And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles
The call of the twelve
Up till this time it can hardly be said that the kingdom of God was set up.
At the hour of His widest popularity, yet at a crisis of gathering peril, in face of the people and the adversary together, He virtually sets up His kingdom. It was a moment of decision. It was a policy of safety, because a policy of boldness. It was an act of calm, foresighted courage, full in its simplicity of the moral sublime. Let us gather up and realize the circumstances.
1. Our Lord’s night-long preparation for this step is worthy of devout attention. The veil of loneliness and of night is on that prayer. But may we not humbly venture so far at least into that night’s solitary and sacred communings? Courage to go forward; wisdom to choose those whom His Father had chosen, and had given Him for that end. Can the Son of God be true brother to us all if at such an hour He needs not to ask these things for Himself? And for them, that they might rise to the height of their high calling. And for us, and for all the long line of Christian generations to be built up on these twelve foundations I May we not so read that long-night prayer of consecration and of intercession by our Priest and King? A lone dark watch on the cool hill-top, with the stars of God Looking calmly down on Him, and the great lake spread silently out below, as far from earthly care and sin, as near the heavens in their pureness, as may be--behold the oratory of the Son of Man.
2. When morning broke over the dark wall of the opposite shore, it showed Him pale from sleeplessness, but serene from prayer. Beneath Him, on the hill-side, was the gathering of His disciples. Man by man, He called whom He would by name; and man by man, the elect twelve left their wondering companions to take their places by the Master’s side, to be for ever now chief councillors in His kingdom, the next in honour and the next in danger. Most of them have been heard of already in the narrative: Simon the Rock and his lesser brother, with the two sons of Thunder, whom He had called together from their fishing-nets to be four partners in the ministry; Philip of Bethsaida and his friend Nathanael, as together a year ago they found the Christ; two of the Lord’s own brothers and the Capernaum publican just called two days before; and one Simon the Zealot and Thomas; and, last and strangest of all, that one, unsuspected as yet by any save Jesus, who was “a devil.” “The glorious company of the apostles,” the Church has called them in her hymn; but had we seen them that dawn, as they clustered round their King, we must have thought them a strange, unlikely, inglorious band. Twelve Galilean workmen, with average ability and the prejudices of their class; attracted indeed by the superiority of this Man, and yielding to His influence, but neither comprehending who He was, nor what He was to do; ignorant, rude, strong-passioned, ill-assorted: by these Twelve to lay the foundations of the Church of God so broad and deep that on them might be built the hopes of all mankind and the destinies of the saved, regenerated earth! Did ever means seem in more foolish disproportion to the end? Yet He did it. These foolish things (1 Corinthians 1:27) God chose to confound the wise. The might of Jesus’ spirit turned them to apostles; and to that dozen workmen on the hill all Christendom in all time has looked back as to the planters and fathers of its faith. It is always the same. For the humbling of human pride, and the practice of Christian faith, God works salvation for men by means which men despise. Look at that morning’! scene as the act of God our Saviour, and it will read you this lesson, that by using earthen vessels, soiled even and chipped, He would magnify the treasure of His strength, which groweth mighty to save through very weakness. Look at it as a great venture of the Son of Man launching His Father’s cause upon the world, and it is the grandest example of faith, setting itself to achieve the impossible by the help of the Almighty. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
The testimony of the apostles
The institution of the apostleship opens a new and solemn era in the ministry of Jesus Christ, and St. Luke tells us that our Lord prepared for it in solitude, meditation, and prayer. A few days after one of those frequent meetings with the Pharisees, which were as the painful stages of the weary pilgrimage which was to end in the cross, Jesus left His disciples; He went up a mountain, and there, beneath the starry sky of the East, during the long and silent hours of night, He communed with God. Then, when the day came, He selected twelve men from among those who followed Him, and made them His apostles. He chose twelve, to indicate that these men were about to form upon earth the true people of God, the spiritual Israel of which the first was but a type. He chose them, poor, ignorant, weak, in order to show that the power by which they were to conquer the world came not of them, but descended from above. We shall study together the aims of this institution. Why did Jesus institute apostles, and how did they fulfil the mission with which they had been entrusted?
I. Who says apostle, says MESSENGER. The twelve were to be the first missionaries of the gospel. Ignorant, poor, and without the least personal prestige, they dared to attempt the conquest of the world with no other arms than the Word of which they were the bearers.
