Sermon Tone Analysis

I Timothy 2:1-7

 

! Introduction

            Every year at Christmas, we ask our children to make a wish list.

Of course, they know that our resources aren’t unlimited, so they don’t put everything they want on the list.

If you made a list of things which you desire, what would be on that list?

If I told you that the resources are all there for you to get whatever is on your list, what would you put on that list?

I don’t mean only material things, I mean whatever you wish for.

I suspect that some things on that list would be there today, but a month or so later, you would have decided that these things aren’t that important, and they wouldn’t be on the list.

Other things are there today, they will be there next month and if I would ask a few years from now, they would still be there.

What are the things that are the most important to you, desires that are always there?

If God were to make a list of wishes and desires, what would be on His list?

What would be on the top of his list?

The answer to this question is found in I Timothy 2:1-7.

As we look at this passage, let us think about what God desires, but let us also think about how our desires compare with God’s desires.

Do we want what God wants?

Read text.

!

I. God’s Desire vs. 3, 4

            The statement about what God desires is at the center of the passage which we are looking at today.

In verse 4 we read that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

!! A. The Mystery Of God’s Desire

            If God is God, why does he not get what he wants?

How do we fit this statement about God’s desires with the understanding that not everyone will be saved?

Revelation 20:15 says, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

We know that some will not be saved.

When we add to that the understanding that those who come to God are those whom God draws to himself, we have an even greater mystery.

God wants all men to be saved.

God draws those who come to himself, but not everyone will come to Him.

How do we explain that?

Well, honestly, I do not think we can entirely understand this.

There is an element of mystery involved here, as there often is when we are dealing with God.

However, there are certain things that we know.

We know that God desires all to be saved because it says so in this text.

We know that God draws people to himself because it says so in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him...” We know that God calls people to himself because it says so in Romans 8:30, “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

We also know that we need to make a response to the offer of God.

God allows us to decide if we will accept the salvation He offers.

John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” We know that there will be some who refuse that invitation and who will be lost because of it.

In John 3:36 we read, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

These are the things we know, but how to put them together is something we don’t know.

That is the mystery of God’s desire.

!! B. The Wonder Of God’s Desire

We should not, however, allow the mystery of God’s desire to throw us off from the wonder of God’s desire.

How thrilling to know what the creator of the universe considers the most important thing.

What gives God the greatest thrill?

The text indicates that it is that people be saved.

God looks down from heaven with sorrow in His heart when he sees that people are sinning and getting mired in the consequences of their sin and when he sees that they are headed for eternal destruction.

God does not want that.

He does not want people to suffer from their slavery to sin.

He does not want people to die eternally.

He desires that people be freed from all of that.

Furthermore, we read that he desires that people “come to a knowledge of the truth.”

From the earthly perspective, there appear to be many ways of looking at truth.

But from God’s perspective, there is only one truth.

God is the Lord of all.

Sin destroys and God has provided a way of salvation.

Life is found in Him alone.

That is the one truth and the only truth which makes it possible for people to find life and happiness and peace and eternity.

God wants people to know that truth.

He wants them to know the truth of an intimate relationship with Him.

That this is God’s desire is illustrated in the Bible through the stories Jesus told.

He told the story of a woman who had a hundred coins and lost one and went searching for that one coin until she found it.

So also, God searches for those who are lost because he desires that they be saved.

Jesus told the story of the lost sheep and how the owner of the sheep was so concerned about that one lost sheep that he left the 99 that were not lost and went out and found it.

So also the Father’s greatest concern is for those who have wandered away from the one who created them and He goes out to seek them.

Jesus also told the story of the son who wandered away from his family home and how the father waited, longing for the return of the prodigal son.

In a similar way, the Father waits with deep desire in His heart for the return of His lost children.

In these stories, there is a summing statement which reveals the heart of the Father.

Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This is the wonder of God’s desire.

God wants you to be saved.

If you are, then this is a cause for rejoicing.

If you are not, God wants you!

God wants the animist in an un-reached people group in the 10-40 window to come to the knowledge of the truth.

God wants the Muslim terrorist to be saved.

God wants the Hell’s Angel’s drug pusher to come to a knowledge of the truth.

God desires your neighbour and your co-worker to be saved.

!

II.

God’s Provision vs. 5,6

            In fact, as we read on, we find that God wants this so much that He has provided the way for it to happen.

The text tells us, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men…”

!! A. One Mediator

            Sometimes when there is a labour dispute and they are unable to come to an agreement, they appoint a mediator to bring the two sides together.

A mediator indicates that something is so wrong that help is needed to solve the problem.

The mention of a mediator, in this text, reveals that there is something that comes between us and God.

That hindrance is our sin - our rejection of God.

Romans 8:7 says, “the sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”

J.I. Packer says, “Reconciliation of the warring parties is needed, but this can occur only if God’s wrath is somehow absorbed and quenched and man’s anti-God heart, which motivates his anti-God life, is somehow changed.”That is the problem.

We are sinners, hostile to God.

God is holy.

Such a problem requires a mediator.

What is a mediator?

J.I. Packer says, “A mediator is a go-between who brings together parties who are not in communication and who may be alienated, estranged, and at war with each other.

The mediator must have links with both sides in order to identify with and maintain the interests of both and represent each to the other on a basis of good will.”

In order to overcome this impasse, God provided a mediator.

Jesus is fully God.

John 1:1 says, “…the Word was God.” Being God, he could fully represent God’s holy and righteous concerns and bring them to bear in the negotiations.

Jesus was also fully human.

He was born of a woman, lived on this earth as a man and so could fully represent the human problems of temptation and sin.

Jesus speaks for God and speaks for us.

As mediator, Jesus did not negotiate a situation in which each party would have to lose something in order to win something.