One of Jesus’ disciples came to Jesus, and after Jesus ceased praying, said unto Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1). “Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews” told Jesus, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God;….” (John 3:1, 2). He based his faith upon the evidence that Jesus could not do the miracles He did unless He came from God. (Verse 2). Following Jesus’ sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), “the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matthew 7:28, 29). No one should be amazed at this, because Jesus “came out from God” (John 16:27, 28), and taught what God had taught Him (John 8:28), that is, “the way of God” (Matthew 22:16), rightly. (Like 20:21). Of Jesus, Mark said, “And all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.” (Mark 2:13).
Jesus taught in the synagogues (Mark 6:2), daily in the temple (Luke 19:47), from one of the ships, which was Simon’s (Luke 5:1-3), on the mount (Matthew 5-7), in cities (Matthew 11:1), in the streets (Luke 13:26), in and around Galilee and Capernaum (Mark 9:30ff), the coasts of Judaea (Mark 11:1), and so many more. (Luke 8:1, “every city and village”).
Jesus taught by parables. For example, Luke 8 and Matthew 13, the seven (7) kingdom parables. He taught using objective lessons, drawing from foxes (Matthew 8:19-22), fowls of the air or ravens and lilies of the fields. (Luke 12:27ff; Matthew 6:25-34). The order of Acts 1:1, “Jesus both began to do and teach” is not by mistake. Teachers need to be doing what they are teaching. Cf. Romans 2:21-24.
Jesus taught the twelve (12) to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19), which they did. (Acts 5:42; 8:4; 1 Corinthians 4:17; Colossians 1:23). Christians have no less challenge today. (2 Timothy 2:2). This teaching is to be done, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), without change. (1 Timothy 1:3; Galatians 1:6-9). One should be able to give an answer for one’s faith (Romans 10:17) in the right way. (Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:15).
“It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God.” (John 6:45). “Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” will produce vain worship. (Matthew 15:7-9). With this in mind, every teacher should be careful to “speak as the oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11), giving students a “thus saith the Lord” (Exodus 4:22), “Jesus saith” (Matthew 18:21, 22), and such like. Always remember that the precious blood of Jesus saves (Romans 5:9; 1 Peter 1:18, 19), when the lost obeys His truth (1 Peter 1:22), the engrafted word (James 1:21-25) of Jesus, “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey” His commandments. (Hebrews 5:8, 9).
The plea of every accountable person should be, “Lord, teach us….” Sadly, however, most do not look to Jesus, but to some person who frequently tells them something different to the Lord’s word. Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:13, 14). A few will hear the Lord and obey Him. It is estimated that 1,500,000 were present on the day of Pentecost. There were “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven,” present. (Acts 2:5-11). Yet, “the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41). That is about one five hundredth of the audience who did what Peter told them to do, that is, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,….” It is true that there were daily additions (Acts 2:47), indicating that some became Christians, and the numbers grew as time went on. Possibly, some or all of those mentioned in Acts 4:4 were in the audience of Acts 2. One could hope that those mentioned in Acts 5:14 and Acts 6:7 were a part of the audience described in Acts 2. At any rate, the number of disobedient people who heard the inspired message were in the majority, bearing out Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:13, 14, that most would turn a deaf ear to the gospel message. There has been no change from then to now.
Jesus teaches all, “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28-30), and He tells one how to come to Him. Jesus, unlike persons, tells all to hear (Mark 12:29), believe (John 8:24; Acts 8:37), repent (Luke 13:3, 5; Acts 17:30, 31), confess (Matthew 10:23, 33; Acts 8:37), and be baptized by burial in water (Romans 6:1-5; Acts 8:38, 39) for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16), to enter Christ (Galatians 3:26, 27) and His body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:22, 23). You may hear, “Pray the sinner’s prayer” or “Have faith only” from some, but obey Jesus, rather than possibly well-intentioned, but misinformed people. Remember, Jesus will be your “judge at his appearing and his kingdom.” (2 Timothy 4:1).
Jesus teaches all saved people to remain faithful unto the end. (Revelation 2:10; Mark 13:13). This requires being “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
“Search the scriptures” (John 5:39) daily, as did the noble Bereans, receiving the word with all readiness of mind, learning the truth (Acts 17:10, 11), which led them to become believers.
Beloved, do not be misled by any person of any stature. Remember, popular people can be wrong. Go to the word of God for your final verdict. The writer’s father used to tell him that if there were a difference in what God said and what man said, always go with God because He will always be right.
It Is Written 