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Most people know somewhere in the back of their mind that Jesus chose twelve disciples to follow Him. We have discussed recently that the word "disciple" simply means "one who is taught and instructed, and tries to follow those instructions." Jesus had many disciples, but He set up a specific government of men with each smaller group having a greater responsibility. There are tremendous lessons that can be learned simply by studying the way that Jesus set up the authority during His ministry. Peter was the chosen leader of the Apostolic Church. Peter, James, and John made up the "inner three" and they were the "leaders of the leaders." The twelve disciples made up the council of Jesus' most committed and devoted followers. After the twelve learned to minister, then Jesus commissioned seventy believers to go out and minister to the crowds. There were 120 disciples on the Day of Pentecost that obeyed Jesus' commandment to receive the Holy Ghost. They were the only ones of the 500 who heard the commandment to go to Jerusalem and wait on the Holy Ghost that actually obeyed the commandment. We can see that the level of commitment, responsibility, and anointing goes down at each larger level of disciples.

There are many lessons that we can learn from those numbers. First, we must have an organized system of authority if we are to truly follow Jesus' example. Second, even leaders must submit to leaders. But the most sobering lesson to be learned from these facts is that the larger group could only grow in anointing, power, and relationship with Jesus Christ, after the smaller group moved on. For example, it was after the twelve disciples were sent out two by two and learned to step out in faith and work miracles and see the Words of Jesus fulfilled in their lives, that Jesus was able to elevate the seventy to the same anointing. When the 120 on the Day of Pentecost received the Holy Ghost, THEN thousands were able to also receive it. The smaller group of more committed disciples either lead other further into God or hinder others from reaching everything that God has for them!

You who come on Wednesday night are not just "Sunday morning Christians" and by and far I am teaching the "inner circle" of this church. Not that we elevate you to a special or favored status, but that you are the ones who are faithful week in and week out and are growing spiritually beyond the "casual Christian." We cannot get the attitude of "those who only come on Sunday morning every once and a while need to get serious and grow further in God" without realizing that for the outer group to grow, we who are in the inner group must grow beyond the level that we desire for them to reach! And for you the "inner group" to grow, then the ministry of this church must grow beyond the present level. And if the ministry of this church is to grow, then I as a pastor much move forward into a deeper anointing and level of faith and commitment than I have ever walked in before. You cannot push people into a relationship with Christ, but you can lead them!

So when we study the "twelve disciple" we are studying a core group hand selected by Jesus Christ, Himself, for a specific purpose. These are the men that Jesus Christ intended to leave the future of the Apostolic Church that He would die to give birth to. Not one was chosen by accident. In fact, we find in the Book of Revelation that the New Jerusalem which represents the Church is founded upon these twelve men:

Now we know that is primarily to teach us that the Church of Jesus Christ is to be founded upon the Apostolic Doctrine that is found within the Acts of the Apostles, the book of the Bible commonly referred to as "Acts." But I believe that there are other great truths to be learned from a study of the twelve disciples. We could literally do a series with a lesson on each one and, maybe one day we will do such a study. In this lesson, however, I want to point out what I feel is the most important lessons to be learned from the overall life of each. In other words, when you view everything that we can know about each disciple, what is the primary lesson that Jesus was trying to teach us by bringing these men to our attention and recording their actions and questions in scripture? We who are alive today must also be "disciples" of Christ. Last Wednesday night, we studied the first commands of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. (See "The First Commands of Discipleship) This lesson is a sneaky sequel to that lesson and reveals to us important lessons of discipleship that were created by actual examples. My father used to say "learn from other people's mistakes, because you don't have time to make them all yourself." The seventy disciples are nameless in scripture as are most of the 120. But the twelve disciples are named as a group four times and found throughout the pages of the New Testament. Jesus obviously intended for us to learn something from their lives and ministries.

