Pillar and Ground of Truth - 1 Timothy 3:14-16

We are going to continue our study through Paul's letter to

Timothy, first Timothy. We're going to be in chapter 3.

So if you have a Bible, you can turn there.

And as you're turning there, I'm going to share an extension of

the parenting commissioning that you heard earlier.

We got to celebrate first service even before first

service, where all of the children stood on stage and not

pictured was just all of the amazing ways that that many kids

on stage are going to show you the challenges of parenting

right there in that moment. We actually before first

service, we all met for breakfast and just a, a time of

prayer and really just to, to Commission in, in a, in a

private way this morning over in the youth room with all the, the

parents and the kids. And, and I was struck by

something Nathan shared during that time that I think is really

helpful for us as we are about to get into this portion of the

word. He said parenting isn't just

about rules. It is the ministry of

discipleship. And so a reminder for those of

you who are parents and for all of us who remember our own

parents, rules are really only as good as the reason behind

them. And one of the, the, the ways

that every parent, and I said this to first serve it.

For all the parents who that were just newly received into

the office, office of parenthood, there is a true test

for every single rule you'll ever give your children.

Rules are great and they'll all be tested by one word.

Why I'm at the joy of the parenting season of my life

where I get that question all of the time.

For every rule that no matter the heart behind it, the good

behind it, the the safety behind it, there is a moment where

every child is going to look at and say, you're going to have to

explain this one to me because I don't really like it.

Just in the essence of the rule itself, in my parenting, just

this week I've had one of my children question why they have

to go to school. And so I better have a reason

behind that. If I want to send them to school

in a way that they understand, they, they, they asked me why

they had to go to sleep. And so I need to not just say

because I said so, but I need to have a reason behind the vision

I have for their life that requires them to be healthy and

to grow. They, they asked me why they had

to eat. Basic parenting here.

You got to convince your parents or your kids sometimes to eat

and behind it, a good parent will say, here's the rule and

here's why. And I know that this is a, a, a

experiment or a feeling that exists outside of the office of

parenting and into every single one of your lives.

You all have pressing. Why's you have the question that

just presses on your heart. If you're a student and you just

got the syllabus or the, the exam or the, or the assignment,

you're thinking, do I really need to know this?

Do I really need this assignment?

And so a good teacher, professor is going to say, and here's why

I'm assigning it. If you're a, a worker, an

employee and you, you, you just heard the new policy and you're

thinking, why is that happening? And you, you can either question

all authority and wonder if you should stay at your job or a, a,

a good employee employer relationship is there's a rule

and there's going to be a reason behind it.

And we're going to move forward with this in mind.

And I say all of that because as we've been studying this book of

the Bible, so far, it's been pretty rules heavy.

We've been looking at, let's call them guidelines.

We can call them qualifications, we can call them rules, but most

of them fall apart at the seams if we don't keep the, the reason

behind all of them in mind. I mean, just to review, we're

almost halfway through the book. We've, we've talked about why

the men of the church have to stop fighting and have to be all

about praying and lift up holy hands and, and stop disputing.

We've talked about the the women of the church coming in and how

they should learn how they should be part of what God is

doing to to build up disciples. We've talked about leaders of

the church and all of the guidelines for how leaders are

called in and how they're qualified and how they're

tested. And the same goes for servants.

Here's what it means to serve the church.

And here's all the rules and the guidelines behind how we can

model this whole thing after God's design with the rules in

mind. And if you're going through all

of this, you you, I hope, have come to the place of why are we

talking about all this? There's probably some people

that aren't with us and they've heard too many sermons cover the

rules and not enough about the reason for the whole church

system at all. So they think I'm good.

I don't need more rules to my life.

I don't need more guidelines. I can kind of figure out the

purpose of my life without a heavy-handed pastor telling me

how to live. But as we look at this, the Word

is one step ahead of us because now we are going to exalt the

whole why behind the church? Why should we fight the good

fight of the faith for the church?

Why should we try to model it after God's design?

