Download the UBF brochure here
Weekly Message | August 2nd, 2009
Passage: Luke 6:1-16
Key Verse(s): 13
As we study, we examine the ministry of Jesus Christ. The first objective is to see what Jesus did and in doing so, we learn about who he is. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 13:8). As we carefully observe his life and ministry, we have his image deeply ingrained in our souls. We remember him in our hearts. We communicate him in prayer based on Jesus we know. The second objective is to learn and practice the lessons for us now. In this way, God speaks for us today.
In the ministry of Jesus, three most important events are: birth, death and resurrection. Then do you know what the 4th most important event is? It is choosing and calling the Twelve. Because Jesus chose the Twelve, we have the New Testament. Because Jesus chose the Twelve, we have the Church of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus chose the Twelve, we have this Christian worship worldwide. The world was dark. The needs were immense. Jesus served God by raising up the Twelve. Jesus’ choosing the Twelve signifies his vision, mission and faith. Most importantly, Jesus demonstrates a clear direction and focus to serve the will of God for ages to come.
First, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath (1-5). By this time Jesus called his disciples and formed a team. The problem was that his ministry had no regular income source. Jesus called his disciples. Was there any contract for this calling? No. Jesus promise to them was short and clear: “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mk. 1:17). In a sense, this was his oral contract for them. Quite frequently the disciples were very hungry. Wherever Jesus was going they just followed. Sometimes Jesus was too busy to eat. The disciples were constantly on the move. Even on Sabbath, they were moving. On one Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields. Out of hunger his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. That was their good meal for the day. The field was their kitchen. The dinning place was on the road. Their hands were spoons and fork. Their food was uncooked kernels. What a lifestyle!
There were other followers of Jesus. They were the Pharisees. They were religious leaders in Jesus’ time. As soon as they saw Jesus’ disciples eating the grain, they said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” To the Jews, keeping the Sabbath is very important—even now. It is beautiful, starting with lighting candles and having Sabbath prayer and dinner. Sabbath keeping is so special to these chosen people throughout ages. The purpose of Sabbath is to rest from regular work and worship God. This is so important in defining who they are, they further articulated all the details of what is acceptable and not acceptable activities in the Sabbath. According to the Pharisees, picking up grain on the Sabbath constituted work and breaking the Sabbath law.
The Pharisees’ question was about their serious religious practices. There was no real evil intent yet. So Jesus respected them. Jesus taught them how much God shows his mercy on the genuine human needs. It was through David’s example. Jesus said, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?” This is a story of King David recorded in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. Once David was a fugitive running away from King Saul. He had no place to go, so out of hunger David and his companions entered the house of God. David asked the priest to give them something to eat. There David ate the consecrated bread and he also gave some to his companions. In God’s eyes, David’s hunger was more critical than a particular ceremonial law. According to Jesus, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”(Mk. 2:27) Jesus said, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus, the Son of God, created the Sabbath. Jesus is the Owner of the Sabbath. Jesus governs the Sabbath and its law. Therefore, Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, approved of what his disciples did on the Sabbath.
What can we learn from this? The Pharisees challenged the disciples. Jesus is not ashamed of his disciples. This is important. Jesus is not ashamed of us. “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed of him”(Mk 8:36). Once Simon Peter was ashamed of Jesus who was being taken away just like a criminal. So he denied his Lord. However, Jesus was never ashamed of his disciples. Why? Jesus loved them. What is love? To love is not to be ashamed of those whom we love. I love my mother. Here she is worshiping God every Sunday among us. I love my wife. I love them enough to respect and honor her in any part of the world. We love our fellow leaders enough not to be ashamed of them. Jesus is not ashamed of us. Jesus does not avoid us. Jesus was not offended too quickly. Jesus explained them with the truth of God. Jesus proclaims the truth. Jesus is the reason for the Sabbath.
