The “followers” followed. Some followed Jesus for a long time and some followed for a short time. Some followed a little here and a little there, and others followed everywhere he went. All of the followers enjoyed sitting on the hillside and listening to him teach and tell stories. They loved being an eyewitness to the many miracles he performed, like healing a lame man or bringing sight to a blind man or feeding multitudes of people. They knew Jesus was amazing! They knew that Jesus was different. Many believed that He was the Messiah. But once the teachings and lessons got difficult or hard, many turned away because they didn’t understand. They were big fans during the good times but deserted him during the tough.
The “disciples” were learners. They were the ones who walked and talked with Jesus every day. The disciples were the ones who stayed late after everyone else left and went home. The disciples were the ones that walked that extra mile and spent that extra time with Jesus. They were the ones who stayed close enough to him to ask the confusing and seemingly dumb questions at times and even had those hard and sometimes very odd and strange conversations. They were the ones who stuck with Jesus through thick and thin even when they didn’t understand, because honestly, not everything Jesus did made sense. However, because of their extreme commitment and extra dedication, the disciples were taught the deeper things, the greater things, the life-changing things. They had a front row seat to what Jesus was doing. And because they continued to stay close by His side, they were molded into true and unwavering disciples, even in spite of their own ignorance, weakness, doubts, failures and constant mess-ups. They witnessed so much more than the followers because they were true disciples!
It’s good to be a follower but it’s better to be a disciple
When the time was right, the disciples were ready to fulfill their own personal calling and commission that God gave them. They were to spread the gospel to the nations. And the wonderful thing is, they didn’t just fulfill their calling, but they each did it with a burning passion and determination, a fire that was not quenched even to the point of death. Why? Because they had kept close to Jesus. They watched him. They learned from him. They witnessed his life. They witnessed his death. They saw him resurrected from the dead. They saw him ascend into heaven. Did they understand everything? Absolutely not! But I can promise you this… they had no inkling of a doubt who Jesus was. They whole-heartily believed… with everything within them… with all their body, soul and mind, that Jesus was truly the one and only Son of God. They saw his power and saw his might and they saw his glory. And it changed them forever! How could it not? When we spend time with Jesus, it will change us. How could it not?
We cannot witness exactly what the twelve disciples witnessed, but we can know God just like them. God wants ALL of us to know Him just like they did. And, the incredible thing is, we have something they did not have. We have the complete written and inspired Word of God. We have His story penned on paper which we can hold in our hands. We can personally know the God who is, the God who was, and the God who is to come. He has given us everything that we need to know Him in His Word.
You might be thinking, “How can we really know God?” I’ll give you a couple of things. First, we must ask him to come into our life and be our Lord and Savior. When we do that, the Holy Spirit comes inside of us to “lead” us and to “teach” us. We will never really understand the deeper things of God unless the Holy Spirit teaches us. So, first, we must have him in our life. Second, we must spend time in God’s Word. Read it, study it, talk about it. Why in the world do you think that God has given the Bible to us? It is so that we can know him. This is exactly why I wrote “Know the Bible”. I want to help you know and understand the Bible better. Because the more you know the Bible, the more you know God.
In John 5:6, Jesus goes down to the pool of Bethsaida. You may remember this story. Jesus walks to the pool of Bethsaida and it’s almost as if he was looking for this particular lame man who had been coming to this pool for 38 years. Probably his whole life. Everyone around that pool was sick or had a physical ailment but Jesus seeks out this one man. And he asks him a very strange question. He asked him, “Do you want to get well?” Really? Did he just ask that? What a crazy question to a lame man? Of course, the lame man wanted to get well, right?
Interestingly enough, when Jesus asked him that question, he didn’t really answer it. He didn’t say, “Oh, yes!” I want it more than anything in the world and I will do whatever it takes to get well.” No, that’s not what he said. Instead, he begins to give Jesus all kinds of excuses why he wasn’t well. He blamed it on all the people that were around him, he blamed it on his situation, and on his circumstances. He blamed it on the fact that he had no one to help him. You see, it was going to take some real effort on his part, but it was easier to just give an excuse. Sadly, sometimes it’s just easier to continue living the way we are, to just accept our weakness or our lack of knowledge, to simply just sit on the sideline and watch others. Why? Because…well… It takes work. Discipleship takes work
Salvation is free, but discipleship is up to us
Did you know that you are the one that gets to decide how much of Jesus you get? You are the one who determines how close of a relationship that you have with Jesus. It is not up to anyone else but you. He will give you as much of himself as you desire. It’s up to you and it’s up to me.
Deuteronomy 4:29 & Jeremiah 29:13 both say, “Seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, IF…you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” He is not going to force a relationship on you. He is not going to automatically dump knowledge and wisdom upon us. But, if you seek Him, His Word tells us that you WILL find him. Let’s seek Him! He can be found!