And He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him.
This was the third stage in the preparation of the disciples for the apostolate
A certain number had been admitted at the beginning to terms of intimacy and friendship with Jesus. Then they had left their secular calling for a time to attend upon Him. And now the final step must be taken, and a selection made of such as would give themselves wholly to the work, and go no more back to the world. The twelve apostles are divided by the evangelists into three groups.
I. Notice the manifold variety represented among them.
1. In character. Where in the whole world could we find dispositions more diverse than in Peter and John-the one ardent and impulsive, the very embodiment of energy and vehemence; the other quiet and contemplative, fitted for nothing so well as the life of a recluse?
2. In calling. What callings could be more incongruous than those which Simon and Matthew had respectively chosen? The fiery patriot could brook no allegiance to an earthly ruler, but would do and dare anything to resist the Roman claim to impose taxation upon the people of God. But his fellow apostle had degraded himself, of his own free-will, to exact from his own flesh and blood the obnoxious tribute. Yet such was the comprehensive work which lay before the ministry of the Church, that a sphere was found in it for the “tax gatherer” no less than the “tax hater;” for the Jew who had sold his birthright as well as for their reconcilable nationalist. Jew and Greek, bond and free, rich and poor, men of every type and people, were destined to be embraced in the Catholic Church; and Jesus Christ foreshadowed the future when He welded together the most discordant elements in that first society of the Twelve Apostles.
II. Another thought of scarcely less importance arises out of the social position from which He made His choice. The Jewish Rabbis estimated the weight of their influence by the rank or wealth or learning of the pupils who sat at their feet. The first Teacher of Christianity aimed, on the contrary, at attracting the poorest of men. It may be urged that He had no alternative; that men in the position of Joseph and Nicodemus wine so reluctant to accept the call that, had He waited for their adherence, the apostolic roll would never have been filled up in His lifetime. But His choice of the poor and despised, the ignorant and unlearned, was based upon a principle which governed the whole of His life on earth; which selected for His birthplace the manger of a wayside khan, for His home a humble cottage, and for His early occupation the trade of an artizan, among a people intellectually of the lowest type in Palestine. It was in perfect consistency with all that had gone before that He should associate with Himself for the work of the ministry men of the humblest rank, who probably knew little more than their letters, and, judged by a human standard, were worthless for that unto which they were called … For the first three centuries the progress of Christianity was a gradual triumph of the lowly over the great, till, by the irresistible might of its weakness, it shook the world and compelled “the master of legions” to cast his crown at the foot of the Cross. Then was the wisdom of His choice demonstrated. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
The twelve
1. The sons of Jacob were twelve. The princes of the children of Israel were twelve. The fountains of Elim were twelve. The stones in Aaron’s breastplate were twelve. The loaves of shewbread were twelve. The spies sent by Moses into Canaan were twelve. The stones of the altar were twelve, The stones taken out of Jordan were twelve. The oxen which supported the brazen Laver in the temple were twelve. The stars on the crown of the woman in the Apocalypse are twelve. The foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem are twelve. The gates of the celestial city are twelve. The twelve tribes of Israel were the beginning of the Old Testament Church: the twelve apostles were the beginning of the New Testament Church, Hence both these numbers joined together describe the four and twenty elders, representing the entire Church in glory.
2. We have four lists of the apostles: in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, and in the Acts. The order in which the names are given is not the same in all. It has been suggested that in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke they are enrolled chronologically in the order of their calling: whereas in Mark and in Acts the matter of personal influence is made the ground of that order which places Peter always first and Judas always last.
I. What were the characteristics of the twelve as a body.
1. They were men of good health. Mr. Talmage says: “Christ did not want twelve invalids hanging about Him, complaining all the time how badly they felt. He leaves the delicate students at Jerusalem and Rome for their mothers and aunts to take care of, and goes down to the seashore, and out of the toughest material makes an apostleship. The ministry need more corporeal vigour than any other class. Fine minds and good intentions are important, but there must be physical force to back them. The intellectual mill wheel may be well built and the grist good, but there must be enough flood in the mill race to turn the one and to grind the other.” And, yet, how many invalids in the pulpit have been stars of the first magnitude? Witness Robert Hall, McCheyne, and Robertson of Brighton, England.
