Bearing Witness of Jesus
1 Timothy 6:20-21
January 10, 2015
Well, I am a little torn this morning.
It is always difficult for me to pause in the middle of a book study, but I am also heavily conflicted, sensing the need to honor this annual missions month we have.
So we’re going to stop briefly and come back to Hebrews a little later.
But for the time being I want us be drawn back
To our purpose and our calling as a church.
In 1 Timothy 3:14 Paul wrote:
1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”
The church is literally “the pillar and support of the truth”
We have the message.
We are those charged with PRESERVING it and PROCLAIMING it.
This is really a good place for us to begin our missions’ emphasis.
Lest we grow comfortable
• In simply meeting together
• And fellowshipping with one another
• And enjoying our corporate worship,
We must be reminded that
We are left here on earth for much more than that.
If it were only about fellowship and worship and hearing the word of God,
THEN WE’D ALREADY BEEN IN HEAVEN
For those things take place there on a far greater scale than they do here.
There is one thing the church does on earth that
She does not do in heaven and that is the work of missions.
It is the only explanation as to why we are left here.
Jesus’ last words on this earth were clear.
Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
• We are ambassadors for Christ.
• We are missionaries of the kingdom
• We are those who preserve and proclaim the truth
And this morning we are going to start this journey
At the very end of Paul’s first letter to Timothy.
First, a little background (which is always important)
• On Paul’s third missionary journey he traveled to Ephesus where he encountered some disciples of John.
• Paul led them to faith in Christ and then spent two years preaching and growing the church in Ephesus.
• At the end of that journey Paul was headed to Jerusalem and he decided to sail past Ephesus so that he wouldn’t be delayed,
• But he did land at Miletus and call for the elders of the church at Ephesus to come and meet with him.
Paul reminded them of his ministry in Ephesus.
Acts 20:17-21 “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And then Paul issued them a very strong warning.
Acts 20:28-30 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
That warning proved to be prophetic
Because by the time we get to the book of 1 Timothy
Paul’s warning has become a reality.
1 Timothy 1:2-7 “To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.”
And with the opening of the book
You begin to understand Paul’s purpose in writing this letter.
The church at Ephesus had lost her way.
They had grown infatuated with
“strange doctrines”, “myths”, and “genealogies”
In short, they were focusing on the wrong things.
THE FALL OUT WAS that instead of furthering the kingdom of God
THEY WERE ONLY PRODUCING “speculation” or arguing.
Paul called what was occurring in Ephesus “fruitless discussion” from men who literally had no clue what they were talking about.
• They made “confident assertions” about the Law,
• They even sounded intelligent
• But Paul said “they do not understand either what they are saying or the
matters about which they make confident assertions.”
To put it mildly the church had sort of lost her rudder.
• She had forgotten that she was a pillar and support of the truth.
• She had forgotten what the truth she was to proclaim was.
• Thus she had grown fruitless and had failed to further the kingdom of God.
She had missed the point and she was failing to fulfill her purpose.
Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to right the ship.
And throughout the letter (and the 2nd one as well)
Paul continually calls Timothy back to the basics.
Over and over we hear phrases like
• “fight the good fight”
• “point out these things”
• “give attention to Scripture, exhortation and teaching”
• “Pay close attention to your teaching”
• “Teach and preach these principles”
• “Preach the Word”
But Paul really drives home his point and purpose for the letter
In the two closing verses of 1 Timothy.
“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” – which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”
It is clear to us that God had “entrusted” something to Timothy.
Paul doesn’t spell it out in that verse,
But from the rest of the letter it is obvious.
IT WAS THE GOSPEL.
1 Corinthians 9:17 “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.”
1 Timothy 1:11 “according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”
The gospel is no ordinary message.
It is in fact the most powerful weapon we have
In our quest to grow the kingdom.
Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
The gospel is God’s powerful message for salvation.
• Only the gospel reveals the way to receive God’s righteousness.
