Ending verses for meditation: 1 Timothy 1:15, 1:17, 2:1, 2:5, 4:7, 4:12, 4:16, 6:6-7, 6:11-12, 6:17
Immanuel Sermon Audio
1 Timothy (54:66)
Second Timothy you've gone too far take a left first Timothy We're gonna end tonight doing something a little bit different than what we normally do when we end Try to keep from Wednesday nights becoming too routine I'm a very much a creature a habit and so it's very easy for me just to do the exact same thing and say the exact same thing every week so I try to To change it up from time to time and we're gonna end tonight by meditating on about 10 verses from first Timothy and the book is Six chapters they're not long chapters and it wouldn't take a terrible amount of time to read it But we're not gonna read through it tonight Instead when we end I'm gonna put up a few scriptures on the screen. I'm gonna leave them up there for just about 45 seconds or so and give you the opportunity just to be still and to be quiet and to reflect and to think and to meditate and when Christians talk about meditating we're not talking about clearing your mind and Doing the ohm and the fingertips and all that stuff But we're talking about running scripture through your brain thinking about what it means thinking about how it might apply to your life Thinking about the significance of it. So we're gonna do that when we finish. That's how we're gonna end tonight And when we're done with that I'll pray and and we'll wrap up But when I came to first Timothy the first thing that popped into my mind is the fact that Paul and Timothy had a very unique relationship Paul was the mentor Timothy was the protégé and so that got me thinking about the greatest mentors and Their protégés from all of history and so this is the definitive list. I didn't find this on the Internet I didn't look this up. This is just I thought about it really hard and I've come up with the definitive list of The greatest mentors and protégés number one on that list Mr. Miyagi and Daniel son Mentor and protégé the next one this one is for Corey is Luke Mentored by Yoda and Obi-Wan. So there you go After these guys, this one is one of my absolute favorites. You remember this cool runnings Yes based on a true story and in the movie This is not the guy's real name in real life But in the movie it was Irv Blitzer and he mentored the Jamaican Bob sled team And the greatest line in that movie if you're ever with Brooke and I when it's really cold outside One of us is gonna look at the other one and say it's not so much the heat that'll kill you But the humidity and that comes from that line So there you go Irv and the Jamaicans. This one is another great one It definitely belongs on the list Rocky and Mick and he's chasing the chicken and I finally got to watch the new It's I'm not calling it Creed. It's a new Rocky movie is what it is Let's be honest is a new Rocky movie about Apollo Creed son But it's a Rocky movie and one of the best parts of that movie is he makes him chase a chicken just like Mickey used to make him chase a chicken So that's a good mentor and protégé. Here's some real life ones. This one is actually kind of cool Those are four guys who lived a long time ago and on the far left you have a guy named Socrates Who mentored a guy named Plato who then mentored a guy named Aristotle who then mentored a guy named Alexander the Great that's a pretty good line of passing down knowledge and So there you go. I don't know how you top that going to the Bible. I came up with a few examples obvious examples Anybody know who those guys are? Moses and Joshua and I went with Charlton Heston for Moses and I went with the Bible miniseries. I'm pretty sure that's what that's from the Bible miniseries. That's Joshua Jesus and the Apostles would be another example of a mentor and his proteges or his mentees and then lastly since we're talking about first Timothy is Paul and Timothy and They had a very very interesting Relationship and before we talk about the actual book the actual letter that Paul wrote to Timothy You need to kind of know Some of the background between these two guys and some of the history of these guys And I think it helps you appreciate some of the things that Paul is saying to him so the first thing you need to know is that Timothy was from the town of Lestra and At the risk of showing you something you may already know. I'm going to put this up here That's where Lestra is. That's what we call Turkey today and Asia Galatia, Lecia, Cecilia, Capidocia, Syria. Those are Roman provinces of this territory And so that's where Lestra is and the line that you see right there is Paul's first Missionary journey and I've given you some of these scriptures. We're not going to turn to all these you can look these up later in Acts 14 Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary trip, right? They've set off from the church in Antioch They're going on a missions trip So they leave Antioch over there on the right and they go to Cyprus and they go from the east side of the island to the west side Of the island and then they come up through Pamphilia and they go to Antioch and Pecidia and then they come down to Lestra and in Lestra something really interesting happens Remember Timothy lives there, okay? He lives there with his dad and his mom and his grandma for sure We know they live there and Paul comes to town and he starts preaching and People start responding to the gospel and people get really excited and one of the amazing things that Paul does when he's in Lestra is He heals a crippled man a Man who had a a chronic deformity in his legs or a chronic injury of some kind He's crippled Paul heals him and the guy gets up and he's walking around and the people in Lestra have never seen anything like that They're totally blown away and they're so impressed that they think Paul and Barnabas are Gods Roman gods come down from the heaven to their city They think it's Zeus and Hermes the king of the gods and his spokesman And they're just blown away that the gods have come down and they get so excited and this all happened so fast They take Paul and Barnabas and they don't really know what's going on and they just start this impromptu party parade Celebration and Paul and Barnabas are just kind of like oh, they're really excited that we healed this guy This is great and then they realize they think we're gods and They're about to offer sacrifices to us here in the middle of town and they say no no no no no no no no no stop stop stop We are not gods We are men and they preach the gospel and they tell they tell these folks the truth about Jesus So you say what a great start to Paul's time in Lestra almost immediately a Group of Paul's enemies a group of Jews come from behind him. They're just sort of trailing behind him on this trip They