Choosing Ordinary Disciples (Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16)

Some of the most important names in the New Testament are the ones we barely notice. We reach the final disciples listed in Luke 6 and slow down long enough to see what their quiet stories reveal about Jesus, the church, and the kind of faith that lasts.

We talk about James the son of Alphaeus, a man with no recorded sermons, no spotlight moments, and almost no biographical details, yet a disciple personally chosen by Christ. That leads to a grounding principle for Christian living and ministry: Jesus doesn’t call us to the same assignments, but he does call us to carry the same gospel message. From there, we explore Simon the Zealot, once tied to violent political passion, now redeemed and placed alongside men he should have hated, a living picture of church unity that doesn’t require sameness.

We also look at Judas the son of James, known as Thaddeus, whose one recorded question in John 14 exposes a tender heart and Jesus’ answer about love, obedience, and God making his home with believers. Then we face Judas Iscariot without the cartoon version: trusted, close to Jesus, and still unbelieving, a warning that it’s possible to associate with Jesus while resisting true faith. We close with Matthias in Acts 1, why apostolic qualifications matter, and a memorable “twenty dollar violin” illustration of how God gets the glory through ordinary people.

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Transcript

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Today in our wisdom journey we come to the final four names in the list of Jesus' twelve disciples, presented by Luke here in chapter six. Now at verse 15, you have this disciple named James, the son of Altheus. Now there are other men in the Gospels, by the way, named James. That might be confusing. There's James, the son of Zebedee, the brother of John. There's James, the half brother of Jesus, who's going to become the leading elder of the church in Jerusalem. We'll see him again a little later on. But this man is James,

James The Unknown Disciple

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the son of Alpheus. And by the way, all we know about him is that he's the son of Alpheus. Now he might have been the one referred to over in Mark chapter 15 and verse forty called James the Younger, but we're not exactly sure. But that's frankly it. He's never featured in any biblical scene during the ministry of Jesus. So here's a man who was called by Jesus, just as Peter and John were called, yet James the son of Alphaus never made any headlines. He never wrote a book of the Bible. None of his sermons are recorded in Scripture. All we know about him is that he followed Jesus. But isn't that encouraging? In fact, it leads me to make another observation here. Here's another key principle to consider. Jesus didn't choose his disciples to have the same ministry. He chose them to deliver the same message. What we do know is a little bit from church tradition that tells us that James was stoned to death in Jerusalem after twenty years of faithful ministry for Christ. And that's all we'll know for now until we meet him one day in heaven. Now, Luke's gospel is going to add to the list a man by the name of Simon the Zealot. This is not Simon Peter, by the way. I've got to tell you, Simon the Zealot was just as unknown as Simon Peter was famous. Simon the Zealot is never mentioned outside these lists of original disciples, but whenever he is listed, you do get this same little tagline, Simon the Zealot. That actually speaks volumes for us in understanding a little bit about him.

Simon The Zealot Redeemed

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Simon had been involved with a group of red hot, patriotic Jewish men who had one desire in life, and that was to overthrow Rome. And to accomplish this, they were willing to shed blood if necessary. You could actually write in the margin of your Bible next to Simon the Zealot's name, Simon the Outlaw. He was indeed a criminal. He hated Rome, who knows what he had done, but he was redeemed. By the way, how do you put Simon the Jewish zealot and Matthew the Jewish traitor in the same group? How in the world are they ever going to get along? You would think that if you put Simon and Matthew in the same tent as they camped out overnight in the morning one of them would have been dead. Well, one author put it this way when he wrote about these twelve very different men, that what the Lord is doing is actually painting a picture of the future church. The differences between the disciples, just like the church, did not create divisions. Their differences were actually declarations of what it meant to be in unity in the body of Christ. Now we know from church history that this particular rugged disciple, Simon the Zealot, took the gospel to that rather rugged landscape of modern day Great Britain. He will eventually be martyred. He's buried in some unmarked grave there on the British Isles. And with that, the next disciple listed here is Judas, the son of James, as if to make it clear that he's not Judas Isariot. Now, Judas was actually a common name. It's the New Testament form of Judah. This particular Judah or Judas is called Thaddeus over in Matthew chapter ten and in Mark chapter three. Now we get to hear Thaddeus speak only one time in the Gospels. When Jesus tells his disciples that he's going to manifest his glory

