In Luke 6:20, the Lord begins the Sermon on the Plain, a message that deals with discipleship. It is not an evangelistic message. We might say that it instructs believers in how to be great in Christ’s kingdom. Those who are great in His kingdom will be closer to Him in that day. They are also the believers who are closer to Him in this life. While all believers have eternal life that can never be lost, not all believers enjoy or experience that life to the same degree. Christians can have an abundant experience of eternal life both now and forever (John 10:10).

It is not surprising, then, that the Lord starts the sermon by talking about the kind of believer who is “blessed” (6:20-23). Jesus says that the believer who suffers for Him will experience great reward. The Lord lets the believer who wants to follow Him know that any cost involved will be well worth the price.

As we would expect, the audience at this sermon consists of believers. Luke says that as Jesus started speaking, He looked at “His disciples” (6:20). The Gospel of Luke was written for believers, so it stands to reason in that Gospel, a long sermon such as the Sermon on the Plain would deal with teachings directed towards believers.

Recently, however, I saw distinctions in that audience. Immediately before delivering this message, the Lord goes up a mountain to pray. After praying all night, He chooses the twelve apostles who would be closest to Him during His earthly ministry. We are even told their names (6:12-16). He then calls these twelve to come up the mountain to be with Him.

When He and the Twelve descend from the mountain to the plain, we are told that a crowd of other disciples met Him. These disciples were not the Twelve, who would form Christ’s most intimate circle, but they were His students as well.

But another group of people was also there. Unlike the other two groups, they are not called “disciples.” They are called a “great multitude.” Mark says that they were those who had come from various places to hear Him speak. They will get that opportunity on the plain that day. Some of them have come from faraway places to do so.

What kind of people made up that multitude? Surely, there were believers in that group. Jesus had preached that He was the Christ and had shown He was by the miraculous powers He had demonstrated. These believers had traveled to hear the One they knew to be the Christ speak.

I don’t think I am reading too much into the account to see the believers in that audience in three groups. The first group is those closest to the Lord. These are the Twelve. We could say they had front-row seats. Behind them was a group of other “disciples.” The word means one who is a student and describes those who want to follow the Lord. They are not as near to the Lord as the Twelve, but are closer to Him than a believer who is not a disciple.

Behind this larger group of disciples were believers who were not disciples. Luke does not call them by that title. The picture is one of people further from the Lord than all those called disciples. We might say they were sitting in the cheap seats.

In other words, as the Lord taught a crowd of believers, some were very close to Him, some were a little further away, and some were even further away. He spoke in His sermon about those who will be blessed in the kingdom. Part of that blessedness will be the privilege of being close to Him. In the kingdom, some believers will be closer to Him than others. Those who will be closest to Him will be those who listen to and obey the things He said to them.

In the kingdom, wouldn’t it be great to have a front-row seat?