What Does It Mean to Be a Disciple?

Good day, everyone! Welcome again to our visitors and guests. It's very nice to have you with us on the Sabbath morning. How many of you have ever been an apprentice? If I could see your hands. Quite a few more than I expected to see here. Being an apprentice is a concept or a term we don't hear that much about these days in our modern world. But it used to be quite common for many, many centuries where a young person would learn a trade from a master craftsman. Whether that person was a carpenter, a builder, a blacksmith, a metalsmith, a physician, even, or some other trade. It typically took many, many years to learn that trade over the years. To learn the materials, to learn the tools, to learn the methods and the techniques to be successful at a particular trade. I can identify with that quite a bit because my father was a master at working with stone. He had his own business making tombstones and monuments. In doing so, he had to learn a lot of specialized tools. He had to learn a lot of techniques for working with different stones. He had to learn the characteristics of different stones to be able to make whatever it was that he wanted or needed to make.

For several years, when I was in junior high and high school after work, I would go and, you might say, apprentice at his shop. They're learning that myself there. How did I spend, I don't know, another 20-30 years of it, I might have been as good at it as he was eventually in time. Because being an apprentice is something that takes a lot of commitment and a lot of time and effort to do that.

So again, how many of you have ever been called to be an apprentice? Now I'd like all of you to raise your hands. All of you to raise your hands because whether you realize it or not, you are called to be an apprentice. Maybe you didn't know that, but you are. You see, because if you are a Christian, you are called to be an apprentice.

You are called to learn from a master. You are called to be a student, a learner, or a disciple, or what the Bible calls a talmid. Everybody say talmid. Talmid. You are a talmid. Collectively we are talmadeem. Say talmadeem. Talmadeem.

In Greek it's called a mathetis. Mathetis. Say mathetis. Giving you a little lesson in Greek and Hebrew here because some terms will be talking about here in the course of this sermon today. So if one is a student, a talmid, a learner, a disciple, as it's translated in the Bible, the Greek word mathetis there, one has to have a teacher or a leader or a master.

What was this master called? This teacher, this leader in the Bible? Anyone? Rabbi. Very good. Another Hebrew term there. A rabbi. Who is the most famous rabbi in the Bible? Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus Christ. Very good. It's nice to see an audience that's awake this morning. Appreciate that.

What does Jesus Christ, who is the most famous rabbi? There are actually a number of them mentioned. Gamaliel, others like that. More than a dozen times in Scripture, Jesus' followers call him rabbi. Rabbi, which is a term of great honor and great respect. In Hebrew it means, it's rough to find an exact equivalent English word because it encompasses a number of meanings.

Some of those meanings are chief, master, or great one. One of my favorites there. A similar term that's used twice in Scripture of Jesus is rabbonai. That is actually a term of greater honor or respect than rabbi. Someone who is a great rabbi was called rabbonai. That means great master or most honorable of all. And again, twice this term is used of Jesus' will. Some similar terms in Scripture that convey a fair amount of the same meaning are teacher and Lord. And many, many times in Scripture Jesus is called teacher or Lord. You could say that rabbi wraps up all of these meanings, teacher and master and great one all in one term.

By that I mean, yes, a rabbi was a teacher, but his followers also saw him as a great master. Yes, he was a master, but his students also saw him as a great teacher as well. Yes, he was a great one, but his followers also saw him as a master and a teacher. All three of these concepts are wrapped up in the Hebrew word rabbi, which was applied to Jesus many times. And again, the followers of a rabbi were called in Hebrew talmiddim, plural. You add an i-m on the end for the plural meaning in Hebrew. Or singular talmidd, a disciple, or in Greek, methetes, the other word there. And yes, it meant a disciple or a student or a learner, but it actually conveyed more than that as well. There's not a good equivalent English term, at least one word, that conveys that same meaning there. Because a disciple or a talmidd or talmiddim wanted to do more than just learn what the teacher or the rabbi knew. They wanted more than that. They wanted to become just like the teacher. Not just to learn what the teacher knew, not just the head knowledge, but to become like the teacher in every way. And that's conveyed in the meaning talmiddim or talmidd. It's somebody who wants to become like the teacher in every way. And that is what a true disciple is. And that's what the sermon today, if you haven't guessed, is about. And that is, what does it mean to be a disciple? What does it mean to be a disciple? And as we will see in the course of the sermon today, a disciple is one who wants to be like his master, his teacher, his rabbi in every word. Now, in that day, 2000 years ago, this kind of teaching was done very much like an apprenticeship program that we talked about here in the introduction. There was a certain amount of classroom instruction in that time that was given to the young boys and girls up to about age 12, 13, somewhere along in there. They were instructed at the local synagogue, which also functioned as essentially a local school as well. It was typical to have a classroom built on or near the synagogue there for teaching the children as well. And there was a certain amount of classroom instruction done in that environment. They would go there, the young boys and girls, to learn about the Hebrew Scriptures, what is commonly called the Old Testament today. They're at the synagogue. And then they would also learn a trade outside of the synagogue. An example of this is Jesus Christ, who learned to be a builder, like his father, or his stepfather, actually, Joseph.

