Into the World (1 Timothy 1:15-17)

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Hello, good evening and Merry Christmas. If you want to go ahead and grab your Bibles, you can open up to First Timothy chapter one. First Timothy chapter one. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a black Bible there on the pew in front of you. If you’re looking at that Bible, it’s on page 960 if you’re not looking at that Bible, I don’t know what page it is on. I am sorry, by the way, if you don’t have a Bible, it says Christmas the time when we give gifts. So just go ahead and take that Bible. That’ll be our gift to you. If you don’t have one, we would love for you to have that one. But again, you can open up to First Timothy chapter one as you’re turning there. It is a season of watching Christmas movies. Probably a lot of you have some Christmas movies that you go back to, year in and year out, ones you got to watch every December. There is a scene in one of my favorite Christmas movies, although probably not appropriate for a pastor to be watching it, I will grant, but it’s at the end of Christmas vacation, and Clark Griswold and his family see what they think is the Christmas star at the end of the movie. And Clark, having learned a lot of lessons the hard way during the movie, said that’s all that matters tonight. It’s not about bonuses or gifts or turkeys or trees, all the things that he’s had issues with in the last hour or so. And then he looks down at his nephew, or first cousin, once removed, whatever it is, something like that, and says, you know, it means something different to everyone, the Christmas star. And now I know what it means to me. And he’s got this sense that, clearly, it’s family for him. That’s the most important thing here is family common theme, by the way, in Christmas movies, pretty sure that’s the message of Home Alone Jingle All the Way You know the real classics, right? But it’s not always the case, because Christmas seems to mean something different to everyone, including the movie makers. So in elf, for example, I think the main message, what Christmas is all about is spreading Christmas cheer, isn’t it? That’s what matters most. Or in the Santa Clause, the key is that you just have to believe whatever. But just believe something anyway. That’s what’s going to keep this thing running. Or even in a classic like Christmas carol written by the Muppets, if I recall, the key is just to do good instead of being miserly, be generous and compassionate. The point is, there seems to be some confusion about what Christmas is really all about, because we had all these different messages. We know that it’s definitely more than the material, although if we were to look at our calendars and bank statements, that would probably contradict that, but that’s why we got all these movies that are telling you it’s not just about the gifts. But then what exactly is Christmas all about? Why do we celebrate? What are we even celebrating at this point, I find it would be best to look at God’s answer to that question. With apologies to Hollywood, we’re probably better off looking at the Bible, and in particular, looking at this short passage in Paul’s letter written to his young protege, Timothy, in which he explains why Jesus, Christ came into the world. What we celebrate at Christmas? Why God Himself? Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, became human, took on humanity. We just sang it veiled in flesh the Godhead. See why God himself became human, lived a perfect life, and then died a purposeful death. So that’s what we’re going to see as we look at this passage. Here you go. First Timothy chapter one. Let me read verses 15 to 17 for us. First Timothy 115, to 17. Paul writes, here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ, Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me the worst of sinners, Christ, Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen, there are three truths that Paul teaches us in this short passage that will help us understand just what Christmas is all about. We’re going to look at the sinner, the Savior and the switch as we go, let’s start with the sinner. So Paul calls himself the worst of all sinners. He’s the first name on the naughty list. He’s on the podium for worldwide sinners. Now this might surprise us that he would think of himself this way. You may have heard of the Apostle Paul. They name. The capital of Minnesota after him, and it starts with Saint, right? So here’s a saint, an apostle, and yet he’s saying he’s the worst sinner of all. Now if you know his biography, that will help us understand why he calls himself that, because he famously was the coat rack basically held the cloaks at the first murder of a Christian, the martyrdom of Stephen that we read about in Acts chapter seven. And then he became so zealous in persecuting the church that he would travel from town to town to arrest people and send them to their death. Later, he would be an itinerant evangelist, but at this point, he’s an itinerant Inquisitor and persecutor, he says himself that he tried to destroy the church, to nip Christianity in the bud, to wipe out its adherents, either by killing them or terrifying them into apostasy. But all that changes when he meets the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, where he was traveling again to persecute the church. I do find this admirable, by the way, because Paul is persecuting the church because he thinks they’re wrong. He thinks Christianity is wrong. He’s a zealous Jew. When he comes across evidence that he hadn’t heard before, when he meets the risen Jesus, knows Jesus rose from the dead, he kind of goes okay, so that that is probably true, actually, and so he’s willing to change in the face of new evidence. But the point is, he’s got a rough past he does, so you can understand why he would say I was the worst. I was as bad as it gets, but that’s not what he says. He doesn’t say I was the worst. Look at it again. He says I am the worst, present tense right now. He says I am still as bad as you could possibly imagine. Now, what do we make of this? Because in a sense, it’s objectively false. I mean, in a world where at this time you would still have murderers, rapists, human traffickers, all the worst. I mean, here’s a guy who’s striving to live a different sort of life, the life devoted to God. Instead of persecuting people, he’s now willing to be persecuted himself for the sake of others, even to the point of death, which is how his story will end. So this can’t be true, except that there is a certain truth to it. He can call himself the worst of all sinners, because he knows the depths of his own sin better than he knows anyone else’s sin. Now I wonder, could we say the same of our selves with all sincerity, like I know what’s going on inside of me and based on what I know? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that I am the worst. I’m guessing most of us wouldn’t say that. I’m guessing most of us wouldn’t say that because I read people’s Christmas cards. Anyone else here, it’s a safe place. Anyone else here find Christmas cards a little annoying, at least the people who write the letters on the back. And we’re one of those families, by the way. Why are they annoying? Because they always sound like this. Our daughter, Susie, is practically perfect in every way, and she was valedictorian when she graduated high school this year. Of course, she was she comes from a long line of valedictorians. She’ll be attending Stanford on a full ride studying nuclear physics. We’re impressed that she was able to keep her grades so high, though, is prima ballerina at her dance studio, plus the time that she devotes to her service project, she single handedly cooks for the homeless shelter every Saturday. That’s what they always sound like. It’s never my son, Jake’s a bit of a dud. You Yeah, for those of you who are our guests, we might have someone on staff named Jake. So there’s a double joke there. His parents are here, by the way, I read their Christmas card. That’s what it said. We commend your honesty. Ty and Allison, you know, we’re not sure he’ll graduate because he’s so lazy. We blame ourselves, because we know we coddled him as a child, and we just know we indulged his love of screens unless he can get a job playing video games, he’s not making money in the future. Plus, by the way, our marriage is on the rocks because I never dealt with my control issues, and she’s really passive aggressive these days. My colleagues hate me because I’m a know it all with an offensive sense of humor and unable to read the room. This would be a fun little exercise, though. Wouldn’t it like write an honest Christmas card? It just for yourself, even not about your family, just do it for yourself in Paul’s style, I’m the worst, and only you can write that Christmas card, because only you know exactly what’s inside of you. I mean, take a moment even now, what are some things you do that you know you shouldn’t do. Maybe it’s something shameful you’re keeping secret from a spouse, from your parents, from your boss, but maybe it’s just habits that you haven’t broken, having to one up everybody in conversation, unwilling to affirm people just selfish at home instead of helping with the dishes or whatever, or what are some things that you say that you know you shouldn’t, things that you mutter under your breath as you walk away from conversations or behind someone’s back, or that you post online, or that you yell at drivers in the comfort of your own car? What are some things that you think that you know you shouldn’t. Uncharitable takes on people, pride, complaining, lust, greed, envy. Can we admit that if people actually knew everything you ever did and said or thought, they would call you a monster of depravity, and they would be right. They might even call you the worst of all sinners, and they wouldn’t be wrong. It’s Christmas. Maybe these are not the glad tidings and jolly message you were expecting to hear. This is a little bit like getting a dieting book for Christmas from someone not the gift you were hoping for. It says something a little unflattering about you. Might not be what you wanted to hear, but it is the news that we need to hear and understand and accept, because otherwise, Christmas makes no sense because we still haven’t answered the question, okay, but Why did Christ come? Why did God have to come to earth as a human for a time and then die, and that takes us to that second truth. Then, so we got the sinner. But here is the Savior. I mean, Paul explains Christmas to us very clearly, right? Christ, Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. That’s why he took on flesh. That’s why he was born as a baby placed in a feeding trough in a stable to a virgin mother all those years ago. Okay, but how exactly did Christ coming into the world lead to the salvation of sinners? I mean, if God’s maybe you’ve thought this before, if God’s a forgiving God, why couldn’t he just forgive? Why couldn’t he just be done with it all? Why did Jesus have to come? I think we understand the answer that God couldn’t just forgive because sin demands justice, which we all feel in our bones. Of course, you can imagine if a judge in Australia were just to release the Bondi Beach shooter, we wouldn’t go, Oh, what a nice, forgiving judge. We would be outraged, and especially the victims’ families would be up in arms. So he can’t just forgive, which means Jesus came to win forgiveness for us. Jesus came to live the life that we were supposed to live, keeping every one of God’s commands, loving God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, loving his neighbor as himself, lived the life that we were supposed to live, then died the death that we deserved to die, which means the key to understanding Christmas is the word substitution that Jesus was willing to trade places with us. He takes our sin on himself and in exchange, offers us His perfect life. This would be like a friend and the last day of the semester letting you turn in their final project because you’d forgotten to do it or just hadn’t bothered to do it. That’s why he came to trade places with us, which means the baby, born to marry, was born to die. The great glory of Christmas is not the humble manger, but the horrific cross and the subsequently empty tomb. God took on humanity to take on humanity’s sin, to carry it to the cross there to receive our punishment. Now will he really do that for any who trust in Him? And the answer is yes, yes, he will. In fact, that’s Paul’s whole point. He would do that even for the worst sinner. God showed even him mercy, He says, so that he could put his. Immense patience on display to encourage us. Are you like Paul? Do you have a rough past? Are there some things that you’re looking at in the rear view mirror, thinking there’s no way God could forgive