Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sermon preached on 1 Timothy 4:11-16 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/19/2017 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

1 Timothy 4:11-16

2/19/17

“An Example to the Believers”

Show me. That’s often how I feel when I am learning something new from someone. They are explaining the new thing to me, but I am having trouble understanding the verbal description. I’m more a of visual learner, and so I want to see it. I want to see an example of what the person is explaining, and so I say “show me.” Examples are helpful not only if you are a visual learner. But examples can help illustrate to us something that otherwise might seem only theoretical. Well, today’s passage reminds us that in terms of being a disciple of Christ, we can also benefit from an example. This is especially helpful when you first become a Christian for some of the most basic things about our Christian faith. But certainly, it continues to be helpful in our Christian growth to see examples before us of what it looks like to live for Christ.

Let me give you an example of an example. Like how to pray. When you first become a Christian, you will have to learn how to pray. It’s one thing to teach someone about the concept of prayer. That can be helpful. But it can also be helpful to give people an example of prayer. Isn’t that what Jesus did? When his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he responded by giving them an example. The Lord’s Prayer is an example prayer. It’s certainly not the only prayer we can or should pray. It’s rather an example of prayer from which we can learn more about how to pray.

And so, today’s passage speaks of Timothy being an example to other believers. We continue to work through this part of 1 Timothy which deals with Paul instructing Timothy about how to be a good pastor. And so, in today’s passage we’ll especially focus on verse 12 that speaks of how Timothy is to be an example for other believers. And though it is important for a pastor to be a good example for the church, certainly every Christian should live so as to be an example to others of what it looks like to live for Christ.

Let’s begin then looking at the first part of verse 12 and think about Timothy’s age in connection with his call to be an example. Verse 12 begins with Paul telling Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers.” This is our first point to consider. Paul commands Timothy to be this example. But notice that he does it in conjunction with this note about his youthfulness. Paul says “Let no one despise your youth.” We don’t know exactly how old Timothy would have been, but this term for youth would likely have applied to men who were under forty. A typical scholarly guess is that Timothy was in his mid or later thirties at this time. So, maybe he was about my age which is currently 38. This is in part estimated based on information in Acts of when Timothy first started traveling with Paul and serving with him. So, Timothy’s youth would have been relative. I’m sure that is very true today too. To some, mid-thirties might not sound very young, but to others it surely is still “young.”

And so, Paul’s words here serve to remind the church that we ought not show age-discrimination among adults. Paul says Timothy’s age should not be reason to despise him. Interesting, in 1 Corinthians 16:10-11, Paul tells the Corinthians that when Timothy gets there, they should not despise him. It makes you wonder if the same sort of concern is there as well. That Timothy’s relative youthfulness especially compared to say many of the elders in the church, might have been a reason that they would look down on his leadership. Of course, we can appreciate why an older person might be tempted to look down on a younger person, especially someone who is in a position of spiritual oversight in the church. Think of[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/19/2017 in Novato, CA. This week we started a new series on prayer.

Sermon preached on 1 Timothy 4:6-11 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/12/2017 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

1 Timothy 4:6-11

2/12/17

“A Good Minister of Jesus Christ”

Today’s passage and the rest of chapter 4 are about how a pastor can be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Verse 6 specifically has that exact language, and what follows clearly has that topic in mind. Last chapter we had learned about what would make for a good elder or a good deacon. Here we learn about what would make for a good minister. And the teaching ministry of the minster is highlighted right there at the start. If Timothy was to be a good pastor and preacher, he must be properly teaching and instructing the people. That is a central duty and job responsibility of a pastor.

But what follows in today’s passage doesn’t focus on the job description of the pastor. It focuses on how a pastor can be spiritually healthy and fit. As an analogy, if we think of physical fitness, we know that diet and exercise are key for that. Similarly, if a pastor is going to work on his spiritual fitness, then his spiritual diet and his spiritual exercise will need to be attended to. We will be considering this today. Verse 6 has the language of nourishment, making us think of our diet. Verses 7 and 8 speak in terms of exercise. So, the passage gets us to consider our diet and exercise. And though this specifically focuses on pastors, please see the applicability to all of us today. We should all be concerned with our spiritual fitness. And so, we should all be concerned with our spiritual diet and exercise. We’ll look at this passage from the minister’s perspective, but apply it to all of us.

Let’s begin then first on considering the minister’s nourishment. The root of the Greek word in verse 6 “nourish” is one of feeding and the health and growth that comes from that. Well, in these verses we see what a minister should be feeding upon. Two related things are mentioned in verse 6. He needs to feast on the words of faith and he needs to feast on good doctrine. The words of faith bring to mind especially those core aspects of the gospel and our Christian convictions. But the language of good doctrine brings to mind a wider set of truth. It brings to mind the complete collection of Christian truth. Of course, for us, all of this brings us back to the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God and the food for the Christian’s soul. Timothy needs to be continuing to consume this. I like how Paul notes in verse 6 that Timothy has already been careful to follow God’s Word. But the point is that he needs to continue to do that. Just like our physical bodies need regular sustenance, so to our souls. Good nutrition in the past should not be an excuse to throw away good nutrition for the future. I wonder if that is a struggle for some of us. Maybe there was a time when we really dug into God’s Word, but maybe lately it is gathering dust on your shelf. But we shouldn’t try to survive on those past meals of Scripture. To be healthy we need to be regularly nourished with God’s Word.

