Today we continue our study in the teaching of our Lord Jesus. The teaching of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 13, verses 51 and 52. Matthew 13:51-52. And for those of you who are new, you may like to know that week by week we study the Lord's teaching systematically, passage by passage. And this we have been doing for some two and a half years. And in these two and a half years we have now come as far as Matthew chapter 13, verses 51 and 52.
And this passage reads like this. In verse 51, the Lord Jesus asks his disciples, after finishing all the teaching on the parables, the Lord Jesus asks them, "Do you understand all this?" That is, all these seven parables that have just been taught. And they said to him, "Yes." Verse 52: "And he," that is Jesus, "said to them," that is to the disciples, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."
Now what can we learn from a passage such as this? Verse 51, the Lord Jesus asks his disciples, "Do you understand all that has been taught in the parables?" They said yes. Well, as far as they knew, they understood it. Of course, anyone who imagines that he has understood all there is to understand about the parables and all its riches is likely to discover that that is not so. But the disciples, as far as they were able to understand it, felt that, yeah, they had got the main point.
And then verse 52. And the Lord Jesus says, "Therefore." What is "therefore"? Therefore, that is, if you understand my teaching, if you understand my words, you will become like a scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven. Now that's wonderful. A scribe who is discipled to, become a disciple of — that's what the word actually means. And so the word "trained" as a scribe of the kingdom of heaven. I find this is very precious. And we're going to see some very important principles emerging from this.
Now in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, the Lord Jesus says certain very important words. Matthew 28:19. Where he sends his disciples forth into the world. In verse 18, the Lord Jesus says this: "And Jesus came to his disciples and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore,'" that is, on the basis of this authority, because God has given him all this authority, "'and make disciples.'" Now the words here translated "make disciples" is the same word as "trained," that you have here, "trained for the kingdom," "made disciples for the kingdom." Often when you read a translation, you don't realize that you are dealing with the same words in the original. "And make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
Now, the Lord Jesus sends his disciples forth to make disciples. The Lord Jesus doesn't send us forth to make converts only, to add members to the congregation of the church, to bring people in so that the church may be filled with numbers of people. You can do this with various kinds of methods and gimmicks. And most of these methods and gimmicks I know, except that I refuse to use them. If you bring in lots of social activities, if you bring in lots of entertainment into the church, if you have today in the church, say, lots of singing groups, lots of jiemu, various things going on, and then one person doing this and another person doing that — very entertaining. You can bring all kinds of people into the church. People like to be entertained. But we are sent forth into the world not to entertain people, not even to make converts, but to make disciples. That's very important to understand.
Now, the question though is this: how do you make disciples? Do you know how to make a disciple? Can these words of the Lord Jesus apply to you? When he sends you forth to make disciples, do you know how to make a disciple? Maybe you know how to make a convert. Maybe you tell them, "You see, you believe in Jesus and your sins are forgiven." That, you might even succeed in making a convert. But that's not a disciple. A disciple in the Bible is pictured as a soldier. He's far more than just a convert. The Lord Jesus sends us forth to make disciples. The question is, do you know how to make a disciple? I don't doubt if you know the Four Spiritual Laws, you might make some converts. But my question today is, do you know how to fulfill the Lord's teaching? Do you know how to make a disciple?
Now how do you make disciples? That's exactly where we come back to our passage today. You see, only scribes and prophets — two categories of people in the Old Testament — made disciples. They had disciples. They were prophets and scribes. Now do you know what is a scribe? That's what we have to study. The scribes are referred to many times. They're called wenshi in the Chinese. Wenshi, scribes. What are wenshi? What are scribes? And to this we need to come in a moment.
But first let me show you that the early church were concerned to fulfill the Lord's teaching. They were not concerned just to make numbers of converts to fill the church with a large number of people who are neither here nor there, that when trouble comes, they all disappear. If I wanted to build a church that just had lots of converts in it, I would do things in a very different way from what we have been doing in the last two and a half years. We would have used all the well-known devices by which you fill a church. As I said, entertainment. Spiritual entertainment. I have gone to many American churches since coming here and am astonished at what is frankly, to me, basically entertainment — spiritual entertainment, it is true, but entertainment nonetheless. There you have duets singing, very nice programs, and another one comes up who talks. They are all trained to entertain. They are skilled in this business. Then you have various activities which interest people who are not necessarily interested in spiritual things. In this way, you draw people in. You get a big crowd of people. But let me tell you, when trouble comes, when persecution comes, they disappear. They go as quickly as they come.
I am not interested in that kind of a church. When the communists came into China, I was there to watch it. I saw what happened to the church. I saw how these big churches filled with people, rich churches — and so when the communists came, they were empty of people. They didn't dare to turn up in church anymore. You see, the church was no longer a good place for entertainment. It was not a good place for social gathering, to meet your friends, to have a chit-chat. No, no. And so nobody comes anymore. The numbers disappear. The churches have to close. What we need is to fulfill the Lord's command: make disciples. To do that, the church has to become a teaching church.
