The Gospel Disciples

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Amen.

Why don't you take your Bibles and turn them to Mark chapter 2?

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And it has been a good week, and I I wanted to make mention this week of something that's been going on and exciting, and I'm thankful for, and I didn't want to miss it.

Um in our transition, uh, with Pastor Joe moving to Florida and Eli jumping in and all kinds of transitional things happening there to make things work.

Uh we had on uh on the rising upward basketball, and uh upward basketball seemed like an overwhelming task.

In fact, I talked to the council and said, guys, should we do this?

Because I don't want to do anything that's just gonna be bad.

I want to do things with excellence, but you know, um we have a little time frame where we can just revamp and come back at it next season better or what have you.

But I just want to say a word of thanks to Jared and Jordan Franklin, Sarah and Corey Cummins, and all of you coaches and referees and setup crew who are making that happen because it's great to see the hands and feet of God to our community, and there's hundreds of people here every Sunday after church.

So thank you guys for your work and effort and uh jumping in those gaps.

But it's been exciting.

If you want to see something fun, come watch kindergarten through third graders play basketball.

Now it goes up to fifth, but I'm telling you, the funnest group right there is something to uh behold.

Uh one other thing that starts today, and I didn't know the the way that God I put this plan of sermons together this summer tells you how I sort of work mentally.

But today, the sermon is the Gospel Disciples, and it's also the kickoff to our connect groups.

And so um, can I just for a second, if you're a connect group leader, can you stand or host?

Go ahead and stand up.

Myself and Heather included.

Amen.

Thank you all for opening homes.

There's a group almost every night of the week, so uh you can get on the app.

If you need directions to that, please text me or Benji or Dave, and we will get you um directed where you need to be.

But I hope that you'll see by the time this message is over the importance.

Um my desire is that every person in this church is discipled through groups like this.

And so that starts today.

And I want to say one more thing, and then we will get into Mark too, I promise.

But it is all of you, or most of you have probably participated in the past, I don't know the day number, but on Wednesday, 21 days of prayer and fasting.

And uh hope that that's been going well for you.

Thank you for those that have written.

Um, those devotionals, those have been encouraging.

This morning was by my wife, so I was very encouraged by it.

And uh anyway, thank you for that, and I hope that you'll join us.

So on Wednesday night, night of worship is sort of the capstone to that.

We're gonna meet together, and it'll be the final uh day of that, and we are gonna worship together.

And by the way, I know I got some people here that will really appreciate this.

We are going to, as part of the theme that night, look at the gospel from the past to the present in songs and as well as testimonies.

And so we've got songs that are filled with the gospel.

We've got lots of hymns in our service.

Amen?

All right.

I told Benji there'd be some more people here on Wednesday, so don't let us down on that because we're gonna have uh, they've been practicing some good hymns, and it's gonna be a great Wednesday night night of worship.

All right, Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Done with my commercials.

As we look at this, the Gospel Disciples, there have been great calls throughout history.

There have been calls to thousands of kings throughout time.

We are now, as of this week, in the United States on the 47th presidency.

There have been five five-star generals in history.

There have been many creators and inventors.

There are many people throughout history that have been of prestigious wealth.

In fact, there's over 2,000, almost 3,000 billionaires in existence today.

Many men have been called to great and lofty things and callings.

But I want to tell you today, there has never been, nor will there ever be as great a calling as the call and the gift of eternal life through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ and to be his disciple.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you, and we thank you for your presence here.

We thank you for the worship of God, the people of God, the community you've given us.

And God, now we ask that you would use your word to speak to our hearts.

God, I pray that you would just move everything out of the way, any distraction, any thought process, and allow us, God, just a front row seat at your feet.

God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts and help us, Lord, to leave here not being the same.

Let your word do its work in our hearts.

We love you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first point this morning I want you to see is his disciples were called by Jesus.

I want you to turn back to Mark chapter 1, and we're going to look for some context of this calling.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Look at Mark chapter 1, 16 through 19, and then we'll come back to Mark chapter 2.

Mark 1 · chapter mention Mark 2 · chapter mention

It says, And as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

Then Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

They immediately left their nets and followed him.

When he had gone a little further, farther from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending their nets.

And immediately he called them.

And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him.

