Good morning. I am so glad that we can be here together. Last week I shared with all of you that we were starting a series to help us find the way thtat we can move forward. This path that we are on is an important one and is one that will require all of us to examine who we are and our relationship with God and how we live.

This morning though I wanted to ask you a question?

Who was y our favorite teacher?

Growing up we often have many teachers. Teachers can come in many different forms.

Of course we have teachers at school. They shape us and mold us and try to do their best to teach us. When I think of teachers in my life from school I think of Dr. Sanders from my time in college. Dr. Sanders was one of my religion professors. One of the main classes he taught was Church history. Let me tell you that was everyone’s favorite subject. It is not the most exciting of topics but it is an important one because it does help us to know the past.

His class was always difficult and I had to work hard to get a good grade in his class. I remember often spending hours upon hours in the library with class mates studying for his exams. I remember one time after an exam that I was disappointing when we got back our grades and I got a B. I had studied as hard as I could but I couldn’t seem to break the barrier to getting an A on his tests.

After Class I went up to him to talk about it and to see how I could be able to get that A and what I was missing in my studying. He shared with me some tips and ticks but those aren’t the things that stuck with me. Dr. Sanders told me that he knew I was working hard and he could see it and that I should be proud of the grade I got.

Then he looked at me and said. I know a whole lot of really good pastors who were B and C students.

It was a powerful moment for me because it was a reminder its about the work and retention not about just getting an A.

Other people can be teachers in our lives though. Coaches, a Boss, a Sunday school teacher, a friend, and so many others.

Teachers come in many shapes in forms but they are powerful in our lives.

It is this idea that we need to remember that Jesus is the one who is supposed to be who we are foremed by. He is our teacher. Let’s talk about that Idea some more this week.

Jesus is identified as teacher by many. One of the most famous after he had been risen.

John 20:16 NIV

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Or you could look to a time when he was healing.

Mark 10:51 NIV

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Or when John the Baptists Disciples were trying to figure out who Jesus was.

John 1:38 NIV

38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

Jesus is often refereed to as Rabbi

So what is a Rabbi?

Jesus the Rabbi

Of course as the passages have already said Rabbi means Teacher. It can also be understood as “My great one,” My Lord or My master.

In the Old testament a rabbi was not used as a designation for a teacher but was more in line with those other titles and was used to designate high-ranking people. It isn’t until the New Testament that we see the shift to teacher.

Let me ask you this question.

Do you think of Jesus as a great teacher?

Or do you see him some other way?

WE will come back to that though...

So what does it mean for someone to be a teacher in those times.

Was it like we understand a teacher today. Kids walk into a classroom and sit down and study under them and learn and are taught. Unfortunately that is not how it worked.

For us to better understand what it means that Jesus is Rabbi we need to understand the educational process of Jewish children.

Bet Sefer

Jewish kids started at the age of five attending school at their local bet safer. This is known as the house of the book. This would be the equivalent for us as elementary school.

This place of education was built on to the side of the local synagogue.

It would have been run by a full time scribe or teacher.

The Curriculum was the Torah.

For those who may not know the Torah is the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Now Jewish culture was primarily an oral culture and so the books were passed down by word of mouth.

Now some of you might be saying how in the world did they share all that information without any mistakes or changes happening. There is a good reason for this. By the age of 12 to 13 all of these children would have worked to memorize the entire Torah.

Just to make sure you heard that right. They Memorized the first five books of the Bible.

There were plenty of people who would be able to help keep people accountable on the accuracy of what was being memorized since many learned it by heart.

After they reached the age of 12 to 13 they would go home and would apprentice in the family business or help run the farm or whatever profession was done by their home.

However the Best and the Brightest would go on to...

Bet Mid-rash

They would continue on their studies and would stay with their education until they were 17.

By time they got to the age of 17 they would have accomplished something amazing.

If you were amazed at the idea that they would have memorized the entire first five books of the Bible they would have by this point memorized the entire Old Testament.

Now this was a big accomplishment and this is where the overwhelming majority would be done and they would basically be told.

“go make babies, pray that they become rabbis, and ply your trade.

Yet, for some this was not the end. The Best of the Best would try to get themselves to be an apprentice to a Rabbi.

An Apprentice

To become an apprentice of a Rabbi was the equivalent for us today to being accepted into an Ivy league college.

It would be like getting your acceptance letter to Harvard or Yale.

To get into this kind of program you would have to find a Rabbi with whom you were drawn to and beg them to join his band of students.

The Rabbi would grill you on all the basic academic stuff that you had learned in Bet Sefer and Bet Mid-rash. They would want your opinion on different topics from various passages of scripture because after all it isn’t just about memorizing things.

If they though you were smart enough and you had a good work ethic, and they thought you might have what it takes to be a Rabbi yourself one day he would say something like “Come follow me” or another way to say it might be “come Apprentice under me”

Sounds familiar right. Where have we heard that idea before.

Matthew 4:19 NIV

19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Accepted into the Program

You have been accepted into the program you have made it as an apprentice and now you have to spend your time learning more. You go sit in a classroom and learn what it means to be a Rabbi.

I think that is what many of us picture and get stuck on when it comes to the idea of learning because that has been our experience.

Yet, is that what an Apprentice does.

We still have apprenticeship programs to this day.

They are often paid training programs that combine working for a salary while learning, and leading to a recognized qualification. Think on the job training.

There are many fields that still do this today. You spend time learning by doing. You get your hands dirty and engage in the practical learning of that particular profession.

In many ways an apprenticeship under a Rabbi would be very similar. That is because there were 3 main goals for someone who had become an apprentice under a Rabbi.

Be with your Rabbi

Become like your Rabbi

Do as your rabbi did

Now that is a pretty basic list don’t you think.

Be with him, Become like him, Do as he did.

What does that mean though how do we engage with those things in todays world. I mean really think about that for a moment. What would it mean to you if you decided to do this.

Be with Jesus

Become like Jesus

Do as Jesus did

Really changes our understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Remember earlier what I said about how Jesus called his disciples.

Matthew 4:19 NIV

19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

He told These men to follow after him. The best part is these weren’t special men. We talked about this last week. They were fishermen. They were your average men who probably didn’t make it past the elementary age education in the Jewish system.

Keeping all that in mind I want you to think about this.

Are you Ready to follow?

This is a serious question. I want you to really think about what this question means.

some of you might be saying I don’t know how?

That we can work out together but you have to first drop the nets and follow.

Some of you might be saying I don’t have the time.

Do you want to risk delaying following Jesus? That’s a pretty big gamble.

Some of you might be thinking I am already following him.

Are you really? Ask yourself this seriously Am I doing all I can to be with, become like and Do as he did?

For those of who have been “Christians” for a long time now you might want to be careful because it isn’t uncommon that many of us have slipped into the dangerous area of comfort and we aren’t being the followers of our Rabbi that we think we are.

No matter where you are right now though this is our opportunity. This is the time that we give our selves back to him.

This is a moment that if this is the first time you have ever accepted Christ that you take that step forward and give yourselves to him.

This might be the time that you say I have been falling short and I can do more or better as a believer and You drop the nets and follow him.

This is the moment.

This is the time.

To follow the Rabbi.

Let’s Pray.