The Teaching Function
Text: (No single text; topical — teaching traced through redemptive history)
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Topical
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State who was the first teacher in human history and identify the first four persons God taught directly.
- Identify at least four examples of teaching relationships in the Patriarchal Age and explain what principle drove Abraham's selection.
- Name three categories of teachers in the Jewish Age and explain what function types and shadows served.
- Identify at least five pieces of evidence that teaching was the central function of the Christian Age from its beginning through the apostolic era.
- Explain the relationship between Christ's authority and his teaching, and state what Acts 1:1 reveals about the sequence of what he did.
Thesis
Teaching is not one function of the church among several — it is the function on which all other functions depend. God has been teaching from the beginning; every era of redemptive history has been structured around the transmission of divine truth from teacher to learner; and the commission Christ gave was explicitly a teaching commission. The church that does not teach has abandoned the function that makes every other function intelligible.
Burden
Teaching is an important factor in all phases of life; God has always given a prominent place to it. The burden is to trace the teaching function through redemptive history from God's first instruction to Adam through the church's permanent commission — establishing that what the church does on Sunday morning is not a cultural accommodation but the continuation of the oldest and most fundamental activity in the relationship between God and his creatures.
Introduction
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). The Great Commission has two active verbs: make disciples and teach. The baptizing is the means of the first; the teaching is the content of the second. The Commission is a teaching commission. When the church gathers to teach the word, it is doing what Christ commissioned it to do; the teaching function of the church is fundamental to all other functions.
This is not a new thing. God has been teaching since he made creatures capable of receiving instruction. The history of that teaching traces the full arc of redemptive history.
I. God: Man's First Teacher
Before any human teacher existed, God taught.
He taught Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:1-21). The instruction in the garden — what was permitted, what was forbidden, what the consequences of disobedience would be — was divine instruction. God did not leave the first man and woman to discover the created order by trial and error; he taught them.
He taught Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1-15). The distinction between an acceptable offering and an unacceptable one was not self-evident; it was taught. Cain's failure was not ignorance of the distinction — it was refusal to meet the standard God had established.
He taught Noah (Gen. 6:13-22). The dimensions of the ark, the categories of animals, the timeline of the flood — all of this was specific divine instruction given to a specific person for a specific task. Noah did not engineer the ark; he built to specification.
He taught Abraham (Gen. 12:1-4). The call to leave Ur, the promise of a land and a people, the covenant that would run through Abraham's line — all of it began with divine instruction to one man who had to be taught before he could obey.
God sent his prophets to teach. When direct divine instruction gave way to mediated instruction through prophets, the function was the same: God communicating his will to his people through persons he commissioned, equipped, and sent. The prophet is the teacher God dispatched.
II. Teaching in the Patriarchal Age
God's pattern of teaching through selected individuals created a chain of transmission that ran through the patriarchal age.
Why Abraham was chosen is stated explicitly: "For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice" (Gen. 18:19). God chose Abraham specifically because Abraham would teach. The purpose of his selection was the perpetuation of divine instruction through his household.
Abraham taught Lot (Gen. 13:1-3). Abraham taught Isaac (Gen. 22:1-19) — the obedience Isaac demonstrated on Mount Moriah was the fruit of teaching received. Abraham taught his servant (Gen. 24:1-2) — the servant who found a wife for Isaac was a man who knew his master's God. Isaac taught Jacob; Jacob taught his sons. The chain runs from God to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to the twelve sons from whom the twelve tribes descended.
The patriarchal age is the age of household teaching — the transmission of divine truth through families, from generation to generation, before any institutional structure existed to support it.
III. Teaching in the Jewish Age
The Jewish age institutionalized the teaching function that the patriarchal age had carried through families.
Teaching was emphatic under the law. "He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, so that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children" (Ps. 78:5-7). The multigenerational transmission of divine truth was a legal obligation, not merely a cultural practice.
"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" (Deut. 6:6-7). The instruction was comprehensive — not limited to formal settings but woven into the fabric of daily life. Teaching was the air of the covenant household.
Three classes of teachers served the community: priests, prophets, and scribes. The priests taught the law by example and instruction; the prophets taught by divine commission in response to the specific situations of their era; the scribes taught by preserving, copying, and expounding the written text. Each class served the same master function from a different angle.
Types and shadows — the tabernacle, the temple, the sacrificial system — were methods of teaching. The entire visual, ritual structure of Israelite worship was designed to communicate theological truth through enacted symbol. Every sacrifice taught atonement; every high priest taught mediation; every feast taught redemptive history. The Jewish worshipper was immersed in instruction at every gathering.
