No Time to be Afraid

Well, I want to congratulate you all. You did it. You made it to Second Timothy with us. Okay, we've finally actually gotten to Second Timothy. Today, we begin the grand adventure. Before we get into the book of Second Timothy, I want to ask you a question. I want you to imagine that you discovered this week that you didn't know exactly when, but you knew that your death was imminent, that life was coming to an end in very short order. And so your time on earth, while it wasn't that it wasn't valuable before, now makes you realize that your days are numbered. And so it seems as if every moment matters. I wonder if you were in that situation if you could identify someone or some people that you would want to write a letter to. As strange as that may seem—we don't really write letters anymore—who would you write a letter to? You would want to leave them a lasting memory of your relationship, a lasting challenge. Would it be a spouse? Would it be a best friend? Would it be a child? Maybe it would be more than one person, but what would you need them to know about you, about life, about your relationship?

But that's really what Second Timothy is. It's a letter from the Apostle Paul. He knows that his death is imminent. He is imprisoned in Rome, and he knows he's going to be executed. He has hopes that he might see Timothy again, but he is not confident in that. And so he writes Timothy this letter that we have in Scripture, and we call it Second Timothy. It's a letter from a man who is about to be killed for his faith. And it's written to a man whom he has ministered with, whom he has discipled, whom he has spent time in the trenches with, if you will. And now the two of them are parted. And this is his viewing this as his last chance to tell Timothy some very important things that he would have him know in order to carry on in this ministry, to continue to be faithful to the One who has saved them. So we need to keep that in mind as we go through this letter. That's the kind of letter this is. This is not only one that is laden with deep truth, but it is also one that comes from a place of emotion, love, and devotion—both for Christ the Savior and for this other man who is going to continue on in the ministry. That's what Paul is doing when he writes this letter.

We're going to look at just the introduction, the first seven verses of this letter. So if you're not in Second Timothy, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1. I'm going to read these first seven verses:

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 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. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 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. 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, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

In this opening, these comments that Paul makes at the beginning of his letter, really what he's wanting Timothy to grasp right from the beginning is just this notion that faithful Christians can't afford to be afraid to take action. Faithful Christians have to be willing to step out into ministry. As you look at this introduction and knowing that this is the kind of letter it is—it's written by Paul from prison in Rome awaiting his execution to Timothy, his disciple in the faith and one whom he has not only traveled with in ministry but also sent out, commissioned out to do ministry on his behalf—I really think it's kind of an interesting dichotomy here at the beginning because on the one hand he very clearly calls Timothy “my beloved child.” It's a very tender expression to this young man. He says he remembers him daily—that not a day goes by, Timothy, that I don't think and pray about you. And he even remembers Timothy's tears. And this is the idea that when they parted ways, it was an emotional occurrence. I mean, I don't know if you've ever had situations like that where you have had to leave loved ones, a best friend, a family, something like that, and you were parting. Maybe you didn't know if you were ever going to come back into their lives. Maybe it was just because it was going to be a prolonged period of time. Anyone who's ever parted ways with a close friend or family member understands that idea that when we leave, there's tears involved. You know, if you're in the military, you understand things like being deployed or you get your new PCS and you're going to be stationed in the middle of who knows where and you don't really have any choice in the matter.

When I was—I mentioned previously some 90s songs—being in the junior high/high school era of the '90s, that tends to be the music that's locked into my brain, but there was a Michael W. Smith song that kind of became like the Christian breakup song, but it was called “Pray for Me.” And it started like, “Here is where the road divides. Here's where we realize the something of the Father's great design. Through time you've been a friend to me, but time is now the enemy. I wish we didn't have to say goodbye.” And I know that through it all, the hardest part of love is letting go. Or something like that. Anyway, and then the chorus is like, “Pray for me and I'll pray for you” and blah blah blah blah blah, you know, and in teenagers when they were going to break up, you know, but they were Christian and they wanted to make it seem like, well, God's telling me, you know, this sort of thing, they would give them this song and then they would cry and, you know, we're parting ways, our lives are—we're going in different directions, you know, so sad, you know. It's kind of funny, kind of cheesy, but we've all experienced that on a real level, too, you know, not just in terms of high school loves and you know that sort of thing, breaking up, but really leaving other people and not knowing, this person I care so deeply for, am I ever going to see him again? So you've got that right here at the beginning of this letter, and we get it. We understand that kind of emotion.

