Well, yesterday our nation celebrated its 250th anniversary. Quite a milestone! Certainly, it’s fitting that we thank God. We should give Him glory for the many liberties He has graciously given us.

Civil and religious freedoms are blessings we shouldn’t take for granted. We live in a nation founded upon liberty, so we’ve become very accustomed to speaking the language of rights. We know and defend our rights, and we’re grateful for them, as we should be.

These first verses of 1 Timothy 6 deal with the subject of rights. They deal with liberty and with the appropriate times to set liberty aside. That may seem like a strange subject on the day after Independence Day.

But while we rightly celebrate political independence, Scripture reminds us that the ultimate state of our existence is one of dependence, not independence. One scholar writes that in the biblical view, “man exists only as a creature, only in a relation of dependency on a superior power; his vaunted freedom and independence is illusory.”

Even in a great nation like the United States, where so many liberties are expected and enjoyed, in the terminology of Scripture, each of us is a slave. As that same scholar observes, “If not enslaved to God, then enslaved to sin.”

For those set free from sin’s slavery through Christ, there remains times when the glory of God is better served not by insisting upon our rights, but rather, by surrendering them. We naturally stand on our rights. When they are challenged, we resort to resentment, disrespect, or rebellion. But there is a response that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s possible through our union with Him by faith. As God the Father conforms us to the image of His Son, He produces humility in us. In turn we honor those in authority over us and glorify Him through our willing obedience. This happens as we draw life from Christ Himself, which occurs as behold our Lord and Master who bought us.

Who better to observe than Him who, though He was Master of all, laid down His rights and took the form of a slave for our salvation?

Who better to study than Him who, though He was Lord of all, did not resent, disrespect, or rebel, but instead humbled Himself?

Philippians 2 says Christ became obedient to the point of death on a cross. And receiving the life He gives, like our Master who bought us, we can submit to sinful authorities for the name and gospel of God, and lower ourselves to serve brothers for the glory of God.

Now obviously, this passage deals with the sensitive topic of slavery. However, there are some distinctions between the slavery addressed in the NT and the race-based chattel slavery of early America. In the Roman world, slavery included people from many ethnic backgrounds. Some slaves could earn money, hold positions of responsibility, and eventually obtain freedom. At the same time, it was still slavery. Bondservants were the legal property of their masters and could be bought and sold.

But even with the guidance Paul gives here to slaves or “bondservants,” he doesn’t promote or defend slavery. If we back up to 1 Timothy ch. 1, among the heinous, ungodly groups Paul lists he includes “enslavers.” Kidnappers, man-stealers, or slave-dealers are all suitable translations here.

In 1 Corinthians 7 gives this guidance to a church that included some slaves: “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches…Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant [slave] when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)”

These statements – along with OT Scripture – are enough to demonstrate that the Bible doesn’t promote or defend slavery.

And yet, it was a common institution throughout the ancient world, but Paul's concern was not to incite an immediate revolution against it. Pastorally, here he instructs the young pastor Timothy in how to shepherd those in his congregation in those circumstances. But by condemning enslavers, encouraging freedom where possible, and teaching that masters and slaves are brothers in Christ, Paul lays out the principles that would ultimately be slavery’s undoing.

Now look at verse 1 again, “Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.” This command implies that this isn’t a natural response. Paul assumes that their instinct would be quite the opposite: things like resentment, disrespect, grumbling, even rebellion.

What kind of masters were in view here? Well, verse 2 refers to “believing masters,” so Paul seems to have non-believing masters in mind here in verse 1. These are sinful authorities. These are not masters who are also Christians.

Have you ever had an employer or a boss who wasn’t fair or just? Or perhaps, for some reason or another, the boss didn’t command your respect? It could have been because of how they treated you or someone else, and maybe because of their decision making or their work ethic.

Whatever the reason, they were in a position of authority over you, you despised them. Perhaps complained excessively about them, or just didn’t support them wholeheartedly. It’s difficult when you don’t respect an authority figure! It was probably very difficult for these first-century bondservants – ones who had non-Christian masters who were likely very ungodly.

What were they to do? Get their freedom if they could. But if not, Paul says regard the authority “as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.” The word “honor” comes up again, as it did in the previous sections about destitute widows and ordained elders. This calls for reverence, respect, and even labor that benefits the master.

But even as the ungodly earthly master benefits, so does God. His “name” and “the teaching” are exalted. “Name” equates to the reputation of the one true God in the world. As those “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” believers represent the triune God in the world. We have an effect on what non-believers think of our God and “the teaching” or doctrine of God – specifically, His gospel. Paul says that how we behave may lead either to the slander or the praise of the faith.

I assume you’ve never heard of British Wing Commander Mark Dunlop. He was a squadron commander in Great Britain’s Royal Air Force. But you’ve probably heard of one of the pilots under his command: William, Prince of Wales.

William was the grandson of the Queen of England and second in line to the throne during his time in the British military when he served under Dunlop’s authority. Dunlop said of the Prince, “When he was serving with us he was a very good pilot. He would come on shift and do all the duties associated with going on shift. He would live and work with his crew, go on rescues with his crew, eat with his crew. He was just another one of the guys.”

Though he was the future king of England, Prince William behaved this way because he served something greater than the squadron commander. His allegiance was to His country and the honor of the uniform.

In Colossians 3, Paul writes, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” That is the command.

Where does the strength come from to obey it? From our Master who bought us. From Christ, who purchased our freedom from sin and death, who absorbed the cost of our guilt and wrongdoing against the one true God. To accomplish that redemption, He submitted even to sinful authorities, both the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. And in doing so, He fulfilled the Father’s will, He saved His people, and He magnified and honored the name and gospel of God.

Like our Master who bought us, we can submit to sinful authorities for that same name and gospel. In union with Him, by His Spirit’s power, we can. If God has placed you under unjust, unfair, or ungodly authority, He will sustain you. Look to your Master who bought you. Speak to Him, and find comfort and strength in Him.

Now look at verse [2] Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers.” The logic here is that in cases where both master and bondservant are Christians, the bondservant might choose disrespect because both master and bondservant are equal in Christ. After all, in Galatians 3, Paul writes, “There is neither slave nor free…you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Such is the spiritual equality among all believers. Absolutely. But Paul still recognizes earthly roles and positions, and see his command: “rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.” In Galatians 6, Paul states, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Believing masters are “believers and beloved.” They are fellow members of Christ's own body. What does this mean? Well, instead of using Christian liberty as an excuse to do less for them, our common union in Christ should compel us to do more for them.

And notice that Paul adds, “Teach and urge these things.” God’s people must hear and be persuaded in this. These aren’t easy commands. Much like the command in verse 1, the desire to do this and behave this way from the heart is not something that we can simply accomplish in our own strength.

Yes we make every effort, but Christ must work powerfully within us. And as He does so, like our Master who bought us, we can lower ourselves to serve brothers for the glory of God.

In Philippians 2, Paul writes, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not [consider] equality with God a thing to be [held on to], but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

This means that Christ laid aside His divine glory that he might be “the firstborn among many brothers,” the first among many to overcome the grave and rise to immortality. To serve us He lowered Himself. And in doing so, He took the form of a slave. He appeared as a bondservant. He submitted to sinful authorities and served many siblings.

In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul wrote, “Though I am free from all, I have made myself a bondservant to all, that I might win more of them.” And in Galatians 5, he says, “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Because we are slaves of Christ, we willingly become bondservants to others for Christ’s sake.

God’s people therefore submit to His will by surrendering their own rights and privileges for the sake of relationships within the body of Christ and with those whom they would reach with the gospel.

As we go to His table now, we receive the signs of His humble service and the fulfillment of God’s gracious promises. At the table, our Master who bought us will strengthen our faith, nourish our souls, and assure us that just as He humbled Himself for us, He will also strengthen us to walk in humble obedience to Him.

Be made strong in and by Him! And if you have never trusted in Him, do so today. Believe on Him and be saved. Lay down your burden before Him who laid down His liberty for you. Let’s bow in prayer.

Many of you are soccer fans and have been watching the World Cup. Many prefer other sports. But regardless of the sport, isn’t it usually true that some of the most criticized people on the field are the referees? If a call goes in our team's favor, the refs are good and fair. But if it goes against our team, they’re biased and incompetent. Fans rarely evaluate referees impartially. Our loyalties shape our judgment.

Something similar can happen when a church elder's name comes up in conversation: perhaps one of our own elders, or maybe one from another church. Your thoughts may move in one of two directions. You may find yourself being instantly critical, focused on flaws, or you may be instantly protective, overlooking real weaknesses. That’s what sinners often do with those in leadership.

But Paul teaches us how to see Christ’s undershepherds rightly. We're prone to be either excessively critical or excessively admiring of leaders. Our expectations can be either unrealistically low or unrealistically high. Elders are men with a high calling, yet they are still merely men, and the only way to have a right view of them is to first have a right view of Christ.

In union with Him, He has become our wisdom. He is our lens through which we should view the men who serve His church. In fact, He’s our lens through which we must see all of God’s people, and this message should help you with that; though here, the men who serve as elders are the focus.

We must view our presbyters in light of who Christ is and what He has done. But how does the person and work of Christ come into play here? Paul’s instructions about elders relate to three truths about our Savior that must shape the way we view His undershepherds.

Notice your outline. Christ sympathizes with the burden of human cares and distractions, He endured the injustice of human attacks and accusations,
and He understands the experience of human temptation and weakness.

First seeing Him, we learn to see the church's shepherds as He sees them – not with cynical suspicion or unrealistic idealization, but rather, with both deep love and wise discernment.

The Chief Shepherd bore the burdens of human life and ministry. He withstood attacks on His reputation. And He faced every temptation – all without sin – not only to save us, but also to sanctify our understanding. With Christ as our wisdom, we recognize the dignity and frailty of His undershepherds. And that is a key component to a healthy church. So let’s look closer at this together.

Like the previous section, “honor” refers to providing for financial or physical needs. Verse [17] “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor.” “Elder” is our translation of “presbuteros,” from which we get the word “presbyterian.”

Presbyterian church government is an elder-led church government. We have a plurality of elders with equal authority – a group we call a "session." Now, to “rule” means to govern or preside over the church, and double honor seems to refer to both respect and compensation. But how should elders be compensated?

All of them should receive some kind of provision for their time. When our session gathers each month for our business meeting, the church feeds us. When we go to the quarterly meeting of the Pee Dee Presbytery or the yearly gathering of the PCA general assembly, the church pays the costs. Beyond that, Tim, Andy, Randy, and Jack don’t receive compensation. They volunteer. They have other jobs and streams of income.

I, however, do not have another job. GS is my source of income, in accordance with the rest of the verse, “especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” This points to a difference in elders who do the bulk of teaching and preaching. All ordained presbyters must be able to teach and even preach, but some are especially gifted and trained for the work, thus, the difference between a ruling elder and a teaching elder. Tim, Andy, Randy, and Jack are ruling elders. I am a teaching elder.

The duties which are unique to a pastor are in view here, and Paul states that pastors may earn their income through the church. Notice that he invokes Deut. 25:4, [18] For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” As an ox plowed a field, it would eat some grain. The ox was fed by the field he worked. Pastoral ministry is like that.

Also Paul appears to quote Luke 10:7, “and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” The relevance is obvious, but this is also notable because it shows that Paul calls Luke’s Gospel “Scripture.” The apostles saw the NT Gospels as authoritative works on par with the OT.

The PCA Book of Church Order is the foundational constitution of the Presbyterian Church in America, outlining how our denomination is governed, our rules of discipline, and our instructions for worship. It states that when a church agrees to compensate a minister, it does so in order that he may be "free from worldly cares." Ministers have bills to pay, families to provide for, bodies that grow tired, and countless cares and distractions that accompany life in a fallen world.

Here, Paul urges the church to compensate them fairly, according to their needs.
The church must consider the cares and costs of elders in their labor. Generosity is appropriate. At the same time, this isn’t a license for extravagance. The goal isn’t to make ministers wealthy, but to free them from unnecessary troubles so they may devote themselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. A faithful church should neither neglect nor indulge its undershepherds.

And to do so, we should consider the experience of the Chief Shepherd. Christ didn’t remain distant from the ordinary burdens of human life and ministry. He entered fully into our humanity. He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, interruption, dependence upon others, and the demands of others – all while bearing the weight of the mission His Father had given Him.

Though He was fully God, Christ still knew human, material need. He had to be sustained while on this earth, and the same is true for His servants. The Lord’s servants – like the Lord Himself – must be sustained while on this earth. Christ sympathizes with the burden of human cares and distractions. Likewise, the congregation should sympathize with the cares of His servants.

So, those verses recognize that elders have their expenses. These next ones recognize that they also have their critics. Verse [19] “Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.” Part of being in leadership and bearing authority is becoming an easy target. Higher visibility results in higher vulnerability. Elders are subject to criticism, misunderstanding, suspicion, and even false accusation.

But Paul isn’t suggesting that elders are above accountability or correction. Notice verse [20] “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” Requiring two or three witnesses can prevent hasty judgments and unsubstantiated accusations.

So, before a charge is entertained, it must be established by sufficient evidence. But where the evidence is clear, it’s vital that elders are held to the highest standard. In fact, verse 20 indicates that handling an elder who falls teaches the congregation.

When an elder is justly corrected, it can be a shock to our system, so to speak. We should realize that we too could fall, which should produce reverence for the Lord’s means of saving and sanctifying us. Through Word, sacrament, and prayer, Christ preserves and protects us. We do these things in worship – Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day – that we may be rescued from sin and not ruined by it.

Now see verse [21] “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.” Without prejudice. Without forming an opinion before all the facts are known. This can actually work both ways. We shouldn’t show partiality against or for an elder in question. Give him the benefit of the doubt, but don’t stick your head in the sand. No matter how much you respect the man, don’t follow him blindly.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke to the media about his nuclear arms negotiations with the Soviet Union. The goal was to reduce the risk of nuclear war. Each nation – the US and the USSR – wanted the other to lay down their weapons. And during that time, President Reagan said to reporters, “I actually learned a couple of words in Russian in order to talk about this with general secretary [Mikhail Gorbachev]: ‘Doveryai, no proveryai.’ That is a proverb in Russian that says, ‘Trust but verify.’”

Reagan wasn't calling for cynicism or gullibility while negotiating with the Soviet Union. Essentially, he was saying, “Don't assume the worst, but demand careful evidence.” Paul gives the church a similar principle regarding elders. Don't be constantly suspicious, but don't ignore credible evidence either.

But that may not be enough to satisfy your suspicion or temper your trust. However, this should be: the life of our Lord Jesus Christ testifies that there’s only ever been one perfect elder. There’s only ever been one flawless Shepherd of the Lord’s church – the Lord Himself. Every earthly elder has his shortcomings and is capable of failure.

This is why Scripture requires accountability as well as grace. Christ has chosen to govern His church by His Word and Spirit through the leadership of a plurality of elders held accountable by the whole body of Christ. And this kind of leadership makes a man vulnerable to accusations. Christ subjected Himself to this and withstood it all without sinning.

He endured the injustice of human attacks and accusations. And because we’re tempted on the one hand to become cynical toward His undershepherds, or tempted to idolize them on the other hand, we must look to the Chief Shepherd for wisdom. Christ alone is perfectly righteous, perfectly just, and perfectly trustworthy. Beholding Him, drawing life from Him, receiving Him, we receive wisdom to see and judge His servants fairly.

Now look with me at this final section. Verse [22] “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands.” Paul tells Timothy and the church to go slowly with ordained elders. Give every man time to demonstrate who he truly is. Give a young man time to grow and mature without the burden of leadership.

As I’ve said before, there are many pitfalls in church leadership. It brings out issues leaders didn’t even know they had. Notice Paul adds, “nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.”

In 2012, Paul David Tripp wrote a good book about pastoral ministry aptly titled Dangerous Calling. The book is very helpful. It’s helpful because it's filled with many keen insights by a former pastor.

But it’s helpful for another reason, albeit a sad one. Either Tripp or his publisher solicited endorsements for the book from seven well-known church leaders, some who you might call “celebrity pastors.” Again, the book came out in 2012. And as of today – 14 years later – two of the seven were later justly deemed unfit for ministry and one of the seven has left the Christian faith entirely.

Sin is not to be trifled with. That’s Paul’s warning to Timothy. Elders are men, and men are weak. We are prone to sin. And to compound the difficulty, we’re also prone to physical infirmity. See verse [23] “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” Apparently Timothy had some kind of trouble. That’s not unusual for church leaders. Stress and sickness are normal.

Wine seems to have had some kind of medicinal value for Timothy. Psalm 104 comes to mind, where the psalmist says to the one true God, “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man.” Of course, in no way was Paul telling Timothy to get drunk on wine. Paul doesn’t say, “Have a couple drinks every time you have a tough day.”

Drinking alcohol is obviously not a sin, as this verse attests, but overusing it is sinful and unhealthy. Many people do that, including pastors, often in secret for long periods of time. That may be at least part of what Paul has in mind with this next verse.

Verse [24] “The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.” That is generally true, but remember the context here is church leadership. So much could be said and discussed surrounding the meaning of this statement, but in light of what Paul already said about accusations, accountability, weaknesses, and sins, this seems to be partly a warning for Timothy and all other elders.

It’s a warning because those who are eventually caught in sin were carrying on in secret for some time. Some people – including elders – are obvious offenders. The evidence against them is damning, and they are dead to rights. But others – including some elders – may conceal their sins well for a long time.

However, they can’t be concealed forever. So this is a word of caution. The assumption might be that hidden sin doesn’t ruin your life and ministry until it’s exposed. But that’s not true. It does great harm, even if only God sees it. So take heed, elders. Take heed, people of God. Return to your Lord who loves you.

And be encouraged by the message of verse [25], “So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.” Like sins, good works will eventually come to light as well. But even if no one else sees, our God sees and is pleased.

Church leaders – like all believers – must endure difficult seasons. But we have this encouragement: Christ understands the experience of human temptation and weakness.

There can be some confusion around the reality of the Lord’s temptation.Hebrews 4 says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Christ experienced the full force of temptation’s pressure. Scripture testifies that He felt hunger, weariness, sorrow, grief, fearful anticipation of suffering, and the natural human desire to avoid pain and death.

It’s hard for us to understand how He endured temptation without sin, because for us temptation so naturally leads to some kind of sinful response. When Scripture says Christ was tempted, it means that through many temptations, evils were inflicted on Him “in order to prove His character and steadfastness.” We shouldn’t diminish His experience because He didn’t have a sinful nature. In fact, for that reason, His experience was more intense because He never yielded. Therefore, He did really and actually fulfill all righteousness for those He saves.

Elders have their weaknesses, just like you. To rightly see church leaders – sins and all – you must study and know Christ. In order to forgive a leader – and in order to follow a leader – we must understand that they’re not perfect, yet they are God’s plan for church governance.

In the final analysis, this section of 1 Tim. 5 presents what I call “the presbyter's plea.” It is an appeal on behalf of the elders of Christ's church: an appeal to honor them, to pray for them, to bear with them, and to hold them accountable. It’s a plea to remember both the dignity of their calling and the frailty of their humanity.

But as we've seen this morning, the basis of this plea is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone bore every burden without complaint, He endured every accusation without sin, He withstood every temptation without failure.

As we behold Him, we see that the presbyter’s only plea is Christ. The congregation's only plea is Christ. And we go now to His Table, we all approach Him in the same way. Elders don’t come because they have shepherded perfectly. The congregation doesn’t come because it has followed perfectly. We come to the table because our only hope is the crucified and risen Christ.

There’s an old hymn that says, “I need no other argument, I need no other plea, it is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.” Is Jesus your only plea today? Trust in Him.

Let’s bow in prayer.

Earlier we read Larger Catechism 193 about the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. If we back up one, 192 addresses the third petition: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” That statement is an acknowledgement that we are predisposed to feeling discontent with how God sovereignly preserves and guides our lives, and to complain about it.

It’s natural to reject some aspect of God’s plan and purpose in a way that reveals our distrust of His wisdom, goodness, and fatherly care. But we have to come to terms with God’s control over what we experience. We can’t go around our sufferings to get to God; we have to go through them.

But getting to God also requires going through the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s just one reason why our Savior and Mediator had to actually be fully God. Christ is God. He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. In His being, He is wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

We who are born again exist in a real, spiritual union with Him – a relationship in which we can be sure that God will remain faithful to us and give us “our daily bread.” God providentially provides for His people. This means that He orders all things in such a way that we receive what we need.

This occurs through the mediatorial reign of Christ as King. As King, Christ governs all creatures and all their actions for the good of His church. The One who died for us now reigns over us, and He provides for us through means God has appointed – what LC 193 calls “lawful means” – ways or channels that align with His good and holy law.

This part of 1 Timothy 5 describes two channels for the provision of a specific group – but in principle, this is a message about how God provides for everyone in the church. Each of us relies on God's providence for all of our needs. Every provision you have comes through ways God has designed.

Two ways described in these verses are the family and the church.

Now, these verses come on the heels of Paul’s statement that the church is a family. We're a family in Christ, and family takes care of each other.  In some ways what Paul describes here is foreign to us.

Picture a husband and wife who have an income dependent largely on the husband. The husband dies, and the wife is in danger of becoming destitute. But there is no Social Security or unemployment wages, there is no life insurance, no retirement funds. And it’s not as easy as just going out and getting a job. How would a widow survive? That was a real issue for the church in Ephesus.

All widows should be cared for. The question was “By whom?” Notice verse 3 says “truly widows.” Not just that their husbands died, but also that they had no one to take care of them. See verse [4] “But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.”

For these women who were “truly” widows – left all alone – the church would commit permanent financial support. Not just a one-off type gift, but ongoing aid, because they had no one else. However, first Paul says that relatives have a responsibility to each other.

Parents cared for their children when the children couldn’t care for themselves. Now the children should care for parents who can’t care for themselves. It’s a type of repayment. The children have a type of debt to their parents.

So what is a woman to do who has no children and grandchildren – “She who is truly a widow, left all alone?” This woman has only God to depend on now. Verse 5, she “has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.” But some widows were apparently not turning to God in this way.

Some were turning to worldly things. Perhaps to sinful ways of getting money. That’s the meaning of vs. 6, “but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.” “Dead” in the sense of empty and vain living. The church shouldn’t feel obligated to financially support such a woman. The true widow Paul describes here is one who resists that and follows Christ.

So Paul says to Timothy, the pastor, verse [7] Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.” “They” meaning the families of widows and also to the widows themselves. Require this so both parties can remain blameless. Why? Verse [8], if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

This is strong language, but it emphasizes something about God’s providence. The family is a lawful means through which He providentially provides for His people. The family is an institution created by God, sustained by Him, and used by Him. Christ the King has ordained the family as one of the instruments of His kingdom.

The fifth commandment (Honor your father and mother) isn’t simply a moral duty. It’s one of the ways King Jesus exercises His loving rule over His people. When parents provide for children or children care for parents, Christ is providentially caring for His people through the means He has appointed.

Imagine a wise king who commits to provide for the widows in an ancient kingdom. He wouldn’t personally knock on every door with a sack of grain. Instead, he would appoint stewards and officers to administer His care. If one of those stewards refused to carry out the king's command, the problem wouldn’t be that the king stopped caring. The steward failed.

Christ the King often cares for parents through children, children through parents, and family members through one another. When families fulfill these duties, they become instruments of His care.

But another instrument of the King is the focus in these next verses. The church would commit permanent financial support to a widow who was truly alone. These women would be enrolled. Their names were set down in a register.

Now, think about it. This would be a major commitment on the church’s part. Good stewardship was necessary. The church shouldn’t begin doing this and then just take it away. And of course the church had limited funding. So Paul gives some guidelines, verse [9] “Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age.”

Sixty was the age at which a woman was considered less likely to get remarried. But even among women at that stage, some additional requirements were given. Notice the rest of the verse: “having been the wife of one husband, [10] and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.”

Why was this important? Well, in part, to be sure the church is supporting a true believer. But also, some scholars think the widows made a commitment as well. It’s possible that they committed to serve the church in various ways. But mainly this money was to be given to older women who were above reproach.

What about younger women? See verse [11] “But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry [12] and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.” A young woman could hopefully get married again. That’s preferable. It’s good. Notice verse [14] So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.”

Where would the slander come in? See that last part of verse 11, verse 12, and 15,
“For some have already strayed after Satan.” These verses seem to refer to some young women who entered into this agreement but then married non-believers and left the faith, bringing disgrace on the church.

The thinking here, overall, is that the church must be selective with this kind of support. Blindly giving hand-outs is not best for anyone. Ideally, people should put their hands and minds to some kind of work. These older women who are now widows on church support had done that in their lives: being wives, raising children, and serving others.

At a young age, without constructive work, the young women might veer into other things, verse [13] “…they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.” And the church can’t be providing financial support for that. Therefore, the younger women should look to marry again – to Christian men – rather than taking part in this church program.

Finally notice Paul’s summary in verse [16] “If any believing woman has relatives
who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows. This emphasizes a second point about the providence of God: The church is also a lawful means through which He providentially provides for His people.

The church is the household of God. It belongs to Him. Christ purchased her with His own blood, gathers and governs her by His Word and Spirit, and cares for her through her officers and members. The church makes the invisible kingdom of God visible.

So when the church cares for a true widow, Christ Himself is exercising His kingly office. The enrollment of widows was an expression of Christ's reign. The King was providing for members of His kingdom through means He had appointed.

Again, picture the wise ancient king caring for his subjects. Not every person would have family to help them. Some would be truly alone. So the king could establish a treasury and appoint trusted officers to administer it. When a widow with no family is in need, the officers carry out the king's will. So all of the provisions – food, shelter, or whatever – come from the king, even though they pass through the hands of his officers. This mirrors how Christ cares for His people in need through His church.

So you see, whether through the family or the church, God is the Providential Provider behind the visible means of our provision. As we go now to His table, we hold and taste and ingest signs of His provision for us.

Christ went to human death, and came back to life immortal. And now, as our risen and reigning King, He continues to provide life for all who trust in Him. Will you trust Christ today?

These widows in view here were forced to ask, “Who will take care of me?” The answer, ultimately, was King Jesus – whether through family or the church. And the answer is ultimately the same for every one of us.

Do you want proof? Meditate on not only what you have, but how you came to have it. God gave you your life, abilities, and opportunities. He determined when and where you would live. He governs the circumstances that contribute to your success. He sustains every breath you take.

But the greatest proof of His care is found not in food, money, or material support, but at the cross. Before Christ provided daily bread, He provided Himself. He is the Bread of Life. Before He met your temporal needs, He secured your eternal salvation.

Will you receive His provision for salvation today?

Will you turn from sin to follow Him and grow in His grace?

Let’s bow in prayer.

Beetle spins, broken back minnows, whopper ploppers. Artificial fishing lures have been used for thousands of years, but the modern patented lure industry began in the mid-1800s and expanded rapidly when Michigan beekeeper James Heddon “discovered” the plug as a wooden topwater bait after he whittled a sliver of wood into a mill pond near his home and watched a bass strike it. And so continued the fisherman’s quest to not go a cast without a strike.

I know many of you enjoy fishing and can relate. However, if you are not familiar with artificial lures, the premise is quite simple, use a lure that looks like something a fish would like to eat. It can range from a simple rubber worm to an elaborate, wiggling, sparkling fake fish, from a rubber frog, to sparkling spinning little rubber beetle. Regardless of what is used, the idea is to disguise a hook and attract an unsuspecting fish to take a bite. If executed properly, the fish cannot resist the temptation of the lure and will swallow it, be hooked, and then caught, much to the joy of the fisherman.

In our passage this morning, James wants us to see that our corrupt nature causes us to respond to temptation the same way the fish responds to artificial lures.

All Christians face trials and the pressure of temptation. Often when we face those temptations, our own sinful hearts lure and entice us to give in to the temptation. In those times, we are prone to blame God or external circumstances for our sinful desires. Instead, James teaches that temptation originates from our own sinful desires.

James writes to believers in the middle of trials, and he wants them—and us—to endure faithfully without falling into that deception. And more than that, this passage lifts our eyes to Christ, the perfectly obedient Son who endured every temptation without sin, secured the crown of life through His faithfulness, and now gives His people grace to persevere.

Therefore, believers can fight temptation by recognizing its true source and trusting Christ, who enables faithful perseverance. So how can we fight temptation instead of being overcome by it?

James reveals three ways we can do this in verses 12-15. They are printed for you there on page six of the WG. Here we see that: Through Christ, we fight temptation by remembering God’s reward. Through Christ, we fight temptation by recognizing temptation’s source. Through Christ, we fight temptation by recognizing sin’s progression.

May God instruct our hearts and mind as we look closer at these verses now.

First, James calls us to remember the reward of perseverance. In verse 12, he begins with encouragement: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.” In other words, James is returning to the same theme he raised earlier in the chapter. Trials are not meaningless interruptions in the Christian life. They are one of God’s appointed means of producing steadfastness in us. God is doing something in the testing. He is forming Christ in us through endurance or perseverance. It is much like Paul says in Romans 5, where suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.

Now that word blessed is important. It means the deep, steady joy of a person whose life is anchored in God. The world says the blessed person is the comfortable person, the secure person, the person with no disruptions. But Scripture says the blessed person may be afflicted, opposed, and tested—and still rich in God. Why? Because the blessed life is not necessarily the easy life but a life that is tethered to God through Christ.

And James says that after the believer “has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” That phrase “crown of life” can be translated “the crown which is life” and is referring to eternal life. In other words, the crown is life itself: full, eternal, unbroken life in the presence of God. And it is promised to all who love God because by His grace he first loved us and sustains us through to the end.

Some of you may remember the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. British sprinter Derek Redmond was competing in the Olympic 400-meter semifinal and was considered a strong contender for a medal. As the race began, everything seemed to be going according to plan. But about halfway around the track, disaster struck. Redmond suddenly tore his hamstring. He immediately collapsed to the ground in agony.

Medical personnel rushed toward him, but something remarkable happened. Redmond refused to be carried off the track. Instead, he got to his feet and began hopping toward the finish line on one leg. Every step was painful. Every step required determination. The race was lost, but he was determined to finish.

Then an even more memorable moment occurred. His father, Jim Redmond, broke through security, ran onto the track, wrapped his arm around his son, and helped him continue. Together they made their way toward the finish line.

Derek Redmond's father helped him finish the race. In an infinitely greater way, our Heavenly Father sustains His children all the way to the finish line. The crown of life belongs not to the strongest runners, but to those whom Christ preserves until the end. One day, every believer who perseveres by God's grace will cross the finish line.

To be sure, James is not saying eternal life is something we earn. Rather, he is saying persevering faith marks out or evidences those who truly belong to God.

Peter says there is an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for us, and that hope steadies believers in present trials (1 Peter 1:4-7). When we fix our eyes on what God has promised, we can “stand the test” now. James is not calling us to save ourselves. He is calling us to keep trusting the God who keeps His promise, the promise of life to those who love Him through Christ.

James wants us to lift our eyes to Christ. Jesus is the perfectly obedient Son who endured the fiercest testing without sin. He was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He went into the wilderness and overcame (Matthew 4:1-11). He went all the way to the cross and remained faithful, enduring the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).