Turn now to Mark chapter 2, verse 14.

Mark 2:14

It says this.

So he arose, and he followed him.

And just one more for a little bit of context, in Mark chapter 3, verse 14, it says, Then he appointed twelve that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach.

Mark 3:14

And as you go down from 16 through 19, it lists all of the apostles.

All of them were called by Jesus.

Letter A this morning is this salvation is a call from God.

Now the general call of salvation affects people through our senses by the way of our conscience, by the way of creation, by the way of the reading or hearing of God's word.

We are called.

Acts 2.21 says, Everyone who then calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

John 3.16, we know, for God so loved the world, the entire world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish and have everlasting life.

John 6.44 says this.

I want you to understand that calling and what happens.

John 6.44, Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

That word drawing through the drawing of the Father is holeuco, and it means like the drawing of a net.

The net, the salvation, does not draw itself, but yet the net is drawn.

And so for a net to be drawn, it is drawn of the Father.

Well, what happens in that process when God calls a person?

I'm glad you asked.

Ephesians 1.18 says, the eyes of your understanding are being enlightened, that you may understand this hope of his calling.

You see, Jesus Christ illuminates the heart through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember when salvation made sense to you for the first time?

And you said, This is something that I need, this is something that I feel drawn to.

For some of you, you actually were drawn and you've heard these stories.

I had to go down to an old-fashioned altar.

I've heard pastors talk about I sat in the balcony and I couldn't keep myself in that balcony.

I just had to go down.

I felt drawn to it.

And it made sense to you because God was drawing you.

And I want to tell you for every person here, 2 Peter 3.9 says, God is not willing that any should perish, that all men should come to repentance in faith.

That does not mean God will not allow some, the free will not to be saved.

Not all men will be saved.

But what a blessing, church, it is to be a part of the saved.

The greatest calling that there's ever been is for you and me to be a Christian this morning.

Make no mistake, all these men, these disciples that were called disciples, were bid by Jesus Christ.

Now I'll give a little outlier here.

I agree with many commentators.

I don't think that Judas Iscariot came to know Christ.

I think he was around it, okay?

And there's people that'll debate that.

I saw a man preach a message called the Elevator to Hell, talking about Judas was on the elevator, okay?

And it was grabbing.

But what I mean to say to you, all of them were bid by Jesus Christ.

That tells us another lesson.

You can be all around it and miss it.

But Jesus Christ, they were bid to Jesus Christ.

We defined his name.

And it's important that you hear this week after week.

A few weeks ago, we defined his name.

Jesus, Yahweh, or Yeshua, Yahweh is salvation, and Christ is God's anointed one.

To be drawn or bid to be a part of that, to be a disciple at the core of it, Yahweh is salvation.

That is the gospel.

What are we being drawn to be a disciple of?

We're being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

If a person does not understand the good news and repent, what discipleship is there to be?

There had to be this drawing to salvation.

To follow Jesus Christ is to accept Yahweh is salvation, God's anointed one.

Well, these 12 disciples, as you look in scripture, set the Mid Eastern world ablaze with the gospel on the ground.

And I'm so thankful that they were called as disciples.

Hirsch said this about the 12 disciples.

God could do more with 12 disciples than 1,200 religious.

And he did.

And he still is.

These men were called by God to be saved.

And then it says, in all of these instances, and immediately they followed him.

And that fruit remains today.

You're in a church today, meeting today, and people today are looking to be discipled and disciples of Jesus Christ because it started there.

He called them to salvation.

Letter B is this service is a call from God.

He said to them, Follow me.

That word is akalatheo, and it denotes union.

It means a road to join or a place to accompany someone.

In Mark 1:20, look at what it says.

Mark 1:20

And immediately he called them and they left.

Immediate was this call.

Jesus called.

There's two definitions for that word called.

One is to invite you as in to like call your name.

Hey, Dave.

That is a call.

Anybody ever go to the fast food restaurants and they ask you, can I have a name for this order?

Okay.

I for a long time I just gave them my name and I started it started to become a funny thing.

How many times I'll say Rick and they'll say back, okay, Greg.

I'll say Rick and he'll say, Okay, Mike.

So I started just for fun.

Oh, and here's another one.

The other day I said Heather, because she got the app and all that and all the points and everything.

