The following is a condensation of a sermon delivered at the Community Praise Center Adventist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, in January 2004. We retain many of the elements of oral delivery.--Editors.

BY DAMIEN E. JOHNSON

"While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, 'Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.' But He answered and said . . . , 'Who is My mother and who are My brothers?' And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, 'Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother'" (Matt. 12:46-50).*

esus was addressing His 12 disciples and the multitude that had gathered around them.

As this messenger abruptly interrupted Him, Jesus took the moment as an opportunity to redefine his family. In essence He said to the messenger: "There is a new criterion for kinship with me. And it's not blood or birth relationship, but discipleship."

Then pointing to His followers, He declared: "These, these are My mother, My brothers, and my sisters. This is my family. These are my kin."

You see, there were several layers of disciples that followed Jesus. Think about the rings of an onion. There were the outer circles of disciples that followed Christ from a distance (Nicodemus, for example, who the Bible says followed Christ secretly). There were the inner layers (the 70 whom Christ sent out, for example). Then there was the inner-most layer (composed of the 12 disciples). This was the group that had undergone a special initiation process.

What does initiation involve? First, a person submits to initiation into a group after they become convinced there's value in it. Take the United States armed forces as an example. As you become initiated into such a group, you're leaving your civilian life and values behind. Am I right or wrong? Any military people in the house this morning? Second, you are embracing the life and the values of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Can I get a witness, military people? There's a different way of thinking, a different way of behaving.

Likewise, the 12 disciples had been initiated into the inner circle of Christ. They'd left their homes, their occupations; and had pledged their lives to Jesus Christ. They'd relinquished their past lives and attached themselves to Christ. And in the process of initiation into the inner circle of Christ, they'd adopted Christ's code of discipleship, a new code of ethics by which they now lived.

Like Children? What's the Point?
Let's try to unpack all of this by first looking closer at the initiation process. In Matthew 18:1, Jesus makes an interesting statement to His disciples: "At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'" Now he's teaching the disciples something about discipleship! "Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven'" (verses 2, 3). Stop right there.

Now I know that this text normally speaks to us about humility and about being teachable. But I think that Jesus is saying something more about discipleship here. Follow me today!

You see, as adults we have accumulated through life's experiences this vast base of knowledge. A 40-year-old understands more about the world than a 5-year-old. Can I get a witness! We have grown, and through life's experiences we've developed this knowledge base. This base of knowledge is like the window through which we see the world around us. It is the window through which we perceive the world and life. It forms our worldview. Now to become a child after having been an adult means the loss of all that accumulated knowledge. It means the dissipation of that vast base of knowledge that you have accumulated growing up into adulthood.

Let me direct you to one other text--Matthew 11. See, there's a point that's emerging here in Christ's teaching on discipleship that I don't want us to miss. Matthew 11, verses 25 and 26: "At that time Jesus answered and said, 'I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.'" In other words, Jesus is saying it is those with the knowledge who are at a disadvantage. And it is the babes who have the advantage. You see what Jesus seems to be saying, my dear friends, is that those who are initiated into discipleship experience a loss of knowledge.

You're wondering, "Where are we going with this?" Hang in there with me!

What kind of knowledge is Christ saying we must lose as we become disciples? Turn with me to Genesis 1:27. And as we do, here's an important principle to keep in mind: Experience shapes perception, and perception shapes behavior. Now here's the text: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

What does that mean? It means that when Adam and Eve looked at themselves, they did not see themselves; they saw God! When Adam and Eve thought about themselves, they did not really think about themselves, but about God. When they looked at each other, they saw God. In other words, they saw the world through God's eyes, from God's perspective.

Now go with me to Genesis, chapter 3, and let's look at verse 6: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."

And now verse 7 says something interesting to me: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew . . ." Stop right there!

You see, the experience of disobedience taught them how to think independently of God. Their eyes were opened. Previously they'd always seen themselves in the image of God. But now they'd acquired knowledge of themselves as separate individuals. Now when they looked at themselves, they saw themselves. Now when they thought about themselves, they thought about themselves. Now when they related to each other, they thought about themselves. They became aware of an option outside of God. They no longer had a theocentric, God-centered worldview. Now it was egocentric, self-centered.

That's Our Problem
An egocentric knowledge is what you and I have inherited not just from Adam and Eve, but because of our experience living in a world of sin. Sin has taught us, it has instilled in us, an egocentric understanding of life and of the world. And that's some dangerous knowledge! Why? Because it's the same worldview, the same perspective that estranged Lucifer from God. That's why Sister White says in The Acts of the Apostles, page 339, that the self-centered spirit is the spirit of Satan.

In other words, when I operate from a self-centered worldview, the devil can relate to me. He understands me. He finds something in common with me when I think and behave from self-centeredness. Do you understand what I'm saying today? [Congregation responds.] He sees something in me that he shares when I operate from that worldview.

