This may surprise you, but I'm of the opinion that Christians should pull more all-nighters. Now, depending on your background, you may be cocking your head at that a little bit, because you might think of all-nighters as those things that have to happen when you forget to study for a test. or you don't have all of your paper done by its deadline and it causes you to have to spend all night studying. Or maybe you have other background that all-nighters had to do with partying until the beginning of dawn. But I'm of the opinion that we should be more involved in all-nighters, Jesus was. In our text today, we find out that Jesus prayed all night long, actively prayed all night long. Now that may be something that for some of us, maybe most of us, seems like something we can't accomplish. And I would agree with you that in our world today, we're rather drawn into other things too easily, are we not? The internet and our phones and having the world in our pocket with the phone and people being able to contact us all the time and all the web of activities that we go through. You know, there is a place in the United States that people don't even carry cell phones. They don't have the ability to have Wi-Fi in their pocket. This place is known as a 13-square-mile place of radio silence, and it's called the National Radio Quiet Zone. And it's around the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, because any form of Wi-Fi or cell signals can confuse and interfere with this largest, movable, radar that functions in this way in the United States. And so the international, or national law and state law prohibits anything around there. And the people that live there, one of the people that work at this place said, you know, it's really the same and different as everywhere else. Because when I go to a soccer game, not one parent is on their cell phone. They're all engaged in the game. You see, I can get on the internet, but once I leave my computer and my wired connection, I can't take it with me on my phone. She said, there's a peace to that and a joy to that. Now, I don't know about you, but I think I would like that until I needed to find out a ball score, of course. And maybe you have your thing. That's great until, but what if we could separate like that in our prayer life? We could be not distracted by any of these other things, and we could focus fully and solely on prayer. We wouldn't even be as distracted as we are from our families and our jobs, and we're to be praying without ceasing, and yet we still have to be moms and dads, right? We still have to raise our children. We still have to drive cars and shop and work for other people and have a job, and we have to do all of that to the glory of God, and yet still pray without ceasing. What a wonderful thing to be so kind. connected in prayer that we are not distracted by the duties of the day. In fact, we're empowered by the duties of the day because we are interacting with the sovereign God who knows everything. He knows exactly what should happen in our life in the next second. And so being in constant prayer with him gives us the ability to have more confidence that we are pursuing the will of God in our life. Now, this is what Jesus did. Jesus has, I want you to just remember the setting of the way Luke has brought us in his gospel so far. We've had several controversy stories, haven't we? Where Jesus has claimed and acted as God, claimed and acted as the Messiah, and the religious leaders, the establishment of the day, have engaged him with this, and they've engaged him in a negative way. So there have been these controversies, whether it was around the healing of the paralytic, or whether it was around Jesus' teaching after he was eating with sinners and tax gatherers, whether it was the two Sabbath scenes where the religious leaders took him to task on his view, and he continued to do what he does. He teaches, and he heals and he makes the claim of and acts according to being God, being the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Now, if that is what we've led up to so far, does Jesus see much promise in the religious leaders of the day in their response to his message? There isn't much promise there. So Jesus, before he begins to set his mind on a specific group of his disciples, he prays all night long before God. Now we see Jesus, especially in Luke, being actively engaged in prayer. Luke does a focused job at bringing us to the understanding that Jesus prays, and he especially draws our attention to us before momentous events. And this is one that is the most momentous. So I want us this morning to be challenged in our prayer life, but also challenged in the practical application of that prayer life. You see, Jesus had a task before him, and he spent all night with the Father before he implemented that task. It wasn't just prayer for fellowship, although it was the perfect union of the Father and the Son, the first and second person of the Trinity. It was that. It had a purpose. It had a purpose. Jesus had a mission the next day, and he is connecting with the Father to ensure that he's on the Father's plan for that mission. That should be the mark of our prayer life. Yes, it is for fellowship, but it's not merely for fellowship. It is for us to understand better the will of God through prayer and the study of his word. Stand with me as we read this text with those thoughts going through your mind. We're in Luke chapter six, beginning in verse 12. Now it happened that at this time he went off to the mountain to pray, and he was spending the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them, whom he also named as apostles. Simon, whom he also called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. The grass withers and the flower falls. You may be seated. Now