THE GIFT OF TEACHING

SPIRITUAL GIFT OF TEACHING

I was always told that when a great teacher asks a question, they don’t tell you the answer,

but they show you how to find it.

I remember in my high school spanish class I had a teacher that just found ways that made you want to learn.

Some of them seemed strange at the time but they made sense later.

one time in class when I really needed to go to the bathroom.

I raised my hand and the teacher called on me and before I spoke a word I got up and headed toward the door and said I needed to go to the bathroom.

She stopped me in my tracks and said “Scott, you can go, if you say that in spanish”.

I didn’t know how to say that in spanish and I didn’t have time to figure it out,

so I just said “El Scotty needs to go El Potty”.

The class laughed and she said “just go, but next time you better be prepared”.

From that time forward i certainly was. This is what the best teachers do!

In our own church we also have a great communicators and teachers of the word in our bibles studies,

Holly. Brad, Mike and others do a great job explaining the word.

Now if we don’t get anything out of it, then that’s our own fault.

Teaching is a Spiritual Gift. The person who is gifted to teach is motivated solely because they love the truth and want to impart God's Word with accuracy and understanding.

A teacher’s basic motivational drive is to discover and validate truth. Teachers are very sensitive to doctrinal integrity, they have great research skills, and they are sincere.

I want to read something from Luke 1:1-4 that I believe describe something about teachers.

Luke 1:1–4 (NIV)

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,

2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Now doesn’t Luke sound like a teacher here?

He has carefully investigated and researched the Word

He has organized it in a way that makes sense for people

He has done this so people can know of certainty of the things being taught.

Imagine trying to assemble a complicated piece of furniture without the instructions.

The gift of teaching is like having that clear, step-by-step guide to help you put all the parts together in the right way.

Also, have you ever watched a cooking show where the chef takes a challenging recipe and breaks it down into simple steps?

That's also like the spiritual gift of teaching, making complicated truths easy to understand.

Another example would be, let’s say grandma asks you, “What is a search engine”?

Yeah grandma give me a sec.

A search engine works by crawling hundreds of billions of pages using their own web crawlers commonly referred to as a search engine.

A search engine navigates the web by downloading web pages and following links on these pages to find new pages that have been made available.

It’s easy.

And Grandma is going to be like whoa…what? She is going to be so confused.

Now what the gift of teaching would say is “A search engine is like, imagine the biggest library”

(use hand motions)

and is has every single book on any given topic.

You can go into this library grandma and find information on anything. You can even go to a specific page! That’s what a search engine is.

Now grandma goes from whoa…what…to Oh yeah! I get it now.

The gift of teaching connects the unknown to the known so people can understand.

It creates understanding and clarity.

That’s why I believe even Jesus today would leverage technology in teaching because it’s so much part of our culture.

Now there are people who say well I don’t need all that hoop-lah, those bell and whistles, all I need is the Word.

Yes, we need the word but we also need to use the toolbelt that God has given us in our day and age to be right dividers of truth in the context and culture we live in.

God is the same today, yesterday, and forever and His message never changes.

But that doesn’t mean there wont be new methods that come along that will help us to communicate that message.

In the early church, teaching was highly regarded. There was a huge weight on teachers to be wise, diligent, and knowledgable in their research and skilled in their presentation of the information.

The new testament shares a lot about teaching such as the book of James, Hebrews, and the Gospels.

James 3:1 (NIV)

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that, we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Hebrews 5:12–14 (NIV)

12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

The author of Hebrews is describing the carnal Christian. Those who aren’t as far a long in there walk as they should be.

*(take milk bottle and drink)

now isn’t this strange? An adult drinking milk from a babies bottle.

but there are Christian’s who act the same way!

There are some who grow up in the church but, never grow up in Christ!

They are spiritually immature. There are different marks of the Christian that we can see if we are immature as well.

MARKS OF SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY

Spiritual infants are self-centered: They expect everything to be catered to them and their agenda.

They are only focused on themselves and put themselves on the throne of their hearts instead of allowing God to take his rightful place in their lives.

Early on in our spiritual infancy we are selfish and almost uncapable of thinking about others.

But we progress in our walk with God and grow in grace and we come to a crisis moment.

A time where we will have a more inclination or bent toward righteousness instead of sinfulness.

Spiritual infants are also noisy. They cry a lot, particularly when they don’t think their needs are being met. 

Or when their toys of tradition and “this is the way we’ve always done it” is taken away.

The story of the Israelites in the wilderness is one instance of griping and complaining one time after another.

Poor Moses had to babysit hundreds of thousands of God’s infants for a full generation.

