• Extremely introverted, scared to step out of the crowd as an individual. Most of the agony I brought to other people was committed as a part of the wild group I ran with.
• Shy in public and by myself, I would rather fail a subject at school than stand in front of the class and read a report.
• Totally insecure in who I was, without any sense of self worth.
• Angry at all around me, for I thought everyone was inherently better than I was.
• Confident only when I was doing the absurd and illegal, frightened when around morally superior people.

Imagine a world where, though there was a NASCAR circuit, there was also an extreme shortage of drivers. Because there were too few drivers, delegates from the circuit started recruiting 16 year old drivers to race. Can you imagine the mess that would ensue on the first day of the NASCAR finals? The ambulances would be busy that day! Wouldn't that be a foolish world?

Yet in many of our modern day Churches we force good natured people into teaching positions because, frankly, there seems to be an extreme shortage of good teachers. Sunday School Directors and Ministers of Education cajole and beg people to become teachers. We put people in teaching positions who do not possess the Gift, or we force newly Gifted Teachers to teach classes that they, quite frankly, are not quite ready to teach. This has a terrible impact on the Body of Christ in many ways:
 

• Older faithful Christians stop coming to Sunday School, Discipleship Training, and eventually Worship Services because of poor unqualified Teachers. I have sat in Sunday School classes where the Teacher, totally unprepared, merely reads from the Baptist curriculum. The question I and others in the classroom silently asked ourselves was, "Why didn't I sleep in this morning? I could have woke up and read my own lesson at my leisure!"
• Christians and non believing visitors who attend Bible classes are not getting the answers that they need from God's Word. I have witnessed students asking the Teacher questions, seriously seeking God's guidance, and getting a mere shrug of the shoulder or an "I don't know". People won't come to a class like this for too long.
• Poor Teachers are causing spiritual ignorance to run rampant in the Body of Christ. From visiting several Churches and my associations on the Internet I discovered the following cases:
• A Teacher I know polled a group of regular Sunday School children (ages 8-17) recently, asking "Who were some of the Apostles?". He was shocked to hear the children reply: "Moses", "Isaiah", "Jeremiah", "John The Baptist". Very few could even name one Apostle, though they are prominently taught in both the Bible and Baptist Sunday School literature.
• An old Baptist gentleman, many years in the Lord, told me that he believed that you could not lose your salvation, but that you could give it away. This is contrary to the Doctrine of Eternal Security that Baptists have held true for many many years.
• A younger Baptist man, recently divorced, told me that he believed that 1st Timothy was not really a part of the Bible because of the Pauline teachings on 1 Timothy 2:11-3.15. You see, this young man wants to be a minister, and takes exception to the "husband of one wife" clause of 1 Timothy 3.2.
• Another middle-aged Baptist man teaches that the Church will go through the Great Tribulation of Revelation. Again, this is totally contrary to what the Baptists have held as doctrinally true for years.
• Poor Teachers are driving people away from the Church in droves. Among the Southern Baptists, nearly 80% of the Worship Service is comprised of people who attended Sunday School or Training Union/ Bible Class. When you drive away the Bible Study crowd, you drive away your worship crowd. 2+2=4 no matter how you go about figuring it out!
• Poor Teachers are driving Christians to apostasy. The Mormon sect is comprised of many ex-Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc. If a person cannot find the Word of God clearly taught in his Church, he will go to another Church to satisfy that longing.

During this study I want to focus on the Gift of Teaching, and what God expects of the holder of that Gift. During this course of study we will look at:
 

• The Importance of the Gift of Teaching
• The Purpose of the Gift of Teaching
• The Gift Illustrated by Jesus:
• To Teach the Word, Be Prepared!
• The Teacher is a Servant, not The Master.
• Establishing Rapport With the Students.
• Silence is Sometimes Golden.
• Storytelling To Drive Home a Point.
• Allow the Student To Discover the Answer.
• Go Out Of Your Way, Visit!
• Separate The Unteachable from the Teachable.
• Outside The Classroom
• Establishing Rapport With Activity.
• Reach Out And Touch Someone by Card or Phone.
• Inside The Classroom
• Removing Physical Barriers
• Removing Spiritual Barriers
• Clean up your attitude!
• Is That Answer The Response of An Idiot?
• Do Your Students Trust You?
• Quench Not The Spirit.
• Awards and Incentives.
• The Baptist Faith and Message

Am I exaggerating? If you think I am, look at the local Churches that offer "educational courses" on Wednesday or Sunday nights. If you offer a Bible study that only requires you be present with your Bible, and offer alongside it a "course" by a renown author that costs $50.00 per person, you'll find that the "course" will be sold out shortly while there's plenty of seats in the "free" Bible Study. Why? Because many Christians have adopted the attitude that states "If I pay for it, it must be good".

