The Dangers and Delights of Leadership and Life (1 Timothy 4)

Ordinary life has dangers and delights, and the Christian life is no different. Remember, 1st Timothy, a letter written to a young church leader by his mentor, shows us what a Christian life looks like. It shows us what church life, church leadership and the church order look like. Last week we were reminded of the churches message that it’s all about Jesus. Today, Paul gives timothy some more specific instructions, and we see what a Gospel shaped life looks like. We see what a difference trusting in God and believing the Gospel makes.

First of all Paul warns Timothy about some of the dangers of a Gospel shaped life. We might now think that being a Christian and danger should go hand in hand. If we read our Bibles, go to church and keep out of trouble we’ll be OK right? Wrong! Almost the first thing that happened to Jesus, even before he started His ministry was being tempted by a tireless, arrogant Satan. If it can happen to Jesus, it can happen to you as well. Verse one tells us what the danger is, ‘the Spirit expressly says that in the later times, some will depart from the faith.’ Wow! God the Holy Spirit has made it clear that some people who came to church, read their Bibles and sung in the choir will depart the faith, in the later times, which is now. When we see or hear of a family member or friend leaving the faith, we should say, ‘there but for the grace of God go i.’ The way is narrow that leads to salvation, and some people will depart from it. This is not something to be relaxed or causal about. Some people will leave the faith.

Paul shows us how these people depart from the faith in the next couple of verses. Look at the second half of verse 1 through verse 2. The teaching that leads people away from the faith comes straight from hell. It’s not interesting or fun, or progressive, it’s deadly. It’s the deception, and deceit and doctrine of demons. It comes through human mouths, through seared consciences. The devil isn’t literally preaching the prosperity Gospel, or the self esteem Gospel, or teaching what’s contrary to the Bible, but it’s his doctrine. Be careful that you don’t depart from the faith, because this is the only place you’ll go.

People also depart from the faith by rejecting revelation that comes from God. We see that in verses 3 and 4. People in Ephesus at the time were forbidding marriage and requiring abstinence from certain foods. These two false teachings were a problem thought the first couple of centuries of the church. How does Paul deal with these objections to food and sex? He tells Timothy that everything created by God is good, just like Genesis tells us, and that it is made holy if it’s received with thanksgiving and prayer.

The Gospel shaped life is dangerous, because many things will try and lead you astray, luckily Paul doesn’t leave it there, but goes onto tell Timothy how to protect himself from these dangers. These are some specific instructions for Timothy, but they set a great example for us as well. Let’s read all of verses 5-16 together, and see the delights of the Gospel shaped life.  What do we see? As Gospel shaped life must live, as well as believe. Our lives must match our lips.
First Paul focuses on what Timothy needs to say. He says ‘put these things before the brothers and sisters.’ Keep reminding the people in your church about Jesus. Keep preaching the Gospel. Don’t get distracted by social issues, or by what’s popular, or by what draws a crowd. Preach the Gospel Timothy! It’s only the Gospel that produces a Gospel shaped life. So, Timothy, everything I’ve just shared, put before people. This is a pastor’s job, to make sure people have opportunity to respond to the Gospel.

He says command and teach these things in verse 11. This is the essence of a pulpit ministry, commanding people where the scripture commands, and teaching where the Scripture teaches. In the Christian life there are things to do, and things to learn. Timothy is to keep on pointing those things out to his church. And his church is to do and to listen.

These two commands are simply summed up, preach the Gospel! Keep people on the narrow way, don’t let them be deceived.

Paul gives Timothy two things he must do as well. We needs to be an example. In verse 12 Paul calls Timothy young, he was probably in his mid thirties, and we often use this verse to stop older people looking down on us. But the responsibility is in the opposite direction. Paul tells Timothy, just because you’re young is no excuse. Set an example in speech, in conduct, in love and in faith. Verse 7 tells Timothy to train for godliness. In this culture physical training was a part of everyone’s daily life. Paul says this is fine. There’s nothing wrong with going to the gym and working out, as long as you’re training harder for godliness.

Verse 15 and 16 is the root of all this sort of life. Quite simply as a fish is in water and a bird is in the air, Timothy and you and I must be in these things. We must be in the Bible, we must be in the delights and aware of the dangers of a Gospel life. we must be making progress in this life, so that it will be obvious the Gospel is true. In verse 16 Paul tells Timothy doing these things will save himself, and his hearers. The preaching ministry is no joke. His faith will save himself, and his words and example will save his hearers.

Church Life is Shaped by the Gospel (1 Timothy 3:14-17)

In 1 Timothy 3:14-17, we see that the churches life is shaped by the Gospel.  

Church life is shaped by obeying God’s Word.  Verse 14 tells us why Paul was writing, so that Timothy, and the church, might know how to have things in order. Paul isn’t wiring advice from one friend to another, he’s writing Scripture as an Apostle. And we must listen and obey. A Gospel shaped church is a church that knows the Bible, and preaches, prays and sings the Bible, a church that obeys the Bible and is shaped by the Bible. A church that will compare what the world says and what the Word says and follow the Word no matter what the personal, corporate or cultural cost. A church shaped by the Gospel is a church shaped by the Bible.

