Spirit Empowered Ministry (2 Tim 1:6-14) | Adult Sunday School

Okay, we're good to go good to see each one of you this morning. We're gonna get started in our Sunday school class this morning. So come on in. We got a lot of wood to chop this morning. So to speak.

Invite you to open your Bibles this morning to 2nd Timothy chapter 1. 2nd Timothy chapter 1 for our study this morning and there is a Outline available if you haven't got it yet, maybe raise your hand guys for passing them out.

I'm working hard at not calling these a handout because that is a little different connotation being one right back here. These are outlines not handouts. Anybody needs a handout raise your hand. More hands went up than for outlines.

What's going on here? Well, we're a church that's known for our handouts and outlines. We're going to be looking at 2nd. Timothy chapter 1 this morning. We won't dig into the entire chapter completely.

We're going to be looking at mainly verses 6 through 14 and At Paul's last letter to his young Friend and close ministry partner Timothy. Also Paul's last words to the church. So it really is what is commonly called Paul's last will and Testament and We're going to see some things for him at this morning that I think will be hopefully helpful to us in our own lives in ministry and Before we do let's commit our time to our Lord and ask his blessing our father.

We know that we are able to gather together in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Only by your grace and your providential working and so we thank you for the time that we will share this morning.

We pray that our study would be fruitful that you would be glorified Through it and that you would teach us what you would have us learn this morning by your spirit because that is The main import of what we will see this morning the power of your spirit in our lives and ministry.

So I ask your blessing on this and on each one who hears this message here and at Kootenai Church, but also elsewhere. May you accomplish every divine purpose that you have for it and may you be glorified in it.

And we just ask it in Jesus name Amen. So if you have your Bibles open to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 We're going to spend a little time this morning on the background of this letter because I think that's going to be helpful and I would encourage you to read through this entire letter sometime in the next two or three weeks, maybe several times in the next two or three weeks because Next Sunday not in Sunday school, but during the worship time I'm going to be preaching from the second chapter and then two weeks after that from the fourth chapter we're not going to cover every bit of the book in these three sessions, but I thought well I'm going to do some background work for this Sunday school class.

So I might as well preach from it as I fill the pulpit on those two Sundays. So we're going to spend a little time in 2nd Timothy in the next three weeks or so today we're going to be looking at 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and we're really going to focus in on verses 6 through 14 as Paul focuses in on the the absolute necessity of the power of the Holy Spirit for ministry and all of life for the believer.

The year was probably 67 maybe 68 ad. More than 30 years after the ascension of our Lord. Paul would have been in his mid to late 30s when he wrote this letter to the young pastor Timothy. He had left Timothy in Ephesus to do work there and Paul had traveled on to Macedonia.

Paul had been imprisoned in Rome in about 60 ad and he was there for about two years his first imprisonment under the Emperor Nero and He was there for only two years because the witnesses from Jerusalem did not show up to testify against him.

And at that time the Romans Would keep you in prison if you were accused of a crime as a Roman citizen and Paul was that's why he appealed to Caesar. Do he he wanted a all-expense-paid trip to Rome because Rome was the center of Gentile power.

Paul was God's appointed apostle to the Gentiles so he wanted to go there and appealed his case to to Rome and they sent him there and. But he was there for two years after that the witnesses from Jerusalem didn't show up.

So they let him go and he was back out on the mission field. It's not known exactly when the church at Ephesus began. But we know that according to Luke's account in Acts chapter 18 Paul had been there with Priscilla and Aquila and he was traveling back to Antioch during his second missionary journey.

And after spending time at Antioch Paul returned to Ephesus and ministered there for two more years. Luke's account in Acts chapter 19 helps us understand something of the ministry he had there Luke says.

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. Later on the same chapter it says. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly Reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief speaking evil of the way before the congregation He withdrew from them and took the disciples with him reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks.

