The Mission TEACHING This fall we are reviewing the mission of Hope Christian Church. Our mission is printed on the front page of your bulletin each week. Let s read it together. Our mission is to glorify God by developing a community of committed disciples of Jesus Christ which has an impact for Christ locally and around the world. Last week we overviewed the process of making committed disciples. Making Disciples Matthew 28:19-20 NEW DISCIPLE ESTABLISHING Colossians 2: 6-7 EVANGELIZING Acts 1:8 MATURING DISCIPLE ENCOURAGING Hebrews 10:24, 25 EQUIPPING Ephesians 4: 11,12 COMMITTED DISCIPLE Through the process of evangelizing we help people who are not disciples to become disciples of Jesus Christ. Then after a person becomes a new disciple of Jesus, we want to help that new disciple become established in his or her relationship with the Lord so that he or she will walk with God on their own as a mature disciple. But as we saw last week, even when people follow Jesus because of their own internal motivation, the job still isn t done yet because making disciples isn t just about walking with Jesus on our own, it s also about helping other people to follow Jesus. So, we also want to equip mature disciples for their own ministry. Ministry is the key characteristic of what we call a committed disciple. But then, even after a person is able to both follow Jesus and minister to others, we still need to give people the encouragement that they need to keep doing what they have been established and equipped to do. 1
So, that s the big picture of what we are trying to do as a church, and in one way or another, the other things that we do fall under this umbrella. On the front of your bulletin, at the bottom of the box, we ve listed six of the key ministry areas that we focus on at Hope Christian Church in order to make disciples. This morning, we re going to look at the first ministry on that list, the ministry of teaching. The full version of our mission statement says this about teaching: We are committed to teaching and applying complete biblical truth through excellent Bible teaching, Sunday school, personal/small group Bible study, and one-on-one disciple-making in order to equip us to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Why is teaching so important around here? One thing you notice when you read the New Testament of the Bible is that following Jesus as a disciple is something that needs to be taught. DISCIPLES NEED TEACHERS When Jesus walked on the earth, what did people call Him? What titles did people use when they addressed Jesus? One of the most common titles given to Jesus was the title rabbi or teacher. Now, why did people call Jesus teacher? Well, obviously it was because Jesus spent a lot of his time teaching people. For example, turn in your Bible to Mark s gospel: MARK 1:21-22; 2:13; 4:1-2a; 6:1-2; 6:6b; 6:34 So, Jesus was the teacher, and His disciples were learners or students. In fact, the basic meaning of the Greek word that is behind our English word disciple is the idea of a student. Now, once Jesus left the earth in a human sense, His teaching didn t leave with Him. Instead Jesus disciples took on the role of teaching other people what Jesus had taught them. For example, both the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul made it clear that they were teaching people what Jesus had taught them. Let s look first at 2 Peter 3: 2 PETER 3:1-2 So, Peter tells us here that what the apostles taught was the commandments of Jesus. 2
The apostle Paul said the same thing. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 14: 1 CORINTHIANS 14:37 So, Paul is saying here, Anybody who is a spiritual person will recognize that I teach the same things Jesus taught. In Galatians chapter 1 we see why Paul was able to say that? GALATIANS 1:11-12 Again, where did Paul get his teaching? From Jesus. So, Jesus taught His disciples, and then they taught new disciples what Jesus had taught them but then Jesus first disciples also encouraged their new disciples to teach other people who would then teach others as well. For example, let s look at what Paul wrote to Timothy. Let s start with 1 Timothy 4. After Paul teaches Timothy a number of things in this letter, he tells Timothy to teach other people what Paul had just taught him. 1 TIMOTHY 4:11-16 So Paul exhorts Timothy to teach other people the things that Paul taught him. You see the same thing in Paul s second letter to Timothy. Turn the page: 2 TIMOTHY 1:13-14; 2:1-2; 3:13-4:5 So, Paul wanted Timothy to be part of a reproducing chain of teachers who would teach succeeding generations the things that Jesus taught. Now, you see this same emphasis on teaching throughout the New Testament. One thing you will always see when you see disciples of Jesus being made is teachers who can teach what Jesus taught. You see, when Jesus set this thing up, He didn t just write everything down in a book and leave it with people to learn on their own. In other words, following Jesus as a disciple is not a self-help course. It requires teachers who can teach what Jesus taught. I wanted you to see this because it reminds us that Jesus teaching is central to all that a church is and does. In fact, a church without people teaching Jesus teaching is not really a church. 3
