First, He told them to return to Jerusalem and wait for power to come to them. And He told them to make disciples of all groups of people, to baptize them, to teach them everything He had commanded.
And so they did. For they had stopped being students of Christ, and had become disciples, followers of Christ.
Acts 8:4-8, 14-17; 2 Timothy 3:10-17; Luke 13:22-30
My son Andy has done some research. He found that the Jewish educational system at the time of Christ had three parts, sort of like how our educational system has elementary school, middle school, and high school Here’s how it worked:
When a boy – and it was almost only boys who were educated this way. Whey a boy was between 3 and 5 years old, he began to go to school. There was a single subject that was taught – Torah, the Law, the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The boys were taught the contents of these five books in detail.
Why? Because the Torah, the Law, was not only the basis of their religion, it was the basis of their government, and almost everything written in Hebrew was heavily based upon it. It was civics class. It was social studies. It was language. It explained how the world operated like our science classes would. It even had Numbers! And because books were so expensive, each of the five books of the Bible costing several months average pay – nobody got a copy. Instead, they memorized the five books.
Memorized? Yes! They memorized Genesis, they memorized Exodus, they memorized Deuteronomy, and they even memorized Leviticus and Numbers! I don’t know about you, but I had a hard time memorizing that short speech we call The Gettysburg Address in middle school!
But I have seen this today. A few years ago, at a home school graduation ceremony, I saw a mother tell her daughter, “Remember always this scripture:” And then, she proceeded to recite from memory the complete 8th chapter of Romans to her daughter. It can be done. We don’t memorize because we can always find a Bible, but they lived in a time when they needed to memorize. And so they did.
When the kid turned about 11 or 12, if he was in the top ten percent, he went onto the second stage and memorized the rest of the Old Testament. The rest went home to begin learning a trade, to be apprentices to their fathers or uncles. The academic learned the differences between Isaiah and Jeremiah, between Psalm 42 and Psalm 43. He learned Obadiah and Malachi. And once again he memorized.
Then, the very top students got a try out for a Rabbi. The Rabbi asked them questions to determine what they knew, how well they had studied, and whether or not they were serious students. If accepted, they would follow the Rabbi as a disciple, learning the discipline of the Rabbi. Disciple. Discipline. Get it?
All students were expect to support their Rabbi financially, like tuition. Some Rabbi’s were fairly lenient in how many students they took on, looking for the money. But the best Rabbi’s were very selective in who they took on. Jesus was almost unique, because He looked for His students and picked them out, rather than having them come to Him. Jesus said, “Follow Me!” rather than, "Okay, I'll let you follow Me."
All students were expect to support their Rabbi financially, like tuition. Some Rabbi’s were fairly lenient in how many students they took on, looking for the money. But the best Rabbi’s were very selective in who they took on. Jesus was almost unique, because He looked for His students and picked them out, rather than having them come to Him. Jesus said, “Follow Me!” rather than, "Okay, I'll let you follow Me."
And there was a saying. “May you be covered by the dust of your Rabbi!” Rabbis walked from place to place. The best students, the most passionate disciples walked closest to the Rabbi as he walked and stirred up the dust of the roads. That dust settled on them. Thus, the best disciples were the ones who followed closely with their Rabbis, hearing everything, learning everything, doing whatever the Rabbi did. These were people like Peter and John, who followed Jesus closely. John even leaned against Jesus as they lie around eating on the floor, the way people normally ate in those days. John leaned on Jesus at the Last Supper, he wanted to hear everything.
After Jesus returned to Heaven, Peter and John began loudly preaching what Jesus had taught them. They had followed Jesus closely enough to get covered in His dust. They were arrested, warned against preaching, released, and began preaching loudly once more. They healed people just like Jesus had. Peter was arrested again. An angel led him out of prison. The number of Jesus followers grew like crazy, and soon conservative Jews began to persecute them. One man was named Saul – who later adopted the name Paul.
