Who Is Our Teacher?

Well, I think some of you probably saw, as far as the advertisement here in Kansas City, that I believe it's next weekend, Fiddler on the Roof is going to be performed down at the Performing Arts Center here in Kansas City. And of course, Fiddler on the Roof is a, I kind of like it, it's a interesting, it's an uplifting, I think very enjoyable play. And of course, it's a Broadway, or was a Broadway musical for a long, long period of time. And many of the songs that are on there are ones that you kind of get in your head and you can't get them out. Sunrise, Sunset, If I Were a Rich Man, To Life, Sabbath Prayer, Matchmaker, those are the names of songs, some of the songs that are on that particular play or in that play and that performance. But of course, what is depicted there is a transient Jewish community. That type of setting, and it of course revolves around one family and what they go through and ultimately the change that they have to make as far as moving. But you see varied roles of different people who are brought into the program.

The lead spokesman is a milkman and he has a son-in-law who's a tailor and he talks about a butcher and he talks about a horse trader and a baker. Now those are just some that I could easily remember or try to think of as I thought back through the performance. But also, they mention and bring up our beloved rabbi. And of course in the play they look to the rabbi, they ask him things, they want to see what he's going to say. It appears, at least the ones I've seen, he's an older man and of course supposed to have lots of wisdom. And they ask him, is there a proper blessing for the Tsar? And of course after a while, you know, he thinks about it and says, oh yes, there is. May the Lord bless and keep the Tsar far away from us. That's the wisdom that he was going to extend. But I bring this up simply because the role of a rabbi in a Jewish community and certainly as we read about it in the Bible at the time of Jesus was a respected role that the Bible mentions in a number of ways. And I want to cover, you know, that type of a topic or an idea a little bit. I'm going to cover three different rabbis today and yet, as I said, the role of a rabbi involved the primary responsibilities that rabbis have. And I guess it could be different today. I know things have evolved and of course there are a lot of different Jewish communities, a lot of different kind of sections of Judaism. So, you know, they're not all saying the same thing and the many different things that they might teach. And yet the primary responsibilities of a rabbi say in the day of Jesus as he dealt with others, as he dealt with the Jews, whether, you know, no matter what belief they happen to have, the primary responsibilities included teaching the law, teaching the Torah, and of course being familiar with the Psalms and the prophets, all of which would make up the Old Testament as we see it and as we know it today. And actually, as far as certain qualifications of rabbis, even a lot of memorization was required because, of course, going back far enough, you don't really have Bibles, you don't have books, you have scrolls. And, you know, if you're going to be learning, then you're going to be memorizing. And actually, some rabbis are expected to have memorized the entirety of the Torah, you know, which, you know, that seems pretty daunting to me. Those five books are pretty good size. They're in the first part of the Old Testament. And yet, others, I think, were even required to memorize the whole thing. And so, you know, that was, again, quite a reach for me. I want to be familiar with it, but I certainly haven't memorized it. But they also were making decisions about how the law should be applied in different circumstances. And so, that's why, you know, they often looked up to and respected the rabbi because he was going to tell us how it is that we're supposed to live.

You also find rabbis leading discussions with their disciples, people who were following them, people that either they chose or that, you know, wanted to listen to what they had to say. But leading discussions, you even see some examples of that. I won't go through those here in the New Testament. You see that they, you know, they discussed, they would bring up questions and then talk about all the different answers that possibly God might be wanting them to know.

And yet, those disciples were, in a sense, kind of under the tutelage of the rabbi.

And you find about those disciples that often those disciples were quite territorial about their rabbi's opinions. You know, I'm following so-and-so because I like, you know, what he says and what he says is better than what your rabbi says. So it was not a completely, you know, cohesive group and yet all kind of under the same umbrella. And many times, so I would say that the disciples of a rabbi were often pretty loyal. They had a loyalty to, you know, the individual that they were, in essence, following. And they also had the concept or idea of becoming like their teacher. Becoming like their teacher. I want you to remember that phrase because it does have bearing even on us today. In Luke 2, you see Jesus, even when he's 12 years old, interacting with some of these rabbis. Luke 2, you're familiar with the story of Jesus, had 12 going to the feast in Jerusalem and being there with his family and then whenever they return, he's not with them. You know, they go a day and they don't find him. They assume he's with some of the other family. And then here in chapter, Luke chapter 2, it says in verse 45, when they couldn't find him, they returned to Jerusalem. In verse 46, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers. In some places, it says, teachers of the law, the doctors of the law. And so that's who's being referred to here as a teacher or as a rabbi, as we will see.

