John 1:35-42 Part 2

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Hello everyone, welcome to the Shepherd's Church. Let's go ahead and pray and then let's get started with our text this evening

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Father I pray that you would Bless the preaching of your word and that as I seek to deliver this message today

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Lord, would you allow it? to go forth in power and Would you allow it to do?

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More than I could have ever imagined Lord, would you let me speak your words?

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Would you let me share your thoughts and Lord, would you write them on each of our hearts as we seek to follow

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God? It's in Christ name we pray. Amen We're gonna be in part two this week of our look at John 1 35 through 42

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I'm gonna read the entire text and then we'll get started Again the next day

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John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as He walked and said behold the

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Lamb of God and The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following and he said to them what do you seek and They said to him rabbi which translated means teacher

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Where are you staying? And he said to them come and you will see So they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him for that day before it was about the 10th hour

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One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother He found his own brother first Simon and he said to him we have found the

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Messiah Which translated means Christ? He brought him to Jesus Jesus looked at him and said you are

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Simon the son of John You shall be called Cephas which is translated

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Peter Now last week we considered how the text of John 1 35 through 42 is this key unit where John is transitioning us away from the witness of John the

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Baptist and on to the witness of Jesus and his disciples and In this text we we zoom down into the very first interactions

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That Jesus and his disciples Had these are the very first men who laid down their nets in order to follow

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Jesus and from here on out The narrative is gonna primarily focus on the ministry of Jesus and the men who committed their lives to following him

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Again, we're transitioning away from John the Baptist and on to Jesus Now I love how

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John frames this text because he does two very interesting things He tells us things that are on the surface.

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And then he tells us things that are also under the surface on The service we get to see the first moments of Jesus's ministry the first interactions the first question that he asked the first answer that they give the titles that they attribute to Jesus and all of this is very interesting

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But under the surface what I also love about this passage That's not only showing us who the men were who followed him, but also how they followed him

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And as we said last week, there's there's roughly seven or eight different Characteristics of how these men followed

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Jesus in this narrative the rest of the book is gonna focus on their following him, but this passage focuses on how they followed him and If you remember last week

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We looked at the first couple examples of that first they had to leave the comfortable in order to follow

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Jesus They had to number to understand why they were following Jesus and Then last week we wrapped up with they had to have a genuine desire to dwell with him

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And like we said all three of these must be true We cannot follow

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Jesus if we're not willing to leave the comfortable We can't follow Jesus rightly if we don't know why that we're actually following him and we certainly cannot

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Proclaim ourselves to be a follower of Jesus if we have no genuine desire to spend time with him All three of these things must be true if we want to call ourselves followers of Christ Well this week we're gonna look at another

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Indispensable necessary quality what it means to follow Jesus And we're not only gonna look at this attribute but we're also gonna ask our question ask the question how does this apply to our lives and How can we repent when we fall short?

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So that we can follow our great King well So with that if you will turn with me again to John 1

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We're gonna start in verse 35 and we're gonna look at the quality of following Jesus That followers of Christ are disciples of Christ.

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That's the fourth quality verse 35 begins and the next day

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John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and he said behold the

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Lamb of God and The two disciples these are disciples of John heard him speak and they followed

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Jesus and Jesus turned and he saw them and he said to them. What do you seek and They said to him rabbi

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Which translated means teacher. Where are you staying? rabbi as Jesus turns around and he asked them what they're seeking.

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They call him rabbi and John provides the translation of teacher

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But we need to go a little bit deeper than that because teachers a good place to start and and we would understand by that that Jesus is a teacher and if we want to be a follower then we must be a learner, which is definitely true

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But if we don't go a little deeper than that, we're gonna miss all of the beauty that is under this text that is cultural

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That maybe we don't understand in the in the rabbi discipleship relationship So for the next few moments,

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I want us to dive deep into the Jewish culture I want us to look at what it meant to be a rabbi I want us to look at what it meant to be the disciple of a rabbi and As we do that,

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I believe that it will become very clear for us how this can apply to us today So the first question we're gonna ask this evening is what does it mean to follow

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Jesus the rabbi At the time of Jesus Galilee was the center for Jewish learning

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While it was not as urban as Boston or Rome. It was the center for education in the first century.

