I really hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the Twelve Apostles and that you can be inspired by them. Allow their lives to be an example for you to follow. In addition, please share them with others. Teach other people about who they were and what they did.
After all, some people may be able to identify and relate to them. They may relate to one apostle more than another. If that happens, then they can use that apostle to help shape and influence their own life. Hopefully, this will help them to be more like Jesus.
Therefore, make an effort to know about and remember these great men. Talk about them with other people and treat them as if they are your friends. One day, when you meet them in heaven it will be like a long-lost reunion.
Referenced Verses:
Matthew 19:27
Acts 1:9-12
Acts 9:26-27
Video Transcript
So if this is your first time with us, check out a playlist on our YouTube channel or on our website called “The Twelve Apostles” and watch the rest of this sermon series to get caught up. Then watch that one or watch this one first, either way.
In addition, hit the like button. Hit the subscribe button so that you can follow along and be alerted to the next sermons. In addition, if you are new, or a returning visitor please use those share icons to help bring more people to Social Media Ministries so they can keep learning about the Bible.
After all, that is the purpose here. That is our mission. To teach others as much as possible about the Bible. So help us with that. As I said, we’re wrapping up a 14-part sermon series.
We have spoken about the 12 apostles. We went through Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Jude or Judas Thaddaeus, then Simon, which is Simon the Zealot, and then Judas last week. So we’ve gone through a lot of them.
Hopefully, you’ve been with us and you’ve found one or two that you really can identify with and you can learn from. These guys are incredible people. They’re incredible Christians.
They’re incredible followers of Christ and we can learn a lot from them just through what they have done. It’s amazing and we need to be inspired by what they have done and then do that in our lives.
These 12 men were extraordinary people. Remember they gave up everything to follow Christ and they continued following Him. Many of them until their deaths and even while they were dying, they were still preaching about Jesus.
We saw that as Philip and Bartholomew were said to have been preaching from the cross and Bartholomew actually got released because of that.
Other, other disciples who were being crucified as well were also preaching from the cross. Very, very interesting. They gave up everything to follow Jesus.
We’re going to go to Matthew 19:27 and see a verse there, “Peter answered Him, ‘We have left everything to follow you.’” They have left everything, they left it all behind. Some of them had had things too. Like we have Peter and Andrew who were fishermen. They had boats. They had nets. They had a business that they left to follow Jesus.
Then we also had James and John the sons of Zebedee. They had their father’s business. Their father was there too. They left their father and the business, the servants, everything, to follow Jesus.
Peter also had a family. He had a wife and possibly some children, that he didn’t necessarily leave. He kept in touch obviously and through relationships, but he was out traveling away from his family. They gave up all this stuff on Earth.
Matthew, he was a tax collector. He was wealthy, most likely. He had his tax booth. He said he got up and walked away leaving it all there. The books, the records, the accounting, the piles of money that he was collecting. He left the booth and walked away to follow Jesus.
They did His work during the life of Jesus with Jesus. And then, even long after He ascended into Heaven and He did that. We’re going to go to Acts Chapter 9 — Chapter 1 Verses 9 to 12, (Acts 1:9-11).
“After He said this,” — Jesus was saying some words — “After He said this, He was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, then, suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them.
‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘Why do you stand there looking into the sky? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into Heaven will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into Heaven.’”
So we will see Him come back in the same way He went into Heaven. Out of a cloud or into a cloud. We will see that. They thought that those two men dressed in white were saying in their lifetime, but we now know it wasn’t in their lifetime. Maybe in yours, maybe in mine, we don’t know. But Jesus will return.
These men were so dedicated that they did the work of Christ right up until they died. Like we said, even while they were dying some of them were still preaching the gospel. Probably Peter.
From what we know of Peter, he was probably one. He also requested to be crucified on a different type of a cross because he wasn’t worthy to die like Jesus. So he was crucified upside down.
