2234 The Inner Circle — Кассета

Jesus chose 12 ordinary guys to become his inner circle, to walk with him during his ministry on earth, to personally pour into for the purposes of preparing them to continue his mission. Have you ever really thought about who those 12 were? Like why them? Who were they before they met Jesus and who did they become with Jesus. They each have a story, and in their stories we will likely find ourselves – our abilities, our passions, along with our flaw and our weaknesses – and maybe we will see how we too have been chosen intentionally. Maybe as we study these 12 chosen men we will discover the real ways Jesus uses ordinary people for his divine works, his miraculous power, and his eternal purposes. Today, we begin our study of the 12 disciples. A disciple is the student of a teacher. One who follows, studies and learns. In this time, all great teachers had a smaller inner circle of their best students. The custom was for a student who truly wanted to grow and learn more, to come to their teacher and request approval to become their disciple. The teacher would only accept the best students as his disciples. Only the smartest, brightest, highest potential students were ever brought into the inner circle to receive such personal investment and instruction. It was essentially the Ivy League college of it’s day. The application process was brutal. Being accepted as a teacher’s disciple was a big deal. But, Jesus did it different. Jesus chose his disciples himself. There were no applications for the position, no selection process that included the highest grades, best families, or hardest working. He wasn’t looking for the standouts by earthly standards – Jesus was looking for something else in his chosen 12 disciples. What was it he was looking for? What was heaven’s standout quality that made Jesus say, “Yes, that one.” Luke 6: 12-16: “One day … Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all his disciples (there were likely hundreds of followers at this point) and chose twelve of them to be apostles. (Apostles are disciples who are sent out on a mission. Apostle literally means ‘sent one’.) Here are there names: Simon (whom he named Peter) Andrew (Peter’s brother) James John Philip Bartholomew Matthew Thomas James (son of Alphaeus) Simon (who was called the zealot) Judas (son of James) Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him) That was the Team Jesus lineup. Put on the jersey, boys, and get yourselves on the field! You’re getting ready to see the impossible and be part of it! What we will find with each of these 12 men’s stories is they were mostly all ordinary and common. In a lineup of men Jesus could have found at this time, these were not the standouts others would have chosen. But for each one, Jesus said – YOU, come follow me. And for each one of these 12, THEY DID. Maybe that was heaven’s standout quality – their willingness to follow. They were available and when called by Jesus, they took the next step. Really, what if that’s all he’s still looking for today? Are you willing to follow him? Are you available – or are you busy? He’s been calling – have you been qualifying every prompting, reasoning it out, considering it for a later more convenient time, dismissing yourself from a very simple next step of obedience? As we study their stories, we find they were imperfect men who didn’t understand, didn’t always get it right, and struggled to remain faithful at times. SO WHY WOULD JESUS NEED THEM? Why would he need anyone? Think about that – couldn’t Jesus complete his mission on his own? Couldn’t he do all the miracles himself? Couldn’t he go all the places on his own? Couldn’t he have given himself more time to reach more people and completely eliminate the need for these flawed humans to be part of his work? Really, cou