Well it eventually happened: Through a crazy year of celebrations, transitions, restructuring and changes in direction we've managed to find our way back to the sermon series we started last August (2010) on the book of 1 Timothy. If you can remember that far back we made it in earnest to the end of chapter two before Thanksgiving last year when our pastoral search process derailed any plans for a week-in week-out series on a single text. In the months that followed we were able to pick away at the subsequent verses once every four to six weeks and by late February we had managed to finish chapter 3. Then Easter happened and we launched into "Sunday is only the beginning" and talked about the implications of the resurrection from Easter through Pentecost; in July we celebrated a number of special individual milestones through the services and then in August focused on corporate prayer. Throw in a couple caring and sharing Sundays and 1 Timothy has been sitting on the back burner for quite some time. Well no longer. I'm personally not a fan of seeing sermon series left unfinished and so in the month of September we're going to roll up our sleeves and push through the final three chapters of this wonderful epistle. This week we begin by looking at chapter 4 in its entirety, chapter five will be split into two weeks on the Sundays following family camp and on October 2 we will finish our journey through this letter with an investigation of chapter 6.
But seeing as it has been so long since we were thinking hard about this text and what the context and background of the letter was - I thought it would be good to start here on the sermon preview blog with bit of a primer on the people, places and situations that influenced the writing of this letter with the hopes of getting us back up to speed before diving into the text on Sunday.
Timothy
Timothy is Paul’s protégé. We read the story of his recruitment in chapter 16 of the book of Acts. He is a man of mixed ethnicity being born of a Jewish mother and Gentile father and Paul saw something in him that made him believe God had big plans for this young man so he called him – circumcised him (so as not to cause problems with the Jews by bringing a gentile into the apostolic ministry group) and they traveled and ministered together for a long time.
Eventually Timothy proved himself to Paul enough that Paul would send him out to churches as his surrogate and Timothy would go in Paul’s place to provide leadership and guidance to some of the many congregations that Paul had started in his missionary journeys. One of those churches was Ephesus.
Ephesus
Ephesus was a city, you may remember, that thrived on religion. At one point it had been a significant port city in the Hellenistic world but by the time Timothy came onto the scene there those days had long past. Ephesus was a city of temples and its economy thrived on the business of religious pilgrimages. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that for a pure and undiluted expression of the body of Christ to thrive in this city is going to be an uphill battle against relativism and syncretism.
Timothy for his part is a man with anxiety issues. He is not the ever confident bold and fearless junior apostle that we like to imagine the heroes of the faith being like. The first thing Paul does at the beginning of this epistle is to try and convince Timothy not to throw in the towel in Ephesus and run away from all the difficulties he’s facing there. We also get an instruction a little later on for Timothy to drink a little wine to calm his stomach (it almost sounds like Timothy had stress ulcers) and in today’s passage we get the exhortation to have confidence in his calling and not to stand for people dismissing his authority because of his relative youth. Timothy is a pastor who is working through a difficult calling in Ephesus and the biggest reason Paul seems to believe its challenging is because of the problem of False Teachers.
False Teachers
In fact when you take a step back from the small pieces of text that we sometimes like to pull out of this epistle for various prooftexting purposes (and you’ve all heard my rant lately on the dangers of prooftexting I trust) and we start to look at the letter as a bigger tapestry of interwoven ideas and instructions it becomes quite clear that almost all of Paul’s instructions to his apprentice are in direct response to the problems of false teaching. The commands that he gives are designed to curtail and correct the influence of those both inside and outside the community of faith who have been having success in distorting the message of the Gospel and leading away the flock like wolves (exactly what Paul warned the Ephesian elders about in Acts 20). Paul is expressly concerned that these false teachers do not gain any further foothold in the Church and Timothy is his man to push back the heresy and instruct the people in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So with all that now ruminating in our minds in preparation for this weekend - here is the text that we will be looking at this Sunday:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Enjoy the long weekend, but remember: Labour day is about celebrating workers by getting a day off work, it's not a good reason to avoid fellowshipping with the people of God! Whether you're home or away this long weekend, make an effort to get together with the body of Christ. Hopefully we will see you Sunday!
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