Title: Paul & Timothy: Ambassadors of True Christian Ministry
Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:1-2
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, as the history of the world progresses, we are faced with the stark reality that our civilization is locked in moral and spiritual freefall. Ever since the fall of humanity took place in the Garden of Eden, the disastrous effects of sin have been eroding our foundations and consigning sinners to hell where the judgment of God awaits them. Because sin has real consequences.
It is rebellion against God which brings about His punishment and retribution. See, sin is first individual. Individual persons sin against God.
But individuals make up families, and families make up towns and cities and nations and civilizations. And the more that individuals sin and that becomes prominent, the effects become widespread and the more the whole culture becomes mired in wickedness. And the bad news is that there is no earthly way out of it.
There are no programmatic fixes. An initiative won't change it. A movement won't alter it.
A revolution won't upend it. The only spiritual rebirth that can change the course is that which belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. That spiritual rebirth is what brings an individual, a family, a town, a nation from dark to light, death to life, hell to heaven.
And this is the reason that Jesus Christ came. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, was born into time to the Virgin Mary. He lived sinlessly on earth for 33 years.
He was delivered up to death on a Roman cross. Crucified at Calvary. He died to pay the sins of His people satisfying and alleviating the wrath of God and earning forgiveness and redemption.
He died and was buried and rose again on the third day to bring life to all who would believe. And all who would believe this Good News message, this Gospel message, would receive eternal life in His name. And the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1.15 declares that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
If I had to summarize the entire Christian message into one verse, one sentiment, I think that's it. That Jesus Christ came to save that which had been lost. It's the crux of the Gospel message.
And that Gospel message has been entrusted. Entrusted to the care, according to 1 Timothy 3.15, to the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. And so it goes, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only message that can save the world, and that message has been entrusted to the church, to believers together, then it concludes that the ministry of the church then is the most important endeavor we could ever undertake.
Far above anything else, ministry, true Gospel ministry, is preeminent. And so as long as the church stands, there is light in the world. Why? Because it is the church that bears the witness of the saving power of Jesus Christ.
But the modern church has fallen on hard times. A battery of false teaching, worldly philosophy, cultural beliefs and practices, and damnable heresy is attacking the church. And it seems, it always feels like it's intensifying year after year.
I mean, even in the last probably seven to ten years, it feels like the attacks have been increasing. In the wake of post-modernism, we've seen an onslaught of progressivism, the effects of the sexual revolution, cultural Marxism, even the confusing conflagration between religion and politics. So many people think that they're doing the Lord's work because they're doing political things.
Thinking that conservatism is the same thing as Christianity when it's not. Many churches are turned around, bloodied, and struggling right now. Add to that, church leaders are either aging out, failing out, or opting out.
According to one report that I read, there are 4,000 churches in America without a full-time pastor. 4,000 churches without any kind of spiritual leadership. And nearly 70% of congregations in this country are fewer than 100 people, making it nearly impossible to attract or sustain a qualified pastor.
Furthermore, fewer younger men are pursuing church leadership and pastoral ministry. And of those who do, many of them are underqualified, unqualified, or disqualified. And yet, churches are oftentimes pushed into accepting them and bringing them on because they're desperate.
Of course, more could be said about the gap between rising church plants and shrinking pastoral workforce. Or more could be said about the exorbitant cost of seminary education, or the lack of funds for pastoral salaries, or the allure of parachurch or internet ministries, or the battle fatigue of weary pastors, or the pandemic of depression in America. All of these factors and more contribute not just to a weakened spiritual leadership, but a weakened church, which has put modern Christianity into crisis mode.
Even our own church is not untouched by some of those factors. And so what do we do? What is to be done? How do we correct the errors of belief and practice within the church? How do we identify and qualify and train new pastors and new church leaders? How do we, as the body of believers here, guard and defend the Gospel and biblical doctrine? Thankfully, the Lord Jesus has graciously provided, I believe, all that we need in His Word. And in this season of the life of our church, I believe that it will be found in our study of 1 Timothy.
So if you would, turn your copy of Scripture to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy is often regarded as part of a collection of letters which are known as the pastoral epistles. That includes 1 and 2 Timothy as well as Titus.
All three were written by the Apostle Paul, and they were written to two young disciples, Timothy and Titus. Both of them were young men in ministry who were regarded by Paul as beloved children. In each of these epistles, Paul is providing both encouragement and teaching, and even though it's addressed to the young pastors, it is intended to be shared with their respective congregations.
