The Plow of Elisha

Well, after that special music, I just want to say bueno sabados, bravo, que bueno, and muchos gracias. So, I'm in a Spanish mood. With our Latin students this year, I'm trying to learn a little bit of Spanish, very little, as we go along through the year, but I really enjoy that special music. That was very nice. Good morning, everyone, and all of you who are listening in on the webcast. Hope your weekend is going well. It's one of those three-day weekends in the United States with the President's Day weekend, created as it is for another three-day excursion and a period of vacationing and, hopefully, thinking about the meaning of the weekend, at least as President's Day, and giving a passing moment to that. It's been quite an interesting week. At the beginning of the week, the Pope resigned. First time in, what, 600 years that a sitting pope has decided to resign before dying. That's big news. And then we ended the week with a major meteor going across Russia, creating a great deal of problems there and getting everybody's attention. So, it's just one of those interesting situations to think about. A lot of things going on at any given time, and this week was just one of those weeks that seemed to be a little bit more dramatic in that way. I'm not talking about prophecy or anything today or anything in that regard, but I just thought I would make a comment about that. About 10 years ago, we were attending what my wife, Debbie, and I at the feast down in Lexington, Kentucky. And during one afternoon after services during the feast, we decided, since we were in Kentucky, we would go out and visit one of the bourbon distilleries that dot the Kentucky countryside. So, we chose the Wild Turkey Bourbon Distillery, just a few miles from Lexington. And we went out that afternoon and took a tour, as you do when you go to those distilleries. And I think as they began the tour, they showed us a little 15-20 minute film in their visitor center about the Wild Turkey Distillery. And in the process of that film, they showed the master distiller in that distillery, a man by the name of Jimmy Russell. Jimmy Russell is a legend among the Kentucky distillers. He's been at Wild Turkey for a long time. I think he's still there. But they showed his connection and his work there. After we were finished, we were about to leave. We'd walked out of the building and we're in the parking lot, getting ready to get into our cars.

And into the parking lot pulls a pickup truck. And out steps this gentleman that I looked at, and I said, I know you. I just saw you in the film. Jimmy Russell, master distiller at the Wild Turkey Distillery. And being the gentleman that he is, he stopped and he started talking to us. And you think someone like that is real busy and they just would say hi and keep on going. But he just kept talking and we kept asking questions. And about 30 minutes went by and we had just a really enjoyable conversation with Mr. Russell. Just a very good old boy, as they say down in that part of the country, and a real gentleman. And in the course of the discussion, we started talking about his time and what it takes to be a master distiller in the bourbon business and his experience. He'd been there for like 40 years or so at that time. And he said, yeah, I've been training my son too to take over whenever I die or whenever I would retire. He talked about the business. He talks about how as a master distiller, a lot of the information in terms of what goes into the recipe stays right up here. He said, that's job security when it stays right up here, something like that. And he said, then he got to talking about training his son to take over from him. And I remember asking the question, how long has he been in training with you? He said, well, about 25 years at that time. That was 10 years ago, about 25 years. And he said, he's just about beginning to get the hang of it. Just about beginning after 25 years, working beside his father, learning how to make wild turkey bourbon. You got to say bourbon, it's not whiskey down there.

And I've remembered that over the years. What Jimmy Russell is doing, and as far as I know, he's still there. I think he's still alive. As far as I know, he's still the master distiller there. But what he's doing, was doing then, and in the process of that, was really discipling his son to replace him in that business. And it took, and it takes a long, long time. Now, I've heard of other types of businesses and crafts where people have been in training for even longer than that.

I ran across a sushi maker in Japan about a year ago, and we did a daily on him, a BT Daily, and he was, I think, in his 80s or 90s, and he's been discipling his sons for like 40 or 50 years to cut fish. Okay, think about it. But you have to do it right, and there's a certain way to do all of that. When we look in the Bible, in Matthew 28, we find that Jesus gave the instruction to his people, to his apostles at that point, to the church. And we take our mission and our purpose today to go and to make disciples.

Matthew 28, verse 19. Well-known scripture. We've incorporated this into the mission of the United Church of God. Christ said, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. How long does it take to make a disciple?

