The gospel is the good news about what God has done through Jesus Christ to save sinners and give them new life. The gospel is the message that disciples preach, it is the message disciples must believe, it is the message that saves disciples, and the message in which disciples stand. The gospel brings the life of someone who knows and follows Jesus.
Read Romans 1:16-17, 1 Cor. 15:1-5
Discuss: What does scripture say the gospel is?
The gospel can be understood with 4 major truths from scripture:
God - God created us to love and glorify Him. He is loving and holy in His character. (Gen. 1:26, 1 Pet. 1:16)
Man - Humans are sinful, having rebelled against God. God’s holiness demands His just wrath towards sinners. (Rom. 3:10-11, 23, Rom 6:23)
Jesus Christ - Jesus is God in human flesh. God sent Jesus to save sinners by living a sinless life, dying on the cross as a substitute for sin, and raising from death. (1 Pet. 3:18, 2 Cor. 5:21)
Response - The proper response to receive the gospel for the forgiveness of sins is repentance from sin towards God and faith in Christ alone as Savior and Lord. (Mark 1:15, John 3:36)
True repentance and faith continues as Jesus lives inside of us to help us live changed fruitful lives.
The gospel is about Jesus. It tells us who He is, (the God, Man) what He has done (died and rose to save sinners) and how we can know Him (repentance and faith).
Discuss: How does the gospel free you from past guilt, or give you hope for future victory?
What is a disciple?
Highview defines a disciple as: Someone who knows and follows Jesus. (Mark 3:13-15) (Mark 1:17)
To know Jesus, is to understand who He is, what He has done, and be in relationship with Him through repentance and faith. Jesus is the God Man who loved the world in such a way that He died on the cross and rose again to save people from their sins and give them new life. (1 Pet. 3:18) Jesus invites all people to receive the life He came to bring by turning from sin and self (repentance), and trusting fully in His death and resurrection as their right standing before God (faith). (Mark 1:15) We demonstrate that we truly know Jesus as our repentance and faith in Him continues.
To follow Jesus is to obey Him as Lord, and join Him in His mission to make disciples of all nations. Obeying Jesus is completely surrendering our lives to honor him and submit to His commands from scripture. (John 15:8-10) We obey Jesus because we love Jesus and have been changed by the grace He showed us in dying for us while we were yet sinners. A part of obeying all that Jesus taught is to be used by Him to intentionally make disciples of those in our community and around the world. (Matt. 28:18-20) We believe that only as people are knowing and following Jesus in this way, are they truly disciples.
Read John 15:1-5.
Discuss: How does Jesus say that we are able to follow Him and produce the fruit of a disciple?
Based on this definition, what kinds of things would be evident in the life of a disciple of Jesus?
Questions to ask yourself to know if you are a disciple.
Remember since we are still works in progress, these answers are not about perfection, but about direction of your life.
1. Do you currently turn from sin and self and trust in Jesus alone as your only righteousness before God?
2. Do you seek to know Jesus through His word and honor Him with your life by obeying His commands?
3. Are you striving to be used by Him to pray, give, and go to make disciples of all nations?
Personal application
- The Bible says that the message of the gospel is offensive to human pride. (1 Cor. 1:23) Why do you think this is true?
- Would you say that most professing Christians you know are biblical disciples? Why or why not?
- Where do you need to grow the most?
Pray
Pray that God would fill our church and city with biblical disciples who can make biblical disciples.