Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. This is God's word.
The letter that you hold in your hand, and that is the genre, it is a letter. The letter that you hold in your hand is a farewell letter from Paul to Timothy, but also to the church. Paul had been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Rome. It's the wrong place to go, and it's the wrong message to preach, and some things never change. There is nothing new under the sun, and Paul preached the gospel, and they put him into prison. And shortly after penning this letter, he will be beheaded.
An imminent death can be a sweet friend who brings the greatest clarity.
But Paul tells Timothy, in this letter, there's going to be persecution. Timothy, there's going to be difficult times. If you really are faithful for Christ Jesus, know that there will be difficulties. There will be trials and tribulations, because preaching the truth of the gospel will have all sorts of enemies.
Paul tells Timothy in chapter 1, verses 8 and 9, he says, 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 who saved us. Paul is in prison. Paul is suffering. If you've actually ever looked up what the prison might have looked like, it was a hole in the ground, cold, dark, dank dungeon, so to speak. Paul's locked up in a prison for preaching the gospel. He's suffering for Christ's sake. Paul restates his condition in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 9. He says, For which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. He goes on in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 and 7, and says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. What's Paul saying to Timothy? What's Paul saying to the church at large? He says, I'm about to die.
And in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 16, he says, At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. Not only was he suffering physically, but also mentally and emotionally because no one was there to help him.
It sounds like a bleak situation and circumstance, but you know, the apostle Paul was a bad boy according to the world's standards.
He wasn't an altar boy, and he wasn't a squeaky clean preacher.
If you like the apostle Paul, then you need to know the true apostle Paul according to scripture and the true apostle Paul was a contrarian. He was against the culture. He swam upstream. He stood and he fought for the Lord. Yes, Paul was a fighter. He wouldn't back down from anyone. And what's even more ironic is in the first century, some of the early writings actually show us that Paul would have been a man of medium height, maybe even a little bit on the short side. It said that Paul had a long skinny nose and that Paul was bald.
So, God decides to use a man of, well, nothing on the outside that would even sway us, uses this man, a man who's just an ordinary guy, to preach his gospel, to go out into the known world on different missionary journeys and see people come to faith in Jesus Christ because God's message is that powerful and we are all jars of clay. That goes for every single one of us in here today as well. Whether you are a man or a woman, whether you are old or you are young or you're in the middle of life, it doesn't matter whether you are articulate or not, whether you think you are bright intellectually or not. God uses, well, he uses our weaknesses. Paul writes a letter to Timothy and wants to tell him to fight the good fight, to stand strong. Paul was a bad boy. He had been locked up in prison multiple times. He was in prison in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Philippi, and then here in Rome. He spent a lot of time behind bars. Chuck Colson did not start prison fellowship ministry. It was the apostle Paul.
Paul was a man who thought outside the box. He didn't just stay in one little confined way of doing ministry. It wasn't only in the synagogue or only on the Lord's day, though to be sure it was there as well, but Paul was creative. Paul went out into the world and he figured out, how can I get into certain places so that I can share the gospels? Maybe some of the places that are, well, they're not the usual, typical place for a Christian to hang out. And if you'll remember, he was in the Hall of Tyrannus in Ephesians. He goes into a place that was a pagan philosophy place and it was in the middle of the day, the heat of the day, where everyone would have taken a nap and the apostle Paul goes into that pagan philosophy place and begins to preach the gospel, begins to reason and articulate the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what happened in Ephesus, it changed the whole city. People came to faith in Christ. He was a man who thought outside the box.
Don't get confined to just the way you think ministry needs to happen because my job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. You're empowered to do the ministry. Not just me, not the holy anointed guy who stands in the front. If you have a mouth, if you have a brain, if you have the gospel, you are responsible to share it. That means today. That means this week. You look for opportunities. You pray to God and say, God, give me opportunities this week, whether it's with my family, it's with friends, it's with neighbors, wherever I go, help me to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to be bold and know that when you share it, some people will not like it. Actually, they will not like you.
