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SUMMON TO DISCIPLESHIP - by Revd Gilbert Wong
Texts: Psalm 72:1-9; Mark 1:14-20
6 January 2008

Introduction

What is biblical discipleship?

In the OT, there is little explicit teaching on discipleship except for a few references here and there (1 Chronicles 25:8, Isaiah 8:16; 50:4) even though great emphasis has been placed on the role of master-student relationship especially between prophets and their followers (for an example, see 1 Samuel 19:20-24).

In the NT, the picture is very different. As a word, ‘disciple’ occurs some 269 times in the NT with almost all the references found in the Gospels and Acts. There are many references and teaching on discipleship. Let me give a few examples will do: We find the Pharisees having students or disciples (Matthew 22:15-16) as well as disciples of John the Baptist (Mark 2:18). The Jews considered themselves to be disciples of Moses (see John 9:27-28).

The relationship in these example has one thing in common and that is “disciples were understood to be individuals committed to a particular person so as to learn that person’s teaching or way of life and then to follow a particular pattern of life, whether by living in a certain way, passing on the teaching to others or engaging in political or religious activities” (Richard Peace).

This is the same understanding that Jesus and his disciples have. Bear in mind also that in the NT, there are many types of disciples: The Twelve who were appointed to be apostles (Mark 13:13-19), to the 72 who were sent out on a specific mission by Jesus (Luke 10:1-20), to the others who followed him (e.g. Mathew 27:57), and including the crowds, some of whom eventually left when his teaching became too hard for them to accept (John 6:66). This only shows that some disciples can have some deviant and erroneous ideas of what discipleship is.

And since Jesus is our master, we should know how he calls us

Transitional Sentence: And this leads me to the second question:

How does Jesus summon people to discipleship (1:14-15)?

Jesus summoned people to repentance.

In Judaism, the Jewish people practised “repentance” when they did something wrong, asking God’s forgiveness and determining to change for the better. But the ultimate example of repenting, or turning away from a wrong way of living to a right way of living, was for the non-Jews who decided to obey the teachings of the God of Israel.

But to tell the Jewish people that they had to repent the same way non-Jews did would have been offensive, because it challenged the prevalent Jewish belief about salvation. Most believed that if they were born into a Jewish family and did not reject God’s law, they would be saved.

The point of Jesus’ message is that everyone has to come to God on the same terms as non-Jews. A summon to a new way of living. The point is that people should turn their lives over to God if they believe the good news that God is getting ready to fulfil all his promises to his people.

The Jewish people recognised that God ruled the universe in one sense now, but they prayed daily for the day when his kingdom, or rule, would be established over all the peoples of the earth. Then, they believed, everyone would submit to God. Because the Gospels affirm that Jesus must come twice, they recognise that the kingdom comes in two stages: God’s future rule is established in the lives of those who obey him in the present and over the entire world when Jesus returns.

Basil Maturin, a WWII priest says that we are only attracted to God only when there is some moral sympathy. In other words, we should want to live the life of God to be Christians. Otherwise, we are only one by name and not by substance.

This is important so that we perceive repentance and absolution to be made right before God and therefore our righteous acts are born out of that right relationship. If not, our good deeds are done so that we become good.

Transitional Sentence: After telling how Jesus summoned people to turn their lives to God, we find in these few verses an illustration of how some followers of Jesus did so.

Some illustrations of how some followers followed Jesus (1:16-20).

Some illustration of how people respond to the message of Jesus. A few people in Jewish Palestine were rich; most were relatively poor. Some, like fishermen, tended to fall between the rich and the poor. James and John were clearly not poor – they had “hired servants” (v. 20), as only well-off people did.

Peter and Andrew were probably in business with James and John (Luke 5:7-10); we know of other fishing partnership at that time. This text indicates that none of these disciples left their business behind because it was going badly; they left behind well-paying jobs.

Many Jewish teachers in Jesus’ day felt that the greatest commandment was to honour one’s parents. To abruptly leave behind one’s family and the family business was a great sacrifice that went against everything the culture taught.

The use spiritual means. Given our tight schedules, we must set time aside to take part in spiritual means and the most common of all is small groups that meet regularly to encourage and support spiritual growth. This was in fact the practice of the early disciples in Acts 2:42).

The use of vocation. We need to learn how to perceive our job not as a place to earn our bread and butter but also as a place in which to minister as disciples of Jesus.

The use of spiritual disciplines. Instead of seeking instant growth, it is imperative that spiritual traditional discipline be taken seriously – meditation, fasting, solitude, confession, worship, prayer, study, celebration, discernment, and simplicity.

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