You Gotta Have Faith

Inmate Insights - The View Looking Out

Written by "Aaron"

I once heard a quote from an older wiser man, in prison during times of trial and efficient amount of disappointments, “It gets greater later.”  I meditated on something that stood out to me about this saying, and the revelation from God came upon me to better understand what this wise man had spoken to me. 

The book of Hebrews in chapter 11 verse 1 was the answer to all my trials, one word, Faith.  It states in this passage,

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Being in prison was a term of confinement but it would create a double standard of being confined in my mind as well.  I began to whole heartedly put my trust in Jesus to get me through my trials and believe me he didn’t just give me peace he gave me deliverance from the mental prison as well as the physical prison.

Trust in the Lord our God with all thy mind heart and soul and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

Which is exactly what I began to do and then continued to do and the Lord gave me peace and deliverance from my enemies and my present circumstances.  Give God the Glory and have faith my brothers and sisters that you too may get the revelation of God’s wisdom for deliverance from any trials and tribulations that this world brings.


grace, peace + hope

-Jesse

On My Knees

In my last post we defined what being “lost” means. We also learned some easy ways to partner
with people and support them in their spiritual journey. But, sometimes it feels like we pray so hard
for an opportunity and yet, no one seems to cross our path. You are not alone in this! I believe as followers of Christ, we have a desire to partner with people and help them, with God’s help of course. We can’t change people, only God can.

Discipleship, as defined by the dictionary, is the making of a person who is a pupil or devotee of a doctrine (Christianity in this case), or a follower. At M28 we believe in the divine mission to find desperate or lost people. In fact, you will find resources and advice on the M28 website. Ok so enough about the obvious.

If you’ve been praying but do not have a disciple now, be continuously passionate in your prayer for the lost to cross your path.  We may never see the full harvest, but this is our divine mission. Pray continuously, and God will provide the right person in his timing, not our own.

I’ve been part of M28 since it began and I have not had the opportunity to partner alongside a non-believer. I pray continuously for God to bring the right person across my path. I keep asking God why, but then I’m reminded of some of the fruits of the spirit: faithfulness, selflessness and patience.
Am I truly being faithful in my prayer?  Am I praying for someone to cross my path because I truly want to lead someone to Christ? Or am I just doing what I’m “supposed” to do. I have to remind myself to be patient and faithful when I spend time on my knees in prayer for those that are desperate and in need of the Lord.

We all most likely know someone who is desperate.  Are they waiting for us, as believers, to make the first move? I pray that you spend time in prayer daily to complete the great commission God assigned to us. If you do this, God will provide opportunities for you to plant seeds. Maybe it won’t happen in the next month or two, but remember God wants us to exhibit perseverance and not give up because we haven’t had the opportunity yet. In 2 Chronicles 15:7 it says, “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

We should want God to orchestrate the “how, who and when” of these opportunities. So be fervent and habitual in your prayer life. God is faithful and as he calls us to be disciple-makers, start with prayer, add a sowing of the seed, and pay attention to who may cross your path. God promises to be by your side and help lead you with the right words to say. God will provide and equip you to do his
work. His word says that he will never leave us or forsake us.

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not for yourselves, it is the gift of God.” So get on your knees and pray fervently for those who are desperate, so that they too can receive this gift.

The Forgiveness Paradigm

Once again I come to you with an introduction from movies.

Imagine with me if you will...

You are the father.  A young man has just moved into the town.  You knew his father before he was killed and you are certain the son will be the same type of trouble.  Especially when he asks to see your daughter.  You refuse him at first.  Later you warm to him a little and tell him that if he can stay out of trouble he can see your daughter.

He seems to do just that.

Then one day your daughter was executed in the village square.  Your world crumbles.  Rage and anger sweep over you at the person or people who brought your daughter to that end.  Soon you learn that she had married this man in secret.  And for some reason they had attacked soldiers in the village.  You want vengeance.  You want blood.  His blood.

The next morning at your daughter's burial you see the young man.  He approaches the grave and weeps.  Then he stands before you and kneels.  You are ready to strike him.  To pour your anger and rage into hurting him.  Your hand reaches out.

You hesitate.

Your trembling hand convulses as it lingers above his head and you feel the anger and rage, but you open your fist.  and gently place your hand on his head.

You forgive him.

The anger and rage slip away.  The pain and loss remain.  Your tears come.  But the forgiveness washes away the rest.

