An apostle and a true Child in faith

Intro

Today we are going to be starting a new sermon series on the book of 1 Timothy, going verse by verse, line by line, so we can suck out and understand everything which is said in this short book. I dont want us to rush past anything because we have read it a million times before, but I want to meditate on every word that is written here. I want to extract all of the context and all of the information that was written into this book.

The reason why I am doing this is because Christians are becoming more and more biblically illiterate the more that time goes on and we can not let this happen. and so, to set the tone for this series we are going to do this entire sermon on the very first 2 verses of the chapter. We are going to be focusing on paul and Timothy, who they are and what their significance is. That is why I am going to title this sermon “An apostle and a true child in faith”

CONTEXT:

this is a letter written by paul writen to Timothy who was put in charge of running the church in ephesus

We will talk a lot more about both of their stories today, but one thing that I want you guys to remember is that these are writings to the early church on how it should be structured and what it should look like. we see very clearly in 3:15 where it says.

now depending on your definition of the word mission this could be a mission or very near to one for you, but what I would like to say that no matter if I believe if this is a mission, a gathering or not, what DOES matter is that we are following what is written in this verse because if we arent supposed to change who we are in an out of the church then we should be applying this to our lives no matter what.

we only have 2 short verses today but these two verses are going to set the tone for the rest of the series. They are going to define the people who this letter is written between and are going to be the starting grounds for what is to come.

So, before we dive into this scripture and this time lets pray.

READ 1-2

This whole series is going to be a lot less conceptual than the last one so make sure you guys are bringing notebooks if you got them but anyways

Paul, an APOSTLE of JESUS CHRIST

an apostle is someone who is SENT WITH FULL AUTHORITY. PAUL IN THIS MOMENT IS DECLARING IS FULL AUTHORITY THAT WAS GIVEN TO HIM BY JESUS CHRIST.

in 1 corinthians 14:37 it says “if anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.”

All of the prophets and the people that are existing today MUST follow the teachings and the foundations that have been set by the apostles. but SO MANY PEOPLE ignore the teachings in part of the apostles because they would rather gratify their flesh than live 100% for God. when we see that these are APOSTOLIC WRITINGS we should dedicate our lives to following them because ultimatley our faith is GROUNDED UPON THESE THINGS. so when it comes to topics that are discussed by them we dont get to pick and choose which ones we want to follow and hold closer to our hearts than others, we follow them ALL. so as we continue to walk through these passages together, dont just stop when you think you have done the bare minimum, dont stop when you think you have done “enough work” FOLLOW IT WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

so now that we see the importance of these writings and who they are from I want to look at WHERE they are from. luckily for us the next two words sum it up pretty well for us

THEY ARE BY COMMAND

this is by the command of God our faither and Christ Jesus. Where God tells him to lead, he follows.

Now I have a question for all of you

_WHAT COMMANDS YOU_

Is it love, is it money, is it fame, is it the people around you thinking you are cool, is it wanting to protect your image, is it the fear of bad things coming from your actions. WHAT COMMANDS YOU?

If you live your life being commanded by the things of this world then eventually you will fall to the things of this world BUT if you are commanded by GOD then you will fall TOWARDS God with everything that you do

Look at the life that paul lived. He lived by the command of God and all of the things that he did reflected that and never faltered until the day that he died. Now I am not saying that we will all be like paul, but what I am saying is that if the main driving force of your actions is NOT GOD then what happens when that is taken away. What happens when you need to decide between sharing the gospel and protecting your image. Loving Jesus to the point where you lose people. Wanting Him so bad that you give up the posessions that you love, or your dream car, or dream mansion, or stable future. What happens then.

What commands you is what drives you. Be driven by Jesus.

Now this next part of the introduction is interesting because of the historical context of it. God our Savior. In this time emperor Nero wanted everyone to call him the savior and in this letter paul is calling God his savior in opposition to this. so writing this sentance in the first place is an act of defiance against the emperor but ALSO what does this mean?

This shows us that our salvation lies within the hands of an all loving God, ORIGINATING in the heart of God the father. Even more value is added to this when we look at the story of paul and how he came to Christ. Formerly known as saul from Taursus and also a man who persecuted Christians. But Jesus reveals himself to Paul and the road to Damascus where he would encounter Jesus and his life would change forever. All by the grace of God.

