Know Fruitful Doctrine
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Scripture
Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can more like You, and more made into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much, that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all to often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possible can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope:
2 To Timothy, my true son in the faith.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine 4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. 5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.
8 But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. 9 We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral and males who have sex with males, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which was entrusted to me.
Context
Today, we begin a new sermon series through the book of first Timothy. It is my intent through the Holy Spirit’s leading to see this entire book through, from beginning to end, so reading this rich book of the Bible would be a good idea for everyone.
This book belongs in a sub series/genera of the Bible called the Pastoral Epistles. These of course are letters of instruction from a Spiritual Father, the Apostle Paul, to his spiritual sons whom he would be a close mentor to. In This case, it is to Timothy, to which Paul would write another letter and an Pastoral Epistle was written to Titus as well. This particular letter was written from Paul to Timothy, around the 60’s AD most likely 62-64 AD, some 30 years after Jesus’ death on the cross and just a few short years before Paul’s execution in Rome for his actions while being a witness to the Roman world for Christ.
In this Particular letter, Paul is instructing Timothy and what to do while he is charged with correcting many wrongs in the church of Ephesus while Paul was away to Macedonia/Greece. You may recall, how when we went through the 7 churches in Revelation, that the Church in Ephesus was one of the churches that was addressed. And that address from Christ to this church in Ephesus would have come less than 10, perhaps 6-8 years after this letter was sent to Timothy.
This letter from Christ to the church at Ephesus reads: “ “Write to the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you[b] and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in[c] the paradise of God.
So, clearly in the years that would follow, the church in Ephesus would root out all of the false teachers and bad doctrines, but did not cling as close to Christ as they should have, their love for Jesus had fallen flat and Jesus warned them that if they didn’t fix this he would remove their lampstand, that is no longer make them a church. Jesus has need for churches that love Him, not churches and believers that forget about Him and make themselves and their preferences the most important thing.
This leads us to our sermon theme/thesis that Both Bible teachers and believers should focus on fruitful doctrine that points towards Christ and not distractions. To not do so, is to leave yourself and ourselves open to condemnation by God, and misdirecting believers, leaving them with a weakened or lesser faith than Christ desires for all of His children to have. What then is doctrine? It is, “The body of teachings of the Christian faith concerning its central beliefs. Doctrine is grounded in Scripture and aims to maintain the integrity of Christianity by distinguishing it from non-Christian beliefs. Doctrine is of central importance in Christian preaching and teaching in that it equips the people of God for effective and faithful service in his world.” So, let’s jump into the text this week where, From the text, I want you to see, know, share, and teach fruitful doctrine.
Message
The first fruitful doctrine to know, share, and teach is to: Encourage other believers (1-2)
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope:
2 To Timothy, my true son in the faith.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
This beginning section is consistent in many ways with how Paul would start one of his letters, with a warm greeting, though usually his greeting is longer and more eloquent, which shows that Paul wanted to get right into what he wanted to say because it was very very important. Paul starts with sharing who he is, an apostle of Jesus (in whom we have our hope) because of Jesus command and appointment. He then addresses it, to Timothy, who he calls a true son in the faith; meaning Paul had a very close and father like faith relationship with Timothy. He then gives a salutation to Timothy, wishing the grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ upon him.
We will see this theme of encouragement being given to other believers in other places and in much more detail later on in this epistle, but it’s good to note right here how Paul addresses Timothy. You see, many commentators have studied and found that Timothy, as a leader was new and often more shy then he needed to be, we even see later in this letter that Paul tells him to have courage and not fear the people who oppose Him. While Paul could have sent this letter with a stern and harsh tone, that is not how he does it. He encourages Timothy, is younger brother, his son in faith. In fact, this whole letter is a letter of encouragement and building up, teaching and equipping Timothy for the good work that is before him, not degrading Him and pointing out only what is going wrong or what is bad. Why didn’t Paul do this, when he very well could have and had the apostolic authority to? Because it isn’t helpful, it isn’t useful, and it only discourages people.
