Well Good Morning and welcome to Onslow Community Church.
This morning we are going to look at 1 Timothy. So if you have your bibles, now is a good time to flick to this letter.
1 Timothy is easy to find. It is in the New Testament and it is part of the section of “T’s”. I just flick through the NT, from the back, until I hit a “T” and I’m sweet ‘cause I know it is somewhere there.
Anyway… let’s get a bit of perspective on this letter of 1 Timothy.
Basically this is a letter from Paul to Timothy. Paul… after his possum-in-the-headlights-of-heaven experience on the road to Damascus… had been wandering around the eastern Mediterranean Sea area preaching to the people there, starting churches with all the people who had believed in Jesus and moving on.
It seems that Paul visited a city on his first missions trip called Lystra, which is in modern day Turkey. There a young man Timothy became a Christian.
On Paul’s second trip, he stopped in on Lystra again. This is written about in Acts 16:1-5. He found that Timothy had grown in his faith. Timothy’s fellow believers thought very highly of him so Paul invited Timothy to join his mission.
We also see in these verses that Timothy must have been VERY keen to join Paul’s mission because he had a significant… how do we put it… barrier to overcome. Notice all the guys moving slightly in your seats. ☺
Now I should point out that circumcision is not a requirement to be a missionary or Christian. What was going on here was that not being circumcised would have limited Timothy’s ability to work with Jewish believers so he seems to have decided that if this will help introduce Jesus to more people… bring on the scissors!!!
So Timothy joined up with Paul and onwards they went on his second missions trip.
Timothy must have been a very gifted and impressive young man because almost straight away Paul is prepared to entrust churches to Timothy when Paul gets booted out of a city.
By Paul’s third missionary trip he is sending Timothy off left right and centre. He is sent to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:17), Philippians (Phil 2:19), Thessalonians (1 Thes 3:2), to name a few.
We find Timothy in Ephesus when 1 Timothy is penned.
This letter is unlike a lot of Paul’s letter. In many ways we are eavesdropping on a personal letter. Other letters are to churches or to everyone. This is a personal letter to Paul’s young charge. So it is dealing with issues that are specific to Timothy and the ministry he was doing in Ephesus.
The letter deals with a good number of subjects including:
1. False teachers
2. Faith and perseverance
3. Worship services
4. Selecting church leaders
5. Relationships between church people
Many of these subjects are very useful for us as a family of believers, hence why this letter is in the Bible.
This morning I want to focus on what I see as the pivotal section of the letter…
1 Timothy 4:6-16
[Read out loud]
6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. 7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. 10 This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.
11 Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. 12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 13 Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.
14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you. 15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
These verses are the key to the letter. They are fatherly advice to Timothy and they connect all the other sections within the letter.
This section gives us ten short lessons to take onboard so we will work our way through these verses.
1. We need to explain things to our church family
6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed.
Verse 6 essentially says that everything that I, Paul, have written above should be explained by Timothy to the church he was pastoring in Ephesus. Things like:
• Beware of false teachers
• This is how you should worship
• This is how leaders should behave and be selected
• And so on.
The modern day implication for us is that we should teach what the Bible says. We should explain it so that everyone understands what was written and what it means. When we do this we are following good teaching and we are being a worthy servant.
So as a church we have a responsibility to explain what the Bible says. At OCC we do this primarily as part of these Sunday morning services and through homegroups. However if there are questions you have… big deep theological issues… there are people in our church family who will help you understand what the bible says about these things. Just ask!
2. Don’t waste time with old wives tales
7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales…
Oh how we love to do this. This is almost a cultural pastime for our generation. We love to discuss new theories and old theories and bits of trivia and just a whole pile of stuff. Information, ideas… knowing more has almost become a god for our generation.
Yet the more we know the more we realise we don’t know. The more we argue through philosophies, the more we realise that all this other stuff is pointing out the hopelessness of life without Jesus.
I was watching a very interesting series of videos on evolution. This genetic scientist was explaining how as he understood more about cells and how they work and reproduce, the more questions he had about the theory of evolution. When he asked his colleagues how to answer these questions there were no answers.
Eventually all his studies on evolution, a godless idea, pointed him to a creator/designer… Jesus.
Now what I am about to say is pretty politically incorrect in today’s world… but I will step forward and take one on the chin…
You don’t need to know a lot to have a successful life. You need to know Jesus is God and He created all things and He loves you. Its good to know a little bible. And that is about it.
Now I am not saying education is bad… hey I knocked out 6 years of uni, a bachelors and a masters in economics… but really a lot of what we study is only useful so we can participate in this world. It is important to participate in the world but nowhere near as important as participating in the Kingdom of God.
For instance… if you can get your mind around the wholeness of the cross and explain it simply and clearly – then you are a lot more valuable than say an economist to the people around you
As I said, not a PC view… but think about it!
