PAUL S LETTER TO TIMOTHY, PASTOR AT EPHESUS: XVI. Lead the Church to do Practical Acts of Serving Love I Timothy 6:1 5

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1 March 23, 2014 PAUL S LETTER TO TIMOTHY, PASTOR AT EPHESUS: XVI. Lead the Church to do Practical Acts of Serving Love I Timothy 6:1 5 Introduction: Our series is on Paul s letter encouraging Timothy to do remain at his post in the face of false teachers and teachings. Paul wanted his dear son in the faith Timothy to be a man of T. The three truths that are central to the letter: S for the faith, lead the church to I H, and I and D the followers of Jesus. The vital importance of personal worship, prayer, intercession, service, time in His word daily Jesus uses that time to whisper His loving D and C Teachings that are troubling in the church today The idea that a D to follow Jesus is the heart of D The Brethren in Christ Church comes out of three streams of doctrine For us the H of D is cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He leads us in a lifestyle of repentance. Permitting the Holy Spirit to C us, to C us of our needs and to T us from the inside out! Equally important to us are S, D, and G in acts of serving love. The Christian life is a partnership II Corinthians 3:16 18; 4:10, 11; and Philippians 2:12, 13 I. Living out God s Kingdom on Earth: I Timothy 6:1, 2 It has always been in God s heart to have His kingdom lived out on earth in the lives of redeemed human beings. The Father sent the Son into the world to bring us back into R L with Him and to establish His living, organic kingdom in our hearts and lives. Matthew 4:23 and 6:9, 10 We live in His Church, the V that He uses to make himself known. 1

2 The issue of slavery and the first century culture to which Paul wrote Timeless principles for employees and employers: 1. The Christian employee wants people to see a picture of what Jesus living in a life does to C a heart and a lifestyle that is E and H. 2. You choose to do the R T 3. Consider your employers W of your full R 4. The Christian employee will not T A of their Christian employer These are the things that Timothy should teach Greek word, parakalei II. Principles for Spiritual Leaders to Live By: I Timothy 6:3 Paul writes about being a man who stands for the truth in opposition to false teachers and their teachings Two kinds of peddlers of the false: 1. F P - They had the ability to exploit the churches to speak the false and G W for three reasons 2. The incredible number of O P. --They spoke of a false wisdom, were known for their oratory skills, and loved an audience These two types of falsehood were alive and well in Ephesus III. The False Teachers Leave a Trail Behind Them: I Timothy 6: 4, 5 Jesus words about the fruit test Matthew 7:16 20 Look for four fruit trailing behind a life or a ministry: 1. C 2. C and Q 3. D the P in the church 4. A C of the M The real test of a Christian teacher is what is being produced in the lives of the people who consistently hear them. Do they point their hearers to the message of the Cross of Jesus, death to self-interest? Concluding Thoughts: 2

3 Discussion Starter Questions for Home Groups 1. What is your opinion of the truth that making the decision to invite Jesus to come and live in our lives is only the beginning of the journey? 2. What were your thoughts about the call to permit the Holy Spirit to do His work in convincing us of our need and convicting us to draw us to repentance? 3. What were you thoughts about the truth that our Christian life is lived in partnership with the indwelling Spirit of Jesus as He works in us? 4. What do you think of the four principles taken from the text regarding how we are called to conduct ourselves as we work for our employer? 5. What did you think of the different types of false teachers and false teachings that Timothy had to face at Ephesus? Are there parallels in our culture to these types of falsehood? 6. What were your thoughts of the four different types of fruit that Paul pointed out to Timothy; things he was to look for in the lives of those who were listening to the false teachers? 7. Read aloud together I John 4:1 6 and discuss insights that you have regarding how to recognize falsehood and live a victorious Christian life in the face of falsehood. 8. Read aloud together Colossians 2:16 23 and discuss insights that you have regarding the falsehood the church at Colossae faced. 9. As you think about the simple message of the Gospel of Jesus and understand that there is much teaching that adds to or takes away from the message, what are the things that for you are nonnegotiable in your own beliefs? 3

