The Life-Changing Teacher

February 7, 1999

Matthew 5 You are the salt of the earth . . .I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

BEGINNING

Do you remember an outstanding teacher you once had, maybe a long time ago; maybe for you current students just recently? One that stands out in your memory. If you're like me, you've had so many teachers that you've forgotten many of them. Their faces are sort of a blur. But then along the way a few faces stand out. Some good memories. Some not so good. But maybe one or two teachers that really had an influence on your life. Maybe one even helped with a decision in choosing a major or even a career.

As you think back, was that outstanding teacher one that made no demands on you? It seems strange, maybe, but often we remember a teacher who was anything but a pushover. But at the same time they were demanding, they also made us think what they were teaching was for us. They demanded because they thought we could do what they were teaching. There is a powerful motivation in a good teacher's expectations.

[[[I read a story some time ago about a tutor hired by a school system to take lessons to students who had been out with health problems for a period of time. One day the tutor's assignment took him to a hospital, and before he understood what was happening he had been ushered into a sterile room where a very badly burned boy was fighting for his life day by day.

The tutor didn't know how to back our gracefully, so he told the boy he was there to help him with his adjectives and adverbs in English. He went over some material as briefly as he could and excused himself. The boy asked if he was coming back and the tutor mumbled something about being back in a couple of days.

When the tutor came back in two days he was met by a nurse that said, "What did you do in your lesson the other day?" The teacher was aghast. He hadn't meant to be any kind of burden. But the nurse said, "No, it isn't what you think. The boy has taken a turn for the better. He is fighting back. It looks like he will make it."

When the facts were known they found out the boy had reasoned to himself, "It isn't likely they'd send a teacher to drill me on verbs and adverbs and adjectives if I was going to die!" So he started fighting to get better.]]]

Jesus wouldn't teach such a lesson to poor sinful mortals unless He thought there was reason to believe grace could help them receive the lesson and respond. The very lesson brings hope!

Jesus was certainly an outstanding teacher! Here in the greatest lesson ever recorded by the greatest Teacher who ever lived, Jesus is combining a challenge with confidence: You will have to do better– but I know you can do it!

I. "YOU MUST DO BETTER!"

JESUS CAME RAISING EXPECTATIONS WHILE AT THE SAME TIME HE WAS OPENING WIDE HIS KINGDOM

He said, "Come to me ALL who labor!" He said, "WHOSOEVER believes on God's only begotten Son will be saved!" He said, "I have come to seek and to save that which is lost!"

But then he called his disciples around him and told them, "Unless your righteousness goes beyond the righteousness of the so-called 'professionally righteous people,' you can't really enter the righteous kingdom!"

Jesus isn't into teaching lessons which are non-sense. He is not wasting his time demanding that which can never be understood or obeyed. But how in the world could his disciples beat the Pharisees at their own game? They were "pros" at keeping the letter of the law. Does this lesson— do Jesus demands even apply to us today? "Unless you do better in righteousness than the professional law-keepers you can't even get into the kingdom!" What does this mean?

II. "BETTER THAN WHAT?"

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBE AND PHARISEES

The people Jesus was talking about, could be blameless at keeping the letter of the law. They were strict tithers. They kept a rigid Sabbath. They prayed long and loud and often. Outwardly it was hard to see where they broke any of the Ten Commandments

We do not dare to simply say the Ten Commandments have been superseded. Jesus made it plain that is not what he was doing. We do not dare to take the Law lightly. Jesus says plainly here: "Whoever breaks one of these commandments and teaches others to break them is to be called least in the kingdom of heaven."     What Jesus was concerned about was MOTIVATION. He was concerned about what goes on INSIDE a person's heart. In Matthew 23, if you want to take time to read it later, Jesus shows why our righteousness has to go beyond outward righteousness. These people were SELF-righteous. They were concerned with APPEARANCE. They were like WHITE-WASHED TOMBS . . . beautiful little houses full of corruption and death on the inside.

III. "YOU CAN TRUST ME!"

'BUT I SAY UNTO YOU . . .' THE 'BETTER WAY' OUR TEACHER HAS SHOWN TO US

If the world might want to build a righteous man or woman it would begin with what can be seen. It would say I had better have this righteous person join a church. It probably would say I had better have my righteous person begin doing good works, and the more public the better. It would carefully build an image built on things to do, and even more on things NOT to do.

But Jesus begins building a righteous man or woman starting with the inside. Not that the outside is not important. But when the inside is right the outside soon begins to take care of itself.

Jesus said he did not come to do away with the law, but to complete it, or fulfill it. So he had the authority to say, "The law says thus and so . . . but I say THIS!" And every time it was going "inside." Jesus is installing a new center, a new CORE for living, based on God's law written within.

The old law rightly says, "Don't kill." Jesus says, "Don't HATE!" But Teacher, that's a high standard! "Don't BE immoral!" "Don't even THINK immorally!" Teacher, that's too high!!

But then this demanding, loving Teacher somehow says, "You can do it!"

YOU CAN TRUST ME!

It took a while for this lesson to unfold.

There were a few, more than a few glitches along the way.

YOU CAN TRUST ME!

Jesus not only TOLD them. Jesus SHOWED them.

When he died their faith wavered! But he rose again, and came and expounded the scriptures. He told them to pray for the promised Holy Spirit.

Jesus promised them that the same empowering Holy Spirit that had descended on Him like a dove when he was baptized and began his ministry would be available to every one of them personally, just for the asking.

YOU CAN TRUST ME!

And Jesus told them: I'm counting on you to get this lesson! YOU are the salt of the earth! You're the only way I have to preserve and flavor and bring healing to this world! YOU are the LIGHT of the world! I AM he light of the world! But you are going to bring ME, your lives are going to reach wherever there is darkness!

CLOSING

[ If you have heard on TV the famous Christmas Eve choir from Kings College, Cambridge, then you know that the first notes are sung by a soloist. What you may not know is that the sopranos do not know whom it is until the conductor points at one. Whichever singer is directed to begin singing does not think, "I should be the soloist this evening!" but rather she knows, "I AM the soloist! If I don't start there is not Christmas program!" Instantly— the call comes–"You're IT!"]

That is what the Master Teacher is saying to you and me right now. He is saying, "I've forgiven your sins. I have opened the doors of the kingdom, You're IN! But unless you take my Gift of the Holy Spirit, and do better than just pretend or put on a show you're not going to make it in the kingdom!" He is demanding! But he is also loving! He believes in you and me!

That is what the Master Teacher is saying to us, here, now! Jesus is demanding, challenging— he won't let us just 'get by.' Jesus did not say, "You WILL BE the salt of the earth, WHEN . . . When we have a new center, a new heart, a genuine walk with God, the future is NOW!

Prayer

Hymn