And that's why Paul wants to encourage Timothy, literally wants to pour courage into Timothy because Timothy was a timid man. He needed the apostle Paul to get behind him, to support him, to tell him the facts. Now Paul's in prison. Why? Well, the emperor of Rome at the time, Nero, he was a megalomaniac, kind of schizophrenic. He actually burned down Rome in 64 AD and then he blamed it on this little cult of people called Christians. And the onslaught and the outrage of the people of Rome against the Christians was unheard of. It was awful in their day and the Christians were persecuted far and wide. And what occurred was a systematic slaughter of Christians and Paul was a recipient of their rage. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That wasn't a maybe, wasn't an asterisk with a lengthy footnote. It was a will be persecuted.
I'd like to tell you today that if you're a Christian, then Christianity is not for the faint of heart. If you really are a Christian, bold in your faith, then you're going to need to grow up into Christ because if you don't, you will be cut off at the knees as you continue to live this faith out. That's what the Apostle Paul's doing here with Timothy. And what three words or what two words does he mention three times? It's right there in your text, Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus. That's how you and I can be encouraged. We can be emboldened to share our faith. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus.
This letter is an encouraging letter, even though it is the last letter that Paul wrote. Second Timothy chapter four, verse 17, you will see Paul say, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me, the message might be fully proclaimed again. Second Timothy four, 18, the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord will do this. The Lord is going to protect. The Lord is going to provide. That's why we just sang a mighty fortress is our God.
Many of us need to be like the midwives when Pharaoh said to slaughter all the male children and they fear God rather than the king. And they did not slaughter the children. Many of us need to be like the apostle Peter to fear God rather than man.
I'm going to encourage you in the days ahead to fear God rather than man. And first and foremost, it will start in the church.
It's not going to start outside the church. It'll start in the church. There'll be some that say, sit down, be quiet. Don't talk about Christ all the time. We like to do things this way and, and you've already seen a removal of the gospel. There are some whose lampstands are being removed and it's sometimes you think through, well, they don't even have a lampstand, so how can it be removed?
As for me and my house and in this assembly, we will serve the Lord. And that means if you're truly sold out for Christ, you will come underneath some kind of persecution verbally, possibly.
It might start first in the church, not here, but other churches. Prepare yourself for the days ahead. Stay close to Christ through his word and through prayer and do not neglect to meet together for this is where the Lord meets us corporately, strengthens us. But not only do you taste some kind of resistance from inside the church, but yes, it will come outside the church. The forward advancement of the gospel will be dampened, tamped down by Satan and his demons, but be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for you know that your labor is not in vain when you labor for the Lord. The apostle Paul heard these words from the angel of the Lord in Acts chapter 27 verse 24. It says, do not be afraid. That's what he said to Paul. Do not be afraid, Paul.
We see this hundreds of times from Genesis to Revelation. Fear not. This is what God says to his people. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Yet we are all, most of us like Timothy. We bite our nails. We're timid. We don't want to open our mouths, especially outside the four walls. We'll talk about Christ in church all day long. But outside the walls, it gets scary.
The same happened to Timothy. And the apostle Paul wanted to infuse pure titanium steel into the back of Timothy. Preach the gospel. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Preach it. And the preaching not only comes from the pastors, but from the people. Because preaching is actually proclaiming what God has already done in Christ. You're preachers, too. Can I deputize you this morning? Can I commission you to say, you need to go out and preach the good news? Some of you are sitting there going, don't look at me, pastor, I ain't doing it. There's an evangelist office, I'm not that guy.
The minute you became a Christian, you're an evangelist, I'm sorry.
And you have the good news that can change people's eternities. So be prepared to not be afraid. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4-5, as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. I want us to take a look at these two passages, these two verses, and I want you to see two things. God's will, number one. Verse one, God's will. Number two, God's grace. See, I could preach all day long about you and what you need to do and you live your best life and, well, that's really not going to be any help to you because all week you've been hearing that marketing campaign. I was in the business world, I understand, it's how you sell and you make money, is by telling people what they want to hear and rubbing their backs. You're not going to get that from me, you're going to get the word of God and God from his word today. Paul is going to start out this whole letter focused on God. That's where we've got to stay focused in the days ahead, not get off into the thickets of things, to the sideways. We stay with God through Christ and what he has called us to do and here it's the will of God, number one. Go back, look at the text. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. What seems to be preeminent on Paul's mind? God's will.
You see it there, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. Paul started 1 Corinthians 1.1 the same way. He says, Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
Paul was hung up on God's will, not his will. Why? Why?
Because it wasn't Paul's will to become an apostle, wasn't it? Now it says here, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. What's apostle? Well, the word apostolos in the Greek means one that is sent, one who's on mission, one who has a purpose for his life.
The mission that Paul's living out, was that ever his mission statement from the very beginning? No, no. Ed just read it to you a minute ago, the conversion of Paul. He was actually persecuting Christ's church. His whole mission was to do, well, works by, or salvation by works. But Jesus makes a return trip to earth to convert Paul on the Damascus Road. That's God's will. That wasn't Paul's will.
How many of you look at your own conversion and you say, man, my will is so strong. I always wanted to be a Christian, so I became a Christian. Not mine. It's the last thing I wanted to be.
The apostle Paul was converted on the Damascus Road by God's will in Christ Jesus. And to be an apostle means one that saw Christ and was sent by Christ. That's the New Testament definition of an apostle. And God's will was to stop Paul from persecuting the church and to turn Paul on his head and send him out in a different direction. Thanks be to God that he came down and that was his will fulfilled for the apostle Paul, because Paul was used mightily to bring so many people to faith.
Acts chapter 9 verses 15 and 16. Here's what it says again. The Lord said to Ananias this, he says, go for he is a chosen instrument of mine. That's God's will. He's chosen, chosen, chosen, chosen by God. Paul didn't choose God. God chose Paul to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how much he must suffer.
God's will is to save. God's will is to send us out. And God says to Paul, oh, you're going to suffer by the way. And God's will was not thwarted for Paul's life, was it? Paul did suffer. Paul was saved. Paul was sent, but Paul did suffer.
Look back at the text with me. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the, what's that word?
Promise. You know, God makes promises. What are God's promises? God's promises confirm what God, motivated by his own sovereign mercy and good pleasure, will do for his people.
A promise reveals a truth from God that will benefit his people. And God has made promises from the very beginning, and God's promises are always fulfilled. Nothing can thwart the sovereign God of the universe. Remember, God made a promise in the garden to that serpent. He said, there's going to be one that's going to be a seed from the woman that's going to crush your head. Did that happen? Yeah, it's fulfilled. God made a promise to Noah.
He says, in Genesis 6, 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the faults of his heart were only evil continually. So God made a promise. And he said, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which the breath of life under heaven will be taken. Everything that is on earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. Was it fulfilled? Did anything thwart God's plan?
No.
No, it was fulfilled because the whole earth was flooded. Here, they had to get on an ark, and the ark was the only way for salvation, for him and his family. God made a promise to Abraham. Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, it says, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Was God's promise fulfilled for Abraham? Yes. Time would escape us if we went on to remember God's promises through Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses.
The Lord spoke to Moses in that burning bush, and he said, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt. And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt. Was God's promise fulfilled? Yes. When God makes a promise, it is irreversible and irrevocable. And he's made us a lot of promises from the very beginning and to the end, and all his promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. And whatever is believed without a promise is mere presumption.
You need the promises of God. This is why the great Puritans preached on the promises of God to their people time and time again. And in their day, they would see many of their children die in infancy. They would see their wives. Many of these pastors had multiple wives because their wives would die either in childbirth or some kind of bacteria where they would get sick.
And these men knew that not only in their lives, but also in the lives of their congregation, that they need the promises of God because this world does not give you promises. It gives you empty lies.
Titus 1, Paul told Titus, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. A promise is God's goodwill, goodwill for his people. And when he makes a promise, you can actually take it to the bank. It's not a rubber check. It will not bounce back.
God is good for what he says he will do, he will accomplish.
