Make Your Classroom a Theatre of Praise
Make Your Classroom a Theatre of Praise
How do you (as teacher) bridge the demands of the state (professional growth) and the demands of Scripture (spiritual growth)? How do you give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to the Lord what is the Lord's in the classroom with our students?
In pondering this intersection between these governmental and Biblical standards, I see an answer in one word: doxology. From the Greek — "glory" and "saying" — or a hymn of praise. We bridge it by making all of our teaching, our professional knowledge, practice and engagements and tools for improvement, objects of praise to God. For this reason, as Reformed teachers we need to make our classrooms theatres of praise for HIM.
In order to assist in making our classrooms this theatre of praise, we will consider the five foundational attributes also mentioned in the former submission through the lens of Philippians chapter 3.
- (1) Are you wholly devoted to Christ?
- (2) Are you living as a Christian in character?
- (3) Are you holding to a Christian world view?
- (4) Are you passionate and mission driven in relation to reformed education?
- (5) Are you exerting Christian influence and leadership?
Foundational Attribute (1): Are you wholly devoted to Christ?⤒🔗
I could imagine asking Paul this question and him responding, "My dear son, I am the worst of sinners. Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." And tears might stream down his face: "He saved me from death. Yes, yes, and I desire nothing more." When the tears dried he might then say, "Have you not read what I wrote in Philippians 3 or Philippians 1-4? I desire nothing more! Nothing more!"
Indeed, Philippians 1:13 says, "I'm in chains for Christ." Philippians 1:20-23 says, "I want Christ to be exalted in my body ... For me to live is Christ and to die is gain ... I desire to depart and be with Christ." Or verse 29, "It has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him." Or Philippians 2:5, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ." This meditation filled his heart, and it seems words failed him to capture this devotion to Christ!
Asking this question — are you wholly devoted to Christ? — assumes then that one might not be devoted to Christ or not wholly devoted to him. There needs to be a point of comparison to answer this question. Paul understood that. There was a day when Paul was Saul. Saul was devoted to self. You understand that there are ultimately two types of people: One living for self, and the other for Christ. And in the same way, there are two types of teachers: One type of teacher is all about the promotion and the bettering of self. He is self-devoted. He is often filled with envy, jealousy, pride, bitterness, legalistic righteous (which is no righteousness at all), but he is not filled with Christ's Spirit. He is not devoted to Christ nor seeking his glory!
Paul clarifies the two different groups. The one group does not know Christ or have rejected Christ. These are the body mutilators. Paul says in short they are not doxological for they do not know God. Therefore, he calls them dogs. Evildoers. Mutilators of the flesh. They are flesh exalters for they do not exalt Christ; no, they put confidence in what is broken, fallen, depraved!
Paul admits he was one of them! He was Saul, who hated Christ and all his followers. He was as equally devoted to self as these mutilators of the flesh are. Saul: he was gripped by pride. Saul: he was gripped, it seems, by deep jealousy of Stephen and men like him (possibly why the law of coveting convicted him in Romans 7). Gripped by a passion for righteousness according to the law, he mounted his horse and flew to Damascus.
However, God got a hold of him and humbled him and radically changed Saul to Paul so that then he loved Christ and wanted nothing more than to be with the one he was once persecuting. But note this: God did not remove the zeal. I am convinced that, scripturally speaking, the Lord loves zeal; he is zealous for his glory, and he loves our love for him to be white hot, as John Piper would say! But God must transform our zeal, as he transformed Saul's zeal from self to an ardent zeal for Christ and his righteousness.
Reading a number of websites on the most effective teachers shows that ambition runs pretty high. Lazy candidates or teachers need not apply! But ambitiousness does not mean your classroom is going to be a theatre of praise to your Maker.
