Doug Batchelor: Hello friends. Welcome to "Sabbath School Study Hour." We're glad that you could join us today for the study. We're going to be going through a very important lesson. We're continuing in our lesson dealing with the subject of education, and in a moment, we'll get to our lesson today talking about Jesus as the master teacher. It's lesson number five, but before we do, we want to tell you about a free offer we have today. And it's a classic book written by Joe Crews. If you've never read this one before, you'll really be blessed by it. It's called "Christ's Human Nature," and if you'd like a free copy of this there's a few ways you can do it.
One, we can send you one if you call us, if you're in North America, 866-788-3966. That's 866-788-3966. You might say 866-Study-More would be an acronym for that. We can text the book to you. If you'd like a text, just type in SH017, SH017 to 40544. And, of course, you can always go to the Amazing Facts website. Under our free library you'll find this in that bouquet of materials there. "Christ's Human Nature." You'll be blessed if you do.
And before we have our prayer, I just want to remind you about something very exciting that's coming up. Matter of fact, it's going to be engaged by the time this broadcasts. And we got--our broadcast here happens two different ways. One, it's going out live a little in advance of when the rest of the country studies it, and then it's rebroadcast on the day of. Well, there is an event that begins October 23. For some of you that are watching the replay of this, it's probably already started, and it's on "Revelation Now."
It's a special, global, evangelistic broadcast where we're going to be talking about some of the most important themes of prophecy during one of the most important times to do public evangelism. Right now, with all that's happening in the world with the natural disasters and the pandemics and the social and political unrest, people are wondering, "What in the world is going on?" Well, the Bible has those answers, and you've got friends and neighbors that would like to know more about this, and so simply encourage them to go to the website, revelationnow.com. That's easy, revelationnow.com. It's a free program. Everybody can participate in their home and in their church, and you will be blessed. You can be involved in leading other souls to Christ.
And, by the way, for those that participate in the "Revelation Now" program, if you register and join the groups, you will find people in your area that are also participating. And we can give you information on how you can follow up interests that are connecting with the program, that are in your ZIP code or in your district so that they can ultimately be part of God's church. And so, once again, go to revelationnow.com, and you can watch online. It will be here on "Amazing Facts TV" via Facebook, be on 3ABN, and other opportunities, and so we hope that you'll be blessed by that. October 23 to November 14.
All right, with that I think it's time we pray and get into today's study. Loving Lord, we just thank You again for the gift You gave us in Your Word and the gift You gave us in Jesus who is the living Word. And as we focus our attention on Him today and His example to us as a teacher, I pray that we can all be edified and learn and follow. And we pray this in Jesus's name, amen.
All right, well, today we're dealing with the subject in our lesson on education. We're looking at Jesus as the great educator, and we have a memory verse that comes to us from 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, and it says, "For this is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone forth in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The only way that you and I can behold the Father is really as it is reflected in the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus came as a reflection of the Father, and I should probably begin by just laying out some simple but important truths. Christ came principally for three reasons. One, He came to show us what the Father is like, and we'll get into those Scriptures more in just a moment. Two, He came as--to give us an example that we should live as He lived. He teaches us not only about what God is like. He teaches us how we should live for and love each other. And the third reason, He came as a sacrifice, our substitute, to die in our place, and each of us then must accept Him as our sacrifice, and then we study Him as our example and our demonstration of who the Father is. So, with that in mind, let's talk a little bit about how was Jesus a great teacher. How did He teach? What was His method? Well, for one thing--this is not in your lesson, but I thought I wanted to start out with this. Jesus astonished His students.
You know, I think it's so important for teachers out there. Keep your students engaged. Yeah, keep their attention. That doesn't mean you need to resort to silly antics to do it, unless there's a good lesson in it, but I struggled through school, I've just got to tell you. And one of the big problems I had when I was in school is every now and then I had some boring teachers, and, you know, I learned to hold my breath for four minutes and ten seconds. You can do it. People who hold the records, I think it's like 16 minutes. People can hold their breath much longer than that, but most people, after a minute, they're ready to pass out.
But I can hold my breath for four minutes and ten seconds, and one of the ways I learned doing that is I was so bored in class. There was this big Wes clock on the wall. I'd wait for it to get to where it buzzed me on to the next class so I could get through the school day I was enduring, and I'd just see--I'd hyperventilate and see how long I could hold my breath, just for something to do. I'd count the ceiling tiles because sometimes the teachers were so difficult to listen to. You know, if you're going to be a teacher, be interesting. The Bible says Jesus astonished His students, and one way that you do that is when people hear the truth for the first time it's amazing. That's why I like the name "Amazing Facts." Right away, people say, "I want to hear something amazing. I want to be amazed." And the word "astonished" here, it actually means in the original--it means shocked, amazed, struck.