This is taken from Braveheart.  The movie doesn't play out exactly like this because the perspective of the father is not the focus of the movie.  However the scene with him putting his hand on the young man, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson,) is a scene that has stuck in my mind as an overlooked scene of forgiveness since I first saw the movie in 1995.

Now, how does any of that relate to biblical forgiveness and discipleship.  Stay with me a little longer and you will see.

Forgive.  To cancel or remit.  To pardon.  To cease feeling resentment.  Absolve.

Did Jesus ever mention forgiveness?  How about the time a paralytic man is lowered before him from the roof, Jesus tells the man, "Take heart son; your sins are forgiven."  Or when the woman who anoints his head with oil?  In fact there are many times that Jesus talks about forgiveness.

Another time is when he is teaching his disciples how to pray.  He says, "And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors."  He tells us to forgive not once but continually in Matthew 18:22.

So I think it's fair to say that Jesus thought forgiveness was important.  Something his disciples should know, understand, and practice.  So if Jesus taught it to his disciples, then we to should be using this concept.

All this comes before his death and resurrection.  Forgiveness was part of the total plan.  To absolve us from our sins.  To teach us forgiveness so we might show forgiveness to others.  Like the father in Braveheart.  He had every justifiable human reason to want to seek blood from Wallace.  But he did not.  He forgave him.  In a similar way, God has every reason and right to judge us.  But he offered forgiveness to all of us.

As his disciples we must put the practice of forgiveness into our lives.  From minor insults to big issues.  It doesn't matter what was done to us.  Jesus wants us to forgive.  If we are his light in the world, and we don't forgive...what light can others see?

Forgiveness is hard.  Because we must give more to someone who has in a sense already taken from us.  But remember, Jesus already provided a way to forgive all sins and wrongs.  When we forgive, we allow a little bit more of Jesus into our hearts, and his light shines a little brighter to those we forgive.

So if you have need of forgiveness from someone, seek it out.  If someone seeks forgiveness from you, give it.  Jesus forgave.  He forgave all.  As his disciples we should also forgive.

Until next time,

Grace, Peace & Hope

-Jersey

Uninvited

Have you ever planned a party or event just to have no one you invited show up?

Yes?  Good then I'm not alone in that department.  If your answer is 'no,' well, keep reading anyway.

Jesus gave his disciples a parable that featured this concept.  It was an allegorical story painting a picture of the kingdom of heaven.  I want to point out that the phrase kingdom of heaven is lowercase here, so it's not a physical place we can go to.  It's more like a state of being.  A way of life.

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells this great story about a king throwing a wedding banquet for his son.  He sends out invitations and prepares the event.  When the time came he sent his servants to gather those who had been invited.  They refused to come.

So the king sent more servants.  They were to let the invitees know that all was prepared, the food was ready and all that was needed was their arrival.  The still refused to come and mistreated and killed the servants.  (They really didn't want to go!)

Then the king says to his other servants, "Those who were invited did not deserve to come, go out into the streets and invite anyone you find there."  So they went and brought anyone they found to the wedding banquet, good and bad, and filled the banquet hall.

Now the story goes on (follow the link above to read all of it) but I will stop there for now.

I know this parable is not directly tied to discipleship but it has a principle we can apply to that concept.  When we want to disciple, we might want to reach out to those we know, those we would invite to a party.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  We should reach out to those we know.  But they refuse to come, time after time, stop spending time trying to get them to come and move on.

Invite those you don't know.  Reach out.  Be bold.  I know that it's easy to say that sitting behind a computer screen, but it's not impossible.  To go with Jesus' parable, if you're the servant getting sent to invite someone to the banquet, you know it's going to be a good time right?  Of course.  So why not tell others about it?

The challenge is determining how to invite those you don't know.  How to approach them and share with them what you know to be good.  There are many ways to do so.  Check out M28's website for more info and ways to do this.

And for those who refuse the invitation, remember this, we are not the king.  We don't have the final say.  So don't give up on them in your behavior.  Keep praying for them.  Keep showing them love and kindness.  But you don't have to keep 'barking up the same tree,' for lack of a better expression.

Reach out to the uninvited.  You may be surprised what doors God opens up in their life, and your own.

Grace, peace and hope
-Jersey

The Dagobah Perspective

I love Star Wars.  Yes, even the prequel trilogy.  But that's a different post for a different blog.

