Hope in the Disciples He Chose

Introduction:

• TEACHERS: The main point of this study is to see how the Wonderful Counselor graciously choose the men that He did – they were NOT PERFECT, but He choose them and used them for His glory – which should give all of us HOPE that if God can use men like this, He can use us!
• Next week, we’ll study how He helped them to grow – but it all started with Jesus meeting them where they were and helping them get to a better place in their service for Christ!
• This will tie into the message I preached on John 15 - no fruit, fruit, more fruit, and much fruit

- We’re into our 7^th week of our series: Finding Hope in the Wonderful Counselor

- we all need hope, and we’re all going to go somewhere to get it!

- what better place than from the Wonderful Counselor –Jesus Christ/Son of God/God the Son

[REVIEW] Q: Who can give me the definition of hope?

• Hope = the anxious anticipation of good – (biblical perspective) vs. the world’s definition more as ‘an uncertainty of the outcome’

Q: And that definition is base on what passage? [Romans 8:18-25; esp. v. 24-25]

• Romans 8:24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

> we have HOPE because of Who God is, what He can do, and what He promised to do

Q: What have we studied so far that lays a firm foundation for our hope?

#1: Find Hope in the Questions He Asked (He gathered the facts and told the truth)

#2: Find Hope in Defining Problems (the way He did)

#3: Find Hope in the Relationships HeBuilt (He loved, served, and died for people!)

#4: Find Hope in Giving Hope (but you have to have hope before you can give hope!

#5: Find Hope in the Instruction He Gave (the truth He proclaimed – what He wanted certain people, in certain situations, to KNOW

#6: Find Hope in the Expectations He Gave (in short, Jesus gave some homework assignments – He expects us to DO something with the truth He proclaimed)

- today, our study focuses on: Finding Hope in the Disciples He Choose!

- knowing they were not perfect, Jesus choose them (they didn’t choose Him), and He used them for to accomplish the goal for which He came

- this CAN and SHOULD give us hope that if Jesus can use these guys (and all their baggage – doubt, fear, rejection – and sometimes they just didn’t ‘get it’), He can use us!

[Note: This study was prepared by one of our Interns, Aaron Prelock – if you have any questions, contact Aaron, and he will answer your questions]

I. What They Were

- let’s think about this issue, and answer this question:

INPUT: If you were to pick 12 men to carry your message to the world, who would you choose

> To say that the disciples were an unlikely choice to be God’s messengers is a pretty big understatement.

• Mark 3:13-19, And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

- Jesus picked the 12 men who would later overturn the world. It was his direct choice.

- Jesus chose:

• a tax collector (traitor) – sellout to the religion and culture of Judaism
• Judas, a greedy thief and later a traitor
• normal town guys – some of the disciples we know virtually nothing about
• fishermen (GOOD fishermen) – successful in their trade, making money off the Hellenistic culture of Galilee, still they left their trade and followed
• religious-political fanatic – these guys were murderers for God!
• superstitious and hard hearted men – (Mark 6:12, 38-52)
• arrogant men – Luke 9:46 (who is the greatest?) 54 (calling down fire!) Mark 10:35-45 (sit at Jesus’ hands!?)
• a Pharisee (murderously zealous for “god”)

- Yet…John 6:70; 15:16-20(“chosen” used 20 times)

• John 6:70 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”
• John 15:16-20 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. “This I command you, that you love one another. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

INPUT: What do you learn about God from his choice of servants?

• God chooses. We don’t choose God; he chooses us.

> What an incredible source of hope, that we are chosen by God to this great salvation.

> What an incredible source of conviction!

> We have been chosen by God; how can we not live according to the hope he has given us?

• God chooses people who don’t have it all together.

> God chooses the sick so he can be shown faithful as he heals them.

> What an incredible truth; what an incredible source of hope.

INPUT: Why did God do this?

- Paul answers that question in 1 Corinthians 1:

• 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
• So man could not boast.

> God wants ALL the credit for his choosing of us.

> He wants to be glorified in our weakness, our powerlessness.

> He wants the glory for changing lives that we have absolutely not ability to change.

Point: Mark 3:13-19 - We talked about this earlier, but it was because he wanted to.

II. What They Could Be

- The Gospels end hopeful but tentative. The disciples weren’t there yet.

