A disciple is a follower of Jesus during his life, especially one of twelve Apostles.  A student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher. 

The Hebrew term is for disciple is Talmid, and Talmidim is for a group of disciples. 

The English word disciple comes from the Greek word “mathetes” which means to learn. 

In the core structure of the definitions of the term disciple it is an active word.  One who is learning, studying, modeling, apprenticing to be like the Teacher, or mentor.

The word “disciple” appears roughly 260 times throughout the New Testament.  It is a pillar of what it means to be a follower of Christ. 

For centuries Christian’s have wrestled with the issue of, are the non-Jewish believers of Jesus, having been grafted into the “Israel of God” “under the Law?” This debate is not new as very early on, the Apostles had to deal with the Gentiles relationship to the Old Covenant, or what we abbreviate as “the Law.” The issue arose early with the primary question of whether gentile converts would be required to be circumcised

The gifts that are given have a specific purpose for why they are given. In that purpose the gifts come with all the power of who God is. Apart from that specific purpose the gifts can be some of the most divisive things to God’s kingdom.

The Spring Feasts of the Lord are also connected to the Church’s liturgical calendar. The church utilizes Holy Week, Palm Sunday, Holy Monday/Tuesday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter/Resurrection Day.

Today we are going to look at God, the Father. We are going to look at two different aspects. God as Father in the hierarchy of the Bible, think positional authority, function, and nature. The two aspects need to be delineated. What are they and in the body of the lesson when do you shift from the first to the second?

The Trinity- A doctrine of Christianity in which the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead.  The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the core Christian affirmations.

The word Ecclesia is where we get the modern term the Church.  We see based upon the definition above the church is more than a system, or religious practice.  It is a living and breathing concept. Some say that the church is not an organization, it’s an organism, a living entity. And while that is true, the church IS an organization which pulls and holds together the collective family of God.  
If we are going to call ourselves a church, we need to be the church as defined by God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit in Genesis is a person with form and function.  In the story of Genesis God goes to great lengths to make sure we understand the Holy Spirit is not a New Testament concept but just like with Yeshua the Holy Spirit was a part of the fabric of creation. Join us as we look at a baseline for Who the Holy Spirit is, What the Holy Spirit does, and How the Holy Spirit is essential to our relationship with the Father and the Son.

The goal of the Sabbath is not to say, “I keep the Sabbath.”  It is to allow Jesus to utterly destroy the culture’s grasp on who you are, what you are, and how you are to be.  It is to find peace, rest, and transformation to become apprentices who look, talk, and walk like Jesus.  In that goal, you will find a rest like no other and an order to push back against the chaos of this world. 

Those who seek to over complicate the gift of salvation with their wisdom and expounded understanding have had this revelation hidden from them while still eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You simply cannot achieve a works based salvation.

God used humans with different cultural backgrounds, experiences, literary styles, and education levels to pour out His divine revelations utilizing many different types or styles of writings. There is poetry, legal codes, stories, personal letters, apocalyptic revelations, and drama to build a beautiful narrative from cover to cover.

If we have bad Christology, it skews our entire thought and lens by which we read, interpret, and understand Scripture. In our corner of Christianity, we have struggled with bad Christology, and this has led us to minimizing, questioning, and debating Jesus’ nature, authority, role and many times leads to complete apostasy that somehow, we don’t need Jesus, or that Jesus’ work of the cross wasn’t sufficient.