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Sunday 12/1/24
Title: Paul strengthens the Testimony of Christ in Timothy
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Paul strengthens the Testimony of Christ in Timothy
In our exploration of cooperating with the inner work of the Holy Spirit causing us to conform to and transform into the image of Jesus and therefore, share in Christ’s testimony of a life lived from faith – we are going to turn to 2 Timothy this morning.
I had planned on going on with our teaching from last week regarding putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man created in Christ Jesus, but the Spirit led me to this passage as I was seeking the Father regarding the shepherding of this flock.
We are living in troubled times, I think that is pretty clear. Many prophets predicted these days which technically began at the inception of the church 2,000 years ago. Though the final end is not yet near, John himself told us in 1 John 2:18, “Little children, it IS the last hour…”. By which he meant the last dispensation before Christ’s return. We know this was his meaning because he said this while talking about the coming of the antichrist, who will appear before the Lord’s return.
Jesus warned us of the wars, natural disasters, social-political upheaval, civil unrest and the persecution of the church which would ALL get worse and worse before His return. As such pastoring in these last days is something which requires continual guidance from the only real and chief Shepherd Jesus Himself. He also, through the inward guidance of the Holy Spirit, can empower us to navigate these waters and bring us safely home.
Like David, I am often “troubled on my bed” in the early hours of a day, when my soul is the least edited by the events of the day and yesterday I sensed an urgency.
I’ll spare you all the details, but in the end I arrived at a heightened awareness of a real and genuine need the body of Christ (and our church in particular) has for shepherding, for immediate and trustworthy spiritual guidance and instruction.
There is a real danger of falling to sleep at the wheel so to speak. As children of the Day, Jesus instructed us regarding our need to stay awake and not allow ourselves to be lulled to sleep – which is often a retreat for the faint hearted. We are to be sober in mind and diligent looking for His return and ever busy in the work of the Kingdom.
The enemy knows this and we are not ignorant of his tactics. If there is an advantage to exploit he will do it. We stand in real danger of becoming lazy or lethargic. Of becoming offended at the cost or think the price too high for the persecution coming or simply wearied by the seemingly unending duration of the fight.
Some of us are intimidated into a type of relative silence. I mean we will speak if spoken to, will enter into a conversation regarding Jesus and salvation through Him if we do not feel threatened, but often shrink into invisibility when we feel the heat of confrontation or the possibility of looking foolish due to lacking answers to objections to Christ.
We are called upon by no less that Jesus Himself to BE and STAY READY with an answer for the hope within us and for the defense of the gospel, which requires a certain tenacity. One of the ways the devil exploits this is encouraging us to look inwardly at all that we lack in terms of knowledge, or quick wittedness or courage so that we will faint or shrink back in times when we ought to press forward. The work of the kingdom is NOT for the faint of heart.
But we should take courage – because God is more interested in devotion than in ability and THAT should be all we need to not be easily moved.
Moses began as a lion at 40, but that was all bluster and outward advantage of being a prince in Egypt. God had to humble him in the desert for 40 years before He could use him. By then Moses was not only humble but also somewhat timid – but God possessed his devotion.
This was true of Joshua and many of the prophets – and as we will see this morning it was true of Timothy, Paul’s young protege as well.
My point in this introduction is to point out our need to be trained and equipped for kingdom work, but also to be encouraged and empowered for the work – lest we shrink back in timidity, fear or worst of all apathy.
2 Timothy 1:1-18,
“(1) From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to further the promise of life in Christ Jesus, (2) to Timothy, my dear child.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord!”
These three work together in the life of a believer:
- Grace – God’s influence upon the heart which is consequently lived out in the thoughts, words and actions.
- Mercy – God’s tender loving kindness towards us, most often expressed in His sovereignty over our personal life harvests. He is equally unwilling to allow us to reap all we have sown when it is negative and willing to grant us an abundant harvest on those good seeds we have sown.
- Peace – This word as it is most often used in the New Testament acquires the technical meaning of the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation due to the Love of the Father expressed in the giving of Christ Jesus. And so fearing nothing from God the Father, we live in a continual state of soul rest and are as a result find ourselves content with our earthly lot, whatever that happens to be.
As such it was due to this inner work of peace inspired by the indwelling Spirit of God which enabled Paul to be able to do “all things through Him Who strengthened him”.
The examples offered by Paul speaks to us all –
“I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing.” – Philippians 4:12
2 Timothy 1…
“(3) I am thankful to God, Whom I have served with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I remember you in my prayers as I do constantly night and day.”
