Thursday: The Great Teacher
As we have seen this whole quarter, one central aspect of Christ’s ministry here on earth was that of a teacher. From the beginning of His ministry, whether through acts or deeds, Jesus was constantly teaching His followers truths about Himself, about the Father, about salvation, and about the hope that awaits us (see Matt: 5:2, Mark 4:2, Luke 19:47, John 6:59).
Indeed, all you have to do is skim through a gospel, any gospel, and all through it you will find Jesus teaching. And though, even now, through His Word, the Lord continues to teach us, in the new world this teaching will continue, as well. But imagine how different it will be in an existence unencumbered by sin and all the limitations it places on us.
“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zech: 13:6). What do you think this text is talking about?
Image © Lars Justinen at Goodsalt.com
“The years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise … .
The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 678.
| Of all the incredible truths that we will learn about through eternity, nothing will captivate us more than the sacrifice of Christ in our behalf. Think how deep and rich it must be that we will be studying it throughout eternity. Even now, how can you learn to better appreciate what Jesus has done for us through the Cross? |
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A Parable:
I was surprised to learn that in heaven there are two dining rooms. I was taken to the first room and was shown that it was a huge dining room with the tables loaded with delicious tasty food. The intriguing thing was that all the dinners had long spoons locked to their wrists. They were so long that in spite of the fact that they could put food on their spoon there was no way that thy could put the spoon into their mouths. There was a lot of weeping and wailing and groaning. People were angry and blaming heaven's government for such short sighted provision.
In the second room there was a sound of laughter and happiness. The same table was filled with delicious tasty food and the diners all had long spoons locked to their wrists. The difference was that they were feeding one another!
He that hath an ear, let him hear ...
So Mr. Maurice I am starting the party here and now, because there are some hungry people that I am literally feeding
Maurice - What a wonderful illustration of the eternal Truth of God’s perfect Love for us! Only ‘shortsightedness’ due to the hardness of heart stands in the way of enjoying His banquet’s delicious spiritual and practical blessings of Truths and Light.
In the Spirit of God’s love blessings to you and yours!
The Word of the LORD reveals so many and varied aspects of our journey and relationship with Him we have to take turns to examine each of them.
I want to assure those who are concerned that spending a week on the promise of Heaven does not mean we are forgetting or ignoring the core of our relationship with the LORD.
We are following the example of our Master Teacher who took the time to tell us:
John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
In Revelation John took a whole chapter describing the New Jerusalem, should we do less?
I suppose the question then would be: "Is Jesus my Great Teacher?" He says "take My yoke upon you and learn of Me". We may only be yoked with Him if we are learning of/from Him. As Peter said of Jesus: "to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life"(John 6:68).
In Luke 1:35 the angel Gabriel tells Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you."
The early Church met and joined together constantly in prayer, also waiting to be overshadowed by the power of the Most High (Acts 1:4,14; Acts 2:1-4).
I feel that when Jesus comes to us, teaches us, it obliterates everything else. It's all-consuming and overwhelming and life-never-the-same-ing. We think we're doing something for Him, letting Him in our hearts, helping others, and then He fills all the room we have for Him inside and grows the space bigger and makes us new. As the Christmas song "Mary Did You Know?" says...."This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you".
We think of this as a spiritual thing, but just as for Mary, it is a physical reality too. Paul reminds the Corinthians how important it is to believe that Jesus is the firstfruits of all who believe, receiving a new body after death (1 Corinthians 15:17-20,35-38).
After the resurrection, for His last 40 days on Earth, Jesus' teaching focused on 1) giving convincing proofs He was alive; 2) educating about the kingdom of God; 3) preparing His followers to be witnesses for Him (Acts 1:3,8). I'm guessing this is still the focus of His teaching.
What, then, will learning from Jesus be like for eternity? Overpowering. Spiritual and physical. Continually life-changing and creative. Tailored to the moment.
What else?
I am somewhat surprised that in a study “ the Great Teacher “. there is no comment about His method of teaching nor the content of the subjects. He taught sciences . Consider the lillies...... the seeds die , the spring forth....... the dangers of building on sand, the unknown source of the wind etc . He used the everyday things to point to greater understanding imagine what it will be when HE teaches us in the absence of distracting sin. It is beyond present human thought.
There is still so much more spiritual Truth to learn! If sin means ‘separation from God’, then, in the absence of sin, this would mean ‘oneness with God’. Ellen White conveys this easy to grasp Truth – “from the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.”
As I understand Love, Love stands for Oneness in unity and harmony with the Will of the Creator God.
I think learning to live our existence in the Oneness with the Father's Will is the Truth, the essence at the heart of Christ’s Gospel message; this is what our learning and understanding from our great Teacher focuses on first and foremost.
Matt.22:37-40KJV - I believe that all which concerns this Oneness in this life and the life to come is being resolved in the observance of living our life by the first commandment - to desire Oneness above all else; loving our Father with all our heart, mind and soul, and to learn to love our fellow man as we have been loved.
The Father reached out to us when we were yet sinners, His Son Christ Jesus, Emanuel, yielded His life that we can live and extend this redeeming love by lovingly engaging with our fellow man!
There are no other teachers beside Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit from whom we can learn how to worship with our yielded lives the LORD in the ‘Beauty of His Holiness’ – Psalm 96:9-13KJV as we wait for Him to come to “judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his Truth”.
God is Spirit; He has given His Son Christ Jesus to guide us and to teach us all things applicable to live our new life in Him so that we again can enjoy the spiritual oneness with the Father's Love as we find our Rest in Him.
Jesus said that the second "great commandment" is like the first. It tells us to "love your neighbor as yourself."
How much we love God and are united with Him is demonstrated by how we treat our family and neighbors near and far.