Luke 6 part II: Check Your Beatitude
Notes
Transcript
What does it mean to be spiritually mature?
During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
The time came for Jesus to call his apostles, the twelve disciples that would be closest to Him throughout His ministry.
Jesus takes great care in who He chooses
Jesus takes great care in who He chooses
Jesus doesn’t make this decision lightly but instead spends time in prayer seeking God’s wisdom and direction in His decision
If Jesus, the Son of God, takes this time to make His decision, how much more should we value getting away from distractions and seeking God’s guidance in our lives.
When I think about the most important moments of my life, where I’d go to school, who I would marry, moving to New Mexico. I didn’t make those decisions lightly. In each case I went to the Lord for wisdom and guidance.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth And from the first of all your produce; So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord Or loathe His reproof, For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
I love this passage. This has been one that I have come back to several times throughout my life.
Don’t trust in your own understanding but trust in the Lord with all your heart
Bring God in on the direction your life should go and everything will work out
Don’t think you can do it all on your own
Honor God and live to glorify Him and it will be healing to you
Honor God with your possessions and you will find contentment and blessings
Don’t reject the Lord’s correction and discipline in your life because He is only doing it because He loves you
All the lessons we learn from this passage help us to follow Jesus and His call on our lives.
Jesus takes great care in His decision. He doesn’t rush into it but approaches the decision with wisdom. Young people have a great deal to learn about wisdom. I think that it is easy for young people to fall into the trap of feeling like people that are older are out of touch, like they don’t understand. A wise person seeks good council before making a decision. A wise person will prayerfully consider a decision before they make it. It is much easier to stay a fool than it is to become wise. Choosing wisdom takes humility and patience. You have to be humble enough to realize not every idea you have is a good one. Humble enough to know that other people know a whole lot more than you do. You have to be patient. Wisdom doesn’t happen over night. It is a process and a skill that is developed over time. It can be difficult to be young and wise. There is an over exposure of information and opportunity in your lives. You have all this information and knowledge from smart phones and the internet but you lack the real world experience to understand the danger of the information. This creates an artificial maturity or an artificial wisdom. We think that because we know a lot about life that means we know how it really is. This artificial maturity can create serious damage in our lives. The way we evolve artificial maturity into authentic maturity is by listening to the wisdom of God and seeking to honor God in what we do. Sometimes wisdom means not doing something you really want to do. Sometimes it means saying no and choosing what best honors God. I know a lot of ways to sin, to make myself happy and comfortable, and a lot of ways to hurt other people. I have a lot of information and opportunity to do those things, but I also have the wisdom to know that sin doesn’t just hurt others but it hurts me too, and by choosing wisdom over foolishness I am choosing the best path for my life. Jesus is the giver of wisdom but still prayed for guidance.
Jesus doesn’t make mistakes in who He calls
Jesus doesn’t make mistakes in who He calls
They were ordinary men called to an extraordinary cause
The list is not particularly that impressive. You had a handful of fisherman, a tax collector, a zealot. These guys weren’t all that impressive. It would be like putting together a basketball team but instead of picking guys like Lebron or Shaq, you picked up Dave the clerk from Allsups. There is something extraordinarily ordinary about the men Jesus called to follow Him.
The men Jesus chose, minus Judas, would go on to be significant leaders in the early church, but even Judas served a purpose in God’s kingdom.
Some would be inspired to write Scripture
Some would serve as elders in various churches
Peter and James would be the primary leaders of the Jerusalem church.
The reason they were able to do these things was because the Holy Spirit worked in their lives to grow them and mature them into wise leaders. Jesus called a bunch of knuckle-headed fools and discipled them into wise leaders. Discipleship is so important in the process of maturing. Without a mentor in our lives we will struggle to grow in our Spiritual maturity.
If Jesus didn’t make a mistake in calling His disciples we can trust that Jesus doesn’t make a mistake in calling us. We are ordinary people called to an extraordinary task. We may not be ready for all that God wants to do through us but He is growing us and equipping us for the task.
I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
After coming down with them, he stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well. The whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all.
