The Benefit of an Adult “Sunday School” Time – Part 2
In the previous post on the history of Sunday school, I said that Sunday school accomplishes some of what the church is commanded to do in the Scriptures. This implies that something like Sunday school is much older than the 16th century because its essence goes back to biblical times. This post is one of three that defends the biblical warrant for going to Sunday school.
Sunday school is an intentional way of doing discipleship. The Lord Jesus commanded us to make followers – more disciples of Jesus. This is how the Gospel According to Matthew ends, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19). Discipleship continues after a person believes and is baptized, because discipleship is all about “teaching them to keep all that I commanded you,” as Jesus puts it (Matt 28:20). A glance at any of the epistles in the New Testament shows that this teaching continues past the time of conversion because each of them is written to churches or individual believers with teaching as a major purpose. Sunday school is a time of teaching (this should be obvious based on the name alone), and the teaching is of God’s word, where the Lord himself speaks to us.
Jesus himself demonstrated discipleship throughout his earthly ministry. Sometimes his discipling takes place on a large scale through sermons. Think about one of the most famous sermons from Jesus, what we call The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus had created quite the following because of his preaching and miracles (Matt 4:23). The news had spread and now large crowds had amassed (Matt 4:24-25). Jesus took advantage of these large crowds and sat down to preach a sermon (Matt 5:1). The Sermon on the Mount challenges some of the popular teachings of Jesus’ day and presents what it looks like to be a part of the kingdom of God. This sermon culminates in a challenge to trust in Jesus. By listening to and obeying Jesus, you are likened to a wise man who builds his house on the rock; if you refuse to follow Jesus, you are likened to a foolish man who builds his house on the sand (Matt 7:24-27). This makes Jesus himself the gatekeeper of the “narrow gate,” the way leading to life (Matt 7:13-14) because only through him is one allowed to enter the kingdom (Matt 7:21-23).
The big takeaway of The Sermon on the Mount should be something like trust in Jesus living righteously as a citizen of God’s kingdom. But this crowd seems to miss that point. Instead, the crowd is simply amazed at how Jesus teaches; his style captivates them (Matt 7:28-29). Jesus teaches as one with authority, and that makes a lot of sense because he has authority, he is truly God after all. I don’t want to underplay the significance of the crowd’s big takeaway; Jesus’ superiority to the religious leaders of his day is a significant theme in the Gospels and plays a major role in leading to his crucifixion (Matt 12:14; 26:3-4). For that reason, Matthew 7:28-29 is important as it is the first time we see the crowds recognize Jesus’ superiority to the religious leaders, some of the main villains in the Gospels (see Matt 3:7-10 for their introduction in Matthew’s Gospel). On top of this, if Jesus never spoke with authority, it seems unlikely that he truly could be the Son of God. So, it’s good and right that the crowds recognize how Jesus preaches, but it’s undeniable that the crowd missed the point of the sermon; they were more captivated by Jesus’ style than by the substance of his words.
The crowd missing the point of Jesus’ sermon is unsurprising. It is impossible to tailor your message to everyone when you are speaking to a large group; something is going to be missed by someone. That does not negate the value of preaching; clearly, Jesus continued to preach to crowds, but each communication method does come with its own advantages and disadvantages. Public speaking is not the same as one-on-one conversation; you can’t react to and then tailor your message like you can one-on-one or in a small group. And this is why we also see Jesus teach/disciple the Twelve as a small group. We can see one of these examples in Matthew 13. Large crowds gathered around Jesus, so he got on a boat and set it a little off the shore so the crowds could stand on the beach and listen to him teach (Matt 13:1-2). The Apostle informs us that Jesus spoke a number of parables at this time, and for us he records The Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3-9). Between verses 9 and 10, some time passes; we go from Jesus speaking to the crowds in cryptic parables to Jesus speaking with the disciples in plain language. They ask him why he teaches in parables, and he tells them it is to fulfill prophecy (Matt 13:10-17). From there, he goes on to explain The Parable of the Sower to the disciples (Matt 13:18-23). This small group discipleship (as we might call it) allows Jesus to answer questions and direct his message to the individuals of the group more easily.
What does this all have to do with Sunday school? In the sermon on Sunday, your pastor is discipling you, but he is also discipling the rest of the congregation. He might have one point that he makes with you in mind, another for the little old lady sitting two rows behind you, another for the teen in the front, and another for the visitor in the very back. Your pastor just can’t develop each of those points like he would if he were alone with any of those people. This is where a smaller group is valuable, such as in a time like Sunday school. A Sunday school hour allows for questions to be asked and answers to be given. The disciples were able to ask Jesus why he spoke in parables; this would not have been appropriate during his sermon. But we learn from Matthew 13 that this was a good question because Jesus turned to Isa 6:9-10 to teach his disciples about how prophecy was being fulfilled through his use of parables. Jesus goes a step further and explains The Parable of the Sower to the disciples, something that he could not do in a public teaching setting because it would ruin the whole point of teaching in parables. There are topics that can be discussed in a smaller group that just can’t be discussed in larger ones. Sunday school is one of the ways the overseers of your church have decided to disciple the flock. Just like Jesus did with the twelve, your elders see the value in more intimate teaching times and (likely for pragmatic reasons) Sunday morning has been chosen as a time for this.
Sunday school is a time of discipleship. Discipleship is not something that ends when you get to a certain age, and that is why Sunday school remains an important time of spiritual growth even as an adult. Your pastor is disciplining you and the rest of the church through his sermon on Sunday morning. Yet Jesus’ model of teaching his disciples as a small group shows that there is value in a Sunday school time. So, go to Sunday school because your pastors have set that time aside for your spiritual growth.