Here's the point: Paul shared his testimony here by the leading of the Spirit not to boast but to say, "God did a great work in me! Now I am on the pursuit of devotion to Him with every fiber in my soul." We all have a testimony of God's favour on our lives. You do if you are committed wholly to Christ. It may not be as dramatic as Paul's, but you do not need to look back too far to realize there was a time when your confidence was in your flesh, when pride was your nearest companion, when jealousy drove you, when your zeal was more horizontal than vertical, because the great things of God did not interest you that much. And the Lord opened your eyes, and your commitment changed. Your heart became doxological!
I stand before you this afternoon as one who knew lots about the Lord in primary and high school, but strove through university purely to satisfy the flesh. I wanted to be rich, so I took a Business degree; I wanted to be engaged somehow on the international arena, so I took a minor in international justice. And God transformed this zeal for self and opened my eyes to the depth of my sin and the beauty of his covenant (hesed) love for me in Christ! It wasn't instantaneous, but it happened and it is still happening — daily conversion, daily repentance, daily longings and affections for Christ continue to grow by grace.
I ask you, John Calvin School teachers, can you tell the story of God's work in your lives? And can you say with your enlightened soul right now: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord?" Is that true of you? If it is, your classroom will become enraptured in praise as you honour your Lord in everything you do.
The question is this: How do I know if I am wholly devoted to Christ? To aid you here is a three-part litmus test from the work of the Lord in Paul!
Consider Philippians 3. Paul could not find enough words to describe his love and affection for Christ now. His love for his Savior, as Sinclair Ferguson once shared in a sermon: "lingers on his heart and on his lips". This long meditation on the Lord Jesus Christ, this doxology my friends, drove his ambition. And it must drive our teaching career no less!
Dear teachers, I wonder how many of you take the time, personal time, to meditate on the Lord Jesus? How often do you simply sit and think lovingly on him for what he has done in your place? We live at a time where we are bombarded with distractions that destroy the power of meditation and our doxology. We are notified when a text comes in, or when a Facebook message appears. WhatsApp or Viber posts alight on our phone Twitter, Instagram, and emails cut in to distract. We sell our time of meditating upon the richness of Christ to meditating on the lives of our friends and family and how attractive their kids are compared to ours. And putting a moratorium on sharing family photos on FB won't help. It is a matter of devotion. Beloved, "momentary thoughts about Jesus will not fuel an ardent love for Christ or the Gospel," says Sinclair Ferguson.
But remember this and imprint it on the door-posts of your classroom: Your classroom, your theatre of praise to God, is an extension of your heart! Where your heart is, there your classroom will be also. And your students, whether they can articulate it now or not, will know. They will know what lives in your heart. If you love your Saviour and think lovingly about God's gift to you and His blessed work on the cross on your behalf, it will flow through your mouth like water from a deep, deep well of life. They will know!
And, to be sure, this heart of devotion for Christ will invariably bring you to the heart of the Gospel. It is not emotionalism your students need. They need love generated from Gospel truth. Paul tells us why he wanted to be committed to Christ. He wanted to be found in Christ for his justification (verse 9), and he wanted to know Christ more for his sanctification (verse 12). To meditate on Christ is to see him fulfilling God's plan of salvation on our behalf.
The terms Paul uses here are terms properly used in accounting. "But whatever gain I had," Paul says in verse 7 (gain in the eyes of men), "I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." There is a divine balance sheet: On one side there are the earthly gains and on the other the heavenly gains. The earthly list can fill pages, and the heavenly gain can have but one entry. That entry is Christ! And only a redeemed soul will see that the whole list, your academic background, your teaching career, your awards, your knowledge in a certain area is counted as loss compared to knowing Christ. It is not that they are nothing: To receive a teaching award, to know your material brilliantly, to have your students recognize you as a very effective teacher is all good. But comparatively they are nothing — nothing more than rubbish or, more properly translated, dung! Why? Because Christ is so precious. That is why! Everything goes faintly dim when your heart is erupted in longing and love for Christ, your redeemer!
