THE APPRENTICE
INTRODUCTION
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 28:18-20
SEPTEMBER 10, 2006
I know that all of you have heard of Donald Trump’s television program called The Apprentice. Of course in this program people compete for the opportunity to apprentice with Donald Trump and with his company. Most of the people of course are fired before they ever get a chance. I think most of us have some concept of apprenticeship. We have had people in our lives who have influenced us, people who have taught us, people who have trained us.
In the Middle Ages, the European continent had trade guilds and craft guilds that operated on the basis of apprenticeship. This was particularly true in the late Middle Ages in Western Europe from the year 1000 to the year 1600. For six hundred years, all of these trade guilds across Western Europe operated on the basis of apprenticeship. Most apprentices were males. They were men or boys because it was a patriarchal society. At the age of 13 a typical boy would leave home and he would go to apprentice with a master. If you wanted to be a doctor, you had to apprentice with a master. If you wanted to be a sculptor, you had to apprentice with a master. If you wanted to be a banker, you had to apprentice with a master. So at the age of thirteen, typically a boy would leave home and he would go to apprentice with a master in his chosen field. Typically apprenticeship lasted for 7 years. It was the responsibility of the master to take the apprentice in, to provide shelter, to provide food, to provide clothing and of course to provide training.
At the age of twenty, after 7 years, typically the young man became a journeyman. As a journeyman you could hire yourself out to any master who would hire you and you began to receive a salary. Of course hopefully, over a period of time, you yourself would become a master. This is how it worked in the Middle Ages and particularly between the years 1000 and 1600.
Of course when you look at the world of art and you look at the great masters of sculpture, in the 15th century you think of Ghiberti and you also in the 15th century think of Donatello; in the 16th century, Michelangelo and Cellini. These were great masters, but they were all once apprentices. They all apprenticed, and they did this for a number of years. As masters, they took in apprentices. And so Donatello was an apprentice with Ghiberti, and Michelangelo was an apprentice with those who had once been students of Donatello. Of course Cellini was an apprentice to Michelangelo. This was the way it worked. The great masters were not simply those who were great sculptors but those who were able to train many others to be great sculptors and so that was the world at that time. Well, we live in a different time, don’t we?
So here we are gathered here today, and we do not have this structured system of apprenticeship but if you are a Christian, you should understand the concept of apprenticeship because the entire gospel is based on the concept of apprenticeship and the whole concept of the Christian faith is based on apprenticeship before the Supreme Master, who is Jesus Christ. So what we are going to be discussing today is very foundational. Some of it is, I think for some of you, going to be kind of disturbing. This is so important, and it is going to be the basis of everything else we discuss in this series. I have three teachings this morning. First of all we want to take a look at rabbinical apprenticeship. We want to take a look at the rabbi and apprenticeship in the world of Jesus, in the time of Jesus, in the biblical world.
We need to review a little bit. Some of you are familiar with this and some of you are not but if you were a Jewish boy and you were 5 years old…and again, the Jewish world was patriarchal, and girls did not enter into apprenticeship; they were trained by their parents at home. But if you were a Jewish boy, at the age of five you went to school. School was called Bet Sefer. Bet Sefer means, “House of the Book.”
That school was held at the local synagogue, and it was taught by rabbis. And so a 5-year-old boy would go to Bet Sefer. They would go to the House of the Book. When they arrived at the synagogue, the first thing that would be done is that they were told to stick out their tongues. The rabbi would scoop up honey and he would just kind of slap it on each boy’s tongue and they were told to swallow. These boys were told to taste the sweetness of the honey. Then the rabbis would turn the scroll to Ezekiel, chapter 3, verse three, and the boys were told that the Word of God, the Torah, is sweeter than honey. Nothing is sweeter than honey. That was the beginning of their school and then they would begin to memorize the Torah.
Of course the Torah was what we would call the first five books of the Old Testament, what sometimes is called the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. At Bet Sefer, these boys between age 5 and 9 were expected to memorize word-by-word every one of those five books. They did not have Bibles to bring home. No Torahs to bring home so that they could work on it at home because the printing press had not come along yet. Gutenberg was centuries away and books were not so published. The scrolls were only at the synagogue. At the synagogue, these little boys would go, and they would hear the rabbis teach them through questioning and then they would listen, and they would recite and memorize. This would be hours a day every day except for the Sabbath. Bet Sefer. At age 9 they were expected to have memorized the Torah. Many boys did not. Only the best of the best memorized all of the Torah and those who were able to do it graduated. Those who were not able to do it went back home and they joined in the family business or whatever, but those who were successful graduated, and they went to Bet Talmud. This was age 10 to age 14.
At Bet Talmud, which was also held at the synagogue, these boys were now expected to memorize the whole of the Hebrew scriptures. Again, there were no Bibles to take home, just recitation at the synagogue. And they were to memorize, between the ages of 10 and 14, all 39 Books of the Hebrew Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. Very few succeeded. Again, those who failed went back to their homes and perhaps joined in the family business but those who succeeded were ready for apprenticeship. In the Jewish society this was an incredible honor. You could apprentice with a rabbi. So at the age of fourteen, having been through Bet Sefer and having been through Bet Talmud, which means “House of Learning,” they were ready for Bet Midrash, which means “House of Study.” They were ready for apprenticeship.
So the 14-year-old boy would go up to a rabbi. If the boy lived in the region of Galilee, he would go to the city of Sepphoris, which was the great rabbinical capital of Galilee and the schools of Hillel and Shammai were there in the region of Galilee located at Sepphoris. The 14-year-old boy would find a rabbi he wanted to apprentice with. He would go up to the rabbi and he would say, “Make me your disciple. Make me your apprentice.” The Hebrew word is “Talmud,” which means either “disciple” or “apprentice.” In the plural it is talmidim. “Let me join the Talmidim. Let me join your disciples. Let me be an apprentice.”
The rabbi would then question them to see whether or not they were worthy. The rabbi would say, “Can you accept my yoke?” The rabbi’s yoke was his particular interpretation of the Torah. The would-be apprentice would say yes. The rabbi would say, “Do you accept my shmikah?” That is the Hebrew word for authority. The Greek word is “exousia.” “Do you accept my authority? Do you accept my shmikah?” The would-be apprentice would say, “Yes,” and the apprentice would then say, “I want to be your disciple. I want to be like you. Make me like yourself.” If the rabbi accepted the young man, the rabbi would say, “Follow me.” The Greek is “akolouthea.” And so this was the beginning of rabbinical apprenticeship and obviously an incredible journey. Then the apprentice would study in Sepphoris if he were a Galilean or in Jerusalem if he was Judean. The apprentice would study with the rabbi in the rabbinical schools and then travel with the rabbi in the towns and villages and watch the rabbi as the rabbi taught or as the rabbi served or as the rabbi ministered or as the rabbi lived. After a period of time the rabbi would begin to give the apprentice opportunities to share in these things. It was rabbinical apprenticeship.
I want us to take a look at Jesus as our second teaching. Jesus and apprenticeship. How does this all relate to Jesus? The first question is, “Was Jesus a rabbi?” Of course He was called Rabbi. In fact, all five titles given to rabbis in the New Testament world were given to Jesus. Even the enemies of Jesus called Him, “Rabbi.” Even other rabbis called Jesus, “Rabbi.” But it is oftentimes thought that Jesus had not gone through the rabbinical schools. You often hear that Jesus was an itinerant preacher, self-taught, self-trained and of course you can prove that biblically. In fact it is very evident that Jesus at least went through Bet Sefer and Bet Talmud. He was Jewish and He was a Jewish boy, and He was living in Nazareth and Galilee and all Jewish boys went to Bet Sefer and there He would have memorized The Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
We have reason to believe that Jesus went through Bet Talmud because certainly He was successful at memorizing The Torah so He would have graduated to Bet Talmud. We know that Jesus memorized all thirty books of the Hebrew scriptures from Genesis to Malachi because Jesus was so knowledgeable and He could quote them freely. Even at the beginning of His ministry when Jesus was tested by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus just quoted scripture. “It is written… It is written… It is written… ” All through His ministry He quoted the law and the prophets, and He quoted them accurately. He had memorized the Hebrew scriptures, Bet Sefer, Bet Talmud.
Some people, particularly lay Christians, mistakenly think, “Jesus was the Son of God and God inspired the scriptures, so He didn’t really have to memorize these things. He just knew them automatically. This is really a misunderstanding of the incarnation because the Bible makes it clear that when Jesus came into this world, as it says in Philippians, chapter 2, “He humbled Himself and He emptied Himself.” It says in Philippians chapter 2, “Though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched or held onto, but He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.” We do not know exactly what it means that He emptied Himself. We do not know the full scope of that meaning but we know Jesus had to learn. He had to go through training and education. He had to memorize, so Jesus memorized the scriptures.
The question of course is, “Did He enter into Bet Midrash, The House of Study? Did He enter into apprenticeship? Did he go to the Hillel or the Shammai Schools in Sepphoris? Did He actually do the full scope of rabbinical training?” We do not know. We do know this. We know that where Jesus grew up in Nazareth it was only four miles south of the city of Sepphoris. In fact Sepphoris was just across the valley from Nazareth. We know that as Jesus worked with His father Joseph and as they worked in carpentry and stone masonry, they would have been in Sepphoris a lot because archeologists tell us that during that time Sepphoris was engaged in many building projects.
We also know that Jesus was very familiar with the Hillel and Shammai Schools, the rabbinical schools. On the subject of divorce in Matthew 5, verse thirty-one, we see clearly that Jesus sided with the Shammai School over against the Hillel School with regard to the subject of divorce and He quotes word for word the statements of the Shammai. Jesus perhaps was educated at Sepphoris and perhaps went through the rabbinical schools. It really does not matter. What matters is He was recognized by everybody as Rabbi. Even other rabbis called Him Rabbi and He had authority like no other rabbi. In fact the crowds wherever Jesus went said, “He speaks as one with special authority.”
Of course, when Jesus was resurrected and when He rose from the dead and He appeared to His disciples, He said to them an amazing thing. He said, “All authority,” the Greek word is “exousia,” but it is the equivalent of “shmikah,” “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” An amazing statement.
So Jesus, as a Rabbi, went out and Jesus recruited disciples. He invited people to join His Talmidim, to apprentice with Him. This is what His ministry was all about. Jesus invited everyone who was willing to come and receive His yoke, His interpretation of Torah. He said, “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me. Be My apprentice. Be My disciple. Join the Talmidim. Join My Talmidim.” And so we have this knowledge that Jesus did this and He did it free of gender prejudice. It was not restricted to boys or men. Jesus invited women equally to join His band of disciples. It was not just the twelve. We know from the pages of scripture there was a large company of women who followed Jesus everywhere.
When Jesus rose from the dead, the first that He appeared to was Mary and what did Mary call Him when she saw Him? She said, “Rabboni,” which is the intensified form of Rabbi which of course means, “My Master,” “My Lord,” “My Teacher.” That means that she was identifying herself as part of the disciples, part of the apprentices, part of the Talmidim and she even used the intensified form, “My very own Rabbi, Master, Lord.”
Jesus’s ministry involved this whole concept of apprenticeship and of course Jesus then sent His disciples forth to recruit more disciples and that is the Great Commission, the passage of scripture we have today which is, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. Make disciples of all nations. Make apprentices of all people.” So we are to invite others to apprentice with Jesus Christ. He is the Master, and He was looking for disciples, people who would join His Talmidim. This is what His ministry is about so now we come to the most important part of what we have to say today. This is the third and final teaching and it concerns the Gospel and apprenticeship.
I think we live in a world where a lot of people do not understand Christianity and perhaps some of you do not. A lot of people do not understand the nature of the Gospel, what the Gospel consists of, what the Gospel means, what the Gospel requires. I think there are a lot of false gospels out there. The word in the Bible for “gospel” is “euangelion,” which literally means, “good news.” Of course our word “gospel” comes from the old English “god spell,” which also means, “good news.” Gospel is simply the equivalent of the Greek “euangelion.” It is all good news. The Gospel is good news but what does the good news consist of? What does the Gospel consist of? Is it Jesus has come into our world? Yes, that’s good news. Is it Jesus has died for the sin of humanity? Yes, that’s good news. Is it Jesus has risen from the dead and He is alive and offers resurrection and life? Yes. That is part of the Gospel but what is the Gospel soteriologically in terms of the means of salvation? What must I do to be saved? What does the Gospel say to that?
Here is I think where there is a lot of false gospels out there. There are people who think that the Gospel says you can just come and ask Jesus to be your Savior, just recognize the fact that He died on the cross for the sin of the world and ask Him to forgive you your sin and be your Savior and that that is the Gospel. And that is a small part of the Gospel, but it is not the fullness of the Gospel. If it is all you focus on, you have a false Gospel, and so we have to understand what the Bible says about Gospel and what the Bible tells the good news consists of. In the Bible what we are told is that the good news is that we can be saved by grace when we join the Talmidim. That is really what the biblical message is. Jesus says, “Follow Me and if you will become My disciples, if you will join my Talmidim, I will give you everlasting life.” I hope you understand that and nothing less than that.
When we look at the Gospel biblically it is very clear the Gospel is not just accepting Jesus as Savior. You have to take Jesus as Lord. If you do not take Jesus as Lord, you do not have Him as Savior. In fact, the word rabbi is rendered into the Greek with three different Greek words. The first is “didaskalos” which means “teacher,” rabbi is a teacher. The second Greek word to render rabbi is the word “epistata” which means, “master.” It is used to render the Hebrew rabbi in the Septuagint or in the Greek. The third word is the word “kurios.” The word kurios is the Greek word used to render rabbi and the word kurios means, “Lord.” When you call somebody Rabbi, you are not simply saying, “my teacher.” You are saying, “My Master” you are saying, “My Lord.” We know this by looking at the Hebrew and the Greek.
When you look at the story of Bartimeus who was the blind man healed in Jericho, when you look at that story in Mark’s Gospel, the 10th chapter, the 51st verse, you see that Bartimeus refers to Jesus as “Rabbi.” But then you come to Luke’s Gospel, the 18th chapter, the 41st verse and the same story. In the same story Bartimeus does not call Jesus “Rabbi” but Bartimeus calls Jesus, “Lord,” the Greek “kurios.” These are two parallel accounts, but we know that Luke was trying to reach the Hellenized world and he did not use Hebraic titles, so he translates rabbi into its Greek equivalent which is kurios or Lord. So, when you take Jesus as Lord and Savior, that means you take Him as Rabbi. What is built into the whole concept is that you have joined His Talmidim. You have called Him, “My Rabbi,” “My Lord,” literally from “Rabah,” “Great One,” My Great One. You have joined His disciples and you have become an apprentice. This is the whole concept of the Gospel.
When you look at Mark, chapter 16, verse fifteen, you see the short version of the Great Commission. Mark 16:15 says, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all nations.” It is one of two forms to the Great Commission in the Bible. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
When you look at its equivalent, the parallel passage, Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, and it says, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” because to preach the Gospel is to make disciples. If you want to understand the Gospel, then you have to associate the Gospel with discipleship.
So what is a Christian? You look at Acts, chapter 11, verse twenty-six, and in fact through the whole Book of Acts, a Christian is a disciple or an apprentice and these two are correlated absolutely. They are synonymous. If you are a Christian, you must be a disciple. If you are a Christian, you must be an apprentice. Apart from that there is no Christianity. You might hear somebody today say, “I became a Christian when I was in college, but I really didn’t begin to follow Jesus until two years ago.” Biblically that makes no sense at all. Biblically that just does not compute because if you are not following Jesus, you have not become a Christian. A Christian is somebody who has made a commitment to follow Jesus, joined His Talmidim, become an apprentice, become a disciple.
I got an email a couple of weeks ago. I get a lot of emails. This one email the person sent me and told me that he and his family were probably going to leave the church because I was preaching a false gospel. He said I was preaching a false gospel because I was saying that salvation did not simply come by grace through faith but that you had to become a disciple. They said that was false gospel. First of all, I was very grateful because this person was listening to me. Indeed, in the Bible you cannot separate grace and faith from discipleship. It is all joined and so if you have saving faith, then you have become an apprentice. If you have saving faith, then you have become a disciple. Faith is expressed in this commitment to Jesus as Rabbi, My Lord, My Great One. You have heard Him say, “Follow Me,” and you have left everything to follow Him. That is the Christian life, and it is a life of grace. It is a life of mercy. It is a life of adventure. It is a life of growth. It is a life of sanctification. It is incredible. But a false gospel is any gospel that divorces faith and grace from discipleship. You cannot divorce them.
I hope that I am making myself clear. I want you to see a clip from a movie called “Monty Python And The Holy Grail.” Well, it is just a clip. If you have seen the movie, you know that any clip you could take from it would be kind of dumb but maybe a little funny. Eventually, certainly, each and every one of us will come to that bridge of death like in Monty Python. I do not know whether you think about that much. You might be very young or maybe you are older but eventually if the Lord tarries we are all going to come to that bridge called death. What does it take to get over to the other side? If the other side is heaven, how do you cross that bridge into heaven? Are you going to have to answer a question?
I hear a lot of jokes like that. You get to heaven, and they ask you a question. Is it going to be like that? Is someone going to say, “Who is your Lord and Savior?” If you say, “Jesus Christ,” you get across the bridge? Is that it? Who is your Lord and Savior and if you say, Jesus Christ, you get to go into heaven? Is that it? I hope you do not think that because those are just words. They are just words, and the proof is in the pudding. So Jesus is taking a look at whether or not you have really joined the Talmidim, whether you have really responded to the Gospel in all of its fullness and truth and whether you have become an apprentice with Him. He is looking at your life. It is just not enough to pause in your life journey and ask Jesus to be your Savior and then live however you want to live. That is not Christianity. It is not the Gospel.
As we begin this journey looking at what it means to apprentice with Jesus Christ, I want to make this clear. I want the scriptures to be clear. A Christian has made a commitment to discipleship, to apprentice and nothing less.
The word for faith in the Greek is “pistos.” The word for belief in the Greek is “pisteuo.” These words do not refer to mere intellectual assent. They refer to the commitment of life, so we are saved by grace through faith, but faith is a commitment of your life to the one you call Rabbi, the one you call My Lord, My Master, My Great One, My Teacher, Jesus. I know that certain passages of scripture are hard sometimes. I think it is because we divorce the Gospel from discipleship or apprenticeship. I think that’s why certain passages of scripture confuse us.
I was sharing with our staff earlier this week a little portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapter 7, where Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many, but the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? So also a good tree, a sound tree, bears good fruit and a bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. If a tree does not bear good fruit, it is cut down and thrown into the fire. You will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but He who does the will of My Father who is in heaven, for in that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ did we not preach and prophesy in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, do many mighty works in Your name? I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, evildoers.’ So he who hears these words of Mine and does them is like a wise man who built His house upon the rock and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock but he who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, it’s like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the rains fell and the floods came. The wind blew and beat against the house, and it fell down and great was the destruction of it.”
There are a lot of hard passages like that in the Bible and they only make sense when you understand the true message of the Gospel. That is a call to discipleship and to apprenticeship and to this relationship with Jesus Christ as Rabbi, personal Lord, personal Savior. I hope you understand that I am on this journey. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and we have seen that “Lord” is the Greek equivalent of “Rabbi” in the Hebrew. I took Him as My Lord, My Rabbi, My Great One, My Master, My Teacher and My Savior when I was five. It is a long journey, 55 years so far. It is a long journey. I am on that journey with you. We are on this journey together and I am in process. I am learning what it means to be like Jesus and what it requires, and I am really a flawed guy. I am needing a lot of growth. I am in the process, and we are on this journey together.
A week ago Barb and I were in Waco, Texas. We had never been there before. I am not sure we would have chosen to go to Waco. My nephew had gone to Baylor University and Baylor is in Waco. My nephew fell in love. My nephew’s name is Chris and he fell in love with a girl named Laura. She was a student at Baylor, and they fell in love and wanted me to come down to Waco and do the wedding, so Barb and I went down there last week. We were there in Waco for four days. There is not a lot to do in Waco. Baylor is a beautiful campus. You can go to the Texas Rangers Museum. We did that. You can go to the Dr. Pepper Museum. Dr. Pepper was originated, created, discovered I guess, there in Waco. In fact, Dr. Pepper used to be called Waco. “Give me a Waco.” Now it is “Give me a Dr. Pepper.” Not much else to do so we did that.
There are some great Tex-Mex Restaurants, Texas BBQ, and it is great stuff. We really did have a good time. We were down there with Barb’s sister Jan and her husband Dale. We are really close with Jan and Dale. We flew down there together into Austin. We rented a car together and the four of us drove to Waco. We had four great days, and the wedding was great. Chris and Laura are great. They are going to move here to Denver and come to our church. It is just a great time but when we were finished, we came home Sunday night, and I was tired. It was four relationally intense days, and I am kind of an introvert. I was just glad to get home and kind of crash. I wanted some solitude. I wanted some down time, some space.
So we got home Sunday night, and I went to my study. I sat down and then the doorbell rang. It was our daughter Heather, her husband Chris, and our granddaughter Abigail dropping by the house. I was not up for it. I just was feeling kind of like — and I love them so much — but I was feeling kind of invaded. I was not really mean. I just was not nice. I just was not nice. I did not get up and give them a hug. I did not say, “Great to see you.” I was not very nice. The truth of the matter is they were just coming by to return our dog because they had taken care of our dog while we were gone.
When they left, Barb told me that I had been rude. I agreed after we fought for an hour or two! So I had to call Heather and apologize to them. I am in process, and I am in this group called the Talmidim and I am an apprentice with Jesus, and I am learning I need to change, and I need to grow. It is a constant process. I am just asking you to join us in this process as we go through these next 6 weeks and understand what it means to apprentice with Jesus Christ.
This last Wednesday Barb’s mom died. Barb’s mom died and it was really kind of a miracle of God in a sense because Barb had gone over to see her mom at the Johnson Center and her sister Jan had gone over to see their mom at the Johnson Center. Through the years they have almost never gone over at the same time, but they were both there together visiting their mom when she had her heart attack. They were able to hold her hand and they were able to tell her how much they loved her, and they were able to see her go home to be with Jesus. I think you want your family to be with you in a moment like that.
Barb’s mom had not had an easy life. She died at age 79, Wednesday at 4:00. Seventy-nine years was kind of miraculous because she had had rheumatoid arthritis for 60 years. Her body was crippled and deformed; all the joints were just disfigured. She had been in a wheelchair for a long time. She battled three different cancers. Over a 30-year period she had had melanoma, she had had uterine cancer, she had lymphoma. It had not been an easy life, but Barb’s mom loved Jesus Christ and I have commented to Barb a number of times in these last few years that I can see her mother becoming more like Jesus. When we would go visit her, she showed more kindness, more grace, more love, more gentleness, more joy than I had ever seen in her. She was growing even through all of it up to the end.
Is not that what it is about. I mean you do not know what the future holds. You do not know what is down the road. You do not know what you are going to face but you are part of the Talmidim. If you are a Christian, if you are a true Christian, you have become an apprentice. You have become a disciple and Jesus is your Rabbi, your Rabboni and it is an adventure of growth and change and transformation. We are going to look at what it means to be transformed and to grow in terms of knowledge, character, relationship, and service as we go through this series in these upcoming weeks. I want to encourage you to be part of this. Let us look to the Lord with a word of prayer.