Sermon Series: Rhythmic Renewal

“A New Way to Be Human” – Matthew 4:18-22; 16:24-25

All Things Rabbi

  • Schooling began around age five. From 5-12, you memorized the Torah. If you were the best, you moved on and around 17 had the rest of the OT memorized. The best of the best then apply to be an apprentice of under a rabbi. You had to find a rabbi whose yoke were drawn to.

  • Every rabbi had his “yoke”—a Hebrew idiom for his set of teachings, his way of reading Scripture, his take on how to thrive as a human being in God’s good world. (Comer)

  • Rabbis came from a broad cross-section of society. They could have been farmers or blacksmiths or even carpenters. Most trained under another rabbi for many years, then began to teach and call their own disciples around the age of thirty. But there was no formal certification like in our modern educational system. Authority worked differently. Your life and teaching were your credentials. (Comer)

  • Rabbis were itinerant, and most were unpaid. (Some worked their farms or ran businesses for seasons of the year, then traveled in the off-season). They walked from town to town to teach in whatever synagogue would have them, relying on the hospitality of people of peace. They often spoke in parables and riddles. Normally, they traveled with a small band of disciples, teaching. not in a classroom but in the open air and along the road. (Comer)


Christian versus Apprentice

  • The term disciple has often used as a verb rather than a noun. Choosing to follow Jesus, our culture has offered a bare-bones offering of what it means to choose the way of Jesus. Just “pray a prayer and you go to heaven when you die.”

  • While the word disciple is crucial to understanding what it means to follow Jesus, most of what has been offered in our Western culture after WWII was a style of preaching that brought salvation without discipleship, or in this sense, an understanding of what it means to be an apprentice of Jesus. 

  • The full picture of salvation is found within living into the life of being an apprentice of Jesus. The problem is not that it’s untrue but that it’s missing whole pieces of truth that are really, really, important. It simply does not come close to the full picture of salvation we find in Jesus’ preaching or the writings of the New Testament. 

  • Jesus is not looking for converts to Christianity, he’s looking for apprentices in the kingdom of God. This is leading us to the Christian language on the lives of practical atheism.

  • Dallas Willard states, “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who..are identified as “Christians: will become disciples—students, apprentices, practitioners—of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

  • For so many, a cheapened understanding of salvation has led us in cycles and patterns of sin and shame.


Becoming a Way of Life

  • The keyword we find here in this passage is “whoever.” This means everyone. We are invited into this way of life. 

  • Whoever means whoever—fisherman, Zealot, tax collector, even betrayer. Torah devotee or sex worker. Religious bigot or woman caught in adultery. Intellectual elite or blind beggar on the side of the road. Jesus invited all to apprentice under him into life in the kingdom of God. (Comer)

  • And nothing changed over time: We are all still invited, no matter who we are or what we’ve done. Oppressed or oppressor. Upwardly mobile or entrenched in poverty. Polymath or high school dropout. Fastidious health nut or addict. Mentally sound or not. Virgin or sexually promiscuous. Married, divorced, or divorced again. Hyper-religious or fallen away. Full of faith or racked by doubt. Whoever means whoever. (Comer)

  • Jesus believed in the apprentices before they even believed. He believes in you. He invites us to this life of apprenticeship.

(Resources provided by John Mark Comer)



Discussion Questions

  1. What is new from this sermon that you never thought before? 

  2. What bothers you about this sermon? What did you like about this sermon?

  3. Do you think our culture has embraced a cheapened understanding of salvation? Why or why not? 

  4. Why do we get caught up in cycles of sin and shame in our lives?

  5. Do you think embracing apprenticeship like we are invited is experiencing the holy life or actually understanding salvation in his fullness?