TOPIC: “THE POWER OF REPRODUCTION”!!

TEXT: Luke 6:12-15: Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13: And when it was day He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:  and the names are listed (vs 14-15).

 Mark 3:13-14 (Jesus called and ordained twelve) 6: 7 (He sent them out); Matthew 10: 1-4 (Jesus called the twelve; gave them power; and sent them out).

THEME: “Divine power reproduced in twelve disciples”.

Reproduction: the process of making a copy of something, duplication, multiplication. Reproduction is the process of becoming larger; doubling; increase.

Genesis 1:26 expresses the specific purpose statement of the Bible. God, the Creator, the Master Potter, is reproducing Himself! This is THE work of God. He is in the business of making man (male and female) in His image, after His likeness.          That project is completed in two stages, the physical and the spiritual. When the physical aspect was completed at creation, the spiritual one began. This is the overall project He is supervising.

God is already a unit: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy6:4). God is one, but consists of more than one Person. When Jesus came, He proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom of God. In doing this, He publicly announced the expansion of this unit to include others besides the two Beings already revealed.

The God of creation could have done anything He wanted to do regarding His ministry. He could have mastered it alone and been successful, but He chose to speak through people.

 Here in our text, Jesus chooses twelve men to become a spiritual duplicate of Himself. Be attentive to Jesus as He dispersed both the message and His power through twelve men.

 It’s fascinating how Jesus dealt with these twelve men, how He prepared them, and sent them, and how they eventually turned the world upside down. We are still having an impact in the world today because of the influence that the apostles initially had.

 Scripture states, “He CALLED His disciples to Him”.

 “CALL”, meaning to--summons, an order to appear, subpoena, to warrant.  In the natural you must appear in court, but spiritually,  we must appear, or respond to God.  

Jesus makes it clear, “No one can come to ME unless the Father who sent me, draws (calls, invites) him” John 6:44.  That’s why God’s call is external and internal.

External Call - God summons all people through the Word bidding men and women to come to Him through repentance and faith. Example-Parable of the Sower, as the farmer sowed the seed some fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured them, some fell on stony places, some fell among thorns    (Matthew 13:3-7). In other words, some will get it and some won’t.

Internal Call - Powerfully penetrates the heart and only the elect of God will experience this call. This call will powerfully and effectively turn the sinner from sin to Christ.

• 1Corinthians 1:24: But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

The seed only grows in those God the Father is calling and those who choose to follow His way of life. When you accept the Call to follow Him the change doesn’t take place overnight. You grow through it in stages.

They weren’t called to be His associates and companion because of their faith, because their faith often faltered. He didn’t choose them because of their talent and ability because no one stood out with unusual ability. These men represented a wide range of background and life experience, but they had no more leadership potential than those who were not chosen.  The one characteristic they all shared was their willingness to obey Jesus.

The life of Jesus.  Jesus grew up in Nazareth, where he had lived since He was a young boy (Matthew 2:22-23). At the age of twelve He could always be found in the temple listening to the teachers and asking questions. Nazareth was a small town in Galilee, located about half way between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea. The city was despised and avoided by many Jews because it had a reputation for independence. There we see, because of their unbelief in Christ, the power of God, divine power, was restrained.                                                     

Look at Matthew 13:58: “He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief”; save (except) ‘that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.  He was rejected at Nazareth, He begins to migrate like He has through all this time in the Galilean ministry for months all by Himself, going from village to village, giving the already hardened hearts of the people of Galilee one more opportunity to hear His message, to see His miracles and to believe.

First phase of the reproduction – “Call to Faith”

As Jesus was strolling along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew (brothers), casting their net into the sea. Jesus said to them, “FOLLOW ME, I WILL MAKE YOU BECOME FISHERS OF MEN” (Matthew 4:19). They immediately left their nets and followed Him. A little further down, He saw James and John (brothers), in the boat mending their nets and He immediately CALLED them and they left their father and hired servants in the boat and followed Him (vs 21-22). This was their first call to service a call to faith.

 Jesus already knew them because they were with Him in the beginning just as we were.  St. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (Vs 2): And "the same" (that's us) was in the beginning with God.
 He called them from the foundation of the world. These men had faith before they met Jesus because they didn’t hesitate to follow Him. Walking by faith and not by sight. They walked out on nothing but the voice of God believing something was there. They had faith when they met Jesus. Hebrews 6:11 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”. Faith is important because it allows us the ability to choose or reject God. This is the first step in their and our call to HIM, is to believe.

SECOND PHASE OF TRAINING: “CALL WAS TO DISCIPLESHIP”

Jesus told Peter and Andrew to leave their fishing business and become “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17) to help others find God. They were willing to drop everything, their careers, their families, to be permanent disciples. He was calling them away from their productive trade to be productive spiritually - THE POWER OF REPRODUCTION.
We all need to fish for souls. If we practice Christ’s teachings and share the gospel with others, we too can draw those around us to Christ like a fisherman who pulls fish into his boat with nets. These men already knew Jesus, He had talked to them before. They had heard Him preaching in the area. They knew the kind of man Jesus was and was willing to follow Him.

In Luke 9, Jesus is half way through the three years of His ministry, with about eighteen months until the Cross experience. Up to this point, Jesus did His ministry all by Himself. All the miracles were miracles that He did, All the messages were messages that He preached, All the questions were questions He answered. All of the conflict with leadership was conflict between Him directly and whoever it was that approached or attacked Him. Everything was done by Him. I guess you could say it was a one man operation, or a God-Man operation. All the preaching, teaching, all the healing, all the casting out of demons, all the resurrecting people from the dead, all the miracles over nature, silencing of the wind and waves, dealing with fish, dealing with pigs as He had done, showing His power over nature. All these things were done by Him alone. So therefore, His ministry was isolated to wherever He was. The disciples, His learners were with Him day and night.