Why shouldn't we just give up and go find something else to do

with a Sunday morning? And so with that in mind, I want

you to follow along with me as we go, starting in verse 14 to

the end of chapter 3. We'll just go verse by verse and

we're going to look at the the why of the church and, and we

start with Paul again, writing to Timothy.

Paul is not with the church in Ephesus, but he has placed

Timothy in charge and he says to him in verse 14, these things I

write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly.

But if I'm a delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought

to conduct yourself. He's saying to Timothy and and

and also just by a survey of the New Testament in many of the

letters that Paul's writing, he's trying to help church

leaders know how to set some guidelines for the church.

Timothy, I want you to know as you're in charge, how you guys

should be conducting yourself inside the community of

believers that exist in Ephesus. And I want you to oversee that

whole process. And I want you to to do that

with the help of fellow elders and and servants and teach sound

doctrine. But Paul is going to now tell

Timothy why the their manner of conduct is so important.

Said again, verse 15, if I'm delayed, I write so that you may

know how you ought to conduct yourself.

Here's some guidelines and and principles and rules and here's

why it all matters in the House of God, which is the Church of

the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

So he says, I want you to know how to conduct yourself, and I

want you to have a vision for why this matters.

And he gives 3 pictures or, or, or or three visions of the why,

the reason behind the people of God gathering in his name says

you're in the House of God. It's the living God and it's the

pillar and ground of truth. So for all of us who are in the

sanctuary this morning, let's consider why we've been studying

this book, why we care to be a trustworthy church, and what the

the point is as given to us through these metaphors and

illustrations. So first he says you're in the

House of God. Now I'm going to expand this.

Throughout our series, we've been looking at different ways

where the the language is sometimes limited by the

translation. I I actually prefer to stay

consistent with other ways that we've looked at this word that

that is translated house and actually expand it with other

translations that say some of your Bibles might say you're in

the household of God. Remember we've been looking at

leadership qualifications, servant qualifications in both

of those offices. Paul will point out that one of

the tests for leadership and servants is how do they manage

their household? He's not saying how do they

manage their house? He's not saying, you know, in

our context, look at their lawn. Is it cut in the summer?

Is the pool clean? Are the carpets taken care of

when you walk in? Is there a, is there a

reasonable order of the house itself?

Now, that's one small portion of it.

But what he's actually saying is this person is part of a family.

And if they're serving their family well, that household is a

good measurement for how they'll serve not just the house

building, but the household of God.

So what we're doing is, you know, you'll hear the term

welcome to God's house. And I will just dispel the myth

that the operation of church is actually just an operation of

building managers and service organizers.

This is not God's house. I mean, it is in so much as

God's people and God's household is here.

But when we turn out the lights at the end of the night, God's

not just going to be waiting for us to come back.

This is just a building that we use to gather, as in, in a way,

a big family reunion every week. You are a household when we

celebrate new life coming into the church in the in the little

packages of babies, and we celebrate new parents that are

going to step out in faith to learn new ways to disciple the

next generation. And when we go through life

together, we do so as a household of brothers and

sisters and servants to one another.

And it's good to keep that in mind as we consider the why

behind this whole thing. God in the Old Testament chose a

family. And he said, this is the family

I'm going to run the mission of redemption through in the world.

And then the the Lord came and the covenant was not just for

one family, but now for the whole world.

So God says anyone who believes is now part of the family and he

chooses now to reveal himself through his family.

We're the household of God. And before we get to the next

illustration, I'll just point out a disclaimer for every once

in a while. I use an analogy that has to do

with an earthly relationship and needed a disclaimer because some

of you hear the idea of a family or a household and you think I

don't love that metaphor or that that touch point for my life

because I came from a very broken family.

It actually caused a lot of hurt and pain in my life.

So when I come to church to hear this is a household, you, you're

giving me, you know, some PTSD. And let me just say that I

actually think the metaphor extends into that because when

you come from a broken home, you are faced with a fork in the

road in your life. You can think about the

childhood home you grew up in and think about how broken it

was and how much trauma it caused you.

And you can think to yourself. And therefore, I never want

anything to do with the household again.

