Let me invite you to take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter six. We're going to be looking this morning at verses 12 through 26. If you haven't brought a Bible with you this morning, there are black Bibles in the pew racks in front of you. And our passage this morning is found on page eight hundred and sixty two in those few Bibles. I should mention this. Beth goes to sit down. What a delight it is to have Beth playing for us this morning. Those of you from All Saints are used to seeing Beth up front playing. Will is preaching this morning for his dad up in Huntersville. And in the Smoke family alone, we have riches of musical talent and ability. And it is wonderful to have Beth to play this morning for us. This morning, we are returning to our study of the gospel of Luke. It's been a couple of months for a variety of reasons since we've been in Luke's gospel. The last several weeks, we have been looking at the I am sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John, which, of course, in many ways ties in nicely as we come back to The gospel of Luke itself, we don't see those sayings in Luke's gospel, but we certainly see them in a variety of ways and in a variety of forms, the basic teachings of Jesus and those I am sayings. But this morning, we begin in many ways a new section in the gospel where we see Jesus not only calling and setting apart the 12 apostles, We also see Jesus beginning to teach and to train in a more intensive way his own followers, his own disciples. And we're going to use this passage this morning to look at and think about together what it does mean to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at our passage this morning, Luke chapter six, beginning in verse 12. We'll read through verse 26, hear the word of the Lord. In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named apostles. Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, And James and John and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alpheus and Simon, who was called the zealot and Judas, the son of James and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and stood on a level place. with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured and all the crowd sought to touch him for power came out from him and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. 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, rejoice in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Thus far, God's holy and inspired word. May he write its truth on our hearts this morning. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we come to this new section, the Gospel of Luke, the section of Jesus intensive teaching and training of his disciples, we pray that you would help us to be more faithful disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. What is the mission of the church? The mission of the church is the Great Commission. That is why we exist. We don't exist simply to to to worship God, though that is an important part of our life as Christians. But our desire is not simply to worship him here, but also to see those who aren't now worshiping him come to worship him. And so our desire is to fulfill the great commission. What Jesus instructed His disciples, when he left, to go, or as you go, make disciples of all the nations, teaching and baptizing them. The idea of the church and the Great Commission is not simply to make converts. The idea is to make disciples. That's what Jesus calls us to do. We are in the disciple making business. That's what the Great Commission is all about. And what does it mean to make disciples? That's what I want us to reflect on this morning. And Jesus begins to teach us some about what it means to be disciples and therefore what it means to make disciples. We actually see in our passage this morning that the disciples, quote, are prominent. Three references to the disciples, verse 13, When day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named apostles. Verse 17, he came down with them and stood on a level place and a great crowd of his disciples were there and a great multitude of the people. Verse 20, he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and he said to them, Disciples and discipleship is prominent in our passage this morning. What is a disciple? To give a brief two word definition of disciple, a disciple is a devoted follower, a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is making disciples, teaching and training. And basically what he is doing up front is he is telling them all that discipleship is going to entail. All that it's going to entail. Jesus is being up front with them. He's not simply giving them a blueprint for coming to Jesus and having all your troubles washed away and having a happy life and no troubles. And one day you're just going to be transported from here into heaven. That's not what Jesus does. He tells them up front. Here is what discipleship means, and as we're going to see in a few moments, it is going to be difficult. It is going to mean suffering. It is going to mean persecution. It is going to mean a hard life of following me in service to me. Beginning in verse 20, we have the first block, major block of teaching in the gospel of Luke. So the first thing Jesus says, and it sounds a lot like the first thing Jesus says in Matthew's gospel, doesn't it? In Matthew 5, chapters 5 through 7, there the sermon on the mount, here the sermon on the plain. We'll come back to that in a little bit. But it's the first major block of Jesus teaching in Luke's gospel, and we need to sit up and we need to take notice. Now, I will also make the point this morning that this block, this sermon here on a level place or on the plain, as we sometimes refer to it, is also directly tied to the calling of the 12 that we see in verses 12 through 