• And this is important because as the rest of Romans 1 indicates those who do not have God’s righteousness are under God’s wrath.
• The gospel reveals that the unrighteous are made righteous by faith.
It is this powerful message that drives the growth of the kingdom.
The gospel is absolutely essential.
AND GOD HAS “ENTRUSTED” THIS MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH.
God trusted us to PROTECT the gospel and to PROCLAIM the gospel.
The problem that Paul points out
Is that “some” have “gone astray from the faith”
Only their defection is not what you immediately think.
• They didn’t deny Jesus.
• They didn’t join a different religion.
• They hadn’t turned atheist.
No, they had “gone astray” in a much more subtle fashion.
They had “professed” what Paul called “worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge””
They hadn’t necessarily rejected the gospel,
They had just put it on the back burner.
They were much more enamored with
What was perceived as “knowledge”
Make no mistake, the gospel is the most powerful message in the world,
But people will NOT applaud you as intellectual if that is all you proclaim.
1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
And the sad reality is that many at Ephesus
Felt the need to have esteem from the educated community.
They didn’t want to be considered foolish like the rest.
They liked being considered intelligent and educated.
So their messages slowly deviated from the simple message of the gospel
Into conversations of a more “worldly” and scholarly manner.
They may have been interesting topics, but they weren’t powerful ones.
In fact, Paul called it “empty chatter”
That which has no value for the kingdom.
Jeremiah 23:28-29 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the LORD. “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”
This simple question being:
Why would you replace the powerful message of God
For a man-made message that has no power?
These at Ephesus were doing it
BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO BE CONSIDERED INTELLIGENT.
Paul warned Timothy not to.
Paul told Timothy to “guard” the gospel
And to “avoid” the “empty chatter”.
This is certainly how Paul ministered.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
• Paul had no problem avoiding those worldly conversations.
• Paul had no problem sticking with the gospel message.
• Paul had no problem being considered weak or foolish or uneducated.
• He was not ashamed of the gospel.
And this was what he wanted from Timothy.
DON’T BE ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL!
2 Timothy 1:13-14 “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”
2 Timothy 2:14-16 “Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness,”
He wants the church to be a shining beacon of truth
In a world full of darkness and error.
AND THIS IS OUR CALLING.
To faithfully proclaim the pure and unadulterated gospel of God.
It is the message God had entrusted to us.
It is our purpose on this earth.
It is our calling.
WE MUST AVOID getting too “cute” and “trendy” and “relevant”
WE MUST EMBRACE the gospel as the treasure that it is.
WE MUST PROCLAIM it faithfully and continually
As our only tool for advancing the kingdom of God.
I can’t think of a better place to start our mission emphasis
Than with a call to re-commit ourselves
To the preservation and proclamation of the gospel.
SO:
What is the gospel?
What exactly is it that we are supposed to proclaim?
Now granted we could spend a couple of years and work our way through Romans
Where the gospel is explained thoroughly, but I want to be simpler than that.
Certainly you are not going to go into your workplace
And quote the entire book of Romans to a co-worker.
Rather, what I want to know is:
What exactly am I expected to proclaim to someone in that moment of encounter that I am granted?
When I’m at the gas pump or in the grocery line or in the breakroom and the opportunity presents itself, what am I supposed to proclaim in that moment?
That is what I want to look at.
To answer that we are going to look at 5 sermons from the book of Acts.
3 of them from Peter
2 of them from Paul
They were also men ENTRUSTED with the gospel.
Galatians 2:7 “But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised”
Both of these men were entrusted with the gospel
And both of these men had opportunities to preach that gospel to the masses.
We are going to take a skim look at exactly what they preached
To see what they meant when they encouraged us to preach the gospel.
Now to be certain we get the main idea,
I’m going to give you their three main points from the start.
If you look at their sermons you will see three consistent points.
If you can cover these three in your proclamation of the gospel,
Then you’re doing what they asked.
