The last couple weeks we’ve been working through the names of our church. Trinity reminds us that we are made in the image of an eternally personal and loving God. We are made for fellowship with Him and with each other, to share Trinitarian unity and joy. However, when Adam sinned, and humanity in him, we were separated. Only the evangel , the gospel could reconcile us to God. The evangel is the power of God to salvation, and those of us who believe it preach and practice the gospel by dying, forgiving, and hoping.

Those of us who are saved by the evangel are also united by the evangel in Christ. The gospel creates a new people, His Body. His work saves us from hell and forms us into the Church .

We are not a social club. We are not a community defined by schools, pools, roads, and restaurants. We are the church of the living God.

Of course, the church has fallen on hard times. Whether due to individualism, hypocrisy, unqualified leadership, or plain unbelief, the church is not popular. We look around and we know there are problems; we are the problems. Guns don’t hurt church people, church people do. All the commands to bear with one another and forgive one another are there because the need is there. Unity requires that we put on love, and loving each other is work.

Paul told us it would be tough. The very next paragraph after the one we’re studying this morning says so: 1 Timothy 4:1-3. Acts 20, Paul’s instruction to the Ephesian elders, among whom Timothy was stationed, included warning about fierce wolves that would come from within themselves. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 also described how ugly it would be among church people.

Yet with all of that, the church is God’s favorite living organism on the planet. His Son promised to build His church and then gave His life on behalf of His church. This local body is a testimony to His great grace and is God’s light to this community.

Many consider 1 Timothy 3:14-16 to be the heart not only of 1 Timothy, but of all three pastoral letters. Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus to shepherd the church. This is a personal word to Timothy after giving instruction about men and women and then the qualifications for church leadership (2:1-3:13), and in this paragraph Paul reminds Timothy of the privileged position of the church.

This paragraph establishes three reasons for us to celebrate the church, her character, her calling, and her confession.

The Character of the Church (v.14-15a)

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God,

There are two things emphasized about the character of the church in verse 15. First, the church is God’s family. By using this metaphor, the household of God , Paul describes the church not as a building, but as the people. The church is the household, the family of God, with God as Father, and believers as His children, brothers and sisters with each other. Paul told Timothy how to treat other family members in the church in 1 Timothy 5:1-2. We aren’t some ragtag, motley group of strangers who just decide to get together on Sunday mornings. We are family.

The second part of the church’s character is that we are the church of the living God . In the Old Testament God is often called the “living God” to emphasize how distinct He is from the dead, inanimate idols. The “living God” is also identified some 15 times in the New Testament. We are His church , the gathered people, the assembly of those who worship, love, and serve the living and true God. We are the band of brothers that worships the living God, the Lord of lords and King of kings.

It’s virtually impossible to overestimate the value of this spiritual family. The church isn’t a vague idea, it has people, and the people have names and faces. John Bunyan offered this analogy about the blessings of our connectedness.

Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall their dew at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other. (Christian Behavior, quoted in Brown, 173)

When each part is equipped and working properly, the body is built up in love. Ain’t nothing like it anywhere else. We can’t be content with isolation and separation; we’re a gospel family, God’s household. The character of the church is a reason to celebrate.

The Calling of the Church (v.15b)

a pillar and buttress of the truth.

I think the last part of verse 15 clarifies the fundamental objective and assignment of the church. Just as there were two parts to the character of the church, so here we see two parts of our calling. Our responsibility, our mission in the world is to be the pillar and buttress of the truth.

First, the church is the pillar…of the truth . There’s no doubt that the word pillar would have brought an unmistakable picture to Timothy’s mind. The Temple of Artemis (or Diana) was located in Ephesus where he was stationed and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Perhaps the most striking features were its 127, 40’ tall marble columns some of which were studded with jewels and overlaid with gold. But of course, more important than their appearance was their function: to support the structure.

The church is the pillar of truth . The church holds up the truth and supports it before the world. Paul often used the word “truth” as a reference for the gospel, as in 1 Timothy 2:4 - “[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” and in Colossians 1:5 - “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.” The “truth” is a synonym for “gospel,” and that also connects with the content of verse 16. So the church is called to declare and display the gospel.

