God's Comforting Word: Save (1 Timothy 1:12-17)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

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The second lesson is taken from 1 Timothy chapter 1, starting in the 12th verse.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.

But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

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

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

The word of the Lord.

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

So let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for your ceaseless mercy toward us in Christ.

Lord, let us attend to your word such that we would be faithful to it.

And illumine our hearts and our minds through the work of your Holy Spirit.

We invite you to do this, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Please be seated.

It's too late for me, son.

There stands a young man before his father with a heart to reconcile, calling his father out of a life of self-destruction, asking him to come with him, to turn over a new leaf, to walk in a new life.

Despite the years of hostility and conflict and alienation, this son's heart towards his father bears with him in love, because love bears all things.

Because of his love, he cannot simply abandon his father.

So he stands on the intersection of where his father has been and where he could go.

And he pleads with his father.

And his father gives a tragic resignation.

It's too late for me, son.

Now the emperor will show you the true power of the dark side.

Oh, that was Luke with Darth Vader, by the way.

I'm sorry.

I should have led with that.

It's too late for me, son.

The more I reflect on 1 Timothy 1.15, our text this morning, the more this scene plays out in my mind.

This tragic phrase, it's too late for me.

You don't know where I've been.

You don't know what I've done.

You don't know what's been said.

The consequences are too great.

It's too late for me.

I'm past redemption.

That's it.

I wonder if our life has ever intersected with someone who feels that way.

That their history is too overwhelming to be reconciled or redeemed.

I wonder if deep in our own hearts we know that feeling for ourselves.

Perhaps we're even fearful to quiet our hearts before the Heavenly Father because we know where we've been.

We know what we've done.

And deep in our hearts, there's a fear that we'll be met with condemnation.

With how dare you! It's too late for me.

I've gone too far.

So the last couple of weeks we've been journeying through what are called the comfortable words, these four sentences of Scripture that are very distinct and uniquely a part of our Anglican liturgy as a part of our confession and hearing these words of forgiveness and the absolution.

Here's like a four-hit combo of the gospel, right?

Four sentences that leave us with sure confidence that God is for us and not against us.

That our God's heart is merciful towards sinners.

These are comfortable words, not in the sense that they're a spiritual easy boy chair, but these are words of comfort.

They're comforting words, words of consolation to weary and wounded sinners.

We began with Matthew 11, 28.

Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden.

We recognize that the good news of Jesus is an invitation.

Jesus wants to meet the deepest longings of our hearts and give us rest.

And we know that that's the case because God in Christ loves us.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

God loves you with a fathomless, selfless, saving love.

And it's that fathomless, selfless, saving love that gives us assurance.

God pursues sinners with his mercy.

Matthew, or pardon me, 1 Timothy 1.15.

This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

What's that saying?

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Mercy is God's mission.

His deepest heart beats with mercy towards you and I in Christ.

And Paul wants it to be known that his life story speaks to this.

It represents God's mercy to the greatest of sinners.

And if God could be merciful to the greatest of sinners, surely he could be merciful to each and every sinner.

Paul's biography is a comfort for those who might be tempted to say, It is too late for me.

I've gone too far.

So if you will, please open up your Bible to 1 Timothy chapter 1 or your order of service here.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

This morning we're going to look at this comforting word, 1 Timothy 1.15.

1 and 2 Timothy are the Apostle Paul's letter to his young protege, Timothy.

I can't help but read these letters and be reminded of some of the mentors in my own life.

He writes this letter to a young protege, a pastor in Ephesus, and he writes this first letter to Timothy to make it known that the good news of Jesus leads to a new and transformed life, a life filled to the brim with the gospel that changes the affections of our hearts, that fills us with God's love and assurance, and it spills into every area of our life and into Timothy's ministry.

But Paul wants it to be known too that the opposite is also true.

If we believe in a false gospel, a gospel of do it yourself, of try harder, then our life is going to be filled with a sort of godless fear, a freneticism, an anxiety.

Paul wants it to be known that there is an infinite difference between the true transforming good news of Jesus and what he's done for us, and the false gospel of do it yourself.

And Paul wants to be the case study right here at the beginning of his letter.

He wants it to be known that his life story represents that kind of transformation because of the gospel.

So in verses 12 and 13, he begins with a note of thanksgiving.

He gives thanks to God because Christ has judged him faithful.

Which isn't to say that Jesus looked at his scorecard and went, yeah, that guy's in the plus side and not the negative side.

This word faithful you can also translate as trusting, as believing.

God recognized that Paul's heart responds to his mercy.

He's reckoned him faithful not on behalf of what Paul has done for God, but what God has done for him in Christ.

And so, because he has judged him faithful, trusting, and believing, he's appointed Paul to his service.

And it's this word service that Paul uses to describe himself again and again, especially in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he says, uh he describes his ministry as being of service.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

We count ourselves, what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Christ's sake.

Paul understands that a life lived in Jesus is a life of service to others, and he's been given this unique kind of service of apostleship, of teaching and leading and uniting these churches, uh, because that's that's Christ's ministry given to him.

All of this Paul is thankful for despite his history.

And here's where Paul speaks of his personal history in verse 13.

He gives thanks for all these things, though formerly he says I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent.

Paul says, if you look at my life story before Christ, I spoke evil of God, of Christ, of his church.

In fact, in the book of Acts, we get to meet a uh Paul before he encountered Christ, known as Saul.

The book of Acts tells us that Saul was breathing out murderous threats against the church.

Imagine just having such deep hatred in your heart that it just spills out with every breath.

It's the atmosphere that Paul is breathing.

Paul breathed out these murderous threats, a blasphemer, a persecutor, an oppressor.

