Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
What is your attitude towards aliens, that is creatures from outer space? Would you like to meet any? Doesn’t our culture generally assume that we have a natural, innate fear of non-human creatures that are visiting us from outer space? All the movies I have seen about aliens either has them as hostile invaders we should be afraid of, or harmless visitors we start out being afraid of until we get to know them better. ET phone home? Or does anybody remember “My favorite Martian?” And even in those friendly alien movies, only a few people know its friendly and just about everybody else acts out of fear and wants to destroy it right? So, in general, our culture says that the world hates alien creatures who are in our world but are not of our world.
So then, how do you process information like this? “They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Do you recognize those words? They are part of Jesus’ prayer, recorded in John 17, for the Church that would soon be born after his death and resurrection.
Jesus has just called us aliens. We are not of this world. We are something else. We are new creations because of our faith in Christ and his spirit indwelling. That is, we are from out of this world once Jesus changes us into new creatures in Christ. As new creatures, the culture around us would view us with suspicion if they knew how different we are. So, in God’s wisdom, we still look exactly like the humans we once were. But we are an invasive species, seeking more who will listen to our message and be transformed by God’s power. In a way, we’re like the body snatchers, only we’re not evil. The evil is holding its unwitting victims captive and has them fooled into thinking they are the good guys! Our mission on earth is to set those captives free!
If this is in fact the case, the question becomes, what’s the best way to be in the world but not of it? Where do we get guidance so that we maintain our alien status? How do we make sure that we do not become polluted or corrupted by being in this world so that we do not lose track of our true mission and purpose for being in this world but not of it?
Jesus has given us the answer, also in his prayer, in pieces that I left out until now. As Jesus was praying for us to be in the world but not of it, he also showed us how to keep it that way when he prayed that God would “Sanctify us by the truth. God’s word is truth!”
As we continue to work on the Big Rocks, after prayer, or really, along with prayer, we need to put in time with the Bible. The two go hand in hand, prayer and Bible study. In prayer, we talk to God. In the Bible, God talks to us. And really, come to think of it, the Bible comes first. God spoke first. God initiated this whole relationship thing, when he created us, walked with Adam, and then set in motion his plan of redemption, along with causing it all to be written down by Moses and the Prophets and later the Apostles.
The Westminster Confession put it this way. Our natural understanding, and the works of creation and providence, so clearly show God’s goodness, wisdom, and power, that human beings have no excuse for not believing in him. However, these means alone cannot provide that specific knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary for salvation. Therefore, it pleased the Lord at different times and in various ways to reveal himself and to declare that this revelation contains his will for his church. Afterwards it pleased God to put this entire revelation into writing so that the truth might be better preserved and transmitted and that the church, confronted with the corruption of the flesh and the evil purposes of Satan and the world, might be more securely established and comforted. Since God no longer reveals himself to his people in those earlier ways, Holy Scripture is absolutely essential.
The Holy Scripture contains all the information we need to remember who we really are and whose we are. We believe that the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. Therefore, our preaching and teaching in all settings should reflect careful preparation, relevance, and creativity. In addition, the people in the congregation should feel that they are being equipped and growing in their ability to study and apply Biblical truth in ways that lead to a scripturally integrated life. How well do you know and use the Bible for your personal life?
We are called to be people who are in the world but not of it. We may as well say that we are called to be in the culture but not of it because the world in which we live is the culture in which we live. We are supposed to have an impact to change the culture, not be changed by it. But the only way that this is going to happen is if there is more of the Bible in us than there is of the culture in us. The culture in which we live is actually opposed to true biblical living. You know, the world, the flesh and the devil are all lined up against us being people who truly live for Christ. The world is the culture.
So, I say again, the only way that we are going to have a positive impact on the culture, to win the lost to Christ is if we are different from the culture and happier for it. That means there has to be more of the Bible way of life in us than the worldly way of life in us, more of the Bible in us than the culture. But the culture is all around us pushing, pushing, pushing to get inside of us and change us to conform to the pattern of this world. That’s automatic.
The transformation God wants for us, being renewed in our minds so that we do not conform to the patterns of this world, is not automatic. The only way the Bible is going to get into us is if we pick it up and read it, and study it, and meditate on it, and do the best we can to memorize it, and think about it more than we think about the latest TV shows that so easily hold our interest and push the culture into us. To resist that cultural push and to push back with the Word of God is to enter into the spiritual battle that we are called to fight.
