Reasons for the Urgency of Reformational Ministry [Family Worship lesson in 1Timothy 1:18–20]

Why is it so urgent that Timothy reestablish right preaching, conduct, and order in the church in Ephesus? 1Timothy 1:18–20 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Timothy (and other gospel ministers) must labor for right doctrine, practice, and order both to fulfill the will of God Who called them and to safeguard their own and others’ faith.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.09.15 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 Timothy 1:18–20

Read 1 Timothy 1:18–20

Questions from the Scripture text: How does the apostle describe this statement in 1 Timothy 1:18? To whom is it committed? How does he describe Timothy? With what is this entrusting in accordance? What else (besides Paul’s letter) will be done according to these prophecies? With what two attributes does the apostle hope the prophecies will enable Timothy to wage this warfare (1 Timothy 1:19)? What have some done to faith and to good conscience? What has been the result for them? What two such individuals does the apostle name in 1 Timothy 1:20? What has he done to them? For what purpose?

Why is it so urgent that Timothy reestablish right preaching, conduct, and order in the church in Ephesus? 1 Timothy 1:18–20 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Timothy (and other gospel ministers) must labor for right doctrine, practice, and order both to fulfill the will of God Who called them and to safeguard their own and others’ faith.

Fulfill the will of God
The apostle has just set before Timothy the great glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the display of His mercy in redeeming sinners and enlisting them into His service (cf. 1 Timothy 1:12-17). Now, he reminds his “son” (1 Timothy 1:18) Timothy that he too has been called by Christ Jesus. The Word of God was proclaimed and applied in bringing him into ministry. So, it is a matter of obedience to God’s will that he press on in this ministry.

And ministry is a battle (end of verse 18). It is a good battle. It is worth fighting, and it would be unfaithful to stop fighting it. The apostle tells Timothy that his hope is that his charge, working together with the proclamations that have been made to Timothy and about him, would enable Timothy to do this battling.

Safeguard your own and others’ faith
Timothy has been on the receiving end of good theology. We remember that in 1 Timothy 1:5 two of the things aimed at by the command to maintain good theology were “a good conscience and sincere faith” (cf. 1 Timothy 1:19). Now, he tells Timothy that the way to wage the good battle of the ministry is to do so “having faith and a good conscience.” He must have faith: he must be convinced of the truth of the Scripture. He must have a good conscience: his affections, choices, and desires must be ruled actively by the truth of the Scripture.

But there are those who seem to have had these things and do so no longer. “Some have rejected” (verse 19) this faith and good conscience. This has been disastrous for them. The apostle describes their faith as “shipwrecked”; they have done great harm to themselves. Timothy apparently knows Hymenaeus and Alexander, and they are significant enough for the apostle to mention them by name. 

Yet, these significant men have been delivered to Satan. This means that they have been excommunicated and that the protection from Satan that comes to those in the church, they have lost. Even this action was designed to disciple them (“that they may learn,” 1 Timothy 1:20) so that their doctrine and life would stop blaspheming God. But there are others who have been shipwrecked as well. Timothy’s calling is God’s means for protecting others in Christ’s flock from suffering similar.

When a minister of the gospel is properly called, who has called him? Who called your minister? What is his ministry designed to safeguard you from doing? What should be done if this fails?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for giving us men whom You help to battle the battle of ministry. Forgive us for forgetting that it is You Who have called them. Truly, we too easily lose conviction about what Your Word teaches, and our consciences come to be bad consciences, directed by other ideas. Forgive us, Father and stir up our faith, and make our consciences good, by Your Spirit’s blessing upon the Word of Jesus Christ, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH433 “Amazing Grace”

A Tale of Two Cities' Responses to God and His Word [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 2:19–25]

How should we interact God’s Word, especially as represented in God’s servants? 2Kings 2:19–25 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that since our interaction with God’s Word is a life-and-death issue, it is profoundly important that we respect those servants whom God sends with that Word. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.09.14 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 2:19–25

