God's House Rules #5 - God's House for all Nations (1 Tim 2:1-7) | Kofi Adu-Boahen

New chapter this morning, 1 Timothy and chapter number 2.

And we're going to read the first seven verses together.

1 Timothy, chapter 2, and verses 1 through 7.

If you have one of the Bibles that we give away, that's on page 1051.

1 Timothy, chapter 2, and verses 1 through 7.

If I can invite you to do so, would you stand with me as we read this portion.

Of God's Word?

We'd like to stand at this point to symbolize our submission to the Word of God and our reverence for it.

1 Timothy, chapter 2, reading from verse 1 through to verse 7.

Brothers and sisters, these are God's words to us this morning.

First of all then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and

thanksgivings be made for everyone.

For kings and for all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and

quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good.

And it pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man,

Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

For this, I was appointed a herald, an apostle, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, and a

teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but this Word of our God will remain forever.

Let's pray, ask for the Lord's help, and we will come to His Word this morning.

Heavenly Father, we ask for your help as we both hear your Word and we seek to

live our lives in light of it.

Heavenly Father, as we think about your plan for the nations and our role as the people of God in that plan,

I pray that you would help us, that we would honor you in not just knowing what you've called us

to, but also to live in light of that reality.

May your Spirit be at work helping us to hear your Word and not just hear it, but to also obey it, and not just to

obey it, but to obey it from the heart.

Father, as we pray for our time of worship here, we pray for our brothers and sisters at Creekside Bible Church up in Rogue River, pray for Pastor

Lucas as he continues his preaching series through 1 and 2 Samuel, pray that you bless

the ministry of your Word there as he preaches Christ from the Old Testament, pray for his elder team and the

church there that you can see to bless them.

We thank you for a good and a warm relationship we have with them and pray that you would bless them as they

gather to worship.

Be with them and be with us now as we come to your Word.

And we ask all this in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen.

Please be seated.

We serve a God who has a plan for the nations.

I think we can easily lose sight of that, especially in our age where we are very individual by nature and we primarily think

as individuals.

And so we can sometimes read our Bibles in a very individualistic kind of way.

But actually, if you read the Bible and you read it closely, it's very, very clear from reading God's Word

that our God has a plan not just for individuals, but for the

world, for the nations.

That plan revolves around His desire to create a redeemed people from all the

nations through the prayerful witness of His people.

Allow me to say that again, that God's plan for the nations revolves around

His desire to create a redeemed people from all the nations

through the prayerful witness of His people.

Just in case you're not convinced of that, as we get started this morning, before we get to 1 Timothy 2, I want to take us

on a kind of jet tour through the Bible very quickly.

I hope you've got a Bible nearby.

You're going to need it because I'm going to just have us look at some passages real quickly.

And what I want us to do as we kind of do a jet tour through the Bible is for us to.

Consider God's global plan.

What is it that God is doing as God has this plan for the nation?

How do we get from eternity past in the mind of God to what God is

doing in 2024 here in the Rogue Valley?

Well, like I said, I want us to look at some Bible passages, and I want you to see them in your own Bible.

So take your Bible and turn with me.

Let's start right at the beginning.

Book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 1, page 1 in your Bibles.

Genesis chapter 1, right at the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1.

God has finished creating the earth as we know it, and on day 6 of creation, the final day of the

creation week, we read these words.

Genesis chapter 1 and verses 26 to 28.

Genesis 1, 26 to 28.

God says,.

Then God said,.

Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl

on the earth.

So God created man in his own image.

He created him in the image of God.

He created them, male and female.

God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply.

Fill the earth and subdue it.

Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.

So right at the beginning of creation, God gives what some Bible students and Bible teachers have called the cultural

mandate or the dominion mandate.

That under the direct rule of God, man was to fill the earth and spread the rule

of God through the earth.

So that's what we start there as we think about God's plan for all the nations.

It starts with this cultural or this dominion mandate.

But fast forward with me to Genesis chapter 12.

As we fast forward to Genesis chapter 12, I'll fill in some of the details as you turn there.

Genesis chapter 3, the fall happens.

And man who is created in the image of God to rule and to reign is now made subject to

creation in the fall.

But God's plan isn't aborted, as it were.

God's plan doesn't fail.

It simply shifts.

And as you come to Genesis chapter 12, God establishes his covenant with Abraham.

I will be there, Genesis chapter 12, and the first three verses.

Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, it says, You always said to Abraham, go from your

land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse anyone who treats you

with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed

through you.

So God has this particular plan for Abraham and his seed, and yet God's plan for Abraham and his

seed is expanded to deal with all the peoples of the earth.

And it's a good plan for all the peoples of the earth, that all the peoples on earth will be

blessed through you, Abraham.

Well, Abraham's seed grows, right?

Exponentially.

Coming to Exodus chapter 19, they go into the land of Egypt, as God promised they would in Genesis 15.

They come out of the land of Egypt.

We know that event as the Exodus.

In Exodus chapter 19, they have come out of Egypt, and now God is speaking to his people post the

Exodus.

Exodus chapter 19, and verses 5 and 6.

Exodus 19, 5 and 6.

God says, now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of

all the peoples, even though the whole earth is mine.

So God says, I, as the sovereign and the creator, the whole world belongs to me, and yet I have a specific

plan for you, my people.

What's that plan, verse 6?

And you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.

And God says that these are the words that you, Moses, are to say to the Israelites.

Notice that God says of his people that these people were to have one function, that they were to be

his kingdom of priests, his priestly kingdom, this kingdom that represents

him before men.

That's what a priest does.

A priest represents God before men.

He says, you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.

God's plans for Abraham's seed was to be this kingdom of priests, if I can put it another way, to be his holy

embassy in the midst of the nations.

Well, fast forward with me all the way to the Psalms.

So we're going to skip a bunch of books in the Old Testament.

Join me in the Psalms.

Psalm 9.

Well, you fast forward to the Psalms, and part of this priestly, kingly mission that the people of God

have, part of their mission is to proclaim the goodness and the greatness

of our God.

So as we get to the Psalms, the Psalms point out to us that part of this kingly and priestly mission of

the people of God is to proclaim the goodness and the greatness of our God.

So join me in the book of Psalms.

Psalms 9, verse 11.

Psalm 9, 11.

The psalmist says, sing to the Lord who dwells in Zion.

Proclaim his deeds among the nations.

Psalm 18.

Psalm 18 and verse 49.

Psalm 18, 49.

Therefore, I will give thanks to you among the nations.

Lord, I will sing praises about your name.

Psalm 67.

Jump over a whole bunch of Psalms.

Psalm 67.

The psalmist crying out to God.

Psalm 67, verse 4.

Psalm 67, 4.

The psalmist says, let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for you judge the

people with fairness and lead the nations on earth.

See ya.

Again, now you don't sing this constant drum beat of not just the nation of Israel praising the Lord,

but the nations praising the Lord.

That was Israel's mission to proclaim the goodness and the greatness of our God.

That was Israel's mission, but all you have to do is read the Old Testament to realize Israel failed sadly in that mission.

Israel failed, just like Adam failed in the garden.

Israel failed in its mission.

But God never fails.

And he promises that one would come who would be that light to the nation, who would

be that one who proclaims his goodness and his greatness, not just to his covenant

people, Israel, but to the nations of the world.

So turn with me to the prophecy of Isaiah.

Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon,

Isaiah.

Prophecy of Isaiah.

In Isaiah chapter 42, Isaiah chapter 42, this is the beginning of what are known as the

servant songs in Isaiah.

These very interesting songs where God speaks to his servant and

there's some ambiguity about who the servant is, and that's intentional.

This isn't a whole message to talk about the servant songs.

We'll do that another time, Lord willing.

But for now, Isaiah 42, I just want you to notice some things that God says about this.

Servant.

Isaiah 42 .1, God says, this is my servant.

I strengthen him.

This is my chosen one.

I delight in him.

I have put my spirit on him.

He will bring justice to the nations.

Then over a few chapters, Isaiah 49.

This is where it gets very explicit what God is going to do through this servant.

Isaiah 49 .5 and 6, Isaiah 49 verses 5 and 6, the

prophet says, and now says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him

so that Israel might be gathered to him.

For I am honored in the sight of the Lord and my God is my strength.

He says, it is not enough for you to be my servant, raising up the tribes of Jacob and

restoring the protected ones of Israel.

I will also make you a light to the nations, to be my

salvation to the ends of the earth.

Are you tracking with me what we're kind of seeing as we do this kind of jet tour through.

The Bible?

That God's plan is not local, it's global.

And this plan will come to perfect focus through this one he calls the servant.

Now, we don't get the identity of this servant in the Old Testament.

We know he's coming.

We know what he will do, but we don't know who he is.

