MCC Podcasts
Working It Out - The Mystery of Godliness is Great: It's all about Jesus
I'd love to read this passage this morning. We're in the last three verses of chapter three. So here's the word of the Lord before we kind of introduce the topic and the rest of the sermon this morning. 1 Timothy 3, 14 through 16 starts this way. Although I hope to come to you soon and online I should have said this, sorry, pause. Remember, Paul's the author of this book. He's writing to his mentee, Timothy, who's a young pastor of the church in Ephesus. Paul also wrote a book to the church in Ephesus called, seriously, like four of you are like, I don't know, that's a really hard one. Listen for a clue in the question, okay? Paul wrote a book directly to the church at Ephesus. It's the book we know as, Ephesians. See how that works? That is awesome. And so he's writing to Timothy and this passage right now is actually sort of the apex of his whole book. It's actually exactly halfway in the middle. It's six chapters, this is the end of three chapters. It's sort of the point, the apex of the book and he comes and sort of reminds them of some things. So this is Paul speaking back to the text. "Although I hope to come to you soon, "I'm writing you these instructions "so that if I am delayed, "you will know how people ought to conduct themselves "in God's household." Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great. He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So at the apex of the book, when we've been studying this book, this section of scripture, where Paul has said, this is a teaching so that you know how to work it out as the church. This is why we've called it this as our sermon series. We want you to work it out. We want you to figure out how to be God's people. We want you to figure out how to be God's church. We want you to figure out how to work out living for Christ. This is what it's all about. And even in this sub chapter called character that we've been doing, and the last several sermons, four or five sermons on this idea of character, qualities that leaders should have, that we all should have, where our lives reflect what we believe and so forth and so on. At the apex of all of this conversation, Paul says, listen, I don't want you to forget. Yes, I want you to work it out, but you cannot miss this last verse of the first half ready to launch into the next half. You cannot miss this. The true spring of godliness, what real godliness comes from is Jesus. He caps the middle of this book with Jesus. Jesus is the answer. What is the question? It doesn't matter. Jesus is the answer. Do you know the funny story about that? It's kind of a famous story really, about a pastor who did an object lesson. He got all the kids up front and he said, "Now listen, I'm gonna do this." He said, "I'm gonna describe something and as soon as you understand what it is, I'm describing it, I want you to raise your hand." Have you heard the story? It's super famous. So he says to the kids, okay, now this thing I'm thinking about lives in trees. Everybody's real quiet, it's church. Kids are all being in their church, they're all church. This thing stores nuts in the winter. Kids are all silent. It's got a furry tail. Kids are all silent. Jumps from tree to tree. Sometimes it's gray. Kids are all silent. Finally, this one kid raises his hand, pastors like, "Oh, thank the Lord." Yeah, like, you know, Johnny, what? And he goes, "Well, I know the answer must be Jesus, but it sure sounds like you're talking about a squirrel." (congregation laughing) But he kind of couldn't get there 'cause he was in church, right? And this story is famous because the church, the story is famous because the church has been infamous for somehow sometimes being so heavenly-minded that it's not any earthly good, right? That's sort of the idea of the story. But friends, this morning the opposite is true and Paul wants to remind us, you spend all this time trying to figure out how to work it out, how to live it out, how to be the church, how to be the best you, how to live for God, we become so earthly-minded that we become no heavenly good, that we forget that Jesus is the answer to every question. Gee, how are we gonna reconfigure our children's ministry and build a student ministry center and build a fellowship room and cover the patio and enlarge this space to fit our poor folks up to sit on the side? How are we gonna do all that? It's gonna cost millions of dollars. We ask these questions, guess what the answer is? He's the answer to every question. You can ask, there's always only one degree of separation for me when we start asking questions. Jesus is always the answer. And Paul says, we've been talking about how to work it out, how to live as Christians, how to be the church, and at the end he goes, you cannot forget it's about Jesus. Jesus is the answer to this thing. And when you go back to that scriptures and you start looking at it, look at verse 14 and 15, this is his summary of it all. He says, look it, you gotta remember that I'm writing to you so you know how to conduct yourselves, that's right. If I'm delayed, people will know how they ought to conduct themselves into God's household. This is the truth. And he's saying, look at, we've been saying you gotta walk it out. We've been saying you gotta live this out. We've been saying you gotta work it out. We've been saying you better figure out how to live for God. For sure, that's all earthly good. Like you gotta figure it out. Do the