Put the Bible at the center of your life in order to put Jesus at the center of your life! For the same reason that you would not walk very far down a sidewalk or path with your eyes closed, do not walk very far down the path of life with your Bible closed. “Your Word, O Lord, is a lamp unto my feet, a light on the path.” So, we need to talk about what the Bible is used for, where and how frequently do we use it, and how effective is our use of it.
First then, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Another way of saying that is, the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. It is a great thing to say, but the question remains, do you really believe it and act on that belief? If you are going to say you believe that, don’t you think it should also make a difference in how you live?
What kind of a difference would it make? Well just look at the verse. There is a sequence of discipleship in it. First the Word of God is useful for teaching. God understands that even after we believe in the word of God and come to faith in Christ, that we don’t automatically know everything about how to live the Christian life. We need to be taught. The word of God teaches us. But next our knowledge will be tested, just like in school. A good discipleship class will ask the disciples to say back to the teacher what was being taught. If you get it right, great! But if you get it wrong, you just go back to the Word of God because it is also useful for correcting errors in our understanding.
The process continues. Suppose you think you learned something from Scripture and begin to live it out besides just talking about it. But what if it turns out that in reality, you are doing something that goes against the teachings of Scripture? Maybe you just didn’t know it. Then you need to be rebuked. Now a rebuke doesn’t have to be an angry word. It is good if it is a wise word, spoken with a caring attitude. The best course of action is for the one who speaks to you about your behavior to be well versed in Scripture and use the Scripture to show you how your action is out of line.
Here is an example of a rebuke from Galatians 2:11. Paul said, “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” Opposed him to his face and in front of others. There was a conflict here. Paul saw something going wrong, which he then described in the next few verses as follows: “For before certain men came from James, he, that is Cephas, used to eat with the Gentiles. But when these men arrived from James, Cephas began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.”
Then Paul gives his reason for rebuking Cephas in verse 14: “When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” What follows after that in the book of Galatians is six more verses in which Paul expresses again the inspired teachings that should have kept Cephas from acting the way he did when he was afraid of the circumcision group.
So, as disciples of Christ, while we are learning the Scriptures, we try to absorb the teachings. We allow our views to be corrected. And we also accept that sometimes we may be acting wrong and in need of rebuke. A spiritually healthy church puts this into practice by having its members reading Scripture and talking to each other about it in ways that lead to more Christ like behavior. A spiritually healthy church also has its disciples willing to be accountable to each other. They actually listen to each other and take seriously a brother or sister who has a concern about Christian behavior. Are you willing to have your ideas and attitudes tested and even rebuked if someone can use Scripture to show you the error of your ways? Are you willing to change if convinced?
The contrast with our American culture ought to be obvious by this point. In our world, people want to do their own thing. People want to form their own opinions and they don’t like to be challenged, especially when it comes to behavior. We can argue sports with great enthusiasm and even have fun with that because it is so shallow. But on matters of how I spend my money, or my time, what I watch on TV, or anything else I do, that’s my business. Leave me alone, as long as I am not hurting anybody. And if you think I am sinning, don’t be so judgmental. It’s between me and God. You see how even Christians can have this worldly attitude and be unwilling to submit one’s thoughts and actions to accountability in the fellowship that refers itself to the Word of God?
But if you really believe that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, then you will invite and even welcome the process I have outlined above for the spiritually healthy church. Here is an even briefer example of the difference between American Culture and Biblical wisdom. The culture says be independent, follow your heart, as in trust your instincts and you will automatically know the right thing to do. But the Bible is very different. In Jeremiah 17:9, says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” It also says in Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” And in Hebrews 10:24, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together.” You know what spurs are right? And spurs can hurt when they are applied. But sometimes they are what is needed. The Bible encourages us to accept that and also says, be interdependent and rely on each other for wisdom and guidance to do the right thing. And 2 Tim. 3:16 assures us that the best wisdom and guidance comes from us together using the Word of God.
Second, where do we use the Bible? In every setting where we talk about anything Christian. You should expect the preaching and teaching in all settings to reflect careful preparation, relevance, and creativity. This is about the leaders’ work of using and sharing the Bible. But in order for you to know how to assess this one, to be sure the leaders are handling the Word responsibly, you would do well to be like the Bereans Paul talked about in Acts 17:11 where he said, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” Both Jews and Greeks were studying the Scriptures that were available to them to check up on what Paul said to them. So, Paul would have gotten high marks from them. They saw that he was doing it right and they knew he was because they were checking up on him.
