Keep on Teaching

Sermon

Beecher Island Church
Matthew 28:20

March 3, 2019

by Hunter Irvine

+ Open in prayer.

= Matthew 28:20 “…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 is called by many, “The Great Commission.”  To cover the entire passage, I would need three sermons, so I am simply going to address the third command.

I love you all!
   The past year serving here at Beecher Island has been an honor.  I have had some different church ministry positions over the years, and this has been the best church ministry position I have ever had!  I thank you all for being such a blessing to me.  I will miss you all!

Subbing at Longmont Christian School
   The point I want to make to start out is that teaching is hard work.
   Being a substitute teacher is about the toughest teaching position, and I have plenty of stories from being a sub.
   From the spring of 2007 to the summer of 2008, I was a substitute teacher at Longmont Christian School, which is an excellent school.  Now I did not sub much, because I lived down in Denver, so I could not drive all the way up there in time if a teacher called in sick at the last minute.  But I still got a bit of substitute teaching work here and there, and I loved teaching there!
   I subbed for a wide variety of classes.  The most unusual was subbing for the math teacher, since that is not my subject.  Yet that went fine, since they were mature high school students.
   Normally I would only sub for high school classes.  But sometimes they needed someone to sub for the elementary students for gym or music, and I agreed to do that.
   So one day I subbed for the elementary gym teacher.  The absent gym teacher wrote in his plan to me that all I needed to do was have them play dodge ball.
   When the 5th grade gym class started, I lined them all up in the middle of the gym.  Then one at a time I had each student say his or her name.  They confidently did that.  Then I had them do some serious stretches.  I have always been an advocate that stretching is the most important thing to do before sports, and for my rare day in the sun as a gym teacher, I was determined to have them stretch.  Boy did they complain.
   Then we started preparing for dodge ball.
A young lady came up to me.  She seemed really distraught.
   Then she blurted out, “I didn’t want to do it.  My name is actually Ruth.  Austin told me to tell you a different name.  Before class, Austin told everyone to tell you a different name.  We all lied!”
   Sure enough, Austin, who told me his name was Dallas, told every student to give a false name when I called roll.  I did not have a clue until honest Ruth exposed the joke.  What sweet student.  Her honesty made my week.

I think this story is funny, yet I have some teaching stories of rough times that are not funny at all.  When you teach, there are some serious challenges.

Teaching is hard work!!
   All good teaching is hard work!!
I have done a ton of teaching and preaching over the years, for ages from fifth grade to people who are one hundred years old, as a youth pastor and as a volunteer, and teaching is always a challenge.

Preparation is a key to success.  It is much work and much sacrifice, yet the result is good fruit!

So keep on Teaching!
   Brothers and sisters, you all have a special ministry here at Beecher Island Sunday School, and I encourage you to keep on teaching.  Your teaching ministry is needed!  Keep going, even when it gets discouraging.  Teaching about Jesus makes an eternal difference!

   I do not even know what my next church or job is going to be.  However, with the hopes I get a position, I already have a teaching plan.  I have a book picked out, which I can buy a number of copies of at a low price.  We will read some chapters in that book for several months, and I am going to have some people give short talks on some of the chapters.  I have this all planned out for the future, because I enjoy teaching, and I know Bible teaching is needed.

Howard Hendricks
+ Howard Hendricks was one of the leaders in Christian education.  He taught for years at Dallas Theological Seminary.
He wrote a book in 1987 called, Teaching to Change Lives.  I read the book back in 1999 or 2000, when I was a youth pastor, and it helped me to be a better teacher.
   I gave away that book away about four years ago when I was in Ithaca, yet I found a copy this winter for only $3 at Mardel’s.  This past month, I read the book again.  Normally I am the type who can only read a book once.  If I read a book a second time, it means I think it is a great book.  And again after 20 years, this winter I learned some things to improve my teaching.

+ Here is a great story of the power of teaching the Bible, from page 15.
+ And here is a classic story about the life of Dr. Hendricks, from pages 13 and 14.

Love!
The root of all good teaching is love.

Jesus told us to teach everything He commanded.
One of His commands is recorded in John 15: 12
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

The reason Jesus died on a cross for us was because He loves us!

His Hands
The first time I ever served as a substitute teacher at Longmont Christian School, I filled in for the music teacher.  It was a busy week.  One day, during my lunch hour I sat at the desk in the empty classroom eating my bag lunch rather than going to the cafeteria.  Enjoying the quiet time, I looked at the poster on the wall behind the desk.  It was a picture of Jesus sitting outside with a young girl on his lap, and with two children standing next to Him.  The one girl was pointing at His hands.  The words on the poster captured her question, “What happened to Your hands?”

We need to teach the children what happened to Jesus’ hands.  We need to shelter them from graphic details, yet we need to be honest and say what disasters are taking place in this fallen world because of the sins of all people.  We need to tell them of how Jesus died as the substitute for people, in order to save people.  We need to tell them that for anyone who believes in Jesus, he or she will have eternal life with Jesus, and will be sanctified by Christ.

+ Invitation

If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, I invite you today to give your heart to Jesus.  You can receive Him by simply believing.  Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved.

Jesus loves you!!!