Beginnings & The Twelve – How Jesus Trained the Twelve Disciples

Now then, He comes to begin His ministry. We just shifted gears. In the first year and a half, Jesus Christ has a spectacular ministry. I’m going to ask a question, and it’s a trick question, so be careful the way you answer it. Philip, was Christ primarily interested in the masses? Now, there’s an answer to that question. Okay, then here, I think, is the answer. For a year and a half, He spent much of His time with the masses, but there were men there from the beginning. Yesterday morning, we talked about those who were there from the beginning. You remember that? Let’s talk about “from the beginning.” He called them, or He made sure the twelve disciples were there from the beginning. Do you realize what that means? That means some people heard the first message Jesus Christ ever delivered. Some people there knew how He got started. They were there on the bottom floor. They watched God begin His work on earth, and how He began His church on earth.

Three and a half years later, 3,000 people were thrown into the lap of the twelve apostles. Now, if you were one of the twelve apostles, how would you start the first day? Well…the first thing you would do is think back and remember how the Lord Jesus began His first day, because you were there from the beginning. You watched Him do it all. You were there from the beginning, and they were there from the beginning…and He kind of kept an eye on them.

For a year and a half, He dealt with the masses. He preached to them marvelous things. He fed them. He healed them. To this degree, He saved them. He cast out demons. His heart went out to the masses. At the end of the year and a half, He begins to withdraw from the masses. During this time, they try to crown Him king; He withdraws. During this time, they try to get to know Him; He withdraws. He never, never gives Himself to these people. He’s an enigma and a mystery to them. By the end of the year and a half, He’s been keeping His eye out. “There are eleven pretty nice guys, and one of them looks like he’s just about right for betraying me.” He picks twelve men, each one very deliberate. They were there from the beginning, and now He draws them around Him.

Now then, Jesus Christ is about to pour all that He is, all that He has, all of His purpose into those twelve men. He invested in each the eternal purpose. He invested redemption. He invested the mind of God, the purpose of God, and the being of God. He invested the character of God, the disposition of God, and the work of God in twelve men. I said yesterday, we would not know Jesus Christ at all. Not one of us living here in this room knows anything about Christ either. We learn all we know from them.

Now, was He interested in the masses? Actually, He was interested in the twelve. How could Jesus Christ possibly really minister to all those people? If He had done what we do today, and that’s dealing in massive ways, no one could ever relate closely to Him. Everybody gets to know Him a little bit, but He made sure the twelve got to know Him well, and He used the masses as a springboard to teach. He’d say great, sweeping things to the masses, then explain them to the twelve.

Now, was He interested in the masses? I come back and say, very definitely, but He went at it the way God went at it. He started with the twelve. Later, those twelve will work with the masses, and I don’t mean later during His ministry. I mean later, after He’s died and risen and ascended, they will reach out to the masses. He invested His life in twelve men.

Yesterday we took a very brief look at the relationship of these twelve men to God or to Christ. Yesterday we looked at this: What kind of men did He call? Can you recall what was said? Average men, ordinary folks, not brilliant, not stupid, although they could look pretty stupid sometimes. But average men can look pretty stupid sometimes. What was the one other aspect about them? They were seekers. All twelve of those men were probably followers of John the Baptist.

In that respect, they had a heart for the Lord, and that was their only distinguishing characteristic. Brothers and sisters, I would say this to you: it’s got to be your most distinguishing characteristic. You’ve got to have a heart for the Lord before anything else. I don’t care about anything else; I care about the Lord Jesus. You’ve got to have a heart for the Lord. When you do that, you’re going to probably go off on some little tangent one day in your life, and your heart will be what takes you there. “You know, I’m for the Lord,” and off you go. “I’m off for the Lord,” and off you go. Brothers, you’re not thirty yet. Go off on your tangent. Go off. Go off on your tangent. Every one of those brothers went off on a tangent. They weren’t thirty yet. Brother, keep your heart for the Lord. Keep your heart for the Lord. It’s alright to make mistakes. Praise God, it’s okay if you make mistakes. It’s okay if the church makes mistakes too. Okay, they were average men, but they had a heart for the Lord.

Okay, we’ll start there. That’s good enough. They watch. Let’s talk about how Jesus Christ raised up men. Listen very carefully. Look at the twelve; they represent two things. They represent the church; those twelve are really the church in miniature. But look again, and you will also see throughout the Scripture how the Lord Jesus deals with men. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Throughout the whole Scripture, the principle never breaks. It’s almost frightening the way this thing goes. It’s just so steady. God won’t move.

Well, it was really quite a “seminary.” It was run twenty-four hours a day. It never shut down. It had no books. It was lived out in the middle of the desert, halfway between towns, around campfires. It was lived out on mountains and hills in front of people. It was lived out beside the sea; it was lived out in the sea. It was lived out on the other side of the sea, and in retreats. For three and a half years, twelve men learned what? They learned the methods of Christ. No. They learned the Scripture. No. They learned how to win souls. No. They learned Christ. Yes.

I said this yesterday morning. I wish to say it again. When you first open your eyes in the morning, you’re cold, you know how you feel in the morning, and you look up, and you rub your eyes, and you look around, and about ten feet away from you, there stands God cooking breakfast.

I want to say again, they’re in a room. The Pharisees walk in. They begin shooting questions at Him. They watch His demeanor. They watch His bearing. He’s just not like anybody else. They watch the pressure build up. He just doesn’t react as other folks do. They watch Him fellowship with the Father. They watch some seeker come to Him and the compassion He has with the seeker. They watch some lying hypocrite come in, and sometimes He’s rough with him, and sometimes He ignores him. It’s very difficult to tie the Lord down, and they learn that. They live with God for three and a half years.