It is time for us to
consider the pastoral epistles. Before I
tell you why we need to consider them at this time, I want to tell you
something about them. There are three
letters (or epistles) in the New Testament that have been sometimes called the ‘pastoral epistles’. The introductions
and the greetings in each of these
letters indicate that they were written
by the apostle Paul[1]. The first two letters were directed to Timothy, who at this time
was pastor at Ephesus (1:3), and the last letter was directed to Titus
who was pastor of the church on
the island of Crete. 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 churches
throughout the ages have fallen,
having not only lost their spiritual
direction but more significantly, having
lost their favour with
God. A study of the letters to the 7 churches in the book of
Revelation confirms that. The church that habitually ignores
the counsel of God in His word will find in time that God will remove His presence from her.[2]
Woe the church that God hands over to
her own wisdom. Her love for human
wisdom will eventually kill her.
With every passing year
I am becoming more aware that I
have, humanly speaking, only a few
years left in the pastoral ministry. My calling and desire from God has
by and large been to see the church
restored and reformed according to the Scriptures, and in a small way
I have seen some progress in this direction.
Sadly, I have also witnessed the destruction of church and of society
in my own day at the hand of unscrupulous
wolves
in sheep’s clothing [3].
Paul calls these “men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples
after them” (Acts 20: 30). Satan thrives
best in churches that
have left the safe boundaries of
Scripture, churches that are given to experimenting with
latest fads and ideas spun to them
by worldly authorities.
By contrast , a church of born again
members, and ordered upon the wisdom of God and His Word is
a thorn in Satan’s flesh, and such a church
is a formidable influence for good in
our broken society.
And so, as the years
are passing for you and I, we want to ensure that we should remain faithful to the whole gospel of God, teaching and training
a host of Timothy and Titus’s, encouraging a
generation of men and women to
build their lives and society upon the pure principles of the gospel.
This is
what the pastoral epistles are all about, and so John Stott reminds us that ,
“Paul’s overriding preoccupation throughout these three letters is with the truth, that it may be faithfully
guarded and handed on.[4]
With these preliminary thoughts in mind then, we begin with the
first letter to Timothy.
Introductory
comments to 1 Timothy :
This letter, although it is addressed to Timothy, pastor of
the church in Ephesus, was
inspired by the Holy Spirit
for wider use.
We thus find that this letter speaks to individuals, and to groups within
the congregation, and indeed also to the whole church. The letter
is not as structured as some of
Paul’s other letters tend to be . For example in his letters to the
Romans and Ephesians we find a
closely argued doctrinal section ( e.g. an the exposition of
the doctrine of salvation) which is followed
by a closing section
filled with practical
application and implications for r daily living. In this
letter to Timothy, Paul does not use this style , but in almost a conversational tone he deals with many issues that these young pastors
are wrestling with in their respective contexts, and so you will find
yourself challenged to think about many
different areas of life.
A brief word about the date
of this letter: It was written somewhere between 62-66 AD, roughly 30 years after the death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of Acts we read of Paul’s Roman imprisonment. During this time Paul wrote letters to the Colossians and to the
Philippians. He told the Philippians that he hoped to be released from prison (Phil.
1:18-19, 24-26) and it seems that this is
what actually happened. Following
his release he visited
the island of Crete with Titus and probably also Timothy, leaving Titus
on the island to care for the new converts and to constitute a local church. Paul and Timothy then make their way to Macedonia via Ephesus
and here they realize
that false teachers were undermining the church in Ephesus. On this occasion Paul deals firmly
with two trouble makers, Hymenaeus and Alexander (I Tim. 1:19-20). Paul, constrained by
the Holy Spirit could however not remain in Ephesus, and so he leaves Timothy in Ephesus, while he goes on
to Macedonia. It is here that he writes
two letters, one to Titus in Crete and
his first letter to Timothy in Ephesus. When Paul
was eventually on his way back to Ephesus, he is arrested again and brought back to Rome, from where he writes his second letter to Timothy.
He wants to have Timothy with him in Rome
and therefore he sends Tychicus to Ephesus to replace Timothy there as pastor.
And now the text : vv
1-2 :
1. The Author and His
Authority established : (1:1)
Why should we listen carefully and attentively to the words
contained in this letter? Listen
to the formidable credentials by which Paul presents himself to us: “Paul,
an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus
our hope…”. He says that he is an apostle. How did he become an apostle? In Acts
9 we read first of his conversion when he was personally confronted by the Lord Jesus on the
Damascus road, and then in 9:15 we
read of his commission from the Lord Jesus: “… he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and
the children of Israel”. In his letter to the Galatians Paul
asserted that his apostleship was not
from men nor through man[5],
but, as he says here in our text “by
command of God our Saviour.” Paul was
an apostle by the command of God.
Here we need to be careful that we do not get lost in the title, for in truth, the word ‘apostle’
carries no implications
of a superior ranking among mortal men, such as we find the tendency to be in Namibian churches, where the rankings from
bottom to top are pastor, bishop, apostle!
Paul’s favourite title for himself is
actually “servant” (Gr. doulos) – a slave of Christ Jesus! The word
apostle is derived from the Greek word apostello (lit. to
be sent from), and hence the best translation we can afford here is that
an apostle is a messenger boy!
So the title, ‘apostle’
in itself cannot impress us.
