LESSON 2: SHARE THE WORD Key Scriptures: Joh 1:29-51, Joh 17:1-8 Memory Verse: Now this is eteral life: that they may kow you, the oly true God, ad Jesus Christ, whom you have set. Joh 17:3 COMMENTARY / This portio of the lesso is for the leader s persoal study. Review I last week s lesso we biblically defied the word disciple ad saw how the lastig fruit (Joh 15:16) of beig a disciple is bor by multiplyig ourselves i the lives of others. This is what disciple-makig is the simple ad life-log process of followig Christ, becomig more like Him, ad leadig others to do the same. This week we are goig to begi to see how beig a disciplemaker ca begi i our lives. Are, Not Do There is o set process or program to do disciple-makig. It just becomes who we are ad it is relatioal, so it looks differet i every disciple s life. However, it does require itetioality o the part of every believer. It is the atural fruit of the true disciple s life, but like fruit, it must be urtured i order to grow. Every disciple-maker makes a choice to itetioally ivest himself i the lives of others. Jesus Prayer for His Disciples The accompayig message i worship this week will ceter o Joh 17:1-8. Joh 17 is Jesus prayer to the Father o behalf of His disciples. I this chapter, we see Jesus love ad cocer for His disciples. He wats His work o earth to cotiue through them. I verses 1-8, Jesus is tellig God that He has o doubt that His disciples believe He is the Messiah ad that God set Him. I verse 3, Jesus describes eteral life as kowig the oly true God ad Jesus Christ, the Oe God set. It is iterestig to ote that i verse 4, Jesus says
He has completed the work God gave Him to do. Yet this prayer was prayed before Jesus died o the cross. What work is He referrig to? Verse 6 aswers that questio. Jesus says He has revealed God to those God gave Him out of the world. Those God gave Him are His twelve disciples. Jesus goes o to say i verses 7 ad 8 that He gave His disciples the words that God gave Him ad that they accepted these words. The disciples kow for certai that God set Jesus. Most of us have heard all of our lives that God set Jesus to earth to die o the cross to save us from our sis. Is t it iterestig that accordig to Jesus ow words i these verses, He also came to earth to reveal God to these me by makig them His disciples? Believig Jesus Is Who He Says He Is Jesus shows us i the first 8 verses of this prayer the foudatio of beig His disciple. At its core, beig a disciple is believig that Jesus is who He says He is. We saw this truth last week i our study of Matthew 4:18-22 whe Jesus called the first four disciples. Would they have left everythig to follow Him if they did t believe He was who He said He was? Obviously, their belief grew over the ext three years as they spet time with Jesus ad came to kow Him more itimately ad persoally. But there was iitial faith i the perso of Christ. That is at the core of all who follow Christ. This is why Ephesias 2:8-9 says that we are saved by grace, through faith, ot by works. Our works do ot brig us salvatio. Faith does, by God s grace. The Christ-like character ad deeds come later. 2 Divig I Today, we are goig to dive ito how this foudatio of beig a disciple (belief that Jesus is who He says He is) relates to disciple-makig. The lesso will ot rest i Joh 17:1-8 but istead jourey to differet passages of Scripture that illustrate the itetioality of disciple-makig ad the truth commuicated i Joh 17:1-8. Lookig Agai at The Disciples Call Our lesso this week will focus o the Gospel of Joh s accout of the same evet we studied last week i Matthew 4:18-22. Joh describes the evet differetly tha Matthew does. We eed to uderstad that the two accouts do ot cotradict oe aother. The writers are two differet people with separate persoalities, so their attetio to detail is differet. All Scripture is ispired by God (2 Timothy 3:16) ad thus caot cotradict itself. This passage clearly illustrates the foudatio of beig a disciple (belief that Jesus is who He says He is) ad how this belief compels us to begi the first step i disciple-makig, which is tellig others what we believe about Christ. I other words, we are to share the Word. For our lesso, we will break Joh 1:29-51, the key passage, ito three parts. This will make it simpler to hadle durig your discussio time with your group. Part 1: Joh 1:29-34 I this passage, we see how itetioality is at the heart of makig disciples. The foudatio of beig a disciple is havig faith i Christ. Ad this faith compels the disciple to tell others about Christ, which is the first compoet of disciple-makig sharig the Word. The passage begis with Joh the Baptist proclaimig who Christ is to those aroud him. I verse 29, Joh the Baptist describes Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the si of the world. I verse 30, he goes o to tell the people that Jesus is the Oe he has bee preachig to them about, the Oe who would come after him ad
