Acts 20:1-16 - ”Falling Asleep Under Paul’s Preaching?“

This  sermon  has nothing to do  with falling asleep under your pastor’s  sermons – just in case you wanted to know in advance!  J

In Acts 20 Paul is on his third and last missionary journey, having spent almost three years in Ephesus, a strategic city in Asia minor. His letter to the Ephesians is so very helpful in terms of understanding the nature and power and also the application of the gospel.

In  Ephesus  Paul  first preached the gospel for three months in the local synagogue (19:8), after  which  he left there  to preach  the gospel daily in the hall of Tyrannus for  two years … so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks (19:9,10). What an astonishing statement!

We saw that the preaching of the gospel bore fruit and we saw that it produced resistance, both in the synagogue and in the city. I often marvel that the preaching of the Gospel (i.e. Good News) is very often not received as such, but rather in a hostile manner. I had such an experience recently when preaching the gospel at a funeral of a man with no church connections. I don’t think that the congregation  expected to hear a gospel message, and when it came, the faces froze. Apart from the fact that I could have been more thoughtful and more mindful and  more  prayerful for the grieving people that sat before  me,  I had to remind myself  that  the gospel does not   enter heads and hearts naturally. Man’s sinful nature opposes the gospel, since the gospel demands that man must lay down his claim to autonomy,  and that the gospel demands  a man  to confess his sin and  that the gospel demands that a man must  return to his Creator. 

I needed to remind myself that while the preacher can prepare well, only the Holy Spirit can make a person love the gospel of Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit knows who the true sheep of Christ are, and even though it is the work of the church to participate in the finding of the lost sheep of Jesus, we do not know who they are, until we see it in the fruit of true conversion. 

We use the means given to us. We pray for the harvest, and we preach for a verdict. We present the gospel message on every occasion, in formal settings like Paul in the synagogue and in the hall of Tyrannus, but mostly in informal settings. And since God has granted a people to hear and believe the gospel in every generation, we, like the apostle Paul  must  expectantly use daily opportunities to proclaim the gospel.  But we must also be ever prepared for resistance from the beasts of Ephesus (1 Cor.15:32  cf. 2 Cor. 1:8)  

And so, seeing that the work was done (Acts 19:10) and following a severe  upset and riot in Ephesus, Paul leaves  here, crossing the Aegan sea, entering into Macedonia, and down to Greece, and  probably to Corinth. 

We remember that Paul had a difficult relationship with the church at Corinth (e.g. see the painful letter in  I Corinthians 5:9-10 and the  mentioning  of   the painful visit in 2 Cor. 2:1).  He spent three months there, and  again he hears of a plot  against him by the Jews (20:3). Instead of sailing back to Syria,  he changes plans and  goes back up to Macedonia, and  again across the Aegan  sea and  then to Troas, accompanied by the  7 people mentioned in  20:4 plus  Luke[1], the  writer of the book of Acts. They stayed in Troas for 7 days.

V.7 “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread….”

The Christian church maintained the practice of keeping the 7^th day of public worship, but now on a Sunday, from the reckoning of the Jewish calendar, the first day of the week. The practice of gathering on the 7^th day with the breaking of bread was begun in Acts 2:42 along with the preaching of the Word of God. He doesn't mention all the  activities of Acts 2:42ff here, but we may assume with fair certainty that fellowship and prayer were part of the meeting. 

Concerning the breaking of bread we can say this. From  1 Corinthians  11:17-34  we know that the breaking of bread was  done in the context  of a fellowship meal , a supper- akin to the Passover meal – but it was really a ‘perfected Passover’, since the true Lamb of God was slain. In the context of  an evening  meal  the  gathered church  would  take some time out to  remember  and celebrate what became known as  ‘the Lord's Supper’.  The Lord’s supper does not only anticipates all that Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection, but it also   anticipates  that great feast,  the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7 cf. Matt. 22:2)  when all  God’s elect people, the sheep of Jesus  Christ shall finally be gathered  at that great  wedding  feast  in the presence of our great King Jesus, forevermore.

