Bible Study series: Luke 6:12-16. Jesus was a man of prayer.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 6:12-16
12 And so it happened in those days that he went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called for his disciples and selected from them twelve, whom he also called apostles: 14 Simon, whom he nicknamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew 15 and Matthew, Thomas, and James, son of Alphaeus, and 16 Judas, son of James, and Simon called the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (Luke 6:12-16)
Comments:
12:
“In the face of rising opposition, the rest of Luke 6 narrates Jesus’ organizing of disciples” (Bock. p. 537). After his healing fireworks in the synagogue, by which he angered his opponents (vv. 6-11), he needed to get away, as he had done before (5:16). He was about to make a momentous decision.
Spending all night in prayer to be alone and intimate with his Father is remarkable. He was God incarnate, himself. He already had a deep connection with his Father. And the Holy Spirit was upon him in Messianic proportions. All this goes to show that if he needed to get away and pray all night, how much more do we need a regular prayer life. We may not be called to pull and “all-nighter,” but regular prayers are a blessing in our lives. I wonder how the disciple felt about his absence? They probably just slept.
“pray”: As noted in Luke 1:10, Christians took over the word and directed it towards the living God; they leaned in toward him and prayed their requests fully expecting an answer. It is not a mere wish to a pagan deity.
Prayer flows out of confidence before God that he will answer because we no longer have an uncondemned heart (1 John 3:19-24); and we know him so intimately that we find out from him what is his will is and then we pray according to it (1 John 5:14-15); we pray with our Spirit-inspired languages (1 Cor. 14:15-16). Pray!
What Is Biblical Intercession?
Jesus prayed throughout the night praying just before he chose his disciples. There’s a clear lesson for us in this section of Scripture.
13:
Then the big day came. For some odd reason, I had thought the twelve alone were following him. But no, he chose twelve from among his disciples. So many were on the “Jesus Trail,” journeying with him (see v. 17).
“disciples”: See v. 1 for further comments. How many disciples were following him more closely than the large crowd (v. 17)? He had already sent out the twelve (Luke 9:1-6). He sent out seventy-two “others” (Luke 10:1-24). This seems to say that there were seventy-two in addition to the twelve, making eighty-four disciples. Wow! So in just a year or two, he could entrust his mission to eighty-four of them. This leader—Jesus the Messiah—must have been a great discipler or disciple maker. Eighty-four disciples who could handle the job in such a short time would be every pastor’s dream today.
Key point: the rabbinic text, the Mishnah, says, “the one sent by the man is as the man himself” (m.Ber. 5.5 in Bock, p. 542). The apostles were sent in the authority of Jesus and were like him in the sense of preaching the gospel of the kingdom and doing his works.
14-16:
I have already written an article about the different lists of names in Matthew, Mark and Luke and Acts and the meaning of their names:
The Meaning of the Names of the Twelve Apostles
There are these twelve, who shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28) and whose names will be written on the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:14). This special office can never be duplicated. These twelve have a unique vocation and commission.
However, in the NT there are a lower order of apostles. Barnabas was called an apostle (Acts 14:14); Andronicus and Junia (a woman) were probably apostles, depending how one reads the Greek (Rom. 16:7) (I say they were). Certain brothers, including Titus, were called apostles (2 Cor. 8:23). Epaphroditus was an apostle (Phil. 2:25). Things that mark an apostle are signs, wonders, and miracles (2 Cor. 12:12), and men who were not numbered among the twelve could do them (Luke 10:9). Even Philip, who was titled an evangelist could do them (Acts 8:4-13). Surely other men, whose ministries went unrecorded, could claim to do them without being an evangelist (Mark 16:17-18). They could possibly be considered apostles, but their lives are unknown to us, so let’s not draw far-reaching conclusions about them specifically.
The point to the linked post is that the lower order of apostles is open to certain men and women today, but be warned! Anyone who claims the title must be checked out, especially if he gave himself this title or allowed some “yes men” to call him an apostle.
GrowApp for Luke 6:12-16
1. Jesus got away to pray. How is your prayer life?
2. Jesus knew the twelve by name. He knows your name, personally. What does this mean to you?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
For the bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
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