Mark 1:16-22 (Click this text link and the ESV bible translation will show up!)
In this passage Jesus is calling people into ministry – He is ‘fishing men’ for His kingdom. We actually can learn everything from Jesus. He is the perfect ‘evangelizer’ and the most experienced ‘recruiter’. Let us intensively study the recorded life of Jesus and every little detail of His ministry. And then let us copy His lifestyle.
The Holy Spirit will help us doing that. As with every element of Jesus’ ministry so also here: He promises to His disciples that He Himself will show them how to be successful in the ‘fishing ministry’. So you can be sure that He did not forget you. OK, let’s do it!
It is of great importance to know what happened shortly before and shortly after Jesus’ first ‘recruitings’. Read the entire chapter again and see how God is working it all out. In Mark’s presentation of Jesus’ life nothing happens just by accident. Every situation and job is well prepared. Jesus always can immediately do what He is supposed to do. He would never waste time, money or thoughts.
Question 1: Why didn’t the fishermen first discuss with Jesus before they followed him? Why did they immediately follow him? (Don’t forget that He must have been a strange man for them!)
Question 2: What is the difference between Jesus’ and the scribes’ authority? Name scripture passages where Jesus and where the scribes are characterized. Am I more like Jesus or more like a scribe?
Question 3: Is there any command in the bible to go and make disciples? Name at least three.
Question 4: Did Jesus show you personally how to win people for Him and His kingdom?
Question 5: Tell us the essential steps of the recruiting/winning of non-believers. How are you doing that? Share with your experiences. Tell us about your ways of approaching others with the gospel.
Have fun and gain wisdom!
1. flash Says:
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:05 am
q1…
i think that is the power that Jesus had , He was 50%man and 50%God so He had power with Him and probebly He Had autority in front of them, He had the power of speaking and i think the fishermen did not knew what will be in future but still they falow Him…
q2…
da i look more fore scribesin the bible and is amazing how they are’ fore example
jessu “atack” them:Matthew23:…13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
14 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
mark,12:38…38 Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces,
39 “the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts,
40 “who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
so now we know something about the scribes…
and about Jesus there are so many things to say …. so i really think that i want to fallow Jesus example and not the scribes,
q3…
ofcourse is it :
Jesus send’s the disciples , mark.16.15, ex fore us to go and preach the gospel , matthew:28.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
and are more ex. in the bible
q4…
ya i think thrue the Bible and i think that is a comand for us all to go and tell the Gospel in our dayli life to be a good example and i think alsow that u could tell the gospel or respect(doing) this comand by your life with friends to be a example to them and u could share the gospel eith this and many different things
q5…
oooo this is a good question and i cant wait to see the answer frome the others because like this we could learn forme eacother , so i am starting by building relation with non,beleivers to comunicate with them to meet with them and doing diferent acctivities but very important that in this time to be a example to him or them, and they are difrent ocasion when to teel the gospel u could tell direcly to pearson that u dont know them , i like this very much and i can waith to learn more russion and then i could tell the gospel to diferent people ,now because i am hear i will like to try by building relation with friends and in the same time pray for them very much and when the moment come share the gospel with them …
like this and are more others way to tell the gospel diferent ,many people dont accept them but now is like how is Speaking God to u personal , how to tell the gospel
Great answers! Thank you Florin – for taking so much time to give such detailed answers. If you struggle with the right spelling of words sometimes, there’s a trick to correct it: paste your text first in gmail and check it with the gmail spelling program (inbuilt), after that paste it back here. By the way: Everyone listen carefully–
Florin has a really good looking new website at http://florin.in — have a look and let us know how you like it!
Greetings Ben
2. Sasha Says:
February 24th, 2007 at 12:54 am
1
To me,it is one of the favorit places in the gosple. Jesus was not lke others, yas He was strange to them and that is exactly what was attractive to them. Jesus was God and He spoke to them with a special power-He was God.
2
Jesus was very close to to His Fother and He wanted to glorify Him, but scribes wore more worry about their traditions and they wanted to show thet they are better then others and rhis is not realy authority. Mark 7
3
Mat28:19,Mark16:15-16,Luc10:1-2
4
I think the best way to win people is to live
our life the way that others could see the light that Jesus is tolking in His teaching n the mountain
5
Sasha, thank you for your answers. It is every time again a personal pleasure for me to read your phrases. They have depth and authority. Thank you for doing this ‘blogging thing’ together with us. Appreciate it! Ben
3. Kirill Says:
February 25th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Good day to evryone!We’re going more and more interesting!Thanks God,Ben and all the guys for this time!
Q1.i don’t know exactly(it’s not said in the Bible).But i think that they had strong faith,they were expecting for Jesus with all their hearts.And as it’s said sheeps know His voice as He’s talking with power(verse 22).
Q2.Jesus has the Spirit authority-He’s the Son of God, and scribes had the authority of the law(letter).As The Bible says the the letter kills,but the Spirit brings us to life.John 7:47-49;Mf 12:2; Mf 5:20-scribes; Jn 11:35-38;Lk 6:5;Mf 23:9-10.
Q3.Mf 28:19-20; Mk 16:15; Lk 9:1-6
Q4.Oh,it’s a hard question for me cause i’m in the very beginning of my life with the Lord and thus in sharing the Gospel with non-believers.
Q5.i can share the experiense,cause i don’t have it yet.But i know that we should have wisdom in such cases and we can’t push on such people!
Have a great time with God!Thank you!
Again good answers! Thank you Kirill. So,you have Internet back in your home? Does the handheld computer work on your dial-up connection? Let me know. Greetings and honest appreciation, Yours Ben
I like the new design of our study page much more than the older one. Nature invites you always to pray and meditate about our God’s character. Unfortunately in Odessa there is not much nature left. But a good picture can compensate a lot! Ben
Answ. Q1:
As we see in the text Jesus was a man with power and authority from Heaven. And probably because of it people were ready to follow Him without questions.
And what’s more – Jesus knew his disciples who were chosen by God to serve Him. So when the time has come it was like a fulfilling of the God’s will.
Answ. Q2:
Going further we read that Jesus “taught as one who had real authority unlike the teachers of religious law”. We also see that it was an eerie stir in a spiritual reality. We see this in a description of demons’ behavior which knew exactly who He is. Nothing like that concerning Pharisees even though they knew the law (Scriptures) very well. They didn’t know God but knew about God what is a huge difference. This is what we can notice in the Gospels – that Jesus knew God the Father, Pharisees didn’t.
So, if we are talking about Pharisees (in the question is the word ’scribes’), the first comparison Ph. and Jesus we can find in Matthew 3. Verses 7 to 10 descr. Phar. and verses 10 to 11 descr. Jesus’. Further in chapter 4 we see that Jesus knew the Scriptures excellent with understanding.
Matthew 5 to 7 “Sermon on the mount” is a powerful message preached by Jesus revealing Jesus’ wisdom and knowledge of God’s character.
Throughout the whole four Gospels we see Jesus as a man with great spiritual authority, able to command evil spirits to left people what was astonishing to the “crowd” as well as to the Phar.
It’s all sorts of passages in which we can find Jesus and Phar., their attitude, their acting – no place to write, just enc. to read the Bible
Am I more like Jesus or more like a scribe?
Good question, hard enough to tell “I don’t know”.
With whole my heart I want to be like Jesus but it is easy to tell so… How it is in reality, daily? In all these situations each day when I have to make a quick decision what to say, what to advise, how to behave or react on sth when I really want to be obedient to the Word of God. It is pretty easy to be like a Phar. even though I want to be like Jesus. My hope is that with time on this narrow path each day I will know God more and more and from this growing relation I will become more and more like my Lord.
Answ. Q3:
Answered already in preceding posts (above).
Answ. Q4:
- by giving a testimony about Him, the living God
- by preaching the Gospel
- by showing a real love which we receive from Him
Answ. Q5:
I don’t like this word “recruiting” because it has bad associations… but:
1. I treat seriously this very serious issue (eternity). At the very beginning (to tell about) and later (in discipleshipping) also. For me the time of telling about God is the most serious time – I mean I do every effort to have nothing to disturb.
2. I always invite people to “my ground”. I think it is very helpful to take people out of this world for a moment (a few hours or more) to show the difference between God’s Kingdom and “the World”.
My ground is a place where there is no violence, no anger and scream, no pornography and other “nourishment” for sinful desires but God’s values and His character revealed in behavior, style of live, relations with other believers, music which I listen to, …
I believe that such a time in such a place is indeed a great profit for themselves. And I know that people really like it. They like it because of the peace and so on… which is amazing and astonish for people living in this world.
3. And I really like small communities of believers (during the week), to live together or almost together (close neighbors). This is so powerful testimony and opportunity to invite people, to pray for them… where they can see and experience God’s truths in a real life.
Thank you, dear “+a” (you will decide when to disclose your identity!), for these honest and very interesting answers. There is a lot in your responses we should talk about in future, a lot of interesting and promising concepts, like “my ground” in contrast to the world. That reminds me so much of “L’Abri” founded by Francis Schaeffer. We’ll later have a lecture on him at the HGEU – see our
Christian Philosophical Blog
Thank you again, dear brother! Ben
Gio says:
1) His character and impression was so strong that they intuitively knew that it is the only right thing to follow him. They immediately wanted to trust him. Sometimes you meet people whom you easily trust.
2) The eyes and the impression of the scribes are without real authority. Therefore you would never trust them and of course never follow their lifestyle. Examples of typical descriptions of the character of scribes I will find later. Right now my life looks more like that of a scribe, but I beliveve that this will change.
3) Yes, there are several passages that tell us to go and share the good news. Whenever I find something good for me, I have to share this with others!
4) Yes, I have got the impression that Jesus wants from me to reach out to boys during the Rugby training. He gave me something to share with them!
5) I believe that we have to discover the interests of others and to give them to understand that you are open for their interests. A friendship grows between us and the non-believer. Trust and confidence is already there. Then after a while we can share the gospel with them. A mere manipulation would drive them away.