that? And Paul says, No, he’s proven he can forgive that. He’s willing to forgive that. In Tokyo in 1918 a man named Tokichi Ishi was hanged for murder. This is a guy who’d been sent to prison more than 20 times, and his life was filled with hatred and violence, obviously culminating in murder. And hence his execution. Before he was killed, though two missionaries sent him a New Testament and then visited him in prison, and he came to know the Christ who came into the world, and he wrote shortly before his execution, which he regarded as just punishment for his sins in this world, at least, he wrote, perhaps in the future, someone in the world may hear that the most desperate villain who ever lived repented of his sins and was saved by the power of Christ, and so may come to repent also, 1900 years After Paul, he is making the exact same point. I don’t know all that you have done, but I do know this, there is more grace in Christ than sin in you. Maybe you’re not like Paul, though. Maybe you’re more like Paul, who didn’t really have a rough past, if you think about it. I mean, yes, he was religious to the point of persecution, absolutely. But I mean, this is a guy who kept the rules. He didn’t get drunk, he didn’t sleep around, he was scrupulous in keeping all of God’s 600 plus commands. He would have done acts of charity, acts of service, acts of religious devotion. This is the one that gets harder to admit. Right? Some of you are sitting there thinking, I’m not the worst of all sinners. I’m actually a pretty good person again, like Paul. Go back through your deeds, your words, your thoughts, get to that place where you can say, like, Paul, actually, I’m the worst, because that’s what Christmas tells us about ourselves. Again, Christ came into the world because he had to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Live that perfect life. Christmas tells us that we come into this world by nature and then prove by our deeds that we are spiritually dead, morally selfish and legally condemned. But Christmas tells us something else too, which is that God loves us enough to deliver us from that. That’s why Christ came into the world. So you’ve got the sinner, that’s you and me. You got the Savior, that’s Jesus. Now we got to talk about the switch, because all of this calls for a response. It’s like there’s a gift under the tree, but we still have to receive it. Pick it up, unwrap it. Open it. Take it for ourselves. Paul calls himself an example, as we saw, but he doesn’t say he’s an example for everyone everywhere, no matter what he says, he’s an example. Verse 16, for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life, the response is that we believe and receive. I mean, even verse 15, he says, this is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, like we have to accept the truth in this passage, remember, our key word is substitution, like we need to let him take our place. Not everyone wants to be substituted. I watch a lot of soccer, but if you watch another sport that probably works too, you know, sometimes they don’t want sometimes they don’t want to come out of the game. You know, they’re sitting there a pitcher or somebody like that, like you’re not yanking me. Okay, I know I can do this. Granted, I haven’t been hitting my spots. You know, I look tired. I’m out of shape and everything. But trust me, I’ve got it from here on out. And the coach is going, No, no, no, we got to make the switch. That’s the place we need to get to as well. We need to go to our friend Jesus, who is willing to be our friend, who was sneering, sneeringly called the friend of sinners. Even need to go to him admit we didn’t do that final project. Didn’t do the assignment, and so hand him our fat plate of nothing and receive that final project from him, snag our a plus on the project. We need to believe. We need to believe that Jesus is God, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Need to believe that we are ourselves the worst sinner. Need to believe that we can be forgiven. We. Also need to receive, to receive grace, to receive Jesus as Savior, to receive Jesus as Lord, also the Lord who will now direct your life going forward as you live for him. Take the gift, unwrap it. Enjoy eternal life, starting even now, friendship with God Almighty, His Spirit dwelling within you to transform you from the inside out so you can start to live that new life. I mean, that’s exactly what we see in Paul, who moves from the worst sinner to this wondrous servant. And yet we see in him that he’s bursting with praise because of who God is, the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God to him, the honor and glory. I find it interesting actually, that Paul doesn’t praise God here for His mercy and His love and His patience and His grace and His compassion, all of which would be true, he praises him because he’s so transcendently awesome. I think he does that because he’s just struck that a god as awesome as this would love someone like him, that a god like that should love even us. What is Christmas all about? What’s the real meaning of Christmas? It’s this. Christmas is about Jesus coming into the world to save sinners who believe in Him. Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, even here, even now, even tonight. Would you make room in your heart for him? Would you believe and receive him? If you’re interested in that, I’m going to invite you to pray along with me, even now. Would you pray with me, father and Lord, we confess that we are the worst sorts of sinners, that when we look into our hearts, when we look back at the record of our actions and our words and our thoughts and our desires, that there is so much wrong with us, that we have done so much wrong, that we have hurt so many people. We know this is true, Lord. We acknowledge it, we confess our sin, and we believe in your son, Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save us. We believe that he did what we could not do, live that perfect life, and that then he died the death we deserve to die, taking our punishment so that we could receive His reward, be adopted as your very children. We believe this, and so even now, Lord, we receive the gift of grace and forgiveness that you offer us, Lord, would You fill us with your spirits, now with your spirit now making us new people devoted to your glory and honor, to loving you and loving the people you made in your image. For Your name’s sake, amen.