2020-01-05 1 Timothy 3:14-15 Picture This

PICTURE THIS (I Tim 3:14-15) January 5, 2020 Read I Tim 3:14-15 – It’s AD 64. Two years ago, Paul was freed from his 5year imprisonment in Rome. He revisited some churches, including Ephesus. He then went to Greece, leaving Timothy to deal with some issues at Ephesus. From Greece, he wrote Timothy to advise and encourage. He also wrote to Titus, on Crete. Shortly after this, Paul was rearrested in connection with Nero’s persecution and wrote II Timothy ard AD 66 as he awaited execution. These are Paul’s last letters, called the Pastoral Epistles bc they are written to young pastors, Paul’s dear sons in the faith, to encourage them in the work. But they were intended to be read to all, as they deal with personal, practical matters of church organization and mission as Xnty sweeps thru the empire. Paul’s purpose in writing I Timothy is clearly stated in 3:15: “if I delay [coming], you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.” “Church” doesn’t mean building, but groups of believers. How must we behave toward each other to pix God and draw others to Him, a high calling. So many ways to stumble. This book will help us stumble less and pix better. When we visited the Alamo, we saw a pix gallery of the men who there, including John Bonham – only not really! John died there along with Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Col Travis and the rest. But under Bonham’s pix they put this plaque: “No portrait of John Bonham exists so in its this is a portrait of his nephew who greatly resembled him. It is put here so that people will never forget the face of this one who died for freedom.” Well, there’s no portrait of Jesus either. So, we pix Christ – individually and corporately. Ever see a pix of someone, like Lincoln – which when you look closely, it’s made up of hundreds of tiny individual pictures. From a distance they merge into one big picture. Thus we pix Jesus. All of our little pictures combine to make one big picture and we want it to be the best it can be. God gave the world the right to judge Christ by looking at us: Jn 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” What an awesome task, and priceless privilege. We’ll never get it perfect, but we want it to be the best we can. I Tim will help us do that. So, we’ll do an overview this morning, details in weeks to come. 1 I. The Church and Its Message (1) To pix Christ correctly, we have to get the message right – chapter 1. Paul urges in 3b “that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.” False teachers are saying, “It’s fine to trust in Christ, but in addition you must be circumcised; follow all the traditions.” They were changing the gospel by adding to it – laying heavy burdens on people. Paul describes them in 6:3-4: “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4) he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.” Salvation by faith PLUS works, and God will not have it. The simple gospel is I Cor 15:3) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” He told the Corinthians in 15:2 “you are being saved, if you hold fast the word I preached to you.” It is nothing we do; it is what Christ has done that brings salvation. It is by grace alone thru faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved. Adding anything ruins it. Paul struck back at the same issue in Galatia. Gal 1:8-9: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9) As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Paul says if anyone is corrupting the gospel, let them go to hell – strong language, but only because they are sending others to hell. It doesn’t matter whether it is the Judaizers of Paul’s time or Joseph Smith with his new revelations from the angel Maroni, Paul says, “Don’t buy it. There is one gospel, one Savior, one way and one message. You can’t amend it.” Some destroy the message by adding to it. Dreams, visions, new revelation from God -- like Sarah Young saying, “I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day.” And so she writes books claiming new, personal revelation from God. Others corrupt the gospel by taking away from it, claiming it’s too out-of-date to speak to moderns. Brian McLaren, a professing evangelical suggests 3 changes: 1) We have the gospel all wrong and need to drop substitutionary atonement. 2) We should avoid mentioning sin, the cross or personal salvation since these terms “don’t sit well today.” And 3) We should drop 2 focus on the afterlife to focus on helping the poor and saving the environment. Should we help the poor? Yes. But how helpful is it to feed someone for 40 years, and give them nothing for the eternity? It’s corruption by subtraction. But God says: Rev 22: 18) I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19) and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” Could it be any more clear? God will not tolerate anyone messing with His message. Why would He? That would be misrepresenting Christ by changing His message, bought and paid for by His death and resurrection. Lose that and you lose everything. II. The Church and Its Members (2–3) Chapters 2-3 deal roles of various groups in a local congregation. We are gifted individually. I Cor 12:7 clarifies these spiritual gifts are not for personal edification but for the growth of all. “To each is given the manifestation [gift] of the Spirit for the common good.” But in I Tim 2-3, Paul addresses roles by group: men, women, leaders and the whole group. Each has guidelines for behavior that differ by group and are given per 3:15 so we may “know how one ought to behave in the household of God” to give an accurate picture of Him. This is a huge deal bc the God we represent is Triune – one in essence, but in 3 persons who are absolutely equal in value, essence and dignity as God. The Father is no more God than the Son and the HS is no more God than the Father. They are equally divine. But they have clear and distinct roles – functions that are unique to each. The Father does not take on human existence, but the Son does. The Father sends the Son who later sends the HS. There is equality of dignity and essence; but there is hierarchy of function. And if we are to correctly picture this God, we must fill the roles designated to us by God as well. God summarizes this in I Cor 11:3: “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” If we do not accept the roles defined by God we skew the picture. We present God like one of those mirrors at the circus that shows you fat in all the wrong place and skinny in other places. If the mirror is bad enough, you can’t even recognize yourself. So we can equally twist the image of Christ if we insist on our will instead of His – trying to play a role never intended for us. 3 When we violate our assigned order we look like the huz who arrived home one day to find bikes and scooters blocking the driveway, dirty dishes everywhere inside, dirty laundry piled high, marks on walls – a shambles. He found his wife asleep in bed, woke her and asked, “Honey, the place is a disaster. What happened?” She replied with a tired smile, “Well, you know how you always come home and ask me what I did all day?” He says, “Yeah.” And she says, “Well, today – I didn’t!” That’s what happens when we step outside God’s boundaries, Beloved. We’ll learn more about those. III. The Church and Its Minister (4) Scripture calls for multiple elders for each congregation. But Paul has daunting advice for those who teach. I Tim 4:16: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” People’s salvation depends on how well elders teach and obey. They must watch 2 things closely – that they teach accurately and clearly – and they obey faithfully. Living well without teaching well is moralism. Teaching well without living well is hypocrisy. All teachers, must faithfull explain the Word and obediently live the Word. In a tearful last meeting with Ephesian elders Paul said Acts 20:27, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” His teaching was faithful, accurate and thorough. God’s counsel; not Paul’s. He watched his teaching. But he also said in Acts 20:35: “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way (godly living) we must help the weak.’” Paul didn’t just preach it; he lived it. We must do the same. If you’re in a church that does not faithfully teach the Word, you need to move on. People can’t grow where the Word is not taught consistently, clearly and comprehensively. That’s #1 in a church – not the music, not the programs, not the entertainment, but teaching the Word. And then – is it being lived out by the leaders? Do they believe what they teach? Are they obedient to the Word? Everything else is secondary to that. Theologian B. B. Warfield wrote: “The chief dangers to Christianity do not come from the anti-Christian systems. Islam has never made inroads upon Christianity save by the sword. Nobody fears that Christianity will be swallowed up by Buddhism. It is corrupt forms of Xnty itself which threaten the life of Christianity. A pure gospel is the only saving gospel.” He’s right. Our threat is greater from within than without. Lose the message and you lose the saving portrait of Christ. 4 Sociologists Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, surveyed church history from 1776-2005. They summarize: “We will repeatedly suggest, that as denominations have modernized their doctrines and embraced temporal values, they have gone into decline.” It is the first job of the elders to make sure that doesn’t happen – and it is the chief job of the congregation to make sure their teachers don’t let it happen. We must teach it and we must live it. IV. The Church and Its Ministry (5–6) Finally – to pix Christ accurately, we must serve others. Chapters 5-6 show how the church is to serve the elderly, widows, church leaders, slaves, the rich, the educated elite – even trouble-makers. Most of us think of church as a place to get our needs met. We’re here to get our blessing, and cry foul if we don’t get it. But we’ve got everything backwards. Our priority in gathering is to assign God the glory that is rightfully His, worshiping Him in with others. Second, it is about being equipped to serve. Pastors per Eph 4:12 are given “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” The work – labor, in ministry – διακονια -- service. The same theme is in Heb 10:24) And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25) not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” Lift each other up. If you’re not involved in ministry, you don’t understand church. Church isn’t about coming – it’s about going. Why are we here? To know Him (salvation). To grow in Him (thru ministry of the Word). And to go with Him (service). If it doesn’t lead to that, or portrait is distorted and we’ve failed the world and each other. I love how Paul says it in Rom 12:10 – such a great verse: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” Too often we’re the opposite – outdoing one another in looking for attention, sympathy or being served. We compete to take rather than competing to give. But Jesus told His disciples after washing their feet: John 13:15: “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” In other words, don’t look to get your feet washed; look for other feet to wash. Don’t look to be served, but to serve. How are you doing with that? This is how we pix Christ correctly. Mark 10:45. Conc – Jonathan Edwards, reflecting on life within the Trinity as we see it in Scripture concluded that God is infinitely happy. Within God, the 3 persons constantly pour glorifying, joyful love into one another. He said, imagine there 5 is someone you admire more than anyone else in the world. Then you discover this person feels exactly the same about you. You enter a lifetime friendship where you would do anything for the other. Sound like heaven? Yes – because it comes from heaven. That’s what God has always known in himself to an infinite degree. So in presenting an image of God to our world, we must present a God-centered, other-centered life to the fullest degree possible. That’s our calling. I Timothy will help us do it. George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization, spoke in hundreds of churches every year. When asked what he observed he said, “To see a church at peace each serving the other is an oasis in the desert.” Let’s be that oasis. Let’s pray. 6