• Matthew 28:16-20, They’re given the Great Commission but they still have the choice whether or not to obey it. It wasn’t going to be easy.
• Luke 24, When Luke ends, there are disciples on the Road to Emmaus, frightened, and not understanding what had just happened. Jesus opened their minds opened only verses before the book closes.
• John 21, This Gospel closes with fearful fishermen. Jesus reinstates Peter, but even that showed that Peter wasn’t exactly hero-material yet. If God was to use the remaining 11, it would clearly be by his own strength.

- But…Acts 1, You read the first chapter of Acts, and the potential is screaming from the text!

> God HAD changed these frightened men and poured out his spirit on them.

> They were DIFFERENT!

- Acts 4 comes, bringing persecution. What would happen?

- They had been given much training, and there was incredible potential.

> They weren’t there yet.

III. What They Became

INPUT: What happened after Pentecost?

• Acts 1:12, The disciples returned to the city…they were hiding before.
• Acts 1:15, Frightened and cowardly Peter starts leading!
• Acts 1:23, They choose another apostle…without Jesus!
• Acts 2, Wow…what a story…3000 repented and turned to Jesus
• Acts 4, They testified to Jesus’ power and glory before the Sanhedrin, the very group that ordered Jesus’ execution! These men were not afraid anymore.
• Acts 5:12, They were preaching in public! Solomon’s Porch was way out in the open. There was no more hiding.
• Acts 5:40, When Jesus was arrested they fled. Now, they were persecuted, yet they remained faithful, still preaching.
• Acts 6:2-5, They still stayed faithful to the ministry of the Word.
• Acts 12, One of their number, James, was executed for the sake of the Cross. And they still preached.
• Acts 1: They were able to function as a unified group without Jesus’ physical presence!
• Acts 2:They took Jesus’ message of the Gospel to the people of the nations.
• Acts 5:40:They were persecuted yet remained faithful.

- Look at what they wrote (these men were a faithful witness):

• Matthew: The Gospel of Matthew
• Peter: The Gospel of Mark, 1&2 Peter
• James (Jesus’ brother) James
• John: The Gospel of John, 123 John, Revelation

INPUT: Who heard the message of the Gospel through the work of these apostles?

INPUT: Who needs to hear the message of the Gospel?

• 1 Corinthians 15:3, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
• Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

> Jesus fulfilled what the whole Bible says about him!

> He is the Word of God himself!

> And he died…he died for us!

• Romans 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
• Jesus redeemed condemned sinners, for God’s glory.

> We were utterly condemned by God for our sin, we sat under God’s death sentence for our sins.

> But Jesus redeemed us, he bought us back…all to glorify God. Wow.

• Titus 3:3-8, Titus 3:3-8 For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

- When we were sinners, God saved us through Jesus, that we might live.

> We weren’t choosing God with such fervor when we saved us, no, we were opposed to him in every way.

> God saved us through Jesus.

> He made us righteous so that we might live lives that glorify him. What an awesome truth!

Point: Look at the disciples Jesus’ chose.

Q: Are they the men you’d choose?

> Yet Jesus used these empty vessels so mightily.

> They were responsible to be faithful to their calling.

> But if Jesus chooses men like that, what can he do with you?

Q: How can you have hope? How can you rest more in your great God and Savior?

Conclusion:

Q: Are you willing to meet God where you are spiritually?

Q: What needs to CHANGE in order for you to follow Christ?

Q: Do you find hope that God has chosen you?

Finding Hope in the Disciples He Chose

I. What They Were

INPUT: If you were to pick 12 men to carry your message to the world, who would you choose?

• Mark 3:13-19

INPUT: What do you learn about God from His choice of servants?

INPUT: Why did God do this?

• 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, So man could not ___________

II. What They Could Be

• The Gospels end ____________ but _____________. The disciples weren’t there yet.

• They had been given much ______________, and there was incredible _________________.

III. What They Became

INPUT: What happened after Pentecost?

• Acts 1, They were able to ___________ as a _____________ group without Jesus’ physical presence!

• Acts 2, They took Jesus’ message of the ________________ to the people of the _______________.

• Acts 5:40, They were _________________ yet remained ________________.

INPUT: Who heard the message of the Gospel through the work of these apostles?

INPUT: Who needs to hear the message of the Gospel?

• 1 Corinthians 15:3, Christ ___________ for our _____________ according to the _____________________.

• Romans 3:23-24, Jesus _______________ ________________ sinners, for God’s ___________.

• Titus 3:3-8, When we were ______________, God ____________ us through ___________, that we might live.

Conclusion:

Q: Are you willing to meet God where you are spiritually?

Q: What needs to _______________ in order for you to follow Christ?

Q: Do you find hope that God has chosen you?