it’s like they act like these bumbling school boys who argue about who’s the greatest and who was supposed to pack lunch this time and all these things that are very immature. And we just think like, why these guys? Why of all the people Jesus could have chosen?

Why these men? They weren’t necessarily the team you or I would have chosen, but God had a purpose for these 12 men. And as we’re gonna see, because Jesus chose these specific 12 people, their lives are gonna be transformed forever. And our lives are transformed because Jesus chose them, because we have the fruit of their ministry right here. We have their eyewitness testimony.

We know that even great leaders, human leaders have flaws. And the people who could point them out are those who are most around them. Those who were closest to Abraham Lincoln could say, you know, he was a great man, but I can tell you he had flaws. John F. Kennedy, he was a great man, but you know, he had these flaws.

We saw it up close and personal. Those who were with Jesus, who knew him best, who saw him 24/7 for three years, said, you know what, we saw everything about Jesus. He was completely sinless. He never said or did or thought or tried anything at all out of character with the living God. And because of that, they were the perfect people to be commissioned for this work.

Here’s the big idea this morning. By choosing and investing in these 12, Jesus gave us the perfect leadership model of multiplication. And in the process of choosing these 12, we get to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn a little bit in the school of his teaching on leadership. This is from Luke chapter six, if you would, please stand for the reading of God’s holy and perfect word. This is what Dr.

Luke has to say in chapter six, verse 12. It says, in these days, he went out to the mountain, that’s Jesus, to pray. And all night, he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12, whom he named apostles. Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the zealot, and Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And maybe seated. Now, one question people might have is, why 12? Why that number? And I think there’s a lot of ways you can answer that question. I think it is a ideal number as far as a small group, or a group of well-connected, well-teamed-up people.

That’s a good number of 12. But I think there’s a deeper answer. Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, saw himself as being the one, the king, who was forming this reconstituted Israel. And so, what better number than 12? Because 12 represented the 12 tribes of Israel.

Every Jew in the land, when they hear the 12, they know immediately, we’re talking about Israel. This is Israel’s foundational team, and that’s how Jesus saw these men. In fact, the only reason we know anything about these otherwise unremarkable men is that Jesus chose them. That’s what it comes down to. You can analyze it every direction you want.

The only reason we know about these guys is because Jesus chose them. And before choosing them, it says Jesus prayed. Verse 12, “In these days, Jesus went out to the mountain to pray.” And all night, he continued in prayer to God. When I read that passage with my son, Logan, he said, “All night?”

Like it sounds super human. He’s a marathon of prayer. He is out there, and it shows Jesus’ devotion to the Father. That he is out there. There’s no energy drinks, no coffee.

He is just out there on the mountain, alone with his Father, and he’s seeking his Father’s will. He wants to know, Father, what would you have me do? You remember Jesus, the divine Son of God, has laid aside the use of his divine attributes. So at this point, he’s not using omniscience. Holy as a man, limited in knowledge, limited in understanding about the future.

And so he’s seeking the Father’s will, wanting to know, Father, what would you have me do? Who do you want me to choose? And he’s out there, and this is the first lesson in the school of Christ. Leadership lesson is prioritize prayerful dependence before making decisions. Prioritize prayerful dependence before making decisions.

That’s in your notes. A few hundred years ago, there was a French dishwasher and cook named Brother Lawrence. He worked at a monastery there, and the thing that he said is, I may not know everything that the monks that live here know. I’m not as scholarly, I’m not as well-trained as all these guys, but here’s what I know. Prayer is important.

Prayer matters. And without prayer, I’m not gonna live as if God is the source of all my strength, all my wisdom, and everything I need in life. It’s by prayer that I can stay connected to God. And so he made it his life goal. I’m gonna live every moment of the day as far as I can in God’s presence.

He knew that there were designated times that the monks would pray. There were times before meals and other times throughout the day. On the certain hour, they would pray. But Brother Lawrence thought, you know what, why can’t I always be praying? Pray without ceasing is what the Bible says.

He’s washing dishes and cooking for the men. He’s thinking, God, this is for you. Everything I do, it’s in your presence, and this is sacred work I’m doing. I may not be the smartest guy, I may not be the most well-trained guy, but I’m doing this as a sacred duty for you. I was sacred because he did it out of love for God.

And at the prompting of his friends, he wrote a little book called Practicing the Presence of God. He thought of as a small contribution, it’s affected millions who have been influenced by him, but he saw it as a simple way of explaining prayer is not so much this religious duty that good Christians ought to do. Prayer really is conversation with God. It’s our opportunity, it’s our gift to be able to share everything with God. There’s no limits to what we should talk to God about.

