Trust And Obey

1 Tim 1:1-20 Trust & Obey.

Authorship: Mid 60 AD

• Possible to be a time when Paul was released (After Acts) and shortly rearrested and finally martyred and some of the events mentioned happened during his time of liberty.

• Timothy was a close associate of Paul converted probably on Pauls 1st mission journey and was closely associated with Paul on his 2nd &3rd journeys Hence Timothy was a well loved brother and travelling companion in the Lord.

• Timothy was gifted in ministering to others, Paul charges Him to fan into flame the Gift he had received.

• 1, 2.Timothey & Titus are known as pastoral letters they address issues relating to the Church at Ephesus and Crete respectively.

• Both Timothy and Titus were trouble shooters with different dispositions (Timothy ,Timid and sickly, Titus strong & bold) yet both endowed with the gift to teach and manage the Church , sent on apostolic authority to rectify error and establish Godly leadership within the context of the local Church.

Chapter Outline:

1:-2 Personal greetings:

3-11 The Gospel & its counterfeits:

12-17. Paul’s personal experience of Christ.

18-20 A Charge & warning to Timothy

Current Culture – The need to Trust and Obey

In our time there is a great need for Christians to trust solely in Christ & Obey the clear instructions laid down by the apostles and the whole of scriptures. We live in turbulent times when the gospel of Christ is under threat from within these walls and from outside these walls.

There is a very clear anti Christian mandate seen in the growing scrutiny & even persecution Christians are facing in recent years not in India &Iran but right here on these shores in the UK. Again and Again we here news of Christians coming under scrutiny for practicing their beliefs in the public sphere.

• A Nurse discharged for praying with a patient.

• A register dismissed for her refusal to marry a homosexual couples.

• The BA air hostess who was banned from wearing a cross at work

• A couple of hoteliers arrested for comments made on Islam.

• A open air preacher arrested for sharing Biblical views on homosexuality when asked.

• Only last week a couple from Cambridge who refused a same sex couple a doubled bed in the news.

All this is because of the growing secular PC agenda of our age found in politics and in the public sphere of governance with the European laws on human rights being implimentated it has caused new laws on the freedom of sexual orientation conflicting with religious freedom of thought and practice.

Even within the Church itself we have growing array of false teachers rising up aligning themselves up with the teaching of the day, filling the vacuum of uncertainty with a new Christian liberalism which seeks to replace the old order with a new. Those of us with long held evangelical Biblical convictions are under attack and some are even surrendering to the mindset of the Day (Consider Steve Chalk and his view on penal substitution) as cosmic child abuse .

Such teachers claim we need to interpret scripture in the light of society and its new morality, these individuals claim to be the new bred of theological teachers, who are also hooked into government and politics as advisers and champions of the faith with social concerns at the top of the agenda, but they are devoid of the apostolic gospel of Christ, they appear to be wise but in reality their wisdom is foolishness in Gods sight and a snare to weak Christians.

To them doctrine and morality (Gene Robinson the first openly Gay Bishop) is becoming liquid its always evolving and so the Church needs to adapt too it ( In the UK sees the new equality Bill although defeated in some areas but not in all , certain denominations are accepting civil partnerships can now be blessed within the setting of the Church).

State 1st century AD: This period of History for Paul & Timothy was no different society was ruled by the Rome whose culture was decadent, immoral , emperor worship & yet pluralistic with many deities too . Then this small sect explodes onto the scene which become an increasing thorn in their side with the preaching of the Gospel of Christ which would have made many uncomfortable with its ethical moral and spiritual demands. It meant fierce persecution for those who followed the gospel many facing their demise crucified or thrown to the wild beasts and to gladiators forced to fight in the arenas of death simply used as Roman scapegoats for many of the ills of society at large , and so it is still today.

Church:1ST Century AD Then within the community of believers itself you continued to have those who were undermining the gospel from within whether it was Juadizers who considered gentile converts needed a new obedience to the law, or antinomians whose faith was licence to continue in immoral lifestyles, to the Gnostics who later infiltrated the early Church with the superior spiritual secrets.