-Have you noticed how easy it can be to slip in and out of churches today? You have ushers to guide you into your seat in a dark auditorium. The music is so loud you can’t hear anyone singing next to you (which probably is appealing for some of you, right?), but it’s ok, because it’s still so dark that you can’t see if anyone’s sitting there anyway!

-Every age has their own segmented spaces so adults don’t need to be inconvenienced by little ones who have trouble sitting still, teenagers have video games so they don’t get bored listening to a middle-aged man talk for too long.

-But what if that’s not what church is supposed to be or look like? What if church is supposed to be a place where we’re pushed outside our comfort zones, where there are people who don’t look, think, or act like us who are involved in our lives on a daily basis? Paul is going to use some incredibly intimate language in today’s text to point out a different way for the church to treat each other.

READ/PRAY (pg. 1052)

1. Family Members (1-2)

-How do we treat or view each other? For most of us, there will always be people older and younger than you in the church! We’re going to spend most of our time on these first 2 verses today because I think we need to talk about them more, and I would argue that the latter section is actually fairly straight-forward in terms of interpretation, I’m not completely sure how to apply it, but we’ll get there in a bit!

-1^st century relationships were almost the opposite of what we have today, we live in a youth driven culture, 1^st century was elderly driven, where the older you were the more respect you were supposed to be given. 

-I’ve experienced this moving back to MN! I run into my friend’s parents and I still call them Mr. or Mrs., even after they’ve told me to call them by their first name (I didn’t even think adults had first names!) I remember my parents asking me the names of my friend’s parents and I would tell them “Mr. and Mrs.”

-But even that has changed over my life! My kids call adults Ms. Or Mr. first name! 

-Older men: don’t rebuke, instead exhort or encourage him. 

-I’ve felt a shift in my ministry over the last few years, where I’m suddenly not the young guy at these conferences anymore! And I look at these other pastors who I just assume as high schoolers who are attending these conferences with their dads! But this is a tension point, because how do we live this verse out if older men are sinning? Which, let’s be clear, is true of everyone! We’ll continue our fight against sin until the Lord returns or takes us home. So what does this text mean when talking about leadership in the church?

-Don’t be flippant or dismissive towards older men, instead treat them respectfully and honorable, like you would treat your father. Does that mean you never confront sin in their lives? Absolutely not! Unfortunately, growth in holiness can’t be assumed (just a quick reminder, the name for growth in holiness is sanctification).

-Remember from last week the way Paul described our Christian walk: he says we’re to train ourselves in godliness, to labor and strive, practice these things, be committed to them, pay close attention to them, persevere in them. Does that sound easy to you? Friends, God calls us to give our everything in following after Him, to literally lay down our lives for Him! It takes grace-drive, God-enabled effort.

-And it doesn’t matter how old you are, your work isn’t done. Carson quote.

-And friends, you can tell the difference in older age between someone who has (through grace-driven effort) become more holy, and someone who has become more grumpy. Let me caution all of you who are older to not give up pursuing holiness in your life!

-I’ve shared this picture before, but I think it’s worth looking at again, because it’s been a couple years since I shared it. This gets at our whole concept of “One Step Closer” where I’ve had people ask me what those steps are moving towards, and we’ll go from the bottom to the top.

-Domain of darkness: those who aren’t following Christ, and as you can see that domain will continue until Christ returns. But there was a point in history where that realm was defeated, where a new people was formed called “the church” where people from every tribe, tongue, and nation can become new people, brought into the kingdom of the Son.

-Those people have an “L” above them to signify that they’re “Learners” who are learning the way of Jesus, following after Him, and never stopping learning more about Him. Just like in marriage where you never stop learning new things about your spouse, your faith is meant to continually be growing. And there’s various levels of growth that take place, but I would argue that you never remain stagnant, as Carson said. The drift, pull is always backwards. 

-The goal is gathering around the throne and worshipping Jesus perfectly, that’s why we work to daily take 1 step closer to that end. And then as we do that day after day we’ll become more and more like Jesus. And just so it’s clear: no one graduates in this! We all have places and areas in which we need to grow! But in relationships, we’re supposed to speak the truth in love, always looking to help people take steps closer to Jesus in our interactions, including with those older. Now, because we’ve done all this work, the next ones can be quicker!

-Young men: treat them like brothers. I never had brothers growing up, but I have 3 sons, and I’m not sure many of you would appreciate being treated how they treat each other! But there should be a familial connection to those younger.

-Similar to the older men, treat older women like mothers! Respectfully, honoring.

-We need to spend a little more time on the younger women part, because Paul adds something here: treat them like sisters, but with all purity. I want to talk a bit about this one, because I think there’s been some misunderstanding in relation to this.

-Unfortunately, there have been too many accounts of abuse from pastors to younger women in the church, and each one of those breaks God’s heart and defames the name of Jesus in the church. That’s not a new thing, in fact it led Billy Graham (20^th century evangelist) to commit to never being alone with any woman besides his wife, which then was became known as the “Billy Graham rule” and it popped back in up popularity a few years ago because VP Mike Pence also practiced it.

-At first glance, it sounds great! And for someone like Graham, who traveled all over (or Pence) there’s some wisdom to it. The problem is 2-fold. 1 is when everyone viewed this as the golden standard for every Christian leader to follow, because churches generally have more women than men, which means if you follow this rule you would refuse to meet with a majority of the church. 2 is it treats every woman as a temptress. And I hate to break it to most guys, but you’re not that tempting! I thought it was the Christian standard to follow the Billy Graham rule when I was in college, but then I had someone point this text out to me and ask me: would you ignore your sister? Well, no…

-Now, this does require wisdom! It doesn’t say treat them as your wife! There’s a difference between your spouse and your sister, right? We have to understand that we’re more than sexual beings, and the overly sexualization of our culture goes completely contrary to the way of Jesus. Friends, we must work to live in all purity in all our relationships in the church. We must show the world a better way. We even see this with same-sexual friendships! People read about Jonathan and David and assume they were erotic lovers. Or they read letters exchanged between men 200 years ago and assume the same. The problem is we don’t know how to be friends today! It’s ok to love a friend, but it’s a different love than the love I have towards my wife! Are we ok admitting that we need friends? I would argue the best place to find those friends is in the church! It’s people who should be the most understanding of you, acknowledging our common need of God’s grace, and accepting us as the sinners we are.

-Did you know that the surgeon general labeled loneliness one of the biggest epidemics in our country today? Here’s what he said:

-And at the same time, did you know that Harvard released a study. QUOTE. Any guess what the medicine is? Attending church! This is literally life-giving, and I would argue it’s because it provides our true identity, tells us who we are and how we should live and brings us into a new family who is committed to loving and caring for us through thick and thin.

