Luke 6:12-16 - Prayerfully Chosen
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
Do you remember having a really important decision to make? Maybe it was a big move. Maybe it was an important job change. Maybe it was an important health decision. Whatever the decision was, it was overwhelming. Making the wrong decision would likely result in a bad outcome. And you felt the weight of the decision.
I pray that you sought the Lord like Jesus Christ did in our account today. Maybe you didn’t put in 8-10 hours of prayer like He did but hopefully you did put some time in!
Today we are going to see Jesus go to His Heavenly Father deep in prayer as He prepares to choose His 12 disciples that would be named as Apostles.
You see, Jesus had become more and more of a lightening rod in Israel. There were many who seemed to be fans of Him. But there were many in high places that hated Him.
It is no wonder why Luke lets us know that Jesus chose these 12 right after verse 11 - where we see that fury filled the religious leaders.
Jesus’ ministry was getting more opposed day by day and He needed to be ready to train up a people who would be able to multiply the church after His death.
And that is where our Scripture starts today…
Read Full Scripture:
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:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,
and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Prayer
Today we will see three aspects of Christ’s prayerfully choosing. The first is…
I. Christ Prayerfully Chooses His Apostles (12-13)
I. Christ Prayerfully Chooses His Apostles (12-13)
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
Jesus went to a mountain to pray. Why a mountain? It was a place of solitude and wilderness. It was just Him and His Father together in prayer.
And we see that He prayed all night. That is quite a prayer time! Most of us struggle to pray for minutes to an hour or so. But Jesus is praying the entire night! How amazing is that!
So why did Jesus pray so diligently during this time period? He had quite a big decision to make. He wanted to be sure that He was doing His Father’s will. He had laid down His own will and was led by the Holy Spirit. Although He remained fully God after the incarnation, some things were revealed to Him at times by the Father and some things weren’t (consider the return of Christ - that even the Son did not know the day or the hour - Mark 13:32). He wanted to be sure that He was following the Father’s will.
We don’t know if there were also some pressing struggles that night in prayer as well. Was He thinking about the choosing of Judas? Jesus knew well ahead of time that Judas was the betrayer and traitor. Was Jesus struggling with choosing someone to be an Apostle that He knew would betray Him? Was He struggling with choosing some of the others - knowing that they would scatter like sheep after He would be arrested?
We do not know all of the details of His extended diligent prayer, but we do see Him give us an incredible example of persistence in prayer.
Theologian Kent Hughes spurs us on as believers when he compares Jesus’ prayers of dependence on God with our proclivity and bend toward independence from God. He ends with this charge that comes from John 15:5:
Jesus didn’t say, “Apart from me you can do something.” Rather, he said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Kent Hughes (Commentary on Luke)
May we model this kind of prayer life brothers and sisters. May we see prayer as not just something we do as an obligation, but may we see it as the important conversation and relationship with God that it is. May we see it as a joy and a privilege and a need. And may we pray to God that He helps us desire to pray even more.
We, as a church, need to strive more and more to be a people of prayer. Men, I implore you to come Tuesday mornings at 6:30 AM as we lift up prayer to the Lord. I understand that it is early and difficult - but if you are at all able - make it a priority.
And I am also planning on giving more opportunities for prayer for our church in the coming months. Let’s be a people of prayer. If it was important to Christ it should certainly be important to us.
James 5:16b (ESV)
… The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
And my friends - if you are in Christ - you are that righteous person. Not because of any goodness intrinsically in you - but because Christ lives in you and intercedes for you and He is perfectly righteous!
So let us truly believe that our prayers have great power and that God works through them! And may we show that belief by being doers of the Word and doers of prayer.
Getting back to Jesus… after He he is done with this entire night-long prayer, He comes down and chooses the twelve.
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Before getting into the 12 specific men chosen, it is important for us to see the purposefulness of the number 12. There were 12 tribes of Israel and now we see 12 disciples chosen. And it is these 12 men (minus Judas and plus Matthias who replaced Judas as seen in Acts 1:23-26) that are said to be judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom - see Luke 22:29-30. It is beautiful to see the continuity of our unchanging God in the Scriptures.
