2 Timothy 1:1-7

Praise God. So grateful for all of you. Thank you for the time of worship the Lord gave to us. Thank you worship team for leading us in worship. So good to see all of you tonight, especially tonight is a very exciting night for us, encounter as we’re starting a new series from 2 Timothy, Legacy of Faith. Hopefully at least some of you remember us finishing 1 Timothy and then going into the book of Esther that we covered for the last several months, and then we are coming to this very very important book in God’s Word. This is a book that is so filled with such great truths, not only because all of God’s Word is inspired by the Holy Spirit and find great truths in it, but these are the dying words of probably the most important person other than the Lord Jesus Christ in all of scriptures, the Apostle Paul. Whenever you have someone, especially someone of this great importance, the Apostle Paul, you will be very wise to heed to the final words that he has to write to the church and to us as a whole. And again these are not his words, these are inspired by the Holy Spirit, but yet these words become so important in the life of the church, and millions of people over the ages have been inspired to follow after God till the last breath on earth by these words written in 2 Timothy.

As I’m reading through this book, I see a lot of verses that we quote often, many passages that we often talk about quite a bit in the life of the church, in our life as well. So I think it’s very good that we are doing a systematic study of 2 Timothy as we come to the end of another year in our lives, and I pray that as we go through week after week that you will make a point to be here so that you can read, study this entire book, and you will not miss anything. Do not miss any of the weeks that are coming up, and we’ll be able to completely study this book and internalize it, and most importantly be transformed by God’s word for the glory of God’s name. Before I start and dive into verse, it’s very important to understand the context of writing 2 Timothy. He is not writing this from a house arrest like he was in many of the other prison episodes. 2 Timothy is thought to be and widely accepted to be the final episode that’s written by the Apostle Paul. In fact, probably just a few days before he was executed. In fact, this was probably written even within the last two weeks of his life here on earth, and I have a few pictures of the Mamertine prison where he wrote 2 Timothy from.

You can go to Italy today and see this. This is the first picture I have here is of the upper chamber where it’s, you can see kind of a hole in the middle there, and you will see the next picture, the lower chamber where he was probably kept in prison. It’s not in isolation. It’s not in solitary confinement. Probably had other prisoners there as well, and they would eat, go to bathroom, everything in this very confined place. I have one more picture that shows kind of like a small tiny opening that connects the upper chamber to the lower chamber. If you go to the Mamertine prison today, there are steps that actually allows you to go from the upper chamber to the lower chamber. At that time, all that was there was this opening right here, so I want you to imagine a man of God in the final dying moments of his life being in a very small space, and all that he has, the light that is coming in is what is coming through this hole, and the food is being lowered to him probably just one meal a day because they’re all people on death row that are living in this particular place. This was a prison that was especially for people who were on death row. Most of them were political prisoners. Some were people who had done other crimes as well. Many of them were killed by very brutal methods, even from this prison. We’ll talk more about that as we come to the end of this book on how the Apostle Paul was killed, but you have to understand that he’s writing this episode from this place, and many of us would, knowing that death was imminent, would probably just kind of live out those last moments and just try not to think about anything even remotely like writing an episode, but his purpose on earth was to use every single moment that God has given to him for the glory of God’s name, and you need to understand that as we came to the end of the book of Acts, we saw Paul in prison. It’s not the same prison.

At the end of the book of Acts, Paul was in house arrest in Rome where he remained for a period of more than two years. It’s a little sketchy in Christian history and in the narratives as to what happened to him after he was released from prison. He longed to go to Spain. That is very, very clear, so many people think that he actually traveled to Spain with the gospel during this time, and the Bible is silent on this. Church history is, for the most part, silent on it, but we know that Peter and Paul were arrested by Nero during his persecution in the middle of AD 60, and so there’s a little bit of a debate as to when 2 Timothy was written. It was probably around somewhere between AD 66 and AD 67. I kind of lean towards the latter date. Probably around AD 67 is when 2 Timothy was written and Paul was executed, so he had a time period of about two, three years between his house arrest and him being confined in this prison by Nero where he would be executed from, and he traveled probably through regions of Europe, which is not listed in God’s word. Not much is written in church history, and he would find himself again in this confinement. He knows very well what is about to happen to him. He probably realizes, and towards the end of the book, he says that very thing that I’m about to be offered, poured out as a drink offering, because he knows that his time on earth is limited, and in that waning moments of his life, in this final moments of his life, he decides to write the last episode. The Holy Spirit inspires him to not write this to a church, but write this to probably the most important person in his earthly life. It was Timothy, and that’s where 2 Timothy is written to. Paul did not have a wife. Paul did not have a family of his own. Paul’s closest relative on earth, in fact, in his dying moments, would be Timothy, even though he was not related to him.

