Discipleship According to Jesus – Part 1
Luke 6:17-23
March 25, 2018
We’ve been following Jesus throughout Luke’s gospel and thus far we have seen Jesus really put through the ringer.
Everything Luke’s gospel has been about scrutinizing who He was,
And what He said, and if He was real.
And He has passed every test with flying colors.
But throughout the rest of chapter 6, the tables are going to turn.
• The crowd no longer has the luxury of sitting back and examining Jesus.
• Starting here Jesus is about to start examining the crowd.
And we know this about Jesus.
John said:
John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
The writer of Hebrews said:
Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
Jesus exposes men.
Jesus knows what is in men in general
And He knows what is in men personally.
He in fact knows your heart even better than you do.
Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”
• Jeremiah revealed there that you don’t even know your own heart.
• Your heart will lie to you, it will deceive you.
• But the Lord does know the heart.
This is why David prayed:
Psalms 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”
This was also the cry of the Psalmist in Psalms 19.
After recounting that the word of the Lord was perfect in every way, he then said:
Psalms 19:11-12 “Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.”
The Psalmist was aware that we all have “hidden faults”.
They are not hidden from God, they are hidden from us.
They are things about our own hearts that we don’t even know about
Until the Lord exposes them.
This is what James had in mind
When he wrote about God’s word being a mirror.
James 1:22-25 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
When you wake up in the morning
You don’t know what you look like until you look in the mirror.
That it is also true regarding the word of God.
I tell you that because Jesus is about to hold up the mirror.
• He is about to expose men.
• He is about to function fully in His role as the light in the midst of the darkness
which enlightens every man.
And how you respond to that mirror…
How you respond to that light…
IS VERY IMPORTANT AND REVEALING
John 3:19-21 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
• Those who love God love the light.
• Those who don’t typically hate it.
We must be those who respond favorably.
We must be those like the man in Jesus’ closing illustration
Who built his house on the rock, and not like the man who built on sand.
Both of those men heard. They both looked in the mirror,
BUT ONLY ONE ACTED UPON WHAT HE SAW THERE.
So let me just tell you from the outset,
It’s important that you are willing to see what Christ shows you,
And it’s important that you do what He says as a result.
We are about to get Luke’s version of The Sermon on the Mount.
Now it all begins with Jesus hysteria raging full-force.
LET’S LOOK AT THE SETTING:
(READ: Luke 6:17-19)
I don’t want to dwell long here,
Because I really think the point here is mostly to set the scene.
• Jesus has just chosen 12 of His disciples to become His apostles.
• We saw that selection last time.
• And now, after choosing them Jesus has come to a level place (down from the
mountain where He prayed all night)
• And is approaching “a large crowd of His disciples.”
These are more of His followers.
These are more of His servants.
These are more of His students.
They weren’t the ones who were picked as apostles,
But that doesn’t indicate that their devotion to Jesus was any less real.
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus weren’t apostles either,
But we know they were devoted to Christ.
The disciples are part of the crowd.
But this crowd is also diverse.
We also have, in addition to His disciples, “a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon,”
• Now this crowd is large and had come from a great distance,
• But they are not yet described as His disciples.
• These are people who are coming to dip their toes in the water and see what
this Jesus is all about.
• Primarily they are coming “to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases”
And look, I don’t judge them too harshly,
If you had a disease or someone you love had a disease
YOU WOULD HAVE MADE THE TRIP TOO.
And what is more,
It is apparent that their journey is paying off for “those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.”
Jesus was obliging them.
• He was putting on quite a healing clinic.
• Apparently on this day all you had to do was get near and touch Jesus and whatever our ailment, it was gone.
Can you imagine that scene?
Can you imagine how the crowds must have been
Flocking to Jesus for their healing?
And again,
• There is no indication here of any diseases being too great or too far-gone, or too debilitating.
• There is no indication of any diseases only being partially healed or even gradually healed.
• There is no indication of anyone who went there that was turned away.
What is happening here is absolutely phenomenal
And certainly it is a testimony once again to exactly who Jesus is.
Jesus Himself said it:
John 5:36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
There should be no doubt to anyone at this point
That Jesus is in fact the Son of God.