What does it take to make a disciple? It is a fascinating subject. We focus in the Church of God on preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, doing the work preaching the gospel. But I've noticed over the years that we don't focus so much on the subject of making disciples, which is a part of the mission as well as to make the gospel available and to preach it and to proclaim it through writing, through television, radio, the internet, and all the means and tools that are available to us. But the focus and the emphasis upon making disciples is a very important part of it as well and one that we need to understand.

What I'd like to do today is take us through a little bit of a tour in the Scriptures to help us understand what it takes to be a disciple as well as to make a disciple, begin to talk, begin a discussion for us here this morning on this matter of being a disciple.

First, let's look at definitions. The word disciple comes from a Hebrew in the Hebrew, comes from a word called talmid, T-A-L-M-I-D, or talamid, however you want to. Not talmud as opposed to one of the Jewish commentaries and writings on the Scriptures, but talmid, T-A-L-M-I-D.

It means a student. The plural form of that would be talmidim. But it really just means a student, one who dedicated himself to learning a teacher or a rabbi's understanding of Scripture and the teacher's way of living. Not only their understanding of Scripture, but also the teacher's way of living. That was an important part of being a disciple as well.

In the Greek, the word for the same word for student in this sense of our disciple is mathetes, M-A-T-H-E-T-S. And in both languages, either the Hebrew or the Greek, it means a student or a learner. Learning teaching, but also learning example or way of one's life, the life of the teacher. In Mark 8, Christ made a statement here about this early on with those that He had called to be His disciples and to be His followers. In Mark 8, verse 34, when He had called the people to Himself with His disciples also, He said to them, whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation of Him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. And so whoever wants to be a follower of Jesus to come after Him and therefore a disciple, as He said to them, you must be willing to take up your cross and to follow Him and to deny yourself in that way. Where did the disciples find their model for making disciples and being a disciple? There's another statement that Jesus made in the Scriptures here that will help us come to that answer. Let's turn back to Luke 9. Being a disciple in the time of Christ in the first century world of the Jews was not an unknown feature. People who wanted to really learn the Word of God would join a particular school. In the book of Acts we find the school of Gamaliel being one that is prominent and mentioned. And the Apostle Paul in Acts says that he had been taught at the feet of Gamaliel, who was in that time one of the greatest teachers of the law and of the Scriptures. But they would go and they would live in the academy school, a place where the master teacher taught. But there was a well-known concept and it was a well-known term.

And in Luke 9, beginning in verse 57, we find that as Jesus' ministry began to develop, people wanted to become followers. And we know that certainly He called 12 initially, but there, as we know from the Gospel accounts, there were others who joined themselves to Jesus. No doubt, some came and went through the years of His ministry. But in this particular case, He makes a point that obviously would begin to weed out people. In verse 57, it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to Him, Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. And again, this was part of what a disciple did in this day and age. He would join Himself to a teacher and go wherever He went. Come and go with Him 24-7. It was a total commitment and total dedication. Lord, I'll follow You wherever You go. Jesus said to Him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

Then He said to another, follow Me. But He said, Lord, let Me first go and bury My Father.

He had some family affairs and business to attend to. He had to bury His Father. The implication by what Jesus said was that the Father was not dead. Perhaps a disease had crippled Him, but He could live on for some time yet, which would prevent this man from truly being a disciple or follower and joining Himself 24-7 to what Jesus would be doing. And that's why Jesus said, let the dead bury their own dead. You go and preach the Kingdom. It was not that He couldn't allow a time of grieving. There was more to the story here.

But another also said, Lord, I will follow You, but let Me first go and bid them farewell who are at My house. And Jesus said to Him, verse 62, No one, having put His hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God. Very, very strong statement. You put your hand to the plow, and if you look back to a former life with regret to wanting to do something else, He said you're not fit for the Kingdom of God. Now, that's a pretty straightforward job description to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a follower of Jesus Christ then, as well as now, because we take this for us to understand as well.

When we were in Kenya this year at the feast, we stayed one night in a kind of a church retreat compound that had been arranged for us. And early in the morning, I got up early and walked out. I looked out the window that was in the little room we had, and there was a field behind us. And there were two farmers that had two oxen yoked up, and they were plowing their field.

