Sermon Tone Analysis
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When was the last time you faced an incredibly important decision in life?
I’m not talking about what kind of ice-cream to have, but important decisions.
Maybe it was a career or financial decision that could potentially make or break your entire future.
Maybe it was a family decision such as who to marry, or how to train your children.
Maybe you are facing such a decision in your life right now.
Maybe it is causing you stress and worry.
You have thought about it, prayed about, talked with others about it.
You have weighed the pros and cons.
The deadline for the decision is looming, but you just cannot make up your mind.
The night before you must make the decision, you decide that the best thing you can do is eat a good meal, and then get a good night of sleep.
The next day, you make the best decision you can, and hope that you made the right one.
Imagine, however, if it wasn’t just an important decision for your life, or for your financial future, or for your children’s lives, but instead for the future of the whole world.
Imagine if your decision would determine the future of every person on the face of the planet.
Kings and presidents sometimes face these sorts of decisions.
The decision to drop the Atom Bomb was that sort of decision.
But what if the decision was not only for the future of all the people in the world, but also for their eternal future?
The decision you made not only affected their lives here and now, but also their eternal lives after they leave this earth.
No human ruler has ever had to make that kind of a decision.
In Luke 6, Jesus is face with this sort of decision.
He has come to earth to show and teach people what God is like and have an everlasting relationship with God.
He knows and realizes that one of the things he must do is pass on the essential truths of why He came to a few people who then in turn pass it on to others after He is gone.
For over a year, He has been gaining hundreds of followers, but He knows that most of them have not clue about who He really is, or why He truly came.
So He must choose out a few to teach and train so that they might continue to minister to others when He goes back to heaven.
The eternal weight of the world is on His shoulders, and He must choose a few good men to pass that heavy weight to their shoulders.
Which is why, when we come to Luke 6:12, we see that Jesus prepares Himself as well as He can for this incredibly important decision.
And the amazing thing about it, is that unlike us, He doesn’t get a good night of sleep.
When we face a difficult decision, or a rough day ahead, we think the most important thing is to get a good night of sleep.
Jesus, on the other hand, realizes that the most important thing for Him is to be in touch and communion with God.
The most important thing for Jesus is to spend the night praying.
In our passage this morning we see two of the most essential parts of Jesus ministry, prayer and people.
Simon who was called Peter
Andrew
James
John
Philip
Bartholomew
Matthew
Thomas
James the son of Alphaeus
Simon the Zealot
Judas son of James
Judas Iscariot
Names we have all heard before.
Names we are familiar with.
Names of real people, who lived 2000 years ago.
Jesus companions, chosen specifically from the larger group of disciples, to be trained to carry on his mission.
A daunting task to say the least, for bot Jesus and the disciples.
What if these men, as other men do, fail.
Will they do as generations before, think the generation that followed Joshua, claim they will follow God and do so, but not pass the torch?
We of course know the answer, because we would not be in the position we are in today had it not been for these men.
They had an advantage over those in the OT, because they had the Holy Spirit.
They did not go forth in their own strength and power.
In the timeline of events, it is believed that Jesus is now approximately one year into His public ministry.
He has gained quite a following, but there is also significant opposition rising against him as we just saw at the end of our passage last week.
The Pharisees were discussing what they ought to do with Jesus.
Even though these men would eventually be indwelt with the Holy Spirit, this was still a significant decision on Jesus part though.
He is appointing the men who will carry on the message, that God sent His son to save sinners!
It is no wonder then that He takes the time to pray.
And not just a short Lord give me direction sort of prayer.
Key parts of Jesus ministry
As I mentioned earlier, there are two key parts of Jesus ministry mentioned in this passage, prayer and people.
Prayer
We saw Jesus praying after he had been baptized by John
After he cleansed the Leper we saw it was a habit of Jesus.
This is the third time thus far we have seen Jesus retreating to pray.
Here though was different.
Our text said Jesus spent an entire night in prayer.
This points out to us the gravity of the situation.
Think of another time where Jesus is spending a night in prayer and what comes to mind?
The Garden of Gethsemane
The circumstances surrounding Jesus decision are heavy, enough so to warrant going outside of his normal devotional routine of prayer.
Hartley Coleridge wrote in one of his sonnets,
He sought the mountain and the loneliest height,
For He would meet his Father all alone,
And there, with many a tear and many a groan,
He strove in prayer throughout the long, long night.
The poet then asks why Jesus even needed to pray, and answers by reminding us of his incarnation:
Why crave in prayer what was his own by might?
Vain is the question,—Christ was man in deed,
And being man, his duty was to pray.
Prayer was Jesus connection with God, just as ours is.
How many of us Christians today have ever spent a whole night in prayer?
The disciples couldn’t even stay awake and pray with him in the Garden!
Prayer was the power source for his ministry work.
Did Jesus think carefully about His choice?
Certainly.
Did he watch his disciples interact with one another and base his decision on that?
Of course.
But prayer and communication with God was the primary step in making such a decision.
John Bunyan once said that
“You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”
Whenever we see Jesus facing a critical decision, or an important action, he spends extra time in prayer.
Prayer becomes more important for Jesus than food or rest.
Prayer was His spiritual lifeblood.
It is His wide open secret to being connected with God.
From this example we learn our own great need for prayer.
Like Jesus, we need to meet with our Father in the mountain places of intercession.
We need to pray for God’s wisdom whenever we face a momentous decision, asking for his will to be done.
Are you facing an important decision?
Are you worried about a choice you must make?
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