Paul was given the job of suppressing this new Jesus movement, and he was good at his job, and he delighted in his job.

He was an insolent opponent, or some translations say a violent man.

Saul was present at the first martyr, deacon Stephen's death in Acts chapter 8, and he looked on it approvingly.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

This is Paul's life story before Christ.

So when he encounters Christ in Acts chapter 9, Jesus asks Paul, why are you persecuting me?

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Which says something remarkable about the union between God's people, the church, and who Jesus is.

Jesus asks Paul this question, why are you persecuting me?

See, I think when Paul describes himself as the foremost of sinners in verse 15, Paul is not exaggerating in his mind.

This is not sort of a, there's not a false kind of put-on-ness of this title in the way that Canadians, we're the worst at this.

Seriously.

Oh, the crumble was so good, and it wasn't that good, right?

This is not one of those, well, I'm I'm the chief of sinners, right?

Just to kind of let out subsistence.

I think Paul knows his story well enough to go, how much worse can you get?

To have Jesus ask you that question, why are you persecuting me?

Paul knows his story.

Apart from God's grace, he is a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent of God's grace.

But what's so amazing to Paul is not this life change that he decided for himself.

It's that God pursued him, the foremost of sinners, with his mercy.

It was not too late for Paul.

It was not too much for God to meet him by his grace.

So he says in verse 14, the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Paul wasn't met with condemnation.

He was met with God's mercy, overflowing toward him a sinner.

And so, because this is true, Paul says, on this basis, I want you to bank on this trustworthy and true saying.

I want you to bury this deep in your heart such that it is an unshakable assurance in the very worst of times where you feel accused of your history, of where you've been, of what you said, of whatever it is, bank on this trustworthy and true saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

What a comforting thought.

For the very worst of sinners, he knows that that's true of his own story.

Christ Jesus came into the world.

We know that's true from John 3.16, don't we?

God so loved the world, that love overflowed and took action, that he gave his only begotten Son.

For what purpose?

To save sinners.

Not to save those who uh earned it, those who tried really, really hard this week, in fact, harder than they tried last week.

He wants to meet sinners with his mercy.

And the Bible is pretty unapologetic about this category.

It's a category that makes us maybe a little uncomfortable to talk about sin and sinners.

Sinnership, is that a word?

To be a sinner is to be a transgressor, to have violated God's law, to know the right thing to do and fail to do it, or to know the wrong thing to do and to go ahead and do it.

And Paul knows what that's like for himself as well.

Deep in the broken human condition, God's word understands, is an alienation, an estrangement.

A fallen away between, well, us and the creation we live in.

We know that there's disharmony there.

We know that there's disharmony between one another, don't we?

The hostilities and conflicts we engage in.

And at the root of all of that, God's word understands, is a fallen away between us and God.

And there is nothing, God's word says, that we can do to effect a solution.

We are helpless to save ourselves, to reconcile ourselves with our holy God.

But the good news of Scripture is that though we are powerless, God is mighty to save.

And He took the initiative towards us through the cross and through the resurrection of Christ, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to put our sin to death and raise us in Christ to new life.

So that new that new life of reconciliation with our Heavenly Father can burst and bubble up into an eternal and never-ending life with Him.

That's the good news of Jesus.

That's why Jesus came to bring that to pass for you and for me.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

That's his initiative, not ours.

One Bible scholar named Ashley Knoll says that it's Christ's mission to save sinners, not their own.

Do we think that it's our mission to earn it before God?

The gospel says the opposite is true.

It's God's mission to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

And that means it is never too late.

And why?

Because of God's heart.

It is full of mercy.

Let me read an extended quote from just one of my favorite books in the last couple of years, Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortland.

Some of us went through this book last year.

This is Pastor Dane Ortland talking about the mercy of God, the mercy that saves sinners.

He says that God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes, but homes in which divine mercy abides.

The mercy of God means the things about you that make you cringe the most makes him hug hardest.

It means that his mercy is not calculating and cautious, like ours.

It is unrestrained, floodlike, sweeping, magnanimous.

His mercy means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very thing he loves most to work with.

It means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit.

Our sins cause his love to surge forward all the more.

It means that on the day where we stand before him quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of his mercy-rich heart we had.

This is God's heart of mercy put on display.

How often do we shrink back from God in our sin?

When we feel like we have blown it?

When do we feel like we've gone too far?

Like it is too late for us.

I confess I so quickly shrink back.

Because surely God can't meet me with anything, but really?

Again?

Seriously?

What Dane Ortland is saying here is what the Apostle Paul wants to make known from his own life story.

Our sin causes God's mercy to surge forward.

We have only to turn to him to receive that gift towards us because that is his deepest heart toward us.

And that's why we pray, his character is always to have mercy.

So Paul's conclusion here is that if I, the foremost sinner, can be transformed by God's rich mercy, then that's God's guarantee that he will meet you with the same.

That no matter where we've done, where we've gone or what we've done, no matter what's been said, it is not too late.

Wherever you are right now, it is not too late to receive God's mercy.

That God's heart longs to surge forward toward you, to meet you in the places of deepest regret or shame in those dark chapters of our history.

We have only to invite Jesus into those moments in our hearts, to hand those over to Him, to be met with His embrace.

Because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

What an assurance.

What an assurance it is for sinners who otherwise shrink away.

What else can we do but offer our praise to this God who is so rich in mercy toward us that there is no too late for us right now.

There is no too far.

He has gone to the cross and back for us.

He will surely meet us with mercy right where you are right now.

One of my heroes of the faith, John Calvin, writes of this passage that the main point is to come to Christ, that being lost in ourselves, we may obtain salvation from him.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save you and me, to save us sinners.

Our sins they are many.

His mercy is more.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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