3. Training
…Instead, train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”…
So if arguing about and discussing godless ideas isn’t that valuable, then what is?
Well Paul answers this. He says “…Instead, train yourself to be godly.”
And he gives an example of physical training being good… but says that “…training for godliness is much better…”
What does this mean?
I don’t think he is talking about “training” ourselves to believe in Jesus because that is a gracious gift from God. It is not dependent on us so we can’t “train” ourselves in this.
Perhaps what he is meaning are things like what we find in Galatians 5:22…
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Perhaps it is to be disciplined… another not very PC word… in prayer and reading the Bible and surrendering decisions to Jesus BEFORE they are made.
Perhaps it is being disciplined in spending a few hours preparing for homegroup rather than doing a 12 hour day at work.
Perhaps it is to see what Jesus did and try it.
Many of these things grow or develop through practice, trial, training… whatever you want to term it.
And these things are a million times more valuable than a couple of degrees.
4. Trustworthy sayings
8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.
In verse 9 Paul says this is a trustworthy saying and we should accept it. Now there is a bit of argument about whether verse 8 is the trustworthy saying or verse 10. The NLT translation, which we are using, suggests that it is verse 8.
The question is… why does Paul say that something is a “trustworthy saying”?
Well first of all we should note that Paul uses this phrase three times in 1 Timothy.
a. …“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” – and I am the worst of them all. (1 Tim 1:15)
b. …”If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position.” (1 Tim 3:1)
c. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” (1 Tim 4:8)
When we look at these trustworthy sayings they seem to me to be a little like the sayings in Proverbs. They are not rhyming or structured like a proverb but they are a little snippet of wisdom that is worth remembering.
So I think we have a little bit of wisdom captured here and Paul is highlighting it.
5. Our hope is in Jesus
10 This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.
We have hope in Jesus and this is what drives us to struggle. Pure and simple.
This verse however does introduce an idea that is troubling.
Jesus is “…the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.”
All people??? How does that work, you might ask? Doesn’t Jesus only save those who believe in Him?
There is a doctrine… I would suggest a false doctrine… called universalism. Basically it says that Jesus saves (in an eternal sense) everyone… those who follow Him… and those who don’t. It doesn’t matter if you believe… He saves you.
I don’t believe this! This interpretation doesn’t fit with a large number of other verses and teachings in the Bible.
This can degenerate into quite a complex issue but basically what we believe is that many people will reject Jesus and they will spend eternity separated from Him – in hell. (John 3:36) We then go on to debate a little over whether we are chosen or whether we chose… but generally we agree that it is through the grace of God.
Anyway…
There is another doctrine called common grace. This basically says that Jesus’ sacrifice has benefits for all people but special extra benefits only for Jesus followers. These extra benefits revolve around eternity but are also in the present.
For instance, people in general are restrained by their conscience. This is a benefit for all of society. But only believers receive eternal life and have the Holy Spirit working in them, guiding them through our earthly life.
This is a very simple skim over this issue. It is a big doctrinal debate. Just type “1 Tim 4:10” into Google and you get 82 pages of links. There is a serious amount of discussion about it.
The key point to take on board here is that Jesus is our hope… AND regardless of whether you believe in Him or not… He is the only real hope for all.
6. It is ok to be young
11 Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. 12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young.
Timothy was a young man. But he was also a gifted, key leader.
Some of you will have found at times that when you are young and you are responsible for people who are older than you, your youth can be a tension. In many cases authority comes with age and experience. But this is not always the case. Sometimes older people struggle to deal with this situation. Sometimes younger people struggle with the situation as well.
Paul tells Timothy not to “…let anyone think less of…” him because he is young.
Age has nothing to do with God given authority. If God has given you a gift of leadership… if He has called you to be a teacher… off you go. This is what Paul is telling Timothy.
However this is not an invitation for all you young guys to rock up and say to mum and dad… “Paul says you are not to think less of me because I am young… so I am off to my mates to make pipe-bombs… I’ll be back late… don’t wait up”. Because that would not be respecting your parents. Also, experience and maturity are a benefit and when we are young we do some pretty silly, thoughtless things because we sometimes don’t see the whole picture.
Paul connects this thought of “it is ok to be young” with the next lesson which is to live a life of example to all.
Before we jump onto that however… for us somewhat older folks (commonly called ‘old fogies’)… there is an application here. Sometimes we are guilty of undervaluing the contributions or potential contributions of younger people. Yes… young people don’t necessarily have the experience we do. Sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes we get a bit set in our ways. And our ways may not be the right ways.
I feel Paul giving us a prod to be a bit more cognisant of what young people are thinking.
7. Be an example
Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.
