Day 16, Disciples who were Apostles, Luke 6:12-16

(A more detailed study of the New Covenant, i.e. the New Wine, can be found on our Saturday blog beginning 10/21/17 at http://ronandcindy.blogspot.com.)

Jesus said there would come a time when the Bridegroom would be taken away.  At that time the Spirit would be poured out and the people of God would begin to experience the blessings of the New Covenant.  This new wine would require new wineskins.  Jesus is moving in that direction by His style of ministry (5:31-32) and by asserting His place as Lord of the Sabbath (6:5).  The Sabbath traditions were major issues in the old wineskins; He challenged those traditions.  

In today’s passage Jesus takes a great stride toward new wineskins by selecting from among His disciples twelve whom He also named apostles.  Here are a few notes on this list and the lists in Matt. 10:1-4, Mk. 3:13-19 and Acts 1:13.

·        Luke lists The Twelve in pairs.  Peter is always first, Philip always fifth, James the son of Alpheus always ninth, and Judas Iscariot always twelfth.

·        Many take Bartholomew to be Nathaniel, referred to in Jn. 1:43-51; 21:2.  Thomas is called the twin in Jn. 21:2.  Simon the Zealot is called Simon the Canaanite by Matthew and Mark.  Judas the son of James in Luke is called Thaddaeus by Matthew and Mark.  He may have changed his name later, after the betrayal by the other Judas, but Luke was led to keep his original name.  

·        Iscariot may mean man (Heb. ish) from Kiriath (a town in Southern Judah).  He, of course, became the traitor.  Jesus knew this from the beginning (John 6:70-71) as it was prophesied (Ps. 41:9; John 13:18). 

·        Disciples are followers; apostles are those sent on a mission.  The twelve were chosen to be with Jesus full-time so He might send them out to preach the gospel.  They were given authority by Jesus to heal and cast out demons.

·        These men (minus Judas Iscariot of course) were also equipped by Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to record what we call the New Testament (John 16:12-15).  He continued to teach them after His resurrection (Luke 24:36-49) and they were with Him when He ascended to heaven (Acts 1:4-8).

·        The apostles were witnesses of Jesus resurrection (Ac. 1:8).  Collectively, they are the foundation of the Church (Eph. 2:20), the Church / Body of Christ being the new wineskin.  The Church is made up of those who by one Spirit … were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).  This is the baptism John the Baptist said Jesus would bring about (Luke 3:16) and He did it through His apostles.  Through them the Church came to embrace Jews (Acts 2), Samaritans (Acts 8) and Gentiles (Acts 10).

You can see why these men are Christ’s gifts to the Church (Eph. 4:7-13).  How we need, today, in the Church, to continue in the apostle’s doctrine (Acts 2:42), rejecting all the incursions of the world into the message of the gospel.