And when they heard Him teach--let me give you a few verses that help illustrate this. Luke 4:32, "And they were astonished at His teaching, for His Word was with authority." Jesus taught with conviction. You know, sometimes you hear people teach, and they go, "Well, you know, it could mean this, and it could mean that. Nobody really knows exactly what it means." And that doesn't leave you with anything definitive to hang your faith on, so there needs to be a teaching with conviction. You read similar verse after He gives the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7. Jesus says in verse 28, "And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes." No, the scribes didn't teach with authority.
I think that if you're going to be a teacher, a Bible teacher, if you're teaching on any kind of subject, don't be wishy-washy about it. Teach with authority. Teach with conviction. Put yourself in what you're teaching so that people know that you really believe what it is that you're actually saying. So, He taught them, and they were astonished because it was so unusual. Another reason we know that Jesus was an interesting teacher, how many times was it that Christ taught all day long? And the Bible tells us that He said, "Look, we need to send the people away to eat, because they haven't eaten all day."
They'd sit and listen to Him for hours, and yet most churches where I preach or teach, I know if I go a little long I can see the body language of the people out there listening. And they start kind of looking around, and they start--they try to--you know, and I've done it before myself. They try to find graceful ways to look at their watch without looking like they're looking at their watch, and so they kind of take their hand and slip it upon their sleeve, and look down, wondering, "How long is this going to be? Well, he's going long. Dinner is going to be cold when we get home."
But Jesus's teaching was so engaging, people lost track of time. You've probably heard some good storytellers before. That they can just keep you on the edge of your seat indefinitely, or you maybe heard a good sermon or something where you just can't wait to hear more in a series. Well, when we teach we want to follow the pattern of Jesus and be an interesting teacher. That means you may need to look around for some sermon illustrations that provide windows into the subject, help people to see what you're saying.
If you quote--and I do this a lot, I know. If you just quote one verse after another, people's eyes can tend to glaze over. But if you create pictures for them to see while you're teaching, a lot of people think in pictures. Help them to see what you're saying. Seeing is a very important part of teaching the gospel. The Bible tells us that Paul saw the Lord, that Zacchaeus wanted to see the Lord. That the thief crucified with Christ, that was saved, he saw the Lord, and so we need to be able to help people see the message.
You're looking in Matthew chapter 13, verse 54. "When He had come into His own country, He taught them in the synagogue," taught them in their synagogue, "so they were astonished, and they said, 'Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?'" Astonished again. Look in John chapter 7, verse 45. "Then the officers came to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who said to them, 'Why have you not brought Him?'" See, the chief priests and Pharisees sent the temple guard, and they said, "Go arrest Him." They didn't want to do it themselves because they were afraid of the mob, so they sent the temple guard.
Well, the temple guard stood on the outside of the crowd, and they listened to Jesus teach. They thought, "We'll arrest Him at the end of His sermon." But as they were listening, they just could not bring themselves to arrest Him. Why? They said, "Why haven't you arrested Him?" They said, "No man ever spoke like this man," and so there was definitely something powerful about the teachings of Jesus, and, of course, we have those teachings in the gospel.
I sure wish I could hear an audio tape and, of course, I understood Aramaic, but I wish I could hear an audiotape of Jesus and hear His voice, hear the inflection, hear the melody, hear the resonance of how He taught, because, you know, a lot of what happens when you're teaching is not just the words. It's in the tone. It's even the body language, what's happening visually when a person's teaching that says a lot. And I look forward in heaven to asking my angel to take me to the video library so I can say, "I want to see the videos of Jesus teaching and how He could keep thousands of people spellbound all day long, hanging on every word." Even the children were not distracted. They were keyed in on what He was saying. "Never a man spoke like this man."
All right, so one of the principal things that Jesus did as a teacher is He came to reveal the Father, and when we are teaching, of course, we want to be revealing Christ, and in revealing Christ we're revealing the Father. In John chapter 1, verse 18, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who's in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."
Now, the reason this issue is so important is because the world doesn't know God. Eternal life comes from knowing God. The Bible tells us, "This is life eternal," John chapter 17, "that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You've sent." What will Jesus say to the lost? "I don't know you." And the world has a terrible misconception of God. Now, there is--some people view God as a policeman up in the sky with a billy club, and He's waiting for us to do something wrong so He can thump us. Or they view Him like an angry Greek god that is just watching so that He can be entertained by zapping us with lightning, or sending us through trial and tragedy so that it could entertain Him and keep Him interested.
