In the Household of God
The Church: Standards and Leadership • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 25:40
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In the Household of God
In the Household of God
What does someone see when they walk into our church?
Imagine, if you will, stepping up to these doors for your very first time. Maybe you’re a bit intimidated because you don’t know what to expect. And as you walk into the foyer, you come across Bill. Now, Bill regularly greets people, and is excited to see them, and greets you with a big smiling face, and shakes your hand. But as he’s shaking your hand, he looks over your shoulder and his face turns sour. Julie (he mutters under his breath). Julie has walked in the door behind you. Her face turns sour. Bill. Ugh, I just hate that guy!
Trying to avoid the conflict, you squeeze past Bill to avoid the conflict and perhaps find a seat in the pews. You look up to see a kindly face, Angel. Oh, at last, here’s someone who is kindly! Hello! She says. “hi”. “What brings you here?” “Oh, you know, I thought I might be able to find God here”. “Well, I hope you do! I know I did!”. As soon as she says those words she turns around: By the way, Bettie, I just hate your guts! Angel turns around smiling. “Glad that’s off my plate. Now, where were we?”.
And as you look around, you see the entire congregation is filled with angry, mean people. Some are off in the corners by themselves. Others are having spats with each other. It seems as if you have stepped right into a hives’ nest. Without any further ado, you jump to your feet and run to the door.
Now, I praise the Lord that this would never be said of our church, of the good folks in our congregation.
But my point is this: The way we behave in the household of God has an impact upon the witness of God’s name in the earth. When people come to our doors, they should see a people characterized by the holiness and goodness of God, as people who have lived with him and whose lives have been transformed.
How do we behave in the household of God? How do we behave in the household of God?
If you’re just joining us this morning, we’re continuing in our series titled The Church: Standards and Leadership. This morning we’ll be covering just the first two verses in 1 Timothy Chapter 5. So if you have your Bibles, please turn there with me.
And as your turning, consider this question:
What happens when the gospel of Christ is extended to all of humanity? Not just the elite, or upper class, or super righteous persons, but *all* humanity?
Well, You have a response from all types of persons- married, widowed, single, divorced, slave, free, Jew, non-Jew, young, old. And as the gospel goes out and people from all of these groups are gathered together. And when people from different backgrounds and situations come together, there’s bound to be conflict and questions of how we’re all supposed to relate with one another.
if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
We must remember the reason that we are brought together and under whose roof we gather. It’s the household of God. In God’s house, there’s order. In God’s house, there is goodness and blessing and knowledge and beauty. It should be apparent from all that we do, in the way that we greet each other to the way we treat each other.
So, keeping this in mind, please read with me, 1 Timothy 5:1-2.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
Pray.
How do we live together in the household of God? Well, the household of God is a family setting.
Family Setting
Family Setting
The first and most notable aspect of how we are to live with each other is to live as a family. As a father, as a mother, as a sister, as a brother.
Jesus gave us this example in his lifetime. Consider how he lived in the household of God:
He looked to the head of the house, the organizer. The Father.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
First he makes sure his life is aligned with the head organizer of the household.
(Give background on the structure of Greco-Roman households).
So first, Jesus made sure his life was aligned with that of the Father. We, following in his steps and looking to him as our example, must set our faces the same way. We must first be reconciled with God and aligned to follow his will not ours, according to the functions of the house.
Secondly, Jesus considers other believers to be a part of his household: a part of his family.
While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Later, in the book of Jesus, we’re told.
For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Paul writes in Romans
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
This word, brothers, that is used is a word that can mean brother or sister. It signifies a sibling relationship.
So once we align ourselves to God’s will, how are we to relate with one another? As a family. As a household. Functional, purposeful, driven. Working together to accomplish a task.
And for many believers, this teaching, the teaching of family, is vital to their relationship with God. Some Christians may be the only believer in their family. In their circle of friends. And they’ve left it all to follow after God, to answer to God’s call. So our response as a church, as the people of God, should be to surround them as a family. To welcome them, embrace them, encourage them, uplift them. Jesus says:
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
His promise is not only for the time to come, but also has present and gained benefit now. When you follow Christ, you are brought into a family, God’s church. If you have lost mother or father or sister or brother or friend, you have now gained new fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers here, in God’s people, the church.
So let us surround each other with the same familial love as Christ taught.
How do we do that?
Well, two commands are given in this passage.
The first is to exhort, not rebuke.
Exhort, not Rebuke
Exhort, not Rebuke
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,
Show of hands, how many of you like to be corrected? How many of you like being told that you were wrong? Not many of you?
Well, the early church was the same way. It seems that there were those in the congregation, older men, who did not believe in Timothy, maybe because of his youthfulness. And as a result they were missing the good doctrine that Timothy had for their lives. Timothy now had the task of correcting them in their error. The older men were to humble themselves to receive correction, and not to be led by their pride.
Do we speak up when correction is needed?
When was the last time you spoke up to someone in the church when you saw a pattern of sin in their life? Hopefully you haven’t witnessed this much, if at all. But as believers, our lives should be so ingrained with one another that we see what’s going on in each other’s lives, and that we recognize patterns of sin. And when those patterns of sin emerge, they can be identified and corrected.
If you were a gardener and you had beautiful plants in your garden, but on one of these plants you saw a weed growing up around it about to choke out its life, wouldn’t you take action to remove that weed and kill it? If we were truly loving to one another as a family, we would speak openly about the dangers of sin to each other so that you may save your brother or sister.
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Let us be a family who leaves no one to death, but who, like Christ, seeks and saves the lost, even those who have gone out from us.
Do you speak up when correction is needed?
Do you speak with encouragement when you correct others?
The words we use have an impact. Did you know that one day the Lord will bring to account every action that you’ve done, every word that departs from your lips? Again, the book of James is helpful in laying out this principle:
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
The tongue, what you speak, can have a wonderful sway for the kingdom of God. Or it can lead others to destruction. Let us bridle our tongues and align them with a heart full of love for God and for each other.
Do you speak up when correction is needed?
Do you speak with encouragement when you correct others?
Are you humble enough to be corrected when it is needed?
The famous saying is a proverb: Pride comes before the fall.
What is the chief sin of men other than pride? Admitting that God’s way is best rather than our own?
Let me remind you again of the dangers of pride: not only working against our own salvation but against all other parts of our life- to avoid correction is to avoid health and growth.
And what a silly thing pride is. If only we used our minds to stop and think clearly for a moment.
Yet again, the book of James is helpful:
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
How do you respond well to correction? By becoming a good listener. By using your mind to understand what is going on. By not flaring up a temper or anger, jumping to rash and unthought words. But by listening, understanding, processing, and then speaking.
Let the man of few but wise words be admired. Let the woman who adorns herself with the wisdom of the speech God be complimented. Let them speak boldly and confidently with their words, so that we all may see the great working the power of speech has for the Lord!
So how do we live together as a family? By Exhorting and encouraging each other, not rebuking each other in scorn.
Now, is there a time for words of rebuke? Yes, but those words are reserved for the dangers that threaten God’s church. But within the household of God, our posture must be first one of understanding and patience and construction, rather than anger and destruction.
In addition to living as the family of God, in encouraging each other, the church is also told to maintain purity.
Maintain Absolute Purity
Maintain Absolute Purity
older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
This phrase, in all purity, shows the absoluteness required of the people of God. It also specifically references how Timothy is to relate to younger women - as sisters. In order to be qualified as an elder, a man must be above reproach. This principle of absolute purity must be established and protected at all costs, lest your elders become disqualified by accusations to their own honor.
Sadly, this is a principle this church learned the hard way. And I don’t need to go into all those details. But let me just say that from this point on out, maintain and establish a philosophy of purity, a way of thinking that permeates the entire congregation, that guards and protects not only your thoughts toward others, but also guards and protects your pastors. Create systems of accountability. Maintain transparency. Live in community, not in isolation. These are all steps that are helpful in moving toward purity. And be watchful, protect the innocent and guard the young.
For when this philosophy of purity is violated, it bears marks on the entire household of God. It puts it to shame. It brings shame to you. So be vigilant: guard against the forces of evil working in persons seeking to devour our sheep and to bring slander to the name of Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
So in way of review:
Application
Application
Relate to one another in a way fitting for the household of God
What areas have you done well in? What areas could you improve? Is there anyone you need to apologize to or make amends with?
Bring correction through encouragement, not scorn
By speaking up when correction is needed, by speaking with a heart of love, not scorn, by being humble enough to accept correction and to value it.
Establish a philosophy of purity
For the protection of souls and of the church’s witness.
Let us pray
(Pray)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Go now in peace. We are dismissed.