Focusing on the Right Things in Ministry

We have been studying the book of First Timothy, the letter of First Timothy for the past few months now. The series title is called The Ministry of a Gospel Empowered Christian. So the whole theme, as we've sort of captured it, is on this focus of ministry service in the church of Christians who are driven, motivated, empowered by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of Jesus. And our passage this morning will give us a brilliant understanding of why this is the theme of First Timothy. Last week, Tony, our elder, led the talk and showed us that Timothy was instructed in chapter four to be a good servant by teaching certain truths to his congregation.

Timothy is encouraged towards godliness himself personally, and that through his instruction towards godliness, he would instruct others towards the same sort of godliness. And in this pursuit, in this focus of godliness, Paul says, do not have anything to do with the irreverent, silly myths of your day. Train yourself towards holiness. Train yourselves towards the things that have eternal value, rather than being swept up in the things that are nonsense, that are second rate issues. This morning, we carry on with these thoughts and it just jumps to the next paragraph.

Paul changes the focus a little bit, but that is the context still. We're gonna read this morning from verses 11 through to 16 in First Timothy four. First Timothy four, verse 11. Paul says to Timothy, command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. So far our reading. Five things I wanna share with you this morning. Under the great theme of this passage, which is to focus on the right things in ministry. To focus on the right things in ministry.

And Paul gives us five things to focus on. Firstly, in verse 12, we see that we are to focus on godliness. Paul's opening advice to Timothy has to do with his character. Let no one despise you for your youth, Timothy, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. Paul lists five characteristics of godliness, the same godliness that he's alluded to in the previous verses that Tony dealt with last week.

In order for a minister like myself, but I think as Christians ministering to one another generally, to focus on the right things in ministry is firstly to have a focus on personal godliness. Christian leadership and Christian ministry, from beginning to end, is a matter of character. Whether we want to accept it or not, godly character creates moral authority. Otherwise, Paul would not have prefaced this verse by saying, let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example by doing these things. In other words, Timothy, people will respect your ministry when you show yourself to be godly in every way.

Notice the different areas of godly character. And I think these are by no means an exhaustive list of godliness, because Paul elsewhere in his other writings mentions many others. But here are some of the most important when it comes to ministry within the church. First, set an example by your speech. If a Christian minister, if a Christian pastor was ever to get themselves in trouble, it usually comes by their mouth.

Whether it's a pastor who reveals the dodginess of their heart by making an inappropriate joke in the pulpit, or a Sunday school teacher who speaks harshly to a noisy child in their class, or when we gleefully gossip about fellow believers to one another, how we speak is a barometer of our godliness. Paul says, show people what a self controlled tongue looks like. This is not an unusual thing for the Bible to teach us, is it? The Bible has a lot to say about how we speak, especially the wisdom in the book of Proverbs. Listen to some of these brilliant, wise words.

Proverbs 10:19, when words are many, sin is not absent. Be careful, in other words, being too verbose, too bombastic in the way you speak. Proverbs 18:13, he who answers before listening, that is his folly and shame. In other words, be quick to listen, careful to weigh up, and then slow to respond. What about this?

Proverbs 13:3, he who guards his lips guards his life. The direction of your future, in other words, the outcome of your life, can be tied with how you choose to speak right now. Also, in setting an example in speech, Timothy is to set an example in conduct. Speech and the actions of our lives go hand in hand, both being observable things, things that can be seen. Notice the last three aspects that Paul mentions, love, faith, and purity are internal qualities of the heart, but speech and conduct are externally visible in every aspect of how we live, every choice we make about our lifestyle, what we prioritise, what we desire, what we pursue, who we spend time with, what we feed our minds on, all of these actions matter in the sight of God, and all of them reflect to onlookers the inner holiness that is being worked out in our hearts.

Again, whether as a Christian you want to recognise it or not, every inconsistency between your assertion of being a Christian and a failure to align with its morality, that inconsistency is a blow to the ministry you have in your family, amongst your friends, and your neighbours. Now it's important to point out the pattern of Timothy's external behaviour and the internal virtue to which he is called, that is to be an example to who? To other believers. Paul has in view here ministry within the church, specifically Timothy's calling as a pastor to his church members. But I don't think it is a far leap for us to extrapolate these imperatives to any ministry between a Christian and another Christian.

