We also need to spend a long time in fellowship with God in prayer
before appointing a leader.
“In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon (whom He named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor” (Luke 6:12–16).
While meditating on the words, I desire to receive the instruction given to us:
(1) I would like to meditate on the passage in Luke 6:12–16, where Jesus called the twelve apostles, in connection with Matthew 10:1–4 and Mark 3:13–19, dividing it into several points:
(a) First, the Pharisees were furious (Lk. 6:11), and went out and immediately began to conspire with the Herodians about how they might kill Jesus (Mk. 3:6; cf. Mt. 12:14; Lk. 6:11). At that time Jesus went up the mountain to pray and spent the night praying to God (Lk. 6:12).
(i) On November 27, 2010, while meditating on Acts 27:23–25, the Lord began teaching me the phrase: “Crisis is Opportunity!”: The first lesson the Lord taught me through Acts 27:23–25 is that a crisis is a good opportunity to hear the voice of God (the second lesson is that a crisis is a good opportunity to love our neighbor, and the third lesson is that a crisis is a good opportunity to experience the glorious salvation of God).
· And indeed, by God’s grace, through the crises of my two children, I came to hear the voice of God. In other words, during the crises my children experienced, the Holy Spirit caused me to seek God the Father earnestly, and during my meditation on Scripture He gave me promises, enabled me to believe them, and gave me hope:
- When my first child, Charis, was battling in the ICU, the promise given was Psalm 63:3: “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You.” As I read this verse, I applied it this way: “Because the Lord’s eternal and faithful love is better than the 55-day life of Charis, my lips will praise the Lord.” And the Lord allowed me, as I scattered my daughter’s ashes upon the water and returned, to praise His great and astonishing saving love. Since then, the Lord has had me testify to the amazing and wondrous love I experienced through my daughter’s death. The Lord fulfilled for us the word, “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You” (Ps. 63:3).
- When my other child was suffering greatly due to mental illness, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the words Peter cried when he began to sink into the water, “Lord, save me!” And He led me to kneel on the floor, holding my beloved child’s hand, crying out, “Lord, save my daughter!” After that, while reading Scripture, I was strengthened and filled with hope by 1 Peter 5:10: “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" From that time on, I began to hold on to this promised word and to pray to God. Although my beloved child was “suffering for a little while,” I prayed and prayed that the Lord would restore her (“make her whole”), and that He would “make her firm, make her strong, and establish her.” And I came to realize that God was fulfilling this promise He had given me when, around the time of Thanksgiving in 2019, as I was bringing my beloved daughter home from her university dorm, I heard from her own mouth, inside the car, the confession that God was making her “strong.” So, on Thanksgiving Thursday, during our family worship to God, I confessed to my beloved wife and three children that the Lord was fulfilling the promised word of 1 Peter 5:10. And I gave thanks to God. At that time, as I was speaking to my dear family, I realized that the Lord was not only fulfilling that promised word for my beloved child, but was also fulfilling it for me. In other words, the Lord was fulfilling that promised word not only for my child but also for me.
(ii) Jesus, when the Pharisees were filled with rage (Lk. 6:11) and went out and immediately began to conspire with the Herodians about how they might kill Jesus (Mk. 3:6)—at that moment of crisis—went up the mountain to pray and spent the whole night praying to God (Lk. 6:12).
· What is interesting here is that Luke, the physician and author of the Gospel of Luke, uses in verse 12 the Greek word translated “all night”—the word διανυκτερεύων (dianyktereuō)—and when this term is used as a medical term, it can refer to staying up all night to nurse a sick person (This word is in the imperfect active participle form, emphasizing a long, continuous duration) (Hochma).
