The Impact (Matt. 10:1b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/20/2021 2:30 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “The Impact”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 1:10b

 

            Message of the verse:  “1 Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            We begin with John MacArthur explaining the word translated “authority.”  “Exousia (authority) is from a verb that means ‘it is lawful,’ and it therefore refers to a right or power that is legitimately delegated.  Jesus granted the twelve disciples God’s divine authority to do exactly what He Himself had been doing (see 4:23; 9:35).  To do what He did would demonstrate they were sent by Him, just as what He did demonstrated He was sent by the Father.  Throughout the book of Acts, we see the disciples doing the very things for which Jesus here gives them authority.”  I suppose that we need to say that just because the things that the disciples did in the book of Acts were what is called “sign gifts,” and that they are not around anymore because the entire Bible has been written and so there is no need for any of these sign gifts to be used anymore.

 

            The point here is that Jesus’ disciples were learning from Jesus and as they watched Him heal and cast out demons they would do the same on these mini missions trips and then once Jesus had gone back to heaven they continued to do these very things.  An example is found in Acts 3:2-8 where Peter and John healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple.  They got in trouble by doing it and Jesus also got some trouble from the same people when He healed people too. 

 

            MacArthur writes “The apostles manifested the kind of kingdom power that their Lord had manifested, and by their faithful obedience they turned Jerusalem and then the world upside down (cf. Acts 17:6).  Jesus promised that they would do ‘greater works’ (in extent, not power) and His words began to be fulfilled.”

 

            The following comes from MacArthur’s commentary.  It is a story that he was given, but the author is unknown.

 

“One night in the East End of London a young doctor was turning out the lights of a mission hall in which he was working.  He found a ragged boy hiding in a dark corner, where he begged to be allowed to sleep.  The doctor took the homeless boy to his own room, fed him and tried to get his story.  He learned that the boy was living in a coal bin with a number of other boys.  He persuaded the boy to show him where these boys were.  They went through narrow alleys and finally came to a hole in the wall of a factory.  ‘Look in there,’ he said.  The doctor stuck a match and looked around, crawling into the cellar.  Finally he found thirteen boys with only bits of old burlap to protect them from the cold.  One lad was clasping to him a four-year-old brother.  All were sound asleep.  The doctor caught a vision then and there of service for his Lord.  He cared for those boys and started the Bernardo Homes for neglected children.  At the time of the death of Dr. Bernardo, the newspapers reported that he had taken, and surrounded with a Christian atmosphere, more than 80,000 homeless boys and girls.  Hundreds of them became fine Christian citizens.  O that we might have eyes to see the need about us!  Thousands will drift into a Christless eternity because Christians do not take Christ to them.”

 

7/20/2021 2:57 PM

 

 

PT-5 "Chosen to be Prepared" (Matt. 10:1a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/19/2021 9:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-5 “Chosen to be Prepared”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Matthew 10:1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”

 

            As promised we will look at the fifth frailty of the disciples which is their lack of power in today’s SD.  This fifth frailty will take us a bit longer and that is one reason that I did not want to look at it last night when I was very tired thus not giving it the look that it should have.

 

            This problem is like others they had in that they were not willing to admit it.  It was true of them as it is true of believers today that in and of themselves they were impotent and helpless, and yet even after they failed on many occasions they continued to believe they were strong and self-sufficient.  There is a story in the 17^th chapter of Matthew that happens right after Jesus and three of His disciples came down from a mountain (I believe it was Mt. Hermon), where He was changed, as the disciples saw His glory and also Moses and Elijah.  When they came down they encounter a man who had brought his son to have Jesus’ disciples to be healed and the disciples tried in vain to heal the boy, but could not cure him as seen in Matthew 17:16.  Let us look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 17:17 “"You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.’”  Jesus then healed the boy, but afterwards the disciples could not figure out why they did not have the power to heal him and asked Jesus why they could not do this to which He replied in verses 19-20 “19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?" 20  And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”  MacArthur writes “The day came when the disciples had such power of faith, but it was only after they were filled with the Lord’s own Holy Spirit.”

