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.