6 Questions About Jesus’s Calling of the 12

The Twelve

In Mark 3:13–19 we get a specific view of Jesus that comes by means of the apostles’ eyes.

And he went up on the mountain and known as to him these whom he desired, they usually got here to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he additionally named apostles) in order that they could be with him and he would possibly ship them out to evangelise and have authority to forged out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the title Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the title Boanerges, that’s, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

The twelve see Jesus as Lord. When he calls, they arrive (Mark 3:13; cf. Mark 1:16–20; 2:14). When he commissions—right here to exit and preach and exorcise demons (Mark 3:14–15)—they obey. The disciples (followers) grow to be apostles (despatched ones). Mark doesn’t document their obedience right here, however he does in Mark 6:12–13.

With Mark 3:13–19 earlier than us, let me briefly ask and reply six questions. First, why did Jesus go up on a mountain after which name the twelve? It might need been to get away from the group. It may also have been as a result of mountains are widespread locations the place God calls sure key servants—Moses, Elijah, and the like—in order to fee them to one thing grand. Second, why twelve? The quantity twelve corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel, and the symbolism thus factors to each an embodiment and a alternative. These males will embody what it means to be true Israel, and thus, as flawed as they’re, they may substitute the present ungodly non secular leaders.

Third, why are they named?¹ To spotlight that Jesus used bizarre males for his extraordinary mission. Not one of the males listed got here from the Aristocracy or the higher class. Matthew was educated (he wrote a Gospel) and wealthy (or as soon as was wealthy, as a tax collector—the one occupation named, and a really shady one at that), however the remaining had been tradesmen. None had been politicians, though “Simon the Zealot” (Mark 3:18) could have been part of a fringe group of militant nationalists who would do something to take down Rome.² None had been from the non secular leaders of the day. We don’t see listed St. Simon the Superhuman, Professor John von Thunder of the Tübingen Institute of Theology, or Blessed Bartholomew of the Order of the Solely Elect Hermits. Quite we discover the widespread and uncouth. Jesus chosen not an all-star group to battle with the highly effective satan and his mighty minions however a bunch of ragamuffins. That God would determine to alter the world by means of bizarre males from an bizarre a part of the world is simply extraordinary.

Allow us to be taught the lesson right here. We don’t want cash, an elite training, or worldly energy or status for use by Jesus to do nice issues. “The church was constructed upon the trustworthy testimony of a bunch of rustics, as Jerome known as them. God delighted in and nonetheless delights in constructing his church with such seemingly inadequate and barely contorted constructing supplies.”³

Fourth, why are among the twelve renamed? Solely Mark data the renaming of Simon, James, and John, the primary three names: “He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the title Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the title Boanerges, that’s, Sons of Thunder)” (Mark 3:16–17). These three could be renamed as a result of they had been three of the 4 first disciples whom Jesus known as, or as a result of they are going to be with Jesus for 2 key moments of his ministry—the transfiguration and the backyard of Gethsemane. They’re clearly a part of Jesus’s inside circle, and due to this fact they may deliver future management to the twelve and the entire church. The renaming, nevertheless, would possibly merely echo what is finished within the OT, the place somebody vital (like Jacob) is renamed as a result of God plans on utilizing him, regardless of his apparent flaws, to advertise his functions.

We don’t want cash, an elite training, or worldly energy or status for use by Jesus to do nice issues.

Fifth, why is Peter listed first and Judas final? Judas is called final for what he did: betrayed Jesus. Peter is called first right here, and in every single place the record is given as a result of he was the primary amongst equals. He was the primary chosen by Jesus. He’s the predominant disciple—within the variety of strains he speaks and the position he performs—within the 4 Gospels and Acts. The Acts of the Apostles focuses partly on Peter’s acts (named 56x). This doesn’t imply Peter was the primary pope. Nonetheless, it does imply he was simply as vital to the brand new covenant as somebody like Moses was to the previous.

Sixth, what of their mission is ours? Our mission is to not be the inspiration of the church. In Ephesians 2:20 Paul speaks of Jesus because the “cornerstone” of the newly fashioned “family of God” (Eph. 2:19), a church “constructed on the inspiration of the apostles and prophets.” Our mission can be to not have the “authority to forged out demons” (Mark 3:15). If there are Christians at present, or at different factors in church historical past, who’ve exorcised demons, they don’t seem to be the norm. Whereas for the apostles, every one in all them, it was the norm. The Acts of the Apostles is a big ebook all about their wonderful acts. Via the facility of the Spirit given to them in a novel and unrepeatable method at Pentecost they’re those doing the miracles. “The indicators of a real apostle,” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:12, are “indicators and wonders and mighty works.” That’s what they did do, not what we are able to do. This maybe explains why the Nice Fee doesn’t embrace the command to heal illness and forged out demons. I additionally imagine because of this, close to the top of his life, Paul writes of {qualifications} for elders and deacons that don’t embrace the miraculous items.

What then of their mission is ours? Jesus’s principal factor. What we examine in Acts 8:4. Those that had been scattered as a consequence of persecution “went about preaching the phrase.” None of those that scattered preached from a pulpit. They preached to their new neighbors. They preached to their fellow countrymen—unbelieving Jews. They preached within the market as they bought their items to Jews and Gentiles alike. They needed the world to know the excellent news of Jesus.

This text is tailored from Expository Reflections on the Gospels, Volume 3: Mark by Douglas Sean O’Donnell.

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