Without any other introduction, I want to look at the contribution to an understanding of our fellowship and who we are individually as believers and who we are corporately as members of the fellowship of Jesus Christ. What contribution this name disciple, this first name given to the followers of Christ, this name disciple makes towards understanding ourselves. And the first thing I want us to understand is this. that the disciples are a narrowly defined group. Not everyone who masses around Jesus Christ was or is a disciple. One of the interesting things you'll discover when you're reading through the New Testament is you'll read over and over again the interplay of the word, the multitudes and the disciples. And you'll see how God will work through the disciples to minister to the multitudes or God will call out from the multitudes the disciples who will follow him. This name disciple is used to differentiate between the multitudes that massed around Jesus and those who came out from the masses to adhere to Jesus. Did you hear that? This name disciple is to differentiate between the multitudes who massed around Jesus and those individuals who came out from the masses to adhere to him. There have always been. And there always will be individuals who mass around Jesus Christ. In the time in which Jesus Christ carried out his public ministry upon the earth, there were individuals who came to seek him out, out of curiosity. There were individuals who came exploring and trying to discover whether he would fulfill certain messianic desires and wishes that they had. There were individuals who came to Jesus seeking out healing in their life and seeking out some sense of renewal and a divine touch upon their lives. There were some who came to look at Him and to study Him, simply to spy upon Him and to find fault with Him and error with Him. There were individuals who gathered around Him simply because He had a celebrity status in the land and they wanted to be around the person who had this celebrity status. There were those who went to seek Him out and be in His presence because they had religious aspirations and they wanted to feel the significance of a burgeoning religious expressions and desires in their lives. Just like the Bible says that all the people went down to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. And they said that all of Jerusalem was going down and even the scribes and the Pharisees were going down to be baptized by John, because John was a part of the phenomenon that was taking place, a spiritual phenomenon that was taking place. And they didn't want to miss out on that spiritual phenomenon. They want to be a part of it. No one wants to really miss out on something that's popular that's happening. John the Baptist questioned the sincerity of these individuals that are coming to him for baptism. And so he said to him, I want you to bring forth to me fruits for repentance. You're coming down to be baptized with a baptism that expresses that you, along with all the nation, want to repent from your sins. Well, let's see your evidence in your life. Let's see fruit. Well, there are people that were gathering out of Jesus because they wanted to be part of the spiritual phenomenon that surrounded him. So there are all kinds of reasons like people were gathering to Jesus. And you need to understand something that those same reasons still exist today. There are all kinds of people who can gather around Jesus and crowd their way to Christ and be a part of the masses that assemble to him. But I want you to turn your Bibles to Matthew, chapter five, verses one through 12. And we won't read all of it, but we might read in it. Let's put it that way. But Matthew, chapter five, verse one, we have the story. Jesus is at the high point or the height of his celebrity in Israel and the crowds are gathering around him in order to receive healing from him and in order to see him speak and to watch him and observe him and touch him and bring their children to him. And these masses gather around Jesus in Galilee. And we read in verse one of chapter five, and seeing the multitudes, Jesus, when he saw the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he had seated himself, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and he taught them, saying, And now we have the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are they that mourn and blessed are the meek and they that hunger and thirst after righteousness and the merciful and the pure in heart and the peacemakers and blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake. And from there, Jesus goes on to extrapolate the law of his gospel kingdom. And he begins to lay down this wonderful treatise of the Sermon on the Mount. But the interesting thing here we have is that Jesus saw the multitudes, and He withdrew Himself from them, and He went further up into the mountain, and He sat Himself down. And when He sat Himself down, it says, not the multitudes, but the disciples came up to Him. And here's the picture. Here are all these people that are clamoring around Christ, wanting Him to touch them and heal them and be part of this phenomenon. And Jesus, on this occasion, removes Himself from them. He creates some distance between the crowds that have gathered. He moves up on the hillside, and then He sits down. Now, in the Jewish manner of things, when a rabbi was about to teach people, he would sit down cross-legged upon the ground and then his disciples, those who wanted to learn from him, would gather