One of my favorite scenes in the original trilogy happens in Return of the Jedi.  (Warning, possible spoiler alert if you haven't seen them.)  Luke is in the middle of a swamp on a planet named Dagobah.  His teacher has just died and he is searching for answers.  It's then, that a translucent carbuncle of his previous teacher, Obi-wan Kenobi, arrives and explains somethings to him:

    Luke: Ben! Why didn't you tell me? You told me that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
 
    Obi-Wan: Your father... was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin
        Skywalker and "became" Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father
        was destroyed. So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view.

    Luke: A certain point of view?

    Obi-Wan: Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own
        point of view...

 Now, don't get all caught up in words like Dark Side, Force, and Skywalker.  The concept we're looking at here is perspective.  Let me ask you a question:

Can truth be dependent upon your perspective?

I don't want to get into a discussion of semantics or existentialism here, but let's go to a simple example.  You and I are standing next to each other in the woods.  You're standing behind a tree.  I am not.  I tell you there is a bear running straight toward us.  You tell me, there isn't.  The only way I can convince you this is a truth (before the bear reaches us) is to somehow get you to move from behind the tree and see the bear.

What bear?

Let's put this in a different context.


You have a friend that is addicted to porn, drinks like a fish every night, and gambles whatever money they have left over.  They need to hear the good news, you want to share the love of Jesus with them, but they are confident they want nothing to do with him, or church.

Or maybe you know someone who volunteers at a soup kitchen three nights a week.  They don't do drugs, they are responsible with their money.  They are also devoted and faithful to their family, and help their neighbors out regularly.  They've heard the typical "Christian" spiel.  And are not interested.

What does the first friend need from Jesus?

Ok change your perspective and look through their eyes.  They are having fun.  Or at least think they are.  It's their money, their body, they can do what they want with it.

How about the second friend?  See it from their eyes.  Church has nothing to offer them.  They are as the expression goes, "good people."


So, what do we do about this?  How do we change their perspective.  How do we get them to see what we see?  Well, I don't have a solid answer for you.  My response is, change your perspective.

Leave your comfort zone.  See the world through their eyes, or at least closer to their perspective.  Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone start drinking, gambling or doing other things of that nature to better understand a friend.  Open up to them.  Hear what they are really saying when they talk.

For Luke, Darth Vader was the man who murdered his father Anakin.  For Obi-wan, Vader was always the man who had been Anakin.  But Luke had the wrong perspective.  In his example, that wasn't his fault.  It was what people had told him to that point to give him that perspective.

Jesus changed his perspective for us.  He left the splendor that is Heaven to see the world how we see it.  To live like we live.  He came and felt the sun on his face, water at his toes.  He smelled the sweet and the pungent.  He felt with hands like yours and mine.  Philippians 2 says it like this:

        5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

        6Who, being in very nature God,

        did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

        7but made himself nothing,

        taking the very nature of a servant,

        being made in human likeness.

        8And being found in appearance as a man,

        he humbled himself

        and became obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

So, since you're changing your perspective to see life from a friend or neighbors point of view, try and see that same friend from Jesus' perspective.

Jesus didn't see fishermen, he saw disciples.  He didn't see a woman caught in adultery, he saw a woman to forgive.  He didn't see a lost cause, he saw his cause, that was lost, and he came to bring us back.

Try changing your perspective, and experience life with the people around you.  Remember what Obi-wan said (yes I know he's a fictional character but his words ring true,)

"...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view..."

Then remember the truer words Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."  Matthew 5:16.  Try to show them something their perspective can see.

Christ living in you.

Follow Me...

I mentioned in last week's post that I relate a lot of things to movies.  So when I hear the phrase "Follow me," many scenes burst into my mental movie player.  Joan of Arc in "The Messenger" crying out to the tired and weary soldiers, "Follow me and I will give you victory!"  Or how about in the closing scene of "The Last Crusade" when Marcus Brody exclaims in joy, "Indy, Henry, follow me, I know the way. Ha" as his horse thunders out of a dry canyon.

But the one that sticks out the most is not the exact same phrase.  But it's close.  Come with me back to the early 80's.   Granted I was just a tyke back then, but imagine if you will, a neon night club.  Full of feathered hair, mega-bangs, and some of the worst fashion sense this side of a burlap sack.  People are screaming in fear as a giant man lumbers through the place with an automatic weapon spraying bullets.  The heroine of the story is trapped under a once badly dancing club goer.  The giant is upon her, when out of no where a dashing hero in a trench coat jumps in firing a shot gun into the man.  The giant staggers back and crashes through the window into the street.

