Jesus Appoints and Teaches the Twelve

Luke 6:12-26

GOLDEN TEXT: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”—Matthew 5:16

OUR lesson for today includes the appointment of the twelve apostles and Luke’s account of a portion of the famous Sermon on the Mount. We are much impressed with the frequency with which the evangelists, and especially St. Luke, record Jesus’ engaging in prayer. In the opening verse of our lesson today we are told that just before He chose the twelve disciples, Jesus went out into a mountain and continued all night in prayer to His Father.

Evidently Jesus expected and received definite instruction from His Heavenly Father with respect to the choice of His apostles. At the close of His ministry in the prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, verse six, He says, “I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy word.” And of these He says later in the chapter (verse twelve), “Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Our Lord’s earnestness in continually seeking the guidance of the Father in prayer during His ministry, is an impressive lesson to us. Our own success in discerning the mind of the Lord and having some part in His work, as well as our development of a character in the likeness of Jesus, will depend in large measure upon our continual attention to this important feature of the Christian life—communion with our Father in prayer, seeking the courage, strength, and wisdom which He has promised to those who ask in Jesus’ name.—John 16:23,24

Following the selection of the apostles, Luke tells us that the Lord came down and stood in the plain and a great multitude of people gathered unto Him. They came to hear Him, to be healed of their diseases, and to be freed from the evil spirits with which some were afflicted; Verse nineteen tells us that “the whole multitude sought to touch Him; for there went virtue out of Him, and healed them all.” Our Lord’s miracles appear to have been intended to punctuate and emphasize His lessons, and these miraculous healings seem to have constituted an introduction to the wonderful discourse of that day.

Not all the poor are to be blessed and to inherit the Kingdom of God, etc., as set forth in this lesson. We are to note particularly the setting of the Master’s words. He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said, “Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God”—“ye shall be filled”—“your reward is great in heaven.” Undoubtedly poverty is a greater aid to discipleship than wealth. The cost of discipleship is the surrender of every earthly ambition to follow Jesus.

It seems strange, contrary to the usual thought, to say “Blessed are they that mourn.” We cannot suppose that there is mourning in heaven—we must suppose that there is happiness, blessedness there. Hence the blessedness of mourning must in some way relate to our present imperfect, sinful conditions and surroundings. Sin is in the world, and death, the wages of sin is being paid out to the entire human family, carrying into every home more or less disappointment, sorrow, trouble. Where these are rightly appreciated there must surely be mourning.

The world is sick and dying; with its twenty thousand million dead and sixteen hundred million dying in sorrow and pain and disappointment. He who is “merry” must surely be correspondingly irrational. Who but a foolish person could be merry in the shadow of such a charnel house! Those who do mourn because of a realization of their own imperfections, their own fallen condition, and who to any extent mourn in sympathy with the poor groaning creation, have corresponding advantages because of this saner condition of mind; they will be the more ready for the heavenly message, telling of the glorious blessing that is to come through redemption in Jesus, through His Kingdom, which, as the rising of the Sun of Righteousness shall bring in health, healing, life and comfort to all the families of the earth.

The closing verses of our lesson point out the fact that the sincerity of our sacrifice of self-will will be tested in full, and will prove us either worthy or unworthy of membership in that little flock, the overcoming church, which will receive the honors of the Kingdom.

QUESTIONS:

What evidence have we that Jesus depended upon the Father to guide Him in the selection of His disciples?

Are all the poor to inherit the Kingdom of God?

In what sense is it true that those who mourn are blessed?

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