“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them…”
The sermon on the mount is not a sermon, at least, not what we mean when we use that word. Jesus did not spend a week in his study and then come out with pages of notes and step into a pulpit and deliver a “sermon”. He had no notes, he had no study, he did not need them. That is why everyone was “astonished at his teaching” (matt 7:28) because he taught as one having authority. In first century Judaism, formal teaching was done while sitting, which is why when he sat down his disciples came to him, they knew that a lesson was about to begin. The Rabbi was going to give them his take on things and what it means to follow him and be one of his students. It was far more intimate than what we think of today when we hear the word “sermon”.
the verb form of ‘teach” is used 49 times of Jesus in the Gospels; 41 times he is called “Teacher”; 13 times he is called “Rabbi”. Jesus is many things; healer, king, construction worker, just to name a few, but his primary activity in his daily ministry while walking among us was teaching. This leads me to one inescapable but simple conclusion; God is a teacher. It is His very nature to teach because He is the source of all knowledge, the fountainhead of wisdom, he is omniscient. He does not keep it to Himself, He shares, He imparts, He does not want us to be ignorant, He wants us to know and to grow in wisdom and knowledge. Critics often charge that to follow God you must be ignorant and superstitious, but the Living God requires the exact opposite, He encourages inquiry and He is not afraid of hard questions. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
You were made in the image of God. that means that you were made in the image, in the likeness of a teacher. You should all be teachers. That doesn’t mean you will all stand in front of a group of people and do semi-formal teaching (although I think most of you could) it just means you should be teaching. Who are you teaching? It could be anything from teaching a child (Kaylani) about any topic in life to leading a bible study, get excited about something and teach others about it. Some of us are readers and some are not, that’s ok, there is no recipe for learning and there is no recipe for teaching. Jesus used everything; parables, illustration, agriculture, money, food, animals, children, whatever was at hand he used for teaching and pointing people to God. You should always be teaching which means that you should always be learning. Read, watch videos, download audio, there is so much free education out there! Have a notebook or a journal and write things down; I write everything down, I am constantly scribbling on pads and transferring them to notebooks. If you have an idea or a question about something and you do not write it down, you will forget it. I throw away much of what I scribble down but that’s ok, you can always decide what is worth keeping later. Going to school is great but you must never stop studying and learning. Whatever you are interested in, that interest, is a gift fromGod; learn it, study it, master it and teach it; obviously, there will be more than one thing, but you get the idea.
I love that our God is a teacher. I love that He wants me to pursue knowledge and wisdom and Him. I love that He is pleased with our questions and our inquisitiveness and that He is not shy about disclosing Himself to any who seek Him. I love that 10,000 years from now we will be sitting at the feet of this amazing person, learning the secrets of the universe, we will never stop learning, we will never stop growing because He will never stop teaching us. Our God is a teacher.
“Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. for the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
Proverbs 2
Never stop learning, it is human. Never stop teaching, it is divine.
Read, write, watch, listen, teach, live. Pray for wisdom every day. Trust God, I dare you.
I love you
Dad.
December 25, 2017
“Those who honor me I will honor.”