By Ken Yates
Eternal life is given to the person who believes in Jesus for it. It is a gift that cannot be lost. The believer cannot give the gift back even if he wants to!
Being a disciple of the Lord, however, is completely different. A disciple is one who follows the Lord and learns from Him. It is very costly. It involves work and results in suffering to various degrees. Some Christians decide not to become disciples because of how difficult it is. They sit down and count the cost and conclude that they don’t want to pay that price. They might tell themselves that they know they’re going to be in the kingdom, and that’s good enough. Sadly, they feel that the rewards of being a disciple aren’t worth what they would have to give up in order to become one.
But there’s another reason a believer might opt out of being a disciple. A believer can have a low estimation of himself and think that it’s useless to even try. When he looks at how difficult discipleship is, he throws up his hands, thinking he’ll never be able to do it. He concludes that other believers might succeed in this endeavor, but he is destined to fail in such a noble pursuit.
For those who think that way, I have both good news and bad news. The bad news is: We’re going to fail. The good news is: All disciples blow it. That’s part of being a disciple. The process requires failure. You can’t be a disciple without it. But the Lord will use our failures to make us more like Him and to make us great in His kingdom.
The original disciples teach us these truths. They sure made a lot of mistakes. But the Lord used them anyway, and they will reign with Him forever. The Gospel of Mark uses these guys as examples of what I’m talking about.
CALLED TO BE DISCIPLES
In Mark 1:16-20 and 2:13-17, the Lord calls some men to follow Him in discipleship. Four of them are fishermen. One is a tax collector. He gives them all the same opportunity and uses the same words: “Follow Me!”
These men were already believers when Jesus invited them to be His disciples. John 1:35-42 tells us that the fishermen had already believed in Christ. The parallels between the calling of these men in Mark 1 and the call of the tax collector in Mark 2 show that the latter was a believer as well. The tax collector, Levi, worked in Galilee. Mark tells us that Jesus preached throughout Galilee. Levi had heard the Lord speak and had come to faith.
It would be very strange for these men to leave everything and follow a Man they didn’t know. They already knew that Jesus was the Messiah. They had eternal life. Now, the Lord is telling them to pay the price they need to pay in order to follow Him in discipleship. They consider that cost and are willing to pay it.
In the case of the fishermen, they left a lucrative business. It was successful enough that they needed employees. Two of the fishermen worked with their father and were willing to leave these family ties behind. At least one of them was married.
Levi was also financially well off. His job as a tax collector would have made him one of the wealthiest men in the area. Like the fishermen, he left it all behind to become a follower of the One in whom he had believed.
All these men would have been considered fools by many of their neighbors. That thought must have entered their minds as well. None of them were theologians. Was it all a pipe dream that they could be in the inner circle of the King of Israel? What did fishermen know about running an eternal kingdom? Levi, as a tax collector, had been part of a profession that was despised by religious Jews. He had to be surprised that the Lord called him to be one of His close friends. It would be understandable if these men entertained the idea that they weren’t up for the task.
They must surely have expected that they’d make a lot of mistakes. The Lord could pick others who would do a much better job. These men followed the Lord for approximately three years. If they had doubts about their chances of success, there were times during those three years when such doubts seemed legitimate.
The Gospel of Mark provides many examples of their failures.
LOTS OF STUMBLES
When these men decided to follow the Lord in discipleship, it was obvious from the very beginning that they had much to learn. They were ignorant concerning Christ’s mission. After Jesus performed a number of miracles in Capernaum, they wanted Him to keep doing what He was doing. The people loved all the healings the Lord performed, and the disciples wanted Him to stay there in their hometown. When Jesus withdrew from the town because He didn’t want to be seen as simply a miracle worker, the disciples rebuked Him (Mark 1:37). The Lord reminded them that He did not come to do what they wanted Him to do. He came to teach the Nation of Israel that He was offering it the kingdom of God (1:38).
Later, the Lord will begin to speak in parables. At this point, the disciples have spent some time with Him, and He wonders why they aren’t able to understand what He’s teaching them (4:13).
Immediately after teaching these parables, which taught that He was the King, Christ told the disciples to get into a boat. While they were on the Sea of Galilee, a storm arose. The disciples were afraid that they would die. The Lord had to rebuke them for their fear and lack of faith. They didn’t believe He could care for them. To make matters worse, after Jesus calmed the storm, they wondered who He was (4:39-41). They claimed not to know.
