1 Timothy 3:15 should be miraculously appearing on the screen, let’s read it together, “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church. . .”
We are exploring the book of 1 Timothy, and those things that Paul wrote to his young apprentice Timothy regarding how the church is to behave like believers. Some body life basics on how this new group of Christians should live their lives in testimony to their faith. Or as he says, “how we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God.”
The letters written by Paul to the young preacher Timothy are part of what is referred to as the “Pastoral Epistles”. Or pastoral letters. They are called this because they give some pretty specific instructions to pastors, like me. But they are much more than that and whether intended or not, Paul now has a much wider audience than simply pastors.
We have looked at three specific passages, but today I want us to look at a couple different segments in this letter. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy, chapter 1.
- 1 Timothy 1:3 (read through verse 7).
- Now look to verse 18 (read through verse 19).
- Jump ahead to chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse 1 (read through verse 5).
- Move forward to chapter 6. 1 Timothy 6:3 (read through verse 5).
- And finally verse 20 (read through verse 21).
Five different segments of this small letter in which Paul in one way or another makes reference to a similar issue. The issue: handling doctrine. By definition, the teachings of Scripture. The fundamentals. Practices. Handling that sound, theological truth that has been passed down through the apostles, those who were with and were directly taught by Jesus, now passed to the church following Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension.
In this first letter, Paul repeatedly admonishes Timothy that these teachings, these doctrines must be safe guarded. We are just decades into the life of the church. Not 100s of years later, not millenniums later, but in just a few years time the need to protect the pure doctrine of the gospel is already a major concern for the church.
Now, set aside the Scripture for a moment, and let me ask, does anyone remember the year 1999? 1999? Anyone remember the big fear of the day? Anyone? That’s right, Y2K. A computer glitch, and millennium bug that was going to completely shut down our universe. Paranoia and fear zoomed to all time high levels. At least in my life.
For those of you who are less than about 12 or 13 years old, there were even good, fairly sound minded Christian people who began filling basements with food supplies and water bottles. People began developing bomb shelter like strategies for surviving this mini-Armageddon.
At the time, I was a claims manager for Nationwide Insurance in southern West Virginia. I remember the predictions. Water treatment plants will shut down. Power plants will be derailed. Computers will crash. You will not have running water, electricity, or communication with the rest of the world. I thought, I live in West Virginia, sounds like a normal day for us.
There were documentaries about the major world catastrophes that awaited us. Trains colliding, planes crashing, hospitals disabled. Of course, the year 2000 rolled around. The microwave still worked. The computer didn’t blow up. The traffic lights worked. The stock market didn’t crash. The new ice age didn’t start. As far as we can tell, Jesus didn’t return. Everything went on as normal. The ball even fell in Times Square without incident. It was one of the biggest non-events in the history of our country.
As far as the end of the world goes the year 2000 was a major anti-climax. A real disappointment. But boy how it played on our paranoia, and really kicked in our fascination with end of the world and second coming theories.
Kind of like today with Israel and Hezbollah, and the middle east. Every time someone tells me this is signaling the return of Christ, the end of the world. I think back to my readings in the Old Testament, and World Civ. classes. As far as I can tell, people have been killing themselves, and each other over there for as long as there as been a record of human history in that region.
Think of how many movies there are about the end of the world. Whether its aliens invading or mass suicide to catch a ride on a passing space ship. It seems that the amount of crazy cults and doomsday predictions are endless. When it comes to the end of the world, there seems to be only one thing that seems certain. Whether it’s the predictions of Nostradamus, the Celestine Prophecies, the Left Behind series or the da Vinci Code, it seems certain that religious fads will come and go until the end of time.
Not long after Y2K another theory emerged. Word spread on the web and elsewhere that a California organization had the technology and intent to clone Jesus Christ. Now, by all appearances, it seems that the group’s project was simply a fund-raising hoax, yet its claims began to be taken seriously by a both hopeful and irate Christians.
This is how it was described at clonejesus.com. "The Second Coming Project is a not-for-profit organization devoted to bringing about the Second Coming of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, as prophesied in the Bible, in time for the 2,000th anniversary of his birth. Our intention is to clone Jesus, utilizing techniques pioneered at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, by taking an incorrupt cell from one of the many Holy Relics of Jesus’ blood and body that are preserved in churches throughout the world, extracting its DNA, and inserting into an unfertilized human egg, through the now-proven biological process called nuclear transfer. The fertilized egg, now the zygote of Jesus Christ, will be implanted into the womb of a young virginal woman (who has volunteered of her own accord), who will then bring the baby Jesus to term in a second Virgin Birth.
