Before Jesus starts taking you into the Gospels, He needs to lay out a little ground work for the system He is basing this study on. First of all there are some issues or steps that need to be considered all the way through the Gospel study.

This training system, Jesus exposed His disciples to, held a standard throughout. When Jesus came to a person, He invited them to drop whatever they were doing and come follow Him. If they couldn’t or wouldn’t do it, He moved on with His life and ministry, leaving them behind. This takes a special commitment or dedication to be able to yield to. You might look at your commitment and quit. But, Jesus can solve your commitment problem.

Mat 8:19-23 (NIV) Then a teacher of the law came to Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Another disciple said to Him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Then He got into the boat and His DISCIPLES followed Him.

Did the teacher of the law become a disciple of Jesus? Did the guy, who wanted to bury his father first, become one of Jesus’ disciples? If they got into the boat with Him, they did. If they didn’t follow Jesus into the boat, they failed their first test as a disciple of Jesus.