Otherwise, First Timothy is irrelevant for us as Christians to have. Otherwise, God would not have given this to the church. In a sceptical landscape in which we currently live as Christians, focusing on godly character, being deliberate about killing sin in our lives, conquering finally anger, conquering finally bitterness, lust, gossip, envy, being proactive in pursuing how we control our tongues, choosing honourable actions, pursuing love for God's people, faithfulness to them, purity in ourselves. Focusing on these things will put us on the right path towards doing ministry well in the church. Focus on godliness, point one.

Secondly, in order to focus on the right things in ministry, we focus on the word. Verse 13. Paul commands Timothy, until I come to you, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, public reading of the Bible, to exhortation, which is to preach, and to teaching. And so what we find here is obviously the main work of pastoral ministry to which Timothy is called. But again, I think general word ministry to one another as well. Timothy is to devote himself to the reading of the Bible in public gatherings in the church, to then exhort from that reading and then to teach from that reading.

And so what we find here is a very instructive formula for what the early church did and what we are to do as the church now as well. John Stott once wrote, it was taken for granted from the beginning that Christian preaching should be expository preaching. That is, that all Christian instruction and exhortation would be drawn out of the passage which has just been read. Certainly, central to the ministry which is a right ministry is handling the Bible correctly. How do we do this?

Well, firstly, by reading it. Firstly, by reading it. Then by studying it and knowing it, and then proclaiming it accurately. It was so important that Timothy is told to devote himself to this task. Preaching is not a sideshow thing for a pastor.

Preaching does not get relegated to the corners of a pastor's job description. He is not firstly a CEO. He is not firstly a business manager. He is not a property manager. A pastor is a preacher of God's word first and foremostly.

He is to devote himself to it. Above all else, he needs to spend time understanding and clarifying the scriptures so that God can do His work through that truth. This is so important for Paul that he will later say in verse 16 of our same passage, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. The NIV translates it, watch yourself, watch your life and your doctrine closely. And so we find here the pillars of Christian ministry, pastoral ministry specifically built on these two things, a godly lifestyle and careful teaching.

Yesterday, our elder Tom and myself, we went to the examination of a ministry candidate, someone who is wanting to go into pastoral ministry seeking ordination, and he passed with flying colours, by the way, he did an excellent job. Ben Feen, who's actually preached here not so long ago, excellent. He did very, very well. But when Ben faced the panel of pastors and elders, and it's the most intimidating thing there is, there was a close examination of his doctrinal understanding, his teaching. But Ben could only have come to that position before those pastors and elders because a church recommended him to us in the first place.

And why did they recommend him? Because long before Ben will be considered for the role of ministry, a whole community of believers needed to say to us, Ben is a good and godly man. There is nothing in Ben's life that will contradict the ministry that he is pointing towards, the truth that he is pointing towards. Why is this important? Well, because our life and our doctrine matter.

Often you can emphasise one over the other. And I would argue, sometimes you can draw a distinguishing line between the different denominations and how they emphasise the adequacy of their pastors on these things. In some churches, a pastor's life is all that matters. Whether they appear to be anointed, whether they appear to be extra well put together, they dress well, they speak well, they are endowed with some sort of aura of holiness. These churches often fall short on the very important side of doctrine, which asks the question, are they genuine students devoted to God's word?

Do they diligently pursue knowing God through His revelation in the Bible? In short, if they are bad teachers, if they mishandle scripture, then their focus is not on the right things and they are not doing ministry right. Alternatively, when churches focus only on the doctrine of the minister, and I would put our churches on that side of the spectrum, we can find pastors who are lazy, passive in their own spiritual disciplines, prone to burnout because they don't foster personal relationship with God, and sometimes their doctrinal knowledge is elevated above the fact that they simply aren't called and gifted towards ministry. They may be excellent scholars, but not necessarily pastors, or missionaries, or even Sunday school teachers. This is why Paul moves on to verse 14 to say that in ministry, we focus on the right things when thirdly, we focus on our gift.