And so Jesus is here sitting among these scholarly and actually highly respected teachers, and yet he's listening to them and asking them questions and all who heard him. And so I would assume those doctors who were there at the temple and people that he was interacting with, they were amazed, amazed at his understanding and at the answers that he was able to give.

So clearly there was something going on here, even at the age of 12, that Jesus had an insight that was exceptional. And he was able to interact in a knowledgeable way. I'm not sure exactly, because later, even as he is older and as he is traveling around the country of Judea and Galilee and Samaria, as he would go back and forth, you know, later they say, well, you know, how does he know anything? He hasn't been under our learning. He didn't learn what he knows from us.

So how could he know anything? Well, obviously, God is the one who was going to provide that information to his son. So you see an interesting interaction here in Luke 2 with Jesus interacting with the doctors or teachers of the law. Now, I'm looking at the website. It's called My Jewish Learning. I tried to look up a little bit about what they say and what they are doing today.

And of course, it's modern as far as what is being presented, and it's not going back. It does have certain parts of the history of, say, being a rabbi. Quoting from them, it says, a rabbi is a teacher of Judaism. And the word itself literally translates from Hebrew to my teacher or to my master. I think it's important for us to keep that in mind. And for most of Jewish history, the primary qualification for this title was sufficient learning to render decisions in Jewish law. And so primarily, that was going to be based on the first five books of the Bible.

But then there was going to be a lot of expansion as far as determinations and decisions and application. And of course, it's why it was that during the time of Jesus, you know, there was so much confusion and misunderstanding about what's right and what should be done and what it was that Jesus was teaching. They continue in the earliest stages of Jewish history. The ability to rule in matters of Jewish law was handed down orally from teacher to student. So it wasn't a matter of having a textbook, as we do today, as we all brought with us to church today.

It was a matter of learning what was in the scrolls, what was able to be presented on the Sabbath and in the synagogue and at school, but also orally passing down information. And of course, if any of you have ever played that kind of game, you start out with a message over here with my wife Pat, and she gives it to Christine, and she gives it to Dale, and then to Karen, and she gives it to... Once we get over here to Larry, you're not going to quite have the same information.

It's going to be distorted. And of course, I think that's what you would find from handing things down orally from teacher to student. You know, an unbroken lineage going back to Moses, and so this is kind of what they are thinking was. You know, we are perpetuating our message, what we understand. We're doing that in order to say what Moses said. And they also had a short section here just saying, while the use of the term rabbi as a formal title does not appear until about the first century, when the Mishnah was put together, which is a compendium of laws and teachings, that the first rabbi in Jewish history is often considered to be Moses, who is referred in the Talmud to Moshe Rabinu, Moses, our teacher.

And again, you see a strong reference to that even throughout the New Testament and throughout the Gospels. As Jesus interacted with the Pharisees or with the Jewish leaders, they would always refer back to Moses. They would always want to be connected with Moses, our teacher. All of these are good things to keep in mind.

And as we approach the Passover season, and as I asked you last week or the week before, to read, be reading the Gospel of John. Read through that Gospel. I want to ask us a question, and I hope all of us should be able to answer this. Just who exactly is our teacher?

Who is our? That would be a title, Ken. Who is our teacher? You know, I want to just go through briefly the three different rabbis that are very clearly defined in the Bible. One of them has to do, the first one has to do with the Apostle Paul.