Not till we get to the New Testament.

Come with me to John's gospel.

John chapter 12.

In John chapter 12, you have these Greeks who come and they're seeking Jesus.

And the disciples are mystified by this because the Greeks are the folks out there.

Again, it talks about Israel failing in this mission.

Israel was not supposed to be so separate from the nations, it didn't reach them.

The disciples are mystified by this.

Jesus is not mystified by this.

And in John chapter 12, verse 32, know what Jesus says there, John 12, 32?

He says, as for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, and I take that to be a reference to the cross,

if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people

to myself.

Ah, now we know who this servant is, who this one is, who would bring the nations to himself.

Jesus is the one through whom God's salvation would reach the very ends of the

earth.

He is the one who is the servant, who would be that perfect witness to who God was, not just to the nation of

Israel, but to the entirety of the world.

That was his mission.

And here's the thing, that mission is now the mission of those who are united to faith in Jesus.

So we kind of went forward, let's go backwards just a little bit.

Matthew chapter 28, familiar words if you've been in church for any length of time, but allow us to read them again.

Matthew 28, reading in verse 18, text says, Jesus came near

and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, literally out of all the nations.

In other words, you are to take this message to the nations.

And as you go out of these nations, you will make disciples.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.

The mission of God becomes the mission of the servant.

The mission of the servant, our Lord Jesus, becomes the mission of the servant's people,.

The church.

I take us on that light speed tour of the Bible this morning, because our text here in 1 Timothy chapter 2,

we're going to get to 1 Timothy 2 eventually.

Our text in 1 Timothy chapter 2 is one more piece in that big Bible theme,

this theme of God's global plan for the salvation of the nations.

As we come to chapter 2 in our study of 1 Timothy, we're working our way passage by passage through this letter.

As we come to chapter 2, we're actually starting a new section.

So if you remember in chapter 1, I said this a couple of times in our previous messages, chapter 1 is really about

distinctions.

The distinction between the false and the truth.

The distinction between the gospel and everything else.

Really what Paul was teaching us in chapter 1, well through Timothy, but by extension to all of God's people, is how

to respond to false teaching.

That's really the heading you can give to chapter 1, responding to false teaching.

We respond to false teaching by knowing the gospel, by celebrating the gospel, and by

defending the gospel.

So chapter 1 is responding to false teaching.

This new section that's beginning, which is going to span beginning in chapter 2, right through to chapter 3 verse 13,

Paul has some other work to do.

You can really give this section the heading, if you will, restoring the church's mission.

So chapter 1 is responding to false teaching.

Chapter 2, right through to chapter 3 verse 13, restoring the church's mission.

We saw in chapter 1 that Timothy was in Ephesus to identify who these false teachers

were and to intercept their teaching with the truth.

Well, not only does he have to deal with their teaching, he now has to deal with the effects of their teaching.

And it becomes very apparent as you read chapters 2 and 3 that some of the effects of their teaching involved

confusion about the message of the church.

But not just the message of the church, but also the mission of the church.

What does the church do?

And that was confusion that Timothy would have to work very hard to fix.

The reality is, though, that some of that same confusion still exists in our day.

Some of the issues that Paul is going to touch on, and let me just give you a helpful one, we're going to touch on some controversial issues, not so

much this Sunday.

Next Sunday, definitely.

And when we get to chapter 3, definitely.

But some of the confusion that Paul wants Timothy to deal with, can I put it to you that some of that

confusion still happens today in 2024?

And so, actually, the next few messages, yes, we're going to deal with some very heavy concepts, but hang in there

because these areas are crucial.

They are critical for us to understand if we're going to operate according to, as we've called this

series, God's house rules.

This morning, Paul gets started.

And this morning, Paul is going to get to the heart, really, of who we are as God's people and how best we

live that out.

What is the church's role in the global plan of God?

If God has this plan that involves all the nations, well, what is the church's role in that plan?

We know what God's role is.

He planned it.

We know what Jesus's role is.

He is the one who receives this mission and began the mission.

Well, where do we fit in?

That's what we're going to think about this morning.

Here's my big idea for this message this morning.

Real simple.

The church is called to pray for and proclaim God's good news of

salvation to the nation.

Nations, excuse me.

The church is called to pray for and proclaim God's good news of salvation to the

nation.

The church is called to pray for and proclaim God's good news of salvation to the nations.

Very simple idea.