come to Lestra and they basically get a mob together and tell the mob whatever they need to hear to convince them We need to take Paul We need to drag him through the streets of Lestra and we need to take him outside of town and throw rocks at him until he's dead Remember Timothy lives in Lestra. This is his first exposure to Paul. Dude comes to town He heals a crippled man to have this big celebration because they think he's a god. He says no, I'm just a man I'm not a god. Don't offer sacrifices to me and then almost immediately the next thing He knows a mob is dragging Paul through the streets. They drag him outside of the town They stone him and they leave him for dead outside of Lestra. Everybody thinks he's dead And this is the one of the greatest stories in Acts. We've talked about it on Wednesday nights What does he do? He gets up and he goes where? right back into Lestra right back into the town and He finishes what he needs to finish and then he moves on and the next stop on the trip is the the town or the city Of Derby, but that's Timothy's first experience with Paul He was the crippled man. They think he's a god. He stops the celebration next day They drag him through the streets. They take him outside of town pelt him with rocks leaving for dead Paul is brave enough and courageous enough to get up and come back into town Timothy sees all of that That's the first thing he knows about the Apostle Paul then you come to Acts chapter 16 and The first missionary trip Paul and Barnabas. They're done going around. They've done their thing They finished up some time goes by and Paul and Barnabas get together and they say hey all those churches we went and Started all those people we should go check on those people We should go see what's going on look like the follow-up trip And so they start to say well who's coming on the trip? Let's put the team together and Barnabas says hey, I want my cousin Mark to come and Paul says if Mark goes I'm not going and The deal was Mark was on the first trip and he sort of made it through about half of this and then he quit and went home We don't know exactly why he went home, but he quit in the middle of it and Paul was ticked at him He was not happy. He was so mad that he said to Barnabas if you take that little punk mark He didn't say punk but it was that intense if you take that guy with us I'm not going you can go with him and I'll go do my own thing But I am not going on a mission trip with that guy and so Barnabas. He's known as the son of encouragement, right? He's encouraging people. He's giving people a second chance. He says look I'm taking him with me I don't care if you're the apostle Paul or who you are. He's coming with me. So Barnabas and Mark go on their own trip We don't really know anything about that But we know Paul goes on another trip and on that second trip he goes to Listera and guess who he picks up in Listera Timothy gets to Lister and he says hey you are coming with me Here's what you need to know about Timothy from Act 16. His dad was not Jewish His mom was Jewish and We know from other passages in 2 Timothy again. I gave you all these verses. You can look them up. We know that Timothy's mom and his grandma had taught him the scriptures from when he was a little boy That means the Old Testament. They've taught him the story of Moses and creation And the Exodus and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David and Isaiah and all of it They've told him all of those things and on Paul's last stop through the town Timothy got saved He became a believer and the book of Acts in chapter 16 says he's not only a believer in the church But he's well spoken of by everybody in the church He's one of their you know premier members. He's a leader in the church everybody looks up to him and Paul goes to town And he says Timothy you are coming with me and he takes him on this next mission trip first Corinthians 16 and first Timothy 4 12 you look at those verses and The implication of them is that he was a younger guy He wasn't quite as old as Paul or some of the other leaders in the church or the churches that they visited and he tended to be timid He wasn't necessarily real outgoing real brash real confident He was he was a little bit more reserved and you can look up some of the verses about that first Timothy five Actually, I think that second Timothy five Let me see here. Maybe it's first Timothy. I know it's first Timothy 5 23 Paul tells him. Yeah first Timothy 5 23 He says don't only drink water use a little wine for the sake of your stomach So apparently he had some sort of chronic health problem something he dealt with and struggled with and that was Paul's Unprofessional medical advice to him but his advice nonetheless and then there's an interesting verse I'll be honest with you. I learned something brand new today. I had never read in the Bible I've read it a hundred times I just it never stuck in my brain Hebrews 13 23 says at the end of that letter whoever wrote Hebrews You pick your whoever you want it to be whoever writes it ends and says hey good news Timothy's out of jail And I had never put that in my head that at some point Timothy had been put in prison We don't know exactly what for we assume if he followed in Paul's footsteps It was for preaching about Jesus and the issues and the drama that tended to come up wherever Paul went Maybe Timothy had to deal with the same thing. So at some point he was in prison Here's a thing. He was one of Paul's closest friends. He was one of the guys that Paul really really trusted and Eventually he he spent some time in Corinth We know that he spent some time in Rome because when Paul writes to the church in Rome he mentions him It's sort of a greeting there but eventually he lands in Ephesus and Timothy is the pastor of the church in Ephesus and that was an important city an important church in Timothy was their pastor now This is tradition. Okay. What I'm about to tell you is not in the Bible. I can't give you a verse for this I'm just telling you what history tells us and you can take this or leave it I am not vouching for whether or not it's true or not Tradition says that in the year 97 AD Timothy was 80 years old. So you can do the math on how all of that works out. Okay 97 AD. He's 80 years old He's still in Ephesus He's still preaching pastoring the church there in Ephesus and you remember when we talked about the book of Ephesians I showed you the temple of Artemis the temple of Diana is one of these ancient wonders of the world this magnificent temple and you remember Paul got in trouble in Ephesus because people quit worshiping Diana Artemis and quit buying the little silver statues from the idol-maker guy and he got really mad at Paul So idol worship in Ephesus was a really big deal tradition