Paul writes: "Knowing Jesus is knowing him as your Lord." Jesus Christ, my Lord! This is not, as Ferguson points out, a statement of your devotion to Christ. No, it is more a statement of who Christ is in your life: That he is your Lord! That He is the Lord, Yahweh, revealed to Moses, become incarnate, died and raised on the third day. His title as Lord and his name Yahweh show his divine authority over your life! I very much doubt if any of you have written a letter to Queen Elizabeth. But should you, I have learned there is proper protocol to follow. Australian slang won't cut it! But noteworthy is how you end your letter: You must sign: "I am your majesty's most humble and most obedient servant."
When you enter your classroom every day, dedicating it to the Lord's glory, you can say these words: "I am Your Majesty's most humble and obedient servant, my Lord Use me for your glory! Make my classroom a theatre of praise to you!"
In concluding submission we will considered the four other foundational attributes:
- Are you living as a Christian in character?
- Are you holding to a Christian world view?
- Are you passionate and mission driven in relation to reformed education?
- Are you exerting Christian influence and leadership?
Foundational Attribute (2): Are you living as a Christian in character?←⤒🔗
Greg Beale has written a very thorough study and a rather academic book called, We Become What We Worship. His thesis in the book is this: "What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or for restoration." That is, we either revere the world and are thus conformed to the sinful patterns of the world, or we revere God and are thus progressively conformed into his likeness, argues Beale.
Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazou echoes the same point: "So long as man remains free, he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship." One who has been renewed by the Spirit of Christ desires to become like Christ. To become like Christ is to know him and worship him!
Let's unpack this a bit more: The knowing that Paul is speaking about here, in Philippians 3, is very rich in meaning. It covers a large semantic field from the Old Testament (especially the verb yada) to the New Testament (here: ginosko). The meanings converge here. This knowing God is not merely a knowing of something about him, but it is knowledge borne also in experience and it happens through God's self-revelation: "And you shall know that I am Yahweh."
Therefore, to know Christ is to know him on the pages of Scripture in the drama of redemptive History and to experience his closeness through His Spirit — every day! I want to know Him.
Paul explains this knowledge in verse 10. You need to know that you are living in the power of Christ's resurrection. It is the power of his resurrection that afforded you the new life, the hope, the eternity that awaits you. We live because he lives! And it is in that reality that you have confidence to teach and the confidence that nothing you do as a redeemed teacher is in vain! He is on His throne! You also need to understand that to know Christ does not preclude Good Friday. Your knowing Christ is sharing, communing (the verb is koinonia), fellowshipping with Christ in his suffering. That is what Paul says: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, sharing in his sufferings and becoming like him in death.
Listen carefully: At the very core of your Christian life and at the very core of your teaching career, your Christian character is being pressed into the mold of Christ's death and resurrection. Ferguson puts it this way: "If what made Christ fruitful was his dying and rising, what will make Paul fruitful will be sharing in his dying and rising."
Do you understand what that means for your career? Do you understand what that means as a foundational attribute in your teaching career? The answer goes against everything our secular, humanistic world throws at us. The answer can be found in four short passages:
John 12:24: "Truly, Truly I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." To share in Christ's suffering is to die to self. Whoever loves his life will lose it. It is saying that my life is worth nothing, but in Christ it is worth everything — I want to know Christ. I am crucified to the world and the world to me, Paul says in Galatians 6:14. I am in Christ, prepared to suffer, even death, so that God will bear much fruit through me!
Paul explains this further in 2 Corinthians 4:11: "For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." Or, 2 Corinthians 13:2: "For he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. "
The point, teachers, is this: To be of Christian character is to be weak in communion with Christ. It is a position of humility and meekness! The model that we want to uphold is one of being impressive, strong, and revered, but the model Paul holds out is a model of weakness. It is out of weakness that God brings forth strength, through a broken jar of clay that the light shines brightly. Beloved, our students don't need a confident, impressive, has-it-all-together teacher, who they want to emulate simply because he is so cool, so hip and so on-top of his game! The teacher that is of Christian character needs to be weak in communion with Christ. Humble. Meek. Even unimpressive, but confident in Christ and being constantly reshaped into Christ-likeness. Why? Because the glory that you want to shine in the classroom, your theatre of praise, is God's glory not your own vain glory! You want to see your students change, you want them to long for a living, closeness with Christ — be weak in communion with Christ! Shine Him!