I was reading a story about a soldier in Vietnam. He had basically come from civilian life straight into the war zone. And they gave him an assignment that required him to drive somewhere in Vietnam at night. So as he and another soldier hopped into their vehicle, he instinctively turned on the lights. As he was driving he passed a couple of other U.S. vehicles, and he noticed, as each one passed, that their lights were off, and they yelled something at him. He finally learned what they were trying to say when a hail of bullets hit his jeep and struck his fellow soldier. Both soldiers escaped, but what the driver learned that night was that the lights that he thought were helping him to see the world better were the very things that made him a target for the enemy.

Self-centered thinking is like those headlights. When we think and operate from an egocentric point of view, we are actually putting ourselves in the radar of the enemy. That's the danger of the egocentric knowledge. And the troubling thing is that we naturally see the world from that perspective.

You see, perception shapes behavior. And if you have an egocentric worldview, you're going to behave from that perspective. The reason we have difficulty returning the tithe is that we believe it's our money. The reason I walk around with a grudge in church is that somebody said something about ME; somebody disrespected ME; somebody made ME look bad. It's all about ME! Sister White says this in the book In Heavenly Places, page 249: "It is the love of self that destroys our peace." Why? She says, "While self is alive we stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult." That's why the pettiest thing could be said, and we're jumping on the defensive. "What is he saying about me? What is she saying about me?" Ain't even talking about you! [Congregation laughs.] There's no peace because we're always seeing the world from our perspective.

Self-centered thinking affects not only the way we relate to one another, but also the way we relate to God. We pick and choose what parts of the Word we're going to obey because "It's MY right to choose. It's MY decision to make. And MY right to choose is more important than God's will." We don't want God to question any of our choices, but when God makes certain choices, we don't have a problem questioning God. It's as if we have the right to make choices but God doesn't. I have listened to Christians take the most blatant sin--the most clearly, explicitly condemned sin in the Word--and sanitize it so that they can continue doing it. Now you have to have a B-I-G ego to revise what God has said so you can do your thang. Just say, "I'm wrong, and I'm gonna keep doing it!" But don't say, "God really meant this!" Don't rephrase God so you can fulfill your egocentric desires. But that's how deep we get with the egocentric perspective. We revel in the fact that it's my decision. It's my right! It's my life!

But I've got news for you today. IT'S NOT YOUR LIFE! You did not conceive yourself in the uterus of your mother. You did not nourish your little microscopic body in the womb. You did not create the air that you continually breathe and that keeps you alive. It was God who thought us into existence. It was God who constructed the bones and the organs in our bodies. We don't belong to ourselves. God had His own purpose and His own desire for making us. God made us. We belong to Him! No area of our lives is off limits to Him.

I was telling the youth about this the other Sabbath. I talked to them about Jonah. When God called on Jonah to use his gifts in Nineveh, Jonah had the egocentric idea that these are my gifts. I'm going to take them over to Tarshish. God said, "Wait a minute, brotha! I'm gonna meet you in the middle of the ocean, my man. I'm gonna let you know that the world is mine."

What God did was designed to change Jonah's experience so as to change his perception--to show him that "I'm in control, brother, not you! It's my world!" God has to do that from time to time with all of us. He has to say to us, "It's time for you to begin to see the world and life from My perspective."

It's That Serious
So back to the issue of initiation into discipleship. What God is saying is that as part of your initiation into discipleship, I have to purge you of that egocentric knowledge. I have to eliminate from you that self-centered view of the world. Sister White says in Our High Calling, page 191, that "the plague spot of selfishness is as contagious as leprosy," and that "those who enter the heavenly courts must be purified from every vestige of this plague." Think about that. In order to become true disciples of Christ, you and I must be emptied of that self-centered knowledge, that egocentric view of the world.

Now, how does God change that egocentric worldview of ours? Remember the principle: perception shapes behavior, but experience shapes perception. So in order for our worldview to change, God has to give us a new experience. You see, we like to work on the tip of the iceberg. Behavior modification is where we like to hang out and that's why we're constantly working and never changing. But, discipleship is not behavior modification. Discipleship is having an experience with Christ that impacts a person's life, so that it changes their worldview, and that changed worldview, in turn, changes behavior.

You see, we don't have a behavioral problem, we have a proximity problem. We're not around Jesus enough. We experience Him here and there--when we come to church or to prayer meeting. But we don't experience Him fully. So Jesus is calling us to an inner-circle experience. The more the disciples hung out with Jesus, the more their worldview changed. They began to see the world through the eyes of Jesus. That's what must happen to us. The more we hang around Jesus, the more we begin to think like Jesus thinks. And what happens when we begin to think like Jesus? [Congregation responds.] That's right! We begin to act like Jesus.

In any initiated group there is a code by which all the members abide. The code is what makes the group distinct. In the Matthew passage we had at the beginning, Jesus said: "For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother." The will of the Father is the code of discipleship. Said Jesus, "I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father" (John 5:30). And in the Garden of Gethsemane, His prayer was "not as I will, but as You will" (Matt. 26:39).

That is the code of discipleship: the will of my Father under every circumstance is superior to my will. True, initiated disciples of Christ adhere to a code that says God's will above my will at all costs. Disciples live and die by that code. The question today is Have you subscribed to Christ's code of
discipleship?

*Scripture references in this article are from the New King James Version.

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Damien E. Johnson is associate pastor for youth at the Community Praise Center Adventist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.