Now that is exactly what the apostles did, and what the disciples did. They went out and made disciples. Acts chapter 14, verse 21, we find Paul and Barnabas doing just that. They went out everywhere, Paul and Barnabas, making disciples. There we have the same Greek word that is used in Matthew 28:19, as well as here in our present chapter. Again in Matthew chapter 27, verse 57, we read that Joseph of Arimathea became a disciple of Jesus. He didn't just become a convert; he became a disciple. And Joseph of Arimathea was a very influential man. He was a member of the 71-member Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of Israel. So disciples were coming from every quarter, including the highest members of the society of Israel — Joseph of Arimathea, a judge, a member of the Supreme Court of Israel, the Sanhedrin.
Altogether, this word "make disciples" occurs four times, though the word "disciple" occurs hundreds of times. The word "make disciples" occurs four times. And these are the four times that we have just mentioned, including Matthew 13:52, which is in our present passage: "trained for the kingdom of God." You see, to make a disciple means that these people will be trained for the kingdom of God. They are not just going to be present in church; they are trained. Now, you can see that the whole program of our church is geared towards training to make disciples. And disciples never come in large numbers. You look for quality, not for numbers, when you make disciples. If all you want is numbers, or then all you want is decisions, then you don't do things in this way. But when you want quality, then you must have training. When you have training, then it takes time. But it also takes people. What kind of people? The scribes. That is why: "Therefore every scribe who is trained for the kingdom." Before you can train disciples, you have got to train scribes. That is the point. How can you have a church of disciples when you have a church with no scribes in it who are trained for the kingdom?
Now, we will notice basically that a scribe is a teacher. And we shall go on to see much more about scribes, because I would like you to understand what is a scribe very clearly by the time we have finished. But from Acts chapter 13, verse 1, we read that the early church had prophets and teachers, which as I said is another word for scribes. And we find that Paul and Barnabas were both scribes, and probably both prophets as well, because you can be both a prophet and a scribe, though they are not necessarily the same thing. But certainly, Acts chapter 13, verse 1, tells us that Barnabas was either a prophet or a scribe, or both prophet and scribe or teacher. We also know that Paul was a scribe. He was, in the Jewish term, a rabbi, a teacher. In fact, from Acts chapter 9, verse 25, we discover that Paul had his own disciples, which makes it very clear that he was a scribe, because scribes had their own disciples. These disciples of Paul in Acts chapter 9, verse 25, may have been his disciples before he became a Christian, because Acts 9:25 is of course speaking about a time immediately after Paul's conversion, and it seems too soon for him to have his own Christian disciples. It would seem to be his disciples before he became a Christian. Paul, of course, was a very learned rabbi before he became a Christian. So he had clearly a large number of disciples who tended to follow the learned rabbis around. And when he became a Christian, it seems that many of his disciples became Christians along with him. But at least one thing is plain: that Paul was certainly one of these people who was a scribe trained for the kingdom.
Now, what exactly did a scribe do? Well, a scribe did three things, basically. He had a threefold task. First, a scribe studied the law. Before you can teach, of course, you have to study. A scribe was a rabbi. He studied the law. He was an expert in the law of God, that is, in the Bible. By "law" is meant not laws in the secular sense that we think about today, but the law of God, the Old Testament, or the Torah, as it's called, the law of God. As you know, the Bible, the whole Old Testament, is called "the law and the prophets." That's one of the two main distinctions. Sometimes it would be spoken of in three main distinctions: the law, the wisdom writings, and the prophets. So the scribe was an expert in the law. He studied the law of God carefully.
That's why we read in John chapter 5, verse 39: "You search the Scriptures," the Lord Jesus says to them, "because in them you think you have eternal life." The word "search" is very characteristic of the work of how the scribe studied the law. He didn't just read the Bible — everybody does that — but he searched the Scriptures. He went deep into it. He looked into the depth of the Word of God. In other words, he was an expositor. He was an exegete. He expounded the Word of God having studied it, having searched the Scriptures. The same Greek word for "search" is used in chapter 7, verse 52 of John, where Nicodemus was inclined to believe in Jesus. They said to him, "Search and see." Well, search where? "Search the Scriptures and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee." They didn't know, of course, that he was born in Bethlehem, that he wasn't of Galilee, but he was living in Galilee. They said, "Search the Scriptures. If you study the Scriptures, you will see that no prophet, no Messiah, comes out of Galilee." And again, the same Greek word is used in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 11, where they search the prophets, they search the prophecies to know about the coming of Christ. A similar word is used in 1 Peter 1:10 to search carefully the Scriptures or the prophecies.
Now, this then is the first task of the scribe. He studied very carefully. He didn't just study, but he studied carefully. He searched the Scriptures. Why did he search the Scriptures? Well, if he was a good scribe, he searched them to find eternal life. We shall see that scribes became scribes for quite a number of different motives. But if he was a good one, he searched it because he knew that only in the Bible do you find the message of the word of life. They sought the words of eternal life. Now, no subject could be more important for study in this world, that's for sure. I mean, no matter what you study, you study it in order to — what? Because you want to get physical life. You want to earn your living. So whether you study engineering or law or biochemistry or whatever it is you study, you study it why? Because you want to make a living. Probably that's the first instance, and secondly you might be somewhat interested in the subject. Some are not even interested in the subject. They study it because that's the only profession that they might be qualified for or that they might get a job in. Well, there's a certain demand in the market for this kind of job. And so the result is that you search, you study, in order to secure a living for yourself.
