Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19980121.htm

LUKE: GOSPEL OF CERTIFYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Part XXI: Certifying Christ's Power To Make Disciplers Succeed Against Formidable Opponents
(Luke 6:12-26)
  1. Introduction
    1. Church Leaders along with heads of households and parents who have the spiritual care of others under them often face a formidable task. They are responsible to pass along God's truth in an environment where educated, formidable opponents of the faith such as teachers, professors or even doctrinally errant and/or carnal church people stand committed to counter their efforts so as to lead such subordinates into error!
    2. This opposition can be overpowering were it not for the evidence we have that such disciplers can succeed against these formidable opponents. Such evidence is clearly supplied in Luke 6:1-26:
  2. Certifying Christ's Power To Make Disciplers Succeed Against Formidable Opponents.
    1. Jesus faced great scholarly, dedicated opposition to His presentation of the truth, Luke 6:6-7.
      1. The educated scribes and conservative theology experts, the Pharisees, watched Jesus to see if he would heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath so they might accuse Him of a work, Luke 6:6-7.
      2. The setting was in the synagogue on the Sabbath, an ideal place for them to find Jesus to be lawless as it would provide opportunity for them to sway offended synagogue attendees and put Jesus away.
    2. Jesus Himself easily confounded and embarrassed His scholarly, dedicated, carefully observing opponents in this highly charged setting where the odds had been so stacked in the favor of His opponents, 6:8-11.
    3. Having demonstrated His power over these opponents, Jesus then delegated that ministry out to men as His deputies so that they in turn might enjoy that same success over such opponents:
      1. Luke 6:12 tells us that Jesus' all night prayer vigil was connected to this healing event as Luke introduces the prayer vigil with the words, "in those days."
      2. Following the prayer, Jesus selected 12 disciples to be apostles, men with an assignment to represent their Lord and His message, cf. ftn. to Mtt. 10:2, Ryrie Study Bible: KJV.
      3. Thus, Jesus assigned men to represent Him and His message in the context of His triumph over the formidable, educated opposing leadership He had just embarrassed in Luke 6:6-11!
    4. However, the power for this ministry effort was to from God -- NOT from the apostles!
      1. Jesus chose the apostles after an all night prayer vigil, showing that God had underwritten just who was chosen and equipped to overcome the formidable scribes and Pharisees, 6:7, 12-16; 2 Tim. 1:8-9.
      2. Since one of the chosen, Judas, was selected as a traitor for God's purposes, God's grace would have to be abundantly present to make the remaining eleven survive both the inside opposition of Judas' failure and handle external opposition from these scribes and Pharisees, Luke 6:7, 16 (cf. Jn. 17:12)!
      3. When Jesus prepared to give the apostles their directions, He demonstrated great power and authority:
        1. Jesus demonstrated authority over the many disciples who gathered from all around Him, 6:17a,b.
        2. He demonstrated His great power to counter all sorts of diseases and demons, all that internal sin and the enemy, Satan could muster to counter their ministry efforts from succeeding, Luke 6:17c-19.
      4. Jesus then gave directions about depending upon Himself for ministry success, Luke 6:20-26:
        1. Jesus encouraged His disciples to assume an attitude of humble dependence upon the Lord as in this condition they would enjoy God's richest ministry blessings, Luke 6:20-23.
        2. He warned the disciples against heeding opposite high-minded mentality and promoting the agenda of the scribes and Pharisees as that would all be countered by God in the end, Luke 6:24-26.
Lesson: (1) Jesus overcame the efforts by formidable, dedicated, educated opponents to His teachings, and He has delegated to Church leaders, husbands and parents the task of succeeding as He did against such formidable, dedicated, educated opponent s. (2) However, to succeed here, we must depend on Christ to work in us, through us and for us to repeat what HE did in the synagogue.

Application: When facing formidable, dedicated, educated opponents to our efforts to disciple subordinates in the truth, and that at home or even in the Church, the KEY is to led GOD run interference for us at every step. Otherwise, we will resort to the self-help, arrogance of the Pharisees and Scribes and have God discipline us instead!