It's been rather interesting to see the harmony in Washington over the last couple of weeks as we have inaugurated the new president. And there are all kinds of indications that the two political parties are going to work together. What a refreshing change that would be. Our president is on a honeymoon, but I have a hunch it won't last too long, because leadership demands decisions that deal with difficulties.
And this week he has a message to deliver to Congress that probably is going to change the atmosphere of that city. And the weeks of placid political enjoyment that we've had are going to be finished as the honeymoon is done. Initially, Jesus Christ had a honeymoon, we might say, as well, because he enjoyed widespread acceptance in his ministry. As we open our Bibles, let's turn to Luke chapter 4 and notice what happened in the early part of his ministry.
Jesus returned to Galilee, Luke 4, 14, in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding district, and he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. Now you know that's a honeymoon when everybody likes you, and that was the initial response to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the honeymoon didn't last long.
Jesus went to Nazareth and preached there in the synagogue, and we find out in verse 28 of this same chapter that all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things and they rose up and cast him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built in order to throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went his way.
It wasn't too long before the message that he came to proclaim began to irritate especially the hypocritical religious leaders of the Jews. Actually there were two reactions to Jesus' ministry that grew side by side. There was on the one hand growing popularity. We see it in verse 37 of this same chapter, and the report about him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district.
And in verse 42 it says, when day came he departed and went to a lonely place, and the multitudes were searching for him and came to him and tried to keep him from going away from them. The growing popularity in chapter 5 and verse 15, the news about him was spreading even farther and great multitudes were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. The growing beside the popularity was hostility toward him.
For example in verse 17 of chapter 5, it came about one day that he was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. Now why were they there? They were there to try to catch him. In verse 21 it says, the scribes and Pharisees began to reason saying, who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?
Skipping on down to verse 30, on another occasion the same group, the Pharisees, the scribes, these religious leaders began grumbling at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with the tax gatherers and sinners? You see the hostility growing in chapter 6 verse 1. It came about that on a certain Sabbath he was passing through some grain fields and his disciples were picking and eating the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
But some of the Pharisees said, why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And then if you'll move on down to verse 7, about a week later, another occasion when Jesus had entered a synagogue and there was a man who was crippled there, the scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely to see if he healed on the Sabbath in order that they might find reason to accuse him.
And Jesus did heal the man and verse 11 says, but they themselves, these religious leaders, were filled with rage and disgust together what they might do to Jesus. So you see the situation, early in his ministry, an immediate honeymoon that was short lived. And then hostility began to grow as his popularity grew. So there were two reactions to Jesus, both of them growing very quickly. That brings us to part of our text for this morning, chapter 6 verse 12, which says, and it was at this time.
Does that help you to understand what those three words mean at this time? When Jesus was facing the kind of pressures he was from the multitudes, pressing upon him to hear him to be healed, and on the other hand, had this group of religious leaders feeling threatened who were trying to find some way to deal with him and make him quiet, put him out of business, cause him to cease. It was at that time that he went off to a mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
And when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them, whom he also named as apostles. And then they are listed in verses 14 through 16. It was at this time that Jesus called 12 of his disciples and named them apostles. I believe that the second greatest work of Jesus Christ on the earth was that of calling his team together. Of course, his greatest work was the work at the cross when he atoned for man's sin. But his second greatest work was that of calling his team together.
It was nothing less than the beginning of a movement that would carry out the task of proclaiming his gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. This act of our Lord was the foundation of the church, the new people of God being formed in this age. As he called out these 12, it was the embryo of the spiritual organism which would later be called the body of Christ.
The names of the 12, as they are finally constituted in the book of Acts, are engraved forever in the foundation of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, the eternal home of the church. You and I today, some 1950 years later, are in a line of direct succession to these men that are named. We who trust the Savior are part of that movement that began in Christ's ministry and was given full birth on the day of Pentecost when the church was officially formed.
Jesus called his team of men together in three phases. It was a process that took better than a year before the 12 were actually commissioned as apostles. It was vital that they be eyewitnesses of him so that their later reports about his ministry as they preached would bear credence. These were humble men who had much to learn and had much need of personal transformation. They were not polished and refined, natural public speakers and people. They were rugged, rustic, and in many ways crude.
Yet our Lord knew the potential within them despite the rough exterior. They were to be the work of his grace. The first phase of Jesus calling his team together is found in the fact that he chose them. He chose them. Then he trained them, phase number two, and finally he commissioned them.
