Share Lessons Like Jesus – Making Disciples
How to Share Lessons like Jesus
Together Church | Pastor Brandon Werner
September 20, 2026 | Series: Making Disciples
INTRODUCTION
This morning, we get to look at the third and final fundamental for making disciples in this series…
Today, we’ll talk about SHARING LESSONS
with those we disciple.
This one is third on purpose…
When Jesus shared lessons with His disciples, He did it relationally; the lessons were shared while He shared life and love with them.
I think that’s an easy one to miss in discipleship.
It is easy to see sharing lessons as TRANSACTIONAL…
Just a data exchange… transferring information from my head to another.
Sure, the information must be learned. But head knowledge alone does not make a disciple. We say it this way: Bible knowledge is not a good indicator of spiritual maturity.
The goal of sharing lessons must be TRANSFORMATIONAL…
It’s not just about them knowing the lesson… it’s about the lesson changing their hearts and their lives.
That’s a HUGE difference.
Effective disciple-makers understand sharing lessons means helping those we disciple move truth from their head, to their heart, to their hands.
Jesus did that.
You know what that means: once again, we will start this message by looking in God’s Word and at the example of Jesus. Bibles ready.
As we look at Jesus’ example, we’ll ask and answer two questions:
- HOW did Jesus go about sharing lessons with His disciples?
- WHAT lessons did Jesus share?
There’s a story in Mark’s gospel that will help us answer both questions. If you have your Bible… open with me to Mark 9:30-37.
As you open, let’s set the scene…
An important shift in Mark’s gospel account is underway… in Mark 8-10, Jesus is setting His eyes on Jerusalem. He is turning His attention from His public ministry in Galilee to His journey to the cross.
That shift actually begins in Mark 8. You can flip back one chapter if you want, but let me just read it to you here…
Mark 8:31
And he [Jesus] began to teach them [His disciples] that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
This verse is the first of three times Jesus foretells His coming death and resurrection to His disciples in Mark 8-10.
That’s important!
Jesus knows His remaining time with His disciples is short. They’ve already shared a lot of life and love. Within that framework, Jesus’ investment in SHARING LESSONS is intensifying.
Now to the passage at hand.
BODY
The story begins with Jesus’ SECOND foretelling of His impending death and resurrection…
Mark 9:30-37
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know,
Why? Mark tells us: because He was teaching His disciples. His attention was increasingly focused on preparing the twelve for what was coming. That’s what the text says…
for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
So here’s Jesus being open and transparent with His disciples and sharing a lesson with them… a lesson about what greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven looks like.
And He Himself is the illustration. He is going to be a servant of all by going to the cross to die for us.
But His disciples aren’t being teachable! They don’t understand the lesson and they don’t say anything. So the lesson doesn’t land.
And it shows. Something happens on the road while they are traveling. What is it? Let’s continue…
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
This story is a masterclass from Jesus on sharing lessons with those you disciple in a TRANSFORMATIONAL way.
Jesus was not just trying to get them to KNOW the lesson; He shared the lesson RELATIONALLY so it would touch their hearts.
And the strategy Jesus used here isn’t rocket science. It can be observed and reproduced by anyone.
So let’s break it down…
- HOW did Jesus go about sharing lessons with His disciples?
There are several things we should notice that He did…
To start, notice how the story begins with Jesus’ own transparency.
Jesus wasn’t telling everyone His plans to go to the cross, but He was open with His disciples and more transparent with them.
How many of you know that the thought of going to the cross was emotionally painful for Jesus?
So painful that He sweat drops of blood in agony in Gethsemane!
Jesus was transparent with His disciples, and their response to His transparency and their fight on the road revealed something about their spiritual maturity: they didn’t understand what greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven really looks like.
Jesus knew that lesson had to land! What did He do?
He modeled HOW to share lessons RELATIONALLY.
Here are the disciples arguing on the road, and Jesus is right there with them, listening to them carry on!
Notice what He didn’t do…
He didn’t stop them in their tracks and react emotionally.
“Boys, you just aren’t getting it, are you?”
“Sit down and let’s go over this again.”
He didn’t do that.
Why not?
Because Jesus wasn’t just trying to get it into their heads!
He wanted the lesson to move to their hearts.
And He knew that meant sharing lessons in a RELATIONAL way.
How did Jesus share this lesson relationally?