II. Howbeit, this role of messengers of God, which the apostles fulfilled with so much power and fidelity, does not constitute the whole of their original and unique ministry. If we study the question closely, we shall see that the apostles are above all, and in a special sense, the WITNESSES of Jesus Christ: the personal, ocular, and duly accredited witnesses of the person, acts, and teaching of their Master.
III. THE NECESSITY OF THE APOSTOLICAL TESTIMONY IS NOW OBVIOUS. Let us go one step further, and consider whether this testimony is really worthy of belief.
1. They were sincere. But--
2. A man may be mistaken though sincere. Were they? Well, in the name of my reason, I rise up against this revolting hypothesis, a thousand times more miraculous than the miracles it will not own; it is in the name of my reason that I assert that the delusion of a few Galileans cannot have produced moral harmony, that folly cannot have given birth to the loftiest reason, that hallucination cannot have invented Jesus of Nazareth!
IV. But is there testimony sufficient for the Church? Evidently, no. It has pleased God that the eternal Christ, as well as the historical Christ, should have His witness from the very first days of the Church, and that is the profound signification of St. Paul’s apostleship.
V. Will our Protestant Churches continue to be apostolical Churches? Let this be our highest ambition--to be in our turn the witnesses of Christ. (E. Bersier, D. D.)
The King choosing His ministers
1. The words “when it was day,” recall the preceding verse. When the work most expressed His authority, He was still renouncing all independence. Every prayer is a renunciation of independence. Every prayer says, “We can do nothing without Thee.” As His prayers were the essentially true prayers, they must have had this meaning perfectly, without any reservation.
2. That night in which He was not alone, because the Father was with Him, prepared Him to come down amidst the disciples whom He had gathered about Him. He had gathered them; they knew it. Each of them had heard a voice, more or less distinctly, bidding him come. Each had yielded to One who, he felt, had a right to command him. And now He takes twelve out of their number. He calls them apostles. They are to be sent forth.
3. Clearly they were distinguished from the other members of the little flock. What had caused the difference? Bid He merely like them better that the rest? Had they merited some greater honour at His hands? Had He discovered some peculiar capacity in them? All such questions would occur to these poor fishermen; would occur to them not less because they were poor fishermen.
4. The number which our Lord fixed upon for His apostles of course reminded them of the tribes into which their nation was divided. (F. D. Maurice.)
Disciples and apostles
Disciple means learner. Apostle means missionary. When, then, Jesus turned His disciples into apostles you see what an event it was!
1. It was really the flowering of that gospel which He had been pouring into them through all their discipleship. The plant fills itself with the richness of the earth. No noise is made. The whole transaction lies between the plant and the rich earth that feeds it through its open roots. All is silent, private, restricted. But some day the world looks, and lo! the process has burst open. Upon the long-fed plant is burning a gorgeous flower for the world to see. The long supply of nourishment has opened into a great display of glory. The earth has sent its richness through the plant to enlighten and to bless the world. The disciple has turned to an apostle.
2. Notice, when Jesus took this great step forward He did not leave behind His old life with His disciples. He chose out of the number of His disciples twelve, whom also He named apostles. They were to be disciples still. They did not cease to be learners when He made them missionaries. The plant does not cease to feed itself out of the ground when it opens its glorious flowers for the world to see. All the more it needs supply, now that it has fulfilled its life. And so this great epoch in the Christian Church was an addition not a substitution.
3. And notice yet another thing. It is out of the very heart of the discipleship that the apostleship proceeds. It is the very best, the choicest, as we say, of the disciples, that are chosen to be apostles. It is they who have listened to Him longest, and most intelligently, and most lovingly. Always it is the best of the inward life of anything, that which lies the closest to its heart, and is the fullest of its spirit, which flowers into the outward impulse which comes to complete its life. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The twelve apostles
They were not great men, strong men, learned men, but they must have had qualifications of some kind for the position to which they were called. What were these qualifications?
1. They were good men.
2. They were men of sensitive mind, ready for Divine calls, open to Divine impulses.
3. They were men of simple, child-like heart--men who had great capacity for faith. (J. Foster.)
The witness of the apostles
1. As their name implies, the apostles were men sent to do a given work. They did what they did because they were sent.
2. They were men with a definite work in hand; they had to witness to the world what their Master had been, and had done, and had suffered while they were with Him.
3. This witness they bore in three ways:--
(1) By their words--they preached Christ;
(2) By their works--they built up the Church of Christ;
(3) By their sufferings--they died for Christ. And if fourthly, it be asked why we should trust the witness of these apostles, I answer that their witness, as recorded by themselves or their reporters in the gospels, shows that they were at once sincere and accurate. (Canon Liddon.)
Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John
Brotherhood in Christ
Two pairs of brothers. Significant and suggestive that twice in the small number of the twelve it should have happened that the natural tie of brotherhood was emphasized by a common call to the new life, and a common work in the same service. The world is covered with a network of brotherhoods. This network of brotherhoods, like every evident fact of life, sets us to ask three questions--
1. What is its immediate cause? The cause of this interwoven network, this reticulation of life with life, is the whole system of nature by which each human being takes its start from another human being, and is kept, for a time at least, in associations of company and dependence with the being from whom it sprang, and with the other beings who have the same source with it.
2. What is the direct result of such relationships? They are full of mutual helpfulness and pleasure.
3. What is the final reason of this relationship? Here the answer is not so entirely clear and certain. But as we watch and think it seems to me that we are at least led to wonder whether one final cause or purpose of this interlacing of life with life, by natural and indissoluble kinships, may not be just this, the providing, as it were, of open communications, of a system of shafts or channels piercing this human mass in every direction, crossing and recrossing one another, through which those higher influences, which ought to reach every corner and every individual of the great structural humanity, may be freely carried everywhere, and no most remote or insignificant atom of the mass be totally and necessarily untouched. And if we look at Christ’s larger method, at the way in which His work went on after it had gone beyond that earliest stage among his personal kindred, the same thing still appears. His truth ran abroad in the channels which were made by the natural relations of mankind. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
Reflections upon the list of apostles
In the service of Christ there is room and work for all sorts and conditions of men--for men of genius, for men of thought, for men of action.
1. Are we impetuous, adventurous, original? Christ has chosen and called US. If we are true to His call, we shall become steadfast as a rock, and, while we blunder on our way, we shall announce the coming and presence of the Lord.
2. Are we of those in whom the pale cast of thought is all sicklied o’er with doubt? Christ has chosen and called us. If we are true to His call, we shall see that we may believe, until we can believe even greater things than we can see.
3. Are we practical men, conversant with affairs, capable of handling them to purpose Christ has chosen and called us, that we may be with Him, and preach His gospel, that we may bear witness to Him by a life which reflects His own; and if we are true to His call, we shall also be with Him where He now is, seeing and sharing His everlasting and indisturbable peace. (T. T. Lynch.)
Our Lord’s choice of apostles
I. WHY DID OUR LORD CHOOSE APOSTLES?
1. TO spread the Christian religion after His ascension.
2. To record and transmit to future ages the most important facts concerning Jesus--His miracles, doctrines, precepts.
II. WHY WERE TWELVE THOUGHT NECESSARY?
1. AS the apostles were to be witnesses to the world of facts of the highest importance, it was proper that they should not be too few. The consistent evidence of twelve men must be unexceptionable. Their thorough agreement as to the same facts, doctrines, and precepts, is remarkable and convincing, especially when we consider that after Christ’s ascension they were so widely scattered as to shut off all possibility of collusion.
2. They were destined to propagate the gospel among many nations. They were not too numerous, in proportion to the duties assigned them.
3. If it be farther demanded why twelve were fixed on, rather than eleven, or thirteen, we can give no other answer, but that this was probably done to gratify the Jews, who might prefer twelve, as corresponding to the number of their tribes.
III. WHY DID JESUS GIVE A PREFERENCE TO THOSE INDIVIDUALS WHOM HE SELECTED? (J. Thomson, D. D.)
The apostolic band
The choice of apostles is one of the most brilliant proofs of the adorable wisdom of the Saviour.
1. He chooses simple-minded, yet already measurably-prepared men. To some has the Baptist’s instruction, to others the toilsome fisherman-life, or the active publican’s office, been a more suitable school of preparation than a scientific preparation by Hillel or Shammal.
2. Few, yet very diverse, men. He works intensively before He begins to labour extensively on the kingdom of God that is to be founded. He will rather perfect some than only partially train many. Accordingly He trains them with and also by means of one another, and shows how fully His gospel accommodates itself to every point of human development, and how it is perfectly calculated for every one’s individual necessities.
