God's House Rules #12 - "The Heart of God's House" (1 Timothy 3:14-16)

1st Timothy, that's where we are. Continuing on in the sermon series that we have been in called

God's House Rules, an exposition of 1st Timothy. And this morning we come to 1st

Timothy and chapter number three. 1st Timothy chapter three, I'm short reading this morning, just three verses.

Verses 14, 15, and 16. So 1st

Timothy chapter three, verses 14 through to 16. If you grabbed on the Bible as we give away, that's on page 1052.

1st Timothy chapter three, verses 14 through to 16. If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me as we read this portion of God's word?

We like to do this at this point to show our submission to the word of God. In these moments,

God is directly speaking to us as we read his word. So 1st Timothy chapter three, beginning in verse 14 and reading to verse 16.

Brothers and sisters, once again, these are God's words to us this morning. I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon.

But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living

God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And most certainly the mystery of godliness is, he was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in walk.

Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but that his words, these words would never pass away.

Pray that they would find fertile soil in our hearts. Allow me to pray, ask for the Lord's help, and we will come to his word this morning.

Heavenly father, we come to your word now, asking that you would speak to us. Yes, you have spoken in the pages of your word, but we pray that that which you have said would be spoken to us afresh again by the ministry of your spirit.

Help us to not just understand what these words say and what they mean, but help us to understand why they matter for us as well.

Father, it's usually our habit to pray for other area churches, but tomorrow our nation inaugurates its new president.

Father, we saw just how contentious this previous election cycle was. We saw firsthand just how dangerous it got.

Father, we pray that as there is this official transition tomorrow, we pray that it will go well first and foremost.

Pray that there would be nothing that would cause danger to either the president or vice president who are coming in or any who are in attendance because of the weather.

They've had to move it indoors and that creates a whole other set of challenges. Father, we pray for this nation.

Again, we are so polarized and no doubt the incoming of this new president may not help matters.

Father, we must be honest and say that we are not always the most deserving of your mercies, but we would pray for the mercy as this new administration begins.

That regardless of whether one is happy about the new administration or unhappy, your word tells us that we have to pray for those in government.

It doesn't say anything about liking the person in government, it says we have to pray for them. So Father, we pray for incoming president

Trump, pray for his vice president J .D. Vance, pray for the administration that's coming in.

We'll have to hit the ground running on so many issues. Father, we pray that you would give our leaders the wisdom they need to rule over us.

Father, may that even begin with their needed repentance. Because Father, as a nation we need you.

But Father, even in your common grace, you give leaders who don't repent wisdom to rule rightly.

I pray that you would give our leaders wisdom. I pray that you would bring advisors around them who think clearly, who see needs and want to meet needs.

I pray that we as citizens would submit well to our leadership, even when they do things that we don't particularly appreciate.

Because ultimately, your word tells us we are to submit to every human authority, not for their sake, but for the

Lord's sake. So Father, help us in that reality. Be with us as we come to your word now, and we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. Please be seated. What gets you out of bed in the morning?

What gets you out of bed in the morning? For some of you, it's that socially acceptable addiction called drinking coffee.

But in all seriousness, seriously, what drives you to get out of bed on Monday morning and do what you do?

Really, I'm getting at the question of, here's the big word, motivation. What motivates you to do what you do?

It's kind of an important question, ain't it? It's not enough to just do stuff. You should probably ask, why are we doing this?

If you aren't driven by some motivating principle, if there isn't some sense of importance to the work that you are doing, whatever that work is, let's just be honest, the chances are you're not going to do that work well.

Yes, the Bible does teach us that there is inherent value in hard work and excellence. Those are values that I think are important regardless of how you feel.

But let's be honest, for most of us, excellence and the thrill of hard work just isn't enough.

So again, I ask, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Maybe that's a little uncomfortable, so let me zoom out.

What should make the church get out of its metaphorical bed in the morning?

What should be the motivation of the church? Why should the church do what it does?

Is it cultural relevance? Is it cultural acceptance? Should tradition be our guiding star?

Will we do what we do because other people have done it before? We've always done it this way.

Are the felt needs and the emotional desires of our world, are they what should motivate us to action?

Again, I ask, what should be the motivation of the church?

Well, as we come to 1 Timothy 3 verses 14, 15, and 16, we're going to hear something of Paul's heart.

And since Paul is writing by the inspiration of the Spirit, we're going to hear something of God's heart, if you will, about what should guide the conduct and the mission of the church.

We're going to get to the heart of this question of motivation, not so much on a personal level, though I think it's a good question to ask, especially at the beginning of a new year.

Now, we're going to think about the church and what its motivation ought to be.

Those of you who are new to our church, we have been working our way section by section through 1

Timothy, as we generally do here. By and large, we take books of the Bible and we work our way through them section by section, letting the point of the text be the point of the sermon, the shape of the sermon be informed by the shape of the text, and the central theme, as I like to say, big

C, big T, the Lord Jesus, let him be the central theme of every message. And so we've been doing that as we work our way through 1

Timothy. And for a moment, I want us to kind of review, though for some of you it will be a review, for some of you this will be new,

I want us to think about the big picture of 1 Timothy. What is Paul doing?

If we're kind of... I had some interesting travel times yesterday, but one of the things

I do enjoy about travel, especially when it's going the way it's supposed to, is I'm an aisle seat person.

I don't like window seats. There are many reasons I don't like window seats. But one thing

I do like about window seats is when you start taking off and you have that moment where you look out the window and you can just see, whenever you're flying out of Medford Airport, you can basically see

North Medford from like a 30 ,000 foot view, and it's always fascinating. Wow, North Medford is a lot bigger than I think it is.

I think it's good to do that with books of the Bible too. Sometimes it's good to just get the big picture of what's going on. But for a second, it's going to be important, let's think about the big picture of 1

Timothy. Paul tells us, very helpfully, he tells us why he wrote this letter.

So look back at chapter 1 verse 3 real quick. So chapter 1 verse 3,

Paul says, as I, Paul, urged you, Timothy, the younger man who's receiving this letter, as I urge you when

I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine.

Paul sends Timothy to Ephesus, this church that he had started, because in between Paul starting this church and this moment, some people had crept in with some new ideas about who

Jesus was and what the Bible taught. And as they had crept in, they were introducing problems and Paul sends

Timothy, one of his, I like to say his special ops guys, and says, all right, you need to parachute in here and you need to take care of this problem.

Paul anticipates this to be a short thing, but in our text actually, look at verse 15.

So 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, Paul says, if I should be delayed, I'll say more about that in a moment,

I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household.

This book is written with the express purpose of laying out what should be the conduct and the mission of God's people.

And Paul uses a number of perspectives, a number of landing points to get at this, and I'll put them up on screen so we can follow them.

So in chapter one, Paul basically starts by responding head on to the threat of false teaching.

The whole of the first chapter is devoted to that issue, dealing with false teaching. And note that he deals with false teaching, not by talking about the false teaching.

He kind of does, but that's not what his focus is. His focus is to remind them of the gospel message that they have heard.

And so we learned from Paul all the way back in chapter one, how it is that the church should respond to false teaching.

It responds to false teaching with a commitment to the gospel that it has already received.

So there's responding to the threat of false teaching with the gospel. And then you get to chapter two from verse one, right through chapter three, verse 13.

And Paul starts to deal with restoring God's order to the church. See, we often think of false teaching as, okay, it's just bad belief.

No, no, no, no. Belief and behavior are always connected. Where bad beliefs creep in, bad behavior will at some point follow.

And so beginning in chapter two, verse one, all the way through to three, 13, Paul starts to reintroduce, starts to encourage

Timothy, you need to restore God's order back to the church, because apparently something had gone wrong.

So we spent a lot of time there. I'm going to re -preach all of those messages. You can listen to those on our website, but Paul starts by responding to the threat of false teaching with the gospel.

He then seeks to encourage Timothy to get to the work of restoring God's order to the church. And this morning we're beginning a section number three, if you will, that's going to take us all the way from 3 .14

to 4 .16. And in this section, Paul is going to remind

God's people, he's going to remind Timothy, and by extension, you and I, of the centrality of, not the language

I use, the gospel word, reminding

God's people of the centrality of the gospel word. Over the next few messages, we are going to be reminded of the fact that for us, there is nothing more central than the word of God and not just the word of God in a generic amorphous kind of sense.

There's nothing more central than the word of God with the gospel at its center. And over this next few messages, not only are we going to learn that, we're also going to learn why we can't afford to allow any, here's that word

I used again, distractions to creep in that would deviate us from this gospel.

I told you that the devil can't introduce deception, chapter one.

If he can't introduce deviance, chapters two to 3 .13, he'll start working on distraction.

And that's what we're going to see in this section. He will try and bring in distractions.

We can't afford that. And thankfully God knows we can't afford that. And so we're going to see God's answer to that in the next few messages as we work our way through this letter.

This morning, Paul is going to set the table for us in this theme of gospel centrality of word centrality.

He's going to set the table for us. He's going to, as we get down to brass tacks, why does the church exist?

Again, I asked that question. I started with what gets us out of bed in the morning? Well, he's going to thankfully answer that question for us.

And actually he's not Paul answering it for us. Ultimately, is it ultimately who's answering that question for us?

God is answering that question. So what should drive the church in its pursuit of its mission?

What should make Jesus's church as it were get out of bed in the morning? I put it to you that the church can only fulfill its

God -given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus.

That's my big theme for this morning. That the church can only fulfill its

God -given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus.

The church can only fulfill its God -given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus.

Simple enough, but of course it's going to be a lot for us to unpack as we think about this.

The church can only fulfill its God -given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus.

For the rest of our time this morning, I want to look at Paul's two facets of gospel -shaped purpose.

Two facets Paul's going to give us from this passage. Facets that if we think about them rightly, they'll help us to think appropriately about our place as God's house.

If we rightly understand what Paul is saying in these short verses, I think it will do a lot to help us think about our place as God's house.

That's what Paul says about us in verse 15. We are God's household.

What does it look like to be God's household? That's what we've called this series, God's House Rules. From this section right here, what does it look like to be

God's people? Paul's going to give us two facets of gospel -shaped purpose that will help us to think rightly about our place as God's house.

The first facet I want you to see, do you see it there in verse 14 and 15? I want us to consider for a few moments, number one, the essence of the church's faith and life.