Now, Paul doesn't directly say that he was a rabbi, but he does say that he was taught by a rabbi. Let's take a look at that in Acts 22. Here in Acts 22, Paul is, he is just, in a sense, giving his credentials. He's being asked to, in a sense, defend himself. Here in Acts 22, verse 1, brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I now make before you. In verse 3, it says, I'm a Jew. I was born in Tarsus in Sicily, or Cilicia, excuse me, but I was brought up in the city, this city, Jerusalem, where he was, I was brought up here at the feet of Gamaliel.

So this first rabbi that I'm going to mention to you is named Gamaliel, and it would appear, he says he was brought up. Paul, at that time known as Saul, was a student. And if you look at what he has to say about his, you know, grade card, you know, he was an A student. He was above average. He was pretty much the best of the best. And Gamaliel was also considered to be one of the very most respected of all rabbis. But Paul says I was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. And yet he goes ahead and describes how I persecuted the church, I persecuted the way, and then God got a hold of me, and things changed. But he just makes that one statement. I was a loyal student of Gamaliel, and Gamaliel was a highly respected. You also see in Acts 5, we jump back here. Acts 5, you see Gamaliel mentioned again. This is when Peter and the apostles were beginning to proclaim the gospel, and they were being persecuted for doing so. They were being told, you can't be talking about this Jesus. You've got to be quiet. We don't want you to be teaching this. This is disrupting everything, and of course, you know, they are under fire here in Acts chapter 5. They're being persecuted, and of course, you know, the religious leaders felt threatened by what the apostle Peter and others were saying. If we drop down to verse 33, you know, Peter had said in verse 29, we've got to obey God. We must obey God rather than any human authority.

And so he talked about how it is that that's what we have to do. If you tell us not to do this, we're going to have to obey God and do it anyway. And so he was making that clear. But in verse 33, when they heard how they were going to continue to do the job that God had given them, when they heard that, they were enraged and they wanted to kill them.

And so this became to be quite a conflict. And yet in verse 34, it says a Pharisee, a Pharisee in the council named Gamalia, a teacher of the law. So he was a rabbi in a sense that you see those words used interchangeably, rabbi or teacher. And when we get to Jesus, you'll see it even used in a little bit different way. But Gamalia was a teacher of the law, respected by all the people. He stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a little while. He said to them fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you're trying to do.

What you proposed to do to these men for some time ago, Judas rose up claiming to be somebody and a number of men, about 400, joined him. But he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. So he said, well, that uprising didn't turn into anything. And after him, Judas Zagalilin rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him. And he also perished. And all who followed him were scattered. But here's Gamalia's wisdom. In verse 38, in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. Because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail. Just like the other two that he had mentioned. But he says, if it's of God, if the work that Peter and the apostles are doing are of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. In that case, you might even be found fighting against God. And so they were convinced by him. He was highly respected. He was wise in what he was going to say. And of course, you know, when they had the apostles flogged, they flogged them. They ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And as they let the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple and at home, they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. And so, again, just not a lot of information that you can easily read out of the Bible about Gamaliel. But clearly, you know, he was a respected teacher, a respected rabbi. And so, as I've mentioned, there were many, many different established teachers or rabbis among the Jews in Jerusalem.

That's why you actually see many conflicts and many disagreements. Whose rabbi was right? You know, were the Pharisees who followed certain rabbis, were they right? Were the Sadgis, they believed something different than the Pharisees did. They had some things similar, but other things that were different. And what about the Essenes? See, those are ones that we read about in the New Testament who are established kind of, what could you say, that they were the official rabbis or the official teachers. And yet, obviously, they are conflicted. You know, they don't agree on things. They have different opinions. And so, they would be the establishment leaders in Jerusalem. Yet, on the other hand, you see John the Baptist, who also was a rabbi, and who had disciples.

So, I want to go secondly here to John the Baptist. Now, I don't know if I studied or thought much about John being a rabbi. And yet, whenever you see what it says, it's very obvious that that's the case. And yet, I'm going to say that because you had the religious establishment, Jewish religious establishment in Jerusalem, you had official rabbis, and then you had the renegade being John the Baptist. Because clearly, John had a different purpose and a different reason. And he was, in essence, kind of out there. He was, you know, over in a different area. He was strangely dead, dressed. He did things differently than most of the rabbis. But, let's take a look in Luke chapter 1. You see about John's birth, clearly John, who was, of course, a cousin of Jesus. Mary and Elizabeth were cousins, so obviously John would be a little further extended cousin. But John the Baptist, Luke 1 verse 5, his father was a priest. There was a priest named Zachariah who belonged to the order of Abijah, and his wife was a descendant of Aaron. So clearly, Elizabeth, her name was Elizabeth. And so, you know, she had a lineage that apparently goes back all the way to Aaron, who was appointed the first priest or high priest long ago. And so, in verse 13, Luke 1, it says that they were going to have a son. This is what Zachariah was being told by the angel that met him. He says, you're going to call him John? Verse 15, he's going to be great in the sight of the people. And in verse 17, with the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to make ready a people for the Lord. And so, this was quite a commendation, and yet I don't know that everyone thought about John in the same way that they did the religious establishment. I'm sure they didn't because they didn't like what he had to say. They didn't like what he was actually doing.

And yet, numerous verses show that John, that we would call the Baptist or the Baptizer, had disciples. You know you've read numerous verses where it talks about John's disciples doing this and doing that. That's who he's being talked about. John as a teacher, John as a rabbi, John as someone who was being followed by these disciples. Here in John chapter 1, and so the Gospel of John, chapter 1, it says in verse 35. I better go over there to be sure I'm getting this correct. John chapter 1, verse 35, before that, John the Baptist is spoken about it. It talks about what he did. It talks about him identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God. But in verse 35, John 1, 35, the next day John again was standing with two of his disciples.

And so obviously this is just one area that you see that mentioned. He was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus watch by, he exclaimed, look, or behold, here is the Lamb of God.

See, he was the one who was pointing that out. And in verse 37, those two disciples heard him say that, and so they followed Jesus. Now, we're going to see in a little while, or you see if you read through the next few verses, that one of those disciples was Andrew. Andrew, who would later be, he was a brother of Peter, he was also going to be a disciple of Jesus. And yet, it doesn't directly say who the second of those disciples is, but certainly an assumption could be that the second of those disciples could have been the John who became the apostle, who would write this down. You don't really see a direct statement about who the second one is, but John's the one who's writing it down, and it appears that he could very likely be that individual. Let's jump on over to chapter 3. Chapter 3 of John, verse 22. After Jesus and his disciples, or after this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and was baptized.

And John, in verse 23, talking about John the Baptist, was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there, and people kept coming and were being baptized, and John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. But in verse 25, see this is outside of Jerusalem. This is over toward the area where the Jordan River, at the very eastern border of the nation of Israel or the country at the time, that's where John was. He would be on one side or even the other. He could be on the eastern side of the Jordan, and that is actually where, when you see the physical areas where others were, this is where Elijah had worked, where he had done much of his work long before this. But in verse 25, it says, a dispute about purification arose between John's disciples and the Jews. That's why I say the disciples were somewhat territorial, so they were kind of loyal to their teacher. They were loyal to the one that they were following. And in verse 26, they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, so what were they calling him? Well, they looked to him as their Rabbi, as their teacher. So even though, like I said, he might have been considered a renegade Rabbi by the Jerusalem establishment, you know, that's exactly what he was. And yet you find he has obviously a clearer understanding of what he's supposed to be doing, because he had a very unique role. In verse 26, they came to John and said, Rabbi, the one who's with you across the Jordan, to whom you testify, he's baptizing and all are going to him. You know, in a sense, they kind of thought this is not so good. You know, we're trying to get people to follow you, or you're trying to get people to come to you. You're trying to ask people and telling them they need to repent, but others are going over here and following Jesus. And we don't like that. You know, that wasn't something that, you know, that they thought was very good. In verse 28, verse 2080 says, you yourselves are my witnesses. John says this, you yourselves are my witnesses, that I said I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him. See, John understood, as, in a sense, a very unique rabbi, you could say. He was a unique teacher. He had a unique role, and he was someone that God had sent. And we're going to see that verified here.

