The Benefit of an Adult “Sunday School” Time – Part 3
This is the third post on Sunday school. This post seeks to give a second reason for why we have biblical warrant for something like Sunday school. Here we will look at the need to be in God’s word as a church and how Sunday school is an intentional way for you to mature as a Christian.
Sunday school is a time that is specifically word-centered. That means it is a time when God’s word is the focus (this assumes that the Bible is being read during this time). As Christians, we should want everything we are doing as a church to be word-centered. Why? There are several reasons I could give and that would make for a good article to post some other time, but there is one big reason I want to mention here: God acts through his word. This is something we learn from the very first chapter of the Bible; God speaks and it is done (Genesis 1; also, Ps 33:6; Heb 11:3). And this is a theme that is carried through and expanded upon in the rest of Scripture. For example, God’s speech is what causes the various seasons (Ps 147:15-18) and even deliverance from destruction (Ps 107:20). When God speaks, it happens; thus the Scriptures attest to God’s word being living and active (Heb 4:12), just as God is living (Heb 3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22). God’s words are not empty as our words often are, what he says is accomplished in his perfect time (2 Pet 3:8-9). In the context of Heb 4:12, the text that calls God’s speech living and active, we see God promise that the wilderness generation would not enter God’s rest because of a lack of faith (Heb 4:3; cf. Num 14:11, 22-23, 29-30; 20:12). That is exactly what happened; they did not enter (Num 26:64-65; Deut 2:14-15). What God promised happened, and that is because God’s word accomplishes exactly what he says (Isa 55:10-11).
Okay, God’s word is powerful and he accomplishes exactly what he intends to accomplish through it, but what does that have to do with Sunday school? Well, it has everything to do with Sunday school because Sunday school is a discipleship ministry (as the previous post discussed), and genuine spiritual growth does not occur apart from the work of the Lord through his word. You can’t expect a church to grow in godliness apart from God’s special revelation: his word (Ps 19:7-11). The apostle Peter says this much in 1 Pet 2:1-3 when he exhorts the church to lay aside wickedness and “desire pure spiritual milk” instead. The word translated “spiritual” is λογικος (logikos) and is a play on the word λογος (logos), often translated as “word.” This is why some translations, like the LSB, will translate 1 Pet 2:2 like this: “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” Notice that Peter says continued spiritual growth, namely “growing in respect to salvation,” happens through this pure spiritual milk, which is God’s word. God’s word produces spiritual growth. We know that λογικος (“spiritual”) is a play on the word λογος (“word”) because of the previous paragraph. In 1 Pet 1:22-25, the apostle speaks about the word (λογος) of God and how through it, we were born again (also Rom 10:14). Essentially, he says, your faith begins through the word of God (1 Pet 1:22-25) and it persists through the word of God (1 Pet 2:1-3). We must be word-centered if we want to see any spiritual growth.
If we want to see ourselves and our church changed to be more like Christ, if we want to see reformation and revival, we must read God’s word. This has hopefully become apparent as we have learned that God acts through his word, and his actions include maturing us in the faith. Spiritual growth through God’s word should not come as a surprise since spiritual growth is only possible by the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:16-26), and the Holy Spirit is directly tied to God’s word (Zech 7:12; Matt 22:43-44; Acts 4:24-26; 28:25; Heb 3:7; 10:15; 2 Pet 1:20-21). Not only are we told that the Father uses his word by the Holy Spirit to change us, but we actually have narratives in the Scriptures that demonstrate this. What begins the time of reformation and revival during the reign of Josiah (2 Kings 22:1-23:28)? It is the finding and reading of the Scriptures. The high priest finds the Scriptures and one by one, people start reading them (2 Kgs 22:8-10). Once Josiah the king listens to it, he repents (2 Kgs 22:11), and this begins the larger nationwide reformation with all of Judah hearing God’s word (2 Kgs 23:1-3). All of this culminates in the destruction of the pagan worship in Judah and the celebration of the Passover (2 Kgs 23:4-25). It is God’s word that sparked this reformation and revival. God’s word was read and it drastically changed people.
Sunday school is a word-centered time. It is a time when we read and talk about the Scriptures. A time when we get to slow down and ask hard questions of the text and chaise rabbit trails in the text. God will accomplish exactly what he wants to accomplish through his word, we must be faithful to read it. God acts through his word; do we really believe that? Do we try to foster revival through a series of silly programs and events, or do we come together and in faith read the living word of God? Sunday school is a convenient time for you to read God’s word with other believers.