"If all goes according to plan, the birth will take place on December 25, 2001, thus making Anno Domini 2001 into Anno Domini Novi 1, and all calendrical calculations will begin anew.”
It went on to say, "No longer can we rely on hope and prayer, waiting around futilely for Jesus to return. We have the technology to bring him back right now: there is no reason, moral, legal or Biblical, not to take advantage of it.
"IN ORDER TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM SIN, WE MUST CLONE JESUS TO INITIATE THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST. “
Well, this group turned out to be a hoax, which many people unfortunately responded to and mailed in contributions to assist in the effort, but it helped birth another group calling itself "Christians for the Cloning of Jesus". On their website they state "We can’t sit back and wait for Jesus; He has given us the power to bring him to us."
So this group proposed using DNA from the Shroud of Turin and a Maronite virgin. They communicated a plan to not just clone one, but thousands, a Jesus for anybody that asks. Their website says, "No more communicating with God through your pastor or priest. Just imagine a world with a Jesus in every household…"
What does this all have to do with 1 Timothy and the admonishments from Paul that we have looked at this morning? Simply this. If we can take anything from doomsday predictions, crazy groups seeking to clone Jesus and these scoffing articles that will always appear in our secular media, it is that it shows us how important it is that we know our Bibles and that we know the fundamental doctrines of our faith.
George Barna, renowned church statistician and researcher, released in 2002 a book entitled The State of the Church. He conducted a survey of self-pronounced Christians and here’s what he found about their knowledge of the Bible.
Now, remember these are Christians:
-48% could not name the four Gospels.
-52% cannot identify more than two or three of Jesus’ disciples.
-60% of American Christians can’t name even five of the 10 Commandments.
-When asking graduating high school "born again Christians" over 50% of them thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.
-61% of American Christians think the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham.
-71% of American Christians think "God helps those who help themselves" is a Bible verse.
Barna writes, "Americans revere the Bible but, by and large they don’t know what it says. And because they don’t know it, they have become a nation of Biblical illiterates."
Now, when you combine that with living in a world where we are daily bombarded with the politically correct view of “pluralism” – which is the belief that all belief systems are equally right and frowns on the attempt to convert anyone, you have a real problem. This is an age when the most prized virtue is tolerance. In our “post-modern” age, relativism has convinced a large number of people that there is no such thing as universal or eternal truth. So in an age when believers need to be able to point the way to truth, we can’t do it because we do not even have a working knowledge of the doctrines and the word of God which defines truth.
All of this is not new. It took all of a few years at the launch of the history of the church for this to begin to happen. So Paul wrote Timothy, and emphasized the importance of protecting the doctrines of the church.
He actually wrote similar things in a letter you will find just a few pages back in your Bible. A letter to another young pastor named Titus. Look at what he wrote to Titus, as he faced a similar problem (read Titus 1:10-16).
So how do we behave like believers as we navigate this age of relative truth, no absolutes, and biblical illiteracy. First, we need to. . .
1. KNOW THE FOUNDATIONAL DOCTRINES OF GOD’S WORD
In our SWC membership class, we talk about a funnel. And at the top of the funnel is this large grouping of believers and churches that share a common orthodox faith. They share a common set of core beliefs and doctrinal foundations.
These include the fact that God exists in three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, also known as the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine that Jesus Christ was both fully human and fully God. The foundational doctrine that God created everything that exists. The doctrine that all people are sinners by nature and are separated from God by their sins. Soteriological doctrine that says that Jesus Christ provides the only way of salvation, and that salvation is a gift of God’s perfect love to sinful human beings who are unable to earn it, nor do they deserve it. And as important as any of them, the doctrine that upholds the Scriptures as the final authority for all Christian teachings.
You see, here is a major problem in the church. Here is an area where we struggle to behave like believers. If someone comes up to us and asks us what we believe, we get pretty tongue tied. And even if we are able to spit out a word or two, a phrase or sentence, we aren’t prepared to share the foundational teaching of God’s Word that goes with it. In many ways, when it comes to the most basic of doctrinal beliefs, we are inadequately educated, and prepared to as Paul says, “wage the good warfare, fight the good fight of the faith, and guard the deposit entrusted to us.”
