A Teachable Teacher

tWhat an honor it is to be able to speak with you all today. Thank you for coming. A little bit about me:

I’ve been pastoring OFA for a year and a half.

Prior, I worked for Bob Eby, as a children’s pastor

I went through Teen Challenge in my 20’s

I am married to Laura, a High School Science teacher (24 years in Dec.)

1 Son (Sam) (22), attending Evangel, is married to Abigail

A couple of months ago, Pastor Randy asked if OFA would like to host the next sectional meeting. To be honest, I felt conviction, as I am not the best at attending sectional functions. Of course, it is an honor to host. Pastor Randy asked me to share on something I’ve learned, so early on in my transition into a lead role. What makes this subject difficult is not trying to find something to talk about, rather, it is trying to narrow it down into something digestible. Having been a staff pastor for some time, I would often look at the decisions of those in authority and think to myself…I would never do that…especially in the area of people pleasing. Turns out, I was wrong. So, there are things like that…life lessons I’ve learned…most of it centers around pride and humility to be honest. For today though, I was looking to talk about something a bit different. Also, let me point out, that I am obviously, still, very much, wet behind the ears, in regard to understanding the lessons behind being an effective shepherd.

Let’s pray.

Having grown up in the church, as a PK, watching my dad “do ministry,” I was able to observe many different kinds of pastors. Some were, what I would consider great men of God, while some of them had some personality issues that could be difficult to deal with. Then, when I entered the ministry myself…again, I found pretty much the same thing…some of my bosses were great, while some were not…but unlike growing up, I realized that I could learn from both. I would observe certain character qualities that I desired to emulate and work into my own life, or, I would observe certain character qualities that I wanted to avoid…interestingly though, the character qualities I liked the least could often be found in my own life…funny how that works.

Like everything else in life, people are complicated…but there was a very specific godly character quality that I would observe…that I’ve found out, since coming to OFA, can make or break a pastor. I always knew this was important, and admired people who had this quality, but it wasn’t until I stepped into my current role, that I discovered just how important it is. Before I tell you what it is, let’s turn in our Bibles to

Acts 8 and look at the story of Philip and the Ethiopian…

Acts 8:26–28

“But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.”

While I am confident that most of you know the context behind this…the pastor in me must give some context. Prior to the event we are reading about, is the death of Stephen (Acts 7). Once Stephen was killed, a great persecution of the early church started taking place. This was very early on, even before Saul turned into Paul. As a result of Stephen’s death, the Christians scattered. Enter Phillip…or as often referred to as Phillip the Evangelist.

There are four different men named Philip mentioned in the Bible. Phillip was the name of two of King Herod the Great’s sons by different wives (Luke 3:1 and Matthew 14:3). The other two Philips in the Bible were servants of Christ and instrumental in the early church: Philip the disciple and apostle of Christ, and Philip the evangelist.

Here in Acts 8, an angel spoke to Phillip the Evangelist and told him to head out and travel down a desert road…So, being the obedient evangelist that he was, Phillip got up and went where the Lord instructed. When Phillip arrived at the location he heard someone, who was riding in his chariot, reading from the book of Isaiah.

Imagine that you have to take a trip into the city..for some ungodly reason....perhaps you are riding on the EL or on a bus and you hear someone reading the Bible out loud. That would probably be strange to us, as generally people do not read out loud. I’m sure that Phillip realized at this moment, that this is why the angel sent him to this location.

Acts 8:29–31

“Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”

Philip goes up to the chariot…and finds an Ethiopian official. As most of us are aware, if someone were to pick up the book of Isaiah and start reading it…they could be forgiven for not understanding it, that is for sure. Phillip asks the eunuch if he understands what the prophet Isaiah had written down. It was at this point that this official could have done two things.

He could have humbled himself, admit that he needed help with understanding.

He could have claimed to understand, even though he did not.

We know the end of the story…the Ethiopian wants to know who Isaiah is talking about…this man who was like a lamb, led to the slaughter. It is clear that the Ethiopian’s heart was being softened by the Holy Spirit. Of course, this man ends up accepting Christ into his heart…thus taking the message of Christ back to his native country…changing forever, the country of Ethiopia and the continent of Africa.

