1 Timothy 2:8-3:9
Notes
Transcript
1 Timothy 2:8-3:9
1 Timothy 2:8-3:9
Good morning Church! I want to welcome you all here this morning. If you are brand new here, especially if you were with us last weekend, you might be looking around wondering in fear if you missed the rapture with all of our godly women, well not all, but the majority of our women being gone. Rest assured, you haven’t, they are just away at some specialized training, the heavy duty stuff that takes place at our Women’s retreat.
It seems to be one of the methods today in churches in an attempt to attract seekers, to sometimes preach about things of controversy. If you faithfully teach through the entirety of the Word of God, you don’t have to manufacture anything, most topics come up from time to time. Sometimes when we hit a point like that in our study, I will spend a great deal of time explaining what the Bible is saying and what it isn’t saying. This morning I’m going to try to just let the Word of God speak to us. Let’s pick up on the same verse we left off on, 1 Timothy 2:8-11
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
9 in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
10 but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
Now those of you that think I dragged my feet so that I could present this on the weekend of the ladies retreat, you’re wrong. I just thought that if I thought it today, this afternoon when they come back, you could sit down and watch the video with them in the privacy of your own home, that way if there were any questions or need for clarity, as the head of your home, you could do that....you cowards. No, actually the truth is, I considered doing a topical message today to delay it for their return as I think it is important instruction, but I trust the Lord has us where we are supposed to be today, so, pray with me and we will get started.
Father,… in Jesus name Amen.
Now when we began, I mentioned the word controversy. I want to explain that the intent is not controversy, it is the opposite of that, it is order. You may have noticed in your bulletins, or in our opening slide that the title to today’s message was Order in the Church. Whenever we gather together to study the Word of God, the goal should be to discover what does the Bible actually say, what does it mean. Is it being read in context, is it effected by our culture, did it mean something different then than it does today? And then finally, what does it mean for us, or what is the proper application of the passage either for the church today, or for us individually. Paul tells us in the next chapter why he wrote these things… 1 Timothy 3:14-15
14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly;
15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
So Paul is saying the church belongs to the Lord, it’s His house and this is what things should look like in His house. The first point of controversy, that would not have been controversy in any other time in the history of man kind, but certainly is now in a very small, but highly vocal group is a distinction God makes here based on sexual identity.
We separate groups of people by all kinds of things, we say we don’t, but we do, that is why there are studies in implicit bias. You go to a doctor’s office, or apply for anything through the government and what do they want to know? Age, we separate people by their ages, race, sex, socio economic class (which side of the tracks did you grow up on?)
Religion when I enlisted in the Army reserves at 17 years of age, the question to me was are you Catholic or Protestant, I didn’t even know what that was. SO they asked me if I was catholic, I said no, so Protestant was stamped on my dog tags. TO my African American friend they added the option of being Muslim. You might get categorized by your educational status. Did you complete High School, get a diploma or GED, trade school, college, grad, school. We separate people with all kinds of different labels into all kinds of different categories, but....at risk of being charged with a hate crime, I will say that there are really only two natural categories that people are divided up into. Man and Women. There are differences between the two, and this is anther fact that doesn’t require your agreement in order to make it true.
Sometimes we can look at these things and be tempted to say, why does it really matter? I mean we are trying to reach this society, the the church in Corinth, or the churches in the region of Ephesus, so why not modernize it a little bit to fit in? Three huge reasons. It is God’s church, so God gets to say what it should look like.
Second, the world doesn’t need what it already has, the world needs to be rescued, and God wants to do that. Speaking of that. There is not a single human being on the face of this earth that God doesn’t deeply love…there isn’t a human being on the face of the earth that God doesn’t want to save, that God doesn’t want to spend all of eternity with. Regardless of how you feel about some of these classifications that might be different from you the deal is for God so loved the world that whosoever. But even those that haven’t chosen to believe in Him, He loves them.
Paul tells us that in chapter 2. 1 Tim 2:3-4
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So the third reason why these things of God’s order matters so much, is because the church is God’s plan A to rescue and save a lost world. Jesus came, Deity took on Humanity, He lived a perfect sinless life, and then died to pay a debt that He didn’t owe. Died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, and then defeated death when He rose from the grave, compelled to do so by His great love for us.
Plan A is for that love to be demonstrated through His church. This is how the world will know that this is the real deal, that you are My Disciples, because of your love for one another. God is a God of order. If there was not order in our universe, we would be blown up, we would freeze to death, or burn to death. Can you imagine if ever few months a star larger than our sun crashed into earth.
Do you know that I can go on my phone right now and tell you high tide and low tide for anywhere in the world. It is predictable. People hunt and fish based upon solar and lunar cycles. The next time we experience an eclipse, listen to the news and they will tell you how long it will be until the next one. God has no plan B. I just started a very good book called The Master Plan of Evangelism, short book, only about a hundred pages, you know why? The plan is a simple plan.
Save one, have them tell someone else, have them tell someone else, it’s a pretty simple plan if things are in order. So men, we begin where we left off, with you. Verse 8 1 Tim 2:8
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
Now you might read this and think, man the guys get it easy here! They have one verse, and the ladies fill out the rest of the chapter. It is difficult to get men to do what it says here. This is not directed to the elders, or to the deacons, or the pastors, it is to the men of the church.
What does Paul mean when he, let me correct that, Paul is the scribe here, but these are the words of the Holy Spirit of God. He says, I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere. When we read through the Bible we find examples of men praying everywhere, even from the belly of a great fish.
There is good application here for us to pray without ceasing where ever we happen to be. I was walking yesterday and spent a considerable amount of time praying for my wife and daughter at the women’s retreat, praying for the speakers and all the ones attending and driving back today. We can pray when we are driving. As the Lord brings things to our remembrance, or maybe we are struggling on how to best communicate with our teenage kids,.
But that is different than what we see here in our text. Paul is saying that men everywhere, in every church have the responsibility to pray and to take the responsibility to lead in opportunities to pray. Does is mean women can’t pray. Of course not, Paul talks about women praying in the church, prophesying in the church. But men are supposed to be the ones leading it and doing it.
Remember how this chapter started? 1 Tim 2:1-2
1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
You guys remember the vision on Ezekiel and the valley of the dead bones don’t you? Some of you do, some of you are looking at me like you should, but you’re not sure. Ezekiel 37:1-4
1 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.
3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”
4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.
9 Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ”
10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’
How is this relative to our study this morning or men praying? If we don’t pray, if we don’t intercede, why should we hope people will get saved? Why would we evangelize without praying for the people to receive. Our situation today is no different that this vision received by Ezekiel. Eph 2:1
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
The world around us…anybody that has not confessed that they have sinned against God, surrendered to God and asked Him to forgive them, to save them, ARE dead men walking…according to Ephesians chapter two. Men, we need to be praying for them, interceding for their souls, that the Lord would allow them to not just hear, but to receive the Gospel and be born again.
Why is plan A struggling right now? Why is the church struggling to be an effective witness to the world around them? The men aren’t doing this! For the most part, in most churches, if there is a prayer meeting still going on, it is usually the ladies. Paul gives us a couple of other reasons I believe here in his qualifiers. Look at it again with me. 1 Tim 2:8
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
Ok, Paul is not saying the only way we can pray is with our arms above our heads. We can pray that way, we see biblical examples of it, but we also see examples of people on their knees, people on their faces laid out before the Lord, so the text is not addressing our posture of prayer so much as it is our heart in prayer. What kind of hands are we to be lifting up? Holy Hands.
What are Holy Hands? Holy hands are hands that have been cleansed of sin right? It means that you have humbly come before God and acknowledged that He is God and you are not God. Acknowledged that you have sinned against Him, asked for forgiveness that is only available through the blood that Jesus spilled on the cross. Sounds gross I know, but He died, so that we could live. SO, holy hands means that you have asked Jesus to make them holy, to forgive you of your sins. Those are holy hands. Those are hands that have been purified.
It also means that you have been set free from sin in your life. Does that mean that you don’t ever sin, and will never sin. I wish it did. But is does mean that you are not in bondage to sin, being controlled by sin. It means that the same guy that is sitting here on a Sunday morning in prayer meeting is the same guy that is walking around out there.
It means that the guy that is watching a moving with his family on Friday night is the same guy when he’s home alone because they are all at a birthday party somewhere on Saturday night. I could go on and on here, the idea being that there is no hidden sin remaining in your life. Focusing on the positive here men, the message is we have been called to be men of prayer. If your hands aren’t holy, if there is controlling sin, consistent sin, hidden sin in your life, get it out of your life.
How do you do that? Confess it to the Lord. Come up front here after the service and take care of business with God, lay it down on the alter. Get some prayer from one of our elders, allowing them to intercede on your behalf. Get rid of it. Stop toying with it, stop playing with it and get on mission. You are a man of God and have a responsibility to lead His church, to lead your families in prayer with Holy Hands.
We’re in Isaiah on Wednesday evenings, but won’t make it to this passage until the summer, so I want to read it to you. Isaiah 59:1-3
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
God is not struggling to hear, our problem is not so big that he can’t reach it...
But God is a Holy God, and sin separates us from Him. Now if you are a Christian, you have been legally forgiven of all sin, past, present, and future, yet you are still separated relationally when you sin against God and He says that He will not hear, when your holy hands have been defiled.
Paul continues in this verse 1 Tim 2:8
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
without wrath…this word speaks of anger, but not just anger…it is anger with a claim, or what you or I might say is anger that we think is justified. It is a word that can only really be rightly used to describe God’s wrath, because his wrath alone is truly justified, ours is not. Even in this Greek culture, the word was a word that was designated to the gods, to their gods, it couldn’t or wouldn’t be used to describe people because is was a word that spoke of anger with a cause or with a proper claim.
