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Luke 6:12–16
“In these days [Jesus] went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles” (vv. 12–13).
Although Jesus is the center of the Christian faith and the only Savior, even He did not engage in ministry on His own. He chose twelve men in particular to minister alongside Him and then to preach the gospel after He returned to heaven. Today’s passage describes our Lord’s appointment of these men, known to us as the twelve Apostles.
Luke 6:12 indicates that Jesus spent all night in prayer on a mountain before choosing the Twelve. This lengthy time of communion with God indicates something of the importance of Christ’s selection. He did not select the twelve Apostles until after He had conferred with God and received from His Father what was needed to make the right choice of individuals. That Jesus spent time with the Almighty on a mountain recalls other figures such as Moses who communed with God, so our Lord’s praying on a mountain may have been a way of communicating something about His identity, of saying that Jesus would parallel and even surpass Moses’ importance in the history of God’s people (see Ex. 19–24; Heb. 9:15).
Jesus chose the twelve Apostles out of a larger group of disciples, as we see in Luke 6:13. Sometimes Christians use the terms Apostles and disciples interchangeably, especially when they have the Twelve in view. This is understandable, but it is important to remember that while there is overlap between being an Apostle and being a disciple, the two categories are not equivalent. Disciple is really just another term for a student or a learner, but an Apostle in the ancient world was a person appointed to speak on behalf of another figure with that figure’s authority. Anyone who comes to learn from Jesus can be called His disciple, but not everyone can be an Apostle, for that is a distinct office with distinct powers reserved for specific people. Dr. R.C. Sproul frequently observed that all Apostles are disciples but not all disciples are Apostles. Apostles are those directly commissioned by Christ who were eyewitnesses of the resurrection, so the office of Apostle no longer exists in the church today (Acts 1:12–26; 1 Cor. 15:1–11).
The twelve Apostles are named in Luke 6:14–16, and we will learn more about many of them over the course of our study of Luke. We will conclude today by noting the significance of the number twelve, for it parallels the twelve tribes of Israel (see Ex. 24:4). In the twelve Apostles, Jesus was constituting a new Israel.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The new Israel does not replace old covenant Israel but rather is the fullest expression and fulfillment of the true Israel of God. This Israel includes all people in history who trust in Christ, Jews and gentiles alike (Rom. 11). This Israel is governed by the teaching of the prophets and the Apostles—that is, the Scriptures. As disciples of Jesus, we are bound to follow their teaching, which is nothing less than His teaching.
for further study
- Genesis 49:1–28
- Ezekiel 47:13–23
- Matthew 10:1–4
- Revelation 21
the bible in a year
- Deuteronomy 28
- Mark 15:21–47