The Twelve Apostles The Worlds Most Known About Christians Part 1 of 14

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us today. We are kicking off a sermon series about the 12 apostles. This is going to be an awesome sermon series, you definitely want to mark your calendar. Make sure that you are here each Wednesday night at 6:30 pm to stay tuned for all of the messages coming up, because guess what, this is going to be a 14-part sermon series.

Holy moly, 14 parts, 14 weeks, just a little bit over three months. You can do it and if you cannot do it, do not worry because we are going to make a playlist that is going to have all of these sermons in there. You can check it out, there is going to be a card on this one on the YouTube channel and on every other video in the YouTube channel.

Otherwise wherever you are listening, wherever you are watching, just go there or go to our website and you will be able to find the sermon series playlist for the 12 apostles. This is the introductory sermon. This is our first message. We are kicking it off like I said.

So if you are a returning visitor you kind of know the style, hopefully you have watched a lot of our sermons, you have taken part in stuff, you are following us on social media, you have been sharing to help us complete our mission of reaching more people with the gospel, with the Bible, through the use of social media.

We need your help to do that. We also need some finances, so if you feel called to donate that would be awesome. If you are new here then this is a great time to hit that subscribe button to follow us on social media and stay tuned, because like I said we are kicking off a sermon series.

In addition, try to invite some other people because this sermon series is going to be great, it is on the 12 apostles. Who are they? What are the twelve apostles? Perhaps you do not know, that is okay. These were the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. These men were hand-selected by Jesus.

Jesus was walking around like an ordinary dude and now keep in mind Jesus lived 30 years on earth, 30 years in a small little town of Nazareth. He grew up traveling the area, obviously going back and forth to Jerusalem every so often and for the feasts three times a year.

We know the one story when Jesus was a little boy and He accidentally got left behind and a few days had gone by and His family started looking for Him amongst the thousands of people that traveled together in a caravan.

Of course, they thought He was with the relatives, it is very simple and they end up going back and they find Jesus in the temple courts really educating everyone. He says you should have known I was here attending my father’s business. So even from a little boy Jesus had a purpose, He had a mission, and for 30 years He became known in His area, in the hometown, and everything.

His parents Mary and Joseph, His earthly parents, they obviously had more children. Jesus had little brothers and sisters and He grew up as the oldest of a family of who knows how many. He had a pretty basic life, a human life, and it was not until He was about 30 years old that He began His ministry, His calling, so He waited 30 years to live His calling.

Do not worry if you are under the age of 30, you still have some time to get things figured out, but when you turn 30 life is gonna begin. You have until 30 to kind of be carefree, but when you turn 30, day one baby.

Jesus turned 30. We know when we had sermons on His birthday, you can check that out. He turned 30 and then went around and started rounding up some people. He gathered these disciples as He was walking around. He was teaching and people are like, this guy is the Messiah, this is the guy, this is the one. This is the guy.

John the Baptist talked about, this is the guy that we have been waiting for. So they start to realize this and as they realize this, Jesus is walking around, He says, hey you, come on, leave your stuff behind, you are coming with me. He says to this guy, hey leave everything, follow me, and they do it. They do it. These men were hand-selected, they gave up everything to follow Him.

Let’s check out a couple verses. We are going to dive in. This is going to be a heavily biblical text series. We are going to really dive into the scripture because the disciples were all mentioned in scripture. That is really where we can learn most about them.

Of course, there are other non-canonized texts, which are texts that were written during or around that time, but they were not determined to be really legitimate enough. While well documented or verified, they were not verified enough to become part of the Bible. There are other texts out there, other acts of these disciples that you can find and read and draw on and learn more about them.

We are going to drive it mainly from the Bible and then we will grab some kind of common knowledge that would be, if you typed in their name on the internet you would see this. We are going to use some of that. Of course, it is not made up, it is verified information.

So all that being said, make sure you have got your Bible ready and warmed up, find it, dig it out of the closet, find it in your shoe box, wherever you got it. Open up the app on your phone, start following along.

We are going to go to Luke chapter 6 verse 13, Luke 6:13 says, ‘When morning came Jesus called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them, whom he also designated apostles.’ So He chose these guys. He chose them to come with him.

Matthew 19:27, ‘Peter answered him, we have left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?’ Now that is a different story. There are two points that I want to kind of segue into on this. Number one, Jesus chose these disciples. Does that mean Jesus has not chosen us? No, Jesus chose these disciples to travel around with Him to be His feet on the ground.