Joseph is called a carpenter in our Bibles. The Greek word is tekton. It actually means more than that. The closest equivalent today would be a builder, not just a carpenter woodworker, but somebody who could do the entire project. He could go in, carve out the stone for the foundation of a building. He could go and cut the beams out of the woods.

He could cut the stone work to lay the foundation, to build the hearth. He could put up the walls. He could put up the roof. He could build the doors and the windows and whatever plumbing rudimentary, though it was in that day. This tekton, or carpenter, as it's translated, would do all of these things. And Jesus would have learned that trade. There is an apprentice to his stepfather, Joseph.

But to follow a rabbi in that time meant something more than just sitting in a classroom and absorbing his lectures there, as we're doing today. It was considerably more than that. It involved literally following the rabbi. Literally following the rabbi.

From the Gospels, we see many references to that. How the disciples would travel with, they would live with, they would eat their meals with, and imitate their rabbis. Learning not only from what they said or what they taught, but from what they did. From how they lived their lives in every way. From all of the activities of everyday life going about there, as well as the manner in which the rabbi or the teacher lived.

And again, the goal of the disciple, the Talm-Madim, was to become as much like the master and teacher as possible. And again, this is very much like the traditional apprenticeship program, rather than a modern classroom. All over the world, for literally thousands of years, people have been apprentices. And that is the way people learned their trade in making a living. And that did not change much at all over time. That system existed actually probably on up until probably the last century or so, or maybe even the last few decades. Most of us today, though, aren't used to that type of program. So we're not familiar with this. Quite different, but also very effective form of teaching. I'd like to read, for those of you not familiar with an apprentice system, an account. This is from a magazine about ceramics. And it describes the experience of an American potter, a woman, who wanted to go to Japan to study with one of the world's master craftsmen when it came to making ceramic pottery and so on. So I'd like to read this. Quite a revealing story here about how an apprentice program worked for many, many thousands of years. So beginning reading from this magazine, quote, At the start of her apprenticeship, she knew little or nothing of an ancient Japanese tradition that Masaki Shibata, this is the master that she was studying with, would have been well aware of the tradition of becoming an uchi deshi. That's a Japanese term for an apprentice to a skilled craftsman. To learn a craft, a teenage boy would be adopted into his master's household, living as a member of the family during his apprenticeship and participating in every aspect of the life of the home and the shop. He would have much more to learn than just how to throw and glaze pottery and would begin by performing menial tasks, including housework. The boy had to learn to do everything in just the right way. Only after years of apprenticeship would the uchi deshi, the apprentice, be trusted to throw pots that the master craftsman would embellish with his designs and sign with his famous name.

You cannot separate life from work, the master potter told his new apprentice one day. The way you do the most insignificant activity in your daily life will reflect in your work. Then he sent her to the rice fields to dig for clay, instead of inviting her to sit down at his wheel. Her pride chafed at not being asked to demonstrate her own skill. In fact, Shibata did not allow her to throw even one piece of pottery during her six-month stay in Japan. One day over lunch, Shibata's wife confided, When you came to us, you were like a fully grown tree with big branches. We have to cut those branches for something new to be able to grow. But all the woman felt was the cutting. Still, as she toiled at her humble chores, she snatched every chance to watch the master potter at work. Returning home, she felt deflated and defeated, afraid that her six months in Japan had been a complete waste. But when she sat down at her wheel, she began to sense a subtle difference. Something had changed. Then, as the kiln door opened on her new work, she marveled at the result. Without knowing it, she had been absorbing a new way of doing things. Her eyes had gained an aesthetic sense for distinguishing excellent work from merely acceptable work. Thanks to her time with Masaki Shibata, the Japanese master, her approach to her craft had been transformed. Delightedly, she caressed each new vessel, admiring how the influence of her Japanese master had blended beautifully with her own personality to transform each of her new creations. I used this to illustrate how this woman had tasted a different kind of learning than we see today, one that was common, however, back 2,000 years ago in the time of Jesus Christ. Because back then, this was precisely the way Jewish boys and girls would learn. The usual method of learning wasn't book learning, lecturing in a classroom, but was through hands-on experience, through imitating. Someone who knew and practiced the skills that the young person wanted to pick up and learn. This was also the same method that the rabbis would use in training their disciples, their Talmadim. Why talk about these ancient methods of learning today in the sermon time? Why take the time to discuss this? First of all, because these methods work. They've been proven to work for thousands of years, literally. Second, because, as mentioned in the introduction, we too are followers of a rabbi. A rabbi by the name of Jesus Christ. Just like Jesus Christ's first disciples, we also are to become his faithful followers, men and women who make it our goal in life to become just like him. And like them, we in turn are also called by our masters. We read in Matthew 28, verse 19. We won't turn there, but we are called to go and make disciples of all nations. To go and make Talmadim, followers who want to become just like Jesus Christ. But we cannot do that unless and until we become, like Jesus Christ, ourselves.

