Luke 6, verses 12 to 16. And these days he, again speaking of Jesus, went out to the mountain to pray. And all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve whom he named apostles. Simon, whom we named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who is called the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. in any organization is crucial. I'm convinced that groups rise or fall on the quality of the leadership that they have. And already as you begin thinking about the next election of a president, the speculation is whoever is elected will be monumental. that they will change maybe the direction of our nation. There are key challenges that lay ahead of whoever serves as president. There's the increasing threat of terrorism. It's abroad, but it's also coming to our shores. There's a whole host of economic issues and healthcare and issues like that. There's increasing divisions within our society along financial lines, male and female, social issues, and then there's violence, crime, and the other things like that. And leadership, if it's good, can help us through those challenges. But if leadership is bad, the results can be disastrous. And it'd have us then think about the leadership style of Jesus. Because Jesus is here picking his leaders. Picking those who would lead the church. And you can look at it, the entire structure of what he leaves behind is simply 12 men. No hierarchy of one over another, no large scale structure, but 12 men. But 12 men who changed the world. They became the foundation for the church and have had an impact for over 2,000 years. We still look back to what was established back then. And it still is influential today. It would be useful to look and to see how Jesus chose leaders. and what he looked for, and what he didn't look for in those leaders. And we can notice four key things as we look at that. First point to see, as Jesus was involved in leadership, choosing leadership, this prayer was the key component. Prayer was key. Notice verse 12. He, Jesus, went out on the mountain to pray all night. He continued in prayer to God. Jesus is really facing the most important decision of his earthly ministry. And like he has in the past, in chapter 4 and in chapter 5, he spends time in prayer. But this time he spends the whole night in prayer. It's that important, it's that earnest. Already there's becoming increased opposition to him, to his ministry. And he knows that it's going to lead to his death on the cross, to his execution. And how will the church continue? Where it's being placed in the hands of men, twelve men. Tell that number that reflects the tribes of Israel. A new Israel, a new church is being formed in essence from the foundation of the old. And so this group is going to carry on that work. It's an example to us of how we should be fervent in prayer. When we have momentous decisions, are we really fervent in prayer? You know, maybe it's career or job. Maybe it's in terms of a marriage partner. Maybe it's in terms of raising children, or the election of the next president, or the work of this congregation. To understand in whatever area of life, prayer comes first. It's rooted and grounded. Our lives should be rooted and grounded in prayer. I wonder what it would be like if we, on the eve of the first of the Iowa caucuses, decided that we were going to spend the night in prayer as a congregation, seeing as it's that earnest and that important. Jesus began his mission with prayer as he looked forward to continuing on after he leaves this world. He prays about those who would carry it on. How much more should we be in prayer concerning what we're called to do here in Terre Haute? Second thing is these men had a special calling from God. Leaders should have a special calling from God, and it's really in two ways that this is true. The first is that particular men were God's choice. In John 17, 6, talking about his disciples, and especially the apostles, Jesus says, to the Father, yours they were. God had chosen specific men and women to be His, to be His people on earth, to fill up heaven eventually. And you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. There are some very specific men, and they're named, that were given to Christ to be leaders in the church. And so he chose those whom the Father had given to him. Those whom the Father had planned to be the leaders. And in Revelation 21.14, the walls of the New Jerusalem, we're told, have twelve foundations. And on these are the twelve names of the twelve apostles and lambs. This was the honor that God had planned for them. Because of their role in the founding of the church. And even as we think about these twelve, There's one Judas Iscariot who's going to be the one that's going to betray Jesus. But again, it was not a mistake. Jesus knew which one to choose. Which one the Father had indicated would be the son of perdition. And notice how Luke says it here, he becomes a traitor. He wasn't a traitor at this point, but he becomes one. And so these are ones who are called, chosen by the Father to hold this office. But they're also called to do a specific task. Out of all the disciples, all the followers, and there are many, there are hundreds at the end that remain faithful, these twelve were called apostles. Now an apostle is someone who is commissioned to carry a message, or even to perform an official duty on behalf of somebody else. We have that in the government in terms of an ambassador. As an ambassador goes to a foreign country, he represents the United States. He represents the President of the United States. And he can deliver a message. You need to withdraw your army from here or we will attack it. He can sign a treaty on behalf of our nation. Same sort of thing happens when somebody has a durable power of attorney. They're able to act on behalf of someone who maybe can't act on their own behalf. It's from the Greek word that means to send. And these men were commissioned and sent by Jesus. And they're commissioned to bear fruit. And John 15, 6, Jesus says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you'd go and bear fruit, and your fruit should abide. And so they're chosen to bear fruit. In Mark 3, 14 and 15 we have there Mark telling of how these twelve were appointed and it says they were to be with him, they were to be sent out to preach, and to have authority to cast out demons. They were to be involved in this cosmic battle between good and evil, between Jesus and the forces of evil. And so, part of their responsibility was to be with Jesus, to learn from Him, to be instructed by Him, really an ancient internship. They would see and understand who Jesus was, they would see His life, they would see His death, they would see His resurrection, and they could testify to His sufferings and His death and being raised again on the third