Yes, these are pastoral epistles written to these young men, but they were meant to be written and exhorting the entire body of believers. In all of these letters, they span a variety of topics such as leadership qualification, doctrinal clarity, prayer, gender roles in the church, widows, greed and money, submission to authority, church discipline, faithfulness and courage, discipleship, preaching, serving, even finishing well. If you're interested in any or all of those topics, well, settle in for 1 Timothy.
This is where we're going to be. And Paul who is approaching the end of his earthly ministry, he's an older man at this point, he wants to ensure that nothing is left to chance as he passes the baton of faith to the next generation. And so 1 Timothy is his initial effort to do so.
And so we're going to begin simply by looking at the introduction to 1 Timothy. Just the first two verses. We read this way, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus who is our hope.
To Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Like with other Pauline letters, including a brief bio line, he begins with the address to the recipient, whether it's a church or an individual, and he includes something of who he is. First, he gives his name Paul.
Now, he's a Jew. We know that he's known as Saul of Tarsus. That's where he's originally from.
That's his given name. But before too long, when he gets into ministry, he begins to go by his Greek name, which is Paulis, which actually means little. He came to faith radically and miraculously while on the road to Damascus to persecute the church there.
We read about that conversion in Acts 9. In fact, Paul even includes a brief testimony of his former life, his conversion and call to ministry in 1 Timothy 1, 12-16. And so you want to read about Paul, it's right here. He says in verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.
Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all.
And yet for this reason, I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. And so despite Paul's sinful past, terrible past, egregious past, I mean, Paul used to put people in prison. Put Christians in prison.
He would consign them to their death. He would blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite all of that, God saved him and then God also put him into service.
And not just service, He put him into an apostleship, which is the title he uses in verse 1 here. He says that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus. An apostle.
What is an apostle? Well, very simply, it's a messenger. But in this case specifically, it's one who is sent with delegated authority. It's an ambassador.
We have ambassadors today. And when an ambassador from the United States goes to another country, they walk in the door and they say, I am the ambassador to the United States. And they're treated with the royal carpet treatment.
The red carpet treatment. Well, why? Is it because of that specific ambassador? They're not anything. But they come on behalf of a whole nation.
They come on behalf of a president. They're being sent with the authority, with the recognition of that leader of that nation to go and act as an emissary, an ambassador, I would even add maybe an apostle. So that's what Paul is here.
He's an ambassador. He's one with delegated authority. There were a handful of apostles in the early church.
Paul was one of them. But they were not an authority unto themselves. They don't walk around and say, don't you know who I am? They never did that.
No, they're always an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. They bore His authority. When they were speaking on spiritual matters, they were doing so under the banner of Jesus.
And so Paul is clear that his apostleship did not come by human means. There's a modern movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. By the way, it's not new.
It's a very old heresy. It's not apostolic, and it's certainly not a reformation. But you can actually go onto the NAR website, pay a fee, get recommended by a buddy, and you can become an apostle.
There's even an apostle for New Hampshire. Never met the guy, but I really want to. But that doesn't exist today.
You can't become an apostle of Christ by human means. It doesn't work that way. No, you can't confer it on yourself, and you can't have it conferred on you by somebody else.
Your friend or your church or your ministry can't puff you up and make you into an apostle. And so Paul doesn't claim it for himself. Nobody hands it to him.
He says this apostleship came according to the commandment of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus. Elsewhere in places like 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, even 2 Timothy, Paul notes that his apostleship came by the will of God. By the will of God.
Here he alters that sentiment just slightly and says this was a commandment of God. If you look at the Greek language here, the word for commandment is epitage, and it refers to an order or an injunction or a royal decree. Paul's using here official language.
It's almost as if his words come with a stamp. A divine stamp of authority here. Well, why is that important? Why is it so important that Paul gives his official credentials here? Isn't this a personal letter? Don't Paul and Timothy know each other? And certainly Timothy would have known Paul's credentials.
Why does he have to include that here? Well, it seems clear, however, that even though it was written as a letter to Timothy, again, it was meant to be read aloud to the church in Ephesus. Everybody in the entire congregation was meant to hear these credentials. And Paul asserts these credentials because as we're going to see, that authority, that responsibility, that stewardship is being handed down to Timothy.
