We are exploring the question:  What is a healthy church?  What does a healthy church look like?  What does that feel like? 

Together we have looked at the vital signs of love, faith, Godly men, Godly women, Godly leadership.  This morning we are coming to truth and what is at the heart of Paul’s letter to Timothy.

We’re looking at 1 Timothy 3:14-16.

Let’s read together:  1 Timothy 3 - starting at verse 14:  I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.  Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:  He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up on glory.

Paul is in Macedonia.  Timothy is in... Ephesus.  As much as Paul would like to go to Ephesus it may be a while until he gets there.  He wants to go there.  He has deep feelings for the believers there.  These are people there that he’s done a lot of life and ministry with.  But, he’s in Macedonia and it doesn’t look like Ephesus is going to be happening soon.

So, Paul writes this letter to Timothy.  “I may not make it to Ephesus.  But, in the mean time - given everything that’s going on in Ephesus and the church there - it’s essential that you know how you’re to be living - behaving - as the church.  What healthy church looks like.”

Coming to the first section of what Paul writes here - verses 14 and 15 - Paul gives us a description - a reminder - of Who We Are as the church - as God’s people.

Three descriptions:  First description:  We are The Household of God. 

In Hebrews 3 it says that Moses served in the Tabernacle in the wilderness.   (Hebrews 3:1-6) 

Have you ever thought about how impressive that would have been?  Potentially 2 million plus people - 3 times the number of people in the Fresno metro area - potentially 2 million people in a massive spread out camp - arranged by tribe.  Imagine the area that would have covered - the logistics involved - the organization necessary.

In the center of this huge mass of God’s people - in the center is the Tabernacle - an enclosure with its altar for blood sacrifice and the Holy of Holies with its veil and mystique.  An ornate - holy - complex for worship and intercession between God and His people.  A cloud showing the presence of God by day and a fire at night.

As this huge mass of people would look towards the center of their camp there was to be a realization of awe and respect.  God dwells there in that place.  The presence of the Holy Almighty God - Yahweh - Elohim - God is there - in that Tabernacle.  God’s tent.  In a sense - God’s house.

In Hebrews 3 - verse 6 - it says that while Moses served in the Tabernacle - in Jesus, “we are God’s house.” (Hebrews 3:1-6)

We are the household God.  That’s incredible.  Isn’t it?

God dwells with us.  We dwell with God.  Which is not about location.  It’s about relationship.  We are the family of God.  That intimacy is astounding.

Paul - when he wrote his letter to the Ephesian Church - Paul wrote - Ephesians 1:4-6:  Even as He - God - chose us in Him - Jesus - before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.  (Ephesians 1:4-6)

Before the foundation of the world - God chose you.  That’s a mind stretcher isn’t it?  We explored that a bit last weekend at Camp Creekside.

Before anything in this universe was a universe - before creation was created - God chose you to be His - to send Jesus to the cross for you - for you to have a relationship with Him - even - as Paul writes - that we should be holy and blameless before Him - purified of sin and forgiven. 

We’re not second class citizens in God’s creation.  We’re not accidental members of Jesus’ church.  We didn’t just happen to be here this morning.  We have the privilege of being chosen by the sovereign God of creation to be His - to be one in Christ - all of us together - to live out God’s great purposes for each one of us.

Hang on to that.

Then - in Ephesians - Paul writes that God - our Heavenly Father - because He loves us - God has determined that we should be His children.

God adopts us.  Places us into the position of being His sons and daughters.

The Greek and Roman understanding of “adoption” was much more that just a legality - placing a child into a home.  To the people Paul is writing to “adoption” means that you are “made to be” a son or daughter without any distinction from those who are natural born biological sons or daughters.  Our family relationship with God is that close - that intimate.

Hang on to that.

Because God - our Heavenly Father - loves you - He has determined that you should be his child.  Isn’t that incredible?

The church isn’t an organization - or a building - or a religion - its a people - a household - a family.  God is our Father.  We’re siblings in Jesus.  Made to be intimately and integrally related to each other by our Father who dwells with us.

Second - Paul writes that:  We are the Church of the living God. 

Solomon - was chosen by God to build the great Temple - immense - impressive.  On the day that Temple was dedicated - Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord - before all the people - the assembly of Israel.  Solomon spread out his hands towards heaven - and he said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You, in heaven above or on earth beneath…  Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built.”  (1 Kings 8:22-27)

What can contain the living God?  What could ever limit Him?

God is not some impersonal - powerless - deity of our creation.  We’re not curators of a museum built in Christ’s honor.  We’re not guardians of a tradition or perpetuators of a philosophy.