And I said, Heather, and they said, Okay, Evan.

So I started giving them false names.

It is really fun with your kids in the car to look at somebody in the eye and give them the wrong name and see if you can keep a straight face.

So I looked at them in the eye and I said, Horatio.

Like, you don't look like a Horatio, sir.

Look at them and give, I challenge you, I want to hear the names that you give them.

Um but that is one version to give your name, to call a name.

This call was more than an invite or a call out for a name.

It's part of the second definition to bear a name.

One was to call a name, the second was to bear a name.

He was calling them to bear a name of something, a calling to something.

They left their father and their servants and they left their nets, and all of them, it says, and then immediately they followed him and they went after him.

What they were being called to is to be a Christian.

To be a Christian is to bear the name of Christ.

The word Christian means little Christ.

They were being called to this new life, a life that exemplified who they were going to be and then what they were going to do.

Discipleship is a call to bear Christianity, to continue it.

Well, I want you again, go back to chapter 3, verse 14.

I want you to see another word there because we're talking about that call, what Jesus did.

It says, then he appointed the twelve.

That word appointed is poyeo, and it means ordained or constituted.

Jesus constituted the disciples in this moment.

He commissioned them.

In 2 Timothy 1.9, it says this.

Note, God has saved us and called us to a holy life.

Verse 8, it says to share with him in the sufferings for the gospel's sake.

God has called us to be saved and then gospel on the ground.

That is what this discipleship is about.

Ephesians 4, I want you to see.

Turn over there.

What is this call of Christ?

Ephesians 4, we're going to look at a few verses.

Paul says to the church at Ephesus, by the way, not the other twelve disciples or some select group, to the church at Ephesus, he says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.

How?

With all lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, there's one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.

And so Paul says this work, walk worthy of your calling.

If you've been called to be a Christian, then you've been called to be a disciple, so walk worthy.

That word worthy or vocation is clesis, and it's the call that you've been given to the church at Ephesus.

Not some select group.

He says, You, church, are special.

And you today, CCW, are special.

And you've been given this calling, so he says, walk worthy of your calling.

If you're going to call yourself a Christian, then live and act and be a Christian.

And then he goes on in Ephesians 4 there to tell us the how.

Did you see what it says?

Well, how do you do this?

How do I walk worthy of my calling?

With all lowliness, with gentleness, with meekness.

Everyone endeavoring to keep the bond of peace and unity because there's one God, one faith, one baptism.

And we're called to that.

Well, it continues if you read through the rest of Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12.

We're not just called to it.

He, in fact, Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12, we're giving a set of gifts to administer this service for God.

Every one of you has a spiritual gift that's first been called and came to Christ, and then you're serving.

And so he gave you gifts to serve.

And that is your purpose on earth.

Our purpose on earth is not to build some earthly kingdom, it's to be in that workplace, to be in that neighborhood, to be with that sports team, it's to be using that gift that God's given us so that we build his kingdom through discipleship.

That's the calling.

Well, let's look what happens further.

Point number two this morning is this disciples came after Jesus.

Look at verse chapter two, verse 15 through 17.

After he called Levi, it says, Now it happened as he was dining in Levi's house that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples.

For there were many, and they followed him.

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Letter A is this this morning.

The word discipleship, it's a buzzword in Christianity, but you can't find the word discipleship in the Bible.

You find the word disciple.

And I was sharing with the serve team this morning, our staff this week, we get asked the question all the time in ministry: what's the biggest challenge in your church, or what's some of the biggest challenge?

And almost inevitably, you know, seven out of ten pastors, eight out of ten pastors will say this word, discipleship.

And what they mean to say when they say discipleship is a systematic plan for educating people across all generations.

That's the biggest challenge we find, pastor, is getting people to be educated about the Bible and across, you know, from grade school all the way up.

That's our that's our biggest, you know, one of the challenges that we're trying to meet.

Um and I and I asked a pastor one time, you know, because this is the buzzword, and you get with another pastor and you gotta sound pastoral or whatever, and I said, I said, Pastor, uh, tell me what you do for discipleship.

And this pastor had been the pastor of this church for 40 years, and he looked at me very puzzled.

Now you gotta imagine a scene, this pastor 40 years been doing it, and he looked at me like, I don't know if his look meant to look at me like, are you dumb?

