The Master’s Men (Pt. 3) (Luke 6:15b-16)

Some of the most important disciples in the New Testament are the ones we barely notice. We wrap up our walk through Luke 6 by slowing down for the “last four” names on the list, and the result is both comforting and confronting. If you’ve ever felt ordinary, overlooked, or unsure your life is making a difference, this conversation reframes what spiritual impact actually means.

We talk about James the son of Alpheus, sometimes called James the Less, a man with almost no recorded moments and yet a full calling from Christ. From there we dig into Simon the Zealot and the shocking reality that Jesus put a political firebrand side by side with a former tax collector, turning clashing backgrounds into a living picture of church unity. We also explore Judas the son of James, known as Thaddeus, whose tender question in John’s Gospel highlights how Jesus reveals himself personally, one heart at a time.

Then we deal honestly with Judas Iscariot: trusted, involved, and indistinguishable to the group, yet ultimately a traitor. It’s a sobering reminder that exposure to truth is not the same as belief. We close with Matthias, why the apostolic office is unique, and a vivid illustration of the gospel as music played through ordinary instruments in the hands of the Maestro. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review. What part of the disciples’ story hits closest to home for you?

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Transcript

One Message, Many Ministries

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Jesus doesn't choose disciples to have the same impact or the same ministry, he chooses disciples to deliver the same message. Peter and John are gonna go on to make a real mark in church history. They're gonna be used to compose a New Testament scripture, but we know nothing of little James. He never wrote a book in the Bible, he never preached a sermon quoted in Scripture, he never had a conversation with Jesus that was recorded for us, he never held an office in the church in Jerusalem. He was simply called and he followed. Today we arrive at the conclusion of our study in the lives of these twelve disciples. We've paused long enough to take an overview of the list that Luke has provided for us as we have begun an exposition through this wonderful gospel. We've observed together that these disciples appear in three groups, four disciples each.

The Final Four Disciples

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The first group is the most well-known. They'll speak the most, they will be spoken to the most by our Lord. The second group plays a less significant role, although we do know some events that occurred, including them. And today we're going to explore what we can in this last group of four. We know the least about them, all except the very last one, of course, Judas Iscariot. And we're learning in the process of this study several principles of application that I trust have been encouraging to you as you are disciples of Christ following him. There are too many to rehearse today as I've done last Lord's Day, but I'll repeat a couple of these principles to sort of prime the pump. We've learned that Jesus chose his disciples not because of who they were, but because of who they would become. Remember? And along the same lines, we learned that Jesus didn't choose disciples because of their spiritual heritage. He chooses them to begin. A spiritual heritage, and perhaps that's you, the first in your family to believe, perhaps the only one at this point to believe and follow Christ. It's going to be seen, this particular lesson, even more clearly in what little information we've been given of this third and final grouping. They all are, all twelve, for the most part, and certainly this group, what we would call, as G. Campbell Morgan called them in his classic work in 1937, Twelve Ordinary Men. William Barclay would write 50 years ago, these 12 ordinary men were not trained theologians, they were not wealthy, they had no special position in society. They were unlettered, unimpressive men who walked closely with the Lord. And we've taken the analogy from the Mishnah, we've sort of used that expression, they've walked closely enough to wear his dust. By the way, what makes you a good disciple to this day isn't the fact that you are impressive, but that you are impressionable. You are willing to be taught. Oswald Chambers, who you may be familiar with, wrote that all throughout history, God has chosen and used nobody's who depended entirely upon him and thus began displaying his power and his grace. These disciples are ordinary run-of-the-mill people, but that's encouraging, isn't it? It should be encouraging to us. Abraham Lincoln once wrote it this way: God must like ordinary people because he made so many of them. It's a good point. But ordinary was okay with the twelve because they're not the heroes. Jesus is. I think they might be a little embarrassed if they showed up and found out that we'd spend several weeks talking about them. But we have much to learn from them as they have blazed the trail, wearing the dust of the master. So with that, let's go back to Luke's gospel. Dr. Luke gives us this list in chapter 6, if you're new to our study, and we're in the latter part of verse 15 now, and we're given the names of this final grouping. There at the end of verse 15, we're given the first of this list, and he is the leader of these four, typically appearing first in the list of four. He's simply called James, the son