Thaddeus And Unseen Reward

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to them, Judas or Thaddeus is a rather tender hearted disciple. He wants to know why Jesus will manifest his glory to them and not to the whole world. Jesus answers him here in John chapter fourteen now at verse twenty three. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Now with that conversation, Judas Thaddeus disappears from Scripture. All we have really are some early church traditions that he went on to evangelize the Arminians and ends up being martyred for his faith. And that again leads me to another key principle, which is this your service for Christ doesn't have to be recognized on earth in order to be rewarded in heaven. Your Savior sees every act of service in his name. Now with that we come to the end of verse sixteen here, and we find the last disciple to make an appearance in Luke's list of disciples. He's always, by the way, the disciple listed last, and for good reason. We read here that his name was Judas Iscariot, Luke adds, who became a traitor. Now, you might picture Judas Iscariot as this creepy little strange disciple, or as one little boy referred to him as Judas the Scariest. Well, most people think of that, don't they? But I need to tell you that the record of Scripture

Judas And False Belief

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doesn't back that up. In fact, Judas was so trusted among the disciples that he was put in charge of their bank account, according to John chapter twelve, verse six. He appeared to be a leader. He appeared to be a man of integrity. And don't forget that Judas wasn't seated in some little dark corner at the Last Supper. He's shown as sitting next to Jesus. They were dipping their food in the same bowl. That was the seat of honor. So let me pause for just a moment to give you another key principle here that we can draw from this scene. Here it is. It's possible to identify with Jesus and not believe in Jesus. I mean, think about it. Judas has heard the greatest preacher preach. The greatest teacher ever teach. He's watched God the Son perform miracle after miracle, from walking on water to raising the dead to commanding the demonic world. How did Judas miss it? Why didn't he believe? Well, from what we're told in Scripture, the answer is actually uh easy to discern. It's possible to be exposed to the light and still want the darkness. Judas is going to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. By the way, that was the price for a first century disabled slave. And that's how much Jesus meant to Judas. And with Judas, Luke's list of Jesus' disciples comes to a conclusion. The disciple Matthias is going to be added later on in the book of Acts to take the place of Judas as the early church selected his replacement. In fact, the two qualifications from Acts chapter one were that the disciple must have physically followed Jesus, and secondly, he must have personally seen the resurrected Jesus. Acts chapter 1, verses 21 and 22. By the way, that's how we know there are no apostles today. Anybody who calls himself today an apostle is frankly making it up in order to exercise some kind of special power over other people. Well, what do we know about Matthias? Again, I gotta tell you, he's so ordinary, he's so obscure

Matthias And The Twenty Dollar Violin

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that the Bible tells us absolutely nothing of his ministry. He wasn't famous, but he was faithful to Christ. It reminds me of an event I read about many years ago where an accomplished violinist decided to experiment with his audience. It was advertised that he would perform on a rare stratavarious violin worth millions of dollars. Well the concert hall was packed with expectant people, and the violinist played beautifully. But halfway through his concert he stopped suddenly, and to the shock of his audience he dropped the violin on the floor with a thud and walked off stage. A moment later the conductor came forward and said this. The maestro was not playing on an expensive violin. In fact he purchased it from a pawn shop earlier today for twenty dollars. He will now return and finish his concert on that rare, expensive Strativarius. And when he returned and played, frankly very few people could even begin to tell the difference. You know the story reminded me that you and I are twenty dollar violins. Well, our master has purchased us from the pawn shop of a sinful world, but as we yield our lives into his hands, the beauty of his message, the magnificence of his skill will be heard. And to him alone will belong all the standing ovations, all the glory, and all the praise. So let's be $20 violins today in the hands of our Master and Lord. Well, until we set sail again, beloved, on our wisdom journey, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.