says 97 AD Timothy is 80 years old There's a parade for Diana going through the streets of Ephesus and Timothy 80 years old Remember the guy that used to be timid and not quite so confident he walks right out in the middle of the street He stands in front of the procession and he just starts preaching a sermon He just starts preaching about Jesus to this this group of people walking through the streets celebrating this idol And they're grabbing and they dragging through the streets and the killing That's tradition. Did that happen or not? I have no idea, but that's what church history tells us happen to Mr. Timothy So let's talk about the actual book. Okay, first Timothy first Timothy second Timothy and Titus all go together Okay, they're what is known as the pastoral epistles epistles just a fancy word for letter Okay pastoral letters. These are letters that Paul wrote To his friends who were pastors not to missionaries like Paul but to pastors Timothy and Titus guys who Paul said look you stay here I'm going on to start new churches, but you're going to stay here and you're going to pastor this group of people And these three letters Paul writes to his pastor friends and he gives him instruction about Church life and so if you like dates, I'm going to give you some dates if you don't like dates Um jump back in with this in about two minutes. Okay 59 ad that's when ax 28 happens ax 28 is the last chapter in the book of ax. Okay, so we're in about 59 ad Paul is in house arrest in Rome and you remember when we talked about ax it just ends and he's in her in house arrest You don't know what happens at the end of that. It's like the biggest cliffhanger ever And I believe luke wrote the gospel luke then he wrote the book of ax And I think he was going to write more after that each one of those books filled up a scroll So he filled up his second scroll and for whatever reason he didn't get to the next one or he did and we don't have it ax 28 59 ad Paul is in house arrest in Rome a couple of years later He's released from house arrest. This is just piecing together bits and pieces. We have from the new testament in about 65 to 66 he writes first Timothy and Titus And then about a year later 66 67 he's arrested and he sent back to Rome for the second time Okay, the first time he's in house arrest Right he's got people who are taking care of him, but he's not in a prison or anything like that He's just house arrest you got to stay here till we adjudicate your trial and all that stuff This next imprisonment. He's not in house arrest. He is in a dungeon and you can visit that dungeon in Rome today And it's basically a hole in the ground carved out a rock that when it rains fills up with sewage That's where they kept these guys and you can go see that today. So 66 67 he's arrested. He sent back to Rome 67 he writes the book of second Timothy And then probably that same year he's killed by Nero. That's tradition pretty strong tradition from church history And then we know from roman records that Nero dies in 68 So that just sort of gives you the timeline These are the letters that paul's writing at the very end of his life And especially second tim and the is the last letter that he wrote. We'll talk about that next week When you look at these three books together It's very interesting the common themes that run through them Okay, and you can see this in different letters that paul wrote because the same guy's writing and he's writing about generally the same stuff But really interesting some themes in the pastoral epistles the first one is this that god is the savior and so Let's do this Because I want you to look these verses up. Julie go ahead and put the next couple of these up here One theme is that god is the savior next theme is the idea of of sound doctrine Next is the idea that you should pursue godliness Fourth avoid controversies And then one more the quote unquote faithful sayings And so fill those blanks in and then I want you to Grab your bible and we're going to look some verses up. You can jot these down if you want to do that I just want you to see these themes throughout the pastoral epistles first Timothy second Timothy and Titus Okay, so let's take the first one. God is the savior. Look at first Timothy one one Says paul an apostle of christ jesus by command of our god and savior And of christ jesus our hope look down at chapter two verse three It says this is good and pleasing and the sight of god our savior Look at chapter four verse 10 To this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living god who is the savior of all people Especially of those who believe flip over to the book of titus just a couple of pages to the right Titus chapter one It says at the proper Titus one verse three. I'm sorry Titus one three At the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of god Our savior Titus two verse 10 Not pilfering but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of god our savior And then one more in titus three five says he saved us Not because of works done in righteousness, but according to his own mercy By the washing of regeneration in the renewal of the holy spirit verse five. He saved us. Okay, when paul sits down And he's writing to his pastor friends. He uses that word He's our savior. He saved us more than more consistently than any of the other letters that he's writing That's on his mind. God is the savior. Okay, second theme The importance of sound doctrine flip back and look at first Timothy one ten First Timothy one ten you can go back and read the context of all these He's listing a group of of bad folks and he says the sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality and slavers liars purgers and Whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine chapter four verse six Says if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of christ Jesus being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed chapter six verse three Says if anyone teaches a different doctrine And does not agree with the sound words of our lord. Jesus christ in the teaching that accords with godliness He's puffed up with conceit and he understands nothing second Timothy chapter one verse 13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me In the faith and love that are in christ. Jesus the sound words sound doctrine second Timothy four verse three The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching But having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions flip over to titas chapter one verse nine He's talking about Qualifications for an elder here and he says he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also able to rebuke those who contradict it chapter one verse 13 Says this testimony is true rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith They have the right doctrine. They have the right faith chapter two verse one As for you teach what accords was sound doctrine verse two older men be sober minded dignified self-controlled Sound in faith and love and instead fastness sound in your faith and then jump down to chapter two verse eight Talks about sound speech that cannot be condemned so that opponent may be put to shame Having nothing able to say about us. Okay, so he's writing to his pastor buddies and one thing that's on his mind is God is the savior Another thing that's on his mind is that I want you to have sound doctrine third thing on his mind is I want you to pursue godliness So look at first Timothy chapter two verse two He's asking Timothy to pray in the church to pray verse two for kings and those who are in high positions Why should we pray for them that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life? godly and dignified in every way he wants him to pursue godliness look at chapter three verse 16 Says great indeed. We confess is the mystery of godliness And he gives a little a little short chorus from a hymn there, but he's talking about godliness again Look at chapter six verse three If anyone teaches a different doctrine does not agree with the sound words of our lord Jesus christ and the teaching that accords with godliness godliness is on his mind look over at let's see chapter where my that was chapter six three look at verse five in chapter six Constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a mean of gain Means of gain verse six. There is great gain in godliness with contentment jump down to verse 11 He says as for you man oh god flee these things but pursue righteousness and there it is again godliness faith loves steadfastness and general gentleness look over at second timothy chapter three verse five having the appearance of godliness But denying its power so he's given a negative example here, but godliness is still on his mind Titus chapter one verse one Paul a servant of god and an apostle of jesus christ for the sake of the faith of god's elect and their knowledge of the truth And that knowledge of the truth accords with godliness god's a savior. He's thinking about sound doctrine He wants them to pursue godliness and the next one is he wants him to avoid controversies So look at first timothy one four Backing up to verse three says charge certain persons not to teach different doctrine nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies Which promotes speculations? Rather than stewardship from god that is by faith don't argue about this stuff. Don't get caught up in this stuff first timothy chapter six verse four Talks about someone who has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words that produce envy dissension slander and evil suspicions verse five and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means means of gain second timothy chapter two thinking about these controversies second timothy two twenty three have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies you know they breed quarrels and then one in titus titus chapter three verse nine Says avoid foolish controversies genealogies dissensions and quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless Okay, we're not going to look up the faithful sayings, but i'm going to give you the references if you want to read them okay first timothy one fifteen first timothy three one first timothy four nine second timothy two eleven and titus three eight It's the only place in paul's writings where he says here is a faithful and trustworthy saying and then he fills in the blank And he does it only in these pastoral epistles these pastoral letters And it's almost like he's writing to these guys and he's saying look let me give you something you can hang on to Something that is really really really certain and true. This is bedrock foundational stuff And he gives him these quote unquote faithful sayings. So there's a reason i had us read all those Okay, I want you to see those themes in the pastoral epistles. I just want you to use your brain Paul is writing to pastors and all the other letters we've looked at he's writing to the church The church as a whole He wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus, but now he's writing a letter to the pastor of the church in Ephesus The person who's sort of on setting the the direction setting the vision leading the folks setting the pace And he's saying to them look These are the big things. I want you to be concerned about. Okay, you need to understand that God is the savior You got to chase after sound doctrine. You have to pursue godliness and you have to stay away from dopey arguments That's pretty good advice for a pastor Right there. Look, this is what your job is. You tell people that God is the savior You tell them that he can save them. You tell people this is your job What is sound doctrine and you got to fight for it? There's going to be false teachers. So you're going to have to fight for sound doctrine. You need to pursue godliness You can't just be somebody that stands up there and flaps your guns and says this is the right thing This is the true thing. This is what you ought to do. You have to actually do it too So pursue godliness and don't waste your time fighting about stupid stuff You can spend a week arguing and bickering and chasing rabbits and it's just a waste Don't do it. So this is pretty good advice for a pastor or I would even say for a sunday school teacher Or for a parent who's teaching their kids. These are pretty good things that you can take to heart Here's the outline of the book. It's really simple outline. I'm going to give you this and then we're going to talk about the main the main truths of the book There's a greeting There's a section about false doctrine And then there's a section about church life Instructions about church life Then he comes back to not necessarily false doctrine, but this time to false teachers And then he gives some some general instructions about being a pastor pastoral ministry And then he sort of wraps up a conclusion talking about the man of god Here's the big idea of the book really. Okay, and this is on your outline The big idea of first Timothy And second Timothy and Titus. They're called pastoral epistles Big idea centers on ecclesiology and ecclesiology is just a fancy word that means the doctrine of the church or the study of the church Okay every church has ecclesiology a structure a system a way that things are done a hierarchy every church has it And paul is laying some just basic Foundational truths down for Timothy as he's pastoring this church and you remember he's a young pastor He tends to be timid. He's not quite sure of himself and so paul's encouraging And he's saying here's some some