I thought it was fascinating, so I slipped my clothes on, went out, and it was just shortly after sunrise, and stood by the fence and just watched them for a few minutes as they went back and forth with the team of oxen plowing and turning the field over. I had not seen that for quite some time, and it was fascinating to watch these two farmers do that. And it was very rudimentary, and it was really not any different from the type of plowing with oxen and a plow than what they would have been doing during the time of Christ.

But here's the real point that Jesus was pointing to them, and they would have understood. They didn't relate to Kenyan farmers in Christ's day when He said this to them. They related to someone else. You know who it was? They related to Elisha. Christ's allusion here to putting your hand to the plow and not looking back would have reminded them instantly of a story from the Old Testament of Elisha. And it's there that we should go for a few minutes to help us to understand what this matter of discipleship really begins to detail for our understanding.

So let's go back to 1 Kings 19. Let's look at the story that these disciples would have understood immediately during the time of Elijah and Elisha. 1 Kings 19. This is where writing the story of Elijah, the great prophet that went to Israel, shut up the heavens by his word for a period of time, and it did not rain.

And then he later allowed it to rain at God's word and command, and then he had the confrontation with the prophets of Baal and killed all of them. And then he fled and wept as he did here in chapter 19 and kind of got all scared because Jezebel's threats against him.

And in verse 16 of 1 Kings 19, we find, as God says to Elijah and shapes him up, says, Get up. I've got other people here. Several thousand have not bowed their knee to Baal. And here's what you're going to do in the various things. And down in verse 16, he says, You will also anoint Jehu, the son of Nimschia as king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat, and of Abel and Mahola.

You will anoint as prophet in your place. And so he says, It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hoseil, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal in every mouth that has not kissed it. Elijah was not alone, and there were others.

And so God basically is saying, Look, you're going to pick out and choose and anoint your successor, Elisha. So go find him, which he does, in verse 19. He departed from there, and he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing. Plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelve.

What it means is he had twelve oxen working on twelve plows. All right? So Elisha was fairly well off to have that many cows and that many plows, which means that he had quite a large piece of land that needed plowing with twelve plows and twelve oxen. So he had quite a bit, either with probably the family holdings, as we find out here.

And Elisha himself was on one of the plows going back and forth. So Elisha then is passed by him and threw his mantle upon him.

The mantle that Elisha had was a symbol of his authority. And by throwing it upon Elisha, it was kind of a form of investiture. And it also meant, as this was understood in the time, that he was adopting Elisha as kind of like a son. It was not just the authority that Elijah had being passed on by a mantle. You ever see the pictures of the Pope today? Of course, as the Pope's been in the news, you see those pictures. When the Pope appears on the balcony of St. Peter, whoever the new one will be here in a few weeks, they'll have a mantle upon him.

When he's functioning in his official office a lot, they'll have this very expensive fur cape or stole upon their shoulders. And it's really a mantle, and it's a symbol of his papal authority. It comes out of the ancient world and this example here. Elijah threw his mantle upon Elisha, which means that he was going to have that authority, but he was also bringing him into a relationship like a son to train him and to cause him to understand what he did. And so in verse 20 it says, He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Please, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. Kind of just like the man who had come to Christ. He said, Let me go and take care of some of the family business. I want to follow you, but I've got to wrap up a few things. And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? This is Elijah answering Elisha. We can go back again. I've called you. I've put my mantle on you. This is the most important thing. This is your calling now. This is your new life. What do you mean go back again?

Go back to what? All of this is wrapped up in this question that he puts to him.

And so he's kind of, if you will, making him feel a bit guilty, but he's also making a point. And this is what a teacher does in working with a disciple, someone that they're beginning to train to take over their job, their role, their business, their craft. You get their attention. You make them realize that what you are being given is now your life. And it is the most important thing for you to focus all of your energies upon. And this was the point that he was making to Elisha. And Elisha got it at this moment because verse 21, he turned back from him and he took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh using the oxen's equipment and gave it to the people and they ate. Now, I would have preferred perhaps a barbecue myself, you know, a little bit of rub on there and I'd start boiling the meat, but this is what this says that happened. He boiled the meat. I'm not really digging the boiled meat myself, but maybe Elisha was. But he not only killed the cow, his, but he also kindled the fire with the instrument, the plowshare, the yoke, everything that was there. It was a symbol that he wasn't going back. He had nothing to go back to now. He'd taken his box of tools by which he made his living and he killed it and burned them.

