(Wednesday, 12/05/07) Parable 6 of the Parabolic Sayings - A Pupil is not above his Master

Luke 6:40

Hear It! Luke 6

Also in Matt 10:24

The Setting
Same as above in Luke - the rejection of Pharisaic Judaism and the call to discipleship and leadership. In Matthew it is also in the context of a call to discipleship.

The Problem
There are several problems or questions here: How do the disciples develop as good teachers and leaders? What will happen if they don’t? What is the problem of following the Pharisees?

The Central Truth
A disciple cannot advance past his teacher.

Incidentally: There is a danger in just following one teacher - like Bill Gothard, Bob Theme, Larry Crabb, etc. There is a trend in Christianity today to make one guy into a guru and major in him. We need to move around and sit under several teachers so we can take what is good from all of them and hopefully discard what is not so good.

Jesus is calling the disciples to leadership positions in the new kingdom and if they don’t mature, their pupils will not mature either. Therefore, they need to develop as teachers and leaders.

How do they do this? I think there are two parts:

First is self-evaluation. (6:41-42)
Second is by doing what the Word says. (6:43)

Verses 41-42 show the self-examination. They need to evaluate their own lives and see the evil in themselves. If we don’t see the evil in ourselves we will not feel the need to do what the Bible says. James talks about the natural man who looks in the mirror (and doesn’t see any problems) and then goes on his way and does not “do” what the Word of God says.

Indirectly, we can apply this to the Pharisees who did not see their evil. They were self-righteous and saw no need for repentance.

The second part is by doing what the word says. Our James passage is still relevant to this point because that is one of James’ main points. Jesus will deal more with this with the parabolic saying about the two builders, so we will come back to that later.

How do you know who is a good leader? He goes on to tell how in the next few sayings.