"Having summoned His twelve disciples, He 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 are these..." (Matt. 10:1-2).

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 quite feel qualified to minister to others or even to share their testimony. Eventually that has a crippling effect on their spiritual lives and on the life of the church in general. 

 When Jesus called the disciples to Himself, He did so in order to train them for ministry. We see this in Matthew 10:1-2. The Greek word translated "disciples" means “learners." "Apostles" translates a Greek word meaning "to dispatch away from" or "to send." In classical Greek it refers to a naval expedition dispatched to serve a foreign city or country. Disciples are learners; apostles are emissaries. Jesus called untrained disciples, but He dispatched trained apostles. That's the normal training process. 

 In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus says, "Go... and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I commanded you." Paul said to Timothy, "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2). 

As wonderful and important as it is to learn of Christ, you must never be content to be a disciple only. You must also be a disciple!  
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

"Having summoned His twelve disciples..." (Matt. 10:1). 

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 that Jesus gave them details about His future suffering, death, and resurrection, but they didn't understand anything He said (vv. 31-34). Jesus overcame their lack of understanding by constantly teaching them until they got it right. 

 Another inadequacy was their lack of humility. More than once they argued among themselves about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (e.g., Mark 9:33-37). Jesus dealt with their lack of humility by His own example. He likened Himself to a servant, and even washed their dirty feet (John 13). 

In addition to their lack of understanding and humility, they also lacked faith. Jesus often said to them, "O men of little faith." In Mark 16:14 He rebuked them for not even believing the reports of His resurrection. They also lacked commitment. Just prior to Christ's death Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, and the others deserted Him. Jesus dealt with their lack of commitment by praying for them (e.g., Luke 22:31-32; John 17:15). 

Finally, they lacked spiritual power, which Christ overcame by giving them the Holy Spirit. Those are significant inadequacies, but despite all that, the book of Acts tells us that the disciples turned the world upside-down with their powerful preaching and miraculous deeds. They were so much like Christ that people started calling them Christians, which means "little christs.” 

Jesus still transforms inadequacies into victories. He does it through the Spirit, the Word, and prayer. Don't be victimized by your inadequacies. Make those spiritual resources the continual focus of your life.  
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

"Having summoned His twelve disciples..." (Matt. 10:1). 

Matthew 10:1 is Christ's official commissioning of the twelve men He handpicked 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 world God chose them to be redeemed in Christ, and they had responded accordingly. Now Jesus was calling them to a specific ministry. 

God always chooses those who will be saved and serve within His church. But between salvation and service there must be a time of training. For the disciples it was a period of three years in which Jesus Himself trained them as they experienced life together from day to day. That’s the best form of discipleship. Classrooms and lectures are helpful, but there's no substitute for having a living pattern to follow—someone who models Christian virtue and shows you how to apply Biblical principles to your life. 

 Paul understood the importance of such an example. In Philippians 4:9 he says, "The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things." He said to Timothy, "Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe" (1 Tim. 4:12). Peter followed suit, admonishing the church elders not to lord their authority over those in their charge but to be godly examples (1 Peter 5:3). 

Whether you've been a Christian for many years or just a short time, you are an example to someone. People hear what you say and observe how you live. They look for a glimpse of Christ in your life. What do they see? How would they do spiritually if they followed your example perfectly? 
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

“These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, 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 the job market, the most difficult jobs require people with the highest possible qualifications. 

Ironically, God uses unqualified people to accomplish the world's most important task: advancing the Kingdom of God. It has always been that way. Adam and Eve plunged the human race into sin. Lot got drunk and committed incest with his own daughters. Abraham doubted God and committed adultery. Jacob deceived his father. Moses was a murderer. David was too, as well as an adulterer. Jonah got upset when God showed mercy to Nineveh. Elijah withstood 850 false priests and prophets, yet fled in terror from one woman—Jezebel. Paul (Saul) murdered Christians. And the list goes on and on. 

The fact is, no one is fully qualified to do God’s work. That’s why He uses unqualified people. Perhaps that truth is most clearly illustrated in the twelve disciples, who had numerous human frailties, different temperaments, different skills, and diverse backgrounds, and yet Christ used them to change the world. 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

The devil wants you to take your guilt and bring more shame into your lives. Any pursuit of blaming others, trying harder, denying your sin, or minimizing your sin will ultimately keep you in bindage. Here's why: You are guilty.

The beautiful truth about God and His Gospel is that you don't have to run from your sin any longer. God wants you to face it, but He doesn't need you to fight it. He's already won the battle for you by fighting and destroying sin.

You were saved by grace alone through faith alone. Your sin will imprison you, but the grace of Jesus will free you.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Jesus always had perfect love (Psalm 18:1) for His Father. He always found refuge in God (18:2) and called upon the Lord for salvation (18:3). On the cross, “the cords of death” and the “cords of Sheol” reeled Jesus in (18:4–5). In the mysterious agony of the cross, God did forsake His Son to death, but Jesus never gave up hope as He cried out for help (18:6) to “My God, My God” (Matthew 27:46). The Father heard His Son, and though He allowed His Son to taste death, Jesus’ cry reached the Father’s ears (18:6). Then God shook the earth out of anger at the unjust killing of His Son (18:7). The devil and Christ’s enemies had overcome Jesus in death, but the Father rescued Him from them in the Resurrection “because He delighted” in His only-begotten Son (18:17–19).

Psalm 18 is a psalm of David, a servant of the Lord. Jesus is the ultimate Servant of the Lord. The superscription says this psalm is a “Song . . . on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hands of all his enemies.” Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this, when on the first Easter He was delivered from His enemies—even death. Jesus did not deserve to die because of His perfect righteousness, so God rewarded Him with everlasting life (18:20–24), which He now shares with us through the Gospel!

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Many of us go about our lives like a couch sitting in our living room. On the outside, the couch appears just fine - clean and tidy. But underneath the cushions lies all kinds of junk. A life in which we look good on the outside but are wasting away on the inside is not the free and abundant life that God wants for us. In Matthew 23:27, Jesus drives home the very point when He compares Pharisees to whitewashed tombs, :which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean." If all we ever do is stuff away or suppress the worst parts of our stories, we'll never be fully free.

In 1 Samuel 16:7, God reminds the prophet Samuel: "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." God isn't interested in cleaning up your life only on the outside. God is interested in the complete removal and destruction of sin in our lives. To be made alive in Him requires that a part of us must first die. We cannot have a free and abundant life outside the presence of God.

Jesus, a sinless man, substituted His life for ours, shedding His blood, and by doing so, satisfied the consequence of sin. Jesus didn't just go to the cross so you could clean cobwebs out, modify your behavior, and manage your sin. Jesus came to kill sin. A free life does not come from training your sin, but killing your sin.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,