After He left, obviously Jesus is God so He knew what was going on, He is like, all right. He knows the timeline. Jesus knew that when He turned 30 His ministry would start, He would choose 12 men, He would live with them for three years traveling around doing as much as He could and then He would be crucified and go back to heaven.

He knew that. So during those three years, He said, I gotta get people to carry this on while I am gone. He needed some leaders, He needed some generals so He chose these 12 to become the leaders and then these 12 after Jesus left, went around, and got even more. Now does Jesus just choose those 12 and that is it? No, He chooses everyone. He calls everyone. That is why He has the great commission.

Therefore go, He does not just say therefore go to the people that were there, He says it to everyone. So you are chosen by God, everyone is, we all are. It is our choice whether we want to respond and follow that calling. These disciples, they were chosen. They could have said nope, sorry Lord, I am good with my fishing nets. Or sorry I like being a tax collector. They could have said that, they instead chose to step into the calling and so that is you too.

God is calling and choosing each and every one of us. We cannot be chosen by God in order to go to heaven. We can all be saved. We can all be chosen. We can all live our calling for God. He called each and every one of us, every single person. He called you. It is up to you whether you are going to listen to that calling exactly like the 12 apostles did.

They did not even think. God said I want you to follow me and they are like boom, I am in, let’s go. We have instances where one disciple told another person about Him and there may have been some like no, I do not really believe it. Then all of a sudden a few days later of doubting, Jesus came and instantly it was like everything shifted. They are like I believe and the other guy is like, what are you talking about? You told me you did not believe and we have been fighting over this for three days and he is like, I know but I saw Him now and I do not know what happened, I am instantly in.

That is what happens. You can fight it for so long, but at some point accept your calling. God is calling you. He stands at the door and knocks. We have had sermons on living your purpose and how you have a purpose, you can check them all out. We have got a playlist, go to our YouTube channel, go to our website, you do have a purpose and a calling to live for God.

He wants us to be fruitful and multiply, to spread the Word to all nations to grow the church, the body of Christ. That means getting more people to believe in Him just like these disciples did. Their lives are an example for us, exactly like Jesus was an example for us.

We can choose to step into the calling that God is calling us, He is choosing you. Are you gonna neglect it? Are you gonna go away, are you gonna run or are you gonna step into the calling? These Christians, these 12 men were perhaps some of the greatest Christians that ever walked the earth. Therefore you should definitely know about them and you should learn about them.

That is what this series is going to do. It is going to educate you on these men. Now you take a look at some major Christians or crusaders, let’s call them of today. Really the only one that comes to mind that is huge is Billy Graham or another guy that I know, his name is Mike Francen.

Now these people are big crusaders, they have gone around. Mike has been in other countries saving people, he has written books, he has got things out there. He has had rallies that have saved millions, Billy Graham same thing. All over the United States, big rallies.

Or the people who put on Promise Keepers, another big event. There are people like Joyce Meyer that go around and do things like this. You can name a whole bunch of them. But the 12 apostles were the first, they were out there doing this and these other big names of today are following after their examples, at least we hope they are in both their personal lives and out and about.

You do not have to be that big. You do not have to be the next Billy Graham, but get out there and follow what these apostles did. This is the most well-known group of evangelists in the world. You go anywhere and you can ask people, hey have you heard of the 12 disciples? Hey, have you heard of the 12 apostles? Many of them are going to say yes but guess what, less than 5% of the world’s population can even name six.

Can you name half of the disciples? How many can you name? How many can you remember? There are 12 total, how many names? Today that is going to change. By the time this 14-week series is done, you will be able to name all of them. Now you may not be able to rattle them all off, but you are going to know who they are. You are going to know how they died, you are going to know more importantly how they lived. That is what you got to know, how they lived, and how you can live following them.

You have to commit yourself to learning about these great men, make an effort to remember who they were and their associations with Christ. The other disciples, these guys were a family just like we are a family, brothers and sisters in Christ. However, these guys were a little bit closer than that.

A lot of these people were brothers, genetically related, some of them could have been cousins, we do not know for sure. If they were cousins or not, for sure there were brothers.

Their names, here we go, are as follows. We get this from Matthew chapter 10 verses 2 to 4. ‘These are the names of the 12 apostles. First Simon who is called Peter and his brother Andrew, James son of Zebedee, and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James son of Alphaeus and Judas Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.’

That is the 12 right there. A lot of them have two names so yes it can be confusing. You are really going to be remembering like 24 names, but guess what my name is Spencer Coffman, that is two names, you have two names, some of us have three names. Most of us are known though by two names.

