2 Timothy 1:1-6 - Paul's Foundation for Faithful Ministry
Tom Shrader begins a verse-by-verse study of 2 Timothy, Paul's final letter written during his second imprisonment under Nero's persecution. He examines Paul's greeting to Timothy, highlighting how Paul identifies himself as an apostle by God's sovereign will and reminds Timothy of the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus. The lesson emphasizes the importance of understanding God's unchangeable promises and the spiritual legacy passed down through generations, as seen in Timothy's faith inherited from his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice.
“A promise is only as good as the ability of the one making it to keep it, and this is the promise of life given by God, the promise of life in Christ Jesus.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2000)
Recorded: 2000
Duration: 43 min
Themes: ministry, faithfulness, legacy, promises, family, calling, persecution, courage, pastor, mentor, new believer, facing persecution, ministry leader, studying scripture, spiritual parent, biblical student
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-6, 2 Timothy 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 4:2, John 3:16, John 10:10, Philippians 1:25, Philippians 2:24, Acts 20:36-38, Revelation 2, Galatians 1:2, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, Colossians 1:2
Theological Themes: apostolic authority, divine sovereignty, eternal life, biblical inspiration, spiritual inheritance, pastoral epistles, expository preaching, verse by verse
Full Transcript
This morning, we're going to do something that maybe once a year, every year and a half or so, we try to do. It's deliberate. It is one of those things that we are conscientious to do, and that is to take a time, usually a restricted time—in this case six weeks—and look at a book of the Bible.
I encouraged last week all of you to bring your Bibles with you. I have gone ahead and deliberately not put the verses on the screen, so we'll work at it this way. I think there's something—this is me, and I speak from my own experience here—there's something that was so powerful for me when I first started studying, first started going to Larry's studies, to have my own Bible, to mark that Bible up. Even if he were doing something in a topical nature, I just became a person—this is again just me—a person where I pretty much took this to all the studies with me, because I found myself wanting to make notes, go back and forth.
I know that in our typical study, especially on a topical area where you have the notes and so forth, that may be a little bit cumbersome, especially when we provide them for you on the screen. So we try to encourage, we try to do both, but what happens is over a period of time, the convenience overrides the carrying of the book. So then every once in a while we've got to remind you, put you through this exercise again.
The Power of Verse-by-Verse Study
What we're going to do today is something—and I'm very conscious about this—something that is different, and maybe even a first-time experience for many of you, and that is go verse by verse. I love to do this. I enjoy the topical studies, and for a lot of people that's something that they enjoy, being able to come in and deal with a specific issue. But it's so important to understand that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
I think once in a while we fall into the trap of thinking, well in these topical studies what they do is they just pluck out all the really good stuff, and there's really not much left that's in there. There is so much—and I'll just say obviously, some books just seem to open up for you more than others—but it's all the Word of God. There's such great power, to me, in studying a book verse by verse, so I encourage you to do that.
Don't Be Intimidated by Your Bible
I also am aware over the years that you come from very different church backgrounds, and some of you have no background in a church at all. Some of you get a book like this, and you can be very intimidated by it. I had a fellow in one of our studies a couple of weeks ago, and we're talking, and I said, you need to get into a class, a basic, a 101.
He said, our church offers that, but I was embarrassed to go to that. I said, why would you be embarrassed? He said, well, I don't know anything. I said, well, the whole point of 101—nobody in there knows anything, presumably the teacher, but that's it.
I remember I would go, and Larry would say, turn to the book of Jeremiah, and I'd go to the front and see what page it was on and go. I don't really care what anybody else thinks. I was in here to try to learn this book, and this is a lot of work. So what happens is, some of you are multimillion-dollar producers and authorities in your field, and when it comes to this, you think you're supposed to have that same status and that same knowledge. You don't. You're new.
I had a guy, and we're doing the book of Genesis, he's sitting right in the front, and I said, okay, this morning we're going to continue our study in the book of Genesis. This is exactly what he did: He opened the Bible to the middle and started going to the right. I mean, it's kind of like, that you ought to be able to grasp, but it was so refreshing. It was so refreshing for him to finally go there and to watch that unfold.
So you need to get rid of all those inhibitions. Nobody cares. If anything, I will tell you, if anybody cares, there's something wrong with them. The people who really know the Lord and really love Him are going to be thrilled that you're cracking that book. It isn't going to matter whether you can get to the page or not, and I'll tell you, we rejoice when we see that.