around him and they would sit around him as well, cross-legged, and he would begin to instruct them. And so when Jesus removed himself and sat down, that was a clue to the disciples, the ones who wanted to learn from him, that Jesus was getting ready to teach. And so when they saw him withdrawing and creating this distance between him and the crowd, the disciples began to come out from the crowd and make their way up. And they began to sit around Jesus and cross their legs and sit there waiting to listen to him instruct them. And he began to instruct them. Now, the multitude would have filled in some of the empty spaces and the people would have pressed in around as well to listen as well. But the first gathering around him would have been the gathering of the disciples who had come out from this mass of humanity. in order to hear Jesus teach. I want you to note that the multitude is important to Jesus. And over and over again, we'll see that Jesus will, as stated at least on two different occasions, I believe three different occasions in the New Testament where Jesus, we're told, looked upon the masses and was filled with compassion for them. Jesus is interested in the crowd that comes around him, regardless of why they come, regardless of their as a result of some mass hysteria. If they're there because they're just seeking out celebrity, he has compassion upon them. But Jesus in this passage is primarily addressing his disciples. He is ultimately planning to reach out to the multitudes, but he wants to do it through the disciples that come to him for instruction. I want you also note here that there is a difference very clearly here between being in the crowd that clamors after Jesus and being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. You can look through all the history of the world from the time of Jesus Christ and you will discover that there have been times when Jesus has been in fashion and when Jesus has been out of fashion. There has been a swell in which there was a tide of people rushing in to be around Jesus and be a part of the Jesus things that were happening in their day and age. And then there have been the times when the tide has been flowing out and the people have been moving away from him. There are times when you'll see that the crowds that have gathered around Jesus throughout the history of the world since the time of Christ have fluctuated in size from few to many and then from many to few. And the fact is, I think today we're actually living in a time When the crowds are once again swelling in around Jesus, Jesus is in vogue. I mean, it takes something like the capture of Saddam Hussein to knock them off the front pages of Time magazine. But Jesus is a popular person nowadays and individuals are gathering around him and they're interested in spiritual things that he might teach. And they're there because they're well, it's a phenomenon that's taking place. And I really believe to some extent he's involved. In fact, I was just listening not very long ago to a news story where individuals are complaining that there's a problem. You see, country music singers are maybe singing a little bit too much about Jesus nowadays. Maybe you've heard the song Red Road sung by one of the famous country music groups. There he celebrates this road that he grew up on, and it was on that road that he drank his first beer, and it was on that road that he first met Jesus. These are the kinds of songs that are being sung, and it's not on the Christian radio stations, it's on the secular radio stations. Jesus is in vogue today, and masses to some extent are crowding to them. The size of the crowd is gathering around him, but I want you to know something. Don't be confused. The crowds will come, but the crowds will also go again. But the numbers of the disciples have always been throughout history somewhat steady. What did Jesus say? He said many are called, but few are chosen. He said straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads into life. And few there are that find it. He said the harvest is plentiful. Crowds are large, but the laborers are few. Disciples had never really been a part of the multitude that simply mass around Christ. They were the few that came out from the crowds to adhere to him. I oftentimes picture myself and I've seen this before and I've heard these testimonies given of a professing Christian, oftentimes a young believer or an immature believer who find themselves in a great assembly or a crowded conference center devoted to spiritual issues or to the worship of Christ, or they found themselves in a large gathering of people or a large church and they comfort themselves with the faith that is being expressed and in the faith with all these people who are enthusiastically clamoring after Jesus Christ. And they assure themselves in the faith as they see this crowd that's gathering there around Him and worshiping Him in this place. But I want you to know that they're really looking in the wrong place. The disciple of Jesus Christ does not look at the multitude to gain assurance. He looks up the mountain towards Jesus Christ, and he goes to them there. There's an application for you here, and it's this. We are not to take comfort in being in the crowd that gathers around Christ. When he moves up the mountain, we are to move with him and draw near to him there. There is ultimately no consolation in the popularity or lack of popularity that Jesus holds with people. Our consolation is found only in finding and drawing near to his