Sermon

June 1, 2008
C-Pentecost 3
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Pastor Robert Raasch

Thanks be to Jesus!

1. For the Grace He’s Shown Us
2. For the Service to Which He’s Appointed Us

(1 Tim 1:12-17)  I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. {13} Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. {14} The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. {15} Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. {16} But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. {17} Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Last week my wife said to me, “Robb, there’s something in the garage that is starting to smell.  Will you take care of it?”  I said, “Sure.”  I went out to the garage and—“oh something does smell out here.”  Better check the garbage can.  Nope, it’s not the garbage can.  How about the minnow bucket?  Nope, the minnow bucket smells fine.  Hmmm.  Maybe the live well in the boat.  I lift the cover.  “Oh my goodness.  I think I found it.  Looks like the last time I cleaned the fish out of the live well, I didn’t quite take all the fish out.  There was a dead crappie in the corner of the fish box.  And after sitting in a hot garage for over a week, it was getting pretty gooey, and it was stinking to high heaven. 

Now, what would you say if I told you that I took that fish and…made a delicious fish casserole out of it?  You’d say, “No way.”  And you’re right.  I can’t take something as rotten as a spoiled fish and turn it into something that’s good and useful.  But what I couldn’t do, God can do.  And he’s already done it.  Only in God’s case, he’s not done it with a rotten fish; he’s done it with rotten sinners, like you and me.  In our text for today, the Apostle Paul recounts for us the incredible reclamation project that God carried out on Paul’s behalf.  God took the one whom Paul himself considered to be the worst of the worst and instead turned him into something incredibly good and useful—all purely by the grace of God.  Today, as we consider what God did for the Apostle Paul, we can see what he’s done for us as well. Today we join the chief of sinners in saying,

Thanks Be to Jesus!
I. For the grace he’s shown us
II. For the service to which he’s appointed us.

Certainly, Paul knew what the grace of God had done for him.  Paul readily admits what his life used to be like when he says, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.”  If you remember anything about the actions of the man who was then known as Saul, you know he’s telling the truth here.  In Acts 26, Paul describes his former life with these words, “I was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.  Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them (v. 9-11).”  When you consider that Paul tried to single-handedly stamp out the Christian faith, is it any wonder that in hindsight, he refers to himself as the worst of sinners? 

And yet, if you think about it, is Paul all that unique?  Isn’t it true that you and I are guilty of committing sins very similar to his?  For example, Paul says he was a blasphemer.  What is blasphemy—other than the sin of speaking against God?  Have you found yourself blaming God when something bad happened in your life or in our world?  Ever accused God of not caring about you?  Ever referred to God in a vulgar or derogatory way?  That, my friends, is blasphemy! 

What about Paul’s sin of persecuting Christians?  Have you ever made fun of someone for being a “lightweight,” for not being able to party as hard as you party?  Ever got down on someone because they were concerned about missing church?  Ever made life hard on someone who was more committed to his or her Christian walk than you were?  Are we sometimes guilty of persecuting other Christians?

Or how about the sin of being “a violent” man?  Do you have a mean streak in you?  Have you ever tried to get your way by the use of force?  Whether it be by physically bullying people or by verbally abusing them?  Actually, the Greek word brings in the idea of someone who is so wrapped up in himself or herself that other people eventually get hurt along the way.

I don’t know about you, but I see a lot of myself in the mirror of the Apostle Paul’s words and actions.  I have to admit that I’m guilty of the same kind of sins that he was guilty of.  And just like the Apostle, those sins are not only in my past; they’re also in my present.  Notice, in verse 15, Paul doesn’t say that he was the worst of sinners.  He says, “I am the worst.”  So also with you and me.  We still have a sinful nature that is in constant rebellion against God—and it continues to show itself in our thoughts, words and actions every day of our lives.

And yet, in spite of our ongoing rebellion against God, in spite of our repeated offences against his holy commands, what has God shown to sinners like you and me and Saul of Tarsus?  Paul tells us, “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. {14} The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.”  Now, when Paul says that he was shown mercy because he acted in ignorance and unbelief, please don’t misunderstand what he says.  Paul is not saying that God gave him a break because, “Well, Paul just didn’t know any better.” Or that somehow Paul’s unbelief excused his bad behavior.  No, what Paul is saying is that because he was so ignorant, so hard hearted, the only possible way for him to ever be saved was for God to take pity on him. 

And you know, that’s exactly what God did.  And note, God showed more than just a little bit of mercy to Paul.  No, God’s grace, his undeserved love, overflowed on Paul.  How did Paul put it?  “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.”  The Greek word there uses the prefix “hupair.”  It’s the word that gives us the word “hyper,” as in, “That kid is not just ‘active;’ he’s hyper-active.”  His activity level overflows.  That’s the concept that Paul uses in connection with God’s grace.  There’s just no end to it.  It just keeps on coming. 