Or then there's the opposite extreme. Some think that God is sort of a heavenly Santa Claus, like a grandfather that you can do no wrong. They don't see Him as a just King. And even in the church, there's a lot of people out there that have terrible misconceptions of God. Not understanding who God is, yeah, it can lead to not knowing Him and not being ready for His coming. We need to know who He is. Jesus came to clear up the misconceptions about who God is, to show us in word and in deed and in action what God is like.
You know, sometimes I'm frustrated because I meet people, and they say, "You know, I like the God of the New Testament, but I don't care much for the God of the Old Testament." And I'm always amazed by that because I say, "They're the same God." They say, "Oh, well, in the Old Testament you've got plagues and blood and fire. In the New Testament you got Jesus's love and mercy and forgiveness." And I say, "Wait a second now. In the Old Testament you've got God's love." He says, "My mercies are new every day. I love you with an everlasting love."
And in the New Testament, go to Revelation, you got blood and fire and plagues, and so it is the same God. That's why Jesus said--well, let me read it to you here. Revealing the Father. John 14, verse 6, and I'll be reading through verse 11. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me--" Notice the emphasis on "knowing Me." "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father," so that's the key right now. If we know Jesus, you will know the Father, because they're the same. Christ is a mirror image. They are one of the Father. "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him because you've seen Him." And they don't know what He's saying. Christ is saying, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." "Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it's sufficient for us.'"
Now, there's nothing wrong really with what Philip's saying, because after all, what did Moses say? What was that audacious prayer of Moses? He said, "Lord, let me see Your glory." And God said, "Well, no man can see My face and live." And so, for those in the Bible where it says they saw the Lord, they probably did not look into the unveiled, undiminished glory of God the Father, because people have seen the glory of the Son, but no man has seen the unveiled glory of the Father.
There are times when Michael, Christ in His pre-incarnate position, he appeared, when Joshua knelt down before the commander of the Lord, and when Jacob wrestled, and when Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson, they said, "We've seen God. We're going to die." Well, they probably saw God the Son, who veiled His glory in some way, but no man has seen the Father at any time. The best we can do is to look at the Father through Christ.
remember several times-- you ever seen an eclipse? Well, you can't stare into the sun in an eclipse. It's very bad for your eyes. You can injure your eyes. But I remember even as a kid in New York City, we had a comparatively clear day, and there was an eclipse, and we went to Central Park. And our teacher told us how to make a pinhole in a piece of cardboard, and then we had a piece of paper, and we let the light of the sun shine through that pinhole on the piece of paper. Held it at a certain distance, and you could see the moon moving across the sun through that little pinhole. We couldn't look directly into the undiminished glory of the sun, or we couldn't handle it. You'd be injured.
But we can look through the reflection, and this is sort of what Jesus did. He came kind of like--when I used to weld--I used to do a lot of welding, and when you use an arc welder it's a very bright light, and it will hurt your eyes. And so, they got a special lens you wear on your helmet. The helmet is partly to keep the sparks from burning off your hair. No, that's not what happened to mine, but you've got the sparks, keeps you from burning you. But then, there's that little tinted--it's like hyper-powered sunglass that shields your eyes. You can look at it, but you have to look at it through this special filter, or it will just burn your eyes. Christ came to basically filter down the glory of God so we could see God. We could handle it. That's why Paul says when it gets--you finally do get to heaven in your glorified body and your glorified eyes, says then we will see His face. And that's why Paul says the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard the things that God has prepared for those that love Him, because in our earthly condition we couldn't handle the glory.
So, "God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." We can see what God is like through Jesus, so Philip says, "Lord, show us the Father." Like Moses, "I want to see Your glory." And Jesus said, "Have I been with you this long and you've not known Me, Philip?" He calls him by name. There's tenderness there. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."
When we are moved by the Spirit, when we look at the Son, we are seeing the Father, because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. They are perfectly united. They're interconnected, and so their characters-- there's no conflict in their characters. And so, when the Spirit speaks to us, when Jesus speaks to us, when we behold Them, we see the Father. And then, He says, "Believe that I'm in the Father, the Father in Me, or believe Me for the sakes of the works themselves." Look in 2 Corinthians 4:6, and this is, of course, our memory verse. "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
There's a light of God that shines in our hearts through Christ. We can actually experience the Father in our hearts. And if you look in Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation," still talking about the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation. Jesus is the image of God. Now, we're not supporting idolatry or making images, but Christ is the reflection of what God is like. And if you look at it in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2 and 3, it says, "God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He's appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds."
That's an interesting verse, because it says He not only made all things, He made other worlds, it's plural there. "Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person--" And so Jesus is the express image of the person of God. So, when you talk about the Holy Spirit, He's a little difficult to describe. Holy Spirit's got--you know, He's sometimes portrayed as fire, wind, dove, water, these ethereal forces. And so, when I say picture Jesus, you get a picture in your mind, and depending on the paintings that you saw when you were growing up, probably one of those will drop into your mental picture.