The next time the disciples got into a boat, they became afraid once again. This time it was because they saw the Lord walking on the water. By this point, the disciples had been exposed to even more of the Lord’s teaching and had seen even more examples of His power. Once again, the Lord had to rebuke them and tell them not to be afraid. They are disciples of the King! Mark tells us what their problem was: The disciples had hard hearts (6:52). Their hearts were not willing to believe the things the Lord was telling them.
This is an ongoing problem with the disciples. Once again, after another of the Lord’s teaching sessions, they don’t understand what they’ve heard. Jesus points out that they’re still not listening to what He is teaching. They refuse to let go of their man-made traditions. They’re acting like unbelievers (7:17-18).
The third time they get into a boat, the Lord has to rebuke them yet again. He points out that their hearts are still hard. When it comes to listening to what He says and learning from Him, they’re like deaf and blind people (8:17-18).
We immediately see an example of their blindness and deafness: When the Lord tells the disciples that He will die, they refuse to listen. Peter, speaking for the group, tells Christ that He doesn’t know what He’s talking about. Jesus says that Peter is doing Satan’s work (8:31-33).
The disciples continually show their inability to listen and to understand what the Lord teaches them (9:32). They’re afraid. They fight among themselves. They cause other believers to stumble. They even act like their enemies in the way they treat one another (9:34, 38; 10:32, 41-44).
At the end of the Lord’s earthly ministry, the disciples, who have been trained for three years, fail miserably. When Christ is arrested, they all flee in fear. A little while later, Peter swears that he doesn’t even know who Jesus is (14:50, 71).
Even after the Lord rises from the dead, the disciples continue to falter on the road of discipleship. Jesus had told them that He would rise, but they didn’t believe it. Mary Magdalene tells them that He is alive, but they reject her testimony. Two disciples on the road to Emmaus also report that He’s alive, and the disciples refuse to believe them as well. The Lord has to rebuke them again for their lack of faith and their hard hearts (16:11, 13-14).
These last verses occur in the last chapter of the book. They paint a discouraging picture of these guys. After receiving eternal life, these men had left all and followed the Lord. They had been taught by Him for three years. But Mark has painted a pretty bleak picture of their success as disciples. If, when they first decided to follow the Lord, they had had second thoughts about how they would do, those thoughts seem to have been well founded.
Maybe we should feel the same way when we look at these men in the pages of the NT. If they blew it, so will we. If men like Peter and John made mistake after mistake, what chance do I have?
Thankfully, the Gospel of Mark does not end with a negative picture of these men.
THE REST OF THE STORY
After the Book of Mark’s brutal picture of the disciples’ failures, the book’s end is striking. The last verse says that the Lord was working through them and confirming what they preached through various miraculous signs (16:20).
This, of course, looks forward to the Book of Acts. In that book, these men are seen as bold, obedient leaders of the Church. They will form the very foundation of what the Lord will do in the world. They become examples that all of us should seek to emulate.
The lesson is crystal clear. Mature and productive disciples do not start out that way! The very process of discipleship requires that we make mistakes. We will say dumb things. We will act like the world. I’m sure the original disciples looked back at what happened in the Gospel of Mark and wondered: What were we doing and thinking?! The answer to that question is obvious: Discipleship is a learning and growing process.
CONCLUSION
Maybe some believing readers have thought about following the Lord in discipleship. They understand that it is a difficult road to travel and that the Lord will ask them to do things they will not want to do. Naturally, they wonder if they’re up to the task. They realize there is a high probability that they’ll make many mistakes.
Let me remove any doubt. You’ll blow it! But the example of the original disciples provides us with a great deal of encouragement. Yes, they did and said a lot of dumb things. But the Lord, in His grace and patience, kept teaching them.
He will do the same for us. We’ll do and say a lot of dumb things. But if we abide in Him and His Word, He will make us more and more like Him. He will use our many mistakes to accomplish that goal.
May we, as believers, walk on that road. We know we will stumble, but we’re following the One who wants us to succeed. If we rely on Him, we will.
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Ken Yates is a retired Army chaplain (Lt. Col). He has many theological degrees, including a Ph.D. from D.T.S. in New Testament. He leads the GES international ministry, cohosts the daily podcast, and assists Bob in all aspects of the GES ministry. His new book, Elisabeth, is a powerful testimony to the power of God manifested in a Christ-centered family. He and his wife, Pam, live in Columbia, SC.
