CHURCH UNITY: WHAT DESTROYS IT AND WHAT STRENGTHENS IT (5 OF 10)
by Drew Hunter
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:14-19
This content is part of a series.
Church Unity: What Destroys It and What Strengthens It (5 of 10)
Series: Entrusted with the Gospel, for the Spread of the Gospel.
Drew Hunter
2 Timothy 2:14-19
[Read 2 Tim 2:14-19]
Most of us in this room have had enough exposure to one or more local churches to know this: that life in a local church can be messy.
Churches are to be the places where grace reigns. They are to be a foretaste of the glory of the community of the new creation to come. They are to be a community that is becoming more like Jesus.
?And yet they so often fall short. And the reason for this is different for different churches. Certainly many churches fall short because they are not actually filled with real Christians. Those who have turned from their sin, trusted in him, and are resting in and being renewed by his grace.
But other churches are filled with Christians. But Christians are each along the path at different points. We are all still fallen.
And when a local church has a season of difficulty, or has pockets of disunity...
We might think, ''if we could only return to what it was like in the first century.'' We might think, ''if only we could return to the churches of the New Testament.''
And the problem with thinking like that is that it wouldn't solve our problem. We don't need to read many of the letters to the churches in the New Testament to find churches with problems. They were messy at times, some more than others.
We're reading in 2 Timothy this Summer. The Apostle Paul is writing this letter to him about his ministry. Timothy has been one of the pastors at Ephesus for a number of years. And his church is messy. There are problems. There are challenges. There are difficulties. And Paul is writing to encourage and affirm Timothy, and challenge him to keep pressing on in the work.
So, this letter is address to Timothy in a particular context.
Timothy is a pastor who was probably just a few years older than me. And he has been in his ...
Series: Entrusted with the Gospel, for the Spread of the Gospel.
Drew Hunter
2 Timothy 2:14-19
[Read 2 Tim 2:14-19]
Most of us in this room have had enough exposure to one or more local churches to know this: that life in a local church can be messy.
Churches are to be the places where grace reigns. They are to be a foretaste of the glory of the community of the new creation to come. They are to be a community that is becoming more like Jesus.
?And yet they so often fall short. And the reason for this is different for different churches. Certainly many churches fall short because they are not actually filled with real Christians. Those who have turned from their sin, trusted in him, and are resting in and being renewed by his grace.
But other churches are filled with Christians. But Christians are each along the path at different points. We are all still fallen.
And when a local church has a season of difficulty, or has pockets of disunity...
We might think, ''if we could only return to what it was like in the first century.'' We might think, ''if only we could return to the churches of the New Testament.''
And the problem with thinking like that is that it wouldn't solve our problem. We don't need to read many of the letters to the churches in the New Testament to find churches with problems. They were messy at times, some more than others.
We're reading in 2 Timothy this Summer. The Apostle Paul is writing this letter to him about his ministry. Timothy has been one of the pastors at Ephesus for a number of years. And his church is messy. There are problems. There are challenges. There are difficulties. And Paul is writing to encourage and affirm Timothy, and challenge him to keep pressing on in the work.
So, this letter is address to Timothy in a particular context.
Timothy is a pastor who was probably just a few years older than me. And he has been in his ...
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