And so Paul is going to establish that line. And he does so in the opening verse. He's not conferring to him the apostolic office, but he is designating him with the authority of Jesus Christ to be used in ministry.
This is authority that Timothy will proclaim every time he stands up, opens God's Word, and says, thus saith the Lord. This is under the guise of apostolic authority. I have no claim to the apostolic office whatsoever.
But the same authority that's been passed down from generation to generation, pastor to pastor, anybody who leads in gospel ministry has the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ given to them through the Scriptures mediated by that office. Again, not that any pastor, any leader is infallible, has any kind of assumed authority at all. But this is a commandment of God that His authority be mediated to His body.
And so Paul is going to be handing that off to Timothy. Now, some have tried to make something out of the distinction here between God and Christ here. If you notice when he says here, this authority is from the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus who is our hope.
Some have tried to say, why is Paul calling God the Savior and not Jesus Christ the Son? I don't think we have to make much of this. I think Paul is very clearly intending to communicate here that salvation itself is both God-centered and God-initiated. He's not splitting up the Father and the Son by any means.
It reminds me of 1 Peter 1-3 when it says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so in truth, we see that we are saved according to the plan of God through the work of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is all of God and it is all of grace.
And so here, Paul is crediting God with being our Savior, and then he regards Christ Jesus as our hope. Christ is our hope. So many in the world today have no hope, and the reason they have no hope is because they don't know Jesus Christ as Savior.
But if you know Jesus Christ as Savior, you have all hope. Elsewhere, Colossians 1-27, Paul speaks of the wonderful mystery here where he says the mystery is that Christ is in you, and then he calls that mystery, the Christ indwelling in you through the ministry of the Spirit, he calls Christ in you the hope of glory. You have a small window into glory because you know Jesus Christ.
So Christ Jesus is our hope. Whereas believers regard salvation as being accomplished for them in the past, the hope of eternal life, the hope of glory is the future. So in this very small, I would say unassuming verse, we see that we are secured by the Savior, by God our Savior in the past, but we're also secured by Christ Jesus in the future for our hope.
Again, all of salvation is all of God and all of grace. Hope is essential to the Christian life. But I would even argue that it is even more essential in Christian ministry.
Well, how so? Well, just consider for a second, those who have ministered for Christ for 40, 50, or 60 years, their whole life is transfixed on the work of ministry. Ministering the Gospel, eternal life, the glory of Christ. So if you're going to give your life, whether it's pastoral ministry, spiritual leadership, missionary work, anything, any kind of Gospel ministry without hope, that's a death sentence.
Because you're giving your entire life, everything that you are, everything that you do, everything you focus on is built toward that message of salvation. And so we must be those of hope. And thankfully, we are those of hope.
That's why Paul told Timothy in chapter 4, verse 10, it is for this that we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men. Beloved, we have hope. We have hope for the future.
We have hope for today. And it was that singular focus that the Apostle Paul built his entire life and his entire ministry. And then we read the recipient of Paul's letter, verse 2. Paul says to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
This name Timothy, Timotheos in the Greek, it's literally one who honors God. One who honors God. It was a relatively common name, but in the context of the Bible, we associate that name.
That name has been immortalized as being one of Paul's closest disciples. We first meet Timothy in Acts 16. So just to kind of give you some context of where we are in the course of church history, the Jerusalem Council, which gathered together all the believers in that region here, all of them came together in this Jerusalem Council right around AD 49.
49 is when that happened. And then after that council, Paul embarks on his second missionary journey to travel around the known world and go strengthen the churches and then plant new ones. And so it's in the course of that missionary journey, in Acts 16.1, Paul and Silas, they arrive in Derbe and Lystra, which is modern day Turkey.
And while they're in Derbe and Lystra, they encounter a young man named Timothy. He was already a young disciple of Jesus Christ. As for his family, we know that his father was a Greek Gentile, but his mother was a Jewish believer.
How they ended up together, I have no idea, but that's what Scripture records. 2 Timothy 1.5 records that Timothy's mother's name is Eunice. And it also records that his grandmother, her name was Lois, and she was also a believer.
And Lois and Eunice, they worked together and they discipled and they trained and brought up Timothy as a believer. In fact, 2 Timothy 3.15, we learn that even from early childhood, Timothy had been exposed and taught the Scriptures, which Paul says, which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. He reminds him, he says, Timothy, you've been brought up in the Scriptures.
