In our world, education is super important, right? I mean education gives us credentials and authority to speak about certain things or to carry out certain jobs. A law degree gives lawyers authority about the law. A medical degree gives doctors authority to treat people. A master’s or doctorate degree gives people authority to teach at the University level. This may be true of the earthly world, but it’s not always true in Christian ministry. I agree that most pastors have seminary degrees and they should. But none of the twelve were educated beyond 6th grade so to speak. They grew up Jewish, so they knew the Jewish literature pretty well, but that isn’t what gave them the authority to lead the church forward.
Mark tells exactly what their purpose was and why they were called. “He appointed them that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” Two things jump out from this verse about their calling: 1) that they might be with Him; and 2) that they would be sent out to preach. They were called to carry on the ministry Jesus began. And what was that? They would continue to do what Jesus did… tell people about the Kingdom of God, tell people about Jesus, lead people to the truth, and preach salvation through faith in Jesus. So then, where did their authority come from? It came from being with Him. In other words, being with Him had to precede their ministry. Their success was an outpouring of the time they spent with Jesus.
One of my favorite stories in the Book of Acts – the beginning of the church – was when Peter and John were brought in before the authorities because they had been telling people about Jesus. Unschooled fishermen standing before highly educated men. We read in Acts 4:13: “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.” Imagine that… they recognized that they had been with Jesus. This is what gave them the authority to carry on Jesus’ ministry.
Likewise, we have the same responsibility… to carry on Jesus’ ministry. None of us are exempt. It may look different for each of us because we have different gifts and different venues, but our calling is still the same. But what we need to remember is that not many of us have Bible college degrees or have received an education at seminary. So then, where does our authority come from? It comes from being with Him. We will never be successful in God’s eyes or make headlines in the heavens if we go off on our own. We need to first be with Jesus. Spending time EVERY day walking through the pages of Scripture and communicating with Him. The disciples were literally walking with the Word (John 1:14). They listened, they followed, they asked questions, they pondered. And they were careful to obey. So, if we want to be successful at carrying on the work Jesus began, then it must start with BEING WITH HIM. Hope this encourages you today.