We must understand this clearly: the Christian does not endure temptation by sheer willpower. We endure by looking to a faithful Savior. When trials expose your weakness, do not despair. Do not conclude that God has abandoned you. Look to Christ. He has gone before you. He sympathizes with you. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

After James calls us to remember the reward of those who are in Christ, he moves to the topic of temptation and gives a warning. The same trial that can become an occasion for growth, as he pointed out earlier in the chapter, can also become an occasion for temptation if we respond to it wrongly. That is why James says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God.’”

Yes, God tests His people. He tested Abraham (Genesis 22:1). He tested Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2). But God’s testing and temptation to sin are not the same thing. God is never responsible for the evil in this world or the temptations that may produce it. He may ordain evil for the purposes of His good plan but all wickedness that comes about is from the evil inclinations of secondary agents and is not caused by God. We see this clearly in Genesis with the account of Joseph and his brothers, where Joseph says, “20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God tests in order to strengthen faith. He never entices in order to destroy it.

However, our natural tendency is to cast blame for temptation and sin elsewhere. This goes all the way back to Eden. Adam said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12). In other words, Adam did not just blame Eve. He blamed God. James gives a biblical corrective to that mindset.

God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. There is nothing in God that is drawn toward evil, and nothing in God that would ever desire evil for His children.
So where does temptation come from? James answers with painful clarity: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

That desire is not just any ordinary longing. James is talking about the selfish impulse of the fallen heart—the inward bent toward sin that lives in us. Yes, Satan tempts. Yes, the world entices. Yes, circumstances can intensify the pressure. But James goes straight to the heart of man, because that is where responsibility finally lands.

This is where the concept of fishing is helpful. Desire is like bait on a hook. It looks attractive on the surface, but once it draws you in, it drags you down. That is why we cannot finally say, “The devil made me do it,” as though we were innocent bystanders. The problem is not ultimately out there. It is in here. Sin rises from the heart, just as Jesus says in Mark 7:21-23.

But James does not leave us hopeless. The God who does not tempt His people does help His people. He teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). He promises that He is faithful and will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, but will provide a way of escape so that we may endure (1 Corinthians 10:13). So the Christian life is not about passing the buck when it comes to temptation and sin. It is not about denial. It is about honest confession, dependent prayer, and daily reliance on the faithfulness of God.

Therefore, we need Christ. We need Him to reveal our susceptibility to temptation and we need our hearts to be conformed more and more to His image. We need that good balm of the gospel of Christ to transform our desires.

That brings us to the final things James wants us to understand. Through Christ, we fight temptation by recognizing sin’s progression. In verse 15, James gives us one of the clearest pictures in all of Scripture of how sin works. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Desire, by itself, is not yet the completed act of sin. But when the will yields to it, conception begins. James uses vivid imagery here. Desire conceives. Sin is born. Sin grows up. And when it reaches maturity, it gives birth to death. Do you hear what James is saying? Sin has a process. It usually does not explode into its final form all at once. It begins in the hidden life of the heart. What is entertained inwardly is soon consented to inwardly. And what is consented to inwardly is eventually expressed outwardly.

And when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death. That is James’s warning: what begins small does not stay small.

It’s like a small hole in a water pipe in the ceiling or roof of your home. If addressed quickly, there is minimal damage. If left unchecked or ignored, the damage can be significant and costly. One reason water leaks are a big deal is the way water easily spreads and can affect large areas.
Sin is similar. Repeated sin increases the desire to sin. We begin to form habits of sin. Then our conscience dulls. Fellowship with God is disrupted. Death spreads through the whole person.

James is setting two paths in front of us: the path of steadfast endurance that leads to life, and the path of indulged desire that leads to death. That sounds like Proverbs, doesn’t it? The way of wisdom leads to life; the seduction of folly leads down to the grave (Proverbs 5:22-23; 7:21-27). And apart from grace, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So we must seek to fight the lure of temptation at the level of desire. We must realize its power and seek what frees us from the power of temptation and sin.

That power is Christ. The gospel of Christ speaks a better word. The answer to temptation is not merely stronger willpower but a stronger Savior. Jesus Christ stepped into the very world where sin conceives and death reigns, yet He Himself remained pure.

The passage points beyond itself to Christ. He bore the penalty for our sinful desires at the cross and now gives His Spirit to help us persevere. Therefore, when temptation comes, we do not look merely inward for strength—we look to Christ, because through His death and resurrection, He grants the crown of life to those united to Him by faith.

So how can we fight temptation instead of being overcome by it? James teaches us to remember the reward of perseverance, to recognize the source of temptation, and realize the serious progression of sin. In all of it, we must fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the obedient Son we have failed to be. He is the suffering Savior who endured without sin. He is the risen King who gives His Spirit to help His people stand. So, when temptation comes, let us not blame God or others. Let us not excuse ourselves. Let us not toy with sin. Instead, may we run to Christ. And we can take heart: the God who promised the crown of life will be faithful to every believer who loves Him. Through Christ, we can fight the lure of temptation and stand the test.  

Let’s pray.

Several weeks ago, my wife and I brought a pot of pansies home and immediately put them on the front steps of our house.  They were very nice - bright, vibrant, colorful. They made the entrance to the house colorful and cheerful. A short time later that afternoon, we stepped outside for something and were quite shocked to discover the pansies were wilted! Not simply wilted but lying flat in the pot. I mean, if she hadn’t just put them out there, you might have assumed they had been abandoned for days and were practically dead. It was fairly hot that day, and apparently pansies are sensitive to the heat. What was bright, vibrant, beautiful just moments earlier - had begun to fade.

James uses a similar illustration in today’s passage to communicate the temporal and fleeting nature of this world. He wants us to see that earthly wealth, earthly status, earthly beauty, earthly success—what Scripture calls the world and its desires, or trappings—they are passing away. They are temporary. Their beauty is fleeting. They wither far more quickly than we imagine.

And yet, we naturally derive our sense of stability, security, and significance from our material circumstances – the earthly treasures that we do or do not possess. We all instinctively measure our worth by things that do not last.

We look at our bank account, our opportunities, our comfort, our possessions, and we quietly ask, “What do these things say about me?”

Some people feel diminished by what they lack. Others feel secure because of what they possess. But James tells us that both poverty and prosperity can become real spiritual trials when they persuade us to seek identity, security, and significance anywhere other than Christ.

You see Christ reorders our understanding of worth, wealth, and status. Christ, who humbled Himself to the point of death and was exalted in resurrection glory. In union with Him, the lowly are exalted, the rich are humbled, and all believers receive an inheritance that cannot perish, spoil, or fade.

And because of this, believers should not boast in how much they possess or despair in how little they possess. In other words, they should not base their identity in what is worldly, temporary, and fading. Rather, believers should base their identity in, and boast in, that which is heavenly, eternal, and unfading.

And that is why this passage is so relevant. James is not only speaking to the materially poor or materially rich. He is speaking to every one of us who is tempted to interpret life by visible circumstances rather than by gospel reality.

We must allow the person and work of Christ to reshape how we see our circumstances.

We do this as we understand that Christ is the unfading, eternal inheritance of all who trust in Him by faith.

So then, if Christ is our unfading inheritance, how should believers think about material possessions and worldly circumstances?

Because Christ is the unfading, eternal inheritance of all who trust in Him by faith, believers with little can boast in their exaltation and believers with much can boast in their humiliation.

Through these verses, the Holy Spirit is teaching us that everything in this world is subject to decay. Everything in this world is touched by loss. Everything in this world can be diminished by time, suffering, disappointment, or death. But what Christ gives to His people does not wither in the sun. It does not collapse under pressure. It does not lose its beauty. What the world offers fades. What Christ gives endures forever.

Let’s look together at these now.

First, James begins by showing how understanding the glory of Christ and the eternal inheritance found in Him can reshape the perspective of those who have little.

He begins in verse 9 by saying, “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.” At first hearing, that sounds almost contradictory. How can the lowly boast? How can the one in humble circumstances rejoice, or boast, in their exaltation? In what way are they exalted?

In its immediate context, James is certainly addressing those who are poor from a socio-economic standpoint. Many of his original audience were Jewish Christians. We know of a famine that struck the area around Jerusalem at about this time, and it is probable that many of those Christians would have been affected by the overall poor conditions from the famine along with being ostracized by much of the non-Christian population.

But the principle can be applied more broadly to any who think they have little according to the world’s standards. It applies to anyone who would count themselves less than others because of a lack of some worldly possession.

Would you say you fit into that category? From a financial standpoint, would you say you have little? Whether or not that is actually the case, compared to those around you, would you say you are in humble circumstances?

The world assigns worth by visibility, influence, comfort, and possessions. It honors the impressive, the connected, the beautiful, the successful, the well-positioned.

We must be careful here. These things are not inherently evil. It is not wrong to have possessions, wealth, comfort, or beauty. Those can be gifts from the gracious and generous hand of the Father. It really comes down to a matter of trust. If we have been granted those things, do we find our worth, security, and value in them? Though they are not evil in and of themselves, they have great potential to become a snare.

For those believers that don’t have most of or all of those worldly comforts, they may feel restricted by circumstance, overlooked by others, and burdened by daily need. They may be tempted to think that their life carries less dignity, less usefulness, or less value.

But James says, “No—boast in your exaltation.” He can do so only because the gospel has introduced a new reality that the world cannot see. James exhorts the poor to boast (or glory) in their high status in Christ. Boast in what is already yours in Christ. Boast in your adoption. Boast in your inheritance. Boast in the fact that you belong to the King.

It is a little like a child standing outside a massive mansion, dressed plainly, carrying nothing that would impress anyone passing by. To the world, he looks insignificant. But then the front door opens, and someone says, “Come in—this house belongs to your Father.”

In a moment, everything is reinterpreted. His clothing has not changed. His outward appearance has not changed. But his true status is revealed. He is not an outsider. He is a son. And that is James’s point. The lowly believer may appear unimpressive in the eyes of the world, but in Christ he belongs to the household of God, and that changes everything.

In Christ, the believer who is overlooked by the world is honored by the Father, united to the Son, indwelt by the Spirit, and made an heir of everlasting glory.

So, James tells the lowly - boast in the reality that your present lowliness does not define your eternal standing. Scripture teaches that believers even now belong to the heavenly realm as its citizens. We await the Lord from heaven, and we await the day when even our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body. That means this exaltation is both present and future. It is present because the believer is already in Christ, already accepted, already seated with Him in the heavenlies. And it is future because the fullness of that glory is still to come.

To be sure, James is not asking the lowly believer to pretend poverty is pleasant. He is calling him to interpret poverty through the lens of redemption. Humble circumstances are real, but they are not ultimate. The lowly brother is exalted in Christ, and that dignity can never be taken away.

That is James’ word, and therefore God’s Word, to the lowly believer. Next, James shows how understanding the glory of Christ and the eternal inheritance found in Him can reshape the perspective of those who have much. Look at verse 10. James turns to the rich, and his word is just as startling: “Let the rich boast in his humiliation.”

The word there for boast is the same as in verse nine. The word for humiliation means humble or low. So James indeed says that the rich should boast in their low position. Again, we are struck with a seeming contradiction. Those who possess much should boast in their humiliation? What humiliation does the rich experience? Aren’t they normally exalted in our society and often in their own view as well?

So, what does James mean? It is, in part, the rich believer’s recognition that however exalted he may seem in the eyes of the world, his true standing before God is the same as every other Christian: empty-handed, needy, dependent upon mercy. And it is also the rich believer’s identification with Christ, who humbled Himself and was considered of no account by the world. You see the rich believer truly boasts when he rejoices that God, in His mercy, has humbled him, shown him the fragility of earthly abundance, and taught him to rest in Christ rather than in his resources.

A man who rests in his earthly abundance is like a man walking across a frozen lake. The surface looks solid. It seems strong enough to carry him. So, with every step he grows more confident, not realizing that beneath him the ice is thinning. It won’t ultimately hold him.

Earthly abundance - whether monetary, material, or both - often works that way on the soul. It can create the feeling of stability without providing true security. This is because it ultimately cannot reconcile us to God. It cannot calm a guilty conscience. It cannot overcome death. It cannot secure eternal life. It cannot go with us into the next world.

James, in mercy, is warning us not to build our lives on thin ice. Only Christ can bear the full weight of a human soul.

In his commentary on James, Matthew Henry notes: “For this reason James says the rich should boast, not so much in the providence of God, that makes him rich, as in the grace of God, that makes and keeps him humble; and in those trials and exercises that teach him to seek his felicity [source of happiness] in and from God, and not from these perishing enjoyments.”

You see there in the second part of verse 10 James gives further explanation of what he means. He says riches are like the flower of the grass. James almost certainly echoes Isaiah’s reminder that all flesh is grass and all its glory like the flower of the field.

For a moment they appear strong, beautiful, enviable, even permanent. Then the sun rises, the heat scorches, the flower falls, and its beauty perishes. The flower may look impressive in the cool of the morning, but under the scorching heat—or even the desert wind—it withers suddenly. It is like the pansies that we set out on the porch.

What James is striving to convey to his original audience and us is the transitory nature of worldly wealth. He is warning believers not to rest their confidence on what cannot endure.

Again, I want us to be clear here. James is not condemning possession itself. Scripture never teaches that grace and wealth are absolutely incompatible. There are believers in Scripture who possessed much. The issue is not possession but trust. The issue is not whether one has resources, but whether those resources have captured the heart.

The rich believer is therefore called to boast, not in abundance, but in humiliation—in the humbling grace that teaches him he is no less needy before God than the poorest saint. Every Christian comes to God spiritually bankrupt. Every Christian stands by mercy alone. Every Christian is saved, not by accumulated resources, but by the riches of Christ. And that means wealth must never be allowed to become a rival savior. It must be held loosely, stewarded humbly, and viewed honestly as something temporary.

What we realize is that both commands become clear when we see them in light of the person Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:6-11 captures this truth very well. Listen to what the apostle Paul says about Christ - 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In His humiliation, Christ entered our weakness, our sorrow, and our lowliness. In His exaltation He secured glory for His people and opened the way into an eternal kingdom. So, whether a believer has little or much in this life, his truest identity is found in Christ and not in the shifting conditions of the moment.

That reality must minister to us no matter where we find ourselves on the earthly treasure scale. So the question for us is not simply, “Do I have much?” or “Do I have little?”

The deeper question is, “What am I boasting in? What is giving me my sense of worth? What am I trusting to tell me that I matter and that I am safe?”

If we have little, we must not conclude that we are forgotten. If we have much, we must not conclude that we are secure. In every condition, faith learns to boast in Christ. The poor look up and rejoice in their exaltation in Him. The rich look down and rejoice in their humiliation before Him.

So let us hold the things of this world with open hands. Let us receive humble circumstances without despair and prosperous circumstances without pride. And let us ask God for grace to see what James wants us to see: that in Christ, the lowly are lifted, the proud are humbled, and what is eternal has already begun.

Boast, then, in what does not fade. Boast in Christ.

Let us pray.

When a pastor looks over the congregation, how might he describe the people he sees?

He could describe individuals as members, regular attenders, visitors, elders, deacons, leaders, staff, servants, volunteers, men, women, children, or youth. The pastor might identify new believers, mature saints, struggling Christians. He might point out his encouragers, his critics, and his close friends.

All of those are fine. You may be able to think of others, but at the start of 1 Timothy 5, Paul tells this young pastor to view the congregation in a particular way: as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters – as family.

Now, what makes people family? There’s birth, adoption, or marriage. Interestingly, all three of those characterize our relationships in the church. So, we experienced the new birth by the Spirit according to God the Father's plan. We were adopted into His family. And we are the bride of Christ, united with Him and belonging to Him, waiting for the return of Christ, the Bridegroom.

All of this has been accomplished through the saving work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in Him, we are family, we are related, and the principles of family apply.

Even along the lines of birth kin – who are related by blood – the language applies. In Christ, are we not related by blood? We absolutely are – by the blood of Christ, our God and Savior. So this is more than just rhetorical language being used by Paul. The church is actually a family. We are bound to one another by more than just a common goal or shared interests.

But we don’t naturally relate to each other in this way, do we? By nature, we relate according to the kingdom of this world – in a sinful manner. This is why we have this apostolic command. But the command alone is not enough to create true obedience. For that to occur, the kingdom of God had to break into our world –
which did occur, through the coming of Christ our King.

Now, those whom He saves can relate in a godly way. We can delight in God’s law for how we interact and we can increasingly conform to it. Which should always be our goal. The pastor should lead the way in this.

But as is always the case, the way isn’t simply by trying harder. Neither is it found in treating worship, prayer, Scripture reading, and the sacraments as religious exercises to improve ourselves. Verses of Scripture like these can be quickly wrestled from their God-centered context and thrust into a man-centered framework of “do this” and “don’t do that.” We must see and commune with the living Christ. As we do, He transforms us within.

But how does He do this? How do we change? Notice your outline. The triune God, by union with Christ, through the renewal of the Spirit, by His appointed means (Word, sacrament, and prayer), transforms our inner being, increasingly causing us to relate to the men of the church with the respect due a father and the affection due a brother, (v.1) and to the women of the church with the honor due a mother and the purity due a sister. (v.2)

This kind of behavior is not first a matter of doing, but of being and believing: being united to Christ by faith and increasingly conformed to His likeness as we behold His glory and commune deeply with Him.

Just before this, Paul describes the nature of the pastor/congregation relationship. The healthy pastor commands and teaches the whole counsel of God with faithfulness. He leads the way in Christlikeness. He preaches and teaches with precision and boldness. He uses the gift and fulfills the calling God gives him.

In turn, the congregation learns and responds to the truth as God Himself speaking. The people value and support the pastor as he studies, writes, proclaims, explains, leads, shepherds, and prays for the salvation and spiritual growth of God’s people.

A good pastor pours himself into the work; a good congregation receives with eagerness the Word.

But Timothy was still required to fight indwelling sin. This is why Paul goes further here to define the example that the pastor should set. He says, “Do not rebuke an older man.”

We know Timothy was relatively young. This is why Paul told him, “Let no one despise you for your youthfulness.” Older men who needed correction were not to be scolded or chastised. Paul’s word choice carries the idea of striking someone verbally, dressing them down. He has a harsh manner of correction in mind – not like the manner of Christ. It seems to be, at best, disrespectful, at worst, trying to put a man in his place. There’s no use in that. It won’t be productive.

Obviously, the church is not a company. The pastor’s not a boss and the members are not employees. Scolding might work on a jobsite, though even there, someone younger dressing down someone older isn’t going to be received well, is it?

Timothy should not rebuke harshly, but neither should he acquiesce. The answer is not “passive compliance by the pastor.” See the rest of the verse, “but encourage him.” Correct the older man in a loving and concerned manner, warn him with gentleness, strongly urge him with care.

Help the man see Christ. And do so with a certain kind of respect. With a pattern in your mind to follow. “encourage him as you would a father.”  I say this here under the “father” section, but it applies in every category.

Among the family of God in Christ, there should be no ongoing clash of egos. Yes, we will offend one another at times. Proverbs 19 says, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” We have to do like Elsa in “Frozen.” Let it go! Let it go! Easier said than done, I know. Christ must do His good work in us.

Paul may be assuming situations where Timothy is right, but being right is not enough. Just because you’re right doesn’t mean it’s right to ram your agenda through. A doctor may have the correct diagnosis, but if he barges into the room, insulting the patient and barking orders, the patient may not listen to the treatment. Being right about the problem doesn't excuse being wrong in the manner.

The pastor must be intentional not only about what he says but also how he says it. So this is excellent advice from Paul. How should Timothy approach an older man? Well, how would you speak to your own father?

You should revere him. Exodus 20 says, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” This is the fifth commandment. To honor means to revere. To ascribe a degree of glory to the person.
There is a God-given weightiness to the role of father or mother, though, sadly, people may not live up to it in any form or fashion. Still, this is the effective and Christ-glorifying way.

Now look at the next part. “Encourage…younger men as brothers.” Here’s a situation where a man is closer in age to Timothy. This might be someone who is more of a peer, perhaps more of a natural rival. It might be a man who still has a ways to go towards maturity. But a good pastor treats the man with love and respect.

The good pastor is patient with the man. These commands of Paul take into account men who may strike first. Again, the natural tendency is to either strike back and back down. In conflict, men naturally aim to overpower one another. One aims to expose the other or make him feel small. But those kinds of responses are not from our God. They come from our personal insecurities and misbeliefs about our own worth.

Paul is clear that the goal here is not self-glory but Christ’s glory. And treating men this way doesn't bring relief or solve problems. We aren’t going to sin our way forward, are we? Though we might like to.

If you want to put out a fire, you need to drench it. But you wouldn’t use gasoline. In the moment it may feel right to answer harshness with harshness, but it only made the blaze bigger and hotter. Proverbs 15 says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Like the rest of 1 Timothy, it’s addressed to a pastor but read to a congregation. The principles here are the same for all of God’s people in the church: relate to men with the respect due a father and the affection due a brother.

We have to read Paul’s commands with a full-orbed theology. Left to ourselves, we don’t relate in this way. Indwelling sin left unchecked results in pride, irritation, selfishness, and harshness, rather than honor and brotherly love. Paul’s command actually shows us not only what God requires, but also what we lack.

And yet we know this of the triune God: He supplies what He requires. Romans 8 says, “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” By union with Christ, through the renewal of the Spirit, by His appointed means (Word, sacrament, and prayer), the triune God transforms our inner being, increasingly conforming us to the image of Christ. And as He does this, the respect and affection will follow.

Now look at verse [2]. Timothy should “encourage…older women as mothers.” The same principles apply here. Again, the fifth commandment. The role of mother is to be revered as well. Unfortunately, like many fathers, many mothers lack even basic kindness towards their children. Many lack basic concern. If that has been your experience, I’m so sorry. But be assured that Christ can make you whole. You’re not at a perpetual disadvantage in how you relate in the family of God.

Let me tell you what Christ has accomplished for you. During His earthly ministry, Jesus perfectly honored His earthly father and mother according to the will of God. And doing so served as so much more than simply a model for us. In union with Him, He works these graces within our hearts.

Christ fulfilled all righteousness for us so that He could produce that same honor and affection in our hearts. In the body of Christ, you will conflict with someone from every age group at one time or another. The way the pastor should speak to an older woman parallels how he should speak to an older man. With love and concern, with respect, and all should follow the example.

And see this fourth group, “younger women as sisters, in all purity.” That last word is very important. The pastor should encourage younger women in or with complete sinlessness.

Sexual temptation and lust are definitely in view here. It is as if Paul is saying, “These are your sisters and mothers in Christ. Treat them as such. In conversations, in looks, in physical touch, even in thought – the pastor must have every woman’s best interests in mind.” And there certainly is no place for even a hint of sexual immorality.

And this too is a pattern for the whole congregation. Sexual immorality can devastate a church. It can tear apart a family. And wherever it creeps in and takes hold in a church, seeing the church has a family formed by God in Christ was surrendered long before.

We should treat one another as family. Therefore, we need to believe that we are family, and see one another as family. And as with all of the Christian life, we must do so by faith. Regardless of how your immediate family treats or treated one another, you have in mind how a healthy nuclear family should interact. By nuclear, I mean mother and father and children in one home.

We understand what healthy behavior looks like. In the church, just as in a nuclear family, we may have hurts and resentments toward family members. We may have frustrations and grudges. And of course, we all have insecurities that affect what we say and do. So, how do we overcome all of that to treat one another as family?

It’s Christ the Lord who has overcome all of that. He conquered the sin so that we may live as a healthy family in the household of God. And so we don’t simply muster the energy to do better. We draw life from Him as the branch draws life from the vine. This is “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” described in Ephesians 1. As we behold Him and commune deeply with Him, the person and work of

Christ is put between us and that other person.Christ put Himself between you and all sin. And He put Himself between you and the judgement of God that your sin deserves. As we come to know Him, He transforms how we want to act. He changes our very desires. He strengthens our faith to act according to His ways.

How does God do this in us? The power comes from the triune God, who by union with Christ, through the Spirit, and by the ordinary means of grace, transforms our inner being. The people of God have been adopted by the Father through Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, redeemed through His blood, forgiven of sins, and sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

As we go to the Lord's Table now, trust Him to commune with you, to strengthen your faith, and to continue conforming you to the likeness of Christ, that we may increasingly live as the family formed by Him.

Bow with me in prayer.

Acts 20 in the NT recounts the words of Paul to the elders of the Ephesian church. He was about to depart Ephesus on his missionary journey, and among other things, Paul says, “I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”

Paul preached God’s revealed truth in its entirety. He withheld nothing from God’s Word out of fear that the Ephesians might not like it. He concealed no doctrine and skipped over no teaching out of concern that someone might disagree and walk away.

It would be like a doctor withholding a diagnosis for fear that the patient might be upset. Both duty and genuine concern demand that the doctor tell the whole truth.

With that same conviction, Paul wrote to Timothy the words we just read. Timothy was not an apostle, but he was tasked with proclaiming apostolic doctrine. But often, people don’t want to hear the commands or the statutes of God.

There’s not always an eagerness to be taught and corrected. People need to hear the hard truth, but when they do, sometimes they reject it. But it can be difficult to be the one proclaiming what God’s Word says.

And yet that is a key part of the work of the pastor. People need God’s correction along with His comfort. We all need our consciences confronted by and reconditioned with His truth. God has appointed the preaching and teaching of His Word as a means of His grace, and these verses today contain a message for both the pastor and the people.

Paul guides the actions of not only the pastor, but the congregation as well. Both can neglect their calling in the body of Christ, causing what should be front and center to fall by the wayside. But God is gracious. He helps us place sound preaching and teaching where it belongs – not only in the church, but in our hearts and minds.

We desperately need to be soothed and shaped by God’s whole counsel. But what are the marks of sound preaching and teaching in Christ’s church?

Paul shows us that it proclaims the whole counsel of God with the authority and manner of Christ, by the gifting and calling of Christ, and for salvation and sanctification in Christ.

Now at this point in the letter, Paul has given Timothy a long list of instructions: shut down false teachers, use God’s good law lawfully, define sin clearly, teach sound doctrine, proclaim the gospel of Christ, and lead prayer for all kinds of people.

Paul gives Timothy a description for godly behavior in the church, along with qualifications for the men who lead the church and its worship. There’s an explanation for the roles of men and women in the church, plus many, many more details.

And with a nod to all that, Paul writes, “Command and teach these things.” What does he mean? Announce these things as a charge to God’s people, and instruct the church with them. Give them knowledge of the truth. Timothy was to speak humbly but confidently with authority: not authority within himself, but on the basis of Christ and His apostles. He was to command and teach these things as if he was Paul or Peter, and the people were to receive it that way.

Imagine someone asks you to watch their house while they’re away. They tell you to keep an eye on this, don’t forget that, make sure this is done, and if something goes wrong, here’s how to handle it. It’s not your house, but you’ve agreed to care for it as if it were your own. In chapter 3, he calls it “the household of God.” Timothy was entrusted with its care.

But what about when he must command or teach people who are older than him? Notice verse [12] “Let no one despise you for your youth,” or “youthfulness.” At that time, anyone under 40 was considered “youthful.” While we don't know Timothy's exact age, presumably he was in his 30s at the most.

Therefore, an older believer might be more likely to dismiss him. He might be insecure about his perceived youthfulness or lack of life experience. Someone might “despise” him for a command he relayed or instruction he gave. But he must never shrink back.

However, this wasn’t a license to be like a bull in a china shop. He shouldn’t run over people. Notice Paul’s wise advice. He adds, “but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

At a different time, Paul told the Corinthians: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Christ Jesus is the measuring stick, not the minister. Timothy and the people should imitate Christ, not our adversaries. Our example is our Lord – who lived life perfectly in our place. Our model is our Messiah – who ransomed us with His righteous blood. Our standard is our Savior – who demonstrated God’s love for us, His former enemies.

Obviously, the only way for Timothy to do this was for Christ to be formed in him. The great gospel realities must govern a pastor’s words and deeds. During His earthly life, Jesus Christ handled every conflict with perfection, not first of all as our example but as our substitute. To see Christ as only an example to imitate diminishes His glory.

He earned and imputes the spotless record of moral perfection to those He saves. That gift, framed by His love and care, must soften and reshape the pastor’s heart. Only then can he set a Christ-like example. The pastor’s speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity must be derivative of the Lord’s.

Now see verse [13] Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” Paul intended to visit Ephesus to preach, teach, and shepherd. In the meantime, Timothy was to do these things. This brings up a point we saw a few weeks ago. A qualified, ordinary minister is not an apostle, but when he faithfully preaches apostolic doctrine, the church truly receives the Word of Christ.

Notice “exhortation” on the list. This word is loaded with meaning. It includes both encouragement and warning. This is preaching. A faithful preacher pleads with human hearts to listen to and obey Christ, to receive and rest in Him, to worship Christ and follow Him.

There are warnings and corrections. God’s people will feel the deep, inward persuasion we call “conviction. You may not like everything you hear, but you should get a great sense of your guilt and an even greater sense of God’s grace.

Do you see the charge to both pastors and people? In turn, the congregation must submit and learn, imitate the Christ-like example, listen and ponder and repent and respond to Christ preached and taught from His Word. Sound preaching and teaching proclaims the whole counsel of God with the authority and manner of Christ. It speaks all that God has said, and it does so in the spirit and character of Jesus.

Now look at verse [14] “Do not neglect the gift you have.” God graciously bestowed on Timothy all that was needed for his pastoral office. Timothy was then called formally to the ministry. “Gift” here seems to be a reference to that call. Dr. Bill Barcley notes that for a pastor, “The call and gifts go hand in hand.”

But to be clear, the source of pastoral gift is God. Notice the next part of the verse, “the gift you have…which was given you by prophecy.” God is the source of what is recognized, affirmed, and pronounced by men – by the elders of the church. This refers to Timothy’s ordination – when he was formally and publicly set apart, see the rest of the verse, “when the council of elders laid their hands on you.”

This isn’t meant to give the impression that the elders transferred any ability or power. Rather, they recognized the ability and power of God. Paul urges Timothy to remember that day, and be encouraged by it. He warns Timothy of being careless about such a gift and call. Even the born-again man, when submitting to his sinful nature, can take it lightly. Before the whole church, Timothy was installed by the elders of the presbytery.

It might help here to picture a man appointed as a military officer. Think of a soldier. A ceremony doesn’t create his strength, or courage, or training, or authority. The men standing there don’t transfer ability to him by placing a pin on his uniform. But the ceremony matters. It is public recognition that this man has been trained, examined, approved, and activated for a particular duty.

And from that day forward, he’s no longer a mere civilian. He’s not free to treat his calling lightly, and he should always remember who appointed him, what has been entrusted to him, and the people whom he is called to serve. Military appointment is no small deal. It is a way of life.

The office of the pastor is similar in many ways. Look at what Paul writes in verse [15], “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them.” The sense here is, “pay careful attention” to the commands and teaching. Take pains to remain faithful and diligent.

“Immerse” is a very good translation. Literally, the Greek here says “Be in them.” You’ve been gifted and called. This is your life now. May it be your duty and delight. The minister should labor in studying, thinking, preaching, teaching, praying, shepherding, serving, and leading, see there, “so that all may see [his] progress.” Timothy was relatively young. He would get better with age. He would grow in every way, and God’s people would grow along with him.