So what does the Jewish culture of that day teach us about this process, about our calling to become disciples of Jesus Christ? Well, if we wanted to start learning about how to be a disciple, where would we start? Though we'd start in the Gospels, obviously, right? Well, not so fast there. Because actually the rabbis of that day looked back to an earlier example. An example about a thousand years earlier than that. That's the example of Elijah and Elisha. Because in looking at that example, that is where they see, as they would be, the first rabbi and the first Talmadim. Elijah and Elisha there. So let's turn back to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. We'll begin reading in verses 15 through 21.

1 Kings 19 verses 15 through 21. Now, Elijah, of course, we're mostly familiar with him. He was one of Israel's greatest prophets. He was known for great miracles like raising the dead, like calling down fire from heaven there on Mount Carmel. But in spite of the great ways that God used Elijah, Elijah also had his low moments as well.

It was after one of these that God spoke to Elijah and told him to anoint Elisha to be his successor. So to pick up the story here in 1 Kings 19, to set the context for this, Elijah has just had the confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and is slaying all of those. But then he found out that Jezebel, Ahab's wife, was determined to kill him. As I've said before, she was one mean woman. Elijah fled, ran all the way from Mount Carmel and northern Israel all the way down to Mount Sinai and hid out in the desert there. There God appears to Elijah. Elijah is kind of feeling sorry for himself. He says, I alone am left and they seek to take my life also. This is where we pick up the story here at this point. Verse 15 of 1 Kings 19.

So God tells him to anoint a successor here.

Elijah departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shephat, who was plowing with twelve Yokemoxon before him. And he was with the twelfth. So here we come to the story of how he chooses Elisha there to be his successor. So Elisha is out plowing in the field. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. The mantle was a cloak, you might say. And he left the oxen, Elisha did. Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Please let me kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow you. And he, Elijah, said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? Now it's kind of hard to tell exactly what's going on here because the translation is fairly clumsy here. But what happens is again, Elisha is out minding his own business, plowing in the field with twelve Yokemoxon there this day. And without a word, Elijah, this great prophet, walks up, takes off his cloak and throws it on Elisha. And Elisha is just stunned, bewildered here. He doesn't know what's going on there, but he understands the significance that the symbolism represented by Elijah giving his cloak to him. Because that admit, essentially you're passing on a responsibility to him. So he knew the symbolism of this act meant that Elijah was passing on to Elisha to be his successor there. So when Elisha collects his wits and he figures out what's going on, then he starts chasing after Elijah, who's already gone on further down the road there. And he asks Elijah to permission to go and tell his parents goodbye. And Elijah's response here, it's rather awkward, he says, Go back again for what have I done to you. Apparently that means something like, I didn't call you to this. God did. So it's your responsibility. It's up to you whether you accept this calling. I didn't do this. God did. So you've got to make the choice yourself. And then notice what Elisha does then, verse 21. So Elisha turned back from him, Elijah, and took a yoke, a pair of oxen, and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and became his servant. Or as the New International Version translates this, Elisha became his attendant. So Elisha did become a wholehearted disciple, a talmid, of Elijah.

He returned to his home only long enough, apparently, from this account, to enjoy this final meal with his family and with his friends. He slaughtered this pair of oxen, which were his way of making a living as a farmer, and he cooked the meat by burning his own plowing equipment there, probably the yoke and the plow itself there, and cooked the meat on that. So what happens is he put his past life completely behind him to become a follower of Elijah. And it's from this example that the rabbis of Jesus Christ time developed their ideas of what it meant to be a disciple. When Elijah called Elisha, the younger man, Elisha, gave up everything. He had to abandon his farm, which was apparently quite prosperous, because in that day and age, if you just had one or two oxen, you were lucky. The oxen were essentially the tractors of the day, the farm equipment that would do the plowing and the harvesting and hauling the goods to market and removing the rocks from the fields and all of this. But it says here that Elisha had twelve teams of oxen there. He had to be quite a wealthy, prosperous farmer to have twelve teams of oxen there.

And he gave up all of that to become Elijah's personal servant and to follow him everywhere he went. So like any disciple, Elisha's goal was to not just study and learn from Elijah, but to become like Elijah as much as possible so he could carry on his ministry as a prophet to the kingdom of Israel. Now, several aspects of Elisha's life simplify what it means to be a disciple.

First of all, Elisha went to follow Elijah, to literally live with him, spending year after year with him. So the first point in what it means to be a disciple is that a disciple must spend as much time as he can with his master. A disciple must spend as much time as he can with his master. And in Elisha's case, he was called to actually live with his master, Elijah. And this made sense in the fact that, again, we're not talking about traditional classroom learning or lectures. We're talking about learning and following and living by one's example, doing everything the way the master does.