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It was a well -known Collegiate community far from just being fishing towns full of backwoods people

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Galilee was like a hub for Jewish thinking and learning and while Jerusalem Which often is considered to be the main city of Israel, it's the capital city of Israel It's where the temple was that's where the

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Jewish religious elites gathered But Galilee was where the learning happened

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It's where the rabbis were taught is where they recruited new followers and where the the best schools were found

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It's kind of like Boston today people go to school here because it's the academic hub of America It's almost like the

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Athens of America and while New York and Washington DC are typical places where the elites gather

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Boston is an academic community and In some ways it was it was kind of like Galilee except far more rural and far more conservative

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Now the fact that Jesus was being called a rabbi in this region Would almost be akin to someone being a

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Harvard or MIT professor today It would have meant that he would have been highly educated He would have advanced through every rung of the

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Jewish education system And he would have made it to the highest places of Jewish learning after he finished all of the prerequisites then he would have been entrusted with some of the most promising students that the region had to offer to be a

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Rabbi at this particular time and place was a huge deal it would have been almost like having a

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PhD from one of these elite schools today, it was a Massive deal and a very small group of people who could call themselves rabbi

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Now I want us to Explore this in a little bit further depth so that we can understand the expectations that Jesus had as a rabbi

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For his followers because if Jesus is a rabbi and if these men are calling him

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Rabbi then they're pursuing a very particular sort of relationship that I want us to understand

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So that when we are looking at how does how do we follow Christ? We'll understand what that means for us

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Now the Bible itself Does not shed a lot of answers on this topic because the

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Bible was written to people who understood this process The Bible was written to people who understood what it meant to be a rabbi what it meant for people to follow the rabbi and The Bible as a result doesn't have a lot of text on How to make this clear for us.

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So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna look at a popular Jewish document called the Mishnah for a moment

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Because it actually sheds light on the Jewish education system It sheds light on the traditions of the rabbis.

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It sheds light on what it means to actually follow a rabbi and I think that this will be incredibly helpful for us today

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Now according to the Mishnah Education begins at five years old for Jewish boys and girls and they would begin learning how to read from the

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Torah Which is the first five books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy and The training would begin under the tutelage of a local rabbi who was hired to teach the children of various ages at the local synagogue

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This was kind of like elementary school But instead of it happening at a secular building in town it would have happened at the most prominent religious building in town the synagogue

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The synagogue is where church gatherings happened on Saturday or where social events happen throughout the week or where your children were educated during the day and Almost every important event in your life would have happened at the synagogue to say that the synagogue was the epicenter of Jewish life and culture is a gross understatement and This is where the kids would have been educated in a thoroughly biblical education

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Now while all the children would participate in this first stage of education, which ranged from age 5 to 10 years old

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The girls would then be separated out for secondary training in the home with their mother Their secondary education would be learning how to become caregivers or providers or future mothers to children

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And what I love about this is that the Jewish culture celebrated the essential differences between men and women and they carved out a

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Specialized secondary education for each gender They understood the unique role and calling that a woman has in her family and they trained the women in preparation for that role so the girls would enter secondary education with their mothers which would prepare them for the arduous task of being a mom and the tremendous influence that they were gonna have one day in their home and Society at large

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You see while the men were working long hours outside of the home It was the mothers who were raising the next generation of children.

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So their secondary education was vital to the life of the culture it's not an understatement at all to say that the trajectory and the

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Sustainability of the entire Jewish society at the time of Jesus would have been more influenced by the state of health of its mothers than its fathers

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While both were vitally important the role of mother in the Jewish culture cannot be understated

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Now it's worth noting that while their culture is different than ours It is a gross misconstrual of history to claim that the

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Jewish society was inherently misogynistic. I hear this a lot like From different scholars from different articles that that the ancient world was a terrible place for women

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It's just not true Especially of Israel like all cultures some men were morons and this is certainly true of the

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Jewish people at the time of Jesus but as a whole The Jewish society was one of the most pro women cultures in the ancient world and one of the best places on earth for a woman to live was

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Israel Their society valued their contribution and their society was healthy because they had healthy mothers.

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I Think that's an incredible point but we're gonna have to set that aside for a moment because Now we're gonna go back to the boys because this is the track of the rabbi that I want us to see

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At 10 years old the boys would continue going to synagogue and they would enter into their phase of secondary education

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Which was helping them become good fathers They would continue under the guidance of the rabbi

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But they would switch from learning how to read the Torah into learning how to study the

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Mishnah Which is the book that we're currently referencing That's giving us this data

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They would study the book of rabbinic traditions and they would understand how to interpret the first five books of the

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Bible from some of the best scholars of their day and They would enter into this phase of education so that they could think biblically speak biblically and eventually lead their family in family devotions

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You see for the Jewish male Their role was to learn how to be the spiritual leader of their home for the biblical female her role was to learn how to be the caregiver and the mother and this combination created a healthy society full of healthy nuclear families that actually thrived

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I think our society could learn a tremendous amount especially in the raising up of boys

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We have an entire generation today of men who are just boys Especially when it comes to spiritual things we need to recover and this is a tangential point to this message, but we need to recover a generation of boys who are going to grow up and to become men who are gonna lead their family spiritually and And take their family to the

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Bible and teach their family how to think biblically we need to recover that This is what was going on in Israel from ages 10 to 13 for the boys

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Now the result of this phase By the time the boy was 13, he would have memorized

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Most of them would have memorized the entire Torah again That's Genesis through Deuteronomy five books of the

