Qualities of an Excellent Servant, Pt. 4

1 Timothy 4:13-14

     Take your Bible now, if you will, I hope you have it with you.  I not, you might find one there in the pew.  But take one and look to 1 Timothy chapter 4.  We are in a series in 1 Timothy 4:6 to 16.  It's part of our ongoing series in this entire epistle.  We find ourselves in the fourth chapter, looking at this one section from verses 6 to 16 which deals with the qualities of an excellent minister of Jesus Christ.  And as I said at the very beginning, this is particularly preached to the preacher.  This is to my own heart and all those who serve the Lord Jesus Christ in a preaching/teaching ministry because primarily it is Paul's instruction to Timothy about his ministry. 

     But, it has tremendous secondary implications to every believer because whatever it is that the preacher of God's Word is to be, he is to be that in order that he might be a model of what every believer is to be.  And so no one is really off the hook in this passage.  It's just that we have the greater responsibility to live out these principles in order to set the pattern for everyone else. 

     Now we've said a lot of things in an introductory way and I don't want to beg the issue, I want to move on to the next couple of points in our look at the text.  But let me just review the basic structure that we're working with in this section. 

     In every passage of Scripture, there is usually a major emphasis.  There's usually a major theme around which that paragraph or that section is built.  And this is no different.  If you look at verse 6, you'll be reminded that in the middle of verse 6 is this little phrase "Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ."  You can underline that, put a little asterisk by it.  That is the significant phrase in this whole text because the text is built around that phrase.  What does it mean to be an excellent minister of Jesus Christ?  What are the marks, the qualities, the characteristics of someone who ministers in behalf of Christ with excellence?  This, as I said, is for those who are in the role of a Timothy, teaching and preaching and leading in the church.  And also filters down secondarily to everyone who names the name of Christ and who serves him in any way at all. 

     But let me remind you for a moment, we've looked at seven of eleven principles that I found in this passage that relate to being a good minister of Jesus Christ.  Just by way of review, the first one in verse 6 was that an excellent minister warns his people of error.  He warns his people of error.  "If you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ."  What things?  The things referred to in verses 1 to 5, having to do with false teaching.  So an excellent minister warns his people of error. 

     Secondly, an excellent minister is a student of Scripture.  The end of verse 6, "You are to be nourished up in the words of the faith," that's the Scripture, "and of the good doctrine," that's what the Scripture teaches.  So we are then not only to be warning of error, but we are to be feeding ourselves on the Word of God.  We are to be nourishing ourselves up in the faith and the good doctrine. 

     Thirdly, an excellent minister avoids the influence of unholy teaching.  He stays away from error and those things that only confuse.  It says in verse 7, "Refuse profane and old women's fables."  Stay away from lies and heresies and things that deviate from the truth that only bring questions and do not edify.  An excellent minister avoids the influence of unholy teaching. 

     Then in verse 7 through 9, an excellent minister is disciplined in personal godliness.  "Exercise yourself unto godliness."  Verse 8 says bodily exercise only has a little profit for a little time.  Godliness has profit for the time that now is and promise for the future eternal life.  And this is a faithful or a true saying and worthy of all acceptance.  Everybody would agree with this that that which pertains to eternity is far more significant than that which pertains to time.  Therefore spend your hours in godly pursuit rather than in bodily exercise.  So, an excellent minister warns his people of error, is a student of Scripture, stays away from the influence of unholy teaching and is disciplined in personal godliness. 

     Fifthly, an excellent minister is committed to hard work.  Verse 10, "We both labor and agonize, strive.  We do it because we trust in the living God, the one who is alive, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe."  Because of God's saving work, because it is an eternally impactful work, we work with eternity in view and with eternity in view we work hard.  An excellent minister works hard.  He is committed to hard work because he knows what he does has eternal consequences. 

