We are emphasizing spiritual gifts in our church because we believe that every Christian’s life should be used by God for kingdom purposes. God’s plan is that his people, first of all, take on his character and likeness, and then be a part of the divine conspiracy — the transformation of the world by overcoming evil with good. And the way that is done is by being a disciple and making disciples of Jesus Christ. This is how we change the world. Making disciples involves the very important gift of teaching.
My oldest daughter, Lori, has a daughter named Lydia who is five-years-old. Lydia and I were talking the other day, and I knew she had a little girl next door with whom she was friends, and she had also made several friends in pre-school. So I said to her, “Lydia, who is your best friend?” She thought for a moment and said, “Jesus is a friend of mine.” Lori says that they will be riding in the car and she will say, “Look, Mom, I’m waving to Jesus up in the clouds.” Abby and Rachel, and our other granddaughters, sing “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” However, the Bible didn’t “tell them so,” because they have never read the Bible. They are too young to read. How do these girls know these things? Someone else had to tell them that important truth. Certainly their parents had a lot to do with it. But there were many others as well: nursery workers, Sunday School teachers, Wednesday Connection teachers and others. Some of you here are responsible for their spiritual heritage. The gift of teaching is a gift to the world. It is used by God in very important ways. Those who teach share life skills. Teachers of spiritual truth share kingdom skills. They are passing on skills that they have learned in life, and equipping people with essentials which they will need in life and in their walk with God.
There are certain things we need to understand when it comes to the gift of teaching. First: Teaching imparts truth. Nothing is more important than truth, and yet there are many people today who do not believe in truth, or if they do, they believe that what is true for you is not necessarily true for them. They do not believe there is anything like absolute truth. Everybody is right and nobody is wrong. Worse yet, many believe if there was truth we could not know it. It would be arrogant to believe that what you think is actually true. Therefore the culture is in a quagmire. If we cannot know anything for sure, then we are lost on a sea of confusion.
What we need today is people who will stop apologizing for the truth. We need people who are not afraid of the truth — people who will seek the truth, know the truth, take a stand for the truth and impart that truth to others. And we need people of conviction. No one is going to accept your teaching if they think you are not convinced that what you are saying is important. Teaching is useless unless we believe that what we are teaching contains the truth. The Bible says, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). Here is the result of teaching: God is praised and glorified. So teaching a Sunday School class is not babysitting, it is the imparting of important spiritual truth that changes lives and brings praise to God through the lives of those who have been taught. That seems pretty important to me.
But in order to teach the truth, you have to be a seeker of the truth. You have to read the word of God and study it. You can’t talk about it without knowing it. I am always amazed at people who can read magazines and large novels, but who have no interest in reading the Bible. I recently read about a young woman who had heard people discussing a book that had recently been published. They were enthusiastic about it, and recommended that she get the book and read it. After much persuasion she bought a copy and read the introduction and the first chapter. It was not an easy book, so she put it on the shelf and didn’t pick it up again. A few months later she was traveling in a foreign country and met a wonderful Christian young man with whom she fell in love. To her surprise, she learned that the young man was the author of the book that she had purchased. When she returned home to the States, she took the book off the shelf and began reading from the very beginning again. This time she read it through to the end, thinking it was the most wonderful book she had ever read. Being in love with the author made all the difference.
That is the way it is with those who have fallen in love with God. Reading his book and seeking his truth is not a chore, it is an adventure. The more we read, the more we discover about our wonderful God. If you are going to teach you have to be a learner, because you cannot take someone where you have not been. You cannot give what you do not have. You can’t impart truth that you have not sought and found yourself. Teaching the truth changes lives, but it has to change your life first.
Teaching may happen in the context of parenting in the home, teaching a Sunday School class, leading a Bible study or discipling another person one on one. Some of you are gifted teachers. It is a special gift that God has given to you. You can’t think of doing anything else. Some of you love to teach adults, but not children. Some of you enjoy teaching older children, but find it difficult to teach young children. Some of you love nothing more than teaching toddlers or kindergartners. Some find it easy to stand in front of a class. Others would freeze in that situation, but they are comfortable meeting one on one with someone. We are all different in our gifting in this area. As the Bible says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4).
The second thing that we need to understand when it comes to the gift of teaching is: Truth brings about maturity. Truth transforms. The truth changes more than minds, it changes lives. When people come into contact with the truth it changes them in a positive way. They are always better people. Truth never leaves us in the same place, it always takes us higher. The Bible says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). We are to crave the truth the way a baby craves milk. If we do not, we will not grow up spiritually.
Imagine living thinking that the world was flat and that if you went too far you could fall off the edge of the world. Imagine living thinking that you were an accident. The truth is that there are no accidents, we are all God’s creation. People may make mistakes, but God does not. God was the One who decided whether we would exist or not. We are a part of his design and he has a plan for our lives. But imagine believing the lie that you were an accident and there was no ultimate purpose for your life. What if someone called you trash and you believed it? What if you believed someone who told you that the world, and all the people in it, are only an accident, a chance meeting of molecules, and there was no purpose or meaning to the world? What if you believed that God hated you because of what you have done and there was no forgiveness for you? What if you believed that you had to earn God’s favor and there was no such thing as grace? These false beliefs would take your life into dysfunction and ultimately destroy you. You would not progress and mature, you would degenerate.
