Ephesians 4:7-16: Spiritual gifts –pastor teacher, part 14

Class Outline:

Thursday, December 9, 2021

The Greek word for teacher is didaskalos, and this word, translated “good teacher,” is a compound kalodidaskalos. Kalos is an adjective that means “good.” There is another compound of didaskalos that is the opposite of kalodidaskalos.

 

Good teacher: kalodidaskalos

False teachers: pseudodidaskalos.

 

Last time we saw, by means of Peter’s second epistle, that false teachers are not teachers who desire to teach the truth and sometimes make mistakes, but that they are daring, self-willed, unreasoning animals, who revel in their deception, have eyes full of adultery, enticing unstable souls, hearts trained in greed, promising freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption.

 

Remove any of them, remove them all, and you will only see them replaced by more willing dupes.

 

The only weapon against their falsehood is the truth. As the truth grows more silent, the power of the father of lies grows.

 

We may become conflicted by this for the reason that it is prophesied for world history to go precisely in this direction. So we at some level rejoice and say, “Come quickly Lord Jesus,” but at the same time we love our nation, our families, our children and we don’t want them to live in a brutal and dark world where most people are slaves, and so we press on in the truth and by the truth destroy the fortresses of the enemy.

 

We who possess the truth must teach it to others by word and action, and the spiritual gift of teacher is more needed than ever.

 

2CO 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful [literally: powerful in or through God] for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

 

The weapons consist of our ability to destroy speculations against the knowledge of God. At the least, the speculation is destroyed in our own soul, and the hope is that the speculation is destroyed in the souls of those who hear our teaching or witness.

 

If the enemy raises up speculations against the knowledge of God, it is the knowledge from God and about God that will destroy them.

 

Wisdom calls out from the rooftops and from the gates and the squares, but who is listening? Unfortunately, though the false teachers are treacherous, trained in greed, and enjoy enticing unstable souls, the world has plenty of people who prefer the false teacher over the true or good.

 

It is of great importance that we learn the true knowledge of the Trinity and not fall under the lies of false teachers.

 

Due to their style and the attractiveness of their lies (“ears tickled”), the false teachers will be preferred in some cases.

 

2TI 4:1-4

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

 

Our true teacher is our Lord and we are to do what He says. The pastor teacher is to teach Him (Scripture and Trinity) alone.

 

JOH 13:12-17

And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

 

Dull ears and blind eyes have always been the problem. God will bring the truth to anyone who desires it. Nothing hinders His sovereign desire in that.

 

In Israel they were to listen and learn from their teachers, the first great one being Moses.

 

DEU 4:1

"And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

 

This is naturally linked with the shema, which is a confession of faith, daily, and the truth of that faith in God, love of God, love of His Law, and therefore knowledge of God was to be taught to their little ones.

 

DEU 6:4-9

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

 

The Hebrew word is lamad, meaning to teach, to learn, to cause to learn,” and from it comes the word Talmud or “instruction,” the central text of Rabbinic Judaism (composed of the Mishna and the Gemara).

 

ISA 6:9

And He said, "Go, and tell this people:

'Keep on listening, but do not perceive;

Keep on looking, but do not understand.'

 

And that brings us full circle to the Lord’s parable of Himself as the good Shepherd, the context of which was that He healed a man born blind. He said to the Pharisees, “if you were blind you would have no sin, but because you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

 

In our study of the pastor/shepherd we spent much more time looking at Christ as Shepherd than at the tasks of the man behind the pulpit. That is no different than how the word of God reveals it. Much more is revealed about Christ than the work of any office in the church, and we would conclude that it is because the office is to imitate Christ in his work.

 

However, together with pastor/shepherd is the gift of teacher.

 

The pastor/shepherd must be able to teach. He is to teach the truth of the inspired word of God and that only.

 

There is too much liberal theology being taught, both in seminaries and universities and from pulpits. In fact, any liberal theology is too much. The trend is to deny the complete inerrancy and sufficiency of the Scripture. There is too much laziness, rather than intense digging into Scripture, its language, its method or type of medium, its history, its systematic and seamless revelation. It is a lifetime of work, but wonderful work of discovery. Liberal theology is secular, man-centered, denying the authenticity of the miracles of the prophets, our Lord, and His apostles. The trend continues into humanistic, altruistic, scientific, man-centered and man-made ideology, and also conformity to current trends in society and academia rather than finding its internal message, which on its own is sufficient.

 

The pastor/shepherd is to follow hermeneutical principles [proper science of interpretation] to rightly translate and interpret the scripture.

 

1TI 5:17

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

 

1TI 3:1-13

It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, uncontentious, free from the love of money. 4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 and not a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.