Sinners Set Free to Serve

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully... according to the glorious gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief... This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief... Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen... (1 Timothy 1:8-20)

A treasure of infinite worth has been committed to our trust—and the chief of sinners proves no one is beyond God's mercy.

The Weight of Something Entrusted

I was recently searching for thousands of old photos and found them on an old hard drive. As I scrolled through them, my oldest son Ethan—who turns nine this month—asked to see the pictures from the day he was born. Instantly I was carried back nine years to the day I became a dad. There is something weighty about that moment. Moms and dads, when you see your firstborn for the first time, there is a heaviness mixed with a little fear and even dread.

What is interesting is that the same year I became a father, just six months earlier, I became the pastor of this church. And about a month before I became a dad, my wife and I signed the papers for our first home. There is weightiness to stepping into a pastorate, and to signing a mortgage—but neither carried the same heaviness as becoming a father.

I tried to find an analogy for it. Perhaps it would be like someone handing you their most prized possession and asking you to care for it while they go away—but that doesn't begin to touch it. The funny part is that for a house we went through weeks of credit checks and a stack of papers, but to walk out of the hospital with a newborn, all they care about is whether you have a car seat. Something great has been entrusted to you—the stewardship of another life—and there is a heaviness to it.

The Glorious Gospel Committed to Our Trust

I think that's similar to what Paul describes in verse 11: "according to the glorious gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust." Take careful note: it is called the glorious gospel of the Blessed God. It is something immense, of majestic quality and magnificent value—excellent, splendid, and glorious. And too often we fail to realize how great and majestic this thing is that has been committed to us.

A number of years ago I was at a Padres game with my friend David Guzik, and in the middle of an inning he casually said, "I think I'm going to donate one of my kidneys." I said, "To whom?" He said, "I don't know—an anonymous recipient. My sister did it. I have two healthy kidneys, I can live with one, and someone who's sick can live because of it." He went through the whole medical process at UCLA, and they gave one of his kidneys to a woman on the other side of the country. What awesome value in that little organ.

With a kidney, the donor can live. But most of the time when there is an organ transplant, the donor dies, and what is given to the recipient has amazing value. That is connected to this very idea, because Christ died for us. Without His death on the cross there is no gospel, no salvation, no life. He died to take our diseased, sinful heart and replace it with new life. The King of kings died so that we could have life eternal—abundantly here and forever. There is no salvation without the cross, and when we think in those terms we begin to fathom the weightiness of what has been given to us.

God Entrusts Us With Glorious Good News

Point number one: God entrusts us with glorious good news. We have been entrusted with the glorious good news of salvation for those who are sick with sin and dying—not just physically, but what the Bible calls the second death, eternal separation from the living God.

All of us have this fallen condition, whether we realize it or not. It's a genetic disorder passed down from our first father, Adam. Romans 5:12 says, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin," and it spread to all humanity. We see this condition clearly in our actions, for we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But the sinful actions come from a sinful heart. As Jesus said in Mark 7, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and evil actions.

And Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day, as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15. The spiritual heart transplant for spiritually sick sinners has been given to us. We were utterly without hope apart from that transplant from Christ. If you are a Christian today, you have this new life because you put your trust in Him—and now you have it to give to other people.

Imagine the stewardship: within ten miles of this building there are half a million people. Every day in this world, 152,000 people step from this life into the next. About 31 percent of the globe is inhabited by people who say they believe in Jesus. So if a third of those who die today have this spiritual transplant, they step into eternity with Christ, where there is fullness of joy. But that means over 100,000 people die today without this gospel—36 million over ten years, the population of the state of California.

To my shame, I realized this week that too often I am far too casual with this valuable thing committed to my trust. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says God commanded light to shine out of darkness and has shone it into our hearts. We were dead in trespasses and sins, blind, without hope—like the hymn says, "I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see." Then Paul adds we have this treasure in earthen vessels. As Jesus said in Matthew 10, "Freely you have received, freely give." May we never be guilty of hoarding this great gospel.

God Enables Us to Be Ambassadors of Glory

Paul goes on in verse 12: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." If you would say that Jesus is Christ and Lord in your life—that you've received this spiritual heart transplant—then this is true of you as well. Point number two: God enables us to be ambassadors of glory.

Before Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem, "for you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses of Me" (Acts 1:8). That word power has the same Greek root as the word enabled Paul uses here in verse 12. You have been empowered for the purpose of being a witness—which is wonderful, because more often than not I feel completely insufficient in myself for this work.

We live in a culture whose chief value is never to offend anyone, and we are all infected by it. In other times Christians feared for their lives; we live where we don't have that fear, yet we're scared to death of offending somebody or hurting their feelings. Every one of us wrestles with it. But what did Jesus say? You shall receive power from another source—not from yourself. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves... but our sufficiency is of God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant."

He calls us to be ambassadors—official representatives of Christ's kingdom. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul says, "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us... For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Jesus took all our sin like a garment and put it on Himself, bearing all of God's wrath against sin, and He placed His righteousness like a robe upon us. From an accounting standpoint it makes no sense—there's no fairness in it. We live in a culture that prizes fairness, yet I'm so thankful for the unfairness, because I don't deserve it. He who knew no sin became sin for me, that I could receive His righteousness.

According to the Riches of His Mercy and Grace

You might think: of course Paul, an apostle, would be worthy of this—but not me. Look at verse 13: "Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." Elsewhere Paul says, "I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church."

