How Did Jesus Choose His Disciples?

How did Jesus know who to choose as His disciples? How did He choose them or did they choose Him?

Who choose Who?

We might like to think we’re responsible for coming to God to be saved through Christ but Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (John 15:16). The context here is not Jesus’ choosing the twelve disciples only to be apostles but choosing them to receive eternal life. They are called to “go and bear fruit.” Earlier, Jesus said “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil” referring to Judas of course (John 6:70). God is sovereign. We are not. Paul writes that “no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Rom 3:10) and “God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God” (Psalm 53:2). A look at all the Old Testament prophets shows that God called them (Jer 1). They never sought after God. This list includes the Patriarchs too like Moses (Ex 3) and Abraham (Gen12:1-3). Jesus makes it clear that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44).

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

In the Gospel of John it says that some of John the Baptist’s disciples started following Jesus (John 1:37). One of John’s disciples was apparently Andrew as it says that “One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother” (John 1:40) but the true calling came when Jesus went to them and to where they made their living and “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him” (Matt 4:18-22).

More Called

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:43-45). God’s calling is an effectual calling which means what God proposes to do, is done! Jesus never asked Philip “Do you want to follow Me?” but simply spoke it like an imperative command, “Follow me.” Again, Jesus “decided to go” and in this case, “to Galilee” and “found Philip.” Then He tells Him “Follow me.” If someone tells me “I found Jesus” I ask, “Was He missing?” I believe He found you. You were once lost but now are found. Blind but now you see. If you were blind, you couldn’t have possibly found the way (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Others Called

“After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him” (Luke 5:27-28). Once more, Jesus Christ doesn’t ask them, doesn’t consult with them, or doesn’t give them time to think it over. He just says “Follow me” and there is no plan B given. God again does the calling and amazingly, even prostitutes and tax collectors will enter the kingdom before the self-righteous Jews will (Matt 21:31) because they’ve repented and trusted in Christ.

Jesus Choses the Apostles

A disciple is not the same thing as an Apostle, which simply means “sent out one.” We are all called to be disciples of Christ but the original twelve Apostles were specifically ordained by Jesus Christ Himself, in person. Only Paul would later be called as an Apostle but even He had an encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road and like the other Apostles, they were audibly called by Jesus Christ and being in His presence. Being called as an Apostle is not a decision of human origin. Disciples are “students” or “pupils” but Apostles are ones that God specifically chooses to send out.

Jesus didn’t immediately choose the twelve Apostles. He first went to pray about it and this was no short two minute prayer because “he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). This was an incredibly important decision so Jesus prayed all night long and only then “when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor” (Luke 6:13-16).

Conclusion

What a great joy to know that Jesus would tell us “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). How many hate us? Are we even being hated for the sake of Christ and His message of hope, the gospel? It is the blood of the Lamb of God that saved us and then we are to be obedient to the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20) and now “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2nd Cor 5:20). Our overcoming is linked to our testimony as the Apostle John writes that believers “have conquered him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev 12:12). The loved not their lives so much that “the word of their testimony” was still spoken, even if it cost them their lives. And millions have paid this price. How can we remain silent?

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.