Here, we also learn how Jesus kept his Sabbath. As a society essential services (e.g., medical, police, transportation and defense functions) should be available even on the day of worship. However, not all services are essential even on Sundays. Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath wants his disciples to keep the Sabbath. Sabbath keeping is a very important spiritual discipline.God emphasized the absoluteness of the Sabbath keeping. In the wilderness God trained the Israelites for forty years for this one thing. Keeping the Sabbath—work six days and rest and worship in the seventh day. Keeping Sabbath is about the need of rest in our lives. We need rest. In a sense, this is a foundational discipline for Christian identity. To many students, Sabbath starts from Thursday evening. Then they take it easy over the weekend until Sunday. Then Sunday is the day they sleep in and in the afternoon they tried to catch up. If a young Christian asks, “What is one spiritual discipline I must practice?”, the answer is this: “Learn to make Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath.” Work six days and rest a day with prayer, worship and fellowship. Keep at least one day of worship and rest.
Second, “Stretch out your hand.” (6-11). Look at verses 6: “On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.” The man with the shriveled hand had fingers that were deformed and paralyzed. Because of this the man could not use his hand at all. He was not strong enough to defend himself in case of fighting. Because of his shriveled hand, his spirit was also withering away. This shriveled hand caused many problems in work and social relationships. Although he came to the synagogue every week, he sensed little welcome from people. But one day he heard about Jesus’ mighty healing power. On one Sabbath he came to the synagogue early and sat in the very front row-it was to hear Jesus.
However, at this time, the Pharisees were using this man as a bait to trap Jesus. They were intently watching whether or not Jesus would heal the man on the Sabbath. They were using this man as a bait to trap Jesus. Here, the attitude of the Pharisees was becoming evil. What did Jesus do? Jesus was determined to heal the man on the Sabbath. Then Jesus said to the man openly, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” Jesus put him in the midst of all people in the synagogue. Jesus gave him a chance—once in life--to take a stand for his own life. Amazingly, the man obeyed Jesus and stood up in front of all people.
At this time Jesus turned his attention to the Pharisees. Jesus said, ‘I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’” This is an obvious question. Jesus was doing good on the Sabbath by healing this man, while the Pharisees intended to kill Jesus on the Sabbath. Yet, they did not say a word. According to Mark 3:5, Jesus was deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts. Jesus is the good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. Jesus loved the man. The perfect love in Jesus drove out fear in the hart of the shriveled man. Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” Then he did. Jesus healed the hand and made him whole.
The Sabbath is meant for doing good and saving lives. How wonderful it is if a day of worship is a day of planting hope and healing for people. Each of us has shriveled element. Many challenged in many ways--mentally challenged (i.e., not smart), verbally challenged (i.e. do not speak well), vertically challenged (i.e., too short), horizontally challenged (i.e., too skinny) and relationally challenged (i.e., unable to form deep and meaningful friendships with others) and communication challenged (i.e., we cannot express our ideas well). Jesus does not want us to remain with those challenged elements in secret. Jesus does not want us to keep running away from them. Rather, Jesus expects us to come to him and stand in front of people. He tells us to stretch out our secret, shameful and even painful element to Jesus. In obedience we stretch out our withered hands, ugly faces and bruised hearts to him. Jesus heals these withered elements and instead implants his life in us. Praise Jesus who heals sinners even on the Sabbath.
Third, Jesus called the Twelve (12-16). Look at verse 12: “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside. Jesus spent the night praying to God. It was intense prayer. It was not praying about many different details but about a bigger purpose. Until this time, Jesus preached at the synagogues. Jesus worked in the framework of the Jewish religious life. Now, the doors at the synagogues were shut. Jesus needed a new direction and focus.
