Thursday 19 October, 2017

13 Jesus went up on a mountainside. He called for certain people to come to him, and they came. 14 He appointed 12 of them so that they would be with him. He would also send them out to preach. 15 And he gave them authority to drive out demons. 16 So Jesus appointed the 12 disciples. Simon was one of them. Jesus gave him the name Peter. 17 There were James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. Jesus gave them the name Boanerges. Boanerges means Sons of Thunder. 18 There were also Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, and James, son of Alphaeus. And there were Thaddaeus and Simon the Zealot. 19 Judas Iscariot was one of them too. He was the one who was later going to hand Jesus over to his enemies.

This passage records the appointing of the twelve apostles. The context for the passage is Jesus’s increasing ministry workload. His response to this was to delegate spiritual authority to share the load.

What an exciting prospect to be given supernatural power and authority to share the Gospel, however for me after reading this passage I was struck by one simple truth. God’s preferred method of service is for people to work in teams.  For His people not to work as individuals in isolation but to work together as a community.  We always perform better when we collaborate, we learn more, we pray more effectively and can endure more hardship when we work together.

We are made to be a part of a community and we represent God best when we work together as a community.

Lord, I ask today that you would increase our love of working with others, give us an increasing amount of grace and compassion to work more effectively as a team in the ministries you have given to us.

Amen.

Written by David Newton