Sermon Title: An Equal Opportunity Gospel
Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Date: August 3, 2003
Context of Scripture:
What are some of the requirements that we have in order for us to listen to someone and really take to heart the things that he saying? I would look at that person’s authority, I would look at his credentials, and I would have to consider his past accomplishments.
All of these things are found in Paul’s introduction in his letter to Timothy. he relays the fact that he was appointed by God, he shares his testimony to a degree and that could be considered as credentials, and Timothy already knew all about Paul’s ministry.
I wonder how much of the things that we listen to would pass this test? How often do we check out the authority by which someone speaks, too often we just take that for granted. We might look at a diploma as a good reason to except someone as an authority, but what about their grades or their life experience? Too often we accept things at face value and in doing so allow some things to enter into our minds that should never be there. How much of what we consider gossip would be eliminated if we just checked out the source they’re authority, and their knowledge about subject.
This morning, we’re going to be looking at Paul’s letter to Timothy chapter 2,verses 1 through 8. Paul’s authority is obvious, his credentials are sound, and his ministry of bringing the word of Jesus to the world is without question.
Let us stand in reverence to the reading of God’s Word?
Scripture Reading:
1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
Sermon Introduction:
I have entitled this morning’s message, “an equal opportunity gospel”, for good reason. God’s word was valid when it was given to his anointed, God’s word was valid for the previous generations, his word is valid for today, and it will remain valid for whatever generations may still come. God’s word is valid for all nationalities, it is valid for all races, all ethnic groups, all social classes, and it does not vary according to economic stature. If there is anything in this nation that is equal opportunity it is God’s word. And it is God’s word that this nation is trying the hardest to set aside.
Have you ever gone into a store while you are shopping for clothes and saw something that was labeled, “one size fits all”? How ridiculous can somebody get? How dumb do we look? There is no way that you’re going to create any article of clothing that fits someone who was 125 pounds as well as someone that weighed 225 pounds. It just doesn’t work!
Mankind just does not have the ability to be equal and fair in all things. We have a problem with pride, we have a problem with jealousy, and we have a big problem with ego. This has been the case since the garden of Eden, and it will continue to be a problem until Jesus returns. What we need to do is to model ourselves after Jesus so that we see everyone equally. We are to see everyone equally all the time, and that includes our time of prayer. We need to pray for those that we like and we need to pray for those that we dislike, and if we have an intense dislike for someone we need be pray for ourselves.
If we follow Jesus’ example, we will pray for the fortunate as well as the unfortunate. We will pray for the popular and the unpopular. We will pray for those that are easy to pray for and for those that are difficult to pray for. If we follow Jesus’ example precisely, we will find that we are praying for those that Jesus would want us to pray for.
I think at times we are guilty of spiritual prejudice. We choose who we think is worthy of prayer, of deliverance, of forgiveness, and in so doing it is as if we are selecting who is worthy of salvation. We seem to forget the Scripture that tells us not to judge or face the same judgment ourselves.
Another area that many seem to be spiritually prejudiced in is in the realm of what constitutes a sin in regards to their position, whether or be politically, economic, social, or religious. What is so difficult about taking a stand? Do we oppose murder, if so, why is there such a gulf in regards to subjects such as abortion? As a rule, the Christian community believes that Jesus is the answer, however, I heard a former president of this great nation, one who professed Christianity, make a statement that Jesus was only one of many ways to Heaven. This man probably did not want to stir up any controversy because of the sensitivity of this topic. The problem is if one doesn’t believe in Jesus as the only answer to mankind’s sin issue, and doesn’t believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, then they are destined for an eternity in Hell. I would rather hurt someone’s feelings in the present and have them saved for eternity, then spare their feelings now and have them in torment forever.
What more could the world be asking for, here we have an opportunity to look to one person for all of our needs and have one method and one solution to all of our problems? Perhaps, this message, this opportunity, or this method is to simple to be believed or too easy and to good to be true.
Prayer for Spiritual Enlightenment:
I. Pray through the One Savior for all men
Paul begins in verse 1 by telling Timothy that prayers should be uttered for all, reading verse 1:
1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.
We need to look at the three words that are used here together, namely entreaties, prayers and petitions. In the King James these are translated supplications, prayers and intercessions and regardless of which translation you look at, they are three words and they all mean prayer. There is a difference however and in looking at the difference in the three it becomes necessary to add a fourth and that one is thanksgiving. When we add these four together we are told to pray that evil is averted, we are to pray that good blessings are bestowed, we are to pray in behalf of others and then we are to offer thanks to our God who listens to each and every one of our prayers. That is a tall order for us and then to complicate matters we are told that we are to do this for all people.