But then Paul also opens up the letter referencing his apostolic authority, which seems very formal and very like, okay, you better listen to me, you know. Verse one: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus.” That doesn't sound like a letter you write to a best friend or a close companion. That sounds like a formal letter that you write to, you know, whatever, a business or something, you know. So what's what gives? Is this an emotional, impassioned letter to a faithful friend in the ministry, or is this a formal letter from an apostle to a co-worker? And you know, it's all business.

Well, first of all, what is an apostle? An apostle—the Greek word for apostle literally means “one who is sent out.” And in the New Testament, when you hear that word or you see that description, we're talking about a special messenger of Jesus Christ, a special select few individuals who bore that title, who were specifically called and commissioned by Jesus Christ, and they were endowed with a unique authority from him. So maybe you've heard it said this way: that all apostles are disciples, but not all disciples are apostles. So these were a very select few individuals who got to hold that title. But with that title came the understanding that they were official ambassadors of Jesus Christ and they spoke with authority that had been imparted to them by him. And so when Paul says, “I'm an apostle,” as dear as Timothy was to him, this is also his way of saying that in spite of our close relationship, there are things I also need you to know. I'm not just reminiscing. I'm not just reminding you of some truths. Yes, I'm very fond of you. Yes, I care deeply for you. But what I'm writing in this letter is not just suggestions. These are things you need to take seriously. And it makes sense, right? Yes, there is an emotional attachment between these two co-laborers, but Paul is his mentor, if you will, his spiritual leader. And so knowing that this is his last chance really to speak to him, he does have to use this opportunity to get serious with Timothy there. There's not going to be another opportunity as far as he knows. And so, Timothy, I need you to understand some things. This needs to be a part of your ministry is in essence what he's saying. And so in order to help Timothy realize this isn't just sort of a last letter from two friends but this is a last letter from a mentor to somebody who needs to carry on in the ministry, Paul has to sort of include this stamp of his apostolic authority. That's why there's this dichotomy at the beginning there.

So even in this introduction, it's very clear that Paul wants Timothy to understand some things about what it means to be a true believer, a true follower of Christ. And for that reason, it's helpful for us as well. And the first thing he's telling him is that true believers are dependent on God. And I mean you can just read this thing and you see all of these little nuggets of gold buried in these opening comments that let us know just how dependent we are on God. Consider these: that Paul says he is an apostle by the will of God. Even there he's saying I'm not an apostle because I chose to be one, because I wanted to be one, because that was my dream when I was a little boy to grow up and be an apostle. No, he says the only reason I'm an apostle is because God willed it for me. God made me an apostle. Notice also in these opening comments when he is offering this wish for Timothy, if you will, and he says grace, mercy, and peace. It's from God the Father and Son. Even the grace, mercy, and peace in our lives, Paul recognizes are gifts from God. Paul is thankful not just for Timothy but thankful to God for Timothy. In other words, he's saying even our relationship is dependent on the grace of God. Timothy's pastoral abilities are gifts of God. God has given believers—at the very end, verse seven—God has given us not fear, but God has given us power and love and self-control. We are so dependent on God. The things that we have, whether it be our abilities, our beliefs, our faith, our grace, mercy, and love, our power, love, and self-control—all of these things we owe a debt of gratitude to God for. He has given them to us. Without God, in essence, what Paul is indicating to Timothy is that without God, Timothy, you and I would be just like the unbelieving world. There would be nothing different about us.

And maybe you wonder, what's wrong with that? What would be wrong with being just like the unbelieving world all around us? One of the ways that Paul addresses that is actually when he talks about the gospel in Ephesians chapter 2. But if you flip over to Ephesians chapter 2, I want you to look at verse 12. We actually kind of sung about this not just a few minutes ago. Paul says, “Remember that you, the Ephesian church, the Ephesian Christians, you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” This is the church that Timothy is ministering to, the Ephesian church. And they're primarily made up of Gentiles, so non-Jewish people. And these believers, what Paul is saying is that there was one time you were separated from God. You were separated from his covenant promises, covenant blessings. And he accents it by saying you, having no hope and without God in the world. When we're just like the rest of the world, Paul is in essence saying we're hopeless. We can't be because we can't do anything on our own to make ourselves right before God. We're separated from him. We're outside of his promises and blessings. In other places we're even talked about being hostile towards him. This dependence on God is a reminder of our hopelessness without him.

Timothy isn't the only one dependent on God. Paul certainly is. That's how he starts out. That's why he says, “The only reason I'm an apostle is by the will of God. The only reason I'm a Christian is because God intervened in my life.” In fact, he talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 where he says, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.” But then he says this: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” In other words, I was going in this direction with my life. I was opposed to Christ. I was opposed to those who were following him. I was completely against everything they stood for. But because of God's grace and him completely changing my life, now I am what I am today. Only because of him. That's why he says by the grace of God—by that free, undeserved, unearned, unmerited gift of God—that's why I am what I am today, Paul says. So it isn't just Timothy that needs to be reminded of his dependence on God. Paul is completely willing and able to raise his hand and say, me too. I need the grace of God in my life. I am completely dependent on the grace of God in my life.

I want you to remember like Christianity isn't saying that we Christians are good and everyone else is bad. That's not what it's saying at all. That's not the message of Christ. That's not the message of Christianity. The message of Christ, as Paul says in First Timothy, is Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. The message of Christianity is all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That everyone is in need of the grace of God. Whether it's Paul, whether it's Timothy, whether it's Timothy's grandma, whether it's Timothy's mom, whether it's whoever—you, me, everyone—we all need Christ as our Savior. We all need the grace of God in our lives, which means we are all dependent on him. A Christian is simply someone who understands, comes to understand that and agrees with that and acknowledges that they can't do this on their own. That they need the grace of God. That were it not for God sending his Son into this world to live among us, to die on the cross as a substitute for sinners, to rise from the dead—were it not for him accomplishing for us what we could not accomplish for ourselves—we would all be hopeless. We would all be without God in the world. We would all be alienated from God's promises and his blessings because God's a holy God and holiness cannot have fellowship with unrighteousness, with sinfulness. And so there has to be a restoration that takes place. And that's what God has done for us through the cross. A Christian is someone who's just trusting completely in Jesus Christ and Christ alone to save them. Understanding that we can't add anything to that. We are dependent on him. But the beauty of it is the Bible is clear that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In other words, everyone who trusts in that and says, “Lord, I'm a sinner. Be merciful to me. Save me from my sins. I believe that what Christ has done is sufficient.” That's it.

I think that some people though—the people that aren't in that camp, haven't put their faith in it, even though they've heard it—they have one of two barriers. They either have doubts about it. I doubt that's true. I doubt that that's what's necessary. I doubt—there's some doubt. Or they have questions. And I would just say if you're one of those people, maybe you've got both, you've got doubts and questions, but if you are one of those people, I would ask you please, would you please talk to me after the service? And I don't want to say like, let's get into a heated debate, but I would love to at least set up an appointment with you where we could discuss those doubts and those questions. I have really one goal: that if you reject the message of Christianity, that you at least understand it. I would hate for you to reject it and not actually understand what you're rejecting. So, but we're all dependent on Christ. Paul is, Timothy is, Timothy's mom, grandma, you, me, everybody who's ever lived—dependent on Christ.