Our Focus: 2 Timothy
So we're going to take a look at a book. Here's the book we've chosen: 2 Timothy. You work your way in your New Testament, and then you work your way toward the back of the book. You just start flipping, and you're going to come to Paul's writings, and you're going to get into Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians. Then you're going to run into these Thessalonian books, and then 2 Timothy is strategically located behind 1 Timothy, exactly where you would expect it to be. Very easy to find.
When we look at these book studies, it's so helpful to understand context. 2 Timothy is one of those books I go back to over and over again, primarily, I think, for this reason: When we read this book, we understand in Paul's life that there's a sense that his life is coming to an end.
Paul's Changed Circumstances
This is at a time, in Paul's writing, this is at a time that he's in prison. It's the second time that he's been in prison—the second imprisonment. In the first imprisonment, it was more of a house arrest. In fact, he wrote from Rome in that first imprisonment to the church at Philippi.
You don't need to turn there. Let me just read to you. Philippians 1:25: "For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance." Philippians 1:25—he said, "I'm convinced of this. I know that I shall remain and continue with you for all your progress and joy in the faith." Philippians chapter 2, verse 24: "I trust in the Lord, I myself shall be coming shortly." He means coming to visit you, coming to see you.
When you get to 2 Timothy, that optimism is gone. During his first imprisonment, it was a house arrest, pretty lenient. He had visitors. There were others there with him. His second imprisonment—Nero has now unleashed this persecution on the church. Things are not going well.
Well in Rome, things are not going well for Nero, and what he's looking for is a scapegoat, and the target were the Christians in Rome. They didn't just take these guys and inflict hardship on them. They tortured them. They killed them. The Appian Way, the main thoroughfare, their Scottsdale Road if you will, had to be lit at night. Hard to light that. They didn't have a switch and electricity. So what they would do is take Christians and tie them on poles and light them on fire. That's how they would light the roads. There was just massive persecution. People were slaughtered.
Now what's fascinating, and I'm going to take a step forward with all sorts of caveats because I don't have the numbers specifically, but I think almost 25,000 Christians were martyred during this time frame. There are almost ten times more than those number of Christians being martyred right now in this world. You've got Christians suffering all over the world. If we did what we're doing right now in some of the nations of the world, they would literally take you out.
I was reading a letter from a guy the other day, and they were saying that they were having Bible studies, and if you were in these Bible studies and you were caught, they would beat you, they would take you down, and then they were cutting their hands off. That's what they were doing. In fact, I think if you get on the net at persecutedchurch.org, or search on Persecuted Church, it will just open your eyes to what's going on around the world.
Paul's Final Words
Well, that's what's going on in Paul's time. He says in the second imprisonment, "I'm being poured out as a drink offering." He understands he's dying. That's what first attracted me to this book. I love the idea that I've got somebody who's in the process of ending their life and knows it, and has an opportunity to communicate to it.
I had a situation where we had a guy who went in for some heart surgery. They cracked him, and they did this surgery, thought it was very successful. The next day, there were some problems, so they had to crack him again and go back in and patch this up. The third day, he was losing blood. They realized the problem was there. They had to crack him again, so they had three of these heart surgeries in three days.
I went in to see him, and the first couple times, we really couldn't talk, and then the tubes were out. It was very raspy, but when we could finally speak, it was about mid-April, as I remember it. You know what he didn't say? He didn't say to me, "Boy, you think the Suns will make the playoffs? How about that spring training? How about those Diamondbacks?" What he talked about were the real issues in life, and that's what you're going to get in this book from the Apostle Paul.
Life's True Priorities
There's a great study, and this is just practical - like a throw-in, add-on, free addition to the lesson this morning. There was a book written a few years ago called *Who Switched the Price Tags?* by Tony Campolo. When Tony was a kid, here's what they did. They would go in, and there was a radio they wanted, a little portable transistor radio. It would be $5.95. There would be a basketball for $1.95, so one kid would distract the clerk, the other would switch the price tags, and they'd take the radio for $1.95.
The premise of the book is, Campolo said, I look in the world around me, and all the things that always were valuable - fidelity, honesty, integrity, purity - are now cheapened, and things like tolerance, things like diversity, things like getting along rather than truth, those are now esteemed. He said, somebody switched the price tags on me. That's the whole premise of the book.
