28 Days: Day 26
Posted on Feb 2, 2018 in From Pastor Gary, SOULJournal |
Join us this evening @ 7 for a time of intercessory worship at the church.
SCRIPTURE
- Matthew 4:23 (NIV) 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
- Mark 6:34 (NIV) 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
- Mark 9:30-31 (NIV) 30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples.
- Luke 11:1 (NIV) 1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
- Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
OBSERVATION
Jesus came to earth and everywhere He went He taught people. He taught them how to act like God followers, He taught them about the kingdom of heaven, He taught them about the nature and character of the Father. When He ascended into heaven He told us what we needed to do with all that knowledge…it must be allowed to transform the way we live and it was to be passed on to new believers who could then pass it on to other new believers.
UNDERSTANDING
- 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
The New Testament clearly teaches that the gospel is to be taught from generation to generation. Jesus, of course, was the Master Teacher. He taught the apostles, who then taught others, who taught others, who are still teaching others, and so on throughout the church age. In every generation, God has raised up new links in this living chain of faithful men to pass on the good news of Jesus Christ to the people of their day.
The apostles, some for only a brief time before they were martyred, proclaimed the gospel they had received from Christ to other faithful men—prophets, elders, deacons, and many others—among whom was Timothy. It was now Timothy’s turn to entrust the gospel, and all other divinely revealed truths, to others.
In a state invitational track meet during my college years, I represented my team as the second man in the mile relay. The first man ran a fast first leg, and I did well on the second. But soon after I passed off the baton to the third man, one of our best runners, he stopped, walked onto the infield, and sat down. Our first horrified thought was that he had pulled a hamstring or twisted an ankle. I ran across the field and asked, “What happened?” “I don’t know,” he replied, “I just didn’t feel like running anymore.” Understandably, his teammates, the coach, and everyone else from our college were sickened and disgusted. “How could you do that?” we asked. “Don’t you know you’re not just representing yourself, but your team and your school? Have you forgotten all the time the coach has invested in you and that your teammates have invested to get where we are? How could you, in one brief, selfish second, destroy all of that?”
On an infinitely more important level, countless leaders in the church have simply dropped out of the Lord’s service, some with no better reason than the apathy of that collegiate runner.
MacArthur New Testament Commentary, The – MacArthur New Testament Commentary – 2 Timothy.