How To disciple a New Christian

When Jesus told His disciples to go out and share the good news of the Gospel with the World, He did not just tell them to share the Gospel, He also told them to make those new Christians His disciples. Jesus commanded His disciples, saying,

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 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. (Matt 28:18-20).

You can see clearly from this passage that if we only brought a person into personal relationship with Jesus Christ through accepting Him as Savior and Lord without also discipling the individual, we would only be doing half the job Jesus commanded us to do. So completion of the job of bringing a person into relationship with Jesus involves our teaching that person how to be Jesus’ disciple.

This leads us to two questions: What does it mean to be Jesus’ disciple, and how do we go about teaching a new Christian to be Jesus’ disciple? Jesus gives the answer to what it means to be His disciple in the Gospel of John 10:27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Jesus tells us in this passage that being His disciple means learning to discern what is truly His voice and then obeying What He Commands us to do. Every Chapter on discipleship that we have covered in this basic school of evangelism has had this intended goal: to teach you how to hear Jesus’ voice so that you can grow in your relationship with Jesus and know clearly His will and plan for your life so you can walk in and fulfill it.

This brings us to the answer to the second question which is how do we go about making a new Christian Jesus’ disciple and teaching that Christian how to know what is truly Jesus’ voice? We do this by taking them through the four books on Discipleship that are a part of this Evangelism Training Program. These books were designed specifically for this purpose: to teach the New Christian how to know what is truly Jesus’ voice and to encourage them to obey what Jesus commands them to do. These four books are the following:

Jesus Is the Answer to Your Needs. The contents of this book are covered in Section 4 of this Textbook.

What is the answer to our needs and personal Sanctification? Is religion and will-power the answer to our needs? No! If we cannot save ourselves, what makes us think that we can Sanctify ourselves. Paul the Apostle makes plain to us in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that not only is Jesus our only means of Salvation, but He is also our only means of Sanctification. If a New Christian does not learn how to practically apply this truth to their life early in their Christian walk, Satan will deceive them and lead them into all kinds of legalism and fruitless religious activities to try and change and correct their sin-bound-soul which cannot be changed through the power of the flesh. Only Jesus is the answer to our needs in Salvation and Sanctification and this book explains to the New Christian and Old Christian how to practically apply this absolute truth to all their needs on a daily basis especially through daily feeding on Jesus through His Word and through Weekly Fellowship.

When you have brought a person to saving faith in Jesus Christ through using the Salvation Tract What Is Eternal Life?; or have brought a person back to Jesus Christ through sharing the Forgiveness Tract Jesus Is The Answer To Your Needs, you will then want to give them a copy of the Discipleship Book Jesus Is The Answer To Your Needs. You will want to do this because this book will give them assurance of salvation, teach them how to relate to Jesus for the answer to their needs, how to know what is truly Jesus’ voice, how to know what is His will and plan for their lives, and how to succeed in that will and plan.

Understanding Your Salvation In Jesus. The contents of this book are covered in Section 1 and Section 3 of this Textbook.

This book helps the New Christian learn how to know what is truly Jesus' voice by teaching him who the real Jesus is and the totality of His Salvation for us. This book is important because there are many false prophets in the world who claim to be messengers of God and of Christ but who are not who teach false doctrines about our Salvation in Jesus.

After reading this book the New Christian will be able to discern the true Gospel from a false one. Chapter 1 titled, The Creation, Constitution and Fall of Man, talks about what the Bible teaches concerning man being created a spirit, soul and body as compared to the secular worlds teaching on man being only a body and soul and for some only a body. It also teaches about Man's Fall and the consequences of that fall. The importance of this is that without the Biblical understanding about the constitution of man, there is no understanding about the need and meaning of Jesus' full salvation for us explained in the second Chapter titled, Jesus' Full Salvation For Man. Chapter 3 titled, Knowing Jesus is Eternal Life, is also an explanation of Jesus' salvation for us based on the Evangelism Tract, What is Eternal Life?, the tool used in this school of evangelism for teaching you how to present the Gospel on the field. This is a step by step explanation to the new Christian of the meaning of the content of What is Eternal Life?

Chapter 4 titled, Jesus is Fully God & Fully Man, talks about Jesus’ full humanity and full divinity. Our full salvation is all rapped up in Jesus’ full humanity and full divinity. The difference between a true Christian faith and a false one is centered in one’s understanding and acceptance of this truth. What constitutes a Christian cult is when one deviates from the Biblical teaching of Jesus’ eternal pre-existence as the only true God, the second person of the Trinity, who in time through Holy Spirit conception of the Virgin Mary took on a full human nature as well, so that now Jesus is fully God and fully Man but one Person and will be now and forever. For example: Mormons teach that Jesus was first a man, the by-product of Adam having sex with Mary, so that he was first a man who in time evolved into a god. That is just the opposite of what the Bible teaches and a whole lot more. Jehovah Witnesses teach that Jesus was neither God nor Man but Michael the Archangel. They deny both his Divinity and His Humanity. Some Christian religions deny his divinity. They teach that Jesus was just an exceptional human being to be modeled after, but not the only true God our Creator from eternity past in the flesh. Jesus is Our Creator, the only true God from eternity past who in time took on a full human nature as well to pay sin’s penalty for us on the cross in our place. Chapter 4 gives full Biblical evidence for these truths about Jesus.

Chapter 5 titled, Jesus: God’s Only Means to Salvation, talks about the fact that Jesus is the only way to God and his proof to this claim through His Physical Resurrection from the dead. The importance of this is that it is popular today to mix Christianity with other faiths and thus watering down not only the significance of who Jesus is, but the importance of His message that He is the only way to God. The New Age movement and other religions teach that Jesus is a way to God, one of many of God’s son’s, not his only Son. However, when Jesus said in John 14:6 "I-AM the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me’" He excluded ALL other religions and all other ways, and He proved this statement true through His physical resurrection from the dead. All other religious founders and scientists of history all died, are buried and are dust! They proved nothing.

