Bible Talks - Sunday Night Church
Timothy and the true gospel
Sunday, 24 September 2006
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Bible Talk Text
1. Ever been lost?
Have you ever been lost? I mean really lost?
Perhaps you’ve been on a bushwalk, or in a strange city, or overseas or something, and just been absolutely lost.
When I was growing up as a kid in England, we didn’t own a car, and my parents used to rent a car once a year for our family holiday. I remember going with Dad to London to pick up a car one year…
A tip: never allow yourself to be driven around one of the world’s biggest cities by a man who only drives a car once a year. We got lost. I mean totally, absolutely, park-the-car-and-pitch-tent type lost!
The only clue my Dad had as to direction was a idea that the sun should have been in the east, but seeing it was overcast and drizzling rain, even working out where east was, was a challenge. But we kept on driving round and round, hoping for a clue. We finally made it home, but what should have been a one hour trip turned into six hours!
Sometimes, church can be like that. It can be easy for us to keep on going round and round, but not being really sure where we should be heading – we’re just hoping it’s the right direction.
But 1 Timothy is a great fix for that, and while this letter is deeply personal, it is also a letter with lots to say about what it means for us to be God’s people and where we need to be going.
Now, you may be thinking that our church isn’t like that! That we know where we’re going and what we’re about!
But I’m not so sure we can be that confident and complacent. I say that because we are reading about a church with a very impressive pedigree, but one that nevertheless has gone off the rails – we start getting the picture in v3, although to appreciate the bigger picture, we need to go back to Acts.
2. There is a Crisis at Ephesus
So, lookup Acts 20 with me… we see here that Paul leaves Ephesus with a very emotional farewell and a chilling warning: “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.” Acts 20:29 NIV.
As we fast forward from Paul’s farewell there, we see that everything has happened just as Paul said.
The exact disaster that Paul warned of in Acts has taken place! In 1 Timothy 1:3 we see what this crisis is. The crisis at Ephesus is about the truth: leaders have arisen, from their own number, and are leading the people away from the truth.
Now, if you are getting a sense of déjà vu from this, you probably should. The theme of churches going wrong is a pretty big one in most of Paul’s letters, but somehow, the Ephesus problem has the potential to speak louder to us than some of the others in Paul’s journeys….
Down in 1:20 we get a feel for the seriousness of this problem. “Some have already… shipwrecked their faith”. So it’s clear that the conflict at Ephesus is not some obscure, nit picking debate about some irrelevant miniscule theological distinction.
It’s about how you get right with God. How you become a Christian. The things you need to believe to be saved.
It’s a matter of life and death!
And so the experiences of the congregation at Ephesus are a chilling warning for us.
Let me explain.
For most of you, sitting here week after week, it’s easy to get into the groove and think you are safe from the severe problems that are impacting the church at Ephesus. After all, you think, the Bible talks, the sermons, here are pretty straight down the line. They might get a bit long or boring sometimes, but there’s usually some good stuff to take away. After all, we are part of the mighty Sydney Anglican Church! We may be a bit boring and staid, but we know what the truth is!
But get this: The congregation at Ephesus was established by Paul himself and, for three years, he taught them personally. You couldn’t get a better start, could you?
But now, some time later, the congregation is headed for shipwreck! The truth of the Gospel is being distorted.
I’ve no doubt that the problems started slowly and subtly. One small compromise at a time.
Mind you, that church lived in the midst of a large city famous for it’s non-Christian culture and lifestyle. It was the centre of worship for Diana – the most prominent goddess of the whole Asia-Minor area! The temple built in her honour was one of the seven wonders of the world!
No wonder it was so easy for the church in that city to drift away from the truth.
Now, the same couldn’t possibly happen to us, could it?
I mean, we live a big city where nearly all the people are committed Christians, and where a Christian lifestyle is encouraged and promoted. We live in a place where only solid, gospel-based churches exist, and in a country where every single teacher and leader in churches all over the land are utterly committed to the truth of the gospel and the authority of Scripture! How could we possibly be in any danger of drifting from the truth?
The message to us: be on your guard. If it could happen at Ephesus, it can happen here!
So how does Paul tackle this crisis? Well, that’s what the whole letter is really about. You know, in a way it's a letter appears to be especially relevant to people like Philip and me and other ministry leaders. It's just the sort of instruction manual we need. But the key thing is, it's an open letter. It's addressed to Timothy, but it's here in the bible for all of us. So you need to listen as well.
But let me pause for a moment. I’ll come back to the problems in the church at Ephesus in a while, but let’s get more of a feel for the people and circumstances in 1 Timothy and for Tim himself.