As we look at this passage, we're going to see that God calls the church to two things, prayer and proclamation.

We pray and we proclaim God's good news of salvation for the nations.

For the rest of our time this morning, I want us to consider two pivotal facets of the church's role

in God's global salvation plan.

If God has this plan and the church has a place in it, well, what is the church's place in that?

I think there are two pivotal facets that we're going to learn from this

text.

If the church is going to play its role in God's global salvation plan, if the church is going to be a house

for all nations, then we have to understand point number one this morning, a commitment to

evangelistic prayer and practice.

A commitment to evangelistic prayer and practice.

The first thing that I want to point out to you, which I think is kind of if this section, I believe from my study and

looking into this book, if this section is dealing with restoring the church's mission, particularly at Ephesus and by

extension, every church, it's interesting that Paul starts not with a

matter of doctrine or Christian teaching.

It's interesting he doesn't start with some matter of church practice.

It's interesting he doesn't deal with some cultural concern, as it were.

The first place where Paul points Timothy to put things right, did you catch it,

is the issue of corporate prayer.

Look at chapter two, verse one.

First of all then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and

thanksgivings be made for everyone.

When Paul says first of all, he means both in terms of what to do first, but also what's first in importance.

It's not either or, it's both and.

Essentially, he says, Timothy, the church in Ephesus has kind of gotten off track.

You need to start here in getting the church back to where it should be.

Remember, those of you who've been here in our study, I've said that Timothy is written, let's refer to Timothy,

is written to Timothy, but it's written to Timothy with the understanding that everyone's going to eavesdrop on what Paul is saying.

And that's important when we come to this section.

I think it's really important here.

Why?

Because when Paul says that first of all, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and

thanksgiving be made for everyone, he's not just saying, Timothy, you need to get on that.

He's saying, no, church of Ephesus, you need to get on that.

Paul is, in essence, calling the people of God back to the place of prayer as

a matter of priority.

Again, the first thing he says out of the gate is,

you all need to be...

He's very specific with the kinds of prayer that he calls for.

So, in the Christian Standard Bible, which is a translation I preach out of, the four words here are translated as petitions,

first of all.

That's the kind of prayer that deals with specific situations of need.

So, he says petitions, he says prayers, that's kind of the general New Testament word for prayer.

Intercessions, those are prayers that are specifically made on the behalf of others.

So, you've got prayers for situations, you've got general kinds of prayers, you've got prayers that are made specifically on

the behalf of others, that's what intercession is.

He says thanksgivings as well.

Prayers of thanks offered to God for his provision.

And so, you've got four different kinds of prayer, but they're not really four different kinds.

I should probably even watch my words here.

The differing words here are simply shades of the same thing.

God -centered, spirit -empowered, corporate prayer.

Because again, he's not just telling Timothy, you as a leader need to pray, he's saying church, you need

to pray.

Again, I ask with all the problems that were happening in the church of Ephesus, with all the problems that have been caused by the

false teachers, why would Paul start here?

Well, I asked that question, but I've got to check myself, because I might suggest that maybe I'm asking the wrong question there.

Maybe the question is not, why start here?

Maybe that's not the right question.

You know what the right question might be?

Why not start here?

Why does it feel strange to us?

I don't know, maybe it doesn't to you.

As I studied this past, I did ask myself the question, why here?

Not in the sense, again, this is God's Word, so I don't get to argue with it, but I did want to wonder, okay, why does Paul think

this is so important that he has to start here of all places?

Now, like I said, I have to be myself and say, well, why wouldn't I start here?

I mean, think about it.

God is sovereign, amen?

God is sovereign.

He has all power.

He doesn't just have all power, he has all the means at his disposal to act on that power.

And yet the God who is sovereign, who can do everything, actually, he calls

us, lowly human beings that we are, he calls us to

pray.

And it's so important, in fact, that Paul, as he's writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, that Paul

feels the need to tell Timothy, Timothy, you have to start here.

Why?

Well, can I put it to you?

This is just my take on this.

Can I put it to you that prayer is important because the global salvation plan of God only becomes real

when the church prays?

If you're at Redeemer, you probably know the quote I'm about to say.

I say it all the time.

If you're new to Redeemer, Kofi has a really famous quote on prayer that he really enjoys.

It's not by Kofi, it's by a guy called John Bunyan, that wrote Pilgrim's Progress.

John Bunyan said, we can do more than pray after we have prayed, but we cannot do more than pray

before we pray.

