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1 Timothy 1:12-17 - Jesus Came To Save Sinners · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his Word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in First Timothy
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  chapter 1 and in verses 12 through 17.
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  First Timothy 1 verses 12 through 17 did a long intro for
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  the book yesterday, so I will not do that today.
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  If you want to know more about the book, go watch or listen to
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  yesterday's episode. The letter of First Timothy is a
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  letter written from Paul to Timothy.
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  Timothy had been left in the city of Ephesus in order to do
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  some important things for the Ephesian church.
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  And Paul mentioned in last episode that the important thing
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  that Timothy was called to do was to correct some false
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  teaching and some false teachers.
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  That was certainly going to be a scary thing that Timothy was
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  working through that when an apostle is scared enough about
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  the state of a church that he leaves behind one of his own
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  traveling companions in order to right what was wrong, you know
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  that the church was in dire straits.
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  And so who wants to encourage Timothy here in this portion in
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  verses 12 through 17 through his own testimony in effect, to say,
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  Timothy, I know that you can accomplish the work that God has
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  for you. They are with those believers
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  that we love, that we have spent a lot of time with, and I am the
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  perfect example that God can accomplish the impossible
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  because He did the impossible with me.
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  Let's read through these verses and see what Paul's testimony
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  was and how it affects how you and I Live Today and the hope
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  that we can have as we encounter hopeless situations in the
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  day-to-day. He says.
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  I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened
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  me because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the
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  ministry even though I was formerly A blasphemer, A
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  persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I
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  acted out of ignorance and unbelief, and the grace of our
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  Lord overflowed along with the faith and love that are in
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  Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and
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  deserving a full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world
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  to save sinners, and I am the worst of them.
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  But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me the worst
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  of them, Christ Jesus, might demonstrate His extraordinary
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  patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for
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  eternal life. Now to the King, immortal,
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  sorry, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor
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  and glory forever and ever. Amen.
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  I love Paul's testimony. That is, he reflects on who he
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  was before Jesus and who he was then.
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  Now, as a result of Jesus, he can't go through that portion
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  and talk about his life before and after without ending that
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  section. And man, God is awesome.
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  He is eternal, He is immortal, He is invisible, and He deserves
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  glory because of what He has done in me.
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  And I hope that would be your response as you think about your
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  life and your walk with God, that you would be motivated to
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  glory as a result of what God has done in and through you.
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  Let's start now in verse #12 So to Timothy, who has an important
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  mission that he needs to accomplish and he needs to tell
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  some people no, he needs to remove some people from
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  leadership. Paul says it'll be OK.
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  He says I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has
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  strengthened me. Timothy's going to need some
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  strength. And so Paul says I know that God
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  will strengthen you because he has strengthened me.
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  And he says because he considered me faithful, putting
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  appointing me to the ministry. He says God called me to be a
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  preacher and a teacher, a leader of churches, just as he is
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  called you, Timothy. And you know my background and I
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  know your background that Timothy was not in the same
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  place before Jesus that Paul was.
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  Paul was, if you will, he was much, much worse.
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  He wasn't just like it wasn't simply that Paul didn't know
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  about Jesus. It was Paul was actively
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  fighting against Jesus. He was attacking Christians.
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  He was consenting to their deaths.
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  He was bringing them all across Jerusalem and Judea, and he was
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  going literally to another country in Syria in order to
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  bring back believers in Jesus and put them on trial so that
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  they would be killed. So Paul says, all right, hey,
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  Timothy, I know you might be scared about the mission that I
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  have for you. Sometimes God asks us to do
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  scary things, to do fearful things.
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  But he says, I want you to know that God has put you in this
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  place and God has put people far less equipped with far greater
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  sins into these positions before you.
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  And so you can have some confidence knowing that if God
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  has been there for me, Paul, then God will be there for you.
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  Timothy, he says he considered me faithful, appointing me to
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  the ministry. I'll, I'll mention this as well.
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  There is and our church leaders, a wonderful truth that we hold
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  in tandem. Number one, that there is
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  absolutely a human element to those that are the pastors and
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  leaders of local churches. Well, I can say with the Apostle
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  Paul from what Scripture says that the Holy Spirit and God
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  himself has placed me here as the pastor at Tabernacle.
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  I also recognize that the body of believers here, the
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  congregation here voted me to become the pastor.
