Jesus Came to Save Sinners (1 Tim 1:12-20)

Welcome & Announcements

Don’t forget that next week from December 8th-10th, Natalie and I will be out of town. We’ll still be reachable by cell or email, but if there’s an emergency, please don’t hesitate to contact Deane Herbst.

On December 11th, 2022 we have a few things going on.

During the Sunday AM worship service, we’ll have a guest speaker—his name is Austin Burton and he currently serves as an intern for the BRN’s Collegiate Ministry at Penn State.

After the service, we’re going to have a brief business meeting that should only take about ten minutes, so please plan to be here for that meeting.

On December 17th, 2022 ladies are invited for our annual Cookie Baking Extravaganza, which will start at 11am until the cookies are finished. The goal is to bake roughly 250-300 cookies together to be bagged up and used as a means of outreach through the following few days. 7pm.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 1:12-20)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to 1 Timothy 1:12-20.

As we continue in 1 Timothy, Paul takes a moment to reiterate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He makes it abundantly clear what the Gospel is and what the purpose of Jesus’ first advent into the world was. In Paul’s case, it’s clear that he cannot help but to reflect on his own experience—his own salvation, as he thinks on what Jesus has done.

Now, of course, every passage of Scripture has a context and in this context, remember last week’s passage of Scripture in which Paul exhorts Timothy to make sure that those teaching false teaching wouldn’t have a platform in the church at Ephesus. In this passage, Paul emphasizes the Gospel in contrast to false teaching and he even ends this section by calling out two false teachers by name.

Let’s read 1 Timothy 1:12-20.

1 Timothy 1:12–20 ESV

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at it in two parts: (1) Salvation (12-17), which does two things, it reminds us of the point of Jesus’ initial advent onto earth. Why did Jesus come to the earth? To save sinners. In this section, we also get to read a bit about Paul’s own salvation testimony—though, he doesn’t give us a lot of details. (2) Protecting the Gospel (18-20), which is where Paul charges Timothy with a specific duty, to protect the Gospel of Jesus Christ from false teachers who subvert it. Today’s message will emphasize the importance of the Gospel, of protecting the Gospel, and stopping false teachers from subverting the Gospel and blaspheming God.

Prayer for Illumination

Salvation (12-17)

In the first six verses, we see Paul emphasize the Gospel by both iterating the truth and by expressing his own testimony:

In vv. 12-14, we read Paul’s testimony and truthfully, we ought to relate to his testimony. He writes, “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Paul speaks of God’s goodness and His mercy in vv. 12-13. That despite Paul’s own sinful behavior, God still showed mercy to him.

He gives thanks that “Christ Jesus our Lord” judged him faithful and appointed him to his service—or in other words, Paul is giving thanks that Jesus forgave Paul for his sin to the extent that Paul’s able to serve in the capacity that he serves in.

Remember, that this is referring to the same Paul who killed Christians, he’s the same Paul who persecuted Christians, and he’s the same Paul who sought to quiet Christianity as a whole.

But Jesus chose to use him anyway—as an apostle to the Gentiles to proclaim the Gospel to those who weren’t Jewish.

It’s astounding when you keep his past in mind because if this were to happen in our modern world, how would Christians today typically respond in the same situation?

If someone was going around killing Christians today, seeking to persecute us today, and trying to quiet Christianity as a whole; would we even allow him to serve in the way that Paul served just because he claimed that he was different?

Probably not, at the very least, we’d have a significant amount of skepticism toward that person—we’d think he was trying to trick us.

And yet, Jesus chose Paul for a specific purpose despite the sins that Paul had committed in the past.