     Number six, an excellent minister teaches with a practical authority.  Verse 11, "These things command and teach."  Teaching has to do with the passing on of truth.  Commanding has to do with the mode in which you do it.  We pass on divine truth not as if it was that which you could select to do or not to do, but as obligatory and commanded.  So, instruction comes in a command mode.  We are telling you this is the law of God.  So we must have authority, there must be a power in preaching and teaching that brings it to bear on the heart with great sense of obligation. 

     Then number seven, we noted last time, that an excellent minister is to be a model of spiritual virtue.  Because Timothy was young by the standards of spiritual leadership in his time, Paul says don't let anyone look down on you because of your youth, gain their respect by being a tupos, a model, an example, a type of the believer in word‑‑that's speech, conduct‑‑that's life style, love‑‑that has to do with your spirit and your attitude, faith‑‑that has to do with being trustworthy and loyal, and purity‑‑that has to do with being morally clean.  You are to be an example to the believers in every dimension of life. 

     These then are the qualities of an excellent minister of Jesus Christ.  We could sum those first seven up in seven single words.  Let me give them to you.  First of all, when it says an excellent minister warns his people of error, we would say that is the quality of discernment...that is the quality of discernment.  We are to have discernment regarding truth and error.  An excellent minister is a student of Scripture, that is scholarship, or knowledge.  We are to have a knowledge of the Word of God.  Thirdly, avoiding unholy teaching, we could put the word separate.  We are to be separate.  We are to be apart from associations which with those things which would influence us toward unholiness.  And then conversely, the fourth word, pursuing godliness, we are to be holy...holy.  We are to have discernment, knowledge, separation, and holiness. 

     In the matter of hard work, the word diligence.  In the matter of authority, teaching with authority, power.  And in the matter of example, the word is integrity.  So if you want seven words for those seven points: discernment, scholarship, separation, holiness, diligence, power and integrity.  Those are the kind of characteristics that are to mark the man who serves in excellence in the service of Jesus Christ.  They also are to be the kind of thing that mark all of our lives as well. 

     Now let's go on to number eight and nine for this time, and next Lord's day we'll finish up with ten and eleven.  Numbers eight and nine... 

     An excellent minister has a thoroughly biblical ministry.  An excellent minister has a thoroughly biblical ministry.  Notice verse 13, I love this verse, I have been reading this verse.  In fact, if you want to know, I have tried my best to build my own preaching ministry on this verse for all the years that I've been at Grace Community Church.  This has really been behind the scenes, the verse most crucial to my own understanding of my preaching ministry. 

     It says in verse 13, "Till I come, give your attention to the reading, to the exhortation, to the teaching."  Now you must understand what this means.  It is so very important.  The little phrase "till I come" implies that Paul was going to return to Ephesus and meet Timothy there again.  In chapter 3 verse 14, he said that, "These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly.  But if I have to tarry long," and he goes on to say then you need to know what to do. 

     So, here he says, "Until I come," until you receive any further orders, this is what I want you to do.  I want you to give your attention to the reading, the exhortation, the doctrine, or the teaching.  Now this is most important.   

     The verb "give attendance," prosecho is a present active imperative, that means it is a continuing command.  I command you to continually be giving your attention to.  This is to become your way of life.  Guthrie, helping us to understand the indication of this verb, says, "The verb implies all that is bound up in the previous preparation necessary to these things."  It isn't just "till I come read, exhort and teach," it is "until I come, give your whole attention to the reading, the exhortation, and the teaching."  In other words, it isn't just the act itself, but the verb embodies all that is behind it.  It assumes all of the commitment and all of the necessary preparation.  In fact, the same verb is used in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 13 of the priest who goes to the altar and is fully absorbed at the altar, all of his thought and all of his energy is devoted to the work of the altar.  And that's what he is saying here.  Your whole attention, center and circumference of ministry, is to be involved in the reading, the exhortation and the teaching.  That is the embodiment of your ministry. 

