House Rule #9 Learn & Live the House Rules (1 Timothy 3:14-16)

As for me,

I said in my prosperity, I shall never be by your favor,

O Lord, and strong.

You answer the

Lord and plead for mercy, what profit is there in my death?

If I go down to the pit, merciful to me, you'll turn from me my mourning into dancing.

You have loosed my shackles and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise, and I'll be silent.

As the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

As the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the precious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep.

As the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

As the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Behold, children, are a heritage from the

Lord, the fruit of a rose in the hand of a warrior, the children of one's youth.

As the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

As the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

He fills his quiver with them, he shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the game.

As the

Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

As the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

As the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Let the words of meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, my Redeemer.

Heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handy work.

For as that speech in night to night reveals knowledge, there is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth, words to the end of the world.

A tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs his course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them.

There is nothing hidden from its heat.

The testimony of the Lord is yours, the precepts of the

Lord are right, the commandment of the Lord is right.

Well good morning, good to see each one of you. The music stopped, and when the music stops, you go for a chair, right?

That tells us it's time to get started. Good to see each one this morning, we're glad you're here, and it's our joy and privilege this morning to open our

Bibles back to 1 Timothy. In our study this morning in House Rules for God's Church, we come to rule number nine, the focal point of this little letter.

Learn and live the House Rules. There's an outline that's out here someplace, if you need an outline,

I'm sure that we're going to have plenty this morning. Learn and live the

House Rules. We've been talking about the House Rules now for several weeks, and this is the passage that that statement comes from.

It really is the centerpiece, the focal point of what Paul wants Timothy to know and understand in his ministry to the

Christians in the city of Ephesus, and so we're going to look at that this morning, rule number nine.

Let's commit our time to our Lord and ask His blessing on our study this morning. Our Father, we do thank

You for this privilege that we have to be able to gather together in the name of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to open Your Word, to be taught by Your Spirit, and we just ask that You would accomplish every purpose that You have for us here this morning, and we will always praise

You in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning, again, we come to this very important point in our study of 1

Timothy because this passage that we're going to see, chapter 3, verses 14 through 16, is the theme verse for Paul's letter to Timothy.

And of course, remember that this letter would have been read to the congregations or the house churches that were in Ephesus, so it would have been what they would understand to be the most important part of this particular letter that he wrote, and really the focal point of Timothy's ministry to these people.

The passage itself then sets the tone for the rest of the letter, so it's thematic, it's the topical center or the hinge point of Paul's letter.

Sometimes, you know, when you read a document or something, the purpose of it's going to be even in the title or even in the first line or two.

Here's why I'm writing this, or here's what this document is all about. Oftentimes, in Scripture, we see that it may be even toward the end.

For example, John's Gospel, he puts his purpose statement way toward the end, all the way at the end of chapter 20.

And he says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So there's a very clear evangelical statement about why he wrote that, but it's placed way toward the end.

Here, Paul puts the focal point right in the middle, and this is fairly typical in certain even passages you might come across that have the focal point right in the very center.

This is sometimes called a chiastic structure based on the Greek letter chi. It looks like an

X, and it's also called an inverse parallel. Kind of some technical jargon, but don't be surprised if the purpose statement in a passage or even in a letter like this is not at the very beginning, but maybe in the middle.

So the focal point is in the middle. Everything flows to it, and then everything flows back out of it.

So just sort of structurally, this is what's going on in chapter 3, verses 14 through 16.

He puts his purpose statement in the middle. Zechariah's great prophecy in Luke chapter 1, if you just stand back and look at that, if you look right in the very middle, what you're going to see is the

Abrahamic covenant, which is the focal point of that. That's also structured as an inverse parallel with the focal point in the middle rather than at the very beginning or at the end, sort of like it's a punchline.

So, house rules for God's church, number 9, learn and live the house rules.

This is chapter 3, verses 14 through 16. Paul says,

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

So in your outline there, it's pretty basic. The church's mandate, the church's mission, and the church's message.

And then I got done with that, I stood back and looked at it, and I thought, well what's the difference between the mission and the mandate? Nothing. What's the difference between the mission and the mandate and the message?