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Bible and not short ones This accounts for about 25 % of the total volume of the

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Bible they would have had memorized and this was the baseline expectation for Jewish males because if you think about it if no one at the time could afford books and Their only copy of these books was at the local synagogue

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Then to take that Bible with you would be to memorize it To teach your wife and your children the scriptures would mean to have the scriptures inside of you and Again many if not, most of these boys would by 13 years of age would have had the entire

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Torah memorized now the average and below average male student would graduate from their biblical education in the

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Torah around the age of 13 and Far from being finished with learning

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They would actually leave the Academy and they would enter into the labor unions because the third phase of male learning

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After you finished your academic education would be to learn how to do a trade

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Because you're not only gonna bless your family with this being the spiritual head of the home You need to also bless your society by entering into the labor force

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So after they finished with their education They would pick up fishing poles chisels hammers and things like that and they would leave the academic world and they would enter into Apprenticeship training almost like a tech school today

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They would learn to become masters of a trade and it was usually the trade of their father Now there were some students though who were chosen to continue on in the academic track

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So at 13 years old instead of Throwing down the books and going into the big wide world to get a job

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They would have been the ones who impressed the adults and the rabbis who were over them and they would have went on to a third phase of education

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Now if you remember Jesus in the story of Luke was 12 years old. He was in this phase of secondary learning and If you remember he gets separated from his family

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He stays behind in Jerusalem and and when they finally go back and find him which was a couple of days later

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He's speaking with the religious leaders in the temple and he is demonstrating his education in the

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Mishnah He's demonstrating his ability to reason through the scriptures and speak like a rabbi to think deeply about the

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Mosaic Law and We learn that the Jewish leaders were deeply impressed with his advanced learning

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So either Luke is mentioning this just to show that Jesus at 12 years old was an extremely gifted student or He's picking up on a cultural theme that others would have noticed

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Jesus is not gonna at 13 years old probably put down his books and and enter the labor force.

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He's a gifted student He's gonna move on in the track of the rabbis He's gonna go into that third level of education

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And I think I think the reason why this is the only passage mentioned about Jesus's adolescence is to give the reader the understanding of which direction he was gonna go

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He was either gonna go to the labor unions at 13 or he was going to go into the track of the rabbis

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And I think that's why Luke brings this up. I think it's why he shows us that Jesus Impressed the

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Jerusalem elites because Jesus was on the track of the rabbis Now this third phase that they would have entered into Moved beyond the intensive dive of the

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Torah But also included now the study of the prophets and this was also done at the local synagogue

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You see the Torah was central to the life and heartbeat of the Jewish people the second text as far as priority for the

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Jewish people were the Prophets and the histories so they would now take a

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Two -year intensive dive from age 13 to 15 into those particular sections Now this would be the most intensive and most rigorous season of learning

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That they would do in their hometown and it would take them up until the age of 15 some would

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Continue on in their education after that if they continued to be excellent students some would stop there with an extra

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Education it'd be like an associate's degree today. They would stop there and they would enter into the labor force

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But again, if you distinguished yourself further as apparently Jesus did since he was called rabbi

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Then he would have had the privilege of leaving his hometown Under the direction of a regional rabbi and I don't understand or I don't know the the particular percentages here

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But this would have been a very rare honor that most children were not have afforded This is a fourth level of education to become a rabbi

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We'll call this like the bachelor's degree For Jesus to become a rabbi he would have needed to have completed a three -year training under a regional rabbi in Galilee If you were gonna become a rabbi you would probably forego marriage

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Which we know Jesus did and at 18 years old upon graduating from this three -year studying abroad with a rabbi

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Then he would have taken on his father's trade at 18 years old Which we know

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Jesus did he became a carpenter and he started working with his father Now if you were gonna become a rabbi

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You would have to not only enter into the trade because the Jewish Society was was very

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Adamant that there was no such thing as full -time students who didn't contribute to society So if you wanted to continue on getting your master's degree or PhD as it were

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I Know they didn't have those titles back then. But if you wanted to continue in your education after the age of 18

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Then you would need to do so independently and by vocationally So Jesus would have done this three -year study under a rabbi he would have graduated from that and then he would have entered into the work of his father as a carpenter and he would have worked as a carpenter while he continued to study while he continued to learn and He would have done that until he was about the age of 30 years old 30 years old is when you could be commissioned as a rabbi

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Now is it really all that surprising then if this is what the missionist says was normal at the time of Jesus is

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It really that surprising that at 12 years old? He surprised the Jerusalem elites with his knowledge meaning he would have went on to further study.