"Come with me if you want to live..." says Kyle Reese to Sarah Connor.

That's right, I'm referencing "The Terminator" in a blog about Jesus.  (Yeah, you can do that!)


Ok so what does any of this have to do with Jesus or discipleship...or anything?  I'm glad you asked.  There are many people, programs, and personalities out there that want you to follow them.  The whole concept of Twitter is to get people to "follow you."  So-called reality TV is about "following" the lives of who ever the flavor of the minute is.

But there was someone saying this long before all of this.

Imagine again, not a movie, but a place.  It's warm, the sun is beaming down on you as you approach a lake.  You hear the waves.  The birds.  Other people working and talking.  You reach down into your fathers boat and pull out one of the nets you use to catch fish.  You can smell the dampness in it.  You and your brother get to work in the shallows.  It's going to be a long day.  Knee deep in the water casting and hauling.  Hoping to get a good catch for the market.

A few hours later a man approaches you both.  He looks at you and smiles.  "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."  Without hesitation you look at your brother, he shrugs his shoulders and you both drop the nets on the shore and follow him.

You and your brother follow this guy along the shore.  A while later you come across some other fishermen.  These guys are in a boat with who you assume is their father.  The guy you are following calls out to them, and they leave the boat and join you.

Ok, back to here and now.  How cool is that?!  Jesus just walks up to these guys, says, "Follow me." and they do.  They didn't hesitate.  They just dropped their stuff and went.  Can you imagine that.  Hearing the actual voice of Jesus call out to you and say, "Follow me."  It gives me chills.

We can still hear the voice of Jesus today.  He whispers to us when we see a homeless person who is ignored by the ocean of humanity breaking around him as if he were just a rock on the sidewalk.

follow me

He weeps at our shoulders when we comfort a friend who has just lost a loved one and is lost and confused about life, and death and hope.  follow me

He cries out in a voice like thunder when we see a child hurt and abused.  FOLLOW ME!!

His voice is all around us.  Calling us to follow him.  When you see the homeless, drop your pride and see the human being that no one else does.  When your friend is hurting, cry with them.  Drop the facade that everything is always sunshine and puppies.  Leave your nets, leave your boats and go.  Go to where Jesus leads you.  It won't always make sense or be easy.  But we have the promise that if we follow him, if we go...he will be with us always.

So listen to the voice of Jesus.  Look for it in your daily life.  He's there, calling you out from yourself.

"Follow me."

Grace, Peace & Hope
-Jersey

Sent Out - The Rest of Us

Alright, the last post in this series.

In the last post we looked at Jesus sending out the 72.  This time we're looking at his last sending out of disciples if you will.  What has been called, "The Great Commission."

The scripture for this commission is found in Matthew 28, verses16-20.  To set this moment up, here's a quick recap of what led up to it.  Jesus has made is triumphal entry to Jerusalem.  He teaches, he heals, and continues on as he has done for the last three years.  He is then betrayed, arrested, put on trial, beaten, flogged, crucified, buried and raised from the dead!  So his disciples, the elven remaining, and all the other followers have been on an emotional roller coaster.  But he's back.

I think of things in terms of movies.  This is the final epic heroic moment.  It's Robert the Bruce leading the armies of Scotland after William Wallace is executed.  Only better.  Because the hero that everyone thought was dead...is alive!  He's there telling his "captains," and in turn us what's next.  So here we are in Matthew 28.  Jesus tells the women who came to his tomb to sent the disciples to Galilee where he would meet them.

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^a the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  There is no story on the planet that is this exciting!  Can you imagine!?  You're following Jesus, everything is awesome.  He's given authority to heal, and raise the dead, and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.  Then...he's arrested and killed.  Everyone saw it happen.  It's not a rumor.  That had to be the darkest hour of the disciples lives.

They weren't arguing over how communion should be served.  They weren't debating what songs to sing at their next gathering.  Their mortgages were not important.  They weren't worried about what shoes to wear to the funeral.  They were in fear for their lives.  They had been following a man that promised them so much.  They hung all their hopes on him.  He was taken, and executed.

All hope was lost.

But it wasn't!  Hiding in a room, waiting in fear for the soldiers to come for them.  Then Jesus is there among them.  He isn't dead.  There's nothing to fear any more!  He overcame death!

