Tuesday, October 7, 2014

SPIRITUAL HOUSE CLEANING: (I Timothy 1:1-10)



September and October months are notorious for Yard Sales.  I quite like Yard Sales. There are 279 garage sales, yard sales, and estate sales in Massachusetts in the next 7 days. There are individual family, multi family, multi neighborhood and church yard sales just like the one we had last Saturday. One lady called me and said, “I am clearing up my basement, and I got so much stuff, I want to donate to your Church Yard Sale.” Thank you!! Let’s be honest, one of the reasons we organize Yard Sales is that we want to clean up our messy houses and basements right? No doubt we may get great deals in Yard Sales but more often “Yard Sales” are there for “Getting Rid of Mess.”
            As I was preparing for this week’s sermon I could not help but think of the spiritual mess that certain individuals and churches get into over a period of time. Thank God for these Yard sales; at least once a year our basements get cleaned, but how about the spiritual mess in our individual lives, families and our churches? When will that get cleaned? Who takes care of that?

Unfortunately, many of us have grown comfortable with spiritually messy lives. Year after year we live with it, never wanting to change or try to get rid of that mess. Since June this year we have been on a journey to discover where we are as a church. The results of the Natural Church Survey has revealed to us that we are not as healthy of a church as we thought we were. We are taking active measures to address the messy situations and to restore health.

This past week we have taken one such action to address an unhealthy and messy situation. When I think of getting rid of the mess in our church, I was reminded of a biblical church, which once was a healthy congregation in the region but over a period of time became messy. Let’s see how a young pastor went about Spiritual House Cleaning. I Timothy 1:1-10.

The two Epistles to Timothy and the one to Titus, commonly known as the Pastoral Epistles, belong to the period at the close of Paul’s life. What is the background to these letters? In Acts 18:24, we read, the church in Ephesus was founded by Apollos. Paul on his second missionary journey visited this fledgling congregation of twelve members and guided them to receive the Holy Spirit. (Acts 19) According to Acts 19:20, “So the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” That shows how powerful the Ephesus church became.
           
Over a period of time Ephesus has become a mess. Surprisingly, sinners show up. Wonderful beginnings can end up in terrible catastrophes. This is the Ephesus to which Timothy is sent; not to enjoy a pastorate in a mega church but to clean up the mess. Could what happened to the Ephesus church happen to our church too? Most of us, no matter how wonderful a place we enter into, are going to find ourselves in the middle of a mess sooner or later. For the Christian faith is always lived out in the conditions of the world; try as we may, we cannot isolate our Christian lives from the world in which we make our living. This culture seeps into the church, let’s see how the Ephesus church became messy?

I. THE MESS IN EPHESUS
            We don’t know exactly what went wrong in the Ephesus Church. All we know is that certain men were teaching false doctrines that are contrary to the sound and healthy doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that was threatening to destroy the church. Apparently in this congregation there were “certain persons” who were obsessed with “religion” but resisted order and sound teaching. They were teaching and putting high value on myths, and endless genealogies which promote speculations (controversies) rather than God’s work which is by faith.”(Vs 4) Paul warns later in II Timothy 2:17, their teaching will spread like gangrene.

Timothy enters into a congregational mess with the mandate to straighten it out. Timothy inherited both the legacy (left by Paul) and the problems which others were responsible for (among whom were Hymenaeus and Alexander) later in the chapter in Vs20, Paul says that he handed them over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Let me bring this into our context. When I first became a pastor of ECCOA I too have inherited the legacy left by previous pastors as well as some problems for which others were responsible.

We are the sons of our culture and we are the sons of our homes. The culture we live in seeps into the church through the pores of our congregations. Whether we like it or not this is what we are faced with continuously. We are faced with a religion without commitment, a spirituality without content, aspiration and talk and longing, fulfillment and needs, but not much concern about God. All that matters is our selfishness and self-centeredness.

