Who Is This Man? How Jesus Shaped Our View Of Education And Enemies Series

Who is this Man? How Jesus Shaped our Minds and Our Emotions.

How was high School for you? I loved high school, well actually it was a weird time of life, on one hand I couldn’t wait to graduate so I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. For me graduation signified freedom. Wow, was I in for a nasty surprise. If I had to pick a them song for my grade 12 year it would have probably been Alice Cooper’s “Schools Out”.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the social aspect of high school and academics never really seemed to pose much of a problem for me nor did it seem to cause much stress. And I discovered that the only way they would let me take part in the extra-curricular activities that I enjoyed so much was if I also took part in the curricular activities that they seemed to think were so important. Go figure?

This time of year education is on the minds of a lot of people. Today we honoured our high school graduates but there are folks in all kinds of transitions. Little kids are graduating from pre-school. Elementary kids will be leaving grade 6 and Jr. High students will be looking forward to high school with either anticipation or dread. Folks are receiving bachelor, master and doctorates.

But for many people education and the church don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Some people would actually contend that the church has been a road block to education and science. That the church is threatened by knowledge. But is that a reality?

This is week last of our series “Who is this Man?” Actually it has been a multi-part message, started over Christmas with my message “It’s a Wonderful life” where I started to look at how the world would be different if Jesus had never been born. And when I finished I promised that we would expand on that thought. So, with that in mind our theme over Holy Week was “Who is this Man?” and we looked at how people might have viewed Jesus on Good Friday at the Cross and then on Resurrection Sunday at the empty tomb.

And then over April I preached on the Blessed Life, because it was Money Month. And you folks responded in an incredible way on Consecration Sunday.

So three weeks ago we began looking at how Jesus shaped the world that we live in today. The first week we explored how time has been defined by the birth of Jesus. Every event in history is described in relation to whether it happened B.C. Before Christ or A.D. Anno Domini the year of our Lord. Jesus’ birth drew a line through history. And there are those who would try to secularize BC and AD and make it CE and BCE. Common Era and Before Common Era, but the question has to be asked. What do they have in common? Oh yeah, the birth of Jesus.

We went on to say that in our statement of faith at Cornerstone it says “Our beliefs are in line with historic Christianity.” But what does that mean? Well, it means that we believe that Jesus was the son of God, we believe that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. We believe that he suffered and died under Pontius Pilate and that on the third day he rose from the dead. This we believe.

And then over the last two weeks we have looked at how Jesus shaped the world that we live in. And he did that because of what he left behind, the church. And because there was a Jesus who promised in Luke 6:47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. And because there were people who came to Jesus, who listened to Jesus’ teachings and then followed those teachings the world is a different place.

Jesus Shaped How We Think of the Poor

Jesus Shaped How We Think of the Sick

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Slaves

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Children

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Women

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Marriage

And because there was a Jesus and because he left a church that would follow his teachings the world today is a different place.

But, you might be asking what does that have to with education? Let’s go back to the scripture that we started with. A religious teacher came to Jesus and asked him “Of all the commandments which is the most important?” And that is an important question. And listen to Jesus reply in Mark 12:29-30 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’