This was the person that he had been most closely associated with for the last 20 years of his life, and now he writes these words that we will study, God willing, for the next few months, these final words. Always keep this context in mind as you go through 2 Timothy. I think, to me, as I was preparing for this sermon, and I have preached to 2 Timothy before, always remembering where he is writing from and the context of his writing make these words much more powerful than they are in just initial reading, because you understand how important these words are. But then you’re also captivated and quite amazingly wanting to be just like him in the courage that he has in these dying moments. In fact, as you read through 2 Timothy, you will not find a single verse that complains. You will not find a single verse that questions the will of God. You will not find a single verse that asks the why question. It is all filled with great hope, great trust in the Lord, and in fact, even great thankfulness for what the good Lord has done in his life. And that is the courage of a Christian. That is the heart of a Christian. When he asked Timothy to be a man just like him, here is a man who is living out his Christian faith in great courage that is asking young Timothy to follow in his footsteps. He is not asking Timothy or any one of us to do something that he himself is not doing that makes his message all the more powerful. Because anyone can stand in a pulpit like this and preach, but it’s much more difficult in the trenches of life to put it into practice when you are being pushed to the ultimate extremes of your life. And when life on earth is even coming to an end, how would you face that? Does your gospel still relevant in the darkest, literal darkest moments of your life? Is the gospel still shining brighter through your pen, through your words, and through your heart? That is what we see as we go through 2 Timothy.

So 2 Timothy 1:1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. I want to take all each one of these words and kind of set apart because oftentimes we read the introductory verses to epistle and we bypass them and do not ever do that. They are still filled with so many glorious truths that God wants us to learn. One of the common ways in which letters were written at that time was that the name of the identity of the person writing the letter would be given immediately in the immediate context as well. The first few lines usually contain who was writing the letter. If you and I were to write a letter today, we’ll put our name at the end of the letter. At that time, they would always put their name at the beginning of a letter. And that’s why in all of Paul’s writing, the identity of the author is given and thank God for that. Otherwise we would be debating as to who wrote it. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. This word apostle literally just means someone who is sent by the Lord. But in God’s word, it is specifically talking about those people who have directly seen the Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s a lot of debate in Christendom as to whether apostolic ministry still exists in the church today. And I don’t want to go into that debate or tell you what I think about it or anything of that sort tonight. Apostolic ministry maybe exists in the world today, but in God’s word is specifically talking about the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul who had directly saw the Lord on his way to Damascus. So he says, I am an apostle of Christ Jesus. Again, look at the next words, by the will of God. Whatever he has done in his life as an apostle is not by his own efforts. It’s not by his own will. He didn’t get up one morning and say, you know what, I want to be an apostle. It is the will of God that appointed him to the ministry that he has. And this is a tremendous truth for us to inherit in our own life as well. Whatever God has called you to do, always realize that God, you’re doing it because the will of God for your life was for you to do that. And you know what the benefit of that is? Two different things. One is this, when difficulties come in what you’re doing, you will always be confident that God will be with you because you know that you are doing what you’re doing by the will of God and not by your own will.

