1 Timothy 1.1-6          Live in Hope        10.30 am 3^rd  Dec 2006

This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, appointed by the command of God our Saviour and by Christ Jesus our hope.  It is written to Timothy, my true child in the faith. May God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. 

When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those who are teaching wrong doctrine.

Don't let people waste time in endless speculation over myths and spiritual pedigrees. For these things only cause arguments; they don't help people live a life of faith in God.  The purpose of my instruction is that all the Christians there would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and sincere faith.  But some teachers have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time arguing and talking foolishness. (1 Timothy 1:1-6 NLT)

It’s Advent. A season of great hope. We know we are about to celebrate Jesus coming to earth as our Saviour. He came to a LOST world, and through God’s grace, brought us HOPE of being FOUND.

He came to a BLIND and DEAF world and brought us the HOPE of restored SIGHT and SOUND spiritually, as well as physically. So we can recognise the work of God and hear his voice again.

The problem is we have heard the Christmas and Advent stories many times before, and have lost that first excitement. Actually we don’t think of this being Advent very often, BUT the run up to Christmas Day.

All that work, spending and shopping.

After that we, like our non believing friends, think phew, Christmas is over for this year. Yet if we look at our church lectionary we see that Christmas Day is the beginning of Christmas. Christmas Day, the first day of a new hope.

We have been listening to the teaching of the culture we live in, and have MISSED THE POINT. Advent isn’t about shopping, cards, wrapping paper and getting into debt. It is ALL about the HOPE that comes through Jesus. Not a wishy-washy hope but a confident expectation.

People in this building can testify to God giving them HOPE through healing and other miraculous intervention in their circumstances. We can testify to one another of the HOPE and FAITH such events have given us whether we personally received the miracle or just know the person who did.

Our HOPE should look to Jesus for every step of this life, and our journey to the next. Ultimately, we can’t look to other people, or things for help during this life but only to Christ.

Our ultimate HOPE is an eternity with Jesus where there will be, “no more tears”. No hunger or thirst, No sickness and pain, No despair, No pessimism, No loneliness.

Our reason for this Eternal Hope is in the FACT that the risen Jesus went to heaven, and had a ONE TO ONE with God our Father. Then he returned to earth for forty days and continued his teaching about the Kingdom of God. About eternity. And he still teaches us through His Holy Spirit.

Our God is a God that gives us HOPE. He has seen the beginning, and he has seen the future. He has seen Christ’s return. He has seen how each one of us, will spend eternity. And he tells us all about our lives now and for eternity in the Bible.

Not pie in the sky, wishful thinking, but fact brought to us by Jesus and recorded in the Bible.

What is the one of the most difficult tasks you have ever faced? For me, it was leaving our home, and friends; taking our children away from their friends; and giving up our incomes to go to live in London where Duncan trained for the ministry.

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he knew he was writing to a young man who thought he was facing an impossible task.

Timothy was serving as superintendent of a number of churches in Asia Minor, and as pastor of the church of Ephesus. Before leaving for Macedonia Paul urged Timothy “to stay and stop the wrong doctrine being taught.” What a calling!

Paul was writing to teach, instruct, and encourage both Timothy and through him the rest of the church.

Paul reminds Timothy that God can change a person. There is HOPE even for the most troubled, and confused or deluded member of Timothy’s congregations.

He reminds Timothy later in this letter of how God, changed him. Paul used to persecute the Christians and have Christians imprisoned, until he met Jesus.

Timothy is too teach the church, and have hope that many like Paul will change and learn.

The church must be loving, have a clear conscience, and sincere, true faith. An unpolluted faith that must be shared with unbelievers.

Having urged Timothy to stay and stop the wrong doctrine before leaving him, Paul now writes to tell Timothy not to get discouraged in his task.

What a task. Some of the teachers in his churches had in Paul’s word’s, “missed the point.”

Do you ever feel like loading your belongings into a van and leaving, preferably for another country where it is warm?

Because it seems either no one understands or this country is in a right mess, and politicians seem incapable of sorting it.

In 2005 an estimated 380,000 people did emigrate from the UK. Equivalent to over 1,000 people a day leaving the UK to live abroad. I don’t know why they left.

Remember people CAN NOT sort it but JESUS CAN. Put your HOPE in him.

Have you heard the story of when the devil was having a car boot sale? People were buying the devils books, his cd’s, his dvd’s, all giving advice on how to lie, cheat, manipulate, and deceive.   You can imagine what he was selling.

One item at the end of the table had a “Not for sale” sign on it, and the devil himself seemed to be protecting that. “What’s that item, that’s not for sale” people asked? The devil replied, “This is a very effective item and I make a lot of use of it. It is called discouragement. If I can get people discouraged, then I can do almost anything I want with them.

Are you discouraged? Give your discouragement to Jesus, and accept the HOPE he gives in return.