A Gospel shaped church remembers their standing before God. Paul describes the church as the household of God, the church of the living God. What a mess we get into when we forget that the church is about God and not about us! When our preferences and our desires take precedence over the designs and desires of God. There are all sorts of good things that the Church can be doing, all sorts of things that people within the church think it probably should be doing, but since it’s God’s household, He needs to be the One who has the final say. The church is the pillar and buttress, or support, of truth. God’s truth, not our truth. A Gospel shaped church remembers it’s place before God.

And finally a church shaped by the Gospel will be filled with people who know Jesus. It seems as though Paul changes subjects or gets confused here doesn’t it? He says ‘great indeed is the mystery of godliness,’ and then starts talking about a person. But godliness is simply knowing and growing in your relationship with Jesus, and this only really happens in the midst of a local church. So Paul doesn’t change the subject from church, to godliness to Jesus. Those three are one! We need to know the Jesus who walked on the Earth, the greatest and most real man there ever was. We need to know the Jesus who was vindicated at His baptism and in every miracle by the Spirit of God. We must believe in the glorious Jesus who was seen by angles, and who has been believed upon in the world as the Gospel spreads, the Jesus who will return from Heaven just as He arrived there. The Gospel shaped church doesn’t believe in a safe Jesus, a plastic Jesus, a Jesus who above all just wants us to be happy, a Jesus with perfect hair. The church that has it’s life shaped by the Gospel believes in the Jesus of the Bible.

Church Leaders are Shaped by the Gospel (1 Tim 3:1-13)

First Timothy is Paul’s instruction manual for church life, and Christian life. First Timothy shows us what lives ruined and rebuilt by the Gospel look like.1 Timothy 3:15 tells us that Paul wants to remind Timothy, and us, how to behave in the household of God. He had hoped to come and see Timothy sooner, but hadn’t been able to. What a blessing we’d have missed if Paul’s travel plans had remained intact! He’s already taught us about how to deal with false teachers, he’s taught us about the different roles that men and women have in the church, and now he’s going to teach us about what leading and living in the church itself looks like. Verses 1-13 tell us that the churches leaders must be shaped by the Gospel, and verses 14-17 tell us that church life is shaped by the Gospel.

The first two sections of chapter three deal with overseers, or pastors, and deacons. It’s pretty clear that the early church had a structure much the same as the one we use. Of course our deacons don’t do exactly the same thing as Timothy’s did, but the principles are the same. In verse one Paul says that this saying is ‘trustworthy,’ that’s his way of saying ‘pay attention, listen up at the back, this is important.’ Then he lists the standards for Pastors, and the standards for Deacons. The lists for the two are much the same apart from one difference, verse 2 says Pastors must be able to teach. They have to, morally and intellectually, be able to handle the Bible and explain what it says. Deacons don’t have to do that, although at Trinity we’re blessed with Deacons who are able to teach as well as their normal responsibility.

The men who lead the church must live lives shaped by the Gospel. In verses 2-5 and verse 8, we see they must meet a high moral standard. It’s a noble task, and we can’t just slouch our way into it. They must be ‘above reproach,’ they must be a one woman man. They must be dignified and disciplined, not violent, or argumentative, or greedy for money. Essentially, he must stand out from the world. When the world is angry, he must be calm, when the world is basking in immorality, he must be loyal to his wife, when the world is obsessed with the dollar, he must be obsessed with purity.

Overseers and deacons must also prove that they believe the faith. This sounds obvious, but if Paul included it in both lists, in verses 6 and 9 then it must have been an issue for Timothy. It’s certainly been an issue for the global church in the past. Overseers obviously must believe what they are to teach, but deacons too, even though they are not required to teach must hold fast to the truth.

These men who lead the church must also be a good example to those around them. Verses 4 and 12 teach us that church leaders need to lead their own households well. Their wives and children should be in church and growing in the faith, as far as it depends on them. Paul’s logic is obvious, if a man can’t lead his own house, what chance has he got of leading God’s house well? These men should be well thought of by outsiders. A church can’t grow if it’s leadership is setting a bad example. A church can’t grow if the man leading it isn’t well thought of. Why would be come to that man’s church? When we do these things well, we’re given great assurance of our faith. When we don’t fall into disgrace, when they serve well, they have a great reason for believing that their faith is growing, and that their lives are shaped by the Gospel.

Adorn

This week in Teen Church in I preached through 1 Timothy 2. It was a sweet time together as we looked at the way Paul tells Timothy to order life in the church. Men are to raise their hands in prayer not anger, women are to focus on their hearts and not their appearance. I told our young men to stop getting angry (not that they necessarily have a problem with that) and our young women not to dress to draw attention to themselves (not that they necessarily have a problem with that either, i'm thankful for the work the Lord is doing in all of our teens' hearts.)