Oh.  Right.  He told us he would.

I love how in the gospels it's written something to the tune of, "but they didn't remember this until after..."

But that's a whole other post for another time.  Point here is...their leader, our leader, came back.  His death wasn't the end of his mission.  It was just part of the plan.  And it's not even the end of the plan.  It's more like the end of the introduction to his mission.  Ok disciples, training is over.   Go do it.  You don't need me physically with you.  But I'll send you my Spirit to be with you until the end.  Not just your end...but the end of the age.

And what does he tell them, and us, to do?

He tells them "All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me."  He's in control.

Of everything.

So, Jesus has the power over heaven and earth.  What does he do with it?  He tells eleven guys, who are about to become for lack of a better word, outlaws, to make more of themselves.  He gives them 3 instructions and a promise.

1.  Go, make disciples of all nations (note he doesn't say "in all" nations, but of all) 
2.  Baptize them (disciples)
3.  Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you

The promise:  And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

It's so simple.  But it's so hard.  We, as flawed humans, want to tamper with what it means to be a disciple, to put regulations on being baptized, to teach beyond our obedience.

The great commission, is a charge to Jesus' disciples past/present/future to crawl out from under our hiding place, to leave the safety and comfort of what we know, to remove the mask of self-righteousness and just follow him.

After all that's what being a disciple is.  Following Jesus, and bringing him to others.

And that wraps up our "Sent Out" posts.  Please leave a comment or question below.  Also, you can subscribe to the blog in the links to the right.

Grace, Peace & Hope
-Jersey

Sent Out - The Seventy Two

Last week I wrote about Jesus sending out the 12.  That is the 12 disciples he called to follow him.  This week we're looking at another time Jesus sent his followers out.  This time those sent number 72.

Read Luke 9:51-10:24 (links are to the full chapters)

Jesus is headed for Jerusalem.  He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare things for him, but he was not welcome.  So he kept going.  James and John (I imagine at this point are starting to feel pretty full of themselves) ask if Jesus wants them to call fire down on the village.  They've already forgotten some of the lessons learned from the previous outing.

They were told shake the dust of an unwelcoming town from their sandals.  Now they want to destroy the village.  Jesus also told them they would face opposition and difficulty.  Again, they were ready to call down devastation at the thought of not being welcome.

Jesus had other ideas.  He was about to send people out again.  Other disciples, but not the disciples.  Because the verse in most translations say "he appointed seventy-two others."  Now there may be a slight difference from 70 to 72 others.  Either way it was a larger group of people than the previous twelve.

This time they were being sent to towns Jesus was about to go visit.  He doesn't specify "the lost of Israel," this time.  Just the towns he's going to.

He again gives the same basic guidelines: 

1.  Go

2.  Proclaim the kingdom of heaven is near

3.  Heal the sick, drive out demons, raise the dead

4.  Don't take anything with you

5.  Rules for conduct in towns/homes

This time he adds not to talk to people they meet on the road.  Jesus tells them how to behave in the homes again.  Looking for a man of peace, and allowing it to rest on him and his house.  Stay in that house while there, eat and drink what they give you, "for the worker deserves his wages." (Luke 10:7)

The worker deserves his wages.  How many times has that been used in Sunday messages, or to explain payroll for pastors, etc?  When you read this does it seem like Jesus is establishing a guideline for his messengers to earn a full-time living doing this?

I don't think so.  They are going to these towns for short periods of time, because Jesus is coming.  They are there to get the town ready for his visit.  They are the "roadies" if you will.  They are only there briefly.  Then they return to Jesus.  While there, they are to heal, and proclaim the kingdom of heaven is near.  They are to stay with "a man of peace."  This person will serve the disciples while there in the way of providing room and board.  After a few days they return to Jesus.

When you read the scripture, it's the very next sentence.  Jesus gives his instructions, then "The seventy-two returned with joy..."  (Luke 10:17)

Jesus instructs.  They go.  They do what they were sent to do.  They come back.

And they were joyful.

Why?

They were casting out demons.  That is what they took out of it.  I probably would have too.  Can you imagine?  You and I are walking to a village, probably near the cemetery.  Out jumps the crazy possessed guy.  You stare him down and command him to leave in the name of Jesus.  Suddenly the guy is back to normal.  I look at you and say, "Dude, that just happened!"  (No offense, but dude in my book is gender non-specific.)

