Get in the Game
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Intro
Intro
Tonight we are going to take a look at 1 Timothy. This is one of three letters that Paul wrote that are called the Pastoral Epistles. The three pastoral epistles are 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. Paul is writing to Timothy to give him direction on how, as a young man, he should lead the church he is pastoring in Ephesus. Timothy and Paul met on one of his missionary journeys. His mother and grandmother were very faithful Jewish followers of Christ and his father was a Greek. Paul ended up taking Timothy under his wing and took him along on his missionary journeys. We see Paul and Timothy do all kids of things together including writing books of the Bible.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker
1 and 2 Timothy are not written by Timothy but are letters that Paul wrote to Timothy after they had to be separated for a time for reasons we will talk more about once we get into the text. But this relationship for Paul and Timothy is one that serves as an example for us as to how we should interact in the Body of Christ. Before we ever read a word or turn a page we look at this relationship and ask the question,
Do I have a Paul figure in my life that mentors me and disciples me into being a closer follower of Jesus?
Do I have a Timothy figure in my life that I mentor into being a closer follower of Jesus?
If we are honest these types of relationships are lacking in the church for all kinds of reasons but they are super important relationships to have if we want to grow and mature in our faith.
The reason we are going to jump into 1 Timothy is because I want you, as young people, to learn how to represent the faith well. The steps you take to grow in your faith today will mature into the type of Christ follower you will be in the future. All the habits and disciplines you set for yourself now will help you in the long run.
I am a big sports fan and so when I think of this I always think of guys like Kobe Bryant. Kobe had an insane work ethic. He would put up thousands of shots a day and would practice playing basketball for hours everyday and it made him an all time great basketball player, but he also had Phil Jackson as a coach helping him learn and grow in those habits and disciplines. Timothy and Paul are an example of what hard work and good coaching can look like in living out our faith and I want to invite you to not just love Jesus and grow in your relationship with Jesus on accident, but to do it on purpose. Grow with the understanding that one day you will be the ones leading the church.
Greeting
Greeting
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I love Paul’s introductions to his letters because they give us a good sense of where Paul finds his identity. Our culture and specifically your generation is desperate to find inclusivity and connection and the way you do that is through identifiers. What you identify as can either find you a community or exclude you from a community. I like this hobby, I am a blank. I root for this team, I am a blank. I am a fan of this show, I am a blank. This need for identity can be unhealthy especially when our need for identity comes at the expense of what is right and wrong. I need this community so I will do x, y, and z so that I can qualify. I’ll smoke, I’ll drink, I’ll steal, I’ll entertain sexual thoughts and behaviors because it makes gives me a piece I am desperate for and that is connection and intimacy. We are in a desperate search for worth and value. To feel loved and included. And Paul shows us that our worth, our value, the love we need, the hope we are chasing is all found in Christ. Who Paul is, his very being, has been anchored on who Jesus is and what He has done, and that is where our hope should be too. When we identify with Christ and allow Him to change our lives we can have confidence knowing that the God who has created us knows exactly what we need and is generous in His love towards us.
Paul is deeply connected to God who has saved Him, who has redeemed his soul for eternity, but more so this faith that Paul has not only puts him in community with God but with Timothy also. Paul calls Timothy his true child in the faith. Timothy is family to Paul. When we put our faith in Jesus, like Paul, we are brought into a relationship with our creator and made to be in community with other believers in what we call the Church with a capital C. Here at Central we are a church lower case c that is just a small part of God’s big C Church that is made up of anyone who has put their faith in Jesus and been transformed by the Gospel.
Where do you find your identity?
Are you connected and active in God’s capital C Church?
Warning Against False Teachers
Warning Against False Teachers
In this first section of the letter Paul is going to lay out a situation that Timothy needs to deal with in the church he is leading. In Ephesus there are people who have entered into the church under the disguise of identifying with Christ, so that they can manipulate and hurt people within the community. As a leader and a pastor in the Church Paul is challenging Timothy to stand up for the truth and to protect the people who are genuinely following Jesus from being led astray by these fake Christians.
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
Paul tells Timothy to stay at the church of Ephesus to charge these false teachers and leaders to remain faithful to the true Gospel. The problem is that there were teachers who were taking the clear and objective truth of the Gospel and distorting it with myths and superstitious speculations that confused the truth and were leading people away from the hope found in Jesus. The way of salvation is clear. The only way you can be forgiven of your sins is by trusting in Jesus as Lord and Savior. There is no hoops you have to jump through. No level of purity you can achieve to earn salvation. It is a free gift from God that was purchased by Jesus’ death and resurrection. They were taking that beautiful and simple truth and causing doubts and speculation.
