The King’s Command to the Church

Intro

Pray

What should happen when a new church becomes rooted in a community?

Local churches exist to make Christ known. If Christ, who is restoring all things, is being made known through a new church in a community, there ought to be a noticeable impact on the people around us.

So, we eagerly expect and pray that many people who are not connected to Jesus or his church would place their trust in him and become a part of the new humanity he is creating in the church. We want to see people being set free from addictions and destructive behaviors of all kind. We would see hope renewed in those who are defeated. There would be peace between neighbors because they have peace with God through Christ.

All of this we are right to expect and pray for as the ministry of Hope Church grows here in Haughville.

And yet if this is all we expect, we are left with a faith that is largely personal and private. Yes we want to see individual lives change, yes we want to see personal relationships change, but does the gospel also not have something to say to society? Does the church have a message for the twisted and sinful operations of the world around us? Or are we meant to accept the sinful and broken status quo?

I became a Christian at the age of 23. I have this distinct memory from sometime within the first year after I had come to faith. I was driving down a street near my apartment, and it was just filled with churches. Like, every 100 yards there was another church. It was wild. And I remember getting this sinking feeling in my stomach where I thought, “Why do we need so many churches? This seems like a waste of time and resources.” That moment actually made me very resistant to the idea of starting a new church for several years. I wanted nothing to do with starting a new church. The Lord, as they say, has a sense of humor.

Looking back, I realize now that my problem wasn’t so much that there were several churches in my neighborhood, but that there were several churches in a concentrated area that were making no noticeable impact on our community. They kept to themselves. They had no message that carried out onto the sidewalks and the homes around me.

Is a church meant to keep to itself? Does the church accept the dark, unjust status quo of the world? Or has Jesus tasked us with something more?

Tonight we’re reading from the closing chapter of 1 Timothy, where the Apostle Paul concluded his case against the false teachers who had corrupted the church. He saved his strongest words for last, didn’t he?

In his words to Timothy, Paul gave an enduring command to the church, a command which comes from Jesus himself: Tell those who are greedy and powerful to turn away from every matter oppression and fall in line with the King.

Why should I belong to a church? Why should you belong to a church?

Because the church follows Jesus by challenging the sinful, unjust status quo with the message of the kingdom of God.

Two points for us to consider tonight: The Command of the King, and the Command to the Church.

The Command of the King

In a moment we’ll consider more of the substance of Paul’s command, but I want you to first see how his words are rooted in Jesus who reigns over his kingdom.

Consider verses 2 through 5 with me. Notice how Paul begins this argument saying, “If anyone does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Another word for the instructions of Jesus is “doctrine.” When we talk about “doctrine” in the church, we’re referring to what we believe about God, about salvation, about the church, and so on. In many churches, “doctrine” is a matter of knowledge. The emphasis is on what you know. Yet too often, there is an over emphasis on what we know, and we pay little attention to how we live in light of that knowledge.

To be clear, knowledge is important. Paul began this letter in verse 4 of chapter 1 with a charge against those who were teaching false doctrines.

Yet, throughout this letter, Paul does not evaluate false doctrine by faulty knowledge alone. Instead, he is repeatedly connecting doctrine, what we believe, to how we live. That’s why in verses 9 and 10 of chapter 1, when naming examples of behaviors that are contrary to the doctrine of Christ, he names things like murder, sexual immorality, slave trading, and lying.

And again here in Chapter 6, Paul stressed that greedy, power-hungry people are living contrary to the sound instruction of Jesus.

So much of what Paul is confronting in this letter was not people who taught the wrong things; it was people who taught the correct things and yet lived in all the wrong ways.

If you look down at verses 13 through 16, you’ll see that Paul is anchoring his command against the greedy and the powerful in King Jesus who is coming back to rule and reign over all things.