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Is it really that strange that at 30 years old is When he began his public ministry when he was commissioned as a rabbi, which was very normal in this custom

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He had to be 30 years old to be a rabbi is it is it really all that strange that Jesus Entered his ministry at 30 years old

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Is it really all that strange that that his ministry lasted three years when that was from 15 to 18 when young boys

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Would be wanting to study with a rabbi. It was a three -year program So already you'll you'll see we've learned some answers to some questions

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We've learned why Jesus's ministry began at 30 years old. We now have learned why his ministry

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Lasted exactly three years with his disciples because he was a rabbi teaching students We also learned a little bit about Jesus He would have been instantly one of the most highly sought -after rabbis in the region

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He was a brand new rabbi, but because of John the Baptist affirmation John was also a rabbi because he had disciples that he was training and Because of John the

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Baptist's affirmation that He wasn't even worthy to tie his shoes that he was the

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Lamb of God that he was the Son of God these this trifold affirmation of who Jesus is

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Many people would have longed to follow Jesus. So here we are Jesus's public introduction in these passages and immediately you have people following him

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Immediately you have Andrew and John Leaving John the Baptist who was their rabbi so that they could follow

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Jesus and John is okay with this John is actually probably the one who led them to make this decision

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So now we've learned a few things culturally underneath the text now I want us to switch our focus a little bit from understanding who

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Jesus the rabbi is Now I want us to ask the question of what would it have been like for the disciples to follow a

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Jewish rabbi Because this is a critical question. We've established that Jesus was a rabbi

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But now to understand what it would have been like to follow Jesus the rabbi is a critical question

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Again this season of your life would have been from ages 15 to 18 You would have been an excellent student

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You would have been one who was ready to take on the rigor of a three -year intensive training where you would have left your home left your family left everything with no pay in order to follow an expert rabbi and the whole point of this season

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Was so that you could learn how to think and speak and recite the scriptures just like him you see the goal of the rabbi was to produce himself in you and In order to do that you would need to come under his program of Advanced biblical teaching which he called his yoke

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So when you see Andrew and John calling Jesus rabbi their expectation was that he would yoke them

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That he would train them that he would take them under his wings and he would develop them Now you may be wondering what is a yoke

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I'm not talking about things related to breakfast here when we talk about a yoke.

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It's it's The it's a metaphorical term that that the rabbis would use a very common phrase in the in the rabbinic world

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That today we might call a curriculum or a degree program. The yoke was the entire body of learning

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That a rabbi would lay on top of a young man For three years so that he could learn how to Think like the rabbi and speak like the rabbi and do everything just like the rabbi and the reason

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I say this is Metaphorical is because this word actually came out of the farming community It would be when a farmer would lay a yoke or a harness on top of an ox and This would have been a heavy burden for the animal that they would have

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Connected two oxen together side -by -side together as a team of oxen and they would be synced up to pull the plow

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Which would of course bring about a great harvest So one way of looking at this was the rabbi was going to put a great burden on you like an ox

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So that as you are pulling this great burden of teaching And learning that your life would eventually produce a harvest for the people

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Now that burden that harness was his body of doctrine it was your degree program which was not entirely academic

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It was academic, but it also included your expectations for behavior It also included opportunities for service when

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Jesus sends out the 70 disciples to go out and do ministry he's doing rabbinic things and With the yoke of a rabbi upon you it would not only add to your burdens

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But it would teach you how to serve God It would teach you how to plow the intellectual landscape of the nation so that your life would be a blessing to the people

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Now the Bible uses this term yoked a couple different ways and I think it'd be interesting if we

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If we look into those for a second when when married couples become married the

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Bible says do not be unequally yoked What does it mean for a married couple to be unequally yoked it simply means do not be married to someone who's hitched up to a different wagon

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Someone who has not come under the yoke of Christ Do not marry someone who is not pulling with Christ think about an ox

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You've got two ox one is on one wagon and one is on the other one is pulling the wagon of Buddhism or the wagon of atheism or the wagon of materialism or the wagon of Agnosticism or whatever wagon you want to you want to say and then the other oxen is is pulling a different wagon

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It's pulling the wagon of Christ And when life gets hard you pull yourselves apart

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Because you're not yoked Equally to the same cart that that's what that means

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Now what it doesn't mean is That you're gonna have

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Both oxen be at the exact same ability and aptitude a marriage may have one person who's a little bit further along than Christ than the other

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One may be stronger in their faith than the other one may be weaker one may be the spiritual leader of the home like the

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Husband and and one may be the caregiver and provider. So so they're not equal in a sense of sameness

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But they're equal in the fact that they're connected to Christ That's what it means when we think about not being unequally yoked in a marriage.

