2 Timothy 1 FAITHFUL // INTRO This morning we are going to be in 2nd Timothy, and in anticipation of the potential question, “Why another letter from Paul to Timothy?” I would point you back to 1 Timothy Paul would have loved to have been a mentor to Timothy in person, sitting, talking, going out and sharing the Gospel with the lost, etc., but that wasn’t possible So letters became the mode of communication whereby Paul was coaching, correcting, and encouraging this young pastor in the cosmopolitan city of Ephesus And this is actually the last letter we have from Paul He was in prison as he was writing it and expecting his imprisonment to result in his execution, for the sake of the gospel And that did happen—Paul did indeed die as a martyr for Jesus Now, if you don’t know about Ephesus at that time in history, let me bring you up to speed Ephesus was located in modern-day Turkey, at the mouth of a prosperous harbor It was the fourth largest city in the Western world, with a population of around 250,000 people Lots of trade happened there And Ephesus was known for its vice, and was a center of magical (occult) practices The city was home to the temple of Artemis, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but was a hub of occultism, so you could count on spiritual opposition as a Christian The church in Ephesus was made up of both Jewish and Gentile members, who faced challenges when it came to unifying as the Church, while distinguishing themselves from the surrounding culture So someone will inevitably ask, “Why another letter from Paul?” Scholars believe that Paul probably wrote 2 Timothy during a second imprisonment in Rome following his fourth missionary journey that is not recorded in the book of Acts This would have taken place between A.D.60 and 62 And you can still go to Rome today and see the place where they Paul was imprisoned It's really just a cold cave in the ground, with bare walls and a little hole in the ceiling where food was dropped down to prisoners There were no windows - just a barren little cell that would have been especially uncomfortable in the winter months But even in that situation, in the midst of his hunger, cold, and imprisonment, Paul wrote this letter to young Timothy Soon after he wrote and sent this letter, he was condemned and executed in Rome at under the reign of Nero While still imprisoned, Paul's friends were allowed to visit him in his confinement in Rome, but we hear nothing of his preaching It was dangerous and difficult to seek him in his incarceration and highly perilous to show any public sympathy towards him No Christian stood by him in the court of justice (as we’ll see in chapter 4) And as the final stage of his trial approaches, the Apostle Paul looks forward to His death So 2 Timothy is not only the last letter we have from Paul, but there is also a strong tone of urgency and passion that we might expect from a man who knew he would soon be executed Because of this, Paul wrote this “farewell” letter to protege’ at Ephesus Paul was urging him to stand firm and asking him to come for one final visit And we know that Paul wrote this Epistle knowing that it was likely written to be a circular letter, distributed to all believers and churches in the Ephesus area And the Lord had plans to distribute it further than that, as we see today Paul's main purposes in writing the letter were: To help converts grow in their spiritual knowledge To promote unity between Gentile and Jewish Saints To encourage all the Saints to withstand evil The undergirding truth of this short letter/epistle is that Jesus Christ's faithfulness to us should motivate us to remain faithful to Him, regardless of our circumstances Jesus has saved us, so out of the overflow of our gratitude, we serve Him with gladness And we should remain faithful to the Lord every day, and endure hardship if necessary So Paul expounds in this letter the importance of remaining faithful to the Lord // TEXT & EXPOSITION [1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, Apostolos - ambassador; one sent with a message In this specific case, it is one who is sent with a message from God Himself [2] To Timothy, my beloved child: For Paul, Timothy was the son he never had He was obviously not family by birth, but he was family by the NEW birth in Jesus And when you read 1 and 2 Timothy (as we are now), it’s hard not to see the depth of that relationship between mentor and disciple (still in v2) Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. This is Paul’s customary form of greeting, always attributing what is good in the world to the Trinity [3] I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. [4] As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. Paul, standing in the flow of redemptive history, was worshiping this very God as his forebears had done The tears he writes about were an expression of the love that Paul had for Timothy, being parted for a long time And we see that Paul was constantly in prayer and intercession for Timothy, as well [5] I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. What a blessing Timothy had in both his mother and grandmother, who were holy women who loved Jesus and His ways dearly Here we see the great importance of patiently and deliberately passing our faith in Christ on the the next generation I have, for many years, had the opportunity to to spend a week every fall at Lake Retreat Camp in Maple Valley, and to teach at their discipleship school for college-aged students And I cherish that opportunity to invest in the lives of some young adults by sharing and elaborating on the Scriptures with them It’s always a great week for me, and this one was no exception But this goes to one of the things that Jesus calls us to as the Church - namely to invest in younger people so that they become grounded in the faith as they go forth into the world And I look around and see that we have the knowledge and experience