baptize ot with water, as Joh does, but with the Holy Spirit. I verses 32-34, Joh testifies that he himself believes Jesus is the So of God. I this passage we see that God has revealed to Joh who Jesus is the So of God ad that Joh has believed this truth about Christ. The result is that Joh the Baptist itetioally shares with others what God has show him about Jesus. The foudatio of beig a disciple is havig faith i Christ. Part 2: Joh 1:35-42 Now look what happes i verses 35-36: The ext day, Jesus comes by agai, ad Joh agai itetioally shares with two of his disciples who Jesus is the Lamb of God. The i verses 37-39 these two me follow Jesus ad sped the day with Him. I verse 38 they address Jesus as Rabbi, which meas teacher. Verse 40 tells us that oe of these two me is Adrew, Simo Peter s brother. How Did They Kow? Notice i verse 40 that these me followed Jesus after they heard what Joh the Baptist said about Him. So after Joh believed he told others, which resulted i at least two me believig ad followig Christ. The look what happes i verse 41. The first thig Adrew did was to fid his brother Simo ad tell him they had foud the Messiah. Remember that i verse 38 Adrew addressed Jesus as Rabbi. But ow he testifies to his brother that Jesus is the Messiah. Do you see how his faith resulted i his tellig his brother about Christ? These verses do t tell us that Jesus performed ay miracles that day. They just spet the day with Christ ad they kew He was the Messiah. Joh the Baptist had told them He was the Lamb of God. Adrew made the choice to follow Him ad sped the day with Him. The he wet ad foud his brother ad brought Simo to Jesus i verse 42. Here, Jesus chages Simo s ame to Peter. Adrew was coviced that Jesus was the Messiah. This faith compelled him to fid his brother ad itroduce him to Christ, also. 3 Adrew Tells Those Close To Him It ever occurred to Adrew to keep the truth about who Jesus was to himself. The first thig he did was to tell his brother. Notice, too, that i tellig others he did ot go out ad start preachig to stragers i the street. He wet ad foud oe closest to himself his brother ad told him. There probably would come a time whe he would preach to stragers as Christ s disciple, but the atural first step of followig Christ was to go fid someoe he kew who did t kow who Jesus was ad brig him alog. Believig i Christ, makig the choice to follow Him, ad the leadig others to do the same by tellig them who Christ is. Part 3: Joh 1:43-51 I this passage we see the same thig happe i aother life. I verse 43 Jesus calls Philip to follow Him. The i verse 45, Philip goes ad fids Nathaael ad tells him (verse 45) that he has foud the Oe Moses prophesied about i the Law. I verse 46, Nathaael questios the truth that Jesus is who Moses wrote about. Observe Philip s respose to him. He does t argue or try to persuade him. He simply says, Come ad see. Here agai, we see the itetioality of a disciple
leadig others to follow Christ by showig them who He is. I verses 47-48 Jesus stus Nathaael by tellig him where he was before Philip ever called him. I verse 49 Nathaael calls Jesus Rabbi ad cofesses that Jesus is ideed the So of God. The first compoet of disciple-makig is sharig the Word. The Commo Thread I all three of these passages we see a commo thread. Each perso (Joh the Baptist, Adrew, ad Philip) bega by believig i the perso of Christ. They believed that He was the Messiah, the So of God. The result of that belief was a itetioal choice to share this truth with others they kew. Ad oe of these me had ay idea how far-reachig their decisio to tell others would be. Far Reachig Results Let s examie just some of the implicatios of this passage startig with Joh the Baptist. We see him tell two of his disciples who Jesus is i Joh 1:35. Oe of these disciples is Adrew ad we see him tell his brother, Simo Peter, who Jesus is i Joh 1:41. There is o way Adrew could have foresee what would come out of his sharig Christ with his brother. 