Well, He didn’t react on the road and just say whatever came to mind.
But He also didn’t let it slide and never address it.
(Underreact or overreact.)
Instead, Jesus used a relational strategy we can imitate…
- He let the conversation play out (He got to hear it all)
- Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks
- He was less interested in correcting their behavior
- And more interested in knowing & addressing their hearts
- He gave Himself time to reflect and pray
- Only do what He saw the Father doing
- Only say what He heard the Father saying
- Depending on the power of the Holy Spirit in His ministry
- He found a more relational environment
- Off the road and at the house
- After the argument had simmered down
- When they were in that environment, He led with a question
That’s a big one…
Instead of leading with an accusation, He led with a question.
In the Bible, Jesus asked A LOT of questions!
One study counted 307 questions asked by Jesus in the gospels.
Think about that!
Jesus knew the answers… but He still asked the questions.
Why?
Because a great question can help someone self-discover what is happening in their own heart.
And that’s what His question did…
“What were you talking about along the way?”
And they fell silent… because the question was revealing their hearts.
Then…
- He sat down
- He called the twelve together
- And He stated the lesson clearly…
“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
It wasn’t a sermon.
It wasn’t an in-depth study.
It wasn’t a big presentation.
He was just intentional about being in a relational environment, asking a question, and sharing the lesson in a very simple way.
Finally…
- Jesus concluded with an illustration to help the lesson stick
Jesus was constantly using STORIES and ILLUSTRATIONS to share lessons with those He was discipling.
The illustration He used in this situation was the child.
Stories and illustrations are powerful tools!
Not only because they make the lesson more memorable, but because they can also help move the lesson from our heads to our hearts.
Jesus made sharing lessons through illustrations and stories a habit. Listen to what Mark says earlier in this gospel in…
Mark 4:33-34
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Questions, stories, lessons, and conversations. That’s HOW Jesus shared lessons with those He discipled!
You don’t have to be able to preach sermons to share lessons.
You don’t have to work through curriculum to share lessons.
You can be like Jesus…
- Pay attention to what’s happening in those you disciple
- Rely on God’s help to identify the lesson
- Create a relational environment
- The right setting and the right questions
- Share the lesson in a simple way
- Use a story or illustration if possible to help it stick
See, it’s not rocket science! Sharing lessons like Jesus is reproducible.
That’s HOW we share lessons. Now,
- WHAT lessons did Jesus share?
Just like this story, most the time, when Jesus shared lessons, He chose those lessons based on the needs He saw around Him.
I hope we recognize it would be impossible to provide a complete inventory right now of all the possible lessons that might need to be shared in a discipleship relationship!
So, we won’t try to list them all.
Instead…
Let’s identify a strong thread that runs through all the lessons of Jesus. What were His lessons driving at?
Jesus shared lessons that would move His disciples towards spiritual maturity.
What is spiritual maturity?
Our Discipleship Wheel helps us with that if you learned about it in DXP yesterday!
But, to keep it very simple and biblical, disciples of Jesus grow in spiritual maturity as they grow in FAITH and LOVE.
- FAITH in the Kingdom of God and what it is like
- LOVE for God and for others
You can see it in today’s story!
Jesus’ lesson about who is the greatest was driving at FAITH and LOVE.
FAITH
Over and over in the gospels, the disciples argued about who is the greatest in the Kingdom.
They all wanted that title,
but none of them understood then what it meant.
In fact, in the next chapter, in Mark 10, James and John come to Jesus to ask to sit at His right hand and left in the Kingdom… and their request creates another argument among the disciples!
They had the wrong idea about greatness in the Kingdom.
Jesus was trying to encourage their FAITH to understand the Kingdom of God and what it is like!
So many of Jesus’ parables begin with, “The Kingdom of God can be likened unto…” Jesus was constantly sharing lessons to increase their faith in the Kingdom of Heaven and their role in it.
So, in this story, Jesus’ lesson deals with FAITH when He says, “The greatest of all is the one who is a servant of all.”
And that lesson of faith is also a lesson of…
LOVE
Jesus is the ultimate example of love. He Himself is the greatest example of love! He was going to the cross to be a servant of all.
And that’s why Jesus said this in…
John 15:12-13
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
Then Jesus went to the cross to be a servant to us all.
Can you see these two major themes in this story?