There’s no area of life where we don’t need God’s input and where we don’t need sense, his presence. He said, I want to bring God into everything because that’s how finite I am. I love Brother Lawrence’s approach to prayer because it cuts through all the complexity and confusion we often bring to prayer. Like is there a certain time I need to pray? Do I need to be in a certain state of mind before I start praying?

Do I need to use certain words that sound holy enough or religious enough? Do I need to only ask for certain things because God doesn’t want to hear about all those other mundane things in life? Is that how we should think about prayer? He said, no, bring God into everything. And it was a very biblical way of thinking of prayer.

Psalm 16, 8 says, I have set the Lord always before me because he’s at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. And to a much greater degree than Brother Lawrence, Jesus was filled with presence of God. He was filled with a mind set on God’s will. He wanted to know his father’s thoughts on everything he wanted to seek his will in all matters of life. Jesus himself said that he depended on the father.

He was living out the will of the father. And certainly you can pray any place you are. You can pray at any time. But there is a benefit, an incredible benefit to carving out time to intentionally get away for even if it’s a mini prayer retreat of 10 minutes. And to set aside time and say, God, this is your time.

I want to sit in your presence. I want to learn from you. I want to hear from you. I want your word to come alive in my soul. I want to be changed by this time with you.

We live in a world filled with technology and digital distractions. All these things pulling on our attention. There’s only a finite amount of time we have every day. What are we going to give our attention to during that time? Our phones are with us 24/7.

We’re constantly checking the news. We’re answering emails, text messages. We’re googling, sometimes useless information. But the Bible says to make sure you use the time you’ve been given wisely because the days are evil. This is an evil age.

That’s what Jesus would say. So use your time wisely. Begin with prayer. Begin by going to God and spending time with God. This is a habit I’ve continually tried to work on.

I’m certainly not perfect at it. I’m trying to improve at it. But if I get up a little bit early and I go downstairs and I have my coffee in hand, of course, and my Bible, and I sit in a place where I can get a little bit of quiet space and maybe get a view of creation, and then just sit there and ask God, speak to me from your word. Show me what you want from me, God. And I use that time to confess sin, to express gratitude, to pray for others.

I pray for you. I ask God to lead me and I tell him, I’m ready to surrender this day to you. Show me your will. And just by beginning that way, we are following the Master. We’re learning what it means to be a disciple.

And we’re recognizing we can’t do this life, without the Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s not just something I love to do. I need to do that. Prayer is how we stay connected to God. It’s our lifeline to heaven.

And we were created, not just to know about God, but to know Him and be with Him and enjoy His presence. And if we’re not spending time alone with God, we will not grow. Jesus, though He was fully God, was prayerfully dependent on the Father. John 519, Jesus says, very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can do only what He sees His Father doing.

I love that intimacy. He’s saying, there’s nothing I can do. He’s the Son of God. He’s perfect. And He’s saying, I can’t do anything on my own.

It’s only as I stay connected to the Father. So this is true for leadership, but it’s true for all of life in general. We have to begin with prayer. And so as you’re taking that morning commute, or you’re in your classroom, or you’re in your workspace, or you’re on your laptop, or you’re talking with your family, getting ready for the day, whatever it is, spend time and prayer, bring God into every aspect of life and admit to Him, you need Him. You cannot do this.

Without Him. That’s how Jesus lived. Secondly, in your notes, choose leaders based on calling and character more than credentials and charisma. We tend to have a lofty view of these guys. They are, after all, the 12 apostles.

Their names are in our Bibles. They are known across the world. When Whitney and I went to Rome, we went to the St. Peter’s Basilica, which is this very beautiful big church right there in the Vatican. And on the front, you can see across this ornate facade, there’s all these statues.

It’s Christ at the center, and then on either side of Him are all the apostles. And it’s this very exalted, impressive stature they’re all given. Which is ironic because the gospels portray these guys as anything but impressive and exalted. If you step away from the stained glass windows and all the statues and all the figurines or whatever, and you just look at what the gospels have to say about these men, you recognize they were very human in every way. They had all the flaws and foibles you’d expect from people like us.

We need to remember that they were ordinary because we need to recognize that if Jesus can do such a powerful work in ordinary, regular guys, then He can certainly do a work in us. So what kinds of things do you struggle with? What sins are you prone to? What tends to put you over the edge of now from no longer a patient, but impatient? They struggled with those same things.

