Session 5: Leader's Guide

Session 5: What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Key point:  I follow Jesus by obeying His commands

• subpoint:  I need to know Jesus’s commands to obey them
• subpoint:  I rely on the Holy Spirit to empower me and guide me

Leader notes:

• Break into groups and have 1 person share a spiritual marker
• Ask if students have found a person to speak the truth in love to
• Review 1 Peter 3:15 and why it is both important to be prepared and to speak the truth in love

Write out the verse	Write the meaning of the verse	Name of a person to practice explaining the verse to
John 14:21
John 15:7
Luke 9:23-24

What three questions do we ask when God communicates to us?

What does it _______________?

What does it _______________?

___________ does this _______________ to _______________?

Things we learn when we communicate:

1.  New facts about the natural world/world in general (i.e. the sky is blue/ Henry Cavill is playing Superman)

2.  New things about whom we communicate with.  We learn what they’ve done, who they are, and what they plan to do. (i.e. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty is a fragile egg, Humpty dumpty plans on getting hardboiled)

3.  New things about ourselves.  The people we communicate with have different perspectives on our situations and who we are.  (i.e. Someone telling you your haircut looks horrible, Someone telling you how intelligent you are)

What following Jesus means:

Discussion Questions

1.  What is a Lord?

2. What is the relationship between a Lord and His vassals?

3.  What is a vassal?

4.  What does it mean to make Jesus the Lord of your life?

5.  What are more modern terms we can use to describe our relationship with Jesus?

Making Jesus the Boss of our Life:

The idea of making Jesus the Lord of our lives is a little foreign to us because we don’t really have a good comparison or point of reference to describe the relationship between a Lord and vassal.  The closest relationship that most people can relate to is probably the one between a boss and employee.  We work for our boss and in return we receive wages. Our boss dictates what we do and when we do it.  Our boss has the ability to terminate our employment at any time.  An even better comparison is the one a service member has with the president of the United States.  What the president says you must do no questions asked.  There is no avenue for recourse or argument.  What we must understand when we enter into a relationship with Jesus is that He has complete control of our lives.  What He says goes no if, ands, or buts.  Full and total obedience are required in our relationship with Jesus.  There are no parts of our lives that we keep to ourselves and keep Jesus out of.  Jesus owns us, every aspect and every minute of our lives.  Jesus has the ability to terminate our relationship at any time.  A relationship with Jesus is more than just a social association that gets us out of hell.  We need to remember that Jesus is Lord and that He alone has the power over life and death.  Jesus has the power over our life and death.  So when we think of our relationship with Jesus and approach Him we must remember to do so with the utmost respect and fear.  At the same time, we must also keep in perspective the promises of love Jesus has given to us in His Word.  The idea that Jesus can choose to send us to hell can be unnerving, but it brings us back to the age old issue of trust.  Can we trust God to be faithful?  Can we trust God to do what He says in His Word?  Can we trust in God’s love?  

Romans 10:9-13

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame,[g]12 for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. 13 For Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[h]

Discussion Questions

1.  How do you confess that Jesus is Lord?  

2.  Do you only have to confess Jesus is Lord once to go to heaven?

3.  What does it mean to call on the Lord?

4.  Why does the scripture say, “Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame?”

Confessing Jesus as Lord

The heart of this passage has more to do with just literally saying ‘Jesus is Lord.’  It has everything to do with trusting.  The passage tells us that whoever believes in Jesus will not be put to shame.  Believe is used three times in the passage and that belief results in righteousness.  However,  believing is only half the story because it also says that confession results in salvation.  We’ve articulated this concept before  using trust.  Trust is a verb, it is  belief lived out.  

“Trust is a verb, it is  belief lived out. “

Trust is an ongoing action that continually forces us to examine what we believe by testing us to see if we live our beliefs out.  When we confess Jesus as Lord what we are doing is affirming that we truly believe Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead.  Confessing Jesus as Lord means we have lifestyles that demonstrate the Lordship of Jesus in our lives.  This means that confessing Jesus goes beyond just words.  Everything we say and do should be a confession that Jesus is Lord.  This isn’t a new concept for us.  We’ve gone over this idea before when we went through Luke 9:23, Romans 12:1-2, and 1 Corinthians 10:31.  We bring glory to God in everything that we do.  We take up our cross daily.  We offer up our bodies as living sacrifices.  The key to all of these passages of scripture is that following Jesus requires a lifestyle of obedience.  Anyone that claims to be a Christian but lives a lifestyle of willful disobedience and rebellion is a liar.  That’s harsh thing to say but is the truth and one that comes from the Word of God.  

