12/11/11 Christ Jesus: Our Unique Mediator, Our Hope
1 Timothy 1:1; 2:5 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 12/11/11
Inspired by a message delivered by Steve Stastinos 10/24/11
“Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope…”
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”
In our last message we focused on God our Savior. We learned about God’s awesome nature…that he is eternal, invisible and lives in unapproachable light. But yet he makes himself accessible to us, through his grace and forgiveness… through the gospel. We can meet this great and awesome God of ours through having a personal life experience with God. We learned that God is our creator and provider. He graciously provides us with all things, especially he gave us a Savior, Jesus, whom we are celebrating and worshipping this Christmas. Though God is extremely holy, and lives in unapproachable light, we can approach him through faith and by his grace. He saves completely those who come to him repenting of their sins and placing all of their hope and trust in him. Only God can save us. Only God can be our hope to come out of the darkness and live eternally in the kingdom of God.
Today we want to think about who Jesus is. To put it simply, God, Our Savior, wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (2:3-4). He did this by sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, as our hope. He is the hope of the individual and of the world. He is our hope personally, nationally and internationally. This great hope of ours was born as a tiny baby in a manger 2,000 years ago.
To understand how Jesus is our hope, we must think about who Jesus is. That is a mystery revealed in the gospel. 1 Timothy 3:16 reads, “Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” The fact is, Jesus incarnated among us. The Holy Spirit vindicated his ministry through mighty acts of power, such as healing the sick. raising the dead, driving out demons, and forgiving sins. Sinful mankind put Jesus to death on a cross, but God raised him from the dead. This was witnessed by angels and by his disciples. He was taken up into glory. This story of the gospel has been preached and believed on for the past 2,000 years. At the center of his Gospel, is Jesus, especially his identity and his work as our mediator. Let’s think about this Jesus a little deeper.
First, Jesus Christ as our mediator. Verse 2:5 reads, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” What is a mediator and why do we need one? A mediator is an intermediary, the person in the middle, who effects a reconciliation between two rivals. (John R.W. Stott, the message of 1 Timothy and Titus, p.69) He is the mediator between God, the Father and mankind. We really need a mediator, because God and mankind are at odds with one another because of our sins. God is holy and just. Sin separates us from God. (Isa 59:2). Sin makes us objects of God’s wrath. (Eph 2:3). Sin hurts God and plunges us into misery and pain. (Gen 6).
God, who is absolutely just, should punish and destroy mankind for his sins. But instead God longs to reconcile with us. We also long to be reconciled to God. But frankly, we are totally helpless to do what God requires. All of our “righteous” acts are like filthy rags before the holy and just God. We all fall short of the glory of God, leaving us in a conundrum. In this regard we can relate to Job’s plea: “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together.” (Job 9:33) We could do nothing. So God took it upon himself to establish a means of mediation. He sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to be our mediator.
Jesus is ideal as a mediator because he understands both parties. Let me tell you why. Jesus is in very nature God (Php 2:6), in whom all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. (Col 2:9) Yet in verse 5 Paul says, “The man Christ Jesus.” Jesus knows both sides of the issue. He is God and so he understands God’s side of the conflict fully. Jesus is also a man and so he understands humanity’s side. Jesus is fair and just. (Jn 5:30)Therefore in him, we find a trustworthy advocate.
Sending Jesus as the mediator has been on God, our Savior’s mind and heart since the beginning, since the fall of man in Genesis. In Genesis 3:15 God promised to send the offspring of a women as a savior who would crush the head Satan. But he would suffer in doing so. God clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins that God sacrificed. The skins of these sacrificed animals would cloth them and cover their shame. The gates of paradise were not destroyed, but only blocked for time, in anticipation when God and mankind would be reconciled. God foreshadowed the need for a mediator in the Old Testament through priests and sacrifices. The High Priest would sacrifice the sin offering for the people, and they would be forgiven. He is presented as a kind mediator between the Holy God and sinful people. But the priest was only a fallen sinner. He could not be a perfect mediator. Therefore this system of mediation could not be permanent, as it was flawed and pointed to a more perfect mediator…Jesus.
Jesus is different from any human High Priest. Jesus, while tempted and tested in every way, was without sin (Heb 4:15) The High Priest eventually died, but Jesus lives forever in glory. The sacrifices also were imperfect, since animal’s blood can never take away sins and had to be offered again and again. (Heb 10:4,11) But Jesus’ blood was completely sinless and holy blood. His blood was totally sufficient. Jesus’ sacrifice as the Lamb of God was one sacrifice for all (Heb 9:26b, 28a, 10:10) The priesthood and the temple were made obsolete and no longer exist. It is because it is no longer necessary. Jesus is all we need. Jesus is alive and his perfect mediation is as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago.
In view of who Jesus is, we know that he is worthy to be our mediator, and he fully meets our needs. But he also meets God’s needs in a mediator. We understand how desperately we need a mediator, in that we fail and fall short of God’s glory everyday. Yet God also needs Jesus as a mediator, in order to accept us as his children. In Jesus, God’s justice and God’s love are fully reconciled. Romans 3;26 puts it this way, “…he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus, true reconciliation with God is possible. God has provided the perfect and only way to come to him. In Jesus, our mediator and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph 3:12) as his precious children.
Second, How Jesus Became Our Mediator. We have thought about who Jesus is, as our mediator. We have also thought about why we need a mediator. But what does it mean that Jesus is our mediator? This is more than just a simple title for Jesus. Let’s see. Look at verse 2:6a, “…who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” In order to be our mediator, Jesus had to give himself up, leaving the glory of heaven to dwell among us. He, who is in very nature God, made himself nothing, taking on flesh, becoming a human being. (Php 2:7). Becoming a human being was done in order to bear our sins and weaknesses in his own body. (1 Peter 2:24) He came in this way to take up our pain and to bear our sufferings. (Isa 53:4). This was the sacrifice Jesus made in order to be our mediator. Jesus, the Son of God became the Son of Man. He is fully able to empathize with our weaknesses because he became like us. (Heb 2:17-18) In our sins, we are burdened and hopeless, weak and powerless like sheep without a shepherd. Yet, Jesus has hope. He called sinners to be his disciples. He bore with them and loved them until they could be changed even at great risk to himself. He gave his life to be our mediator. We can fully trust our Lord Jesus, who committed himself to this task in loving obedience to God, the Father, and out of his great mercy towards sinners.
In verse 2:6, we read that he gave himself as a ransom for all people. A ransom is the price paid to free a slave from bondage. The Bible teaches us that anyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34) A slave has no rights. A slave can not go free, but is held in bondage as a possession of their master. So we are all in bondage to our salve master, sin and the devil. To buy a person out of such slavery required a ransom. What was the ransom price set to buy our freedom? The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23b). To pay our ransom, Jesus gave himself as the sacrifice of atonement. Jesus shed his blood in agonizing pain until he died on that cross to buy our freedom. Who would do such a thing? I mean, for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But for a sinner? God’s great love is demonstrated in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8) When we believe in Jesus, our mediator, all our sins are forgiven once and for all. (Heb 10:10) and we were reconciled to God. But there is more. By ransoming us from slavery to sin, Jesus broke the power of sin over our lives. In this way Jesus deals with the root problem of sin. We live a new life, free, because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Some think that Jesus is just “the Christian way” to God. With philosophical arguments, they reasonably try to explain God’s existence as a mountain. At the top is God, and all the religions are paths going up the hill, all equally valid, some harder than others. To insist that Jesus is the only mediator often makes Christians appear ignorant and foolish.
But in view of what we have studied, Jesus is the only mediator. All other ways, no matter how noble in intention or hardworking in effort, or how much sense they make philosophically, fail because they ultimately depend on man’s ability and effort to save himself. Since these other ways can not forgive the sins of the past, or deal with the power of sin at work in our lives today, they are fundamentally incapable of helping us to reach God. Even if a person were to adhere to all their religious efforts, these would never be able to bridge the gap separating sinful man from the holy God. Instead, they leave man arrogant and self seeking, or broken and hopeless.
Only Jesus, the true mediator is able to solve our sin problem and reconcile us to the Holy God. Therefore, Christ Jesus is the only hope for mankind. We can see this in the analogy of Jesus as a rocket. God is in heaven, we are on earth. There are many ways that people try to come to God. But all these fail because they ultimately they have no power to break free from gravity: the weighing down of sin. But Jesus is like a rocket. The cross where he suffered once for sins, has power to bring us to God, like a powerful rocket! (1 Peter 3:18) (You may also think of it as a bridge diagram. There are also various other ways to illustrate what God had accomplished for us through Jesus.)
This knowledge of Jesus as a mediator needs to come out of the realm of intellectual ascent and into personal experience. Ask yourself, “Is Christ Jesus my mediator?” I can clearly say that Jesus is my mediator, because he ransomed me from the power of sin, reconciled me to God and gave me a new life. In 1981 and the spring of 1982 I had reached a low point in my life. I was living a hedonistic lifestyle, partying on the weekends and trying to study for college during the week. I was constantly bored and empty and required more corrupted sins to quench my thirsty heart. I knew my life was fruitless and meaningless, but I didn’t know how to come out of it. Studying, exercise, rock music, partying with my friends didn’t help me. I knew I was junk man because of my many sinful desires. One day I cried out in my pillow, “Oh God!” I had turned my back on Jesus during the days of my youth growing up in the Catholic Church. I chose hedonistic, pleasure seeking sins instead of Jesus. Yet Jesus did not abandon me. I was spiritually blind and did not know him. I didn’t know how Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Yet, at the lowest point, Jesus Christ revealed himself as my mediator in three very clear ways.
Firstly, through the sacrifices of good ministers of Christ Jesus. God sent me a great Bible teacher, Msn Ruth Hwang. She was a soft spoken, Korean missionary. She was humble and shorter than me. She was also poor, working as a sewing machine operator. I was an arrogant, hedonistic student, full of sins. At several occasions, during Bible study, I would tell her to “hurry up!” because I had to meet my friends at the bar. As she learned of my sinful life, she became weary of me. Once, I was told that the men missionaries were posted outside the room while we studied the Bible for Msn Ruth’s safety. Early on, when I started Bible study, I became insincere, not thinking deeply about the word of God and becoming heart hearted. Instead of rejecting me, she pleaded with me to repent and become sincere towards Jesus and she even shed tears. She fed me at her home. She taught me the Bible faithfully. She even took me to the ballet. It was through her life of faith and her unconditional acceptance of me, that I was able to begin to behold my mediator, Jesus Christ.
The second way was though a personal encounter with Jesus at the 1986 Summer Bible conference at MSU. I saw myself as a Samaritan man, who was quenching my thirsty heart with sin and the things of the world. But Jesus came to quench my thirsty heart with his living water. I accepted John 4: 13-14, as my life key verse, “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’" I repented of my hedonistic sins and yielded to Jesus as Lord. As he quenched my heart, Jesus gave me strength and power to leave my life of sin and begin to follow him.
The third powerful way has been through Bible study and discipleship that I have received over the last 25-1/2 years. Time and again Jesus has given me his word to quench me and grow me spiritually. Time and again he has intervened in my life through his word, reminding me of his grace, giving me direction and strength to do what is right and also rebuking me from time to time. Nowadays he is mediating on my behalf and saving me from despair, fear, fatalism and anger and is helping me to do the right follow him. Jesus has shown me in so many wonderful ways that he is my mediator. I have great hope, because Jesus my mediator.
God intended this saving grace to be a foundation upon which we build a life as a good minister of Christ Jesus. Paul is a good example. In 1:14 Paul remembered the saving grace of Jesus that was poured out on him abundantly. This grace became the foundation of his life. His relationship with Jesus grew, and he found God’s good work in him to do. He worked hard, bearing any and all difficulties, learning contentment and joy, all because of the grace of Jesus.
Jesus remains our intercessor and mediator throughout our life. Jesus promised his disciples, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:20b) Jesus was taken up in glory, and is at this moment at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us (Romans 8:34), with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:22) Jesus’ grace to me was not just a single event 25 years ago, but it is daily. He is my living mediator. He is mediating for me daily, 24/7. By his help I am building a life and ministry on this grace of God. As you all know, my mediator helped me to marry Julie back in 1992. He gave us five wonderful children. Together we are building a holy family and a house church ministry. He has called us to a 1:1 Bible and discipleship ministry at NIU in DeKalb. This is God’s grace and privilege given to us. With God’s help we can build on the foundation of God’s grace through Jesus my mediator and my hope. Sometimes the task gets hard. I get overwhelmed with the spiritual forces of darkness and my own sins. Elements of death, like sorrow, despair, fatalism and anger, fill my heart. I fall into ruts and loose hope that the work of God can be accomplished through me. I begin to feel that all I want to do is retreat, to hide, sitting in front of the computer, sleeping, walking the dog and working out as quiet little gym. I am reminded of how limited I am in so many ways. I dwell on my weaknesses. Yet I can testify to one enduring truth…Jesus has been so faithful and steady. He is a firm foundation in troubled times. I must always remember that my life is built on the solid foundation: God our Savior and Christ Jesus our Hope. Thank you Jesus!
Christ Jesus is our hope! He is our mediator. This is not only for our past, and not only for our present, but for our future as well. Someday, Jesus is coming again. (6:14) Because of his work of redemption Christ Jesus is now our hope, our hope for past sins forgiven, our hope for present victory, our hope for future glory. (D. Edmond Hiebert, First Timothy, p. 22). On his grace as our mediator and hope, he established a firm foundation that will never be shaken. This foundation is for our personal lives, our families, our ministries, our nation and the world. Upon this foundation of faith, let’s build a life as a good minister of Christ Jesus.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
11/27/11 God’s Household: The Church Of The Living God
1 Timothy 3:15-16; Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 11/27/11
Inspired by a message delivered by @Greg Lewis@ 10/25/11
“if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.”
In this study we want to broaden our understanding of Christian community, otherwise called the church. The church is a unique place, unlike any other. God establishes the church as his own household in the world. The church is where God comes to dwell among his people. This morning let is answer two important questions: (1) What is the church and (2) What does the church do?
God has always wanted to dwell among his people. God dwelt with his people on the Garden of Eden, the Tabernacle and the temple. God came to dwell among us in the person of Jesus Christ. When early believers gathered in the name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and God began to dwell among them. At the end of the Bible, it is promised that at last, God’s dwelling place will be among his people. It has always been God’s heart’s desire to dwell among his people.
Why such an historical effort on God’s part just to be with his people collectively? Individually, we are all sinners, but collectively our sinfulness becomes exponential. It is so hard for the holy God to dwell among us. God is holy and without sin, and at the same time God is also love. For God to dwell among his people, the church must be a place of both love and holiness. If it is not, then God can not and will not dwell there. But the church has not historically been a place of love and holiness. In addition to lacking love and holiness, today it is popular to bring business or worldly, psychological principles into the church. Also people who work hard in the church think that the church is theirs and not God’s dwelling place.
But the church consists of people who have been drawn through the blood of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual leaders know the true nature of the church and help church members conduct themselves accordingly. They help to create an atmosphere of love and holiness so that God can come and dwell among his people.
Part 1: The Church Of The Living Church is God’s Household, God.
God was very concerned the about in Ephesus. Ephesus was the 2nd largest city in the Roman Empire. It was a commercial, entertainment, and religious center. In this environment, God began a great work. The word of God spread widely and grew in power throughout Asia Minor and through this church body (Acts 19:20) Now the world was seeping back into God’s church.
The first part of our key verse reads, “If I am delayed you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household.” (3:15) Paul shared God’s concern for this precious community. They were in a pivotal moment on their development. They had a plurality of leaders working together in Paul’s absence. And these leaders faced many obstacles. There were some dangerous elements knocking at the door and finding their way into the church like false doctrine, godless chatter, lack of spiritual order and the love of money. Paul sent his spiritual son Timothy to curtail and stand against the issues they were facing. Timothy was not fully prepared or equipped to handle such circumstances, but Paul sent him anyway believing that God would work to both raise Timothy up as a strong leader and to make the church spiritually strong again. Paul planned to come soon, but he knew that delay was possible. In the meantime, he emphasized Timothy’s need to know how the people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household.
And so how should we conduct ourselves in God’s house, the church? In God’s household, God is our Father. (1 Tim 1:2), and we are his children. We become members of God’s household when we make the good confession of faith in Christ (6:12) God adopts us as his children. This means that the church is a place where our Father God lives and cares for his children. After spending time in God’s household, people should be able to sing from their hearts, “How Great The Father’s Love For Us!” and truly understand what they are singing.
