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1 Timothy 4:12-16 "Leave Your Mark"
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. (1 Timothy 4:12-16)
We know from this letter that Timothy was a young man.
It would have been easy for others to look down on him for his youth,
but instead Paul had given him the task of leadership for the Ephesian
church. I grew up in a Christian family, but didn’t realize my
own sin and need for Jesus to save me until I was 15 years old. At that
time I jumped into the Bible and everywhere I went I had my Bible with
me. At 16, I knew that God was calling me to be a missionary to Japan
and I started to prepare myself for that calling. At school and later
in college, God used me to witness to others, encourage others in their
faith and teach others the Bible. Even though my knowledge was much
less than it is today, God still was able to use me. I think that it
is interesting that God would lock up Paul, the mature, wise, experienced
missionary in prison and leave young Timothy to lead the church in Ephesus.
God is so wise. You see God is not interested in making a superchurch
with hundreds of thousands of members all gathered around some superpastor
who is such a great preacher and has such great wisdom and knowledge.
Instead God wants for the church to spread little by little into every
corner of the world. It is like yeast which a baker puts into the bread
to make it rise. If the yeast stays all in one lump it cannot do its
job. But if it is spread out through the bread then the bread will rise.
We are affiliated with a huge church back in the United States. Every
Sunday tens of thousands of people attend that church. But what impresses
me so much about Calvary Chapel is that it is not a church that is seeking
to grab and keep people. Instead it is a church that seeks to send people
out to further the kingdom of God. Now there are over 300 churches in
the U.S. alone that have been planted through Calvary Chapel or are
grandchildren, churches planted by other churches that were planted.
Young Timothy, don’t let anyone despise your youth because if
you are out there planting churches you are doing the work of God.
What is Christian maturity? I think that part of it is the ability to
be an example. Paul says to Timothy to “leave his mark”,
to make an “impression”, to be an example to these people,
not only with his words but also in conduct. This is the true measure
of maturity in a Christian. Wherever they go they leave the footprints
of Christ. When they leave the room, the fingerprints of Christ remain.
When they speak, the words of Christ echo. I have had the wonderful
privilige to have known Christians who leave their mark on those that
they meet. My youth leader when I first got saved was a man who gave
100% to us kids so that he might see some saved. I could not dream of
giving less than my all for Christ after seeing this man in action.
A professor in seminary showed me what it meant to be a master of the
Bible. I could not lazily persuade myself that the Bible was too big
and complicated to really learn everything, when this man knew it so
well. His example, put in me the desire to really know the Word of God.
My pastor for these last 12 years, Koichi Hirano, among other things
has shown me how to trust in the Spirit and have faith in the promises
of God. You cannot follow this man and not have this faith rub off on
you. All of these men have made their mark on me, they have left their
impression. Do you know what an impression is? In the ancient times
a letter would be sealed with wax and stamped with the kings ring, leaving
an exact copy of the design of the ring in the wax. Anyone looking at
that impression would know that it belonged to the king. The word for
example, really is to make that kind of impression. Paul wanted Timothy
to stamp these people into the mold of Christ the King, so all would
know that they were the people of the King. In Japan we use a stamp
for all important legal transactions. It is used the same way as a signature
is in other countries. My wife went down to get a stamp verified at
the city hall the other day. They checked the stamp carefully and pronounced
it deficient because the “i” character in “uiruson”
(Wilson) was not small enough. We have to be like Jesus in not just
our words but also in conduct, in love, in spirit, if faith, in purity.
Christian maturity does not mean that you are a preacher or a missionary
or an evangelist. Timothy was, because that was the gift that God had
given to him. Paul says to him to give attention to reading, to exhortation,
to doctrine (teaching). You see that was his gift. But Paul says in
1 Corinthians 12 that there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit.
Some are given a word of wisdom. Have you ever talked with a Christian
brother or sister and they were able to say just the thing that you
needed to hear in your situation. It is a gift of the Spirit. To another
is given the word of knowledge. Have you ever known something without
knowing why? Have you ever been led to pray for someone without receiving
a telephone call of any need and then found out that you had prayed
at just the right time? This is also a gift of the Spirit. In Romans
Paul talks about gifts of service, gifts of mercy and gifts of giving.
Think about what a wonderful gift that last one is. The Holy Spirit
who gives out all these gifts freely gives a special grace to some to
join Him in His work. Now Paul says that these gifts are given by the
Spirit “to each one for the profit of all” (1Cor.12:7) So
for each of us to be a mature Christian we need to be using the gifts
that the Spirit has given to each of us. For Timothy this meant to give
attention to his gift of preaching and teaching. How about for you?