really important things that you need to focus on The first thing when paul talks about ecclesiology to timothy that he talks about is elders and deacons I'm just going to tell you that when you study church history and you look at different structures of ecclesiology How the catholic church does it how the episcopal church does it how the baptist church does it how the presbyterian or the methodist or whoever Okay, there is lots of different setups And i'm telling you that that's probably okay to some degree because the things paul says here are pretty general But a lot of those systems have just totally missed the plain instructions in the book of first timothy is really not rocket science and sometimes Pastors and theologians make it out like it's some kind of rocket science You got to be brilliant to get it is not that hard When you read the instructions and this is one thing that you need to get I did not put this On your outline, but put up these uh these positions here. Okay You need to know these words if you're going to understand church according to the new testament Elder is a position in the church. That's the greek word here Sometimes it's translated bishop depending on what translation you have. It's the same thing and it comes from the greek word apiscopos apiscopalian Okay And then the last greek word is poimane And it means pastor and i'm misspelled misspelled that P-a-s-t-o-r pastor misspelled my own job Um I'm not a good speller, but that's kind of embarrassing Here's what you need to know Those positions elder overseer bishop pastor. They are all talking about the same person in the new testament They're all Talking about the exact same person. This is not some hierarchy where you say you got pastor and then you got bishop and then you have The episcopate and then you have this and you have all these This is all talking about the exact same position and they're used interchangeably. Sometimes they're used together Sometimes they're used differently in Titus than Timothy, but they're all talking about the exact same position and The distinction is between all of those okay elder overseer bishop pastor all the same There's a distinction between that and deacons and that's about the extent of the structure that's set forth in the new testament The new testament says you want to know how to structure your church? You need to have some pastors elders overseers bishops whatever you want to call them You pick the term you need to have some of those guys you need to have some deacons You need to have some of those guys. That's how you set the whole thing up. And so just look we're going to read it quickly first Timothy three I Starting in verse two Well, I'll just start in verse one. The saying is trustworthy. Here's one of these faithful sayings, okay Saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer and when you read the word overseer there You know that's the same as pastor. That's the same as elder. That's the same as bishop It's it's all the same thing Anyone aspires to that office. He desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach The husband of one wife sober minded self-controlled respectable hospitable able to teach not a drunkard Not violent but gentle not quarrelsome not a lover of money He must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive for someone does not know how to manage his own household How will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert where he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into a snare of the devil Look that's pretty basic. It's not hard to understand that I don't need to go through and explain each of those words to you You get it And the interesting thing to me is when paul lays it out qualifications for overseers Almost everything he says in that list is a character trait It's not you got to be a dynamic personality. It's not you got a dress cool It's not you got to have the best this or that or whatever Is talking about the heart of the person doing it He's saying this is the character of the person that you put in this position And then he talks about deacons right after that Okay, the only passage right here in the whole new testament that says this is The qualification list for a deacon you can go back to x6 and you can say well They're looking for deacons. They look for men who are full of holy spirit and men who are wise and things like that Great, but here's the the only real list Deacons likewise and when you see that word likewise, do you know what that means? Everything I just told you really applies to the deacons too It's not like two totally separate lists It's not like you got to be this great to be a elder and then you only have to be this great to be a deacon What he's saying is look the same thing applies for both of them And why did he not make it one list? I don't know he didn't want to make it one list he made it too Deacons likewise must be dignified not double-tongued not addicted to much wine Not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience Let them also be tested first then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves Blameless interesting that that verse 10 right there was not mentioned on the elders list You say wait a minute. You don't have to be tested to be an elder, but you have to be tested to be a deacon. No likewise verse 8 Likewise, we're working off the same ideas here. Okay. These are broad principles Verse 11 their wives should be dignified not slander so reminded faithful in all things Let deacons each be the husband of one wife managing their children and their households well For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in christ jesus Okay, there's some little things We could get in the weeds and we could debate this and this and this on those lists for the most part That's pretty straightforward. You're looking for somebody who is who they say they are When you're looking for a deacon in your church or an elder pastor shepherd overseer bishop whatever you want to call them You're looking for somebody who holds to the truth and they really are who they say they are The things that they believe actually get played out in their life And here's the craziest part. Are you ready for this? every one of those qualifications Starting in chapter three verse one all the way down to 13 every one of them except Possibly the idea that you need to be able to teach up in the top section All the rest of them I can take you to another place in the new testament to say it ought to be true of you So it's not like we're saying Pastors way up here everybody else the way down here He's just saying if you're going to put somebody in charge and give them a place of authority in a position of influence You need to make sure that they are the real deal and that's what he