1 Timothy 1

July 3, 2022 · Ben Hoyer · 29:12

Drawing on Luke's parables of the lost and a reading from 1 Timothy, this message frames the gospel's grand meta-narrative—a good God who creates, provides, and pursues fallen humanity—showing that our sin qualifies rather than disqualifies us as the people of God.

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That's a fun story. It's like out of our gospel reading for the day and it's where in that section in Luke where he's piling up the parables about the importance of the one. And in this idea I was talking with somebody about this a couple of weeks ago and it'll come up in the readings that I want to look at this morning but those parables, those parables about the one, about the woman

with the coin, about the 99 and the one sheet, about the loving father and the proud of his son, are meant to drive home to a group of kind of self-righteous church people, that the ones who get access to the people of God, the ones who are who have the capability, the willingness and then actually realize the opportunity to be a part of the people of God or the one to art of men, that your

sin qualifies you as the people of God. It doesn't disqualise them. That God came for the ones who are lost, not the ones who are sinned, that he came for the ones who are sick, not the ones that uphold, that your shortcoming gives reason for the Christ to save you as he does every time. That the people of God are a group of gankings and we're going to look at them a little bit more deeply this

morning and to do that I want to look at the epistle reading that's the sign for us, the new testament reading that they sign for us this morning. This is in the first Timothy. So first Timothy is a short little book towards the back. It's in this group of pastoral letters, which means there letters that Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus and sometimes they include by the men in it, but mostly Timothy and Titus. As guys are reading small churches in Asia, by another that Paul established and left and then he

sends Timothy and Titus back to Paul to them and he writes in some letters about what it looks like, how they ought to be passed in the church there in the first century. And so they're pretty practical and addressed to some specific issues and the thing to think about first year, and I've brought this up before, but it's worth saying again here, is that all these letters of Paul make sense first

when you when you remind yourself that these letters come into a context. Remember that that one of the unique things about our scriptures, the scriptures of the people of God, is that they exist in context not all of them. So that Paul with person and history writes to Timothy with person and history, past and church in location and time and history. And we can't go into all of those

contextual components this morning, but the thing I want to remind you of is that this message that comes to Timothy makes sense under the umbrella of the kind of larger meta-narratives is that Paul, Timothy and the church has already agreed upon. And sometimes when we pull out the ideas that we learn to change, whether it be an idea about salvation or sin, it gets loaded with all sorts of things

that are about our context and not about the meta-narratives. I mean when I throw out an idea about sin, you may have some emotions connected to the way that your teacher put your name on the board with the text behind it when you were a kid, or the way that your parents got angry or didn't get angry, or the way that your coach disciplined or didn't disciplined, or the way that you were exchanged in college for the ministry that you were a part of. You may have some loaded idea of sin. When I talk about salvation, you may have some notions that

are loaded into your context of salvation that come from the way that it's been used in your life before, the things that you need to be saved from. I just want to take a minute and remind ourselves before we get into what Paul writes the meta-narratives that Paul's other statistics exist under the umbrella of a meta-narrative that they've already agreed on, which has some basic components, right? First the meta-narratives test, there is a gun. This god is good. There is a god, and the god is all together good.

In that infinite goodness, this god creates the world. In all of its facets, peculiarities, uniqueness, and challenges, there is a god. The god is good. The god creates the world, and gives the world to humanity. There is a god that God is good, the god is creator, the god is provider. This is core person. You're going to understand any

nuance, any particular doctrine, any particular application of the reality of the person of Christ. You have to remember it exists under this larger meta-narrative. There is a god, a god is good. The god creates all things, and gives all things to humanity. Creator and provider, but we're not done with meta-narrative yet. Humanity then is intended to distinguish, but of course cannot. The meta-narrative test, unity, has this fatal form that

continues over and over again to buck the provision of God and intend and try to provide for our stuff. When we buck the provision of God, we spur the creation of God. We believe we can create our own world, and then we forget the existence of God altogether. So that sin in the meta-narrative are the things that move us away from the god. The man there that says there is a

god, god is good. The god creates the world and gives the world to humanity. He's created and provided, and then the man there says, he doesn't have this fatal form that cannot let God do the things that God does, create and provide. Instead, intends to do that for our stuff. That action, under the meta-narrative, we understand the sin. And then the last piece of the meta-narrative says this good, creating, providing God is undeterred by the fatal

agonement and people who let him be done. Okay, something in that context, Paul has preached said before, and I, one of the things that's going to be taught on my list, when this world goes to the end, we're all brought back for eternity. I'm going to find some corner where Paul is telling the story and hear that post-

was beautiful, the testimony of the narrative of God. Okay, so Paul does that and Timothy's been captured by it, and Ephesus and Corinth and all the Galatia, all the things that have been captured by his meta-narrative, and then they try and live a life redeemed and fallen at the same time, redeemed and fallen at the same time. Do you see how that meta-narrative explains how you and I

at some time have the capacity to let God be galloped, to accept his provision, to trust his provision, to live under the provision of God, and sometimes we don't. Our fatal flaw exerts itself, and we feel like we must provide ourselves, we trust our baby dogs more than our dogs. We trust our capacity to safety ourselves rather than love that comes from the divine. We trust our own notion of the future, rather than God's notion of the future. We run into here,

we exact revenge, we don't trust God to take vengeance for us, to take vengeance for ourselves, and then at times we do. And Paul lives in the tension as well, and that comes right into the deep. When he's talking to Timothy about how to pass through people, he's calling back very quickly, and in into the deep, he has a scared understanding about the meta-narrative, so that when Paul talks about sinner, he knows exactly that it fits right into this space in the meta-narrative, that now on this side of Christ, we live both redeemed and fallen at the same time.

