-One of the most amazing things about being a Christian is the lineage of this faith. In order to become a Christian, someone had to be willing to share it with you, and the Holy Spirit used that person’s willingness to share to open your heart and mind to the realities that Jesus is the King and Savior of the world, and you can trace that lineage all the way back to Jesus! 

-That’s a remarkable moment, a miracle that anyone is every saved! But once someone is saved, what’s next? Doesn’t there need to be ongoing training and help so that person can know what they’re supposed to be doing now? If not, what’s going to happen to them? 

-Think of the day someone as saved as their birth story. Everyone alive has one of those. You were there, I’m guessing you don’t remember it, though! What would happen to you if the moment you were born, you were immediately thrown out on the street? Yeah, it wouldn’t be pretty! That is part of the reason God has given us the church (which has many names throughout the NT – the body of Christ, a temple, living stones), but one of the most impactful ones to me over the last couple years is the idea of the church as a household, or a family.

-Family vs. household. One of the descriptors of the church is a family, we’re called to treat each other as brothers and sisters. The problem with that is we today immediately jump to our nuclear family (good and bad) and start to project those experiences onto the church. The other issue is what how do you fire a family member? We’ll look at this a little more closely in the sermon, but I think household is a better term for us, especially because a household in the 1^st century was far broader than just the nuclear family, it was a willing association of a large number of people who together sought the flourishing of all those who were a part of this household, kind of like a church today!

-And many people today say they want to get back to a New Testament church, do things the way they were supposed to be. The problem is that doesn’t match up to reality! The early church wrestled with racism, sexual infidelity, social class disagreements, divisive people, legalists. Friends, the church has NEVER been pristine or pretty!

-Paul, a father in the faith to Timothy, expects Timothy to continue training others in the faith in the same way Timothy was trained by Paul.

-Friends, this is why the church is so important! It takes a church to raise children in the faith, it can’t happen by yourself. Some of it is because kids need to hear truth from more than just their parents.

–Carson quote. Where are we at in this ordering? Do we pass on our beliefs and understandings, or are we at risk of assuming these things? 

-This letter is the first one we have of Paul writing to Timothy about how to structure and order the church in a way that brings glory to God.

READ/PRAY (pg. 1051)

1. Who Was Timothy?

-Timothy first shows up in Acts 16, as someone who joins in Paul’s second missionary journey traveling throughout Asia and Macedonia.

-Timothy: Jewish believing mother, unbelieving father. Apparently he followed his mother’s faith and became well-known to the rest of the believers. In his second letter, Paul talks about Timothy’s lineage. He also comes across as timid throughout Paul’s letters, such that Paul encourages churches to put him at ease when he arrives. He also had some kind of GI issue (5:23). This has led to one commentator calling him “Timid Timothy,” so if you feel timid, small, or overlooked, look to Timothy as your example.

-Second missionary journey was begun about 51 AD, so this letter was written sometime after that, but before Paul’s death sometime before 70 AD.

-Written while Timothy was stationed in Ephesus to help the church. We know quite a bit about Ephesus! We know that Paul preached there for at least 2 years (Acts 19), he wrote another letter to the church called Ephesians, and we know that they started to drift toward the end of the 1^st century, because Jesus addresses them in Rev. 2, telling them they had abandoned their first love.

-If you weren’t here last year, I think what this shows us is the trajectory of a church. As a church is planted, everything is exciting, people are showing up out to the blue, new conversions and conversations seem to happening all the time! But then the excitement wears off, things start to break and issues start to rise to the surface. This letter finds us right in the middle of those issues coming up:

-A list of what the false teachers were pushing. 

-The primary issue is they’re leading people away from the gospel. So then, in response to these divisive leaders, a church doubles down on their commitment to true theology, such that they neglect what Jesus called “the more important matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” They become so fixated on the right theology that they forget to love people. I think this is why Peter says what he does in 1 Peter 3: give a defense. Absolutely! But to stop there is to misses a critical component that Peter goes on to clarify how we give a defense: with gentleness and reverence.

-In many Christian circles today, gentleness is seen as a vice, and church, that’s a problem! Not only is it in this text, but it’s one of the fruit of the Spirit! AND it’s one of the markers Jesus used when he described His heart toward us, it’s the same Greek word in every one of these verses! Friends, gentleness isn’t an optional tag on, it is inherent to our call to defend the truth of our faith, and gentleness must be the way we go about that.

-Where do you think our church is on our defense of the gospel? Do we defend the gospel or are we defending something else? And in all of this, are we known for being gentle? I preached a couple years ago on this verse from Phil. 4 where Paul commands us to lead with gentleness, and asked what would happen if our church led with gentleness? Friends, how are we doing at that? Something for us to pray about! 

-So to summarize, who was Timothy? A protégé, mentee of Paul, left in Ephesus to help the church remain faithful and orthodox in their beliefs.

• Why Study Timothy?

-What is going on in our world today that would make the study of Timothy especially helpful for us? Here are some of the questions that Paul is working to answer throughout the book:

-Have you read or heard anyone asking about men and women in the church recently? What about issues with church leadership? How about concern for the poor and marginalized? What about a godly way to handle riches and wealth? All these issues are addressed in this book! It’s unbelievably applicable to so many of the issues we’re facing in the world today! And I think that it boils down to how we should live as holy people in the household of God.

