Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 98:1-5; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24; John 3:13-17
After all, you can’t sell to everybody because different groups of people have different needs and wants. We found this out when we wrote instructions for refilling ink cartridges when we started that business back in '97. For one simple cartridge, I wrote, “drill a 1/16” hole in the top of the cartridge and squirt the ink in through the hole.” A guy who lived in Manhattan, in New York City, called me to ask where to get a drill and I realized that day that I’d need to develop instructions that could be used by people who don’t have drills.
And we’ve seen this in our schools. We use a bit of market segmentation. Each teacher becomes a specialist. One teacher teaches 3rd grade, another teaches 5th grade, another driver’s education, another teaches World Cultures. Our students are grouped, not by interests, not by background, not by anything except their age, with a bit of adjustment for their ability. Let’s put all the kids who turn ten years old this year in one set of classrooms, because we assume they are all pretty much alike. It makes our life easier.
After all, Dodge trucks are all the same and come off the same assembly line, so children who are all the same should come off the same assembly line school, right? That’s how we thought about things in 1920 when the modern school system was developed. Interchangeable parts, the assembly line. If you wreck your truck, you can replace it with an identical model, right? And each truck is equally capable.
And in an assembly line factory, each person is replaceable. If one man gets sick, just put the next man or woman in the slot. All people are the same and replaceable, right, just like drills and trucks and bottles of water? All children learn at the same speed and know the same things and are exactly alike, right?
But children and people are not trucks. Each one of us is a unique image of God, a portrait of God from a slightly different angle. There are similarities, but there are vast differences between different children and different people. Even twins have different personalities. And different children and different people know different things about God and have reached different points in their lives.
People who are the same age are not the same. And each learner needs people who care enough to lead them through their learning. It cannot be done in a mass production, assembly line method. It cannot even be done well with a market segmentation idea. Each learner needs a teacher who cares about them deeply, who will help them through the different stages of life. The government systems cannot provide this - but the church can provide this.
The school systems are stuck in a mass production mentality, with a little nod to the market segment idea – grades – 11 year olds learn this. 14 year olds learn that. Adults learn these things. But all people are different people, unique in their abilities and difficulties. The church is called to help each individual progress through life toward a wonderful relationship with God - and we are called to provide individual teachers and mentors who will care about each person in their care deeply, who will teach them the things of God at their individual rate, and who will be there to direct each person back to God and Christ and the Holy Spirit.
People are in different stages of life. What are those life stages, those stages we should all pass through?
Learning – We go through multiple periods of time in our lives when we are learning things. While it is generally true that young people who are going to school are learning, older people may go through stages when they are learning, also. I had a five year period about ten years ago when I spent four of the five years taking full-time graduate school classes. We learn different things at different times in our lives. After retirement, some of you learned new hobbies, new skills, new ways of dealing with government red tape.
Earning – We spend times in our lives earning a living. We trade our time to create things, to accomplish tasks, to do things for which we receive money which we use to buy food, water, clothing, shelter, and goods and services from other people.
Leading – There are times in our lives when we do not learn or do as much as lead others to do things. We point people in the right direction and lead teams to accomplish things. Without people in the leadership stage of life, very few large projects would be accomplished in this world.
Teaching – Many times our leadership is a special type of leadership known as teaching. A mother teaches her child to tie her shoe laces; a father teaches his son how to drive. A woman teaches a class in ceramics; a man teaches a couple of apprentices to repair car engines. A young woman teaches a group of retirement home people how to knit. And some people earn while they teach, teaching children or college students academic classes.
Moving On – There is also the life stage of moving on. We move on from one stage to another – and eventually we move on from this land of dying bodies to a land of eternal life.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing these life stages and how God wants us to make the most of each stage, moving from one stage to another and sometimes back to another stage. We’ll talk about embracing these life stages and we’ll use biblical examples of those stages. And hopefully, we’ll all come to appreciate where we are in our lives a bit better than we did before.