In the Wesleyan Church, we believe there are some foundational, Biblical doctrines. We define them in our Articles of Religion. Anyone know how many of them we have? 21. Each with multiple Scripture references, and explanations as to why we believe that doctrine to be truth. We don’t have to memorize them, but we ought to know in a general sense what they are, and ought to be pretty quick at accessing the basis for our understanding of them from God’s word.
For example, number 18, the second coming of Christ. Reads like this, “We believe that the certainty of the personal and imminent return of Christ inspires holy living and zeal for the evangelization of the world. At His return He will fulfill all prophecies made concerning His final and complete triumph over evil.” Then it gives 30 different Biblical references regarding this doctrine.
And we will talk more about this in a minute, but notice that it didn’t say anything about pre-milinialist and post-melinialists. Pre-tribulation or post-tribulation. What year, day or time, Christ will come. Or any of the other countless debates regarding the second coming of Christ. Why? Because we are talking foundational doctrine here. What we feel like we can know for sure from God’s Word.
Namely, that Christ will return. That his return should inspire evangelizing the lost. And that His return will fulfill prophecy while bringing a complete victory over Satan. That’s the fundamental aspects of the doctrine.
And that’s just one of the doctrines that we need to know the foundation of from God’s Word. We have a great starting point and launching pad for that exploration here at SWC. It is called Firm Foundations. Building that foundational base of sound, doctrinal beliefs, based on God’s Word. It launches next Sunday at 9:30 a.m. If you haven’t already taken it or need a refresher on the foundations of our faith, sign-up for it today.
Back in the day, people recited creeds. Statements of belief to establish where they were coming from, theologically. Creeds such as the Apostles Creed. Read this with me. . .
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
Now look back over that, and ask yourself two questions: (1) Do I know what those statements mean? “The resurrection of the body.” “Conceived by the Holy Spirit.” “He descended into hell.” And if you do know what they mean, ask yourself question #2: Do I know the Biblical basis for those statements, for one of our most historical creeds?
Look at what Paul says in I Timothy 1:7. Let me especially encourage our seminarians, our Sunday School teachers, our youth and children’s workers, don’t fall into this trap. Paul says there are those that are “desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.”
For those placing themselves in a position to teach and communicate God’s Word as truth, know the foundational doctrines of God’s Word. If you don’t know them, don’t try to act like you do. And for the love of humanity, please do not begin teaching others. Understand what you teach. Understand the things that you affirm. If you hold a conviction, and belief regarding a foundational area of theology, if you are putting yourself in a position of teaching basic doctrine and theology, understand what you are saying and the things that you are affirming.
It’s the longest point of the sermon because it is the most important. Know the foundational doctrines of the word of God. A second admonishment Paul gives in this regard and also subsequently repeats to Titus is. . .
2. AVOID FABLES AND GENEALOGIES (AND TO BRING THE MESSAGE INTO OUR CULTURE. . .CHAIN EMAILS!)
I have to be real careful here, because I don’t want to give too much time to the error that was being taught back then, and simply raise confusion or questions here today. That is the exact point Paul is attempting to get Timothy and Titus to avoid.
But back in the day, there were all kinds of Jewish fables. Speculations about the law, and the interpretation of the law. Speculations regarding various spiritual beings. And of course, they didn’t have as ready access to Scripture as we do. Some Old Testament law from time to time, but not much of what we have in our hands today. And next to nothing for the common person.
Anyone ever play telephone as a kid? You know the game, say one thing in one person’s ear, and see what it comes out like at the end of the train. Well, as the stories of Jesus life and teachings are getting passed, they are passing through some people that can distort them, twist them, or add all kinds of speculation and questions regarding them. What started as truth and good doctrine gets distorted and becomes nothing more than fables, and fictional allegories.
And of course, as more and more non-Jewish descendents are entering the church, greater and greater battle is taking place regarding genealogies. What stock are you? What line are you from? Do you even have a right to be teaching, preaching, or arguing various causes?
Now, understand this morning, that is a way oversimplification of what Paul is talking about taking place in his day, but at the same time it plays directly into this point. Some people can get so tied up in fables, genealogies and theological rabbit trails that they spend more time studying false teaching than they do the word of God.