4 Now let s move to Matthew 16:13-18. This passage takes place after Jesus has already called all twelve of His disciples. I this passage Jesus is askig the disciples who people say that He is. The disciples tell Him that some say He is Joh the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or aother prophet. I verse 15 Jesus asks Peter (Adrew s brother) directly who he thiks Jesus is. Peter respods i verse 16 by cofessig that Jesus is the Christ, the So of the livig God. The Jesus respods to Peter i verses 17-18 by tellig him that He will build His church o Peter ad his cofessio. Now, look at Acts 2:14. This takes place at Petecost after the Holy Spirit came dow o the twelve apostles. I this verse, we see Peter stad up ad address the crowd. Acts 2:15-40 cotais his sermo i which he tells the crowd who Jesus is (remember his cofessio to Jesus i Matthew 16:16) ad begs them to repet of their sis ad believe i Jesus Christ. What was the result? Acts 2:41 tells us that 3,000 people accepted his message ad were baptized 3,000 people! Do you see the simplicity ad effectiveess of disciple-makig? Joh the Baptist, Adrew, ad eve Simo Peter could ever have kow the lastig fruit that would come from their obediece to be itetioal about tellig others who Christ is. Ad this does ot eve iclude the fruit that came as a result of Philip tellig Nathaael Do t Wait to Share Christ Ca you imagie what would happe today if we became itetioal about sharig with others who Christ is? Notice that Joh the Baptist, Adrew ad Philip did ot have the job of covicig others to follow Christ. They simply proclaimed who Jesus is ad brought others to Him. Jesus is the Oe who saves. I each of these me s lives it bega with their ow cofessio of faith i the perso of Christ. The it was a itetioal choice to tell others. They did t wait util they kew more or had it all figured out. We will ever make disciples if we wait util we arrive at some abstract level of maturity because the more you kow about Christ, the more you realize how much more there is to kow. We will ever arrive at a poit i our relatioship with Him where we are ready to lead others. Followig Christ ad leadig others to follow Him are ot exclusive. They are simultaeous.
Seeig Jesus Today We caot literally take people to Christ the huma like Joh the Baptist, Adrew ad Philip did sice He o loger walks the earth. Or does He? If He lives i us through the Holy Spirit, does t He still walk the earth? He walks i us ad through us. That is why, as we studied last week, abidig i (or remaiig i or with) Him is the oly way to bear lastig fruit through makig disciples. We caot do it; oly He ca. Just as Joh the Baptist, Adrew ad Philip brought people to Christ to see who He was, that is what we must do. Oly ow, it is our lives that must say come ad see, as Philip said to Nathaael. Gettig Practical So how do we practically apply this truth to our lives? I Joh 4:34-36 Jesus told His disciples to ope their eyes ad look at the fields because they are ripe for harvest. What fields was He talkig about? The fields are the atios ad Jesus was stressig to His disciples the importace of sharig the gospel with the world aroud them. You ve heard the term makig disciples of all atios before (Matthew 28:19-20). So how do we make disciples of all atios? That seems so big, so idealistic ad uattaiable. How ca I, oe perso, reach the atios? We will do it the same way Joh the Baptist, Adrew, Philip ad Peter did. By itetioally fidig people i our lives who do t kow Christ ad tellig them who He is. This is where disciple-makig will start i our lives. It wo t ed there it certaily did t i Joh the Baptist s, Adrew s, Philip s or Peter s lives. But what we eed ow is a begiig. Christ will be faithful to show us the rest. The questio is have we believed i Him? If so, have we opeed our eyes ad looked at the fields? They are ripe for the harvest of eteral life. 5 The Workers Matthew 9:37-38 says the harvest is pletiful but the workers are few. Jesus goes o to tell His disciples i this passage to ask the Lord of the harvest to sed out workers ito the field. We are the few workers. Ad we must ask the Lord to sed more workers. But thik about it how is He goig to sed more workers? Will He just drop them out of heave? No, of course ot. It is still His pla to use us to lead others to Christ. Ad as we give ourselves to disciple-makig, He will use us to multiply the workers i the harvest field. He will sed more workers through us, ot to us! Whe we are itetioal about multiplyig our lives ito others, the fruit of our lives will be a ever-icreasig army of workers i the harvest field. Ad the Lord of the harvest will work through us as we peetrate the atios sharig His Word. Ad the ievitable result? He aloe will get the glory! TEACHING / This portio of the lesso is for the etire class. Itroductio / 5 miutes Begi your time together by doig the followig activity to illustrate the effectiveess of disciple-makig. First, ask for two studets from the group who are willig to help with the activity. You will eed to discuss this activity with them before your group meets. Have them come up to the frot of the room with you.
