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It’s great to know about how amazing Jesus is and wonderful to find out that the angels are incredibly powerful creations He made, too. But, where does that leave us?
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This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Good evening, and welcome to Steadfast. I am so glad to be with you on this Monday night as we continue our new series, Our Charge is Love, in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Last week, we looked at the first two verses, examining where Paul’s calling came from and then how he was going to pass that calling on to Timothy. Tonight, we look more at what that calling is about.
It’s hard to stay focused. It’s been a busy planning period as we lead up to our annual meeting. I know some of you are excited about such things; others of you, maybe annual meetings aren’t exciting, but they certainly do require a lot of planning because you need to do good work to be transparent and help everyone understand what’s going on in the church. There’s been a lot happening. I was working on part of it over the weekend and got to the point where I had to keep going back and reopening something because my mind was just exhausted. I was having a hard time focusing.
I think we’ve all been in that place on different things we’ve worked on, where we’ve been working on something and at some point, we notice that the amount we’re able to accomplish starts to diminish because we’re just tired. Then we think, well, I’ll get some good rest, get back to work, and I’ll be focused again. Maybe that’s how we generally think about life—that if we just have some rest, a good cup of coffee, and a clear plan, we’re focused.
But in reality, our approach to life in general is a bit more like how we are on specifics when we’re tired. We may not realize it; we may feel like we’re focused, but so often, we find ourselves drifting off where God has called us to. As the church, we’ve done that over and over again over these two millennia since Jesus came into this world. We need some help. We need someone to say, “Yeah, you’re kind of getting off course here,” someone who says as we get a little slow in our reaction, “Hey, you need to wake up,” or someone to help you drive or whatever it may be. We need that refocusing because without careful guarding, it’s going to happen. We’re going to go off course, and we’ll lose grasp of the truth.
Because when we’re really tired, whatever makes the most noise, whatever is flashing the most, whatever is just in front of us at the moment—that’s what we’re focused on. If you’re trying to read through something really long and there’s noise around and you’re tired, you’re going to keep thinking about those noises. Well, there’s a lot of noise in life, and the truth is often quiet in comparison. But it’s more important because the noise, well, sometimes it’s harmless, and sometimes it’s actually actively harmful.
As Paul is handing off this charge to Timothy, and that’s what we’re going to see tonight, one of the crucial things Timothy needs to keep his eye on and help others keep their eyes on is staying focused on the truth when there’s all this noise calling us all, especially those who are tired in life, those of us who are spiritually exhausted. Let’s pray that God would give us that focus and refresh us so that we’d be spiritually alive and energized with the truth.
Would you pray with me, please? Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for your word and how you use it to guide us and sharpen us and focus us. Lord, would you help us with that this very day, that we would stay focused on the truth, ready for the truth, that we would always run towards it and not to other things. We pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, like I said, we’re going to start in verse 3 tonight if you want to turn there. Paul says, “As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings.” What’s Paul talking about there?
Paul and Timothy are traveling and ministering together, and Paul is going on to this next mission. He’s speaking of something that they experienced together in the past, and he said, “I urge you to stay.” In fact, the term could be translated as “commanded” Timothy to stay. So what’s going on there?
For one thing, initially, the simple part of it is Paul knew there were needs in the city they’d been ministering in and he needed Timothy to continue ministering to these people once he was gone. But the terminology he uses is really interesting because last week we talked about how Paul said he wasn’t just an apostle because he wanted to be or because some people wanted him to be, but he had been commanded—he’d been charged by the Lord himself to go and do the work he was doing. He had, you might say, been commissioned as an officer, if we wanted to speak in military terms.
Here, the language Paul uses encourages us to continue playing with that metaphor because the term he uses towards Timothy is a term you’d use when an officer would pass on to those in his charge a command that he himself had received. So he’d say, “Okay, we’re going into this battle, and I’m commanding you to do these certain things.” It may not be that the officer making the command was the one coming up with it, but rather he’s passing on that command. And that’s the language Paul uses when he tells Timothy to stay: “I command you.” In other words, he was passing on this mission received from God and saying, “Timothy, you need to stay and do it.”
Now, what was it that he was so concerned about that he felt Timothy needed to stay there? There’s a lot of speculation on this. Ironically, right? We’re supposed to avoid idle speculation. Paul’s concerned about that. So here we are speculating, but it’s not idle. We’re trying to understand what the possible dangers are that we need to guard ourselves against. It could be what’s called Gnosticism. You may have heard of it. If you’ve been studying through the Bible, you run into these movements outside the church called Gnostics. They were a Greek movement playing with certain parts of Plato’s theories and other related things, creating this whole sense of an evil material world and a realm that was good—that was spiritual.