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It means that biblically both People must be believers of Jesus for it to be a biblical marriage

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Now I say this because There's another biblical metaphor that's incredibly important and it's it's even more important to the topic that we're discussing today

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It was a common practice in agrarian societies to break in a new ox

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By pairing it with a stronger adult animal See it would take a younger and weaker animal that might be nervous and anxious and would have no idea how to actually plow a field and they would harness them to a

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More mature adult animal so that when that animal was fighting the harness kicking and panting and resisting the yoke with all of their might

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Then they would look over to the more mature oxen that was paired up with them and they would see how to behave as an ox as They were kicking and panting they would have looked over and they would have seen off I'm not supposed to be kicking and panting as that other ox was pulling and and this ox was

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Resisting they would have worn themselves out to the point to where they would have given up and they would have realized no I need To be like this other ox

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Now when you plow a field you would have need to have two oxes of similar strength, but this in this training scenario

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You would have had two oxes of unequal strength so that you could teach this the younger ox how to actually plow like the older ox and the

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Bible compares this to discipleship in some really beautiful ways

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Much like a new believer spends a season resisting Jesus Being anxious and trying to do everything in their own strength

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Not wanting to put on Jesus's yoke and Jesus is teaching kicking and panting and causing a scene

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But eventually Jesus wins us over Eventually we've become tired of resisting and we and we look up to Christ and We watch him

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Pull We watch that. He's not freaking out We watch that he has peace that he has calm under these burdens and we look to Christ And we begin to imitate that peace when he pulls then we start to pull when he stops we stop and as the

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In a metaphorical sense as the younger animal would become accustomed to wearing the yoke

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He would learn in intimate details what was expected from him simply by staring at the older animal and in the same way

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Those who would follow the rabbi in the Jewish culture would look to him. They would take on his yoke

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They would take on his burden and they would look to him and they would imitate him

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The whole goal of their life was that they would resemble him in every single possible way in this three -year program was meant to reproduce the rabbi into them so that they would walk like him and talk like him and read the

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Bible like him and follow God like him And is it any wonder?

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With this metaphor that it's when Jesus comes to his disciples and he says come to me All of you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest my yoke is easy my burden is light

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Jesus is speaking like a rabbi here He's saying stop trying to carry the burdens of yourself

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He's saying your shoulders can't support that load why don't instead why don't you connect yourself to me and Come under my teaching and let me pull the load let me carry the burdens of this life the ones that have been weighing you down and and frustrating you and Just like that baby calf

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That's doing nothing in the beginning that the adult ox is the one who's pulling the load

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Jesus is looking at you maybe and saying I don't even want you to pull in this season I just want you to stare at me.

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I just want you to look at me I just want you to have that my peace. I want you to notice my joy

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I want you to notice my righteousness I want you to look at the way that I think in the way that I talk in the way that I walk in the way that I praise and I want you to look at every possible thing that I do and I want you to settle down and I Want you to stop resisting

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God and I want you to let me pull your life instead of you Struggling every single day to pull it yourself.

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I Want you to look at me and I want you to imitate me

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And I want you to mimic me. I want you to walk when

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I walk I Want you to keep in step with me? When I move you move when

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I stop you stop when I pull you pull and what a wonderful metaphor this is if you're not a

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Christian and you're listening to this and you're overly burdened by the world and if you don't know

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Jesus abandon what you're hooked up to and Let go of all the burden that you're currently pulling and yoke yourself up with Christ And if you're a

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Christian and If you're feeling burdened I want you to remember

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That you're yoked up with him He may be struggling so hard right now

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You may be pulling so vigorously you may be burned out and expended with life

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I get it But You're hooked up to the one who is burying the burdens and he's right beside of you turn and look at him

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If you would just let go he is still going to be pulling He is still going to be leading

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It's kind of like that poem that says in the good parts of life There were two footprints in the sand and when things were hard There was only one footprint of sand and the question was did

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Jesus abandon you during the hard times? No, he was the one who was carrying you and Just like that baby ox if you would stop

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The carts still gonna be moving because he's still gonna be the one pulling All of your burden

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Contribution that you're trying to add to the equation is actually not helping It's not improving your life to be so frustrated

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The real power in your life is right beside of you and it's pulling you Your job is to just simply rest in him

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Now this kind of learning This yoke that we're talking about Would last three years

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It would be three years of the disciples intimately looking at Christ so that they could learn how to be just like him

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So that they would no longer be anxious little cows But When he ascended into heaven, they would know how to be like him and they would know how to take his message to the ends of the earth

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You see the whole point of discipleship is when people See them

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They would actually be seeing him and for us today. The point of discipleship is when people see you

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They're actually seeing Jesus That's what successful discipleship looks like Now in our text today

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John the gospel writer says these two disciples of John heard Jesus speak and they followed

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Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following him and he said to them. What do you seek?

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What are you looking for? What's your what's your goal here? And They said to him rabbi, which is translated teacher.

