Follow Jesus

TRAVIS DEANS   -   May 13, 2021

In January of 2020, the Emmaus Institute offered an in-person class entitled Follow Jesus designed to help equip believers to follow Jesus faithfully in their day-to-day lives. It explored the concept of sanctification and growth and dug deep into the spiritual disciplines necessary to foster these things in our lives. Below you will find summaries of the content, recordings of each class, and links to articles that dig into the teaching with greater detail.

 

Class Summary

1 Timothy 4:7 says, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness.” The word for “train” could also be translated discipline, and it is what our word gymnasium is derived from. As believers, we are commanded throughout Scripture to grow in godliness, or Christlikeness. As Paul says in this verse the way we do that is through discipline or training. The Bible gives us many things we can do to help us grow in godliness, and theologians have called these spiritual disciplines.

There are many spiritual disciplines, but this series will focus on three: reading and studying the Bible, Scripture meditation, and prayer. Why these three? Because I believe these are the three components we need to craft a personal devotional time that will lead to growth in godliness. Here is a basic outline of how the class will progress:

  1. Following Jesus – What does it look like to grow in Christ? Where should we start?
  2. Digging into the Bible – How do we study scripture faithfully to really grasp and obey what God says?
  3. Meditation and Prayer – What is biblical meditation and why is it important? How do we develop faithful prayer lives as followers of Jesus?

To follow along with the audio, download this participants guide.

 

Class Recordings

Want to listen into the class? Click below to access our recordings of the three sessions available through The Emmaus Institute Podcast (subscribe here).

Session 1 – Following Jesus
What does it really mean to grow in godliness as we follow Jesus and why is it important? In this session, we introduce the idea of spiritual growth and discuss some of the disciplines that the Bible gives us to practice in order to experience growth and maturity in our lives. We begin by examining how to study the Bible.

 

Session 2 – Digging into the Bible
What does it look like to faithfully study scripture? In this session, we explore deeper how to study the bible in a faithful way with strategies and tools for interpretation of truth and application to our lives.

 

Session 3 – Meditation and Prayer
Meditation means a lot of things in our world today, but what does the Bible have to say about this important and sacred act? What is Biblical meditation and why should we practice it? What is prayer and how can we engage in this important habit in our lives. In this final session of the class, we will examine all of these questions and more!

 

Class Summaries

If you’d like to read article summaries of each session in greater detail, click below.