Jesus Calls the Twelve (Luke 6:12–26) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Everything claiming to be Christian is not. We’ve become too accustomed to Christian serving as an adjective to prop up what we want to do as spiritual, instead of Christian as a noun defining a person as a follower of Christ. But that’s nothing new. Jesus said so strikingly in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven . . .” (Matthew 7:21). Tossing about the name of Jesus as though it contains enough magic in the utterance that all our wishes come true, seems to be more common than believing and following the Jesus of the bloody cross and empty tomb. While I think the fashionable days of identifying as Christian without following Jesus may be rapidly flying by—and good riddance—we’ve not gotten there yet. “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness,” (Matt 7:23) has not been rescinded to accommodate Christ-less and cross-less Christianity.

But what kind of life does Christ set forth for His followers? One might mistakenly think it to be a dour, dull, starched sadness, drooping frown, wrinkled brow, lifeless, and joyless life. That’s not Jesus’ view of following Him. He’s the One who said, just hours before heading to the cross, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). That was infinite joy with the cross in view!

On the other hand, we mistake following Jesus as His disciples if we think it to be some kind of thoughtless, giddy, sloppy, syrupy, cliché-spouting, slapstick, and mindless life. That, too, is not Jesus’ view of following Him. He calls for His followers to take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). That won’t exactly prime the syrup pump!

So what does Jesus teach His disciples about following Him? That’s what we embark on over the next few weeks in Luke 6. He distinguishes between those following Him and those who don’t, not by their profession but by their life marked with joy. He describes a life, a full and rich life, not by a title or merely a claim. We might simplify it as kingdom life or, in this context, a life of kingdom joy.

The gospel calls us to Jesus’ kingdom of joy. What does that look like? The narrative that we consider helps us to see it, as we think through under two headings.

I. Jesus lays a foundation of joy

All the way toward the cross, Jesus laid the foundation for kingdom joy with those following Him. Such joy is not manufactured. It’s not found in a 12-Step program or a set of laws. No one can coach you into joy. Someone can make you laugh or smile by a remark or antic. Yet no one but Jesus can give you the kind of joy that Jesus exhibited and called for in His followers. It’s not found in entertainment or funny stories. Joy is found in relationship to Jesus Christ. It’s His joy experienced under His Lordship.

Verses 12–19 show us how Jesus laid a foundation for kingdom joy.

1. By choosing apostles

What does choosing apostles have to do with kingdom joy? Notice what Jesus did. In the tension of facing the rage of religious zealots that knew nothing of life with God, Jesus “went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” One might think that He went just to get away from the hardness of the Pharisees or to catch His breath. Instead, He sought the Father in order to walk lock-step in the Father’s will about those representing Him.

“And when day came, He called His disciples to Him.” That refers to a number of disciples that had been following along to learn of Jesus. Luke comments, “there was a large crowd of His disciples.” The word disciple means “a learner.” That kind of learning, though, entailed a life of following and observing and imitating the one teaching and modeling life. That’s why we should never hesitate to use the word disciple if we claim to be Christian. For as disciples we’re those believing Christ, [...]