spells out there So he gives qualifications For elders and deacons he does give sort of a job description for the the elder overseer pastor Over in chapter five verse 17 He talks about elders who labor in preaching and teaching And he talks about elders who rule well And I think those are the two basic ideas of Being a pastor or an elder or whatever word you just love to use or you're not comfortable using fine pick one of those words That's the gist of it Rule well not meaning you're a tyrant you're a dictator, but you lead Your people and number two you teach them you lead them and you teach them you're moving in a direction You're going forward with the gospel and you're teaching your people the truth those are the two To responsibilities or you could say job description. Okay, here's the next thing We're talking about ecclesiology and first Timothy He's laying the groundwork for Timothy the pastor and Ephesus and one of the things he takes a lot of time to talk about is caring for widows What he's talking about here is caring for people in your church Who are particularly vulnerable and in need That would include widows today and it would also include a variety of other people that you can sort of connect the dots on that But caring for widows caring for for the vulnerable look at first Timothy five And we're not going to read it all, but first Timothy five verse three all the way to 16 The only thing he talks about in that section is how the church ought to take care of widows And he gives some really specific instructions and some of them you would probably read and say oh, that sounds obvious That's a good idea and some of them you would read and say huh? That's kind of surprising that he would say that and so you can work through them on your own Um, here's just some some big ideas one thing he says is Family takes care of family before church takes care of members That's a principle. He lays it out the beginning of this section and the end of it If you got family around it is your responsibility to take care of your family Before their church has to step in and take care of them that falls to you and he hits that several times He's really serious about that and he talks about not being a burden To a particular church because you're not taking care of family members And he basically says look if you're not going to take care of your family members You're worse than a lost person Paul's words not mine First Timothy five eight if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household He has denied the faith and he is worse than an unbeliever Family takes care of family Okay small little parentheses over here. I'll just tell you Remember when we were in thessalonians and paul talked about idlers Remember what he said about idlers They don't work what? They don't eat When you read first Timothy five five eight you don't forget about thessalonians You don't say oh well, you know, I have to do it You hold both of those things and you figure out what it looks like in your situation Okay, but family takes care of family another thing he says is You only sign up widows to receive help if they're godly ladies If they're gossips if they're divisive if they're not devoted to prayer, they don't get help That would shock some people today To go through that process and to say you know what that doesn't line up That's the instructions that paul gives one thing that he says is He gives some guidelines in verse nine and ten specific things that that are kind of helpful But then he also talks about younger widows and the danger of enrolling them So again, you you can read through that we're not going to get into the weeds too much on that for the sake of time I just want you to understand he's he's writing to Timothy the pastor and he's saying look Timothy There's some people in your church who need your help They need your help and it's your responsibility to help them And you balance everything he says about helping these vulnerable people with what he said to the Thessalonians where he said if you Don't work you don't eat Those things go together and what he's saying to Timothy is there's some people who are not going to be able to help Themself and you have an obligation to help them now. I want to be clear about something We get people every week that walk into our building and they walk in Not all of them many of them With an arrogant entitled brash attitude expecting me to pull out the envelope from what we collected on sunday and just start doling it out And we help people In our community We help them by taking money from the offering Sending it to the permian basin mission center where people can go get food a giant box of food once a month for free All you got to do is go down there and pick it up and we send Plenty of money down there to help plenty of people every month get one of those big old boxes if they need it But here's what I hear when people come in and I say look Here's how we handle it. We we give them a brochure. We send you down there. This is where they're located They'll get your food box. They'll take care of you And they just look at us me or korea or whoever and they say I thought you were a church Usually I just sort of stare at them Because I just want the conversation to be over at that point if that's their attitude But sometimes I'll just stop and say we are a church And here's the things that we're really really focused on Making disciples of all the nations That's the mission That's the overarching purpose to make disciples of all nations Do we need to take care of the poor and help and contribute? Yes, and we do that And this is how we do that But our purpose as a church is not simply to be a relief agency It's to preach the good news of jesus christ and to make disciples and sometimes people are really confused about that But paul says to timothy look sound doctrine sound doctrine watch out for false teachers You got to fight for the faith. You got to pursue godliness all those things And then he says don't forget you're going to have some people who need some help And if they need help you need to take care of them and i'll just tell you this before we move on so you know how we do things That's what we do for people who come in from outside We say we give money to the permian based admission center They will help you out when we have members that come in totally different process when we have people who are part of our church family Come in we don't just say head down the road. They'll take care of you We meet those needs and help those folks in that way So just so you know so he talks about elders and deacons talks about caring for widows And then he talks about men and women and i'm gonna be real honest with you on this. Okay I almost left this off I just almost skipped it because