But there is no subject in the world more important than the study of God's Word. Because here we are dealing with eternal life. There is no subject that you should study more carefully. Everything else passes away. The science that you study today will be outdated in a few years' time. It will be all passe, it will all be past. It's all left behind. The textbooks that you use today will be out of date in a few years' time. Science will have gone ahead and you will be left behind unless you keep chasing on. The same thing with medicine. Unless a doctor keeps up with modern trends, he will soon be out of date. He will be practicing medicine that is out of date. And the same in every department of science. It has a way of passing away. It is transient, temporary. But the Word of God never passes away. It deals with eternal life. There is no subject in the world more important to study. And that is something that the scribes, the good scribes, understood very well. He studied it because he sought eternal life.
Now having studied it, his second task — the second function of the scribe — was to teach the law. And he didn't study it just to satisfy himself. He studied it not only that he might have the personal satisfaction of knowing the path to eternal life, but rather that he may then help others on to the path of eternal life. He studied it in order to be able to help others, to teach others — that is, if he is a good scribe. And so we find that the scribe is called "a teacher of the law" in Luke chapter 5, verse 17. A teacher of the law. In fact, in the Greek that is one word — "law teacher," "teacher of the law" — in Luke 5:17. In the same way too, when we train in the kingdom of God, when we study the Word of God, it is in order to be able to help others onto the path of life, to show them the way of life. And that is why in the church the apostle Paul regarded the elders who taught as being of the greatest importance. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 17, he says that the elders who preach and teach were to be regarded with the highest honor in the churches, because they performed the most important function. They were building disciples, and so building the church.
But one thing more: the scribes were not meant to teach only by their knowledge of the Bible. They were not meant to teach only by word of mouth. They were to teach by their example, by their life. And so, in the same way, the scribe of the kingdom must not only know the Bible well, know the Word of God well — he must be an example by his life. That element today is simply dropped out. Today, when you sit in a seminary, you don't care what kind of life the teacher lives. In fact, it's none of your business to know what kind of life he has, what he does outside of the seminary, or in his home family, or whatever. He is there because he has a certain diploma which says that he has a certain amount of training, and therefore he is qualified to teach you on certain aspects of the Bible. His private life is none of your business. Well, that's wrong when it comes to the Bible. In the Bible, his private life is your business, because the scribe taught not just by his words but by the kind of life that he lived. So the apostle Paul is able to say in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." You have got to imitate me. It's a command. His life has to be of the kind that you can imitate, not just to learn his teaching, but to follow his example. So a lot was demanded of a scribe who was a good scribe. Now how you become a scribe, we shall see in a moment, and how important this aspect is.
But let's come to the third thing concerning the scribe. The scribe not only studied the law, he not only taught the law, but it was his task also to apply the law into various situations. To apply the law. How did he apply the law? Well, he applied the law, for example, by acting as a judge. The scribes were often and most frequently chosen as judges in Israel, because of course they knew the law of God, and therefore they were the best qualified to judge in any civil or criminal case. What would you do in such a case? What is the Bible teaching? Well, the lay person doesn't know what to do, but the scribe trained in the Word of God knows what should be done, or he ought to know. And therefore he would pass judgment in civil cases, where there was a civil dispute — who should inherit, where should the boundaries be drawn, what should be done in this or that case, what should one do and may not do on a Sabbath, and so on and so forth. He would be also involved in criminal cases to pass judgment.
And again, we see that Paul was a scribe, because you know from Acts chapter 7 that when Stephen was being put to death, the witnesses laid their mantle, their gowns, at Paul's — at that time he was called Saul's — feet. That means to say he was acting as the presiding judge in this criminal case, in this case being regarded as criminal, in the case against Stephen. And Stephen was sentenced to death with Paul's consent, not to say at his jurisdiction. So we see that Paul was a scribe acting as a judge in the case of Stephen. That this matter was always on his conscience and he could never get it out of his mind again, we can see from his writings later on. He felt that he was the worst of sinners because he condemned to death the disciples of Christ. Though at that time he did not know what he was doing, and he begs from the Lord forgiveness for that. But from all this it is plain that Paul was a scribe and he was applying the law, doing the work of a judge.
When we come to the Christian scribe, we find that he is expected to do the same thing. The servant of God in the church, the scribe of God trained for the kingdom, is expected to act as a judge in the church. We see this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 12, and chapter 6, verse 5. Where Paul rebukes the Corinthians for taking a case to court — that is to say, to a secular court — and he says to them, "Is there nobody among you who is qualified to judge, to act as a judge between brother and brother? Are there no scribes among you who know the Word of God well enough to act as a judge, that you have to take this case before the unrighteous people, before the secular courts, and so disgrace the name of Christ with two Christians taking a court case against each other in front of unbelievers?" Paul was very angry about what the Corinthians did, that one Christian took another Christian to a secular court. He expected the Christians themselves to have a scribe who would act as a judge to decide the case. You see, Christians, he says, you have the responsibility to judge those inside the church. By "judge" here is not criticizing; it is passing an act of judgment in accordance with the Word of God in deciding a case. It is not criticizing a person; it is deciding a case. So there is no contradiction here about not judging a person. It has to deal with the judging of a case.
