The Nature of Discipleship According to Mark's Gospel
Discipleship is usually thought of as following Jesus, being a preacher and a teacher. Somebody who believes in something, or who believes in someone, and leaves everything behind them to try to make others believe the same is my personal belief of a disciple. In actual fact, the Old Testament word 'Talmid' is a 'learner', and more obviously in the New Testament, a 'Diskipolos' is a 'follower'. The other important area of discipleship is serving others. When a disciple is healing a person, they are serving them, as he serving Jesus and God. So discipleship can be summed up; to follow, to learn, to preach, to believe, to serve. All factors are
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And yes, the disciples did heal, they did preach and they did cast out evil. "The apostles returned and met with Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught" (Mark 6:30) and "They went out and preached that people should turn away from their sins. They drove out many demons, and rubbed olive oil on many sick people and healed them" (Mark 6:12-13). Both of these quotes show us that the disciples followed instructions and did them well. However, their understanding of Jesus and his teachings wasn't very good. They understood neither the amazing powers Jesus possessed nor the wonders he could perform. Even though he "would explain everything to them", in situations such as The Calming of the Storm and when Jesus walked on water, they just didn't have the strength to believe or the depth to understand. When the boat was filling with water in the Calming of the Storm (Mark 4:35-41), the disciples awoke Jesus to say, "Teacher, don't you care that we are about to die?", Jesus said back to his disciples "Why are you frightened? Have you still no faith?" The story in Chapter 6, verses forty-nine to fifty is similar. "It's a ghost!", the disciples screamed when they saw Jesus walking on water. "They were all terrified when they saw
When I read Mark during church we would read the long ending, at the time I didn’t know the difference between the endings. I was confused to why there were three different parts to it and they were broken up as if they were supposed to be a new verse. When I asked the leader of the class she couldn’t give me an explanation. With the research I have done I feel that I have come to a conclusion as to which ending is the most correct and why there are multiple endings.
The example given by the writer seen in Mark 9:14-29 where the disciples attempted but failed in delivering a boy from demons, was an example worth acknowledging. Robby wrote, Jesus demonstrates coaching principles through first, offering faith in the disciples to attempt to cast demons out, in which this reader agree Jesus approach to be the perfect example to follow: having faith. Robby stated, Jesus personably talks with the disciples teaching them more about their work in casting out demons without destroying their confidence to try again; as well as, using one to one and one to group communication to offer personal teaching. It is this reader’s opinion that Jesus again demonstrates an ideal approach that is beneficial for Christians to take heed
The disciples are witnesses to the decent and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then by their witness the are to proclaim the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samar and to the all the ends of
Discipleship is about engaging in the Word, following and obeying Jesus and going out to make disciples. An essential element in being a disciple is to be open to learning, to be teachable. It is a mindset to be continuously adopted and cultivated. For us to disciple others, we must be a better disciple ourselves. When making disciples, we are instructing others to be willing to be a discoverer. It applies to both spiritual growth as well as personal development, openness to new techniques, ideas and methods in all aspects of life. Our spiritual learning comes from delving into His
A second way is when someone starts the process of becoming a disciple or being a disciple, such as in Matthew 27:57 or Luke 14:26-27. Lastly, there are those who are referred to as disciples that only occasionally followed Jesus, such as those in Matthew 8:21. Samra summarizes discipleship succinctly by saying that it is the “process of becoming like Christ.”
The roles of disciples play a very important part in developing the message of the gospels due to their close relation to Jesus throughout the stories. To start to understand the importance of the disciples first you have to understand the main purpose of the Gospels. The Gospels are written in order to describe Jesus’s life on earth before Heaven. They give people insight to who Jesus was and create a stronger basis of belief in Jesus and God. In order to bring the Gospels to life they use the students of Jesus or Disciples to project his teachings and stories. The disciples take on many different roles in the varying gospels. They are students, friends, witnesses, observers, and worshipers of Jesus. Disciples come in many different forms of people as well. During the stories of the Gospels, Jesus is essentially walking along picking up new followers and experiencing new things with them. Throughout the experiences, Jesus teaches the disciples and they grow and learn and as a result the reader grows and learns as well. That is why the disciples play such a pivotal role in the comprehension of Jesus and him as a person. It becomes evident when analyzing the different Gospels that Jesus’ relationship with the Disciples is slightly changed in the varying texts. A noticeable difference in the development of the disciple 's relationship to Jesus is present specifically in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Thomas.
