Jesus designates twelve apostles (missionaries/emissaries) to hang out with Him, preach, and have authority to drive out demons. We know these twelve are not the only ones to drive out demons (Mark 9:38-41), and we also know that not everyone who drives out demons is known by G-D (Matthew 7:21-23). (Even some of these twelve [and/or other disciples] could not drive out a demon [Mark 9:14-18].)
We do know from church tradition that nearly all of the twelve went out all over the world driving out demons and preaching the Gospel, and because of them, those of us who follow the Christ are here today.
Several interesting things about this list:
1) Jesus changes Simon's (hearing) name to Peter (rock)
2) James and John are called boanerges (which Mark says, "means Sons of Thunder") - they were probably rather prone to emotional outbursts
3) Matthew (a.k.a. Levi) - a tax collector
3) Simon the Zealot - a Zealot being one who wanted Rome out of Israel and was willing to use physical force to achieve that end. He and Matthew probably had some issues.
4) Judas Iscariot (Judas, the man from Kariot - a city 20 miles south of Jerusalem) - the only Judean (not Galilean) we know of in this list
Quite a spread demographically, yet Jesus calls these twelve to change the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment