A Faithful Minister
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Open your bibles to 1 Timothy 4…
After looking at the ordering of the church in terms of goals for men and women, the qualifications of leaders, and briefly looking at the heart of someone who falls away, Paul now turns toward the ordering of the minister. He now looks at Timothy and how one who stands out front of the congregation should orient himself.
6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
I will break this section up into three main headings…
1. How successful ministering is defined. 2. Disciplines of a successful minister. 3. The fruit of success.
I. How successful ministering is defined…
Successful ministering may not be defined in the way you think. Many measure pastoral success based on number of people converted in a given time period, or number of baptisms in a given time period, or size of congregation and weekly attendance. But none of those things are decided by the minister. In fact, this is part of the shallow Christianity in our world today. A pastor can manipulate people to “convert them” he can preach an inspiring message that really speaks to you and move you, and he can lead someone into baptism, and he can use various tactics to draw a crowd etc… In fact, this is a part of our fallenness, we are easily deceived… In Paul’s day he addresses this…
11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
So it wasn’t that the apostles were setting themselves up as influencers… People were doing that for them. We follow this pastor because he is so rousing, we follow the teaching of this pastor because he is so nice. We follow this pastor because he has it all together. My friends, this is sinful.
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Rather Paul describes a minister that is faithful. Faithfulness is devotion to what the Lord has called you to do. Do you see the words Paul uses? Command these things…there is an earnestness there. Give attention, do not neglect, take pains, persevere… no where does Paul tell Timothy to keep everyone happy. No where does Paul tell Timothy to work on his oratory skills, and become like the most proficient speakers in the Roman world.
Instead, what Paul is describing is faithfulness. Paul is coaching Timothy to be faithful. This is what the church needs most in terms of leadership out front, faithful men. Not men who are flashy, and have business sense. Not men who have all the answers based on their worldly experience. But men who are nourished on the words of the faith and sound doctrine. Men who have fixed their hope on the living God. Men who know Jesus as the savior of all men. Men who are more devoted to the word of God than the feelings of the congregants.
I have heard of some newer churches making decisions based on need to connect with the younger generation… and some older churches making decisions based on keeping the older people happy… Paul would laugh at such reasoning, for there is only one thing young and old alike need, that is Christ and Christ crucified. He is universal. We don’t need a new way to keep up with the times and a new way that will be sensitive to each people group. We need devotion to Christ and his teaching. Therefore, a good servant of Jesus Christ is faithful, devoted, to the very words he is being nourished by. Which leads me on to the second point happening in this text…
Faithfulness will require intentional spiritual strength training. So What are
II. The disciplines of a faithful minister.
Namely a faithful minister is just that… nourished in the word. Paul lays out some disciplines for this man…
- Verse 7, refuse old wives tales… this is not a dis on older women or wives. This is a reference to refrain from basing your ministry decisions on sayings, or tradition, or what has always worked here” verses on the word of God. of Instead he says train yourself for godliness. Which infers that the myths fit for old women, are one that have not been proven as truth, but are experience based. Instead, Godly training is rooted in truth. Rooted in the word.
- Verse 8 He makes a connection between athletic rigor and the rigor needed from the minister. How many Christian’s profess to be Christian but spend more time teaching their children sports than the Bible? Or commit their money to sports and sports team games etc than the church? Or this, spend more time at the gym than in prayer. That bodily training only goes so far… and yet we spend so much time and energy on it. My analysis is that many of the mainstream pastors that are being influenced also spend too much time in the gym, or on their bodies for fitness, or beautification rather than in the word.
Paul says, not so for the faithful minister… he is devoted to godly training. Which is not only profitable for present life (which bodily training is good for). But godly training is good for the life to come as well. Our bodies will waste away. Our trophies will crumble. Our knowledge of engineering, and finance, and sports teams etc will come to ruin one day, for it will no longer matter.
Godly discipline will fit us for Heaven. It is God’s will for us to be grown in spiritual strength. Also known as sanctification… Paul told the church at Thessolinica
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
Then he closes his letter saying… 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
All the more, the minister, the ones that stand out before are called to do this all the more. Be trained! What in? What does the pastor, minister, need to be trained in?
