The Teaching of Jesus
by the Rev. George Jackson, B.A.

“Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son.”—2 JOHN IX (R.V.).

1903

In this 16 chapter work, Jackson presents us with themes which Christ regularly mentioned in his teachings: God, Himself, His own Death, the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, Man, Sin, Righteousness, Money, etc.

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTORY
Luke xxiv. 19. “A prophet mighty in word before God and all the people.”
John iii. 2. “A teacher come from God.”

II. CONCERNING GOD
John xvii. 11. “Holy Father.”

III. CONCERNING HIMSELF
Matthew xvi. 15. “Who say ye that I am?”

IV. CONCERNING HIS OWN DEATH
Mark x. 45. “The Son of Man came … to give His life a ransom for many.”

V. CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT
John xiv. 16. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.”
John xvi. 7. “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go away, I will send Him unto you.”

VI. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Matthew vi. 10. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.”

VII. CONCERNING MAN
Luke xv. 10. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

VIII. CONCERNING SIN
Luke xi. 2, 4. “When ye pray, say,… Forgive us our sins.”

IX. CONCERNING RIGHTEOUSNESS
Matthew vi. 33. “Seek ye first … His righteousness.”

X. CONCERNING PRAYER
Matthew vii. 9-11. “What man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?”

XI. CONCERNING THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES
Matthew xviii. 21, 22. “Then came Peter, and said to Him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times; but, until seventy times seven.”

XII. CONCERNING CARE
Matthew vi. 25, 31, 34. “Be not anxious for your life … nor yet for your body. … Be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? … Be not anxious for the morrow.”

XIII. CONCERNING MONEY
Luke xviii. 24, 25. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

XIV. CONCERNING THE SECOND ADVENT
Matthew xxiv. 30, 36. “They shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory…. Of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.”

XV. CONCERNING THE JUDGMENT
Matthew xxv. 31-33. “When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all the nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.”

XVI. CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE
Matthew vi. 20. “Where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”
Mark ix. 48. “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

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TO MY CHILDREN DORA, KENNETH, BASIL, ARNOLD MY WISEST TEACHERS IN THE THINGS OF GOD

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PREFACE

The following chapters are the outcome of an attempt to set before a large Sunday evening congregation—composed for the most part of working men and women—the teaching of our Lord on certain great selected themes. The reader will know, therefore, what to look for in these pages. If he be a trained Biblical scholar he need go no further, for he will find nothing here with which he is not already thoroughly familiar. On the other hand, the book will not be wholly without value even to some of my brother-ministers if it serve to convince them that a man may preach freely on the greatest themes of the gospel, and yet be sure that the common people will hear him gladly, if only he will state his message at once seriously and simply, and with the glow that comes of personal conviction. Indeed, one may well doubt if there is any other kind of preaching that they really care for.

My indebtedness to other workers in the same field is manifold. As far as possible detailed acknowledgement is made in the footnotes. Wendt’s Teaching of Jesus and Beyschlag’s New Testament Theology have been always at my elbow, though not nearly in such continual use as Stevens’ Theology of the New Testament, a work of which it is impossible to speak too highly. Brace’s Kingdom of God, Stalker’s Christology of Jesus, Harnack’s What is Christianity? Horton’s Teaching of Jesus, Watson’s Mind of the Master, Selby’s Ministry of the Lord Jesus, and Robertson’s Our Lord’s Teaching (a truly marvellous sixpenny worth), have all been laid under contribution, not the less freely because I have been compelled to dissent from some of their conclusions. Like many another busy minister, I am a daily debtor to Dr. Hastings and his great Dictionary of the Bible. And, finally, I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of expressing once more my unceasing obligations to the Rev. Professor James Denney, of Glasgow. Now that Dr. Dale has gone from us, there is no one to whom we may more confidently look for a reasonable evangelical theology which can be both verified and preached.

It only remains to add that in these pages critical questions are for the most part ignored, not because the pressure of the problems which they create is unfelt, but because as yet they have no place among the certainties which are the sole business of the preacher when he passes from his study to his pulpit.

GEORGE JACKSON.
EDINBURGH, 1903.
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INTRODUCTORY
“O Lord and Master of us all! Whate’er our name or sign, We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call, We test our lives by Thine.
We faintly hear, we dimly see, In differing phrase we pray; But, dim or clear, we own in Thee The Light, the Truth, the Way.” WHITTIER.
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In this 16 chapter work, Jackson presents us with themes which Christ regularly mentioned in his teachings: God, Himself, His own Death, the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, Man, Sin, Righteousness, Money, etc.