If God is our Father, then our fellow household members are our church family. They are more than co-workers or servants. Even Jesus once encouraged people around him saying, “For whoever does the will of my Father is heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matt 13:50) A relationship-oriented mindset is at the heart and the core of all interactions in God’s household. Even Timothy was specifically instructed by Apostle Paul to exhort older men as fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters (1 Tim 5:1-2). The church is to be a place that is rich with family-like relationships on all levels. It is the place where we desire to spend time and be together with God and with each other.
The Biblical concept of household is different from a nuclear family with 3-5 members. Once, Abram called out 318 men born in his household in order to rescue Lot. Joshua committed himself and his household to serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:14) In Acts, the jailer and his whole household came to believe in the Lord Jesus. God’s household could be 2, 5, 10, 20, or several hundred people, which was likely the case in Ephesus. Such extended households require deep love and care and strong household management. For this, God raises up overseers, elders, deacons, and good ministers of Christ Jesus. God’s household has recognized leaders who are called by God and given the authority to carry out their areas of oversight. The first part of 1 Timothy 3 describes the qualifications for such positions like being respectable, temperate and trustworthy, and managing one’s own family well. Such leaders instill love, respect, purpose and order throughout the church community. Their conduct in God’s household upholds God’s love and holiness and enhances its relationships in structure and depth.
This family atmosphere is what attracted me and Julie to fellowship in the UBF church and eventually it was this atmosphere that helped me to open my heart up to Jesus. When I was first drawn to Winnipeg UBF more than 25 years ago, I was so moved by its church family-like environment. Church with the missionaries and the students there reminded me of the “little house on the prairie.” Actually I have 29 reasons why I was attracted to fellowship with the missionaries.(http://christianfamilyonchristsmission.com/why-i-admired-the-christian-fellowship-among-ubf-missionaries-as-a-new-believer/ ) Of course it was not perfect, but the Spirit of God was alive in the ministry and the truth was honored and respected. At one point the household of God was about 70 regular members. Despite of everyone’s tight schedules, with school, work and Bible study, the household of God was very beautiful. It was a place of love and holiness and people wanted to come and spend time together. Julie can testify to the family like, church atmosphere at Downy UBF.
I thank God for the household of God at our Triton Ministry. From Nov 1990 to 1998 we were part of the church family there. At that time there were 50 core members who were like spiritual family members together. Yesterday we went to the Hyde Park UBF dedication. They have a beautiful Bible house. Their ministry is the fruit of 20 years of prayer. It is also the fruit of the relational fellowship between 4 families and 2 shepherds. It is more than just the nice renovated Bible house...it is the people that make up the church and their love for God and love for one another.
It is very hard to maintain the household of God as a community of love. There is a tendency, that over time, our fellowship may seem less and less like God’s household. We get busy surviving in this hard world. We don’t want to come together and spend time together. We don’t even want to talk together. Jenn told me that the average teenager speaks to their parents three minutes a day. This social trend spills over into the church. The church becomes less and less a destiny to be and also less of a place of love and holiness. But we must realize that we have a responsibility to make a church family a spiritual home. We need to listen to, properly support, and embrace our brothers and sisters in Christ. Especially we must pray for one another. That is one reason why we initiated our Sunday night sharing time so we can listen to and pray for each other. Though we are busy we must make room in our lives to serve, care for, and build up relationships with others. We must commit to spend more time praying, meditating, preaching and teaching the Bible. When each member commits to such spiritual expressions of love, then greater things ahead will develop among our small fellowship.
From our key verse, Apostle Paul also characterizes the church as the “the church if the living God.” This is about the church being the place of God’s living presence among his people. Paul emphasizes the primacy of God’s ownership and presence in the church. This means that the church both belongs to God and houses the glorious presence of God. God is the rightful owner and the Lord of the church. The church is where the living God dwells and loves to spend his time. God’s ownership and presence make the church unlike another place or institute in the world.
God is not static; he is living and working to draw us together to become a dwelling in which he lives by his spirit. This is the true Christian church everywhere. Jesus promised that where even two or three gather together in his name, he is there (Mt 18:20) God wants the church to be a united vessel of his loving and holy presence. God wants to live, breath and reveal himself in and through each individual in the church. When a person reflects God and his living presence individually, collectively, the church becomes instructionally incarnate. In this state, the church is magnetic and unstoppable. The living God uses the church to draw people nearer to Jesus and save their lost souls. The next time someone asks, “What is the church?” We can answer, “The church is God’s household, the church of the living God.”
Part ll: The Church Pillar And Is The Foundation Of God’s Truth
The church in Ephesus seemed to be loosing sight of its direction and focus. Certain people were teaching false doctrine and promoting controversies rather than God’s work. Some had wandered away from the Biblical foundation that was once at the centerpiece of their fellowship. They wanted to be biblical teachers but did not know what they were talking about or what they so confidently affirmed. The love of money also had a strong hold on the people in the church. Pride, arrogance and hope in worldly treasures kept many from taking hold of the life that is truly life. In this environment, Paul needed Timothy to be a good minister of Christ Jesus who could re-establish, uphold and maintain the important functions of God’s church in the world.
In the key verse, Paul describes the church as being “the pillar and the foundation of the truth.” This unique distinction of the church was rooted in Paul’s experience in church building, especially in Ephesus. Usually we think about the foundation of the church, not the other way around. But Paul saw firsthand how the institution of the church was able to withstand fierce societal persecution, intense political pressure, and all kinds of false teachings of the world. Paul saw the permanence and eternal significance of what God was doing through his church. God transformed societies, cultures, nations, and even the flow of history through the church.
In construction, laying the foundation comes first. In God’s church the pillar of the truth is prominent. Pillars are intimately linked to foundations. Strong pillars mean strong foundations. Pillars best display the strength of any building’s foundations. Strong pillars also help the overall building structure to stand firm in the wind, storms and rains.
The church as the pillar of truth means that the church makes God’s eternal truth visible to the watching world. Even though the worst storms are thrown at God’s pillars of truth in any generation, the truth of God remains strong, living and active in the church. The church keeps the deep truths of God alive, available and accessible to a world in need. Truth is proclaimed and stands out clearly in the church environment. The church demonstrates God’s truth so that people can feel it, see it, taste it, touch it, and smell it. Church is the place where the truth is proclaimed, honored, and practiced to reveal God and build up his people.
The church is also the foundation of the truth. In the church, God’s truth is deposited and stored for the safekeeping. God’s truth is guarded and kept pure and powerful, not tainted, corrupted or watered down by the influence of a fallen world. The church is the instrument that preserves God’s truth in the world, the truth that transforms lives. Church is the place to go to know the truth and find salvation. It is the one place where God’s truth is the foundation of life in the past, present and future.
In the last part of our key verse, Paul records a doctrinal creed in the form of a hymn about Jesus. It is a deep and poetic description of what mysteriously springs out of the church, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Let’s read verse 16, “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.” The mystery from which true godliness springs is Jesus. More than anything God wants the mysteries of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to spring forth into the world through the church. God wants the church to be the place where godliness and the glory of Jesus overflows and spills over into the world. The next time someone asks, “What does the church do?” We can say that the church is the foundation of truth that reveals Jesus Christ to the world.
Part lll: The life of spiritual leaders in God’s household
Having the right view of the church and its foundations is central to Christian life and in our ministry. For this, each chapter needs leaders like young Timothy, who can be champions of the church as (1) God’s household, (2) the church of the living God, (3) the pillar and foundation of the truth, and (4) the place from which the mysteries of Jesus Christ spring forth into the world. God can make a church spiritually vibrant and strong when even one person wholeheartedly commits to this task.
Spiritual leader ensure God’s household is governed not by human ideas but by the clear teachings of God’s word. They have great faith in God’s desire to dwell with and care for his children as a loving Father. They view the church as one relational family unity and foster acute relational awareness of how people are interacting with the living God, each other, and the overall church atmosphere.
Spiritual leaders both build upon the pillars of truth and draw from the deep foundational reservoirs of truth in the church. They stand together in love and truth to bind the church’s components. Mere human relationships in themselves will not last. They need God’s grace and truth that binds people together for eternity.
The constant joyful tasks of spiritual leaders are seeing the profound, mysteries about Jesus Christ being revealed, believed and taught by more and more people. They bear the responsibility and privilege of conveying the “mystery of our religion” in many Bible studies and messages over a life time. They passionately serve the church to proclaim and affirm the godliness and glory of Jesus through worship, fellowship and daily life.
In conclusion, the church is where God dwells among his people. We are drawn to God’s household by the blood of Jesus and by the spirit of God. The church is like a family, filled with loving relationships that must be nurtured and protected. The church is also the pillar and foundation of truth. It is the entity for the mystery of godliness, Jesus Christ, may springboard into the world. May God may help us to be spiritual leaders who hold onto this right view and foundation of the church, all the days of our lives.
Let’s read the key verse together, 1 Timothy 3:15-16, “if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.”
1 Timothy 3:15-16; Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 11/27/11
Inspired by a message delivered by @Greg Lewis@ 10/25/11
“if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.”
In this study we want to broaden our understanding of Christian community, otherwise called the church. The church is a unique place, unlike any other. God establishes the church as his own household in the world. The church is where God comes to dwell among his people. This morning let is answer two important questions: (1) What is the church and (2) What does the church do?
God has always wanted to dwell among his people. God dwelt with his people on the Garden of Eden, the Tabernacle and the temple. God came to dwell among us in the person of Jesus Christ. When early believers gathered in the name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and God began to dwell among them. At the end of the Bible, it is promised that at last, God’s dwelling place will be among his people. It has always been God’s heart’s desire to dwell among his people.
Why such an historical effort on God’s part just to be with his people collectively? Individually, we are all sinners, but collectively our sinfulness becomes exponential. It is so hard for the holy God to dwell among us. God is holy and without sin, and at the same time God is also love. For God to dwell among his people, the church must be a place of both love and holiness. If it is not, then God can not and will not dwell there. But the church has not historically been a place of love and holiness. In addition to lacking love and holiness, today it is popular to bring business or worldly, psychological principles into the church. Also people who work hard in the church think that the church is theirs and not God’s dwelling place.
But the church consists of people who have been drawn through the blood of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual leaders know the true nature of the church and help church members conduct themselves accordingly. They help to create an atmosphere of love and holiness so that God can come and dwell among his people.
Part 1: The Church Of The Living Church is God’s Household, God.
God was very concerned the about in Ephesus. Ephesus was the 2nd largest city in the Roman Empire. It was a commercial, entertainment, and religious center. In this environment, God began a great work. The word of God spread widely and grew in power throughout Asia Minor and through this church body (Acts 19:20) Now the world was seeping back into God’s church.
The first part of our key verse reads, “If I am delayed you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household.” (3:15) Paul shared God’s concern for this precious community. They were in a pivotal moment on their development. They had a plurality of leaders working together in Paul’s absence. And these leaders faced many obstacles. There were some dangerous elements knocking at the door and finding their way into the church like false doctrine, godless chatter, lack of spiritual order and the love of money. Paul sent his spiritual son Timothy to curtail and stand against the issues they were facing. Timothy was not fully prepared or equipped to handle such circumstances, but Paul sent him anyway believing that God would work to both raise Timothy up as a strong leader and to make the church spiritually strong again. Paul planned to come soon, but he knew that delay was possible. In the meantime, he emphasized Timothy’s need to know how the people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household.
And so how should we conduct ourselves in God’s house, the church? In God’s household, God is our Father. (1 Tim 1:2), and we are his children. We become members of God’s household when we make the good confession of faith in Christ (6:12) God adopts us as his children. This means that the church is a place where our Father God lives and cares for his children. After spending time in God’s household, people should be able to sing from their hearts, “How Great The Father’s Love For Us!” and truly understand what they are singing.
If God is our Father, then our fellow household members are our church family. They are more than co-workers or servants. Even Jesus once encouraged people around him saying, “For whoever does the will of my Father is heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matt 13:50) A relationship-oriented mindset is at the heart and the core of all interactions in God’s household. Even Timothy was specifically instructed by Apostle Paul to exhort older men as fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters (1 Tim 5:1-2). The church is to be a place that is rich with family-like relationships on all levels. It is the place where we desire to spend time and be together with God and with each other.
The Biblical concept of household is different from a nuclear family with 3-5 members. Once, Abram called out 318 men born in his household in order to rescue Lot. Joshua committed himself and his household to serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:14) In Acts, the jailer and his whole household came to believe in the Lord Jesus. God’s household could be 2, 5, 10, 20, or several hundred people, which was likely the case in Ephesus. Such extended households require deep love and care and strong household management. For this, God raises up overseers, elders, deacons, and good ministers of Christ Jesus. God’s household has recognized leaders who are called by God and given the authority to carry out their areas of oversight. The first part of 1 Timothy 3 describes the qualifications for such positions like being respectable, temperate and trustworthy, and managing one’s own family well. Such leaders instill love, respect, purpose and order throughout the church community. Their conduct in God’s household upholds God’s love and holiness and enhances its relationships in structure and depth.
This family atmosphere is what attracted me and Julie to fellowship in the UBF church and eventually it was this atmosphere that helped me to open my heart up to Jesus. When I was first drawn to Winnipeg UBF more than 25 years ago, I was so moved by its church family-like environment. Church with the missionaries and the students there reminded me of the “little house on the prairie.” Actually I have 29 reasons why I was attracted to fellowship with the missionaries.(http://christianfamilyonchristsmission.com/why-i-admired-the-christian-fellowship-among-ubf-missionaries-as-a-new-believer/ ) Of course it was not perfect, but the Spirit of God was alive in the ministry and the truth was honored and respected. At one point the household of God was about 70 regular members. Despite of everyone’s tight schedules, with school, work and Bible study, the household of God was very beautiful. It was a place of love and holiness and people wanted to come and spend time together. Julie can testify to the family like, church atmosphere at Downy UBF.
I thank God for the household of God at our Triton Ministry. From Nov 1990 to 1998 we were part of the church family there. At that time there were 50 core members who were like spiritual family members together. Yesterday we went to the Hyde Park UBF dedication. They have a beautiful Bible house. Their ministry is the fruit of 20 years of prayer. It is also the fruit of the relational fellowship between 4 families and 2 shepherds. It is more than just the nice renovated Bible house...it is the people that make up the church and their love for God and love for one another.
It is very hard to maintain the household of God as a community of love. There is a tendency, that over time, our fellowship may seem less and less like God’s household. We get busy surviving in this hard world. We don’t want to come together and spend time together. We don’t even want to talk together. Jenn told me that the average teenager speaks to their parents three minutes a day. This social trend spills over into the church. The church becomes less and less a destiny to be and also less of a place of love and holiness. But we must realize that we have a responsibility to make a church family a spiritual home. We need to listen to, properly support, and embrace our brothers and sisters in Christ. Especially we must pray for one another. That is one reason why we initiated our Sunday night sharing time so we can listen to and pray for each other. Though we are busy we must make room in our lives to serve, care for, and build up relationships with others. We must commit to spend more time praying, meditating, preaching and teaching the Bible. When each member commits to such spiritual expressions of love, then greater things ahead will develop among our small fellowship.
From our key verse, Apostle Paul also characterizes the church as the “the church if the living God.” This is about the church being the place of God’s living presence among his people. Paul emphasizes the primacy of God’s ownership and presence in the church. This means that the church both belongs to God and houses the glorious presence of God. God is the rightful owner and the Lord of the church. The church is where the living God dwells and loves to spend his time. God’s ownership and presence make the church unlike another place or institute in the world.
God is not static; he is living and working to draw us together to become a dwelling in which he lives by his spirit. This is the true Christian church everywhere. Jesus promised that where even two or three gather together in his name, he is there (Mt 18:20) God wants the church to be a united vessel of his loving and holy presence. God wants to live, breath and reveal himself in and through each individual in the church. When a person reflects God and his living presence individually, collectively, the church becomes instructionally incarnate. In this state, the church is magnetic and unstoppable. The living God uses the church to draw people nearer to Jesus and save their lost souls. The next time someone asks, “What is the church?” We can answer, “The church is God’s household, the church of the living God.”
Part ll: The Church Pillar And Is The Foundation Of God’s Truth
The church in Ephesus seemed to be loosing sight of its direction and focus. Certain people were teaching false doctrine and promoting controversies rather than God’s work. Some had wandered away from the Biblical foundation that was once at the centerpiece of their fellowship. They wanted to be biblical teachers but did not know what they were talking about or what they so confidently affirmed. The love of money also had a strong hold on the people in the church. Pride, arrogance and hope in worldly treasures kept many from taking hold of the life that is truly life. In this environment, Paul needed Timothy to be a good minister of Christ Jesus who could re-establish, uphold and maintain the important functions of God’s church in the world.
