1 Rev. William J. Shields St. Mark Lutheran Church, Lindenhurst, Illinois The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany February 12, 2017 Second Lesson 2 Timothy 1:1-7 Sermon Series 2 Timothy Part 1 Live By Faith Not By Fear 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In 1981, I had the opportunity to spend a summer studying overseas. Most of the summer was spent in Israel, but our group also spent some time in Greece, Turkey, and Italy. And it was during my time in Italy that I was able to visit the famous Mamertine Prison in Rome. The Mamertine was built in the 7 th century B.C., and it was the only prison in Rome during the time that the New Testament was written. The Romans only needed one prison, because they didn t really believe in long-term imprisonment. If you were convicted of a crime, you were either sentenced to hard labor, usually in a mine, or you were sentenced to death. And if you were sentenced to death, then the Mamertine was the place where you were imprisoned while you were awaiting your execution. In the center of the Mamertine was a large holding cell called the Tullianus. The Tullianus was beneath the main floor of the prison. It measured 30 feet by 22 feet, with a 6 ½ foot ceiling. The only entrance was through a hole in that ceiling. Prisoners were literally dropped through the hole into the room and then the hole was covered with a large iron lid, kind of like a manhole cover. The Tullianus was usually very overcrowded. It was dark, it was smelly, it was rat infested, it was horrible. And it was the place where the Apostle Paul would spend his final days on this earth.
2 This was Paul s second imprisonment in Rome. During his first imprisonment, a few years earlier, Paul was under house arrest. This meant that he actually lived in a house, probably the house of a Christian friend, while he waited for his trial before the Emperor. He was chained to a Roman soldier 24 hours a day, but he was able to receive visits from his Christian friends and to write letters to the Christian churches that he had founded. In fact, four of Paul s New Testament letters were written during this first imprisonment: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Paul was eventually released from his first imprisonment in the year 62 A.D. He was able to visit many of the Christian churches again, on what some have called his 4 th missionary journey. It was during that 4 th journey that Paul wrote the letter of 1 Timothy. In that letter, he urged his young protégé to be a faithful leader of the Ephesian Church and to stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, against the false teachers who were trying to infect the church and lead the people astray. But then, in the year 64 A.D., something happened in Rome which had a devastating effect on the Christian Church. In that year, there was a great fire which destroyed most of the center of the city. The fire probably started by accident, but many people blamed the Roman Emperor at the time Emperor Nero. Nero had grand plans to rebuild Rome and people began to accuse him of burning it down, just so that he could build it back up as a monument to himself. Nero needed to shift the blame for the fire to someone else. So he decided to blame the Christians. Then he followed up his accusations against the Christians by having thousands of them arrested and executed in horrible ways. It was during this attack on the Christian community that Paul was arrested for the second time. But this second arrest was not a house arrest. This time Paul was taken to Mamertine prison and thrown into the Tullianus. During his first arrest, Paul wrote in his letters that he was hoping to be released soon and that he was looking forward to seeing his friends in the churches again. But not this time. This time Paul was pretty sure that he was going to die. He knew that God could do a miracle. He knew that the God who had saved Daniel from the lions den could certainly save him from the Tullianus dungeon. But he had a feeling inside of him that that would not happen. He felt like this was the end. And Paul turned out to be right. Sometime around the year 66 or 67 A.D., Paul was executed in Rome. Early Christian writers say that he was decapitated. And to make matters worse, while he waited for his execution, almost all of his Christian friends abandoned him. It was dangerous to be associated with Paul at this time, so most of them just stayed away. The only two who really stood by him during this imprisonment were a believer from Ephesus named Onesiphorus and Paul s good friend Luke the man who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. But there was one more person whom Paul hoped to see before he died. That person was Timothy the young man whom Paul had trained to be a pastor and left in charge of the Ephesian church. In fact, that was probably the main reason that Paul wrote this letter. He wanted to urge Timothy to come and visit him before he was put to death. So he wrote the letter that we now call 2 Timothy. Paul probably dictated the letter to Luke, who wrote it down. And it was probably Onesiphorus who carried the letter back to Timothy at Ephesus. Whether Timothy was able to get to Rome before Paul was put to death, we don t know. I hope that he did. But by the grace
3 and provision of God, we still have the letter that Paul wrote to him from that prison. And what a powerful letter it is! It is Paul writing in the midst of the most difficult circumstances that you can imagine. He is urging Timothy to be strong and courageous. He is urging him to fight the good fight of the faith as he leads the church at Ephesus. The title of my sermon this morning is, Live By Faith Not By Fear. That is the theme of the opening verses of the letter. It could also be the theme of the entire letter. God does not want us to live in fear, in the midst of this dark, sinful, hostile world. He wants us to be strong and courageous and even joyful. He wants us to live by faith. And he has given us everything that we need to do just that. I want to divide this text into four parts. These are four things that Paul is encouraging Timothy to remember as he lives out his calling in this world. But Paul could just as well be speaking to us, because we also need to remember these four things as we walk through this world, on the way to our Heavenly home. So here is the first thing to remember, if you want to live your life by faith, and not by fear. I. Remember The Promise Of Eternal Life Paul says to Timothy, in verses 1-2 of our text, 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. Not