Moving along

Our first call is to FOLLOW Jesus . His first invitation to the disciples was "Follow Me!".
And they did. Not all, but the 12 did. Against all odds and with much persecution they followed, even to the death.
Many say "I will follow You, Jesus. Where ever You lead, I will follow." But many do not understand what that entails.

What does Jesus mean when He invites us to follow?
To follow is the Greek word: Akoloutheo
From 2 words: a - together + keleuthos - a way
(Coming from the root word: kello - to move quickly and euthos - straight).

This word is so deep in meaning. This follow-ing is not the occasional and temporary following of the crowds, who hung with Jesus for the "works" He did for them. Nothing wrong with that. But Jesus requires more from His disciples.
This follow-ing involved an abiding fellowship with Him, not just for learning, but also for Salvation.
Discipleship is about us being"transformed into His likeness" and "conformed into His image".
Basically, to become more like Him and manifest or show that likeness in the world we live. To have that, though, requires a certain price, one of abiding fellowship.

What does that mean?
What is the price?
What is needed?

Mat 8:21 Another man, who was a disciple, said, "Sir, first let me go back and bury my father."
Mat 8:22 "Follow me," Jesus answered, "and let the dead bury their own dead."

1. A closeness fostered through absolute trust and obedience. Trusting He knows and has our futures and purpose really worked out for us. There can be no "Let me first"'s. Any delay in obedience is 'no' obedience. And only when we trust will we obey. "If you love Me you will obey My commands" Jesus said. This trust is a relinquishing of my own rights, even though you do have rights in His Kingdom, for trusting His choice for your life. Leaving all your design for your life to cleave to Him for your life.
2. An unquestioning following of His leading, every day. If I trust Him and I am willing to obey Him, then His leading is what I will always choose above my own 'common sense', many times. "My sheep follow My voice" Jesus said. As true sheep we will be absolutely committed to following the Master in all things. He leads to green pastures and beside still waters.
3. A commitment from the heart to always act according to His example. "Whoever follows Me will have the light of life". Jesus wants His disciples to learn of Him and become like Him, not just become aware of a bunch of regulations and rules. He doesn't want us just transferred from one culture to another. No! He wants us to be like Him; to represent Him in the earth. "Hang with Me. Closely". Is His admonishment. "Then you will more and more be like I am and show the world what I am about. Not just in what I say, but in who I am." Says the Lord.

So. from now on, when we boldly declare "I will follow you, because I have decided", let us be very aware what Jesus means when He says
"Follow Me!"

If we look at the definition of this word again, we can see the word means by definition to follow together with straight and closely. No deviations or distractions. No delays. Just full out following.
For many this may be hard to swallow. But this is what it means to follow Him. No agendas, no "self".
Let us be swift and quick to follow Him and straight in the path that He leads us on.

Discipleship

Mat 28:18 Jesus drew near and said to them, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
Mat 28:19 Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age."

"In "going" make disciples" is what Jesus said was our commission. "On the same road you have been travelling, carry on going", "What you have learnt and been shown, this is what you need to keep doing", is the greeting Jesus gave the twelve on His departure from the earth. This was His final and official commission given for them to carry out and pass on to His church.

GO; MAKE DISCIPLES; BAPTIZE; TEACH: "Go" was His greeting; "Make Disciples" was the activity.
Jesus promise was that He would never abandon or leave them while they carried out this directive of the His.

Now, we have seen that He had crowds with Him, and that He had had compassion on them and ministered to them and he also had a bunch of other disciples whom He instructed and sent out to minister on His behalf, but that He invested and imparted into and focused on the 12.

But why?
Joh 2:23 While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in him as they saw the miracles he performed.
Joh 2:24 But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew them all.
Joh 2:25 There was no need for anyone to tell him about them, because he himself knew what was in their hearts.
Whom did he entrust Himself to? The 12 disciples, whom He had chosen after prayer.

Joh 6:25 When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said to him, "Teacher, when did you get here?"
Joh 6:26 Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles.

Jesus knew the crowds were really there because of the 'fish sandwiches' and the miracles, but not because of who He really was, and is. Their focus was to get their needs met. Now, that is not particularly a bad thing, because Jesus met those needs, but Jesus does call us to a higher place.

Joh 6:28 So they asked him, "What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?"
Joh 6:29 Jesus answered, "What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent."
Joh 6:30 They replied, "What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe you? "What will you do?"
Another translation says"What are the things God wants us to do?"
Jesus answer is that, God wants us to BELIEVE! What? In the One He sent.

This is what Peter 'saw' in Matthew chapter 16.
Mat 16:15 "What about you?" he asked them. "Who do you say I am?"
Mat 16:16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Mat 16:17 "Good for you, Simon son of John!" answered Jesus. "For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.

After Jesus' answer they immediately ask for a sign again. "Give us a miracle", they say. "What will you do?"
You see, Jesus is wanting to take His disciples to a place of where if they never have another miracle, or another prayer answered, or have another sign or wonder, they will never be phased because they BELIEVE. They believe in who He is, not just what He does.

Joh 6:57 The living Father sent me, and because of him I live also. In the same way whoever eats me will live because of me.
Joh 6:58 This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate, but then later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever."
Joh 6:59 Jesus said this as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Joh 6:60 Many of his followers heard this and said, "This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?"
Joh 6:61 Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, "Does this make you want to give up?
Joh 6:62 Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before?
Joh 6:63 What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit.
Joh 6:64 Yet some of you do not believe." (Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.)
Joh 6:65 And he added, "This is the very reason I told you that no people can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for them to do so."
Joh 6:66 Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more.


Even the disciples (not the 12 ) had a problem what he required of them. It was too hard for them. Not the miracles, not the 'fish sandwiches', but the Son of the Living God Himself should be the focus of their life and faith. His very life and nature and character was to be reproduced in them. They had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, covenanted and committed until His life was their life.
But that was too hard for them and many turned away at this.

Joh 6:67 So he asked the twelve disciples, "And you---would you also like to leave?"
Joh 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.
Joh 6:69 And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.

The 12 however, whom Jesus had invested in over the time He was here, stayed because they believed and knew. They had the revelation of Who He is.

When you move to that place where who Christ is, is being reproduced in you, the outward factors are something that happens, but don't move you. You are are a follower because you receive Him. Will you see signs and wonders and miracles? Most definitely. But they are not the reason or the motivation of your follower-ship. He become the centre of your life. Christ Jesus is the reason for your existence. You hunger for Him to reproduced in you and to be reproduced in others. As a "12" disciple you direct people to Christ the Lord and Savior, you 'show' Him, and do not try and draw attention to you or your giftings and ministry. Your one desire is Him and His words that produce Life.

Watchman Nee said," Only the foolish are proud of the words God gives, for has He not shown that He will speak, if need be, through an ass!"

Prayer:
Jesus forgive me for taking your Life and call so lightly. Forgive me for every time I have become offended because i felt You didn't answer or 'do' what i felt You should. Today, i set and committ my life to make You the Focus and be a disciple who believes and knows. Holy Spirit help me be a 12 disciple.

Discipleship of the Twelve

Luke 6:12 At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God.
Luke 6:13 When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he named apostles:

It's interesting that Jesus focused on a group called disciples. In these passages here, we see that he goes up on a hill to pray. He spends the night there. When He returns the next morning,He chooses 12 guys who will be with Him.
What we must understand that He had disciples all around Him, most of the time. In fact, Jesus constantly put out a call and an invitation for people to join Him as His disciples. now that was nothing unusual in those days, because the pharisees had disciples and so did John the Baptist. So, coming down from His night in prayer, Jesus approached a bunch , maybe ranging in the hundreds of His already following disciples, to choose 12 to be with Him.

Let's understand that Jesus was the pattern Son, reflecting His Father in nature and example. Jesus said if you saw him you had seen the father. That's what he told Phillip at one point. Jesus never operated independently. He always followed the pattern that had been set by the scriptures and represented the God of heaven, His Father, in everything.

A question I asked myself many times was, why 12? Why not 10 or 13? What was so significant about the number 12?
We know the number 3 speaks of Trinity, 4 Earthy, 5 Grace, 6 man, 7 Perfection, and 12? ...Government.
Not only that, there were 12 tribes of Israel, 12 loaves, 12 stones, 12 governors.

Jos 4:3 and command them to take twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests were standing. Tell them to carry these stones with them and to put them down where you camp tonight."
Jos 4:9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, where the priests carrying the Covenant Box had stood. (Those stones are still there.)
1Ki 4:7 Solomon appointed twelve men as district governors in Israel.
1Ki 4:27 His twelve governors, each one in the month assigned to him, supplied the food King Solomon needed for himself and for all who ate in the palace; they always supplied everything needed.
Eze 48:30 There are twelve entrances to the city of Jerusalem.
1Ki 18:30 Then Elijah said to the people, "Come closer to me," and they all gathered around him. He set about repairing the altar of the LORD which had been torn down.
1Ki 18:31 He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the LORD had given the name Israel.
1Ki 18:32 With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the LORD.

There must be some significance to this number. So much so that Jesus felt the need out of all those following Him to choose 12. But Jesus knew the pattern. He invested Himself in these 12, putting His vision and character into them. They were the one's who would carry His vision and goverment to the nations. In fact, we are the result of those 12 men's lives and ministries.
These 12 were the "foundation" of all that He would do while on the earth.

Mar 3:14 and he chose twelve, whom he named apostles. "I have chosen you to be with me," he told them. "I will also send you out to preach,
Mar 3:15 and you will have authority to drive out demons."

These men were more than just helpers or assistants or 'staff'. No, they were to be the very foundation of all His 'building'. His investment.

Luk 7:11 Soon afterward Jesus went to a town named Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd.

Even though Jesus did minister to the crowds and other followers or disciples and they would travel with Him, he did choose and minister specifically to these 12 men, imparting to them not just a knowledge but a practical outworking of who He was and what He did. he called them "apostles" meaning ambassadors or governmental representatives. they would be the one's who would be able to represent fully the government of Jesus Christ to the earth.

To build any Christian work effectively, we should follow Jesus' pattern and though we minister to the crowds and the disciples who come because of our teaching and instruction, we find the '12' in whom we can invest the character and vision of the Kingdom of God, not only in knowledge but in practice. 12 who will carry out the 'work' and the vision to the generations.

I don't believe this is something unique or 'way out' idea, but just a following of the Master and how He did it, how He built what the Father sent Him to do. I believe it was very effective, don't you?

So, even though we we may be making disciples of those we instruct are we investing, like Jesus, into the lives of a few that the Father shows us, for a duplication and multiplication of the work we have and the vision we carry.

Mat 28:18 Jesus drew near and said to them, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
Mat 28:19 Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age."

This was Jesus' last and final commission to those disciples and eventually to us.
Because he has ALL authority, we should be "going" and doing the same as he did. That is what this greeting to them actually means. And because he is with us ALWAYS, we do not have to fear in doing what He has has commissioned. In fact, we CAN do it.

This is what we as the church need to be actively involved in, making disciples.