Paul says later in chapter 6 that the people who are doing this are arrogant morons who love to start fights and lead people astray. That they use the appearance of godliness to make themselves rich, they hate the truth and love to do what is evil. That is some powerful words to describe their motivation. What is Paul’s motivation?
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Paul’s motivation in calling Timothy to stand against these people is so that everything Paul, Timothy, the church, everything that everyone does will come from a place of love, integrity, and authentic faith. This is the exact opposite of who these false teachers were. They identified with love but they were teaching hate.
If you have put your identity in Christ does your character and motivations match what you identify as?
If we claim to follow Jesus and our actions don’t reflect that are we being false teachers to the people we represent our faith to?
We will never be perfect, but if we claim to be Christian and live a lifestyle that is against what Christ how Christ has called us to live then we need to repent and follow Jesus better. How can we claim to love Jesus while living a lifestyle of immorality. What do the habits and practices of your life reveal about your relationship with Jesus. Are you a gossip? Do you talk bad about people behind their backs? Do you have a fowl mouth or make crude jokes? Are you an angry person who holds grudges and hates people? Are you greedy and selfish? Are you arrogant and prideful? Are you lustful in the way you think and look at other people? Are you a liar?
Paul urges Timothy and us, that our lifestyle be anchored and rooted in Christlike love, integrity, and authentic faith. Not a faith that is in word only, but one that shows up in everything we say and do. If Jesus is our King, His governance should begin to show up in every area of our lives that He rules over, which is every part of us. When I bought my house there wasn’t a room in that house that didn’t belong to me. The kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, all of it belongs to me. Likewise, when Christ purchases us, by the blood of the cross, there is not a single part of us that doesn’t belong to Him.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Here is the false teachers intentions
Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
These false teachers not only live a life that is contrary to the Gospel, but they have positioned themselves as experts in all things spiritual. Write this down.
Righteous people don’t look more religious. They look more like Jesus.
Sometimes the people that position themselves to look the most religious and the most holy compared to other people are the very people that Paul is warning against. I think of the Pharisees that had the appearance physically of righteousness but were dead on the inside.
Let’s go back to Kobe and Phil Jackson. How do we know that Kobe and Phil knew basketball? Because they won championships. They fruit they produced was consistent with their claim. If I wore an NBA Jersey and a headband and told people I was in the NBA would they believe me? Maybe. I’m tall I can play basketball a little bit, maybe if someone was knew to sports I could trick them. That is until you put me next to Kobe Bryant. Me dressing like an NBA player doesn’t make me an NBA player. The fruit a person produces will be consistent with who they are. These teachers claimed to be the real deal, they claimed to be experts but their lifestyle wasn’t consistent with who Jesus is.
Paul says that these men wanted to be teachers of the law to use it however they desired, but the law has no compromise. The law is a mirror used to expose the sin and failures of man.
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
They want to use the law but don’t understand the law is for lawbreakers which they are. The truth is we are all lawbreakers. We are lawbreakers because we were born in sin because of Adam and the nature of our humanity but also because all of us have chosen to rebel against God. But these men, while slaves to the law, seek to use the law to keep captive sinners for selfish gain. Imagine you have the cure for the deadliest disease known to man and you choose to keep it a secret because you run a hospital and make money off of sick people. These men identify with Christ while their true identity is with the lawless and disobedient.
What hope is there for the sin sick soul? Our hope is the Gospel. This Gospel is the glory of God entrusted to Paul and Timothy. It is the message of hope given to mankind so that we might find intimacy and forgiveness with God and that we might take that message of hope to others who are in need. While the false teacher seeks to weigh people down and hold them captive the messenger of the Gospel comes to set people free.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus has come to set free those who are under the curse of the law.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Christ Jesus has set us free and that changes everything.
Christ Jesus Came to Save sinners
Christ Jesus Came to Save sinners
Paul brings us back to this idea of identity. Something that has been on my mind is this idea of authentic faith. It is probably going to be the theme for our retreat later in the year so I don’t want to give away too much of what I’m planning, but authentic faith isn’t a perfect faith. It is a faith that admits its failures and seeks to grow despite them. An artificial faith is performative and pretending to be perfect. Paul isn’t trying to prove himself to Timothy. He doesn’t have an insecure faith but instead has one anchored in the truth of the Gospel. Christ loves us despite all of our failures and flaws. We have nothing to prove to anybody, because Jesus loves us right where we are. We don’t grow to prove our worth or earn a place in community, we grow in response to how Christ has changed us. Paul demonstrates authentic faith by speaking the truth boldly, practicing what he preaches, and isn’t afraid to admit when he fails.
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Paul says that before he met Christ he was a broken sinner. A blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent opponent. All of that is true. Paul when his name was Saul murdered and persecuted the early church. Dragged families out of their homes to throw them in prison. Until he encountered Jesus on the Damascus road Paul was an enemy of God. But after that day, after he met Jesus, Paul’s life was forever changed. God had overflowed His grace on Paul and he was never the same.
