The Church — A Taught People
Introduction
The church, from its premature descriptions in Matthew 13 to its inception and through its early promotion and growth, was based on the standard that people would be "taught of God." Jesus clearly defined the new criterion by which individuals would be designated as God’s chosen:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (John 6.44-45/NIV)
The distinguishable difference between the forthcoming body of Christ and the old law, the recognizable uniqueness between Christianity and Judaism, would be that all persons could be taught of God. The religion and people of God would no longer be determined by physical birthrights or nationality. God’s elect would be governed by those whose hearts were given to him through love and faith after a knowledge of his laws and ordinances had been received.
The Taught Teaching
The church, said Christ, would be both a taught and a teaching body. Just prior to his ascension, Jesus commissioned his apostles and all disciples:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matt.28.19-20/NIV)
All who would, or who could, respond to the religion of Jesus would first be instructed concerning the person and precepts of the one who would be their Master.
Paul, aware of the essentiality of the message to the faith which subsequently follows, said that faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. (Romans 10:17/RSV) The apostle says that faith would be created through instruction. John’s gospel issues its purpose in John 20.30-31:
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (NIV)
Men, women, boys, and girls must be taught Christ to believe in, and follow, Christ with an unwavering faith. Christianity, though it stirs and excites our emotions and though it is to be practically applied in our lives daily, is a religion of the intellect. Emotions are stirred and the life changed because one has been made Christ-like through teaching and has been receptive to that instruction.
The church is, indeed, an educational institution. It was by teaching that the church began, grew, and spread. It was by teaching that individuals came to know and obey God. It is through teaching by the church that the church is enlarged and continued.
Overview
Sadly, our Bible school programs have been largely neglected, abused, and misused for far too long. The result is that we are light years away from planning and executing a sound, adequate Bible school program for our children.
Too long, we have been content to put anyone with any kind of teaching material in a classroom and expect a spiritually solid child to emerge. It’s an impossibility! Just to fill a vacancy, by unwise judgment or through total neglect or ignorance, men and women of questionable report are placed in a Bible school class.
Bible School Teachers
Bible school teachers are more than space-fillers or instruments to take up time. They are molding and fashioning lives into what we hope will become Christian lives and what, with proper teachers and curricula, will become Christian lives. Bible school teachers are an important part of God’s church and its instructional program. Opportunities unlimited are granted them in the form of children, students made in the image of God. Coupled with their abilities and positions as teachers in the Kingdom of God, this equals colossal, unmatched responsibility. They are Christian Bible teachers, and that alone equals unparalleled responsibility.
God will not hold us unaccountable for doing our jobs halfway or taking our posts for granted. We have the charge to create a Bible taught, faith-instilled people. To this end, we must employ the best teachers and best materials to meet the needs of both teachers and pupils, to motivate desire, to touch the human interest, to generate zeal, to win the hearts and souls of eternal beings.
For Eternity
The task of Bible school teachers in the overall educational program of the church is significant because they are schooling for eternity. Daniel Webster once said:
If we work upon marble, it will perish. If we work upon brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to dirt. But if we work upon men’s immortal minds, if we imbue them with high principles, with the just fear of God and love of their fellow men, we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface, and which will brighten…to all eternity.
This is the task of Christian Bible teachers. This is our task!
-- Paul Killom
Minister (ret.)
The Metro Church
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