The truth has the opposite effect on our lives. The truth transforms us and makes our lives work. The truth is important because it matures us. The more truth we know the more we grow spiritually. The truth changes lives. This is why we need people who will use their gift of teaching. Jesus prayed to his Father saying: “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). He also said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). The world needs people, at every level, teaching the truth, because lies destroy and the truth heals. Lies place people in bondage; the truth sets people free.
It was only 100-years-ago that most people thought it was impossible to fly. But there were two sons of Rev. Milton Wright who thought that wasn’t true. People thought they were crazy, but at 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903, they made their first successful flight of 175 feet in a airplane. The plane was driven by a four cylinder combustion engine. Today we fly much more sophisticated aircrafts all over the world, and even into space. Who would have believed what we can do today 100-years-ago? Where would we be if these two men had not sought the truth? The world would certainly not have progressed to the place it has today. They sought the truth and believed the truth, and that truth transformed the world.
When we begin to believe the truth of the word of God, then the things we do and the lives we lead will transform the world. The Bible says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17, NASB). Jesus Christ is offering his truth to the world. He quoted from the words of Isaiah: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:1-2). There are people all over this auditorium today who have accepted that invitation. They have come to Christ for his truth, and their lives have been transformed. They have been healed and delivered because they have begun to live the truth and put aside the lies of the world.
The Bible says, “Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Those who teach impart important spiritual truth, and it is that truth that helps others to grow up in Christ.
The third thing we see is: Maturity brings about usefulness. What is more important than having our lives used by God? Our lives should not be used for ourselves and our own selfish purposes. Our lives should be lived for kingdom purposes. The people that you teach will one day teach others. Those whom you disciple will disciple others. That’s what the truth does. It takes us to the place of spiritual maturity, and when we are spiritually mature we want our lives to be used for God. It is the only thing that really matters. We are not here just waiting to go to heaven. We are supposed to make a difference on earth. Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). He has sent us into this world for a purpose. He wants our lives to be useful.
As we mature, we see life in new ways. We say with the Psalmist: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:103-105).
Teaching is an important responsibility, and every parent should be a teacher. The Bible says, “Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it” (Proverbs 22:6, NewLiving). Here is how the Lord told the ancient Hebrews to be teachers in their homes: “Hear, O Israel The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, New Living).
It has been several years ago now that a Johns Hopkins professor gave a group of graduate students an assignment in the slums of the inner city. They were to find 200 boys, between the ages of 12 and 16, and do a thorough study of their background and environment. Then they were to try to predict what their future lives would be like, based on their research. The students studied the boys and their environment. And after looking at social statistics, talking to the boys and compiling a great deal of information about their family life and background, they concluded that 90 percent of the boys would spend some time in jail. Twenty-five years later, another group of graduate students was given the job of following up on the study. They went back to the same neighborhood. Some of the boys, who were by now men, were still there. A few had died, and some had moved away, but they were able to find 180 of the original 200. They discovered, to their surprise, that only four of the group had ever been sent to jail. They then tried to investigate why it was that these men, who had lived in a neighborhood that was a breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly good record. The researchers finally realized that there was one thing they had heard over and over again from the men: “Well, there was this one teacher . . .” They began to investigate and found that in 75 percent of the cases they were talking about the same woman. The graduate students went to this woman who was now living in a home for retired teachers. “How had she exerted this remarkable influence over that group of children?” they wanted to know. They asked if she could give them any reason why these boys should have remembered her? “No,” she said, “no, I really couldn’t.” And then, as her mind went several years back to her schoolroom, she said more to herself than to her questioners: “I really loved those boys. . . .”
The real gift of teaching is the gift of loving people. Loving them into the kingdom. Loving them into the truth. It transforms them into being different people. I cannot tell you how many people have told me how a Sunday School teacher has made a lasting difference in their life. This is something in which all of us can be involved in some way. It is a gift in which all of us should seek to grow.
Rodney J. Buchanan
May 4, 2003
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
MAKING DISCIPLES:
THE GIFT OF TEACHING
Questions for May 4, 2003
1. Share about a teacher or Sunday School teacher who had a positive influence on your life.
2. What is our main motivation for making disciples?
3. Why is truth important? What does it do?
4. Why do people question and object to the reality of absolute truth?
5. Read 1 Peter 2:2. What does it mean to desire spiritual milk?
6. Why is it that some do not grow to spiritual maturity?
7. What does spiritual maturity look like in a person’s life?
8. Read Isaiah 55:1-2. What is Isaiah having trouble understanding here?
9. What is the result of maturity and why is this so essential?
10. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9. How can you or your family exemplify this scripture?