While that could, in a sense, be incorporated into a biblical worldview to a degree—because we agree there’s a fallenness to this physical world—the idea that the physical world is inherently bad and the spiritual world is inherently good is so contrary to the idea of God as creator and creating a good world. Nonetheless, some Christians were intrigued by it. The Gnostics were very interested in secret knowledge and passing it down and genealogies that they could speculate on. So all this stuff that Paul has in mind here, it could be that that’s it.
Many commentators actually think that what Paul has in view here isn’t something far afield, but rather some of the speculations that different Jewish teachers of the time would have done. Keep in mind Paul himself is a Jew, and many of the early Christians were Jews. In other words, he’s talking about the in-house people—the people who maybe are a little interested in Jesus, maybe they’re even coming that direction or have fully said that they believe Jesus is the Messiah—but there’s still interest in some of these mystical movements in Judaism as part of that. Maybe they’re trying to figure out who has the best genealogy, which somehow could be helpful to spiritual enlightenment or something of that nature. We actually see that very clearly in Titus 1, verse 14. (There isn’t a first Titus, so if you find it, you’re probably looking at some idle speculation.) But in Titus 1:14, Paul explicitly calls out certain Jewish mythologies. Is that what he has in mind here? Possibly.
The big thing though, and this is what Paul makes a big deal of, notice, is he says, “What are they teaching?” False teachings. In other words, not the things Paul was teaching, which he had been given by Jesus, not the things that Peter was teaching or James or any of the other apostles, but something false, something that distracts from who Jesus is and what He does. That’s what he’s concerned about, as we should be.
It’s one thing to have certain theological disagreements. Everyone here tonight probably agrees on everything theological. I know many of you have different theological viewpoints on certain things, but one of the reasons it works for us to study together is we understand what the heart of it is. We understand the focus on the gospel. But if we get too into any kind of speculation that’s beyond what we can firmly say in Scripture, what happens? Even if it might ultimately be true, we become more interested in the speculation about it than the reality of what we know is true in Jesus. That seems to be what’s happening here.
So Paul says, “That command that I’ve been given, I, Paul, I’m commanding you now, Timothy,” or “I did,” and so he’s reminding him of that past time but then using that to speak of what Timothy is generally commanded to do, which is to continue to protect the gospel. That’s a real part of what we do. Not in the sense that it all depends on us, that God can’t somehow protect it Himself, but rather in the sense that God actually wants us to care about it, and He wants us to do the work of speaking the truth and speaking the truth against those things that are untrue.
There are so many people who get so into different things. Maybe it’s speculation about when the end times will happen or some charismatic gift that people get really focused on, or some passage that allegedly has a secret meaning that we didn’t previously understand. These things happen. What we really need to ask is, is it pushing us toward affirming and focusing on what really matters? That we guard genuine doctrine, guard what Jesus did, what the gospel is ultimately about, and we’re not getting so distracted by these other things that we’re essentially leaving the door open to the gospel itself either getting ignored or corrupted.
We understand the need to guard against such things with far lesser things. For example, if after Steadfast you decide to go on eBay and look for a baseball card coming up to pitchers and catchers reporting, it won’t be long before we have baseball season again. You go on eBay and pick up a baseball card, maybe a hockey card, some kind of collector’s card like that. Well, there are a lot of authentic ones with authentic signatures and a lot of counterfeit ones. So what if places like eBay did a certification process to certify whether something is genuinely authentic, likely genuine, or they just choose not to do that at all and probably sell it for a lower cost because they haven’t proven that it’s real?
We understand with something we might want to collect, it’s important to know if it’s real or not. Well, how much more important is it to know when we’re talking about the truth of eternal life whether what we’re talking about is true or not? If we’re sticking to what the Bible says, well, that’s a really, really safe place to be. It’s better than one of those certifications, which itself surely could be fooled.
When we start to speculate, we start to go off into these different paths that get us away from the core of what Scripture is teaching. There’s a greater and greater chance we start to accept counterfeit material, while saying, “Timothy, your charge is to guard against that.” Those people around you that want to encourage that, you’re to guard against them because they’re doing great harm to the church. They’re distracting the church. They’re causing the church to worry about the wrong things. You don’t want to let that get out of hand.
Our calling as Christians is to be a people of discernment who encourage people to be discerning. Now, we don’t always want to be because discernment means sometimes looking at things that we find appealing and saying, “Well, maybe that isn’t really of God,” or at least we can’t say for sure that is of God. And everyone else wants to. And sometimes for ourselves, that’s not very pleasant.
