The Importance of Discipleship

Shalom In Yeshua.  

I see many posts about revival among the young people in our country and about thousands that are getting saved at evangelistic rally's, which is wonderful!  However, the responsibility does not STOP there, the next most important step, is DISCIPLESHIP so they enemy cannot steal the WORD that was sown. 

Questions:

#1. Has there been follow up?

#2. Have you tried to schedule someone to disciple them?

#3. Or have you left them to drown in a sea of misinformation and wrong teachings, vs. true discipleship in the WORD?

#4. Were they told they needed to count the cost of discipleship?

Every time I hear about hundreds and thousands being saved, I ask myself have you made provision to disciple them?  This is SO important!!!

I heard one evangelist say that hundreds got saved at his rally, then he told those who were just saved to lead someone else, at that very moment to Jesus/Yeshua?  Before you lead someone else to Yeshua you need to know what salvation entails, know what it means to repent and truly give your life to Messiah. Those newly saved have no idea how to lead someone to Messiah and discipleship, let alone they have not even been discipled themselves?  It seems this evangelist was more interested in numbers vs getting them discipled for Yeshua.

Before I became a committed to serving God and became a truly born-again believer, I would sit and watch Billie Graham crusades on the TV, I would cry and pray, then I would be back in the world the next day, because it was not a true commitment to Messiah Yeshua, it was emotional, based upon conviction of the WORD, but not commitment to THE WORD Yeshua.

I would be walking down the street and people would come up to me who were Christians and shared the word, the seed was planted, but commitment came latter.  

Praise The Father for His mercy, that even while still in the world, I made a true commitment to him almost 50 years ago, and have not looked back since. Yes, my family thought I was nuts, my friends thought I was nuts, but I didn't care, I knew that Messiah Yeshua loved me and my life was changed, my sins forgiven and there was no turning back.  I found good churches along my journey, where I grew in the Word, then 25 years ago, I returned to my Jewish Roots and grew even more.  Discipleship is a NON-STOP journey, you never stop learning or growing, His Word is NEW every morning, great is His faithfulness.  

This is why I am so committed to discipleship, where we even have a school "The Judaic Studies Institute" that is a place where people can be discipled based upon what they can afford, even if it is $0 dollars!  

You need to be a discipled, before you can disciple someone else. 

The Sower Parable

(Mar 4:1 TLV)  Again Yeshua began to teach by the sea. A large crowd gathered around Him, so He got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the crowd was by the sea on the land.

(Mar 4:2 TLV)  He began teaching them many things by parables, and in His teaching, He said to them:

(Mar 4:3 TLV)  “Listen! Behold, a Sower went out to  spread some seed.

(Mar 4:4 TLV)  It happened that as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and the birds came and ate it up.

(Mar 4:5 TLV)  “Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it didn’t have much soil. It sprang up immediately, because the soil wasn’t deep.

(Mar 4:6 TLV)  But when the sun came up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

(Mar 4:7 TLV)  “Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

(Mar 4:8 TLV)  “And others fell into the good soil and were producing fruit, springing up and increasing. They yielded a crop, producing thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

(Mar 4:9 TLV)  And He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

(Mar 4:10 TLV)  When Yeshua was alone, those around Him with the Twelve started asking Him about the parables.

(Mar 4:11 TLV)  And He told them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those who are outside, everything is in parables, so that

(Mar 4:12 TLV)  ‘Seeing, they may see and not perceive, and hearing, they may hear and not understand, so they may not turn back and be forgiven.’”

(Mar 4:13 TLV)  He said to them, “Don’t you grasp this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

(Mar 4:14 TLV)  The Sower sows the word.

(Mar 4:15 TLV)  These are the ones beside the road where the word is sown. Whenever they hear, satan comes quickly and takes away the word that has been sown in them.

(Mar 4:16 TLV)  “These are the ones sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.

(Mar 4:17 TLV)  And they have no root in themselves but last only a short while. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away.

(Mar 4:18 TLV)  And others are the ones sown among the thorns. They have heard the word;

(Mar 4:19 TLV)  but the worries of the world, the seduction of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

(Mar 4:20 TLV)  “And those are the ones sown on the good soil. They hear the word and accept it and produce fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

Yeshua said that there was a cost to count to truly be HIS DISCIPLE 

(Luk 14:25 TLV)  Now great crowds were traveling with Yeshua; and He turned and said to them,

(Luk 14:26 TLV)  “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—and yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.

(Luk 14:27 TLV)  Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.