this section of scripture is transitional for us. Some commentators would say it goes with the preceding section. Some commentators say it goes with the following section. We're taking it as a transition because of this monumental act that Jesus does here and how it connects and prepares us for the Sermon on the Plain. which we'll get into in a couple of weeks. So there's a direct connection with what follows, but there's also this connection with what precedes because of all the controversy and rejection from the religious establishment that Jesus has received. He's been gaining disciples, right? He's called some. Luke has brought us into a few of those callings, but we also see that there are people who are following him and that number is growing. Some of those people, they're not true believers in Jesus, but they're drawn by the miracles, they're drawn by the show, but many others are true disciples. And so this connects both with what is preceded and what follows. So we're taking it on its own because of the way that it's brought to us of Jesus and his focus on prayer. So in Luke 6, 12 through 16, Jesus demonstrates the priority of prayer during the three-step process of choosing his 12 disciples. Jesus demonstrates the priority of prayer during the three-step process of choosing his 12 disciples. We see step one beginning right in verse 12. Jesus prays all night before he chooses his 12 disciples. Now it happened, verse 12 says. Now that's a common Luken phrase, right? It's a common phrase that moves the story along. We've seen it in six or seven sections here in chapters five and six. So we don't wanna make too much of it, but we do know that this is a new story that moves the entire narrative along. Now it happened that at this time, he, that is Jesus, went off to the mountain to pray. Now, he goes off to the mountain for solitude so that he can pray, but also when we think of mountain in the scriptures, a mountain oftentimes is the place that we meet God. It is the dwelling place, not in the temple, but the mountains are the highest place that we know about. So that's the place that even the pagans thought gods dwelled. That's where the battles would happen. Remember, even at the Tower of Babel, they tried to build a tower up, a ziggurat. They tried to build this tower up so they could reach up into the heavens. They were mimicking what a mountain would do. Moses goes to the mountain to meet with God. Mountains are places in scripture that God meets with people oftentimes and people pull away to meet with God. Now, Luke doesn't draw our attention to any of that. So maybe in Luke's mind, all we need to know is he went up on the mountain because in a few verses, he's gonna come down to the plain. So he goes away and he's in solitude. The next morning is when he calls people with him. So one of the things that we need to start right from the beginning and understand is we need to have time away from other people in prayer. We should pray with other people, amen? You should pray with your family. You should pray with believers in groups and in church. But there's also those times it's just you and the Lord that are in prayer. And that's what Jesus does is he pulls away and he knows there's something important. And so this is the time that Luke draws our attention to the fact that he pulls away. Now look at what he does. He went off to the mountain to pray and look at the language. He was spending the whole night in prayer. This is conveying to us this present tense of the verb. It's something that has happened in the past, but it's brought to us vividly, as if it's happening now. This is what he was doing. He was praying all night long, and the language is giving us the present tense. He was spending the whole night. It was constant. It was not broken up. This little phrase for the whole night, it's the only time that it appears in Scripture is right here. So Luke is using language to draw us into the fact that Jesus pulled an all-nighter of the most holy and righteous and valuable kind. Now, I'm not advocating that you don't sleep tonight or tomorrow night or the next night. That's not my point. But Scripture is clear that we are to be praying without ceasing. Now, sometimes that can be like, well, When do I have time to eat? When do I have time to do anything else? When do I have time to work? Well, we need to understand that in its context. Can you pray and eat? Can you pray and converse with someone else? You better pray and converse with other people. There are times that you are in conversations with other people that you drastically need the word of God. You drastically need the word of God and his spirit to guide you into the will of God at that time. So you should be praying. You should be praying as you raise your children, as you discipline your children, as you teach your children. You should be praying as you do your job to the glory of God. We are people marked by prayer and it's a practical exercise. Just when you don't pray, do you know what you're saying about yourself? When I don't pray, do you know what I'm saying about myself? I don't need God. I can figure this one out on my own. Whatever's in front of me today, I can do it on my own. Now, you may not believe that, but that's what actually happens, isn't it? We have the Lord of the universe who desires worshipers, who desires us to pray, who promises to answer our prayers, hear them and answer them according to his will, That's the God that we serve. The God we serve knows everything. Everything from the beginning to the end. He's outside of time. He predates time. He is an eternal God with full and unending and unerring knowledge about everything. He's the God who has all wisdom. He is wisdom. He is truth. And he has opened himself for fellowship to you and I. as his people