Aren’t we excellent at justifying our anger? I mean I think in our heads we understand that that belongs to the Lord, not us. So when we get angry, we are really good at saying well it’s not my fault because so and so did this, or didn’t do that. I can’t believe Nick said I had to have a lid on my coffee, who does that guy think he is after all?
Or I walked in this morning and the two guys at the door didn’t smile at me, or they kept talking and didn’t say hello. It could have been to let the other one know that the security guy out back had to go home sick, or that they needed them to go clean up the trash in the parking area. But to us, it doesn’t matter because we have a claim! Paul says men when you’re praying you can’t have that…so the Bible tells us what to do about that....
Look what Jesus says, Mark 11:25
25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Do you know what this means? It means what it says it means! Anything means anything, anyone means anyone and it says forgive…now is that easy, no. And you might be thinking, well pastor you made a joke about it, but Nick really did make me put a lid on my coffee and he’s not the boss of me. Or maybe it was something bigger than that, so you feel justified. Let me give you an example from the bible.
One of the very first Deacons, a man named Stephen. He was one of those deacons that cared about people. That’s what deacons do. They truly are servants, take care of the physical needs of the body, make sure you’re comfortable. Can get into the building without falling down on ice. Make sure the trash doesn’t get backed up so bad that it smells in here. But Stephen cared more than about the physical comfort of the people he cared for their souls, so he started sharing with them, about God. Started talking to them about their rebellion against God and it made them mad! The Bible said the words cut to their hearts.
So they pug their ears, they rush him, throw him out of the city and throw rocks at him, not just a few, they stone him to death. You can read about it at the end of Acts 7, but as he is dying do you know what he does? He prays for them Acts 7:60
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Anything and anyone. Men the Lord has given you a high calling to be men of prayer, to be men with holy hands that means your relationships need to be right with God and man. And the two effect each other. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. If you come to the alter and you’re praying at the alter and you remember that their is an issue with one of your brothers, the alter can wait, you need to first go and reconcile with your brother.
SO our vertical relationship with God must be right, as well as our horizontal relationships with one another, if we want to have an effective prayer life. Now, for clarity, when we go and deal with the issue with our brother, it is to forgive and restore the relationship where possible, as much as depends on you.
Right? We don’t go and say, hey, can I talk to you about that thing you did? You were such a jerk! Man, everyone thinks you’re a jerk. You always treat people like this and that is just one of the reasons why no one like you. Ugh, don’t stand so close to me your breath smells like you got your breakfast out of a dumpster, anyway, I forgive you. Hopefully now, you’ll stop messing up my prayers.
What he is saying is forgive them. Treat them as if it had never occurred, love them. Pray for them.
Last piece of this verse, 1 Tim 2:8
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
Men if you want to have an effective prayer life, lift up holy hands, pray without wrath, making sure things are right between you and God and that they are right between you and others. And then he says and pray without doubting. Now this word that is translated doubting is actually dialogismos. You guys have heard the word dialog. We understand that to be communication between two people.
Now some conversations we get into with others, especially it seems others that we may be trying to minister to, aren’t dialogues, they are monologues. All one way. I frequently have phone calls that are not dialogs. Someone calls with a problem they want to complain about, tell me why their mad, why their justified, and what I should do to fix their issue, and have no interest in having a dialog. Ok, I’ll pray for you, by by!
So this word here means to debate or to reason within ones self and to result in creating doubt. The idea then is to reason within and to ultimately then convince yourself to not trust God. It amazes me how Jesus speaks of having faith like a little child. There is such a simplicity there. Kids know Jesus love them. Kids get forgiveness.
We have a tendency to come to faith in Christ, to be blown away that He loves us. To place our faith and trust in Him, and then something happens. And we want to trust God, but we start to doubt. We talk ourselves out of trusting God. James talks about his. He says if you lack faith, just ask God. Here’s how he puts it. James 1:6
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
Some of you know what that is like, you’ve been on a boat in a storm while it is on open water. You maybe you have been caught in a rip tide or an undercurrent. That’s no fun at all, being tossed in different directions like a rag doll. When we pray men, we need to take the lead.
We need to do it in faith, understanding that we are coming into the presence of God to intercede for our families, for our church, for our leaders in the church and in government. We are to have a dialog, where communication is happening. We are listening as well as talking. And we are doing it with holy hands. Meaning if we have sin, we start with that. We deal with that first. If there is an issue with anyone else, for anything, we forgive them.
And we pray in such a way that we are trusting God with our requests and with the results.
We are going to stop there and pick up next week with the tough stuff with all the ladies present. 1 Tim 2:9-12
9 in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
10 but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.