They were human, like us. The Bible says of Elijah, He was just a man, like us. Yes, He prayed and God turned off the rain for three and a half years. He was just a man. Don’t be so impressed with Elijah.

Be impressed with who Elijah worshiped, the same with these men. From the first time we see them, these guys are portrayed as kind of bumbling, sometimes faithless, sometimes people that just lacked all potential. For example, who picks a guy like Matthew? Matthew was a former scammer, right? He’s not what you’d consider the kind of guy you want on your discipleship dream team.

He has been completely transformed, but he’s got this history of taking advantage of people. None of them were famous. None of them were noble, wealthy, or well connected. None of them had this status in the Jerusalem temple. Jesus didn’t pick any graduates from the rabbinic school.

And there were plenty of religious scholars at this time. They show up all through the gospels. Jesus could have chosen from any one of them, but He chose these guys, fishermen, tax collector, zealot. He didn’t choose any of those guys you would think the Son of God would want. And He would later emphasize his sovereignty and the choice here.

He said, this is all about my choice. He told them in John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. Jesus loves to choose those who are unqualified, unimpressive, because they’re the ones that can serve in His kingdom. These guys didn’t get chosen because they were so eager to seek Him out first. They didn’t prove they were worthy.

It wasn’t a matter of Jesus looking around and like, who’s most eager to follow me today? Okay, you guys. No, it says He went out. He called them to follow Him. And by choosing them, He was transforming their lives forever.

But here’s something clear from this. Jesus chose these men based on calling. It was not based on credentials. It was not based on competence. Now competence matters, but far more important is calling and character.

These men were not necessarily all that impressive on the outside, but Jesus would remind us of Psalm, I mean, 1 Samuel 16, where God says, man looks at the outward appearance. He looks at how people look on the exterior. God looks at the heart. God sees who people are and He transforms us from the inside out. And Jesus was in a mold and make these well men into the people He wanted.

Third in your notes, expect God to show His power in your weakness. Now you might wonder, okay, why did Jesus choose these guys of all the people? Why them specifically? And one reason we know that God chooses the ordinary and less impressive is because He can make His power and glory known through those type of people. Those that are too full of themselves who think of themselves as I’ve qualified myself for work in the kingdom.

Those are the guys that are gonna be less effective. It’s the humble, the meek. Those who recognize on my own, I’ve got nothing. On my own, I’m not able to do what you want, Lord. It’s those who come to Him in weakness that He uses to show His strength.

The Apostle Paul figured this out. Now He did come from an impressive background, even the Apostle Paul, He was the latecomer to the apostles. He recognized, Jesus said from the beginning, I’m gonna suffer. He said, I’m gonna show you many things, Paul, and you’re gonna suffer for my sake. That’s your calling.

Welcome to the team. And Paul would suffer. He would suffer everywhere he went. He would be driven out of towns and he would be beaten and he would be stoned. And he even had this time where he had this thorn in the flesh.

I don’t know exactly what it was, something that bothered him. And it was, I’m sure something that in his mind, this is hindering my ministry. Lord, if you just took away this ailment or this problem that I’m dealing with all the time, man, I would be more effective for the kingdom. Jesus said, my grace is sufficient for you, Paul. For my power is made perfect in your weakness.

It’s your weakness that is the opportunity for my power and glory to shine. You think of it as, I gotta bring all my strengths. I’m gonna transform your thinking and show you that it’s in your weaknesses that my strength will be seen. This happens all through the Bible, men and women used by God in remarkable ways. Esther, she was a Jewish woman and she certainly didn’t want to be put in that position as the queen, but God used her.

God said, now is the time. He used her cousin Mordecai. To give her the words she needed in that moment. For such a time as this, you have been chosen, Esther. Another example is Gideon.

Now Gideon was not a warrior, but God chose Gideon to lead the Israelite army to victory over the Midianites. And you look at Gideon and he was anything but impressive. He was not a military background. He was hiding. He was scared.

He was afraid of the imposing force that was coming his way. And even Gideon didn’t believe in Gideon. And then God comes to him and this is how he addresses him. The Lord is with you, O man of valor. Says Gideon, no one is looking at you and impressed.

I’m looking at you and I’m saying you are a man of valor because I’m with you. I will give you the victory. You just have to put your trust in me and you will see me work. Most of us are very aware of our weaknesses. We wish we could change them.