But that's how I felt for a second.

What do you do for discipleship, pastor?

And he looked at me for a second.

He said, Well, first I lead someone to the Lord, Rick.

So, okay.

And he said, and then I meet with them and get them to believe that they need to read the Bible.

And then I have them do that.

And then I ask them to serve.

I thought, okay.

This was not very deep to him, right?

This was very simple.

Get people to read the Bible and then continue and do what it says.

Just discipleship.

Well, how do I, how did Jesus define discipleship?

Because I thought about this.

When you look at Jesus in scripture, Jesus didn't begin a seminar or a conference, he didn't write a curriculum, I mean, he's a pretty good curriculum, but he didn't write a curriculum on discipleship.

Jesus, without even, it seems, effort, made disciples.

Jesus called them, they followed him, and on the road of opportunity, on the road of sharing the gospel, on the road of serving for the gospel, as Amanda said, on the road of meeting a physical.

Need and then preaching or speaking a need and then meeting a physical need.

On those roads, Jesus taught as they went and he showed them and preached to them what it meant to be a disciple, what it meant to know the gospel.

Well, how, Pastor, what were his methods?

Now we cannot cover all of Jesus' methodologies in this one sermon, but we can cover what's shown right here.

In Mark, right here, we see that Jesus is sitting and eating with sinners and tax collectors.

So I would infer that one step of discipleship by Jesus' example is looking for sick people.

Looking for people in need.

Doctors and nurses meet people's needs that are sick.

Think about it.

A step of discipleship is looking for the sick sick.

What makes a doctor or nurses' services so well received?

The sick.

They are in need and they need a doctor.

Jesus said, I'm not here for the well.

And I'm sorry, but I think a lot of churches today are here for the well.

And I think they look for the well.

And I think it is antithetical to discipleship if we will not help the sick.

It seems it shouldn't even be possible.

The cost we don't want to pay is the cost Mark VIII presented, the denial of self.

They muttered, sitting with sinners.

What is he sitting with tax collectors?

What is he doing?

Tom Rainier said this in his book, The Unchurched Next Door.

Two percent of church members invite an unchurched person to church all year long.

Seven out of ten unchurched have never once been invited to church.

He said, they're not coming because they've not been invited.

He says, I can tell you it is difficult to walk into a place uninvited.

Yet Matthew 4.19, Jesus says, Follow me on this discipleship road, road of opportunity, and I will make you fishers of men.

That's what you're gonna do being my disciple.

Many churches today do not spend enough or hardly any time with lost people.

And so I have a challenging question for you to write down and think on.

How many lost people call you friend?

How many lost people say you're their friend?

See, the church is not a social club for the saints, we are a hospital for the sick.

If we are getting discipled, we should be getting more gospel on the ground.

If we are consuming the Bible and not pouring it out to the sick, what are we doing with what we've been given?

Are we just hoarding it up?

What are we doing if we're not pouring it out to the sick?

This December, I want you to meet, I got a picture of my niece Remy.

And this December, people in the family were getting sick.

One after the other, isn't she the cutest thing?

One after the other.

They were dropping like flies, people getting flu, people getting sick.

And um, anyhow, last we had heard, everyone in her family except for her and Sage had not gotten sick.

And then Sage got sick, and what we heard was that Remy got out to the counter and she began putting together this beautiful elixir.

She started grabbing things from the cupboard that was her mom's, and she got out the B12, and she got out vitamin D, and she got out uh elderberry syrup, and she got out this jug that I have drank from that uh my sister-in-law Megan has.

It's disgusting, but it's supposed to make you healthy.

And she had this whole concoction together, and she was going, and my brother-in-law Jared said, Remy, what do you got going on there?

And she said, Sage is sick, and I'm not gonna have it.

And she went in and she started throwing all this stuff down, and here's what was happening.

She came up with her Remy D.

That's good.

That's good, thank you.

Thank you.

But this is what I thought about.

Now, my sister-in-law Megan, Heather can be like this too.

She's got oils, and the kids go, as soon as they get sick, they go to her.

They never come to me, they don't even, because I I assume with poor skepticism that nobody's ever sick.

And uh, I'm like, you probably need to go to your mom, right?