Elisha became, as we just read here, Elijah's personal servant or attendant. Here he was to become a humble companion, doing personal acts of service to Elijah, and helping his master and teacher in everything that he did. And the gospels make it clear that this was basically the same kind of relationship that Jesus Christ had with his own disciples as well. His disciples followed him everywhere that he went.

And as they did, they literally lived with Jesus much of the time, walked with him from Galilee to Jerusalem and back, slept out under the stars at night in the fields. And as they did this, their hearts and their minds began to be challenged and changed by a lot of the things that Jesus did. You might think, for example, Jesus called as one of his disciples, a man named Matthew.

What was Matthew's occupation? He was a tax collector. And that day and that age, tax collectors were absolutely hated by the Jewish population there. Because not only were they collecting taxes for this occupational government, as they viewed the Roman authorities there, but also because the way the tax collectors made their own salary was by inflating those taxes.

So they would take a cut of that, and that's how they paid themselves there. So tax collectors were not all that well-liked in that age. And Jesus Christ calls one of them to be his disciple. That was just totally shocking by the standards of that day. So Jesus Christ, this is just one way in which Jesus was constantly challenging their way of looking at God and looking at other human beings, too. Frankly, the people of that age. And it took time to change these men, his disciples. It took a lot of time. The changes that Christ worked in his disciples' lives didn't come immediately, and they did not come easily as well.

The Gospels recorded a lot of their carnality even after spending three and a half years with Jesus Christ. What were they like? They were still pretty carnal. You know, our culture is fascinated with shows like Extreme Makeover and so on. We've created a culture of wanting instant expectations. We want things to happen immediately, to change immediately, for everything to be better immediately.

But that's not the way Jesus Christ worked with his disciples. That's not the way that God works with us as well. As Christians, it's easy to follow to a trap sometimes of believing that if God is listening to our prayers, and he certainly does, but we sometimes feel that because of that, that he ought to instantly help us and change us to get rid of those sins that we might be harboring inside, or the sinful urges, or the weaknesses that we have.

But again, that's just not the way God works most of the time. Sometimes, yes, sometimes he does intervene. I was talking with an individual several weeks ago in another church area who had been trying to give up smoking for 30-some-odd years.

And finally, just one day, the urge was just gone for him, after he had prayed and prayed and prayed about it for decades. And God finally just removed that urge from him immediately there. So sometimes God does act quite suddenly, but usually that's not the case, as we learn from the examples of the disciples. You might think about how often the disciples messed up, how the many mistakes that they made, even up to the very last night with Jesus Christ.

They're arguing among themselves as to who is to be the greatest among them, showing their carnality there. After eating the Passover meal, what happens next? Jesus goes out with Peter, James, and John, and they don't even have the strength to stay awake with him in this greatest trial of his life there. And then what happens? They come and arrest Jesus, and what happens to all of the disciples? They all run away like a bunch of scared rabbits and abandon him there, and leave him totally alone.

Their rabbi, their teacher, their master, that they were intending to become like, and they all run away and abandon him. So again, it takes time. It took a lot of time. Eventually, it was only with the helping power of God's Spirit that these disciples were truly able to change in the way that they needed to.

But again, looking back through the records of the Gospels, we don't see a single instance anywhere. We do see instances where Jesus healed people just by touching someone, by laying hands on them, but just by speaking in some cases. And an individual is completely healed immediately. But did he ever do that with the disciples, with their personal problems and weaknesses at fault? No. Never did. The way he chose to work with them was just patiently teaching them, leading them, instructing them, gently correcting them. And that's the way God works with us as well. He doesn't instantaneously change things. He uses a time-tested method of teaching us and training us to be his disciples and his followers, giving us time to grow.

That's simply the way that God works. It's the way that a disciple does become, more like his master and teacher every day. A disciple is called to spend as much time as possible with his teacher and master so that he can become more like him. We might ask ourselves an obvious question. How do we measure up in that regard? It's not just the question of how much we are like Jesus Christ, but as disciples of Jesus Christ, how much time do we spend with him? How much time do we spend with him? He's given us a whole book of his teachings. He was the one who inspired the Bible. He's given us a whole book that reflects his teachings, his mind, the character that he wants in us. What are we doing with it? Are we making it a part of our mind, our thinking, our character? Or do we let a lot of other things get in the way of that and distract us from the time that we should be spending as disciples with our rabbi? This leads us to a second aspect of what it means to be a disciple. The disciple must be totally committed to his master. He must be totally committed to his master. It must have been a remarkable experience for Elisha to realize that Elisha had invited him to become his successor. We see that as reflected in the account that he was just done for a while until he had collected his wits and ran after Elisha. But still, Elisha did hesitate there briefly for a while. He wanted to follow the prophet Elisha, but he also knew that he wanted to go and tell his parents goodbye. But as soon as Elisha did challenge that commitment and said, the choice is yours, the decision is up to you, you have to make that decision, then what did Elisha do? Well, again, he promptly sacrificed the pair of oxen, had a goodbye meal with his family and friends, and left everything. Left his prosperous life as a farmer there to follow Elijah. He actually gave up his ability to make a living there, if you think about it. By giving up those oxen, he was giving up his way of making a living. There was giving up everything. He made a major life-changing commitment to follow. I'd like to turn back to Luke 9, verses 57-62. Here it's really easy to read over something and miss a particular lesson. If we don't understand the background of what takes place here, Jesus makes to another person in his day the same exact point that we can learn about Elisha. It's easy to miss that point if we're not really grounded in God's Word and making these different connections in here. Let's take a look at this story here in Luke 9, verse 57.

