(Luke 6:12-19) 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 unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. 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 Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, 26
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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 them all. (KJV)
Jesus is once again, in this reference, facing a great decision. Some have said He was about to make the choice of whom would give birth to His church; but the Bible is very clear that His church was already in existence and the decision that was here being made concerned the progress of the church, not the organization of it. Jesus is faced with the awesome decision of choosing men who would be responsible for the continuation of the ministry that He Himself had started. It would be up to these men, whom He would choose, to carry out the teachings that He would establish for His church.
Thus, the choice that He would make would be of the uttermost importance. It would be up to these men to guide the fledgling New Testament church in the way that Jesus had intended for it to go. Jesus knew these men were not yet ready for the task that would be placed upon them after His leaving, but He knew they had the potential for the task.
In considering the purpose of the prayer, we might think that Jesus need not pray for such a decision as this since He, being the Second Personage of the Trinity, knew from the beginning who would be chosen. We must remember that no only had Jesus chosen to limit Himself to an extent when He took upon Himself the form of man, but also that He was bound to give an example in most everything He did. Jesus was later to give these instructions to His church: (Luke 10:2) Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (KJV)
If Jesus was to give these instructions to His church, then it stands to reason that He Himself would have to first follow those same instructions beforehand.
The examination of this prayer is again difficult because the prayer is not recorded. The Scriptures do state that He spent the entire night in prayer before announcing the decision that He had reached.
What a prayer He must have prayed! There is no doubt that He weighted every aspect, characteristic, ability, fault, inability, shortcoming, and capability of every one of the male disciples that were following Him at that time. The right choice was imperative. The responsibilities that would be placed upon these twelve men would be of great magnitude. These men would have to be able to understand the teachings of Jesus, be able to teach those things taught by Christ, be able to lead others in the ways Christ taught, and be stable enough to be able to bear the persecution that was sure to follow. In any of even the moderate considerations, these were high qualifications for any individual to meet; yet, Jesus had to choose twelve to fit these.
There is an even greater aspect that has to be considered. Jesus had to arrange certain things so that certain events would be worked out according to prophecy. He was to be betrayed by one of His followers; so, that decision also had to be faced. Even Jesus knew the pattern of things that were to 27
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follow. There was, no doubt, much time spend in consideration of the in His prayer. Why Jesus chose Judas to be one of the trusted twelve is still debated today. My opinion is that, even though Jesus knew the heart of Judas, he was chosen in order that Old Testament prophecies might be fulfilled.
(Zechariah 13:6) And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. (KJV)
(Psalms 41:9) Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. (KJV)
These prophecies had to be fulfilled. There was no other way for them to be fulfilled than for one of the followers of Jesus to do it. With Judas being one of the trusted twelve, he was in the position to know exactly what Jesus did every day. He would be able to set up the betrayal just as he wanted to. Jesus knew about him from the very beginning. Consider John 6:64, 70, 71, which read: (John 6:64) But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. (KJV) (John 6:70) Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (KJV)
(John 6:71) He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. (KJV)
With these passages of Scripture in mind, it is impossible and illogical to believe that Jesus did not spend much of the time during the night on the mountain in prayer about this matter.
This prayer of Jesus gives His children of today some examples that should be followed to the very letter. Many, many times His children will make decisions without taking the time to weight carefully every aspect of the decision. Someone has said making decisions is easy, the hard part comes in having to live with those decisions. No doubt most everyone has made decisions in the past that they wish they would have taken more time in making. It must be remembered decisions that are made do not only affect just the one who is making them, but it also affects those around him.
Doing God’s will is frequently one of the most difficult decisions that one can make, not that God’s will is always hard, just the knowledge of what that will is. Many times, as a pastor I have had church members to come to me asking the question, “How can I know what God’s will is in a particular decision?” There is no easy answer to that question. What might work for me might not work for someone else. One thing is for sure, each individual must spend time in prayer concerning that 28
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decision of God’s will just as Jesus did that night on the “mountain of decision.” This may not make the decision any easier to make but you can rest assured you will be better able to make that decision concerning God’s will than if you did not spend that time in prayer.
One evening a member asked me, “Pastor, how do you determine just what God’s will is in decisions that you have to make?” The answer given to that member went something like this: “Whenever the Lord was me to do something and I am not exactly sure about it, my first step is to spend some time in prayer about it. After presenting it to the Lord, I carefully weigh all the aspects of the decision. I try to think of every side of the question. I ask myself what would happen if I DID NOT
do it. I ask myself what would happen it I DID do it. I consider the situation from every possible angle that I can imagine. Then I wait. You say, ‘Wait?’ Yes, I wait. If whatever the Lord has impressed upon me to do, it will still be there after I wait a bit. I cannot tell you how long to wait, a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, or even a few weeks. Regardless of the waiting period, if it is God’s will for to do that or make that kind of decision, I will still be impressed to do it. After that period of waiting, if I am still impressed to do it, I then put my full efforts into doing whatever it is that I have decided to do.
“I do not say that it will work for you, but it does for me. God deals with each of us according to our abilities and personalities. One thing is sure, whenever I am finished with the decision-making process, I do not have any doubts. Ever do anything if there are doubts. I wait until I do not have any doubts about the decision. Doubts do not come from God, they come from Satan. However, if that doubt is there, there must be a reason. I make every effort to find out what that reason is.
Whenever a proper decision is made, there will be peace and contentment in my heart that I have done what God wants me to do.” Throughout the some fifty years of ministering, I have used and have given this short statement to others: “When in doubt, don’t!” God is not in the habit of leaving any doubts. Let me state it again: Doubts do not come from God, they come from Satan. If you get nothing else from this writing, please get this. It will help you tremendously throughout your service for Him.
As was stated in the first part of this chapter, Jesus weighted every aspect of His decision that night on the mountain. Since He is a living example for His children to follow, then it behooves every child of God to follow His example. He was not hasty in making His decision, and neither should His children. Each decision should be carefully, but most importantly, prayerfully made.
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