In his sermon 'Laying the Foundation,' Peter Allison examines the pivotal role Jesus played in establishing the foundation of the New Testament Church through the selection of his twelve apostles. The sermon draws on passages from Luke 6 and Mark 3, emphasizing Jesus' all-night prayer as a testament to the gravity of this decision. Jesus, as the God-man, chose the apostles not based on wealth, education, or influence but on their willingness to follow him, demonstrating that God uses the seemingly weak to confound the mighty. Allison underscores that the apostles, alongside the prophets, form the church's foundation with Jesus as the cornerstone. This laid the groundwork for a unified church, transcending time and geography, as seen in Paul's message to the Ephesians. The sermon concludes by reinforcing the importance of prayer in decision-making and the enduring relevance of the apostles' foundation in today's church.

Our scripture reading is Luke chapter 6 and I would also like to read the parallel passage in Mark. Luke 6 verses 12. Luke 6 verse 12 Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself, And from them he chose twelve whom he named apostles, Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor. Chapter 3 verse 13.

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. And they came to him. Then he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. Simon to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zephedi and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanergis, that is, sons of thunder. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him, and they went into a house.

May the Lord uphold us according to His word that we may live and not be ashamed of our hope in it. Almighty Heavenly Father, your word is precious, more precious than gold your word is truth in it is life Father open our hearts prepare our mind that your word may come falling good soil and bear fruit a hundredfold. This we pray in Jesus name, amen. Well, many people want to have a church, a New Testament church like they had in Acts. They read those stories in Acts about thousands of people being converted on one day, about the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, and about the closeness, the fellowship that the church had with one another, how they were in one accord and how they went from house to house, breaking bread together and so forth.

And that seems appealing. It's a beautiful picture. And yet this church was the foundation. It's just the foundation. And if you've ever built a house, we built one up in the north, you know that the foundation is the least desirable phase of the building.

When we did it, it was winter when they laid the foundation and it was very muddy. It was just a big mess and very uninviting. Very uninviting to even just walk around. It's just mud everywhere, not dirt, but mud. And they're digging into the earth, and they're putting the foundation down.

It's not the time that you look at the house and you think how wonderful it is. You look at that and you think, what can ever come of this? And you try to imagine how it might look in a better time. So that New Testament church, That was the foundation. And that foundation was laid on the apostles and the prophets.

Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. And so we want to look this morning at Jesus as the Messiah who has come to earth, who is the God-man, has come to earth to offer himself as a sacrifice in our place. He's come to live in perfect obedience to the law of God and be our righteousness. He's come in the form of a human so that he can take our place. But here he is as the Messiah, he is establishing this foundation.

He is starting to lay this foundation in the picking of the twelve apostles. And I'd like to look this morning at the preparation that went into this, that Jesus put into this. I'd like to look at the process that is laid out here and then the purpose for this, for these men that Jesus picked to be the foundation of the New Testament Church. So first of all, let's look at the preparation. This was a very important event.

Because if you know, if you don't have the foundation right It doesn't matter how wonderful the roof is and the walls are and the master bathroom and and the fireplace in the living room, none of that matters if the foundation on which the house is laid isn't good, it will all fall apart. Everything in the house rests on the foundation. Jesus Christ being the cornerstone of that foundation, the most important and primary stone. The cornerstone is what the rest of the foundation is trued against. So, this is a very important event in laying this foundation, in picking the men who would be this foundation.

Paul said to the Ephesians, Now you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." So this is a church that's far away from Jerusalem. This is a church that's in what we call Turkey today. This is a church that came much later. To these people, Paul is saying that they are fellow citizens and saints and members of the household of God having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. This Ephesian church so far away from Jerusalem is a part of this building that God is making and that church is resting on this foundation that Jesus is about to lay in the Apostles.

And we are another building block, another piece of this same church that Jesus Christ established and upon which he is building on this foundation of the Apostles. So this is a very important thing. The vitality, the stability of the church, not just the church in that day, but the church in the days of Paul in Ephesians. And us today, and the church tomorrow, has been built upon this foundation that was laid in the apostles. So this is a very, very important event that is happening here.

And because it is so important, Jesus prays about it specifically and prays all night. All night. Before Jesus picked these people, he prayed all night. Now Jesus is God, as respects his divine nature, He knows all things. And yet Jesus came as our Messiah, as a human as well.

And we see his human nature here in this process of choosing the apostles. That Jesus, as the God man, in his human nature, he prays all night. Because in his human nature he didn't know all things. Remember he said he didn't know the hour that the father was returning. He grew in grace and in knowledge, you remember, as he came back from the temple, where he had that exchange with the leaders, the scribes, the teachers.