Maybe you feel unworthy today. You say, "You don't know what I've done; there's no way I can do this." Paul speaks up: I was a blasphemer and persecutor, not worthy to be called an apostle—"but by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10). Maybe you identify more with the list in verses 9-10—the lawless, ungodly, unholy, murderers, fornicators, liars, perjurers. If so, point number three is for you: God's entrusting and enabling are according to the riches of His mercy and grace in spite of our sin.

You are right—you are not, and never will be, worthy. That's why it's called grace; we don't deserve it. We've been given unmerited, undeserved favor. So Paul continues in verse 14, "And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant"—rich grace—"with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." Mercy means He does not give me what I deserve; I deserve the wrath poured out on Jesus at the cross. And grace means He has heaped abundance upon me that I don't deserve.

God Is the Savior of Sinners

Why would God do this? Verse 15: "This is a faithful saying"—a completely reliable statement, worthy of all acceptance—"that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Point number four: God is rich toward sinners because He is the Savior of sinners.

Grasp this: Savior is not merely His title or what He does—it is His nature, His identity. That's why His name is Jesus, "Jehovah is salvation." He can't help but save people, because that's who He is, and He does it really well. Most of us understand finding identity in what we do. Studies show that within three minutes of two men meeting, one will ask, "So what do you do?" and the other answers, "I am a..."—an architect, a contractor, a police officer. We find our identity in our work. With Jesus it is amplified: His very nature is salvation.

This is the purpose statement of Jesus. John 3:17 says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world." He had every right to condemn sinful people, yet that's not why He came. Mark 10:45 says He came "to give His life a ransom for many." Luke 19:10 says He came "to seek and to save that which was lost." Maybe you're here for the first time, wondering why—you're here because Jesus came to seek and save you. In John 10 He says, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

There may be a few of you who object, "I'm a much worse sinner than Paul." You can argue that with Paul in heaven. But notice the transformation: prior to this, Paul was an arrogant, boastful, insolent religious Pharisee. God's law, properly applied, takes a proud Pharisee and turns him into a humble saint and a useful servant. You cannot be a useful servant of Jesus until you realize who you are in relationship to God. When Isaiah saw God for who He was, he said, "I am undone" (Isaiah 6)—and then he could be used.

You Are God's Masterpiece of Grace

Paul continues in verse 16: "However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life." Why would God give such mercy to first-rate sinners like us? So that those who will believe would see in us the patience and steadfast, preserving grace of Jesus. Point number five: you are God's masterpiece of grace for sinners in need of the same.

Jesus has been merciful to me and gracious to you so He could set us up as a masterpiece to show off His mercy to others. People look at your life and say, "How could God save someone like you?"—and they go, "He must be really gracious." Maybe you have family members who never thought God could save a person like you. God wants to set you up as a spectacle of His grace. That's why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "Let your light so shine that men will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

In 2014, a French couple investigating a leaky roof found a sealed-off section of their attic, and inside was a large canvas painting in good condition. The art authorities deduced it was a lost work of an Italian master, worth 136 million dollars. It now hangs in a museum in Milan. Masterpieces don't belong in leaky attics; they belong in beautiful museums. And when you behold a master's work, you don't admire the marble—you marvel at the master who shaped it. That's what God wants from your life: that people would see the amazing work of the Master and glorify your Father in heaven, not you.

For "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship"—His masterpiece—"created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:8-10). And those good works point to Christ.

The Doxology and the Handoff

Overwhelmed by this revelation, Paul breaks into a doxology in verse 17—a formal liturgical praise believed to be one of the earliest Christian doxologies known in the church: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." God the master artisan has taken your broken, tattered life and made it into something beautiful that He wants to put on display for eternity in His house, to show His glory.

Paul finishes in verse 18: "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy... that by them you may wage the good warfare." What charge? The one given in verse 3—to charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Paul knew his time was short, so he hands it off: "I received it by revelation; I've now given it to you to carry. Fight the good fight, and when you're done, hand it off to someone else." This has been happening for 2,000 years, and now the handoff has come to us.

Therefore fight the good fight, wage the good warfare, "having faith and a good conscience." But know that some have rejected this and "suffered shipwreck." Paul names two: "of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." Imagine having your name written by Paul's hand that way. The only other place we find this language is 1 Corinthians 5:5, where someone sinning continually and refusing to repent is delivered "to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

That is church discipline. God wants you on display in His house to show forth His glory. But if you're tarnishing that glory by your carnality and sin, Paul says that person should be sent out, hoping their flesh will be destroyed so their spirit can be saved in the day of Christ. That's a heavy reality—and may none of us be like Hymenaeus and Alexander.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You for Your word. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Your word is able to save and to transform. I pray that You would cause Your word to be alive in our hearts, that we would not be able to hold it back, but would share it with others—because Lord, You have given us a spiritual heart transplant and made us alive for eternity. There are friends, co-workers, family members, and neighbors still under the curse of sin, with a diseased heart. Stir our hearts to give forth freely the gospel of grace, not ashamed of the gospel, knowing it is Your power unto salvation to everyone who believes.

As we stand here today, this may be news to you—that Jesus died for your sins so you could receive salvation and new life for eternity. If you'd like to receive the grace of Jesus and the forgiveness of God, pray with me where you are: Dear Jesus, I know I need You in my life. I know I've broken Your commandments. I have sinned, but I thank You that You came to save sinners. I pray that You would come into my life and save and forgive me, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Praise the Lord—welcome to the kingdom of God.