Verse of the Night
Verse of the Night
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Let’s break it down. Paul says I know my sin. I am the worst sinner to ever live! In other translations Paul says I am the chief of sinners. But Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus has saved Paul’s life so that God might use him as an example for all who might see God’s patience and surrender their lives to Christ. Paul says that attitude is one that every Christian should have. God knows every evil and sinful thing you have ever done and ever will do, but He is patient and forgiving. When we give our lives to Jesus He washes us clean. Before we were living in darkness but now we are the light of the world shining God’s grace for all to see. Do you understand the significance of that? Your life is a living testimony of God’s goodness and graciousness.
This good news of God’s identity changing grace moves Paul to worship God for who He is. Notice, the identity of God moves us to worship because it is the character and nature of God that has transformed our identity from lawbreakers and sinners to redeemed children of the Most High God.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
What is God’s identity?
King of the Ages: He is the ruler over every generation that has ever been and ever will be.
Immortal: He is an everlasting, eternal God. No beginning and no end.
Invisible: He is not a created God or a God within human conception. He is beyond our comprehension.
The Only God: He stands alone in His power and authority. There is no other God but Him.
Recipient of Honor and Glory Forever: He can never be defeated. All praise and glory and honor belongs to Him for all time.
Who God is shapes our understanding of who we are.
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
To close the chapter Paul encourages Timothy to stand firm on the truth of the Gospel. He tells him to fight the good fight or to wage the good warfare in this translation. There’s three things to think about.
A Faith at War
A Faith at War
Our faith is not a casual hobby to be picked up and put down when it is convenient. It is warfare.
Be prepared for battle. Being lazy and apathetic in faith is like walking out onto the battle field with no training, no armor on, and no sword in your hand. If Jesus has changed your life let it actually mean something. Your generation loves being nonchalant but life is too short for us to be casual about Jesus. Regardless of what people might think of us, following Jesus is serious business. Especially if how we live our lives can make the difference in someone else’s eternity. If God is using our testimony to show the world his grace than maybe I need to show a little more discipline.
Back to Kobe. Every game of his career Kobe put on a jersey and represented his team. Whether it was the lakers, the west all-stars, or team USA. Every time he put on that jersey he had a responsibility to work hard and play for the team he represented. If you wear the name of Jesus, every morning when you wake up and every night when you go to bed you are representing the name of Jesus. So when you step out on the court, or onto the battle field, or into you school campus, or into your work, represent the name of Jesus like your life depended on it.
2. Fighting the good fight implies that there are other things that can take our attention and energy away from what truly matters.
Lets talk about more basketball. The goal of basketball is to get the ball through the hoop more times than your opponent. Each team gets a 24 second timer to shoot the ball each possession. If you are on the offense you want to get the best shot you can in the time you have. Sometimes that’s a layup and sometimes its a three pointer. In order to get passed the defense and be efficient teams will run plays to open up opportunities for effective shots. Enter Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson is one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time because he implemented an offense known as the triangle offense. This offense won Phil Jackson 11 rings as a head coach. 6 with Michael Jordan and 5 with Kobe Bryant. The triangle offense effectively used all five players on the court to create the best opportunity to shoot the basketball. It was efficient and effective. Every movement had a purpose. As Christians and as the church the Gospel is our offense. It is the thing that brings us together and the thing that focuses our vision on a unified goal. For Kobe that is scoring points for the Christian it is following Jesus. When the church loses sight of the Gospel it gets side tracked on unnecessary and even unhelpful or abusive doctrines and teaching. These false teachers were trying to lead the church away from the Gospel.
3. Fighting a war means there will be opposition.
Defense wins championships. Paul isn’t afraid to call out these false teachers by name. In order to protect the church and lead it to success Timothy had to be ready to play defense. As Christians we play defense by taking everything to the Holy Spirit and to the Scriptures. The best way to find a lie is to hold it up against the truth. In order to do that you have to actually know what the Bible says. That means reading it, studying it, memorizing it, living it out. When Jesus was tempted by satan in the wilderness His defense against temptation was to quote Scripture. It was an anchor for the soul. When there is no anchor of truth our faith is left shipwrecked.
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
The truths of Scripture are unchanging and uncompromising and that is a good thing.
TL;DR
We were dead in our sin, but because of the Gospel Jesus has transformed us and made a way for us to have community with God and with other believers. How we live and model our faith in that community of believers is important. Part of living in community is protecting others and defending the truth of Scripture. There is no room for compromise when it comes to the Gospel. We live out the Gospel in the way we love others, in living with integrity, and authentic faith.