But before that  fellowship meal happens, Paul has  much to say. He knows that he may not be back for a long time … if ever.  And so he takes time to pour out that which the Lord has laid on his heart for the church in Troas. I wished that we had a record of what he said, but we can safely assume, that all that he said has been written in the Bible.  He   has a very long list of things to say, and so “he prolonged his speech (Gr. dielegeto) until midnight.” 

In this context we find the story of Eutychus, a young man, sitting on the window sill of the upper room of a three story house. And as ’Paul talked still longer’ he ‘sank into a deep sleep‘ (20:9). In this case it is deadly. He falls out of the window ‘and was taken up dead’.  In a manner  reminiscent of Elisha  who  was used of God to raise from the dead  the  young son of a widow (2 Ki. 4:18-37), “Paul  went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, ‘ Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him’”. The same is reported of the ministry of Peter who by the power of God raised Tabitha/ Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-43).

Luke records  that  this  young man  was picked up dead (20:9). Luke, the writer of the 'Acts',  being a physician  was surely  qualified to say this.   Some  commentators [2] say that  he wasn't really dead following the fall. He was merely unconscious and when Paul said,   “his life (psuchē)  is in him”, they think that he is simply saying, ‘Praise God…he wasn’t really dead….this is lucky fellow survived this fall from a three story building’.

There is no reason not to believe that this young man was dead. Paul was  after  all an apostle attested with miracles (see 19:11), and  this  happening at midnight  would have served  further authenticate the gospel that Paul was preaching, and it  created a buzz and  it certainly gave the Christian community in Troas the impetus to  stay awake  until daybreak, and  the youth being alive, we are told, brought  not a little comfort to the community  (20:12)

[Please note that the breaking of bread, or the Lord’s supper  (20:11) happened only after the incident at midnight. ]

So why do we find this remarkable story here?  

What did the Holy Spirit intend to achieve by having this recorded?  

What do we learn from this? 

·       Is the point of this message that preachers should not ''kill their  people''  through preaching  long sermons?

·       Is this story  proof  that  some people would rather die than listen to  long sermons?

·       Or is this  story  a warning to preachers that,  unless   you  have the gift of raising the dead, keep your  people   from  window sills and awake at all costs?

The answer is, ‘None of the above!’ My sermon title  is actually  deceptive, but I did that intentionally to show you what  preachers  can do with  such texts, and you need to be awake  enough  so that when that happens.   

So then, what is the point of the passage?  

It surely is a demonstration and authentication of kingdom power, and  specifically  of  resurrection  power. This text, I would argue,    is a repeat of John 11- the raising of Lazarus from the dead. That story was recorded by the Holy Spirit to show us that  the Jesus whom Paul preached  is  the One  who has the power over life and death. He is the resurrection and the life [Jn. 11:25]. 

I would not be surprised  if Paul, following the  miraculous raising  of Eutychus, followed by the breaking of bread,  spoke  until daylight about  the work of Jesus  in the context of  man's  sin  and  the curse of  death, and about the resurrection of the body,  and the life to come. When I read Paul’s letters I certainly  see him  addressing  these subjects again and again.  Surely he must have used this incident as a powerful illustration to that end.  

We also take note of the fact that this incident came in the middle of the night, at midnight,  the darkest, most vulnerable  time  when we are just  not in control of ourselves. Paul and Silas  in Acts  16 had another midnight  experience in which they  were in prison, having been severely beaten in Philippi, but their hearts were in God’s hands,  and at midnight they  were praying and singing  hymns to God …. And suddenly there was the deliverance… at midnight!  

David says in  Psalm 18:4-6,  expressing the same thought :

“The cords of death  encompassed me;

The torrents of destruction assailed me;

 The cords of Sheol entangled me;

The snares of death confronted  me.

In   my distress I called upon the LORD

To my God I cried for help.

From his temple  he heard my voice,

and  my cry to him reached his ears.

We are  not a little comforted   when we read passages like this. 

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[1] Timothy from Lystra; Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica in Macedonia; Tychicus comes from Asia; Sopater comes from Berea; Trophimus from Ephesus; Gaius  from Derbe;  Luke from Antioch. Notice the ‘we’  in 20:6 as Luke includes himself again in the narrative .