You know the Word of God. Your mother taught you. Your grandmother taught you.
You're familiar with these things. And so he grew up learning the Bible and learning the faith. And Acts 16.2 says that Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren.
Whatever community of believers he belonged to, they all had a high view of him. Even though he was a very young man. We don't know exactly how old he is, but maybe late teens or early twenties at that point.
He was a young man, but yet the whole church regarded him highly. They spoke well of him. And Paul met him and he was so impressed by this young man that he wanted him to accompany him on this missionary journey.
Can you imagine that? An apostle coming to your church finding a young man 15, 18, 20 years old and says, you, I want you to come with me. We're going to go travel the world and preach the Gospel. That's what he did with Timothy.
But there was just one problem. The problem is that Timothy was uncircumcised, no doubt because of his father's Gentile influence. Now again, we understand that salvation does not come through any kind of outward works.
So that's not the issue of salvation, but rather if Timothy's going to go with Paul to evangelize Jews, then he needs to be circumcised because he doesn't want to be a stumbling block to them. If they go into a congregation of Jewish believers of the Jewish religion, and they know there's a Gentile in the group, they won't listen to a word he has to say. But if they acknowledge that he has not only been circumcised, but that his mother is a Jew, he'll have a better hearing.
And so in Acts 16.3, it records that Paul has Timothy circumcised, and then they go venture out in ministry. And from there, Timothy enters into this whirlwind tour of Gospel ministry all around the known world. He goes with Paul to Galatia, to Phrygia, to Macedonia, to Philippi, to Thessalonica, to Berea, to Athens.
He travels everywhere, all the while learning from Paul, asking questions, watching his life, listening to his teaching. Of course, he was also persecuted with Paul as well. If you were to read 2 Timothy, Paul encourages him on many different occasions, and he says, suffer well with me.
How's that for a greeting card? Here, I'm going to write you a letter. I want you to suffer with me. Let's go suffer together.
That's what Paul does in his final letter to Timothy is an encouragement to suffer well, to go suffer with me as a servant, as a good servant of Jesus Christ. And so, Timothy was also persecuted with Paul, but he stayed faithful to the task. He was a faithful young man.
And even when Paul was imprisoned, Timothy did not leave his side. Timothy is named nine times. He's named in nine of Paul's 13 letters.
And he oftentimes ministered on behalf of his mentor. In fact, Timothy learned so much and became so close to Paul, that Paul began to refer to him as his own child, as his own son. Here in 1 Timothy, he's called my true child in the faith.
True meaning genuine. He's not illegitimate to me. He's a true child of the faith.
2 Timothy calls him my beloved child. I love this young man. He's like a son to me.
From what we know of Paul, he had no biological children of his own, but he acted as a spiritual father to young men like Timothy and also like Titus. When writing to the Philippians, we note that he says this of Timothy, he says, for I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus, but you know of His proven worth, that He's served with me in the furtherance of the Gospel like a child serving His Father.
Therefore, I hope to send Him immediately as soon as I see how things go with me and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming to you shortly. He says, I have no one else of kindred spirit. No one else is like me.
Paul discipled and trained countless numbers of people. I mean, hundreds? I don't even know. Maybe even thousands over the course of his life.
And he says there is nobody else in the world who is as like me as he is. Timothy is a mini Paul. He's just like me.
He tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 17, for this reason I have sent you Timothy who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ just as I teach everywhere in every church. You want to get me? If you can't get me because I'm in prison somewhere, fine, I'll send you Timothy. He's just like me.
He'll preach like me. He has my doctrine. He has my character.
He has my lifestyle. He's just like me in every possible way. There's nobody else like me than Timothy.
I'm sending him to you. To send you Timothy is just as good as if I come. Does that give you an idea of what discipleship is supposed to look like? Timothy is a young Paul.
What was Timothy like specifically? Well, we know that he was young. He was much younger than Paul. Most scholars believe that in the time that Paul wrote 1 Timothy, which is right around 63 A.D., that at this point, Timothy would have been in his mid to late 30's, maybe close to 40, but certainly younger than Paul.
Even then, Paul tells him in 1 Timothy 4-12, let no one look down on your youthfulness. So even then, Paul considered Timothy youthful. He says, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself as an example to those who believe.