through the Spirit. Why would we not pray? And the only answer we can give is we don't need him in that situation. And I think all of us would say we need him in every situation. No matter what we have before us, we have not only the responsibility, but the right, the joy to approach the throne room for all we need, for everything, for life and godliness, for all the wisdom that we need. God says, if anyone lacks wisdom, what are we to do? Just conjure it up ourselves? No, we're to ask Him for wisdom. He's the one who has all wisdom. But we must believe that He is the God who has all wisdom. And we must believe that He gives generously to anyone who asks. And all that we need, just as His Word promises. Now, you might say, well, Pastor Rob, I know all of this. But don't you need reminding of it? Think back in your last week of the times that you did not pray. Think back in the last week or weeks that you didn't pray and things didn't go so well. You would have been reminded of this then. We are people that need reminding. This constant repetition, as teachers are fond of saying, and I'm fond of saying, is the key to knowledge. And so the more we repeat to ourselves that we are to be people of prayer, the more we are likely not to neglect this beautiful, sovereignly ordained act of prayer. And Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus, here's Jesus, the fully God, fully man, Messiah, promised from the Old Testament, and he has a task in front of him the next day, and what does he do? I got this. He goes to his father. Look at what the text says in verse 12. And he was spending the whole night in prayer to God. Now, this idea of praying to God, the way the language is for us, it's not just he's directing his prayers to God. He is praying with God, in God. The text actually says he's praying of God. Now, I'm not making too much of that, because to God is the right translation. But when we pray, are we just bombarding God with our requests? Are we just bombarding God with the things that we want? The things that we know that He must take care of for us? Are we bombarding God with the things that we want Him to do, as if He doesn't already know what's going on and the outcome? We are interacting with the sovereign of the universe in such a way that he changes us in prayer. He changes what we pray for. He changes how we watch for those answers. So yes, we are lifting our requests, but we are also interacting with the sovereign God saying, Lord, help me understand your will. Help me understand what you would have me do in this situation. Help me understand how you would have me talk to this difficult person. Help me understand how you would have me talk to this person who needs encouragement, but they're so fragile right now. Help me understand how to talk to the person who needs truth, but doesn't want to hear it. Help me understand how to interact with the lost person in my life who God has placed me straight in the face of, and I'm not sure what to do with them. Help me understand what your will is in that. all the difficult things that face us in our lives. Help me understand those things. When Jesus is praying to God, He is interacting with His Father in such a way that the will of God is about to be made known. Because when Jesus prays and God answers, there's perfection in the prayer and the answer and the outworking of that prayer. But it's also a model for us. So what's in front of him, which we've read, but we haven't gotten to in the text, in the sermon yet, is about to choose his apostles from his disciples, and he spends all night in prayer to God. It's a time where he doesn't seem to break it, the language that is used. Well, not only does he pray all night before he chooses his 12 disciples, Jesus calls all his disciples to himself. Verse 13, and when day came, so there's the connection, he prayed all night, but when day came, he called his disciples to him. So he calls all of his disciples. And out of this group, he chose 12 of them, whom he also named as apostles. Now, this is a larger and growing group. If you look down just a little bit, as he comes down with his disciples and begins the sermon on the plain, look at verse 17. Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place and there was a large crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured and all the crowd was trying to touch him for power was coming from him and healing them all. So we have a large group of disciples and an even larger group of people that are there to be healed, to be touched by him. And then where does he start his teaching? Look at the very next verse. And turning his gaze toward his disciples, he began to say. So this is the beginning of the teaching and training of the disciples. He is calling them to him and he's calling out 12 and he's naming them specifically as apostles. I'm not gonna spend any more time there. That's our next sermon text, but I want you to see how this all flows together and the purpose that we're heading toward. So when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them who he also named as apostles. So apostles, this is a term that it means messenger or sent one, and it can be used just of a messenger, someone who has a message that the king might send to tell someone else, or that the leader of the household might send to give a message to someone else. It can be used, that person can be an apostle and a messenger. but it has a technical sense in the Gospels as well to refer to the 12 and then even a little bit less technical sense but still technical to refer to a few others in Acts and they serve a purpose during the time of the advancement of the Gospel in these first days of Jesus as his life and death and resurrection. And then the church is sent out with the mission as the Holy Spirit carries