The Life Changing Mercy of Jesus Christ

I think it's fitting and appropriate that Psalm 51 is our lectionary psalm for this week.

! Because I think the events of this past week should bring us to our knees.

! I think the assassination of Charlie Kirk should bring our nation to our knees.

You know, whatever you think about his politics, that's immaterial.

The fact that you have a man who is a man of faith, who was engaging in the free exchange of ideas on a university campus,

and that man is gunned down, presumably because of his beliefs.

I think that should bring us to our knees.

I think it asks very real questions about the state of our country,

where that kind of political violence is becoming more and more normal.

And of course, that wasn't the only shooting that day.

There was another shooting in Colorado at Evergreen High School.

A young man who had been radicalized online.

You know, a good friend of ours was a graduate of that high school.

That hit hard for her.

Not to mention there's anxiety in our city.

There's tremendous anxiety in our city right now.

Frequently, there's an ICE checkpoint two blocks from our house.

And we have people we know and love who are no longer leaving their homes

because they're afraid if they do, they will get detained.

There's a lot more I could say.

Secondly, my point is not to keep on the negativity here.

It's to say this, is that I believe that this is a time when we desperately need hope.

It is a time when we need reassurance.

It is a time when I believe we need to come together as a church.

It is a time for us to seek unity.

And it is a time for us to step up and to step into this moment.

And it's a time for us as a church to be reminded fundamentally of what is true.

Because it is so easy to get disoriented and lose perspective.

That's why as I was reflecting on the lectionary passages for this week,

the words that the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy in this passage in 1 Timothy,

to me these words were such a gift.

I hope they are similarly a gift to you.

Because this is a place where Timothy is facing all kinds of challenges,

the kinds of things that would make him probably prone to feel very discouraged,

very hopeless, and like maybe it's not even worth the effort.

And Paul is writing this letter to encourage him as he does the hard work of ministry in Ephesus,

where there is an enormous amount of confusion and hostility.

And Paul is essentially writing to tell him to keep going, to fight the good fight.

And he begins in the letter by reminding him and reminding us

that when everything else seems uncertain, there is one unshakable foundation,

and that is the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

So that's what we're going to be talking about this morning,

specifically the depth, the breadth, and the ultimate purpose of the grace of Christ.

Let's pray.

Our Lord, we strongly desire to have the kind of encouragement that Paul offers here.

We desire to receive it, and we desire to know what this means for us, Lord.

How do we live in the face of these atrocities?

Lord, there's so many more things we could list,

so many more reasons that we might be coming here this morning feeling anxiety,

or maybe even feeling hopelessness.

Lord, please, based on your promises to us,

on the power of the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus Christ,

make your word known to us this morning.

Nourish us.

Strengthen us.

It's in the name of your Son that we pray.

Amen.

So first of all, the depth of God's grace.

If you know Paul's story at all,

you know that he gained early notoriety

as a star pupil among the Pharisees.

He gained further notoriety and began to build his career as a zealous persecutor of Christians.

He describes his work doing this in Acts chapter 22.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

This is Paul speaking.

He says,

He refers to himself as someone who persecuted Christians to the death.

If we look at verse 13, he says,

I was a blasphemer.

I was a persecutor.

I was an insolent opponent.

What's interesting about that is blasphemer, that's sins of speech.

He denied Jesus and said horrible things about Jesus.

Persecutor, those were the actions that Paul committed against other Christians.

But insolent opponent, that Greek word is very interesting.

And commentators say that really gets at the heart of it.

That's actually where Paul is saying to translate it into a more approachable language.

Not only did I do these things,

but deep down in me there was a part of myself that enjoyed doing these things.

I got something out of it, a certain amount of satisfaction from doing this to these Christians.

Now that's a very, very vulnerable thing for the Apostle Paul to admit.

I was a violent person is another way that's sometimes translated.

So we ask, what is Paul's point?