Andrew, we know, preached from the cross. He was on an X-shaped cross which is now known as Saint Andrew’s Cross. He preached to a passerby. Then James The Greater. He also was most likely preaching from a cross.
Or not really from a cross, but during his execution, because he was so inspired and motivated that the person who accused him ended up being crucified with him, or not crucified, beheaded. The Roman officials beheaded both men simultaneously.
And then, we know, of course, Philip was preaching from the cross which got Bartholomew released and since they were being crucified on crosses upside down together, Bartholomew was probably preaching as well.
Since Philip was there preaching and then Bartholomew got released and then later to be executed again. Or not again, but sentenced, and then it got carried out the second time. They succeeded in killing him.
So these men, Andrew — probably Peter and then Andrew, James, Philip, and Bartholomew were all preaching as they were dying and they were still converting people as they were dying. Even James The Greater.
His accuser was so motivated and so struck by James’ willingness to face that execution that he converted to Christianity on the spot and wanted to be beheaded with James. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.
These men experienced a radical change of heart when Jesus called them and a change of mind when He called them. Then we saw this in Simon the Zealot. Remember Simon the Zealot? That zeal — zealot also meant Kananaios so some people may say Simon the Canaanite, but that was an error in translation.
Saint Jerome made a mistake and now, today, some translations call it Canaanite out of respect for Saint Jerome, but the word was really Kananaios which meant Zealous One.
So Simon was zealous for something. Now, he could’ve been zealous for the law. He could’ve been a part of the rebel zealous group and he probably was. Then, when Jesus called him, he left all of that behind.
As we know, he left everything behind and then became zealous for Jesus. He replaced his addiction to be zealous as a rebel group — to be a zealot — and became zealous for Jesus. Something replaced and filled that void. What filled the void?
Jesus filled the void in his life. Very, very huge. Very big change of mind. In addition, Matthew had a very, very big shift. He was a tax collector. He obviously started following Christ. He left it all behind.
And for zealots like Simon, and probably Judas, to get along with Matthew a tax collector who was seen as a betrayer because Matthew was probably a Galilean and he was collecting taxes for the Romans.
So he was seen as an insider working for the outsiders. And people probably hated him. Not only was he a tax collector, but it was a double whammy for him as he was a local.
So they saw him as betraying his own people by collecting taxes for the Romans, an outside government. He was hated, like doubly hated by them. Yet they all were able to accept and get along with him.
Then, later on, as we know, the Apostle Paul who was a killer of Christians, probably most — a really, really famous killer of Christians. He had a radical transformation and then wanted to work with the apostles.
They were scared of him. They probably didn’t like him at all because they thought he was going to kill them. But then, later, they were able to accept him and start working with him.
They had that radical change of heart and mind because of Jesus. They were willing to let Jesus be the master of their lives. That’s the lesson. You gotta be willing.
You gotta be willing to let Jesus take complete control. That He needs to be the one to direct your life. That whatever you’re going through in life, whatever you’re doing, it has to be with Jesus. It has to be from Jesus. It has to be directed by Jesus.
You say, “How do I know?” You gotta read your Bible. You gotta pray. You need to talk with other believers. Don’t talk to other people who aren’t — I mean you can talk to them, but try to get them to become Christians.
Don’t go to them with your problems, though, because they’re going to give you worldly solutions. You need to go to Christians. Believers who are sound in their faith when you have an issue, a problem.
When you need advice, guidance, counsel, you’ve gotta seek them. If you seek others who may or may not know Jesus, they are going to give you worldly advice which is going to be wrong.
Remember Jesus always was in two worlds. He took things to the next level. The spiritual level and He fought with Scripture. He fought in the spiritual realm. He communicated in the spiritual realm and He won.
So if you go to someone who doesn’t know that, you’re going to be fighting in the Earth and you’re going to lose. You go to someone who is a believer. Someone who is sound in their faith. You talk to them. You get guidance from them.
They’re going to give you guidance of what to do on Earth, but also what to do in the spiritual realm. And guess what? You will be victorious. Seriously, it’s a big thing.
