The 3 Goals of Apprenticeship to Jesus
community group guide
Vision Series Session 2: Practicing the Way of Jesus
INTRO: (2-3 minutes)
Welcome to Community Group! Start off by introducing everyone in the group and then praying and asking the Holy Spirit to move and guide the conversation for the evening.
Let’s continue looking at the HOPE Church Mission Statement together:
“We exist to bring HOPE to our community by practicing the way of Jesus until it is in Nashville as it is in Heaven.”
DISCUSSION: (10-15 minutes)
ASK the group:
Who Jesus is/was?
A. What image comes to your mind when you think about Jesus?
B. Is it a positive or negative image?
Who Jesus is/was not:
A. How do other people portray Jesus (movies, television, social media, friends, family, etc.)?
B. Why do we have this view of him?
After discussing, have someone read Mark 8:34-38.
“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
SAY the following:
This seems a little more intense than what is typically pictured when we think of Jesus, doesn’t it? He divides the group into two categories: the “crowd” or his “followers.”
To Jesus, being a part of the “crowd” means you buy into the idea of Jesus, go to church once in a while, and you are a semi-moral person. It’s more about Jesus following you than you following Jesus.
Jesus’ offer, however, is to not just be part of the crowd, but it is an invitation to experience true life as his apprentice.
First century apprentices had three main goals:
1. Be with their rabbi: this was a 24/7, 365 day venture where the apprentice’s goal was to “be covered in the dust of their rabbi.”
2. Become like their rabbi: this was something that could only happen as the apprentice spent a great deal of time with their rabbi.
3. Do what their rabbi did: their goal was to be a carbon copy of the rabbi in all his mannerisms and in his lifestyle.
As apprentices of Jesus, our lives are to be oriented around these three goals (also called “practicing the way of Jesus”).
APPLICATION: (approx. 5-10 minutes)
1. What does it look like for us as individuals to be apprentices of Jesus?
a. To be with him - how is this done with the amount of time it takes to simply live in your present lifestyle
b. To become like him - how does someone become like Jesus?
c. To do what he did - what are some things that Jesus did that we’re supposed to do as well?
2. What does it look like for all of us to be apprentices together ?
CLOSING: (10-15 minutes)
Over the next couple weeks we are focusing on each of these three goals in greater detail.
We will be highlighting a different weekly outreach focus for us as a church body, praying for and serving one of our ministry partners, local businesses, and local schools. As we close, let us ask God to guide us and open opportunities for us to practice the way of Jesus (the three apprentice goals) as we engage in various places of our community.