In our call to worship this evening, we read Jesus’ first words in Mark’s gospel, which we’ll begin studying together in January. Jesus began his public ministry by announcing himself with this message: God’s promised time to restore all things is here. The King is here. Turn from your sin and believe his gospel!

With those words, Jesus announced a fundamental break with the dark and twisted status quo of the world. The kingdom of God is here. A new world is breaking in where King Jesus is restoring all things to the way they are supposed to be.

The choice that we have is to either follow Jesus in his kingdom, or to give in to a world of sin and darkness. There is no other alternative.

One of the clearest descriptions of the kingdom of God comes in Luke 4, which we also read from in our Call to Worship. Jesus, reading from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, declares that he is a King for the oppressed, the poor, the broken hearted, the disabled, the crushed, the prisoner, the knocked around.

In a world that seems to favor those who are greedy and powerful; Jesus says he has come to bring grace and mercy to forgotten, weary, weak, and sinful people. His kingdom is not for the strong and mighty but for those who know they are weak and needy and whose only hope is Jesus.

We look around and we see violence, oppression, injustice, and we think, that’s just the way it is. Yet the arrival of the kingdom of God declares that the days are numbered for all those who would set themselves against Jesus. His life-giving, merciful, gracious kingdom is the most real thing in this world, even if we can’t now see it. He is the only Ruler that matters, as Paul said; his kingdom alone is immortal.

If the world is a society in which only the strong, the independent, and the successful are blessed, then we should act accordingly. If, however, the world is really a place where King Jesus blesses the poor, the hungry, and the persecuted, then we must follow his way or we will be bafflingly out of step with the way things really are (Hauerwas, 27).

And so friends, the first response demanded by our passage tonight is that we make a decision whether we are for or against the King. If we are for the King, then our life must match what we say we believe.

Where do you stand? I recognize that this passage has some challenging words in it. But do you see that it is challenging because we are meant to live for something more? Life is more than wealth and power. What’s on offer to you tonight is life with the King of the universe who laid down his life to share all of his riches and treasures with you. Jesus is inviting you to be a part of a community where mercy and forgiveness can be your treasure, not your possessions or your bank account.

I anticipate that, in light of these strong words, some of you tonight could be feeling a burden that is not from God, but instead from voices of shame and condemnation that would want you to feel like a failure. I want to relieve you of that burden if I can.

I know what many of you are facing right now. Things in your family are hard. You’re trying to turn your life around. You’re battling addictions or other destructive behaviors. You’re looking for a decent job.

And it feels like every time you try to do the right thing, you face another setback one after the other after the other.

It’s tempting in those moments to think that you are getting what you deserve. You think that God must be absent or distant; that he must not care. You think that the obstacles you face must be because you just can’t get anything right.

But if you know Jesus, nothing could be further from the truth. If it is the case that this present world is set against Jesus and his kingdom; and if it is the case that following Jesus looks like weakness and foolishness to the world; then wouldn’t it also be the case that you are struggling not because you’re a failure but precisely because you are trying to be faithful in a world set against you?

Listen, they didn’t kill Jesus because he was a champion of love and peace. They didn’t kill Jesus because he led an army to violently take over society. They killed Jesus when he refused to bow the knee because his allegiance was to God, not man. And because he would not submit, he was a threat. They thought they could silence him in death; he shut their lips through resurrection.

If you follow Jesus, you are a threat to the corrupting forces of this world. You are a threat to the greedy and the powerful Wouldn’t it be so much easier to give in to your addiction? To give up on your family? To lust after power like everyone else? To roll over and quit when you’re trying to turn your life around? Of course it would. But you won’t, will you? Because you know that Jesus is true and that he keeps his promises.

That, friends, is how I know that you have taken hold of the life that really counts.

The Command of the Church

I hope you see how the charge here comes first from Jesus’ command to follow him. We either make the choice to follow the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, or we continue after the corrupt and sinful ways of this world. Those are our options.

Now, I want you to see the way the King’s command takes shape when it is proclaimed by the church.

