Daily devotion – men who changed the world.
Mark 3:13 And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. 14 Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, 15 and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: 16 Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”; 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. And they went into a house.
Philip was the leader of the second group among the disciples after Peter, James, John and Andrew. He was from Bethsaida, same town as Peter and Andrew. It was Philip who wondered where they were going to get enough food to feed the more than five thousand.
Philip was the one who asked Jesus to show them the Father. After Christ’s Resurrection Philip came into his own, however which you can read wonderfully of God using him in the Book of Acts.
Bartholomew followed Jesus through the influence of Philip. His first name was Nathanael – whom Jesus said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.” John 1:47.
Matthew, the former tax collector, had been a deeply despised man by fellow Jews but was elevated by Jesus to be the writer of one of the four Gospels.
Thomas rounds out the second group. Her was a twin (his nickname being Didymus). It was he who courageously said, “Let us also go with Jesus to Jerusalem, so that we may die with Him.” Thomas struggled with Jesus’ death and His Resurrection refusing to believe the other disciples reporting of Jesus being alive. – John 20:24-29. But when Jesus appeared to him his response was definitive! “My Lord and my God”. It is believed that Thomas took the Gospel to India where he would be martyred for his faith.
James, Thaddaeus, Simon the zealot round off the last all except Judas Iscariot – who is always mentioned last in every list.
The defection of Judas may have been a surprise to everyone else, but Jesus was not deceived by Judas’s treachery. As the Lord relayed to the other disciples on John 6:70 ¶Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
Jesus knew all along that Judas would betray Him and in fact that defection was part of God’s plan – Acts 1:15-26.
Twelve men of odd backgrounds, uneducated, untrained, and uninfluential – they were perfect in God’s eyes, however. This small group of men would turn the world upside down!
It is amazing what God can and will do with a willing heart!