02) 1 Timothy Sermon
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we started the 1 Timothy the letter written from Paul to his younger friend and brother in Christ. We looked the background of the relationship of the Apostle Paul and his Son in the faith as he calls him. These two men were very familiar with each other as they traveled on foot for years together.
We pick up today in verse 3
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.
Before we jump into Paul’s instruction to Timothy we need to take a look at history of the church of Ephesus.
The letter is written to Timothy as he is a pastor of the church in Ephesus. This city is located in what we call Turkey today. At the time it likely has a population in the range of 250,000 people. If you exclude the Spokane valley and other cites outside of Spokane, it makes Ephesus 10% larger than Spokane. And 2 1/2 times bigger than Spokane valley. It was a very important city in the Roman Empire due to size as the 3rd largest in the Roman Empire. The city culture, trade, and religious activities surrounded idol worship.
The temple of Artemis was the center and the pride of the city. Take 120 years to build a completely marble structure 20ft wider on all sides than a football field. It was called one of the 7 wonders of the world. Much of the culture revolved around this structure. It was even used as a bank.
This was the epitome of the city where Timothy is at. The church was well known to both Paul and Timothy at the time of the letter. The church was started 15-20 years after the death of Jesus as Paul was traveling on his second missionary journey.
18 After staying for some time, Paul said farewell to the brothers and sisters and sailed away to Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken. 19 When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and debated with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined, 21 but he said farewell and added, “I’ll come back to you again, if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.
Paul left Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus to guide the new church that had been started there. They would be joined by another strong disciple named Apollos.
24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native Alexandrian, an eloquent man who was competent in the use of the Scriptures, arrived in Ephesus.
Paul would return and on his 3rd journey and would spend 2 to 3 years there growing and developing the church personally.
8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
He spoke the truth to the Jews in the synagogue for three months and they would not listen. They would start to slander him so he withdrew to a lecture hall to continue sharing the truth about Jesus and the Gospel message that he proclaimed.
It says that in those two years all of the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord. There was an impact as the truth was shared to the city. People were being confronted with their idol worship and lives of sin and they were repenting and believing. They were being saved by faith in the good news of Jesus and it was impacting the city.
18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, 19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.
The word of the Lord spread and prevailed. It was impacting the community. So much so that it made some people really angry. When you live in a city that is filled to the brim with idol worship of false gods and you preach of the one true God and people turn from idol worship to Godly worship who is going to be impacted. Those that make money off of idol worship and that is exactly what happened.
23 About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way. 24 For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen. 25 When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business. 26 You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods. 27 Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin—the very one all of Asia and the world worship.” 28 When they had heard this, they were filled with rage and began to cry out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed all together into the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions.
Paul would leave Ephesus and go to Macedonia for a period of time before passing by again and stopping on an island close to the city.
The church has been established, has good leadership, and is growing and Paul has personal relationships with the leaders that have been put in place here. We see the care and friendship among the leader of the church as Paul gathers them for a final farewell.
17 Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church. 18 When they came to him, he said to them, “You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, 19 serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I did not hesitate to proclaim anything to you that was profitable and to teach you publicly and from house to house. 21 I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 “And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, 23 except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. 24 But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. 25 “And now I know that none of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will ever see me again. 26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27 because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole plan of God.
He gathers the leaders of the church and says you know that I did not hesitate to tell you the truth and taught you all that was good. And that was the testimony about repentance toward God and faith in Jesus as Lord. Paul stands before his students and disciples with a clean conscience. That the whole plan of God has been taught. His conscience is clean as he has wisely spent his time teaching what was important. The truth of God. But he gives them this warning.
Acts 20:28–38 (CSB)
28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them. 31 Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each one of you with tears. 32 “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. ... 36 After he said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. 37 There were many tears shed by everyone. They embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 grieving most of all over his statement that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
He knows that where he goes chains will follow but he is compelled by the guidance of the Holy Spirit to follow the will of God. We see that he has deep relationships with group of elders. They say farewell and Paul continues until he is in prison where He writes what we call the book of Ephesians.
The church is close to have been in place for a decade and when you read the letter we see a very positive letter. As the church is maturing the letter is filled with direction to the elders of the church on the doctrines of the church. What should the gathering of believers look like. What are the roles and and how should believers conduct themselves in the church.