Do you see the charge here to the people? The congregation should deeply value the calling and gifting of the minister. Ephesians 4 says it is a gift to you and your family from Christ Himself. The people should support the pastor’s attentiveness to his calling and gifting. You should receive his ministry as that which Christ has ordained for you.

Again, it must all be wholly derivative of the Lord’s authority and manner, for sound preaching and teaching proclaims the whole counsel of God by the gifting and calling of Christ. There are many pitfalls along the way for the pastor. The apostle Peter wrote, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” When a lion hunts its prey, it sneaks up. The victim may not see the danger until it’s too late. God’s pastor and people must look out for and be thankful for each other.

Now notice this last verse, [16], “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.” A pastor must pay attention to the state of his whole life – inward and outward. The pastor has a lot to keep up with: his own heart, the execution of his duties, his tone, his private thoughts, his public persona, his marriage, his parenting, and of course, “the teaching.”

The doctrine. His ministry of the Word extends from his own experience of Christ. The doctrine is what the congregation hears and believes. Dr. Barcley points out both the positive and negative sense of this. So, positively, he must present truth. Negatively, he must refute error.

I’ve mentioned that when I had my doctor’s check up earlier this year, it wasn’t as routine as it used to be. I’ve had the same doctor for many years. He’s seen me since I was in my early 30s, and I’ll be 50 next year. And over the past few years – especially this year – he’s increased his guidance for things I need to start doing and things I need to stop doing.

I can even tell that he recognizes that our dialogue has changed some. Why? Well, I’m getting older, and to pursue good health, he has to level with me. Now, ultimately, I decide what I do with the information and guidance he gives me. But he’s the one trained and set apart to tell me these things.

They tested my blood, and he interpreted the results and we went from there. He explained what it all meant. It wouldn’t do me any good to just say, “No, I choose not to believe that. I don’t like that diagnosis. I don’t think that’s true. I can do what feels right to me. I can live how I want to live.” I could do that, but my health and my life are at stake.

A great deal is at stake with the preaching and teaching of God’s whole counsel. Notice the rest of verse 16, “Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Timothy must continue to watch his own life and the doctrine he teaches – that is Paul’s command.

This doesn’t contradict any of Paul’s other teachings about who saves people. The Holy Spirit applies the saving work of Jesus Christ to the souls of sinners. God raises sinners from deadness in sins to life in Christ in union with Him. But the means is the preaching and teaching of His Word through His ministers.

In no way does this diminish God’s glory, in fact, it enhances His glory – that He could accomplish His good and holy will through foolish sinners saved by grace! Sound preaching and teaching proclaims the whole counsel of God for salvation and sanctification in Christ. That’s what is on the line: people hearing truth, responding with saving faith, and being made more like Christ.

What’s on the line is the faith and character of the church.

What’s on the line is the wholeness and witness of the church.

The preaching and teaching of God’s whole counsel may not be embraced by all, it may not be attractive to all, but it is innocent of the blood of all.

With sound preaching and teaching, the church is healthy and strong.

With sound preaching and teaching, God’s people are a blessing to the nations.

Where there is sound preaching and teaching, the triune God is glorified and honored,
and His people grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus.

Do you see the charge here to the people of God? To pray for and encourage pastors, to hold them accountable, to persist in hearing, receiving, responding to Christ, and to be saved and further sanctified.

Pastor and people can function according to these ways of God because Christ gave Himself for us and to us. This table is a sign and seal of His great love and sufficient sacrifice. Christ Himself took responsibility for the debt of sin, and He feeds hungry souls with His very self!

By the means He has appointed – Word, sacrament, and prayer – He shapes pastor and people into what we must be. He is our righteousness and our life. Rest in Him today.

Let’s bow in prayer now.

You probably know the feeling of watching your phone battery die. At 80 percent, you barely think about it. At 40 percent, you begin to notice. At 10 percent, you start making decisions around it. You might dim the screen or close apps. You may start looking for an outlet, especially if you need your phone for directions, or communication, or payment. Without thinking about it, your confidence rises and falls with that little battery icon.

That's a small example of a very real problem for each of us. We depend heavily on many things that are only temporary – things that serve a purpose and help us, but can’t sustain us.

The phone battery is a small picture of what happens in our hearts every week. Our hope attaches to things like money, health, plans, productivity, approval, family stability, political outcomes, church circumstances, and personal discipline. If they look strong, we feel secure. If they look weak, we feel anxious or frustrated. And if they fail, we feel shaken.

So my question for you isn't simply, Did you believe in God this week? My question is: What pulled your hope away from the living God this past week? Where was your trust drawn not to your Savior, but to something temporary?

When a person is dead in sins, he or she can't help but hope in worldly, temporal things. And even after Christ frees us from sin’s reign over us, temporary hope in the things of this world still pulls at us. But Christ doesn’t just tell us to “hope better.” He does much more. He anchors our hope in the living God, whose power never dwindles or dies.

So we should set our hope on God our Savior. Notice the outline. What does it look like to set our hope on God our Savior? Let’s look together.

Paul tells Timothy to “put these things before” the members of the Ephesian church. A faithful pastor leads primarily through his preaching and teaching. From the pulpit he proclaims Christ, with sound instruction and shepherding. Through the sermons he delivers and the worship services that he plans and leads, a minister of Word and sacrament continually leads God’s people to Christ their hope.

Only by doing so can a pastor be called “a good servant of Christ Jesus.”  We’ve seen this word translated “servant” before. This is “diakonos.” In chapter 3, we translate it “deacon.” But here, that translation would be wrong based on the context. Timothy was not ordained to the office of deacon, but he was a diakonos or servant of Christ, like how Paul refers to Phoebe in Romans 16 and to himself and Apollos in 1 Corinthians 3.

Preaching, teaching, and shepherding are acts of pastoral service. The pastor is a servant of God’s people. A good pastor is concerned with their care. He prays and labors and keeps watch so that the sheep of Christ might not just attend and give and serve, but that they may have Christ Himself as their wisdom in all things.

For a minister to serve effectively in this way, he must be, as Paul says in verse 6, “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine. The Greek word translated “train” here is different from the words translated in a similar way in verses 7 and 8. This word means “educated.” You might say “brought up” or “nourished.” It has the sense of being taught, raised up, developed over time.

A pastor cannot be trained by a crash course. It will be his responsibility to state and explain the apostolic teaching. That is the significance of these two important phrases. “Words of the faith,” literally the logos or message that we trust – the message of redemption in and through Christ Jesus. We see elsewhere in Scripture that Christ Himself is the logos. The gospel is not just a message about Christ – Christ Himself is the message. He is the good news. Timothy was taught Christ that he might then teach Christ.

You’ve heard “read the Bible.” That’s good. But let’s go one step further now. Read the Bible, that you may learn Christ.

Timothy was also trained “in the words…of the good doctrine” that he “followed.” This is “wise instruction” to which Timothy had faithfully conformed himself. He was taught to be transformed by Christ, with Christ, through the means Christ appointed for his spiritual transformation. Through Word, sacrament, and prayer, Timothy’s own hope in God was cultivated. There is the message, there is the teaching. All of it culminates in Christ the Lord.

How relieving is it to know that not only has Christ secured our hope in God, but that He maintains that security even as our attention drifts to things of this world? Sinners like us can know God and have unalterable peace with Him! The way has been revealed through Christ and His life-giving instruction.

Do we really “feed on Christ?” Spiritually, yes, we do. Christ said He is the bread of life. The psalmist wrote, “How sweet are your words to my taste.” And Christ quoted Moses, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Hope set on God our Savior feeds on Christ Himself through His life-giving instruction. When you’re hungry, you eat. Christ strengthens your hope in God as you feed on Him through His appointed means. Expect Him to transform you within as you do so!

Now, along the lines of what Christ uses for our transformation, Paul discusses what Christ does not use. He says, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.” These were speculations and legends about biblical figures that had no credibility. Speculation perhaps about angels or Satan. In some cases, these included superstitious beliefs.

Timothy was to avoid these and teach the church to do the same. Why? Because they distract from Christ and the truth. The appeal was new information. We love a secret uncovered. These myths gave the appearance of spiritual knowledge – but they achieved nothing. Paul says instead “train yourself for godliness.” This “training” is literally “exercise.” This is strength training. It’s spiritual fitness.

Physical fitness is a major industry in the U.S. As of 2024, the fitness industry accounted for over $22 billion of economic activity and created almost 433,000 direct jobs in the U.S. People care about physical exercise in this country!

Obviously, some methods or means for getting fit work better than others. Some proposed methods probably don’t accomplish much at all. The same is true for spiritual exercise. There’s a lot out there: spiritual-looking distractions that produce talk, speculation, and self-reliance rather than faith in Christ and true godliness.

So, for example, self-made spirituality is widespread. Things like "manifesting," speaking your reality into existence, or using faith as a technique to get the life you want. There's a great deal of Christianized superstition (treating phrases, numbers, dreams, coincidences, or impressions as secret messages from God apart from Scripture). Also, many people are distracted by an end-times obsession, with charts, date-setting, and prophecy speculation that produce fear and curiosity more than holiness and faithfulness.

Additionally, conspiracy-driven Christianity has a strong appeal, interpreting the world mainly through hidden plots rather than Scripture, providence, sin, grace, and Christ’s reign. We see therapeutic self-salvation, making Christianity mainly about self-acceptance, self-fulfillment, or emotional wellness rather than repentance, faith, and godliness. And we’re offered moralistic life hacks, with religious-sounding advice about habits, success, and potential, but little dependence on Christ.

People can be enamored by speculative spiritual warfare. Overconfident claims are made about demons, angels, territorial spirits, or generational spirits, going beyond Scripture. Legalistic holiness systems pop up as well, with man-made rules treated as marks of superior godliness.

We learned last week about anti-creation teaching. These false teachings treat marriage, food, the body, or ordinary created gifts as spiritually inferior in themselves. And today we continually hear about hidden-meaning Bible systems (Bible codes, numerology, or private interpretive keys that claim to uncover the real meaning of Scripture).

And last but not least, with the rise of social media, there’s a deluge of influencer-driven spirituality. People rely on the charisma, personality, or novelty of an online personality more than the ordinary means of grace administered in the local church.

But we need the right kind of spiritual exercise for true godliness. What is this "godliness?" This is the same word Paul used back 1 Timothy 3, in the passage we proclaimed earlier. But Paul uses the word differently here. Here we learn that the Christ who revealed the righteousness of God and who makes us righteous positionally before God is the same Christ who now actively conforms us to that righteousness. He works through our spiritual training (or exercise).

And Paul compares physical vs. spiritual exercise for development and strength. Look at verse [8] for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” This is a case for the greater value of spiritual fitness.

It’s notable here that exercise for the body is beneficial. Have you heard this old saying? “Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness.” Physical exercise is profitable. But spiritual exercise through which we lay hold of Christ is more profitable.

Why? Well, your body will remain on earth when you die; your soul will be with Christ. The body will decay; the soul will live on with the Lord in glory. And on the new earth, when Christ returns, your decayed body will be made new. Apparently this comparison of bodily and spiritual fitness was a common saying. Notice he adds, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.”

Isn’t God so kind, so loving and gracious, to tell us that if we have wasted time and energy on what does not produce true godliness, to do it no longer? Instead, by grace we can exercise our souls to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” Again, with His Word, sacraments, and prayer, in community and fellowship with His people, we can experience the shifting of our hope from the temporary to the eternal.

In love, God invites us and enables you today to identify the “empty calories” in your spiritual diet, to recognize the useless exercises that have no spiritual value, and to join the spiritual fitness program of Christ!

Do you believe that Christ can do this? That expectation within you is hope. Hope set on God our Savior turns from what is empty to what leads to true godliness. The past is the past. Begin again today. Christ with His grace trains us to keep starting again, though many things hinder.

Look at verse [10]. Paul says, “For to this end we toil and strive.” For the godliness formed in us by Christ, all believers must “toil”. Effort must be put forward: we must use the means and put sin to death. And all believers must “strive” though “struggle” might better capture the meaning here. Difficulties must be endured. Sufferings must be experienced. But hope is produced.

This hope is in view Romans 5. Paul writes, “since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame." This hope is a confident expectation that all God promised He will fulfill.

We endure sufferings and put forth intentional effort for spiritual growth, “because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people.” We do this because we trust that Christ has dealt with our sin and guilt, He has overcome them, He has made us righteous in the sight of God, He has applied His saving work to our souls, and He will finish what He began in us. Therefore, we can and we will withstand whatever comes our way.

And it’s not just one race of people or socio-economic class. It’s not just one tribe or nation or language. God is the Savior of “all people, especially of those who believe.” Like “all” back in chapter 2, this means “all kinds” of people. It’s not universalism. It’s the promise of God to Abraham, that people from every nation will be blessed,

“Especially of those who believe.” God shows common grace to all people. The sun shines on the righteous and wicked. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. But He shows His special, saving grace to those He saves in Christ.

Let this soothe your soul today, that though your walk with Christ may seem at times like one step forward and two steps back, with Christ you can only move forward. Valleys and deserts seem like useless wandering, but God is with you and working.

Feed on Christ, turn from what is empty, do this by faith, and He will strengthen your hope. He will cause you to set your hope on Him, and He will keep you going, because hope set on God our Savior trusts that our effort and struggle for godliness are not in vain.

Picture a child whose parents leave him a great inheritance. He doesn’t have all of it in his hands yet. He still has to pay bills, and carry burdens, enduring hard days. But if the inheritance is certain, then the present hardship isn’t the whole story. He can endure in the present because what belongs to him is secure.

The OT prophet Jeremiah recognized this. In the ruins of Jerusalem, surrounded by grief and loss, he longed for the fulfillment of the promises of God, and he wrote, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

God revealed to Jeremiah that the greatest “portion” – the best allotment or inheritance to receive – is God Himself. To have God. To have God in the world. Jeremiah looked forward to what we look back on: we can have God because God came to us. We have God, because we have Christ.

Don’t you want God in your life? Then receive and rest in Christ. He offers Himself and His life to you today. This table testifies to that offer and to His promise and power to strengthen your hope.

Let’s bow in prayer.

Imagine that you’re very hungry, and you walk into a room where you see a bowl of fruit sitting on a table. It looks fresh and nourishing. Just the sight of it intensifies your hunger. You crave the fruit. But when you pick it up, you realize it’s artificial.


It has the appearance of life, but not the substance.

Scripture warns that man-made religion is that way. It may look spiritual. It may seem wise and disciplined. But beneath the surface, it can’t produce the life or holiness you desire.

The apostle Paul says that self-made religion has “the appearance of wisdom,”
but in Jesus Christ, true wisdom has appeared. In Titus 2, he states that, “the grace of God has appeared.” Salvation and and the power for inner transformation have come – not by human willpower, not through self-denial or self-discipline, not by enlightenment within, but through a person. Grace appeared in Jesus Christ, and so Paul says that Christ “became to us wisdom from God.”

Christ is the knowledge we need.

We’re drawn to the idea that the power is within us. Transformation we can control sounds good. But at the core, focusing on things like becoming more self-aware, controlling behavior through discipline, suppressing ordinary desires and appetites to unlocking a better life are just various expressions of human willpower dressed up as wisdom.

Rather, our focus must be on the person and work of Christ. In 1 Timothy 4, Paul warns Timothy about these philosophies that appeal to the sinful nature but actually pull sinners away from Christ. Christ must our only ground for confidence, hope, identity, and righteousness.

But how do we look only to Him as our wisdom? What Paul says here can be summarized as you see there on page 6: Beware self-glorifying worship, which comes from hell, and Enjoy God-glorifying gifts that come from heaven.

Life in Christ is not characterized by burdensome restrictions. There is freedom in Christ. He is our true wisdom for living. Let’s look closer at how.

Now, Paul began this letter warning about false teachers. Here, he returns to that subject. Verse [1], “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”

When did “the Spirit” say this? In Matthew 24, Jesus says, “Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.” That’s just one example of divine revelation ultimately given by the Holy Spirit.

“Later times” is equivalent to the more-often used phrase “the last days.” This is the period of time between the first and second comings of Christ. During this time, some will start out in the visible covenant community but then leave. Some will “depart from” – withdraw from or fall away from – what true Christians believe. They may still call themselves Christians, but they believe and practice something else: not apostolic doctrine, not what Jude the brother of Jesus called “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

What were these false teachers doing? “Devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” On the surface, false teachers probably don’t promote worship of Satan, but he is the one behind their teachings. Satan is a deceiver. He distorted the truth. From the beginning, he has twisted God’s words, offering so-called “true” knowledge and “true” life. These false teachers may appear knowledgeable and disciplined, but they are human puppets on strings pulled by demons.

Notice verse [2] “through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” These teachers don’t see themselves as deceived or manipulated. The term “insincerity” – which some translate “hypocrisy” – indicates that it’s an act. They appear devoutly religious, but it’s all a show. Why would someone behave this way? There’s a demonic influence for sure, but Paul says their “consciences are seared.”

The conscience is the God-given inner moral compass. Searing involves “branding with a hot iron.” Sensitivity is lost. These false teachers become calloused. Dr. Bill Barcley says, “They are no longer kept in check by the God-ordained pangs of conscience.” Hunger pangs tell you eat. Conscience tells you right and wrong. Knowingly and continually going against sound conscience is very harmful.

Now look at what these teacher were doing, verse [3], “who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods.” Why would they demand these things? Paul addresses this strict religious self-disciple in Colossians 2. He says, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”

False teachers say were telling people that self-denial would get them more knowledge from God and make them more holy. But Paul responds argues against this from God’s works and words at Creation. He points out that marriage and various food are things “that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

This includes the foods that were – for a time – prohibited for ancient Israel. During that season, God labeled certain foods “unclean” as a means to separate Israel from the pagan nations. They couldn’t even sit down to eat with pagans. However, in Acts 10, the apostle Peter receives a vision in which the Lord makes clear that no food is inherently unclean, therefore no person should be called unclean on the basis of OT ceremonial law.

Various forms of this pop up in every generation. The message is “Enlightenment is a set of rules” or “Wholeness is a set of restrictions.” Basically “The power is inside of you.” The true Christian faith says “The power is Christ alone, and Christ in you.” He transforms the heart and life.

Each form of false religion is an attempt to be righteous, sanctified and redeemed. But the answer is not a series of hoops to jump through or a mountain to climb. We don’t journey to the wisdom that brings enlightenment and wholeness. Wisdom came to us. Righteous, sanctification, and redemption appeared. And we receive it, not by self-discipline or self-denial, but by faith.

Wisdom is not a philosophy. He is a person.

Wisdom is not a rigorous system. He is a Savior.

Wisdom is not a set of rules. He is a Redeemer.

Christ is our access to wisdom, but He’s more than that. He Himself is our Wisdom. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul writes, that because of God’s grace “you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Through Him – and more specifically, in union with Him – we know God. He reveals what God wants from us and what God has for us.

Do you want Christ as the only ground of your confidence and identity today? Then beware self-glorifying worship, which comes from hell. Who falls for these “teachings of demons?” Often, it’s people who have guilt over excesses. So, strict denial seems like the answer. They might be driven by shame or a need to feel righteous.

Do you live under that burden? That’s not true Christianity. True Christianity glorifies Christ, not the human self. But that doesn’t mean that true Christianity is constant self-deprecation and denial. It’s freedom to enjoy God-glorifying gifts that comes from heaven.

Look at verse [4]. Paul says “For everything created by God is good.” Genesis 1 says “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Marriage is good. Marital intimacy and the marriage bed are good. And all that God has given us which we can eat is good.

There is a place and time for self-denial. I’ll say more about that next week. It’s healthy to abstain from some things for a time. But the things God created are to be enjoyed. These sense here, however, is that we can only enjoy them as they should be enjoyed if Christ is our wisdom. Otherwise, we’re prone to make idols of these things.

In every generation, there are people who recognize this. They recognize that there are many ways to go wrong with marriage and food. And so the logic is “Deny yourself.” Some people take it to extremes. But look at Paul’s advice.

“Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” With this short statement, guided by the Spirit, he gets to the attitude of the heart. First, see Christ, your wisdom, then see the provision of God. And enjoy God’s gifts – guided by the grace and knowledge of Christ. Seeing every good gift from God as an extension of the first and greatest gifts: life and salvation in Jesus Christ.

When we pray, we pray “in the name of” Jesus Christ. Why? Because He is our access to the living God. Our prayers are washed in His blood. He is our “righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We don’t just talk to God. In Christ and because of Christ we talk to God.

Why do we give thanks before a meal? To cultivate a thankful heart. See verse [5], “for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” That’s why we pray and “ask the blessing” or “give thanks” at meals. When we given thanks, we’re consecrating these things, setting them apart – not that we purify them any way but that we receive them as gifts from God  and we ask him to use them to make us strong and able to serve Him. Looking at the verse again, “the word of God” refers to what God said at creation. He said that what He made is good. And “prayer” refers to our prayers of thanks for all that God has given to us.

There’s a negative command here, but also a positive command. Beware self-glorifying worship but Enjoy God-glorifying gifts. We’re prone to excess. We’re prone to turn God’s gifts into ultimate things, things we worship and treasure more than we treasure God Himself. But the answer is not more self-denial and restriction.

That’s not wisdom. It has the appearance of wisdom, but that’s not wise.

The answer is seeing and savoring the goodness of Christ our Lord. The answer to our excess and our idolatry is not denial of self. It’s devotion to Jesus. Enjoy God-glorifying gifts that comes from heaven – and the most God-glorifying gift that came from heaven is Christ the Lord.

Do you look to Him – and do you see everything through Him? He invites us to His table not to deny but to delight.

Let’s bow before Him prayer.

In Galatians 5, Paul makes an essential clarification for Christians. Speaking to those who belong to Christ, he describes a inward battle between the flesh and the Spirit,
between the new nature and the sin nature. He says, “these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

The struggle doesn’t mean that you don’t belong to Christ, but it does mean that even as believers, we should be aware of the conflict and rest in Christ alone as our righteousness.

The struggle also means that we don’t always embrace the truth. We read that God’s people – His church – are to be “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” We’re to uphold the truth and live according to it. But who can honestly claim to have always and continually done that?

Only Jesus Christ can make such a claim. He perfectly upheld the truth during life on this earth. In fact, He was and continues to be the very embodiment of truth.

Many things interfere with our desire to uphold the truth. Things like pride, self-protection, people pleasing, fear, comfort-seeking, even exhaustion get in the way. It’s discouraging to say the least. But this is our comfort: Christ upheld the truth in our place.

He entirely wiped away the guilt of sins.

He fully credited us with His righteousness.

And He is the way that we as His church become upholders of the truth.

He is the way to what Paul calls “godliness.” These verses show us how.

Now, there is some common misunderstanding here, and to be honest, even once we understand it, we’re still prone to mishandle it. The key distinction is outlined in these points on page 6 in the WG. Christ defines godliness through His Word and Spirit, but He produces godliness through His person and work.

Yes, we must hear and understand what is true. We must be taught what godliness is. But being told the truth is not enough to cause us to love the truth. Instruction alone can’t make the heart love what is right. Christ must work within us. As He causes us to behold Him and all that He is for sinners, He reshapes our desires. If we miss this distinction, obedience becomes man-centered. But Scripture teaches us to begin by treasuring the Godly One.

Now, these verses mark the end of a long section on instructions for the church. Through chapter 2 and this chapter, Paul expresses many “dos and dont’s” – rules and guidelines communicating God’s will for His church. Notice verse [14] again. Paul says, “I hope to come to you soon.”

He wanted to visit and tell them this information in person. And yet, he adds, “but I am writing these things to you so that, [15] if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.” In his role as an apostle, Paul functioned like an OT prophet. He announced God’s will to His people. Notice here that God’s will written down is just as good as His will spoken in person. In writing is just as valid as in person.

In 2 Peter 3, the apostle Peter equates Paul’s writings with OT Scripture, and elsewhere, Paul states that Scripture is “breathed out by God.” That’s how God’s Word has been given to His people. Peter says “No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

God is love, and He has a will and a plan for us. So doesn’t it follow that in love He would inform us of those things? Yes, and He has. God has revealed His desires and His plans for us. We have them recorded in His trustworthy written Word. But not everyone sees the Scriptures as the true Word of God. Something else is necessary to recognize it as His Word.  Or rather, Someone else is necessary.

The Holy Spirit must illuminate our minds. 1 Corinthians 2 says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The Spirit of God must “turn on the lights” in our minds, so to speak, because the human mind is naturally darkened by sin.

So what’s in view here is the written Word of the Lord, given through Paul by the Spirit’s power, as well as the Spirit of the Lord who enables us to understand and receive it.

God is gracious to give us eyes to see, minds to understand, and hearts to receive truth. He’s no respecter of persons. He reveals truth even to those who are weak and lowly, while hiding it from those who are powerful and proud. Feeling your weakness and your need is a good thing.

Now notice that Paul wants them to know “how one ought to behave in the household of God.” Where does God live? Well, He’s omnipresent. He’s everywhere. But He dwells particularly in and with His new-covenant people “which is the church of the living God.” The “church” is the community or public assembly of God’s people. And the one true God is “living” – in contrast with all the false, pagan gods of the ages.

Paul says that God’s household and church is “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” This helps us understand the church’s relationship to the truth. Of course, it’s God’s truth. The church didn’t originate the truth. Rather, the God of truth originated the church. And the church didn’t discover the truth. God revealed the truth to His church. But God has established the church to uphold His truth. That’s the meaning of “pillar and buttress” here.

In construction, pillars and buttresses are means of support. A pillar stands beneath; a buttress comes from the side. God strengthens His church to support His truth. He uses the church to display His truth before men. The church proclaims the truth, even as the Word and Spirit proclaim truth to us. The church defends the truth, even as God defends her.

The truth is under constant attack in the world. Some attacks are obvious; some are more covert. Some attacks come from outside the church; some come from within. Remember, we have a battle going on inside of us. The new self loves the truth; the old self hates the truth.

Some of you need to be assured that this inner struggle is normal Christianity. To enjoy that assurance, linger with and mull over the reality that you died with Christ, our charges are dropped, and therefore you have peace with God forever. The battle rages within you, so that you agree with Paul when He says in Romans 7, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

But in Christ, your pre-conversion and post-conversion sins are forgiven by Christ. You need to chew on that, so that you might rest in what remains true and unchangeable whether you are able to rest in it or not. I say this because as the inward struggle persists, you may fear that some sinful thought or urge defines who you are – but it doesn’t. If you are in Christ, He defines you. He is your life. You can rest in God’s love for you.

When Paul tells them “how one ought to behave in the household of God,” He’s reiterating that Christ defines godliness for His church, and He does so through His Word and Spirit. Christ tells us what to do and not do, and by His grace and power, we comprehend it. However, that is enough to produce godliness in us.

As I said before, simply being told what is right is not how we experience change. God’s instructions are true and reasonable, but again, we have this inward struggle. This presence of the sinful nature within us is what leads Paul to say – in Romans 8 – that God’s law was weakened by the flesh. God’s law was weakened by the flesh. This means that because of sin, the law can’t produce obedience. Christ defines godliness for us through His Word and Spirit, but more is needed to produce godliness in us.

Look at verse [16]. “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: “We confess” is to say something like “we all agree.” The church agrees concerning the mystery – what was hidden but is now revealed. It’s the revelation “of godliness.”

This relates back to what Paul said in verse 15. This is the revelation of how it’s possible for the church to behave as God desires us to -  the revelation of how it’s possible for us to be the people of God. Paul is about to express what was hidden but is now clearly seen. And these next lines were likely a common confessional statement in the churches.

Think of something like the Doxology, for example. The Doxology is not a quote from the Bible. Thomas Ken, a minister in the church of England, wrote the Doxology around 1674. You might think, “Wait, didn’t Paul already reveal godliness to us in chapters 2 and 3?” Yes – but how can sinners do the things he said? How can our desires change so that we uphold the truth?

Something was hidden but has now appeared to enable the church to uphold the truth. Paul says it over in Titus 2. He writes, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”

It was Christ who appeared and brought salvation, wasn’t it? The grace of God appeared in the living person and the saving work of Christ. As we think carefully about Him, He works powerfully in us.

And so Paul describes the person and work of Christ in detail here. Notice, “He was manifested in the flesh.” This is the incarnation of Christ. He took on a human body and nature. His pre-existence is implied. So, He was God the Son from eternity past. Then He became man.

Next, He was “vindicated by the Spirit.” This refers to His resurrection. Christ was crucified and seemingly cursed, but His resurrection from the dead proved that He was truly the Christ. He had been mocked and called a liar. His death seemed to prove that He was a fake. But His resurrection proved He was from heaven.

Also, He was “seen by angels.” His work encompassed both the spiritual and physical realms. Even angels in heaven observed the effects of His great work.

And He was “proclaimed among the nations.” This refers to the preaching of Christ, to evangelism and the Great Commission. His gospel was spread and continues to be.

Also, Christ was “believed on in the world.” More and more people have trusted Him. And He was “taken up in glory.” Christ ascended to heaven and He rules from there, where He is seated in glory. Therefore, we know for certain that the work of the church will succeed.

All of this is “the mystery of godliness.” Dr. John MacArthur explains this well. He states that this mystery “refers to the truths of salvation and righteousness in Christ, which produce holiness in believers.” True godliness flows from Christ. Therefore we must depend on Him and not ourselves.

In Isaiah 30, God told His people, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” This doesn’t mean that we must become monks or nuns or that stop all activity to pray and meditate all day long. But it does mean that must intentionally and continually turn the eyes of our hearts to Him served and saved us. Christ is the mystery now revealed. He is godliness and truth in person.
 
Did you notice the word “surety” in the first song we sang this morning? “Before the throne my Surety stands.” There’s a note explaining that in the margin. Surety” means “a person who takes responsibility for another's performance of an undertaking, for example their appearing in court or the payment of a debt.” If you have trusted in Christ, He is your Surety.

Do you feel like your performance is never enough? Christ took responsibility for you, and performed perfectly. Do you struggle with guilty fears? Christ was the bleeding sacrifice who appeared on your behalf.

Through His Word and Spirit, Christ has defined godliness for us. He has told us what it is and how it looks. All of His Word, OT and NT does that. But through His very person and work, Christ produces that godliness in us.

To be clear, the Spirit is at work in the producing as well. And yes, we must take steps in obedience. But like Paul, we do so “with all [Christ’s] energy that He powerfully works within” us. Paul literally says there, “with all [Christ’s] working that He powerfully works within” us. He works in us as we look to Him, the author and perfecter of our faith. The one who brought us to God!

We naturally think of Christ the way we think about a GPS app. The GPS shows us the route. It tells us exactly where to turn. But the GPS doesn’t take us to the destination. You can have flawless directions and still be sitting in your driveway. Why?

Because directions aren’t enough. We also need an engine. We need the power that actually moves the car. And many Christians misunderstand the Lord, assuming that after He saves us, He simply points out the road. They think He saved us and now we make this thing go with His direction.

Yes, He tells us what humility, purity, self-control, and faithfulness looks like. But He hasn’t merely handed us the direction. He supplies the engine by His living power at work within us. Through His Word and Spirit He defines godliness for us, and through that same Spirit, as we look to Him in faith, He produces the very godliness He commands.

This is important to understand as we go to His table. Godliness is not first a matter of getting better instructions. It’s a matter of deeper dependence upon the living Christ. At His table, we see that He hasn’t just give us directions – He’s given us Himself.