When we think of Jesus choosing his disciples, we need to understand that as we compare the Gospels, and by the way, one of the best ways to do that is to purchase or to use what is called a harmony of the Gospels. That is an arrangement of the Gospel writings, verse by verse and paragraph by paragraph, so that what happens is sequential. You can see what Mark and Luke say about the same occasion, or Matthew and John perhaps, a harmony of the Gospels.
As you look at a harmony of Jesus choosing his disciples, you find that there were actually several callings extended to them. The first calling was a call to salvation. We read briefly about that in our scripture earlier in the service in John chapter 1. When John the Baptist was with two of his disciples and Jesus came by, and John told them, follow him, and they did. One of them's name was Andrew. Andrew went to find his brother, who was Simon.
Then the next day, Jesus dealt with two more men, one of them Nathaniel, the other Philip. John records for us, and only John, that particular incident, the first calling of the disciples. We don't have that with all of them, but the first calling in each case, nonetheless, was the call to salvation. It says on that occasion that his disciples believed on him. They came to faith. They came to understand who he was.
Now their faith was very simple, but they nonetheless believed that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the call to salvation. Then later, there was another phase or aspect of his calling them. It was the call to be his witnesses, but it was not a permanent calling. This is found in Matthew chapter 4, and we read that as well earlier in our service this morning. Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, and he saw Andrew and Peter fishing.
He said, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus called them, called James and John, the sons of Zebedee on the same occasion. He extended to them a call, not to salvation. They had already believed in him. They had gone back to their work at the sea, and now he calls them to follow him, but not on a permanent basis. He says, come and be witness to me of what I am going to do, and listen to my teachings.
He is calling them simply to follow him as disciples, and they did for a period of time, and then went back to their fishing. Jesus then comes once more and gives them another calling. This time it is a call to be his witnesses, but it is a permanent calling. We find this in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 5. Jesus uses similar language, but the occasion obviously is different. Again, it is around the Sea of Galilee, and there he enters into the boat of Simon to do some teaching.
When he is finished, he performs a miracle, telling Peter to let down his nets and catch some fish. Peter says, No, Lord, we fished all night. We caught nothing. But he says, I will let down the nets at your word. When they had done that, the fish were great in their quantity, and the response of Peter was amazing. In verse 8 he says, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He recognized the worthiness of this one who had performed this miracle.
Amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. There were also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear. From now on you will be catching men. When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. This now is the third calling to the disciples. In this time he is saying to them, I want you to permanently follow me and leave behind your secular occupation.
I want you to be with me all the time. They were. Jesus then deals with them in these next verses. Then we come to the text we read earlier in chapter 6, the fourth time that he called them. This time after a night of prayer. Jesus called all of his disciples. There were many of them. He selects out of the multitudes twelve, among them those that we have already named.
Simon, who is also called Peter, and Andrew, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Out of the multitude of disciples, these twelve were chosen to be his apostles. So he chose his team that way. We need to remember that salvation precedes service. There are some who get that confused and reversed.
They think that somehow by serving God in their own way, they will eventually get to the point of salvation. That's not the way it works with God. First, we are called to salvation, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Following that comes an increasing call from him to serve him, and for some to serve him full-time or vocationally, not for all, but for some.
It begins with a call to salvation, and it proceeds then with a call to sanctification, being set apart for God's purpose, and finally to a call of service, full-time service for some, but lifetime service for all. Have you responded to the call of Jesus Christ? Have you responded to the call of salvation, to believe on him?
And if you have, have you responded to his call for sanctification, to holiness of life, to a transformed life where his lordship begins to challenge areas in your life not yet yielded to him? Have you responded to his call to service, for all of us are called to be his witnesses, his ambassadors in this world? Jesus Christ is still today choosing a team, not precisely in the same sense as Luke chapter 6, but you and I are a part of the broader team.
We are not called to apostleship, there are no apostles today, but we are called to be a part of the team, the movement, the church of Jesus Christ that is purposed to declare his gospel to the world. Now I notice on this occasion that Jesus was a man of much prayer. Luke in particular emphasizes those times when Jesus got alone to pray, and this is one of them. He went off to a mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God all by himself. He sought a silent place.
He set aside time where there would be no limitation, and that was during the night, and he prayed to God. Is that at all instructive to you? If the blessed Son of God needed large, set-apart times for prayer, how much more so do we, his disciples, need that same thing? Jesus was about to make the most important appointments of his earthly ministry. This was a momentous decision to call out from the multitudes of sincere disciples those who would be his apostles, the foundation of the church.
