Just how much of our faith in Jesus should we make public and how much should our faith in Jesus remain private? Our culture tells us that faith is a private affair, like having a hobby. Our secular culture tells us that faith is a private issue, to be kept hidden in the privacy of our home or our church. In fact, the Yale law professor Stephen Carter wrote an entire book about this a few years ago, when he wrote The Culture of Disbelief.
Yet when we read the New Testament we learn that the essence of being a Christian is following Jesus Christ in a very public way. Although we have a private relationship with Jesus, following Jesus has implications for how we do business, how we pay our taxes, how we deal with conflict with a boss, and so forth. Jesus himself told us that if we’re embarrassed of him, he’ll be embarrassed of us (Luke 9:26). Yet embarrassed is the way a lot of people feel about their faith.
It’s impossible to live the life of following Jesus described in the Bible in total privacy. How do we make our faith in Jesus public?
Christians sometimes do the strangest things to make their faith in Jesus public. When I first became a Christian back in 1982, I starting putting Christian bumper stickers on my car. Soon I had a whole collage of bumper stickers on the back of my root beer brown Ford Pinto. That made me especially aware of my driving habits, but is that really what the Bible means by not being ashamed of Jesus? Others buy Christian merchandise, whether it’s a Christian t-shirt or jewelry, like the What Would Jesus Do wristbands. Some Christians go so far as getting tattoos to make their faith in Jesus public.
Today we’re going to look at how to make our faith in Jesus public in ways that go beyond bumper stickers, t-shirts, and even tattoos. You see, the problem with these other approaches isn’t that they’re too extreme, but that they’re not extreme enough. They don’t get to the real heart of the issue, of what a public faith in Jesus looks like.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy called Deepening Your Life With God. We’ve discovered so far that a deepened life with God comes as a result of accurate beliefs, spiritual practices, and authentic Christian community.
Now the part of 1 Timothy we’re going to look at this morning has special significance to me personally. No other part of the Bible has had more of an impact on how I approach my role as a pastor than the text we’re going to look at today. Next Saturday will mark my tenth anniversary as your pastor of teaching here at Life Bible Fellowship Church. I was 28 years old when the elder board invited me to that role, and for the first few years I felt very inadequate and unqualified. During my first year back in 1991 I went to a one day spiritual retreat. As I was wrestling with my feelings of inadequacy and fear during a time of solitude, God led me to the section of the Bible we’re going to look at today, and this section became foundational to how I have tried to conduct myself the last decade of ministry. So in addition to talking about how to go public with our faith, I want to share personally how this section of the Bible has led me to approach being your pastor of teaching.
So turn to 1 Timothy 4:11 and take out your outline, as we look at four ways to make our faith in Jesus Christ public.
1. Our Example (1 Timothy 4:11-12)
We begin with vv. 11-12. Paul’s protégé Timothy was a relatively young man, so was having a difficult time bringing correction to the spiritual errors he was confronting in the church in Ephesus. Now most Bible scholars feel that Timothy was somewhere in his early to mid 30s when Paul wrote these words. In the ancient world you were considered young until you were 40 (Marshall 560).
But really young is relative to the situation you’re in and the people you’re around. I’ve met pastors in their 50s who struggle to lead their congregations because most of their church members are in their 60s and 70s. These church members look down on them because of their youth. You can see this kind of spiritual generation gap throughout churches, no matter how old or young the pastor might be.
Now the reality is that Timothy can’t stop people from looking down on him because of his youth. So the encouragement here seems to be for Timothy to not be intimidated by older people, even when they do look down on him because of his inexperience and his youth. Since Timothy can’t control other people’s attitude toward him, he should focus on his own attitude. "Don’t be intimidated because people don’t take you seriously because of your age," Paul seems to be saying.
Instead of being intimidated, Paul wants Timothy to set an example. Now the phrase "set an example for believers" can also be translated, "Set an example of believers" (NASB). Timothy is to live as an example of what a believer in Jesus Christ looks like. Being an example is profoundly public activity, something you do in the midst of other people.
So here we find our first way to go public with our faith. Our faith in Jesus is public in our personal example.
As a young pastor who felt in over his head ten years ago, this passage of scripture was profoundly comforting to me. Although there wasn’t a lot of controversy about my appointment as the pastor of teaching, what little questioning there was focused on my age and lack of experience. I’d been a college ministry intern for two years, and I’d been an associate pastor for about six months. I tell people the ink was still wet on my seminary degree, yet our elder board was unanimous and there was no question in my mind that God was leading me to become the pastor of teaching. I found great encouragement and comfort from this text.
Yet this text is more than an encouragement to a young pastor because it encourages all of us to live as personal examples of what a follower of Jesus looks like. If we want our culture to take our message seriously, we must all live as public examples of following Jesus.
Paul lists several areas in v. 12 where our personal example is especially important. He talks about our speech habits. How we talk is a window into our souls. Are we sarcastic and biting in our comments to people? Do we gossip and question people’s motives? Or do we speak in ways that build other people up, to encourage them and bring them comfort? Our speech habits are an important part of our example.
