Follow the link above and read the passages slowly. This is very sobering.
Enter Kingdom - An ESV Bible Search →
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I am trying to memorize the words of Jesus, and so I had the idea of setting them to music. Since I love 8 bit electronic music I decided to use that genre as a backdrop for the Sermon on the Mount. Enjoy. Credits: Bible Audio from ESV, and Music by Downstate and We The Sick.
Lord - Rabbi - Master - Teacher
In my study today I came across something of interest. The gospels record many of the same events (especially Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and this gives us insight into how certain words could be substituted or changed without losing their meaning. An example might clarify what I mean:
- And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” - Matthew 17:4
- And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” - Mark 9:5
- And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. - Luke 9:33
In this example, the words “Lord,” “Rabbi,” and “Master” are used as synonyms as each writer records the exact same event (in John 1:38 we learn that “Teacher” is another word that could be added to this list). This bit of information adds even more depth to the last few posts I’ve written. Is Jesus your Lord - Rabbi - Master - Teacher?
Make Disciples of Rabbi Jesus
What I’ve written about in my last two post (I am not your rabbi, and Ancient Rabbi + New Disciples) adds a lot of clarity to the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Please read those two post before proceeding. OK, finished reading them? Now look at the great commission again:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)
We are to make disciples of Jesus by baptizing people and teaching them to obey “all” that he commanded. Jesus wants more disciples, people who know and obey all that he said. Any form of evangelism that doesn’t do this is probably not creating disciples (i.e. Christians).
- Does praying with someone to receive Jesus make them a disciple? Did you baptize them? Did you teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded?
- Does inviting someone to church make them a disciple? Did you baptize them? Did you teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded?
- Does a new member class, a study series, or a set of truths like Romans Road make them a disciple? Did you baptize them? Did you teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded?
- Does talking with someone about some of the things in the Bible that are important make them a disciple? Did you baptize them? Did you teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded?
To take part in the disciple making process I have decided that from now on I am going to do things the Jesus way. I am going to simply baptize people and teach them to obey “all” that Jesus commanded. For too long I have edited down the teachings of Jesus and only taught the “most important” ones, or the ones I understood well. But who am I to not teach something if Jesus thought it was important enough to say.
Here’s what I’m doing now. I get with people who want to be disciples and I baptize them, and we read everything Jesus said, line by line, and we try to follow the rabbi. This is not a short term process, but when I’m done, God willing, I will have made a disciple of Jesus. Nothing less.
Ancient Rabbi + New Disciples
Note: If you haven’t read my post about why I am not your rabbi then please do so now.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to communicate the truths of Christianity to the masses. This was a good natured goal, but there was a problem. Information, no matter how well presented, is just information if people don’t understand the essence of being a Christian.
Jesus was a rabbi, and as such, he had disciples whose ultimate goal was to obey him, imitate him, and generally be like him. They were called disciples because they were pupils, learners, students, or whatever word works for you. A disciple would hang on their rabbi’s every word, want to memorize his teaching, and follow them physically from place to place. This wasn’t like community college where all the students hated being there. This was serious. In Luke 6:40 Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” The goal of a disciple is to be fully trained. To be like his master.
Ready for the good part? In Acts 11:26 we are told that the word Christian and Disciple are synonyms. They should be able to be used interchangeably. A Christian should have the kind of relationship with Jesus that I outlined in the paragraph above. To be a Christian is to be a disciple of the rabbi, Jesus. Being a Christian is becoming a pupil of Jesus.
The heart of Christianity is being a student of Jesus, a very serious, devout, student. Consider the apostles as a model. They knew very little when they began to follow Jesus, but they were committed to him. Their understanding grew over a three year period as they they attended the “Jesus school.” They eventually discovered that he was the Christ, they learned about what his work on the cross was about, they were taught how to love, they were rebuked for their pride, etc. My point is this. If someone is committed to learning from Jesus and obeying him they will eventually get all the orthodox theology they need and they’ll be living the faith as well. Jesus is an ancient rabbi, but he is looking for new disciples.
