14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Here's a brief description of the guys Jesus called as his disciples:
Peter -- tempestuous; would deny Jesus
James and John -- brothers, each with anger issues
Andrew -- Peter's brother who lacked the charisma of his brother
Philip -- in no way an idealist; he told Jesus they just didn't have the money to feed 5,000
Bartholomew (also called Nathaniel) -- from the sticks himself, he was a total skeptic that anything exciting could come out of a small town like Nazareth
Matthew -- a despised tax collector; seen as a collaborator with Rome
Thomas -- the doubter
James the son of Alphaeus -- an unsung hero whose work went unreported and probably unnoticed
Thaddeus (also called Judas) -- often called the forgotten disciple, or the "not Judas Iscariot" disciple; the only time he says something in the Bible is when he questioned what Jesus was doing on the last night
Simon the Zealot -- a right wing nationalist
Judas -- Jesus' betrayer
Not necessarily an all-star squad; nevertheless, these are the 12 Jesus chose to be the apostles of a message that would change the world.
Which makes me wonder if maybe the people around us might have more potential than we're seeing on the surface . . .
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