Kind of reminds me of the Niagara Falls.  If you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls, you know the sheer volume of water that comes pouring over that precipice.  You could stand there for hours and it just keeps pouring and pouring over the edge.  It’s like there’s no stopping it.  In fact, the story is told of a man who painted a picture of Niagara Falls.  But he had no name for the painting, so he asked the gallery to give it a name.  The name they chose was simply, “More to Follow.”  In other words, no matter how much water comes over the falls, there’s always more on the way.

My friends, isn’t that an apt description for God’s grace?  There’s always more to follow.  We can never use it all up.  Martin Luther likened God’s grace to the sun in the sky.  No matter how many people absorb its light, they can never “use up” the sun.  The sun keeps shining.  So also with God’s grace.  A world full of sinners can never use up God’s grace.  That’s what Paul means when he makes this confession about himself personally, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.”

Tell me, couldn’t you and I say the very same thing? “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.”  In spite of my rebellion against God, he’s has shown me mercy by not giving me the hell I deserve.  And instead, he’s given me the heaven Jesus earned.  You and I can say with the Apostle Paul, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” 

My friends, if God can save a self-righteous Pharisee like Paul, if he can convert him from the greatest persecutor of the church to the greatest apostle of the church, maybe there is hope for you and me, too.  In fact, isn’t that why we’re here today?  When it comes right down to it, the worship we offer to God is not really inspired by the melody of the songs we sing.  Rather, it’s inspired by the grace that God has shown to us.  Our songs of praise, yes, our life of praise—is all a result of our knowing that God has forgiven our sins, made us his children and granted us life in heaven—all purely by his grace alone!  Is it any wonder that Paul ends this section on God’s grace breaking into a doxology of praise?  He says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  God’s grace inspires Paul’s praise—and ours as well.

You might say that’s the first and most important reason that Paul, as well as you and I, have for giving thanks to Jesus today, namely, for the grace he’s shown to us.  And yet, here in our text, Paul mentions a second reason to say, “Thanks be to Jesus.”   And that is: II. For the Service to Which He has Appointed Us.

In the opening verse of our text, Paul writes, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord…that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.”  Now again, don’t misunderstand those words.  Paul is not saying that God considered Paul such a good guy, such a hard worker, such a faithful Christian, that he picked him to be the next apostle to the Gentiles.  No, Paul’s faithfulness had nothing to do with Paul—and everything to do with God.  God chose to put Paul in the position he was in, purely by grace.  When God knocked Paul off his high horse on the road to Damascus, he not only called Paul to faith in Jesus; he also called him into the ministry.  Jesus said to Paul, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you (Acts 26:16).

From that moment on, Paul considered it a privilege to be a minister for Christ.  Even though he would face persecution, floggings and shipwrecks for the sake of Christ, still Paul saw his ministry as an undeserved gift of God’s grace.  In Ephesians 3:7-8, Paul explains it this way, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. {8} Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” 

My friends, you realize that the same thing is still true today, don’t you?  Serving as a minister of the gospel is still a privilege that God grants by his grace.  Last week 46 graduates of our Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary received calls into the full-time public ministry of the gospel.  The week before that, 91 graduates of Martin Luther College received their calls into the teaching ministry.  When those assigned to our Northern Wisconsin District met with our district president, I expect that he told those men and women what he tells them each year.  He said, “Brothers and sisters, the call you hold in your hands is not a “right.”  It’s not something that you earned by your hard work over the last 4 or 8 years.  A diploma—that’s something you earned.  A call, on the other hand, is something God gives, purely by grace.  Treat that call as the precious gift it is.  Regard it as a privilege that God has given to you.  Keep that in mind, and then maybe 25 years from now, a congregation will gather to thank God for the service you have rendered to the Lord and his church, in the position to which he has appointed you.”

In fact, isn’t that what Mount Olive is doing this weekend?  For 25 years, Mr. Peter Sehloff has served the Lord as a teacher in a Lutheran elementary school or high school.  For 25 years he has faithfully fed the lambs of our Savior’s flock, serving as a role model for countless young adults.  And yet our goal is not to heap praise upon one fellow human being, but rather to give us all a chance to once again marvel at the grace of God.  I expect that Mr. Sehloff is not the only called worker who has ever found himself asking, “Why me?”  No, not “why me?” when fielding a phone call from an upset parent, or “why me?” when called to the hospital at one in the morning.  No, I mean, “why me?” as in “why would God choose to appoint a weak and miserable sinner like me to be his ambassador of his love and mercy?  Why, out of all the things I could be doing with my life—why would God allow me the privilege of handling the word of truth on a daily basis, applying it to the hearts and lives of young people, using it to bring comfort to grieving families, direction to the straying, and light to the spiritually blind?  Why me?”  The answer for every pastor, teacher, and yes, for every Christian—for we all have been appointed for some kind of service in the Kingdom—the answer is always the same.  It’s all by God’s grace. 

© 2006 Mount Olive Ev. Lutheran Church and School - All Rights Reserved