Well, in this passage, he famously refers to himself,

not only as a sinner, but as the foremost sinner.

Or as it's sometimes translated, the chief of sinners.

The worst of the worst.

So what is Paul's point in sharing this story?

Here it is in verse 16.

He says, I received mercy for this reason.

Here's why he's being so vulnerable.

That in me, as the foremost, foremost sinner,

Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience

as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

So what's he saying there?

He says these things happened as an example.

As an example for whom?

As an example for the people who would one day come to believe the gospel.

People including, by the way, us.

As an example for all people for all time.

And what's the example that he thinks is being said here?

If there's hope for someone like me,

then there's hope for someone like you.

That's his point.

You know, this reminds me of the testimony of the late Chuck Colson.

Many of you familiar with him.

He was a political operative under Nixon

who ended up doing time in federal prison after the Watergate scandal.

Just like Paul, he encountered the grace of Jesus

during that season of his life, and it radically changed his life.

And he ended up founding Prison Fellowship International.

Some of you, many of you are not only familiar,

but maybe you've worked for that organization

or ministries connected to it,

dedicated to sharing the gospel with prisoners

and supporting their families

and promoting restorative justice.

But listen to what he says here.

I love this from him.

He says, this is Colson talking about his own life.

The great paradox of my life

is that every time I walk into a prison

and see the faces of men and women

who have been transformed by the power of the living God,

I realize that the thing God has chosen to use in my life

is none of the successes, achievements, degrees, awards, honors,

or cases I won before the Supreme Court.

That's not what God's using in my life.

Listen to this.

What God is using in my life

to touch the lives of literally thousands of other people

is the fact that I was a convict

and went to prison.

That was my great defeat.

The only thing in my life I didn't succeed in.

I mean, just let that sit with you for just a minute.

Oh, room full of accomplished, amazing people.

Just let that marinate for a little while.

Right?

Think about that.

My goodness, we're an impressive bunch.

We have all of our accomplishments,

all of our talents,

all of our credentials,

all of our accolades.

And God is the kind of God

who loves to look past all of those things.

He sort of, you know,

moves the degree out of the way,

moves the promotion,

and moves the advancement,

and this credential and that credential.

And he gets all the way down,

and there's that low point.

There's that moment that we hope

nobody ever finds out about.

There's that thing that keeps us awake

at four o'clock in the morning

because we would give anything to go back

and do it over a different way.

That thing that we're ashamed of,

that thing that made us feel worse than worse.

And God's the kind of God

who shuffles all the stuff out of the way.

He points down to that thing,

and He goes,

I can use that.

That's what I'm going to use.

That's how I'm going to make my name known.

That's how I'm going to glorify myself.

That's how I'm going to change the lives

of the people around you.

It's through that thing,

the thing that right now

you're trying to hide.

Pretend it never happened.

That's the kind of God we worship, friends.

A God who delights in using the least likely people

to do the most amazing things.

A God who is able to use our weaknesses

and our failure to glorify Himself

and make His strength known.

The kind of God who can bring victory out of defeat.

The kind of God who can bring life out of death.

If we ever forget that,

we have only to look to the cross.

I'm nervous about the cross falling over.

I'm going to do this.

We're having stand issues.

If any carpenters are out there

who can build a stand for the cross,

we'd appreciate you.

But this is the kind of God we worship.

So, friends,

for those of us who feel right now weak,

hopeless, insecure, anxious,

if we're tempted to look around in our world

or our city

and feel like everything's falling apart

and wonder,

is God even there?

Does God care?

Is God doing anything?

This is the kind of God we worship.

This is His heart.

This is His character.

I actually think that this time of hardship

is going to be used

in the same way that God used Paul's weakness.

In the same way that God used

Chuck Colson's weakness.

So, to the extent that we are struggling

or to the extent that we feel weak right now,

what story might you one day tell

about this time of your life?

How might God use this

to work not only in you

but through you?

