9/12/21 1 Timothy 1:12-17 “Accept Grace and Finally Live!”

10 Sep 9/12/21 1 Timothy 1:12-17 “Accept Grace and Finally Live!”

9/12/21  1 Timothy 1:12-17         “Accept Grace and Finally Live!”

I have been a Christian for about 30 years.  If you think about it that is not a very long time.  Some of you have been Christians for a lot longer than that.  In other words, I had a lot of catching up to do.  In many ways I will never get to the point where you are in your Christian walk.  But in order just to get here today, I had to cram a lot of learning into a short period of time.  I still remember the night I came to know Jesus as I sat down and began to read my Bible for the first time.  Since then, I have read the Bible many times plus many, many other books on our faith and religion.  I also attended many studies and seminars.  The United Methodist Church had an excellent study called Disciple.  I attended this study at Flame of Faith in West Fargo several years ago and it was one of the best studies I have ever taken.  It ran for 35 weeks and there was lots of work.  I remember at one point when we were studying Paul, who wrote our passage today, one of the other people in the class said that they didn’t like Paul as much as some of the other characters we read about.  This person felt that Paul seemed to be really rigid in his writing and he did not beat around the bush on anything.  He talked about all the hard topics and he pretty much told it like it was.  This may be the case but one of the great attributes about Paul is that he was just like all of us.  Let’s take a look at this passage and see if we can find ourselves in it.

Last week we talked about how this book is the truth and we are to follow Jesus Christ for a better life.  Here is a story from Kenneth Sauer about why this is such a good thing.  Several years ago, there was a woman in the west someplace who claimed she had visions of Jesus.  Well, the archbishop of the area heard about this and decided to check it out.

“Is it true, ma’am, that you have visions of Jesus?” asked the archbishop.

“Yes,” the woman replied simply.

“Well, the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins I confessed in

my last confession.”  The woman reluctantly agreed and the archbishop finished by saying, “Call me if anything happens.”

About 10 days later she saw Jesus again and she called the archbishop and told him to come.  He arrived as quickly as possible and asked, “You had a vision of Jesus again and you asked Him to tell you of all the sins I confessed at my last confession?”

The woman replied, “I did as you asked.”

By now the bishop was full of anticipation, eager for an answer.  He asked, “What did Jesus say.”

She took his hand and gazed deep into his eyes.  “Bishop,” she said, “these are His exact words: ‘I can’t remember.’”  Wow!  This, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is grace.  We have to trust in Jesus enough to know that He not only forgives our sins, but He also forgets that we ever did them.

As we begin to look that this passage, we note that this is a letter to Timothy who was a young leader of a church.  He was also a follower of Paul and Paul would be considered to be his mentor.  Being Timothy is quite young, Paul takes a special interest in helping him to develop as best as he can.  So, he writes him this very personal letter and the section we are looking at today is actually an opening prayer.

Paul opens by offering his thankfulness to God.  He thanks God that he is worthy.  He thanks Him for the strength he has been given to get through all the different trials that Paul went through.  He thanks Him for considering him faithful.  He thanks Him for appointing him to service in the Lord.  This is always a great way to begin a prayer.  God loves to hear from us and He loves that we appreciate what He has done for us.  And whether you like it or not, He has given you everything that you have.

Maybe you have noticed that I almost always like to begin a prayer with thanksgiving.  I usually don’t know what all to say or where to start because I’m thankful for so much.  This is a good way for anyone to begin a prayer.  Many people are uncomfortable with praying, especially praying out loud in front of people.  All you have to do is remember that you are thankful to God for everything and start to name things that come to your mind.  You will find that it is a very effective way to open communications with our all-powerful, all loving God.  Paul knows this and he gives this to Timothy as an example for him to follow.

Then Paul states one of the main reasons why he is so thankful.  Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man.  We need to remember that Paul was a Pharisee.  He did not believe in Jesus but only the Jewish way and the Law.  He had tried his best to carry out a one-man crusade to get rid of all the Christians in the area.  When Stephen was stoned, he stood by and held the coats of those who did the stoning.  He was not a good man.

But notice here why he was shown mercy.  It was because he acted in ignorance and unbelief.  We have to be a little careful here.  I think what Paul is saying here is that God might be more willing to offer grace if you don’t know anything about Him or Christianity.  Paul had done all of these terrible things in ignorance.  This doesn’t mean that Jesus will not offer you grace if you turn your back to Him.  He will still offer you grace but you may have to come and ask for it although there could very well be times when He comes to you.  But people who know nothing about Christ can still be offered grace and God will lead the way to showing them what He is all about.

According to this, we could find ourselves in a real problem in this country.  We have so many people who know about Jesus and have nothing to do with Him because He might cramp their style.  He might make them do things they don’t want to do.  Then we turn our backs to Him. We have so many misconceptions of God in this country.  Even churches can’t get it right.  The UMC is in trouble because they have turned their backs to Jesus.  According to this reading Jesus is always there waiting for us to come to Him or back to Him.  If you are a little confused by all the things that go on in the world and you have your own definition of who God is, then I urge you to read your Bibles.  This book is nothing but the truth so go to it anytime you are mixed up or confused.  Jesus wants you to be His best friend no matter who you are or what you have done in your life.  Come to Him for relief.