Was Paul's habit when he went into a new town to go to the Jews first out of obedience to Romans chapter 116 that he said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. To all who believe to the Jew first also to the Greek and that was a priority Paul kept and so should we Jews are to be the first people that the church evangelizes and Paul did that every city he went to.

Even when they rejected him if he left and then came back to that city He would go to the Jews first. That was a priority that the Apostle Paul kept. Ephesus was the capital of and the most important city in the Roman province of Asia.

It was a critical hub of ministry for the Apostle Paul. It was also a pagan city dominated by the pagan temple to Artemis and all that that involved and He administered effectively in Ephesus and probably also influenced farther up into the Lycus Valley and what's now Western Turkey the geography of that area.

Helped him do that because the mountain ranges run perpendicular to the coastline that created valleys that extended up into the inner parts and it made possible for travel and commerce up into the valleys from the coastline and About a hundred twenty-five miles to the east of the city of Ephesus.

Which was a coastal city was the little Lycus Valley and three churches there that are very prominent in scripture. Two of them were prominent than the other one, but they're like a little triangle of cities.

They're Hierapolis Colossae and Laodicea. Paul mentions those in his letter to the Colossians and so that was probably also even though Paul didn't go there and plant those churches. A man named Epaphras did that was probably also influenced by Paul's to your ministry there in Ephesus.

And it was an effective ministry. He preached he taught he grounded people in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he also trained the elders that were there after Paul ministered there he went on to to Macedonia and as he was heading back for Jerusalem, he did not have time to go visit the city of Ephesus.

So he called the elders from there to meet him near the coastline at a town called Meletus. It's recorded in Acts chapter 20 and in that encounter Paul had a very personal and emotional meeting with these men and he said I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers To care for the Church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

I You not sparing the flock but from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. And when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them and there was much weeping on the part of all.

They embraced Paul and kissed him being sorrowful most of all. Because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again and they accompanied him to the ship. Clearly he had spent enough time and effort and energy with these men to develop a close bond a personal relationship with them and To know that they were part in company with him and wouldn't see him again was an emotional event.

He had made a tremendous investment in the church at Ephesus investment of time of teaching preaching Into the lives of these men and the leadership so around five years later. When he writes his first letter back to Timothy, he tells him to remain at Ephesus.

Paul was going on to Macedonia and In that first letter. He's extremely concerned about what's going on in the city of Ephesus and the fact that Timothy was there basically as his apostolic representative trying to straighten things out and Paul's words to the elders on at Ephesus of Ephesus that day near Miletus were not just We're not just encouragement.

They weren't just a warning they were prophetic because eventually men did come in fierce wolves did come in and Assault that church and even from among themselves men arose teaching twisted doctrines false doctrines and Timothy's they're trying to have to deal with these things and Decades later God used the aging Apostle John in his great vision.

We call the revelation of Jesus Christ to warn the churches with the very words of Jesus himself. And one of those was the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. The Lord says this I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. He said some positive things about the Ephesian Church but by that point in time It had declined and degraded down to where the Lord himself has to speak these words of warning and threatening to take away there their lampstand.

So Ephesus was a critical ministry and Paul writes that first letter to Timothy. It's encouragement. It's instruction. But it's also a warning and Paul captures his purpose in writing that first letter in his third chapter.

He says I am writing these things to you so that if I delay You may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of living God. Timothy was Paul's protege. He you might say his like his apprentice his ministerial disciple.

If you want an older word his apostolic legate that he had left there to represent him in Ephesus and Timothy was considerably younger less experienced and from what the what Paul writes he probably had a little problem with timidity perhaps and Two of the three pastoral letters were written to Timothy the third to Titus and it's important to remember the order that we have them in our in our Bibles is first and second Timothy Titus and then Philemon.

Philemon more of a Personal letter from Paul to Philemon who was at Colossae. But remember that first Timothy was written but second Timothy was written last that was the last thing Paul wrote to Timothy.

