Sermon Preached by Pastor Larry C. Brincefield
7/18/04
Title: Sunday School: Past, Present, & Future or “Everybody Ought to Go to Sunday School”
Text: Judges 2:10-11
Introduction
1. Sing this song with me:
“Everybody ought to go to Sunday School,
Sunday School, Sunday School
The teenies and the teens
And the big Nazarenes.
Everybody ought to go to Sunday School.”
2. Sunday School is important to me…Let me tell you why:
• Sunday School was a place where I learned about Jesus…
• Sunday School was a place where I learned about God’s Word, the Bible…
• Sunday School was a place where I had fun…
• Sunday School was a place where I was accepted…
• Sunday School was a place where I made very good friends…
• Some of my best friendships today, started in the Sunday School when I was a child.
• Sunday School was a place where I had a teacher who loved me…cared about me…prayed for me…and loved me.
• Sunday School was a place where my faith began to sprout…
• Where it was watered and tended…
• And began to grow…
• And in fact, a large part of what I am today as a Christian I owe to Sunday School.
• But let me go on to say that Sunday School is not just for children…
• As adults, when Kay and I were first married…
• And we lived in a city where we didn’t know many people…
• We found love, acceptance, and friendship in a Sunday School.
• Now, at 41 years old…I have been a student of Sunday School as a child, a teen, and an adult.
• I have taught Senior Citizens in SS…
• I’ve taught adult discussion oriented SS classes…
• I’ve taught teens…
• And I’ve taught Children…
• And even as recent as today…Sunday School continues to be a blessing to me.
3. As I began to think about Sunday School…
• I looked back through my files to see what type of sermons that I’ve preached on Sunday School in the past…
• And to my surprise, to my knowledge, I’ve never preached an entire sermon devoted to Sunday School…
• A shortcoming I plan to rectify today!
Read Text: Judges 2:10-11
1. Sunday School Past
A. The first ever Sunday School was started back in 1780 in England,
• Robert Raikes, a man who ran a newspaper…
• And happened to be a Christian (a rare combination we don’t see too often today).
• Raikes was concerned by the plight of poor children
• who were forced to work long hours, six days a week in factories.
• He used his newspaper to expose and many other problems of his time.
• one day, Raikes was at work in his office when he couldn’t concentrate because of a group of noisy and rowdy children outside his window.
• He was deeply concerned by the behavior of these children,
• many of whom wandered the streets cursing and swearing and spending their time getting into trouble.
• From his work in visiting prisoners and lobbying for prison reform,
• Raikes also became aware that many prisoners’ lives had been shaped by their deprived childhood.
• In response to these experiences, Raikes set up a Sunday School,
• A place where children we taught to read and write and taught the basics of the Christian Faith.
• His idea was soon copied and Sunday Schools soon spread all over the country of England.
• Within two years, there were over 200,000 children attending Sunday Schools in England.
B. Actually, we can go back even further into history and see Bible teaching similar to what we think of as “Sunday School”
• Early in Jewish history, we see a program similar to what we think of as Sunday School.
• In the Old Testament period, God intended for parents to provide spiritual instruction to their children in the home.
• But, unfortunately, many parents failed in this responsibility…
• And perhaps a major part of the problems the early jewish people faced…
o Falling away from God…
o Conquered by their enemies…
o Carried away into exile…
• Was the result of this failure to teach children belief in God and His Word.
• Our text says, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel” Judges 2:10 (NIV)
• After the Israelite people returned from captivity…
• They decided that the religious instruction for their children was of vital importance…
• 500 years before Christ was born…
• Schools were set up to provide religious instruction to children from age 5 on up.
• Now, these certainly weren’t called “Sunday School”…
• But we can see the beginnings of the idea of religious instruction and training hundreds of years before Christ.
C. In the early 1800’s, the Sunday School movement that spread over England…
• Jumped the ocean and began to grow here in America.
• Francis Asbury, the first bishop of the Methodist Church…
• Learned about SS from John Wesley in England…
• And the early growth of Methodism in our country…
• Was largely responsible for the growth of Sunday School.
• Nazarenes got into the act from the beginning of our denomination in the early 1900’s…
• And Sunday School continues to be very important to the Church of the Nazarene today…
• And many other denominations as well.
2. Sunday School Present
A. Obviously much has changed over the past two hundred and twenty years.
• Children no longer work in factories
• and “absolute poverty” is not the pressing problem in the United States like it is in other places.
• However, our world today is facing many challenges of moral confusion.
• Morality continues to deteriorate…
• You have only to point to the headlines in the newspapers this week…
• And how the desire to protect the institution of marriage …
• And to protect the traditional family with a father and mother…
• Failed in the senate…
B. And just like the Children of Israel failing to provide proper religious instruction in the home to their children…
• We see the same problem today…
• Parents, for the most part, provide little…
• And most of the time, NO RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AT ALL.
• In response, we in the church need to provide renewed emphasis upon Sunday School.
• Sunday School isn’t the cure all for all of our world’s problems…
• But I dare say that many of the problems of morality that we see today would be so much improved if everybody went to Sunday School!!
• So, when we sing “Everybody ought to go to Sunday School”…
• It is more than just a cutesy children’s song…
• It is a fundamental need for individuals and for our world.
• Going to Sunday School won’t guarantee that children will grow up and be strong Christians and good people…
• But it sure improves the odds!!
C. A disturbing trend that I see today is that people treat Sunday School as “optional”…
• There are many people who feel that Sunday School isn’t very important…
• They just go to church and feel like that is sufficient…
• Many people think that Sunday School is just for children…
• But let me tell you that the need for religious instruction and training is something that you never outgrow…
• EVERYBODY ought to go to Sunday…
• The teenies, the teen, AND the big Nazarenes!
3. Sunday School Future
A. To be honest, I’m concerned about the future of Sunday School…
• I see the growing immorality in our world…
• I see people too busy…
• And too unconcerned…
• And to apathetic about Sunday School…
• My fear is that if we don’t pray for our Sunday School…
• If we don’t support our Sunday School by attending…
• By bringing our children…
• Or children from the neighborhood…
• If we don’t step up and teach SS…
• My fear is that Sunday School will continue to decline…
• Until it no longer exists!!!
• Or if it does exist, it will be tiny, ineffective, and impotent.
Conclusion
1. Sunday School past: We formally recognize Sunday School coming into existence in the late 1700’s to deal with Children who were being mistreated and neglected by society…
• I see some of those same kinds of problems even today…
• In the early part of Jewish history, families were neglecting the spiritual instruction of their children…
• So they set up synagogues to teach the children…
• Because it was so crucial…
• I see the same problem today…
• Parents don’t provide religious instruction to their children…
• These kids don’t make it to Sunday School…
• And look what’s happening in our world!
2. Everybody ought to go to Sunday School!!!
3. I praise God for Sunday School and what it has meant to me for the last 41 years…
• Let’s not let Sunday School die…
• Let’s get behind it…
• Let’s support it…
• Let’s pray for it…
• Let’s attend Sunday School…
• Let’s step up and teach a SS class.
• Let’s everyone do our part to build the Sunday School
• “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel” Judges 2:10 (NIV)
• What a tragedy for the nation of Israel…
• Let’s not let the tragedy be repeated in our world today!
4. I’d like for all the SS Teacher’s and our SS Supt to come forward.
• Present gift…
• And pray.
3 resources that helped me with this sermon:
www.nazarenesundayschool.org
http://www.ruthriestonwestchurch.org.uk/The%20history_of_sunday_school.htm
“200+ Years and still counting” by Wesley R. Willis.