The reality is, if the church is going to take its place as the vehicle of God's salvation to the nations,

before we plan or say or do anything, we must be about the

urgent business of prayer.

I think I've mentioned this story before, but when I

was in college, the brother who led our Christian union, his name was Tom Woodbridge, his

name was Woody.

First day at the Christian union, first thing I heard him say, he said, as a Christian union,

we talk to people about God, but before we do that, we talk to God

about people.

And like I said, that just burned into my brain, that before we can get on our feet to

talk to people about God, we have to get on our knees and talk to God about people.

God's salvation plan doesn't come to fruition until his people pray.

But that begs a question.

It's a convicting question, but I think we need to ask it.

If that is true, if it is true that God's will will not happen in the earth without the prayers of his people, that he has

ordained things, if I wanted to be somewhat flippant, which I don't, but bear with me, I could almost say he has rigged

this thing.

That the only way that this works is that his people pray.

If that is true, here's the question for me that I think is pretty convicting.

If that is true, then why do so few of our churches, and why do so few in our

churches gather for kingdom -focused, evangelistically oriented

prayer?

Told you, that question stings, don't it?

It's a question I had to ask myself this week as I studied this passage.

Why do so few of us gather to pray for opportunities to like Paul does in Colossians 4 -2 where he prays that

the Lord would open up an opportunity for the gospel?

Why do so few of us gather to pray to God to raise up more laborers like Jesus said we should?

Remember Matthew 9 -38?

He said, pray the Lord of the harvest that he may send more laborers into the harvest.

Why do so few of us pray for specific groups of lost people the way that the apostle Paul did in Romans 10 -1 where he said his

heart's prayer for his fellow Jews was that they would be saved?

Why do so few of us gather to pray for boldness and our witness like Paul does in Ephesians

6 -19?

If I can make things a

little more uncomfortable, if it isn't uncomfortable already.

Why is it that on the few occasions when we do gather for prayer, so little of our

prayers are evangelistic in how they lead?

One of my favorite Bible teachers, the late Dr. John Stott.

John Stott pastored All Souls Church in central London, the BBC church.

This was right behind where the BBC was headquartered for years.

John Stott tells a story one time.

He says, some years ago I attended public worship in a certain church.

The pastor was absent on holiday and a lay elder led the pastoral prayer.

He prayed that the pastor might enjoy a good vacation, which was fine, and that two lady

members of the congregation might be healed, which is also fine because we should pray for the sick.

But that was all.

The intercession can hardly have lasted 30 seconds.

Dr. Stott goes on and says, I came away saddened, sensing that this church worshipped a little village god of

their own devising.

There was no recognition of the needs of the world and no attempt to embrace the world

in prayer.

I found that story in another commentary

by R. Kent Hughes.

I've quoted him a couple of times in our study.

Commenting on that story, Dr. Hughes said, such restricted sympathies, the kind in that story from John Stott, he

says, such restricted sympathies must never be tolerated corporately or privately.

Our prayers must, catch the way he says this, our prayers must embrace the globe

as well as our nearest and dearest.

It's not, please don't hear what, please don't hear what I'm not saying.

I'm not saying that there's no place for personal prayer requests for personally.

Far from it.

You see those in the Bible.

That's perfectly appropriate.

I'm not saying it's wrong to ask for personal prayer for needs or things that are close to our hearts.

Far from it.

But if I, again, if I made this uncomfortable enough, let me make it a little more uncomfortable.

I am saying it is wrong when all we pray for in our corporate prayer time is our personal needs.

As Dr. Stott said about this church, it kind of has this very little God

mindset.

You know what I mean when I say that?

That all my God cares about are my needs.

At best, the needs of the immediate area I'm in.

Our God, however, is not a local deity.

Our God is a global God.

Our God is not a local God.

He's a global God and our prayer should reflect a global God, not a local

one.

That's why Paul says, I urge that these things be made for everyone, not just for you and not just for the people you love.

Yes, you should pray for the people you love and you should pray for yourself.

Pray for everyone.

In fact, that word everyone is kind of a tame translation.

It literally is just the word all.

This prayer should be made for all.

Paul calls for prayer, but he doesn't just call for prayer.

He calls for strategic prayer because look at verse two.

First of all, then I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and

all who are in authority.

Why does Paul, he says we should pray for everyone, kind of big picture, and then he

kind of shrinks the thing and says, well, you should pray for kings and those who are in authority.