The essence of the church's faith and life. Verse 14,

Paul says, I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed,

I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living

God, pillar and foundation of the truth. Like I said, a few moments ago,

Paul told you up front why he wrote this letter. We don't have to try and figure it out. Some books of the Bible, you have to kind of almost read in between the lines.

Thankfully, first Timothy is not one of those. He tells you up front, why did I write it? These words here.

But remember what I've said repeatedly, for those of you who've been regular with us through this series, that while Paul is writing to Timothy, he's not just writing to Timothy.

If I can put it like this, he's writing through Timothy. Yes, he's writing to Timothy, but through Timothy, he's writing to all of God's people everywhere.

Those of you here, in our very first message, I said that sometimes people call this the next book, second

Timothy, and the next book, Titus, the pastoral epistles, I think is one of the saddest naming jobs in history.

And I say that because for lots of people, they hear that and think, great, doesn't apply to me, I'm not a pastor. I would much rather we call these the church epistles, the church letters, because actually they're speaking to all of God's people.

Yes, this has special importance for Timothy, but it has importance for all Christians. Like I said,

Paul seems to write with the understanding that I'm going to come in person at some point.

Hey, at some point, Timothy, I'm not just going to tell you things from a distance, I'm going to be in Ephesus to kind of help you deal with some of this.

But as happens in life, plans are made to go wrong sometimes. You know, things don't always go the way you'd like them to.

So Paul rightly acknowledges, you see that there in verse 15 or 14, he says, I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon.

But if I should be delayed, and that if there is a genuine if, in the likelihood that I'm delayed, if something happens that I can't make it, the way he says in verse 15,

I have written so that you will know how people ought to, here's a good word, conduct themselves in God's household.

The idea of conduct is pretty interesting when you start to dig under the surface. This word here, it carries this idea of living in line with principles and ideas.

It presupposes that there are some things you should know, and as a result, you're going to live in light of those things you should know.

I need to pause there. That's actually too good for us to just kind of move over quickly. Let's take a moment. Let me ask you a question and give you a second to think on it.

When I ask you a question, take a second and think on it. Is there a right way for a church to behave?

Is there a right way for a church to conduct itself?

Now, you may be tempted to quickly say yes, but before you do, let me ask another couple questions and see if I can make this more confusing than it needs to be.

Are there rules of conduct for churches? Are there rules of conduct?

If that sounds kind of technical, if that sounds like that's a lot to think about, yes, that's exactly what

I'm going for. Because again, we may be tempted to say, especially in a church like ours where we take the

Bible seriously, we take teaching the Bible seriously. We may be tempted to just say, oh yeah, of course there is. Now, I say that there are lots of Christians actually who may be tempted to say, no, there isn't.

Look, you love Jesus and you figure it out. Some folks do this, some folks do that.

Who am I to judge? I mean, look, as long as they love Jesus, it is what it is.

Now, let's be clear. There is a kind of truth to that statement, so let me not be too dismissive of that.

Because the reality is, as brother I met this week said, I love the line actually, it's kind of into my brain now.

Good and godly Christians will disagree on things. So yeah, there is a sense in which, okay yeah,

Christians will do things differently. There is a sense in which we could say, if you want to be provocative, there is no right, one right way to do certain things.

We may have strong opinions about what we do, which is fine to a point, but there's no strict.

If we're honest and we take God's word seriously, okay, there are some things that we can agree to disagree on.

So, let's use some practical examples. Maybe this will help. Should a church use a hymnal or put words on a screen?

Pick one. Now, you may need to ask, okay, what's the wisest, what fits our purposes best, and I do think there's conversations to be had one way or another.

So, let me put it this way. Are you sinning if you go to a church that only has hymnals?

No. Are you sinning if you go to a church that only has words on the screen? No. Should we have chairs or pews?

Now, before you answer that question, make sure you have the right kinds of pews. Not all pews are built equal.

My church in London for years had pews. They were some of the most uncomfortable chairs. And finally, the church just tore them out, and now everyone understands.

Is there any moral value attached to having pews? One of my favorite churches in the world,

Grace Community Church, they have pews. Our church here, one of my favorite churches in the world, has chairs.

Does it matter? No. Bible on your phone or Bible or an app?

On an app. I mean, I have strong opinions about that subject, but at the end of the day, are you sinning one way or another?

No. So, we recognize that there are lots of things that, okay, we may do differently. You may have preferences one way or another.

That's one thing. But even, to quote my friend I met this week, good and godly

Christians disagree. Doesn't that imply something, though? Think about that phrase.

Good and godly Christians disagree on this. What does that imply? Doesn't that imply that you have a standard by which you can determine who is a good and godly

Christian? Okay, Kofi, where are you going with this? Land the plane.

Let me try. Can I put it to you that when it comes to the essentials of what a church is, when it comes to the most basic things about what makes a church a church, can

I put it to you that there are actually rules to this thing? That there are some things you can and can't do?

That there are some things that are actually black and white? Sorry, we're not going to have a conversation about that.

That's not right. That there are certain principles and ideas that are supposed to guide our conduct and where they are absent or, worse, rejected.

We need to have a conversation. You see, the church doesn't just do what is reasonable.

The church doesn't just do what some earthly organization tells us to do. Worst of all, the church doesn't just do what it feels.

As I told you, I was with our elders out in Gilbert, Arizona this weekend.

I got to spend some time with one of my favorite people on the planet, Pastor Dale Thackeray. He's the executive pastor over there at Redeemer.

I call him the chief because he's very scary and very in charge.

He's not. He's actually... I just like to poke fun at him. But my brother

Dale has a statement that he likes to use. It's kind of blunt, but I grew up in East London.

We like blunt. He and I get on so well. He has a statement he likes to say when people will be like,

I just don't like that. I don't like the way that makes me feel. He'll say, tell your feelings to shut up. And what he's trying to get at, he's not trying to be rude,

I know what that means. What he's trying to get at is, just because you feel something should be that way, well, no, we as Christians are giving something a little bit more substantive than how you feel.

We're giving this word of God. You see, the reality is that the church conducts itself according to certain principles.

And essentially, Paul doesn't say what the principles are, but I think he implies them. And I think he implies them in the descriptions he uses for the church in this passage.

Again, look at verse 15. He says, whatever I should be led, I've written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, number one, which is the church of the living

God, number two, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

Paul uses three descriptions for the church and each of these three descriptions are worth thinking about for just a moment.

Because I think in each of them, he gives us a little bit of an understanding of what the principles and ideas are that should drive the essence of who we are.

For a moment, let's look at these. First of all, notice that Paul says that the church is

God's disciplined family. The church is God's disciplined family. So look at the passage again, verse 15.

I've written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household.

If you're the Bible marking type, which every Christian should be in my opinion, my opinion, throw a circle around that word household.

If you've got some way in your app of marking that, mark that word household. It's an interesting word.

We use a sort of root or a fruit word from that, if you will, all the time.

So we talk about the economy. That's where this word comes from. That word comes from the word that's used here for a household.

The word literally just means the rule of the house, if you will.

It speaks to the fact that a household in the ancient world, a household was a orderly structure, that there was a rule, a law that governed the household.

A household in the first century wasn't just a mama, daddy, and a few kids. Actually, households could be really large and they could include people who were not blood relatives, like slaves and servants and assistants and all sorts of things.

In the New Testament, when you hear that word household, the word that comes to mind is structure, order.

There is an order to how the church runs. There is a discipline.

We hear discipline is someone imposing discipline on someone, but in the Bible, it's actually the other way around.

Most of the time, discipline starts from within by the spirit of God, teaching us what we ought to do.

There is a discipline, a way of conduct to how the church runs.

It might seem cute to keep things lighthearted and unstructured and not really have any goals or expectations for what you're doing, but actually, actually, yes, the church is a family.

Sometimes you'll hear this in the way people talk about church. Oh, I don't like ex -church.

Ex -church doesn't feel like a family. Okay, well, what do you mean by that? You don't want to just dismiss when someone says that thing.

Ask what they mean. Well, what does that mean? Oh, it's just way too much structure, way too much like everything has to be right.

In a family, you just kind of do what you want. Actually, that's not true, is it? I have two kids.

My son turns five in May. My daughter turns one in March. If I have learned anything, it's that either you impose order or they will impose disorder.

So yeah, tell our kids when they go to sleep, when they can get up, tell them what they can and can't eat.

Rosie's at that phase right now, my daughter. She's at the phase where she just wants to stick everything in her mouth. She can do that.

Am I going to let her though? No. Yes, it's a family.

I love my kids. I can't wait to get home and be with them. I love my wife.

I love my household. But guess what? If the household has no order, if the household has no structure, guess what?

That doesn't help the members of the household catch it. It hurts them, doesn't it? We recognize that.

But for some reason, do my best not to turn it into a rant. But just bear with me for a moment.

For some reason, when it comes to God's household, where we appreciate structure and order in our households,

I say that now I know culturally there's a whole gentle parenting, which that's a debate for another time.

You know, like we don't tell our kids what to do. You know, educationally, the whole unschooling thing has become popular in the last few years where, you know, we just kind of let them figure it out.

And that's kind of a broad brush. I know there's a bit more detail to that, but yes, I understand that culturally that may not be popular, but just,

I think common sense and the way God has made the world tells us that order and structure are kind of necessary, even in something as intimate as a family.

When Paul uses this language of a household, I think he's telling us something about the nature of how this household works.

Yes, there should be warmth and vitality to our relationships as the people of God. Yes, we shouldn't treat each other in a cold and detached and unloving way.

Absolutely. We're commanded explicitly multiple times in the Bible to love one another, but that love begins, like my house.

My house has a front door. My house has walls. My house has a roof.

It keeps certain things out and it takes care of the people who are in.

But Paul says this language of people conducting themselves in God's household, he's saying essentially, know what your role is in this place and conduct yourselves accordingly.

The church is the church, I would argue, when it maintains a good balance between structure and order and warmth and vitality.

So the church is God's disciplined family. Okay, Kofi. What else? Well, not only is the church

God's disciplined family, do you know it's in the passage that the church is God's called out gathering? Because look at the language he uses, verse 15.

I've written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living

God, the pillar and foundation of the church.

Church is one of those words that we use a lot. In fact, we use it so often, I think sometimes you can lose the gravity of what that word means. The word that's often translated church in your

Bible actually is a very general term. It just means an assembly.

