METAPHORS DESCRIBING THE CHURCH
(I Tim. 5:1-2)
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1 to 4:16
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on His names and blessings.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesus and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – Commanded to love. (Loving God, fellow Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – Our Relationship with “The Blessed God.” (Causing God pain or joy)
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.
2:8-15 Treatment of women in the ancient world, the early church and the Bible.
2:8-15 Three key hermeneutic principles to follow when studying the Bible.
2:8 Praying Men with Peaceful Hearts
2:9-10 A First-Century Christian Woman’s Dress and Deeds
2:11-12 Does Submission Demand Silence?
2:13-15 Paul’s Logic for Requiring Women to Be Silent in The Ephesian House Churches.
3:1 Why Aspiring to Church Leadership Can Be a Good Thing.
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Teaching
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Hospitality
3:4-5 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder –Leadership
3:2-7 Ethical Demands of the NT and the Ethics Tests for Elders
3:2-7 Ethical Qualities Required of an Ephesian Elder
3:8-13 The Ever Present Danger of Ethical Disconnect in a Christian’s Life
3:8-13 The Ministry of Deacons in the Early Church
3:9 Keeping Hold of the Deep Truths of the Faith
3:11 An Official Deaconesses in the NT Church?
3:14 Results That are Better Than Answered Prayer
3:15 God’s New Community – The Church of the Living God
3:15 God’s New Community – God’s Household
3:15 God’s New Community – The Pillar & Foundation of the Truth
3:16a Introduction to the Hymn in I Tim. 3:15 – The Mystery of Godliness
3:16a The Mystery of Godliness – A Life Focused on Christ
3:16b The Incarnation – He Appeared in a Body
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
4:7a Godliness – Divine / Human Role
4:7b Train Yourself to be Godly
4:7c Spiritual Disciplines (The Word of God)
4:7d Spiritual Disciplines (Devotions, Worship)
4.7e Spiritual Disciplines (Church Attendance, Journaling, Practicing Presence of God)
4:8-9 Why Godliness Has Great Value
4:10 Putting Our Hope in the Living God
4:12 Setting an Example for Believers
4:13 What a Christian Worship Service Looked Like in the First Century
4:14 Neglecting the Spiritual Gift God has Given Us
4:15-16 Getting Home Before Dark
5:1-2 So, How Should We Describe the Church?
SO, HOW SHOULD WE DESCRIBE THE CHURCH?
(I Tim. 5:1-2)
12Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity (I Tim. 4:12-5:2).
INTRODUCTION:
A. Breakdown of I Tim. 4:11-5:2
Vs. 11 refers back … command and teach these things.
Vs. 12 – The need to be a good example.
Vs. 13 – The key components of Timothy’s public ministry
Vs. 14 – The importance of using his spiritual gifts
Vs. 15,16 – The need of focus for success.
Vs. 5:1-2 – How to treat members of God’s family
B. Today’s Outline
1. Primary message – How to treat members of God’s family.
2. Secondary message: Metaphor used to describing the church.
3. What is a “metaphor?”
4. Various metaphors for the church in the NT.
5. How will Christ build the church?
a. Three interpretations of “I will build my church” text.
b. Church is purchased by blood of Christ.
6. The church is the “Family” of God.
7. The church is the “Flock” of Christ.
9. The church is a “Temple”
10. The church is the “Nation/Kingdom” of God.
11. The church is the “Body” of God.
I. HOW TO TREAT MEMBER’S OF GOD’S FAMILY
A. 5:1-2 relates directly to 4:12 (example in speech, life, purity)
B. Avoid speaking harshly to older men
1. “Rebuke” = harsh rebuke, severe reprimand, tongue lashing.
2. The verse focuses on the church as a family: … as if he were your father, as brothers, mother, sisters … which means openness, care, love, kindness.
3. Lev. 19:32 – “32Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.”
4. The sentiments here duplicates that of traditional Hellenstic society: “He will regard everyone he meets as either brother or sister, father or mother, son or daughter, grandchild or grandparent” (Plato’s Republic 5.463)
5. “To all older persons too one should give honor appropriate to their age, by rising to receive them and
finding seat for them and so on” (Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, 9:2). Barclay, 104
6. ILUSTRATION: John Stott: “Yet is seems artificial in the West when students breeze up to me and hail me by my Christian name, even though I am old enough to be their great-grandfather! The Asian and African cultures are wiser … in these matters. (Stott, 125)
7. Difficult for a young man like Timothy to lead a church … and leadership must not lean on authority.
8. Timothy is to “exhort” the older men … same Greek word is used for “urge” in 2:1, “I urge then, first of all that prayers …”
9. Barclay speaks of Florence Allshorn, the great missionary teacher who always rebuked her students, when need arose, as it were with her arm around them. Henrietta Mears would ask her students to kneel and pray with her about their situation. The fact is that a rebuke that comes with love is generally an effective rebuke.
C. Treat younger women with absolute purity
1. There may have been some sexual exploitation in Ephesus (II Tim. 3:6-7).
2. Sexual improprieties in the family of God can be classified as incest.
II. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THE CHURCH?