Down in verse 29, or let me back up to verse 28, you yourselves are my witnesses, that I said I'm not the Messiah, but I've been sent ahead of him. Because, as he describes in verse 30, he has to increase, and I have to decrease. He understood that he was going to decline. He had a role. He wasn't trying to get other people to follow him that normally would maybe follow Jesus. In verse 31, the one who comes from above is above all. And so he had quite a bit to say about Jesus Christ and the fact that his job was not just to teach the law, as the Jewish rabbis thought their role was. I'm to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. I'm to prepare the way for Jesus, in essence, the ultimate rabbi to come. And so, you see John in full surrender to the Son of God. I know what God is going to do. And, of course, John, as we see here, John the Baptist, as we see in the next few chapters, he's going to be put to death. He's going to be eliminated. Herod is not going to like the things he has to say, and he's going to get in a bind, and he's going to have John beheaded. So, John the Baptist is going to conclude his role. But look what Jesus says here in Luke chapter 7. Look what Jesus says about John the Baptist. See, John had a unique rabbinic role, a unique teaching role. That role was to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. That's what Jesus himself said.

And yet, you see Jesus praising John the Baptist. Here in Luke 7, verse 24, when John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.

And so, Jesus clearly knew John. He was familiar with him. He understood what his job was. He knew his role. He says in verse 24, why did you go out there into the wilderness? So, he's telling the disciples of John and others in the crowd, why did you go out there? Why did you go out into the wilderness to see? Did you go to see a reed shaken by the wind?

You know, that was only a reference to kind of some of the physical condition that they may have found. Or did you go out there in verse 25 to see someone dressed in soft robes? Because that wasn't the way John was. See, now the rabbis in a respected role in Jerusalem, you know, they might have been nicely dressed and appropriately attired. And yet, that wasn't what John had on. You know, he had a totally different kind of an odd garment. And I'm not wanting to try to go into all of that. I don't have that right here in front of me. But it was completely different.

What did you do in verse 26? Did you go out there to see a prophet? Verse 26.

What did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you and more than a prophet. This is the one who it is written about in the Old Testament. See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you. And I tell you in verse 28, I tell you among those born of women to one, no one is greater than John. See, now John clearly was a unusual teacher. And he clearly had an unusual message, at least a unique message, maybe not unusual, but unique. And yet Jesus' adoration and love for John, respect for John, is quite clear. I tell you among those born of women, no one is greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom of God is going to be greater than he. There's something greater than whatever we happen to do here physically on earth.

He goes on in verse 29, all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God because they had been baptized by John's baptism. So many of them who were there and Jesus was talking to and asked him, well, why did you go out there? Well, you know, we kind of believe what he said. We wanted to be prepared. But in verse 30, by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves. So receiving the baptism of John was going to be a different type of reception than actually Peter and John and others of the apostles would preach about. Paul would preach about, well, there's more to it, more to it than what John said.

But Jesus clearly had a great respect for, you know, this great rabbi who did the job, you know, that he was missioned to do. I want us to look in Matthew 23 as well to something that Jesus explains. See, now Jesus was very familiar with the system.

He was familiar with how it was they worked. He was familiar with their anger and hatred toward him. He knew they didn't receive him. And yet here in Matthew 23, it says in verse 1, Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples. And so again, that maybe gives us a little bit of idea of who the next rabbi is going to be. You know, who also has a lot of disciples. And of course, we know he selected 12 that are going to be apostles, but there were a number of people who were disciples of Jesus Christ.

But he said to the crowds and to the disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees, the official teachers in Israel, are sit on Moses' seat. Therefore, do whatever they teach you to do and follow it. And so when they correctly teach the law, then that's what you should do. But he goes ahead to say, do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. And so he clearly wanted to make a delineation between what the rabbis were teaching, which was right if they were teaching the law, and then what they did.

Because he again goes ahead and describes what was wrong. He says they tie up heavy burdens that are hard to bear on people. Verse 5, they do their deeds to be seen by others. They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. See, they want to be noticed. They were not the type of individuals that should be honored and respected as they were in the community.