As a young, timid Timothy suffers under the glare of older church members who have been swept up in heresy, who scoff at his attempts to correct them because he's so much younger than they are, a question that seemingly rushed through his head was, do I have the right stuff to be in ministry? So Paul charges Timothy with the words of verse 14, do not neglect the gift you have, which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Now while serving the church, Timothy is to remember that powerful moment when Paul and the local elders of the church, whether that was in Ephesus or elsewhere, fixed their hands on him, prayed prayers and uttered prophetic commands over him that recognised that a gift had been placed by God on Timothy, which called him to be someone who would hold out the truth of the gospel. So when he feels intimidated, and he does right now, this is why Paul writes to him. He's dejected.

He's insecure. Paul says, Timothy, you have to remember that before you were a minister and when you minister to this stubborn congregation, you are firstly a minister of the gospel, instructed and given to you by God. This calling, therefore, Timothy is not to an individual church. It's not to people who are willing even to receive you. This calling is a duty of preaching Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, given by God Himself.

Those God calls to His ministry, He therefore also enables. In other words, if God has called you, He has gifted you. This is what is behind Paul's words here. They're to encourage Timothy to remember that first and foremostly, he is called and he is gifted by God, and therefore is faithful first and foremostly to God alone. This is true in the ministry of the word to which God calls pastors and missionaries.

But again, I think also in some way in our ministry to one another, in our ministry in the church, in our ministry to our husband or our wife or our family, any level of church ministry. God does call individuals according to the gifts He has given them. That's what Paul's argument in First Corinthians is about, the gifts that God has given the body of Christ to be served, to be used in serving one another. So some of us have, by God's grace, come to understand what these gifts are. God is telling all of us to use those gifts.

It's not a question of if you will have gifts, it's have you yet discovered what those gifts are? Don't neglect them. Some of the most frustrated Christians I know are the ones who know they should be serving with the gifts that they have been given, but don't. The spiritual gifts were given for a reason to serve the church and so we use them. Fourthly, having the right focus in ministry is to focus on being diligent.

Verse 15. Paul writes, practice these things. The NIV translates it, be diligent. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. The diligence commanded here echoes the athletic metaphor that Paul has used in verses 7 to 10 when he tells us to train for godliness.

Likewise in ministry, Timothy is called to diligent sweat, to consistent discipline. In other words, Timothy has to live and breathe Paul's commands of godly character, of preaching God's word, of trusting God's gifting and calling. But there's no success in ministry apart from hard work. Our greatest problem isn't that we are workaholics in our ministry to each other. It is that we give up far too easily.

We either falsely believe that we aren't called to minister to each other or we believe that once we've given it a go and it doesn't work, well, then we can stop. It doesn't work that way. Paul doesn't say to Timothy, give it a shot, see how you feel afterwards and then if it stops being fun, well, quit. Instead, he's told to be diligent in these matters, to practice these things. He is to carefully, thoughtfully develop his godly character, to learn God's word, to teach God's word, to weigh up and remember the gifting, and then to keep doing that consistently.

Personally, I'm over the flash in the pan Christians. The ones that come to me and have great ideas about what this church should be doing, have wonderful outreach plans, have wonderful ministry ideas, people who come with vision and energy and then fizzle out in a year or two. The key to ministry is to have a focus on being consistent. Pick the three things of godliness, word centredness, and the using of God's gift. Those three things that have been mentioned and then do that.

Focus on those three things and do it over your lifetime. And you'll have done God honouring ministry. The fifth and the final point is found in verse 16, which drives home the motivation for all of this. Sure, we can focus on the right things in ministry, but it is only worthwhile when we have this glorious vision or purpose ahead of us. Salvation in Christ, the result of this ministry.

Paul sums up what he's been telling Timothy. He says, in other words, Timothy, keep a close watch on yourself, on your life, and on the teaching, on your doctrine. In doing these two things, persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers. Think about it again. When Christian ministry is resisted and it was in this context, when serving others gets difficult, we don't drop to the level of trash talk that might be going on.

The command is simple. We rise above it through the testimony of an excellent life and by sticking to biblical doctrine, the truth of scripture. When Paul tells Timothy to watch his life, watch his doctrine closely, remember what the context was. Timothy is to set an example in speech. Meanwhile, Paul tells him somewhere else in the letter, the false teachers are babblers, he calls them.

But you watch your speech. He's to set an example in conduct. Paul says the false teachers have plunged themselves and their lives into ruin and destruction. Timothy, you are to be an example of love. Paul says that they have abandoned love.

