Appointed an Apostle

for them; they learned how to pray from him.

Basically, Jesus wanted his disciples to know him, to be in a relationship with him. The same desire stands today. If we are to be serving Jesus, we need to spend time with him so that we might know him fully.

It often comes as a surprise to congregations how little time their pastors spend with Jesus.

Recent surveys I’ve read indicate 8 to 12 minutes a day in focused prayer time. (Which is twice that of the laity—but still far too little.)

Several reasons:
1. Some Pastors have little desire to be with Jesus.
2. Pastors do not feel they are “working” if they take a time to pray.
3. congregations do not make it clear to the pastors that time to prayer is part of the job description.

Give your pastor permission to spend time with Jesus and hold him accountable to it.

Purpose two: Jesus called the twelve to himself so that he might send them out.
The disciples were trained and eventually sent out on their own. (See Matthew 10 and Luke 9 and 10).

Those of us called into leadership need to spend time with Jesus, but we also need to get out—out of the study, out of the church, out into the world.

Ministry is people. We are called to spend time with people, imparting our life of faith into them.

Every Christian is a little Christ—a representative of him in this word.

Christian Leaders, are doubly blessed in that we are disciples and apostles—representatives of Jesus and of his church.

We come along side of Jesus to be equipped to go out and work for him.

A good portion of a pastor’s time should be spent with people, and not only Christian people, but with non-Christians as well. How else will they be reached.

Jesus did not send the twelve out to work among the crowd that was already following him, but rather to those who needed to hear the message.

Give your pastor permission to spend time with people, and not just your own people, and hold him accountable to it.

JESUS EQUIPPED THE TWELVE WITH TWO THINGS

First He gave them a message. He sent them out to preach. Preach in Scripture is usually connected with the word gospel or good news..

The Good News (the Gospel) is the news that Jesus came, lived among us, died for our sins, was buried, raised from the dead for our salvation, ascended to heaven, is coming again and in the meantime, is redeeming his fallen creation one heart at a time.

We have been sent to preach the gospel. There are many other noble things in this world, but none of them is equal to the preaching of the gospel.

Preachers can be very busy—but if they are not busy with message of the gospel, busy is all we are.

I say this message equips us because first of all it brings forgiveness and new life to our own hearts.

Pastor give yourself to the message; allow God’s word, his gospel, to master your life, to continually refresh and transform you into the person he wants you to be.

Second, he gave them a power. The apostles would have authority over demonic forces.

We dare not fool ourselves into thinking that the work we are doing is merely social in nature. We are called into spiritual conflict.

Paul said it best,

Ephesians 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in