Ezra is the model teacher of the return from exile (Ezra 10:1-4). The rebuilding of the community after the Babylonian captivity began with the public reading and exposition of the law. Ezra read; the Levites helped the people understand; the people wept when they understood what they had abandoned. Teaching preceded and produced the restoration.
Elijah taught Elisha (2 Kings 2:14). The prophetic succession was itself a teaching relationship: the senior prophet formed the junior prophet through extended proximity, observation, and instruction. Elisha's power after Elijah's departure was the power of a man who had been taught.
IV. Teaching in the Christian Age
The Christian age is the age in which the teaching function reached its fullest institutional expression.
The commission (Mark 16:15-16). The command to "go and preach" is inseparable from the teaching function — preaching is a form of teaching; the content proclaimed is the content to be learned and obeyed.
The teaching function established by Jesus (Matt. 28:19-20). The explicit content of the Commission is teaching: "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you." This is not incidental to the Commission; it is its substance.
Preaching is a form of teaching (II Tim. 1:11). Paul describes his own appointment as "a preacher and an apostle and a teacher." The three roles are distinct in form but united in function: all three communicate the gospel to those who need to receive it.
Paul and Barnabas were "prophets and teachers" (Acts 13:1). The leadership of the Antioch church — the church that sent the first missionaries — consisted of prophets and teachers. Teaching was not a supplementary function; it was a primary qualification for leadership.
They "taught much people" a year at Antioch (Acts 11:26). The description of what happened at Antioch — where the disciples were first called Christians — is that Barnabas and Paul "met with the church and taught considerable numbers." The church at Antioch was defined by a year of sustained teaching.
Paul taught at Corinth for a year and a half (Acts 18:11). "He settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." The health of the Corinthian church after Paul's departure — its problems as well as its gifts — is the result of what was planted through eighteen months of instruction.
"God has appointed in the church... teachers" (I Cor. 12:28). Teachers are among the gifts God placed in the church — listed alongside apostles and prophets. The office is not administrative; it is spiritual and essential.
"The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (II Tim. 2:2). The chain of transmission runs from Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others — a teaching chain explicitly designed for perpetuation. This is the last generation's mandate for every succeeding generation: what was received must be taught.
Parents are to teach children (Eph. 6:1-4). The home remains, in the Christian age, what it was in the patriarchal age: the primary location of the transmission of divine truth.
Elders are teachers (I Tim. 3:2). "An elder must be... able to teach." Teaching ability is not one qualification among many; it is the one qualification that defines the elder's primary function. The elder who cannot teach has failed to meet the standard the New Testament sets.
V. Christ: The Great Teacher
Above all other teachers stands the one from whom all teaching derives its authority.
He began his ministry teaching (Matt. 5:2). "He opened His mouth and began to teach them" — the first recorded activity of the ministry described in the Sermon on the Mount is teaching.
He taught and preached (Matt. 11:1). The two activities are consistently paired in the Gospels: Jesus went through cities teaching and preaching. The two are not opposed; they are complementary dimensions of the same communicative act.
He had authority to teach (Mark 1:22). "They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The scribes taught by appeal to earlier authorities; Christ taught with the authority that belongs to the one from whom all authority comes.
He did and taught (Acts 1:1). "The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach." The sequence is significant: he did first, then taught. His teaching was grounded in his doing — the doctrine he taught was embodied in the life he lived.
VI. The Holy Spirit as Teacher
The Holy Spirit extended the teaching function beyond what direct human instruction could accomplish.
"The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say" (Luke 12:12). In situations of opposition and persecution, the Spirit supplies instruction that human preparation cannot provide.
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you" (John 14:26). The apostles' teaching authority derived from the Spirit's teaching of them. What they taught, they had received from the one who had received it from the Father.
VII. Apostles as Teachers
The apostles were teachers by commission and by practice.
Commanded to teach (Matt. 28:20). The commission that Christ gave them was a teaching commission — "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you."
Taught and preached (Acts 5:42; 15:35). "Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." House to house — the teaching went to every level of the community, not only to those who came to formal gatherings.
VIII. The Church as Teacher
The church does not merely attend to teaching as one of its functions; it is itself a teacher to the world.
"So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places" (Eph. 3:10). The church is the instrument through which God's wisdom is made known to the watching universe. This implies that the church must know the wisdom it is to make known — which implies teaching.
God placed teachers in the church (I Cor. 12:28; II Tim. 2:2). The teaching function is permanent: teachers were placed in the church; they are to continue through faithful transmission to those who will in turn teach.
The church that does not teach its people has abandoned the function that makes it the church.
