Luke 6 (Part 2)

Luke chapter 6, verse 12. Follow along with me as we read. It says,

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Let's pray, please. Heavenly Father, it's our desire every time we open up the Word, to be receptive to what You are saying to us. And Father, we ask You in the name of Jesus to open our spiritual eyes, unstop our spiritual ears, and cause our hearts, Lord, to be receptive in such a way as to hear Your voice and to respond appropriately. Thank You so much for giving us this time today, to dig into Your Word, and we pray that it would really minister to our hearts. We ask it in Jesus name, amen. Amen. This section begins with Jesus choosing the twelve of all of His disciples, and the twelve that He would then call apostles. The word apostle means, one who is sent out. And we're told here that in verse 12, the preparation of choosing those men involved in all night prayer session. Pretty interesting, isn't it? Obviously a very critically important decision, and so important to the early establishment of the Christian church that these men would be chosen. But I have to wonder, as I think about it, I wonder if the choice of one of the men took more prayer than maybe all the others, maybe even put together. And I'm referring to the choice of the man known as Judas Iscariot or Judas the son of Simon Iscariot. You know that it was ultimately he who chose to betray our Lord into the hands of those who wanted Him dead. Jesus actually chose the man who He knew would turn and betray Him. In fact, He chose the man who would ultimately be inhabited by Satan. It happened at the Last Supper when Jesus basically dipped that bread in the sauce and gave it to Judas signifying this is the one. It says that Satan entered into him at that point and he went out and did what he desired to do, which was turn Jesus over for money. Interesting thing about Judas, he's an enigma, isn't he? I mean, he had every opportunity that all the other men had. He heard everything that all the other men heard. He saw everything that all the other men saw. He witnessed all of the incredible miracles that all the other men witnessed. And yet, he personally chose to do what he ultimately did and so forth. But Jesus also knew when He chose Judas for that position, that God would ultimately use the great evil that Judas desired to do for an even greater good. And I love that about our God. I was, I'm told that there was a time once when somebody walked up to a Bible teacher and he asked him the question. Why do you think that Jesus chose Judas Iscariot to be one of His closest men, to be a disciple, to be an apostle? And the wise teacher replied by saying, I don't know the answer to that question, but an even harder question is why did Jesus choose me? Sometimes we think of the most evil person, or the most unlikely person, perhaps for God to choose. And we think, oh God, what were you thinking when you chose that person? The better question is, what were you thinking when you chose me? But all this important choosing that our Lord had to do, it needed to be time spent in prayer and that meant getting alone, and that was hard for Jesus to do. It says that he went to a mountain and engaged in the very challenging business of prayer that took all night long. And I don't know if you've ever prayed all night long. I don't think I ever have actually. I tried to once. When I was a youth pastor up in Montana, I actually, I asked the senior pastor if he'd let me do an all-night prayer meeting. And just whoever wanted to come along and pray all night long and he thought it was a good idea. He didn't come. That might have tipped me off right there, but he said yeah sure you want to do an all-night prayer thing, great. So I did. And I was young and stupid, and we did good till about 3 or so in the morning. And suddenly I realized my prayers weren't making a lick of sense and I… Have you ever done that where you're praying and then you slip into like sleep? And all of a sudden you're praying nonsense. And it starts off good. Lord… And then suddenly you're praying about the clouds and puppies and rainbows. And it doesn't make any… And so when I realized I wasn't making any sense, I turned to everybody and there was just a…. The group had dwindled during the night. And I turned to the people that were still there and I said, I think we're done. And they went, yeah. So they… Nobody put up a fight but it was hard. It was hard. I was actually just talking about prayer this last Thursday. We're making up a couple of our classes from our Biblical Foundations class that we missed and I was just talking about how hard prayer is. I mean, hard work. Hard. It's hard. Don't expect prayer to be easy. I think digging ditches might be easier. I'm not, man, okay. Not maybe from a physical standpoint but just the, I mean, getting in and just staying with prayer for a protracted period of time, and just keeping your heart focused on that prayer and seeking the Lord. It's really hard. And some of you might even be wondering, when it talks about Jesus spending the night in prayer, you might be thinking to yourself, why does the Son of God need to spend time in prayer at all, let alone the whole night? We can probably admit that we probably could stand a good long night of prayer, but that's us, but why the Son of God? Why did Jesus who is God in human flesh need to pray all night long before making a decision? It's an interesting question, isn't it? I've had people ask it before. Fact of the matter is, you and I can never forget that Jesus came to face life and to make the decisions that go along with life as a man. And He came to deal with life in the same way that you and I have to deal with life because He came to be a model. And you see, this whole rest of the chapter is about being a model. Did you notice at the very beginning? He said he came down off the mountain after praying and He looked at His disciples and He said He saw His disciples, and that's not just talking about the 12. Those are the 12 apostles now. But the disciples, there's probably hundreds of them. And then there's the crowd beyond what you would call disciples. The word disciple means, follower. And then there's just the looky loos. The people who are there because they might get a free piece of bread or fish, or they brought somebody to be healed or, hey, this guy's the latest thing going, let's go see what he's saying.