It’s really no wonder that Paul would be astounded by the goodness of God and the mercy that he’s experienced in Christ. Especially when you consider the sins that he highlights from his own life. In v. 13, he says that he was:

a blasphemer—we spoke about blasphemy briefly this past Sunday, but to remind you of the specific sin that blasphemy is, let me give you the Lexham Bible Dictionary’s definition of blasphemy, “a verbal insult uttered intentionally and malevolently against God, revealing the offender’s contempt for Him.” (Donald W. Mills, “Blasphemy,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016)) How did Paul blaspheme God? By claiming that what Jesus did and was doing wasn’t the work of God.

a persecutor—which just a preliminary search through his personal history reveals this. So much so, that we know that he in Acts 9:1-2 right before his conversion, asked for permission to bind Christians and bring them to the Sanhedrin. Acts 9:1-2 “1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them in shackles to Jerusalem.” It is clear that he sought to do as much damage to Christianity as he possibly could.

and an insolent opponent—the word insolent carries the idea of not just being obstinate but of being violently obstinate, which we see in his approval of Stephen’s death in Acts 7. He was absolutely fine with murdering someone if he thought the person was opposing what he thought was truth at the time.

Again, consider the sins that he had committed and how we would typically respond to someone who committed these sorts of sins today and then claimed that he was now a believer.

And yet, in the instance of Paul, he blasphemed, persecuted, and murdered Christians; and then Jesus gave him mercy. He sought to end of the cause of Christ, and Jesus judged him faithful. He attempted to quiet Christianity and then Jesus appointed him to a specific service.

The question is, what is this service? He doesn’t exactly explain it in 1 Timothy 1:12-20, but he does elsewhere.

In Romans 11:13 Paul calls himself the apostle to the Gentiles—that was the service that Jesus had called him to.

It isn’t that he never preached to the Jews, but rather that his focus was on preaching to the Gentiles, which was unique because the other apostles typically focused on the Jewish people.

In Ephesians 3:8 Paul claims that he was given the responsibility to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles despite being the least of the saints and in Galatians 2:7, he outrightly says that God gave him the responsibility to preach to the Gentiles just like Peter was given the responsibility to preach to the Jews.

Despite all the various sins that he had committed against Christians, against Christianity, and ultimately against God—after his repentance and belief in Jesus, Jesus used him as the apostle to the Gentiles, which really ought to be comforting for us today because if Jesus was willing to utilize someone like Paul who literally murdered people, certainly, he would be willing to utilize you today.

If Jesus was willing to show grace, mercy, and goodness toward someone like Paul, certainly he would show grace, mercy, and goodness toward us today. Paul reflects on just how much of God’s mercy, grace, and goodness that he experienced in v. 14, “and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Despite all that he had done prior to his repentance from sin and belief in Jesus Christ, God showed him mercy, grace, goodness, faith, and love in Jesus Christ.

And it wasn’t just a little bit, it wasn’t even just a moderate bit, “the grace of our Lord overflowed for [him].”

Friends, this is the Gospel—that the one whom we consider far too gone, who has sin after sin in their heart receives mercy, grace, and goodness from the Lord when he repents, believes, and follows Jesus—not because the individual earned these things, but because God’s grace overflows.

In vv. 15-17, Paul expands on the concept of the Gospel. He writes, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

In v. 15, Paul tells us bluntly why exactly Jesus came to earth in the first place, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

This is a reflection of what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

The whole purpose of Jesus coming the first time was for salvation—for Him to save sinners. Note that Paul says that this “saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.”

You might hear that and think, well of course it’s trustworthy and worth accepting, why wouldn’t it be?

Remember the context, there were false teachers claiming something different—Paul is making the point that the Gospel is trustworthy and worthy of acceptance, regardless of what the false teachers are saying.

Regardless of what they’re teaching, Jesus came to save sinners.

Note also how Paul reflects back to his own experience or testimony, Christ came into the world to save sinners, “of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

Paul lived a terribly sinful life in which he actively chose to persecute and murder Christians. So much so, that when he speaks of himself, he makes it abundantly clear that he is the worst of the worst of all the Christians.

And yet, Jesus chose him and used him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to write a large portion of the New Testament, and to really help the church be established and grow.

Why did Jesus choose Paul? Because Paul is an example. An example of what exactly?

Paul is the prime example of what Jesus can do—Jesus takes the worst of the worst and He redeems them, He makes them new, and He does it not because of who the person is, but because of who He is.