day. They were also to go and to proclaim that good news to people. to testify that Jesus is that long-awaited Messiah, that Jesus Christ is the only way to be right with God, the only name under heaven by which anyone can be saved. And eventually, they would be entrusted with writing down this message, have it incorporated in to the New Testament. And although we don't have the same authority or position, you and I, if we're believers, have been chosen by God, and we're chosen to take God's message to the world, a message of salvation. We don't write scripture, but we take it to those who need to hear. The third thing to notice as that Jesus chose average people. Now, it's often commented about how uneducated, how poor, and everything else these men were that Jesus took. And I think it's overdoing it when people do that, or when preachers do it. It's true that none of them had the traditional rabbinic teaching in Jerusalem. the elite teaching. And yet they weren't uneducated. They were able to write and to read and to transmit God's truth in Greek. And later on there would be one who would have that traditional teaching in the Apostle Paul. And some of them were fairly well-to-do. You had Levi who would be a tax collector. And as such, he would be fairly well off. We read the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and when they're called, they leave their father's boat with the hired servants. He was a family that was fairly well-to-do. They could have servants in the company business. But what we see is they're not the elite. They're not the religious elite. They're not part of the high priestly family with the best of education and the Jewish traditions and the rabbis. They're not part of Herod's family, the royal family, being born in palaces. They weren't even members of the priests. And so in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the Jewish nations, These men would not be seen as shakers and movers, as important or as crucial of the key leaders. But Jesus chose them. He seemed to delight in taking those whom the world doesn't hold in high regard and using them in powerful ways. And the secret of their success is the fact that they were called by God to this office. that God was placing them, that they were dependent upon God, not on their religious background, on their religious training, how intellectual they are, their spiritual level of maturity, that they've been born into a certain family, but God was calling them to this task, and He was equipping them to this task. And especially, He'd given them the Holy Spirit. to direct them, to enable them, to lead the people of God. And really, we need the exact same thing. We need to have that same sort of dependence upon God, that same sort of leading by the Holy Spirit, that we can't trust what we can do, our abilities, our training, but what God has done in Christ, the grace that He offers to us, the abilities that we have through Jesus Christ. And it's a consistent message. Realize it's only through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that anyone, anyone ever becomes a Christian. It's outside of us and our abilities to persuade and to argue. It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. And so we need to understand that. That growth and holiness, sanctification, has to be the work of God in a person. Changing and transforming them, not by our willing it. Becoming servants in the Kingdom of God is something God calls us to do. Not something we can do on our own. Well, the fourth thing to notice is that Jesus uses all types. You may be aware that four of these men that are listed, listed at the beginning, are fishermen. And he takes them from fishing, after fish sailing and swimming around in the sea, to making them fishers of men. And he took some of the lessons that they learned from fishing. And he talked about that, how they needed to be persevering, how they needed to be trusting God for the results, how they needed to be actually going out and doing it. There are lots of lessons in terms of fishing. And the sea that also becomes how you fish for men. But there's two other names that are very interesting in the list. One, we've already talked about some in terms of Matthew, how he's calling and he's a tax collector. He would have been a collaborator with Romans. As such, he would have been hated by the average Jew, an outcast in society. And then you have Simon the Zealot. Now this would be a reference to the Zealots. They were sort of a revolutionary group known for their zealotsy, their fervency, and their cause of trying to get rid of Rome. They would be known for their violent resistance to the Roman authorities. Can you think of two more opposite people to be brought together? One who works alongside of Rome, one has actively been trying to overthrow Rome. And yet, in Christ, they're both disciples, they're brought together. They're ones that are sent out. It's an indication that God uses, that Jesus uses all types in leadership of the church. There'll be those with a PhD, and those who dropped out in high school. There'll be those who have a high-profile job in the community, and those whose job nobody notices. all types, but they're called together to serve in the church. And thus, God is established in the leadership. And as we think about the Lord's Supper, we think in terms of the very nature of what Jesus is doing, is bringing these together who are different. And we may have different differences, male and female, young and old, much education or little, poor and rich, but we all have a common bond of faith in Jesus Christ, of depending on the Holy Spirit, on a love for the Father that unites us. And so, as God calls a church and leadership, there's a unity there. that comes from all following Christ, all being called by Him and seeking to serve Him in different ways, but all within His kingdom. And so as we sit around the table, just to be unity, a oneness that we have as we join together for the Lord's Supper. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the fact that you called men who were not outstanding, who were not the shakers and movers of their day, to be your leaders. Ones with different backgrounds, different gifts, and yet were able to bring about a change that turned the world upside down and is still doing so today, 2,000 years later. I pray that you would be seeing that and seeking to do that, to be aware of your calling upon us, of how you have structured the church and placed different members in it, given us different talents and abilities. Some, to be sure, in terms of leadership and the important role that is, but some in various other roles. May we each one be joined together in a common purpose of serving Christ, of honoring Him, of glorifying You in this world. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.