• Care for Widows (3-15)

-I have no clue what to do with this next section! I’ve been wrestling through it all week, because the context is so different from Paul to us. I said earlier that the 1^st century was more focused on the elders (older), but what I didn’t mention is it was also focused on men, so women were only viewed in relation to men: either fathers or husbands. That means that if a woman became a widow, she was essentially destitute. She wasn’t supposed to work, wasn’t supposed to inherit money, was supposed to continue relying on the rest of her family to take care of her. Which means if she didn’t have any family, she had nothing to live for and no one to support her. And into that world comes this new thing called “The church,” which actively looked to help the least of these. In fact, Rodney Stark, a sociologist, argues in his book The Rise of Christianity that the primary reason the church grew so quickly was because it cared for the people no one else did: women, infants and children, and the sick.

-Where I struggle is what do we do with this text in a world of social welfare systems, 401Ks, retirement accounts, and assisted living? There are some principles I think we can take away from this, but we have to admit our world today is very different than the world Paul was writing to!

1. In Your Family (3-8)

-Paul begins with a command to care for widows. This would have been completely revolutionary! There’s some people that try to argue that Paul is attempting to keep women subservient to the men and trying to perpetuate the gender gap that already existed in the culture. I don’t see that just with using this first verse! He’s saying to come alongside and care for them!

-Now there are some caveats given: first being genuinely in need, which means something different to Paul than it would to us! This is why I struggled with what to do with this text, because the rest of this section is all the reasons a woman doesn’t qualify! 

-The first reason a woman wouldn’t qualify for this is if she has living family. This connects to the 10 commandments, where God’s people were commanded to honor their parents. This was true in the 1^stcentury too, but apparently people would look for loopholes where they didn’t need to fulfill their responsibility to their parents. This is what Jesus says in Matt. 15. This is getting to something known as:

-Subsidiarity argues “that social problems should be addressed at the lowest and most local level possible.” (EDT, 675). So if a widow has family, the family should look to care for her.

-Then Paul goes back to the true widow: she’s in need, is all alone, but entrusts herself to God and focuses on praying to Him (petitions is another form of prayer). Hold on to this role that they’re focusing on, because I want to talk about it again in vs. 9. 

-In contrast to a widow who focuses on prayer is someone who is self-indulgent. Some translations emphasize a sexual nature of this, but the primary focus of the word is on material excess, flaunting her wealth. This leads to her looking like she’s spiritually alive (like all these godly widows) but spiritually she’s dead!

-We’ve seen “above reproach” in relation to church leaders previously, so hold on to that thought until vs. 9 too!

-Really briefly, Paul explicitly gives us the idea of subsidiarity here: if someone doesn’t care for their nuclear family, they are worse than an unbeliever. I would argue that what Paul is including here is the new family that we all have – the church family that comes about under God the Father. Think of what Jesus said in Luke 8.

-Paul is saying that the faith that saves us must be a faith that changes how we live. We’re called to work to provide for the needs of our church family, otherwise we’re even worse than those who aren’t following after Jesus!

-An implication of this in our lives is that Christians should work to be the best employees they can possibly be! And they should look to extend that blessing to others! Work hard, live a faithful life, be a faithful witness to God’s plan to reconcile the world to Himself. 

• In Your Church Family (9-15)

-This is the verse we’ve been building up to! And the reason I said to wait is because some people argue that this was an official role in the church: the widows who devoted their time and energy to praying for the church, thus were compensated by the church. This is the minority position (meaning less people believe this to be the case). Most people believe that this was merely a list of women who were widows who qualified for church assistance, committing to remain widows and care for others (12), but not referring to an additional office to elders and deacons.

-But Paul’s expectations sound similar to church offices, don’t they? Age limit, faithful in her marriage, and faithful in good works. 60 would be past the age of being able to work and provide for herself. The good works listed are interesting:

-Brought up children: not only has she been a faithful wife (assuming she was married) if she had children, she was faithful in raising them. It doesn’t say she must have children, but the normal ordering is marriage to children (infertility)

-Shown hospitality: she was willing to share with others out of her abundance.

-Washed: just as Jesus did on the night He died, this designates that the widow is someone who was willing to be a faithful servant to the church

-helped the afflicted: helps the marginalized, even more marginalized than she was!

-devoted to good work: intentionally looking for ways and opportunities to be a blessing to everyone she comes into contact with.

-In contrast with this, Paul goes back to those who should not be put on this list: younger women who have become widows because they’ll want to re-marry. And the desire for marriage is a good thing! But if they had promised to focus their attention and energies on the church, and then renounce that promise to pursue marriage they’ll be forced to go back on their word to focus their energies on praying for the church.

-And those who are younger have too much energy! He says they’re idle, wasting the days away. AND they’re gossips and busybodies, women who are spreading stories around to places they shouldn’t be, stirring up division in the church.

-And friends, this isn’t just an issue for women! This is just as true of the rest of us! Anytime you’re tempted to complain about someone else when they’re not in the room you’re turning to gossip. The Bible commands us to not do that, but it says if we have a problem with someone, we’re required to go to them.

-And the reason for this, Paul says, is for our witness to the world. We look to be faithful in our homes because our homes are outposts of God’s kingdom. Our families are supposed to represent a new way of living where we live as if Jesus is actually the King (because He is!). Friends, your Christian witness starts with the way you treat your family, both your nuclear family and your church family!

-And the church is called to actually care for widows who have legitimate need. What does that look like? That’s where I’m not completely sure! I asked a pastor/friend about this yesterday, and he said they have a list that the Deacons hold on to so that if a widow asks for help the church bends over backwards to come alongside and help. That sounds like a reasonable application point from this text to me! But we haven’t done that before, which is something for us to pray for together! We haven’t even had Deacons in the past, so add widow care to the list of things we need to do! But I’ll end with some things for us to think and pray about as a church family.

-First: do you honor your mother and father? Honoring doesn’t mean just going along with whatever they want, especially if there’s painful things you need to work through. At the minimum, even if the relationship is strained or hurtful, you can pray!

-Second: do you honor your church family? Are you willing to prioritize your siblings and parents in the church, or do you try to just sneak in and out as fast as you can?

-Third: how do you show that honor? What does it look like for you to show honor, and would others in the church see that?

-One of the most difficult things about the church is that it’s full of sinners. On top of that, if you were to find a church that was absolutely perfect, the moment you walked in the door you would corrupt the whole thing. 

-If you didn’t know, my dad was a pastor, which means I literally grew up in the church! And some of my biggest wounds from growing up were connected to church. I remember a moment where a couple other guys and I learned the word “pathetic,” so we took turns making ridiculous faces and calling each other pathetic until it got to 1 of the guys (the last one). As soon as we said he looked pathetic he started crying and ran to his mom (we were in middle school, so it was weird), his mom immediately came running over to us and started chewing us out, and the other friend and I made this face.

-Today’s text gives us a few descriptions of the church that are supposed to understand how we should live and function in the church.

READ/PRAY (pg. 1052)

1. The Pillar and Foundation (14-16)

-We start with the verse that explains the story behind Paul writing this letter! This is supposed to be the warm-up song for Paul, he’s planning to visit Timothy and the church in Ephesus, but in preparation for that visit he’s sent this letter, covering how the church should organize themselves, and how the people in the church should live.

-So how should people conduct themselves in God’s household? Let’s think through some of the issues people may have that would make them start to question whether or not we should even engage the church:

-Church hurt: what do you do after someone that you trusted in the church hurts you, or even worse if someone in the leadership of a church hurts you? Friends, there have been FAR too many stories of abuse of power in the church over the last decade. And then throw in that at times people in churches can feel like they’re even more mean than people who aren’t! That’s a real issue! And at the same time, let me caution labeling things as “church hurt” because often it’s A church that hurts you, not the whole church.

-Disillusionment: what about someone who grew up in the church, seemed to bear fruit in their lives, but ends up just drifting away over time? Someone who is glad that church “works” for you, but they found it lacking. Once again, how many churches has this person tried?

-Betrayal: this connects to church hurt, but because there’s a different level of relationship that you go to with another Christian, betrayal in the church cuts even deeper than outside the church because it’s people that you think would know better than to be mean, right? One of my favorite verses from Paul gets to this idea in Phil. 4:2, and I’ve been saving this passage for today! Remember that Philippians was written to an entire church, and was read out loud to the church (just like we do each week). That means Euodia and Syntyche were sitting out in the pews when this was read! The whole church knew what was going on, can you imagine how awkward that would have been? And notice that these are Christians, he says they’ve contended for the gospel together, but something’s going on where they can’t get along. Friends, dysfunction in the church is the norm. It’s a bunch of sinful people who realize they need a Savior who gather together every week. You’re going to get hurt and betrayed. 

-On the other side, some people turn the church into a social club: nothing more than likeminded people gathering together without any need for the Bible. Far too many churches don’t realize that they stopped actually being a church decades ago and have just become gathering without any transformation taking place where there’s a refusal to change or grow to try reaching a new era. Like one of the things that’s been shocking to me is how many pastors I talk to who don’t keep reading after seminary!

-I would argue that all of these issues connect back to what we read previously in this chapter – if we take seriously the character of our leaders, it protects the church from a host of issues. If we actually take the Bible seriously and view it as the ultimate authority in our lives and in our practices, it will protect us from a world of hurt! The other piece that connects to this as being incredibly important is meaningful membership! Membership is the means by which our church remains accountable, it’s the way we commit to love each other, and the means God uses to continue passing down the faith to new generations, at least in our congregational polity (if you don’t know what that is, come to the new class Micah and I are teaching starting Nov. 9).

-Paul uses multiple phrases or words to describe the church in this section. What comes to mind when you hear the word “church”? Building, people, outdated, boring, judgmental. Paul doesn’t use any of those words, he starts by referring to the church as God’s:

-Household. This is a word I think we need to recover today! We often think of this as a nuclear family that drives into their house, closes the garage door, and doesn’t acknowledge anyone else around them. But that’s not only what it meant in the 1^st century. 

-A household was a willing association of people pursuing the common goal of the flourishing of each other. It included multiple generations living under 1 roof, some people who weren’t even biologically related, and all worked together for the household the function. You could also think of this as a small family business. And just like a household has various roles (father, mother, children), the church has various roles to be filled! But I think it gets to something that we’ve missed in our culture: we’re supposed to be so involved in each other’s lives, that it’s like we live in the same house. Is there anyone that would know you that well? Go back and listen to my first sermon on this book for some ideas about what that means! 

-But Paul goes on, not only is it a household, it’s also: church of the living God

-The word for church refers to a meeting/assembly, the regular gathering of God’s people. It also is a compound word that means the called-out ones. But there’s more: it’s the gathering, the called-out people of the living God.

-This is intentionally contrasting the buildings of the dead gods (like Artemis in Ephesus!), hold on that thought!

-The last description of the church is: pillar and foundation of the truth. This may have been referring to one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world that was in Ephesus: the temple to Artemis. This is a replication of it, but in the original, those pillars were each about 60 ft. high, and the temple was about as big as a soccer field. And this ancient wonder has nothing on the wonder of the church!

-Pillar: lifts high the truth, foundation: supports the truth. And this should cause you to ask the question: what about the Bible? Isn’t the Bible our pillar and foundation of the truth?

-I love the way John Stott summarizes it. The ultimate source of truth is the Bible! But friends, the church is supposed to be the place where truth is both modeled and proclaimed! In Titus, Paul actually says we’re supposed to adorn the teaching of gospel with our good works. So the way we live is supposed to show the world truth.

-What is that truth that we’re supposed to proclaim? A specific confession, that Heb. 4:14 tells us is centered on Jesus. But what’s interesting is it doesn’t say to hold onto Jesus, it says to hold fast to our confession.

-Gospel message- a subversive fulfilment of all the stories of the world. We are supernatural creatures, we have a desire to find and define our place in the world, but all those stories are just a story, unless they connect to the 1 true story. Paul seems to continue his contrast with the cult dedicated to Artemis in Ephesus, but unlike that cult, Jesus is the true one who’s great. He subverts their cult by calling a mystery great, but then fulfills their desires for the worship of a god by pointing them to Jesus.

-Lots of debate around these 6 lines. It’s clear they’re intentionally connected, the question is how and why are they connected?

-Some say 3 pairs of 2, others say 2 pairs of 3, others say it’s correspondence. What makes most sense to me is the pairs of 2 and the correspondence, comparing Christ’s earthly work to the spiritual realities of that work. So he was manifested earthly, taken up spiritually, vindicated, just like the world believes spiritually, angels spiritually see and that message is sent to the world.

-Everyone agrees that this was a liturgical element used by the early church to confess truths about Jesus. Friends, the church has been using phrases like this forever to help believers confess and remember truths about who Jesus is. That’s why we recite a confession together after communion, that’s why we will use things like catechisms or creeds, because that’s how the church has held on to the truth through the centuries.

-And remember that Paul has just compared the spiritual realities of what Jesus did with the earthly realities, now he goes on to talk more about the spiritual realities:

• The Spirit vs. the spirits (4:1-3)

-Not all spiritual activity is good! There’s a difference between the Spirit of God and the deceitful, lying spirits. There’s been an increase in interest in spiritual things over the past few years (mostly because the belief in naturalism (that this world is all there is) has just fallen flat for so many people, one of the best questions you can ask people who are trying to live for themselves is: how is that working for you?) A fascinating book that traces this thinking is ‘Strange Rites’, which early in the book says is the story “of how more and more Americans…envision themselves as creators of their own bespoke religions, mixing and matching spiritual and aesthetic and experiential and philosophical traditions”

-“Later times” starts now. The church has been in “the last days” since Jesus ascended into heaven 2,000 years ago. The best way to think about the time period we live in is the already and the not yet. Christ has already come and defeated Satan, sin, and death, but we do not yet see the full implications of that reality. We will someday!

-We can get the appearance that everything is going smoothly at this church from reading this letter. They’ve got their church leadership figured out, they were planted by Paul, but this section reminds us that the church has always had conflict and tension! Because we still deal with the realities of sin.

-Depart from the faith: what do you do when people abandon the faith they once believed in and proclaimed? This text should comfort us! People will leave their faith. I think of pastors that I looked up to when I was growing up, or friends that I had who no longer follow after Jesus, and it breaks my heart! But I know that’s reality, and I know we’re at war: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

-Deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons: just because someone claims to be speaking on behalf of God doesn’t mean they are! 

-This is why it’s so important to be saturated in God’s Word. I’ve talked to a number of people who have asked me questions about something they read/heard that just felt off, and they were able to tell because they’ve spent enough time in the Word! 

-Hypocrisy of liars is someone who isn’t following the truth, someone who knows the right thing to do but refuses to do it. He also says their consciences are seared, they can no longer feel that what they’re doing is wrong, they just go along with the flow.

-Paul talks about this in more detail in Rom. 1. Notice how he describes their connection to the truth: suppress it! How does that align with Paul’s description of the church? Remember last week I shared the example Edwards gave on the conscience being like a sundial, it only works when it’s used under the correct light. If we aren’t holding fast to the truth, if we’re just chasing after our own desires our lives will be completely out of whack.

-I just read a Recent study this week that traced the decline of college students claiming to be transgender, which peaked at about 7% in 2023 and has dropped almost in half since then. How much of this is because of a denial of the truth, of continually pushing against what God has revealed? So instead of having consciences continually aligned the Truth, people continue chasing whatever high they’re feeling in the moment. And not just with gender, you could say the same thing about food, or possessions, or money, or experiences, if it’s not something that’s done with thanksgiving to God, it will sear our conscience.

-But in contrast to suppressing the truth, or having a seared conscience, what about when people go too far the other way and add to what God has demanded? That was another issue Timothy faced! Forbidding marriage and demanding that others abstain from food.

-And I’ll be honest, this way of living is tempting! It’s easier to add more boundaries to protect us from even getting close to crossing the line. But that becomes a problem when we demand others live the same way we do. When I grew up, Christians weren’t supposed to celebrate Halloween. So we (and most of my friends) literally hid in our house! We’d shut lights off, hide in the basement, close all the blinds, and then if anyone knocked we’d just wait for them to realize we weren’t coming. What a missed opportunity! Instead, we as Christians have nothing to fear because we have Christ living in us, we should look for ways that we can redeem what the world offers us, shining as lights in the darkness. 

-What legalism does is try to deal with all the externals without addressing the real issue: sin inside. There was an article that was written shortly after the news came out about Josh Duggar molesting multiple girls (and since then it’s gotten even worse and he’s now in prison). And think about what the Duggars projected: no tv, no dating without chaperones, modesty at all times. But what gets missed in this is sin isn’t something out there, sin isn’t something you can hide away from like my family grew up hiding in the basement during Halloween, sin is something in here, something that we need to be delivered from! And I get the impulse to want to protect! I have 5 children that are various stages of development, we try hard to make sure they don’t see or hear things they shouldn’t, but you know what: they’re all sinners! They are going to do terrible things, which is why we need to continue pointing them to Jesus.

Which is where Paul goes next:

• Thanksgiving (4:4-5)

-Everything created by God is good. What did God create? Everything – except sin. Sin cannot be redeemed. But the things God has given to us (food, drink, friends, even resources and possessions) are given as gifts to be enjoyed.

-This helps us avoid both the excess of something and the avoidance of something. I heard a retired pastor preach at a church I was at onetime, and he referenced a movie, and then apologized because he said he knew he wasn’t supposed to watch movies. 

-Believe it or not, God isn’t a killjoy who wants us walking around with frowns and grumpy all the time, never having any fun. He wants good for us, and He’s given us the world to enjoy! Like have you ever just sat and watched a sunset? It’s gorgeous, and it’s gorgeous because God likes beautiful things! Have you ever eaten a delicious meal? God didn’t need to make food taste good, we could have gotten our nutrition from the sun like a plant, but God gave us taste buds and a world full of food for us to enjoy, to receive it with thanksgiving.

-All these gifts are for our good, and I would argue that this means nothing is outside of the realm of redemption for Christians, assuming it’s not inherently sinful. This verse says things are sanctified, that means they’re made holy, through the Word and prayer. We’ve talked about food and movies, but we could extend that to something like yoga (stretching), reading Harry Potter, politics, school choices, marriage.

-What makes Christians unique is that we’re able to enjoy all these gifts without worshipping them, that is they don’t control us. Similarly, in the church we understand that people are going to have different boundaries or areas where they’ve been convicted of something that maybe we haven’t, things that are in the Christian liberty area. For example: alcohol. Is it a sin to drink alcohol? No, not by itself. But if you’re prone to addiction or you can’t drink in moderation, then don’t drink! And your church family should be able to help you with that. Or what about money? Believe it or not, we don’t all make the same amount of money! Not only that, but I’m also guessing that we don’t spend our money the same way! Like I know people who place a high priority on buying organic food. Meanwhile, we shop at Aldi and only get organic if it’s the only option! But we do drop some good money on coffee! That’s something that’s important for us, and as Paul says here, God says it’s good, and it’s made holy by the word of God and prayer! So drink more coffee!

-Friends, let’s hold fast the truths of the gospel! The truth of what Jesus did in our lives, because that will protect us from chasing after the wrong spirits and help us to receive all of God’s gifts as good, and even better this gives us an outline of what we can pursue together! We don’t have to be afraid of the world, we instead receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving, and even though we’re all very different people, we can live together in one church sacrificially loving and caring for others who may not act exactly like us. Friends, welcome to the church! When you’re sinned against, be quick to forgive. And when you sin against someone else, be even quicker to apologize! It takes all of us dying to our preferences to allow us to live as the church.  

-A question for you as we begin our text today: does God ever disagree with you? And if your answer to that question is no, then I want you to ask what god do you worship? I think there’s a tendency for us to think of God as either superman, or a better version of ourselves. Unfortunately, the God of the Bible doesn’t play by our rules, can’t be completely understood by our minds, and has a different standard than we do!

-One of the things we need to admit before we read this text is that we’re all products of our culture, it affects us so much that we don’t even see it as part of our culture! And I believe today’s text is one of those places that cuts against the grain of our current culture. We have become so egalitarian across the board that any limitations placed on anyone for any reason are thought to be a problem to be pushed through instead of a gift. 

-But that also affects the way I read/interpret this passage, because what this text says wouldn’t be counter-cultural in many parts of the world, and especially throughout history! The counter-cultural part to them would be something we see as completely normal today, but we need work through the text to see it.

-And as a word of encouragement to us as we read this text, even the first disciples told Jesus there were things He said that were hard, but when it’s hard we must lean in to what God has said.

READ/PRAY (pg. 1051)

1. Men: Lift Up Holy Hands (8)

-We pick up right where we left off last week! We saw that the church is commanded to pray for everyone, including those in authority over us, and here Paul says that prayer must also be connected to holy living. That means there are some ways to pray that are wrong! Paul here says when men pray, it should be done without anger or argument. 

-I believe he’s speaking in generalities here. Between men and women, which gender is more prone to anger? Isn’t it men? It’s not saying it’s exclusive to men, but my experience in the world has been that men tend to be more hot-headed than women, so what Paul is specifically calling out here is that when men come to pray, it needs to be accompanied by unity. A couple other passages help to flesh out this idea:

–Matt. 5 – Jesus says that unity is dependent on reconciliation. Jesus here is referring to worship of God. In order for us to worship God rightly, it depends on reconciliation with each other. And notice He doesn’t say “if YOU have something against someone” He says “If you remember that SOMEONE ELSE has something against you.” That’s remarkable! That’s the kind of spirit we’re supposed to have in the church where we work to preserve unity, in Eph. Paul says to make EVERY EFFORT to keep unity.

-Second passage that helps us understand Paul’s command is Luke 18. The Pharisee uses prayer as a performance for the masses and looks down on everyone else instead of pursuing unity together. He’s so busy looking down on other people that he forgets that he’s also a sinner! Instead, Paul says that the men of the church should be without anger or argument with each other, aka unity!

-But what about holy hands?

-David is Psalm 24 talks about a similar idea that I think helps us understand what Paul means here. Holy hands is a way of describing someone who is living an upright life. So in the church, the men should be known for praying and pursuing unity! Now for the women:

• Women: Learn (9-15)

-I don’t think there’s a section of Scripture that has contributed more debate over the past 50-100 years than this one! And I, like many people I know and have read and studied, have wanted this text to say something other than what it says. And when we’re tempted to do that we need to fall on our face in front of God and admit that He knows things that we don’t! So as much as we can, we need to work to submit ourselves to God’s Word, not twist God’s Word to fit our aims, that puts us in the place of God.

-A second note: there are people that have gone the other way and taken this text TOO seriously to the point of subjugated and belittling women. This text is meant to be freeing and edifying to both men AND women, no gender is better in the eyes of the Lord, and trying to argue that somehow women are inferior to men is a sin. The first thing we see about men and women in the Bible is their equality before God, God looks at man and says “not good!” it’s only when the women is brought to him as his complement that God says that’s right!

-One of the most quoted verses in the women in the church conversations is Gal. 3, and it’s in the Bible too! But in order to faithfully interpret and apply this text, we have to understand that Paul isn’t talking about church order or church leadership, this is referring to salvation. In salvation, nothing matters except Jesus. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female in matters of salvation. But in matters of church offices and functions, there is a difference!

-If you’ve been coming for a while, you’ve seen this scale of gender roles before, and I preached on complementarianism more broadly in January, so if you want you can go back and listen to that sermon. 

-Really briefly, let’s define these terms. By feminist, I’m referring to 4^th wave feminism, not old school feminism which pushed for women’s rights to vote. Modern day feminism argues that women are superior to men, which is unbiblical. The other side is also unbiblical and that’s called patriarchy, that argues that men are better than women (some people actually argue that this text teaches that women are more susceptible to sin than men, hence Eve being tempted instead of Adam, that’s also wrong). So we can cross those 2 off! We’re then left with egalitarian and complementarian. Our denomination is complementarian (taken from complementary, men and women are called to distinct yet complementary roles). Complementarians believe that there are some offices and functions in the church reserved for qualified men, egalitarians believe there is no prohibition, and the primary debate centers on this text.

-Honestly, I have yet to meet someone that is complementarian because they want to be or because they’re looking to demean women. Everyone I know has come to the text wanting it to say something else and after careful study have come to the conclusion that any other options don’t deal well with the text. All of my education has been at schools that are egalitarian, I have friends who are egalitarian, and I appreciate that they’re willing to debate out the text itself, that’s where we need to get all our beliefs from, God’s Word, and then we submit ourselves to God’s Word instead of our cultural ideas. 

-This is a topic that is going to be a hot topic issue in our culture for the foreseeable future, so if any of you have questions after walking through this, please reach out, I’ve got all sorts of resources for you, as the author of Ecc.

-I believe one of the keys to interpreting this text is understanding the church as a family or household, that’s why this series is named what it is! When we have that background in mind it helps us understand what Paul is doing here. 

-Kids will often get asked what they’re going to be when they grow up, my son at his K graduation said he was going to be a basketball and soccer player and work at his church. My daughter was recently saying she wanted to work at church, but then Calvin told her she couldn’t be a pastor and she couldn’t understand why, and my answer to her was: can a daddy be a mommy? Just as a family needs different and distinct genders (complementary), a church needs different and distinct genders for the church to flourish.

1. Not Externally (9-10)

-Is this saying all women need to wear denim jumpers? That if you’re dripping you’re sinning? Not at all! There’s a few things to note about this:

-First, there’s the need to not be a distraction to others. This is a piece that often gets missed today. In many churches you come into a dark theater, ushers have flashlights to help you find seats, music is mixed so loud no one can hear each other, pretty hard to be a distraction in that environment! In the early church that wasn’t an option. Everyone saw each other, and dressing too well made some women stand out. 

-Second is that when we gather as a church, we’re supposed to be pursuing unity, and if women treat church as “America’s Next Top Model” it places the focus on them instead of on God. Don’t dress to bring attention to yourself!

-Instead, notice what Paul says what women should dress in: good works. Peter uses some similar language to encourage women, too. Clothes are primarily just to cover up, so don’t give too much attention to them, and instead focus on what God’s doing in your heart.

-Before we get into the contested section, I believe that some of what Paul is doing here is defending the idea that both genders are created as good, and are meant to imitate God by reflecting their unique gender. Pushing against God’s design for each gender is wrong and reflects the same motivation as the serpent back in Gen. 3. Friends, the whole gender confusion thing isn’t new! And the midst of this confusion, the church is meant to serve as an example of why following God’s good design of male and female leads to human flourishing. So many of our issues with gender confusion stem from cultural expectations instead of reality, so as the church, we need to work to represent the diversity of each gender.

• In Submission (11-15)

-Literally every word is debated in this text. Paul switches from the plural “women” to the singular “woman,” why does he do that? Is it woman or wife? What does “silence” mean, how complete is that prohibition? What is a woman supposed to do in church? 

-There are numerous spiritual gifts list throughout the NT, and none of those lists are gender specific, which tells us that God gives some women the gift of teaching. If God gives them that gift, where are they supposed to use it? As I was growing up, that seemed to mean women were restricted to teaching in 2 contexts: women and children

-But I’d like to push back to that, just slightly, because once we get there I’ll argue that teaching is a specific kind of teaching in a specific time, so hold on to that!

-We also see women throughout Scripture leading in other contexts. Pheobe is called out specifically in Rom. 16, Luke tells us that many women provided for Jesus and the Apostles, and as we’ll see in a couple weeks, women are also encouraged to serve as Deacons in the church.

-It’s also important to understand that there is 1 command in this verse: learning. Contrary to our cultural expectations, this would have been revolutionary because in the 1^st century education was only available to men/boys. Here Paul is saying that women are not just permitted to learn, but commanded to learn! But just as the dressing previously was with good works, here the learning is meant to be done in a specific way:

-“In silence” what kind of silence? How prohibitive is this silence? Part of the reason why I have issues with the egalitarian position is because of the way they will twist the wording to argue their position. The primary book that argues for the egalitarian position is Discovering Biblical Equality, now in its third edition. In the chapter on these verses, the author states, “the semantic range for hesychia does not include “silence.”” And then to support the claim the footnote says “See BDAG” which is basically a Greek dictionary that lists all the interpretive options for a word. Is silence not in there? It even says that’s the correct interpretation for this verse. But that’s not the only expectation in 1 Tim., Paul also says:

-“full submission” – another piece that gets missed in this conversation is that that expectation isn’t unique to women, same expectation for men (Heb. 13). This is a way of saying there’s a God designed order to the church that we need to follow!

-“I do not allow” – typical Pauline use, look at vs 8, this isn’t just a proclamation for a narrow slice of time, this is a command for the church at all time

-Debate is what is Paul talking about here? Is this 1 thing or 2? Some argue that this is merely authoritative teaching or if it’s 2 different things, no teaching and no authority, so let’s dig in here!

-Teaching: the word Paul uses here is always used to refer to the transmission of God’s Word throughout the Pastoral epistles. This is where I would argue that there’s only 1 kind of teaching that is prohibited, what is taking place right now: the preaching of God’s Word. Bullinger quote (2^ndHelvetic Confession 1562). Preaching is a completely unique and sacred act that God uses broken, sinful people like me to proclaim His truth to His people. That’s where I work so hard to be careful about what I’m saying each and every week, I realize this is an incredibly weighty task that is done with much fear and trembling each week. This is why I would argue that this is the 1 limitation that Paul is giving to women: preaching. Any other teaching is supposed to be encouraged! Sunday school, regardless of who’s in attendance, small groups, seminaries, conferences, all those are acceptable places for women to speak, the prohibition is the preaching part of the gathering of God’s people on Sunday morning, that’s it, as far as teaching. But that’s not it in terms of the limitation:

-Have authority: the debate for this word is about whether or not this is a negative connotation as in “usurp authority” some have even tried to argue that this word is connected to “murder” so the prohibition isn’t connected to all authority, it’s exerting improper authority. That one is within the semantic range, but I don’t think it best fits with the way Paul’s comment here is flowing, I don’t have time to get into the grammatical reasons this morning, so if you want more information, check out this video, it’s only 11 hours 24 minutes long (only 12 min shorter than the entire LOTR Extended trilogy)

-How prohibitive is this “silence”? Used in 11 and 12, but also used in last week’s text in 2:2 so I would argue a better thought of as quietly, or reverently, within the preaching of God’s Word in the corporate gathering of God’s people. It’s not a complete prohibition! Because we also need to factor in a place like Col. 3:16 we’re commanded to teach each other through our singing, or 1 Cor. 11 where women are assumed to be praying and prophesying in the church, BUT women aren’t to speak into the interpretation of the prophesies as we see in 1 Cor. 14 (if you want more info, I’ll plan to talk more about this in sermon scraps this week, so sign up for that if you’re interested!)

-Why is this true? It’s one thing for Paul to share his opinion, but where does he ground his argument from? As a good Christian, he grounds it in God’s revealed Word! “For” the reason for this prohibition is because of God’s intent in creation.

-References back to creation, particularly Gen. 2 God’s intent has been for man to be the leaders in the home and the church. The ordering in creation is God to Adam, Adam to Eve, who together ruled over the beasts. The serpent then denies creation order when he deceived Eve, and Adam was supposed to be a protector who defended and guarded the garden, but he didn’t, and Gen. 3 even says that Adam was there with Eve when she was tempted.

-Paul’s point is not that Adam didn’t sin, his point is that the sin was a reversal of the way God intends His creation to function, and you can see that when you look at Gen. 3, because Eve eats the fruit first, but who does God talk to first? Adam! Adam is held responsible for Eve, not the reverse. That isn’t saying Eve is “lesser than” or not worth God’s focus, because she is addressed too, but after Adam. Again, God’s ordering is Him, Adam, then Eve, but then in the curse God follows the reverse order that His creation has chosen.

-Vs. 15 continues the debates, and there’s even questions about how to translate this section! With just a casual glance at this, does Paul say women must give birth in order to be saved? What about salvation by faith alone?

-2 primary arguments, and I actually take the minority position (less used), but I could be convinced of the majority position! First is this is referring to the typical order of things – women are the only gender that can give birth, so instead pushing against God’s ordering, it’s submitting to what God has determined by embracing her role as a mother and not trying to become a father. NT scholar Doug Moo summarizes this position well. A subset of this that can be dismissed, is that Christian women will be preserved throughout the process of delivering a child because experience doesn’t hold that to be true.

-I think it’s something slightly different than that, and it’s because of a definite article (get ready for a grammar lesson!) In English, we have 1 definite article: the. Greek has multiple different iterations of that based on gender and singular or plural. The word for childbearing has a definite article in front of it, meaning an interpretive option is (looked at 63 translations, 6 of them have this option) she will be saved through THE childbearing. If you think back to Gen. 3, even in the midst of God’s judgment, God promises to bring salvation, the serpent vs. the offspring, the serpent will strike the heel, but be struck on the head. Part of the reason I think that is because every time Paul uses the word “saved” in the pastoral letters he’s talking about salvation, so I think he’s continuing his reflections on Gen. 3. Salvation came through a women named Mary who became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, so Paul is saying salvation is possible for women just like men through faith in Jesus Christ, living and flourishing as a woman as God intended for His glory and the good of the church.

-Friends, God’s Word is good and being obedient to God’s Word leads to a flourishing life. This doesn’t mean that men and women are interchangeable, and it doesn’t mean that the church is the 1 institution where women aren’t able to serve. The church is meant to be the 1 place where men and women can be the gender God created them to be and reflect God’s good design for humanity, leading to the flourishing of both genders, because God’s way is true, and good, and beautiful when you have people loving the Lord and loving each other and joyfully submitting ALL of us, to God’s commands.

-So wherever you’re at in your walk with Jesus, are you willing to submit to God’s good design for the church and the family? Pray for us as a church that we would be intentionally looking for ways to give BOTH men and women the opportunities to use their gifts. And most of all, look to the perfect Son who unlike Adam willingly submitted Himself, laid down His life to redeem His bride. He embraced His created order and now provides salvation to everyone: Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, we all can become 1 in Christ Jesus! 

-Last week we looked at the background to this book, Paul writing to Timothy, his protégé in order to help keep the church at Ephesus pursuing the right things. But what are those right things?

READ/PRAY (pg. 1051)

1. Conforms to the Gospel (3-11)

-Throughout this section, Paul will be bouncing back and forth between prohibitions (what not to do) and commands (what to do). He begins with what not to do: teach false doctrine. 

-Many times in Paul’s letters I wish he would specify what exactly he’s talking about, because we don’t have the exact context as we read this 2,000 years later! So we have to do some work to determine exactly what he’s referring to here. Thankfully we have 2 other letters written to pastors that deal with similar ideas, so we’ll pull those in to help us understand what the problem is. First off, he uses this same word later in this letter to begin to tell us what this false doctrine is not: it doesn’t agree with Jesus’s teachings, and it doesn’t promote godliness. Instead, it focuses on other things like: 

-Myths: made up stories that contradict the one true story that centers on Jesus’s life. Peter even uses this phrase in 1 Peter to state what God’s people should follow. This isn’t saying that reading books like LOTR are bad, this is saying looking to other stories that attempt to explain why the world is the way it is are wrong, instead we follow the story of the Bible to understand the world.

-Endless genealogies: this is similar to the myths – lineage was a BIG deal at this time, and particularly among the Jews because they worked hard to trace their family back to father Abraham. Paul warns that now that Jesus has come, everyone is now a part of the family of Abraham! No one is excluded, so suddenly genealogies don’t matter anymore (except for the one that puts you in the family of God! Household!)

-Fixating on the wrong things leads to “empty speculations”: one of the most fascinating things to me is how obsessed people get with trying to figure out exactly when Jesus is coming back. You may have heard the phrase “We must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Barth:

-The opposite has tended to be the norm for many Americans for the past century. We read about events taking place in the Middle East and try to align them with charts about the end of the world, and friends, let’s be honest, how fruitful is all that work? Hypothetically, if we were supposed to be tracing all these events to know for certain the date Jesus was coming back, what would that change about what we’re called to today? NOTHING! Luther quote. Friends, don’t fixate on empty speculations, focus on what God has clearly revealed, which will help us avoid:

–6 Fruitless discussion: friends, sometimes debating theological issues is a fruitless, pointless, useless discussion. 

-I onetime had a random person attend here and then reach out and ask to meet for coffee after. It turned out that he just wanted to debate whether or not we could eat bacon! After about 30 min, I got so frustrated at the lack of humility and refusal to engage any of the issues I brought up that I told him this had become a waste of time, so I needed to leave. It’s the 1 time I’ve literally just gotten up and walked away from a coffee meeting! That is time that I’ll never be able to get back!

-In contrast to fruitless discussion or false doctrine is true doctrine, but how do we know what is true doctrine? Look at the fruit! It must lead to 3 things:

-Love that comes from a pure heart: this is picking up on Jesus’s summation of the entire law: love God, love others. Friends, if you don’t have love for fellow Christians, you should question whether or not you’re truly following Jesus. 

-A good conscience: this isn’t an individual expression or determination, I think we tend to see this as I need to listen to what I think is right, which means we read this through an expressive individual lens (I need the freedom to be and do whatever I feel like doing regardless of how it affects anyone else). Paul qualifies this as “good” that is it conforms with God’s plan and design for how humans should live, this is a conscience that is held captive to the Word of God, continually growing more like Jesus

-A sincere faith: genuine, true, aimed in the right direction instead constantly looking over your shoulder or debating all these other pointless issues that people like to discuss.

-Just as I asked last week: are these 3 things true of our church? Do you see people growing in love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith? If not, we need to question what is being taught!

-In contrast, these teachers of false doctrine keep trying to teach but they’re making stuff up. They don’t understand it, and they don’t know what they’re asking people to do. Goes on to talk about the appropriate use of the law, which is good. So this tells us that these false teachers are using the law in ways it isn’t meant to be used.

-The law is referring to the OT, and specifically the Pentateuch, as we’ll see in a couple verses.

-So what is the good use of the law? The law creates the boundaries of what is acceptable behavior, and when God gives us laws is for our good. I think we often miss that reality! 

-Think of parents who create laws for their kids (no dessert before dinner, but why? Or don’t run into the street, but why? Or don’t touch the hot stove, but why?) God, who is infinitely wiser than even the best parents in the world, who also created the entire world gives us rules to help us best flourish in the world that He created. That’s where I said a couple weeks ago that all social sciences are doing are discovering the way God created us, but that can be said about all science: it’s merely a study of the way God created things! Therefore the rules that God gives aren’t because God wants us to live miserable lives, it’s because he wants us to flourish and knows apart from Him, we can’t!

-What is the best summation of the law? Jesus said it’s: love God and love others, but you could fill that out a little further with the 10 commandments, which one commentator argues is exactly what Paul references here.

-If you didn’t know, the reason Jesus summarized the law with 2 phrases is because that’s a summary of all 10 of these. The first 4 have to do with loving God, and the last 6 have to do with loving others.  

-I’m not completely convinced yet that this is what Paul is completely referring to, there’s some that are directly related (5-9), and even in the correct order, but others that I think are a bit more of a stretch!