He is good, He is merciful, He overflows with grace.

Why did Jesus choose Paul? Because through Paul, Jesus shows His patience, His goodness, His mercy, and His grace.

I can’t help but to think of 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “26 For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may abolish the things that are, 29 so that no flesh may boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”” (LSB)

Reflecting on these truths causes Paul to well up with praise in v. 17, “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

The Gospel properly understood and rightly applied compels the believer to praise and worship Jesus.

The Gospel properly understood and rightly applied always results in what we call doxology—genuine praise and worship.

If reflecting on the Gospel doesn’t cause genuine praise and worship within you, perhaps you don’t understand how big of a deal the Gospel actually is.

Jesus came to save sinners, of whom you were foremost—give Him honor and glory, give Him the praise He deserves, and recognize Him as the King of the ages, the only God.

The Gospel is that important because it saves those who couldn’t save themselves and through it Jesus reconciles those who repent of their sins, believe, and follow Him to Himself. Everything that we do as Christians—everything that we believe, everything that we hold dear is predicated on the Gospel and a right understanding of the Gospel. It is that important.

Protecting the Gospel (18-20)

In light of how important the Gospel is, Paul ends this section of the passage with a charge to Timothy, vv. 18-20, “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

In light of how important the Gospel is, Paul gives a charge or a command or really instruction to Timothy and we find it in vv. 18-19a.

Note that Paul bases this charge on what he calls “prophecies previously made about you.”

Don’t think of these as necessarily prophecies in the sense that we typically think of prophecies—don’t think of this as some sort of seer telling the future.

Think of this more in lines of someone in Timothy’s past making promising comments concerning Timothy’s spiritual maturity and claiming that Timothy would be useful in the future in ministry.

Maybe consider Acts 13:1-3 “1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”

Maybe Timothy was set apart like Barnabas and Saul were set apart for the work of the ministry.

Paul in 1 Timothy reminds Timothy of whatever these “prophecies” were, probably to help him develop the courage to fight against the false teaching in Ephesus.

We see this at the end of v. 18, “that by them [meaning the prophecies] you may wage the good warfare.”

Think of it like this—Paul is calling Timothy to remember all the people before him who recommended Timothy for the role at hand as inspiration for what is to come.

Remember what the other elders thought, remember what those who you look up to thought about you and your faithfulness—this type of mindset is what he’s trying to remind Timothy of.

Remember what all these people thought and let this encourage you as you wage this good warfare.

Warfare about what or against what exactly?

We get a hint of what with the first part of v. 19, “holding faith and a good conscience.”

Faith refers to a personal commitment to Jesus Christ—it means holding to a personal faith in him.

And he mentions having a good conscience—how do you have a good conscience? It’s simpler than you think, those who abstain from sin tend to have a good or clear conscience. Those who continue in sin, tend to have a conscience that isn’t good and isn’t clear.

How exactly is Timothy to wage the good warfare?

By standing firm on his faith and by seeking good and rejecting sin.

Or put differently—he is to believe in Jesus and live like one who believes in Jesus.

How do we know this for sure? Because Paul mentions some who rejected this in vv. 19b-20, “By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among who are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

There are those who chose not to stand firm on genuine faith and not to seek a good conscience through obedience.

We know that a good conscience refers to obedience because you can’t have a good conscience apart from obeying Jesus Christ.

George Knight, “To reject or repudiate a good conscience is to be willfully and self-consciously disobedient to God’s requirement because a good conscience bespeaks a self-conscious obedience . . . Whatever disobedience is in view, Paul asserts that this activity led to and culminated in shipwreck in regard to [faith].” (George W. Knight, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992), 109)

How exactly they disobeyed, we’re not entirely sure, but we see blasphemy as an issue for these two individuals in v. 20.

Continuing through 1 Timothy, we see in 1 Timothy 6:2b-10 some issues concerning false teaching. Paul says that “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understand nothing.”