In verse 6, they love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogue. In verse 7, verse 7, they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace and to have people call them rabbi. See, they had a nice role. They had a job. That was a good job as far as a teaching of the law, but of course it was not going to be accepting the new rabbi, the new teacher that was coming onto the scene. He goes on in verse 8 to say, but you, so again talking to these disciples and the crowd, you do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, and that teacher is Christ, and you are all brethren.

And so even though there was this system in Israel and Judah at the time to have teachers of the law, and we've gone through Gamaliel and we've seen others who were also teachers of that type, you see that John the Baptist was a unique rabbi, a unique teacher, had a specific role, but ultimately the ultimate rabbi. And so you could say the chief rabbi is Jesus Christ, and all of you are brethren.

He says in verse 9, don't call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father who is in heaven. And in verse 10, do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, and that is Christ. And so obviously the third rabbi that I want to talk about today is the ultimate rabbi, the ultimate teacher, the one who is not only called teacher and rabbi, but master and Lord. And of course he was not accepted by the Jews there in Jerusalem.

He was murdered and crucified by them. We see in John chapter 1, Jesus was the master rabbi. He was the teacher, the teacher. You could spell that with capital letters. He was the primary teacher of all. In John 1 verse 38, it says when Jesus turned and saw them following, we read this about the Andrew and what would appear to be John the apostle, Jesus turned and saw them following, and he said to them, what are you looking for? And they said to him, rabbi, here in John 1 verse 38, rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? Clearly, they were wanting to find out where it was he was staying. They needed to know a little bit about him. They wanted to know whether they should. They wondered if this was, and if you read through the rest of what you read there in John 1, you see that they begin to realize we're recognizing that this is the Son of God. You know, this is the Messiah. This is who we've been waiting for. And if you drop down to verse 49, you see him talking about Nathaniel and giving him information about himself that there was no way he easily could have known. In verse 49, Nathaniel replied, rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. If we jump to John chapter 2, you see Jesus at the wedding in Cana. And of course, his mother is there. Verse 2 is disciples are there. And so this was, again, another recognition of who Jesus was as an ultimate rabbi.

It says in verse 11, after Jesus had performed the miracle of turning the water to wine, Jesus did this, the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. See, this, the observing of a miracle causes you to really believe differently than you did otherwise. They had followed, or they had started to follow him, and yet, as they saw what he was able to do, you know, it says those disciples believed him. In verse 12 is unique. It says after that, he went down to Capernaum. Capernaum was 10 or 15 miles to the east. It was right on the Sea of Galilee, and it was where Jesus would actually then live.

And yet it says he went down to Capernaum, and who did he take? Well, he took his mother, he took his brothers, and he took his disciples, and they remained there for a few days.

See, it's unique to see, you don't really see after this time Joseph, his father, or his Mary's husband, I guess you would say, you don't see Joseph on the scene at that time. But you see him working with his mother, with his brothers, who were with him, and then with his disciples. So let's move on to chapter 3. Nicodemus is mentioned in chapter 3, and what does he have to say about Jesus as a teacher or as the teacher? Verse 1, now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, and he came to Jesus by night and said to him, what did he call him? Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God. See, now we've read that chapter other times, focusing on what Jesus taught, but I'm simply pointing out, you know, that Nicodemus acknowledged that Jesus was a primary teacher. He was the one that they ought to be following because they recognized, at least Nicodemus recognized. It doesn't appear he was kind of on the outs with many of the officials because they didn't want to accept or believe Jesus, but he had to say, you know, not only I, but we, so others perhaps realized, well, there's no way that he could do what he did unless he was doing that from God. In chapter 4, we read part of this earlier, verse 1, now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he's baptizing more disciples than John, although it was not Jesus, but his disciples who were baptizing. So here he was, it wasn't just directly those who were that he had called to be apostles or that he was in the process of calling and going to a point to be apostles, but his disciples were loyal. They were loyal to him. They were devoted. They were, like I said, even in the Jewish world, the disciples of a rabbi were very opinionated. They were polarized toward their rabbi. And of course, you know, the disciples of Jesus were that way as well. And of course, he gave them that authority. Now, as we can acknowledge that Jesus was, you know, the chief rabbi, he was the ultimate teacher. I want us to look at chapter 15.

