“The Selecting” (Luke 6:13a)

 

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