[Note: This sermon was preceded by a testimony of a person who had been an atheist and substance abuser who came to Christ through our church].
Isn’t it exciting to hear how God has changed Kevin’s life? But even as we rejoice, I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are thinking, "I don’t have a story like that, a dramatic story about how Christ got a hold of my life." Even as we rejoice in hearing stories like Kevin’s, sometimes we can feel inferior if our story isn’t a dramatic one like we just heard.
Well I’m here today to tell you that it’s not just how you start out in the Christian life, but it’s also about how you finish. Last weekend we started a new series through the books of 1 and 2 Timothy in the Bible called Deepening Your Life With God. Today we talk about how people start out in this life with God. Every journey has to begin somewhere, and the spiritual journey begins with conversion, with a decision to turn to God and trust in Jesus Christ. Although everyone’s story of conversion is unique, there are three basic kinds of stories we hear about conversion. There are dramatic stories like Kevin’s, there are "ordinary stories," and there are tragic stories. We’re going to look at each kind of story today, and we’re going to see that it’s not just how you start, but it’s also how you finish.
1. Dramatic Stories (1 Timothy 1:12-17)
We start by looking at one of the most dramatic conversion stories of all in vv. 12-17. The apostle Paul who wrote this letter to Timothy had experienced a dramatic conversion. As he looks back on his story, Paul marvels in this section at how God could have confidence in Paul in light of his former way of life. His life before Jesus was characterized by blasphemy of Jesus, by persecution of Christians, and by violence. We know from the book of Acts that Paul participated in the execution of the first Christian to die for his faith. This led Paul on a rampage of hatred and violence, as he went from town to town stalking Christians. He used whatever means possible to imprison and hurt as many Christians as possible.
Yet despite all this, God got a hold of Paul’s life. While Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus to hunt down more Christians, suddenly Jesus Christ himself appeared to Paul. Paul was knocked off his horse and struck blind, as he heard those unforgettable words from Jesus, "Why are you persecuting me?" Paul’s life was never the same, as he came to trust in Jesus as his own Savior that day and also received his calling to become an apostle of Jesus Christ.
In v. 15 Paul quotes a trustworthy saying. Paul mentions these trustworthy statements four times in 1 and 2 Timothy, and each time it refers to a saying that was common knowledge to the church in Ephesus. These trustworthy sayings were like proverbs or slogans that everyone in the church knew, perhaps a bit like our slogans "helping people love God and others" or "Every member a minister." Well one of the slogans at the church in Ephesus was, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Some Bible teachers believe this slogan might be based on a saying of Jesus himself, perhaps Luke 19:10, where Jesus said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
After quoting this well known slogan, Paul adds the words "of whom I am the worst." Paul viewed himself as the worst of sinners, or as some translations put it, "the chief of sinners." One paraphrase of the Bible puts it, "Public sinner number one" (The Message). Now I don’t think this means that Paul was the most wicked, immoral, hateful person who existed on the face of the earth at this time. I think Paul is speaking from the perspective of his own experience. Bible teacher John Stott suggests, "Paul was so vividly aware of his own sins that he could not conceive that anybody could be worse" (Guard The Truth, p. 53). I think Paul was also struck by the fact that his sins had been committed in God’s name, which made his sins even worse.
Paul views his own conversion as a kind of prototype, an example of how God can get a hold of a person who seems far beyond the reach of God’s love. This leads Paul to break into praise in v. 17, as he gives the credit to God alone for his conversion. He recognizes that it’s the one true God, the creator of the universe, who has laid hold of his life and put him into service of Jesus Christ.
So Paul’s story is a dramatic story, perhaps the most dramatic story of all. Here we learn that THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST CAN TRANSFORM PEOPLE WHO ARE HOSTILE TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
Think about some of the more notorious conversions in our generation. Alice Cooper, the 1970s rock star who was the inspiration of Marilyn Manson has come to faith in Jesus Christ the last few years. And then there’s Norma McCorvey, perhaps best known as Jane Roe in the famous Roe vs. Wade court decision that legalized abortion on demand. Norma McCorvey was led to Christ by Christian pro-life activists, if you can believe that.
We could multiply examples, and we hear many of these kinds of dramatic stories in our own church. Every two or three months we receive new members here at Life Bible Fellowship Church, and almost every time we hear these kinds of dramatic stories. This isn’t because we have such a great church, but it’s because we serve such a great God who has given us such a great message.
