“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives” (Deuteronomy 17:18-19, NLT).
Included in the book of Deuteronomy are guidelines that future kings of Israel are admonished to follow.
Becoming a disciple of Jesus must be intentional and strategic. To be a disciple of Jesus, you must be a deliberate disciple.
To be a deliberate disciple you must develop a plan or strategy for spiritual formation and service to God’s Kingdom.
Deliberate discipleship requires a totality of purpose that comes through an abandonment of all other priorities in favor of the Kingdom of God. Thus, the primary characteristic of deliberate discipleship is radical obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
“Then he said to the crowd, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?” (Luke 9:23-25, NLT).
If you think this well-known saying of Jesus means you should quit being selfish or even start hating yourself, then you are completely missing the point of this teaching.
In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a number of “second-coming” parables, one of which is the well-known and oft-quoted Parable of the Talents.
In this parable a man makes an extended trip to a far country so he entrusts his servants with some of his financial resources to invest while he is away. He gives one servant five talents (talent was a unit of weight, about 75 pounds, to measure coinage and now is used to indicate an ability), one two talents, and the other one talent.
If you knew the teaching of Jesus that is repeated the most times in the Gospels, wouldn’t you want to do it? As His disciple, wouldn’t you want to apply it to your life?
Well, here it is: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25, NASB).
Yes, it’s a familiar verse. You’ve probably heard many sermons and Sunday School lessons preached and taught on these verses.
When Jesus said, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” and “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:20, 33, NASB), He identified the connection between what you are and do in this present life to what you will be and will do in eternal life.
In other words, your life in this present age is inextricably linked to your future life, your eternal life.
By “inextricably” I mean that the connection between your present and future is so intricately entangled as to make it impossible to escape from it.
“When they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. Immediately He spoke with them and said, ‘Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.” (Mark 6:49-52, HCSB).
Have you ever read a familiar passage in the Bible and found something new in it? That’s what happened to me as I read again this familiar story of Jesus walking on the water.
Admittedly, Mark’s version of this story does not include an important element described in Matthew’s account (Matthew 14:22-33). In Matthew’s version, Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk on the water toward Jesus until he notices the wind and the waves, and consequently, begins to sink. So Peter’s faith (or lack of it) is usually the focus of this story for us.
“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” (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV).
In these verses that are known as the Great Commission, Jesus articulates to His disciples their mission just prior to His ascension into heaven.
Jesus simply tasks them with the job of making more disciples. And, to accomplish this task, He said He would be right there with them (and us) to help make more disciples.
The accomplishment of the Great Commission is a process we call evangelism. We develop many strategies and programs for evangelism. But, evangelism is not intended to be as complicated a process as we make it. And, it’s certainly not meant to be done only by ministry professionals such as pastors, evangelists, and youth ministers.
“The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced” (Mark 4:16-19, NLT).
This well-known parable of Jesus has been taught and preached many times over and most of us know its lessons well.
According to Jesus, when the message of the coming of the Kingdom of God is told, there are four categories of people who hear the message.
Steve's Bible Meditations 