on what Jesus is doing. So these 12 are set aside as the leaders of the disciples. and it's a formal title here, and Jesus gives them this, that he names them as apostles, and he's going to give every one of the names of them, we'll talk about in a minute, but I want you to see that there are not 13 of them, or 27 of them, or 106, or four, there's 12. So that 12 has a meaning identifying, remember what's going on here. Remember what he's already taught. This is new wine time, right? This is new cloth time. This is new wine to be put in new wineskins, not the old wineskins. Jesus is coming in his life and his death and his resurrection. He is inaugurating a new covenant. And he is inaugurating a new people group that is a continuation of the old covenant people, the people of Israel. Then there were 12 tribes in the tribes of Israel. And now there are going to be 12 apostles that are leaders of the church. And we're going to see, if we would go through the whole teaching in the New Testament, that the church is built upon the apostles and the prophets. And also when we get to Revelation, we are going to see that the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles have a place in the New Jerusalem in that symbolism. They are the foundation stones in the New Jerusalem, the 12 apostles are. So this is that reconstituted people of God. This is the new wine that God is doing. Remember in Ephesians, Paul says, Paul tells us that the church is a new man. Remember that? A new creation. And this new creation is made up of what? Jews and Gentiles. Because Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, has broke down the dividing wall that used to separate them and made them together into this new creation, this new man, both Jew and Gentiles. So this is the beginning of that. I'm not saying it's the beginning of the church. but it is the beginning where Christ takes his disciples, he names 12 of them to connect them with the old, but it's still new, and he's going to, these 12 men are going to be leading in the gospels, and then they lead out in the book of Acts as the gospel expands powerfully throughout the land. So there are 12 of them, and these 12 are set aside by Jesus after spending all night in prayer to God. So what we can know about this is this is the Father's will. The Father's will is Jesus would do this. And Jesus has spent his entire night in prayer. Can you imagine what that prayer must have been like? Luke doesn't tell us what he prayed. Jesus was alone on the mountain. But I can imagine in any given sense that he would be praying against the opposition for the father to clearly identify the people, especially given the makeup of the people, especially given the makeup of the 12 and the last one, to clearly identify those people, praying for the advancement of the kingdom, praying for the teaching that he's about to be teaching and bestowing upon all of these disciples. But he is connecting himself with the father's will and they are acting as one. So when he chooses 12 and he names them as the apostles, this is the will of the Father as in Luke's gospel here in chapter 6, it begins to advance even more. Because now he has disciples around him that are going to be clearer in our sights. So there's much prayer leading to this Jesus calling all of his disciples and out of them calling 12. So there is a beginning sense of understanding leadership in the New Testament, right? There are 12 apostles. Now those apostles, their ministry is going to end after the gospel has made its inroads. They're not apostles today. When we look at the letters in the New Testament and how things progress, what do we see as leaders in the church? The leaders in the church are elders and deacons. Deacons who are the servants and elders are the under shepherds. Paul doesn't tell Titus to appoint apostles in the churches. He tells him to appoint elders in the churches. So there is this concept of leadership brought before us. And we'll see, as we look at the 12 that are chosen, where this leadership comes through a little bit. But I want to draw your attention to just this. If Jesus prayed before he chose the first 12 leaders out of all the disciples, do you think you should pray when we choose leaders for the local church? Right? The whole process is bathed in prayer. And this is not just a whim, right? This is the will of God choosing these 12 people. When we choose leaders in the church, the elders are not looking at men and saying, we think they make a good leader. They run their business pretty well. You know, the chairman of a corporation or whatever. We're not looking at that. We are assessing whether we think God has called them. Is this the will of God for this man to serve as an elder in the church? Is it the will of God for this man to serve as a deacon in the church? Because that's what we have to affirm. And then the process brings that person in front of you, because we've asked you to pray, we ask you to continue to pray, we ask you to get to know these men, so that when the time comes that the elders say, we are confident God has chosen this man to lead as an elder in the Bible church, We are confident that his character matches up with the characteristics in 1 Timothy and Titus. We are confident that we have trained them and they are capable of functioning as an elder in our church. We're going to say, what say ye? Now, we're not gonna ask you to put up your hand and vote because we don't really want 51% of you to make a yay or a nay and be bound by that. We're seeking the will of God. And if we have prayed together as the will of God, can there be disagreement in that? Yes, there could be disagreement in that. But if we're praying all the way along, asking God to reveal his will, do you think God would reveal one will to you and another will to your neighbor? God is working to bring up leaders in our church. God was working to bring up these apostles out of all the disciples. So this is the way we approach it as well. And we're asking you, even today, to be praying for the men who are in training for these elder positions, because we want the unified body to affirm them that God has chosen them and God is raising them up, not Rob or Carl. That's our goal. Back to your text. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, there was a man who is well known to us today by the name of Antonio Stradivari. And he made quality string instruments. And they're so quality to today, they sell for millions of dollars for the few that are left. Now, through study of the instruments we know that are Stradivarius violins, we know what happened when they made them as far as the materials. We know what kind of materials were used. We know that the spruce was used for the top and willow for the internal blocks and linings. Maple was used for the back and the ribs and the neck. He also treated the wood with several types of minerals, and we know what those minerals are from analyzing these things. But you know what we don't know? We don't know how he made them or how he taught other people to make them. Today, if there was another Stradivari making instruments, it would be the normal thing for him to do what? Start a blog post, Start an Instagram account, follow me as I make my violin. And to make a book out of all of that, because if you have a bunch of followers on the internet, you can write books now. They don't have to be quality, you just have to have followers. And they write a book, and everybody would be able to do that. There'd be YouTube channels and everything else. That didn't happen in these days. One scholar says the way that Stradivari taught his disciples to make these instruments, he calls it elbow learning. Elbow learning. He would bring men, and you got to remember, Stradivari was barely literate. So he couldn't have written a book if he wanted to, but he would bring disciples in and he would teach them day in and day out by his side. And he would show them, he would demonstrate, he would correct them when they did something wrong. He would listen to them as they were making things and listen to what they were saying about it. And he would say, no, that's not gonna work. Yes, that is gonna work. And he taught them at his elbow, so to speak. That's what's about to happen here. Jesus is not just calling his disciples together and choosing 12. He's calling them and choosing them so that as his teachings developed in the gospel of Luke, we see the elbow learning. We see that Jesus is drawing these men to himself and all the disciples. He's drawing them to himself so he can begin more clearly teaching them the way of Christ, teaching them what it means to be a Christian, teaching them what he means in the world. And that as they follow him, this is what life will look like after that. This is the beginning of that. The elbow learning starts here. Look at your text. We've seen step one, Jesus prays all night before he chooses the 12 apostles. We've seen step two, Jesus calls all his disciples to himself. And I've started going into step three, Jesus appoints 12 of his disciples as apostles. So we've talked about the end of verse 13. He also named them apostles. And now we have this list. We could go through this list in several different ways, and I could put you to sleep in about four minutes. I can do that on any given Sunday, I realize that, but I could really do it here. I could be successful. I could have my own YouTube channel, How to Put a Congregation to Sleep in Four Minutes. I could do that if we went through all and dissected everything about the different lists that we have and all the different things we know or don't know about each one of these men. But I want to draw your attention to a few things. First of all, there are four lists in the New Testament that are lists like this, where the apostles are named. One of those is an axe. And all of these lists have some similarities. And in the similarities, we find importance. So Peter is always named first. We have that in our list as well. If you look at verse 14, Simon, whom he also named Peter. Now we've met Simon Peter already in his call. He's been called Simon all but the one time he was called Simon Peter. And from here on out in Luke, all but two times, he's gonna be referred to as Peter. So Jesus is the one who named him. Luke doesn't care to tell us what happened or why or what that was or anything about what happened. He just wants us to know Jesus named him Peter. So all the lists start with him. All the lists also end with Judas Iscariot. So except for Acts, and you know the story, why is he not listed in Acts? Because he's dead. He's already done the betrayal and now he's dead. And they go through a process of choosing another apostle. And we see more about the apostleship when they do choose Judas's replacement. The new apostle needs to be one who has walked with Jesus and seen Jesus and called by Jesus from the very beginning, even was walking with him at the days of John the Baptist, and they need to be a witness of Jesus. That's why the apostles now are not, we don't have apostles with us today. because there's no one alive. I know some of you are old enough that you think you are alive, but you were not alive to see Jesus and walk with him. So Simon Peter starts, Judas is the last one on the list. That gives us some indication of prominence from start to finish, but not within the middle. Some of the, we also see three groups of four in the apostles. And in these three groups of four, the same people lead each group, even though the middle, the names may be shifted around some. So we have the three