I will remain single or I will find a partner to do life with,

but will never have kids. And I will never 'cause that

kind of chaos to another generation.

So I'll never have a family. I don't really need the

holidays. And I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll kind

of just travel my way through the world.

And you can do that. And that is in that response,

you're rejecting the idea of a household.

Now the other the other reaction you have, which I think is the

deeper longing. And if you do come from a broken

home, I want to appeal to what I think exists inside of maybe at

the very bottom of your heart, every person who comes from a

broken home at one point or maybe sustained emotion and

feeling. You don't want to run from a

family, You want to find a new one.

You actually are thinking to yourself, someday I'm going to

break the paradigm of brokenness in my life.

My family was so broken that if I ever have the opportunity to

be a family, I want it to be beautiful.

I want to create an amazing family.

And that's I think worth parallel the analogy on top of

the church because the church is a household.

And sometimes you interact with the household of God in a less

than favorable way. That's why I think we go through

this series and we say, let's rebuild the trust for our day

and age because there are some people who have run into a

family of God that has bared his name, but not his

characteristics, and it has hurt them.

And now they want nothing to do with the family.

They reject the idea of the household, but the deeper

longing, the spiritual longing is actually to find the

brokenness, get turned into something beautiful that you

could find a household of God that is about the Father's

business. That is looking at the word of

God and saying how can we glorify our Father and love one

another as brothers and sisters and restore the whole idea of

God and His family as something beautiful and not broken.

So we're a household of God. And that's one of the reasons

behind the rules. Act accordingly.

Know the family rules. Know the family master and then

it says Church of the living God.

Now a couple times throughout this series we've had to

proclaim some things that almost seem like theology one-on-one

that can be completely forgotten at times.

But here's something that is elementary and it's forever the

the thing that makes this valuable at all, the reason that

it's worth us coming together, opening the word, singing songs,

is because of the fundamental truth that God is among us, that

God dwells with us, that as it says, he is a living God.

And I say that that's one O 1. But it's also four O 1 in the,

in the sense of just remembering this truth and never letting go.

Because all too often this whole operation, you know, finding a

place to park and finding a seat and listening to a sermon and,

you know, getting a bulletin for other things to do, it can

become events on a paper. It, it can all be part of

religion of just things that you do.

And, you know, there's a, there's a number of different

ways that people might answer the question of what they're

actually looking for, which is how do you find an active or a

lively church? And I'll, I'll tell you, there's

a lot of ways that maybe you can see the fruit of a lively

church, but there's only one source.

So a lively church, you cannot know the living God just through

a lively sermon or, or what appears to be a lively preacher.

You, you cannot know the living God and, and know the purpose of

the church just through, you know, a mode of songs that make

you feel good in the same way with all of the other.

It's like I'm looking for a church and I'm really grateful

They have a lively men's ministry, a lively women's

ministry, really active youth group.

Now those can be fruits of something very fundamental at

the bottom, but they cannot be what makes a church alive.

The only way that a church is alive is if they hold on to the

reality that we are part of the household of a living God.

There is a powerful reality of what we're doing right now.

Just hold on to it. Take a moment to realize it.

God is real and He's alive. And when we come in, his name

says that he dwells among us. And when we sing His praise, it

receives our worship. When we open his word, Hebrew

says it's a living and active word.

And so I think of that hymn, Spirit of the Living God Fall

Afresh. What makes a church alive is the

living God pouring out his Holy Spirit on the church.

And the household of God must represent the living God.

And that is one of the ways that we look at the reason for all of

this is that the living God wants to reveal himself to those

who are seeking him, that have a desire and a hunger to know him.

And he has set up a way for people to know the power of the

living God through a living household, by his Holy Spirit,

by the living Word, and by his people.

Receiving His life doesn't come from any other way than by the

living God. And then it says that the church

is the pillar and ground of truth.

So now we have our third picture.

And this is I think that the easiest to kind of close your

eyes and visualize maybe what Paul is getting at.

It wouldn't have been hard in his day.

Remember, he's writing to this church in Ephesus.