In verse 8, Paul then tells Timothy what he should not be consuming. He should not be consuming profane and old wives’ fables. The word for profane could also be translated as worldly or simply godless. Old wives’ fables refer to how we use the phrase today: those things which aren’t true but seems to keep getting spread as truth. This is akin to “urban legends.” An example of a non-religious old wives’ tale is that cracking knuckles causes arthritis. Evidently, medical science says that is not true, yet it is still a claim that seems to get circulated as fact. But surely Paul is not concerned here with those kinds of old wives’ tales. He’s concerned with those of a spiritual or religious nature that would distract people from the truth that is in God’s Word. Likely he has[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/12/2017 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series combating hyper-calvinism, discussing the topic of the ordinary means of grace.

Sermon preached on 1 Timothy 4:1-5 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/05/2017 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

1 Timothy 4

2/5/17

“Now the Spirit Expressly Says”

What a contrast! Last week’s passage spoke of that amazing mystery of godliness that has been revealed to us! It spoke of Christ’s victory and glory in our salvation! Now we have this passage. Paul immediately switches from talking about such glory that the church has, to speaking of apostasy and heresy. I like how Philip Ryken described the contrast here. He said that the previous verse was about revealing the mystery of godliness. This passage is about revealing the mystery of ungodliness. How true that is.

And Paul starts out by telling us that the Spirit has expressly said this. In other words, the Holy Spirit has very specifically told him and now us that this apostasy and heresy was coming. At the time, Paul says that the Spirit predicted it for the future. The Spirit said this was surely coming in latter times. Well, those latter times have arrived. We have seen and continue to see this evil being realized in the church. As we have come to the 500th anniversary since the start of the Protestant Reformation, we remember that what Paul predicted for the future is now our past. And yet clearly it is something that we continue to be confronted with in the present as well. As we look at this passage then, let us be reminded of the threats that face the church today.

Let’s begin by talking about apostasy. We see at verse 1 that there was a prediction of apostasy. It says there that some will depart from the faith. That word in the Greek for departing is where we get the word for apostatizing from; that’s how the word in Greek is pronounced. So, this is very literally talking about apostasy. And that is what apostasy is. It’s abandoning your Christian faith. Now to clarify, we would say, doctrinally speaking, that such apostates never really had true faith. We would say that because of other Scriptures that speak of how a true believer will be kept in the faith by the Lord. Yet, the Bible also speaks of apostates. And we understand then that some who outwardly have come to know and confess the true faith later turn away from that faith. It is a reminder to all of us that beware if you think you stand less you fall. That is not meant to scare you or unnecessarily unsettle you. But it is meant to call us to spiritual vigilance.

Why is it that these people have departed from the faith? Well, the main reason, Paul says, is that they have given heed to the wrong things. They’ve given heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. These are obviously two labels for the same ultimate source. The source is the enemy. These apostates have given heed to the enemy, to Satan and his demonic forces. But I think it is interesting to consider the two descriptions here. The first being deceiving spirits. Why would you want to listen to a deceiving spirit? Someone who is out to deceive is out to lie to you. You wouldn’t want to give heed to a deceiver and a liar! But then again, the reason you do is because they have deceived you. They don’t come to you with a sign on their forehead that says “Deceiver.” No, they come in some attractive way to try to trick you. The second description here is the doctrines of demons. Here again we see the importance of doctrine. Doctrine is never neutral. Christianity has lots of doctrine that we should look to know and affirm. Doctrine is necessarily inherent to Christianity. Christianity has its doctrine. But this reminds us that so do the demons. And so, the devil has his false doctrines which he looks to deceive you with.

We saw this at the very beginning. Satan came in craftily to Eve and deceived her with false doctrine. Satan contradicted God’s doctrine in the garden. God’s doctrine said[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 2/5/2017 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series combating Hyper-Calvinism, discussing the topic of assurance.

Sermon preached on 1 Timothy 3:16 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/29/2017 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

1 Timothy 3:16

1/29/17

“Great is the Mystery of Godliness”

Great is the mystery of godliness! Without controversy, great is this mystery! Great is what we confess here today! Remember last week we said that Paul was summing up why he had written this letter. He said it was because we as the church have become the house of the living God. He said that as the house of the living God we not need to know how to conduct ourselves in this house. He also said that as that house we are a pillar and support of the truth in this world. And so then in verse 16 he emphatically drives home this truth with this grand confession of the faith. Here in verse 16 we have a poetic statement of the Christian faith. Many scholars believe this was an early Christian hymn. Whether it was sung, chanted or recited, it a wonderful example of how poetry and truth can be of great use to the church. We too will make use of this beautiful piece of our Christian heritage today for our growth and for God’s glory. And so, to make sure we are all on the same page here, I’m going to be focusing today on the second half of verse 16, the part after the word “godliness”. In the pew Bibles, this second half of verse 16 is set apart on its own to denote that it was poetry. We’ll be studying today this early Christian poetry.