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  That they said in that congregational members meeting
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  they are on I think was like October 29th, 2023, they said we
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  believe that God has called Brian to be the pastor of our
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  church. And so there is a human element
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  to local church leadership that not just any person could walk
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  up to Tabernacle Baptist Church and say God has told me that I
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  am y'all's pastor. Now there is no, there is a,
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  there has to be a volition of the congregation that they say,
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  yes, we do believe that this is the person that the Lord has
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  appointed. But I am not just at Tabernacle
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  because some some people want me here or because enough people
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  don't want to get rid of me. Yet God the Holy Spirit has
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  police me here and God Jesus Christ has appointed me to the
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  ministry that I would serve the Church of Jesus Christ.
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  And here that's what Paul is telling Timothy.
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  He says, I want you to recognize that it's not just Paul sending
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  you and it's not just the Ephesian believers putting up
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  with you, but God has put you in this position.
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  Now, some people have abused that phrasing to say, I can do
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  whatever I want. I can sin, I can steal.
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  I can, you know, be unquestionable in the sense
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  that, you know, if someone would say, hey, here's this like
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  character thing, here's what it means to walk with Jesus, and
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  you're not doing that. You can't just say, well, God
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  put me here. No, we have to walk in the
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  Spirit. We have to be godly people.
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  But what a comfort it is for pastors.
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  And I'll say for you, wherever God has placed you.
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  So if you're a parent, God has appointed you to be the parent
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  of your kids or to be the grandparent of your
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  grandchildren. And if God has placed you there,
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  then you have an unshakeability in that role that you can say
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  until, until God moves me from this position, if you will, as
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  as I'm a parent of my kids, until God either takes me or
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  Brian or Rev home, I am their dad.
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  And so as a result of that, I know that I have a holy mission
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  and a purpose that is not dependent on whether B or EV
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  like what I have to say or what my instructions are for them as
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  I'm trying to raise them in the right way.
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  And so it is for churches as well that until the Lord moves
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  me or closes down Tabernacle Baptist Church that God has
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  called me here to these people to love them, to care for them,
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  to provide them with the word of God like hopefully I'm doing
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  right now. And so because God has put me
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  here, it doesn't in one sense, it doesn't matter what opinions
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  could be from a person if someone's listening to this.
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  I am not aware of any attempts for like a coup or something I'm
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  saying here as Paul is giving this to Timothy to say God has
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  appointed you to this ministry and so be be firm in it.
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  Stick with it because there are going to be people that don't
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  like that you are insisting on God's way as opposed to what
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  they were doing, what these false teachers were doing in
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  their own way. So he says God has appointed me
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  to this ministry. Verse 13, even though I was
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  formerly A blasphemer, A persecutor, and an arrogant man,
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  Paul says I persecuted the church, I blasphemed the name of
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  Jesus and I said that he was not God and that he did not need to
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  be worshipped. And he says, and I was an
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  arrogant man, I was proud. And these are things that should
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  not be typical of a current believer or of a current pastor.
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  Arrogance and pride to say I am someone special and so you all
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  have to listen to me. That's not a good thing.
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  Now a pastor that would say God has called me to this place and
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  I have to operate in accordance with what my conscience says
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  from the word of God. That's not being arrogant.
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  But any pastor that would say listen kind of my way or the
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  highway or you know, you, you either need to get on the bus or
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  get under the bus, as I've unfortunately heard pastors say
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  before, that is a spirit of arrogance.
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  And so I want to encourage you don't have the same mindset as
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  here. What Paul says, Here's why I was
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  before Christ. And very unfortunately, whether
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  it's pastors or whether it's just everyday Christians, many
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  of us excuse arrogance and we say, I am someone special and my
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  will needs to be done. And that is never the right way
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  to go. The right way is always, what
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  does the Lord want to do? How is God guiding?
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  What does the word of God say? And then let's be faithful.
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  Let's follow. Our conscience is based on the
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  word of God. And if that, you know, makes us
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  friends, wonderful, glad for it. If there comes times when then
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  there's some head butting, then we try to follow what Paul told
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  the Ephesian church in Ephesians 5, which is well.
