[Teaching] Looking Ahead: Teaching Series 2025
Why do we teach on Sunday? | 22/09/2024 | Psalm 119v105-112
One of the big things we’re working on at ICF is a new approach to teaching which will go into effect next year.
Currently, our Sunday gatherings consist of one-off teachings. There is the odd exception such as the 2024 Gospel series I’ve been doing and a series on the Sermon on the Mount Fred did last year, but, on the whole, it’s one-offs.
Our hope for the new year is to begin with more consistent series. Particularly those going through books of the Bible and topics pertinent to living as a follower of Jesus in our context. It’s my firm opinion, after all, that strong disciples of Christ are spiritually formed and biblically literate. Teaching plays a huge role in that.
So, last week we introduced the plan to the congregation and invited them to join us in it. This is the teaching that I gave to present that introduction.
I hope you enjoy it and please do be praying for us as we step into this new season of how we approach teaching as a community.
A recording of the teaching can be watched here.
God bless!
Looking Ahead: Teaching Series 2025
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.
I have suffered much; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word.
Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.
Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.
The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.
Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.
Any Moomin fans in the house?
That’s what this picture is from. A series of children’s books written by the Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson. I didn’t discover them until I was 20 but found myself instantly captivated by their simple charm and expressive art style. They make for great reading on my Sabbath.
Anyway, this is a picture of Snufkin, one of the main characters. He’s a traveler who, at the end of Summer, leaves the titular Moomin family to warmer lands in the south.
Here we see Snufkin on one such journey, being led by the light of the moon behind him.
I chose this picture because it’s a simple illustration of the well known passage we opened with. A light on the path. It is a fitting illustration for the topic of today… teaching.
That’s right everybody, I’m doing a sermon on sermons.
Anyway, I’m aiming to make this one shorter than usual so I’m just going to hit you with a few rapid fire quotes from the start.
Here’s one from the Roman statesman Cicero: “There are two arts which raise men to the highest places of preferment: one is that of the great soldier, the other that of the accomplished orator; for by the former the glories of peace are preserved, by the latter the perils of war are driven away.”
Here’s another from Indian politician B.R. Ambedkar: “It is mind that makes us to be prisoners in the house of life, and it is mind that keeps us so.”
And here’s one more from our very own Apostle Paul: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Jesus was known in His ministry days as a rabbi, a Jewish teacher. And what is the role of a teacher? To point people to the truth. The truth about reality. Whether that be the reality of mathematics, science, language, or, in the case of Jesus, the meaning of life itself.
Today, we’re going to examine the role of teaching in the Church and conclude by thinking, specifically, about teaching in our community here at ICF Noord.
So, why do we teach?
I once heard it said that we don’t have ideas but, instead, ideas have us. Meaning that ideas are so powerful they can shift and form the trajectory of our very lives.
And I think that’s accurate!
Ideas are roadmaps for engaging with reality. The ideas we believe will lead us in certain directions that impact the kind of people we become.
Cicero believed a gifted speaker could successfully promote ideas that could turn people away from war. Ambedkar believed that freedom was a matter of the ideas we hold in our mind. And Paul believed something very similar, he too saw the strength of ideas which is why he related transformation to the renewal of the mind.
This is why teaching is an important part of our Sunday gathering. We teach in hopes of trading faulty ideas for those of Jesus. The hope being that such ideas will help us to live a good life with Him.
This is why the image of Psalm 119 is so effective. The Word of God illuminates the right path to life. Throughout the entire passage, the psalmist is quick to share about all the difficulty they have experienced. Yet, through it all, they find solace and strength in their embracing of God’s perfect and pleasing Word.
It’s what gets them through the challenge of reality that we all must face.
We would do well to critically examine the ideas we hold as true. To look at them in light of what Jesus taught and how He lived.
Psalm 119 teaches that there’s power in the Word of God, even more so when a person embraces and lives that Word out. That power doesn’t go unnoticed and the devil, the enemy to all followers of Christ, is well aware of it.
Like I said at the start, God deals in truth because, as Jesus said, truth sets free. Sets free from what? From the devil’s most common weapon- lies.
I hate to break it to you but we’re not a purely rational species. We can certainly act rationally, that’s one of the great benefits of being human, but the simple fact remains, we still have base desires that influence us. The degree to which varies for everybody but it’s in there.
The great strategy of the enemy is to play to our base desires and manipulate us into believing lies. This way he can keep us from experiencing the life with God we learn about through Christ’s teaching.
