Lesson: More Lessons From The Master Teacher

I highlighted the parts I think are most important. I always wanted to keep my lessons handy. Posting them online not only reminds me but shares them to others as well.

Only solution

Who among us hasn’t done things that pain us to think about, and that we would recoil in horror at the thought of others knowing? Most likely, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?

Imagine, then, what it was like to be Adam and Eve after they ate fruit from the forbidden tree.

That’s one reason the gospel is universal, and Christ’s death was for all humanity. Whatever our differences, surely one thing unites us: our general sinfulness.

Hence, true Christian education must be about pointing us to the only solution for our rather dismal state.

Where are you?

How strange that God would ask Adam, “Where are you?” God certainly knew where he was. Perhaps the Lord asked the question to help Adam and Eve realize just what they were doing—hiding—as a result of what they had done. That is, He was helping them see the sad results of their actions.

Read Romans 5:11–19, where Paul, many times, directly links what Adam did in Eden with what Jesus did on the cross. What should this tell us about how Jesus came to undo what Adam did?

One could argue that the plan of salvation is God’s response to Adam and Eve’s answer. They were hiding from God in the shame and the guilt of their sin, and God came to rescue them. In our own ways, we, too, have done the same thing, and Jesus has come to rescue us. Hence the question “Where are you?” could be asked of us, as well. That is, where are you in your sin and guilt, in relationship to Jesus and what He has done to rescue you from it?

At the forefront

Genesis 28:10–17 teaches us about God’s grace for those who, in a sense, are on the run from their sins?

What can we learn from this story about how God, in Christ, is seeking to reach us despite our sins? Again, why must Christian education keep this principle at the forefront of what it teaches?

The greatest Teacher

John 1:1–14. The same God who spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden, and to Jacob in the middle of nowhere, now shows up as a person. God, says the New Testament, was personified in Jesus. Through Jesus, we can learn about God’s will and God’s way, because Jesus was God.

John the Baptist was so compelling a preacher that even religious leaders from Jerusalem suspected that he might be someone special. But he was preparing the way for someone greater than himself.

Two of John the Baptist’s followers decide to follow Jesus themselves. And when Jesus asks what they are looking for, they call Him “ ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher)” (John 1:38, NRSV).

In other words, God came down to humanity in the form of a human being, and in that form He functioned as a rabbi, a teacher. No wonder Ellen White called Jesus “the greatest teacher the world has ever seen.” — Signs of the Times, June 10, 1886. After all, this Teacher was God.

He still listens

One gospel story is all the more remarkable for showing that when someone talks back to Jesus, He still listens.

Jesus’ encounter with a Gentile (or “Canaanite”) woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 15:21–28, Mark 7:24–30). Notice that the men in Jesus’ circle are impatient with her and that even Jesus appears to dismiss her.

He had crossed into a place where strangers abounded and ethnic tension bristled. The Greek-speaking city dwellers looked down on Jewish farmers in the countryside, and the Jewish farmers looked down on them in return.

Not long before, Herod, the puppet governor of Galilee, Jesus’ home territory, had executed John the Baptist.

Jesus came face-to-face with the danger of His mission.

Feeling the strain, Jesus entered a house, hoping, so Mark says in his account, that no one would know He was there (Mark 7:24). But the woman found Him.

In the culture of that time and place, a woman had no right to assert herself.

But the woman’s daughter was sick. She wanted help, and she persisted in asking for it.

Jesus dismissed her. “ ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,’ ” He said (Matt. 15:26, NRSV). The remark could have hurt her feelings.

And then something remarkable happened. She then responded. She was familiar with dogs—unlike the Jews, who would not have them as pets—and she said: “ ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table’ ” (Matt. 15:27, NRSV).

Her remark makes a difference. It seems compelling. And Jesus heals her child.

“ ‘Let it be to you as you desire’ ” (Matt. 15:28, NKJV). How do we understand these words? How do we respond, though, when things do not happen as we desire?

New and better life

Jesus’ students, the twelve disciples, they seemed eager to be on Jesus’ side. But at the same time, they seemed baffled—or blind. For example, in Mark 8:31–33, the Master Teacher is challenging His students to see things hard for them to see. That is, in many ways they still were spiritually blind to what really mattered (see Mark 8:37).

Read the story of Jesus and the healing of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. (See Mark 10:46–52.) Notice the great mercy Jesus shows. Now consider how the blind man’s desire to see leads to his decision to follow Jesus on the way, or road, to Jerusalem.

But seeing includes more than just what’s physical only. This story, in other words, is about seeing spiritually. It is about getting it—about catching on to what the Master Teacher is truly about. Physical sight is one thing. It’s an important thing, and Jesus knows it. But Jesus also knows that every person’s deepest wish is for a new and better life.

Seek a personal solution

“Where are you? What are you doing?” (Gen. 3:9, Gen. 3:13, paraphrase). These are the last questions we want to hear while indulging in sin.

It is one thing to admit that we were born with sinful, fallen natures; quite another to feel convicted enough to seek a personal solution to the sin problem.

Sabbath School Lesson | Christian Education | Lesson 6 | October 31 - November 6 | More Lessons From The Master Teacher