Then we go back to Jesus all excited.  "Jesus!  Jesus, fill in your name here just cast out some demons!  It was awesome!"

Jesus looks at us and says, "You should be more excited about having your name is written in heaven."

And we are humbled.

Jesus reminds us that no matter what we do, in his name or not, it's not about us.  The mission was to tell others about Jesus, and proclaim the kingdom. 

I've come to learn that that hard way.  And I have to keep learning it.

Discipleship, mentoring, teaching, preaching, healing, and whatever else you want to add to that list, doesn't mean a thing with out Jesus.  What we do is not important.  It's our attitude, our heart, and motivations that matter.

Whether you lead a mega-church of 3,000-5,000 people or a group of 5,  if it's about you it's all wrong.

So if you're like James and John and ready to call destruction down on those unwilling to accept Jesus, or like the 72, on a spiritual power trip...take a moment and pray.

Stop.

Right now. (I'm doing it too.)

Pray.  Refocus on Jesus.  Cause He is what matters.  Not curriculum or lack of.  Not fancy tech or flannel graph.  It's about Jesus.  The Word.  Through him all things were made.  You.  Me.  The very Earth itself.

Jesus sent the 12, and then the 72.  He wanted them to be dependent upon him.  They took nothing with them.  Just the clothes on their back.  Jesus told them it would be dangerous.  Both times he compared them to sheep or lambs among wolves.

Sheep don't get lost or need to fear when they are with their shepherd.  Jesus is our shepherd.  He is with us wherever we go, whatever we do.  Get to know his voice.  Spend time with him in the word, in prayer, in worship, in fellowship with other believers. 

Remember, they were sent in pairs, not alone.  We are to help one another.  And we go with Jesus.

Next Week:  Sent Out - The Rest of Us

Read Matthew 28 and Luke 22:7-38

Until next time,
Grace, Peace and Love
-Jersey

Sent Out - The Twelve

M28 is all about embracing and living out the "Great Commission."  This was Jesus' ultimate command sending his followers out.  But it wasn't the first.  This entry and the next few will look at the different times Jesus sent out his disciples.

Luke and Matthew both go into detail about Jesus sending out disciples for the first time.

As mentioned in the previous blog post Jesus had more than the twelve disciples.  Yet the twelve had a closer relationship to Jesus.  It was to these 12 that he shared the meanings behind the parables.  It was with these 12 that he shared life with for about three years.  They heard his teachings and saw the miraculous healing he did everywhere he went.

They were the best candidates to be imitators of him.

They saw what he did.  How he lived and acted.   More so than anyone.  So it was this same group of 12 men that he sent out the first time.

He gave them some very vague and very specific instructions.  But before the instructions he gave them something else.  He gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and heal every disease and sickness.  Matthew 10:1

After that he gave them the instructions.  Go to the lost of Israel, not the Gentiles.  The lost of Israel could be anyone.  The friends and neighbors of the disciples.  Their family.  Their former co-workers.  Fishermen, tax collectors, the zealots and others.  Or even strangers and those unknown to the twelve.

Next he told them to proclaim this message as they went, "The kingdom of heaven has come near."  This made the disciples heralds or messengers.  I like the definition of herald over at dictionary.com.

"a person or thing that precedes or comes before; forerunner; harbinger"

Forerunner.  Harbinger.  Intense sounding words.  But that is exactly what these guys were.  They went ahead of Jesus proclaiming the kingdom heaven was near.  This message they proclaimed to their fellow countrymen.  

The next thing Jesus tells them to do, is to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy and drive out demons.

Raise the dead?

I can just see Peter now.  He elbows Andrew, "Bro, this is awesome!  We get to go proclaim the kingdom is near, heal the sick, raise the dead, clean the lepers...whoa hold up.  Did he just say, 'raise the dead?'"

I mean can you imagine that?!  Try to imagine yourself in that position.  It's your turn to go out.  Jesus is sending you.  All you've really done up to this point is listen and watch.  Your first assignment is to go heal people, cast out demons, and raise the dead.  That is steep learning curve.

And that is where faith comes into it.  Jesus gave them the authority to heal the sick, and drive out demons.  The Bible doesn't specifically mention raising the dead in the authorities Jesus gave them.  But Jesus told them to do it.

If Jesus thinks I can do it...

Jesus goes on with a few more instructions.  They were not to take any money.  They weren't to pack any extra clothes or equipment.  They were pretty much told to go as they were.  Jesus wraps that instruction up with, "for workers are worth their keep."  In my translation that means, "if you do well, people will feed and clothe you as needed."