- When I meditate on this statement that Jesus prayed to God “through the night” (Lk. 6:12), I am reminded of Sister Sun-young Park, who spent the entire night in the prayer room of the hospital, crying out to God for her beloved mother lying in the ICU (this is from a part of Pastor Hee-joong Kim’s writing, who loves Sister Sun-young with God’s love: “… The family members went into the ICU for a visit and then returned home, and it seems Sister Sun-young will spend the whole night alone in the hospital prayer room. Please pray together that the Lord would perform the miracle of healing and salvation”). I share only part of my KakaoTalk conversation with her: “Only hoping in and relying on God’s help. I seek His boundless kindness, mercy, and compassion.” “I wish I could suffer in her place. Lord, I am a sinner. Please forgive me and I earnestly pray that You grant the blessing of salvation to my mom, my dad, and our whole family. ‘The prayer of faith will save the sick person; the Lord will raise him up.’ Lord, have mercy.” “Amen, Father. I pray earnestly. I expect earnestly and wait earnestly.” “I earnestly long for the day when my mom quickly recovers so that Mom and Dad can go to church together, and I earnestly hope that our whole family may live enjoying the blessing of the Lord’s salvation. 🙏”
(iii) Not only because of the crisis, but Jesus also went up the mountain to pray and spent the night praying to God (Lk. 6:12) in order to call twelve apostles from among His disciples (v. 13).
· In reality, the reason Jesus went up the mountain and prayed all night was not merely because of the crisis (although, in God’s sovereignty, He may even use such a crisis to lead us to pray), but rather, I believe, in order to accomplish the will of God. The grounds for this thought is Jesus’ prayer at Gethsemane: “… Father, if it is possible, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet do not do as I will, but as You will” (Mt. 26:39).
- All-night prayer reveals that Jesus is the perfect Son who seeks the Father’s will at every important stage of His ministry (cf. Jn. 5:19; 8:28) (Internet).
n Thus, Jesus, according to God’s will, went up the mountain and prayed “through the night” before choosing twelve from among the disciples and calling them apostles (Lk. 6:12–13). And the fact that Jesus prayed through the night highlights the gravity and weight of the decision to choose the twelve apostles (Ref.: Internet).
# When we think of this leadership model of Jesus, we too must imitate Jesus: just as Jesus spent long hours in fellowship with God before appointing the twelve apostles, we also need to spend a long time in prayerful fellowship with God before appointing a leader (reference: internet source).
(b) Second, the phrase, “When day came, Jesus called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles” (Lk. 6:13).
(i) After Jesus prayed through the night, when day came He called His disciples close and chose twelve from among them. Here, the expression “chose” implies that Jesus sovereignly and actively selected the disciples for the work of the gospel ministry. This confirms the teaching of John 15:16 (“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—so that whatever you ask in My name the Father will give you”)—that the disciples did not choose Jesus, but Jesus chose the disciples (Hochma).
· When I meditate on this passage, I am reminded of the gospel song “Why Have You Chosen Me?”—a song I received much grace from long ago and often joyfully praised God with:
(V. 1) Why have You chosen me out of millions Your child to be? You know all the wrongs that I've done Oh, how could You pardon me, forgive my iniquities To save me, give Jesus Your Son
(V. 2) I am amazed to know that our God's so great could love me so He's willing and wanting to bless His love is so wonderful, His mercy's so bountiful I can't understand it, I confess
(Refrain) But Lord, help me be what You want me to be Your Word I will strive to obey My life I now give, for You I will live And walk by Your side all the way.
(ii) Jesus chose twelve from among the disciples He called and designated them as apostles (Lk. 6:13). The meaning of the word “apostle” is “one who is sent.”
· What is important is that the one who is sent must fulfill the will of the one who has sent him. That is, the twelve apostles had to fulfill the will of the Lord who sent them. Indeed, Jesus Himself—who had been sent by God—came to this earth and fulfilled the will of God who sent Him, even to the point of dying on the cross (cf. Phil. 2:8).
- For example, the Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:1, wrote a letter to the believers in the church at Rome, saying, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” Here, the word “apostle” (an apostle) is the Greek word ἀπόστολος (apostolos), meaning “one who is sent.” As we have already meditated on in Acts 9, when Saul—who had persecuted the church of Jesus—met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, two things happened to him: regeneration (conversion) and commission. That is, Paul was born again (received eternal life) by meeting the risen and ascended Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he also received a commission from the Lord and was sent out. Apostle Paul was “one who was sent into the world as God’s representative to build up the church of God” (Park). He possessed the authority of God. Therefore, Paul wrote the letter to the Roman believers—with whom he had not personally planted the church—with the authority of an apostle.
n Paul was a servant of Jesus Christ, one who was called to be an apostle, and one who had been set apart for the gospel of God. As the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13), he humbly devoted himself in obedience to the will of the Lord who sent him. He did not consider his own life as something precious to himself if only he could complete the task the Lord had given him—the task of bearing witness to the gospel (Acts 20:24).