Will you believe on Him now, admin your sin and need, and trust in Him?

Let’s bow in prayer.

During WWII, England needed to increase its production of coal, so Winston Churchill spoke to the labor leaders and requested their help.

He asked them to imagine a great victory parade at the end of the war. And in the parade, first would come the soldiers who fought on land, then the sailors who fought on the sea, then the pilots who fought in the air. And then would come this group of sweaty coal miners covered in black soot.

Churchill said someone would shout to the miners, “Where were you during the critical days of our struggle?” And they all would reply, “We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.”

Some jobs may be less prominent or dazzling, but they are just as important. You may not think of sympathy or service as necessary for the church to withstand false teaching, but they are. And so the office of deacon is set forth in Scripture.

Paul wrote 1 Timothy to help the church in Ephesus – where believers faced false teaching that was causing great harm. In this letter to young Timothy, he urges him to defend the truth as a overseer. But these next verses show us that ordained overseers and servants are necessary.

For sure, every member of His Church is a servant of Christ. But deacons are men set apart to lead the way in service. They spearhead “deed ministry” as the elders do with “word ministry.”

“Deacon” comes from the Greek “diakonos” which means “one who renders service.” The deacons are the called, trained, and ordained servants of Christ. The section of 1 Timothy outlines the qualifications for their office, and a close look at the qualifications reveals why the office is essential.

You’ll notice that this office shares many qualifications with elder, though there are some notable differences. Deacons embody the Lord’s integrity, model His faithfulness, and gain His commendation. They are a given to the Church by the Lord Himself, and they are vital for church health.

Now, the office of deacon first appears in the NT in Acts 6. The apostles – who were the first elders of the church – appointed seven men chosen by the church to distribute food to needy widows. The selection of these men and the creation of their office clearly demonstrates that God cares about the whole person. And what’s more, He cares for the whole person. He provides what we need to live. We look to Him to provide, and recognize that all we have is from Him.

They were “seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.” Their labor allowed the apostles to devote themselves to word ministry and prayer. Of course, as more churches were planted, more deacons were needed. And so a clear list of qualifications were necessary.

Look again at verse 8. “Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.” This list comes right after the qualifications for overseers or “elders.” Deacons too must be honorable men. They shouldn’t be ones who surrender their self-control or love money, because they would be handling the church’s resources, finances, and possessions. So they must be trustworthy.

Why “not double-tongued,” meaning “devious in speech?” Those who steal don’t normally say, “Hey, just want to let you know I’m stealing.” No – they say one thing but do another. They conceal their crimes.

And see verse [9], “They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.” Paul uses the word “mystery” again just seven verses later, in the same way he also used the word in the book of Ephesians. The “mystery” is God’s work of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ – how God brought Jews and Gentiles together after all years of OT history. The mystery is Christ and His gospel.

Deacons must believe on and love Christ and His gospel. Deacons must be doctrinally sound. This is why, when we train potential officers here, we teach the same theological content to all of them, and we test them on that same content. Even though deacons aren’t called to teach, they still must hold to all the precious truths of God.

In addition, notice verse [10], “And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.” When appointing deacons, the church and the session of elders must consider how these the deacon candidates have handled the challenges in their lives. Have they shown that they could hold the office and perform their duties with integrity?

That’s the gist of this first part: these must be men who have grown in Christlikeness.
Because that is the goal for every member in the covenant community: that we would imitate Christ, growing in faith and character, growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ, loving and serving others, and living according to the truth of God. God is shaping a people of integrity.

Raymond Floyd was a professional golfer who won four major tournaments – including the 1976 Masters. He’s a Hall of Famer who inspired awe among spectators with his talent. But in 1986, he inspired awe for a different reason.

During a tournament that year, while in the lead during the third round, as he was about to tap in a 9 inch putt, he saw the ball move slightly. Floyd didn’t know if anyone else noticed, but according to the rules, he imposed a one-stroke self penalty on himself. When asked about it later, Floyd said, “If you lead your life by the standards of the rules of golf, you'll be in pretty good shape.”

Golf is referred to as a “gentlemen’s game.” Why? In part because it emphasizes integrity.

Integrity is being the same person in private that you are in public. It means doing what is right even when no one sees. It means that you keep your word. Have you ever said you would do something, but later, you didn’t want to do it? Psalm 15 says that a man of integrity “swears to his own hurt and does not change.” Doing what’s right, even when it’s not what’s easy.

The church needs men of integrity. The Lord gives His church ordained servants who embody His integrity – because only Christ embodies perfect integrity, and He’s at work in and among us, forming a people of integrity.

God decrees difficult situations, and as we endure them, Christ is working in us. He’s shaping all of us into honorable, trustworthy believers who serve others with dignity
and hold tightly to the precious truth of God. The Lord is forming hearts that love His gospel and serve His church. Deacons lead the way in that service.

Now look at verse [11]. “Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.” There’s not a parallel statement in 1 Timothy about elder’s wives, though verse 11 should describe them as well. But a deacon’s wife may serve alongside him as he fulfills his office in ways that an elder’s wife cannot serve alongside an elder –  especially in matters of teaching and ruling. A deacon’s wife, while not ordained like him, can help in any matter of serving and especially in the care of women.

The word Paul uses here could also be translated simply “women.” Why then do we opt for “wives?” Well, Paul uses this same word in Ephesians 5 where he writes, “Wives, submit to your husbands.” But perhaps more importantly, notice verse 12. “Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.” The deacon’s wife is in view here.

Now, elders have the same qualifications. They must be faithful in marriage and godly managers of their home. A deacon – as the head of his home – should manage and lead in his own house. Otherwise, how can he be entrusted to manage in God’s house.

On a different note, this is more evidence for why the office is reserved for men. Like the headship in the home, deacon and overseer are roles of authority in the church. But almost inevitably, someone will ask, “What about Romans 16:1?” What about Phoebe?”

In Romans 16:1, Paul writes, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae.” Some translate this “deaconness.” As I said earlier, the word “deacon” simply means “servant.” Now, it’s true that the word Paul uses to describe Phoebe is the female version of servant or deacon. So, the question often asked is, “Was she ordained to office like Stephen or Philip in Acts 6? Was she appointed to the office in view in 1 Timothy 3:8-13?” However, the context of those passages steers us toward only men for the office.

But – we should view Phoebe as an exceptional and precious female servant of Christ. All the members serve – but some are exceptionally gifted in service. They can always be relied upon. They always go above and beyond. It’s as if they have a motor within that never quits! They love to serve. You might say that live to serve. Such a person doesn’t need a title. They don’t need to installed to an office to do what they do. Phoebe was such a woman.

Also, to understand Romans 16:1, I think 1 Corinthians 3:5 bears mentioning. Paul writes, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed.” Technically, “servants” in that verse could be rendered “deacons,” but that wouldn’t make sense, because it goes against the context of Paul’s statement. Paul and Apollos has different roles, though both were teachers of the Word. But neither one is ever called a “deacon.” However, they were servants of Christ.

We’re all servants, but some are servants appointed to the office of deacon. As they lead their homes and marriages, so they lead in the church: faithfully. Because He means to shape His church in faithfulness, the Lord gives His church ordained servants who model His faithfulness.

If you say you’re Christian, that means you are for Christ. So if you’re for Christ, what are you for faithfulness? Is it a priority for you? Do you say or do things that would deem you unfaithful? Do you entertain desires that don’t characterize a faithful person?

Now, of course, we’re all guilty of this – but do you allow unfaithfulness to abide? As you behold the glory of the faithful Jesus Christ who loved you and gave Himself for you, you will become increasingly uncomfortable with unfaithfulness. Commit your heart again today to the Faithful One. He will produce faithfulness in You. He is gracious, understanding, and compassionate. Begin again with Him today.

Now look finally at verse [13]. “For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” This is a very interesting statement to conclude this section of his letter. Admittedly, I had to spend some time on this one. What is Paul getting at here?

Well, this confirms that serving is often less prominent and dazzling. Therefore it may not be appreciated as much in the eyes of people. Paul says when deacons fulfill their roles well, people will notice be appreciative. But more importantly, God will see and He will be pleased.

If you’ve ever been to a play or a big musical production, you notice that, at the end, the actors come back on stage and receive applause. Actors are essential, but so is the stage crew. If the lighting had failed, or the sound didn’t work, or if the stagehands had not built a set or set up properly between scenes, the audience probably wouldn’t be applauding.

But you never see the stage crew. They’re not in the spotlight. But when they perform their roles well, the whole production succeeds. Those who are aware of the people behind the scenes deeply appreciate them. Paul is saying that faithful service may be less visible, but it is essential and it will not go unnoticed. Deacons will receive the praise of others, but more importantly, of God.

Whose commendation do you seek in your life? Is it just the praise of people that you live for? Because if so, then when you get that, you have your reward. This is a good word for all of God’s people – that when you serve Christ faithfully, you will grow in your faith and character. You will become more like Christ.

You see, there’s a labor God does in us as we labor for Him. The office of deacons testifies to the result of serving well: the Lord means to build a people who will gain His commendation through service, and so He gives His church ordained servants who gain His commendation.

You must serve according to His gifts and calling. And like the deacons who lead us in service, you too will gain the Lord’s praise. Serving is the overlooked strength of the church. This which makes sense, because we naturally overlook and undervalue those who serve us. But Christ values servants, because He was a servant Himself.

Mark 10 says that Christ, “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Through serving, Christ saved His church. And He serves us still, strengthening and preserving His church. If you desire to know Christ more, serve with and among His people.

Word ministry and deed ministry are both vital. Like the two sides of a coin, each needs the other. Therefore elders and deacons stand together – serving Christ and His people, and they serve alongside His people, as He causes His church to stand against false teaching.

Now, as we go to His table, let’s continue to reflect on how far Christ went to serve and save us, and if you have never trusted in Christ, may you do so today.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

Imagine parents in the hospital shortly after the birth of their child. Picture the mom lying in bed holding the little baby, and dad is by her side. Then a nurse walks in and hands them a piece of paper. The parents look at it, confused, and dad says, “What is this?” And the nurse says, “That’s your baby’s diploma, for completing birth.” It would be absurd, wouldn’t it?

I want you to think about two kinds of certificates: a diploma and a birth certificate. One represents what you’ve done, the other records something that happens to you. One you earn, the other you simply receive.

Many people think of baptism like a diploma – as a pronouncement of what the baptized person has done. That’s not surprising, because we naturally rely on our own actions and efforts rather than seeing that God alone must save us.

But baptism isn’t a sign of what the believer does. It’s a sign of what God does. It’s more like a birth certificate, signifying God’s work of salvation and a person’s reception into the covenant community. Salvation is God-centered, God-initiated, and God-accomplished. And we see this across the whole Bible.

In both the Old and New Testaments, God commands that an outward sign be given to mark the members of His covenant community and to teach us about His saving work. Under the old covenant, that sign was circumcision. Under the new covenant, Jesus gave baptism.

Now, from the old covenant to the new, some things carried over, other things changed. But there’s a fundamental continuation that you must recognize: the old and new covenants are not two different ways of salvation but two stages of same Covenant of Grace. In the covenant of grace, salvation is received, not earned.

And in this covenant, God has always given signs that point to the salvation accomplished by Christ. Christ didn’t come to start something completely new. Through His life, death, and resurrection, He inaugurated the new covenant as the final and complete form of God’s covenant of grace to fulfill what God had promised long before.

That’s what Paul shows us here in Colossians 2. The signs point not to what we do, but to what God does for sinners in Christ: He unites sinners to Christ through faith in Christ alone, He cleanses sinners of their sin through faith in Christ alone, and He raises sinners to new life through faith in Christ alone,

Now, for a little background on Colossians, Paul wrote this letter to the church in Colossae, a city in what is now SW Turkey. The believers there were being told they needed special experiences and strict discipline to truly know God. Basically, their faith in Jesus Christ was not enough.

This kind of false teaching is still around today in various forms. Some say you need a powerful spiritual experience to really know God, or that you must work hard to stay close to God. Some believe that certain Christians have “something more” than others, or that Jesus gets you started in the faith, but you have to keep yourself saved. Often, Christianity is presented as self-improvement rather than Christ-dependence.

In each case, the focus moves from what God has done in and through Christ to what people must do or not do. Paul tells the Colossians not to be taken captive by these lies because, see verse 9, “in him (meaning Christ) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

Have you been to a restaurant that puts your food in a white foam carryout tray, and when you open the tray, there’s a mountain of food? They completely filled it up!

All who trust in Christ “have been filled.” Paul is saying that if you are in Christ, you lack nothing of God. Christ is not partially divine. He was and is fully God. And He remained fully God even as He came to earth and took on a fully human nature. So, the whole fullness of God was present in bodily form in Christ, and if you have Christ, you have all of God.

This filling is also described as being united with Christ, as we read earlier in Romans 6. To be in union with Christ is to fully belong to Him and be known by Him. To be in union with Christ is to share fully in His life. That can’t occur while a person is still spiritually dead in their sins. Paul says believers were dead in sins but made alive with Christ.

Christ died in the body, but was made alive again by the Holy Spirit, and elsewhere Paul explains what this means for himself and all who trust in Jesus. He says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the [body] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

When you are spiritually united with Him, you don’t become Jesus, but all that is His – the righteousness and all the blessings of God – becomes yours. Paul isn’t saying that Christ has fullness and you receive just a portion of it. He is saying that believers are joined to Christ Himself, and because we are joined to Him, what is His becomes ours.

And notice again, Christ is “the head of all rule and authority.” Scripture presents Jesus Christ as not only the ruler of His church, but as the supreme Ruler of all. But how could sinners like us ever be united to the holy Ruler of all creation? It happens by the power of the one true God. The covenant signs point to that power.

In Genesis 17 in the OT, God said he would establish an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and that circumcision would be the sign of that covenant. But that outward sign was not what caused a person to truly know God. Time revealed that not all who received that outward sign truly believed.

In Galatians 3, Paul explains why. He says it is those of faith who are the descendants of Abraham. Yet, God commanded that every male among Abraham’s offspring receive the sign of the covenant. It was the outward mark of inclusion in the covenant community of God – whether they displayed true faith or not. What this showed was that those born into the community had the privilege of learning about God, but they must still exercise their own personal faith at some point.

And in light of that, the order of Jesus’ words in Matthew 28 in the NT makes sense. He tells His apostles, “Go..and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus established His church – the new covenant community, consisting of people from every nation – and every member was to receive the outward sign and then be taught the truth.

Like OC circumcision, NC baptism marks a person outwardly as belonging among God’s people, but it does not save. It points to what God does. For spiritual union with Christ to exist, there must be true faith, which is the gift of God.

If you have Christ, you can never get more of Him. You will grow in your faith over time, and He will change your heart more and more. But you have God in full. You don’t have to earn His love or fear that you’ve lost His favor. God unites sinners to Christ through faith in Christ alone.

God is with you and He is for you, working all things together for your good. If you don’t have Christ, you can have Him today. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, you can have all the fullness of God. Trust in Christ.

Now look at verse 11. Paul continues, “In him (meaning Christ) also you were circumcised, with a circumcision made without hands.” The situation in Colossae was evidently much like that in other early churches. Many of the Christians were formally adherents to old covenant Judaism, and among the Jewish people, the old covenant sign had become a source of pride.

They felt that it showed that they had God. So when God opened up the covenant community to all nations, even though Christ had commanded the new covenant sign of baptism, many former Jews who now believed in Jesus felt that these newcomers must receive the old sign to truly have God.

This revealed a widespread misbelief much like a misbelief still held today. They believed they were righteous in God’s eyes not because of faith but because of the outward ritual. Yet rituals performed on the outside don’t change what’s on the inside. And so Paul says these believers don’t need to receive the old outward sign, because in fact they have the inward saving reality to which the old sign pointed.

How did that happen? Look at the rest of verse 11, “by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”

Imagine that you’ve been working in the yard, or maybe on the car – and your hands are covered with dirt or grease. You go to the sink to scrub your hands, and it takes some effort and a special cleaner, but when you’re done, your hands are clean. Now imagine you’re told that you have a disease in your bloodstream. No amount of washing on the outside can fix what’s wrong within.

Across the whole Bible – OT and NT – the problem with people was always within. The problem is a sinful nature that rebels against God and resists in holy will. Sin is a cancer within that no outer ritual can cut away. Sin is a toxicity within that no outer washing can purify.

Paul tells these believers they don’t need the outward sign of the old covenant. Through faith they have received the work of God to which that sign pointed. God performed a “circumcision made without hands.” God cut away the evil, sinful nature in a way that would be progressively made clearer as Christ changed their hearts and lives over time.

This is “putting off the body of the flesh.” “Flesh” here means “sinful nature.” The cutting away was inward, and they had been baptized with water outwardly. But the baptism described here – the washing that assures believers of union with Christ and of our spiritual bond with Him and of our complete cleansing from our sin and guilt – that baptism is something that must happen inwardly. And God does it.

It’s not merely the outward baptism Iike I’ll do here shortly – though that is in view. Simply put, Paul says that when you trust in Christ by faith, this great inward work of God is done. So there’s no need for anything else. There’s no need for the old covenant sign. Through faith in Christ alone, you effectively died with Him. You died to sin.

Think about it this way: if a criminal dies, what happens to the case against him? It’s dropped. The prosecution can’t continue because the person is no longer alive to stand trial, or defend themselves, or be punished.

If you died with Christ, your charges have dropped: past, present, and future. God cleanses sinners of their sin through faith in Christ alone. Do you think you must pay for your sins somehow?

Even if you would say you’re born again – do you live as if charges still stand, charges that make you an enemy of the one true God? God cleanses sinners all the way – for good. That is our standing before God in Christ. It’s hard to believe, but that is the good news of Jesus Christ. That is His gospel.

Now look finally at the second part of verse 12. Paul adds, “in which you were also raised with him.” Just as we died with Jesus, we rose from the dead along with Him.
Again, earlier we read from Romans where Paul writes that we were raised with Christ to “walk in newness of life.” We are made new inwardly – and Christ began a work that will become increasingly evident over time.And one day, we will receive the completion of that newness when Christ returns.

But notice Paul’s additional words here. It’s not the ritual of water baptism that makes this possible. It’s “through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” It’s through union with Jesus Christ. How does Christ change our hearts? Not by us simply trying harder, but as we live out of this new identity given by God. The same power that raised Christ from the dead has worked and is working in those united with Christ to produce new desires, new direction, and new obedience.

Here shortly, we’ll have some baptisms. And there is some misunderstanding around baptism. It’s sometimes thought that it should physically reenact burial. Matthew 3 is often cited as evidence, which says, “When Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water.” But in Acts 8, when Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch, Scripture says, “they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.” The Bible never explicitly says that either person was fully immersed in water.

Now, full immersion in water is valid. So is sprinkling or pouring of water. Because Scripture teaches that it signifies our union with Christ in his death and burial. Christ was not buried in the ground. He was laid inside a tomb. The point and the power of the sign is not in mimicking some action, and your confidence should not be in how baptism is administered. The sign points to full identification with Christ – being filled in Him who is fully God.

God raises sinners to new life through faith in Christ alone. It’s like walking into a store where there is not one thing you can afford. You can look around, but you can’t buy anything. Between your cash and your credit, you don’t have enough. In fact, you’re already in debt at this store. Then a sales associate walks up, hands you a bag, and says, “Your debt has been settled. This gift is yours. It’s been paid for in full.”

Christ not only settles the debt of our sins against God, He raises us from death to life, and credits us with His own perfect righteousness before God the Father. And like that bag handed to you, you don’t earn it. You simply receive it by faith alone.

The sign points to what only God does, but calls each person to respond in faith. For those being baptized today, this sign will mark you as part of the covenant community of Christ. He calls you to trust Him, follow Him, and walk in the new life He has given to you. For those who are believers, remember what God has done for you in Christ through faith alone, not something you have achieved, but something you have received.

And if you haven’t trusted in Christ, may you see and feel your own need for Christ today. Outward rituals don’t save you, but God saves – through Christ. Place your faith in Him alone, and receive what only He can give.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

There is a quote that is normally attributed to Benjamin Franklin which says, “The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.” Whether or not Franklin actually said that is debatable, but most people would agree that wisdom is valuable and something we all need, yet it is something that we naturally lack.

Wisdom defined in biblical terms is to know and understand godliness, to do what is pleasing to God. Wisdom is a God-given and God centered discernment regarding the practical issues in life.

With this understanding in mind, it may go without saying that we naturally lack wisdom. This is especially the case when it comes to the wisdom needed to persevere through trials. That is, we lack the ability to respond in an appropriate, God honoring way when we face difficult circumstances. That is why we need wisdom. Not worldy wisdom, but wisdom from above, to know and understand godliness and to do what is pleasing to God.

But because of pride, we don’t like to admit that. We want to figure things out ourselves.
We want control. And so instead of seeking God, we rely on ourselves— because of pride, we resist dependence on God. We prefer to solve our own problems and make our own decisions and so we become unstable, anxious, and spiritually divided.

However, Scripture reveals that God is the generous giver of the wisdom we lack, and He provides it not to the self-reliant, but to those who through humble dependence, ask Him in faith. In verses 5-8, James speaks directly into that condition. He shows us not only our need for wisdom, but God’s gracious provision of it.

In this passage, we see that God graciously gives wisdom to those who humbly ask, therefore, we must turn from proud self-reliance and seek Him through Christ-centered faith. Believers are to have an undivided faith, asking for wisdom from their ever wise and all generous God.

So, how do we move from relying on our own understanding to humbly depending on God for biblical wisdom? James teaches us three things that will aid us as we seek to grow in wisdom. Through Christ-centered faith, we can recognize our need for wisdom.
Through Christ-centered faith, we can humbly ask God for wisdom.
Through Christ-centered faith, we can trust that God will grant us wisdom.
In other words, we lack - we ask - God gives. Let’s look closer together at these now.

The beginning of verse five says, “If any of you lacks wisdom…”
In New Testament Greek studies, this is called a first-class conditional sentence.
This type of condition assumes the condition is true. It could often be translated “since” instead of “if.” Greek scholars emphasize that this construction presents something as a real or accepted reality, even if rhetorically framed as a condition.

James is not raising a hypothetical. He is stating a reality. You lack wisdom. I lack wisdom.

He is not speaking of intelligence—but godly wisdom: the ability to think, choose, and live in a way that pleases God. This is particularly true when it comes to wisdom in trials.

That is pride and self-reliance. We see an example of this in Joshua 9:14 – The Israelites failed to ask counsel from the Lord.

This approach that James uses is tactful. He could have said, "Everyone lacks wisdom." But by saying "any of you," James gives the reader a chance to examine himself, to come to the conclusion that he needs wisdom.

Think about how often we make decisions based on: feelings, pressure, convenience, fear. We say things like, “This just feels right” or “I think this will work out.”

But biblical wisdom asks: “What would God have me to do?” or “What honors God?” And that does not come naturally. It is claimed that ancient philosopher, Socrates, once said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Whether or not Socrates actually said that, it reflects the idea that even the secular world recognizes we lack wisdom.

And if the secular world recognizes we lack wisdom, how much more does God’s Word tell and show us we lack wisdom? Scripture is filled with truths about the fact that we naturally lack wisdom.

Proverbs 14:12 - “12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
Proverbs 28:36 - 26 Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
Romans 1:22 - 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools
Ephesians 4:18 - 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart

We live in a world that says, “Follow your heart,” but Scripture warns in Jeremiah 17:9 that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The Bible never promises that life will be easy, but it does promise that God’s wisdom is available. The world tells us to trust our feelings, but God tells us to seek His wisdom. That is the first thing James wants us to see here.

The first step toward wisdom involves humility, it is confessing our lack. It is saying: “I lack wisdom.” “I don’t see clearly.” “I don’t know what is best.” “I need God.”

But James doesn’t leave us there in need—
he immediately points us to God’s generosity.

James instructs us to ask God for wisdom with humble dependence. Look at the second part of verse 5.

“…let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
Because wisdom directs us to God, it must ultimately come from God. Only God can give the wisdom to discern and follow His will in our trials.

We see examples of this throughout Scripture: Proverbs 2:6 - 6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; Psalm 1:7 - 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Job 12:13 - 13 “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.”

As we see, the source of wisdom is God. Therefore, if we want the wisdom to respond properly to our trials, we must ask God for it. The present tense of the Greek verb translated as "ask" indicates that James has in mind a continual asking of our Creator for wisdom in prayer. We ask God over, and over, and over for wisdom. Beseeching him, as it were, for what we so desperately need. Remember the words of the father of the epileptic son in Mark 9:24. The father said to Jesus, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Jesus heard his prayer of faith. He healed the man's son by casting out the demon. Note, however, that this man struggled with his weak faith and asked for help. Christ graciously gave it to him. God wants us to pray to him because he wants to be our God.

And notice how God gives – generously and without reproach. Author and commentator Simon Kistemaker notes, “God is not partial. He gives to everyone because God wants to give. Giving is a characteristic of God. He keeps on giving. Every time someone comes to him with a request, he opens his treasury and freely distributes wisdom. Just as the sun continues to give light, so God keeps on giving wisdom. We cannot imagine a sun that fails to give light; much less can we think of God failing to give wisdom. God's gift is free, without interest, and without the request to pay it back. It is … grace.”

Moreover, God gives "without finding fault." When we ask God for wisdom, we do not need to be afraid that he will express displeasure or will utter reproach. When we come to him in childlike faith, he will never send us away empty. We have the assurance that when we ask for wisdom, it "will be given" to us. God never fails the one who asks in faith.

This is one of the most encouraging promises in Scripture. It gives us a clear view of God’s character. He gives generously — not reluctantly. He gives to all — no favoritism. He gives without reproach — no shaming, no scolding. God is not annoyed by your need. He is glorified by your dependence.

Imagine a child coming to a loving father. “Dad, I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?” A good father does not respond: “Again? You should know this by now.” He welcomes the request. If this is true under normal circumstances and for normal decisions, imagine the earthly father’s willingness to help the child when they are suffering in some way. The Apostle Matthew says in chapter 7 of his gospel, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” How much more does our heavenly Father enjoy lavishing us with wisdom? Much more.

 And yet—how often do we fail to ask? We overthink instead of pray, strategize instead of seek, act first and ask later. But you see, God want us to understand that prayer is not a last resort—it is the first act of dependence. To become mature and complete, the believer must go to God for wisdom. God is willing to impart wisdom to anyone who asks humbly. God’s storehouse of wisdom is infinite and He will give this gift "generously to all without finding fault."

But James doesn’t stop there, he adds a crucial qualification: It’s not just that we ask—but how we ask.

Look at verse 6. “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting…”

James also shows us that we must trust God wholeheartedly without divided allegiance. The faith that James refers to here in verse 6 means a settled trust and confidence in God, based on his character and promises as revealed in Scripture.

James describes faith that expresses itself in action. God hears the prayers of those whose lives demonstrate that they have faith in Him. The wording used here does not imply that people must have a certain degree or standard of faith for God to hear their prayers. James is referring to an imperfect but sincere faith.

Still, James knows that we are prone to doubt the Lord's promises, so he writes that we must approach with the right frame of mind when we ask for wisdom —or, indeed, anything.
The right frame of mind, James 1:6 says, has "no doubting." This raises a potential problem, since even the greatest saints doubt the Lord at times. If even Abraham doubted God's promise, as seen in his fathering Ishmael by Hagar (Gen. 16), what hope do we have of asking God without doubting?

One commentator writes, “That Abraham persevered in faith, receiving what he asked despite his momentary lapse, helps us grasp James' meaning. James does not teach that the Lord will never give us what we pray for if we entertain even the slightest doubt; rather, he means for us to have an undivided faith that trusts in the benevolent character of God.”

Such faith may at times harbor some doubt, but it perseveres past the doubt, ever aiming to trust wholeheartedly in the goodness of God no matter how He answers prayer. This faith believes that the Lord ultimately does what is best for us even when He does not give us exactly what we ask.

Those who possess true, saving faith may experience doubts, but their trust in God eventually overcomes those doubts. We must understand that James is not condemning every struggle or question. He is confronting a divided heart.

Look at the second part of verse 6. When James speaks of doubting here, he means vacillating between trusting God and trusting the world or one's own natural abilities. Someone who asks God for something but also wants to see what the world says or has to offer.

James describes such a person like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Why?
Because he is trying to live in two worlds at once: trusting God and trusting himself

James says that such a person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is unsure whether God is good or will do good.

James calls this person “double-minded”— literally, “two-souled” or “in two minds,” torn between God and the world, and is therefore unstable in all his ways.

It’s like trying to stand with one foot on a dock and one foot in a boat. As the boat drifts, what happens? You become unstable—and eventually, you fall. That is the picture of the Christian who asks God for wisdom but still clings to self-reliance.

The Apostle calls us to have a basic consistency to our character and a foundational confidence in divine goodness that remains even if we waver at times. James warns us not to be the double minded person, the one who asks for God's wisdom one day and then wants the wisdom of the world the next. What we need is a continuing and growing trust in the Lord that characterizes us as we seek to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God is not one voice among many. He is not Plan B. To ask in faith means: “I trust Your wisdom more than my own.” “I will follow Your Word, even when it’s hard.” Wisdom shall be given to those who ask it of God, provided they believe that God is able to make the simple wise, and is faithful to make good his word to those who apply to him. Let us aim for such a wholehearted confidence in God's goodness.

So, what is the answer to our dilemma? The answer is not: “Try harder to be wise.” The answer is Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that Christ is:
•the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)
•the one who perfectly trusted the Father
•the one who never wavered, never doubted, never divided His heart

Where we are double-minded, He was single-hearted. Where we are self-reliant, He was fully dependent. And He did that not just as our example—but as our substitute. On the cross, He bore the penalty for our pride, our self-reliance, our wandering hearts.
And through His resurrection, He now gives his people access to the Father, pours out His Spirit on all his people, and becomes His people’s wisdom.

So now, when we come to God asking for wisdom, we do not come alone—we come in Christ. And in Him, God’s answer is always: “Yes. I will give you what you need.”

Will you continue relying on your own understanding, or will you humbly depend on God? Admit your need. Ask your Father. Trust Him fully. Because the path of wisdom is not found in self-confidence—it is found in Christ-dependent faith.

Let’s pray together.

History is filled with influential and successful people who were underestimated.

For example, Albert Einstein was considered “a slow learner.” Thomas Edison was told by teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Walt Disney was fired from a Missouri newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” And Theodore Roosevelt, who was encouraged by doctors to avoid physically demanding activity, instead went on to become a U.S. president, lead a year-long scientific expedition in Africa, and survive a gunshot wound to the chest.

Over the centuries, countless men and women have been underestimated. But none have been underestimated more than the one true God.

It’s understandable, though. Our sinful nature deceives us about who He truly is,
and so we fail to honor Him as we should, which is sin. Yet God is patient and gracious, and in His great love, He corrects us, so that we may truly know and trust Him.

But we must accept that correction.

This exchange between Jesus and others recorded in Mark’s Gospel – which is also present in the books of Matthew and Luke – helps us understand how. Jesus is confronted by these respected Hebrew teachers who underestimated God. Specifically, they didn’t believe in the future resurrection. And what He tells them holds a message for us today. In effect, Christ says don’t place the limitations of the present order on God’s unlimited power, and don’t overlook the implications of the covenant promises in His trustworthy Word.