groups. three groups of four, with Peter and John and James, the son of Alphaeus, heading each group. So those are in the same position each time. We also see at the beginning that Peter, James, Andrew, and John always make up the first four, even if there's some change in their order. And Peter, James, and John form an inner circle around Jesus. They're the ones who are, they're called out first in Luke. They observe Jairus' daughter being healed in chapter eight, verse 51. It's only those three. It's only those three at the transfiguration. Peter is the leader among, and the three Peter, James, and John are the three that lead the apostles, and all the rest of them are all part of the group, with Judas coming in last. Some of them we don't know anything more about in the New Testament than what we have in these lists. Or if we do know more about them, all we do is have them mentioned at a certain place. So we don't learn a lot about all of them. We have some that are named differently. So Bartholomew, probably the Nathanael that's mentioned in John. Bartholomew is mentioned in the synoptics and Nathanael is not. In John, Nathanael is mentioned and Bartholomew is not. Probably a family name and a patriarchal name, that he is the son of Ptolemy. So we have some that are like that as well. Matthew, what have we already learned that Matthew's name was as well? Levi. So there are some of these that we, as we combine all of these four lists together, that we see that their names have changed or they have multiple names. But what we need to know about this, these 12 men have been chosen by God and they are going to be prominent in the gospels as a group. The word apostles only appears once in Mark and once in Matthew, a few times in Luke and many times in Acts. Oftentimes they're referred to just as the 12. So sometimes the 12 are grouped in for bad things and sometimes the 12 are grouped in for good things. Sometimes we see the 12 and they're functioning collectively in ways that we can say, yeah, I don't want to be like the 12 today. I don't want to do what the 12 did in that position. But Judas, that's a little bit different and it should cause us, if we think about it, to be a little puzzled, shouldn't it? Judas Iscariot, you can look right in your text in verse 16, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. So what's Luke telling us? He didn't start as a traitor. He became a traitor. And we must ask, if he was the one gonna betray Jesus, why did Jesus pick him? Should he have prayed two nights? Should he have sought more wisdom? Why would he choose a traitor? Well, it didn't surprise him. In John chapter six, after the bread of life discourse, when Jesus says, are you gonna leave as well? All the people leave because of the hard sayings. You must eat my body and drink my flesh. And what does Peter say? Peter says, where else are we gonna go? You're the ones who have the word of life. Where should we go? And what does Jesus say? Jesus responds to him. And he says, did I myself not choose you, the 12? Of course you're not leaving, I chose you. And yet one of you is the devil. Now he was speaking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him. So early on, Jesus, we had scriptural evidence that Jesus knew what was going to happen. Now, if we believe that God is sovereign, this should not surprise us at all, should it? What do we learn in Acts? Evil men gathered to do evil things to the Messiah, to the son of God, to God's chosen one. They were gathering and they were acting. Remember the prayer session in Acts chapter four, where the prayer session is that they, listen, all these evil men are gathering. They quote Psalm two, that why did the men gather against the Lord's anointed? They quote that Psalm. And then they also say, but the father, is acting and predestined according to as he plans. So the entire life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus was not a surprise to God the Father. Because God determined that the reason that he came was to die. And he also determined he would die at the hands of evil men who would be responsible for their actions, even as he determined and predestined those actions. This is the God we serve. So of course, if one of the 12 was to be the betrayer, then Jesus would have chose one of the 12 who was going to betray him. And it shouldn't bother us in the slightest because God is in charge. Jesus spent all night in prayer to align his will with the father's so that all of this comes together. Now I want you to know these men were, these were pretty simple men. They weren't like your rock stars. They weren't the people that you would have looked out and seen and thought, well, they would make a good disciple. That's somebody Jesus could hang their hat on. We have one that doubts all the way to the end and has to stick his finger in the holes in the side of his Savior who died, doubting Thomas. We have Peter who just belligerently stands up well beyond his knowledge at times, and he denies his Savior. We have men who are just average men, and they are sinful men that God has chosen to redeem through the work of the Son outside of Judas. Now, isn't that encouraging? Isn't that encouraging for you? Because remember, all of the disciples were gathered, were they not? And out of them, Jesus chose 12, but all of the disciples are there. And it's a large group of disciples we learn just in a few verses. Jesus is not about the business of choosing people who were famous in the world. If he would, he would have chosen the scribes. He would have chosen the Pharisees. He would have chosen the high priest. He would have chosen those people, but he doesn't. He chooses the people that will follow him. He chooses the people that he sets his affections upon. So you and I as his disciples, you