Paul said told the people in Athens, “In Him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28) 

We sing the song:  “This is the air I breathe.  Your very presence living in me.”

Every human being has life because God has graciously given it to us.  God is at the heart of life.  He reigns over it.  That’s the God that we serve.

We’ve been touched by the living God - indwelt by Him who is life.  We live because Jesus lives.  We’re a Divine fellowship whose birth and sustenance is the life of our Savior and Lord. 

Church translates the Greek word “ekklesia” - which was a word that described an assembly of citizens that regularly was called out of their homes - to assemble together for a specific purpose - deliberating some public issue - or some matter of religion.  The word was applied to God’s people.

We are called out by the living God - in whom and because of whom we have life - called out by the living God to regularly assemble together for His purposes not ours.

Sometimes we loose sight of that.  We can get caught up in our experiences - our expectations - our needs - whatever we’ve got going on in our lives - or our doctrine or our theology.  Sometimes we get so lost in our own stuff that we sometimes loose sight of God.

When we gather on Sundays it’s because God calls us here to celebrate the presence of the living God in our lives.  God Who permeates us and is transforming us - healing us - restoring us - empowering and enlivening us.  God Who is using us in His world.

We’re here to celebrate and worship Him  To lift up His name in praise.  To glorify Him.  To display His character to the world.  To testify of Who He is and what He is about doing in His world.

We are the church of the living God.

Third:  We are the pillar and buttress of the truth. 

Years before Paul wrote this letter to Timothy a meteor had fallen in the area near what became the city of Ephesus.  The meteor seemed to have the form of a woman so the people called the meteor Artemus and began to worship that rock.

Then the Ephesians built the Temple of Artemus - which we talked about a few Sundays back.

The Temple of Artemus was immense.  It was impressive - something to see - a tourist destination.  Pilgrims from all over the world came to worship - to engage in sexual immorality with the prostitutes there - male and female - to spend their money on souvenirs and idols to take home.

Holding up this massive complex were huge - prominent - ornate - stone pillars.

That image of the Temple of Artemus was probably an image that Paul had in mind as he wrote to Timothy.  An image that would have been very familiar to the Ephesians.  Paul contrasting what was supporting an immoral empty pagan religion and Ephesian culture - contrasting all that with the church.

Paul writes that we are “the pillar” that upholds God’s truth in the world.

Second - Paul writes that we are the “buttress of the truth.”  The Greek word for “buttress” has the idea of immovable permanence.

A few weeks back - on Facebook - Deni posted this quote from Rick Warren:  “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”

God’s truth - God’s word - God’s gospel - who He is - who we are - our desperate need for Him - Who Jesus is and why He died - how God graciously saves us when we come to Him by faith - God’s truth is not politically correct.  It’s offensive.  Some have tried to soften that truth to make it more politically correct - less offensive - another of the world’s “faith traditions.”

But, God’s truth is not something that adds to the world’s knowledge.  It’s not a part of the world’s continuing enlightenment.  It’s not the best of many religious paths.  It’s not a supplement to other faiths.

God’s truth is the truth. 

We are the church - the household of the living God.  We uphold God’s truth.  We stand immovable on God’s truth.  We are called out by God to testify with our lives - displaying and proclaiming God’s truth that mankind is desperate to hear.

That’s who we are.  Crucial that we behave accordingly.

Verse 16 focuses on What We Confess. 

Verse 16 - Paul writes, Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

“We confess” - in the way the Greek reads - “we confess” means that as we’re living out who we are - we with a oneness of mind and belief and action - we profess together this truth:  “The mystery of godliness.”

There are great mysteries in life.  Is there a purpose to life?  Is this all there is?  Does anything come next - and what is that?  Is there a God who is knowable and what does that mean?  Is there basic morality - any goodness to be found in life?  People spend lifetimes and fortunes trying to come to grips with all that.

In the Bible a mystery is something that only God knows and only God understands.  We can take all the theology classes - earn umpteen degrees - philosophize and analyze and look crosswise - and yet we’ll never figure out what God knows unless God reveals to us what He knows.

As a believer in Jesus we know that history is “His-story” - right?  Jesus’ story.  God using all of His creation to focus on Jesus.  God using all the events of history - past - present - future - working all that together - to focus on Jesus.  To offer to us His gift of a restored relationship - salvation - which comes only through Jesus Christ.  That godliness - of living right with God - that only comes through Jesus Christ.

God has made known to us what it means to live out that relationship in Jesus.  What it means to live in godliness.  To live in His wisdom - His perspective on life - His insight  How God’s wisdom applies to the circumstance of our lives.  How life works and where God is going in life. 