1) The Resurrection of Jesus
2) The Reign of Jesus
3) The Requirement of Jesus
Remember those three
Now let me FLESH EACH OF THOSE OUT a little more real quickly.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS (includes)
• How He was wrongfully killed
• How God raised Him from the dead
• How this was prophesied in the Old Testament
• How His resurrection was witnessed by many
That means that for the apostles preaching the resurrection of Jesus
Implied proclaiming His sinless life, His undeserved death,
And God’s approval of Him.
THE REIGN OF CHRIST
• How the resurrection proves Jesus is God’s King
• How the resurrection proves Jesus is God’s Judge
• How the resurrection proves Jesus is God’s standard
• How the resurrection proves Jesus is the Only One
They continually mentioned how the resurrection proved that
Jesus was God’s perfect standard of holiness
And the plumb line by which we will all be judged.
(His righteousness is the righteousness we need)
Jesus then, by means of His resurrection, becomes indispensable to us.
THE REQUIREMENT OF CHRIST
• Repent
• Believe
And often added in is the necessity of fruit
Simply to indicate that your repentance and your faith are genuine.
This was the message preached over and over again by the apostles.
Let me show you.
TURN TO: ACTS 2:22-40
Obviously this was Pentecost
The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues
The crowd accused them of being drunk
Peter arose to explain what was really happening
• (22-32) He preaches the Resurrection of Christ (Psalms 16:8-11)
• (33-36) He preaches the Reign of Christ (Psalms 110:1)
• (37-40) He preaches the Requirement of Christ
Obviously more we could say, but you get the basics of the sermon.
The result?
Acts 2:41 “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.”
TURN TO: ACTS 3:11-26
Here Peter and John have healed a lame man and the crowd is gathering.
Peter explains where the power from the miracle came from
• (11-16) He preaches the Resurrection of Christ
• (14, 15) He preaches the Reign of Christ (“Holy and Righteous One” & “Prince of Life”)
• (17-26) He preaches the Requirement of Christ
You see it again,
• How Jesus was holy and innocent and wrongly killed.
• How God demonstrated His approval of Jesus by raising Him from the dead.
• How all the power, judgment, and salvation comes only in Christ.
• How you should repent and believe.
The result?
Acts 4:1-4 “As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.”
One more sermon of Peter.
TURN TO: ACTS 10:34-43
Interesting sermon because Peter
Isn’t even trying to convert the people he is talking too.
(This indicates the power of the gospel to save
Even if the proclaimer of it is less than capable)
Peter is talking to Cornelius and really is sort of nonchalantly just giving him the facts about what happened, but you see the same basic points here.
• (34-41) He preaches the Resurrection of Christ
• (42) He preaches the Reign of Christ (“Judge of the living and the dead”)
• (43) He preaches the Requirement of Christ
And even though Peter was not trying to convert these Gentiles,
The gospel was powerful and that is precisely what happened.
You’ll notice that even Peter is shocked.
Acts 10:44-48 “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.”
But again, it is that same simple message.
Peter preached it over and over again
And God was using that message to grow His church.
Let’s move on to Paul who was entrusted with the gospel for the Gentiles.
TURN TO: ACTS 13:16-41
Paul goes on his first missionary journey and stops in Pisidian Antioch
And entered the Synagogue to preach.
He does add to his sermon about the promise of a coming savior (16-25)
• (26-37) He preaches the Resurrection of Christ (Psalms 2:7 & 16:10)
• (33, 35) He preaches the Reign of Christ (“My Son” & “Holy One”)
• (38-41) He preaches the Requirement of Christ
The message HASN’T CHANGED from Peter to Paul
TURN TO: ACTS 17:22-31
Here Paul has had to flee persecution and has wound up in Athens alone,
But all the idolatry stirred him up to preach the truth.
He is dealing with those who are ignorant of God’s truth
So Paul definitely begins with a more basic truth about God. (22-29)
Then in verse 30 Paul comes to the gospel message.
