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The twelve apostles included "Andrew" (Matt. 10:2). Leading others to Christ should be a top priority in your life. Andrew was Peter's brother and a native of Bethsaida of Galilee. From the very start we see him leading people to Christ—beginning with his own brother. The gospel of John records his first encounter with Jesus: "John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples (Andrew and John), and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. . . . One of the...

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). God knows how to get results. God makes leaders by taking people with the right raw material, putting them through the right experiences, and teaching them the right lessons. That's how he trained Peter, and the results were astonishing. In the first twelve chapters of Acts we see Peter initiating the move to replace Judas with Matthias, preaching powerfully on the Day of Pentecost, healing a lame man, standing up to the Jewish authorities, confronting Ananias and Sapphira, dealing with Simon the magician, healing Aeneas, raising Dorcas from the...

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). Peter learned five lessons that every believer must also learn. We have seen that God uses our experiences to mold us into more effective Christians and leaders. Using Peter as our example, let's briefly look at five lessons we can learn from our experiences: submission, restraint, humility, sacrifice, and love. Leaders tend to be confident and aggressive, so they must learn to submit to authority. Jesus illustrated that by telling Peter to go fishing and look for a coin in the mouth of the first fish he caught (Matt....

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). Your present experiences contribute to your future leadership ability. Stan Carder is a dear brother in Christ and one of the pastors on our church staff. Before coming to Grace Church he pastored a church in Montana. While there, he was riding one night in a truck that was involved in a very serious accident. Stan suffered a broken neck and other major injuries. As a result he underwent months of arduous and painful therapy. That was one of the most difficult periods in Stan's life, yet God used...

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). God can use your natural abilities as a basis for your spiritual service. Peter is a good illustration of how God builds a spiritual leader. He begins with a person's natural traits and works from there. Natural traits alone don't make a spiritual leader—the person must also be gifted and called by the Holy Spirit to lead in the church and be a model of spiritual virtue. But often God endows future leaders with natural abilities that constitute the raw materials from which He builds spiritual ministries. That was...

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). Jesus can make an impulsive and vacillating Christian as stable as a rock. The first disciple Matthew's gospel names is "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). He was a fisherman by trade but Jesus called him to be a fisher of men. John 1:40-42 records their first encounter: "One of the two who heard John [the Baptist] speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon, and . . . brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, 'You...

"The names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-gatherer; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:2-4). Unity in the Spirit is the key to a church’s overall effectiveness. Unity is a crucial element in the life of the church—especially among its leadership. A unified church can accomplish great things for Christ, but disunity can cripple or destroy it. Even...

"Having summoned His twelve disciples, [Jesus] gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles were these" (Matt. 10:1-2). Every disciple must also be a discipler. Have you ever met someone who constantly absorbs what the church has to offer, yet never seems to plug into a ministry where he can give to others? I've met many people like that. Some have attended church for many years, and have even taken evangelism and other special training classes. But they never...

"Having summoned His twelve disciples" (Matt. 10:1). Jesus can overcome any inadequacy you might have. Most people think of the disciples as stained-glass saints who didn't have to struggle with the faults and frailties of normal people. But they had inadequacies just like we all do. Seeing how Jesus dealt with them gives us hope that He can use us too. One inadequacy common to all the disciples was their lack of understanding. For example, Luke 18 tells us Jesus gave them details about His future suffering, death, and resurrection, but they didn't understand anything He said (vv. 31-34). Jesus...

"Having summoned His twelve disciples" (Matt. 10:1). A good example is the best form of teaching. Matthew 10:1 is Christ's official commissioning of the twelve men He hand-picked to serve beside Him during His earthly ministry. Mark 3:13 says He "summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him." In John 15:16 He tells them, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit." This is not their call to salvation, but to service. With the exception of Judas, they were already saved. Before the foundation of the...

"The names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-gatherer; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:2-4). God uses unqualified people to accomplish His purposes. We live in a qualification-conscious society. Almost everything you do requires you to meet someone else's standards. You must qualify to purchase a home, buy a car, get a credit card, or attend college. In...

"Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5:11-12). The sacrifices you make for Christ’s sake in this life will be abundantly compensated for in Heaven. God's promise for those who are persecuted for His sake is that their reward in heaven will be great (Matt. 5:11). Jesus said, "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or...

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me" (Matt. 5:10-11). The persecution you receive for proclaiming Christ is really aimed at Christ Himself. Savonarola has been called the Burning Beacon of the Reformation. His sermons denouncing the sin and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church of his day helped pave the way for the Protestant Reformation. Many who heard his powerful sermons went away...

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me" (Matt. 5:10-11). When you speak out for Christ, you can expect harassment, insults, and slander. Jesus mentioned three broad categories of suffering that Christians will experience. The first is persecution. "Persecuted" (Matt. 5:10) and "persecute" (v. 11) both come from the same Greek root meaning "to pursue" or "chase away." Over time it came to mean...

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness" (Matt. 5:10). If you don’t experience persecution, people probably don’t know you’re a Christian. I heard of a man who was fearful because he was starting a new job with a group of unbelievers whom he thought might give him a bad time if they found out he was a Christian. After his first day at work his wife asked him how he got along with them. "We got along just fine," he said. "They never found out I'm a Christian." Silence is one way to avoid persecution....

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness" (Matt. 5:10). There is a price to pay for being a Kingdom citizen. Unlike many today who try to make the gospel palatable for reluctant sinners, Jesus made it clear that following Him had its price. Rather than acceptance, fame, prestige, and prosperity, you can expect rejection and persecution. That's not a popular approach to evangelism, but it's honest. Also it insures that no one will try to enter the kingdom on the wrong basis. Jesus wanted His hearers to count the cost of discipleship. He knew that...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). You are a messenger of peace! When Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9), He was referring to a special group of people whom God called to restore the peace that was forfeited because of sin. They may not be politicians, statesmen, diplomats, kings, presidents, or Nobel Prize winners, but they hold the key to true and lasting peace. As a Christian, you are among that select group of peacemakers. As such you have two primary responsibilities....

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). Christ’s atonement made it possible for man to be at peace with God. After World War II the United Nations was created to promote world peace. But since its inception in 1945 there has not been a single day of global peace. That's a sad commentary on man's inability to make peace. In fact, someone once quipped that Washington D.C. has so many peace monuments because they build one after every war! It hasn't always been that way. Prior to the Fall of man peace reigned...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). Sin and falsehood hinder true peace. Just as righteousness and truth are the noble companions of peace, so sin and falsehood are its great hindrances. The prophet Jeremiah said, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately [evil]; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). Jesus said, "Out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). True peace exists only where truth reigns. People often define peace as the absence of conflict, but God sees it differently. The absence of conflict is merely a truce, which might end overt hostilities but doesn't resolve the underlying issues. A truce simply introduces a cold war, which often drives the conflict underground, where it smolders until erupting in physical or emotional disaster. James 3:17 says, "The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable." Godly wisdom, purity, and peace go hand- in-hand. Peace is wisdom...