Istruct the first studet to go ad get five people (adjust the umber based o your class size) to come stad with him/her at the frot of the room. The studet should pick five people ad ask them all at oce to come up ad stad with him/her. Next, istruct the other studet to get five people up to the frot of the room, but he/she ca oly tell oe other perso, ad that perso ca oly tell oe other perso, etc. This will illustrate multiplicatio. After the secod studet has five others, have them sit dow ad ask the group the followig questios. How may people did the first perso tell to come to the frot of the room? How may people did the secod perso tell to come to the frot of the room? Did the fact that the first studet told more people iitially result i him/ her reachig more people? I fact, which studet would have had more people stadig with them if the activity had cotiued past five people? Now, if I told you to go out ad reach five people for Christ this year, how may of you thik you could do it? How may of us would ot eve try because i our mid that meas we would have to tell five differet people about Christ ad them believe? I this cotext, which example we saw is more effective for leadig others to Christ, tellig five people at oe time or just tellig oe perso ad traiig them to lead oe perso, etc.? 6 Share with your group that today we will cotiue our study of disciplemakig. Ad much like the activity we just saw, we will see i Scripture how tellig oe perso about Christ ca lead to may more believig i Him. Impress o the group the word share. Sharig the Word is the first step i biblical disciple-makig. Review / 5 miutes Before you begi today s study, briefly review the mai poits of last week s lesso. Review the followig: What is a disciple of Christ? What does it mea to follow Christ? How did Jesus call the four disciples i Matthew 4:18-22? What is a fisher of me? What is disciple-makig? What is the oly lastig fruit of a true disciple s life? Key Study / 35 miutes Have studets ope their Bibles to Joh 1:29-51. As you begi the study time i God s Word, pray that God would make the etire class receptive to what He wats to reveal to the group today as you discuss His Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide the class ito all truth (Joh 16:13) so that He will be glorified through the discussio. Pray that each perso s life will be chaged as a result of the truths you lear today (James 1:22). Usig the commetary, explai to the group that the core of beig a disciple of Christ is believig that Jesus is who He says He is. Refer back to last week s lesso i Matthew 4:18-22 to illustrate this poit. Those four me left everythig to follow Christ because they believed i Him. Observatio / What does the Scripture say? Explai to the group that this week you are goig to split them ito three groups to examie the key passage. Before you split them up, read (or have a
studet read) Joh 1:29-51 aloud to the whole group. Usig the commetary, explai to the group that this passage is the Gospel of Joh s accout of the same passage we studied last week. Istruct them that the versios focus o differet details of the same evet ad do ot cotradict each other. The, give each studet the hadout ad assig each group oe set of questios. Istruct them to aswer the questios that correspod to their assiged passage. Give them about 5-10 miutes i their groups ad the brig them back together. Lead a discussio through the questios usig the lesso commetary ad allowig each group to share what they leared from their assiged passage. Note to facilitators: Studet worksheets for this portio of the teachig are icluded at the ed of this lesso. These three groups ca be as may as 10-15 people or eve just oe perso, depedig o the overall size of your Small Group. Iterpretatio / What does the Scripture mea? As you have each group share their aswers, lead the group i a discussio of the implicatios of each passage usig the followig questios (alog with the questios o the studet worksheet). Make sure to stress itetioality of disciple-makig ad how we see it i each of these passages. How is faith the foudatio of each of these me tellig others about Christ? How do we see their itetioality to tell others? Who are they tellig? Is it stragers or people they already kow? How quickly did they tell others? Did they wait util they uderstood everythig about Christ? Usig the commetary, explai to the group that we are ow goig to examie some of the implicatios of what we see i this passage. Usig a white board or poster board, illustrate the progressio of those comig to Christ o the board. Your illustratio may look somethig like this: 7 Joh the Baptist f Adrew ad aother disciple f Simo Peter Jesus f Philip f Nathaael Explai that each ma (with the exceptio of Joh the Baptist) wet ad told just oe other perso about who they believed Jesus to be. Explai that oe of these me (except Jesus) could have possibly kow how far-reachig their decisio to tell others about Christ would be. Have your studets tur i their Bibles to Matthew 16:13-18. Have a studet read the verses aloud to the group. Usig the commetary, explai the cotext of these verses ad lead the group i a discussio usig the followig questios: I verse 16, what is Simo Peter s cofessio? How does Jesus respod to this cofessio? What does He say i verse 18? As a remider, who was it that first told Peter about Jesus accordig to Joh 1? Do you thik Adrew kew Christ would build His church o Peter s cofessio? Now, lead your group to see how Christ brought this to pass i Peter s life. Have them tur i their bibles to Acts 2:14 ad read the verse aloud. Usig the commetary, explai to the group that this is Peter s sermo at Petecost.