# Like the Apostle Paul, we too are people who have been set apart for this gospel and have been sent into the world carrying the good news of Jesus Christ, the greatest message of all. Therefore, we must bear witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We must proclaim, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
(c) Third, Jesus called the twelve disciples so that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach (Mk. 3:14), and He also gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every disease and every infirmity (Mt. 10:1; cf. Mk. 3:15).
(i) Here we can see three purposes for which Jesus appointed the twelve disciples (apostles):
· The first purpose is “that they might be with Him” (Mk. 3:14).
- Jesus, who is Immanuel (“God is with us”), desired to be with the twelve disciples. Truly, the twelve disciples were to live in the closest relationship with Jesus. That is, they were to live with Jesus, converse with Jesus, and learn from Jesus. From the Gospel of Mark, we can see that Jesus spent most of His time training His disciples (Hochma).
n Who is a disciple? A disciple is one who is with Jesus. Jesus desires to be one with His disciples, and the disciples desire to be one with Jesus. Disciples walk intimately with Jesus, become like Jesus, and reveal Jesus through their lives (Ref.: Internet).
· The second purpose is “that He might send them out to preach” (Mk. 3:14).
- The twelve disciples of Jesus, while being with Him and receiving discipleship training from Him, also had to be sent out (6:7). That is, as apostles who had been sent, they had to fully carry out their mission—the mission of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Hochma).
n The Greek word for “preach” in Mark 3:14 is κηρύσσειν (kērussein), which means, “to formally announce (a message); to proclaim publicly and with confidence (persuasively).” This word, which appears 61 times in the New Testament, reflects a gospel pattern: God sends heralds, the heralds proclaim the Word of God, and the hearers are called to repent, believe, and obey (Internet).
# The apostolic mission: Before His ascension, Jesus commanded the eleven disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk. 16:15). The book of Acts shows that they obeyed immediately. Philip preached in Samaria (Acts 8:5), Saul in Damascus (9:20), Peter in Caesarea (10:42), and Paul throughout the Mediterranean world (20:25; 28:31). Their message consistently focused on Jesus’ death, resurrection, and lordship (1 Cor. 1:23) (Internet).
# Contemporary application: Today, the church stands under the same royal command. Faithfulness requires clarity (proclaiming the crucified and risen Christ), courage (preaching the gospel despite opposition), and compassion (bringing good news to the poor). When Scripture is proclaimed, the King speaks, hearers are summoned, and eternal destinies are at stake (internet source).
· The third purpose is that they might have “authority to drive out unclean spirits” and “authority to heal every disease and every infirmity” (Matt. 10:1; cf. Mark 3:15).
- Here, “demons” literally means “unclean spirits,” “evil spirits”—beings who oppose God, are enemies of humans, and can directly or indirectly harm a person’s mind, morality, and body (Mt. 12:43). Jesus distinguished the authority to cast out such unclean spirits from the authority to heal diseases because casting out these spirits is a more excellent demonstration of the power of the kingdom of God, and it is a direct power that destroys the kingdom of Satan. Furthermore, it served as an effective sign confirming the apostolic authority of the disciples who had been called (Hochma).
n This casting out of demons is a power that originally belonged to Jesus (Mk. 1:26), and is now being given to the disciples who had been called to overthrow Satan’s kingdom and establish the kingdom of Jesus (Mt. 10:8). Thus, the work of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God and the work of driving out demons are closely connected. The salvation Jesus seeks to accomplish is the destruction of Satan and his forces and the completion of unending fellowship between Himself and the redeemed (Hochma).
# The authority “to heal every disease and every infirmity” (Mt. 10:1) is something Jesus Himself originally exercised (cf. 4:23; 9:35), and now this authority is being given to the twelve disciples who have been clothed with His authority. However, this authority is entirely different from the “gifts of healing” given to ordinary believers (1 Cor. 12:9, 28). The gifts given to the Corinthian church were limited to the individual believer who received them, and the types of diseases they could heal were limited according to the gifts they were given. But the twelve disciples, who received divine authority directly from Jesus, possessed a special gift to heal “every disease and every infirmity” (Hochma).
