Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20120129.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Timothy: God's Ministry Roles For Church Leaders And The Local Church
Part I: God's Edifying Attitude Toward Today's Needy Church Leaders
(1 Timothy 1:1-2)
  1. Introduction
    1. In today's era of growing apostasy, from all over the world, we consistently hear of a concern Christians have for a Biblically credible leadership in their local churches. It is a crisis in spiritual oversight.
    2. Accordingly, church leaders, wherever they function, feel an intense spiritual pressure amid spiritual warfare as the Evil One seeks to destroy their efforts as God's overseers in their respective churches.
    3. 1 Timothy 1:1-2 thus clarifies God's edifying attitude toward today's church leaders, one both leaders and "laymen" alike must understand to begin to discern the role of leaders from God's viewpoint (as follows):
  2. God's Edifying Attitude Toward Today's Needy Church Leaders, 1 Timothy 1:1-2.
    1. When Paul wrote to Timothy, pastor of the Church at Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3), he put a strong emphasis on the divine authority of his letter not only as it applies to Timothy, but to all church leaders in history:
      1. Paul and Timothy were close, so we would expect Paul's letter to Timothy would be intimate in nature:
        1. Paul called Timothy his "own" (KJV) ["true" NIV] or "genuine" (gnesios, U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 720; Moulton & Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek N. T. , 1972, p. 128-129) son in the faith as Paul had personally led Timothy to trust in Christ, 1 Timothy 1:2a. (1 Corinthians 4:15)
        2. The Apostle then took Timothy with him from his hometown of Lystra to help Paul in his work (Acts 16:1-3a), and even circumcised Timothy to make him effective in discipling Jews, Acts 16:3b.
        3. The two men had together known ministry success (Acts 17:1-4) and persecution (Acts 17:13-15), and Timothy had likely witnessed Paul's being stoned and left for dead in his town of Lystra only to rise up in God's power to resume his work, cf. Acts 14:8-20 with 16:1 and 2 Timothy 3:10-11.
      2. However, in this letter, Paul identified himself as "an apostle of Christ Jesus," recalling the authority of Christ to which Timothy was to submit in heeding Paul's words as Christ Jesus had called Paul to be His apostle, 1 Timothy 1:1a; Wm. Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles (NTC), 1974, p. 50.
      3. Additionally, Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-2 to heed his word in view of Timothy's accountability to God at Christ's coming and kingdom indicate Paul's apostolic authority extended far beyond just Timothy and Christian leaders of his day to include church leaders throughout history!
      4. Thus, God wanted Timothy and every church leader and "layman" in Church History to know Paul's words in his pastoral epistles are authoritative for them, and that they are accountable to heed them!
    2. Then, besides using God's authority, Paul expressed an unusual degree of gracious compassion for Timothy and thus for any church leader in Church History, 1 Timothy 1:2:
      1. In his greeting, Paul expressed "grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord," 1 Timothy 1:2 NIV, a unique expression as only in his letters to Timothy does Paul in his salutation add mercy' between grace' and peace,'" Ibid., Hendriksen, p. 54.
      2. To explain why, we note "mercy," eleos (Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.) differs from "grace" (charis, Ibid.) in that "grace" focuses on God's attitude to forgive sin where "mercy" highlights His concern over the "misery" that sin produces, "being the tender sense of this misery displaying itself in the effort . . . to assuage and entirely remove it [sin]," Richard C. Trench, Synonyms of the N. T., 1973, p. 169.
      3. Thus, God wanted Timothy and all church leaders and "laymen" in the Church age to know He wants to alleviate the misery leaders face that results from their own sinful problems that leave them open for spiritual defeat as special targets of Satanic attack in their leadership roles in the local church!
Lesson Application: Church leaders are special targets of Satanic attack in a great spiritual war that rages about them, so God compassionately wants them along with "laymen" to know that they must heed Paul's divinely authoritative pastoral epistles and overcome personal sins over which Satan makes them miserable to gain God's spiritual victory in their lives and blessing in their ministry efforts!

Application: May "laymen" and church leaders alike heed the divinely authoritative and compassionate directives of Paul's pastoral epistles for victory over personal sinful failure and for ministry blessing.