Praying and Living the Gospel

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2, ESV)

We now live in a culture that is hostile to anyone claiming to have absolute truth. You can now live however you want and you can believe how you want- just don’t impose your beliefs on others. But it is interesting to me that Christians are the one’s attacked because we have the absolute truth in God’s Word. Our culture chooses to live outside the gospel today because we are self-obsessed, inward focused people. By obeying Christ, we can no longer do as we wish because our allegiance is to God and not man. Acts 4:12 says, “There is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.” Now just because our message is exclusive, doesn’t mean that our witness should be. Paul reminds Timothy that our hearts must come in line with God’s hearts and God’s desires for all people to be saved.

In chapter one, Paul gave us a gospel foundation and now in chapter two, he starts by giving practical exhortations. He starts with prayer and public worship. In verse one, it’s almost as if Paul is taking a shot at the false teachers by saying, “First of all, then, I urge you that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people…” Christian prayer should always be expansive and expounding. Our prayers must not be solely based on our wants or needs but they must embrace the globe as well as our nearest and dearest. David Platt says, “The progress of the gospel in the world is dependent on the prayers of God’s people in the church.”

John Stott wrote of what he observed of just how far short the church often falls: “Some years ago I attended a public worship in a certain church. The pastor was absent on holiday, and a lay elder led the pastoral prayer. He prayed that the pastor might enjoy a good vacation (which was fine), and that two lady members of the congregation might be healed (which was also fine; we should pray for the sick). But that was all. The intercession can hardly have lasted thirty seconds. I came away saddened, sensing that this church worshipped a little village god of their own devising. There was no recognition of the needs of the world, and no attempt to embrace the world in prayer.”

Think for a moment about what Paul was saying. He was telling us to pray for our leaders. This had to be a head scratching, strange request for the church especially since Paul was writing this letter under the reign of Nero, a Roman emperor who violently persecuted Christians. Paul was commanding us to pray for our pagan leaders, pray for the king who you suffer under, pray for the leaders that you don’t agree with and pray for the ruler that you don’t approve of. The same is true of Christians living in the 21st Century in America. We should continually be praying for our president and our leaders even when we disagree with them. Instead of sharing with the world how much we disagree with their decisions, we should instead be lifting them up to God. God is the one who can change hearts, not our thoughts or opinions. But we should also be in prayer for the World’s leaders as well. We should pray for our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted daily. We should be praying for strength and boldness for our brothers and sisters who are proclaiming the gospel to unreached people groups. It is only through such praying that the church will be prepared and equipped to live lives of godliness and dignity amid persecution.

A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was said to wake up early in the mornings, bow his knees, clutch a globe and weep in prayer. May this become a picture of our lives not only as we go throughout our week but also as we gather together for worship with other believers. May we take time in our worship service to intercede in prayer for those people spread across the globe.

1 Timothy 2

Today we will focus on 1 Timothy chapter 2.

Pray for All People
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man[a] Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. 11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

FIGHT FOR THE GOSPEL

1 Timothy 1:18-20

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

We have now come to end of chapter one and Paul gives Timothy one final charge in this chapter: FIGHT FOR THE GOSPEL! Timothy must engage in battle for the sake of the truth. Paul mentions two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, who had wandered from the gospel and were also among the false teachers. Some believe these men were also elders in the church at Ephesus. The one thing I see here is that this is a great reminder that no one is immune to the temptation to wander from the gospel. No pastor, no elder, no deacon, no teacher, no small-group leader and no member of the church is exempt from being tempted to leave the gospel. That is why Paul stresses so hard that we need to fight for the gospel. Let’s take a look at how we can carry this fight out in two ways.

1. Fight For The Gospel With Our Lives (v.19). Incase you haven’t noticed we are in a war, a daily battle against Satan. This spiritual battle that we are fighting is for our lives, our marriages, our families, our churches and our faith. It doesn’t matter if you are a teenager in school or person in the business world, there is a battle raging all around you. David Platt says, “The Devil and all the minions of hell will entice you with deceptions and incite you with divisions, because they do not want the gospel to resound in and through your life, your marriage, your family, or any other area.” This battle will look differently in each of our lives, but be aware you are in a battle! So fight the good fight and keep “faith and a good conscience” as you fight this battle.