16. But let's come back to this basic question, what does discipleship entail? And I'm going to point out five things this morning of what discipleship entails. We'll move fairly quickly through this, but five things from our text that discipleship entails. And the first is it is a life of submission. It is a life of submission, discipleship. The life of discipleship is a life of submission. What Jesus does here at the beginning of our passage in verses 12 through 16 is essentially he sets up a chain of command. Jesus, of course, then he calls apostles. He calls his disciples to him and he sets aside 12 who are going to be his apostles. Now, what are these apostles? We know their names. They're listed for us here in these verses. But what are they? Basically, they are authoritative represent representatives of Jesus Christ, authoritative representatives. They will go and speak in Jesus name, they will become the leaders of Jesus' church. They are crucial for the growth of the church and what is going to come later. In fact, the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20, that the church is built on the foundation of what? The prophets and the apostles. They're crucial for ultimately the authoritative structure of the church. Not only is Jesus representative, those who are going to tell the rest of us What Jesus has said and done. But they are basically the primary instrument of God's new revelation, new covenant revelation, it comes through the apostles, the word is passed on through the apostles. And by the way, the fact that Jesus calls 12 of them should ring some bells in our mind. That number 12 should sound familiar. And the number 12, apostles, is a reminder to us that there is continuity in the church. Twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve apostles. There's continuity. The number 12. There's an organic unity of the church throughout the ages. That's what the number 12 tells us. An organic unity. Just as Paul says in Romans chapter 9, we Gentiles have been grafted in. to the natural olive tree. So the church has an organic unity from the very beginning. The church in the New Testament is not some new thing. It's grafted in. There's an organic unity to the church in the Old Testament. And if there's an organic unity in the church, there's also an organic unity in Revelation. So not only what Jesus gives us through the apostles, but also our Old Testament is authoritative. We submit to God as we submit to his word. That's what it means to be a disciple, someone who is in submission. Now, today in our world, we don't like the word submit. We don't like the word submission. But the first thing we need to see is that a life of discipleship is a life of submission. under those in authority over us, especially here the apostles and the very Word of God. Second, we see in our passage that the life of discipleship is a life of service. One important aspect of Jesus calling these 12 apostles is that they are those who are what? Sent out. That's literally what apostle means. The Greek word apostello means to send. Most of you know that now. But they are sent out in service to Christ. They are sent out with a task, with a commission to serve Christ, to make him known. Through the spreading of the gospel, that was a key, if not the key aspect of their ministry. And isn't it also interesting that the first thing Jesus does after he calls these 12 apostles to them, is he comes down from the mountain and he simply begins to serve. He jumps right into serving all who were there who needed to be healed. Jesus heals them. What's he doing? He's giving them an example of what it means to be a follower. Not that we're going to be able to heal, but it's a life of service. And Jesus is setting that example for them. So we are all called to serve. We are all called to spread the good news of the gospel. Certainly, the apostles were actively involved in evangelists and evangelism, but it's interesting if you go back to the gospel of I'm sorry, the Book of Acts. Twice in the Book of Acts, we read of those who were scattered during persecution that broke out in Jerusalem. And the text literally reads all except the apostles were scattered. And what did they do? They went out preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. All except to the apostles were scattered and they went out preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. We are all called to that task. We are all called to serve Christ by proclaiming Christ. In fact, the great evangelical statesman Carl Henry once said that one on one evangelism holds the best promise for evangelizing the world. How are we going to do it? How are we going to evangelize the world? It's one on one evangelism. We can do all the programs that we want in the church, but it's one on one evangelism. Or as Kenneth LaTourette in his book on the history of the expansion of Christianity wrote, he said this, the chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession, but men and women who carried on their livelihood in some purely secular manner and spoke of their faith to those they met in this natural fashion. That's what it says as he looks back over the history of Christianity. How did Christianity spread? It's it wasn't primarily those who preach the gospel. Those of us who are given this call are here to equip you. To go and to make Christ now. That's the life of service. That Jesus Christ calls us to, that's what it means to be a disciple. So first, a life of submission. Secondly, it's a life of service. Third, it's a life of dependence. A life of dependence. As you look at the list here of the apostles and you think back to who they are and what we know about them from scripture, we actually don't know something about all of them, but we do know something about most of them. There is a wide variety