But just using your gift to serve Christ is not enough if you really
want to leave your mark. Paul explains it to Timothy like this, “Take
heed to yourself and to the doctrine.” To put it another way,
service is only half of Christian maturity. You can serve, teach, preach,
lead people to Jesus, and still be empty inside. A few hundred years
ago a missionary left England to go to preach to the colonists and the
Indians in the Americas. After spending a number of years preaching
and teaching and pastoring this missionary went home. But on the ship
he wrote secretly in his journal. He had met a band of Christians onboard
who were constantly praying and singing praises to God. In the middle
of the journey a violent storm came down upon them and while the rest
of the passengers trembled in fear the Christians continued to pray
and sing more joyously. During the storm the missionary had trembled
with the rest of the passengers, afraid for his life. But these other
Christians were not afraid of death, in fact they seemed to welcome
it with peace. Later, when the ship arrived safely in England, this
veteran missionary, a pastor with all the degrees and certifications,
went to a meeting with these other Christians. At that meeting, in Aldersgate,
the missionary, John Wesley, understood for the first time that he was
saved by the wonderful grace of God. The mature Christian pays attention
to both the inside and the outside. The work of Christ that he does
with his hands, and the work of Christ that is taking place in his own
heart. Both are needed. “For in doing this you will save both
yourself and those who hear you.”
"Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as
a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women
as sisters, with all purity.” (1Tim 5:1-2)
Part of the work that Timothy had to do in order to set the church in
Ephesus back on the right course was to correct some of the members.
This is always tricky. It must have been very difficult for Timothy
being a young man to get people to listen to him tell them things that
they did not want to hear. Sometimes your pastor might have to tell
you something that you don’t want to hear. I have experienced
times when people have thanked me for saving them from continuing on
in sin. And I have also experienced times when they have gotten mad
and never came back to this church again. I have to admit that sometimes
that has been due to my poor judgement and lack of gentleness but I
must say that it is not an easy thing to go through. I think that it
would help all of us to know what kind of relationship we should have
as pastor and congregation.
I have been to some churches where that relationship is like the people
of the U.S.A to the president. As long as things are going well and
there are no problems then they are all with him. But as soon as he
says something that they do not like, he is voted out of office. Other
churches hire their pastor on to serve the church. He has to be very
careful what he says so that he does not offend anyone on the board
or else he might be out of a job. But Paul does not counsel Timothy
to keep his mouth shut. Instead he says to exhort.
The other kind of church that I have seen to many of are the ones that
have a dictator at the top. It looks like the army and the pastor is
giving the orders to his faithful lieutenants. Whatever the pastor says
is right and cannot be questioned. Anyone who doesn’t obey is
cast out as a rebel, not only to the pastor but also to God. Neither
of these is a biblical model. The church is not a democracy or a corporation.
It is not an army or a kingdom to be ruled by the pastor. Paul uses
some familiar language to show Timothy what the church is really like;
“father, brothers, mothers, sisters”, these are the words
of a family. The church is a family. Our real Father is God,and our
older brother who brought us in to be adopted is Jesus Christ. The pastor
serves as the guy who looks around, who oversees and watches out for
the others. Sometimes he will see a problem, a place where the enemy
can get a hold on you to drag you down. When this happens it is my duty
to approach you as one family member to another with tough love showing
you the danger of your sin. It is your duty then to receive that word
as as a member of the family.
Drop down with me to verse 24. “Some men's sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden. (1 Tim 5:24-25)
One of the things that has helped me a lot is to realize
that all men are sinners. Romans says “There is none righteous,
no not one.” You see I used to get disappointed with people, wondering
why such a good Christian would treat me so bad. Now I know. It is sin.
Paul warned Timothy, there are some people who you can look at and know
right away that they are sinners. It is obvious that they do not love
God and do not walk in His ways. But there are other people who know
God and whom you would never expect to be hurt by. Please look around
at the people who are sitting beside you. Perhaps you respect them as
great Christians. Maybe you are learning from their example of faith
and prayer and love for God and others. Please, please, do not place
them on a pedestal of perfection. Do not make them into something that
they are not. Do not put me on any such pedestal. If you do, you are
setting us up for a fall. There is none who does good, no not one. That
includes me. That includes the best Christian you know.
I do not know of any Christian alive today who would venture to say
that he is better than the Apostle Paul. But Paul said in Chapter 1
of this book, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief.“ (1Tim 1:15) He does not say, “of whom I was chief.”
It is not as if God took away every sin from him when he was saved.
Instead, Jesus took the penalty of sin away from him. The wages of sin
is death, and Jesus took those wages upon Himself on the cross so that
He could save us sinners from death. When we stand before God on the
judgement day there will be many sins that we have concealed that nobody
knew about that will be revealed. There will also be many sins that
we never knew that we committed that will surprise even us on that day.
There will be times when we should have done something right but didn’t
and other times when we failed to avoid something wrong. All of these
things will follow us to the judgment and Satan will use them to accuse
us. But if we are marked by Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit living
in our hearts, bought with a price and redeemed by His blood, then every
sin that we have done, both those we knew about and those that we did
not, will be forgiven and we will enter into eternal life.
Paul also says that, “likewise, the good works of some are clearly
evident.” Like that stamp that the king uses to mark his own,
if it is not clear, if it is not easy to see, it is not of much use.
Some men are beautiful stamps that God uses to make His mark in this
world. Their good works are clearly evident, easy to see. Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. I want to be the kind of man whom God
can use to bring these sinners to Jesus. Yes, I too am a sinner saved
by the grace of my Lord, but I am looking to Jesus to make me mature
on the inside and the outside, a living stamp of His wonderful love.
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