Jesus performs all these signs and wonders but the focus of what He wants His disciples to learn isn’t how they can do cool miracles. He is teaching them how to answer the call of wisdom. Over the next few weeks we will look at Jesus’ sermon on the plains and ask the question, what does it mean to live in wisdom?
The sermon on the plain is very similar to the sermon on the mount from the book of Matthew. Some reason that these are the same occurrence with the flat area being a flat portion of the hillside described by Matthew or it could be that Jesus preached a similar sermon multiple times as He traveled throughout Judea healing and casting out demons. The wisdom Jesus teaches in this passage were in many way a foretaste of what His ministry would look like.
Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note—your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort. Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.
Being a friend of God creates enmity between us and the world. We cannot follow Christ and follow the world. Jesus wants us to be fully satisfied in Him.
Being a friend of God creates enmity between us and the world. We cannot follow Christ and follow the world. Jesus wants us to be fully satisfied in Him.
Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort.
It is important to see here that Jesus isn’t saying that owning possessions is a sin and that you have to be poor to be Christian. He is saying that it is a dangerous thing when we love money and comfort more than God. Money and comfort can very quickly become idols in our lives. Jesus is trying to shift our mindset from the physical and what we need materialistically to what we need spiritually.
For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life?
If we have all the material possessions this world has to offer but we have never been born again we forfeit everything. What good is it to be physically rich but spiritually bankrupt? We talked about this last week. We are spiritual beings with a physical body. The physical things the world offers can’t satisfy our spiritual need. Only Jesus can do that. Jesus tells us we are blessed when physical wealth becomes poverty to us, when money means nothing, because we are rich spiritually. The blessing of belonging to God’s Kingdom is worth more than all the money in the world could buy and Jesus offers it to us freely. Jesus continues this shift in our world view with another view of comforts.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh.
Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep.
Again, Jesus isn’t telling us that if we want to be Christian we should be hungry and sad. Although that is likely part of our journey in following Him, Jesus is talking about something bigger. One sign of spiritual maturity and wisdom is that we are hungry for Jesus. If we have tasted the goodness of Jesus we will be hungry for more.
Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Jesus tells us that if we hunger for spiritual satisfaction we will find it in Him. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness we will be filled. Foolishness comes when we no longer want righteousness. When we feel like we have had enough of Jesus and are ready for something else. Felling full of the world will lead to spiritual starvation later. It is better to starve physically and be filled spiritually than to never want physically and starve spiritually.
The third beatitude Jesus gives us is about mourning. Something that happens as we grow out of foolishness and into wisdom is we become broken over our sin. There is a period of mourning that accompanies repentance followed by the joy of grace. Jesus says it is a foolish thing to laugh and celebrate sin. It is better to mourn and put to death the old self because that will lead to everlasting joy.
When we are physically poor we can be blessed knowing that we are spiritually rich
When we are physically hungry we can be blessed knowing that we are spiritually full
When we mourn physically we can be blessed knowing that we have joy spiritually
This leads to the last beatitude that summarizes all the others.
Whatever we go through in this life, no matter how terrible, if we have Jesus we are blessed. The blessings of wisdom and of following Jesus are rooted in Jesus. He is why we call ourselves blessed. Whatever we do, if we do it for the sake of the Lord, we can trust that it is not in vain.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note—your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets.
Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.
We can anticipate that following Jesus will lead to suffering for Him. People will hate us, they will exclude us, they will insult us, and slander our names. They will do all of these things because of Jesus. There is a cost to answering the call. Spiritual maturity understands that no matter what following Jesus might cost us He is worth the risk. Wisdom says if following Jesus means I loose everything. If it means I have no money, if it means I lose friends, lose popularity, if it means I loose even my life, I will follow Jesus no matter the cost.
The disciples understood this call, and they were willing to follow Jesus even to their deaths.
Foxe's Book of Martyrs (I. St Stephen)
I. Stephen
The first martyr was Stephen who we know was stoned by the Sanhedrin. He was taken and put on trial. He was stoned by the religious leaders the Paul who was then Saul held their coats while they killed him.