“Following Jesus requires a lifestyle of obedience.”

1 John 2: 3-6

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God[a]is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Activity

This week try to work on developing questions that will help someone understand 1 John 2:3-6.  Use what you’ve learned from previous weeks about this topic to help shape your questions.  Remember that when you ask questions you want people to understand what the text says, what it means, and how it applies to them.  

Pray that God would give you clarity on this subject for your own life then ask someone if you can practice sharing what you’ve learned about this subject.  Who are 3 people you might ask?

____________________    ____________________    ____________________  

John 14:21

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

John 14:23-24

23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

Knowing God’s Commands

We’ve been working on memorizing John 14:21 and we’ve talked about what it means to live that verse out.  The first section of the verse says that we must have His commands to obey Him.  It’s difficult for someone to obey or live out something they don’t know.  So we need to spend some time examining Jesus’ commands.  There are plenty of specific commands found in the bible, but  Jesus tells us that every single command found in scripture boils down to Loving God and Loving others.  The following scriptures map out these two concepts.  

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and [a]foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Mark 12:28-34

28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the [q]foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him;33 and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him,“You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.

Our God Given Purpose

Loving God and Loving others are guidelines that help us live out our purpose.  But gives a more specific directive that gives us some guidance on how to actually demonstrate our love for both God and other people.  This is found in Matthew in what people call The Great Commission.  However, something we need to recognize is that the Great Commission isn’t something that just appears after the coming of Jesus.  Really the Great Commission is a rehash of something God said at the very beginning of mankind.  The heart of the Great Commission lies in understanding that God has made us in His image and that means that we are bearers of God’s glory.  God both deserves and desires to be glorified in all of His creation.  The command to disciple found in Matthew echoes the heart of what God says to Adam in Genesis.  “Be fruitful and multiply.”  When we disciple people we are multiplying ourselves.  In fact the original form of discipleship is meant to take place within the family unit.  People have kids and as the kids grow up parents teach them to obey=love God.  When Jesus says, “of all nations,” this communicates the idea God originally expressed in Genesis when He said, “fill the earth.”  God desires his image bearers to go to all parts of the earth declaring His glory to all creation!  This is what God created us to do!  This is the reason why we exist!  We exist to glorify God!  

Matthew 28:18-20

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [a]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [b]always, even to the end of the age.”

Genesis 1:26-28

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth,[h] and the creatures that crawl[i] on the earth.”

27 So God created man in His own image;

He created him in the image of God;

He created them male and female.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls[j] on the earth.”

How to live out our love

We know what God’s commands say and we also know that to truly love Him we need to live out His commands.  This isn’t easy and there really is no way that we can possibly live these things out on our own.  But God knew this and promised us that He would send the Holy Spirit to empower us and guide us so that we could follow Jesus.

*Supplemental Reading: Matthew 5:17-20, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 2:17-29

Summarize key points from the following Passages

Ephesians 5:1-20	John 14:15-18	John 14: 26
Romans 7:4-6	Romans 7: 17-25	Galatians 5:13-26

Try to use one sentence to explain what these passages mean

Ephesians 5:1-20	John 14:15-18	John 14: 26
Romans 7:4-6	Romans 7: 17-25	Galatians 5:13-26

Try to come up with questions that will help someone understand these passages

Ephesians 5:1-20	John 14:15-18	John 14: 26
Romans 7:4-6	Romans 7: 17-25	Galatians 5:13-26

Session Summary

The third aspect to understanding Luke 9:23 and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus is comprehending both what it means to follow Jesus and how to do that.  As we’ve seen this week the first step to following Jesus is knowing His commands.  We need to know what Jesus commands are so that we can obey them.  It’s not enough for us to have his commands, we need to understand what His commands means so that we live out the spirit of the Law.  We also have to recognize that we are incapable of loving God and other people on our own but we can live righteously when we submit to the power of the Holy Spirit allowing Him to empower and guide us in all truth.  

Before the next Session

Check when completed	Activity
	Work on 1 John 2:3-6(Says, Means, Applies, Explaining to someone)
	Work on making questions that explain what it means to love God and love others
	Provide scripture references for your questions
	Prepare to share 1 of your spiritual markers next week
	Review all of the previous week's memory verses
	Continue assembling SERVE Profile(vocational skills, leadership assessment)
	Ask God to reveal 3 people you can speak the truth in love to
	Pray for Clan Group