person. So here's the first point again. The first point is that the disciple, the title disciple, is a narrowly defined group. They are not a part of the multitude. They come out from the multitude to draw near to Jesus. Second thing is this. A disciple is a learner or a student of Jesus Christ. The word for disciple is the word methetes. It really refers to two things. The first thing is it refers to a person who is a learner or a pupil of a great teacher. So John the Baptist had his disciples. The Pharisees had their disciples. Jesus had his disciples. A disciple was a person who was a learner and Jesus was the teacher. When Jesus came to the earth, he came with different functions that he fulfilled. And one of the great functions that he fulfilled was that he became a teacher to men who uttered thoughts of extraordinary authority and originality. And individuals began to gather around him in order to learn from him what it was he had to teach. And they were marked by this, that they were learners of Jesus Christ. Now get this. A Christian is a person whose intellect has been awakened by God. He or she is an individual whose desire now has become that they long to learn God's truth and they long to be taught by Jesus Christ through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit all that He would reveal to them, all that He would unfold to them. The Christian is a person whose mind has been unburdened and has been lifted up and opened up and he longs to learn of the things of Jesus. He longs like Mary to sit at Jesus' feet and to learn what He has to say. He says, like Peter, it's good for us to be in this place. What place? The place where Christ is and where Christ is giving instruction and where Christ is teaching. And whenever He's tempted to wander from God, whenever He's tempted to depart because of discouragement, the thing that keeps coming back to Him is, where else can I go? You have the words of life! They want to learn from Him. The true follower of Jesus has a keen interest in what Jesus thinks, a keen interest in what is Jesus take and all the issues of life. So wherever Jesus is found speaking, you will find the disciples listening, a true disciple listening. Where does Jesus speak today? Well, he speaks through the word of God. And so the disciple is an individual who has a hunger for the word of God, is disturbed on those occasions when he finds himself atrophying in his ability to take in truth because he's neglected that word. He finds himself constantly drawn to it. He's an individual who wants to hear Jesus speak. And Jesus speaks in times of silent meditation. And so a disciple is an individual who is cautious and careful to make sure that he provides for himself times in which he can Be quiet and reflect upon the things of God. Where else does Jesus speak? You know that one of the places where Jesus speaks today as he speaks, and I say this and not giving any credit to this pulpit, but he speaks through the preaching of the word of God. That's why Paul told Timothy that he was to preach the word in season and out of season. It's a very interesting thing today in the growing popularity that Christianity is experiencing. There is a lessening of the demand and desire for preaching. There's more and more instruction given today on how to preach messages that are being toned down and toned down and limited to 20 minutes and 15 minutes. When I was just coming out of seminary, we were being told that the trend was no longer a 30 minute message. It used to be 45 minutes to an hour. It was no longer a 30 minute message, but you should be able to encapsulate the truths that you want to teach people in 15 minutes and no more. And then again, when you teach, what you really need to do is not to be too logical and not to lay down a thread of different information. But what you really need to do is learn how to give narrative sermons where you can take people on a story. You can tell them like a bedtime story that keeps them interested, just like you do with kids. You know, we can't lay treatises down before our kids at night. If we want to have them pay attention, we've got to put together a story with building suspense at just the right moment and creating a sense of mystery and then unfolding the story with lots of adventure and excitement. And we'll lay it all out. That's how we're to give instruction. We're to tell our stories to people that may need to hear good stories. That's what they want. And so these are the kinds of instruction we're given. And I remember on one occasion having someone come to me when I was pastoring a church, a group of people from my church and asking me if I would be willing to no longer preach on certain occasions when the spirit was moving upon the church. And I made the comment, well, I'll tell you what, if the spirit tells me that I'm not supposed to preach, I will. But in the meantime, I'll go with Paul's advice that I'm to preach in season and out of season, that I am to faithfully deliver up the word of God. Folks, preaching, preaching is one of the ways in which Jesus declares his truth to his people. Teaching is another way. Preaching is a foretelling. It has a lineage of a prophetic role, but teaching is another one. Teaching is where we gather together and we study the truths of God's Word and we unfold all the different grammatical and historical context of instruction and we look at the verbs and together we study it and we analyze it and we learn in an instructional format. It's an interesting thing. Teaching