2. Fight For The Gospel In Our Churches (v.20). Paul mentions Hymenaeus and Alexander in this verse as being handed over to Satan, referring to them being excommunicated from the church, which is found in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. Jesus teaches in Matthew 18 that those who continued in sin are t one put out of the church so, they were cast out of the church to show that they have been separated from Christ, with the hope that they would realize their error/sin and return to Christ. Paul was sharing with Timothy that he and the church must take severe measures at certain times to fight for the gospel. It’s important that the church fight for the gospel as it’s the one thing that unites the church and the only thing that will sustain the church (God’s people) in difficult days.

The gospel is worth fighting for, it’s worth guarding, it’s worth defending and it is most certainly worth celebrating. How are you fighting for the gospel today?

Celebrate the Gospel

1 Timothy 1:12-17

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

As we guard the gospel within the church, we also should celebrate the gospel. In our verses 12-17, Paul erupts with a gratitude of praise about his personal testimony. In this section, Paul gives us one of the most concise, clear and compelling descriptions of the gospel in all of Scripture. And it’s powerful! Paul uses nine English word to enclose the gospel: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.  Christ Jesus, the Son of God, came to live a life that we could not live, die the death we deserved to die and raised in victory over the enemies we could not conquer- sin and death. Paul says this saying is “trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance”, it wasn’t like the myths and speculations of the false teachers in v. 4. THIS is reality! It’s undeniable!

Paul wasn’t always this joyous and excited about the gospel. In fact, he was quite different before Christ bestowed his grace and mercy upon him as he was once known as Paul the Persecutor. A.T. Robertson described Paul in this way, “Threatening and slaughter had come to the very breath that Saul (Paul)breathed, like a warhorse who sniffed the smell of battle.” Paul described his behavior to King Agrippa by saying: “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many thing in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” (Acts 26:9-11) Paul was a callous, pious, self-righteous, bigoted murderer. His hatred for Christians extended beyond Jerusalem too. He was on his way to Damascus where he was planning to wreak ravage on the Christian community. Saul the hunter! Saul the man of blood! But amazingly God caused His grace to overflow to the one person who seemingly deserved it the least.

We are not saved based on any condition in us, we are saved solely on account of sovereign grace in God. His grace is unconditional. Verse 14 is good news to anyone who has ever thought, “God would not save me. I’ve hated Him. I’ve turned against Him. I’ve fought God at every point in my life.” Let me say, if you think you are beyond the mercy of God, know this: God chose to take the chief persecutor of the church and made him into the chief missionary in the church to show He is patient. 2 Peter 3:15 says, “Bear in mind that the Lord’s patience means salvation.” No matter who you are or what you’ve done the words, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” are worthy of full acceptance.

“God’s grace is beautiful, for it not only outstrips our sins, but it instills as its visible expressions “the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus”. When grace abounds, “faith” and “love” likewise abound.”(Kent Hughes)

If you are in Christ today, celebrate the gospel and praise God today for His working and moving in your life. If you do not know Jesus Christ but would like to know how to receive Him today, Romans 10:8 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but not am found, was blind, but now I see. ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears received; How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!

Guard The Gospel

1 Timothy 1:3-11

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

Five years have elapsed since Paul’s ministry in Ephesus and trouble has come upon the church. Paul’s instruction to Timothy is this; GUARD THE GOSPEL! Paul is encouraging Timothy to keep the savage wolves from teaching false doctrine. In a sense, Paul is telling Timothy to address everything and anything that pulls people away from the gospel. Timothy had a hard job, especially since he was going up against some of the elders of the church, men who were leaders within the church. The problem is these men were teaching something other than the gospel. These men were taking other writings  that included stories and myths about different Old Testament figures, and they were adding these stories to God’s Word. What we will see later on is that they were putting rules and regulations on God’s people that are not in God’s Word. Even today, religious novelties abound with  fantastic claims of new truth, new ways to know God, new ways to raise perfect children, etc. We tend to go towards the self-help books today than reading and relying on the truth of God’s Word.

1 Timothy is practical for the church today because it teaches us how to live gospel-centered, gospel-saturated lives. One author says, “There is a dynamic connection between our doctrine and the way we live.” I pray that I will always be faithful to the ministry of teaching God’s Word wherever He places me, because the handling of Scripture is an extremely important matter and not to be taken lightly. The correct handling of God’s Word is imperative to the proper growth of the church.