please, please never think of yourself as just like the lowest person in the church. Well, you know, I'll just stay in the background. I'll just wash the dishes. Well, wash the dishes, do it to the glory of God as a disciple of the King, as one who is blood bought and living and doing everything to the glory of God. Don't have this humility that's false that says you're somehow less than everybody else. You cheapen the blood of Christ. He died for the church. He died for us that profess to believe in him. He died for those that have been elected from the foundation of the world that place their faith and trust in him. And he died for us so that he might present us with pure and spotless without blemish on the day of judgment. There's not these categories. And by the same token, don't go to the other side and think, oh, well, they're so much better of a Christian than I am. Well, if they walk that much closer with God, start walking with God like they walk with God. It's right before you. They're not super Christian. If they're walking with God better, they're walking with God because they love him and they choose to set everything else aside to follow him in every area of their life. So it's not, well, I'll never be like them. It's God giving you an example to follow, just like Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. These are ordinary men who God calls to change the world. I wonder what God would do with the church today to change the world. What needs changing in our world today that he might use the church to do if he decides to do that? If he does decide to do that, are you following him close enough and praying often enough to know his will, to know where to take the stand, to know where to change what's going on? We are called to follow the king, and he's the king and not us. So out of this list of disciples, we see ordinary men. We see these men that God has called and he will use to change the world and turn it upside down. But I want you to know something else about these disciples. They're diverse, are they not? They come from different walks of life. They're probably all Galilean except for Judas. Judas Iscariot probably is a reference to a man from the city that he's from. It's probably a reference to a man from Keriat. There are other things that people might say where his name comes from, but I think that seems to be the best understanding of it. So he would be the only Galilean, or only Judean, non-Galilean among them. But this is a group of tax gatherers, and fishermen, and people we don't even know what their background is, and God calls them all together, and what's he do? He unifies them around Christ. Just think about it. Simon the Zealot Now, Simon the Zealot, the sect of zealots, those people who were aligned with the Pharisees, but they were rabid against the government. They were zealots, and they were rabid against Rome, and they wanted Rome to stand down. That probably formed a little later than Jesus' time, but was probably already formed by Luke's writing. So zealot was either what marked him. It could have been that he was just a zealous person, zealous for Yahweh. But I think it's probably better to say he's a zealot. He's the one who is completely angry with the government. I know we don't understand that today, what it's like to be angry with the government, right? But Simon was one who was standing against them at every time. Maybe a part of the official sect, but definitely would have been later if it formed a little bit later. That sect was completely wiped out in the fall of Jerusalem leading up to that with Basara and that battle. Completely wiped out. But he's marked out as a zealot, someone who is against Rome. How do you think he and Matthew got along? The tax collector? How do you think they got along without Christ? They would be tailor-made to hate each other, would they not? We live in this kind of world today. We live in this kind of world. You see a yard sign, what are you thinking? You see the wrong yard sign, the wrong candidate on the yard sign? Okay, I won't condemn you. When I see the wrong yard sign, I wonder, what are you thinking? We are divided on this. Can you imagine what it was like for Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector? And yet they were unified in the cause of Christ. Everything that drove them before was subject to the work of the Messiah. When we come together in the body, we're the same way. We're called from different walks of life. We have different experiences. We have different church experiences and world experiences. We have different ways of raising our children. We have different ways of thinking about different theological issues. We have different ways of thinking about their practice. And yet we are unified in Christ. There's a unity in us because of the bond of peace that the Spirit produces. And we are told to maintain that, to keep that. Now, how can we do that? We love Jesus more than we love ourselves. We follow Jesus closer than we follow our own understanding. We see this right in these disciples here, chosen as the 12. Now, we can multiply that to the large group of other disciples, not just the apostles, but it's the apostles that show us that clearly with the little bit that we know about them. Well, I want you to also realize that what we're about to embark on is the sending out of the people. They are messengers. the meaning of the word apostle, but they're about to be sent out. In Luke, they're sent out as the 12, and then they're sent out as the 70. And when Luke continues with his second chapter of the work, when the Holy Spirit begins to take over in Acts, and the Holy Spirit advances the gospel of Christ in the same way Jesus was advancing his own gospel, when that happens, we are seeing it even more, where people are sent