“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” (1 Timothy 1:1–2 (ESV)
The following excerpt is by Pastor J. Ligon Duncan. He preached the message entitled Encouraging Disciples June 13, 2004 when he served as Sr. Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, He currently serves as Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS where he continues to teach in the department of Systematic Theology. The biblical text is I Timothy 1:1-2.
I want you to see four things that we can learn by example and reminder about how the church ought to be, what the church is supposed to be like. Just from Paul’s dear, kind, blessed words of greetings to Timothy.
- The Ministry of the Christian Church is According to the Commandment of God.
The first thing I want you to see is that Paul draws attention to a God-appointed ministry. It’s vital for Timothy to understand that it is God who has appointed Paul, and it is God who has appointed Timothy to the task of ministry. It is not the church, ultimately, that appoints us to ministry. Although, in this congregation every officer—every elder, every deacon, and even myself—is voted upon by the congregation. You affirm God’s calling to us to serve you, but you do not call us.
God calls. He uses the church to call, but God is the one who appoints to ministry. And Paul is pointing that out. Look at the very first words of verse one: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus.” Paul is stressing that the ministry of the Christian church is according to the commandment of God.
2. The Ministry of the Christian Church Depends on a Clear Apprehension of Who God Is.
The second thing you see is this. Look at verses one and two. You see a God-conscious ministry. Paul is exceedingly conscious of the One who has called him into service: who He is, what He’s like. The ministry of the Christian church, in fact, depends upon a clear apprehension of who God is. And Paul stresses four things about God: (1) God is Savior; (2) Jesus the Messiah is our hope; (3) God is Father; and (4) Jesus the Messiah is Lord. He tells you four things about the God who has called him into service.
First of all, God is Savior. You see, we don’t just need to know stuff, we need to be forgiven. We don’t just need a God who is kindly and goodly, a great grandfather in the sky. We need a God who will forgive us of our sins. And so, from the very first, Paul is conscious that he has been called to serve God’s people by a God who saves, a God who is a Savior. And I want to tell you right now, if you’re in a church where you don’t hear about sin, and you don’t hear about a God who saves at the cost of his own Son, the best thing you can do is get out of that church quick, and find one that will talk about it! Because Paul is talking about the very heartbeat of his ministry here. He’s called by the God who has saved him.
But not only that, he’s called by Christ, who is our hope. That’s a glorious phrase. And two thoughts immediately come to mind. One is, isn’t that an interesting juxtaposition? He’s called according to the commandment of God our Savior, and Jesus Christ who is our hope. Isn’t that interesting, that he groups together God our Savior and Jesus Christ? Somewhere, sometime, young people, there’s going to be a religion professor who tells you something like this: ‘Nowhere in the New Testament does the Bible ever say explicitly that Jesus is God. That is something that Christians only later came to claim about Jesus Christ.’
Well, by the way, there are in fact nine times at least, and perhaps twelve, when Jesus is explicitly called divine. He is God in the New Testament. But, even if those passages were not there, this passage alone indicates the divinity of Jesus Christ. Think of it, my friends. Paul says to Timothy, “Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now isn’t that an interesting way of speaking?
But notice what he calls Him: He says “Jesus our hope.” That is the second thing I want you to see. You know that the New Testament speaks about ‘blessed hope.’ Blessed hope is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, because Paul says in I Corinthians 15, “If our hope is in this life only, we are of all men most miserable.” The great thing that we as Christians look for is the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the culmination of His kingdom! And so, our hope is firmly placed on Him, on His person, on His divinity, on His incarnation, on His life, on His ministry, on His miracles, on His death, on His burial, and His resurrection, His ascension, and His reign in heaven even now. And we look to His coming again. Our hope is all wrapped up in that. Paul says, I minister in light of the consciousness of the God who is my Savior, but also of Jesus who is my hope.
And then he goes on to speak of God, who is my Father. You can’t call God “Father” unless you know His Son. It is the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who ushers us into the presence of our heavenly Father. He’s no longer the One who ought to be justly judging us for our sins. He’s now our heavenly Father who welcomes us into His family, and Paul knows that it’s vital that we understand that if we are going to minister in the church. God has become in Jesus Christ our Father. The Almighty One, the Maker of heaven and earth. Our Father, if we have embraced Jesus Christ in the Gospel.
You see, you can’t know that God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ unless you know Jesus Christ savingly. If you have turned from your own attempts to justify yourself, from your own attempts to deny your sin, from your own attempts to make up for your sin, from your own attempts to be good, to be accepted by God on your own merit, and you’ve said, “Lord, I don’t have a chance. The only hope I have is Christ.” And you trust in Him, you believe in Him. You believe what the Bible says about Him. You trust in Him, and you put all your hope in Him. When you have done that, then suddenly you realize that God, the just judge of heaven and earth, is your Father. The ministry of the Christian church depends upon that clear apprehension of who God is: our Savior, our hope, our Father.
And of course, he concludes by saying that God is our Lord. Jesus is our Lord. Jesus is not merely Savior, He is Lord. Lord of heaven and earth, Lord of the church. And so, it shows in the life of believers.
More to come. May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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