Read 2 Kings 2:19–25

Questions from the Scripture text: Who spoke to whom in Jericho (2 Kings 2:19)? What do they say about the city? But what is the problem? For what does Elisha ask (2 Kings 2:20)? Where does he go (2 Kings 2:21)? What does he do? In Whose behalf does he speak? What has He done? What is the condition of the water at time of writing (2 Kings 2:22)? According to what? Then where does he go (2 Kings 2:23)? Who come from where? What do they do? What do they say? What three things does Elisha do in 2 Kings 2:24? In Whose Name does he do the third thing? What come out of the woods? What do they do? To how many? Then where does he go (2 Kings 2:25)? And then where? 

How should we interact God’s Word, especially as represented in God’s servants? 2 Kings 2:19–25 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that since our interaction with God’s Word is a life-and-death issue, it is profoundly important that we respect those servants whom God sends with that Word. 

A tale of two cities—two attitudes toward God’s Word and God’s man. 

Be like Jericho. That might pass as a trite sermon title, but it is very good advice from our brief passage. This is a tale of two cities—one that is suffering miscarriages, and one that is full of children. But when the passage concludes, Jericho is now fertile, and Bethel is bereft. The hinge upon which the fortunes of the two cities turn is their attitude toward God’s Word, as displayed in their attitude toward God’s man whom He has sent them. 

Jericho is an odd case. They are like the son who said that he wouldn’t go at first, but later he comes around. The school of prophets at Jericho had recognized that Elisha bore the spirit of Elijah (2 Kings 2:15), but they didn’t trust his wisdom (2 Kings 2:16-17). But then we go from Elisha being embarrassed to say “no” in 2 Kings 2:17 to the men of Jericho embarrassed as Elisha says “I told you so” in 2 Kings 2:18. But what a blessed “I told you so” if God uses it to give Elisha honor in their eyes.

God’s Word is powerful to heal the humble and receptive.

We find out, in 2 Kings 2:19, why the men of the city were so desperate for Elijah. “The water is bad, and the earth miscarries.” An unusual phrase to use with crops, the latter probably has to do more with human babies and perhaps livestock babies. “Location, location, location” can only go so far, if the water and earth at the location are killing you. 

Elisha performs a prophetic action with a bowl and salt, but the text makes clear that it is not the action that is the main idea but the Word of Yahweh: “thus says Yahweh” (2 Kings 2:21) and “according to the word of Elisha which he spoke” (2 Kings 2:22). 

God’s Word is what is invincible, but His Word is invisible. So, the Lord often attaches something visible to His Word to direct us to it. If we get hung up on the bowl and the salt, we will miss that the main thing is Yahweh’s Word in the servant’s mouth. The servant himself is not the Word, but in a similar way to the bowl and salt, he represents God’s Word to them—not as illustration so much as mechanism, an ambassador for God. The word “please” in 2 Kings 2:19 is just two characters long in the Hebrew, but it was a harbinger of good things, as it indicated the city’s humble, appreciative posture toward God’s Word in the mouth of God’s servant.

God’s Word is powerful in wrath against the despising and resistant.

Things are not so in Bethel, to which God’s servant never actually fully arrives. Probably, if Elisha had made it all the way into town, the school of prophets there (cf. 2 Kings 2:3), and the other adult town-folk would have treated him respectfully. However, youths tend to have more mobility and time on their hands. The original says not just “lads” but “young lads”—probably in the 10–12-year-old range. And the way that Elijah and Elisha have been thought of in the homes of the town now comes out—literally—in the youths of the town.

More comfortable than Jericho in their current circumstances, if Bethelites cannot have Elijah then they are not particularly interested in the ministry of Elisha. At least, that’s what their children seem to have picked up. For, they come out of the city in 2 Kings 2:23 and start mocking him. As children are wont to do, they pick on his appearance (“you baldhead”), and let him know that if he was taken to heaven too, they would be fine with that (“Go up! Go up!”).

