Sermon Tone Analysis

The Blueprint for Discipleship

How many of you have had the opportunity to work with blueprints for something in your life?

Maybe you haven’t dealt with blueprints yourself, but you know what blueprints are and how they function.

A blueprint is a design, a pattern, a plan that if followed, will give you the desired result, whether that’s a house, or parking garage, or a car, or something else., provided of course the blueprints are accurate and good.

Now, assuming you do have accurate blueprints, what happens when someone deviates from the blueprint?

The results can be disastrous.

Depending on the deviation, you could have an unstable structure, or an non-functioning machine.

It is critical that the blueprints be followed.

Imagine if you had a perfect set of blueprints, a set without any flaws.

Today we are going to look at Jesus’ design for discipleship.

He set forth a blueprint and wants us to follow it.

We have just come out of a section where we see various groups rejecting Jesus on various levels.

The religious leaders rejected Jesus and his claims outright and began to plot to kill Jesus.

The crowds seemed to accept Jesus, but it was only because He was doing cool things and they wanted part of the action.

They couldn’t see past the miracles to who Jesus really was, which is ironic because it was those same miracles that were intended to reveal who Jesus was.

They didn’t want Jesus, they wanted to see something cool or to have Jesus fix their physical issues.

As we move into our passage this morning, we again see a contrast.

The crowd just wants what Jesus can do instead of Jesus Himself.

Jesus does not give himself to them, but rather selects twelve men to be with him.

As we look at this today, we have here a very important model.

Jesus calls and commissions twelve men to do specific work, and that work is something that actually translates down to us as well.

Here Jesus calls twelve men to be his Apostles.

Though we are not apostles and there are no apostles today since that was an office limited to the first century, these men were to serve as the blueprint for what it looks like to follow Jesus.

The things that Jesus commissioned them to do, they were to pass those things on to others.

And others did carry out the work and passed it on to others who passed it on and so forth.

We are the fruit of that today.

So we are going to look at this blueprint and see what we find.

Before we get into the blueprint, there are a few observations that I would like to make.

First notice that

First, notice that Jesus is the one making the selection here.

There are crowds of people following Jesus wherever he goes, but Jesus selects twelve men to form his inner circle.

While it might not be that surprising to see that it is Jesus taking the initiative and making the selection, it is surprising who he has selected to form this core.

Jesus did not select a single person from the dominant religious community.

There are no pharisees, no scribes, no members of the sanhedrin among the group that Jesus selects.

Instead, He selects people like Peter, a common fisherman, who is consistently painted in less than flattering light throughout this gospel, James and John, the “Sons of Thunder” a nickname that likely refers to their boisterous personalities.

We will find James and John making the presumptuous request of Jesus to sit at his right hand, a very self-serving request.

Matthew is a hated tax collector who is viewed as a sellout and traitor to the Jewish people since he worked for the Romans; Simon the zealot belongs to a subversive political party that wants to overthrow the Roman government.

Matthew and Simon likely would not have gotten along if they weren’t united under the call of Jesus.

Judas is eventually going to abandon and betray Jesus.

And then we have a handful of other men about whom we know next to nothing.

This is hardly a collection of super saints.

This is a ragtag group of individuals that are going to carry out Jesus’ purposes and be an extension of His ministry.

And that should be an encouragement to us.

If God can work through these men, then there is hope for us.

This blueprint wasn’t made based on some outstanding individuals.

It was made with people like us in mind.

Second, It says that Jesus appointed twelve men, or ordained twelve men.

This word actually literally means “to make” or “to create.”

Jesus made twelve men to be his Apostles.

This is significant because is shows us that Jesus took men who weren’t something and made them into something.

He did something new with them.

I liked how one commentator (James Edwards) put it:

Discipleship does not consist in what disciples can do for Christ, but in what Christ can make of disciples.

This also calls to mind

Jesus made something new when he called these men out to be his Apostles, just like he makes something new of us when we come to faith in Him as well.

Perhaps you’ve heard this saying before: Jesus doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

That’s true and it is on display with the selection and the making of these men to be His disciples.

Again, that should encourage us.

Do we feel inadequate sometimes?

I know I do!

But Jesus consistently works through inadequate people.

1 Corinthians 5:16

1 Cor 5:16

So what then is the blueprint?

What does Jesus want from his disciples?

There are three things Jesus calls them to do: he appoints them to

Be with Him

Be sent

to preach

to cast out demons

That’s the blueprint.

That’s the model that Jesus sets up, a model not based on model men, but based on the model leader, Jesus Christ.

Those who follow him are to be with him and are to be sent out to do his work.

Let’s look at the components of the blueprint.

Be With Jesus

When Jesus called these men to be his Apostles, He first and foremost was called them to be with him.

We cannot miss the significance of this.

The terminology of being “with” Jesus immediately should cause us to think in discipleship terms, but this makes us take a step back and realize that discipleship is a relationship before it is a task, a who before it a what.

Discipleship is a relationship before it is a task, a “who” before a “what.”

Jesus wasn’t looking for a group of guys to be part of his fan club, or some bros to hang out with.

He was calling them to live their lives with him, learn from Him, and emulate Him.

They were to go with him wherever he want, do whatever he did, experience whatever he experienced.

This meant seeing some incredible things.

Blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, mute tongues speaking, lepers healed, demons driven out, storms quelled, food multiplied and more!

But this also mean experiencing all the hardships with Jesus as well.

They too were ridiculed, harassed, and ultimately suffered greatly at the hands of those who reject the Lord.

Jesus wasn’t just inviting these men to hang out.

He was calling them to live their life with him, learn from Him, and emulate Him.

Being with Jesus leaves an unmistakable mark.

We see that Peter was recognized as having been “with” Jesus—but he denied it: .

Later Peter and John were recognized as having been with Jesus when they were teaching in

.

The more time that is spent with Jesus, the more recognizable that mark becomes.

The more time that is spent with Jesus, the more recognizable that mark becomes.

Peter was recognized as having been “with” Jesus—but denied it:

Check out

Peter and John were recognized as having been with Jesus

This is what being with Jesus does.

It leaves an unmistakeable mark on us that is like a fragrance.

People can just tell.

They smell it.