For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles...

I. What’s Your Motivation For Teaching?

A teacher must have a Christlike motivation for teaching

A. Bad: boost self worth; receive praise from men; temporal gain, substitute for application

Teach w/o knowing 1 Tim 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Teach for own gain Titus 1:11...who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

Micah 3:11 the priests  teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money: yet... say, isn’t the LORD among us? none evil can come Teach other than the Word Mat 15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Bad teachers build themselves Ac 20:30  of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples...

Bad teachers major on the minors 1Tim 6:3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 4  He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 5  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

B. Better: obedience, love (self-sacrificially desire what’s in another’s best interest), reward, receive praise from God

The Great Commission: Mt 28:19-20 as you go..make disciples...baptizing in the name...teaching them to obey all

Compassion/Love Mk 6:34 Jesus...moved with compassion...began to teach them many things.

Reward Matthew 5:19  Whoever breaks one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so...least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Parents have the responsibility to teach their children Dt 6:6 these words...shall be in your heart: 7 And you shall teach them diligently to thy children, and shall talk when you sit...walk...lie...rise... {See Power Parenting Outline for Content of Instruction}

II. Believers Should be Competent to teach each other:    Ethos/Pathos/Logos

A teacher must aspire to be used by God to cause life change.  Purpose and plan to be a growing, changing, Christlike teacher.

Rom 15:14 persuaded...you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish/instruct one another.

2Tim 2:2 the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who...able to teach others

2 Tim 2:24  And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient, 25  In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Bad teachers don’t practice what they preach Rom 2:21 You therefore which teach another, teach you not thyself?

2 Peter 2:1But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Bad believers don’t preach what they practice 2 Tim 4:3 time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they heap teachers,

III. Believers’ Competency Comes from the Scriptures  (2Tim 3:15-17)

A teacher must inquire into the Scriptures to determine what God wants us to know, feel, and do. Before teaching you must know:

1) the general principle (timeless truth) of the passage;  2) what God intended the original audience to do as a result of His revelation; 3) what five things God could desire your audience to do as a result of His revelation;  4) what twenty idiotic objections people will have to accepting and applying the truth

First Taught by God Ps 25:5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for you art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. 8...he teach sinners in the way. 9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. 12  What man is he that fears the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

Psalms 51:13  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted to thee.

Isaiah 28:26  For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him.

Taught by Others Col 1: 7 As you also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

Self-Taught 2 Tim 2:15 Study to show...approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Ezra 7:9...the good hand of his God upon him. 10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel ...

IV. The Content of Teaching Comes from the Scriptures

{See Marks of Godliness Outline for more}

Knowledge of God Heb 8:11 not teach every man his neighbor..brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me...

Knowledge of Jesus Acts 5:42  And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Love with the right motivation 1Tim 1:3...charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4  Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: 5 Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 6  From which some having swerved have turned aside to vain jangling; 7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Blessable  Col 1:28 we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ

Holiness Ezk 44:23 teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean

Wisdom Pr 9:9  Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

Godliness 1 Tim 4:8-11 godliness is profitable to all things,...promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 11  These things command and teach.

Life Skills Titus 2:3 aged women... as becomes holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

1 Tim 6:2...do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.

V. Believers Must Cause Change by raising needs and meeting them with the truth, then coaching.

{See outlines on Disciplemaking and Teaching Seminar for Methodology and Coaching}

The teacher must inquire into the audience’s lives to determine: their needs and interests, (what they currently know, feel, and do) and how to involve them in the learning process.

The teacher must perspire to motivate students by making them feel their need for truth and appealing to their felt needs, desires and interests.

1Cor 3:1 I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, even as to babes in Christ. 2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able.3 For you are you carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?

Questions for Reflection/Discussion/Response:

1. If you’re a Christian, is teaching an option? Why do many believers evade their responsibility?

2. How far ahead of the hounds does the fox need to be in order to teach them? What do you need to know?

3. How do you teach someone who is unteachable, knows it all, or isn’t open to change?

4. Does humility have anything to do with being a good teacher? What else could trip up someone?

5. Can one learn from a bad example? 

6. What can you learn from your best and worst teachers in school that you can apply to your Christian responsibility?

7. How can you use what you’ve learned to teach others? Where and with whom can God use you?