And she's got oils and she's got medicines.

Anyway, Megan has all of this stuff, and she's learned ways to prevent or not be sick.

What would it be like if Megan had all those ways and all those means not to be sick, and she saw sickness happen in her family, she said, ah, don't be going into my cupboard of not sickness.

That's for mama.

You stay away.

No.

What she has done is she has taught them how to not be sick.

And so when they need that medicine, guess what?

It's there.

And not only is it there, Remy, who's this young, knows exactly what to do with it.

She knows what to do because somebody taught her what to do, what they have learned.

Have you taught any sick people what to do with what God's given you?

That's the whole call.

To disciple so that we can disciple so that we can disciple others, that they disciple others, and it continues.

Well, it was not good Pharisee work to be sitting around making friends of the lost.

The irony here is Jesus' statement.

When you really understand his statement, because he said, I did not come for the well, well knowing that these Pharisees were also not the well.

Do you see that?

I didn't come for the well, I came for the sick, well knowing that they were also the sick.

And he says, I'm not here for the well, I came for the sick.

He came for them too, and tax collectors, and disciples, and whosoever will.

And he's here for you today.

Two thousand years later, and he's offering you an elixir that will alleviate this heart disease.

Coming to church can kind of be like a doctor visit.

You come in, you get greeted.

Right?

When you go to a doctor's visit, there's somebody in the lobby, you get greeted.

The first nurse comes in and checks vitals, and there might be another nurse.

You know when you have great relief?

When the doctor finally makes it in, and they have a remedy for your situation.

Well, we have one who has the authority to help make it right.

And coming to church, man, you got greeted.

We sang worship, and you start feeling good.

I want to tell you something.

Don't leave here today missing the remedy.

He's here and he's got it for you.

But you can decide to walk out the office, never ever meeting with the one that you came to see.

And you can say, There, I'm leaving that remedy right there.

Maybe next week.

I don't I don't want other people to see me get the remedy.

I don't want others to know I'm sick.

Listen, I want to tell you something for y'all.

We are all sick.

Look to your left, sick, look to your right, really sick.

It's the truth.

Who here is well?

Raise your hand.

Oh, Weston, of course, my son.

Pray for us.

Pray for us, that's all I can say, because he is not well.

He's great, but he ain't well.

Letter be, there are significant consequences.

Why don't you look at verse 18 through 20?

Chapter 2.

Disciples of John, after this, and of the Pharisees were fasting.

Then they came to him and said, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

And Jesus said to them, Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and they will s they will fast in those days.

I want you to understand this, the misconceptions of the Pharisees here, looking at the disciples of Jesus and Jesus' message and the judgmentalism that's coming here.

And I don't want to give too much of commercial, but next week we'll be talking about the gospel over rules, and we're going to see this altercation and a few others in the next few passages.

But they were so focused on these rules that they were missing something.

And being a part of the call of Jesus Christ, sometimes the people on the outside were going to miss things of this world.

Bonhoeffer says this when Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.

He says, Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life.

Discipleship was misunderstood.

He said, Why did John and others fast and your disciples but or our disciples, but no, you're not fasting.

Jesus says, When you go to a wedding, what do you think about?

When you go to a wedding, you think about fasting?

Anybody?

When you go to a wedding, does anybody here say, For this thing starts, I gotta get to that altar and I gotta get down?

Woo! Lord, they're gonna be married, and we better pray.

Has anybody done this?

I'm not eating.

There's a celebration, there's food afterwards.

Does anybody say, nope, no, fasting right through this wedding meal?

I can promise you that.

When you come to a wedding, you think about the decor, the beauty, the love, the celebration.

It's not a time that you would find a prayer closet.

You would not go to a wedding and say, excuse me, minister, sir, if you could hold off on the vows for a moment, we are going to need to pray.

God is not against fasting.

We're in 21 days of prayer and fasting, but there's a time and place for fasting, and there's a time and place for celebrating.

The Pharisees here observe the party of verse 15 and 16.

I think with eyes of jealousy, they see Levi and the tax collectors and Jesus having a good time and eating all of it, eating and drinking, says, and they why aren't they fasting?

They come in mad.

I think they're a little upset that they weren't invited to the party.

And they get there and they're and they're just ready to judge.