We wish we could take them away and we wish we could just have our strengths highlighted. But what if God has given you your weaknesses, even your weaknesses as places and opportunities where you can most shine for his glory? God uses remarkably regular people because that’s where his glory most shines. And Paul uses this illustration of clay pots. In the ancient world, clay pots were very ordinary.

They could store all kinds of things. You could transport water, you could transport food, you could hide your treasure in clay pots. A lot of times that’s what people would do. They would put their precious jewels and treasures in these ordinary clay fragile pots. And Paul says, that’s you guys.

That’s us. We are the clay pots. He says, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. If it was all about these gold dishes holding the treasure, everyone would be impressed with that gold dish. They would say, wow, that’s amazing.

Look at how impressive that is. No wonder that’s chosen to hold the treasure. And the treasure is the power of the gospel, the kingdom. Paul says God has chosen clay pots, ordinary, regular, fragile, vulnerable vessels, all of us, to carry this power this insurmountable, extraordinary power of the kingdom. Because that’s where his glory will shine.

Personally, I think Jesus chose these men in particular because it had to be God. At the end of the day, you look at what these men did and what they accomplished and how the gospel covered the world. And it’s transformed the world ever since. It can only be rooted in a supernatural power of God. You look at these men, it can’t be them.

There’s no way it was because of these guys. It had to be because of God. Fourth in your notes, invest relationally. This is your fourth lesson from Jesus. Invest relationally in others with the goal of kingdom multiplication.

When the gospel of Mark talks about the same scene, he emphasizes that Jesus called these apostles to be with him so that he could send them out to preach the gospel. He said I want you guys to be with me. I want you to know me. I want us to spend time together. I want to invest in you relationally.

He chose these dozen men and he poured into them so much. And John will tell you what’s recorded in the New Testament is only the sliver of a fraction of what these men experienced. But all that time was not wasted. It was used to pour into these men to prepare them to proclaim the kingdom. Jesus understood enough simply to give lessons.

They needed to learn from him relationally and see him in action. By the end of these three years together, these men knew Jesus. And they knew each other because they had to work together as a team. They knew that and they’re sleeping in their tents, Peter snores the loudest. They knew all about his problems.

They knew that Nathaniel, man, he always has something to complain about that guy. And they knew what it sounded like when Jesus was laughing. He had this unique laugh. They knew what it sounded like to hear his voice. They knew that that sigh that Jesus breathed when they knew they were blowing it.

Jesus says something for us now. They spent all this time together. And very likely they were very young men when Jesus chose them. We know that because John, whose brother of James, fishermen, he lived an additional 60 plus years after Jesus ascended. So very likely these were very young guys when Jesus first picked them out.

And Jesus calls them things like children and boys. And that was a term, it’s an endearing term, but it was a term used of those who are young than you and Jesus was only around 30 years old. So if they’re younger than him, these are young men. And you need to know that Jesus enjoyed spending time with these men. He loved getting to know them.

He loved them relating together. He loved to watch them work things out and reconcile. Yes, he was on a mission from heaven to ultimately die for the sins of the world, but he poured special, unique time into these 12 men, unlike anybody else. And even within those 12, he would pull aside three, Peter, James and John, for even more special, unique time. Jesus understood that there’s value in investing relationally in a few or in a dozen.

You can’t invest in everybody the same way. You have your family and you’ve got your closest friends. God has put into your life those all around you that you can invest in relationally. You can’t invest in everybody the same, but Jesus invested in these men in particular. God is relational, so Jesus was intentionally relational and reached out to these men.

And all of that mattered because as they were with Jesus and spent time with him and learned what the kingdom is all about, they were being equipped and trained and taught the mind of Christ. They were prepared to preach the gospel. And for any of us to be effective in the purpose God has placed on our lives, if we are gonna live out our calling, we have to be with Jesus. We have to spend time with him. We have to spend time with his people.

Jesus would call us to invest in others relationally. ‘Cause he doesn’t want us to walk this journey alone. He knows that that can sometimes be our tendency, thinking, I’ll go faster, I’ll do better if I’m on my own. But Jesus calls us to community. So what about you?

Have you looked into joining a life group? Have you looked into joining a Bible study? Or are you connected with other believers on a consistent basis? Do other believers know you well enough that they can speak into your life in your situation and say, you know what? I see this over here and I see this in your life.

I think this is the wisest course. Do you have people who can invest in you and are you investing in others? That’s what the Christian life is all about. It’s hard to think of something more important to give your time to than helping another person become more like Jesus. Fifth in your notes, build a mixed team that models unity in Christ.