Even more so when we start to stand for the truth, we do what Timothy was called to do because we’re all called to be people who champion truth. We can make people mad at us because they say, “Well, I like this. How dare you not like this? How dare you say this might not be true?” And even if we say, “Well, let’s look at the Bible,” how often do people—even people who say the Bible is the source of authority—get offended when you say, “But this viewpoint you’re espousing and trying to focus all this attention on isn’t necessarily what Scripture insists upon. It might even be contrary to Scripture, but certainly, even if it’s possible, it isn’t required by Scripture, and it certainly isn’t the sort of thing we should allow ourselves to waste energy on when there are things that bring us together as believers.”
So Timothy was called to defend truth and so are we. Part of that is not just saying, “In principle, doctrine matters,” and we should defend it, but also focusing on doctrine matters, focusing on the truth matters, because even if we say, “Okay, I’m not going to put too much at stake in all these other things,” it still can be that we just aren’t keeping our focus where it’s supposed to be. And this seems to be the second half of that.
Let’s take a look at verse 4. Paul says, “Nor to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith.” This pretty much sums up the things I’ve been mentioning about how a diverse group of believers with different church backgrounds and different ways of approaching many different parts of the church can have all that and still be together as Christians because we focus on the things that anyone confessing Christ and really wanting to seek after the Lord can agree on.
It doesn’t mean we’re going to immediately come to perfect agreement, but it means we can be gracious with each other even when we realize we don’t fully agree on something. That’s that focus. I don’t come to this passage to say, “We’re not doing a good job,” or to rebuke us for not, but rather I think it’s a caution—even for us—because just because we’re doing okay right now, we’re together, doesn’t mean next year we won’t be divided over some theological issue. Then we want to see, are we being discerning and standing for the truth, or have we lost our focus on what really matters? We don’t want to do that.
Often in the church there have been movements to try to bring Christians of various denominational or non-denominational backgrounds together, and it works for a while until some issue becomes the catalyst for division and it just explodes because suddenly, “Well, this is important!” We always need to ask ourselves this: are we into useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith? The work of God, essentially, is how we could say that.
A lot of times, the things Christians argue over aren’t really forwarding the work of God. It might forward something that’s of interest to God’s people but isn’t actually helping anyone believe. So we always need to ask, “What are we focused on?”
I like what one commentator said. He said, “By faith we stand, not by weaving webs of whimsical fancies.” Kind of a fun phrase, but it’s right at the heart of it. Those things that frequently divide Christians are whimsical fancies. They’re the latest trend—or the rejection of the latest trend—rather than asking, “Are we focused on Jesus and how He died for us and how He’s called us together to be brothers and sisters in Christ?” And yeah, we don’t get everything the same, but we get the thing that means we’re going to be brothers and sisters in Christ together in eternity. We get that the same because we believe in the same Lord. An important thing to ask.
All the things that call us away from focus—the noises that when our concentration is already frayed just pull us away from what we’re working on—the different idle amusements, whether they’re cast in sort of Christian terms or not that we find in the world, are very loud and very good at calling us away. God’s mission is often that quiet truth. That’s why Timothy needed to be commanded, “You’re going to stay in Ephesus and you’re going to do this later on as you continue the work after I’m gone,” Paul says. “You need to stay focused and, crucially, help other people, because this isn’t a one-time thing. It’s going to continue for as long as the world goes on.”
So we all need to be part of the team together that helps each other to focus—focus on what matters, value what matters, defend what matters, but stay focused on genuinely what matters. There are a lot of things that might even be good that simply shouldn’t be focused on in a given moment.
For example, consider if you were lying on the operating table and, unfortunately, maybe the anesthesia doesn’t fully kick in right away. You’re lying on the operating table, and you hear the surgeon talking to some of the assistants. They’re talking about really important matters—really important matters of global economic policy. What kind of trade policy should we have and what kind of wars are going on around the world? All very important things, matters of life and death.
However, in that moment, you would probably feel panic because you think those might be important things, but they’re not the important things you need to focus on right now. You need to be focused on where you’re going to cut me and whether you’re going to take out the right organ or operate on it or do whatever, not talking about what’s going on in the Middle East right now or what’s going on in seafaring lanes around the world. You need to stay focused. We’re talking about me here on the operating table.
Why? Because our lives are important to us and we’d say those other things—I’m not denying they’re important—but let’s stay focused. Focus on operating right now. You go to dinner afterwards with your doctor friends, fine, talk about whatever. Right now, let’s stay focused. That’s sort of what Paul’s saying to Timothy. He’s not saying nothing that’s ever brought up from these speculations is ever important, but when we’re doing the work of God, we need to stay focused on what really matters.
