2020-09-13 1 Timothy 3:14-15 WHY GODLINESS: THE CHURCH IS SPECIAL

WHY GODLINESS (1): THE CHURCH IS SPECIAL (I Tim 3:14-15) September 13, 2020 Read I Tim 3:14-16a – Godliness. Most of us aren’t too thrilled to hear that. There goes our fun. Here comes a goody-two-shoes reputation. And it’s work! Not a welcome thought. It’s a duty at best. Like Tina Fey who said, “Why are my arms to weak? It’s like I did that push-up last year all for nothing.” That’s how we view living a godly life – a lot of effort for little return. But that’s bc we see it from a human perspective. Paul says, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.” “Mystery” doesn’t mean puzzle. It means before Christ, we may have found God’s commands onerous, being unsure where they were headed. But not now. Now we know! The mystery is solved – in Christ. It turns out godliness is great, not a duty, but a privilege. God is about relationship. Saving faith is about Him becoming our God and us becoming His people. It culminates in Rev 21:3: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” The glory of heaven is God with us and we with Him. To belong to God is special beyond description – but Paul is going to try in this passage. This is our motivation to live godly – we believers have been given the priceless gift of belonging to God. We’re special – to Him! I. The Greatness of the Motivation Paul says I’m writing so “you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.” First motivation to godly living? You are part of God’s family. When Paul says, “how to behave in the household of God” he doesn’t mean church building. They didn’t have buildings then! “Household of God,” identifies us as the family of God, like in Eph 2:19b where he tells the Ephesians they’re “members of the household of God.” In His family. We’re blood relatives with all who’ve been forgiven based on Jesus’ death, having realized Heb 9:22b: “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.” Having been cleansed inside, we’ve been adopted into God’s forever family, secure always in the love of our Heavenly Father. You say, “Child of God? I thought everyone was a child of God.” By creation, yes. As a forgiven, adopted son or daughter, No. Only those who 1 have accepted Christ belong. Jn 1:11-12: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” We are not born as a child of God, we are born again as a child of God, receiving Him, by grace through faith – something many people refuse. But for those who come, what a standing in life – sons and daughters of God. Heb 2:11: Jesus is “not ashamed to call them brothers [and sisters]” who have accepted Him by faith. So our first incentive to live a godly life? Living up to the family name! If you’re real, you’ll want to do that. Our failure is one of faith. We really don’t believe who we are in Christ. We find it hard to accept that we are Rom 8:17b: “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” All He has, we have. Jesus even says in Rev 3:21 – hold onto your seat: “The one who conquers (believers), I will grant him to sit with me on my throne”! Wow! Big throne! Big privilege. Amazing family. One deserving of our godly behavior. Shakespeare’s Henry V is an irresponsible, profligate youth – carousing with his drinking buddy, Falstaff. But the old king dies; and Henry assumes the throne. He does not have the crown through any virtue of himself, but having gotten it, he begins to live as befits his kingly status. He says, “The tide of blood in me / Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now. / Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea, / Where it shall mingle with the state of floods, / And flow henceforth in formal majesty.” In other words, “There’s been a change in me since I realized who I really am.” That should be every Xn. We’re the household of God. But there’s more. We’re also “the church of the living God.” The church = the called ones. Special ones. In Jn 10 Jesus pixs many flocks of sheep in one large pen. A shepherd comes in v. 3 and, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” All the sheep hear the call – but not all the sheep come – just those who belong to the shepherd. That’s the church – the special ones who hear and respond to the call. Jesus says, Jn 10:11b, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Thus, Jn 10:14: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” Do you know how special it is to be one of His called out ones? Given who we are, how could we not want to act like Him? We’re the “church of the living God.” In fact, we’re the dwelling place of the living God. Eph 2:22: “In him [Christ] you [believers] are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” A dead being doesn’t need a dwelling place. Its dead. But the living God has always wanted to dwell with His people. In the OT, He dwelt with Israel by means of a cloud in the heavily 2 guarded Holy of Holies. But with Jesus’ death and resurrection, that curtain came down. Now – by His Holy Spirit, we individually and together, are the habitation of the living God. Just let that sink in for a moment. We are the dwelling place of the living God. Are there other gods? Well, lots of dead ones. People worship a lot of perceived gods who are no gods at all. But there is only one living God. To come into relationship with Him is beyond special. It’s priceless. Jn 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Thru Jesus we have a living relationship with a living God! What He does may not always be what we’d like, simply because He’s a lot bigger and smarter than we are. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways (Isa 55:8). Just like Einstein’s thoughts would not be my thoughts. But He is active, engaged, involved – because He is living. And He is ours and we are His. Any other god of any kind is an illusion. Dead and useless. King Darius found that out. Put Daniel in the lion’s den after being duped by jealous rivals of Daniel to make a foolish law. But Darius liked Daniel, so after a sleepless night he went running down to the zoo. Dan 6:20b: “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, be able to deliver you from the lions?” Foolish question. Able? Absolutely. But did he choose to do so? In this case, Yes. So Darius made a new decree in Dan 6:26: “I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever.” Lesson learned. A living God is a lot more useful than a dead one. And our incentive to godly living: I Cor 6:19) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20) for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” It’s serious business to abuse the temple of God, right? Carl Armerding, former president of MBI, once wrote: “One can be a Confucianist without knowing Confucius. One can be a Mohammadist without knowing Mohammad. One can be a Buddhist without knowing Buddha. But one cannot be a Xn without knowing Christ.” He is the only living God. And we are His. How could we possibly not want to be like Him? That’s what makes us special – not ourselves, but our relationship with Him! II. The Greatness of the Mission God has entrusted an unbelievable mission to a ragtag group – but ones who are committed to truth. We are, 15c: “a pillar and buttress of the truth.”Not “a” 3 truth, but the truth. The idea of ultimate truth is anathema to our postmodern culture. There is no such thing as the truth – there is only my truth and your truth, whatever works for you. It it is diametrically opposed to whatever works for me, that’s okay because there is no ultimate truth – only what works. The ubiquitous example taken from Indian culture describes six blind men trying to describe an elephant. One holding the tail says the elephant is a rope. One touching the side and says it’s a wall. Another gets a leg and says it’s a tree. Another grabbing the ears declares it’s a fan. One holding the trunk says it’s a snake, and the one who finds a tusk declares it a spear. So, everyone is right – and everyone is wrong. The contention is, religions are the same way. All are part error and part truth. There is no one true religion. The problem, as Lesslie Newbigin points out, is that no one could declare all the blind men partly right and partly wrong – unless someone could see the whole elephant. You must see the big truth or you could not say each blind man knew only part of the elephant. There can be no partial truth unless there is a whole truth – what Francis Schaeffer used to call “True Truth” – exactly what the Bible claims to be. The possibility of spiritual life, an afterlife can’t be affirmed. Unless someone came from that world to tell us about it, we’d be like a blind man with part of an elephant. We need someone who sees the whole elephant (physical and spiritual reality) to describe it to us. Which is exactly what Jesus claims to have done. He told Pilate in Jn 19:37b: “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.” He’s saying “I alone see the whole elephant – because I’ve been there. I didn’t begin when I was born. I began in eternity, and I have come from there to tell you about it. I’ve come to give you True Truth.” This is why Jesus could say, “I am the truth.” That’s an insane claim – unless it’s true. Only if God chose to tell us could we see the whole elephant – have True Truth. But He did – in His written and then in His Living Word. Truth, then, is ultimately personified in Christ. If you know Him, you know all you need to know. But truth has content as well – things we couldn’t know unless God chose to reveal them. The truth is – there is a God who created all things, including mankind in His image. Man sinned and became alienated from God without any hope of recovery. But God sent His only Son to live the perfect life we couldn’t, to die for our sins, to be raised again paving the way to eternal life for all who believe. That, Beloved is “the” truth. 4 And we are the 15c: “pillar and buttress of the truth.” That language resonated with the Ephesians. The temple of Diana (Artemis), one of the world’s 7 wonders, was located there. Surrounding the outside, were 127 marble pillars, each more than 5 stories high, each the gift of a king, many decorated with costly jewels and overlaid with gold. It was a magnificent structure that could be seen from miles away. “Buttress” refers to the foundation upon which the pillars were laid. Thus, Paul is stressing here a twofold mission for the church. As a buttress we uphold and defend the truth; as pillars we display it in all its glory. No just any truth – “the” truth. It’s defense and its beauty are in our hands to guard, defend and display to best advantage. What a mission. God has placed this greatest of human treasures in our hands to hold up to a world that seems wise, but in the end is hopeless without the answers God’s revelation conveys. The greatness of our mission demands that we live it out in Godly lives so others will want to partake as well. Years ago, back east, a local train loaded with young people overheated and stalled. The limited train was due through shortly, so a flagman was sent to warn the engineer to avert a rear-end collision. Thinking all was well, the crowd began to party while train-officials sought a solution. Too late, they heard the frantic whistle of the fast-approaching Limited as it rounded the bend. Unable to stop, it crashed into the local killing most of the passengers and workers. The engineer of the limited saved his own life by jumping at the last second. When asked later, “Did you not see the flagman warning you to stop?” he replied, “I saw him, yes. But he waved a yellow flag, so I just slowed a little.” However, the flagman insisted, “I waved a red flag, but he went by me like a shot.” “Are you sure it was red?” “Absolutely.” Both men insisted they were right. It turned out the red flag had been exposed to weather so long the red was bleached out. From a distance, it looked dirty yellow. So we must ask, as a “pillar and buttress of the truth” has our flag lost its beauty and luster by a distorted message or sloppy lifestyle? Who knows how many lives have been lost bc of believers who have forgotten how special their position in Christ and the greatness of their mission. That must not be us. Conc – How to behave as part of the family of God? How about like our elder brother – Jesus Christ. That would do. Why would any genuine believer not want to behave like Him – earnestly seeing and following the commands and will of the Father? Why would we not? I can think of only three reasons. First, perhaps we’re not really His at all. That would explain the lack of enthusiasm to follow Him. Second, perhaps 5 we’ve never really realized how special it is to be part of God’s family. If so, I hope that realization will hit soon like a ton of bricks. Third – sometime we become complacent, even with the greatest of privileges. We take for granted what should never be taken for granted. Jen and Bill were dating, but Jen became increasingly concerned about the lavish amount of money Bill spent on her. After one expensive dinner date, she asked her mother, “How can I stop Bill from spending so much money on me?” He mother replied, “I’ll tell you how. Marry him.” How many people have experienced that? So sad, isn’t it – to see the bloom come off the rose of what was once a special relationship. We must never let that happen with our relationship with our Savior, Beloved. How special you are to Him. May He never be less to us. Let’s pray. 6