Jesus grew in grace and favor. He grew in knowledge. He grew in understanding. In his human nature. Because a human nature is finite.

A human nature has to learn. A human nature has to eat and so forth. So Jesus in his human nature prays all night about this, probably about this occasion, who he should pick. He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. I'm not exactly sure, but I think this is one of the few, if not the only times, where Jesus prays all night.

Jesus prayed often and he often went to the mountains to pray but here he prayed all night long. The ordination of elders in the New Testament was often accompanied by prayer and fasting. When Paul and Barnabas were set apart at the church in Antioch, they were set apart with prayer and fasting. When Paul and Barnabas and the others appointed elders in the churches that they had established in Acts 13. They did so with prayer and fasting.

And so this is the pattern that we see in the New Testament when offices are established, that there is prayer and often fasting with that. When they picked the Apostle to replace Judas, They did so with prayer. And so Jesus prays. This is a good example for us to remember that our need to pray about important decisions. Our need to pray about important decisions and to wait for the answer from the Lord.

Sometimes that comes slowly, but praying for important decisions. It's too often that I've prayed right before an important decision, but not provided the time to wait on the answer from the Lord. Need to pray, need to remember in major crossroads and important decisions to pray before the Lord and to pray with perseverance and to pray continually in these things. All night long, Jesus prayed before he made this choice. Secondly, or thirdly, In preparation, Jesus became familiar with the candidates.

This did not happen immediately. I think it happened after he preached, for example, the Sermon on the Mount. There are some Beatitudes coming up here, and we'll look at them, but I think there are some big differences between the Beatitudes here and the ones that are in Matthew. So this is at least a year and maybe a little more into Jesus' ministry. Disciples have been following him, many disciples.

He's been preaching, he's been walking, interacting with these disciples for probably a year, maybe a little more. So he knows these people. He's familiar with them. Paul told Timothy, do not lay hands on anyone hastily. Don't ordain people hastily, but rather there should be a time of testing.

There should be a time of proving. You should know the people that you are ordaining. You should be familiar with them. And so Jesus is familiar with these disciples. He's walked with them a year.

And he knows what they're like. They aren't perfect, but he knows what they're like So there is There is a basis of observation now on which he can make a decision And so when it is day after he has prayed all night, he called his disciples to himself and from them. So he didn't call just the twelve, but he called more disciples. He specifically called the people that were following him. A disciple is a learner, somebody who is studying under somebody, somebody who is following somebody.

To be a disciple of somebody is to put yourself under somebody's instruction. Often we call teachers today teachers but in the past they have used, they have had words like master. To be a disciple is to have somebody teach you as a master. And so he called, Mark says he called those that he wanted, but Luke says he called his disciples to himself and from them, so it must have been more, from these disciples that he called up to this mountain, he chose twelve whom he also named apostles. Whom he also named apostles.

So this process begins with a call. Jesus having prayed all night, having observed these disciples for the better part of a year and becoming familiar with them, calls them to the mountain and specifically sets 12 apart to be apostles. And this is not an office that people just throw their hat in the ring and say, choose me. And we have that process for many of our civil elections. It's not a good process and our constitution gave us a much better process for choosing a president.

But it's definitely not a good process for choosing officers. These officers are called by Jesus, specifically. Today, that calling upon God's messengers, we often see it coming in two different ways. There is an inward call, because Jesus is not here physically present on earth to physically call people, but he still calls his people with an inward call. He gives to people a desire to serve him, and he gives them opportunities to do so, and he gives them the gifts to do so.

And when we see that, when the church sees that in somebody, then God also gives to God's people a desire for that person, that man, to be one of God's messengers to them. And so those two things come together, this inward call in the man and the outward recognition of that call by God's people. And there is a call. So that call is a little different today, but it's still a call. God's messengers are still called.

And it is not a matter of people simply throwing their hat in a ring and saying, pick me, pick me. They're called by Jesus, they're chosen by Jesus. Jesus also chooses a specific number here. He chose 12 out of all the disciples. It's not a random number, right?

Remember there were 12 tribes on which the Old Testament was built. And in Revelation 21, when that New Jerusalem is described, it is said to have, remember that picture of the New Jerusalem it's like the city that's a square it's 1, 500 miles 1, 500 miles wide and high wide and deep or wide and long I guess and 1, 500 miles high that city this this New Jerusalem it's said to have 12 gates and those gates had the names of the 12 tribes. And that city is said to have 12 foundation stones, and the names on those foundation stones were the names of the apostles. This is the city. And so Jesus specifically chooses 12.

