Listen to the talk here or read the transcript below
Preacher: Lionel Windsor
Church: St Nics Anglican Church, Coogee
Date: 6 September 2026
Bible text: based on NIV 1984
Paul’s story
I’m not sure if you listen to any podcasts, but I suspect you might. They’ve had a massive rise in popularity over the last 10 years. An estimate I saw said that the percentage of the Australian population that listens to podcasts has gone from 5% 10 years ago to 55% today.
So maybe half of you might be listening to podcasts here. I listen, like a typical dad, to The Rest Is History. My wife listens to true crime podcasts. Now why are they so popular? Partly it is because they are so easy to fit into your life, but a large part of it is that they’re often full of stories, authentic stories, real life stories, true stories about real people.
And we love stories, don’t we? Especially true stories. We can relate to them. So we hear stories about other people, people in the past, people today, whether they can help us to understand ourselves. So we might be different to the people in the stories in lots of different ways. But we can also see points of contact. We can see ways in which we are similar. I can learn from those people, ways to relate to them and learn from them.
Today’s passage from 1 Timothy is about the story of the Apostle Paul. It’s not the whole story of his entire life, but it is about one very important part in his story. Now, in lots of ways, you and I are very different from the Apostle Paul. But in this key way, our Bible passage today tells us and encourages us, actually urges us to share in Paul’s story, to be like him in this way.
And so today in the sermon, I want to help you to see why that matters. And just as a heads up, I’m going to deliberately encourage you to make a change in your own life, to follow this part of Paul’s story even more closely. Now there’s more details about the story in the book of Acts. So we’re going to briefly look there to remember what the story is. Paul lived 2,000 years ago in the ancient Roman Empire. He was a Jewish man. He had a Jewish name as well. His Jewish name was Saul, and he also had a Roman name, which was Paul.
You know, people had different names. So Saul, or Paul, grew up knowing the Bible, the Old Testament. He knew it really well, and he was serious about it. He was zealous. He was a leader amongst his people in knowing God’s word really well. At one point, his life took a major turn. All these disciples of this person called Jesus burst onto the scene in Jerusalem. They started to proclaim, Jesus has risen from the dead.
And Saul, Paul, he wasn’t impressed at all. He didn’t believe them. And in fact, he saw this Jesus movement as a gigantic threat to his religious way of life, the way of life of his nation, the way of life of his ancestors. So he started a violent campaign against them. But one day all that changed dramatically. So here’s a brief version of that story from Acts chapter 9 in the New Testament.
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Acts 9:1–6
A bit later in the story, we read:
For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
Acts 9:19b–22
So that’s Paul’s dramatic story, his dramatic turnarounds. And here in 1 Timothy in our passage today, Paul is reflecting on that story, on his own story, and he’s drawing out something vitally important about it. He says there’s something in his own story that matters for everyone, something that makes an astounding difference to our lives and to our own stories. It is a story first and foremost about amazing grace.
A story of amazing grace (1 Timothy 1:12–14)
Let’s start in verse 12.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
1 Timothy 1:12
So last week from verse three, we saw that Paul in this letter, he’s actually the great apostle to the nations. He’s now going out and proclaiming Jesus throughout the world. And that gospel, that message, that job of preaching Jesus has been entrusted by Jesus, by God, to Paul. So Paul begins with thankfulness. Thankfulness to Christ Jesus, thankfulness to Christ who provides all this power and this ability. For his ministry.
Why does Paul give thanks? Because Christ considered Paul faithful. That means Christ entrusted Paul with this task of being this great apostle. Christ considered Paul trustworthy, faithful to do that wonderful job of being an apostle. And you might think, well, that’s quite unremarkable, really, because Paul was a very impressive man, really, wasn’t he, until you remember who Paul was. When Christ gave him that job.
Verse 13 says:
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
1 Timothy 1:13
You see what Paul’s point is? Christ considered him faithful. Christ considered him trustworthy. Even though, by any stretch of the human imagination, he’s the opposite of trustworthy. Imagine that you are a manager for Fire and Rescue NSW, interviewing someone for a job as a firefighter.
“Hello, Bob, welcome to this interview. Tell me what qualifies you for this job of putting out fires.” And Bob says, “Oh, well, I’m an arsonist. So actually, I prefer to light fires. But hey, I thought I’d give this job a go.” What do you reckon? Does Bob sound faithful? Does Bob sound trustworthy for this job? Does he get the job?
