‘One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.’ (Luke 6:12-16)
Lesson: If we go up the mountain to pray with Jesus, we will be, like Jesus, of great influence to others.
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This week, we have been meditating on Jesus' all-night prayer leading to the appointment of the twelve apostles. Today, I simply want to review and revise some of the things that we’ve learned this week.
i. Do we pray like Jesus?
We’ve seen that Luke records this account so that we can understand that, Like Jesus, life and ministry are to flow out of prayer because God meets, speaks and empowers those who pray.
ii. What is an apostle?
We are told that after prayer, Jesus appointed The Twelve as apostles to found The Church. God wants us to understand that Christians are people who are built on The Apostles’ teaching, which focusses on the effects of Jesus’ death, resurrection and His gift of the Spirit.
iii. Prayer raises leaders
Jesus’ example shows us that if we pray, God will guide us to the leaders who will sustain the church into the future.
iv. He chose a strange bunch!
Finally, we see that God chooses people from all sorts of backgrounds to be Christians and to be leaders in His church because He is gracious and wants to work through and reach all kinds of people.
Response
If we go up the mountain to pray with Jesus, we will be, like Jesus, of great influence to others. I hope that we have seen over this week that Jesus’ ministry of teaching, miracles and raising leaders all flowed out of time up the mountain. The good news is that we are not just to imitate Jesus as He went up the mountain, He goes with us, meets us, and equips us to be an influence for good.
Perhaps you’d like to Pray this:
“Lord Jesus, teach me to pray so that I can meet you and enjoy you. Teach me to pray so that I can be empowered by you so as to be an influence for good in the church and the world. May I go into each day as one coming down from the Mountain of prayer. Amen”
COMMUNITY GROUP NOTES AND STUDY
1. Notices
It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News.
2. Icebreaker How has God been speaking to you from His Word this week and how has this helped you?
3. Study and pray together
This week we continue in our Luke series looking at Luke 6:12-16. In this section we see Jesus, after a night of prayer, appoint 12 apostles, who, like the 12 patriarchs of Israel, are chosen and commissioned to re-form and found the people of God on Christ.
Please read Luke 6:12-16
This is the third time that Luke specifically mentions Jesus’ devotion to prayer (See also 4:32, 5:15-16). Why do you think Luke does this and what does it mean for us?
Do you have a special place or time when you pray and read the bible? Share and pool ideas to encourage one another.
Why is it sometimes so hard to spend time alone with God? What might we do to combat the urge not to? (I use the word combat to evoke the idea of a spiritual battle)
Why did Jesus specifically choose 12 to be apostles and why were they, humanly speaking, not the greatest choice?
Ephesians 1:4-5 says that God chose us to be adopted as sons and daughters before the creation of the world. How do you feel knowing you, like the apostles, have been chosen?
SIV - 'Apostle' means ‘sent one’. Although we are not apostles, what are we all appointed and sent by Jesus to do?
SIV - Do we have any stories of how we have ‘Served, Invested, and inVited’ this week?
SIV - How could you step up in praying for your community who don’t know Jesus?
SIV - Let's now pray together that, this week, we will have opportunities to SIV.