OUR PAST TO GOD’S GLORY – 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 6, 2019 under 2019 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; October 6, 2019 from 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Theme: Jesus not only redeems us from our past, but also redeems our past itself to God’s glory.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Of all the people in the Bible that I love the most, I would put the apostle Paul very high on the list. I dare not try to say where he would be in the ranking. The Lord Jesus, obviously, is first. But His devoted servant Paul would, most surely, be near the top.

The Lord Jesus has done so much in my life through him. I understand the Christian faith as I do, largely, because of having read and studied Paul’s letters. I have learned the foundational elements of my theology from the things the Lord taught him. I have drawn much of my concept of Christian living from his example. His adventures and his writings have inspired me to live more faithfully for the Lord Jesus. It was Paul who—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—wrote, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.“ (1 Corinthians 11:1). I think it would be correct to say that there is no single Christian that God has used on this earth to transform the lives of more people around the world over the past two-thousand years than the apostle Paul.

But I think it would also be correct to say that there is no godly person whose past life of sin is told to us in greater detail in the New Testament than Paul. We read his profound letters, and of all the missionary journeys in the Scriptures that God led him on after he believed on Jesus; but we also read about the sinful life he led before he was saved. In the case of the apostle Paul, we not only get to see more of his redeemed life, but also more of pre-redeemed life, than any other person in Scripture.

Paul, it seems to me, was very aware of what an example he was—and even of how his former life of sin was used by God as a lesson to us all. In 1 Timothy 1, Paul wrote to his young ministry colleague Timothy and said;

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (1 Timothy 1:12-17).

What an encouragement these words should be to sinners like us! They show us that the Lord Jesus Christ—our Savior—not only redeems us from our sinful past, but is also wonderfully able to redeem our past itself and put it to use … and all to God’s glory.

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Now, before we look at this passage in more detail, I ask you to take a quick tour with me through the New Testament. Let’s look at the things that it tells us about Paul’s amazing life—both what he was before he believed on Jesus, and what he became after he was saved.

The place to begin is Acts 8. He was known by the name ‘Saul’. He was a young student of the Pharisees and was an outstanding scholar. He was extremely devoted to Judaism. In his zeal, he gave his active consent and support to the martyrdom of a great Christian named Stephen. And from then on, he was a fierce persecutor of the church of Jesus. The Bible tells us;

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison (Acts 8:3).

Saul, in his deep hatred for the Christian faith, would have been a frightening man to encounter. In Acts 9, it tells us that he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord”. He had a vicious animosity for the followers of Jesus; and, as we see from our passage this morning, it must have involved blasphemy against the Lord Jesus, and hostility against Christians, and an arrogant and hard-hearted self-righteousness. He even asked for letters of permission from the synagogues to go out and find gatherings of Christians, and bring them bound to Jerusalem for trial.

But it was then that a miracle happened that changed the course of history. We’re told;

As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9:3-5).

“Goads” were the pointed sticks that farmers placed on their plow; so that the oxen wouldn’t kick against the plow and break it. The Lord Jesus was telling Paul that it was hard for him to go on resisting and rebelling against the way that the message of the gospel was convicting his heart. And that’s what was really going on in Saul’s heart all along. He was rebelling against the truth of the gospel.

The kicking, though, came to an end when he was knocked off his horse by the blinding light of the glory of Jesus.

So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9:6).

Saul—the strong, arrogant, self-righteous persecutor of the church—arose from the ground blinded by his encounter with Jesus. He had to be led by the hand and taken to Damascus. And there he sat for three days—reflecting in his heart on who it was that he had met on the road, and on how he had so sinfully rebelled against Him—waiting for whatever would happen next. What a trial of the soul that must have been for Saul! And as he took stock of his soul, I believe he was thinking very much about the truths that the Old Testament had said about Jesus, and was praying very deeply and earnestly to God.

And then, the Lord Jesus called upon one of His followers in Damascus—a man named Ananias. The Lord told him,

“Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight” (vv. 11-12).

This must have been a terrifying command for Ananias to have received; because he already knew all about Saul. He even proceeded to give forth some information that he must have thought the Lord didn’t have.

Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (vv. 13-16).

Ananias did as the Lord commanded him. He found Saul, laid hands on him—perhaps with those hands trembling a bit—and prayed. And Saul received his sight! He immediately arose and was baptized as a believer of Jesus—and started preaching and declaring in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

And the rest truly is ‘sacred’ history—a history that has deeply impacted you and me.