But also his last words to the church because we know he was executed in Rome. Shortly after he wrote that letter. After his release from house arrest and his first imprisonment. In the last chapter of Acts, it's recorded there.

Paul was back on the mission trail resuming his ministry to the Mediterranean and this would have been around 62 AD and it was during this time that Paul wrote to Titus from somewhere in Macedon. From there.

He traveled on to Rome. He went back to Rome and Probably arrived there around 67, but things had changed. Nero was still the Emperor but Nero. Things had gone sour in his administration. He it was not the same environment when Paul got there the second time many believers at this time took a lower profile they many have sort of got real quiet concerning the gospel because of the Neronian persecution of the Christians.

We're going to talk about that in a minute and Timothy still back in Ephesus was probably tempted to do the same thing because of.

This.

This massive persecution against Christians during that point in time but Paul knowing that his time on earth was coming to a close wrote second Timothy and This second imprisonment was not like the first and the first imprisonment it was house arrest.

We're told that and it says in Acts 28 He lived in his own rented quarters for those two years until they let him go. But here he was arrested and Tried convicted and sentenced to death. So he's condemned to the Mamertine prison.

We're going to take a look at that and This was not a prison as we would think of prisons. This was essentially a hole in the ground a holding cell for men waiting execution. He was not waiting to go on trial.

He was condemned to death already and he was just there awaiting his Execution and he's right second Timothy. It's such a personal sad letter and and it's very different from first Timothy a totally different tone.

New Testament scholar William mounts captures that I think very well. He says second Timothy is unlike either first Timothy or Titus. It is an intensely personal letter written to encourage Timothy in his difficult task and to ask him to come to Rome since it was written to one of Paul's best friends who knew his Theology and not to a church who did not know his theology like Titus or to a church who knew his theology.

But was choosing to ignore it first Timothy one is not surprised. The second Timothy does not sound like other letters. It was not intended to be a theological treatise. Okay, very important. So Timothy was experienced a very tough going at Ephesus and Surveying both of these letters tells us of the wide range of issues.

He had to deal with Church leadership. He had to be involved in that preaching teaching evangelism. Pastoral care he had to deal with false teachers and their false teachings false doctrine. And not only that he had to pay attention to his own spiritual life, of course, very important.

Spiritual warfare is never ever fought on simply one front. Have you noticed that it's always multiple problems multiple Issues when you get one thing settled over here something else pops up over here one new fad comes down the pike and Evangelicalism and and the church addresses it but then all of a sudden there's another one or maybe two more over here one theologian Likened it to the old whack-a-mole game.

Remember that and whack-a-mole. I looked it up I had I couldn't remember how but there was only six right six moles that would pop up. Theological whack-a-mole is like having a hundred moles popping up all over the place.

You just can't whack them down fast enough, but that's what's going on and Timothy had to deal with it. Paul reached the end of his life. He knows it but what comes through in this last letter is his is in His concern for the ministry not just of the church.

But for individual people including Timothy for his brothers and sisters in Christ and also for the church and the gospel. For of Jesus Christ. So if we were to compile a list of Paul's instructions for young Timothy from first and second Timothy.

Just from his first letter. It would sound something like this in his first letter. Paul says Timothy. I want you to Confront and correct false teachers calling them to repentance a sincere faith and a good conscience.

Fight hard for the truth guarding your own spiritual life. Pray for the lost no matter who they are and lead the men of the church to do the same in unity and holiness. Exhort the women of the church to fulfill their God-ordained role of submission to their husbands working in their homes to raise up godly children.

Setting an example in their homes of faith love and holiness. Carefully and prayerfully select spiritual leaders for the church based on their godliness giftedness and good reputations. Actively and aggressively discern and expose spiritual error and those who attempt to teach it within the flock of God.

Always be feeding yourself on the sound words of Scripture staying far away from myths false doctrines and the philosophies of men. Work hard in your ministry always keeping your hopes set on the life to come in Christ.

