And He Called To Him Those He Wanted

STUDY: # 927 – CHURCH IN THE HOUSES FROM: JANUARY 17 @ 23, 2017

TOPIC: "And He Called To Him Those He Wanted" Mark 3:13, 19 (Matthew 10: 1-4)

The Lord called the twelve to be His closest disciples. In this way God also calls our lives. What Jesus had brought into the world had to be taken to the people. The Lord needed men willing to be HIS VOICE! He called men willing to shed their lives for THE ONE WHO CALLED THEM. The men who Jesus chose did not have any special qualifications. They were not rich, they did not have a high special social status, or a high culture, or theological preparation, and even less, they did not have a high position in the Church. They were only twelve normal and ordinary persons! But, there are some remarkable qualities in them: first, that they had felt the magnetic attraction of Jesus and LOVED THE MASTER; second, THEY HAD THE COURAGE, THE BRAVERY OF SHOWING THAT THEY WERE ON HIS SIDE. There Jesus, calmly, was overlooking norms and human rules; there the Lord was following a path that inevitably led to a clash with the orthodox Jewish leaders; there was Jesus already marked as a sinner and as a heretic; nevertheless, THOSE MEN HAD THE COURAGE OF ASSOCIATING WITH HIM! What men with eyes so open to reality! That's being Christians! First, Jesus told them what they had to say and secondly, gave them power. Let's look in more detail at several of the disciples Jesus called for Himself. We should learn from them. We have the great and dear Peter; who denied Him, but who also wept bitterly in his repentance. This Peter converted many to Christianity with his preaching and with the power that was given to him, as it happened in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). In the end, my dear Peter was crucified; that for which he contended with Jesus so much to not do, to not go up to Jerusalem, for he feared that there the Lord would be crucified; and it is known that he was also crucified, but upside down! We also have among the disciples James. This disciple, who was John's brother, died beheaded by orders from King Herod Agrippa. (Acts 12: 1, 2). He could no longer sit to the right or to the left of the Lord as his mother had asked (Matthew 20:21). "He said to them," You shall drink of my cup, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, baptized; but to sit on my right hand and on my left, it is not mine to give it, but to those for whom it is prepared by my Father." (Matthew 20:23) From His vase James would drink and would be baptized with the same baptism, but nothing greater than that! Andrew was Peter's brother, it is said of him that in Edessa, Mesopotamia, on a missionary journey he was also crucified on the cross. Mark was a disciple of the Lord, but not one of the twelve; he was dragged by horses in the street, until dying, in Alexandria in the party dedicated to the maximum idol of the town. Philip, another of the twelve, was whipped, imprisoned, and then crucified in Minor Asia in year 54 AD. It is said of Bartholomew to have been the prime minister of India and who translated the Gospel in Hindu propagating it throughout that country. He died crucified by a group of idolatrous fanatics. It is

told of Thomas, who preached the Gospel in Parthia and also in India, that due to the anger of the pagan priests, he was pierced with a spear. Luke was another disciple, and not of the twelve, who accompanied Paul, he was a Macedonian physician; he was hung from an olive tree by the idolatrous priests of Greece. Matthew was crossed with a spear in Nadaboa, Ethiopia in the year 60 AD. James, one of the brothers of Jesus who wrote the epistle that bears his name, was thrown by the Pharisees from the pinnacle of the Temple and then, as he did not die from the fall, he was beaten to blows while he kneeled to pray for his executioners. Thaddeus, one of the twelve, as well as Andrew, was also crucified in Edessa, Mesopotamia in the year 72 AD. Matthias was the chosen apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, he was stoned and then beheaded. The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the vile Roman emperor Nero in the year 67 AD. John, the beloved disciple, faced martyrdom when he was thrown into a huge cauldron of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome, nevertheless, he was miraculously delivered from death. He was then sentenced to work in the mines in the prison on the Isle of Patmos and it was there that he wrote his prophetic book of Revelations. He was later released and taken back to what we know today as Turkey. He died very old and was the only one of the apostles who died peacefully. It is said that when Andrew was taken to the cross he greeted it with these words: "I have long wished and hoped for this happy moment, the cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ that was hung in it." We conclude that the important thing about all this concerning the disciples is not their deaths and suffering they went through, but rather it is THAT ALL OF THEM WERE WILLING TO DIE FOR THEIR FAITH! That they were willing to suffer horrible deaths by refusing to renounce their faith! DO YOU HAVE THAT VALUE AND COURAGE, THE BRAVERY OF SHOWING THAT YOU ARE ON THE LORD'S SIDE? Are you not afraid to tell the world that you love him? Will you never deny that you are associated with Him, that because of His cause there is persecution and tribulation? (Mark 8:35) "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." Amen.