In the key verse, Paul describes the church as being “the pillar and the foundation of the truth.” This unique distinction of the church was rooted in Paul’s experience in church building, especially in Ephesus. Usually we think about the foundation of the church, not the other way around. But Paul saw firsthand how the institution of the church was able to withstand fierce societal persecution, intense political pressure, and all kinds of false teachings of the world. Paul saw the permanence and eternal significance of what God was doing through his church. God transformed societies, cultures, nations, and even the flow of history through the church.
In construction, laying the foundation comes first. In God’s church the pillar of the truth is prominent. Pillars are intimately linked to foundations. Strong pillars mean strong foundations. Pillars best display the strength of any building’s foundations. Strong pillars also help the overall building structure to stand firm in the wind, storms and rains.
The church as the pillar of truth means that the church makes God’s eternal truth visible to the watching world. Even though the worst storms are thrown at God’s pillars of truth in any generation, the truth of God remains strong, living and active in the church. The church keeps the deep truths of God alive, available and accessible to a world in need. Truth is proclaimed and stands out clearly in the church environment. The church demonstrates God’s truth so that people can feel it, see it, taste it, touch it, and smell it. Church is the place where the truth is proclaimed, honored, and practiced to reveal God and build up his people.
The church is also the foundation of the truth. In the church, God’s truth is deposited and stored for the safekeeping. God’s truth is guarded and kept pure and powerful, not tainted, corrupted or watered down by the influence of a fallen world. The church is the instrument that preserves God’s truth in the world, the truth that transforms lives. Church is the place to go to know the truth and find salvation. It is the one place where God’s truth is the foundation of life in the past, present and future.
In the last part of our key verse, Paul records a doctrinal creed in the form of a hymn about Jesus. It is a deep and poetic description of what mysteriously springs out of the church, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Let’s read verse 16, “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.” The mystery from which true godliness springs is Jesus. More than anything God wants the mysteries of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to spring forth into the world through the church. God wants the church to be the place where godliness and the glory of Jesus overflows and spills over into the world. The next time someone asks, “What does the church do?” We can say that the church is the foundation of truth that reveals Jesus Christ to the world.
Part lll: The life of spiritual leaders in God’s household
Having the right view of the church and its foundations is central to Christian life and in our ministry. For this, each chapter needs leaders like young Timothy, who can be champions of the church as (1) God’s household, (2) the church of the living God, (3) the pillar and foundation of the truth, and (4) the place from which the mysteries of Jesus Christ spring forth into the world. God can make a church spiritually vibrant and strong when even one person wholeheartedly commits to this task.
Spiritual leader ensure God’s household is governed not by human ideas but by the clear teachings of God’s word. They have great faith in God’s desire to dwell with and care for his children as a loving Father. They view the church as one relational family unity and foster acute relational awareness of how people are interacting with the living God, each other, and the overall church atmosphere.
Spiritual leaders both build upon the pillars of truth and draw from the deep foundational reservoirs of truth in the church. They stand together in love and truth to bind the church’s components. Mere human relationships in themselves will not last. They need God’s grace and truth that binds people together for eternity.
The constant joyful tasks of spiritual leaders are seeing the profound, mysteries about Jesus Christ being revealed, believed and taught by more and more people. They bear the responsibility and privilege of conveying the “mystery of our religion” in many Bible studies and messages over a life time. They passionately serve the church to proclaim and affirm the godliness and glory of Jesus through worship, fellowship and daily life.
In conclusion, the church is where God dwells among his people. We are drawn to God’s household by the blood of Jesus and by the spirit of God. The church is like a family, filled with loving relationships that must be nurtured and protected. The church is also the pillar and foundation of truth. It is the entity for the mystery of godliness, Jesus Christ, may springboard into the world. May God may help us to be spiritual leaders who hold onto this right view and foundation of the church, all the days of our lives.
Let’s read the key verse together, 1 Timothy 3:15-16, “if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.”
12/11/11 Christ Jesus: Our Unique Mediator, Our Hope
1 Timothy 1:1; 2:5 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 12/11/11
Inspired by a message delivered by Steve Stastinos 10/24/11
“Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope…”
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”
In our last message we focused on God our Savior. We learned about God’s awesome nature…that he is eternal, invisible and lives in unapproachable light. But yet he makes himself accessible to us, through his grace and forgiveness… through the gospel. We can meet this great and awesome God of ours through having a personal life experience with God. We learned that God is our creator and provider. He graciously provides us with all things, especially he gave us a Savior, Jesus, whom we are celebrating and worshipping this Christmas. Though God is extremely holy, and lives in unapproachable light, we can approach him through faith and by his grace. He saves completely those who come to him repenting of their sins and placing all of their hope and trust in him. Only God can save us. Only God can be our hope to come out of the darkness and live eternally in the kingdom of God.
Today we want to think about who Jesus is. To put it simply, God, Our Savior, wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (2:3-4). He did this by sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, as our hope. He is the hope of the individual and of the world. He is our hope personally, nationally and internationally. This great hope of ours was born as a tiny baby in a manger 2,000 years ago.
To understand how Jesus is our hope, we must think about who Jesus is. That is a mystery revealed in the gospel. 1 Timothy 3:16 reads, “Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” The fact is, Jesus incarnated among us. The Holy Spirit vindicated his ministry through mighty acts of power, such as healing the sick. raising the dead, driving out demons, and forgiving sins. Sinful mankind put Jesus to death on a cross, but God raised him from the dead. This was witnessed by angels and by his disciples. He was taken up into glory. This story of the gospel has been preached and believed on for the past 2,000 years. At the center of his Gospel, is Jesus, especially his identity and his work as our mediator. Let’s think about this Jesus a little deeper.
First, Jesus Christ as our mediator. Verse 2:5 reads, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” What is a mediator and why do we need one? A mediator is an intermediary, the person in the middle, who effects a reconciliation between two rivals. (John R.W. Stott, the message of 1 Timothy and Titus, p.69) He is the mediator between God, the Father and mankind. We really need a mediator, because God and mankind are at odds with one another because of our sins. God is holy and just. Sin separates us from God. (Isa 59:2). Sin makes us objects of God’s wrath. (Eph 2:3). Sin hurts God and plunges us into misery and pain. (Gen 6).
God, who is absolutely just, should punish and destroy mankind for his sins. But instead God longs to reconcile with us. We also long to be reconciled to God. But frankly, we are totally helpless to do what God requires. All of our “righteous” acts are like filthy rags before the holy and just God. We all fall short of the glory of God, leaving us in a conundrum. In this regard we can relate to Job’s plea: “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together.” (Job 9:33) We could do nothing. So God took it upon himself to establish a means of mediation. He sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to be our mediator.
Jesus is ideal as a mediator because he understands both parties. Let me tell you why. Jesus is in very nature God (Php 2:6), in whom all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. (Col 2:9) Yet in verse 5 Paul says, “The man Christ Jesus.” Jesus knows both sides of the issue. He is God and so he understands God’s side of the conflict fully. Jesus is also a man and so he understands humanity’s side. Jesus is fair and just. (Jn 5:30)Therefore in him, we find a trustworthy advocate.
Sending Jesus as the mediator has been on God, our Savior’s mind and heart since the beginning, since the fall of man in Genesis. In Genesis 3:15 God promised to send the offspring of a women as a savior who would crush the head Satan. But he would suffer in doing so. God clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins that God sacrificed. The skins of these sacrificed animals would cloth them and cover their shame. The gates of paradise were not destroyed, but only blocked for time, in anticipation when God and mankind would be reconciled. God foreshadowed the need for a mediator in the Old Testament through priests and sacrifices. The High Priest would sacrifice the sin offering for the people, and they would be forgiven. He is presented as a kind mediator between the Holy God and sinful people. But the priest was only a fallen sinner. He could not be a perfect mediator. Therefore this system of mediation could not be permanent, as it was flawed and pointed to a more perfect mediator…Jesus.
Jesus is different from any human High Priest. Jesus, while tempted and tested in every way, was without sin (Heb 4:15) The High Priest eventually died, but Jesus lives forever in glory. The sacrifices also were imperfect, since animal’s blood can never take away sins and had to be offered again and again. (Heb 10:4,11) But Jesus’ blood was completely sinless and holy blood. His blood was totally sufficient. Jesus’ sacrifice as the Lamb of God was one sacrifice for all (Heb 9:26b, 28a, 10:10) The priesthood and the temple were made obsolete and no longer exist. It is because it is no longer necessary. Jesus is all we need. Jesus is alive and his perfect mediation is as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago.
In view of who Jesus is, we know that he is worthy to be our mediator, and he fully meets our needs. But he also meets God’s needs in a mediator. We understand how desperately we need a mediator, in that we fail and fall short of God’s glory everyday. Yet God also needs Jesus as a mediator, in order to accept us as his children. In Jesus, God’s justice and God’s love are fully reconciled. Romans 3;26 puts it this way, “…he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus, true reconciliation with God is possible. God has provided the perfect and only way to come to him. In Jesus, our mediator and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph 3:12) as his precious children.
Second, How Jesus Became Our Mediator. We have thought about who Jesus is, as our mediator. We have also thought about why we need a mediator. But what does it mean that Jesus is our mediator? This is more than just a simple title for Jesus. Let’s see. Look at verse 2:6a, “…who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” In order to be our mediator, Jesus had to give himself up, leaving the glory of heaven to dwell among us. He, who is in very nature God, made himself nothing, taking on flesh, becoming a human being. (Php 2:7). Becoming a human being was done in order to bear our sins and weaknesses in his own body. (1 Peter 2:24) He came in this way to take up our pain and to bear our sufferings. (Isa 53:4). This was the sacrifice Jesus made in order to be our mediator. Jesus, the Son of God became the Son of Man. He is fully able to empathize with our weaknesses because he became like us. (Heb 2:17-18) In our sins, we are burdened and hopeless, weak and powerless like sheep without a shepherd. Yet, Jesus has hope. He called sinners to be his disciples. He bore with them and loved them until they could be changed even at great risk to himself. He gave his life to be our mediator. We can fully trust our Lord Jesus, who committed himself to this task in loving obedience to God, the Father, and out of his great mercy towards sinners.
In verse 2:6, we read that he gave himself as a ransom for all people. A ransom is the price paid to free a slave from bondage. The Bible teaches us that anyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34) A slave has no rights. A slave can not go free, but is held in bondage as a possession of their master. So we are all in bondage to our salve master, sin and the devil. To buy a person out of such slavery required a ransom. What was the ransom price set to buy our freedom? The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23b). To pay our ransom, Jesus gave himself as the sacrifice of atonement. Jesus shed his blood in agonizing pain until he died on that cross to buy our freedom. Who would do such a thing? I mean, for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But for a sinner? God’s great love is demonstrated in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8) When we believe in Jesus, our mediator, all our sins are forgiven once and for all. (Heb 10:10) and we were reconciled to God. But there is more. By ransoming us from slavery to sin, Jesus broke the power of sin over our lives. In this way Jesus deals with the root problem of sin. We live a new life, free, because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Some think that Jesus is just “the Christian way” to God. With philosophical arguments, they reasonably try to explain God’s existence as a mountain. At the top is God, and all the religions are paths going up the hill, all equally valid, some harder than others. To insist that Jesus is the only mediator often makes Christians appear ignorant and foolish.
But in view of what we have studied, Jesus is the only mediator. All other ways, no matter how noble in intention or hardworking in effort, or how much sense they make philosophically, fail because they ultimately depend on man’s ability and effort to save himself. Since these other ways can not forgive the sins of the past, or deal with the power of sin at work in our lives today, they are fundamentally incapable of helping us to reach God. Even if a person were to adhere to all their religious efforts, these would never be able to bridge the gap separating sinful man from the holy God. Instead, they leave man arrogant and self seeking, or broken and hopeless.
Only Jesus, the true mediator is able to solve our sin problem and reconcile us to the Holy God. Therefore, Christ Jesus is the only hope for mankind. We can see this in the analogy of Jesus as a rocket. God is in heaven, we are on earth. There are many ways that people try to come to God. But all these fail because they ultimately they have no power to break free from gravity: the weighing down of sin. But Jesus is like a rocket. The cross where he suffered once for sins, has power to bring us to God, like a powerful rocket! (1 Peter 3:18) (You may also think of it as a bridge diagram. There are also various other ways to illustrate what God had accomplished for us through Jesus.)
This knowledge of Jesus as a mediator needs to come out of the realm of intellectual ascent and into personal experience. Ask yourself, “Is Christ Jesus my mediator?” I can clearly say that Jesus is my mediator, because he ransomed me from the power of sin, reconciled me to God and gave me a new life. In 1981 and the spring of 1982 I had reached a low point in my life. I was living a hedonistic lifestyle, partying on the weekends and trying to study for college during the week. I was constantly bored and empty and required more corrupted sins to quench my thirsty heart. I knew my life was fruitless and meaningless, but I didn’t know how to come out of it. Studying, exercise, rock music, partying with my friends didn’t help me. I knew I was junk man because of my many sinful desires. One day I cried out in my pillow, “Oh God!” I had turned my back on Jesus during the days of my youth growing up in the Catholic Church. I chose hedonistic, pleasure seeking sins instead of Jesus. Yet Jesus did not abandon me. I was spiritually blind and did not know him. I didn’t know how Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Yet, at the lowest point, Jesus Christ revealed himself as my mediator in three very clear ways.
Firstly, through the sacrifices of good ministers of Christ Jesus. God sent me a great Bible teacher, Msn Ruth Hwang. She was a soft spoken, Korean missionary. She was humble and shorter than me. She was also poor, working as a sewing machine operator. I was an arrogant, hedonistic student, full of sins. At several occasions, during Bible study, I would tell her to “hurry up!” because I had to meet my friends at the bar. As she learned of my sinful life, she became weary of me. Once, I was told that the men missionaries were posted outside the room while we studied the Bible for Msn Ruth’s safety. Early on, when I started Bible study, I became insincere, not thinking deeply about the word of God and becoming heart hearted. Instead of rejecting me, she pleaded with me to repent and become sincere towards Jesus and she even shed tears. She fed me at her home. She taught me the Bible faithfully. She even took me to the ballet. It was through her life of faith and her unconditional acceptance of me, that I was able to begin to behold my mediator, Jesus Christ.
The second way was though a personal encounter with Jesus at the 1986 Summer Bible conference at MSU. I saw myself as a Samaritan man, who was quenching my thirsty heart with sin and the things of the world. But Jesus came to quench my thirsty heart with his living water. I accepted John 4: 13-14, as my life key verse, “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’" I repented of my hedonistic sins and yielded to Jesus as Lord. As he quenched my heart, Jesus gave me strength and power to leave my life of sin and begin to follow him.
The third powerful way has been through Bible study and discipleship that I have received over the last 25-1/2 years. Time and again Jesus has given me his word to quench me and grow me spiritually. Time and again he has intervened in my life through his word, reminding me of his grace, giving me direction and strength to do what is right and also rebuking me from time to time. Nowadays he is mediating on my behalf and saving me from despair, fear, fatalism and anger and is helping me to do the right follow him. Jesus has shown me in so many wonderful ways that he is my mediator. I have great hope, because Jesus my mediator.
God intended this saving grace to be a foundation upon which we build a life as a good minister of Christ Jesus. Paul is a good example. In 1:14 Paul remembered the saving grace of Jesus that was poured out on him abundantly. This grace became the foundation of his life. His relationship with Jesus grew, and he found God’s good work in him to do. He worked hard, bearing any and all difficulties, learning contentment and joy, all because of the grace of Jesus.
Jesus remains our intercessor and mediator throughout our life. Jesus promised his disciples, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:20b) Jesus was taken up in glory, and is at this moment at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us (Romans 8:34), with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:22) Jesus’ grace to me was not just a single event 25 years ago, but it is daily. He is my living mediator. He is mediating for me daily, 24/7. By his help I am building a life and ministry on this grace of God. As you all know, my mediator helped me to marry Julie back in 1992. He gave us five wonderful children. Together we are building a holy family and a house church ministry. He has called us to a 1:1 Bible and discipleship ministry at NIU in DeKalb. This is God’s grace and privilege given to us. With God’s help we can build on the foundation of God’s grace through Jesus my mediator and my hope. Sometimes the task gets hard. I get overwhelmed with the spiritual forces of darkness and my own sins. Elements of death, like sorrow, despair, fatalism and anger, fill my heart. I fall into ruts and loose hope that the work of God can be accomplished through me. I begin to feel that all I want to do is retreat, to hide, sitting in front of the computer, sleeping, walking the dog and working out as quiet little gym. I am reminded of how limited I am in so many ways. I dwell on my weaknesses. Yet I can testify to one enduring truth…Jesus has been so faithful and steady. He is a firm foundation in troubled times. I must always remember that my life is built on the solid foundation: God our Savior and Christ Jesus our Hope. Thank you Jesus!
