Names of Jesus: Teacher

Seeing how beautifully every one of Jesus’s names goes together is incredible. Each of them is like a puzzle piece fitting together with every other name. This week, we will explore Jesus as Teacher. As we study many of Jesus’s names that speak of Him as Truth, learning of Jesus as the Teacher is an essential piece of the puzzle in understanding Him as Truth.

¹ There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 
² This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born ^[a]again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:1-3 NKJV

I love this part of the gospel story when Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to see Jesus under the cover of night. He tells Jesus that some of the Pharisees know that Jesus is a teacher come from God and that no one could do what Jesus has done unless God was with Him. Not only does Nicodemus acknowledge his belief that Jesus is a teacher from God, but he calls Jesus Rabbi, the honorable name Jews call their teachers (G4461). Jesus’s response to Nicodemus’s statement is to tell him that only someone who is born again can see the Kingdom of God.

How to be a disciple of Jesus the Teacher

Unless you are given spiritual life, you cannot be spiritually born, and therefore cannot understand spiritual things. Unless you are spiritually born you will not understand the things which Jesus teaches. If you cannot perceive the spiritual teachings of Christ, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. If you are not born again, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus, the Teacher.

⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

Luke 6:40 NKJV

Be born again by faith in Christ

In order to be disciples of the Great Teacher, we must die to sin and be raised to spiritual life through faith in Jesus Christ. When we accept Jesus as our Savior we are given new life, a new identity as followers of Jesus, and as Children of God, coheirs with Christ. Jesus teaches plainly that if you wish to inherit eternal life you must be born again, and to be born again you must believe and trust in Jesus Christ as your Teacher and the only means of salvation.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

²² Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth ^[a]through the Spirit in ^[b]sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 
²³ having been born again, not of ^[c]corruptible seed but ^[d]incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides ^[e]forever, 
²⁴ because

“All flesh is as grass,
And all ^[f]the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
²⁵ But the ^[g]word of the Lord endures forever.”

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:22-25 NKJV

³⁶ He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 3:36 NKJV

Follow and prioritize the teachings of Christ

Once you have been born again through faith in the Teacher, you must follow the teachings of Jesus and prioritize His ways of living. To do this, we must commit to learning from His Word, living by His example in scripture, and spending time growing in our faith and relationship with Him through prayer.

¹⁸ And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. ¹⁹ Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

²⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

²¹ Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Matthew 8:18-22 NKJV

¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

John 16:13 NKJV

When we have faith in Jesus, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to be a guide and help us through our life in preparation for eternity with Him. As we read the Bible, pray, and commit our lives to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will help us and guide us along the way. The Holy Spirit draws us to God and then works in us to continue refining us and making us more like Christ. We can follow and prioritize Christ when we understand spiritual things, and we understand spiritual things when the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life.

¹² For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

¹⁰ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the ^[a]Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. ¹⁶ For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 NKJV

¹⁴ Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Ephesians 6:14-17 NKJV

Teach others what you have learned from the Teacher

We are to be led by the teachings and examples of Christ, and we are called to share all we have learned with others. This is not to take His place as the teacher, but to follow His command to go out and make more disciples. Jesus is very clear that He is the One Teacher, and those who teach His Word should be humble, exalting Christ rather than ourselves.

⁸ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your ^[c]Teacher, ^[d]the Christ, and you are all brethren. ⁹ Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. ¹¹ But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. ¹² And whoever exalts himself will be ^[e]humbled, and he who humbles himself will be ^[f]exalted.

Matthew 23:8-12 NKJV

³⁴ Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. ³⁵ But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. ³⁶ The word which God sent to the ^[l]children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— ³⁷ that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. ³⁹ And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom ^[m]they killed by hanging on a tree. ⁴⁰ Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, ⁴¹ not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. ⁴² And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission^[n] of sins.”

Acts 10:34-43 NKJV

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go ^[a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ^[b]Amen.

Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV

Christ gave Himself so that we may live in eternity with the Father. He came as a man and left lessons for His disciples to follow so that we may be prepared on the day He returns for us. As our great Teacher, He is the One to look to in all circumstances, lean on in every trial, praise in every joy, and always be humble at the foot of the cross where He died for our sake. He didn’t just die for us – He also gave us His Word to teach us why He died, and how to live because of His death and resurrection.

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