Today’s message is entitled “The Lordship of Jesus.” As we continue in our study of the Gospel of Luke, we’re going to see how Jesus claims an authority above all others. What is the lordship of Jesus all about? The word lordship means supreme power or rule. Jesus was not just another founder of a religion, like Buddha or Muhammad.
Romans 10:9 (ESV) if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This verse summarizes salvation as requiring two things. First of all, you must believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead and so is alive today. No one can be saved who believes Jesus died on the cross and never rose from the dead. Then secondly, you must confess before others that Jesus is Lord of all and Lord of your life. To confess that Jesus is Lord means that you are committed to obeying everything He commands you to do. To confess that Jesus is Lord means that you will follow no other religion or any other authority that contradicts Jesus.
This simple verse refutes the teaching that you can accept Jesus as your Savior and decide later on if you want to make Him your Lord. Jesus cannot be the Savior of anyone who has not confessed Him as Lord. Now, confessing Jesus as Lord is not just a matter of saying those words.
Matthew 7:21 (ESV) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
The confession of Jesus is Lord must be backed up with a life of doing God’s will. According to Jesus, many who call Him Lord are not in fact serving Him as Lord and so will not spend eternity with Him. When a person follows Jesus as Lord, they will always encounter opposition.
2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV) Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
Everyone who follows Jesus as Lord by living a godly life will be persecuted. Persecuted by whom? Persecuted by those who are not following Jesus as Lord, of which there are many. However, being persecuted is not a bad thing. It is a mark that you are doing something right.
Matthew 5:11-12 (ESV) “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You are blessed when you are persecuted and so should rejoice. As Jesus our Lord was persecuted, so will all His followers be as well. Today, we’re going to learn what following Jesus as Lord is all about. God calls us to …
Follow the Lord Jesus
Luke 6:1-2 (ESV) On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
As Jesus and His disciples were taking a restful walk on the Sabbath, they passed through a field of grain. As the walked, they plucked and ate some of the grain for a snack. Apparently, the Pharisees were watching Jesus and His disciples every move to catch them in doing something wrong. The Pharisees accused Jesus and His disciples of sinning by breaking the Old Testament law.
God’s Word said that every believer should rest on the Sabbath, the 7th day. The Pharisees had written entire books defining what was work that should not be done on the Sabbath. Included in their man-made rules was that you should not harvest nor prepare food on the Sabbath. So, in their minds, plucking and eating a few kernels of grain was sinful.
Luke 6:3-4 (ESV) And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?”
David and his men were running away from the attacks of King Saul. They came to the temple and were hungry. Even though the special bread of the presence was to be only eaten by the priests, the priest gave David and his men permission to eat it. Jesus approved of the use of the bread for food for David in this situation. The regulations of the Old Testament were not meant to hurt and limit people, but to protect and help them.
Luke 6:5 (ESV) And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Jesus now uses the term Lord to refer to Himself. What Jesus meant was that He was the authoritative interpreter of God’s Word and what was right and wrong. By saying that He was Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus indicated that not only was David justified in eating the sacred bread, but what His disciples had done was also not wrong.
In the next confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus will make clear what keeping the Sabbath was all about. Something that the scribes and Pharisees had mistakenly transformed into paralyzing rules and regulations, contrary to God’s will. As you follow the Lord Jesus, He will guide you and show you what is right and wrong as you obey Him.
Even today, many churches put undue rules and regulations on people through the Old Testament law. We must interpret the Old Testament in light of the teaching of Jesus and the rest of the New Testament. All the Bible is God’s truth, but the application of that truth must be in keeping with God’s revelation through the Lord Jesus. Even today, those who seek to follow Jesus in the freedom of the Spirit will be persecuted.
Sometimes the persecution will be from those who do not believe in God at all. At other times, the persecution will be from religious types, who think they are following God, but are really just following man-made rules. As believers, we must simply follow the teaching of the Lord Jesus through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As followers of the Lord Jesus, we must …
Do good by healing the sick
Luke 6:6-7 (ESV) On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
As we continue, Jesus was teaching the truth of God in a synagogue on a Sabbath.Notice that the scribes and Pharisees were watching Jesus to see if He would break another of their rules. They were hoping that He would break a rule so that they could accuse Him. They hoped by accusing and shaming Him that less people would follow Jesus. Now on that particular Sabbath, there was a man with a deformity of his hand, probably being present for a long time. Again the Pharisees thought that healing anyone on the Sabbath would be a form of work and so against the law.