I think it would be helpful to remember here how Paul described his own calling into ministry. You may know that Paul was not one of the original twelve apostles who traveled with Jesus and who were sent out by Jesus after his resurrection. Jesus appeared later to Paul and called him to saving faith, and to become the last of the apostles.

In Galatians 2, Paul describes his experience of going to Jerusalem to be approved by the other apostles for the work of ministry. You can read that full history on your own. I want to draw your attention to the end of that story in verses 9 and 10 of Galatians 2, these verses will be on the screen behind me:

Galatians 2:9–10 “James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.”

The One thing, one thing MOST OF ALL, that the apostles told Paul to remember was the poor.

You see, Paul, along with the other apostles, understood something that far too many Christians easily miss, even though its on nearly every page of Scripture. The church has a responsibility to take sides with the poor and the oppressed against those who would otherwise crush them.

If the kingdom of God is for those who have been knocked around, as Jesus said in Luke 4, then it is the responsibility of the church to speak up for those who hold a special place in the heart of the King. The church must often passionately overstate the case of the poor precisely because they lack the resources to speak up for themselves in a world that is set against them.

I hope this helps you see why Paul was so adamant here in these verses. He understood that the gospel that the church proclaims necessarily has a social element to it because the gospel runs so contrary to the greed, manipulation, and abusive power that is driving this world.

The gospel is a call to follow Jesus who laid down his life and power for others. The gospel we proclaim is a challenge to the rich and the proud because it demands that they turn aside from everything that they look to for strength and depend on Jesus alone.

The gospel says that riches and power in this life mean nothing and even the poorest beggar or the most broken addict will become like a prince or princess in God’s kingdom. The life that counts, Paul said in verse 19, comes from investing ourselves in the coming Kingdom, not in the treasures of this world.

What Paul is laying out here in these verses is a clear instruction that part of our ministry of the gospel is to challenge greedy, manipulative, and powerful people in society to repent and follow Jesus.

And while this is a message we declare to all people, Paul’s words here are first directed toward professing Christians who, he said, have fallen into a trap and are in danger of walking into the faith.

The reason why so many people have become disappointed with the church is because we have become silent where God has called us raise our voice against those who would use their faith for selfish gain.

We have a charge to call those who perpetuate injustice to turn to Christ, especially those who profess Christ and yet are still living out of their greed and lust for power.

If our gospel ministry does not come with such a charge, then we have not yet fully grasped what it means to follow King Jesus.

A few weeks ago when Malcolm Foley was with us, a question was asked during the Q&A that I’ve been thinking about a lot. What should we do as a church if we become uncomfortable with the way Christians or churches around us use their money and assets for themselves and bring harm upon our community?

Malcolm responded with a provocative question. He simply asked, “I wonder what loving confrontation would look like?”

I’ve thought about his response a lot, and to be honest, it terrifies me. I’m not looking for conflict, nor do I think we should be looking for conflict for conflict’s sake. Yet what our text clearly lays out for us is that if we are to be true to Christ, his doctrine, and his kingdom, then that will necessitate that we challenge the greedy and abusive power structures of our community, particularly those that may be led by professing Christians, those who, has Paul said, think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

That terrifies me and I don’t really know what that should look like.

But I do know that if our message is going to have any power, then we must first be living by that message here. Look at verses 17 and 18.

Notice that Paul never really said that those who are rich must stop being rich. Instead, he said they should stop putting their hope in wealth and trust in God. If you know the King, then you know the life that truly matters can only be found in his kingdom.

And the effect that has on us is, wealthy or not, we become a people who are rich in good deeds and always willing to share with each other. Jesus may call us to protest, he may call us to confrontation, but he first calls us to be a different sort of community.

A group of people who have learned to rely on God and on each other for everything is a community that has for itself a firm foundation in the kingdom of God. Are we becoming that kind of people? I hope so. Let’s pray.