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Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Today is Wednesday January 8. We’re one week into 2020 and I’m still in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1-6. Look with me at vs 3 “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.“ I think this is one of those ‘both directions’ verses in the Bible. It points backward and forward at the same time.
What is “good and pleases God our Savior”? Looking backward, from this verse 3, we see in verses 1&2, it is God’s people who pray and “live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” Looking forward, from verse 3, we see in verse. 4 it is when people are “saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” Do you see that my friends? So let’s stand for just a moment on that pinnacle of verse 3 and look back and forward with these questions:
1. Is it you and me? Do we see ourselves both in verses 1&2 and in verse 4? Are we prayerful people living peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness? Are we ALSO people who are saved and coming to a knowledge of God’s truth?
2. Secondly… from this pinnacle of verse 3, let’s look at each and all the members of our families, as far out into your extended family as you know. How many of them are living both this ‘peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and holiness’ AND are ‘saved and coming to knowledge of God’s truth’?
Now let’s widen the scope of our view and look at our neighborhood, our friends in our various social groups, our work or school friends, and of course the people in our churches. What do you see, my friends, when you look at your network of relationships through the lenses of 1 Timothy 2:1-4?
Now imagine Jesus standing on the pinnacle of verse 3 with you, looking with you at all the people you’ve been looking at… what does He see? Now look at Jesus’ face, His eyes, what do you see? Look at Jesus’ hands, do you see the nail scars that Thomas saw? Go ahead, do like Thomas did, put your finger on Jesus’ nail scars, and look out at all the people God has allowed you to connect with as friends or family. What do you feel in your heart as you look at them through the lenses of 1 Timothy 2:1-4? What do you hear Jesus saying to you about them?
If you like to mark in your Bible, write 2 Peter 3:9 next to verse 4 here in 1 Timothy 2. Listen to what Peter says: “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promises as some understand slowness. He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.”
Do we understand the difference between the word “perish” and the word “die”? This same word “perish” is also used in John 3:16, remember?
“Die” is what we all know is coming. When our heart stops beating, our lungs stop breathing, our brain ceases to function. Death. But as we know that’s only our bodies that die. Our souls & spirits are still very much alive, they are immortal and will never die. And they will spend forever after death, eternity, either with God in heaven or apart from God in eternal despair. That is “Perish”!
“Perish” is what happens after physical death to those who have not trusted the truth about Jesus Christ. “Perish” is eternity apart from God. “Perish” is the ultimate hopelessness of having lived life here without a relationship with Jesus Christ, and then at the time of death, finding your soul & spirit forever and ever in a place which is totally separated from God and heaven and all that is good and holy. That means a place of evil, pain, suffering, wickedness with Satan and all his evil demons, a place called Hell. “Perish” is hell!
Do you see in 1 Timothy 2:4, the deep, passionate desire of God, that every living human being would understand the truth of the Gospel and trust Jesus Christ for their salvation, and live in the glorious relationship of Father/son, Father/daughter with Almighty God as their heavenly Father? God desperately desires that no human being would ever experience “perish”, and so God has gone to the extreme of sending Jesus to live among us, explain God’s truth to us, die an atonement death for us, so anyone and everyone can come to an understanding of God’s truth, trust Jesus Christ to be their Savior, be forgiven of their sin and never experience “Perish”!
Do you see the essentialness of what Paul writes in verse 4 “…come to a knowledge of the truth.”? That is one of our major purposes with “Walking with Jesus” each morning. So I have another question for you: ‘How important is it that you are confident you know the truth about God, about you, about your relationship with God now, and where you will spend eternity after you die?” Dawn and I live in Florida now, surrounded by the approach of death, and the reality of widows and widowers. This question is the most important question in life my friends! What about you? Read the question again… how confident are you?
Now look very closely at 1 Timothy 2:5 & 6 for here is God’s answer to the question, God’s answer to the word “Perish”. . . “For there is one God and one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men.”
“There is ONE GOD…” Truth begins right here. Hindus say there are millions of gods, and their craftsmen fabricate hundreds of different images which are worshiped as god. Muslims say there is one God and he is Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. While he has many similar qualities to the God of the Bible, there are also some differences, especially in the relationship Allah has with humanity both now and after death.
The prophet Isaiah lived at a time similar to ours when so many people struggled with a clear understanding of God. So, most of chapters 40-48 are clarifying statements from God about WHO God is. Over and over you will read there “I am God and there is no other.”
Come with me, let’s step into Isaiah’s scroll, written 2600 years ago, but very important for us today. . .
1. “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and power to the weak…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength…” (Is. 40:28-31)
2. “Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me. I am the LORD and apart from Me there is no Savior… I am the LORD, the Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King… I am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:10,15,25)
3. And from Isaiah 45… “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged Me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides Me… I form the light and create darkness… it is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts… I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right... there is no God apart from Me, a righteous God and a Savior. Turn to Me and be saved all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked; Before Me every knee will bow…” (Isaiah 45:5,6,12,19,22,23)
Oh my friends, everything hinges on the truth of God. WHO God is… God’s attributes, God’s character, God’s truthfulness. So… who is God in your understanding, and what relationship do you have with Him?
That 1 Timothy 2:5 said “There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men…” There is the second most important of all truths. The identity of Jesus Christ and His role in our salvation from sin, our redemption from sin condemnation. You answer to the question ‘who is Jesus Christ and what is my relationship with Him’, determines if “PERISH” is your current and future destiny!!
Jesus is God the Son… eternally existing as fully God, who then came to earth in the miracle of the Christmas Incarnation, and became fully God and fully man, so He could live among humanity to proclaim God’s truth, and He become our atonement sacrifice in His death on the cross. Then Jesus rose again from the dead, victorious over sin, Satan and death, and returned to heaven, where He reigns victoriously saving any and all who trust in Him for salvation. Is that what you understand as truth about Jesus and have you fully trusted in Jesus to be your Savior?
Do you see Paul writes that Jesus is the ONLY mediator between God and mankind. No human being can fill this mediator role!! That’s very important for us to understand my friends. No religious person… no pope, no priest, no pastor, no rabbi, no imam, no monk, no person can be our Saving mediator with God! Only Jesus the Son of God can fill that role. Do you know anyone trusting in some human being to be their mediator with God? Jesus Himself said “I am the way, the truth, the life, NO ONE comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)
Jesus also said “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) While Jesus’s atonement is available to all, and is sufficient to pay the sin price for everyone, and while God’s desire is that EVERYONE would trust in Jesus and be saved, Jesus said “give His life as a ransom for MANY“ because, sadly, there are and will be, the majority of humanity who will say ‘no thanks’ to God! That breaks my heart. . . how about yours?
As we close today, oh my friends, I implore you. . . are you confident these wonderful six verses of 1 Timothy 2, are describing you and your relationship with Almighty God and with Jesus Christ, God the Son? If you have any question about this, please write me and I’d be delighted to help you understand God’s life saving truth. May I urge us to close our time praying for our family & friends, that these great truths will come alive and vibrant in their lives in 2020?
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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