Holy Boldness

ment to His disciples. “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:28-30) First He affirms their loyalty in a way that is full of emotion, “You are those who have stood with me in my trials. ” The affection of Jesus for His men in acknowledging their faithfulness to Him through a long journey is tangible. Jesus knew and felt the loyalty of His disciples. Jesus felt the burden of what He was doing and He chose men who would endure the burden with Him. They were with Him through thick and thin and He not only acknowledged it but rewarded it powerfully. When a person is deeply loyal to Jesus, it shows and God notices. It is one thing to listen to someone’s teaching and enjoy it. It’s another thing to implement what they say to do. It’s yet a deeper thing to commit oneself to someone else’s cause. But the final step is to endure with someone through the trials. Jesus had a deep abiding affection for His disciples because they had not only joined Him but endured with Him. They were deeply loyal to God. The faithfulness of the disciples provoked this amazing statement from Jesus about their future destiny with Him. “…and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom…”. This statement is loaded with meaning. Jesus treats His own disciple’s loyalty with the same regard and reward as His father treated Him. He appoints them a kingdom, even though He knows that they will fail him later the same night. It is hard to fully comprehend what Jesus meant by this statement but one must conclude that Jesus came to establish a new governing order, a new Israel and was giving them a very special place in it. The fact that He chose twelve disciples, in the beginning, was significant in and of itself. Jesus was not just looking for a group of guys to do things with. Twelve is both the number of family (the 12 sons of Jacob) and the number of government (the 12 tribes of Israel). The fact that Jesus chose exactly twelve disciples to be with him implies a gov ernmental order. Indeed, many believe that Jesus was establishing a new Israel, a new people of God with the twelve apostles being representatives

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