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1. Peter the Leader

With Peter, it is more a matter of what do we NOT have written about him, rather than what we do have. We have more details of Peter's life than any other disciple. He is by far the most famous of the disciples and most people can relate to Peter in some way. He was a born leader and his mouth was always open. Peter had some strengths and a lot of witnesses. One day, He gets the revelation of who Jesus Christ really is, and the next day he is questioning why Jesus Christ would have to die. One day he is promising to never leave Jesus even if everybody else would desert Him, and the next he is cursing and swearing and taking oaths that he never knew this man named Jesus. Peter said a lot, and made many rash promises, and often acted without thinking but the one thing that Peter never was is a fake. He was the most "human" of the twelve disciples and that is perhaps why he is the most loved.

There are many lessons to be learned from Peter's life and perhaps you have your favorite story about him. The question for now is "which of these lessons would be the most important to learn from Peter's life." Which is the most powerful lesson. I think that the most important lesson that we should learn from Peter is:

When Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was, it was Peter who answered Him:

You must understand that "Christ" is not Jesus' last name, but a title which means "the anointed Messiah." The "Christ" had been prophesied for years and the Jewish men knew that the "Christ" would be the Jehovah God of the Old Testament come in flesh to save Israel (Isaiah 9:6). Peter had realized that Jesus was really God come in flesh and that He was Almighty and All powerful. That revelation coupled with the fact that Peter never tried to hide anything from Jesus, enabled Peter to work through serious faults and become the leader of the Apostolic revival. If you will get a revelation that God is all powerful and all good and all knowing, and you will live honestly and openly with that God, then you can overcome any faults that your personality or life may have and you can be everything that God intends for you to be!

2. Andrew the Witness

Andrew was the first disciple to be called. He and John were already disciples of John the Baptist. Most people do not realize that when Jesus walked along the sea shore and called to Peter, Andrew, James, and John that they had already met Jesus Christ and been called to be His disciples a year before. Jesus was simply calling them into full-time ministry at the beginning of His second year of ministry. The first chapter of John tells us that Andrew and John were with John the Baptist when Jesus was baptized. Jesus called them and Andrew immediately went and found his brother, Peter, and brought him to Jesus. Peter tends to get the attention from Christians today, but if it had not been for Andrew bringing him to Jesus, Peter would have never found the will of God in his life!

In fact, every time that Andrew is mentioned in scripture, he is bringing somebody to Jesus. He brought Peter in John chapter 1. It was Andrew that brought the little boy with the five loaves and the two fishes to Jesus so that a great miracle could be performed. It was Andrew that brought the group of Greek men that said "we would see Jesus" in John chapter 12. Andrew cared less who got the credit for the work. He never griped that Peter, James, and John -- all of whom he was partly responsible for winning to God -- were elevated to the "inner circle" of authority. Andrew was content to keep bringing people to Jesus. The greatest lesson that can be learned of Andrew's life is:

We remember the Apostle Paul, but most people forget the name of Ananias, the man who prayed him through to the Holy Ghost, baptized him, and obeyed the voice of God in converting him. But every one of the countless thousands of souls that the Apostle Paul won were also the spiritual "grandchildren" of Ananias. Likewise every person that Peter won to God and every person that is still won today by the preaching of Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2, is also the spiritual result of Andrew's ministry. When we all stand in judgment before Jesus Christ, the rewards of Ananias and Andrew will at least equal and maybe even exceed the rewards of Peter and Paul. And that reward will be eternal!

3. James the first to die

One day we find that an entire town of the Samaritans refused to receive Jesus' message of hope and healing. James and his brother John asked Jesus to call down fire on them:

Jesus was teaching James and John a lesson. They had inherited their mother's fiery passion. In fact, Jesus nicknamed them "Boanerges" which means "Sons of Thunder." When one day, their mother came to Jesus and asked for them to receive the position of honor in Jesus' kingdom, Jesus asked them "can you pay the price that I will pay?" "Can you drink of my cup that I will drink?" In other words, "are you willing to stand for what you believe even if it means giving your very life?"

Even today, God calls strong minded men and women. God needs such people. But remember the lesson of James when you are outspoken and blunt with your words: "are you willing to drink from the cup that Jesus drank from?" In other words, God can only use such a personality who "tells it like it is" if they are willing to show mercy, and are willing to sacrifice everything in order to reach others.

