Luke 6:11-16 - "He Continued All Night in Prayer to God"

So far in Luke 6 Jesus is dealing with the criticism and questions from the Pharisees. They were convinced that He had allowed His disciples to “work” on the Sabbath when the rubbed some grains of wheat together in their hand and eat it (vs. 1-5). Secondly, they were enraged and sought to do Him harm after He healed the man with the withered hand. Jesus threatened their control over the people by exposing their hypocrisy and lack of compassion for hungry and hurting people.   The next thing the Savior does is a very important lesson for us today! Before He continues His ministry Jesus goes to “the mountain” and spends an entire night in prayer and communion with His Father. We need to remember that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, God in the flesh, but at the same time Jesus is the Son of Man, and entirely human!   I like how the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, affirmed that Jesus: (1) is fully God; (2) is fully human; (3) is one person; and (4) possesses two distinct natures. The Chalcedon document, one of the most important in church history, says in part: “Following the holy fathers, we confess with one voice that the One and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, that He is of one substance with the Father as God, He is also of one substance with us as man. He is like us in all things without sin. This One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten is made known in two natures (which exist) without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. The distinction of the natures is in no way taken away by their union, but rather the distinctive properties of each nature are preserved.”   My friend, if Jesus needed to spend time in prayer with His Father, how much more do we need to do the same before we make major decisions in our life. Or when we are dealing with tremendous stress of pressure from opposition from others or from evil spiritual forces.   Why did Jesus pray all night? For one thing, He knew that opposition against Him was growing and would finally result in His crucifixion; so He prayed for strength as He faced the path ahead. Also, He wanted the Father's guidance as He selected His 12 Apostles, for the future of the church rested with them. Keep in mind that one of the Twelve would betray Him, and Jesus knew who he was from the beginning (John 6:64). Our Lord had real human emotions (Luke 22:41-44; Heb. 5:7-8), and it was through prayer that He made this difficult choice.   Years ago, I heard someone say something that really stayed with me. “You can minister to the multitudes, but you can only disciple a few”. In some way, all of us as followers of Jesus Christ can minister to the hungry, broken, and hurting people all around us with both physical and spiritual help. And we should always be doing this, but the real work and calling of our Christian life is to disciple others.   Basically Jesus called His disciples to “follow Him” (Luke 5:27), to “be with Him” (Mark 3:14), and to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen (Matthew 28:19-20).   Before we can make disciples of others, we must first be following Jesus, and spending time with Him in His Word and in prayer! May the Lord help us to do this today!   God bless! Link to Special Notes on the 12 Disciples of Jesus https://www.pmiministries.org/post/special-notes-on-the-disciples-of-jesus