Think about when, again, when they accepted Saul. They were in the world. They were thinking they were going to die. They were going to lose their lives. But had they gone to the spiritual realm, they would know that Saul was already in that spiritual realm because Jesus brought him up there.
And if — they eventually knew. They eventually knew. They got it. Saul the Christian killer. Remember, this is very serious. Let’s go to Acts. We’re going to learn a little bit more about Saul the Christian killer.
Acts Chapter 9 Verses 26 and 27 (Acts 9:26-27), “When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he was really a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.
He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord Jesus and that Jesus had spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.”
Saul had that radical transformation. He knew the laws of the world and then he, all of a sudden, got to the next level. He was in both realms. Saul was there. And so, these apostles, when he tried to join them, they were afraid because they were thinking only of the world.
They were afraid here. Then, when they started realizing, “Hey, there’s something more going on here in the spiritual realm.” They accepted Saul and they went out and preached like crazy.
These apostles listened intently and always spoke with Jesus. You say, “Well that’s easy. Jesus was right there with them all the time. They could ask Him questions.” Guess what? Jesus is with you too.
He’s all around. You can talk to Him every single minute of every single day. 24/7/365, and you know what? He will talk to you probably in a similar way that He spoke to the disciples. You say, “Well yeah, but I don’t hear Him talking.”
Jesus spoke to the disciples in, kind of, parables and riddles. They didn’t always understand what was going on. Remember some of them, the inner circle, had to ask Jesus, “Hey, explain the parable to us. What is the meaning of this?”
They couldn’t get it. Why? They didn’t have the Holy Spirit. Guess what? You have the Holy Spirit. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit is given to you. It’s inside of you. You have the ability to understand more so than the disciples did.
That’s incredible. That means you can talk to Jesus and you can understand. You can get it. You have the same form of communication they had. You can talk to Jesus. You have the same type of relationship with Jesus that they had.
Yes, they saw Him in person, but you can see Him in the world around you. It’s the same. Yes, you have to have a little bit more faith, but blessed are those who believe and not have seen. We know this.
Remember we learned about that with Thomas. “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet still believe. So you can believe.” You can talk to Jesus exactly like the disciples did. You can listen intently to Jesus and speak with Him. That’s very important.
Remember Joshua says that you must meditate on the Word day and night. Do not let the book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night. Why? So that you will be prosperous and successful.
Joshua 1:8. We have mentioned it many times throughout our time together at Social Media Ministries in all of our sermons. It’s very, very important. You need to be connected.
They listened intently when Jesus spoke. Their eyes were fixed on Him, listening and learning. You can learn a lot from these men simply by following their example. They were the greatest Christians on Earth. Their main goal was to be like Jesus.
Even some of them who were going to die like Jesus, they asked to be killed differently because they said, “No, we are not worthy to die like Christ.” That was Peter who was upside down.
Remember Andrew on the X cross, and then Philip and Bartholomew who were also upside down, and then Bartholomew, later on, who the second time he was sentenced to death and they carried it out.
He died a different way. He wasn’t crucified and put on a cross. He was beaten and clubbed and all this kind of stuff and, yeah, I mean, skinned alive. I mean it was brutal.
They were not worthy to die like Christ. That’s what they thought because they were nothing compared to Jesus and that’s an important thing to remember. Look at all they did. Look at all we’ve done. What are we compared to these disciples? We may be nothing. Well, then what are we compared to Christ? We’re really tiny.
Make the effort. Make the goal to start doing more. Be like these disciples. Then be like Christ. It was Paul who, in some of his letters, the Apostle Paul – now we didn’t, we didn’t give a sermon on Paul because he wasn’t one of the 12.
Even though he was alive during that time and later, he became an excellent apostle. And he wasn’t chosen to be. Remember they took in Matthias as a replacement for Judas.