I believe, if nothing else,

God is going to use this

to soften our hearts,

to teach us about His grace,

and to glorify Himself.

That is the depth of God's grace.

Paul says,

if there's hope for me,

there's hope for anyone.

The breadth of God's grace

is equally striking.

In verse 15,

the saying is trustworthy

and deserving of full acceptance.

Paul has roughly five times

in his pastoral letters

where he refers to a trustworthy saying.

We can reasonably assume

that these were little summaries

of gospel truth

that were already in circulation

in the church at this time.

Part of the catechesis

or the education reformation

of believers

involved these little nuggets of truth,

distillations of gospel truth.

And so, he refers to one of those here.

He says,

this saying is trustworthy

and deserving of full acceptance,

that Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners,

of whom I'm the foremost.

So, not only can God save

and restore anyone,

His grace, Paul says,

is available to everyone.

It is available to everyone.

And he says down in chapter 2, verse 4,

God desires all people to be saved.

And to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The key here,

if we are paying attention

to what it says is,

do we believe that we need grace?

That's the real key.

God's grace is available to everyone.

His desire is for everyone

to come to saving knowledge

of the truth.

But Jesus came to save

a certain kind of person.

Someone who knows they are a sinner.

Someone who knows they need grace.

It's available to people

who know they're sinners.

Now, admitting that you are a sinner

is not just about admitting,

yeah, here and there I mess up,

I make mistakes,

I do things I regret,

I do the bad things,

and I know I should do the good things.

But sometimes I do the bad things.

That's not really what it's about.

Objectively,

you might actually do a lot of good

in the world.

By most people's standards,

if we look at your life,

you might actually live a good life,

and you might actually do a lot of good

and make a difference in the world.

That's a misunderstanding

of the concept of sin.

Sin,

in the words of Alexander Schmemann,

is our lack of hunger

for God and God alone.

That's a much better way

of thinking about it.

It is our lack of hunger

for God

and God alone.

It is, in other words,

our ability to live

in the world that God made

as though God doesn't exist.

It is the fact

that that is

frighteningly easy to do.

In fact,

it is our default,

is to live in the world

that God made

as though God doesn't exist.

That is sin.

And for that reason,

it is often the good people,

it is often the people

who are,

the world would look at

and say,

that person has it all together,

it's often those people

who are the most

closed off to grace,

who are the most resistant

to the power of grace.

The people who do

a lot of good in the world,

the people who are successful,

the people who have

the things that they need,

the people who are well-liked

and respected

and have friends

and a network of support.

A person like that

can live their entire life

completely oblivious

to the fact that God

made them after

his own heart

and that their entire purpose,

the reason they are here

and actually the purpose

of creation itself

is to glorify God.

If you live a good,

happy,

self-sufficient life,

you can go your whole life

and never even ask

the questions

that might lead you

down that path.

To put it another way,

the greatest obstacle

to the work of God's grace

in our lives

is our self-sufficiency

and our,

at the end of the day,

our pride.

It is our pride.

The reason Paul

has such a tremendous grasp

of God's grace

is because his pride

has been stripped away.

It's because he has

a tremendous grasp

of his own sin.

That's what goes together,

right?

You may have heard

that if you,

it's interesting,

if you look at Paul's letters

as they were written

chronologically,

you can see how he refers

to himself over time

because the letters

in the New Testament

aren't necessarily

in chronological order.

So in one of the earlier letters,

1 Corinthians,

Paul refers to himself

as, quote,

least of the apostles.

I'm an apostle,

but I'm the least

of the apostles.

He was kind of added on

at the end, you know.

And he used to be, you know.

Then in Ephesians,

which is written

after 1 Corinthians,

he refers to himself

as less than the least

of the saints.

So he's not referring

even to his apostleship anymore.

He's referring to

just among all Christians.

Forget apostles.

I'm less of the least.

And then here in 1 Timothy,

which is one of his final letters,

we can assume that Paul

was probably an old man

at this point.