So from all this we see now and we understand the function of a scribe. And here again in Matthew chapter 13, verse 52, remember the Lord Jesus is speaking about scribes for the kingdom, the Christian scribes. And this is so important today, firstly because we saw that our task is to train disciples, and it was the task of the scribes to train disciples — apart from prophets, which were no more in Israel at that time, so it only left scribes. There were no prophets at the time in Israel, so that left, in actual practice, that the only people who actually trained any disciples were the scribes.
But secondly, because there is going to be a great famine of the Word of God, and it's already present with us. I always think with fear and trembling of those words in Amos chapter 8, verse 11, where the prophet Amos says that God will bring a time of famine upon Israel, and that famine would come not of food, not of bread, but a famine of the Word of God. So that he says there in Amos chapter 8, that people would go to and fro, north and south, east and west — what for? Desperately looking for the Word of God, and he says they will not find it. A famine of the Word of God.
You know, I find that this famine is already here today. In the churches there is a famine of the Word of God. You know that I have preached the Word of God in these last two years virtually from coast to coast in Canada, or at least from Montreal to Vancouver and all the cities in between. It's always the same reaction: "We have never heard the Word of God expounded like this before." Especially when I explain to them what is commitment, what it is to become a Christian, what it is to be a disciple. I'm greeted with the same reaction all the time: "We have never heard this before." And they keep on telling me, "We are simply starved. We do not get the Word of God. When are you coming back again?" They have pastors who hold some degree from some seminary somewhere, but where are the men who break the bread of life, so that the members of their congregation are telling me, "We are starved. We are not being fed. We are hungry for the Word of God"? My heart goes out to them, because today what are trained are people who are trained with some academic knowledge, but that is not a scribe in the Bible sense. We shall go on to see in a moment more about scribes.
But why is there such a famine coming upon Israel? Amos says. When we look into the New Testament period, we find the same situation happening. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 3, Paul tells Timothy to teach with all authority and to rebuke and to speak forth the Word of God in season or out of season — "Preach at any time the Word of God." Why? He says, "Because the days are coming — the days are coming — when men will no more endure sound doctrine." Now that is even more frightening. The days are coming, the apostle Paul says to Timothy, when people will not endure sound doctrine. Think about it — if that doesn't strike any fear in your heart! They don't want to listen to the truth anymore. But what will they do? They will get teachers who will tickle their ears, tickle their fancy, entertain them. In other words, tell them the things they like to hear. People don't like to be rebuked. Teachers — the good teachers tend to be severe. We don't like them. We like the entertainers, the guys who know how to sop it to you, to dish it up to you the way you like it, tickles your fancy. No wonder that when the time comes when people don't want to endure sound doctrine, then the famine will really be at its worst. There won't be the chance to hear anymore the Word of God, and it's hard enough in these days.
So then let us ask some further questions. First, I would like you to understand this concerning this passage: the Lord Jesus therefore is training scribes for the kingdom, and he wants every person to become a disciple to such an extent that every person is capable of teaching. In Hebrews chapter 5, verses 11 to 14, we read these words, especially in verse 12: "By now," the writer to the Hebrews says, "you ought to be teachers, and still you are at the milk stage." Let us read this passage, because like a good scribe, the writer to the Hebrews, who is a scribe himself, a great expositor of the law of God, the Word of God, administers a very severe rebuke to the church. You see, he is not the kind of person who tickles the ears of his hearers. He is rather strong in his language. And I am afraid I have often been accused of being strong in my language. I don't tickle anybody's ears. It's rather hard on the ears sometimes, isn't it?
Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11. Perhaps we should read this whole passage to understand what is expected of every Christian. Now in the previous passage, the writer to the Hebrews was talking about the king and priest Melchizedek, and then verse 11 he says: "About this," that is, about Melchizedek, "we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." Now that's not very diplomatic, to say such things of people. But you see, he is not one of those people who tickles anyone's ears. "You have become dull of hearing. You have gone down spiritually, and your ears are not sharp to understand spiritual things." And then he says something more that doesn't tickle the ears. Verse 12: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers" — now he expects every Christian, this is the point I would like you to see — he expects every Christian to become a teacher. "You all ought to be teachers by now. Yet you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God's Word. You have — we have got to teach you to read from the beginning. You need milk, not solid food. You haven't grown up yet. You are still at the baby stage." You can't be less tickling on the ears than that.
In verse 13 he says: "For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled." The thing about the scribe is that he is skilled. But everyone who lives on milk is unskilled "in the word of righteousness." I would like you to notice this: the Word of God is here described as the message of righteousness. I have told you again and again, the Bible is concerned with righteousness. Without holiness no man shall see God. Yet today the teachings of so many churches deny righteousness as essential to salvation. It's amazing. The Bible is the word of righteousness, and he who lives on milk is unskilled in this word of righteousness, for he is a child. "But solid food is for the mature." Strong meat is for those who have teeth to chew, not for those who still can only suck on the bottle — "for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good and evil."