This was a very unique medley of followers of Jesus here. They were very diverse. For example, it’s very strange when you think about it that you have a rabbi who said things like blessed are the peacemakers to pick a zealot for his team. The zealots were known as this almost semi-terrorist kind of group known for planning these attacks on the Roman leaders. Simon the zealot at one point, he would have been a guy who was a hot head.

He was bent on, I need to take down Rome. We got to take down this power. Come on guys, let’s rally together. And he would have been thinking the way to victory is violence. That’s how Simon thought.

And then on the complete other end of the political spectrum, you have Matthew, formerly known as Levi, who was a tax collector. He worked for Rome. He was benefited by Rome in that way he loved Rome because they were the ones that were working with him to fill his pockets. And then you have Simon who hates Rome. And Jesus calls these two guys from the polar ends of the planet.

The political spectrum and he calls them together to be in his tight knit group and he says, you guys get to be together with me. Can you imagine the first time those guys were all together in a room? Would have been a HR nightmare. Just think of all the tension. And Jesus says, if you will follow me, if you will follow me, you will be on the right path.

The only way for them to do anything effective in ministry and get over their differences is they had to choose. I’m gonna lay aside my personal preferences. I’m gonna lay aside all these things that I hold near and dear that aren’t conformed to Christ. I’m gonna plant my flag with Jesus. And see, this is the awesome thing about Christianity.

You can have people from a wide and diverse range of backgrounds, totally different preferences, totally different backgrounds and experiences. And then when they come together and they put their faith in Jesus, they are united by the one Holy Spirit. What they have in common is the most important thing. And they can do anything together by the power of the Spirit. Their differences suddenly start to fade to the background.

They’re not the important thing. The Bible says, in Christ, all the dividing walls of hostility are broken down. So no longer should things like skin color or social status or economic background or family background or voting habits dictate your relationship with others in the church. Because other believers in Jesus are members of the same body of Christ as you. And that is the most important thing.

You have the most profound basis for unity than anything. The world does not have anything that compares to this. That’s why God takes unity in his church so seriously. So are you gonna sometimes bump up against people who have different personalities? Are you sometimes gonna rub shoulders with those who see things way differently than you?

Absolutely. And the thing that you have to do in that moment is show grace. You have been shown grace by God. You were an alien. You were cut off from the commonwealth of Israel, the Bible says.

You were an outsider. You were the foreigner to God’s kingdom. What did God do? He grabbed you and he brought you in. And he said, you’re part of the family now.

That’s how we are to treat one another, unity in Christ. And finally, in your lessons here, surrender your desires to Christ and bear the cross he gives you. In order to lead well and influence others for the kingdom, we have to be led by the king. This is uppermost when it comes to following Jesus. Jesus did not promise that these men were gonna be healthy, wealthy, and everything going their way.

He said, you need to deny yourself. If you’re gonna follow me, sacrifice all your personal preferences. Put all your desires on the altar and come follow me. Die to yourself and then go and die for my sake. And that’s what would happen to the majority of these men.

They would see that leadership, according to Jesus, looks like serving others. Leadership isn’t, I need to make sure I’m in the privileged place and I’m in the comfortable seat and I’m the one bossing others around. It looks like getting down on your hands and knees and washing feet. It looks like serving others first before yourself. It looks like making sure that you are laying down your life for others.

In order to transform the world, these 12 would have to be transformed first. They had to be completely changed on the inside and all except one were completely changed. He was one and he’s mentioned here, Luke says, we have to say this. Basically, Luke says, I gotta tell you, Judas Iscariot, he became a traitor. There was one who heard Jesus.

He was there for all these moments. He heard about this reversal in the kingdom where the, the happy, or the, the meek are gonna be blessed and the humble are gonna be exalted. He heard about all of that. He heard that worldly wealth is tempting, but you need to serve God alone, but he still chose all of that. He chose the world.

He chose himself. He chose sin. And so that’s why we have to call it out right away. Luke says, he was the traitor. He was the one who failed, but the others remain loyal.

They died to themselves. And because of that, they could tell this message. They traveled all over the world proclaiming the risen Lord. They said, there is a God who reigns and reigns. He wants a relationship with you, but you have rebelled against him.

And so because of that, you’re going to be judged by him. Your only hope, and this is the only hope there is, you have to put your faith in Jesus Christ. He died for your sins. He bore your guilt on the cross. He rose again the third day putting away all your sin and shame.

He’s your only hope. You have to come to that king if you wanna be saved. They told that message all over the world. He tells us how the risen Jesus transformed these men into leaders. First, we have Simon, Simon whom he named Peter.