He also instructs them how to interact with the towns and villages.  Look for a "worthy person" and stay with that person until you leave.  When you enter the house, give it a greeting.  If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it.  If it is not, let your peace return to you.

If you are not welcomed, shake the dust from your feet when you leave that home or town.

And that is essentially it for Jesus' instructions.

1.  Go

2.  Proclaim the kingdom of heaven is near

3.  Heal the sick, drive out demons, raise the dead

4.  Don't take anything with you

5.  Rules for conduct in towns/homes

Then Jesus launches into a challenge for them.  He says, "I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves."  (Matthew 10:16)  He then proceeds to tell them that they will face all sorts of dangers.  They will be hated, persecuted.  There will be turmoil in families because of Jesus and the message the disciples bring.  Jesus tells them this and lets them know that they aren't greater than their teacher.  He is alluding to what is to come for him.  That, he too, will face persecution and punishment.

He then told them to not fear what may come.  That it is better to fear God rather than people, who can only kill the body.  He finishes instructing them, and he leaves.  He goes to Galilee to teach and preach.  He kept working.

I know there are all sorts of scholars and teachers who can dive deeper into the heart of all this instruction and how it would have looked through the lens of that Eastern culture.  I can't go into what the meanings of having your peace rest on a house are.

The best thing I can take away from this for us today is faith.

Faith in Jesus.

Without that, we might as well stay home.  If we don't believe in the one who sent us, we aren't doing any good.  Let's step back just a little and look at what happened right before Jesus sent out the 12. 

Matthew 9:35-38 

Jesus is going through town after town, teaching, proclaiming the good news, and healing every disease.  He sees the crowds and has compassion on them.  They were like sheep with out a shepherd.  He then says to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." 

We see this similar expression stated in Luke 10:2.  The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  So what needs to be done about that...workers need to be found and sent.  The harvest field is Earth, and it belongs to God because he is the Lord of the harvest. 

We are the workers.  The harvest is right there.  It's plentiful.

We just need to go. 

With faith in the one who sent us.  Jesus. 

What can you do?  Today? 

Well, the first thing you can do is believe Jesus.  Next, pray for the workers.  Then pray that you would see the harvest field around you, and begin to work in it.  If you don't know how to do that, pray some more, read the Bible.  Study Jesus and how he dealt with people.  Live and love like he did. 

Soon the M28 website will be up and running and there will be all sorts of resources available to help you live out the Great Commission.  In the mean time feel free to contact me Jersey via email and I can connect you to people or info that can help. 

Next week:  Sent Out - The Seventy Two  (Reading:  Luke 9:51-10:24)

know the Hope
-Jersey

Discipleship 101 - Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Disciple.

That one word summons up so many different images and meanings.  It makes me think of Peter, James, John and the other nine men who followed Jesus about.  Fishermen, tax collectors, the necessary and the unwanted.

It also makes me think of the crowds that followed Jesus.  They were also referred to as his disciples.  After rereading some of the gospels recently I now see this larger crowd of people that continually followed him.  Not the five thousand mind you, but more than just the twelve.  There were at least a few women as Luke tells us in his gospel. (Luke 8:1-3)

           

            “The Twelve were with him, and also some women…”

There are so many other images that disciple paints in my mind.  Some good some bad.  The difference is what teacher the disciple is following.

The word disciple comes from a Latin word, discipulus, meaning “pupil,”  This word came from discipere.  Broken down dis meaning apart, asunder, separate; capere to take, grasp, lay hold of.  So a disciple is one who takes hold of things that are apart.  They grasp things that are not together.  One who learns.  A student.

So what is discipleship?  The act of learning or teaching depending on which side of the proverbial desk you are sitting on.

Jesus was called “rabbi” or teacher.  His followers were called disciples.  His followers 2,000 years ago, and those who follow him today.

Disciples.

You.  Me.  That smelly guy at the end of the counter you passed entering a local diner for breakfast.  That guy in the shiny car and tailored suit.  The waitress I didn’t leave a tip for because she didn’t refill my Dr. Pepper enough. 

That’s the incredible thing about being a disciple of Jesus.  Anyone, anywhere could be one.  God doesn’t just teach people who walk into the halls of what is called a “church.”  Disciples can be found anywhere.  There is no one centralized place people go to become disciples of Jesus.

