Jesus helped his disciples to understand the importance of prayer when they could not cast out the unclean spirit that was in a little boy because of their lack of faith. As soon as they bought the little boy to Jesus the unclean spirit threw the boy into convulsions. The disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast out the spirit. He replied, “This is the kind that can only be driven out by prayer”. This shows prayer is very important for faith and a god relationship with God
The disciples argued about who was the greatest between them, Jesus heard them arguing and taught them that if anyone want to be first he must make himself last of all and a servant of all. Jesus then took a little child and said “anyone who welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.
Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up to him and asked him what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus stopped and replied, “ you know the commandments: you must not kill, not to commit adultery, must not steal, must not bring false witness, must not defraud and must honour your mother and father “. The rich man said “master, I have kept all these from my earliest days” Jesus could see that it may have cost him much to keep these commandments so he asked the rich man to do something more costly that meant a lot to him. Jesus asked the rich man to give up all his personal possessions and wealth to give to the poor then he would have treasure in heaven. The rich face fell, he thought Jesus we asking too much of him and he couldn’t face giving up his wealth so he slowly walked away. The disciples were there at the time and saw what had happened. They were shocked and amazes at what Jesus had asked the rich man to do. Jesus declared “wealth makes things hard, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
James and John wanted to know who could get the best jobs, they approached Jesus and asked him whom he would pick to sit at his right hand and who on the left in glory Jesus said to them ‘can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptised with the baptism which I must be baptised?’ James and John replied they could. Jesus said to them ‘the cup that I must drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I must be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand or my
Left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted
Jesus and his disciples went to a small estate, Gethsemane he told his disciples to stay awake while he went off to pray. Jesus took peter, James and John and said to them “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death, wait here and keep awake”. Jesus went away and prayed, when he came back the disciples were asleep, he said to Peter, “are you sleeping, had you not the strength to keep awake one hour? You should be awake and praying not to be put to the test, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. Jesus went away to pray a second time and came back to find his disciple sleeping yet again, he said the same words and went away to pray again. Jesus came back a third time to find them asleep yet again. Jesus said to them “you can sleep now. It is over. The hour has come. Now the son of man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, get up! Let us go! My betrayer is close at hand already”
As soon as Jesus spoke those words Judas, one of the twelve disciples came up with a number of men armed with swords and clubs. Judas signalled that Jesus was the man to be arrested the men seized Jesus. While Jesus was being arrested the disciples who he was with ran away from him
After the Resurrection Jesus showed himself to eleven of his disciples while they were at a table. His disciples had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen so he approached them for their incredulity and obstinacy. Jesus said to them, ‘Go out to tell the world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers’, Jesus then went on to say believers will have the gift of speaking in tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed if they drink poison. They will cure the sick that will recover.
Disciples today can be known, as anyone who practises the Christian faith, all they need is faith, prayer and courage. Disciples today need to be able to have trust in Jesus they need to help others, spread the gospels, tell people about god to keep the faith of god alive and to live out gospel values.
A Christian is a person who has absolute faith in Jesus they believe Jesus is the Son of God and that he is here to forgive sins. A Christian us like a
disciple of god. A Christian listens to the gospel by reading it privately. For example you can read your bible at home in your spare time, or
Joining the Christian community in its parish worship like attending mass or joining a prayer group.
As a member of the Christian Community a person can live out their call to discipleship by being a good son/daughter, a good student, a good friend, giving food to the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick but more importantly living out the 10 commandments.
Everyone can live out gospel values like
- Truth - by not lying and always trying to be an honest person, standing up for the truth, speaking out against what is false.
- Justice speaking out against injustice, protecting rights for the underprivileged.
- Christian love, giving to charity and caring about other people. Trying to help other people if they have a problem
- Forgiveness – never holding grudges, respect and compassion for what you believe in
Some of the first disciples faced many problems like discrimination and being ridiculed because they had strong views on their belief in God. They also faced rejection, their goals were to spread the gospel but many people did not want to listen and just turned their backs.
The disciples had to give up all of their possessions to become a disciple. They gave up their normal life to follow Jesus and they faced many obstacles on the way. It was mentally and physically demanding, they had to have a lot of faith so that they wouldn’t be tempted to return back to there own lives and ways. Some of the problems the first disciples faced Christians face today. There is discrimination and sometimes persecution against Christians today. In some countries Christians can even be killed for their belief, also there is a strong stereotypical view on Christians today.
EVALUATION
In this evaluation, I am going to be discussing the statement ‘It is not possible to be a true disciple of Jesus in the modern world’. I will be considering reasons for and against this argument.
A disciple is a follower of Jesus. Disciples live out Christian values, spread the gospel and do not live a life of sin. It can be hard to be a disciple in the modern world because the world is full of temptations. The world today is more materialistic and money orientated as people are becoming richer and richer and as Jesus said it is easier for a camel to pass an eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Nowadays people depend more on their possessions and technology to live so it’s even harder to give up personal possessions. But it is possible for people in the modern world to be a disciple. Christianity has survived thousands of years ands is still one of the biggest faiths in the world. To prove that there are modern day disciples I have looked up a few famous modern day disciples like Oscar Romeo. Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa.
This proves the statement ‘It is not possible to be a true disciple of Jesus in the modern world’, is not true.
By Latoya McKenzie
