To Teach Is To Touch A Life Forever. Series

To teach is to touch a life forever.

"A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others."

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

According to Homer's Odyssey, when King Odysseus went off to fight in the Trojan War, he left his son Telemachus in the hands of a wise old man named Mentor. Mentor was charged with the task of teaching the young man wisdom. More than 2,000 years after Homer, a French scholar and theologian by the name of François Fénelon adapted the story of Telemachus in a novel titled Télémaque. In it he enlarged the character of Mentor. The word mentor soon came to mean "a wise and responsible tutor"—an experienced person, who advises, guides, teaches, inspires, challenges, corrects, and serves as a model. In Second Timothy 2:2 Apostle Paul describes spiritual mentoring, and the Bible gives us many examples. Timothy had Paul; Mark had Barnabas; Joshua had Moses; Elisha had Elijah.

The purpose of this sermon is to present a set of basic Biblical principles that define the consecrated responsibilities of parents, believers, preachers and teachers in their role as mentors. The intent of this teaching is not to provide comprehensive rules, or a systematic code of conduct, but rather to describe ways in which God’s sacred call can be exercised in a responsible manner. The question is What Am I Passing On?-to the next generation? What are you leaving them as a tribute to the years that you have spent here on earth? And does that legacy have eternal implication? Present generations who comes to know the Lord are followed by other generations whose hearts have become careless and insensitive to the Lord. Will you consider becoming one whom God can use as an instrument to impart scripture knowledge and Godly wisdom to help others grow toward perfection? The success of our next generation, whether it be the church, our family or our nation, depends on how faithful we obey our God by training others with the glorious gospel truths of Christ in such a way that they passionately, devotedly teach others in the Holy Spirit.

Bible says “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.” (Psalm 145:3-4)In psalm 48:12-14 we see that Israelites are instructed to "Walk about Zion, and go all around her. Count her towers; Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; that you may tell it to the generation following. For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide Even to death." Just as the Israelites needed to know exactly how everything was to be in Zion so that they could pass the information on to the next generation, the older generation of today needs to know exactly how things are to be in the church in order to pass that information on to the next generation. With the passing of each generation, knowledge, values and even faith are handed down from the older to the younger. Paul thanked God for the "genuine faith" of Timothy, which he says, "dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also" “2 Timothy 1:5

Many students of church history are familiar with the story of Susanna Wesley, who counted John and Charles among her nineteen children, only nine of whom lived to adulthood. Susanna was said to have prayed for her children two hours a day, along with teaching them their basic school subjects. She was well-prepared to care for and lead her large family. She herself was the daughter of a well-known minister, the youngest of his twenty-five children. Susanna benefited from a godly home and passed the heritage onto her children. Although his Christian heritage probably did not span as many years as that of the Wesley’s, Timothy also benefited from a godly home. His mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois, are two largely unsung heroines of the Bible. The importance of a godly mother's role in the life of a child cannot be overemphasized. Think of Timothy, for example, the young man the apostle Paul considered his spiritual son and a valuable partner in ministry. In his second letter to him, Paul recalled how Timothy had been influenced by "the genuine faith" of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5). God used two generations of loving mothers to prepare Timothy for the crucial work he would have in spreading the gospel and establishing congregations of believers in Christ.

Before we examine the text, let me point out that transferring values to next generation is applicable on several levels. The primary application is parents to children, pastors to believers, leaders to followers and teachers to students. Our task is to hand off God’s truth to other faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. But the text also applies to every Christian in every relationship with other Christians. Christian husbands must hand off the truth that God teaches them to their wives. While the husband is responsible to shepherd his family, the communication is not just one way. Wives also must share with their husbands the truth that God teaches them. Parents are responsible to entrust the truth to their children. More mature believers must see their responsibility to impart biblical truth to younger believers.