Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Jesus Wants You to Be His Apprentice | Who Is Jesus?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Before we hop in, I want to tell you what we are going to start doing in January. Starting right at the very beginning of January, we are going to read through the Gospel of Mark together. And our goal is that people who are setting goals would join us. I just find that at the beginning of January, a lot of people say, I want to start reading my Bible for the first time, or I want to start reading it again, or I just want to read it more. And that's a great aspiration.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Maybe you're thinking that for yourself. And so I hope you'll join us as we read through the gospel of Mark. We actually will have, it's really cool. It's called a guided Bible reading plan. It's a little devotion. It has three devotions in every single week, and it walks you through questions that not only explain Mark to you, but help you apply it to your life. But here's the key. If you're listening to this, you're doing something already in your life to get the Bible into your life. But my guess is that you have a or maybe a spouse or a parent or a coworker who would love to be in the Bible, but they're not going to do it unless they have a friend to do that with. Why don't you think about that person and invite them to not just listen to 10-minute Bible talks, but to download that little

Starting point is 00:01:17 devotional and begin making this a new habit, a new goal in their life starting right at the beginning of the year. We have links to that in our show notes. I'm an amateur meat smoker. Let's just go ahead and underline amateur. When I started, I was a little bit of the beginning. I was was all about checking thermometers, great temperatures, internal temperatures. But as I got more experienced, I started to look at the meat. I would touch it and I'd be able to just by touch decide whether or not it was ready for the next step. I thought that I was pretty advanced in my smoking techniques until I heard about Tootsie. Tutsi is a real life person who's on the show, Chef's Table, B.BQ. I actually think she might be in her 90s, but she spends every day working her

Starting point is 00:02:01 tail off roasting hogs in pits. Now, the line to her restaurant is almost always several hours long, which tells you something, this stuff is good. It's kind of funny. As you watch the show, you can tell that the producers are trying to get her to share her secrets. How does she make this amazing pork? What temperature are the pits? How long does she roast it for? And she finally says, look, there's no secrets. I'll tell anyone and everyone what I do. But I can't answer your questions. I just know the temperature by feel, by touch. She knows that the hog is done just by looking at it, by smelling it, by touching it. She can't explain how she knows. It's in her muscles. It's in her fingertips. It's in her nose.

Starting point is 00:02:40 She just knows it in her 90-year-old bones. She said that if you want to learn how to do what she does, just come down there, take a job, and spend a few years roasting hogs with her, and she'll teach you. I want to be Tutsi, but I can't become Tutsi just by watching YouTube videos, TV shows, reading recipe blogs. I wish I could, but she's right. There's only one way to become a Tootsie. The only way to become a Tootsie-grade meat smoker is by going down to Texas and becoming her apprentice. I'd have to watch and learn and try and fail at her side again and again until I had hog smoke in my veins. Well, it's too bad my wife likes Missouri. We will not be going to Texas any time soon. Apprenticeship. It feels like something from a past world, but it's really not. Apprenticeship is just about following someone so close. that their mind becomes your mind. Their way of seeing becomes your way of seeing. Their speech, your speech, their behavior, your behavior, their attitude, their abilities, your abilities. Jesus knew all about apprenticeship. His dad taught him construction in stone and wood, and he likely trained some of his siblings in those same skills. But that's obviously not what the gospel's

Starting point is 00:03:51 focus on. In all of them, it becomes clear that Jesus had a traveling group of at least 72 companions, and he called them his disciples. But of those 72, he calls 12 of them to follow him most closely. Now, we can be honest. Disciple is kind of a weird word these days. You only hear it in Christian circles, and it doesn't quite get across the right idea. The Greek word for a disciple is methetes, not mathletes, although that is kind of what it sounds like. Different thing. A metheteus was a student, and in some senses, these disciples were students in the Jesus school. But in those days, becoming the student of a rabbi wasn't about waking up and going to class. A student of a rabbi was expected to follow him everywhere, to travel with him, to eat with him, to be in his life constantly.