Now, in this passage, Christ is approached by the Sadducees. They didn’t believe in a future resurrection, as Mark says here. First century Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the Sadducees did not believe that the soul exists after death, nor did they believe in rewards or punishments after death.

I’ll clarify why in a moment, but for now, notice their strategy for disproving Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection. Verse [19] “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.”

They’re bringing up instructions from Deuteronomy 25 in the OT. This rule was a way to maintain property rights in the family line of the deceased man. This preserved a man’s name, inheritance, land allotment, and family line in Israel. The Sadducees use this to set up a “straw-man” argument. It’s not a real situation; it’s a hypothetical.

Verse [20], They say, “There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. [21] And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. [22] And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died.” This imagined woman followed the law of Moses and was widowed seven times. She never bore a son. Is it possible? Technically. yes. Is it likely? Probably not.

But the Sadducees believed they could undo the credibility of Christ and the belief in the resurrection with this little scheme. Notice verse [23]. They add, “In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” They think they can discredit Jesus, but they underestimate Him.

Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? They are deceived, first of all, because they don’t know the Scriptures, and also, because they don’t know the strength and ability of God. Jesus speaks first to their ignorance of God’s power.

Verse [25], Jesus says, “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” They assumed the doctrine of marriage could undercut the doctrine of resurrection. Jesus basically says, “After the resurrection, there will be no more marriage.”

In this one respect, humans will be like angels: we will not marry or be married. It makes sense, because there will be no procreation after the future resurrection. The Sadducees’ strategy points to one way we underestimate God: we take the boundaries of the present age and we impose them on the future.

Imagine trying to explain the internet to someone who lived in the 1800s. You might tell them that with the internet, you can instantly communicate across the world, you can access libraries of information in seconds, you can see images from anywhere.

They might respond: “So, it’s like a really fast telegraph?” Are you familiar with the electrical telegraph? The signal was sent along an electrical cable, and the message was a series of dots and dashes. It was Morse code! The person in the 1800s can’t help reducing something radically new to simply a slightly improved version of what they already know.

The Sadducees assumed that if resurrection in the future age was real, it would have to operate by the same structures as this present age. But the future resurrection is not simply “This Life 2.0.” It’s not just an upgraded version of what we now know. Every indication is that, while similar, it will be far beyond what we can even imagine.

How is this possible? In Ephesians 1, the apostle Paul refers to the immeasurable greatness of God’s power. In Ephesians 3, Paul describes the triune God as “Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” In the OT, the prophet Jeremiah prays, “Ah, Lord GOD! It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

Don’t place the limitations of the present order on God’s unlimited power. Don’t allow your belief or hope in the future resurrection to be confined to your current grasp of what God is capable of. Philippians 3 says that Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Those in Christ now will one day have immortal, resurrected bodies like Christ had when He left the tomb, and like He has right now in heaven. 1 Corinthians 15 says that on that Day, believers “shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised” to a state that is incorruptible, immortal, and imperishable.

The Sadducees underestimated the power of God. Perhaps some later changed their minds and believed Jesus. We don’t know. But have you underestimated God? Don’t stay there. Repent of that. Reject that. Trust Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Go to Christ. He is full of love and power.

Well, Christ was not done with the Sadducees just yet. Remember, they know neither God’s power nor His Scriptures. To make His point from God’s Word, and defend the reality of the resurrection, Christ goes to the book of Exodus – to one of the first five books of the OT

This part of Scripture was commonly known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. These are books that were written down by Moses. The Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch as God’s Word. They only believed Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They rejected the rest.

So Christ references the Pentateuch to prove them wrong. Look at verse [26]. He says, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? [27] He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” Why does Jesus bring up this event in Exodus 3, where God spoke to Moses from within the burning bush?

Because there, God expressed that He was presently the God of the patriarchs. God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – promises that would ultimately be fulfilled through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And for those men to enjoy the fulfillment of those promises – for them to receive what God had guaranteed to them – they would have to be alive. According to Jesus, there, at the burning bush, God proclaimed to Moses that those men were not dead, but still alive.

This brings up an important point. The resurrection is not just a New Testament doctrine. It’s not merely a development that emerged when ancient Israel was sent into exile. It didn’t suddenly appear during the life of king David or the life of Moses. Rather, resurrection was in view when God spoke to Abraham.

This is very important. The resurrection is a necessary implication of God’s promises. The covenant relationship with God is ongoing. You may think, “I understand how we could live on as souls. But why must we be raised with a new body?” It’s because humans are not just souls trapped in bodies. We were created – body and soul together – by God And in the end, God will not just preserve the soul. He will restore the whole person.

Again, Abraham must inherit what was promised to him: a land, an inheritance, and blessing in the land God made. Abraham and all the children of Abraham must live on – and not just spiritually, but also, bodily. Therefore, resurrection is required.

If there’s no resurrection, then death is not fully defeated.

If there’s no resurrection, death defeated the human body.

But Christ defeated death in its totality. Resurrection is the completion of God’s saving work.

Picture a father who promises his son a great inheritance. The dad says, “Son, one day, this will all be yours. The land, the house, all of it.” But then, tragically, the son dies before he receives it. Can the father’s promise to the son be fulfilled if the son remains dead? No.

Don’t overlook the implications of the covenant promises in His trustworthy Word. If Abraham is still dead, God’s promises to him are incomplete. But the one true God does not make incomplete promises.

Now, we’ve all made promises. Some are rather unimportant, where you didn’t even use the word “promise,” but it was implied. You said, “I’ll call you later,” or “I’ll do it tomorrow,” or “I’ll fix that soon.” Whenever you give someone assurance that you will definitely do something, you are, by definition, making a promise. You’re offering a guarantee.

Have you ever failed to deliver on a guarantee? Sure, you have.

Numbers 23 in the OT says, “Has [God] said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” We’ve broken promises; God never has. His promise-keeping is an essential part of His sinless character.

Now, we, of course, are not sinless. That’s one reason why we fail to keep every guarantee we make. But there’s another reason why we don’t always keep our word. It’s because sometimes, we promise what simply isn’t within our power to do. Haven’t you, at some time, said you would do something, and perhaps you were well-meaning, but later you realized, “I can’t do that! I’m not able.”

The one true God doesn’t have that problem. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live on – and one day, they will rise again, to inherit what God promised – not just as souls, but as whole men. And so will their descendents – so will their heirs. But who are the heirs? In Galatians 3, Paul says, “it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Then just a little further down the page, Paul adds, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Christ died, and on the third day, God raised Him from the dead. According to God’s unlimited power and trustworthy Word, Christ arose! His resurrection began an entirely new order of redemptive reality. Christ was the first, and when He returns, those who belong to Him will rise like Him. This is our hope as we journey in this world. This was the hope of the apostles as they endured suffering for the gospel.

For example, in 2 Corinthians 1, Paul told the churches, “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. [10] He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”

Will you set your hope on His and on the power of His resurrection? As we go now to His table, let’s continue to consider these things.

Please bow with me in prayer.

Imagine that you’re in need of serious medical treatment. Actually, you need surgery. It’s a delicate procedure, and the quality of the rest of your life depends on it.

You would want someone trained, tested, and trustworthy. You wouldn’t be concerned with your surgeon’s outward, superficial qualities. You would just want to know that the surgeon could take you where you need to go.

Typically, before a procedure, a capable surgeon will tell the patient about the surgery. “We’re going to do this, then this, then that. It should take about this long. And when we’re done, here’s what you can expect.” You want to be confident that the surgeon knows the way. You want to know that the person leading the surgeon has been this way before. You want someone who is qualified and capable.

We should have the same expectations of those who lead God’s church. There are certain characteristics we should look for. But the best leader is not always who you might think.

People are naturally drawn to outward, superficial qualities, to a certain look or sound, to dynamic personality, to those who have a great amount of outward success, and in many cases, who are attractive to the world. The apostle Paul knew that. He knew that even believers can choose poorly when it comes to leaders in the church. And so, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, Paul gave criteria.

Christ has a different set of standards. He calls for leaders who fit His definition of success. These are men fit for their role in what Christ is doing in and for His people.

In this part of his letter, Paul tells us that a man who oversees the church must display a certain kind of fruit in his life – evidence that Christ has greatly affected the man’s heart, home, and habits. This part points to where qualified overseers lead. Yes, to where. After all, the term “leader” implies a destination. It indicates a journey of some kind. Overseers must lead the church to somewhere – or more specifically, to Someone.

Qualified overseers lead God’s people to Christ Himself. And as they do this again and again – Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day – Christ produces godly hearts, homes, and habits among all His people.

The image of the shepherd is helpful here, because a shepherd has a certain defined and essential responsibility. He watches over, protects, and guides the sheep to food, water, and rest. The overseers are the shepherds of the church. and our spiritual food, water, and rest is Christ the Lord. Shepherds or overseers are not Christ – we merely lead people to Him. So let’s look closer at this criteria.

See verse 1 again. Paul says, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” This was apparently a well-known statement. The desire to be an overseer is commendable. It’s not inherently prideful to want to be one. It’s not necessarily a power grab, although it can be. Not all men who aspire to this office have good motives. So some hesitation is a good thing, because it is such a high calling. The man should look inward and examine himself. It’s not something to take lightly.

It is an “office.” A man must be appointed to the position. And clearly, in light of what we saw in chapter 2, the office is for men only. There’s no other way to interpret chapter 3 in light of what Paul just wrote in chapter 2 about the roles of men and women in the home and in public worship. Women should not teach or exercise authority over men in the church. This pattern is rooted in the original created order.

Now, I said in my previous sermon, Paul uses “elder” and “overseer” interchangeably. For example, In Titus 1, he writes, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. [7] For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach.”

So look at verse 2. “Therefore an overseer (or elder) must be “above reproach.” Blameless. Perfection isn’t required, otherwise only Jesus could fill the office. But there should be no obvious case against him in regard to any of God’s moral law. There can be no easy accusations toward him. He must be “the husband of one wife” or “a man of one woman.”

This doesn’t mean single men are disqualified. In fact, elsewhere, Paul commends singleness. What Paul has in mind is sexual purity, marital faithfulness, and monogamy. Along those lines, an overseer must be “sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable.” So, he can’t be unrestrained or gluttonous. His words and behavior must demonstrate discipline. He must be modest, admirable. People should have great respect for him because they recognize his well-ordered life. Again, this is not by any means a perfect man, but he is one who, by God’s grace, is stable and steady.

God’s people are drawn to a man like that, and as they are, he must willingly receive them. See there, he must be “hospitable.” The man must be warm, inviting, and welcoming. This is the kind of leader who people are blessed to follow. And they’re eager to hear what he has to say. He walks with God. Christ has done a great work in his heart, so people who want to know Christ listen to the man.

That’s why it makes sense, then, that he should be, “able to teach.” An overseer or elder must treasure God’s Word and the rich doctrines of the faith. He must be skillful in explaining God’s Word to the church. Teaching is both a skill and a gift. It’s a spiritual gift given by Christ. An overseer must possess this gift. He must be a man whom believers can look up to. Even those older than him must be able to admire him and accept him as one who is gifted and skilled to teach them God’s Word.

Therefore he can’t be someone, verse 3 says, who gets drunk, flies off the handle, or is controlling or manipulative. He must be strong, but also gentle, firm and resilient. He shepherds the people of God, therefore, there must be a tender place inside of him.

He should be patient and “not quarrelsome,” Paul says. He can’t be contentious, or argumentative, or antagonistic. An overseer can’t be a hot-head. And notice that he can’t have a lust for debauchery or power, or control, or money – really for what the world calls “success.” This means that an overseer/elder/shepherd must be a content man – satisfied with what the living God has entrusted to him.

Now, that’s a tall order, isn’t it? The only way a man could ever meet these qualifications is if Christ has done a great work in his heart. In fact, these qualifications demand that this work has been ongoing for some time. The man has had some failures and trials, but God used those trials to shape his faith and character.

There were many Lord’s Days of Christ working faith in him through the ordinary means. There were many times of Christ assuring the man that grace that covers all his sins, and Christ strengthening the man to obey even when disobedience seemed easier. The man is qualified to lead God’s people to Christ because he has been to Christ, and he continually goes to Christ. It’s not the overseer/elder/shepherd who changes people. but he leads God’s people to Christ, who produces godly hearts.

Have your expectations of church leaders been shaped by the world or by the Word? An overseer is not the equivalent of a board member for a company. Yes, overseers make rulings, but the goal of those rulings is the pursuit of a godly heart. And only Jesus Christ can form and fashion such a heart. A shepherd who cannot lead the pursuit for hearts shaped by Christ is no good for us.

Now look at verse [4], “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, [5] for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?” This is more support for the office of elder/overseer/shepherd being men only. Who is the head of the home according to Scripture? The husband and the father.

This is an interesting method of argument. We see it repeatedly in the Bible. It’s an argument from the lesser to the greater. For example, “If he can’t do that, how will he do this?” Paul argues this way because this is like that, but on a larger scale.

The behavior of a man’s children – especially as they get older – tells us a great deal about the man’s leadership in his home. Children are always learning and absorbing, and they display what they’re taught. No man should think he can consistently behave in an ungodly manner privately – while putting on a godly front publicly – and get away with it forever. The truth will come to light, if nowhere else than in his children.

So an overseer – as the head of his home – must be able to manage and lead well
in his own house if he would be entrusted to oversee those in God’s house. How should he manage his home? Look back at verses 2 and 3 again. He should be, “sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable…not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.”

Hear me clearly – all Christian men should aim to lead their homes in this way. It reiterates what Paul says in Ephesians 5. Men are called to be the leaders of their homes, but it’s not about male domination. Men should lead like Christ – laying down themselves for their wives and children. Overseers must be models for this in the body of Christ. And as Christ changes a man’s heart there will be evidence in his home.

I don’t mean that the man no longer sins against his family. He’s a sinner. He will sin. But when he does, because Christ is shaping his heart, he will humble himself. He will ask for forgiveness. And he will stand up to his children and correct them. He will guide his children not just with the help of Christ, but with the heart of Christ.

It’s not easy for a man to humble himself before his wife and kids. How can it be done? Well, the man must first humble himself before Christ. and Christ gives the strength and the faith to seek forgiveness. Grace and faith are transformative in the home. But they come only from Christ.

As the Vine gives life to the branch, so Christ gives life to His people through His appointed means. A man is qualified to lead God’s people to Christ because he has been to Christ, and he goes to Christ, and the result is an increasingly godly home. Qualified overseers lead God’s people to Christ, who produces godly homes.

If the church was meant to be a successful business, we would simply appoint overseers who are good businessmen. Doesn’t a company get people on its board of directors because they’ve had business success? This is not a business. This is the covenant community of the only true God. We are only in covenant with God because of Jesus Christ. And it is Christ whom we need. Therefore our leaders must be qualified to shepherd with hearts formed by Christ. And God gives us this test among others – the nature of their home.

Now look at these final verses. “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.” When authority is given to a man who is spiritually immature, he will likely become boastful and self-centered. And notice the phrase again: he may “fall into the condemnation of the devil.” In other words, he may fall into what Satan fell into, which was pride.

Now verse 7 comes full circle with the necessity to be above reproach or blameless. Paul says, an overseer “must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” If a man brings disgrace on the name of Jesus and His church, he can’t be an overseer. The man can’t speak or behave in a way that will cause people to say, “Oh see there, Christianity is nonsense. Their leaders don’t even do what they say they believe. If they believe those things, where’s the proof of their belief?”

The young convert hasn’t had a long enough season of being changed by Christ. An overseer must have a time-tested testimony of faith. What do people in the church think of him? What do people outside the church think of him? Has Christ produced evidence of godly habits in the man?

That’s what we’re after here in the covenant community. We want hearts changed by Christ, which leads to homes changed by Christ and habits changed by Christ. People can affect behavior. Again, only Jesus can change the heart. Only Christ can change our loves. Qualified overseers have been recipients of this heart-changing, home-changing, habit changing work of Christ and His glorious gospel. And then they lead God’s people to Christ, who produces godly habits in them.

Where do you desire change in your own life and habits? We live in a society consumed with self-improvement. And many people get results. But those results are temporary; the results Christ achieves are everlasting. And you know, often, the change you desire in your habits is more-achieveable and longer lasting if Christ has first changed what you love, thereby influencing what you worship and where you place your hope. We don’t need leaders who lead efforts for worldly change. We need leaders who guide the change only Christ can achieve.

These are the qualifications of an overseer. And their necessity is never more apparent than in public worship. Because here, Christ is offered to the people through His appointed means. Again, how can overseers offer Him unless they have first received Him?

Sadly, much of church leadership has turned into people running an organization or building a brand or perpetuating a legacy or upholding a tradition. But church leadership is simply about showing the way to a Savior. And through all we do, He is the goal, for only He can give us the life we need.

Will you receive the life Christ gives today? Trust in Him now. Admit your sin to God. Despise your sin and follow Jesus. Whether you have trusted Him today for the first time, or you are renewing that trust today, as we go now to His table, we see a picture of how He changes us: He gives Himself, and we receive Him.

Let’s bow in prayer.

Before we look at the passage for today, I thought it would be helpful to give some background on the book of James. The epistle of James is part of the New Testament commonly referred to as the General Epistles.  The General Epistles includes Hebrews - Jude. Unlike Paul’s epistles, which were intended for a specific church/audience, General Epistles refer to the books of the NT with a broad audience, potentially multiple churches or regions. The epistle of James was written by the James who was the half-brother of Jesus. Scholars date the writing of the book of James between A.D. 40 and A.D. 60, with most agreeing that the letter was likely written around the mid 40s A.D.

Among the most important themes in the book of James is the theme of perseverance in the midst of trials. It is important to understand the context of the audience that James is writing to in order to understand why the theme of suffering and perseverance are a major focus.

James identifies his audience as the 12 tribes of the dispersion. The dispersion refers to Jewish Christians as well as to Gentile believers (Acts 12) who lived outside of Israel due to persecution from Jewish leaders who were antagonistic toward Christ followers. Most scholars believe the Dispersion of the twelve tribes refers to churches spread throughout Asia minor, or modern-day Turkey.

In context of the dispersion, the circumstances were difficult. There were trials and suffering that believers were facing. In his letter, James calls believers to patiently persevere in faith. In doing so, he has much to teach us about persevering through trials.

I want to begin with a simple question this morning. Do we face trials in this life? It may help to clarify what I mean by trials. I am speaking of any type of difficulty, or hardship, or adversity - generally anything that causes mental and or physical distress. Trials can come in all shapes and sizes. They encompass both everyday difficulties like sickness, loneliness, financial hardship, and social discrimination, as well as more severe things like loss of loved ones or a difficult health diagnosis. Trials can also include situations such as persecution or tragic experiences where faith is severely challenged.

 Trials are part and parcel of living in a fallen world. We all face them. And if we’re honest, most of us have a default response when trials come into our lives: We ask “Why?”

You see, we don’t naturally embrace trials, and we certainly don’t naturally rejoice when we experience suffering and hardship. Our tendency is to resent trials because we prioritize comfort and ease over difficult things even if those difficult things may lead to spiritual growth and maturity. We often fail to see and trust God’s purposes in allowing us to undergo trials and we struggle to believe that God could actually be doing something good in the middle of our trials and pain.

But we must understand that God's people have always faced trials. We see that all the way back at the beginning in Genesis 3. From the beginning of redemptive history, God has used the trials of his people to cause them to look to Him, to rely on his strength, and to strengthen their faith. And as God's people have done this, he has produced perseverance in them which He uses in their sanctification, and their growing in completeness.

Still, we struggle to face our trials with a Christ-centered perspective. We struggle to look beyond the trial to the God who controls and purposes all things. But Scripture teaches us that God uses our hardships, our trials and sufferings, to form Christ in us, to grow us in spiritual maturity.

Therefore, believers should embrace trials with joy because God uses them to produce spiritual maturity and Christlikeness. How can we respond to our present trials in a way that reflects trust in God’s purpose to mature us?
 
Here in the beginning of the book of James, he shows us how to respond. We do this when we: regard our trials from a Christ-empowered perspective, when we recognize that trials have a Christ-centered purpose, and when we receive our trials as part of the Christ-forming process.

 Before we look closer at these verses, I want to make something clear here at the beginning. James's instructions about counting it all joy when we face trials in no way minimizes the difficulty of trials, and the feelings that we experience when trials happen. It is not wrong to be saddened and grieved when we are hurt, or when we experience the loss of a loved one. It is not wrong to be perplexed when we lose a job, or don't get a promotion, or things do not work out the way that we planned. It is not wrong to feel betrayed when a friend mistreats us.

So please hear me. We are not to pretend trials and grief do not hurt us; it is natural and normal that they do, and it would be a denial of our humanity to think we should be immune to the pains of hardship in our lives and in the lives of others. Pain is our reflex reaction to trials, and it is entirely legitimate. Nor is James saying we should go out looking for hardship: that we should deliberately create situations in which we will suffer. No - suffering in and of itself is not a good thing. James is saying that it is what God can accomplish through suffering that is good, not the suffering itself.

We see examples of this throughout Scripture. We see this in Job and we also see this expressed in the Psalms by David. David's son Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:4-5 there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, “4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”

I know there are many of you who have experienced deep loss and heartache. We will all experience difficult trials at some point. We must understand that it is ok to hurt. We must also understand that we are to take our heartache to God. To walk toward him with our feelings, and not away from him. That being the case, there is a way to think about our trials that can affect our attitude toward them. That is how James instructs us here in our passage this morning. So, let's look at these together.

James starts out by calling himself a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So in other words, James is saying that he is a Christian, a believer, someone who has been redeemed by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We see Paul echo this same thing in Galatians 2 when he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

All that follows in James's letter is based on and flows from this fact - that he belongs to the triune God. James has much to say about way that we as Christians live in response to our justification. Much of what James writes centers on Christian ethics, or Christian morality. He teaches us that the way that we live gives evidence of who we are. So, the first thing we must understand as we read and studied the book of James, is that our obedience does not earn justification before God, and at the same time, how we live and the character that we have does give evidence of our justification.

James sets the tone at the outset. His identity is in Christ. With this established, he moves right into the heart of the matter in verse 2.

Notice that word “count.” It is a verb that means to evaluate, to reckon, to deliberately consider something in a certain way. The NIV and other Bible translations render the word “consider.” I think that helps us understand the sense a little better.

James is not saying: pretend this is fun. Nor is he calling us always to have a stiff upper lip. He is not telling us what to feel—rather, he’s telling us how to think. The sense here is to think about something intently. In other words, joy in trials does not come naturally—it comes through a renewed perspective.

And notice—he doesn’t say “count it joy if trials come,” but “when” they come. Trials are not rare interruptions in the Christian life—they are normal features of it. And they come in “various kinds”—different shapes, different sizes, different seasons. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.”

So, when James writes count it all joy, he does not mean pretending the trial is pleasant. It does not mean denying pain or sorrow. It means recognizing that God is doing something good—even when the situation itself is hard.

Think of it like an optical illusion. Have any of you ever seen an autostereogram? They are commonly called Magic Eye Pictures. If not, they are pictures that at first look like very odd pattern of colors. But if you stare at the picture in the right way, you can see an image appear in the picture. I used to love those things. It was so the rewarding when you're finally able to see the picture clearly. Initially, though, it can be very frustrating. At first glance, it just looks confusing—random shapes, meaningless lines. But once you figure out how to refocus your eyes and see what’s really there, suddenly everything changes. You see it differently. The picture didn’t change—your perception did.

At first glance, trials look like chaos, like interruption, like burdens. But through the lens of faith, we begin to see something else: God’s hand at work. Counting it all joy when we go through trials means that we rejoice in the opportunity to suffer without pretending that it is not painful. Here joy does not serve as a synonym for happiness; it is an evaluation of the situation according to God’s truth that says that trials are for our ultimate good even though the challenges themselves are unpleasant. Joy is not found in the pain itself—it is found in what God is doing through the pain.

And we must understand that this is only possible though union with Christ. It is only by the grace that comes through a relationship with Christ that we can “count” our trials this way, with joy. It is a Christ-empowered perspective. It is God’s desire that we could regard our trials from a Christ-empowered perspective.

James then tells us why we can count it joy in verse 3. Because something is happening. “The testing of your faith…” This word “testing” carries the idea of refining—like metal placed in fire to prove its genuineness and remove impurities. Your faith is not being destroyed—it is being developed.

James wants us to know that trials purify and refine our faith. As we continue trusting God’s promises during our suffering, we grow more confident in His faithfulness and are more able to believe that He can do what seems impossible to us. We grow more steadfast and less thrown into disarray by our trials.

The Apostle Peter echo’s this 1 Peter 1. He writes in verse 6, “6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

So, there is purpose in the testing of our faith, in the testing that trials bring. God uses it. But what does the testing of our faith do? Look at the second part of verse 3.

The Lord uses trials to test, prove, or purify our faith to produce steadfastness in us. And notice this: “produces steadfastness.” This is not random. This is not accidental. This is productive. God is doing something intentional in your trial—He is producing endurance. He is building spiritual resilience. He is strengthening your faith so that it doesn’t collapse under pressure.

In Romans 5:3, Paul writes, “3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.” Later, in James 5, James reiterates this same command, “10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

Faith in God should deepen over time and grow stronger so that we find it easier to trust the Lord in difficult times and waver less in our confidence in our Father. To put it another way, trials purify our faith so that we steadfastly persevere.

I have been fascinated for a while now with elite level military training. I think it’s just amazing to see and hear how those individuals are able to push themselves, both physically and mentally, to such lengths. My understanding is the examination for entrance into the Navy Seals, known as BUDS, is one of the most rigorous of the rigorous. For six weeks, recruits are pushed to their absolute limits—physically, mentally, emotionally. It looks brutal from the outside. Why would anyone design something like that? Because the goal is not to break them—it is to build them. Without that pressure, they would never become the kind of people who can endure in the moments that matter most.

In the same way, God uses the pressure of trials to produce something in you that comfort never could: steadfastness.

The pressure you feel is not pointless—it is productive. So one thing we can do to begin to recognize that trials have a Christ-centered purpose is instead of asking, “Why is this happening to me?”, begin asking, “What is God producing in me?”

Again, this is only possible as we look to and rely on Christ in faith.

Lastly, James urges us to receive our trials as part of the Christ-forming process.
Look at verse 4. James gives us a command: “Let steadfastness have its full effect.” In other words—don’t resist the process. Don’t short-circuit what God is doing. Because the goal is: “That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” As important as perseverance is, however, James wants us to persevere not as an end in itself but so that we “may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

What is James saying here? This doesn’t mean sinless perfection—it means maturity, wholeness, spiritual completeness. Perfection and completeness here refer to a well-rounded character that displays all the Christian virtues in their maturest form. God acts to redeem us not merely to rescue us from sin and death but also to make us a new kind of people, a new humanity patterned after the Lord Jesus Christ. God is working to make us like His only begotten Son.

This is how the Christian life works; Faith grows through learning to persevere in hardship. The apostle Paul says something similar in his letter to the Roman church: “we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; Perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 3:4)

God is not just trying to get you through the trial—He is using the trial to grow you up. But that requires endurance over time.

Think about a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. As it struggles to break free, it looks like it’s fighting for its life. And sometimes, people try to help—by cutting the cocoon open.
But when they do, they actually harm the butterfly. Why? Because the struggle is what strengthens its wings. Without that struggle, it will never be able to fly. What looks like unnecessary suffering is actually essential development.

In the same way, if we constantly try to escape every hardship, we may be resisting the very thing God is using to strengthen us. If you remove the struggle, you remove the strength. Faith needs the pushback of trials for us to grow spiritually. Trials and hardships are an opportunity to cling on to the promises of God more tightly. This is a humbling lesson for us, because it reminds us that we need maturing as Christians.
Ultimately, this passage points us beyond ourselves—to Christ. He endured the greatest trial imaginable. The cross was not just suffering—it was injustice, agony. And yet, it was not meaningless. The crucifixion of Jesus was the very means by which God accomplished salvation.

Hebrews tells us that “for the joy set before Him,” He endured the cross. God was working all along. And if you are in Christ, that changes everything about your trials.

Your suffering is not meaningless—it is transformative. Your pain is not pointless—it is purposeful. God is using it to make you more like Jesus. We are not made right with God by our possession of Christian virtues but only by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, received by faith alone. Yet Christian character is always produced in those who have trusted in Jesus alone for salvation. Persevering in faith leads us to seek to become more and more like Him. Jesus is your strength - He walks with you in the trial. He sustains you through it. And He guarantees that it will not be wasted.

By God’s grace working through that relationship, you can regard your trials from a Christ-empowered perspective, you can recognize that your trials have a Christ-centered purpose, and you can receive your trials as part of the Christ-forming process.

We are called to consciously direct our perspective and vision above and beyond the present suffering, so that we look forward to the good that God will, over time, produce through them. It is as we do this that, alongside the deep pain, we can have a sense of the presence and goodness of God and be assured that we are in his hands and that he is at work within us.

Above all, we can relish the promise that God is using such trials to make us more and more like Jesus Christ. That is God’s purpose in our trials and it is our joy.

Let’s pray together.

I want to begin with a socially and culturally provocative statement: men and women are very different. It’s true! But seriously – men and women obviously have various different God-determined traits and characteristics.

Of course, in so many ways, we're the same. For example, both men and women are sinners in need of Christ. Neither gender is more sinful than the other. Corruption has touched every part of our being, and we break God’s law in so many of the same ways.

But the effects of sin also come to bear on our particular traits and characteristics, so that in some ways the corruption manifests itself differently in men and women. Those differences are on display all the time, and they were on display in the central gathering of the church in Ephesus – the public worship service in the covenant community.

Worship on the Lord’s Day is the primary event God uses in His heart-changing work.

This is why, as Acts 2 in the NT says, the believers, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” “The breaking of bread” was more than simply sharing meals together. In public worship, they celebrated the Lord’s Supper, as Christ Himself had instituted and commanded during His earthly ministry.

Also, in Acts 20, Luke writes, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.” The Lord’s Supper was celebrated, and the Word was preached.

In city after city, the apostles established these worship services. Churches were founded like the one in Ephesus, where Paul left Timothy to lead. Timothy’s role in Ephesus was like the role Paul gave to Titus on the island of Crete. In Titus 1, Paul tells Titus, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order.”

That could be translated as “set in order what was absent or lacking.” Paul immediately states what was lacking and needed. He writes, “and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” Paul was concerned with God’s intended order of things in His church.

Now, as we work our way through these next verses, keep in mind Paul’s concern about this order in the church and in public worship. Issues arose related to the behavior and roles of men and women. God’s design for manhood and womanhood are in view.

Christ redeems men for godly, biblical manhood and women for godly, biblical womanhood. Those who are saved and being sanctified by Christ should reflect this. That is what God intends for His people in Christ. We must embrace this to abide in Christ and grow in His grace and knowledge. That’s why God commands this in His Word. So let’s look closer.

In the previous section, Paul commanded all kinds of prayer for all kinds of people. This was an instruction for public worship. All believers – men, women, and children – should practice prayer. But the context of this chapter reveals that the congregational assembly is in view.

