Title: Don't Be Called Rabbi!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Matthew 23:1-12
Title: Don't Be Called Rabbi!
Wherever people live, there will always be teachers in each field. For example, there are teachers who teach studying, there are teachers who specialize in technology, there are teachers who teach sports, and there are teachers who specialize in dance.
Even in Jesus' day, there were countless such rabbis. At that time, the rabbis were respected by the people of Israel. It is said that the status of the rabbis at that time was that when they passed by, everyone bowed their heads and did not raise their heads until they passed.
Rabbi is said to mean “my teacher or my master” in Hebrew. It seems to be true that he was highly respected by the people of Israel at the time, perhaps because of such a famous name.
Although it is now fading a lot, even today, the relationship between a teacher and a disciple remains unchanged. For this reason, the people of Israel also envy the rabbis at that time.
While the rabbis were being praised by so many people, a villager of Nazareth appeared out of nowhere and said, “You shall not be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.” How many people laughed and pointed at Jesus? would you?
This is the difference between the thoughts of heaven and the thoughts of humans born on earth. At that time, the rabbis may have been praised by the people as teachers of Israel, but none of them could have done so to forgive human sins and bring all the people of Israel to eternal life like Jesus did.
Then, after all, they say that many people on this earth may have heard of the teacher, but they cannot become the eternal teacher of human beings. With this in mind, Jesus said, “You shall not be called rabbis.”
But how many teachers and leaders roam this land today? When you go to school, there is a teacher, when you go to a university, there is a professor, and when you go to a seminary, there is a professor of theology. Even within the church, there are teachers who teach the Word, and there are leaders who lead the saints. Could it be said that all of these are the true teachers whom Jesus spoke of, and can they also be called true leaders?
If you are teaching the saints without receiving anything from the Lord, you are making the saints doubly hell. They are merely teaching the model of Christ, who will come spiritually before the Gentiles.
The rabbis at the time of Jesus were also merely teaching the types of Jesus Christ. They may not want to admit these facts, but if they do not have the ability to forgive human sins, they are only a model. Because the reality is made possible only through Christ, all the actions performed before that are in fact all merely models.
A typical example of a model is Moses. He parted the Red Sea, escaped the 2 million people of Israel, received the Ten Commandments from Jehovah God on Mount Sinai, and saw the day of the Lord.
Those who do these things may consider themselves to be great beings, but all of these things are limited to the flesh, and they are all gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has given to His servants. This is because signs and miracles can be shown to unbelievers, so that more people can believe in Jesus and make God's people on earth. First, there must be a people to have a kingdom, and when there is a state there must be a king.
Since the Israelites were born as God's people, there was no need to evangelize, but Gentiles had to believe in Jesus to become God's people on earth. God thought that the Gentiles would not believe in Jesus, so he wanted more Gentiles to gather as God's people by making signs and miracles appear to them through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It is said that the people of God gathered in this way now number about 2 billion worldwide. However, not all of them go to heaven. From now on, the people who will go to heaven will be selected from among them. It is the Son sent by God who will do the work. Jesus, who came to the land of Israel, did just that. In a way, it is no exaggeration to say that the salvation of Christians begins with the coming of the Son.
In the Bible, Jesus said, “You shall not be called rabbi, nor should you be called a leader”, which also applies to Gentile Christians. Our Teacher and Leader is Christ alone. No one can be our teacher, no one can be our leader.
And in order for us to become disciples of Christ, we must be born again as Christ ourselves. Anyone who has not been born again as a Christ and thinks that he has been born again as a Christ with the gift of the Holy Spirit is deceiving himself Because the Holy Spirit is a gift from God to His servants, it has no power to forgive human sins.
It is blasphemy against the Lord for a person who has not been born again to imitate Christ by quoting the Bible, and he is being thoroughly deceived by the devil, the father of lies. It would be more beneficial for such people to first realize the sin in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. Christians should never confuse the Holy Spirit with the Spirit of Christ. -He who has ears, let him hear and understand...-