The Work of Discipleship
A disciple is ‘one who wishes to follow and learn from another’. A
disciple believes in and helps to spread the teachings of another.
Jesus gathered disciples around him to help him with his mission. The
number of disciples he chose, twelve, is significant. Jesus links the
twelve disciples in the New Testament and the twelve tribes of Israel
in the Old Testament. This is the connection between the Old and the
New Covenants
When Jesus called them, they instantly left everything to follow him.
Well, Simon (Peter), Andrew, James and John did anyway. The Rich Young
Man could not take the final leap of faith. He had kept the Ten
Commandments since he was young. All he needed to do was sell all his
belongings, give the money to the poor and follow Jesus. But he was
very rich and did not want have a great enough faith. Jesus told Levi
(Matthew) to follow him and he did. Jesus chose twelve men and they
came to him. They were chosen to share in Jesus’ mission, to bring
others into the community and to continue the mission when Jesus was
gone.
The disciples were given a three-fold mission; to heal the sick, to
drive out demons and to spread the word of Jesus. This would be tough
and would involve sacrifice. In ‘The Mission’, Jesus says:
“Don’t take anything with you on your journey except
a stick – no bread, no beggar’s bag, no money in your pocket.
Wear sandals but don’t carry an extra shirt.”
Mark 6.8-9
But they made these sacrifices because in order to join God’s
community they had to drop everything in their life and follow Jesus.
This is the nature of discipleship and shows the urgency of...
... middle of paper ...
...takes like everyone else but never
give up.
In ‘The Commission’, Jesus reminds the disciples that they must carry
on his work, continuing to spread the Good News. He told them to:
“Go throughout the whole world and preach the
gospel to the whole human race.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Mark 16.15-16
He went on to say believers would be given the power to perform
miracles. He says they will not be harmed by poisons, will be able to
speak in ‘strange tongues’ and will heal the sick. This sums up the
nature of discipleship. They had to make huge sacrifices to join Jesus
on his mission and had to be prepared to suffer and even die. In the
end, even if they had not enough faith sometimes, they had it in the
beginning and in the end.
With a mission to win an Olympic medal, and to tell his story, of the heinous crime he experienced. Demonstrating what one man, set on fire and left to die can do (Hall 601-604). I believe that during the
...but he was mindful of the great strength, the large gift God had given him and relied on the Almighty for favor, comfort and help. By that he overcame the foe, subdued the hell-spirit.
To be a true disciple of Jesus one must not disown or deny Jesus but
had great faith in Jesus and teaches us that we should do the same. In
Mark's Gospel and Nature of Discipleship In Mark's Gospel, there are many accounts of Jesus' disciples and Apostles which are helpful to Christians as examples of the nature of discipleship. In this part of my coursework essay I hope to address questions involving what Mark's Gospel tells us about Jesus' disciples and Apostles, as well as defining the principle of what being a disciple entails, and defining also who the apostles were. This is because by learning about past disciples and the Apostles, a modern disciple of the Church can learn about the nature of discipleship. A disciple is somebody who is inspired enough by somebody to learn about them, listen to their ideas and follow them and their way of life.
His ability to successfully lead a team played a significant role in their survival. In 1915, while amidst their expedition, the ship, Endurance, became lodged in a pack of ice. They tried to wait it out, through a winter of darkness, and even though the Endurance was drifting northward, the ice was too much for the Endurance to withstand. The ice broke the Endurance in half, forcing the dogs and crew off the ship. They would end up spending months trying to find land.
with you at all times. To become a Christian you must try and be the
He instilled hope into himself and those around him every chance he had. He understood the challenges he and his fellow prisoners faced, but he would not let it defeat him or anyone else. When his friends begin to give in to the situation, he won’t let them. He exclaims, “To die, it’s easy.
Throughout the first 400 years that Christianity was present in the world it changed dramatically. It started small in an area near the eastern Mediterranean area but within these 400 years, it grew to encompass the whole of the Mediterranean and its surrounding. Throughout this time of growth, there was also much change within the beliefs of Christianity with the main belief centering around Jesus Christ. While Christianity grew and made it to new areas it was introduced to new people that interpreted the different scriptures and preaching of what it meant to be a Christian. Some of the most influential writings in these years came from Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century writer, Christian, theologian, and bishop. He expressed his beliefs of what made a Christian a Christian within his writing. One of his most famous writings, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, highlights the idea of the Holy Trinity and the Rule of Faith in the interpretation of the bible. Irenaeus believed that the Rule of Faith was ultimately necessary and required when reading and interpreting the word of Christianity saying, in the words of Isaiah, “If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand” (paragraph 3). In the eyes of Irenaeus, the Rule of Faith is one of the main things that makes a Christian a Christian.
When Jesus called His disciples, His invitation was simple. He invited them to follow Him. The same is true today. In Matthew 28, Jesus gave His last charge to His disciples, and the charge was simple. He called his followers to go and make disciples. Much effort has been placed by Christians to fulfill this charge, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Jesus chose to fulfill the implementation of the New Covenant through 12 men who He called, appointed, and commissioned, and he only had a few short years to prepare them for the task (Willson, 1990). His methods were unconventional and were revolutionary for that time. His disciples were to be trained extensively by Jesus, living with Him for three years prior to His ascension. He taught about servant leadership and its meaning for both the leader and follower Matt. 20:25-28). From the beginning, Jesus put in place a careful plan, and an examination of His actions in the Gospels showed that Jesus left behind the pattern to be replicated. His methods, which included the incorporation of three different levels of discipleship, included His interaction with Peter, His closest three (Peter, James, and John), and finally the group of 12. This paper identified and analyzed the three levels of discipleship Jesus modeled, these discipleship methods were then measured against modern leadership theories, and Jesus’s level of involvement and interaction with his disciples were critiqued in light of these modern theories in an effort to determine the effectiveness of this approach.
He entered a battle when he had just learned of the uncertain odds, he nearly sacrificed the lives of his family while trying to act the hero in front of them, and he recovered from the death of his wife unnaturally quickly when faced with the prospect of leading a voyage. Though his experiences seem to depict the worst of them, he hints at evidence that he learned from these experiences and emerged a better person because of
The Gospel of Luke centralizes the components of Jesus’ divinity, humanity, and ministry which contribute to the perception of Jesus portrayed by the narrator of Luke. Jesus’ divinity is demonstrated through his healings and miracles throughout the Gospel. His humanity is represented through the infancy narrative and also at the beginning of his Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane. Finally, Jesus’ public ministry serves as the most effective and important element of his life because of the essential teachings that he speaks of that give inside evidence to the formation of the modern day church.
In the divine religion of Christianity, the life of Apostle Paul set a legendary example of devotion, loyalty, and commitment to the Holy Christ and the church. He was the true apostle of Jesus Christ who tried his level best to spread the Divine mission of peace and love to all civilizations and different cultures. Unlike other apostles he was the one who enlightened the Asia world with the great teachings of Jesus Christ through his ceaseless endeavor in the form of preaching. His mission was to bring humanity closer to the blessings of Christ by means of apostolic charity so as not to be confided to one race or culture but to the whole mankind (Feingold, 2009).
way of the one who is called. Not wealth, not even family: it is a
The Nature of Discipleship According to Mark's Gospel. Discipleship is usually thought of as following Jesus, being a. preacher and a teacher of the Bible. 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 as a disciple. In actual fact, the Old Testament word 'Talmid' is a 'learner', and more.