The Possibility of Being a True Disciple of Jesus in the Modern World
I believe that to be a Christian you have to be a disciple. Each must
be willing to participate fully in the church to help spread the word
of God and to promote Christianity. At Baptism and Confirmation
Christians promise to follow the example of Christ in their everyday
lives seeking to act correctly and do good. They also publicly
declare their faith in God and they repent their sins. Christians
disciples in today’s world try to witness their faith to others and
follow Jesus along the way of the cross living through today’s
persecutions.
Is this the same as discipleship as described in Mark’s Gospel? If
you examine the key aspects of discipleship: having faith in God,
putting God before all else, putting others before yourself, being
willing to suffer for God, learning about God‘s Kingdom, spreading the
Gospel, following Jesus’ teachings and serving others you can clearly
see that all these aspects are all still relevant today.
However in today’s hectic and increasingly materialistic world it is
harder to fulfil the promises of discipleship.
It may be argued that many people today lack true faith because they
do not attend church regularly but still consider themselves
Christians.
Nevertheless Simon & Christopher Danes authors of “Mark a Gospel for
Today” say there are over 1 billion Christians Worldwide who still
follow the original teachings of Jesus and his apostles and with ever
growing technology, evangelism is being used increasingly to spread
the word of God, giving more people the chance to learn about God and
his Kingdom and to become Christians.
Many people in their everyday lives put others before themselves and
as a consequence suffer and go without themselves. Many people also do
charitable work for Christian charities e.g. Christian Aid, Tear Fund
and Cafod.
But does this make today’s Christians “True” disciples? Certainly
there are several Christians in the
To be a true disciple of Jesus one must not disown or deny Jesus but
Disciples take someone as their leader and try to do what they say. It is possible to be a disciple of anybody, but all Christians are disciples of Jesus. An Apostle is a selected disciple. There were only 12, and were chosen by Jesus to be leaders of the other disciples. At the time of Jesus, He had a following of about 300-400 ordinary disciples.
who "does what God wants them to do". This simply means that if we put
whole life to God and the Church. This is one major Cost of being a
This book indeed is one of those books that every Christian should read. The author did a great job translating his knowledge and experience into this concise book that contain many insights useful for our ministries. In summary, out of the many questions implied in the book, perhaps one of the more important ones to summarize the book is, what does it mean to be a Jesus’ disciple in a materialistic world like the one we have today? Another one is to ask, does being a Jesus’ follower have ethical implications in a pluralistic world like ours? Well! In this book, Glenn Stassen tries to investigate our situation as followers of Jesus in the present age suggesting an “incarnational discipleship” that addresses the lack of discipleship our world experience today. In order to this, Stassen proposes us with an ethical vision that can build our identity to enable believers to live devotedly in the secular world in which we live today.
Similar to the Gospel of John the Epistles of John catalogues a variety of themes on discipleship. However, four main qualities of discipleship are highlighted in his letters, these are witness, obedience, chosen, and indwelling. These four qualities are announced in the first four verses of 1 John 1 by the apostle explaining how disciples of Christ are witnesses to the glory of Christ through their experiences of sight, sound, and touch (1John 1:1). While being able to experience the greatness of Christ is important to the reality of disciples, John exclaims that experience is not enough and one must publicly “testify to it” (1John1:2) and “proclaim to [the world] the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us” (1John1:2). Witnessing to the faith is an important quality also presented in 3
The Meaning of Discipleship In this piece of coursework I will be writing about the meaning of
Modern Day Disciples Following Jesus today is harder than it used to be, but modern day. disciples do not exist. Christians try to see Jesus in other people and they follow Jesus' example and teachings. An everyday Christian would try to see the good in everybody, try to forgive others when hurt or unhappy and apologise for things that they do wrong.
Discipleship is the process of making disciples; students or followers of someone (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016). Although discipleship existed long before Jesus, the disciple-making process as expressed by Jesus is the most impactful example for Christianity. The following is an analysis of discipleship as it was applied to Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’ discipleship model in light of modern leadership theories, and a discussion of what can be gleaned from Jesus’ discipleship model.
Teachers around the time when Jesus lived thought that learning was such that the people who wanted to learn should come to them to be taught. But Jesus felt differently and rather than waiting for people to come to him, he went out to find them and then chose them to be his followers. He called them disciples and this word means one who learns. But Jesus chose his disciples carefully as we are told in Mark 1:16-20 and also in Mark 3:13-19. In the first passage, Jesus appoints his first four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John. Jesus said to them “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17) In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus calls up the fifth disciple, Levi who was a tax collector, and Jesus later renamed him Matthew. But Levi was not called in the same way as the other four disciples. Jesus was with him at the tax collector’s booth and Jesus simply said, “Follow me” (Mark 2:14) and he rose and followed Jesus.
The Unlikely Disciple is about a Brown University journalist student, Kevin Roose, who decides to spend one semester at Liberty University. He chooses to take this semester in order to order to get better insight on the evangelical community. Although originally Roose only wanted to shallowly integrate into the Christian community to gain a better perspective, by the end of the novel he realizes that you cannot pretend to be something you are not without being a little affected by it. One of the struggles Roose faces is dating Ana who is a female student at Liberty University. Even though there is clearly chemistry between the two, Roose opts out of dating Ana as he does not want to start a relationship based on the false pretenses he has created to fit in at the university. The students at Liberty University are subjected to a great deal of rules that most college students would vehemently disregard. These rules are reinforced by students who are RAs. The author describes being an RA at Liberty as “one of the most grueling jobs on the planet” (174). The college students are forbidden to smoke, drink, and curse. There is great variation in the rules as the students are also prohibited from watching R-rated movies, dancing, hugging more than three seconds, or having any sexual interaction with the opposite sex. For example, the guys on Roose’s dorm hall were caught watching the gory R-rated movie 300 and their punishment was to get “twelve [reprimands] to each person present,” “fined a combined $350,” and “the DVD was confiscated” (172). Some of the rules are implemented to stop activities that will lead the students into further sinful behavior, such as the movie and hugging restrictions. As any ...
It is Not Possible to be a True Disciple of Jesus in the Modern World
A leaders last words and commands to his followers encompass the heart of his message and mission. Jesus’ final command to his disciples in Scripture was to, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19-20 ESV). This emphasis on disciple making was the impetus for the development of an organized disciple-making program for new believers during the Patristic period called the Catechumenate. Jesus charges his disciples not only to proclaim the gospel and baptize new believers, but emphasized "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20). The Catechumenate developed by the Church Fathers was the initial spiritual training ground
However, Jesus taught his apostles by his own examples the way of doing, acting, and living the really holy life that man supposed to live. The apostles of Jesus lived and preached the Gospel to the whole world under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The church was led by the apostles who left it under the bishops as their successors whereby the Holy Spirit works together with them .Everything was handed on through faith. In the supreme arrangement of God,
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.