Following Jesus – Mark 2:13-14
1. Have you ever had a belief or idea that you held for years, only
to discover it was wrong, or at least not quite right?
2. That happened to me recently regarding my ideas about discipleship.
a. I thought I knew what being a disciple was
and had a pretty good handle on what discipleship was all about.
b. then I listened to a message by Ray
VanderLaan my sister sent me.
3. Ray studied in
a. he’s the most sought after tour guide for
trips to
b. James Dobson was so impacted by Ray’s
ministry Focus on the Family produced a series of videos of Ray’s talks at
various sites around the
4. My sister had a chance to hear him give a talk at a large church
in
5. It was on discipleship at the time of Jesus and was Titled,
“Follow The Rabbi.”
1. I say all of this because a good portion of what we’ll be looking
at today comes from this new understanding of discipleship.
2. Some of what we’re taking a look at today may be completely new to
you and you may wonder where it came from – I wanted you to know.
13Then He went out again by the sea; and all the
multitude came to Him, and He taught them.
1. Jesus had been in the city of
2. The verses just before this tells us about a
roof being torn apart so some men could lower their paralyzed friend into
Jesus’ presence.
3. The crowds trying to get near him are so
great, they’re destroying personal property and Jesus didn’t want anyone to
suffer loss because of Him.
4. So he left the city and went out along the
lakeside.
5. You may remember some recent news events that
saw huge crowds of reporters and lookie-lous crowding into a neighborhood.
a. the
neighbors of OJ Simpson, Scott Peterson, & David Westerfield were furious
b. because their
flower beds were trampled, people used their yards as toilets, and just
generally trashed the entire block.
6. Much the same thing was happening in
14As He
passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax
office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and
followed Him.
1. As Jesus was moving along the lakeside, he came to a little
building occupied by a man named Levi, aka ‘Matthew.’
2.
3.
4. Because of this, several important roads passed through the nation
with all of them converging in
a. it was said that “While Judea was on the road
to no where,
b. this explains why Jesus spent most of His 3
years of public ministry in
5. The Via Maris began in the caravan city of
a. on it’s way it passed right by
b. because of where
c. so it was a prime location for colleting
customs duties; import and export taxes.
d. that was Levi’s job, to collect the 2-3% tax
the rich caravans from Syria & Arabia had to pay to ensure safe passage.
6. As a customs agent, Levi worked, not for the Romans, but for the
brutal tyrant Herod, the ruler of
a. because of this, Levi was despised
by the common people.
b. like all tax collectors, he was hated.
7. Yet as Jesus passed by that day, He saw Levi sitting there in his
office, and said to him, “Follow Me.
8. That’s all it took for Matthew – he dropped what he was doing and
went after Jesus.
9. And this is where we need to take a closer look at the whole idea
of discipleship and following Jesus.
1. The whole idea of rabbis who had an official group of disciples was
something unique to
2. The Hebrew word for disciple is “talmid”; the plural is “talmidin”.
3. There were 2 kinds of rabbis; 1) torah teachers, & 2)
s’mikah rabbis.
a. Torah teachers, or scribes, as they are
called in the NT, were men who had memorized the entire Tanach, the OT, and what
many of the great rabbis had said about the scriptures.
b. rabbis had also memorized the Tanach, but
they had demonstrated the ability to speak with authority about the
scriptures and the things of God.
c. this is what s’mikah means = authority.
d. rabbis had s’mikah, torah
teachers did not.
e. as well, while torah teachers had students,
only rabbis had talmidin, disciples.
4. In
a. this schooling went on until they were 12 to
13.
b. at that point education ended for the girls.
c. for the boys, if they had proven themselves
skilled at memorization, and shown a mind for study, they would go on to
another level of work with the Torah teacher.
d. those who didn’t pass to this level began
their vocation, usually working in the family business or entering an
apprenticeship.
e. for those boys who did move on to the next
level of education with the Torah teacher, the lessons became more intense,
f. the entire Tanach was memorized, along
with the teaching & commentary of notable rabbis.
g. if after a few more years of this the young
man still
demonstrated a superior level of skill in his studies, then he would graduate
from the Torah teacher to following a Rabbi.
5. He would carefully consider the rabbis currently around and which he
most wanted to be like.