Nothing, because our message is the mandate, and that's also our mission, right? So you know, most people arrive at the truth.

I stumbled into it. But that's okay. So really, we're going to be talking about the main thing is the

Word of God being proclaimed and taught. Well first, the church's mandate. And we start with Paul's hope.

Paul, as you know, had left Timothy and Ephesus to minister there, to set things right. He's so far talked about leadership in the church, elders and then deacons, and before that he dealt with false teachers in the church and their false teachings.

He's going to do that again, because that's a huge issue. But he gets the leadership issue straightened out, and now he's going to talk about what the purpose of the letter is overall.

He says, I hope to come to you soon. His major concern is that Timothy, being left alone in Ephesus, would be able to take care of these issues in the church.

The gospel is under attack by false teachers. The gospel must be not only preached and taught, but it has to be defended as well.

You have to do both things. And it has to be sound or healthy doctrine.

It can't be some deviation from apostolic doctrine. And then he says his purpose in 14b through 15a,

I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

Paul wanted Timothy to have the revelation of God, which is what this is, as to how one ought to behave or live or function in what he calls the household of God.

He says one, how one ought to behave. This is not just for Timothy, or it's not just applied to Christians in the city of Ephesus at that point in time and at that place.

This is the universal marching orders for the church. And by stating it that way, he makes it applicable across all kinds of social and geographical barriers, but also down through the centuries as well.

These are the marching orders for the church. And he uses this architectural language of a household.

It's a common word in the New Testament to speak of a house or a dwelling. But Paul uses it here to speak metaphorically of the church as a house or a household.

That's a really good English word, household, because it puts emphasis on the people within the house, the people and their relationships within the house.

And so as Paul uses it here, the household of God, he's talking about those who are within the household of God, their relationship to God, but also to each other.

It's very important. Paul knows that Timothy needs to hear from God, and Paul knows that this letter is not just his opinion.

This is God's own authoritative word for his church, God's dwelling place,

God's household. Remember Acts 20, we keep going back to that passage where Paul met with the elders of this church several years before on his way down to Jerusalem.

And once again, he said, Pay careful attention to yourselves, to these elders, and to all the flock in which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

So this is a very serious issue about what goes on within the household of God.

God cares about his church. He cares deeply about it, and so does Jesus Christ. He purchased the church with his own blood.

Well, then what's Paul's mandate? That Timothy would know how to behave or live and how he could teach other people the same thing within the household of God.

Timothy's going to have to communicate this to the rest of the church. This letter would have been read in these house churches.

We mentioned it once before, but if you go to the very end, Paul's final greeting, he says, Grace be with you.

That's the very last thing in the letter. The you there is plural. So clearly this is designed to be communicated and read to the people within these various house churches.

This is a how -to manual. God not only tells us the what, he tells us the how -to.

We don't get to decide how to do ministry in the church. The Bible comes with its own set of instructions and rules.

It's very popular and has been for several decades now for entrepreneurial -type church planters to launch a church plant and then to sever all ties with the past, to say things like,

Well, this is not your grandpa's church. This is not even your daddy's church. We're going to do things very much differently.

So they sever ties with the past, and so their methodology can be more attractive to more people.

They listen to the latest church -planting gurus who write books on church planting, and they usually have a few megachurches, you know, massive churches that have used that methodology to be examples to these younger church planters, and they follow down that same pathway.

The problem is when you do that, you change the method, then you also eventually will change the message, and that's exactly what happens.

Paul's method was the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Turn your Bibles to 1

Corinthians 1 for just a quick review of that, and we'll see what

Paul's philosophy of ministry was. Corinth was a difficult place to minister.

He had a tough time there. As we know, they had a lot of issues, a lot of problems in that church, but Paul wasn't really too concerned with what people needed or what people wanted, as we'll see.

In 1 Corinthians 1 .18, the Apostle Paul says this in his letter to the

Corinthian Christians, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

So the word of the cross, the preaching of the cross, is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not

God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know

God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach

Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles.

Very common with church planning efforts, they go around neighborhoods and they'll do surveys, and they'll knock on doors and say,

What would you like in a church? What do you want in a church? What would encourage you to come to church?