It means a calling out of people. That's literally what the word comes from actually. It's the word for out and the word to call, called out.

In other words, you call people out for the purpose of gathering. In fact, in the New Testament, not in the New Testament, but in the world of the

New Testament, this word was used for when the lawmaking body came together. So it would be like when

Congress gets together, like that word was applied to that casual get togethers would often be described with this word.

In fact, in Acts chapter seven, if you're taking those as chapter seven, no, not the apostle, the deacon

Stephen, excuse me, in his sermon refers to the nation of Israel who were gathered with Moses as the assembly in the wilderness, that word assembly in that chapter seven, same word for church.

Now, of course, the major way the New Testament uses this word is for the gathering of God's people, whether it is the gathering of God's people out of the world, what we call the universal church.

The fact that every believer who has placed their faith in Lord Jesus is part of this, uh, invisible, but very real entity that exists where all

God's people are a people together or the New Testament uses that in a more local sense that this invisible the invisible church makes its footprint in time and space through visible local churches.

Okay, Kofi, why is that? Why is this important? Where are you going with this? Well, I'm glad you are. Have you ever heard people?

I hear a lot of this value. Have you ever heard people say the phrase? I don't go to church. I am the church.

Well, I don't have to go to church to be the church. Can I be honest with you?

There's lots of ways to attack this. There's lots of ways. Like what's going on when people say this, can

I just give you, let me just get like to the bottom line. When I hear that phrase,

I have to just tell the person who's saying it as lovingly as I can with what you expect, sir or ma 'am, that just doesn't make sense.

It just don't make no sense. I know that's bad grammar, but I hope it gets my point across. Think about it.

If the church is a calling out, this is a gathering. If it is an assembly, catch this. How do you assemble by yourself?

I mean, I was going to make a comment. Maybe not the wisest. I'll leave that alone, but suffice it to say most normal people recognize you can't gather with yourself.

You're just there. The church is called a gathering and it's a called out gathering.

Notice the one who calls the gathering is not us. By the way, do you know what Paul says? Okay. Again, verse 15, this is

God's household, which is the church of the living God, the church, and the grammar there points to the fact that the church belongs to the living

God. The God who lives is the one who has called the assembly.

As it were, he has called the meeting. Well, think about that.

If God is the one who has called the meeting, if God is the one who has called the assembly, who gets to govern what happens in that assembly?

So, you know, Redeemer, if you ever say, oh, we need to have a meeting. Okay, great. You called the meeting, so you chair it because that's how that works.

Well, if God is the one who has called a meeting of his people, then he is the one who gets to determine what happens in that meeting.

If he is the one who has called out this gathering of people out of the world to be with him, just like he did with Israel out of Egypt.

Remember that in the Egypt narrative in the Exodus, multiple times, God says to Pharaoh, let my people go, which we all know that part, we all tend to forget the other part so that they may worship me.

In other words, for a moment, let's think about this. Have you ever wondered, those of you who like me, grew up on the

Prince of Egypt, or you've actually just read the Bible. When God says that, let my people go so they can worship me.

Couldn't they worship God in Egypt? I mean, God is invisible.

He doesn't need temples, maybe with hands. Acts chapter 17. Surely you could worship him anywhere. Why does

God have to explicitly say multiple times, let them go so they can worship. Weren't they already worshiping him?

You ever thought about that? Let me give you my theory. It's a theory, but let's test it out.

I think that in my opinion, God says that. Why? Because it's not enough for God's people to worship him.

They needed to worship him without the distractions of the culture around them. And I think my theory holds because, think about this.

We've all heard the story of the golden calf, right? Exodus 32. Where did they get that idea from?

You ever thought about that? Where did they get the idea? Remember, because they say, if you read Exodus 32, if I preach the sermon on Exodus 32 at the church, you can find it on our website.

I preached it again, actually. It was an okay sermon. In Exodus 32, when they build this thing, they don't say we're building this calf to worship another

God. They say that this is Yahweh, the one who brought us out of Egypt. Where did they get that from?

Because they were around Egypt. That's how Egypt worships their gods. God had to take them out from there.

This is my theory. Why? Because if they were going to worship him rightly, they needed to worship him on his terms, not Egypt's terms.

Okay, Kofi, where are you going with this? Simple. The God who calls us out as his people, calls us out as his people so that we may live in the way he wants us to live, not the way we think he should be worshiped.

More to be said about that, but I don't want to linger too long. The church is God's disciplined family.

It's his called out gathering. Thirdly, the church is God's truth -driven temple. The church is

God's truth -driven temple. Look at the end of verse 15, so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living

God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

The Bible is a very clear book, but sometimes it is made even clearer by just knowing a little bit about the world in which into which it's written.

This is one of those passages where that might help you a little bit. So we saw in chapter 1 verse 3 that Timothy is in Ephesus.

In Ephesus, Ephesus was home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Know that language?

Classical history, there were these seven different items. Some of them are still around.

Some of them have been lost to history. Seven different places and structures that are considered to be architectural and cultural wonders.

One of them was in Ephesus. So Ephesus was kind of like Medford and the

Rogue Valley a little bit in that the town proper lived in a valley and there were hills that surrounded this valley.

Just outside of Ephesus on one of these hills was a large and imposing temple to a goddess called

Diana, also known as Artemis, also known as Aphrodite. This is an impressive structure.

