Mark 3:13-19: Apostles

And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, "Sons of Thunder "); and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

Jesus appointed twelve apostles. The term “apostle” literally means “one who is sent” and it designates one who is an official representative of an authority. Kings sent out apostles, or “heralds” to give people official news. The ruling council of the Jews also sent out apostles to communicate to all the synagogues in the world any official news or decisions. Jesus chose twelve of them because each one represented the twelve tribes of Israel—to preach to them and to rule over them (Matthew 10:5; 19:28).

The church rarely understands how important the apostles are to us. We are not just disciples of Jesus, but disciples of the apostles. It is the apostles who communicate to us the truth about Jesus, who interpret Jesus for us. We are as submissive to them as we are to Jesus.

The problem comes in when we play one apostle against another. Yes, it is possible for apostles to disagree, but we must not accept one apostle's teaching as more true than another. Rather, they are all under Jesus, and we must accept them all. This is why we have four gospels which sometimes disagree. This is why we have epistles by different writers who look at the life and teaching of Jesus differently. We do not need to accept the teaching of those who are not apostles, but apostolic teaching should be accepted and analyzed to understand where they do agree. The agreement of the apostles is the closest we will come to Jesus' original life and teaching.