Well, Paul didn’t have a job interview. If he had, would you have entrusted him with a message about Jesus Christ? Paul was the last person in the world that God would have wanted to entrust with the message about Jesus Christ. He had clearly shown every possible indication of being completely unqualified for the job. I mean, he wasn’t even a Christian, he didn’t even believe in Jesus, but worse than that, he was going around persecuting the church, Jesus’ people. He was carrying out a campaign directly against Jesus and this gospel message.
Paul uses three different words to fill out sort of the 3D nature of his utter unworthiness for this job, his utter sinfulness. Firstly, most importantly, maybe, there’s a God’s words dimension to Paul’s sin. When it comes to God, he was a blasphemer. That means he was Going around saying the opposite of the truth about Jesus our Lord, saying that Jesus, the Son of God, was evil. Secondly, there’s a churchwards dimension to Paul’s sin. He was a persecutor. He was actively and murderously trying to stop the whole thing.
And thirdly, there’s an inwards dimension to Paul’s sin. He says he was violent. The original word means even more than physical violence. It means he was insolent, arrogant, Proud, defiant. That’s what he was. And what was Paul’s biggest problem? Where did all that stem from? Well, it’s there in verse 13. It was his unbelief in Jesus. And that came from ignorance.
But that ignorance was culpable ignorance. He says, it’s terrible. I mean, he should have known better. Now just to be clear, what you can’t accuse him of, here’s something you can’t accuse him of. You can’t accuse him of not being religious. He was really religious, wasn’t he? Super religious. You can’t accuse him of not taking the faith of his parents seriously. I mean, he loved the Bible. He loved the Old Testament. He was zealous.
But none of that made any difference. In fact, it kind of did make a difference because it made it worse. Because he definitely should have known better. He was actively and murderously trying to stop the whole thing, but he had no excuse for his ignorance. I mean, he couldn’t say he didn’t know. He was culpably ignorant. I don’t know if you’re religious. I don’t know if you know the Bible really well.
But it’s not how religious you are before God that matters. It’s not how well you know the Bible that matters. It’s whether you trust in Jesus. And Paul clearly did not. But he was shown mercy by Jesus. And his ignorance, it wasn’t some kind of mitigating factor, I don’t think. It’s not as if, oh, I wasn’t that bad. I didn’t know what I was doing. No, what he’s saying is that ignorant unbelief made it worse and heightened the mercy that Jesus Christ showed him. Contrary to all the evidence you could muster, Christ considered Paul trustworthy for this ministry.
In other places, Paul says that God considers us, in fact, righteous before him, even when we’re not. And here, Christ considered Paul worthy of trust, faithful when he wasn’t, when he was the opposite of worthy of trust. So some people say, oh, you’ve got to be faithful to God first and then he’ll be faithful To you. But no, it’s the other way around. Here, Christ’s love, Christ’s faithfulness came first.
And he considered Paul worthy of this ministry even when he wasn’t. Paul has a really important word for this then. That word is grace there in verse 14.
The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:14
Now what is grace? Grace is a funny word. I mean, the word just means gift. So what kind of gift is this kind of gift that Christ Jesus gave to Paul? Is it a gift given to the worthy? Is it the kind of gift that you give to the people who deserve it? Some people do give gifts like that. You give gifts to people who are worthy. I recently heard a heartbreaking story of a girl in Year Six who was enrolled in the selective schools test.
And the parents told her, well, if you get into the selective school, then you can have a birthday party. And if you don’t, then no birthday party. And on her birthday, she received the results. No selective school. So no party, no gift. How awful is that? Is that the kind of gift that Paul’s talking about here? The grace that’s based on us, on our performance?
Well, no! I mean, absolutely not. Paul had been given this gift from Jesus when he’d done the absolute opposite of performing for God. Oh, well, another kind of gift you might think about is the kind of a completely random, no strings attached gift. Here you go, here’s a gift, I don’t care what you do with it, just go for it like a random inheritance from an arch that you never knew, and there you go, I’ve got the gift, great.
But no, that’s not the kind of gift that Paul’s talking about here either. This gift is so much greater than that. It’s the gift that comes freely from Christ Jesus, but which overflows into our lives. It’s not a gift with strings attached. It’s a gift with Christ Jesus attached. It’s about knowing him. It’s a gift that comes from Jesus that indeed is in Jesus and it overflows into our lives. As it does, it creates 2 things here, faith and love. Paul is not just talking about emotions; he is talking about something far greater. The word faith means trust. It’s the same idea as the word believe.