While it is true that most people pass through different stages of life in mostly the same order, it is not true that people pass through those life stages at the same rate. Everyone is different, everyone is unique, every image of God has a different path to walk. We can no more establish market segments for people, “grouping” to put people into, than treat everyone as interchangeable parts in an assembly line. For we must always realize that every person is different – and God has a different life plan for everyone. And the church can do that, for we are learning to love each other.
Our first stage is Learning. No matter who you are, most of the first twenty years of your life is spent in the learning stage. We learn to walk, We learn to tie shoe laces, we learn to speak, we learn to eat, we learn to go potty – and someone has to teach us all of this. You may be a person who is in the teaching stage with a learner.
But of all the things we are to learn in a lifetime, most will not matter a week after we’ve moved onto the next life. Our understanding of politics will be covered up by the justice that God and Christ dispense. Our understanding of architecture and building methods will be worthless next to the glories of New Jerusalem. Our detailed knowledge of computers, of Windows, of technology will be meaningless, for we all know that computers are of the devil. <grin> Our sports knowledge that occupies so much of our Saturdays and Sundays today will mean as much as knowing the standings of the various gladiators in the year AD 41.
What shall we learn that has eternal value? Let's look at a Biblical example:
Our first reading from Numbers 21 tells us that in the desert, the Israelites were complaining, so God sent poisonous snakes among them, which bit them and killed many of them.
The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
It seems strange to us today, and it seemed strange in that day also, but those people who believed that God had actually spoken to Moses and made a promise and followed through by looking on the bronze snake – those people lived. Those who didn’t believe – they died.
It became part of the teaching of the people of Israel, that when God said to do something, no matter how strange it seems, you should do it because it will work. It will lead to life.
And so the people of Israel made sure that their children always learned about their history – all the times when God said to do something and what happened when people listened…and what happened when people didn’t listen. They learned about God and God’s character.
Over a thousand years later, Jesus referred to this snake episode in our John 3 reading. Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man.
“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
Will you lift up the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, that those learners in your care will look up to Him and believe? Just as the people who believed in the snake recovered from the snake bite, those who believe in Jesus will recover from death itself. Jesus continues:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
And who was Jesus talking to? A group of young men who were in the learner stage, Jesus’ disciples.
Paul pulls it altogether in our Corinthians reading:
“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:”
But most of us are neither Jewish nor Greek. What does this mean for us? We are all in the learning stage repeatedly through our lives. Everything we learn is driven by a handful of reasons:
We want to learn something to make more money…so we can be secure….and avoid death.
We want to learn something to have more prestige so we will be famous…so our name will live longer after we die.
We want to learn something to gain us wisdom…so we can be more secure…and avoid death.
We want to learn something so we can find the way we live forever. And so we investigate and learn all sorts of ideas about healthy living, about magical power, about becoming famous, about UFO’s, about staying young, about keeping our family safe. We look for the sensational, those who claim wonderful things so we can learn how to live.
Yes, in Paul’s day, Jews were demanding signs that showed that a particular man was sent by God. They looked for miraculous healings, prophecies, and similar events.
The Greeks were looking for wisdom, a philosophy, a way of living that made sense and would help people live.
We are the same. We look for wonderful signs and deep wisdom and philosophies.
But Paul had a simple answer:
“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:”
Paul knew that learning about Christ and the crucifixion was the only really critical thing to learn. It is the only thing that will lead you to eternal life - where you will have eternity to learn everything else.
Hebrews 6 says this:
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
This is the list of elementary school for Christians.
· Repent from acts that lead to Death
· Have faith in God
· Understand baptism and get baptized.
· Understand how the laying on of hands changes our Spirit
· Understand the resurrection
· And understand eternal judgement.
These are the six important things to learn and know and teach to others.
If you are a learner, understand that there are “elementary teachings about Christ”. Do you know these things? Do you really understand them? Here are the six critical things about the eternal life.