So God is the savior but what does it mean for Jesus Christ to be our hope?

Our lives are built on the anchor of the person of Jesus christ and what He did on the cross for us 2000 years ago. Because of Him we can have hope because of Him we can have life. and so paul is writing this letter under the authority of being sent by Jesus Christ, under the command of God who has the heart to save and Jesus who gives everyone hope.

Now we move on to timothy who has a little bit more backstory that I would like to give to you before we go deeper into this.

Timothy was 15 when he first started to follow paul and over the many years of them travelling together where Timothy began to grow very deep into his faith. Because of this he would become a ministry representative of Paul which is why the contents of this book are so important. This is also the instructions to a trusted coworker of paul on how to run a church!

And so paul starts the first part of verse 2 by saying “my true child in faith”

the spiritual BOND that is created here is as deep and a physical bond and not only that but the spiritual family that we exist as a part of is REAL. Over the many travels that paul and timothy went on over the years they were able to create a bond through mentorship and companionship formed through Christ!

This reality of a spiritual family is something that all believers are a part of in a way, in the sense that we are all spiritual children to someone. what i mean by that is for all of us there was someone that played a major role in our conversion to Christianity and that is what makes spirit fathers and spirit children.

Something that is important to note here is that God is ultimately the Father in the new birth and the gospel and how we abide in the gospel is how we can be born again.

Because of this I want to bring up 2 main points here. Be thankful to our spiritual parents and aim to be one yourself.

We should all recognize the people which God placed in their life who helped disciple you and guide you in your faith or bring you to christ in the first place. show them gratitude because chances are they havent heard it enough, and love them as family because they helped bring you into the household of God.

Next is aiming to be a spiritual parent. Countless times in the bible we see a theme of people helping and aiding one another in growing in their faith and walking with them in discipleship in the same way that Paul and Timothy walked together and grew with one another. Paul also did this with Onesimius where after playing a major role in his conversion, he calls himself his father in the book philemon. So, in the same way as we grow into deeper relationships with God and as we take the life and teachings of the apostles to heart, we should also be aiming to try and replicate the same things that they did as well.

We should be helping one another grow and mature in their faith through investing in younger believers and walking with them. Dedicate your life to teaching them and bringing them towards and closer to God because someone did the same for you when you were lost. and finally allow the ministry of the Gospel and the usage of your life multiply the spiritual family that you find yourself in.

and so, to tie this all up together paul writes grace mercy and peach from God the father and Christ Jesus our lord

grac emercy and peace are some of the most powerful words in the bible but what do they mean?

To more full understand this taeching I would like to look at titus 3:4-7 where is says

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

God the Father and Jesus Christ our lord are things that are said by the believer through the holy spirit because all of this is only made possible through the holy spirit to proclaim and gain salvation. in romans 10:9 it says if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

this is all made possible though the Holy spirit

and so this idea of salvation is based on the 3 things that he says prior to this

MERCY is the Kindness of God towards the broken person. Mercy views sin as a condition and through the mercy of God we can be regenerated from pour sinful condition into new life with Him

this means that if you are broken or if you need healing you can come to the feet of Jesus in your brokenness and be healed and restored. In this you WILL live a different life from before, a transformed life that doesnt look back to where you came from, and become a merciful personb yourself because of the mercy that was shown to you by God. We can no longer live life holding grudges and hatred in our hearts when all we deserved were those things.

Next is Grace which is the idea of Justification and our slates being wiped clean by the blood of Jesus washed over us. our sin was guilt but the grace of Giod brings justification for all of that. now we need to stop trying to earn what has been recieved and not be overcome by the failures in our lives. The thing that we need to do is go further in our lives walking with God and showing people the grace that was also given to us, because the blood of Jesus paid the price

And finally peace, the resulty of mercy and grace. now we can have assurance in the fact that we have been reconciled with God.

to summarize:

Live under Gods command

Follow teachings in full

invest in spiritual relationships

and live in the grace mercy and peace that we have in Christ