OCR Text |
Show Iniernational Sunday School Lesson for February 20, 1949 MEMORY SELECTION "You did not choose me, but I chos eyou, and appointed you that vou should go and bear fruit." Luke 6:12-16. Lesson Text Mark 1:16-20; Luke 6:12-16 In the second summer of his active ministry Jesus realized the need for training leadership among his disciples. To escape the multitude he withdrew unto a mountain, thought to have been the Horns of Hattin, and took with him those of his followers he especially desired. After a night spent in prayer Jesus appointed 12, as Mark says, "that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have authority to cast out demons." doubt because he questioned fhe resurrection of the Lord, but he should be remembered for his courage. When Jesus started start-ed for Judea, where his enemies awaited him, it was Thomas who bravely spoke up and declared an intention of going to die with him. We do not hear much about Philip. Once or twice he figures in the gospel narratives. However How-ever when he sought to interest Nathaniel (Bartholomew) and the latter asked if anything good could come out of Nazareth, Nazar-eth, he invited him to come and Nathaniel was something of a thinker and is the only one who is recorded as having hesitated about accepting Jesus. How- ever, he was amazed when Jesus reminded him of his meditation medi-tation under the fig tree and promised that he should see greater things in his company. Shortly after the choice of the twelve Jesus energetically renewed his evangelistic campaign. cam-paign. His friends thought he was "beside himself." His enemies en-emies became more determined than ever to trap him in some I ecclesiastical sin and stop his ' growing popularity. Four lists of the twelve are , given the New Testament: In Mark 3:16-19, in the tenth chapter chap-ter of Matthew, the sixth chap- ' ter of Luke, and the "first chap-; ter of Acts. Peter is named j first and Judas Iscariot last in all of these lists. Each author i arranges them in groups of four, j with Peter, Phillip and James j the son of Alphaeus at the head of their respective groups. Some of our readers may be interested in remembering the names of the twelve apostles, and the following ' anonymous but useful verse will help: This is the way the Disciples run: j Peter and Andrew, James and John , Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas next, and Matthew too, James "the less," and Judas (the greater), Simon the Zealot and Judas the traitor. -Three of these disciples formed an Inner Circle and were apparently ap-parently closer to Jesus than any others. These were Peter, James and John. They were admitted to some experiences James was the first apostle to become a victim of the anti-Christian anti-Christian crusade, having been put to death by King Herod Ag-grippa. Ag-grippa. With his brother John, James probably abandoned a life of more comfort and promise than most of the other apostles. These brothers were probably cousins of Jesus and their ambition ambi-tion to occupy prominent positions posi-tions in the kingdom was the cause of dissention among the other disciples and called from Jesus lessons in humility and sacrifice. John, probably the youngest of the disciples, was the one whom Jesus loved. He is supposed sup-posed to have lived to a ripe old age serving as Bishop of Ephes-us. Ephes-us. He was the author, of the gospel bearing his name, the Epistles and the Book of Revelations, Reve-lations, the only prophetic writing writ-ing in the New Testament. Matthew, who modestly characterizes char-acterizes himself in his own gospel as "the publican," abandoned aban-doned a profitable business to follow Jesus. He is known principally prin-cipally by his book. Thomas is .associated with - not shared by the others, having j been present at the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the transfiguration, trans-figuration, and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the other hand, there .are three we know least, namely, James the son of Alphaeus, who may have j been a brother of Matthew the publican. Thaddeus or Jude, and Simon the Zealot. The Biblical records do not give us much information about these three. Simon Peter ranks first among the apostles. While he denied Jesus yet he was the first to profess faith in his messiahship. At Pentecost his sermon converted con-verted three thousand souls and shortly afterward he defied the members of the Sanhedrin. He received the Gentile Cornelius into the Christian church and upheld Paul generally in his mission mis-sion to the Gentiles. Andrew, brother of Peter, was less impetuous but a man of ' much inward worth. He is known as the Finder, having ' brought Peter to Jesus and later the Greeks. He also discovered the lad with the lunch that was . used to feed the five thousand. |