Calling of disciples

Disciples learning from their master

Is 8:16; Am 7:14

See also 1 Ki 20:35; Ne 3:8; Is 19:11; Mt 10:24; Mk 2:18; Lk 6:40; Jn 1:35; Jn 9:28

Those referred to as disciples in the NT

The disciples as the apostles

Mt 10:1–2 The apostles were uniquely appointed as founding pillars of the church, but in some respects they were also representative disciples.

The disciples as believers in general

Mt 28:19; Ac 19:1–2 Christian believers, not fully mature.

See also Lk 6:13; Lk 6:17; Ac 6:2; Ac 11:26

The disciples as an intimate circle of believers

Mt 18:1; Mk 4:10

How disciples are called

It sometimes implies physically following Jesus Christ and leaving everything

Mt 4:19; Mt 8:18–22; Mt 9:9

Calling in a more general spiritual sense

John 21:19 LEB

(Now he said this to indicate by what kind of death he would glorify God.) And after he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me!”

See also Lk 9:23; Lk 14:25–27; Jn 8:12; Jn 12:26; Jn 21:22

How disciples learn from Jesus Christ the teacher

By repeating the words of Jesus Christ

Lk 11:1–4 The rhythmical form of much of Jesus Christ’s teaching suggests he intended his words to be remembered verbatim.

See also Mt 5:3–10

By signs

John 2:11 LEB

This beginning of signs Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

See also Mk 5:37; Mk 5:40

By understanding the OT Scriptures

John 1:45 LEB

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets wrote about—Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth!”

See also Lk 18:31–33; Lk 24:27; Lk 24:32; Lk 24:44–45

By understanding the parables

Mark 4:11–12 LEB

And he said to them, “To you has been granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may look closely and not perceive, and they may listen carefully and not understand, lest they turn and it be forgiven them.’ ”

See also Mk 4:34

By practical experience of mission

Lk 10:23–24 These words follow the sending out of the seventy-two.

See also Mk 6:6–11; Lk 9:1–2

In periods of being alone with Jesus Christ

Mark 6:31 LEB

And he said to them, “You yourselves come privately to an isolated place and rest for a short time.” For those who were coming and going were many, and they did not even have time to eat.

See also Mt 16:21

In spite of their faulty understanding

Luke 24:25 LEB

And he said to them, “O foolish and slow in heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

See also Mk 9:32; Lk 18:34