And they write that down and then they try to give the people what they want. Paul didn't do that.

Paul couldn't have cared less what people want. The Jews want signs. They wanted miracles.

Could Paul do miracles? You bet he could do miracles. He could have built a massive Jewish church in Jerusalem.

It would have been a mega, mega church, right? Well, what about the Greeks, the Gentiles? They like wisdom.

Could Paul stand toe -to -toe with any Greek philosopher and debate them? You bet he could. He was a brilliant theologian and philosopher.

But Paul was not about giving people what they want. What he said was, We preach

Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to the Gentiles. So be it.

But there's a third group of people that Paul is interested in, a subset of each one of these groups.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

He understood that among the Jews there were the called, the elect, and he understood among the Gentiles there was that same group of people.

He was not interested in tickling ears and giving everybody what they wanted. He preached the gospel because he knew it was the gospel that was going to draw out the called who would be saved by believing in the gospel.

And he says, For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. The things that people nowadays would say, Well, these are very important things.

Noble birth. Powerful people. Right? But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and...

You hearing anything? You Arminians, are you hearing anything here? God chose, God chose,

God chose the elect, the called. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written,

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. That passage there takes any concept of human centeredness in salvation and just takes it right off the table.

If God doesn't call people to salvation, if God doesn't choose people for salvation, that entire passage makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The ultimate purpose of it all is God gets all the glory. Right? This is Paul's method.

He doesn't come up with ways to please people, tickle their ears.

He has one focal point and that's to preach Christ crucified, risen and coming again. So Paul's purpose is to make sure

Timothy knows he is to do God's work, God's way. The church is not

Burger King. You don't get to have it your way. The methodology is determined by God and so is the message.

And so the church's mission then is to do God's work God's way, because the church belongs to God.

He says back in 1 Timothy, If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. It may be here that Paul is co -opting some of the language of the pagans of Ephesus.

It may also be that he's poking at the idolatry that was practiced there.

Particularly concerning the temple of Artemis that was dominant over the city of Ephesus.

That's a dead God. We serve the living God. And very literally, it's the living

God's church. The church is owned by God. It's His. And he says,

The church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Again, he may be co -opting some of the language, or even using some of what they understand about this massive temple that was in Ephesus at the time.

The pillar here is possibly a reference to the temple that was in Ephesus. Temple of Artemis it was called.

The Romans called her Diana. She was a false god. The pillars were used to hold the structure up, to sustain it.

The church has had the word of God deposited in it. We are saved through the word.

We are sanctified through the word. And now we are tasked with a mission of proclaiming that same word and protecting it.

And then it's not just the pillar of the truth. It's the buttress or foundation.

This is the support or foundation. The word of God, the gospel, and of course this imagery may be from that temple.

This massive building that was there in Ephesus that all these people were worshipping.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 19. And we'll just do a real quick review of Acts chapter 19.

Because this is where Paul first had this encounter. Several years before, on his mission trip through Asia, he came to Ephesus.

And we're shown here in Acts chapter 19 what he went through there.

First verse says, And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

There he found some disciples. Now we won't go through all of this, all these details.

But he had that encounter with these disciples and he taught them the real gospel. And we saw then, you see there that the gospel then moves from Jew to Gentile.

And the final fulfillment of what the Lord had said would happen. You will be my witnesses. He's out there in Gentile country now, out in the nations.

And clearly now the gospel moves to these Gentiles. And then down in verse 8, it says,

He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.

This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the

Lord, both Jews and Greeks. There's a good working definition of how

Paul uses this word, all. All without exception or all without distinction.

Well, he defines it for you right here in the context. All the residents, which ones? Both Jews and Greeks.

His ministry is extending out to the Gentile world. That's where he is and that's where he wants to be.

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul. So that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick.

And their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Again, Paul, if he wanted to, he could have built a massive ministry just around that.

And he could have had prayer cloths and little pieces and cut them up and sold them to people. He could have made a lot of money and had a massive church.

He wasn't interested in that. And then, of course, we have that great story, one of my favorite stories, about the seven sons of Sceva, this

Jewish high priest who wanted to take part in that and wound up fleeing out of the house naked and wounded.

I like that story. And it says in verse 17, This became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both

Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Also, many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.