Another thing that Paul helps Timothy to understand right off the bat is this: that true believers are recognizable. True believers are recognizable. He mentions two identifying qualities that he was confident Timothy possessed: a sincere faith—he was. In other words, he's confident Timothy is a true believer. He knew it. He says, “I am sure that this faith dwells in you as well.” Faith that your mom had, faith that your grandma had. I'm sure you have it as well. And the other thing is gifts of God. We sometimes call these spiritual gifts. Gifts of God which is in you. And he says, “through the laying on of my hands.” So Paul knew Timothy was a true believer and that he had spiritual gifts. Like how could Paul be confident of that though? How could Paul be sure? Because remember this is—we're talking about a heart condition, right? And Paul can't see into Timothy's heart and know what his heart and mind are believing and trusting in. I can guarantee you that it wasn't because Timothy said, “Well, I go to church.” That's how he knew—because I go to church or cuz my grandma used to take me to Sunday school. That's how Paul knew Timothy had faith. And you know, it wasn't that. Praise the Lord for grandmas that take their little grandkids to church. I mean, I love it. I used to go to my grandma's church and my parents took me to their church, too. I went to church all over town. I can also guarantee you that it wasn't just cuz Timothy said, “Well, I believe—I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins.” That yes, you need to believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins. But there are lots of people that claim to believe that who don't actually believe that. It's 100% true. We're saved by grace through faith in the work of Christ. We are saved by believing. What the Bible tells us in the New Testament—really from Jesus all the way on through to Revelation—is that people will know that you are true believers by the way you live your life. Yes, you should. You should be very vocal about what you believe. You know, I feel sometimes we're timid to say what we believe. We're afraid that if we confess these things, well, what will people say? What will people do? What will people X about us, right? You can't say tweet about, right? Because it's not Twitter anymore. I don't know what you do on anyway. They might write things on social media about you. The Bible from Jesus all the way through the apostolic writers is clear. People are going to know by the way you live your life. And that's how Paul knew this was true of Timothy.

We've mentioned this several times in 1 Timothy, but just like Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 in his Sermon on the Mount that you should let your light so shine before men. In other words, the light of your life, the way you live your life so that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The conduct of your life is going to be a testimony to the convictions of your heart. And Jesus in John chapter 13 says this: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” And then he says this: “By this will people know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So what he's saying is the conduct of your life is going to tell people more convincingly than even what you say. You confess with your mouth that you believe; the way you live your life, the conduct you show towards one another is going to be a testimony that's going to go before you as to whether or not you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. Titus chapter 1:16 there's a condemnation about certain people in the church and that is this: They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. So these are people that were confessing, “Hey, I'm a Christian. Hey, I believe in Jesus.” But the way they were living their lives was completely contrary to that. And so there was this contradictory way that they were conducting themselves where what they were doing with their lives betrayed what they were confessing with their mouths. And then as Mike read just a little while ago from 1 John chapter 2, “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” Our obedience is a source of assurance for us. Not that we're saved by our works, but the transformation of our lives is evidence that the Spirit of God is at work in us, which is a sign of true conversion. Similarly, back to Ephesians chapter 2:8-10, Paul writes this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Don't mistake that. You're not saved by being good. You're not saved because you are good. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Paul was confident that Timothy was a true believer because he had seen the way he lived his life. He could see the work of the Holy Spirit in him and the way that he was conducting himself in the world and in the church. And Paul was not the only one who saw this. He mentions that laying hands on Timothy. Remember a couple months ago I said that didn't mean they got in a fight, right? He didn't like, you know, in Acts chapter 13, Paul is joined with the other elders in the church and they lay hands on Timothy to commission him for ministry. It isn't that their laying on of hands imparted some supernatural ability to him. You know, it wasn't like in some anime comic or something like that where they transferred some power to him or something. It was their commissioning him for ministry. They laid hands on him and prayed for him. They're confirming the genuineness of his salvation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that he is equipped to participate in active ministry, that he has this gift for pastoral ministry. So he lived it out; others got to see it. And this is a challenge to us, too. Do I live my life making everybody else wonder around me? Or do they say, “Oh, I think she's a Christian. I think he's a Christian. I don't really know for sure, but I think I heard him talking about it.” But they shouldn't have people in your life—your family members, your co-workers, the people that live on your street—they shouldn't have any doubt. They might not agree with it, but they should have no doubt as to whether or not you are a Christian. They should see it in your life. Perfection is not the standard. Let me just help you out there. If perfection was the standard, there would only be one Christian: Jesus. Everybody else would be out, you know. Oh, and I've said this before, like Charles Spurgeon used to say like, “Don't look for a perfect church. If you ever find a perfect church, don't go there cuz when you show up, it won't be perfect anymore.” There's no perfect Christians. There's no perfect church. That's not the standard is Christ, but the expectation is that we are going to live in full dependence for him, acknowledging our shortcomings, confessing our sins, that sort of thing. We're not going to be perfect, but we can still live out what we believe. True believers are recognizable.

