COMMON MEN, UNCOMMON CALLING

Although the apostles were common men, theirs was an uncommon calling. In other words, the task they were called to, and not anything about the men per se, is what makes them so important. Consider how unique their role was to be.

Not only would they found the church and play a pivotal leadership role as the early church grew and branched out, but they also became the channels through which most of the New Testament would be given. They received truth from God by divine revelation. Ephesians 3:5 is very explicit. Paul says that the mystery of Christ, which in the earlier ages was not made known, “has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.” They did not preach a human message. The truth was given to them by direct revelation.

They were therefore the source of all true church doctrine. Acts 2:42 describes the activities of the early church in these terms: “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Before the New Testament was complete, the apostles’ teaching was the only source of truth about Christ and church doctrine. And their teaching was received with the same authority as the written Word. In fact, the written New Testament is nothing other than the Spirit-inspired, inscripturated record of the apostle’s teaching.

In short, the apostles were given to edify the church. Ephesians 4:11-12 says Christ gave the apostles “for quipping the saints for the work of ministry, for edifying of the body of Christ.” They were the original Christian teachers and preachers. 

-- John MacArthur (1939-2025) in “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You”

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TWELVE ORDINARY MEN – Part 4 of 4

“Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”  (1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NLT)

God’s favorite instruments are nobodies, so that no one can boast before God. In other words, God chooses whom He chooses in order that He might receive the glory. He chooses weak instruments so that no one will attribute the power to human instruments rather than to God, who wields those instruments. Such a strategy is unacceptable to those whose whole pursuit in life is aimed toward the goal of human glory…

[The apostles] were not like that. They certainly struggled with pride and arrogance like every fallen human being. But the driving passion of their lives became the glory of Christ. And it was that passion, subjected to the influence of the Holy Spirit -- not any innate skill or human talent -- that explains why they left such an indelible impact on the world.

-- Excerpts from “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You” by John MacArthur

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TWELVE ORDINARY MEN – Part 3 of 4

Christ’s choice of the apostles testifies to the fact that God can use the unworthy and the unqualified. He can use nobodies. They turned the world upside down, these twelve (Acts 17:6).  It was not because they had extraordinary talents, unusual intellectual abilities, powerful political influence, or some special social status. They turned the world upside down because God worked in them to do it.

God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there’s never any question about the source of power when their lives change the world. It’s not the person; it’s the truth of God and the power of God in the person. (We preachers need to remind ourselves of this. It’s not our cleverness or our personality. The power is in the Word -- the truth that we preach -- not in us.) And apart from one Person -- one extraordinary human being who was God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ -- the history of God’s work on earth is the story of His using the unworthy and molding them for His use the same careful way a potter fashions clay. The Twelve were no exception to that…

Let’s not, however, underestimate the importance of their office. Upon their selection, the twelve apostles in effect became the true spiritual leaders of Israel… The apostles became the preachers of the new covenant. They were the ones to whom the Christian gospel was first entrusted… They became the foundation stones of the church, with Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Those truths are heightened, not diminished, by the fact that these men were so ordinary. 

-- Excerpts from “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You” by John MacArthur

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TWELVE ORDINARY MEN – Part 2 of 4

Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will save it.”  (Luke 9:22-24 NIV)

It was a brief but intensive schedule of discipleship. And when it was over, on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, “all the disciples forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56). From an earthly point of view, the training program looked like a monumental failure. It seemed the disciples had forgotten or ignored everything Christ had ever taught them about taking up the cross and following Him. In fact, their own sense of failure was so profound that they went back to their old vocations for a time. And even at that, it appeared they would fail (John 21:3-4).

But encouraged by the risen Lord, they returned to their apostolic calling. Empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they valiantly undertook the task to which Jesus called them. The work they subsequently began continues today, two thousand years later. They are living proof that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. In and of themselves they were clearly not sufficient for the task (cf. 2 Corinthians 2:16). But God led them in triumph in Christ, and through them He diffused “the fragrance of His knowledge in every place” (v. 14). 

-- Excerpts from “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You” by John MacArthur

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TWELVE ORDINARY MEN – Part 1 of 4

“Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon (whom He named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:12-16 NIV)

The Twelve were personally selected and called by Christ. He knew them as only their Creator could know them (cf. John 1:47). In other words, He knew all their faults long before He chose them, He even knew Judas would betray Him (John 6:70; 13:21-27), and yet He chose the traitor anyway and gave him all the same privileges and blessings He gave to the others.

Think about the ramifications of this: From our human perspective, the propagation of the gospel and the founding of the church hinged entirely on twelve men whose most outstanding characteristic was their ordinariness. They were chosen by Christ and trained for a time that is best measured in months, not years. He taught them the Scriptures and theology. He discipled them in the ways of godly living (teaching them and showing them how to pray, how to forgive, and how to serve one another with humility). He gave them moral instruction. He spoke to them of things to come. And He employed them as His instruments to heal the sick, cast out demons, and do other miraculous works. Three of them -- Peter, James and John -- even got a brief glimpse of Him in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9). 

-- Excerpts from “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You” by John MacArthur

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EYEWITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTED CHRIST

“Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you -- unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by more than 500 of His followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then He was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw Him.”  (1 Corinthians 15:1-8 NLT)

Modern attempts to get away from the sheer historical facts of the Resurrection are, at best, based on a total misunderstanding.  The whole Bible proclaims the need for, and the achievement of, a salvation that will remake creation, and it is just such a salvation, at once supernatural and historical, that was won on Easter Day.  If the Resurrection narratives are [merely] a subtle way of convincing us that God still loves us, or that there is a life beyond death, they must be reckoned among the oddest and most ill-conceived stories ever written. 

-- Michael Sadgrove & Tom Wright 

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WITNESS BEARING

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”  (Luke 1:1-4 NIV)

In the training of the twelve for the work of apostleship, hearing and seeing the words and works of Christ necessarily occupied an important place. Eye and ear witnessing of the facts of an unparalleled life was an indispensable preparation for future witness bearing. The apostles could secure credence for their wondrous tale only by being able to preface it with the protestation: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.” (1 John 1:3a NIV)

None would believe their report, save those who, at the very best, were satisfied that it emanated from men who had been with Jesus. Hence the third evangelist, [Luke] himself not an apostle, but only a companion of apostles, presents his Gospel with all confidence to his friend Theophilus as genuine history, and no mere collection of fables, because its contents were attested by men who “from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.”

-- A.B. Bruce in “The Training of the Twelve”


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