The Body of Christ part 3
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I’ve had a number of mentors throughout my years of pastoral ministry: Clint Compton, Kyle Restoule, Neil Mayberry, Don Reeves, Clint Ashley, Mike Kuykendall, just to name a few. But the most important was a man by the name of Omer Irby.
Omer started me in ministry, didn’t give up on me when I was clearly in over my head, and has always been one of my greatest guides. Like all great mentors he would tell me when I was doing something right, but he would also let me know when I was messing up. I needed that. Big time!
I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older (and slightly wiser) in ministry I mimic a few things Omer did without thinking about it. I also have borrowed a number of his sayings.
One of my favorite is this one: I’m not preaching now, I’m meddling.
This morning, I’m warning you in advance, I’m going to be meddling more than once!
So you can thank Omer for that!
We’re on our third week of a series dealing with biblical church leadership.
However, as I said a couple weeks ago, before we wade into the biblical church leadership roles, we need to understand how the body of Christ is built up to maturity in faith and practice.
This is because our main premise when it comes to biblical church leadership is this:
Biblical church leaders are responsible to God to build up the body of Christ to maturity in faith and practice.
So far we’ve seen that biblical church leaders build up the body of Christ to maturity in faith and practice by guiding the church to maintain the unity of the Spirit, and by developing Gospel-centeredness in all areas of their lives and the lives of those they are serving.
Our final lesson when it comes to how the body of Christ is built up to maturity in faith and practice has to do with the most important discipline of any leader and any Christian, and yet the most often ignored, misunderstood, and/or short-changed: prayer.
Body: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Body: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Verses 1-2
In this letter to his dearly loved student, Timothy, Paul has warned him about FTs in Ephesus and expressed clearly the need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be central in his life and ministry.
Then, at the end of chapter 1, Paul charges Timothy to “wage the good warfare.” Here in chapter 2, Paul tells Timothy the first, and most vital weapon to wage the good warfare.
First of all…pray! (i.e. “Get this first when it comes to practicing your faith because everything else hinges on this!”)
Prayers:
Supplications - earnest or urgent requests to God;
Prayers - general petitions to God;
Intercessions - a formal request for something to a higher power, for the benefit of ourselves or someone else;
Thanksgivings - expressing gratitude
This really covers the totality of our prayer life. Sometimes our prayers are urgent, but more often they are more general. Sometimes we are begging God for something in particular for ourselves or others, and sometimes we are simply thanking God for what He has done.
In reality, our prayers should have elements of all of these all the time!
I find that the two that get left off the most are thanksgiving and general prayers. We are pretty good at praying when things are urgent, and will often pray when there is something specific. But thanking God and praying in general often is lacking in many believers. (Meddling)
...made for all people...
Kings and all who are in high positions...
Consider this: there were no Christian kings and very few Christians in high positions at that time. Thus, Paul is instructing to pray for pagans.
Notice, he didn’t say, “Pray for the folks you agree with.” “Pray for those whose politics most alight with yours.” No. He’s in essence saying, “Pray for the guys who persecute you, who cheat you, who even hate you. Pray for the leaders you didn’t vote for and/or you don’t approve of.” Ouch. (More meddling!)
Why?
That the church can go about their ministry in peace and quiet, living godly and dignified lives.
Basically, for the sake of the Gospel!
This is a prayer against persecution…but wait!
It is much harder to live godly and dignified lives when being persecuted…yes, many have done it well, but many others have not!
But this is also, as we will see, a reminder to pray for everyone because we don’t know who will come to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Verses 3-4
If something is good and pleasing in the sight of the God who saves us, then it ought to be a major priority of our lives, wouldn’t you say?
What would that be? Praying for all people!
So, is praying for all people a major priority of your life? (Yep, more meddling)
Don’t be like the guy who used to say to me, “Yeah pastor, you’re right about that, I should be doing that…I’m not gonna, but I know I should be!”
Verse 4 is a troubling verse.
