Key Verses: Matthew 8:14, 15; Matthew 10:34-37; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 5:17-26
Key Ideas: Discipleship is something that is active, not passive.
1. The first story in this lesson is the one of Jesus healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. She was sick in bed with a high fever. Jesus healed her. Upon her recovery, she set about to care for those in her household. Here is a case where someone who had received a blessing from Jesus, set about right away to act in kind. In a larger sense, this story is a paradigm of all those who have been saved from sin. A certain gratitude should pervade their living.
2. Another story is that of the paralytic, the one who was lowered through the roof of the house because the crowd was too big to allow them in the front door. After his healing, it says he left glorifying God. Again, a reaction to the goodness he had received from Christ.
3. In Mark 8:35-37, there is the famous passage in which Jesus asks what a person would be willing to give in exchange for their soul? And what it would profit a person to gain the whole world but lose their soul. Here is cause to ponder what kind of life a person should live, especially those who have received favor from God.
4. What do you think it means to “lose your life for the sake of the gospel?” Have you ever done that? What are some of the costs of being a disciples of Jesus?
5. One of the actions enjoined upon us by Jesus is that of making other disciples. Not only are we to become disciples ourselves, but we are to participate in the making of other disciples. The great passage on this is at the end of Matthew 28. Notice the elements involved here – teaching, going, baptizing. Do not neglect to notice Jesus promise of empowering his followers.
6. It is the doing of Jesus’s work that puts disciples in contrast to the world. Jesus said he came to bring not peace, but the sword; he came to divide brother from brother, children from parents. What divisions driven by the gospel have you seen? How do you think you can avoid such divisions?
7. What actions can you take to improve your discipleship?
