The number one resource God generally uses to grow you, to make you better, to shape you and mold you, is people. So it’s important to ask, “Am I in community? Am I in relationship with some people who will evoke my best self, who will help me grow in ways God really wants?”
About 2,000 years ago, Jesus started his first small group. He chose 12 people to be in it. In this message we look at why each of them got picked and what made them great. This is the greatest story of team formation in history. And we’re going to do a little player-by-player analysis.
Next Steps
Hi, if we haven’t met yet, my name is Matt vanCleave. I’m one of the pastors at Blue Oaks.
I’m so glad you decided to join us for the launch of this series.
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I love this time of the year. I love the start of a new academic year. I love the reminder that our God is a God of fresh starts and new beginnings. It’s possible to learn and grow. It’s a great time for students in particular to be thinking about that.
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And for us as a church, we need to be thinking about the fact that the number one resource God generally uses to grow us, to make us better, to shape us and mold us, is people.
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So it’s a good time to ask, “Am I in community? Am I in relationships with people who will evoke my best self, who will help me to grow in ways that God really wants me to grow?”
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We’re starting this series today that’s about community and belonging and life change. And we’re calling it “Life Together.”
There’s a great book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer with that title — “Life Together.”
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You have to kind of translate it for our day though. It was written for guys in a seminary together in underground-occupied Nazi Germany. In a lot of ways, their lives are quite different than ours, but the book is just so profound.
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It starts with this little verse that’s fundamental to Bonhoeffer’s thinking — Psalm 133:1:
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
That’s really God’s dream for the human race. That’s why God created human beings. But sin messes it all up.
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So about 2,000 years ago, Jesus started his small group. He chose 12 people to do life together with.
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And what we’re going to do to kick off this series is just look at the twelve disciples.
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Now it’s good for you to know who the disciples are, partly because a lot of people go to church their whole life and never actually know who the twelve disciples are. They’ve never studied them.
If nothing else, it’ll be good because some day you’re going to go to heaven, and the disciples will be there.
When you meet them, it will be nice for you to be able to say, “Oh yeah, Thaddaeus, I knew you were one of the disciples. It’s good to meet you.”
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But beyond that, I want to kind of think as we talk about each one, “Who was it that made this small group of disciples so great?”
As we go through each one of them, ask yourself, “Why did that guy get picked? Do I identify with that person at all? Do I think there could be a place in Jesus’ small group for me? Could I extend it to other people? Who made that group great?”
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Alright, Mark 3:13:
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him. (Mark 3:13-14)
This has a lot of meaning in it. Any Israelite would have recognized the significance of the number twelve.
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When God started Israel, there were 12 tribes.
And then things broke down. They were in exile. Nothing was working right.
By Jesus’ day, there were 10 lost tribes. You might have heard of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. God’s dream for community was badly broken.
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When Jesus chose 12 disciples, he did a significant thing that no other rabbi would do. And everyone knew exactly what he was saying. He was saying, “God’s dream of community, which was launched once with Israel and is broken down, is beginning again with me and the Twelve.”
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This was an amazingly bold statement Jesus was making. And everyone back then knew exactly what he was doing. Twelve is not a coincidental number. It’s a significant number.
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Now, Jesus is going to pick like the greatest spiritual athletes in Israel, right?
Okay, here they are:
These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),
A lot of times in community, people use nicknames. Jesus did that.
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Mark 3:16-19)
Aright, so why did he choose these guys?
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Lets look at them, starting with Simon.
Jesus gave him the name Peter, which means rock.
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In every list of the disciples (in the Gospels and the book of Acts), Peter was always listed first.
One writer said he was first in faith, but he was also first in failure.
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Jesus got out of the boat one day and walked on water. Peter said, “I’m going to do that too.” Then his faith failed and he sank, and Jesus had to bail him out.
Jesus was trying to teach that he was going to have to suffer—go to a cross. Peter said, “No! Don’t talk like that. It’s going to depress everyone.” Jesus had to say to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!”
Jesus was being taken away by soldiers in the garden. He wanted his disciples to respond with peace and faith. Peter grabbed his sword and swung it at one of the soldiers, cutting off the guy’s ear, which was both violent and incredibly inept.
Jesus told his disciples they were all going to desert him when he was crucified. Peter bragged, “No, everyone else might. Not me. I’m with you forever.” Peter is the one who denied Jesus three times.
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One commentator said Peter’s nickname should not have been rock. It should have been rocky, because he just messed up all the time.