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Where are you staying? How can we follow you? Please let us be yoked up to you you see they knew

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Jesus was a preeminent rabbi and they wanted to follow him and In this text we get to see the very beginning of that three -year process that Jesus is gonna take them through Now before we continue

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I do want to I do want to highlight a couple of points that might not be explicit in the narrative

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I Think it teaches us two interesting cultural details about these disciples

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Because that's the question that we're asking is what does it mean to follow Jesus? Well, let's look at these disciples and find out what it meant for them first We learned that if the age

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That people followed a rabbi is roughly 15 years old Then all of Jesus's first disciples in John one except for Peter were probably 15 or 16 years old

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Again according to the Mishnah which teaches us which is what is culturally normal Then we're looking at teenage boys

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Who are signing up to follow Jesus and isn't that so encouraging? Because when we think about disciples we think about men who had it all together

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We think about men who were spiritual giants We think about men who were standing in front of the community and acts and they were preaching these amazing sermons

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What we're looking at is teenage boys, I Don't know if you remember the story where John and James are fighting over who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom and then their mother has to get involved

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It's because they were teenage boys they were hormonal teenage boys that were following Jesus and I find that so comforting that Jesus was choosing to train them as the start of the kingdom of God on planet

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Earth because That gives me hope that no matter what phase of my life.

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I'm in right now. I can follow Jesus There might be a 14 or 15 year old boy or girl listening to this message right now, and I want you to know

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That you don't have to wait until you become an adult to follow Jesus You can follow Jesus now just like these disciples and you can have a world -changing impact because you're following him

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The second thing that this teaches us is that Peter's age Was a little bit older than the rest of the people in the group and we know this for four reasons

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Andrew in our text the first reason had to leave in order to go get him That means that Peter wasn't studying under John the

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Baptist Which tells us he probably was beyond that 15 to 18 year range

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John says One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother

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And he found first his own brother Simon. He said to him we found the Messiah This tells us that Peter was not following a rabbi

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Other Gospels tell us that he was actually already in the labor force he was already fishing which meant that he had graduated if Peter had followed a rabbi he would be 18 years old, which

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I think is probably most likely but the fact that he's already in the fishing business means that his education career had already ended and Andrew had to leave

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Jesus momentarily to go find his brother That's the first reason the second reason that we know

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Peter was a little bit older Was because Peter was married which traditionally happened for Jewish males after their academic education and It happened either sometime from the age of 13 to 18

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So assuming that Peter had been training with a rabbi. He also had time to get married

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So he's somewhere between 18 and 18 years old if that is what occurred and that's again what

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I think has happened I'll share more in just a moment The third line of evidence beyond Peter just being married and the fact that he's already in a trade is

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That Andrew introduces Jesus to Peter not as a rabbi because that wouldn't have been relevant to him if he had already finished his training

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He introduces him as the Messiah, which he probably learned from John the Baptist But what is interesting to me is

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Andrew when he references Jesus he says rabbi when he talks to Peter he says Messiah both are true

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But when Andrew is talking to Peter he's trying to cast the discussion in Ways that would be relevant and applicable to Peter if he goes to Peter and he says hey

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We found the greatest rabbi Peter's like man. I wish I would have known about it. I've already went to school

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But he says no we found the Messiah Peter is instantly interested and he follows Andrew back to Jesus Well, the reason that's important is because Peter had already finished his academic training he had already been with a rabbi so therefore he's

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Interested because Jesus is not just a rabbi. He's the Messiah The fourth reason

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I think this is the most compelling reason of them all We're gonna take a little bit of time to develop this men in the

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Old Testament Were required to pay taxes when they're 20 years of age or older and they were required to pay a temple tax that Moses had instituted to the people

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Moses writes Then the Lord also spoke to Moses saying when you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them

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Then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord. That's a tax

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When you number them So that they won there will be no plague among them when you number them

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This is what everyone who is numbered shall give Half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary

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Half a shekel as a contribution to the Lord everyone who is numbered from 20 years old and over Shall give the contribution to the

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Lord. So what you have here is a census that is getting ready to occur and Every male over 20 years old is gonna pay a temple tax

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Which is going to ensure that the temple has everything that it's need that it would that it has all of its necessary finances that it can repair structures or purchase resources or repair items and the money went to the ongoing upkeep of the temple and again, it was for men 20 years old and Older men who had finished school men who had gotten married and had jobs who could bear the burden of this tax

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The Jewish culture is so interesting in the fact that it's not gonna require its 15 and 18 year old students

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To pay the tax. It's no it's gonna put this burden on the 20 year old men who already have established jobs and careers

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So now why is this important Because in Matthew 17 the Jewish authorities come up to Peter and Jesus and they say

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Why is your master not paying the temple tax of? One half shekel Peter goes and tells

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Jesus and I'm sure he's anxious at this point. This is what Jesus responds to him and says So that we

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Do not offend them Go to the sea and throw in a hook and take the first fish that comes up and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel

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Notice that it's not a half shekel That was the payment for a 20 year old established by Moses was a half shekel

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Jesus says pay a full shekel which would have been enough for two men and The question we ask is

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Jesus just being generous. I don't think so. I mean not exactly Jesus I'm sure was generous but in this regard it's intentional because the very next thing that Jesus says was take that and give it to them for me and you or for you and for me