Look at verse 13: “When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” It was in the morning. This is about the timing of calling. Jesus did important work in the morning—early morning. Jesus called the twelve. Jesus prayed at night. Jesus prayed and planned at night. Jesus executed his work early in the morning. This is one practice I tried to learn from Jesus. Do important work in the morning—early in the morning. As followers of Christ we must learn to learn to do important work in the morning as Jesus did. Greg Lewis has been keeping morning prayer over the years with the support of his wife, Susan Lewis. God will make him successful and fruitful with this one practice.
Notice three important verbs, “called”, “chose” and “designated”. Jesus called all the willing disciples at this time. Out of those who came Jesus chose the twelve. Then he designated them as apostles. Designation is for personal identity, responsibility and privilege.
Jesus chose twelve apostles out of many of his disciples. Then he designated them as apostles. Jesus probably may not have called them by the title, `Apostle’ all the time. However, with such designation these apostles had special place of leadership among the disciples of Jesus. Jesus’ purpose of choosing them was to have life together with them and to send them out to preach and to have spiritual authority over the powers of darkness (Mk. 3:14,15). Later, this designation enables the Church of Jesus Christ to recognize apostolic teaching.
Many are called and a few are chosen and designated (Mt 22:14 KJV). Here, let us consider the power of designation. As we participate in the ministry for Christ and his kingdom, it is important to call, choose and designate them. What matters is not about whom we call, choose and designate (only God knows and he does his work) but having these processes of raising up future leaders for Christ and his kingdom. Carefully select among those who are committed, experience Christ and willingly follow.
Look at verses 14-16: “Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” Here we see the dynamics of this amazing group of disciples. Those who were called have strong two-by-two relationships.
Jesus chose twelve of them. Their character was diverse. Yet, they had so much in common. They had much in common. They were all young and healthy males. Every one of them was a Jew. They were relatively uneducated people. They spoke the same language. They were mostly single. They were all decisive. They could make up their minds quickly. In brief, they were healthy, strong and teachable young men.
Peter was bold. He asked many questions. He was quite active. In any situation he tried first and failed first. James and John were together. They were shrewd. They were much more thoughtful than Peter. Yet, they were also very quick-tempered. Jesus later called them “sons of thunder”. Peter’s brother Andrew was not so smart like Forrest Gump. When there were intellectual discussions, he usually kept quiet. Yet, he was a man of faith. Nothing was impossible with him. Andrew made Jesus’ miracle of feeding the five thousand possible when he brought a boy’s lunch to Jesus.
Philip was very smart (Jn. 6:7). When Philip calculated about things, Bartholomew shouted with amazement (Jn. 1:47) and Matthew could make money out of it (Lk. 5:27) But Thomas was so slow to believe it and doubted to the end (Jn. 20:27). They were next group of leaders.
James was so unimpressive that he had nothing to talk about himself. So whenever he introduced himself to others, he said, “I am a son of Alphaeus.” That means, “I am a son of nobody, but someday I want to be somebody.” Even so, he is always known as “a son of Alphaeus.” He was a good friend of Simon who was a member of revolutionary army in Galilee. Judas Iscariot later betrayed Jesus. It is quite interesting to think about the group dynamics among the twelve disciples of Jesus.
What can we learn from these Twelve? In the hands of our Lord Jesus these ordinary disciples of Jesus grew in their utmost potential. All these disciples later all sent out to all over the world. They gave their lives—in Rome, in African, Europe, and even India. Jesus served the world through these disciples. That’s why Jesus is not known for what he was against. Rather, Jesus is known what he was for. Jesus called, chose, designated and developed his leaders for God.
When Jesus was crucified on the cross, he was about 33 years old—much younger than John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. when they died. Jesus’ vision was world salvation throughout ages. The focus was the Twelve. If the Son of God did that, we also can find a direction and focus in our lives. First of all, we must respond to, accept and bear the call as followers of Christ. We are not Christ. We are his followers. However, we now engage in this process of calling, choosing and designating people for Christ and his kingdom. Do this for life. This is our life. Jesus blesses such life.
August 2, 2009. Dr. Paul Hong, Toledo UBF
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
