Revival

1) What is a christian The word ‘Christian’ actually appears only three times in the Bible, and it is mentioned by Luke twice in the Acts of the Apostles and by Petros in his first letter. Acts 11:26: „And having found him, they took him to Antioch. And it happened that they gathered together during the whole year with the Assembly and that they taught a fairly large crowd. And it is in Antioch that, for the first time, the disciples received the name of christians„. We see here that the actual term for those who followed Yehoshua was ‘disciples’ and that they were only called ‘Christians’ after they had received intensive teaching, that is, after the word had taken root in them. According to this, the ‘Christians’ are already taught disciples. From this we see that the term ‘Christian’ has a different meaning than the one attributed to it today. In our time, ‘Christian’ is used quite loosely and thoughtlessly for a part of humanity that belongs to churches and certain religious groups. On the other hand, the word ‘disciple’ appears over 260 times in the Bible. The question then arises: 2) What is a disciple? Yehoshua’s last words before his ascension were the well-known Great Commission: “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Yehoshua had designated. […] Therefore, having gone, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days to the end of the age. Amen!” (Matthew 28:16, 19-20) So, you become a disciple from the day of your conversion, when you come to believe in Yehoshua. We read here that a disciple is one who is in a training program, completing an apprenticeship. This is also evidenced by the Greek word for disciple, ‘mathetes’, which means ‘learner, student, disciple’. In the school of faith, you have to learn and be taught. Just as in normal life, there are diligent and lazy, quick and slow students in faith. Age is not relevant here. The prophet Yesha’yah in Isaiah 50:4-5 provides particular insight into discipleship: “Adonay YHWH has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Adonay YHWH has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back”.  Here we learn about two qualities of a disciple, or two processes of discipleship: –> hearing (which is further divided into receiving teaching, listening and learning) and –> passing it on. Let us look into this in more detail in the following. 3) The Disciple in the Old Covenant A disciple has a master. In the Old Covenant, the disciple was a servant of his master, another human being who was his lord and role model. The Hebrew word translated as ‘disciple’ in English is limmûwd. It means ‘taught, learned’, ‘instructed in discipleship’ and ‘accustomed to something’. The disciple does not just learn in theory but becomes accustomed to the lifestyle of his master to such an extent and for so long that he becomes like his Master. This is the goal of the discipleship. Some examples in the Bible are: Moshe (Moses) and Yehoshua (Joshua) Shemot/Exodus 24:13: “And Moses rose up, and his minister Yehoshua: and Moses went up into the mount of Elohim [1]”. As long as Moshe was on the mountain (for 40 days!), his servant Yehoshua (Joshua) had to wait for him. He did not leave the side of his master Moshe: “And YHWH spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Yehoshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle” (Exodus 33:11). Eliyah (Elijah) and Eliysha (Elisha) 1 Kings 19:19-21: “So he departed thence, and found Eliysha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Eliyah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Eliyah, and said, Let me, I pray you, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again: for what have I done to you? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Eliyah, and ministered to him”. Yohanan (John) the Baptist and his disciples “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as Yohanan also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). From this passage, we see that the disciples of John the Baptist – who can be called the last prophet before the New Covenant (see Matthew 11:11) – had even learned how to pray from their master. Thus, we understand that Yehoshua’s contemporary disciples understood exactly what it means to be a disciple of a master. 4) Discipleship in the transition period The transition period was the time of Yohanan the Baptist: “And this is the testimony of Yohanan, when the Jews sent from Yerushalaim the priests and the levites to question him: Who are you? He confessed and denied not, but confessed: I am not the Mashiah. And they asked him: What then? Are you Eliyah? And he says: I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered: Num. Therefore they said to him: Who are you? That we may give a reply to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said: I am