And so from time to time we've tried to put ourselves in the in

the city of Ephesus. And one of the things you would

see, no doubt, if you were 1st century Ephesus tourist is you

would see the temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the world,

and you would see it adorned with all of these beautiful

pillars. Some of you may have the

privilege of, may have had the privilege of going to somewhere

in the world where some of these ancient pillars still stand

today. And, and they are all inducing.

And the the pillar as it's described here and, and what

Paul is referencing is it can accomplish two things.

One, it says that the pillar is the ground of truth.

A pillar is one of the foundational building blocks of

ancient architecture. So a pillar is what's going to

give it that long lasting endurance from age to age.

Why we can still see them won't be there forever, but they serve

as a great metaphor that a pillar grounds you.

It it makes the the whole structure foundationally strong.

The other thing the pillar does is you don't you don't find

pillars of antiquity that are short.

The pillars they exalt into the heavens to show the excellence

in the beauty of the building. And in the same way, we now look

at the pillar of truth in the mission of the church.

The mission of the church is to be the foundation and the

exaltation of the truth of God in this world.

That is why we exist. That's why one of the

fundamental things we do is we say, we open his word and we

preach truth as we as it's revealed to us through

scripture. And you Add all of those things

up, the household of God, a culture of broken households.

And you think it through the, the living God and a culture of

dead religion. And you think through the, the

mission of the church being the, the defender and the

proclamation of truth. And, and this might be one of

the most powerful things for us to remember as to why it's so

important we get the guidelines right, because there's a reason

to this whole operation. And we are truth proclaimed to a

culture that is desperate for it.

I've heard it said that, you know, our country, the United

States of America, if you want to see the trajectory of where

the the church age is going, you can kind of look over and see

Europe because we're, we're behind them by a few decades.

And Europe by all accounts, we actually have one of our

European missionaries in the house today, the Petacords.

And Europe by all accounts is post Christian.

They are. No, you can no longer assume

someone growing up in a European household is going to be

discipled in the Lord with a knowledge of the Bible and an

understanding of God's plan of redemption for their life.

There in Europe is a mission ground now.

It's no longer the the descending of missions, it's the

receiving of missions. And if you've been paying

attention at all to the trajectory of our culture, you

can understand the analogy of where we're going.

We're going towards a post Christian culture.

I think it's fair to say that you should no longer assume that

a child is going to grow up hearing about Jesus, discipled

in the Word with a knowledge of God's plan for redemption for

their life. And, and here's what I'll say of

Europe, of the United States, of anywhere that is post Christian.

To be post Christian is to be post truth.

That is actually what is happening and, and I hope that

gives you a lens for some of the things that you see unraveling

at the seams of the culture that we live in.

We, we think back to the metaphor of the pillar.

The pillar gives you the foundation and it gives you the

proclamation and, and what is the challenge of our culture?

And I would say it, it's twofold.

Our culture no longer has the foundation for a set of beliefs

and no longer has a a deep conviction of where morality.

And justice and a guiding principle for the way forward.

Where does it all come from? By whose standards?

And So what you'll find is we, we now live in a culture of

constant whiplash. We we, we find that the ground

beneath our feet is constantly shifting and moving.

And that is why a political view 10 years that was almost

mainstream can now seem extreme in this day and age.

And that is why it's very hard to get a real grasp of the

fundamental principles that are guiding our country.

And the other thing that is lacking from the culture, not

only do we not know the ground we stand on, we don't know the

glory that we're proclaiming. We we don't know what the

culture is lost as to what we're actually aiming for.

So you see a generation of people that are completely lost

because their aim is undefined. And in fact, when you try to

lift something up as a worthy goal, you'll just as soon

someone tear it down. You could say, you could say,

OK, well, you, you live in America.

So go out and live the American dream, make lots of money,

provide for your family. And then someone will come along

and say, well, you're, you're greedy and there's poor people

used. All your money should be split

up and given to the poor. You say, OK, well, that was just

one idea, but now they're competing and who's right?