When I say picture the Father, typically people picture the Father with a body with arms and legs and a head and eyes and a mouth, often a beard. I've never heard anybody say, "I pictured God the Father, and He didn't have a beard." It's just hard to picture God the Father shaving, you know? So, He's got a beard, and He's often sitting on His throne, not so much walking around, but He's got a body. And so, Christ is the express image of the Father.
We do believe that we were made in the image of God, and we were made with bodies, and there's probably a lot of similarity between our body and that of Adam and that of God, and so Christ is a reflection of that. "Express image of His person, and upholding--" Still in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2 and 3, and it says, "Upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." And then, if you look in John 12, verse 44. "Then Jesus cried out and said, 'He who believes in Me is not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me." How could that be more clear? That if you see Jesus, you're seeing the Father.
Sometimes people have a misconception, talking about the misconceptions about God, that God is the angry judge. He's up in heaven, He's sitting at His judicial bar, and He's got a great big wooden mallet in His hand, and He's just waiting to slam the mallet down and say, "Guilty, guilty, execute him." And Jesus is the loving God. He's up there, and He spreads out His nail-pierced hands. He's pleading with the Father, "Father, please don't be angry. Forgive them for My sake." "Oh, all right, if you insist." And so, it's almost got the picture of God the Father is the angry one, and God the Son is the one who's the merciful one pleading for us, but that's the wrong picture. Jesus said God so loved the world He sent His son, and Jesus said the Father Himself loves you, so Jesus is a reflection of the love of God for us.
And not only is God a good judge. He is a just King and a Judge. Jesus is also going to be a judge, and the Bible talks about the wrath of the Lamb. So, people often focus on just the mercy of Jesus and the justice of the Father, but you've got the justice of Jesus and the mercy of the Father. You've got both of Them because They're the same. They both have all those characteristics of being loving, longsuffering, meek, merciful, just. There is judgment, there is wrath, and there's ultimate punishment. They both have all those characteristics that you see, and Jesus came to reflect that. And you read, of course, in John, the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." And so, we see that God the Father is full of grace and truth, and that's reflected in Jesus, God the Son.
You know, there's a good quote in the book "Education" by E.G. White on the subject. It says, "Everything Jesus did in His life on Earth had a single purpose: the revelation of God for the uplifting of humanity." In a little bit we're going to be doing that "Revelation Now" program, and the first words in the book of Revelation are "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him." And so, the whole book begins by saying, "This is a revelation of Christ, and Christ is a revelation of the Father," and so says that there in that quote.
You know, there's a touching story that's given in the lesson. When Billy Graham was going through a hospital, it was a field hospital during one of the overseas wars, and came to visit the troops, and he's getting a tour with a general. And they pass by one particular soldier who is in very grave condition, and he must stay on his stomach, and he's in a metal contraption. And he's been severely injured, and he's kind of in traction, and he can only look down below the canvas that's holding him. And when he hears that the general is walking by, he said, "General, I'd like to see your face." He said, "I'd like to see who it is I've been fighting for."
Well, the only way the general could talk to him was he had to get on his hands and knees and scooted underneath the soldier's contraption that was holding him and looked up into his face. And Billy Graham said he saw a tear fall from the soldier's eyes on the face of the general. He stayed under there, and he talked to the soldier. And Jesus did that. He showed compassion on us, and He got down so that we could see His face.
You know, someday we'll be in heaven. We'll see the face of the Father. God Himself will be with us. We've been separated from God by sin, but that's the purpose of the plan of salvation. When you read about Michael in the Bible, the archangel, people wonder, "Who is he? Is he the same as Gabriel, just a different angel?" People often get confused about this and, you know, in the church, some of the churches, they say you got a angel called Michael, and you got an angel called Gabriel. Then, you got an angel called Raphael. Raphael is not mentioned in the Bible, but in the Catholic Church they've got Raphael thrown in there somehow. But Michael in the Bible is called the archangel. Most of the Protestant theologians believe this is really--this is the captain of the Lord's army. It is a pre-incarnation name for Christ.
No, Jesus is not an angel. We don't believe that. We believe Jesus is the perfect Son of God. He is equal with the Son of God, but the word "angel" simply means "messenger," and the primary messenger to our Earth is Christ that God sent. And now, let me give you some proof for that. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel," the Lord with the voice of the archangel. The Bible tells us in Daniel chapter 12, "At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince that stands for the children of thy people." Who is our great Prince of princes that stands on our behalf? That's Christ.
You read in the book of Jude, verse 9. It says then Michael, when disputing with the devil over the body of Jesus, he comes to resurrect Moses-- not the body of Jesus, the body of Moses. He comes to resurrect Moses. And he says, "The Lord rebuke thee." Same words that Jesus spoke to the devil in the wilderness, and so he comes to resurrect. Jesus is the resurrection.