Great wisdom here. And this is wisdom applicable to young, old, average, male, female…
Be an example to everyone else in our:
a. Speech
b. Life
c. Love
d. Faith
e. Purity
Great, wise advice. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you reflect well in these five areas… if you are an example to others in these five areas… people will overlook your age, gender, race, class, wealth, poverty… whatever. People will think well of you.
8. Church
13 Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.
Paul tells Timothy to focus on reading the Bible to the church he is pastoring, to encouraging them and to teaching them. This is the definition of what a pastor should do.
If you go to a church that does not have the Bible read, that does not have people encouraging one another and are not being taught what the Bible says… then maybe you should look elsewhere. Because this is a lot of what church is about.
When we think about our church family here at OCC, we need to be reading the Bible together. On Sunday morning and in our homegroups. It is important that we ground ourselves in what God has said.
We need to be encouraging each other to step out in faith… trying new things… new ministries. We need to be hearing stories of what has happened and how Jesus showed up.
For example… the other day at Friday prayer meeting we prayed for a whole pile of things and God answered them. Not all but heaps.
• Rachel was about to have her end of year recital and said she was having issues with it. It went well.
• Heather was having blood pressure issues. This got sorted.
• Claire was having a pregnancy scan. The two previous low grade scans showed stuff. After we prayed… the high grade scan showed it was gone.
Awesome observable ‘God-moments’. We need to hear these stories because they encourage one another.
We need to be being taught what the Bible says and how that affects us here and now.
• How does Jesus feeding 5,000 people impact me?
• How does Stephen being stoned to death affect me?
• How does Jesus challenging people to cast the first stone if they are innocent affect me?
• How does Jesus’ commandment to go to the ends of the earth to spread His message affect me?
• And so on…
So we need to see these things happening in our church. When they are not, we need to ask why. And when we have a part to play in these activities, we should. It is so valuable because it is building up our church family.
9. Make use of your gift
14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.
Gifts… TNT are doing a 7 week study on these at the moment. It is really interesting.
Spiritual gifts are given to all believers by the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:6), not by people. In this case Timothy was made aware of his gift through the elders of his church prophesising about it.
This is important to know, as sometimes you will see people on TV “giving out” spiritual gifts to people. These ‘gift-giving’ people tend to wear white suits, cry a lot and turn up in private jets. A southern American or slightly ethnic accent also helps. I’m not sure why. And something about money always seems to come up…
Anyway… the Bible gives us three lists of gifts. They are…
Romans 12
• Prophesy
• Serving
• Teacher
• Encouragement
• Giving
• Leadership
• Showing kindness
1 Corinthians 12-14
• Wisdom
• Special Knowledge
• Faith
• Healing
• Miracles
• Prophecy
• Discernment
• Speak in tongues
• Interpret tongues
• Leadership
Ephesians 4
• Apostles
• Prophets
• Evangelists
• Pastors
• Teachers
I suspect these are not exhaustive lists but they give a pretty good start.
Now… we believe Timothy had the gifts of being a pastor and teaching. This is why Paul found him so useful for sending to various churches.
In this verse Paul is reminding Timothy… actually he is encouraging Timothy… to keep using his gift. The Ephesians appear to have been a pretty trying lot. So Paul is basically saying…
Dude… you are really good at pastoring this church… God chose you to do this work so it will turn out amazingly cool… so keep on at it!!!
Now isn’t that something we should be saying a lot more to one another?
10. Do all this with vigour
15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
Finally, Paul says that Timothy should do all these things with vigour… not half heartedly… but for the sake of Jesus… Really give it 100%!
And why…
Because people are watching and their salvation depends on it.
And this is what it… life… everything we do… is really all about… isn’t it?
I mean, our goal is to see others come to salvation… come to know Jesus… and then grow!!!
This morning I don’t really have a single silver bullet… a single concluding, thought provoking, life changing point. We have looked at ten very valuable lessons out of these verses. I imagine that only one… two at the most… would have connected with each of you.
For me… I am challenged to avoid godless arguments and discussions. This is something that is a constant fight for me personally.
Over the last couple of years I have also been more and more challenged by verse 10… the importance of reading the Bible, encouraging people and discipling people. This has come out of our times in Siberia.
The question this morning, as we go through these passages, is… what is Jesus saying to me?
Maybe this is something you can ask Jesus as we come into a time of communion.
Communion is a time where we are advised to examine ourselves. We can ask Jesus to show us what we should change and a time for us to surrender our sin to Him for forgiveness.
AND… It is also a time to remember and to celebrate the life giving, sin cleansing action of Jesus on the cross… represented by the bread and the grape juice.
AND… It is also an excellent time to call out to Jesus if you don’t know Him. ‘Cause ultimately, all this… our worship, what we teach, our church family, our own families and ourselves… it is all to His glory!
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