Discipleship and Mark's Gospel Essay examples

The stories of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection in the gospels Mark and Peter differ greatly. Each author has his own plot, descriptive language, audience and characterization of Jesus. What we know about Jesus and how he is portrayed changes between the gospels. For example, the Gospel of Mark uses many Jewish references and makes parallels to the Old Testament which was most likely for the benefit of a Jewish audience. Also, the Jesus in Mark’s gospel is characterized to be more divine, befitting the expectations of the Jewish community. However, The Gospel of Peter seems to entertain both a pagan and Jewish audience, using language that either group could relate to. The Jesus of Peter is oddly portrayed and is more akin to what we

So much of society seems to live his/her life on a sort of self-serving autopilot mode. Rarely does one stop to think how or why he/she is making certain decisions or how these decisions can affect his/her life in the future. Often times, it is not until one has a “string of bad luck” or something tragic happens in one’s life, when he/she will turn to Jesus for help “getting them through this problem” only to return to one’s self-centered ways once his/her life has returned to normal. Living life with a Christian worldview is not something that one can take off a shelf and use when needed and allow it to collect dust on that shelf the rest of the time. This paper will discuss the many parts that make

While both books of Mark and Matthew portray Peter as one of the most important followers of Jesus, Mark seems to emphasize Jesus' spiritual career unlike the broad, more in-depth pursuit of Jesus' life that Matthew embellishes on. As both Jesus' student and friend, Peter is the one disciple most commonly referred to in the stories. Yet the two passages seem to draw different pictures of Jesus' distinguished disciple. In Matthew, Peter seems to play a larger role in Jesus' teachings and seems more significant to Jesus throughout the book. In Mark, he is still important, but to a lesser extent in the eyes of the author. Mark leaves Peter out of a few of the stories altogether and only touches

In the Gospel of Mark, the first chapter starts off by talking about the kingdom. Mark says, that Jesus said, “The time has come…The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). Mark then talks later about the kingdom being divided and one must go up against the devil, because one can’t enter if they are divided. They must be forgiven of their sins so they aren’t guilty of eternal sin (Mark 3:23-29). All throughout the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks through parables. He implies in chapter 4, verses 13-20, that it takes everyone a different amount of time to finally understand the parables. However, one must understand them in order to get rid of Satan’s temptations. This is clear when Mark says, “As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown into them” (Mark

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. The story explains how the Messiah, Jesus, was refused by Israel and finally sent the disciples to preach the gospel around the whole world. As Matthew wrote for his fellow Jews, he wrote his Gospel in the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, which led early Church Fathers to believe Matthew’s was the first Gospel. On the other hand, the Gospel of Mark teaches that Jesus is the Son of God who assumed human nature. Mark wrote the gospel in Greek for a Gentile-Christian audience, which was undergoing persecution, perhaps in Rome. A central theme is that following Jesus often means that a Christian must suffer like Jesus did. Mark’s Gospel points out that Jesus accepted this important title, but that he was reluctant to let people know his identity. (Matthew 26:26-30 and Mark 14:22-26 )

But in Matthew, and most of all Mark, the Disciples are, in Dr. Rick Beaton’s words, “dumb as boards.” … So when you read through the Gospels, especially Mark, and if you have any ounce of irreverence in you, you can’t help but agree with Holden. The Disciples really don’t get it. They’re pretty useless. And it’s pretty surprising that Jesus spent all his energy with them. … My favorite example of the Disciples’ stupidity is in Mark 8, right after Jesus fed the 4,000. And I mean literally right after they fed the people, Jesus and the Twelve got on a boat, and this happened: … Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” They said to one another, “It is because we have no bread.” (Mark 8:14-16, NRSV) … And the Disciples, filled with anything but wisdom, assumed that Jesus was making some obscure reference to the lack of bread in the boat. Not, “Hey, guys, I’m using this as an opportunity to teach you a lesson about life.” But rather, the Disciples yet again think that their present circumstances are all that matter. They have forgotten