James is not mentioned throughout the scripture very much. But that fact does not tell the entire story. In Acts chapter 12, when Herod wanted to try to stop the church by killing it's leaders, it was James whom was killed first. Obviously James' preaching bothered Herod and the Jewish leaders the most! Only after James was killed did they try to kill Peter. And History teaches us that James gladly and willingly gave up his life as a martyr for the sake of Christ. He so believed Christ's message that he WAS willing to drink from the same cup. The main lesson of James' life is:

4. John the Lover

God showed James the important of mercy. To John, He gave the revelation of true, unselfish love. It was John who was called the "beloved" of Jesus. In His deity, Jesus loves all men the same, but on His human side, Jesus loved John most of all. In fact John is described four times in the Gospels as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." The day that James and John were rebuked for wanting to call down fire from heaven began a change in John's life to that of unselfish love for others. At the time of Jesus' ministry, John was the youngest of the twelve and probably no older than 15 or 16 years of age. When John wrote his gospel, some 85 years after his first call, we find that he never mentions himself by name. His letters to the church, written around the same time, are letters of mercy and love and forgiveness and are a complete change from wanting to call down fire from heaven at someone's first rejection of Jesus. Because of this, some might say that the greatest lesson of John's life would be that "boldness and strong mindedness coupled with true unselfish love is the greatest combination of ministry possible. Indeed it was this combination that caused John to have the longest ministry of any disciple, and also caused God to be willing to reveal His personal plans for the earth to John in the book of Revelation. But there is a greater lesson to be learned here when you realize that Jesus loved John greatly and that the change in John's life from unmerciful to fruitful was a result of that great love:

You can't force somebody to change through strong words, but you can through genuine love. Perhaps that is why the Apostle Paul gave the advice to wives whose husbands were unsaved: "submit yourself to what you can and let him be won through a meek and quiet spirit." Paul didn't tell the wives: "bang them upside the head with the Bible" but to love them as God loved them. Loved as he was, John couldn't help but change.

5. Philip the Approachable

"Approachable" is the best word for Philip. It was Philip that the Greeks at the feast felt comfortable coming to him and asking him questions about Jesus. Philip took them to Andrew who then together brought them to Jesus Christ. Despite walking with Jesus Christ the miracle worker for three years as one of his "elite disciples" Philip still had an aura about him of approachability. People felt comfortable coming to Him and asking questions. It was Philip who asked Jesus "show us the Father and it sufficeth us" to which Jesus replied "have I been with you so long Philip and you have not known me? He who hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14). I believe that Philip had been asked that question by someone else and just wanted to know the proper way to respond and answer it. To Philip, everything was about being approachable.

When Philip was first called, he also immediately went and found Nathaniel (also called Bartholomew) who was a trained and smart thinker. Nathaniel/Bartholomew was hesitant and asked "can any good thing come from Nazareth?" Philip's answer was "come and see." In other words, "let's not argue about something that you have never experienced, come experience Jesus for yourself and then we will discuss our doctrinal differences." So the lesson of Philip is:

It's hard to convince someone that they need the Holy Ghost if they have never felt it. It's hard to convince someone of the importance of being baptized in Jesus' name until they have experienced the difference in their life. Sometimes, we need to take the approach of "approachable" Philip and answer their questions with "Come and see."

6. Bartholomew the Careful (also Nathaniel)

As we have just mentioned, Bartholomew was the only disciple who hesitated when called to come follow Jesus. He was a thinker and a very sincere man. He, himself, was from Galilee so when he replied "Can any good thing come from Nazareth?" he was humbly saying "can the supernatural really happen from the ordinary?" When Philip answered with "come and see," Bartholomew went to meet Jesus and was astonished that the moment that Jesus saw him, He said "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." The phrase "without guile" there means literally "without deceit or craftiness." Bartholomew looked at Jesus astonished and asked "how do you know me?" To which Jesus replied, "Before Philip found you, I saw you under the fig tree." Bartholomew realized that there was no one but Philip who had seen where he had been sitting and Jesus was obviously a prophet and thus the Messiah and the supernatural had really come from Nazareth. The lesson of Bartholomew's life is:

