Disciples

(1 TImothy 4)

Today is a special day for us, as is always the case at the beginning of each school year, because it marks our ninth anniversary as a church. After a few months of experimental services to give people an idea of what the church would be, we officially launched Église Connexion on the first Sunday in September of 2014. We began meeting in the waiting room of a tiny non-profit on the rue du Pont-Neuf, a few blocks from here. After about five weeks we didn’t have room anymore, so the director of the non-profit allowed us to clean out the basement—this really cool basement with a vaulted ceiling and visible rock—and hold our services down there. We could fit about thirty-five people there, if we squeezed in really tight. After a few months, we couldn’t fit anymore—people were sitting on the stairs coming down to the basement—so we moved over here, to one of the smaller rooms upstairs. Pretty soon that room was full too, so we moved to a bigger one. And things just kept going.

Now it would be tempting for us to try and take credit for our growth, but we can’t. Pastor friends have often asked me what we did to grow so quickly, and I never know what to say, except that God is good.

Yes, we planted in Châtelet-Les Halles—we planted in a place that was easy to get to, while there were areas all over the city and outside that didn’t have any accessible, local churches. People gravitated to us because we were easy to get to. But even in Châtelet-Les Halles, we could just as easily have disappeared after a few months.

The real reason why that didn’t happen, why we’re still here, is that, in those first few months, God sent us a group of people who—almost without exception—were all in, from the beginning. Everyone who came to us those first few months had first gone to other churches in our network, because they had moved into the city for work or for studies, and they were looking for a church in the city. These other churches—the churches at rue de Sèvres, rue des Ternes, l’Église du Tabernacle—regularly told these visitors, “We’re really happy you’re here, but did you know there’s a new church being planted in Châtelet-Les Halles? You should check them out.” One church in particular, l’Église des Ternes, was a tremendous support for us; Edouard Nelson, who was the pastor there, had had the idea of planting a church in Châtelet-Les Halles long before we did, and he was our biggest source of support and publicity at the beginning; this church wouldn’t exist without Edouard.

And here’s the part that no one can take credit for: everyone who came to us those first months were Christians who knew their Bibles, who loved Jesus, and who wanted to see Christ glorified in Paris. So without even trying, we had a solid core of dependable people who grew very close very quickly. Two of those people, Paul and Arnaud, became elders a couple years later. Several of them became deacons. All of them became leaders in one way or another—either in name or in fact. And all because God sent the right people to the right place at the right time.

This has been our prayer from the beginning: that God would do a work in this church that we could not take credit for. And I could give you a thousand examples of how he did that. I could also talk for hours about everything we hope to do, everything we hope to be, as a church. We’ll continue to come back to these subjects over the next weeks and months, but today, I’d like to focus on one specific aspect of our life together, which is the center, the heart, of our desire. This center is what Christ has done for us, and what our lives should look like in response.

We’re going to spend most of our time today in 1 Timothy 4. In this text Paul gives a description of the life of a disciple of Christ, in the context of the local church, that I hope will be pertinent for us.

So we’ll read 1 Timothy 4, but we’re going to start just a little earlier, to give a bit of context.

The Gospel (1 Timothy 3.14-16)

In this letter, Paul is writing to Timothy, his young protégé whom he left in the church in Ephesus to be an elder there. In Ephesus there was a fascination with magic and the occult. The city boasted a temple to the goddess Artemis, and the selling of idols was one of the main sources of commerce in the city. There was already a community of believers there—Paul didn’t plant this church. But when he came, he was able to correct many errors and the church was rooted in the gospel and transformed in an incredible way—to such an extent that the entire socioeconomic structure of the city of Ephesus was impacted.

But as often happens, once this influential leader left, old habits started to take hold in different ways. People began coming in and reasserting old mistakes under new names. Instead of saying that Christians needed Jesus, plus magic, they started saying Christians needed Jesus, plus asceticism, or Jesus plus adherence to specific rules around food and so on.

So Timothy is struggling to keep people on track, and Paul writes him to reassure him and give him some counsel on how to proceed. But before getting into the practical aspects of what he should do, Paul says this, in 1 Timothy 3.14-16:

14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. 16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:‌

He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit,

seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations,

believed on in the world,

taken up in glory.