In addition, there was also a 13th disciple who replaced Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus. There was a 13th, his name is Matthias. Matthias replaced Judas although not much is known about him. It was up, it was down, and running to two people and Matthias got the lot, it fell upon him and he was chosen to continue on.

But the others still served and there were many other people. After all the gospel of Mark, that is John Mark, he was not one of the apostles but he was one of the people who traveled with the disciples. He wrote a book and it was a gospel. But he was not one of the twelve apostles and so that is interesting.

Was Luke one of the twelve apostles? No, but he was one of the men around there and so we have these people here that were very influential in this time period but they were still chosen is my point. It is not like only these 12 are chosen or that you have to be chosen, everyone is chosen.

Now some of you out there might say, okay Spencer what about that verse that says many are called but few are chosen? So only a few can do it. That is different. That is a different perspective. But okay let’s dive into that. Many are called, yes we are all called. Few are chosen, that means few of us step into the calling, that is what that means. You step into the calling.

Everyone is called. God wants us all, He stands at the door and knocks but few step into that calling and then become part of the chosen ones. It does not mean that we are all called and He only hand selects a few. No, He calls us all and a few of us respond to that calling and become part of the family of God or become part of “the chosen” in quotes so to speak.

All right, that is the difference. That is what is going on. For those of you who are arguing that you have to be chosen by God or that only certain people can go to heaven or only certain people can be saved, you are wrong. We can all be saved. God stands at the door and knocks, you simply have to step into your calling, respond to Him and you are now part of the chosen ones. You can do it.

All right a little bit more about these apostles, about these disciples. Well, we have some time left today so we read about them. We know the names, Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, so they are brothers. Simon Peter who is known as Peter in the Bible, so we are going to call him Peter. Peter and his brother Andrew, they are brothers.

Then we have James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee. James and John are brothers. Then we have Philip and Bartholomew. Now Philip and Bartholomew are always put together and in all the lists it is Philip and Bartholomew. In addition when the disciples went out Philip and Bartholomew usually traveled together, so they were close. They were either really good friends or perhaps they were cousins or related although it does not necessarily say they were brothers.

Now we have got also James, which is James son of Alphaeus. He is known also as James the Lesser. Then we have Matthew. Matthew is also son of Alphaeus, so we have both James and Matthew are sons of Alphaeus. Are they brothers? We do not know for certain.

Many scholars speculate, many scholars say no, they were not. So it is a split decision. But they were both known in the Bible as sons of Alphaeus so you can either believe that they are brothers or you can believe that they were sons of two different people named Alphaeus. Exactly like there are other people in the world named Spencer or John or Luke or Mark or whoever. Whether or not they were brothers is really unknown, it is up for debate.

But whether you choose to believe they were or were not, guess what, you can still go to heaven. Jesus is the way. Now we also have some debate on James the Lesser being brothers with Judas Thaddeus because people say Judas Thaddeus is also known as the son of James or the brother of James. If it is one or the other, guess what, it really depends on the translation. What it is though, is really the son of James.

Again we will get to this when we get to that individual, when we get to Judas Thaddeus we will dive into a little bit more and when we get into James the Lesser we will dive into it a little bit more. But for now, I am going to just say right out that James and Judas were probably not brothers. I would believe that James and Matthew were brothers over James and Judas were brothers.

Judas Thaddeus, that is Jude as we know him. The reason is because I believe that there was a James that was Jude’s father and that is how it was known right there. Then this other James son of Alphaeus, because we have Judas Thaddeus, he was not known as a son of Alphaeus, he was known as the son of James. How could he be James’s brother and a son of James, unless this Alphaeus guy was also known as James? Then we have all kinds of complications.

What we know is Simon and Andrew are brothers, they are Simon Peter and Andrew, brothers. James the Greater and John are brothers. Then we have James the Lesser and Matthew maybe brothers. James the Lesser and Judas Thaddeus are not really brothers.

That is what we have got. Stay tuned. We have got a great series coming up. We are going to dive into the apostles in order. We read them in a certain order, they are going to be in order. Next week we are going to be talking about Simon Peter so stay tuned for that because it is going to be great.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for this time together. I ask that you inspire each and every person out there to return, to come back, to stick with it for 14 weeks. It is a long time but three months is worth it.

Lord that they would be inspired, that they would step into their calling. That they would become part of the chosen and that they would follow and live their lives exactly like the apostles did, going out there and bringing more people to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Come back next week. It is going to be great. God bless.