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book in the New Testament, and also serves as a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospel tells us of Jesus and his teachings. It is believed that the Gospel originated with Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, and it circulated anonymously (Harris 149). The message in this gospel was compiled to minister to a Jewish and Jewish-Christian community when tensions between early Christians and postwar Jewish leaders aggravated bitter controversy. The Gospel of Matthew was written as an encouragement to the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians and Gentiles who were, at least partly, Torah observant during the 80s C.E. probably at Antioch in Syria

The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other

Many times we see those that are called to follow after Christ yet don’t answer that very call. In Matthew 4:21-22 we see that Peter answered this call, “And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” It is here in Matthew that we see one of the most important strenghts that Peter had, courage. Peter had the courage it took to get out of the boat and follow after Christ! There are many things we can say about Peter but one of the most important things is that he was courages and willing to take that first step. This courage of Peter highlights the first character strength that we will look at and that is that Peter was man of loyality.

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.

In this paper, I am writing about the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest Gospel, but is a really cool one. It covers a lot of key events that happened during Jesus’ lifetime. After reading the chapters, we pointed out things that stood out to us, which we thought were strange or interesting. We also pointed out spiritual lessons that taught us about our faith. We also wrote down questions that we had about the material.

The principles of discipleship can be found throughout the Bible. One of the ultimate goals of discipleship is to become more Christ like which makes Jesus's life and grace an excellent basis for discipleship. Jesus invested in twelve men, the first Disciples, and entrusted them to continue the process. Peter, James, and John were a part of Christ's inner circle and he fostered and encouraged an exalted spiritual life and growth in these three. Paul was a Pharisee who was murdering Christians and then his life was transformed and he became an apostle. He gave his life over to God's purpose not only in a broad perspective, bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles, but also personal. Timothy was a disciple of Paul; Paul was personally involved in Timothy's life. The Great Commission commands the Disciples, in Matthew 28:19, to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". The Disciples followed the Great Commission and Christianity spread. Believers are meant to follow the

If you were to ask Jesus Christ whether he has friends, he would most likely say of course I do, I am certainly friends with all of God’s children. However, after reading Aristotle, the question becomes, ‘If Jesus has friends, of which sort are they?’. Aristotle defines friendship as, “Any association of people who spend time and do things together, share in pains and pleasure, and wish for each other’s good,” (Nicomachean Ethics 1166a 1-10). Addressing each aspect of this definition, with the twelve disciples in mind, the reader concludes that they certainly spend time together, share in pains and pleasure, but the sticking point is whether they wish for each other’s good. The answer to that question determines if in fact Jesus has friends what sort they are.

Although the Roman society questioned Monotheism, the strength of Mark’s community to Jesus had overthrown their past beliefs, whereby their loyalties had met with the many hardships and dangers of Roman hierarchy – just as Jesus’ followers did.

Mark: The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus Christ’s life from when he was baptized by John the Baptist until the days of his death, and his resurrection. Mark was the second of four Gospels although some Scholars argue and insist Mark was the first Gospel written 1. Mark was written by John Mark in AD 65, with a target audience of Roman Christian beleivers 2. Mark was written in a unique manner in regards to literary genre, as it contains figures of speech, and portray life situations in a passionate story like setting that can make the reader feel as if he is there 3. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, however it is written in a manner that emphasizes more so on Jesus’s works than Jesus’s words 4. The key theme in Mark is to portray the life of Jesus Christ as the son of God 5, and the purpose was to show the human qualities and emotions that Jesus displayed from anger (Mark 3:5), and compassion (Mark 1:41). Some of the key events of Jesus Christ’s life in the Gospel Mark include his miracles, his entrance into Jerusalem, the last supper, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension 6. The Gospel of Mark ends with his instruction to the eleven Apostles “And he said unto them “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:16), and his ascension into Heaven (Mark 16:19).