Jesus Teaches His Disciples


Jesus’ disciples were with Him for about three years before The Cross. They were personally trained by the Lord during this time. What they heard was something different. Jesus’ way was radically dissimilar to the human tradition and hypocrisy taught and practiced by the teachers to whom the people were accustomed, the scribes and Pharisees. I suppose in part because of the uniqueness of His teaching, Jesus often used small group settings to teach the twelve.

He taught them about the nature of His kingdom. Much of His teaching centered on the kind of moral life the members of His kingdom/church would live. As examples of this teaching, we are reminded of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and the kingdom parables of Matthew 13. These two events actually involved large groups, but Jesus certainly repeated these same themes over and over to the apostles as he taught them privately.

A member of Christ’s kingdom would be a Christian. What was the Christian to be like? We have what we might call a summary statement of the Christian life in the Sermon on the Mount. Much of what Jesus says here is paradoxical: it is completely different from the prevailing wisdom of the world. He expected His disciples to understand that, and to buy it and sell it not. Jesus here talked about how the Christian would think and how the Christian would act. Obviously the two are related.

Jesus said His disciple would be humble. He spoke of the blessedness of those who are poor in spirit (realizing their need for God), those who mourn over sin (including their own sin), and those who are meek (they are always in control of their life, rather than letting the world control it for them). Jesus spoke of the generosity of the Christian. He would be merciful to others and he would try to promote peace among men (he would be a peacemaker). Jesus said the Christian would be pure in heart, and He explained the kind of life that a pure heart would produce. He said the Christian would be tough. He spoke of being persecuted for righteousness sake - and still being righteous.

When Jesus’ disciples actually lived like this, people would take notice. So Jesus said a Christian is salt and light.

A Christian would understand that bad deeds, such as murder and adultery, begin in the heart – and so he would guard his thoughts. The Christian would acknowledge God’s plan for marriage, that it was intended to be one man and one woman for life. The Christian would go beyond what was required. And that second mile would even go so far as to love one’s enemies. The Christian would give careful attention to prayer, following the model prayer and personal example of Jesus Himself. The Christian, of all people, would understand the nature of material things and be one hundred percent focused on the spiritual. The Christian would give his overwhelming attention to improving his own life instead of judging his brother. The Christian would persistently and consistently seek the will and blessing of God, knowing that it was God’s will for him so to do. The Christian would understand how crucial it was to make proper choices. He would not be led astray by those who were false, but would approach God by obedience. He would build his house on the rock.

If Christ’s kingdom was made up of people who actually lived this way, then it would be special indeed. Jesus often illustrated its uniqueness with parables. He told about the Sower and the different response the various soils made to his seed. He said the soils represented people’s hearts. Jesus said if the principles of His kingdom were properly practiced, Christianity would grow like a mustard seed: into something very large that began very small. He candidly said that His church would wind up having hypocrites in it, but that their day was coming; they would be pulled up like weeds (called tares in the parable) and cast into the fire. Jesus said His kingdom was the most valuable thing there ever was, and compared it to a pearl merchant who found the best pearl there ever was, and sold everything he had to buy it.

What would it have been like to sit in a quiet place, in a group of twelve or so, in the Galilean hills, possibly in view of the Sea of Galilee itself, and listen to Jesus teach? It would have been wonderful beyond description. I am not a particularly emotional person, but it almost makes me cry tears of gratitude and joy to contemplate a glorious event like that.

We can go to those Galilean hills with Jesus every day. All we’ve got to do is open a book and read from its pages. That book is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ – and we all own a copy.