All of which is a mystery to those who don’t know God.  They may see it or hear it.  But they don’t understand it.

Together we confess that truth.

Verse 16 is probably a declaration of belief that was made by the church in the first century.  It was probably circulating around the different congregations and read out loud as a common “we confess this” statement.  “We believe this.”

Here we are almost 2,000 years later - believing the same truth - making the same confession of our faith that our first century siblings in Jesus made.

There’s a lot of depth of truth here.  Let’s walk through this together and at least grab the highlights.  

He - Jesus - was manifested - made visible - in the flesh - meaning the incarnation.  Jesus born in the flesh and blood of humanity.  Jesus fully God.  Fully man.  Living among us.

Jesus was vindicated by the Spirit - which took place at Jesus’ baptism.

God the Holy Spirit came down out of heaven like a dove.  God the Father declared:  “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

All three persons of the Godhead - the trinity - one God three persons - are there.  God the Father declaring who Jesus is.  The Holy Spirit identifying Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus was seen by angels - the angels that were at the empty tomb.  We believe that Jesus was crucified to death - taking our place - paying the penalty for our sins - and Jesus is resurrected - alive.

He was proclaimed among the nations - at Pentecost - the Gospel was shared with men and women from all over the Roman world.  The Gospel spread out from there - to Jews and Greeks - like the Greeks here in Ephesus - and beyond - even to some far off places like Merced.

We defines our purpose as a congregation.  To confess - as they did - by how we life and what we say - to take the Gospel to all peoples.

Jesus was believed on in the world - which is the response to the Gospel.  People didn’t just hear - they responded.

Belief isn’t just ascent to facts.  Believing in Jesus should re-orientate how we do life.  We’re not just hearers of the word.  But doers. 

Finally, Jesus was taken up in glory.  Everything that the Father sent the Son Jesus into the world to do, He did.  Then Jesus ascended back to heaven.  Where He continues to serve.

There in Heaven Jesus sustains and has authority over creation.  He is the sovereign Head of the Church.  He is our completed sacrifice and when we stumble in sin He is our Advocate pleading for our pardon and maintaining our peace with God.

And, Jesus is coming back.  We believe that when Jesus comes back there’s going to be judgment that will lead to God’s wrath poured out on those who haven’t accepted God’s offer of salvation in Jesus.  And Jesus’ return will mean - those of us who have accepted God’s offer of salvation in Jesus - we’re going to enter into what is our great hope of eternity with God.  Forever relationship with God.

Before we go on let’s read this confession out loud together - joining our siblings from the household of the living God - pillaring and buttressing the truth.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:  He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up on glory.

We are the household of God-pillars and supporters of the truth - confessors of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Processing all that...

One of the vital signs of a healthy church is the confession of God’s truth. 

Meaning - number one:  If a congregation is not living by that truth - living under the authority of the word of God being the word of God then that congregation will be unhealthy and most likely - in a spiritual sense - dead or dying.

Hang on to something.

We believe that the writing of the Bible resulted from a cooperative activity between God and human authors.  God exerted enough influence in them - yet without controlling them completely - so as to guarantee that every word in the entirety of the writers of the Bible actually wrote themselves - their original manuscripts - not later copies or translations - but in the original manuscripts as they were written rendered the thoughts of God free from error in what they affirm and teach.  What theologians call verbal plenary inspiration.  Every word inspired by God.

The Bible is the truth of God written down.  All the truth that we need to know in order to live as God has created and called us to live.

Meaning that the truth of what’s in the Bible is to have absolute supreme authority over our lives.  The Bible stands in authority over governments, clergy, even the church and her traditions.  The Bible is to have authority over our lives, not just when it seems reasonable or convenient or fits our framework of understanding and experience.  God’s word should be so deeply embedded within us that our natural reaction will be to live in obedience to it as an integral part of our nature.

Which is why preaching and teaching in a healthy church is expository.   Preaching and teaching that exposes God’s word.  It takes a particular passage of the Bible and explains and applies that passage to where we live our lives.  It’s preaching and teaching that’s focused on getting at what God says to His people along with those who aren’t His people.

We all need to be committed to hearing what God says.  His truth.  Not what I think.  Which is pretty limited and messed up by sin.  We all need to be committed to living under God’s authority not mine - or anyone else’s.  Whatever authority that’s in the church should originate in and be defined by God’s word.  Not even the Bylaws.

Point being:  We can’t confess a truth we don’t know.  There’s no way to be living God’s truth if we don’t know God’s truth.  There’s no way to know God’s truth if we’re not studying God’s truth and mutually placing ourselves under the authority of God’s truth.  What God has revealed to us in His Bible.