THAT IS THE SCENE.
And then after all of them were healed.
• Luke said Jesus was “healing them all”
• After they had all been afforded the opportunity to touch Jesus and they all
saw their infirmities reversed.
• Now it came time for the sermon.
I would think at this point everyone in the crowd
Should be more than interested in everything He has to say.
To this crowd He preaches Luke’s version of The Sermon on the Mount.
Now, I stress that this is Luke’s version because
I don’t want you to just skip through it as though you have a handle on it
Because you’ve studied Matthew’s version so much.
I think it is a mistake to assume that Matthew and Luke are making the same point just because they are referencing the same incident.
It is clear to me that they are not.
Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount was clearly all about righteousness.
• Matthew listened to Jesus on that day and heard Him shatter any and all attempts that any person had to trust in their own righteousness.
• Matthew heard Jesus expose
• faulty attitudes,
• faulty standards,
• faulty interpretations of the Law,
• faulty religious practices,
• faulty desires,
• faulty judgments,
• faulty commitments,
• And faulty obedience.
And certainly Luke picks up on some of that as well.
But from Luke’s perspective we notice an obvious difference.
Luke clearly picks up on the diversity in Jesus’ sermon.
Luke hears Jesus addressing the crowd
He realizes not everyone in the crowd is in the same spiritual condition
And therefore Luke hears Jesus address them differently.
• Some in that crowd are COMMITTED SERVANTS
• Some in that crowd are COMFORTABLE SINNERS
• Some in that crowd are CURIOUS SEEKERS
And Luke hears Jesus address them all.
And Luke hears Jesus expose them all.
Now listen, I’m a firm believer that Scripture has only 1 meaning.
• That means that Jesus sermon had only 1 meaning (and it’s clear they are both referring to the same sermon)
• But it’s also true that a passage of Scripture or the sermon of Jesus can have thousands of applications depending on the listener.
So while the meaning of the sermon is the same,
Luke and Matthew clearly take from it two different applications.
We’re going to look at it through the lens of the different people Luke hears Jesus address.
#1 THE COMMITTED
Luke 6:20-23
If you are familiar with Matthew’s gospel you recognize those as
A partial list of what is called The Beatitudes.
Luke does not include “Blessed are the meek” or “Blessed are the merciful” or “Blessed are the peacemakers” or “Blessed are the pure in heart”
Another notable difference
Is that where Matthew records them in general, Luke records them in a personal sense.
• For example, Matthew writes “Blessed are the poor in spirit”
• Luke writes, “Blessed are you who are poor”
Matthew is picking up on the theology,
Luke is picking up on the confrontation.
Another notable difference
Is that where Matthew records these statements in a spiritual sense, Luke records them in a social sense.
For example:
• Matthew writes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”
• Luke simply writes “Blessed are you who are poor”
• Matthew writes, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”
• Luke simply writes, “Blessed are you who hunger now”
According to Matthew
• Jesus was speaking of the attitude and spiritual condition of the heart.
• That it is those who are broken and humble and who hate their sin and who
hunger for righteousness worse than anything who will be saved.
And Matthew was certainly correct.
After all, as we said, the sermon can have only 1 meaning.
That is precisely what Jesus said, and it is precisely what Jesus meant.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL JESUS MEANT.
Luke picked up on the social side of it as well.
It just so happened that
• Those who were “poor in spirit” also happened to be the actual poor.
• Those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” also happened to be the actual hungry.
WHY?
Because in this crowd are those who were so humble and so broken and who hungered and thirsted for righteousness so much that they actually left their lives to follow Jesus and find it.
Certainly they were poor in spirit,
Had they not been they would have continued in their former manner of life.
Certainly they mourned over their sin,
Had they not, they wouldn’t have left it.
Certainly they were meek and submissive,
If they weren’t they wouldn’t be following Jesus.
Certainly they hungered and thirsted for righteousness,
If they didn’t they wouldn’t be following Jesus.
It’s just that in leaving their former manner of life, and their sinful past
They have now (almost ironically) also become the actual poor and hungry.