So Paul's ministry has an impact. These people are being saved. In verse 19 says,

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them and found it came to 50 ,000 pieces of silver.

And here you have in verse 20, the fifth progress report in Acts. So the word of the

Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. And here's what really we're coming to here.

Now after these events, this is verse 21, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying,

After I have been there, I must also see Rome. Paul wanted to go to Rome because Rome was the focal point, the center of Gentile power.

And he was going after the Gentiles. But he stays there in Asia. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers,

Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

It's talking about the temple of Artemis, the temple to this goddess. The temple of Artemis was a massive structure and it dominated the city of Ephesus.

It eventually was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It was double the size of the

Parthenon in Athens. It had been built once and then destroyed by fire. But when they rebuilt it, they rebuilt it with tremendous financing.

And it was carved out of marble. The columns were carved out of marble.

And by the time Paul arrived there, this thing had been standing there for quite some time. And this cult to the goddess

Artemis, or Diana as the Romans called her, was in full force. It had 127 columns which were 60 feet high, 4 feet in diameter, carved out of marble.

They were arranged in a double row on all four sides, 8 or 9 on the short sides and 20 or 21 on the long sides.

These columns, this whole thing was over 300 feet long.

It was 425 feet in length and 225 feet wide. Again, twice the size of the

Parthenon in Athens. And it was hand carved. There is actually in the

British Museum now one of the recovered bases that they dug out.

Hauled it back to the British Museum. It's 6 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, weighs about 19 ,000 pounds.

It's this big cylinder that the columns would have stood on. The buttress probably is what Paul is talking about here.

And it's very ornately carved all the way around with all these different Greek gods and things. But this is what was being worshipped then in the city of Ephesus.

Paul is impacting these guys' business of selling these little shrines, these little images of the goddess

Diana. I suppose, I don't know what people did with them. Maybe they stuck them on the front of their chariot, and they could be driving around with that up there.

But this is damaging their business. So back to chapter 19, verse 24.

A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

They're making a lot of money. These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said,

Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this

Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess

Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all

Asia and the world worship. When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater.

You can still, the remnants of that amphitheater are still there on the hillside. You can actually see it on Google Earth.

You can go find that in the city of Ephesus where Paul and these people actually were. And when they heard this, they were enraged, were crying out,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. The city was filled with confusion. They rushed into the theater, dragging with them

Gaius and Aristarchus, the Macedonians, who were Paul's companions, and traveled. But when

Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. Good old Paul, you've got to love

Paul. Is he salty or what? He wants to be right in the middle of the riot, right? But they wouldn't let him. Fortunately, they held him away from there.

And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.

But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours, they all cried out with one voice,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! And eventually the whole thing settles down and the people go away.

But this could very well be what Paul is playing off of, this well -known temple with the columns supported on the buttresses, and also when he says, the living

God's church. We don't serve a dead God. We don't serve a dead idol, no matter how magnificent is the structure.

We serve the risen Christ, who is the true and living God. So the church's mission, the church belongs to God, and the church must protect

God's word, because the church is a pillar and buttress of the truth.

And so then Paul is probably co -opting these terms and redefining these terms, and even doing that when he gets to verse 16, when he says,

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

This is Paul saying, in effect, all these idols, they're not great.

Artemis is not great. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

And he uses this very interesting word here, different translations have it different ways, we confess or by common confession.

Here's what we proclaim. Here's what's truly great, great indeed, the mystery of godliness.

And of course he's talking about Jesus Christ. Because what follows, and most of your

English translations probably have this verse separated out so it almost looks like a little poem.

This is probably an early confession of the church, because Paul says, we confess, we commonly confess.

This is what we confess. And it's thought by some scholars that this statement of the person and work of Jesus Christ was also even put to music, so it could have been a very early ancient hymn sung in these house churches in the city of Ephesus.

Great indeed, we confess. And very literally it's, and we confess, or by common confession, is the mystery of godliness.

Godliness is a word that we've seen before, and it really is the combination of truth and morality together.