The Apostle Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, after Jesus had returned to Heaven. Paul had been persecuting Jesus followers, for Paul was a top notch disciple of the Rabbi Gamaliel, the most well-known Rabbi of his day, a man who is still widely respected for his interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul was his disciple, and for Paul, all this talk about Jesus being the Son of God was blasphemous, so Paul went house to house, throwing Christians into jail or having them stoned. He even got permission to chase down followers in Damascus, he was so zealous to do what he thought was right in God’s eyes.
But he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, was struck blind, and asked by Jesus why Paul was persecuting Him.
To Paul’s credit, he realized that only the Son of God could indeed come back from the dead to chase Him down. After being baptized, Paul went into the desert to study for several years. And when Paul came back, the world would never be the same.
Paul had been a top notch student. He had all of the Old Testament alive in his mind. And so, he sat and thought. A lot. Jesus spoke to him. And it all came together for him and he began preaching when he returned to Damascus.
For his entire life, Paul had tried to be a good man. He had learned the Law very, very well, and he had tried to follow the Law. Yet Paul knew that he could never follow the Law perfectly – he had tried and failed, although he had done better than anyone he knew.
But then, he went back to Genesis and realized that Abraham had been declared righteous by God, not because Abraham had been particularly good, but because Abraham had believed God when God promised that Abraham, a man nearly a hundred years old without children, a man with a wife almost as old as he was, would be the father of a great nation. God had declared Abraham righteous simply because Abraham had faith in God and God’s promises.
And so Paul put these two ideas together - Abraham’s righteousness and Paul’s imperfections - with what he knew about Jesus. And what came out was the same understanding that the other disciples had been told by Jesus.
There is a real difference between what most churches today teach and what the early church taught. Today, we mostly teach that coming to church will give you ideas for living life that are better than the ideas that the culture gives us. And that’s true.
Today, we are likely to focus upon the moral teachings of Jesus, since they are the most obvious difference between the people of Christ and the people of the world. The world today in America follows the idea that each person has the right to act as he or she chooses within very broad limits. If you don’t physically harm me, if you don’t steal from me, it doesn’t much matter how you act.
Christians today often focus upon whether a certain behavior is “right”. We care about how others act, because deep down, we believe that bad actions are contagious, that bad actions in one way imply other bad actions that may hurt us. Let me take one specific example.
Fred may smoke marijuana. Now Fred may be a very responsible marijuana smoker, only smoking in his own home, when only his adult friends are around. But most Christians believe that Fred is acting in a way which is contrary to God’s will – Fred is sinning, and damaging the temple of the Spirit which is his body. Fred, though, believes that how he treats his body is none of our business.
And so most Christians focus upon getting other people to stop these “bad actions.” And this comes out in our conversation – “Church will help you to change for the better”, we tell Fred when we talk with him.
But, you see, Fred doesn’t feel like he needs to change. And so Fred doesn’t want to come to a church where people are trying to change him, just as we don’t want to be around people like Fred who are trying to convince us to smoke pot.
(I personally don’t care if you smoke pot – it is between you and the Holy Spirit, just as my issues are between me and the Holy Spirit. We all come to Jesus and the Holy Spirit with a laundry list of issues and sins, dozens of bad habits. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of helping each of us walk through those issues, one-at-a-time, in the order that we need to work through them. The Spirit is much more capable of dealing with each person's sins than I am. But I am concerned that you try to follow Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit will eventually convict you of all sin at the appropriate time. Now if you come to me and tell me that you are trying to quit smoking pot, I'll help you, offer suggestions, and generally nag you as much as you want me to so you can walk away from what you and the Holy Spirit have decided is sin.)
But you see, by focusing upon the Law and morals, we’ve missed the point of Christianity which the earliest Christians understood. We've missed the Big Deal!
Christianity did not take off because a bunch of people suddenly realized that there was a new, moral way to live and this was better than the way they were living. Most of the earliest Christians were Jewish. They had grown up with the Law, they already knew the Law, they followed it as well as they could, they recognized that the Law was there for a reason and they knew it, and they mostly loved it. After all, how many people are there around us who do not recognize that laws against stealing and murder are good laws?