Application
Every Christian is a link in the chain of II Tim. 2:2. What has been received must be entrusted to faithful men and women who will teach others. The question for every member is whether they are faithfully receiving instruction (attending to the teaching with the commitment of Acts 11:26 — a full year of engagement) and whether they are faithfully transmitting it — to children, to neighbors, to anyone in their sphere of influence.
The congregation that takes seriously its teaching function does not merely offer classes; it shapes a culture in which the word of God is the medium through which life is understood.
Conclusion
From God's instruction to Adam in the garden to Paul's instruction to Timothy about what faithful men should be able to teach — the teaching function is the thread that runs through every era of redemptive history without break. God taught; patriarchs taught; prophets and priests and scribes taught; Christ taught with authority; the Spirit taught the apostles; the apostles taught the church; the church is to teach the world. Every generation is accountable to receive what the previous generation transmitted and to transmit it faithfully to the next.
Invitation
The gospel that the church teaches is the gospel of salvation. It is available to everyone in this room who has not yet obeyed it: believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God; repent of sin; confess his name; be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). The door of teaching stands open; the question is whether the hearer will do as well as hear.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching | didaskō / didachē | To instruct, to cause another to learn; the content of instruction. | The governing function throughout: didaskō is what Jesus did (Matt. 5:2; Mark 1:22), what Paul and Barnabas did (Acts 11:26; 18:11), and what Timothy is to entrust to others (II Tim. 2:2). | Didaskō appears approximately 97 times in the NT. It describes instruction that calls for a response — not merely information transfer but the formation of the learner. The Commission uses it for the content of discipleship: teaching them to observe what Christ commanded. | Matt. 28:20; II Tim. 2:2 |
| Authority | exousia | The right or power to act — derived authority given by one who has it. | Used in Mark 1:22 for what distinguished Christ's teaching from the scribes': he taught with exousia. | The scribes taught by appeal to other authorities; their teaching was derivative. Christ taught with the authority of the source. The astonishment of the crowd was the recognition that someone had appeared who was not appealing to tradition but speaking from original standing. | Mark 1:22; Matt. 28:18 |
| Teacher | didaskalos | One who teaches; a recognized instructor. | Used for various teachers in this sermon: Christ (the great teacher), Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:1), elders (I Tim. 3:2), and the function God placed in the church (I Cor. 12:28). | The range of application is significant: the same word applies to the itinerant rabbi, the church elder, the missionary, and the parent teaching their child. Teaching is the common function across all these roles — the transmission of divine truth to the person who needs to receive it. | I Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11 |
| Diligently | shānan (Hebrew) | To sharpen, to point — used in Deut. 6:7 for teaching children: to impress with sharpness, to incise. | Used in Deut. 6:7 for the instruction to teach God's commandments diligently to one's children. | The image is of words that cut — instruction that goes deep, not instruction that slides off the surface. The teaching God requires in the home is not casual mention but intentional, repeated, pervasive formation. The home that teaches in this way raises the next generation of faithful people. | Deut. 6:7 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| God taught Adam and Eve | I | Gen. 3:1-21 |
| Abraham chosen to teach his household | II | Gen. 18:19 |
| "Teach them diligently to your children" | III | Deut. 6:6-7 |
| Multigenerational teaching chain | III | Ps. 78:5-7 |
| Ezra: teaching produced restoration | III | Ezra 10:1-4 |
| Teaching function established in Commission | IV | Matt. 28:19-20 |
| Paul and Barnabas "taught much people" at Antioch | IV | Acts 11:26 |
| Paul taught at Corinth 18 months | IV | Acts 18:11 |
| "Entrust to faithful men who will teach others" | IV | II Tim. 2:2 |
| "Elders must be able to teach" | IV | I Tim. 3:2 |
| Christ taught with authority | V | Mark 1:22 |
| "All that Jesus began to do and teach" | V | Acts 1:1 |
| Holy Spirit will teach | VI | John 14:26 |
| Church makes God's wisdom known | VIII | Eph. 3:10 |
| Baptism for remission — responding to what has been taught | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 176. Primary text: none stated; topical survey of teaching through redemptive history. OCR corrections: "lll." → "III."; "vm." → "VIII."; "Kin gs 2:14" → "Kings 2:14"; "l Cor." → "I Cor." throughout. Doctrinal audit: teaching function in each age developed from the actual texts Boles cites without importing alien educational theory; the patriarchal chain (Abraham → Isaac → Jacob → sons) developed as a genuine line of transmission, not merely a genealogy; Christ's teaching authority distinguished from scribal derivative authority (Mark 1:22) without over-interpreting the crowd's response; Holy Spirit's teaching of the apostles affirmed for the apostolic period without extending miraculous guidance to ordinary teachers today; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