We see great men and women of God being used in the work in Ephesus. Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla and Apollos have all spent time there. A organized church with good leaders.
But a few years later Paul pens this letter to Timothy. Something has changed.
The Warning
The Warning
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.
Paul urges Timothy to remain in Ephesus. We don’t know for sure but it seems that Timothy has thought about moving on from Ephesus. And is giving him the task of staying and fighting the fight.
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight,
His work here is not done. The difference between the letter earlier to the church and this letter to Timothy is that there was a group of people “certain people” as he calls them that need to be instructed to stop teaching false doctrine. The word instruct seems to convey a passive training. This is not the case. The word here means to order as with a person with authority.
Timothy is a person of authority as Paul’s right hand man and this letter to back his words, Timothy is to oder the people stop teaching false doctrine. What is a false doctrine? In Paul’s teaching it is anything contrary or divergent from the original teaching that he gave as an apostle.
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! 9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! 10 For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it.
He is told to command these people to stop and not to pay to myths and endless genealogies. Myths are simply made up stories that people were making up to gain a following for their own personal desires. Endless genealogies is likely a preoccupation with following back family trees to promote some type of superiority or defence of some theory that people were leaning on for personal gain.
7 But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness.
The church in Crete was dealing with this.
13 This testimony is true. For this reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith 14 and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth.
So was Peter.
16 For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Paul give his reason for wanting these removed from the church.
4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.
The false doctrines, silly myths, and genealogies were promoting speculation. Theories and ideas.
THE WHAT IF GAME.
Find the kids arguing over two ideas that cannot even happen. They were speculating.
9 But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, because they are unprofitable and worthless.
The empty speculations. The what if game is the opposite of God’s Plan. This work has a hard time translating but it is a word that has the idea of administration or stewardship of a household. Basically the desire of men to fill in the blanks with made up stories or stray from the truth of the word, does not lead down a path of a church in order. A church in order must operate in faith.
We see these three things in history as the methods that lead to false religions. A person has a new revelation. God spoke to me and you need to “plant your financial seed”. No he did not. We see distortions of genealogies or distortions of the word of God. People say the bible isn’t truth it is just a book that records some events in the past and what is taught is not the words of God. If that is true then there is no basis for a person’s faith.
Something must be true. God will never speak to anyone and contradict his word. That is the easiest way to find a false teacher. A teacher that convinces you to heed his or her words and not the words of God is a false teacher.
Later Paul with tell Timothy
3 If anyone teaches false doctrine and does not agree with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that promotes godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
We will be going over false teaching multiple times in the book of Timothy and will continue to do so any time you are reading the bible. Men and women have strayed from the true throughout biblical history. But the path is narrow.
20 My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. 21 Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body. 23 Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. 24 Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously. 25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. 26 Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. 27 Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.
It is likely that the issue was elder in the church has strayed from the path of truth and were now just making stuff up. In the process God’s desire for the church was being corrupted by these people.
This will be the major theme of this letter. It was Paul’s urging to Timothy to fish this fight. To wage this battle. It was a battle over truth over word. God’s words and man’s words.
3 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
The powerful weapons of our warfare is the truth. The sword spoken of in the armor of God. And what are the strongholds that are to be demolished. They are the arguments and proud thing that are raised up against the knowledge of God. Taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
The wolves that Paul warned them about have appeared.
29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them.
There will always be a battle for the truth. The hard part is that many of them will be cunningly deceptive. They will seem like they are telling the truth But Paul gives the goal of the command that Timothy has been charged with giving.
The Goal
The Goal
1 Timothy 1:5 (CSB)
5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
The goal of the command is love. False teaching does not love. Those that have put their faith in Christ testify of that truth alone. That the salvation from the condemnation that we deserve as all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin builds in every persons life and it is the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice that gives hope that we have been saved. That Jesus as the perfect sacrifice and the perfect priest reconciled sinful man back to himself. If this is the only way to be saved and that is what the bible teaches. Then the least loving thing a person can do, willingly or unwillingly, actively or passively, is to lead someone away from that truth. False teaching is a love of self and not a true or pure love.
The goal is leader who loves the flock of the good shepherd.
Love from a pure heart.
22 Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.