Knowing that it is the will of God allows you to do something, allows you to stay courageous in the midst of difficulties when you’re doing what God is asking you to do. Secondly, you’ll always be very careful to give glory to God for whatever you’re doing. When he says, I’m an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, he is literally saying, not I, but Christ. He’s literally saying, whatever I have done is not because I was good or I put the mind to it. It is because God by his will called me. And when God calls us, guess what he does? He also gives us a strength and the ability to do what he has called us to do. God will never call you to do something without giving you the ability to do it. And that’s exactly the confidence that we have when we do what God is asking us to do. And look at the next verse, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. This is why God called me to be an apostle, to proclaim the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. I’ve been given this message that is so important for the world to hear, that there is life to be found in Christ Jesus. When we talk about life, when we talk about eternal life, a lot of people think of this something that is happening in the future.

That is partly true, but eternal life in God’s word and life that is in Christ Jesus is not some future promise. It is something that is presently available to you. Look at John 5:24. Look at the words of our own Lord. Very truly I tell you, Jesus said, whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life. It is not that you will have eternal life, you has eternal life. It is a present clause. You presently have eternal life and will not be judged because you have crossed over from death to life. You know what your present situation is? You have eternal life and you have crossed over from death to life. It’s not something that happens to you in the future. It is already eternal life is in you already. There are so many other verses that talk about the present fact of the life believer having life in Christ Jesus. Eternal life is yours, but there is also an aspect of eternal life that is future as well. Look at John 6:40. My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. So in the previous verses, you have eternal life. It says now shall have eternal life. That’s the future eternal life. What is that? I will raise him up at the last day. So our resurrection from death to eternal life, where our mortal bodies are transformed into the likeness of our Savior, where we inherit a life eternal physically forever is the future eternal life that God has for us.

But there is also a present life that is in your soul. The life of God in the soul of man where you have passed on from death to life already. You were dead in your sins and trespasses. God by his grace has made you alive. Eternal life is already in you. So when we speak to others about life that we have in the Lord, we tell them two different things. God by his grace can give you life, eternal abundant life, even in the world that you’re living in today. But my Lord is not done with you. Even after you’ve gone from this world to the world that is to come, he is the one by his power that will raise your mortal bodies to have an eternal body that will never perish, eternal life that will last forever. So God’s promise of eternal life for us is not only in the present world, but also in the world to come. What great salvation that we have in that we get to enjoy eternal life, not only in this world, but also in the world to come. You are recipients of the life of God in your soul, even today as well. And then chapter 1:2, he says to him, to who he’s writing this to, to Timothy, my dear son. When going through 1 Timothy, that was a letter that was not only to Timothy, but it was also to the church in Ephesus as well. We didn’t really see words like these.

Here it says, Timothy, my dear son. Again, as I mentioned at the beginning, 20 years of relationship, 20 years of working together in various places, writing episodes together. In fact, I don’t know how many of you know this, but Timothy was, along with Paul, when he wrote the book of Romans, Timothy helped Paul write 2 Corinthians. Timothy helped Paul write Philippians. Timothy helped Paul write Colossians. Both 1 and 2 Thessalonians were written by Paul with the help of Timothy. In fact, in the early verse itself, in all these episodes, Paul writes and says, I, along with Timothy, writes to you. Philemon was written by Paul with the help of Timothy. He served as Paul’s representative in Corinth, Thessalonica, Ephesus, Philippi. He was the closest associate that Paul had on this earth. And their relationship started in AD 47. And we talked about that as we went through the book of Acts. During his first missionary journey, they met. He would take him on his first missionary journey. He would take him on his second missionary journey. Timothy was with Paul when Paul was beaten in Philippi. Timothy was with Paul in Ephesus. Timothy was with Paul in Corinth. Timothy was with Paul in so many different places.

