Discipleship II Week 1
Week One: The Life Of Jesus (Before his ministry)
This week begins Discipleship II a 12 week program designed to train the believer in some methods of witnessing to the nonbeliever and to those that believe in a false religion. Jesus lived as a normal child would before beginning his ministry and as the years drew near to the start of his ministry he grew and became strong in the spirit. Our intention is to do the same by the grace of God and through the study of his teachings. The life of Jesus before he begins his ministry is very important because you will see that he uses many things from this period of his life where he worked with Joseph as a carpenter as well as his travel to various places and his surroundings which helped him to observe life as we we later read through the parables He taught in scripture. Thank you for particpating in Discipleship II, we welcome you to this program and pray that it will be a blessing to you. To start we will begin by reading parts of scripture that tell us of His early childhood.
Read Mathew 1:18-25 What questions do you have after reading this?
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Answer the following questions:
What indication does the Bible give us even before Jesus was born as to his purpose in life?
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What type of person do we need to be so that we can hear from God? _________________________________________________________________________
What happened that Joseph changed his mind about Mary? _________________________________________________________________________
How important is it to obey God even when it seems crazy? _________________________________________________________________________
The birth of Jesus brought on many mixed emotions, there was joy and gladness with the excitement of the long awaited arrival of the King of Israel, but as in all things not everyone was as excited or pleased to hear of this great news, in fact we will read that enemies began to arise as soon as Jesus was born. Now, who would be threatened by a little baby boy? Let's read together:
Read Mathew 2:1-12 What questions do you have after reading this?
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Answer the following questions:
What events took place that threatened to prevent Jesus ministry? ___________________________________________________________________
How did Herod find out about Jesus? ___________________________________________________________________
What did Herod want the wise men to do after they found Jesus in Bethlehem? ________________________________________________________
Why didn’t they tell Herod where Jesus was if Herod claimed he wanted to worship Jesus?
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As the enemies of Christ took notice of this miracle of God they began to plot against Him, it would seem that it would be an easy thing for a king to get rid of a child that posed a potential threat, but God had other plans. We can see by this that when God is for us not even kings can be against us and prevail. He shall protect us always as He does the baby Jesus.
Read Mathew 2:13-23 What questions do you have after reading this?
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Answer the following questions:
What did Joseph do after he was warned by God? _____________________________________________________________________
What happened after Herod died? _____________________________________________________________________
Can we also expect to have enemies that try to stop our ministry? _____________________________________________________________________
What steps can we take to prevent our enemies from succeeding in stopping the work of God? ____________________________________________________________________
God prevented Herod from fulfilling His evil wishes as God also will do for us against our enemies, not only will He deliver us from evil, but as we will read ahead He will set up our ministry by making the path straight and making our calling clear to others. As John The Baptist cried out "prepare ye the way of the Lord" So shall there be those who will know your calling.
Read Mathew 3:1-12 What questions do you have after reading this?
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Answer the following questions:
Who was the forerunner to Jesus ministry? ____________________________________________________________________
What was the message that John the Baptist gave unto the people? ____________________________________________________________________
How important was it to have a forerunner that reminded the people of the scriptures? ___________________________________________________________________
Is it important for us to have confirmation of our calling? ___________________________________________________________________
Will we always have a forerunner like Jesus did? ___________________________________________________________________
Sometimes things won't make sense to us! We see here that Jesus "King of Kings" Lord of Lords" is going to baptized by John The Baptist. Often when God does unusual things it doesn't make sense to us so we begin to question "why?" Keep in mind that God always has a perfect plan!
Read Mathew 3:13-4:1 What questions do you have after reading this?
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Answer the following questions:
Why did Jesus travel so far to be Baptized of John? _____________________________________________________________________
Could Jesus have skipped this step? _____________________________________________________________________
What spectacular event happened to confirm Jesus’ calling? _____________________________________________________________________
Why didn’t Jesus just start preaching instead of going through all of these prerequisites?
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Why did Jesus have to be led by the spirit into the wilderness before he began his ministry?
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It is very important that every effort is made to fulfill all that God tells us. Too many times I have made mistakes because I was in a hurry, thought I knew what was right, or just didn't take time to ask God. Jesus after being baptized was now getting ready for the test. In order for us to have God's favor in a time of temptation we must show our willingness to do things God's way even if they don't make sense to us. Soon we will read why we need to have God's favor as Jesus is taken up to be tempted of the devil, we also will have this testing.
Read Mathew 4:2-11 What questions do you have after reading this?
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Answer the following questions:
Just before his ministry Jesus is tempted by the devil, why do you think this was needed?
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How did Jesus overcome or resist the devil? _____________________________________________________________________
What 3 things did the devil use to appeal to Jesus? _____________________________________________________________________
Will the devil use those 3 things to stop God’s work in your life? _____________________________________________________________________
These 3 are: The pride of life, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh is what we all struggle with. Name some ways or times they have been a struggle in your life.
Do you think that Jesus looked back at how good he had it before he was led up to the wilderness? ___________________________________________________________________
How much do you think Jesus used his childhood training to be prepared for his ministry?
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Write a paragraph about how your childhood training can be used for God’s purposes in ministering to others. ____________________________________________________________________
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Memory Verse week 1: Memorize the following verses.
Mathew 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Mathew 3:2 “And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Mathew 3:15 “And Jesus answering said unto him, “suffer it to be so now; for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he suffered him.”
Mathew 4:4 “But he answered and said: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
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Week Two: The Life of Jesus (During Ministry)
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