Acts 19:13-16 … I can picture it now - seven over-confident, religiously diplomatic men enter a home wearing their long black robes. Gassing one another up, poking the guy next guy with eager elbows, and nervously laughing, the group pushes the most foolhardy of the gang in the door first. After approaching the demon-possessed man (who is scoffing at the overdressed, elitist, silver-spoon Jews) begins to approach the group. Like a kung-fu movie from the ’70s, we see the comically long, rapid movement of the mouths of the men while the captions simply read “Get out of him! Jesus said so.” Dust is kicked up, robes torn, and eyes poked (three stooges style, of course). The crazed, demon-possessed man is quoted on the bottom of the screen: “You are not Jesus. You are not Paul. Who are you?”
Let me confess something: I overthink a lot of things. On one occasion a friend offered a very confusing observation about me, that the number of questions pinballing around my skull would dwarf that of almost every person he knows. Notice the keyword, questions, not answers. In the last couple of years, I have had a framework introduced to me, so that I better know how to ask these questions. Much like jazz, it is helpful to have a loose structure and the capacity to improvise in the midst of deep conversations.
If you have confessed faith in Jesus, repented of your sin, been baptized, and received the Holy Spirit, you have been called to make disciples. Jesus has not given you a task that can only be achieved by a kind of Christian elite. The Great Commission to make disciples of all nations is not a call for a select few. There is no way of getting around it, discipleship is a listening affair and you have been given the capacity to love others by listening.
Let me ask you a provocative question: How well-suited are you to take a punch from a friend?
Of course, I am not wondering if you are choosing abusive relationships and chalking it up to humility. Certainly, I am not imploring you to start and attend a kind of fight club that meets in the dingy darkness of a back alley. Instead, I am wondering whom you place yourself around and how you choose to interact with those nearest to you. What types of relationships do you have?
“If you can make a good friend, you should be able to disciple. On the other hand, inability to form close friendships is an absolute barrier to effectiveness in making disciples.” (Dennis McCallum) What kind of friend are you? Be encouraged that Jesus uses average people, with normal dispositions, and mediocre talent to build His eternal and everlasting Kingdom.
There is no such thing as Christian discipleship without the ever-deepening journey into self-sacrificing love. I am convinced that many of us (myself often included) are missing the delightful path of Christian discipleship because we do not see our everyday life and interactions as carrying appropriate eternal weight.
![Jesus, Paul, and you [who?]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58c9bf2215d5dbb3919c7112/1688592053341-Z2IB10MLZROE8DC6E90M/caleb-jones-J3JMyXWQHXU-unsplash.jpg)
