Luke 6:12-49

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Intro

This morning we will be looking over Luke 6:12-49. in The previous set of verses specifically 5:12-6:11 Luke portrayed Jesus' authority as the Son of God to cleanse lepers, forgive sins, call sinners, challenge Jewish leaders and authorities and redefine Judaism and the Sabbath. in all of the cases stated he is not just acting on behalf of God, but as God himself. We will be looking today at his ministry expanding from a ministry of one to a ministry of many. I will cover each section in the order it is written

first, we see the appointing of the Apostles

second, we have the set up and delivery of what many call "the sermon on the plain"

Let me go ahead at this point to read over the passage for us and ask again that the Father would bless this time.

The Twelve Apostles

12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Jesus Ministers to a Great Multitude

17 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, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

The Beatitudes

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Jesus Pronounces Woes

24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Love Your Enemies

27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Judging Others

37 j“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

A Tree and Its Fruit

43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Build Your House on the Rock

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

PRAY

So, our passage start off this morning with the appointing of the 12 apostles verses 12-16. This appointment was the first ordination in church history, and an ordination conducted by the Great Head of the Church himself.

And here there are two things I would like to bring to our attention. 1st we see a large emphasis prayer, and 2nd the significance of what is going on here with the appointing of the apostles.

We read that He "went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God." It's an interesting thing to think of the fact that Jesus, God the Son, would even pray at all. but prayer is something we see Luke put emphasis on very often in his account of the Gospel. We see it here, if we also look back at the baptism of Jesus a couple chapters back we see that Luke's account specifically mentions the fact that Jesus was praying.

In Ryles expository thoughts on Luke he writes, We need not doubt that there is a deep significance in this special mention of our Lord’s praying upon this occasion. It was intended to be a perpetual lesson to the Church of Christ. It was meant to show the great importance of prayer and intercession on behalf of ministers, and particularly at the time of their ordination. Those to whom the responsible office of ordaining is committed, should pray that they may “lay hands suddenly on no man.” Those who offer themselves for ordination, should pray that they may not take up work for which they are unfit, and not run without being sent. The lay members of the Church, not least, should pray that none may be ordained, but men who are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost.—Happy are those ordinations, in which all concerned have the mind that was in Christ, and come together in a prayerful spirit!

Do we desire to help forward the cause of pure and undefiled religion in the world? Then let us never forget to pray for ministers, and especially for young men about to enter the ministry. The progress of the Gospel, under God, will always depend much on the character and conduct of those who profess to preach it."

Next let us note the significance of the role Jesus is bestowing upon the 12. Jesus had and continues to have many disciples or followers but apostles were those sent out as messengers with delegated authority.

The word “apostle” (Gk. apostolos) derives from apostellein, “to send,” signifying that the sending nature of God is instituted in the mission of the Twelve. The fulfillment of salvation history is a history of divine sending—of Gabriel as its harbinger (1:19, 26), of John as its forerunner (7:27); of Jesus as its atoning embodiment (4:18), and of the Twelve, who proclaim the kingdom of God and heal with Jesus’ authority (v. 13; 9:2; 10:1–3, 16; 11:49; 13:34).

apart from Judas the traitor, All of these men would go on to play a mighty role in the moving forth the message of the Gospel in the early church and it is here we see Jesus specifically setting them apart for the work that had been laid out before them.

In the next couple of verses 17-19 we are given the set up for Jesus teaching. we see that people are drawn to him by three preeminent qualities: to hear him teach, to receive healing and to be freed from evil spirits. A continuation of the ministry talked about in Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”

One thing I want to note here and something I found to be a little encouraging is the word here used for people. It is the greek word laos. what an encouraging thought that just like the people or Laos here were set aside to hear Jesus preach that the Lord has set aside the people of Laos to hear his words preached to them as well.

Now let us get into the actual teaching of Jesus, starting with

When first starting to prep for teaching today, I was excited that I was getting the opportunity to go over what I believed to be Lukes account of the "sermon on the mount" basically the abridged version of it. I came into the passage with the preconceived Idea that when Jesus talks about the poor, and the hungry that it was a spiritual poor or a spiritual hunger and he teaches in Matthew, but under further investigation and meditation on the passage I believe that Jesus is talking of the physical poor, hunger, and weeping. that although in many ways we see some parallels to the sermon on the mount such as it starting with Beatitudes and ending with the parable of a man building his house this is an entirely different teaching then the sermon on the mount.

also I want to note here that Jesus is speaking to those who are his disciples. This teaching is on what life and conduct is to look like or to be strived towards as a follower, as apposed to a set of rules in order to gain access into being his disciple. this important distinction must be made for there is no amount of good works that will gain someone access into the kingdom of God. "Luke's sermon addresses disciples directly in the second person plural " you all" with concrete and sacrificial ways of living in accordance with the call of Jesus.

As Jesus is proclaiming who is to be seen as blessed and who the woes are to I believe we can see multiple things going on simetianiuosly. the word used for blessed here, the same used in Matthew could also be rendered as "congratulations" while the woe is seen as someone who is to be pitied. and like mentioned before unlike Matthews blessed the poor, the hungry, the weeping and the hated man here is speaking of a physical poor and hungry

If we take a minute and focus on who the disciples of Jesus are we can see why this would be so encouraging. We see earlier on in this book that like Peter, Andrew, James and John many have "left everything" in order to follow Christ. Jesus is saying to them that blessed or congradulations to you who have chosen to seek me rather then the fleeting comforts of this life. blessed or those who have not chosen to stay in their comfortable home within the city of destruction but rather chosen to walk upon the pilgrims path, blessed are those that sell all they have to buy the treasure in the field, and blessed are those who have chosen not to gain this life but to loose it for the sake of finding it in Christ. But woe to you who have chosen comfort in this life, woe to you who seek to gain this life for your reward will not be given in the life to come but will be found here in the fleeting comforts of earth.

Oh how this must have spurred the disciples on to walk the pilgrims path. what an encouragement it was for them and us today. for everyone here in this room can relate in some form to the disciples who heard this on that very day. let it encourage us to continue to forsake the comforts of this life by whatever means we are called to wether that be living in a foreign land, eating food that we may not like, having our children grow up away from their extended family, just to name a few.

Let us continue to press forward in forsaking earthly pleasures for the sake of following Christ as apposed to the rich young ruler, who when told to leave behind his earthly comforts to follow Christ, went away saddened for he was not willing to seek the life to come.

(27-45)

As we continue on into our passage, moving quickly through verses 27-45, Jesus gives his disciples the standard for how to conduct yourself as his disciple. We are reminded that any word or action that comes from us is a product of what is in the heart.

Jesus gave us the congrats and encouragement for seeking him above all else and now we are seeing the standard for living.

and without going into to much detail on everything listed these are very difficult things.

the disciple is called to

1, Love your enemy

2, Do good to those who hate you

3, Bless those who curse you

4, Pray for those who mistreat you

5, Do not retaliate

6, Give freely

7, Treat other the way you want to be treated (The Golden Rule)

again these are not rules to follows in order to gain access into the kingdom, they are the high standard for those who have gained access through Christ. And I will say to this list thank goodness that that is true because I'm sure I have fallen short of all of these this morning alone.

this is a very high standard for those who want to follow Christ, but what an encouragement to know that he has gone before us in all the ways listed earlier.

1, For that while we were enemies christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

2, For even though He was scorned beaten and maligned He went to the cross, doing the ultimate good fro those who hated him

3, When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

4, Even though we have all sinned against him we see he still prays for us in the high priestly prayer.

5, And the grace he has given is free given to all those he has set aside.

let these truths of Christ impact your hearts and minds in order that we would have an outflow from our speech and actions.

Now as I close, let us look to verses 46-49 for further application and encouragement.

I will read this section one more time

Build Your House on the Rock

“Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” The Son of God Himself had many followers, who pretended to honor Him by calling Him Lord, but yielded no obedience to His commandments.

The evil we see here has always existed in the Church. It was found 600 years before Jesus' time here on earth. we read about it in Ezekiel 33:31 "And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain."

And if we look at James 1:22 we are also reminded “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

I will now end our time with another quote from Ryle' expository thoughts on Luke.

Let us settle it in our minds, that no sin is so foolish and unreasonable as the sin which Jesus here denounces, Common sense alone might tell us that the name and form of Christianity can profit us nothing, so long as we cleave to sin in our hearts, and live unchristian lives. Let it be a fixed principle in our religion, that obedience is the only sound evidence of saving faith, and that the talk of the lips is worse than useless, if it is not accompanied by sanctification of the life. The man in whose heart the Holy Ghost really dwells, will never be content to sit still, and do nothing to show his love to Christ...Such a man’s religion may cost him much. Like the house built on a rock, it may entail on him pains, labor, and self-denial. To lay aside pride and self-righteousness, to crucify the rebellious flesh, to put on the mind of Christ, to take up the cross daily, to count all things but loss for Christ’s sake,—all this may be hard work. But, like the house built on the rock, such religion will stand. The streams of affliction may beat violently upon it, and the floods of persecution dash fiercely against it, but it will not give way. The Christianity which combines good profession and good practice, is a building that will not fall.

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