If we are not careful, we can interpret this as suggesting universalism (i.e. that everyone will be saved).
This flies in the face of other things that Paul says throughout this letter:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
What’s most vital to understand here is that there is a big difference between God desiring something and God willing something.
This doesn’t say that God wills that everyone would be saved, or everyone would be saved.
What it suggests is that God would want all to come to a saving knowledge, while also acknowledging that not all will.
Meaning, God takes no pleasure in people being eternally separated from Him in hell. Many will be, but God doesn’t take pleasure in this.
As one writer aptly put it: “…God retains love for all whom he has made, despite their rejection of him.”
What does this have to do with the context? (Remember, a text without and context is a pretext!)
It goes back to the charge to pray for all people. Not just our friends, but for everyone that we possibly can.
Because we don’t know who will come to the knowledge of the truth.
Sometimes the last person you might expect to come to Christ will…and, shockingly, they will often do amazing things for the Lord!
Charles Colson...
Thus, we shouldn’t withhold prayers for anyone, because we don’t know what God is going to do in someone’s life.
Verses 5-6
Paul brings it all back to the Gospel. Jesus is the only “ransom” worthy to pay for man’s sins.
Ransom here is a hapax legomenon…think about what a ransom is: a payment for buying back someone who has been kidnapped...
Ransom for all? Again this follows the line of thinking we were just talking about.
Jesus gave Himself as a ransom, or payment, for the sins of all those who will come to faith in Him.
If His ransom was truly for all people, then regardless of faith, all people would be saved, because of the efficacy of Jesus blood. (Efficacy means the ability to produce the desired result. The efficacy of Jesus blood means that when Jesus died, His blood paid the price for the sins of everyone who it is applied to by faith.)
This is what Paul teaches throughout the rest of this letter, as well as every other letter he wrote, and it’s what we find throughout the whole of the NT.
Again, it all comes back to the call for prayer.
We pray for all because we know that Jesus Christ can save the most vile offenders. But they must come to a saving knowledge of the truth. And that’s what we pray for!
Verse 7
Paul ends this by pointing out that bringing this Gospel message to the Gentiles was the reason he was called.
Talk about a people who the Jewish Christians would have never believed would come to a saving knowledge of God!
Why does Paul say, “I am telling the truth, I am not lying”?
While the text doesn’t say, I believe that Paul intended this letter to be read by more people than just Timothy. The church was being influenced by FTs in Ephesus, some of whom probably were attacking Paul’s call and mission.
So What?
So What?
Biblical church leaders are responsible to God to build up the body of Christ to maturity in faith and practice.
Biblical church leaders are responsible to God to build up the body of Christ to maturity in faith and practice.
They do this by: Praying consistently and persistently for and with God’s people.
They do this by: Praying consistently and persistently for and with God’s people.
What do we pray consistently and persistently for?
We pray for one another.
We pray for one another.
Praying using the directory...
Getting on the prayer chain...
We pray for the lost.
We pray for the lost.
Pray for at least three lost people daily...
Who do you have a relationship with that is lost?
What do we pray?
We pray for people to come to a saving knowledge of the truth.
We pray for ourselves that we would be willing to share that truth.
We pray that we would be able to preach and teach the Gospel to people unhindered by the governing authorities.
Is this just for leaders?
Of course not. But the leaders are to model a prayer-filled life.
A prayer-less leader is no Christian leader.
I often say that I have four biblical imperatives as a pastor: preaching and teaching God’s Word; equipping the saints; protecting the flock; and prayer. But, the order of importance is:
Prayer; preaching & teaching God’s Word; equipping the saints; and protecting the flock. Because without the first one, I can’t do any of the other ones. And without modeling the first one, my people will never truly be fed by God’s Word, equipped for ministry and they will be unsafe in a world full of wolves.
Now, on the other hand, if a Christian leader is modeling a prayer-filled life, then the flock are without excuse when it comes to praying consistently and persistently.
Yep, I started with meddling and now I’m ending with meddling!