2. They were men without power. They had no social or political rank.
3. They were laymen. This also is significant. Men of ecclesiastical or philosophical influence, who are committed to the support of a certain system of truth, are not free from prejudice. In the seventeenth century William Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood-a fact which no sane man disputes. And yet no physician forty years of age in that day accepted Harvey’s discovery. So great is the power of prejudice! These laymen, chosen by Christ, were unshackled ecclesiastically and philosophically. It appears unfortunate that Martin Luther was an ecclesiastic. His work had been more thorough, but for certain Church shackles which even his great soul was unable to shake off. Witness the Lutheran Creed and the present condition of Germany.
4. They were simple men. Now, Mohammed, for example, was not a simple man. He was a dissembler. Jesus of Nazareth calls no man common or unclean. AEsop was a slave. Protagoras was a porter. Terence was a slave. Horace was the son of a slave. Among the poets, Gay was apprentice to a draper and Prior was a tavern boy. Pope was the son of a draper, Keats of a livery stable keeper, and Chatterton of a sexton. Ben Jonson worked for his bread as a bricklayer.
II. Why did the Lord choose apostles?
1. In order to crowd into a brief public ministry as much work as possible. His public ministry was so brief, that but for the cooperation of the twelve He could not have spoken all the words of wisdom or done all the acts of mercy which crowned and crowded that eventful life. In the great religious movement of the last century in England, John Wesley evinced a sagacity superior to that of either Whitefield or his brother Charles, in securing co-workers and doing in general the work of an organizer. All great teachers have done the same. Witness Socrates, Peter the Hermit, Luther, Loyola, and Savonarola, of Florence.
2. In order to provide testimony after His death. The apostles were to bear public witness of all they saw and heard whilst remaining with Him. Christianity then is historic, and is a system of doctrines resting upon facts.
3. In order to establish a body of men who should bear the public seal of the Church, viz,: Miracles.
4. To shield, by miraculous power, feeble Churches. (W. F. Bishop.)
The ministerial office
Bishops and clergy are called to the ministry of Jesus Christ-
1. In order to work with Him, extend, complete, and continue His priesthood ripen earth.
2. To preach His Word, and make known His truth, and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. All ecclesiastical functions are denoted by preaching, because this is a principal duty of the clergy, and it is by means of the Word and instruction that the Church is established and perpetuated.
3. To be the physicians of souls, and apply themselves to heal their diseases.
4. To wage war with the devil, and destroy his kingdom. Whoever looks upon the ministerial office as a state of ease, and not of continual labour, understands but very little these words of Christ. (Quesnel.)
Christ and His disciples
A superhuman worker will have his own superhuman methods.
I. Christ’s methods. No man would have begun in such a way.
1. He wrote nothing. Plato has left us the description of his “Ideal Republic”-so men have always done; but the King of the only enduring kingdom wrote only once-in the sand, and not on parchment. Seneca penned his book on Morals for men to ponder; but the Christ who knew no sin, and whose precepts have been planted in every Christian civilization, simply spoke the precepts which in after years others should write down. The heavenly worker wrought in an unearthly way.
2. He chose unlettered men. When Carlyle speaks and Emerson ponders, the world puts its hand to its ear to catch even the lowest spoken truths; but it may be that some fisherman coasting the shore of Solway Firth, or some sower of seed on the fields of Concord, shall stand higher in God’s view than even the rugged Scotchman and the honoured sage of America. The Saviour of mankind, the Revolutionist of the ages, the Son of the Highest committed Himself, His power, His teachings, to twelve plain and hitherto unhonoured men, all of them common people, and all of them unlearned.
3. The character of the twelve. Judged from a human point of view, they were certainly unpromising men-slow of heart, dull of understanding, weak in action, and one false at heart. But time has shown that Christ made no mistake. By so much as His apostles’ characters were incomplete, and in so far as the Christian faith has ruled in the earth, even so His mysterious choice is vindicated beyond cavil. Upon them He stamped His own greatness.