He looks at His disciples, and then He launches into this fairly lengthy sermon. Not as lengthy as Matthew's but lengthy still. This whole message, you guys, is about disciples and discipleship. That's what He's talking about here and that's what we're going to get into. And that's why Jesus even spent the whole night in prayer earlier, because He was modeling for you and I, the things that we ought to do when we're facing huge decisions. Now, verse 17 goes on here, and this is where we read that He came down from the mountain, He stood on a level place, and there's this great crowd, all of His disciples, and so forth. And you'll notice as I was reading through the verses that fill out the rest of this chapter, that it sounds familiar. It actually sounds a lot like the Sermon on the Mount. Which Jesus speaks and is recorded for us in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. Those of you who were with us here at Calvary Chapel back when we started the Book of Matthew back in 2012 you might remember the Book of Matthew. It actually took us, get this, two and a half years to get through Matthew. And on the Sermon on the Mount, we started it in mid-February and we finished it in early September. That was just the Sermon on the Mount. That was one sermon by Jesus. Took us that many months to get through it. Well, Matthew develops it in a much more in depth sort of a way than does Luke. And in fact, these are different sermons. These were spoken at different times. Jesus, we call His Sermon in Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount, because it says He stood on a mount and gave it. Here it says, He was on a level place. So this is actually referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. But it has a lot of similar sort of things as the Sermon on the Mount. Particularly verse 20, if you look with me again in your Bible. “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples,…” Again this is for followers of Jesus, you ready? Hopefully that's all of us here today. Hopefully we're followers of Jesus so this is a message for you, and me. And He begins by saying,

You may be thinking, wow, that's a good thing we don't have much money. I guess we're blessed. It's weird to think of poverty as a blessed condition. Yeah, but He's not talking about financial poverty. He's not talking about material poverty. We found out in Matthew that He actually enlarged on that a little bit and He said,

And what He's talking about is people who are poor of themselves. He's talking about people who aren't full of themselves, but instead are humble, and have recognized their own personal bankruptcy. That's what He's talking about when He talks about the poor. He's talking about people who recognize their need for God. Their utter dependence and reliance upon God. Why? Because they've got everything. When people come to a place of saying, I have nothing, they actually have everything if they make God their Lord, right? So He said, there's a blessed condition for those who recognize that they are empty and bankrupt of self. Because He says, essentially, this is the first step to having everything. It's the first step to having the very kingdom of God. He says in verse 21, "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied." Again from Matthew's account, we learned that this is about hungering and thirsting after righteousness. More of God. "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, (why) on account of the Son of Man!" He's talking about disciples who are looked down upon by the people of this world because you're a disciple. In other words, at work, at school, wherever you may be, people find out that you're a Christian, they look down on you. They even decide they want to hate you. They don't even know you, but they still want to hate you. He said, there's a blessed condition in that sort of a situation. He says, "Rejoice in that day, (verse 23, in fact He says,) and leap for joy" because that's the way they used to treat the prophets of old. And He said, there's a great reward. Have you ever thought about the times that you've been snickered at or sneered at simply because you're a believer? Have you ever thought that there's a reward waiting for you in heaven for that momentary awkward situation. Or maybe you even got your feelings hurt for a while and, but you didn't even stop to think about the fact God took notice. God took notice of that time when you were looked down upon and there's a reward waiting. But see there's a flip side to all these blessed conditions and there are the woes that begin in verse 24. "But woe to you who are rich, (Jesus says) for you have received your consolation." Or your comfort if you will.