The good news of Jesus can transform people who are enemies of the faith.
2. "Ordinary Stories" (1 Timothy 1:18-19a)
That brings us to what we think of as "ordinary" stories. I put the word "ordinary" in quotes because from God’s perspective every single conversion is a miracle and cause for rejoicing in heaven. However, these are conversions that seem less dramatic to us.
Timothy’s story was an ordinary story, as we see in v. 18 and the first part of v. 19. Now we don’t know nearly as much about Timothy as we know about Paul, but what we do know about Timothy is interesting. We know from the book of Acts Timothy was raised in an interfaith home, with a Jewish mother and a Roman pagan soldier for a father. We know from 2 Timothy 1:5 that Timothy learned about God and Jesus from his mother Lois and his grandmother Eunice. We also know from 2 Timothy 3:16 that Timothy was taught about the Bible as a very young child, that his mother and grandmother had taught him from the Bible as far back as he could remember.
So Timothy grew up in the equivalent of a Christian home, as a third generation believer. If Timothy was like a lot of people who grow up in that kind of home, he probably struggled to identify exactly when his conversion occurred. To Timothy it probably seemed like he’d always believed because his faith had always been an important part of his life.
So Paul doesn’t remind Timothy of Timothy’s conversion experience, but instead he reminds Timothy of a time when some prophecies were made about him. Now the spiritual gift of prophecy was an important gift in the New Testament church, and it still functions even today. God gifts some Christians with the gift of prophecy, not so much to predict the future, but more to help the church discern what God’s will is when the church is facing a crossroads. We don’t know when these prophecies were made about Timothy or who made them, though 1 Tim 4:14 links it to a time when the church elders laid their hands on Timothy to commission him to ministry. Most likely, this is referring to Timothy’s calling to serve in ministry, perhaps when he first decided to join Paul’s ministry team. For Timothy, this event was his milestone, not so much his conversion but his calling to ministry.
Following Paul’s instructions will enable Timothy to live consistently with these prophecies, so he can fight the good fight. This "fight the good fight," phrase pictures Timothy as a soldier, and it pictures the spiritual life as a fight that requires faithfulness and perseverance. Isn’t that what the spiritual life seems like at times, a fight?
For Timothy the key to fighting this good fight will be "holding on to faith" and keeping "a good conscience." Holding on to faith is literally holding on to the Christian faith. This isn’t talking about Timothy’s personal faith, but it’s talking about Timothy’s commitment to the Christian faith. In this context, Timothy’s faith refers to his doctrinal integrity. This is why later in the letter Paul will tell Timothy to watch his doctrine closely (1 Tim 4:16). Doctrinal integrity is critical to Timothy if he wants to fight the good fight in his life with God.
If "holding on to the faith" refers to doctrinal integrity, keeping a good conscience refers to Timothy’s moral integrity. As important as doctrinal integrity is, it’s no substitute for moral integrity. Even if we believe all the right things about God, we won’t fight the good fight unless we maintain a life of moral purity that pleases God. Moral integrity is not perfection, but it’s a life that strives to stay within the moral boundaries God has given for us to live in. It’s a life that refuses to abandon itself to behavior that’s displeasing to God, whether it’s a lifestyle of dishonesty or to sexual excess or whatever. Doctrinal and moral integrity are both essential to fighting the good fight.
Timothy’s story is an ordinary story. We learn here that THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST CAN TRANSFORM PEOPLE WHO WERE RAISED IN A CHRISTIAN HOME.
There are thousands and thousands of "ordinary" stories all around us. I think of Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham. Anne never rebelled like her brother Franklin did, but instead she came to faith in Jesus Christ at a young age and has continued to grow and develop in her faith ever since. God is using her greatly, and some people think Anne is a more effective public speaker than her dad and brother are. I also think of Dr. James Dobson, who was the son of a Nazarene pastor. Dr. Dobson came to faith in Christ at an early age and has never deviated from the faith he learned from his parents and grandparents.
For people with ordinary stories, their benchmark events are likely to be events other than their conversion story. For Paul, his conversion was his turning point, but for Timothy his turning point came when was when he was called to ministry. If you were raised in a Christian home, you might have trouble remember exactly when you came to faith in Jesus. Your benchmark events are likely to come later in your life, perhaps as a teenager or a young adult. Perhaps an experience with God at a summer camp or a time when you started serving in ministry as a high school student. Perhaps a summer missions trip or a crisis of faith that you worked through during your college years.