There was nothing for Elisha to go back to. And so he arose and followed Elisha and became his servant. In this initial step here, Elisha burns his bridges. There's a story from the Spanish conquests of Latin America where Cortes landed on the beach and because his soldiers were a little bit hesitant about what they were going to do, he burned the boats on the beach. They only had one direction to go, and that was inland. They weren't going back now. They burned the boats.

Elisha had burned his instruments and killed his means of making a living, and there was nothing for him to go back to at this point. He hesitated for a moment, and when his commitment was challenged, he got the point and he moved on. And now he had a new calling and a new life.

Elisha had not committed to something that he could only do part-time. Now his whole life was involved in what he was to do. Becoming a disciple takes commitment. This is one of the first lessons to learn. We have to commit to what it is we're going to do to be a true disciple.

Commitment is an interesting concept in our modern way of thinking. A lot of people comment and realize, and I see it as well as I look around, that commitment is hard today for people to make.

It's a lot harder for people to do. It's hard to commit to marriage. So often, today, it seems that people are putting, young people are putting marriage off longer and longer. This has become a feature of our society, marrying into the 20s and into the 30s for any number of reasons. But the commitment of marriage is a bit harder to make.

And it's always been when one commits to marriage, staying committed, even when there comes up an issue, when it comes up problems. No matter at what age one gets married and for how long two are married, there will always be issues and challenges, especially in the early years. Too often, people have bailed out of marriage by divorce at the first sign of a problem rather than working through it, demonstrating some maturity, getting help, getting some counseling, a bit of patience. Most can be worked through. But to do so, it takes commitment. To have a friend for more than a season, for more than nine months, for more than two or five years, to have a real friend for life for decades, that takes commitment, too. That takes commitment. I used to think about the number of friends that I have in life. And I've counted in a blessing the friends that I still have with me after 40 years, just to look at 40 years of marriage, my best friend I've been married to for 40 years.

But the other friends that we've had that are still part of our life that we count as friends, friends' relationships change through the years. You'll find that. But after 40 years, to be able to still have someone that you can call your friend, to still even have the same faith, to even still be in the same church organization, is a rarity. I have a few like that. I have a few like that. Vernon Hargrove and I were talking about that at one time, how he had trained me, and he was actually my mentor. I was going to talk about that a little bit later. But I commented a few years ago how in the church world that we've all been a part of, to still be friends, number one, to still be in the faith, number two, and still be in the same organization, is a rarity. And we still are. You look around in your life. It takes commitment, though, because there will be offenses, there will be slights, there will be long gaps of absences, but it takes commitment to work, to even to God, and to His way of life, to learn all that needs to be learned. To be a disciple requires, first of all, a desire to learn what that teacher has to impart to us. Secondly, a commitment to be a part of their life, to learn not only what they know, but what they are. That commitment is there. And then it takes sacrifice, just like Elisha had, by turning from all that he had and the life that he had chosen and probably inherited, being a farmer's son in this case, and quite likely would have been a comfortable life with some land and livestock already there, and the hope and the promise of a comfortable life. And he turned his back on all of that to follow Elijah. When you look into the story, Elijah lived with Elijah in the remaining time that Elijah had in his life. Elisha traveled with him and became his servant, as it says here in verse 21. He became his servant. It was not enough for him to learn all that Elijah knew. Elisha had to become like Elijah for him to be accepted in the role that was laid out as a prophet. In this particular case, with the school of the sons of the prophet they were involved with when you read into the story of Elijah and Elisha here, there was evidently a school of prophets that had arisen around Elijah. And for Elisha to then take that mantle of Elijah and to have them the respect of those who had followed Elijah, he had to know everything that Elijah knew and was by example. And that's why he lived with him during this particular period of time. Elijah and Elisha had two different personalities. Elijah seems to be been a bit more bedouin-like, living off the land and a little bit more hard. I mean, you know, you walk in and there you say, there's not going to be any rain for three years except at my word. And he turns around, he walks out the door. Thank you, sir. Have a nice day. That was it.

