“Why Me?”
I Timothy 1:12-17
Intro.: A
number of years ago, while having one of those super-awful days when everything
seemed to be going wrong and nothing seemed to be going right, I made the
mistake of uttering in the presence of one of our more spiritually mature
members, “Why me?” When I asked that
question I wasn’t really expecting an answer.
I was just enjoying my own little
pity party, but obviously the Lord knew that I needed an answer, so my
Christian brother piped up, “Why not you?”
Indeed, why not me; why should someone else have the super-awful day I
was experiencing?
Too often we, like the Pharisees and
teachers of the law, convince ourselves that others, the real sinners of the
world, are more deserving of trouble than we are. But when was the last time we looked at all
our blessings, our relationship with Christ, and our glorious hope of
everlasting life, and honestly asked “Why Me?”
This must have been the question of the tax
collectors and sinners who were welcomed by Jesus and who shared His meal with
them and the question of Paul who was once one of Christ’s greatest
enemies.
A good spiritual exercise for each of us
today would be to ask ourselves, “Why Me?
Why has God called me to be in this place so that I may know His love,
live in everlasting fellowship with Him and have the joyful promise of a
resurrection to eternal life? Why would
God invite me to eat at His table, hear His voice and have His ear when I speak
to Him in prayer? Why, indeed? After all, like
I.
I Am The Worst Of Sinners. (vv.
13 & 15b)
A. In his letter to Timothy Paul confesses his
sinfulness and unworthiness to be loved by God or to serve Him. Paul says, “I was a blasphemer, persecutor and
insolent opponent [or violent man]…” As sinners go, Paul confessed, “I am the
worst.” While
he still went by the name “Saul of Tarsus” the man we know as Paul was a
top-notch Pharisee who in his Judaistic
self-righteousness truly considered himself better and more worthy of God’s
positive attention than most people.
His, ignorance and blind zeal for doing what was right in his own eyes
turned Paul into a hateful, vindictive, and violent man. He was a fanatic of a false religion who
cursed the Lord’s saving name, and persecuted God’s only-begotten Son. He became one of the worst enemies of Christ
- accusing, arresting and even putting to death many of the followers of
Jesus. Now, while I would normally not
attempt to contradict
B. Paul notes that he “acted
ignorantly in unbelief” but what is
our excuse? Sure some of us can claim
that for some of things we have done in the past, but what about all those
things we have done even while claiming to be in Christ? What about some of the things we have done as
recently as last month, last week or last night, even though we knew
better? I am a blasphemer. Week after week, I preach Christ and teach
about the glory of God’s name, but then day after day by the life I live and
the things I say, I betray and defame His Holy Name. And you, you are all persecutors of
Christ. Daily you use your Christian
liberty to run roughshod over one another.
You deny one another the forgiveness Christ wants you to offer and
accuse one another without compassion or mercy.
You look down upon others as sinners and deprive them of the gifts that
you, yourselves enjoy. All of us
together are violent people and insolent opponents of Christ, who hurt and
destroy and live in ways that are contrary to God’s will for us. When it comes to sin, we are the worst. We are so totally undeserving of anything
that we have, of God’s love and blessing, of being her today and of being with
the Lord for eternity. So, back to the
question, then: “Why me? Why, am I so blessed when I am the worst of
sinners?” In all of today’s readings
God gives us the same answer. It is
because…
II. Christ Came To Save Sinners Like Me. (vv. 13b, 14-15)
A. The reason we have the good things we have in
our lives, and the reason that we have received saving faith to know God’s love
is not because of anything we have done or will do. All of it is from God’s divine grace and mercy.
B. We may not know yet whether tomorrow we will
be the worst of sinners again or just a plain old sinner like the rest, but the
one we can be certain of is that Christ came to save sinners like us. In answer to the question why me, Paul writes: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full
acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners..”
When the Pharisees and teachers of the law
saw Jesus welcoming sinners, and wondered, “why them?”
