SERMON OUTLINE:
He knew the value of teaching
He spoke plainly
He spoke appropriately
He never avoided controversy
His material was practical
Ill:
• Did you hear the story about the teacher;
• Who was helping one of her nursery pupils put on his boots?
• She pulled while he pushed and the boots still didn’t want to go on.
• Finally, after the second boot was on, and after she had worked up a sweat,
• The little boy said, “Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet.”
• She looked and sure enough, they were on the wrong feet.
• Getting the boots off wasn’t any easier than getting them on.
• But the teacher managed to keep her cool as together they put the boots on the right feet.
• Once they were on, the little boy announced, “These aren’t my boots.”
• The teacher bit her tongue as she then took the boots back off.
• Once off, the little boy said,
• “The boots are my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear them.”
• She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
• The teacher mustered up the grace and courage to wrestle the boots on his feet again.
• When she was finished, she said to him, “Now, where are your mittens?”
• The little boy replied, “I stuffed them in the toes of my boots.”
Ill:
• Bigger pupils can be hard work as well:
• Like the teacher who in the middle of a lecture, noticed one student sound asleep.
• “Billy, wake up your neighbour.”
• But Billy replied: “You put him to sleep, you wake him up!”
His name is...Preacher/Teacher
• The gospels calls Jesus "teacher" 45 times in the Gospel accounts
• Also what Jesus did is also called "teaching" 45 times.
• On 215 occasions those who followed Jesus;
• Were called disciples (learners).
• It is worth noting that greatest batch of his teaching the Sermon on the Mount;
• Found in Matthew chapters 5-7 are described as a time when Jesus;
• "Taught them" (Matthew chapter 5 verse 2).
• There is an element of teaching in any effective sermon,
• ill: A sermon needs teaching just like a gun needs bullets or a painters canvas needs paints!
Question: What made Jesus such an effective teacher?
Answer: Let me give you a few suggestions.
(1). HE KNEW THE VALUE OF TEACHING
• Like it or not, Christianity is a taught religion.
• It does not come upon someone without instruction in the Word of God,
• We come to faith initially by being taught the scriptures;
• And we also grow in our knowledge through the scriptures.
Quote: Someone has humorously said:
“Teaching is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the minds of the ignorant by the means of the incompetent...is the transfer of material from the teacher’s notes to the student’s notebook, without it going through either’s minds”.
Quote: More seriously:
• Life is a matter of building. Each of us has the opportunity to build something;
• A secure family, a good reputation, a career, a relationship to God.
• But some of those things can disappear almost overnight;
• Due to financial losses, natural disasters and other unforeseen difficulties.
• What are we to do?
• Daniel Webster offered excellent advice, saying,
• "If we work on marble it will perish.
• If we work on brass, time will efface it.
• If we rear temples, they will crumble to dust.
• But if we work on men’s immortal minds,
• If we imbue them with high principles, with just fear of God and love of their fellow-men,
• We engrave on those tablets something which time cannot efface,
• And which will brighten and brighten to all eternity”.
One of Jesus most common activities was to teach:
• Matthew chapter 4 verse 23
• “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues…”.
• Mark chapter 6 verse 6:
• “Jesus went round teaching from village to village”.
• As you scan the gospels you see Jesus teaching in:
• The temple, in homes.
• He also taught outdoors; on a mountain, in the wilderness, and in the marketplace.
• Wherever he went he taught;
• Because he knew the value of teaching!
(2). HE SPOKE PLAINLY
Quote:
• C.S. Lewis went to visit a young friends and listen to him preach;
• Everything was fine until the man reached the climax of his message.
• And he said, in so many words;
• “If you will not believe in Jesus Christ, if you refuse to take him as your Lord,
• You will suffer grave eschatological ramifications”.
• He then went on and finished his message.
• Later C.S. Lewis had the opportunity to talk to his friend about his message;
• He asked him; “Did you mean that those who refuse the gospel message will go to hell?”
• The young preacher replied; “Yes, that’s what I meant”
• C.S. Lewis simply said; “Then say that!”
Jesus spoke plainly:
• Jesus spoke in such plain terms;
• That no one whose heart was honest could misunderstand him or miss out on what he said
• Obscure, ambiguous, convoluted, cryptic and complicated words;
• May make a preached sound good or may impress certain people in the congregation,
• But for most people they will simply fly over the heads;
• And leave them empty.
Quote: James Denney (Scottish preacher on keeping the gospel simple):
“The man who shoots above the target does not prove thereby that he has superior ammunition. He just proves that he cannot shoot.”
• Quote: Harry Ironside:
• “God told me to feed my sheep, not my giraffes”.
When Jesus preached, he preached plainly & simply:
• Scan the gospels and that truth jumps out at you again and again:
• Example 1: Jesus spoke plainly to Nicodemus concerning his need to be born again,
• (John chapter 3 verses 3-7).
• Example 2: Jesus spoke plainly to the woman of Samaria (John chapter 4);
• She needed honest, loving, practical truths, not hollow, meaningless words,
• Example 3: The scribes and Pharisees – the religious leaders of his day;
• Perfectly understood what Jesus was saying.
• Matthew chapter 21 verse 45:
• “The Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them”
• Example 4: The common man – the crowds, the people of his day;
• Flocked everywhere to listen to him.
Quote: J.B. Phillips:
“If words are to enter people’s hearts and bear fruit, they must be the right words shaped so as to pass men’s defences and explode silently and effectively within their minds”
Jesus was a master communicator:
• When he spoke, people listened;
• They did not understand everything he said.
• For that to happen it would require two things.