In the midst of this book, there's one paragraph where he talks about a survey, and I ended up doing a tape on it. He talks about a survey, non-scientific survey, done among 50 people who were at least 95 years of age. Now, if you're honest with yourself, if you're not in denial at all, and you're 95, you know that you have not only teed off on the back nine of life, you're hitting your wedge to 18. You're not going very far. This is it. Just the way it is.
They asked these people, no sense that they're Christian or non-Christian, this question: if you had your life to live over again, what would you do differently? Among these 50 people, they saw three dominant themes. My eye went right to that as it goes to 2 Timothy, because I love this stuff.
Three Life Lessons from the Elderly
Here's the three things they said. Number one, I would risk more. I wouldn't live on the edge in the sense that I would not want any ifs, or "if only I would have." It's one of the great fears of my life. I don't want to get to the end of this.
I was talking to somebody the other day about something, and the guy said, "You better come to grips with this. You're 50. Most guys are done with this stuff when they're 65. You got 15 years to do this. You're talking about long-term planning. Your long-term plans are short-term." I said, "Wow." I don't want to get to 65 and say, "If only."
Here's the second thing they said. I would reflect more. That is, I would be proactive, not reactive. Here's three words: I would think. I would meditate. I would ponder. I have a friend who gets in these moods every once in a while, and I called him not long ago, and he had just come off a day of thinking. This was his day to think, and I got him the next day, and after 50 minutes I said, "I gotta go." His mind was so fertile, and life was connecting, and dots were coming.
It's reams of stuff, but you need that time somewhere in your life. Here's the third thing they said. Again, no sense that these people are Christians. I would do things that would last beyond my life.
Now, if there's anyone who has hope in being able to accomplish that, it's us as Christians, because we're engaged in the only thing that's truly going to last beyond our life, and that is dealing with people and God's Word. So that's what they say. They're at the end of their life. Here are the three things I'd do over. Here's what I'd do differently. Here's the things that are important to me. Risk more, reflect more, do things that last beyond my life.
Paul's Priorities at Life's End
Well, what does the Apostle say? What does Paul say? And again, not just looking into the mind of a man who's about to pass from the scene, but arguably, other than Jesus Christ, probably the most influential man in history for the sake of Christian faith. What does he talk about?
Well, there are four little warnings, or four little cautions, four little encouragements that he drops in here. Look at the first one. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8, he says, "Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Join with me in suffering for the gospel." In chapter 2 verse 15, he says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of Truth." So he says, suffer for this Word, handle it accurately.
Chapter 3, he said, "Continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of." Become a student of this. Continue to understand these things. In chapter 4 verse 2, he says, "Preach the Word."
When you get to the end of Paul's life, it only makes sense that as he communicates to Timothy, he communicates to him admonitions, encouragements, warnings, challenges, about the thing that's most important to Paul, and that is the gospel. Paul said, this one thing I do, this one thing I care about, is Christ and Christ crucified. That's the gospel.
The Seven-Page Letter Illustration
Now, here's the setting. Let's get right into it, and it'll unfold very quickly. I got a letter sometime ago, seven pages. I'm going to ask you what you would do with this. Seven pages, and single-spaced, typewritten.
So I got this letter, I opened it up, and I'll bet I did what you would do. What would you do with that? First thing I'd do is go to page 7 to see who needs to get a life. That's the first thing I'm going to do. Somebody has to get a life. Somebody has way too much time on their hands.
Now, I say that, I'm only kidding. Anybody's going to take the time to write a seven-page letter, I'm going to read it and respond to that. But that's the first thing I do, is go, wow, who wrote this thing?
We don't have to do that here. I'm going to read the seven verses, then we'll come back and look at today:
Paul's Opening Words
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and then in your mother Eunice, and I'm sure it is in you as well. And for this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands."
So the first six verses, that's what we're going to look at today. As I said, when I got the letter, I flipped to the back to see who wrote it. We don't need to do that here, because in that day and age, when they wrote a letter, they started by saying who's writing. It's Paul.
Paul's Authority as an Apostle
Now when Paul identifies himself in 2 Timothy, he says this is Paul, an apostle. Oftentimes, and you can do this, work your way through these 13 letters that Paul wrote, as you see it, there are two dominant introductions that he uses to relate to his own identity. Sometimes he calls himself a slave or a bond servant, that is a slave who's in this condition, who can't be bought out or moved out of this. But periodically, he'll identify himself as an apostle.