Now Paul says, “I desire then that in every place the men should pray.” In “every place the church gathers for worship…the men should pray.” Everyone will be praying private, silent prayers, but before the congregation, it is men only who are instructed to lead.

Why only men? In Galatians 3, Paul says, “there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Yes, in Christ, men and women are absolutely equal in value, dignity, and in their inheritance of every spiritual blessing in Christ. But “equal” doesn’t mean “same in every way.” “Equal” doesn’t mean “called by God in all the same ways and all the same roles”

This was the case in the Old covenant community, and so it was in the New covenant community. As it was in the synagogues, so it must be in the churches, that the calling and responsibility for leadership was assigned only to men. All God’s people gather, but men lead. As we’ll see shortly, this order is rooted in creation and the home.

But notice that a certain kind of male leadership was necessary. See the rest of the verse, “the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” Why might the men be quarreling or getting angry? About positions and authority, of course. Men must lead the church, but they should not be competing for prominence through power or position. Humility must characterize the men who lead God’s church. They should model godly, biblical manhood.

Now, what’s the significance of “lifting holy hands?” This same language is used in the book of Job – having “clean hands” before God. And in Psalm 24, King David sang, “Who shall ascend the hill of Yahweh? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” When a man comes before the congregation to lead God’s people, he must be holy, which is only possible because of God’s grace. And in thankful response to that grace, the man should seek faith to obey God’s law.

The men who lead God’s people to His throne of grace must never lose sight of the appropriate posture of the heart in worship as well as how Christ made it possible for sinners to approach the holy God. After all, His Word says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Now look at verse [9]. Paul writes, “likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel.” The men should adorn themselves with humility. In a like manner, the women should as well. But something different is emphasized. See the next phrase “with modesty and self-control.” Their style of dress should reflect prudence and sober-mindedness.

Of course, worship is not a yardwork or cleaning day at church. No one expects women to dress for that type of occasion. But neither is worship a beauty pageant or a debutante ball. Paul says that very elaborate hair, makeup and clothing is out of place. That’s the principle of these instructions.

Paul writes, “not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire. The wording translated “braided hair” actually refers to many different hairstyles. These were very embellished first century stylings that took a long, long time to create and signified wealth or prestige or might be used to achieve maximum attractiveness. Think of the Met Gala, or the Oscars, or a formal event or a country club cotillion. This kind of appearance may fit other public settings, but not worship.

For worship, women should adorn themselves – see verse 10 – “with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.” A certain kind of fashion may be appropriate at a gala or a formal, but the fashion for worship is faith and righteousness displayed through modesty and reverence. Godly, biblical womanhood.

For a congregation to be sound and healthy, to effectively proclaim Christ, these instructions must be followed, because in public worship, God intends for behavior to reflect biblical manhood and womanhood.

Men shouldn’t be preoccupied with being powerful, and women shouldn’t be preoccupied with being pretty. The men shouldn’t be power-tripping; the women shouldn’t be preening.

Notice again that Paul used the word “likewise” to begin verse 9. Both genders are prone to pridefulness, but in different ways. Both tend to be consumed with their appearance, but in different ways. Both sets of instructions address sinful efforts for prominence – one gender leveraging authority, the other leveraging beauty. And in both cases, they caught up not in the glories of Christ, but in self-glory.

Scripture repeatedly states what is “becoming” or “unbecoming” for God’s people. Christ redeemed us for godly behavior as men and women in the church. To go against these commands is not godly – it’s worldly.

Next, Paul moves to the subject of teaching and learning in worship. The preaching of the Word; the public reading of the Word. Look at verse [11]. Paul writes, “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.” Paul uses similar language in Ephesians 5 when discussing marriage.He says wives submit to your husbands as the church submits to Christ.

Of course, husbands are commanded to love, nourish and cherish their wives, to give themselves for their wives as Christ did for His church to sanctify her. But there is an authority dynamic here. There’s an order. However, I do want to point out that was notable at that time to encourage women to learn and approve their right to learn.

Now, Paul speaks differently about authority in 1 Corinthians 7 when discussing physical intimacy in the marital relationship. He writes, “the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” But that’s a different setting – the marriage bed. Again, the setting Paul has in mind in 1 Timothy 2 is public worship, and the positions of authority are ordained for men only.

Notice verse 12, he says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.” In other words, women are not allowed “to deliver a teaching discourse” that includes men or “to govern or exercise dominion” over men in the church.

Obviously, then, men are to teach and exercise authority in worship and the church.See the rest of the verse. “Rather, she is to remain quiet.” Of course, men who are not leading will be quietly learning also, but Paul’s command speaks to the posture of women in God’s order.

Now, these next verses are essential, because whether this command is given in the first century or the 21st century, precedent is helpful! What’s the reason? The precedent for this order of authority is rooted in creation and the first home. Paul goes to the book of Genesis, to the beginning of things.

Paul recognized – as Christ did – that God made all things in the space of six literal days and that Adam and Eve were real, historical persons. Here at this church, we believe this as well, as we teach no other view. We do believe that humankind began with these two people, created by God. And there was an order in which they were created, see verse 13, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.”

As a potter shapes clay, so the triune God “formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” This was the first man. He was the first father of humankind.

But “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Eve, the first woman and first mother of humankind, was literally “one who helps.” Adam existed without her, but things were not yet “good” for him. Yet, with the addition of the woman completed creation so that it was “very good.” That order is God's order of authority in marriage and the church.

In Ephesians 5, Paul writes, “the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is
the head of the church.” The husband is not better than the wife, he is not of more value than the wife, but in their roles as man and woman in home and church, he is prominent as chief,and very great are his responsibilities to the wife.

He is to lead her well, to protect her, care for her, love her, support her, defend her, strengthen her, nourish her toward spiritual maturity, and be tender with her. The man is to be Christlike, for his role is Christlike. Though he is the head, he must not be harsh.
Though she submits to him, he must always be serving her according to God’s order.

Now look at verse 14. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Paul points out the order in which Adam and Eve sinned. The serpent deceived Eve. She transgressed God’s covenant first.

However, God made the covenant of works with Adam. In Romans, Paul explains that it was Adam’s transgression through which sin came into the world. Sin and death came in and reigned because one man sinned. Adam was the head of his marriage to Eve; he was the head of mankind. The order of leadership and authority in the church reflects that of the marriage.

Imagine if, when the serpent came to Eve to tempt her, Adam had stepped in. Men must step up to their God-ordained role as head in the home and church. Adam did not. He acquiesced to his wife. Dr. Bill Barcley has a helpful insight here. Barcley observes, “How does this fact support Paul’s case that a woman is not to teach or have authority over a man? Precisely in this, that the serpent slid around the structure of authority that God had instituted for the first family.” Barcley goes on to note that “Genesis 3:6 seems to indicate that Adam was present during the temptation. But he did nothing to intervene to stop it.”

Now, I want to add that these verses are sometimes wrongly interpreted as being a command unique to Ephesus and not to be applied in all the churches. But listen to this statement made by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14. He writes, “As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.” “The Law” refers to the law of Moses, specifically to Genesis. The command for authority is rooted in the created order, even before the Fall into sin.

Now look at verse [15]. Though Eve sinned first, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” “She” is Eve. God was no less gracious to Eve than he was to Adam. Both looked to the Redeemer who would descend from them. But Eve would give birth, and from her, eventually, Christ would come into the world.

But notice the word “they?” This shifts from Eve to women in general. Now clearly, Paul is not promoting works-based salvation. We know that for sure. So let’s think through this. Generally speaking, it is women who give birth. It is the female gender only. That is their unique role in the created order. Of course, that is not what saves them from their sin. Faith in Christ – demonstrated through progressive sanctification – is necessary.
So what does this mean?

Paul’s reference to childbirth is shorthand for the uniqueness of biblical womanhood. Again, the reference to childbirth is shorthand for the uniqueness of biblical womanhood. It speaks to the exclusive role of women, with their distinct traits and characteristics. Women have a unique vital role in the home, marriage, and church, just as men do. Their uniqueness is to be treasured and championed in the home and church.

But to keep the interpretation in context, I added verse 1 of chapter 3, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” This connects with Paul’s instructions to Titus in Titus 1 that I read to you earlier. Titus was to appoint elders. Timothy had the same responsibility.

These were to be qualified men who would exercise oversight and authority. Paul uses the titles of “elder” and “overseer” interchangeably. In Acts 20, Paul addresses the elders of the Ephesians church as “overseers.” Naturally then, elder or overseer is an office to be held exclusively by men in the church.

In public worship, God intends for roles to reflect biblical manhood and womanhood. Installing women as pastors or elders is contrary to God’s order of things. It’s not a philosophical difference. It’s a theological error. Dr. Barcley states this helpfully. He points out that egalitarianism in church roles is evangelical feminism. In the home and church men and women are equal in Christ but we have different roles.

But you may think “What difference does it make?” Well, apparently the differences matter to God because He created them. He established them, and in His Word He clarifies that there must be mutual love, respect, and honor. And we can’t fulfill our God-ordained roles as men and women in the home and church if we obey society’s attempts to erase all of our differences.

Christ redeems us – He brings us into spiritual union with Himself – to produce obedience that glorifies God and blesses us. Rightly ordered life in the home and church is one way Christ has overcome the world.

Have you trusted in the power of Christ as the only effective way to overcome sin? Have you believed on Him alone to satisfy God’s wrath against sin which you deserve? Receive Jesus today by grace through faith. No achievement on your part is required. Only believe. Believe, and turn from your sins to walk in His ways for they are the best ways to live.

Paul's instructions in 1 Timothy 2 are not intended to elevate men or diminish women. The goal is that men and women saved by Christ will enjoy the blessed order of things. In this way, the redemption Christ has accomplished will be displayed.

Sin has distorted God’s good design for humanity, but through His own person and work, Jesus Christ our Lord is restoring His people. And when His church gathers for worship, God’s grace and power are on display as the behavior and roles of men and women reflect that redeemed order.

Let’s bow in prayer.

There are many themes throughout the Old and New Testaments. The same ideas come up again and again. One of those themes is the surprising reach of God’s grace. His saving mercy extends far beyond the boundaries we naturally draw.

The OT prophet Jonah was disgusted that God would spare the evil Ninevites. The Pharisees couldn’t understand why Christ would interact with immoral social and religious outcasts. Another example is in the Lord Jesus’ parable about workers in a vineyard, where those who arrive early to work complain about those who come at the end of the day but receive the same paycheck. And then in His parable about the prodigal son, an older brother is furious when his corrupt younger brother is shown grace after leaving home with his family inheritance and returning with nothing.

Many who you think could never come to Christ will, in fact, before the end. In Matthew 8. Jesus says, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.” And in Matthew 21, Jesus tells the Jewish chief priests and elders, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”

You may think you are beyond God’s grace. You may think others are. We naturally think God only saves a certain kind of person. But Isaiah 55 notes that God doesn’t think like we do. He extends His grace to people from every nation and every station in life. God’s Word confirms that reality, and it must shape and inform our prayers.

But with this knowledge shaping our prayers, what will happen?

These next verses in 1 Timothy tell us that as we pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, God’s power will be displayed, His purpose will be fulfilled,
and His Son will be glorified. And as those things happen, we will see just how far God’s grace can go.

Now, after addressing false teaching and Timothy’s pastoral charge in chapter 1, Paul moves into instructions for worship, leadership, and life in the covenant community.
Look again at verse 1. He writes, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made.”

It’s no coincidence that Paul begins with the subject of prayer. The Shorter Catechism explains that biblical “prayer is an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Jesus Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.”Prayer would be central to Timothy’s pastoral work. It would be central to the life of the church. Prayer is not secondary in the work of ministry.

Notice that Paul uses four different terms for prayer here. Why is that? Well, a “supplication” is a request based on an immediate need. A “prayer” is a general term for words addressed directly to God. An “intercession” is a petition made on someone else’s behalf. And “thanksgivings” are expressions of gratitude to God for all the blessings He gives. Various kinds of prayers are to be prayed regularly by and with God’s people.

Notice Paul’s next phrase. He says various prayers should be made “for all people.” This is the first time in this chapter that we see this important phrase. Now, to this, Paul adds, “for kings and all who are in high positions.” The sense here is that no group of people is exempt. No one should be seen as unworthy of prayers: Jews and Gentiles, subjects and rulers, poor and rich, men and women.

But then Paul gives part of his rationale for the command to pray for rulers. He says, “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” God’s work in and among the powerful and influential – such as kings and other leaders – would benefit all people, and especially the life of the church and the proclaiming of Christ.

Yes, God works in times of persecution, but He also works in times of peace. Even today, when God changes the hearts of powerful leaders, or when evil leaders are removed from power, new doors open for the gospel. What Paul has in mind here is, as Dr. Bill Barcley puts it, “All kinds of prayers…offered for all kinds of people.”

As the shepherds and members of the church pray these prayers, immediate needs are met, and God works in us and those for whom we pray. As we pray these prayers, our hearts are transformed by the Spirit as we address God with praise and thanksgiving. We proclaimed earlier that we have “encouragement to pray” and should display “boldness, strength, and hope of the acceptance of our prayer” because of who Christ is and what He has done for us.

God works through prayer. He changes hearts through prayer. And as you pray, the first heart you can expect to see changed is your own. In Philippians 4, Paul told the church, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

As we pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, God’s power will be displayed – in our world and in our hearts. Please listen closely, because this is biblical Christianity: our desires begin to align with the desires of God, our pride dwindles, and humility takes its place, fears and worries give way to a strange but assuring peace within, the Holy Spirit of God transforms our affections, so that we love what He loves, and deep spiritual communion with the living, triune God occurs, and all we did was pray.

We prayed for people from every nation and every station in life. God calls all of us to pray, both separately and together. Prayer is perhaps the most underestimated of God’s ordinary means of grace. The effects of prayer in the world are not quickly measurable. This is one reason why special seasons of prayer are sometimes called for.

But fervent prayer is to be a regular part of covenant community life. Long pastoral prayers from the pulpit in the worship service, as well as times of confession and thanksgiving from everyone present. Times of gathered prayer, like our weekly time in Sunday morning Bible study, and our biweekly times of Life Group prayer, as well as other times with believers, and your daily and continual “offering up of your desires to God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Jesus Christ, with confession of your sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.”

My friends, we must pray. Do you hope to see God’s power displayed? Then you must pray.

Now look at verse [3]. Paul writes, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.” Important to note: he’s referring to the prayers for all kinds of people. Yes, God is glad for us to have “peaceful, quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.” That won’t always be the case, but all works together for the good of God’s people.

Scholars agree that Paul is continuing his urging toward prayer. He says, “God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Many mistaken claims have been made using this verse.

For example, it’s often used to make a case for universalism – the belief that every single person will ultimately be saved. The idea is that God desires everyone to be saved, so in the end He will save everyone. We reject that belief on biblical grounds. The whole of Scripture refutes that belief. In fact, just two chapters after this, Paul says God is the Savior of those who believe.

Now, this verse is also used to make the case for synergism – the belief that salvation from sins is a cooperation or working together of God and human beings. The idea is that God desires everyone to be saved, and so the choice to accept or reject Christ is left up to the will of the individual. We reject that belief on biblical grounds.

The whole of Scripture refutes that belief, but two passages in particular come to mind: John 6, where Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” Romans 9, where Paul says, “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy,” and Ephesians 2, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

However, dealing only with this verse, to make a case for either universalism or synergism requires isolating this sentence from its context. We must understand Paul’s words here within the rest of his words, before and after. And when we do that, the meaning becomes clear. Paul commands prayer for all kinds of people because God’s saving purpose extends to all kinds of people.

God desires for all types of people, from all walks of life, from all races and nationalities “to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” The gospel was not only for the Jewish people, or only for the common people, but “for all people,” even “for kings and all who are in high positions.”

Many other places in the NT inform our understanding of the meaning of “all.” For instance, in Luke 2, Luke writes, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” “All the world” meant the Roman world, not every single person on planet Earth.

And in John 12, Christ speaks of His own crucifixion, saying, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Yet we know that not every single person who has ever lived has been drawn to Christ. However, we also know that God draws people from every nation and station in life. All kinds of people – even the ones we see as beyond the reach of God’s grace. Even evil leaders.

One wicked ruler was the Roman emperor Nero, who ruled at the time Paul wrote this. Nero was a tyrant. Infamously cruel. He took enjoyment from inflicting pain on others. Not long after the writing of 1 Timothy, he began severe persecution of Christians. Yet Paul urged the church to include emperors in their prayers. And if the church must pray for a man like Nero, then no person should be left out of our prayers.

All kinds of people – even the ones we see as unsavable or unworthy. None of us are worthy. But in Revelation 5, the apostle John writes these words of a song sung in heaven: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

The God of the Old and New Testaments is the only hope. Look at verse [5], “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, [6] who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

This further refutes universalism. A ransom is a substitutionary payment that redeems a specific people. John 10 and Ephesians 5 expressly state that Christ died for His sheep – for the church. Not every person will be saved. In Matthew 7, Christ says many will perish.

Verses 5 and 6 also further refute synergism. A ransom is not a potential payment merely making release possible. Christ did not just create the possibility of redemption. He accomplished redemption. If the work of Christ only produced the possibility for the salvation of everyone, then it didn’t actually secure salvation for anyone.

A ransom is a price paid that actually and effectively secures release. In Romans 9, Paul affirms this – which the OT repeatedly demonstrates: God has mercy on some and gives others over to their desire to harden their hearts.

But Christ has saved many, and will save many more. All types of people, from both Greeks and barbarians, with good reputation and bad reputation, from the worldly successes and the worldly failures, from the so-called good and the bad, from the supposed innocent and the guilty, from those who are addicts and those who are clean, from those who are mentally sick and those who are mentally well, from those whose lives are in order and those whose lives are in ruins.

This is the redemptive purpose of God, Revelation 7: “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” For this God calls us to pray.

And as we pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, God’s purpose will be fulfilled. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.” Do you hope to see God’s purpose fulfilled? Then you must pray. By ourselves, and together, we must pray, my friends.

Now look finally at verse [7]. Paul adds, “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” What is “this” for what was Paul “appointed?”

It was His apostolic ministry to another type of people – the non-Jewish ethnicities, generally referred to as “gentiles.” Paul literally says he was “made” a preacher and apostle. By whom? By Christ. Christ made him a preacher to all kinds of people – to all types.

Now, notice the parentheses. He writes, “I am telling the truth, I am not lying.” That’s an interesting statement to put in a letter to a friend who is your protege. But as I said before, this letter would be read to the church and other churches, and it’s likely that Paul’s credentials were questioned by the false teachers.

He was an easy target for questioning, given his shameful background. In Acts 7, the Lord’s servant Stephen proclaims Christ and is put to death by stoning. Luke writes that “Saul approved of his execution.” This is Saul who would later be known by the Greek form of his name, Paul.

After Stephen’s death, Acts 8 says, “there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem...Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” But then in Acts 9, Saul is converted. He comes face to face with Christ, his eyes are opened, and he believes. He trusts in Christ. He then repents of his sins.

Now we have no explicit evidence in Scripture that the church was praying for Saul, but we do know that during times of intense persecution in the early church, they prayed intensely. In fact, in Acts 9, when God calls Ananias to minister to the recently-converted Saul, Ananias was likely praying. And God tells Ananias to go to Saul, and that when arrives, he will find Saul praying.

So, we can’t say for sure that the believers were praying for Saul before His conversion, but we can say for certain that during his ministry, Paul called the believers to pray for people like him. Christ had done a great work in him. The Spirit of God had regenerated his dead soul. God had opened his eyes, showing him mercy and grace. And Paul longed to see this same work done among the non-Jews, among every type of people, because you see, Christ was glorified before Paul’s very eyes during a time when he was not the type of person to whom you would expect God to extend His grace.

As we pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, God’s Son will be glorified.
Do you hope to see Christ glorified before the lost? Then you must pray. By ourselves, and together, we must pray.

So there are many reasons to pray for those least expected to be saved. But there is no greater reason than this: praying for them causes you to reflect on who you would be apart from God’s grace. After all, your only hope was a mediator, and there is no other mediator but Christ.

Some people think they are too sinful for Christ to save them. Others think they are too respectable to need saving. But if the suffering of Christ was so severe, then how high the price must have been!

Why would you not trust only in Christ today? He paid your price. He broke the power of sin, so that you have peace with God and live His way. And because of Christ there is no more price to pay, but there are prayers to pray. All kinds of prayers for people from every nation and every station in life.

And those who are in Christ can be confident that in and through Him, our prayers are heard, and God has determined to use our prayers as accomplishes His holy will in our world and in our hearts.

Let’s bow in prayer together before we go to the Lord’s table.

Have you ever wondered, “Why do some church leaders fall?” Why do some act out in a way that disqualifies them from ministry? Sadly, it happens. Nationally, we hear of many every year. It can be hard to understand.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” Paul has in mind a level of understanding that recognizes the sin of pride – of thinking highly of ourselves. Scripture tells us that it’s dangerous to believe that we could never fall.

So, why do so many church leaders fall? Those who should know the Scriptures – and who were set apart to proclaim Christ – how can they behave as if they never knew Him?

Well, for sure, people are complex. There are always many factors at play, and no two situations are exactly the same. I want to be clear that pastoral ministry is not the ultimate thing. Ministry positions can be lost, but union with Christ cannot be lost. Those who truly belong to Jesus cannot finally fall away.

But the reality is that all believers are capable of falling in some form or fashion because we’re prone to let down our guard against the sin lurking both within and around us. Ministers and members can reject the life and strength that flows to us from Christ. All of us can – to translate Paul literally here – “thrust ourselves away from” our sense of what is right and wrong.

Do you ever choose wrong over right? Then you can fall. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it’s possible. And when we let down our guard against sin, we stop fighting it. It’s like wandering around a battlefield – bullets flying, bombs going off – with little or no sense of caution or awareness or self-protection from the danger.

All believers are capable of it. But we’re also capable of standing firm against sin.
Christ supplies all we need for life and godliness. Some weeks ago, I said we must continually receive union with Him as the guiding reality, defining message, and liberating power for our lives. That applies here. As we remain consciously aware of and actively engaged in that living union with Christ – drawing on Him through the means He has appointed –  we will receive what we need for caution, awareness, and self-protection from the dangers of sin.

We can thrust ourselves toward Him who thrust Himself to death for our sins – and we can enjoy the life that flows to us from Him, because He keeps and carries us.

However, doing so is not always easy in this life. As Paul says, we must “wage the good warfare, holding to faith and a good conscience.” Otherwise, disaster lies ahead.

So how do we remain strong in Christ and keep from falling? How do we receive union with Him as the guiding reality, defining message, and liberating power for our lives? How do we abide in or remain in Christ?

Well, two basic Biblical truths stand out from what Paul says here: by returning to Christ for grace, and relying on Christ for faith. With these powerful metaphors,
Paul helps us understand how to wage war and avoid wreckage. So let’s look at these.

At the beginning of chapter 1, Paul says he left Timothy in Ephesus to correct and eliminate false and useless teaching in the church. Here, he describes again the “charge” he “entrusted” to Timothy. It was a command for stewardship.

Pastoral ministry is the management of what doesn’t belong to the pastor. A congregation of believers belongs to God and is precious to Him. He entrusts the congregation’s care to the shepherds He calls. The Ephesian Christians were entrusted to Paul, and now to Timothy.

Like a father raises and teaches a son, Paul had prepared Timothy for the work. Then it has been handed over to Timothy by Paul, look at verse 18 again, “in accordance with the prophecies previously made about” Timothy. What were these prophecies?

Paul’s words in chapter 4 help us understand. There he says to Timothy, “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.” This is a reference to Timothy’s pastoral ordination.

The early church modeled what we still practice today. When a man demonstrates God’s calling to pastoral ministry, and when he has been prepared to enter the ministry,
and when God has presented a specific ministry call or position for him, he is set apart before the congregation through the laying on of hands and prayer. The elders publicly affirm God’s calling to a work through this biblical ritual. With the prayers and other things that are said before the congregation, the elders pronounce or utter aloud what God will do through this man.

That’s the meaning of “prophecy” here. It’s the utterance of God’s will. That’s what happened with Timothy. The elders acknowledged God’s gifts given to him for pastoral use, and they confirmed that he possessed faith, character, knowledge, and skill.
And based on that, Paul appointed Timothy to this work in the city of Ephesus.

Now notice the next phrase in verse 18, “that by them you may wage the good warfare.” It’s very important to recognize that Timothy’s gifting and calling – along with all his training and preparation – plus the elders’ confirmation of the call and public proclamation of it – should all be seen as God’s grace toward Timothy.

Of course, his salvation was God’s grace toward him, but also, the call to pastoral ministry was God’s grace as well. Yes, the prophetic utterances at his ordination proclaimed Timothy’s competence, but that competence, from start to finish, is God’s grace toward the man. And in accordance with that grace, Timothy should “wage the good warfare.”

Picture a good soldier fighting for a cause. His duty and ability are God’s grace toward him. That any mere man could faithfully serve as a pastor is a gracious work of God. We are sinners saved by grace. We have hang ups and habits as well. So you can see why pastors must be urged to reflect on God’s grace towards them. As undershepherds of Christ encounter temptation and conflict, we have to reflect on God’s gracious calling.

But how does this relate to each of you? What about those who aren’t called as pastors or as church officers?

Well, like Timothy, when you professed faith in Christ, you accepted a call. Everyone who is born again by God’s Holy Spirit has been effectively called by God. And that effective call – meaning that you not only heard but also responded – that effective call was entirely and unequivocally God’s grace toward you. And, like Timothy, those who are called to salvation are also called to serve.

Of course, not all will be pastors or officers; in fact, most will not. But Ephesians 4 helps us understand this. Paul says some believers are called to ordained roles in church leadership, and they are tasked with “equipping the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” A saint is simply a believer in Christ. So, every believer receives a gracious call to salvation and to service – a call from the one and only God to receive His grace and renewal and to use the gifts and abilities He graciously gives you
in the opportunities that He graciously provides.

As Timothy fulfilled his call in Ephesus, Paul acknowledged that it would be a battle. Timothy would have to fight what Scripture calls “the world.” In 1 John 5, John writes, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” What is this “world” that believers have overcome?

John Calvin clarifies the meaning. He writes, “The term “world” has here a wide meaning, for it includes whatever is adverse to the Spirit of God: thus, the corruption of our nature is part of the world; all lusts, all the crafts of Satan, in short, whatever leads us away from God.” The war Timothy was called to wage was against sin. Sin both around him and within him.

“War” might seem like excessive language, but it’s appropriate. Calvin goes on to talk about the seriousness of this battle. He writes, “Having such a force to contend with, we have an immense war to carry on, and we should have been already conquered before coming to the contest, and we should be conquered a hundred times daily, had not God promised to us the victory. But God encourages us to fight by promising us the victory.”

In the war against sin, we already have the decisive victory because of who Christ is and what He did for us. There will be ups and downs in your earthly life, but because Christ has overcome, and you have union with Him by grace through faith, you also have already overcome the world. Therefore, you can rise each day to fight sin, for you already have victory in Jesus.

Paul tells Timothy to fight in the same way he was enlisted: by grace. In Colossians 2, Paul wrote to the churches, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” How did we receive Christ? By grace. It was all grace. There was none of our power. Paul says it wasn’t our own doing; it was the gift of God.

Why do church leaders fall? Yes, it’s often complicated. But whatever the cause or causes, whatever the circumstances or character flaws, the church leader who falls – and any believer who falls – has lost sight of the call to wage war by returning to Christ for grace.

It’s a call not only for leaders, but for all believers. Anyone who falls into sin at some point began to turn somewhere other than Christ. Do you ever do that? Of course you do. So you should know that you could fall. For Timothy to succeed in his calling – and for each of us to continue in ours – we must be sustained by Jesus, returning to Him for grace. Return to Jesus today.

But now look at verse 19. Paul changes metaphors, from a soldier in battle to a ship on the sea. He tells Timothy to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.” Timothy must hold to faith – to biblical faith. What is biblical faith?

Scripture tells us that Biblical faith is a settled inner conviction that is rightly grounded in God’s promises and that confidently embraces gospel realities that aren’t presently visible. What has God promised to His people?

First, He promised that the work of Christ alone is sufficient to save us from sin and death, and that salvation is ours by grace through faith. Also, He promised to form Christ in us, conforming us to His likeness. He will make us more like Jesus, again by grace through faith. To wage war against sin, Timothy needed to trust God continually for these.

But also, he would need to have “a good conscience.” He would need a sound understanding of right and wrong according to God’s law, loving what is right and despising what is wrong. That is “a good conscience.”

Not all of the leaders in Ephesus had maintained this faith and conscience. See the rest of the verse. “By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.” Some leaders had cast off caution against the sin lurking within and around them. They had thrust away the practice of constantly returning to Christ for grace. They had put aside biblical faith and God’s standards of right and wrong.

Certainly everyone has heard of the disaster of the RMS Titanic – “the largest and most luxurious passenger ship of its time…reported to be unsinkable.” The Titanic was travelling from England to America in 1912 when it struck an iceberg. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died in the shipwreck.

Interestingly, the captain received many warnings of icebergs ahead but continued, though today he’s not considered to have been reckless or negligent. His knowledge, and the nautical technology at that time, was limited compared to what sailors now possess. But still, historians agree that the disaster could have been avoided, and after the Titanic sank, everyone took note. They were more aware than ever of the dangers of icebergs at sea because of the tragic example of the Titanic.

There were multiple leaders who wrecked their faith in Ephesus, notice verse 20. “Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” This was an act of church discipline – removing from the congregation and from membership professing believers who have fallen into grievous sin and refuse to repent. Among the purposes are the protection of the purity of the church and helping the fallen believers take their sin seriously so they will return to Christ.

We saw last week that Paul was once a blasphemer. He had slandered Christ. Hymenaeus and Alexander were apparently doing the same. We actually don’t know if they later repented and were restored. We hope they were. But Paul literally says they were put out of the church to instruct and discipline them. It was not an act of punishment. It was an act of love. It was an act of love for them and for the body of Christ.

Those who are truly saved will eventually see the light. Those who are born again, who have that union with Christ, will eventually return to the faith, because you see, that’s what was put aside when they descended into sin. Biblical faith was cast off. Not that they lost their salvation, but that their conscience became insensitive to sin. They indulged and fed the desires of the sinful nature. The world was no longer their foe. Instead, the world became a friend.

Why do church leaders and believers fall? Again, it is often complicated. But whatever the cause or causes, any believer who falls has lost sight of the call to avoid wreckage by relying on Christ for faith. Timothy would need to rely on Christ for strong faith to persevere.

We don’t muster faith. We don’t get it through human inspiration or strategies. In Hebrews 13, the writer of that sermon prayed that God would “equip [the people]
with everything good that [they would] do [God’s] will,” and that God performs this
by “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”

As we come to Christ in worship – both publicly and privately, in the church building and the home, using the means He has appointed – He strengthens our faith. That’s our only hope to avoid wreckage on the dangerous sea of life.

The battlefield is real. The sea is dangerous. Any believer who stops watching and fighting will drift toward wreckage. But we continue with Christ the same way we came to Him: by grace through faith. The same Jesus who secured our victory by grace now sustains us by that same grace.

So examine your heart today. Where have you grown casual with sin? What pulls you away from Christ? If you are fearful of falling, be confident in Him. He can sustain you. If you have fallen or sense that you have been falling, be confident in Him. He can restore you. Return to Him for grace, rely on Him for faith, wage warfare and avoid wreckage.