is on the wane as well. Nowadays, when people gather together for what they call their worship times or their fellowship times, they gather together in small groups and there they go around and maybe they read a couple of Bible verses and then they ask one another to tell them what it means to them and they add in a few thoughts. But instructional teaching where instructional information is laid down for an individual is passing away. It's going by the wayside. I know I've shared with you an illustration of a great convocation that I went to on one occasion which we were being trained in a new phenomenon and church growth in which the leaders of this organization, this movement unfolded a great map to show how the church was organizing around this strategy of getting people into smaller groups and then helping them encourage one another and build up one another and pray for one another and sing together. And they laid it all out for us. And how these groups could be multiplying on a six month basis in the new groups and new groups. And so they had this great map out. And I remember asking the individuals, the president of this organization, where it was in this map that they let out that there was good academic instructional teaching in the word of God given to the people in the church. This comment was, well, in this map they had, we put it in a level that called a mezzanine level. Well, I know what churches do in the mezzanine level. That's where they cram all the things. They have no place. They don't know where to put it, you know. They cram it there until eventually they can put seats up in the mezzanine level. They said, well, you know, Joel, the truth is that nowadays it's just not something that people are interested in. People in church today are not interested in learning about the deep things of God or in academic studies in the Bible. Folks, the disciple of somebody who is hungry and passionate for instruction from Jesus Christ. They are pupils. They are students that want to learn. Jesus also speaks to the instruction of godly men and godly women. And many of those individuals have passed by the scene today, but their books are sometimes available to you. And I encourage you to find those individuals and read them and listen to them. This is another place in which Christ speaks. and teaches us. The disciple of Christ is a person who has an intellectual thirst for instruction. You know, there are all kinds of people that wonder how it is that a person can have a taste for the Bible, how it is that they can be interested in going to Bible studies and prayer meetings and Sunday services or simply reading the Bibles for themselves, but they don't understand that the disciple of Jesus Christ hungers to feed his intellect and his life with the words of Jesus Christ. Now, if this is truth, if this is truthful, if this is right, listen, that means this, that the person who holds a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, but has no passion for Christ as a teacher and for his instruction and his direction must question if they are really true disciples. Do you see this? A disciple is somebody who is hungry for these things. I don't know if I shared this with the church as a whole or whether I just shared this with different individuals. This summer I had the opportunity to meet with the president and vice president of a large Christian publishing house. And the president of the organization was complaining that they are having a hard time selling to the Christian population books that deal with anything deep and spiritual issues in the Christian life, that individuals are basically interested in in personal therapy and some self-help and the management of finances or personal problems, but just an exploration, the things of God that don't dial in directly to a sense of felt need, just studying God's truth as it's delineated and expostulated. People are not interested in those things. As an example, he showed us a book that he had recently published, which was I read it was a wonderful book written by a tremendous thinker and a great pastor, a great teacher. And the comment was, this is probably one of the best books we've published in years and the most thoughtful books we published in years out of this publishing house. And no one is buying our book and we don't know exactly how to market it. And he explained to me that he got a call from a man who had been in a bookstore. And when he went in the bookstore, he saw all the Christian books that were out there and he didn't know which one to buy. And so he prayed, God, I don't know what book you want me to read, but would you please direct my attention to the book you want me to read? And as he ended up praying, he opened his eyes and his eyes fixed on this book and he picked it up and he took it home and he read it and he wrote, it's changed my life. And the president said, you know, I think maybe our strategy needs to be that we need to just pray that God will direct the right people to that book. I think that's a good strategy. I think that's something interesting, though, that here's a man whose whole job is to find out what the Christian population wants and to somehow find a way to market to them because it's a profit making business. And what he's saying is they don't want to learn about the deep things of God. We can't sell it to them. The interesting thing about it was I had just been at a camp, a Christian camp, where there were all kinds of young people that were gathering together. And at this