Elisha, on the other hand, when you look at his story, he tended to have a broader, wider approach toward people. He healed a widow's son and he took care of the water in Jericho at one point. And he did a number of broader things, at least in the story that we have, than Elijah did. They had two different personalities and approaches, but they had the same calling and the same ministry. In 2 Kings 2, as you page just a few pages ahead in the story, in 2 Kings 2, you come to the end of Elijah's life. And as the day of Elijah's departure, as you know, he had a different exit than most people have had in their life, what we find here is that Elisha didn't want to leave him. In verse 1 of 2 Kings 2, it came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. But Elisha said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.

And here's where the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elijah and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes, I know, keep silent. He wasn't too happy about the prospect. And Elijah said to him, Elisha, Stay here, please. Stay in Bethel. For the Lord has sent me to Jericho. To do that, he had to kind of go down into the plains of the Jordan. But he said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho, another school there, came to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? He said, Yes, I know, keep silent. And again, a third time Elijah said to him, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan. He said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And so the two of them went on. And this goes on in the story here. As we come down to finally, Elijah is taken up in verse 11.

And in verse 12, Elisha saw it. And he cried out, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its horsemen. So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes, and he tore them into pieces. He was broken up, grieved. They'd had a very close relationship. As he said, My father, my father. That's the essence of a relationship between a disciple and his teacher.

It's like an adoption. And the relationship should become so close that those traits of a father are passed on, like they are from a father to a son, as Corey was talking about in his sermonette today.

His relationship with his father. Any of us who have that type of relationship with our father teaches us a very, very valuable and poignant lesson in life in terms of those who do mentor us, train us, and who we become like. Elisha had become like Elijah because he had served him and watched over him. In 2 Kings 3 and verse 11, in a later episode here, later scene, King Jehoshaphat says something about the two, and he's talking about Elisha in verse 11.

He said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him?

So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shephad is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah. Elisha poured the water on the hands of Elisha to wash his hands. That's the role of a servant. That's the role of someone who's right there, again, 24-7, taking care of the needs of his master, the one he's learning from.

Now you begin to get a picture of why Christ used this story when all these people wanted to be his disciples, and they didn't understand the commitment that it would take. And he said, if you put your hand to the plow and you look back, you're not fit for the kingdom of God.

The story of Elisha would have been brought to their mind, and they would have understood that illustration completely, because everyone knew the story of Elijah and Elisha, who would have wanted to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Christ was using that to illustrate the need for a total commitment to anything which we would want to learn and to master, especially the things of the kingdom of God, to be a disciple and to be one who is a part of the kingdom of God. There are a number of keys and thoughts that are involved in any of us becoming a disciple or anyone following Christ in this particular vocation that we have toward the kingdom of God. Humility is one of them. And as you see that here in the case of Elisha and through the story of Christ with his disciples, humility is a key to being a disciple. As Jesus talked about humility and demonstrated it in his setting in the first century, they would have again understood many of the things that he said and that he did. In the first century, Judaism, a disciple would serve their master in many, many different ways, which is why would we see certain statements in Christ's life and what he tells them to do, it makes sense. In John 4 and verse 8, let's look at a couple. John, when Christ had come to Samaria and he began to talk with this woman at the well, verse 7, asking her for a drink of water. In verse 8, John injects here, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. They traveled together, had shared meals in common, somebody had to cook, somebody had to build a fire, boil the water, roast the meat, do it, and then clean up afterwards. Somebody had to make sure that there was enough food for the 12 or 13 or more because there were probably others with him as well. So it was quite a little bit of an operation. And at this one point, some of his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. It's what a disciple does. He takes care of what has to be done.

You're not on the clock. It's not a matter of getting your 40 hours in, and then it's all over with. The work has to be done no matter how long it takes, no matter what hour of the day.

That's the approach. In chapter 22 of Luke, when we come down to the last days of Christ's life, the Passover meal to be prepared in Luke 22, we'll remember what Jesus told them to do.