Well, let's be honest.

Regardless of your political leanings, I know we just came out of the election season.

Thank heavens for that.

But regardless of your political leanings, those in authority, whether you like them or not, can we just be honest and say that

they do have some impact on our ability to live?

And that is especially true as gospel people.

When Paul says you should pray here for kings and for those who are in authority, he says pray for those who have

influence in the world around us.

And notice he doesn't, look at what he says, we should pray for kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and

quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

Now, Paul is not saying, and I'm going to quote R. Ken Hughes again here, quote, this was not a prayer to live a quiet middle

-class life free from stress, as some critics have charged.

Paul never encouraged that.

His prayer here for those in authority implicitly asked for peaceful conditions in which

Christians could freely live out exemplary lives so the unsaved would speak well of Christ

and the teaching of God.

As we pray for those with influence in the world around us, we are not doing so so that we can have easier lives.

First of all, we're not promised easy lives as Christians.

Second Timothy 3 .13, all who follow Christ Jesus will suffer

persecution.

We're not necessarily praying for easier lives, although if lives are easy, we thank God for them.

We don't reject the ease of life when it happens.

But no, we're praying here for conditions that would be conducive to, that would lead to

greater gospel witness.

The ultimate goal of the church's prayer is seeing people come to faith in Christ as they

witness a distinctly Christian way of living from the people of God.

You know how Paul says this?

So that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and

dignity.

Two key words there, godliness, life lived in a posture of reverence towards God.

Our lives should be marked by godliness.

He also says our lives should be marked by dignity.

That's a slightly more interesting word.

Actually, this word only appears three times in the New Testament.

And it's interesting, the three times that this word appears are twice in this

letter and one in Titus.

Two letters written to two men who are in very specific contexts where they have to fix things in the church.

This word, it carries the idea of respectability, of gravity, of

seriousness.

It carries this idea that essentially Christians ought to be

marked by godliness in our relationship to God and gravity in how

we conduct ourselves when it comes to the world around us.

Now, gravity is aware that we don't, apart from the physical force, we don't really use much in our culture in

the moral sense.

And so it's very easy to misunderstand what gravity means.

Gravity does not mean having a sour, mean disposition.

It carries more this idea of seriousness in how we approach life.

Paul essentially is saying that we are not to be characterized by looseness, by a lack of consistency, by

sharing the same flippant values as the world around us.

Why?

Here's what I think Paul is getting at.

We are a people of mission and so we should live like people who are on mission.

We are a people of mission.

We are people who have been sent by God to make His name known among the nations, beginning

with the world as we find it around us.

Since we are a people of mission, we should live like people on mission.

There should be a seriousness to what we do as the people of God.

And if the church is going to play its role in God's global plan, if the church is going to truly be a house for

all nations, that requires a commitment to evangelistic prayer and evangelistic practice.

We can't just on the one hand say, well, I'm going to pray and trust that God will bring the heathens, or I'm calling

William Carey at that point.

If you know William Carey, the first missionary, modern missionary anyway, when he wanted to go to India

and he preached to his local Baptist association asking for their help to go to India to preach the gospel, he was

told, history says, by somebody in his association, Mr. Carey, if God wants to save the heathen, He'll do it without you.

The implication being you don't need to go.

God will take care of that.

Well, I for one am thankful that Carey quite frankly told that guy to shut his mouth.

That's not how that works.

There's a commitment that we have to have both to pray, but we can't just pray.

We've also got to live like people who are on mission.

So there's a commitment to evangelistic prayer and practice.

But if we're going to be this house for all nations, if we're going to be this people who are part and play our part in

God's global salvation plan, point number two, there needs to be a consideration of God's evangelistic plan.

A consideration of God's evangelistic plan.

Kofi, what are you getting at?

I put it to you in verses 3 through 7.

Paul lays out why we should pray and why we should live a particular kind of way.

And what he does is he points us back to the evangel, back to the gospel, the good news.

You see, the prayerful witness of God's people, that prayer and practice of God's people is in keeping

with who God has revealed Himself to be in the Scriptures.

I'm going to read verses 3 through 7 in their entirety again.

Paul says, this prayer and living in the kind of way

that allows us to live quiet and tranquil lives in godliness and dignity.

He says, this is good and it pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the

knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom

for all, a testimony at the proper time.

For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, and a teacher

of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

These words here in verses 3 through 7, they describe the foundation of the church's

witness.

And there are really two planks to this.

