Luke 6:12-16
"And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he 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 Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor," Luke 6:12-16.
As the result of Christ proclaiming truth and calling people back to the truth and confronting people with the truth, there is turmoil in the religious system. The religious system viewed Christ as a rebel, though they viewed Christ as a rebel, the Father viewed Christ as 100% obedient in all things all the time. Christ always pleased the Father in all that He said and did, and no matter how busy Christ was, He spent time in prayer. In our text today, Christ prays and then choses twelve apostles. Christ has turned the Jewish nation upside down, but the apostles work will go further in that they will turn the world upside down for Christ (John 14:12). How did Christ pray, and does the church still have the office of apostle today? Let us get into these verses.
"And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God," Luke 6:12. Jesus Christ went out into a mountain to pray. There were those who were for Christ and those who were against Christ, and all would be tugging on Christ for His time, attention, and affection. Though Christ was busy in ministry, He remained focused on doing the Father's will. God doesn't do anything on a whim, or by chance (Galatians 4:4). Christ continued all night in the prayer of God. The Scripture's do not give us what Christ prayed. There are lots of opinions on what Christ prayed, but in reality we do not know. What we do have recorded in Scripture are other prayers that Christ prayed. Here are some of those prayers; Luke 10:21; John 11:41-42; 12:28-30; 17:1-26; Luke 22:31-32; 39-46. Even though we do not know specifically what Christ prayed in Luke 6:12, we know He withdrew from everyone and spent all night in prayer. Christ communed with the Father in prayer.
Most of our prayers are prayers are intercessory prayers. We pray for others, we pray about opportunities, about obstacles, but very seldom do we take time to commune with God in prayer, and more than likely we have never spent all night in prayer. Our minds quickly and easily stray in the short time we spend in prayer. Some of us are so task driven that we would go stir crazy if we remained in prayer for an extended period of time. To truly commune with God for an extended period of time we have to crucify our flesh. To commune is to share thoughts and feelings on an intimate level. Communing with God is us speaking to God and God speaking to us. We speak to God verbally and internally, and God speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures. It takes time to commune with God. We would rather pray for fifteen seconds and in that prayer tell God how we want Him to do things for us. This is a one-way conversation. To commune with God, we pray, and we read the Scriptures; that is when it is a two-way conversation. God does not speak to us audibly, nor is He the voice in our head. He speaks to us by and through the Scriptures. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path," Psalm 119:105. "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee," Psalm 119:11. Turn to Psalm 19:7-14. As you and I are communing with God we are constantly dealing with our sinfulness, and we rejoice in God's mercies. We are bringing ourselves under the authority of God's Word. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed," Amos 3:3. Christ and His Father were in perfect agreement.
Though we do not know what Christ prayed on the mountain, we know what He did the next morning. Luke 6:13-16 gives us the names of the apostles. When Christ got back from praying, He summoned to Him His disciples. A disciple in our context is one who follows a teacher. The number of Christ's disciples varied throughout His earthly ministry. At times there would be multitudes of people, at other times there would be very few (John 6:60-71). Acts 1:15 tells us there was about 120 disciples plus the apostles. The number of disciples varied, and we do not know how many were here in Luke 6, but we do know it is out of these that Jesus Christ called apostles.
Luke 6:13 says Christ named them apostles. "Named" means He assigned to them the title or office of apostle. "Apostle" in a general sense means a delegate, specially an ambassador of the gospel; he that is sent. It also speaks of those who were companions of those who held the office of apostle. In a general sense, all whom Christ saves are sent ones, but there was only a limited amount of people who held the office of an apostle. To hold the office of an apostle you had to be directly and personally called by Christ. No one holds the office of an apostle today. There are many self-appointed apostles today who claim to hold the office, but they are liars and deceivers.
Luke 6:14-16 gives us the names of the twelve apostles. We will not do a study on each one specifically. When we read a list of the apostles Peter is always first, and Judas Iscariot is always last. Peter was the leader of the group, and he also got in trouble the most. Judas Iscariot is always known as the traitor. Christ chose these twelve men for a specific reason. God had a wonderful plan for their lives, and in that plan all but John and Judas Iscariot was martyred. John died as an old man, and Judas committed suicide not long after the crucifixion (Matthew 27:3-5). Christ chose different kinds of men, and used them for His glory. Under normal circumstances, most of these men would not be together. They came from different paths of life. There could have easily been hatred between some of them before Christ called them to follow Him. Especially with Matthew and Simon Zelotes. When Christ saves us, He truly makes us new creatures in Him. We love Him, and we love each other (I John 3). We often think about the glory the apostles had and how they stood against the pharisees etc., but have you ever thought about what it cost them to be a disciple of Christ? We see the end result, but may not understand the sacrifices that was made to get there. How much more with Christ Himself?
We have so much to learn about the cost of serving Christ. He is worthy to serve. May the Lord grant us grace to count the cost, and find in it nothing in comparison to the cost Christ paid to redeem us. Please send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com. Soli Deo Gloria.
