THE VISION, THE MESSAGE, THE MEANS
(I Tim. 2: 1-7)
INTRODUCTION:
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1-20 to 2:7
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on names for
God and the blessings He bestows on His people.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesian Church and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – The goal of the command is love. (Loving God, fellowChristians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law is good if used properly. (The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes)
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – “The Blessed God” and our Relationship with Him.
(We can fill God’s heart with pain or joy andhappiness)
1:12-16 Why Paul considered himself the worst of sinners.
1:12-16 Conversion of the apostle Paul.
1:12-16 Paul’s call to ministry.
1:17 Paul’s doxology of praise for his conversion.
1:18-20 How to avoid shipwrecking our faith.
2:1-3 The Christian is to pray for all men.
2:4,6 Comparison of Calvinism & Armenianism.
2:5-6 The man, Christ Jesus, the only mediator.
2:1-7 The vision, the message, the means.
1. GOD’S CONCERN IS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD.
a. List all the references in I Tim. 2:1-7 that refer to God’s universal concern for the world.
1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men–the testimony given in its proper time. 7And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle–I am telling the truth, I am not lying–and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles (I Timothy 2:1-7).
… prayers … for everyone – for …all those in authority …wants all men to be saved … ransom for all men …apostle …to the Gentiles … ONE God and ONE mediator, the TRUE faith …the truth
b. “WHO WANTS ALL … TO BE SAVED…” (VS. 4). Other Translations: who wishes all men (Amplified); He wants not only us, but everyone to be saved (The Message); God wants everyone to be saved (Contemporary English Version); who desires all men to be saved (NKJV).
c. Calvinism’s Second Point – [Who can list the five points of Calvinism? The second point?] Unconditional Election: CALVINISM: Since human beings cannot choose for themselves, God by his eternal decree has chosen or elected some to be counted as righteous, without any conditions being placed on their election; MODIFIED CALVINISM: Before the foundation of the world God elected all men to salvation but most refuse his offer
d. Do we see God’s concern for the world throughout Scriptures? Please suggest some references.
22 “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other (Isa. 45:22)
I will also make you [my servant] a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isa. 49:6)
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost (Isa. 55:1)
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ezek. 33:11)
“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full (Luke 14:23).
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared (Titus 3:4).
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (II Pet. 3:9).
e. If the salvation of “all” people is God’s wish, will and desire, then that should be the Christian’s wish, will and desire.
f. QUOTE FROM JOHN STOTT: “But how can the church be expected to include the whole world in the embrace of its intercession and its witness? Is not this perspective arrogant, presumptuous, even imperialistic? No! Chrysostom at the end of the fourth century gave us the reason: ‘Imitate God!’ he cried. That is, the universal concern of the church arises from the universal concern of God. It is because there is one God and one mediator that all people must be included in the church’s prayers and proclamation. It is the unity of God and the uniqueness of Christ which demands the universality of the gospel. God’s desire and Christ’s death concern all people; therefore the church’s duty concerns all people too, reaching out to them both in earnest prayer and in urgent witness” (John Stott on I Timothy, pg. 73).
2. THE MESSAGE
a. How does Paul describe the message in I Tim. 2:1-7?
(…the truth … the testimony [In the ‘history of salvation’ the time for the witness to God’s mercy for all people has now arrived] …the true faith …one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men …)
b. Paul refers to Christians as people who “know the truth” (I Tim. 4:3), he says false teachers “oppose the truth” (II Tim. 3:8); he writes that people “turn away from the truth” (II Tim. 4:4) and writes in Titus 1:1 that the “knowledge of the truth leads to godliness.”
c. “The Truth” here, according to one commentator (Guthrie) is the whole revelation of God in Christ.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6); “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Tim. 1:15).
d. The Christian church is challenged again and again by our absolute conviction that the Gospel message proclaims the only way of salvation to God.
e. People say we are narrow-minded, bigoted, intolerant, small-minded.
“I am absolutely against any religion that says that one faith is superior to another. I don’t see how that is anything different from spiritual racism. It’s a way of saying that we are closer to God than you, and that’s what leads to hatred. (Rabbi Schmuley Boteach in The Case for Faith, pg. 145).
f. Saying your way is the only way is “absurd religious chauvinism,” “spiritual dictatorship,” “insufferable presumption.” “The real sin is to call someone else a sinner” (Swami Vevekenanda).
g. How do you respond when people charge us as being bigoted etc when we claim Jesus is the only way?
First of all show them that other religions do exactly the same thing:
ISLAM: claim the only book, the only theology, the only language and all who are not in the “House of Islam” automatically oppose Islam and are members of the “House of War.”
HINDUISM: Uncompromising on the law of karma (moral law of cause and effect), the authority of the Vedas and reincarnation.
ATHEISTS: Reject the viewpoint of those that believe in God.
BAHA’ISM: Claims cosmic embrace of all religions but ends up excluding the exclusivists.
h. QUOTE FROM JOHN STOTT: “We need to be clear … that Christians do not claim uniqueness for ‘Christianity’ as a system in any of its varied formulations, or for the church as an institution in any of its cultural expressions, but only for Christ himself as a historical person and uniquely qualified mediator” (John Stott on I Tim., page 69.
3. THE MEANS GOD USES TO PROCLAIM HIS TRUTH.
And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle–I am telling the truth, I am not lying–and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles (I Tim. 2:7).
Why didn’t God send legions of angels to proclaim the saving message to the world?
a. What were the “accidental” incidents in Paul’s life that prepared him to be God’s herald of the Gospel message?
Ancestors had migrated to Tarsus before he was born. Thus he became a Hellenistic Jew.
He grew up speaking Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. He studied in a Greek school or at least with Greek tutors.
His father was a Roman citizen giving Paul all the rights of Roman citizen.
His father sent him to train under Gamaliel, the foremost Jewish scholar of the age.
He became a Pharisee, thus the ideal Jew. He was probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the body of 70 Jewish leaders of the people of Israel.
He witnessed the death of Stephen and heard his prayer (Acts 7:60).
He was befriended by Barnabas when he returned to Jerusalem.
Why was Barnabas sent to Antioch? Why did Barnabas think of Paul? How did Barnabas find Paul?
Why would the church in Antioch send out their best two workers, Paul and Barnabas?
Why did Paul and Barnabas go? Weren’t good things happening in Antioch?
HAVE you ever thought through why you are where you are and why you are who you are in the light of God’s purpose of proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth?
b. Ralph Winter noted that his training in statistics prepared him wonderfully for strategizing on the evangelization of the world.
c. A PRAYER: “Father, help me to always recognize your hand sovereignly guiding and directing my life – so that I can better recognize your will and intention for me …. And do it. Amen.”
SO WHAT?
1 God loves the world and so should we. If we are not concerned
for the suffering in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Africa, inner cities in the USA etc we do not have “the mind of Christ.
2 There is only one message that can deliver mankind from his hopelessness.
(Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany from 1949-1963 in talking to Billy Graham, “Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?” Graham said, “Of course I do.” To which Adenauer replied, “Mr. Graham, outside of the resurrection of Jesus, I do not know of any other hope for this world” (Case for Faith, pg. 153).
3 God has prepared all of us, as he prepared Paul, in incidental aswell as in major ways to participate in the proclamation of this Gospel to the world. The proclamation of the Gospel to the world should be the driving force in our lives.