Now what happened is they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, to Jesus, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. This person was saying he wanted to become a Talmideem, wanted to follow. Jesus, wherever you go, I'm with you. I'll follow you there. And Jesus said to him, wanted to make him think over this commitment. Notice what he says. He says, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

He said, this life I'm living is rough. It's tough. Are you willing to make that commitment? Verse 59, then he said to another, now this is interesting, he said to another who's standing by, this one didn't come to him, but he offered discipleship to another man and said, follow me. But the man said, Lord, let me go first, let me first go and bury my father.

And Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. So he was extending an invitation there for someone to become part of his inner circle of disciples, and the individual turned it down. Verse 61, though, I'd like to pick up on this, and another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.

Sound familiar? Sound like a familiar scripture or answer here. Yes, I will follow you, but first I need to go tell my family goodbye. It's an exact situation of what happened with Elisha and Elijah there. So this happens in the case of Jesus also, and notice what happens next. Notice Jesus Christ's response to this individual. But Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now everyone there who heard Jesus's response, a name would have immediately popped into their mind. Elisha! Now why is that? Well, think again about the culture of that day. You know, they didn't have TV, they didn't have the Internet, they didn't have cable TV, MTV, all this stuff.

They didn't have all of our heroes today who were the sports stars or the rock singers or the movie stars or so on like that. Who were the heroes? Who were the heroes for these people? It was the men and women of the Old Testament. Men like Abraham, men like Jacob, men like Daniel, men like Elijah. All these great prophets and servants of God there. They were their heroes. What did they read? What did they study? They didn't have books, they didn't have magazines, they didn't have the Internet, all that kind of thing. They spent their time reading and studying the Scriptures. That's what their entire life, their intellectual life was wrapped up in. Studying the stories of the Old Testament, studying the stories of the Hebrew Bible. And these men were their heroes. So when Jesus Christ refers to this man and mentions a plow here, they would immediately have thought of Elijah and his plow. That's what Jesus Christ is telling this man here. So when they heard a man say that he would follow Jesus after he said goodbye to his family, and Jesus responded by talking about a plow, they would immediately have made the connection to Elisha. And realized that Jesus was telling the man that he needed to do what Elisha did. Which is leave it all behind. Burn your plow, leave your oxen, and come and make the commitment to follow me. To become what am I, Tom Hadeem? That's really the back story that's happening here. And when you understand the culture of that day, you pick up on a lot of these little connections here. There. Jesus Christ often spoke of leaving everything. As we read just back up here in verse 58, he said that himself, that he had nowhere to lay his head.

And by that he meant that his way of life now was to serve God through a life of a wandering rabbi, of walking from village to village, all over that area there, the ancient province of Judea, to teach people about God, one on one. To teach them that way. It was a difficult experience there. Walking across these dusty hills there, up and down, and teaching anybody who would listen there. And often they didn't. Sometimes they did, often they didn't. They would have to depend on the hospitality of others, sometimes just for basic needs, like a place to sleep or a hot meal. Fortunately, they had the family of Mary and Martha just outside Jerusalem there, where they often stayed as they were coming back and forth to Jerusalem. They could always count on a place to sleep and a good meal there from them. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus there. And the disciples would have shared this same difficult life there with their rabbi. And it was hard. It was difficult. But at the same time, it was a very joyful and rewarding experience to them, because they were the Talmadin. They were the disciples of one of the most famous rabbis. There at that time, a rabbi who was always constantly coming up with amazing insights and things that they never picked up on from the Scriptures before. Insights into God's Word that nobody else knew or taught, and that continually astounded the people there that were hearing those things. And over time, the spending of so much time together, and the complete commitment of the disciples following their rabbis, was designed to do something else. And it was designed to produce a very strong bond between the rabbi and his Talmadin. Let's turn back to 2 Kings 2. 2 Kings 2. And we'll read verses 1 through 12. And we'll see the kind of relationship that this experience produced between Elijah and Elisha. 2 Kings 2, verses 1 through 12.