Even other truth that isn’t actually helping people know Jesus and walk in the path Jesus has called us to might be interesting. But as we do the work of the church, it shouldn’t be what focuses us, what we’re driving toward. We need to seek after God’s truth, not just kind of aimlessly wander.
We might say, “Let’s talk about these other things. Focus on them for a while because they’re important to our world.” But when we start to do that, it’s a very quick road to, “Let’s talk about what amuses us, what entertains us, what’s just fun.” And I’m not saying we shouldn’t have some fun—I enjoy having fun. I gave an illustration a few minutes ago about baseball cards because I’m looking forward to the new baseball season. Baseball, seriously, as fans, those of us who are Cardinals fans, is not genuinely life and death. That’s true.
I’m not saying we can’t ever have fun or talk about other things. But we need to make sure it’s not becoming a distraction. The moment we start to miss what we should be focused on about the Bible because we’re busy thinking about baseball instead, that’s a problem. The moment we lose an opportunity to share the gospel with someone because we argue with them over politics instead, that’s a problem. Because baseball is a wonderful sport—in my opinion—but it’s not what saves people.
Politics affect us. They change how we live in the world. It does matter. But no one’s going to be saved by politics, as much as you’ll hear people protest that. It’s not what saves. Jesus saves. And someone unaware of politics, someone who has the opposite political view of you but knows Jesus, is far better off than someone who agrees with you 100% but doesn’t know Jesus. We need to make sure we stay focused even when things matter.
Isn’t it funny how, when we don’t, we get further and further caught up in these things? What Paul saw in the first century is true now, too. We haven’t changed. We’re still human beings. We still have very much the same weaknesses. There’s something that matters so much from our God. Think about that. More than the person on the operating table being operated on, because that’s the person’s body for a few decades. We’re talking about a person’s eternal life. Much more important.
We’re staying focused and making sure we’re holding to the genuine truth, caring about it in the sense that we’re focused on spreading the gospel. That’s what matters. May we do it.
Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for your word. Would you help us to do what you’ve called us to do, to focus on what matters—not because there are a lot of interesting things to study in this world or even that it’s bad to know any of them. It’s not that. But what you were guarding against here in the first century was stopping people from using that as a way that got in the way of communicating the gospel. You’re calling us to the same careful, measured attitude today. We make sure we keep what matters most first, that we wouldn’t let the other things get in the way of it. Lord, would you apply that truth to us tonight, that what truly matters is to know Jesus. If someone’s here tonight and hasn’t ever come to know you, Lord, may tonight be the night. Then may we all together help each other to stay focused, focused to run the race, to proclaim the gospel, to celebrate in your presence. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, thank you for being here tonight. It’s always a joy. As always, please give us a like, share, subscribe to the channel—all that stuff. Would you please do it? And do it right now. It really does make a difference, and it lets us reach more people. We’ve been doing some really interesting Facebook advertising, and it allows us to reach people. But you know what helps us reach people even more effectively and for free? When someone who appreciates the message that we’re studying, appreciates what we’re doing as a church, just shares it, and a few other people watch, a few other people hear the word of God, and maybe decide to come to church, maybe decide to join us on Monday nights, maybe ultimately end up at a different church but know Jesus. That’s what matters, and that’s what we want to do. You really do make a difference.
If you have any comments, questions, prayer requests, you can always use the information you see on screen: 833-356-4032. That’s our texting line. 833-356-4032. Text in a question or prayer request or use the comments in the video page. Just go down below this video and leave a comment there, and our church family would love to pray with you or talk about stuff together. It’s always great when we do.
Then, speaking of our church family, let me just mention that we have a few things coming up that I highlighted last night and want to highlight again. We have Ash Wednesday service coming up in just over a week, so not this Wednesday but the following Wednesday, 7 p.m., in person and online. Looking forward to sharing that with you, and I do hope you’ll make plans to join us.
Before that, we have our church annual meeting. If you’re part of the Little Hills family, I so hope you’ll join us after service next week. It’s a great way to know what’s going on and celebrate God’s faithfulness. Also, if you’ve been kind of following from a distance and trying to figure out if maybe this is a home for you, it’s a great way just to hear a little bit more about what’s happening. Of course, you can ask questions or just take it in without saying anything, whatever you’d like. It’s open to the public, and that is this Sunday. So I hope you’ll take advantage of both of those opportunities.
I hope you have a wonderful and blessed week in the meantime, and I’ll see you again next week.
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