4 PAUL S LETTER TO TIMOTHY, PASTOR AT EPHESUS: XVI. Lead the Church to Do Practical Acts of Serving Love I Timothy 6:1 5 March 23, 2014 AM Pastor Ken Hepner Introduction: This morning we reengage in our study of Paul s letter to his son in the faith Timothy, whom Paul had commissioned pastor the church in Ephesus. Paul wrote this letter to encourage his dear younger son in the faith to remain at his post and to do the right thing as a man Truth. The fact was that Timothy had to stand for the simple Gospel of Jesus in the face of false teachers and teachings in Ephesus. There are three central truths that stand out in this letter, which are really relevant to our church family life at Cedar Grove nearly 2000 years later: Paul writes to him to Stand for the Faith as it has been passed on to him, the Gospel of Jesus. He tells Timothy to lead the church to Internal Health by insuring that in every leader he can see the life of the Spirit of Jesus living daily. He tells Timothy to Instruct and Disciple the believers at Ephesus in the truth, to make the connection between their beliefs and how they lived the message daily. My heart-cry is for our church to be comprised of people of the Truth of Jesus. I want all of us as attendees of Cedar Grove Church to be men and women, teens, and children, who engage in your own spiritual disciplines. We are each responsible to be people of worship, prayer, service, and who are reading and thinking about God s Word to us in the Bible! When we faithfully do these activities we give the Spirit of Jesus a place to whisper His loving Direction and His Correction in our hearts and souls! I passionately desire to have all of us to be in possession of the ability to discern false teachings when we hear them. There are numerous teachings in the church of Jesus in North America that frankly trouble me very deeply. One of the most grievous to me is the idea that a Decision to trust Jesus is the heart of Discipleship. The concept is that if we can just get people to make a decision to repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their Savior, they have done all that is necessary to be a child of God forever. Thus the whole point of evangelism is to get people to a point of making a decision. For we who are part of a stream of doctrinal truth that focuses on the individual heart of each follower of Jesus, we believe that is only partly true. In our church, the Brethren in Christ, we are part of three streams of truth, or beliefs: Wesleyans, who focus on seeking to live a life that is pure in the sight of God, Arminians who believe that we keep our will after we meet Jesus and must cooperate with His working in our hearts, and Anabaptists who believe that we are called to live in this world but not be of this world s value systems. For us, these things that we believe and hold precious as truth, tell us that when we respond to the call of the Holy Spirit, repent of our sins, and believe in and receive Jesus in our hearts, that is the beginning of our spiritual journey, not the heart of the journey. For us the Heart of 4

5 Discipleship is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit of Jesus as he leads us to live an ongoing lifestyle of repentance, love for God and others, service, and obedience to His will for our lives! We believe the real issue in discipleship is growth and maturing in the image of Jesus as the Holy Spirit lives in our lives, Confronts us with our selfishness and self-interest, Convicts us of our need of His truth, and works to Transform us from the inside out over our lifetime. Consequently, we are delighted when people make the initial decision to follow Jesus and we celebrate that with believer s baptism. But equally important to us and cause for celebration is the follower of Jesus who pays attention to three critical issues in his/her own heart: Salvation means that we have received the works of Jesus personally, that we have been to the Cross of Jesus, have met with Him there and have made it personal. We know for certain that our sins are washed away and we become God s child. Discipleship means that we become devoted followers of Jesus, that we have chosen to live a repentant lifestyle. We honestly and readily acknowledge that we can t live a life that honors Him without His presence and power living in us. We are seeing Him bring our lives into more alignment with His heart, desires, mind, and will as He leads us and we choose to follow Him. Growth of His kingdom works of serving love in the lives of others as we pray and witness and cooperate with the Holy Spirit who welcomes us to work with Him for the benefit of others. We have a large array of Scriptures that we believe bring us to the deep realization that the Christian life is lived as a partnership between the Spirit of Jesus and a human being who surrenders his/her heart in love! II Corinthians 3:16 18 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with everincreasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. II Corinthians 4:10, 11 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake so that his life may be revealed I our mortal body. Philippians 2:12, 13: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Our longing as a church is for everyone who attends here to experience the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, changing us from the inside out as we choose to surrender to His presence and work in our hearts. As we choose to cooperate with Him, inviting Him to act in our hearts, He gladly does so! 5