Second, the church is the buttress of the truth or “ground” (NKJV) of truth. The word “buttress” is a word that refers to a brace or reinforcement that helps to guard and fortify. In other words, the church is called to defend the truth. Like battlements protect a town, so the church is to preserve and take care of the truth, making sure the truth doesn’t fall.

Both of these images, “pillar and buttress” suggest strength, permanence, reliability, and indestructibility. John Calvin responded to this description of the church’s calling by asking, “Could it (the church’s calling) have been described in loftier language?”

Of course, the church does not invent the truth, the truth comes from God. God alone is the source of truth and not the church, but the church is to safeguard that truth in this hostile world. If the church fiddles with, distorts, depreciates, or discards biblical truth in favor of anything else it has abandoned its calling in the world. For whatever other things we do, we must show off and safeguard the truth.

Isn’t it stunning that God entrusted the truth, the gospel, to the church? How many other ways could He have spread His truth with greater success and greater nobility than to use us, the miserable lot that we are. But He has made us stewards, and a true church keeps the truth in its purity and entirety. As the church spreads the truth we bring light to darkness, meaning to emptiness, stability to disorder, and standards to relativism.

How do we do this? We preach and write and define and defend. Yes. We must not tamper with God’s Word, we believe and so we speak. But that’s not all. We also serve and slosh grace. We let death work in us so that life works in others (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:10-12). Perhaps that is part of the reason so many people look down on the church, because the gospel is a two-dimensional pillar, more at home on a printed page than walking around.

We proclaim and protect, we display and defend, we lift it up and fight for, the truth. Though the gospel can never be destroyed, what a responsibility and mission and calling rests on the church to display and defend the treasure of truth. There is reason to celebrate the character and the calling of the church.

The Confession of the Church

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.

The chief truth that the church is called to declare and defend is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In verse 16 we see the content or confession of the truth. There are six parts of this confession, and they likely come from an early church hymn, since there is a rhythm and parallel form to the lines.

These six statements take us from the incarnation to the ascension. They highlight pivotal points in Christ’s ministry and the results of that ministry. They are Great indeed , “without controversy” (NKJV), “by common confession great” (NAS) or in other words, these truths are beyond all question. Undeniably great is the godliness mystery (that is now made clear).

He was manifested in the flesh . This refers to the second Person of the Trinity and to His incarnation. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and in Christ the fulness of God dwelt in bodily form. Unless God became man, we would have no mediator to go to God on our sinful behalf.

He was vindicated by the Spirit . As Romans 1:4 says, the resurrection vindicated or proved that Jesus Christ “was the son of God with power.” Unless Jesus rose from the dead we have no hope. He conquered death so that we too might be resurrected to eternal life.

He was also seen by angels . Angels prophesied His birth to Mary and Joseph, they announced His birth to the shepherds, they ministered to Jesus after His temptation, they strengthened Him when He prayed in Gethsemane, they declared His resurrection to the women, and explained His ascension to the apostles.

And Jesus was proclaimed among the nations , or, the good news was preached (and is still being preached) to Jew and Gentile. He was believed on in the world . Finally, He was taken up into glory . He has gone to prepare a place for us, and we await His return.

Verse 16 is a summary of the gospel. God became man, died for our sins, triumphed over death, was honored by angels and feared by demons, and ascended into heaven. Even though there is more truth that we declare and defend than what is found in verse 16, this chorus of truth is the possession of the church, and it is a reason for us to celebrate.

Conclusion

So this short paragraph tells us the make-up of the church and designates who we are: the family of the living God. It tells us the mission of the church and delineates what we do: proclaim and protect the truth. And it tells us the message of the church and defines what we believe: the good news of salvation by faith in the God-man, Jesus Christ.

These three reasons (the character, calling, and confession of the church) are not only a reason to celebrate and value what the church has already accomplished, they are the exact same reasons we should commit ourselves to continue the work.

The church is God’s chosen instrument of truth in the world. We are the people of God, who know and must uphold the truth of God, about the glorious Son of God. We have a lot to live for, a lot to live up to. We are the church of the living God.