Dr. Rodney Plunket

This morning we are here to honor, inspire, and challenge those who work with students in our schools, colleges, and universities.  The story just read has a very special message for them.  (You can listen to the reading of this story via the audio version of this sermon.)  It calls upon school workers to love their students and to be committed to them.  That message takes my mind back to several of my biblical heroes who were teachers and who also loved their students and were committed to them.  I want to look briefly at three of those heroes because I believe their stories will sustain the kind of dedication that all school workers need.  I want to look at Moses, the apostle Paul, and Jesus.

Moses was the great teacher of the people of Israel.  He taught them the great truths of their faith, the foundational beliefs that would bless the nation.  But he loved them too.  Several times the people rebelled, and the wrath of God was about to come upon them with killing force.  Each time Moses pleaded with God for the people, or he did something to save them.  And after awhile the reader has to ask why.  The Israelites were such a stubborn and difficult people.  Moses’ life would have been much simpler if the people had been destroyed.

My favorite among the stories of this type is found in Numbers 16.  In that chapter we read of a rebellion against both Moses and Aaron.  Aaron was the high priest of Israel and the brother of Moses.  The group that rebelled against Aaron resented his authority as high priest.  The group that rebelled against Moses resented his authority as the leader of God’s people.  God was angry at those who rebelled against Moses and Aaron.  Fire came down and consumed the ones who rebelled against Aaron.  The ground opened up and swallowed those who rebelled against Moses.  Now please listen to what happened the next day.  Numbers 16:41-50 reports,

On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.”  And when the congregation had assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting; the cloud had covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared.  Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Get away from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment.”  And they fell on their faces.  Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them.  For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.”  So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered, and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people.  He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.  He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped.  Those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah.  When the plague was stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

In this story we see Moses’ (and Aaron’s) love and commitment to the people in spite of the fact that the people have sided with the rebels and against Moses.  Many students require that same kind of love and sacrificial commitment from their teachers, administrators, and staff.  That may well be all that saves them from a dark and bitter life.

The apostle Paul went all over the Roman world preaching and teaching.  Whenever he entered a new city, he first went to his own people; he went to the Jewish synagogue to present his testimony about Jesus; but generally the majority of those Jewish listeners rejected Paul’s message and even persecuted him.  But Paul kept reaching out to them wherever he went.

A great example of his commitment to his people is found in the final section of the Book of Acts.  There we read of Paul being brought under Roman guard all the way to Rome from Caesarea in Judea.  Upon arrival in Rome, Paul was placed under house arrest while he awaited a trial.  All of this because of charges brought against him by Jews in Jerusalem.  But only three days later he arranged to have a group of local Jews to come and meet with him so that he can tell them about Jesus; and even though they also rejected his message, his desire to meet with them is a clear indication of the love and commitment to the Jewish people that Paul felt.

We can vividly hear Paul’s love and commitment in his letter to the church in Rome.  In Romans 9:1-3 Paul writes,

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.  For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.

Paul’s kindred according to the flesh are the Jews.  He is willing to be accursed for them.  Paul’s love for Christ and desire to be with Christ is beyond question.  But Paul makes clear that he is willing to be cut off from Christ if by doing so he could save the very people who constantly rejected his message and persecuted him because of that message.  That same kind of sacrificial love and commitment are vital ingredients for anyone who works with students today.

Jesus is the supreme example of a teacher who loved those He taught and was sacrificially committed to them.  Jesus almost exclusively taught among the Jews.  And it was the Jewish leaders who worked to have Jesus crucified.  But just after Jesus was nailed to and lifted upon that cross Jesus raised up a prayer to God.  He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).  Just after the horrible pain of having nails driven through his hands and feet, he prayed for the forgiveness of those who had orchestrated his execution.  The love and the commitment are amazing.

I call upon all of the school workers here this morning to follow the examples of Moses, Paul, and Jesus.  Love your students.  Love them sacrificially.  Be sensitive to their needs.  Seek to understand them.  Give them a vision that places them upon the highest plane of life.

School workers, go light your world.  Light your world by loving your students with sacrificial love and commitment.  Those attitudes and the behaviors they generate have changed the world.  Let them keep doing that.  Let them keep doing that through you.  Go light your world with a passionate love for the kids you teach and serve.

We are going to give you a gift now.  Please take the brightly colored sheet of paper from inside your worship bulletin.  It has the words to the song “Go Light Your World.”  That sung has been especially arranged by one of our members, David Roach, who is the chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Tech University.  The solo will be sung by Monica McKee, a student at Lubbock Christian University.  Please receive and be challenged by this extra special gift.

Top | Sermons | Home