In verse 8, it says, He sent Peter and John saying, "...go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat." Well, here are two of the leading men, if you will. Peter and John, the ones that were stood out in many different ways. But he gives them the instruction to go and prepare the Passover that we might eat. Now, as to what all that entailed, getting a room, making sure there was food there, I don't know that they just looked through the... or started to say yellow pages. They didn't whip out their smartphones and have an app for that.

And then, you know, find a caterer to set up the meal for this. That's not the way it worked. They had to go and get the food. That's the way I imagine it. I don't even know that they had the innkeeper do it. I would imagine that they had to go buy the food and then make sure that it was prepared in whatever way. Maybe they hired somebody to cook it for them. I guess that's possible, too. We don't know all of those details, but as you try to fill in the details, you have to realize this one thing that they were doing the job of a servant. And they didn't say, no, somebody else should do that. Christ gave them the instruction. They went and did it. It's what a disciple does. And they were not too senior with rank or anything else that they couldn't do that. That's what they had to do. By all of this, they were learning humility and service and the literal application of a way of life. And the key element of learning the teacher's way of life would have to be that of humility. Most of us have probably seen the movie The Karate Kid from the 70s, I think, was when that was made. But it's been a perennial favorite.

The kid wanted to learn the art. And he went to the master. And instead of learning all the moves, the master puts him into the menial jobs around his house, learning how to move his hands and do all of those things. And he had to break down, not only learn how to move, but he also had to break down what was up here in the kid. The kid had to get ready to be able to learn. And it took breaking down his cockiness, his pride, and making him humble enough that he then could learn what he needed to learn to be successful for Mr. Miyagi in the story.

Humility and breaking away that pride, chunk by chunk, is the key to learning to be a disciple, to learning from those who are to teach. There was a saying among the Jews in the first century that when it came to the servants and slaves, because remember slavery was an institution within first century world, and people had servants, had slaves, and all of this was part of a very intricate social structure, completely different than what we are used to today.

But it figures in very aptly to the lessons Christ was always teaching those who were disciples. There was a saying that went like this, all acts a slave performs for his master, a disciple performs for his rabbi, except untying the sandal.

The servant wouldn't untie the sandal of his master, because to untie someone's sandal was considered demeaning. That was only the task of a slave. The servant wouldn't do that.

Now, with that as a background, you can understand the impact of the statement that John the Baptist made in John chapter 1. John chapter 1.

If a disciple would do anything but untie the sandal of his teacher, that was only for a slave to do. Understand then what an impact this statement that John the Baptist made in verse 27. It is, He who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose. John the Baptist, already out preaching, already out gathering in the crowds, having that aura and that prideful aroma wafting over him of people hanging on every word that he had to say. And he said of Christ, I am not even worthy to untie his sandal. When he said that, that resonated because only a slave did that job. Not even a servant would do that. Not even a disciple would do that.

John said, I'm not even worthy to do that. I'm less than a slave compared to He who is coming, compared to Christ the Master. That's why Christ expected His servants, His disciples, to take on humility to that degree, to learn not only what He taught, but the way of life that He came to exemplify, the life of the Father, the way of the Father, the way that He and the Father had lived from eternity. And as God in the flesh, He was demonstrating that every single day. And to learn it, they had to have the breakdown of every social norm, custom, prideful feeling that they had removed to be able to take that on as a true, true disciple. And He expected them to learn that. That's why in Matthew chapter 10, He made statement after statement to get this point across to them. Matthew chapter 10, verse 24, He said, A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. Now, this was not a hierarchical ranking of the social structure. This was a means of Christ explaining how it is that you become a disciple and how you learn from the teacher. The teacher is the one imparting the craft, the understanding.

For three years, in this case with his disciples, for 25 or more years, in the case of something that we might refer from a modern-day example, as mundane as a distillery master, teaching his son, you have to submit yourself and be willing to learn every step of the way to learn it all completely. A student is not above his teacher. This passage describes many of the elements that a disciple has to engage in the work of Christ. And what's fascinating to realize as we read the Gospel accounts, that after three years of this teaching and example, they still didn't get it.