And he was such a close relationship with him that spanned over the last 20 years of his life. He was even in his return trip to Jerusalem, where he was captured and bound by the Jewish people. Timothy was there with him. So in all of these very, very important events of Apostle Paul’s life, Timothy was there. As we know from God’s word, Paul was not married. As such, he did not have any children. Timothy was the adopted son of the Apostle Paul. Not in the sense of like legal adoption, but he was known as a spiritual son. The only son really that Paul ever had on this earth, if you could call him his own son, would be Timothy. And remember, Timothy’s father. When we studied the book of Acts, we talked about it. Timothy’s father was of Greek origin, but it’s very evident from God’s word that he was not a spiritual person. In fact, he was not of Jewish origin at all. And that’s why Timothy was not circumcised when he was a young man, because his father was actually a Gentile and not a believer. So Timothy did not have a godly father growing up. So the Apostle Paul literally becomes the father that Timothy never had in his life. In fact, even as we go through this passage and talk about the godly influence of Timothy, his father is not mentioned because his father was probably absent from his life.

So you can see how Paul, who does not have a son, Timothy, who does not have a father, both find the need to have a father-son relationship in each other. But it was not just a physical relationship. It was more of a spiritual relationship where the mentor and the mentee, the one who is now building him up, the one who established the church at Ephesus and made Timothy to be the pastor. And this relationship, this vibrant relationship over the last 20 years, now Paul realizing it’s coming to the end of his life, he wants to write certain things to his dear son, Timothy. And then he says to him, grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Grace, mercy, peace. Don’t you love these introductions in God’s word? If you have these three things in your life, you have everything that you need. Grace, the unmerited favor of God. Mercy, God withholding his judgment from our lives. Peace, peace. If you have grace and mercy, guess what you’ll have? Peace in your life. What God gives to us, peace with him and peace with each other. I love what John Stott says about these three words. He says, grace given to those who are worthless, mercy to the helpless, peace to the restless, grace to the worthless, unmerited favor, mercy to the helpless. I cannot do anything to withhold the judgment of God unless and until God gives me his mercy. And guess what? We’re all born with a restless soul until it finds it peace in relation with God.

And so grace, mercy, and peace. And from who? From God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord. It is God, the Father, who gives us the grace, mercy, and peace. But guess who earned it for us? It is Jesus Christ, our Lord, who earned it for us. We get it from God, the Father. But God, the Father, could never give you grace and never give you mercy and never give you peace in your life unless and until the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and earned it for you. Jesus earned your grace. Jesus earned your mercy. Jesus earned your peace. And because of that, the righteous requirements of a Holy God was met by Jesus at the cross. The Heavenly Father can now give you grace. The Heavenly Father can give you mercy. The Heavenly Father can now give you peace. But we will not be able to get any of these things in our life unless and until Christ Jesus, our Lord, earned it for us at the cross. And that’s why he says grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse three, I thank God whom I serve. You have to kind of stop here for a minute. I thank God. Paul, are you forgetting where you are? You are in that hole with no light, darkness all around you, very little to eat, probably with bruises and all kinds of wounds, untreated all over your body, on death row, waiting execution. I thank God. Only a godly man can have a heart like of gratitude even in the midst of the darkest moments of your life. The story is told in the midst of a civil war. A dying Confederate soldier asked to see the chaplain. When the chaplain arrived, the supposedly young man would wish, he thought the young man would wish him to pray to God for his recovery. But it was very different. First, the soldier asked the chaplain to cut off a lock of his hair for his mother. And then he asked him to kneel beside him and thank God. What for, asked the surprised chaplain, knowing this young man was about to die. But he said, I want you to thank God with me for giving me a godly mother. Thank God, I’m a Christian. Thank God for giving me grace to die with. And thank God for the home he has promised for me over there.

That’s God’s grace. That is dying grace. That is unnatural peace. That is unnatural trust in God that only God can give even in dying moments. To be able to kneel down and thank God and remember the goodness of God even in dying moments. It’s very easy for us to come to church and praise God when things are going well in our lives. But it’s much more difficult to thank Him and praise Him in the most difficult moments of life. Only a Christian can do that. Only one who has found his true treasure in the Lord himself can do that and not in the circumstance of life. He says, I thank God whom I serve. What a great word. This shows the great kind of a motivation that we all should have in our lives as well. The question that could be asked of all of us this morning, whom you’re serving. Christian life is not about living for your own. Christian life is about serving your Master. It is about understanding who your allegiance should be to. It is to know that you’ve been translated from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God and so that you should serve Him faithfully. That’s what Christian life is all about. Christian life is one of surrender. Christian life is one where you say, not I, but Christ. That’s what Christian life is all about.

