Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You a Disciple? | The Gospels | Mark 3:13-19

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Who were Jesus's disciples? Why did Jesus change people's names? What does it mean to be a disciple? In today's episode, Keith shares how Mark 3:13-19 encourages us to be faithful disciples of Jesus. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Want to learn even more about the Gospels? Tune into Not Just Sunday. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 3:13-19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Today in our time together, we're going to be in Mark chapter 3, and we're going to look back to when Jesus named his apostles. There's so much in here for us. But before we dive in, let's pray. Father, we pray that you would open your word to us, that we might see your truth in it. And we pray that you would open our heart, that we would receive what you have. to say to us today. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. So Mark chapter 3, verse 7,

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. And a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Edomia and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him. For he had healed many so that all, all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. Even when Jesus withdraws and tries to be alone, large crowds follow him. And from the list of cities, we see the people are coming from further and further away, and the people are more and more ethnically and religiously diverse.

The cities of Tyre and Sidon are about 100 miles away. And this crowd is more diverse. There's Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, people from the city and people from the country. And Jesus is at the height of his popularity. The crowd is pressing in so that Jesus tells the disciples to prepare a boat so he can get away if necessary. Sometimes we imagine Jesus walking along, surrounded by children and little lambs, but that's not how the Gospels depict him. It's more like the arrival of a popular leader being jostled by crowds and hassled by antagonistic reporters and the paparazzi.

The word crowds is mentioned 40 times in the first nine chapters of Mark. The crowds serve as an audience of Jesus' teaching. and the object of his compassion, but the crowds really never turned to Jesus in repentance and faith. The crowds are fickle. On Palm Sunday, they shout Hosanna, but a few days later, they shout crucify him. In the Gospels, being a part of the crowd around Jesus

is not the same as being a disciple of Jesus. The crowd stands and observes. The crowd listens. The crowd is interested. The crowd watches, but the disciples must commit themselves to follow Jesus. Jesus. Verse 8. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him. Were the people coming to see Jesus because they realized that they were in desperate spiritual need of a Savior? No. The crowds came to him because they heard he was healing people. The crowd was motivated by self-interest. They were there

because they wanted to see some miracle. They wanted to get their needs met. They didn't want Jesus to be their Lord. They wanted someone to give them the things they were. wanted. They wanted someone to make their dreams come true to fulfill them. Yes, they were following Jesus, but they were following him for all the wrong reasons. Why do you go to Jesus? Why do you follow him? Do you want Jesus or do you want the things he can give you? Do you want the gift or the giver? Jesus responds to the crowds by choosing, calling, and naming his disciples. Some of his disciples, he gives new names. Let's read it. And he went up to the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.

And he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Sons of Thunder. Andrew and Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, and James the son of O'Afeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zellot, and Judas Ascariot, who betrayed him. So if you go all the way back to Genesis 1, you'll see that God named something and it came into existence. Giving something a name is a very powerful thing. Adam named the animals. In the biblical world, the right to name

belong to the superior person. So in the Gospels, Jesus names the apostles. He, is the superior. And when he changes someone's name, it's like changing their status. Now, you say, well, names aren't like that anymore. They're not as important. They're not as influential or powerful in a person's life. Well, let me see if I can show you the power of a name. Do you know Cornelius Chase? Probably not, but you know Chevy Chase, right? Because Cornelius renamed himself Chevy. Or what about Karen Johnson? Maybe you know her as Whoopi Goldberg or Reginald Dwight, that's the original name of Elton John, or Alan Koinusberg, that's Woody Allen, Dmitriac Guinness became Demi Moore. These people couldn't reinvent themselves without changing their

name because names had power in the ancient world, but names also have power today. Verse 13, and he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. Jesus' authority is seen that he calls and people come. He doesn't absolutely. He doesn't actually. ask for their preferences or their personal plan, he calls them to follow him and they do. Have you ever considered who Jesus didn't choose for his inner circle of disciples? He didn't select a rabbi. He didn't recruit scholars. He didn't look within the religious establishment to build his team.

If he had chosen people from any of those groups, they would have given him an inside track to those with power. Instead, Jesus assembled a rag-tagged bunch of folks with unimpressive resumes. He's been doing the same ever since. sense. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, brothers and sisters, think of what you were before you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things

and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. Jesus wasn't looking for religious superiority or extraordinary talent. Quite the opposite. Jesus wanted ordinary people, people with hopes and dreams of their own, but people who are willing to leave behind their hopes and dreams to follow the Savior. The disciples are like us. They're like the people we know. They are people we can identify with. See, like us, they were prone to make mistakes and misstatements. Like us, they had wrong attitudes. They had lapses in their faith, they experienced bitter failure. Jesus remarked that they were slow learners and somewhat spiritually dense.

Yet with all their faults, with all their character flaws, and as remarkably ordinary as they were, these men carried on a ministry after Jesus' resurrection that turned the world upside down. Ordinary men, people like you and me, became the instruments by which Christ's message was carried to the ends of the earth. Verse 14, and he appointed 12 whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach. See, if you're going to be a follower of Jesus, it starts by being with him. Discipleship is a relationship before it's a task.

It's a who before a what. Disciple means student or learner. The goal of a disciple is not just to gain more information, but it's transformation. So Luke says, the student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, the place to start is by spending time with him. He will transform your life. Then there's the second part of being a disciple. He chose his disciples to be with him and to send them out to preach.

that means all of his disciples whether it was in the first century or the 21st century whether it's the original disciples or people like you and me who call jesus lord all of us have a role to play in advancing his kingdom all of us have somewhere to serve so what's a disciple a disciple a disciple is someone who spends time with jesus it's a person who's becoming more and more like jesus it's a person who is doing the things that Jesus did. Let's pray. Father, I pray that we would become more faithful disciples this year, that we would be people who spend time with you in Bible and prayer and worship in small groups with other Christians, and that we would become more like you, and that you would transform our hearts, that we would be the men and women that you've called us to be, and that we would

do the things that you did, that we would love our enemy, that we would serve. people around us, that we would care for the vulnerable. May we live lives that reflect your glory, your love, your truth. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.