The Power of Practical Bible Teaching

When you engage people who are in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus Christ, their conversations are dominated by how the Bible and the teachings of Jesus have transformed their life. And when you engage in conversations with people who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Christ, their conversations reveal that charting a course to spiritual maturity requires investment and involvement in practical Bible teaching. People who are in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus Christ invest their time by being involved in practical Bible teaching. As Jesus was ending perhaps His most famous sermon, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, He told a parable that hammers home the reality that charting a course to spiritual maturity requires investment and involvement in practical Bible teaching:

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-- and great was its fall." Matthew 7:24-27

You see, for Jesus, it is not what you know that matters; it is what you do that matters. And practical Bible teaching not only helps us to know more; practical Bible teaching helps us to live life differently because obedience matters. Simply knowing doctrine and theology is not enough; it is what you do with what you know that counts. And spiritually mature and growing followers of Jesus are marked by life change, not just head knowledge. And intuitively we understand this, don’t we? Obedience matters. Throughout His sermon, Jesus makes it clear that obedience is more important than knowledge or attendance. Whoever hears these words of mine and acts on them. Not whoever hears theses words of mine and memorizes them. For Jesus hearing and acting are inseparable.

But there is a tension that we can experience when it comes to practical Bible teaching that often causes us to hesitate or push back when we are exposed to it. We'll look at that tension and its implications tomorrow.