6. You see, that was the essence of discipleship – a disciple aspired
to be just like the rabbi.
a. that was the goal, the singular aim of being
a disciple.
b.
and that’s why disciples were always with their rabbi.
c. they wanted to watch him as closely as
possible, observing how he responded to different situations.
d. they wanted to know what prayer he prayed
when he sat at the evening meal,
e. how he greeted people he met in the
marketplace,
f. how he reacted when given bad news.
7. So as a young man considered which rabbi to follow, he would ask
himself who He wanted to and could be like, for his discipleship
would see him become just like his rabbi.
8. Once he picked a rabbi, he would go to him and begin following,
but at that point, he wasn’t an official disciple yet; he was letting the rabbi
know he wanted to be a talmid.
a. after several weeks of just following him
around the rabbi would acknowledge the young man and begin to quiz him on his
skill with the Word of God.
1)
“Quote the law of the Nazarite.”
2)
“How many times did Ezekiel see the Lord?”
3)
“What is the middle word in the Scroll of Isaiah the prophet?”
b. this kind of quizzing would go on for days.
c. and then, after all this, the rabbi would usually
say to him something like, “Look, you are a bright young man. Go home, get married, have children, and love
and serve God as a fisherman. Have a
nice life.”
9. Most young men were turned
down by the rabbis. Only the
cream of the crop were allowed to become official talmidin.
10. Where was Matthew when Jesus found him?
a. sitting in his tax-office.
b. Matthew was a young man who’d grown up like
the rest of the children in
c. but he’d not proven himself skilled
in his studies, and had gone into the family business – taxe-collector.
d. his torah teacher had told him he didn’t have
what it takes to be a disciple –
e. so he went the route most of his peers did –
into a regular vocation.
f. the problem is, the business his family was
in was despised and hated!
11. As he’s sitting there one day, he looks up to see a huge crowd
coming toward him.
a. they all seem to be following the man who’s
in front.
b. he realizes this must be the new rabbi
everyone’s been talking about and who’d been making such a stir lately – Jesus
of Nazareth.
c. as Jesus arrives in front of Matthew’s tax
booth, He stops, looks Matthew in the eye, and simply says, “Follow Me.”
12. Matthew understood exactly what this meant – it was the invitation
of a rabbi to a new disciple.
13. His boyhood dreams, crushed by the rejection of his torah teacher a
few years before, have been restored.
14. Matthew immediately dropped what he was doing,
and went after Jesus.
15. In ch. 1 we find that when Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and
John, their reaction was the same.
a. they dropped their fishing nets, and left
their boats to follow Jesus.
b. there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation – when
Jesus called, they went.
c. like Matthew, they’d not had what it takes to
be a disciple according to their torah teachers
so they had followed the path that was expected of them – the family
business of commercial fishing.
d. but unlike their torah teachers, Jesus didn’t
look at what they were in themselves – He saw what they would become by the
work of His Spirit in them.
16. Remember, the goal of discipleship is to
become just like the rabbi.
17. So when a young man began his discipleship, he picked a rabbi to
follow by asking, “Who could I be like?”
a. when he began following a rabbi, he was
saying, “I think I can be just like you.”
b. but most of them were turned away by the
words, “You can’t be like me!”
c. when Jesus said to Peter & Matthew,
“Follow Me” He was saying to them – “I know that YOU can be just like Me.”
1. What Jesus said to them, He says to you and I.
2. We did not choose Jesus – He chose us!
3. He came to us while we were going about our lives in this world,
and He showed us there was a whole new way to live.
4. We didn’t go to Him and plead with Him to let us follow Him.
5. We never dared to think that we could be like
Him.
6. No - He came to us and said, “Follow Me - & I will
make you just like Me.”
7. That’s what the Spirit is doing in us – He’s making us just like
Jesus.
8. As it says in Romans 8:29 – God has
predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
9. Disciples in
10. But after only 3 years of training the 12, Jesus
sent them forth to make disciples of the whole world.
11. In Matthew 28 He said . . .
19Go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations.
12. Jesus took the narrow doors off of what it takes to be a disciple.
a. before He came, only an elite few were
disciples, based on their skill, talent, & intelligence.
b. Jesus based the invitation to discipleship,
not on our ability, but on His.
13. He comes to men and women who have been beaten down by sin, to those
rejected by the authorities, crushed by parents and teachers who have told them
they’ll never amount to anything –
14. And He says, “Follow Me, and I will make you just like I am.”
15. Then, even more, He entrusts His mission to us & tells us to go
& make disciples who will be just like Him.
1. There is one condition though – one necessary thing we must do.
2. Like Peter, Andrew, James, John, & Matthew – we must drop our
current identity & occupation if we’re going to follow Jesus.
3. Peter couldn’t follow Jesus and fish at the same time.
a. to be a disciple meant forsaking fishing.
b. he had to drop his nets and leave his boat.
4. Matthew couldn’t follow Jesus and collect customs duties at the
same time. To be a disciple meant
leaving his tax-booth.
5. There is a condition on our discipleship too – if we would follow
Jesus, then we must turn our backs on our identity as sinners and drop the things
that make for sin.
6. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus said –
“If anyone desires
to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow Me.
7. See, the
invitation is open to all – “If anyone” Jesus said.
8. But the
condition to following Him is to die to self so that Jesus can live in and
through us.
9. It’s this
indwelling of Christ that brings the power to change us so that we become just
like Him.
10. Being a
Christian today does not mean quitting your job and
moving into a church.
a. we follow
Jesus in the midst of our careers and vocations and family lives.
b. what we leave
behind to follow Jesus is the old man, our identity as people who
defined themselves by the things of this fallen world.
1. Jesus invites you to be His disciple today.
a. he doesn’t invite us to be His student.
The invitation isn’t even to be a Christian, or a deeply religious person.
b. the invitation is to follow Him, to be with
Him, every moment of every day and night.
c. He invites you to become just like He is and
to enjoy the closest possible relationship with Him.
2. It doesn’t matter what’s happened to you in this world.
a. it doesn’t matter what sin you’ve managed to
immerse yourself in.
b. it doesn’t matter that others have told you
you’re a loser, that you’ll never amount to anything,
c. Jesus stops before you today as He stopped
before Matthew’s tax-booth, He looks you in the eye, holds out His hand and
says, “Follow Me.”
1. There’s one more thing I want to look at here.
2. So far in Mark’s story we’ve seen Jesus call 5 to be his
disciples;
a. Peter, Andrew, James, and John – all 4 were
commercial fishermen.
b. these were “salt of the earth” kinds of guys.
c. the 5th disciple Jesus called was a
despised tax-collector.
d. he was the kind of guys fishermen would loath
with every ounce of their being.
3. As we read on we find Jesus selected 12 men to be His
disciples who were not the kind of guys who would pal around together.
4. As they followed Him they fought with each other and had heated
debates over such important things as which was the most important among them.
5. They were a contentious lot, a motley crew before Jesus’ death
& resurrection.
6. After they received the Holy Spirit and were born again, a
dramatic change took place – they became a band of brothers that no difference
could alienate or divide.
7. The Book of Acts shows the Apostles as a tight knit company that
was in one accord.
8. What forged this solid sense of oneness was Jesus; He became the
common-denominator of their lives.
9. And the love that had so marked Him took root in them and
changed the way they saw and related to one another.
10. They had become just like Jesus!
1. So here we are, modern day disciples of Jesus who are the fruit of
those first disciples’ faithfulness to go and make disciples.
2. And just as they were called to follow Jesus TOGETHER – so are we.
3. The Body of Christ embraces men, women and child of all colors,
backgrounds, and social levels.
4. And when we’re called to follow Jesus, it’s in the company of
others – many others.
5. Our common bond is our relationship to Jesus, and that
relationship erases all other distinctions.
6. As Paul says in Gal. 3:28,
There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are
all one in Christ Jesus.
7. Updating that a bit we could say, in Christ there is no Caucasian,
Hispanic, African, or Oriental.
a. there is no distinction between La Colonia
& Spanish Hills; Rose Park & The Keys, The Avenue and The Estates.
b. there’s no distinction between ravers,
skaters, Goths, surfers, punks, waxheads, preps, minis, silents, jocks, nerds,
& geeks
8. I want to share something that has troubled me for some time – and
that is the lines of distinction that have been drawn between the cities of
a. not the actual borders, but the attitudes
people have towards others who don’t live in their City.
b. there’s an attitude of competition and status
that exists between
c. over the years we’ve talked with dozens of
people who said they loved our church but they didn’t want to go to a church in
d. some even had the audacity to ask that we
relocate more toward
9. Folks, following Jesus means we’ll go where ever He
tells us to.
10. But we won’t move our location just to fit someone’s preferred
social status.
11. Calvary Chapel of Oxnard will never aim our ministry at one social
group, we’ll never target one neighborhood or kind of people.
12. As we follow Christ, we invite all, whatever their background,
color, or ethnic group – to come follow with us.
13.And in Christ we are one.