St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church

Sermon by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Pentecost 17 September 23, 2007

1 Timothy 1:15-17


Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 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. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.


People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

The worst—the absolute worst! How do you pick an example of the worst of the worst? I thought of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Surely these would be among the worst of the worst—not? There is a man named James—wanted for racketeering. Do you even know what racketeering is? Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations—that’s RICO—that’s the law they often use to get people who are part of organized crime! It’s a racket—when you sell protection. Pay me hundreds of dollars and I would burn down your business! He’s charged with murder—18 counts—conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit extortion Narcotics distribution, and money laundering. This man is a serial murderer. On the other hand—James likes to read—he’s interested in history. He is known to go to the library and to visit historic sites. If you want to feel sorry for him—he’s got heart problems and takes heart medication—and tries to be heart healthy with walking on beaches and in parks with his girlfriend. He and she love animals and may frequent animal shelters! How nice is that? On the other hand he has a violent tempter—and is known to carry a knife at all times! The FBI says he is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. They want him off the street so badly they are offering a $1 million dollar reward for information leading directly to his arrest! Now that is not a very nice person. But the worst? If you stop and think about it—it would be sinful and wrong—for us to think for one moment—that James is a bad person—certainly far worse than I am. God’s Word reminds us this morning:

Jesus Came To Save Sinners!

1. Jesus is patient with the worst—that would be me!

2. To Jesus belongs honor forever!

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on—is part of the Apostle Paul’s first letter to his younger co-worker Timothy. It is always a good idea to understand the context—the historical background to this part of God’s Word. God’s Word doesn’t tell us exactly the circumstances surrounding Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Most likely Paul had recently been released from being under house arrest in Rome. Paul most likely wrote from Macedonia—very possibly from the city of Philippi—to Timothy—preaching law and gospel in Ephesus. It was likely the fall—the autumn of the year 63. Paul encouraged Timothy to be faithful and to find strength in the fundamentals of law and gospel. Paul reminded him, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” 1 Timothy 2:5,6 And again, Jesus “appeared in a body, was vindicated by the (Holy) Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16 The people that Timothy preached to were in danger from false doctrine. They were in danger from a false teaching called Gnosticism. Gnosticism taught that your body—is made of matter—and therefore is evil—in contrast to God and angels which are spirits—and therefore good. To believe that—is a real problem—simply and obviously on Judgment Day—when Jesus does what? Raises up your body from the grave—and reunites body and soul in heaven! Gnostics taught that salvation is not by grace through faith—but through a special knowledge that only a few achieve. This idea that a body is a bad thing—meant a wrong understanding of Jesus—the Son of God—made flesh! So Gnostics taught Jesus only seemed to have a body—seemed to be true man. Or else they said—the divine joined the man Jesus—when he was baptized—and left some time before Jesus died. You know John’s first Epistle? How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God—and that is what we are! First John has much to saw about how Jesus is true God through and through and also true Man—through and through at the same time! You should read First John, too! Gnosticism—this special knowing that the flesh is bad—led to asceticism. Do you know what that is—asceticism? It’s being really harsh with your body! Like you are very thirsty—but you don’t drink anything! You are very hungry—but you don’t eat anything! Or if you do drink—it’s just water! If you do eat—it’s just bread—dry bread is better—stale bread is even better. If you sleep on a pile of straw—in the cold—with no blanket—so you shiver—that’s better, too! In fact people used to whip themselves—beat themselves with chains—thinking that being so harsh to their bodies—purified their souls and made them deserving of God’s love! Before he understood law and gospel—Martin Luther was very hard on his physical body—sometimes to the point of unconscious! It was later that he understood—you don’t earn or merit forgiveness from Jesus by doing physical hurt and harm to your body. Some people fell into asceticism. Others were misled into indulging their sinful flesh—telling themselves—it didn’t really matter—because the evil they did—was just a physical thing. What mattered was their spirit—which was somehow above the things they did with their flawed physical self.

It was in this situation—that Paul wrote to his young co-worker Timothy. Paul wrote, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—“ Jesus said this himself. Jesus said “I have not come to call the righteous—but sinners to repentance…” Matthew 9:13 Remember how Jesus said it’s not healthy people who need a physician—but people who know that they are sick! The sickness of sin is through and through every part of us! Did you watch some football this weekend? It happened again and again. One of our guys is just standing there—kind of watching the guy with the ball—pretty far away down the field. Then—from the blind side—a guy flies through the air—spearing our guy—knocking him literally off his feet. Our guy catches himself—his hands scraping through the grass. Where was the referee? He didn’t see it! So what do you do—when you are hammered like that? Instinctively—that’s the word used again and again—instinctively—you scramble to your feet and try to do physical harm to the guy that got you with such a cheap shot? Is that what you do? That’s what you usually see—from people paid literally thousands and thousands of dollars to be professional players of children’s games. Sometimes—sometimes—what you see is people who get knocked down—jumping up and pointing—again and again—pointing, pointing—jumping up and down and pointing--like he hurt me—he hit me—he knocked me down! What would happen if just once—just once—someone would be the victim of a cheap shot—someone would be knocked down—and quite literally would turn the other cheek? What would happen if someone took a shot—and was so strong—through Jesus’ strength—that they didn’t hit back? What would happen—if someone said something bad to us—in terrible anger and we didn’t yell back? What would happen if people at school on the playground pushed us—shoved us—maybe even knocked us down and we simply got up? What would happen if Palestinians and Israelis or Muslims and Americans—someone suffered a hurt—and didn’t hurt back? Peace would break out! Only Jesus can make us so strong—that instead of instinctively striking back—we suffer a hurt—without hitting back!