     Now what do these words mean?  Let's look at them a little more closely, you'll find them interesting.  First of all, he says give your attention continually to the reading.  There's a definite article there in the Greek, it's not there in the English, it should be there, "to the reading."  Now what does he mean by that?  Well, that's a reference to the reading of Scripture.  But it's more than that.  The definite article isolates this out.  This isn't just reading the Scripture, this is "the reading," quote/unquote.   

     What was "the reading?"  During every service in the early church there was a time for the reading.  And the reading was a reading of Scripture with an attendant exposition.  In other words, it embodied a reading and an explanation of the Scripture.  That was the reading.  It implies when it's used with the verb "give your attention to" that if you're going to give your attention to the reading that means you are going to be very careful in the text you select.  You're going to be very very careful in the correctness of your exposition.  You're going to be very very cautious in all the matters regarding your preparation.  You're going to give your whole attention to the matter of reading and explaining the Scripture. 

     To show you a little bit of an idea of how it worked in the early church, go back with me to the pattern which the church basically drew from, Luke chapter 4 is a good illustration...the pattern of the synagogue.  In the synagogue, the Scripture would be read and then the Scripture would be explained.  And here you have a perfect illustration of that in Luke 4:16.  Jesus had been teaching in the synagogues, and it says in verse 15 that was what He typically did.  He would go in, read the Scripture and then exposit or teach it.  In verse 16 it says He came to Nazareth.  And this was His ordinary custom, according to verse 15, He'd been doing it everywhere.  He customarily would go to the synagogue on the sabbath day and so He did.  And He stood up to read.  He as a visiting rabbi was invited to read the Scripture. 

     So He stood up.  Always they stood up to read.  And that went all the way back to what we read last time about Nehemiah chapter 8, you'll remember, when they found the book of the law after rebuilding the wall of the city of Jerusalem.  The people were excited.  The book was taken out to be read and the whole congregation of the people of Israel stood all day long to hear the reading of the Word of God.  And so typically, they would stand for the reading.  And so Jesus stood up and He read.   

     "And the book was delivered unto Him from the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit," this is Isaiah 61, "of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel of the poor, He has sent Me to deal...to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," and that's a Messianic passage.  So there He stood and He read the Scripture. 

     Every synagogue service had the reading, the time for the reading of God's Word.  Verse 20, note this, "And He closed the book, gave it back to the servant and sat down."  Why did He sit down?  Because the teaching posture in all synagogues was a sitting position.  He stood to read.  He sat down to exposit what He had just read.  This was the typical manner of expressing the truth of God sabbath after sabbath in the synagogue.  He was the guest expositor.  He sat down.  "And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him and He began to say unto them..."  So He began to exposit what He had read from Isaiah.  And the sum of it was, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."   

     Now that's something that not every preacher has the privilege of saying.  We preach a lot about future prophecy, never have I said, "This day is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears."  That was a jolt to these people because what He was saying was I'm the Messiah.  Now He said more than that, that was the sum of it.  You say, "How do you know He said more?"  Well, because in verse 22, they all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. So He must have said more than that.  He gave an exposition of that particular portion of Isaiah 61:1 and 2, and the sum of the exposition was it's Me...it's Me.  Now that's a typical format for the place of "the teaching."   

     Now go with me to the fifteenth chapter of Acts for a moment and let me give you another illustration of this kind of expository model which was used in the synagogue and also in the early church.  In Acts 15, remember the Jerusalem Council was meeting and they were discussing how they could be sure not to offend Jews in their evangelism to Gentiles as they go out into the Gentile world, they want to be cautious not to cause the Jews to stumble and they would be offended by things offered to idols, and fornication, things strangled, and blood and so forth.  Be cautious about that.  Verse 21 then says, "Because Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day."   

     Now what did they do in the synagogue?  They met together. They took out the Old Testament, the book of Moses, they read it and then they preached it.  They proclaimed it.  They exposited it.  They explained it.  As I said, this basically goes all the way back to the eighth chapter of Nehemiah where you have the beginning of a model of expository preaching.  It says in Nehemiah 8:8, "They read in the book of the law of God distinctly and they gave the meaning and caused them to understand...watch this...the reading."  There's that phrase...they caused them to understand the reading, the exposition, the explanation of Scripture. 