When he identifies himself as an apostle, what he's really doing is pulling rank. He's saying, let me remind you who I am here. I'm Paul, and I'm an apostle.
Now when we talk about apostle, the word literally means one who is sent. So in a general sense, anyone in this room who's a Christian is an apostle. In the sense that Paul's talking about here, speaking of the office, he's talking about a group of men who numbered just over a dozen, who do not exist, this office, anymore. So when we talk about apostle, as Paul talks about it, you've never seen one of these.
God's Sovereign Will in Apostolic Calling
He's an apostle. And I just know how I am. I can see myself going, you know what? I think I'd like to be one of those. How do I fill out my apostle application all at the same time. I'll send them in and see how do I get to be an apostle.
Here's what he says: "an apostle by the will of God." It's God's sovereign will. How did Paul or any of the other apostles establish this position, achieve this position? They were moved there by the will of God, through the sovereign will of God, the unchangeable sovereign will of God.
Paul says, I understand that I didn't just happen into this. I didn't just will this myself. It was God. God's plan. God's plan is continually accomplished in this world. So important for us to understand that. You've heard it said, when we study history, we study His story. When we look at this world, we don't see something that's just something that God maybe kicked into action, and now He's sitting back to see how it unfolds.
As we look at this world and periodically lapse into some area where we may almost feel a little bit filled with despair, we need to understand that while things are beyond your control and my control, they're not out of control. God has a plan, and God's worked it all through the history of mankind. When did Jesus Christ come to this earth? At the appointed time. Why is Paul an apostle? By the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus.
The Reliability of God's Promises
Whenever I see the word promise, I'm reminded that promise and guarantee are kind of the same deals. I'm reminded that the most important part of a promise is the ability of the one making it to keep it. I got these Ginsu knives with a lifetime guarantee, but I can't get anybody to answer the 800 number when I say, I want my new knife. I can't make that work.
My favorite illustration involves Larry. Larry has so many illustrations for me, both good and negative. I've been a Christian a while, and I was going to his study. There was a guy who was there in the study who had somewhat of a sordid past, as I remember it, and he became a Christian. God began to work in his life, and then he fell in love with this cute little Christian girl, and so now the two of them decide to get married. The Thursday, they come to Larry, and they say, "Larry, will you marry us?" And Larry said, "No, I won't marry you. I don't do those kinds of things." They said, "Will you speak at our wedding?" And Larry said, "Absolutely, I'd love to do it."
So they said, "Okay, the wedding is Sunday at five o'clock." The Thursday before that, I'm talking to Larry when the guy came in, and Larry saw him, and he said, "Hey, Sunday at five o'clock, don't you forget it. You're not getting cold feet on me, are you? You're gonna be there, aren't you? I'm gonna be there. You're gonna be there." And the guy said, "I'm gonna be there, Sunday five o'clock." The study was over, and I saw the guy leave, and I saw Larry saying, "Don't you be getting cold feet. I'm gonna be there. You're gonna be there."
Well, after a day or two, Sunday arrived. Sunday evening about 7:30, Larry went in to look at his calendar to see what he had for the coming week, and realized he'd missed that wedding at five o'clock.
Now, anyone who knows Larry knows that if Larry says he's gonna do something, he's got every intention in the world of doing it. If Larry agrees to teach this Bible study here at seven o'clock, there's two things I can tell you. One, he'll be here by about 6:30, and two, at seven o'clock, we're gonna start. That's the way Larry is. But see, as sincere as Larry was about keeping that promise, he didn't have the ability to remember it.
A promise is only as good as the one giving it. It's like all these certificates of authenticity - they're only as good as the one giving it. This is the promise of life in Christ Jesus. This is the promise given by God, the promise of life.
The Promise of Life in Christ
What are we talking about when we talk about life? John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life." That's the promise of life, if I believe, if I accept Christ Jesus.
John 10:10, indeed, an important verse to Larry: "I've come that you might have life, and have it abundantly" - abundant life. Continually, He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." The promise of life is the promise of life in Christ Jesus. It's a life that's lived to the fullest here, and a life that includes eternal life in heaven. And the giver of life is Christ, and the giver of the promise is Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and God the Father. It's God who guarantees this. We can count on this. If you believe, you will go to heaven. Not based on my word, but based on His.
