Jesus Our Rabbi

James 3:13 NLT

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.

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Introduction -

As most of you know, my all time favorite band is the little band from Ireland called U2.

My favorite song of theirs is “I still haven't found what I’m looking for.”

Here are the lyrics.

I have climbed the highest mountains I have run through the fields Only to be with you Only to be with you

I have run I have crawled I have scaled these city walls These city walls Only to be with you But I still haven't found What I'm looking for But I still haven't found What I'm looking for

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Why I love this song so much is, because I relate to it so, well.

I have climbed the highest Doctrines

I have run through one doctrinal camp to another

Only to be with you

Only to be with you

I have run I have crawled

I have scaled the Christian religion walls

All these crazy religious walls

Only to be with you

But I still haven’t found

what I’m looking for.

For so long this is what my prayers sounded like.

I had said the prayer, been dunked in water, prayed in tongues, prayed for the sick and had seen them recover.

I had attended Bible college, argued with professors, spent hours upon hours trying to understand the Word of God.

And yet, I felt like an aimless marathon runner who had no idea where to go, when to turn, and what the point of the race was.

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I am sure some of you can relate to this feeling.

I am even more sure most of you can relate but are scared to admit it.

I was told all of this was so I would escape the judgment of God, miss hell and go right to Heaven when I die.

But that was just not enough.

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I kept asking, screaming, really, “that cannot be all there is to this.” I honestly felt very empty, alone, and depressed.

I had people try to talk me into not being upset, not shaking things up by, telling me Heaven will have gold streets, and etc. As if streets of Gold was somehow going to fill this emptiness.

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As a youth minister at the Wesleyan church is Charles City, I stumbled across a word in my daily devotional time.

Disciple - I read that word over and over, and then I began to imagine myself as one of the disciples of Jesus.

I liked Peter so, I imagined I was him.

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All of a sudden I came alive inside. I thought I had found the key.

But not long after I started having questions, Peter never asked.

I started reading things that Jesus said to His disciples that did not make sense to me.

And that is when the Holy Spirit gave me the answer.

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I needed Jesus the Rabbi.

I wanted to know more than just a few Scriptures to apply to my own selfish ambitions.

I wanted to know the way of Jesus.

I wanted to be His disciple.

I wanted Jesus to be my Rabbi

I wanted to walk in the dust of Rabbi Jesus.

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I was saved because I knew Jesus as my Savior and redeemer.

I had been healed and seen many people healed. I knew Jesus as healer.

I had been rescued from drug addiction and new Jesus as deliverer.

But I had not learned how to honestly live the WAY of Jesus- I did not know Him as Rabbi.

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Jesus as Rabbi Changes How We Read the Bible.

Understanding Jesus as a 1st century Jewish Rabbi opens the Scriptures up to us.

It bridges the gulf between time and culture.

Here is an example - When 2 or more gather in my name there, I am with them.

Original Rabbi saying - When 2 or more gather to study Torah there the Shikinah is.

Jesus as Rabbi used an old rabbinical saying and turned it on it’s head.

Imagine what his followers who were very familiar with the original wording heard when Jesus put His twist on it.

When 2 or more of you gather in my name (His is calling Himself the embodiment of Torah.), there I am with you. (He is also saying that He is the physical manifestation of the Glory of God.) WOW!

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Or how about

Matthew 6:19–24 NLT

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

What does Jesus mean by a healthy eye?

Well when we see Jesus as a 1st century rabbi we can begin to understand.

All languages and cultures have idioms.

Jesus and the rest of his 1st century Jews were no different.

A healthy eye is an idiom to a generous person.

An unhealthy eye is an idiom to a selfish person.

Now this passage makes perfect sense.

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All this leads us to four important questions.

Was Jesus a Rabbi

Disciples

John 1:38 NLT

Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

John 9:2 NLT

“Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

A Pharisee -

John 3:1–2 NLT

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

John 3:1-

So, yes Jesus was a Rabbi.

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What was a 1st century Rabbi

Educational System-

Beth Safer– House of Learning. Ages 6-10 (Goal: learn and quote the 1st 5 books of the Bible)

Beth Talmud – 10-14 (Goal: Learn and quote all of the OT scriptures, know all the covenants with God and be able to explain how one is to live in covenant with God.)

Beth Midrash – The best of the best who would study under a Rabbi. The goal was to become just like the Rabbi you studied under.

Rabbi - Teacher or better translated Master - Hebrew-Master

A Rabbi had memorized the entire OT

And was considered a master of the way towards true life.

Esteemed higher than your own parents -

Old Rabbinical saying - Your father brought you into this world but, your Rabbi is teaching you the way of the world to come.

This idea of a Rabbi being honored above your own parents sheds light on this odd verse.

Luke 14:26 NLT

“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.

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What did a Rabbi do

He taught His Yoke from one city to another.

Yoke - A yoke was the Rabbi’s application of the OT to a person’s life.

Jesus had a yoke -

Matthew 11:28–30 NLT

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Matthew 11:30 NLT

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

The Yoke of Jesus is spelled out in what we call the Sermon on the Mount ()

As a Rabbi Jesus would travel from city, to the smallest of villages, teaching in homes and in fields and on hills.

He lived off the generosity of others and did not take pay.

He gathered Mathetes to teach them His yoke and to send them out.

Our English Bibles translate this word most often as Disciple, in acts it is also translated as believer and follower.

This word is used 313 times in the NT.

While Christian is used only 3 times and is never used by a believer to describe him or herself.

The Greek word Mathetes is best translated into English as Apprentice.

An apprentice does not just learn random facts or study a book but rather learns the Ways of the one he or she is an apprentice to.

Like wise the Mathetes Jesus called would have lived with him, traveled with him, ate with him, and would have learned His ways, His system of thinking, His Yoke and How He did ministry.

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What was the motivation and goals of His Mathetes

We will spell this out more next week and how it applies to us today but let me end by wetting your appetite.

To be with the Rabbi - “May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.”

Beth Talmud – 10-14 (Goal: Learn and quote all of the OT scriptures, know all the covenants with God and be able to explain how one is to live in covenant with God.)

Matthew 4:18–22 NLT

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

Beth Midrash – The best of the best who would study under a Rabbi. The goal was to become just like the Rabbi you studied under.

To become just like your Rabbi -

Luke 6:40 NLT

Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.

To do what your rabbi does -

Mark 6:5–12 NLT

And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people. And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil spirits. He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler’s bag, no money. He allowed them to wear sandals but not to take a change of clothes. “Wherever you go,” he said, “stay in the same house until you leave town. But if any place refuses to welcome you or listen to you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.” So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God.

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As we begin going through the Gospels I want us to be there, see it, smell it and to fully grasp what Jesus is teaching.

I want us to see Jesus as our Rabbi

I want us to see our selves as his Mathetes \ Apprentice

And I want us to always be looking for and asking these questions -

How can I be closer to Rabbi Jesus

How can I d

Am I imitating Jesus or some other idea

Am I doing the ministry of Jesus

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By not understanding Jesus as Rabbi

And by not understanding his mission as Rabbi

We are missing out on a significant part of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus in the genesis of the Church.

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We must understand that God came in the flesh to this world as a 1st century Jewish Rabbi.

He spoke as a first century Rabbi

And if we want to learn the way of Jesus we must hear him today as a 1st century Rabbi.