Appointing the Apostles
TRANSLATION
(13) And he went up the mountainside, and, after he called those whom he desired to (join) him, they came to him. (14) And he appointed twelve whom he named “apostles” so that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach (15) and to have authority to cast out demons.
(16) (The twelve included) Simon to whom he gave the name “Peter,” (17) James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name “Boanerges,” that is, “Sons of thunder,” (18) and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, (19) and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him.
(20) Then Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that he and his disciples could not even eat.
OBSERVATIONS
Just after launching his earthly ministry, Jesus chose the twelve disciples who would become his closest companions. Two repetitions marked this segment: “twelve” (vss. 14 & 16) and the phrase, “to whom he gave the name” (vss. 16 & 17), along with the verb, “named” (vs. 14). These twelve apostles, with the exception of Judas, would eventually become the pillars upon which Christ would build his church (Mt. 16:18). In the process of calling them to himself, he gave three of them special names. Simon he renamed “Peter” and to the brothers, James and John, he gave the name “Boanerges” or the “Sons of Thunder.” These three formed the innermost core of the twelve, those most intimate with Jesus.
By his appointing and naming these men, Jesus established himself as their leader. Two others would eventually join this group, namely Matthias, who would take the betrayer’s place (Acts 1:20-26), and Paul, the “one born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:8 - KJV) who would be known as “the apostle to the Gentiles.”
OUTLINE
I. Jesus called and appointed some of his disciples to be his partners in ministry. (13-15)
II. These twelve he would prepare to become his “apostles.” (16-20)
IDEA STATEMENT
Jesus chose and called the twelve by name to be with him and to be trained as his “apostles.”
APPLICATION
In John’s Gospel we read the following statement: “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (Jn. 10:3). In the case of the twelve apostles, his calling and appointing was accomplished in a very personal way. All who have followed Jesus as his disciples in the generations since are known to him personally and called by name, and they will inevitably be transformed by their personal relationship with the master.
Jesus gave the following promises to the suffering church in Smyrna: “To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it” (Rev. 2:17). What is the “hidden manna” and what is the “white stone with a new name written on it?” Here are a couple suggested answers. For those who follow and obey Jesus, thus becoming “overcomers,” he has promised to provide for all their needs just as God supplied the needs of the Israelites in the wilderness when they had no other food (“hidden manna”). He has also promised to identify himself with them as they are transformed into the likeness of their Savior (“white stone with a new name written on it”). Those who have followed him as his disciples over the centuries can lay claim to the very same promises he gave to the believers in Smyrna. What a blessing to be identified with the risen Lord and to know that we can trust him to provide for us and work his will in us just as he has done for all who have followed him as disciples ever since he first called the twelve to himself!