History tells us that it was known for its 100 nearly 60 foot pillars.

And those 60 hundred, those 160 foot pillars held up a solid marble roof.

In fact, history says that when the sun would hit it, you could see it for miles. I put it to you that when

Paul employs this picture of a pillar and a foundation, Timothy would have said, probably looked out the window.

I don't know if he did. He would have voted. Yeah, I think I get that. I think he's being highly intentional that just like those pillars held up that polished marble roof that called people to worship this false

God, the church functions in that same way. It is a pillar and a foundation that instead of supporting a lie, it supports the truth.

And it does this in two ways. First of all, the church holds up the truth before a watching world.

That's what that language of the pillar is meant to represent. The church is the pillar of the truth because it's

God's vehicle for his truth being seen in the world. The only way in which people hear the truth is through the church proclaiming that truth.

And so the church has a responsibility to hold up the truth before a watching world.

But not only does the church have a responsibility to hold the truth before a watching world, the church also has a responsibility to hold up the truth in the face of attack.

That's the other side of this. He says the pillar and foundation of the truth. Foundation maybe isn't the best word for this original

Greek word. It might be better translated as a buttress. Those of you who are architecturally or engineering -minded,

I am not. But I'm reliably told by people who are that to support walls, in some cases you build buttresses to hold them up, to support them up.

That buttresses, I'm reliably told anyway, are protective features. I think that's kind of interesting.

Why would Paul use his language of, yes the pillar makes sense because the church holds up the truth, but how is the church the buttress of the truth?

How is the defense, oh that's a good word ain't it, defense? The church is called to defend the truth.

Why? Because the truth is under attack in every age. And if the church, excuse me, if the truth is under attack in every age, then the church in every age needs to be the one who defends that truth.

Again, running out of time, but there are loads of passages we could look at where the church is explicitly commanded, even in this letter, to defend and protect the truth.

And when you put those three pictures together, the disciplined family, the called out gathering, and the truth driven temple, when you put all those together,

I think we get something of the essence of the church's faith in life. That the church conducts itself according to God's word, according to his structure and order.

That the church worships as God has called it to worship, not as it devises. And that the church is called to lift up and defend the truth, before a world that would seek to attack it.

That's the essence of the church's conduct and mission, of the church's faith and life. But if we ended there, if our sermon just closed there, at best that would be a sort of, you know,

I could end it with just a big rah -rah, you know, let's go fight the heathens out there, which there may be a time and a place for that.

You know, kind of do my best braveheart, even though I don't have a Scottish accent, and you know, try and like, you know, don't ever take our freedom, and all that.

You could go down that road, but Paul doesn't. Paul doesn't end there.

This is not a pep rally from Paul. Paul does not do all bluster and no substance.

You see, why should the church be this? Because if you know, so far we've talked about what the church is, but why should it do this?

Why? Let me rephrase the question, it's not a good question. A better question is, why can the church be this?

What will give us the energy to be this kind of people? Well, that's worth thinking about, actually, in our second point, which is the energy behind the church's conduct and mission.

The energy behind the church's conduct and mission, verse 16. Verse 16 says, and most certainly the mystery of godliness is great.

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in...

verse 16 might be one of the coolest verses in the bible, if for no other reason. Hey, I'm not sure if you knew this, but it's one of only a few places, you have two or three in the whole new testament, where a song is quoted, where a hymn is quoted.

It's almost universally accepted. The words that Paul quotes here, and in fact, in the christian standard bible, if you have a print copy in front of you, do you notice how they've kind of blocked it off as a, almost like a verse, versus just a standard way of rendering it?

It's because they're recognizing that it's almost universally understood that these were stanzas, these were verses from an early church hymn.

These were words, here's what Paul says there, he says, and most certainly, not the best way to translate that, some translations say by common confession, or by common agreement, that's probably a better way to look at this.

He's basically saying everybody knows this and quotes something that everybody knows. If i can just pause for a moment, this is why you don't want bad music in church.

This is just a side point, it's not my main point, but while i'm here, this is why you don't want what i heard one person call 7 -11 songs.

You know what i mean by 7 words 11 times? No, good christian music, i would argue,

Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, the psalms, i'd argue that good christian music actually teaches.

Again, that's a whole other conversation for another time. I've actually preached on that subject, so i won't label the point, but Paul quotes this hymn from the early church.

He quotes this hymn that God's people would have known. These weren't just platitudes put to music, these were reflections on the truths that God's people believe.

And you know the beauty of this? You know what all these words have in common? They're all about Jesus.

You see, the energy that propels the church to catch this is not the threat of the law. You know what i mean when i say that?

It's not try harder, do better, you're making Jesus look bad, you slackers. There is an element of truth to the fact that the church has witnessed and kind of made

Jesus look bad. It's not wrong to say that appropriately. It's not wrong to say, no, we should be seeking to excel and do better.

Paul himself will do that. But notice that that's not where you start. That's a therefore conversation.

You know what i mean when i say a therefore conversation? You say that after you've laid an appropriate foundation.

That's not your foundation. You see, the foundation, the energy as it were, that propels the church to catch this is a greater vision of the person and work of the

Lord Jesus. That's what propels the church to be what God has called it to be.