I am not your rabbi
Matthew 23 has sort of changed the way I do life. Here’s why: In this chapter Jesus tells his apostles to not imitate the Pharisees, and this includes not being called “rabbi” or “instructor” because they have only “one instructor, the Christ” and they are all “brothers” (i.e. equals). This may not seem like fodder for transformation, but consider, what Jesus is trying to do is eliminate the middle men. Jesus is the rabbi and everyone is his disciple. There are no other teachers, instructors, or rabbis to mediate our learning. We are disciples of Jesus, alone.
Then I reflected on Matthew 28, where Jesus tells his apostles to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Are you ready to be honest with yourself? Have you ever taught someone to obey “all” that Jesus commanded? Why not? I now realize that I never taught anyone to obey everything that Jesus commanded because I thought I had a better way. I had become an illegitimate rabbi. Sure, I taught important things. I tried to communicate the gospel. I tried to teach about following Jesus. I even baptized people. However, I never actually obeyed Jesus by teaching everything he commanded.
I took it upon myself to edit the teachings of Jesus, and communicate what I thought was most important. Arrogant, I know. But don’t you do the same thing? In your own way, have you become a fake rabbi also. I am beginning to do things differently, and I’ll talk more about this change in the posts to come.
The Kingdom of God
The “Kingdom of God” is a phrase that Jesus employed to communicate what God was doing in the world. It occurs 84 times in the gospels (if we include the synonymous phrase “kingdom of heaven” which is found in Matthew’s gospel). That means that Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God more than “faith”, “hope”, or “love”. Is your interest piqued yet?
Few people dispute that Jesus was a master communicator, and for whatever reason this was the phrase that he allowed to permeate and define his teaching. Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming “the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15), and moments before his death he admitted that God’s kingdom was real, that he is the king, and that this was the reason he was born (John 18:36-37). The cross itself even bears witness to this truth (John 19:19-22). From beginning to end, from birth to death, Jesus was consumed with God’s kingdom.
Try reading the NT with the kingdom motif in mind. It should make for an interesting study.
Study every verse on the matter.
Biblical interpretation is sometimes difficult. I hope to one day write about it at length, but until then let me offer one word of caution that could save you countless errors: study every verse on the matter.
If you truly want to know what God thinks about something then you will eventually find it necessary to devour all the verses on that topic. We are so quick to give our opinions about any belief, doctrine, or idea, but why? If there are entire biblical passages that you have yet to study in regard to a certain category then proceed with humility, not authority.
Studying every verse on a matter can be exhausting, but being wrong and leading others astray is even more taxing. I am unaware of a study path that leads to complete truth, but this one is not far from that mythical trail.
Jesus never had a (fill in the blank).
One day I realized something. Jesus never had a youth minister. He never had a worship guy either. The same goes for Paul, Peter, and everyone else who spread the gospel in the New Testament. They had an understanding of the good news, a desire to spread it, and the ability to do so, but they didn’t have much else.
Why do we think we need so many resources to make disciples? A few days ago I wrote about the importance of making disciples instead of focusing on the church as a whole, and maybe these two topics are related. Could it be that we are obsessed with youth ministers, babysitting, comfortable chairs, contemporary visuals, great singers, and the like, because we know that we’re not really making disciples? Because we know that if we take away the frills then we won’t have much of a church after all?
If you were to take away all the fun extras of your church, all the things that Jesus and his apostles didn’t have, would your numbers decrease? Would they decrease a lot? If so, is it really a church at all?
Make a disciple.
A curious fact about the New Testament is that it never commands us, or anyone else, to plant churches. The great commission is thought to promote new churches, but let’s look at it one more time.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20
Notice the command. Jesus didn’t say to start churches; he told us to make disciples. The fundamental building block of Jesus’ commission was the disciple. Obviously, the making of disciples leads to the existence of new churches (where two or more are gathered). So am I playing semantics? Possibly, but consider this. When we are focused on starting churches we have a tendency to assume that disciples will be made as a byproduct of sorts. In actuality, it is very possible to have a room full of people, doing religious things, and have little or no disciples.
If you want to start a church, you have noble aspirations, but first do this. Go make one disciple. If you cannot help one person become a disciple then then how will you help hundreds of people do so?
