Focusing On JesusThe Teacher

What volumes of information are contained in Mark's simple statement ""The common people heard Him gladly"" (Mark 12:37)! While never wanting to fall into the old trap of treating Jesus as simply a wise sage or great teacher we cannot doubt that He was the greatest Teacher of all time. Let us notice the characteristics of Jesus as teacher, so that when we have opportunity to teach the Gospel we can duplicate in our lives the patterns of the Master.

Jesus went out of His way to be interesting to listen to. One expects that the reason the common people heard Jesus gladly is that He told stories, employed visual aids, used illustrations, turned conventional teaching on its head, and quoted scripture all together in a wonderful way that mesmerized the attention. One was never sure what Jesus might say next (even commending a Samaritan!) and His seemingly innocent parables had an incredible way of biting down hard on the listener with a powerful scriptural application. Jesus was not an entertainer by any means but He worked hard to do more than deliver dry academic discourses. He knew the gospel message was the most important massage men and women would ever hear and He did everything He could to make it an interesting and appealing message.

Jesus taught the truth. Here is the cornerstone of Jesus' teaching. As the One who as the very personification of the truth He could do no less. The exchange of John 8:44-45, where Jesus addresses His adversaries by saying ""Because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?"" (John 8:45-46) well sums up Jesus' teaching career. In every situation and every circumstance He spoke only that which was absolutely true. Thus, we can absolutely trust every statement of the Lord's. If Jesus says that God made man and woman at the beginning (as He does in Matt. 19:4) then we can know for certain that evolution is false. If Jesus tells us that Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days (see Matt. 12:40) then we can know all attempts to write Jonah off as mere fiction are dead wrong. If Jesus says David wrote Psalm 110 (as He does in Matt. 22:45) then it is so. Jesus only spoke that which was so, which is why His very words are the words of eternal life.

Jesus unashamedly confronted sin and denounced it. Part of Jesus' teaching style was the clear application of truth. Jesus was not content to just talk about what is right, He would ferociously demand His listeners started doing what was right. Sadly, many use John 8's story of the woman taken in adultery to pretend Jesus was indifferent toward sin. Yet the end of the story aligns with all of Jesus' teaching: ""go and sin no more"" (John 8:13). That is pretty plain, isn't it? With regularity Jesus called people to repentance. This meant Jesus was willing to call sin exactly what it is and to say forthrightly that people cannot continue in it if they wish to go to heaven. The Lord had no interested in feel-good preaching or pep rallies that leave everyone pumped up but still in sin. His unwillingness to compromise with the spirit of His times inevitably got Him killed. Likewise, His followers today may find themselves under attack for speaking the truth about sin, but we must bravely follow Jesus' example.

Jesus treated seekers with dignity and concern. Even as Jesus preached truth straightforwardly it is important to see how careful Jesus could be with sincerely interested people. Some times we have swung from the extreme tolerance our society proclaims to a hard- , verbally abusive style that has no room for love and concern for the sinner. One cannot find such in Jesus' life. Whether it was the woman at the well in Samaria or even His own apostles Jesus shows incredible patience, incredible willingness to answer questions, and a tremendous desire to bring people along toward truth. Only those who had demonstrated by their repeated actions that they had no place for truth in their life received His harsh condemnations and verbal blasts (see Matthew 23). We do well to remember such today.

To teach like Jesus taught is to combine a love for truth with a love for souls. With that kind of motivation we will make every effort to properly and carefully teach those around us the Good News about Jesus Christ.