So look at, uh, can you see, first Timothy chapter 1 verse 12? Oh, this is good because it reminds me of the last piece of that. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. So formally, I was a blasphemeral persecutor and insolent opponent, but I received mercy,

because I liked it ignorantly in undities, and the grace of our Lord overflowed forward with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. First, you see there, I thank him who has given me strength, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, that he says that Christ Jesus has given him strength, has fortified and redeemed him, given the capacity to live against his fatal flaw as humanity was intended to live. And you see, in half of this, he has worked and purposed.

When the meta-narrative says, when humanity is set to right, we have meaningful work to do in the world. With lasting significance, we have relationships that function well and are beneficial for us and for them, we have reciprocally beneficial relationships when humanity is set to right. And Paul tells Timothy, I thank him who gives me strength,

Christ Jesus, who has fortified me, who has redeemed me, giving the capacity to live of the life as it was intended, which works and loves. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, in work to do. Though formally, I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent opponent. Remember, this is also very literal for Paul, right? He was a blasphemer, meaning he said Jesus was

of no consequence or significant in Christ Jesus was an impediment to the work of the church. He was a blasphemer and he was a persecutor, we know that, right? He put their robes at his feet as he oversaw the son, the soning of Stephen, then got permission from the church to go hunt the rest of the forest of the way down and stone them all. He was a three-spersicuter and an insolent opponent took another way to double down. He was an opponent of the gospel.

But he says, I received mercy. This is really interesting to me and a unique thing for us today, that Paul, the great Paul, who sermons I want to hear it heavy, whose Jesus made a special trip

back down after the ascension together, whose a notion of the gospel emerged victorious amongst all the Judaizers and all of the leaders of the church, who persevered amongst house arrest and propagated the church among Agent Minor, whose letters dominate our New Testament and state the church for generations becomes the great Paul, the state and apostle Paul says that God gave mercy, that to be fortified and redeemed, he needed mercy, Paul says.

Somehow in our intent to not deal with our self-loathing, we flip the story of the one missed for the 99 until it says, of course he could come get me. Look at me, to where we're uncomfortable with the notion that Paul seems very comfortable with,

that if he's going to find his way to be fortified, live a life of meaningful work and love, as humanity was intelligently for the beginning, it will take the mercy of God. The free, unmerited gist of God. This really stuck with me. It was in our ultimate reading too. I just flipped there too for you, just a minute, because it's a little tricky to find. If in my chapter 7,

verse 18 to 20, who is a God like you? Micah, the prophet of Israel is so enamored with the God of creation and life, the God of Abraham, I just think Jacob, he says, oh my goodness, what God is like you in the world? Who is the God like you? What is his unique capability, this astonishing trait of the God of creation and life, the God of Abraham, I didn't take it. It says, who is the God like you? Partonine, iniquity and pass over transgression for the

geminence of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in his steadfast law. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread on our iniquities underfoot. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will feel faithfulness to Jacob. God's thoughts love the Abraham, as he'll form to our fathers as he's given the age of old. Well, I have made this no-here before this week, because Micah doesn't seem offended by God's anger,

but grateful for his compassion. It's taken for granted that God, the God, would have righteous indignation towards the people who perpetually rebel against the goodness of the God, who refuse the provision and protection, who spurns the significance and the intent, who believe we could spin up our own futures. Micah seems very comfortable with the notion unimpressed with the

reality that God might be anger and blown away that the God might find compassion. And that's consistent with St. Paul, who says, what sort of God is this who has demonstrated mercy to me? Who left 99 to find aberrant, insolent, wayward means?

The grace of God is some serious mercy, unmerited, unwarranted, fangirl. I'm not telling you to loathe yourself, but I am saying, like Paul, we would do well to recognize

that the favor of God is some mercy that we do not deserve. I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not saying that I am not

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in started the Gentile Church which exists today yet, how blessed. What work might God accomplish for you as you settle into your own need for mercy? The mercy of God is powerful and sufficient more powerful and more powerful than your capacity. The mercy of God is a better tool to curb your anger and expand your capacity to love. The mercy of God is a better provider than you, a better protector than you. The mercy of God is a better lover than you. The mercy of God is a better builder than you. The mercy of God opens up your capacity to live in your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for your own need for

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as an example to those who were to delete in him for eternal life to the king of ages the mortal and visible the only guy the honor and glory forever and ever amen Paul might just as easily have said I will feed this mercy because I'm the right one for I'm saying right like if I were Paul I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I'd be like I

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