How did JESUS choose his APOSTLES?

Written by Benoît Santos - Updated on Oct 27, 2024

Before you continue reading and learn how and why Jesus Christ chose certain people to become his apostles, we would like to share with you other articles about the 12 apostles and Christ available for free just below:

Learn more about how Christ's disciples were chosen

We might like to think that we are 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 remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it you” (John 15:16). The context here is not that Jesus chooses the twelve disciples just to be apostles, but chooses them to receive eternal life. They are called to “go and bear fruit.” Earlier, Jesus said, “Have I not chosen 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 after God” (Rom 3:10) and “God looks down from heaven on the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God” (Psalm 53:2). A look at all the prophets of the Old Testament shows that God called them (Jer 1). They never sought God . This list also includes the Patriarchs like Moses (Ex 3) and Abraham (Gen 12:1-3). Jesus states that “No one can come to me, except the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

Jesus calls his first disciples

In the Gospel of John , it is said that some of John the Baptist's disciples began to follow Jesus (John 1:37). One of John's disciples was apparently Andrew because it is said that "one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother" (John 1:40) but the real call came when Jesus went to them and where they were earning 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 fishers. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men ." At once they left their nets and followed him. And as he departed 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. And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:18-22).

No more calls

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town 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 call is an effectual call, meaning that what God proposes to do is done! Jesus never asked Philip, “Will you follow me?” but simply said it as an imperative command, “Follow me.” Again, Jesus “decided to go” and in this case, “to Galilee” and “found Philip.” Then he said to him, “Follow me.” If anyone says to me, “I have found Jesus,” I ask, “Was he absent? I believe he has found you. You were once lost but are now found. Blind but now you see. If you were blind, you could not have found the way (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Other people 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 got up and followed him” (Luke 5:27-28). Again, Jesus Christ does not ask them anything, consult them, or give them time to think. He just says “Follow me” and there is no plan B given. God makes the call again and amazingly, even the prostitutes and tax collectors will enter the kingdom before the self-righteous Jews do (Matthew 21:31) because they have repented and trusted Christ .

Jesus chooses the apostles

A disciple is not the same as an apostle , which simply means “one sent.” 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 road to Damascus and, like the other apostles, were audibly called by Jesus Christ and being in His presence. Being called as an Apostle is not a man-made decision . Disciples are “students” or “pupils,” but apostles are those whom God specifically chooses to send out.

Jesus did not immediately choose the twelve apostles . He first went to pray about it and it was not a short two-minute prayer because “he went out into 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 and only then “when day came, he called his disciples and chose from among 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).

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 have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). How many hate us? Are we even hated because of Christ and His message of hope , the gospel ? It was 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 appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). Our victory is tied to our testimony because the apostle John writes that believers “overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony , because they loved not their lives unto death” (Rev. 12:12). The beloved did not so much love their lives that “the word of their testimony” was still spoken, even though it cost them their lives . And millions have paid that price. How can we remain silent?