I thought you know somebody's gonna get mad at me And i'm just gonna skip it and I bet most of them won't notice and I bet most of you wouldn't But some of you may be have read first timothy today And there's a verse in here that's kind of a strange verse. I'm not going to lie to you. This is why i almost left it off But we're not going to leave it off because i'm not afraid of it And my job remember when uh in the book of acts When paul was meeting with the elders or the church at Ephesus. I think it's about acts. Oh, I couldn't give you a chapter It's after I think 19 he's meeting with these guys and he knows it's the last time he's going to talk to him And he says to him you need to preach the full counsel of God to your church Don't hold back And he says to those elders he says jesus died on the cross for your church And it's your job to take care of it And it's so valuable that jesus died to purchase it and your job is to teach the whole counsel of god to them And so we're going to look at it. We're not going to skip it. So look at first timothy two And we're going to start in verse nine and we're going to go to 15 And i'm going to tell you how some people respond to this and then i'm going to tell you what I think about it And then we're going to meditate on some some great verses from the book So verse nine Likewise, he said what men are supposed to do men should pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling likewise also He desires in every place likewise that women should adorn themselves In respectable apparel With modesty and self-control Not with braided hair gold pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness And are not permit a woman to teach her exercise authority over a man Rather she is to remain quiet for adam was formed first then eve and adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor Yet she will be saved through a childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness With self-control. There's a lot of folks that would just soon rip that out of the bible And say forget that that's not 2016 united states of america democratic society free society. We're done with that. That's old school That's back in the day when they were just a bunch of male chauvinists holding women down and suppressing women and we are way past that forget about it We're done. Okay, let's just agree. We're not ripping it out. Okay, we're not going to rip it out Okay, next step is you have a lot of people who say okay leave it in there But you understand these people say it is just a cultural thing It's just cultural In different cultures that doesn't apply Okay Just being real straight with you Because of the culture we live in that's a comfortable position to take To say because of what's around us is just to say this is just cultural We're kind of embarrassed by it, but you know paul. He lived a long time ago as a different society. It's not true anymore Here's the the one Maybe two problems with the idea that it's just cultural Paul is not the only guy talking in this book correct We believe that the holy spirit Inspired the words of the bible and that yes, they are paul's words, but they're also god's words So just you flip the page over second timothy 3 16 says all scripture is breathed out by god and profitable for teaching repute reproof correction and training and righteousness So it's no good to just blame this on paul Because it's not just paul sitting down sort of daydreaming stuff up This is a holy spirit of god inspiring paul to write these words And one of the things that he writes in there is really important When he makes his argument about this is what men should do. This is what women should do He goes back and look what he says in verse 13. This is the key to the whole thing Adam was formed first then eve Adam formed first then eve that does not mean Adam was better than eve Adam was more important than eve Adam was more like god than eve doesn't mean any of those things What he's what he is saying is When he says adam formed first in then eve he's saying look this is how it ought to go in the church And i'm going to tell you why because there's a way that god created things to operate Goes all the way back to the beginning of creation Before genesis three when sin comes into the world he does talk about that But first he goes back before that To the creation order when god looked on everything he had made and what did he say this is very good And he says this is the way that i wanted it to be and paul says there's something that god has built into Creation that has something to say about this issue of men and women and how they relate in the church So i'm going to tell you the two the two approaches okay put some words up on the screen for you One is called the egalitarian position And one is called the complementarian position And people try to be cute and come up with like Put something in the middle of those two or come up with different things. There's really two okay There's two ways to slice this loaf of bread the egalitarian or complementarian egalitarian says Men and women are equal in status before god And completely equal in roles given to them by god There is zero distinction in what a man husband should do or a woman wife should do Complete complete total everything is exactly the same. That's the egalitarian position. Okay Other position and i'll just be honest. There's people who love jesus who take that position Okay to be fair. They love jesus. They believe that's right. The other position is a complementarian position that says okay now i'm on the bottom word complementarian Men and women are completely equal before god One is not more important than the other one is not better than the other one is not smarter than the other Completely equal in status before god In his wisdom god has given them complementary roles They're different roles and they complement each other You go to a fancy restaurant and you sit down and they give you something to drink and eat And they're a great chef all the tastes complement each other They work together on your palate and it's a pleasing thing and this second position says look completely equal in status We're not arguing about who's better We're saying god has given them different roles And what they're supposed to do and when we talk about these positions this complementarian position what we're talking about is In a marriage relationship And at church Those are the two realms we're talking about okay marriage relationship in church and the complementarian says this I think it's a pretty strong argument. They say in the trinity Three persons one god, right? That's the doctrine of the trinity or the docs doctrine three persons one in essence The father is not more god than the son And the son is not more god than