Another part of our example is our lifestyle decisions. The word "life" in v. 12 refers to your daily conduct and behavior. What kinds of decisions do you make throughout a day, decisions about what to do with your time, decisions about how you spend your money, how you handle an interruption at work, decisions about what kind of entertainment you enjoy?
Our relationships with people are part of our example. That’s what the word "love" refers to. Are we difficult to be around? Are we pushy, demanding our own way? Are we controlling and manipulative? Or are we open and flexible, loving and patient with people. The quality of our personal relationships is a window into our souls.
The word "faith" refers to our attitude toward God. When the bottom falls out of our lives, do we respond with trust or distrust toward God? Do we act as if we really believe God is good to us and is caring for our needs?
Finally, the word "purity" refers to our moral purity. This refers to our sexuality. Is our sexuality within the bounds God has set up, or is it spilling over those boundaries? Are we flirtatious with co-workers even though we’re married or are we cautious in our relationships with people of the opposite sex? If we’re single, do we avoid situations where our commitment to moral purity will be tempted to compromised?
I struggle in some of these areas just like you do, which is why for the last ten years I’ve been in an accountability group with two college friends who are also pastors. We meet together each month, and we ask each other the tough questions. Questions about how we’re spending our money, our relationship with our spouse and our kids, or spending time in ways that are dangerous. You see, I know I’m just as vulnerable to falling in these areas as anyone else is, and without accountability, I won’t be able to be what God wants me to be.
Being an example of what a follower of Jesus looks like is a pubic action.
2. Our Roadmap (1 Timothy 4:13)
Now look at v. 13. Here Paul tells Timothy to focus on what preachers sometimes called "the ministry of the Word." The ministry of the word is the work of communicating the meaning of the Bible to people. Paul is referring to the public worship services in the church in Ephesus.
Again, this verse had a profound effect on me a decade ago. A few of you know that I used to lead worship, but when I became the pastor of teaching I set aside my guitar and stopped leading worship. One of my reasons for doing that was God’s calling to commit myself to the ministry of the word, to communicating the Bible at our weekend services. This is why over half of my work week goes into preparing for my weekly messages, because this is God’s calling in my life.
But this doesn’t just apply to preachers like me, because what we find here is a principle for all followers of Jesus. Our faith in Jesus is public in our commitment to the Bible.
You see, the fact that the Christian church publicly reads from the Bible during worship, and that preachers try to communicate the Bible demonstrates the foundational role the Bible has in the Christian life. Christians view the Bible as our roadmap for living life. For us, the Bible isn’t simply a scattered collection of stories and wise sayings, where we sift through the good stuff and leave the rest. We don’t have the freedom to pick and choose those parts of the Bible that are comfortable, and reject those parts that are uncomfortable. The whole thing--all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments--are our roadmap for the spiritual life.
Our commitment to the Bible makes our faith public. I mean more than a t-shirt with a Bible verse on it or a tattoo of John 3:16. I’m talking about actually using the Bible as our roadmap, so a watching world sees us trying to make sense out of our lives, they see us consulting our roadmap. This means letting the Bible set the agenda for how we live the various roles of our lives, our roles as friends, spouses, parents, bosses, coaches, and so forth.
Our faith in Jesus is public in our commitment to the Bible.
3. Our Service (1 Timothy 4:14)
Look at v. 14 with me now. Back in 1 Timothy chapter 1 we talked about how Timothy had come to faith in Jesus at a very young age through the influence of his mother and grandmother. In contrast to Paul, who had a dramatic conversion experience much later in life, Timothy probably struggled to know exactly when he first started believing in Jesus. So for Timothy, his watershed event wasn’t his conversion--like it was for Paul--but for Timothy it was this event when he was commissioned to ministry.
This was Timothy’s milestone event, the event he looked back on again and again as a turning point in his spiritual life. Now we don’t know example when this event occurred in Timothy’s life. Perhaps it was when Paul first invited Timothy to leave his hometown of Lystra and join Paul’s ministry team. Timothy would’ve been in his late teens or early 20s when that happened. Or perhaps it was at some other time in his life. Whenever this event happened, at some point the elder board laid their hands on Timothy and commissioned him to service.
The Greek text literally reads, "Do not neglect the gift that is in you." Timothy received some sort of spiritual gift, a divine empowerment from God to be used for service that was now in him. When I read this text ten years ago, as the newly called pastor of teaching at Life Bible Fellowship Church, I immediately thought about my own commission to ministry as a pastor. I thought about July of 1991, when the elder board here at LBF Church and some of my seminary professors laid their hands on me and commissioned me as a pastor. I thought about my friend Dr. Ron Pierce, who teaches Old Testament at Biola University, as he challenged me from this text not to neglect my gift. So this text has special relevance to me personally.
But the reality is that the Bible teaches that every follower of Jesus Christ has received at least one spiritual gift from God to be used in service. The Bible says, "There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but he same God works all of them in all people. To each person the manifestation of God’s Spirit is given for the common good of the church" (1 Cor 12:4-7). If you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ, you also have a gift of the Spirit, a service from the Lord, a working God wants to work through you in the lives of other people.
