Discipleship 101

At this early point in His ministry, Jesus had achieved "rock star" status in Israel. He was a celebrity and people were flocking to Him from everywhere. But even as He drew massive crowds He was also manufacturing mega-controversy. His claims to be the Messiah and God were generating such antagonism that plans were under already underway to "destroy Him" (Mark 3:6). Jesus lived knowing that He was in mortal danger from priests and politicians alike and that His life would be a short one. With that in mind, Christ drew around Himself "the Twelve." These were the guys that He would pour all that He had into before He was killed. These were the ones that He would count on to spread His Gospel to the world after He was gone back to Heaven. These were the ones chosen to model for you and me what it means to truly be a disciple of Jesus so that He can work through us to change lives until His Return. Mark 3:13-35 gives us some of the early lessons ("Discipleship 101") the Lord taught His team about what it really meant to follow Him. They immediately learned that being a disciple was way stranger than they ever thought and also way better than they ever imagined. Today we'll see the same is still true for you and for me.