here, but what stands out most is that most of them were poor and not very influential. In fact, in the book of Acts, when the apostles are brought before the Jewish leaders in Acts, chapter four, verse 13, these Jewish leaders look at them and they recognize that they were ordinary men. Ordinary people. That God has called to serve him, that God calls to be used of him, Oswald Chambers once wrote the following, God can achieve his purpose either through the absence of human power and resources or the abandonment of reliance on them. All through history, God has chosen and used nobody's. Because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique display of his power and grace, he chose and used somebody's only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources. God can use somebody's. But only when they renounce dependence on their natural abilities and their natural resources, otherwise, God says, I'm going to use nobody's. And all boasting and all praise and all glory might be to me and to me alone. We see this in the Beatitudes, the Lucan version of the Beatitudes in verse 20. Blessed are you who are poor. The idea of being poor here is not simply economically poor. Jesus is not saying all who are economically poor will be blessed and theirs to them will be the kingdom. The word poor in scripture has an important history. It's a history that we actually see in the Psalms when David, on at least three occasions, says, I am poor and needy. Now, David was the king. He wasn't poor economically. But to be poor in scripture means to be ultimately dependent on God, especially in times of trouble. Dependent on God. In times of trouble, the pious poor. Jesus says, if you want to be my disciple, you need to be poor. You need to rely on me. It's a life of dependence. It's also a life that's devoted to prayer. Jesus goes up and he spends the night in prayer before he makes this monumental, if you will, choice of sending aside 12 to be his apostles. If Jesus, the son of God, had to spend the night in prayer before this great decision. Don't you think you need to, too? And I need to, too. That's part of what it means to be dependent on God, to devote ourselves to prayer, because we recognize that we don't have the power, we don't have the resources. We need God's help. We need his grace. What's the life of discipleship? It's a life of submission. It's a life of service. It's a life of dependence, dependence on God. Fourth, it's a life of hardship. It's a life of hardship. It's a life in which we willingly lose our lives and suffer for Christ in the gospel. We lose our lives and we suffer for Christ and the gospel. Now, as we come to look more more closely and we're just going to look at the very beginning of it this morning on this sermon on the plane, as we can call it in Luke's Luke's version in Luke chapter six, you will notice, for instance, that it is very different or in many ways similar, but also different from the quote sermon on the mount in Matthew five to seven. For instance, you remember the first. beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five, blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus doesn't say that here. He says, blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. And not only do we have blessings, but we also have lows or curses that follow. Which is not found in the Sermon on the Mount, but very similar, in fact, many of the teachings that follow are going to be similar to what we see in Matthew chapters five to seven. I believe, though scholars differ on this, I believe that this was probably a sermon that Jesus preached many times, many places, in a variety of ways. Preachers do like to repeat themselves. And there's a purpose for that. The purpose is the soul of learning is what? Repetition. My kids sometimes get on me. Oh, you said that already. You've said that before. You used that illustration before. And my new answer, I've never thought about this in the past. If Jesus can do it, I can do it. In fact, Jesus gives us a model. He gives us an example. This is what teaching is all about. It means repeating yourself. And Jesus repeats in many ways, though there are some things that are different here. But as Jesus begins the Beatitudes. He focuses on hardship. Suffering. persecution, poverty, hunger, weeping, hatred, being excluded, reviled, slandered. That's how he begins. He doesn't begin with how wonderful life is going to be. As we'll see, there's joy tied to this life. But he begins by focusing on the cost of discipleship and what this is going to entail. He says in verse 20, blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Now, I said the term poor in scripture refers to the pious poor, but Jesus does not use the phrase that he uses that we see in Matthew's gospel, blessed are the poor in spirit. He refers to blessed are you who are poor. And he is using it in one sense in an economic term as he speaks to his disciples. What's he saying? Those of you who are my followers who are poor. The kingdom of God is going to be yours. In fact, the lot of many Christians who follow Jesus was poverty. That was the cost for many in the ancient world, especially for many Jews, when you became a follower of the crucified Messiah, you were largely shunned from first century Jewish society. And many of them were economically poor. Of course, we know later in Luke's gospel And in other places in Scripture that that God blesses people with wealth and riches as well. But but many of the early early followers of Jesus were poor and Jesus pronounces a blessing on them. Who have left all to follow him, he says, yours is the kingdom. Yours is the kingdom. Not to the wealthy, not to the influential, but to yours is the kingdom. Of God. The only kingdom that matters. He says, blessed are you who are hungry, verse 