The 12
The 12 AKA The disciples.
We have touched on a few of the 12, but maybe today we will touch lightly on all of them.
“He appointed the Twelve:
To Simon, He gave the name Peter; and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, He gave the name “Boanerges” (that is, “Sons of Thunder” ); Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.”
Simon, He gave the name Peter. We often call him Simon Peter to separate him from Simon the Zealot. Simon Peter was the one whom Jesus used his boat and caught all those fish. History tells us that he refused to be crucified like Jesus so he insisted that he be crucified upside down.
James the son of Zebedee, was one of a two-part deal in Jesus’ ministry. His brother John was the other. Jesus gave them the nickname “sons of thunder”. At one point or maybe often they would be arguing about who would get the highest seat next to Jesus.
John: James’s brother. John is the one who was able to get Peter into the courtyard to witness Jesus’ trial. John is the one who outlived all the other disciples and while in exile wrote the book of Revelation. He has his own Gospel.
Andrew: Simon Peter’s brother. Andrew was one of the two disciples of John the Baptist who had left John to follow Jesus.
Philip was from the hometown of Peter and Andrew. He may have been the other disciple of John. Philip is the outspoken man in John 14 who says, “Show us the Father and that will be enough.” He is not the same man as the Philip in Acts who talked to the Ethiopian Enunic about the book of Isaiah.
Bartholomew AKA Nathanael the brother of Philip was under the tree when Philip found him and Jesus saw him. History tells us he took the Gospel to India and was killed by being put in a sac and thrown into the sea.
Matthew AKA Levi. He was the tax collector in Mark 2 and wrote His gospel.
Thomas AKA Doubting Thomas. Thomas was skeptical of some of the actions of Jesus. In John we see him questioning about following Jesus to the festival in Jerusalem. And in acts, he was not there when Jesus first appeared to the disciples.
James the son of Alphaeus. James became the central pillar of the church after Jesus’ resurrection. This James is thought to be the James who wrote the book with his name and the brother of Jesus.
Thaddaeus or Jude. He also speaks up in John 14 and is identified as Judas, not Iscariot. It is believed that he wrote the book Jude.
Simon the Zealot. As I mentioned before he would have been at odds with Matthew because Zealots hated Tax collectors because they were Jews who sided with the Roman government. He would also be opposed to the Herodians in verse 6. But Jesus was able to draw these two men together to be His disciples.
Judas Iscariot. The money keeper. The one who sold Jesus for 30 silver coins. The only one who would die before Jesus because he could not forgive himself for what he had done even though Jesus would have.
Jesus chose His disciples from among various groups of people to bring unity inside His church. These guys were fishermen, tax collectors, anti-tax collectors, and formal disciples of John. Most of these guys were rejected by the disciple-making process of their day and had to go home and work with their fathers in their trade. Two of the four gospel writers came from this group. I did not see Mark in this list and Luke will come later.
“So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church. When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying.”
Acts 12:5, 12 HCSB
“Luke, the dearly loved physician, and Demas greet you.”
Colossians 4:14 HCSB
So who makes it hard for you to be a disciple of Jesus? Find common ground with them and live in the unity of Jesus and not in discord. Jesus was able to do it with his 12 he can do it in you too.
Comments
Post a Comment