Today’s message summary of August 27, 2017 from Pastor Gus Brown:
Why, as a church, do we not witness as we should? There should be more teaching within the church that will provide us with the truth, because there is so much teaching outside of the church that is available.
It is very important for people in the church to experience good, sound biblical teaching.
What is seen in the student is what the teacher has presented and perfected.
The root of successful witnessing to others is effective biblical teaching. The teaching comes from a desire to know more about Jesus Christ through His Word, and to also be taught by others with experience.
In order to be able to teach, you will need to study. The student who desires to learn will put in the effort.
As a priest in the church, one of your functions, wherever you go, is to teach others. Priests are teachers to the people of God, and to all of those who are willing to hear the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The church should be a place where there is ongoing teaching.
One of the reasons we fail to witness is because we think we are not able to teach others. Witnessing is a form of teaching.
2 Timothy 2:24-26
The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth. Then they may come to their senses and escape the Devil’s trap, having been captured by him to do his will.
In teaching, you are to remain gentle in your instruction. When you are teaching, this instruction is to be sound. It is provided to have a positive effect in a person’s life.
God is one who is going to provide the knowledge within the instruction. He does it through the power of the Holy Spirit.
A lot of teaching about matters of faith often require a demonstration by the teacher of living a life of faith and trusting in God. Others, who are watching, will see what it is to live in this way.
Only God can anchor the truth within the hearts and minds of people. God continues to renew our minds through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Note that Satan desires that you would follow him based upon his own teaching.
A priest is a learner and a teacher. A teacher is always a learner. A teacher never stops learning.
A teacher must have the desire to teach:
- having knowledge of the subject
- having the ability to communicate the knowledge
- having patience with those who learn at different paces
Many of us are “slow” learners. We don’t get it right away. When they change their behavior, they have finally bought in to the teaching.
The priest’s work was changed from the Tabernacle to the Temple, and then to a New Testament priest. Even with these changes, some things remained the same. As God educates his people, He provides more knowledge time and again. They all were learners and also had to teach others. New Testament priests did not have to teach about sacrifices of animals, but they do teach about the Lamb of God, our ultimate sacrifice that deals with our sin.
The priest had the responsibility to take care of all the things of God.
Numbers 1:47-51, 53
But the Levites were not registered with them by their ancestral tribe. For the Lord had told Moses: “Do not register or take a census of the tribe of Levi with the other Israelites. Appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, all its furnishings, and everything in it. They are to transport the tabernacle and all its articles, take care of it, and camp around it. Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to stop at a campsite, the Levites are to set it up. Any unauthorized person who comes near it is to be put to death.
The Levites are to camp around the tabernacle of the testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the Israelite community.”
No person would intrude through ignorance or presumption upon the sacredness of the tabernacle, and bring death on himself. The Levites were there to protect the people with teaching and instruction.
Note that God may have you in a person’s life to lead and instruct them in order to keep that person safe from the harm of the opposition in your witness.
Leviticus 10:8-11
The Lord spoke to Aaron: “You and your sons are not to drink wine or beer when you enter the tent of meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statute throughout your generations. You must distinguish between the holy and the common, and the clean and the unclean, and teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given to them through Moses.”
This teaching of the Israelites helped to distinguish the clean and the unclean.
Ezekiel 44:23
They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and explain to them the difference between the clean and the unclean.
Teaching shows how life is to be lived and provides elements of demonstrating truth. People need to be shown how to live in a Christlike manner.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 