Not long ago, I was doing a study on the attributes of God, and I started with immutability. You could see the people in the room immediately frustrated. "Get on to the good attributes," that's what they wanted. "Talk about love. Talk about justice. Talk about righteousness. Immutability, we don't need to hear." Immutability is the thing that holds it all together. Because He wrote in this book, about 2,000 years ago, that the promise of life was in Christ Jesus, that if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, that I'll have eternal life. Because God doesn't change, and His word doesn't change, and His promise is perfect, now I can trust that. It's the promise of life in Christ Jesus. I find promise and life in Him and nowhere else.
The World's Empty Promises
The world comes along, for example, here's the contrast, and promises you you'll be happy. The world promises you that if you get that ab rocker - I mean, I love even the commercial. They get a big old fat guy like me to start, I'm the before picture always, and then they get some guy with these washboard abs, and he's after, and it's the ab rocker. My favorite, and it's perfect for me, I love it, is a pill that I can take, stuff into my enchilada, and as I eat it, I eat the enchilada and I don't gain weight. I love this. How can I not like this? But here's what I've learned. Those promises are not all that solid.
Here's a promise. The world says, "You know what? You got this wife here, but you know what? She's sagging, and dragging. You need a new model. Get the new model, and you'll be happy. Get the new one, and you'll be happy." I have this all the time. If I just get her, I'll be happy. If I just get him, I'll be happy. If I get that car, I'll be happy. If I can get that trip to Disneyland, I'll be happy. If I can close this deal, I'll be happy. That's what the world says.
You were so close, but if you just do this, you'll be happy. If you just do this, you'll have this. But the problem with the world is they're making promises that they can't keep. We've become cynical and suspicious, and now we come to a promise from the Creator God of the universe, and we bring that same cynicism, and we miss the fact that this is God saying, in Christ Jesus, I have eternal life.
Paul's Beloved Son Timothy
Now in verse 2, he tells us who he's writing to. To Timothy, and he tells us a little bit about Timothy. He said, Timothy is my beloved son. In first Timothy, he says he is my genuine son, my true son. It's not his son physically, it's his son in the Lord. There's a special relationship that these two people have.
We've said frequently that you need in your life to have a Timothy in your life, as you are a Paul, and a Paul in your life as you're a Timothy. You continually have those. I have that in my life. Larry fits that role. When I get a note or a card from Larry, or Larry gives me a gift, it was so cool. For my 50th birthday, Larry gave me his first Bible, all marked up, with a card saying to my beloved son. That's the relationship that we have.
I have a Paul in my life, that's Larry, and I have Timothys in my life. Those are people that I'm spending time with, working with, talking to, and to them, I'm a Paul. To me, they're a Timothy, and I continually need to have both in my life, as you do in yours.
Grace, Mercy, and Peace
To my beloved son. Now he says, grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is subtle, but it's important. Again, you may make a note if you'd like. You don't need to turn there. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians - four books in a row in the Bible. Each one, in chapter 1, verse 2, Paul's dealing with his greeting, and they're all the same.
Let me just read them to you. Galatians 1:2, "grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:2, "grace to you and peace from God and our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:2, "grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Colossians 1:2, "grace to you and peace from God our Father."
When Paul writes, that's a typical introduction, greeting, that Paul would give. Listen to the one now in second Timothy: "Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul adds one word to that introduction. He says, grace, mercy, and peace. Why?
The Significance of Mercy
The standard greeting goes like this: grace, unmerited favor, and peace to you. Whenever you see those two words in Paul's writing, you'll never see the order changed. You'll never see peace and grace to you. You'll always see grace and peace. It would be like saying the resurrection and the crucifixion. There's a sequence there. It goes crucifixion, resurrection. Grace, unmerited favor, and because I've been the recipient of God's saving grace, I can have peace.
I'll never have peace in my life. I'll never have the presence of God until I have peace with God. But he adds here the idea of mercy, evidently trying to make a point to Timothy and to all of us that we have not just received what we didn't deserve.
Hang in with it, because these words are very, very close. Grace is when I receive unmerited favor, I get what I don't deserve. Mercy is when I don't get what I do deserve. Grace is when He says, I'm going to give you this, and you haven't earned it, and you don't deserve it. And mercy is, I'm not going to give you what you deserve.