Your followers don't adhere to better spiritual practices.

But I need you to understand this call of discipleship and the consequences.

Mark 8, 34 through 37, we read through the very first vision.

It says, lose your life for the gospel's sake.

Losing to live goes against pharisaical idea.

Losing to live goes against most cultural idea.

It probably goes against the culture in your job place.

It might go against most of the culture in your school.

It goes against a lot of the grain of culture to say, I've got to lose to live.

Because if I've got to lose to live, then I've got to lay down sinful things.

I gotta lay down some societal things.

The Bible says I'm in the world, but not of it.

So there's some things that I should probably not be doing, not denor.

Let me tell you what the Sermon on the Mount, how he broke it down, and I'll do it as quickly as I can.

But the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents this idea of counterculturalism.

And he says, the world says, Blessed are they who are rich and famous.

The Bible says, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

The world says, Blessed are they that are full of self-love.

The Bible says, blessed are the meek.

The world says, Blessed are they who hunger for success and achievement.

And the Bible says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The world says, if someone does you wrong, just drop them.

The Bible says, blessed are the merciful.

The world says, you gotta fight for yourself.

The Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers.

The world says, be positive, and you can never get down.

And the Bible says, blessed are they who mourn.

You see, there's significant consequences to this calling to discipleship.

May I say on the flip side, I know that sounded negative, on the flip side, there are significant consequences to this call of discipleship.

I said the same thing twice, but John 10, 10 says, Jesus came to give you life and give you life more abundantly.

It is the best life that you can have in this life to follow Jesus Christ.

Don't miss that.

Yes, it significantly changes me from the world.

And there's some things that I probably won't ever do.

And guess what?

That's okay.

Because I get to live this abundant Christian life, and not only this life, but I've got a promise of eternal life outside of this one.

Because of the coal in my life.

And in that life, guess what?

This book says about it there's not a tear, there's not a pain, there's not a harm, there's no disease, but worship of God for eternity.

Oh, the consequences are quite significant.

And I think, and I believe you'll agree with me, we win.

It's like I told the atheists in the barber shop.

What have I lost living this Christian life?

If I get to the end of my life and it's completely wrong, what have I lost?

I'm like, I've had some fun with people who believed in things like I believed, we've sang, I guess, to a wall.

Might look a little kooky, but who doesn't look like that in the world without Christ?

Like, what have I lost?

If I get to the end of my life and it's all wrong, which I believe is impossible, but what have I lost?

And I said, sir, if you get to the end of your life and you're wrong, what have you lost?

Everything.

And for what?

I have loved this life God's given me.

Jim Elliott, a missionary, said this: he is no fool who gives what he can't keep to gain what he can't lose.

He is no fool who gives up what he can't keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Point number three this morning: disciples consider Jesus' authority.

Again, I said we can't go through every method of Jesus' discipleship just hitting a few.

And I wanted you to see the calling of these disciples in chapters one through three.

But some of the things he began to show them.

And Mark 3, 7 through 9 says, But Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and all these other places with names.

So he told his disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for him because of the multitude, lest they should crush him.

I want you to see in that first verse what it says.

But Jesus withdrew with his disciples.

People were taking in and they were watching his moves and watching his steps.

Have you ever been with somebody who's made some pretty amazing claims?

Have you ever been with someone you thought their claims made them sound like a liar?

Okay.

Don't point at them, that's rude.

People with amazing claims.

When I was growing up, I had my two grandfathers, both, I thought about this this week.

I had a grandfather, uh, Bolden, my mom's dad, and uh he had a tattoo on his arm and it said AFB.

And for the life of me, I would try to find out when I was young what does AFB mean?

And he had me convinced my grandfather had what I'll say is a healthy midsection.

And he said, Rick, that stands for awful fat boy.

And I believed that until I was almost a teenager.

I believe it stood for until one day it dawns on me that my grandfather's name is you you grow up, you don't know your grandparents' names.

Ask kids today if they know the grandfather.

Austin Freeman Bolden.

AFB was not an awful fat boy.

My other grandfather had me convinced that Orville and Wilbur were our real cousins.

And maybe they are.

But he would talk about Orville and Wilbur all the time, and he's like, he's pouring into this little kid who's dumb, and he would tell these great stories.