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  And in Hebrews 13, we submit to the elders of our local church,
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  to the pastors of our local church to say, all right, if the
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  elders, if the pastors have this will and I have this will and it
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  does not align, I'll go with my pastors because that's what
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  Scripture commands me to do. If it's two believers and maybe
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  they have different ideas of what they should do.
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  Ephesians 521 says submitting yourselves 1 to another in the
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  fear of God, that we ought to always have a humility to say it
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  doesn't have to be my way. And I that doesn't mean that I
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  don't have ideas, that I don't have thoughts, that I don't have
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  suggestions. Those are always good things to
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  have and bring those to the table.
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  Because it might be that the Spirit is leading in you to
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  bring something to attention that other people might not have
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  thought about or might not have seen before.
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  And that as a result of you opening your mouth and allowing
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  the Spirit to move and speak in and through you, that something
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  great might happen for the church.
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  But if it's just your thought and it's not what the Spirit has
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  and the Spirit has a different direction for the church,
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  embrace being able to say, it's OK if it's not my way, I'll tell
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  you guys and then I'll, I'll promise I'll move on to another
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  figure of in in one second. Even as the pastor of
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  Tabernacle, there are things that like, and actually my, my
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  elders know this. There are things that if I could
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  just, you know, snap my fingers and make this change at the
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  church. There's ten different things at
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  the church at least that if I could just snap my fingers, I
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  would change right now at the church.
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  But it doesn't have to be my way, and not everything has to
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  be my preference. And so even as the pastor, I
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  submit to the elders that together we are praying over
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  things, we are agonizing over things we are thinking through.
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  All right, what are the logistics of this?
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  How would this affect this group within our church?
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  And how would this help these people?
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  And what's the sustainability of this?
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  Do we have the finances to accomplish this?
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  And so together as the elders, like we are praying and we are
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  seeking the face of God. And so I'm thankful that even as
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  a pastor, I get to encourage the rest of the church body.
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  Hey, submit to the elders just like I submit to the elders.
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  And then that's something that I need to follow through in my own
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  heart and life to go, all right, I want to help them accomplish
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  the mission that we have together as a church, that if
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  the elders are like, hey, we're going to be doing this outreach,
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  you know, this Saturday in the month, great.
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  I want to be in on that. If they're like, hey, we don't
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  think that doing this thing in this way would be helpful for us
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  during the season. I'm not then going to kick up a
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  bus and go, all right, well, I'm just going to try and stir up
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  public opinion against that choice.
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  So that way we can do what I want to do in the way that I
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  want to do. No, that's not good.
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  Instead, maybe we submit to one another.
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  Maybe we have humility, not pride.
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  So Paul says I was formerly A blasphemer, persecutor, and an
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  arrogant man. He says, but I received mercy
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  because I did it. I acted out of ignorance in
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  unbelief. For those in your life that do
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  not know the Lord or those that have not submitted to Christ's
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  lordship in their life, I think hear what Paul says.
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  He says I obtain mercy because I acted out of ignorance, in
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  unbelief. The one that does not have the
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  Holy Spirit of God will not react well.
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  They they're not going to act like Christians.
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  And I think often we expect that every person should act as
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  though the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of them, that the
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  words that they say all need to be.
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  We expect that their words would all be good, wholesome words
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  that they would never tell lies, that they would never gossip or
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  slander. We assume that those without the
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  Holy Spirit of God will always make like right relational
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  choices with others. And that's just not the case In
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  some of the kind of larger circles in in the group of
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  Baptists that I grew up among, there was sometimes a constant
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  like witch hunt against people in the world that instead of
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  times even of preaching being spent saying, Hey, here's the
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  areas in which you and I are failing to meet what God's word
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  says. There was almost a, hey, let's
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  talk about the sins of people that do not know Jesus and talk
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  about, oh, isn't it so terrible that maybe this singer or this
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  show or something has sin in it? Well, my friend, they are
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  without Jesus Christ. Of course, that's the only thing
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  that they know. And here Paul says I acted out
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  of ignorance, in unbelief. And so may we be faithful even
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  as Stephen who was stoned to death and Paul was right there
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  assenting to his death, holding the clothes, the outer cloaks of
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  those that were stoning Stephen. May we have a faithful gospel
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  witness and realize when the unsaved fail us, when the
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  unsaved say and do things that they should not be doing, that
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  in our mind, we don't go, OK, well, I'm going to write them
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  off. And how dare they, you know,
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  exist. And they're saying, no, may we
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  share the gospel so that those that are far from God and they
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  act like it and they think like it and they talk like it, that
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  they would come to know the Lord.