1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; 2 for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers. 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
Love from a good conscience.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
16 I always strive to have a clear conscience toward God and men.
12 Indeed, this is our boast: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom but by God’s grace.
15 To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled.
A love the does not have guilt attached to it. It has done what God has commanded. This a full love that aligns with God. It reveals the characteristics of 1 Corinthians 13.
A love from a pure heart, good conscience and a sincere faith.
5 I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now, I am convinced, is in you also.
The idea here is an unhypocritical faith. it i pure and true. It is a faith that is stated and lived out. Spoken confidence in God and a life that lives in that confidence. These men were full of much talk but they were not living in accordance to the teachings of the apostles.
14 I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. 15 But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The goal of the correction that Paul was desiring was genuine love. The actions of these leaders were far from loving. They were causing confusion, dissension, they were making money off of them, among other things.
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.
The Issue
The Issue
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.
These men have turned away from a genuine love and were desiring to be teachers. They went around the community of the church speaking as rabbis and teachers but Paul says that do not know what they are saying. They were speaking out of their own understanding and in so doing so they were leading people astray.
But as they were making a mess of what they were teaching and since they had chosen to distort the law Paul wanted to make sure that he was clear that is was not the law that was the issue. it was the false teachers that were distorting it.
7 The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
The Law is good and holy. It restrained behavior, It to revealed sin and to show that humanity was in need of a savior and demonstrated what is pleasing to God. But that no man no matter their intentions or will power they would never be able to live in accordance with all of the Law.
10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
Only Jesus lived a life without sin and in obedience to the entire law. And in the new covenant the law is written on a believer’s heart. It is still good and holy but we saved not by works of the law but by faith in Jesus. In context of the Ephesian church the law was not the issue.
So he goes into a picture of who the law was for.
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.
He give 3 pairs of descriptions.
The law breakers of God. Lawless and Rebellious
The disobedient to God. ungodly and the sinful
The irreligious. The unholy and irreverent.
6 words describing the fallen man that is revealed in their behaviors and attitudes towards God’s commands. and he is paralleling the 1st four commands of the 10 commandments.
The continues basically following different examples of breaking the 10 commandments.
They may be a correlation to the specific examples here in relation to the teachings that were being taught that were directly or indirectly in opposition to the law. Because he ends with
1 Timothy 1:10–11 (CSB)
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.
What is at stake here is the truth. The word’s of God being distorted and changed and the impact on the church when that happens.
This the the charge that Paul has given Timothy to go into the church and to address false teachers with the goal that the leaders of the church would lead out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
Conclusion
Conclusion
After this letter years later Paul would write his second letter to Timothy. Encouraging to continue the fight. There are still certain people that have gone astray and he will still have to deal with them.
Tradition tells us that the Apostle John would be a leader in the the church in his later years and that it is likely that he was serving in Ephesis when he wrote 1,2 3 John. Epistles that refere to more correcting of different false teachings that had taken hold and he was correcting.
The last reference we have in the scripture of the church here is in revelation.
1 “Write to the angel 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 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 the paradise of God.
By the 2nd century it is believed that the church was no more.
This church has Paul as its founder and had some of the great teachers and saints of the time part of the history of the church. Even having men who walked with God literally or met him on the road and had his life changed completely, there was still false teaching, myths, speculations, empty words, genealogies, and unqualified people wanting to be the teachers of the church. There will constantly be a battle for the truth.
The pride of men and women and their own sinful desires will lead people to come up with new ways of saying and interpreting the words of God. We must be wary as these teachers do not love the people the preach to. They love themselves and the worlds reaction to their ideas.
Just because a church is big does not mean that God is blessing that church. Some of the biggest congregations in the nation do not teach the gospel that Paul taught.
3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
I cannot say whether it is worse today or not but I think we can say that the information age we live in may be better called the misinformation age. In Paul’s time you only had access to the false teachings that were in the little circle of life that you lived in. You had to leave your home to hear something new.
Today we have the false teachings of the past and present of the entire world at the tip of our fingers. We have so much information that it is like slugging through the swamp to find the truth. The problem is that many people are comfortable in either ignorance of the truth or they have taken out the beach chair and the cooler and have decided to enjoy the swamp. but we are clled to pursue the truth and to walk in the light and to imitate Jesus.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.