So Paul was not even in the running. He wasn’t even around. Yet he was so influential in this ministry of Christ. He said to people, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Because they didn’t know what to do.
What are we to do? Well, if we need to be looking at these disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Jude, Simon, and not really Judas, but we can still learn from Judas Iscariot.
We need to be looking at these men, the 11, and saying, “How can we do what they’re doing?” We need to do what they’re doing because in that, we are following Jesus. That we can maybe relate to them a little bit more. So follow. Follow them, and as you’re doing that, you’re also following Jesus.
They knew they were nothing. Their great love for Jesus allowed them to serve Him with everything they had. They recognized that everything came from Jesus and they were willing to leave it behind and follow Him.
Now does that mean you need to leave everything behind and go out and be a bum on the street saying, “I’ve left everything to follow Jesus” with a cardboard sign, “Please Help?” No, because what are you accomplishing besides maybe making people irritated, or getting in the way, or hindering traffic, or whatever?
But what can you do? You don’t need to leave all of your stuff, but you need to be willing. You need to be willing. You need to know and accept that everything comes from God and that it’s all His.
If He says, “Hey, I want you to give your Bible to someone.” Or your prized possession. Or you know what, “I want you to sell this jacket you’re wearing or give it to so and so because they need it.” Or whatever. You gotta be willing to do that because Jesus gave it to you.
He can give you more. He can give you immeasurably more. You gotta be willing. It’s the heart that matters. He’s not going to ask everyone to leave everything behind.
There are plenty of missionaries and pastors or preachers or people who are on fire for Christ that have a house. They have a home base of operations to go out and come back and go out and return.
Or they have companies or offices. It doesn’t matter. Look at the churches. A lot of churches are very large but yet it’s interesting, some of them are very large because they are crooked. Some of them are very large because God is blessing what they are doing.
It’s the heart. God looks at the heart. So should you. Look at your heart and see where it is. Do you have a heart after Christ? Are you following Him? Or are you like Judas and you’re following something in this world? Do you have something in this world that is more important to you?
Make an effort to not only be like Jesus but also be like His disciples. Learn from them. Adopt their mindset, and learn to devote your entire being. All your effort each and every day to following Christ wherever He may take you.
He could take you anywhere. And know that wherever you are right now, you are exactly where God wants you to be. So find out what He wants you to be doing, exactly where you are. If you feel like you’re stuck, how do you do that? Talk to Him.
In addition, please feel free to check out our other sermons on our channel. On our website, because a lot of them can help you figure out your purpose. What you’re doing, where you’re going, how to live for Christ, how to share Him, and all kinds of great stuff like that.
I really hope that you learn from these sermons about the 12 apostles and that you make the effort to strive to be more like them and live for Jesus.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this time together. Thank you for this great sermon series. I ask that it would reach out and touch hundreds and hundreds and maybe thousands of people, but you know what, we’re not going to put a limit on it.
So reach out and touch the whole world with this sermon series so that they can learn about these 12 men, and who they were, and how they can be more like them in an effort to be more like you and live for you each and every day.
Lord, I ask that if they don’t know you. That if they’ve not made that decision to follow you wholeheartedly, that they would do that. That they would invite you into their life saying,
“Lord Jesus, come into my heart, lead my life, forgive me of my sins, I want to live for you every single moment of every single day,” and that they would do that in Jesus’ name.
Lord, that you would bring them opportunity. Inspire them to spend time with you. That they would read the Bible. That they would pray. That they would talk to you. That they would tell others about you.
That they would seek guidance and counsel from Godly people. From people who are deep in their faith, and that they would start living for you every moment of every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thanks again for being with us. I know it’s been a long series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Please, if you need prayer, if you want someone to seek counsel, if you need that guidance, comment below or reach out to us. We would be happy to help in any way we can.
In addition, if you want to support us with prayer we would love that. Also by sharing. Or even financially. We need to reach more people with Christ because we have a heart for Jesus and we hope you do too. Have a great week. God bless.