too long ago, my good old Uncle Ole told me about a really vivid dream that he had. In his dream, he and my Aunt Lena had both died on the same day and together they went up to Heaven. St. Peter met them and gave them a tour of the place. And it was beautiful! There were green fields and majestic mountains. And at the center of it all, there was this magnificent city the New Jerusalem. It had streets of gold, and a river running through it, and the tree of life in the center. And it was all illuminated by the glory of Jesus Christ himself. Lena looked over at Ole and saw that he was crying. She said, Oh my dear Ole, are you crying because you are overcome by da beauty of dis place? Ole said, No. I am crying because, if you didn t make me eat all of dose healthy bran muffins, I coulda been up here ten years ago! Now, I m not suggesting that you should stop eating healthy foods so you can get to Heaven faster. But Ole does have a point. Heaven is going to be awesome! And it is waiting for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior. That s why Paul could open his letter to Timothy on such a positive note. Paul, a faithful Apostle of Christ Jesus, is stuck in a hole in Rome, waiting to die. But he says that he is in this situation, by the will of God. And this is the same God who gives him, the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. Paul says, Timothy, you are my beloved child. You are like a son to me. And whatever happens to me, I want you to remember that I have this promise from God. I have the promise of eternal life in Heaven, because of what Jesus has done for me on the Cross. Paul doesn t want Timothy to forget that. And neither should we forget it. Whatever happens to us in this world, we need to Remember The Promise Of Eternal Life. And then the second thing that Paul wants Timothy to remember is that, if you want to live your life by faith, and not by fear, then you need to
4 II. Remember That You Are Loved Paul says in verses 3-4 of our text, 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. These words are Paul s sincere, heartfelt expression of Christian love for the young man whom he has taught and guided and mentored, preparing him for the position that he is now in the position of Pastor in the Ephesian Church. These words just move my heart when I read them. He says to Timothy, I am sitting in this filthy prison serving God. That s what he calls his imprisonment. It is his service to God. It is God s will that he be in that prison right now, and it may be God s will that he will die very soon for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if that is what God has in store for him, then he is going to serve God in that way, to the best of his ability. He is going to serve God in his imprisonment and he is going to serve God in his death. Wow! I wish I had that kind of faith. But while he is serving God in prison, what is he also doing? He is praying for Timothy night and day. He is remembering the last time that he saw him. The last time that Paul had been in Ephesus, he had left from there to go on his 4 th missionary journey. And Timothy wanted so badly to go with him. But Paul said, No Timothy, you have to stay here. You have to be the pastor of this church. Paul says, I remember your tears when I left you behind, but it was the right thing to do. We always have to answer the call of God and go to the places where he wants us to go. But even though we are separated by time and space, there is one thing that we always carry with us. We carry with us the bond of Christian love. Just the other day, I got an email from a young man who used to be a member of one of my former churches. He told me that his mother recently had some health serious problems, and he wondered if I would I please pray for her. I love his mother. She was on the Church Council when I first came to that church. She was always ready to do anything for the church and for our family. So I said, Of course I ll pray for her! And then I said, What s her phone number? He gave it to me and I called her up that day. I said, Hi, this is Pastor Shields. And she said, Oh, Pastor Shields, it s so good to hear your voice. And we picked up right where we had left off in our relationship! That s what it means to be part of a Christian family. It means that you are loved. And it is not just a human kind of love. It is a supernatural love that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of every Christian. It has been 4 ½ years since I was last in Sudan. Bob and I have been shut out of that country since our last trip there in the fall of 2012. But I know that if I went back there today and saw some of the people that I knew there, we would immediately do the Sudanese-style hug and embrace each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. And Paul is telling Timothy from his prison cell that, whatever happens to him there, Timothy should remember that they are brothers in Christ. Remember that they will meet again in Heaven. Paul is saying to him, Remember That You Are Loved. And then the third thing that Paul says to Timothy is that, if you are going to live by faith, and not by fear, then you must
5 III. Remember What You Have Been Taught Paul says in verse 5 of our text, 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. I love the way that Paul describes Timothy s faith here. He talks about Timothy s sincere faith. The Greek word for sincere is anupokritos, which means unhypocritical. Timothy s faith was genuine. There was no phoniness. And where did it come from? It came first from his godly grandmother Lois and his godly mother Eunice. Timothy was from the town of Lystra, in Asia Minor, which today is south central Turkey. His father was Greek a Gentile. But his mother and grandmother were both Jewish. Now, Timothy s father apparently did not allow him to be officially raised as a Jew. We know this because we learn in the book of Acts that he was not circumcised. But even though his father would not allow him to be outwardly Jewish, his faithful mother and grandmother taught him the faith. I remember many years ago when a woman from one of previous churches came into my office and said, Pastor, I m concerned because my kids aren t going to church and they aren t raising their kids in the faith. I m afraid that my grandchildren are not going to know anything about Jesus. What should I do? I said to her, Every time that you have them with you, even for a short time, you bring them with you to church. You pray with them and read Bible stories to them. You talk about your own faith with them. And when