What is meant by “all people”? It means that we are to pray for those that we like and those that we dislike. IN regards to those that we dislike, remember one of the types of prayer is that no evil should befall them. For those that have done us wrong, we are to pray that no evils should befall them. This is a hard pill swallow at times isn’t it? And for the times when those that have done us wrong are unaware of their wrongdoing or even unconvinced that they are in need of correction, we are to pray on their behalf.
This is one of those times and this is one of those topics that makes Christian life difficult for us to embrace. This becomes a stumbling block for many as well. How can the Lord expect us to follow through with something that is so difficult?
There is an example that Jesus faced the exact same turmoil in His own life. Let us go back to the Last Supper and look at a section of Scripture that is a major portion of our communion service. We read in the 22nd chapter of Luke’s Gospel account, and I will be reading from the King James, “14 And when the hour was come he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. 15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer 16 For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
We know what is going through Jesus’ mind because Judas is sitting at the table with Him and he is the betrayer and Peter, his rock is going to deny any relationship with Jesus in the next 24 hours, not once but three times. Jesus uses the words that He desires to desire. When we need to pray for those that have harmed us in any way, regardless of their own conscience about the episode, we might have to desire to have the desire to pray for them. In other words, we may have to pray that we have the clear ability with the right motives to lift our very enemies up to the Lord in prayer.
II. Pray through the One Savior for all in authority
Now let us add a degree of difficulty to all of that. Let us pray for our leaders. Reading verses 2 through 4:
2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I don’t know if it was intentional by Paul, but he almost answers an objection before it could even be uttered. We should pray for our leaders, because in so doing, we will be improving our quality of life.
Is this something that has escaped us in the past? We all admit that it is easy to pray for a Christian leader, but how difficult does it become to pray for a leader that is leading contrary to God’s teaching? Now by praying for that leader, I am not suggesting that they are showered with God’s blessings amidst the evil that they are doing – I am suggesting that we pray for the Holy Spirit to convict them and as a result of that conviction that they find their way to the foot of the cross and the salvation that is available through the love and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Paul lays out two reasons. If we pray for our leaders then our quality of life may improve and also it is something that pleases God. If we are living for Jesus then we ought to be doing things that please God and while we are pleasing God we might just improve the quality of our life in the process. We should see this as a win-win situation and have little problem putting it into practice. Perhaps there are some bitter feelings that stand in the way of praying to that end, so let us use the same strategy as Jesus and pray for the desire to desire to pray in that manner.
III. One Savior – no exceptions and no alternatives
Now for those that thrive on a little confrontation, Paul offers the following in verses 5 through 7:
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Lay out the facts for the world around us to hear:
There is one God, and that is the God of Abraham, the Father who sent His only Son to die upon that cross for the sins of this world. That is it! Buddha doesn’t count, so all the incense and chanting and holding on high the sacred cow counts for nothing. Buddha will not get you into heaven.
There is no such thing as nirvana, there is no such thing as good karma or bad karma, this is a tool of the devil to deceive and derail. The Hindu people may be peaceful and non-confrontational, but their eternal destination will be anything but a place of peace or nothingness – they will live in eternal torment.
Allah, as he is worshipped by the Islamic people is not the same God that we worship. They serve a hateful deity, they serve a revengeful deity, they serve a false god. Yes they have a tie through Abraham, but that is as close as it gets. We have a Savior that teaches love, compassion, and repentance while the Islamic extremists push hatred, domination and revenge.
We cannot have preachers of the Gospel get behind the pulpit and make statements that there are many roads to heaven – there is but only one and that is the man Christ Jesus – only begotten Son of the living God.
We cannot have the followers of Christ back down on the claims of Biblical teachings. The Ten Commandments were given for a reason, it was not a set of arbitrary commands given at the whim of God. These commands were put in place for the benefit of all mankind. If we take a look in the places where the Ten Commandments have been taken down, we also usually see falling morals, ethics of all kinds are thrown out of the window, as well as the loss of the sanctity of the marriage union and the sanctity of human life.
