Fellow Bible Student,

The five circles of faith are described for us in the scriptures.

We begin with the circle of the 500. You remember in 1st Corinthians 15:6, the apostle Paul talks of the 500 who had witnessed the resurrected Christ. Those people were blessed with an exciting experience. It would have been wonderful to be in that circle who saw the resurrected Christ on this earth. We’ll call the circle of the 500 the Circle of Witness — the Circle of Witness, because they were able to testify to others that Christ had indeed risen from the dead. So the Circle of Witness 1st Corinthians 15:6.

Then we also see in the Scripture the circle of 70 in Luke 10:1. And these were the 70 that Jesus sent out to the various towns and cities to prepare for His coming. We’ll call the Circle of 70, the Circle of Service. It’s one thing to be a witness for Christ; it’s a little bit higher level to enter into His service.

Third, we have the circle of the 12. This circle is spoken of in Matthew 10:1-4. When Jesus called His disciples to Him, and He identified 12 of them to be with Him and to work with Him, and we’ll call the circle of 12 the Circle of Discipleship. Discipleship refers to discipline, training, and service, so they became known as His disciples.

The fourth circle is the Circle of the three. We find these in Matthew 17:1. They’re mentioned in other passages. This is Peter, James, and John. You remember that Peter, James and John were allowed to experience three things with Jesus. None of the other disciples experienced. They were on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were present at the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and they were the only three that He took with Him apart in the Garden of Gethsemane. They experienced exciting things, powerful things, but they also had to experience a sorrow like none they had ever known before. So this is the Circle of the Trusted. They were entrusted with things that the others did not experience.

And then finally we have the circle of the one, the circle of the one who we find in John chapter 20:2. And this is the disciple Jesus who loved, the disciple Jesus loved. This is we could call this the Circle of the Friend. Do you know what made John unique? He mentions how much Jesus loved him and Jesus loved them all. It’s not that He loved John more than He loved the others. It’s that that John was more amazed and impressed that Jesus loved him. And I think that made all the difference in the world.

The original series is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ_xQpA2nSPmppoJirKv-vD6Pu3H5q2Bp



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