work, persevere, man up, cowboy up, whatever. You gotta live for God. He's like, this is what it's all about. So work hard and persevere and think it through and don't forget what we believe and all those kinds of things. For sure, that's what we've been talking about. But then he adds this in verse 16, he says, but overall, this story is about Jesus. And he says, true godliness is about Jesus. He's the answer. So you cannot forget what Jesus did and who Jesus is. And that's why he ends the chapter with this kind of cryptic little thing. I want you to look at this. He says, I can't afford to have you or the church or the Ephesians or the people they're gonna come after you. I can't afford to have you forget and think that working it out is all the answer because Jesus is the answer and he proclaims Jesus. This phrase beyond all question literally means by common confession, meaning it's what we all believe. Meaning it was probably a creed. It was probably something they recited. They stood in worship and they spoke or they sang these words where they said, basically it's all about him. He came, he appeared in a body. He was vindicated by the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit, he did miracles and proved that he was the Son of God. He was seen by angels, meaning God was attentive to what Jesus came to do and to say and to be. He was preached among the nations because the world recognized he was the hope of the world and it was the whole reason for creation. He was believed in the world. There was fruit people came and said, yes, and their lives are turned upside down. Somebody at a party yesterday in our neighborhood who isn't really a churchgoer so much said, well, actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure who said it so I don't want to judge who said that. Anyway, it was somebody at a party said this to me, it just blows my mind at how one man and then his followers turned the world upside down. I'm like, yeah, you know what? Because he was believed on in the world and it had fruit for that. And then he was taken up in glory, meaning what God sent Jesus to do was accomplished in a glorified God and Jesus' work was finished. Salvation happened. So here's the point of this whole thing. He says, by common confession, we all agree, we all know. It's the truth that we rehearse. You cannot forget it that true godliness comes from Jesus. In the middle of the book, we can't forget it. They can't forget it. Paul doesn't want us to forget it. You look at those words, the mystery from which true godliness springs is the work of Christ and what he's done. So this morning as we come to the table, we are gonna have to remember this sum. God had a plan. God wanted to save us. God sent Jesus to do that. Jesus died on the cross for that. Jesus proclaimed victory over death. Jesus bridged the gap between us and him. Jesus sent his spirit then to live inside of us so that we could live for him. Jesus is now directing his church, directing our lives for the glory of God. And Jesus in the end will come and make this world, what it was supposed to be, and we will be heaven again. This is the whole, you cannot afford. This is, he's saying, sum it up. Listen, God had a plan. It's all done. You can't forget that. It's all about Jesus. That's what Paul's just reminded us of. We take that reminder to the table this morning because we have been in this book studying diligently how you work it out, how you build your character, how you run from sin, how you root out the evil in your life, how you respond to God, how we as a church, how you and we, and we've been doing this for days. And Paul goes, "Hey, at the end, at the end, don't forget." It's a squirrel. I mean, it's Jesus. He's gonna be the answer to every one of these questions when we try to figure out how to live it out. So let's get into a couple of these truths that I just wanted to remind us as we move to the table this morning. Here's some truths that we cannot forget and one of them's for you, I believe that. I believe one or more of them that God's got you in this place for this to be reminded of one of these truths. Number one, it's all about Jesus. Yeah, it's all about Jesus' work is number one. It's all about Jesus' work. We forget and we think while we're working, it's about our work, but it's all about Jesus' work because remember the work of salvation has already been accomplished. While we were a gleam in God's eye, Jesus had already provided all of the salvation and all of the forgiveness that was needed. All the work was done so that when Jesus died on the cross, one of the last words out of his mouth was it is finished. We think it's about our work. We think we're doing this character thing and this obedience thing because it's something that we can accomplish. Friends, it's already been accomplished, it is finished. And some of us are burdened and self-condemning and guilty because we're living these lives of character and we're not quite measuring up, but whatever. But basically we're feeling guilty about it because we think we're trying to appease God. We're trying to redeem ourselves. We're trying to hold off God's anger. Well, how did we miss? But the answer is Jesus. He's already done the work. The work is finished, friends. The work is so finished that we live these lives of character and lives of obedience and lives of morality. That's not, we've said this so many times in the series. It's not about morality. We live these lives of character and obedience not to