here in this congregation What we don’t have are the young people of high school and college age to pour into So I would ask you to pray for that It’s something that Jesus wants He wants the Church connecting with the next generation, so we need to ask Him to help us do that and reach them with the Truth as we pass our faith on to others, and especially those in your immediate family! So if you have kids, steep them in the Word daily If you have grandkids, especially if you keep them from time to time, make that good deposit into their young lives [6] For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, [7] for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Paul reminds Timothy to use the gift(s) that have been given from God It’s a use-it-or-lose-it scenario, so we are called to stir it up and fan those gifts into flame Matthew 25:28–29 [28] So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. [29] For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. God’s passion for the maturity of the Church is not opposed to the gifts, as if they were training wheels for baby Christians Not at all Just stop and consider v7 again The Gifts of the Spirit come to us in the context of power, love, and self-control, so if you’ve seen any abuse of that (the Gifts) in THE Church, then it was precisely that - an abuse of what God has given us But that doesn’t mean you're free to ignore them, or pretend that they’re not important And Verse 7 is a function of the previous verse What that means is that you don’t need to be scared or intimidated about using your spiritual gifts (in their proper contexts) And the one that is the easiest to illustrate regarding this point is tongues They have not ceased How do I know that? Because the gifts of the Spirit (and tongues and interpretation of tongues are both listed) are from God FOR the Church So the reason I say that is that the Church is still here, so the gifts are active The gifts will cease when the Church is in Heaven God wants every Believer to have and operate in at least ONE spiritual gift, given by the Holy Spirit The gifts are meant to encourage us by giving us a way to impact those around us, by going beyond the flesh These gifts are from the 3rd Person of the Godhead, so don’t fear them And don’t fear the abuse of them, either, especially not here at ER The gifts are DUNAMIS in Greek - dynamic and powerful And the thing that tempers the potential misuse of those gifts is AGAPE - God’s love So keep a sound mind about these things, and operate with self-control so as to honor the One who gave them to us [8] Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, [9] who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, The take-away here is that we should NEVER allow what other people think about our relationship with Jesus get in the way of obeying Jesus and loving Him And rather than being ashamed of Paul’s sufferings, God calls Timothy to embrace them as if he were actually experiencing them himself And all this for the sake of the Gospel, working by the power of God And to the point in v8, you should not (generally speaking) care about what people think anyway Paul was in prison as he was writing this letter to Timothy, and yet there are no directives like, “Don’t let the elders at your church see this letter, because then they’ll think less of me!” The fact of the matter is a person, especially a leader, cannot lead well if they’re constantly checking the opinion polls Giving in to that mentality inevitably ends up in mob rule God called us, God saved us, God imparted to us holiness positionally, and then started immediately working it into our lives practically He poured out His grace on us, not because of good works we have done to earn something from Him, but in spite of them The truth is that all those good works done in the name of Man deserved death We could never please God in the flesh, and we must never lose sight of that reality [10] and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, [11] for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, God’s purposes and His great grace have been manifested to us and through us Only through the coming of Jesus in the flesh to earth was this holy calling that Paul is talking about actually manifested in the world Genesis 3:15 - I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Matthew 28:5–6 - [5] But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. [6] He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. John 20:19–20 [19] On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” [20] When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus came, He saw, He conquered [12] …which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. And because He was commissioned to be a herald of the Gospel, Paul also had the privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ But Paul is not at all ashamed of this because He is seeing this reality through God’s perspective, not Man’s And he fully trusted that though things looked dire, God was able to use it and bring about good And he was convinced that Jesus was able to use it and him to guard the message of the Good News, and the faith that had been entrusted to him [13] Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. [14] By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. So following the pattern, Pastors ought to be teaching and preaching sound doctrine and the Word of God, not Man’s best thoughts about God We ought to be focused on making disciples who will make disciples And though this was originally written for Timothy, it is a template for any Man who is called to the Pastorate And for that matter, it’s a calling to every single Christian We ought to be building disciples who build disciples We honor God by our fidelity to His Word - doing what He says And by the Spirit of Christ, we will guard that good deposit [15] You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. These