In other words—and Paul does this all the time in his letters—the center must remain the center. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was manifested in the flesh: he took on a human nature. He lived a perfect human life, without sin—that is, without ever disobeying God’s commandments. He took the sin of his people on himself and was punished in their place on the cross; and in exchange he gave us his perfect life, that we might be declared righteous before God. Then three days after his death, he was resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, “vindicated by the Spirit”, proving through his resurrection that he really is the Son of God, that he really has fulfilled salvation for his people. He ascended to heaven in his body before the eyes of his disciples, and now he reigns from heaven. The apostles proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ, and people have believed in him—all the way up to today.

This is the gospel, and it is mind-blowing in its simplicity.

But that’s part of what makes it mysterious. The reason why people always want to add things on to the gospel is because the gospel is simple—almost too simple for us. We want to think that if the gospel applies to us, it must be because we are special, or because we are doing something right that others are getting wrong. But no—the gospel applies to us because God is good. He did all the work for us, because we could never have done it ourselves.

And people never want to believe that—it just seems too easy. That is why some will try to use the gospel as leverage for personal gain, and add to it. And that’s where Paul picks up the thread in chapter 4.

Joy in God’s Gifts (1 Timothy 4.1-5)

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

So we see some of the bogus prohibitions these false teachers were giving in v. 3: don’t marry, don’t eat certain foods. We don’t know what specific teaching led to these prohibitions, but apparently the idea they were promoting is that a Christian can gauge their personal holiness and piety by whatever they deny or give up.

The church still functions this way a lot of the time. And at first glance, this idea of defining yourself by what you’re against seems to go along with a lot of what we see in the Bible—we read, for example, the Ten Commandments, eight of which are “Thou shalt nots”. We read in the first letter of John (1 John 2.15), “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” Now, we don’t have time to talk about what John means when he talks about “the world” here, but when we read it superficially, we could imagine that he’s saying simply that certain things are good, and other things—“the things of the world”—are bad, and that’s all there is to it. Do the holy things, don’t do the unholy things.

But then Paul comes along and says this:

4 For everything created by God is GOOD, and NOTHING is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…

So which is it? Are we to reject the things “of earth?” Or are we to not reject them? This is the tension we live in as Christians: there are indeed things to be rejected, things that are unpleasing to God and damage our faith…and yet, everything created by God is good.

So which is it? Let’s go back to Paul, 1 Timothy 4.4:

4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…

Okay, so that’s the first key. God does not create bad things. Nothing he creates is inherently unhealthy or damaging. We can and should be thankful for the good things he’s given us. Great news, right? It is great news, but before we go crazy and start blazing up, he goes on:

5 …for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

There are two principles in v. 5 that will help us determine how to receive God’s creation with thanksgiving. Firstly (v. 5), it is made holy by the word of God… In other words, we delight in the things of earth by running them through the filter of the Bible, which explains the Creator’s intention for these things. In the Bible, God tells us how he has created the earth, and how he has created us as human beings. I’ve said this a million times: no one is better suited than our Creator to tell us how we are meant to function, how he designed human beings to flourish. If we live our lives according to what God says about how we were created to function, we will flourish; if, however, we try to buck against his design for us, things will go badly for us. Sin happens when we take something good and try to use it in a way God never intended.

The second principle concerns prayer (it is made holy by the word of God and prayer), and this one is profoundly logical. It is impossible to glorify God in the enjoyment of his gifts if we don’t acknowledge that God is the giver of these good gifts and thank him in prayer for them. (That’s what Paul meant when he said, Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.) And if we are faithful to the Bible, if we study and learn what is pleasing to God and how he created us to function and enjoy his good gifts, there are simply certain things we’ll never be able to thank God for. You can’t look at porn and thank God for the beauty of the woman on the screen. Why? Because the woman on the screen is not your wife. We cannot honor God and thank him for a perversion of a good gift. If we are faithful to the Bible, if we learn what pleases God and how he created us to delight in his gifts, we will know in what contexts we can delight in his gifts and thank him for them, and in what context our pleasure is in fact disgusting to him.