That wasn't a random number. He was matching what God had, the Old Testament church. He's showing that there is one church here. He is choosing foundations for one church. The Jewish people in the Old Testament was the Church of Jesus Christ it was founded on the 12 tribes of Israel the church in the New Testament founded on the foundation of the apostles is this one and the same church of Jesus Christ and Jesus is showing that by picking 12 apostles He said to them a little later in in Matthew that they would sit to these 12 apostles would sit on 12 thrones and judge the 12 tribes I Surely I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jesus chooses here only men. There were many women disciples, But Jesus did not pick any women to be among the Apostles. The women that were among His Disciples were chosen for special honors. They were highly regarded. Women were the first to see Him after His resurrection.

Women were the first to know about His resurrection. They were the ones whom God first revealed Himself. The angels appeared to women announcing his resurrection, but Jesus did not make any women apostles. The twelve people that he picked were all men, because women are forbidden to rule or to teach or to speak in the church. They are to be silent in those matters.

Jesus sets that example. And so what Paul does in giving this instruction later on to Timothy is simply following the example that Jesus Christ set in choosing twelve men, even though there were many women that walked with him. There might have been more women among the disciples than there were men. It was the women that were brave enough to come to the cross and stay with Jesus at the cross. All Jesus' disciples had fled away.

So this is not in any way Lessening or demeaning women. It's simply not their role. And so Jesus doesn't pick any women To be his Apostles and fourthly This choice if we look at this list of disciples that he chooses, it's not based on wealth or education or influence or popularity, the sorts of things that people typically look for in their leaders. He didn't use those criteria. Some like Levi may have had wealth, but most were poor.

Most were uneducated. Later on in Acts when the Sanhedrin tried to stop Peter and the apostles from preaching in the temple. Luke tells us that they were astonished at their teaching because they realized that they were uneducated men. Now what they meant by that is they hadn't gone to the right colleges and universities and they didn't have the right letters behind their name. They hadn't sat at the feet of the right scribes and the Pharisees.

They had sat at Jesus feet. It wasn't that they didn't know anything. What that is saying is they weren't educated according to the standards of the world. They weren't educated according to the standards of education that they recognized. They didn't have a degree as we would say today.

Some of the brightest people, some of the smartest people I have ever met have in one case never graduated from high school, another case only has a high school degree. And yet these are some of the brightest people and most educated people that I know. Now there's also many educated people I know that have degrees too, but so not when they're saying they're uneducated, it's not saying that they didn't know anything. They were ignorant. It's saying they didn't have an education according to the standards of that day, according to the degrees.

What we would say today is a college degree or a PhD. See, God uses the poor and the weak to confound the wisdom of this world. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." And God chose here in these disciples, he chose fishermen, uneducated people. He chose a tax collector who maybe had some money possibly, but he would have been despised by the Jews.

I mean, if you were looking for a successful team who would have influence with the Jews, Levi wasn't one of them. Levi would have been a stumbling block to the Jews, being a tax collector, being a betrayer of their nation, a collaborator with the Romans, as we talked about that earlier. Christ looked upon the heart, he looked at the character, he looked at the inward qualities of these men. Maybe you don't think you're gifted like other people. Maybe you think you don't have the right education, you don't have the degrees behind your name.

That doesn't mean that God can't use you in mighty ways in His Kingdom. Remember how many times God used small little armies, vagabonds, the outcasts of society. David's army that he gathered together around him were all the outcasts. They were all the people that didn't fit in. How many times God has used small armies, small numbers of people who trusted in his power and his mercy to defeat much larger and more powerful armies.

Again this is not an excuse for not studying or not preparing. It's not an excuse to ignore the hard work of academic training. It's simply to say that God doesn't need those things. God needs people who are zealous for Him, who trust in Him, who put their hope in Him and in His mercy, who believe His Word, and who are willing to take him at his word. Later God did call Paul to be an apostle.

And Paul was all of those things. He was a learned man, educated, a member of the ruling class, and probably a member of the Sanhedrin. He remember he was holding the coats of the members of the Sanhedrin as a stone steven. And his nephew discovered a plot to kill Paul in the Sanhedrin. And probably because of Paul's family was a member of the ruling class Peter said that Paul wrote things that were hard to understand and Paul was God used Paul to write much of the New Testament so God can use The educated as well in spite of their education God used Moses who was a highly educated man in all the learning of Egypt.

But God doesn't need that. God needs willing people. God needs willing people. People are willing to follow Him. Nathaniel is probably Bartholomew.