A spiritually healthy church does not exist just because the pastor is healthy and uses the Bible to live by and instruct the congregation. It takes the whole church to be the church. So, another important place that the Word of God ought to be used regularly is in each of our own homes, your homes, for personal study. How else are you going to examine the Scriptures every day to see if what your leaders say is true? How else are you going to check up on me? Each of us bears responsibility to know and use the Word of God correctly. All of us together bear the responsibility to know and use the Word of God correctly.
This is supposed to happen in “all” settings. So that raises the question of how many settings are in place for all the people of God to have regular interaction with the Word of God and with each other. We have Sunday School. And we have our worship services. More people attend worship than Sunday School. That’s my observation anyway. My real desire is to see everybody in this congregation taking advantage of multiple opportunities, or that we could create more opportunities to spend time with God’s Word. In many churches, they try to get every member involved in small groups where they study various Biblical topics, especially ones that teach us how to live. To accomplish this there must be meetings available in different times and locations to accommodate various work schedules. If you would agree we need to work on that, I hope you’ll talk to me about it.
If you are among those who only come to Sunday morning worship, what other setting might bless you? It doesn’t have to be here. Maybe some of you attend another Bible study somewhere else. I so appreciate the men’s group on Thursday mornings. They come from several churches in the area. It’s a great setting. We do talk about the Bible and apply it to our lives. If you only attend Sunday worship Services and no Sunday School and no other Bible study, do you really think that is all you need? Is that really all that you have time for?
And third, we need to know if our use of Scripture is effective in keeping us on track with our mission and we need ways to measure how effective it is. Are we really being equipped, and growing in our ability to study and apply Biblical truth in ways that lead to a scripturally integrated life. Does our study of the Word set us apart from the ways of the world so that we are more and more in the world but not of it? This one is about all the people, you and everyone around you. It would have been very good for us to read the whole chapter in 2 Timothy before this message because we need to be aware of how the verses we are focused on fit in the context of some very practical instruction from Paul to guide a young pastor in his ministry.
Paul had told Timothy, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” Now here’s a really embarrassing point. As soon as Paul mentions people who have a form of godliness but deny its power, we realize that all the other ugly sins he listed just before, are happening in the church, among people who call themselves Christian!
There’s advice about how to recognize people who call themselves Christians but don’t act like it. There’s encouragement to endure hardship and persecution by remembering the true teaching, and a reminder that the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” Keep the Word of God at the center of your life, as a priority source of wisdom for living. It is the only way to remember how to live like a good alien that is seeking to set other captives free.
How well do you know and use the Bible for your personal life? Is your Christianity based on a few verses you memorized in Sunday school years ago, shaped by church culture and American life? Or can you really say that your Christian life is vitally connected to an ongoing relationship with God based on time with him in his Word, time with other Christians discussing issues and theology, and praying together about how to live life in Christ?
Are you just a believer in Jesus, or are you a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ? Let me give you one more example of the difference between American Christianity and the genuine Christian life in Christ based on what is actually written in his Word. Have you asked Jesus into your heart? Where is it written that that is how you become a Christian? I challenge anyone familiar with the Bible to find the verse where it says that. Jesus does say that you must be born again. But he does not say, “Why don’t you invite me into your heart?”
Now let me tell you what I find. Romans 6:11, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 12:5, “So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
It is not Christ in me, it is me in Christ. This is an important distinction, because if I ask Jesus into my heart I may just be inviting him in so that I can have a better life. But if I am willing to be found in Christ, that means he is in charge. The greatest thing about the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that I get to invite him into my heart, but really that he has already invited me into his!
This is significant! My life is over. He lives his life through me. I am his disciple. He comes first in everything. It is like an alien abduction that works out for my good. I know God has my best interests at heart! I trust him! This is the true teaching of the word of God. It is not enough for me to invite Jesus into my life. The real gospel is an invitation from God, inviting you and me into His life. So here is the invitation, do you want to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ and bear much fruit? Believe in him, and submit to his call to follow him at all costs.
Jesus Christ is the Lord, he is the Savior! He is God! We owe him our lives. He comes first. He must come first and if you really believe this you will live accordingly. Then you and I will be in the world, but not of it. We will be aliens, moved by love to rescue the lost and eagerly anticipating the day we finally get to go home. Amen.
