Jesus Calls His Apostles - Mark 3

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Jesus Appoints the Twelve

13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
We all remember being on the playground when the natural leaders emerged and were the ones who got to pick who was on what team.  They usually picked their best friends first, and so on, and so on.  As Jesus enacts the kingdom by preaching, healing and driving out demons, the word gets out.  People start flocking to him from all kinds of places near and far.  So Jesus realizes he needs to get a team of others who can help him spread the kingdom.  
Jesus leaves the crowd, goes up the mountain and the passage says, "He called to him those he wanted."  Jesus got to pick his team and chose those he "wanted".  And isn't it interesting as you look at his team the different types of players he chose. We know more about some of these men than others. There are two groups of brothers, James and John, and Peter and Andrew.  Peter, James, and John were business associates. They were all fishermen.  Judas handled the money bag for the disciples, which would be his downfall.  Matthew was a despised tax collector.  When Jesus met Nathanael he said, "Here is a man with a spotless reputation."  Simon was a Zealot whose passion was for the Messiah to overthrow the Roman government and end their occupation of Israel.  Maybe Jesus hoped his zeal could be directed somewhere positive for the kingdom. 
As you can see Jesus chose quite an assortment of characters to entrust the kingdom to.  And Jesus gives them a job description.  Preach with authority and drive out demons by my authority.  Jesus gave them the power to do what he was doing?  This must have been a pretty leap for Jesus to delegate these tasks so early on in his ministry.  He took a risk by choosing some potentially unsavory characters.  In fact, one of them would betray him, and apparently he knew about that. Again I come back to where it says, "Jesus chose those he wanted!"
Every man had something in them Jesus knew he could use for the mission to bring in God's kingdom on earth.  My friends God has chosen you.  You are not perfect, yet He wants you to be on his team.  Your job description is the same at the apostles.  Spread the good news and overcome evil with good.  Bring God's power to those who are in need of healing and deliverance.  You're on the team get in the game. 

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