Sermon Tone Analysis

The Apprentice

Following Jesus the Master Teacher

What is an Apprentice of Jesus?

19 Sep 2004

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The Apprentice TV SHOW

* Your Fired!

We are all disciples—apprentices in life!

·         You are probably the *disciple of many people*.

* *Parents* are first teachers

* We learn basics of how to do life…they provide their maps of living

* However, there maps are not always the right way, they are just their way

* Laundry and Socks

* *Teachers and friends* are next that we apprentice to

* Teachers shape us in many ways, think of all the things you have learned from teachers

* Friends

* Friends are smarter than Dad

* *Cultural Icons*

* A consumer world

* 254 advertising messages a day

* You buy what you have often based on someone convincing you that you need it…even though you don’t.

* *We* *emulate* what we think about.

* *Children* pretend to be their heros.

* *Teenagers *dress like the sports stars or popular musicians they devote so much attention to.

* *Adults* who concentrate on “making it to the top” read the books of those “at the top,” then copy their business style and personal habits.

* *We are Copycats*…We want to “Be like Mike” or JaLo, or Brittany, or The Donald, or the people on Friends, or CSI, or ________________

 

We are all apprentices in Life, but do we apprentice ourselves to the Life Giver?

We must understand Jesus from within his first century jewish culture

 

Read John 1:35-39 and Matthew 4:18-22   NIV

 

 

 

 

 

John 1:35-39 (NIV) \\ 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.

36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him.

It was about the tenth hour.

Matthew 4:18-22 (NIV) \\ 18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John.

They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.

Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

!

Rabbi’s Background

* God spoke to Moses and gave him the Torah, the first five books of the bible.

Subsequently, God have additional 42 oral instruction to Moses and this is known as the Oral Torah.

* The Torah, both written and oral had been handed down from generation to generation from the time Moses received it.

Over time, the oral torah was added to and adjusted based on the interpretation of the written torah.

Sages would give judicial rulings which were often included in the oral torah.

All of the Torah was authoritative for the jew.

* Rabbi’s were teachers of the Torah

* Rabbi means “teacher” or “Master”

* Rabbi’s were like Rock Stars or Professional Athletes

* Education in the Torah was very important to the Jews, God had told them over and over to pass it down, pass it down, pass it down.

* Synagogues would help provide schooling in the Torah and run organized schools

 

! Bet Sefer—House of the Book …..Elementary school

* Children from about 6-10 yrs would go to school and memorize the Torah—the written law

* This did not mean they read it, they learned through reciting it.

* After 10, they would return to apprentice to the mother and father and others to learn the family trade.

* After Bet Sefer you would move to the next level of education

 

! Bet Talmud—Secondary School

* One would stay in the Bet Talmud and learn the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses through prophets and all of the Oral traditions.

* Around 14 or so, if one was really outstanding, then they would begin to choose a Rabbi to apprentice himself to.

! Bet Midrash—The House of Study…College

* These were reserved for only the best of the best!

* The apprentice would sit at the Rabbi’s feet directly and begin to learn from him.

* After a period of questioning and testing by the Rabbi the apprentice would either tell him to go back to the family trade or he would say “FOLLOW ME” in acceptance.

* Those that Rabbi’s picked were like the cream of the crop!

It was a coveted place to have!

* Paul for example was trained by Gamaliel

* The disciple of the Rabbi would then go wherever the Rabbi went learning everything about him and how he did life.

*Rabbi~/Disciple relationship*

·         Rabbi’s were travelers, often going from village to village

·         Rabbi’s or Sages would teach in fields, vineyards, on the road, in the marketplace, in homes, synagogues, and temple courts.

o   For the long-term disciple, learning from a rabbi meant considerable traveling.

·         Because they were fishing, they probably not currently accepted by a Rabbi to apprentice at his feet.

·         Jesus’ call for them to follow, informed them that they could be an apprentice of a Rabbi!

·         *Jesus had faith in THEM*!

 

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The Call To Follow is for us today

 

* Who are you following?

* Who is your teacher?

* You apprentice yourself to someone…you learn to do life from someone, Whose disciple are you?

* Last week Jeff said that we usually can find someone that thinks like us that we can apprentice ourselves too.

* Oprah, Rush, Jackie Collins, George Bush, Dr. Phil, Dr. Dobson, Chuck Swindoll, Jeff Funderburk, Cary Brown…

* These are not necessarily bad, but they sure are not Jesus!

!

Some think that you can be a Christian without being a disciple of Jesus!  NOT!

A.W. Tozer said in his book called “I call it heresy”, 

 “/Feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout evangelical Christian circles,  the widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need him as Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to him as Lord as long as we want to!”/

 

Dallas Willard calls this “Vampire Christianity” where one says to Jesus,

“/I’d like a little of your blood please, but I don’t care to be your student or have your character.

In fact, won’t you just excuse me while I get on with my life, and I’ll see you in heaven/.”

Do you think that this is how Jesus sees it?

* Conversion to Christ, in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, was inconceivable without a commitment to follow Him in life.

*What is an apprentice of Jesus?*

 

*1.

**Someone who has: Responded to the Invitation of Jesus*

* *

*Come*—all who are thirsty, all who are weak,  come to the fountain, dip your heart into the streams of life

Let the pain and the sorrow, be washed away,

In the waves of his mercy, as deep cries out to deep,

* Words from the song we sung together a few minutes ago

* God wants your HEART…your Love…Adoration

* God *does not choose men because of* *what they do*, but because of their person.

* We all want to be wanted, want to be chosen for something, not because of what we do but just because I am Me!

* Pharisees were mad at jesus because he accepted the sinners, tax collectors before they were cleaned up!