We don’t know exactly why Bethel was so opposed to Elisha (and probably to Elijah before him), but we can guess that being the host city of one of Jeroboam’s two golden calves, they were not too keen on any preaching about the purification of worship from man-made ideas. After all, the religious tourism industry was very good for the local economy. A golden bull in Yahweh’s Name could easily be adapted to use for Baalism (which included bull worship), and vice-versa as times required.

But there are enough other sins that God’s preached Word would have made them uncomfortable in, so that we aren’t quite sure which led to the despising of Elisha. What we are sure of is that the Word of Yahweh in His mouth in 2 Kings 2:24 was as powerful against their hard hearts as it had been powerful for the humbler hearts in Jericho. 

Our attitudes toward God’s Word deeply (and can devastatingly) affect the impressionable around us.

The prophet denounces (more literal than NKJV “curse”) the children in Yahweh’s Name, and Yahweh Himself shows that the townspeople’s view of His worship and His Word has been counted as “hating Me” in the sense of Exodus 20:5. The sins in the fathers’ mouths have been visited into the hearts and mouths of their children, and now God visits them with an outbreaking of the judgment that deserves. 

Jericho had gone from an epidemic of miscarriages to sustained fertility. But the baby-boom of Bethel receives a crushing blow. Forty-two suppers went uneaten that evening. Forty-two little graves were dug. Forty-two little beds went unslept in. Forty-two of the saddest funerals took place the next day. 

O how important it is that when the Word and its appropriate applications rub us the wrong way, we be soft-hearted and ready to make changes! O how important it is to have one of God’s faithful servants as our preacher—and if we do, that we labor to maintain affection and respect for the person and the preaching as literal God-sends. If we do so only superficially, our children may pick up more on what’s in our hearts than we think is actually showing. And if we fail to rebuke those older youths who often become sophomoric critics as they enter adulthood, their critical attitude may do mortal damage to the younger youths upon whom they rub off!

Sometimes, to a faithful preachers’ grief, someone develops a personal conflict, relational distance, or some other reason for not loving his person. This is a grief not only for the Christian affection that is lost, but especially because it does so much harm to the hearer, who unwittingly dulls and then hardens his heart against the Word preached. More horrifically, children often pick up (from a parent or an older sibling) on the attitude toward the preacher, develop it more intensely, and follow through more fully, and end up destroyed in this world and the next.

Of course, when we have a faithful servant today, we have an advantage to help our hearts: it is Jesus, our ascended Mediator, Who uses him to speak to us. Affection to God is now bound up not just in the Word sent by servants, but the Word made flesh: Jesus, Who dwelt among us. Jesus, Who died for us. Jesus, Who rose again. Jesus, Who ascended. Jesus, Who is enthroned. And Jesus, Whose blood speaks for us in heaven, and Who speaks His Word to us from heaven. What a help it is, when we are tempted to think or speak of a faithful preacher in a Bethelite way, to be able to shape our honoring of the man on earth by our affections for the God-Man Who sits in heaven as our Redeemer!

What are the various ways that you have the Word of God? In which of these ways does the Scripture tell us that Jesus addresses us from heaven (cf. Hebrews 12:22–25)? Whom does He use for this in your life? What is your attitude toward this and toward His servant? Upon whom might your attitude be rubbing off?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for giving us Your Word in the Scriptures that You cased to be written for us, and especially in Your Son, our Lord Jesus. Thank You for appointing and using faithful preachers as servants. Forgive us for when we don’t honor Your servants by affection for their person and receptivity toward their preaching. Forgive us when we sin more greatly by being dull and hard toward the Scriptures themsleves. Forgive us when we sin most greatly by failing to appreciate that Your Son is our great Prophet in His church. Before we and our children are destroyed, grant that we would love to hear His Word preached, and keep His and Your servants faithful to the Scriptures, so that indeed it would be Your Word that is preached, we ask in His Name, even Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP119W “Lord, Let My Cry before You Come” or TPH173 “Almighty God, Your Word Is Cast”

Holy Society of a Holy God: Authority, Consecration, and Purity [2022.09.11 Evening Sermon in Exodus 22:28–31]

