Discipleship In Jesus

What does it mean when Telford talks about the “cost of discipleship” in light of Mark’s gospel?

Money brings the inequality of possessions, also called “the haves and the have not’s.” We may all be equal in the eyes of God, but here on earth some eyes grow green with envy. Children come home from daycare complaining that Little Jimmy’s truck was bigger than his, husbands and fathers are forever eying the Jones; new corvette, and entire wars have erupted over the “you have it and I’m gonna get it” mentality. Inequality of possessions is not bad though many passages in the Bible teach that even in heaven there are different degrees of rewards. Even God’s spiritual gifts are not given equally to each of us, but this does not mean He loves one person more than the other. It is what we do with

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

While the goal of Christian education and discipleship is spiritual formation of the new believer into a true disciple who makes other true disciples, this concept has been watered down in the American church today by emphasis on programs instead of progressive spiritual growth in every member’s life. There are many

Jesus then goes from speaking to His disciples specifically, to calling out to the whole crowd, in which He goes from speaking plainly to once again speaking in metaphors and riddles. Within this passage Mark uses the words of Jesus to reveal the true cost of discipleship. He tells the crowd that if anyone chooses to come after Him then the condition of that decision is that they must take up their cross and follow Him. So one must ask: What does it mean to deny yourself? What does it mean to take up your cross? And when you follow Him where are you going? So then one must put this into context by looking at what has not yet happened in Mark. When Jesus denies Himself, He is essentially denying the human instinct to self preserve through a fight or flight response. When Jesus picked up His cross, He was deciding to be rejected, tortured, mocked and falsely accused on His way to Calvary where He died for the sins of all. Therefore, if you want to go after Jesus, you must be willing to commit to sharing the gospel with others at all costs, you must be willing to tortured, mocked, and falsely accused and you must also be willing to die, not necessarily for anything that you have done, but so that others can reach salvation. Historically, during this time period, the cross was a well known style of execution in Rome, and so although one reading this might see this as simply a metaphor, it is actually a foreshadowing of reality, which can be seen in the fact that all the

The dispute of details between Mark and Matthew continues in Mark 10:1: “And crowds again gathered around him and as was his custom, he again taught them.” Based on Mark’s gospel once Jesus arrived at both Judea and beyond the Jordan, he is met with many people who he’d taught. Matthew’s gospel thought otherwise. In Matthew 19:2, “Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there.” Unlike Mark’s Gospel in which Jesus taught a large group of people, Matthew writes that once Jesus arrives in Judea he cured the large group of people. This ambiguity could have been caused because the words for teaching and cure in Greek are similar. It could suggest that Matthew meant Jesus cured the large group of people of their sins, which would be more in line with Mark in which Jesus may have taught the large group of people on how to rid of their sins.

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.

Discipleship requires service, study, and sacrifice. Surrendering our will to His is often the hardest challenge/obstacle to true discipleship. Our service to Him requires action and diligence to sharing both our skills, resources and time. Study of His word means that we take the time to investigate, memorize and understand what His word says and how it applies to our lives. Sacrifice is the final key to unlocking all that God has in store for us both in this life and in heaven. Willingly laying everything aside to follow Him despite what others

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.

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.

Just what is theology? This question can have a wide variety of answers, from irrelevant facts about God thought up by men centuries ago, to complicated theories discussed by scholars. Typically, the average 21st century man does not consider theology as relevant. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology by definition has the characteristics of both expounding the truth, and impacting the believer with that truth (Himes, 2011). Therefore, theology and the church are intricately combined, in that the church embodies the revelation of God, and is reality, not theory (Himes, 2011). A personal practical theology must begin with revelation, not the individual (Himes, 2011), and proclaim

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.

Mark presents Jesus as a compassionate savior who through his acts of service and acts of suffering summons unbelievers to become disciples and so that believers would understand what it means to be committed followers of Jesus. In Mark's account of the Passion of Jesus Christ, Jesus dies alone.Jesus only speaks once from the cross stating "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" and dies. Mark acknowledges that after Jesus' crucifixtion that people believed in Jesus being the true Messiah, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (15:39).