What is your attitude towards aliens, that is creatures from outer space? Would you like to meet any? Doesn’t our culture generally assume that we have a natural, innate fear of non-human creatures that are visiting us from outer space? All the movies I have seen about aliens either has them as hostile invaders we should be afraid of, or harmless visitors we start out being afraid of until we get to know them better. ET phone home? Or does anybody remember “My favorite Martian?” And even in those friendly alien movies, only a few people know its friendly and just about everybody else acts out of fear and wants to destroy it right? So, in general, our culture says that the world hates alien creatures who are in our world but are not of our world.
So then, how do you process information like this? “They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Do you recognize those words? They are part of Jesus’ prayer, recorded in John 17, for the Church that would soon be born after his death and resurrection.
Jesus has just called us aliens. We are not of this world. We are something else. We are new creations because of our faith in Christ and his spirit indwelling. That is, we are from out of this world once Jesus changes us into new creatures in Christ. As new creatures, the culture around us would view us with suspicion if they knew how different we are. So, in God’s wisdom, we still look exactly like the humans we once were. But we are an invasive species, seeking more who will listen to our message and be transformed by God’s power. In a way, we’re like the body snatchers, only we’re not evil. The evil is holding its unwitting victims captive and has them fooled into thinking they are the good guys! Our mission on earth is to set those captives free!
If this is in fact the case, the question becomes, what’s the best way to be in the world but not of it? Where do we get guidance so that we maintain our alien status? How do we make sure that we do not become polluted or corrupted by being in this world so that we do not lose track of our true mission and purpose for being in this world but not of it?
Jesus has given us the answer, also in his prayer, in pieces that I left out until now. As Jesus was praying for us to be in the world but not of it, he also showed us how to keep it that way when he prayed that God would “Sanctify us by the truth. God’s word is truth!”
As we continue to work on the Big Rocks, after prayer, or really, along with prayer, we need to put in time with the Bible. The two go hand in hand, prayer and Bible study. In prayer, we talk to God. In the Bible, God talks to us. And really, come to think of it, the Bible comes first. God spoke first. God initiated this whole relationship thing, when he created us, walked with Adam, and then set in motion his plan of redemption, along with causing it all to be written down by Moses and the Prophets and later the Apostles.
The Westminster Confession put it this way. Our natural understanding, and the works of creation and providence, so clearly show God’s goodness, wisdom, and power, that human beings have no excuse for not believing in him. However, these means alone cannot provide that specific knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary for salvation. Therefore, it pleased the Lord at different times and in various ways to reveal himself and to declare that this revelation contains his will for his church. Afterwards it pleased God to put this entire revelation into writing so that the truth might be better preserved and transmitted and that the church, confronted with the corruption of the flesh and the evil purposes of Satan and the world, might be more securely established and comforted. Since God no longer reveals himself to his people in those earlier ways, Holy Scripture is absolutely essential.
The Holy Scripture contains all the information we need to remember who we really are and whose we are. We believe that the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. Therefore, our preaching and teaching in all settings should reflect careful preparation, relevance, and creativity. In addition, the people in the congregation should feel that they are being equipped and growing in their ability to study and apply Biblical truth in ways that lead to a scripturally integrated life. How well do you know and use the Bible for your personal life?
We are called to be people who are in the world but not of it. We may as well say that we are called to be in the culture but not of it because the world in which we live is the culture in which we live. We are supposed to have an impact to change the culture, not be changed by it. But the only way that this is going to happen is if there is more of the Bible in us than there is of the culture in us. The culture in which we live is actually opposed to true biblical living. You know, the world, the flesh and the devil are all lined up against us being people who truly live for Christ. The world is the culture.
So, I say again, the only way that we are going to have a positive impact on the culture, to win the lost to Christ is if we are different from the culture and happier for it. That means there has to be more of the Bible way of life in us than the worldly way of life in us, more of the Bible in us than the culture. But the culture is all around us pushing, pushing, pushing to get inside of us and change us to conform to the pattern of this world. That’s automatic.
The transformation God wants for us, being renewed in our minds so that we do not conform to the patterns of this world, is not automatic. The only way the Bible is going to get into us is if we pick it up and read it, and study it, and meditate on it, and do the best we can to memorize it, and think about it more than we think about the latest TV shows that so easily hold our interest and push the culture into us. To resist that cultural push and to push back with the Word of God is to enter into the spiritual battle that we are called to fight.