Now I said a moment ago that the scribe in the Bible is not a scribe who simply collects a diploma from some seminary or some faculty of divinity. What does it say here? "His faculties are trained by practice and experience to distinguish between good and evil." The qualifications for a teacher in the New Testament, the qualifications for the teacher in the kingdom of God, is not just that you have a diploma or degree, but that you have spiritual quality capable of discerning between good and evil. Notice "the word of righteousness." We are not talking academics here. The Bible is the word of righteousness. It has to do with good and evil, and that you do not learn by a diploma. You learn that in the school of life, by living with God. That shows the kind of disciples that the Bible has in mind, and the kind of scribes — everyday life, whose faculties are trained by practice in everyday life to discern between good and evil. These are men of God that the Lord Jesus is talking about, not people who just stuff knowledge into their heads. It's a world of difference between these two. The spiritual qualifications of the teacher in the New Testament are very high.
For this we can look also at 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 10 and 11. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 10 and 11, Paul is speaking to his own disciple Timothy. Timothy, as you know, was a disciple of Paul's, trained by the apostle Paul, and he proved to be a very outstanding disciple himself, becoming a scribe and a very good scribe at that. And so he says to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 10: "Now you have observed my teaching" — not only my teaching, but notice this — "my conduct." Now that's very important. No one worries much, as I said, in a seminary about conduct. But if you are going to train a New Testament church, you've got to live the life. If you cannot live the life, then you have not the right to talk. "You have observed my teaching" — notice the word "observed" — "and my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness." He points to himself as an example. He dares to do that because he says, "I am what I am by the grace of God. Whatever I am, I am by the grace of God. The Holy Spirit in me has made me what I am. Now you just look at me. You just imitate!"
# Scribes Trained for the Kingdom of Heaven — Part 2 (Matthew 13:51-52)
You get scarred in battle, you get scarred in battle, because a disciple is not above his master. What happens to the master happens to the disciple. Today we have academic training. You don't produce disciples by academic training. You need men of God who have lived, who have fought the battles in the front lines of spiritual warfare. These are the men from whom to learn. And so having said that to Timothy, he goes on in verse 11: "My persecutions, my sufferings, and what befell me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra" and all these places. And then he goes on to say in this way, in verse 14: "But as for you, continue in what you have learned" — that is, what you have learned from me — "and have firmly believed." Notice these words: "knowing from whom you learned it." Who did Timothy learn it from? From Paul. That's some teacher. That's some teacher. You know whom you learned it from, and so you hold fast to it. Those are strong words. I wonder how many teachers dare to teach and to talk like this today. There is nothing about a false modesty, a false humility. "Oh, I am no good. Don't follow my example." What do you mean, don't follow? If you are going to make disciples, if you go forth into this world and make disciples, don't think all you have to do is teach them theory, because they are going to watch your life. They are going to learn to follow your example.
Do you know how to make disciples? That is tough, isn't it? It is no use saying to them, "Look, you become a disciple of Christ, but don't follow me." You don't make disciples that way. You either make disciples or you don't make disciples. If you are going to make disciples, you have got to live the life. You have got to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Those are high requirements of a New Testament scribe.
But then let's press forward and look at this passage again as we come back to Matthew chapter 13, verse 52, this parable of the Lord Jesus in his teaching. And let's try to learn something more about scribes and their students. Let me tell you something more about scribes as they were in the New Testament times. We know a great deal about scribes. The scribes were also called lawyers, by the way. And if you come across the title "lawyers," it's just another name for scribes. They are just the same people. They were experts in the law. They were scholars, of course. That is plain. They were scholars in the Scriptures. They were Bible scholars. And so by now you also know that they held the title of rabbi. You also know that Jesus was addressed as rabbi, and therefore he was recognized by the people as a scribe. He taught with authority, not as the scribes. The scribes tended to quote each other, that is, those types of scribes. But the Lord Jesus spoke with a power from above. And that's what he expects of every New Testament scribe. Paul was a man equipped with power. Unless you are trained in power, you do not become a New Testament scribe. That is a big difference between the New Testament scribe and the scribes of Israel at that time.
The thing about scribes also, as we know a lot about scribes, is that the scribes came from every class of society. They came from the high classes. They came from the low classes. Just as today, scholars come from every class. You may have come from a rich family. You may come from a poor family. Scribes came then from every class. There were scribes who were chief priests. Also there were scribes who were merchants. There were scribes who were carpenters. The great Jewish rabbi called Shammai was, in fact, like the Lord Jesus, a carpenter by trade. Or they could even be very low in their social standing, such as day laborers. The great teacher Hillel was, in fact, making his living as a day laborer. That is the kind of person that we read about in the Bible, who waits in the marketplace in the morning hoping that somebody will employ him for that day's work. He would do any job, mostly agricultural jobs, but they were day laborers. They had no long-term job. They were just employed from day to day. They waited in the morning at the marketplace. Hillel, that great teacher of the law, the great scribe, was in fact one of these day laborers by which he earned his living.
There were some scribes who were not even Jews in origin. There were the great rabbis called Shemaiah and Abtalion. Both of these two great rabbis were not even Jews by birth. They were descended from proselytes, that is, Gentiles who accepted the Jewish religion. So in spite of family background, in spite of whether they were Jew or not Jew in origin, the one thing that gave the scribe his position in Israel was his knowledge of the Word of God, of the Old Testament, of the law.
