EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2026
8:27 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“The
Selecting”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
“Luke 6:13a”
Message of the verse: “And when day came, He called His
disciples to Him and chose twelve of them,”
“In answer to our Lord’s fervent,
night-long intercession, God revealed His will as to which of the disciples
were to be selected for special training and apostolic commissioning. Therefore when day came Jesus called
His disciples to Him. Disciples translates
the plural form of mathetes, which means, ‘student,’ ‘follower,’ or ‘learner.’ In Greek and Jewish culture prominent rabbis,
orators, philosophers, or teachers would attach followers, who would travel
with them from place to place. Because
His powerful, unparalleled teaching (John 7:46; Matt. 7:28-29), ability to heal
any disease, cast out demons, raise the dead, and perform other miracles (e. g.,
5:4-9; Matt. 14:14-21, 25-32; 15:32-38; John 21:5-11), the Lord Jesus Christ
attracted a large number of disciples.
Those with Him in the grain fields (6:1), for example, would have
included more than merely the Twelve, who had not yet been chosen. The miraculous feedings of the five thousand
and four thousand men (which would also have included thousands of women and
children) indicate the vast size of the crowds that followed Jesus (cf.
12:1). Not all, of course, were genuine
followers. Unwilling to accept the demands
of following Christ (John 6:53-65). ‘many
of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore’ (v. 66).
“Out of the large group of
disciples, some of whom came to Him on their own and others that He
specifically called to follow Him (5:8-11; 27-28), Jesus chose twelve of
them. As He would later remind them,
‘You did not choose Me but I chose you’ (John 15:16; cf. 6:70; 13:18). Although Jesus chose the Twelve at this time,
He did not officially commission them and grant them authority to heal and cast
out demons until later (Luke 9:1)
“That the Lord chose twelve men is
not random, because that number was symbolic of the twelve tribes of
Israel. The importance of the number was underscored by
the addition of Mattias to take Judas’s place (Acts 1:23-26). Since Israel and its leaders were apostate,
the Twelve were to serve as the leaders of the new, true Israel of God—the redeemed,
believing remnant. Jesus made the
connection clear in Luke 22:29-30) when He told the Twelve that they would
reign over Israel in the millennial kingdom: ‘Just as My Father has granted Me
a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom,
and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’
“There are four lists of the twelve
apostles in the New Testament (cf. Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Acts 1:13). The names on all the lists appear in three
groups of four, always in the same order, though the names in each groups are
arranged in order of decreasing intimacy with Christ. The first group consists of two pairs of
brothers: Peter and James, and John and Andrew; the second of Philip,
Bartholomew (Nathanael), Matthew, and Thomas; the last of James, the son of
Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot. Peter’s name is always first in all four
lists, and Judas Iscariot’s last (except in Acts). The order of the names within each group sometimes
varies, but Peter’s name, as noted, is always first in group one, Philip’s is
always first in group two, and James the son of Alphaeus’s always heads group
three. Those in group one, Peter, James,
John, and Andrew, were the first four called by Jesus to be His disciples (John
1:35-42), the most intimate with Him, and those about whom the most is known. While there is some information about those
in group two, very little is known about group three.
“The Twelve were a diverse group,
not only in their occupations, as noted above, but also in their political
views. Matthew and Simon, for instance, could not have been further apart.
Matthew was a tax collector, a traitor who served the Roman occupiers by exploiting
his own people. Simon, on the other
hand, was a member of the zealots, a faction radically opposed to Rome. Some of them, known as the Sicarii for the concealed
daggers they carried, were terrorists.
They resorted to kidnapping or even murdering Romans and Jews they
suspected of being loyal to Rome. Were
it not for their common devotion to Jesus Christ, Simon may well have murdered
Matthew. It was the same devotion that
molded all twelve men, different as they were in occupation, temperament, and
political views, into a cohesive unit.”
6/12/2026
9:02 PM
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