Following Jesus: Introduction

 

Last Updated on September 18, 2025 by Rocklyn Clarke

Purpose

“How will following Jesus help me pursue my passions?”
“How will following Jesus help me fix the problems in the world that break my heart?”

“What is a disciple and how will I know when I’ve made one?”
“How do I make a disciple?”
“How long does it take to make a disciple?”
“What’s the connection between life groups and making disciples?”

Follow this link for answers to these questions and for information about these key aspects of our training:

Purpose, Goals, Habits, Ministries, and Assignments.

Note For Teachers

Those who are preparing to teach this material should checkout our Teaching Page:

Following Jesus: Teaching

Following Jesus: What does it mean and why should I do it?

We begin this introduction with a central question that many people can’t answer correctly. Sadly, this applies to many who consider themselves to be Christians! When you’ve finished the following 7 lessons you will be able to answer this question properly.

You’ll also be able to answer the following questions:

  • What is God’s agenda and how does it relate to Jesus?
  • How does God carry out his agenda?
  • What does it mean to be a Christian?

How It Begins: Good News!

People are not born following Jesus. Rather, each person goes through a process by which he/she encounters the good news about the Kingdom of God and salvation through Jesus and becomes a follower. You can’t disciple someone until he/she has become a follower of Jesus:

 Evangelism>Conversion>Discipleship
 leading to Jesus committing to Jesus training to be like Jesus

 

This discipleship curriculum will help you understand how to follow Jesus. Our evangelism curriculum will help you understand how to win people to Christ. You will introduce your disciples to our evangelism curriculum at a later point in this training (e.g. Matthew 10 & Matthew 28). In the mean time, if you’re not already familiar with it, take a sneak peek and try it out for yourself, so that you will be prepared to teach it at the appropriate time:

Sneak peek for trainers:  Good News!

For now however, let’s move on to: God’s agenda.

Lesson 1: God Has An Agenda!

God has an agenda and his agenda has implications for you! You’ll learn more about God’s agenda as you progress through this training, but Jesus himself expresses this agenda in the following passage:

  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  – Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

Jesus understood that he had been given authority over everything in heaven and earth.

The Apostle Paul further develops this agenda in the following passage:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will —to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. – Ephesians 1:3-10 (NIV)

Here the phrase “all things” includes everyone and that means you: God’s agenda is to bring everything in heaven and earth under the authority of Jesus and his intention is to use us (that includes you) to do it. Because God’s Kingdom is non-coercive, we don’t impose or force God’s rule on others! Instead, we expand God’s Kingdom by proclaiming his reign and sacrificially serving others! We accomplish our mission through the power of God’s Word and his Spirit rather than through physical force or political power.

Checkout the following:

Topics to explore in discussion:

  • God’s agenda.

Additional resources to check out:

Training assignment (do this yourself, and use it to help train someone else):

  • Watch the video.
  • Discussion Questions:
    • Before starting this lesson what, if anything, did you believe about God’s agenda?

Habits

  • Set aside time to pray and to reflect at the end of every day. Ask yourself how you think God’s agenda might apply to the day’s events.

As we consider what we’ve learned about God’s agenda we now turn to the place where we expect people to enthusiastically pursue it – the Church!

Lesson 2: Believer, Born Again, Brother, Christian, Disciple, Follower, Saint, Saved – What’s the Difference?

Note – This is a long lesson! You may want to break it up into 1 – 3 sessions.

As we’ve said, we naturally expect the church to be a place where people wholeheartedly pursue God’s agenda. Sadly, there are many people who attend church regularly but either don’t understand that God wants to bring everything under Jesus’ control or don’t understand how to cooperate with him in doing this. To understand why, we need to take a deeper look at who attends church.

You have, most likely, heard various terms used to describe people who feel some sort of connection to church. We will now take a look at these terms!

The Bible uses many terms to describe those who follow Jesus: believer, born again, brother, Christian, disciple, saint, saved:

  • Believer – Someone who believes in or has faith in Jesus and therefore follows him. In the Bible, the term “believer” refers to much more than simply agreeing with an idea. It implies a level of commitment such than, when given a chance, you will act on the belief. For example, you demonstrate your belief that a chair will support your weight by sitting in it; you demonstrate your believe that an airplane will take your safely to your destination by flying in it. Please note that in the New Testament, the words translated “to believe” and “to have faith” come from the same Greek root. In other words, in the New Testament, “to believe” means the same things as “to have faith”.
    John 4:39-41; Acts 2:44-47; Acts 4:31-32; Galatians 6:9-10; James 2:1
  • Born again – Someone who believes in Jesus is born again from God’s Spirit. You must be born again to see or enter the Kingdom of God.
    John 3:1-21; 1Peter 1:22-23
  • Brother – Those who follow Jesus are part of a new family and become brothers and sisters to one another.
    Matthew 12:46-50; Matthew 23:8; Acts 6:3; Acts 9:28-30; Acts 11:1; Acts 11:29; Acts 15
  • Christian – means “belonging to Christ” “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” – Acts 11:19-26; Acts 26:27-29; 1 Peter 4:15-17
  • Disciple – Someone who is trained by the one he/she is following.
    Matthew 5:1-2; Acts 6:1-7; Acts 9:1-31; Acts 11:19-26; Acts 18:23
  • Saint – Someone who is “sanctified”, or set apart for God’s use. This is the original, biblical meaning. Note that the Roman Catholic and other orthodox churches also use this term in a more narrow way to refer to people whom they have “evaluated’ posthumously in order to be confident that they are in heaven where they can be relied upon to offer intercessory prayer on behalf of people on earth (e.g. Saint Francis, Saint Benedicts, etc.). This is a much more restricted meaning than the one found in the Bible. where the term simply refers to believers viewed as having been set apart for God’s use.
    Romans 1:1-8; Ephesians 1:1-2; Philippians 1:1-2
  • Saved – Someone who, by following Jesus, has been rescued from this world and from God’s wrath.
    Luke 8:12; Luke 8:4-15; John 10:1-9; Acts 2:17-21; Acts 4:8-12; Romans 10:1-13
    • Saved from God’s wrath – 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
    • Saved from predators – John 10:1-9
    • Saved from the corruption of the society around you – Acts 2:36-41
    • Saved from sickness – Acts 4:8-12
    • Saved from death and destruction – Romans 10:1-13
  • Follower of Jesus – Someone who follows and organizes his/her life around the life of Jesus as revealed in the Bible, especially the four gospels (i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and as revealed by the Holy Spirit.
    Matthew 4:19; Matthew 8:19-22; Matthew 9:9; Matthew 10:37-39; Matthew 16:24-26; Matthew 19:21-22; Matthew 19:27-30; John 1:43; John 12:26; John 21:19-22

The following link will display several of these terms as they appear in Acts – Revelation (i.e. how they are used by the Church):

Bible verses containing:  “believer”, “brother”, “Christian”, “disciple”, “follower”, “saint”, “saved”

The following videos will give you a better sense of Jesus and the Gospel:

Those who belong to Jesus (i.e. “Christians”) hear his voice and follow him, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
John 10:22-30; John 14:15-31; John 16:5-16

Only those who follow Jesus in a public, verifiable way are Christians. Merely going to church or claiming to follow Jesus is not enough!