[2] E.g. William Barclay thinks so  in his commentary upon the passage 

MATTHEW 16:13- 20 - CHRIST WILL BUILD HIS CHURCH

The Eastside Baptist Church was constituted 33 years ago, in June 1985 to be a witness   to the glory of  God. Three goals characterize our church’s ministry: 

(i) We are here learning to love God (WORSHIP) 

(ii) We are here learning to love one another (FELLOWSHIP) 

(iii) we are here learning to love this lost world (MISSIONS & EVANGELISM). 

We do this all under the auspices of the  Eastside Baptist Church. 

But what is the church?  

What is the meaning  of the word, ‘church’?    The  English word   ‘church’, or the Afrikaans ‘kerk’, or German ‘Kirche’, or the Oshiwambo ‘ongereka’  are all derived from the Greek word kuriakos,  which translates as  ‘belonging to the Lord’ [1]. But the  Word  used most commonly  in the OT and  NT is the word  ‘assembly’. [OT ‘qahal’ ;  NT  ‘ekklesia’ ].  It is interesting that when Martin Luther translated the NT into vernacular German, he did not use the word “Kirche” to translate ἐκκλησία (ekklesia). He used the German word “Gemeinde”, which relates to the word assembly. Similarly, when  William Tyndale translated the NT into English in 1536, he also did not use the word “church” to translate the Greek word ἐκκλησία (ekklesia). Instead, he used the word “congregation”[2] – another word for ‘assembly’. But somehow, the word church stuck with us. Taking both words together then we may say that the church is the assembly of the people belonging to the Lord. That would surely constitute a biblical definition of the church. 

So then, the church is not an assembly of a random group of religious people. There are many people assembling in the name of a religion, and even in the Name of Christ. But they are not necessarily the church of Jesus. Jesus would say of them: “I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” [Matt. 7:23]. Neither is a church a building. Neither is it a denomination (e.g. Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Baptist Church).  

The church is the assembled body of a people born again through the finished work of Christ. They are Spirit-indwelt worshippers of God. 

And so the church comes together for the purpose of (i) worshiping God (ii) fellowshiping with one another (iii) to  help the kingdom of God spread in our sinful  world in every generation, through evangelistic and missionary activity.  

When you become a member of a church, this is what you commit yourself to do.

Next time, God willing, we will take a look at how the early church organised itself in this regard. We are very aware  of the fact that  many people have varied opinions on the subject of  the church  and church membership, and my goal  is to help you to think through  afresh  the primary truths  revealed to us in the  Bible  concerning the church.  This cannot be done in one short sermon, and so we have decided to do a series of sermons entitled, “Life in the Father’s House”. [3]  

Today, we simply want to look at something  fundamental  that Jesus said  about the church, and I draw  your attention to Matthew  16:13-19,  and in particular  to this  phrase in v.18 , where  Jesus says:  “I will build my church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail  against it .“  

Here the Lord Jesus tells you that the church is His church, and He tells us that, because she is His church, she cannot fail, as long as this world exists.   The church is God’s and not man’s, and if she is God’s then she cannot fail.  The reason why she fails[4] is because sinful men continuously attempt to make the church something which God never designed her to be. 

CONTEXT:

We ought  to be very aware that  the phrase “I will build my church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail  against it “  occurs  in a context, and  I must take time to explain  this.

  

In v. 13 we are told  that Jesus came into the  district  of Caesarea Philippi  - about  40 km’s north-east of the Sea of Galilee, the modern Golan heights region.  Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great inherited the north-eastern part of his father’s kingdom, all which of course was ultimately under Roman rule.  Here he built  the city  of Caesarea  Philippi,  in honour of Tiberius Caesar [Roman emperor from 14 - 37 AD]  the reigning  Roman emperor, and  to distinguish it from  the Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast,  it was called Caesarea Philippi.  It is here  that  Jesus asked  His disciples a fundamental question:  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  

