meet your teacher

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MEET YOUR TEACHER It’s great being together again. I really enjoyed our last semester of Quest: Man to Man: Stories of Hope and Redemption. It was the beginning of our 17th year of Quest. And for the first time we brought in a series of speakers to tell us their stories. Some were outside of the church – James Tour: a world-renown Jewish nanotechnologist who now lives for his Messiah Jesus; Matt Deggs: a self-destructive, alcoholic college baseball coach who found redemption through Christ; Lee Strobel: a best-selling, former atheist lawyer and journalist who in the process of trying to disprove Christianity came to embrace the very faith he was attempting to destroy. Other speakers were our own guys, men within the church who have experienced a life-changing relationship with Jesus and who taught us a great deal about putting Christ first and serving others. Some of you enjoyed the speakers as much as I did. In fact, many of you told me it was the best … Quest … ever. Right. The one I didn’t speak at. The best … Quest … ever. A lesser man might have been hurt or offended by those comments. A lesser man might have held onto those comments. He might have obsessed about them – for several months. In fact, he might even start off the next series talking about those comments. But that would make him a very tiny man indeed.

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Ok, now that we have that out of the way. This semester our title is: MasterClass: Become the Man You were Meant to Be.” A MasterClass is a course taught by one who is considered to be distinguished, even a master, in his field. It’s a class for students who are ready to learn at an advanced level. And that’s what I intend this class to be. A course for you, highly motivated, far above average students, on being the person, being the man you were created to be. As for your instructor, well, of course, it’s very important that you have a teacher who has mastered the material. Who knows what you don’t know and who has proven himself to be an expert, a virtuoso, even a wizard in the subject you’re studying. For my Christmas present this year, I asked my wife to give me an online masterclass on poker. Who is my teacher? Daniel Negreanu. Picture He doesn’t look like a stone cold killer. Sammy Farha – now, he looks like a poker player. Picture

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But looks can be deceiving. This may not mean anything to you, but Negreanu has won six World Series of Poker bracelets, two World Poker Tour championships, and $40,000,000 in live tournament play and who knows how many millions in cash games. Four years ago the Global Poker Index ranked him as player of the decade. Just for fun, here’s a part of a hand he played. Don’t be misled by the commentary. He knows what he’s doing every step of the way. He knows what the other guys has without ever seeing his cards. He knows that the other guy has him beat. He knows he can’t talk about his hand, but he acts like he doesn’t know that just to confuse the other guy. And then he rearises the other player with inferior cards, and tells the other player what cards he’s holding to get him to fold his better hand. And in the process wins a $12,000 pot which is small potatoes in his world. Clip Yes, Daniel Negreanu is a master. He understands the game on levels I don’t even know exist. And yes, I can learn all kinds of things from him. That’s the kind of person you want teaching your MasterClass.

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Modesty prevents me from introducing your teacher for this series and describing his impressive resume. But you should be made aware of his credentials. and why you should listen to him. So by video, I’ve brought in someone else to make the introduction. Steve Harvey video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDpmBfncbjw 00.18 – 2.40 What? You thought I was going to teach a masterclass on being the man you were meant to be? There’s no way I’m qualified to do that. Our Master Teacher this semester is the Master himself, Jesus. He understands the game on levels we don’t even know exist. His record of faithfulness and success is not merely impressive; it’s unsurpassed. And each week, I will attempt to point out to you why and how Jesus lived the incredible, one-of-a-kind life he did. And how we can emulate him. Before we begin, I want to provide for you some of his credentials. But I’m not going to tell you what his disciples said about him. You might discount their description as biased. We’re going to look at what skeptics, nonbelievers in his claims to be divine, wrote about him.

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H. G. Wells. English historian, author, social critic. H. G. Wells (1866-1946): We (find in Jesus) the figure of a being, very human, very earnest and passionate, capable of swift anger, and teaching a new and simple and profound doctrine—namely, the universal loving Fatherhood of God and the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. He was clearly a person … of intense personal magnetism. He attracted followers and filled them with love and courage. Weak and ailing people were heartened and healed by his presence … The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven … is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought. … (It) was no less than a bold and uncompromising demand for a complete change and cleansing of the life of our struggling race, an utter cleansing, without and within. … Is it any wonder that the Roman soldiers, confronted and amazed by something soaring over their comprehension and threatening all their disciplines, should take refuge in wild laughter, and crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and make a mock Cæsar of him? For to take him seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness.

And Irish historian, again, not a follower of Christ, W. E. H. Lecky with degrees from St. Andrews, Oxford and Cambridge in his work A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. W. E. H. Leckey (1838-1903): It is the character of Jesus “which throughout all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue but the strongest incentive to its practice and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers, and all the exhortations of moralists.

High praise from nonbelievers regarding Christ: the supremacy of his character, the originality of his ideas, the compelling nature of his message, his ability to inspire others to love and virtue, and the unparalleled influence of his life to regenerate, transform and elevate humankind.