They were under His tutelage. He was guardian over them, their protector.  These men under went intensive training. It’s no good serving the Lord if we’re not spending time at His feet. They witnessed things beyond their wildest imagination. They heard Him preach in parables and granted privilege of personal explanation of them. They had a great amount of private instructions of the scripture from Jesus.

 It’s time for elevation. Jesus informs them in Matthew 10:1-4, saying, you’re no longer permanent followers, you are now training to be preachers, training to be messengers. You’re going from being a student to being a preacher, from being a learner to being a messenger. And He IDENTIFIED them by name individually.

This brings us to the third stage of God’s call:  APOSTLESHIP (sent out):

This call right here is the most intense and final stage of their training.  Now is time to put into practice that they’ve learned. “To whom much is given, from him much is required” (Luke 12:48).

They’ve already come to believe. They’ve already been identified as permanent followers of Jesus. They’ve already been called to apostleship to be messengers.

Here they’re at the point of their initial internship, their first field experience. This will be their first try at sermons and signs. 
 It’s already half way through Jesus’ ministry before they’re even sent out. Up until now, they’ve just been listening. They’ve just been hearing the explanation of parables. They’ve been listening to Him elaborate the Old Testament passages and give the meaning. They’ve been getting their theological training and their biblical training. They’ve been sorting out their theology, but now it’s time for formal training to be messengers.  There’s only eighteen months left before Jesus will be gone and they will be on their own.

This time Jesus was preparing to choose His inner circle, the twelve disciples.  The apostles were His inner circle that He gave special training and whom He gave His own authority.

Jesus realizes He is bound to location as a man and time is of the essence.  He wants some help spreading the gospel. Towns and villages were many and He couldn’t cover all that ground as one man had done, showing His power over nature. All these things were done by Him alone. So therefore, His ministry was isolated to wherever He was.

If you wanted to hear the gospel, there was only one preacher. If you wanted to be healed, there was only one healer. If you wanted to ask questions about the truth of the kingdom of God, there was one answer man and that was all.  As a result of that, as His ministry developed in Galilee over eighteen months, the crowds got bigger and bigger and bigger which moved the people further away from Him. 

Jesus enforces His plan of duplication, the strategy of multiplication: Give them the same message, give them the same credentials, and you multiply yourself twelve times.

So, why twelve?  Why not ten? Why not twenty? Why not eight?    Israel is constituted of twelve tribes and they had become apostate. The religious leaders of Judaism constituted the core of those who were apostate. They were the core of those who hated Jesus, who hated the gospel, who hated to be indicted for their sin and who sought and achieved His death.

So, forget the religious establishment. Jesus picks twelve new leaders for the new Israel. Twelve symbolically pronounces a judgment on the apostasy of that nation. This was a judgment on Israel, solidifying, hardening unbelief and rejection of their Messiah. Jesus chooses twelve new spiritual heads of the tribes of Israel.  That’s why you don’t find one rabbi among the twelve. You don’t find one scribe. You don’t find a priest. You don’t find a Pharisee. You don’t find a Sadducee.  You only find these ordinary men and these ordinary men become a judgment on apostate Israel. It’s an open renunciation of all the religious men and the structures in which they existed, which was utterly corrupt.

John 12:47-48: And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.  He that rejects me, and receives not my words, hath one that judges him:  the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

[The “Last Day” is Jesus Christ Himself]!  Revelation 1:11: “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last”.

These twelve men are the true Israel of God and the true penitent believing Israelites and they became the foundation stones of the church:                   
Ephesians 2:19-20:“Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles, Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone”.

In picking the twelve, Jesus was literally saying, “There is a New Covenant in force, and here are the twelve leaders/preachers of that New Covenant, those who will believe the gospel, and follow the faith of Abraham.

Twelve also denotes "sonship", the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ equals to twenty four which is the number of eldership authority spoken of in Revelation 4:4: And round about the throne were four and twenty seats:  and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment (the light of God's righteousness); and they had on their heads crowns of gold (the divine nature of God Himself). Those that has come into maturity in Christ fulfilling James 5:14-15: Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:  and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 

 These "elders" are not those that's been in the church for fifty years still sitting waiting for Jesus to come back and get them:  but these "elders" are those regardless of age have come into the knowledge of the "truth" that Jesus is already come, is already here, walking in us, giving us the power to do the works that He did, right now!!!  

We, the Church are now part of God's "reproduction plan" walking in "eldership authority", because we are the "Body" of which Christ is the Head:  Colossians 1:18: And he is the head of the body, the church!

• Romans 12:4-5: For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
• 1 Corinthians 12:12: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body,:  SO ALSO IS CHRIST!
• Ephesians 5:30: We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
• 1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world!

 Mark 16:17-18: And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.  John 14:12: He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. 

PROOF:  Jesus said to the apostles:

• Luke 22:29-30: “I bestow upon you a Kingdom (a realm; ability to rule; power; dominion;  authority), just as My Father hath bestowed upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve  tribes of Israel”.
  (This isn’t something that is to come, but it has been happening since Pentecost and will continue to happen).
• Revelation 21:14: “Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”.                                                                                         Evangelist Brenda Hansley