It is of great interest to see where Jesus chose to ask this question. This question was  not asked in the heartland of the Jews. In fact, the area was hardly ever truly possessed by Israel as their inheritance. This region was scattered with temples of the ancient Syrian Baal worship. It is here that Mt. Hermon is found, and there is a place here at the foot of Mt. Hermon where there is a very deep cave, from which a strong spring flowed, becoming one of the tributaries of the Jordan river.  Apart from  all the ancient  Baal worship associated  with this area and this cave,the Greeks added  their  mythology to it, and  they believed  that  this cave was the birthplace of  Pan- the   god of nature. He was  portrayed  as a half-goat, half-human creature, and with horns.  Caesarea Philippi was originally named  Panias, by the Greeks, after this god and today  this  place is  known as Banias.[5]  

Now what is significant is that this cave was also sometimes   called the “Gates of Hades”, the gates to the underworld, because it was believed that Baal would enter and leave the underworld through places where water came out of it.  You will see Jesus using this phrase in v.18 in relation to the church. In this  atmosphere  and geographic locality then  that  Jesus  asks,  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  The truth is that the disciples struggled  to  truly know  who Jesus  was and now it is as if Jesus deliberately set Himself against the background of the world's religions  and all their  history,  and  against that background  He asks this question.

 

14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Herod Antipas (the brother of Philip) who had John the Baptist killed, thought that Jesus was  John  the Baptist  who had come back from the dead.  Others said that he was Elijah etc. They were also saying that Jesus was the forerunner of the Messiah.  The prophet Malachi linked Elijah to the Messiah "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes" (Malachi 4:5). To this day  religious Jews expect the return of Elijah before the coming of the Messiah, and to this day they leave a chair vacant for Elijah when they celebrate the Passover, for when Elijah comes,  they know that the Messiah will not be far away. So the people looked on Jesus as the forerunner of the Messiah.  But He was more than that!

Jesus said to them (v.15)  …  that is what  others say about me, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”   Peter makes that great statement which ultimately sets Christ apart from all the great men of the Bible … and which, of course, sets Him apart from all the human gods. He is the Christ (The Anointed One, the Son of the living God).

17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus  tells Peter  a  thing of tremendous importance:  “Peter,  this knowledge  has come to you not from what the people say, but  from what  my Father in Heaven has helped you to see. You cannot know me naturally. You have to know me supernaturally.”   

This is really the basis of biblical church membership! A true church member  is a person   who has been helped by God  to see Jesus for who He truly is.  It is called , the new birth in John Chapter 3.

Now unfortunately the Roman Catholic church have really  messed badly with this text.  They say that this text makes Peter the first pope of the church, and that the present pope  Francis, they say,   stands upon  Peter’s shoulders having the same authority!  But this is not what  Jesus  says here.   Let's try to see what Jesus is saying here : 

Jesus is  using Peter’s name  Petros.  His Aramaic name was Cephas. Both names mean ‘rock’. So, Jesus  is using Peter’s name  to   explain  what  He is about to do. In which sense then is Peter, the rock on which Jesus will build his church?  In the Bible God is often referred to as our Rock, and so Peter cannot possibly replace God. No, Peter is in a symbolic sense the first stone (the first NT believer) upon which the Church is founded.  He was, biblically speaking the first man to define and confess who Jesus truly was. And in ages to come, everyone who makes the same discovery as Peter, joins Peter, and thus becomes another rock, another stone added into the building of the Church of Christ.  1 Peter 2:4-8 explains this.   Ephesians 2:20 further explains  that ,Jesus is the chief corner-stone. He is the force who holds the Church together. When Jesus said to Peter that  He  would build His church  on  him,  He did not mean that the Church depended on Peter,  in the same way as it  would depended on Himself and on God the Rock. He meant that the Church began with Peter and only  in that sense   is Peter the foundation of the Church.

Jesus then goes on to say that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against his Church. Do you remember the surroundings in which Jesus spoke these words?  Jesus knew what  the church would be up against, and the book of Acts and subsequent church history bear testimony  to the fact  of how the church has had to  battle against  the odds and sometimes  she has barely survived.  And here in in the shadow of the memory of powerful pagan worship, and the place known as ‘the gates of hell’  Jesus  says ,  “They will not prevail against you”… “ because I am with you even until the end of the ages”-  using the closing words of the Gospel of Matthew  [Matt 28:20].  

