Twelve

By Rev. George Borghardt

Twelve. The Lord does twelves. He had twelve tribes in Israel. He chose twelve men to be His Apostles.

Twelve is His Church’s number. His Church was created from His side—from the Blood and Water that flowed on Good Friday when He gave His life for His Bride, the Church. In the Blood and Water, in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, is born the Church.

And after He had risen from the dead on Easter morning, the Lord met His eleven Apostles. He had had have twelve Apostles, but Judas had betrayed Him. Twelve minus one is eleven...and eleven just wouldn’t do.

So He sent His Apostles to make more disciples—to complete His Twelve. He said to them, “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, as you are going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to hold dear everything I have commanded. Lo, I am with you each day until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

In Acts, St. Matthias was given the twelfth Apostle’s place. Then, at Pentecost, when three thousand heard the Gospel and were baptized, the Lord’s Twelve were right there, standing up in front. The Lord had His Twelve—and then some!

On the Last Day, when the Lord speaks about His church—Old and New Testament —there is His Twelve once again. More specifically, there is His one hundred and fortyfour thousand. Standing with the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, in the Book of Revelation is a great multiple of the baptized, the sealed, numbering 144,000 (Rev. 14:10). His one hundred forty-four thousand are His Church of the Old and New Testaments. That’s His “old” Twelve and His “new” Twelve through all eternity: 12x12x1000! They bear the Father’s name and they are His. The Lord does twelves!

There is another twelve happening next year, isn’t there? Next year is 2012! But let’s be real. The Church is the last thing on our minds when we think of 2012. We are preoccupied by what is going on in our world, our economy, and those Mayans and their crazy calendar ending on the winter solstice (12/21/12).

Or you might even be thinking, “Wait, isn’t next year Higher Things’ twelfth year of doing conferences?” Why, yes, it is! Coram Deo is our eleventh year. Next year will be our twelfth year. Are we really that old? Lord, have mercy!

Which makes 2012 the perfect year for the theme of Higher Things’ Conferences to be “Twelve.” Our theme will be centered upon His Church in the Last Days. Yes, we’ll be doing Twelve in ’12. How cool is that?

Or maybe it’s not so original—we’ll take that, too. We didn’t come up with Twelve. Twelve is the Church’s number because it was the Lord’s number first.

Jesus loves Twelves—His twelve, His tribes, and His church. He washes His Church, cleans her, feeds her, and one day soon will take her from behind this veil of tears to be with Him forever. See you at Twelve! In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. George Borghardt is the Senior Pastor at Zion Ev. Lutheran Church in McHenry, Illinois, and serves as the Conference and Deputy Executive of Higher Things. His email is revborghardt@higherthings.org.