John chapter 15, again, I hope you are reading in the book of John. There's a lot of incredibly good things to read there. As we mentioned, chapter 1 through 12 is kind of his, in a sense, public information. Chapter 13 through 17 is more or less his private information to his disciples right before he's going to be put to death. And then chapter 18 to the end is about his crucifixion and resurrection and even seeing the disciples afterwards. So we should be able to easily break that down. But what did we learn? This is just amazing. When we think of Jesus as our main teacher, as our ultimate teacher, we can talk about, and Mr. Hudson did, talked about Christ living in us. You know, that's certainly correct. I talked about that last week as well. And yet, what does he say? What does he teach us? What does he want us to know as we read John chapter 15? It says in verse 1, I'm the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. And he says in verse 2, the father prunes the branches to bear more fruit.

So sometimes, you know, we're going to need to be corrected. Sometimes that's what pruning does. It causes a branch to be cut back in order to grow more fully or to grow more in the right direction, I guess, is the way you would prune a tree to make it grow correctly. But it says, the father prunes the branches to bear much fruit. In verse 4, he says, I want you to abide in me.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, you, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. See, the disciples of Jesus are going to have to be paying attention to what he teaches. We're going to have to be reading what it is that the words of God are. We're going to have to be wanting you know, those to be internalized and to be growing in us. He says in verse 5, I'm the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I and them are going to bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing. See, without the teaching of the ultimate rabbi, we're not going to bear any fruit. Now, you could think about many different ways, perhaps, that we bear fruit and a primary way would be bearing fruit of the Spirit of God, of love and joy and peace, but there's other fruit that we bear. We bear fruit of loving one another, of growing toward one another in love and in consideration. He goes on in verse 7 to make a statement that is revealing. If you abide in me and if my words abide in you, then you should ask whatever you wish and it'll be done. Now, you can read that and say, well, let's say I can just ask for anything and he will do it. Well, I believe we realize that, well, we need to be asking according to God's will. We are told in other places to ask in Jesus' name, and so we pray in Jesus' name, but what that says is that if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can have a communion with God that is beyond the human realm. You can have a rapport and a communion with God where he will hear and answer and help. We're asking God for help almost every day. We always need something, but here he starts this off by saying, if you abide in me, then you're going to be able to commune with the Father in the way that I do. In verse 8, he says, my Father is glorified by this, that you bear fruit, and that you become my disciples. See, what do we say about the disciples needing to be like the teacher or wanting to be like the teacher? That's what he wants us to be. Verse 9, as the Father has loved me, so I have loved them, I want you to abide in my love. And then he says in verse 10, something that is going to identify whether or not we love God. In verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love, so that in verse 11, my joy may be in you, and this is my commandment that you love one another, is I have loved you. So Jesus is going to make a statement here that is really extraordinary.

He said, I want you to love other people in the same type of way that I do. That's what he told them, even told them in chapter 13, that that's the type of love that I'm asking you to have. That's what I want for you, because that's good for you, to be able to have a love that is a devoted love. And in verse 13, he says, no one has greater love than this than to lay down your life for your friends. Now, that's clearly what Jesus did. He was willing to sacrifice. He was willing to lay down his life for us. Now, we realize that he came to the earth for that purpose. He is the Lamb of God. But here he's telling his disciples, if you are going to abide in me, if you are going to have my words and have my love in you, then you are going to be willing to sacrifice in service to your brethren. That's what he describes. He, of course, describes that in other places as well, but he's describing that right here. And in verse 14, he goes beyond that. He says, you are my friends. If you do what I command you, in verse 15, I don't call you just servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing. He says, you're more than just my followers. You're more than my disciples. You are more than just servants who do what the master says. Yes, that's what we are to do. But he goes on to say, I call you friends close friends because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my father.