What is impressive is whose messenger
boy he is: Paul calls himself “an apostle of Christ Jesus”, and then
to drive this really home, he also adds “by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope”. Paul’s assertion is
that he carries a message
from no one less than God![6] That is
a weighty assertion, and so we must decide
as to what we are going to do
with such a letter. This
is where the authority of Scripture
has been questioned by some, and
their conclusion has been
that if this is not from God, then this is only an opinion
from a man named Paul, and
therefore such a letter can be at best
suggestive. But please note that Paul’s
words do not leave themselves open to such an interpretation. Paul’s letter claims
to have the authority of the Lord Jesus and of
God, and as such it is therefore not a suggestion but an authoritative word
from God.
We must be reminded
that it is this Word that
has called the church into being.
The church was born through the
preaching of the Word given by
God to the apostle Peter at Pentecost.
On that day 3000 were added to the church. In Acts 2
we learn that the is new
church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching etc. These were God’s chosen men to
speak the truth to the new church . So why should we be listening intently to this series of sermons? Answer: Because we believe
this Word to be a true word from God to every church in every age. The authority
of the word is God Himself.
He made
Paul an apostle of His Word, which was
written down in time to be read
and to be followed by us.
My work as your preacher and pastor is to give
and explain to you the
accurate sense of what is
said here. No preacher or
church have the right to twist, change or leave out
what the Bible so clearly
teaches. In that sense every preacher
is only a messenger boy and not a re-interpreter and re-designer of Scripture.
The Recipient and his
Relationship to Paul (1:2)
“To Timothy my true
child in the faith”. Timothy was the
immediate recipient of the letter. He is first linked to Paul in Acts 16:1-5. Timothy, the son of a Jewish mother and a
gentile father came either
from Derbe or from the neighbouring town of Lystra. He was
probably a young boy when he was converted through the preaching of
apostle Paul. The seeds of faith had been
already planted by his godly grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. (2 Tim. 1:5, 3:15ff), and so when
Paul preached the word about
Jesus they became no longer mere Old Testament believers but
now they were trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the true hope of Israel and the
world. So, in this sense Paul had become Timothy’s father in the gospel as he
calls him here in our text, “my true
child in the faith.” This also points to the fact that Paul may have spent some time in their home , seeing the boy grow
up in between his apostolic journeys,
seeing him mature and
the gifts becoming increasingly evident.
At some point the council of
elders laid their hands on Timothy (1
Tim 4:14) and so Timothy’s labours
in the gospel ministry began. He became Paul's co-worker in the gospel (1 Thess. 3:2), so that Paul could say
that Timothy served with him "as a
son with his father" (Phil 2:22).
The Blessing (1:2)
“Grace, mercy and peace
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (v.2). This blessing occurs regularly (minus mercy) in Paul's
introductions. At the heart of the Christian ministry lie these graces, under all circumstances.
A Facebook post from
my dear friend and brother in Christ,
Pastor Roland Eskinazi of the
International Baptist Church in Brussels concerning the testimony of their members
Fred and Janet Young illustrates
this well. They write :
Dear family, dear
friends, We are not able to respond to you at the moment as we seem to spend
most of our time taking care of ourselves and our (minor) wounds – burns,
shrapnels, cuts and hearing loss. It feels so good to receive every single text
message, voice mail and email though. We welcome them all. They warm our hearts
and soothe our soul. We cannot begin to explain how emotionally helpful it is
to hear from each one of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank for your
concern. Thank you for your love. Thank you for caring. We are fortunate to know
all of you. On Tuesday March 22nd, we were in the check-in line at the Brussels
Airport. Fred was getting ready to leave for the USA where he would lead a
FormaSport college visitation tour for Belgian basketball players. They were
due to join him in Denver on Thursday. The
bomb exploded 10 to 15 feet from us. We were knocked out for maybe 4 or 5
minutes. When we came to our senses we saw others laying dead next to us. We
stood up and walked out. Peace and calm came over us, which enabled us to hold,
talk, and pray for gravely wounded people laying on the sidewalk. Today our
hearts ache for them and the families of those who were so senselessly killed. In
the midst of chaos, we feel it was helpful for us to understand the
unthinkable. We are familiar with the first pages of the Bible that paint a
picture of the predicament our world is in: Humans tend to turn away from God's
goodness and sometimes do terrible things. We humans so easily follow the evil
one. His ways are evil and he rules in this world. He does it daily in small
ways, and at times in horrific ways. Tuesday in Brussels, we were reminded of
this truth. Nonetheless, we are convinced that God is Love, Peace, and the
Light in this dark world. He invites people to follow His ways. His kingdom is not
political, nor religious. It grows in people’s hearts as they turn to him for
wisdom, forgiveness and help. More than ever before, we want to keep learning
from Jesus Christ how to be peaceful, loving and lights in our marriage, in our
family, wherever we are, and whatever we do.
We are ok for the moment, but feel tired. We’ve been told to expect
stress and anxiety. So in the coming days, we’ll need to hold on to what Jesus
says to anyone who wants to learn from him and receive his help: "Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give to you.I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John14:27 Warm
greetings, Fred & Janet
So, right at the beginning, Paul
reminds Timothy that God's grace, mercy and peace will overshadow his
servant even in the most difficult of circumstances. Today, this is also our promise, because we have it on good authority that the Bible says
that it will be so .
Amen !