 

            Jesus was very patient as He dealt with His disciples’ lack of understanding as He continued to teach them.  He also dealt with their lack of humility by demonstrating humility.  Next He dealt with their lack of faith by demonstrating the power of God.  He also dealt with their lack of commitment by praying for them.  Then afterwards Jesus gave them several warnings of the persecutions they would face for His sake, examples seen in John 15:18-21; 16:1-4, 22, 32-33.  As noted these examples are all seen in John’s gospel and then the most important prayer that Jesus gives for His disciples, and in that prayer all believers are also mentioned, which is found in the wonderful 17^th chapter of John’s gospel.  I have heard this described as the Lord’s Prayer, which I totally agree with as the other one with that title could be called the disciples prayer.  Jesus also dealt with their lack of power by sending them His own Holy Spirit as their divine Helper as seen also in John’s gospel 14:16; 16:7, 13-15.

 

            I mentioned in an earlier SD that after Jesus died and was resurrected and then returned to heaven, and the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit that there came a day seen in the 4^th chapter of the book of Acts when these disciples were in trouble over healing a man and had to come before the Jewish counsel that we read the following about them:  “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”  These same men who had all of the issues that we have been going over are now living a life through the power of the Spirit of God and were seen as having been with Jesus doing similar things that He had done.  MacArthur writes “The disciples became living illustrations of the axiom that ‘everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher’ (Luke 6:40).  Jesus had trained them well, and now they went out and lived like their Master.  What they had learned by being with Christ and had received from Him through His Spirit not only had transformed their lives but would, through them, transform the world.”

 

            Now I want to quote the last paragraph in this section from MacArthur’s commentary and then there is also one more small sub-section that we need to look at today in order to finish this main-section we have been looking at for a while now.

 

            “For three years they lived with this Man among men who never uttered a word that was not true, who never sinned in thought or deed, who never lost His temper, and who was never angry except in righteous indignation over evil.  Though He was the Son of God, He never followed His own will or took glory for Himself.  He cared nothing for His own welfare but everything for the welfare of others, literally wearing Himself out with fatigue in their service.  He healed the sick, cleansed the demon possessed, and raised the dead; and He loved anybody and everybody.  Now He appointed the ‘twelve, that they might be with Him’ (Mark. 3:14) in order that they might become like Him.  And they did.” 

 

            This is a lofty goal for every believer to strive for, to be like Jesus.

 

CHOSEN TO BE SENT

 

            This is the last sub-section from the first part of verse 1 of chapter 10 in Matthew’s gospel.

 

            MacArthur writes:  ‘Not only were the twelve disciples chosen sovereignly, chosen with prayer, and chosen for training, but they were also chosen to be sent.  The disciples (‘those who learn’) were trained to become apostles (‘those who were sent’).

 

            Jesus calls all disciples in order to send them out.  There were only twelve apostles (Matthias was later added to replace Judas, and Paul was a unique addition beyond the Twelve) who were the official ‘sent ones’ of the early church and who one day will ‘sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matt. 19:28).  But every disciple of Jesus Christ is called to make other disciples (Matt. 28:19-20).  We are all trained to be sent.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that I don’t take lightly doing the things that I believe that the Lord called me to do before the world was made and as seen in Ephesians 2:10, a verse I have mentioned on many occasions in my Spiritual Diaries.  I can only do the things that I was called to do through the power of His Holy Spirit, and when I try and do things on my own I end up like those disciples trying to cast out a demon on their own, as they failed and so do I.  It has been an answer to prayer that the Lord give me joy as I study His Word each day, and I am thankful for that answer to my prayer.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to continue to pray for revival in hopes and faith that the Lord will answer that prayer too.