We also know that Timothy was gifted and called by God. He was extremely gifted. Several times, Paul makes mention of Timothy's spiritual giftedness, even encouraging him in 2 Timothy to keep it freshly kindled.
Stir it up, brother. Stir up the giftedness that's in you. He talks about the giftedness that was given to him somehow by the laying on of hands.
So he was a gifted man. He was a called man. We also know that Timothy was prone to bouts of anxiety and timidity and even fear.
Well, how do we know this? Well, essentially all of 2 Timothy is designed to encourage him to keep on going in the face of fear. Just as a side note, whenever I'm struggling in ministry, whether I'm fearful or anxious or discouraged or whatever it is, you know where I go? 2 Timothy. I've had seasons of time where I just live in 2 Timothy.
Day in and day out. That's my daily devotions is in 2 Timothy. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1-7, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
He encourages him, Timothy, keep going. Stir up your gift. Know that God has given you power and love and discipline.
He's given you a sound mind. He's not given you timidity. Whenever you feel anxious or fearful or timid, that's not of the Lord.
That's from somewhere else. And yet, through all of these things, all through his timidity, his anxiety, his fears, Paul was able to download enough of himself into Timothy to refer to him as my true, my genuine child in the faith. And so, why did Paul write this letter? What was the occasion? Well, we know that at some point during his third missionary journey, Paul made three major missionary trips according to Acts.
On his third missionary journey, which is recorded in Acts 18-21, so those four chapters, Paul, he puts down roots in Ephesus. He goes to Ephesus. And he settles there for a couple of years.
And while he's there, he opens up a training school. He trains believers, but he also trains pastors. Acts 19-9 refers to this school as taking place in the school of Tyrannus.
So this school of Tyrannus was a school of philosophy or whatever it was, and they would study usually in the morning hours, and so usually that space was available in the afternoons. So while the school was done for the day, Paul would then go in and he would teach in this building or in this space, all the Christians and all the potential elders and pastors that he would want to do. And so we read about this in Acts 20 where Paul eventually departs Ephesus, and we know that he never returns after that departure.
And at the end of Acts 20, it records that Paul, he leaves, and there's a tearful goodbye. And all the Ephesian elders are gathered around him. And he gives them one final charge.
And they all lay hands on one another and they're holding him and they're crying and the tears are dripping onto the back of his neck. It's a very emotional, very personal final departure for Paul and these Ephesian elders. And some scholars believe that Timothy may have remained behind when Paul left.
That he was part of that goodbye. If so, if that is true, it explains Paul's sentiments in 2 Timothy 1-3 when he tells Timothy, I constantly remember You in my prayers night and day, longing to see You even as I recall Your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. Now again, we don't know if that was the last time that Timothy saw Paul, but certainly if he was there, he believed that this would have been the last time he saw Paul.
We don't know. But we do know that several years after the events of the book of Acts, because again, we notice that 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, we don't find them in the narrative of Acts, and so we've concluded that those letters and several others are written after the time of the book of Acts here. So after the events of Acts, we know that Timothy is now ministering as a pastor in the city of Ephesus.
Well, why was he there? Why did he have to be in Ephesus as a minister? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1, 3 and 4, the very next two verses, he says, as I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. And so, there were men in Ephesus that were teaching strange doctrines. Strange doctrines.
And Timothy was there to correct those errors and to further the administration of God. Again, if Timothy is a mini-Paul, if Paul has downloaded himself into Timothy through discipleship, then Paul thinks it's important enough for a version of himself to be in Ephesus to correct what's been broken. So that's why he's there.
He's there to lead the church in God's way and not the way that those men wanted to do it. See, true Christian ministry is all about obeying God's Word and ordering our lives and our understanding about what He has revealed. We don't sit down in a church business meeting or even in an elder meeting and say, alright, what do we want to do today? How are we going to run this church today? What are some big ideas we want? I want to change the direction.
I want a new philosophy. We never do that. We're not allowed to do that.
Because enough of Scripture is very clear about what our responsibilities are. What the main focus is. And much of Paul's letter to Timothy is centered on church leadership and teaching and correcting.
But again, that's only part of it. We think about pastoral epistles. Oh, those are just for pastors.
No, there's a lot in those epistles for pastors. They're written to pastors, but there's actually more than just that. Why did Paul write this letter? He gives the answer in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15.