Christ Jesus is our hope! He is our mediator. This is not only for our past, and not only for our present, but for our future as well. Someday, Jesus is coming again. (6:14) Because of his work of redemption Christ Jesus is now our hope, our hope for past sins forgiven, our hope for present victory, our hope for future glory. (D. Edmond Hiebert, First Timothy, p. 22). On his grace as our mediator and hope, he established a firm foundation that will never be shaken. This foundation is for our personal lives, our families, our ministries, our nation and the world. Upon this foundation of faith, let’s build a life as a good minister of Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:1; 2:5 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 12/11/11
Inspired by a message delivered by Steve Stastinos 10/24/11
“Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope…”
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”
In our last message we focused on God our Savior. We learned about God’s awesome nature…that he is eternal, invisible and lives in unapproachable light. But yet he makes himself accessible to us, through his grace and forgiveness… through the gospel. We can meet this great and awesome God of ours through having a personal life experience with God. We learned that God is our creator and provider. He graciously provides us with all things, especially he gave us a Savior, Jesus, whom we are celebrating and worshipping this Christmas. Though God is extremely holy, and lives in unapproachable light, we can approach him through faith and by his grace. He saves completely those who come to him repenting of their sins and placing all of their hope and trust in him. Only God can save us. Only God can be our hope to come out of the darkness and live eternally in the kingdom of God.
Today we want to think about who Jesus is. To put it simply, God, Our Savior, wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (2:3-4). He did this by sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, as our hope. He is the hope of the individual and of the world. He is our hope personally, nationally and internationally. This great hope of ours was born as a tiny baby in a manger 2,000 years ago.
To understand how Jesus is our hope, we must think about who Jesus is. That is a mystery revealed in the gospel. 1 Timothy 3:16 reads, “Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” The fact is, Jesus incarnated among us. The Holy Spirit vindicated his ministry through mighty acts of power, such as healing the sick. raising the dead, driving out demons, and forgiving sins. Sinful mankind put Jesus to death on a cross, but God raised him from the dead. This was witnessed by angels and by his disciples. He was taken up into glory. This story of the gospel has been preached and believed on for the past 2,000 years. At the center of his Gospel, is Jesus, especially his identity and his work as our mediator. Let’s think about this Jesus a little deeper.
First, Jesus Christ as our mediator. Verse 2:5 reads, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” What is a mediator and why do we need one? A mediator is an intermediary, the person in the middle, who effects a reconciliation between two rivals. (John R.W. Stott, the message of 1 Timothy and Titus, p.69) He is the mediator between God, the Father and mankind. We really need a mediator, because God and mankind are at odds with one another because of our sins. God is holy and just. Sin separates us from God. (Isa 59:2). Sin makes us objects of God’s wrath. (Eph 2:3). Sin hurts God and plunges us into misery and pain. (Gen 6).
God, who is absolutely just, should punish and destroy mankind for his sins. But instead God longs to reconcile with us. We also long to be reconciled to God. But frankly, we are totally helpless to do what God requires. All of our “righteous” acts are like filthy rags before the holy and just God. We all fall short of the glory of God, leaving us in a conundrum. In this regard we can relate to Job’s plea: “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together.” (Job 9:33) We could do nothing. So God took it upon himself to establish a means of mediation. He sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to be our mediator.
Jesus is ideal as a mediator because he understands both parties. Let me tell you why. Jesus is in very nature God (Php 2:6), in whom all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. (Col 2:9) Yet in verse 5 Paul says, “The man Christ Jesus.” Jesus knows both sides of the issue. He is God and so he understands God’s side of the conflict fully. Jesus is also a man and so he understands humanity’s side. Jesus is fair and just. (Jn 5:30)Therefore in him, we find a trustworthy advocate.
Sending Jesus as the mediator has been on God, our Savior’s mind and heart since the beginning, since the fall of man in Genesis. In Genesis 3:15 God promised to send the offspring of a women as a savior who would crush the head Satan. But he would suffer in doing so. God clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins that God sacrificed. The skins of these sacrificed animals would cloth them and cover their shame. The gates of paradise were not destroyed, but only blocked for time, in anticipation when God and mankind would be reconciled. God foreshadowed the need for a mediator in the Old Testament through priests and sacrifices. The High Priest would sacrifice the sin offering for the people, and they would be forgiven. He is presented as a kind mediator between the Holy God and sinful people. But the priest was only a fallen sinner. He could not be a perfect mediator. Therefore this system of mediation could not be permanent, as it was flawed and pointed to a more perfect mediator…Jesus.
Jesus is different from any human High Priest. Jesus, while tempted and tested in every way, was without sin (Heb 4:15) The High Priest eventually died, but Jesus lives forever in glory. The sacrifices also were imperfect, since animal’s blood can never take away sins and had to be offered again and again. (Heb 10:4,11) But Jesus’ blood was completely sinless and holy blood. His blood was totally sufficient. Jesus’ sacrifice as the Lamb of God was one sacrifice for all (Heb 9:26b, 28a, 10:10) The priesthood and the temple were made obsolete and no longer exist. It is because it is no longer necessary. Jesus is all we need. Jesus is alive and his perfect mediation is as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago.
In view of who Jesus is, we know that he is worthy to be our mediator, and he fully meets our needs. But he also meets God’s needs in a mediator. We understand how desperately we need a mediator, in that we fail and fall short of God’s glory everyday. Yet God also needs Jesus as a mediator, in order to accept us as his children. In Jesus, God’s justice and God’s love are fully reconciled. Romans 3;26 puts it this way, “…he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus, true reconciliation with God is possible. God has provided the perfect and only way to come to him. In Jesus, our mediator and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph 3:12) as his precious children.
Second, How Jesus Became Our Mediator. We have thought about who Jesus is, as our mediator. We have also thought about why we need a mediator. But what does it mean that Jesus is our mediator? This is more than just a simple title for Jesus. Let’s see. Look at verse 2:6a, “…who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” In order to be our mediator, Jesus had to give himself up, leaving the glory of heaven to dwell among us. He, who is in very nature God, made himself nothing, taking on flesh, becoming a human being. (Php 2:7). Becoming a human being was done in order to bear our sins and weaknesses in his own body. (1 Peter 2:24) He came in this way to take up our pain and to bear our sufferings. (Isa 53:4). This was the sacrifice Jesus made in order to be our mediator. Jesus, the Son of God became the Son of Man. He is fully able to empathize with our weaknesses because he became like us. (Heb 2:17-18) In our sins, we are burdened and hopeless, weak and powerless like sheep without a shepherd. Yet, Jesus has hope. He called sinners to be his disciples. He bore with them and loved them until they could be changed even at great risk to himself. He gave his life to be our mediator. We can fully trust our Lord Jesus, who committed himself to this task in loving obedience to God, the Father, and out of his great mercy towards sinners.
In verse 2:6, we read that he gave himself as a ransom for all people. A ransom is the price paid to free a slave from bondage. The Bible teaches us that anyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34) A slave has no rights. A slave can not go free, but is held in bondage as a possession of their master. So we are all in bondage to our salve master, sin and the devil. To buy a person out of such slavery required a ransom. What was the ransom price set to buy our freedom? The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23b). To pay our ransom, Jesus gave himself as the sacrifice of atonement. Jesus shed his blood in agonizing pain until he died on that cross to buy our freedom. Who would do such a thing? I mean, for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But for a sinner? God’s great love is demonstrated in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8) When we believe in Jesus, our mediator, all our sins are forgiven once and for all. (Heb 10:10) and we were reconciled to God. But there is more. By ransoming us from slavery to sin, Jesus broke the power of sin over our lives. In this way Jesus deals with the root problem of sin. We live a new life, free, because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Some think that Jesus is just “the Christian way” to God. With philosophical arguments, they reasonably try to explain God’s existence as a mountain. At the top is God, and all the religions are paths going up the hill, all equally valid, some harder than others. To insist that Jesus is the only mediator often makes Christians appear ignorant and foolish.
But in view of what we have studied, Jesus is the only mediator. All other ways, no matter how noble in intention or hardworking in effort, or how much sense they make philosophically, fail because they ultimately depend on man’s ability and effort to save himself. Since these other ways can not forgive the sins of the past, or deal with the power of sin at work in our lives today, they are fundamentally incapable of helping us to reach God. Even if a person were to adhere to all their religious efforts, these would never be able to bridge the gap separating sinful man from the holy God. Instead, they leave man arrogant and self seeking, or broken and hopeless.
Only Jesus, the true mediator is able to solve our sin problem and reconcile us to the Holy God. Therefore, Christ Jesus is the only hope for mankind. We can see this in the analogy of Jesus as a rocket. God is in heaven, we are on earth. There are many ways that people try to come to God. But all these fail because they ultimately they have no power to break free from gravity: the weighing down of sin. But Jesus is like a rocket. The cross where he suffered once for sins, has power to bring us to God, like a powerful rocket! (1 Peter 3:18) (You may also think of it as a bridge diagram. There are also various other ways to illustrate what God had accomplished for us through Jesus.)
This knowledge of Jesus as a mediator needs to come out of the realm of intellectual ascent and into personal experience. Ask yourself, “Is Christ Jesus my mediator?” I can clearly say that Jesus is my mediator, because he ransomed me from the power of sin, reconciled me to God and gave me a new life. In 1981 and the spring of 1982 I had reached a low point in my life. I was living a hedonistic lifestyle, partying on the weekends and trying to study for college during the week. I was constantly bored and empty and required more corrupted sins to quench my thirsty heart. I knew my life was fruitless and meaningless, but I didn’t know how to come out of it. Studying, exercise, rock music, partying with my friends didn’t help me. I knew I was junk man because of my many sinful desires. One day I cried out in my pillow, “Oh God!” I had turned my back on Jesus during the days of my youth growing up in the Catholic Church. I chose hedonistic, pleasure seeking sins instead of Jesus. Yet Jesus did not abandon me. I was spiritually blind and did not know him. I didn’t know how Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Yet, at the lowest point, Jesus Christ revealed himself as my mediator in three very clear ways.
Firstly, through the sacrifices of good ministers of Christ Jesus. God sent me a great Bible teacher, Msn Ruth Hwang. She was a soft spoken, Korean missionary. She was humble and shorter than me. She was also poor, working as a sewing machine operator. I was an arrogant, hedonistic student, full of sins. At several occasions, during Bible study, I would tell her to “hurry up!” because I had to meet my friends at the bar. As she learned of my sinful life, she became weary of me. Once, I was told that the men missionaries were posted outside the room while we studied the Bible for Msn Ruth’s safety. Early on, when I started Bible study, I became insincere, not thinking deeply about the word of God and becoming heart hearted. Instead of rejecting me, she pleaded with me to repent and become sincere towards Jesus and she even shed tears. She fed me at her home. She taught me the Bible faithfully. She even took me to the ballet. It was through her life of faith and her unconditional acceptance of me, that I was able to begin to behold my mediator, Jesus Christ.
The second way was though a personal encounter with Jesus at the 1986 Summer Bible conference at MSU. I saw myself as a Samaritan man, who was quenching my thirsty heart with sin and the things of the world. But Jesus came to quench my thirsty heart with his living water. I accepted John 4: 13-14, as my life key verse, “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’" I repented of my hedonistic sins and yielded to Jesus as Lord. As he quenched my heart, Jesus gave me strength and power to leave my life of sin and begin to follow him.
The third powerful way has been through Bible study and discipleship that I have received over the last 25-1/2 years. Time and again Jesus has given me his word to quench me and grow me spiritually. Time and again he has intervened in my life through his word, reminding me of his grace, giving me direction and strength to do what is right and also rebuking me from time to time. Nowadays he is mediating on my behalf and saving me from despair, fear, fatalism and anger and is helping me to do the right follow him. Jesus has shown me in so many wonderful ways that he is my mediator. I have great hope, because Jesus my mediator.
God intended this saving grace to be a foundation upon which we build a life as a good minister of Christ Jesus. Paul is a good example. In 1:14 Paul remembered the saving grace of Jesus that was poured out on him abundantly. This grace became the foundation of his life. His relationship with Jesus grew, and he found God’s good work in him to do. He worked hard, bearing any and all difficulties, learning contentment and joy, all because of the grace of Jesus.
Jesus remains our intercessor and mediator throughout our life. Jesus promised his disciples, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:20b) Jesus was taken up in glory, and is at this moment at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us (Romans 8:34), with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:22) Jesus’ grace to me was not just a single event 25 years ago, but it is daily. He is my living mediator. He is mediating for me daily, 24/7. By his help I am building a life and ministry on this grace of God. As you all know, my mediator helped me to marry Julie back in 1992. He gave us five wonderful children. Together we are building a holy family and a house church ministry. He has called us to a 1:1 Bible and discipleship ministry at NIU in DeKalb. This is God’s grace and privilege given to us. With God’s help we can build on the foundation of God’s grace through Jesus my mediator and my hope. Sometimes the task gets hard. I get overwhelmed with the spiritual forces of darkness and my own sins. Elements of death, like sorrow, despair, fatalism and anger, fill my heart. I fall into ruts and loose hope that the work of God can be accomplished through me. I begin to feel that all I want to do is retreat, to hide, sitting in front of the computer, sleeping, walking the dog and working out as quiet little gym. I am reminded of how limited I am in so many ways. I dwell on my weaknesses. Yet I can testify to one enduring truth…Jesus has been so faithful and steady. He is a firm foundation in troubled times. I must always remember that my life is built on the solid foundation: God our Savior and Christ Jesus our Hope. Thank you Jesus!
Christ Jesus is our hope! He is our mediator. This is not only for our past, and not only for our present, but for our future as well. Someday, Jesus is coming again. (6:14) Because of his work of redemption Christ Jesus is now our hope, our hope for past sins forgiven, our hope for present victory, our hope for future glory. (D. Edmond Hiebert, First Timothy, p. 22). On his grace as our mediator and hope, he established a firm foundation that will never be shaken. This foundation is for our personal lives, our families, our ministries, our nation and the world. Upon this foundation of faith, let’s build a life as a good minister of Christ Jesus.
12/4/11 God Our Savior
Key verse: 1 Timothy 2:3-4 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 12-4-11
Inspired by a message delivered by @Jeremy Hajeck@
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
This afternoon I would like to talk about foundations, in particular, spiritual foundations. What does our spiritual foundations look like? Do you have a spiritual foundation? Did you know that the Bhurijkhalifa Tower in the UAE is the tallest building in the world? It cost over 1.5 billion dollars and took six year to build. Even more impressive are the 192 support piles, 1.5 meters by 43 meters, sunk 50 meters into the ground. The foundation holes took one month to dig and the foundation construction took another six months. There is another famous building in Italy called the leaning Tower of Pisa. It is only 56.7 meters tall, weighing only 16,000 tons, but it is crooked by 3.9 meters at the top. The reason is the tower has a poor foundation, only three meters deep. It is built on loose soil and so it cannot stand under its own weight.
In the same way Apostle Paul was combating the loose foundation of idol worship, heresies, and all kinds of false teachers in Ephesus. He wrote to Timothy knowing he was going to face the troubles as they grew to be a leaders and minister for church. How could Timothy possibly hope to survive spiritually and not topple over? How can we hope to survive spiritually in our own generation? What should be our spiritual foundation be based on? Obviously, God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope is the only sure and solid foundation fit to be the foundation of God’s household. And so, it is imperative for a good minister of Christ Jesus to know God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. Let’s learn more about these things.
Part l: God’s Awesome Nature
In the opening part of Chapter 1, Paul uniquely explained about God. To know God, Paul had to first explain who God is. And so he wrote in 1:17, “Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen!” He wanted to make sure that his readers had the correct view point of who God is. How is God portrayed in today’s society? Is God like the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel reaching out to Adam? Does he sound like Morgan freeman on “Bruce Almighty”? Or does it even matter what we think about God? Yes it does.
What does the Bible say? Let’s read 1:17 again, “Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen!” Look at the words used. Especially look at the depth of the words. “king…eternal…immortal…invisible…honor…glory…forever.” Let’s think about four of these powerful words. First, Paul calls the God, “the king eternal.” What is a king? A king is someone who rules with authority, power, majesty, and with total control over his subjects. God is not up for re-election in 2012.
Second, how long has he been king? He is King eternal. He is king for all eternity past and all eternity future. God is not limited to time and space like we are. Before the creation of anything material, there was God. He has no beginning and he has no end. He is eternal!
