The 13th Student Learning discipleship from Jesus’ example to the Twelve (part 3)

Many years ago my wife and I were invited to see a film called The Gospel of Matthew. Let me be clear up front: I do not espouse making pictures of Jesus. This movie had been made as a B film, black and white, and in Aramaic. So we followed the subtitles. The only spoken lines in the entire film were actual quotations from Matthew. What I took out of that film was the director’s depiction of Jesus. As an Italian Communist, he showed Jesus as always bent on mission. When Jesus spoke to people to repent and believe the gospel, He was always moving. At one point in the film after Jesus had enlisted the twelve, the director had Him walking briskly on His way to preach, with His disciples stumbling and pressing to keep up, hanging on His words. What came through was this: If you wanted to hear what Jesus was saying, you had to move with Him. Jesus was consumed by mission!

I was recently reminded of this while rereading Douglas Hyde’s Dedication and Leadership, first printed in 1969 during the Cold War. Hyde had been a dedicated Marxist in Britain for 20 years before leaving the Communist Party and committing himself to the Christian faith. In this poignant volume, he spells out how the Communists recruited new followers. Explaining their demand for dedication and the response of so many professionals to that demand, he writes: “This was partly because their work became more meaningful to them because they now had a cause for which to live and to which they could harness their talents. But it was also the case that Communism demanded everything of them. It asked for the whole man and got it.”

I’m not about to say we should imitate the Communists! In fact, I am persuaded that Marx derived much of his outlook from the Bible and Jesus Himself. Would it be fair to say that Communism is a Christian heresy? Perhaps. It’s not a new thought. But for our purposes we must recognize that Jesus’ way of recruiting followers asked for the whole man. And for eleven of the twelve, we could say, “He got it.” We will say more about that later. But it was Jesus’ whole commitment to His mission from God that moved, motivated, and marked Him. I propose that it was Jesus’ total dedication to His mission that attracted His followers. After all, who wants to follow anyone who has no sense of his own calling? But there’s more to it than just mob psychology. Jesus did not seem enamored with crowds.

What did people see in Jesus? Why did people report, “No man spoke like this man”? Let me suggest that it was Jesus’ total dedication to do the Father’s will that moved people to follow Him. I believe they caught a glimpse of a man who took extreme pleasure in doing His Father’s will. The prophecy of Psalm 40:7–8 described the coming Messiah that way: “Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”

Say what you will, folks are not moved by persons who talk about God’s will but whose lives show little pleasure in doing it. Where Jesus went, people sensed He was caught up in the mission of God and His kingdom. He was always speaking of this kingdom vision. And He lived it!

It was also a factor in how Jesus spoke. He spoke about God. He spoke of man’s sin. In John 8 He came under sharp criticism from opponents, and it was what He said that ruffled their feathers. They did not know—nor believe—who He was. We don’t find evidence that Jesus caved in under the scathing criticism He received. There was a quiet confidence that, while not taking pleasure in their unbelief, Jesus evidenced. At one point He said, “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:28–29). How could people not notice His quiet confidence? It says in the text that many believed on Him. Jesus made it clear to His hearers that what He spoke, He spoke from God. His life supported that.

Leaders often confront obstacles. Sometimes we get so involved in obstacles that we become consumed with their solution. And with that obsession we forget our real mission. This can result in a kind of status quo-ism. That is, if things are quiet and peaceful, all seems well. The result? Mission is lost.

Often such obstacles come from within, not without. Jesus encountered this with His own disciples in Matthew 16 when He explained to them that His mission involved going to Jerusalem, suffering at the hands of the religious and political leaders, being killed, and then rising from the dead. This was the furthest thing from Peter’s mind. Preposterous! Unthinkable! And he pontificates on the topic to Jesus! Why did Jesus so sharply rebuke him? He recognized it as Satan’s ploy to keep Him from His mission. Jesus would not be sidetracked from His Father’s purpose for Him.

There was, however, another decisive dimension to Jesus’ dedication. He was totally dependent on the Father’s working—and intentionally so. Here we recognize the difference between kingdom operations and simple human ingenuity and drive. Jesus always looked to God His Father in reference to the work He was doing. Let’s look at some examples.

The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God required the Son’s giving up the free exercise of His divine powers. He became a servant, while never ceasing to be the Son of God, deity. During this period of time on earth, Jesus took all His directions from the Father. In John 5:19 He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” This meant that, as a dedicated leader, Jesus led as a servant to the Father. In a real sense it was through God the Father working in and through His Son that the kingdom would come. This is a very significant matter to Christian leadership. While God has given abilities and insights to men, the effectiveness of it all depends on the leaders’ submission to God’s direction and power.

This positive dependence by Jesus on the Father shows up clearly in His recruiting the twelve. By the time He was ready to “ordain” these men to be identified with Him, Jesus looked to the Father for them. As I have said often, the way we find men to train for the gospel is on our knees. In John 17, Jesus refers to these men as from the Father. “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me” (17:6). There were many men around Jesus in those early days of His ministry. But these were special. They would become apostles on whom, with Jesus, the Church would be built. Jesus got those men from God. It was not the power of persuasion!

Jesus also taught those men that their effectiveness was more than the power of infectious leadership, good as that may be when properly used. I am constantly referring in my life and ministry to John 15. Do you recall the picture? Jesus and the disciples have just left the upper room. Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion are imminent. The disciples are distraught and discouraged. In chapter 14 Jesus speaks to their dismay. They leave to go to Gethsemane. Then He speaks to them of the vine and the branches. Significantly He says in that context, “Without Me you can do nothing.” In the same way Jesus depended on the Father, Jesus makes sure these recruits will depend on Him. And with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, they “got it.” It was through Jesus working in them by His Spirit that this worldwide conquest would succeed.

While having some outward similarities to the Communists’ perspective, Christian vision and discipleship takes for its perspective the power of God in Jesus Christ to draw to Himself those whom He has called. By His Spirit He gives them faith to believe what is humanly impossible. Communism will fail, and disillusioned followers such as Douglas Hyde will look elsewhere. The kingdom of Christ is in process! Its success is guaranteed, but not because of human ingenuity or dedication. Rather, it is the dedication of Jesus.

—Ken Smith has been a Reformed Presbyterian minister for nearly 50 years. He and his wife, Floy, are members of First RPC of Beaver Falls, Pa. This series was written for the Covenanter Witness of Ireland and is used by permission.