“Paul said: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’”
I Timothy 1:15
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Right about eighteen years ago, back in 2002, former opera singer, television personality, and even Eagle Scout, Mike Rowe, had an idea. Since there were so many strange, difficult, messy, and downright disgusting jobs in the world, why not take a moment to meet those who are strong enough and brave enough to do them? At first, he called the show, Somebody’s Gotta Do It. When Discovery Channel picked it up, they called it, Dirty Jobs.
And if you’ve ever seen it, you know how it goes: “My name’s Mike Rowe, and this is my job. I explore the country looking for people who aren’t afraid to get dirty--hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now, get ready to get dirty.”
Back in 2005, for example, he worked as a garbage collector, shark catcher, sludge recycler, pig farmer, and sewer inspector. And that was only season one! After that, it got even dirtier, like hot tar roofer, asphalt paver, chimney sweeper, zoo keeper, bridge painter, termite exterminator, high-rise window washer, maple syrup maker, jelly bean maker, lightning rod installer, cranberry farmer, and large animal veterinarian.
But out of all the dirty jobs he experienced over the show’s eight seasons, the worst, he said, was a buoy tender.
What’s that, you say? Well, buoys, of course, are giant steel contraptions that float out in the middle of the ocean. But unfortunately, every once in a while, someone has to crawl inside of them to clean out barnacles or any other strange forms of marine life. He said, “It’s like the movie The Descent, only inside of an ocean buoy.” Let’s just say that, if you have any fear of tight, enclosed places, it’s not somewhere you want to go!
Dirty jobs--it seems like our world is full of them.
But you know there’s one dirty job that only One was good enough and strong enough to do. And in his first letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul tells us exactly what it is.
If you wish to follow along, please turn to the words of I Timothy chapter 1. You’ll find it on page 1262. I’ll start at verse 12: “I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen”
In all, Paul wrote thirteen epistles, thirteen letters, like Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. And among those thirteen letters were three he wrote to pastors, what we today call his “Pastoral Epistles,” I and II Timothy and Titus.
And while his other letters were full of teaching, admonition, thanksgiving, and praise, his pastoral epistles were different. Instead, he wrote them as one pastor to another pastor, to encourage them in their walk with the Lord.
And the topics are many, ranging from how to worship, to how to confront false teaching, to how to stay strong in the faith.
That’s why he wrote in I Timothy chapter 1, verse 2: “To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” And verse 5: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and good conscience and a sincere faith.”
These three letters are some of his most beautiful letters of all.
And just as soon as he, in verse 12, gives thanks to God for giving him strength, and for the grace and faith and love of Jesus, he writes in verse 15: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” he wrote.
Is it any surprise? It shouldn’t be. After all, that’s exactly what Jesus said as He lived and worked among us.
In the book of Mark, when men asked why He ate with tax collectors and sinners, He said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” And in the book of Luke, He said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
And who did He choose to follow Him? Simon, a zealot, Matthew, a tax collector, Peter, James, Andrew, and John, all fishermen. All of them, plain, unschooled, ordinary men.
Even one more--a man named the apostle Paul. As he wrote in verse 13: “Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
As much as we might like to think that sin isn’t serious, that it doesn’t really matter, the Bible says something very different. It says it wounds and kills and destroys. It’s like a Venus Fly Trap dissolving its victims alive, or a fishing lure jabbing its hook through your mouth. It’s the thread of a spider’s web that, in time, becomes a ship’s cable. It’s quicksand. It’s a cockroach that thrives in dark places. It’s a virus, a leprosy, a cancer, a cavity. It’s a jail cell whose door seems so wide open until, one day, it slams shut. It’s a credit card--you can enjoy it now, but believe me, you’ll pay for it later. It’s a snowball that rolls into a heaving avalanche.
And what does sin cost? Nothing less than the death of God’s Son.