So here’s the third way we make our faith public. Our faith in Jesus is public in our Christian service.
Maybe you didn’t have the elders lay their hands and maybe there was no prophecy, but God has given you spiritual gifts. If you’ve trusted in Jesus, you have at least one gift from God to use in service.
The question for you is whether you’re neglecting that gift or using it in ministry. Your spiritual gift is inside of you, yet we learn here that it’s possible to neglect your gift. Have you ever neglected something in your body, only to have it cause problems later? Imagine if you stopped brushing your teeth, neglecting your teeth. Soon you’d be having bad breath, toothaches, cavities, bleeding gums, and so forth. When you neglect what’s inside of you, soon the outside of you starts to suffer. The same thing is true with our spiritual gifts.
You see, God gives Christians spiritual gifts to be used in the church, so we as followers of Jesus can help each other. God wants every follower of Jesus Christ should have an interdependent relationship with his or her church, a relationship where the Christian receive service from others in the church and where the Christian provides service for others. Unfortunately, most churches operate by the 80/20 principle. This is where 20% of the members use their spiritual gifts to minister to the other 80%. Most often, these are people who’ve simply never taken the time to discover their spiritual gifts, and never taken the risk to use their gifts in ministry. Sometimes they’re people who once used their gifts but they’ve neglected their gifts over time, like a person who stopped brushing their teeth. They suffer from spiritual gift decay.
If you’ve never discovered what your spiritual gifts are or how you might use them in service here at LBF Church, you need to take our 301 seminar, Discovering My Ministry. Pastors Bob and Edna Myers teach this seminar and I think the next time it’s offered is December 16 from 4:00 to 8:30 PM. Others of you served at one time and you had a bad experience or you simply filled your time with other things.
Our faith in Jesus is public in our Christian service, as we don’t neglect our spiritual gifts but use them for ministry.
4. Our Progress (1 Timothy 4:15-16)
Finally, look at vv. 15-16. The two verbs Paul uses in v. 15 focus on first "pondering and reflecting" on what Paul’s said, and then "putting it into practice." So Paul’s challenging Timothy to a total commitment to these instructions. These aren’t just suggestions, but they’re commands, absolutely essential for Timothy and essential to our lives as well.
Our obedience to these commands will make our progress in the spiritual life evident for everyone to see. Far too often we think we need to be perfect before we go public with our faith in Jesus. We figure, "If people see my imperfections and failures, that will drive them further away from God." What we fail to realize is that by pretending to be perfect, we do more damage than good, because everyone knows we’re not really perfect. So Paul wants Timothy to be content with progress, and that’s good advice for us as well.
Then Paul tells Timothy to be watchful over how he lives and what he believes. Timothy’s life and his doctrine are essential for him to life a life pleasing to God. If he perseveres with a lifestyle of progress and accurate doctrine, he will save both himself and his hearers. This simply means Timothy’s perseverance will demonstrate the genuineness of his own salvation and that his perseverance will allow God to use Timothy in other people’s lives to bring about their salvation as well.
Here we find the fourth way to make our faith public. Our faith in Jesus is public in our spiritual progress.
Ten years ago when I was asked to become the pastor of teaching one of the things that held me back was I didn’t feel spiritual enough. Some days I still don’t. I knew my own imperfections better than anyone, my tendency to be prideful, my temper than can sometimes fly off the handle, and so forth. You see, I’m just like any other guy, with the same struggles, the same issues.
This text brought me great comfort, to focus on progress not perfection. What God looks for is forward movement in the spiritual life.
Yet this text is also a warning to me, that my lack of perseverance in the Christian life and sound biblical doctrine can not only devastate my life, but also other people’s lives. I’ve seen it happen again, where a pastor stumbles and falls in his life, doesn’t get up, and where other people lose their faith. My nephew is a sophomore at Cal State Long Beach, and one of his classes is a Bible class. His professor is a former pastor who’s now an agnostic. When my nephew told me that, I wondered how many other people’s faith was shipwrecked when that pastor lost his faith in Christ.
So this text is both a comfort and a warning to those of us who want to live public lives of following Jesus. Are you progressing in your spiritual development? Are you moving forward, taking new steps of faith this month? This is one reason why we need others around us to challenge us to new steps of faith, to point out areas where we still need to grow. We need each other, because our spiritual progress makes our faith in Jesus public.
If we’re not progressing in our faith, then we’re not sharing our faith with those around us.
Conclusion
If you want to make your faith public, don’t settle for superficial things like t-shirts, bumper stickers and tattoos. Look deeper, focus on your example, your commitment to the Bible, your service in ministry, and your spiritual progress. This is how we live for Jesus in public ways before a watchful world.
At the 1993 annual meeting for the American Heart Association, 300,00 doctors, nurses and researchers met in Atlanta to discuss prevention of heart disease. One of the things they focused on was eating healthy and eating low fat food. Yet during the mealtimes, the participants eat lots of fastfood, like bacon cheeseburgers and fries. When one cardiologist was asked whether his eating at the convention was a bad example, he replied: "Not me because I took my name tag off."
When we follow Jesus, we never take our name tag off.