James The Less And Quiet Faith

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of Alpheus. The truth is, the only thing we really know about James, this James, is the name of his father, Alpheus. Probably Al for short. That's all we know. He never surfaces in any of the biblical accounts in the ministry of Jesus. There is one little clue that appears in Mark's gospel where he is referred to as James the Less. L-E-S-S. James the less. Mikros is the original word. You could render it James the little, but it's also used to refer to age. And that's the way the ESV that I'm using translates it, James the younger. He's younger than the other James, the son of Thunder, basically, is what he might be saying, or the leader in the church in Jerusalem. Frankly, we don't know. It's more than likely that as these events unfold here, in order to distinguish this apostle James from James, the half-brother of Jesus, or James, the leading elder in Jerusalem, they tag him with what you could translate, little James. So here's, I want you to get this. Here's a man who has been called by Christ just as much as Peter, just as significantly as Andrew, John. Now Peter and John are gonna go on to make a real mark in church history. They're gonna essentially become best-selling authors, right? They're gonna be used to compose a New Testament scripture, but we know nothing of little James. He never wrote a book in the Bible, he never preached a sermon quoted in Scripture. He never had a conversation with Jesus that was recorded for us in the New Testament. He never held an office in the church in Jerusalem. He was simply called and he followed as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That kind of led me to craft this particular principle of application. Here's another one. Jesus doesn't choose disciples to have the same impact or the same ministry. He chooses disciples to deliver the same message. It'll be wonderful to meet in the Father's house one day, James, the son of Alpheus. And hear his story. Let's move on to the next individual in the list. He's another disciple that also has to be distinguished because he has the same name as another of the twelve. Luke mentions him next here in verse 6, or chapter 6 at the end of verse 15. Simon the zealot. Not Simon Peter, the famous one, but Simon the Zealot. Again, we're not given one conversation or one insight