As a leader, Paul knew that he couldn’t hold Timothy accountable for the same depth of faith that Paul had. Paul was the elder, the older, the more mature. Timothy was the younger, the less experienced, and the maturing. To compare Timothy to himself, Paul would have only built up a callus and non God loving disciple who had no reason for hope or improvement. The believer that does that, will build the same as well, followers of Christ with no joy who level out in their faith because they see the hope in improvement and a close relationship with God. You have probably heard me say this many times before, but all Christians should be in various types of relationship with other believers for their own good. I often call this the Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy way of discipleship. That is Paul is the elder and is teaching someone younger, all believers should be actively raising up and encouraging a someone who is less far along in their faith. Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, was an equal to Paul (their were both counted among the apostles) and as an equal he could encourage Paul during the hard times and share/go through life with Him, so we should be both encouraged by and encouraging equals in our faith lives. Finally, we have Timothy, who is the younger, the student who comes underneath a teacher/mentor to show him better along the way of sanctification and glorifying Christ in His life, so we must all come under someone further along who can instruct us. So, a healthy disciple should be actively Teaching the younger, encouraging their peers, and learning from someone further along. All of this is done so that we can better understand, keeping our eyes on Him and not other distractions. So, believer encourage other believers, come along side them, and show them that they are not alone in their faith walks, you are not alone in your faith. Both Bible teachers and believers should focus on fruitful doctrine that points towards Christ and not distractions. So, encourage those that do.
The next item of doctrine to see, know, share, and teach is to : Stay on task (3-7)
3 As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine 4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. 5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.
Paul here reminds and tells Timothy to stay in Ephesus so that he can instruct people not to teach false doctrine or pay attention to things that are fruitless. That is, many so called teachers were coming in the church here and teaching things that were distractions from God’s plan of faith and that caused arguments and even division among the church. Paul shares with Timothy what the goal is of his instruction, which is to teach others to love. Love What? Love God and Love People, from a pure heart, good conscience, with a sincere faith. Many of these teachers, or perhaps lets call them unteachers, were bringing up useless things that served no real purpose, that is other than the purpose of Satan to try to both distract and disrupt the church of God and His Saints. These bad teachers, were so bad, that it seemed like they were even unsure of what they were teaching, not knowing what they were saying.
As a church, and as believers, we have to “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” The main thing, of course is Christ. The main thing is pointing to, or glorifying Christ, who Himself is pointing towards God the Father, who sent God the Holy Spirit to empower you. To empower you to do what? To point to God the Son (Christ) who is pointing to God the Father, and so on and on and on.
Unfortunately, churches and believers both old and new and ancient and modern have made the mistake, a mistake that we that you must be on guard about, of focusing on the wrong things. In Timothy’s time, it seemed to be genealogies that most likely led back to King David, and Christ, and the other big names of the Bible. These of course, served no real focus and caused division with the church as others used these genealogies to show themselves as distinct and more important, though they weren’t, than others. For hundreds of years, the Christian church focused to much on building it’s own wealth, building great cathedrals, making the priests seem mystical and magical, and even elevating one man both in riches and influence that His word had the same authority as The Christ. In very modern times, we see false teachers try to predict when the end of times will come or what the moons mean, taking advantage of weak brethren to make a quick buck. In seminaries, we can often see misguided hardliners on 2nddary and tertiary doctrines that it causes arguments in the classroom and discussion board and division among the students and church leaders. All of these, are influences by Satan, who tries to distract us on what we have different (just a few small things) when we need to be focusing on what we have in common (Christ).
That being said, we must, just as Paul is instructing Timothy, stand against what is false and wrong; not seeking to destroy others and “have a leg up,” but to in love show them where the error is so that they can correct it and repent. One common way that modern churches and church leaders do this, is to have what is called a “Statement of Faith.” This statement of faith is a hard, written statement about what we believe and what we teach about God, about Christ, about His commandments, and how this applies to the modern believer. When a church has a statement of faith, the believers there are all together saying, this is the essential doctrines that we affirm, believe, and teach because we see them as fruitful for those living a life in Christ. This exist to keep us on task and not distracted on untrue and unhelpful things. So, we have to ask ourselves as a church, what is our statement of faith that keeps us on task. Do we have one? Is it sound doctrine? Either way, we have to know that we have a responsibility to have a good one because Both Bible teachers and believers should focus on fruitful doctrine that points towards Christ and not distractions.
Another important item of doctrine to see, know, share, and teach is to : Conform to the gospel (8-11)
8 But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. 9 We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral and males who have sex with males, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which was entrusted to me.
