Teachers

The Gifts of Jesus Week 5

Teachers

Robert Morris

We’re finishing our series, The Gifts of Jesus

Today we’re going to talk about teachers

I love teachers and we need to appreciate teachers! (Stand up)

Teachers can be misunderstood sometimes

And I’m going to try to help us understand them today

By using the greatest teacher as an example: Jesus

Matthew 13:54

When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?”

Matthew 22:33

And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

John 7:32

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.

John 7:45

Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?”

John 7:46

The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”

Teachers love students.

Mark 6:34

And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.

Mark 10:21

Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack”

Great multitudes followed him all the time even into deserted places

Where there was no food just to hear Him teach!

Why? Because they knew He loved them!

People don’t care how much you know

Until they know how much you care!

Jesus was full of grace and truth, not just truth

The pharisees focused on rules

Jesus focused on relationship!

Jesus taught practical truth! He never spoke religious nonsense!

He said, “If you’re at odds with someone in the Church,

Don’t go to Church and play some religious game.

Go get it right first and then come to Church!”

Don’t worry about tomorrow!

God provides for the flowers and the birds!

He’ll provide for you! That’s practical!

You can’t serve God and Money at the same time!

Stop being greedy and start being generous!

You’re not happy greedy! You’ll be happy giving!

Why? Because my Father wired you to give!

Jesus answered life’s most complicated questions in simplistic ways

Do you want to know where you came from?

You didn’t evolve from a one-cell gob of goop!

You were created in the image of God!

Here’s what you are today!

You are a marred image of God, marred because of sin!

Here’s what you need!

You need a loving, sympathetic, compassionate Savior who can do for you what you cannot do for yourselves!

Here’s how to get to heaven! Believe in me and put your trust in me!

Here’s how to act in the marketplace!

Here’s how to build a marriage! Here’s how to raise kids!

Here’s how to have relationships! Here’s how to be successful!

What would you give to be in the audience if Jesus were preaching?

Before you sign up, I want you to know His teachings are in this book

This book is worth reading!

Teachers challenge students.

Great teachers know they have to challenge students for them to learn

Sometimes they have to challenge us because of our traditions

Or our interpretation of Scripture is keeping us in bondage

Jesus would say this: You have heard it said, but I say to you

Thou shalt not murder or commit adultery

Where had they heard it said? The Bible

He wasn’t contradicting the Bible. He was clarifying the Bible!

He was contradicting their understand and application of the Bible

Teachers do this all the time

Teachers will say look at this verse. Now, look at this verse

They’re not trying to get us to be skeptical about the Bible

They’re trying to get us to think so we can get free!

I try to do it slowly and give you some warning

But I have a lot of relational equity with you

I’ve watched guest speakers who watch me on TV

And they’ll challenge you and you resist

And so, they push a little harder and you resist more

The good ones will slow down and then come in the side door!

Jesus taught sinners differently than He taught skeptics

He used deductive and inductive reasoning (Richard Rising)

He was teaching the sinners with deductive reasoning

And as soon as the pharisees showed up, He switched to inductive reasoning!

I’m going to give you practical definitions instead of dictionary definitions

The word deductive comes from the word deduce

I tell you some things so you can deduce the conclusion

The word induction comes from the word induce

I tell you some things to induce you to think differently

Matthew 22:15

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.

Matthew 22:16

And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.

Matthew 22:17

Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

Matthew 22:18

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?

Matthew 22:19

Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius.

Matthew 22:20

And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

Matthew 22:21

They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Matthew 22:22

When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

Matthew 22:23

The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,

Matthew 22:24

saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

Matthew 22:25

Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.

Matthew 22:26

Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.

Matthew 22:27

Last of all the woman died also.

Matthew 22:28

Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”

Matthew 22:29

Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Matthew 22:30

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.

Matthew 22:31

But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,

Matthew 22:32

‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Matthew 22:33

And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

Matthew 22:34

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

Matthew 22:35

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,

Matthew 22:36

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Matthew 22:37

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Matthew 22:38

This is the first and great commandment.

Matthew 22:39

And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 22:40

On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:41

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

Matthew 22:42

saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

Matthew 22:43

He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:

Matthew 22:44

‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’?

Matthew 22:45

If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”

Matthew 22:46

And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

Matthew 21:23

Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”

Matthew 21:24

But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things:

Matthew 21:25

The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

Matthew 21:26

But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.”

Matthew 21:27

So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Teachers love us and challenge us

Teachers inspire students.

Teachers feed us nourishing meals: Content and delivery

How much time do you spend preparing content?

How much time do you spend preparing delivery? 50/50

Some teachers have lots of jokes but not much content

That’s like a fast-food restaurant. It tastes good but it’s not nourishing

Some teachers have great content but put you to sleep!

But if you go to a restaurant that has healthy food

But it doesn’t taste good (Delivery is Humor and Illustrations)

You’ll go to the one that has healthy food and tastes great too!

Jesus was the greatest teacher ever!

He had the best illustrations and best humor and of course, Truth

But He presented that truth in an inspiring way

He used humor but we don’t always recognize it.

You cast out demons by Beelzebub

He said How do you cast them out? They didn’t!

Then He used reasoning. A house divided against itself can’t stand!

And He was the best at painting pictures and telling stories

Think about a camel. Now think about a needle.

Now think about the eye of the needle

Now shove that camel through the eye of that needle!

They said, “That’s impossible!” (Rich people to go to heaven

That’s right! It’s impossible for you to get to heaven on your own

But God made a way so it’s possible for us to go to heaven!

Think about a telephone pole!

Now think about a guy who has it sticking out of his eye

And then he tells you he can get a sliver out of your eye!

There was a man who had a flat tire on 114 and got beaten up

A pastor drove by, an elder, and a TV preacher

But an usher at a church stopped and helped him

He took him to Baylor hospital and said send me the bill

And he was a different ethnicity! (Jesus taught against racial injustice)

He told that story; I just modernized it!

He told this story because the pharisees were mad that He ate with sinners

A man who had two sons and the youngest asked for his inheritance

He gave them both their inheritance

One went to Vegas and spent it all on gambling, hookers, and drugs

Then he came home and repented, and the father threw him a party

The other son though wouldn’t come into the party

He was telling the pharisees you ought to rejoice when sinners come home

He told them that the father wouldn’t even let the son say I’m sorry

He was telling the sinners,

The Father has been rehearsing His “Welcome Home” speech

Longer than you’ve been rehearsing your “I’m sorry” speech!

Teachers are gifts from Jesus

They love us. They challenge us, and they inspire us!

New King James Version (NKJV) © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.