And these 12 men are called Apostles or in Greek apŏstŏlŏs (ap-os’-tol-os). This word means one who is sent and called out. It refers to one who is sent out as a messenger on a mission. They were a special group of men.
We have discussed in the past that there are two types of apostles.
Big ‘A’ Apostles - referring to those who are chosen by Christ personally and who witnessed His resurrected state and were the foundational leaders and founders of Christ’s church during the first century.
And
Little ‘a’ apostles - We, today are little ‘a’ apostles. We are ones who are sent out to tell the good news of the Gospel. However, we have not been given the same abilities and privileges as these initial Big ‘A’ Apostles who were sent out to start the church.
These 12 men that Jesus chose as big ‘A’ Apostles were set apart for ministry specifically by Christ. They would be given special gifts by God to spread the Gospel throughout the world. These men - apart from Judas - would be the men that are said to have turned the world upside down.
And it is these 12 men that Jesus prayerfully chooses as Apostles…
Yet these Apostles also continue to remain as prayerfully chosen apprentices as well…
Scripture References: Mark 13:32, John 15:5, James 5:16b, Acts 1:23-26, Luke 22:29-30
II. Christ Prayerfully Chooses His Apprentices (14-16a)
II. Christ Prayerfully Chooses His Apprentices (14-16a)
Luke 6:14–16a (ESV)
Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James…
Now we come to the 12 disciples who are chosen and sent out as Apostles. Well - I only read 11 so far and we will get to number 12 in a bit. But these men would continue to be referred to as disciples of their Master as well. They still had much to learn before Christ would be taken from them. And just as the Greek word for disciple is also defined - they continued as apprentices, students, and pupils of Jesus.
And now we have been given the list of these chosen men. As we will see as we go through an overview of these men chosen by Christ, we will see that they are not what would be referred to as an exceptional team of men. Obviously God has to use inadequate people because all of us are. But these guys actually even stand out as more inadequate than most!
First we come to the four fishermen (Brothers Simon Peter and Andrew and Brothers James and John). Let’s address the leader of the group first…
Simon Peter
This is the man that Christ states that He will build His church on. He receives his nickname, Peter which means rock, from Jesus personally. Peter is a born leader. His name is at the beginning of every complete list of the disciples. But as a natural born leader, he lacks humility at times and is a shoot first and ask questions later kind of guy. As we will see throughout this Gospel, Peter will be a part of amazing things. He sees Jesus transfigured - but then makes a bonehead statement right after (Luke 9:28-36). In the book of Mark we see that Peter is the first to articulate that Jesus is the Son of God - but then he needs rebuked by Christ right after this and is called Satan (Mark 8:27-33).
Despite his struggles, Peter is used mightily by God at Pentecost (Acts 2) and becomes a pillar of the early church. Peter proves that Christ can do great things through even the toughest and most stubborn-minded of people.
Next we come to:
Andrew
The four fisherman are known as the inner circle of Jesus’ ministry but Andrew is the least known of these. Luke doesn’t even mention Andrew in the call of Peter, James, and John even though it is likely he was there as well (Luke 5:1-11). Andrew misses out on some of the exciting things the other three get to experience such as the Transfiguration.
Yet Andrew is one of the behind the scenes guys that continues to bring people to Jesus. In fact, he is the one who first introduces his brother Peter to Jesus!
Then we have:
James and John
James is most likely John’s older brother as his name is always given first, but he is much less known than John. James and John must have been quite the duo because Jesus nicknamed them the Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:7). We see this firebrand team showing their true colors when they ask Jesus if they should call down fire to consume the Samaritan people who do not welcome Jesus in Luke 9:54.
Yet James would go on to become the first of the 12 Apostles to be martyred for the Gospel. God would use his strength to be able to stand firm in the midst of persecution (Acts 12:1-2).
And John would be sanctified from his fiery personality to being nicknamed the Apostle of love - because he used the word love more than 100 times in his writings.