Put the Bible at the center of your life in order to put Jesus at the center of your life! For the same reason that you would not walk very far down a sidewalk or path with your eyes closed, do not walk very far down the path of life with your Bible closed. “Your Word, O Lord, is a lamp unto my feet, a light on the path.” So, we need to talk about what the Bible is used for, where and how frequently do we use it, and how effective is our use of it.
First then, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Another way of saying that is, the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. It is a great thing to say, but the question remains, do you really believe it and act on that belief? If you are going to say you believe that, don’t you think it should also make a difference in how you live?
What kind of a difference would it make? Well just look at the verse. There is a sequence of discipleship in it. First the Word of God is useful for teaching. God understands that even after we believe in the word of God and come to faith in Christ, that we don’t automatically know everything about how to live the Christian life. We need to be taught. The word of God teaches us. But next our knowledge will be tested, just like in school. A good discipleship class will ask the disciples to say back to the teacher what was being taught. If you get it right, great! But if you get it wrong, you just go back to the Word of God because it is also useful for correcting errors in our understanding.
The process continues. Suppose you think you learned something from Scripture and begin to live it out besides just talking about it. But what if it turns out that in reality, you are doing something that goes against the teachings of Scripture? Maybe you just didn’t know it. Then you need to be rebuked. Now a rebuke doesn’t have to be an angry word. It is good if it is a wise word, spoken with a caring attitude. The best course of action is for the one who speaks to you about your behavior to be well versed in Scripture and use the Scripture to show you how your action is out of line.
Here is an example of a rebuke from Galatians 2:11. Paul said, “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” Opposed him to his face and in front of others. There was a conflict here. Paul saw something going wrong, which he then described in the next few verses as follows: “For before certain men came from James, he, that is Cephas, used to eat with the Gentiles. But when these men arrived from James, Cephas began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.”
Then Paul gives his reason for rebuking Cephas in verse 14: “When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” What follows after that in the book of Galatians is six more verses in which Paul expresses again the inspired teachings that should have kept Cephas from acting the way he did when he was afraid of the circumcision group.
So, as disciples of Christ, while we are learning the Scriptures, we try to absorb the teachings. We allow our views to be corrected. And we also accept that sometimes we may be acting wrong and in need of rebuke. A spiritually healthy church puts this into practice by having its members reading Scripture and talking to each other about it in ways that lead to more Christ like behavior. A spiritually healthy church also has its disciples willing to be accountable to each other. They actually listen to each other and take seriously a brother or sister who has a concern about Christian behavior. Are you willing to have your ideas and attitudes tested and even rebuked if someone can use Scripture to show you the error of your ways? Are you willing to change if convinced?
The contrast with our American culture ought to be obvious by this point. In our world, people want to do their own thing. People want to form their own opinions and they don’t like to be challenged, especially when it comes to behavior. We can argue sports with great enthusiasm and even have fun with that because it is so shallow. But on matters of how I spend my money, or my time, what I watch on TV, or anything else I do, that’s my business. Leave me alone, as long as I am not hurting anybody. And if you think I am sinning, don’t be so judgmental. It’s between me and God. You see how even Christians can have this worldly attitude and be unwilling to submit one’s thoughts and actions to accountability in the fellowship that refers itself to the Word of God?
But if you really believe that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, then you will invite and even welcome the process I have outlined above for the spiritually healthy church. Here is an even briefer example of the difference between American Culture and Biblical wisdom. The culture says be independent, follow your heart, as in trust your instincts and you will automatically know the right thing to do. But the Bible is very different. In Jeremiah 17:9, says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” It also says in Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” And in Hebrews 10:24, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together.” You know what spurs are right? And spurs can hurt when they are applied. But sometimes they are what is needed. The Bible encourages us to accept that and also says, be interdependent and rely on each other for wisdom and guidance to do the right thing. And 2 Tim. 3:16 assures us that the best wisdom and guidance comes from us together using the Word of God.
Second, where do we use the Bible? In every setting where we talk about anything Christian. You should expect the preaching and teaching in all settings to reflect careful preparation, relevance, and creativity. This is about the leaders’ work of using and sharing the Bible. But in order for you to know how to assess this one, to be sure the leaders are handling the Word responsibly, you would do well to be like the Bereans Paul talked about in Acts 17:11 where he said, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” Both Jews and Greeks were studying the Scriptures that were available to them to check up on what Paul said to them. So, Paul would have gotten high marks from them. They saw that he was doing it right and they knew he was because they were checking up on him.