What becomes clear to us then is that Jesus looked at these poor and hungry who had left everything to follow Him
And He obviously made a spiritual analogy out of them.
You aren’t just poor, you were poor in spirit, that’s why you came.
You aren’t just hungry, you hungered for righteousness, that’s why you came.
Matthew picked up on the spiritual side of the sermon.
Luke picked up on the social side.
So here we have the same sermon, but a different application.
• Luke ISN’T talking about the attitude required for salvation (that was
Matthew’s sermon).
• Luke IS talking about the lifestyle of those who received salvation.
Because of their devotion to Christ, they left everything.
• They left their fishing nets
• They left their father and mother
• They left their farms
• They left their tax booths
And those who are following Jesus are in fact poor.
And that shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Later in Luke’s gospel:
Luke 9:57-58 “As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
How many times does Jesus have to say it?
• You can’t love Me and the world…
• You can’t follow Me and the world…
Matthew 6:19-24 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
And listen, Luke is going to talk about this A LOT in his gospel.
• Only Luke mentions the Rich man in Hades.
• Only Luke mentions the man who tore down his barns to build bigger ones.
• Only Luke reveals that the Pharisees were lovers of money.
• Only Luke shares the story of Zaccheus and how he left his wealth.
It’s clear that Luke picks up on the call of Jesus
And primarily that a call to follow Him is a call to forsake this world
Here Luke listens as Jesus addresses THOSE WHO HAVE DONE THAT.
(20) “And turning His gaze toward His disciples”
He IS NOT speaking about the whole crowd here,
Just those who have in fact left everything to follow Him.
AND THE MESSAGE IS VERY ENCOURAGING!
Speaking to the committed:
JESUS CONFIRMS THEIR FAITH
Listen to what He says.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.”
Surely you picked up on the key word, “Blessed”
It is MAKARIOS in the Greek.
It means HAPPY
And that alone immediately raises some eyebrows.
Wait a minute…
• Happy are the poor?
• Happy are the hungry?
• Happy are the weeping?
• Happy are the hated and ostracized and insulted and scorned?
THAT’S JUST DUMB!
That doesn’t seem to make any sense at all.
And that’s true, IF you think according to the pattern of this world.
• You ask any unredeemed person in the world if they are happier when they are rich or poor and they will say rich every time.
• You ask any unredeemed person in the world if they are happier when they are hungry or full and they will say full every time.
• And so on…
What is more,
• Even this crowd of disciples might have said the same thing.
• Even you, even me, might say the same thing.
You’re happier with a full belly than an empty one.
You’re happier with riches than poverty.
THAT’S WHY JESUS GOES FARTHER HERE.
He doesn’t just tell His disciples that they are blessed,
He tells them WHY they are blessed.
• Because even though they are poor in this world, by reason of their decision to follow Jesus theirs “is the kingdom of heaven.”
• Even though they are hungry now, because of their decision to follow Jesus they “shall be satisfied”
• Even though they weep now, because of their decision to follow Jesus they “shall laugh.”
• Even though they are hated and ostracized and insulted and scorned now, because of their decision to follow Jesus. It is actually that decision that will causes them to have a “reward [that] is great in heaven.”
THE WORLD looks at their poverty which came on them for following Jesus and says they made a stupid decision.
JESUS says they actually made the best decision and for that reason they are blessed and they should be happy.
It’s no different than when Peter and the rest of the 12
Watched the rich young ruler walk away with all his money.
Matthew 19:27-29 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”
That’s the same thing Jesus just said here.
• You may have lost your earthly farm, but you gained “the kingdom of God”
• You may have lost the food in your pantry, but you gained full satisfaction.
• You may have lost temporary pleasures, but once you see what you gain, you’re going to belly laugh.
• You may have lost your reputation, but once you see how God will compensate you for it, you will “leap for joy”.
Jesus is encouraging their faith.
He is confirming their decision to follow Him.
He is filling in the blanks of eternity.
And might I also point out that it is this understanding
That has FUELED THE HOPE OF ALL BELIEVERS through all time.