Here  they were  in a place of powerful pagan worship, a place  where the gates of Hades  were  believed  to have been. The function of gates is to keep things in, to confine them, control them. There was one person whom the gates of Hades could not shut in; and that was Jesus Christ. He overcame death[6]. Jesus is saying here to Peter: "You have discovered that I am the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The time will soon come when I will be crucified, and the gates of Hades will close behind me. But they are powerless to shut me in. The gates of Hades have no power  over me!” But Jesus  is saying even more. He is not only saying that He  is indestructible. He is also saying that the church for which  He is laying down  His life is indestructible!

And with that He gives Peter, the first representative of the church a special sign. He gives to the true church, represented here by Peter the keys of the Kingdom. [See also Rev 1:18; 3:7].  And so the  authority of Christ on earth came to rest in the true church. 

And we see how this came first true at Pentecost.  

The preaching of Peter opened the door to three thousand souls in one day (Acts 2:41) and then many more came. But it is not only Peter who has the keys of the Kingdom. The church, wherever she gathers (even as two or three are gathered - Matt 18:20) has it. And into the hands of the church God has committed great binding and loosening authority (see also Matthew 18:18, where  the authority of the church extends  to  church discipline). 

But this text in Matthew 16  is really about the matter of salvation, and in that sense Peter is the first convert. And the powerful gates of hell that hold so many prisoners (for all have sinned), cannot withstand  the work of the church  in prayer and  in the preaching of the gospel.  That is how Ephesus (see Acts 20)  was  transformed in  Paul’s day. This is how our society is transformed in our day – by the  agency  of  the true church of Jesus Christ. 

That is how Christ builds His church.  

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[1] In this sense it is used in 1 Corinthians 11:20  - “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s [κυριακόν – kuriakon] supper that you eat” ; Revelation 1:10 “ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s [κυριακῆ – kuriake] day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet…”

[2] http://assembling.alanknox.net/2007/07/ekklesia-and-kuriakon/

[3] Dr Wayne Mack and David Swavely have written a good and helpful book  with that title on this subject

[4] e.g.  5 of the 7 churches in Revelation 2&3 failed

[5]  check out  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banias

[6] Acts 2:24; Acts 2:27

2 Timothy 1 :1-7 "Fearless Service"

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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[1]  See my sermon on  1 Timothy   1:1-2 , entitled  “  A Letter  from Paul to Timothy  for the  Church in all Ages”, dated    03/04/2016

[2] See 1 Corinthians 12

Genesis 22 :1-24 - “The Sacrifice of the Son of Promise “

Vv. 1-2 :  God’s command to Abraham

Vv. 3-14 :  Abrahams obedience

Vv. 15- 19 :  God’s covenant promises reaffirmed

Vv. 20-24 :  An important footnote  concerning  Isaac’s future wife, Rebekah. 

This recorded piece of sacred Scripture must surely rank as one of the supreme tests[1] and acts of faith in the Bible. But let’s face it - as much as we would admire the faith of Abraham, so as much many would find themselves perplexed by  the nature of what God requires here of Abraham.  Is it possible that God could require such a thing? The God who said, ”You shall not murder?" (Gen. 9:5,6; Ex. 20:13).  

I have reminded you so often from this pulpit that we need to learn to see further than the end of our noses. We need to learn to read Bible texts, such as this one, in the light of the whole Bible, and particularly in the light of the full revelation of the NT Scriptures, otherwise we will always be like children, swayed by mere appearances and swayed by mere emotions of the moment.  What strikes me so very often about Bible critics and cynics is that they take a verse such as this and say, “Oh, really, so this is your loving God who commands a father to kill his son?”  So, they take verse 2   and think themselves justified to pull apart the whole of Christianity on the basis of this verse and text, without understanding the context of the entire Scriptures.   We need to learn that the weight of the entire Bible stands behind this text!  