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Now; that’s the basics of the story of how Saul (a very vicious antagonist against the Christian faith) became Paul (the greatest missionary of the Christian faith who ever lived). But as we read on in the New Testament, it’s truly amazing how often Paul told this story again and again—and how often he spoke of the sinful past that the Lord had redeemed him from.

If we move on to Acts 22, we find that he was arrested in the temple in Jerusalem and brought to trial before the Jewish leaders for preaching the gospel of Jesus. And in giving his defense before the leaders of his people, he told them;

“I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished” (Acts 22:4-5).

But then, he told them of how Jesus saved him and sent him to preach the very gospel they were arresting him for having preached. They must have been amazed at how this man who fought so hard against the gospel now was so earnestly preaching it! And then, if we move on to Acts 26, we find that he was brought to Caesarea; and that he stood before the Jewish king Agrippa and the Roman governor Festus to give a defense. And in telling his story to them, he said;

“Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:9-11).

But then—again—he told them of how Jesus met him on the road, saved Him, and put him to the work of preaching the gospel. He testified to how the Lord Jesus had met him, and transformed him, and made him into a preacher of the very gospel that he fought against.

I have wondered, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; were there times when Paul would meet people along the way—in his preaching in all the places that the Lord had sent him—that he had to sit down with and deeply apologize to? I certainly believe so. There must have been times—perhaps many times—when he asked to meet privately with someone and say to them, “When we first met long ago, I was hostile against you. I was vicious and rebellious in my unbelief; and I dared to blaspheme and curse the name of the Lord Jesus to your face. I am so very sorry and so very ashamed of what I did. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was ignorant of who Jesus was; and I didn’t believe on Him as I should. By the grace of the Lord Jesus, will you please forgive me?” Or there may be times when he met with someone along the way and said, “I am so very sorry for what I did to you and your family. I sought out your dear Christian mother and father; and saw to it personally that they were sent to their deaths. I am so ashamed of what I did to you and how much I have hurt you and all your loved ones. Jesus is my Lord now. By His grace, would you please forgive me?” Perhaps there were times when he stood before congregations and said, “I am glad to preach to you today. But I know that there are some of you here toward whom I had—at one time—been very arrogant and cruel. I have hurt some of you very deeply; and caused some of you a great deal of pain and loss. I don’t deserve to stand before you and preach about the love of the Lord Jesus. But by the grace of the Lord Jesus, here I am. And by that same grace, will you please forgive me?”

I know that Paul felt a great deal of sorrow over his past. There were times when Paul felt very unworthy of his ministry calling. We can see it in his letters. In 1 Corinthians 15, for example, he wrote about how the resurrected Lord Jesus appeared to many people; and he wrote,

Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy 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 toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:8-10).

I love it that he said; “by the grace of God I am what I am …” What a wonderful expression that is of the redeeming mercy of the Lord Jesus! Or think of in Galatians 1. There, he wrote about the gospel of Jesus that he preached where ever he could; and said,

For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles … (Galatians 1:13-15);

and he went on to tell of how he had gone forth faithfully proclaiming Jesus. Even though he had been a sinful man who brought havoc upon the church of Jesus Christ—and felt utterly unworthy—he nevertheless was made into a minister of the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus. You can sense his humble gratitude when he wrote in Ephesians 3;

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ … (Ephesians 3:8).

It’s surprising to think of how many times in the Bible Paul mentions his past life of sin and his sense of utter unworthiness—but also his joy at being forgiven and placed in the ministry at the call of the Lord Jesus. When I think of this, I think of the wonderful words he wrote in Philippians 3. They were written in a somewhat different context than the one we are speaking of today; but I believe they nevertheless reflect his heart when thinking of his life before Christ and his life after having been saved:

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

And among all these other references to his past life, we must include the passage I read to you earlier—in 1 Timothy 1. Let me read it to you again—and think of it in the light of all those other passages in which Paul told his story:

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (1 Timothy 1:12-17).

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Now; I believe this has something to say to us here today who have placed our faith in Jesus. Paul’s own example should teach us to recognize some very important and life-transforming things that Jesus has done for us.

First, we should recognize that—as was true of Paul …

1. THE LORD JESUS REDEEMS US FROM OUR PAST.

In verse 12, Paul said, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry …” It was not Paul who put himself in the place of the service of the Lord Jesus. Rather it was Jesus Himself. Jesus said of Paul, “he is a chosen vessel of Mine …” And it was Jesus who enabled him for the thing He called him to do. There would really be no other way to explain Paul’s amazing life of service than by the fact that Jesus enabled him.