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Do you ever mess up? Do you ever put your foot in your mouth? Do you ever say something and then think, “Man, I probably shouldn’t have said that”? Well, that’s Peter.
Peter is not the one who made this small group great. Peter was the first in failure.
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The next disciples listed are two brothers — James and John.
Jesus gave them the nickname: “Sons of thunder.” It could be translated, “Sons of anger.”
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In the ancient world the god of thunder (Zeus or Thor or whoever) was not an expert at impulse control.
These guys, James and John, just let it fly. They were not very self-disciplined. They had strong impulses, a lot of anger.
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Do you ever have anger problems?
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One day they go through a Samaritan village. Samaritans didn’t like Jewish people, so they didn’t get welcomed the way they thought they should have. Notice how they respond.
When the disciples James and John saw this, [the Samaritans not welcoming them] they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” (Luke 9:54)
Like they could do that. Like they were God and could call down fire. — “These guys aren’t welcoming us. Should we just toast them, Jesus? Wouldn’t that be a good idea?”
Jesus says, “No, actually that would not be a good idea.”
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Another time, someone who was not one of the disciples was doing good works, delivering oppressed people in Jesus’ name. John sees that, and he thinks, “Well, if outsiders are doing that, we’re not going to look so great.” So he stopped it.
Then John said to Jesus, “Teacher… we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Didn’t we do good?”
Jesus says, “Nope! Actually, if someone is not against us, they’re for us. So let people do good. It’s not about us.”
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There was this competitive thing between John and Peter. They actually raced to the tomb when Jesus was resurrected to see who could get there first.
When Jesus told Peter he was going to have to suffer, Peter sees John going by, and Peter says to Jesus, “Hey, what about him?” Like, “If I have to have bad stuff happen to me, doesn’t he have to have bad stuff happen to him?”
There’s this kind of rivalry thing.
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Again, it’s just interesting to look behind the curtain at the disciples’ lives.
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When Jesus was going to die soon, it was time for the Passover meal.
Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” (Luke 22:8)
Maybe he was putting them in this remedial group so they have to learn servanthood — “You go serve the group for a while.”
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After the resurrection, we’re told that out of all the disciples, it’s Peter and John going to the temple at the time of prayer. Now they’re doing life together. Now they’re praying together.
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A guy comes up to them and asks them for money. He’s crippled. They don’t have any money to give him, but they say, “What we have, we’ll give you.” They pray for him, and he’s healed.
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They start talking about Jesus (these guys who were always in it for their glory and competing with each other when Jesus was around). The religious authorities don’t like this, and they want to stop them.
When they [the authorities] saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men
Who would draft those guys to be on their team? They were not trained in rhetoric, not public figures. They were ordinary. The Greek word that’s translated ordinary here is the word idiotes. Do you want to guess what word we get from that? They were a couple of knuckleheads.
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)
Unschooled, ordinary, no credentials. But they were with Jesus. That’s pretty cool.
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In one of the last visions of them we see, the word of Jesus begins to spread because it’s all about Jesus.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. (Acts 8:14)
Remember who wanted to burn up the Samaritans? That was John. Now he’s going to go and risk his life telling them about the love of Jesus.
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Sons of thunder. No one would’ve drafted them, but they’re in Jesus’ group.
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Do you ever regret your temper? Do you ever have impulse problems?
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James and John don’t seem to be the kind of guys who are going to make Jesus’ small group great, but they get chosen to be in the group.
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The next disciple is Andrew. It’s very interesting. Andrew is listed fourth in the disciples, but we know who he is because he’s described this way:
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up… (John 6:8)
Question: How often do you think Andrew got described as “Simon Peter’s brother”?
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Simon Peter was the one who was really well known. Andrew was just the tagalong.
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What would’ve been ironic about that is Andrew, not Simon Peter, was the first one to discover Jesus.
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Here’s how it happened. Just think about the dynamics with these guys.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John [the Baptist] had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (John 1:40-42)
I wonder if Andrew ever felt a little ambivalent about that because Simon got the cool nickname.
He got to be Peter. He got to preach. He got all the recognition. All anyone ever called Andrew was “Simon Peter’s brother.” No one ever said, “And then Peter, Andrew’s brother…”
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I think of a loose association about an old TV show called The Brady Bunch.
There are these sisters. Marcia is the glamorous one everyone notices. The middle sister is Jan. She just gets fed up with being the tagalong all the time. Her pet phrase for that is, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. Everybody loves Marcia.”
