The Lord's Disciples

by E.H. Merchant, Hereford | Category: The Days Of His Flesh | Mar 1974

When the Lord appointed twelve from among His many followers, one purpose was "that they might be with Him", and when a replacement was needed for Judas Iscariot, Peter stipulated that he must "have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that He was received up". For all of this time the twelve enjoyed the unique advantage of living day by day with the incarnate Son of God, and of being taught and moulded by Him to become the nucleus and leaders of God's holy nation.

They were also living with one another, a small unit of human society, a group comprising different personalities and subject to the strains and stresses that arise from time to time when people live in a small and close company. Add to this the fact that there were in their number two or possibly three pairs of brothers, that some were cousins to the Master Himself, that most were from Galilee, and included fishermen, a tax collector and a former member of the Zealot political party, but that Iscariot was a Judaean and "odd man out" in other more serious respects, and we have a set of conditions wide enough to characterize almost any human society. We might therefore regard "the twelve" as typical of all those later disciples whom God would call "to dwell together in unity" in what is certainly in our day a very compact community in each church of God, and we can confidently expect to find all the guidance we need from the teaching, reproof, correction and instruction with which the Lord patiently nurtured His disciples.

In a group of twelve men leaders will emerge, and it is clear Peter was outstanding among them. Whilst Nathanial was notably the first to confess privately Jesus to be the Son of God, when they are together it is Peter who speaks for all - "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God"; "Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life"; and on the way to Gethsemane, "Even if I must die with Thee yet will I not deny Thee. Likewise said also all the disciples". Peter is in fact called "the first", and he and the brothers James and John are most prominent in the Gospel records, being selected by the Lord to accompany Him on a number of special occasions, e.g. on the holy mountain, at Jairus' house, and in Gethsemane. This prominence seems to have rankled in the others' minds, for soon after the mountain experience, and perhaps contributed to by the secrecy which followed it, the twelve start reckoning among themselves as to who was best qualified to be their leader. This striving for position occurred repeatedly and with increasing acuteness, and the measures the Lord used to counter this evil indicate the serious effect it would have if it got a hold in the churches of God which would later be established. We know it did gain a hold in Corinth, where gifted men attracted their own followers and the church became arid, proud, carnal and sinful. A much further and worse stage is revealed by the apostle John, who describes a church where one man had achieved personal supremacy and actually thrust out of the church those who opposed him.

How did the Lord deal with this recurring strife among the twelve? The first time, He sets a little child before them and says, "except ye turn and become as little children; on the next occasion He teaches that greatness is in service and describes Himself as a servant, and giving His life a ransom for many. Then on the last night the struggle breaks surface again most acutely; this time there is contention as to which of them was greatest. Now the Master speaks directly of Himself as the example; "I am in the midst of you as He that serveth", and gives them an unforgettable object lesson as He kneels and washes the feet of each of the disciples in turn, and speaks as it were His last word on the subject, "If I then, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet".

Peter is the only disciple with whom the Lord's dealings individually are recorded to any great extent, but He would equally have helped the others with their private difficulties and shortcomings. The story of Peter's personal failure and the Lord's wonderfully gracious dealings with him afterwards, are well known and an encouragement to us all when we fall, giving substance to the promise, "Though a man fall, yet shall he not be utterly cast down, for the Lord sustaineth him".

Another incident involving Peter is instructive for Christians who serve together in churches of God, showing that in a collective situation we each have our individual responsibility to follow the Lord, and equally have to recognize the personal liberty that each other one has in the same service. Shortly before the ascension, Peter asked the Lord about John's future and was rebuked by the reply that that was a matter between the Lord and John, and no concern of Peter's; to Peter the Lord repeated, "Follow thou Me". This is another human failing, and Paul had to repeat the Lord's meaning to the Christians at Rome - "Who are thou that judgest the servant of another? To his own lord he standeth or falleth". In churches of God, elders are responsible to see the Lord's standards are maintained, but there is in parallel with this a large area of personal responsibility and freedom within which a Christian serves his Lord

according to his own faith, his circumstances, his understanding of the Lord's will, and according to the exercise wrought within him by the Spirit of God. The gracious purposes of God for us are best served when, within the framework of collective services in churches of God, each disciple of the Lord enjoys personal freedom to work out his own salvation.

We have touched upon one or two of the lessons to be learnt from those disciples who came to be known as "the twelve".

E.H. Merchant, Hereford | Mar 1974
The Days Of His Flesh