They still didn't get it, not even his closest disciples. In Luke 22, on the night of the Passover service before his death, verse 24 tells us, there arose, there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. Who was going to be in charge? Who was going to get three stripes? Or be the first footman, I suppose. Been watching a lot of Downton Abbey lately.

And you get, no matter what it is, even among servants, you get a pecking order. You see that when you're watching Downton Abbey, you know, they have their own pecking order. That's the way it is. And this is why they came to this point where there was this contention. So he said to them in verse 25, He who sets at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sets at the table, yet I am among you as the one who serves? That you are those who have continued with me in my trials, and I bestow upon you a kingdom, not just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table in the kingdom, and set on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But it took one further step for them to get the point. If you turn to John 13, you know what it is.

Even his teaching on this last hours of his life didn't get the point across. He had to do one more thing by example. In John 13, beginning in verse 12, when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? He had to wash their feet, as we do in the Passover service in this manner as well. And you remember the reaction that Peter had to all of this. He said, Do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say well that I am. If I, then your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to you. And you have to think that in that act, finally, they got the point. Finally, they understood what he was to do. A teacher, a true teacher with his disciples, uses this as an example from his life.

And Christ had to do this act of kindness for the men to teach them how to do the same for others.

And maybe it was a shocking act of foot washing that resonated through the years with the apostles. When we come down to 1 Peter, chapter 5, with Peter himself, as he wrote years later, 1 Peter, chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, we find that Peter got it because he wrote of humility in one of the most eloquent passages that we have from these writings.

The elders among you I exhort, I who am an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as being lores over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the shepherd, the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

I think Peter learned it, finally, and left this as an instruction for all who would be a disciple, all who would be a servant as to the point and the approach. You begin to understand a little bit more of what it takes to be a disciple and why it takes some time of discipling by anyone.

And keep in mind, Jesus said to his disciples, go and make disciples, those who became apostles, and to the church. And it's a responsibility that comes down to every one of us today to not only preach the gospel, but to make disciples. And it's that focus and that emphasis that is our collective responsibility to learn about. That's why I chose to speak on this, not just for the ABC Sabbath that we have, although it fits very, very well and fits in with the sermonette that was given here. Fits in for us at any particular time, as to what we are to learn as ambassadors. I went to Ambassador College. My wife did for three years, each of us. We learned a lot, and I'm not one to bash the past so much. But there was one thing that they said about Ambassador College that became one of the slogans. They said that Ambassador College was the West Point of the work of God. It was one of those things that kind of came up for a while. And it sounded good, West Point being the military training academy for the United States Army. And the idea of a Christian soldier and all, you know, it kind of fits. But the reality is not the best statement. And that wasn't necessarily what really Ambassador College was. It really wasn't the West Point of the work. It was never really designed to be. It wasn't, that was not never the intent. And at its best, it was more along the lines of something like the School of the Prophets, whatever that was in the time of Elijah, as certainly and certainly not a military training academy. The hierarchy that must be in any military organization is not what the Church of God needs, then or now. Sorry, if anybody still thinks that way. We're training servants. We're training disciples. We're training people who will learn to wash feet. We're not training generals. We're not training a military establishment to kill.

Never was intended to be that way. At its best, it trained people to be servants. And those who learned that, I think, are still at the job. You know, Corey talked about ambassadors, what an ambassador does for his country. We still maintain that name in the Ambassador Bible Center today. And that's good. I'm glad we co-opted that.

Just recently, the United States lost one of its ambassadors on September 11th of this year, this past year. Christopher Stevens went down with his staff that were with him at the moment there in Benghazi. From what I read about the man, he was one of the best. One of the best. Loved, respected, and was probably one of the most dangerous ambassadorial assignments, State Department assignments anybody could have at this current time. And he stayed on his post.

And he died at his post. There's still a lot of questions. His eyes kind of follow the story.

There's still a lot of questions. And I hope somebody, somewhere, has the guts to get to the bottom and finally get all the answers, because he and those who died with him deserve it.

