"Come with me and I will make you fishers of men"(1:17)
They decided to follow Jesus and leave everything behind, their families, friends, possessions and jobs. To do this it must have taken a great amount of trust in God and Jesus, so much trust that they were willing to place their lives into Jesus' hands and let him take them wherever he wished.
"Anyone who wishes to be a follower of mine must leave self behind;
He must take up his cross and come with me." (8:34) I
Jesus spoke these words and they show what you need to do if you want to become a follower of Jesus. He says to "leave self behind " Coopers explanation of to leave self-behind is:
"To leave self behind means to put oneself last in all things; to have no care about ones life, position or esteem; and to have no desire for rights or privileges except that of belonging to God. "
So this means living without certain pleasures and privileges like many people live without certain things for lent. But living without these things will give you a greater pleasure of belonging to God.
Being a Disciple also means you have to go out and work for Jesus. Some disciples are also given the power of healing. Some are sent out to foreign countries to preach to people about the kingdom of god. But because of this they cannot expect to become rich, as there was no income in this. They may also be hated or persecuted for what they preach and believe in..
"The invitation to go with Jesus is an invitation to travel along the same road. Discipleship can involve suffering, rejection and death."
Mark can also teach us that as a disciple, you will have to be willing to suffer and to sacrifice yourself in the same way that Jesus himself did. But sometimes this can prove a very hard task. Giving up your life isn't something that comes naturally to us, and this fact took its toll on some of the Disciples.
Peter, when the Romans had captured Jesus, denied the fact that he knew Jesus and that he was one of his followers. This was because he was scared of being killed and persecuted, but he repented later and was forgiven for the sins that he had committed, and later went on to be one of the most important apostles and the source of Marks gospel. Peter put his whole life in Gods hands. He had the faith to go out and preach at dangerous times for Christians and was put to death on a cross because of his beliefs.
This shows, that to be a disciple you have to be prepared to do anything for your faith in God even if it means giving up your life. In keeping with being a devoted disciple you would have to give up nearly all of your possessions. This is so you can fully focus on God and learn to be a good disciple to him. Jesus even told Disciples to give all their wealth to the poor, this is a hard thing to do, to give up everything that you have worked hard for.cobg bgr sebgbgw orbg bgk inbg fobg bg!
Jesus said that real followers are like children. They accept things that they are taught, and they do not question them or doubt.