 

7/19/2021 10:35 AM

PT-4 "Chosen To Be Prepared" (Matt. 10:1)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/18/2021 10:36 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-4 “Chosen To be Prepared”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”

 

            We begin this SD by looking at the third weakness of the disciples which is a lack of faith.  We know that all of them with the exception of Judas was a believer but they struggled to trust in His truth, His goodness, or His power.  There are a number of times in the gospel accounts where we hear Jesus say “O ye of little faith.”  I will cite a couple of examples, and the first one is from Mark 4:40 “And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’”  This was the incident of the disciples and Jesus being in a boat in a storm.  Mark 16:14 says “Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.”  These disciples of Jesus who had been with Him for three years and seen all of His miracles, and also Him telling them that He would rise from the dead, and after they had been told of this they still did not believe.

 

            A fourth problem with the disciples was lack of commitment.  MacArthur writes “Their lack of humility and self-understanding made them quick to promise they would never leave or forsake Him, but their lack of faith bread weak commitment, which rendered them just as quick to fail the test of their promises.  When the time of real testing came, Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter denied Him, and the other ten were frightened away.  In the beginning, when the cost was small, the disciples ‘left everything and followed Him’ (Luke 5:11); but when they faced the swords and clubs of the soldiers in the garden, ‘they all left Him and fled’ (Mark 14:50).

            We know what happened a few hours earlier when Peter had confidently boasted, “lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33).  Peter was not the only one to boast of this as seen in Matthew 36:35 as the rest of the disciples said the same thing in agreement with Peter.  A short time later the disciples fell asleep when Jesus wanted them to pray with Him, and then Peter denied that He knew the Lord three times.

 

            Fifth is the frailty of the disciples lack of power, and because it is Sunday evening and I am tired we will save this one, which is the last one until our next SD.

 

7/18/2021 10:52 PM

PT-3 "Chosen to be Prepared" (Matt. 10:1a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2021 11:01 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-3 “Chosen to be Prepared”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”

 

            I want to continue to quote some more things from MacArthur’s commentary, but first I want to review some of the things that we have been looking at.  I believe that there are five problems that the disciples had and we just began the second one in our SD from yesterday.  I will list these five issues and perhaps as we look directly at the names of them we will see that they may be problems that we also have in our lives, therefore we may now have some resources in order to correct them.  Issue number one is according to MacArthur one of the most obvious shortcomings of the disciples was their lack of spiritual understanding, something we have already looked at.  Issue number two, the one we just got started looking at yesterday is the disciples’ dullness was their lack of humility, and I will repeat the beginning of this one in today’s SD.  The third weakness that plagued the disciples was lack of faith.  Number four problem with the disciples was lack of commitment, and number five was their lack of power.  This is a rather long section, therefore we will not complete it today, but I do want to get through this second issue that they have in our SD for today.

 

            “Closely related to the disciples’ spiritual dullness was their lack of humility.  Often they failed to understand what Jesus said simply because they assumed they already knew They were proud, jealous, and envious men who were frequently more concerned about their own welfare and prestige than about Jesus’ teaching or work or about His own human welfare or divine glory.”

 

            The following is an example of their lack of humility which is seen in Mark 9:33-34 “33 They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.”  Now to put this into perspective just before this happened Jesus was telling them about what was going to happen to Him once He got to Jerusalem, how He was going to be killed, buried, resurrected three days later.  I think you get the point here.

 

            Let us look at another incident that is seen in Matthew 20:20-22 which happens right before Jesus would be going to the cross:  “20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. 21 And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left." 22 But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They said to Him, "We are able.’”  Jesus goes on to say that they will drink the cup that he will drink, but that will be a long way into the future before that happens and by the time that does happen they surely will understand much more than they do now.  It is called “spiritual growth.”

 

            Now after this incident with James and John the other disciples are having a lot of problems with it so we will look at verses 23-28 “23 He said to them, "My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father." 24 And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. 26 “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, 27  and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’”  Remember that verse 28 is the theme of the book of Mark.