And they're always together in Scripture. And the greatest example of that, of course, was Jesus Christ. John tells us that early on in his

Gospel, in his Gospel prologue, that we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the

Father, full of grace and truth. He was the perfect example of the godliness that God requires, the righteousness of God, because he was

God in humanity. He was that perfect one. And so Paul goes through these six little statements where he confesses or talks about who

Jesus Christ truly is. And this is the church's message. And it's a great confession.

And this is probably, again, would have been interesting to hear it sung within a congregation.

They did not have copies of the Word of God. So a very concise statement like this, various elements of it, would have been made, if it was put in the form of a confession, it would have become very portable for them.

They could have memorized it in church because they didn't, probably most of them couldn't even read. They didn't have copies of Scripture.

They couldn't read, but they could hear. So they would go and they would hear this. And somebody probably condensed the teaching of Christ down and probably a confession, probably even put to music.

But the first thing he says, he was manifested in the flesh. Now some of the older English translations, like the older King James, even say

God was manifested in the flesh. Those are based on manuscripts that are later manuscripts.

And there's a very interesting issue going on here. We won't get into it or solve it.

But whether or not it actually says he or he who, or does it say God? Well, either way, it's going to come out the very same way.

This is a statement of the deity of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of Christ. He was manifested in the flesh.

The word manifests obviously to show or to reveal oneself. And again, back to John, John chapter 1.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

So this is a statement of the incarnation, but it's also a statement of the humanity of Jesus Christ.

And it was revealed. In 2 Timothy 1 .10, Paul also says, Now has been revealed by the appearing of our

Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

He was revealed, he says. This goes way back into the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 7, very familiar verse.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called

Emmanuel. The word means God with us, as you well know. And again, very familiar from Christmastime.

Isaiah 9 .6, For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Clearly a statement of the incarnation of the eternal God, just like John develops in his gospel prologue.

He talks about the word, the word was with God, and how the word is eternal.

And then it's John's version of the Christmas story in verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Even clear back, we've already seen this, Paul makes mention of this back in chapter 1, verse 15, when he says,

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

That's a statement, it's easy to kind of run across these statements, but that's a statement of pre -existence.

The same thing when Jesus talks about, I was sent by the Father. You and I can't say that.

You and I can't say that we were sent by the Father. Now, we can say it from the standpoint of in our lifetime here and now, being sent to do a mission for God or whatever, we do have that.

But Jesus said, I was sent by the Father. That's a statement of pre -existence.

And so, he was manifested in the flesh. And then he was vindicated by the

Spirit. A little interpretive things here, does it mean vindicated in the Spirit or by the Spirit? Maybe the best understanding of it is by the

Spirit, capital S, by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was at work during the entire ministry of Jesus Christ.

He was at work, of course, as we know, in his conception.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. At his baptism, Matthew 3, verse 16 says,

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and, behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the

Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And, behold, a voice from heaven said,

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. So there you have a Trinitarian focus there,

God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, all in that one event. And, of course, Hebrews 9, verse 14, at his crucifixion, this is a verse that's just incredible to me.

The writer of Hebrews says, How much more? And, of course, as we have been learning, Hebrews is about the superiority of Christ in all these different ways.

And the writer says, How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal

Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living

God? At his crucifixion, the Spirit of God was involved, offering up his life without blemish to God.

That is some very deep water, okay? But we're told the eternal Spirit offered himself.

He did that through the eternal Spirit. And then the Spirit was involved, of course, in his resurrection.

Paul says in Romans 1 -4 that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God, declared to be, certified absolutely without any kind of question, certified and declared to be the

Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead,

Jesus Christ our Lord. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proved that he was exactly who he said he was.

And Paul acknowledges the Spirit's work in that. And, again, in Romans 8 -11, the

Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, Paul says. The Spirit was also involved, as we saw in his crucifixion, but also in his ascension to the

Father. John 16 -7, Jesus himself says, he's in the upper room, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, the Spirit, but if I go,

I will send him to you. So the ascension of Christ to the Father was critical, and then he sent the

Spirit down. The Spirit is involved in his entire ministry, vindicated by the

Spirit. And then he's seen by angels. This is also really fascinating.

Angels are always involved in Christ and in the ministry that he has.

Even back in eternity, we're told in the Old Testament, Psalm 148 -2, Deuteronomy 32, angels worshipped him in eternity.