Look at some of the groups that oppose Godly principles. We have the gay-rights group – they object to Christian teaching because we call sin what it is. At least we ought to – sexual sins are the most recorded transgression in God’s Word and seems to be the one that is the most compromised upon in many churches. The abortion rights advocates have a disdain for the Word of God because it clearly states, “Thou shalt not kill!”
Once again these are the people that are in need of the Gospel message and in this section of Scripture where we read, “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved”, these are the “all men” that Paul is talking about.
Once again difficult for most of us to handle, so therefore we fall back on the prayer request that we desire to desire to lift them to the Lord in prayer.
IV. One Savior, one message that fits all
We can’t have a difficult lesson in dealing with people in way that we are unaccustomed to or is foreign to our day-to-day behavior without some kind of reason to comply, so Paul tells us the reason that we are to lift others to the Lord in prayer, even if in everybody’s books they are unworthy, is because God said so!
Reading verse 8:
8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
We see the restrictions that apply to this section of Scripture. Who are the ones that are exempt from lifting their detractors to the Lord in prayer? There are none exempt. What locations allow us to refrain from interceding for those that have and will do us wrong? There is no place far enough away that we can outrun this command of God.
We know that we need to do it, but Paul adds a qualifier to that command that adds an even greater degree of difficulty. We are to lift up holy hands when we pray for them – that means that our own lives must be free from the filth and the debris that has caused our detractors to act just as they have. We are to be without wrath or dissention as well, so we need to have released our anger against those that have harmed us and we are to do it without any reservation in our minds and in our thinking as well.
Let me remind you of that prayer that Jesus offered during His last supper with those that would betray and abandon Him, I desire to desire. We don’t have it within ourselves but if we petition the Lord we will not only receive the ability but we will receive the joy to express that ability as well. Let us not forget that petition as we go about what the Lord calls us to do and for those that He calls upon us to forgive and lift to the throne of grace.
Conclusion:
As we looked at the Word of God this morning, there were perhaps many that passed through our minds as ones that have done us wrong. There were probably many that we simply wrote off as unrepairably evil and dismissed without another thought. Did we pray that no evil would befall them? Did we pray for their provision? Die we pray that the Holy Spirit fell upon them in a great and glorious time of transforming conviction. A prayer is only uttered to late when all affected parties have entered their eternity. Don’t miss out on that blessing.
How about our presidents, not just the present president who follows the Lord in his decisions, at least from my vantage point, but those in the past and those that we may not agree with in the future. What will ultimately prove more effective, a pound of bickering or complaining or an ounce of intercessory prayer?
How many of the previous administrations would have been more effective for the kingdom of God if we spent the time that we were throwing criticism on our knees in prayer instead? I am not talking about lying down and playing dead on the crucial moral and ethical issues, I am talking about the time we spend slinging mud on the reputation of someone whom God would rather see spend their eternity in heaven following their conversion instead of eternal torment as an unrepentant sinner. Many of us can recall times where we were less than effective prayer warriors for our leaders.
And for the times when confrontation is called for and we instead seek to spare feelings and be politically correct, let us view this mornings text as the battle cry we need to hear so that we can boldly stand upon God’s Word as we stand up for our God-inspired convictions. If you want to hear my definition of someone who is politically correct, it is as follows, “an individual who is politically correct is in essence nothing more than a spineless onlooker as the world around him, his family included is sucked into the bowels of hell”. Perhaps we all recall times where our boldness could have used an empowering from the Holy Spirit.
In all the things that we see going on around us that cause us to utter the words, “NO FAIR”, we should all be reminded that we serve a God the righteous and just and fair. That fairness is for all people of all genders of all colors and races and ethnic groups. His righteousness and justness and fairness isn’t adjusted according to financial status, social status or position in the church. He is truly a Savior for all mankind with a message that applies equally and for all time.
Call to Commitment:
Once again, we cannot approach the altar with our sacrifices if something is amiss with a brother or sister. Celebrate this Lord’s Day with a surrender of ill feelings toward others and enjoy the total and complete surrounding of the Lord in all aspects of our lives.
Let us continue to lift our leaders to the Lord in prayer. Where our complaining falls short our petitions reach the heights of heaven and our God hears our prayers. This is indeed pleasing to Him and may well even influence a positive change in our world as well.
Let the Word of the Lord be proclaimed loudly and boldly for all to hear. Not only those that are in solemn agreement but those that are opposed as well, for those that are opposed to the Gospel message are those that need to hear it the most. Let us pray!