By way of introduction I also wish to remind you again that all of the OT anticipates and foreshadows the Messiah- Jesus Christ, the Lord. We saw that last time in Genesis 21.  Isaac, the son of promise was born under miraculous circumstances and at the right time, determined by God. This child was never born according to man’s will and in man’s timing. And this child never ultimately belonged to Abraham and Sarah – just like your and my children don’t ultimately belong to us!  We receive these gifts  from God to be raised for the glory of God.   Now  with this thought in mind  we must  understand that Isaac was born to be an illustration of something  even greater that God would do later in the  history of the world.

Isaac in his birth, and in the act of being sacrificed by his father foreshadowed ultimately the birth and the death of the greater Son of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we need to see the logic of this passage ultimately in that light.  All this is so very big and breath-taking, and so I want to encourage you to  see this test of Abraham’s faith  in an  entirely positive  way and not through the eye  of  the superficial  modern  person  who cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ  and who whose who would  simply cry, “child abuse!”

22: 1-2:  God’s command to Abraham

"After these things God tested Abraham…”.The fact that God tests His people should not be construed in a negative manner. There is a crucial difference between testing and tempting. Satan tempts people in order to make them fail. God tests His people to further sanctify and refine them.  In both, the Old and New Testaments the words translated “test” mean “to prove by trial”.  When God tests His children, His purpose is to prove that their faith is real.  James says that the testing of our faith develops perseverance, which leads to maturity in our walk with God (Jas. 1:3–4). James also goes on to say that testing is a blessing, because, when we have “stood the test” we will “receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (Jas. 1:12).  So ultimately testing comes from our heavenly Father who works all things together for good for those who love Him and who are called to be the children of God (Rom. 8:28).

In a sense God tested Abraham all his life. He tested him when he left his familiar home in Ur. He tested Abraham through a drought when he arrived in the Promised Land. He tested him in his relationship with Lot and by means of the happenings in Sodom and Gomorrah. He tested him by keeping him waiting for 25 years for a son to be born to him and Sarah.  God tested him causing Hagar and Ishmael to leave the home, because the sibling rivalry between Ishmael, the son of the flesh and Isaac the son of the promise   was threatening to destabilize Abraham once again. 

When Isaac was born   Abraham might have thought   that this would have been the end of all his trials, but it was not so! The greatest trial was yet to come.  We read, “After these things God tested Abraham…”.   To be sure, the nature of Abraham’s test of faith is a specific one, and you and I will never be asked to do this. But God may ask you to give up your son or daughter to His service in a very dangerous mission field. Be prepared!    But this specific request in 22:2, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering…”, is  at face value  a tough one.  Abraham knows what is at stake.  What would Sarah say if he came home to tell her that he had to sacrifice Isaac? But far more profound is the fact that if Isaac dies, the promise of Abraham’s seed and offspring cannot be established.   The Messiah, according  to promise,   could not be born! There is a lot at stake here.

22: 3-14 :  Abraham's obedience

V.3 “So Abraham rose early in the morning…and went to the place of which God had told him.”  The place to which he takes Isaac is of very deep significance. To miss this, is to miss everything. Abraham is told to go to the land of Moriah to offer him there as a burnt offering.  And now for some perspective, as we take a look forward in history; In 1 Chronicles 21   David had sinned by calling for an unauthorized census of his people. It was a self -willed census, motivated by his pride. A terrible judgement from God followed as a result. 70 000 people died. It was on Mt. Moriah, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite in Jerusalem that the angel of death was commanded by God to stop the divine wrath. David then bought this place from Ornan the Jebusite and here he made burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. (1 Chron. 21:26). This place would later become Israel’s house of worship, having been   built under the supervision of Solomon (2 Chron. 3:1). This place became Israel’s God appointed place of sacrifice and worship, and many, many sacrifices would be made there in the course of history.  And it was in this vicinity that the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin   was crucified on Mt Calvary, outside the gate. So, I trust that you see the significance of all this. An ordinary reading of this text, without investigation would have caused you to miss the point of this story!