3. Some prominent to go with several less noticeable men whom He gathers together into a little company. So far as we can see, the beautiful figurative language used in 1 Corinthians 12:14-27, is also completely applicable to the organism of the apostolic circle. Had all been as distinguished as a Peter, a John, and as afterwards a Paul, the unity would have suffered by the diversity, and the one light would have been broken into altogether too many colours. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)
The catalogue of the apostles
1. A source of knowledge. This catalogue fills
(1) a brilliant chapter in the history of mankind;
(2) a sublime chapter in the history of Jesus;
(3) a noteworthy chapter in the history of the Divine government.
2. A support of faith. It witnesses of
(1) the truth;
(2) the sublimity;
(3) the divinity;
(4)the imperishableness--of the gospel.
3. A school of life. It displays the image of the
(1) condition,
(2) intended work, and
(3) prerogatives--of the Christian Church even in our days. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D. )
Why was Judas Iscariot selected as an apostle
A circumstance calculated to excite our wonder; that He who was perfect Himself, and who came into the world to establish a religion of purity and holiness, should choose for one of His constant attendants a man; who was unprincipled and incorrigible. Mistake on Christ’s part was impossible John 2:25).
1. The testimony of Judas in favour of the purity of Jesus, renders the evidence complete. Judas, after committing his crime, was placed in that situation in which every fault, every accusation, every blemish, that he could bring against his Master, would have a tendency to palliate, if not to vindicate himself.
2. Judas testifies to all ages that the leading passions may be so bad, and the habits so inveterate, that the very best possible opportunities of improvement cannot be of any advantage.
3. The selection of Judas has furnished an excellent opportunity of teaching Christians another important truth: That if the means of instruction and improvement which Jesus Christ employed be neglected or perverted, no other means will be bestowed. (J. Thomson, D. D.)
The traitor among the twelve
It is natural to ask, Why was there a traitor among the twelve? and what good purpose was served by this development of iniquity, which He who rules over all was thus pleased to permit. Now, here was fulfilled, in the most striking way, the declaration that the wrath of men shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath He shall restrain.
I. THE HISTORY OF JUDAS ISCARIOT FURNISHES A STRIKING PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY.
1. It is a proof of this, as it is a fulfilment of prophecy (Psalms 69:1-36, Psalms 109:1-31.; Zechariah 11:12, &c.).
2. It brings forward the testimony of an enemy, and a perfectly well-informed enemy, in support of Christianity.
II. This history teaches us that THE OCCASIONAL OCCURRENCE OF GRIEVOUS OFFENCES AMONG PROFESSORS OF RELIGION, SHOULD NOT PREJUDICE US AGAINST RELIGION ITSELF. If even among the apostles such a case occurred, it need not greatly surprise us that something similar should take place in the Church from time to time.
III. A MOST AWFUL WARNING TO ALL WHO PROFESS TO BE THE DISCIPLES
OF CHRIST, TO BEWARE LEST THEY FALL IN A SIMILAR WAY.
(James Foote, M. A.)
Zealots
Simon called Zelotes has apparently two surnames in Scripture, but they mean the same thing. He is called Simon the Cananite in Hebrew--not because he was an inhabitant of Cana or a Canaanite, but that word, when interpreted, means precisely the same as the Greek word Zelotes. He was called Simon the Zealot. I suppose that he had this name before his conversion. It is thought by some that he was a member of that very fierce and fanatical political sect of the Jews, called the Zealots, by whose means the siege of Jerusalem was rendered so much more bloody than it would have been; but this does not seem very probable, for the sect of the Zealots had scarcely arisen in the time of the Saviour, and therefore we are inclined to think with Hackett in his exposition of the Acts, that he was so called because of his zealous attachment to his religion as a Jew, for there were some in the different classes of Jewish society who were so excessively full of zeal as to gain the name of Zealot. But it strikes me that he must have been a zealot after conversion too, for within that sacred circle which surrounded our Lord, every word was truth, and the Master would not have allowed any of His disciples to have worn a surname which was not expressive or truthful. May we so act and live that we might truthfully wear the title of Christian Zealots.
I. LET US POURTRAY THE UNCONVERTED ZEALOT.
1. Zeal frequently expends itself on other things than religion. Politics. Science. Business.
2. The unconverted zealot, should his zeal expend itself upon religion, is generally exceedingly boastful. Jehu.
3. The unconverted zealot is generally an ignorant zealot (Romans 10:2). Probably there is more zeal to be found among the professors of false doctrine than among the followers of the truth.
