Luke 6:12-26
Time for Change
Woodlawn Baptist Church
July 16, 2006
Introduction
The story is told of a group of men who had been sailing in the Atlantic Ocean when they came too close to shore and crashed against the rocks. Out of concern for other sailors in similar conditions, the surviving group determined to build a lighthouse to warn others of the impending dangers ahead. Those who did not see the light were rescued by those who had built and operated the station.
As it happened, those who crashed and were rescued had a common bond, so they began to hang out at the station to share stories and time together. As they worked and drew more people in, the rescue station began to evolve. With so many people there became greater need of improved facilities. They began installing more comforts to accommodate their gatherings, put together a few fundraisers to pay for improvements and they even inserted plaques around the place to commemorate those who had served so faithfully.
In time speakers were brought in to help people adjust to their new lives in the rescue station. They were taught how to rescue people, the benefits of rescuing people and of the need to start other rescue stations up and down the coast. The more they met the more they built and added on and got together, but in doing so they spent less time actually rescuing people. “I don’t want to get wet!” “It’s cold out there!” “Can’t we hire someone to come in and watch for people so we can continue our meetings?”
Sounds an awful lot like church doesn’t it? So often the Lord’s churches begin with a great desire to do the right thing and make a great impact on other lives, but then as more people come in more and more time is consumed with administration and organizational needs than with reaching out and dragging others out of danger. It is easy to become consumed with our own needs rather than those for which we were created. It happened in Jesus day and it is happening in ours.
Listen, enough is enough. The world has had enough of what they have come to accept as Christendom and the results are telling. I don’t want to spend time today though talking about all that is wrong with church or the world because of church. What I do want to do is show you that when Jesus came to earth and encountered the emptiness of religion, He openly declared war and cried out “Enough is enough! It is time for a change.” Jesus made some radical changes in His day, changes that are needed again today.
We Must Change Our Method Of Choosing Leaders
Luke tells us in 6:12,
“And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.”
Have you paid much attention to the way we choose leaders in our churches today? From the way we choose pastors to our teachers and helpers and other workers in the church, more often than we’d like to admit leadership roles are reserved for those with a warm body temperature and a little bit of personality.
Maybe it’s not that bad, but Luke doesn’t tell us that Jesus prayed all night to God for no reason. I know you prayed about calling me as your pastor, but there’s always been something wrong to me with inviting a string of preachers to come and preach before making a decision. It turns into a personality and preaching contest. We pray about who was the best and then call them. When we need a teacher for a class, do we spend much time in prayer asking God for the right person? In reality we just ask around, “Is anyone interested in teaching?” If we get a bite we stick a quarterly in their hand and show them to the room!
Jesus didn’t do any such thing. Listen to me: there was plenty of leadership material hanging out in the synagogues of His day. There were plenty of well-educated men, plenty with charisma, plenty with talent, plenty who knew the Word of God, and plenty who could take charge and get the job done. But when Jesus chose those who would lead in this new endeavor, He chose twelve of the most unlikely men around, twelve of the most unqualified men around, twelve of the most unsuitable men in terms of what man might look for to do the job Jesus was calling them to do.
But Jesus didn’t conduct a poll. He didn’t make His decision based on who or what was popular or normal. He got away from the crowds and the noise and the busyness and spent a night in prayer. Why? Because God knows what we do not know. God knows who will be faithful. God knows who will take a stand. God knows what a man or woman is made of. God sees tomorrow; we cannot. And because He sees what we cannot see; and because God understands what we cannot understand, and because God knows what we do not know – we must put our absolute trust in Him when it comes to choosing those who will lead in our church.
How do we demonstrate our trust? Through prayer, and lots of it. Do you know why we can’t get children’s chapel workers? Because you and I are not praying. Do you know why we can’t find people to be faithful on Wednesday nights? Because we are choosing our leaders the wrong way.
Here’s what happens when we do not pray: we get the wrong people in the wrong places doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. But when we do pray…when you pray and I pray, God will tell us who is right. You cannot pray for God to reveal the right people without become available yourself. That right leader might be you! I cannot pray for God to reveal the right people without changing my ideas about what to look for.
We Must Be Willing To Make Radical Changes In Leadership
Luke 6:14-16 tells us that Jesus chose,
“Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.”
As Jesus went from place to place, He recognized that the wrong people were in leadership positions. The Pharisees and scribes were leading people farther and farther away from God. Jesus didn’t try to reform them, He replaced them. He installed an entirely new lineup of leaders with whom He would build His church. It would be through these men, these fishermen and publicans and other common laborers that He would work and change the world. When Jesus chose these twelve, He chose to reject the thousands of others who believed themselves to be God’s gift to the religious world.