And he says, whom I serve. As my ancestors did. We have no idea whose ancestors he’s talking about. We don’t know if he’s talking about his own parents, maybe his own forefathers, but probably the right way to interpret this is to think that he’s talking about people like him who have lived their life serving God. And then he says, what have they done? They have done it with a clear conscience. Clear conscience. A lot of times the world says the conscience is a bad thing. They say don’t have any guilt because it lowers your self-esteem. But in God’s word, conscious is God’s gift to us. Conscious is a window to our soul. As one writer once wrote, conscience is the reflection of my soul. It is my ability to see myself for what I am. It is God’s gift to me. Without a conscience, I’ll be engaging in all kinds of activities I should not be engaging in and not realizing the error of my own ways. It is God’s gift to you. But you know what you should do to conscience? Respond to it. If not, you know what will happen? What the Bible says, it will become seared, seared conscience. Some have described conscious as a window, window to your heart, window to your soul.

Is it just like the windows of your home? If it is not cleaned properly, constantly, you know what will happen? After a while, the light won’t come through the windows because the window itself has become dirty. If you do not constantly clean your conscience and make sure your conscience is clear before the Lord, after a while, your conscience will become very, very dirty, unable to receive the light of the knowledge of the truth of God to penetrate into your hearts. And that’s why the Bible says you can have a dead conscience. You can have a seared conscience. If seared and dead conscience are allowed to continue long enough, you know what will become? You’ll become an evil conscience. That’s why Christians also have to be careful that you are constantly responding to the work of the Spirit of God in your mind in the right way. Confessing your sins before the Lord. When your conscience pricks you that you’ve done something wrong, do not continue doing it or you will have a seared conscience, unable to respond to the probing of the Spirit of God. Remember the story of the crashing of Avianca Airlines’ Jets in Spain in 1984.

The people who studied this accident of the crashing of the jets made an astonishing discovery. When they uncovered the black box from the cockpit, the recording revealed that just several minutes before the impact, a shrill computer synthesized voice from the plane’s automatic warning system told the crew repeatedly in English, pull up, pull up. The pilot thinking that the system was malfunctioning, trusting in where he was going and trusting himself more than the machine snapped, shut up gringo. You know why he said gringo? Because the warning was coming from English and he was Spanish. And he switched the system off. Minutes later, the plane plowed down into the side of a mountain, killing everyone on board. The warning system was not malfunctioning. The warning system was correct when it said pull up, pull up because it was sensing the object that was near them. But the pilot thought that the system was malfunctioning. A lot of people think this of their conscience. They think their conscience is somehow flawed because they think that their conscience is somehow outdated by outdated things. The world will tell you constantly, don’t feel guilty about that. There’s no need to feel sorry about that. No, you need to feel sorry. You need to feel guilty.

Guilt and sorry for your sin is not a bad thing. That is God’s waking up call for your soul that says, pull up, pull up, stop what you’re doing. If you don’t do it, remember what happened to that plane. It crashed into the side of the mountain because it failed to heed the warning signs. Just like that, God’s Holy Spirit is constantly talking to you, is constantly talking to me and telling us to avoid the dangers ahead. If we do not heed to it, then something like this could happen in our lives as well. But you will often hear people say that you should suppress your conscience. You should not let it get you too down. But I think in our effort to always prop up our self-esteem, we have a generation that does not repent anymore. We should have a generation that does not confess our sins anymore. We have a generation that does not feel sorry for the sins in their life anymore. Tears are absent from our gatherings. They should be present all the time when the Holy Spirit reminds us of the things that are wrong in our lives. You should cry. You should feel sorry. You should be mad at yourself. You should hate the sin in your life. As John Owens so beautifully said, kill the sin or the sin will kill you. Remember that. Kill the sin or the sin will kill you.

