Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley

The Foundation Determines the Superstructure!

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles…” Luke 6:12-13 ESV

Having spent a year since His baptism around Jerusalem and recruited the two sets of brothers to full-time discipleship, Jesus now creates a ‘leadership team’ called the Apostles.  The Twelve were chosen by Jesus as He looked ahead two years knowing that He would be leaving them to carry on His mission to reach the world. 

These Twelve would become the model for others who would come.  Anyone who wondered what following Jesus was like only had to look at the example of His inner circle to know what discipleship meant.  The Twelve were both catalyst and model for the disciplemaking movement.  They were the foundation on which Jesus would build. 

Within two years from their designation a ‘messengers’ (apostles), they were given the final command to ‘make disciples of all the nations’ (Matthew 28:18-20).  They would take what they knew and experienced, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, seek to conquer the world.  Local leaders commented, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”  (Acts 6:13)

As others are attracted to your disciplemaking they will evaluate the quality of your influence by the lives of those already involved.  Especially those designated as disciplemaking leaders act as a living advertisement of what discipleship means. 

In the case of the Twelve, it was undeniable that they had ‘been with Jesus’ and no other schooling experience could explain their behavior.  The first generation determines all who follow.