Or you say to someone else, it's like, OK, we'll just live

healthy and, and, and, and find some sort of joy and being

beautiful and exalt yourself as someone who's worthy of, you

know, likes and comments on your pictures.

And then someone else will come along and say, no, you're

you're, you're, you're causing everyone else who's looking at

you to have images of their body that are less than ideal because

they can't compare compete to you.

And what you're finding is no matter what you exalt, there's

someone else that will tear it down.

Because we're post truth. We don't know what we're

standing on and we don't know what we're exalting.

And that is going to be true for the generation of young people

that rate we raise up. And that was true for the

generation that was that was fighting for the rights of

slaves to be freed. And for every church age has to

fight for the ground of truth and the proclamation of truth.

And we're no different. So we better know what truth is

and we better be on mission because what the world is not

hungry for, what the culture is not hungry for is a church that

says, hey, we can change with the the tides just as much as

the culture can. So come in and we'll always be

hip and relevant. That's not what the culture

needs. The culture doesn't need a

church that's proclaiming something that is not actually

the reality of what God has called us to proclaim.

So we we look at all of this and we ask the question, well, what

is truth? What is the pillar in the

ground, the mission of the church?

And so the word comes and unfolds for us like a flower and

says, here it is, stand on it, proclaim it.

Paul goes on and says in verse 16 and without controversy, in

other words, undisputed truth, nothing to be argued over.

Great is the mystery of godliness.

And then Paul will go on to to share what many think is maybe a

hymn or some sort of doxology of his day, a common confession

that the churches would practice saying that is the ground and

the pillar of the truth that the church is built on.

So we'll look at these, there's six of them.

We'll look at each one of them, and we'll keep this in our focus

and our view as we think through all of the ways that the Word

will instruct us. It instructs us to proclaim the

reality of this truth. It says first that God was

manifested in the flesh, says there is a great mystery, and

then he says God was manifested in the flesh.

Other translations say God was revealed the the question that

the old covenant Israel was waiting to have answered.

How is God going to send his Messiah?

How is God going to to to redeem all of the lost and brokenness

of the world? And there was previews in the

mystery. There were shadows of things to

come. There was the law that gave us a

preview, there was the the priests in the temple, and there

was the prophets that were all pointing with mystery, a veiled

message that God Himself was going to reveal himself in the

flesh. And the Word became flesh and

dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotten

of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The truth has been revealed. The visible image of the

invisible God is Christ himself, justified in the Spirit.

Romans chapter 1 says Jesus declared to be the Son of God

Romans 1 · chapter mention

with power according to the to the Spirit of holiness, by the

resurrection from the dead. And in these two revelations of

truth, we have the incarnation and we have the resurrection.

They are the anchors of our church year, every year.

We'll never miss a Sunday. We'll never miss that moment on

Easter Sunday to say and the declaration was confirmed and

vindicated. Because the Son of God has

defeated death. He's been justified in the claim

that He alone is the Christ. There is all sorts of ways that

people answer the way that the truth is revealed and religious

leaders or moral teachers and what we have and celebrate and

sing and proclaim His name is truth justified by an empty

grave. The Creator of life has power

over sin and death revealed to us on that glorious day.

When we say He is risen, indeed justified, the truth is

confirmed. Christ alone.

Christ alone has been resurrected from the dead.

And then Paul says, seen by angels again, this, this can

never be a message to say that truth is, you know, in our

version of it for our little religion is Jesus.

And there's others who say it's someone else.

Jesus in flesh, in spirit, with heavenly messengers, said that

we would not miss that. This is a message from God

himself, seen by angels at his birth.

As the angels sing, glory to God in the highest peace on earth

and goodwill tell men he comes and invades earth from heaven.

And the choirs sing, This is the one we've been waiting for.

Of course, at his baptism, the Holy Spirit falls and we see

this amazing moment. This is my Son at his temptation

that the angels minister to him after defeating Satan, Jesus is

ministered to by the angels once again heaven confirming that

this is the Son of God at gas enemy when he prays.

Nevertheless, your will be done the night before his or the

night of his betrayal, before he goes to the cross.

And it says the angels come minister to him.

