The Life-Changing Teacher

October 8, 2000 - Saugus Church of the Nazarene, Massachusetts

(cf 1/7/99 and 10/1/00)

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. (Tough love)

Some time ago I heard a story 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 as this one in the Sermon on the Mount 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?"

BETTER THAN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES 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 superceded. 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!

JESUS IS THAT TEACHER, THAT LIFE-CHANGING TEACHER!

AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT?

JESUS MAKES US INTO LIFE-CHANGERS, TOO– IF WE WILL LET HIM!

CLOSING

We never know what power the love of Jesus can release when it is put in practical living. There are pearls of great price all around us, waiting to be loved and challenged to respond to God's love. You never know when the people we deal with every day are just waiting for YOU to show them God's love.

Some time ago I came across an article by Marian Wright Edelman. She tells this story about a school teacher, " Jean Thompson, and a fifth grade boy, Teddy Stollard:

On the first day of school, Jean Thompson told her students, "Boys and girls, I love you all the same." But she did not like little Teddy Stollard. He slouched in his chair, didn't pay attention, his mouth hung open in a stupor, his eyes were always unfocused, his clothes were mussed, his hair unkempt, and he smelled. He was an unattractive boy and Jean Thompson didn't like him. Through school records, the teacher learned that Teddy's mother had died a year ago and his father showed no interest. A previous teacher's note had read: "Teddy is in deep waters; he's totally withdrawn."

Christmas came, and the boys and girls brought their presents and piled them on her desk. They were all in brightly colored paper except for Teddy's. His was wrapped in brown paper and held together with a string. And scribbled on it were the words, "For Miss Thompson from Teddy." She tore open the paper and out fell a rhinestone bracelet with most of the stones missing and a bottle of cheap perfume, almost empty. When the other boys and girls started to giggle she had enough sense to put some of the perfume on her wrist, put on the bracelet, hold her wrist up to the class and say, "Doesn't it smell lovely? Isn't the bracelet pretty?"

"And taking their cue from the teacher, they all agreed. At the end of the day, when all the children had left, Teddy lingered, came over to her desk and said, "Miss Thompson, all day long you smelled just like my mother. And her bracelet, that's her bracelet, it looks real nice on you. too. I'm really glad you like my presents." And when he left, she got down on her knees and buried her head in her chair, and she begged God to forgive her. From then on, she was a different teacher. She tutored Teddy and put herself out for him. By the end of the year, Teddy had caught up with some of the children and was even ahead of some.

Several years later, Jean Thompson got this note:

Dear Miss Thompson: I'm graduating and I'm second in my high school class. I wanted you to be the first to know. Love, Teddy.

Four years later she got another note:

Dear Miss Thompson: I wanted you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I like it. Love, Teddy Stollard.

Four years later, another note:

Dear Miss Thompson: As of today, I am Theodore J. Stollard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I'm going to be married in July. I want you to come and sit where my mother would have sat, because you're the only family I have. Dad died last year.

And so she went and she sat where his mother should have sat because she deserved to be there."

Dr. Teddy Stollard was a pearl of great price. I'm not sure that Miss Thompson had any idea that he was. But the LORD did! HE is the one who is looking for pearls— and he is using us to look! He is living in us to challenge one another to be what God can make us.

I think you'd agree that just one Teddy Stollard would be a pretty good year's work for this church or any church. And I'm sure there are more than one we are in touch with already! We ALL are God's pearls— and we ALL are God's pearl-finders as well.

The task ahead could be overwhelming if we had to do it alone, or had to do it perfectly all at once. We can remember we are not alone— we have God, and we have each other. You and I can do what we can do with God's help. It is HIS work! And we are HIS family. Amen.

Prayer: Lord, Be our Teacher today! Help us see what You see! Help us BE what you see we can become! And, Lord, help us this week let the light of your love shine through us into the lives of those we meet. We ask in Jesus' name.

Closing Hymn/ Benediction/