Paul says to Timothy in the earshot of the church, because that's where it's being read, he said, I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, here it is, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. So why do we have this letter? It's to teach believers how we ought to conduct ourselves in the household of God. This letter exists for the church and for the ministry of the church.
We all have a part to play. Some are pastors and teachers. Some are deacons and servants.
Some are children. Some are widows. All of us are believers.
And God has a plan for how He wants His church to function. He has a plan. And we need to continue to learn, to study and learn how we are to obey Him.
Because there's a lot at stake. This isn't about just coming here and playing church. This isn't just social hour.
So many believers, especially in this younger generation, have viewed church as a hangout time with their friends. Now don't get me wrong, this is a place of fellowship. That's Acts 2.42. Fellowship is definitely part of what we do, but it is not the penultimate goal.
The church exists here to be the pillar and support of the truth. We're here for gospel ministry. For biblical doctrine.
For Christlikeness. For growth in Christlikeness. Our fellowship, our time together, our endeavors, our ministries, everything we do, should be somehow connected to and focused on furthering the administration of God by faith through the gospel of Jesus Christ and helping all of us to become more like Him and become effective in our witness for Him.
There is a goal to this. Because the world is watching. The world is watching.
Don't think that Gilmonton Ironworks and Gilmonton and this whole region, Belknap County, don't think that they're not watching Harvest Bible Church. Don't think New Hampshire is not watching Harvest Bible Church. We get emails, probably weekly or even monthly, from individuals or churches from outside of this area.
Around the country. Sometimes even from parts of the world. Asking questions.
Watching online. People are paying attention. Now why do I say that? Is to give us something to boast about? No.
Rather, it's to go the other way. And say that if the world is watching, if people are watching what we do here, we have a responsibility and a stewardship to bring our lives and our doctrine in conformity to God's Word. This is a tremendous responsibility.
We are stewards of God's truth. Because it is God's truth that saves. God's truth that sanctifies.
God's truth that sustains. And again, beloved brothers and sisters, we are stewards of that truth. Therefore, we must be focused on engaging in true Christian ministry.
Obeying God's Word, God's way. In fact, that's what I've titled this exposition of 1 Timothy for the next year or so. However long it takes us to go through this letter.
True Christian ministry. That's what I want to learn together. Well, Paul ends this greeting with a blessing.
He says, Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Grace. What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor or unearned favor.
It is gifts from God that He bestows on people. And mercy is the flip side of that coin. Mercy is undeserved forbearance of God.
It's when He withholds judgment or punishment from those who deserve it. To say it another way, grace is receiving a blessing you don't deserve, while mercy is not receiving the punishment that you do deserve. They're both sides of the same coin.
Both of these blessings come to the believer through the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord by the love of God the Father. And it is out of God's grace and mercy that we experience His peace. And so why does Paul and other writers confer such blessings on the church? On the reader? Well, I believe that including these blessings is really to function as a shorthand reminder of what we have received through our salvation in Christ.
Because I think we tend to forget sometimes everything that we have been given in Christ. We can become very prideful and discontented and distracted away from who we are in Christ Jesus. It's almost as if Paul is reminding Timothy who is in the throes of a very difficult ministry in Ephesus.
It's as if he's saying, remember, brother, that you have been given the gifts of God's grace through His death and resurrection. Remember that God has extended His mercy to you by forgiving your sins and withholding judgment. Remember that because you have been justified by faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
See, Paul knew Timothy's struggles. He knew what it's like to be a pastor or a leader. And he also knew Timothy's personal struggles.
He knew him better than anybody. They were close. They were spiritual brothers.
But more than that, they were a spiritual father and son. But that's the nature of Christian discipleship. It's where older saints, more mature saints, are pouring themselves into younger believers.
Have you ever copied yourself, your faith, not your mistakes, but have you copied your life of faith into someone else? Have you downloaded who you are as a Christian into someone else? That's called discipleship. And guess what? That's not just my job. That's all of your job as well.
Either to be downloading yourself into someone else the faith that you have, or to be on the receiving end and learning from someone else in order that you may then at some time, download yourself into someone else. That's what Paul did here with Timothy. In fact, that's what Paul tells Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2.2. He says, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men.
Faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's a Christian relay race, isn't it? That's how the torch of truth is passed from generation to generation to generation, and it will continue until the Lord returns. I'm sure all of you heard this week that Christianity lost a giant in the faith here in the passing of John MacArthur.
I lost a spiritual father. A Paul. No other person has had a greater impact on my preaching, on my theology, on my ministry, than John MacArthur.
And I miss him tremendously. We were not close. He doesn't know me very well.
He knew who I am, my name, a few things I had done, but for the most part, it was just a very non-close relationship, he and I. But in terms of his value to me, his ministry was downloaded into my mind and heart. Everything I've learned has come from really two places. I lost two mentors in the last 12 months.
One to disqualification, and the other one to death. But I look at the testimony of that man, and I see him as a Paul. And yet, the things that I learned from him, I am exhorted to entrust to other faithful men.
Who will be able to teach others also. And so I'm grateful for God's providence. I really am.
I'm grateful that it's this week that we're beginning this new study. But more than that, I believe that we're beginning a new era in the life of our church. I really do.
And it's my earnest prayer that this study in 1 Timothy will do several things. My hope and prayer is that this study will cultivate a healthy understanding of our own church's ministry. My prayer is that we're going to sharpen the focus of our ministry.
There's a lot of things that we kind of have in the margins, in the wings, and I want to focus in. What is God calling this church to do? What is the part that each one of us has to play in that? I'm also hoping and praying that this will serve as a metric for how we identify and evaluate future leaders. When we get to chapter 3, I plan to tap the brakes, guys.
I want to slow down and really look at what does God desire? What does He want from His leaders in the church? So that you also may participate in not just evaluating those who serve you already, but evaluating those who will be coming up into ministry. That leads me to my third prayer. It's also my prayer that this study will serve as a catalyst.
My hope and prayer is that this will motivate and draw out those who are being called by God into leadership, into ministry. It's no secret that we've been talking about this for years and years, looking for a pastor, looking for more elders, looking for more teachers. And I've been convicted over the last several weeks, over the last probably six weeks, as much as we want to look outside of this church for more spiritual help, and maybe the Lord will bring more help through someone outside of this church, it's become my personal conviction that I believe that God intends more spiritual help to come from within this church.
And so that's going to be my main focus is to zero in on spiritual leadership here at this church. It's been on my mind and heart for 12 years, but I intend to be laser focused on dialing in on who the Lord is calling to lead in eldership, pastoral ministry, missionary work, teaching, preaching. It's true spiritual and Christian ministry.
And so I want to exhort us all to approach God's Word with attentiveness, humility, and excitement as we move forward. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, the blessing of encountering Your Word is manifold.
Lord, even as we begin a new letter and we're simply looking at two verses at the very beginning, even as we pull back the layers, we see that there is still rich spiritual truth for us there. And Lord, I pray that as we focus in on this next season of the life of our church, that You would give us grace, Lord. That You would provide spiritual blessing for this church.
And not just for the church collectively in general, but Lord, I pray on behalf of every believer here that You would do a work in every single Christian individually, personally, spiritually, that You would grow them in the knowledge and love and assurance of Christ Jesus. Lord, that You would give us grace. I also pray, Lord, that You would minister even more the reality of mercy.
We would understand and realize that we have been saved from judgment. We've been saved from the penalty of our sin. So Lord, let us focus in on living a life of repentance and forgiveness when we're sinned against, Lord.
Remembering that we have been forgiven many, many, many sins. Innumerable sins. Let us be people of mercy.
But Lord, let us also be people of peace. Lord, I pray for the life of our church right now that You would minister a supernatural peace here. We would have peace with one another as we recognize that we have peace with You because of the justification we've received in Christ.
But I also pray that we would not just have the peace with You, but we would have the peace of You. That You would grant us a supernatural peace that would transcend all understanding. That You would lift our burden.
Lift our griefs and our pains, Lord. And help us to walk with exuberant joy loving one another, bearing each other's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. I thank You, O Lord, for the blessings You've already poured out on this assembly.
And I trust and I pray that You will continue to be faithful to Your Word. Lord, as You have handed this torch to us to carry forth the Gospel, let us carry it with strength and vigor. Not because we are worthy of anything, but because You are all sustaining in Your grace and provision that You will carry us through to the finish line.
We thank You, Lord, for Your loving kindness given to us in Jesus Christ. And we pray all of these things in His name, Amen.