Jesus offered them the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin, to explain how precious all people are to God. In the parables He relates the obsession of
the shepherd and the woman who, even though they still had ninety-nine sheep or
nine coins, could not rest until the one that was lost was reclaimed. God’s love for sinners like us is an
obsessive and consuming love – a love so strong that He sent His own Son to
seek and to save what was lost, to seek and to save sinners like you and me.
Jesus fulfilled the prophecy offered
through Ezekiel in which the Lord promised that He, Himself would come to
shepherd His people. Christ, who is God made
flesh, came to search for his lost sheep and bring back the strays, to bind up
the injured and strengthen the weak. He
came so that all of us, sheep who love to wander and have gone astray, could be
brought back to Him and lie down at last in good pastures.
Jesus came to save us by His holy life,
sacrificial death and victorious resurrection.
And still today He comes to save sinners like us and sinners like our
family and friends and neighbors by sending His Holy Spirit to give us a new
birth in baptism, to speak to us through His Word, and to feed us with His body
and blood. It is true! Jesus welcomes sinners! Jesus came to save sinners and He comes to
save us!
C. Why me and why you? Because even though we may not consider ourselves
worth that much we are precious to God.
We are the lost sheep and coins over whom the heavens rejoice. Saints and angels sing their praises because
we were lost, but now are found. The
heavens quake with the singing of the Lamb’s Song of salvation because sinners
like us have been brought to repentance and faith. In our epistle
III. So That I May Be An Example For
Others. (vv. 12, 16)
What message would God be
sending if He only invited those who appeared outwardly righteous to come to Him? What would it say to the troubled,
brokenhearted sinner if the only people they ever saw Jesus associating with
were the religious leaders and those who seemed spiritually healthy? People like the tax collectors and sinners,
like Paul, and the worst of sinners like us, would be left without hope. Jesus welcomes and saves sinners like us so
that we can be an example of His grace and mercy to others.
A. Because we have salvation in Christ we, along
with Paul, are judged faithful, strengthened in faith, and appointed for
service in God’s kingdom. You may not
have been called to be an apostle or pastor, but in Christ God judges you as
holy and faithful. He has given you many
gifts and the strength of the Holy Spirit to use them to His glory. He has called you out of the darkness of sin
and appointed you to serve him with all you are and all you have to declare His
praises. Those extreme makeover shows
you see on TV are nothing new, God has been in the
business for a long time. Better than
house-makeovers, or changes in the outward appearance of unattractive people,
is when God takes worthless people like the runaway slave Onesimus
in last weeks epistle, violent enemies of Christ like Paul, and the worst of
sinners like us and sanctifies us and transforms us into instruments of His
purpose for the display of His glory.
B. Paul’s final answer to the “Why me?” question
is so that, “Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an
example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” In the same
way each of us serves as examples to others of Christ’s patience and mercy. We offer hope to every person out there who
thinks that they have been away from the Lord too long and have been too sinful
to ever be loved and forgiven by God.
The Lord holds us out as proof to them that they have not worn out
Christ’s patience, that He still loves them, is still seeking them, and still
wants to bless and save them. Like
Paul, we are poster children for Christ, held out as examples to all those who
are yet to believe in him so that they may have eternal life. I thank God that people can look at me and
conclude if God could love and forgive a rotten sinner like Kent Umbarger, then
“Why not me?” You and I may not be perfect examples of
righteousness, but we are perfect examples of Christ’s mercy and patience.
Concl.: Thank God
that through His holy apostle He has given us the answer to our question, “Why
Me?” Armed with the Gospel we can now go
forth in the power of the Holy Spirit in search of fellow sinners to share with
them the trustworthy saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save
them. As living examples of God patience
and mercy we have an answer for them when they ask us, “Why Me? Why would God ever want to bless and save
me?” We can confidently answer, “Why not you? Jesus always welcomes sinners, after all he
welcomed me? Amen.