Now, what is that talking about? Well, brethren who are friends, as Jesus describes, with Jesus Christ, are sons and daughters of God. They know and they share the plan of God that Jesus brought and gives us from the Father. See, knowing the plan of God, you know, I think most of you here could pretty much outline what we see God's purpose is for human existence. But knowing that plan of God is what he says makes you a friend of God. You know, you see Moses defined as a friend of God, and clearly that was an extraordinary event. And yet, what does he say to his disciples? This is written to his disciples then and to his disciples today who are respectful of the chief rabbi. Well, we've been able to know and we want to share the purpose of life, the kingdom of God, the reason for living. We have been given that and that's what Jesus said that he gave his disciples. And he says in the last few verses here, verse 16 and 17, I chose you to bear fruit and I am giving you these commands so that you will love one another. See, he wants us to become like him, to be disciples who want to be like the rabbi, like the teacher. So, I think it's good for us, certainly to read John 15, to think about the what he says about his disciples. And I think we should also consider, are we approaching Jesus Christ, our teacher, in the way that Mary did? Now, this Mary that I'm mentioning is the sister of Martha. See, Mary and Martha and Lazarus were friends of Jesus Christ. And in Luke 10, I want to look at this, Luke chapter 10. You see an example that's really quite amazing. Because if we're going to have the closeness that Jesus describes in John 15, then we're going to have to have the approach that Mary had. In verse 38 of Luke chapter 10, it says, as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. And so apparently this was Martha's home. She had a sister, verse 39, named Mary, who sat at the Lord, verse 39, a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. See, she was attentive. She was looking to learn. She was wanting to know what the ultimate rabbi had to say, because she recognized who he was.

And in verse 40, of course, Martha is distracted by her many tasks. So she came to the Lord and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. And you can almost hear the whine in that request. But in verse 41, Jesus, the Lord answered her and said, Martha, Martha, you are worried and you're distracted about lots of stuff, many things. But there is need of only one thing, and Mary has chosen that better part, which will not be taken away from her. See, what was it about Mary that was extraordinary? See, she understood who the chief rabbi was. She comprehends this. You can see over in John 11, this will be our last kind of section here. In John 11, Jesus is called to help them with Lazarus, and of course, he waits around a while till he's dead for several days. And then he shows up.

And of course, whenever he does come, in essence, it says in verse 21, and again, you can almost hear Martha's tone. Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died. You know, it was almost a whiny, again tone. And of course, Jesus explains, you know, it's no problem. I'm going to take care of it. But after he talks to Martha for a little while, in verse 28, verse 28, it says, Martha went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, the teacher, the teacher is here and is calling for you. See, Martha had already kind of scolded Jesus for not showing up on time.

And he apparently is asked, I want to see Mary. You know, she gets it. She understands the relationship that a disciple is to have with their teacher.

The teacher is here and is calling for you. And in verse 29, when she heard that, when Mary heard that, she got up quickly and went to him. And down in verse 32, it says, when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died. Now, basically the same words that Martha had said, but I imagine the tone was quite different. She said, you could have changed this immediately. And of course, he was going to anyway.

And yet what you see about Mary was an attentiveness, a respect, a humility, a honoring that not only she, but all of us should give, you know, our chief rabbi. You actually see in chapter 12, when there was a dinner in Bethany and Lazarus was there, you see in verse 3 that Mary took a pound of costly perfume, made a pure nard, and anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of that perfume.

And of course, a disciple, some of them who didn't understand, Judas apparently, you know, complained about, you know, what a waste. Why are we even doing that? And yet in verse 7, Jesus says, leave her alone. She brought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you don't always have me. See, the way that Mary is portrayed here in these verses that we've read is one of truly understanding the need to listen, to be attentive, to be respectful, to desire, to know what the Word of God says about Jesus Christ. And that again is something we can keep in mind as we continue to read the book of John, because there is a lot of information here. John 15 is a primary section to be focused on, and yet I think it, and as I stated this, do we have the type of approach toward our teacher that Mary did? Because if we do, well then that's going to be pleasing to God. That's going to be honoring to God, and He wants us. So, as I mentioned earlier, the title of the sermon, Who is Your Teacher?

And how are you striving to be like that teacher?