     So now we go back to 1 Timothy chapter 4, and when we hear Paul say to Timothy, "Give your attention to the reading," we know what he has in mind is the reading and the exposition of the Word of God.  It is the reading and the exposition. 

     You say, "What do you mean by exposition?"  Simply, explanation, explanation.  Now the New Testament epistles were certainly to be included also in such exposition.  You will remember Acts 2:42, it says when the church was founded on the day of Pentecost, they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' what?  Doctrine.  So there would be an exposition of Old Testament passages, there would perhaps be an exposition of New Testament passages, the teaching of the Apostles.  That, too, was obviously understood to be the Word of God and needed to be exposited. 

     In Colossians 4:16, Paul says, "And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you also read the epistle from Laodicea."  There was a time and a place for the reading of Old Testament, New Testament and even an Apostle's letter of importance to the church.  In reference to Scripture, it would then need to be explained so the people would have the sense of it.  Obviously the further we get culturally, geographically, linguistically, philosophically, historically away from the original text of Scripture, the more necessary it is to recreate the dynamics of language, history, culture that were around the Scripture when it was written so that we can understand it.  And that's the challenge of Bible teaching.  It is to take the Scripture, read it and then to explain it.   

     And that's where the effort comes.  If you're going to give your attention to that, you're going to give a great portion of your life to reconstructing language, philosophy, theology, geography, culture, context, all of that in order to make the Word of God understandable.  Paul says to Timothy, "Give your attention to that."  And so I say again, our point is an excellent minister has a ministry that is thoroughly biblical.  I really believe that that is the center and circumference of what we are all about. 

     Secondly, notice what he says.  If the exposition or the reading is to tell what Scripture means by what it says, then what is the exhortation?  That is to call people to apply it.  So he says, first dimension, explain it, second dimension, apply it...apply it.  The third one, by the way, exhortation simply means that, it means to warn people to obey with a view toward judgment if they don't...that kind of idea.   And come alongside, encourage those people to respond properly and tell them about the blessing if they do and the consequence if they don't.  So you explain the Bible and then you press it home with an application to their hearts and bind their consciences to respond...exhortation.  Sometimes exhortation is counsel, sometimes it's comfort, but it always is a binding of the conscience.   

     When I teach/preach in class, which I'm doing now at the seminary, one of the things that I stress so much with the students and will always stress is that you always preach with a view to a decision or a verdict.  You don't want anybody walking out saying, "I don't understand what he was saying."  See, anybody can be hard to understand, it's very easy to be difficult to understand.  You just don't know what you're talking about and no one will understand.  If you have no idea what you're saying or where you're going, they're not going to know either.  It's very easy, just do nothing but show up and nobody will have any idea.  It's very difficult to be easy to understand because in order to be easy to understand you have to have mastered your subject.  And so you've mastered it enough to digest it and put it back out in manageable proportions so people can understand it.   

     But it is even....it is not even enough to be understood.  I am not content that you should walk out and say, "I understood that."  I don't want you to leave and say, "I didn't understand that."  I don't want you to leave and say, "I did understand that."  I want you to leave and say, "I am going to make sure my life changes to conform to that," you understand?  You're always trying to pin people to the wall where they say, "I will do that," or "I won't do that," but they know which one they said.  So if I try to put you on the hook, you think I'm trying to get you on the hook, you think I'm trying to put you on the griddle, you've got it right.  That's exhortation. 

     Then he says, thirdly, and here he broadens a little bit his concept, "Give yourself continually to the reading and to the encouragement of people committing themselves to what the reading demands, and also to the teaching."  And here he really wraps his arms around a big word, didaskalia, which basically means "teaching."  The idea of it here is give yourself to the whole process of systematically teaching the Word of God.  Not just in an expository sermon but in every dimension of ministry.  This could embody the idea of theology, developing a system of theology.   