out. We are sent out ones. We are sent out in the world, and we have one message, and that message is Christ. But we need training, do we not? The disciples are going to need training. They could be sent out right now, and what are they going to do? Yeah, I'm a fisherman. I followed that guy over there. Well, what's he about? I don't know. Go listen to him. He'll tell you. They need trained and that's what's being set up here. The Sermon on the Plain. It is so wonderful that Luke brings us into this choosing of the twelve from the disciples and then this large gathering of people is there and he turns to look to the disciples as he begins his teaching. He's teaching everyone but the disciples are in his sight. elbow training is about to happen. And that's what happens in the church. We are to make disciples, amen? That's what the Great Commission is. We are to make disciples and we are to teach them all that the Lord has commanded us. So we don't We don't just see people come into our church and profess Christ and we baptize them. No, the journey begins of discipleship, right? The journey begins where we teach them what the Lord has said. And if we're gonna teach them what the Lord has said and how to be obedient and how to follow it, what does our life need to look like? Those who are being taught and pursuing obedience and following Christ. Because if we're not doing that, what do we have to teach them? Theoretical approach? Yeah, it'd be really good if you did this. Well, how do I do it? I don't know, I never do it. But it's probably a good thing to do because it says it in the scripture. What kind of disciples are we going to make? Jesus is about to start the elbow training of the disciples and move in toward them and draw them into himself and teach and teach and teach. And then he is going to physically leave them, send the spirit and send them out so that they can teach and teach and teach and make disciples, and that continues with us today. There's an Indian legend, and actually a proverb, a South Indian proverb that says, nothing grows under a banyan tree. Nothing grows under a banyan tree. So banyan trees are these trees that grow up very strong, and then they have roots that come down from their branches and plant into the ground, and they expand themselves that way. They can cover acres. One tree can cover acres. And everything, as that banyan tree grows and drops down more sprouts that go into the ground, the birds live in it, there's fruit for the birds to eat, and everybody lives under the banyan tree. One tree. But if the tree dies, all of the earth underneath it is scorched. Nothing ever grows there if the tree dies. all based on one tree who had strength and did a lot of work, but when they're gone, nothing's left behind. Compare that to the banana tree. The banana tree plants, it grows, six months later, a row of shoots around it starts up. And the original plant continues to grow. Six months later, a row of shoots next to that starts up. And there at that time period, the banana trees, the original one starts producing fruit and feeds, people feed on the banana tree. And after it produces the fruit, it dies, but there's another row six months behind it that's producing fruit. When it dies, another row six months behind it producing fruit and it continues on like that. Think of the difference between a banyan tree and a banana tree. Too many people approach their Christian life like the banyan. It's all about them. Come be their disciple, learn what they have to say, watch their YouTube channel, listen to their debates, come to your Bible study. And then if you're not there, they don't have any feeding because you've left them. We are banana trees. We're disciple-making disciplers, so that we are reproducing in others what Christ is producing us. We are leading them to the Savior and submitting them to the Spirit, so as they're obedient to the word, they don't need us. We're teaching them how to follow Christ. And we're teaching them then to go find others and teach them the same thing, because everybody needs elbow learning. but they're going to find someone else so that no one is ever dependent upon us. They're always dependent upon Christ. There's no scorched earth except for the unbelievers that are refusing to join us. That's what it looks like to be Christian disciples. The 12, they're the beginning of that. The lessons that we learn from them affect us every day. And what we're trying to do is set up for you the rest of the gospel and how we're gonna interact with it. Yes, he's teaching the disciples. Yes, the 12 will be forefront at times, but it's always words to us about how we live to follow Christ and how we train others to follow Christ. So if you can remember the illustration, you wanna be a banana tree, not a banyan tree. and God will be glorified because you're pointing the disciples to him through Christ according to the Spirit. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the preciousness that we find when we interact with it. We see clearly what you want us to know. You reveal our hearts to us. You send us conviction. but you also send us encouragement for you have saved us through your son and empower us through your spirit to live these prayer-filled disciple-making lives. So we ask that you would make it so that when the world would look at the Bible Church of Cabot, they would see thriving Christian believers that magnify the glory of Christ and that as people come among us, we are able to teach them and to train them what that looks like, how to understand the gospel, preach the gospel to themselves and to others, and that that would continue until Christ returns again. So we are your people, Lord, and we pray that you would manifest your glory through us in everything that we do. In Jesus' name, amen.