(d) Fourth and last is the list of the names of the twelve apostles: Simon, to whom He also gave the name Peter; his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James (to whom He added the name Boanerges, meaning “sons of thunder”); Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew the tax collector; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon who was called the Zealot; Judas the son of James (Thaddaeus); and Judas Iscariot, who would become the one who betrayed Jesus (Lk. 6:14–16; Mt. 10:2–4; Mk. 3:16–19).
(i) In today’s passage, Luke 6:14–16, the list of the apostles is recorded, and in the New Testament this list appears three other times (Mt. 10:2–4; Mk. 3:16–19; Acts 1:13) (Hochma).
· Although Peter was not the very first person to be called by Jesus (Jn. 1:42), the fact that he always appears first in every list of the twelve apostles suggests that he was recognized as the chief among the apostles.
- His Hebrew name “Simon” was his original name and means “to hear,” while “Peter” is the name Jesus gave him after calling him as His disciple, which in Greek means “rock.” Also, the name “Cephas” given to him in John 1:42 is Aramaic and carries the same meaning as “Peter” (Hochma).
· Peter’s brother Andrew was a fisherman from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee (Mk. 1:16–18; Jn. 1:44). He had first become a disciple of John the Baptist (Jn. 1:35, 40) and then, after meeting Jesus Christ, immediately followed Him (Mt. 4:19–20).
- He met Christ before his brother Peter did, and afterward led Peter to the Lord (Jn. 12:20–22). Although Scripture does not record much about him, he performed many unseen tasks as a disciple of the Lord (Jn. 6:8–9; 12:20–22; Acts 1:13–14). The name Andrew is Greek and means “man” (Hochma).
· James and John—their names mean respectively “to seize the heel” (Gen. 25:26) and “Yahweh is gracious.” Together with Peter, they belonged to the three disciples specially recognized by Jesus. In most records James is mentioned before John, suggesting that James was John’s older brother. However, James did not achieve as much as his brother John, because he became the first of the apostles to be martyred (Acts 12:2; beheaded by Herod Agrippa in A.D. 44).
- They were fishermen, sons of Zebedee. Zebedee was wealthy enough to have hired servants (Mk. 1:20), and his wife supported the ministry of Jesus (Mt. 27:55–56; Lk. 8:3). The fact that only John among the twelve stood near the cross, and that his family had some connection with the household of the high priest (Jn. 18:15–16), seems to indicate that Zebedee’s family was affluent.
n James and John seem to have inherited their mother’s assertive and bold temperament, and the nickname “sons of thunder” given by Jesus (Mk. 3:17; 9:38–41; Lk. 9:54–56) reflects their fiery disposition, whatever its origin may have been. John, however, developed a close brotherly relationship with Peter and fulfilled his role as one of the foundation stones of the early church (Lk. 22:8; Jn. 18:15; 20:2–8; Acts 3:1–4; 8:14; Gal. 2:9). After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, he is said to have settled in Ephesus, devoting himself to missions and teaching. During the great persecution under Emperor Domitian around A.D. 95, he was exiled to the island of Patmos and returned to Ephesus the following year under Emperor Nerva, continuing his gospel ministry until he passed away during the reign of Emperor Trajan—living longer than all the other apostles and producing outstanding leaders such as Polycarp, Papias, and Ignatius. He made an exceptional contribution to training leaders in the early church (Hochma).
· The name “Philip” means “lover of horses.” He was a friend of Andrew and Nathanael. He too left John the Baptist to follow Jesus (Jn. 6:5–7; 12:21–22; 14:8–14) and, like Peter, was from Bethsaida (1:44). He was found by Jesus and immediately followed Him when called to be a disciple (vv. 43–44). After meeting Jesus, he found Nathanael and led him to the Lord (vv. 45–46).
- After being called as one of the twelve apostles, he was tested by the Lord before the miracle of feeding the five thousand (6:1–7). Later, he served as an intermediary to bring Greeks to Jesus during His triumphal entry (12:20–22). He also asked Jesus to show them the Father on the night before the Lord was arrested (14:7–12).
n Since he mainly brought Greeks to Jesus (12:20–22), he appears to have been familiar with Greek language and culture. However, because his name always appears first among the second group of the twelve in the gospel lists, he does not seem to have been a particularly prominent figure. Bishop Polycrates of the 2nd century states that Philip ministered in the Roman colony of Asia and was martyred at Hierapolis (Hochma).