7. Thomas the Doubter

I think that Thomas has been given a "bad rap." He is always remembered as "doubting Thomas" when it should have really been "I'm hurting and need reassurance that Jesus is real" Thomas. Thomas has become synonymous with doubt because he was not with the other disciples the first time that Jesus appeared to them after His crucifixion. When told about Jesus' appearance, Thomas said "I will not believe unless I can press my hands into the scars in his hand and his side." A week later, Jesus appeared to the disciples with Thomas present and addressed him directly and allowed him to touch those scars.

I want to point out that Thomas was completely devoted to Jesus Christ and never showed the first doubt toward His message. In fact when the disciple realized that Jesus was bent on returning to Jerusalem even though the Jewish leaders had said that they would kill Him, it was Thomas who said:

That is not the language of doubt, but of complete commitment! When Thomas did indeed touch the nailscars of Jesus, he cried out "My Lord and my God!" Thomas believed and never doubted the identity of Jesus Christ. The real issue was that the One whom he had loved so dearly had been killed and Thomas was in a state of loss. The reason that Thomas was not with the disciples the first time that Jesus died was probably because he did not want to be around others in his low time. He was not asking for a sign that Jesus was who He said He was, because Jesus would have rebuked him just as He did the Pharisees. Thomas simply needed reassurance that Jesus Christ was real and still active in his life. To such a request, Jesus eagerly responded. The lesson to be learned from Thomas' life is:

Remember that in such times, the human tendency is to pull away from church and our brothers and sisters and seclude ourselves in our hurt, but we will only get the reassurance when we, like Thomas, come together with the church and seek Jesus!

8. Matthew the Tax Collector

There are two facts to remember about Matthew. First, he was a hated tax collector when Jesus found him. Second, he was a Jew from the priestly tribe of Levi. In those days, the Jews were under Roman rule and one of the things that they despised the most was having to pay taxes to the Roman leaders. Most of the tax collectors in that day charged a little extra and pocketed the excess and all of that put together caused tax collectors or "publicans" as they were called, to be the most hated of all people in the Jewish community. Put all of that with the fact that Matthew was a JEW who had become a traitor to work for the dreaded Roman government, and add that to the fact that he was from the priestly tribe of the Levites and should have been working in the temple, and you have found the most hated qualities in one man, this man named Matthew.

He was greedy, he was a traitor, he was running from the call of God, and yet when Matthew found Jesus, the scriptures say that he immediately forsook all and followed Him. He even through a big feast, invited all of his friends, and introduced them to Jesus at the same time that he announced the change in his life. Of all the disciples, Matthew gave up the most to follow Jesus Christ and yet we learn of his sacrifice from Luke and Mark because Matthew himself does not mention it in his own book. The lesson of Matthew is:

9. James the Lesser

There is only one scripture other than the lists of disciples that refers to this man. It is Mark 15:40 which refers to him as "James the less." That is all the information that we have about him and history does not add anything to our knowledge of his life. But what is NOT said about him actually speaks volumes. Not one time did James the less complain about the attention or position of the others. Not one time did he vie for the "spotlight." Not one time did he raise his voice in doubt or disbelief. Not one time did he question Jesus' teaching. James the less balanced the outspoken group of James, John, and Peter. James the less was the behind-the-scenes, quiet follower who was faithful without fanfare to the call and ministry of Jesus Christ. We know that all of the twelve preached, performed miracles, cast out devils, and baptized from the scriptures. That means that James the less did all of these things, and yet we have not one specific story recorded about his personal life. The lesson of James the Lesser's life is:

In a world that lauds and uplifts the famous and the talented, the quiet faithfulness of James the Less screams it's profound lesson loudly.

