Apprentice To Jesus
The Jesus Way + The Jesus Truth = The Jesus Life.
Jesus:
- Was a Rabbi
- Many of us don’t take him seriously as a spiritual leader
- He came to die, but also to live
- Did not invent discipleship
- Invites us to “follow him” and adopt his way of life to experience an abundant life
How do you become a rabbi?
The Educational System:
- At 5 years old you go to “the house of the book” (elementary school)
- By 12-13 years old most had memorized the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
- Most students went home here
- Best and brightest went on to second level, “the house of learning”
- By 17 years old most had memorized the entire Old Testament
- The overwhelming majority stop here
- The best of the best apply to apprentice under a rabbi
It’s important that Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi - Jewish people believed that becoming a great scholar of the scriptures represented life’s supreme achievement. If Jesus wasn’t a rabbi, they wouldn’t have trusted him.
What is discipleship (apprenticeship)?
- Disciple
- (Talmid in Hebew): a “student of a teacher or philosopher”
- Apprenticeship to Jesus is a whole life process of becoming him
- Disciple is a noun (something you are or are not) and not a verb (something done to you)
- A disciple is not a learner but a practitioner
- Following Jesus means:
- Listening
- learning
- Observing
- Obedience
- Imitation
- The goal is not to pass a test, but to master the art of living to make steady progress into the kingdom of God
- Someone can’t force you to become their disciple, you have to choose to become one
- Jesus invites us to “Follow Him” - to be a disciple to him, not to merely believe in him