That doesn’t guarantee that we all are always going to agree with each other on everything.  Hasn’t happened yet.

But being together under the authority of God’s word brings us to a common healthy understanding of the God of the Bible and how He chooses to operate in His creation and a mutual healthy desire to conform to God’s will and purposes for our lives.  There are things that we can disagree on and things that we must not.  God - not us - is the one Who determines which is which.

We need to hear this:  If Creekside is not living under the authority of the word of God being the word of God - if we’re not holding each accountable to that -  then this congregation will be unhealthy and most likely - in a spiritual sense - dead or dying.

Processing all that - number two - one of the vital signs of a healthy church being the confession of God’s truth.

Meaning - Number two - is a healthy understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  In a healthy church every member - whatever the age or maturity or income level - every member is together on the significance of the Gospel - not just soaking in truth - but living by that truth and taking that truth into the world.

Let’s be clear - God’s truth in a nutshell.  John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Good news:  God loves us.  Goes beyond our ability to comprehend.  But it’s true.  God love you.

Bad news:  We’re all perishing.  God is holy - without sin.  And we are not.  Meaning we all face eternity apart from God.  Perishing is not a good thing.

Good news:  Jesus - His work on the cross.  Jesus did everything that needed to be done to make our relationship with God right.

You choose:  Everyone of us has to a make an individual choice of how we’re going to respond to what God did for us through what Jesus did.  Choose to believe and God by grace gives us life forever with Him.

Heraclitus of Ephesus said, “The only constant is change.”

The world is constantly changing.  Our need for the Gospel does not.  The Gospel causes change.  Change that we all are desperate for.

Surrounding the city of Ephesus was a wall - 10½ feet thick with six fortified gates.  An impenetrable fortress.  Maybe the image Paul had in mind when he wrote about the church being a buttress.

An army coming against the permanence of that fortress - that buttress - would have had to change direction - change plans - lay siege - go around - admit defeat.

Sin is a horror - a bondage and corruption in this life - unleashed by our enemy Satan - a horror unleashed on mankind which weighs down our hearts - burdens our souls - tears at the fabric of humanity - destroys our homes and society - corrupts the Church - robs us of the ability to be whom God has created us to be and to enjoy Him forever.  Waiting ahead is judgment and eternal separation from God.

But, we have the opportunity - the privilege - of sharing the one message - the one truth - that can bring real change to all that.

The solution to the mystery of how we enter into life with the living God.  The truth of what it means to enter into wholeness of life.  To live drawing on God’s wisdom and power.  To live in calmness and courage and confidence in whatever comes.  To live forgiven and in purity and oneness with God.  Now and forever.

The truth of the Bible - the Gospel of Jesus - is not another faltering religion to lead us in hopeless darkness.  But real answers found in the person of Jesus Christ.  That’s what’s offered to us even today.  Offered to us to receive as we respond to the Gospel.  Given to us to share with others - so that God can bring real change in their lives.  Change their trajectory through life and into eternity.

Grab that for yourself.

God used dust to form Adam.  A rib to form Eve.

When the Israelites were trapped with their backs to the sea Moses stretched out his staff and the waters parted.

Samson struck down a thousand oppressors of Israel with the jawbone of a donkey.

At the blast of trumpets and a war cry Joshua watched the walls of Jericho crumble.

With torches and empty jars Gideon and 300 men defeated an army of 100,000.

David chose 5 smooth stones from a stream and with them struck down Goliath.

5,000 were fed with 5 loaves and 2 fishes.

If God can use such small things to change the course of history certainly He can use us.  That realization should change how we behave as a member of the household of the living God.  You are a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Everyone of us needs to have a healthy understanding of what that means.

We may be changing diapers - answering the phone - teaching a class - driving a car - listening to a teacher drone on and on and on - hassling with a landlord - cutting a lawn - shopping at Save Mart - or any other of hundreds of the routine daily things of life.  As those who have responded to the Gospel - as we live by God’s truth - upholding and standing firm under and by the authority of His word - people who are flawed - imperfect - broken - bruised - we are the church of the living God.

We are called out by God - to grow up continually to be the persons that God has created us to be - in deepening relationship with Him and with each other - to display His glory to the world.  To reach beyond these walls by His power - according to His purpose - to the places and peoples He takes us to as we do life out there - who desperately need to know His truth.  His answer found in Jesus Christ.

That’s why we’re here.  To confess together what it means to live life with the living God and how He makes that life possible.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.