以生命影响生命 Impacting Others as a Christian

Title: Impacting Others as a Christian
Date: 06 August 2023
Preacher: Rev Enoch Keong

Introduction
My family had a slightly less usual vacation this June. We went with a team from my mother-in-law’s church to visit a few Presbyterian churches in Taiwan. One of the churches we visited was an indigenous people’s church, located in an area where the neighbors were tribal people. The neighbors did not like the church. The way they expressed their dislike was to throw rubbish at the front door of the church. Pastors posted there were discouraged and there were many changes of hands.

The pastor serving in that church today is Reverend Zhu. When he first arrived, so did the trash. But he pressed on. After some time, the neighbors stopped using the church door as a rubbish dump. Reverend Zhu thinks that the neighbors have given up trying to drive him away.

However, I guess the neighbors still do not like the church or Christianity for that matter. The entire church after all these years only has the pastor, a bunch of children and one elderly person, that’s all!
In this one man show, Reverend Zhu preaches, teaches, leads worship, trains the children to play music & plays games with them. He does everything that a pastor would do. But he does even more. Their church has a small kitchen, he is the cook. Reverend Zhu is a gifted man. When the church was granted funding for renovation, he designed the interior and the exterior of the church. And when the renovation work didn’t progress as expected, up to the roof or into the toilet he went and did the necessary with his own hands. From handling the neighbors to taking care of the members and the building, he really does a lot.

The way he sums up his motivation impacted me. He said pastors should not be afraid of trouble. That’s something I know very well, but hearing this pastor who does this much saying it, was impactful.

We as believers talk about impacting others as a Christian, or in Mandarin we say, 以生命影响生命. That’s my experience in meeting Reverend Zhu.

A key focus of today’s passage is about impacting life. Paul uses a story about himself to create a positive impact on Timothy, encouraging him to press on. Paul does this in verses 12 to 17 and we will come to it in a while. But let us first look at the situation that Timothy was in. The situation that led Paul to share about himself.

So, this morning we will talk about Timothy’s situation, followed by Paul’s response.

I.
Timothy, like Reverend Zhu, has a lot to work on in the church of Ephesus. The first thing on his task list was to address certain individuals who were misrepresenting the gospel. Paul refers to these people as “certain persons” (vv.3 & 6) or “some” (v.19). We, therefore, do not know who they were, and there’s no point making guesses.

Paul identifies these individuals by their activities. These persons were teaching religious ideas different from the ones handed down by the apostles. They were devoting themselves to myths and genealogies. In other words, fascinating stories not based on scriptures; stories that fueled speculations on matters pertaining to faith. These people also aimed to be teachers of the Jewish law. And one of their teachings was observation of the law being necessary to attain salvation.

Such a teaching would have made sense especially to Jewish Christians who were new to the faith. Because it squares with a tradition widely circulated among the Jewish people that goes something like this. Abaham was a righteous man, and his obedience to God had led to Israel receiving the written law in due course. In other word, the Jews see themselves a righteous people because they had received the law.

Paul issues his retorts herein. He says that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient (v.9).

Paul is saying 2 things with this retort. First, the Jews are totally mistaken. Israel is not righteous because it had received the law. The implication is that Israel was in fact unrighteous. Paul words is like a slap in the face.

Second, the law is not meant for people already declared righteous in Jesus to apply in some mystical ways. The law is there to deal with moral questions. The law is like warning sign, warning against doing wrong. It is not a means to attain a deeper faith or to increase in righteousness.

Paul urges Timothy to teach this to the church in Ephesus, and to charge those whom he labelled as “certain persons” to stop spreading wrong teachings.

Friends, I find it worth spending a few minutes retelling the situation that Paul was trying to sort out because we Christians seems to always have had a slightly complex relationship with the law as well. A relationship that also needs sorting out from time to time.

Whether we carry our bibles in our mobile phones or as printed bibles, we find therein books such as Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, where there are law codes telling us what to and what not to do.

As Christians we acknowledge that the bible is the word of God and is authoritative over us. When we come to the biblical laws, we can say categorically that the ceremonial laws are no longer applicable. As to laws on ethics and morals, we are less sure to what extent they apply to us. Yes, we are to observe the Ten Commandments, but what about the rewards and especially the punishments attached to them? Will God punish us as severely as is written in the laws if we failed to do well?

This ambiguity gives rise to 2 extreme responses. Some Christians reckon that all the Old Testament laws are no longer applicable. This group would hold little or no regards for the commandments and happily make Paul words in Romans their song, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2).” Some, at the other extreme, see the law as goals and targets. Though they know full well that they are saved by Christ, yet to keep the law is to be serious about holy living and doing so affords for them a sense of peace.

Neither extreme nor somewhere in between should be the Chistian way. The laws in the bible, says Paul, are warning signs to warn against doing wrong, and to redirect us to trust in the gospel. But isn’t “to trust in the gospel” very much like the one singing happily the words from Romans 8? No. What Paul means is to live lives with a focus on Jesus, call out to Jesus, go to him with a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith, dwell constantly in his presence, let his life and his words speak into our lives, and let his transforming grace works in and through us. We are indeed free, but free to grow in Jesus to be like him.