Few churches practice it, but I believe that it is fundamental to the health and life of a church to make radical changes in leadership when God is leading in that direction. When God’s rescue stations become more interested in being social clubs, then it is time for some radical changes.
I’m not suggesting any this morning, but if I did I know that I would be met with just as much opposition as Jesus was. The religious leaders of His day wanted to kill Him, and while you may not want to kill me, I know that I would not be the most popular pastor in the building.
Think about it – we’re not here to keep everyone happy and comfortable. We’re here to reach this community and lead those who are saved to experience the change of life that Jesus Christ offers. If we’re not getting it done, then we ought to be replaced with people who can and will get it done, even if it is me.
We Must Determine To Get Back To The Basics Of Ministry
Verses 17-19 say,
“And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed all.”
If we are faithful in approaching God in prayer – really spending time in prayer, and if we have the right people in the right places doing the right things for the right reasons, we’re not going to have any trouble getting back to the basics of ministry.
When Jesus and his followers came down from the mountain, they didn’t start condemning people. They didn’t start off with preaching and teaching, but they ministered to their needs. They gained an audience with the people by reaching out to them, Jews and Gentiles alike, men and women who were not clean, who were not sanitary, who were not able to repay them.
These are the people who are around us every day. We preach and teach a gospel of grace, but I fear that many of us practice something altogether different. We preach a gospel today of personal effort – no pain, no gain. The Lord’s churches have become more like Lowes and Home Depot than we care to admit. We practice a “do-it-yourself” spirituality.
Brennan Manning says that our culture has made the word grace impossible to understand. We resonate with slogans such as:
· There’s no free lunch.
· You get what you deserve.
· You want money? Work for it.
· You want love? Earn it.
· You want mercy? Show you deserve it.
· Do unto others before they do it unto you.
· Watch out for welfare lines and shiftless street people…
· By all means give others what they deserve, but not one penny more.
What does any of that have to do with this passage? Everything! These were hurting, hungry, helpless people who had nothing to offer Jesus – but He extended His hands of grace and mercy to them anyway. He demonstrated what ministry was all about, showing us that we must make up our minds to come down off the mountain sometime so we can help people too.
We Must Grow A Kingdom Worldview
Verses 20-26 say,
“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when me shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! For ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! For ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! For ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Who are the poor and the hungry and the mourners? Who are these people who had been rejected by the culture of Jesus’ day? They are those people who had been marginalized. They are the last, the lowest of people on earth. They were accustomed to being on the outside, to being left out, to having to do without. But Jesus said to the disciples that these people were blessed!
The folk then and folk today have an unscriptural worldview by thinking that it is the rich, the full, the happy and the popular who are blessed by God, but I want to tell you that none of those things means that God’s favor is upon you or anyone else. Donald Trump is rich, but I suspect God’s favor is not any more on that man than it is on the poorest beggar in town.
Let me remind you that when Jesus announced God’s calling on His life, He said,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Folk, God has called us to no less of a mission, but unless we grow a kingdom worldview we will look right over the harvest God has given us as we search for a more acceptable and likeable audience. Let us never forget that we too were once blind and naked and poor. It is only by the grace of God that we are what and where we are.
Conclusion
As Jesus spent His night in prayer thinking about the men He would call, He was aware that they were not typical candidates for the work that lie ahead of them. In a book written by Frank Tillapaugh, the following memo is found:
To: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922
From: Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 26544
Subject: Staff Team Evaluation
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultants…
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capacity.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities for leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.
We wish you every success in your new venture…
Without a doubt Jesus began something new all those years ago. He took a new approach, took a new kind of leader with a new approach to ministry that grew out of a new worldview and He turned the world upside down. But as the years have passed, we, like the rescue mission, have lost sight of our purpose. We have become so engrossed in managing what we have that we have forgotten why Jesus called us out.
You may not feel qualified to serve the Lord. You may not know your Bible like someone else. You may not have lots of resources from which to give, but I suspect that Jesus knew all of that when He called you to serve Him. More than you know I sit and wonder why God called me to preach and lead His people, but that is not for me to know. He counted me faithful and called me to ministry. He is calling you today.
Perhaps He is calling you to a new life of devotion to Him, to spend some hours with Him in prayer. Perhaps He is calling you to some place of leadership. It matters not whether you are qualified or able. You see, you were once crashed on the rocks of sin and death, but someone pulled you to safety, helped you to dry off and get warm, and now it is your turn to pull someone else to safety. Will you make yourself available? Could Jesus be leading you to gird up your towel, to come down off the mountain and put yourself among those who are hurting and in need? Whatever it is that God is saying to you today – you say yes. Would you come to Him today?