A modern day example of this can be the chain emails that go around predicting Armageddon, and spreading the fears of the anti-Christ among us. Or that indicate if you don’t stop right now to pray, and then immediately forward the email to 10 people, God’s angels will be stopped and the blessing will be revoked. Those are fables. Detractors from the true doctrine of God’s Word.
I believe that often, those things can be used as a tool by Satan. A tool to distract us, to put fear in us, to focus us away from the heart of the gospel message, which Paul describes as one of love. (Example of growing up in Northern California – Mormon territory).
Paul is admonishing these young pastors, and encouraging them to admonish their congregations to behave like believers and know the foundational doctrines of the faith, stay away from the fables and genealogies, and finally. . .
3. DON’T GET CAUGHT UP IN DEBATES AND DISPUTES
(Follow-up of example with Mormonism, and attempting to convert Mormon missionaries)
Look again at Paul’s words:
-1 Timothy 1:4, “which cause disputes rather than godly edification.”
-1:6, “from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.”
-6:4, “He is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth.”
-6:20, “avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradiction of what is falsely called knowledge.”
Paul wrote to Titus in 3:9, “But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.”
You see, there is a significant difference between sharing the gospel with a non-believer, proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, helping an individual with questions about the faith to find sound, Biblical answers, and immersing ourselves in endless debates with people who desire division and destruction rather than salvation.
(Ex: Odd balls at Seminary for not enjoying theological debate.) Maybe it is just an age thing, but the older I get, the less time I have to argue with two groups of people. The first group are Christians and believers who just enjoy debating little points of theology that have next to zero bearing on eternity.
You believe in speaking in tongues. Great. I have no desire to haggle over something that solid, Christian theologians have debated through the ages, and have not come to a consensus on. I don’t believe that tongues speaking gets you in to heaven, or practicing it keeps you out. So I would just as well avoid the foolish dispute, contentions and idle babblings that can arise between people and denominations through such discussions.
You believe that if I have a tattoo, pierce my ears, or wear shorts that I am going to hell. Great. The older I get, the less I could care about arguing over interpretations of the law that are divisive to the body of Christ, and don’t do anything to edify the family of God.
Trust me. I was a world class debater. I’ve got trophies and plaques in a box somewhere to prove it. I received scholarship money for being able to effectively debate one side of a coin, and then turn around for the next round of the competition and debate the other side. There was a day when I would anxiously have argued with you over whether or not the moon is a reflection of the sun. But when it comes to fellow Christians and believers who would rather sit around debating theology than getting out there and sharing with a lost world what we know and agree is true. . .I’m just not interested anymore.
I’m not interested in a church, denomination, or ministry marked by debate and dispute of uncertain Biblical interpretations and practices.
The second group I am really learning not to get tied up with are those who have heard the gospel, and chose not to accept it. I’ve met some of them. They have heard the gospel message. They have heard sound, intellectual, Biblical, presentations of the truth. The facts have been clearly laid out for them, but they just like to argue. Like the Mormon at your door, they have made up their mind, and the odds are pretty good I’m not going to change it.
Why waste time on those discussions when it is time being taken from someone who has never heard? Someone waiting to be told, and to accept the truth. Paul says, “Don’t do it. Avoid it. Withdraw yourself from it. It is unprofitable and useless.”
Please hear me this morning. This next comment isn’t orthodox doctrine and theology passed down through the ages. This isn’t live or die for stuff. This is just my opinion. But my opinion is that Satan can utilize theological debate, and argument to side track us from the great commandments of loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves, and from the great commission of going into the world and making disciples.
We can become so passionate about debate and defense of side issues, church polity, and whether the Baptist, Nazarenes, Wesleyans, Pentecostals, Christian Missionary Alliance, or Church of God are “more” right. . .that we completely neglect a world of people that are lost without Jesus, dying, and heading into an eternity in hell.
Paul doesn’t just say it once, or twice. He alludes to it five times in this letter alone. Passes the same advice on to Titus. Don’t debate and dispute. Know the foundational doctrines we should know. Share them with anyone that will listen. And as Paul says, “fulfill the purpose of the commandment which is love, from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.” Then we will be on the road towards behaving like believers.
