Disciples and Apostles

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Third Sunday after Pentecost – June 14, 2026

Sermon: “Disciples and Apostles”     Matthew 9:35–10:20

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Listen again to a short portion of today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew:

Matthew 10:1 And [Jesus] called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Twelve men chosen by Jesus, but did you catch the two ways that they are referred to? “Jesus called to Him His twelve disciples … These are the names of the twelve apostles …” The Twelve are sometimes called disciples and sometimes called apostles. So what’s the difference? What is a disciple, and what is an apostle?

A disciple is someone who learns from someone else, a student of a particular teacher. A disciple follows the life and teachings of that teacher to such an extent that the student becomes like the teacher. They are so closely associated that they come to share the same views and the same patterns of behavior. The disciple becomes a reflection of the teacher.

Jesus had many followers, many people who learned from His teachings while He was here on earth. Joseph of Arimathea, who provided the tomb for Jesus’ burial, is called “a disciple of Jesus” (Matthew 27:57). Throughout the book of Acts, followers of Jesus are often referred to as “disciples.” For example, it Acts chapter 6, when there was a dispute that some of the widows were not being taken care of, it says, “the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples” to discuss the matter (Acts 6:2).

Out of the larger group of followers, Jesus had chosen twelve men to be His closest followers. Those twelve were called by Jesus to leave behind what they had been doing previously to travel together with Jesus from place to place for a period of about three years. Peter, James, John, and Andrew were called to leave their previous life as fishermen. Matthew was called to leave his life as a tax collector. The background of the rest of the twelve is not recorded for us, but they all left what came before in order to follow Jesus, to learn from Him, to be shaped by Him.

After Jesus called the twelve disciples, they spent some time learning from Jesus and hearing Him preach and teach. Then in order to multiply the spreading of Jesus’ message, Jesus began to send them out, two by two (Mark 6:7). That’s how they came to be known as “apostles.” The Greek phrase where Jesus says, “I am sending you” is “ego apostello” (Matthew 10:16). So they came to be known as “apostles” because after Jesus had taught them as disciples, He began to send them out to do His work. He told them: “go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matthew 10:6–7). Later on, after His death and resurrection, Jesus would extend the places and people to which He was sending them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

To me, it’s kind of amazing how it all played out, according to Matthew’s Gospel:

Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35–38).

Jesus saw the needs of the crowds, and He saw the need for more workers to reach out to them. So first, Jesus told His disciples to pray for God to send out more laborers. Then Jesus called Twelve and gave them authority to cast out demons and heal the sick and preach the good news of God’s kingdom. They became the workers that Jesus told them to pray for! They became the ones Jesus sent out, first to the people of Israel only and later on to all nations of the world.

We are the beneficiaries of the work of the Twelve Apostles. Through the pastors who have continued the apostolic work, we have been made the disciples of Jesus today. God has called us to be His own in Baptism, and Jesus teaches us as we hear His word read and proclaimed to us. We learn from Jesus, we follow Him, and our lives are shaped to be more like Him.

And as we pray for God to send out more workers to spread the good news of Jesus, we find that we too are sent out in our own way as His workers. Jesus sends us to carry His message to the people that He brings into our lives: friends, family, co-workers, neighbors. We have the privilege of telling all of them about how God has brought His kingdom to us in Jesus, His Son.

We don’t have to be afraid that we don’t know what to say to tell others about Jesus. Jesus tells us the same thing that He told the Twelve Apostles: “do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:19–20). The Holy Spirit uses as His instruments to speak His truth to other people. He will give us the right words to say at the right time. And the results are up to the Spirit too. Only the Spirit can bring someone to faith. Not us. Jesus told the Twelve that some people would not receive them or listen to their words. They were simple to shake off the dust from their feet and move on to tell others. So we also are to do our best to tell others about Jesus, asking the Spirit to give us the right words at the right time, and then we leave the results to God.

But as good students of our Teacher, Jesus, we continue to fill our hearts and minds with His words so that we can then tell those words to others. We learn the basic truths that He has revealed to us so that we can take them heart ourselves and then tell others also.

We heard those basic truths once again in the reading from Romans today. Sin came into the world through one man, Adam. He handed down his basic sinfulness to all of us, his descendants. All of us are born as enemies of God, fighting against God and His ways. That’s why all of us are subject to the consequence of sin, which is death. All of us are sinners, so all of us deserve to die. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus saved us from the wrath of God by shedding His blood on the cross. That satisfied God’s justice that our sin had to be paid for by death. We have now been justified by Jesus’ blood, declared by God to be right in His eyes because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Jesus died in our place, so now we are free from God’s judgment. More than that, we are now “reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). While we once were God’s enemies because of our sin, now we are at one with God because Jesus took our sin away and gave us His life instead. We rejoice in what God has done to reconcile us to Himself, and we rejoice to share the good news of what He has done with other people.

In our own way now, we are Jesus’ disciples and His apostles. He calls us to follow Him so that He can make us part of His eternal kingdom, and He sends us out into our daily lives to let others know that we are His disciples by what we do and say with the help of the Holy Spirit.

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 19:1 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Exodus 19:7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Romans 5:15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Matthew 10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. 11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.