If you knew without a doubt that the world will be ending next week, would you already know these six things? Would you be able to teach your loved ones, your neighbors, your friends about these things?
Who me? Teach?
Everyone goes through stages in our lives when we teach. For every child who is learning to tie a pair of shoe laces, there is a teacher teaching this to that child. For every child who is learning to fry an egg, there is a teacher teaching this. For every person who is learning the elementary teachings about Christ, there is a teacher. And it isn’t always the pastor. It could be you. Remember: We move back and forth between different life stages.
In Hebrews 5, we find these harsh words from the writer:
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
There is a time when we each are to move from the learner stage to the teacher stage. Even this week, I found out that we need an assistant to help teach the kindergarten class during Sunday School. We also need another assistant to help teach the youngest Pioneer Club group on Wednesday evenings.
And your dear friend needs someone to teach them the elementary teachings about Christ. For they are in the learning stage. Perhaps you are too, but their soul is asking you to learn quickly so you can teach others.
The learning stage is best and proper when it has a purpose. A child learns to read so they can learn many things even faster. A child learns math so they can solve complex real-life problems. A man or woman learns about Christ so they can find their salvation in Christ – and so they can teach others how to find that salvation.
Our Sunday School classes, our Wednesday classes, our Sunday evening class are not just a way to spend time. In those classes and study groups, we teach each other as we learn from each other. We grope our way toward a full and complete salvation, a salvation that began when we believed that Jesus is the Son of God and capable of saving us.
I’ve attended many churches since I became a Christian. And there is something I’ve noticed at most of those churches – it is the older, wiser people who are the most reliable attenders of mid-week and Sunday school groups, but it is those people who reliably attend those small groups while they are younger who make the most difference for God in their lives.
70 and 80 year olds are common at Bible studies because, as a former 90-year old teacher of mine once said, he was “studying for finals.”
But those people who are in their teens, their 20’s, their 30’s, their 40’s – they are the ones who have the time and energy to learn to lead many others to Christ, to start missions that take the Gospel into the world, that find the way to put new ministries online, on television, on the radio. Billy Graham was barely 30 when he held his first Crusade – and his Crusades only changed a little bit after he turned 35. The first few years fixed the successful pattern. And Billy had about sixty years of highly productive ministry.
Young adults – set aside time today to learn the elementary truths of God’s word so you can use those truths to raise your family and fix our world.
Older folk – learn quickly so you can teach others. Don’t bemoan the years lost – learn now so you can make the most of the years you have left.
And those who are in-between – With the developments in medical care, you can learn today and still have twenty or thirty years of purpose in your life. I was fifty years old when I began seminary.
And if you are a child or young person – learn to focus upon what is important in this life and the next. Mark – the young man who wrote the Gospel of Mark, was about 14 years old when he met Jesus. His story of Jesus’ life has led a billion people to Christ. Find adult classes and join us. Or push your Sunday School teachers to teach you deeper. Read your Bible starting with Mark’s Gospel. Learn what is really important – your eternal life is far more important than a video game.
And parents – establish a household where "Bible reading and discussion are just what we do around here." Your family can talk about football at the dinner table – or about Samson. You can talk about politics – or you can talk about King David. You can talk about Taylor Swift – or you can talk about Paul’s tentmaking.
Learning is a stage of life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Yet all of Christ’s sacrifice means nothing to someone who does not learn what it means.
Join us in Sunday School. Join us tonight at 6:30 pm on Sunday evenings. Join us at a Wednesday group.
And learn about the God who loves you enough to die for you.
Amen
But Paul had a simple answer:
“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:”
Paul knew that learning about Christ and the crucifixion was the only really critical thing to learn. It is the only thing that will lead you to eternal life - where you will have eternity to learn everything else.
Hebrews 6 says this:
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
This is the list of elementary school for Christians.