The Result: Peace in All Circumstances
So he's saying to Timothy, and it's just perfect for us as well: grace from God you haven't earned, mercy He's not going to give you what you deserve, and consequently in your life you will have peace. You'll have peace with God. You can live at peace with one another. You will have in this world a peace, a sense of tranquility that will baffle people.
They'll see you in the middle of hardship. They'll see you in the middle of suffering. They'll see you in the middle of pain. They'll see you even in the middle of good times. They'll see you in all that you are, and they will say, look at how they live. All of a sudden there's a stability in your life.
Get this. This is really good, I think. You can't control the circumstance of life. They just do. You can't stop them. I'm always saying, if you're on the top or on the bottom, the message is the same. What is it? This too shall pass. I had a guy the other day riding high. He came into the study, and he said, you were dead right. It has passed.
Here's how it goes. The circumstances of life go like this. Well, how do I find stability in the circumstances of life? Although the circumstances may be like this, I can be like this because I know Him. Paul says, I've learned to live with a lot. I've learned to live with a little. That's the secret of life.
Grace, I'm going to give you what you don't deserve. Mercy, I'm not going to give you what you do deserve, and the result is peace. Where does that come from? From God the Father, and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Beauty of Verse-by-Verse Study
Here's what I want you to understand, and this is my whole point. When we talk about verse-by-verse study, when I first became a Christian, these are the two verses I would have skipped. I would have said, this is introduction stuff. Paul wrote it. Timothy got it. Let's get on to the meat.
That's the beauty of really getting in and studying, and you need to be a student. If you're sitting there saying, I can't do that, you can't do it because you won't do it. You can go to any reasonably good Christian bookstore, and you can find a commentary and a couple other tools, and you can do what I just did, and you can do it quickly. Now, you're going to have to work at it, and it's
It's going to take some time, and like anything else, it's going to get easier as you go on, but you can do this. Don't sit there and think, "Wow, that was really something. I could never do that." You can do that. You can do it relatively soon, but you've got to go get the tools, and you've got to go to work.
The tools are all over the place. You need some good commentaries. You need some good reference material, and you need to pray, "God, open my eyes to be able to see this."
Paul's Thanksgiving and Remembrance
Those are the first two verses. Now we're going to take verses 3, 4, 5, and 6 very quickly. "I thank God, whom I served with a clear conscience, as my forefathers did"—and we can talk about that. He's saying this is the logical continuation of my Jewish faith, is what he's saying. "I constantly remember you in my prayers, day and night, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so I may be filled with joy."
I believe that he's talking about a scene that's played out in Acts chapter 20, toward the end of that, about verse 36 through 38. Here's the scene, and it drips with emotion. Here is Paul saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus. As you read, it seems that Paul had a special love for the church at Ephesus. He left in charge of this—the pastor at the church of Ephesus—not only just his favorite church, but his favorite person, I think, in the world: Timothy. He's saying goodbye to them, and tears are filled in these men's eyes. They love and they care for one another.
"I long to see you."
The Faith of Three Generations
Verse 5: "I'm mindful of the sincere faith within you." Here's something about this man. He didn't just know Timothy as a protégé. He knew Timothy as a person. He said, "I know where this sincere faith came from. Your grandmother Lois, your mother Eunice."
Now, the minute I read that, I got one overwhelming question: Where is grandpa and dad? Where are the guys? Where are the men in this process? But here's what we do know—grandma and mom are there.
Let me apply this to you, especially in this room, because you've got some grandmas and grandpas in here. You have an incredible opportunity with your grandkids. Generally speaking, you have time, some energy, and probably some cash, and you're probably more available than mom and dad, sadly to say.
The Crisis of Modern Parenting
I watched Oprah the other day, and I do this for you, as you know. Once a week or whenever, she's got this psychology guy on. He's just written a book on real power and all this. And here's what Oprah said—listen, this is really good. Oprah's saying we're not going to find real power in stuff. We're going to find real power in simplicity in life.
Now, I could be cynical, and I'm not, and I mean this: If I'm making a hundred and fifty million dollars a year, I can talk about simplicity. But what I think Oprah's telling you is really what's in her heart. Because if you listen to Oprah long enough, it's very clear—you don't have a very happy, healthy person. She's just not a happy, healthy person. She's longing, and she's miserable. Here she is, she's got a portion of the answer, but she's talking to the studio audience and saying there's a simplicity in life—that's where you're going to find it.