Having God's Name upon a society means that it honors its authorities, dedicates everything to the Lord, and keeps itself clean unto the Lord.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Apostolic Preaching of Christ 1: Promise, Lineage, and Fulfillment via the Jews [2022.09.11 morning sermon in Acts 13:13–41]

Apostolic preaching of the gospel announces Jesus as the fulfillment of all God’s promises of salvation and forgiveness of sins—accomplishing it by dying and rising again, and applying it by making His gospel preached and believed

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Man Imaging God in Faithfulness to Facilitate Flourishing among All Earthly Creatures [2022.09.11 Sabbath School]

Man images God in lavish provision of material beauty, nourishment, place, and purpose—both among man himself and in managing the rest of creation.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

The Nations Glad in the Blessedness of Israel's God [Family Worship lesson in Psalm 67]

What causes people from all nations to praise the Lord? Psalm 67 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that among all the nations, God will be praised by those whom He blesses without compromising the righteousness of His judgment.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2022.09.13 Hopewell @Home ▫ Psalm 67

Read Psalm 67

Questions from the Scripture text: Upon whom does Psalm 67:1 ask God to be merciful and to cause His face to shine? But then among which nations does Psalm 67:2 hope this will make His salvation to be known? And how many of the peoples do Psalm 67:3, Psalm 67:5, and Psalm 67:7 expect will come to praise God? How will all these come to feel about all this (Psalm 67:4)? What else will respond well at the time when all the peoples have been brought to saving (and praising!) faith (Psalm 67:6a)? Whose God is the God that blesses us, if we are believers (verse 6b)?

What causes people from all nations to praise the Lord? Psalm 67 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that among all the nations, God will be praised by those whom He blesses without compromising the righteousness of His judgment.

The end of the Psalm is God blessing us as a result of all the nations and people having been brought to faith. But how does the Psalm get to that end?

There is a desire in this Psalm that God’s mercy and blessing to us would be so great that everyone would hear about it. I wonder, when we pray for such blessing, how much of our desire is looking forward to the Lord’s missionary use of it.

But that is the great desire here: for God’s way and salvation to be known. Isn’t that a wonderful way of putting it? It places the priority of emphasis right were it belongs: on the desire for God to be glorified. Yes, love of neighbor means that we rejoice in his salvation. But that is the secondary love. 

Even more than thinking, “Oh that men might be saved!,” we ought first to be thinking, “Oh that God would be glorified!” The two are not mutually exclusive; the Lord delights to save. But the way we think about it reveals the priorities of our hearts. Would we pray for a friend’s salvation, “that Your way may be known in that house, and Your salvation among all the families of that neighborhood!”?

But God isn’t just glorified in the fact of saving people, He’s also the object of all of their praise. Psalm 67:3 and Psalm 67:5 are bookends of praise around the crown jewel of Psalm 67:4. Four times, in these two book ends, comes the great shout, “Let the peoples praise You!!”

Why will they praise like this? Psalm 67:4 gives the answer: because God has made them glad, and the praise that they sing, they sing out of the joy of their hearts. God has preserved and vindicated His righteousness while saving us. This is the great marvel of the cross!

Do we praise like that—out of richly felt joy, and focused on the rich doctrine of His judgement, righteousness, and justice (cf. Romans 3:25-26)?

What is a higher priority for you, your comfort or God’s glory? What makes you glad?

Sample prayer:  Lord, You have been merciful to us and blessed us and made Your face to shine upon us in Jesus Christ. Now, receive us through Him as we come to worship You. Put away our sin by His sacrifice. Count us worthy with His worthiness. Make Your way and Your salvation known to us. Make us to know You as our very own God, Who blesses us in every way, but especially in this way: that Your face shining upon us would make us to be glad and sing for joy. For, we ask this through Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP67 “O God Give Us Your Blessing” or TPH66B “Come, All Ye People, Bless Our God”

Theology Simply Explained — WSC52 The Reasons Annexed to the Second Commandment

Pastor walks his children through Westminster Shorter Catechism question 52: What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)