Third, Paul goes on to explain that God is immortal, which means, lives forever. Immortal means that there is no death in God. God lives forever and he is alive today! The Greek gods and the idols of Timothy’s day were all lost and destroyed by the passage of time. Some people have called our culture, “the culture of death”. We are surrounded by countless elements of death in movies and on television. But in God there is no death. He is immortal and the source of eternal life!
Fourth, Paul says that God is invisible. This is true. We are all worshipping here. But we know that Jesus is with us, here… now. How do you know? Do you see him? No. He is invisible. He is not like a stealth fighter jet or camouflage. No mortal eyes can see God while living in this world. But God does choose to reveal himself to those who humbly seek him. We can see God among us with the eyes of our hearts. We can feel his presence, but not always (never depend on a feeling in regards to your faith in God.) We can see the glory of God in the acts of love and faith of those around us. The Holy Spirit confirms God’s presence among us. Let us open the eyes of hearts today to behold the glory and majesty of the invisible God, for those who seek him early find him. (Proverb 9)
Paul ends his letter to Timothy in the same way he started. Look at chapter 6:15-16, “…God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” First, Paul describes “God the blessed and only Ruler?” A blessed Ruler is one who provides and is a source of comfort to his people. God is our sovereign ruler. He is the source of all of our comfort. He alone is splendid and glorious because he alone is immortal and the source of eternal life. God is called the only Ruler. God is the only one who can control history and is never shaken by the things that people are shaken by. God is like a deep ocean current unaffected by the surface squalls. God is the ruler of not only history, but also of all humanity, even down to our mind, body and soul. God is in control. Entrust the events of your life and your future to God, your Ruler.
God lives in unapproachable light. This is in reference to the holiness of God. Holiness means to separate, that is, to be set apart for God. At Mount Sinai, those who heard the voice of God begged that no further word be spoken to them. (Heb 12:19). When Isaiah the prophet saw the train of the robe of the Lord in the temple he said, “Woe to me!” “I am ruined!” (Isa 6:5) God lives in unapproachable light so that no one can approach him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lord, the great and glorious God. No other sovereign can hold a candle to our God.
Why did Paul write about God in this way? Timothy lived in Ephesus where there were many gods and many idols. Christians were surrounded by false religions and poor spiritual foundations. This description of God to Timothy was very clear and Paul’s description of God’s glory moves our own hearts! It is almost as if his words flow out in a joyful crescendo. Paul could speak about God like this because he had a personal encounter with the living God. When we encounter this God we too are changed. How can we not be? Paul was changed by God. If Paul had not been changed by God he could never have wrote this way and spoke this way… impossible! Let us make it our priority to meet the same God so that our lives may be changed and thus have the same solid foundation in understanding and beholding the nature of God as Paul did.
Part ll: God Our Creator And Provider
When we have a solid foundation in our understanding of the nature of God, we begin to see God working, creating and providing all good things. Look at 6;13a, “in the sight of God who gives life to everything…” There is no competing creation force in this universe, only our God and God chooses to use his almighty power to be our provider.
There were false teachers in Timothy’s time and false teachers today who try to overthrow the clear teachings of God and his provision. Look at 1 Timothy 4:3-4, “They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,” God provide everything good so that we can praise God and put our hope in God. Paul urges all believers to put their hope in this God. Look at 1 Timothy 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” In this last verse of 1 Timothy, Paul commands those who have hope in the riches of this world to have hope in the true living God who provides good things. We receive everything from God.
Knowing God the creator and our provider allows us to find the deep meaning of our lives. In 1721, at the age of 17, the American theologian, Jonathan Edwards, came to what he called a “delightful conviction” upon meditation on the meaning of 1 Timothy 1:17 which reads, “17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” He later remarked “…I thought myself, how excellent a being that was, how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God and be rat up to him in heaven; and be as it were swallowed up in him forever.” You can not be swallowed up to an idol. You can not be embraced by false religion . But the living God knows us and loves us and is working in our lives- he dwells among us.
Paul know this truth so well and he wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15, “ if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” If God is living then we Christians conduct our live before him. When we do, our lives will be in contrast to any idol that rules peoples’ hearts and lives in this world.
Part 111: God our Savior.
In Timothy’s time the church in Ephesus was surrounded by Artemis worshippers. There was a great temple built to her, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ephesus was also the center of Roman Emperor worship. Mystery religions abounded...religions that taught austerity and asceticism and mystery religions that taught indulgence and abundance. The City of Ephesus was also a center of political, financial and military power. All these things were competing for the hearts of the Christians in Ephesus. Paul needed Timothy to know God as our only Savior so that Timothy could lead the people to the only God who could save their souls.
These false religions were out to destroy people and catch them in behaviors that God did not command. The Caesars rose and fell. Mystery religions came in and out of favor. Even the God Artemis’ image fell from the sky one day and she became the God of Ephesus at some point in time. Now she is no more. In opposition to all this Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:10, “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.”
The living God is truly great! God’s ultimate purpose here is to make known that he wants all people to be saved. When we recognize this fact we cannot but praise God for his greatness. Paul mentioned this in the opening verse in his letter. 1 Timothy 1:1 reads, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,” This is not a new concept. The word, “Savior” emphasizes that God wants to save his people. God’s saving nature is revealed throughout the scripture. According to the Old Testament, God is called “our Savior” 35 times and in the New Testament God is called “our Savior” 24 times.
This is God’s heart’s desire for all people. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 reads, “for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” And 2 Peter 3:9 reads, “9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Paul wrote with a sense of problem that people ultimately needed a Savior. It is reported that as William Carrey taught young pupils geography at the village school sometimes he would come to tears when pointing to continents where the gospel had not been preached. Isaiah 43:11 reads, “1 I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.”
Without a foundation that God is our Savior we will get lost in the religious ideas and worldly philosophies of our day. The Bible says that though mankind is a noble creature, created in the image of God, mankind is also sinful and prone to evil. We are in a desperate need of a Savior. Who can save us? God alone is our Savior. What happens without God our Savior? Many a person tries to invent their own way to God based on their own achievements or ideas. But the person who does not know God, can not but suffer and perish in their sins and eventually be eternally cut off from God. (Some refer to this as hell.) That sounds harsh. But it is what the Bible says. God wants good ministers of Christ Jesus to know his true character and to hold firmly to these deep truths of the faith. Knowing the fundamental truths about God lays a basic foundation for Christian life and ministry. Without knowing these fundamental truths, it is easy to stray into false doctrines.
Where are your foundations built? As a young man my foundation was solely built on my own ability and desire to fulfill my own pleasures. I could not have chosen a worse foundation. This led me to live a fruitless and meaningless life cut off from God because of my sin. As a young Christian and even until now, my foundation was based on my own self righteousness and good deeds. How foolish that I thought that I could make my own good foundation without depending on God my Savior!
God has provided me with a wonderful family, a good church and a mission to serve NIU and the young people of DeKalb with the Gospel. God gave me the most spiritual and beautiful wife, Julie, to serve his ministry with. But yet, the immortal and only Ruler, Jesus, revealed my weak foundation. Why did he do this? Because God wants me to know that he alone is my Savior and my only solid and sure foundation of the truth.
Today we learned about foundations. We need to have a firm and solid foundation in God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. We learned about God’s awesome nature. Our God is eternal. He is invisible and lives in unapproachable light. But yet he makes himself accessible to us, through his grace and forgiveness…through the gospel. God is our creator and provider. Think about what he has provided for us…a church, family, ministry and way to be saved. He gave us a savior, Jesus, whom we are worshipping this Christmas. Though God is extremely holy, and lives in unapproachable light, we can approach him through faith and by his grace. When we approach our God by faith his glorious light shines on our hearts and drives out the darkness. Jesus is the light of the world. In this world, there are many false saviors, but Jesus is our only savior. He saves completely those who come to him repenting of their sins and placing all of their hope and trust in him. Only God can save us. Only God can be our hope to come out of the darkness and live in the kingdom of God. We can meet this great and awesome God of ours through having a personal life experience with God. Will you let Jesus our great and awesome God and savior, be your God today? Come to him in faith. Walk in his light. Trust his love and provision. Depend on his power. Share in his heart that all people of all nations, may repent and come to the knowledge of salvation and be saved.
I
Key verse: 1 Timothy 2:3-4 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 12-4-11
Inspired by a message delivered by @Jeremy Hajeck@
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
This afternoon I would like to talk about foundations, in particular, spiritual foundations. What does our spiritual foundations look like? Do you have a spiritual foundation? Did you know that the Bhurijkhalifa Tower in the UAE is the tallest building in the world? It cost over 1.5 billion dollars and took six year to build. Even more impressive are the 192 support piles, 1.5 meters by 43 meters, sunk 50 meters into the ground. The foundation holes took one month to dig and the foundation construction took another six months. There is another famous building in Italy called the leaning Tower of Pisa. It is only 56.7 meters tall, weighing only 16,000 tons, but it is crooked by 3.9 meters at the top. The reason is the tower has a poor foundation, only three meters deep. It is built on loose soil and so it cannot stand under its own weight.
In the same way Apostle Paul was combating the loose foundation of idol worship, heresies, and all kinds of false teachers in Ephesus. He wrote to Timothy knowing he was going to face the troubles as they grew to be a leaders and minister for church. How could Timothy possibly hope to survive spiritually and not topple over? How can we hope to survive spiritually in our own generation? What should be our spiritual foundation be based on? Obviously, God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope is the only sure and solid foundation fit to be the foundation of God’s household. And so, it is imperative for a good minister of Christ Jesus to know God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. Let’s learn more about these things.
Part l: God’s Awesome Nature
In the opening part of Chapter 1, Paul uniquely explained about God. To know God, Paul had to first explain who God is. And so he wrote in 1:17, “Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen!” He wanted to make sure that his readers had the correct view point of who God is. How is God portrayed in today’s society? Is God like the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel reaching out to Adam? Does he sound like Morgan freeman on “Bruce Almighty”? Or does it even matter what we think about God? Yes it does.
What does the Bible say? Let’s read 1:17 again, “Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen!” Look at the words used. Especially look at the depth of the words. “king…eternal…immortal…invisible…honor…glory…forever.” Let’s think about four of these powerful words. First, Paul calls the God, “the king eternal.” What is a king? A king is someone who rules with authority, power, majesty, and with total control over his subjects. God is not up for re-election in 2012.
Second, how long has he been king? He is King eternal. He is king for all eternity past and all eternity future. God is not limited to time and space like we are. Before the creation of anything material, there was God. He has no beginning and he has no end. He is eternal!
Third, Paul goes on to explain that God is immortal, which means, lives forever. Immortal means that there is no death in God. God lives forever and he is alive today! The Greek gods and the idols of Timothy’s day were all lost and destroyed by the passage of time. Some people have called our culture, “the culture of death”. We are surrounded by countless elements of death in movies and on television. But in God there is no death. He is immortal and the source of eternal life!
Fourth, Paul says that God is invisible. This is true. We are all worshipping here. But we know that Jesus is with us, here… now. How do you know? Do you see him? No. He is invisible. He is not like a stealth fighter jet or camouflage. No mortal eyes can see God while living in this world. But God does choose to reveal himself to those who humbly seek him. We can see God among us with the eyes of our hearts. We can feel his presence, but not always (never depend on a feeling in regards to your faith in God.) We can see the glory of God in the acts of love and faith of those around us. The Holy Spirit confirms God’s presence among us. Let us open the eyes of hearts today to behold the glory and majesty of the invisible God, for those who seek him early find him. (Proverb 9)
Paul ends his letter to Timothy in the same way he started. Look at chapter 6:15-16, “…God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” First, Paul describes “God the blessed and only Ruler?” A blessed Ruler is one who provides and is a source of comfort to his people. God is our sovereign ruler. He is the source of all of our comfort. He alone is splendid and glorious because he alone is immortal and the source of eternal life. God is called the only Ruler. God is the only one who can control history and is never shaken by the things that people are shaken by. God is like a deep ocean current unaffected by the surface squalls. God is the ruler of not only history, but also of all humanity, even down to our mind, body and soul. God is in control. Entrust the events of your life and your future to God, your Ruler.
God lives in unapproachable light. This is in reference to the holiness of God. Holiness means to separate, that is, to be set apart for God. At Mount Sinai, those who heard the voice of God begged that no further word be spoken to them. (Heb 12:19). When Isaiah the prophet saw the train of the robe of the Lord in the temple he said, “Woe to me!” “I am ruined!” (Isa 6:5) God lives in unapproachable light so that no one can approach him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lord, the great and glorious God. No other sovereign can hold a candle to our God.
Why did Paul write about God in this way? Timothy lived in Ephesus where there were many gods and many idols. Christians were surrounded by false religions and poor spiritual foundations. This description of God to Timothy was very clear and Paul’s description of God’s glory moves our own hearts! It is almost as if his words flow out in a joyful crescendo. Paul could speak about God like this because he had a personal encounter with the living God. When we encounter this God we too are changed. How can we not be? Paul was changed by God. If Paul had not been changed by God he could never have wrote this way and spoke this way… impossible! Let us make it our priority to meet the same God so that our lives may be changed and thus have the same solid foundation in understanding and beholding the nature of God as Paul did.
Part ll: God Our Creator And Provider
When we have a solid foundation in our understanding of the nature of God, we begin to see God working, creating and providing all good things. Look at 6;13a, “in the sight of God who gives life to everything…” There is no competing creation force in this universe, only our God and God chooses to use his almighty power to be our provider.
There were false teachers in Timothy’s time and false teachers today who try to overthrow the clear teachings of God and his provision. Look at 1 Timothy 4:3-4, “They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,” God provide everything good so that we can praise God and put our hope in God. Paul urges all believers to put their hope in this God. Look at 1 Timothy 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” In this last verse of 1 Timothy, Paul commands those who have hope in the riches of this world to have hope in the true living God who provides good things. We receive everything from God.
Knowing God the creator and our provider allows us to find the deep meaning of our lives. In 1721, at the age of 17, the American theologian, Jonathan Edwards, came to what he called a “delightful conviction” upon meditation on the meaning of 1 Timothy 1:17 which reads, “17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” He later remarked “…I thought myself, how excellent a being that was, how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God and be rat up to him in heaven; and be as it were swallowed up in him forever.” You can not be swallowed up to an idol. You can not be embraced by false religion . But the living God knows us and loves us and is working in our lives- he dwells among us.
Paul know this truth so well and he wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15, “ if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” If God is living then we Christians conduct our live before him. When we do, our lives will be in contrast to any idol that rules peoples’ hearts and lives in this world.
Part 111: God our Savior.
In Timothy’s time the church in Ephesus was surrounded by Artemis worshippers. There was a great temple built to her, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ephesus was also the center of Roman Emperor worship. Mystery religions abounded...religions that taught austerity and asceticism and mystery religions that taught indulgence and abundance. The City of Ephesus was also a center of political, financial and military power. All these things were competing for the hearts of the Christians in Ephesus. Paul needed Timothy to know God as our only Savior so that Timothy could lead the people to the only God who could save their souls.
These false religions were out to destroy people and catch them in behaviors that God did not command. The Caesars rose and fell. Mystery religions came in and out of favor. Even the God Artemis’ image fell from the sky one day and she became the God of Ephesus at some point in time. Now she is no more. In opposition to all this Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:10, “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.”
The living God is truly great! God’s ultimate purpose here is to make known that he wants all people to be saved. When we recognize this fact we cannot but praise God for his greatness. Paul mentioned this in the opening verse in his letter. 1 Timothy 1:1 reads, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,” This is not a new concept. The word, “Savior” emphasizes that God wants to save his people. God’s saving nature is revealed throughout the scripture. According to the Old Testament, God is called “our Savior” 35 times and in the New Testament God is called “our Savior” 24 times.
This is God’s heart’s desire for all people. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 reads, “for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” And 2 Peter 3:9 reads, “9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Paul wrote with a sense of problem that people ultimately needed a Savior. It is reported that as William Carrey taught young pupils geography at the village school sometimes he would come to tears when pointing to continents where the gospel had not been preached. Isaiah 43:11 reads, “1 I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.”
Without a foundation that God is our Savior we will get lost in the religious ideas and worldly philosophies of our day. The Bible says that though mankind is a noble creature, created in the image of God, mankind is also sinful and prone to evil. We are in a desperate need of a Savior. Who can save us? God alone is our Savior. What happens without God our Savior? Many a person tries to invent their own way to God based on their own achievements or ideas. But the person who does not know God, can not but suffer and perish in their sins and eventually be eternally cut off from God. (Some refer to this as hell.) That sounds harsh. But it is what the Bible says. God wants good ministers of Christ Jesus to know his true character and to hold firmly to these deep truths of the faith. Knowing the fundamental truths about God lays a basic foundation for Christian life and ministry. Without knowing these fundamental truths, it is easy to stray into false doctrines.
