Disciples are called to take action.
In Mark 1:16-20 Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him. In Matthew 9:9 Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him.
Jesus’ initial call is to follow Him. It is a call to action.
Jesus didn’t call them to just come see Him or come spend the day with Him. He called them to follow Him.
The disciples followed Him everywhere.
In Matthew 8:23 the disciples get into a boat to follow Jesus.
Matthew 8:24 tells us the results. The verse says, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep.”
They followed Jesus into a storm.
When we follow Jesus, He will lead us into storms. He will lead us to take risky action.
But Jesus has everything under control. In Matthew 8:26b it says, “Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”
By following Jesus into the storm, the disciples experienced the power of God.
In Mark 6:1 the disciples followed Jesus to His hometown of Nazareth.
They followed Jesus into a circumstance of rejection.
When we follow Jesus, He will lead us into circumstances where we will be rejected.
But they came away from this experience with a better understanding of faith and the importance of faith in relating to Jesus.
Mark 6:5 says, “And He could do no mighty works there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.”
The people in Nazareth lacked faith in Jesus and rejected Him, and so it hindered Jesus from displaying His power and glory.
In Matthew 22:39 the disciples followed Jesus to the Mount of Olives. Jesus was leading them into a time of testing.
When we follow Jesus He will lead us into times of testing.
In their testing the disciples got to see Jesus follow the Father’s will and offer Himself as a willing sacrifice.
In John chapter one Andrew follows Jesus and experiences a revelation that Jesus is the Messiah. He then in John 1:41 goes and finds Peter and tells him that they had found the Messiah.
The initial action of following Jesus will lead to more and more action.
In John 4:2 we are told that the disciples, not Jesus, were baptizing new followers.
The disciples, by following Jesus, were given the privilege and responsibility of helping people to come to Jesus, connect with Jesus and begin following Jesus.
So the initial call of Jesus is to follow. It does not end there.
The command that Jesus gave His disciples before He left is found in Matthew 28:19-20. It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
The impetrative in that passage is Make Disciples. But look at the other action words in that passage - go, baptize, teach.
We make disciples through our actions of going and baptizing and teaching.
The teaching was a result of the following. They could teach about God’s power because they saw it as Jesus stilled the storm. They could teach about faith because they saw the result of a lack of faith by the people in Nazareth. They could teach about obedience and sacrifice because they saw it as Jesus followed the Father’s will and gave himself up for us in the garden.
All of this comes out of following Jesus.
We Want to go because we are followers of Jesus.
We are Enabled to make disciples because we are followers of Jesus.
We are Qualified to baptize because we are followers of Jesus.
We Have Something to teach because we are followers of Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about Following Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about Making Disciples.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about going, baptizing, and teaching.
Disciples are called to be followers. It is a call to action.
With Action Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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