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The Twelve

JUNE 15, 2008

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.  The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;  Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;  Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.  These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,  but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Matthew 10:1–7

Upon what is your faith in Jesus Christ based? On his miracles? On his teachings? On his death? On his resurrection? On all of these things? Most of us would probably say, “On all of these things.”

Though I would certainly not call you wrong, you are not entirely right either. You see, we must go deeper. In actuality, our faith in Christ is based upon the writings of the apostles. What we know as the New Testament is the written testimony of the Twelve. To be sure, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write what they did, but ultimately, the 27 documents of the New Testament come either directly or indirectly from the pens of the apostles.1 And that’s a good thing, for the apostles were eyewitness and ear–witnesses of Christ’s ministry.

Now here’s the point: Without these 27 inspired and inerrant documents, our knowledge of Jesus would sketchy at best. With them we have more than enough information on which to base our faith. In fact, Jesus himself intended that we should come to know him through the word of the apostles, for he lifted his voice to his Father and said, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their [the apostles’] message.”2 Thus, we see that the Lord expected us to believe in him through their word.

But let’s imagine the unimaginable. Suppose I were Jesus, the one who had come to save the world. I must pick twelve people, train them, and then depend on them to carry my lifesaving message to the world. So who should I choose? I suppose that I would choose twelve educated, talented, and motivated people.

The irony, of course, is that while I have chosen twelve multi–talented and highly trained men, Jesus didn’t. That is not to say that he chose stupid men. He chose ordinary men. Matthew gives us their names:

• The first four are the most well known. There’s Peter and his brother Andrew; then, James and his brother John. All four were fishermen.

• Next we come to Philip and Bartholomew. Philip brought Bartholomew (also known as Nathanael)3 to Jesus. And Bartholomew was the one whom Jesus complimented by saying, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”4

• We come now to Thomas and Matthew. Now there’s a pair! This is “doubting Thomas,” the one who refused to believe in Christ’s resurrection.5 And, then, there’s Matthew — the tax collector. Typically, a tax collector was an unscrupulous man who overcharged his countrymen and pocketed the difference. What’s more, he worked for the Romans. The Jews held such men to be so immoral that they was forbidden to enter the synagogue.6

• Of the remaining four, you will probably recognize only one name: James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon, the Cananaean (meaning, the zealot), and Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Christ).

As you consider these twelve men, I want you to think about four things:

• First, every one of them was a sinner — just like you and me. None better; none worse.
• Second, they were commoners (not a rabbi, scholar, or big–shot among them).
• Third, apart from Peter, James, John, and Judas, we know very little about their lives. and
• Fourth, these ordinary men were eyewitnesses of the extraordinary. They saw the living Christ after his resurrection. And empowered by the Spirit, they carried the Savior’s message, a message that would satisfy the deepest longings of the human soul, and a message that would change the world to lands near and far. The spoke the message with their tongues and wrote the message with their pens.

 

What does this have to do with you and me? It tells us that ordinary people, even despised people, are not second–rate people. It tells us that Jesus doesn’t favor men and women who are rich, or powerful, or famous. It tells us that when we’ve been put through the ringer, he cares, because, don’t you see, what matters to us matters to him. He comes to hear our cries for help, for the LORD says, “He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.”7 Indeed, the Lord says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.”8

Let’s return to the idea that our faith is based on the writings of the apostles. The function of an apostle was well understood by the Jews of Jesus’ day. That’s because an apostle was the New Testament counterpart of the Old Testament shaliach. A shaliach was one who was sent as the official representative of another. He had the authority to conduct business on behalf of the one who sent him. His word was exactly the word of the one who sent him. The shaliach was like the man himself. The decision of a shaliach was binding.9 Consider Moses. The LORD sends him to speak on his behalf to Pharaoh. Thus, we find Moses speaking and acting in the name of the One who sent him, namely, God. From this time forward “the words of Moses will qualify as the words of God because of the commission which Moses has received.”10

When we move into the New Testament, we find that Jesus speaks of himself as one sent from the Father. As such, his words are God’s words. Thus, we find him saying to his hearers, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.”11 So, then, Jesus is a sent One, a shaliach par excellence of the Father. He, therefore, speaks with all the authority of his Father.

The word apostle means “one who is sent.” And in our text, we find Jesus calling and sending the Twelve. We read: These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”12 Notice that Jesus not only sent them to preach, but he also told them what to preach, viz., that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Moreover, on the night of his betrayal, Jesus said something of vital importance to his apostles (and by extension to us). He said to them, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”13

If, then, the Father sent the Son who sent the apostles to preach and teach all things that Jesus said and taught, where should we look for his teachings? Clearly, in the apostolic Scriptures, that is, in the New Testament.

But in the first five centuries after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Church was besieged by many writings claiming to be authentic teachings of Christ. How would they decide which documents to trust? The primary test was this: Was the document apostolic? That is to say, was it written by an apostle or at the behest of an apostle? If it was not, the document was rejected. If it was, it was held to be authoritative. As far as the four Gospels are concerned, two of them, Matthew and John were written by apostles. But Mark and Luke were not. So why are they held to be apostolic? Because Peter commissioned Mark to write his Gospel14 and St. Paul commissioned Luke to write his.15 The Church, already from the day of Pentecost, understood that Jesus had commissioned the apostles to be his spokesmen, for we read of the infant church, “And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”16

The words of an apostle were authoritative. They were authoritative because they were eyewitnesses of everything Jesus did. They witnessed his miracles; they heard his words; they saw his crucifixion; they were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ. For three years, they had been in history’s greatest seminary. After all, they were apostles, i.e., men commissioned and sent by their Lord. They knew what was true and what was not. And they were willing to die for that truth!

Eyewitnesses of his resurrection: Have you ever seen a corpse come alive again? Me neither. But the apostles did! The good news that Jesus had conquered death and gives eternal life to all who trust in him was (and still is) the greatest news ever. Energized as never before, the Twelve took the message of the resurrection to the world. They were so certain of what they had seen that all (except John) died a martyr’s death. How did they die? The best evidence suggests the following:

• Peter was crucified upside down in Rome.
• Paul was beheaded in Rome.
• James, the brother of John, was put to death by the sword (Acts 12:2).
• Andrew took the message to Central Asia and was crucified there.
• Philip was executed for converting the wife of a Roman governor.
• Thomas took the Gospel to Syria and India where he was speared to death.
• Matthew was slain in Ethiopia with a halberd.17
• James, the son of Alphaeus, was stoned to death for preaching Christ.
• Bartholomew was martyred for his testimony of Jesus.
• Simon, the zealot, was executed for refusing to sacrifice to the sun god.
• Thaddaeus was shot to death with arrows in Mesopotamia.
• John was the only apostle to die a natural death.

 

Write it on your hearts and etch it on your minds: These men were willing to die cruel deaths because they knew their Savior to be alive. And they knew that once they left this life, he would welcome them into the next.

We are believers today because the message of God’s forgiving love in Christ was passed on. God sent Christ. Christ sent his apostles. The apostles sent the Church. The Church sends us according to our various callings and vocations. Yes, God chooses ordinary people like you and me to share what we have received.

Like them, we are ordinary people who are so certain that we have come to know the greatest riddle of the universe, so certain that we have come to know the way to eternal life, that nothing will stand in our way of confessing and teaching this good news to others. We are God’s ordinary, yet, extraordinary people who, trusting in the apostolic Scriptures, simply confess, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Lord, preserve us in this one, true faith unto life eternal. Amen.

 

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

 

 

Endnotes

 

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