The gospel is central to all that I believe and I pray that it is central to all that you believe if you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Do you take seriously the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are we actively sharing this glorious gospel with others? Are you committed to sound teaching and sharing the wonderful truths of God’s word with others?

A Glorious Greeting

A GLORIOUS GREETING
1 Timothy 1:1-2

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Why is it that we tend to skip over the greetings of the New Testament as if they were mere throwaway verses? It’s as if we don’t realize that the greetings are so much more than a “Dear Joe” kind of letter. Paul, the author of this letter is giving us his credentials as an apostle, which means that we may want to pay attention to what he is about to say! Some today believe that Paul actually did not write 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus because they apparently differ in style, theology and church order. But Paul signs this letter as “an apostle” of Christ Jesus. That little saying that we sometimes rush or skip over is huge. According to Acts 1:21-22 not just anyone could go and be an apostle. To be considered an apostle, an individual had to be present during the earthly ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John to his resurrection and ascension. It’s interesting to think about how every New Testament book is written by an apostle or close associate of an apostle. But Paul did not accompany Jesus during his earthly ministry or witness his resurrection and ascension, but he had an amazing personal encounter with Jesus and an act of God’s sovereign grace in Acts 9. It is also interesting to note that this former Christian persecutor of the church was appointed to the ministry by Jesus himself (1 Tim. 1:12) as the last of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:8). Paul would become the worlds greatest missionary in the history of the church. So the first thing we notice is that this letter was written by an apostle. (On a side note, just because you were an apostle did not meant that everything you wrote/said was authoritative. The apostles were fallible men whom God used to pen his inspired words. Also, the fact that God’s Word is inspired and inerrant is not only a doctrine to be affirmed; it’s a firm foundation to stand on in a culture that suppress and oppose the truth of God.)

Paul now turns his attention to Timothy to encourage him with the issues he was facing in the church. It is amazing how Paul’s tone is comforting even to us as we read it. We see Paul’s heart for Timothy in his words “my true child in the faith.” When Paul met Timothy on his first missionary journey, he was delighted to add Timothy to his entourage as a replacement for John Mark (possibly). Timothy was young, John Stott calculates that he was in his mid-thirties. But not only was he young, he was also timid (1 Cor. 16:10). Timothy also had other things that could have hindered him from joining Paul on his journey, yet Paul loved him affectionately. Paul rains on him a triple blessing in the form of a prayer and what a blessing it was. Grace upon grace to equip him for ministry. Mercy upon mercy to attend to his distress. Peace upon peace -well being- throughout his life. God would give Timothy the grace, mercy and peace he needed to teach the Ephesians (1 Tim. 3:15). Paul had a heart not only for Timothy but also for the church at Ephesus and to help Timothy fight the false doctrines and false teachings, he throws the full weight of his apostolic authority behind him. I would like to encourage you today that your relationship with God can never be broken, but our fellowship with Him can be hampered. A close fellowship with God is brought about as we strive to keep ourselves pure, exercising spiritual disciplines like Bible study, worship (personal and corporate), prayer and fellowship.

A Study Through First Timothy

INTRODUCTION:
It is reported that 46 percent of Christians in America agree that God will grant material riches to all believers who have enough faith. That sentence alone is very disturbing and for too many Christian believers is disheartening. This teaching has become known as “the prosperity gospel.” The idea behind the prosperity gospel is that it promises material and physical blessings and in turn let the central elements of the gospel, such as the finished work of Christ on the cross and the forgiveness of sins, take a backseat. The prosperity gospel and false teachers are sweeping across our world and at a rapid pace. False teachers are alive and well. Unfortunately the idea of false teachers is not a new concept or problem for the church. In fact, these battles are two thousand years old and can even be found in Acts 20:29-30, where Paul warned of “savage wolves” that would enter the church and wreak havoc and luring Christians away from the truth of the gospel. As we will see in our study of 1 Timothy, the false teachers and false doctrine was staring the first-century church square in the face. And just like today in the twenty-first century, false teaching and doctrine are a deadly cancer that have to be removed and confronted if the church is to remain healthy and continue her mission to share the message of Jesus Christ. We need to stand on the truth of God’s Word and fix our hope on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Timothy Chapter 1
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men, who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blesses God with which I have been entrusted. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of who I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

Tomorrow we will look at 1 Timothy 1:1-2