In the words of John Piper, “It’s the glory of God not honored, the holiness of God not revered. It’s the power of God not praised, the truth of God not sought. It’s the wisdom of God not esteemed, the beauty of God not treasured. It’s the commandment of God not obeyed, the justice of God not respected. It’s the wrath of God not feared, the grace of God not cherished.”
It’s like getting hit by a bus, at least that’s what a woman named Karen Prior says. It happened when she decided to take a twenty minute walk in the city one late spring morning. According to the police report, she was thrown fifteen to twenty feet in the air. And though she knows nothing of the flight or the landing, she remembers coming to, and seeing a crowd of people rushing toward her, and her excruciating pain.
She writes, “Sin is just like that--a tiny step away from the standard, a split second error in judgment. It’s a little thing, like paying too much attention to one thing, and not enough to another. It’s pain and brokenness. And surviving it requires the divine intervention of the Creator.”
As Paul wrote to a pastor named Timothy: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
It was August of 1982, and something tugged at the heart of Ronald Reagan. He noted in his diary, “Again at the White House. More of Saturday’s work, plus a long letter I have to write to Loyal. I’m afraid for him. His health is failing badly.” Loyal Davis, Reagan’s father-in-law and pioneering neurosurgeon, was just days away from death.
And there was something else that worried him--the dying man was an atheist. As Davis himself once wrote, “I have never been able to subscribe to the divinity of Jesus Christ, nor His virgin birth. I don’t believe in His resurrection, or a heaven or hell. If we’re remembered and discussed with pleasure and happiness after death, this is our heavenly reward.”
So late one Saturday afternoon, for just a moment, the most powerful man in the world laid everything aside, took out a pen, and set out on an urgent mission--to rescue one soul.
And while his language didn’t have the polished speech-writer sound for which he was so well known, “The Great Communicator,” still it was a quiet, humble profession of faith.
This is what he wrote: “Dear Loyal, I hope you’ll forgive me for this, but I’ve been wanting to write you ever since we talked on the phone. I’m aware of the strain you’re under and believe with all my heart that there’s help for that. It was a miracle that a young Man of thirty years, without credentials as a scholar or priest, had more impact on the world than all the teachers, scientists, emperors, generals, and admirals who ever lived, all put together. Either He was who He said He was, or He was the greatest faker and charlatan who ever lived. But would a liar and faker suffer the death He did?”
Then after writing the words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son,” he added, “We have been promised that all we have to do is ask God in Jesus’ name to help when we have done all we can--when we’ve come to the end of our strength and abilities and we’ll have that help...All that’s required is that you believe and tell God you put yourself in His hands.”
Did his letter make any difference? Nancy Reagan, who saved that letter, and who was with him when he died, thinks it did. For after a hospital chaplain came and prayed with him, he wasn’t so afraid anymore.
Born in 1495, Thomas Bilney attended Cambridge University. Since he was so short, his friends called him, “Little Bilney.”
And while he was at Cambridge, at first he studied law. But his heart wasn’t really in it, so he chose to study Greek instead, which included a freshly printed copy of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament. And from the moment he held that book in his hands, his life was never the same.
In fact, as he was reading the very words of our text, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief,” he said, “Immediately, I felt a marvelous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leapt for joy.”
So just a few years later, he began to preach that we’re saved, not by honoring saints and relics, but by believing in Jesus Christ alone, a message for which he was dragged out of the pulpit, arrested, thrown into prison, convicted of heresy, and ordered to recant.
And he did recant. But two years later, after he was so overcome with remorse, he began to preach again.
But this time, he would not recant. And after he was once again arrested and found guilty of heresy, he was burned at the stake in 1531. His last words were, “Jesus,” and “I believe.”
Where is our help? Who is our hope?
As Paul wrote to Timothy: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Out of Your great grace and mercy, You have called us and made us Your own. Grant that whoever we are or whatever we’ve done, we may find hope and healing at the cross, for Jesus’ sake. Amen