So, when you come to Hope Christian Church, you should be looking to receive Jesus teaching. That s one of the main things we re trying to do here whether it s this teaching time during our worship service or our Sunday school classes or small group Bible studies or one-on-one discipleship we re trying to teach you what Jesus taught His original disciples so that you can follow Jesus like they followed Jesus. TEACHING FOR WHAT? Now, if we are going to teach what Jesus taught, there is one key issue that we need to emphasize in all of our teaching. I want to go back to the first passage we looked at this morning in Mark s gospel. Mark 1:22 And they were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. What does it mean when it says that Jesus taught as one having authority? When these people said that, what were they implying? I think they were saying, When Jesus teaches, he teaches like He expects us to do something. Jesus isn t just philosophizing or telling stories, He s trying to change us! If you think about it, that s what authority is all about. Authority is the ability to make somebody else do something. So, when Jesus taught, He was teaching to change people s lives. Now, we saw the same thing in our study last week. Last week our study was based on Matthew 28:19-20. Look at those verses again: Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. What did Jesus tell his disciples to teach? [ to observe all that I commanded ] So, the kind of teaching that Jesus wanted His disciples to do was the same kind of teaching that Jesus did. It s teaching for application or lifechange. Now, that s also what we saw in the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy. For examples, look at these phrases from the verses that we read earlier: 4
Prescribe and teach these things. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness. Preach the word reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. What does prescribe mean? It means telling people what to do. How about reproof or rebuke? Those words mean telling people what they are doing wrong. Correction is about getting people who are doing wrong to do what is right. And training in righteousness is helping people to keep doing the right thing. Now, if you have spent any time at all reading the Bible, you know that a lot of the Bible tells us what to do and how to live. That s why it was written. One of the verses that I memorized years ago says this about the Bible. It says, But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. (Deuteronomy 30:14) That s a good summary of why God gave us the Bible. So, when we teach the Bible here at Hope Christian Church, we want to teach it with a view toward application not just information. Over the years as I ve taught from the Bible, I ve tried to remember something that I read by A.W. Tozer years ago. Tozer wrote this: There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in the biblical sense, but something else and something less. The Bible is more than a volume of hitherto unknown facts about God, man and the universe. It is a book of exhortation based upon those facts. By far the greater portion of the book is devoted to an urgent effort to persuade people to alter their ways and bring their lives into harmony with the will of God as set forth in its pages. So, as you re involved here at Hope Christian Church, you re going to hear Jesus teaching from the Bible, and because of that, you should expect Jesus to tell you what to do so that He can change your life. EARS TO HEAR Now, even though that s the goal of our teaching life-change in practical terms, the student actually determines whether or not life-change happens more than the teacher does. I want to look at one more thing that Jesus said in Mark s gospel. 5
Turn back to Mark 4. Earlier we read the first two verses: MARK 4:1-2 Jesus goes on to tell a story about a farmer sowing seed. As you know, that story was intended to teach a spiritual truth. But then after telling the story, Jesus said this (verse 9), He who has ears to hear, let him hear. As you read on, you see that Jesus told another parable in verses 21-22, and then in verse 23 He said it again, If any man has ears to hear, let him hear. What did Jesus mean by that, He who has an ear to hear, let him hear? I think His point was that how we listen to Jesus teaching determines whether or not we get the message. When I left the Air Force several years ago, I went to live with an older Christian couple who had mentored me in my relationship with the Lord over the years. While I was living with LeRoy and Virginia, I attended their church with them each Sunday. One Sunday after church, we were driving home and LeRoy said, Wasn t that a great sermon this morning. When LeRoy said that, I didn t say anything, but I was thinking, You ve got to be kidding me. That was a boring sermon. But Virginia said, Yes, it really was good, and then she went on to share something that God had spoken to her about through the pastor s message. And they continued on like that for ten minutes or so back and forth talking about things that the pastor had said, and what they had gotten out of it. Well as I listened to the two of them talk, the Lord got my attention, and I thought, We didn t hear the same sermon. I heard a boring sermon that had no impact on me and they heard a dynamic sermon that impacted their lives. What was the difference? Well, it wasn t the teacher. It was the students. LeRoy and Virginia had ears to hear. They were listening to learn and apply what they heard to their lives. I wasn t. What kind of ears do you have when you sit under Jesus teaching? Don t get me wrong, I don t want to suggest that it s impossible for a teacher to give a boring sermon. I know I ve given more than my fair share of boring sermons. But I do 6
think there are a lot fewer boring sermons or boring Bible studies or other teaching than we think there are. I ve found that it s pretty hard to find a message from God s word that God can t use in some way if the listener has ears to hear. CONCLUSION Even Jesus found that the impact of His teaching depended on the hearers. The same is true with our teaching ministry around here. Every time someone opens up the Bible we have an opportunity to have our lives changed. So, we want to open up the Bible around here as much as we can. But whether or not your life changes to become more like Christ will depend on you a lot more than it depends on me. So, every time you sit under Jesus teaching, ask God to give you ears to hear. I want to close this morning by giving you a model prayer that you might think about praying whenever you open the Bible or sit under the teaching of God s word. PSALM 119:33-40 [Instruct them how to pray through these verses.] 7