Go back, look at the text. It says, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. God's goodwill, God's good promise is ultimately the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the greatest promise that he could ever make. And it is life-giving to dying sinners.
Eternal life has come into this world. It's broken into this world through Jesus Christ.
John, chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. First John 5, 12, whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. People are searching for life today all across this land, all sorts of ways in which we think there's going to be true life. And the Bible tells us here, whoever has the Son has life. You have real life.
Apostle Paul told the Colossians, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Oh, that life that's in Christ. Today do you have union with Christ? Because that's the doctrine that he's preaching here. It's union with Christ. You're tethered to Christ by God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit has regenerated your heart. Are you walking with Christ? Do you love your time with Christ through his word, through prayer, through time with his people? Do you speak to him daily? Do you hear from him daily? Do you love that communion and union that you have with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that you know that even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death that you will fear no evil for he's with you, his rod and his staff that they comfort you? Do you have that kind of communion with him? Does he bring you that kind of comfort and confidence in these kinds of days? It's been a strange three years, has it not?
And yet we as Christians should be that light on a hill, salt to a dying world.
People that have true life that we can offer to others. Oh sure, we are like Timothy, we get fearful from times and that's why we're always told to go back to God's word to remember his promises, but the greatest promise is that life in Christ and you have it now, but you'll also have it for eternity. That's the good news. Do you celebrate today like the apostle Paul did in Ephesians chapter one? I don't know if you've read Ephesians one verses three and following lately. Tonight, before you go to bed, read Ephesians one verses three and following.
Paul is caught up in worship. Oh, it's some of the most grand worship because he's not focused on man and what's happening with man and how bad it is with man, no, he goes straight to God. And here's what he says, blessed be the God and father Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, God's will, not our will to the praise of his glorious grace, which we has blessed us in the beloved in him. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. Some people say, stop preaching about grace. You can never preach enough about God's grace. No, it'll lead to loose living. No, it will lead to walking with the Lord. If you preach his grace, because grace will melt the heart. It's those who are legalists that always want to put the law before the Lord. You got to do this. You got to do that. You can do all those things when you've got the hot jet fuel called the gospel of Jesus Christ. You will love the Ten Commandments. You will live out the Ten Commandments. You will want to share the Ten Commandments with other people when you know that you've been saved by grace and this is not your own doing.
But too many times in the church, we do pound on the law first and foremost, and the law was never meant to be a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's a loving gift from our heavenly father. And the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 was caught up in worship, the same thing he's doing here as he starts this wonderful letter to Timothy.
So God's will, have you considered God's will lately?
Well, when you watch the news tonight or tomorrow, or you read it on your phone, don't just look at what man's screaming, what man's shouting. I want you to step back and think about God's will in all of it, because if his will will be done, then what you're seeing playing out in our culture today is God just putting the pieces together. I mean, think if you were Joseph.
Think if you're any of the Christians of old.
You know, they live through times and circumstances and situations where they're thinking, where are you God?
God never left, and God's will was never thwarted. It wasn't as though there had to be a plan B because some man got really crafty and stuck it to God, no. But the apostle Paul doesn't stop with God's will. He goes on to God's grace. Look at verse 2. He says to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the father and Christ Jesus our Lord. What's on Paul's mind at the end of his life? God's grace.
To Timothy, my beloved child, Paul knew that he was saved by grace, but he also got to see this in Timothy's life, didn't he? Think about those around you that maybe you've led to the Lord, or maybe who've come to the Lord recently, or maybe even in your past. And when you look at them, what you're seeing is God's grace. We do not save anyone.
Let me go ahead and say something that's going to be controversial. So listen up.
We will not have altar calls at this church. Some of you will not like this. But there will not be altar calls. Because I could do an altar call, and I'm just manipulative enough that I could say some things to get you down here. And I'm just good enough. My wife always tells me I went into the wrong business. I could be in sales. I could get you down here, and I could maybe say some things to get you crying. Oh, play on those heart strings. And I can get you crying and weeping and on your knees, and you can leave out of here and live like hell. Nothing's changed.