redeem ourselves, but to worship and serve our redeemer. That's what we do. It's lives of gratitude and of love. That's the calling because you don't forget. Jesus' work's already been done. So as we call you to be the church, we call you to work it out. We call you the lives of holiness and purity. It's because you get to love and worship the redeemer, not because you're redeeming yourselves. With me on that, we need to remember that truth as we come to the table. The work is finished. It's all about Jesus' work. Secondly, it's about Jesus' calling. Again, we forget, we think it's about us. We think it's, but we gotta remember that Jesus has already called us. Jesus has gotten a hold of our lives. Jesus has gotten a hold of our hearts. Every one of us in this room is in some place in that journey of Jesus getting a hold of us. And those of us that have become Christians by faith have said yes to Jesus and his work on the cross. Every one of us got to that place through some sort of a story. Some of us, it was overnight. Some of us, it was through a year-long process. And some of us, it was through a 10-year-long process. But at the end, we woke up one day and we said, he has captured me and I am his. I believe in my Savior and my life will now be his. There's some, there's that that happens for us. Sometimes we wake up and we go, we're there, that happened. But every one of us has that story. Friends, that's about his calling on us. He has gone and captured us. He has gone and taken our lives and said, now you are mine and your life is mine. And so my life is yours. It's about God's calling on us. And now I have a life for you to live that is my calling. This is where we can't get confused because we think, nice, I got forgiveness of sin. I got some warm Jesus fuzzies. I got a nice church community to be a part of. I read the words, sometimes I understand it. I got a good thing going. But friends, it's so much more than that. That's our work. This is about true godliness. The mystery of true, the secret of true godliness is about saying, Jesus is calling on me. He will take me through in my life what it is I need to go through to glorify him, to grow, to reach the world for Christ, to serve him. It's about his calling. My life is not my own anymore. We forget, we call you to obedience. We call you to holiness. We say, what are you doing? What are you doing for a living? How are you loving people? How are you serving people? How are you being a dad? How are you being a wife? How are you, we do all this stuff. We get all like this, we forget. Paul goes, don't forget, secret of true godliness. It's all about Jesus. He's already done the work and it's about his calling, not your calling. Some of us pick the character and the way we're gonna be for Jesus sort of like a buffet, like a smorgasbord. We go, you know what? I wanna be this guy, 'cause that comes easy to me. I like that. I wanna be the guy who's known as a lover. I might be a compassionate guy or I'm gonna be, I love that. And then over there, that stuff, I don't like that stuff. I don't know what that stuff's about. I can't be that guy, I don't wanna be that guy. Well, you know what? That's us sort of picking and choosing what kinds of lives of obedience, what kind of characteristics, what kind of morality, what kind of character we'll build in our own lives. Friends, we don't have that prerogative. God will bring you through what it is He needs to bring you through. And if we, if I, I'll speak for myself, stop whining long enough in some of my trials. I'll recognize that's exactly what He's doing, is that I wanna be this guy, 'cause I like being that guy and God goes, yeah, but more than that, I want you to be this guy too. And that's my calling on your life. We're gonna do this work so that you have these characteristics. So you're prepared to glorify me and serve me in this way. And friends, we get nothing short of coming to the table and saying, okay, you're the Lord. And my whole life will be submitted to your calling, which means your lordship. Jesus Christ is Lord. Anything short of that friends, and we are not living into the abundant life that God has called us to. We end up with this little accessory called Christianity that we sort of strap on if it fits the mood or the day or the outfit. And He goes, no, my work's been done. And now my call is on your life. And it is a challenging reality then that we go, okay, so every investment, every thought, every hour, every job, every dollar, every relationship, every conversation, Jesus Christ is Lord of my life. Come on now, does that not scare you? Half of you ought to not be here next week then. We all ought to be like, yeah, I'm excited like that. And that's, but that's it, because He has life and glory in living that way. But we forget because we go, I'm gonna be like this, I'm gonna be like that and I'm gonna do a few good things. And that's my character and my character's pretty good compared to most people. I mean, look at Brad, my character's awesome compared to Brad. So I feel okay about myself, friends, it's way beyond that it's about His calling on our lives. It's all about Jesus, about His work, about His calling, third, it's about His power. It's all about Jesus' power. This is a reminder we have to have when we've been talking about working it out, we've been talking about character, we've been talking about obedience. It's all about power. We can't even be on the journey of working it out on our own power. I mean, we can, but we can't