Is Jesus Your Teacher? Series

In this part of Luke’s gospel we see how Jesus began to get into trouble with the religious leaders. Chapter 5 tells us how he touches a leper and later announces to a man that his sins are forgiven, then he demonstrates his authority to forgive by healing the man. He doesn’t fast like he’s expected to, and he even goes to share a meal with a bunch of sinners, tax collectors and the like. He preaches about change from old to new. He confronts the religious leaders instead of supporting their way. His interpretation of the Sabbath law goes beyond anything they can imagine. He says that the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath! They can’t believe it! So they set him up. Sabbath comes and they watch him to see what he will do about a man with a withered hand.

Jesus openly challenges them. He asks, “Is it right to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath?” They didn’t answer so he healed the man. When they saw this they realized that he had basically made them accomplices to this healing by giving them a chance to refute him. Since there was no objection, Jesus said, “Stretch out your hand.” And the healing was done. They were furious. What do you do with such a man!

Luke now tells us that Jesus spent the night in prayer and then selected 12 men as apostles. Immediately he begins their training with instructions about lifestyles and relationships.

I want to go through this with you before we come back and focus on one part for our lesson.

He groups things in sets of 3 or 4 with balance and comments. Notice: Poor, hungry, weeping, and those spoken against for his sake are all blessed. Rich, filled, laughing, well spoken of are cursed with woes.

Notice how Jesus says to deal with enemies: love them, do good to them, bless them, pray for them. What do the enemies do? They strike you, steal from you, beg from you.

You are to love, do good, and lend without judging. Be merciful like God is. Don’t judge or condemn, but forgive and give. Giving is richly rewarded.

He tells a parable about a blind man leading a blind man. “Both will fall into a pit,” says Jesus. Then Jesus makes the statement that we will return to shortly: a student fully trained becomes like his or her teacher. We will explore this in a minute.

Jesus concludes this lesson with more instruction about how to judge properly and ends by a wise man/ foolish man illustration of builders to demonstrate what happens to those that follow his instruction and those that do not.

Now this is a brief summary of this chapter. I have selected something that seems to be a core matter and also a very timely message for us today. Jesus, in this chapter is the teacher. He makes an insightful point in verses 39-40 that underscores what it means to be a Christian. Jesus saves those that follow him. He teaches us. We become like him.

Listen to Jesus words again: And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

"A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

Is this really true?

Grant Hill was on public radio this past Thursday interviewing about a hobby he has. It is more than a hobby; he is serious about it. What do you think he does? Grant Hill, the famous basketball player collects paintings. His collection is extensive and is at present on display. He looks for and buys important pieces of art. Why? His dad did. He said that growing up, his dad would drag him to museums and places to see famous works of art and talk to him about them. His dad collected art too. After he was grown, Grant said that somehow what his dad loved and did rubbed off.

His dad was his teacher… and Grant became like him.

God’s word tells us: train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 Whatever direction we are trained into, we tend to keep going in. But Jesus is teaching us an even deeper truth. We not only follow the instruction of a teacher, we become like the teacher who instructs us.

Think about what this implies parents. What happens to your children if they learn math from an atheistic math teacher. What else do they learn besides numbers? Our government recognizes the potential of this and they have set up a barrier called separation of church and state. You sent your child into biology class to learn biology! Not Christian biology! Right? Well, if that teacher is a Christian, it will effect the way they teach and it will also effect the student who learns under them. But what if that teacher has a vendetta against Christian principles? Can you imagine what your child learns? Do you want your child to be like their teachers?