6 I. Living Out God s Kingdom: I Timothy 6:1, 2 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God s name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them better, because those who benefit from their services are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them. It has always been God s deep desire to establish His Kingdom of the heart in redeemed human beings, here on the earth. The Bible begins with and ends with pictures of people dwelling together gladly welcoming the Lord God to reign over them, serving Him in worship and heartfelt reverence. The fall of human beings necessitated the plan of salvation for us all. The Father sent His Son Jesus into the world in order to bring us back into Relational Love with Him, and to establish this living, organic Kingdom of God in the hearts and lives of people. Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Matthew 6:9, 10 This is how you should pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When Jesus takes up residence in us, He places us into His Church that He Himself is building on earth. We are part of this incredible kingdom of God that He is creating which is His Vehicle in which He dwells, making Himself known to those who need Him, among whom we live. We are not primarily a human organization. Instead we re a living organism compared to a body or fields of crops. Paul gets intensely practical in his counsel to Timothy about how God s people are to live out the kingdom of Jesus in Ephesus in terms of their everyday lifestyle. He writes first about slaves and masters, which requires us to do a bit of an edit to make the principles understandable in our cultural setting. In the culture to which Paul was writing slave ownership was an acceptable thing to do. The truth was that in the church slaves were regarded as equals. But in the economic system that they lived in they were still slaves. Over time the Gospel addressed and changed that inequity. In our culture we do not believe one human being should own another human being and treat them as though they are less than human. For us to pull the principles out of this teaching, and invite them to speak truth to us in our culture, we must change the words slaves and masters to employees and employers. This enables us to bring out of the text some wonderful principles that are timeless, that will enable us to live out the kingdom of Jesus in our world today: The first timeless principle: The Christian employee will do everything that he/she can do to demonstrate to the employer and coworkers that Jesus has taken up residence in his/her life. They want people to see a physical picture of what the Spirit of Jesus does to Create a heart and lifestyle that is Ethical and Honest. 6

7 The second timeless principle: The ethics of the kingdom of God in your heart mean that you choose to Do the Right Thing regardless of whether your boss is looking at you or not. How you use your time when you are at work is a message to your own heart and it is a message about your heart to those with whom you work. A person of Christian integrity works the same way alone as he/she does in a room full of people. The truth is that people who use company time to do Facebooking, read ESPN.com stories, or go on QVC to buy something that they need, while at work on company time, are actually stealing from their employer. People who would never think of stealing $ from their company will steal 10 hours a month 6 minutes-at-a-time! And it amounts to the same thing to the person who is writing the paychecks! The third timeless principle: If you are a devoted follower of Jesus you will consider your employers as Worthy of your full Respect. The word that Paul used to communicate this to Timothy is powerful and to the point. It is the Greek words times axious meaning, consider them honored and precious to you and me kataphroneitosan meaning that they shall not look at them in a disparaging light, scorn them because they are believers, but to serve them even better because they love them and respect them so much. The fourth timeless principle: The Christian employee will not Take Advantage of their Christian employer by demanding that they get special privileges and won t have to work as hard because they are brothers and sisters. On the contrary because you love Jesus and you work for a Christian employer you want them to receive the benefit of your hard work and love, you want them to prosper so that they in turn can prosper God s work all over the world! It troubles me when I hear someone who follows Jesus ask their Christian brother or sister, Christian business person to reduce the price on an item that they need simply because they are both Christians. It s one thing if the person desires to bless their Christian friend and offers to help them. It is another thing entirely when a person is cheap with their Christian businessperson and seeks a Christian discount, using their common Faith as a Lever to get a Bargain! Paul writes that these are the things that he should preach, teach, and urge the followers of Jesus to embrace as they lived out their daily lives together in the city of Ephesus. Paul wanted his son Timothy to be a man who modeled solid Christian ethics and then taught them to others on the basis of his own life. He uses a word for how the teaching ministry should be done in the local church of Jesus: The Greek word parkalei meaning, to walk alongside and call, to gently cheer on to good deeds! II. Principles for Spiritual Leaders to Live By: I Timothy 6:3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. Paul writes to Timothy about being a man of truth, who knows well the Gospel message of Jesus as it has been passed on to him first in his home from his mother and grandmother, and then in traveling in the missionary team with Paul, hearing it firsthand from an anointed teacher. Paul 7

