Sermon Tone Analysis
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Passage Introduction
Passage Introduction
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to .
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I don’t know about you, but I always seem to eat more than I plan to.
Someone recently asked me how I stay so fit and I told them my secret—I try to only eat my one portion.
It’s difficult at times, because Angie is such a great cook.
But that’s what I try to do, eat only my one portion.
I also do push-ups and pull-ups twice a week and try to walk the other days.
But I think the one portion thing is the trick.
I have to confess though, I didn’t stick to my one portion on Thanksgiving Day.
As we transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I want us to build some momentum as a church body into recovering the awe and wonder of Christmas.
I’m not talking about the actual holiday, but rather, what it truly represents.
So we’ll be reading in 1 Timothy, beginning with verse 12.
Read
Prayer for the sermon
Sermon Introduction
Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, who is his protege in the faith.
It’s likely Paul is writing after his first imprisonment in Rome which is where the book of Acts ends.
And he begins the letter by instructing Timothy in verse 3, to stay in Ephesus so that he can keep an eye on some in the church who were straying from the true gospel and teaching a different doctrine.
These individuals were trying to be teachers of the law, Paul says, but they don’t understand the law or what it’s purpose is.
The law is good in that it comes from God, but the problem with it is that it can only condemn and cannot help anyone achieve the righteousness of God.
These false teachers in the church at Ephesus, though, were attempting to use the law to circumvent the gospel which God had entrusted to Paul.
The church in Paul’s day didn’t have the 27 book NT that we have today.
At the time Paul wrote 1 Timothy, at least three of the four gospels were circulating among the churches, as well as some of Paul’s letters and some of the other general epistles.
While they didn’t have the complete NT, what the church did have were creeds or statements of faith pertaining to Jesus Christ that they memorized.
These early Christian creeds are scattered throughout the NT such as the one we find in this passage in verse 15.
They were significant to the life of the church because they were used to teach the basic tenants of the faith to new converts and to protect the true doctrine from being mixed with error.
And that is what Paul is trying to do here as he evokes this trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance.
Which leads Paul to remind Timothy of one of those early Christian creeds in verse 15—the simple gospel truth—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
That is where I want to spend our time this morning.
I want to spend it in verse 15 where Paul uses the creed in verse 15 to remind Timothy of important gospel truths.
Jesus Christ came into the world
He came into the world
Explanation
The first thing Paul reminds Timothy of is that Jesus Christ came into the world.
The world is portrayed in multiple ways in the Bible.
One way it is presented is as a physical place inhabited by people.
So, Jesus Christ came into the world as a physical being.
Paul says in that Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
Jesus comes into this world the same way we do. he was conceived in his mother’s womb, he grew for nine months, he went through the birthing process, he went through growth spurts and had to learn things just like we do.
He lived in a family with a mother and father and brothers and sisters.
He grew up in a neighborhood, learned his father’s trade and grew in wisdom.
He got hungry and thirsty, he became tired and had to sleep.
He felt pain and wept tears.
He was tempted like we are yet, without sin.
And Paul also says in that “being found in human form, [Jesus] humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
As God, Jesus is an eternal being without beginning or end.
But as a human being, Jesus even went through the process of dying and he experienced death.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ is an awesome thing to think about when you take the time to sit and reflect on what it means.
No matter what is going on in our lives, it is encouraging to know that our savior can relate to us.
According to , we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
Not one person can tell Jesus, “you don’t know what I’m dealing with.”
Jesus knows it all and has experienced it all.
Jesus also came into the world in a different way than just physically.
When looking at mankind and his relationship with God, the Bible presents the world in terms of a sphere of moral influence, or a system of thought.
The world itself is not evil, but because rebellious human beings inhabit it, the world and its moral influence is seen as sinful.
According to Paul...
So what did Jesus do?
He came into the world.
Phil 2:5-7
The wisdom of the world is folly to God, as he says in
The wisdom of the world is unable to come to a knowledge of God, according
Why can’t the world come to a knowledge of God?
Because those who live in the world live according to the course of the world and are following the prince of the power of the air ()
Those who live according to the world are enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, according to
Paul asks in
So according to , the world holds people in bondage to asceticism and legalism, but cannot provide a solution to our problem with sin.
In the Apostle John’s writings, we gain an even better perspective of “the world”
The world was made through Jesus, yet it does not know him (John 1:10)
There are two possible meanings for the world
In fact, the world hates Jesus because he testifies that its works are evil according to .
Why are the world’s works evil?
Because John says in that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one
The place where human beings reside
What are the works of the world?
John describes them in as the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life or possessions
John says that the world is passing away along with its desires ()
Finally, according to John’s gospel, the world lives in darkness and even though Jesus has come into the world as the light of life, the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil ()
The philosophical system which governs human thought
Now, if the world is rebellious, hating God and hating Christ, you can see why its so amazing that Jesus would come into it.
Who goes into a world that hates them to save those who hate him?
Jesus does.
Now, if the world is rebellious, hating God and hating Christ, you can see why its so amazing that Jesus would come into it.
Who goes into a world that hates them to save those who hate him?
Jesus does.
And not only that, but Jesus takes his followers out of the world and then sends them back into that same world.
Just as Jesus came into the world as a light, He sends us into that same world to be lights in the darkness.
In , Paul says we “were formerly darkness, but now [we] are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”
And Jesus prays to the Father in for our protection saying, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one” ().
But Jesus doesn’t send us into the world empty handed.
He seals us in the Holy Spirit of promise and He provides us with Spiritual armor.
Illustration
Why does Jesus go into a world that hates him and then send us into that same world?
So that he can save sinners.
I’ve had to go to a place that hated me for the purpose of saving a people who hated me.
I went to Afghanistan twice.
Application
Which is the second thing Paul reminds Timothy.
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