Well, we know that Paul's an old hand at the ministry game. An expert. And Timothy's one of his apprentices. If you have a look at v3 you can see the situation. Paul's always on the go - he gets to a city, he preaches about Jesus, there are people who respond. And that's the start of a church. And then he moves on and does it again.
This time he's been in the city of Ephesus, and he's moved on to the top part of Greece, Macedonia.
And so you can see what he's saying. v3. "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus." Paul's gone on ahead. Timothy stays. And Paul goes on to tell him exactly what he's got to do: Commands for certain people.
How to deal with trouble makers.
What to make his priorities.
How to handle all the different sorts of people that make up a first century church.
In other words, it's a letter to Timothy to tell him how he should lead the church. But it's a letter for the church as well. For everyone. And it tells you how you should be led. And the sort of leaders you should be looking for. And the sort of goals we've got to work towards together.
It’s not really that complicated, but if we want to build our church the right way, we need to take notice.
3. Will the real Tim please stand up
But who is this guy Timothy? We can actually know a fair bit about him. Because the interesting thing is, you can find out snippets about him from all through the New Testament. Outside the two letters written to him, he's mentioned 21 times in other places. Popping up all over the place. There's the story of how Paul first meets him back in Acts 16, this bright young bloke with a Jewish mum and a Greek dad, and everyone in the church speaks well of him.
Here's a young guy with a great future. Not as a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer. But hand chosen, to travel around with the great apostle Paul. And it's a hard life. You can almost trace his career through Paul's other letters. He's mentioned in Romans, in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. And all the time, he's being sent somewhere, or he's just got back from somewhere; he's going to encourage some new Christians in Philippi, or he's come back with an encouraging report from somewhere else.
And now here he is in Ephesus. And Paul's spelling out for him what he has to do.
Now it's not always easy for Timothy. He's no spiritual superman. And again, if you trace through all the references you can build up a picture of his personality. He's shy. A bit retiring. Turn over the page to 4:12 and you'll see he's young. And Paul has to say to him, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. But set them an example." And if you look across to 5:23, you can even get a medical report (I know some people, that's their favourite verse in the whole bible)!
It's a fascinating thing, you can actually build up a more detailed picture of Timothy than just about anyone else in the New Testament. A picture of this talented, young, shy bloke with stomach trouble, who Paul's left in charge of the church at Ephesus. And it's a tough job.
4. The first step
Well, let's have a look at the instructions. And start at step 1. The top of the list. Before Timothy can make any progress at all, he's got to stop the rot. Before he can start teaching the truth, he's got to counteract the people in his church who are teaching lies. False doctrine.
Insider opposition
It's a funny thing, but it's always a problem. Where ever you're trying to teach the truth, there'll always be inside opposition. Because Paul's not talking here about people outside the church trying to cause trouble. He's talking about the people inside. And there they are, arguing and debating and getting tied down in all sorts of technicalities; trying to dot all the i's and cross all the t's and all they end up with is stupid arguments.
You can follow it from the middle of v3. Paul says I urged you to stay in Ephesus - "So that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith."
Now, I want to say to you that this is important. The fact is, if you're building a church, then it needs to be built on right doctrine. On the truth, not on lies. If you're building a church, you need a solid foundation - not myths and speculations and false doctrine. And that’s hard enough to do in itself, but when you have internal opposition - that takes a bit of backbone. And for a guy like Timothy, it must have been hard.
And the trouble is, he probably didn't have much backing from anyone else. Because the false teaching he was up against sounds so good and religious, and wise. And in the end, all these teachers really want to do is teach God's law. Now what can be so wrong with that?
5. The problem with the law.
Paul spells it out in v7. The genealogies and disputes and myths, they're just one part of the problem. But this is worse. He says “They want to be teachers of the law. But they don't know what they're talking about, or what they so confidently affirm.”
Now he's talking about the Old Testament law. The rules and regulations that you get in books like Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. That's what these guys want to teach. And many would ask: what's wrong with that? What's so wrong with being teachers of the law?
Well, let me tell you. If you want to be a teacher of the law, then it might just be that you've missed the whole point of the gospel. If you want to teach people that the Christian life is about keeping a set of Old Testament rules, then the fact is, Paul says, you're dangerous. If you want to teach people that being right with God is a matter of keeping Sabbaths and obeying a bunch of rules and regulations, then the fact is, you're saying Jesus may as well not have come. Because that's exactly the stuff Jesus came to fulfil. It's finished.
So as we look at the Old Testament law, as you look at the book of Deuteronomy or Leviticus and all the rituals and regulations, the first thing you've got to say is ‘thank God’. Thank God that Jesus came and fulfilled it for us. And it's over!