Where are your foundations built? As a young man my foundation was solely built on my own ability and desire to fulfill my own pleasures. I could not have chosen a worse foundation. This led me to live a fruitless and meaningless life cut off from God because of my sin. As a young Christian and even until now, my foundation was based on my own self righteousness and good deeds. How foolish that I thought that I could make my own good foundation without depending on God my Savior!
God has provided me with a wonderful family, a good church and a mission to serve NIU and the young people of DeKalb with the Gospel. God gave me the most spiritual and beautiful wife, Julie, to serve his ministry with. But yet, the immortal and only Ruler, Jesus, revealed my weak foundation. Why did he do this? Because God wants me to know that he alone is my Savior and my only solid and sure foundation of the truth.
Today we learned about foundations. We need to have a firm and solid foundation in God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. We learned about God’s awesome nature. Our God is eternal. He is invisible and lives in unapproachable light. But yet he makes himself accessible to us, through his grace and forgiveness…through the gospel. God is our creator and provider. Think about what he has provided for us…a church, family, ministry and way to be saved. He gave us a savior, Jesus, whom we are worshipping this Christmas. Though God is extremely holy, and lives in unapproachable light, we can approach him through faith and by his grace. When we approach our God by faith his glorious light shines on our hearts and drives out the darkness. Jesus is the light of the world. In this world, there are many false saviors, but Jesus is our only savior. He saves completely those who come to him repenting of their sins and placing all of their hope and trust in him. Only God can save us. Only God can be our hope to come out of the darkness and live in the kingdom of God. We can meet this great and awesome God of ours through having a personal life experience with God. Will you let Jesus our great and awesome God and savior, be your God today? Come to him in faith. Walk in his light. Trust his love and provision. Depend on his power. Share in his heart that all people of all nations, may repent and come to the knowledge of salvation and be saved.
I
HOW TO GROW AS A GOOD MINISTER OF CHRIST JESUS
Part ll: Training Ourselves To Be Godly
1 Timothy 4:6–16; 6:11–12 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 11-13-11
Key Verses: 4:7b–8 Adapted from @Josh Jeon@’s message delivered at Leadership Workshop
“…rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life an d the life to come.”
In this message, we are going to continue talking about “How to grow as a minister of Christ Jesus.” We’re not talking about growing in some skill, like public speaking skills or growing in a likeable personality. These are not the core of being a minister of Christ Jesus. If we are going to grow as a minister of Christ Jesus we have to grow in godliness. Through a study of this passage may God help us to decide to train ourselves to be godly.
Part l: Godliness has Great Value And Requires Training (4:6-9)
What does it mean to be godly? Look at verses 6-7. “If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather train yourself to be godly.” In these verses Paul urges Timothy to nourish himself on the gospel truth and with these teachings, train himself to be godly. To be godly is to be aware of the living God and to be like God. This is our calling and one of our purposes in Jesus. Ephesians 4:24 reads, “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Jesus saved us from our sins and set us on this course to a new life. Our direction in life is now is to become more and more like God. This new course that we have been set on is given to us through the deep grace of Jesus. Our sins were making us so spiritually ugly. On the outside we may have seemed OK. But on the inside we were drifting further and further from the image of God as sin took a firmer grip on us. But, by the grace of Jesus we were saved. We have salvation from condemnation, that is, the forgiveness of our sins and the hope of transformation. We are made righteous only because of the pure gift of God.
But after we are saved, then what? How should we live our lives? God wants us to grow in godliness. That’s why Paul says in verse 4:7, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” But how do we begin to train ourselves? In order to understand this, we must understand the fact that it is not we, who are taking the lead role in training ourselves, but it due to the moving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sifts things out, convicts us, leads us to repentance, heals us and gives us power to change in meaningful ways. Training ourselves to be godly then, is basically providing an environment for the work of the Holy Spirit and obeying the spirit’s leading. Philippians 2 describes this well, “Continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
There is a difference between physical training and training in godliness. We can learn from both. Look at verse 8, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Physical training shapes our bodies but training in godliness shapes our minds, our hearts, our character and our lives. It affects our relationships, our influence, and our ministry. It has value for all things. When we engage in physical training, then we may prosper in physical things and other things like teamwork and mental focus etc. In Augustine’s basketball brochure, it says that basketball training will mold a person in how he sees himself, how he feels about what he does, how he works with others, how he makes others better and how he learns. They sum it up in five words, “humility, passion, unity, servant hood, and thankfulness.” They encourage the boys to play hard and compete, get back on defense, go for the rebound, defend against the opponent, and value the ball. Wow! Such wisdom! And it is not even in the Bible. These are good goals of physical training. But they have their limits.
We see the limitations of physical training in a recent biography of Walter Payton. Walter Payton was one of the best football players that ever played the game. His physical training made him like a human train on the field. But his biography showed that he his life was full of chaos and pain. He was suicidal. He abused drugs. He was unfaithful to his wife. Prior to meeting Jesus I trained in taekwondo, jogged and did light weights. These were all good, but they could not save me from the spiral of sin that I was plunging into. High school varsity sports can not save its players from falling into sin. Physical training only has some value. But godliness has value for all things. It is the secret to deep joy and real peace. It holds the promise to for both the present life and the life to come. So how should we train for godliness?
Part ll: Godliness Is Hoping In The Living God (10)
Part of training in godliness is training our hopes. Look at verse 10, “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” To train ourselves in godliness we must hope in the living God. Those who put their hope in the living God will become godly. David was a good example of this. In one of his psalms, he wrote, “4 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Ps 19:4) Why did David want to please God so much? It is because he put his hope in the living God. God was his Rock and his Redeemer. God was his security and his satisfaction. To David, God was better than life itself. (Ps 63:3) David wanted God more than anything. When we put our hope in God then we can train ourselves to be godly.
We must cultivate our hope in the living God. As growing minister of Jesus, we often find ourselves in situations where we feel hopeless. Some people are tempted to give up hope and turn back to the world and are laden with interpersonal problems. The only thing that keeps us going is our hope in the living God. Our hope is not in other peoples’ growth, but in God. We serve God trusting that he will complete the good work that he began in them. We can’t change others. We can’t even change ourselves that much. But our hope is in the living God. We do not need to despair. The living God is at work and we can have strength to continue to grow in godliness.
Part lll: Godliness Is Pursuing Love And Purity (11-12)
Godliness, love and purity go hand and hand. Look at verses 11-12, “Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Timothy had to teach about godly living to the members of his congregation. But his words would have no power if his own life didn’t exemplify godliness. Being a good minister is not about saying the right things. Ministry is an extension of our lives. There can be no ministry without personal godliness. That is why Paul told Timothy to be exemplary in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Among these, let’s think about just two: love and purity.
First, “set an example for the believers… in love.” Being a minister of Christ Jesus necessarily means we have to love God’s flock. It is not enough to plug people into various programs. We have to genuinely love them. Those who only value outward productivity will have a hard time with this. Loving one person is not easy. The more we get to know people the more we see weaknesses. But when we grow in God’s love for them we are ready to embrace them, despite of their sins, and walk alongside them until Jesus heals their hearts, minds and souls. This requires growing in the unconditional love of God that was given to us. We must grow in this love.
We are living in a very impersonal world. We don’t know our neighbors and our relations with others are shallow, sometimes only being friends on Facebook. Being impersonal is a huge deterrent of godly love for it is rooted in selfishness and indifference. We have to eradicate impersonality and instead relate to each person that we minister to as a real person. In the same way that God is relating to us we must relate to others. People are not numbers or objects. They are children of God. They are not people we need to fit into our schedule. We must truly love them.
When we strive to love people and not let impersonal encounters suffice, then we will quickly run into walls. We will face our limitations, realize our impure motives, and discover our own insecurities. There are some people who have opened their hearts to love others, but they have been hurt and crushed. They are tempted to never open their hearts again. When we face such walls, we need to repent and ask God to help us grow in godliness. Then we can train ourselves by struggling to genuinely love others. Let’s be growing ministers of Christ Jesus who a have heart to love people.
Second, “set an example for the believers… in purity.” As growing ministers, purity is an important matter. If we loose purity and become hypocrites, our witness will suffer. This is one of the greatest pitfalls in ministry. We are all surrounded by sins and temptations. There are people close to us who are caught in various sins. Paul councils minister of the gospel in Galatians 6:1, “ Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” We need to be humble and know that we are not beyond succumbing to temptation. This means that we have to learn our boundaries. 1 Timothy 5;1-2 reads, “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” We have to be aware of Satan coming into the relationships in the church and perverting it. Billy Graham left no room for this by never counseling women alone. Jesus has some harsh words towards ministers of Jesus who let impurity take control of their hearts. He commanded us in Matthew 5:29-30, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Does that mean that we should be a congregation of self inflicted blind people and amputees? No! It just means that we must get serious about the purity factor among us and pursue purity.
We must pursue purity aggressively. That is what the meaning of pursue is. If we are passive in this respect we will be swallowed up by the flood of impure images, messages, and innuendos in our media. Pornography is a click away. Most movies have raunchy scenes. We can’t even walk up to the cashier at Wal-Mart without being barraged by impure images. Adultery is being considered the norm in many circles. In such an environment, we must be aggressive and pursue purity. We must turn our eyes away from temptation as soon as possible. We must train our minds to see things from God’s point of view. We have to train our hearts to not be shaken by the allure of temptations, but see them for the empty promises that they are. We need to be brutally honest about this issue. Do we secretly love sin? Or do we seek purity? Come to Jesus, repent of all sin and God will restore in us the proper desire for purity. Galatians 5:16 reads, “ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” We must be dead to sin and alive unto God. (Rom 6:11) Let us be dead to sin and alive unto God and surrender to the Holy Spirit.
Part lV: Training In Godliness Is Being Grounded In The Word Of God. (13-15)
Another aspect of growing as good minister of Christ Jesus is to be grounded in the word of God. Verses 4:13-15 read, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” Paul charged Timothy to devote himself to the public reading, preaching and teaching of the Bible. Paul told him to be diligent in these matters and give himself wholly them. God’s word is the source of knowing what “godly” is and how to train ourselves to be godly. We can’t have a loose tie to God’s word, or try to go on vague memory of God’s word and think that we can pursue godliness. To train ourselves to be godly, we must be constantly in the word- whether through personal study, meditating on it, reflecting on it, or teaching it. How intensely should we do this? Intense enough so that others may see our progress. There should be no ambiguity about it. And so, to train ourselves to be godly, we must never be far from God’s word.
Part V: Godliness Requires Watching Our Lives And Doctrine Closely (16)
Paul told Timothy to watch his spiritual life closely. Let’s read verse 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Watching his life closely is harder to do than it seems. It’s hard because human beings are basically proud. We want to believe that we are already the definition and standard of godliness. We want to be right, whether or not we really are right. So we subconsciously do not watch our lives very closely. We may not even think there is a need to. And so we don’t. This is a mistake. Therefore, to watch our lives closely, we have to learn to be totally honest before the word of God.
We should know that the gospel really provides the freedom to be honest as we watch our lives closely. Instead of putting up a front, we can come to God as we are and be totally honest, saying, “I am messed up.” Don’t feel bad about this because we are only repeating what God already knows. When we come to God as we are, we’ll find God’s sufficient grace for acceptance and for the power to actually change and grow. So we can watch our lives closely without fear. And also, as ministers of Christ Jesus our transparency can be a potent tool to motivate others. Instead of propping ourselves up as models of perfection, share your honest struggles, weaknesses and all, and let the people around see you coming to Jesus and growing spiritually as you watch your life closely. It is much more valuable to all, and glorifies Jesus more, if we set ourselves up as examples of repentance and spiritual progress.
We must also watch our doctrine closely. That means that we need to make sure what we believe and make sure that what we believe is in line with the truth of the gospel. The fact is that most of the time we convince ourselves that we are already believing the right stuff. But if we are to be growing ministers of Jesus, we must know how weak we are and how vulnerable and impressionable we are to the allure of the culture around us. We must watch our doctrine closely or we will be like Timothy’s contemporaries who wandered away from sound doctrine and shipwrecked their faith. If we are not careful, the lies of the culture will change correct Christian doctrine. Verse 4:16 reveals how important watching our life and doctrine is. “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” We have the solemn responsibility to give God’s true word, as it is, to the people who are listening to the gospel message from us. We don’t want to lead others astray by our hypocrisy or our false doctrine. And so we must train ourselves to be grounded in the truth. This is growing watching our doctrine closely and this is part of growing in godliness.
Part Vl: Godliness Is Fleeing From The Love Of Money (6:10-11)
In the pursuit of godliness, we must be wary of the love of money. Paul warns us about this in 1 Timothy 6:10-11, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” How do we flee the love of money? First of all, we have to value godliness more than money. This may seem easy, of course, until we see all of our unbelieving friends and peers getting rich. But we must not envy them, nor covet what they have. 1 Timothy 6:6 says that godliness with contentment is great gain. Money is not worth our lives and our love. It is not worth compromising our relationship with God. It’s OK to earn a living so that you can provide for your own needs and the needs of others and take care of your church. But if you are too busy pursuing money then that is not good. Remember this saying, “If you are too busy for Jesus then you are just too busy.” That is the barometer. May we flee from the love of money and train our selves to be godly.
Today, we have thought about what it means to grow as a minister of Christ Jesus by training ourselves to be godly. Godliness has great value and requires training; it is hoping in the living God; it is pursuing love and purity; it is being grounded in the word of God; it requires watching our lives and doctrine closely and it is fleeing from the love of money. In short, our thought world must be under Christ’s control. Training in godliness requires effort, just as physical training requires effort and discipline but godliness has value now and forever. It can be accomplished by remaining in Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. Let’s decide to grow as good ministers of Christ Jesus by training ourselves to be godly.
Part ll: Training Ourselves To Be Godly
1 Timothy 4:6–16; 6:11–12 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 11-13-11
Key Verses: 4:7b–8 Adapted from @Josh Jeon@’s message delivered at Leadership Workshop
“…rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life an d the life to come.”
In this message, we are going to continue talking about “How to grow as a minister of Christ Jesus.” We’re not talking about growing in some skill, like public speaking skills or growing in a likeable personality. These are not the core of being a minister of Christ Jesus. If we are going to grow as a minister of Christ Jesus we have to grow in godliness. Through a study of this passage may God help us to decide to train ourselves to be godly.
Part l: Godliness has Great Value And Requires Training (4:6-9)
What does it mean to be godly? Look at verses 6-7. “If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather train yourself to be godly.” In these verses Paul urges Timothy to nourish himself on the gospel truth and with these teachings, train himself to be godly. To be godly is to be aware of the living God and to be like God. This is our calling and one of our purposes in Jesus. Ephesians 4:24 reads, “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Jesus saved us from our sins and set us on this course to a new life. Our direction in life is now is to become more and more like God. This new course that we have been set on is given to us through the deep grace of Jesus. Our sins were making us so spiritually ugly. On the outside we may have seemed OK. But on the inside we were drifting further and further from the image of God as sin took a firmer grip on us. But, by the grace of Jesus we were saved. We have salvation from condemnation, that is, the forgiveness of our sins and the hope of transformation. We are made righteous only because of the pure gift of God.
But after we are saved, then what? How should we live our lives? God wants us to grow in godliness. That’s why Paul says in verse 4:7, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” But how do we begin to train ourselves? In order to understand this, we must understand the fact that it is not we, who are taking the lead role in training ourselves, but it due to the moving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sifts things out, convicts us, leads us to repentance, heals us and gives us power to change in meaningful ways. Training ourselves to be godly then, is basically providing an environment for the work of the Holy Spirit and obeying the spirit’s leading. Philippians 2 describes this well, “Continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
There is a difference between physical training and training in godliness. We can learn from both. Look at verse 8, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Physical training shapes our bodies but training in godliness shapes our minds, our hearts, our character and our lives. It affects our relationships, our influence, and our ministry. It has value for all things. When we engage in physical training, then we may prosper in physical things and other things like teamwork and mental focus etc. In Augustine’s basketball brochure, it says that basketball training will mold a person in how he sees himself, how he feels about what he does, how he works with others, how he makes others better and how he learns. They sum it up in five words, “humility, passion, unity, servant hood, and thankfulness.” They encourage the boys to play hard and compete, get back on defense, go for the rebound, defend against the opponent, and value the ball. Wow! Such wisdom! And it is not even in the Bible. These are good goals of physical training. But they have their limits.