These lists, by the way, are very similar. They all start with Peter, they all end with Judas, they all have basically three groups of four disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John. Sometimes they're in a little different order in those four groups, but those groups are the same. And so by comparing some of the groups, because they use different names in cases, we can in other places in scripture, we can pretty much figure out who all the various names of the people are. So what's called Bartholomew is in John called Nathaniel.

And if that's his name, Nathaniel Bartholomew, that would be Nathaniel Bar, or son of Ptolemy. So Nathaniel was Philip's friend and he was the one that of whom Jesus said behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile. Remember that when when he saw him and Philip brought him to Jesus. Peter was a fisherman as was probably his brother and James and John we know were fishermen. Matthew was Levi the tax collector and we know that because all the other gospels call him Matthew, but Matthew calls himself the tax collector to remind people where he came from.

And Thomas Deutimus, probably a twin, and Judas Iscariot, who also, Luke says, became a traitor. These are the people that God chose, that Jesus Christ chose. It's not a star-studded list. It's not a list of who's who in Israel in that day. It's a list of ordinary people, many of whom, most of whom were uneducated, but people who had followed Christ, people who were willing to obey Him, people who put their trust in Him.

These are the ones that Jesus chose. Now why did he choose them? This is why I included Mark, because Mark gives us explicitly the purpose for the choice of these men. And Mark tells us that Jesus chose these men that they might be with him. First that they might be with him.

Jesus chose these twelve men to accompany him. They now walked with him. Everywhere he went, They went. They saw how he engaged people. When he engaged the woman at the well, they saw him.

They marveled that Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan and a woman at that. They're learning from Jesus who to talk to and how to talk to. They're learning from watching Him. Jesus called them to be with Him and He trained them. It was an on-the-job training.

So he called them, he chose them to be with him. He tested them. Remember he asked Philip about getting food for 5, 000 people. He just threw that out at Philip, Philip, how are you going to feed these people? And John says, Jesus asked him to test him.

Jesus knew what he was going to do, but he was testing Philip to see what Philip would do. Was Philip going to look to Christ, who is the source of all? Was he going to call upon Jesus, call upon God, or was he going to try and solve the problem some other way? Jesus tested these disciples. He threw problems at them, to test them.

He examined them on doctrine as they walked by the way. He would say, who do you say that I am? What do you believe? They're continually walking with Him. He's testing them, He's examining them, He's instructing them in greater depth than He instructed the other disciples.

Remember, many times after He had preached to the crowds, He would then go into more detail with the twelve disciples. He gave them further instruction. He explained the meaning behind the parables. He gave them the message that the crowds were not ready for. He warned them of the wolves who would destroy the flock, the church that he was establishing.

Remember he said, beware the leaven of the Pharisees. They thought initially he was talking about bread, but then they realized he was talking about the doctrine of the Pharisees. He warned them. He prepared them for their role of guarding the flock. He taught them to serve.

Remember they were always arguing about who was the greatest among them and who would sit at His right hand and Jesus had to teach them that the greatest among you is the one who is least, the one who can serve. They learned these things as they were with Jesus. Jesus chose his apostles, these apostles, so that they could be with him. He taught them to pray and to serve. And they saw special events.

They witnessed the transfiguration. They saw Jesus as He was groaning and agonizing as He prepared for the crucifixion. So Jesus first of all chose these men so he could train them and prepare them for their office. Secondly, he chose them so that he could send them. That's what the word apostle means.

It's just a transliteration right out of the Greek, apostolo. It's to order one to go to an appointed place. Jesus chose these apostles, Mark says, so that he could order them to go to an appointed place. Paul opened every one of his letters Paul and Paul a bond servant He was a servant of God. He was God's servant whom God had sent To a specific places and he had to go as one sent by God.

These apostles were sent, remember, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the rest of the world with the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. He called them to send them and to preach the word. Now that word is that word preach is not a transliteration of the Greek word but it's K-ruso. That means that's a that that is a herald an official herald and And to preach then is to make an official announcement, to make a public declaration. It means to speak as an official messenger of the one who is sent.

See we we can all speak for what it is to live in America but we cannot speak officially to the nation of France on behalf of the President, unless we have been specifically sent and authorized by the President to bring a message to the people of France or to anybody else. And That's the significance here of this word that Jesus called these disciples and he named them apostles, meaning these are people whom he is sending and whom he is sending to with a specific message, an official message from the King, from Himself, about salvation in Jesus Christ. They are God's messengers who have been sent out to proclaim His good news. And God still sends his messengers to us today, people that he ordains and he sends upon whom he puts a call to proclaim his message. And they better be proclaiming his message and not their own.