II. The plan involved in Christ’s methods. Nothing Divine is ever done by chance. (G. R. Leavitt.)
The twelve
I. Christ thought fit to employ human agents in the promulgation of His religion.
II. Christ selected His agents by virtue of His own wisdom and authority.
III. Christ chose His trusted apostles from a lowly position of society.
IV. Christ appointed agents with various gifts, qualifications, and character.
V. Christ recognized and employed the special gift of His disciples in His own service.
VI. Christ qualified these agents by keeping them in His own society and beneath His own influence.
VII. Christ Himself commissioned and authorized these agents.
1. To preach the gospel.
2. To cast out devils. (J. R. Thomson, M. A.)
Christ’s choice of His helpers
The whole instruction of this story for our use now turns upon the word “chose;” for it reveals the fact that the sovereignty of God as well as His wisdom was in the procedure. So our several lessons need only to be stated in their order.
I. The earliest matter of notice is this: Our Lord’s policy was one of continuous reconstruction for our entire fallen humanity, and not merely an expedient for His own convenience.
1. For a purpose, He might have chosen death, instead of which He chose life. He could have taken the best of the race up into the air higher than Ararat, and held them safely, as it were, outside of the world, while He washed the wicked earth beneath them, and then put them back. He did that once; but, with a rainbow for a sign, He said He would never do it again. He evidently planned now to redeem sinners, not to destroy them.
2. For a method, He might have chosen a permanent incarnation; instead of which He chose a book. He was now finding men just to make and perpetuate the New Testament. Ours is a “book religion,” as cavillers call it. Christianity is the Bible, and the Bible is Christianity. In this form of procedure our Lord indicated that the chief of all approaches to the human conscience is through the reason, and this He intended to use for His end.
3. For the instruments, He might have chosen angels, instead of which He chose men. We see that He selected ordinary, poor, humble individuals from the lowliest callings. Hence, we admit they are subject to the same laws of estimate and criticism as other men. Not even inspiration changed their peculiar characteristics or their natural temperaments.
4. For a plan, He might have chosen unofficial representatives; instead of which He chose ordained officers, and organized a Church. Here, then, is the inalienable warrant for a fixed ministry in the Christian Church through all time.
II. The second matter of notice for us now is, that our Lord’s selection of His helpers implied great varieties of service in evangelizing the world, requiring diversities of gifts.
1. Observe the significant number of these men. It was large, to begin with, and exceedingly wide in its representative range.
2. Observe, likewise, the special histories of these men.
3. Observe that one of these men was a treacherous hypocrite, known from the beginning of his career.
III. The next matter of notice in this choice is that Jesus Christ fixed the wise order in arrangement that discipleship should in all cases come before apostleship.
1. These twelve men needed knowledge of the Divine purposes. That must be the reason why for so many months they mere kept patiently wandering alongside of our Lord, as He advanced in His public work.
2. They needed acquaintance also with human nature. They were to deal with men, women, and children.
3. These men needed the practical exercise of their teaching gifts under their Master’s eye. So we learn that Jesus arranged that they “should be with Him,” before He “might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3:14).
4. They needed experience in actual dealing with masses of unorganized people.
IV. Once more, it is a matter of notice in this choice of helpers, that Jesus showed how previous gifts and education in other work can all be utilized under the gospel plan.
1. Recall the former occupations of these men.
2. Bear in mind with what painstaking Christ impressed on them the one principle that all success in evangelical work demands immediate and entire consecration (Luke 5:11; Luke 5:28).
3. Then see that instantly, and ever afterwards, their training told.
V. Finally, it is a matter of notice that in His choice of such helpers our Lord give the best of all counsel and example for every man who seeks to be useful in the Church of God.
1. Let Christian people remember that the Divine purpose, the plan of procedure, the end to be secured, the selection of instruments-all these, so finely illustrated that memorable morning beside the Sea of Galilee, remain exactly the same, unchanged through the ages. The conditions of effective working are quite unaltered. Hence this primitive wisdom is priceless.