Lastly, in this section, what Paul's helping Timothy to understand as far as what a true Christian's doing and living is that true Christians need to take action. True believers need to take action. Don't be dormant. Don't be afraid. If we're honest, some of our Christianity is a lot like our grandma's car. You know, did your grandma have a car like this? She's still driving around a '98 Grand Marquis that's with 15,000 miles on it because she only takes it to church and the beauty parlor, you know. And a lot of us is like our Christianity is shiny because we never use it. We only use it on Sunday and then we put it away and nobody even knows we have a car or Christianity, you know, cuz it's just stashed away. What Timothy needs to understand is Timothy, you got to get out there. You got the gifts, but I know you do. You've got the faith. I know you do. You got to get out there and use it. You got to do it. Timothy was neglecting the gift God has given him. He was gifted as a pastor. And Paul was saying here, look at verse six where he says, “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, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and of love and of self-control.” In other words, he's saying like Timothy, this gift you're given is a lot like a campfire. And I don't know if you've ever gone camping, but sometimes, you know, when you go camping and the fire is kind of dwindling, you go to bed and you just let the fire burn out. And have you ever got up in the morning, the next morning, and you kind of start poking in the ashes of the fire, and even though there's no smoke and there's no flames, you see, oh, there's still, even after all night, there's a few little glowing coals in the bottom. And so you don't even need to light it. You can just kind of put some tinder on there and blow it a little bit, fan it with a paper plate or something, and bam, the fire's back lit. That's kind of what's going on in Timothy's life. He's kind of let it—he hasn't maintained this fire of his gift. He hasn't kept feeding fuel into it. And so it's burning out. And Paul says, “You got to fan that flame. Get some air going in there. Get some more tinder on it. Let's get that fire lit again.” And that helps us to realize that yes, we can have these gifts the Spirit gives us for ministry. But we also have to take care of them. We have to feed them fuel. We have to nourish those gifts, keep them burning. They will burn down. They will burn out. This is what was happening to Timothy in 1 Timothy. Paul challenged him. Remember, don't let people criticize you just because you're young. You know, don't let them dismiss your ministry on account of your age. But what does he say? But be an example to them. Living as an example for them. What does it look like to be a Christian—in this case a pastor? What does it look like? Be an example in the faith. Continue to use your gifts. Model for them how to use them with love and consistency. Perhaps it's the same type of criticism that's moving him to shrink away in fear. Maybe it's something different. Either way, what Paul's saying is, Timothy, you're not being loving. You're not loving this congregation. You're showing a lack of self-control, which interestingly enough are two of the fruits of the Spirit talked about in Galatians chapter 5. And it's revealing to me. It's revealing to the congregation that you are doubting the power of God in your life. In other words, it's showing that he's trusting in himself. And so that is manifesting itself in a fear and a reluctance to do the ministry he's been equipped and called to do. Timothy was a true believer, so the church needs him. It wasn't okay for him to deprive the church of the gifts and special talents that God had granted to him because if you remember in 1 Corinthians where Paul does a lot of work unpacking the spiritual gifts, one of his emphases is to help the church realize there is a diversity of gifts in the church because we—and no one really has that—it's not like everyone has all the gifts or one gift is given to everybody because we're all supposed to work in this synergizing way where no one person has all the gifts, but among us, we all have the ability to meet the spiritual needs of one another, to build one another up, to function as a healthy church. And so if Timothy as a true believer just sort of decides, well, I've got this gift, but I'm not going to use it. That's not only bad for him, but that deprives the church of something they desperately need. It's not okay for him to do that. True believers need to take action. Use what God has given you and put it into practice in the church.