"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."" Here is the opposite. By the way, the Greek word that is translated woe is just what you would expect, the opposite of blessing. And Jesus is saying that now there's a woeful condition for these individuals. What is Jesus saying here? Is He saying, boy, look out, man, if you have money and if you're happy, you're going to hell. No, no, no that's not what He's saying. He's speaking of those who have riches in themselves. Just as poverty earlier, wasn't talking about physical or financial poverty. Riches here aren't necessarily responding just to earthly riches because there are very godly people in this world who have a lot of money. God has given them a lot of resources and yet they remain very godly so this is not about just physical wealth. He's talking about those who care nothing for true spiritual riches. He's talking about people who are rich in this world, but could not care less about spiritual riches. He says, hey, He speaks a woe over those sorts of people. And by the way, we're going to talk more about this idea when we get to Luke chapter 12. And then you'll notice He talked about laughter there, but "Woe to you who laugh now," and so forth. Again, He isn't saying that there's something horrible about laughter, and that you and I as Christians should walk around with a holy frown, and let people know what sour temperaments we have. It's not what He's talking about. I love to laugh. He's not saying don't ever laugh. He's talking about the laughter of indifference. The laughter that goes along with lack of concern, both for other people and for the condition of this world. As Christians, we've had our eyes opened to some things. We see things that other people don't see. It's not always very fun. In fact, it's rarely very fun. We've had our eyes opened, first of all, to the condition of our own heart. And that's not very nice to look at. It's not pretty at all. But every time I read the Bible, it's like I'm looking in a mirror. It's the mirror of God's holiness. And I look into that mirror and you know what I see? I see myself. I see myself as I am, and it's not pretty. But God opens up our eyes to those things so that we will come to Him and understand our true condition. And so He says, blessed are you when you mourn today because you'll be full of joy later. But He's talking about the fact that our eyes have also been opened up to the world around us. We see the world around us too and it's deteriorating rapidly. I mean, it's guys, the world is like a whole bunch of meat inside a refrigerator that stopped working a long time ago. Yeah. Stinky decomposition, right? Have you ever had that happen to you where you had like your freezer go out and you came out like a week later to get something out of there and you realize the entire thing was ruined? The world is in that condition right now, and we see it and it's not a pretty sight, and we're grieved. And again, it's not like we walk around with mopey dopey faces all day long, but in our hearts we're grieved. And that's why He says, woe to you when you're just laughing and having a grand old time in life is one big party. Your eyes haven't been opened up, but for those who are grieving about the condition of the world and their own hearts, there's coming a rejoicing. And then one more woe, verse 26, He says, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” And now He's talking about people who are accepted by the world, embraced by the world, because they're one of the world. He said, woe to you when you're just one of the group here of the world. This is talking about people who are working hard to be accepted by the world, but they care nothing about being accepted by God. Verse 27,

That's a strong statement, isn't it? Abuse is a powerful word in our culture today. You want to get people riled up, start talking about abuse. Jesus says here, and by the way, this is considered to be probably the most debated comment that Jesus has ever made. Maybe the most often discussed statement that Jesus has ever made. “Love your enemies.” “Pray for those who…(hurt) you.” Do good to those who abuse you. Wow. I think most people would say it's the most difficult to obey as well. What an incredible statement. But this is a word to disciples. This is a word to disciples, okay. People, please understand the world around you, they like to use that phrase, turn the other cheek which we're going to talk about here in a moment. It's not written to them. It's written to you. It's written to you and me. This is a word to disciples. This whole idea of turning the other cheek. And by the way, most of us don't even understand what it's talking about.