· Repent from acts that lead to Death
· Have faith in God
· Understand baptism and get baptized.
· Understand how the laying on of hands changes our Spirit
· Understand the resurrection
· And understand eternal judgement.
These are the six important things to learn and know and teach to others.
If you are a learner, understand that there are “elementary teachings about Christ”. Do you know these things? Do you really understand them? Here are the six critical things about the eternal life.
If you knew without a doubt that the world will be ending next week, would you already know these six things? Would you be able to teach your loved ones, your neighbors, your friends about these things?
Who me? Teach?
Everyone goes through stages in our lives when we teach. For every child who is learning to tie a pair of shoe laces, there is a teacher teaching this to that child. For every child who is learning to fry an egg, there is a teacher teaching this. For every person who is learning the elementary teachings about Christ, there is a teacher. And it isn’t always the pastor. It could be you. Remember: We move back and forth between different life stages.
In Hebrews 5, we find these harsh words from the writer:
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
There is a time when we each are to move from the learner stage to the teacher stage. Even this week, I found out that we need an assistant to help teach the kindergarten class during Sunday School. We also need another assistant to help teach the youngest Pioneer Club group on Wednesday evenings.
And your dear friend needs someone to teach them the elementary teachings about Christ. For they are in the learning stage. Perhaps you are too, but their soul is asking you to learn quickly so you can teach others.
The learning stage is best and proper when it has a purpose. A child learns to read so they can learn many things even faster. A child learns math so they can solve complex real-life problems. A man or woman learns about Christ so they can find their salvation in Christ – and so they can teach others how to find that salvation.
Our Sunday School classes, our Wednesday classes, our Sunday evening class are not just a way to spend time. In those classes and study groups, we teach each other as we learn from each other. We grope our way toward a full and complete salvation, a salvation that began when we believed that Jesus is the Son of God and capable of saving us.
I’ve attended many churches since I became a Christian. And there is something I’ve noticed at most of those churches – it is the older, wiser people who are the most reliable attenders of mid-week and Sunday school groups, but it is those people who reliably attend those small groups while they are younger who make the most difference for God in their lives.
70 and 80 year olds are common at Bible studies because, as a former 90-year old teacher of mine once said, he was “studying for finals.”
But those people who are in their teens, their 20’s, their 30’s, their 40’s – they are the ones who have the time and energy to learn to lead many others to Christ, to start missions that take the Gospel into the world, that find the way to put new ministries online, on television, on the radio. Billy Graham was barely 30 when he held his first Crusade – and his Crusades only changed a little bit after he turned 35. The first few years fixed the successful pattern. And Billy had about sixty years of highly productive ministry.
Young adults – set aside time today to learn the elementary truths of God’s word so you can use those truths to raise your family and fix our world.
Older folk – learn quickly so you can teach others. Don’t bemoan the years lost – learn now so you can make the most of the years you have left.
And those who are in-between – With the developments in medical care, you can learn today and still have twenty or thirty years of purpose in your life. I was fifty years old when I began seminary.
And if you are a child or young person – learn to focus upon what is important in this life and the next. Mark – the young man who wrote the Gospel of Mark, was about 14 years old when he met Jesus. His story of Jesus’ life has led a billion people to Christ. Find adult classes and join us. Or push your Sunday School teachers to teach you deeper. Read your Bible starting with Mark’s Gospel. Learn what is really important – your eternal life is far more important than a video game.
And parents – establish a household where "Bible reading and discussion are just what we do around here." Your family can talk about football at the dinner table – or about Samson. You can talk about politics – or you can talk about King David. You can talk about Taylor Swift – or you can talk about Paul’s tentmaking.
Learning is a stage of life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Yet all of Christ’s sacrifice means nothing to someone who does not learn what it means.
Join us in Sunday School. Join us tonight at 6:30 pm on Sunday evenings. Join us at a Wednesday group.
And learn about the God who loves you enough to die for you.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment