In Luke 6:12-16 and Mark 3:13-19, we see that Jesus selected twelve of His followers and called them to a closer walk with Him. They obeyed, and Jesus equipped them with power to demonstrate signs of His kingdom.
Pastor Benji noted that these followers of Jesus has already embraced "the messianic hope": prior to Jesus's ministry, they had been followers of John the Baptist, Jesus's cousin who preached repentance. And when John identified Jesus as the Messiah, many of John's followers left to follow Jesus (see John 3:26-36).
Of the many, Jesus chose twelve.
These twelve, as was the custom in that culture, abandoned everything else and spent three years seeing Jesus up-close. They had a front row seat from which they could watch Him live. Pastor Benji shared with us that this "front row seat" allowed the twelve to see how Jesus responded to insults, misunderstanding, and prejudice. They saw how Jesus conducted Himself in ministry. And Scripture shows us that eleven of the twelve learned from watching Him.
To summarize, Pastor Benji gave us a short list of what this abandonment entailed:
-the Twelve abandoned people;
-the Twelve abandoned places;
-the Twelve abandoned practices.
What's that, you say? Leave my family? My neighborhood? My employment?
Yes! Who better to build up the kingdom of God than the men and women who are fully abandoned to Him?
Would you be willing to do a homework assignment? Read Matthew 19:27-30.
Lord, help us to be fully abandoned to You!
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