Jesus spent the night in prayer before making that decision. Do you bathe your decisions in prayer? Every decision needs God's direction. We need to pray. But especially in those decisions that are life-changing, that affect the direction of our lives and our ministries, we need to bathe those decisions in prayer.
Some of you today are facing those kinds of decisions regarding employment, regarding going on with relationships, the possibility of marriage, regarding a move at a critical point for your family. These decisions must be preceded by prayer. Jesus set the example for us. What was the nature of Jesus' prayer? We can only guess about that.
Undoubtedly, he spent much time in worship, but he also sought by petition the Lord's discernment, his Father's discernment, as he made the selections the next day. The result was, interestingly, that he included a betrayer in his selection of those men. When Jesus knew that he did, he knew it. He knew who was to betray him. And in the Gospel of John, he says that one of you is a devil. What does he mean by that? G. Campbell Morgan says that Judas was actually the devil incarnate.
I think that may be a little extreme, but he was a man who was under the control of the devil, increasingly so, until that night of the betrayal when it says in the Gospel of John again that Satan entered into Judas and he became a devil-possessed personality and did his work. Jesus purposely chose this man because he was to have a part in his earthly work.
It's not that he was predestined to do what he did, but Jesus knew in advance the heart of this man, his motives, and what he eventually would do, and chose to make him a part of that inner core, the Twelve. You and I, by the example that Jesus sets before us here, must be men and women of prayer, not only about our personal lives, but about our church as well. We need to bathe the ministry of our church in prayer.
Our small churches, our missionaries, our outreaches, all of that must be undergirded by and supported by generous prayer. Dr. Howard Hendricks was speaking this last week in a conference where I heard him. He told the story of a person who came up to him after a service and was admitting to him that he didn't have much of a prayer life. Dr. Hendricks' immediate response was, how long have you been so proud?
The man was puzzled by the response, and Hendricks went on to explain to him that when you and I pray little, it exposes great pride in our lives, that we think ourselves to be very self-sufficient and independent of God. When we pray little, it says a great deal about our attitude, about ourselves, and our need for God. Our Savior spent a whole night in prayer on this occasion, as well as many others, praying to the Father for the discernment that he would need as he chose his team.
Jesus then went on to train them. We see this, for example, in Luke 10, verses 23 and 24, where it says, In turning to the disciples, Jesus said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them. Jesus not only chose his apostles, but then he spent many, many days and hours training them. How did he train them?
Basically what he says here. In the first place, they saw what he did. They observed Jesus. They watched the miracles that he performed. They listened intently to the teaching that he gave. In fact, the very first teaching that Jesus gave after calling them apostles was the Sermon on the Mount, which Matthew records for us in some detail in chapters 5, 6, and 7. Jesus saw what Jesus, the disciples rather, saw what Jesus did.
And what we have recorded in the New Testament of his miracles is only a sample of them. John says that if they recorded, the Gospel writers recorded, everything that Jesus did, the world itself could not contain the books that would be necessary. There were multiplied thousands of miracles that Jesus performed which are not recorded for us specifically in the Gospels. But the disciples, the apostles saw them all. And as they watched, they were trained. And then they listened to what he taught.
They listened to the public instruction and sometimes got private explanations, particularly regarding the parables. They would say to him, Lord, what does this mean? And Jesus privately then would explain to them what he was saying. In addition to those public meetings, can you imagine how many private conversations they had with him?
As they would be sitting around the fire at night with just a group of them together, or crossing the sea in the boat, or as they walked along the pathway through Samaria or Pariah or Galilee, as they were on their way up to Jerusalem, can you imagine how many times they just gathered around him and Jesus conversed with them. And they listened to what he taught. Their minds were dull, their hearts were slow, and yet they were trained by listening to what he taught.
Then I would suggest to you also that in their training they experienced failure as well as success. And Luke records for us one example of that in chapter 9. It begins in verse 37 just after the experience of the transfiguration. It says, It came about on the next day that when they had come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him. And behold, a man from the multitude shouted out, saying, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only boy.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth. And as it mauls him, it scarcely leaves him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they could not. And so we see here a failure on the part of the disciples who had not been with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. A failure. Now they had had successes too, many of them. They had delivered many from demon possession. They had healed many.