Simon The Zealot And Unity

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from this man. He is as obscure as Simon Peter is famous. Simon the zealot is never mentioned outside any of the four lists that were given in the New Testament. But Luke adds this tagline to his name that really speaks volumes, that helps us understand quite a bit about him. It connects Simon to a group of nationalists, Jews who hated Rome and were willing to put their life on the line because of their hatred. They were known as zealots. They were willing to shed blood if necessary. This particular group of called zealots were organized about 20 years before the ministry of the Lord. They were organized around the time Jesus was 10 years of age. And it all started with taxation. It all had to do with money. And frankly, the Jewish people were tired of it. They hated Rome, and they really hated giving some of their hard-earned income to Rome in the form of taxes. You could, just with that little bit that we understand, you could write into the margin of your Bibles next to Simon the Zealot's name, another expression, Simon the Outlaw. In fact, one author wrote he wasn't a safe man to make an apostle of. He would have easily made the Roman government suspicious of Jesus and his followers. Doesn't seem that Jesus was really helping himself out very much by choosing a zealot as one of his followers. But all that aside, forget the Roman government for a while and what the zealots meant to them. I mean, what's this going to mean for the 12 disciples? How do you put Simon the zealot and Matthew the Turncoat in the same Bible study? I mean, you've got this red-hot, patriotic Jew camping out, serving side by side with a Jewish traitor. You've got a tax hater serving with a tax gatherer. These men, they arrive, all of them really, just like we arrived. We arrive and become disciples of Jesus with all our prejudices and all our, you know, all our presuppositions, all our preferences. We like them have a lot to unlearn as much as learn. And I think it's interesting that what Jesus does is he puts them together. Now they're eating their meals together, they're praying together, they're learning the message that they're going to deliver together. And that becomes more important than anything else. They went off the road. This union of opposites was really prophetic. These twelve very different men paint a picture of the future church in miniature. They get along. Not because they're naturally going to be drawn to each other, not because they're naturally going to love each other, but because they love the master. And he teaches them to love one another. Let me put it in principle form. The differences between the disciples was or were not distractions, but declarations of unity in the body of Christ. The Lord uses this man's rugged personality. Church history informs us that Simon the Zealot will go on to pioneer the ministry of the gospel. He will take it north to the rugged island landscape of what we now call Great Britain. He will eventually be martyred, crucified, buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on the British Isles. The next disciple, again, we're going to move quickly because we're going to get through all of them, is going to be quickly distinguished as well from the other disciple, again, with the same name. Luke mentions him at the beginning of verse 16 as Judas. Then he adds, the son of James. As if to say, well, not the other Judas. I mean, you don't want to mistake him for that one. So this is Judas, the son of James. Now, Judas, by the way, even though nobody's named their son Judas since this day, I've never met one. But it's actually a wonderful name. It's probably a counterpart of Judah in the Old Testament. It means Jehovah leads. Of course, after the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, this particular Judas will prefer to go by one of his two nicknames. He's referred to, in fact, by early church leaders as the three named apostle. Judas, Thaddeus, Labaius. Sounds like commencement, doesn't it? It's very official sounding. Matthew and Mark's gospel referred to him as Thaddeus. It means beloved. Some manuscripts use the name Labaias in Matthew 10 and verse 5, and that comes from the Hebrew root word that could be translated literally heart child. These nicknames are deserving. It's apparent that this obscure disciple was nicknamed these tender nicknames because of his sweet and kind, no doubt gracious, a disposition, spirit. He's a man known for his heartfelt devotion. He would have been known by others that way, and that's why they tag him. Like this. Beyond these names, we know very little. Fortunately, there is one conversation that includes this individual from this final four. It's in John's Gospel where John is recording that moment where the Lord is telling his disciples that he will not manifest himself to the world like he is manifesting himself to them. And tender-hearted Judas, Thaddeus Labaius, speaks up and he asks the Lord a question. John

Thaddeus And Unseen Reward

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writes, Judas, and then John adds this parenthesis, again, not Iscariot, and parenthesis, not that guy, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and he will come to him and will make our home with him. In other words, his heart seems to be troubled, seems to be broken over the fact that the rest of the world isn't going to have the benefit of seeing Jesus like he's seen Jesus. This reveals a tender-hearted humility. It's almost as if he can't believe that Jesus is going to reveal himself to this ragtag, you know, team and not others. And with that question and the answer from Jesus, it basically says, I'm not going to have some external revelation to the whole world, but I'm going to win them one heart at a time so you can rest your heart. With that sort of answer from the Lord, Judas Thaddeus Lebaius disappears from Scripture. We have no record of any accomplishment, we have no definitive record of churches he planted or ministries he launched for the gospel. All we have is an early church tradition that this tender-hearted disciple traveled to modern-day Turkey and was eventually clubbed to death. Well we do know John records for us in his revelation is that this disciple's name has already been carved into the gemstone foundation of the Father's house. Right along with all the others. Revelation 21, 14. And that leads me to make one quick principle here as it relates to obscure disciples like this one. Your service for Christ doesn't have to be recognized on earth in order to be rewarded in heaven. The writer of the book of Hebrews, who ironically has never been conclusively identified either, he writes it this way: For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love you have shown for his name. Hebrews 6, the first part of verse 10. That verb for forget, God is not unrighteous to forget, means to overlook, to pass over, to pass away from, or to ignore. In other words, no matter how great or small your service for the Lord, no matter how applauded you are, or maybe ignored you are, and much of what is done for Christ is not applauded. In fact, much of it is never seen. It's just not public. It is not passed over in heaven, though it is passed over on earth. The master sees. He misses nothing. Now finally, the last disciple to make an appearance in this list, Luke writes here at the end of verse 16, Judas Iscariots, who became a traitor. Some believe that this word Iscariot is a derivative of the Latin Sicarius, which means dagger man or