And of course, at his ascension, as the disciples walk out and

he's lifted up into the heavens, and they're gazing upon the

clouds. And the Angel says, What are you

waiting for? The same Jesus you saw ascend in

the heavens will return a message from heaven to earth

that says, go forth now. And as a reminder where all of

this is going, Jesus himself in Matthew 25 says when the Son of

Man comes in his glory, all the angels with him and he will sit

on the throne of his glory. Jesus fully man, fully God,

confirmed by the messengers that God has sent from the heavenly

realms in the form of angels seen by angels and preached

among the Gentiles. What a blessing it is as we

compare the the family of God that waited for the Messiah and

now the family, the household of the living God that sings his

praises year after year after year preached to the whole

world. Truth revealed not just for one

nation, but for all tribes tongues.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have

everlasting life. The truth is preached to the

whole world and then it says believed on in the world.

This is the glorious fact that we are here in Boise, ID and

there are this day churches around the world proclaiming the

authority, the salvation, the lordship of this man born in

Bethlehem, died on a cross for the sins of the world,

resurrected on the third day. And like wildfire throughout

history, the Gentiles, the world, the nations have heard

the message preached and the the nations in the world have

received the truth as reality. In Boise, ID, we celebrate it.

And I pause here because rules have to have reason.

And when we talk about the truth, we're talking about a

narrow gate of truth, the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except by Jesus in this

household. And some of us probably don't

love hearing that message because the truth is narrow and

sometimes the truth gone out to a world that is pluralistic and

doesn't want to hear the truth will combat the truth that wants

to have their truth and our truth.

And the two can just live separate from one another.

There is one truth and you belong to it, and you're the

pillar of it and the proclaimer of it with your lives, with your

confession of faith, with the way that you live.

And here's the promise. The truth will be rejected.

The truth will will will you get an offer of compromise, but the

truth preached will be believed. There are people right now, no

doubt, that are hungry for the real truth.

That all have fallen short of the glory of God.

That every single one of us have in our sins separated ourselves

from the holiness of God. That we are desperate, in need

of life and revival to our souls, that we cannot

manufacture by good works or religious duty.

And there is a God that is motivated and compelled by love,

who sent his Son manifested in the flesh to be the Savior of

the world for anyone whosoever believes.

And they will believe that truth, and they will receive a

newness of life and a forgiveness of sins, and their

names will be written on the book of Heaven.

And you are the ground and the confession of that truth to

someone who's considered a whosoever.

Don't run from the truth. The truth will be believed.

And then it says finally received up in glory.

We have prayed in the name of Jesus today.

We have sang songs to Jesus. Today we have commissioned

people to disciple young ones in the way of Jesus.

We have opened the word. Then it's pointing us to Jesus.

And in an age where it is not very popular to believe in a

singular truth and be part of an institution called church, let

me remind you that there is a Lord of Lord and a King of

kings, and he sits in glory over it all, and he is not ashamed to

call you brethren. And the church age may not be

popular. It may have never been popular,

but the truth is glorious. This whole thing is going to end

in glory. And we have a preview of that in

the position that the Lord and Savior sits right now over it

all in glory, lest we think that we have to somehow apologize for

God's plan of redemption called the church.

And so here is to put it all together.

The Word is going to instruct us, and the instructions are

always going to point us in one singular direction.

Jesus manifested in the flesh, Jesus justified in the Spirit,

Jesus confirmed by the messengers of heaven.

Jesus preached to the whole world.

Jesus believed on and Jesus in glory.

The church is the message of Jesus, and if it becomes the

message of a building or a brand or a business or a pastor or

anything other, then this incredible truth revealed the

mystery of godliness revealed in the revelation of Christ, the

Lamb of God sent away to take away the sin of the world.

The suffering servant who hung on the cross for the forgiveness

of sins, declared to be the Son of God who left sin and death in

the grave. That's the pillar and that's the

ground of truth that must be proclaimed.

And when it is, the church is precious.

The church is a city on a hill. The church is a light in the

darkness of the world. The church is a beautiful

picture of the household of God.