What does this mean to the Sunday School Teacher who receives all class materials gratis from the Church coffers? The "I didn't pay for it, so it must not be that good" mentality is already present among the students (either consciously or subconsciously). When the Teacher begins to believe the same of his Gift then all is lost. It is one thing for the average student to have the poor attitude toward the Teacher: This can be changed by using your Gift to help that believer to reach spiritual maturity. It's quite another thing for the Teacher to begin despising the Gift that God gave him as poor and useless. Paul warned Titus:

Titus 2:11-15 "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee."

The Teacher is commanded by God to speak (clearly illustrate), exhort (encourage through teaching), and rebuke (chastise the students when necessary) clearly and doctrinally with all authority. God gave one of the most precious Gifts to the Teacher, the Gift of Teaching, and alongside of it gave the Teacher the authority to exercise that Gift for the student's benefit. When the Teacher forgets the source of his Gift, regarding it as no more than a useless "good for nothing ability", the Teacher responds in one of two ways: He either treats his commission lightly (poor preparedness, lack of enthusiasm, poor rapport with the students), or he resigns and refuses to operate as a Teacher in the Church.

How important is the Gift of Teaching? In my lifetime, using the Gift as God decreed, I have seen a young child come to Christ, grow up, become a Deacon, and eventually accept the calling of Minister of Youth in his local Church. Both I and my wife taught this man from childhood up until just a few years ago. I have seen another young man, as introverted as I used to be, come forward as a Teacher, now Teaching the youth at his local Church. Another older lady came to Teach under the ministry God entrusted to me. Do I think the Gift of Teaching is important? You bet your life! All of my children have accepted Christ as Savior while under the guidance of God called Teachers. Is this an important Gift? From a parent that is eternally grateful his children won't spend eternity in Hell, praise God it's important! For that matter, I came to Christ under the direct influence of a God called Teacher. Teachers and the Gift of Teaching are vitally important to the Church.

In the New Testament the word "Teach" (or one of it's compounds) is found 76 times, in the Old Testament 93 times. Jesus Himself was a Teacher, and the word "Teach" is found 30 times as applied to our Lord alone. The Church cannot fulfill it's Great Commission unless it has God called Teachers:

Matthew 28:19-20 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

We seem to emphasize the "Go ye" (missionary) part of the Great Commission, and the "Baptizing Them" part, but I want you to notice that "Go Ye" and "Baptizing" was only mentioned once in the Great Commission. teach is mentioned twice, underscoring how important this Gift is to the growth of the Church. The wording of the Great Commission demands that each of the Apostles possessed (or will possess) the Gift of Teaching, for how could they teach all nations without the Gift of Teaching?

The Apostle Paul recognized that the Gift of Teaching was so important that all of the Church leadership must possess the Gift in some degree:

1 Timothy 3:1-2 "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;"

1 Timothy 3:8 "Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre"

Paul made it very plain that the Pastor must possess the Gift of Teaching. This is not an option, it is a requirement that will either qualify or disqualify (if the Gift is absent) a man from consideration for that humble position. Some theologians focus on the word Likewise in 1 Timothy 3:8, and assume, based on context, that the deacons also have to possess the ability to teach. This is a matter of interpretation, and I won't declare it to be so. But it is true that most of the deacons I have met over the years were God called Teachers, teaching Sunday School class on a regular basis.

The Gift of Teaching is prominently mentioned in all three of the "Spiritual Gift Lists" found in the New Testament:

Romans 12:6-8 "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness."

1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 29-30 "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?"

Ephesians 4:11-12 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:"

In all three lists the Gift of Teaching is listed directly after the Ministry Gifts in importance (the Evangelist or the Pastor), whereas other Gifts (helps, healing, tongues, miracles) are mentioned in only one list. Teaching and Teachers are vitally necessary for the growth and maintenance of the Body of Christ.
 

Didasko

This verb means "To give instruction", and more specifically, "To give instruction from God's Word". You can see the verb usage by how it is used in the following Scriptures:

Matthew 4:23 "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching [GIVING INSTRUCTION] in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people."

1 Corinthians 4:17 "For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach [GIVE INSTRUCTION] every where in every church."