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Peter at this time is broke. He can't pay the temple tax because instead of having an established career

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He's following Jesus, but because he's older than 20 years old. He's gonna have to pay this tax

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He doesn't have the money to pay this tax Jesus tells him to throw a line into the ocean and to pay for him and Peter Which means that both of them were over 20 years old, which means that none of the other disciples were 20 years old

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Which means that Jesus is leading a group of teenage boys with Peter as the second -in -command

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Who has a little bit more responsibility than the rest That is the group that we're looking at here. And this is important because it not only establishes

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The kind of people that Jesus is leading But it establishes to us and I think it should encourage us

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That these are not powerful people Jesus is leading a revolution

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Where the where he is saying that the kingdom of God has returned to the land and he's not doing it with men with swords

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He's not doing it with with men with guns and weapons. He's doing it with teenagers Every facet of Jesus's life.

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I Find so fascinating. He's not just a rabbi He's not just training students.

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He's training world changing Disciples who are gonna share the gospel message and I love how he does it with these these young men.

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It's likely that John the gospel writer is Just 15 years old when this event is happening

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Now, I also don't share these details just to give us interesting background information on this text

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Our goal here is not just to fill our heads full of cultural data so that we can become puffed up and prideful

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I Also share this because I want us to understand the expectation that Jesus has for Disciples and I want us to understand the expectation that Jesus has for us if we are going to be his followers

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These young boys were accepted by Jesus in John 1 To embark on a deliberate and intensive period of instruction

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Where they would learn everything from Christ that he would teach them. They would leave their homes

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Peter would leave his wife. They would leave their houses and families in order to follow him the

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Expectation that Jesus had on them was that they would give up everything to follow him in Fact until recently in the modern world and in the modern church.

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It was a normal and healthy Expectation to assume that when you follow Jesus you are giving up everything in order to go after him

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If you remember a couple examples in the gospel people would say let me bury my father and my mother first and Jesus says

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Let the dead bury their dead You follow me Jesus says if you're not willing to sell everything that you have you're not worthy of me if you love father and mother more than Me, you're not worthy of me the expectation that Jesus had on these young men and the expectation that he has on us

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Is that if we're not willing to give up everything to go chasing after him, then we are not worthy of him

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If we want to be his followers we cannot just assume that that means making a decision or praying a prayer

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Like these disciples we need to be willing to leave the familiar to follow him We need to be willing to know why that we're following him.

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We need to long to dwell with him But we also need to understand this fourth attribute that to be a follower of Jesus means to be his

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Disciple the disciples of the rabbi would give up everything in order to follow him They would be yoked with Jesus so that they would look to him for their everything.

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They would watch him for their everything They would mimic him for their everything. They would try to become just like him so that they could become less like themselves

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They would learn his entire body of doctrine his entire commands They would learn how to imitate him and that is the expectation for what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ It's not for the half -hearted and it's not for those who are too enamored with the cares and the concerns of the world to be a disciple

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To be a disciple is to give up your life and it's to take his yoke upon yourself. It's to be deliberate

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Intentional committed and invested there is nothing at all passive about being a disciple of Jesus Christ Yes, it is about relationship

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But it's about a relationship where you're maximally invested because he is maximally invested in you

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He went to the cross. He died so that he could purchase you He gave everything for you and expects everything in return

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He expects that you will be yoked up to him to to his plans

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Jesus does not invite himself to yoke himself up to your life so that you can teach him where you're going and he can

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Add a spiritual flavor to what you're doing and your emotions and your thoughts and your life goals

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Jesus says you have to leave all of that You have to leave house home family

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You have to leave everything behind and be willing to leave everything in order to follow me

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He says you have to leave those things because they're harming you He says that you have to put on his yoke because that's what's light and easy

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He's saying that you need to spend the rest of your days intentionally and joyfully learning from him you see there's there's been a

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Recent Anti -intellectual stream that has infected Christianity We have churches now that won't even preach the full gospel.

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They won't preach sin. They won't preach hell They won't preach depth and theology because they're afraid that they're gonna go over someone's head

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Jesus told his disciples to take upon his yoke, which was to take upon the entirety of his teaching

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Because Jesus had an expectation that being a Christian meant being a learner. It meant being someone who studied it meant being someone who?

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Rigorously submitted themselves to the doctrines of Jesus Christ How dare us as churches continue to water down the message of the gospel?

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Because we think that that is antithetical to Christianity you are a fool if you're a pastor and you do that Jesus laid a

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Three -year yoke of teaching on his disciples who intentionally studied the

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Old Testament Intentionally studied the Bible so that they could please their master and yet we watered down sermons because we think that that's not

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Christian How dare any pastor do that? And that's why

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I think at the Shepherd's Church, we are trying to do different than that We're trying to go deep and trying to teach the doctrine of Christ because that's the yoke that Christ wants us to bear to be a

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Christian is For the world to see Jesus increasingly on us instead of us

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The world needs to see less of you and I and more of him. How do we get there? We sit under his yoke of doctrine

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We learn from him The world desperately needs to hear his thoughts coming out of our brains.