Judas Iscariot And Self-Deception

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assassin, the curved sica. The dagger was concealed in their robes, and it was the practice of some of the zealots who were known to use that sika and assassinate both Romans and disloyal Jews. That's an intriguing description, but I don't think it's true. More than likely, especially since this is in the generative case, this is a reference to Karioth, a region in northern Judea from which he came. In fact, John chapter 6 and verse 71 refers to his father also as Simon Iscariot, Simon of Karioth. I mean, you picture Judas as that kind of disciple. It's good, isn't it? But the record of Scripture doesn't bear that out, does it? If you go to it rather open-mindedly without what you already know of how he turns out, the scripture doesn't bear that out. He's so trusted by the disciples, they they put him in charge of their bank account. He's a man of integrity, he's outwardly trustworthy. He he volunteered to serve, he volunteered to follow Jesus, called like the others, sacrificing. I mean, he he would be up until that moment when he reveals himself to most of us. I mean, this is your this is your leader, this is somebody you trust. This is your your Sunday school teacher, your committee member. He's involved. He wasn't scary or strange. He's in the thick of ministry. In fact, I'll I'll give you one illustration. In the upper room, when Jesus announces that one of them is going to betray him, nobody looked at Judas and said, I knew it. I knew it was. You, those BD eyes have been watching you. I knew as you know. Nobody looked at Judas. They all said, What? Lord, is it I? Am I the one? In fact, Judas in that upper room is sitting next to him. They're dipping their food in the same bowl. He's not hiding in a corner. Which leads me to make the principle of an application that I believe would be more correct. And it's this it's possible to identify with Jesus and not believe in him. Somewhere along the line, Judas realized that Jesus wasn't going to come through. He wasn't going to overthrow Rome. The supremacy of Israel wasn't going to be realized. Somewhere along the line, he decided to betray the Lord. Isn't that a terrifying thought? He has heard the greatest preacher ever preach. He's heard the greatest teacher ever teach. He's watched God, the Son, perform the most amazing miracles, whether it's walking on water or raising the dead, command the demonic world. I mean, how do you miss it? For the same reason people miss it today. In principle form, here it is. It's possible to be exposed to the light and still want the darkness. Judas will betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a first century disabled slave. And with that, the list ends in Luke's gospel. If you pick it up in Acts the early or the later part of chapter 1, we know that the disciples convene and they know that the Lord has promised twelve thrones. And so they, after prayer, identify another disciple who'd followed Jesus, who had seen him resurrected. Those were the two qualifications for the office of apostle. That's why we know there are no apostles today, even though men may call themselves

Matthias And Apostles Today

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that. And so they selected Matthias. Once again, we're we're back to someone so ordinary being added to the original Twelve that it might not be any surprise to you to know that we know absolutely nothing about Matthias. I read of an event that occurred many years ago where an accomplished violinist decided to experiment with his audience. It was advertised he'd be in concert playing on a rare Stradivarius. Worth at that time, when I read this account, right at $200,000. Now the average is about two million.

The $20 Violin In God’s Hands

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Halfway through his itinerary, he finished a piece of music, and suddenly, to the shock of his audience, he snapped the neck of that violin and walked off stage. Of course, the audience was horrified. A moment later, the conductor addressed the crowd and said the maestro was not playing on an expensive and rare violin. It was a violin he bought at a pawn shop this past week for $20. And he will now return and finish his concert on Estrativarius. When he returned and played, very few people could even begin to tell the difference. Reminding me of the fact that you and I are $20 violins. But we're in the hand of the Maestro, alright? And may he play the beautiful music of the gospel in and through our lives as the storyline continues of the making of disciples.