It’s a good strategy! Just look at what God said through the prophet Hosea… my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge… a people without understanding will come to ruin!
Ideas are powerful. Both true and untrue.
This is also why we teach, in order to combat the falsehoods that the devil attempts to lure us into. After all, what he doesn’t want us to see is that the Word of God is the light of life, leading us to what matters most.
Educated people are powerful people. And I’m not just talking about academically educated people. People who are well educated in the Way of Jesus, who, above all, abide in Him, are THREATS to the devil himself! This is why he’s always on the offensive with lies.
The teaching, the learning, and the living out of God’s truths strike a brutal blow against our spiritual enemy.
Good thoughts via good teaching help us become people who are more open to the intervening power of the Holy Spirit.
But, of course, teaching alone isn’t enough. The other day I was having lunch with a friend of mine and we were talking about preaching. He told me a story from when he was at his old church. As everyone was leaving that Sunday, he asked them what the sermon was about. Only about half could tell him. He called a few of them on Wednesday and, by then, more had forgotten. Then, on Friday, he asked again, and nearly everyone couldn’t remember.
The point I’m making here is that teaching sets us in a direction but doesn’t get us to the end. For that reason we need to reinforce positive teaching with helpful images. Things that keep the message of the teaching alive in our hearts and minds. I think certain books, art, songs, media, activities, and so on can be very helpful in this.
Ultimately, though, we need to take the things we learn and bring them to God in prayer. For it is through time with the Lord that the rubber really meets the road.
Like I said, teaching puts us in the direction but doesn’t get us to the end. What is the end you might ask? Life with Christ. Abiding in the vine. Teaching can remind us that such a thing is important but it’s up to us whether or not we’re going to take that to God.
The goal of teaching is more than simply memorizing Bible verses or obtaining theological knowledge. Good teaching should embody and encourage the fruits of the Spirit. This isn’t a lecture or a podcast. The goal here is to move people closer to Christ. To let go of the false in favor of the true.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
That Word is more than text on a page or the book containing it. Think about those opening verses to the Gospel of John…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
It’s Jesus. He is the Word of God. He is the complete embodiment of God’s perfect will in human form. He is our central authority. His life is the ideal that the entire Bible points towards. A literal person born into and lived throughout reality.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
In an age of information overload, where separating true from false seems like a fool’s errand, we have Jesus. In Him is life, the most vibrant life anyone could ask for. Giving people the tools they require not just to get through the difficulties of the world but to see the beautiful meaning God puts behind it all.
Not a theory but a lived and felt experience. The branch on the vine. Immanuel.
The Word shows us that not only is God knowable but that His desire is for intimacy with each of us.
This is reality.
This is why we teach.
We teach on Sunday afternoon to be reminded of the truth of the Way of Jesus and, in the process, fight the lies of the enemy.
We live in a time where information (true AND false) is more accessible than ever. It’s easy to feel like we’re drowning in a sea of the stuff.
Put that on top of the fact we’re living through post-modernity, a time where claims to objective truth are met with mass suspicion.
The Way of Jesus helps us stand firm in the midst of that. Not only that but it also helps unify and bring us together as a community coming from all over the world.
For these reasons, we want to take a more intentional step in how we approach teaching at ICF…
It’s my belief that strong followers of Jesus are both biblically literate and spiritually formed. Meaning they know the Bible well but, more importantly, are leading a life of abiding in the vine by living in an active relationship with Jesus.
Because of that, in 2025, we want to start teaching series that will focus on both books of the Bible as well as discipleship under Jesus. We want to take this step together as a church and hear from you guys about topics (spiritual, biblical, cultural, etc.) that you would like to see taught on through these series.
What we’re going to do now is take a time of prayer to contemplate and then respond to that and with those responses, Fred, I, and a few others will use them to inform how we structure the teachings for the coming year.
So as we prepare ourselves to enter into prayer, I’d like to read these words from Psalm 19v7-10…
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey, and drippings from the honeycomb.
For more information about ICF Rotterdam Noord: https://www.icfrotterdamnoord.nl/en/
Interested in how you can help support my work? Here are a few ways…
US Specific:
Venmo (@Jon-DiNovo)
WEC USA giving information can be found here.
EU Specific:
Tax Deductible Donation via WEC NL: NL98 ABNA 0426 839 536 t.n.v. stichting WEC Nederland o.v.v. Jon DiNovo Rotterdam
Direct Donation: NL31 ABNA 0121 7988 28
General: