Tuesday Teaching: 1 Timothy

Series: Passing the Torch
Sermon: 1 Timothy (8/4/24)

Happy Tuesday, all.

How far will you go for Jesus?

Minier Christian Church like all Bible-believing churches is a church in the apostolic tradition. Our church tradition is modeled after the apostles of Jesus, the earliest Christians who lived with our Lord, learned from him, and were so fundamentally transformed by the experience they spent the rest of their lives telling the world about him.

Jesus plants his global, everlasting church in the form of little local gatherings like ours but tells his followers he’s not going to stay here and run it, they have to go do that.

And they do.

These are the apostles we read about in the New Testament, and one of the things that stands out to me as I read about them is the extent to which these men and women go in following Jesus’s command to go and make disciples.  

They take their commission from Christ so seriously that nothing, not even the threat of death from oppositional governments, can stop them from sharing the good news.

They were beaten and tortured, they were imprisoned, they were threatened with death, many of them did actually die a martyr's death.

They lived their lives on mission for Jesus and their reward was being stoned to death, or being crucified upside down, or having their head chopped off.  

And still they preached, still they planted churches, still they baptized, still they led God’s people, still they were faithful to the mission they were given.

One of these faithful missionaries was Paul, who was so convicted and transformed by hearing the voice of Jesus and seeing the glorious light of God on his trip to Damascus that he quit persecuting Christians, became one himself, and started evangelizing to anyone who would listen.

One of the people who listened was a man named Timothy, who Paul comes to love so much he calls him his “son.”  

The story of Paul’s letters to his beloved friend and coworker Timothy is the story of missionary partners doing the work of a God who asked everything of them. The same God who asks everything of us.

How far will we go for Jesus?

Like in Paul’s writing to the Galatians, here in 1st Timothy there’s been some false teachers. And these false teachings have not only begun to lead people astray, they created some chaos within the church.

Paul writes to Timothy with instructions for how to organize and structure the church, he tells him who is qualified to help lead the congregation, and he addresses various community matters related to life together in this specific local family of God.

Throughout the letter Paul also includes some personal words of encouragement for Timothy. Paul obviously has a great deal of care and concern for the church in Ephesus in general, but for Timothy in particular as well. He loves him like a son.

Paul models for us here what care within the church family should look like. Teaching and instruction, yes. Correction, yes. Biblical and theological direction, yes. But also personal care and attention.

Believe the right things and walk rightly in the way of Jesus but also take care of each other and love well. And this writing helps us realize these things are not separate but come from the same place in our properly-ordered heart:

Right relationship with God leads to right relationship with God’s people.

Paul tells Timothy in chapter 4 verses 7-10:

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.

How far will you go for Jesus?

God doesn’t just want our Sunday mornings, he wants our whole lives.

Even when it’s inconvenient, even when it’s annoying, even when it demands things from us we don’t want to give. Even when our deepest desires don’t line up with what we know God desires for us.

Paul and Timothy were missionaries. So are we. To be a Christian is to be a missionary.  

A missionary isn’t just someone who raises support and heads to a foreign country, a missionary is someone who is on mission for Jesus.

Sometimes following the call of God on our lives does mean we travel great distances to spread the gospel, but often it means walking across the backyard and inviting a neighbor to church.

Some of us may feel a direct and specific call to a particular ministry field in a particular geographic region but many of us don’t; the point isn’t the miles traveled, the point is the purpose-directed life of taking the gospel to others.

As disciples of Jesus, we are all missionaries. And like Paul with Timothy our job is not just personal faithfulness but building up the next generation of Christian leaders.

How far will you go for Jesus?

Know Him and make Him known!
- Pastor Brady

Read for this coming Sunday: Titus

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