Session Two

After Meeting Jesus - What Next?

1. Seek the Lord
   
   

   1.1 You have come to know Jesus because He came seeking you and you responded to His

   call. Now we discover that we have a new friend. He already knows all about us. Our every thought and word and action is known to Him. (Read Psalm 139: 1- 4). He is so wonderful, but we need to discover how great His love is, and grow in our relationship with Him. We begin this process by reading His Word, the Bible, and by talking to Him (praying). Just as Jesus knew the Bible, so we too, want to know it so we can follow His will and be able to make decisions that are right (Matthew. 4:4). Just as Jesus prayed, so we too want to pray and seek God's presence and direction in our lives (Mark. 1:35)
   
   Matthew. 4:4 What else besides bread does God want us live by?
   
   By every word that comes from God's ______________

   
   

   1.2. Begin reading the Gospel of John, the fourth book (section) in the New Testament. A

   good goal would be to read a chapter each day. Pay particular attention to the word believe in this book. Notice the first and last instances of the word 'believe' in John 1:12 and John 20:30, 31. Throughout the Gospel of John, believe has the idea of going beyond mental assent and includes the idea of trust in, obedience to, dependence upon, and full confidence in Jesus. Someone said, "You can believe in Christopher Columbus, but that doesn't make you his follower or disciple." Believing in Jesus means that we depend on Him to give us a new focus in life, a new purpose for living, and a new hope of eternal life. He comes and lives His life in us when we believe in Him
   
   John 1:12 What is the result of believing in the name of Jesus?
   
   We become __________________of God.
   
   John 20:30, 31 What was purpose for writing the Gospel of John?
   
   That we might believe and have _____________________________
   
   

2. Listen to the Lord

   2.1 The Lord speaks to us through the Bible, His Word. Ask the Lord to speak to you as you

   read His Word. It is good to establish the habit of reading it every day. If you miss a day He is still with you. But if you ignore the reading of His word you begin loosing the freshness of your new relationship. Your spiritual battery runs out of energy and you need a jump-start. As we begin reading the Bible, we may not understand everything, but the things we understand will nourish us like milk nourishes a newborn baby (1 Pet 1: 23 - 2:2).
   
   1 Pet 2:2 Why are we urged to hunger for spiritual milk (the Word of God)?
   
   So that we may _______________________in our salvation.

   
   2.2 The Lord responds to us through the Holy Spirit when we pray. When you pray, you do

   not have to do all the talking. Be still and listen. This takes time and the experience varies from person to person. Often it will be a hunch, or a sense of something that you will hear. (Psalm 46:10, John 16:13-15, 1 Corinthians 2:12). Whatever you hear that is from God, will never contradict the teaching of the Bible. You can check out your hunch or sense of what you understood by comparing it to what the Bible says.

   
   John 16:13-15 Who will guide us into truth? ____________________________________________

   
   2.3 The Lord speaks to us through the wise counsel of 11 friends, especially in the

   fellowship with other Christians (Acts 13:2, 3). Proverbs 15:22 encourages us to seek counsel and Psalm 1:1 reminds us that the counsel must be from those who are godly, thus from those who know the Lord and know His Word. This is one reason why it is so good to come together with other Christians for worship and fellowship.
   
   Acts 13:3 What did the Christians do before accepting a prophesy instructing them to send Paul and Barnabas out as missionaries?
   
   They fasted and _______________________
   
   

3. Talk to the Lord

   3.1 Our goal is that talking to the Lord will become as natural as breathing. He is with us

   always. Wouldn't it be strange to spend a day with someone and not talk to him? When you get up in the morning, when you walk along, as you drive, while you are at work -- in every moment --you can talk and share your life, thoughts and circumstances with Him. This is what the Bible means when it says to "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians. 5:17).
   
   1 Thessalonians. 5:17 What does this verse teach us?
   
   _____________________________________________

   
   3.2 Prayer can be spontaneous, but it is also good to have a regular time to talk to God.

   Many people find that a time set aside each morning for Bible reading and prayer works well. Jesus left us an example when He arose early in the morning and went out to pray (Mark 1:35). Then there are those non-morning people who are not alert in the morning. Some have found an afternoon time slot and others an evening time to be good for them. Since we are creatures of habit, it will help you greatly to develop a habit of praying.
   
   Mark 1:35 How does this example challenge you? _____________________________________________

   
   3.3 We can pray about everything. Often our Bible reading will prompt us in the things to

   pray for. Of course our family, friends, and work situations are powerful motives for prayer as well. Pray for your friends and relatives who are not yet believers. One very significant prayer item, and one that is often overlooked, is what Jesus tells us to pray for in Matthew 9:38 where He says we are to ask Him to send out workers into His harvest field. When you pray this, you should be willing to become one of those He selects to send. Notice what happened after Jesus urges His disciples to pray this prayer: He sends them out with authority to tell about His kingdom (Matthew 10:7).
   
   

4. Talk About the Lord
   
   The most natural thing to do after we have met Jesus is to tell other people. Jesus said to the man who had been healed (Lk 8:39), "Return home and tell how much God has done for you."
   
   1 John 1:3 What are we suppose to tell people? _____________________________________________
   
   
5. Fellowship With Other Christians

   
   5.1 When Jesus comes into our life we are suddenly part of a new community. This

   community is a fellowship, it is the Church, and it is the Body of Christ. In Romans 12:4-6 we are reminded that each of us is a member of the Body of Christ and that we have different gifts for serving our Lord. We do this by serving one another and those who are not believers.

   
   5.2 The New Testament examples of believers meeting together are abundant. But if the

   examples are not enough, we have the direct statement in Hebrews 10:25 to encourage us to become part of a Christian Fellowship, the Church. This is God's design and it is necessary.
   
   Hebrews 10:25 What are we not to stop doing? _____________________________________________

Congratulations

You have just experienced a discipleship relationship with those who have walked with you through Jump-Start. I want to encourage you to keep on growing. You may have already noticed that Jesus discipled his followers. He did this by spending time with them and using the small group context to help them grow. The Apostle Paul did the same thing with a number of people. Notable among those he discipled was Timothy.

Maturing in Christ

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he reminded him what he was to do as a Christian. He said, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others." (2 Timothy 2:2). The challenge is to move beyond passive church attendance into active growth and participation in the church and God's Kingdom. Jump-Start has been a beginning. Why not continue growing and learning in such a way that you can help others to grow and they in turn help others? There are a number of options to continue the discipling process. One of these, that has been used for many years in many countries, is the Discipleship Encounters with its ten steps in outline form for prompting conversation about the Christian life and applied Bible study for daily living.

The Discipleship Encounters are free by downloading them from the following URL: www.discipleship.info To order a hard copy call 1-800-IDEA. They were first written in Spanish, but now are available in many languages. They are flexible and allow believers to grow as disciples and to multiply disciples by each one training one. They focus on the basic teachings of the Bible on the Christian life. Their outline format allows for ample conversation about the Bible and how it applies to each person's own situation. We have tracked the multiplication of disciples to 10 generations in places where the Discipleship Encounters have been used.

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End Notes:

The Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament starts with the story of creation and tells how God selected a group of people (Israel) to tell all other peoples of the earth about Him. The New Testament tells about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and also about His followers after the resurrection. The Old Testament is divided up into 39 parts and the New Testament into 27 parts. These parts are called books. For the purpose of finding the various paragraphs and sentences, each book is broken down into chapters with little subdivisions called verses. The table of contents in the front of the Bible will help you find the books.

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