• First: A heart willing to receive and to obey.
• Second: the promised Holy Spirit who makes these truths real to us.
(3). HE SPOKE APPROPRIATELY.
• The teaching style of Jesus is varied;
• We have an expression ‘Horses for courses’.
• Jesus spoke in a variety of different ways;
• Because he spoke to a variety of different people
• The teaching of Jesus was informative, logical, supported by Old Testament evidence,
• It was well-illustrated and uniquely authoritative.
• ill: Those great words from Matthew chapter 7 verse 28-29.
• “He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”
• ill: John chapter 7 verse 46.
• When officers once were sent to arrest him, they returned to their superiors empty-handed, exclaiming: “No-one ever spoke like this man!”
Jesus used a variety of teaching methods to communicate the truth of God:
• Sermons (ill: sermon on the mount)
• His teaching included – poetry, blessings, epigrams, exhortations, ethical pronouncements, practical instruction, eschatological sayings, legal pronouncements, graphic illustrations.
• Discourse/conversational dialog (ill: John 14)
• Parables (ill: Mark chapter 4 verse 34).
• He taught with spontaneity (ill: lesson from woman caught in adultery)
• He taught by example (ill: washing the disciples feet)
• Another way Jesus taught was through miracles.
• From the miracle he often taught a lesson (ill: John chapter 6 “Bread of life”)
To summarise:
• Jesus used a wonderful spectrum of forms of communication to convey his message.
• Jesus was certainly not dull,
• KJB: “The common people heard him gladly” (Matthew chapter 12 verse 37).
• Jesus was the master of illustration;
• Whether through a visual aid, enactment or parable.
(4). HE NEVER AVOIDED CONTROVERSY.
Ill:
• French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas;
• Once had a heated quarrel with a rising young politician.
• The argument became so intense that a duel was inevitable.
• Since both men were superb shots they decided to draw lots,
• The loser agreeing to shoot himself.
• Dumas lost. Pistol in hand, he withdrew in silent dignity to another room,
• Closing the door behind him.
• The rest of the company waited in gloomy suspense for the shot that would end his career.
• It rang out at last.
• His friends ran to the door, opened it, and found Dumas,
• Sitting there with smoking revolver in hand.
• He announced:
• “Gentlemen, a most regrettable thing has happened, I missed.”
Controversy, disagreements, arguments mark out certain individuals in history.
• Quote: Lyman Beecher:
• No great advance has been made in science, politics or religion without controversy.
• There are some people who go about looking for trouble,
• But that was not Jesus’ way.
• However, controversy did follow Jesus in His years of teaching and preaching.
• That is inevitable, when you live for the truth you are going to collide with falsehood.
The variety of issues that Jesus taught about were bound to cause controversy:
• i.e. What God is like (parable of the prodigal son);
• i.e. How to get right with God (forgiveness given to ‘sinners’)
• i.e. Teaching on moral issues.
• The adulterous woman in John chapter 8,
Ill:
The sermon on the mount reflects how radically different the teaching of Jesus is:
• A phrase that crops up again and again and again is:
• “You have heard it said….but I say unto you”.
• Jesus broke through traditions and preferences;
• And went back to the heart of the mater.
Controversy followed Jesus because the truth he taught kept colliding with error:
Ill:
• Imagine a man going one way down a motorway;
• When everyone else was on the same side of the motorway coming the other way.
• Sooner or later there is going to be a collision.
• Jesus went in the direction of truth, of facts and accuracy;
• The religious leaders were travelling the opposite way of tradition & preference.
• But despite the opposition;
• Jesus spoke up for the truth.
Ill:
• When Latimer was made bishop of Worcester in the reign of Henry VIII,
• It was customary for the bishops to make presents to the king on New Year’s Day.
• He went with the other bishops to make the usual offerings,
• But instead of a purse of gold,
• He presented the king with a New Testament;
• One of the pages in that Testament had been folded down.
• It was at the passage which read, "... adulterers God will judge."
• Truth will always conflict with error;
• That was true for Jesus and it will be true for us.
(5). HIS MATERIAL WAS PRACTICAL
ill:
• Samuel Clement (better known by his alias Mark Twain);
• Attended a Sunday morning services.
• He met the pastor at the door afterward and told him;
• That he had a book at home with every word the pastor had preached that morning.
• The minister said, impossible and assured him that the sermon was an original.
• Clement (Mark Twain) still held his position.
• The pastor wanted to see this book so Clement said he would send it over in the morning.
• When the preacher unwrapped it,
• And looked at the book that contained every word the pastor had preached that morning,
• Mark Twain sent him a dictionary and in the flyleaf was written this:
• "Words, just words, just words."
Jesus spoke much more than ‘words, words and words’:
• He spoke ‘words of life’;
• ill: Peter’s response in John chapter 6 verse 68.
• Jesus did not speak that which was merely philosophical,
• Devoid of any practical use.
• The parables of Jesus were not used to show off His story-telling ability.
• His debates did not merely provide a means of boasting for Jesus, but opposition to error.
• His miracles were not merely an exhibition of magical powers,
• But proved the validity of His words.
• His logic was utilized;
• Because God’s truth is rational and reasonable.
Jesus demanded a practical response from his hearers (Matt. 7:21).
• ill: The Good Samarian – “Go and do likewise”.
• ill: The sermon on the mount – two builders – wise & foolish.
• The incredible teaching of Jesus;
• Is actually do-able – that is it can be applied to an individual’s life!
Quote: William A. Ward has said,
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires”
• Jesus Christ does all 4 and more;
• Hallelujah what a saviour!