Have a studet read Acts 2:41 aloud ad the ask the followig questios. How may people were saved as a result of Peter s sermo? Who all do we kow from our study today had a part i these 3,000 people comig to faith i Christ? Just based o what we ve see i Scripture today, how may people came to faith i Christ as a result of Joh the Baptist sharig His faith i Christ with just two me? Joh the Baptist was dead by the time Petecost occurred. Do you thik he ever could have imagied the lastig fruit of his miistry? Applicatio / How will this Truth chage me? Usig the commetary, review with your group that each of these me became disciple-makers by itetioally tellig others who they had become coviced Christ was. Remid them that they did t wait to do it util they arrived at some level of maturity it was immediate. Poit out that our missio as disciples is to take people to the perso of Christ by tellig them who we kow Him to be. Stress that our lives are how He lives today o earth. He lives i ad through us. Have the group tur i their Bibles to Joh 4:34-36. Read the verses aloud ad ask the followig questios. What does Jesus istruct His disciples to do i verse 35? What is Jesus referrig to whe He says the fields are ripe for harvest? What harvest? Are the fields still ripe today? How do we as believers today close our eyes to the fields? What are some ways that we ca ope our eyes? 8 Now have your group tur i their bibles to Matthew 9:37-38 ad read it aloud. Ask the followig questios. How does Jesus describe the harvest ad its workers i these verses? What are we istructed to do about this problem i verse 38? Usig the commetary, lead your group i a discussio about how God provides workers for the harvest. They will come through us, His church, as we multiply ourselves i the lives of others. First, we must decide if we really believe He is who He says He is. We must ope our eyes ad look at the fields. The comes the choice: Will we tell others? Will we share the Word? Close your time together by spedig a few momets allowig each studet to thik about his/her ow life. If they have t placed their faith i Christ, ivite them to do so ow or come ad talk to you after you are fiished or at aother time. Have those who have believed pray siletly that God would brig to their mid just oe perso they kow who does t believe i Christ. Have them pray for this perso, ad ecourage them to be itetioal this week to share Christ with them. Ed your time by prayig with the group. Additioal lessos ad iformatio are available at www.godswordisgood.org.
STUDENT ACTIVITY WORKSHEET Group 1 Joh 1:29-34 How does Joh the Baptist describe Jesus i verse 29? I verse 31, what does Joh say is the reaso he came baptizig with water? What testimoy does Joh give i verses 32-33? Who does Joh say Jesus is i verse 34? Group 2 Joh 1:35-42 Who is with Joh the Baptist accordig to verse 35 ad who does he tell them Jesus is i verse 36? What was the result of Joh s cofessio i verse 37? What did they do? Describe the evets i verses 38-39. What was the first thig Adrew did after followig Jesus accordig to verse 41? 9 How does Adrew describe Jesus to Simo i verse 41? How does this differ from what Adrew called Jesus i verse 38? Group 3 Joh 1:43-51 What does Jesus say to Philip i verse 43? What does Philip do accordig to verse 45? How does Philip describe Jesus to Nathaael i verse 45? How does Nathaael respod accordig to verse 46? Does he believe immediately? What is Philip s respose to Nathaael s questio? Describe Nathaael s ecouter with Jesus i verses 47-51.