Chapter 6 titled, Jesus is our final and Only High Priest, is a commentary on the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament and focuses on the teaching of God doing away with the Levitical Priesthood permanently because Jesus is our final and only High Priest who now alone forever intercedes for us before the Father because of His indestructible life. The significance of this is it shows what is wrong with other faiths like Mormonism which teaches that God has restored the Levitical Priesthood. This Chapter explains why this is not possible and what is wrong with Christian cults like Mormonism and why their teachings are false.

Chapter 7 is titled, Jesus Salvation Is Received Through Faith Alone. When ever I do Evangelism on the field, I will here statements like the following:

"You must be baptized to be saved."

"You must speak in tongues to be saved."

"Salvation is received through repenting of our sins."

"Salvation is received through receiving the Holy Spirit."

The Apostles in the Bible however teach that Jesus’ salvation for our sins repented of through His death and shed blood on the cross are received through faith and through faith alone. This Chapter shows this clear teaching in the Bible, especially through Peter’s teachings in the Book of Acts. The Second half of this Chapter shares seven evidences that the Bible gives of how to know if a person has had true saving faith in Jesus, is truly bornagain. Chapters 1 and 2 of this book explain why we cannot be saved by works.

Chapter 8 titled, Made Perfect in Jesus, focuses on a false historical teaching that it is possible for a Christian to reach perfection in this life. This Chapter shares the Bible’s teaching that we all sin daily whether we want to or not. Second, it teaches a person how to experience God’s love and forgiveness daily. Finally, third, it teaches how Jesus’ blood and His blood alone makes us perfect before God in His eyes despite our daily struggle with sin on this side of heaven.

After Sharing the Salvation Tract What Is Eternal Life? with someone, if they are not ready to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you would then want to give them a copy of Understanding Your Salvation in Jesus for further study on what the Bible teaches about our Salvation in Jesus.

Experiencing Jesus' Forgiveness Daily. The contents of this book are also covered in Section 4 of this Textbook.

As I explained in Section 4, Chapter 7 of this Textbook, in thirty years of ministry, I have found that the single greatest stumbling block to Christian maturity is not knowing how to experience Jesus' love and forgiveness on a daily moment by moment basis. If the New Christian does not learn how to cope with and relate to weakness and sin in his life in his relationship with Jesus on a daily basis, this one problem alone will keep him from being able to go on to anything else. This is because Satan will continually heap unjustified condemnation onto that person until they give up walking with Jesus in defeat. For this reason I consider this book, which teaches a Christian how to cope with and experience Jesus' forgiveness over their sins on a daily moment by moment basis, to be the single most important principle of discipleship a Christian can learn. This book will explain to the knew Christian how to experience Jesus' love and forgiveness on a daily moment by moment basis and a lot more.

After you share the forgiveness tract Jesus Is The Answer to Your Needs, you will want to then give the person a copy of this discipleship book for further study and understanding about what the Bible teaches on Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

Evangelism: The Time is Now! The contents of this book is covered in this Section and Section 1 of this Textbook.

Since Jesus is the answer to all our needs in Salvation and Sanctification, therefore, the most loving thing we can do is to give of our lives, time and resources to the sharing of the love of Jesus Christ with others. This book and the Evangelism Tract titled The Most Loving Thing You Can Do! explains how important Evangelism is and what is involved in Evangelism and Conversion. These books also deal with some arguments and heresies against the importance of personal one-on-one Evangelism that all Bornagain Christians need to be actively involved in. Evangelism: The Time Is Now! Discipleship Book explains to a Christian why all Christians need to be involved in weekly aggressive one-on-one Evangelism, why all Christians need training in Evangelism, what the necessary ingredients of a successful Evangelism Training Program are, and how this Evangelism Training Program more than meets these requirements.

After the Christian has stabilized in his walk with Jesus, the last most important concept on discipleship to then teach them is how important it is that they go out and share Jesus’ love and forgiveness through His death and shed blood on the cross for our sins with others. These two books will lay a life time foundation of motivation in the New Christian’s heart about the paramount importance of this most important work they need to be involved in weekly and for the rest of their life on earth until Jesus takes them home; not as a means of Salvation, but as a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly ongoing work of love so that others may come to know Jesus personally and have love, joy and peace in Heaven forever also.

After Sharing the Evangelism Tract The Most Loving Thing You Can Do! you would then want to give the Christian a copy of this Discipleship book Evangelism: The Time Is Now! for further study on the importance of using their free time and resources to share the Gospel with others and the importance of their going through Evangelism training to this end. You would also want to give them this book as a basis for challenging them to consider doing this Evangelism training program with you or in their Church. When I do Evangelism on the field and I meet a Christian and challenge them about the importance of using their free time for Evangelism and the importance of Training in Evangelism, after sharing The Most Loving Thing You Can Do! with them, I then give them a copy of the Evangelism Training Videos CD and a copy of the Discipleship book Evangelism: the Time Is Now! The Training Videos CD has a video on it which explains the value of the material used in this Evangelism Training Program and how This Evangelism Material is used and benefits a person in sharing the Gospel with others.

When going out on the field to do Evangelism, make sure you take along these four books on discipleship so that you have them ready to use when the situation calls for it.

When going out on the field to Evangelize, make sure you take along these four basic books on discipleship so that if someone does receive Jesus as Savior and Lord you can give them to him immediately. Now let me explain to you how to take a new Christian through these four basic discipleship books: COUNSELING PROCEDURES

Study Questions
Table of Contents
Bibliography & Notes
Section 5 Chapters

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