To judge or not to judge? (Part 2)
A few days ago I wrote a post that highlighted some verses that go beyond the typical “do not judge” slogan. Today I want to even the scales a bit and mention a situation where judgement should still be avoided.
There are some doctrines in the Bible that are non-negotiable (i.e. if someone claims that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh then we shouldn’t invite them into our home according to 2 John 1:7-11). Not every belief falls into this category. Consider the following verses:
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. - Romans 14:1-4
Many issues are matters of opinion. Should we eat meat or vegetables? It doesn’t matter. Don’t let it be an issue of fellowship. Did Jesus come in the flesh? It does matter, and it always will. People that are able to clearly distinguish the important issues from the matters of opinion are the ones who will avoid the extremes of having no standard or making everything the ultimate standard.
To judge or not to judge? (Part 1)
There’s an oft repeated mantra among church goers that “we shouldn’t judge others.” This is a half truth that needs clarification.
First, this is sometimes used as an excuse to not speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). When we confuse judgement and honesty then we don’t allow other people to help us, or we unnecessarily restrict ourselves from helping others.
Second, what Jesus actually said was,
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)
Notice the emphasis. These verses are about hypocritical judgement, not judgement in general. Jesus doesn’t want you holding others to a standard that you don’t even meet, but he does want you to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Just make sure you remove the log from your own eye first.
At another point in Jesus’ ministry others were upset with his behavior on the sabbath. Jesus didn’t tell them to not judge him, but he said, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)
Third, within the church we are actually commanded to judge others in regard to certain sins (1 Corinthians 5:9-12). We can’t expect the world to adhere to our standards, but we must expect the church to be holy. However, our judgement even goes beyond sin. In Corinth believers were taking believers to court and Paul tells them that we must be able to judge the matters of this life amongst ourselves, especially since we will judge the world and angels later (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).
To judge or not to judge? It depends. Click here to read part 2 of this post.
The wilderness is now.
Modern versions of Christianity are so bent on reassuring everyone that they’re ok (even if they’re not) that people rarely hear the wilderness story applied to themselves. Israel, God’s chosen people, left Egypt and wandered in the desert for 40 years, during which a whole generation died off because of their sin. The NT commonly refers back to this event as an example for Christians to learn from (1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Hebrews 3:7-4:1, Jude 5). Grace does not render obedience optional. God is still in the habit of dealing with us.
Jethro’s advice.
Recently my family read from Exodus 18, the chapter where Moses received some timely advice from his father-in-law, Jethro. Moses was spending a large portion of every day dealing with the questions, concerns, and disputes of the Israelites, but he was wearing himself out in the process. Jethro suggested that he appoint others to deal with the the lesser cases, and only the difficult problems would be brought to Moses. Genius.
Every leader comes to a place where they must decide if they’re going to take Jethro’s advice. It seems more spiritual to do it all yourself (why burden others). It can also be a boost to your confidence because it makes you feel indispensable. But notice how self centered those reasons are. Instead, train other to work with you. They want it, you need it, and the success of everyone depends upon on it. Not persuaded? Just think about Jesus training the twelve, or Paul mentoring his entourage. I say, listen to Jethro.
The mind matters.
I’ll be the first to say that intellect isn’t everything (1 Corinthians 13:2). That said, it does matter and the men in the NT were not in short supply of it. Peter and John weren’t trained in an official institution, but they knew what they were talking about because they had walked with Jesus (Acts 4:13). Paul’s wisdom was obvious even to his fellow workers (2 Peter 3:15-16), and his ability to reason was a part of his success in spreading the gospel throughout the Mediterranean (Acts 17:2-4). Even a common Pauline prayer included knowledge, wisdom, and understanding for his converts (Colossians 1:9-10). And can you imagine Jesus as one in whom we would place our confidence if he hadn’t grown in stature and wisdom (Luke 2:52)?
The great commandment itself includes, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your…mind.” (Matthew 22:37). So where should you begin when trying to love God with your mind? Just a few verses before Jesus gave the great commandment he spoke to the Sadducees and told them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29). I would begin by learning the scriptures. Your Bible knowledge will be your ceiling for personal growth and influence with others (like it or not). Read the Bible often and with enthusiasm, and as you grow never forget James 3:13-18.