As we think about God's evangelistic plans, we consider what God is doing.

First of all, our witness as God's people is, first of all, it's rooted in the saving desire of

God.

It's rooted in the saving desire of God, verses 3 and 4.

Our prayer and our evangelism ought to be rooted in God's desire to see all kinds of people

come to faith in His Son.

Paul can say, this is good and it pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved

and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I take everyone there to mean all kinds of people.

God is not just, again, a local deity.

He wants people from a particular group to be saved.

No, He wants people from all the nations to be saved.

I think Paul makes this point also because, as is often the case with false teaching in the New Testament, the false teachers,

remember them in chapter 1, their obsession with the law, had kind of led to this very exclusive attitude.

Well, it makes sense.

If you're going to focus on the law, then you're going to focus on the things that made Israel Israel, and you're going to say, well, you need to be that.

And so that doesn't quite work when we're now preaching this message that says, no, God is doing a work that spans not just

Israel but all the nations.

The false teachers, I would argue, had kind of created a system where God's global plan had been overshadowed by these local

concerns.

And Paul notes that gospel -shaped prayer and practice pleases God because God desires all kinds

of people from all nations and all walks of life to be saved.

And not just to be saved, notice how he says, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,

two sides of the same thing.

Remember what Jesus said?

If you're taking notes, John 17 verse 3.

John 17, Jesus said, this is eternal life, as He's praying to the Father, this is eternal life, that they may

know you, the only true God and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ.

Paul makes it clear that God wants people to be saved, but listen, God has ordained one way that people are saved, and that one way is through the

knowledge of His Son and our Savior, Jesus.

So for a moment, I simply need to ask, do we believe that?

Do we believe in God's desire to see people from all nations come to faith in His

Son?

Do you?

Do you believe that God wants the unsaved world around you to come to

faith in Christ?

Are we convinced that the call to proclaim Jesus to an unbelieving world, are we convinced

that that call is in keeping with God's will?

If we really think about it, mission, wherever God has placed us, I don't think, I think

one of the great, great, great, unfortunate things that has happened is that we think of mission as people who go somewhere else.

I thank God for missionaries.

Let me be clear, I love missionaries.

They're our heroes, and rightfully so, but sometimes we can get to thinking that

they're the people on mission.

I'm not on mission when I live in Medford, Oregon.

Actually, all God's people, wherever they are, are on mission.

Mission, when we think about it, is rooted, catch this, in who we believe God to be and

what we believe He wants.

So, if we think that God is only concerned with our little holy huddles and our sanctified circles, guess what?

Our priorities will reflect that, because you can't, let's just be honest, you can't rise higher than what you think

about God and His word.

So, if you think God is only concerned about me and making my life easier, Wednesday night in our discussion group, I

talked about this, you know, Jesus is kind of an add -on to help me live the American dream, basically.

If that's your view of life, then your priorities are going to reflect that, but if you have a global view of what God is doing,

if you have a view that is bigger than just you, as my mom used to say, I think my mom might be watching, hi mom,

that if you have a view that extends beyond your nose, you know what I mean when I

say that?

That extends beyond what you can see on your face.

If you have a global view of what God is doing, guess what?

You're going to live like it.

Not only is our mission rooted in the saving desire of God, if you want to call it this, the evangelistic

desire of God is also rooted in the saving work of God.

It's also rooted in the saving work of God.

You see, God didn't just want people to be saved.

God didn't just say, well, wouldn't it be great if we could save some of them, they're humans.

God didn't just want people to be saved.

He actively did something about it.

Look at verse five, verse five.

But there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave

himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

When God created man in his own image, he created man in relationship to himself.

When man sinned, the relationship that existed between God and man was shattered.

And where there was once harmony between God and man, where once, if you've read Genesis, you've probably noticed this and

skipped past it, it says that God will come down in the cool of the day and walk with man, a picture of intimacy,

of relationship, where there was once harmony and relationship, there's now conflict and enmity.

And here's the thing, man's sin was not merely passive, it was active.

Again, there was hostility between God and man, between the God who is holy, who is just, who is righteous,

and man who is very unholy, very unjust, and very unrighteous.

The two sides, if you will, are at war.

Unsaved man opposes the things of God, and God's holy wrath against sinful men is real.

Since that is true, the question that hangs over the whole Bible is how would these two

warring sides, the eternal God and sinful men, how would these two warring sides

be brought together?