But you never would have looked at Paul—back when he was known as Saul of Tarsus—and expected such a thing. Paul made it clear that Jesus called him and enabled him for ministry; “although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man …” (v. 13a). Paul had been a ‘blasphemer’. He spoke against God and against His Son. He spoke against ‘the Way’; and as he himself testified, he even compelled Christians to blaspheme Christ—perhaps under torture. He had also been a persecutor of the church. He went out of his way to seek out Christians, arrest then, bind them, and bring them to Jerusalem for trial and execution. He even went from city to city—and even in foreign regions—in his persecution. Followers of Jesus would have had to hide from him. Ananias was hesitant to go at the Lord’s command and lay hands on him and pray for him. And he was also an ‘insolent’ man. The word that is used in the original language is the one that we get the English word ‘hubris’ from. It describes an arrogance and self-righteous pride—the kind of pride that has a disregard for the rights of others. No one would have been able to reason with Paul or talk him out his cynical cruelty to followers of Jesus.

And yet; the Lord Jesus ‘counted him faithful’. That can be translated in such a way as to say that the Lord Jesus counted him ‘a believer’. He admitted that he did all those horrible things; “but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (v. 13b). He wasn’t making an excuse. He was simply explaining the reality of his heart. He was ignorant of the truth; and acted in unbelief. He would have had to apologize to people that he had hurt; and say, “I’m so sorry for what I did. I didn’t know who Jesus truly was back then—and I didn’t believe. But now I do.” And he says in verse 14, “And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” Paul was redeemed from his past way of living by faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

And dear brother or sister; the same is true for you and me. We are redeemed—that is to say, ‘bought out of slavery’—from the past life of sin. We are no longer bound to what we once were. We are washed clean, are brought into holy fellowship with our Savior Jesus, and are now free to follow and serve Him at His call and enter into whatever service He has for us. As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 5:17;

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Praise God that our Savior Jesus completely redeems us from our past!

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But Paul’s story teaches us even more. Not only are we redeemed from our past; but …

2. THE LORD JESUS ALSO REDEEMS OUR PAST ITSELF.

Paul goes on to say, in verse 15, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” And I don’t believe that we should take Paul to be making an exaggerated statement for effect. I believe that he means for it to be taken quite literally; that—out of all the sinners in the world—he was chief. It’s a true statement—and it is worthy to be fully accepted.

But look at what God has done with this ‘chief of sinners’. In verse 16 he says, “However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” In other words, he is saying that as the chief example of sin, he now has become the chief example of how great the transforming power of Jesus is.

When I was a little boy, and my dad took me to the public swimming pool, I was afraid to go out too far—where it might be too deep. But he stood in the water and told me, “Look where I’m standing. Can you see my knees? Your head goes up higher my knees; doesn’t it? So see? You can come out into the water to where I am.” And in a way, that’s what Paul was doing to all of us sinners. He was saying, “Look at where I’m standing. I’m standing in the grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And I’m the chief of sinners. You can’t be a greater sinner than I was; and He saved me and put me into His service. So you can trust Jesus too! If He can save me—the chief of sinners—then He can save you too. You can come out into His saving grace to where I am.”

And so; can you see what the Lord Jesus did with Paul’s past? He not only redeemed Paul from his past, but He also redeemed Paul’s past for His own use. In the end, Paul’s life—even his sinful past—was part of a story that the Lord Jesus put to use. That, of course, is never to say that we can live a sinful live with the expectation that God will use it. That is a horrible act of presumption; and is a sign of unbelief. But when we come to Jesus, we never need to fear that we have been such great sinners that the Lord Jesus cannot use us. He even used the past life of the chief of sinners in order to be an open invitation for all people to come to Jesus for saving grace.

What a Savior! He not only redeems us from our past; but He even redeems our past for Himself!

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And note finally that …

3. THIS IS ALL TO THE PRAISE OF GOD’S GLORY.

Paul closes off in verse 17 with a doxology of praise: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Our whole life is a story that is redeemed for His glory! And that’s a fact for which—like Paul—we should praise God forever!

Paul is our great example in so many ways. And this is yet one more way. He is an example of how Jesus not only redeems us from the past, but also redeems our past for His purposes. And this is so that our whole life may be to the glory of God our Redeemer; and that we may be witnesses of the life-changing power of Jesus to this world.

You and I, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, can say our ‘Amen’ to what Paul wrote in Titus 3;

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).

EA