Angels were involved in the annunciation of his birth, but also his conception.

Remember the angel Gabriel came to Mary? He announced the conception of Christ. When he was born, the angels sang praises to God at his birth,

Luke 2. And even after his temptation, after Satan left him, angels came and ministered to him.

They announced his resurrection, they were there at his ascension. And, by the way, when he returns, it says in 2

Thessalonians 1, they will accompany him in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God. These are formidable creatures who attend Christ in every aspect of his ministry.

And then in Revelation 5, verse 11, what a passage about what angels long to do and love to do.

This is John basically taking us to a scene in heaven. There's the creatures around the throne, and they sang a new song saying,

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

By the way, fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, all the families of the earth, all the nations of the earth, still identifiable as various people groups, even up in heaven.

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign, where?

On the earth. Different issue, but it's right there. Now listen to this, Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

He was seen by angels all through eternity. They are around him, they attend to him, they minister to him, and they praise him in heaven.

And then D, of course, proclaimed among the nations. Christ was, is, and will be proclaimed among the nations until he returns.

Sometimes this word nations is translated Gentiles, but here again we have the issue of the extension of the gospel into the nations.

He is preached, he is to be preached. It's one of the main mandates to the church is to proclaim the word of God, preach the word of God.

He commands his disciples to make disciples of all the nations, Matthew 28, 19.

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he was so committed to reaching

Gentiles for Jesus Christ that as we saw, he got that kind of a backhanded compliment from that guy in Ephesus, you know, talking about all who lived in Asia heard the word, and this guy

Paul is taking people away from our business. Well, that's a compliment. He didn't mean it that way, but it really truly was.

So the proclamation among the nations. And of course, if the word of God is proclaimed, it's going to be believed.

This is E, believed on in the world. The result of the preaching of Christ throughout the world is that he will be believed, he'll be trusted for who he is and for what he accomplished.

Paul's opponents in Ephesus, they were angry at him because they were losing customers in their idle trade.

Paul didn't care. He was there to preach and teach the word of God because he understood, as he said in Romans 1, 16, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

That's why he preached it. He wasn't interested in tickling people's ears, didn't care what people wanted to hear, wasn't concerned about meeting felt needs.

He had one mission, one command, and that was to preach the gospel. Faith comes from hearing, he said, and hearing by the word of Christ, Romans 10, 17.

He uses the word rhema there. The word rhema is simply a speech or an oratory. People have done some strange things with that little verse.

I have heard some of the oddest interpretations coming from false teachers talking about a rhema word as if it's some sort of a super duper magical word.

It simply is a speech, all right? How hard is this? Faith comes from hearing a speech about Christ.

It's just that simple. You want people to come to Jesus Christ? Tell them about Jesus Christ. That's what

Paul said. People believe on him when they hear his message, believed on in the world, and then finally, taken up in glory.

Christ ascended to be at the right hand of this Father in heaven, and it was demonstration by God that the

Father was pleased with him and his work of sacrifice on the cross. Perfect life, atoning death, fully satisfied, the

Father on behalf of his people. The heart of the church's message is the gospel.

The heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ, and this little creed or probably a little hymn here just captures that.

It even has kind of a chronological progression to it as you walk right through it. So this is the mission of the church.

It's the mandate of the church, and of course it's the message of the church as well, and it's also the focal point and the heart of this little letter that Paul wrote to Timothy.

Make sure that you learn and know and do what he wants you to do in the church because the church is the church of the living

God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. So do you have any questions or thoughts on what we've seen from this passage?

Okay, let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you once again for your word and your spirit who is our teacher.

We thank you that in this very concise way we once again have our thoughts, our hearts and minds drawn to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

May it always be that we are people who love you through him and that we continue to be faithful to proclaim your word and to have

Christ at the very center of that ministry. And we thank you now, Father, that we are able to gather in fellowship to worship you, to sing praises to you and to focus on our great

God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Be with those who lead us now and who proclaim your word.

Give them great joy and strength in their ministries and help us to fellowship in Christ's name.

We just thank you for all you're doing, and we thank you in Christ's—for his sake, for his glory, and in his name.