I'm gonna tell you, not one check has come to me from Kitty Hawk, from Orville and Wilbur Wright, and them airplanes.

Some very bold claims.

But Jesus made all these claims, so much so, and a crowd begins to gather.

He has to get on a boat, and it says that Jesus withdrew.

Letter A is this disciples learn from his content.

Verse 7 says he withdrew.

Verse 13, and he went up on a mountain and he called them to himself.

He withdrew.

Jesus withdrew.

He needed time away from all of that.

I've got a slide to make this practical.

I want you to see some of the instances in Scripture that talk about this withdrawing.

You want to know how to be discipled?

Do you want to know, church?

How do I walk in step with Jesus Christ?

Well, one thing you need to know that he's showing the disciples, one was find the lost, but another one is you've got to withdraw.

Mark 1.35 says, In the morning, having risen along before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place and he prayed.

Jesus found time to withdraw and pray.

Luke 5.16, so he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Luke 6.12.

Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued, listen to this, all night in prayer.

Luke 9.10.

Then he took them and he went aside.

He was discipling them.

How many of you, you grab people together and you learn, you teach them how it is that you've got to pray.

He took them aside privately into a deserted place.

Luke 9, 28.

He took Peter, John, James, and he went up to a mountain to pray.

Jesus was teaching the disciples how to withdraw.

I don't know what your day-to-day, but if I asked Moses in the lobby how your week was, I've been saying this for years.

People's response most of the time is, we're busy.

How was your weekend?

It was so busy.

You know, just being busy.

And then you start telling me about the ball games.

And look, I'm there.

We're busy.

Don't be too busy.

You better have a withdrawal.

Jesus, in the midst of amazing opportunities for ministry, right?

Crowds were gathered, and Jesus said, I gotta get with the Father.

Jesus said, I gotta withdraw.

He found himself in a mountain.

He got up early.

Some of y'all like, I can't, my kids, I gotta get everybody ready and get out the door.

Follow Jesus' example.

Get up before, it said on that one verse, long before.

He withdrew.

This is for your spirit.

This is Jesus discipling disciples.

Time of quietness before you and God, time with the Lord.

If you do not get in this book and you do not pray, that's what Pastor Don was trying to tell me.

You want to learn people how to disciple?

Get them to read his book.

You got a teenager in here, I'm gonna tell you.

You're not gonna become a good Christian student if you don't read his book and you don't pray.

If you're 90 years old, if you don't read his book and you do not pray, you will have lackluster discipleship.

Have side glances of discipleship.

It'll hit you for a second at church or at a small group, but this is day-to-day.

Jesus withdrew.

He found much solace in prayer.

To be a disciple means to find, as Jesus did, a quiet time to meet with the Lord.

Well, secondly, Pastor, how do I make this practical?

This idea of discipleship?

I want you to see this other slide.

Do I believe in this discipleship?

A hundred percent.

Look at what the Bible says.

To the older women in Titus 2, it says, admonish the younger women.

How many of you, if I ask, are you being discipled?

Or are you discipling somebody?

This is the whole call.

Listen to me, don't miss this.

And this does happen through classes.

We have 10 small groups getting ready to happen.

We have Bible studies that happen.

Listen to me, I need y'all to know this because some people say they don't know what we have going on.

Every Sunday morning at 8:45, there's two adult Bible studies that meet upstairs here.

Every Wednesday night, uh 6.45, there's two adult Bible studies that meet up here.

Every week now, starting at different times in homes across this county, there's gonna be 10 discipleship groups.

There's a women's mentoring group.

We we offer as much as the space we got.

We're offering means.

Now, by the way, that is one way, also one-on-one.

He says to the older women, meet with the younger women.

Everybody should have somebody.

He says, Meet with the younger women.

To all in 2 Timothy 2, 2, and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able also to teach others.

So he says, Teach men who will then teach men, who will then teach men, who will then teach men.

Ephesians 6 4 to fathers.

It says, Bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Matthew 28, 20, to all followers, teach everyone to observe all things that I've commanded you.

Hebrews 3.13, to the church, exhort one another.

What's it say there?

On Sundays and Wednesdays?

This is daily.

Daily exhort one another.

Encourage one another.