Before we talk about his choice, it’s important to understand who this Ethiopian was. In scripture we can read, especially in the gospels, all manner of people interacting with Christ and the disciples, who were desperate…seeking answers or healing. The people came seeking Jesus. This situation is different…the Ethiopian was simply traveling down the road, minding his own business…when God send Philip to seek him out.

Scripture itself explains that this Ethiopian eunuch was a high court official of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia…so, this man was not just some regular person on the street. It is believed that this man was in Israel to worship the Lord at the temple, which means he was probably a Jewish proselyte (a Gentile who converted to Judaism).

Acts 8: 27 KJV:

27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,

Many translations comment that this man was “A man of great authority.” It looks like he was in charge of the treasury of the queen in Ethiopia…where it was common practice to castrate the men who served the queen.

A eunuch is a man who has been castrated for the purpose of trusted servitude in a royal household (see Esther 1:10; 4:4; and Daniel 1:9). A king would often castrate his servants to ensure they would not be tempted to engage in sexual activity with others in the palace (specifically, the royal harem) or to prevent their plotting an overthrow (eunuchs were incapable of setting up a dynasty of their own). Eunuchs have been employed in many civilizations, including the Ancient Middle East, Ancient Greece and Rome, China, Korea, and Thailand. Jesus mentions them in Matthew 19:12. Eunuchs were well known in that day and age.

Of course, this man did not know Philip…it is clear that the Holy Spirit was working in this official’s heart…as it would not have been the norm for a high ranking government official to speak with, let alone be taught by, someone lower than him socially…yet, that is exactly what was happening. For this story to take place, it took Philip to be obedient to the angel…but even more than that…it took a person who was willing to learn…a person who was willing to be taught….

the Ethiopian had to be teachable.

There is no doubt that the character quality of being teachable can be considered or is in the category of humility…which is the root of most godly character qualities…but humility is a very broad topic. It is easy to say or teach that one must be humble in ministry. The question arises…what does it look like to be humble…that is where the character quality of being teachable comes in to play.

This Ethiopian official was willing to be taught. Despite the fact that he probably had a large amount of servants or even slaves and was in charge of a vast fortune, this man could recognise an area where he lacked understanding…and was willing to be taught.

Proverbs 9:9

“Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.”

If I had to choose 1 thing that I’ve learned over the last year and a half, it is the dangers of being unteachable vs the advantages of remaining teachable. Being teachable isn’t always about accepting correction when we error…although that is certainly a part of it. It also includes a willingness to learn new things and a willingness to ask for help…as when we ask for help, we are admitting we can’t do it all on our own. After all, before we are pastors, we are disciples...A disciple is someone who is willing to be taught and is eager to learn more. A teachable heart starts with the acknowledgement that we do not know everything. If we can keep an open mind, we can learn a lot from the people that God has placed in our lives.

Mark 4:25 (Amplified)

25 For [a]whoever has [a teachable heart], to him more [understanding] will be given; and whoever does not have [a yearning for truth], even what he has will be taken away from him.”

Going back to what I said in the beginning…how I would observe certain character qualities in pastors that I did not like. I pointed out that often, those same character qualities were in my life…but I couldn’t see them, due to not being teachable. Human nature is blind to problems in our character, so we have to ask God to show us the things that we cannot see. A Christian, and especially a pastor should possess a willingness to admit when wrong and then to repent. If we justify our faults, we may as well not bother to look for them. If we do, we will be the person who looked in the mirror, saw their faults, and then walked away doing nothing about them (James 1:23-24).

I believe that the Lord gives us the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others, but that only works if we are teachable, instead of being critical. This is one of the reasons that Scripture tells us to not consider others better than ourselves…because when we do have an elevated sense of our own knowledge or wisdom, we are being unteachable.

Isaiah 48:17–18

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. “If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”

One of the main issues that Jesus had with the Pharisees was their unwillingness to be teachable. These men knew God’s word backwards and forwards…they spent decades studying God’s word…yet, Jesus compared them to white-washed graves…they look good on the inside, but were full of dead-men’s bones on the inside. How often have I found myself guilty of the same thing? More than I would like to admit.