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And they are right. No life has more changed the world for good than the life of Jesus. The idea that all persons are created equal – though often attributed to the Enlightenment – the idea that generated the concepts of human rights, civil right, equal rights comes directly from the teaching of Jesus that every life is of sacred worth in the sight of God and his grace is not reserved for any particular race, class or gender. These ideas, revolutionary when they were being proclaimed by Jesus, are so woven into our morals, our laws, our understanding of justice and our culture that we take them for granted. Another historian, J. M. Roberts, Warden of Oxford’s Merton College, wrote: J. M. Roberts (1928-2003): We could none of us today be what we are if a handful of Jews nearly two thousand years ago had not believed that they had known a great teacher, seen him crucified, dead and buried, and then rise again.

Throughout history, and still today, no group has fed more starving people, built more hospitals, brought more medical care to the most troubled places on earth, than the followers of Jesus. No group gives more to charity, does as much for the homeless, devotes so much time to rehabilitating men and women in prison than those who are devoted to Christ.

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And those who labored with pen and word and even with the sacrifice of their lives to end the scourge of slavery, found their inspiration in the words he taught and marched to their deaths while singing: “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, (Our God is marching on). Nicholas Kristof is a journalist who has twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is a self-proclaimed progressive, who has traveled to 150 countries, including the most desperate places on planet earth, and Kristof has arguably done as much as anyone to understand the plight of the poor around the world, wrote in a New York Times article on a Christian missionary doctor in the war-torn Nuba Mountains of Sudan: Nicholas Kristof: There also are many, many secular aid workers doing heroic work. But the people I’ve encountered over the years in the most impossible places … where anyone reasonable has fled are disproportionately unreasonable because of their faith.

2000 years after his death, the world is better, human existence has been elevated, people are more kind and compassionate, and individuals are still being inspired to sacrifice their time, their talents and their treasure for their neighbor and for those they have never met in ways that are completely unreasonable because of the example and the teaching of Jesus.

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One last quote, adapted from a sermon by James Allen Francis. "Born in an obscure village to a working class family, he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. “He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends deserted him. One denied him. Another betrayed him into the hands of his enemies. He was nailed on a cross and while he was dying his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he owned – his coat. When he was dead, he was placed in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. (Twenty) long centuries have come and gone, and today he is the centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress. “I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat and all the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

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Who better to teach a MasterClass on being the man you were meant to be than the most compelling personality and the most impactful life the world has ever known. A man who not only changed his world 2000 years ago but is still changing ours today. When it comes to winning at the game of life, nobody knows more, nobody did it better, nobody has his credentials, and nobody has more to teach us. Believers and nonbelievers agree that when it comes to living a great life, Jesus is the master. And for the next eight weeks he will be our Master Teacher. I know we are here this evening/this morning and we find ourselves in different places. Some of us are here and all we want is to make it through the day and be at peace when we fall asleep tonight. Some of us here – all we want is to keep our marriage together. Some of us – all we want is to help our kids stop making self-destructive choices. Others of us – honestly – we’re here and what we want most is to be a success in life, whatever that may mean. And some of us – we’re here hoping to find something that will make us better men.

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Listen to me, brothers. There is one who can teach you what matters most, how to face and overcome the challenges of life, how to find the peace you’re looking for, and how to love and help your kids and your wife. Learn what he has to teach and your life will be more fulfilling, your impact on the lives of others will be more positive, your family will be grateful that you are in their lives, and you will leave this planet with no regrets. It’s interesting that we are referring to Jesus as our Master Teacher. The Hebrew word for rabbi is translated as either “teacher” or “master.” The literal meaning of the Hebrew root word from which “rabbi” is derived simply means “great.” A rabbi was a man whom a young Jew believed to be great enough to learn from as a teacher and to obey as a master – in essence, a master teacher. And that’s how the men who followed Jesus would have first encountered him – as their rabbi, their master teacher. The goal of a disciple in the time of Jesus was to find a rabbi who could teach him the law. But don’t think of the law here as a bunch of rules and nothing more. For the Jews learning and following the law rightly was learning a way of life that made one righteous and worthy of respect. It was learning a way of life – how to live in this world in such a way that God would be honored and pleased. And a young man would look for a teacher, a master, whose words and whose example would teach him how to live.

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This is what I want you to get here. The goal of learning from our Rabbi, our Master Teacher Jesus, is more than picking his brain, listening to his teaching, and learning what he knew. The goal of a disciple was more than that. It was eventually to be able to live the same way that the rabbi lived. Yes, it meant knowing what the rabbi knew. But it also meant being remade into the rabbi’s image. Not just learning what he knew, but also seeing the world as his rabbi saw it, loving what his rabbi loved, embracing what he embraced, rejecting what he rejected, treating others the way he did, walking through the world the way his rabbi walked through the world. The disciple’s purpose was to become like his rabbi. Why? Because the disciple believed that his rabbi was a great man who could show him how to live a great life. That’s why the disciples of Jesus followed him. Long before they knew he was the Messiah or the Savior of the world or God in the flesh, they would have encountered him as a rabbi calling them to be his disciples. And why did they follow him? Because they believed Jesus could make them better men. He could show them the way to live a truly great life. A life that mattered and a life that honored and pleased God.

