Sermon Tone Analysis

*GREYFRIARS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH*

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*DIRECTIONS IN DIFFICULTY*

Studies in 1 and 2 Timothy

*1.

Danger of False Teaching*

Passage: 1 Timothy 1: 1 - 20

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*Background: *Paul, for his part, saw Ephesus as a great place to preach the gospel.

He began with preaching to his fellow Jews on his second missionary journey.

On his third journey, he invested two solid years evangelising and developing Christian leaders.

Christian faith became so popular that the magic trade and temple business fell sharply.

Paul's farewell message (Acts 20), however, shows that he was bracing for a spiritual counterattack on the Christian community.

He predicted even some of his converts would set themselves up as Christian “gurus” and carve out followings around their own blend of Scripture, the gospel and mystical teachings.

The issue Paul saw as crucial was spiritual authority: When should we accept spiritual teachings?

When should we reject them?

How do we know if Christian teachers are trustworthy?

This, in fact, was just the situation when Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy.

Paul had turned over the leadership of the church in Ephesus, the most strategic in Asia Minor, to Timothy, a bright, sensitive associate.

Timothy was about forty years old at that time, which was considered young for such leadership.

False teaching was coming from people within the church.

Since some of these were leaders (see Acts 20:20), Paul could not write to the church at Ephesus directly, but instead went through Timothy in whom he had confidence.

Timothy's mission was to deal with false teaching, and it seems he was a capable teacher.

From references in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Acts, and the letters to Timothy, we know Timothy was a committed, but very human, person with some insecurities.

Hebrews 13:23 shows that he spent some time in prison for his faith.

We don't know what finally happened to Timothy, but we do know that John became the leader of the church not too long after these letters were written.

In these letters we can see Paul coaching the younger leader.

In the process he raises issues which bear on us all—leaders or not.

*1.

Warning [3-11] :*

 

Notice there is no customary thanksgiving.

Paul goes straight into the warning [cf Galatians].

The false teaching is coming, not from outside the Church, but from inside - which is always more dangerous!

Timothy has been left as Paul’s substitute to stem the tide of error.

The reference to myths and genealogies would appear to indicate some kind of Jewish teaching rather than gnosticism - although it had also some Greek overlays as well.

The outcome of such teaching is that it promotes “controversies rather than God’s work - which is by faith” [4].

Notice verse 5 - “pure heart”, good conscience” and “sincere faith”.

The alternative is “meaningless talk”.

Their ambition is to be teachers~/leaders but do not really understand what the Law~/OT was about.

The next paragraph [8-11] is a little digression about the nature of Law.

It is primarily for the ungodly rather than for the righteous.

See how the catalogue has a remarkable coincidence with the Ten Commandments [5 to 9], often giving more grotesque expressions of these.

All this is in marked contrast to “sound doctrine” which explains and sets forth “the glorious gospel of the blessed God”.

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*2.

Testimony [12-17]:*

 

See how Paul is overwhelmed with thankfulness at God’s goodness to him in Christ.

He is truly amazed that Christ would consider him, of all people, worthy of this trust and task.

See how he describes himself in verse 13.

He was shown mercy because he had acted in ignorance and unbelief - whereas the false teachers within the church have turned from the truth about God to a lie.

See the alliance of God’s grace and the outcomes of the gospel in faith and love - “visible expressions of a living relationship with the Saviour” [Kelly].

All of this is in contrast to the erring elders, who have turned away from faith and love, who blaspheme [20],   are engaged in strife [6:4] and who have thus abandoned the gospel of grace.

Now comes the faithful saying - a summary of  the gospel in which both incarnation and redemption feature.

Sinners is a universalising term.

we are all sinners.

“Of whom I am the worst” - Paul is not exaggerating.

It is the result of his overwhelming sense of his own sinfulness and utter helplessness before God and the fact of God’s grace lavished freely on him and God’s unconditionally accepting him despite his sin.

The outcome is belief and eternal life.

Notice the concluding benediction - act of praise [17].

*3.

Instruction [18-20]:*

 

Here Paul returns to the opening theme.

Almost verse 18 might read on from verse 7! In fact “instruction” here is the same word as “command” [3].