Look at verse 29.

Do you know what He's referring to when He talks about being struck on the cheek? He's talking about the punishment that may come your way when a judge decides against you. Do you understand that back in those days in biblical times, in a court of law, if you lost a case, part of your punishment may be that your adversary in court, the one who sued you or whatever, if you lost, they would be given a right by the judge to come over and, like, slap you 3 times. Don't you wish we still lived in that culture? Right? This is the judgment of this court that you get to go over and slap him 3 times. It's like, yes. It's all fun and games until you're the one getting slapped. Right. Can you imagine though, living in a culture where that was the deal? The other thing that they would possibly do is take a man's tunic because his tunic was extremely important to him. And if there was a judgment against him by the court, he may have to give up his tunic to the other man to whom he lost the case. What is Jesus saying here? If you've lost, if there's been a judgment against you and they say, this is what you need to pay. He goes, fine, let it go. Let it go. Just let go of it. Give them what they want. People this is Jesus's way of speaking to you and I. Remember this is to disciples. This is not to everybody. This is to disciples. He's telling you and I to not hold on to the things of this world. Give them up. If they want them, give it to them. They're just things. They're just things. And believe you me, your heavenly Father can replace anything that you might have to possibly get rid of or be separated from. Remember when Jesus sent out the disciples to go out and minister without Him? He gave them instruction before they left. He said, don't take any extra money. Don't take anything extra at all. Just go out, your walking stick. Just take it, just go.

And what was He doing? He was encouraging them to rely completely on the provision of the Lord. Don't pack up a bunch of stuff. Don't take any extra food. Just know this, the Lord's going to take care of you as you go. That was an important lesson for those disciples.

What He's saying to you and I here in this message is, whatever God has given you as it relates to the things of this world, hold them with an open hand. Don't hold them like this, (Pastor Paul makes a fist) hold them like this. (Pastor Paul shows an open hand) Let them go. If they're going to go, let them go. God can take care of it. God can take care of it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about your belongings. You're a disciple. If you and I start worrying about our worldly belongings, that's like a boat anchor in our lives to keep us from being free to go and to do what the Lord has called us to go and to do. But it becomes so easy for you and I to begin to look at our own little kingdom and push it all there. And hey, look at what I got here. And pretty soon I'm protecting this so nobody gets at it. And he's not getting any of my hard earned money. I'll tell you right now why I shouldn't have to give money to some lazy bum out there begging. This is my money. I'm going to keep it sort of a thing. Really? God's like, seriously, I think My Word says to you that it is me who gives you the ability to earn wealth. Didn't I give you all this stuff? Aren't you a disciple? Aren't you a follower? If you're going to follow, then follow. What is the example I showed you? I laid it all down. I gave it all up. Right? You're my disciple so follow already. Whoa, those are hard. That's hard stuff. It's like, Jesus, you're really giving us some challenging things here to think about. Verse 30.

Why? How can He say this to disciples? Because our treasure is supposed to be in heaven, not here. Not these things. These are temporary. Right? They're transitory. They're going to be gone. Don't put your heart on these things. These things that this world gives to you and I. And if somebody wants them, give them. Give them. You think God can't supply you? You think God can't restore what you have that you have? To hoard it and protect it and say, this is mine. And then he gives us in verse 31, like we just read here, the golden rule,

We all know the golden rule. I bet most unbelievers can repeat the golden rule. What's the golden rule? Do unto others as you've had them do unto you. Yay. How many of us follow it? How about big fat goose egg? You ever thought about it? If we all lived, if we all lived every day by the golden rule, this world would be paradise. If we all treated each other like we want to be treated all the time, this world would be utopia. It's not. And then Jesus speaks here about the necessity of love being sincere. Verse 32, He says, hey,

Big deal. Don’t even the unbelievers do that?

have you gained from that? Even unbelievers will lend when they know they're going to get it back. Here's the word to disciples, verse 35,

