This is, as far as we know, Paul's last letter. He writes it
from prison in Rome around AD 67/68. He is awaiting execution, and it is clear that
his thoughts in this letter are
not rooted in his
imminent death, but in the
promise of life that is in Christ Jesus (1:1).
The letter is addressed to Timothy, whom he calls “my beloved child” (1:2;2:1). He is not his biological child of course, but his son in
the faith. He is Timothy’s father in the gospel. (1 Cor. 4:15). Timothy is a
pastor of the congregation in Ephesus (1
Tim. 1:3), and as I said to you in
my introductory words when I preached through 1 Timothy in 2016:
“…these pastoral epistles were
written by Paul to these younger colleagues in the ministry in order to
provide pastoral help and counsel for
the many and varied situations which
these younger men and pastors encountered
in their respective situations.
The pastoral epistles address a number
of timeless issues that churches
experience, and it is therefore of great
value for us to learn
from the wisdom of the God inspired Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16,17) and
so to avoid the common pitfalls
and traps into which so many pastors and churches
throughout the ages have fallen…” [1]
One of the great privileges of being older in the faith is
that we have seen God at work in so many different ways. We have seen and
experienced and tasted God’s
faithfulness in so many ways, and the
knowledge and experience of this helps
us to encourage those that are younger in the faith.
At the beginning of
this year of our Lord, 2018 I want to
speak to you about ‘Fearless Service’, and I am of course referring to fearless
service in the service of God, and my text is found in verse 7: “God gave us a spirit not of fear
but of power and love and self-
control.”
What I want to do is to look at the man, Paul who made this
statement, and I want to look at the man Timothy, to whom he made this
statement, and finally I want us to appropriate these Scriptures to ourselves,as we think about serving our Lord without fear in 2018.
1.
Paul : Our model of fearless service
In doing so I must not tempt you to think of Paul as a
perfect man. Paul does not claim perfection (Phil. 3:12), and he confesses
his own weakness readily (2 Cor.
12:9). But Paul is
an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God (1:1a) …. Paul is not claiming to be a self -made man. He is a God
-made, God- called, God - equipped man! He is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
will of God according to the promise of the
life that is in Christ Jesus (1:1b).
The fact of the matter is that Jesus took hold of Paul according to the story
told in Acts 9, and this
religious man, this well trained
Pharisee was born again and he became a great, life giving tool, for
the conversion and sanctification of
many in the hand of God. And many are
still born again, and many are still being sanctified when they read the inspired
words of Paul in our own day. He was a man, but he was a man in the hand of
God, and his grace to him was not in vain. It was effective (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul’s amazing biography is found in his
second letter to the Corinthians. There we read (e.g. 2 Cor.11:16-28) how he persevered in fearless service, under many
trying circumstances. He feared man little. He feared his circumstances little,
although they were painful. He feared God more.
And he looked forward to his eternal reward, which the death that he was
facing could not take from him, because he understood the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
The Christian life is a life
that is undergirded by God’s grace, mercy and peace (1:2).
These are the spiritual blessings that God has given to all who trust in
Jesus Christ, and these make us able to do fearless service in this world. God’s grace is His unconditional
favour to those who believe, and his grace is always sufficient for every
situation (2 Cor. 12:9). God’s mercy is His love for His
undeserving people, and Paul speaks about that in 1 Timothy 1:13-16. God’s
peace is the
accompanying sense of well-being (Shalom), when we know that God is in charge of our situation. The peace of God which passes all understanding
guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7). This enables
Paul to be fearless, not because he is macho, but because he knows himself to
be in the hand of God.
Now, to take this further, we must note that this apostle,
who is so very secure in the knowledge
and the experience of His Saviour, is also a man of prayer (1:3). Fearless men and women know about prayer, and they practise
habitual prayer. As we prepare to learn
about Timothy, we note that Paul constantly remembers Timothy in His
prayers. I would like to say something
about prayer in this regard. Prayer is the joy of those
who know that apart from God they can do nothing. I have studied Paul’s
epistles over and over and I see that he is a man of prayer. He has understood that his effective work as an apostle is by the grace and mercy of God alone.
Prayer then is the mark of a courageous, fearless
Christian, and it is not surprising for it portrays confidence in God. Your
prayer life, rooted in your knowledge of the Word of God (or the absence of it), will tell you everything you are before God, and if you are not much with God
in prayer, then you are your own man or woman, and if this is so, you will be
easily overtaken by the fear of
man.
Paul was praying for Timothy.
Paul believed in the help which we would receive from the prayers of others (2 Cor. 1:10,11) But apart
from that it is wonderful to know that godly people are praying for you, and we
in the church must indeed learn to diligently
pray for one another (Eph. 6:18). And it is not just about repeating a prayer list. Paul prayed for Timothy with real love and affection
and longing.