Jesus gave them the power to do that. But along with their successes, Jesus trained them by their failures. Do you ever see your failure that way? It is Mark who records this incident more fully. And on that occasion, Jesus went on to abrade them for their lack of prayer. He said this kind comes out only by prayer, suggesting to us that there are different kinds of demons who have different powers, and if we may say so, staying ability.
And this particular kind that caused this boy not only to be characterized as it is in verse 39 to be deaf and dumb as well, was a very tough one to deal with. By their failure, they learned that lesson regarding the nature of demons and regarding the importance of prayer in ministry. There were other failures too, and in fact they capped their final exam with a failure in the night that Jesus was betrayed when they all fled and left Him.
In every failure is the seed lesson that will lead to success. It may be that you are right now in the experience of failure. I want to encourage you not to be discouraged, but to examine that failure for some seed of a lesson that God is trying to teach you as He trains you to do His work. Jesus trains us today the same way He trained those disciples. In the first place, we need to watch Him and listen to Him as we come to the Word.
You and I are equipped in our service through this book, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. This book is the means by which we are equipped to every good work. Because in here we see Jesus and we listen to Jesus, and by that we are instructed. And then in the daily course of our lives, God gives us success and God gives us failure. And all of that is so that you and I might be trained. We are in the first place chosen, and then we are trained by our Lord.
And I'm thankful that our training doesn't have to be perfected before we can be fruitful, don't you? Training is life-long. It's a process that we go through. God doesn't wait until we've learned all of our lessons perfectly before He can use us and make us fruitful to witness the disciples. But there's a third phase of Jesus calling His team. The third phase is that He commissioned them. He called them to be apostles, and for this we come back to the text where we started.
A disciple is a learner. A disciple is one who follows after. A disciple is one who comes along with. But an apostle is something more than that. An apostle is one who is set apart as a delegated representative or messenger. You say, well am I an apostle? No. There are no apostles today as we've already said. However, you and I are sent forth on a mission. We don't have that specific office of apostle, but we are sent forth as the delegates, the representatives of Jesus Christ to our generation.
Jesus Christ has not only called you and chosen you, He's not only training you, but He has delegated you to do a work for Him today where you're living and maybe beyond that at some point in your life. It's interesting isn't it that as we look at the names of the apostles, some of them are not known beyond their names being listed here. What does that tell us? Well, perhaps a number of things. One of the things is this.
These men who are not known beyond their names on this list were simply not within the focus of the Holy Spirit as He wrote the accounts of the Gospels and the book of Acts. But they too served the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas, the son of James. Simon, who was a zealot. James, the son of Alphaeus, we know a little bit about Thomas, but what of Bartholomew? Probably the same as Nathaniel in John chapter 1. The point that I'm making is this. God does not count fame as the important thing.
God counts faithfulness as the important thing. Very few of us, if any of us, will ever be famous. Not many of us, if any of us, will ever have our names on the lists that are published and known. That is not important. Those who served in insignificant places, quote and unquote. Those who are unknowns, quote and unquote, are just as important to Jesus Christ as those whose names are known by everyone.
The work that they do is just as significant to our Lord as the work of the one that is far famed. Another thing that impresses me about the disciples is this, with all of the faults that they had, whether it be the impetuosity of Peter or the doubt of Thomas or the overzeal of the sons of Zebedee, with all of their faults there is one cardinal virtue that stands out with them. These men were capable of such complete devotion to Jesus Christ that they were willing to sacrifice all for His sake.
Everything. They put it on the line. And I want you to know that that is the kind of people that Jesus Christ wants on his team. The kind that are willing to lay it all down, to put it on the line and sacrifice it all for His sake. What a great and challenging example Jesus' team gives to all of us who are on the later part of the same team. We are Jesus Christ's team in this generation.
We serve a different function than these men did, and yet we are a part of the total purpose and design of God for this age. We have been chosen. We are being equipped by God. And we've already been commissioned as His witnesses. How our hearts need to grasp that. How we need to be thrilled by the privilege that is extended to us by the grace of God to be called by Jesus Christ to walk with Him in salvation, in sanctification, and in service.
And to be trained by Him and His Spirit working within us and equipped to serve Him. And then to be commissioned with assignments that He would give us. What a privilege of grace. As we bring to a close this message about Jesus calling His team together, I think there are several valuable lessons that we need to sum up before we go. The first is that the heart of our service is that of fishing for men.