Do you guys get what the whole point of being a disciple is all about? It's about emulating the one who is the Master of our lives. And our Master, who is ultimately God, is merciful and kind. And so He's saying, as my disciples, I want you to reflect My heart, not yours, Mine. I want My heart to be emanating from you to other people. I'm merciful. I'm kind even to people that don't give a rip about who I am or what My Word stands for. I'm still kind to them. I still send rain on their land. I bless them with sunshine. I don't withhold My blessings from those people. I want you to act the same way. Oh, God, just kill me now. Got to do this for my enemies. Well, you're a disciple. I'm a disciple. A follower, an emulator, right? Verse 37,

What's He talking about here? He's talking about the law of sowing and reaping, isn't He? It's a good law. Sowing and reaping. You can use it for good. You can use it for bad. If you sow condemnation and unforgiveness, that's what you'll get back. If you sow compassion, acceptance, and forgiveness, that's what you'll get back. If you give generously, not only will you be given back, but look what you'll, what kind of given you'll be given back. Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over. Have you ever done that when you're cleaning up leaves in the fall? Have you ever done that with a garbage bag? You put leaves in, you think it's full. But you can always shake it a little bit. You stick a leg in there and punch them down, and get it really good, and then you can put some more in. And that's how God gives back blessings to His children. Press down and shaken together and running over for those who walk in that attitude of generosity. So you see, this whole thing about sowing and reaping, on the good side of sowing and reaping, God says, when you give generously, I will actually give you more than you gave. Isn’t that interesting? But ultimately, the sowing and reaping principle basically tells us that if you're going to measure something out to someone, you can expect that measure in return. If I don't give very much love and I give a lot of condemnation, I can expect very little love and a lot of condemnation back. So some important reminders for disciples. Verse 39, He also told them a parable. “He also told them a parable: (now think about this in terms of discipleship) “Can a blind man lead a blind man? (no, He says) Will they not both fall into a pit.” If you're looking for someone to disciple you, you obviously don't want to find somebody who's dealing with the same issues you're dealing with, the same blindness’s, perhaps, or the same things that you're being challenged with. How can they help you? Oh, yeah, we can support one another as we both fall down. Oh, but we had great support going on here. Yikes! As a disciple, I want somebody in my life who's going to challenge me, who's going to encourage me, and who's going to show me how to be victorious in areas of my life, right?

So I'm not, I realized I have some areas of blindness in my life. I'm not going to go find somebody with the same blindness to lead me, that's not smart. I'm going to find somebody whose eyes are opened in that respect, who can show me what I need to do, where I need to go, the kind of changes I need to make in my life. Right? And He said, that's why He says in verse 40, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” You're not going to rise above the person who's challenging you and their own abilities. So in terms of discipleship, you always want to find somebody who's better equipped than you. And that's not hard to find, frankly. There's always somebody who's better equipped and that's how we learn. That's the definition of discipleship. We all need good examples to follow in our lives. We all need good examples, something to attain to. Verse 41. Now, when you're doing works of discipleship, He says, “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,…” Here, let me help you take that speck out of your eye, when all the time you've got this log sticking out of your own eye? He says, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then… (you'll) see clearly to take…(that) speck that is in your brother's eye.” See, this is the thing, when you're looking for somebody to disciple you, and if you want to be a good disciple of others, this is a big, huge key. You want to find somebody who looks into the Word of God and sees their true reflection. Okay? Because like I said earlier, when we look into the Word of God and we see ourselves in the mirror of His holiness, we see ourselves as we are. And like I said, it's not pretty. I'm like, oh, Lord, I'm reading through the Scripture. Oh, oh, is that me? He's like, yeah, that's you, son. Oh man. No, no, no. That's good because He's allowing me to see myself and now I can bring those things to the cross. Lord help me to be rid of these areas in my life. These areas of weakness and sin. Do you know what God's doing? When I allowed the Word of God to judge my life, He's helping me take those logs out of my eye so that I can see clearly to help my brother to remove the speck from his eye.