After the first four we come to the next group of disciples starting with:
Philip and Nathanael (also called Bartholomew)
Philip and Nathanael are only mentioned by name in the first three Gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke - also referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they have many parallel accounts.
But we do see both of these men mentioned in the book of John - John 1:45-51. During this account we see Philip called by Christ. After his call, Philip goes to get Nathanael and lets Him know that he had found the Messiah - Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael replies with prejudice - can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yet Nathanael is in awe of Jesus’ after meeting him.
So here we see a man with prejudice chosen by God and sanctified.
And the last time we see Philip say anything in the Gospels, we see him make an incredibly disappointing statement with asking Jesus to show him the Father - whereby Jesus lets him know that seeing Jesus is seeing the Father (John 14:8-14).
Jesus can even use those who are slow to learn and understand like Philip and help them grow in their understanding. And He can even use and deliver those who come with prejudices like Nathanael.
Then we come to:
Matthew and Thomas
We won’t go into much detail about Matthew today because we spoke of him a few weeks ago as we went through his call from Jesus in Luke 5:27-32. But if you recall, he was a tax collector and because of such he was considered one of the lowest lifeforms in all Israel.
But Thomas is new to the Gospel of Luke. Thomas gets quite a bad rap. We even use the phrase ‘doubting Thomas’ about people today who are pessimistic which stems from his doubting in John 20 regarding the resurrection of Jesus. Thomas is definitely the pessimist though. As much as I want to defend him because I can be a realist at time - my wife would refer to that as pessimism (yet I would have to disagree!) - I have to admit that Thomas definitely takes the cake when it comes to pessimism though. My favorite account of Thomas showing this pessimism is in John 11:16. Jesus has just said he was going to go back to Lazarus’s place because Lazarus had died. Contextually we know that this would be going back to Judea and there were people trying to kill Jesus in the area already. And so here is what Thomas says:
So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
You have to love his resolve though! If you can get through the pessimism you have to admire the bravery there as well!
So we see that God can even use the negative Nancy’s of the world for His glory!
Then we come to the lesser known disciples…
James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James (also known as Thaddeus - see Matthew 10:3)
These last three Apostles before getting to the traitor, we know little about.
James the son of Alphaeus (James the Less) we know just about nothing about other than his name and his father’s name! Any traits about this man would be a wild guess. But he is a reminder that God uses those in the background as well. This man would go on to minister along with the other Apostles. He would be lesser known but yet still minister for the Gospel.
Simon the Zealot is not mentioned other than in the lists of disciples as well. The only thing we are told about him is that he is a zealot. But that does tell us a lot. The zealots were a radical group of Jews that violently resisted Rome. They were extreme Israelite nationalists who hated Roman occupation and would do whatever it took to fight against it.
The ironic thing about Jesus calling this man is that He also called Matthew the tax collector. Isn’t it like Christ to call two men that are diametrically opposed to unity in the Gospel. Jesus may use people that you cannot stand. People that you consider your enemies may very well be serving in a church with you one day. Be prepared to show the grace that Christ shows to you to others!
Finally we get to Judas the son of James - also named Thaddeus as we see in the book of Matthew. We see Thaddeus speak one time in the Gospels (John 14:22) in which he asks a question regarding Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit coming upon them. Other than that we know nothing about this man. Like, James the son of Alphaeus, he falls by the wayside of Scripture other than having the unfortunate name that is shared by the betrayer we will see in a few moments - Judas Iscariot.
With all of these mini biographies in mind, we have a couple of take home points we need to consider:
Jesus used sinners and He can use you too.
Many people don’t feel like they can be used by God because of their inadequacy. Yet, as we look at this group of disciples, we see that God uses unlikely individuals to do extraordinary things.
What Christ does in your life is not limited by your weakness. It is only limited by your measure of obedience.
As Paul asserted:
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Our weakness shows Christ’s strength as He works through us.
And we also see in these biographies that:
Jesus restored sinners and He can restore you too.
Jesus again isn’t limited by your past. Look at the disciples and some of the huge messes they were. They sinned in huge ways and against Jesus time and time again. Yet He was gracious to restore them. There is no more beautiful account than Peter after denying the Lord three times before the crucifixion (Luke 22:54-62) being restored by the resurrected Jesus (John 21:15-17).
