Explore the Bible: In His Service

• The Explore the Bible lesson for Feb. 7 focuses on Matthew 9:35-38 and 10:1-8.

Discipleship is multi-faceted. Most people just think of discipleship as learning new facts, new Scriptures and theology new to the individual. These things certainly are true. But in my view, the discipleship of Jesus goes beyond “head knowledge” about God’s kingdom and extends to serving God’s kingdom. Bottom line: If your discipleship is missing any elements of what the first disciples did then, it’s not truly discipleship.

In the Old Testament, the word “disciple” is used only two times, both times in Isaiah. One instance is a prophecy about the disciples of Jesus. The other simply is using the word “disciple” as a reference to a mentoring relationship.

In huge contrast, the word disciple is found in the New Testament 294 times. Why? Because discipleship as defined by the New Testament didn’t exist until Jesus created it. In the ancient Near Eastern World, “mentorship” was very common. If people wanted to learn medicine, in example, they didn’t go to a medical school, per se. Rather, they spent time, daily, with a doctor. They walked with him, learning from him, for a determined amount of time. Mentorship was the formal education.

So, the discipleship of Jesus looked similar to the mentorship of his culture, but Jesus took it to an entirely different level. He turned it into discipleship: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Matthew 16:24 italics added).

Discipleship from 30,000 feet

If you step back and take a view of the discipleship of Jesus from afar, here is what you will find:

• Call    

• Equip    

• Send

Earlier in Matthew, Jesus called the twelve disciples. Remember the simplicity? Follow me! Come and learn from me. Allow me to mentor you. To a few disciples he even said: “You’ve been catching fish. Now you will catch men. A new ‘career’ for you men.”

Jesus began to equip the disciples by exposing them to his critical teachings—particularly the Sermon on the Mount, which taught the famous “you have heard it said, but I say unto you” phrases. They also were equipped by being placed on the front lines of Jesus’ ministry as he healed leprosy, healed the masses, calmed the storm, healed the demon possessed and even raised the dead. No doubt, this built the disciples’ faith.

In our lesson, we see that Jesus sent out the 12 for the first time. What were they to do?

This looks familiar

I love the Muppets. I grew up with them. (How in the world anyone can mess up the Muppets with the travesty of their current prime time show goes beyond explanation … but I digress). In the original Muppet movie, Gonzo the Great, a bird who couldn’t fly, was “flying” attached to a balloon. He sings “this look familiar” as he sees the world from the preferred vantage point of a bird, unattainable for him naturally.

When we examine the ministries Jesus told the 12 disciples to do, it looks quite familiar: “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. …” (Matthew 10:7). Familiar indeed. These are the exact things we find Jesus doing in Matthew chapters 8-9. The call of the 12 was to go replicate what they had already observed Jesus doing. This sound like mentorship, right? This sound like apprenticeship, right?

And as a modern-day disciple, this is exactly our calling! Go do the things that Jesus did. Notice, Jesus didn’t say, “Build some comfortable buildings, gather in them in large and small groups once per week, and find refuge in the safety from the outside world.” Jesus didn’t tell them, “Give it a few more years until you learn a lot more, and then go copy my ministry.” He didn’t say, “Let’s fill your heads full of as much knowledge as possible.”

The fullness of the discipleship of Jesus says to modern-day disciples: call, equip, send. The entirety of the New Testament affirms these truths.

This also looks familiar

We participate monthly in a ministry to the homeless in Austin. Called Church Under the Bridge, it is exactly what it sounds like. We hand out basic necessities like toothpaste, travel-size shampoo, bandages and the like, while also creating friendships with homeless people and sharing the gospel. Every month, we hand out hundreds of these items. It seems like there just aren’t enough little tubes of toothpaste in the entire world to solve the problem. Homelessness, as we all know, is a huge problem.

Jesus saw it the same way: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:37). Harassed and helpless? What about the spiritual leaders of the day? Where were they? Evidently, the leaders of the day were failing miserably, so Jesus was raising up new spiritual leadership in the 12. They were armed with a new message about the kingdom of God. In contrast to the Pharisees, they were armed with the compassion of their mentor, going after lost sheep rather than believing they were better than them.

Just as we recognize the plight of the homeless, so Jesus recognized the vast, time-sensitive needs of Israel: “Then he said to 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’” (Matthew 9:37-38). In Jesus’ community, harvesting obviously was done by hand. There was a short period of time in which to harvest before it was ruined. So, Jesus taught of the time-sensitive nature of the gospel message, knowing that one day, he would return, and those without the gospel would be lost eternally.

Also notice, Jesus had compassion on the crowd, formulated a plan and sent out the 12. Later in the gospels, he sends 70. All of this was in preparation for when Jesus would return to heaven, leaving the keys of the furthering of his kingdom in the hands of, well, “uneducated, simple men” as Acts tells us. They had to get ready, and Jesus was preparing them.

Back to the top

So, let me as you a hard question, one that you can pass along to your group: Are you called, equipped and sent? Oh, you are called for sure. But are you preparing yourself for ministry and being sent out to accomplish the ministry of Jesus? And don’t give me the “Yes, I talk to my neighbors” bit. Don’t feed yourself the “I give to missions” answer. These are wonderful and obedient, but they aren’t necessarily part of “Call, Equip, Send.”

What is your personal ministry? What would you need to do to get prepared for that ministry?

One last hard question: If you aren’t involved in ministry, if you aren’t serving in some way, are you truly a disciple of Jesus?