#6: A New Kind of Teacher

Thanks for joining our study, “Knowing Jesus!” Today we learn a bit more from Mark’s gospel. Pick up your Bible and read on!

Read Mark 1:21-22, 27-28.

When Jesus taught, astonishment was a common reaction. People who’d sat in a synagogue every Sabbath for years knew they were listening to a teacher like none they’d heard before!

What was it like to hear Jesus teach? Can you imagine the power of hearing the Word of God taught by the living Word? He taught with authority because He is the Author!

The Power of His Teaching

Throughout the gospels we read comments like these:
• “…the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” Mt. 7:28b-29 NIV (Also Mk. 1:22)
• “They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority…. ‘What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!'” Lk. 4:32, 36 NIV
• “They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'” Lk. 24:32 NIV

At age twelve, Jesus astonished teachers in the temple with His wisdom and His answers (Lk. 2:46-47). Years later, guards who’d been sent to arrest Jesus came back empty-handed saying, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” (Jn. 7:46 NIV) Even the stone-hearted Pharisees were amazed at His teaching and His responses to their traps (Mt. 22:22). The most resistant cynics in His audience had to admit to a certain power, not realizing they were seeing His sovereignty.

The Testimony of His Miracles

Yet in spite of His powerful teaching, many struggled to believe. Jesus urged, “…Even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (Mt. 10:38 NIV) The writer of Hebrews tells us that God used miracles to testify to the salvation given through Jesus (Heb. 2:3-4). Jesus’ miracles were proof that He was who He claimed to be.

• When John the Baptist’s disciples came questioning if Jesus was the Messiah, He told them, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Lk. 7:22 NIV)
• John 2:11 says Jesus revealed His glory by His miraculous signs.
• Nicodemus recognized Jesus as a teacher come from God, because “…no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” (Jn. 3:2 NIV)
• Jesus said, “The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me” (Jn. 10:25 NIV)

I’ve often wondered if I would have known Him. I can be a cynic. If I’d seen His miracles and heard His teaching, would I have recognized the Messiah? Would I have believed? Would you? Do we really recognize who He is even now? Beyond that, are we willing for Him to be sovereign over us? to change us?

Next week, we’ll look at one of Jesus’ miracles that caused people to sit up and take notice. Having gotten their attention, He could get to His real purpose—showing God to men.

How do you see it? Share your thoughts….

Do you think you would have recognized Jesus for who He was?

Jesus’ listeners immediately saw His authority. This shows not only the power of His teaching but the impotence of the teaching they were used to. A teacher can’t lead others unless his own heart is right. How can Christian teachers today teach in the power and authority of Jesus?

© Diane McLoud 2013

5 Comments on “#6: A New Kind of Teacher

  1. I sure hope I would have, I am pretty sure that I would! Oh how I long to ask Him questions now!!!!

  2. Me too—I have about a million questions, and counting! I sure hope I would have known Him then, and I study & pray now to know Him better every day. Always hungry for more of Him.

    • I beleive I would have recognized Jesus as the Messiah. I think everyone did….some didn’t want it to be true because they didn’t want to change their lives and others were most likely afraid. They knew but did not have hearts for GOD so they denied HIM. I beleive our Spirit recognizes another Christain Spirit, or that The Holy Spirit in us knows when He is in another so we feel a “kinship” towards one another. I think that’s how those in Jesus time may have felt. I think a lot about living in the time of Jesus. I cnnot wait to sit at HIS feet and just listen to HIM! Love these studies. Thank you for the time you put into this. So informative!!!!

      • Interesting idea. If we instinctively “recognize” a fellow Christian, spirit to spirit, how much more would we have recognized Jesus if we had a heart open to Him? I like that thought!

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