How did he become a scribe then? Well, he studied for several years. It was a long course of training. Some of them began early in life. Some began later in life. Josephus, the historian, for example, who was also a scribe, began training before the age of 14 as a scribe, and he studied the Word of God early in life. The training could take a long time. And the scribe was not ordained before the age of 30 — in the time of Jesus, and later, not before the age of 40. That means to say, supposing the person trained as Josephus before the age of 14, there were more than 15 years before he became himself an ordained scribe. A scribe was ordained by the laying on of hands, rather like a pastor or minister today is ordained by the laying on of hands. And when he was ordained, at approximately the age of 30, he then became an ordained scribe, an ordained scholar. But before that he would be described as a non-ordained scholar. He was still recognized as a scholar, but a non-ordained one.
And so we find that after ordination was completed, he could practice as a full-fledged scribe. He could make decisions in criminal proceedings or in civil proceedings. He was able to enter into the Supreme Court, become a member of the Sanhedrin if he was chosen. And so he also might have his own disciples. And many of the scribes had many disciples, of course. Their teaching, once they were ordained, was regarded — their pronouncements and their decisions were regarded as on the same level as the Word of God itself by the Jews. In fact, in one place it says that the teaching of the scribe had more authority than even the Torah, the law of God itself, which of course we must regard as somewhat blasphemous. But it shows the high regard in which the teaching of the scribes was held. Their word was as the Word of God. What they said had to be obeyed. They had the power to bind and to loose. And that, in fact, is the power that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples, who were to become the scribes of the kingdom. That is why we read in Matthew chapter 16, verse 19, and Matthew chapter 18, verse 18, where the Lord Jesus said to his disciples: "Whatsoever you bind has been bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose has been loosed in heaven." Your decisions represent the will of God. That is an astonishing statement to make. Very enormous authority is entrusted to the disciples as the new scribes, because they were now living under the power and the control of the Holy Spirit. They were not going to make decisions out of their own mind, but under the leading, the authority, of the Holy Spirit. It's enormous power that the Lord Jesus entrusted to his disciples as the scribes of the kingdom.
But because of this authority of the scribes, the Jews held the scribes in enormous respect. In fact, they were held in such respect that, apart from the chief priests and the members of the ruling families, only the scribes could become members of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court. Nobody else — except the chief priests, members of the ruling families, and scribes. Which shows what kind of position they held. So from these things then we see that such was the respect that was held in Israel for the scribes, that when a scribe passed by on the street, everybody stood up for the scribe. Now that's so important to understand this. The only people who were excused from standing up when a scribe passed by were the people who were actually in the middle of their work, the artisans. So if you were in the middle of making a pot, you couldn't drop the pot and stand up. You were excused from standing up. But everybody else stood when the scribe passed by.
The scribe was distinguished by — he distinguished himself, that is, by the kind of clothing he wore, with long fringes underneath. He wore the scribal gown that distinguished himself, rather like the academic gowns that universities like to give out today. And you swagger down, you know, with this academic gown, feeling that you are really something. And so the scribes swaggered through the streets. I remember that when I was in a theological college in England, we were all required to wear black gowns, these academic gowns, which I found to be an incredible nuisance, because it has such long sleeves that I was always walking away with the chair. You see, I stood up and the chair would come with me. Or I would get caught on the edge of the table and things of this sort. And the worst part about it was that we had to walk from one department of this college to another department through the streets of London. And you can imagine us all walking with these black gowns through the streets of London, all feeling, of course, exceedingly proud of ourselves, being the great academics that we thought ourselves to be. Of course, we were nothing of the sort. But once you put on a black gown, you really feel something. And I'm sure that when you have been at graduation ceremonies, and it was your turn to put on the black gown and the academic hood, you certainly suddenly realized that you were several cuts above the common herd of humanity outside. You see, you have become something. And so you can understand the feeling of the scribe. He walked through the streets of Jerusalem with his academic gown on, his scribal gown, and all the people rose in respect to this learned man of the Word of God.
In fact, he was so honored that he was to be honored even above his own parents. He was given the best seat in the synagogue, facing the congregation, which always reminds me of some churches — they have a platform there and all these seats facing the congregation, and all these important men with their legs crossed over, sitting looking over at this congregation below. Yes, all the scribes, the lawyers, they were given this kind of seat, looking down upon the congregation in the synagogues. They were the ones invited to preach at the synagogues. I mean, who was better qualified than they? So these were the great men who achieved it through the learning of the law. Everyone admired them. And they were even attributed, some of them, as having great spiritual powers — at least that's what the people thought they had.
Now this is the kind of picture. And the reason I'm painting this picture of the honor that was accorded to the scribes is to show you that people could become scribes for the wrong reason. Because it showed there was a possibility of coming from humble backgrounds to a position of great exaltation through the learning of the law. Then people would study the Scriptures for the wrong motive. That was very dangerous. In order to stop this, it was not allowed for a scribe to take money from his disciples for training them. But that still did not stop scribes becoming scribes because of the great honor that they received in society. They would be invited to feasts, and they were always given the chief seats at the feast. And this meant that in every place where the church also becomes an institution that is highly honored, people become priests, become pastors, for the wrong reason. It's very, very dangerous.