21, who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who, because of your life of following me, because of your spiritual hunger for me, face physical hunger. Blessed are you. For you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. Blessed are you who in the midst of the trials. And and struggles and persecutions that attend those who are my followers, blessed are you who weep. For you will laugh. Verse 22, blessed are you when people persecute you in many ways, And notice here that most of the types of persecution here that Jesus is referring to is actually verbal persecution. We can sometimes when we talk about the church, especially in America, say, well, we don't really face persecution. Well, we do. Of various sorts, maybe not the way unto death, the way people in other parts of the country do for their faith. But there are kinds of persecution that we face today being reviled, being excluded, being spurned. The name spurned is evil. On the count of the son of man. And notice, Jesus goes on to contrast that this. With woes, verse 24, woe to you who are rich because you have received your. Consolation. Woe to you who are rich now in material blessings, but are not rich toward God, is the basic idea here contrasted with the idea of the poor. Blessed or cursed are you, or woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry, who are full and satisfied without God. Woe to you who laugh now, laugh, who never seem to take life seriously, who just enjoy the good things of life, who trivialize life. Woe to you, for you will mourn and weep, just as those who are cast out of the kingdom into outer darkness will weep and will gnash their teeth. Woe to you, verse 26, when people speak well of you, for so their prophets, their fathers did to the false prophets. Woe when people speak well of you. Now, it's OK to be spoken well of. In fact, in First Timothy, chapter three, the apostle Paul says one of the qualifications for an elder in the church is someone who has a good reputation with outsiders. And we see times in the book of Acts where the the apostles and the early church are thought well of by by others around them. But the key, the crucial thing here is, woe to you when all people speak well of you or woe to you when that is your goal. Faithful servants will offend people. Faithful servants will make enemies. And the teaching here is that God's people are not to be those who seek popularity. And who are not people pleasers. Jesus is preparing them here for what discipleship will entail. Poor. Hungry. Weeping. Hated. Those who are cursed. The wealthy. The full. The laughing. The popular. You parents, what are you preparing your kids for? What are the values you're instilling in your kids? Popularity? Wealth? Spoken well of by others. Jesus is preparing his disciples for something different. And so Christian parents need to prepare our children for something different. Jesus is preparing them for the struggles and the hardship of life. That's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It's a life of hardship. But fifth and finally, it is a life of happiness. It is a life of happiness. In fact, here we find the only true life of happiness. What does Jesus say? Blessed are you. Blessed are you. What does that word blessed means? It means on one level to be approved by God, but it also carries with it the idea of of an inner joy or inner happiness or inner blessedness that comes because We are fundamentally approved by God himself. Blessed are you, happy are you. This life, sacrificial life in service to Christ, leads to true happiness and true joy. And that's why Jesus can say here in verse 23, rejoice in that day, leap for joy. Your joy is full when you are treated In this way, because of the Son of Man and don't don't miss it, it doesn't say. Rejoice and leap for joy because people spoken poorly of you because you're jerks. Rejoice and leap for joy when people speak badly of you. For the sake of Christ and the gospel. And notice what Jesus offers blessings, eschatological rewards. Blessed are you, verse 21, who are hungry now for you shall be satisfied. At the great marriage feast of the lamb, the great final banquet in the presence of God, when we when we eat and we drink God himself for all eternity. Blessed of you, blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. There does come a time of never ending joy. For Christians in the presence of God. Verse 23, rejoice in that day, leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. There is a heavenly reward. and the heavenly joy that awaits God's people as we live faithfully for Christ in this world. What Jesus is saying to us is live with eternity in view. Live with eternity in view. Get your eyes off of the here and now and the rewards. Now. Live with heaven's values. in mind with eternity in view. What is the way to happiness? It is giving up our lives to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, when you do that, your joy will be full. That's what Jesus offers to his people, fullness of joy and following him. Of course, as we prepare our hearts and minds to partake this morning of the Lord's Supper, we are also reminded that we who follow the Lord Jesus Christ are those who follow a suffering servant. One who bore our pains, our sorrows, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And Jesus said, if they have persecuted me and they have, So they will persecute you. So let's prepare to partake this morning as we reflect on Jesus selfless life and selfless giving and suffering for us and for our salvation. Let's pray. Our God, make us faithful disciples of Jesus. Greater love has no one than this, than that he give his life for his friends. We pray that as Christ gave his life for us, so we might give our life for our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.