Spiritual infants are messy. They don’t clean up after themselves and don’t ask for help.

We all have our messes but, the spiritually mature knows that they can’t continue to stay in their mess once they become aware of it.

When the Holy Spirit convicts us, the Christian knows that they can’t continue to go on sinning after receiving knowledge of the truth

Spiritual infants Lack spiritual understanding(1 Corinthains 3:1-2)

1 Corinthians 3:1–2 (NKJV)

1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;

Imagine a group of teenagers or adults who are all playing on their phones, barely talking to each other.

They are so focused on their own world that they miss out on the opportunity to build meaningful relationships.

This is similar to what the apostle Paul described in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2,

where he talked about the Corinthians being infants in Christ, needing milk instead of solid food.

Because they weren’t focused on what was being taught to them. God is trying to speak to them but, they aren’t listening.

Spiritual infants are also unstable.

You cannot tell a crying baby the bottle is warming and should be ready in a few minutes.

They just want what they want, when they want it.

When the spiritual immature are asked why did they get upset and leave the church, they answer that they are not having their needs met.

Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV)

14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

The Spiritually mature will know that Jesus is the author of their faith and the narrator of their story.

That Jesus is the anchor of their soul! That He is the firm foundation they can stand on.

They will know that it’s not about what they can get from the church but, what they can give to the church.

Spiritual infants are defined by what they cannot do.

They cannot cooperate

cannot submit to others

cannot forgive

cannot give grace

cannot follow leadership

and cannot sacrifice

They cannot see far away.

They cannot see the bigger picture.

Everything is now and must be about them or they cannot see the relevance.

Spiritual infants are explosive and can “go off” at anything.

When they feel their contributions are not valued or their voice is not being heard to their satisfaction,

when the leadership doesn’t appreciate them or offer them personal attention,

they drop out of church emotionally even before they leave physically.

Their attitude is one of always looking for some reason to quit.

Like a child frustrated with their toys, spiritual immaturity just gives up.

Spiritual infants are irresponsible. They’re great at expecting a lot from others and nothing from themselves.

It’s the nature of the immature to be childish.

This is why it’s so dangerous to put the spiritually immature in any leadership position

FALSE TEACHERS ARE REVEALED BY THEIR FRUIT

Teachers are all about discovering and sharing truth.

They need to be living it in order to give it. That’s the best way way to spot a false teacher. You will know them by their fruit.

Some false teachers and movements of the modern day are....

The Jehovah Witness who altar Gods finished Word

Mormons who add to God’s finished word.

The New age movement which is trying to distort God’s finished Word(Mixing eastern buddism, Hinduism, Islam and mysticism with Christianity)

tarot cards

reading of palms

connecting with the dead

We have the LGBT community trying to change God’s finished Word(Marriage covenant of one man & one woman)

We have the Progressive movement trying to erase God’s finished Word(Hell)

We have the prosperity Gospel movement

Many of them you will hear about there fall with heresies and moral failures.

Many of them are involved with multiple sexual scandals which according to the bible disqualifies them from ministry.

There are certain situations where someone can be restored and have true repentance and go through a long season of discipleship and mentorship but not someone who has fallen multiple times.

God will forgive them but that doesn’t mean they should be in leadership.

OUR GREATEST TEACHER

The Best example of a great teacher is Jesus Christ. He shows us the pattern in which we should live our lives.

To love, forgive, show kindness and compassion to others. He also called out sin and was the most harsh with the church.

There is all this talk about what is going on in our country in America and how its just the judgment of God. Let us not forget though that the judgment of God begins in the house of God.

It is remarkable to see the lack of the fear of God in those who proclaim themselves to be Christians.

When Jesus ascended to Heaven, He promised to send us the Holy Spirit; our teacher and guide. The Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher of truth.

John 14:26 (NIV)

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

When you invite the Holy Spirit to speak into your life, things will change! You will begin to see and hear things in the Word of God you've never seen before.

He promises to reveal himself to us. If you ask the Holy Spirit to teach you God's word,

He is faithful to do so, because it is HIS  will for you to know HIS WORD! When you dive into the Word of God, his voice becomes more clear to you. 

APPLICATION

Where are you in your walk with God? Are you a spiritual infant who is self-centered, noisy, messy, lacks understanding, and unstable or are you spiritually mature by being others- centered, meek, repentant, and anchored in Christ?

Have you experienced the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Are you willing to unlearn things you been taught from the world so God can teach you things from His Word?

Are you teachable? Do you come approaching God to teach you something new?

or do you come and ask what the church can do for me instead of asking , what can I do for the church?