Paul makes a point clear here that someone could have taken out of context and morphed into something that he wasn’t saying. Paul says, that the law is good if used correctly, as he wrote about further in Romans 7:12. The improper way of using the law, is a overly legalistic use of the law that tries to nit pick at a person and makes them go through a million different hoops to find any grace. For us, we know that we find grace, we have grace and are forgiven when we accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He died for sins and that we are forgiven when we put our faith in Him. Instead of being a legalistic set of rules that must be observed or else, Paul clearly points out that the law is to show us that we all fall short; that no one is perfect, that everyone sins and is in need of a savior. No, not one single person besides the man Christ Jesus was or will be able to follow The Law Perfectly. The law exists to show us how flawed we are and far we fall from achieving the perfection of God without God’s intervention. The law is for anyone and everyone who is against sound teaching that conforms us to the gospel of the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
There is a partnering piece of scripture of what Paul was talking about here, it is recorded in Acts chapter 20, specifically Acts 20:17-38. In this portion of scripture, Paul is in Ephesus and encourages the elders of the that church, teaches the people more about Jesus, and solemnly warns them soon (very soon, like just after he leaves) people will come into the flock of the church and deceive them; acting like innocent sheep but are dangerous and murderous wolves seeking to devour the church and distort the truth, trying to steal God’s glory and make it their own. This is exactly what has happen to this church at Ephesus and that is exactly what Paul has charged Timothy to combat.
Instead of conforming to the gospel, these false teachers wanted everyone to conform to the law and rules, to superstition, and the study of genealogies. They were off task, and the main thing, Jesus Christ and His Gospel, was not the main thing. So, how then do we conform to the gospel? What does it mean to conform to the gospel? Well, for starters you to have know it, that we are all sinners and separated from God and without God stepping in through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we cannot and will not be forgiven of the wrath that we deserve because of our rebellion and sin. Once you understand this, you also have to understand why you were created believer, you and every person you have ever met was made for the purpose of bringing God honor and glory.
When you combine these two facts, that your purpose in life is to glorify God and you see that you can’t do that without Jesus and that His sacrifice for you means you are forgiven, then you realize something. That is, in the light of this truth, all things, I mean everything, in your life that isn’t Jesus is minor, it is petty, it is unimportant in the light and comparison of eternity. That’s not to say, that God doesn’t care about you and your struggles, He does as a beloved child, but that He is much more interested in you conforming Yourself into the image and likeness of Christ so that He would be glorified through you than anything else. This is what a good teacher and student of the bible should teach and learn, that we should conform, make ourselves like Christ. Not that we will ever be perfect like Him, but that He is our example to follow, act like, and think like. So, believer, you have to be asking yourself daily as a regular spiritual discipline, where am I not Christ like? Where is the gospel not enough for me and where am I wanting more? Where am I believing Satan’s lie that God is holding out on you, which is the same lie He told Adam and Eve when they first sinned? And what am I going to do about it so that God can be glorified through me and my changed heart?
Conclusion
Know this truth believer and non believer alike in the room, you have not done anything so big that Jesus cannot and will not forgive it if you turn to Him. Just as a parent does with their child if they love them, He wants you to own up to your sin and make it right, repent and believe and no longer hold onto that nagging darkness you can’t kick, and instead feel freedom and newness of life while you honor and glorify your God. As you do this, encourage the other believers around you to do the same, and stay on task which is to conform yourself to the gospel.
With all of that being said, I would be remised if I didn’t share the Gospel (or the Good News) of Jesus Christ with you today, for the benefit of both believer and non-believer in the room. This begins all the way back at the beginning, God created everything, and he created all things good. He gave His most treasured creation (us, mankind) the ability of free will, the ability to choose Him or rebellion. Man was deceived by Satan and desired to be like God and sinned (or rebelled against God). This brought the curse of sin and death into the world and it remains with us to this day; which separates us from God. God though, loved His creation (mankind) so much that He worked through history to redeem all mankind that would turn to Him from sin so that we can experience a full and perfect relationship with Him again. This was through the perfect and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the pay for sins. Accepting this free gift from God, makes you new and forgiven. All you have to do accept this free gift by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus and you will get to experience the good side of God’s justice forever. So, now that you know this, you can no longer plead ignorance. I invite and urge you to respond today non-believer and apply this to every part of your life believers in the audience today.
With that, Let’s conclude. Brothers and Sisters, I love you all. During our last song together, if you need prayer, or want to talk more about Jesus, or have something you want to talk about, I’ll be here, don’t be afraid to come on down. Let’s pray. Father God, we thank You for who You are and what You are doing to us here in this place. May whatever it is that You are doing in each of heart here, continue as we leave go out into the world this week. Change us, mold us, make us, re-arrange us, that we can be both better lovers of You and better showers of You. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.