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Jesus had no formal credentials. He had not been trained by the respected rabbis of Israel. The teachers of the law saw him as uneducated and unqualified. But Peter and James and John and Andrew and the others, they listened to him teach, they watched how he loved, they saw him challenge the powerful and care for the lowly, and their hearts told them that’s who I want to be like, that’s the life I want to live, that’s the rabbi I want to follow. When pastors get together, they tell stories – often about the worst weddings or the craziest funerals they have ever been a part of. Think about it. Weddings and funerals – they’re public events, they’re emotional events, you don’t do them often, so you haven’t had a lot of practice, and they involve families. It’s a miracle that any of them come off well. So, we all have great stories. One that I was told when I was a pastor in Atlanta, Texas, happened many years before I got there. Another pastor was asked to do the service for a man in his sixties, who was, to quote the locals, “ no durn good.” He was a ne’r do well, womanizing rascal. And he lived that way until the day he died.

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I’ve told you before that I’m going to do some of your funerals. And I’ve told you that I won’t get up and lie to make you look good, but I will stretch the truth. I’ve done it before, and if you don’t leave me with anything decent to say about you, I’ll use my 36 years of pastoral experience the 234 other funerals I have done, and all the creative gifts God has given me to keep you from looking too bad. But in small towns that’s hard to do because everybody knows everybody. They know everything about everybody. So this poor preacher in Atlanta, Texas, found himself in a dilemma. What should he say about ol’ Fred when everybody knew the truth about how he had lived? From the pulpit he looked down on the family. Fred’s son and his teenage grandsons. And he said, I have thought and thought about what I should say today. What Fred would have wanted me to say. I think he’d want me to talk to you two boys, his grandsons. And I think he’d want me to tell you not to live life the way he did. And for the next thirty minutes he talked about ol’ Fred, and how badly he had lived and how no one, especially his grandsons, should live that way.

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At the cemetery they all got out of their cars, and the pastor walked by the hearse, as ol’ Fred’s son, the father of the two teenagers, stepped out. He stopped the pastor in his tracks and said, “Preacher, take off your glasses, cause I’m fixing to whup ya.” Fortunately the undertaker was there who said, “Now, Johnny, you can do with him whatever you want later. But right now we got to get your daddy in the ground.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUmoMSU9_GQ from Interstellar Tap. Tap. Tap. That’s the sound of the clock ticking closer to the moment when someone stands over your coffin and will either be tempted to say, “The message of this man’s life is that no one should live this way,” or he will with integrity be able to say, “The message of this man’s life is that great and beautiful things are possible for all of us.” If you want someone – your pastor, a friend, your children to be able to say the latter, you better figure out what life is all about – what really matters. You better figure out what it means to live well. You better find a power that will enable you to live that way. You better a grace that will allow you to forgive yourself when you fail, and you will fail, so you can start over again with hope and strength.

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And what I am more sure of than anything else is the answer to those questions will all be found in Jesus. The goal of Quest this semester is to learn from Jesus how to live like Jesus. It’s to be remade into the image of our Rabbi, our teacher and master. I know some of you have a picture of Jesus that he was meek and mild, a really nice guy, kind to children and if he couldn’t say anything nice, he didn’t say anything at all. And becoming like that isn’t particularly exciting to you. Well, listen, that’s not the kind of man who changes the world or who impacts history unlike any other. That’s not the kind of man who moved strong, worldly men to give up their fortunes and their livelihoods and their security to follow him. Famed New Testament Scholar James Stewart who taught at the University of Edinburgh, described Jesus this way. I’m going to show you a video of Ravi Zacharias reading what Stewart wrote because – well, because he does it so much better than I can. You can follow along on your notes or watch the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWZ86bkL_yo&index=2&list=PL918B346B7 9AE82EF

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James Stewart (1896-1990): Jesus was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of men, yet he spoke of coming on the clouds of heaven with the glory of God. He was so austere that evil spirits and demons cried out in terror at his coming, yet he was so genial and winsome and approachable that the children loved to play with him, and the little ones nestled in his arms. No one was half so compassionate to sinners, yet no one ever spoke such red hot, scorching words about sin. A bruised reed he would not break. His whole life was love, yet on one occasion he demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell. He was a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions, yet for sheer stark realism he has all of us self-styled realists soundly beaten. He was a servant of all, washing the disciples’ feet, yet masterfully he strode into the temple and the hucksters and the money changers fell over one another from the mad rush and the first they saw blazing in his eyes. Who was Jesus? Meet your teacher. He was Loving and courageous. Kind to the lowly but strong enough to oppose the powerful. A servant who stooped to care for others, and a warrior who would not bow to injustice or to the threats of men. A man who knew who he was and who lived and died so others might become the men they were created to be. How about I get to say that when your day comes? When I stand over your coffin and people are gathered to remember you, I get to say that’s who you were, that’s how you lived, that’s the legacy you left. If that’s what you want, then you want Jesus. You want him as your MasterTeacher and you’re going to love this session of Quest. Maybe not as much as you enjoyed last fall’s session of Quest, but you’re going to love this session of Quest.