A Good Servant of Christ Jesus (Banner of Truth) (Part 1 of 2)

The Apostle Paul had a protege. He was a mentor to Timothy. He took Timothy under his wing and encouraged him, taught him, counseled him in ministry.

So what expectations did Paul lay out for this young pastor? Alistair Begg explains what it means to be a good servant of Christ Jesus, which is the title of our message today on Truth for Life. Please turn with me to 1 Timothy and to chapter 4, and I'm going to read from verse 6. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 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 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. Amen. Well, I wonder whether, if we had had occasion to ask Timothy what the gist of Paul's exhortation to him was, if there was a punchline in all of the punchlines, perhaps he would have said, Well, what I took from it most was just that simple sentence, verse 16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Or, as J. B. Phillips paraphrases it, keep a critical eye both upon your own life and on the teaching that you give. Or, in the NIV, watch your life and doctrine closely. My charge is simply to remind us again of what it means to be a good servant of Christ Jesus.

The privilege of service has been enunciated for us, we understand that, and then, of course, we have to do it. We realize that the imperatives of Paul's writing to Timothy are grounded in the indicative reality of the grace that is ours in Christ Jesus. Be strong, he says to him, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And it's of great importance that we remind ourselves again and again of that.

And the direction that he gives here is familiar material to us. The longer I go in pastoral ministry, the more I realize how much the Bible has to say about reminder and remembering these things, and I intend always to remind you of these things, that our responsibility is not so much to introduce people to things they have never known as it is to remind ourselves and to remind one another of the things we must never forget. And there is no doubt that the directive that is given here by Paul is at the one hand both a great encouragement, but it is also distinctly challenging. Even as I read the section before you now and I hear it in my own head, I realize it's one thing for us to read this, as it were, in the privacy of our gathering with one another or in the context of our study, but although this was a personal letter, it also had a public reading. And so that means that not only was Timothy made aware of Paul's great concern for his progress in the gospel, but since the letter was read out publicly, all of Timothy's congregation then knew what was expected of him as a pastor. And so Paul is aware of the fact that fulfilling that charge is a particular difficulty, and particularly for Timothy as a younger man. How old he was, we don't know. Perhaps he was as old as 40, maybe a little younger than that. He qualifies as a young man. And he has essentially given in these two letters his standing orders.

I've met at least one military man while I've been here, and as far as I understand it, standing orders in the military refers to a military order or a ruling that is retained irrespective of changing conditions. A ruling that is maintained irrespective of changing conditions. And as you read through the pastorals, you realize that this is the great call, isn't it? That the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that concurs with godliness and is revealed in godliness lies at the very heart of all that Paul has to say.

And he has made it very clear from the beginning of the letter that this is a man-sized task. I urge you, when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and so on, but rather that they would be grounded and grow up in the faith. And then as he gets to chapter 4 later on in the letter, and he says, And as far as you're concerned, Timothy, make sure that what you've been saying to your congregation you are actually bringing home to yourself. You have to tell them what they must stay away from, and you must encourage them in what they need to draw close to. Now, let me just say a word about the temptation of youth, because it's been nice to meet some of the younger folk here. In fact, I would be greatly encouraged if I was organ in this conference to see the variation in ages.

When we are young and particularly foolish, we are tempted to all kinds of things that do not necessarily dissipate with age. But as I alluded to yesterday, as I said in conclusion, you know, when I was younger, I thought that if I just spoke a little louder or went on a little longer or appeared a little stronger, that things would progress. I looked at people who were further down the line, and I was tempted to do what you read of in the second volume of Lloyd-Jones, page 458, where Ian Murray is quoting somebody else, who said, A young minister is prone to try to attain by one jump the height which others have reached by a long series of single steps in the labor of a quarter of a century.

I think I can jump up there and do that. Well, the aspiration is a good one. But the backstory to effective ministry, if you trace it, will always lead to pain and to suffering and to sacrifice. No matter what the public persona is of the individuals from whom we benefit and to whom we look, I guarantee you that if you probe into their personal journey, there will be that which, on a daily basis, will remind them of the absolute essential nature of their ongoing dependence on the Spirit of God for every aspect of ministry.