4. The zeal of unconverted men is generally partial. It may be a zeal for something good, but not for everything that is good. Zealous he is for sect and party when the whole that the sect may hold is not of more value than the gnat, and yet great fundamental doctrinal truths are forgotten, as though they were of no value whatever. Brethren, may we be earnest men of God, but I pray that we may be zealous for all truth.
5. The zealot, again, while unconverted, is generally (if it be in his power) a persecutor. “concerning zeal, persecuting the Church.”
6. His aims are often sinister. Let us beware of a zeal for lifting up ourselves. Zeal must be pure--fire off the altar.
7. The unconverted zealot is generally but temporary in his zeal. “When he was sick,” says an old legend, “ the devil a monk would be”; but when he got well--you know how he gave up his fine intentions.
II. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN ZEALOT.
1. How his zeal manifests itself.
(1) In his private dealings with God. He is zealous in repentance--his tears come welling up from his heart. Sin is not a little distasteful, but is exceedingly disgusting to him. His faith, too, is not merely a trembling recognition of truth, but it is a firm grasp of everlasting verities. The Christian zealot, when he is alone with God, throws his whole heart into His service.
(2) In his prayers. He prays like a man who means it, and will take no denial.
(3) In his jealousy for God’s honour. Elijah. Phineas. Up with truth, and down with falsehood. A man is no zealot and cannot be called Zelotes, unless he has a holy jealousy for the honour of Christ, and His crown, and His truth.
(4) In the abundance of his labours and gifts. Zeal labours for Christ. For a picture of zeal take St. Paul. How he compasses sea and land! Storms cannot stay him, mountains cannot impede his progress. O that we could live while we live; but our existence--that is all we can call it--our existence, what a poor thing it is! We run like shallow streams: we have not force enough to turn the mill of industry, and have not depth enough to bear the vessel of progress, and have not flood enough to cheer the meads of poverty. We are dry too often in the summer’s drought, and we are frozen in the winter’s cold.
(5) By the anguish which his soul feels when his labours for Christ are not successful. Zeal must move not merely the tongue, or the foot, or the hand, but also the heart.
(6) In a vehement love and attachment to the person of the Saviour. Nothing can make a man zealous like attachment to a person. When Napoleon’s soldiers won so many victories, and especially in the earlier part of his career, when against such deadly odds they earned such splendid triumphs, what was the reason? The “little corporal” was there, and whenever it came to a desperate rush he was the first to cross the bridge or charge the enemy, always exposing himself to danger; and their attachment to his person, and their love and admiration of his valour, made them follow at his heels, swift to victory. Have not we heard of those who threw themselves in the way of the cannon ball to save his life? There could not have been such triumphs if there had not been a man who knew how to govern men by attaching them to himself. And oh, the person of the Saviour! What attachment can there be equal to that which binds a Christian to his Lord?
2. This brings us now, in the next place, to think awhile of how this zeal is maintained and kept up. To keep up a good fire of zeal we must have much fuel, and the fire will partake of the quality of the fuel, so that it must be good firing to make holy zeal.
(1) If I understand aright, zeal is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and genuine zeal draws its life and vital force from the continued operations of the Holy Ghost in the soul.
(2) Next to this, zeal feeds upon truths like these. It is stirred by the ruin of sinners. The very sight of sinners makes a right-hearted man zealous for their conversion. The wants of the age are enough, if a man has any sense of what eternal realities are, to make us zealous to the highest pitch.
(3) And next, Christian zeal feeds itself upon a sense of gratitude. Look to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged, and you will see abundant reason why you should spend and be spent for God.
(4) Zeal for God feeds itself upon the thought of the eternal future. It feels that all it can do is little compared with what is wanting, and that time is short compared with the work to be done, and therefore it devotes all that it has to the cause of its Lord.
(5) Above all, zeal for God feeds itself on love to Christ. Lady Powerscourt says somewhere, “If we want to be thoroughly hot with zeal, we must go near to the furnace of the Saviour’s love.”
(6) Above all, Christian zeal must be sustained by a vigorous inner life.
3. I have to close by commending zeal. In commending zeal, let me say, methinks it should commend itself to every Christian man without a word of mine, but if you must have it, remember that God Himself is zealous. “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Christ was zealous. We read of Him that the zeal of God’s house had eaten Him up, and when He took the scourge of small cords and purged the Temple, John tells us that it was written of Him, “ The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up.” A prophet tells us that He was clothed with zeal as with a cloak. He had not zeal over a part of Him, but was clothed with it as with some great cloak covering Him from head to foot. Christ was all zeal. (C. H. Spurgeon.)