And this is describing Elijah's last day on earth with Elisha. And let's see what their relationship was like by this time, after having spent several years together. 2 Kings 2, verses 1. And it came to pass when the Eternal was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Eternal has sent me on to Bethel. But Elisha said, As the Eternal lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. 3 Verse 3. Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Eternal will take away your Master from over you today? And Elisha said, Yes, I know, keep silent. What's he saying here? He's saying, Elisha knows what's coming and he says, Essentially, I know, I don't want to talk about it. You know, we all have that reaction sometimes.

Somebody comes and tells us bad news and we just don't want to hear it. We don't want to know about it. And that's exactly what's happening here with Elisha. He says, Yes, I know that. Keep silent. Don't talk about it. I don't want to think about losing my Master.

And I'm so close to. 4 Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Eternal has sent me on to Jericho. So they've gone from Gilgal to Bethel and now going to Jericho. But he said, As the Eternal lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. So we see here that Elisha is following Elijah everywhere he goes because this is his last day with his Master in it.

And it's like Elisha is clinging to Elijah and saying, Don't go! He just can't bear the thought of not being with him for a single minute there on their last day on earth together. He just refuses to leave. Elijah's side. Here, verse 5, Now the Son of the Prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Eternal will take away your Master from over you today?

So again he answered, Yes, I know. Keep silent. Again, he just doesn't want to think about this. He's torn up inside. You can feel the anguish in Elisha's voice here. Verse 6, Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Eternal has sent me on to the Jordan River. But Elisha said, As the Eternal lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So the two of them go on. I haven't checked this out on a map, but I would guess by this time they probably walked somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 miles together, from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and now over to the Jordan River. Here, verse 7, And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them, Elijah and Elisha, stood by the Jordan River.

Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water. And it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask, What may I do for you before I am taken away from you? And Elisha said, Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. So Elijah said, You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you.

But if not, it shall not be so. Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up, by a whirlwind, into heaven, or up into the sky, as it would actually be. And 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 tore them into two pieces. And this tearing of clothes, of taking one's cloak, or garment and ripping into, was a sign of total anguish, of grief, of mourning there.

And that was the emotions that Elisha was feeling when he saw Elijah disappear, and knowing he would not be seeing him again, even though they knew what was going to happen. But still he was filled with his grief and sorrow, and he cried out in anguish, My father!

My father! There, this loss of his beloved mentor and master and teacher just overwhelmed Elisha. It was as though he had lost his own father, if not worse. And a rabbi and his disciples were expected to form this kind of close and personal bond, like these two great prophets here, Elijah and Elisha. And again, this isn't surprising, considering that they lived together for several years ago, that Elisha spent this time as a servant to Elijah, meeting his needs there. They spent a lot of time together. They would have been discussing major, major things about God and his plan and this sort of thing.

And this closeness between the rabbi and his disciple was considered essential to this learning process of becoming, of a Talmidim becoming, like his teacher, like his rabbi. And during the time of Jesus, one's rabbi was considered to be as dear as one's own father.

And there are actually a number of quotes in the Mishnah, which say that a disciple was to show the same kind of reverence for their rabbi as they would for their own father, if not even more. And Jesus Christ's disciples understood this relationship as well. We won't read them, but you can write down a few scriptures, such as Mark 10 and verse 28. Mark 10 and verse 28. And here Peter tells Jesus, We have left all and followed you.

We have left all and followed you. And this shows that they understood this system of leaving all to follow their rabbi. Another one you might write down is Mark 14 and verse 31. Mark 14 and verse 31. And here Peter and the other disciples tell Jesus, If I have to die with you, I will not deny you. This was on the night before Christ's crucifixion. If I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And we know how that promise turned out, unfortunately. But this was the kind of devotion that a Talmud was to have toward his rabbi.

To follow him anywhere, to leave everything, and follow him, if necessary, to even die for his rabbi. You might consider also the contrast that this shows with Judas, the disciple who betrayed his rabbi with a kiss, with a sign of affection. That was just something that would have been considered totally unthinkable in that culture.

If you're the Talmud, if you're the follower of a rabbi, and you're devoting your life to becoming like the rabbi, to betray him, and to betray him with a kiss, was just unthinkable. It was an unimaginable sin to do something like that. But again, that's the contrast there between the true followers of Christ and Judas who betrayed him.

This close commitment of a disciple to his master led to a third point, and that is that the disciple is expected to serve his master. The disciple must serve his master. Let's turn back to 2 Kings again, to the example of Elijah and Elisha. Note something here. 2 Kings 3, verse 11.

Now we've already seen that Elisha became the servant or the attendant of Elijah. Notice here, this happens later. Elijah is already gone. This is just mentioned in passing here, but I'd like to point out one particular phrase here that is said of the prophet Elisha. Verse 11, but Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, said, Is there no prophet of the Eternal here that we may inquire of the Eternal by him? So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shephat, is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah. So we see here that Elisha is described as one who poured water on the hands of Elijah. What does that mean? In that day and age there was no indoor plumbing like we have.