They do. But he left an example. A man who, what an ambassador truly does in a difficult situation, even in an area where people were not really wanting him to be there or wanting what he stood for to necessarily be theirs. But he represented it anyway. And he stayed there and gave his life to the end. I was reading something about Queen Elizabeth II this week. They said that she's probably never going to resign, step aside. And I don't ever look for her to. She'll die with her slippers on. Because when she took over as queen, it was, you know, within the Windsor family, what her uncle did, her father's brother, by abdicating in the 1930s, still resonates and is a shame upon the family, the royal family. And when she became the very young queen, she said, I will serve you with my life. And she reiterated that last year at her Jubilee. I will serve you.

It's one of their models. I serve. So don't look for her to step aside.

She'll, if she's like her mother, she'll live to be over 100, and Prince Charles will have his teeth fall out, perhaps, before he becomes king. Maybe one of the others will. But we learn to serve as a disciple. And that's the point. Discipleship is more about teaching people to follow Christ, to be like Christ, than to win over doctrinal arguments about who's right, who's the best, or whatever.

Doctrine practice and instruction in righteousness are very, very important, and they're vital. And the doctrines of the church must be right. I get the opportunity to teach 10 of the fundamental doctrines of the church every year to the Ambassador Bible Center students.

And I serve on the Doctrine Committee of the Council of Elders to uphold and to maintain the doctrinal integrity of the United Church of God and our fundamentals of belief. But being a disciple and in this job of discipling, it's more than just winning an argument about doctrine and being able to turn to 15 scriptures to prove one's points. Doctrine is one of the things I try to teach the students every year. Doctrine has to be internalized and it has to change us. It's not a matter of just head knowledge up here.

Doctrine has to, and teaching, has to transform us. That's what discipleship really is all about.

Evangelism and proclamation is about showing by example how Christ lived as a human and can live today by His life within us. That's what it's about. It's not only to teach the truth, to uphold the truth, and to teach right doctrine, but as Paul said, scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. Doctrine, right teaching, should transform us. That's what we have got to get to. It's by each of us living a Christ-like life and teaching by example that Christ can live today in a repentant and converted mind and have their life transformed.

It's more than just information in lists. Making disciples by teaching in this manner is really an essential step in the process of salvation. Making disciples is more about transformation than just information. Christ commands His disciples by teaching them by word and example how Christ in us, our hope of glory, can transform our lowly bodies into something that resembles the life of Christ. And by example, then, we can disciple others and teach them not only the truths of God, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and all the doctrinal integrity that is in scripture as well, but how that then makes us better people, how that makes us more kind and caring and loving, willing to give our lives to one another for those truths and for that kingdom.

That's what it comes down to. That's the process of discipling. We're coming up to the Passover in just a few short weeks in that period of examination. Let me give you a few thoughts here in conclusion to think about in regard to discipling. Number one, disciples are expected to serve with humility and to learn through service.

Who are you serving? And what are you contributing to the body of Christ?

What has Christ been teaching you by those who've served you in recent months and the service that you have given in recent months to others? What have you learned?

A disciple serves with humility and learns through their service. Second point, what are the traits that you've inherited from a parent?

Think about those. Do you like them or do you dislike them?

As a parent, a father, or mother, are you setting a good example to your children and to other youth by the traits that you've inherited or developed as a disciple, that either your parents or another spiritual parent in the faith?

Number three, who or what is discipling you? Who or what? Because we can be discipled by culture. Other people, a lifestyle, can disciple us if we allow that. Someone can disciple us, but who would that be? Are you discipling others by word and deed?

The fourth point, discipling is transformation, not just information.

Have you internalized the doctrines and the teachings of the Bible?

Have they changed your heart? Have they transformed your life?

You might ask someone between now and the Passover how you're progressing as a follower of Christ, someone who knows you. Make that something you do this year before the Passover. Go to someone who's close to you and ask them how you're doing as a disciple. You might be surprised at the answer that is get—be careful who you choose.

Flippance 3.

Verse 20, Paul writes here, Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. He will transform our bodies at the resurrection, but as we yield ourselves to Him as our Master today, as His disciples, He will transform our lives even today in advance of that time.

That's one of the keys. By His grace and by His goodness, allow us then to continue the process of making disciples of all.