Sabbath School for Adults: Education: Lesson 6: More Lessons From the Master Teacher

Tuesday November 3

Rabbi Jesus 

Of all the chapter beginnings in the New Testament, none is more famous than this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). And John 1 soon takes you to the unforgettable verse: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, NRSV).

Read John 1:1-14. What are these texts sharing about who Jesus was and what He was doing here? What should this tell us about Jesus as the great example of a teacher?

The same God who spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden, and to Jacob in the middle of nowhere, now shows up as a person. God, says the New Testament, was personified in Jesus. Through Jesus, we can learn about God’s will and God’s way, because Jesus was God.

The chapter goes on to say how John the Baptist was so compelling a preacher that even religious leaders from Jerusalem suspected that he might be someone special. But he was preparing the way for someone greater than himself. Someone astonishingly special was about to appear, and he, John the Baptist, would be unworthy to “untie the thong of his sandal” (John 1:27, NRSV).

The next day he saw Jesus and declared that He was the “Son of God.” That day, and also a day later, he called Jesus “the lamb of God.”

Also, two of John the Baptist’s followers decide to follow Jesus themselves. And when Jesus asks what they are looking for, they call Him “ ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher)” (John 1:38, NRSV).

Jesus, then, is a rabbi, a teacher, but never has there been a human teacher like Him, because, again, He is God. In other words, God came down to humanity in the form of a human being, and in that form He functioned as a rabbi, a teacher. No wonder Ellen White called Jesus “the greatest teacher the world has ever seen.”—Signs of the Times, June 10, 1886. After all, this Teacher was God.

Considering who Jesus was, why does it make sense to learn from Him the best ways of teaching spiritual truth? What can we learn from Jesus about why not only what we say is important for teaching but also what we do?