It’s about trusting, believing in Jesus. And love, the main way we express our faith in Jesus, because we’re secure in Jesus, we actually can care for others. We can seek their good over our own self-interest because we know that God has loved us, not to earn the gift of God’s grace, but because he’s given himself to us already. That’s what Paul means when he says Christ’s grace overflows in his life. It changed him, it transformed him.
And do you see that it’s a full three-dimensional transformation, do you see there? In the Godwards direction, he was formerly a slanderer of Christ, a blasphemer. Now he’s calling Christ Lord and telling everybody else that Christ is Lord. In the inwards direction, he was formerly insolent, he was formerly arrogant, he was formerly proud. And now he trusts Christ as his Savior. He is now humbled before him. In the churchwards direction, the former persecutor of Christ’s people now deeply loves Christ’s people.
This is grace. Grace is given to those who are entirely unworthy to receive it, and it’s profoundly overflowing and transforming. So it led Paul to that joyful thankfulness. Praise to God, love for others. That’s what grace does.
Why Christ Jesus came (1 Timothy 1:15–17)
Why? Because of who Jesus is. And because of what Jesus came to do. What did Jesus come to do? There’s lots of ideas in our world about Jesus’ main job, aren’t there? What was Jesus’ mission? What was driving him? What was the big thing that brought him into our world? Here are some ideas that are going around. Christ Jesus came into the world to be a wonderful moral teacher. Christ Jesus came into the world to be a great exemplary Human being that we can all be like and look up to. Jesus Christ Jesus came into the world to establish a superior civilization.
Christ Jesus came into the world to make my personal life more fulfilling and wonderful. Christ Jesus came into the world to heal and love and support us where we’re at. Well, they may well all be results, all sorts of results of Christ Jesus coming into the world. But they’re not the main reason he came. That’s not what was primarily driving him coming into the world.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
1 Timothy 1:15a
That’s Paul. And you don’t just read it in Paul’s letters, Jesus said it too. We looked at the same thing last week, didn’t we?
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:30–32
Saving sinners is not just a side issue for Jesus. It is not just one thing he came to do, one effect. Saving sinners is not just the final bit that he did when he died on the cross in his earthly life. Saving sinners is the point. It’s what it’s all about. He came to save sinners, to rescue sinners. Rescue, that’s what the word save means, rescue from what?
Well, from what we read in our Old Testament reading, didn’t we? From God’s righteous wrath, his righteous anger against our sin, for not keeping his commands, for sinning. Jesus died on the cross for us in our place. He took that sin on himself and brought us that forgiveness. What has that got to do with Paul?
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
1 Timothy 1:15
I’m not sure if you notice the present tense there. I am the worst of sinners, says Paul. He could very easily have chosen to use the past tense there. He could have said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I was the worst. He could have said, I was the worst of sinners, but I’m not anymore.
But he didn’t. Because that phrase, the worst of sinners, says something that still means something that matters for him for the rest of his life. Now, of course, there are still things that, there are actually things that are in the past for Paul. He says he was formerly a blasphemer, persecutor, insolent person. Now he’s changed in terms of his personal experience. Yeah, he’s changed, he’s been transformed.
But at the same time, in terms of how he thinks about himself, Paul is still shaped by this reality: “I am the worst of sinners.” That’s not an excuse for Paul to sin. Like, oh, I’m the worst of sinners, so I’ll keep on sinning. That would be ridiculous. In fact, it’s the actual act of him recognizing he is the worst of sinners who’s received grace that helps Paul to put to death that insolence, arrogance, pride, keeps him humble, keeps him thankful, enables him to keep proclaiming that message of God’s grace to others.
But Paul wants to keep saying this. He’s not saying, hi everyone, I’m a good person now who deserves God to be good to me. I am a sinner, he says, saved by grace. Why? It’s absolutely at the core of what it means to be a Christian.
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life
1 Timothy 1:16
Paul’s life is a story of a sinner saved by grace and that becomes a pattern, a pattern for countless others, an example of God’s patience and mercy. The word example here, it means prototype, like a stamp. Paul was shown mercy, the worst of sinners, so that he could be an ongoing, living demonstration of that grace. It’s like a printing press, you know, the pattern, the prototype, the stamp, the impression is Paul’s change from being the worst of sinners to being an apostle who still recognises he was the worst of sinners.