Knowing that this is part of the context of 1 Timothy 1, we can tell that those who aren’t standing firm on genuine faith, those who are not seeking a good conscience through obedience, are teaching something that doesn’t agree with the words of Jesus and they’re teaching a different doctrine—really, a different gospel.

By rejecting genuine faith and a good conscience, they’ve destroyed their own faith and they’ve started teaching their garbage to other people within the church.

Paul names these individuals, “Hymanaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan.”

Now that phrase might sound harsh and it might seem difficult to parse, so let me help you think this through.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read about how the “god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

In Ephesians 2:2 we read about how unbelievers walk according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

We’re told that the earth is the domain of Satan for the time being.

Except in the church—the church is Christ’s Kingdom. Satan is the god of the world because the world follows Satan whether knowingly or not. Jesus is the God of the church because the church follows Jesus knowingly.

By handing them over to Satan, Paul is saying that they’ve excluded these false teachers from the church—they’ve removed them from the church because the church has realized that these individuals weren’t actually following Jesus, they were following Satan—and they realized this because the individuals weren’t teaching the truth, they were teaching false things.

Or in other words, these people are so far gone, so deluded into their false teachings, that the only thing left is for the individuals to be removed out of the church and placed back into the realm of Satan’s domain.

Paul reminds Timothy of the significance of the Gospel before telling him to make sure that no one within the church teaches anything contrary to the Gospel. Why do you think he does this?

Because the Gospel rightly understood results in those who hear it repenting from their sins, believing in Jesus, and following Him.

The Gospel rightly understood compels those same believers to praise and worship Jesus authentically and it compels them to proclaim the truth so others can praise and worship Jesus.

When the Gospel is rightly understood, believers are sustained by it, they’re convinced of their need to abstain from sin, they’re motivated to love and good works, and they’re remind of who they are in Christ.

When the Gospel isn’t rightly understood, unbelievers refuse to repent, believe, and follow Jesus; believers don’t praise and worship Jesus properly; and believers aren’t sustained by truth, motivated to love and good works, and they won’t abstain from sin.

When the Gospel is misunderstood, the individual has nothing to stand on.

No wonder Paul emphasizes to Timothy both the Gospel and the need to protect the Gospel from those who have subverted it by teaching false doctrine. Now the question is, as we wrap up this evening, how do we apply a text like this to our lives today? And I think the best way to do it is by looking at the text as a whole.

Application

Paul, by reflecting on the Gospel tells us a bit of his testimony before expressing just how significant the Gospel really is—that despite the sins that he committed, God was merciful to Him and heaped grace upon Him. Despite the sins that he committed, Paul was chosen by God to show God’s patience, kindness, goodness, mercy, and grace. Paul’s whole point is that the Gospel is so important because Jesus saves and to be saved, people need to hear the Gospel—thus, take the Gospel seriously and don’t let someone teach any sort of false gospel. There’s really two applications that we see from this text:

Reflect on the Gospel (12-17)—really the idea of reflecting on the Gospel ought to be a daily thing. Every day, you ought to reflect on how Jesus has saved you and every day, you ought to reflect on what it means that Jesus has saved you.

Consider your life prior to salvation—more than likely, you don’t have a testimony like what Paul had, where he was literally someone who had murdered other people, persecuted the church, and tried to destroy Christianity.

But most, if not all, have some sort of testimony in which we can give thanks for what Jesus had saved us out of.

Or maybe you came to Christ at a young age, just think of what Jesus had saved you from participating in—what would have happened if you hadn’t believed at a young age.

Consider the sins that you actively participated in prior to your salvation and that your sin was enough for you to need a Savior.

You couldn’t save yourself, but you were guilty of sin that ought to have led you to eternal damnation and punishment.

But Jesus was gracious, He was merciful, He was good and kind to you by giving you grace and mercy.

You who may not have been a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but maybe you were a liar, a cheater, or a drunk.

You who may not have sought to end the cause of Christ, but maybe you hated your brother, sought to hurt those around you, and was greedy for ill-gotten gains.