So an example in faith, Paul says they have shipwrecked that faith. Timothy, you are to be an example of purity. Timothy's opponents have been handed over to Satan. Why does scripture tell us this? Because this is how we are to battle against opposition to the gospel in the church.

New Testament scholar Donald Guthrie comments, the best refutation of error is a positive presentation of the truth. And this is something which the modern Western church must learn as it moves into an increasingly hostile world. A world that is both inside the church and outside the church. America, the UK and Australia all believe that they have moved on from Christianity. It's debatable if they ever had Christianity in the first place.

But what is our strategy for overcoming opposition? To fight fire with fire? To dominate the airwaves with more rhetoric? Within the church, when we hurt others through our pride, when we refuse to serve each other, when we treat each other the way that the world treats each other, what is our strategy for doing God honouring ministry to one another? It is to watch our life and our doctrine closely.

Why? For by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers. Now we know that Paul taught again and again that salvation comes only through God's grace, in us trusting in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So in all of Paul's teaching, he left no doubt that we cannot, we do not save ourselves. And so when he gives this command that Timothy will save his hearers, he's not forgetting his theology.

What it means to save ourselves and our hearers is that those who persevere in life and doctrine prove that they have persevered in salvation. Those who persevere in godly conduct and in biblical teaching prove that they get it. Prove that they have been born again. For those who humbly, yet stubbornly cling to the simple truth of the gospel, seeking to live humbly under the faithful teaching of our Saviour Jesus, those are the ones who prove to themselves that they've been saved. And for those who are recipients of this ministry, scripture is telling us here that while salvation is by grace alone, that grace arrives at people's hearts and ears through the faithful lives and the faithful preaching of ministers of the gospel.

Hearers are saved when they receive sound doctrine and witness godly examples. And so in that way, we are involved in their salvation. And so we strive to save our hearers by keeping a close watch on what we say and what we do. In finishing, when we are under fire, when we are resisted, in whatever ministry we might be called, remember to focus on the right things. We may be tempted to fight fire with fire, to stoop down to the low level that everyone else is playing on, but we are called to rise above it.

We focus on the right things. We focus on developing the godliness that God has filled and put in our hearts. We focus on knowing and teaching God's word. Thirdly, to remember the gifts that He has given us, the area into which He has called us. We focus on being diligent and consistent in working hard.

And finally, we pray that the Lord will save those we minister to, that we may be shown to be working out our salvation with reverent fear and trembling. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that in Timothy and in a very tough situation, Lord, You work all things for the good of those who love You. And though even poor Timothy with probably so much frustration and angst and insecurity, his life has become a blessing to us two thousand years later of understanding and knowing what it means to serve faithfully. Lord, for those in our midst who may be called into pastoral ministry, to very closely follow this teaching of being ministers of the word.

Lord, I pray firstly that You will put in their heart the calling. That You will, in that calling, have already prepared them with their giftedness. Lord, make known to them very clearly Your desire for them to pursue this noble task of being proclaimers and message bearers of the good news of Jesus. So firstly, we pray for them. We pray for myself and our elders in being defenders of this truth.

May we do so with kindness, with gentleness, with godliness as You intend. But may we do so with ferocity, humbly submitting ourselves to Your word. And then, Lord, for all of us, we pray that in our ministry to one another, ministry within the church, that we may do so also with the godliness, the holiness that You desire for us. We pray that we may also stake our lives and our ministry to one another on Your word, that we may be devoted to hearing the public reading of Your word, to studying Your word personally, and to share that, to minister that to one another. Help us, Lord, to do so, also trusting and understanding what You have called us to, the giftedness that You have given us.

Finally, Lord, help us to do so with diligence, consistently, with hard work. Help us to not give up too early. Help us to understand that this fight is worth fighting for. And finally, Lord, we pray for a wonderful outcome of seeing people come to know You, Lord Jesus, as their Saviour, the one who has died in their place, to bring them reconciliation and forgiveness with God who will judge each one of us for our sin. Lord, help all of us be wonderful message bearers of this truth.

Oh, Lord, that we can show ourselves to really get it, to be the ones that are saved. But also, Lord, through that, to save others. Thank you that You would use all of us in this wonderful purpose of the kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.