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Well, how do we do that? We submit to his yoke We submit to his teaching We don't come into the sanctuary of God with our own opinions

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We submit to his opinions so that his thoughts would invade our thoughts The world needs to see his character coming out of our life.

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Well, how do we do that? We need to know his character The world needs to listen to his words coming out of our mouths.

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Well, we need to know his words if we're gonna speak them The point is that followers must die to themselves so that their master can be replicated in them

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Followers must die to their laziness so that they can study who Jesus is followers must die to their apathy so that they will know who

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Jesus is followers must die to themselves so that he can be replicated in them and Listen, I know for me

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That this is still Something that breaks my heart because there's still far too much of me in this old bag of flesh

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There's still far too many opinions of mine that are unsubmitted to Christ There are still far too many of Kendall's words coming out of my mouth

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There's still far too many people seeing Kendall instead of seeing Jesus and I mourn over that Not in a way that makes me feel hopeless not in some kind of performance driven way

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But I'm finally beginning to understand what it means for me to be like Jesus and for me to have all of my life in submission to him when he purchased us on Calvary He invited us to be his disciples and that plan was far bigger far grander far more committed than any of us could have ever realized and yet There's still rebellious parts of me that need to be laid down and there's still rebellious parts in you

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That need to be laid down if you were going to take up your cross and if you're gonna follow Jesus the rabbi

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One of the things that we must remember is that when we commit to follow

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Jesus We commit to follow him where he is going Where is

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Jesus going? John 135 gives us the hint and And again the next day

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John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked and he said as he walked

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Behold the Lamb of God Dear Christian, who are we following?

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We're following the lamb and where is the lamb gonna take us?

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Well, this great lamb was bound for the cross so when we think

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About following Jesus the rabbi Taking upon his yoke

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Taking upon his teaching Committed ourselves to follow him in everything watching him in everything surrendering all of our lives

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The direction that he is leading us is to the cross He went there to give his life as a ransom for many

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He Went there to be murdered on a cross that bears your name. He led you up to the foot of the cross

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He showed you that that cross belonged to you and instead he got on it and was murdered on it for you

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He took you there So that you would see the brutality of it.

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He took you there So that you would take up your cross and you would follow him. He took you there

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Not so that you would die But so that you would finally live

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He took you there so that you would go and lay your burdens down at the foot of the cross that you would lay your

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Sins down at the foot of the cross that you would lay your pains and your sorrows down at the foot of the cross

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That you would lay your faulty Opinions down at the foot of the cross that you would lay every part of your whole self down at the foot of the cross

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He places his yoke on you that frees you and he takes away your sin that kills him and it was in that glorious Exchange where you followed him to the cross where you get to stand up now and walk away free

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You see the goal of following Jesus the rabbi is to follow him into freedom in the only way that you're ever gonna have that freedom as if he lays his yoke on you while you lay your sins on him and The expectation is that he has perfectly died for your sins and you are free

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But make no mistake brothers and sisters when you stand up you stand up with his yoke You stand up with his teaching you stand up with the expectation that you are going to be a learner of the rabbi

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To be a Christian who has no interest in learning doctrine is antithetical to what

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Jesus taught My prayer for all of us here today is

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That we would be a learner of Christ like Matthew 28 18 through 20 says that we would go into all the world and make disciples of him by baptizing them in the name of The Father Son and the

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Holy Spirit and by teaching them how to obey everything Jesus commanded Well, the only way we're ever gonna be able to do that is if we know everything that Jesus commanded

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So I pray that for you I pray that you would get in your word that you would get in your Bible and that you would learn every single thing that Jesus commanded

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I Pray that you would get in your Old Testament and you would learn all of the things that point forward to Jesus I pray you would get in Paul and you would learn all of the application that he's reflecting on that looks back at Jesus I pray that you would get into your

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Bibles that you would learn who Christ is as a faithful disciple and then you would take that Knowledge not to puff yourself up But to magnify him to the nations let's pray

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Father thank you for this message and thank you for allowing us to look deeply into the life of the the

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Jewish education system and to learn what it means to be a rabbi and Learn what it means to be his followers

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Lord would we be healthy and Deliberate followers of Jesus Would we take up his yoke?

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Would we take up his teaching? Would we learn everything that he has commanded? Would we be diligent to study would we be?

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Excited and passionate about learning and Lord inner learning, please do not allow us to to be puffed up but like the

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Jewish Disciples who followed the Jewish rabbis would we? See him coming to life in us

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Would we see us dying daily so that he could be more and greater inside of us?

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Lord, would we? Have moments where people see Jesus in us instead of seeing us