He refers to himself

as the foremost sinner.

His trajectory of growth,

the evidence in the sign

of maturity in Paul's life,

is that as he grew more mature,

his pride,

his self-sufficiency,

his sense of his own greatness,

diminished.

And his awareness of his sin

increased.

And as his awareness

of his own sin increased,

his experience of God's grace

increased.

This is what Christian maturity

looks like.

It is gradually over time

peeling back the onion layers

of our heart,

recognizing just how deep sin goes,

just how easy it is

for us to functionally deny

the Lord in the way we live,

to forget that we were created

to hunger for him and him alone,

and to realize more and more

how that,

in a sense,

infects every aspect of our lives.

And the more we realize that,

the bigger the cross gets,

the bigger grace becomes,

and the more we experience it.

So Christian growth

is in many ways

growth downward.

It's growth in humility.

If you want a litmus test

for your own heart

to know whether pride

and self-sufficiency

are issues for you,

and I spent some time thinking,

like,

what are some good indicators

in my life

that pride has taken hold

in a given situation?

Here's one test

that might work for you.

How quick are you

to take offense?

Are you someone

who is easily offended?

That's certainly

a giveaway in my life.

I want to be clear,

being offended

is not the same thing

as being hurt.

You know,

being hurt

is not something

we can always control.

If someone says

or does something

that's hurtful,

I can't,

I didn't,

that pain just happens.

It's a response

to the hurt.

But being offended

is a choice.

Being offended

is something

we choose to do.

And I think that often

when we choose

to become offended,

it's a self-protective mechanism.

we're responding

by putting up walls

because being hurt

makes us feel vulnerable,

it makes us feel weak

and powerless.

Those are bad feelings.

But being offended,

that makes me feel righteous.

That makes me feel impervious.

That makes me feel untouchable.

I'm offended.

You know,

so righteous anger

feels good

and powerful.

It feels good

to turn ourselves

into victims

and other people

into villains.

It feels good

to see the world

that clearly.

That's comforting.

It feels safe.

If we find ourselves

being easily offended,

that usually means

that we have

an inflated view

of ourselves.

You know,

we're sort of living

our lives

like overfilled balloons.

You know,

you fill a balloon up

too much

and it becomes

extremely fragile.

You know,

someone comes along

and just brushes up

against you

ever so slightly

with a comment,

something they did

or didn't do,

some little perceived slight,

right?

And that's all it takes,

just the slightest friction

and you blow up

because you're

an overfilled balloon.

It doesn't matter

if it's intentional

or unintentional,

you burst over it.

I would say by contrast,

I think that Christians

by and large

should be completely

unoffendable.

I think that we should

live our lives

and be completely

unoffendable.

Number one,

because we know

first and foremost

that every legitimate wrong

that is committed

against us,

even the legitimate ways

that people sin against us,

are also

and ultimately

committed against Jesus.

You know,

that's,

that's the curious thing

that Jesus says

to Paul

when he encounters him

on the Damascus Road.

Saul,

Saul,

why are you

persecuting me?

Saul was persecuting

Christians,

not Jesus.

Jesus says,

when you did that

to them,

you did it to me.

The worst offense

that Paul ever committed

was the fact

that as he persecuted

Christians,

he was persecuting

Jesus himself.

Jesus says,

that's how closely

connected I am

to my followers.

So anytime

someone wrongs us

as Christians,

they sin against us,

they're actually

sinning against Jesus.

and Jesus doesn't

respond by getting

offended

and getting filled

with righteous indignation.

Doesn't respond

like a victim.

Doesn't respond

by hurling it back

in people's faces.

He responds

with mercy

and grace.

Right?

He has more

of a right

to be offended

than anyone.

So that's

the first reason

I think we should

be unoffendable.