Let’s begin by looking at the overall structure of this poetic truth. Back then, poetry typically involved language that was artistically arranged and structured. Such language might often be rather compactly stated but rich in meaning for dramatic effect. Following what we see in many of the Psalms, parallelism of different sorts is often used in the structuring of such poetry. We see these things here in verse 16.

And so, when we look at the structure of this poetic verse, we can see at least two different ways to describe the structure. But I think that is actually part of the artistry here. The best of such poetry has multiple structures that all work at the same time. It’s part of the beauty and artistry here. So, the first structure here is to see three sections each with two lines that have contrasting parallelism. The first section involves the two lines that contrast the flesh versus the Spirit. This contrast gets us to think us the difference between the human and the divine. We might even refer to this as the mode of Jesus ministry, one involving both the human flesh and the other the divine Holy Spirit. The second section involves the two lines that contrast the angels versus the Gentiles (aka the nations). This contrast is one of person, either angelic or human persons. It involves those who saw or received testimony about Jesus. The third section involves two lines that contrast the world versus glory (aka heaven). This contrast is one of place. It gets us to think about location and arena: this earth versus heaven. Jesus has left his mark in both places. So, this first structure is to see three sections of two contrasting lines each, dealing with mode, person, and place, related to Jesus and his ministry.

The second structuring we can see in verse 16 involves an elaborate inclusio. What am I talking about? Well, an inclusio is a literary device where you have a similar idea bracketing or surrounding other material. The inclusio is like the two pieces of bread on a sandwich, and then you have the meat inside the bread. In this case the inclusio is a logical one and one that reverses itself. So, we see at the start there is the idea of Jesus going down from heaven and coming to earth. That’s when it says he was manifested in the flesh. Then at the end it talks about Jesus being received up in glory. There is the idea of Jesus leaving earth and going back up to heaven. So, the bracketi[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/29/2017 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series combating hyper-calvinism, continuing to discuss the topic of evangelism in light of God’s predestination of the elect.

Sermon preached on 1 Timothy 3:14-16 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/22/2017 in Novato, CA.

Sermon manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

1 Timothy 3:14-16

1/22/17

Supporting the Truth

It is too common among American Protestantism to have a fairly low view of the church as an institution. We can so much emphasize our individual relationship to Christ and the spiritual aspect of our faith, that we can tend to minimize the role of the church. And yet the Bible does not minimize the institution of the church. The Bible holds a very high view of the church. Yes, there is a personal aspect of our Christian faith, but there is also a corporate aspect. Yes, there is a spiritual unseen aspect of our faith, but there is also a visible way we can see Christians as we gather together in worship. The Bible says many wonderful things about the organized church; it has a high view of the church, and so should we.

And this passage is one such example. Here we find the church strikingly called the house of the living God. Here we find the church amazingly called a pillar and ground of the truth. And here we see the church confessing wonderful mysteries, truth which God has revealed to us, which we then confess to each other and to the world. And so today we will reflect on these three things as we look at verses 14 and 15 and the first part of verse 16.

And so, let’s begin by thinking about the church being called the house of God. This was an idea previously alluded to when talking about the elder qualifications. In verses 4-5 it said that elders need to manage their house well otherwise how could they take of God’s church. That implied that the church was God’s house. Well, here we are told that explicitly. There are quite a few references in the New Testament that speak of the church as God’s house and I think it is too easy to take that language for granted and just gloss over it like it is no great thing. But remember how Ephesians 2:19 said that as converts to Christianity, we used to not be a part of God’s house. Becoming a Christian through faith in Christ has many great benefits. Arguably the biggest is that we don’t have to go to hell when we die. But being a Christian is far more wonderful that just getting a “get-out-of-hell free card”. We get to belong to God’s kingdom, and not just to his kingdom, but to his very own house. We sit at his table. We are his sons and daughters. We share in the riches and privileges of God Almighty.

Paul helps show the significance when he says in verse 14 that the God he is talking about is the living God. Remember at that time, if you weren’t Christian you were probably a worshipper of pagan false gods. In Ephesus where Timothy was serving, the big deity there was Artemis. In Ephesus, you could even go to the house of Artemis, a grand physical temple dedicated to her worship. But Artemis was a false god. When someone became a Christian they would be abandoning those false gods to come into the house of the living God!

This household analogy is also helpful for us in light of what we’ve been studying in 1 Timothy. Back then the typical household tended to be a little more elaborate than today. In addition to a husband, wife, and children, you would also likely have various servants. Everyone had different roles and responsibilities in the house in order for the house to function well. Even among the servants, some servants might have roles of varying authority over others. The head of the house had to oversee all of this. And so, when Paul mentions in verse 15 about how one is to conduct himself in the house of God, we recognize that analogy. Look at chapters 2 and 3 and we see the descriptions of how different sorts of people are to conduct themselves in the church, in the house of God. In chapter 2, we saw that all of us in the church are to conduct ourselves in a commendable way in so[...]

Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/22/2017 in Novato, CA. This week we continued a series combating hyper-calvinism, discussing the topic of evangelism in light of God’s predestination of the elect.