Disciples can learn in a house, a coffee shop, a tattoo parlor, a sun washed beach, a storm shattered house in the US Mid-West, a street corner in Europe, an Aids deathbed in Africa.

It’s not the place, the clothing, or the trappings that make a disciple.  It’s a soul yearning for a connection to it’s maker.  A heart ready to learn, grow, change, and give.  Discipleship is not restricted by age, wealth, social status, education, gender or what kind of music you listen to.

Jesus taught fishermen, tax collectors, people who had been demon possessed, rich, poor, young, old, men and women, Jews and Gentiles.  Israel and the Jewish people were his entry point, and when he left he sent his disciples to the world.  To continue on what he started.  To teach as he had taught and carry it into all the world.

We could get into all sorts of depth about the different meanings behind the four gospel commissions, and how they contrast or relate to the Creation command, but there are others who know more about that, and have already written about it.  (ie Jonathan Dodson - http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001678.cfm)

What I find to be the same in all of them, and at the very core of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is that we are to “go.”  No where does it say, “stay where you are and build up programs and palaces of worship and attract people to Christ.”  No.  Jesus tells us to go.  For some, that is down the street to mentor and disciple a neighbor.  For others it’s traveling to prisons, or schools.  For others still it’s getting on a plane and going to another country.

The Commission

There is a physicality and movement to the command “go.”  There is nothing sedentary about it.  The command is simple.  Matthew 28:18-20  (NASB)

¹⁸And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Go.  Make.  Baptize.  Teach.

Verbs.  Actions.  Jesus’ last words to his disciples, his students, were a call to action.  Some were still struggling with belief of what had happened after his death.  Yet he tells them to go out.  They have believed, in faith.  Now they were to teach, in faith.

I’ve heard it said that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.

Jesus’ students are told to go into the rest of the world and told to; wash, rinse, repeat.

Step 1:

Go, move, leave where you are to be somewhere else.  Next door, or around the world.

Step 2:

Make students.  People who will grasp things that are separate.  Like Sin and Grace.

Step 3:

Baptize them in the name of God:  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Step 4:

Teach them to obey, follow, adhere to, the commands Jesus gave.  Including, Go.

Step 5:

Repeat.  Because 11 people didn’t make disciples of all nations on the first go.

This isn’t meant to be a formula or code to follow.  I’m just breaking down the verbs of the Commission. 

Discipleship

Discipleship is not a 3 week class held on Sunday mornings for 30 to 45 minutes.  It’s not a book with a clever plan on “how to.”  As a disciple of Jesus we never stop learning or growing.  There is no graduation or achievement levels.  There is no standardized testing, with multiple choice and No. 2 pencils.

Discipleship is a way of living.  It is continual learning and growing in our relationship with Jesus, and others whether they share the same faith or not.

There are many books and teachings about how to disciple.  I won’t really recommend one over another partially because I haven’t read enough of them to offer opinions on the methods.

What I will tell you is this, discipleship is both simple and complex.  The way to do discipleship can be very simple and uncomplicated.  But there will be complex conversations and questions.  And the very nature of what is being taught is complicated.

Jesus was our example of how to teach disciples.  He pulled it off with out a single youtube video, powerpoint presentation, sporting arena, or even a megaphone.  He taught from his heart what he knew the Father wanted us to know.  It’s all laid out for us in scripture.

Making a disciple requires very few physical things.  A teacher, a student and a Bible.  It can be that simple.  There also needs to be a desire to learn and grow in both parties, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  It’s the Spirit that makes the growth happen.  It’s the Spirit that opens up the complexities and mysteries of the Word to the hearts of both teacher and student.

Teach the Word.  Not traditions.  As one teaching, you must be as deep or deeper in the Word than the one being taught.  Dive in.  Breathe deep the fragrance of life that springs from it’s pages.  Teach others to be like Jesus by living the way Jesus lived.

You must first be a disciple if you want to make a disciple.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to take hold of the grace and promises of God and join them to what is separate from them, our sinful nature, our hearts, minds and souls.  This is only possible because of what Jesus accomplished for us through his death and resurrection.

Jesus didn’t wait for humanity to come to Heaven.  He left everything he was took on the pain and suffering of being human so he could be with us.  He wanted to be with us so he could teach us how to live, and love, and serve the Father.

He came to us.

And so those who follow him, must also go, make, baptize, teach…repeat.