And it’s like Christ Jesus turns on the printing press and Paul’s life produces copies, hundreds of copies, thousands of copies, people who are also sinners saved by grace. That’s what it means to be a Christian, that grace shown to the unworthy, which is also, of course, grace that transforms. Now Paul’s life, what’s it a stamp of? It’s not a stamp of perfection, it’s a stamp of grace. Grace In Christ Jesus. It’s a stamp of humility, of faith, of praise, of thankfulness to God and of love. Love that comes from Christ Jesus and that flows out to others.
What exactly did he do? What is he a stamp of in particular? He’s a stamp of those who believe on Jesus Christ and receive eternal life. That’s what it means to be converted. Being converted doesn’t mean Changing your religion at the core. And in fact, Paul didn’t change religions, really. I mean, that wouldn’t really work. I mean, he was Jewish. That’s not the point. His conversion was not about changing religions. His conversion was to something far more important. His conversion was to start trusting in Jesus Christ. He was converted to Jesus, not to a religion.
And to believe that Jesus can and will bring him eternal life, life with God forever, free from that condemnation, from that wrath that we rightly deserve as sinners, but to know that because of what Jesus has done, he has eternal life, rescued from God’s wrath, living forever in that joyful new creation, which is why it is all about Jesus. Verse 17:
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 1:17
And Jesus is the Son of God, the King, and honor and all honor and glory goes to Him. That’s what we look forward to, that eternal life. Have you been converted? I don’t mean have you been converted to Christianity. I mean have you been converted to trusting in Jesus? Because Paul’s a prototype in that way, God’s grace to sinners believing in Jesus for eternal life. That’s core to my story. I grew up in an atheist family. I started to read the Bible. I was so afraid of God’s anger against me for not keeping his commands. I thought I had to achieve righteousness before God.
And when I was in Year Six, a lovely lady called Mrs Round, who was teaching SRE, helped me to see that Jesus had died on the cross for me. And I can be completely forgiven, not because of me, but because of Him. I came to trust him. And by God’s grace, so did my sister, so did my parents soon afterwards. God’s grace to sinners is also at the core of John Newton’s story. If you know him, a terrible man, self-confessed blasphemer, an inventor of evil, a man deeply involved in the slave trade, in fact, in the 1700s.
On the 21st of March, 1748, he was caught in a terrible storm in the Atlantic, and that storm was a catalyst for him to reflect on his own life and his wretchedness, and he came to Jesus. And his life was transformed. It’s kind of a slow transformation. But by 1772, he was able to write that famous hymn,
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav’d a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.
Amazing Grace (John Newton; public-domain hymn)
This is coming straight from this passage in Paul’s story in Acts 9, isn’t it? And among other things, actually John Newton helped to secure the ministry of the first chaplain to Australia, Richard Johnson, who came to Australia because he was a sinner saved by grace, who wanted to proclaim that message to who? To convicts—basically criminals—in the first colony. Because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
And here we are. That’s what grace is. That’s what grace does. Have you grasped hold of that grace in Jesus Christ?
Holding on to grace (1 Timothy 1:18–20)
What do we do with this grace then? I mean, there’s wrong ways you could apply this grace. You could use the grace as an excuse for sin. I mean, you know, when you treat someone badly, when you’re arrogant, you could simply say, well, everyone’s a sinner, God’s gracious, move on, nothing to see here. But that’s not how grace works. Let’s see how Paul wanted that grace to work in Timothy’s life.
Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.
1 Timothy 1:18–19a
Timothy in many ways, yeah, he was special in some ways, like Paul did certain particular things, but in many ways Timothy is also an example for us. Paul tells him to fight the good fight. Sometimes today when people use that phrase, they wrongly think Paul’s talking about fighting other people. Like, fight the good fight means I’m the good guys fighting the bad guys. Standing up for the truth over evil people. You know, fight the good fight.
Well, there’s a place for that, but that’s not what Paul’s talking about here. He explains what he means. Verse 19, holding on to faith and a good conscience. At this point, Paul’s not talking here about the struggle of the me, the good guy, against them, the bad guys. He’s talking about the struggle to live out God’s grace in our lives, the struggle to trust Jesus, to do the right thing because he wants you to, because he’s saved you, because he’s rescued you for that, to live out that faith in Jesus in those loving ways, those godly ways, those pure and faithful ways.
