Page 47 - Youth Discipleship Student Textbook

Jesus did discipleship by complete immersion. He asked His disciples to live and walk with Him full time.
He gave each of them certain responsibilities as a member of the team. Judas was assigned the job of
managing the groups donations and expenses. Peter, it seems, was the group’s spokesman. He sent
them out two by two to preach the Gospel. As He taught them, He asked them to apply the lessons in
their lives.

Jesus selected three of His disciples and developed a special relationship with them. Peter, James and
John were drawn aside many times in the Gospels to experience some things that the other disciples did
not. In youth ministry, you may find a select few students who are more responsive to the things of the
Lord than others. Concentrate on those few, as they will reproduce themselves once discipled.

How did Jesus teach His disciples?

Dale Roach of Like a Team Ministries has suggested these 8 characteristics of Jesus that made him such
a unique teacher of his disciples:

1. Jesus was a Teacher Who Taught with Power
Jesus began his ministry by engaging people in the synagogue as a public teacher. This teaching was an
activity open to any layman who was willing to be taught.

Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news
of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
But what made him so different from other teachers? The answer to that question is that Jesus taught
in the power of the Spirit of God (Luke 4:14). He did not rely on his own abilities, but solely rested in the
supremacy of the Holy Spirit in guiding Him about what to say and how to say it.
We can do the same thing as a teachers. The Scriptures tell us how:

Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit

Just as a person would drink wine and thereby surrender control of his body to drunkenness, in the
same manner we are to surrender control of our lives to the Holy Spirit of God on a daily basis. He is the
power in teaching, not our abilities. He is the one who will give our teaching dynamic results.

2. Jesus was a Teacher Whose Teaching was Unique
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the New Testament’s most significant leadership lesson plans.

When Jesus was speaking to this mass of people, he was reflecting upon the group dynamics. Jesus
shared lessons that could be understood by adults and children alike.
The teaching style of Jesus held the attention of those to whom He was speaking. Matthew wrote in
Matthew 7:28, When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching…

The teaching style of Jesus drew the attention of massive crowds. His style was also one that showed he
had authority.

“The common people were astonished. He was not a scribe. He had no religious credentials. Yet he
spoke like a king. His sayings were a new Sinai. The scribes quoted authorities; he spoke with authority.
They loved tradition, and no rabbi won a hearing unless he could prove that his word was based on past
wisdom; so the scribes drew stale water from closed cisterns. But the words of Jesus were like a spring,

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