THE GOSPELS: LESSON 31:

THE 12 APOSTLES ARE CHOSEN

TEXT: MATT. 10: 1 - 23; MARK 3: 13 - 19; LUKE 6: 12 - 16.

WE WILL FOCUS ON THE ACCOUNT GIVEN IN MATTHEW.

MATTHEW 10: 1 - 23: THE TWELVE APOSTLES ARE CHOSEN.

Verse 1: As the accounts in Mark and Luke say, Jesus first went up into the mountain (a high place) and prayed all night. This was most likely the Horns of Hattan, west of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus gave the apostles miraculous powers: to cast out demons and heal every form of sickness.

Verses 2 - 4: Jesus had many disciples (the word means a follower or student). He chose twelve of them and made them his apostles. The word apostle means “a delegate or ambassador.” The twelve are first called apostles here in Matthew 10: 2. They are also called apostles in Mark 6: 30, Luke 6: 13, Luke 9: 10, and elsewhere. Luke is most likely to call them apostles. Matthew almost always refers to them as “the twelve.”

THE APOSTLES:

The first four apostles are known as the “confidential disciples,” for they had a special closeness with Jesus and were witness to things unseen by some of the other apostles

THE LORD'S APOSTLES
Name	Also Known As	Previous occupation	Chief Accomplishment	Final Fate*
PETER (a rock)	Simon or Cephas Barjonah -- Son of Jonah, but probably raised by Zebedee	fisherman	First preached the gospel to the Gentiles. Wrote the epistles of I and II Peter.	Some say he was crucified in Rome by Nero. Most likely killed in Jerusalem in 68 or 69 AD. (According to Hegesippus.)
ANDREW (manly)	brother of Peter. See above.	fisherman	Brought Peter to Jesus. The first of Jesus' disciples.	Supposedly crucified in Greece. His head was kept at the Vatican for centuries but was eventually returned to Patrais in Greece, where he supposedly died.
JAMES (supplanter)	James the Greater; one of the Boanerges (sons of thunder); elder brother of John. Son of Zebedee.	fisherman	First martyr for Christ.	Put to death in 44AD by Herod Agrippa I. (See Acts 12: 1, 2.)
JOHN (mercy of God)	the disciple whom Jesus loved; one of the Boanerges; brother of James the Greater and son of Zebedee.	Fisherman	wrote the three epistles of John and the Revelation. Elder at Ephesus.	Exiled to Patmos by Nero (or Domitian) but returned to Ephesus where he died sometime between 90 and 100 AD.
PHILIP (lover of horses)		unknown	unknown	supposedly preached in Asia Minor and was killed in Hierapolis.
BARTHO-LOMEW (son of Tolmai)	Nathanael; "an Israelite in whom is no guile!" (John 1: 47)	unknown	first to visit India where he left a copy of Matthew's gospel, according to a reliable second-century account by Pantaenus.	He was beheaded in Armenia by King Astyages.
THOMAS (twin)	Didymus (the twin); son of Alpheus (probably)	unknown	Doubted Jesus' resurrection until he actually saw. (John 20: 24 - 29.)	Preached the gospel in India and supposedly was killed at Madras.
MATTHEW (gift of God)	Mattathias; Levi; son of Alpheus.	tax gatherer at Capernaum	Wrote the gospel of Matthew.	unknown
JAMES (the supplanter)	James the Lesser; son of Alpheus; called "the Lord's brother" in Gal. 1: 19, but the word there means "near kinsman."Most likely a cousin of Jesus. Jesus had a brother named James, but James the Lesser is the son of Alpheus, not son of Joseph.	unknown	Elder in the church at Jerusalem. Wrote the book of James.	Martyred in Jerusalem by the Jews in 69 AD either by stoning or by being cast off the pinnacle of the temple.
THADDEUS (breast)	Lebbeus; Judas; Jude; brother of James the Lesser ? (Luke 6: 16)	unknown	Wrote the book of Jude.	unknown
SIMON (hearing)	the Zealot; the Canaanite or Kananean (more correctly). The Kananeans were the sect of Jews commonly called the Zealots.	unknown	Supposedly preached in Persia and Egypt.	Supposedly killed in Persia by being sawn in two (as in Heb. 11: 37.)
JUDAS (praise)	Judas Iscariot; son of Simon, but which Simon is unknown (as in John 6: 71).	unknown	betrayed Jesus to the Jews.	Hung himself. The rope then broke and he fell on the stones below and his bowels gushed out. (Acts 1: 18)

VERSES 5 - 10: THE CHARGE TO THE APOSTLES.

1. Preach only to the Jews. When would they go into all the world? (See Matthew 28: 18 - 20.)

2. Preach the kingdom of heaven.

3. Perform miracles. Why? To attest that the words they spoke were from God.

4. Take no food or money. How then were they to be provided for? By the people to whom they preached and ministered.

VERSES 11 - 15: THEIR BENEFACTORS. THEIR RECEPTION.

Verse 11: “The workman is worthy of his hire.”

Verse 12: Salute the house? See Luke 10: 5.

Verse 13: The traditional greeting or salutation was "Let the Peace of God be on this house (family)."

Verses 14, 15: It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in judgement than for any city which rejects the message of the apostles. Sodom and Gomorrah rejected God's prophet Abraham. Whoever rejects the apostles rejects the Son of God.

VERSES 16 - 23: THE FATE OF THE APOSTLES.

Verse 16: What does it mean to be “wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove?”

Verses 17, 18: Jesus prophecies of the eventual fates of the apostles (as we see fulfilled in the Book of Acts). Who did Jesus specifically prophecy of in verse 18? [Paul]

Verse 19, 20: The Holy Spirit would talk through the apostles.

Verse 21: "A man's enemies will be those of his own house," as in verses 35, 36 in this same chapter.

Verse 22: He who endures TO THE END will be saved. This surely contradicts the popular but false "Once saved, always saved" doctrine.

Verse 23: If one city rejects you, go to another. "You will not have gone through all the cities of Israel, before the Son of Man comes" is surely a reference to the "coming" spoken of in Matthew 23 and 24: the coming of Jesus in judgement and punishment upon Jerusalem and Judea in 70 AD.