The GOOD Kingdom (w/HTCS)
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning Church. What a wonderful opportunity we have this morning for our two Churches to come together as just one small part of the greater Kingdom of God. Oh that God’s people would be able to be so centered on the message and mission of Jesus Christ that we could all come together like this without allowing other petty differences to divide us. So thank you for being here and joining with us this morning and we look forward to time to connect together more personally in the picnic to follow.
Introduction
Do you know how experts at the US Treasury study to be become experts on counterfeit money? I mean there are a lot of different counterfeiters out there who employ a vast array of different techniques and processes to make their fakes look so much like the original that most people can’t tell the difference. Even with that little marker that every cashier is supposed to check the big bills with at the counter - that doesn’t always work. Some of the best counterfeits jobs take $1’s and $5’s and makes them $50’s and $100. So they still mark as currency - just 10 or 100 times their original value.
You how do they study to know the difference between all these different counterfeits and the real deal? They don’t spend a lot of time studying the fakes, because the bad guys are always switching things up. They spend the bulk of their time studying every fiber and ink stroke of the real deal. There is just no way to keep up with all the new counterfeits - but if they put the bulk of their energy into going after the “good” ones then they will know when they find a counterfeit even if just one very small thing is off track.
Tension
This past summer at Friendship Church we have been working our way through the book of 1 Timothy and it has been a bit of a ride. The book is a letter from the Apostle Paul to his protege, a young pastor named Timothy who was sent to this large and diverse city called Ephesus. Paul tells Timothy that he is writing this letter specifically so that the Churches there will know how they ought to behave in the household of God.
So it covers a lot of controversial subjects, not least of which is the subject of the False or “Counterfeit” Teachers. These teachers looked good and they sounded good, but their teaching was “not good”. I don’t mean they were just bad public speakers, I mean that they were great public speakers, but they were teaching a “counterfeit” version of Christianity. And as this was the early history of Christian Church, Paul was concerned that the further he let these false teachings get out in “circulation” the less and less people would be able to recognize them to be the “counterfeits” that they were.
So throughout this letter, he warns the Church to be on the lookout for these counterfeits, and here at the beginning of chapter 6 he warns to especially watch out for those who would teach that “godliness” was a means to financial gain. This is a teaching that people will easily buy into, but the craving for money is something that is riddled with temptations that lead to “ruin and destruction”. It is such an easy trap to fall into that Paul is concerned that Timothy might fall into it as well - so he commands Timothy, and by extension us, to flee the other way. That is where we are going to be this morning, starting in verse 11 of chapter 6:
(?? Pray here like usual or just keep going)
Truth
(If I pray - so after Paul’s warning against the temptation of marrying Christian behavior to expecting financial gain he says…)
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
In contrast to the counterfeit, I am going to lead us to consider three “goods” this morning and the first one is:
1. THE GOOD PURSUIT (In Righteousness)
1. THE GOOD PURSUIT (In Righteousness)
The first step to avoiding being trapped in the web of these false teachings is to “flee”. And not just flee right now, but the verb tense is such that it conveys that we need to be continually “fleeing” from these things. The idea being that whatever distance you put between you and these temptations today is great, but you will need to be ready to get right back after it tomorrow - because the temptation to live our lives in slavery of financial gain will always be chasing us. So we have to adopt this behavior of “fleeing” from it.
But as any good counselor, behaviorist or life coach knows, it is never enough to just look to avoid a bad behavior, we have to replace those things with something profitable. Something that is good. A Good Pursuit. That is why Paul follows up the command to continually flee these temptations with the command to continually pursue, same verb tense again here. So “The Good pursuit” is to be constantly and continually Pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
None of us should think that we have somehow arrived when it comes to these things. All of us are being chased by these temptations, and so all of us should set our minds to actively and continually pursuing these things. Even the Apostle Paul is continuing after these things, in his letter to the Philippians 3:12 says:
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The phrase “Press On” that is repeated twice in these verses is the same Greek word as is translated “pursue” in 1 Timothy 6. (diako) The idea being that all of us, every believer, even the Apostle Paul should never be content with our growth as a follower of Jesus, but we should always be pressing on in this “GOOD PURSUIT” in Righteousness
2. THE GOOD FIGHT (of the Faith)
2. THE GOOD FIGHT (of the Faith)
1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of the faith”
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
For most of us, the word “fight” brings to mind something like boxing gloves and that is not completely off track, but the Greek word here means “struggle” and can just as easily be referring to a foot race or a wrestling match. The big idea is that Paul is encouraging Timothy to be remain steadfast and finish strong in the faith. The same idea is presented in a similar way in Hebrews 12 verse 1:
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
The Christian walk is not just ascribing to a set of beliefs, but watching those beliefs shape and mold your behavior. It is a struggle. It is a fight. But when you believe rightly about all that Jesus has done for you - then you cannot help but desire to live your life in response to His great love for you.
So you flee the counterfeit, to set out in the “The GOOD Pursuit of Righteousness”
And that righteousness drives you into the “The GOOD Fight of Faith”
but all of that happens only after you have made...
3. THE GOOD CONFESSION (Of the Gospel)
3. THE GOOD CONFESSION (Of the Gospel)
1 Tim 6:12b -14a
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time
Paul builds this bridge here between what he knows of the events of Timothy’s life and what every Christian knew of an event in the life of Jesus. At one point in Timothy’s life, he made what Paul called “The Good Confession” but to understand what that means we have to dive into the historical event that happened in Jesus’ life.
To set the scene, Jesus was arrested and tried illegally at night and then brought before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate because the Religious leaders wanted him executed and it was against Roman law for anyone but the Roman government to execute someone. So they had Jesus arrested and brought into Pilates headquarters but they didn’t go in - because it was against their law to going into a house of a Gentile. So Pilate had to meet them outside, to ask them what this Jesus had done. But they provided no evidence worthy of a death sentence, only that they wanted Rome to execute him for them. Pilate was not satisfied with this so he went inside to talk with the prisoner, and he essentially asked Jesus the same thing:
33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
And here is where Jesus makes the GOOD CONFESSION:
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Jesus is the ultimate King. He is the Sovereign Lord. He is the promised Messiah. This is the good confession that Jesus is making here before Pilate - even though Pilate seems to be completely missing it because his reaponse is “What is truth”. You see this is the good confession that Timothy made in the presence of many witnesses and this is the “Good Confession” that every believer makes before God.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The Greek word for “confession” is a compound word coming from the words for “to say” and “the same”. In other words, confession is to say the same thing, or to agree. So when we “confess” with our mouths that Jesus is Lord then we are saying the same thing that Jesus said.
The same thing that God says. And it is in this agreement, in this trust that we find our ultimate good.
The Good Confession of the Gospel, leads us to the Good Fight of Faith and the Good Pursuit of Righteousness.
These things are the only fitting response to,
1 Tim 6:15b-16
he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Would you pray with me? and as we do I would like to invite up Jill and Chara who are going to do a special music for us this morning.