 

            MacArthur concludes this second short-coming:  “Jesus not only corrected the disciples’ wrong thinking and attitudes by teaching them again the principles of His kingdom, but He gave them object lessons of those principles.  On one occasion He picked up a little child and placed it before them as the model of true humility (Mark 9:36), and when He wanted them to comprehend what true servanthood is like, He washed their feet Himself (John 13:5-15).

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose it is a little comforting to realize that when I have issues with humility that I am in good company.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Paul said that his only glory was to glory in the cross, for after all what do I have that is worthwhile than what happened to Jesus on the cross, remembering that I am in Christ and God looks at me as dying with Jesus on the cross.

 

7/17/2021 11:26 AM

PT-2 "Chosen to be Prepared" (Matt. 10:1a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2021 11:25 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-2 “Chosen to be Prepared”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”

 

            We continue looking at the preparedness of the disciples that came from the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, something that all true believers can learn from.  Sometimes we can learn things in the classroom, or from reading books, or even from reading blog post, and also from personal experiences.  However spiritual growth comes best from close contact with a holy example.  We learn from a person who has a consistently pure life that is patient, loving, reverent, and that has peace of heart and mind, and that is an unmatched tutor for godly living.  To hear a godly person talk to others and pray to God, to see him act and react, and to feel his heartbeat for the Lord is to be trained in the best of all schools.  I once read or heard of one of the early presidents of the Moody Bible Institute, but forget his name at this time, who had someone hire a private detective to follow him as the person who hired the detective could not believe that this Moody president could live such a moral life.  The detective came back and said after following him for a long period of time that he could find nothing wrong with the way he lived.  We as true believers in Jesus Christ who still have an old sin nature are certainly not perfect as we all struggle with different issues from time to time, but we can through the power of the Holy Spirit live a life that is worthy of our calling.  The disciples had the best Teacher available at any time, and even though they were a humanly defective and inept group, they were following the only Person who lived a perfect life as He was unsurpassed.  Now His intention was not to teach them to be the best they could be in their own capacities and strength but to teach them to be what they could be through His provision and power.  I remember listening to a sermon by the person I was listening to when I became a believer, Hal Lindsey, and the title of that sermon was “Becoming what you Are,” and I believe that is what we are talking about here.  When we become a new person “in Christ” that is the person that we are to be, but as stated the old sin nature will fight us every step of the way and so we have to rely on the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us to overcome those battles that we fight.  Some days they are easier than others, but some days the fight is very difficult.

 

            As we look at the most obvious shortcomings of the disciples we find that it was their lack of spiritual understanding.  These men were called to evangelize the world for Christ, and yet even far into their training they showed no perception of heavenly truth or of God’s unfolding purpose and eternal plan for redeeming the world.  We know that they were spiritually alive because they had trusted in Christ, but they had little spiritual perception or sensitivity.  Another problem was that they were dense to spiritual things, as they struggled in order to understand Jesus’ parables nearly as much as the crowds that He was telling them to.  Jesus would ask them a number of times after teaching a parable if they understood it, and many times they would say, “Yes Lord.”  But their subsequent words and actions invariably proved they did not understand all that the Lord was teaching.  They were so dull that they did not even understand that they failed to understand, and added to their spiritual dullness were their many prejudices and preconceptions, which they were reluctant to forsake even in light of the Lord’s specific teachings to the contrary.  We know that the Lord had a lot of work to do in getting these men ready to the most important job anyone has ever undertook, but we also know that this teaching that the Lord was giving them, even though at the time theydid not understand all of it would come back to them in greater understanding once the Holy Spirit came to live in their lives.

 

            I will conclude this SD with a quotation from John MacArthur:

 

            “When on one occasion Peter said to Jesus, ‘Explain the parable to us,’ Jesus replied, ‘Are you still lacking in understanding also? (Matt. 15:15-16).  When Jesus gave the disciples an object lesson in humility by personally washing their feet, Peter proudly refused.  After Jesus told him that otherwise he would have no part in Him, Peter went to the other extreme, asking to be washed all over (John 13:5-9).  By both responses Peter proved he had missed the meaning of what Jesus was doing and teaching.