Paul wants Timothy to remember that Christianity is not about a bunch of rules. And he wants Timothy to stop the sort of people who want to say it is. Because they're missing the point. Not that there's anything wrong with God's law. It's just that we're free from it. And the Holy Spirit is at work to make you right with God from the inside.
And that's what Paul says in v8-10. The law's not for Christians at all. It's for rebels. Read from v8. “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers - and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.”
See what he's saying? Once you're a Christian, you're counted as righteous. The law is for people who don't accept the gospel. And it condemns them. But we're counted as God's friends, who are ruled by love. Instead of rebels ruled by law.
A friend of mine in ministry talked once about an uncle of his who was the local police sergeant in a small country town. His uncle died, but he recalled something that was said at his funeral. An old friend of his said this. He said, ‘Ted Maher was the sort of policeman who didn't need a gun and handcuffs. He didn't need law. Because everyone in town loved him. And nobody would even dream of putting a foot out of line, cause they didn't want to hurt his feelings.’
Now Paul says to Timothy, when you're building a church, remember, that's what it's all about. That sort of new relationship with God. And these people who want to come back and teach rules and regulations and laws and genealogies with their endless, mind-numbing debates, Paul says they've got to be opposed.
So, if you want to know what a real Christian looks like, you want to know what it's really all about? You can see it in verse 4-5. That's where Paul spells it out. He says, this stuff that the false teachers are on about, it only causes trouble. He says these promote controversies, rather than God's work - which is by faith.
And look what he says next. The goal of this command, he says in v5, the thing you want to achieve by shutting up these false teachers; it's not just to have yet another theological debate. It's not because you're right and they're wrong. It's not about winning arguments. The goal of this command, says Paul, the reason I'm saying it, is love... love which comes from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
But do you know the only way to get a pure heart? And a good conscience? And love? Because you certainly can't get them from endless genealogies and myths and theological debates. And you can't get them from keeping Sabbaths. Or being confirmed. Or going along to ‘Being Christian, being Anglican’ Or any other things you can think of.
The only way you get that sort of new start is from the gospel. And Paul spells out the gospel in v12-20 which we're going to look at it more closely next week.
6. The real deal
A message not about rules. But about Jesus. Not about what we do. But about what he did.
Just glance through v12-20, run your eye down, and I'll point out some key words.
Words like given. He has given me strength (v12). Words like mercy (v13). Or v14: grace. Being treated more generously than you deserve. He says "The grace of our lord was poured out on me abundantly." V16. Mercy again. ‘Unlimited patience.’
And Paul's not talking about himself. It's not that Paul's saved because he's a nice merciful, patient guy. Just the opposite. He's saved because of the unlimited mercy and patience of Jesus. Who not only puts up with us. But has taken the punishment we deserve on himself; as he dies there on the cross.
Grace. Mercy. Patience. They're the sort of words Paul uses when he's talking about getting right with God. And they all come from God's side towards those of us who are going to “believe on Jesus... and receive eternal life." (v16)
Sounds too simple, doesn't it. And you can see the temptation for the sort of people who want to add to it:
Make sure we tell them to do this. Or that. Make it a bit more complicated. Like a real religion. Add a few rules, let's come up with something that's really going to impress God, so he'll sit up and take notice.
And the problem is, as soon as you've done that, you've missed the point of the gospel. Which is why Paul's so insistent that Timothy stand his ground against people like that. Who go around preaching laws when we need to find love instead. Who'll tell you how to earn merit... when you need to hear about God's mercy.
If we're going to follow the instructions, that's what a church is meant to be built on. It's not going to be built on laws and rules... but on the gospel. With a goal of love. The love and mercy God has shown us... shown to each other.
Now, I guess we need to ask ourselves if that's what we're building here. And we'll need to look around every week while we're working through Timothy and ask that same question. Are we heading in the right direction? Or not? Are we listening to the right teaching? Or not?
Paul says it matters. And he tells Timothy to take a stand.
It needs to matter to you and me too. When we try to build it ourselves without reading the instructions, it's so easy to mess it up. But when you’ve got a map in front of you to guide you through the maze of roads and streets, not getting lost, and working where we should be heading gets easier.
Paul says, if they're preaching anything else, tell them to be quiet. Stick to the real gospel, the one about Jesus and what he's done. It mightn't be fancy. It mightn't sound quite as impressive as the genealogies and endless debates. But Paul says the simple truth is the truth that leads to faith. The simple truth is the truth that leads to love: love that comes from a pure heart and a good conscience. Let's aim for that!