That was the heart of what the disciples and the apostles were about, and that's the heart of what we're about. That's the focus. That's the core. We're going to bring others to Jesus Christ by our persuasive witnessing to them. Not our coercion, but our persuasive sharing of the gospel of Christ. The picture of a fisherman is suggestive. Fishermen must be patient, so must Christ's witness. Fishermen must be persistent and not give up easily, so must the witness of Christ.
Fishermen must be wise, knowing a sense of timing, what bait to use, and so on. So must the witnesses of Christ. Fishermen must be quiet in their work, and so must the fisherman of Christ keep himself hidden and out of the way so that attention is drawn to the Lord and not to himself. I say it again, that the heart of our service is that of fishing for men. Are you involved in that kind of fishing?
Throwing out the net in the office, in the neighborhood, the place where God's assigned you, throwing it out, seeking to bring people to faith in Christ? That's the heart of why we're here. A second lesson that I see is that not everyone is called to be a leader, but everyone's part is nonetheless important to Christ. These twelve were called out from the multitude of the disciples.
That multitude of disciples was as important as the twelve in their relationship to Christ, but they were the leaders. But then there was even an inner core of leaders, Peter, James, and John, that Jesus spent more time with. Not everyone is called to serve in the same capacity, but the part of every person is equally important. And finally, one does not have to be great to be used of God. One does not have to be great to be used of God. What counts is availability and devotion to Jesus Christ.
Maybe we should add to that as well a passion for people. Those are the things that matter. Availability to the purpose of God. Devotion, intense fervent to the person of Jesus Christ. And then a passion and compassion for people. Those are the things that matter. One does not have to be great to have all of those as a part of his life. Are you available to God for his purpose? Or are you busy doing your own thing?
Isn't it interesting how at some points in our lives we can just give ourselves fully to the Lord and be available to him, and then slowly, bit by bit, almost imperceptibly, that commitment begins to erode away. And we don't even notice that it's disappearing unless the Spirit of God opens our eyes and causes us to look back to what point we were once at. May I encourage you to ask the Lord to open your eyes, are you at that point of availability to the Lord?
Then are you devoted to Jesus Christ? Oh, the intensity of that devotion at one point in your life. And yet is that devotion now waning? Are there other loves and concerns? We cannot serve him effectively unless there is that devotion. And I say again, that's the thing that with all of these apostles strikes you. They were men capable of great devotion to Christ. Then they cared about people. There was a passion for people. I know how greatly we need that. Do you sense that in your heart today?
One does not have to be great to be used of God, but one does have to be available, devoted, and passionate. Robert Murray McShane died before he was 30 years of age. Of him, one biographer wrote, everywhere he stepped, Scotland shook. Whenever he opened his mouth, a spiritual force swept in every direction. Thousands followed him to the feet of Christ. Visitors who came to see the church where McShane had preached were shown a table, a chair, and an open Bible.
They were then told how that man of God spent hours with his head buried in the Bible, weeping for those to whom he would preach, with such a passion for souls. Is it any wonder that the Holy Spirit gave McShane a magnetic personality which drew so many to the Savior? Gone from the earth at 29 years of age, but part of the team. Are you on the team? Are you functioning as part of the team? Let's pray. You examine our hearts today, and the Spirit of God speaks to us.
Where are you in relation to this word from the Lord? Have you believed on Christ? Have you answered that calling? And if so, are you being trained and equipped by seeing Jesus and listening to him in the Word? Are you spending time with him in prayer? Are you able to see your failures as part of God's training process? Are you available to him as he says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men? Are you reluctant to leave your nets, forsake all, and follow him?
Is your devotion to Christ intense and pure? Do you care for people, for their lostness, their hurting, their hell-boundness? Lord Jesus, I pray that as you call out your team in 1989, that there will be some who will follow in the footsteps of those early team members. I pray that that sum would include all of us. As we serve you, because you have saved us, may we serve you with a kind of single-hearted devotion and concern for people that will cause us to be usable and fruitful in your hands.
Convict us, I pray, convict us of areas of life that need to be yielded to your Lordship where our priorities are messed up. How would you respond, my friend, as you're seated there with your head bowed, what do you need to say to the Lord? Let's sing together. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me with your love. Excuse me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Let's stand together with our heads bowed.
Lord we feel that we have walked today beside the Sea of Galilee with you. As you extended the call to those early men, follow me so we have heard your call. As we leave this place of worship this morning, we go to follow you and to be fishers of men and to fulfill our part in the team that you're calling together. Amen.