See, if you really want to see if somebody's been saved by grace, if God the Holy Spirit has truly regenerated their heart, walk with them for years. Don't just lead them to the Lord, but walk with them. Lead them to the Lord and walk with them. Then you can see if they have a transformed, regenerated heart. And maybe, just maybe, you'll have to do the things like I've had to do with people that I love dearly, share the gospel 30 and 40 and 50 times with people because they're still not saved. Oh, I'm a Christian. No. No, I'm pretty sure you don't. You haven't been to church in forever. You really never read your Bible. You don't ever pray. But I'm saved. I got my fire insurance. I'm good.
Yes, there should be an emotional side to coming to faith in Christ, but it should be an emotional state that changes your life and how you live ordinary because you do not live in the extraordinary.
What can happen in an altar call is a couple of minutes of emotionalism and you may go and live totally differently.
The Apostle Paul was blown away because he saw Timothy come to faith and then Timothy be a faithful steward of the gospel of Jesus Christ, living out that life, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, being beaten. If you know Timothy's story, he's actually stoned to death because he broke up Mardi Gras parade in Ephesus. They stoned him to death. Timothy dies at the hands of pagans.
How does that occur? Remember, God, the Holy Spirit, working deep faith of the gospel in someone's life, someone who would not waver. And Paul saw this. By the way, Paul went and shared the gospel the first time in Lystra and two women came to faith. We'll get to this probably next week. But in second Timothy chapter one, verse five, he's writing to Timothy and he says, your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.
Paul goes, he shares the gospel, he leaves, he comes back later on. And in Acts chapter 16, verses one and two, it says Paul came also to Derby and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Now, women, you matter. Now, in a lot of conservative churches, you've been told, shut up, sit down, be quiet, don't say anything. But you matter greatly.
Peter actually says we're heirs of the grace of life. That means you put on your salvation pants the same way I do. My wife is not under me. She's not lower than me. We are heirs of the grace of life. We're saved the exact same way. And from this text, from Timothy, women, if you're a grandmother, a mother, a great-grandmother, you matter greatly.You have the opportunity to influence generations behind you. And I want to empower the ladies here today to be prayer warriors for your family. Because Timothy, Timothy changed a whole bunch of places because he was emboldened by two ladies who came to faith first.
Do you have a grandmother like Lois or a mother like Eunice?
And ladies, maybe you didn't have one, but maybe you can be the first in that line.
So, simply opening up, reading scripture with your children, and allowing your children to see that you have a living, vibrant relationship with the Lord. And when they see it, it is a sign of your faith. And it changes. It changes them. It changes other people. It changes you. And 3 John 4 says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. That's the greatest gift.
It's not just about you. It's not just about me. It's about future generations.
Most of us here, most of us here in 40, 45, 50 years, we won't be here, but there's another generation that's here that we should be pouring into, praying for. God does save, and he saves by grace, and he also works by grace. Go back to the text as we finish. It says, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Many times we go past those words quickly, but they are theologically loaded. How can you overcome fear?
Well, Paul says grace, God's grace, his favor, God's mercy, getting what you don't deserve, God's peace rather than his wrath. And the only way to have grace, mercy, and peace is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because on that cross, Jesus received disgrace, the punishment, and the wrath so that we can have God's grace, his mercy, and his peace now and forevermore. This is the good news of the gospel, and Paul is opening up this letter with the gospel to Timothy to encourage this young man, hey, Timothy, I'm going to die. Stay resilient. Keep moving forward with the gospel. Keep preaching it. And therefore, Paul was preoccupied with God's will and with God's grace. This is a farewell letter.
I wonder if some of us need encouragement today. If we literally need courage poured into us, then today consider God's will. Consider God's grace in your own life, but also the lives of other people around you and what God has promised he will keep. You remember God made a promise to David, King David. David was a bad boy as well. He made a promise to David that he would save the people to himself, and it would be through David's offspring.Here's what we find in Acts 13, 23. Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.
So let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Amen. Let's pray.