To borrow Paul’s words in verse 5, this growth process has a goal. The goal is love, love for God and love for the neighbor.

II.
Is it an easy goal to achieve? Not at all. I find it a challenge to live this way even though I see it as a personal goal. So, we can imagine how tough it was for Timiothy. For him to motivate people whose agenda was to shine as teachers of the law, to love.

Any creative suggestion from the more experienced Paul on how to go about doing this? Sorry, no. Paul says once again that the thing to do is to trust in the gospel. He tells us why it should be so in verses 12 to 17.

He was, says Paul, the hardheaded and hard-hearted blasphemer and insolent opponent. He was the number one sinner because in ignorance he persecuted the Church, and in turn, the Christ.

The way Paul describes himself sounds a bit like drama-mama. Insolent opponents, number one sinners. Yet I think to myself, might it be that at times this is the way we see difficult people? (“You insolent opponents, number one sinners.”)

Not sure if that’s the way Timothy pictured the ones who were into speculations and vain discussions and wanted to teach others to do the same. Quite likely, Timothy found the task to turn these people around nearly insurmountable. Paul’s letter suggests that he has yet to see any progress and would need a booster to carry on.

The booster comes in the form of Paul’s testimony.

Paul, the toughest of sinners, admits in his sharing, that he was no match for the perfect patience of Jesus.

That goes to say that there’s hope for Timothy in his situation. The difficult people in the church were not as difficult as Paul. And if the perfect patience of Christ could turn Paul around, there’s hope for Timothy to turn those individuals around to adhere to the gospel. Paul brings home his point with a saying that is to him trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What Paul is in fact saying is this, Timothy’s pastoral work is Jesus’ gospel work. It is for Timothy to trust Jesus to work in his situation.

Paul, as we can see, is very gospel centered. I want to be very honest to say that it is not easy to think like Paul. In fact, at times, it can be quite unnatural to do so. Yet there’s something we can learn from Paul in order to be more gospel centered.

Here we find Paul the senior man working on impacting the junior colleague with his life story. In Mandarin, we say Paul is trying to 以生命影响生命. And I hope we have noticed something; Paul isn’t trying to impart to Timothy some skills or tactics to deal with difficult people. He does not wax eloquent about himself having the tenacity and courage to surmount many challenges. And neither does he shares his wealth of experience as missionary and apostle to the Gentiles. What he does is to impact Timothy with his God transformed life. His sharing is about the gospel that worked in through him. In doing so, Paul communicates hope and direct Timothy to focus on the gospel and to see its glory and power.

Reading what Paul is doing here, I want to be longwinded by expanding the phrase “impacting others as a Christian”. And lengthen it to “Impacting Lives with a God Transformed Life”. Or in Chinese, 以一个被上帝改变的生命影响生命.

Any difference between the shorter and longer version? With the longwinded version, we – for sure – will not be trying to impact others by talking about our achievements. Our abilities and qualities. Not even the deep love we may have for the weak and the needy.

Not that we should never talk about these things. But the focus will be on impacting others by sharing what God has done in and through us, the transformation he has wrought in us, how it is he who has made things possible. And in hearing us, the hearers’ response will not be to congratulate us or to envy us. But to have a glimpse of God really at work and become more ready to trust God and see the realness and greatness of the gospel. When this is what we do, we are being gospel centered.

Ours is a multi-generation congregation. We have mature adults and younger ones. It will be great to see our more senior members doing what Paul does to the younger ones amongst us, igniting in them a lively hope and active trust in God. Of course, this will involve ‘chemistry’, the recognition that there’s a need to do so, and the willingness by both parties to enter a life impacting life relationship. Such impacting can always happen the other way around.

I know of someone who used to be strongheaded, angry, and very argumentative. The parents had a really hard time with this child who remained quarrelsome for many years. The duration was long enough for the parents to progress from being very upset whenever there’s quarrels, to the point where they become somewhat numb to emotional pain and disappointments. Not only that, but they also became a little numb to him and have a fixed impression about him being the strongheaded, argumentative sort. But we can imagine all the hurt the parents accumulated amid the numbness. In his young adult days, he became a Christian. Slowly he changed and transformed as he grew in faith. A few years later, the mother realized to her surprise one day that the person before her eyes had changed for the good because of his new found faith. The hurts and pain accumulated turned instantly into rejoicing and thanksgiving, and the mother praised God for it.

An ordinary but true story, and we may have a similar one to tell. What is so great about these stories is that whenever a life is touched by God, staleness and deadness departs, replaced by rejoicing, thanksgiving, hope and faith. So, if God has ignited your life, pass on the flame.

华语崇拜视频链接：https://youtu.be/7JiaczY9EGQ
Bilingual Service Video Link: https://youtu.be/e4XXSIsWAd4