A spiritually healthy church does not exist just because the pastor is healthy and uses the Bible to live by and instruct the congregation. It takes the whole church to be the church. So, another important place that the Word of God ought to be used regularly is in each of our own homes, your homes, for personal study. How else are you going to examine the Scriptures every day to see if what your leaders say is true? How else are you going to check up on me? Each of us bears responsibility to know and use the Word of God correctly. All of us together bear the responsibility to know and use the Word of God correctly.
This is supposed to happen in “all” settings. So that raises the question of how many settings are in place for all the people of God to have regular interaction with the Word of God and with each other. We have Sunday School. And we have our worship services. More people attend worship than Sunday School. That’s my observation anyway. My real desire is to see everybody in this congregation taking advantage of multiple opportunities, or that we could create more opportunities to spend time with God’s Word. In many churches, they try to get every member involved in small groups where they study various Biblical topics, especially ones that teach us how to live. To accomplish this there must be meetings available in different times and locations to accommodate various work schedules. If you would agree we need to work on that, I hope you’ll talk to me about it.
If you are among those who only come to Sunday morning worship, what other setting might bless you? It doesn’t have to be here. Maybe some of you attend another Bible study somewhere else. I so appreciate the men’s group on Thursday mornings. They come from several churches in the area. It’s a great setting. We do talk about the Bible and apply it to our lives. If you only attend Sunday worship Services and no Sunday School and no other Bible study, do you really think that is all you need? Is that really all that you have time for?
And third, we need to know if our use of Scripture is effective in keeping us on track with our mission and we need ways to measure how effective it is. Are we really being equipped, and growing in our ability to study and apply Biblical truth in ways that lead to a scripturally integrated life. Does our study of the Word set us apart from the ways of the world so that we are more and more in the world but not of it? This one is about all the people, you and everyone around you. It would have been very good for us to read the whole chapter in 2 Timothy before this message because we need to be aware of how the verses we are focused on fit in the context of some very practical instruction from Paul to guide a young pastor in his ministry.
Paul had told Timothy, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” Now here’s a really embarrassing point. As soon as Paul mentions people who have a form of godliness but deny its power, we realize that all the other ugly sins he listed just before, are happening in the church, among people who call themselves Christian!
There’s advice about how to recognize people who call themselves Christians but don’t act like it. There’s encouragement to endure hardship and persecution by remembering the true teaching, and a reminder that the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” Keep the Word of God at the center of your life, as a priority source of wisdom for living. It is the only way to remember how to live like a good alien that is seeking to set other captives free.
How well do you know and use the Bible for your personal life? Is your Christianity based on a few verses you memorized in Sunday school years ago, shaped by church culture and American life? Or can you really say that your Christian life is vitally connected to an ongoing relationship with God based on time with him in his Word, time with other Christians discussing issues and theology, and praying together about how to live life in Christ?
Are you just a believer in Jesus, or are you a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ? Let me give you one more example of the difference between American Christianity and the genuine Christian life in Christ based on what is actually written in his Word. Have you asked Jesus into your heart? Where is it written that that is how you become a Christian? I challenge anyone familiar with the Bible to find the verse where it says that. Jesus does say that you must be born again. But he does not say, “Why don’t you invite me into your heart?”
Now let me tell you what I find. Romans 6:11, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 12:5, “So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
It is not Christ in me, it is me in Christ. This is an important distinction, because if I ask Jesus into my heart I may just be inviting him in so that I can have a better life. But if I am willing to be found in Christ, that means he is in charge. The greatest thing about the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that I get to invite him into my heart, but really that he has already invited me into his!
This is significant! My life is over. He lives his life through me. I am his disciple. He comes first in everything. It is like an alien abduction that works out for my good. I know God has my best interests at heart! I trust him! This is the true teaching of the word of God. It is not enough for me to invite Jesus into my life. The real gospel is an invitation from God, inviting you and me into His life. So here is the invitation, do you want to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ and bear much fruit? Believe in him, and submit to his call to follow him at all costs.
Jesus Christ is the Lord, he is the Savior! He is God! We owe him our lives. He comes first. He must come first and if you really believe this you will live accordingly. Then you and I will be in the world, but not of it. We will be aliens, moved by love to rescue the lost and eagerly anticipating the day we finally get to go home. Amen.
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