-We need our churches to become better households, where people can be welcomed in and find a place where they are loved and accepted for who God has created them to be. Where else in the world today can you find that? 

-I was recently meeting with someone from church who’s a little older than me (ok, he’s older than my dad!) at a coffee shop and I paused in the conversation and asked him how many other people nearby had the same age gap as we did. Anyone want to guess how many? Zero! Friends, what we’re doing right now is incredibly unique in the world. It’s not a miracle if you end up with a bunch of like-minded and similar-aged people, it’s a miracle when a group of people who are different ages, who have different philosophies of life, who spend their money differently all willingly come together to pursue Jesus together. 

-One of my favorite authors who just continually stirs my imagination is Andy Crouch. I don’t always agree with all of his thoughts, but he always gives me something to mull over and process through. One of his books is titled ‘The Life We’re Looking For,’ and it’s his explanation of what a household is, and why we need it.

-Definition of a household. Doesn’t that sound like the early church, who shared one another’s possessions, who spent time together meeting weekly and in each other’s homes, who ate together, who cried together, who shared their very lives with each other? Yes, the early church had ALL sorts of issues to navigate, but one of the things they did well was share with each other (at least at first, the church quickly got off track) What if we need to recover a sense of the church being a household? Being intimately involved in each other’s lives to find (in Andy’s words) the life we’re looking for, or life that is truly life (1 Tim. 6:19)

-Paul also references a household 6x throughout this letter! This is minor theme running throughout this letter. Think of how Paul talks about someone who is qualified for the office of elder in 1 Tim. 3. One of the components is he must manage his own household. Why? Because the church is a simply a larger household! If someone is unfaithful in the small household, why would we trust them to be faithful in the large household of the church? And I think when we understand that God’s desire for the church is to be seen as a household it starts to help us understand God’s ordering for leadership in the church, so hold on to that!

-But how do we know if you’re in a household? As Andy said, it’s more than just proximity, but not less than that. Here’s what he says:

-Know things about you: I realize there are things I do up here each week that you guys could imitate! I just do them subconsciously, but you all see them so often they become little things that help you know it’s me! Which leads to:

-Conflict: anyone want to guess what happens when you put 2 sinners in close proximity to each other? There are going to be issues that come up that drive you NUTS! The question becomes: what do you do when that happens? For many of us we’ll run away because we don’t want to have to work through the difficult process of reconciliation, but what comes on the other side of that reconciliation is a relationship that is closer than you could have dreamed! Church, be willing to push through the difficult and awkward that is conflict so that you can grow in your holiness!

-Which is what he says in this next one! Run away! That’s the temptation!

-This last one is a good description of what the church should be doing every week. When someone’s not around, does anyone notice, or is your attendance so sporadic that no one would notice when you miss? This was one of the things I loved about my college – it was Christian college, so they had chapel, but didn’t take attendance. They would say chapel was expected but not required, and it was up to your friends to ask where you were if you didn’t show up, which meant both attendance and engagement were pretty high!

-To summarize his point, Andy says:

-Where are you known? Are you so involved and engaged here that people know what’s going on in your life? Are you willing to be open to others so they can weep with you when you’re weeping and celebrate with you when you’re rejoicing? It doesn’t need to be a ton of people, but there should be some! Life Groups are a great place for that! 

-Church, we are called to be closely involved in each other’s lives, and to welcome others in to experience a life surrendered to God! How are you individually doing at knowing others and being known by others?

• What is the Main Point?

-With all this background, now we can get to the book itself! And I really appreciated this outline from the ESV Expositor’s Commentary: 

-What’s repeated over and over? God’s household! 

-And that comes from 3:14-15, where Paul states exactly why he’s writing to this letter. He hopes to come soon, but if he takes longer than expected, this will give guidance for how people should behave in God’s household.

-So that’s the first thing he calls the church: God’s household, which is a way of saying this is the new temple. The place where God now dwells with people is in the church! This is a completely unique concept to Christianity, we don’t pray in a direction, we don’t have a special incantation, we have a gathering of people.

-Church of the living God. This is another way Christianity is unique! Every other major religious leader is dead! 

-Pillar and foundation of the truth. Both of these are building concepts meant to communicate that the church deals in both truth-telling and truth-living. When the world tries to point us away or chases after untruth, the church must stand firm in God’s revealed Word and will to pursue truth, and friends, that truth is not based on our own individual experiences. Since Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, that means we need to be representing Him! Which coincidentally is exactly where Paul begins this letter:

-Who has called and commissioned Paul? Jesus. 

-Apostle is used 2 different ways in the NT: messenger and a specific church office as someone who saw the risen Jesus and was used to begin the early church. Not only was he an apostle, but God also commanded him to be committed to the establishment of churches.

-Then he writes to Timothy whom he calls his true son in the faith. This is where we start to see the familial way the church should engage in relationships. 

-Finally, a typical blessing of: grace, mercy, and peace, which only comes from God to a sinful undeserving people. His grace covers our sin, His mercy is what gives us grace, and because of both of those realities, we can have lasting peace (shalom), proper living and focus in all our lives!