That’s what the false teachers had rejected, you see.
Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
1 Timothy 1:19b–20
That was the problem with the false teachers. Maybe they gave lip service to Jesus and to God’s grace, but God’s grace in Christ Jesus had not actually grasped hold of them. It hadn’t produced the humility of faith, the confession of sin. It hadn’t produced a good conscience in them, and that was a disaster for them and for their hearers. Paul calls it a shipwreck. Paul knew all about shipwrecks. If you know anything about Paul’s life, shipwrecks featured a lot in his life.
Why does he describe this situation as a shipwreck? Well, it’s like you’ve hopped onto the faith boat. But you’ve decided, well, I’ll just chuck out the sails and the rigging and throw out the rudder and chuck the engine overboard, and you’re no longer heading to your destination. It’s a write-off. You’re going to crash. We hop into the faith in Jesus boat that saves you from sin and brings you eternal life, but then you start to say, Oh, look over there at those jagged, pointy rocks over there. I think, how about we kind of sail as close as we possibly can to those jagged, pointed rocks?
They look much more interesting, that sin and all that. Let’s just drift, see what happens. Well, what happens is a shipwreck. How do you avoid that? If you’re even a bit worried about that possibility, then, that’s actually a really good sign. Some people who aren’t worried about that possibility, it’s a problem for if you’re worried about that. Because if you’re worried, you’ll be struggling. You’ll be fighting that good fight.
But most of all, don’t think that you just have to focus on yourself and your own efforts. Keep looking to Jesus. Keep remembering, I’m a sinner saved by grace. That’s what overflows into Faith in a good conscience. Keep remembering he’s strong, you’re not. He’s got the security for you on those high seas. Just don’t go and sail towards the rocks. Keep looking to him.
And if you’re feeling desolate because maybe you’ve already made a shipwreck of your faith, just notice what Paul says about Hymenaeus and Alexander. Handed them over to Satan. Why? So that they can be taught not to blaspheme, so that they can be brought back.
What’s your story?
So that’s Paul’s story. What’s your story? I’m going to ask two questions right now. Have you followed the pattern that Paul lays out here? Have you believed on Christ Jesus and received eternal life? I’m not asking about if you’ve converted your religion. Maybe you have changed religions. Maybe you haven’t. Maybe you’ve grown up in a Christian home. I don’t know. That’s not the question. The question is this. Have you recognized yourself as a sinner desperately in need of God’s grace through Christ?
Have you personally come to trust in Jesus as the only one who can save you? Do you know you have eternal life because of Him? And you might say, well, Lionel, I’m actually, you don’t know me. I’m too bad. I’ve committed too many sins in my life for God to forgive me. So I can’t come to Jesus. He won’t have me.
Well, if that’s how you feel, don’t listen to me. Listen to somebody who’s a worse sinner than you. Listen to the words of the worst of sinners. Paul, listen again to that.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
1 Timothy 1:15
You’re not worse than the Apostle Paul. You’re not so bad that Christ can’t save you. So come to him. My second question is if you’ve come to Christ Jesus, how’s the fight going? How’s the struggle going? Or is there no struggle? Are you drifting? If you’re drifting, are you sailing closer to the rocks? Well, I want to say to you exactly the same thing as I said to the people I asked the first question of. Come to Jesus, learn from him, listen again to that trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15a
And I actually want to invite you to do that today. We have a prayer in our programs that we’re all going to be saying out loud after the next song. In fact, it’s not actually an extra prayer I’ve added in. It’s a prayer that we say most weeks. And we say it most weeks because like Paul, we always need to remember that we’re sinners saved by grace.
This passage is the reason that we keep saying the prayer. But you might need to take those words to heart, especially today. To confess your sin, to come to Jesus maybe for the first time, to receive Eternal life. So I’m going to read it out in a moment just so that you’re familiar with it. And then after the song, Peter’s going to lead us in that prayer and give you an opportunity to pray it for yourself.
And that might be a prayer you need especially to take to heart. I’ll just read it. Here it is.
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you made all things, and you call everyone to account. With shame we confess the sins we have committed against you, in thought, word and deed. We rightly deserve your condemnation. We turn from our sins and are truly sorry for them; they are a burden we cannot bear. Have mercy on us, most merciful Father. For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us all that is past. Enable us to serve and please you in newness of life, to your honour and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
For now, let’s sing of God’s amazing grace.