We know this because in the next line, Paul is telling us that Jesus poured out his grace, his love and faith abundantly to Paul.  Here was a man who was murdering Christians just because they were Christians.  Here was a man who slammed the name of Jesus every chance he got.  This was a man who persecuted Christians at every turn.  And yet Jesus offered grace to this terrible murderer.

I am going to continue on into the next verse here because Paul makes a very profound statement.  The primary purpose that Jesus Christ came into this world was to save sinners.  Then Paul says that he is the worst of them all.  I am going to go out on a limb here and contradict the Bible.  Paul isn’t the worst sinner in the world, I am.  There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I am the worst sinner in the world.  Notice that I did not use past tense nor did Paul.  I can use past and present tense because I was and still am the biggest sinner.  And I hope that you can fill your name in here and also be the worst sinner in the world.  This is a huge stumbling block for many people.

I have known several people in my life that get to the point of realizing that they are the worst sinners in the world and they just stop living.  In their minds they are so bad that no one can save them.  They just give up and continue to lead their lives in a sinful nature, without remorse.  I used to be one of them so I have some insight into their thinking.  If you know someone like this, lead them to this passage.  Describe to them just who Paul was before Jesus met him.  He was Saul of Tarsus and he was a bad one.  I was John of St. Vincent and I was a bad one.  I am a bad one.  You are someone of somewhere and you are a bad one.  But the good news is that you don’t have to wallow in your misery and self-pity.  You can have a new great way of life if you just follow Jesus.

Look what Paul says in verse 16.  “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.”  Paul’s life was changed in an instant.  It took him three days to figure it out but he was physically blinded in a flash.  His life would never be the same.  He tells us in other places that it took him three years by himself to put all of this together.  In other words, he had to learn about Jesus in every way possible before he could go out and preach.

Then when he finally did preach, the people were afraid that it was just some trick so that he could round up Christians and kill them.  He had a lot of things to overcome and he did with the help of Jesus Christ.  This may be one of the reasons why he refers to his testimony so many times in his writings.

And you should learn from this also.  Did you know that only you know your testimony?  No one else knows your story first hand.  It is your story.  Every one of us has a story and it is our own story.  It is important.  No one knows firsthand how I went into the bedroom and kneeled by the bed and asked Jesus to live in my life.  That is my story.  Your story is every bit as powerful as the one of Paul.  You probably didn’t kill anyone or make people’s lives so miserable that they would do anything to get away from you.  But I bet that you have a very powerful story in your own right.  Your testimony is important, just as important as Paul’s story.

They are so important because they show other people firsthand the grace that God extends to all of us.  The people who feel that they are too bad to be accepted by God are the people who know nothing of the grace of God.  And that is the story that we need to tell but we don’t like to tell it.  It is embarrassing for some reason to tell people of the lowest point in our lives just before we came upon this high plateau that we call living our lives in Jesus.  But Jesus wants us to tell this story.

I have told the story before about the mobster from out east who was the worst person possible until the day he found Jesus and grace.  You can pick up many different magazines that tell you of people who are sitting on death row who have found Jesus and grace.  There are surprising stories of people from Muslim countries who have never heard of Jesus who have found Him and His grace.  Every time you attend one of our services, you can look to the pulpit or the screen and find someone who has found Jesus and His grace.  Jesus offers anyone in the world grace so why wouldn’t He offer it to you?  He does and all you have to do is accept it.  Accept that Jesus is God, repent and ask Him into your life.  He has enough grace to cover anything and everything that you have ever done.  If you already know Jesus, then take your story or this story to someone who needs Jesus.

Finally, Paul ends this prayer.  He does this by referencing who Jesus is and the mightiness of His Power.  All honor goes to God.  This is a great pattern for prayer.  Start with praise and thanksgiving.  Then tell the problem and realize that you are powerless and not worthy of an answer of any kind.  Realize that it is only through the power of God that you are even alive.  Then ask that Jesus Help you.  End the prayer with praise once again, praise and love.  Jesus wants to hear from you so go to Him in a prayer like this.

In England there is a tombstone that reads, “John Newton, clerk [pastor], once an infidel & Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.”  Some of you may not recognize the name but this is the man who wrote one of our most endearing hymns, “Amazing Grace.”  John Newton was the captain of a slave ship and a terrible, brutal man.  The song is about the wondrous grace of Jesus Christ in our lives written in a simple, straight forward manner.  It is John Newton’s story and he has shared it with millions.

We find many conversions in the Bible.  There was Legion at the tombs.  Matthew was a hated tax collector.  We see the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, the Roman centurion at the crucifixion, Cornelius, the Philippian jailer just to mention a few.  But Saul of Tarsus was the most memorable of all as he has reached out to millions and millions of people over the centuries.

Jesus Christ has the same love for you.  He will take you places that you never thought possible.  He will put words in your mouth that you thought you never could say.  He will do whatever is possible to give you a better life.  He loves you that much.  Go to Him and you will never regret it.  Please accept His grace and begin to live.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.