Let’s bow in prayer.

We all have strategies for success in our lives. What do I mean?

I mean ways we go about getting the outcomes we want. Habits, methods, and systems we rely on. We have ways of doing things.

How do you keep your house clean? How do you maintain your yard?

How do you get to work on time? How do you care for your children?

How do you keep up your car or your personal appearance?

How do you get people to like you? How do you fit in within others?

How do you go about doing whatever it is you do? Strategies or plans of action.

Most of the time, they’re not written down. They're just in our heads. We’re usually open to new and better ones, though in some cases we’re very committed to our tried-and-true ways. But in areas of life where we struggle or feel ineffective or unsuccessful, we’re particularly open to new strategies.

How do you deal with unwanted thoughts, feelings, or emotions?

How do you feel better? How can you be better?

It seems like today we have more strategies available than ever before. You can watch a video, read a book or an article, talk to a counselor. You can ask AI. There are endless options for learning what to do and how to do it.

It’s often assumed that worship and preaching are just additional channels for learning effective strategies for living. You may pick up some of those, but that’s not the primary purpose. You see, worship and preaching confront and comfort you with life’s greatest realities. Here, we revisit the everlasting and abiding truths that shape the whole person.

Now it’s sometimes said that while that may be helpful, that’s not practical. Someone may ask, “Okay – but what do I do now? What are the strategies? What are the methods? How do I change, and how do I affect change in my world?” Those are good questions – questions we need to ask – but we naturally go wrong in our approach. How so?

Well, we move on from God’s great truths and rely on our own methods and strategies. But you must understand – Scripture reveals that for all the effective strategies and methods for changing our behavior or the behavior of others,
our methods cannot change the human heart. Only God can change the human heart. Only He can change what we love and desire.

In this next section of 1 Timothy, the apostle Paul speaks concisely to this reality. He describes the complete hopelessness of sinners in our natural state, but then proclaims that God shows mercy and grace to hopeless sinners. God changes hearts. He causes us to be spiritually born again, bringing us into spiritual union with Christ. And then, through that union, He accomplishes lasting heart change through the means He has ordained.

Without the change that only God accomplishes through Christ, our strategies and methods may bear some pleasant results, but they will ultimately fall short of producing the lasting change we desire.

However, as God does His heart-changing work, we will be able to discern His good will in all things. When the great truths of God inform and shape our whole lives, we will be able to choose and apply the best strategies and ways for living. And here Paul highlights three aspects of this great truth. Notice the outline. Paul tells us that:
We are, by nature, ignorant unbelievers and hopeless enemies of the one true God. (vv.12-13)
No one is beyond the sovereign God’s gracious forgiveness and restoration. (vv.14-15)
God's saving work magnifies the patience and power that He alone possesses. (vv.16-17)
These are the facts that must govern a believer’s whole life. So let’s look at each one.

In the previous section, Paul states that God gave the law because we are sinners. All of us break His moral law and stand guilty before Him. Paul speaks generally, but then gets more specific. Notice he says God’s law was given “for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, [10] the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

Then he contrasts all sinfulness with what He describes as, “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” It may sound as though Paul is elevating himself above others. God chose to do a great gospel work through him, so naturally that might elevate the people’s opinion of Paul, and it might also elevate Paul’s opinion of himself.

But based on what Paul says next, he seems to anticipate that response, whether the thought is “He’s better than us,” or “He thinks he’s better than us.” Look again at verse [12]. He says, “I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.” This shouldn’t be read as Paul expressing that he deserved his role as an apostle.

Actually, Paul is amazed that Christ “considered him one useful for his purpose,” “decided to involve him in this ministry,” “chose to enable someone like him” – given Paul’s history and reputation. The Lord essentially said to Himself, “I will perform my work through this one.” Paul thanks Christ because he wasn’t able within himself to believe, much less to perform such a ministry.

Like all sinners, Paul was not morally neutral. God chose to save and sanctify Paul, he says, notice verse [13], “though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” He slandered faith in Christ. He harmed those who believed. Paul was not indifferent to the faith; rather, he was pridefully against it.

However, see the rest of verse 13, “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” Now, this could be easily misunderstood. Paul is not saying that his ignorance somehow made him worthy of salvation or ministry. He’s not saying, “God showed me mercy because of my ignorance.” He’s saying, “Because of my ignorance, God’s mercy was my only hope.” He’s saying he could not have been saved without mercy. He’s saying, “I was an ignorant unbeliever, therefore God had to grant me
undeserved favor.”

Undeserved favor was his only hope. Like all sinners, Paul deserved judgment, but God mercifully chose not to cause that judgment to flow over him. Instead, verse [14],”...the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Overflowing isn’t usually a good thing. When a river overflows after torrential rain, it’s dangerous. When the sewers overflow and fill the streets, it’s a mess. If you pour a drink or fill a bowl and you pour too much, it’s a clean-up situation. In every case, an overflow means there’s too much. There’s a super-abundance.

But here, overflow is a good thing. There was a super abundance of God’s kindness and favor toward Paul. That’s why he was saved. That’s why he was called to be an apostle. Not because God saw some small bit of righteousness in Paul’s soul, but because “the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

As you choose your strategies for living, as you go about your daily life, following Jesus Christ begins with this fact: We are, by nature, ignorant unbelievers and hopeless enemies of the one true God. But we don’t stop there. Look at the beginning of verse [15]. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance” or “complete acceptance.”

This is a phrase that Paul uses at various times. It’s a formula. Dr. Bill Barcley says that Paul wherever employs this phrase, whatever comes next “faithfully represents the gospel message.” What follows is true to the message of Christ, and Barcley adds, “All who claim to be believers must wholeheartedly accept this saying and apply it to themselves.” Let me clarify – not only should we accept it as true, but also, true of us.

Now see the saying – “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am the foremost.” I said in my previous sermon that when we read Paul’s list in verses 9 and 10, we might feel pretty good about ourselves by the time we get to the end. You’re a lawbreaker, but you haven’t done these heinous sins on this list. But that would be delusional on our part, because while there are various sins in God’s law that you can say you’ve never committed, James the brother of Jesus writes, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”

God’s moral law is not like the civil and criminal laws of the United States. If you break one U.S. law, you aren't as guilty as the worst criminal. That’s not the case with the moral law of God. Romans 3 says, “There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Yes, earthly consequences differ. In human terms, it’s worse to kill someone than to simply want to do it in your heart. But before God, we all stand condemned.

Also notice here that even though Paul is saved and sanctified in Christ – even though he serves God and continues to grow in holiness – he’s still comfortable referring to himself as a sinner. In fact, it’s a healthy practice according to the apostle.

Paul’s letters reveal that throughout the course of his Christian life, he increasingly saw the depths of his own sin. Early in his ministry, in the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul calls himself “the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.” Later on, during the middle of his ministry, in Ephesians 3 he says he is “the very least of all the saints.” And then here, in his later ministry, he says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

As we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, our awareness of our sin grows, and our wonder and amazement at God’s grace grows as well.

Were there sinners at that time that had done more heinous things than Paul? Yes, of course. He knew that. But he realized the truth: there had been no hope for him apart from the mercy and grace of God in Christ, but no one is beyond the sovereign God’s gracious forgiveness and restoration.

Do you see not only the grossness of your sin, but also the grace of the Savior?

And notice Paul’s logic in verse [16]. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

Both the Old and New Testaments describe the “longsuffering” of God with sinners. He puts up with and endures the continual lawbreaking of those He later saves! Do you know how it feels to put up with someone? God puts up with us. And by saving us, Christ shows His patience with those whom the Father gives to Him. Paul recognized God’s intention to demonstrate His grace by saving and sanctifying “a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” of Christ the Lord.

In Acts 9, when from heaven Jesus confronted Paul, who at that time went by his Hebrew name “Saul,” Scripture says “he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” [5] And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Was Paul pursuing Christ? Yes – to do harm. But Christ pursued Paul, not to harm him, but to heal him.

In His grace, God credits us with Christ’s righteous record and adopts us as sons. How should that make us feel? How did it make Paul feel? Look at the final verse. [17] “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Paul gives all praise to Christ. He says nothing about having chosen Christ or found Christ. He says nothing about God looking into the future to see that Paul would choose Christ.

No, Paul saw himself as a hopeless sinner in need. But Christ saved Him. God chose to turn the tables on Paul’s awful ways and reputation. God possessed both the power and patience needed to save Paul. The same is true for all those He saves through Christ. And God's saving work magnifies the patience and power that He alone possesses.

These are the greatest realities of all realities. These are the most amazing of all truths. Like the surgeon who operates so that someone may see clearly, God changes how we see our strategies. Like the surgeon and staff who perform an organ transplant, God removes the defective heart and installs a healthy one. And like the professional who gives the treatment and medicine we need to heal, God administers what produces true and lasting change within us. Human strategies can produce behavioral modification, but only God’s means of grace can generate Spirit-wrought heart renewal.

It is with this perspective – abiding in the message of Christ – that we should approach all our strategies and methods for living. Whatever it is, see it in the light of the cross. However heavy it feels, compare it to the great glory of the person and work of Christ!

May Christ be formed in you! May His strength and life flow to you through union with Him, as life and strength flows from the vine to the branch! And as His life flows to you, see what fruit is born. Then you will be able to discern His good will in all things. May this great truth inform and shape all of life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today. Trust in Him and be saved. And turn from your sins to follow Jesus Christ. He will not just walk with you; He will carry on.

Let’s bow in prayer.

I want you to think about some scenarios as I read each one.
First, picture a child who’s told not to touch a hot stove.
Before the command, the stove wasn’t interesting, but once it’s forbidden,
they feel curiosity and the urge to resist. The command triggers their defiance.
Or imagine someone who donates to charity, volunteers at church,
and avoids scandalous sins, but in their heart they compare themselves to others,
and they feel secure with God because they aren’t like “those people.”
Now picture someone who publicly insists on correct doctrine and keeping moral rules,
but privately at home, they are harsh, unkind, and unrepentant.
They check religious boxes but neglect to love others.
Or imagine someone who constantly corrects others’ behavior,
and can even speak knowledgeably about biblical standards,
but they do so mainly to appear knowledgeable or to gain influence.
So, the rules are a way to elevate themselves in the eyes of others.
Now, finally, picture someone who enjoys listening to sermons, but still justifies their sin. Knowledge soothes their conscience but doesn’t change their life.
Each of these scenarios demonstrates ways sinners misuse God’s moral law.
We all naturally do this in some way.
We view His law as a way to justify ourselves, or to control others,
or to manipulate how others see us,
or we view His law as a threat to our freedom and happiness.
Various passages of Scripture – both OT and NT – describe these tendencies.
And in light of how our sinful nature reacts to God’s law,
you might conclude that His law is somehow bad or unholy.
RHF: But on the contrary, God’s law is holy and good,
and He graciously saves and sanctifies His people through Christ alone
so that we may use His law properly and glorify Him in our lives.
MP: Our goal must be to handle His law properly, as He intends.
AQ: But how do we do that? How do we use God’s law lawfully in our own lives,
with our children, with our spouse or family or friends?
Well, it begins with understanding three things about the law seen in these verses.
You can see them listed there for you.
1. God's law reflects His holy character. (v.8a)
2. God's law condemns lawbreaking sinners. (vv.8b-10)
3. God's law serves His glorious gospel. (v.11)
With a grasp on each of these truths, we will use the law as God intends.
So let’s look at each of these.
EXP:
Previously in 1 Timothy 1, we learned that some individuals in the Ephesian church were misusing parts of the OT in attempts to appear knowledgeable and spiritual.
Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to put a stop to it.
He said these people desired “to be teachers of the law,” specifically the Mosaic law –
the part of the OT given to Moses. This is the first five books of the OT,
often called the Pentateuch or the Torah. It contains a great deal of redemptive history,
and also the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws of ancient Israel.
Let me explain briefly the difference in these kinds of law.
The ceremonial laws were details about how to approach God and worship Him.
These laws were later fulfilled by Christ and done away with through Him.
The civil laws were instructions for how to function as a nation.
Those laws expired with the discontinuation of Israel as a covenant nation-state
under the Mosaic covenant, since those laws were given to govern
that particular people in that particular redemptive-historical setting.
But the moral law of God – summarized in the Ten Commandments –
still applies today as God’s enduring standard for right and wrong.
Notice the first part of verse [8] again, “Now we know that the law is good.”
If the sinful nature is inherently resists God’s law –
if we innately twist it to justify ourselves, control others,
or even turn against God as we interact with it – how can the law still be good?
Theologians have recognized what are typically called “the three uses of the law.”
I’ll say more about them here shortly, but they rest on a simple truth:
God's law reflects His holy character. God’s law is good because He is good.
ILL:
Paul deals with this in Romans 7. He writes, “What then shall we say? That the law
is sin? By no means!...if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.
For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness…sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”
APP:
This is our first lesson in how to use the law and the whole OT.
It is from God and about Him.
It’s a record of His righteous ways and redemptive plans that culminated in Jesus Christ.
God gave the law, therefore it cannot be bad.
The problem is not God’s law. The problem is the sinful human heart.
The law is still useful – in fact, extremely valuable to us – if we use it, first of all,
to know God more. The law is not just about rules; it reveals the character of God.
EXP:
Now look at the rest of verse 8. “if one uses it lawfully.”
There’s a right and a wrong way to handle the law of Moses, and really the whole OT.
It must be declared properly, according to the rules.
The speculative stories and lessons drawn from the OT by foolish teachers in Ephesus were not useful. Their approach to the law lacked understanding, see verse [9], “understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners.”
They treated the law as though it were not meant for sinners in their need.
And by doing so, they sidelined the true purpose of the law.
ILL:
God’s law is for speculation and controversy; it’s for redemptive and moral instruction.
It’s for conviction of sin and pointing to the need for Christ.
And this brings us back to the subject of the three uses of the law.
God didn’t give the written law because people are righteous.
He did so because people are sinners. The law addresses our sin,
and it does so by functioning in three ways: as a mirror, a bridle, and a guide.
God’s law acts as a mirror in that it shows us our sin.
None of us are just before God on our own merit; we are “lawless and disobedient… ungodly and sinners.” God’s law shines the spotlight on our sin for us.
Also, it acts as a bridle restraining evil, As bad as the world is, it could be much worse.
By introducing His written law, God articulated what the human heart knows to be true.
And so people often refrain from evil, not out of love for God or neighbor,
but because of the external consequences of breaking His moral law.
This restraint doesn’t change the heart, but it does limit the damage sin does.
The third use of the law is its function as a guide.
God’s law shows us how to live and glorify God,
how to walk in His ways and not wander from Him, which is the best way to live.
EXP:
Now, look at the next part of this passage. The law is laid down by God “for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, [10] the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.” As Paul continues His list, you might feel increasingly righteous.
But that would be delusional and not helpful for you.
ILL:
In Romans 3, Paul says, “There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.” He quotes the OT Psalms, “None is righteous, no, not one…no one does good, not even one.” This is every person after the fall of Adam and Eve –
except for the Lord Jesus Christ who came from heaven.
For sure, there are various sins in God’s law that you can say you’ve never committed,
but in James 2, the brother of Jesus writes, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails
in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
APP:
To use God’s law lawfully, you must first understand that it reflects His holy character, and then, that it condemns lawbreaking sinners, which includes you.
Paul didn’t write this with a judgmental heart. If we continue reading to verse 15
as we will next week, he states, “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.” God's law condemns lawbreaking sinners – and each of us is one.
EXP:
So we’re learning how to handle the law. We’re seeing how to read the OT.
It’s useful for showing us that God is holy and we are sinners.
But, of course, we know that’s not the whole story.
The Bible records redemptive history. It’s the history of salvation in and through Christ!
Luke 24 says, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Christ] interpreted to
[His disciples] in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Luke later says that “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” point to
the person and saving work of Jesus Christ.
Notice the end of verse 10 again. God laid down the law – He appointed His law –
to clarify “whatever…is contrary to sound doctrine.”
This could be translated as “healthy doctrine.”
The local covenant community is a body. To be healthy, sound doctrine is necessary.:
Paul then adds, verse [11] “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” Paul and others preached Christ.
Him they proclaimed.
ILL:
In Acts 20, when Paul addressed the Ephesians elders, he said that he had declared
to them “the whole counsel of God.” This included God’s law.
The OT was Paul’s Bible. He proclaimed Christ from the Law and the Prophets.
And this leads us to another aspect of the three uses of the law.
As a mirror, God’s law shows us not only our sins, but also our need for grace.
As a bridle, God’s law not only restrains evil,
but also shows that rules cannot change the heart. Gracious heart-change is required.
And as a guide, God’s law shows us not only how to live, but also,
how Christ lived in our place. The law not only directs us away from sin,
but to Christ – for grace.
We need grace not just to be saved, but to obey.
To use God’s law lawfully, understand that God's law serves His glorious gospel.
The law supports the gospel by showing us our need for His grace.
APP:
Today, some see the OT as less directly for the NT church.
When they venture into the OT, they only see moral lessons and laws.
Yes, the OT is filled with lessons about what we should and should not do.
But these lessons don’t hold the power to change – even for those who are born again.
Christ saves and sanctifies His people to enable us to obey God,
but we don’t then muster that ability from within.
No, that ability flows from Christ – from union with Him.
Not from self-effort, self-analysis, or self-understanding,
though we do take a hard look within and make efforts.
But His finished work and powerful resurrected life in the power.
The gospel tells us that obedience to God is not the basis for right standing with Him.
Rather, obedience to Him is the fruit of His grace towards us.
CLOSING:
We face issues with right and wrong everyday.
One place this is always on display is in the family.
Parents correct their children daily, spouses and children correct each other.
How can we handle the law lawfully in our families and homes?
Yes, everyone will sin, and we do need to hear the rules.
But sin shows us not only our need for change, but also, for Christ and grace.
A child’s sin is always an opportunity to teach that child about Christ.
Your sin is always an opportunity for you to learn Christ.
If your child gets in trouble, of course you correct and discipline them.
But also, you must say “See, you need Christ, don’t you?”
Then you must offer them Christ.
And when you sin, look in the mirror and say, “See, you need Christ, don’t you?”
Both His law and His gospel declare the glory of our blessed God.
Do you have the assurance of peace with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ?
Not based on your feelings but on the facts of who Christ is and what He’s done?
Trust in Him today. Believe in His ability to make you right with God.
Believe in His ability to change you within, to transform your heart.
Put your faith in Jesus alone today.
Not what you can or should do, but in what He has done.
Christ will make you able, along and along, to conform your ways to His ways.
Begin your journey with Christ today.
Or if you’ve already begun that journey, renew your trust in Him.
Yes, His law condemns your thoughts and desires and behavior.
But you use His law lawfully for growing in His grace and walking with Him.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

Well, if you’re like me, you’re ready for warmer weather! You know it’s coming when you see new buds on the trees and bushes – the first signs of new life. Of course, those new buds aren’t the finished product. They’re only the start.

New spiritual life in Christ is similar. Being born again is only the beginning. The apostles spoke at length about growing in Christ. They pictured maturity – the completeness brought about in a believer’s life as Christ is formed within.

For example, in Colossians 1, the apostle Paul says, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” Paul proclaimed the glorious news of who Christ is and what He’s done not only to lead people to salvation, but also, for their ongoing sanctification. He declared the wonders of Jesus’ sacrifice, grace, love, power, and goodness for the spiritual growth of God’s people.

Listen again. “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” As we know Christ more, and our thoughts and desires are transformed by the grace and knowledge of Him, we mature in Him. We receive what He gives, and we change.

And for this maturity Paul speaks for all the church leaders when he says, “Him we proclaim.” This was why Paul left his protege Timothy with the Ephesian church. The focus of some was drifting away from the person and work of Christ. They were focusing on things that didn’t promote spiritual maturity. And the movement was gaining traction among the people.

It’s not hard to understand why. All of us are drawn to what pleases our sinful nature and avoids Christ. We’re interested in what’s “shocking or new” over what’s “timeless and true.” We don’t naturally want to take a hard look at our own sin. We’d rather be puffed up with pride. We’d rather get some pointers for self-help.

But those aren’t the goals of sound preaching and teaching. Good preaching and teaching helps us look within, pursue humility, and treasure the timeless realities of Christ and His gospel. Good preaching and teaching will glorify the Savior, not gratify the sinful nature. It will direct us to Christ, not distract us from Him with other subjects and ideas.

That was a major issue in Ephesus. But the church needed the sound preaching and teaching that proclaimed Christ that does three things described in these verses. Notice the outline on page 6. It reflects faithful stewardship, results in genuine love, and rejects empty talk. This is still true and needed in the church today. And as God’s people receive it, He produces salvation and sanctification.

Now look again at verse [3]. “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus.” Paul established this church in Ephesus (in what is modern day Turkey). Timothy came along later. Then Paul went to Macedonia (modern day Greece), across the Aegean Sea, leaving Timothy in Ephesus. Here he says why: “so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.”

There were believers, maybe leaders, deviating from the sound proclamation of Christ. How exactly? Verse [4], “nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” This gives a little bit more detail. This and the following verses indicates that these myths, genealogies, and speculations were Jewish in nature.

Let me give you a potential example. In Genesis 39 in the OT, Joseph encounters Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh. Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers, but he found favor with Potiphar. And Potiphar made him an overseer in his house. Then at some point, Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph into adultery with her. When Joseph rejected her, she accused him of trying to seduce her. After that, Joseph’s opportunity in Potiphar’s house was over.

Now, this is all we know about Potiphar’s wife. Scripture doesn’t even record her name. But Jewish interpretive traditions would sometimes expand on biblical narratives, especially where Scripture is silent. One kind of expansion could be imagined backstories about figures like Potiphar’s wife.

Is it interesting? Sure. Is it true? Who knows. But these stories weren’t worthy of inclusion in God’s Word. They didn’t support the redemptive history that points to the person and work of Jesus. And so this is the kind of speculative story passed down in Jewish tradition that Paul is warning against. However, his concern wasn’t just false stories, but teaching that distracted from Christ and hindered faith and godliness.

Notice again that these stories and speculations were contrary to “the stewardship from God that is by faith.” The shepherds (or leaders) of the church are managers of God’s truth. They are stewards authorized to watch the doctrine of the church closely. This is why they must be trained, examined, and held accountable.

This is why we have confessional standards as a church: summaries of our beliefs. The shepherds of the church take vows to teach and practice these things. They are not to add to or take away from what they have vowed to uphold. They are to preach and teach the whole counsel of God.

They’re like managers of a city’s water, making sure it flows clean and steady, or managers of the power grid, making sure the current is strong and uninterrupted,
or dispensers of medicine, making sure the prescription is accurate and unaltered. Sound preaching and teaching that proclaims Christ reflects faithful stewardship.

Timothy was authorized to declare Jesus for seeing disciples made and matured. The shepherds deliver those means of growth which God has ordained. But those means can be undermined. They can be neglected or corrupted. That was happening in Ephesus. It still happens today. The stewards must be diligent to protect the purity of the preaching and teaching.

Now notice verse [5] again. “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” What’s the goal of this command that Paul gives to Timothy for the church? It’s not right doctrine as an end in itself. The goal is love. “Him we proclaim” so that God would produce true love in every heart.

Notice from where this godly love arises. First, “a pure heart.” Even once we’re born again, the sinful nature still attempts to control us each day. It wants to drag us back into the life from which Christ redeemed us. It can no longer make us powerless against sin, but it wants to make us complacent.

The sinful nature wants us to be ineffective and unfruitful. Sin creeps up on us from deep within. But the gospel tells us that God has put a new heart in those whom he saves. We were His enemies because of sin, but He loved us, and sent Christ to save us. As that truth sinks in, we begin to change within, and godly love gains momentum.

Notice from where else godly love arises – “a good conscience.” Dr. Bill Barcley writes that “The conscience is the arbiter of the rightness and wrongness of a person’s actions.” This is the moral consciousness of a person. Barcley says, “The conscience evaluates and controls behavior, but does not serve as an independent determiner of right or wrong actions…The conscience can be informed…the conscience can be corrupted.”

Dr. Barcley notes that a good conscience is one that has been transformed by God and informed by His Word. It can be seared and defiled by sin, or it can be sanctified and directed by the Savior. “Him we proclaim” so that you would love what is true and hate what is false, and develop an increasingly “good conscience” – one that treasures the person and work of Christ. As that occurs, we change more, and godly love grows within.

But notice from where else godly love arises – “a sincere faith.” The faith that is in Christ alone for righteousness and salvation is a gift from God. Paul says this is the case, “so that no one may boast.” Salvation by grace through faith. He says it’s “not your own doing…not a result of works…We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

As we contemplate the great gift of faith in Jesus – through the preaching and reading of the Word, through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and through prayer – we change even more, and godly love grows even more.

“Him we proclaim” so that your faith may grow strong, so that you would marvel at the fact that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you!

“Him we proclaim” so that faith in Christ would affect how you see yourself and every part of your life.

“Him we proclaim” that you may truly believe and say “Yes!” when you hear, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is how God produces genuine love in our hearts. Sound preaching and teaching that proclaims Christ results in genuine love.

Now see verse [6], “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion.” They were missing “the stewardship from God that is by faith.” They were missing “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” They were getting caught up in other subjects – getting sidetracked, and verse [7] says, “desiring to be teachers of the law.”

They wanted to appear knowledgeable of the OT Scriptures, especially having information not present in the Scriptures perhaps having keen insights that were theirs alone. But it amounted to “vain discussion;” in other words, “empty talk.” It had no value for producing real godliness. It actually produced the opposite.

You might think, “Well, what difference does it really make? What’s the big deal?” The Christian life is like going upstream on the river in a Jon Boat with a trolling motor. As long as your little motor is running, you’re moving forward, against the current. But if you switch your motor off, you quickly begin to drift back. You can’t remain still against the current. The sinful nature is the current. The motor is the ordained means through which we receive the life of Christ.

Today, we may not hear any Jewish legends in our Evangelical Protestant churches. What you may hear instead is moralistic teaching and preaching that amounts to, “Try harder. Do this, don’t do that.” Yes, we must pursue holiness, and yes, there are things to stop doing or start doing as we follow Jesus. But it’s “Him we proclaim…that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Christ pursued holiness for you, and He accomplished it. Christ loved what was true, and He despised what was false, in your place. It’s “Him” and His achievements, not us and ours, who “we proclaim…that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Also, in many Evangelical Protestant churches, you may hear what amounts to messages of self-help. Things like “Believe in yourself,” “Follow your heart,” “Live your best life,” “God just wants you to be happy,” “You are enough just as you are.”

You may hear messages on certain Bible passages that amount to  “Be like Moses, be like Abraham, be like David.” Or for other passages, you may hear, “Don’t be like Moses, don’t be like Abraham, don’t be like David.” You may draw some good wisdom from their examples or mistakes, but that’s always a secondary point. The primary point of those passages is to help you see why you needed Christ to come into the world, how His coming came to pass, and what He accomplished.

Sir Francis Bacon famously said, “Knowledge is power.” What did he mean? He meant that rightly gained knowledge of creation equips people to act fruitfully in the world and improve human life. And of course, that’s true in so many situations.

But that’s not the case for moral obedience to God. Even for those who are born again, knowledge of the right and the wrong is not enough. Knowledge of God’s moral law by itself is not the power to obey the law. Paul refutes the idea that if you’re born again, and you know what’s right, then you’ll do what’s right. Think of all the ancient Israelites saw and knew. Yet still they desired to sin.

People often say, “Oh, well if I saw those things, I would believe, and I would obey.” Actually, in your natural state, no you wouldn’t. Your heart must be changed. The OT repeatedly says this. Deuteronomy 30 proclaims the need for circumcised hearts. Psalm 51 proclaims the need for a clean heart. Ezekiel 36 proclaims the need for a new heart and Spirit. Jeremiah 31 proclaims the need for the law written on the heart. Therefore, “Him we proclaim.”

With self-help talk, you feel empowered just by hearing and comprehending it. You may feel helped before you’ve actually done anything. This is why self-help is a billion dollar industry today. But if the idea that “knowledge is power” is used to urge morality or produce Christian maturity, it can subtly suggest that sin is mainly just intellectual error, or that sanctification is mainly done by information, insight, and understanding, or that obedience results simply from instruction and trying harder.


But sanctification is a work of God’s grace. It flows from Christ through union with Him. That union is effectually established by the working of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit then maintains and deepens our participation in Christ throughout the Christian life. Teaching is absolutely essential. That’s clear from what Paul says here. But we must return each day to Christ Jesus, to His glorious person and His redemptive work.

That seems too “basic” to the natural self. We think, “Give me more application points for life. Tell me what to do” The apostle Peter said, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

“Him we proclaim,” because our hope is not that when we hear a good moral lesson, we will either: a. pat ourselves on the back because we are performing well, or, b. pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and do better. No, “Him we proclaim” because our hope is: C-h-r-i-s-t. Our hope is our living Lord.

He sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling His church by His Word and Spirit. He holds all things together, having secured every spiritual blessing for His people. He’s always appealing to the Father on behalf of sinners He came to save. And anyone who claims to be a preacher or teacher of God who doesn’t faithfully proclaim Him desires to be a teacher – see the end of verse 7 – “without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.” Sound preaching and teaching that proclaims Christ rejects empty talk.

It always points to Him – the vine that gives life to His branches. Trust in Christ today for your salvation and for your growth to maturity in Him. Lay your heart bare before Him. Come clean, admitting your sins. There is grace. There is forgiveness even for you. You can start again. And as we go to His table now, He uses what we see with our eyes and hold in our hands and hear with our ears to spiritually strengthen our souls.

Let’s bow in prayer together.

The apostle Paul makes a hard-hitting statement about when sin entered the world. He says, “The creation was subjected to futility.” Our world was put under a kind of emptinessness that brought tragic limitations. Think about it: our planet is so majestic, yet something holds it back from all it could be. Beautiful plants and awe-inspiring animals are subject to disease and death.Natural disasters can destroy everything in their path.

But why is the world this way? Paul says, “because of Him who subjected it.” Certainly, Adam broke the covenant with God, and sin entered the world. But in this verse, Paul is referring to a different “him.” Paul says it was God who put the world under the effects of sin –  though not without purpose. He says God did so “in hope” – hope “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption.”

This means that when God cursed the world, He didn't do so in a hopeless way. He did so with redemption in view: with the expectation of freedom from the curse for the creation and for sinners. This freedom comes only through Jesus Christ. And God calls us to live by faith in Him and put our hope in Him.

But that’s not always easy, is it? Where do you place your hope each day? One way to tell is to ask yourself what you are most afraid of losing in this life. Often, we aren’t hoping in Christ as much as we’re hoping in success, prosperity, or comfort. But even with success, prosperity, and comfort – and we’ve all had some – life still has so many struggles, and it winds down in a difficult and often tragic way. We suffer, we hurt, we fear, – eventually, we die.

It’s interesting, though – when we feel the futility, we try to manage it somehow. We try to distract ourselves, or throw ourselves into achievement. We focus on things we can control in our lives, or we just tell ourselves that things will eventually work out. But those strategies don’t remove the futility. They only mask it.

