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Christians regard the apostles as the connection between the living Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, and the Christian church that developed after Jesus ascended to heaven. The apostles were witnesses to Jesus’ life, recipients of Jesus’ teachings, witnesses to appearances of the resurrected Jesus, and recipients of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. They were authorities on what Jesus taught, intended, and desired. Many Christian churches today base the authority of religious leaders on their supposed connections to the original apostles.
http://www.whatscatholic.com/the_apostles.html
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:19
Come, Lord Jesus.
Who ARE the twelve apostles? Revelation 21:14 mentions that there will be statues or figures of them in heaven, but which ones will there be? Assuming Judas is out, then you have Paul and Mattias both named #12. Mattias was chosen by the other 11 apostles (Acts 1:23-26), and Paul just named himself as one....
Judas was the democrat... theres always got to be a sneaky parasite..
Was probably a Union member too if they had them then...
I wonder how they all lived? I mean did the apostles provide money, food, etc?
Jesus had many disciples. Twelve of them were called apostles.
The apostles didn’t start the church. They were clueless along with the rest of the 120 - all praying......
God birthed (not started) the church by sovereignly pouring out the Holy Spirit on those who believed, filling them, guiding them, speaking through them.
The sudden, spontaneous, and wholly unexpected explosion of the church was totally outside the apostles plans, abilities, wisdom or power. In no time there were over 8,000 (not including women and children) in Jerusalem - far more than 12 men could lead, direct, or manage. As they met house-to-house (Acts 2:42), what resulted was far beyond what the 12 could lead. Repeatedly Acts tells us that the early believers were filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. Something rarely seen today, as most believer’s (sadly) only know how to follow and be led by men.
I believe that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was also a holy rebuke to their fleshly attempt to “start” something by using a fleshly method of choosing Judas successor, selecting a man never mentioned again in scripture. Paul’s calling and selection was an additional rebuke to their trying to choose another apostle.
The Peter involved in selecting Mathias was the old Peter and was totally changed when filled with the Holy Spirit, and finally became truly one God could use and speak through.
“Jesus Christ deliberately passed over those who were aristocratic and influential. He chose men from the lower class of society.”
Oh, balderdash! There was no aristocracy then, comparable to the great land-owners in later Europe. The Bible says that Jesus himself was of the ”lineage and house of David,” which is deemed something special, and as close to aristocracy as you could get. His father was in our tradition a “carpenter,” although the Greek word means “builder,” which probably put him in the upper ranks of tradesmen. Jesus was able to spend years in the synagogue, apparently in traditional study. The poorest people could not do that.
Jesus visited in the homes of people who were apparently quite wealthy. The fishermen he attracted were not poor men, by the standards of the day. They abandoned their nets and boats and other expensive gear to follow Jesus, but they were not poor.
I think that it is a mistake to try to fit Jesus into the notions of economic class which saturate modern thinking. He blessed the poor in spirit (those free of arrogance), not merely the poor in an economic sense.
The parables are full of descriptions of the economy of the day, often with paradoxical examples to make a point, but there is no attack on the generally accepted customs of the time, including the economic arrangements. So much for Jesus the “revolutionary.”
Jesus said explicitly that his kingdom was not material. There is good evidence now that Jesus favored the older Jewish traditions, and was opposed by the established clerics of Jerusalem, who came from the tradition of the returnees from Bablyon.
It is interesting that Jesus was criticized for paying attention to lowly people and even sinners (such as tax-collectors — nothing new, eh?). The criticisms came from some of his upper class followers. For Jesus, class did not matter, and that was the lesson. So why is much made of this now?
I have always thought the most amazing thing a bout the disciples were their deaths or torture in one case. Not a single one denied Christ when the time came that they could have saved themselves by changing their story about Jesus. 12 men and not a single one saving himself by recanting.
Could you be stoned, crucified or boiled in oil by crowds of people screaming at you to changed your tune and not change your story if it was a lie to begin with?
These men lived and saw something so amazing that they stood true when the time to take a stand came.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Not accurate. He chose folks from the middle class and upper middle class. He didn't choose beggars and other poor. He chose small business men. Think Rotary Club, not homeless shelter.
Blessed is the Holy Lamb of God, Jesus Christ the righteous!
Veni Sancte Spiritus....Amen, Amen!
“.......He said “Come follow me” and they came
With reckless abandon they came
Empty nets lying there at the waters edge
Told a story that few could believe and none could explain
How some crazy fishermen agreed to go where Jesus lead
With no thought for what they would gain..........”
Mathew 4: NIV
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
NIV
Luke 6
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
KING JAMES
Luke 6
12And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; 14Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, 15Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, 16And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/