2. Let the churches have confidence in their own machinery, and be content with New Testament methods of evangelization. There is no necessity for fresh excitements, and there is no advantage in looking for them.
3. Let those who desire to take up Christian endeavour for a life work bear in mind that training time is by no means for any one lost time.
4. Let the whole world know that what is wanted first and last and always is a thorough consecration of what one has to the Lord Jesus Christ. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Christ’s workers varied
Note the variety of character among the twelve chosen. Every stone in a building is not alike, yet room is found for all-each in its own place. A painting is made up of many colours. Christ will find room in His temple for all who come to Him. (Anon.)
God employs little and lowly apostles
Look at yonder sun. God made it, and hung it up there in the sky that it might give light to our world. But the light which this sun gives comes to us in tiny little bits, smaller than the point of the finest needle that ever was made. They are so small that hundreds of them can rush right into our eyes, as they are doing all the time, and not hurt them the least. Here we see how God makes use of little things, and does a great work with them. And then look at yonder ocean. The waves of that ocean are so powerful that they can break in pieces the strongest ships that men have ever built. And yet, when God wishes to keep that mighty ocean in its place, He makes use of little grains of sand for this purpose. Here again we see how God employs little things, and does a great work with them. And we find God working in this way continually. Let us look at one or two illustrations. What a plant did:-A little plant was given to a sick girl. In trying to take care of it the family made changes in their way of living which added greatly to their comfort and happiness. First they cleaned the window, that more light might come in to the leaves of the plant. Then, when not too cold, they opened the window, that fresh air might help the plant to grow; and this did the family good as well as the plant. Next, the clean window made the rest of the room look so untidy, that they washed the floor, and cleaned the walls, and arranged the furniture more neatly. This led the father of the family to mend a broken chair or two, which kept him at home several evenings. After this he took to staying at home with his family in the evenings instead of spending his time at the tavern; and the money thus saved went to buy comforts for them all. And then, as their home grew more pleasant, the whole family loved it better than ever before, and they grew healthier and happier with their flowers. What a little thing that plant was, and yet it was God’s apostle to that family! It did a great work for them in blessing them, and making them happy. And that was work that an angel would have been glad to do. (Dr. Newton.)
Power to cast out devils
In China, both heathen and Christian agree in marking off certain cases, which occur not infrequently, as distinctly cases of “spiritual possession.” The Chinese have names for insanity, and for the various forms of nervous and mental disease, and they distinguish sharply between all these and another very different condition in which the patient is said to be “possessed of devils.” Miss Cumming tells us “the symptoms are so precisely those which were thus described in Biblical times, that foreigners, after vainly seeking for some medical term to express the condition of the victim, are fain to accept the Chinese solution. They find a being apparently mad, foaming at the mouth, tearing off every shred of raiment, and wildly appealing to God to let her (or him) alone.” These poor afflicted ones are brought to the Taoist and Buddhist priests, who perform tedious and expensive exorcisms, which are continued indeed until the paroxysm abates, and are renewed after the same fashion when it returns. Miss Cumming says, “In a considerable number of cases such as these, the native Christians have been appealed to by their heathen neighbours to see whether they could do anything to help them; and these, remembering how of old those who had faith in the Master were enabled to ‘cast out the spirits by His word,’ have sought to follow in their wake, and, taking up their position beside ‘him that was grievously tormented with a devil,’ have thus wrestled in prayer with passionate earnestness, pleading that the true God would reveal His power in the presence of the heathen, and concluding with the apostolic words, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ! command thee to come out.’ Again and again their prayer has been granted, the wild tempest has been allayed, and the sufferer lulled to a condition of deep peace, whence, after a while, he has arisen to go forth ‘clothed and in his right mind’ to tell his heathen brethren of the marvellous way in which he has beta cured, and, in short, to become from that hour a faithful worker in the Master’s cause.” (See “Wanderings in China,” by C. F. Gordon Cumming.)