I wonder how many people became priests in the Roman Catholic Church in Roman countries because — have you ever noticed the awe and honor in which a Father, as he is called, of the Catholic Church is held in regard? When he walks through the streets of Ireland — maybe we don't regard him too much here, but in a Catholic country like Ireland, or in Spain, or in Portugal, or in Italy, a priest is regarded with awe, rather as the scribes were. And this means that many people become priests today in the Catholic Church for the very wrong reason in those countries, because it brings the respect to the people. And the priests themselves, the good ones, are the first to admit it. As my friend admitted to me very frankly, he said, "We have many priests who have become priests for the wrong reasons." You see, but once they become priests, it's not very easy to kick them out again when you realize that they are there for the wrong reason. We have people who become pastors for the wrong reason, you see. Big churches pay very well. I saw an advertisement the other day in the paper — so if one of these days you don't see me — advertisement: a big church, several hundred members. All these churches pay very well, especially down in the States. So if you can't get by too well in engineering, and you can't get by too well in chemistry, and you can't get by too well in any other profession — well, try being a pastor, you know. I mean, go to a Bible college for a couple of years. The academic standard is not very high. You can scrape by there. So long as you get a pass mark — I haven't heard of many people failing from any Bible college. I don't know that they fail anybody, for that matter. And so your chances of graduating with some diploma would be pretty good. And then who knows, one of these days, one of these big rich churches will invite you to become a pastor. That's nice. I mean, let's think of the regard, you know. It's only pastors can sign many statements today, together with doctors and lawyers. I mean, they're high-ranking people, these are. You see, highly regarded by society. Alas, alas, if people become pastors in order for the money and for the social regard. Unfortunately, there were scribes who became scribes for that reason. And I stress this point so that you can see the comparison between scribes and pastors today, because pastors are meant to be scribes, even if they don't actually function as scribes today.
But then let us realize this: actually the scribes were willing — some of them — even to be quite poor. Not necessarily all of them had a lot of money. In fact, lots of scribes were very poor, and some of them even had to live out of charity. Why? Because they were — especially those who were very busy in teaching — since they were not allowed to collect any money from their disciples. The disciples were allowed to make donations, but they were not allowed to give it as pay to the scribes. And this meant to say that if you had a lot of poor disciples, you would have nothing, because they had nothing to give you. So you had no income. And so some of the scribes were in a hard way, especially those who dedicated themselves to teaching. The others who acted as judges in courts could have a very good income and didn't spend their time teaching people.
Now from all of these things then, we begin to learn the situation that scribes were people either who became scribes because they were attracted by the honor that was accorded to them, even if sometimes their pay was poor. Or there were the good scribes, those who became scribes because they had one consuming interest, and that was to know the Word of God, and through knowing his Word, to know God himself. And we have to realize that there were some very, very good scribes. We must not think that all the scribes were by any means bad. There were some very good ones. Unfortunately, as in everything, the good scribes are usually outnumbered by the bad ones. They were always in the minority. But good ones there were too.
But then, how do you become a scribe? Well, we saw also that they had to be trained. But how to be trained as a scribe? Was there some kind of university they could go to? No. There was no institution, there was no college or university they could go to. So how would you become a scribe? The only way was to study under another scribe. You become his disciple. And so we saw that some scribes had many disciples. Hillel, who became very famous later on, had eighty or more disciples at one time. That's a very big crowd of disciples that he had. Now these teachers, the best teachers, were very concerned to find good disciples. You could not just come in and join as a disciple in whatever way you liked. It was whether the rabbi accepted you as his disciple or not. If he accepted you, well and good. Then you have a good chance to become a disciple and become a scribe in due time.
And we learn of the hardship that some of these people who really desired to know God's Word endured to become a disciple of the scribes. Some instances are really quite touching. For example, we read of Hillel, who later became this famous teacher of the law, the scribe that I mentioned. Hillel, when he first started out, was a very poor man. As we saw, he was a day laborer. And he came from Babylon, and he came all the way from Babylon to Jerusalem, to sit at the feet of two of the greatest scribes of Israel — the two that I had mentioned, who were actually of non-Jewish origin — because they were the two who were the most outstanding teachers at the time: Shemaiah and Abtalion. And Hillel walked — kindly notice that: he walked — from Babylon to Jerusalem. It took him weeks of walking through very dangerous territory, because many times you would get attacked by robbers. But I guess he thought he was poor enough that nobody would worry with him too much. He walked for weeks and weeks over the Fertile Crescent, from Babylon — a long distance, over a thousand miles, I should think — to get to Jerusalem, to sit at the feet of the great teachers.
And then, having got there, he took up his job as a day laborer, earning half a denarius per day. Out of that half a denarius, he had to give one quarter of a denarius as his school fees. Now you said, "Well, the teachers don't take fees." No, it's not the teacher, not the rabbi, who got the money. It was the school caretaker who got the money. You see, a rabbi who has so many disciples cannot have them in his own home. With eighty pupils, you can hardly sit in a room in your home. And so they had to hire a hall. It was the students who had to pay for the hire of that hall, not the rabbi. The rabbi already didn't have enough money. The disciples had to pay for that as best they could, to cover the cost of the hire of the hall.
On one occasion, Hillel could not get a job. Nobody employed him, because — as you read from the parable — many of those who waited there, nobody employed them. He got no job. So he didn't even get his half a denarius. But he was not going to miss the teaching. So determined, so did he hunger for the Word of God, that though he was locked out because he couldn't get into the school, he sat outside the window and listened to the teaching from the window. But it was winter, and it was very cold. And so sometime later they found him half frozen outside the window, still trying to listen to the Word of God. No wonder he became one of the greatest teachers in Israel. And many of the other great teachers had this same origin. So did they long to study God's Word.
