The Chosen
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Introduction
Introduction
If you’ve prepared for today’s sermon by reading ahead in the text, you may have come away thinking that there’s not much there. In fact, that the way I described it to Katie at the beginning of the week. She asked how sermon prep was going on Monday or Tuesday, and I think I told her something like, the translations done, but there’s not a whole lot there. Jesus chooses his twelve disciples and then its the introduction to the Sermon on the Plain. So I’m not sure where it’s going.
But here is the thing about the Bible: if you scratch beneath the surface you may find more than you were expecting. And by that, I don’t mean find something that isn’t there or finding your own preconceived notion. But rather, slow down and meditate on the text and see what the Spirit leads you to. In this case, he led me to see for observations about Jesus. And these observations are not unique to this passage, but are seen throughout the New Testament.
The first observation is that Jesus was a Prayerful Man. The second is that Jesus was a Choosy Man. The third observation about Jesus is that he was a Welcoming Man. Finally, Jesus was a Powerful Man.
Jesus was a Prayerful Man
Jesus was a Choosy Man
Jesus was a Welcoming Man
Jesus was a Powerful Man
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.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon,
who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Jesus was a Prayerful Man
Jesus was a Prayerful Man
The first observation that we see in this narrative about Jesus is that he is a prayerful man. Luke, more than any other gospel writer, describes Jesus as being a prayerful man. We first see this lifestyle at Jesus’s baptism. Luke is the only one to mention that Jesus prayed at his baptism. In the same way, Luke is the only writer to mention that Jesus prayed before choosing his disciples. Luke saw Jesus’s praying as a integral part of his doing what he was able to do. The same is with the church. Luke constantly wrote on the praying life of Jesus and the praying life of the church and/or its members. Between the two books that he wrote, Luke and Acts, he mentions prayer and praying 35 times.
What we see in this narrative is how Jesus prayed: long and hard before selecting the twelve disciples who would carry on his mission. And that really is key to understanding this passage. And so I want to sit here a while and just work through this idea of Jesus praying and compare it with the first time we see him praying at his baptism.
There, at his baptism, Jesus was in the wilderness. That’s where John was doing his baptism. And that’s where Jesus went to receive it. Thus, we see Jesus praying in the wilderness as well as on the mountain. In the Bible, the wilderness typically represents a time of trial and testing. It’s a time of deprivation and discovery. However, the mountain is representative of closeness with God. You may have notice how often in the Old Testament, mountains and hills are mentioned and many times in relation to worship. Moses went up to Mt. Sinai to meet with God. The people built high places on the hills to worship, whether it was to false gods or to the true God. The temple was built on Mt. Zion—in fact the holy city of Jerusalem is on a mountain. In the New Testament the Samaritan woman wanted to know which was correct: worship on Mt. Zion or Mt. Gerizim.
Thus, Jesus prayed in the wilderness—where one is tried and deprived, and Jesus prayed on the mountain—where one is near to God. As the southern gospel song says, “The God on the mountain is still God in the valley.” And if Jesus knew that he needed to stay in prayer while in both places, what does that mean for us?
Secondly, while at his baptism, Jesus was planning to begin his ministry—the work of inaugurating the kingdom of God. He would soon be heading deeper into the wilderness by the prompting of the Spirit, and then into teaching and healing and ultimately his own death. This was not a time to take lightly and so we find him praying. At the same time, Jesus is about to choose his twelve disciples, whom Luke tells us he also called apostles. These men would be the ones who would be carrying on the ministry of Jesus—the work of advancing the kingdom of God.
So Jesus’s prayer life is not only a constant whether in the wilderness or on the mountain, i is focused on God’s kingdom coming on earth as it was in heaven.
But there is still a third truth about Jesus’s being a prayerful man. His prayer led to his death. God answered Jesus’s prayer for guidance. Who would be the disciples? Who would carry on the task of advancing the kingdom? And we see all the apostles listed, including Judas Iscariot—the one who would betray him. The praying of Jesus led to the picking of Judas! Because like it or not, the kingdom would never advance unless Jesus was betrayed and died.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
God’s plan was moving and God’s kingdom was advancing through this prayer of Jesus that led to much anguish and heartache.
Beloved we need to understand that praying through a decision does not take away difficulties. We need to be reminded that praying through a situation does not mean it will be smooth-sailing. In fact, it may actually mean that we are inviting problems into our lives because we are more interested in progressing God’s kingdom than protecting our own.
Jesus was a Choosy Man
Jesus was a Choosy Man
We first saw that Jesus was a Prayerful Man. We now see that Jesus was a Choosy Man. Again, when one’s mission is to advance God’s kingdom, he needs to be prayerfully choosy. In fact, we could call it discrimination. Discrimination actually just means to divide or separate. It can be done wrongly, but it can be done rightly. As Al Mohler points quite a bit, we discriminate constantly. We choose this over that. When it comes to childcare we discriminate. There are whole categories of people we discriminate against: murderers, kidnappers, and child-molesters to name a few. But also, most people discriminate against men. Have you ever noticed the lack of male babysitters? We are completely underrepresented in this field! When we choose a church to attend, we are discriminating. We want a Baptist church, but not just any Baptist church, we want a Southern Baptist Church, but not just any SBC church, we want a reformed Baptist SBC church. But not just any reformed SBC church, we want Highland View Baptist Church. So Jesus, in his prayer to advance God’s kingdom, is seeking guidance on those who would further the kingdom. These men and not those men.
And when day comes, Jesus has received the guidance that he needed. We see the same thing happening at the beginning of Acts when the apostles are seeking to replace Judas. Notice what they do:
And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen
to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”
And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
They prayed for God’s guidance. They prayed for him to choose through them. And then they allowed him to do so by casting lots. After all:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Jesus, prayerfully chooses his close-knit twelve disciples/apostles. And incidentally, every list of the apostles starts and ends with the same people. Every list starts with Simon Peter and every list ends with Judas Iscariot. Those in between are often in different order and depending on who is writing, certain ones will have their alternate name given: Bartholomew instead of Nathanael or Judas instead of Thaddaeus. But what a bunch they are! Four of them were fishermen—one of which was impetuous and mouthy. Two of which had such violent tempers, they were called the sons of thunder. There was a Roman sympathizer, or at least one who helped Rome with their taxes, and a Roman-hater who had joined a band of zealots to overthrow Rome. Then there the half whom we know virtually nothing about, except for Judas Iscariot, which most likely means: The man of Kerioth. Apart from four having the same career and some sharing names: Simon Peter, Simon Zealot; Judas of James and Judas Iscariot, they had very little in common. There is no reason that this band of misfits should have worked except that they were prayerfully chosen by Jesus.
There is a reason that Jesus prayed for their unity.
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.
There’s a reason that Paul would instruct the church at Ephesus to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Why? Because we are all a bunch of misfit followers, skilled in certain areas, unskilled in others, gifted by the Spirit to do certain things and not gifted to do others. We have the baggage of our pasts, our personalities that clash, and ways of thinking that are unbiblical, but blind to what those are. Yet, we are all called—all chosen—to advance God’s kingdom together.
Jesus was a choosy man, and he expects us to be choosy disciples—not in terms of whom we call and invite to know him, but in whom we choose to lead us and teach us. He warned the disciples to be careful about the leaven—the teaching—of the Pharisees. The apostles instructed the church in Jerusalem to choose proto-deacons that would meet certain criteria. Paul instructed Timothy and Titus to choose overseers and deacons through choosy methods. Timothy was to pass along the what he had heard and learned to trusted men who will be able to teach others.
So brothers and sisters, let us be a prayerful, choosy people, even as Jesus himself was a Choosy Man.
Jesus was a Welcoming Man
Jesus was a Welcoming Man
That being said, we see that the third observation is that Jesus was also a Welcoming Man. Notice that while Jesus got away from the crowds to pray, and chose a certain set of 12 men to be apostles, he went down to be with the people—all sorts of people from all sorts of places.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon,
who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
So in this we see those were called a great crowd of his disciples—obviously more than just the twelve. But there were also non-followers—non-disciples. There were curious people, maybe hopeful people even, but not those who had followed Jesus. They had come from all over, as far south as Jerusalem and as far north as Sidon. And they came for different reasons. Some wanted to learn. Some were afflicted by demons (whether oppressed by demons or possessed). Some were diseased and in need of healing.
And notice how Jesus responded in verse 19. He healed them all.
While it is true that every person must come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, God certainly uses various methods to bring people to Jesus initially, and to bring them back when they stray. In this case, there were the intellectually curious people. There were those suffering from physical sickness and disease. We’ve seen the paralyzed come. And then there are those who are oppressed/possessed. Notice that none of them has yet come to Jesus because they were looking for spiritual salvation. None of them came repenting and seeking him with saving faith. That had not yet occurred to any of them that they needed to.
Jesus was willing to heal them. He was willing to welcome them. And in doing so, he would then show them their need for repentance and faith.
While certainly the church is made up of believers and believers only, there is something to be said about we, representatives of Jesus, welcoming the unbeliever into our lives and into our homes. Most have no idea who Jesus is. They may initially be interested in him because of some misinformation from false teachers about financial prosperity or physical healing. They may only be curious in his ethic or his leadership style or because they hope somehow their marriage will be fixed or because they were just diagnosed with some terrible disease and they’re scared. And you know what, that’s okay. I used to think it wasn’t. We can still welcome them in their ignorance as we were welcomed in ours. We can still love them through their misunderstanding and lead them to a proper one. After all, is that not our job—to bear witness of who Jesus is to advance the kingdom of God?
So let us be a prayerful, choosy people, who do not keep others at arm’s length but welcome anyone curious as to who our Lord is.
Jesus was a Powerful Man
Jesus was a Powerful Man
Which leads us to the fourth observation about Jesus. He was a Powerful Man.
And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
His power came out of him. In other words, it oozed out of him. It exudes from him. That’s the way Luke makes it sound. When we read of examples of this happening, like the woman with the blood issue, Jesus actually could feel the power leave him—exude from him. It’s the same word. It was as if the divine power in Jesus’s humanity could not be contained! It flowed in him and through him and out of him so that though he may not be able to touch every single person, his power could.
And it was a power that was mightier than every other power. It was a power that no disease could overcome. A power no demon could conquer. It was a power that was able to handle multitudes at one time and never be overwhelmed.
While I am one who believes in this power of God, I am not one who believes that the power of healing is for the established church. These type of “sign-gifts” seem to be just that, gifts as signs of the authenticity and power of the gospel. It is for missions in unreached and unchurched places. But that is not to say that this same power that Jesus exuded is not exuded in the established church. It is just done in different ways. It is the healing of brokenness, the healing of marriages, the healing of parent and child relationships. And most especially, the healing of souls through salvation.
Now some will take this passage and others like it and say that Jesus is always willing to heal if we will just believe and ask. But that’s not the case. Jesus is always able to heal, but may not be willing, at least not in this temporal life. We know that Paul had a thorn in the flesh that he asked to be removed three times, but was denied. Instead, God was presenting him with a lesson we all need to learn. You remember the words don’t you?
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
That word sufficient does not mean what we often think that it means. It does not mean that God will see us through. Though that is true; that’s not what this verse means. It doesn’t mean that God is enough. Though that is true; it’s not what Jesus was saying to Paul. What he was saying was that Paul was not up to the task that has been given to him and he needed to see it and know it. Only God was up to the task. And so, only God was sufficient for Paul and for the task. Only God was strong enough for the work assigned; and if Paul could only come to accept that by his thorn, then the thorn must stay.
So Jesus may not always be willing to heal in this life because he needs us to live not in our own power, but in his. So we see that Jesus’s power is not only to heal, but to perform the task given to us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish with this text, we’ve seen four observations about Jesus: he was a prayerful, choosy, welcoming, and powerful man. And as we are studying this, I hope we are getting a fuller picture as to this Jesus is whom we worship. I hope we get a fuller picture as to who we are in relation to him. That he prays for us. As the writer of Hebrew wrote, he ever lives to intercede for us. He chose us. As Jesus said in John, no one can come to him unless the Father draws him and he will in no way cast us out. He welcomes us no matter our past, no matter our brokenness, our disease, our pain, our afflictions. We need only go to him to experience his power—whether it is power to heal us or power to work in and through us.
If you don’t know this Jesus, you can. I’ve already introduced him to you this morning. Now you need only surrender your life to him and follow him.
If you do know him though, may you never forget what we’ve seen here this morning. As you and I struggle or as you and have successes, may we never forget that Jesus is the one who has and continues to pray for us, chose us, welcomed us and welcomes us still, and he is the one by whom we derive all power for kingdom advancement.