However, we can be hopeful, and we can live by faith. We have not been subjected to sin’s futility without hope. God provides what we need to keep looking to Christ, living by faith, and hoping in Him. These opening verses of 1 Timothy emphasize that God has provided two things: ordained leaders to shepherd His people toward Christ, and covenant blessings to save and sanctify His people through Christ.

Look again at verse [1]. Paul says he is, “an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” An apostle was a man set apart by Christ, an eyewitness of His ministry, and someone given authority from Christ for a foundational role in the church. Ephesians 2 says that the church is “the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”

“Apostle” is a church office that is now closed. There are no more living apostles, but their ministry carries on through the NT church they established and the written Word of God they recorded. We refer to the time in which they ministered and wrote Scripture as “the Apostolic era.” That era is over. The foundation is laid and now complete.

And since that time, Christ has been building on the foundation. He does so by His Word and Spirit, and through His people. And He gives shepherds to His people to care for and lead them because we are prone to forget, prone to drift, and prone to look for hope in the wrong places – even after we believe.

Notice again Paul says he’s an apostle “by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” “Command” could be translated as “decree.” Paul is referring here to the first and second persons of the triune God – the Father and the Son, who are, respectively, the Source and the Mediator of salvation.

The apostle Peter also speaks this way. For example, in 1 Peter 3, he writes, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” Of course, Christ is God, but only the Son serves between God and mankind.

Now, interestingly, Paul calls the Father “our Savior.” Over and over, we see that God the Father sent the Son to save His people. If you wonder why Paul says “God” and not “the Father,” it seems that Paul means to use language here that keeps monotheism in view while also honoring the distinct roles of the Father and Son in our salvation. We worship one God, yet the one true God exists in three distinct persons, each fully God, equal in power and glory.

So, God the Father is our Savior, and “Christ Jesus [is] our hope.” This means that Christ is the source of our expectation. So what do we expect? Well, in Christ, we expect that along with creation and all God’s people, we will be redeemed on the Last Day.

This also means that Christ is the source of our confidence. What are we confident in? We are confident that we have been set free from sin’s curse. We are confident that the wrath of God is no longer against us. We are confident that we are no longer dead in our sins. We are confident that we have a spotless record before the holy and only God.

Paul’s apostleship was authorized by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But maybe you wondered, “Why doesn’t he mention the Holy Spirit here?” Where’s the third person of the Trinity in this introduction? Paul honors the Spirit later on in the book, but a Trinitarian roll call isn’t necessary every time. The Spirit’s role in our salvation is the application of it, as we proclaimed earlier. He applies the redemptive work of Christ. He spiritually unites us with Christ. Paul seems content only to acknowledge the Father as the Source of salvation, and Christ as the One who performed that saving work, but the full Trinitarian work is assumed here.

Now look at verse [2]. Paul says, “To Timothy, my true child in the faith.” Since we’re beginning a new book of Scripture, let me give you some background. Paul wrote this letter from Macedonia to Timothy, whom he had left in Ephesus to help establish the church, and to guard it against false teaching while he continued gospel ministry elsewhere.

Timothy was from a smaller town called Lystra in the region known as Galatia – (modern-day central Turkey). His father was a Gentile and his mother was a Jew. It seems that his father didn’t become a Christian, but his mother and grandmother did – and they had a tremendous influence on him, as moms and grandmas often do.

Paul doesn’t appear to have led Timothy to Christ, but God raised up Timothy as a representative prepared by Paul to serve in the church in at least four places:
Thessalonica, Corinth, Philippi, and Ephesus. Paul and Timothy's relationship was a pastoral mentorship-type relationship. It’s important to remember that as we read this letter. This was the nature of their father/son type bond, and through their relationship, we learn a great deal about what a pastor is and does.

But also, there are signs that this letter was to be read to whole congregations. And so the truth contained in 1 Timothy belongs to all the people of God, though some commands are given only to the shepherds of the church. This letter was intended to strengthen the hope of Timothy and the church.

In Ephesus, where Timothy was, even with their successes, prosperity, and comforts, life was difficult. They too suffered, hurt, feared, struggled, and eventually, would die. And so Paul wrote this to strengthen their trust in Christ,and to help them live by faith, and so to strengthen their church. This is why Paul assigned Timothy to Ephesus.

Even the greatest athletes need a coach. Even the best students need a teacher. Coaches and teachers are essentially servants in place to help others grow. God’s ordained leaders are servants as well. Paul and Timothy were servants, as so are the shepherds of the church today. And like the person who brings the mail, or the waiter who brings your meal, or the doctor who prescribes your medication and treatment. God’s ordained leaders are servants authorized to deliver to you what you need.

Faithful ministers are not called to generate hope for you. Rather, they fulfill their calling to point you again and again to the hope that is in Christ. The shepherds of God’s people – these men set apart to lead the church – lead God’s people to where they are nourished – to Jesus. This is God’s design. He gives ordained leaders to shepherd His people toward Christ. And like Paul and Timothy, God’s ordained leaders today are a key provision of God to help His people look to Christ, live by faith, and hope in Him.

During the life of the OT prophet Jeremiah in ancient Israel, spiritual leadership had really decayed. The shepherds of God’s people were mostly corrupt. But God promised to restore faithful spiritual leaders to His covenant people. In Jeremiah 3, God says, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” God has kept His word. He gives ordained leaders to shepherd you toward Christ.

It’s a good exercise to ask yourself after any worship service, “Where did they seek to lead me today? Was it to the hope that is in Christ? Did they acknowledge the actual, Biblical realities for God’s people in this life, and did they take me to the hope of Christ as I face those realities?”

You see, they had shepherds in ancient Israel; they just weren’t good shepherds. They led the people into man-centeredness and idolatry. They led the people into the foolishness of the surrounding nations. They led the people further into the futility of sin. God’s people need good undershepherds who lead them to the Chief Shepherd.

Now notice the rest of verse 2. Paul adds, “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul’s letter to the Ephesians opens in a very similar way, and actually, that opening helps us understand this one. In Ephesians, Paul writes, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Believers possess spiritual blessings that are secure with Christ in heaven.


What are these blessings? Well, things like God’s grace, mercy, and peace. We could go into great detail about each one, but simply put, God’s grace is His undeserved favor toward us in Christ, God’s mercy is His compassion toward His people in Christ, and God’s peace is reconciliation with Him through Christ. We are no longer His enemies because of Christ. All of this was secured for us by Jesus Christ.

These spiritual blessings are ours through spiritual union with Christ. To be united to Christ means that your standing before God does not rise and fall with your performance, feelings, or spiritual consistency. How can that be? Because your life is hidden with Christ.

Can you see these blessings or hold them in your hands? Well, you can see and experience many results of these blessings. You may not always have a warm fuzzy feeling inside, but these blessings are always secure with Christ. There will be days when you may not feel hopeful at all. But your hope doesn’t rest on your emotional state – it rests in Christ. He doesn’t change, and so your hope doesn’t change – even when your feelings do.

You see, grace, mercy, and peace from the Father and the Son are not just vague concepts. They are real benefits provided by God to those in covenant with Him.

Notice that these are benefits which can be enjoyed in any earthly circumstances. In times of prosperity or times of need – grace, mercy, and peace are ours in Christ. You may feel unworthy of His grace or undeserving of His mercy, but if you are in Christ, they are yours. You may not have a feeling of peace within, but if you are in Christ, you have peace with God through Christ the Lord.

These blessings and more flow from Christ through spiritual union with Him. These and more constitute the spiritual nutrients provided by God for spiritual growth. His ordained leaders administer His ordinary means of grace to you: the Word, sacraments, and prayer, and you are to use the Word and prayer in your daily life, that Christ may strengthen you to live by faith and hope in Him.When we gather to hear the Word preached and read, when we pray, and when we receive the sacraments, we aren’t merely performing religious activities.

Through these, Christ has promised to meet us and strengthen our faith. His benefits are readily available. They aren’t affected by economic downturn or financial strain. God’s grace, mercy, and peace don’t decay like our earthly health or possessions. They don’t fail like our character or our wisdom or our self-discipline so naturally does. In Philippians 1, Paul wrote, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

How could Paul make such a hope-filled statement? Because God grants covenant blessings to save and sanctify His people through Christ. These spiritual blessings are secure – they are sure – as sure as the life and power of Jesus Christ Himself.

If we could gather today, we would have gone to the Lord’s table together. We will do that next week. But I’ll still say this about His table: at the table, we come to be fed by Christ and to feed on Him. We receive the meal to be spiritually nourished by Him, as we are also nourished through His Word and prayer. We don’t use any of His ordained means to prove ourselves worthy, but rather, to receive what Christ freely gives. And as we do, we will experience the hope that is in Him.

I began today referencing Romans 8, and I noted that when God cursed the world, He didn't do so in a hopeless way, but with redemption in view. In the next verses of Romans 8, Paul writes, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly.”

Do you feel the burdens that produce that inward groaning? Of course you do. We all do. But Paul doesn’t stop there. He says, “not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption
as sons, the redemption of our bodies. [24] For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

The goal of our hope is the future and final redemption of our bodies and the world. The object of our hope is Christ. He achieved that redemption for us. He secured God’s grace, mercy, and peace for us.

Trust in Jesus Christ today. Believe in Him, and turn from your sins to follow God’s way. To trust in Him is not first to resolve to do better, but to receive what He has done. To trust is to receive Him as your righteousness, your life, and the object of your hope.

Let’s bow in prayer.

There’s a common practice today that’s happening now more than ever: people are wearing their earbuds all the time. How do you feel about that? Some people wear them everywhere – grocery store, gym, even walking through a parking lot. Other people find the whole habit kind of off-putting.

And they can definitely cause some difficulty in communication. This happens at my house all the time. One person is talking to another, but won’t get a response because they don’t realize the other person can’t hear them.

When you put in the earbuds, you’re in your own world. It’s just you. If we’re not careful, we will begin to approach our spiritual growth in a similar way: isolated, self-contained, and disconnected from everyone else.

See, we’re prone to treat our spiritual growth as mainly an individual project. It’s often assumed to be something personal – between a person and God. And in one sense, it is personal. But according to God’s design, the church plays an indispensable role in you becoming a mature disciple. God’s plan for your spiritual growth is not just you. It’s “we.” Scripture consistently describes church leaders and members as vital for our growth.

That’s an unpopular declaration in this age of individualism. In fact, the age in which we live is often called an age of “radical individualism” in which the individual is the highest authority. “I belong to myself. I decide what’s true for me.”

You may hear that and think, “Oh yeah, there are some very mixed up people out there.” But man-centered individualism is always creeping in here – in subtle ways. For example, do you treat Christ more like your personal assistant than your King? Does He exist to help you cope, or succeed, or feel better, and reach your goals, or do you exist to obey, worship, and follow Him?

Or think about this: do you conceal your sins and suffering from fellow church members, carrying your burdens alone because they are “your business.” By doing so, you subtly reject the role of the body of Christ in bearing our burdens together.

Or when it comes to our worship service, is this a time when you can explore your own thoughts, daydream, doodle, be entertained or educated, or is this the unique time when – with God’s people and led by His shepherds – you contemplate Christ, and confess to Christ, and cherish Christ more in your heart?

Yes, God calls each of us to personal faith and personal obedience and worship, but we can have those only through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, and Christ redeems us from isolation and self-reliance to bring us into fellowship with Himself and with His people. We have communion with Him and each other, which is essential for spiritual growth.

Biblical proof of this is all over the Scriptures, but perhaps the most comprehensive reference is in Ephesians 4. Here we see the system through which Christ generates our spiritual growth. Notice the outline. This is how disciples are made. Christ gives His church leaders to administer the means by which He saves and strengthens us, Christ gives Himself spiritually to strengthen His whole church for service, Christ the Head stabilizes the Body (His church) against deception and drift, and the Body speaks truth in love to reflect our union with Christ the Head.

Now, for a little background on the book of Ephesians and the church in Ephesus,
the city was on the west coast of what is now Turkey. The famous temple of the Roman goddess Diana was there. It was known as one of seven wonders of the ancient world. Therefore, Ephesus functioned as a major center for the worship of Diana.

The city kept her cult thriving, and in turn, it profited off those who came to worship. So, as a result, Ephesus was seen as a city “nourished by” Diana. The Ephesians took great pride in this.

But when the apostle Paul proclaimed Christ, he taught that Diana was a false deity with no powers to care for the people. However, Jesus Christ did possess such power. Paul said that Diana – also called Artemis – did not actually nourish and cherish the Ephesians; however, Christ the Lord does nourish and cherish His holy bride, the Church – who are, as Paul says in chapter 5, “members of His body.”

Head and body, husband and wife – these are how Paul described the union between Christ and His church. The people of Ephesus imagined a life-giving connection between them and Diana. Paul renounced that belief, but he preached that such a life-giving connection was available – to the one true God, made possible by grace through faith in Christ.

Paul proclaimed that message according to the command of Christ in Matthew 28, which we looked at last week as we continue to revisit the mission of our church.
Good Shepherd exists “to join God on mission by producing mature followers of Jesus Christ for His glory and our joy.” We participate in God’s disciple-making work. We saw last week that it is Christ who makes disciples, and now, let’s see how.

Look at verse [11] again. “And he [Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers.” We understand that Christ gives Himself spiritually to His people through what we refer to as the “ordinary means of grace.” These are the ways ordained by Christ to strengthen our faith in Him: God’s Word (especially the preaching of it, but also the reading and teaching of it), along with the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and baptism, joined always with continual prayer in various settings (public worship, private and family worship, and other formal or informal gatherings of God’s people).

These practices are the instruments Christ has appointed, set apart, and blessed. Through them, God saves His people and then strengthens their faith in the person and work of Christ. Through them, we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, increasingly behold His glory, and are transformed in our inner being.

Understand that Christ doesn’t just command maturity – He supplies it by grace.
And in light of Christ’s command in Matthew 28 to His apostles, coupled with this passage of Ephesians (and many other passages as well), we understand that these means of grace are rightly administered by His officers.

Verse 11 is a list of these officers. These are church “offices” established by Christ. Now, the first three were functional only for the apostolic era, but the last two continue to this day. Yes, the influence of the first three still looms large. The apostles wrote the NT on the authority of and by the power of God. They – along with NT era prophets and evangelists – carried the gospel far and wide. Churches were established but entrusted not to more apostles, but to elders.

These elders function as a group of “shepherds and teachers.” What do they do? They preach, baptize, teach, lead the church in worship, care for the people’s spiritual needs, and make major decisions for the church – but always and only under the authority of Christ within the jurisdiction He has given. Christ rules His church by His Word and Holy Spirit, which guide the shepherds and teachers as together they perform the duties of their holy office.

Notice again that Christ “gave” these offices. Earlier in chapter 4, Paul says Christ “gave gifts” to His people. Of course, elsewhere Paul talks about each person’s spiritual gifts, but here, the “gifts” are the officers themselves. He gave these offices to His church. This is how disciples are made: first, Christ gives His church leaders to administer the means by which He saves and strengthens us. In Romans 10, Paul writes, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Now look at verse [12]. Christ gave His officers “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Every church member’s role is championed with this phrase “the work of ministry.” We could translate it as the work of “service.”  

This includes many different categories of serving in the church: “mentoring” (Acts 18), “training” (Titus 2), “instructing” (Romans 15), “encouraging” (1 Thess. 5), “edifying” or “building up” (Romans 15), “admonishing” (Romans 15), and even “teaching” (Colossians 3) – though there is a difference between the church’s official teaching authority and the ministry every Christian can do for every other Christian.

These works of service – in all their various forms – are absolutely essential. The apostles command them in Scripture, and the Westminster Confession summarizes the Bible’s teaching on this, as we read and proclaimed earlier in our worship service. To what end? What is the result intended by Christ for us?

See verse [13], “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” You see, there is a sound, biblical pattern – an order – established by Christ our King. He gave apostles, prophets, and evangelists to establish the church and write down the Scriptures. He gave and continues to give shepherds and teachers to lead His church and administer His ordinary means. And through those means, Christ gives Himself spiritually to strengthen His whole church for service.

Notice the focus on the person and work of Christ in verse 13. Faith in Him, knowledge of Him, and the fullness of Him. Listen closely to me: nourished by the spiritual nutrients that come from His very person, we grow stronger. Fed by Him – and feeding on Him – we become like Him. This is how true and lasting growth from God occurs. We grow up into Christ. This is the language of our “union” with Him.

And this is how we avoid being pushed around by the changing opinions of our culture, look at verse [14]. Christ does all this “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

Consider again for a moment life in first-century Ephesus. The city was filled with deception dressed up as power and wisdom. Death disguised as life. Poverty masquerading as prosperity. Diana was a major figure in Roman mythology. False teachers said she nourished the city, and it was true that much of their economy was driven by that false religion. The city was thriving in the ancient world – thanks to Diana, they said. But it was all nothing more than a deceitful scheme.

Of course, in our life and times, where we live, Diana is no longer proclaimed. But there are false religions – and always, there are the winds and waves of what one scholar simply calls “public opinion.”

We hear so many “progressive” beliefs spouted by persuasive voices – maybe in a viral clip that “redefines” Jesus, or perhaps in a faith “deconstruction” story presented as “courageous” and “honest.” Like the wind, the direction is always changing.

Now in the ancient world, people would give praise to whatever god might help them. They rode the winds and waves, tossed about, unstable. Today, we are inundated with a steady stream of ideas and claims, with more to come that will surely surprise us. And if we’re subject to all of it, we will always be tossed about and unstable as well.

But Christ has a plan to keep us and care for us and make us stable and secure. As His officers perform their roles, and each member performs theirs, the whole congregation grows strong together in Christ. Again, we are fed by Him, and feeding on Him, we become like Him.

This reflects what Jesus said in John 15: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Nourishment flows from the Head to the whole Body – from the vine to the branches – and Christ, the vine, the Head stabilizes the Body against deception and drift.

But there’s one more essential part to consider in this “system” Christ created. Look at verse [15]. The true church fed on Christ won’t be tossed around by lies. “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Truth without love is harsh. Love without truth is hollow. But biblical truth spoken from a heart of love is how the body grows up into Christ. Again, the whole congregation needs one another and grows together, feeding on Christ through His ordained means of saving and strengthening us. Again, this is Word, sacraments, and prayer, enjoyed and shared with God’s people, with shepherds and teachers serving as the stewards of God’s truth.

Notice again, “we” speak the truth in love and “we” grow. God places each one of us in a certain role, but He is no “respecter of persons.” What I mean is, God doesn’t treat individuals as more valuable or accepted because of title, or office, or education, or social standing, or influence, or spiritual gift. The offices are real gifts and responsibilities, but they are not a badge of superiority. We have different essential roles in the body, but equal standing before God in Christ.

For example, though I’m the pastor, I’m not the wisest or most knowledgeable person in the church on every subject. I’m not the “best Christian” here or the “most mature believer” here. Yes, I’m gifted and knowledgeable in certain important things. I’m called to lead in certain unique ways. I teach and preach and instruct and guide. But I learn from the dear brothers and sisters of this congregation all the time. I learn from the adults and the children. After all, a disciple is a “learner.”

We are all learning from Christ, and learning Christ from and with each other. That’s why this passage doesn’t say only pastors speak the truth in love. It says we do. Christ the Head stabilizes the Body against deception and drift. His life flows to us and transforms us. And the Body speaks truth in love to reflect our union with Christ the Head. Nourished by the spiritual nutrients that come from His very person through His established order, we grow stronger together, and stronger individually.

So, this is, from the broadest vantage point, is how disciples are made: by Christ, through His officers authorized to administer His ordinary means, as Christ saves and sanctifies His elect. Every believer contributes to the disciple-making work, serving the church and speaking the good news of Jesus Christ to others.

The system Jesus established is elder-led, member-supported, with each believer using their gifts and applying their training and knowledge to serve the mission of Christ through His church. This is how we grow with the good growth that is from God.

Numerical growth as a church isn’t the first kind of growth we should seek. This growth – in the grace and knowledge of Christ – must come first. He graciously brings us to sit under His Word, come to His Table, pray with His saints, and speak His truth in love to each other.

Will you grow with us? And will you trust in Jesus Christ today? Trusting in Him, will you turn from your sins? When you do, He will shape you into His mature follower, living in healthy harmony with His people, for His glory and your joy.

Let’s bow in prayer.

As the new year begins, many people are making new efforts to get in shape. They’re going back to the gym, running in the neighborhood, or working out in the garage or living room. As they do this, they use words like “effort,” “discipline,” routines,” methods,” “training,” and “accountability.”

People also seem to think and talk about discipleship primarily in the same way.

But Scripture describes discipleship less like the gym and more like the hospital. At the gym, progress depends mostly on the consistency, effort and strength of a person. But in the hospital, progress depends mostly on the skill, ability, and knowledge of the doctor.

Discipleship isn’t self-improvement – it’s divine intervention.If it were mainly a human endeavor, the New Testament would sound very different.

But instead, we read statements like this one from Acts 2: “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Or Romans 6, which says we were “baptized into Christ Jesus” and “united with him,” and 1 Corinthians 1, which says that “because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus.”

In Colossians 1, Paul says he labors to proclaim Christ and teach everyone, “struggling with all [Christ’s] energy that He powerfully works within me.” And in Philippians 1, Paul says, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion,” followed by these words in Philippians 2: “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

And Hebrews 12 says that it is Jesus who is “the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

I stressed last time that discipleship is fundamentally a divine work. It is the triune God who makes disciples. But here in Matthew 28, we see Christ instructing the apostles to go “make disciples.” Yet even these verses are evidence that it is ultimately the Father, Son, and Spirit who makes disciples.

Notice the outline on page 6 in the WG. We should understand that it is God who makes disciples because disciples are made at the direction of Christ (v.16), under the authority of Christ (vv.17–18), for incorporation into Christ (vv.19–20a), and by the power of Christ (v.20b).

Yes, God’s people play roles in disciple-making and we make efforts in our own discipleship. We’ll learn more about that next Sunday as we look closer at how disciples are made. But we must never lose sight of the God-centeredness of the work.

Now, last Sunday I directed you to page 2 of the WG, to the first sentence of the second paragraph, to our mission statement: Good Shepherd exists “to join God on mission by producing mature followers of Jesus Christ for His glory and our joy.” God involves His church in His disciple-making mission. We answered the question, “What is a disciple of Jesus Christ?” Someone who follows the teaching of Christ about Himself as the Messiah revealed in the Old and New Testaments.

And discipleship is a state or condition of learning from and being transformed by Christ as we behold His glory and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Jesus defines discipleship primarily by an inward, relational reality. Spiritual union with Him is necessary. External behavior is secondary. The outward evidence of a true disciple flows out of being in Christ and having Christ dwelling within.

And this union with Him is received, not achieved. Ephesians 2 says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” By grace through faith – a result of the Holy Spirit’s work within us – we are united with Christ and then able to repent, learn, obey, and follow Christ.

Matthew 28:16-20 implies the centrality of union with Christ in discipleship. Look at verse [16] “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.” Back in Matthew 10, Jesus chose 12 apostles. But by ch.28, Judas was gone. He had betrayed and deserted Christ.

In ch. 26, Jesus promised to meet these men in Galilee. He also instructed Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to tell them to meet him there. So clearly, these eleven have come here at Christ’s direction and what they do after will be done at His direction.

In times of war, a general is said to “win the battle,” though soldiers do the fighting. In state government, a governor is said to “build roads” or “pass laws,” though workers construct roads and legislators draft laws and cast votes. And in a company, a CEO may “launch a company-wide initiative,” but managers and teams do much of the work.

In a similar way, disciples are made at the direction of Christ. To this day, disciples are made by His appointment. Therefore He makes disciples. But what Christ does is much greater than a general, or a governor, or a CEO.

Look at verse 17, “And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.” This occurred after His death and resurrection. Jesus was apparently at a distance, but when He came closer, as verse 18 says, they saw that it was Him and all were convinced.

Verse [18], “And Jesus came and said to them.” To whom? To the eleven. In Matthew 10, they are referred to as “disciples,” and then as “apostles.” At that time, Jesus had many disciples or followers, but these men were unique. What made them different from all the other “disciples?”

Well, these men were disciples first and eventually became apostles. Matthew 10 says, “And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. [2] The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; [3] Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; [4] Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

Biblically speaking, an “apostle” is “an authorized representative.” Christ selected them from among His disciples for a special office to carry His message and lead His church. Christ was the chief Apostle, sent to speak with authority from the Father, and He gave this disciple-making commission directly to His eleven.

After Judas Iscariot fell away, only two men are presented in the NT as being added to the apostolic office: Matthias, who restored the number of the Twelve, and Paul, who was uniquely appointed by the risen Christ. While others are occasionally called apostles in a broader sense, no further additions to the foundational group are described.

So what about the next generation of apostle-like leaders? Well, they are not called apostles. Rather, in Scripture they are called “elders.” No other men were entrusted with this foundational authority. In the early church – and now – the only apostolic authority is the Bible. Elders submit to it, and “to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

The apostle Peter makes a statement that supports our understanding here. In 1 Peter 5, he says, “I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you.”  The apostles were the first elders of the church. They were the first "presbyters."

They received the Great Commission to make disciples. So it was specifically to this group that Christ gave instruction for disciple-making, though it’s obvious later on that they are to involve the whole church in the mission.

But how does this apostolic commission continue after the Apostolic Age? In line with the work of the apostles, “making disciples” is clearly portrayed as evangelizing, baptizing for inclusion into the covenant community, teaching, and establishing churches by elders who continue the apostolic work. Even though the Apostolic Age has been discontinued, the work of making disciples continues because the apostles appointed elders in all the churches to carry on the work.

Notice in verse 18 Christ says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” “Given?” Yes. It was given to Christ in His mediatorial role between God and mankind. Christ is saying this in his resurrected, immortal state. And notice He makes a specific point to express this “authority.” Why?

William Hendriksen explains, “So that when He now commissions His apostles to proclaim the gospel throughout the world, they may know that moment by moment, day by day, they can lean on him.” Hendriksen calls this “the great claim” that introduces “the great commission.” It is founded on the authority of Christ.

This is the authority of God Himself: the sovereign power and holy will of the One whose commands must be obeyed. This is the sinless, gracious, just, kind and loving authority of the only true God. It’s never in question or subject to revision, approval, or negotiation.

Imagine a building inspector who enforces the plans drawn by an architect. The inspector has real authority, but the inspector’s authority is derived. The inspector can’t change the design or approve something the architect forbids.

The elders of the exercise real authority in disciple-making, but that authority is only derivative. It is to be always governed by Christ’s holy Word and led by His Holy Spirit. Disciples are made under the authority of Christ. Therefore He makes disciples.

Now see verse [19]. Jesus says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” Going to the nations was always the plan in God’s covenant of grace. His gracious salvation would move outward. It would be worldwide. With this great commission from Christ, the blessing of the nations as stated in God’s covenant with Abraham is now ready to begin in full.

Being a disciple goes further than repenting, being converted, or changing your mind. Hendriksen says, “It is necessary that sinners learn about their own lost condition, God, his plan of redemption, his love, his law, etc. This, however, is not enough. True discipleship implies much more. Mere mental understanding does not as yet make one a disciple. It is part of the picture, in fact an important part, but only a part. The truth learned must be practiced. It must be appropriated by heart, mind, and will, so that one remains or abides in the truth. Only then is one truly Christ’s “disciple.” And he references John 8:31, which we studied last week.

The result of spiritual union with Christ is ongoing change in the whole person. As I said last week, “A true disciple is someone who receives union with Christ as the guiding reality, defining message, and liberating power for his or her life.”

Look at the rest of verse 19. Christ says to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Now, both grammatically and logically, baptizing and teaching are subordinate to “make disciples.” And as you can see, it was the eleven – the apostles – who were given this task. They were to baptize under the authority of and “in the name of” Christ, which means to be “brought into vital relationship” with Christ. Scholars note that “into the name of Christ” is a valid translation here also.

We see another place in the NT where people are “baptized into” someone else. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes that when the Israelites were led out of Egypt, they “were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” What does this mean?

This is the language of union. It describes incorporation. The Israelites identified with Moses as their leader and mediator. In a similar yet greater way, disciples identify with Christ as our leader and mediator.

Of course, as was also true “in Moses,” baptism into Christ doesn’t guarantee true faith. Baptism doesn’t create the vital union. Saving faith is necessary, but baptism marks someone as part of the community. One Reformed scholar says “the rite of baptism as such” doesn’t bring “a person into vital union with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, according to Scripture the following are true: (a.) circumcision was a sign and a seal of the righteousness of Christ accepted by faith (b.) baptism took the place of circumcision; and (c.) therefore baptism, too, must be regarded as a sign and a seal of the righteousness of Christ accepted by faith.”

So – baptizing them and teaching them. Disciples must be taught, before and after baptism, depending on the circumstances. Those outside the church – when they are received by their profession of faith – should receive this baptism and additional teaching, though they likely have had some teaching already. So they are taught, baptized, and taught some more. Those received to the church by way of their believing parents are baptized then taught.

Since the early church – even the mid-first century – a person coming into the covenant community would have to demonstrate true understanding of the faith and a desire for genuine repentance of sins. We still require this today when we receive members into our church body.

Notice again that Jesus says, “teaching then to observe.” There is so much to learn, understand, and apply – for the rest of our natural lives! And see that Jesus adds, “all that I have commanded you.” This clarifies the order of making disciples: first to the apostles/elders/ordained teachers, then to the whole church, and every true member then testifies about these great truths to the world. Every true disciple can bear witness to the truth of the person and work of Christ.

Disciples are made for incorporation into Christ. This is more than mere instruction, more than moral formation or mission activation. It’s more than getting people to come here, stay here, and behave in certain ways. It’s more than giving your money and your time. Christ authorized His apostles to fulfill their ordained role in proclaiming Him,
and baptizing and teaching so that people from every nation could be received into a real, covenantal, living union with the risen Christ Himself!

When we are incorporated into Christ, His life becomes the source of our obedience, His holiness becomes the pattern of our growth, and His power becomes the strength of our perseverance. This transformation happens not because we try harder or do more, but because His life is at work in us.

It is Christ who makes disciples. This doesn’t dismiss what the apostles did or what the rest of the church would do. Instead, it frames it in a sound and healthy, Christ-glorifying way.

Now look at this final phrase. Christ says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This is our comfort. This is our great assurance. First of all, Jesus says, “Behold” with force. In other words, “Pay close attention!” In disciple-making, Christ is with His officers, and with all His people. He abides with us through our union with Him and by the presence of His Spirit.

Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” Christ assures us that He is with those who proclaim Him under His authority. Christ is with those who teach His will. Christ is with “the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” He abides with us by His Word and Spirit, therefore, disciple-making is ultimately a work of His power, not ours. Disciples are made by the power of Christ.

As we go to the Lord’s table now, I want to give you one more image. In John 15, Jesus speaks directly to the eleven, after Judas departed. And He says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Yes, the ordained leaders of the church lead the work of disciple making. First it was the apostles, now it is the elders of the church. And yes, every member plays a necessary role in the disciple-making work. But truly it is Jesus Christ who makes disciples.

Will you be His disciple? Will you identify with Him publicly through baptism and the profession of your faith, and will you be taught and observe all He has commanded? He brings His people into life-giving, soul-soothing union with Himself – union which He secured for us through His saving work.

Let’s bow in prayer.