And even as a Christian, you can be a shell of what God has called you to be if you allow indwelling sin to continue in your life. Listen to your conscience, especially when directed by the Spirit of God. He says what? I have a clear conscience before God. The picture of this person is Chuck Colson. And maybe Joel knows who he is. Maybe Shine does. I don’t expect a lot of you to know who this person is. He was known as President Nixon’s hatchet man, which means all the dirty work that Nixon wanted to do, Chuck Colson did it. During the Watergate scandal, he was arrested, thrown into prison for almost a year for lying and obstructing justice and all that stuff. He did all the dirty work for the first 42 years of his life. All he wanted to do was climb the ladder of politics, be the most influential person in Washington and all these things. After he was released from prison, he visited one of his friends, Tom Phillips, who was a believer. There, they had a long talk about life. As he was leaving, Tom gave him a copy of C.S. Lewis’s book, Mere Christianity. Many of you may have already read it. Amazing book. Please read it. Mere Christianity. He reads his book, and the book was extremely convicting to him, and he would give his heart unto the Lord.

He would not only give his heart unto the Lord, but his conversion would become one of the most famous stories in the 1970s. In fact, he himself would say that, my being born again and giving my life to Christ kept the political cartoonists of America clothed and fed for a one whole month because they got enough material to make fun of him, because this man who was so bad, like the Apostle Paul was before he became a believer, had now been transformed completely by the power of the gospel. He would write a book, Born Again, and he did not stop there. In fact, he would start being in prison. He saw the plight of prisoners, and he would start a prison fellowship ministry to minister to people who were in prison. At one point, he said that over the course of his life, he visited more than 600 prisons in the U.S. and 40 other countries. He had 50,000 prison ministry volunteers who were working under him at one time. I remember when he was alive or listened to his radio program, which was only about five minutes long, Snippets of Truth called Breaking Point, that would come on radio. I would always look forward to it because Chuck Colson was a brilliant communicator who communicated God’s message to a broken world. In fact, he wrote a book in 1987 called Kingdoms in Conflict on how Christians should engage responsibly in politics.

It’s a great book, a good read, but he was a man who was completely transformed by the power of God, and he used that transformation for the glory of God. This is what he said about doing the will of God and serving God. He says about having a clear conscience about it. He says, it is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. See, this is important for us. A lot of times we are focused on what we are doing, but he says, no, it’s you being obedient to what God is choosing to do through you. It’s not about what I’m doing. It’s what God is choosing to do through you. So I’m not in control. God is in control. He says, God doesn’t want our success. You know what he wants? He wants us. A lot of times we measure success by what we accomplish, but God measures success by how much of ourselves we have given to him. If you have given, if I have given myself completely to the Lord, and if the fruits of my labor does not bring forth anything that is tangible or can be physically seen, still, he says, your life unto the Lord is a success because you have given yourself unto the Lord.

He says, he does not demand our achievements. He demands our obedience. He does not say, oh, you make sure that you bring 10 people to the Lord, but he says, you be obedient to his word that you should go and preach the gospel. The results are up to the Lord. He does not demand our achievements, but he does demand our obedience. When you do that, you can have a clear conscience. And here is a man in his dying moments in prison who is able to say, guess what? I have served my God with a clear conscience and I can stand before him with the confidence that I have done what I have called to do. That’s why at the end of this book, you’ll write, we quote that all the time, but do we really deserve to quote that verse like that? I have ran the race. I have finished the race. I have fought a good fight and now is waiting for me the crown of righteousness. Is it? Oh, I pray that it’s true in all of our lives that we have done what God has asked us to do and we have finished the race faithfully. And then he says that, you know what I’m doing in the prison? I am praying for you day and night, constantly remembering you in my prayers. He’s not sleeping his time away. He’s spending time in prayer for poor Timothy. Why is he praying for him? Verse four, recalling your tears.