After all, man won't stop sinning, which means man doesn't stop, as the Bible says, storing up the wrath of God.

So man won't stop sinning like a bad driver does with speeding tickets,

and yet God won't relax the standards of his law because he's unchanging.

So how do you solve the problem?

How do you deal with this problem?

Way back in the early days of history, the book of Job, I would argue, is probably the first book chronologically in terms of time.

Job asked the same question.

If you're taking us to Job 9, 32 and 33, Job wants to answer from God about the sufferings he's going through, and he says,

Job 9, 32, but he, God, is not a man like me that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court.

There is no mediator between us to lay his hand on both of us.

Job wanted a mediator to settle his disputes with God about his suffering.

We need a mediator for a slightly bigger problem than the weight of our own sin,

and the question becomes, who would be the one who could lay his hand?

The idea of laying his hand is the one who kind of says, okay friend, on this side, and on this side says, okay friend,

who would be the one who could essentially lay hold on both hands, on both groups, excuse

me, and reconcile both parties?

Who could possibly fit that bill?

And think about it, not just anybody could do this.

You need somebody who is fully man, who shares man's nature.

You also need someone who's fully God.

Job never got the mediator he wanted, but God supplied the mediator that we needed.

What does Paul say?

Look at our passage again.

There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man,

Christ, Jesus.

The way that God mediates is not to excuse man's sin or to relax his law.

The man, Christ, Jesus, mediates.

Look at verse 6.

God gave the man, Christ, Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a

testimony at the proper time.

This language of a ransom is an interesting one.

It's the word that was used to talk about the payment for the release of a slave.

Yes, man was a willing enemy, but Paul's understanding of man is not just that man is a willing enemy, but man is a captive

enemy.

The world, the flesh, and the devil, the Christians, great enemies, and only Jesus's gift, catch this, of his own

life, frees captives from their sin.

We were in a horrible state and then God stepped in, not just providing a payment,

but think about this, in the person of the Son, God gave his own life as the

payment to free sinners from their chains.

And Paul says that this gift, this giving of the Son was God's testimony, God's witness

to his desire to see sinners saved out of all the nation.

You want proof that God wants to see people saved?

Look at the cross.

If you're here today or you're watching online and you don't know the Lord Jesus, I encourage you, look to

the cross.

The cross is God's great testimony planted in the field of eternity, testifying to the fact

that he is a Savior and that all who come to him in faith

receive eternal life.

And it was those two compelling reasons, the saving desire of God and the saving work of God in Christ, it

was those two compelling reasons that compelled Paul in his ministry.

Look at verse 7 as we close.

Verse 7, Paul says, for this, this message of the ransom, the one who gave his life, the

mediator, for this, I was appointed a herald, an apostle,

I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and

truth.

Paul's teachers may have questioned Paul's authority, but Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Let's not play that game.

Let's not do that.

Because Paul was a herald.

The word for herald comes from this idea of proclaiming the good news of the victory of Christ over the believer's enemy.

That's why Paul was an apostle sent on Christ's mission with Christ's authority.

That's why Paul was a teacher, expounding and explaining the truths of Christ among the nations, playing

his own role in being that light to the nations that Israel had failed to be.

Paul knew this gospel and had given his life for the spread of that gospel.

And in light of that, he calls Timothy to get the church of Ephesus back to their mission.

And by extension, he calls us to get back to our mission as

well, for us to be a house for all nations.

That we should not just be a local parochial house.

You know what I mean, parochial?

It serves its own parish.

That's what that word means.

That we have our little patch, and that's all we're concerned about.

God wants us to be a house for all nations, founded on the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

So I simply leave you with one question.

Will we take our place in that mission?

May the Lord help us.

Let's pray.

Father, we acknowledge that you have a plan that is far beyond just our small lives.

It's a plan that encompasses all things.

So Father, we simply ask that as we heard your word, that you would remind us of our place in the mission that you have given us.

May we be a people who are not just on mission,

but who love the mission because we love you.

Because we love your son, Jesus, who gave his life for us.

Father, as we come to this table, that reminds us of the fact that he gave his life for us.

May we never lose sight of the glory of the gospel.

For anyone here who maybe doesn't know where they stand with you.

May that your gospel is good news of a savior from sin, one who frees

captives from sin.

That their good news will not just be good news, it will be good news for them,

just as it is good news for us.

Help us as we celebrate that in this Lord's table, and we ask it all in Jesus name and for his sake.

Amen.