do really anything of significance on our own power. Now, that doesn't mean that we stop doing the whole, hey man, we're card, figure it out, make good choices, do some junk and we do that and we talk to each other like that, that's why we do say cowboy up, that's why we do say, look it. Are you in or you're not in? Gary, what are you doing? Think it through, man. You know what you ought to do, step into it. We talk to each other like that, if you come to my office, I talk to you like that, so let that be a warning. But we talk like that, but friends, we talk like that because then we say, but it's by the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ has given us that we can talk like that. We cannot accomplish this stuff on our own, it's by the Holy Spirit that we actually work it out, that we have strength to do something. The good news is, you ready? The good news is in working it out and living for Christ individually and corporately as the church, the good news is that you get to go way beyond your abilities. That's the good news, that's the glorious news about it. I've always talked and I've always thought about it, I don't want a Jeff size life. I don't want Jeff size fruit, I don't want a Jeff size church, I don't want a Jeff size character. I want a glorious life where Jesus power works through me so that we don't see small change and little fruit, but we see transformation and glorious fruit. That's what we're talking about. And if that image, if that ideal is lost on us, then we've probably kept our heads too low in this journey, we've been trying to work it out and we can't see, you think to yourself, "I'll never be like this, so I'll just be like that." And we give up the, "I'll never be like this." But friends, the reality of it is life is hard and marriage is hard and walking with God is hard and staying pure is hard and raising children is hard and working in your environment is hard and managing your money is hard, it's all hard. And if we were left to our own abilities, we would see this much fruit. But God meets us in that and as we work it out, how are we gonna be the church, it's all about Jesus power. And we can't give up the ideal of that. You know what, if you've been in my office lately, you've probably heard me challenge you. This is, and I heard these words in art, gave me some of these words too that I heard him saying, I'm like, "Yes, that's what I've been experiencing." You come in my office and we talk about marriage, you come in my office, we talk about you and raising teenagers or whatever. You know what, I'm realizing I'm not an expert in any of that stuff. I'm not an expert in that stuff. I don't know how to be an expert in marriage. I don't, but here's what I'm an expert in. I'm an expert in recognizing I don't know what the heck to do and that you and I are not strong enough to do it. That's what I'm becoming an expert in, the older I get when I go, "Man, I'm 50." I got junk to say, you ready? I got stuff to say. Can you tell I got stuff to say? I got stuff to say and here's what I got to say to you. I don't know what you're going to do, but God has the power to meet you in it. And so if you've come in my office, I'm going to tell you a couple of things. Ready? And I'm going to maybe save you an appointment. Ready? Here we go. I'm going to sell you this. Number one, crud. I don't have any idea what to tell you. That's the first thing I'm going to tell you. I'm going to go, I don't know. That's hard. That is hard and I don't know. That's going to be the first thing I'm going to tell you. So imagine whatever it is you want to talk to me about and just tell yourself this, crud. That's hard, I don't know, all right? And the second thing I'm going to tell you is you probably got to get on your knees every day for like 100 days and beg God to show up for you. Have you heard me say this to you? You get on your knees and you beg God. And when you're like, well, he hasn't been coming through and I haven't been talking to him or I'm in it out or I was talking to God and then, you know, and then I realized he probably should also be loving my wife and I didn't really want to do that because I'm ticked at her. Well, you know what? Get back on your knees. I'm saving you all the time, I don't know. Get on your knees and beg God because we cannot see the transformation we long for without the power of the spirit of Christ intervening in our worldly life, period. We can't sit here and talk about how to be the church. We cannot figure out how to be men of God. We cannot figure out how to be women of God. We cannot figure out how to be parents. We cannot figure out how to reach this county for Jesus without the power of the risen Christ. We cannot forget it. This is why we come here. It's about his calling, his work, his calling. It's about his power. And fourth, it's about his glory. It's about his glory. We forget and we think that in these steps we're making, we go, it's awesome. I'm actually doing okay. Seen some changes in my life. Seen some victory in my walk of God, you know? Haven't blown up my family in two and a half days. I'm awesome. And we, but friends, that's about us. That's about look how good I'm doing or look how good I'm not doing or look how good I'm doing compared to somebody or this is what we sort of start to do. The reminder in our text today, the reminder in this apex of the story of go work it out is it's all about Jesus and it's about his work calling power but it's about his glory. It's for his glory that