In my own limited experience, I’ve found a couple of different ways to help me remain somewhat teachable:

1. Admit errors and bad judgment calls

A few months ago I did my first ever series on the creation account. I will be the first to admit that the congregation here at Ottawa First is very traditional and conservative in how they interpret such things, like the creation account. I was super stoked to speak on this subject, as I had just taken a course at Evangel on the creation account. In my mind, I made the rookie mistake of thinning that I was going to just blow everyone’s mind with my vast knowledge of the various theories of creation. So, i prepare this sermon, talking about the difference between translations and how certain words give the idea that the days of creation were not a literal 7 days. I was about half-way through the sermon when I realized that I had lost most people. As we all know, the varying accounts of creation are highly speculative and are full of opinion. I had made an error in judgment, for sure…of course, I would never want to cause confusion or suggest that God’s word doesn’t mean what it says. As a result, I got up and addressed the issue the next week. That was not easy for me, as I believed what I was teaching was correct…but that didn’t matter.

2. Recognize vulnerabilities

In my first ever job in the ministry, I worked for the late Bob Hahn. He once told me that ministry has a way of finding your most vulnerable areas and exposing them. If you tend to be a suspicious or paranoid person, the ministry will find that and expose it. If you tend to exaggerate or lie, the ministry will quickly expose that. If you are easily offended or struggle with holding on to grudges…that will be exposed. I’ve found this to be very true, in every sense of the word. The latter tends to be my problem…I can be easily offended and want to hold on to that. The Lord has brought me quite far, but it has often been the result of hard learned lessons.

3. Do not shun criticism

Obviously, we all must be careful who we allow to speak into our lives…but it is important that we surround ourselves with people who aren’t afraid to do so…in an appropriate way. Recently, there is a story that came out about a very well known pastor…he leads a very large church and has a dozen or more people who supposedly act as his accountability board. Well, a story came to light that questioned this leader’s judgment and how he dealt with a spousal abuse situation…involving kids. Apparently, one of these board members did an actual investigation and found many areas that were problematic and should be addressed and made right. Instead of that happening, this accountability board circled the waggons…forcing the man who did the investigation out.

No one likes to be criticized…especially if we deem it unfair.

Proverbs 29:1

The man who is often reproved but refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be broken and never have another chance. TLB

How many pastors have fallen because they did not remain teachable? They would refuse to admit wrong, they did not address their vulnerabilities, and they surrounded themselves with people unwilling to offer appropriate criticism. Even then, we will still have times where we must be willing to accept unsolicited or inappropriate criticism. This is a lesson I began learning right away..I’ll end with this story.

I got hired on a couple of weeks before Easter…last year. Of course, as a brand new lead pastor, I am looking forward to preaching on Easter morning…I had never done that before. So, I design a really nice power point that teases my Easter sermon....using the word Easter. After service, a lady comes up to me, telling me that I should not use the word Easter…so, I suggested that we sit down and talk about why. This lady then proceeds to tell me all about Augustine and how Easter is pagan and so on and so forth…it ended with her letting me know that she wasn’t asking me this for her, but she didn’t want me to confuse another lady in the church, who is a bit slow.

Rather than outright dismissing her, I listened and did my best to understand. Well, somehow we navigated that Easter, and another one without anyone turning to pagan gods. Shortly after that initial meeting…this lady was scheduled for surgery, so, I told her that my wife and I would help provide meals while she was recovering. At the time, Laura and I were still living in Joliet, so when our day came to provide a meal, I would call her and ask what she wanted. She would tell me and I would have it delivered to her home. The problem, according to her, was that I sent more than what she asked for…meaning that she had to throw some out…which deeply offended her. She called me and told me that she would no longer be accepting food from me, as I did not follow her specific directions.

It was at this point where I wanted to come down on her very hard…I had lost my patience with this woman. She had been very rude and entitled…blaming me and my wife for her not accepting any more meals…it was infuriating. I thought to myself…who does this lady think she is…I mean, I’m the pastor…you don’t treat the pastor that way! I eventually got her to agree to meet with my wife and I, as it was clear this was about way more than some thrown away egg rolls and lemon aid that was too sweet. Upon sitting down, Laura and I sat there and listened to her story…turns out, this lady has some very deep scars and pain, going back decades. This lady would subconsciously push people away from her…especially men. I wouldn’t have learned any of that if I just dismissed her initial criticism of the Easter thing…even though I found it to be goofy.

My prayer is that being teachable is something I always embrace…and I am always working toward becoming better in this area. Even Christ, the most perfect teacher, remained teachable.

John 15:15

“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

Christ remained teachable and submissive to the Father…how much more should we emulate such humility in our own lives.

Let’s Pray!