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  And then don't live all of your life in outrage.
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  I'll say in perpetual outrage against those that don't know
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  Jesus. I very much doubt that.
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  You know, at the time that I'm recording this Super Bowl
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  happened a few weeks ago, I very much doubt that any of the Super
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  Bowl performers or any of the like Turning Point USA halftime
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  performers. I doubt that any of them will
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  see any of the posts that you or I will create about any
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  particular event. And so I can, I can genuinely
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  say, hey, I have some concerns about like profanity and
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  promiscuity and, and content topics and stuff with all sorts
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  of worldly unsaved, those that are not bowing to Christ as
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  Lord, you know, music artists and politicians and all that
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  kind of stuff. I can have genuine concerns
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  about that and not want to imbibe evil into my ears or into
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  my eyes or my life. But a lot of times as
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  Christians, we just perpetually get outraged and we say, oh, I,
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  I hate this. I despise this.
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  I can't believe this unsaved person is doing unsaved things.
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  My friend. They are acting out of ignorance
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  and unbelief. So let's share the gospel with
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  them. And if you say why I don't know
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  how to share the gospel with them, like, you know, I have no
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  interaction with them, well, then that might be a good idea
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  that we might just be having empty words.
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  Or we might just be, if you will, playing to our base
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  without actually doing anything productive in our lives.
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  Verse #14 I love how Paul phrased this.
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  He says the grace of our Lord overflowed.
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  He says God's grace came pouring down like a flood on to my life.
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  He says along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
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  And what a joy that we have been those that have been overflowed
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  by grace. I just, I love that thought.
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  Verse #15 this saying is trustworthy and deserving a full
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  acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world
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  to save sinners. That's what Paul says.
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  He says this is the trustworthy statement.
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  Jesus didn't come to save the perfect.
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  Jesus didn't come to be like the perfect example for us.
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  Primarily, Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
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  That we were far off from God, like Paul would be brought near.
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  And so as Paul is saying this to Timothy, he says you're going to
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  deal with some people that right now are false teachers.
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  I was a false teacher. And you, Timothy might be able
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  to rescue the next Paul. He says Christ Jesus came into
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  the world to save sinners, and I'm the worst of them.
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  He says, But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me
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  the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his
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  extraordinary patience as an example to those who would
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  believe in him for eternal life. Jesus was patient with Paul, the
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  persecutor and prisoner and killer of Christians.
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  And so Jesus will be patient with you and with whatever loved
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  one, with whatever Co worker, with whatever friend that you
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  have given up hope on. Jesus was patient and played, if
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  you will, the long game with the apostle Paul.
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  And he is able to save all of the persecutors, all of the
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  blasphemers. He's able to save the arrogant
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  and so don't write anyone off. You don't know until they draw
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  their final breath. You do not know what God might
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  do for them. So verse 17, what's the ending
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  now to the king eternal that God never dies.
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  He is going to be with Timothy in every season.
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  He says the king immortal not just that he like lives forever
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  and has been forever in the past, but he will be forever in
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  the future. He says invisible, that though
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  Timothy cannot see God, that God is with him, that God the Holy
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  Spirit lived lives inside of him and he can know that God's
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  presence is with him. Though God is invisible.
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  He says the only God that though Timothy was serving in Ephesus
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  where there were many false gods and idols and temples, that
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  there was only one God that Timothy needed to if you will be
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  afraid of. And I say that in the sense of
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  like awe, reverence, respect, and that was Jesus.
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  He says to him, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.
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  So Timothy or you, whoever is listening to ever listening to
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  Tabernacle talk, our God can save the worst of sinners.
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  That's why he came. If you don't know Jesus today,
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  you can turn in faith to him just as Paul did, and you can
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  experience that overflow of grace and faith and love that
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  comes from Jesus. And for every person that you
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  will be witnessing to and every person that you have some
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  strained relationships with, know that the God who saved the
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  worst, the chief of sinners, Paul, can save anyone.
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  And what a joy that that is. There is hope for the ministry
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  and the mission that you and I have as believers to make
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  disciples of all nations. Thanks for tuning in today.
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  And we will conclude First Timothy Chapter 1 next episode.