1 Timothy 4:10-11 "For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. These things command and teach [GIVE INSTRUCTION]."

The Didaskalos' primary purpose in the Body of Christ is to give instruction to all of it's members. The Didaskalos does this by studying God's Word, interpreting it's precepts according to the Biblical  context, and then breaking these doctrines down into "consumable portions" that the average Christian can understand and apply to his life. This is quite different from the Rabbi or the Rabboni of Jesus day (the Theologians) who studied the deeper things of God's Word without application, study for study's sake. The function of the Didaskalos is to make the Biblical teaching understandable to the average believer. The Didaskalos must be ever diligent in watching the student(s). If a bewildered look is in most of the disciple's eyes, the Didaskalos must re-address the subject to try and make it understandable.

How does this relate to you, as a Teacher? If you do not study, or do not understand the Biblical teachings, you cannot teach them. The Gift of Teaching gives you the ability, at your level of Christian maturity, to take that which you know and present it to others. If you are immature in Christ or have not prepared to Teach, you will be ineffective to the Church. The verb didasko presupposes that you have some inkling of what you're trying to teach.

This verb is translated "To train children, to teach, instruct", and is used of the family discipline in the Church of God. Again, you can see how the verb is to be used by seeing it in the Scriptural context:

2 Timothy 2:24-26"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing [TEACHING AS FAMILY] those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."

Titus 2:11-12 "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching [TEACHING AS CHILDREN] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" {In this context the Grace of God is the Didaskalos}

1 Timothy 1:19-20 "Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn [MIGHT BE TAUGHT AS CHILDREN] not to blaspheme."

Hebrews 12:6-7 "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, [INSTRUCTS THROUGH DISCIPLINE] and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, [INSTRUCTION THROUGH DISCIPLINE] God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" {Here the Father is represented as the Didaskalos}

Paideuo is the harsher form of Teaching, the side of Teaching that chastens the Child of God, if necessary, in order to correct him from the deviation of sin. Though I am not necessarily a pessimist, I am immediately suspicious of any Teacher who always instructs on the sweet, the loving, the charitable doctrines of the Word of God. God's Word teaches in equal portions the glory of Heaven and the depravity that causes man to descend into Hell. Several times in the Church Epistles Paul had to delivered unto Satan those who rejected sound Doctrine in favor of the world or heresy.

How does this apply to you as a Didaskalos? There will be times when God will lead you to teach the hard doctrines, the doctrines that you would rather not approach. As humans it's natural to want to be liked, and some of God's Word, if taught clearly, will bring persecution to the Teacher. For example, to the world homosexuality and fornication are acceptable lifestyles. "As long as I hurt none, so mote it be". This is inconsistent with the clear teachings of God's Word, and there will come a time that you will have to paideuo, or chasteningly instruct, those who would have it otherwise. And, frankly, neither you nor the recipient will like it one bit! But that is the job of the Didaskalos.

This Greek word means "to inform", and you can see it's usage in the following texts:

1 Corinthians 14:19 "Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach [INFORM] others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."

Galatians 6:6 "Let him that is taught [IS INFORMED] in the word communicate unto him that teacheth [IS INFORMED] in all good things."

Katecheo implies a basic "imparting of information" to the student. Again, as a Teacher, in order to inform others you yourself must first be informed. Application: The Teacher must consistently study the Word of God.

This is the negative verb in Teaching, and refers to "teaching another doctrine", or "teaching doctrines contrary to God's Word". You can see the verb in use in:

1 Timothy 1:3-4 "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, [Heterodidaskaleo] Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do."

1 Timothy 6:3-5 "If any man teach otherwise,[Heterodidaskaleo] and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."

Heterodidaskaleo is a verb that refers to a poorly prepared or backslidden Didaskalos who, either by design or unknowingly, teaches false doctrine. The false Didaskalos causes rifts in the Body of Christ, spreading error like a rabid dog spreads disease. As one person is taught falsehood and tells another that error, it soon infests the whole Body to the detriment of our calling. As Jesus said,

Mark 8:11-15 "And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod."

Beware of false doctrine in your life. A little bit acts like leaven, and in time crowds out the truth. Application: The Didaskalos must be careful in what he teaches that it is fully supported by the Word of God. What you do effects more than just yourself, it effects the whole Body of Christ. If you are faithful in Teaching as God leads, you will be blessed and bless others by association. If you are careless or sloppy in what you teach you will lead other believers into error, causing poor spiritual growth in their lives, and harm to the Bride of Christ.

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