But the early Christians also recognized that they could not follow the Law perfectly just as we recognize that “nobody’s perfect”.
The Good News of Jesus Christ had very little to do with a new, moral way of living. It ultimately led to that moral way of living, but that was not what got people excited.
Instead, the early Christians were excited because of two things:
First, Jesus had brought Lazarus back from the dead. John’s Gospel makes it very clear that the huge crowds that followed Jesus into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday were excited because they had heard about Lazarus being brought back from the dead. A bunch of people showed up at a banquet for Lazarus held just outside Jerusalem the Saturday night before they entered town. The crowd thought, "If Jesus could bring Lazarus back from the dead, there was hope that Jesus might be able to do that for us!" And despite the temporary setback that was the crucifixion, Jesus then showed that He was alive for evermore, and could be counted upon to bring us back from the dead. People did not have to die eternally – now they could live because God loved God’s people!
That still works today. People still get excited when they realize that our physical death is not the end, that Jesus has promised to bring His followers back to life someday, and His track record has shown that Jesus still performs miracles. That's why people are so open to hearing about God and Christ at funerals and when deathly ill in the hospital.
The second thing that excited people 2000 years ago was the Holy Spirit. Those people did not just get a dull news bulletin: “Man claims to be God, is killed, and then resurrected. Claims anyone who follows Him will be resurrected. Story at Eleven.”
But you see, by focusing upon the Law and morals, we’ve missed the point of Christianity which the earliest Christians understood. We've missed the Big Deal!
Christianity did not take off because a bunch of people suddenly realized that there was a new, moral way to live and this was better than the way they were living. Most of the earliest Christians were Jewish. They had grown up with the Law, they already knew the Law, they followed it as well as they could, they recognized that the Law was there for a reason and they knew it, and they mostly loved it. After all, how many people are there around us who do not recognize that laws against stealing and murder are good laws?
But the early Christians also recognized that they could not follow the Law perfectly just as we recognize that “nobody’s perfect”.
The Good News of Jesus Christ had very little to do with a new, moral way of living. It ultimately led to that moral way of living, but that was not what got people excited.
Instead, the early Christians were excited because of two things:
First, Jesus had brought Lazarus back from the dead. John’s Gospel makes it very clear that the huge crowds that followed Jesus into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday were excited because they had heard about Lazarus being brought back from the dead. A bunch of people showed up at a banquet for Lazarus held just outside Jerusalem the Saturday night before they entered town. The crowd thought, "If Jesus could bring Lazarus back from the dead, there was hope that Jesus might be able to do that for us!" And despite the temporary setback that was the crucifixion, Jesus then showed that He was alive for evermore, and could be counted upon to bring us back from the dead. People did not have to die eternally – now they could live because God loved God’s people!
That still works today. People still get excited when they realize that our physical death is not the end, that Jesus has promised to bring His followers back to life someday, and His track record has shown that Jesus still performs miracles. That's why people are so open to hearing about God and Christ at funerals and when deathly ill in the hospital.
The second thing that excited people 2000 years ago was the Holy Spirit. Those people did not just get a dull news bulletin: “Man claims to be God, is killed, and then resurrected. Claims anyone who follows Him will be resurrected. Story at Eleven.”
No. They found that when they decided to believe the story, when they decided to turn control of their lives over to Jesus, when they decided to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, adopted into the Holy family, they received the Holy Spirit and changes happened in their lives. They began to hear that voice, that soft whisper of the Holy Spirit. When they listened to that voice, good things happened. It wasn’t the Law, which said, “If you don’t do this, you will be evil and die offending God.” It was a voice that said, “Let’s live! Do this and be blessed!”
They traded in the old rule book of the Law, intended for those who were spiritually children, and listened to the Holy Spirit who was now riding in their hearts, speaking to them, giving them the power to do good. And they found that they wanted to change, where before they resented change. They found that the model of Jesus Christ, a man who walked in dust like they did, was a model that could guide them.
And yes, they began to love the Law, they began to love Christ, they began to love the Holy Spirit, and they began to love God rather than be terrified of God. And they were joyful, excited, and people joined the movement everyday. People were saved right and left.
