Kinds of Prayer for All Kinds of People. Passage: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Title: All Kinds of Prayer for All Kinds of People. Passage: 1 Timothy 2:1-7. Number 124, Number 124… No, I’m not calling out a hymn number, or the Maccas’ Order number for your Big Mac and Coke, No. What are you going on about Luke? Good question!! Who’s ever dreamed of representing your country on the sporting field? I know I have. To be part of an elite exclusive club of people who have had the honour of representing the nation would be amazing Growing up, back when I was a young lad, my family and I used to listen to the test cricket on the radio as we painted the outside of our weatherboard house. And probably like many young blokes, used to dream of representing Australia on the cricket field, of having the honour of putting on a Baggy Green. Just in case you missed the news, I didn’t make it! But I heard about the heroes of the day, Graham Yallop, Rick McCosker, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson – no relation by the way even though the last name is spelt the right way - the Chappell brothers, Rod Marsh, these were the cricketing heroes of my early years. You may not care about cricket, but whatever sport there is, there’s only a limited few who get to represent the nation on the sporting field. In Cricket, there’s only 11 who get to pull on the baggy green and represent the nation on the field. Out of a nation of 24 Million, only 11 get to represent the Nation, it’s rather an exclusive bunch isn’t it? Since 1877, there’s only been 452 players that have had the honour of representing Australia on the cricket pitch over the last 142 years. Of course, the greatest of them all, number 124… Don Bradman. As you may be aware, this exclusive group has been sullied somewhat by the ball tampering scandal that occurred in South Africa, by numbers 415, 426, and 451 – Smith, Warner and Bancroft. There’s some ground to be made up to get the honour and pride to be restored to this exclusive group. Now apart from being good enough to be selected for the cricket team, There are restrictions on who can even be considered to join the national team. Obviously, you need to be either born here, have a valid passport stating that you’re a national, or deemed a resident to qualify – unless you have the personal number of Peter Dutton, if you give him a call, that may change things! Without any of that, forget it, you won’t qualify, you won’t even be considered. The Australian cricket team is then a rather exclusive group to belong to. I’d imagine that there’d be a fair amount of pride for the person who made the team, honour for the one who gets to put on a baggy green cap. Becoming part of that exclusive group, would come a change of thinking. There’d be a need to focus on the team and its goals, a focus on things that are needed to be done for success. All your energy and focus would be put into that to ensure that not only did you stay in the team, but that the team stayed together, and was successful. While exclusive and inward type thinking may be fine for a national sporting team, it’s not when comes to the Gospel. I think it’s this elitist, inward thinking that led to the recent troubles for the Australian Cricket team. It’s the elitist, exclusive, inward thinking that Paul is looking to address in the Ephesian church in this passage today. Now for us here in the modern church in Australia wouldn’t have this sort of thinking, would we? Well, more about that later… It’s been a few weeks since we initially looked at this letter of first Timothy. Paul has written this letter to his young Padawan, Timothy, who he’d left behind to defend the church in Ephesus from the dark lords of false teaching. All Kinds of Prayer for All Kinds of People. Page 2 of 18 07 September 2018 GBC-HP 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke Thomson Version 2.0 This wasn’t some cake walk either, the Gospel was being twisted and warped by these guys who’d set their hearts and minds on myths and endless genealogies, majoring on minor and irrelevant things, instead of keeping the main thing the main thing. The result was that they’d led the church to drift from the truth of the Gospel and had turned the church into an elite club, a group that focussed on irrelevant myths and genealogies instead of the gospel. This had caused some to drift and made shipwreck of their faith and had also led to squabbles and fighting in the church. The thing about the Gospel being twisted is that the lifestyles of the people, how they conducted themselves both in society generally and as a church, did not reflect Gospel living as it should’ve. This is Pauls main thrust in this book. Last time we were together we looked at chapter 1 - Gospel and the False Teachers. Initially we saw God’s Servants Advance His Work by Staying True to the Gospel, because it’s the Gospel that gets both our head and our heart right. Then in the second part of chapter one, we saw the Transforming Power of the Gospel, where the Power of the Gospel Transforms Unworthy Sinners into Well Pleasing Servants of God. Paul himself was the prime example of this. Today we step into the section; Gospel Shaped Church Life Ch 2 – 3:13. Here Paul starts to direct and tell the church on how it’s to get back on the track. It will be about another 4 weeks before we dip back into this section, where will look at the second part of this chapter. The rest of the book can be broken up like this; Gospel Shaped Ministry Focus Ch 3:14-4:16 Gospel Shaped Community Ch 5:1 – 6:2a Final Encouragement and Instructions Ch 6:2b-21 So today we start in the section, the Gospel Shaped Church life. All Kinds of Prayer for All Kinds of People. Page 3 of 18 07 September 2018 GBC-HP 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke Thomson Version 2.0 1 TIMOTHY GOSPEL LIVING IN A MESSY WORLD. GOSPEL AND THE FALSE TEACHERS CH 1 GOSPEL SHAPED CHURCH LIFE CH 2 – 3:13. GOSPEL SHAPED MINISTRY FOCUS CH 3:14-4:16 GOSPEL SHAPED COMMUNITY CH 5:1 – 6:2A FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT AND INSTRUCTIONS CH 6:2B-21 And the first thing in this section that Paul addresses is the exclusive thinking of the church. The problem in the Ephesian Church was thinking that they were the spiritual elite and this teaching was only for themselves, a select group of people and weren’t to worry about anyone else. This is what happens when you major of minors, on peripheral things – they can quickly, and wrongly, become major things. It’s these things that can separate you from everyone else, and become legalistic, drawing a clear distinction between who’s on the inside and who’s not. It brings an attitude of “We’re better than everyone else, because we’re the only ones who are right”. It was this holy huddle type thinking that Paul starts to address today because they’d lost sight of the ball, they we’re playing down the wrong line. They’d forgotten God’s mission for the gospel that was to be taken to the ends of the earth. Paul’s passion was that the message of the cross, that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone. This passion should be ours too. To get them back on track, to get them watching the ball, Paul encourages the Ephesian Church to look beyond their closed circle outward toward others. He does this by encouraging them to pray for others, to pray that the Gospel would be preached to all kinds of People. Not sure if you noticed on the way through the reading the number of times that the little word “ALL” comes up. In the ESV, it’s 5 times in these 7 verses, as you can see on the screen. If we focussed this list on the “All” in reference to people, and included other words for classes of people in these verses, as seen in this next slide, All Kinds of Prayer for All Kinds of People. Page 4 of 18 07 September 2018 GBC-HP 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke Thomson Version 2.0 What I think this does is to frame where Paul is going, what Paul is looking to direct the thought of the Ephesian church to. We can see that there are references in verse 1 for All people. In verse 2 for kings and ALL who are in High positions. A reference in verse 4 of God who desires all people to be saved. Verse 5 pointing out that there’s one mediator between God and men, or humanity. Verse 6 where it states that Jesus who gave himself for all, and lastly in verse 7 where Paul points out that he is a preacher, apostle and teacher of the Gentiles – a large group of nations. The point that Paul is making is this to the Ephesian Church, and by extension us, is that God is not the God of the elite or the few.