Now, I confess and I acknowledge and I completely understand. It's very common for Christians to be frustrated or even reluctant to serve because they just—they feel like they don't know what their spiritual gifts are. And you don't need to raise your hand. You can just sort of wink at me if that's you. You don't have to let the secret out to anybody else. But I know there are people like that in this church cuz there's been people like that in every church I've ever been in. Christians who feel frustrated because they believe that Scripture is true. They've been given these special gifts and abilities by the Spirit of God, but they don't know what those are. And so they kind of get spun up just trying to figure out what are my spiritual gifts. If that's you, I'm going to give you two words of encouragement. Okay. The first word of encouragement is Timothy had the spiritual gift. But just remember even he had to be trained and developed in that gift to use it. So no doubt that's part of the fanning the flame—continue to develop, continue to let people pour into you to develop that gift. And I guess the word of encouragement to you is like don't assume that just because you're given this gift that you're just instantly good at it right off the bat. God's given you the gift of encouragement, so you're just going to boom instantly be out there just crushing it as an encourager, you know? No, you—even if you know what your gifts are and you are using them, you still need to grow and mature in that and to develop. So it's natural to need that. And you just need to understand part of the figuring out isn't maybe even figuring out; it's just building up the skills. Could even be that you're using your gifts now and you just don't realize it because it's just a natural thing that you do. I know a lot—like to just go back to encouragement—I know just a lot of people that are naturally encouraging. It's just the way God has wired them and they just might not even realize that that is a gift from God and that in doing that they are serving the church. The other word of encouragement I would give you is to just start serving. So many people throughout church history have discovered the way God has gifted them just by doing ministry and eventually finding the ministry where God has gifted them. You discover through doing and sometimes it's a trial and error. Sometimes it is a growing into an area of ministry. But don't feel like you have to be reluctant to serve and you can't serve until you're 100% sure I know what that spiritual gift is and I don't want to mess anybody up by accidentally encouraging somebody when that's not my gift. No, a lot of the things that are spiritual gifts we are all called to do. Some people are just specially gifted to do them. So those are my words of encouragement. But the thing I want you to take away from this is that true Christians—God doesn't want us just sort of sitting on our hands and just watching everybody else. He wants us to be involved actively in ministry. Timothy, a pastor, he's got to be reminded of that. So don't feel ashamed too if you have to be reminded of that as well. True believers take action. True believers are recognizable and true believers are dependent on God.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, I thank you for this letter. I thank you for even in this introduction as personal as it is and as simple as it is, there still is so much for us to glean—so much that is not only helpful for us to understand some of the background in terms of why Paul is writing this letter and what he is hoping Timothy to take away from it, but even in the way that you have ordained for this to be instructive for the church 2,000 years later, it remains to be relevant and valuable for us to understand these truths that Paul, your apostle, communicated to Timothy. We ask that you would help us as we make our way through this letter that we would come to understand how it is that you would have us to serve your church and to be a light in a dark world. Help us to be confident. Help us to be emboldened by the challenges that Paul lays out for Timothy so that we might continue to grow and mature in our own faith and that in turn by doing that we would help others in our lives around us. We ask all this in your name. Amen.