The Bible doesn’t say what tears he’s talking about. Many people think that this is probably tears that were shed by Timothy as the two there maybe said the last goodbyes. I long to see you, he said, so I’ll be filled with joy. So I’m praying for you. And what is coming to my mind is the way you cried when we said our last goodbye. And I have a longing in my life to see you again so that I may be filled with joy. He does not know how long he’ll be in this prison. He does not know how much life is left, but there is a longing physically and humanly speaking in his heart to see Timothy again. Verse five, I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, in your mother, Eunice, and I’m persuaded now lives in you also. You know what the greatest thing that Paul is proud about Timothy about? That he has a sincere faith in his life. What is the sincere faith the Bible is talking about? This is not the faith that saves you. That’s just belief. That’s just believing. This faith is that faith lived out. That faith lived out in practical life. Because anybody can stand and say, I believe in Jesus. But what does that mean? Is that lived out in your day-to-day life? That’s where sincerity comes in.

See, consent and belief in the finished work is not, it saves you. That’s true. But sincere faith is that faith lived out in your day-to-day life where your actions, where your words, your attitude is directed by the saving faith that saved you. Now becomes that sincere faith in your life. It’s not a hypocrite. He’s not double-faced. He’s not hiding behind things. He has a sincere faith. He says, I love that faith about you. And guess where it came from? I saw it in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice. I’m persuaded, I’m convinced, now lives in you as well. He’s so happy to see this faith in the life of these two women who are so instrumental in the life of Timothy. Remember I mentioned in the beginning that Timothy probably did not have much of influence from his father growing up. And definitely from this verse, we see that probably did not have any kind of godly influence from that father. But in the midst of it, his mom did not give up on him. His grandmother did not give up on him. They made sure that godliness was instilled in young Timothy. In fact, we read in this book itself how from a very young age, he was learned in the scriptures. Paul talks about that. Where did that come from? It came from his grandmother. It came from his mother who taught God’s word to him at a young age.

You know, tonight, I think every person sitting here tonight should be thanking God for the moms and dads that God gave to you in your life that taught God’s word to you at a very young age and continues to teach you God’s word at a young age. I know none of us liked it. We hated it. We resisted it. We rebelled against it. We questioned their wisdom when they asked us to turn the television off and read the Bible. But I pray that as you get older, that you have a greater appreciation for your parents that instilled and planted God’s word in your hearts at a young age. That’s godly heritage. That’s preciousness. More than any money they’ve given to you, more than any wealth they’ve transferred to you, the godliness that they’ve transferred to you is the most important thing you should be thankful for. Their prayer life, their love for God’s word, them taking you to church when you didn’t want to go to church, praise God for that. I’m telling you, as you get older, you will appreciate them even more for the spirituality that instilled in you at a very, very young age. It’s so interesting that women are mentioned here as influencing the life of Timothy. I was remembering about someone talking about the fact that if three wise men had been three wise women, what would have happened?

They would have asked the way, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned up the stable by putting down fresh straw, brought practical gifts and made a casserole. But because it was three wise men, they came very, very late and all they had was the gifts that they brought with them. But thank God for the godly women that influenced the life of Timothy. Verse six, for this reason, because of the fact that you have a sincere faith in your life, I remind you, Timothy, not to just let that faith die away. Remind you to flan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying of my hands. He says, you have a gift in you. You have a sincere faith in you. God has gifted you, fan it into flame. This doesn’t mean that by the time of this writing, that Timothy have somehow let that flame die down. Paul is telling him, you have that in you. You need to fan this into flame and continue to let that flame burn in your life so that you can be used for the glory of God. In fact, this word that is over here, fanning into flame, is the same word that we talked about on Sunday morning when Jacob heard that Joseph was alive in the land of Egypt. Remember that word? Jacob’s soul was what? Revived. And remember what I said, what revived stand for is literally dying embers coming back into life again. And that’s exactly what Paul is saying to Timothy. I want that gifting in your life to be constantly revived because you have that gifting, not by an accident because God has given it to you. And I laid my hands on you and prayed for you for the gifting that is in your life.