From Merriam-Webster: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money);
A metaphor is usually distinguished from simile. Both compare two seemingly unrelated objects, but, in the latter, the comparison is made more explicit, usually through the use of the words “like” or “as”. “Life is but a dream” is a metaphor, for example, while “getting money from him is like pulling teeth” is a simile.
Her gaze was like ice (Simile); Her gaze was icy (metaphor)
QUESTION: What is the value of a metaphor?
The internet is an information superhighway; Search Engines (Google); Web portals e.g. AOL, Google, Yahoo, MSN. The Internet is an information superhighway; tool bars; What’s on your desktop? Are you working under windows?
“Life in the fast lane” (left lane of freeway = a fast and/or hectic pace), or “bowels of the ship” (intestines = the inner holds of a ship) or “drowning in money” (drowning = having too much), or “beating your head against the wall” (beating your head = taking ineffectual actions; the wall = the problem), or “he’s still wet behind the ears” (he has not completely dried yet, he’s still fresh/new).
QUESTION: What metaphors are used to describe the church?
Family, Flock, Temple, Bride, Body, Nation (Kingdom), Field, Branches of Vine, Priesthood
III. HOW WILL CHRIST BUILD THE CHURCH?
A. Three interpretations of Mt. 16:18
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15″But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and On This Rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
1. The “Rock” is Peter
2. The “Rock” is the confession of Christ’s deity.
3. The “Rock” outcropping of the Grotto of Pan
The spring emerged from the large cave which became the center of pagan worship. Beginning in the 3rd century B.C., sacrifices were cast into the cave as offerings to the god Pan. Pan, the half-man half-goat god of fright (thus “panic”), is often depicted playing the flute. This city known as Panias has been corrupted in the Arabic language to its modern name of Banias.
B. Christ purchases the church with His shed blood.
Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28). In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). You were redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ … (I Pt. 1:18-19). Redeemed to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation (Rev. 5:9).
V. FIVE METAPHORS DESCRIBING THE CHURCH.
* Metaphors are God’s gift to us because they give us a better, fresh understanding of things, in this sense of who we are. Our natural tendency is to think of church as a building, or just an assembly of believers but metaphors open a new and wider understanding of the church.
A. Family
“You are … members of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19); “… His whole family in heaven and on earth …” (Eph. 3:15); “Those who belong to the family of believers” (Gal. 6:10); “… how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household / family (I Tim. 3:14). “For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother” (Mark 3:35).
1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity (I Tim. 5:1-2).
I’m so glad I’m a part of the Family of God,
I’ve been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood!
Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,
For I’m part of the family,
The Family of God.
You will notice we say “brother and sister” ’round here,
It’s because we’re a family and these are so near;
When one has a heartache, we all share the tears,
And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.
From the door of an orphanage to the house of the King,
No longer an outcast, a new song I sing;
From rags unto riches, from the weak to the strong,
I’m not worthy to be here, but praise God I belong!
HOW DOES HE BUILD HIS CHURCH: By purchasing members of the family, one at a time with His blood. (…which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28)
B. Flock
“Be shepherd’s of God’s flock … being examples to the flock” (I Peter 5:2-3); “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11); “I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14); “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, they follow me” (John 10:27); “Fear not little flock; for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Lk. 12:32).
In tenderness He sought me,
Weary and sick with sin
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again.
While angels in His presence sang
Until the courts of heaven rang.
Oh the love that sought me,
Oh the blood that bought me
Oh the grace that brought me to the fold
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.
HOW DOES HE BUILD HIS CHURCH: By purchasing lambs, one at a time with His blood. (…which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28)
C. Temple / Building
19Consequently, you are … God’s people …, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22); …. 9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are … God’s building (I Cor. 3:9). …. 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (I Peter 2:5).
ILLUSTRATION: My Uncle Pete saying he bought bricks that were used to build a hospital in Enumclaw (Washington State). He would point and say, “There are the bricks that I own.”
HOW DOES HE BUILD HIS CHURCH: By purchasing living stones, one at a time with His blood. (…which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28)
D. Kingdom / Nation
9But you are a chosen people …, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (I Peter 2:9); 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own …. (Titus 2:14); 6To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom … to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Rev. 1:6).
HOW DOES HE BUILD HIS CHURCH: By purchasing slaves and making them citizens, one citizen at a time, with His blood. (…which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28)
E. Body
4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:4-5) …. . 12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (I Cor. 12:12, 27). …30for we are members of his body (Eph. 5:30).
HOW DOES HE BUILD HIS CHURCH: By purchasing body members, one member at a time, with His blood. (…which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28)
SO WHAT?
1. Christ will build His church. He will do it by purchasing individuals one by one from the tyranny of sin and Satan.
2. Knowing that we are a family helps us to know how we are to treat each other.
3. Knowing that we are sheep in a flock, helps us to remember how vulnerable we are and how we need to protect each other.
4. Knowing that we are living stones and members of a body reminds us that each of us has a specific role, plays a key part in our fellowship.
5. Remembering that we are a kingdom/nation keeps us focused on a common goal that we were all purchased from slavery, have a heavenly citizenship and are no longer aliens or strangers.