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When discussing practice, men are challenged to consider how they are
currently applying the lesson by asking, (1) What role does evangelism play in your life?
(2) Knowing the goal of a disciple is to be like Christ, do you have any other goals you can think of that are in competition with this goal? (3) Does being a disciple of Christ mark your identity so that it is clear to those who know you? (4) What is the biggest thing keeping you back from pursuing the type of discipleship that Jesus is calling you to?
Homework. Immediately following the small group time, the men are thanked for their participation and encouraged in all that God will do through their hard work in the weeks ahead (Phil 2:12-13). They are also reminded about the homework over the next two weeks, including (Week 1) Reading and Report on chapters 8-10 in
Transforming Power of the Gospel, and a DIG on John 8:31-32; and (Week 2) Reading and Report on the Gospel Primer parts 2-3.
Session 2: Becoming a Disciple through
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that happened in their week, as opposed to the principle they applied over the past two weeks. So, the men are given a model where one man shares a principle from the
homework he applied and how it went, then his partner gives feedback to encourage and build up the one who just shared. Then the roles are reversed. Since the men are
unfamiliar with the model at this point, the instructor plays both parts.
To aid the men in their time together the following questions are provided: (1) From your completed DIG Bible study, what is the application you made and how did you do on carrying it out? What has helped or hindered your obedience? OR (2) What truth from the reading have you sought to apply, and how did you do on carrying it out?
What has helped or hindered your obedience? Men, in response to each other’s answer to one of the above questions, what encouragement and/or help could you offer?
Teaching. After a short ten-minute break, the men return to their seats for teaching on the worshiping heart and its role in following Christ. The great commission account in Matthew 28:19-20 may be the best passage of Scripture to understand discipleship. It is here that Jesus commands His disciples to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In the process of teaching others to live out the Bible practically, one extremely important truth is often overlooked. In Jesus’s command to make disciples, He said, “teaching them to obey” (emphasis added). In this statement, Jesus was directly referring to “them” as those who are disciples identified by baptism.
But, what this word also points to, is that people are the ones that need to be taught.
Therefore anthropology—or who people are and why they do what they do—should be
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understood when teaching people to be disciples. The second lesson, therefore, has four main components, (1) we are worshipers (Isa 43:7; 1 Cor 10:31), (2) we become like what we worship (Ps 115:8), (3) the functions of our heart and how they express worship (Prov 4:23), and (4) how the Three-trees diagram13 illustrates why we do what we do. At the end of the teaching, a ten-minute break is given before the lab begins.
Application lab. For this lab, men are given a case study involving a married couple. Using the three-trees diagram, that was just taught in the teaching time; men are to plug the details of the case into the diagram. After about 20 minutes, or once the men finish, a Three-trees diagram is drawn on the board, and the men are asked questions about how they filled in the diagram. As the diagram is walked through, some key truths from the lesson are discussed including, (1) What are the different parts of the heart biblically? How are they displayed in the case study? (2) What are each of the people worshiping (living for)? How is their worship displayed in their behavior?
Homework. After the lab, the men are reminded about the homework over the next three weeks, including, (Week 1) read Dr. Scott’s chapter on humility, do a DIG on Philippians 2:3-4, and the DPH; (Week 2) read the Peacemaker handout on the heart, then respond to the question on the online forum and respond to at least two of your
classmates’ posts, and listen to the sermon entitled “Three Reasons to Fear God” by John MacArthur; (Week 3) read chapters 2-3, and 5-7 in The Transforming Power of the Gospel and MacArthur’s Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, and do a DIG on 1
13See appendix 8.
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Corinthians 13:4-7. The men are then encouraged to sign up for a time to meet up once their DPH is complete. Meet ups are voluntary but will give a chance for the instructor to give one-on-one feedback to each student.
Session 3: Becoming a Disciple through