So, when you look at the characteristics of Michael in the Bible, the few times he appears, he is usually--it's a term that describes the pre-incarnate Christ, the great messenger of God. And then you go to Revelation, and you got the head of all evil. It says the dragon. Now, the dragon is a symbolic name for the devil. It's a symbolic name in Revelation. He fights Michael, and his angels fight. Well, if the word "dragon" is a symbolic name, we shouldn't be surprised if the word "Michael" is a symbolic name for the greatest power of good, which is Christ. So, yes, many of the Protestant scholars believe that--people like Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry and others-- they believe Michael is just really a name for the pre-incarnate Jesus. In Matthew 11, verse 27, "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father," meaning no one on Earth really knows the Son, except the Father. "Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him." And so, Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. How do we get that revelation? Through constant association with Him. We'll be talking about this later in our sermon today when we talk about abiding in Christ. John 5:37, "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. And you have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form."
Now, there again you've got those verses that remind us no man has seen God the Father, but Jesus, who is the Son, He came to reveal Him. And Christ is the revelation, of course, of God. John 17, verse 20, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me--" Now, there is an important truth, that God the Father was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. "You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world might believe that You sent Me."
Now, how important is it for us to understand who the Father is? Says that "the world might believe that You sent Me." It's through seeing the Father in the Son, knowing who God is. "And the glory that You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one." That's a pretty tall order. The oneness that the Father and the Son experience, through the Holy Spirit in us we can experience with God the Father and the Son. Wow, don't you want that experience? "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and that You've loved them and You've loved Me."
So just picture for a second here. You've got this raspberry juice, and you've got this blueberry juice. And you pour the raspberry juice into the blueberry juice, and now you've got a new berry cocktail when you have those two things, the Father and the Son in one. But then, you take the water, that's us, and you pour it in, and all of a sudden it takes on all the characteristics of the raspberries and the blueberries. And so, you've got God in Christ, and then They are together. They are one, but when we are in Christ we are also in the Father. We get in the mixture. We get all the sweetness and the nutrients of that relationship.
So, there's another great quote from the book "Education," page 74 through 76, and it said, "Christ came to restore this knowledge. He came to set aside the false teachings by which those who claim to know God had misrepresented Him. And He came to manifest the nature of His law and to reveal His own character-- in His own character the beauty of holiness." Christ came to tell something about the beauty and the holiness of God and His character. All right, moving on. We're going to talk now about reading the Master's-Teacher's mind, reading into the mind of the Master Teacher. If you look in Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation." So, He said, you know, He was fully equal with God. He's in the form of God. Wasn't robbery for him to compare himself with God. He said, "Before Abraham was, I am." He said that He is like the self-existent One. But, "He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men." So, having the Teacher's mind.
When we have Christ in us, while we might have an experience of God, we're not to act like God in being domineering, but we're to have a spirit of meekness as Jesus did. Jesus came. He said, "Look, I'm your teacher. I'm your Lord and Master, yet I'm kneeling down. I'm washing your feet, so if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet." Said, "I did not come to rule." Jesus did not come to domineer. He didn't come to boss us around. He said, "I've come as one to serve," and so we should be servants as Jesus was.
And then something else that we learn about Jesus is the style of His teaching. Jesus was what you would call-- He used the Socratic method of teaching. Now, that phrase most of you know. The Socratic method of teaching is based on that ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who was famous for teaching his students by asking questions. And from all we read about Socrates, he was a good man. He basically died for not accepting the pantheon of Greek gods, and he said we should spend our time in seeking after God, our lives. And, you know, they made him drink hemlock, but he was famous for teaching his students by asking the right questions to draw out answers and teaching them to think for themselves and how to arrive at the right conclusions.
Now, it's not that Jesus learned this from Socrates, but I think probably the Spirit of God, of Christ taught this to Socrates, because all knowledge comes from God, really. But Jesus used this method of asking questions to teach and let me give you an example. And he started young in doing this. Luke chapter 2, verse 45, "So when they didn't find Him--" They're coming--this is after--Jesus was 12 years old. He went to the Passover with His family, and when the Passover was over all the family got in the procession, started heading back north, up towards Nazareth. And in the process, after a couple of days, they noticed, "We haven't seen Jesus."
Oh, He was 12, you know, and He's pretty responsible, and they weren't worried about Him, but after two days they didn't see Him, then they really started to fret. They turned around, they backtracked, and they couldn't find Him anywhere. And they asked everybody and finally they all went back to the place where they last saw Him in the temple. And there He was, and it says, "Now when after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and," here's this precocious 12-year-old genius, "asking them questions." And He was probably asking questions that would evoke answers, and He was teaching somewhat through these questions, because as a 12-year-old you wouldn't want to dare say, "Listen up, sit up, pay attention, I'm going to teach you, you Pharisees, something," so He did it meekly in the form of a question. "And all who heard Him were astonished."
There you've got His astonished teaching again. "All who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and His answers." So, He's not only asking, he's answering. "And when they saw Him, his parents were amazed, said, 'Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You sorrowing, anxiously.' He said to them, 'Why did you seek Me? Did you not know I must be about My Father's business?'" There He is again, here reflecting the teaching and the business of the Father. "But they did not understand the statement which He made to them." Jesus taught with questions. This is part of a good education. Matthew 16, verse 13 through 16.
You know, when I teach-- I do evangelism, and I'm probably more of a teacher than a preacher. And, of course, depends on what your concept is. I know there are some pastors that--they kind of romp around the stage and yell and scream and wave their arms, and they call that preaching, but I think I like to use questions. And if you've ever been to one of our evangelistic programs, I started using lessons with a question-and-answer format right when I entered into evangelism, because if you just sit there and drone on you lose people's attention. But every time you ask someone a question, you grab their attention.
We're kind of trained by our social lives that when someone asks us a question, you've got to redirect your attention and tune back in, and so Jesus often did this. He asked questions. And Matthew chapter 16, verse 13, "When they came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He said to His disciples, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' They said, 'Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said, 'But who do you say that I am?'" Again, another question. "Simon Peter answered and said, 'You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"
Was Jesus asking because He didn't know? He knows all things. He knew the answer. He was asking to draw out their thinking. Did they really know who He was? And sometimes you need to articulate it. He got them to say it. In Luke 20, verse 24, Jesus said, "'Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?' They said, 'Caesar's.'" Again, He's going to teach them by asking questions. Luke 10:36. And I could use a lot of examples of this. He said, "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him that fell among thieves?" He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. He closes with a question to get them to think. They had a hard time admitting that it was the Samaritan that was the neighbor. Luke 7:42, "And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, which of them will love them more?" And He poses this question to Simon. He's teaching with questions, that's Socratic method.
Now, let's talk a little bit about--well, wait. I want to tell you a story talking about Jesus as the Master Teacher. I remember hearing this story-- I believe it's true-- about years ago, there was a missionary that was going to some islands in the Hebrides, and the boat he was on, it was caught in a storm, and it was turned over, capsized. Well, he was separated from the other three missionaries that he was traveling with, and they somehow made it into the lifeboat. He got a piece of driftwood. He ends up floating for a day and a half, nearly dying of thirst. He's washed up on this island. In the process of being washed up on this atoll island, he's beaten on the coral by the waves as he comes in. He tries with his hands and his feet to walk on the coral without cutting himself up too badly, and he terribly scars his hands and his feet and his side and his head. He gets to the island, and he collapses. The natives see him, and they're not threatened because he's obviously very weak, and they kind of give him some coconut water and nurse him back to health, and he ends up living with them.
Takes a while. He learns the language. He doesn't have his missionary materials, he doesn't have his Bible, but he does his best to show them what Jesus was like. And so, he has some knowledge of medicine. He healed some of their sicknesses. He prays for them and many of them are made well. As much as he learns their language, he tries to demonstrate what the gospel is. Well, he lives with them for several years, and he goes and he visits the different villages that are on this island.
So, ten years later a boat with three missionaries paddles up to this island. Lo and behold, it's his companions that had launched on this original mission trip with him, that were separated in the shipwreck. They had ended up landing on another island and after some successful work there now they're going to outlying islands. They come to this island, and they've got a translator with them. And they assemble the villagers, and the villagers all eagerly come down to the shore, and they say, "We're going to teach you about the true God." And they've got these picture scrolls. They've got two or three pictures that they use to try to teach about Jesus and the plan of salvation with the translator.
Well, it so happens their friend, he's in another village on the other side of the island. They don't know that he's there. He doesn't know that they're on the same island. Well, as they begin to teach about Jesus, they finally come to the picture that shows the cross. And they're all listening. They're going, "Yes, yes, yes," in their native tongue, and they seem very interested as they sit with their legs crossed on the shore, and they're looking entranced. And then, they say, "And Jesus died." And these men become very disturbed. "And they put Him in a grave." And they got really upset, and they began to jabber and chant. And the translator says, "They seem very upset. They say you're liars." And they say, "Well, why do they say that we're liars?" They say, "He's not dead. He's on the other side of the island."
