“So Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.'” (John 7:16)

Jesus did not “take credit”, in a sense, for His teaching; He said it wasn’t “His” but rather that of His Father who sent Him.  If you are a preacher or teacher of God’s word today, you should be able to say the same thing:

“This teaching is not mine, but His who sent me.”  Can you say that your sermons and lessons are so based on the text of scripture you derived them from, that they are not in a sense “yours”, but just a faithful exposition of God’s word?

Unfortunately, many purveyors of scripture today seem to be more concerned with being “distinctive”; with teaching with their own particular “style” that calls attention to themselves; or with being “creative” and coming up with something “new”, than they are with “mere” faithfulness to the text of scripture. While many in our shallow, media-driven age will applaud that kind of teaching, a God-called pastor or teacher should ask himself: am I called to stand out in the eyes of the world, or to be faithful to word of God?

If you are a preacher or teacher today, you should ask yourself in light of this text: “Is my teaching so Biblical that any observer would say that this is not ‘my’ teaching, but the teaching of Him who sent me?”