The giving mentioned here is like entrusting something to someone else’s care [cf.

6:20; 2 Tim 1:12; and 14; 2:2].

See the reference to fight the good fight and also to faith and a good conscience.

Notice the dread alternative; rejecting the truth leads to the shipwreck of faith - like the erring elders and Paul cites two of them, Hymenaeus and Alexander.

They are excommunicated “to be taught not to blaspheme”.

Is their blasphemy not the direct outcome of their “sickly appetite for controversy [cf 6:4]?

 

\\ *GREYFRIARS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH*

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*DIRECTIONS IN DIFFICULTY*

Studies in 1 and 2 Timothy

*2.

Instructions about Prayer *

Passage: 1 Timothy 2: 1 - 15

 

*~* Introduction:* You will recall that the current sphere of Timothy’s ministry on behalf of Paul was the city of Ephesus and the series of house-churches there.

The particular problem and difficulty at the time was the false teaching gaining ground in the believing community, probably due the fact it was being presented by those who were leaders and elders within the church.

The error was coming from the inside, rather than the outside.

It was Timothy’s prime task to put a halt to this advance of deviant teaching, by taking a strong stand against it.

Incidentally, in terms of what we are currently going through in the PCANZ, and the role of the Commission on Diversity, how would you test whether some particular teaching or point of view was within the parameters of acceptable diversity or fell beyond it?

Discuss.

In any case Paul continues in this letter to give a series of particular instructions.

Frequently, because there is no reference to the false teachers in chapters 2 and 3, it is suggested that what we have in these two chapters is a early church manual, of the kind needed to set a congregation in order - even if a variation on that theme is that the reason for such a church manual would be to serve as an appropriate antidote to heresy and error.

However, by and large, the “church manual” view really sees very little relationship between chapters 2 and 3 and the charge to Timothy in chapter 1.

The new section begins with the conjunction “therefore” [NIV “then”], implying a result or inference from what has proceeded, it seems, rather, much more likely that all of this material which follows is a /direct consequence/ of what was said in chapter 1.

Thus, these instructions are best understood as responses to the presence of the wayward elders, who were disrupting the church by their errors and controversies.

Nowhere does Paul suggest Timothy is to set the church in order - for the first time so to speak.

The appropriate activities seem to be already present.

Rather, we may understand abuses of various kinds should be corrected.

For instance, it may be assumed that men pray, and do so with raised hands [8].

The instruction here is that they do so with “holy” hands, not hands “soiled” by argument or anger.

*~* 1. Proper Objects of Prayer [1-7]:*

It would appear that the false teaching propounded by the erring elders had some connections to Judaism on the one hand and to elitism [through some early form of Gnosticism [?] on the other.

Note the use of the phrase “all people” [Gk=pantas] at the three key places in this paragraph [1,4,6].

Although the sentence begins something new, the “therefore” ties it back to the charge in 1:3 but by way of 1:18-20.

The verse is not so much a categorization of various types of prayer which is perhaps sometimes stretched farther than the context warrants.

Nor does it stress the importance or urgency [“first of all”] of prayer generally.

Rather what is being urged is prayer for “all people” or “everyone”.

See how such prayer ought to include rulers and those in authority - somewhat surprising [?] when you consider how often the church would be persecuted by civil authority in coming years, indeed Nero was emperor at this time.

The reason given is “that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness”.

Some scholars regard such a reason as almost self-concern.

Gordon Fee suggests the request reflects on the activities of the false teachers who are not only disrupting and disquieting the church but apparently also bringing the church into disrepute on the outside [see 3:7; 5:14;6:1].

The concern is not that Christians should have lives free from trouble or distress [cf 2 Tim 1:8; 3:12] but that they should live in such a way that “no one will speak evil of the name of God and of our teaching [6:1].

This compares with 1 Thess 4:11-12; 2 Thess 3:11 and 1 Tim 5:13.

The reference to “godliness and holiness” does not in the original use words normally associated with Paul [dikaiosyne and hagiosyne] in terms of one’s relationship with God.

Here - and elsewhere in the Pastorals - he uses eusebia=piety and semnotes=proper conduct.

In fact eusebia in popular parlance roughly equates with “religious” in popular English.

A strange word for Paul to use.