To continue (or go back to) our study of the Life of Jesus
Christ, let’s review where we were.
Luke 6:12-19
12 It was at this
time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in
prayer to God.
13 And when day came,
He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as
apostles:
14 Simon, whom He
also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James
and John; and Philip and Bartholomew;
15 and Matthew and
Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was
called the Zealot;
16
Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Jesus spends the entire night in prayer before choosing the
12 disciples. We saw that Jesus picked
Judas because it was God’s will!
Now notice the three groups of people:
17 Jesus came down
with them (that’s the twelve) and stood on a level place; and there was a
large crowd of His disciples, (the
people He chose the twelve from) and
a great throng of people from all
18 who had come to
hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with
unclean spirits were being cured.
19 And all the people
were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.
This power demonstrated that Jesus was in fact the Messiah
of Israel, and had come to establish His kingdom on earth. That’s the background for the message that He
is about to begin – the Beatitudes. Look
how Mark puts this:
Mark 3:13-15
13 And He went up on
the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.
14 And He appointed
twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to
preach,
15
and to have authority to cast out the demons.
Jesus is getting ready to “send them out.” The purpose for sending them out was so that they could preach the message. They were given the authority over demons so that people would recognize the validity of their message.
Doesn’t God “send us out” the same way He sent the disciples out?! We are called to represent Him to whomever we come in contact with. You have to be ready to be an evangelist at any moment:
1 Peter 3:15
15 but sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to
everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with
gentleness and reverence;
This is important for us to understand related to our function as evangelists: You have to recognize evangelism as a cooperative work between you and God. God must open the door at the right time, and in the right place, for the gospel message to go forth. Our responsibility is to first pray and learn the material, and then have faith that He will provide the opportunity.
Have you ever tried to tell someone about Jesus Christ, but felt like you were an absolute failure at it? Or felt like the person didn’t understand you? Or that the person completely rejected you? Maybe God wasn’t through preparing that person’s soul to hear the gospel. Maybe He just wanted you to plant a seed. Maybe you didn’t begin the mission with prayer!
The key to evangelism is that we must wait patiently on God. He will provide the opportunity; He will prepare the person to hear it. We must be ready, but willing to wait for God to guide us at the right time.
Remember this point:
You have to speak
to God about people before speaking to people about God!
We’ll get into Jesus’ preparatory message to the disciples
next time.