camp, every evening we would go up for an hour long period of worship. I was at that time exposed to have the opportunity to learn all the new worship songs that are being sung that I don't have an opportunity to hear all the time. And in these songs were expressions of ardent passion for God. They would sing songs in which they would express that God was the very life that they desired and longed for, that He was the breath of life and they couldn't live one moment without Him. He was the breath that they breathed and that He was all that they needed. They expressed such passion for God and such longing for God that the professions of faith and passion for God that they were making and singing about over and over again would have made the mystics and the monastics blush. I mean, those were the individuals who felt they were devoted to Jesus and wanted to follow Him, and they wouldn't have even declared such a passion and heart for God. Every once in a while, when you go through the history of the church, periodically, some mystic would rise up and, like a Federick Faber in his writing, would write something like, Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say, for very love thy precious name a thousand times a day. But there's not very many people would write like that because not very many individuals were so swept up with a singular passion for Jesus Christ. But here in this setting were all these young people singing as the band played on and all the music was playing and swaying back and forth, declaring passions that you would not have heard expressed from most of the mystics of the Middle Ages. Not only that, as they were singing about these passions periodically, they would call for all of heaven and all the angels and God to look down and marvel and wonder at the great passion that was being expressed in their lives for him and see them bowing down and worshiping. Because here I am to do this. Pay attention. Look at this marvelous wonder. Afterwards, all over with, there was a poll taken of the kids. What impression about the camp? And there were questions that were asked about where they were in their spiritual journey. The interesting thing was about 60 percent of those that were polled declared that they thought of themselves as lukewarm or uncommitted Christians. Most of them said, why not ready to commit my love, not ready to surrender the lordship of Christ, not ready to pay the cost, etc. The major area where most people said they enjoyed the services, what was great for them, enjoyed the worship, enjoyed the singing, enjoyed saying all those things. Something's not adding up here, is it? The president of a major Christian publishing house says, we don't want to sell all this fluff, but nobody seems to want to buy anything of any substance and read it. Young people love to sing about their passion and hunger for Jesus Christ, but when it comes down to it, they really don't want to practice it. They'll sing about it. They're part of the crowd that gathers around Jesus Christ. But they're not willing to come out from the crowd to adhere to Him. They're part of the mass hysteria. But maybe nothing more. Here's what we learn about the disciple. The disciple is somebody who is intellectually driven to learn from Jesus Christ. They're hungry for his teachings, even when sometimes they see no direct application to themselves. They just want to learn about the things of God. By the way, the suggestion I gave to the president of that publishing house was maybe your marketing strategy needs to be the marketing strategy of the prophets. People listen to the prophets in the past, not because they were in a market to hear what they were saying, but because the prophets called their bluff. And maybe it's time to call the Christians left to read and learn about the very things they profess they're interested in that they sing about on Sunday morning. Well, here's a third thing for us to understand about the word disciple. And I've already mentioned it. A disciple is somebody who is differentiated in a narrow category that's come out from the crowds. A disciple is somebody who has an intellectual passion to learn. He's a learner in Jesus Christ. The other thing is this. The other meaning of the word disciple is a disciple is a adherent. That's the other meaning of the word metaphase. It means to adhere to nonly or to. Greeks talked about those who were about Socrates and those who were about Philo. That means those who wanted to be around that person and gather around them and went everywhere they went so they could learn from them. Well, that's what a disciple is. A Christian disciple are those who are about Jesus. They're around Him at all times. He's not concerned with what the masses are doing. He's only concerned to follow Jesus as He goes up the mountainside and to go with Him and draw near Him. And when he sees Jesus sitting down, he sits down to learn. And when he sees Jesus rise up to go back and minister to others, he rises up to go with Him. And wherever He goes, they go. All they want to do is be about Jesus, to be with Jesus. As the crowd makes their way to Jesus, they've got to find their way through them. Because they're the ones who are near to Christ. They're the ones who want to be with Him at all times. A wonderful expression of what this adhering to Christ really means is found in the story of Moses in Exodus chapter 33. I'd like you to turn there. Exodus chapter 33. Moses has been on the mount. God has given Moses instruction on all the different