If you needed to wash your hands, you would either have a bowl full of water and you would wash them there, or if you were lucky enough to have a servant, the servant would take a pitcher and pour water over your hands like a running faucet. You could rinse your hands under those there when you wanted to wash it. So what this is saying is that that was part of what Elisha did as a servant, that he would meet ten to his rabbi's needs there by literally pouring water so his master could wash his hands there.

So this shows this attitude of service that was expected of a disciple to his master there. The Gospels also make it clear that Christ's disciples likewise served him. Again, we won't turn there, but to give you a few examples, one is John 4 and verse 8. John 4 and verse 8. This is the incident of Christ with the Samaritan woman at the well.

If you remember the story of the disciples, what were they doing while Jesus was there with the woman at the well? Well, they had gone into town to buy food. So they were carrying out a personal act of service for Jesus to go into town and buy food while Jesus sat by the well and rested there.

Another example is Luke 22 and verse 8. This is where Jesus sent Peter and John to arrange for their final Passover together. He sent them ahead into Jerusalem to arrange for that. Again, a rabbi's disciples were expected to do these personal acts of service for the rabbi there.

A rabbi's disciples were also expected to do things like preparing the meals for the group and serving the meals. The point of this is that the disciples were supposed to be the rabbi's servants as well. Not just students, but servants. In the process of serving, they were to learn three things. We won't talk about this in much detail, but the first was that by learning obedience to the rabbi's directions, a disciple learned reverence for doing God's will. He learned reverence for doing God's will. And second, by putting himself in the position of serving, of becoming a servant to his teacher, he opened himself up to correction.

He opened himself up to correction so that his conduct could be honed and refined, so he could become a better student, more like his master, by being open to being corrected. And third, the rabbis believed that also the serving helped one to become humble. And humility was a requirement for proper learning.

So by becoming humble, one could become a better student, a better learner, a better servant. You should also write down Matthew 10 in verse 24. Again, we won't turn there. Matthew 10 in verse 24. But here we see that Jesus compared the relationship between a rabbi and his talmadeem to that of a master and servant.

When he said, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. And as we talked about earlier, the title rabbi means master or great one. And although Christ was himself a great example of humility, what he expected from his followers is clear.

For instance, Luke 6 and verse 46. He said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?

Why do you call me Lord and don't do what I say?

So again, there's an expectation that the disciples will do what the master tells him to do, to obey him.

Let's turn back now to John 13. We will turn here. John 13 and verse 13.

And pick up on an example.

Very important example.

John 13, 13 through 15.

And by now, Jesus has been instructing the 12 for three and a half years.

But it's obvious that they've missed a lot along the way, to put it bluntly. Because instead of acting like humble servants, they're jockeying for position. They're arguing about who is the greatest. And of course, this is at the last Passover.

He observes with them.

So what would it take to get the message through to them?

That they are to be servants.

What would it take to get this point through them?

If you think about it, the disciples had thick heads, but they also had very thick hearts.

And that was the heart and core of the problem there.

So Jesus does something that would have been unthinkable for a rabbi of that day. Especially a famous rabbi with his talm Adam.

He takes a towel and wraps it around his waist. And he kneels down.

And he begins to wash their feet.

Something that we do every year.

At the Passover is a reminder and part of the lesson that we need to learn.

And what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And then Jesus says, verse 13 of John 13, You call me Teacher and Lord.

And again, these are two of the meanings of rabbi. Teacher and Lord.

And you say, well, for so I am. I am your rabbi. I am your teacher and Lord.

If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

So here on the night before his death, we see that Jesus went down, knelt down, took their grimy dirty feet in his hands, and he wiped away that grime and dirt and filth from the feet of his disciples.

And this act of kindness and serving others exemplified another method of teaching that was used by the rabbis of that time.

And that was that a rabbi was to model for his disciples the kind of life that they should live.

And it probably took something as shocking as this.

To really help the disciples realize what Christ meant by what it means to be a servant.

To take on the job of the loneliest servant there, to wash the feet of those there at that final Passover meal.

Probably took something this shocking to wake them up and help them to realize how far off track they were.

And their attitudes there, that last Passover, arguing among themselves, who is going to be the greatest?

And Jesus shows them what it means to be the greatest.

He who is greatest is to be the greatest servant.

Another rabbi in the New Testament also told his followers to follow his example.

Another rabbi. Because there is another famous rabbi in the New Testament. His name is Paul.

Let's turn back to 1 Corinthians 4, verses 15-17.

1 Corinthians 4, 15-17.

And the reason I say Paul was a famous rabbi as well, because if you read his...

I don't remember exactly where it is, but he talks about his background.

But he says that he trained to be a rabbi, training in the school of Gamaliel.

He was one of the greatest rabbis of the time, the grandson of Hillel, who is one of the most famous rabbis in all of Jewish history.

But notice what Paul tells the Corinthians here, in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 15.

I'll read this from the New International version. It's a little more clear here.

Paul writes, So what is Paul telling the...

For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel.

So what is Paul telling the Corinthians here? There are several important points.

