We Are All Called to This
Our church is a rural church, which means people have to travel to get there. Due to the weather this past week, it was decided that we wouldn’t have a service. Instead, Pastor Lisa shared a short video message about the disciples.
Over the past couple of weeks, she has talked about Andrew, Peter, James, and John. This past Sunday, she had planned to talk about four more (who she is calling the questioners) but opted to wait until next week.
When we hear the word disciple, we usually think about Jesus’s followers. This is true, but it’s not limited to that. A disciple is a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another.
An apostle, on the other hand, is “one who is sent.” In Scripture, it specifically refers to someone commissioned by Christ—or, in a broader sense, by the early Church—to proclaim the gospel. The idea of being “sent” underlines the authority and responsibility given to apostles. They were not just messengers, but authorized representatives of Christ.
Jesus chose twelve of His disciples to be apostles. This was not a decision He took lightly. In Luke 6:12-16, we learn that “Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night long. At daybreak, he called together his disciples. He chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter; his brother Andrew; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called a zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”
Here, we are given the names of the twelve apostles.
He didn’t just say a quick prayer. He prayed all night. He took this decision seriously.
Then again, in Matthew 10:1-4 and Mark 3:16-19, we are given the same twelve names. In Acts 1:13, the eleven are listed as they begin to look for a replacement for Judas.
This shows the importance of choosing these twelve, but it doesn’t stop there.
We are all called to be followers of Jesus. The people He called to follow Him were just normal people, like you and me. They were working and living normal lives when He called them.
The same is true for us. This doesn’t mean we have to leave our normal lives and become missionaries or evangelists. It means we are called to follow Jesus and share Him through the way we live.