I wonder if Andrew ever felt like, “Simon, Simon, Simon. Everybody loves Simon.”
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An interesting thing about Andrew—he’s just Simon’s brother, but every time we see him, he’s bringing someone to Jesus.
He brings Simon to Jesus.
A kid had a few fish and loaves. Andrew is the one who brings him to Jesus.
Some Gentiles are following him around, and Andrew brings them to Jesus.
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Alright, the next disciple is a guy named Philip.
What we know about Philip is Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, which is also where Peter and Andrew and James and John were from.
So we have this clique of guys who would’ve known each other.
And the rest of the disciples have to see if they can break into that little clique.
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You know, when a church has been around for a while, sometimes you get these groups of people where they kind of feel like, “We’re comfortable. We know each other.”
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If you’ve been around Blue Oaks for a long time and you have people you know really well, I hope you’re doing life together with arms wide open, looking for people, saying, “God, is there someone who feels excluded, someone who feels left out? Could I invite them in?”
Video: story of small group experience
—Comment on video—
Alright, another one of the disciples was a guy named Thomas.
You might have heard the phrase “Doubting Thomas.” That’s Thomas, because after Jesus was resurrected, Thomas is the guy who said, “I don’t believe it. If I can’t see and feel his wounds, I don’t believe it.”
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Here’s an interesting thing about Thomas that we find in Scripture:
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve… (John 20:24)
Thomas was also known as Didymus. Why is he described that way?
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Didymus was the Greek word for twin. Thomas was a twin.
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Now in our day, we think twins are really cool as a general rule. You know, it’s a big burden to have, but when someone else has twins, it’s like, “Wow, that’s really cool.”
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Our best friends have twins. It’s a cool thing. They’re pretty cool kids actually.
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I read about another set of twins. One of them was born on December 31 at 11:58. The second one was delivered at 12:01 on January 1. They’re twins, but they’re born in two separate years. The firstborn gets to say, “I’m a year older than you.” They get bragging rights.
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Now, in the ancient world twins were not cool. In the ancient world, childbirth was very dangerous, often ended in the death of the child and/or the mom.
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A multiple birth (as you might imagine) was exponentially more dangerous.
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In the ancient world, twins generally were a bad sign. They were a bad omen.
Plus, in the ancient world, the firstborn son got the birthright, became the heir, carried on the family. The firstborn son is the one who mattered.
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If you have twins and they’re both boys, the second son is going to make it kind of hard to keep track of, “Which one is the firstborn?” It was kind of a mess. He might threaten his brother’s life.
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In the Old Testament there are only two sets of twins mentioned: Jacob and Esau, Perez and Zerah.
Do you think they all got along with each other?
Not at all. It was struggle. It was bad.
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In the ancient world, the second born of a set of twin boys was so unwanted, they would often be left to die of exposure.
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The firstborn would get the cool name the family wanted to go on. The second born would often just get named twin.
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Thomas was the Aramaic word Tau’ma which means twin.
Then just in case you didn’t know he is just the afterthought, he is also known as Didymus, the Greek word for twin.
It would be in our day like having a second born twin and naming him Xerox, the unnecessary one, the copy.
Like, “Here are our twin boys: Pete and Repeat.”
Or, “Our twin girls: Kate and Duplicate.” Okay, I’m done.
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Part of why this was a deal with Thomas was because there was this duality to him. There was this double nature to him. There was this, “He’s a disciple, but he’s a doubter. He’s a believer, but he’s a skeptic.”
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One time Jesus was going to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. They’d faced opposition there before. Thomas finds out.
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16)
That’s not going to get the disciples fired up — “Let’s go die with him.”
He was not a cheery guy… but there was a place for him.
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Do you ever doubt? Do you ever wonder, ever feel like you pray but you don’t know? Do you ever feel negative?
Listen, Thomas didn’t make Jesus’ small group great, but there was room for him.
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This is what Bonhoeffer wrote:
The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; in the poor brother Christ is knocking at the door.
See, this is what’s so brilliant about his book and, more than that, about the Bible.
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God has this dream for community, and it’s very different than human community that’s built on human aspirations.
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It’s not about drafting perfect people who will make the group more perfect.
In God’s community, no one is perfect. And yet we all belong in community.
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When I think, “I don’t want to be part of a community where the weak or the insignificant are there, the seemingly useless people,” I’m shutting Jesus out.
And by the way, guess what? I’m the weak. I’m the useless.