So now, let us think again. Why does God call Abraham to make such an enormous sacrifice?  Two reasons:

(i)               On the one hand God designed this as the supreme test of Abraham's faith and trust in God. Has Abraham grown in his faith? Yes, he has!  And we know that Abraham does not fail this test.  

(ii)      But in a greater and more profound sense God was preparing the world for a future happening, and He caused it to be recorded in the Bible, to be seen by those that have eyes to see and ears to hear.  Here God, through this incident was foretelling   what He would do in the offering up of  a very real sacrifice  of His only Son  on the cross.   So  Abraham is taking his son where God took His Son, to that place where  He would  die for the sins of the world-  and there  was the  place  where the just wrath of God was stopped for all  who believe in  the substitutionary death of Christ  for themselves. 

Incidentally, nowhere else in the Bible will you find such a command, the sacrifice of a son, ever again. In fact, you will find it written in the law of God that all child sacrifice is expressly forbidden.

Now, Abraham did not see everything as clearly as you and I can today with the benefit of the full revelation of God in Christ. But the important point is that Abraham believed in God and he  trusted God in this, and this is what is revealed in  vv. 3-14 !And it is revealed in the important   commentary on this passage in Hebrews 11:17-19. In his heart, difficult as it was, Abraham determined to trust God for this.  When Isaac asks that gut wrenching question in 22:7 , “My father…Where is the  lamb for the burnt offering?”, Abraham answers in v.8, “God will provide for himself  the lamb for the burnt offering…”.   The commentary in the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham expected God to resurrect Isaac from the dead. But that is not what happened. Instead, God provided a substitute! And here we have one of the great doctrines associated with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ–His substitutionary death  for  sinners.  His life for those that believe. The life of the Lamb of God for them that trust  Him to save them from the righteous wrath  of God.

And  as Abraham  prepares Isaac for sacrifice,  and as he  trusts God for the  outcome, the angel of the LORD intervenes (22: 11, 12). “Do not lay a hand on the boy.” The test is over. Abraham has passed it. He has stood the test. No further proof is necessary. Abraham’s faith is vindicated. It is real. He really , really has learned to trust God.  

22:13 tells us that Abraham lifted up his eyes  and  saw a ram caught  in a thicket by his horns.  This ram becomes the illustration of the great biblical doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice, or atonement of Christ for those that believe in Him.  Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of our sin.  The ram dies in my place, and my sin is atoned for.  But it is an unequal sacrifice. The ram is an animal. How on earth can an animal atone for the sin of a human being?  It can’t! By God’s forbearance, He allowed it to be so, but  the blood of bulls and goats cannot take sin away  (Hebr. 10:4). There is only one  who has been appointed in history to take away the sin of people!  Where on earth will such a man be found? Who will redeem a man, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Only the Son of Promise foreshadowed by Isaac can! 

And once a again the letter to the Hebrews and particularly the 10^th chapter helps us to understand this. Do you see the profundity of Scripture? Does this not put a new awe for God into your hearts?Brothers and sisters, I exhort you then to put your trust in the Lord Jesus ! Abraham is our example. He trusted in God. And he was rewarded by God. He figuratively received his Son back from the dead. Isaac was given to Abraham a second time. He was Abraham’s son  by birth and now he is Abraham’s  so by redemption. And you too need  those two births - your physical birth and your spiritual birth . And you can be born again, by looking to Jesus. And you can live forever.  God the Father received his Son back from the dead. He  did allow His Son to see corruption in the grave. And you too who hope in Christ will rise in triumph with him.

And so in 22:15-18 God finally reaffirms and renews all the covenant  promises to Abraham and his descendants. They will become as numerous as the stars and sand on the seashore.  And in  22:19-24 God prepares  the next chapter of his covenant family  as He introduces us to  the family  of Rebekah, the future  covenant wife of Isaac, who will both be challenged  in a very similar way  in their walk of faith.

Trust God for your future in a new and radical way, based on what you have learned from the Holy Scriptures! Amen.

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[1] Other tests in the Bible : e.g.  Ex. 16:4