I Know What I m Talking About 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Pentecost seventeen September 11, 2016 Pastor Chip Winter

Transcription

1 I Know What I m Talking About 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Pentecost seventeen September 11, 2016 Pastor Chip Winter Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon is the epistle appointed for the day and already read for us from the first letter of St. Paul to St. Timothy. My dear family in Christ, the words of this man have changed the world. A man of conviction he possessed a passion for the truth. A person of such conviction, such passion, is often given the benefit of the doubt. If he s that certain there must be some truth there. I mean, he can t be all bad or all wrong, right? No. The man about whom I m speaking found out from personal experience that you can be totally convinced and at the same time be absolutely wrong. What s more, a great deal of damage can be done by those with mistaken convictions. There is plenty of information on this man in the book of the Bible, the Acts of the Apostles. I m going to start with the seventh chapter there. In that chapter we ll find that some people with ever-so-strong convictions have just taken a young Greek man, Stephen, into custody. Outside of the city wall, they ve taken him to a back road leading away from Jerusalem. His feet are bound to keep him immobile while they stone him to death. Just before they begin this 1

2 execution they take off their loose-flowing robes and place them at the feet of a young man, our man. Before Stephen dies, the result of innumerable blunt force trauma to his skull and internal organ, Stephen prays, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this against them. He will lapse into unconsciousness and then pass away. Our man, Saul by name, approved of his execution. From that day Saul, the man whose words have changed the world, redoubled his efforts at persecuting the church in Jerusalem. As devout people buried Stephen, Saul entered house after house with warrants for the arrest of men, women and children. They were bound in chains and dragged off to prison, often with capital punishment to ensue. It wasn t madness, nor was it anger driving Saul to do these things. It was conviction. It was his conviction that he was doing the right thing doing it for God and for God s truth. Truth was his passion and murderous threats flowed from it. He was right and so many others were dreadfully, horribly wrong. But convictions can themselves be wrong all wrong and people who follow them can be all bad. Paul describes himself as a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent opponent. Though coming from a different point of view, Saul was not all that different from the 19 men from Al Qaeda of whom we are reminded on this auspicious date. His actions were not all that different from the monstrous activity of ISIS in this day. St. Paul was a man of conviction, alright. For what he did he stood convicted in the sight of God. He stood in the way of the cross of Christ as he was actively trying to thwart the work of God s Spirit. His conviction was assured and the sentence would be death eternal death. 2

3 But then a change took place. He received a whole new way of looking at life. His life became a book he opened for everyone: he was filled with kindness instead of hatred; faith in the Name he had done his best to obliterate, warmth for the name he had previously used only in curses. The cross convinced St. Paul of God s love for him and the life God has won for all people. The Spirit of God moved St. Paul to marvel How kind our Lord was to me! He showed me how to trust Him and be filled with His love for others! A new conviction cam to rule his life a witness of the cross. This man was now convinced that Jesus truly was the son of God and that was a thoroughly new conviction. This was now a personal reception of a gift from God, and a personal affection for the Son of God, a personal revolution from bitterness, hatred and a crabby, arrogant demeanor in faith to the positive expression of a new kind of life a renewal of heart, mind and spirit. St. Paul as much as says in this morning s text: Of forgiveness, I know what I m talking about! He knew the depth of the sin that Jesus had forgiven in him. To be raised from such welldeserved condemnation to the position where he could witness to others about forgiveness and everlasting life in Jesus suffering, death and resurrection was just more than he could keep to himself. The magnitude of the turnaround was something only God could accomplish and God had done it! St. Paul knew what he was talking about. The car salesman who drives the product of that dealership and the vacuum cleaner salesman who has one himself can speak with such conviction. So can you. While you and I may not always be acting with conviction, our actions have deserved conviction, too. We are not committing the same atrocities as ISIS, nor are we bashing skulls as in Saul s day, but we ve been bruising hearts. We ve not necessarily approved of violence before our eyes, but we ve allowed it. The pride that leads us to believe that we alone know what is right and what is true, what is good for 3

4 us and what we don t want is the self-same pride which brought sin into the garden of Eden. Either telling the truth or smoothing over an offense received we have the possibility of sinning either way, and so much of the time that is what we do. Yet, God loves us. For these instances and for all the others Jesus went to the cross of Calvary. We have done enough to be convicted before Almighty God and we have been forgiven, just as St. Paul. though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. St. Paul knew this was a trustworthy saying. He knew what he was talking about and we can view it in just the same way as a trustworthy saying for each of us in As we speak of the forgiveness we have received from Jesus cross and open tomb, as we sing of the eternal life we look forward to sharing with Jesus Christ in the kingdom new, we can say I know what I m talking about. We are sinners whom Jesus has forgiven. Following St. Paul s example, we sing the praises of this mighty Redeemer. We all have reason to sing such praise, to share such good news, not just in this house of God but around the kitchen table, in study hall, at the café, in the cubicle, at the gas station, and on and on it goes. We have joyful news to share about a God Whose forgiveness is given freely and Who blesses His people with a life that knows of no end. This is not some philosophical construct. It is the truth that was worked out at a certain point in history on a very specific piece of property. It was brought to your life in the waters of baptism, the words of absolution and the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament of the altar. We speak of 4

5 it with conviction, as sinners who are washed in the blood of the lamb and made saints. We know what we re talking about. Amen. 5