Bill's Bible Blog

The G.C. is often referred to as Jesus’ final command. It culminated an intensive 3 1/2 years of discipleship training with Jesus.

At the beginning, Jesus issued invitations to follow Him as disciples with words like these to the Galilean fishermen, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”

What did it mean for His disciples? In essence it meant that they were with Jesus 24 / 7. Taking time for sleep and maybe some personal needs, this would be between 17,000 and 19,000 hours of discipleship over the 3 1/2 years.

What did they do during this time? Activities as seen in the gospels fit into 3 categories. Their first commitment was to SERVE in Jesus’ ministry. They took care of His and the group’s essential needs. They acted as ushers and errand runners. They screened those approaching Jesus, and did everything that was needed to keep a traveling ministry going.

What did the disciples get for their service? They got the opportunity to LEARN from Jesus. They listened to His public teachings and watched as He modeled it. In private they could ask questions and received private instruction. They sometimes were even corrected and rebuked.

Thirdly, they FELLOWSHIPPED with Jesus. They traveled together, they ate together, they even slept in a common room together. They went to synagogue and worshipped together every week and attended the yearly festivals in Jerusalem together. They talked, they laughed, they cried and even made mistakes together.

And this was Jesus’ plan, to prepare successors to carry on His work of taking the Gospel to the entire world. He even said that when a disciple is fully trained, they will become like their master. So, were they ready? Well…not quite. You see, there was…One…More…Command.