My friends, Jesus can use even you and me! Like we discussed earlier but with even more of an anti-humanistic tone:
God uses inadequate people because we are all inadequate and we are all He has to work with!
Christ is worthy of all praise and glory and honor - even from the inadequate people of this earth. May we bring Him glory.
Finally we come to our last point…
Scripture References: Luke 9:28-36, Mark 8:27-33, Acts 2, Luke 5:1-11, Mark 3:7, Luke 9:54, Acts 12:1-2, John 1:45-51, John 14:8-14, John 20, John 11:16, Matthew 10:3, John 14:22, Luke 22:54-62, John 21:15-17
III. Christ Prayerfully Chooses His Adversary (16b)
III. Christ Prayerfully Chooses His Adversary (16b)
Luke 6:16b (ESV)
… and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Finally we are introduced to the last disciple listed. It is:
Judas Iscariot
...who became a traitor as Luke asserts.
His name being Iscariot likely referred to a region in Judea which is interesting because the other 11 were all from Galilee.
We see the Gospel writers always list Judas Iscariot last. And many times when his name is mentioned, we see his eventual outcome as a traitor or betrayer listed. But during his earthly ministry with Christ, he must not have been notable as evil or off base. His external perception from others was likely even favorable as he was the keeper of the money. Yet his external trustworthiness was deceptive as we see John let us know in John 12:4-6 that Judas had been stealing from the moneybag regularly.
But from all accounts the disciples did not suspect Judas of any wrongdoing before his betrayal of Christ. In fact, shortly after washing the disciple’s feet (including Judas’s feet) Jesus states that one of the disciples will betray him (John 13:21-30). Even after saying that the one He gave the morsel of bread to after dipping it in the wine was the one and handing it to Judas, the disciples still thought that when Judas left he was going to buy something for the feast or giving something to the poor.
Judas had a reputation of being upright. He played the game extremely well. He seemed to walk the right way and talked the right way. And He hung out with the right people - including Christ Himself!
But as my friend, Pastor Josh Bailey alluded to…
Judas is a prime example that proximity to Jesus does not guarantee a correct posture toward Jesus.
Pastor Josh Bailey
Just because you are around the people of Jesus - just because you attend His church - doesn’t mean that you are a true follower of Jesus.
Jesus’ call of discipleship is one that requires complete obedience and submission.
Judas was never fully obedient or submissive. Yes, he would hang out with Jesus and His disciples. He even seemed to walk the walk and talk the talk at times. But he did not have a true heart for Christ. He never truly believed and submitted himself to Christ. Let this be a lesson to us. May we test our hearts and be sure that we aren’t like Judas. That we aren’t just going through the motions and doing the ‘right’ things - all the while not really submitting to Christ and not be truly obedient to Him.
Scripture References: John 12:4-6, John 13:21-30
Conclusion:
As we come to a close consider:
Friends, if you are in Christ then you have been prayerfully chosen. See Jesus pray for you in John 17:20-23:
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Jesus has lifted you up in prayer some 2,000 years before you were even born! How beautiful is that truth.
And our account today has let us know that Jesus can use even us. If He can use this diverse crew of misfits, He can certainly use us as well!
Know that Christ has prayerfully chosen you, believer. And because of that - He has called you to step out in faith and serve Him with boldness.
He will continue to pick you back up and restore and discipline you like He did His disciples here. Only keep persevering in His strength He provides through the Holy Spirit.
However, some in our churches are like Judas Iscariot. They look chosen. They look like they belong. But their heart is far from God. They are all about their own fleshly desires and greed and think little of Christ and obeying Him.
If that is you - repent and turn from your evil ways. Run to Jesus and fully submit to Him.
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.
Jesus is willing to reconcile His enemies. He loves saving sinners and died for them. Repent of your sins, and be reconciled and made right with Christ. I’d love to talk with you about how you can make that decision to follow Christ. Please talk with me after the service if you are ready to take that step of faith friend.
Prayer