He was that unstable fisherman at the beginning, but Jesus said, you’re the rock. I’m gonna make you the one. I build everything around. You’re gonna be a leader. You’re gonna be a courageous leader.

He preached at Pentecost, led the Jerusalem church, opened the gospel to Gentiles and traveled all over, ended up in Rome. And what I learned to do is that Jesus, who was going to history, was crucified upside down because he said, I am not worthy to die in the same manner as my Lord. If anything, you can still crucify me. I’ll die for him, but just do it upside down so that I’m not dying in the same way as Jesus. Second, Andrew, Peter’s brother.

Fisherman, he’s known for his humble evangelism. He also traveled all over Greece, Asia Minor, after the ascension. He ended up crucified also on an X-shaped cross. He was according to tradition. He died proclaiming Jesus is Lord.

Yesus Kurios to all pastors by. And then he died. Third, there’s James, the son of Zebedee, known as the Greater. He was one of the sons of thunder. He was fired up about what Rome was doing also, and he was fired up against the Samaritans.

But Jesus transformed him. He died to himself, and then he ended up being the first one to die among these apostles for Jesus. He was beheaded sword under Herod in Jerusalem. His brother, John, son of Zebedee, was known as the beloved. He was a fisherman as well.

Jesus transformed him from a son of thunder to the apostle of love. He did his ministry primarily in modern day Turkey. He was the only one of the apostles that died of natural old age. They did try to kill him, put him in a boiling cauldron of oil and miraculously, according to tradition, he survived that and went on to continue preaching the gospel. Fifth, there was Philip.

He was this analyst who looked at everything from all these different angles. He ended up proclaiming the gospel freely. Did his ministry in Frigia, Herropolis? He died in 80 roughly, scourge and prisoned and also crucified. Bartholomew, he was known as the skeptic among the group.

He said things like, can anything good come out of Nazareth? But he was turned into this amazing believer in Jesus. He did ministry in India, Armenia and beyond. He died by being flayed alive and beheaded in India. He was ordered to worship the gods of India and he refused.

So they killed him. Matthew, formerly Levi, the tax collector, he was a despised collaborator initially, but he was turned into this gracious man of God. He wrote our first gospel, went on to Ethiopia to do ministry. He was murdered by a halberd. Thomas, we call him doubting Thomas, but he was known for his bold confession all over India.

Even in India today, there are Thomas Christians who owe their faith ancestry to Thomas because he was so bold for the gospel. He also was speared to death when he refused to worship the pagan gods of India. James, the son of Altheus, the lesser or the less, he was kind of a low profile. We don’t know a ton about him, to be honest. He was in Jerusalem and he ended up being stoned and clubbed to death.

Simon, the zealot, he was that fiery, passionate, zealous guy, but he was transformed from a worker of violence to a proclaimer of the gospel of peace. But he died of violent death in Britain. He made it all the way to Britain. Amazing. Judas, son of James.

He would later go by Thaddeus. It’s no wonder when they hear Judas, he’s always saying, “I’m not that Judas.” He went on to Persia and Armenia. He was crucified, clubbed and shot with arrows, died in 8072. And finally, because Judas went his own way, betrayed the Lord, he was replaced by Matthias.

And he was likely among the 70s sent out later in Luke. According to tradition, he did ministry in Judea and Cappadocia, also crucified in Ethiopia. See, when Jesus called these men to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, it’s interesting how many of them actually did take up their cross. They died by crucifixion. And almost all of them died for their Lord.

Because Jesus had invested in them. He influenced them first. And so the question I have for you is, who is it that God is calling you to reach out in a special way to pour into, to give time, energy and attention to, to disciple, to love, to share? There are people in your life that God is calling you to invest in. And only you can sometimes reach some of these people.

Let’s pray together. God, we’re humbled when we think about what these 12 men would eventually go through. To give their lives for Christ, to give the last full measure of their devotion. And what a gift to know that they did not recant. They refused to worship the pagan gods, the false gods.

They said, I’m gonna worship Jesus to the end. I’m gonna proclaim Jesus as the risen king until he takes me home. Lord, thank you for investing in each one of these men, relationally. Those disciple makers who carry on the same heritage, passing on the faith, sharing the good news with others, being willing to lay down our lives in service for others. Because that is what your kingdom is all about.

Thank you for leading the way, Jesus, being the first to lay down your life as our good shepherd for us sheep.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 7,119 words.