Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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)