Acts 18, you want to know the meaning of discipleship in your marriage?

Two couples.

Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and explained him the way of the Lord more accurately.

Use your marriage.

We are the disciple people.

Well, we see letter B.

The disciples learn not only from his content but from his character.

I want you to look at Luke's version of what happens in Mark 3.14.

Look at Luke chapter 6, verse 12.

Luke 6:12

Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.

And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose twelve.

Now, if you picture the scene that was happening in Mark 3:14, Luke 6.12, Jesus had offended religious leaders.

Mark 3:14

They plotted his destruction.

It says after this that they plotted to seek a way to find his death.

And so Jesus, crowds are following him.

Religious leaders want him dead.

Crowds want him to do a miracle.

The disciples are learning and figuring this thing out.

And Jesus withdraws to a mountain, oh missus, all night for prayer.

A big pivotal moment is about to happen.

He is about to call 12 men to this ministry.

And first, he prayed all night long.

David Gudzik said this about it in one sense: there was nothing in Jesus' three years of ministry before the cross more important than this.

These were the men who would carry on what he started, and without them the work of Jesus would never extend through the whole world.

Jesus is praying.

I wish we had a transcript.

I wish we could hear the words of what it is that he said to the Father.

But in this moment, with adversity coming, Jesus calls twelve men.

And he's calling them still today.

He's calling people to himself.

What does he call them to?

Go back to Mark 3:14.

Mark 3:14

Then he appointed twelve.

Highlight, circle, out, star.

If you got all of the next words are important.

He appointed twelve that they might be with him.

I'd circle that as a phrase.

That he might send.

I'd circle that word send and them to preach.

Three things a disciple does.

Be with him, sent.

We can say, be with him, go to them.

Be with him, go to them, and preach.

I was trying to find some commonality in all of the gospels, because all of the gospels give a version of the Great Commission.

And here's how they sound The Great Commission is what we're here to do with the job, with the work, with the school, with the team, whatever it is that we do, the Great Commission is ours if we're a Christian.

Matthew 28 says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Mark 16, 15 says, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Luke says, preach that repentance and remissions of sins would be preached to all nations.

And John 20, 21 says, As the Father sent me, so send I you.

So what is the commission?

If you put all those things together, disciples make disciples by being sent into all the world and preaching the repentance and remissions of sin.

Disciples make disciples by being sent into all the world and preaching repentance and remission of sin.

What is the testimony?

You can find this happening.

What is the testimony of the disciples?

I want you to see.

I look through all these places in Scripture and I want you to see the testimony that the disciples left going forward.

Here's what it says.

In the town of Damascus, Acts 9.20, he proclaimed Jesus, saying, He is the Son of God.

In the town of Lystra, Acts 14.7, they continued to do what?

Preach the gospel.

In the town of Derby, in Acts 14, 21, they preached the gospel and made many disciples.

In the town of Macedonia, Acts 16.10, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God has called us to preach the gospel to them.

In the town of Thessalonica, Acts 17, 2 and 3, he reasoned with them from scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is Christ.

In the town of Athens, Acts 17, 18, he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

In the town of Rome, he says, I am eager, Romans 1.15, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome.

In the town of Corinth, 1 Corinthians 2.2, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus and him crucified.

In the town of Troaz, in 2 Corinthians 2.12, I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ.

In the town of Galatia, in Galatians 1.16, God was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

In the town of Ephesus, Ephesians 3.8, grace was given to preach to Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.

In the town of Philippi, Philippians 1.18, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

And in the town of Colossae, Colossians 1.28, it is him that we proclaim that we may present everyone mature to Christ.

The gospel on the ground was the mission of those disciples.

And as they were discipled, they continued to go from town to town preaching the gospel.

And they would walk in his word and his work, and they would learn from Jesus how to be a better follower of Jesus Christ.

And then they would disciple wherever they went so that today, today, we are here today.

You think about it.

And somebody down this line.

And it's continued on and on today, the gospel on the ground, because people, men and women, were discipled, and they discipled.

How many of you are discipling somebody?

How many of you are being discipled?

This is it.

This is the call of Jesus Christ on every believer's life.

And if you're not, then what else are you doing?

Like Remy, what are you doing with what you've been given?

What are you doing with it?

He's calling you.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.

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