Complete Jewish New Testament Commentary - David Stearn

If anyone... does not hate his father [and] ... mother ... he cannot be my talmid. One hears Luk_14:26 selectively misquoted in exactly this way, and on this basis a case is made that Yeshua is a cruel madman. But the key to his warning is, of course, the phrase, "and his own life besides." The theme of these verses is not alienation from one's family but the cost of discipleship: nothing, not love for father or mother or even one's own life, is to take precedence over loyalty to God and his Messiah (see Mat_16:24). He must renounce all that he has (Luk_14:33), acknowledging that if God is to be primary in his life, possessions and even social relationships, in and of themselves, must be secondary. Being Messianic is more than merely acknowledging facts about Yeshua.

(Luk 14:33 TLV)  So in the same way, whoever does not renounce all that he has, cannot be My disciple

He must renounce all that he has (Luk_14:33), acknowledging that if God is to be primary in his life, possessions and even social relationships, in and of themselves, must be secondary. Being Messianic is more than merely acknowledging facts about Yeshua.  Jewish NT Commentary

 

The early Apostles were very aware and very serious about the importance of discipleship and had a  plan to ground the new Gentile converts to the Way of Messiah and Torah.  This is laid out in the Didache document and is given detailed attention in the book  “The Way of Life – The Rediscovered Teachings of the Twelve Jewish Apostles to the Gentiles” Toby Janicki Author, Published by Vine of David Copyright 2017 by Vine of David, a publishing ministry of First Fruits of Zion, Inc. 

(Mar 8:31 TLV)  Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and ruling kohanim and Torah scholars, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

(Mar 8:32 TLV)  He was speaking openly about this. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.

(Mar 8:33 TLV)  But turning around and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. He said, “Get behind Me, satan! You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but the things of men.”

(Mar 8:34 TLV)  Then He called the crowd, along with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and keep following Me.

(Mar 8:35 TLV)  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.

(Mar 8:36 TLV)  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

(Mar 8:37 TLV)  For what could a man give in exchange for his soul?

(Mar 8:38 TLV)  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels!”

(Mat 19:29 TLV)  And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for My name’s sake, will receive a hundred times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

(Mat 19:30 TLV)  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

The Biblical Pattern for Discipleship in the First Century

The Didache, also known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is a brief anonymous early treatise, dated by most modern scholars to the first century. It provides a window into the faith and practice of the earliest Gentile disciples and the instructions they received from the Jewish apostles.

The Didache was considered an early discipleship manual for those coming to faith—its wisdom and simplicity are still relevant for us today.

The Didache picks up right where the Apostolic Decree leaves off, teaching and clarifying for Gentiles their relationship to the Torah and place in Messianic Judaism. It was written by the early Jewish believers in Yeshua and contains teaching that claims to have its origin with the twelve apostles.

Some scholars feel its earliest version might have been written as early as 50 CE, which places it within the first generation of disciples of Yeshua. It may even contain material older than many of Paul’s epistles and the Gospel of John. It also contains teachings of Yeshua that are not found in the canonical Gospels.

The Didache offers us an incredible window into the daily life of believers at a time when Christianity still functioned as a sect within Judaism and not a separate religion. It shows us practical life in early Messianic Judaism. 

The same open posture of Acts 15 seems to be reflected in the Didache. The Didache is allegedly a collection of apostolic instructions for Gentile believers.  When discussing the question of how much Torah a Gentile is obligated to keep, the Didache recommends keeping all of it, but leaves the matter up to an individual’s capacity:

If you are able to bear all the yoke of the Lord [i.e., Torah], you will be perfect; but if you are not able, do as much as you are able to do. (Didache 6:2)

The Didache agrees with Numbers 15:15-16. There is not supposed to be a different Torah for Gentile believers. The Gentile believers are not supposed to have a different type of worship or religion. There is only one Torah for God’s people. The only question left open is to what extent the Gentile believer is obligated. Most of the Torahs of the Torah apply equally to Jewish and Gentile disciples of Yeshua.

In the days of the apostles, the Gentile believers kept most of those things along with the Jewish believers as part of their participation in their shared religion.

The title Didache means “teaching” and it's taken from the first word of the book, the work is also known by the longer title “The teaching of the 12 apostles” and also the longer title ”The teaching of the Lord to the gentiles through the 12 apostles” which is the complete first line of the book.  

[1]  JSI Class Cliff Notes for “The Way of Life” Study in the Didache by Toby Janicki

Biblical Discipleship provides the tools, every new and seasoned believer needs to know how to correctly study His Word and walk in the callings He has placed upon our lives as His children. 

Contact JSIstudentinfo@gmail.com to learn about Messianic Discipleship via The Judaic Studies Institute