Jesus' messengers have no authority to make up their own message. Their authority is to proclaim God's message, the message, the gospel, message, the gospel, salvation in Jesus Christ. Mark also says that he chose them to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. They were, he sent them out to preach, they're apostles, means sent ones, and they're sent with this official message and they have power to heal sicknesses and cast out demons. This last reason or purpose in calling them is to authenticate the message with signs and wonders.

The purpose of casting out demons and healing sicknesses, these are signs and wonders authenticated the message that they were bringing. God has always given his messengers signs to authenticate the message. Remember when he sent Moses to Pharaoh? Moses asked, how will they know that you sent me? And Jesus didn't say, oh don't worry about that, Just trust me.

God said to Moses when he asked that, that's a good question. Here's how they will know. And he gave Moses two authenticating signs by which his message to Pharaoh could be proven. Remember the staff that he could cast down and became a snake, and his hand that he could put into his garment that became leprous, and then when he put it back in and took it out it was pure again. And the snake when he picked it up it became a rod again.

Those were the authenticating signs. And so Jesus gives to the apostles the authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons which they do they do and That demonstrates to everybody who sees it that these are indeed God's messengers. They are not frauds They are not fake, but they are people that God has sent and the message that they are proclaiming is true. Now we have no access to Christ today like that physically, right? We can't go to him, he doesn't put his hand on us, he's in heaven.

But we can learn the things that they learned because these things have been passed on to us through the scriptures. And So what we have in the Word of God that has been written down and preserved for us is even better because we are beyond the foundation. We don't have a need for the foundation stones. We don't have a need for the scaffolding as it will. We have this Word of God, it's been preserved for the New Testament for 2000 years almost, the Old Testament even longer.

So This message that Jesus sent these apostles to preach has been passed on in the scriptures. It's also been passed on as the form of sound words that's been committed to faithful men who in turn will pass them on. We have this example. And so God continues to send his messengers. There are no more past there are no more apostles There are no more prophets Because that's the foundation now.

We are well up into the superstructure, somewhere up in this 1500 mile high city. There are pastors, there are teachers, there are evangelists. They are called by Christ in the same way. They are commissioned and sent out to proclaim His message. And they must speak only His message.

But we have that today and that's far more better and far more glorious. We don't have to desire to live back in the New Testament age, in the New Testament church, because what we have is better. We have the Word of God. We have the complete Word of God. And it is sufficient for everything that we need to be thoroughly equipped to every good work.

So we have every advantage that those Apostles had in walking with Christ. We have it in His Word and by His Spirit. When Jesus ascended, He sent His Spirit to teach us the things that He and to testify to the things that He said. So you don't have to look back and wish you were there and think wouldn't it be great? No, it's better now.

What you have and what I have in the Word of God is better. Also, we see that Jesus used fallible men to establish his church. These men that he picked had their faults. They were trying to be the greatest. They wanted the glory for themselves.

Remember they all fled and abandoned Jesus. Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. He even knew his name. Never heard of him before, he said, and swore it with an oath. Even after the resurrection, they had their faults.

They had disagreements. They had debates. They couldn't decide in Antioch. Paul withstood Peter to his face at one point because he acted hypocritically. These were fallible men, but God used them mightily.

God used them as the foundation of His church. And you and I are fallible, but He can use us. His messengers today are fallible. They were sinners, But he uses us. He uses you in his kingdom.

That the glory might belong to him and not to us. And so let us pray that the Lord would use us, that he would use our gifts in the building of his kingdom, even as he used these fallible men. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for this example. We thank you for your Word that is sufficient to teach us and to equip us for everything that we need to do, for every good work, for doctrine, for training in righteousness, that we are able to walk in obedience to all that you have us to do. Father, may we be students of your word, disciples of it.

And may you grow day by day our love for you, our devotion, our adoration of you. May you grow our grace and our ability to serve you according to the grace that you have given to us. Different in every case, a great diversity of callings, a great diversity of gifts, a great diversity of members, but all one body, one church, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Father, we ask that you would knit our body together as one body, and that we might each be nourished and fed by what each joint and ligament supplies. And then we might be fitted together, joined together into the building that you are building, through which you demonstrate your manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers of the heavens.

Father, may you encourage us, May you fill us with zeal and eagerness and anticipation of how you will use us, of how you will use this church. May you renew our dedication to be your servants in all that you have, in all the various callings that you have given to us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.