But in an area of discipleship, it is critically important that you're not dealing with someone who refuses to see themselves, their own reflection in the Word of God. And yet they're going around helping everybody else. That doesn't make sense. It's just, it's not a wise thing to do because unless we truly see our own sin, we're only going to be hypocritical in our attempts to help others with their sin issues. Verse 43,

What's He talking about here? People, He's still on the same idea of the teacher student sort of a thing. What did we say earlier? Whoever your teacher is in your life, that's the source that's going into your life. The byproduct is going to be what the source is. Are you guys with me on that? The part that comes out, the product that you get out of this discipleship, this connection of two people, is going to be a direct result of the source of input from this person's life. Okay. So He says, hey, listen, this is pretty simple.

He goes on to say that, yeah, you don't go looking to get grapes off a bramble bush. They don't grow on bramble bushes. And then He says,

So here's the question. Who are you being discipled by? And I say, well, actually, pastor, I don't really have anybody in my life who's discipling me right now. And I would say, au contraire. You are being discipled by whatever is influencing you. Doesn't have to be even a person. Could be a TV show, could be a website, could be music, a book, a magazine. Listen, we're constantly being discipled. And what Jesus is saying here is that there is a consistency between source and final product. Okay, if the source of the tree is good, the fruit is good. If the source of the fruit is a bad tree, the fruit is going to be bad. You see, there's a connection. There's a correlation. With good source, good byproduct. Bad source, bad byproduct. Okay?

So who's discipling you? Who's speaking into your life? You got people at work who are yip yapping into your ear, telling you things that are ungodly and just worldly. They are discipling you. They are influencing you. And if the source is bad, the by product will be bad. You think we can't be led astray by people and their opinions, and their thoughts, and their advice, and their counsel? Of course we can. From a discipleship standpoint, I have to be constantly aware of what's going in, because if what's going in is bad, what's coming out is going to be bad. Sometimes we do stupid things and then we go, man, I don't know where that came from. I do. Jesus told us. There was some bad input going on. Verse 46, last section.

Oh, did you have to say that? This is about discipleship, you guys. We say, I'm a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you just call Him Lord? Yes, He's my Lord. You know what that means? No. It means Master, means Ruler, Absolute Ruler. Really? Then He's my lord, small l.

He says, let me tell you what the situation looks like. First of all, for the one who hears My word and does do what I tell him, I'll tell “you what he's like:”

You see what He's talking about? He's talking about Lordship. Lordship. In fact, discipleship is about Lordship. We say, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. What's that mean? It means He's my Lord. What does that mean? It means I obey Him. You get the connection? It's a thread. You can't separate it. If you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you are talking Lordship. And Jesus talks to here, the benefit of Lordship. The benefit of Lordship is stability in our lives.

Did you notice that both men, doesn't matter whether they built on a firm foundation or on ground, they both dealt with the same issues. And the wind, the waters, the waves, the streams, whatever you call it, it happened to both men. That means you and I are, even if we make Jesus Lord of our lives, we're still going to suffer the same challenges, the same difficulties as everybody else. Here's the difference. You will not be moved. You will not be moved. You know why? Because you are built on Him. He is the foundation. He is the rock. So you see, if you're feeling like you're a bobber on the ocean. And you're I don't know what is going on here. I'm just moved and twisted and tossed and turned, then maybe you need to take inventory of the Lordship issue in your life. Maybe you need to ask yourself, is, I call Him Lord, but is Jesus really Lord of my life? Because He promised me here and I believe His promises. That if you will hear My Word and put them into practice, there will be stability. Doesn't mean it's not going to be scary. Doesn't mean you're not going to be tempted to walk in fear. But when the whole storm is over, you look around and you say, you know what? We're still here. We're still here. This thing is still standing because Jesus is the rock foundation of my life and that is key right there. So He's given us a way of finding out how we're doing in the Lordship department. Don't you like that? Here's a little barometer for you. Gave you a little gauge. You can see if it says empty or full or whatever. Do you feel tossed and turned? And are things in your life just like upside down? Well, hey, don't get angry, don't get bitter, go to the Lord and just say to Him, how am I doing in the Lordship department? How am I doing in hearing and obeying? Hearing and putting into practice what Your Word has to say.