Luke 6:12-16 12And it happened in these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and was spending all night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he also named apostles: 14Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Jesus had many people who followed him. Luke has already described these followers as disciples (mathētēs). A disciple follows and learns from a master. Many rabbis at that time had disciples. Jesus chose a small group to be his close companions during his travels and to learn from him. Significantly, before he chose them, he went to a mountain to pray. What he was about to do would be hugely significant for the mission and spread of God’s kingdom. He needed to know the Father’s will about who to choose to be in this special group. Luke emphasizes prayer in both the Gospel and Acts. Prayer always came before major decisions in Luke’s writing. Jesus praying all night emphasizes the importance of this decision. Few people pray that long and intensely about the decisions they make.
After praying all night, Jesus was ready in the morning to choose the special group. The number twelve is symbolic in the Bible. Twelve special disciples correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus was forming a new people of God, a new Israel, built on the foundation of the patriarchs and their descendants but inclusive of all people of the world. Jesus called this group apostles (). This word basically means “one who is called to go out.” Jesus chose these twelve men to be his representatives to the world. They were each to be a missionary to carry forth the message of the gospel to the lost people of the world. The word carried authority in the early church and came to represent those who had been sent out directly by Jesus. The world also has a general sense that can be used for those who believe Jesus has sent them out to new places and cultures with his message of salvation.
Luke then lists the twelve men Jesus chose. There are four lists of the disciples in the New Testament, and each is slightly different (Matthew 10:2–4; Mark 3:16–19; Acts 1:13). The first four disciples are always the two sets of brothers Jesus called as fishermen in Capernaum: Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The second group of four are always Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew, also known as Levi. The differences come in the last group, which always has Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, as last. Not much is known about some of these men, but each had an important part of Jesus’ ministry. Each had the greatest opportunity to be taught by the greatest Teacher of all time. Each also had to make his own decision to remain true to Jesus. Even Judas had opportunity for all of this but threw it away at the end. The other eleven became leaders in the early church, though some of their stories are shrouded in tradition. They had to pay a high cost to follow Jesus, leaving behind houses, jobs, and even families. The grace of God sustained them as they learned to live by faith and not by sight. They were average people whom Jesus chose to be near him. From the average came the extraordinary because of the One who filled them.
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