By the way, I want to make one point very clear. It is not Paul that gave that gift to Timothy. It is not something magical that happened in his life and Paul laid the hands on him. Paul is an instrument in the hands of God. We see our Lord blessing children by laying hands on them. We see as the men who were selected to serve on the table in Acts 6, the apostles laid their hands and prayed for them. So this is a very common practice in the Christian church that we still do today. But there’s nothing magical about a godly man putting their hands on them. But you know what that symbolizes? God putting his hand on you. That symbolizes us standing in the gap as representatives of God and laying our hands on you and saying, I recognize this God’s blessings upon you. And there is tremendous blessing to have godly men and women lay their hands on you and pray for you.

Verse 7, for the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. Even within different verses of God’s word, there is no agreement as to whether the spirit that is in verse 7 is the capital letter Spirit as Holy Spirit or our spirit as a small letter spirit. In fact, I’ve quoted NIV here, if you read NASB, it has a lower letter spirit, but the meaning is still the same. Whether it’s the Holy Spirit giving us a life that is free of being timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline, or the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer brings about power, love, and self-discipline, the end result is still the same. So you can look at it two ways. Either you can believe that the Holy Spirit is not a Holy Spirit of timidity, but it’s the Spirit of God that is able to give us power, love, and self-discipline. But if it’s talking about the small letter spirit, it is still acknowledging that it’s the work of the Spirit in our life that gives us power, love, and self-discipline in our life. All these things that Paul wants Timothy to do, he cannot do it on his own. And I’m here to tell you, whatever God is calling you to do tonight, you cannot do it based upon your own strength. You need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. We as Pentecostals emphasize this a lot.

You know why? Because a little bit of the indwelling of the Spirit of God is not enough. We believe that we need be clothed with the power from on high. The overflowing of the Spirit of God in the life of man is needed for man to do what God is calling us to do. Remember what Jesus said to them, the power shall come upon you and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Judea, and to the outermost parts of the earth. Because Jesus recognized that it’s the coming of the Spirit of God in power enabled them to be the witness that God has called them to be. And Paul is telling him, I’m asking you to do all these things, but you cannot do any of them other than being clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit that is able to give us power, love, and self-discipline. William McDonald in about this passage writes like this, unlimited strength is at our disposal. Through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, the believer can serve valiantly, endure patiently, suffer triumphantly, and if indeed need be, die gloriously. None of these things that I mentioned over here, we can do if you rely on your own strength. Every single one of us need the power and help of the Holy Spirit in our life. You know what God is asking us to do? Serve with courage. You know what God is asking us to do? Endure the sufferings in our life patiently. You know what God is asking us to do? To be triumphant in the midst of our suffering, and if indeed need be, die gloriously. And all of that is possible by the Holy Spirit that is given to us that gives us power, love, what kind of love? Agape love, unnatural love as a fruit of the Spirit of God, and not only that, the self-discipline that is needed in our life to accomplish what God has called us to do.

So I pray that every one of us will pray for these things in our life, thankfulness in the midst of the difficulties of our life, clear conscience, oh God, give it to me. If my conscience becomes seared in my life, confess it before the Lord and ask him to wipe it clean so that you can have a clear conscience before your Holy God. Let’s pray that God’s Spirit will give us the power, love, and self-discipline that we need to be able to do the things that God is asking us to do. Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, we come to you, oh God, asking for you to give us a sincere faith, a clear conscience, power that is beyond our abilities so that our lives will be filled with the power of God, a love that only you can give, and self-discipline that is needed in each one of our lives. I pray, oh God, that you will equip us and enable us to become the people that you have called us to be, oh God, for we are who we are by the will of God and help us to be faithful in what you’re calling us to do. To that end, we surrender ourselves and we commit our life into your hands, oh God. In the weeks ahead, as we go through this book, we ask for your help. Be with every person who will be speaking from different parts of this book, oh God, that this legacy of faith that we read about, this faith that has been transmitted faithfully from generation to generation will become true in our lives as well, so that we will live our lives faithfully like the Apostle Paul, like Timothy, so that our lives will always proclaim the glory of our Savior and proclaim the truth of the fact that you are the only one who’s able to give life and life eternal to a broken and dying world. To that end, help us, oh God. For it’s in the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray, amen.