Spiritual Gifts
Part 5
Teacher
First Lesson: Acts 18:24-28
24 A Jew named APOLLOS came to EPHESUS. He was born in the Egyptian city named ALEXANDRIA. He was a good speaker, and he knew the Scriptures well.
25 Apollos learned about the way of the Lord and he was always excited when he spoke. He taught the about Jesus correctly. But Apollos only knew about the teaching from John the Baptizer.
26 Apollos began to speak boldly in the SYNAGOGUE. When PRISCILLA and AQUILA heard him, they invited him to their home and they helped him better understand the way of God.
27 Now Apollos wanted to go to the country of Southern Greece. So the believers in Ephesus helped him, and they wrote a letter to the followers in Greece, asking them to accept Apollos. Christians in Greece believed in Jesus because of God’s grace. And when Apollos arrived, he helped them very much.
28 He argued very strongly with the Jews before all the people, clearly proving with the God's Word that Jesus is Christ.
Epistle Lesson: 2 Timothy 2:1-2, 23-26
Paul wrote:
1 TIMOTHY, my son, you stay strong in God's love that we have in Christ Jesus.
2 You should teach people whom you can trust. Teach them the things you and many others heard me say. Then they will be able to teach other people...
23 Avoid foolish and stupid discussions, because you know they grow into arguments.
24 And a servant of the Lord must not argue. He must be-kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient.
25 The Lord’s servant must gently teach those people that disagree. Then maybe God will help them change their minds so they can accept the truth.
26 And they may wake up and escape the trap of the devil. The devil makes them his slave for doing things that he wants.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 28:16-20
16 The eleven disciples went to the mountain in Galilee where Jesus had told them to go.
17 When they saw him, they bowed down in worship, but some of them felt uncertain.
18 Jesus came near, and he spoke to them. Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 So you go, make disciples in all nations: Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
20 Teach them to do everything I have commanded you.
"And remember that I am with you always until the end of time."
Sometimes we see people say:
"I could become a good mother if I had a better kids."
Or "I could become a good pastor if I had a better church."
Or "I could become a good teacher if I had better students."
That sounds like a joke. But a lot of people feel that way.
What's wrong with that?
Their focus is themselves.
They should focus on the people that they serve.
In our lessons about Spiritual Gifts, we started looking at the ministry gifts that the Bible names in Ephesians chapter 4:
Apostle
Prophet
Evangelist
Pastor* [shepherd]
Now we look at the last gift in that list: Teacher
The same as the evangelist and pastor*,
a teacher is first concerned about other people.
A teacher who has the Holy Spirit's gift doesn't look at his information and say, "That I want to show what I know. "
No, a teacher looks at his students and sees their need.
"They are missing important information."
"They have not yet learned important skills."
A teacher desires that his students grow.
The first goal for a teacher is not giving information.
The first goal is inspiring students to learn, and
help them see their need.
help them desire the benefit for knowing,
and having skill for doing.
Person who has the gift for teaching
knows how to divide information into small parts
that a clueless student can easily accept
and understand in small steps.
If someone asks you for a drink of water,
you don't get a fire hose and blast him.
But that often happens in education.
Ask a person who is an expert in his profession to help you learn a basic skill, or understand a confusing concept, and he maybe will dump on you everything he knows, so it all goes over your head. He doesn't teach you. He confuses your more than before.
Some other teachers make the opposite mistake.
For them learning their topic was easy,
like ducks learning how to swim.
Things that seem clear to them are confusing to us,
they can't understand our confusion.
We know two High School math teachers:
One is naturally smart in math.
He tells the students to read their math book
and then do the homework.
He doesn't explain anything, because
he assumes that the concept is already clear to his students.
He doesn't understand their frustration.
The other teacher, he himself had a hard time learning math.
He struggled, so he understands his students who also struggle.
He knows how to explain each step in ways that are easy for students to learn.
A person who has God's gift for teaching
can help students connect old information
to new information.
A good teacher trains students the skills for researching
and discovering [finding] information for themselves.
When you ask your pastor a question about the Bible,
does he tell you an answer?
does he show you the Bible verses
that lead you to the answer?
Or does he show you the skills for finding the answer yourself?
Acting like an expert,
Acting like the "Bible answer-man"
is fun and makes us proud.
But that doesn't help Christians grow.
A person that had God's gift for teaching leads students through
the process of making new skill stronger with hands-on practice.
When you learn something new, teach that to someone else.
If you want to teach the Bible,
you must Know Christ -- not just know about Him.
you must know His Word --
studying the Bible daily for your faith.
you must live as God shows us in His word.
The Bible itself shows us how to teach.
The Bible’s way for teaching is not lecturing.
Successful teachers in the Bible were MENTORS.
Teachers and students lived together, worked together.
Students learned from the teachers' words and actions,
while the student shared in the teacher's work.
In Matthew, the last chapter, before Jesus' ascension,
He told us to "make disciples."
A more correct translation is: "do mentoring."
We find various kinds of teachers in the Bible:
An example for an "answer man" was APOLLOS [Acts 18; 1 Cor. 1]
An example for a mentor was BARNABAS [Acts 11-15].
