Self-Confession Time (1 Timothy 1: 12-17)

Transcription

1 Sermon delivered by The Rev. Dr. Augustus E. Succop III Quail Hollow Presbyterian Church Charlotte, North Carolina September 11, 2016 Self-Confession Time (1 Timothy 1: 12-17) Confession, it is said, is good for the soul, but we Protestants hold those cards so very closely to our chest. Unlike our Roman Catholic neighbors, we Protestants see confession as something highly private and deeply personal, and any thing we have to confess is strictly held between us and the good Lord. Our understanding of confession comes from the Reformers. They took exception with anyone acting as a go-between. They pointed out that you and I have direct access to God, 24/7, and our intercessor is not the local priest but Jesus Christ Himself, the High Priest of our faith. If we need to confess anything, so said the Reformers, we may do so at any time, at any hour, and do it directly to God. And yet, despite our differences, Catholic and Protestant do agree on this: confession is good for the soul. And sometimes it is helpful to make one s confession to a friend or a neighbor or a pastor. Sometimes it is helpful, even therapeutic to tell another human being what needs to be confessed. St. Paul seems to have taken that route often, and he confessed not just to another person but to entire congregations. Talk about putting it out there. Paul made it known for all to know the person he had once been, and that person, the person once named Saul, was not a very nice person. This morning, let s think about being honest about whom we are or whom we used to be, and let s think about that in order to become the people we have been called to be by God. And let s begin with gratitude. I find it interesting that when Paul offers his confession he begins by saying, Thank you. He says, I am grateful to Christ Jesus because He judged me faithful even though I was a former persecutor of the faith. I can only imagine the kind of person Paul once was when he was persecuting people for believing in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, when he had the early Christians locked in his cross-hairs. And yet, we don t need to image all that much because Paul helps us put the picture together. Paul confesses, he freely admits that at one

2 2 time he was a blasphemer, he was a persecutor, and he was a man of violence, and back when Paul was that kind of Saul, he was proud of being that kind of human being. No wonder Paul expresses gratitude in his self-confession. Literally, he had a lot to confess and he had a lot to be grateful for, and grateful that the Lord is a forgiving God, and that that God forgave Paul for being whom he once was. With an honest and deep, deep appreciation, Paul knows the value of receiving God s mercy through Christ. And Paul knows full well the reason for Christ s mercy. Paul says, I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Paul was spared, he was forgiven, and he was grateful, as you and I are no less grateful, I m sure. Ignorant unbelief. Those two words are a mouth full when it comes to Paul, but no less to you and me. We Christians are no less guilty of ignorant unbelief. Paul says he was the foremost of sinners due to his ignorant unbelief, and in one sense Paul is being unfair with himself. When you think about it, ignorant unbelief is a contradiction in terms. If you are ignorant, you don t know what you should know, and, thus, how can you be guilty of unbelief if you don t know what you should know. But here s what Paul means by ignorant unbelief. Paul had come to learn what the Christians believed, what it meant to follow Jesus, and to Paul all of that meant nothing to him. According to Paul s way of thinking, he didn t need to follow Christ, he didn t need to know what those Christians knew in knowing and following Jesus Christ. I have a confession to make. I have just recently become the owner of a Smart Phone. Prior to two weeks ago, I did not think I needed a Smart Phone. I believed I was all set with my flip-phone. Do not laugh. That flip-phone worked. It was a phone. I could text, and all was right with my world. But then, I began to notice those who owned and those who used a Smart Phone. I began to notice the world they were living in and what they could do with their Smart Phone. Then, one day, while on vacation in Maine I got lost, and I needed directions, and I was not going to stop to ask for directions. What I needed was access to Google Maps, and to get Google Maps while in a car you need a Smart Phone. On some dirt road near or on the coast of Maine, I had a conversion. I went from ignorant unbelief to seeing the light, and today I am the proud owner of a Smart Phone. Paul did not think he needed what Jesus Christ has to offer until his moment of conversion, and only then it became clear to him that he did need Jesus Christ and what Jesus has to offer. And Paul states he was grateful that the Lord understood his ignorance, and out of mercy, out of love the Lord took Paul and loved him back to life. 2

