The Deeper Call (3 of 3)

Volume II does not participate in those agreements.

Part Six takes up the three most consistently avoided bodies of teaching in the contemporary Western church: Jesus on integrity and plain speech (Matthew 5:33–37), Jesus on marriage and divorce (Matthew 5:31–32, Matthew 19:3–12), and the full exchange with the rich young ruler, including the answer the young man walked away from and the disciples’ stunned response. These are not obscure texts. They sit in plain sight in the middle of the Synoptic Gospels. They are avoided not because they are unclear but precisely because they are clear.

The King spoke these words. He spoke them to people who were shocked by them. He did not retract them when the shock registered. A handbook that claims to take the teaching of Christ seriously cannot selectively honor it.

The Chapter That Almost Never Gets Written

Acts 1:3 contains a statement of enormous theological significance that is almost never the subject of sustained teaching:

“After his suffering, he presented himself alive to them with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days, speaking about the kingdom of God.”

— Acts 1:3 (NET)

Forty days. The risen Christ, speaking about the kingdom of God. The Gospels give us fragments of what He said and did in those forty days — the appearances, the instructions, the restoration of Peter, the walk to Emmaus where He opened the Scriptures — but they do not give us a transcript. What they give us is more important: they give us “many convincing proofs” and a confirmed theme. He was still teaching. The resurrection did not end the formation of His disciples. It deepened it.

Part Eight of this volume examines what we do know of the forty days and follows the implications of each appearance for the disciple’s understanding of resurrection, restoration, authority, and mission. The Emmaus road account in Luke 24 alone — where two grieving disciples encounter the risen Christ, walk seven miles with Him without recognizing Him, and then have their understanding of all of Scripture opened — is one of the most extraordinary discipleship encounters in the entire New Testament. It deserves more than a footnote.

How to Use This Volume

Volume II is designed to be read in sequence, but it is also structured to stand alone in any of its parts. A disciple who has worked through Volume I and wants to go deeper into the Upper Room Discourse can begin with Part Two. A pastor preparing a series on the Sermon on the Mount can go directly to Part Three. A small group wrestling with the authority of prayer can open at Part Seven.

Each Part follows the same structure established in Volume I: a stated thesis, sustained biblical exposition, theological development, practical application to the disciple’s daily life and spiritual warfare, and summary declarations that can be memorized and deployed. The Verily cross-reference table in Part One is designed to be kept as a reference document throughout — a reader who encounters a command or a teaching anywhere in Volume II can return to Part One to find the Verily statement that ratifies it.

The appendices include a complete canonical listing of all seventy-five Verily statements with full text, a thematic index, the cross-reference table, and guided reading plans for both the Upper Room Discourse and the Sermon on the Mount. These are not decorative. They are intended for use.

A Final Word Before You Begin

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He did not give them a theology of prayer. He gave them a prayer. When they asked who was the greatest in the Kingdom, He did not give them a hierarchy. He put a child in the middle of them. When Thomas said he did not know the way, Jesus did not hand him a map. He said: “I am the way.”

The pattern of Jesus’ teaching is consistent: He always brings His disciples back to Himself. Not to the system. Not to the institution. Not even to the commands in isolation. To Himself. “Abide in me.” “Follow me.” “Learn from me.” “Remain in my love.”

Volume II is, at its core, an extended response to the invitation those words represent. It is an invitation to go deeper into the teaching of the King not as an academic exercise but as an act of the love that Volume I spent three hundred and fifty pages trying to produce in the disciple’s heart.

The battle is real. The enemy is real. The armor is necessary and the commands are non-negotiable. But the disciple who fights without knowing the One for whom he fights will eventually discover that he has confused the war for the relationship. He will win battles and lose the very thing the battles were fought to protect.

Volume II is the antidote. Know the King. Know His voice. Know what He prayed for you the night before He died. Know what He taught from the hillside when He sat down and the crowds grew quiet. Know what He said when He rose and the disciples were still hiding and He came to find them anyway.

Then fight.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”

— John 10:14 (NET)