the spirit and the father is not above the son or the father is not better than the son or the spirit They are all god Really fully god The father plays a role and the son plays a role and the spirit plays a role and those roles complement each other And what did Jesus say over and over and over again when he was on the earth to his disciples? He said I have come to do my father's will I'm submitting to the father Does that mean Jesus is a doormat He doesn't sound like a doormat when I read through the gospels Sounds like he understood. I have a role to play in this father has a role to play this Spirit has a role to play in this everybody's going to play their role and we're going to work together and it's a complementary thing The father's job is to to plan it all and the son's job is to accomplish it all and the spirit's job is to apply it all And you add all of that together and you and I get saved It's a great thing and they play complementary roles and the complementarian says look We're not talking about who's better Right everyone up there believes genesis 127 he created them in the image of god male and female He created them both created completely in the image of god the complementarian position is saying Based on what paul says here and there's some other verses based on what he says here. There's something god has built into creation That says these complementary roles work Well together and what he's saying to these ladies because there's some tough some tough statements, right? He's talking about a woman learning quietly and verse 12 is really important. Look what he says in verse 12 Learning quietly with all submissiveness verse 12 Not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority Remember when we looked just a little bit earlier flipped the page at chapter five and it gives this job description for elders And he says elders rule That's sort of a word of authority, right? ruling And then he says right below that preaching and teaching Ruling preaching and teaching that's the combined job description of the elder It's not a coincidence in the same book that he combines those same two ideas right here And what he's saying to these ladies in Ephesus who are in Timothy's church is look God has set it up So that the way he wants it to work is that the husband leads his wife and the wife helps her husband both equal But that's how God set it up to work and he's saying in the church. We've got these elders These overseers these bishops whatever you want to call them and he says God's called these men to lead And he's called the women to be a part of this and it's a great thing they have complementary roles And when he says down at the bottom, they're going to be saved through childbearing He doesn't mean when you go to the hospital and you deliver normally or through a c-section suddenly That's when you become a Christian That's not the point What he's saying is God has given you the role of being a woman It's a great thing. You don't need to be All upset about that Be who God has made you to be and that's a great thing is what he's trying to say to these people So i'm going to tell you this okay If you want to talk about it, I will love to talk about it with you And we can argue debate or answer questions or whatever you want to do I'll just tell you this from this passage and there's others Many others in the new testament that we can look at together I'm convinced from the text of the new testament that the Best place to land on those two things on men and women ecclesiology men and women in the church is the complementary in position and to say God has called Husbands to lead their wives and he's called men to lead this church And we have complementary roles and we all work together I say that based on what I see in the text and first and foremost. Let's be honest That's what really matters If you're going to convince me of a different position, you're going to have to prove it to me from the text You're not going to come talk to me about Modern psychology and this and that and all sorts of new fangled stuff You're going to have to show me in the text of the bible and I promise you this I will change any and every belief that I have if you can show it to me in the text Show it to me in the bible what it says and i'm with you a hundred percent I will also tell you this From having been a pastor all of my my long long ten years And talking to a lot a lot too many in ten years of married couples who are struggling Okay, they come to me and they want marriage advice and counseling and this and this and this I can tell you I sit down and i'm telling you If you get off that complementary in position it doesn't work I'm not saying it necessarily means you're going to get divorced I'm not saying it necessarily means you're going to hate the person you're married to I'm just telling you the people i've talked to when they come in that's always part of the issue It's always part of the issue Not just that the wife won't submit and know her role That's usually the smallest part of it The vast majority of what I say when I talk to couples and this sort of stuff comes up is to say to the husband You don't love your wife like christ loves the church Why do you expect anything else to be different than what it is right now? You want to be mr. Big stuff on a complementarian position do what you're supposed to do Husband if you do what god has called you to do as the husband And you love your wife like christ loved the church and he gave himself for her to purify her and to make her clean if you do that You're not going to have to worry about the dirty s-word submit You won't have to worry about it. It's not going to be an issue Do what you're supposed to do. That's your role husband. That's the whole point of complementarian, right? It's complementary roles Both people have a role to play and I think that's what paul's getting out here. So That's my take on it. I don't think it means you have to Be pregnant and have a baby to be saved I don't think it means you have to come to church and in my sunday school class if you Have certain chromosomes then you can't ask a question or raise your hand or chip in an idea or anything like that I don't think that's what it means at all I think what it means is when I put it together with the other passages in the new testament It works best How god created it to work and how he created it to work is for husbands to lead And for pastors to lead and he has a plan in that and he's not foolish in that And there you go Take that for whatever it's worth. And if you want to slap me later, you can slap me You want to argue about it later when you argue about it. Talk about it. I'd be happy to do that Here's how we're going to end I've picked Some really great verses from first Timothy