Discipleship Coursework

Jesus told us that being a Christian disciple was very important, as spreading the word of God was vital for the continuation of the Christian order. A Disciple of Jesus is a person who follows the teachings of Christ. People take Jesus as an example as he put what he preached into practice, and his disciples follow him in awe, willing to spread His Good News. Jesus taught people to turn away from Sin, and to believe in the message of God. Jesus performed miracles and had power over the spirit of evil. This resulted in Jesus being condemned by the Sanhedrin although Jesus would not go back on his word; he believed what he preached was right.

The calling of the first five disciple is shown most clearly in the Gospel of Mark, it is the most descriptive and it must have been written about 30 years after Jesus' death. Mark was known as someone who wrote synoptic gospels along with Luke. Synoptic means 'looking together'. In Mark 1:16-20 Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee where he saw two fishermen. They were Simon and Simon's brother Andrew. Jesus told them to leave their nets and come with him to catch men and spread the word of God. Straight away they left their nets and came to follow Jesus. Soon after, as they were walking further on, Jesus spotted the son's of Zebedee, James and John. Jesus called out to them, and James and John left their father and came to join Jesus. So he had called four disciples to follow him: Simon, Andrew, James and John. He called on them to follow him because they were fishermen who were expected to become "fishers of men" and pass the faith onto other people.

In Mark 2:13-14 Jesus returns to the shore of Lake Galilee where he starts to teach his four disciples but as they walk along the shore, Jesus sees Levi who is the son of Alphaeus. Levi is a tax collector, and Jesus chooses Levi because Jesus wanted an outcast of society in his following to show that He loves everyone and does not show favouritism among others, and has disciples from all walks of life. Jesus tells Levi to follow him and immediately Levi drops his things and goes to follow Jesus as he was told. So therefore Levi was the next disciple.

When Jesus had his twelve apostles, according to Mark's Gospel 3:13-19, Jesus takes the twelve disciples he wanted up a hill where they were told that Jesus would send them out to preach and Jesus gave them the authority to drive out demons. His twelve apostles were Simon, who he gave the name Peter, There were the two fishermen who were the sons of Zebedee, James and John who he also gave a different name to, Boanerges, which means men of Thunder. Also James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the patriot, Judas Iscariot who later betrays him, Thuaddaes, Thomas, Phillip, Andrew, Mathew and Bartholomew.