The biggest danger for people who were raised in a Christian home is becoming a nominal Christian, a Christina "in name only." A nominal Christian is someone who simply has the title Christian but lacks a genuine, authentic faith in Jesus. These are people who identify themselves as Christians because their parents were, they perhaps still go to church, they read the Bible, they even try to talk to others about the Christian faith, but inside they lack a genuine, vibrant relationship with God. This is why every person raised in a Christian home must come to a point of embracing the Christian faith for him or herself, no longer relying on their parents’ faith, their youth pastor’s faith, or anyone else’s faith.
Once a person comes to this point, then their life with God can be just as deep and just as exciting as a person with a dramatic conversion. The two pastors I meet with each month in my accountability group were both raised in Christian homes. Both have ordinary stories, just like Timothy. My friends struggle to identify exactly when they came to faith in Christ because as long as they can remember they’ve believed. But both came to a point of embracing the faith for themselves, and both have a passionate, deep life with God today.
To be honest, this is the kind of story every Christian parent wishes for his or her kids. A life like Timothy, where our children are nurtured in the Christian faith from infancy, where they came to faith at a young age, and where they confirmed that faith as an adult. We pray, "God help our kids be more like Timothy than like Paul."
It’s not just how you start, but it’s how you finish, and both those with dramatic stories and those with ordinary stories can finish well.
3. Tragic Stories (1 Timothy 1:19a-20)
But then there are tragic stories. These are stories about people who started out strong in the Christian faith. But for these people, something tragic happened, and they seem to have lost their faith in some way. For Paul, these people are represented by the false teachers in the church in Ephesus who once seemed to have faith but who have lost their way.
Paul gives us two examples of a tragic story in vv. 19-20. These are people who have pushed aside doctrinal integrity and moral integrity, and as a result they’ve have shipwrecked their faith. A shipwreck is a vivid word picture of total disaster, of being crushed and broken by the waves. A person shipwrecked is stuck, perhaps injured, and certainly has lost their way.
Paul identifies two individuals named Hymenaeus and Alexander who are examples of a shipwrecked faith. It’s likely that both of these guys had at one time been church leaders in Ephesus, but they’ve abandoned their doctrinal integrity and moral integrity. As a result they’ve shipwrecked their faith.
Now Paul says he has handed these two people over to Satan. That phrase "hand over to Satan" is a technical term in the New Testament for excommunicating people from the Christian community. The idea is that the church is the domain of Jesus Christ, but outside the church in the world is the domain of Satan. If a person rejects true beliefs about Jesus and embraces a lifestyle of moral rebellion, that person chooses to put themselves in the domain of Satan instead of the domain of Jesus. So if the person refuses to change after repeated warnings, they are given over to the domain they’ve chosen and put out of the church. This doesn’t mean the church stops loving them or praying for them, but it means that the church treats them as if they are an unbeliever because they are living like unbelievers.
Now Paul here never asks the question all of us are asking by now. Our question is, "Were Hymenaeus and Alexander still Christians?" Are they true Christians who lost their way or were they never true Christians in the first place? Paul refuses to speculate. He simply says to treat them as if they are unbelievers, but he stops short of making a judgment as to whether they’re genuine believers or not.
Hymenaeus and Alexander represent tragic stories. We learn that THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST CAN EVEN TRANSFORM PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR WAY IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
The reason why Paul told his own dramatic story first was to give hope to people like Hymenaeus and Alexander. If Christ can reach Paul, he can also reach Hymenaeus and Alexander, and anyone else shipwrecked in the faith. Tragic stories don’t have to have a tragic ending.
Now many of us know people who have lost their way in the faith. At one time they seemed to have faith in Jesus, but at some point their lost their way. Perhaps they lost their way doctrinally, abandoning their doctrinal integrity. Or perhaps they lost their way morally, abandoning their moral integrity. Our culture is filled with people who’ve shipwrecked their faith for whatever reason.
The good news of Jesus Christ can even reach them.
Conclusion
God can change anyone. Whether you have a dramatic story or an ordinary story or something in between, God changed you. Perhaps some of you have tragic stories, you’re shipwrecked and without hope, and today God is telling you that you don’t have to stay shipwrecked. The good news of Jesus Christ can impact anyone.
You see, it’s not just how you start--whether it’s a dramatic or an ordinary start--but it’s also how you finish.