Their friend had been living so much like Jesus among them, that when the other missionaries came and began to talk to them about Jesus, they immediately said, "Oh, we know who that is. This is our friend, this missionary that has been living among us, who's been healing and teaching and loving us." He had lived like Christ so much that they mistook him for Christ. That's what we're supposed to do, is as Jesus came to reflect the Father-- He says, "As the Father sent Me, so send I you." We are to go, then, and we are to reflect God.
Yeah, right, here's a question from social media. They're asking, "Can we have the same relationship with the Father that Jesus had?" Well, to say it would be identical would be probably presumptuous, but through the Spirit, in the same way that we're connected with Christ or Christ is connected with the Father, we can be connected with Jesus. And Jesus actually says there in John 17, "As I am in the Father and the Father is in Me," so we are to be in Christ. He wants us to have that Spirit-filled experience. And isn't that your longing? I mean, the greatest longing of my life is to have Christ in me, the hope of glory, amen? That's what we're all yearning for and longing for.
Well, I've got a little left and a little time. It says, "Jesus is the master teacher and reconciliation." Colossians 1:19 through verse 22, "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and that by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled--" in spite of how wicked we might have been, He can reconcile us-- "in the body of His flesh through His death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight." Yeah, He can make us one with Him in reconciliation.
And then, if you look in 2 Corinthians 5:16, "Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, and yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and He's committed to us a word of reconciliation."
So, reconciling means, you know, if people are separated. A pastor, if he's doing marriage counseling, tries to bring reconciliation. We were separated from God by our sin. Christ came to reconcile us to the Father. We, as priests of God, are to be reconciling the world to Christ. We do similar work.
Question from social media. "Is Jesus still teaching us now through the Holy Spirit?" Yeah, Christ said, "It's expedient for you that I go away, that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, might come, and He will lead you into all truth," so it is--the Holy Spirit, of course, is glorifying Christ. It says, "He, the Spirit, will bring to your remembrance all things that I've said." And, of course, some of the last words of Jesus is, "I will be with you always, even unto the end."
Well, then, we go to the last section. It talks about the Master's-Teacher's first pupils, and then here we read about the wonderful story of the shepherds who came. Now, Christ is--you know, you kind of have to push the idea that He personally is teaching, but when He first came into the world during the incarnation, people were taught by what they saw of Jesus, not so much the words He spoke, because he's a child, but when He entered the world in that humble state, and the angel said to the shepherd, "You'll find the babe. This is the sign to you: He'll be in a manger." Oh, it's a trough for feeding animals. It could be wood or it could be stone, but I always thought it was interesting that Jesus, who is the bread of life, was born in Bethlehem, which is the House of Bread, and He came to give us that bread. And He's put in a trough that's made for providing bread for animals, so it says bread, bread, bread. Jesus is the bread of life.
And then, of course, it's also when He comes to the temple. His humility speaks when He was dedicated as a baby, the simple, humble way that He came into our world. And the wise men came, and they bowed down, and they worshiped Him. They just worshiped this child king, and so He was even teaching by his example when He first entered the world as this innocent little infant, and He says we must receive the gospel the same way.
Well, friends, I'm looking at the clock. You don't see it, but I see it. It says I'm just about out of time. If you joined late, I want to remind you about the book, free offer, it's called "Christ's Human Nature." It really is a classic and a powerful book by Joe Crews. You'll be blessed by it. You can receive it by calling, in North America, 866-788-3966. That's 866-Study-More, or you can text SH017 to 40544. God bless, be blessed, and we will look forward to studying His Word with you again next week.
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Announcer: Multimillions have been infected and thousands have died. Race riots are rampant. Is this what the end of the world looks like?
Doug: Hi, friends. This is Pastor Doug Batchelor. You know, the Bible talks about a global crisis at the end of time, and the book of Revelation clearly describes what's ahead. I'd like to invite you to watch "Revelation Now," where I'll be explaining the relevance of Bible prophecy for today.
Announcer: Beginning October 23. Visit revelationnow.com.
Announcer: Amazing facts. Changed lives.
Charlie Green: My life was in turmoil. My wife and I were fighting all the time. I got away from everything and everybody. I don't know. I just always had this emptiness in my heart I wanted filled. I just felt like I went my whole life, you know, just searching for something. And when my father died and that ruined me a lot. My father didn't believe in suicide, and I didn't want to live, but rather than disrespect him I decided I would just become so mean and someone else would do it to me and I wouldn't have to, so I joined the army thinking, "What better place to get killed than in the army?"
And while I was in the army, my daughter got injured. She was in an accident, and she was blind and paraplegic, and it's just like I felt the whole world was coming down on me. And one morning, I just really got mad, and I gave God a cussing like you wouldn't believe. I said, "I'm not Moses. I'm not Abraham, you know? I don't--but I put my sandals on just like they do, and I'm a man. I don't want to know why this is happening to me. I just want to know it's happening for a reason. If You tell me right now that this is all for a reason, then You can stack it on me from here to the end of time, and I will never complain again."