            “When Jesus first began to tell the disciples of His coming death n Jerusalem, ‘Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord!’  This shall never happen to you’’—to which Jesus replied, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s’ (Matt. 16:21-23).  When Jesus took His disciples aside to explain His imminent crucifixion—telling them of His predicted arrest, mocking, scourging, death, and resurrection—‘they understood none of these things, and this saying was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said’ (Luke 18:31-34).

            “After Jesus was crucified, just as He had predicted, the disciples ignored that He had also predicted His resurrection, and they went despondently back to their fishing (John 21).  Even after the Lord had appeared to them several times, proving His victory over the grave, they still did not understand the prupose of His suffering or death or resurrection—or what their role in His future ministry was to be.

            “Yet through all their misunderstandings, contradictions, pettiness, and failures, Jesus patiently continued to teach—repeating many of the essential truths again and again.  Even during the time between His resurrection and ascension, ‘He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of things concerning the kingdom of God’ (Acts 1:3). 

            “Closely related to the disciples’ spiritual dullness was their lack of humility.  Often they failed to understand what Jesus said simply because they assumed they already knew They were proud, jealous, and envious men who were frequently more concerned about their own welfare and prestige than about Jesus’ teaching or work or about His own human welfare or divine glory.”

 

            I can see that I will not get through all of this in this SD, and so we will continue, Lord willing in our next SD as the things that MacArthur is writing here are very important to us as I am sure like me, many struggle from time to time in their walk with the Lord and are thankful for His patience that He has for us, but want to do better, and so perhaps this will help many of us out as we look at the struggles that His disciples had.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Perhaps understanding the struggles that the disciples had will help me in the struggles that I have.

 

My Steps of Faith For Today:  Trust the Lord to teach me like He patiently taught His disciples to get them ready to tell others the greatest story ever told.

 

7/16/2021 12:20 PM

PT-1 "Chosen To Be Prepared) Matt. 10:1a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2021 11:11 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “Chosen To Be Prepared”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”

 

            The third is that the twelve were chosen to be prepared.  This section will take us a few days to get through.  We have seen earlier that the twelve were converted and also called for the ministry Jesus called them into, however they were far from ready to serve the Lord.  I think it goes without saying that training is an essential part of any work, and that includes the Lord’s work, and I suppose it takes some to get prepared longer than others.  We have seen that the disciples left their nets, their crops, their tax collecting booths, and some left other business; and for three years they walked with the Lord Jesus, and while doing this they were watching, listening, observing, learning, and often they were misunderstanding exactly what was going on, but they were there with Him.

 

            John MacArthur states that one writer says of these men:

 

            “They have no occupation; they have given up the pursuits in which they were engaged:  their fishing, their tax gathering, and their agriculture.  They carry on no business; they simply walk around and behind their leader, talking to each other or to Him, and when He speaks to the people who begin to gather, they listen just like everybody else.  The only thing they do is go with Him from place to place.  They are idle, and it begins to be a question of whether it is not doing harm and giving rise to reproach that twelve grown men are being kept idle for no apparent purpose and neglecting oblivious duties in order to do so. (Herbert Lockyer, All the Apostles of the Bible [Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 1972], 13).”

 

                                                                                                                                               

            This is what it must have looked like to many of those who came to Jesus.  It was very easy to see what He was doing; but why were the Twelve with Him?  These men did very little to help Him, and on more than one occasion, they disagreed with and even tried to interfere with the exact thing that He was doing.