The things of earth are wonderful. God created a marvelous world for us to live in, and has filled it to the brim with beautiful gifts for us to enjoy. But he has filled the world with these gifts to be enjoyed in order to raise our eyes to see the Giver of the gifts. As Augustine famously said, “He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he does not love for Thy sake.” We can only legitimately and faithfully enjoy God’s gifts if we use them according to his intention for them, and if we recognize him and give thanks to him as the Giver of these good gifts.

Joy in Obedience (1 Timothy 4.6-16)

I know that can sound kind of harsh, so let me say it another way: there is a way to live in obedience to God that does not exclude joy in his creation, but that channels and fulfills that joy, because that joy finds its fulfillment in our thankfulness toward God.

If we obey him like this, we will find an even more surprising truth: that there is joy in obedience itself.

6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.

So remember, Paul’s just told Timothy to encourage people to reject the false teaching that the things of the earth are inherently bad, and he circles back around to it by saying, Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Well, the irreverent, silly myths, in the context of this passage, are these false teachings that say it is in abstaining from these things that you will be pleasing to God. So in what comes next, he gives both the antithesis of this idea, and he takes it even further (v. 7b):

Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

So rather than rejecting everything, train yourself in godliness—live the way God created you to live, in what you reject and in that which you receive with joy.

But training ourselves for godliness isn’t limited to enjoying God’s gifts appropriately. Paul goes on (v. 9):

9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Now before we get into this, I need to say something. I don’t want to get too hung up on the end of v. 10, because it’s not the main point, but it can be confusing. Paul says, For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. This is a hotly debated verse, because it almost seems like Paul is teaching a kind of universalism—the teaching that everyone, no matter what they believe, will be saved. The rest of the Bible is clear that this is not the case. There are several legitimate, interpretive possibilities here, but what I think Paul is saying is simple: Jesus Christ, the living God, is the Savior that is offered to all men in the gospel, though all will not receive him. In other words, when we preach the gospel, we don’t pick and choose to whom we preach. We don’t give you assessment forms to fill out before you come in here, to know if you are eligible to hear this message. We preach to everyone, “Jesus Christ is the Savior who died to save us from our sin,” and if we believe, he really does save us from our sin. But only those who believe actually receive him as their Savior—that’s what Paul’s saying.

But that is not the main point. His point is to show how “training yourself in godliness” works, and it works our through the gospel. When Paul tells Timothy to keep a close watch on himself and on the teaching, what is “the teaching”? It’s the gospel! It’s the good news that Christ lived the life we should have lived, took on himself all of our sin, was punished for those sins in our place, and gave us all of his perfect righteousness, so that when we stand before God, he no longer sees any of our sin, but only his Son’s perfect righteousness. The reason why these false teachers were so damaging is because they were teaching that it is what we do that makes us acceptable to God. But the only thing that makes us acceptable to God—namely, Christ’s perfect life, lived on our behalf, and his death on the cross for our sins—has already been achieved for us!

And it is this good news which will drive us to pursue holiness (v. 10):

10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God…

In other words, when someone is transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, they will see all areas of their life through the lens of where they’re going, what their hope is. They will know that they are no longer who they once were! They are no longer striving for the same things—they no longer desire the same things! And so they will toil and strive, not in order to make sure they stay saved, but rather because they know they ARE! They no longer belong to themselves! They have been adopted into the most infinitely glorious, infinitely beautiful family imaginable, and they are moving toward an infinitely beautiful destination: the place where they will see the infinitely glorious God in all of his fullness and be able to enjoy him forever, and God himself will make sure they get there! And so, quite simply they want all that to begin NOW. They know they will enjoy God forever, so they want to begin enjoying him now. But they know that they will never be able to enjoy God now if they use the good gifts he’s given them in a way he didn’t intend. And so they will work hard to reject that which is not pleasing to him and pursue that which is.