We see the limitations of physical training in a recent biography of Walter Payton. Walter Payton was one of the best football players that ever played the game. His physical training made him like a human train on the field. But his biography showed that he his life was full of chaos and pain. He was suicidal. He abused drugs. He was unfaithful to his wife. Prior to meeting Jesus I trained in taekwondo, jogged and did light weights. These were all good, but they could not save me from the spiral of sin that I was plunging into. High school varsity sports can not save its players from falling into sin. Physical training only has some value. But godliness has value for all things. It is the secret to deep joy and real peace. It holds the promise to for both the present life and the life to come. So how should we train for godliness?
Part ll: Godliness Is Hoping In The Living God (10)
Part of training in godliness is training our hopes. Look at verse 10, “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” To train ourselves in godliness we must hope in the living God. Those who put their hope in the living God will become godly. David was a good example of this. In one of his psalms, he wrote, “4 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Ps 19:4) Why did David want to please God so much? It is because he put his hope in the living God. God was his Rock and his Redeemer. God was his security and his satisfaction. To David, God was better than life itself. (Ps 63:3) David wanted God more than anything. When we put our hope in God then we can train ourselves to be godly.
We must cultivate our hope in the living God. As growing minister of Jesus, we often find ourselves in situations where we feel hopeless. Some people are tempted to give up hope and turn back to the world and are laden with interpersonal problems. The only thing that keeps us going is our hope in the living God. Our hope is not in other peoples’ growth, but in God. We serve God trusting that he will complete the good work that he began in them. We can’t change others. We can’t even change ourselves that much. But our hope is in the living God. We do not need to despair. The living God is at work and we can have strength to continue to grow in godliness.
Part lll: Godliness Is Pursuing Love And Purity (11-12)
Godliness, love and purity go hand and hand. Look at verses 11-12, “Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Timothy had to teach about godly living to the members of his congregation. But his words would have no power if his own life didn’t exemplify godliness. Being a good minister is not about saying the right things. Ministry is an extension of our lives. There can be no ministry without personal godliness. That is why Paul told Timothy to be exemplary in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Among these, let’s think about just two: love and purity.
First, “set an example for the believers… in love.” Being a minister of Christ Jesus necessarily means we have to love God’s flock. It is not enough to plug people into various programs. We have to genuinely love them. Those who only value outward productivity will have a hard time with this. Loving one person is not easy. The more we get to know people the more we see weaknesses. But when we grow in God’s love for them we are ready to embrace them, despite of their sins, and walk alongside them until Jesus heals their hearts, minds and souls. This requires growing in the unconditional love of God that was given to us. We must grow in this love.
We are living in a very impersonal world. We don’t know our neighbors and our relations with others are shallow, sometimes only being friends on Facebook. Being impersonal is a huge deterrent of godly love for it is rooted in selfishness and indifference. We have to eradicate impersonality and instead relate to each person that we minister to as a real person. In the same way that God is relating to us we must relate to others. People are not numbers or objects. They are children of God. They are not people we need to fit into our schedule. We must truly love them.
When we strive to love people and not let impersonal encounters suffice, then we will quickly run into walls. We will face our limitations, realize our impure motives, and discover our own insecurities. There are some people who have opened their hearts to love others, but they have been hurt and crushed. They are tempted to never open their hearts again. When we face such walls, we need to repent and ask God to help us grow in godliness. Then we can train ourselves by struggling to genuinely love others. Let’s be growing ministers of Christ Jesus who a have heart to love people.
Second, “set an example for the believers… in purity.” As growing ministers, purity is an important matter. If we loose purity and become hypocrites, our witness will suffer. This is one of the greatest pitfalls in ministry. We are all surrounded by sins and temptations. There are people close to us who are caught in various sins. Paul councils minister of the gospel in Galatians 6:1, “ Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” We need to be humble and know that we are not beyond succumbing to temptation. This means that we have to learn our boundaries. 1 Timothy 5;1-2 reads, “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” We have to be aware of Satan coming into the relationships in the church and perverting it. Billy Graham left no room for this by never counseling women alone. Jesus has some harsh words towards ministers of Jesus who let impurity take control of their hearts. He commanded us in Matthew 5:29-30, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Does that mean that we should be a congregation of self inflicted blind people and amputees? No! It just means that we must get serious about the purity factor among us and pursue purity.
We must pursue purity aggressively. That is what the meaning of pursue is. If we are passive in this respect we will be swallowed up by the flood of impure images, messages, and innuendos in our media. Pornography is a click away. Most movies have raunchy scenes. We can’t even walk up to the cashier at Wal-Mart without being barraged by impure images. Adultery is being considered the norm in many circles. In such an environment, we must be aggressive and pursue purity. We must turn our eyes away from temptation as soon as possible. We must train our minds to see things from God’s point of view. We have to train our hearts to not be shaken by the allure of temptations, but see them for the empty promises that they are. We need to be brutally honest about this issue. Do we secretly love sin? Or do we seek purity? Come to Jesus, repent of all sin and God will restore in us the proper desire for purity. Galatians 5:16 reads, “ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” We must be dead to sin and alive unto God. (Rom 6:11) Let us be dead to sin and alive unto God and surrender to the Holy Spirit.
Part lV: Training In Godliness Is Being Grounded In The Word Of God. (13-15)
Another aspect of growing as good minister of Christ Jesus is to be grounded in the word of God. Verses 4:13-15 read, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” Paul charged Timothy to devote himself to the public reading, preaching and teaching of the Bible. Paul told him to be diligent in these matters and give himself wholly them. God’s word is the source of knowing what “godly” is and how to train ourselves to be godly. We can’t have a loose tie to God’s word, or try to go on vague memory of God’s word and think that we can pursue godliness. To train ourselves to be godly, we must be constantly in the word- whether through personal study, meditating on it, reflecting on it, or teaching it. How intensely should we do this? Intense enough so that others may see our progress. There should be no ambiguity about it. And so, to train ourselves to be godly, we must never be far from God’s word.
Part V: Godliness Requires Watching Our Lives And Doctrine Closely (16)
Paul told Timothy to watch his spiritual life closely. Let’s read verse 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Watching his life closely is harder to do than it seems. It’s hard because human beings are basically proud. We want to believe that we are already the definition and standard of godliness. We want to be right, whether or not we really are right. So we subconsciously do not watch our lives very closely. We may not even think there is a need to. And so we don’t. This is a mistake. Therefore, to watch our lives closely, we have to learn to be totally honest before the word of God.
We should know that the gospel really provides the freedom to be honest as we watch our lives closely. Instead of putting up a front, we can come to God as we are and be totally honest, saying, “I am messed up.” Don’t feel bad about this because we are only repeating what God already knows. When we come to God as we are, we’ll find God’s sufficient grace for acceptance and for the power to actually change and grow. So we can watch our lives closely without fear. And also, as ministers of Christ Jesus our transparency can be a potent tool to motivate others. Instead of propping ourselves up as models of perfection, share your honest struggles, weaknesses and all, and let the people around see you coming to Jesus and growing spiritually as you watch your life closely. It is much more valuable to all, and glorifies Jesus more, if we set ourselves up as examples of repentance and spiritual progress.
We must also watch our doctrine closely. That means that we need to make sure what we believe and make sure that what we believe is in line with the truth of the gospel. The fact is that most of the time we convince ourselves that we are already believing the right stuff. But if we are to be growing ministers of Jesus, we must know how weak we are and how vulnerable and impressionable we are to the allure of the culture around us. We must watch our doctrine closely or we will be like Timothy’s contemporaries who wandered away from sound doctrine and shipwrecked their faith. If we are not careful, the lies of the culture will change correct Christian doctrine. Verse 4:16 reveals how important watching our life and doctrine is. “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” We have the solemn responsibility to give God’s true word, as it is, to the people who are listening to the gospel message from us. We don’t want to lead others astray by our hypocrisy or our false doctrine. And so we must train ourselves to be grounded in the truth. This is growing watching our doctrine closely and this is part of growing in godliness.
Part Vl: Godliness Is Fleeing From The Love Of Money (6:10-11)
In the pursuit of godliness, we must be wary of the love of money. Paul warns us about this in 1 Timothy 6:10-11, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” How do we flee the love of money? First of all, we have to value godliness more than money. This may seem easy, of course, until we see all of our unbelieving friends and peers getting rich. But we must not envy them, nor covet what they have. 1 Timothy 6:6 says that godliness with contentment is great gain. Money is not worth our lives and our love. It is not worth compromising our relationship with God. It’s OK to earn a living so that you can provide for your own needs and the needs of others and take care of your church. But if you are too busy pursuing money then that is not good. Remember this saying, “If you are too busy for Jesus then you are just too busy.” That is the barometer. May we flee from the love of money and train our selves to be godly.
Today, we have thought about what it means to grow as a minister of Christ Jesus by training ourselves to be godly. Godliness has great value and requires training; it is hoping in the living God; it is pursuing love and purity; it is being grounded in the word of God; it requires watching our lives and doctrine closely and it is fleeing from the love of money. In short, our thought world must be under Christ’s control. Training in godliness requires effort, just as physical training requires effort and discipline but godliness has value now and forever. It can be accomplished by remaining in Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. Let’s decide to grow as good ministers of Christ Jesus by training ourselves to be godly.
Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain
1 Timothy 6:1–21 Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 10-16-11
Key Verse: 6:6
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
In this last chapter, Paul continues Timothy’s spiritual education on the subject of respect. He addresses the issue regarding the relationship between slaves and masters. He teaches that they too must respect each other and treat each other in a manner that brings glory to Jesus. He also teaches that a good minister of Christ Jesus must be careful that the love of money does not take root in his/her heart, but that they must fight the good fight of faith always and seek godliness with contentment. There are many great teachings here, but first let us think about the relationship between slaves and masters.
Part l: Master And Slaves In Christ (1-10)
In Paul’s time, in proportion to every free citizen of Rome, there were three who were in slavery. In the Roman world, slaves had no rights, nor privileges. They were fortunate if they only ate, and slept under the master’s roof while serving the master’s needs, fulfilling his goals and gratifying his desires. Even the slave’s family belonged to the master, who also managed the slave’s family. Their very lives belonged to the master. Slaves had no voice in the society and no one to shelter them from the cruelty of masters who used them and abused them to his own benefit. By force of habit, slaves showed proper respect for their masters, while their hearts burned with bitter hatred.
But the force by which Christianity swept the world caused some radical changes to the slave-master system. Suddenly, slaves and masters were turning to Christ, and becoming Christian. Suddenly, in one household, both slaves and masters were of the same body of Christ, brothers and sisters in every way, endowed with every privilege of a child of God. How should this alter their relationship? Let’s see…
First, Paul addresses the attitude of the Christian slave. Let’s read verses 1-2. “All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.” Paul commands Christian slaves to consider their worldly masters worthy of full respect and to serve their Christian masters even better. There are no exceptions, and no conditions set for respect or service. Slaves who have come to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior must show their worldly masters full respect. Here, the words “full respect” as opposed to “partial respect” is relevant. Partial respect is a conditional and compromising kind of respect, offered as a courtesy. But full respect is unconditional, offered up from the heart. Worldly masters may not be kind or forgiving…not worthy even of the slightest respect. Still, Christian slaves were expected to respect them fully. That is a tall order. Do you think that you can do that?
On the other hand, Christian masters should know how to treat their Christian slaves. There are no specific commands to the masters in this passage but there are some words that allude to their responsibilities. Let’s jump ahead to verses 17-19 to find out, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” Masters are usually rich. Therefore they should treat their slaves with respect and consider them equal with themselves. They should “do good” to them and be generous and share with them. They should provide healthcare, education, a decent place to live and some wages and the ability to save their money. They should offer them some hope. They should include them in their worship services and worship the Lord together. Wow! Wouldn’t that be revolutionary?!
But even if their masters did not show them proper respect, Christian slaves were commanded to serve their masters even better than what was already expected of them. It was almost an unreasonable command given to the Christian slaves. But it was the way of Christ. Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, and who is Master of all humanity, did not come to be served, but to serve (Mk. 10:45). And his beneficiaries, those who have been redeemed by his blood, should do the same.
Paul explained about the attitude of the Christian slaves in order to educate all the “Christian slaves” down through the generations of their important role in representing Christ to the world. What are some Christian “slave situations” of today? It is everyone who is in a subordinate position and accountable to the authority above him or her. We are all in master/slave relations in one way or another. What about teacher/student? Supervisor/worker? Owner/worker? Creditor/debtor? Landlord/renter? Sadly, sometimes parent/child relations can get this way. These are modern day master/slave relationships. They don’t have to be like this but sometimes they are. It all depends on our own attitudes. We can make them master/slave or we can make them co-worker/team player, friend relationships. But ancient slaves did not have that option. They must fulfill their duties and their responsibilities or there would be consequences.
In verses 1-2, Paul makes it clear why Christian slaves must respect their masters. Christians should not be self centered, thinking about their own welfare, and constantly fighting for their rights. If that was the case, the slaves Paul is referring to, would constantly be in trouble with their masters, for they couldn’t leave. Christians should be God centered, always considering what is good for God’s name and God’s honor. Christians should also consider their influence on society. A professing Christian is an ambassador of Christ Jesus, and all his or her actions reflect on Christ and on the church. In short, they should advertize Jesus. When non-believing masters see the unchristian behavior of a Christian worker, it is an opportunity for them to slander God’s name and to ridicule Christian teachings. “What? And you call yourself a Christian! I don’t want anything to do with your Savior. Get back to work!” Christians should behave like Christ in all situations, as much as they are able to. Then they will be a blessing on others and lead them to Jesus rather than drive them away. Respect is not an option, it is a mandate by which we must live. It is a matter of heart and a matter of love. After all doesn’t Jesus respect us unconditionally?
Paul tells Timothy the truth about those who do not agree with the sound Christian teaching. He gets right down to the core issue. Read verses 3-5. “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” What is the sound Christian teaching? It is the teaching of Christ who taught us that it is blessed to love those who hate us, and to bless those who curse us. He taught us to be forgiving and to sacrifice in the cause of righteousness and for the sake of the kingdom. Paul also taught that Christian slaves should respect their worldly masters and serve their Christians masters even better. The gospel teaching does not seem to be sound by the standards of the world which teaches selfishness and vengeance. But Jesus’ teaching is most sound.
Paul taught Timothy the truth about those who do not agree with the sound teaching. He exposed their hearts and their motives. Those who do not agree with the gospel teaching are conceited and lack understanding. They have an unhealthy interest in causing trouble among the fellowship of believers. They set Christian against Christian by their gossip. They plant doubt rather than faith. They like to argue and to find fault. They target those whose bitterness and constant complaining have caused them to become spiritually corrupt. And Paul teaches us that they do all this for love of self, and for self gain. They may gain some recognition from those of like mind, but in the long run they lose.
What should be the attitude of sincere Christians? Let’s read verses 6-10. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Those who have an unhealthy interest in constantly challenging the gospel’s teaching, and in causing trouble among the fellowship of believers, do so for personal gain. It does not always have to be money, but we cannot deny that their motives are crooked. Maybe they like the attention. They enjoy gaining sympathy or recognition. In the end they gain nothing but grief.
On the other hand, what should the children of God seek to gain? Look at verses 6-8 again. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” Paul teaches us that we must seek to gain godliness and learn to be content. It is a godly virtue to be content—to be content in what God has given us—to be content in what God has apportioned us to have in this life. And God who loves his children knows exactly what each of his children need. To one he gives riches and to another he gives poverty. To one he gives compassion and to another he gives wisdom. Whatever God gives comes from God’s loving heart for his children. But not all who receive from God are content. Some become greedy and pursue the unhealthy path of moneymaking. Then they end up sorrowful and all alone.
But the child of God should be content. If he has been given riches, he must be content and share his riches. If he has been given poverty, he must be content and share the blessings which arise from poverty. It is God’s will that his children pursue godliness and contentment in Christ, which is the greatest of gains in one’s life.
The Bible says that we must strive to gain godliness. We must strive to be content in what God has given us. Peter once said: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:18,19) What this world has to offer us and what our ancestors have to inherit us is all empty. We have been handed an empty way of life, a way of life which pursues all the things that eventually perish and are destined to pierce us with grief. But in our Lord Jesus we have inherited God and salvation. We have inherited life and faith and mission and all the goodness which God has given us. If we are not content with them, if we continue to pursue the empty things of this world, we reveal that we have no godly wisdom. Paul assures the Christian that godliness is gain and contentment is a virtue we must take hold of.
Part ll: Fight The Good Fight Of Faith (11-21)
Paul gave Timothy the best advice a father can advise his son. He advised him to run away from all that is worldly by nature. Read verses 11-16. “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” He exhorted him to flee from the things that attract worldly people, such as all that glitters in the world and the lusts of the flesh. He should rather pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love. In pursuing such noble things, he must also be willing to endure, be patient and fight the good fight of faith.