Hymenaeus, Alexander, types of people are found in every church. They are mere talkers, given into endless controversies. They engage in vain discussion over matters that have no eternal value, they haggle over words. Paul was concerned about the state of the Ephesus church, Out of that concern he gave a command to Timothy. We must recognize here Paul was not coming as an authoritarian, controlling, and commanding leader. Instead he was full of love, his heart was pure, his conscience was good and above all he was acting in sincere faith.

At times when I tried either to bring correction or biblical instruction in this church I was misunderstood and was judged. People called me all kinds of names when I acted in sincere faith and out of love. What was the command that Paul gave to Timothy?  Paul’s command was twofold, firstly he was to rebuke the false teachers not to teach such doctrines, secondly, to teach them healthy or sound teaching. I believe that I too have been given a charge from God which is to clean up the spiritual mess and to teach healthy and balanced teachings to this church.

The more I spend time with God the more I realize as your Pastor my mandate is not to fight against the popular culture outside of the church, rather fight this culture flooding into the Church. I am called to protect and preserve the purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before we look into what sound teaching looks like, let’s look at the results of false teachings.

II. THE RESULTS OF FALSE TEACHINGS (Vs 9-10)
Paul mentions fourteen instances or ways of life, acts, and behaviors of people who adhere to and teach false teachings. They are: Law breakers, rebellious, sinful, ungodly, unholy, irreligious, killers of fathers or mothers, murderers, sexually immoral, practicing homosexuals, slave traders, liars, and adulterers.” When people believe and practice false teachings they reflect some or all of the above mentioned traits in their lives. False teaching is like gangrene, sooner than later it destroys the church.

Paul wanted Timothy to teach “healthy or sound teaching.” In fact in all three of Paul’s pastoral letters the overarching theme was healthy teaching.  Sometimes “teaching” is translated as “doctrine” and so we get the impression that orthodoxy is at issue. But this isn’t quite right. For Timothy is given a mandate to teach in a way that brings health to people. In 2 Timothy 4:1-3, we read Paul’s charge to Timothy, “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound teaching. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
Words in Ephesus have gotten sick, the “godless chatter” is infecting the souls of people with disease. So as a teacher Timothy was responsible for speaking in such a way that people get healthy again. I started my preaching and teaching ministry at the age of 18. As a young preacher I always believed in balance and health. I avoided controversies and extreme teachings.
If you look at all the messages I preached over here you will notice balance. If you are looking to hear what your itching ears want you to hear you will be disappointed in this church. Because I am not here to tickle your ears or feed your fantasies, but I am here committed to bring nothing but the whole truth of the gospel. I am here to teach healthy and sound teaching.  What does sound teaching consist of?
III. WHAT DOES SOUND TEACHING CONSIST OF?
Adhering to wrong teaching makes us sick. Our lives become messy, disorderly and uncontrolled. Whereas adhering to sound teaching our lives become healthy, wholesome, and fruitful. The only way to get rid of the mess in our lives and in our church is by subscribing to sound teaching. So what does sound teaching consist of? Sound teaching centers around God, His nature, character, His ways and his work and purpose for our lives.  Sound teaching emphasizes both on the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Sound teaching of God’s word avoids all forms of extremes, and endless controversies. It builds faith and gives hope rather than inducing fear and paranoia. It calls for servant-hood and sacrifice instead of manipulation and control. It focuses on giving up rights rather than holding on to our rights. It calls for self-denial and picking up the cross rather than self-gratification and pleasure. It encourages character over competence, purity over power. It challenges us to make a difference in the society by being the salt and light in our communities. It teaches us to respect authority and pray for the government.  To love our wives and respect our husbands and raise our children in the fear of God. The list can go on. Sound teaching brings life at all levels while false teaching is deceptive and destructive.
No wonder why there is such attack by the enemy on those who teach sound teaching and the churches that practice sound teaching. We are living in end times where people do not value sound teaching rather are carried away by every wind of false teachings. I see this deviation from sound teaching in churches these days. In light of this my dear congregation let’s develop a taste for sound teaching. Let’s learn to discern the truth and discard controversies.
 It is about time we rise up and get to the work of spiritual house cleaning. It takes all of us working together. If you let me, I am committed to carry out my God given task of equipping you for works of service, so that in Christ we all may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Amen