And in a sense, that should make perfect sense, shouldn't it? Let me think about this. If Jesus is the head of the church and we are his body, if Jesus is the vine giving life to the branches that are united to him, if Jesus is the husband of the church and we are his bride, if all that is true, it is only right then that the church's health or the church's lack of health is tied to its growing knowledge of and love for the

Lord Jesus. The Puritan John Owen put it like this in a work he wrote,

Reflections on the Person of Christ. He said this quote, that Jesus is the foundation of our religion, the rock whereon the church is built, the ground of all our hopes of salvation, of life and immortality.

All is resolved into this, namely the representation made of the nature and will of God in the person and office of Christ.

If this, the personal work of Christ, fail us, we are lost forever. If this rock stand firm, the church is safe here and shall be triumphant hereafter.

It's only as we truly understand who the Lord Jesus is that we're able to be the people he has called us to be.

And in particular, just for time's sake, I'm going to try and summarize here. Paul focuses on two aspects of Christ's person and work.

First of all, he deals with Jesus' earthly ministry for us. So again, look at verse 16, and most certainly the mystery of godliness is great.

First of all, he was manifested in the flesh. Jesus took on humanity for us.

As John 1 .14 says, that the word became flesh and he dwelt among us, he tabernacled among us.

Just as the tabernacle in the old testament was the visible representation of God living with his people.

Jesus, in becoming a man, he is the perfect representation of God among us.

That makes sense if you understand the story of the Bible. Man sinned in the garden. God told man that if man sinned against him, man would be punished.

But here's the thing, a finite man can't pay the debt that sin incurred before an eternal

God. Those of us who, as I would argue the Bible teaches, the Bible teaches eternal conscious torment for those who reject the

Lord Jesus. You ever wonder why it has to be eternal? An illustration

I heard years ago that helped me with this. If I kill a cockroach, what happens?

Well, it's dead. But in terms of consequences, I mean in terms of like actual consequences, nothing.

Well, I'm getting there. If I kill an animal, depending on how

I kill the animal, the consequences are a little high. So if I kill, if I walked into your, those of you and I decided

I don't like your pet, so I'm gonna take care of that. I apologize.

Don't, please don't start crying. Um, that's actually,

I can actually suffer jail time for that. Not a whole lot of jail time actually, but some.

Why? Because unlike the cockroach, there's a little more value attached to that.

Remember when there was a presidential inauguration? I mean, we already had two attempts on the incoming president.

If someone decides to try and make it a lucky person and they succeed, how would it want to be that guy?

Chances are he's probably never going to see the outside of a jail cell ever again. Well, if the secret service doesn't find it first.

Why? The magnitude of the person you've committed the act to determines the nature of the punishment.

If a finite being sins against an eternal God, how much punishment would make that right?

Only an eternal punishment would. But here's the thing, you've still not made it right.

You can punish the person, you still not made it right. Only one who was a man yet was also infinite could make it right.

So the Lord Jesus took on flesh, the Bible tells us, and that he took on flesh. You know, as Paul doesn't mention the cross in this, you think he would?

Well, this song that he quotes doesn't mention the cross, but that's implied in the fact that he became a man.

That's why he became a man. Why did God become a man?

Well, God became a man to redeem sinners. So Paul doesn't have to say

Jesus died because that's implied in the fact that he became a man. Jesus died, but he didn't stay dead.

You see the second line there? He says he was manifested in the flesh. He was vindicated in the spirit. Literally, he was declared righteous in the spirit.

What on earth? Who are these early Christians singing? Let me ask you this way, who raised

Jesus from the dead? And, and all three of them.

The Bible says all three. Jesus said, remember, I have power to lay down my life and to take it up again. The Bible also says that the father was the one

Romans eight, 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, the father, and the

Bible also says that Romans one, four, he's was appointed to be the powerful son of God, according to the spirits of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.

Let's be a three 18. Christ suffered. Also Christ suffered for sins. Once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God.

He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirit. When Paul says that Jesus was declared righteous by the spirit, that he was vindicated by the spirit, here's what he means that Jesus died.

Now, if Jesus died, well, okay. He's gone the way of all the earth. Everyone died. You know, ultimate statistic, one out of one people die.

But the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, the spirit was bearing witness that this one here, he's not like everyone else.

The fact that he rose from the dead, think about it. Lots of people got resurrected in the Bible actually, but all of them died again.

This one was resurrected never to die again. The spirit testifies.

He declares him to be the righteous one. His sacrifice is accepted.

And we know this because he was raised from the dead. He was manifested in the flesh.

He was vindicated in the spirit. He was seen by angels. Some debate about what this means. I take this as a reference to his ascension.

So Jesus raises from the dead by the power of the spirit. And as he rises from the dead, eventually he returns to heaven.

And the Bible makes us to understand that Jesus left this earth and he went back to heaven, but he didn't just go back to heaven.

He went back to heaven to a hero's welcome because the Bible tells me he was just one verse six, God, all the people's quote in the old

Testament, but the author of Hebrew says that as Jesus enters into a glory that he says, let all

God's angels worship him. But there's another layer to this because yes,

Jesus goes back to heaven to a hero's welcome. Heaven receives him as the champion who overcame sin, death, and the grave.