Imagine you’re on your way to a five-star restaurant for the most amazing meal of your life. And you’re hungry. You can feel your stomach grumbling. And in your bag, you have a three-pack of Snickers bars (my personal favorite). Your host, who is riding with you, sees you with the Snickers, and says to you, “Don’t eat those.” Why? Because if you eat those three Snickers bars, you’ll have this incredible meal in front of you, and you won’t want to eat it, because you’ll be stuffed. Him telling you not to eat the Snickers is not a restriction, but an invitation—deny yourself this small pleasure now, in order to benefit from the far greater pleasure of the amazing meal that’s waiting for you at the restaurant. It takes work, yes. It’s difficult, yes. But it’s worth it. Your hope is not set on the things of earth, but on God, and so denying those pleasures which are displeasing to him, and which will keep you from finding your pleasure in him, is a hard move that is infinitely worthwhile.

And then Paul tells Timothy to show others what a life lived out of this hope looks like (v. 12):

12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Show them that depriving themselves of insignificant pleasures is not only pleasing to God, but better. Show them that the Creator knows what he’s talking about when he tells us how best to enjoy his creation! Show them what the life of someone who has been freed by the work of Christ on the cross looks like! Show them by your life that the freedom he gives allows you to live a life that not only is pleasing to God, but infinitely more desirable for you!

You see, what Paul is commending to Timothy is nothing less than the life of a disciple of Jesus who makes other disciples. Share the gospel—model the gospel for others in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Live the life of the kingdom, in a way which is visible to those who observe you, and in so doing, teach them to do the same.

Let me be very transparent with you here. Everything Paul’s been saying to Timothy is the reason why we have done things the way we have done them up to now. We surely haven’t done them perfectly, but this is why, for example, I have never shied away from talking to you all about the things that I enjoy (my love of movies is almost an inside joke at this point!); this is why when we began the church we had our first community dinners in our home, and why we still invite people from the church to our home as often as we can: so we might SHOW you what discipleship looks like in those contexts! This is why I’ve always been very up front with you about my own struggles and weaknesses: to give what I hope and pray is a clear example of what repentance looks like, so that all might see MY progress. And this is why I’ve tried to make clear from the very beginning the centrality of the Word of God in preaching, and in how we set up the life of the church. These are all conscious efforts to do for you what Paul is telling Timothy to do, so that you might learn to do the same, so that you might go and teach others to do the same.

11 Command and teach these things. [Teach the gospel!] 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity… [You being young does not mean you cannot be a model for others.] 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. [Show them what being a disciple looks like!] 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching [on the gospel]. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Conclusion

Now I hope you can see the complexity here. We’re a lot more comfortable when the rules are absolutely black and white. When I was a kid (in 1980s and 1990s America), it was, alcohol is bad. Sex is bad. Smoking is bad. It was easy to feel like if you did certain things, and didn’t do other things, you were doing okay. (So it didn’t matter what other things you were doing, that might be abhorrent to God, like pride, as long as no one talked about those things.)

The point is this. The life, death and resurrection of Christ for us has changed everything about us, and about the way we interact with the world around us. He has opened up for us an entire world of joy and thankfulness that we want to enjoy to its fullest. Because he has died for us, we want to live, and there is no one better suited than our Creator to tell us how we can do it.

But knowing how to do that, what that looks like, is difficult. It can be confusing. We need help. That’s why, when Jesus sent out his disciples at the end of the gospel of Matthew (Matthew 28.19-20), he told them,

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

We need to be taught.

And the means he gives us to learn how to observe all that he has commanded is…one another. It is the church. It is ordinary Christians, knowing and loving and living the Word of God together with other Christians.

The Christian life is definitely more than that, as we’ll see in the coming weeks, but it is not less than that. So that is our first job as a church. It is to embody the gospel for one another and for the city around us, and it is to teach one another how to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

So if you’re new here, take every opportunity you have to get to know people. Find a community group, invest in that group. Everything we do in church, even if those things have other goals, will always have this goal of disciples making disciples in the center. If you have any questions about how to get connected, ask the welcome team, or just anyone you see.

And if you’ve been coming here for a while, it’s possible that during the summer you’ve disconnected a bit… Get back in. Seek out new people, help them find their place. Come alongside one another and serve one another well.

Next week we’ll be going back to the book Romans with an overview of what we’ve seen in that book so far, then we’ll start getting into the nitty-gritty of what life as a follower of Christ looks like. In the meantime, let’s begin this year with a fresh resolve to follow him well, and help others to do the same. God has been so good to us; let’s enjoy him together.