Written by Scott Fiddler
The Word
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)
Commentary
Jesus discipled John. One of the persons John mentored was Polycarp (69 A.D. – 156 A.D.), who eventually became Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was martyred in 156 A.D. under Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, but was so cool in refusing to denounce Jesus we are still talking about his martyrdom 2,000 years later.
Bede (673 A.D.- 735 A.D.), more commonly known as “The Venerable Bede”, was an English clergyman and scholar. Bede wrote nearly sixty books, including, The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which historians still read today. One of Bede’s pupils mentored Alcuin of York (735 A.D. – 804 A.D.). Alcuin became according to one writer at the time, “the most learned man anywhere to be found.” The first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, invited Alcuin to join his court, where Alcuin mentored Charlemagne, helping spawn the Carolingian Renaissance.
John Calvin (1509 A.D. – 1564 A.D.) the great reformer, mentored John Knox (1514 A.D. – 1572 A.D.), a Scottish minister. Knox brought Reformation to Scotland. The Reformation changed Scotland from a lost, illiterate nation, into one that would spawn so many world-changers that a secular writer could write a best-selling book 500 years later called, How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It.
You don’t become a disciple of Jesus from the pulpit or a podcast. Discipleship is personal. It has to be because for one to become a disciple of Jesus there must be an impartation. True discipleship happens when the mentor imparts part of who they are that is from God to the person being mentored. That is why Jesus said a disciple is not above his teacher, but he will be like him when he is fully trained. See Luke 6:40. A mentor can only impart who he is and what he has, but when what is imparted is from God, disciples are made, and what is imparted can ripple through history to create a courageous martyr, spawn a Christian renaissance, or change a nation that reinvents the world.
Application
So, are you being mentored? If not, seek out someone who has a part of God that you want, and then hang with them, learn from them, and imitate them as they imitate Christ.
Prayer
Lord, lead me to those who can impart part of You to me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
City Life Starter 
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