TEACHER

Perhaps you remember their discipline. School then was very different from school today.

Whatever we learned of the three R's one thing is certain that we did not stop learning when we left school. As an apprentice I was told by the older craftsmen, that one only really began to learn the trade when you had finished your time at 21 years of age and become, what they called in those days, a journeyman craftsman.

A local preacher I knew years ago, of some knowledge and preaching ability was once asked, after a service, which university he had attended as a young man. His rather curt reply was: The University of Human Experience!

The real classroom or school is indeed that of life's experience. Many people and events contribute to that education, but for the Christian the supreme teacher is our Lord Jesus Christ. Not for nothing does the Greek word for, 'disciple' mean 'learner.'

Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…' (Matthew 11.29) He is the best teacher of all. Lines of a famous hymn come to mind:

In order to learn of the Lord we need to be teachable, just as in order to be a Christian we need to have committed ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The four essential qualities for being teachable are as follows:

We need to LISTEN. Remember what the teacher at school used to say, sometimes sharply, Pay attention !  We need to listen for God's voice coming through those channels of prayer, study of the Bible, worship and fellowship and often through the daily experiences of life. What the Old Testament calls, Waiting upon God The prophet, Isaiah says, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…. (40.31)

We need to be HUMBLE. In class at school, you may remember, there was always someone who always shot up their arm first with the answer. You may have been that clever one who irritated the rest of the hapless pupils. Some people can become very conceited but usually, sooner or later, they are cut down to size. We cannot afford to be clever with God. A great friend of ours died recently - a former principal of Cliff College - a very godly man and gifted Gospel preacher and teacher. One of his favourite texts was from Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

We need to be OBEDIENT. It is one thing to have either knowledge or wisdom, it is another to put our learning into practise. And also to continue to be obedient, to remain consistently faithful and obedient. Jesus knew the duplicities of human nature when he concluded His Sermon on the Mount with the parable of the two house-builders - the one who built upon the rock and the other who built upon the sand. Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practise is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock…. (Matthew 7.24).

Finally we need to be TRUSTING. Whenever Jesus talks about believing, or believing in Him, He means putting one's whole trust and confidence in Him or the Father. He refers to taking the step of faith, not holding merely theoretical or intellectual beliefs which we are not prepared to put to the test. Such complete trust in Him can transform the whole basis and direction of our life. Jesus says, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5.24)

So whatever we have already learned of God, there is always more to learn of His great love for us, for the greatest lesson we all need to learn concerns finally the love God has for us as unworthy sinners and the glorious future He has for us in the life of heaven, one with Christ and all who love him and have been redeemed by His grace.

 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path…I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name… Psalms 27 and 86.

And as Wesley puts it in one of the greatest of his hymns:

Douglas Graham

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