II. James the Great
The next martyr we meet with, according to Luke, in the History of the Apostles’ Acts, was James the son of Zebedee, the elder brother of John. It was not until ten years after the death of Stephen that the second martyrdom took place; for no sooner had Herod Agrippa been appointed governor of Judea than, with a view to ingratiate himself with them, he raised a sharp persecution against the Christians, and determined to make an effectual blow, by striking at their leaders. James was beheaded. Thus did the first apostolic martyr cheerfully and resolutely receive that cup, which he had told our Savior he was ready to drink. These events took place in AD 44.
III. Philip
Was born at Bethsaida, in Galilee and was first called by the name of “disciple.” He labored diligently in Upper Asia, and suffered martyrdom at Heliopolis, in Phrygia. He was scourged, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified, A. D. 54.
IV. Matthew
Whose occupation was that of a tax collector, was born at Nazareth. He was the writer of one of the Gospel accounts along with Mark, John, and Luke. The scene of his labors was Parthia, and Ethiopia, in which latter country he suffered martyrdom, being slain with a. halberd in the city of Nadabah, AD 60.
V. James the Less
James was elected to be overseer of the churches of Jerusalem; and was the author of the book of James. At the age of ninety-four he was beat and stoned by the Jews; and finally was thrown off the temple mount and had his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club.
VI. Matthias
Of whom less is known than of most of the other disciples, was elected to fill the vacant place of Judas. He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded.
VII. Andrew
Was the brother of Peter. He preached the gospel to many Asian nations; but on his arrival at Edessa he was taken and crucified on a cross, the two ends of which were fixed transversely in the ground (in the shape of an X). Hence the derivation of the term, St. Andrew’s Cross.
VIII. Mark
Was born of Jewish parents of the tribe of Levi. He is supposed to have been converted to Christianity by Peter, whom he served as an writer (scribe), and under whose inspection he wrote his Gospel in the Greek language. Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria, at the great solemnity of Serapis their idol, ending his life under their merciless hands.
IX. Peter
Among many other saints, the apostle Peter was condemned to death, and crucified, as some do write, at Rome. Jerome said that he was crucified his head being down and his feet upward, himself so requiring, because he was (he said) unworthy to be crucified after the same form and manner as the Lord was.
X. Paul
Paul, the apostle, who before was called Saul, after his great travail and unspeakable labors in promoting the Gospel of Christ, suffered also in this first persecution under Nero. The soldiers came and led him out of the city to the place of execution, where he, after his prayers made, gave his neck to the sword.
XI. Jude
The brother of James, was commonly called Thaddeus. He was crucified at Edessa, AD 72.
XII. Bartholomew
Preached in several countries, and having translated the Gospel of Matthew into the language of India, he propagated it in that country. He was at length cruelly beaten and then crucified by the impatient idolaters.
XIII. Thomas
Called Didymus, preached the Gospel in Parthia and India, which exciting the rage of the pagan priests, he was martyred by being thrust through with a spear.
XIV. Luke
The evangelist, was the author of the Gospel which goes under his name. He traveled with Paul through various countries, and supposed to have been hanged on an olive tree, by the idolatrous priests of Greece.
XV. Simon
Surnamed Zelotes, preached the Gospel in Africa, and even in Britain in which latter country he was crucified, AD 74.
XVI. John
The “beloved disciple,” was brother to James the Great. The churches of Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Thyatira, were founded by him. From Ephesus he was ordered to be sent to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian after wards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Nerva, the successor of Domitian, recalled him. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.
XVII. Barnabas
Was of Cyprus, but of Jewish descent, his death is supposed to have taken place about AD 73. And yet, notwithstanding all these continual persecutions and horrible punishments, the Church daily increased, deeply rooted in the doctrine of the apostles and of men apostolical, and watered plenteously with the blood of saints.
Answering the call to follow Jesus can be costly, but every one of these men believed that Jesus was worth it. They gave their lives to Christ and were used to reach people all over the world. They were Gospel writers, church planters, evangelists, missionaries, pastors. They were ordinary people called by God to an extraordinary task.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The physical pain we might suffer for Jesus here is only temporary, but the blessing of following Jesus is eternal. We are all ordinary people, called to an extraordinary task. How will we respond?
