MacArthur - Twelve ordinary men: how the Master shaped his disciples for greatness, and what He wants to do with you

TWELVE ORDINARY MEN

OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN MACARTHUR

Twelve Extraordinary Women
Hard to Believe
The Book on Leadership
The Battle for the Beginning
God in the Manger
The God Who Loves
The Gospel According to the Apostles
How to Survive in a World of Unbelievers
Introduction to Biblical Counseling
The Murder of Jesus
Rediscovering Expository Preaching
Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry
Terrorism, Jihad, and the Bible
The Vanishing Conscience
Whose Money Is It, Anyway?
Why Government Can't Save You
Why One Way?

BIBLE PRODUCTS BY JOHN MACARTHUR

Biblical Parenting for Life Study
MacArthur Bible Studies
MacArthur's Quick Reference Guide to the Bible
The MacArthur Student Bible
The MacArthur Study Bible (New King James Version)

TWELVE ORDINARY MEN

2002 by John MacArthur

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Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN-10:0-8499-1773-5 (hc)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8499-1773-8 (hc)
ISBN-10:0-7852-8824-4 (tp)
ISBN-13:9780-7852-8824-4 (tp)

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 0 9 10 11 RRD 15 14 13

DEDICATION

To Irv Busenitz, for his loyal friendship and devoted service over three decades. Irv is a true teacher and selfless servant who has faithfully invested his own life in the lives of other men who come to study at The Master's Seminary. Irv is the ideal model of both disciple and disciple-maker, having dedicated himself to fulfilling 2 Timothy 2:2: "The things you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

THIS BOOK IS IN NO SMALL MEASURE thanks to the faithful support and encouragement of David Moberg, Mark Sweeney, and the rest of the staff of Thomas Nelson. We have enjoyed a close and fruitful partnership over the years, and I am grateful to the Lord for the ministry these dear friends have had in so many of my published works.

I am particularly grateful to Mary Hollingsworth and Kathryn Murray ofThomas Nelson, who worked hard under very short deadlines to keep this book on schedule throughout the editorial and typesetting process. Their kindness, patience, and diligence have been exemplary, even under difficult circumstances.

Thanks also to Garry Knussman, who proofread this material at several different stages and offered many helpful editorial suggestions.

My special thanks goes to Phil Johnson, who has worked alongside me as my main editor for more than twenty years. He applied his skills in the process of translating this material from transcripts of my sermons on Matthew 10 and Luke 6, collating both series into one seamless whole and making sure the text was clear and readable.

CONTENTS

MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS AGO, while preaching through the Gospel of Matthew, I gave a series of character studies on the twelve apostles. The messages were extremely well received, and we produced a tape album and study guide from that series, titled The Master's Men. Over the years we have broadcast the entire series several times on the Grace to You radio broadcast. Each time it airs, it generates a greater outpouring of affirmative response from listeners. After twenty years, that album continues to be one of the most popular series we have ever produced.

A few years ago, I started teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of Luke's Gospel in our church. When I reached Luke 6:13-16 (where Luke records Jesus' calling of the Twelve) I preached a new series of messages on the apostles. Once again, the response was overwhelming and enthusiastic. While preaching the series I realized that an entire generation had been born and reached adulthood in the years since we had last studied the lives of the disciples. They identified with these men in the same way their parents had done more than two decades before.

Even people who had practically memorized the tapes from the earlier series said they still found the lives of the disciples as fresh and relevant and practical as ever. The new series quickly became another favorite, and people began urging me to combine all the material on the apostles in a book. I didn't need much prodding for such a project. The book you are holding in your hands is the result.

I have always been fascinated with the lives of the twelve apostles. Who isn't? The personality types of these men are familiar to us. They are just like us, and they are like other people we know. They are approachable. They are real and living characters we can identify with. Their faults and foibles, as well as their triumphs and endearing features, are chronicled in some of the most fascinating accounts of the Bible. These are men we want to know.

That's because they were perfectly ordinary men in every way. Not one of them was renowned for scholarship or great erudition. They had no track record as orators or theologians. In fact, they were outsiders as far as the religious establishment of Jesus' day was concerned. They were not outstanding because of any natural talents or intellectual abilities. On the contrary, they were all too prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses of faith, and bitter failureno one more so than the leader of the group, Peter. Even Jesus remarked that they were slow learners and somewhat spiritually dense (Luke 24:25).

They spanned the political spectrum. One was a former Zealota radical, determined to overthrow Roman rule. But another had been a tax collectorvirtually a traitor to the Jewish nation and in collusion with Rome. At least four, and possibly seven, were fishermen and close friends from Capernaum, probably having known one another from childhood. The others must have been tradesmen or craftsmen, but we are not told what they did before becoming followers of Christ. Most of them were from Galilee, an agricultural region at the intersection of trade routes. And Galilee remained their home base for most of Jesus' ministrynot (as some might think) Jerusalem in Judea, which was the political and religious capital of Israel.