And it is a kind of youthful bravado that thinks that it would be other than that. Now, why mention this? And incidentally, in the talk in the prayer time about being servants of God, I'm reminded of the man who, at his installation, was on the receiving end of the kind of story that we heard earlier, where the man had stood up as the clerk of session or something and told him, this incoming minister, all the things that he was going to be doing, and who he was going to be serving, and what they were expecting, and everything else.

And it was a very sad and sorry Saturday night for this poor soul. And he was overwhelmed by it, and all he did was he stood up and he said, I thank you sincerely for the privilege of becoming your pastor. All I have to say to you is, I will endeavor to be your servant, but you will never be my master. For we have only one master, named the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants.

We serve you, because Christ is our master. Now, Timothy understood this, and so he says to him, I don't want you to allow people to despise you because you're young. Don't do that. Don't allow them to despise you because of your youthfulness.

Cause them to admire you because of your example. Set the believers an example. And then he provides a kind of circuit.

If you do exercises at all, you perhaps set a little circuit up for yourself. Three jumps here, and two squats there, and so on. And in this training for godliness, he has five little zones. And they're there before us in the text, and let me just point them out to you. First of all, in the realm of speech.

Set the believers an example in speech. We're all familiar with the idea that sticks and stones can break my bonds, but names will never hurt me. That's what we said at school in Scotland. But what do we remember after all of these years, when we think back on our childhood at school?

I don't have any bruises that were left on me from the football pitch, but I can still remember the things that were said to me. I can remember the assistant headmaster who had me stand up in front of the class and announce to the entire class—he had me say this—he said, Stand up in front of the class bag and say to the class, Class, I have a turnip on my neck. And so I did.

He's the master. I had to. I stood up, and the class laughed at me, and for a very long time they called me Turnip Head. And here I am, you know, sixty years later, and I can't remember hardly anything, but I remember that I have a turnip on my neck. But I can also remember some of the misguided and foolish things that I've said at deacons' meetings or at elders' meetings.

There's sort of the equivalent of that. Speech. Speech.

Words fitly spoken, of course, are able to make a tremendous impact for good. However, as James reminds us, the tongue is a restless evil, it's full of deadly poison. He says, How in Congress that out of the same spring there would come fresh water and salt water, is it really possible that out of that same tongue could come the praises of God and the cursings of man?

How amazing is it that for most of us in the area of our greatest gifting, there is this immediate challenge? The prophet of God, when confronted by God, says, I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. People have said, No, you're the prophet of God.

So you don't know me. Do you know that little poem, if all that we say in a single day, with never a word left out, were printed each night in clear black and white, it would make strange reading, no doubt. And then just suppose, ere our eyes should close, we must read the whole record through. Then wouldn't we sigh, and wouldn't we try, a great deal less talking to do?

And I more than half think that many a kink would be smoother in life's tangled thread, if half that I say, in a single day, were to be left forever unsaid. Words are our tools with which we can help but also harm. Moving over to the next section of the exercise.

That was a little tough, that one there, I confess. But what about conduct or behavior in your speech and in your conduct? The false teachers were, of course, very, very concerned about conduct, and that's mentioned at the beginning of the chapter.

They are devoting themselves to all kinds of things, and as a result of that, they forbid marriage, they require abstinence from foods, and so on, and Paul is disdaining that, and he's making it clear that the conduct of the servant of God is to be out of the fullness of the Spirit of God, so as to become increasingly like the Son of God, and that is the desire of the Father. That the Spirit's work within us is to conform us to the image of his Son. And speech and behavior is, of course, immediately apparent. People see us, they observe us, they make deductions on the strength of that. They may not always be right, but sadly, in certain cases, they will be.

I think about it in relationship to my own children. I don't know how you are in driving a car. I think golf courses and car driving reveals quite a lot about the character of the individual. And I have been known on occasion, when the children were small, to provide a running commentary as I drive—mainly a commentary about other people's driving—and to point out, if they could please speed up, if they could please move over, is why would this person ever have a car?

Why would they ever have a driving license? Who is this person? And so on. And I was really unaware of it, until on one occasion, in a moment of silence, after I had run out of adjectives, a voice in the back seat just said, And that's another kind word from your pastor. Well, that's it right there in a nutshell.

That's it. Well, if our words and our conduct are out there, in terms of the next three, we move through quickly, love, faith, purity. A lot of that is taking place in private, isn't it? What about our heart?

I'm supposed to have an echocardiogram on Monday. They're going to find out, really, what goes on in my heart. I'm very interested to see the screen, because what I think is the case may not be the case when it comes to love. Possible for us to use terminology that is very amenable to that kind of thing. And yet one of our hearts, in our own personal, convinced faith, and of course in the purity of our lives. How many, writes one, false and failing ministers have misused secluded pastoral situations to embark on sexual adventures to the shipwreck of their ministries and to the shame of biblical Christianity? I mentioned Bridges yesterday, and he has a wonderful quote where he is talking about this very thing, and he is warning the pastors in the realm of purity, of life with their spouse. And this is a wonderful sentence.

This is all he says. Tender, well-regulated, domestic affection is the best defense against the vagrant desires of unlawful passions. Not quite a sentence, isn't it? It's even good coming out of the nineteenth century. If someone writing in the twenty-first century, it wouldn't have any of the decorum about it.

It would be far too graphic. That's one of the downsides of the twenty-first century. The loss of language, to be able to use language in such a way that everybody knows what you're talking about, but you don't have to be so jolly explicit. So other people said, Well, how long have you been married? I said, Well, since seventy-five. What's the antidote to really losing your head and losing your mind and losing your ministry?

Well, I think Bridges is good. Well-regulated, domestic affection. You see, contemporary church life, as I understand it here, while formally committed to these character essentials—formally committed to these character essentials—appears in increased measure to value dimensions of life and publicity that actually work against these very things, in the way in which they value entertainment or celebrity status or endorsed personality and so on. Not realizing that we can not only bring our minister down by undue criticism which breaks his spirit, but we can also bring him down by undue adulation, which may actually make him believe things he knows in his heart he should never believe. And what I've discovered is that in this realm of love and faith and purity, the evil ones' approaches do not respect geography, they don't respect intellect, they don't respect style—they come from everywhere and all over the place. And being alert to that and being reminded of it is, of course, wonderfully helpful.

Rutherford deals with this frequently in his writings. At one point, remember, he says, Down with the top sail. Down with the top sail. Stoop! Stoop!

It is a low entry to go in at heaven's gate. And as T.S. Mooney says, we all need a wife for no other reason than, of course, to keep us humble.

And when we lose that, we've lost something greatly. I don't know if you read the works of Robert Harris, if you've read the trilogy on ancient Rome, it's essentially on Cicero. The voice of the books is Tiro, who's the slave of Cicero, and he has served Cicero all of his days. On one occasion, as Cicero's stature has risen, he is on the receiving end of a dreadful, verbose string of flattery from Crassus. And Crassus comes and blows smoke at Cicero, and the slave observes, There was a time when Cicero would have spotted such an obvious trap a mile off. But I fear there is in all men who achieve their life's ambition only a narrow line between dignity and vanity, confidence and delusion, glory and self-destruction. Instead of staying in his seat and modestly disavowing such praise, Cicero rose up and made a long speech agreeing with Crassus's every word. Think Uzziah, who the chronicler tells us was gloriously helped until he became strong.

But when he became strong, he grew proud to his own destruction. So the character is dealt with there, and then Paul goes on to deal with the work itself. I want you to devote yourself, he says, to the public reading of Scripture. And, of course, this is at the very heart of things. We affirm this, we believe this, we teach it, and we try and model it. It's the pattern all the way through the Old Testament, and it is the pattern that is then exemplified in the ministry of Jesus, and then by way of apostolic precept, and then by their practice, and so on.

And in the second century, Justin Martyr, in his first apology, acknowledges this when he writes, On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place. And the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. Then, when the reader is finished, the president speaks, instructing and exhorting the people. And so that the reading of Scripture is of absolute, it's an absolute essential. All of us need to be reminded of the importance of reading God's Word.

You've just heard Alistair beg, and this is Truth for Life. We hope you've come to realize you can depend on this program to provide you with solid Bible teaching. In fact, you often hear Alistair invites you to open your Bible. The reason for that is because we believe Scripture is the true Word of God.

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