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. This was not some kind of false humility. The Apostle Paul was painfully aware of his own sinful past. He remembered all the times he had done what was wrong! Paul wrote in the great resurrection chapter—chapter 15 of his first letter to the Corinthians. The risen Lord Jesus appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. The Greek word there—is the word for a kind of miscarriage! For I am the least of all the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” 1 Corinthians 15:8b-11 Jesus came to save sinners—of whom I am the worst! I read the other day—about a lady named Sara—Sarah married into the Winchester family—the makers of Winchester rifles. They say Sarah used to have bad dreams—was haunted in her dreams by imagining all the people who were killed by the rifles that made her family rich. She was so bothered by these dreams that it was quite literally driving her mad. Somehow Sarah got the idea—that she could keep this guilt away—if she would continue to build on to her house. That if she added room after room to her home—that somehow—this would keep her guilty conscience from finding her! For 38 years—Sarah added on to her home. She had 160 rooms, 3 working elevators, 47 fireplaces, inlaid parquet floors, gold and silver chandeliers, Tiffany art glass windows. But none of this could really give her heart peace. She kept carpenters and craftsmen busy for a lifetime. And yet the one she needed to know was the Carpenter from Nazareth—who died on a cross—to wash away sin forever!

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. We give all thanks and praise—honor and glory—to Jesus because he lived and died and lives again—to save us eternally! Did you hear about the little puppy—who got lost the other day? This little puppy named Tough Guy was just 12 days old. His little eyes still shut. This little puppy wandered away from a pet grooming and boarding place in Winfield, MO. This little puppy really wandered—he went some 50 feet—in a drainage pipe. That’s a long way—when your pudgy little legs are so short and your tummy so big. This little puppy was lost and stuck in this pipe—helpless—to save himself! Firefighters and rescue people came with a huge backhoe—and dug out a whole bunch of that pipe. They did what it took—to save that little puppy! Of course! I don’t think anybody said—this is too expensive. We can’t afford this! Who is going to pay these firefighters? They said—save that little puppy! That’s what we do! People—people have wandered away—into sin—and we are in danger of being lost eternally. We need to look out for one another. We need to encourage—not nag but encourage one another to come to church. We need to read our Bible and say our prayers—and watch out for each other—doing what needs to be done—to share Jesus’ forgiving love!

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Honor and glory—that’s love and respect. There is not lots of respect in this world! Imagine going to pick up some medicine--sitting on one of those little chairs trying to practice what you preach—by being patient! Imagine two people—two young women come in—and begin to unleash a stream of profanity and obscenity—as they threaten graphic physical violence if this person or that person if they see them. They were not afraid. They were not afraid to say words so absolutely filthy and obscene it was painful to sit there! There language certainly was disrespecting to me—and disrespecting to the little white haired grandpa who sat down between us. These women were mommies themselves! Do they talk that way in front of their children? There are children in the grocery stores—who disrespect their parents. It is a sinful confusion—when children tell their parents what to do! It is a sinful condition when children shout at their parents—children call their parents names—when children kick or lash out with physical violence against their parent—and stubbornly refuse to obey. It is a breaking of the 4th commandment—when children rebel against their parents and the rules parents have established. When in the name of self-esteem parents do not show children their sins and fail to discipline their children in love—children will most certainly grow up disrespecting their teachers, the police and fire fighters—disrespecting their boss at work—and disrespecting their government leaders—who have those positions of great public trust because God has given them that authority. There will be terrible consequences for our marriages and families—and then for our church and our nation—when we fail to honor our elders and thus refuse to honor and give glory to our Heavenly Father.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. The worst—the absolute worst? The FBI is looking for a guy named Bob. Bob is accused of taking the life of his wife and their two little children—then trying to hide his crime by blowing up the home in which they all lived. If that’s true—that’s pretty terrible. On the other hand—Bob is in really good physical shape—he takes very good care of his body! Bob has worked as a guy who puts tubes in people who are going to have an operation. He helps people who need respiratory therapy. And Bob was a fireman! He risked his life to help people trapped in a burning building. And yet—this almost makes it worse—a fire fighter being guilty of arson! Bob is believed to be in possession of several weapons—including a high-powered rifle. There is a $100,000 reward—which is far less than the reward for capturing James—I told you about a few minutes ago. So maybe James is worse. Or maybe the worst is a guy named Jon—J*O*N—who was found guilty of doing unspeakable things to children. Then in an act of extraordinary love—the family of one of his victims—took him in—forgiving him—trying to help him get a new start. Jon repaid their kindness—by doing unspeakable things to their children—and then running away. Maybe that’s the worst—do you think? Or can we say with genuine heartfelt humility. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. How great is Jesus’ forgiving love for you and for me—that we are all forgiven for all our sins. That we should be children of God—heirs of Heaven—redeemed and rescued for Jesus’ sake. Amen!