First he mentored PAUL,
then he mentored MARK.
Later, Paul mentored TIMOTHY.
Jesus was both an "answer man" and mentor.
Ephesians chapter 4 names "teacher" as one of God's special gifts to the Church.
But the Bible also commands that various people have responsibilities for teaching.
(1) Parents, teach your children (Deut. 6, Proverbs, Eph. 6)
(2) Older women, teach younger women (Titus 2:3)
(3) Pastors (2 Tim 2:2)
(4) Every mature Christian (Hebrews 5:11-14)
Yes, the Bible says that we all have responsibility for
(1) teaching other people about Christ, and
(2) teaching them how to live connected with Him.
"I could become a good mother if I had a better kids."
Or "I could become a good pastor if I had a better church."
Or "I could become a good teacher if I had better students."
That sounds like a joke. But a lot of people feel that way.
What's wrong with that?
Their focus is themselves.
They should focus on the people that they serve.
In our lessons about Spiritual Gifts, we started looking at the ministry gifts that the Bible names in Ephesians chapter 4:
Apostle
Prophet
Evangelist
Pastor* [shepherd]
Now we look at the last gift in that list: Teacher
The same as the evangelist and pastor*,
a teacher is first concerned about other people.
A teacher who has the Holy Spirit's gift doesn't look at his information and say, "That I want to show what I know. "
No, a teacher looks at his students and sees their need.
"They are missing important information."
"They have not yet learned important skills."
A teacher desires that his students grow.
The first goal for a teacher is not giving information.
The first goal is inspiring students to learn, and
help them see their need.
help them desire the benefit for knowing,
and having skill for doing.
Person who has the gift for teaching
knows how to divide information into small parts
that a clueless student can easily accept
and understand in small steps.
If someone asks you for a drink of water,
you don't get a fire hose and blast him.
But that often happens in education.
Ask a person who is an expert in his profession to help you learn a basic skill, or understand a confusing concept, and he maybe will dump on you everything he knows, so it all goes over your head. He doesn't teach you. He confuses your more than before.
Some other teachers make the opposite mistake.
For them learning their topic was easy,
like ducks learning how to swim.
Things that seem clear to them are confusing to us,
they can't understand our confusion.
We know two High School math teachers:
One is naturally smart in math.
He tells the students to read their math book
and then do the homework.
He doesn't explain anything, because
he assumes that the concept is already clear to his students.
He doesn't understand their frustration.
The other teacher, he himself had a hard time learning math.
He struggled, so he understands his students who also struggle.
He knows how to explain each step in ways that are easy for students to learn.
A person who has God's gift for teaching
can help students connect old information
to new information.
A good teacher trains students the skills for researching
and discovering [finding] information for themselves.
When you ask your pastor a question about the Bible,
does he tell you an answer?
does he show you the Bible verses
that lead you to the answer?
Or does he show you the skills for finding the answer yourself?
Acting like an expert,
Acting like the "Bible answer-man"
is fun and makes us proud.
But that doesn't help Christians grow.
A person that had God's gift for teaching leads students through
the process of making new skill stronger with hands-on practice.
When you learn something new, teach that to someone else.
If you want to teach the Bible,
you must Know Christ -- not just know about Him.
you must know His Word --
studying the Bible daily for your faith.
you must live as God shows us in His word.
The Bible itself shows us how to teach.
The Bible’s way for teaching is not lecturing.
Successful teachers in the Bible were MENTORS.
Teachers and students lived together, worked together.
Students learned from the teachers' words and actions,
while the student shared in the teacher's work.
In Matthew, the last chapter, before Jesus' ascension,
He told us to "make disciples."
A more correct translation is: "do mentoring."
We find various kinds of teachers in the Bible:
An example for an "answer man" was APOLLOS [Acts 18; 1 Cor. 1]
An example for a mentor was BARNABAS [Acts 11-15].
First he mentored PAUL,
then he mentored MARK.
Later, Paul mentored TIMOTHY.
Jesus was both an "answer man" and mentor.
Ephesians chapter 4 names "teacher" as one of God's special gifts to the Church.
But the Bible also commands that various people have responsibilities for teaching.
(1) Parents, teach your children (Deut. 6, Proverbs, Eph. 6)
(2) Older women, teach younger women (Titus 2:3)
(3) Pastors (2 Tim 2:2)
(4) Every mature Christian (Hebrews 5:11-14)
Yes, the Bible says that we all have responsibility for
(1) teaching other people about Christ, and
(2) teaching them how to live connected with Him.
Supplemental Scripture
Titus 2:1-8
Titus 2:1-8
But you must tell everyone what to do to follow the true teaching. Teach older men to be self-controlled, serious, wise, strong in faith, in love, and in patience.
In the same way, teach older women to be holy in their behavior, not speaking against others or enslaved to too much wine, but teaching what is good. Then they can teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be wise and pure, to be good workers at home, to be kind, and to yield to their husbands. Then no one will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us.
In the same way, encourage young men to be wise. In every way be an example of doing good deeds. When you teach, do it with honesty and seriousness. Speak the truth so that you cannot be criticized. Then those who are against you will be ashamed because there is nothing bad to say about us.