"I thank God...as I remember you.” Again, note that Paul is not fixated on his
own fear as he is in prison, awaiting death. Instead, Paul exhibits a life of thankfulness for the life of others. He was
thinking about others.
2.
Timothy : Learning to become fearless in Service:
1:4 “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.” Timothy had a Jewish mother and a
grandmother who had become believers in the Lord Jesus. His father, we learn in Acts 16:1 was a Greek pagan man. His conversion is never mentioned. These godly
women and Timothy were probably all converted under Paul’s evangelistic
ministry.
The work of God in the soul of man is always work in
progress. Salvation is a dynamic concept. And so conversion, repentance, faith
must be followed by sanctification ,
and it is here that we find that God has much work to do in Timothy.
You see it in 1:6: “For this reason I
remind you to fan into flame the gift of God...”. Timothy has been called
to shepherd the flock of God in Ephesus. But he is a man like all of us. At
times we get slack, or hold back, being fearful of making a commitment, and at times we need
someone to tell us to get going and
use that which God has put into us
by way of a spiritual gift.
Spiritual gifts are for spiritual service, and these spiritual gifts are given to us by
God[2] . They do not operate automatically. We must use that gift and practise to use it. We must fan it into flame and keep it going. In
that sense our spiritual gifts are like natural gifts. If you have an athletic
gift, you will not become a great athlete unless you train diligently. Someone may have a natural musical ability, but they need to practise and develop and stir up that gift. Marcelle’s brother who sang in the Drakensberg Boys choir, and was a soloist in his day, portrayed a clear musical talent and a singing gift at a very young age. But
he was trained at that school, and he was taught to perform and use his gift. You
have got to cultivate those gifts. So, why is it that
we do not want to use our spiritual
gifts to the glory of God and for the benefit of the church?
1:7 gives us an indication. Following
his statement on the spiritual gift, Paul says to Timothy, “God has
not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” Apparently, Timothy was by nature somewhat timid.
He was inclined to hold back, perhaps because he was a nervous person. He had
stomach problems and other ailments (1
Tim 5:23). Stomach problems are often associated with nervous conditions. He
was young and he was leading a church, and as you can imagine, that was not
easy. Paul had to encourage him
frequently in that regard (1 Tim 4:13 , and again this text speaks of the spiritual gift). Timothy was
tempted to hold back, because of
his temperament and bodily ailments, but Paul reminds him : ‘Timothy, we haven't been given a spirit of fear (or timidity), but a
spirit of power and of love, and of self- control (discipline)...’. The fact
is that God has called Timothy into
service, despite his temperamental disadvantages and despite his bodily weaknesses.
God has equipped him, and his
temperament and bodily ailments are no
hindrance, and thus I remind you that
our competency and confidence in ministry is never in ourselves, but in the God who calls and equips
us. We are fearless in Christian ministry, not because we have a natural ability to be macho, but we know Who stands behind us, and because we
know Who has equipped us with
everything good to do His will.
3.
CONCLUSION AND APPLICATION :
From verses 1&2
we learn that Christians draw strength in their trials because of their
knowledge of God's providence, His will, and His promises. Every Christian is
able to serve God, not with self-confidence, but with confidence in God, and in
His promises. Grace, mercy and peace are foundational gifts and blessings to
every believer, and Paul's words, are a comfort if we will listen. If we attempt to minister on God’s behalf in our
own strength, we will be broken, and we will either live in denial or in bitterness.
Paul could live and minister in power and love and self- control because he believed...he knew God's will and
God's promise.
In v. 3 we learn that prayer is the hallmark of
a person that trusts not themselves but God. It becomes one of the
hallmarks that undergird fearless
service. Paul knows whom he has believed (see 1:12).
And so he is freed from the curse of human fear and what man
can do to him. Therefore he is able to focus on others. In this instance he is
thinking about Timothy and He is thanking God for the life of Timothy. This
mind-set is not found much in our culture. We tend to think too much of ‘what I need’. We think too much of - ‘Is
God meeting my needs? Is the church meeting my needs?’ For Paul this is the last thing on his mind. Because he is God's man he is able to let God take care of him , and this gives him time and space to think of others who are not there yet. This, I say is counter-cultural thinking, and this is what
God calls us to do and to be- to be not like the world.
This radical God centeredness is what leads to fearless
service. Look at verse 7 again. Christians serve with a power and strength that cares for others
wisely – with real power, real love and real self- control. This, I submit to you is profound thinking,
and may this help you to trust God and to really have a heart for fearless
service in 2018 . Amen
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