Oh to be One of the Twelve

Have you ever marveled at what it would be like living during the time of Jesus? You have lived your entire life waiting for this Messiah to come and fulfill all the prophecies. Most people were likely expecting the King of the world to be wealthy and powerful probably living in a castle. He instead came from Nazareth ready to serve not rule. Yet, the disciples believed and gave their lives to following him.

When talking about the twelve who followed Jesus, they all seemed to have some wild first interactions. Andrew and probably John heard John the Baptist announce the Lamb of God, and they seemed to have no hesitation in leaving to follow him. Jesus asked them “what are you seeking?” When they responded by asking where he was staying, Jesus simply answered “Come and you will see.”

Are you willing to turn at the drop of a hat to follow Jesus? No questions asked. You just want to see where he will take you and be in his presence. What a fun ride to jump on. Does anybody else read the words “come and you will see” and something jumps inside? Jesus is ready to take them on an adventure, you know he isn’t just going to show them where he is staying but a whole lot more than that. He has so much more to show you and walk you through as well. Let’s jump on board and come and see what else he has to offer.

The first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon to tell him, “We have found the Messiah.” Do we have this passion and excitement about Christ? Just because we aren’t living during Jesus’ physical life doesn’t mean we should be less excited to share him. Christ died for people so they can live in heaven forever. He took our sins on to the cross with him so that we can be forgiven and go to heaven if we believe. What a sweet deal this is, but people need to know about it for them to receive it! This is really convicting. We have been doing almost entirely evangelism for ministry here in Romania and I am uncomfortable and scared more than passionately excited to share Jesus. We as Christ followers need to be taking this a lot more seriously, we are literally talking about life or death.

Before the race I was reading a book (“What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?”) where the author JD Greear told a story in which he was on a flight talking with a lady about the gospel. He got to share the good news with her, and she responded by asking if he really believed this to be true. She then went on to say that if this was really true, he should be running around telling everybody. Also convicting! WE HAVE A CURE FOR DEATH!!! LET’S SHARE IT WITH EVERYBODY!

When Simon came to Jesus, Jesus called him by name and then immediately changed his name to Cephas (meaning Peter). There’s a lot of sweet things to this. Jesus knows his name. He knows all our story’s. We are his. Then our life after Jesus is drastically different than life before. We are a new creation. Jesus immediately gave Simon a new name. His identity is changed forever. When we meet Christ, he is going to change us forever, we are no longer our old selves.

After Philip is found by Jesus, he goes to Nathanael to tell him that they found the Messiah (again let’s go tell people)! Nathanael asks, in my mind jokingly, but probably with a lot of truth behind it: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It’s interesting to think God decided to come out of Nazareth, a broken town. The bottom of the chain. It makes me think about how God is more than capable to turn a place like Romania from dark to light. He loves to take the unexpected route and he loves to use unexpected people.

Philip answers the question with the phrase I love “come and see.” Y’all Jesus is pretty rad. When I am sharing Jesus with people it is easy for me to try to say all the right things and convince people on my own Jesus is worth following. There should be a lot more come and see in my invitations. Jesus can show himself to others on his own. He doesn’t need us. Let’s allow for him to do this.

Nathanael’s meeting with Jesus is pretty wack as well. Nathanael immediately believes when Jesus says he saw him under the fig tree. Jesus then responds to Nathanael’s shock of him knowing where he was by saying “You will see greater things than these.” Don’t get me wrong getting excited about the little things God does is amazing and important, but we should be expecting more. Let’s not limit Him. Let’s live life expecting God to show up in unbelievably big ways.

It is easy to think that life as a Christ follower is far different today than it was a couple thousand years ago when Jesus was walking the planet, but is it? We should live a lot more like the disciples did back then. I want to be a Christ follower who is willing to give my entire life to him and where he wants me in moment’s notice. I want to share Jesus without hesitation like the disciples did. It doesn’t take a fancy Bible degree or years of being a Christian. It takes understanding the gospel. I also want to be constantly waiting impatiently for Christ to return.

Our ministry here has been sweet as Pastor Raul is very focused on bringing Jesus to this community along with outside of this community. He follows the strategy that Jesus set up with the “funnel system.” “Copy and paste from Jesus” he says. You preach to the masses then have the crowd start dwindling down until you can have a small group to disciple.

For our time here we are reaching the masses. We are being sent out to talk to tons of people. Getting to know people, build relationships with them, share the gospel with them, and invite them to an event we put on. Then people that were at the events will hopefully ask questions and want to come back. So, prayers that the events we put on really placed something on all these people’s hearts. That seeds weren’t just planted but also watered.

Read through the gospels!! Find other ways you want to model your life after Jesus and his disciples. Jesus is everything let’s live like it!

Love y’all a lot! Jesus loves you a heck of a lot more!!

Peace,

JD