We all know what it is like to have to take the stand as the defendant before the courtroom of our own conscience. Greater than any outward condemnation, save that of our Creator, is the condemnation of our own inner witness to our actions or lack thereof.
Paul goes on record several times in his letters that he put great effort and value on being able to live life with a good and clear conscience for God.
“(4) As I remember your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.”
Now not all that Paul is addressing in this letter to Timothy is immediately obvious, the meaning behind tears being among the first.
This word literally means weeping, which is a particularly bitter and exhausting form of crying. Something had obviously rocked Timothy’s world and stood to possibly shipwreck him if Paul had not come alongside him and encouraged him – which serves as our first example.
This is a letter of mentorship and offers us a great advantage in learning how to supply strong, genuine and real spiritual support and encouragement without resorting to empty platitudes or overstated encouragements. This letter in itself IS an example of kingdom work – don’t lose sight of that!
“(5) I recall your sincere faith that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you.
(6) Because of this I remind you to rekindle God’s gift that you possess through the laying on of my hands. (7) For God did not give us a Spirit of fear [timidity] but of power and love and self-control.”
Notice Paul is encouraging Timothy to not be faint-hearted for such is to ignore the influence of the Holy Spirit we have received from God. Notice Paul did not encourage Timothy to simply “man up”, though something very much akin to that is the intended result which we will see later. Not this was more about willingly giving himself over in surrender to the inward Spirit’s influence than an appeal to make a good show of outward strength.
One thing which I know everyone stands in need of is perspective. God HAS to be our reason. His glory, His honor, His purposes and plans and if we maintain that as our focus we will not go too far wrong. It is when we allow considerations of self that we get derailed and sidelined.
Now look at what Paul was having to address in our young example Timothy.
“(8) So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, a prisoner for His sake, but by God’s power accept your share of suffering for the gospel.”
Now this is a bit surprising. As you know Timothy was directly mentored by Paul. In fact Paul refers to Timothy as his true son in the faith.
As regards ministry work however, the only word used for Timothy was diakonos which is translated as servant, minister or deacon in scripture.
It is wrong therefore to call Timothy an apostle OR a pastor for he was never called either one of these.
What we have here is a young man, trained by Paul, who due to expediency was encouraged to remain in Ephesus following Paul’s departure in order to further instruct the church there regarding false teachings, myths and genealogies and to center their attention upon the true Gospel. The aim of which was to produce people of stabilized faith. People of love, conscience and pure heart – all of which we read at the beginning of Paul’s first letter to Timothy.
So this begs the question – if Timothy tended towards timidity – why leave him as an apostolic delegate to establish order and sound doctrine in this troubled church?
Well, that is not clearly stated, but we can intuit much. As I said earlier, I think that too often it has been assumed that God uses the weak in order to reveal His strength and while that is true, the examples we use to illustrate it are often misleading.
In order for God to reveal Himself through ANY human being He has to offer strength to the vessel in question. The problem is we don’t recognize weakness when we see it.
Outwardly Paul appears confident, strong willed, resolute, well educated and even brash. We know before his conversion he was a go-getter! No one had to stand behind Paul prodding him to be zealous for the Jewish faith – he did this instinctively. No, God’s strength towards Paul was to empower him to lean not upon his own training, boldness or zeal and become easily intreated.
Both Paul’s boldness and Timothy’s timidness were weaknesses which needed God’s intervention! Make NO mistake – we have no strength of our own that is useful in the slightest degree for ministry!
So if it was not for the sake of His strength being shown through Timothy’s weakness – why choose Timothy? I think the reason is the same for every time God did this among His Own people. God chose those whose attention He had. God can temper brashness and embolden timidity, but what He both cannot and will not do is force devotion. That is something that has to be surrendered and given and that appears to be a more universal constant among those God employed mightily in ministry throughout both testaments.
So Paul instructs and encourages Timothy to stir up the gift within him. To not be timid but to rely upon the indwelling Holy Spirit towards power, love and soundness of mind and to never allow himself to be ashamed of bearing the testimony of Jesus or Paul himself. Notice the next thing Paul said as if it played a sizable role behind Timothy’s timidity and intimidation towards shame – Paul says, “by God’s power accept your share of suffering for the gospel.”
He does this by redirecting Timothy’s attention – away from considerations of self and onto considerations of God.
2 Timothy 1…
“(9) He is the One Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on His Own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began, (10) but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel!”
Blessings!