But here's the thing. They weren't the only angels watching that happen. Even fallen angels had to acknowledge the most cosmic of elves because of Jesus.

Colossians 2 .15 tells us that he, God the father, disarmed the rulers and authorities. And in that context, he's speaking about spiritual rulers and authorities.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly. He, the father, triumphed over them in him referring to Jesus.

So Jesus's ministry culminates in his ascension, which is technically a part of his earthly ministry.

It's the end of that ministry. And as he goes into heaven, heaven receives him as the champion who won.

Hell has to look at that and say, oh, we got beat. It wasn't even close. That's what

Jesus did. He did that for you, Christian. Where our humanity only condemns us to death, his glorious humanity gives us life.

That where death for us is the end of life and in a sense, in Christ, death is just asleep, preparing us for that day of resurrection.

When the Bible says we will be resurrected just like he was Philippians chapter three, that whereas there was no victory for us and hell had the final say in Christ, that order is now reversed.

That's Jesus's earthly ministry for us. And what's the result of that work? Well, there's now

Jesus's present ministry through us. So the way this breaks up, you've got this in has it as just one block of six lines.

I actually like the way the NIV has it. The NIV has it as two blocks of three lines each. I think that's a better way to reflect what's going on here.

The first three lines, what Jesus does, well, what

Jesus did in his earthly ministry. The next three lines is what Jesus does through his church and his present ministry.

So look at that fourth line. It was manifested in his flesh. Number one, he's vindicated in the spirit. Number two, he's seen by angels.

Number three, number four, he is preached among the nations. This all conquering champion who has returned to heaven, to a hero's welcome.

He commits to the church, the announcement, the proclamation of his victory.

In fact, we use this language of preaching the gospel. You know that that didn't start with us. That was a word picture from the ancient world when

Kings went to war and they won a victory. There were people in the army who were tasked with basically going to all the nearby towns and villages and announcing the victory of that King.

And that is what the ruling and reigning Lord Jesus has called us to do as his people.

Heaven's champion basically tells us, go tell the world I won. But any other human being, we call them arrogant, but here's the thing.

How can he be arrogant when he actually did it? Church proclaims

Jesus among the nations. Look at the next line, believed on in the world, but as he's preached, men and women, boys and girls from all the nations come to find faith in him.

You see this right at the beginning of the church, Acts chapter two, Peter preaches and people from, you ever wonder why

Acts chapter two goes out of his way to tell you that people from this nation, this nation, this nation, this nation, why? Because the announcement of the

King's victory has gone forth. And now the nations are coming to him.

So as he's preached among the nations, he is believed on in the world. Finally, it says that he's taken up in glory.

There's some debate about what this means. I personally land on when he uses language of taken up, maybe not the best way to put this again.

It'd be a better way to put this is that he's lifted up in glory as he is proclaimed as men and women, boys and girls from every tribe, nation and tongue believe in him.

As that takes place, Christ is exalted in all of his glory. That is what should get the church out of bed in the morning.

And it saddens me to say this as our quote, it saddens me to look at the church, even in my own theological camp at times, and to see people who have lost sight of this reality for whom the good news of a risen savior and a sovereign

Lord is not enough. And so they get excited about politics.

They get excited about taking dominion. Those of you who know what I'm talking about, you probably have a good idea who

I'm talking about. That when you want to talk about the gospel and Jesus, they are, we've talked about that enough.

We need to start talking about this thing here. This needs to motivate us. It saddens me.

I mean, it angers me too, it mostly saddens. And the reason it saddens me is very simple. If we have

Jesus, shouldn't that be motivation enough? One of my favorite books was written by a man called

Frederick Lee. He went home to be with the Lord years ago. The book was called, is it nothing to you? Subtitle the significance of the work of Christ.

Is it nothing to you? Here's the danger. It can become nothing because you've heard it so many times. And I've said this before in the life of redeeming.

I'll say it again. I've been around church long enough to know you can hear these things again and again and again, and again, and again, and again.

It's like, yeah, I know that it's old hat. I need something new. No, you don't.

Let's be honest. No, you don't. The good news of this Jesus who is given for us.

The good news of a savior who did everything we could not do and empowers everything he calls us to do.

That should be enough. And it saddens me at times when Christians lose sight of that reality. We will do well to be reminded of the fact that a simple

Jesus is infinitely enough for the world's even most complex problem. And if anybody tells you otherwise, forget their podcasts, forget their

YouTube channels, forget their text messages and Patreons and all the rest of it. Throw that in the trash.

That's where it belongs. In fact, it might be too good for the trash. Why? Because Jesus and the simple proclamation about who he is is enough.

This, that's why I gave this message the title I gave it. This is the heart of God's house, the ruling reigning and victorious

Lord Jesus. Heavenly father, we thank you for this Jesus. We thank you for the fact that he has done all, he has done everything, that there is nothing that we can add to the work that he has done.

All it, all we have is the wonderful privilege of announcing the victory that has already taken place.

Father help us that we would find satisfaction in that alone. That we would not be tempted by this thing or that thing or other things, but ultimately the good news of Jesus given for us would be enough.

Father we thank you for this table that is before us that reminds us of the fact that Jesus is indeed enough. As we come to it now, may the sweetness of the

Lord Jesus be even sweeter to us today. I ask you in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.