10. Judas (Thaddeus; Lebbaeus)

The most striking feature of this man is that he is called by three different names in scripture. We are also given the name of his father "Alphaeus." This is striking because in Biblical times, names revealed the true character of a person. The lesson of Judas/Thaddeus' life, then, must come from the meanings of the names given in scripture. He was "Judas" which means "praise of the Lord" and he was produced by a father named "Alphaeus" which means "changing." He then became known as "Thaddeus" or "Lebbaeus" which mean "a man of courage and heart." The simple lesson of Judas' life, then, is one that is recounted in detail many times throughout the scripture:

We see this principle in the life of David. Because he allowed himself to become a true worshipper of God, then the changes in his life caused him to become known as "a man after God's own heart." We see the same response to adversity in Daniel, and his praise and devotion to God caused him to be called "beloved of God." No doubt the same process happened in Judas/Thaddeus' life.

11. Simon the Zealot

The only information that we have of this man is his title "Zealot" but it actually tells us quite a lot. The Zealots were a group of super-religious Jews who at the time of the Birth of Christ, gathered together in the hills of Judea and tried to attack the Roman rule rather than pay taxes. They taught that it was a sin to submit to the Roman rule. Simon was obviously a member of such a group and had probably been trained in military matters of sword fighting and such getting him ready for another uprising. The first uprising had been crushed decisively and the Zealots became a sort of "underground" group beneath the surface of respectability. Simon the Zealot was the exact opposite of Matthew the tax collector. The group that Jesus chose for His twelve disciples were certainly made up of all walks of life.

The key point of Simon's life is that Jesus did not put out the fiery passion but simply redirected it. Instead of fighting in the natural for a natural kingdom, Simon began to fight in the spirit for the kingdom of God. When Jesus sent the disciples out, he sent them out in pairs. I wonder who Simon's partners were on these trips and if he ever got paired with Matthew. If so, then it was the tax collector and the tax hater preaching together! Both laid down their personal opinions and agendas for a higher cause. The great lesson of Simon's life then is:

12. Judas Iscariot the Betrayer

Most have heard about the familiar story of how that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ by leading the Jewish leaders to Him for thirty pieces of silver -- the price of a common slave back then. Jesus had made Judas Iscariot treasurer of the group and throughout the last period of Jesus' ministry, Judas Iscariot was secretly stealing from the "bag" of money. Judas Iscariot did what most people do and criticized in others what he personally had a problem with when Mary anointed Jesus' feet with a very costly perfume in an act of worship. Judas said that such excess was a waste and that the perfume could have been sold and given to the poor, when really he wanted a chance to steal some of the money himself.

The greatest lesson of Judas Iscariot's life is found in the fact that he knew who Jesus Christ was and yet somehow thought that he could "go behind his back" and do things "on the sly" and get away with it. Judas Iscariot mistook the fact that Jesus trusted him with the money bag and never said anything about the missing money that Jesus was ignorant of the robbery, but Jesus knew the entire time that Judas Iscariot was dishonest. Jesus was just being merciful and giving Judas Iscariot a chance to repent and get things right before judgment came. The lesson of Judas Iscariot's life then is:

When Judas Iscariot took himself out of the will of God by killing himself, then God allowed Peter and the disciples to pick a replacement. Therefore from the twelve disciples, we actually have thirteen lessons:

13. Matthias the Faithful

We read the story of Matthias' choosing as our other text at the beginning of this lesson. Peter quoted a prophecy that Judas' spot would be filled by another and they decided to choose two men from which to draw straws and select the replacement. Matthias and a man named Justus were selected. When the straws were drawn, Matthias won. Nothing else is recorded about his ministry except what is found in Acts chapter 1.

To be considered for the position, though, Matthias had to have been a follower of Jesus from the time of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and faithful through the crucifixion, resurrection, and also be at the Day of Pentecost. Despite not having any official position, Matthias had been just as faithful as the twelve! Because of his great faithfulness, God eventually elevated him to a higher position. The lesson of Matthias then is one of my favorite sayings:

The highest words that you want to hear one day are these seven by Jesus Christ: "Well done thou good and faithful servant." If you hear that, then like Matthias, you can say that your life has been a success!