Disciples are true followers of Jesus Christ to share and spread the message of the almighty God. We don’t just get point out by fingers on who is going to be the disciples however, it’s someone’s faith, courage and devotion that what matters. I’ll say that being a disciple is hard and challenging because you have to be committed and devoted your life and understand the word of God. Jesus often stated that his goal was to teach his disciples about his father. Anyway, in order for us to understand God’s message we have to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Although there are two types of followers, casual followers and committed followers and they both can be found here in Pohnpei. I mention the complains above. Here in Pohnpei I mostly heard
In his article, Beare focuses not only on what is written in Matthew 10, but he rather he spends much energy on how the three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) interpret/write about the mission of the disciples—which makes sense considering the title of his article. Throughout, Beare further discusses the importance of the missions the disciples were being sent on—coming to the conclusion that the authors of the three gospels aforementioned found the missions to be of lesser importance (if they happened at all is another topic) than the instructions Jesus gives them on how they are to conduct themselves. This revelation by Beare helps the reader to shift their focus from the view of the disciples “preaching the word” to an understanding of the intrinsic message Jesus was trying to communicate. Translation of the original text holds hardly any space in this article, although it does make an appearance somewhat infrequently, rather, our author, Beare, makes clear the point that what is written as sayings from Jesus would be nearly impossible to get fully accurate—thus these may be taken with a grain of salt.
"Jesus sends his disciples over the Sea of Galilee in a boat while he remains behind to pray. The disciples are battling at the paddles against a solid headwind when they see Jesus strolling on the water, endeavoring to go by them. They think they are seeing a ghost and shout out, at which time Jesus quiets them and gets into the boat. The winds all of a sudden stop." (Martin 106) Matthew's rendition is substantially more intricate as in he transformed it into a greater degree of a story, only for impact. He depicts the vessel as being "battered by the storm," rather than only a solid head wind. At that point Matthew includes an altogether new story. After the disciples find that they are looking at Jesus himself, not a phantom, Peter makes a request to be permitted to come to Jesus on the water. Jesus says, "Come." But once Peter is out of the vessel, he ends up noticeably frightened and starts to sink. He cries, "Jesus, spare me!" Jesus pulls him up, however decries him, "You of little confidence, for what reason did you question?" They both get into the boat, and the winds stops." (Martin 106) Finally, Matthew closes his entry obviously and compactly with the pupils maintaining their conviction, dissimilar to Mark who left the gathering of people
After these events took place, Jesus leaves to begin his preaching. In doing so, he also chooses his disciples while walking along the Sea of Galilee. Jesus took his disciples with him through Galilee and began his preaching there. He healed the sick and suffering, and also performed
They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. And this brings up the second point of this miracle, Jesus always comes to us in the storms of life. (Isaiah 43:2) “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you”. The Lord may not come at the time you think is best, because he knows when we need him most. Jesus waited until the boat was far out in the sea, when all hope was gone. This shows that Jesus was testing the faith of the disciples. The very thing they feared, the raging of the sea was the steps for them to call on Jesus. The difficult experiences of life will bring Jesus close. We must recognize that fear and faith cannot live in the same heart because fear will keep you from the Lord. The final point is Jesus showed us how he has control of the elements. It is written that the winds died down then those in the boat worshiped Him saying. “Truly you are the Son of God”. And this is want worship is, acknowledging who God is and praising Him both for who he is and for what he has
Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.
The concept of ‘seeing’ the ways of Jesus and that He is the Messiah, is to truly understand the message being portrayed throughout the Gospel, and not the surface meaning that is being represented literally. This concept was very significant to Jesus and his followers as to interpret the meaning without being said, most parables being related to the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ miracle stories. Times were harsh and difficult to spread and teach the words of Jesus, as Mark’s community would face persecution. The disciples of Jesus could ‘see’ more than other believers could perceive, from being apart of Jesus’ life with close relationships, as they were taught the fundamentals from Jesus himself to understand his teachings in much more depth and fluency than others. There were many similarities among Jesus’ twelve disciples and Mark’s community, as both groups share the strong faith in Jesus and God’s power by spreading the good news to others as well as experiencing hardships caused by arrogant hierarchy and society. According to Mark, Jesus was known for his parables and
The church is in need of major renovation when it comes to making disciples. The concept of making disciples to follow the Lord Jesus Christ seems completely foreign to the church today. In order to achieve the desired goal of making disciples for Christ, training others to go out and proclaim gospel, and helping others to train people to disciple one another, one needs to go back to foundation of the Word of God. It is in God’s Word where multiple examples are found of how to make disciples to follow Jesus Christ. It is my desire to see more people in the church have a passion for discipleship. Therefore, this paper will examine in detail how to make disciples in a ministry context. This will be accomplished by examining the 5 V’s of discipleship—vision, values, views, vehicles, and verifiers. It is my purpose to examine each area in order to have a detailed plan of discipleship that will be used in my own ministry context to make disciples for Christ. I hope that this plan can and will be used to train others in the church to make disciples, and disciple one another, for the glory of God.
Each of the four Gospels contains points in ecclesiology. In the Great Commission, Jesus’ last instruction to the Apostles is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people (Matthew 28:19-20). For Jesus’ mission to continue and for his Church to grow, discipleship is necessary. Discipleship is a prominent theme in all four Gospels, for purposes of this essay, only the Gospels of John and Luke-Acts will be analyzed. The similarities regarding discipleship in these Gospels include images of the net and fishing, and the sheep/shepherd/sheepfold. The differences include the preparing of the Twelve to carry on Jesus' ministry in Luke, and service to the community and passing of authority in John's Gospel.