Today I find that many of the students have it just too easy. They have an easy time of it. But these were the ones who endured hardship, even hunger, to study the Word of God. There was another one, Rabbi Eliezer, who almost starved to death in training to become a scribe, because he became a disciple of the great Rabbi Yohanan — which is the Hebrew for John — against his father's will. Therefore, of course, he had no support from his family. And most of the time he was living in great hunger, until his teacher, his rabbi, discovered that he was almost starved to death in his determination to study the Word of God. So we find that there were these people, these fine people, who hungered for the Word of God. These were the people that the Lord Jesus was also looking for, to become scribes of the kingdom of God.
Are you able to teach? Do you know how to make disciples? Do the words of Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12, apply to you — that by now you ought to be teachers, and still you have to be fed with milk? You know, I have discovered that in the average church today, there is hardly a man there who knows anything about teaching the Word of God, let alone making a disciple. And whatever he is able to teach, he has discovered from some book that he got from some bookshop. Where are the scribes?
And so I am putting this message before you today, saying this: the Lord expects every person, every disciple, in due time, to become a teacher. And we aim to train, in this church, every person to become a disciple, and in due time to become a scribe. This is our responsibility. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2, the apostle Paul says to Timothy that the things which have been taught to him, it was his responsibility to pass on to others. And this is the way the church was to grow: through a process of passing on truth from church to church, from person to person, until the church is able to grow. And so the apostle Paul says to Timothy, his own disciple, who was now himself a scribe of the kingdom of God, to make other disciples. And so in this verse we read: "And what you have heard from me before many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
Now I am teaching you because I have been taught. And what I am teaching you, I expect you to be able to teach others in due time. That while now, for the moment, you are training as disciples of God's kingdom, in due time you become a scribe of the kingdom of God, able to train other disciples for the kingdom. That's the New Testament church, exactly on this pattern of 2 Timothy 2:2. The one who is trained then trains others, and so it goes on, building the kingdom of God solidly.
But today you go to the churches and you have people sitting in churches who are so ignorant of the Word of God. When I was in London and studying in a theological school, a lady once asked me, "What do you study?" I said, "I am studying the Word of God." She said, "Really?" She said, "That's wonderful." She says, "Listen to me, I beg of you, study deeply into the Word of God." I said, "Why are you exhorting me?" She said, "Because I have been a Christian for so long. But I don't know the Bible. And because I don't know the Bible, I am of no use to God." She understood the point. Unless you are trained to become a disciple of the kingdom, you cannot make other disciples. You do not know how to make other disciples. Oh, I beg of you to understand the teaching of the Lord Jesus.
But soon now we have to begin to wind up. And here we read here, back to Matthew 13 and verse 52, it says that out of this treasure — this scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder, somebody who looks after a household, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. What is the treasure? The treasure we read about in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7. The treasure is the gospel. That's the treasure. "We have this treasure," the apostle Paul says, "in earthen vessels." But that is not the whole connection. This gospel is transmitted, is revealed, by the light of Christ. That is why in verse 4 it is called "the gospel of the light of the glory of Christ." And this gospel has transforming power. That is why he says, "We have this treasure and this power in earthen vessels," the earthen vessel being his own body. So what is the treasure? The treasure is the gospel. Out of his treasure he is able to bring forth things which are old and new.
What does it mean, old and new? Very simple. Truth is always both old and new. Truth was not something that was invented yesterday. It is old. And yet it is always new. That's the remarkable thing about truth. It always has the quality of being both old and new at the same time. If it were only new, it wouldn't be truth, because truth could not have just been discovered. It has always been truth. Truth has always existed. If it were new, it wouldn't be truth. If it were only old and it has already passed away, it is already transient, then it also cannot be truth. Truth is eternal. It goes on forever. The truth of God does not change. It abides forever. Therefore it is bound to be both old and new. It never ceases to be the truth at whatever time in history you live. It is truth when it was 2000 years BC. It is also the truth 2000 years AD. It is still the truth. It is old, and it is still always new.
We find this principle applies very remarkably to the spiritual things. In 1 John chapter 2, verse 7, we find the same thing applied to love, the command of love. In 1 John 2:7, there we read this: "I give you as a new commandment, and yet this is an old commandment." It is an old commandment, yet it is new. You say, what is he talking about? Well, what is true is always both new and old. It is as simple as that. And so, are you able to bring forth the gospel in this way, with the power of God? Consider it well.
And so in closing, let us realize this: the Lord Jesus calls us to become teachers. Not necessarily full-time teachers. In fact, there is a warning about aspiring too easily to be a full-time teacher. In James chapter 3, verse 1, it says, "Do not be many teachers," because what is required of a teacher is a much higher standard than of the disciple. But he expects everyone to be able to teach, even if they are not teachers in the church in the sense of being pastors or preachers. So let us pray that these words of the Lord Jesus may be fulfilled, that we may desire to be a scribe of the kingdom of God, and so lead others into the path of eternal life. Let us be quiet before God. We may run deeper. We may run deeper. Thank you.