Continuously discipline yourself for the purpose of spiritual growth and godliness. Boldly and lovingly command and teach God's Word to his people. Model the fruit of the Spirit so that all can follow you.

Concerning the Word of God faithfully read it explain it and apply it publicly to the people. Keep growing in Christ likeness in your own personal life. Confront the sins of your people but with gentleness and grace.

Lead your people to give special care for the widows in the congregation. Carefully select leaders in the church who demonstrate spiritual maturity and faithfulness. Take care of yourself physically so that you are strong to serve Christ.

Teach your people to be faithful and hard workers in the church and in their outside employment. Honor faithful pastors who rule well, and especially who work hard at preaching and teaching the word. Apply the Word of God in the church without partiality.

Live your life content with what God provides and flee the love of money. Instead pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith against its enemies.

Keep all of God's commandments. Charge the rich to be generous and to be rich in good works. Guard the Word of God that has been entrusted to you as a sacred trust. All of that. For Timothy ministering in Ephesus in just the first letter.

To this young pastor after he was in prison for the second time in Rome on Death row as he awaited execution in the fall of 67. He penned his last words to Timothy. Last words to the church. Very personal letter to the same young preacher in second Timothy.

But he continues to exhort and encourage Timothy by telling him to and we're going to be looking at this this morning. Fan into flame the gift of God which is in him so he can be useful to the Lord. That's the Holy Spirit.

Don't ever be timid fearful or ashamed of the testimony of Christ, but suffer in the strength and power of God. Follow Paul's own pattern of preaching and teaching sound words and guard the truth that has been placed in your care and Take that truth and teach it to faithful men who will also pass it down to faithful men.

So the next generation will hear the gospel. Suffer as a good soldier of Christ. Keep a single focus on the Lord of the church Jesus Christ and don't be distracted by the things of the world. Lead the flock of God with authority.

Work hard to accurately interpret teach and apply the scriptures. Avoid useless people who talk about useless things. Keep your life pure so that you will be useful to the master. Flee youthful lusts.

Pursue righteousness faith love and peace. Don't get caught up in foolish and ignorant controversies that just be breed quarrels. Especially in an election year. I added that last part that was mine I confess couldn't resist.

Don't be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach patient correcting your opponents with gentleness. Be ready to face the dangerous times that will come with a deep understanding of God's Word.

Know that all scripture is God breathed and profitable to equip you for all tasks.

Preach the word and.

Preach it when it's popular to do it and especially preach it when it's not popular and use it to reprove rebuke and exhort people. Endure hardship do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry. At the end of this letter Paul warns Timothy to avoid a man named Alexander the compersmith and throughout this letter Paul Paul names names people who have abandoned the faith people who have abandoned Paul Paul himself.

People who've just bugged out he names him and he warns particularly against Alexander the compersmith and then almost as an afterthought. Something for himself. Come before winter and Bring my cloak and my parchments.

Just need my coat and scriptures all of that for this young timid pastor. To be equipped to minister in a land far far away long time ago. But all of it to very very applicable to us right here right now in North, Idaho in 2024.

But if Timothy was to carry out this very formidable list if he was to do it God's way He was going to have to rely on some very formidable power that is not intrinsic to him. He's going to have to do his ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit and that's why Paul begins this this list of commands in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 with a with a This encouragement to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Any ministry done in the power of the flesh is doomed to failure. No matter how impressive it looks to the world and you've seen it. You've seen these ministries with a with a preacher who just skyrockets into prominence and these massive ministries and Satellite ministries and thousands and thousands and thousands of people that involved when that person goes away.

Have you noticed what happens? The ministry disintegrates, you know, why because Christ didn't build that ministry. It was built around a man and a personality. But all ministry done in the power of the Holy Spirit will have God's eternal blessing no matter how insignificant it looks to the world so there's a little bit of the Spiritual and religious and historical background that brings us to this letter.

What about the Emperor Nero? I think it's worthwhile Talk a little bit about the political Context this happens in his name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. He was born on the 15th of December in 37 AD and he died June in 68 AD.

So he only lived 30 years. He lived 30 years and he committed suicide the first time Paul was. Let's see. There we go. The first time Paul was imprisoned. He was imprisoned in house under house arrest according to Acts chapter 28.

This is a late 19th century artist rendition of what he thought that first imprisonment might be like it said that Paul is here writing his letter to the Ephesians and He's going to send it to this is supposed to be Tychicus who was going to take it back to Ephesus.

But his environment was not nearly what it was later on in his second imprisonment in Rome. He's imprisoned in what this place called a Mamertine prison. This thing was essentially a hole in the ground.

You can see the the ceiling that's the entrance into this place and the artist in this particular rendition. Of course, he had to show you what it looked like. So he had to have a little light coming in the ceiling probably wasn't there.

It's probably just a dark cold.

Stinking place.

Eventually it was Discovered and Cleaned out and you can actually I got some pictures of it the tours you can take but Nero was born in 8037 died in 68. He was Emperor in 8054 8060 to 8068 when he committed suicide.

His mother her name was Agrippina. She was the great-granddaughter of the former Emperor Augustus and she had a real lust for power. Okay, she just she just did and she managed to marry the current Emperor Claudius.

Who adopted Nero because she wanted Nero to be in line for the to be Emperor so she could Influence things through her son Nero. Well, eventually Claudius did die. In fact, he died of poisoning and she was implicated in it now he's out of the way and he died when at age 40 when Nero was just three years old and a few years went by and Agrippina influenced the people in power at the time and part of that was the Praetorian Guard who were influential in selecting the the next Emperor and at the age of 16, he became the Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Here's a statue of him obviously is fairly young in this particular one. There's another one of him. Anecdotal reports say that Mark Zuckerberg fashions himself after the Emperor Nero. I don't know could be maybe in looks hopefully not in how he handles administrative issues.

There's another one. He's a little bit older. They made lots of busts of each other. It was common for the emperors of Rome the Caesars to when they came into power to mint coins of themselves they have visages of themselves on the coin and Even all the way down in Jerusalem, you know the story of Jesus asking for a coin, you know a denarius he said whose images on that and The image of it would have been Caesar the season could have been could have been a coin just like this.

The Jews had to carry those around in their pockets to pay taxes with them and they hated doing that. Why. Because it was an idol they considered it an idol to have the visage of a man on there and there was various Statements proclaiming their their status and their power and so on on these coins.

Here's one here with Agrippina in the background, which she always was trying to influence him she was pretty successful at it. They they minted silver coins and gold coins and here's another one so during the 14 years that he was in power a whole series of different coins were were minted and Here is again the Mamertine prison that he put Paul in and condemned him to death.

The early years of his rule were considered kind of a golden age because he made a lot of reforms he had returned a lot of the power back to the Senate that had been taken away from them by the Previous emperors and so that pleased them to do that.

He constructed vast palace complexes lush gardens. He really liked to build things very anort Immaculate building projects that cost a lot of money. So he raised taxes on the populace. He loved to compete in the Olympic Games.

His personal hobby was making personal appearances where he was sort of the main character, you know the star of the show he appeared as a poet an actor a musician or an athlete and Again, he was raising taxes on people to pay for all this lush construction and for a while he was fairly popular, but eventually the Senate and others around him began to begin to conspire to get him out of office and So he just simply had him arrested and executed which didn't help his popularity with those folks and So at the age of 16, he's going through all of this and his mother's behind the scenes Influencing him eventually that war kind of thin and he began to resent her influence in his administration.

And eventually he moved her out of the palace. He denied her the protection of the Praetorian Guard and even forbid her to come to any of the gladiatorial games. Well, she didn't like that too well, of course, so she began to favor his stepbrother and to promote him to be the next emperor and eventually Nero just simply to solve that problem murdered his own mother.

He was married several times several of those wives were murdered or exiled and over time with all the plots to kill him and all the various rebellions and insurrections. Nero became increasingly paranoid and vindictive but the great Issue that happened during his reign was in 8064 a massive fire broke out in the city of Rome.

It destroyed much of the city ten out of fourteen of the Provincial regions in the city were destroyed and the people blamed Nero. They thought he he lit the fire himself in order to be able to turn around and rebuild some of his buildings well Amazingly and maybe in the providential working of God.

Two of the proper two of the areas of the city that did not suffer much damage were occupied predominantly by Christians and so narrowed in order to have a scapegoat and get the blame off of him began to blame the Christians and The Christians weren't real popular anyway with the populace because they were considered Sort of not being interested in participating in much of the pagan social Activity that was going on much of it just perverted types of things.

And they didn't participate in it and also they considered Nero the Antichrist. The Romans would say Caesar is Lord. And of course Christians would say Jesus is Lord and so they were not very popular so it was real easy to persecute them and Eventually, that's what happened and Paul arrives in Rome during this period of time.

He's immediately immediately Recognized as the a ringleader as he was called even the the Jews in Jerusalem said he's a ringleader. Of course, he's arrested condemned to death and put in a mammoth in prison eventually executed in 68.

So.

This is the background the history of what is going on there with this letter. Let's look together in the time we have left at For 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and I'm just going to read down through it starting in verse 1.

It says Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God According to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. Now right there when I read that I think you know Here's a man sentenced to death right and he mentions that right in that opening opening Sentence and so oh by the way, here's here's the contemporary view of the Mamertine prison.

The Catholic Church has located this eventually and they built the church on top of it and A little closer view of the front of it here. They of course have excavated it and It has obviously artificial light in there.

Now you can still see the hole in the roof and Here's what it looks like. Contemporary pictures. They have put a staircase down into it so that they can do tours and have embellished it with the altars and various.

Other things.

And so you can go and have a tour you get a little idea of how cramped and crowded this thing might have been with A few prisoners inside of it people taking it to her. But this was no prison as we know prisons and Paul is there waiting to die.

So he says, you know By the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus to Timothy my beloved child. Grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I Remember you constantly in my prayers night and day as I remember your tears.

I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith a faith that dwelled first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure Dwells in you as well.

He's used the word as the same root four times here in these verses. He says I remember you constantly. I remember your tears. I am reminded of your sincere faith. Of course, there's a man getting ready to die and he knows it.

What's he doing? He's reminiscing right, but he doesn't stop there. He says in the very next verse and he uses the very same root word for this reason I remind you to fan and to flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit not a fear but a power and love and self-control. This is Roman numeral one on your outline. Fan into flame the gift of God. I just simply use the imperative commands that are in this passage as the outline and Paul understands and we should understand that the first one is Foundational to carry out the other ones or anything else.

He says in this letter. This letter also is full of full of commands. Fan and to flame the gift of God. Some have said well, this is the spirit that's in Timothy and just his own spirit but the best understanding of it is that Paul was talking about the Holy Spirit of God and you can demonstrate that Exegetically here part of that is which he says which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Remember that Timothy was a Gentile even though his mother and his grandmother were Jews. His father was a Gentile and you were considered a Gentile or Jew based on your father not your mother and father so he was considered by the Jews he would have been considered a a Gentile and you remember when Paul met with Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 and he preached the gospel to Cornelius.

Cornelius was a Gentile. He was what is called a God fearer, which means he's a Gentile convert to Judaism. But Paul had to carry out his mission and part of that mission was to demonstrate the movement of the gospel from Jew to Gentile.

Okay. This is a critical massive issue in the New Testament.

It's huge.

They have been had to have the Jerusalem Council to Officially decide that the gospel is going to Gentiles and the Gentiles don't have to become Jews in order to be saved. They're saved just like Abraham was by faith alone.