All people must fight because life is a battle. But it is foolish to fight for unworthy causes. Worldly wealth is an unworthy cause. The lust of the flesh is an unworthy cause. The only worthy cause is to fight to take hold of noble faith. We must fight with faith and for faith. We must fight to maintain faith. That is the only worthy fight a Christian can engage in. All other fights are futile and unproductive.
Paul also charged Timothy in the sight of God to imitate Christ who made the good confession of faith. Look at verse 13a, “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,…” What did Jesus do so that we may imitate him? Jesus had to fight for his life. But he did not. He fought for the truth. He confessed before Pilate that he is the King of Heaven. He confessed that his kingdom is not of this world. He also had a confession in his heart that God loves him and is leading him in the way of righteousness, even though God was leading him to the cross. Thus our Lord Jesus fought in faith and with faith and by faith, until he was taken up to heaven from where he will return.
The practical “Take home” point here is that we need to remember that while we are living the Christian life, gaining godliness and being content, we have a promise to hold on to. Our promise is that whatever we sacrifice here for the sake of gaining godliness is not lost. Look at verses 13b- 16. “…I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” Whatever we sacrifice is kept in heaven for us for when our Lord Jesus returns because he will surely return and reward each one according to his or her life. If we live by faith and pursue godliness God will sweep us up to his kingdom.
In his final statement Paul shows sincere concern for those who have been entrusted with material goods. Read verses 17-19. “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” Timothy should educate those who are rich in this world to be generous with their financial possessions. They should use it properly. God gives wealth to some as a trust, so that they may wisely use it for the benefit of the less fortunate. So they must share with their brothers and sisters who are in need. Why should they do so? Because it is better to lay up riches in heaven than to lay up riches on earth where it will perish. Paul also teaches rich people not to be arrogant. Rich people can become arrogant when they trust their riches more than trusting God. They are arrogant when they think that they were the ones who made themselves rich. They are arrogant when they despise and ignore the poor. Rather than giving in to arrogance, they must fight the good fight to depend on God rather than on their wealth. They must hope in God. They must express their heavenly hopes through practical acts of generosity and with good deeds.
Finally Paul urges Timothy to guard what has been entrusted him as a good minister of Christ Jesus. Look at verses 20-21. “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.” Timothy had been entrusted with the words of life; with the message of the gospel; with the preaching and teaching of this word; and especially to the flock of God under his care. Timothy was also entrusted with God’s flock in Ephesus. For them, Timothy must continue to fight the good fight of faith, until the coming of our Lord Jesus.
We too have been entrusted with the word of life, with eternal life and with the flock of God. For that, we must learn what a worthy fight is and engage in it. It is the fight to maintain and to bring the faith to all nations, starting with those around us. (Think globally and act locally.) More over, we have been entrusted to pursue godliness and to be content in all that God has given us so that our influence may be godly and fruitful. How can we be content and be godly? We can be content when we deeply appreciate the gift of life Jesus has given us. We can have godliness when we pursue the higher and nobler things of this life, such as love, faith, hope, and the life in Christ we have been entrusted with by God our Father. May you determine to fight the good fight of faith and love God, finding contentment in him alone. God bless you.
1. Read verses 1-2. How must Christian slaves of the time regard their masters? Define “full respect”. What may hinder them from fully respecting their masters? Why must they respect them fully? To what extent? How must Timothy regard this command of Paul? What may be the equivalent of a Christian slave in our times?
2. Read verses 3-5. What sound instructions do false teachers not agree with? Why do they not
agree with such godly teaching? What unhealthy interests do they have? Who among the fellowship of believers do they generally target? What hidden motive do they have in challenging the sound teachings of our Lord?
3. Read verses 6-10. What is the attitude of those who are not of a “corrupt mind”? What do
they pursue instead of financial gain? Why does Paul consider “godliness” to be great gain? What is Paul’s view of “contentment”? What wisdom is there in this? What is the curse of those who love and pursue money?
4. Read verses 11-16. What does Paul command Timothy to do? What must he pursue instead?
With what attitude? What is the role of “faith” here? Why does Paul use the word “fight”? How should Timothy equip himself for this life-long battle? What assurance does Paul give Timothy while at the same time charging him with absolute obedience? Why did Paul envelope this hope in magnificent exaltation to God?
5. Read verses 17-21. What command did Paul pass on to rich Christians? What is the tendency
of those who have been entrusted with worldly riches? How should they fight this ungodly tendency? With what hope? What is “the life that is truly life”? Why is it a treasure more valuable than all other treasures? What has Timothy been entrusted with? How can he guard it? How can we?
1 Timothy 6:1–21 Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 10-16-11
Key Verse: 6:6
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
In this last chapter, Paul continues Timothy’s spiritual education on the subject of respect. He addresses the issue regarding the relationship between slaves and masters. He teaches that they too must respect each other and treat each other in a manner that brings glory to Jesus. He also teaches that a good minister of Christ Jesus must be careful that the love of money does not take root in his/her heart, but that they must fight the good fight of faith always and seek godliness with contentment. There are many great teachings here, but first let us think about the relationship between slaves and masters.
Part l: Master And Slaves In Christ (1-10)
In Paul’s time, in proportion to every free citizen of Rome, there were three who were in slavery. In the Roman world, slaves had no rights, nor privileges. They were fortunate if they only ate, and slept under the master’s roof while serving the master’s needs, fulfilling his goals and gratifying his desires. Even the slave’s family belonged to the master, who also managed the slave’s family. Their very lives belonged to the master. Slaves had no voice in the society and no one to shelter them from the cruelty of masters who used them and abused them to his own benefit. By force of habit, slaves showed proper respect for their masters, while their hearts burned with bitter hatred.
But the force by which Christianity swept the world caused some radical changes to the slave-master system. Suddenly, slaves and masters were turning to Christ, and becoming Christian. Suddenly, in one household, both slaves and masters were of the same body of Christ, brothers and sisters in every way, endowed with every privilege of a child of God. How should this alter their relationship? Let’s see…
First, Paul addresses the attitude of the Christian slave. Let’s read verses 1-2. “All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.” Paul commands Christian slaves to consider their worldly masters worthy of full respect and to serve their Christian masters even better. There are no exceptions, and no conditions set for respect or service. Slaves who have come to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior must show their worldly masters full respect. Here, the words “full respect” as opposed to “partial respect” is relevant. Partial respect is a conditional and compromising kind of respect, offered as a courtesy. But full respect is unconditional, offered up from the heart. Worldly masters may not be kind or forgiving…not worthy even of the slightest respect. Still, Christian slaves were expected to respect them fully. That is a tall order. Do you think that you can do that?
On the other hand, Christian masters should know how to treat their Christian slaves. There are no specific commands to the masters in this passage but there are some words that allude to their responsibilities. Let’s jump ahead to verses 17-19 to find out, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” Masters are usually rich. Therefore they should treat their slaves with respect and consider them equal with themselves. They should “do good” to them and be generous and share with them. They should provide healthcare, education, a decent place to live and some wages and the ability to save their money. They should offer them some hope. They should include them in their worship services and worship the Lord together. Wow! Wouldn’t that be revolutionary?!
But even if their masters did not show them proper respect, Christian slaves were commanded to serve their masters even better than what was already expected of them. It was almost an unreasonable command given to the Christian slaves. But it was the way of Christ. Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, and who is Master of all humanity, did not come to be served, but to serve (Mk. 10:45). And his beneficiaries, those who have been redeemed by his blood, should do the same.
Paul explained about the attitude of the Christian slaves in order to educate all the “Christian slaves” down through the generations of their important role in representing Christ to the world. What are some Christian “slave situations” of today? It is everyone who is in a subordinate position and accountable to the authority above him or her. We are all in master/slave relations in one way or another. What about teacher/student? Supervisor/worker? Owner/worker? Creditor/debtor? Landlord/renter? Sadly, sometimes parent/child relations can get this way. These are modern day master/slave relationships. They don’t have to be like this but sometimes they are. It all depends on our own attitudes. We can make them master/slave or we can make them co-worker/team player, friend relationships. But ancient slaves did not have that option. They must fulfill their duties and their responsibilities or there would be consequences.
In verses 1-2, Paul makes it clear why Christian slaves must respect their masters. Christians should not be self centered, thinking about their own welfare, and constantly fighting for their rights. If that was the case, the slaves Paul is referring to, would constantly be in trouble with their masters, for they couldn’t leave. Christians should be God centered, always considering what is good for God’s name and God’s honor. Christians should also consider their influence on society. A professing Christian is an ambassador of Christ Jesus, and all his or her actions reflect on Christ and on the church. In short, they should advertize Jesus. When non-believing masters see the unchristian behavior of a Christian worker, it is an opportunity for them to slander God’s name and to ridicule Christian teachings. “What? And you call yourself a Christian! I don’t want anything to do with your Savior. Get back to work!” Christians should behave like Christ in all situations, as much as they are able to. Then they will be a blessing on others and lead them to Jesus rather than drive them away. Respect is not an option, it is a mandate by which we must live. It is a matter of heart and a matter of love. After all doesn’t Jesus respect us unconditionally?
Paul tells Timothy the truth about those who do not agree with the sound Christian teaching. He gets right down to the core issue. Read verses 3-5. “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” What is the sound Christian teaching? It is the teaching of Christ who taught us that it is blessed to love those who hate us, and to bless those who curse us. He taught us to be forgiving and to sacrifice in the cause of righteousness and for the sake of the kingdom. Paul also taught that Christian slaves should respect their worldly masters and serve their Christians masters even better. The gospel teaching does not seem to be sound by the standards of the world which teaches selfishness and vengeance. But Jesus’ teaching is most sound.
Paul taught Timothy the truth about those who do not agree with the sound teaching. He exposed their hearts and their motives. Those who do not agree with the gospel teaching are conceited and lack understanding. They have an unhealthy interest in causing trouble among the fellowship of believers. They set Christian against Christian by their gossip. They plant doubt rather than faith. They like to argue and to find fault. They target those whose bitterness and constant complaining have caused them to become spiritually corrupt. And Paul teaches us that they do all this for love of self, and for self gain. They may gain some recognition from those of like mind, but in the long run they lose.
What should be the attitude of sincere Christians? Let’s read verses 6-10. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Those who have an unhealthy interest in constantly challenging the gospel’s teaching, and in causing trouble among the fellowship of believers, do so for personal gain. It does not always have to be money, but we cannot deny that their motives are crooked. Maybe they like the attention. They enjoy gaining sympathy or recognition. In the end they gain nothing but grief.
On the other hand, what should the children of God seek to gain? Look at verses 6-8 again. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” Paul teaches us that we must seek to gain godliness and learn to be content. It is a godly virtue to be content—to be content in what God has given us—to be content in what God has apportioned us to have in this life. And God who loves his children knows exactly what each of his children need. To one he gives riches and to another he gives poverty. To one he gives compassion and to another he gives wisdom. Whatever God gives comes from God’s loving heart for his children. But not all who receive from God are content. Some become greedy and pursue the unhealthy path of moneymaking. Then they end up sorrowful and all alone.
But the child of God should be content. If he has been given riches, he must be content and share his riches. If he has been given poverty, he must be content and share the blessings which arise from poverty. It is God’s will that his children pursue godliness and contentment in Christ, which is the greatest of gains in one’s life.
The Bible says that we must strive to gain godliness. We must strive to be content in what God has given us. Peter once said: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:18,19) What this world has to offer us and what our ancestors have to inherit us is all empty. We have been handed an empty way of life, a way of life which pursues all the things that eventually perish and are destined to pierce us with grief. But in our Lord Jesus we have inherited God and salvation. We have inherited life and faith and mission and all the goodness which God has given us. If we are not content with them, if we continue to pursue the empty things of this world, we reveal that we have no godly wisdom. Paul assures the Christian that godliness is gain and contentment is a virtue we must take hold of.
Part ll: Fight The Good Fight Of Faith (11-21)
Paul gave Timothy the best advice a father can advise his son. He advised him to run away from all that is worldly by nature. Read verses 11-16. “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” He exhorted him to flee from the things that attract worldly people, such as all that glitters in the world and the lusts of the flesh. He should rather pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love. In pursuing such noble things, he must also be willing to endure, be patient and fight the good fight of faith.
All people must fight because life is a battle. But it is foolish to fight for unworthy causes. Worldly wealth is an unworthy cause. The lust of the flesh is an unworthy cause. The only worthy cause is to fight to take hold of noble faith. We must fight with faith and for faith. We must fight to maintain faith. That is the only worthy fight a Christian can engage in. All other fights are futile and unproductive.
Paul also charged Timothy in the sight of God to imitate Christ who made the good confession of faith. Look at verse 13a, “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,…” What did Jesus do so that we may imitate him? Jesus had to fight for his life. But he did not. He fought for the truth. He confessed before Pilate that he is the King of Heaven. He confessed that his kingdom is not of this world. He also had a confession in his heart that God loves him and is leading him in the way of righteousness, even though God was leading him to the cross. Thus our Lord Jesus fought in faith and with faith and by faith, until he was taken up to heaven from where he will return.
The practical “Take home” point here is that we need to remember that while we are living the Christian life, gaining godliness and being content, we have a promise to hold on to. Our promise is that whatever we sacrifice here for the sake of gaining godliness is not lost. Look at verses 13b- 16. “…I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” Whatever we sacrifice is kept in heaven for us for when our Lord Jesus returns because he will surely return and reward each one according to his or her life. If we live by faith and pursue godliness God will sweep us up to his kingdom.
In his final statement Paul shows sincere concern for those who have been entrusted with material goods. Read verses 17-19. “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” Timothy should educate those who are rich in this world to be generous with their financial possessions. They should use it properly. God gives wealth to some as a trust, so that they may wisely use it for the benefit of the less fortunate. So they must share with their brothers and sisters who are in need. Why should they do so? Because it is better to lay up riches in heaven than to lay up riches on earth where it will perish. Paul also teaches rich people not to be arrogant. Rich people can become arrogant when they trust their riches more than trusting God. They are arrogant when they think that they were the ones who made themselves rich. They are arrogant when they despise and ignore the poor. Rather than giving in to arrogance, they must fight the good fight to depend on God rather than on their wealth. They must hope in God. They must express their heavenly hopes through practical acts of generosity and with good deeds.
Finally Paul urges Timothy to guard what has been entrusted him as a good minister of Christ Jesus. Look at verses 20-21. “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.” Timothy had been entrusted with the words of life; with the message of the gospel; with the preaching and teaching of this word; and especially to the flock of God under his care. Timothy was also entrusted with God’s flock in Ephesus. For them, Timothy must continue to fight the good fight of faith, until the coming of our Lord Jesus.
We too have been entrusted with the word of life, with eternal life and with the flock of God. For that, we must learn what a worthy fight is and engage in it. It is the fight to maintain and to bring the faith to all nations, starting with those around us. (Think globally and act locally.) More over, we have been entrusted to pursue godliness and to be content in all that God has given us so that our influence may be godly and fruitful. How can we be content and be godly? We can be content when we deeply appreciate the gift of life Jesus has given us. We can have godliness when we pursue the higher and nobler things of this life, such as love, faith, hope, and the life in Christ we have been entrusted with by God our Father. May you determine to fight the good fight of faith and love God, finding contentment in him alone. God bless you.
1. Read verses 1-2. How must Christian slaves of the time regard their masters? Define “full respect”. What may hinder them from fully respecting their masters? Why must they respect them fully? To what extent? How must Timothy regard this command of Paul? What may be the equivalent of a Christian slave in our times?
2. Read verses 3-5. What sound instructions do false teachers not agree with? Why do they not
agree with such godly teaching? What unhealthy interests do they have? Who among the fellowship of believers do they generally target? What hidden motive do they have in challenging the sound teachings of our Lord?
3. Read verses 6-10. What is the attitude of those who are not of a “corrupt mind”? What do
they pursue instead of financial gain? Why does Paul consider “godliness” to be great gain? What is Paul’s view of “contentment”? What wisdom is there in this? What is the curse of those who love and pursue money?
4. Read verses 11-16. What does Paul command Timothy to do? What must he pursue instead?
With what attitude? What is the role of “faith” here? Why does Paul use the word “fight”? How should Timothy equip himself for this life-long battle? What assurance does Paul give Timothy while at the same time charging him with absolute obedience? Why did Paul envelope this hope in magnificent exaltation to God?
5. Read verses 17-21. What command did Paul pass on to rich Christians? What is the tendency
of those who have been entrusted with worldly riches? How should they fight this ungodly tendency? With what hope? What is “the life that is truly life”? Why is it a treasure more valuable than all other treasures? What has Timothy been entrusted with? How can he guard it? How can we?
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