were those who, for whatever reason, had turned their back on Paul in his imprisonment The desertion of Phygelus and Hermogenes occurred during Nero's persecution of Christians after the fires of Rome in AD 64 Many Christians sought to distance themselves from Paul after his arrest to avoid a similar fate [16] May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, [17] but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—[18] may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. Onesiphous was not among those who abandoned Paul in his imprisonment Instead, he was a blessing to Paul, nor was he ashamed of Paul’s chains In fact, he sought Paul out as soon as he arrived in Rome So Paul prays that the Lord would grant him mercy What a heart for Jesus! Blessing and praying for others while having been beaten, shipwrecked, and imprisoned! // APPLICATION It’s one thing to say you believe the gospel, but something else entirely to be willing to suffer for it Many Christians throughout church history, and even in modern times, have been willing to suffer for it—sometimes even to the point of death I think of Polycarp, a Christian who lived from 69-155 AD He served as the Bishop of a city in modern-day Turkey called Smyrna - one of the 7 churches listed in Revelation One day, during a season of especially severe persecution, the authorities learned where Polycarp had been being hiding They found it out by torturing two slave boys and then they sent soldiers to arrest him When the soldiers arrived, Polycarp’s friends wanted to smuggle him out, but he refused He simply said, “God’s will be done.” Then he actually welcomed these soldiers as if they were friends and requested that food and drinks be served to them Despite eating the food, the soldiers arrested him even though he was eighty-six years old, and they brought him to the arena, It was there that the Roman governor said to him, “Curse Christ and I will release you!” But Polycarp replied, “Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior?” Then, after a few more attempts to persuade him, the governor began to threaten him, saying he would have him burned alive But Polycarp responded, “You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.” So the fire was prepared and Polycarp then prayed out loud, “I bless you, Father, for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ.” And that is indeed what happened that very day as Polycarp was burned alive Chances are, you nor I may not be facing anything like what Polycarp faced for being a Christian And we may not be facing what Paul faced as he sat in a Roman prison writing this second letter to Timothy But the fact is that if we continue in faithfulness to follow Jesus in our present culture, we will inevitably experience some degree of opposition and marginalization and perhaps even scorn for the sake of the gospel We should probably expect to experience those things more and more as our society continues on its current trajectory We must hold fast to the truth that our great God saves to the uttermost He is the conquering Hero in our stories, not me, not you Only Jesus I take great comfort in the lyrics of Steven Curtis Chapman’s song WE ARE NOT HOME YET To all the travelers Pilgrims longing for a home From one who walks with you On this journey called life's road It is a long and winding road From one who's seen the view And dreamt of staying on the mountains high And one who's cried like you Wanting so much just to lay down and die I offer this, we must remember this We are not home yet Keep on looking ahead Let you heart not forget We are not home yet So close your eyes with me And hear the Father saying, "Welcome home" Let us find the strength In all His promises to carry on He said, "I go prepare a place for you" So let us not forget We are not home yet Keep on looking ahead Let you heart not forget We are not home yet Church, don’t allow yourself to lulled back to sleep Don’t go back to sleep because of the outcome of our recent election! The only reason that the RIGHT has been vigilant is because we have had too many consecutive years of Leftist leaders at every level of Government And I’m glad of the outcome, and just how large a victory it was - that says something about the people of our nation and their values, but we’re not out of the woods yet In fact, we won’t ever truly be out of the woods until we’re OUT of this world As I mentioned earlier, soon after he wrote this letter, Paul was condemned to die by Emperor Nero (who was quite mad, by the way) Sensing his own demise was an inevitability, 2 Timothy is the last letter we have from Paul But his passion was still strong for the propagation of the Gospel, as well we might expect from a man who knew he would soon be executed, and also wanted to see sinners become saints And I see a parallel in some ways, at this moment in time, in our country and culture Change is coming The Red Wave encouraged me, but it won’t prevent what will come to pass according to the Scriptures Right now is NOT the time to rest, but that time is coming Yes, our country won a great victory in our recent election, but we should not put out hope in men My Bible tells me that the only Man I am to put my hope in is Jesus Again, I’m glad for the outcome of the election, but it is not going to stop what’s coming It might delay it, but what is coming with the ONE-World Government and the changes that will bring are inevitable, having been prophesied in God’s Word But we will not fear God is with us, and He is for us Let your hearts rest in that… Honor the Lord Jesus every day until we see His glorious and radiant face, for then we shall be home and made whole! Let’s pray! // PRAY // SING // GO May the Lord be near to you as you walk through the week ahead Let His voice lead you daily as you seek His will And do not fear that which is evil, for the Light of the Lord is infinitely greater than the darkness! Go in His Name