But, you see, the Law – the way of living – did not lead them to that joy. It was the recognition that God loved them despite their behavior, not because of their behavior. And so they did not talk about following the Law – they talked about following Christ. They did not talk about the dangers of sin – they talked about the joy of an abundant, eternal life. They did not talk about the difficulties and necessity of following the Law every day – they talked of the wonderful life spent speaking with God and listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit every day.
You see, they did not talk of giving up anything. They spoke instead of gaining something wonderful.
You’ve heard it said that Christians are killjoys, boring, the new word is "buzzkillers". That’s because we’ve focused too much over the last fifty years on stopping people from doing things they enjoyed.
We need to go back, back to the early church and focus more on the joy of an abundant life spent with God, Christ, and Holy Spirit in an eternity that has already begun for most of us.
When you are talking with someone who is considering Christ – or has even decided to visit this church – keep these three thoughts in mind:
- Our job is to connect people to God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.
- Our second job is to learn to read the Word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit.
- We can’t be the Holy Spirit for another person – the Spirit is perfectly capable of speaking to that person of their sins, their problems, their issues.
When you talk with someone, look for their need – what they think their need is. Are they looking for comfort? Are they looking for a good set of friends for their children to play with? Are they looking for friends for themselves? Are they looking for someone who will be friends even if their family has gone crazy?
Don’t look at their sins – we don’t want God looking at our sins, do we? Look at their needs, their hurts, and their fears – and tell them how Christ has helped you with your needs, your hurts, and your fears. Pray with them – right then and there. Pray with them in person, over the phone, - don't wait! - and be a good friend who shows them love and compassion, hospitality and hopefulness, joy and life. That’s what it means to follow Jesus, after all.
For the early church, particularly the Apostle Paul, realized that it is the Holy Spirit, speaking through us, that draws people into friendship with us, into the church, into God’s kingdom. It is not a vague, faceless church. It is not a promise that “Christ will change you.” No. It is that Holy Spirit that we are all trying to listen to, guiding us to the people who need Christ, speaking through our lips words of comfort, friendship, and love that bring people to Christ.
If you want to truly follow Christ, a good way to grow close to Jesus, to get His dust on your clothes is to do like He did. Make a list of twelve people who do not yet have a church home as far as you know. Pray for those people. Begin to speak to them regularly – weekly or monthly – about the things of Christ. It can be as simple as mentioning something you found during your personal bible reading. It can be mentioning something you heard from one of my sermons – or even something from a radio sermon. Begin praising God to your twelve, telling them the good things you’ve seen or heard God do. In this way, you’ll lead them – and they will begin to receive some of that dust of Christ that has stuck to you.
Don’t look at their sins – we don’t want God looking at our sins, do we? Look at their needs, their hurts, and their fears – and tell them how Christ has helped you with your needs, your hurts, and your fears. Pray with them – right then and there. Pray with them in person, over the phone, - don't wait! - and be a good friend who shows them love and compassion, hospitality and hopefulness, joy and life. That’s what it means to follow Jesus, after all.
For the early church, particularly the Apostle Paul, realized that it is the Holy Spirit, speaking through us, that draws people into friendship with us, into the church, into God’s kingdom. It is not a vague, faceless church. It is not a promise that “Christ will change you.” No. It is that Holy Spirit that we are all trying to listen to, guiding us to the people who need Christ, speaking through our lips words of comfort, friendship, and love that bring people to Christ.
If you want to truly follow Christ, a good way to grow close to Jesus, to get His dust on your clothes is to do like He did. Make a list of twelve people who do not yet have a church home as far as you know. Pray for those people. Begin to speak to them regularly – weekly or monthly – about the things of Christ. It can be as simple as mentioning something you found during your personal bible reading. It can be mentioning something you heard from one of my sermons – or even something from a radio sermon. Begin praising God to your twelve, telling them the good things you’ve seen or heard God do. In this way, you’ll lead them – and they will begin to receive some of that dust of Christ that has stuck to you.
For the best way to follow Christ is to lead others to Christ.
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