GETTING HOME BEFORE DARK
(I Tim. 4:15-16)
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1 to 4:14
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
Don’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 (Belongs with 4:12-16. I Tim. 5:3 starts a new section dealing with widows)
B. Focus of study in this text, I Tim. 4:15-16
1. Intensity of the two verses
2. Focusing on life and doctrine
3. Progress in our lives
4. Saving ourselves
5. Saving our hearers
6. Two poems … Getting Home Before Dark
I. INTENSITY OF THESE TWO VERSES
“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress” (15).
Throw yourself into your tasks; Be absorbed in your tasks; Immerse yourself in them; Give your complete attention to these things.
“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, , because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (16).
Keep a close watch on yourself and your teaching; Pay close attention to yourself and your teaching; Keep a firm grasp on both yourself and your teaching; Take care of yourself and what you teach.
“Give your complete attention to these matters, be immersed and absorb yourself in them, throw into them, give all your energies to them.”
The word “be diligent” is a training word and reflects back on vs. 7 about “train yourself to be godly.”
QUESTION: When you read these verses, what mood do you sense?
All of the verbs are active and imperative. A sense of extreme intensity permeates the verses.
T. Kagawa, a famous Japanese Christian said, “May I never find myself yawning at life.” Paul certainly did not want Timothy to “yawn” at his life as a Christian.
II. FOCUS ON LIFE AND DOCTRINE WITH INTENSITY
QUESTION: The intensity is focused on “these matters.” What “matters” was he talking about?
His example in speech, life, love, faith, purity (12); his ministry of the public reading of Scriptures, preaching and teaching (13); His use and development of his ministry gifts.
John Stott quotes the REB which translates the verse: Make these matters your business, make them your absorbing interest.
One of Paul’s goals was that Timothy’s ministry would be accepted, that he would develop authority that would enable him to deal with the problems in the Ephesian church.
Authority of the Christian worker is based on: His character/life; his ability in ministry (gifting), his use of the Word of God (knowledge/wisdom), His age.
III. THE NEED FOR VISIBLE “PROGRESS”
A. A godly life, use of ministry skills, proclaiming the Word of God faithfully, would silence Timothy’s critics.
B. Paul is pressing for “progress” not “perfection.”
William Barclay writes, “It is all too true of most of us that the same things conquer us year in and year out; that as year succeeds year, we are no further on.” (Barclay 103)
Demanding “perfection” depresses an individual; Focusing on “progress” is a way to encourage.
Paul was always moving forward in his spiritual life:
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on …” (Phil. 3:12).
C. A checklist for progress.
1. Have I learned any significant spiritual lessons this past month?
2. What relationship have been strengthened?
3. Has there been any progress in my Christian character?
4. Is my relationship with God more intimate, more dynamic?
5. Have I made any progress in developing, using my gifts?
IV. THE NEED TO SAVE OURSELVES
A. The Scripture is plain and Paul says it again and again that we can not save ourselves by good works.
“…He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:5).
B. Persevering in the faith is a mark of genuine salvation.
Jesus said in John 8:31, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” (cf. Mt. 10:22; 24:13; Acts 13:43; 14:22; Romans 2:7; Col. 1:23; Heb. 3:14).
C. Paul was often concerned with being “disqualified / a castaway”.
“No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (I Cor. 9:27).
IV. THE NEED TO SAVE OTHERS
A. The goal of all Christian ministry is the proclamation of the Gospel, the saving of the lost.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1:15); God
our Savior who wants all men to be saved .. (2:4); Christ
Jesus, who gave him self a ransom for all (2:6); God, who is
the Savior … of those who believe (4:10).
A short-term missions team that does not have the salvation of the lost as its primary focus is off track.
B. Paul is not the Savior; God is the Savior
God our Savior (1:1); God our Savior (2:3); Christ Jesus
me to save sinners (1:15)
C. The human element is often intermingled with the divine element in salvation.
I am sending you to them (the Gentiles) to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Acts. 26:18).
John Stott writes, “The New Testament not infrequently attributes salvation to evangelists, since it is through the gospel they preach that God saves believers” (125).
V. VALUE OF DILIGENCE, FOCUS, CAREFULNESS, PERSEVERANCE FOR THE CHRISTIAN!
Two Poems – Two Poets
A. “Come Thou Fount” – Robertson
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Robinson’s widowed mother sent him at age 14 to London to learn the trade of barber and hair dresser. However, his master found he enjoyed reading more than work. Convert-ed to Christ at age 17, Robinson became a Methodist minister. He later moved to the Baptist church and pastored in Cambridge, England. He wrote a number of hymns, as well as on the subject of theology. His later life was evidently not an easy one, judging from a well known story about his hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” One day, he encountered a woman who was studying a hymnal, and she asked how he liked the hymn she was humming. In tears, he replied, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn ma¬ny years ago, and I would give a thou-sand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”
B. “Let Me Get Home Before Dark” (Robertson McQuilken)
It’s sundown, Lord.
The shadows of my life stretch back
into the dimness of the years long spent.
I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays
himself at last thrusting me forever into life:
Life with you, unsoiled and free.
But I do fear.
I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon —
or do I mean, too late?
That I should end before I finish or
finish, but not well.
That I should stain your honor, shame your name,
grieve your loving heart.
Few, they tell me, finish well …
Lord, let me get home before dark.
THE DARKNESS OF A SPIRIT
GROWN MEAN AND SMALL, FRUIT SHRIVELED ON THE VINE,
BITTER TO THE TASTE OF MY COMPANIONS,
BURDEN TO BE BORNE BY THOSE BRAVE FEW
WHO LOVE ME STILL.
No, Lord. Let the fruit grow lush and sweet.
A joy to all who taste:
Spirit-sign of God at work,
stronger, fuller, brighter at the end.
Lord, let me get home before dark.
THE DARKNESS OF TATTERED GIFTS,
RUST-LOCKED, HALF-SPENT OR ILL-SPENT.
A life that once was used of God now set aside.
Grief for glories gone or
Fretting for a task God never gave.
Mourning in the hollow chambers of memory.
Gazing on the faded banners of victories long gone.
CANNOT I RUN WELL UNTO THE END?
Of your grace Father, I humbly ask …
Lord, let me get home before dark.
(Robertson McQuilkin – 1981, Columbia Bible College)
Notes on his wife’s bout with Alzheimers taken from: http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/cmwdt/aug9912.htm
Muriel repeated a story twice, young doctor diagnosed Alzheimer’s, had difficulty painting a portrait of him; all medical tests confirmed Alzheimer’s, told had to cancel radio program that was to be syndicated nation wide, crushed, bewildered, could no longer entertain friends, advised to put her in home, wrestled with caring for her himself, he tried to lead seminary and at same time care for his wife but finally realized he had to choose. At around age 58 he resigned from seminary. “When the time came, the decision was firm. It took no great calculation. It was a matter of integrity. Had I not promised, 42 years before, in sickness and in health … till death do us part”? “It is all more than keeping promises and being fair, however. As I watch her brave descent into oblivion, Muriel is the joy of my life. Daily I discern new manifestations of the kind of person she is, the wife I always loved. I also see fresh manifestations of God’s love – the God I long to love more fully.”
SO WHAT????
1. The Christian life is not a big yawn. It is loaded with challenges.
2. Progress, not perfection is the hallmark of a true Christian life.
3. Perseverance in the Christian life is essential for the Christian, proof of his salvation, an evident fruit of a redeemed life.
4. How we live our lives has a dramatic impact on our own future and the well-being of others.
5. Diligence and close attention to our character development and what we believe are essential if we are to “Get Home Before Dark.”