No Alternative! (1 Tim. 4)

I want to say that in our time we need Christians who will stand and say, “There can be no alternative!” King Jesus’ world must be reclaimed. Satan’s demonic hold on human beings and nations must be broken, broken by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now more than ever we must continue her vision, even expand that vision to see “the world as our parish” and to leverage everything we have, our experience, our faculty, our staff, indeed all of our resources, to reach the world for Jesus Christ. We must see everything we do as preparation for leading in the battle: a battle for the minds and souls of men and women, boys and girls, a battle that is fought in the strength of our Captain Jesus Christ.

Indeed, as I read 1 Timothy chapter four, I affirm, “There can be no alternative!”

There are four reasons that I see for such an affirmation in this text:

1. We must pray and support this vision now more than ever because the times demand it.

We read that in “later times” husteros kairos, there would be a great time of a crisis: in which God Himself says, through Paul, that Timothy would face apostasy (v. 1), demon devised doctrines that put people back into bondage and corrupt the free offer of grace (forbidding marriage and requiring abstinence as if that would produce holiness before God). And Paul doesn’t say, “Well, the times will be hard, so just conserve. Just fortify yourself until the storm is past.” No. Paul calls on Pastor Timothy to confront the crises. There can be no alternative.

 Imagine with me a US Airways management team meeting in early January. And someone might have said, “If we cut pilot training just a bit, not much, but just a bit, then we can really save some big bucks.” But who would think of making that proposal after the well-trained pilot glided a US Airways jetliner, with 155 people on board, over the Washington Bridge and landed it perfectly in the middle of the Hudson River? No one! They would have said, “Are you kidding? Training is what caused that pilot to save those souls entrusted to him! Cut training? That is how we are realizing the mission!”

Brothers and sisters, the training of Gospel ministers and teachers, as Paul was teaching Timothy, is not an ancillary function of the Church. Jesus commanded us to pray for workers for the Harvest. Your classes, your studies are His training ground for His pastors and missionaries, Bible teachers and leaders who will be entrusted with the eternal souls of human beings. I believe that this is a call for all of us to see that now more than ever we must focus on our vision for digging deeply into God’s Word. In a good economy or bad economy, in war or in peace, governed by Democrats or Republicans, we have no alternative but to boldly move this vision forward because the times demand it.

2. We must pray and support this vision now more than ever because God’s servants require it.