(30-31) You see all three elements present
• Resurrection – “raising Him from the dead”
• Reign – “He will judge the world…through a Man”
• Requirement – “all people everywhere should repent”
So you see that same basic and yet simple gospel.
The Resurrection of Jesus
The Reign of Jesus
The Requirement of Jesus
And we could look at other basic statements throughout their ministries.
Peter:
Acts 4:8-12 “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Paul:
Acts 16:31 “They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts 17:2-3 “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”
Acts 18:5 “But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.”
But you get the point.
It’s always there isn’t it?
They always talk about how God raised Jesus from the dead,
Which indicated that Jesus is in fact God’s Anointed King,
Which means you must submit to whatever He requires.
Those elements were always present.
Now, if I might make an OBSERVATION for us to close out this morning
And to give you something to ponder throughout the coming week.
It seems to me that there is a very noticeable difference
In the way the apostles preached the gospel
And the way many seek to preach it today.
Here it is:
The gospel of the apostles was focused on Jesus, not the sinner.
Many times today the focus is really on the sinner.
• The sinner’s needs
• The sinner’s pain
• The sinner’s guilt
• The sinner’s benefit
Many times people seek to preach the gospel
And they spend more time focusing on the sinner than they do Christ.
But this was NOT how the apostles preached the gospel.
THEIR FOCUS WAS ALWAYS ON CHRIST.
Who He was – What He did – What He requires
That is in fact what Jesus meant by calling them “witnesses”
• They weren’t psychologists.
• They weren’t social workers.
• They weren’t out trying to analyze the needs of humanity and then trying to creatively reveal how Jesus was the answer to all of life’s problems.
They were very simply proclaiming the truth about Jesus.
Listen to Peter:
Acts 4:19-20 “But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Listen to Paul
Colossians 1:28 “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Do you see the difference?
Jesus said “you will be My witnesses”
That is: you will simply tell the world about Me
I fear what has happened is that we fail to obey the command
Because we are busy trying to accomplish the goal.
LET ME EXPLAIN.
• We see that Jesus wants sinners saved
• We see that God desires to reconcile all men to Himself
And so we set out on achieving that goal.
But Jesus never told us to achieve the goal.
Jesus told to bear witness of Him
And through that HE would achieve the goal.
Remember this?
Matthew 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
Who will build the church? (Jesus will)
But men like those in Ephesus stray from that thought.
They choose worldly knowledge
Because they think they can be more effective.
God’s command to us is that we proclaim the truth about Christ.
And when we preach the simple gospel message,
God will use that to bring sinners to Himself.
And the apostles grasped that.
They went out simply proclaiming Christ.
The Resurrection of Christ
The Reign of Christ
The Requirement of Christ
• They weren’t focused on the felt needs of the sinner
• They didn’t even really spend a lot of time analyzing the specific problems of each sinner.
• They just took Jesus and laid the truth about Him out before sinners and Jesus did the rest.
It is the power of the gospel message.
• Jesus came to this earth and lived a sinless life.
• He was killed according to the plan of God and by the hands of sinful men.
• God raised Him from the dead to indicate His approval of Him.
• God then exalted Him to the highest place as Lord, King, and Judge.
• And now God demands that everyone repent of their sin and believe in Jesus.
And that message universally applies to every human
Regardless of their specific circumstance.
That is the message Paul was asking Timothy to guard.
“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” – which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”
Does that make sense to you?
As we begin our mission month I just want to make sure
That we are all rightly focused on exactly what we are entrusted with.
We go and bear witness to
The life, death, resurrection, reign, and requirement of Jesus Christ.
AND TO FURTHER START US OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
This morning we are going to observe the Lord’s Supper.
It is that reminder of Christ’s death.
It is that reminder of Christ’s sacrifice.
Missions is all about proclaiming Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
This morning we approach the table of the Lord
To re-focus our hearts on that every truth.
As always we will have a time of preparation
And then we will partake of the table of the Lord.