we live and that we serve. It's not for us. Even in the story of our salvation, when you read Ephesians chapter one, Paul says it a couple times there. He says it in several places. When he talks about our salvation, he says, listen, you were saved for the praise of his glory. Did you know that your salvation isn't even for you? It's that big, the glory of God. That's who God is. God is and God is without us and God is without saving us and God is without the church. It's about God and our salvation is for the glory of God. Our church is for the glory of God. Our obedience is for the glory of God. It is even about us. You get the benefit, you get saved, you get glory. It's awesome but it's for the glory of God friends. That's what the scriptures say. And so when the heavenly beings cry out, they worship Jesus because he is the one who glorified God by saving the lost creation. It's always glory to God. And when I finally man up and get obedient and work it out and live for the Lord, heaven's not like, yeah, Jeff. Heaven is like you, God are worthy of praise because Jesus Christ has rescued the broken humanity and restored them to you, God, the way that it should be. And now the creation grounds an eager expectation for all of creation to be redeemed. That's how it ought to be. That's where it will be. That's who we worship. That's what it's about, glory to God. It's not about us. This is what's going on in heaven. Some of you are like, what? I thought they were celebrating me, no. They don't even know your name, the angels. They know one name in heaven. And it's Jesus, he knows your name. But he knows your name because it was his job. In fact, he said, I just came to do the Father's will and it's now accomplished. His job was to redeem you to the Father for the glory of God. Because all is is as it should be. You and the Father in fellowship. It's all about him. It's about Jesus' glory and we live to glorify him. That's what we do. It's all we do. We can't forget. We can't forget the answer is it's all about Jesus. When we start talking about working it out and how to be a church and how to live obediently, it's all about Jesus. It's about his work, it's about his calling, it's about his power, it's about his glory. We cannot forget. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this because the Ephesian church was going to forget and they did. 30 years later, Jesus showed up in a vision to John in the Island of Patmos and Jesus spoke a message to this Ephesian church 30 years later. We see it in Revelation chapter two. And look what he says, look at this text. To the church of Ephesus, right? Okay, this is God talking, you can go look at that, the Clueser in chapter one. But look at verse two, I know your deeds, Jesus says to them. You've worked it out, your hard work, your perseverance. I know you can't tolerate wickedness and evil. You've tested people if they're teaching good theology and you've figured out what's right and found what's wrong. Verse three, you've persevered, you've endured hardships, you've not grown weary. God is speaking through John 30 years later, going, you have worked it out. You have worked so hard. Then the next verse. But this, I have to hold against you. You've forsaken your first love. You've worked so hard, but you've forsaken the love that you had at first. Consider how far you've fallen. Listen to all the praise that he'd be heaped on them. You've worked it out, you've persevered, you've grown weary, you've labored, you've been striving. Listen, you tested it, you kept the theology pure, you grew the church, you did all those good things, but he goes, but listen, you cannot forget that it's about Jesus. And you've forsaken your first love. Go back, that's what repent means, go back. It sounds harsher in the English than it is in real. Go back, go back and do the things that you did at first. What do you mean at first? The way it was when you had a young love, remember your first love? Go back and do the things you did at first when you were so in love that you would go anywhere, you would walk on calls for the one you were in love with, that you would die to yourself willingly and be selfless for the lifting and the glory of the other. You go back and do the things you did at first when you just loved Jesus for his work and his calling and his glory. Go back and do that because all of your hard work has made you forget that it's about Christ, his love for us and our returning to our love to him by giving him our lives, the Ephesian church for God. And my friends, in 30 years, in 30 years, or when we see Christ face to face, we will be held accountable. And we will not be held accountable just for good theology. We will not be accountable just for persevering. We will not be accountable for all of our hard work and working it out. We will be accountable also for our first love for Christ, that the answer is Jesus, all glory to him. My life is his at the end of my story. That's what this text is about. We're halfway through figuring out how to live for Christ. And he says, do not forget that Jesus is the answer. And so we come to our table. We gather every week to remember that Jesus is the answer. We gather in small groups to remember that Jesus is the answer. We sing these songs because they proclaim Jesus is the answer. We send our kids to children's ministry and youth group because we want them desperately to know that Jesus is the answer. And we come to the table once a month to remind ourselves of what Christ did.