· “Bartholomew” is a Hebrew name meaning “son of Tolmai.” For several reasons he is identified with Nathanael, whose name means “gift of God” (Carr, Ewald, Meyer): (1) Nathanael appears in connection with the twelve disciples (Jn. 1:43–51; 21:2). (2) Philip brought Nathanael to Jesus (vv. 43–46). (3) In the lists of apostles, Philip and Bartholomew always appear together.
- Though this evidence is not definitive, if Bartholomew is indeed Nathanael, then he was from Cana (21:2) and was praised by Jesus (1:47). According to tradition, he carried out missionary work in Egypt, India, Armenia, and other regions, and was martyred there (Hochma).
· “Matthew” is introduced as “Levi” by Mark and Luke (Lk. 5:27–29; Mk. 2:13–14), meaning “to be joined.” It seems that after being called by Jesus, he changed from his Hebrew name Levi to the Greek name Matthew. But Matthew openly identifies himself as “Matthew the tax collector” (Mt. 9:9–10), perhaps out of gratitude for the grace of Jesus who saved him and chose him as an apostle.
- That is, he does not hide the fact that he had once been a sinner deserving the condemnation of all people. This is the confidence of a forgiven sinner and the honesty and humility of a true worker of God. The name Matthew is a shortened form of Mattathias, meaning “gift of Yahweh,” which in Greek becomes Theodore (Hochma).
· “Thomas” is called “Didymus” (Jn. 11:16; 21:2), which is Aramaic for “twin.” Though he was so full of doubt that he became the symbol of a skeptical believer, he was also courageous (v. 16) and is widely known for his sound confession of faith (20:28).
- According to tradition, he went as a missionary to India and Parthia, founded churches there (the “St. Thomas Church” still exists in India), and was martyred there (Hochma).
· “James the son of Alphaeus” was commonly called “James the Less” to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee (Mk. 15:40; Mt. 27:56). This nickname may have been given because he was called later than the other James, or because he was younger.
- Alphaeus, the father of this James, is thought to be the same person as Cleophas (Mk. 15:40; Jn. 19:25), and his wife Mary is considered to be a close relative—possibly the sister—of Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary the mother of the Apostle John (Jerome) (Hochma).
· “Simon the Zealot”—Matthew and Mark call him “Simon the Cananaean” to distinguish him from “Simon who is called Peter.” But Luke calls him “Simon who is called the Zealot.” The term “Cananaean” does not mean a man from the land of Canaan, but is derived from the Hebrew word qannaʾ (קנא), meaning “zealous.” Thus, Luke’s Greek term “Zealot” refers to his association with the Zealot party.
- From the single word “Zealot,” we see the portrait of a fervent, passionate Jew. The Zealots were an anti-Roman nationalist group in Judea who committed violent anti-government acts for Jewish independence. They often engaged in murder, arson, and even looting. According to reports, Simon had been associated with these groups (Josephus, Antiquities 18.1.1; 6; Wars 2.8.1) (Hochma).
· “Judas the son of James (Thaddaeus)”—the name derives from a root meaning “beloved one.” Thus Thaddaeus would have been called “Judas the beloved” or “Judas Thaddaeus,” and this designation served essentially the same function as calling him “Judas (not Iscariot)” (Jn .14:22). This name was probably given to distinguish him from Judas the betrayer (The Pulpit Commentary).
- The apocryphal Acts of Thaddaeus, which describes his life, reports that he carried out vigorous missionary activity in Syria, Armenia, and other regions (Hochma).
· “Judas Iscariot, who would betray Jesus”—the name “Iscariot” is the Greek form of the name of his hometown, Kerioth, meaning “man of Kerioth.” The same name is also applied to his father Simon (John 6:71; 13:2, 26). Kerioth is the same name as “Kirioth,” located in Kiriath-jearim.
- Scripture never indicates when or how he became a disciple. He appears last in the lists of the twelve apostles, and he was the one entrusted with the money bag (John 12:6), occupying a position of trust and responsibility. But the devil entered his heart and tempted him to conceive the thought of betraying Jesus (John 13:2). In the end, while pretending to care about the waste of perfume worth three hundred denarii (John 12:5), he betrayed the Son of God for a mere thirty pieces of silver. That sum was no more than the price of a slave killed by an ox (Exod. 21:32) (Hochma).