Big Idea: Jesus purposely reconstitutes his people to be particularly relational and peculiarly regular. God uses these ordinary men to do extraordinary things.
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Luke 6:13 (ESV) — 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Deuteronomy 4:37 (ESV) — 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose (same word) their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, to be his special people.
Deuteronomy 7:7–8 (ESV) — 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 14:2 (ESV) — 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
The choosing of the twelve was an intentional calling back to the election of God and his people in the Old Testament in order to directly connect and continue God’s purpose of election in the Old Testament to these 12 Apostles.
In effect, by ordaining these twelve men, God was establishing a new Israel. Just as the twelve sons of Jacob founded the Old Testament people of God, so also the apostles established the foundation for God’s new people in Christ.
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Luke 6:13–16 (ESV) — 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
There is an obvious order of Apostles in these lists. What we learn about Jesus’ relationships with the twelve is that he prioritizes his time and investment in a few of them. Jesus chooses twelve, but he invests in three.
Matthew 10:2 (ESV) — 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter…
Luke 8:51, 9:20, 9:28-29, Mark 14:32-33
“When will the church learn this lesson? Preaching to the masses, although necessary, will never suffice in the work of preparing leaders for evangelism. Nor can occasional prayer meetings and training classes for Christian workers do this job. Building men is not that easy. It requires constant personal attention, much like a father gives to his children… [Jesus’] concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow.” –Robert Coleman, Master Plan of Evangelism
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Acts 4:13 (ESV) — 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
1Cor. 1:26-2:5