ways in which the tabernacle and the accoutrements of worship are to be laid out. He is going to work through him now to lead the people into the promised land. Chapter 33, verses 12 through 18. Let's read them. together. And Moses said unto the Lord, Look, you say unto me, bring up this people and you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know thee by name. And you've also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. that I might know thee, that I might find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people." What's Moses saying? Lord, I'm a disciple and I have a hunger and passion to know you more. Teach me and instruct me. That's the passion of a disciple. What goes on here? And he said, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. And he said unto him, if your presence goes not with me, carry us not from here, For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this also as you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. And he said, I beseech you, Moses said this, Show me your glory. Then we have this wonderful passages, this picture of God taking Moses and placing him in the cleft of the rock and coming before Moses and declaring himself to him. What do we see in this? We see the heart and passion of the disciple. Moses says, Lord, I want to know more about you. Show me your ways. that I may know You. Show Yourself to me." But then he has more. He not only wants to learn from Him, but he wants to adhere to Him. Lord, look if You're sending me from this place, I don't want to go anywhere. I don't want to go from this place. I don't want to go with this people unless You promise that You will go with us. We don't want to go anywhere without You. Folks, this is the passion. This is the attitude of a disciple. He is not only passionate for truth, but he is passionate for the presence of Jesus Christ. His attitude is this, at the beginning of his day, Lord, I don't want to rise up from this bed without you. I don't want to go from this room without you. I don't want to go to my job without you. I don't want to go into my school without you. I don't want to press into the world without you. I don't want to do anything and I don't want to be anywhere without you with me. Come with me and I'll go. The disciple is one who is one who is about Jesus. He's one who comes up to Jesus. If Jesus sits down to teach again, he goes up to hear him instruct. If Jesus moves forth to the masses, he goes with Jesus. He wants to be with Jesus. He is an adherent of Jesus Christ. I have in my mind the picture of a young boy who goes on a camping trip with his dad for the first time, and they hike back into the wilderness, and they set up camp, and they put together their tent. They get their sleeping bags all laid out and night falls and they snuggle their way into the sleeping bags and it gets dark. And you know, when you're out in the wilderness, there are no streetlights. It's as dark as dark can be. And all of a sudden, all kinds of strange noises begin to be sounded around from the exterior of that little thin walled tent. That little boy hears the rustling of leaves and you might hear the sound of various animals and the wind blowing. And well, he's a little afraid. He's a little scared. And so he begins to carry on a conversation with his dad. And he begins to ask his dad all kinds of questions that he would never ask before. And what really motivates him is this. He just wants the reassurance of hearing his dad's voice, of knowing that his dad's there. He presses his little sleeping bag in a little closer so that he can feel the breathing of his dad as his lungs rise and fall, as he inhales and exhales. And that little boy is just interested in being close to his dad and hearing his dad speak because he needs the comfort of his presence. Well, The disciple may not be motivated by fear in the same way that that little boy is, but he's consistently walking like that little boy is in that tent. He is desiring constantly and he's constantly checking to make sure that Jesus is near. He speaks to Christ often and he bends his ear to listen to him often because he just wants to make sure that they're together, they're in the right place. He's checking to see that he is in his presence because he knows that is the safe place, that is the best place, that is the place he wants to be. A disciple is someone who adheres to Jesus Christ. Have you ever been in the presence of somebody who their very presence has profoundly impacted you? Maybe it's not anything they've said, just being with them, just their spirit, their life has somehow filtered its way into your life and it's impacted you. Disciples want to be in daily contact with Jesus because they have learned something as they're with him, apart from all that he teaches them. Something of the largeness and force of His divine nature begins to pass from Him to them. And they discover that almost imperceptibly, they are being transformed into His likeness by the sheer power of His presence. And so they want to be with Him. And they want to be near Him. so that He can mold and shape them and impress them with His own life. Impress into them His own life. This is it again then. The disciple is someone who comes out from the crowd to be near Christ. The disciple is somebody who is hungry to be taught the deep things of God from Jesus Christ. He is hungry for spiritual truths wherever they fall, wherever they lie. And a disciple is someone who adheres himself to Jesus and so reflects Jesus' nature.