Luke 6:8-9 (ESV) But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”
Jesus never shied away from controversy or confrontation. He brought the man with the withered hand in front of all the people and asked a question. Should one do what is good on the Sabbath or what is harmful? There was no response from the Pharisees. If they answered that one should do good on the Sabbath, they would be giving permission for Jesus to heal the man. They could not answer that it would be lawful to do harm on the Sabbath, so they remained silent.
Luke 6:10-11 (ESV) And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Jesus spoke to the man and commanded him to do something he had not been able to do. Yet, was the man obeyed Jesus’ command and stretched out his hand, he was healed. Rather than rejoice in the miracle, the scribes were furious and began making plans to further persecute Jesus. Even seeing a healing miracle with their own eyes do not change the hearts of those entrenched in rule-based religion. To follow the Lord Jesus is to seek to do good by bringing healing to the sick.
There is a tendency among believers to shy away from controversy. Some even think that if something is controversial, that it is wrong. As we study the life of Jesus, we see that He was very controversial and never avoided it. Oftentimes, the things that are the most important in God’s plan seem to be the most controversial.
Why is that? Because Satan was behind the Pharisees controversy with Jesus and he is behind much controversy over important biblical truths today. Divine healing, spiritual gifts and miracles are controversial today. Why? Because they are so important that the enemy will do whatever he can to stop God’s people from moving in God’s power. Continue to seek after God’s truth and power. Respond to those who persecute by speaking the truth in love, as Jesus did. Do good by healing the sick.
Pray about every decision
Luke 6:12-13 (ESV) In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Jesus, the Son of God, found it essential to pray on a regular basis. Before He made one of the most important decisions of His life, picking the twelve apostles, He spent the entire night in prayer. Why did Jesus, the Son of God need to pray? Because He lived His life on earth through the power of the Spirit, just as we do.
He used none of His divine power in His ministry, only the Spirit’s power that is available to us as well. He prayed all night to clearly hear from the Father, which of His many disciples, He should choose to pour the rest of His life into. These twelve were chosen to be sent out to pioneer the church after Jesus ascended into heaven.
Luke 6:14-15 (ESV) Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,
In these verses, we have the names of ten of the disciples that Jesus chose, including two pairs of brothers. All together there were twelve apostles, mirroring the twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament. These were the men that Jesus spent His three years of ministry teaching and showing them how to minister by following His example. In the final verse of the passage we are studying today, the final apostles are mentioned.
Luke 6:16 (ESV) and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Both are named Judas, but Judas Iscariot is said to have become a traitor. You see, we see Judas as wicked and evil from the beginning, but he was not like that when Jesus chose him. If you read this verse closely in both English and the Greek, you see the over the course of time, Judas became a traitor. Judas began as a follower of Jesus, but he fell away from his faith and became a traitor. A traitor who betrayed Jesus and the Bible clearly indicates that he killed himself and ended up in hell.
Jesus did not make a mistake in choosing Judas, Judas choose to embrace evil. Yet, it was all part of God’s plan, a great mystery. As Jesus prayed about every decision, as followers of the Lord Jesus, we must pray about every decision.
In the Gospel of Luke, we see the importance of prayer in Jesus’ life. Since Jesus needed to pray about every decision, how much more do we need to pray before our decisions. Our prayer lives indicate how committed we are to the lordship of Jesus.
What is true of people who don’t pray much? They think they can handle life on their own, they really don’t have much need for God’s help, unless things get really bad. Those who are committed to praying about every decision, do so because they desire to follow the Lord Jesus. We know that the Lord Jesus has a plan for our lives. It is only through prayer that we can discern that plan and have the power to carry it out. Seek the Lord Jesus in prayer for every decision in your life and you will be blessed.
God calls each and every person to follow the Lord Jesus in all aspects of their life. We answer that call by putting our faith in Jesus and becoming obedient to Him. Seek to follow His example in all of your life. Don’t use the excuse that it’s impossible to follow Jesus and do the things Jesus did. Build your faith and desire to bring healing into the lives of the needy around you.
Don’t chart your own course in life. Pray about every decision, both large and small. Believe God has a plan for every day of your life and follow that plan. Every day, confess that Jesus is Lord and you are following Him. Expect persecution and controversy, just as Jesus did. Rejoice when it comes, for you are blessed as you follow the Lord Jesus.