If we’re going to share lessons like Jesus, we can’t get sidetracked on head knowledge that never addresses the heart.
Growing in spiritual maturity means growing in FAITH AND LOVE.
We need lessons that will challenge the attitudes of our hearts.
I’m preaching to somebody now. We need lessons that…
- Call us to deny self
- Put our focus on the Kingdom of God
- Reveal and uproot selfish ambitions
- Increase our love for God and others
- Motivate us to spend our lives serving the mission of Christ
If disciples of Jesus are going to grow in spiritual maturity, they need these kinds of lessons!
Don’t those lessons sound like the lessons Jesus taught?
Both HOW we share lessons and WHAT lessons we share have the same goal: to reach the heart of a person and transform their life.
CONCLUSION
In this room, I know we are all in a different place when it comes to our comfort level in sharing lessons like Jesus did.
If you were going to leave here and start sharing lessons,
what do you need to know?
First, let me take the pressure off…
- You don’t need the spiritual gift of teaching to share lessons.
Jesus was obviously a gifted teacher,
but He didn’t turn this moment into a sermon.
Instead, He shared the lesson RELATIONALLY.
In fact, I need to caution those of you who like to teach…
Be careful that gift does not become a barrier to sharing lessons relationally!
Sadly, I’ve rushed past relational to share a lesson too often.
When I do that, it’s a problem:
- I easily miss their heart
- They miss out on the process of self-discovery
- It is hard to reproduce!
When I rely on the gift of teaching as the primary way I share lessons, I fail to model sharing lessons in a way we can all do it.
The better way is to imitate Jesus’ example and share lessons simply and relationally like He did in today’s story.
This should be a great relief to those of you who know you aren’t teachers… you don’t need to be! Share lessons relationally and…
- Depend on the Holy Spirit for help.
In John, Jesus gave this promise to His disciples…
John 14:25-26
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
In today’s story, Jesus didn’t feel pressure to instantly share the lesson on the road… and you don’t need to feel that pressure, either.
But He also didn’t just let it go!
Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them and remind them of what He had taught them.
So just do that.
As you do, God will give you “aha!” moments and show you lessons He wants you to share with people you are leading spiritually.
You know where a lot of those “aha!” moments will come from? From your time with Jesus. Why is that? Because…
- You can only pour out what is being poured in.
Sharing lessons relationally doesn’t come from a spiritual life that is running on E.
Sharing lessons flows out of the OVERFLOW of what is constantly being poured into you.
This goes back to Fundamental 1:
SHARE LIFE with God and with others.
The filling you need comes from time alone with God.
The filling you need comes from time in God’s Word and in prayer.
The filling you need comes as you prioritize worship.
The filling you need comes as you share life and love with your group.
The filling you need comes as you seek God through preaching.
The filling you need comes as you depend on His power.
You cannot pour out what is not being poured in.
Which means you cannot do this alone…
- Jesus’ church plays a vital role in sharing lessons.
If discipleship is isolated to one-on-one alone, you are taking a huge risk: you are risking making disciples of yourself instead of Jesus.
Discipleship happens best when we are sharing life, sharing love, and sharing lessons together in the same local church.
Why?
Because Jesus’ example is deep commitment to a few.
Wouldn’t you find it strange if Jesus and His disciples were constantly running in different circles but trying to share discipleship?
Then let’s find it strange if we try to do that, too.
When I am discipling someone, I always ask them to be in my small group and church so that we can share life, love, and lessons together. If they move to another church, I don’t drop them instantly, but we make a plan and I transition them to teamwork and discipleship with their local church.
In today’s story, it was Jesus’ proximity to His disciples that led to the lesson He shared.
We need that proximity, too.
Going deep in discipleship with your local church is vital to that goal.
When you commit to discipleship as part of a team in a local church, God will use the people you share life and love with to teach you lessons you need to learn.
How do I know?
Because on more occasions than I can count, I’ve experienced it firsthand.
ILLUSTRATION: A Lesson from MR. J…
INVITATION
- Will you be courageous and share lessons with those you are leading spiritually in a relational way like Jesus did?
- If someone is sharing the right lessons with you, will you be teachable and receive the lessons?
Proverbs 15:32
He who disdains instruction despises his own soul,
But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.
- GOSPEL
LESSON: Your sin is a stench to God.
There is only One who can make you clean.