Starting point is 00:04:38 They were expected not just to download ideas and information, but to learn their rabbi's way of life, to learn from their rabbi's actions. In other words, this wasn't Jewish college. It was an apprenticeship. What about all the teaching Jesus does? Well, in those days, rabbis didn't write down their teaching. They passed them on orally, and their apprentices were expected to memorize their teachings from top to bottom. I mean, can you think of a deeper way to ingrain your thought into someone than that? That might sound impossible for modern people, but that's largely because we have flabby memories. Ancient people didn't have paper to keep notes. They didn't have the internet or Google to look up questions, and so they had to use powerful memory techniques to commit large chunks of information to long-term memory.

Starting point is 00:05:21 Jesus seems to follow this exact same pattern. we know that he was an itinerant preacher. So he probably repeated past teachings and sermons in all different kinds of settings. This is all over the Gospels, by the way. The sermon that Jesus gives on the side of a mountain in Matthew looks really similar to a sermon that Jesus gives on a plane in Luke. The point is that his apprentices were exposed to his teaching over and over and over again constantly, and they were expected to learn it in all of its variations. They were to master the art of thinking and being and speaking like Jesus. Part of this actually included Jesus sending his disciples out, right? If you're going to be an apprentice, you have to have a chance to go out and try things,

Starting point is 00:06:01 to learn, to fail, to succeed. And so that's what he does. He sends them out as emissaries to share the good news that Jesus was sharing. God's kingdom is breaking into the present. When they go off, and we see this in places like Matthew 10, they do Jesus stuff. They heal people, cast out demons, and teach. And when they're done, they'd all gather back together and debrief. And deep, grief. Sometimes it went well. They're like, wow, this was awesome. And other times they blow it. They're like, we really couldn't accomplish what we were supposed to. Jesus was apprenticing them. In many ways, he looked a lot like contemporary rabbis, except for two big things. First, Jesus spoke and acted with power. His miraculous deeds made him stand above the crowd. But beyond that, he actually taught on the basis

Starting point is 00:06:43 of his own authority, not on the authority of past tradition. Second, Jesus included women in his band of disciples. This was not something that any rabbis did at the time. For example, Mary and Martha both appear to be a part of his crowd of disciples, of apprentices. In fact, at one point, Mary gets frustrated with Martha because she's learning from Jesus at his feet rather than helping Mary serve the men. Jesus doesn't have any time for this. He turns to Mary and says, no, Martha's chosen the better thing. Leave her alone. I find it so interesting that when you read the Gospels, you quickly gather that Jesus spent most of his time apprenticing people. He wasn't a military leader like David.

Starting point is 00:07:24 He wasn't a missionary church planter like Paul. He wasn't a resplendent king like Solomon. He was an itinerant preacher who invested three years in apprenticing a group of 12 people very closely. Why would he do that? I mean, of all the things that God could spend his three-year ministry on earth doing, why does he do that? Could it be because this is what he wanted?

Starting point is 00:07:47 wants for all of his followers? Could it be that he wanted to maybe set a pattern for the rest of us? What if he was trying to say that giving him our allegiance, it's more than just intellectually affirming a set of right ideas? What if he was trying to say that he wants all of us, every single one of us, to be his apprentices, to get the Jesus' way of life into our bones, our muscles, our blood? So have you committed yourself to becoming an apprentice of Jesus, to learning the way of Jesus? Maybe you feel like you're not righteous enough. Remember, Jesus doesn't pick righteous people to be his apprentices. He picks sinners, people just like you and me. Or maybe don't feel like you know enough. Remember, Jesus didn't pick the best students at synagogue school. He picked everyday fishermen.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Or maybe you feel like you've tried and you've blown it and he would never, ever have you back. But you got to realize that's true of all of his apprentices. They were proud, but he had them back. They were violent, but he had them back. They abandoned him, but he had them back. They denied him, but he had them back. Jesus isn't looking for perfect apprentices. He's looking for apprentices who are teachable because they know that they've got a lot to learn

Starting point is 00:08:56 and a lot of growing to do. Today, come to Jesus humbly, know that he receives you and become his apprentice. Quick reminder, we are starting Mark in January. So set a goal, read your Bible. More importantly, find a friend. to do this with. Who is that friend? I want you to stop before you do anything else and text that person right now and say, hey, I've got a great idea. Let's read our Bibles together in January 2020.

Starting point is 00:09:21 We're going to start in the Gospel of Mark. I've got a devotion that you can read, a podcast you can listen to. They're going to feel cared for, and they're going to be excited to do this with you. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Jesus Wants You to Be His Apprentice | Who Is Jesus?

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