He's urging the Corinthian believers to imitate him, Paul, just as he imitated Jesus Christ.

That as they tell me, it as a disciple strives to live as much as possible like his master, that Paul tried to live as much as possible like his master, like Jesus Christ.

And so should the members of the church there in Corinth try to live as Paul lived, as he followed the example of Jesus Christ.

And like other rabbis, Paul saw himself as a father.

Is that another word that sounds familiar? Remember what Elisha said when Elisha was taken away from him?

My father! My father!

Because a disciple was to see his rabbi as a father, as someone to learn from and become like and to emulate in every way.

So Paul saw himself as a father, sending the Corinthians his beloved disciple Timothy, whom he referred to as his son, as his follower.

Paul was very much a mentor. A mentor is kind of a common modern day for this concept of being a teacher and a trainer for a younger person.

And Paul wanted the Corinthians to learn about his own way of life through the example of Timothy, who reflected Paul's way of life, who in turn reflected the way of life of Jesus Christ the Messiah.

And by following these examples of Timothy's example of Paul, who is an example of Jesus Christ, then the members there in Corinth could see what they needed to do to transform their lives, to become more like Jesus Christ by following those examples.

And that is the whole point of being a disciple. The whole point is to transform our lives so that we become like the Master, like the Rabbi, like Jesus Christ.

We are not just to learn from Him, we are to become like Him in every way.

And there's a big difference between the two, not just to learn from Him, but to become like Him.

Because we don't just learn, we have to internalize that, to change, to become transformed through God's Spirit, to become like Him in every way.

The simple fact is, if you think about this, we will become like whatever we surround ourselves with.

We will become like whatever we surround ourselves with, and whatever we allow into our minds.

If we surround ourselves with negativity all the time, we're going to become negative.

If we are with friends who are gossips, like Mr. McMaster mentioned in his sermon out there, a very good message there, it will make us a lot more careless in what we say, what we say about other people, the things we say there.

We'll find ourselves slipping into those same bad habits and patterns and sins there.

If we're surrounded all the time by people who are lax about how they keep God's laws or disregard them totally, then we also will grow lax ourselves. It's just a fact of life that none of us is so mature and spiritually strong that we cannot or will not be influenced by all the factors that we surround ourselves with in our lives, whether it's people, environment, job situation, whatever.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, who or what do we want to be shaping our lives?

Who or what do we want to be shaping our lives? Something is always shaping us.

Something is always shaping us. So the question is, what is it going to be?

What are we going to allow shaping us? Will it be the culture of the world around us that shapes us?

Or will it be our master and our teacher, Jesus Christ?

I'd like to close with a story that reminds me of John 10, verse 27.

Let's turn there as we wrap up. John 10, verse 27.

Jesus and his disciples understood this well because this is a point about shepherds and sheep.

They understood this well because shepherds and sheep were common there.

They saw them every day as they walked the roads there of Judea, of Galilee.

In fact, you can go there to this day and you'll see shepherds out in the field with their sheep.

You'll probably see several of them a day. They're even just a few miles outside of Jerusalem.

Sometimes right in Jerusalem, for that matter, now that I think about it.

But John 10, verse 27, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

The story I'd like to share is of an American woman who is visiting the Holy Land and walking on the road near Bethlehem south.

She watched as three shepherds with their herds were out together, out separated in the field.

They started converging toward each other. The shepherds greeted each other.

They waved and said hi. Then they came up to talk to each other, these three different shepherds, followed by their three groups of sheep, their three flocks.

As the shepherds stood there talking, the sheep, as animals do, intermingled all together, sniffing, bleeding, all of this merged into one big herd there, around these three shepherds.

This American woman was looking at the scene and wondering how in the world these shepherds are now going to get their sheep separated again.

Because sheep pretty much look all alike, and they're all mingled there together into one big herd.

She's sitting there wondering how this is going to happen, how they'll ever sort their sheep out again, and how long this is going to take there.

She looked on then as the three shepherds said their goodbyes to each other, parted ways, and started walking off in three different directions.

She's wondering how they're going to separate these sheep.

And then she notices each of the shepherds calls out to the sheep.

And suddenly, like a miracle, this big herd of sheep separates into three.

And each of them follows the voice of the shepherd.

They follow the voice of the shepherd.

The shepherds didn't have to go in and sort the sheep out. The sheep knew their master's voice, just as Jesus Christ said here.

Some things haven't changed in that world, that part of the world, for thousands of years.

The same thing that Jesus Christ said here is true.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

And this is a beautiful illustration of that particular point.

But notice then what he says in verse 28.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

And that is the reward that Jesus Christ promises to his sheep, his talmadeem, his disciples, his students, those who follow him, as their master, who recognize his voice, who devote their lives to wanting to become like their teacher, in every way, in every aspect of their lives.

Will you recognize his voice? Will you spend as much time as possible with him? Will you be totally committed to him? Will you serve him in every way?

That is what it means to be Christ's disciple.