Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
1 Timothy 1:1-5*
Here we are at that part of Sunday mornings where we start to look at our watches. We have enjoyed the music and singing portion of the service, standing or sitting as we lift our hearts to God. We heard about the happenings for the week and we dropped a little something in the offering plate. Now it’s time for us to listen to the preacher.
I assume you’re all properly prepared to listen today, aren’t you? You’ve been all week to hear what I have to say today, right? Got your Bibles out, your sermon note pages and a pen ready? Maybe, maybe not.
Let me ask: Did you take notice of what time I started this morning? How long are you prepared to listen? Why do you think we bother with a sermon in the first place?
You probably think I’m starting off a little odd this week, but let me give you a little insight into where my mind is starting off today. Each week I receive an email from Focus on the Family entitled, “The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing”. Here’s a tidbit from a recent edition:
"Nearly 100 percent of churchgoers look forward to sermons, but only 17 percent think preaching changes the way they live," according to a recent study from the CODEC Research Center at St. Johns College in Durham, U.K. The CODEC report, "The View from the Pew," is based on interviews with 193 Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists and Baptists from 16 different churches.
The research also discovered that:
• Many Anglicans wanted the sermon to last less than 10 minutes, but up to 20 minutes was fine if there was no "waffle."
• Baptists were happy to sit through a 75-minute sermon.
• Catholics wanted the sermon to be completed within 10 minutes.
• Sermons were seen as being very good at teaching about God, the Bible and "being comforting," but needed to do more to "motivate and challenge" people to look at the world differently.
• Sermons seem to encourage Christian reflection, but not Christian action.
• Nearly 17 percent felt sermons did actually change the way they lived.
The Purpose of Preaching
Why do we take the time to preach? The pattern seems to have been laid out for us:
• We are told by the writers of the Gospels that Jesus preached in the synagogues of Judea (Luke 4:44) and Galilee (Mark 1:39), in the Temple of Jerusalem (Luke 9:6), and even in His home in Capernaum (Mark 2:2).
• Jesus took the Twelve and sent them out preaching and healing after giving them power and authority (Luke 9:1-6).
• The book of Acts tells us how the disciples taught and preached Jesus Christ “every day, in the temple and from house to house” (5:42).
Paul reminds us that those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, but only if they have someone to hear it from.
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?
Romans 10:14
Pastors are not called to preach to show how intelligent they are, to prove themselves better than everyone else, or to point out the flaws of the people in the church. Paul told Timothy the reason for preaching.
As a young pastor I often turn to Paul’s letters to Timothy, looking for encouragement and instruction in how to conduct my ministry. So when I read this verse in my devotions a few weeks ago, I made the effort to meditate on it and deposit it in my heart. This is the purpose of preaching to the Body of Christ:
The purpose of our instruction, however, is love that rises out of a pure heart, a clear conscience, and undisguised faith.
1 Timothy 1:5 NBV
We preach, therefore, to encourage and build God’s people into people who love.
It’s not likely to be just a coincidence that God put this message on my heart with February getting started. Above any other time of year the next couple of weeks are associated with love. We are reminded how special it is to love and to be loved. Of course, that is only one definition of love.
The love Paul is talking about here in 1 Timothy 1:5 is agape love, that highest form of love that is for everyone in all circumstances. As pastors, evangelists and teachers, we preach to encourage the growth and expression of agape love in your life, and in our own.
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. Scripture often reminds us to love.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:43-45a
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:7
The Building Blocks of Love
We are told to love, and encouraged “Never let your brotherly love fail” (Hebrews 13:1 Phillips), but it is really much harder than it sounds, isn’t it?
In this letter to Timothy, Paul gives us three building blocks of love. Without each of these our love is non-existent, incomplete, ineffective, or else a counterfeit love. To truly love one another with agape love, we need to start with these three building blocks.
1. A Pure Heart
Only a pure heart can truly understand what love is. This is because a pure heart has seen love in its truest form and responded to it.
…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…
Romans 5:8
There is no love that is greater than the love God has already shown us. Our Savior stepped from beside His Father’s throne and entered our world as a helpless babe, so He could die for sins that He would not commit. Scripture tells us that He emptied Himself to take human form and become obedient unto death. So strong and abundant was Christ’s love that as He hung on the cross, dying, He pleaded for the forgiveness of those who “knew not” what they were doing.
Until we have experienced God’s love, we can only offer an earthly love. This earthly love is imperfect, often motivated by impure thoughts and desires, is constantly selfish, and regularly fails.
Earthly love is a powerless love. It is bound by feelings that exist one moment and flit away the next. In difficult times it tends to sway and break, unable to stand under the pressure.
Do recall what reward the pure in heart will receive? It takes us back to the Beatitudes that Jesus preached on the mountain. You likely know this one by heart:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
When we are pure in heart, not only do we see God, but we are allowed to see from His perspective.
One of the reasons we are allowed to see God so that we can see as He sees. It is similar to when a child comes in and wants to sit on Daddy’s lap. Depending on the size of the child, there is a change in perspective. The smaller the child, the greater the impact will be.
We are children of God, who sits on the throne and uses the earth as His footstool. We are finite and He is infinite. We often see only for ourselves, but His plan is from the foundation of the world, bringing all things to good for those that love Him.
From God’s vantage point we see the world as He sees it: lost, alone, desperate; in need of hope, a Savior, Christ’s ambassadors, and the works of the Holy Spirit through His holy people. We understand the importance for one another, to sacrifice and share so each will benefit. When we watch the news, we cry out in prayer. When we receive word of one who is hurting or falling, we cry out in prayer. Something within us cries out for a world that is better. Our hearts are touched and set ablaze. We get hold of what Bill Hybels calls a “holy discontent,” and seek to change the world that we live in from what it is to what it can be in Christ.
For one another here in this local body, in the community, and for those around the world, we are able now to fulfill the words of the Apostle John:
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:11
2. A Good/Clear Conscience
Why do we need a clear conscience to love? What problems can you think of that might develop from having a guilty conscience? After all, our conscience affects only ourselves. How can it bring harm to others? Can it keep us from loving one another?
If I have a guilty conscience, I am:
a) Fighting Conviction
I’m not talking about condemnation for what is repented of and forgiven, thrown into God’s sea of forgetfulness but dredged up by Satan’s fishing line of depression. I’m talking about conviction brought upon by the Holy Spirit in our lives.
When we ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit we banish Him from working in our lives. We are telling Him that His work, His power, gifts and blessings are no longer required for us to continue in our walk with Christ.
We can only walk by the flesh or by the Spirit. With those are only options, it will be difficult to stay out of the flesh if we’ve axed the Spirit from our lives. Here’s how Paul puts it:
People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things.
Romans 8:5 CEV
b) Forfeiting Community
A guilty heart is a selfish heart. It has not time or place for others. Tell me, can a heart in such a condition love?
God gave us one another. We are no longer our own, we belong one to another. But we get ourselves behind the “8 ball” when we are guilty inside. We push each other away instead of finding strength and support in one another.
Take on yourselves one another