And that little TV came on. It'd been sitting there just static all night long, and there was this minister. He pops up and says, "Today's lesson is from the book of Job. God only lets those suffer that He loves the most." And I said, "Well, that's all you got to say, Lord. I appreciate it greatly" From that day forward, I knew that He was there, and He was in my life and that He would help me.
I went to prison just almost immediately after that. I was in prison for aggravated assault. I was in one of the worst prisons in the state of Tennessee. It was full of gang activity. I got my throat cut, 52 stitches in my neck. I could take these fingers and stick them all the way throughout my mouth. I'd gone to the library that day because it was really about the only thing to do, but I ran across this little book called "The Richest Caveman." This book is hilarious, but it is great. I'm sitting here with this big beard. I'm thinking, "Hey, I know what it's like to look like a caveman, but." [laughing]
I'm not an educated person, I guess you'd say, but I'm a simple guy. I'm just really a simple guy. That's what I loved about Doug Batchelor, because this guy is just straight out as you can get. And my wife now, we've kept contact through all these years, and so much has gone on, and I told her, I said, "Listen now, this is the center of my world right now." And I said, "I really want you to be involved in it with me. I need it." And I said, "And you will, too, if you ever just take hold of it." I told my wife, I said, "Listen, I've got this Amazing Facts Bible study going here, and this is the best way for you to get this information." And I think I said, "Because it's broken down, and they give you questions and--to make you look for these things, you know? So, it's not anyone telling you. You find it on your own, and they teach you to actually use the Bible."
She was there faithfully every Wednesday, until we decided, you know, she wanted to be baptized also. She saw it coming around. The choice was made. On October 4, 2014, my wife and I were baptized in the water, at the same time, and we started our walk together, I guess you'd say. I went through everything that a man could possibly go through, I guess, from marital trouble, loss of family members, death in my family. My children were harmed, and my daughter was handicapped for life. I went to prison, but still I kept my word to God that He could stack it on me as much as He wanted and I'd never question Him again. And I didn't, but I could say this much: He never put nothing on me that I couldn't handle, and He walked with me through it all.
And I'd like to say that-- to anyone who is in prison not to give up. Don't lose hope. Put your faith in the Lord and study and seek Him, and He will seek you. And my name is Charlie Green, and I want you to know that you and Amazing Facts have changed my life.
Doug: What can be more irresistible than a kitten? These guys might look cute now, but some of their ancestors have grown into man eaters. [roaring] We're here in a lion park in South Africa now where we can view these creatures in relative safety, but there's a reason they're known as the king of beasts.
So, what is it that people find so enchanting and frightening about lions? Is it their speed, their claws, their sharp teeth, or all of the above? Might also be some of the stories about man-eating lions. Like in 1898, right here in Africa, they were building a bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya, and two brother lions terrorized the construction process, eating 135 workers.
Did you know lions are mentioned in the Bible over 100 times, and you can find them all the way from Genesis to Revelation? It's usually in reference to their ferocity and how dangerous they are. Of course, Samson killed a lion with his bare hands. David killed a lion. There are man-eating lions in the Bible. The way that they punished criminals was by throwing them in the lions' den, and early Christians were even fed to lions, but, amazingly, as the Bible mentions, not all lions are to be feared.
There have been a few friendly lions in history. For example, in the 1950s, a couple, George and Margaret Westbeau, who lived up at a ranch near Seattle, Washington, adopted an abandoned lion cub. They named it Little Tyke because they felt sorry for it, but they discovered as they tried to feed her she refused to eat any meat at all. They were concerned, thinking there was no hope for this little lioness to survive, and everybody told them the same, because we know in the wild lions survive on almost an entirely meat diet.
Then someone showed the Westbeaus that verse in the Bible that talks about in heaven the animals are vegetarians, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. That encouraged them, and so they began to feed Little Tyke a purely vegetarian diet. Not only did she survive, she thrived, growing into a lion that was over 352 pounds and over 10 feet long. In fact, zoologists that examined Little Tyke when she was full-grown said they have never seen such a perfect specimen of a lioness in their life, a pure vegetarian.
You know, when we hear incredible stories about that, of Little Tyke, it reminds us that God's original plan was to make a world of total peace. He describes it here in the Bible in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 6. "The wolf also will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child will lead them." Nothing is going to hurt and destroy in the new heavens and the new earth that God is going to create.
Wouldn't you like to live in a kingdom where there's perfect peace, where there's no more death or killing or pain? God says that He wants you in that kingdom. The Lamb of God made it possible for you to have an encounter with the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Wouldn't you like to meet Him today?
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