May be you are really a sceptic? You believe Jesus was a good teacher and went about doing good, but like some of the people Timothy knew, are still feeling confused? If you haven’t done an Alpha course, do one.

In the Old Testament book Deuteronomy people were expected to spend a tithe, a tenth of their income on provisions for the annual visit to the temple.

Rather like an Old Testament version of today’s Christian conference such as New Wine or Spring Harvest.

If you want to experience God’s presence, and haven’t for a long while, then consider visiting a conference at the Toronto Vineyard church in Canada, where they specialise in events that make encounters with God, more possible. If you are willing to give your time and money to God, to meet with him, God will honour your commitment.

Are you a discouraged Christian? Give your worries to Jesus. Gain peace in the hope he gives both for this life and the next.

Everyone who believes and trusts in Jesus will have eternal life.

As it says in Hebrews 11:6  “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

All believers have the CERTAIN HOPE of eternal life.

But Hope doesn’t mean you do nothing.

There is no point in putting a seed in a plant pot on the window sill and saying, “I hope it grows”; if you haven’t watered it.

We have the hope of eternal life, but the type of eternal life we receive will depend on what we did with that HOPE.

Watch out, so that you do not lose the prize for which we have been working so hard. Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward. (2 John 1:8 NLT)

Can you remember when Emily visited the church with two other YFC dancers? It is definitely etched in my mind, and probably Chris’, and may be Ian’s. For those of you who weren’t here she said she wanted three volunteers and then picked Ian and myself as two. Chris, not knowing what was coming volunteered.

She gave us each a pair of large ladies pants and told us to pull them right up and right down as fast as we could for one minute. Is there anyone here who thinks that is easy, no problem?

When I sat down after, I said to God, “Thank you for getting me to buy and use that exercise video. You see a few months earlier I had seen this video and bought it. And guess what, I have been doing the ten minute warm up exercises each day. So I was to some extent prepared. If I hadn’t being exercising, I think at my age, you might have been calling the paramedics out.

Can you imagine the headlines in the newspapers! “Vicars wife taken to hospital after pulling knickers down in front of congregation”?

Paul later in his letter says to Timothy (1 Tim 4:8) Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next

I was physically prepared for that odd ordeal. The question is, “Are we spiritually prepared. Have we exercised ourselves sufficiently spiritually”?

Jesus’ return is a CERTAINTY, it is something we know will happen. It is not totally unexpected as was Emily’s game.

Jesus’ return is a CERTAIN HOPE but remember -

Revelation 22:12  "See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay all according to their deeds.”

Are you spiritually prepared, right now?

Some Christians believe Jesus is about to return at any minute. Others think well the first apostles believed he would return during their life time, and he didn’t. And I am fairly confident I have a few decades of life in front of me yet.

We need to be prepared.

As well as ensuring correct doctrine was taught, Paul instructs Timothy to, “Cling tightly to your faith in Christ, and always keep your conscience clear.” (Tim 1.19).

Are you ready to meet Jesus? If you knew Jesus was returning this evening, would you rejoice? Praise the Lord, because their will be no more sorrows? Or aren’t you ready?

Are you ready to die?

Some of you may be thinking, “Pam, I thought this was a talk on HOPE not DEATH”!

It is but you have to be prepared. Many people say “they hope to go to heaven”, but haven’t done anything about it. They’ve not got the CERTAIN HOPE of mature Christians.

It is winter now. Someone here might have to face what I faced eleven years ago. Black ice on the road; your car shooting out into the unknown; and what you believe will be certain death.

That day when it happened to me I knew there wasn’t any un-confessed sin in my life, and I knew there wasn’t anyone who had hurt me that I hadn’t forgiven. I was prepared to die.

And because of the peace God gave me, as an answer to my arrow prayer, “God help me”, I wasn’t afraid.

You WILL meet Jesus one day, whether it is after your death or when Jesus returns and gathers his people. Be prepared! Confess and repent of your sin as soon as you realise what you have done. Then you will have a CERTAIN HOPE.

We are celebrating Holy Communion today.

Then he took a loaf of bread; and when he had thanked God for it, he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 

After supper he took another cup of wine and said, "This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you--an agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you. (Luke 22:19-20 NLT)

Jesus told us to “Do this in remembrance of me." Celebrate what he has done for us to give us HOPE.

When you come up for communion I suggest,- when you receive, a piece of broken bread, you remember that Jesus has already received, the punishment you should receive.

So there you are kneeling, or standing, forgiven, but covered in memories of your past sin, and the hurts you received.

When you take the wine think of the verse from Rev 7.14, “They washed  their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.”

In other words, think of the wine, the blood of the lamb, Jesus, as something that leaves you clean from sin and past hurts, right now.

Then remember Jesus has made a covenant with God for his followers, “God will wipe away all their tears." (Rev 7.17).

His followers have a CERTAIN HOPE.

Our Hope is an absolute certainty. We can have joy and peace right now.

For the Christian, eternal life had already begun.

So let us rejoice.

Amen