Now contrast that. Susan just finished last night jury duty. She was on a murder trial. At lunch one day, the jurors are there—there's 15 of them, three alternates. The gal said to Susan at lunch, "You're the one who doesn't work." Susan said, "That's right." It started with a gal in there saying, "Boy, if you're going to make it today, you have to have two incomes."
Let me just give my heart to yours. One of the great myths, and I think a damaging myth, perpetrated on the American public and repeated by these arrogant politicians time after time after time: "We've reached a point where we have to have two incomes." You don't have to have two incomes to make it. Most families can make it on one income if they're willing to forego brand new cars and brand new sport utility vehicles and the bigger houses and all that goes with it. There's a price to pay, and the price that's going to be paid is in the generations that come out of that.
The Real Crisis in Our Youth
I'm listening to Dr. Laura yesterday, just because the radio popped on, and there she was. She said, "Listen to this letter I just got." The letter was basically from a gal who was having her first baby. She had heard Laura talking about child care, so she went to the best child development place she could find in the city and got a job there. She said, "After three weeks, here's what I discovered: As much as I love these kids, I couldn't give them what they needed from their mom and dad."
We are in a crisis in our youth today for one reason only. It's not rock music. It's not the internet. It's not the movies. We got bad moms and dads who don't want to parent. And the reason is, it's really hard.
But here's mom and grandma. Here's Timothy. You're at the end of your life and saying, "I want a boy like Timothy." Well, are you a mom like Eunice?
Kindle Afresh the Gift of God
Very quietly, verse 6: "And for this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you." The word "kindle afresh" means literally to keep alive, to stir it up. He's saying, "You've got a gift in you, Timothy."
Let me say it to you: When you became a Christian, you got a spiritual gift. It's given to you. God's given you a special enablement to...
to perform a task in the body of Christ to do it with effectiveness and efficiency. Keep it alive. Stir it up.
Now, as you read through this book, you get some real insight. Paul at one time said, "Timothy, don't have a spirit of timidity." Is he saying, "Timothy, doggone it, you wuss, don't be timid"? Or is he saying, "Hang in there, Timothy, don't be timid"? Is he chastising or encouraging or both? I don't know. But he's saying here, I don't know if Timothy was one of those guys who was growing cold.
The Church at Ephesus and Lost First Love
Here's what's interesting. Revelation chapter 2—John writes, quoting Jesus in a vision from Him, John writes to the seven churches. The first church is the church at Ephesus, the one that Timothy's pastoring. Here's what He says: "Here's what I got against you." Jesus said, "Here's what I got against you. You have lost your first love."
It may be that Paul saw in Timothy a tendency to grow complacent, and once that guy at the top does, pretty soon that church does. It may be reasonable for us to assume that Timothy didn't follow this advice. Maybe he did. I don't want to give Timothy a bad rap. Maybe he did. But Paul, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, sensed there was a tendency, apparently, in this church to grow cold.
We got it all down. We know it all. We're cold. We got it down cold, and we became cold. He said, "Listen, you've lost your first love. Repent and go back to the things you did at first."
The Challenge of Maintaining First Love
I was just talking to somebody this morning, and they were saying, "I'm a new convert. As a new convert, I found myself absorbed. I find myself pushing away these things, even becoming cynical about some of the shows, some of the movies, some of the stuff. I find myself pushing them away, and I find myself taking this, and I'm so serious." This is a person that's been pursuing the Lord now for about a year.
How about us, and where will that person be in 20 years? Still that same desire? Things begin to change a little bit, but that intensity needs to be the same.
I was talking to somebody the other day who was talking about a friend in their life that had just become a Christian. Their phrase was, "It takes me back to my early days. It takes me back to when I used to be on fire. It takes me back to when I used to share my faith. It takes me back to when I used to study. It takes me back to when every day there were questions, and I wanted to know those answers, but you know, I figured all that out. I don't need to do that anymore."
Father, please, let us take this advice from Paul to Timothy, and understand it's advice to us. God, remind us that You are a sovereign God, that we have the promise of eternal life in Your Son, Jesus, and that is a guarantee based on You and Your Word. God, we pray that in our life, You would give us a desire to constantly stir afresh in our hearts, to constantly stir afresh in our hearts love for You and the things that are important to You. God, please do that in our life. We pray it to You in Jesus' name. Amen.