One more thought before we move on to another attribute. This glorious dichotomy of suffering death and then resurrected life here should encourage you beloved! If you face pain and rejection by men for the sake of Christ, you will enjoy acceptance and triumph in Christ. There will be struggle, but there will be glorious gain. I know some of you feel defeated, that maybe you are not as effective as the teacher next door. Maybe you have had unfair and unkind things said about you. Maybe God is stripping you of a lot of self-confidence and breaking you into a million pieces! But know this, that in death there is life. God is working in you a greater glory and your students will see this, and in your place of weakness and humility they will honour your God who is molding you into the very image of Christ!
Foundational Attributed (3): Are you holding to a Christian worldview?←⤒🔗
It flows nicely, then, that if you are wholly committed to Christ and by his grace have a maturing Christian character, you will hold a Christian worldview.
Paul had a Christian worldview, though the words are not so much as mentioned in any of the Pauline Epistles. The reason may be because there is really no other view than a Christian worldview. I know there are many humanistic or naturalistic and animistic worldviews, but in reality, there is only one. As Evan Runner succinctly, states: "No provinces of human life can be claimed secular and exempt from the claims of Christ." Or as Kuyper is now famously reported as saying: "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'"
I am told that a worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously; consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of our world (Wikipedia).
What was Paul's set of presuppositions about this world? The world is broken and we are fallen, under God's wrath on account of our sins. Christ alone came to redeem us according to God's set covenant promises and has set us free to live in perfect communion with Him by his Spirit. We receive this gift by faith.
Now, holding a Christian worldview is not only holding to a set of presuppositions about this world. No, holding to a Christian worldview informs what you do. It answers the questions: why am I here? And what is my purpose?
Paul mentions two purposes:
First, to press on! Verse 12 reads: "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." Paul is wholly committed to Christ, as you and I should be, but he is not a triumphalist. He is not there yet. We are not there yet. We live with a Christian worldview, but we also live with a holy dissatisfaction. You and I will struggle here, whether as teachers or whether carrying another profession. We desire Christ, but the race remains until through many hardships, struggles, much pain, even failures we will be reach the end and be fully satisfied in Christ!
Second, to do one thing! We read in verse 13, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: 'forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goals for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.'" Did you read that? One thing I do! Paul never had just one thing to do. He preached, taught, visited members, travelled to various areas where Christ was not known, stayed in prison, wrote letters, argued and defended the Gospel. One thing? As a teacher, do you remember a time that you have only done one thing?
But listen carefully. Paul would say, "I do one thing in a thousand different ways!" I want to drive this point home. Paul is speaking to every teacher, or soon-to-be teacher in this room. You may be doing a thousand things, but do you understand that in Christ, if you hold a Christ-centered worldview, if Christ is the object and fuel of your praise, if you want to make your classroom a theatre of praise, that you must only be doing ONE thing, albeit in a 1000 different ways? I have this PNG plaque or storyboard in our house and it has on it: "Only one life to live, it will soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last." It is true! And may I remind you that your works for Christ follow you into glory!
This puts order in the chaos of our existence. This is a gloriously liberating principle for all of us. As teachers, yes, you are preparing your curriculums, you are getting to know your students and your material; you are sitting down with the weaker students, encouraging the sad ones, counseling the troubled one, preparing tests, marking tests, making report cards, speaking to the parents and sometimes you tire of it all. But do you realize that the 1000 things you are doing as a teacher are only for one thing if you hold a Biblically sound Christian worldview?