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You see, there’s nothing like Christian community.
It’s not about, “Can I be around people who make me feel good about myself and are high status and will be useful to my career?” It’s not networking.
It’s hard. It’s not glamorous, but it’s a group through which God is going to redeem the world.
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Alright, lets keep going. We see this more.
The next disciple is another guy named Simon. To distinguish him from Simon Peter, he’s called Simon the zealot.
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Now the zealots were a group of people who were very zealous for the law of Israel, for the way of Israel.
They eventually became a political party dedicated to the overthrow of Rome… through violence if necessary.
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They hated the Roman occupiers. Especially they hated Roman soldiers. The only people they hated more than Roman soldiers were tax collectors, because tax collectors were actually Israelites who colluded with Rome to get money from their own people. It made tax collectors rich.
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Simon the zealot is one of the disciples.
He watched while Jesus was approached by a Roman centurion who asked him to save his servant who was suffering terribly.
And Jesus says, “Yeah, I’ll help. Do you want me to come and heal him?”
And the Roman centurion said, “You don’t have to come. Just say the word and he will be healed.”
And Jesus says to him, “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Simon the zealot is going crazy! “Jesus, you’re killing me! That’s the guy I want to get rid of, and you’re praising him! The only guy worse than him is a tax collector.”
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Alright, so that’s Simon the zealot.
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The next disciple is Matthew the tax collector.
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Jesus says, “Hey, Matthew and Simon, you guys room together for a while.”
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Can you imagine what that would be like? They would drive each other crazy. Jesus must have loved it.
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You see, Christian community is not the place you go to get away from difficult people.
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This is from a great Quaker thinker, Parker Palmer. I love this.
Community is that place where the person you least want to live with always lives.
Have you ever noticed that?
And the corollary is, “And when that person moves away, someone else rises to take his or her place.”
When you join a small group, it’s not going to be a place where everyone makes you feel good and agrees with you all the time. It’s going to be a place where there’s someone there who just bothers the daylights out of you.
And when they move away, don’t breathe a sigh of relief… because someone else will most likely take their place. That’s part of how God grows people.
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Simon the zealot… Matthew the tax collector. We don’t love an idealized fantasy of community. We love real people.
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Jesus’ small group is where Simon the zealot is always going to find Matthew the tax collector.
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Alright, there are a couple more obscure disciples.
There’s another one named James. He is not the brother of John. He’s a different James. He’s probably the one referred to as “James the less.”
How would you like to have that one for a nickname?
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Then another character named Thaddaeus. He was also known as Judas. About all we know about him is one time he asked a question at the end of Jesus’ life.
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot)
By the way, how would you like to be this Judas? The rest of his life, “You’re Judas, one of the disciples?” “Yeah, the other Judas.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” (John 14:22)
You know the old saying, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question”? There is such a thing as a stupid question, and that’s it right there.
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The disciples are always asking, “Jesus, when are you going to reveal who you are — the Messiah — to all of Israel and not just tell us who you are?”
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The reason they did that was they, like of all Israel, were waiting for the Messiah to take charge, take the throne. When Jesus would do that, they thought, then they’d get their thrones. They’d get their power. They’d get their wealth. It would be good for them.
They were always saying, “Jesus, when are you going to let everyone know who you are?”
And what Jesus says over and over again is, “Guys, I’m not headed to a crown. I’m headed to a cross.”
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In every group there’s someone who doesn’t get it.
Do you ever feel like you’re the one who doesn’t get it? Do you ever feel a little slow?
Well there’s room in Jesus’ small group for you.
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Thaddaeus is not who made the group great.
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Then there’s Bartholomew. We don’t know much about him.
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Bar was the Hebrew word for son. His name can mean “Son of the furrows.”
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It could be that he was the one who left land. He might have been from a land-owning family.
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I can imagine becoming a part of the disciples and at some point thinking, “Man, I’m doing this? Am I crazy? Really?”
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Maybe it was Bartholomew Jesus was looking at one time when he taught, “And everyone who has left houses or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
Jesus was saying, “You’re not crazy Bartholomew.”
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Then there’s one more disciple.
You know who it is. Judas Iscariot.
Thief. Liar. Betrayer.
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You see, there’s room in Jesus’ small group for anyone and everyone.
Even when he had betrayed Jesus, Jesus called him friend.
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Judas Iscariot didn’t make the group great.
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You just go through the list. You think, “What a weird selection of players to be on a team.”
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Who made that group great?
That’s not a trick question. And you have a really good shot at getting this one right because this is church.
Who made the group great? Who made the disciples great?
Jesus made the disciples great!
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There’s actually a really profound point here. What makes Christian community Christian isn’t the presence of Christians. It’s the presence of Jesus.
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Another way of putting it is like this. In Christian community, there are no relational interactions that bypass the presence of Jesus.
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See, in Christian community, it’s never, “What am I going to do with you and for you?”
It’s always, “What are Jesus and I together going to do with you and for you?”
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It’s never, “What are you going to do with me or for me?” It’s, “What are you and Jesus going to do?”
That changes everything.
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Even in human ways, when there’s another person present, I will often behave differently.
I was at the store with one of my kids one time and the cashier rang up our stuff wrong.
She said, “That will be $6” for a bunch of stuff that should have been around $50.
I knew if I bought that stuff for $6, that would have been like the greatest purchase of my life, but my child was standing right there.
Immediately I said, “No, that can’t be right. Check it again, because I’m sure I owe you more money.”
Of course, that was the case.
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Now if my child had not been there, do you think I would’ve done that?
You’re not too sure, are you?
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I’d like to think I would, but I’ll tell you the truth. I’m a better man when someone from my family is there.
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I’m a better man when Jesus is present, you see.
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You know, in Christian community, the presence of Jesus is made available to us.
Now we can ignore it. We can be blind to it, but in Christian community, the presence of Jesus is made available.
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So here’s the challenge for you this week… for us this Fall.
It’s, “What will you and Jesus do?” It’s not, “What will you do?” It’s, “What will you and Jesus do together?”
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When you talk to someone, when you’re in your family, when you go to work, when you go to school, when you’re at the office, when you meet with your small group, what will you and Jesus do?
It’s always me and Jesus. Jesus is always to be between me and you and you and me.
That’s Christian community.
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Now I begin to practice that in what I say. I invite him into my relationships.
Christian community is where no relational interaction omits the presence of Jesus.
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Before he returns to his Father, Jesus gathers his small group together one more time.
There are just 11 of them now. Judas Iscariot is gone now.
He gives them the charge.
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
I love this! Even after the resurrection, some doubted.
Which of the disciples do you think is included in that doubted line? That would be old Thomas, doubting Thomas.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
“It’s not just you and them. It’s you and me and them.”
You see, that’s what we’re a part of.
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Do you know how much our world is dying for that, especially in the Bay Area?
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I had a woman come up to me a couple of weeks ago. It was so poignant. She and her family had moved here from the Midwest. She said, “When we were in the Midwest, we had so many people, so many relationships around us. We had cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. Now we have no one. We feel so alone. It’s just us — my husband and my daughter and me. She has no one.”
You know, people around here are just dying to be a part of a family.
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They’re really successful people, sometimes really educated people, but loneliness and an ache to belong is just an epidemic around here.
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People go through horrible crises. They have no one.
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God has this dream. Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
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So Jesus starts this small group.
There’s a reason why he starts it with these really ordinary people.
Because it’s for you and me.
And I hope you’ll be a part of it.
If you’re not in a small group, I hope you’ll get in one of these little communities because you need it and they need you.
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It won’t be easy. It might be really difficult. It might be really hard. That’s okay. It’s not about it being easy or a fantasy. It’s not about your dream. It’s just about you and Jesus loving real people.
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Jesus started this small group 2,000 years ago with 12 of the most unlikely guys: chronic messed-up, sons of thunder, big time doubters, little clique stuff going on, guys who can’t get along with each other, traitor, deceiver.
What are the odds 2,000 years later on the other side of the world it would still be growing? But here we are.
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You could be part of that. I hope you will.
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Next week we’ll talk about what can destroy that so fast. You’ll want to make sure you’re here for that. But now let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this gift of community, for your invention of community, for what can happen in human lives when there’s this simple act of one person caring for another, noticing another, encouraging another, correcting another, cheering on another, welcoming another, being generous to another, developing another.
God, what a great thing it is to be able to celebrate and serve and love and give to each other.
I pray right now, God, for everyone who’s thinking about taking that step into community. God, help them to go there.
I pray for our communities, for all of our groups. Where there are strains, where there are difficulties, where there’s stuff that needs to get reconciled, God, make reconciliation happen. Give wisdom and discernment.
Always, God, in all of our interactions, even right now today, may Jesus be present.
And we pray this together in Jesus’ name, amen.
Blue Oaks Church
Pleasanton,CA