Jesus was and is merciful and gracious, we see this in the Gospel. And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you have something to be thankful for, you have something to praise Him for, and you have something to proclaim to others.

You can be thankful because Jesus did for you what you couldn’t do for yourself—He saved you.

You can praise Him for this because in doing so, He paid the consequence of your sin—He redeemed you.

You can proclaim this to others because hopefully, you recognize the significance of the Gospel and you want others to hear the Gospel as well.

You need to reflect on the Gospel of Jesus Christ—preferably daily because it is the Gospel that is the power of Jesus to save—give Him thanks for the Gospel, praise Him, and proclaim the truth to those around you.

Because the Gospel is such an important part of Christianity, the same charge given to Timothy is given to us. We need to protect the Gospel (18-20)—Of course, we know that this is a job for an elder, in particular, but it’s something that every believer needs to take seriously.

If it is a right understanding of the Gospel that leads to repentance, belief in Jesus, and obedience, then we have to to protect the Gospel from everything that would seek to harm the Gospel.

Of course, we do need to ask ourselves, who exactly seeks to do harm to the Gospel? And the obvious answer from 1 Timothy 1 are false teachers who have rejected the truth and ought to be handed over to Satan.

These are people who subvert the Gospel and harm those who seek truth because they lead them to a false truth or a false gospel.

These are people who despite seeming to be such kind and loving people are really wolves in sheep’s clothing.

These are people who trick others into thinking that they’re saved or that they’re alright despite not actually knowing the truth.

And the reality is that not all of them are blatantly false teachers like Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen who teach false teachings, have been called out for teaching false teachings, and continue to teach the same teachings.

Not every false teacher is high profile like Kenneth Copland or Creflo Dollar.

Many false teachers look like the kind and caring pastor who you’ve known for years and seems to really care about you—but he’s also never called you to repent from your sins nor has he taught you the whole counsel of God.

Many false teachers lead people into a false sense of assurance and security and no one ever bothers to do anything about it because they sound ok, they make you feel good, and you’ve known them forever.

Folks, it really doesn’t matter if they sound like a good speaker, if they make you feel good, if you’ve known them since you were a child. It doesn’t matter if they’re high profile, on TV, or any other type of media.

If they don’t preach the Gospel and teach the truth how Jesus preached the Gospel and taught the truth, then they are false teachers.

And you continuing to listen to them, watch them, support their ministries, or recommend people to listen to them will lead people to hell.

If you understand the Gospel, if you have experienced salvation, then protect the Gospel so that other people can hear it as it was meant to be heard.

Stop listening to false teachers, stop recommending those who subvert the truth to others, and stop supporting those who don’t preach the Gospel and teach the whole counsel of God as Jesus preached the Gospel and taught the whole counsel of God.

The Gospel is that important—because it is through the Gospel that Jesus saves.

Protect the Gospel by calling out those who teach false things and by refusing to support those that do. Protect the Gospel by knowing what the Scriptures actually teach concerning the Gospel and rejecting anything that differs from the truth.

Protect the Gospel by refusing to support those who teach false things—even if you’ve known them for years. Call them out for their sins and if they refuse to repent, hand them over to Satan that they may learn not to sin.

You have been entrusted with the Gospel—protect it from those that subvert it.

Put simply, what we learn from 1 Timothy 1:12-20 is that the Gospel is important because it is through the Gospel that Jesus saves. So, (1) you ought to reflect on the Gospel—think on it, meditate on its truth, let it lead you to praise Jesus and proclaim it accurately; and (2) you need to protect the Gospel from those who teach false things.

Take the Gospel seriously because Jesus saves through the Gospel—reflect on it daily and protect it.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

This week’s prayer requests are:

Sean Herbst — Addiction

Pray for Alexus (Tom and Raenelle’s great niece) — struggling with seizures; pray for the doctors to have wisdom in how to best help her and pray for the family

Caleb Miller — Medical Issues

Stacey Williams — recovery from surgery

Alan Wisor — Medical Issues

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for missionaries Mikael and Zuzanna Romer in Poland as they seek to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Krakow.