     It embodies the idea of systematically teaching individual people, one on one, small groups.  It's really a mandate for what the church is all about.  And as I said, this is where I've lived and breathed and had my being, if you will, for many years, that the church is very simply defined in terms of its ministry.  I am to read and explain and apply the Word of God and to give my whole life to the whole process of the teaching of God's Word so that at every level of the church, in every dimension of the church's life, at every point of the church's contact we are ever and always ministering the Word of God.  That's it...that's it.  We are to disseminate sound teaching to all people at all times through all means...through all means.  And that's the ministry.  The church gets diverted from that into all kinds of other things, but this is the heart and soul of the ministry where the church must concentrate itself. 

     By the way, the term "teaching," or "doctrine," appears 15 times in the pastoral epistles.  And that ought to give us some idea of its importance to the life of the church...15 times.  No wonder the pastor above all things, chapter 3 verse 2, must be apt to teach.  How could you ever hope to lead the church if you're not a skilled teacher when the whole of the church's ministry revolves around the teaching of the Word of God, the preaching of the Word of God?  Scripture read, Scripture explained, Scripture applied, and Scripture taken out to the grass roots level in the teaching process at every level...turned into doctrine that people can live by. 

     You know, from its earliest years, the church has been committed to this.  It's only, I guess, in more modern times that the church tends to drift further and further away into all kinds of other extraneous things.  And the Word of God begins to get lower and lower on the priority list.  Justin Martyr, taking you all the way back to the middle of the second century, a hundred years after the church was born, Justin Martyr has written for us a typical early worship service a hundred years after the church was born, and this is what he says, "On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place.  And the writings of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits.  Then when the reader has ceased, the presider verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things."  That was it.  They all got together and somebody read either the Apostles' New Testament or the writings of the prophets, Old Testament, and they were read as long as time permitted.  And when the reader was done, a man came up verbally explained what they meant and exhorted everybody to do what they said.  That was it.  It was the exposition of the Word of God. 

     Then Justin Martyr wrote, this is recorded in Volume 1 of the Antinicene(?) Fathers, "Then we all rise together and pray.  And when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought and the presider in like manner offers prayers and thanksgiving according to his ability and the people assent saying, Amen."  They had a sort of an "amen" service afterwards.  But the center of everything was the exposition of God's Word. 

     You move a little further ahead in church history to John Chrysostom, called The Golden Mouth Order, recognized by most people to be the finest orator and preacher of ancient times, he preached for 12 years at the cathedral in Antioch, and then in 398 A.D. became bishop of Constantinople for which he is well known, presiding over the church there.  His biographer writes about him that he is a model to this day for preachers.  And here's why.   Four characteristics of his preaching must be mentioned.  First,...this is 398 A.D...."He was biblical.  Not only did he preach systematically through books, but his sermons are full of biblical quotations and allusions.  Secondly, his interpretation of the Scripture was always simple and direct.  He followed the Antiochine(?) school of literal exegesis in contrast to the fanciful Alexandrian allegorizations.  Thirdly, his moral applications were down to earth.  In fact, reading his sermons today, one can imagine without difficulty the pomp of the imperial court, the luxuries of the aristocracy, the wild races of the hippodrome.  In fact, the whole life of an oriental city at the end of the fourth century.  And, fourthly, he was fearless in his condemnations.  In fact, he was a martyr of the pulpit.  It was his faithful preaching that brought him to exile." 

     Going all the way back to 398 and looking at the kind of preaching they did, it was biblical, it was simple and direct explanation of Scripture with no mystical fantasy allegorical approach.  It was down to earth and had moral application and it was without compromise and fearless.  And that's the model that should still be maintained.  That's the way it was, that's the way it ought to be. 

     You come up to The Reformation, for example, and you find that when you get into The Reformation, the great preachers of The Reformation, the great ministers of The Reformation were all deeply into the exposition of the Word of God.  Luther exposited the Word of God through all of his ministry.  He spoke often four times on Sunday.  Every quarter of the year he would take a two‑ week series and go through the week teaching doctrine with the use of a catechism.  The sum of his existing sermons which are so rich in biblical information is presently, I think, about 2,300.  We have extant about 2,300 of Luther's biblical expositions.

      John Calvin who preached in Geneva, Switzerland, preached twice every Sunday.  And then every other week he would preach every night of the week.  He dealt with the Old Testament through the week.  He dealt with the New Testament and Psalms on the Lord's day.  And a paid stenographer took down his sermons as he preached them through all those years.  And they became his writings.  But until the death of John Calvin, he did expositions on Genesis, Deuteronomy, Judges, Job, Psalms, all the prophets major and minor, and in the New Testament, Harmony of the Gospels, Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.  He spent the life of his ministry expositing the Word of God.

      Joseph Parker pastored the City Temple in London for 33 years and is remembered as a great great man of God starting in about 1869 or so.  He preached every Lord's day to about 3,000 people.  He preached two times on Sunday and he preached once at midday.  And he preached there for 33 years and in those 33 years, he went through the entire Bible, expositing Scripture seven times.  Now he was a lot faster than me.  But he took a little different approach.  And the product of those 33 years is a set of books called The People's Bible which is Joseph Parker's expositions of Scripture, it numbers 25 volumes...a lasting contribution. 

     Alexander MacClaren(?) from 1858 to 1903, he was ministering effectively in the height of his ministry at the Baptist Union Chapel in Manchester, England, preached through the whole Bible.  As a result, he left expositions of holy Scripture numbering 32 volumes...32 volumes of expositions. 

     Some of the expositors of ancient times were...of old times, I shouldn't say ancient...of older times were very deep.  I read this week about one German expositor who after lecturing on the book of Isaiah for more than 20 years had finally reached the middle of the second chapter.  So you have no reason to complain. 

     Dr. Martyn Lloyd‑Jones was in Romans for 12 years and didn't finish chapter 14.  And he was in Ephesians for four volumes and Sermon on the Mount for years and years and years. 

     Now these are the greats of the past.  I mean, these are the men who leave a mark on history.  And Bible students through all the years go back to all their material because they did what I believe is the highest duty of every minister of God and that is to exposit the Word of God.  This means a life of study. 

     John Huxtable(?) wrote, "A man does not qualify to be a preacher of the Word by making weekly sallies into the good book to discover some peg on which to hang some scattered observations about men and affairs," end quote.  If I may borrow from his words, a man does qualify to be a preacher of the Word by comprehensive objective exegesis and exposition of Scripture. 

     Joseph Parker who rose early every morning of his life to study the Word of God was asked one time why he wasn't more available to people.  And he said, "If I talked all week I couldn't preach on Sunday.  That's all.  If I had attended committee meetings, immersed myself in politics, my strength would have been consumed.  That's all.  Mystery?  There is none," end quote.  There is no mystery.  Our sphere of labor is identified to be within the confines of the revealed Word of God. 

     Look at chapter 5 verse 17.  "Let the pastors, elders, overseers, those in spiritual leadership, that rule well be counted worthy of double honor."  We're going to get into that, that means double pay, in a sense, worthy men should receive, those elders who rule well, "especially the ones who work hard in the Word and the teaching."  The harder a man works in the Word and teaching, the more honorable he is.  That's what it says. 

     Preaching and teaching God's Word is the calling of life.  It's a sad thing to think that many men in the ministry have diverted themselves into other nice things, but not needful things. 

     Let me just give you a little thought.  We need to be, in a sense, relentless teachers.  You just can't let up.  I learned that from John Flavil(?), much of whom I have read.  He also was a Puritan.  He said this, "It is not so with us as with other laborers," speaking of ministers.  "It's not so with us ministers as with other laborers, they find their work as they leave it."  In other words, if you're making a cabinet, at five o'clock you go home, you come back the next day, the cabinet's where you left it.  That's the way it is with other laborers, they find their work as they leave it.  Not so with us, he said.