Luke 18:15-17
As the New school year is just around the corner we honor our school teachers and commit to praying for our local schools and the children in our communities.
It is right for us to show appreciation to the teachers of the children in our community, we need to pray for our local schools and encourage our local teachers. It is sad that our culture has developed the false mindset that schools are the place where education takes place and that is their domain.
Our society is in a mess; rampant gun violence, crime, abuse and the overflowing prisons, are all consequences of a society that has abdicated the responsibility to train up the next generation.
I believe that the Word of God and the Gospel, are the very best tools we can give our children to equip them to be healthy contributing members of society. We are all responsible to train up the next generation (see Proverbs 22:6). I believe that the level of criminal activity that we will see in the next generation in our cities will be a direct indicator of how seriously we took that verse.
A great teacher is not someone who simply conveys information, rather a great teacher wants their students to be lifted to higher heights than they were able to go themselves. We have a church word for this, it is called discipleship. Discipleship is teaching, it is inspiring life change. True discipleship is intentionally helping the person you are leading to reach for goals that you weren’t able to attain
Henry Brooks Adams said, “Teachers affect eternity, they can never know the full range of their influence.”
Throughout History we have had incredible teachers, people who have changed the world by their ideas and their vision. Just think of people like Galileo, sir Isaac Newton, Einstein and many others. But standing above all these is the ultimate teacher, Jesus Christ.
Jesus never got a degree and he never had a classroom, but no teacher has impacted humanity more than Jesus. He was a master communicator who used everyday objects to convey eternal truths. The Bible says in Matthew 7:28-29 that Jesus spoke with authority. The authority of the creator of the universe speaking to his creation. Jesus was also the greatest teacher because he had an eternal perspective and knew what was at stake (see John 3:16).
When you have the opportunity to impact the life of a young person, do you realize that you have just touched eternity? No moment with a child is insignificant.
The children of our churches and our community are so special to us, they are our life, our hope, our innocence and our future.
Christ himself tells us of their importance in Luke 18:15-17. The disciples were managing the crowd, ensuring that the high-profile people got to meet with Jesus. They were frustrated by the children because in that ancient culture, children were regarded as a burden until they could contribute to the family and society.
But, Jesus invited the children to bless them, and to teach the adults around him that the Kingdom of God belonged to those who were innocent and had childlike faith. It takes faith in Jesus Christ as Lord in order to enter into the kingdom of God, there is no other way. Faith is more than simply trusting, it is trusting without all the knowledge, trusting with abandon, trusting like a child.
Children are not a lower class of Christian merely because of their youth. The Apostle Peter, in Acts 2:38 and 39, as he ended his sermon on the street in Jerusalem, the people asked him “what shall we do?”.
Peter responded that the promise of the Gospel is for you and your children. The children were ready to receive the truth, not a watered-down fairy tale version of the Gospel. We do our children a disservice by trying to make the good news into a cartoon format.
With all this talk about education and training, whose responsibility is it to teach our children?
We live in a culture where we have abdicated our responsibility for teaching our children and left it up to the schools. It is not that schools are at fault, we are at fault for not taking our role as parents to train up our children. Whether you choose a public school, a private school, or you decide to homeschool your child, it is still the primary role of the parents to train up a child.
When we can come together and have fathers and mothers who love and train their children to understand and follow the way of the kingdom of God, we will grow stronger as families and as a church family, which will significantly impact our communities.
When we really see our children in church, their innocent faith challenges and provokes us. When we are challenged by our children with questions about the Bible, we will be inspired to learn more ourselves.
hen it comes to Biblical truths, children need to be taught among family. Fathers need to be there with their children to teach them and train them in the matters of God. Men take note, your careers are not as important as training your children. A generation ago we were told that children should be seen and not heard, children should not make a noise in the church, they are messy and disruptive. If that is still your thinking, my question to you is, do you think God minds? Do you think God the perfect Heavenly Father is disturbed if children feel free to be joyful in this place where we come to worship Him? Personally, I think He smiles, He may even desire that we all could be more like the children.
Are you a teacher? We are all called to help train up the next generation, the generation who will lead our churches and lead our communities. Let us be a church who see the children the way Jesus sees them.