The second reason

is if we think

of ourselves

the way Paul does,

if I really

think of myself

as not only

a sinner,

but on par

probably the foremost

or among the foremost,

if anybody really knew,

if I really

thought of myself

the way Paul does,

and if I'm seeking

to be mature

as a Christian,

that's the direction

I want to go.

If I really thought

that,

you know,

then if somebody

comes at you,

if you think that

and somebody

comes at you

and say they

directly accuse you

and hurl all kinds

of accusations

at you,

and you did this

and you did that,

and say they're just

coming at you

with everything

they've got.

Even if all

of those particular

accusations

are completely

off base and wrong,

even if they have

no idea what

they're talking about,

and it's all smoke,

and it's all hot air,

there's no substance

to it.

Because I'm

a foremost

of sinners,

I know how easily

it is for me

to be self-deceived,

I know how easy

it is for there

to be blind spots

in my life,

I know how many

times I thought

an area of my life

was free from sin

only to realize

there's sin

all over it,

I've had enough

experiences of being

humbled and have

to confess things

that I didn't see

until somebody

pointed it out,

that even if I think

that person is

completely off base,

even if I think

there's nothing here,

we should always

pause and ask

ourselves,

is there some

little kernel

of truth

here,

something in my

heart that I do

need to pay

attention to?

And maybe this

person is coming

with the worst

possible motives

and intentions,

it's not really

about them.

Is this an

opportunity for me

to do a little

deeper self-reflection?

Is there some

nugget or kernel

that I need to be

aware of and I

need to repent of?

So you say,

thank you,

I'll take that

into consideration.

I'm going to spend

some time reflecting

on that.

I'm going to pray

about that.

And I'm going to

ask what Psalm 51

says, that I want

God to renew me

from the inside out,

to make me aware

of the things that

I need to repent of,

to create a clean

heart inside me.

So pride, that was

a little excursus

into the world of

the offense culture

that we live in,

but it is directly

connected to pride.

And pride is the

great obstacle to

grace.

So growing in grace

means doing away

with pride and

growing in humility.

So when we are

wronged and slighted,

instead of choosing

offense, I think we

see those as

opportunities for

spiritual growth.

That's a great way

to get back at

somebody who comes

at you.

Thank you.

This is a great

opportunity for me

to grow in grace.

grace.

So if we looked at

the depth of grace,

we've looked at the

breadth of grace,

finally we need to

remember what is all

this for, the purpose

of grace.

As Paul reflects on

the grace in his own

life that he's

experienced, it moves

him to worship.

And it's almost as

though he's writing

this, he just sort

of spontaneously breaks

out into praise.

There's a good chance

maybe that actually

Luke was his

secretary and Luke's

writing this as Paul

is dictating,

which is commonly

the way letters like

this would be

written.

And I love to

imagine Paul sitting

there dictating Luke's

writing, and Paul

just spontaneously,

he's talking about

the grace of God in

his life, even though

he's the foremost

sinner, and then he

spontaneously breaks

into these words.

To the king of the

ages, immortal,

invisible, the only

God, be honor and

glory forever and

ever, amen.

And I can imagine him

doing that and Luke

kind of turning around

and being like, do

you want me to write

that down too, or are

you just having a

moment, you know?

And Paul says, no,

write it down.

Write it down.

There's this moment

where it all seems to

well up in Paul, and

then he breaks out

into spontaneous

praise.

And I think, you

know, for all of us

who feel like the

world is falling

apart, we desperately,

friends, need a new

perspective.

We need a God-centered

perspective, and that

can only be gained

through worship.

It can only be gained

through worship.

And look at what Paul

praises about God and

what it reminds us of

when we think of God.

If you look at verse

17 and what he says, he

says, first of all, that

God is the king of the

ages.

He is completely in

control.

He's in control of the

past.

He's in control of the

present.

He's in control of the

future.

It may not feel like it

or look like it, but God

is in control.

And nothing that is

happening now is not

outside of his grasp.

And then Paul says, God

is immortal.