As an aside, can i tell you that young people can handle serious Bible teaching, so stop trying to sell me fluff curricula. 

But what really grabbed my attention was this, women are to adorn themselves... with good works. I read it again this morning in Titus 2:10, and Paul tells the slaves in the church to work hard, so that they may adorn the doctrine of God (their) saviour. To adorn something is to decorate or add beauty to something. Don't decorate yourselves with expensive earrings, but with good works. Decorate your faith with what attracts people. With good works.

So good works should decorate right belief. Paul wants Timothy to know that if the women in his church are saved, they'll be at least as attractive on the inside as they are on the outside. He wants Titus to know that slaves who are saved will be harder working and more obedient.

Our good works are our faith made visible. Almost. It's not quite that simple is it, because you can have the good works without the faith. Someone could be pinning apples on a dead tree. But the opposite is a more troubling problem. If we don't have good works? Where's our faith? There's no dichotomy here, your works decorate your faith. They don't make it objectively better, but subjectively more attractive. People will see your good works and give thanks to your Father in Heaven.

So could the women in Ephesus be saved and still dress to be the center of attention? Maybe. If they showed up the next week in sackcloth and ashes is that a way to show that they are following Jesus? Maybe. If slaves steal, is their baptism void? Maybe. Should only the hard working slave receive communion? Maybe. What about men who get angry? Once a week? Three times a week? Every time they get in a car?

And this is the marvel and the mystery of Christian ministry. This is what makes our work so indiscriminate, we can't read hearts, we just look at the adornments and pray they're not made of straw. How do you know when you're going in the right direction? Probably when the liberals are calling you a legalist, and the legalists are calling you a liberal.

Reject and Protect

One of the reasons i love reading the Bible is the times when you can feel it slowly reshape your heart. Sometimes with the sudden power of a tornado, sometimes with the gentle persistence of the ocean reading the Bible informs us, changes us, it smashes up our categories and puts them back together again.

Reading the Bible confronts us with reality. In a day of mega-pastors, mega-churches and mega-conferences we need to the Bible to gently, or strongly, remind us what the church is for. That was Paul's aim in 1 Timothy. He doesn't give his young charge growth tips or ideas for a more engaging Sunday morning. he tells Timothy what the church is to reject, and what the church is to protect.

The Church, universal and local, then and now, must reject false teaching. Paul makes this very clear as early as verse three. Tell people to stop teaching different doctrines. Paul does tell us what they were teaching, but it was something Jewish, something mythical, something legal. Something that resulted in vain conversation and speculations, rather than the love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience. Reject false teaching. No matter how fashionable, no matter how comfortable, no matter how many people read the books, reject it. Spurgeon said, 'wrong is wrong though all call it right,' or something like that. And the church has to say that as well.

The church must reject false teachers as well. Not just their teaching, but them. Maybe this is who Hymenaeus and Alexander were. Hymenaeus pops up again in 2nd Timothy, so it's a fair guess that he at least was a teacher. Paul doesn't tell us that their popular and he doesn't want to cause a scene, he doesn't tell us we need to wait and see what they say next. He tells Timothy that he, personally, has handed them over to Satan. And this is a mercy! Mercy on false teachers means pointing out their false teaching.

And the church must protect what is true. How can we know what's true? Well does it issue in a deeper love for Jesus? A more whole-hearted love fro the brethren? Does it come from a pure faith and a clean conscience?

Paul's testimony in verses 12-17 are not a digression, he tells us what the church is to teach and protect.

Verse 13 tells us that Paul was a sinner before he was saved. A blasphemer, persecutor and insolent opponent, to use his words. So are we all, to a greater or lesser extent. That’s the bad news before the good news, that we’re all sinners, that we all deserve death. To get the Gospel right, the church must teach that.

Verses 12, 14 and 16 tell us that Paul was a sinner, saved by grace. Paul says that his strength comes from Jesus, that he received grace and mercy from Jesus. Our salvation is all of Jesus, and none of us. Jesus comes, Jesus lives perfectly, Jesus dies instead of us and rose again three days later. All we have to do is open the gift. Paul doesn’t want, or take, any credit for his salvation. And the church must teach that our salvation is all from Jesus, from beginning to end, if we’re going to teach the Gospel right.

Paul shows us in verse 17 that we’re saved to praise Jesus’ glory. Read that with me, because it’s so beautiful. This is what worship is. Recognizing God and giving Him glory. God is immortal, without beginning or end. He’s invisible, you can’t see Him. He’s the King of ages, His reign never ends. He is the only God. The choice is between God and no-god, not one god or another god. You were saved to give Him your attention and your affection.

These truths are the key and foundation of the church. Lose these, or even just assume them, and we lose everything.

The church must reject what's false, and protect what's true, for the sake of it's people. For the sake of every Timothy, every Hymenaeus and every Alexander. That what is beautiful may fill us to the core, and what causes shipwreck may be protected against.