The word disciple comes from the Latin word 'discipulus' meaning pupil or learner.

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Year 10 Coursework-Discipleship

The word disciple comes from the Latin word ‘discipulus’ meaning pupil or learner.  The dictionary defines the term ‘disciple’ to be a person who accepts the teachings and follows the examples of another.  A disciple is someone who believes in and helps spread the teachings of another.  It is someone who learns from a leader and someone who wants to live life according to the wishes and commands of the teacher.

The disciples of Jesus were:

James, son of Zebedee

John, brother of James

Philip

Bartholomew

Thomas who didn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead.

James, son of Alphaes

Simon

Thaddeus

and Judas Iscariot who later betrayed Jesus for money.

The disciples were expected to give up everything they had to be real followers of Jesus as Mark tells us in his gospel:

        As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee he saw two fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew, catching fish with a net.  Jesus said to them ‘Come with me and I will teach you to catch men.’  At once they left their nets and went with him.  He went a little further and saw two other brothers, James and John sons of Zebedee.  They were in their boats preparing their nets.  Jesus called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with Jesus.  (Mark 1:16-20)

This story informs us that to be a disciple in Jesus’ time you had to respond immediately to Jesus’ demands even if it meant leaving you friends, family and property behind.

The disciples were ordinary people with ordinary jobs, it is odd that Jesus did not pick any particular person, he chose four fishermen to be his most loyal companions who would be prepared to suffer, go to prison, be rejected and eventually die.

In the second chapter of Mark’s Gospel Jesus is again on the shore of Lake Galilee where he started to teach a crowd of people.  As he walked along he saw a tax collector, Levi son of Alpheaus, sitting in his office.  Jesus said to him ‘Follow me.’  Levi got up and followed him.  (Mark 2:14)  This tells us that Jesus wasn’t afraid to work with social outcasts and that he treats everyone with equality.

Jesus was aware that the disciples would find it difficult to give up everything that they had, including their family, friends, their jobs and their way of living without the thought of reward.  When Peter said to Jesus ‘look, we have left everything to follow you’ his response was ‘I tell you that anyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel, will receive much more in this present age.  He will receive a hundred times more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children and fields.’  (Mark 10:29)  This shows that Jesus’ disciples will be rewarded with the gift of eternal life in heaven.

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        Jesus displayed more of what it is to be a disciple.  ‘I have chosen you to be with me,’ he told them, ‘I will also send you out to preach and you will have the authority to drive out demons.’

There are many other people in Mark’s Gospel who had faith in Jesus and who followed him.  These people are known as the less obvious disciples because Jesus did not call them yet the came to have faith in him themselves.  The woman with a haemorrhage (Mark 5:21-43) who touches Jesus’ cloak showed that she was a true disciple ...

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