Consider the apostle Paul:
Philippians 1:21-23 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;”
Consider Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as they sojourned in Canaan.
Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
Consider Moses as he left the house of Pharaoh
Hebrews 11:24-26 “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.”
Consider countless others who endured poverty and scorn
Hebrews 11:35-38 “Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”
Those were all people who fully believed
That losing this life for the next was totally worth it.
Is that not what Jesus asked?
Matthew 16:25-27 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
Jesus simply said, “Do the math!”
• Sure you lost the things of this life.
• Sure you are poor and hungry and you weep over the loss and over the scorn
you are receiving for following Me.
• But do you realize how much more you are gaining?
It is that great revelation of Asaph in the famous 73rd Psalm.
Many of you know it, but for those who don’t:
TURN TO: PSALMS 73
You see Asaph recounting a time when he just couldn’t see the blessing of what Jesus was talking about here.
• All he saw was that the wicked were rich and the faithful were poor, and it didn’t seem worth it. (Read 1-9)
• And Asaph says, I had even decided my decision to follow God was the wrong decision and was pure vanity. (Read 10-14)
But just before Asaph fell into full blown apostasy,
God preached this same sermon you and I are reading to Asaph.
• He actually showed Asaph, not only the blessings of obedience, but just how bad of a condition those who are drinking up the world are in. (Read 15-20)
God showed Asaph what Jesus will tell us next time.
That those who have chosen riches over Christ
Will reach a day when they’ll wish they hadn’t.
• And Asaph changes his tune (Read 21-24)
And then Asaph, recounting the blessing of all that God has promised
Gives one of the most beautiful statements of faith in all the Bible.
Psalms 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.”
Asaph learned what Jesus is teaching here.
• It’s what Abraham knew
• It’s what Moses knew
• It’s what Paul knew
That following Christ may indeed
Result in poverty, hunger, weeping and scorn,
But hang on because it will be so worth it!
The same CAN’T BE SAID for that next group Jesus will address.
We’ll go ahead and read it this morning and look further into it next time.
(24-26) “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”
They may think their decision to keep the world was the right one,
But that’s only because they can’t see the whole picture.
If they only knew what was waiting for them,
They’d burn their money in the streets.
But for those who have chosen to forsake it all and follow Christ,
Jesus simply encourages them in their decision.
WELL, THERE’S THE FIRST GLANCE IN THE MIRROR.
First we have to ask, have I forsaken everything to follow Christ?
Listen, don’t misread what Luke is saying.
• He is not saying that poverty is an automatic ticket to heaven.
• He is not saying that if you are poor then you’re in.
He is talking to those who are poor because they are following Jesus.
And following Jesus led them away from their homes and their farms
And their relationships and their jobs.
• I don’t know what kind of fishing business Peter and Andrew had, but I’m pretty
sure it’s not doing too good right now.
• I don’t know how successful Matthew as at tax collecting, but I can tell you how
successful he is now.
They left it all that they may gain Christ.
Our first question is: HAVE I?
AND LISTEN, the very nature of the call of Christ all but guarantees it will cost you something.
• It may cost some more than others, but it costs everyone something.
• If it hasn’t cost you anything to follow Jesus, you’re deceiving yourself if you think you’re following.
Listen to Jesus:
Matthew 10:34-39 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
It always costs something to follow.
• A relationship…
• A job…
• A reputation…
• A sinful pleasure…
First we have to ask, am I following Jesus?
But for those who can look in the mirror and say,
“Yes” I am following, THEN LOOK DEEP INTO THAT MIRROR.
Look into that glass lit dimly.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Even though weeping lasts through the night, joy comes in the morning.
If following Jesus has led you down paths of poverty,
• Rejoice you’re inheriting the kingdom of God.
If following Jesus has led you down paths of hunger,
• Rejoice! You’re going to be fully satisfied.
If following Jesus has led you into nights of weeping,
• Rejoice! You’re going to belly laugh.
If following Jesus has led you into worldly scorn and hatred,
• Then leap for joy!
Not only is your reward great, but you are in good company,
“For in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets.”
The struggles of this life are temporary, and they will be worth it!
That is Jesus message to the committed.