You teach math ultimately that Christ maybe more known and exalted in your classroom! Consider, for example, the logic of math. Consider a mathematical principle like the Fibonacci sequence, and worship God for his awe-inspiring mind. You teach geography and the very 10 tectonic plates that make up the world we live on move at his command.
Praise him with the words of Psalm 93: "The earth is firmly established and cannot be moved." You teach literature with the best crafted piece of literature (or pieces) ever known to man in your hand and memorized in your heart: the Holy Scriptures. You teach science and you teach that the great Designer of all, who spoke ex nihilo everything into existence. He is the greatest — the artist and chemist and biologist par excellence! Worship him in a 1000 ways for one way — the way of Christ who is the author of our salvation.
Foundational Attribute (4): Are you passionate and mission driven in relation to reformed education?←⤒🔗
Let me simply make a few remarks here as we move to the closing. Paul was covenantal. He understood the old and the new covenant, and he understood that we as parents/teachers have such a pressing obligation to teach the next generation (Ephesians 6). But we do not teach our children so that they can become self-absorbed, well-educated rich people who have no love and passion for God's glory, no concern for the hurting and the lost in their communities who do not know Christ, and no concern for the salvation of others. No, it is the opposite: We are here to see our children become other-focused. We want to see them love God and love others. We want to see them love the lost and give themselves fully to becoming Kingdom builders — even preachers of this rich Gospel! So much of that passion for God's greatness and for a love to make Christ known everywhere, and to make our society stand on true Biblical principles happens in your classrooms!
Dr. Reimer Faber shared once that it was Luther who pleaded with the city council in Germany stating the following, "a city's best and greatest welfare, safety and strength consists ... in it having many able, learned, wise, honourable and well-educated citizens, (not) more mighty walls and magnificent buildings." Faber goes on to write that, in Luther's view, "reformed education is crucial to the advancement of the Gospel, and all should see to it that their children live first and foremost for the proclamation of the Word in the lives of others and their own." (Clarion Vol 47, No 16, 1998).
That means this: If you have no passion to see Christ more fully known in the highways and byways of our cities; if your view is not to have your students become passionate about God's advancing Kingdom and His glory; if you do not want to have them influence our governments, our city councils and making a difference in our community — please do not call yourself a reformed educator. You may be a teacher, but you have lost sight of what it means to be truly reformed! To be truly reformed is to see God glorified in every province, every social aspect of society and the nations of the world!
This leads nicely to our last foundational attribute.
Foundational Attribute (5): Are you exerting Christian influence and leadership?←⤒🔗
Paul was a leader, though possibly not the best orator if you read 2 Corinthians. Still, he was a leader. A leader is prepared to say this: Follow my example even as I follow the example of Christ. Paul says in Philippians 3:17: "Join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us."
Can you say that to your students? In Christ you can! If you are committed to Christ and if your character is pressed into the mold of death and resurrection, if you have a Christian, Reformed world view — you can! By God's grace you can! And as you call your students to follow your example and as you live as a humble leader fit for service, by God's grace you will influence! Little did Paul know that by God's grace he would influence millions possibly billions of people! We have no idea what effect we will have on this generation or the next or 10 generations from now (though I think the Lord will return before that). I praise God for the teachers that influenced me. Many in weakness, many in prayer, many in humble adoration of their great God! Many, in so many ways had made their classrooms theatre of God's praise and all of this by grace. May you go in that grace and may God be honoured and highly exalted as you do!
Conclusion:←⤒🔗
Your role is so critically important for the next generation. I can only exhort each one of you to become a good teacher. No, better than that, strive for excellence. Strive to become an excellent teacher not by government standards but by God's standards. Teach your math, your science, your geography, your English, your Bible as if only to the Lord! Teach as if to the audience of one and bring him glory! Love your students. Love their parents. Know your material. Pray for your students and pray for their parents regularly and be Christ to them. Do that in the power of the grace lavishly given to you. This is your doxology. And may in due time God reap a great harvest of righteousness from your work in the lives of your students. To him be the glory even as your classrooms become theatres of praise!
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