3 3 I know many, many modern day Pauls, people who believe they do not need what Jesus Christ has to offer. They may not be blasphemers, they may not get their kicks out of persecuting other people, they may not be people of violence or even a violent temper, but they do believe they are all set to go the way they are. We know such people, don t we? And what is interesting is that we know people who are no less grateful as Paul once was because on some back road of their life, lost and clueless, they too have had a moment of conversion; they too saw the light as Jesus is the Light, and they have never looked back since. What gets me is how Paul makes such a big deal of his ignorant unbelief. No doubt about it, he is grateful. And Paul had a great deal to be grateful for. Paul has a hard time accepting who he once was in light of whom he is now. Notice the ways he states and restates his confession: he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, a bully; he acted ignorantly; he was the world s foremost sinner, at least in his eyes. Paul admits, he confesses he sought to be the kind of person everyone feared and no one liked. But all that changed due to the God s mercy revealed in Jesus Christ. And for that mercy Paul is grateful, he is so very grateful. And Paul is more than just grateful. He is also an example. Paul tells Timothy that he, Paul, is an example of what Jesus Christ can do in a person s life. In Paul s life, the risen Christ put on display how love and mercy and grace are the change agents for a brand new life. Have you ever known someone who was a bully? Do you know someone who is not a very nice person, someone who seeks to be feared by others? And have you ever met someone who has confessed how glad they are that Jesus Christ changed them, and, thus, they are no longer the person, the brut, the bully they once were? I know people like that. I know people who have been changed by the grace, mercy and love of God, people who are still confessing their gratitude for being recreated into a new person, and such confessions remind me of what Ebenezer Scrooge said on that Christmas morning. Remember what he said? Scrooge repeats over and over again on that Christmas morning that, I m not the man I used to be, I m not the man I used to be. Scrooge s confession becomes his Christmas carol of gratitude, and no doubt Paul had his own version of that song, as each one of us needs to have our own version of that song, a song that proclaims what Christ has done and is doing in us. Paul is willing to be an example of God s grace so there would be no doubt as to what God can accomplish with the likes of Paul and you and me. In being an example for 3

4 4 others, Paul points to the real reason for his new life. He is a new man, a new creation because of the patience of the Lord. The word translated patience means long-suffering, and long-suffering means to endure wrongs or difficulties. Commit this to memory: Jesus Christ is willing, very willing to endure the people we are now in order to recreate us into the people He wants us to become. And how grateful, grateful we ought to be that according to the way God tells time, God always errors on being patient with us, as God was once patient with Paul. Paul knows full well that God could have dismissed him, eliminated him, gone with someone else, but God was willing to be patient with Paul, no matter his ignorant unbelief. In other words, Paul tells the church, tells us in our day, that the God who dealt so graciously and patiently with him must not be missed. No one should be allowed to dwell in ignorant unbelief, no one; not when there is a God such as the God of Jesus Christ, and Paul is not talking about a variety of gods who are like the God of Jesus Christ. Paul makes it clear there is only one God like that, only one God Who is willing to be that patient, that merciful; only one God Who is willing to wait for those who dwell in ignorant unbelief. I would have to say, without embarrassing anyone, that that is what the Lord has been doing in the Debbies and the Peggys of the world, and no less in the life of our beloved Virginia King. For that matter, every person in this room is an example of God s longsuffering patience. Let no one be deceived: each one of us is proof of God s patience, and I have no doubt that someone, somewhere is fully aware of what Christ has done in us. They have seen the difference. We are not the same people we used to be, not now, not at all! To them, we are an example of God s mercy. So, then, there are two kinds of self-confession. We confess being the people we once were and we confess the people we have become through the patience of God s love revealed through faith in Jesus Christ. And for such love, spent on us, on our behalf, our response is and remains a response of gratitude. Paul was grateful, so very grateful he was no longer the man he used to be; he was so grateful he found it hard to stop singing God s praises, from giving God all the glory and all the honor all the time. Oh, that you and I should be so filled with gratitude for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Oh, that you and I would have time enough to make it known how merciful our God is towards people like Paul and you and me. Let us pray: Holy God, faithful Lord, transforming Spirit, thank You for changing us, and changing us by the grace merited to us through faith in Jesus. Continue Your good 4

5 5 work in us and through us. And use us, as You once used Paul, to reveal Your will for the life of the world; through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen. 5