He's not subject to

decay and entropy and

death.

And one day, in fact, he's

going to bring an end to

decay and death.

He says, God is

invisible.

He's not like the gods

that we make.

He's not like our idols

that we make out of wood

or stone or plastic or

metal or silicon.

He's the God who makes

himself known through the

mountains, through the

oceans, through the

forests.

Look around.

Everything you see, all of

the beauty of creation, that

is how God makes himself

known.

His fingerprints are

everywhere.

There's no possible way you

could make something out of

stone or wood or metal that

could encapsulate that,

unless by chance, unless you

were to look at your fellow

human being.

If you want to see an image

of the invisible God, it is

reflected and refracted

through human beings.

If you want to see it in its

ultimate expression, we see it

in the face of Jesus Christ.

And then he goes on, God is

the only God.

He has no rivals.

There are no competitors.

There is no epic battle of

good and evil, and I hope God

wins.

God has no rivals.

There is only one God.

Anyone or anything we build our

life on apart from him is

inferior and will crumble.

So when we focus on ourselves,

when we focus on our

circumstances, when we read the

latest headlines and the

atrocities that they contain,

anxiety and fear grow.

We should read the headlines.

We should be engaged and know

what's happening in the world.

We should be involved in doing

what we can to bring goodness

and truth into the world.

But when we focus only on those

things, anxiety and fear grow.

Worship is meant to reorient

us back to what is true, back

to the God who created all of

this.

So in worship, we are reminded

what is true.

Through worship, we're able to

see the world the way it really

is.

And the purpose of grace is to

bring us back to worship.

So often, friends, God will

allow us to experience hard

things, to bring us to our knees,

to remind us that we need to come

back to him and worship.

So we take the New York Times and we

take the Atlantic and we take all the

news articles that we're reading and we

take all of the things that are

happening.

We take all of that and we bring it to

the cross.

And we bring it before the Lord.

And we say, we can't make sense of this.

We don't know how to fix it.

But you do.

And you will.

We come back to God because only God can

make sense of and offer hope to a world

like ours.

So as I said at the beginning, things are

hard right now in our society.

There's a lot of anxiety.

I think there's a tremendous opportunity

here for the church.

A tremendous opportunity.

Especially the church in the West.

If you've been reading the articles and

headlines and looking at the statistics

and the numbers, in places like the

U.S., in places like the U.K., there

looks to be a kind of quiet revival

happening.

People by the hundreds, by the thousands

are coming back to faith and they are

coming back to the church.

People are saying, has secularism, the

march of secularism stopped?

Are things turning around?

And it seems to be that that is the

case.

I believe it's because the empty promises

of secularism are not delivering the

peace and security and meaning and hope

that people want and need.

Instead, we have more violence and

division and nihilism.

No way to make sense of it all.

So I think there's a tremendous opportunity

for the grace of Christ.

And I think that we're called to be people

of grace who live out that grace and put

that grace on display.

To remember, as we said, the depth of grace

means that God can use the most hopeless

situations, the people we least expect,

to do the most amazing things.

So what does it look like for us to make our

weakness available for God to use?

The breadth of grace extends to the whole world,

but we need to be humbled in order to receive it.

You know, may we be people who are marked by humility.

The world does not need more pundits.

The world needs more people pointing to Christ.

And then the purpose of grace is to remind us why we're here,

to worship and glorify the God who has made us.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you that all of this is true

regardless of how we feel in the moment.

That these are the bedrock truths upon which reality itself rests.

And these are things that will be true long after all of these

present realities are forgotten.

Lord, your word is eternal.

Your grace is eternal.

And Lord, because you have made us, we are eternal.

So we will be there in that place,

but all of the present struggles, to quote your apostle,

will be like a light momentary affliction

compared to the weight of that eternal glory.

Lord, we pray that you would give us the strength

and the courage to be people of grace here and now,

pointing to that time yet to come

until Christ comes again.

In his name, amen.