- Verse 11 Command these things. This is the difference between being a teacher and being a preacher. Preaching is commanding not suggesting. Opening the word of God and saying Thus says the Lord is not a suggestion… Preachers aren’t called to suggest… But to see to it that your voice is heard in seeing to it that the word of God is obeyed. Not only this but,
Verse 12 Modeling… don’t just let them say it is youthful zeal or a wild hair when you preach. Prove Christ! Practice what you preach unashamedly. Which takes away the academic pastor the one who has all the degrees and no pudding. The proof is in the pudding as they say.. meaning, he is smart but has no love. He knows what everyone should be doing, but is not doing it. He is to view himself as needing to prove himself faithful, for the Lord will give him people who are influenced by him. He is to show them how Christ is working in him and how Christ can work in them.
Verse 13 This is the model for preaching! Give attention to public reading of scripture, exhortation, and teaching. Read the scriptures… Then exhort. Exhorting, meaning encourage, reproof, rebuke, correct etc. and teach. The revival teacher Ezra did the same thing, as recorded in Nehemiah 8… Ezra opened the law of God, read it allowed, exhorted the people and he along with the elders helped those who didn’t understand. Read, exhort, teach…
Verse 14 Exercise the gift within you! There has been a gift in him that the people who were choosing him to go to Ephesus saw. They simply affirmed what Christ was doing in Him and agreed with the Spirit of God that Timothy was to go to Ephesus. Paul says, don’t neglect that gift of leadership, or bible teaching, of ministering for Christ! Excerszie it and don’t get caught up in feeling as though something else is more important… Don’t get caught up in civilian affairs, he tells him in his second letter. Instead sharpen your gift…
Verse 15 take pains, Absorb yourself, and let your progress be on display. Be open and live among the people so that they may see you struggling, they may see you toiling and striving to grow in Christ. Be so steeped in Christ, Christ is a concentrate… Do you get this reference? I think of tea. Tea is concentrated. And when you steep it the water, which contains no flavor, is transformed depending on how long the tea is left in there. IN other words, don’t lose your saltiness Timothy. Let it be understood, this man’s blood runs bibline… he speaks Christ. He is consumed with Jesus.
These are the disciplines of a faithful minister. Do they challenge your understadning of a pastor? Well then, the third point here in the text… There is a fruit to faithfulness.
III. The fruit of faithfulness.
The outcome of faithfulness to his heavy calling is salvation both of the minister to those who hear.
Paul says, we toil and strive in this Timothy. Ministry is tough! It can make the most zealous of men quit. It is not a place for those who are not called. It is not a place for the man who thinks, I will preach a sermon a week and then play golf or take part in my favorite hobby the rest of the week.
But it can also be a place where called men grow weary and give up… They might leave the minsitry altogether, or they might grow apathetic and stop commanding and teaching. They might give in to pressure from the wives tales and those who are relentless in their complaining…
Thus a fruit of faithfulness is sanctification for the minister. he has to know this… The more he is absorbed and obsessed in being nurtured by the word of faith and excersixing his gift, the more he will be grown, strengthened, emboldened, etc…
Furthermore, Paul doesn’t simply say a faithful minister will save himself, he says you will save those who hear you! How can he be so bold to say he will save those who hear you? One might interpret this to mean that a faithful minister is one that when he opens his mouth the people just melt, all of them, sold out for Christ! But this is not the truth… A couple things here…
First salvation belongs to the Lord. Even Jesus himself said, John 6:44
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Which is why “converts” should never be the measure of a minister… The minsiter is a servant, a instrument in the hand of the master. He scatters the seed of the word of God and God produces the harvest or allows those seeds to be snatched up.
Secondly, salvation as Paul describes it is not accomplished through man’s word alone. Which is why celebrity pastors are a heinous thing…They see often see themselves as infallible and their followers see them as next to God. But salvation of any saint is not the preachers glory to be had, it is Christs. Paul says in Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
He goes on to say in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God. Isaiah tells us something similar as he records the word of God,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
it is the word of God that will bear fruit and it is God alone that will reap a harvest.
Lastly, understand this. Not all who are listening to sermons actually hear them. Hearing takes the spirit of God. Meaning, some of you hear the commands of the scriptures today and will go home unaffected… you will pay no mind. My friends, your salvation is in dire jeopardy. Either you have never been born again, or you are quenching the Spirit of God. For where the word of God is simply read, not even taught or preached, there is joy and nourishment for the child of God because those are our father’s words. They are delightful. They are life…
In Paul’s eyes, the word was the only authority Timothy had to stand on in his life and in his ministry. It was the rule of life for him as a Christian and the textbook for discipleship in the church. And is sufficient for you in training you to live a godly life. My friends, it was a Christ who reiterates the word spoken prophetically by Moses to Israel, man shall not live… cannot live.. will not live on bread alone. But man lives, man thrives, men are saved, men prove themselves faithful to God by clinging to every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