8 writes to him about standing in opposition to false teachers and their teachings by using pinpoint accurate Greek words: heterodidaskalei a word meaning, one who teaches what is different, or what is opposing to what you have heard. There were two kinds of peddlers of false teaching that Timothy would have to be ready to take his stand against, to speak the truth of Jesus clearly and publicly in order to defend his flock in the church at Ephesus. Timothy is to insure that everyone who teaches anything in the church at Ephesus is in agreement with the life, the teachings, and the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. If they are doing o, they will point the hearers to godly living! The first peddlers of the false teachings were itinerant False Prophets in the church of Jesus who posed as prophets of the truth of Jesus. In the early church the true prophets of God had a ministry that was tremendously helpful to local churches as they traveled around. They would bring a message of truth and holy living to a local church for a few Sundays and then move on to the next town. But it is also true that false prophets had the opportunity to exploit the church, Speak what was False, and Get Wealthy off of the people for three reasons. First, in many cases there were no lead elders in the church who had considerable learning and understanding in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus. Second, there was also no New Testament written yet so they had very little in writing to refer to in order to judge teaching. At best they had fragments of the Old Testament Law or a letter from an apostle by which they could judge what they were hearing. Third, they also had a very lax order of service. Anyone who had a word to speak to the attendees was free to speak it while the rest of them listened. The other way that falsehood came into the church was through the outside and heretical thinking of the day. There was an incredible number of Occult Practitioners who often spoke a message about Jesus and something else that the listeners needed to have true spiritual power. The truth is that when one has come to know Jesus personally, we don t need a lot of other truth to find our way to a relationship with God! Then in the city of Ephesus there were also the peddlers of False Wisdom of intellect and argument. They were called Sophists and they were known for their oratory and their ability to argue many points of philosophy of the day. They lived for an audience. Their criteria for success were numbers of people and the praise of people so they showed everyone their striking intellect and oratory skills. They were completely enamored with public popularity, so that if another Sophist was in town they would go to his meeting and engage in a shouting match to prove to the listeners that they were superior. These two types of falsehood were alive and well in Ephesus and Timothy was responsible to speak the truth of Jesus in the face of these formidable people! 8

9 III. The False Teachers Leave a Trail Behind Them: I Timothy 6:4, 5 He is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. Paul wants Timothy to be able to recognize the false teachers and the false teachings that they were spreading so he gets right at what to look for in what is left behind them in the lives of people. His words are reminiscent of what Jesus said about the fruit test in Matthew 7:16 20: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them. Look for the fruit of Conceit, which will manifest itself in the life as being a person, or leading a ministry that is seen as the only one that has the only truth. This is a person who is more interested in displaying himself and his way than in displaying the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins and the way to a life that pleases God. Look for the fruit that is always produced by an attitude of superiority: an unhealthy interest in or delight in Controversies and Quarrels over words, holy days, or dietary restrictions. Paul leaves no room for misunderstanding in the words that he chooses to describe what is in the false teacher. He says he/she is nosos peri dzeteseis excessively fond, a diseased craving, or sick appetite for questioning and disputing what are the true foundations of truth. The person who has to be right about everything and loves to fight about it, isn t living much like the Jesus they claim to represent. Look for the fruit of Disturbing the Peace of Christ in a group of His people! The peddler of the false is instinctively competitive for followers, is suspicious of everyone who doesn t agree with his/her views, and when he/she cannot win an argument with a teacher of the truth stoops to hurling insults and invective at the one with whom they disagree. That is why Paul tells Timothy to beware of quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, and evil talk about others. Look for the fruit of Commercialization of the Message. We can tell a true teacher of the Gospel of Jesus because what they are trying to do is to get the people who hear their messages to see and interact with Jesus, who He is and what He has done in His redeeming acts on the Cross and by His resurrection life and victory. But quite to the opposite the false teacher sees his role to get a following and in so doing to get wealthy off of the message. Paul writes that these people think that godliness is a means to financial gain. Honestly, it grieves me to hear people get on the airwaves today, Christian cable teachers and radio preachers who teach things that sound good but when you analyze them there is something that is simply inconsistent with the Jesus that we love and serve. There is a line that is often used by teachers calling their followers to deep faith in Jesus, to stand still in faith, and Almighty 9

10 God works for you! That is simply not the entire truth. I would change one little word. Almighty God works in you. First the Lord acts to confront our selfishness and fleshly nature s allure and then when we pray and ask God to do things in our lives, we ask with more pure motivation! The real test of a teacher of the Gospel of Jesus, the litmus test, is what is being produced in the lives of those who hear them. To what or whom are they pointed in the teaching? Do they point people to the Lord Jesus and Him crucified, risen Lord of glory? Do they point their hearers to see their need of deep brokenness and repentance of our human ways, will, and self-sufficiency? Do they point their hearers to the message of the Cross where our sin and our self-interest is confronted and dealt with by our Lord Jesus? Concluding Thoughts: 10