-There are a few descriptions here that I think we do need to talk about in here, and it has to do with our context today. One common argument you’ll see on social media is that the word “homosexual” doesn’t appear in the Bible until the 1946 (publication of the RSV), and that translation means the entire evangelical world since then has been wrong about saying that homosexuality is a sin. Part of the problem is the word “homosexual” wasn’t a word until 1868, and Bible translations don’t just appear out of thin air, it takes time for them to develop and be translated. The problem is the word that Paul uses here is ἀρσενοκοίτης and it literally means “men bed-er.” Our translation says “males who have sex with males” which is as good a translation as you’ll find! And they actually changed it in 2020, because when they first published this translation it was “homosexual.” The problem today is that word refers to an identity and not a sinful act. So Paul is not saying that your sexual attraction means you’re outside the law, he’s saying how you respond to those attractions. And if it’s not clear, he also uses the word “sexually immoral” which in this case means any sex act prohibited by Scripture (which is a lot) – there is 1 context in which sex is not just permissible, but encouraged: covenant marriage between 1 biological man and 1 biological woman, anything else is both prohibited and condemned. 

-The other issue you’ll hear is Jesus didn’t say anything against homosexuality (which is part of the reason I don’t like “red letter Bibles” this whole thing is Jesus’s words to us, not just the ones he spoke!) But that’s also false, because Jesus uses the same general word that Paul uses to condemn all other sexual sin.

-The other one is “slave trader” Some translations translate this as “kidnapper” or “man stealer” and when the trans-Atlantic slave trade was in full force, they would narrowly interpret this to say only the act of kidnapping is sinful, once someone is kidnapped there’s nothing wrong with buying and selling them. Based on what we just saw with sexual immoral, do you think that’s the limiting factor here? No! Anyone that is involved in the process of slavery isn’t following the law.

-All 10 of these commandments do exactly what Paul is saying they do: condemn! And Jesus says if you’re guilty of breaking just 1 of these, you’re just as guilty of breaking them all! A great tool for evangelism is to walk people through these and ask if they’ve ever committed any of them, because it’s only when we realize how sinful we are that we’ll understand our need for a Savior. And friends, just in case you don’t realize it, these 10 commandments condemn every single one of us, we all have failed in at least 1 of these areas. 

-And then Paul concludes by focusing on his primary message: the gospel. But which direction does the gospel lead us? To the glory of the blessed God, who has entrusted it to Paul.

-Friends, because we stand in the same lineage of faith as Paul, these are just as true for us today as they were when this book was written to the church at Ephesus! Being a faithful follower of Jesus means there’s things we should avoid, things like myths and endless genealogies and empty speculations because they’re fruitless. It’s ok to refuse to engage people on these things! Don’t give in to the clickbait or get suckered into pointless debates. In our world, people tend to look for “hot takes,” but in that world, let’s be known for love that comes from a pure heart and refuse to be reactionary and drawn into these empty discussions. That’s not weak or passive, that’s what Paul commands us to do here. In fact, Paul goes on in Titus to limit how much you should be willing to engage someone who’s fixated on these things. He says reject them! I love the way the NIV translates this section. 

-Now, you might say, isn’t that lacking in grace to just dismiss someone like that? Friends, let us never be more gracious than Jesus was or commands us to be! Jesus drew hard lines and wasn’t afraid of calling people to repentance.

• Transforms Sinners (12-17)

-The next thing we see faithful teaching do is transform sinners, and it’s only because of what God has done, nothing that we can do in ourselves.

-Paul once again says he has been strengthened by God, then notes that it is God who also appointed him to “the ministry,” that could also be translated as “the service” of planting and establishing these brand-new churches.

-But he also admits that his past didn’t set him up for this, in fact he was opposed to everything God had done in Jesus, but even in his arrogance, God extended mercy.

-What is the connection between mercy and ignorance? Does this mean we avoid telling people about their sin so they can receive mercy? No! It’s not an excuse to live however you want, but it is the reality that God needs to open our eyes, and God sends us to share the message of the gospel with others to reveal to them their ignorance. Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? 

-Apparently all this talk about God’s grace reminded Paul of an early creed (another evidence for the early beliefs of our faith) and not only an early creed, but the way that creed impacts his heart: I am the worst.

-Is Paul thinking God grades and he got the lowest score? No! That impulse should be the impulse of all of us! This is what I talked about earlier, the problem with the world (as GK Chesterton said) is ME. When we compare ourselves to the only perfect human to ever live (Jesus) we all are the worst! Friends, there is no room for comparison in God’s kingdom! We should all view ourselves as the worst sinner because we all have sinned! Only when we see and admit that reality can we start to be transformed through the power of the gospel. Our mindset should be: if God can save me, then God can save anyone! I don’t care if you were born at church on Sunday and never left, or if this is your first time in a church: it is a miracle when anyone is saved from their sin.

-Came – that’s the miracle of Christianity. To save sinners. If the 10 commandments condemn you, this is the best news in the world! 

-Which is why Paul goes on: when we’re saved it’s meant to serve as a picture of how God works, a picture of his unending patience with sinners. 

-And this reality causes Paul to break out in praise to God! When we think about God’s great mercy and grace given to us, the only proper response is to praise Him! Do you live that out?

• Fights the Good Fight (18-20)

-Finally, faithful equips us to fight the good fight. Didn’t we just talk about refusing to debate or fight with people? Absolutely! Our fighting should be aimed not at each other, but at our sin and at the devil and all his works and efforts. There’s a reason Paul ends here, we’ve needed all the previous steps to get to this point!

-Previous prophecies: used 2 other times in Paul’s letters to him, most likely refers either to Timothy’s call to ministry, or a specific gifting that would help in this ministry. I think this is a good reminder for us to regular reflect on the ways God has wired us, blessed us, and commissioned us for the good of each other and the glory of God. It all points back to Him! 

-Those times when we’re discouraged or weary, think back to what God has done, that will help us continue focusing in the right direction today. And this comes through faith and a good conscience (which we saw earlier in 5)

-However, some people don’t hold firmly to this, some people fight the wrong fight and become divisive, Paul says shipwrecking their faith. And then Paul lists their names!

-This is a reminder that this isn’t some theoretical idea, this has real world and real people implications. One of the ways Timothy is supposed to protect the church is by calling out false teaching and false teachers.

-Delivered to Satan most likely refers to church discipline as we see that same terminology in 1 Cor. 5. The purpose of church discipline is to help prevent someone from shipwrecking their life and facing eternal consequences. Friends, this is one of the reasons we all need the church. I don’t trust myself to not shipwreck my faith! My faith is fickle, my heart is hard, it doesn’t take much for me to question and doubt God’s goodness towards me.

-Bonhoeffer quote. This is 1 reason why singing is so important – when I come in weary, I can look around this room and be encouraged to remain faithful! 

-Church, what teaching are you listening to? Do you chase after things that make you feel good, things that you like? Or do you focus on faithful teaching that conforms to the gospel, transforms sinners, and equips us to fight the good and right fight?

-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!