 

            I think that we all can realize that these twelve men were with Jesus for a purpose, and not a moment’s time with Him was wasted.  I do have to admit that perhaps the time that Judas spent with him was wasted, but then that was also a fulfillment of prophecy so perhaps it was not wasted.  It is evident that Jesus knew they needed to be taught and to be trained.  These men had to be trained before they were sent out.  They had to learn as disciples before they could minister as apostles.  I remember after the Lord was resurrected and that the Holy Spirit had come upon these men that they were arrested and one of the things that their captives said was “these men were with Jesus,” and so all that training that they received certainly was fulfilled in these twelve men.  The training these men received from Jesus was an unimaginable and unparallel privilege.  The following is what Jesus said to every believer “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me” (Matthew 11:29).  No believer can grow in Christ apart from learning from Him, and that has to come from His Word.  However the training of the twelve disciples was absolutely unique.  In all of history, they alone were taught directly by the incarnate God, and that is a statement we need to dwell upon, and this happened as they lived with Him inseparably for those three years.

 

7/15/2021 11:35 PM  

Chosen Sovereignly and Chosen After Prayer (Matt. 10:1a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/14/2021 9:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                Focus:  “Chosen Sovereignly” and “Chosen After Prayer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:1a

 

            Message of the verse: “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”

 

            I mentioned in our last SD that we would try to look at two short sub-sections today, as I named these two on the “focus” part of this Spiritual Diary.  We will begin with “Chosen Sovereignly.”  I know that people have trouble with that word and the word predestination, but they are in the Word of God and as one thinks about that these words bring tension in the lives of people, but the fact is both are true, and the fact is that we with our puny human brains will never understand this while on this earth.  Also this shows that man did not author the Word of God, for if he did then there would be no tension in it, but there is and this shows us that God wrote it and when we come to problems in the Word of God we must go to Deuteronomy 29:29 “GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation” (The Message).

 

            We have been studying the fact that Jesus was training the Twelve and want to look now at several foundational facts as we begin to look at this sub-section.  The first one is that these men were chosen by God as none of the twelve initiated the idea of following Jesus and becoming His disciples, much less His apostles.  Mark 3:13 states “And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.”  John 15:16 tells us “’You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.’”  MacArthur adds “The men themselves were not consulted nor were any other men.  Jesus’ only consultation was with His heavenly Father.  Like Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and all the prophets, the ‘twelve disciples were chose by God’s sovereign will and for His sovereign purpose, being foreordained to His service before the foundation of the world.  That has always been God’s way.  He divinely chose Israel, He divinely chose His prophets and His apostles, and He divinely chose those today who become the leaders of His own body, the church.  Acts 13:1-4 and 20:28 clearly teach that the Holy Spirit sovereignly places men in leadership in the church.” The next foundational fact is the next sub-section “Chosen after Prayer.”

 

            Some may wonder why this was at all necessary if it was for-ordained before the world began.  Here is another thing that we cannot understand, that is what prayer has to do with getting God’s sovereign will accomplished, but we see here that Jesus Christ is the One praying to His Father about these men and as we have seen these men were Christ’s choice and His choice was the Father’s choice as He sought His Father’s will in everything He did, doing exactly nothing independently or on His own initiative as seen in John 5:19 and 30; and also John 8:28, verse we will now look at.  “19  Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”  “30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  “28 So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”  In the sixth chapter of Luke’s gospel we see that Jesus spent a whole night in prayer before choosing the twelve disciples.  “12 It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles.”  The following verses gives the names of those He chose.  Jesus chose those 12 because it was the Father’s will that this be done, the Father’s gift to the Son as we see something like this in John 17:6 “"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”  MacArthur concludes “This same pattern of prayer in choosing servants of the Lord can be seen in Acts 13:1-4.  Those were very special men, not because of who they were in themselves but because they had been sovereignly chosen by God the Father to be disciples of God the Son.” Acts 13:1-4 “1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent

them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I stated earlier I don’t know all the answers to what we are writing about here, but I do know that in January of 1974 I had no intention of receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior, but I do know that God’s desire at that time was to save me, and for that I am forever thankful.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting the Lord to bring whom He desires to be at our prayer meeting this evening for revival.

 

7/14/2021 10:36 AM