they aren t with you, you pray for them. And God will work with that. So Timothy s father would not allow him to be raised as a Jew. But his mother and grandmother worked with that. They taught him at home. When Paul and Barnabas came through town in their first missionary journey, probably in the year 46 A.D., they first preached the Gospel to the Jewish community there. That is probably when Timothy s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice became Christians. And then, when Paul came back to town on his second missionary journey, three years later, he met this remarkable young believer named Timothy. Timothy ended up going with Paul and his companions on the rest of that journey. And he traveled with Paul again a few years later, on his third missionary journey. And it all began with that solid foundation of faith that was laid for Timothy by his faithful mother and grandmother. For all of you young people in church today, you are here because your parents, or your grandparents, or someone else who loves you very much brought you here today. Do not abandon that faith! Make it your own. Answer the call of God in your life. And wherever God leads you, always, Remember What You Have Been Taught. And then, finally, if you want to live a life of faith, and not of fear, you must IV. Remember That The Holy Spirit Is In You In verse 6 of our text, Paul says, For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands. Now we get to the real concern of Paul in this letter. Paul is concerned that Timothy might not be emotionally strong enough to carry
6 the burden of the church at Ephesus and to stand up to the false teachers especially after Paul is dead and gone. We get hints of this same concern in some of Paul s other letters. In 1 Corinthians 16:10, Paul tells the leaders of the Corinthian church, When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. And in 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul tells Timothy, Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. It seems that Timothy may have been a young man who was very sensitive to criticism. And Paul was really concerned about him. Here is what I think happened. When Paul was arrested, Timothy sent a friend from Ephesus to find Paul in Rome, the man I mentioned earlier, Onesiphorus. And Onesiphorus did, indeed, find Paul in the Mamertine Prison. And when he finally talked to Paul, Paul wanted to know how Timothy was doing. I think that Onesiphorus was honest with Paul. He said, Timothy is in bad shape. The church in Ephesus was struggling because the false teachers were still around. They were fighting against Timothy s ministry. They were pulling people away from the true Gospel. Here is how Jesus describes the Ephesian church in the second chapter of Revelation. He says, I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. So the Ephesian church was a difficult church, and Timothy was kind of beaten down by the tough ministry there. He was burning out. I have seen this before, not just in church leaders, but in Christians from all different walks of life. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are going to come under attack in this world. Satan is going to hammer away at you. He is going to tempt you in your weak spots. He is going to inspire unbelievers to harass you. He is going to try to use the hardships of life to demoralize you. And if you do not hold on to the things that Paul is talking about in this text if you do not remember that you have the promise of eternal life, if you do not remember that you are loved, if you do not remember the Biblical truths that you have been taught then you are going to be beaten down and you are going to be vulnerable to burn out. You need to constantly fan the flame of faith. And how do you do that? You do it by remembering that you have the gift of the Holy Spirit living inside of you. If you really believe in Jesus Christ, then you have the Holy Spirit. You know, when my kids were younger, I used to try to play video games with them. And I was terrible. They always trounced me because they played the games a lot more than I did. They knew all the tricks. I remember once playing the game Mario Kart with them. I was doing pretty well. I was right with them. But then they started taking off like a shot zoom, zoom, zoom! They left me way behind, choking on their dust. And when the game was over, I said, How did you guys do that? They said, You can do it too! Just hold this button and then tap that button, or whatever I don t remember. But the point was, my car had that power, but I wasn t using it! And Paul was saying to Timothy, You have that power! You have the power to fire up your soul and energize your ministry. It is a gift from God. He has given you his Holy Spirit. All you have to do is access it. And the way to access that power is no secret. There are no secret buttons to push in order to get this power boost. You access the power of the Holy Spirit in the same way that it s always been done. You do it through prayer, you do it through regular worship, and you do it through meditating on the Word of God.
7 In the final verse of our text for today, verse 7, Paul really let s Timothy have it. He uses some very strong language. He says, For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. The word translated fear in this verse is the Greek word deilia. This is the only place in the New Testament where this word is used. It means cowardice. Paul is saying, Timothy, don t be a coward. The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of cowardice. It is a spirit of power, a spirit of love, a spirit of self-control. He s saying, Timothy, you have everything that you need to do your ministry. You have the Holy Spirit. And people, you also have everything that you need to be the man or woman that God wants you to be. When Pastor Breum and I urge you to be in worship every week, when we urge you to find time, every day, for personal prayer, when we urge you to be in the Word of God on a regular basis, we re not urging you to do those things just because we re pastors and that s what pastors are supposed to do. No. We are urging you to do these things because we know that it is through these God-given means of grace that you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit. And we want you to experience that power, because we want you to have that supernatural love, and that self-control, and that joy, and that peace that comes only from God himself. In other words, what we want for you is what Paul wanted for Timothy. We want you to Live By Faith Not By Fear. Amen and Amen.