Strengthened by Grace

Textual Notes on 2 Timothy 1

Please remain standing for a moment longer and open up now your scriptures to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Just so you know, in this chapter there's one place where the majority text differs from the TR, the Textus Receptus.

That place is in chapter 1 verse 1 where it says Jesus Christ. In the majority text it is Christ Jesus. So that is the change there. There's one other place in the whole book, just so you're aware as we're starting it out, where there's a change as well, and that's in chapter 2 at verse 19 where it says, let everyone who names the name of Christ apart from iniquity, the majority text says names the name of the Lord.

So those are the only differences between the majority text and what's called the received text in the whole book. You can find those in your footnotes, but I just wanted to make you aware of it ahead.

Of time.

Obviously, I'll be reading from the majority text. Now 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.

But share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

For this reason, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phagellus and Hermogenes. The Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.

But when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.

Paul’s Prison, Nero’s Persecution, and the Shape of 2 Timothy

You may be seated. The book of 1 Timothy was written by Paul when he was probably still under house arrest. He was a prisoner for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, but his status as a prisoner was not as miserable of a status as could be found by prisoners.

He had many opportunities to preach to many and to be able to minister well in a condition where he could give hospitality in a private house. We find as he was in Rome during that time that he was continuing to engage by letter and to be able to be relatively open in his Christianity.

But we find is 2 Timothy is written somewhere between a little bit less than a year up to three years after the writing of 1 Timothy. And in that time, the Emperor Nero, after the burning of Rome, had laid the charge for the fires that destroyed so much of that great city upon Christians.

And so Paul's imprisonment became a far less comfortable thing. And we find that rather than being under house arrest, he becomes a man in a prison cell. In this condition, he is abandoned by many even true believers whom he prays that the Lord would give mercy to.

He is harassed by others. It seems that he may have been reported to the Roman authorities as a person to be put into a worse prison by someone who was previously excommunicated at Paul's behest. And we find that Anesiphorus, having ministered to Paul, was himself put in chains and is now awaiting his execution, which Paul calls upon his fellow saints to pray for Anesiphorus that he would be victorious in the day of his trials.

2 Timothy is known as a preacher's text because it exhorts preachers strongly. And it is a text that draws out the emotions, especially of older men who have been faithful to preach. The sufferings of Paul often remind men who have gone through much of their life and suffered for the sake of the gospel of their own experiences, but they are also often inspired by Paul's.

Faithfulness.

The Lord has given us this text, and it is a profitable text, as all of his words are. But you will find that when you hear old preachers preach on 2 Timothy, you find that it seems to be a book that reveals well their own hearts.

I'd like to start walking you through the text, and I think my son Ethan printed out for you all an outline of the book from Pastor Kaiser. You all have that? So he argues that it is a chiasm, as the other letter to Timothy is, this idea that you have repeating sections, right?

So we look at the very beginning of the book, and we have a greeting, and we have a benediction, as Paul is wont to do. It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. So Paul is the one who's writing, and he is an apostle, right?

And he has an office as a messenger. He is a sent one. He has been sent by Christ Jesus. Now when we talk about this name Christ Jesus, putting Christ first is sort of like saying, we often feel like the word Christ almost feels like a last name to Jesus.

Like Jesus Christ, you know, of the Christ family. And that's not the case, right? The word Christ is a title. And so when we see Jesus Christ, it's sort of like Jesus the Christ. It'd be sort of like referring to a particular king.

You might say, like in England right now, you might say Charles the King, as opposed to King Charles. And so when we see Christ Jesus, it's sort of like seeing it written out as King Jesus. It reminds us of His glorious filling of office.

And it's not just one office. What does Christ mean? Christ means anointed. It is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. An anointed one. What is anointing about? Anointing with oil is a symbol of strength.

And the putting of oil on somebody as they enter office is about the idea of blessing from God for them to fill the office, to have the strength to rule. And Christ was anointed not just as a prophet above all prophets, and not just as a priest above all priests, but as a king above all kings.

No one of them, not just one of those, all of them. So when you see Christ, you need to remember what we're saying here is Paul, an apostle of the prophet above all prophets, of the priest above all priests, and of the king above all kings, Jesus.

And His name, that name above all names, means Yahweh is salvation. Christ, Yahweh is salvation. Paul in prison, in chains, the apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. By God's will, brought Paul to that office, a herald of the king of kings, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.

And so here he's pointing to this fact that there is a promise of life, a gospel promise that's in Christ Jesus. That little phrase is so theologically rich. Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.

How is there a promise of life in Christ Jesus? Well, Christ Jesus is the mind that is eternal. He is the logos. The promise there is in Him. He has, from eternity past, had the gospel in His mind, that He has brought it forth.

But also everyone, everyone who is saved by Christ is saved because they're united to.

Him.

In covenant, they are in Christ.

In Him.

So there's a promise of life for those who are in Christ, who are united to Him, represented by Him, covered by His righteousness. This promise of life is in Christ Jesus in that the promise is for those who have faith in Christ Jesus, a promise that is a gift, a promise of life, that when believed, itself is life.

And that life, the knowledge of God, is a gift. This letter is to Timothy, a beloved son. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. The Apostle Paul, having worked long, has had many that he has taught, many he has evangelized to, and many that had once professed the faith under his preaching had abandoned the faith and abandoned him.

Many whom he had nurtured and nourished and watered in their faith, they betrayed him and abandoned him at his hour of need. And to Timothy, he writes and calls him a beloved son, and he pronounces on him a benediction, calling for the grace of God, salvation, sanctification, mercy, remove the various curses of this life and peace.

We think of the peace that is psychological, we think of peace with God, we think of peace in the removing of strife, all of these blessings called upon Timothy as things to come from God the Father through the mediation of Christ Jesus our Lord.

We think of these verses, these introductory verses, and we're so tempted to deal with them as throwaway lines and to move on and to get to the real substance of the letter. Blessings from superiors are real substance, greetings are things that make life beautiful, and titles of endearment help to build lasting and strong relationships, to acknowledge relationships of care, and the distinguishing between persons and relationships.

We should not overlook this great example of our Father in the faith, these words that were breathed out from the mouth of God through his servant, the Apostle Paul. Verse 3, I thank God, the man is in a cold prison, and he starts out his letter with, I thank God, I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

Paul points to forebearers in the faith from his own line and from the line of Timothy. You know, there's this sad discontinuity that many Christians in our time have between the Old Covenant Church and the New Covenant Church.

Rather than seeing the Old Covenant Church as this continuous connection into the New Covenant Church with a change of administration and an expansion out to all the nations, to see them as totally broken apart, but what we find is the Apostle Paul talks about his Jewish forefathers, they were pre -Christ Christians.

They believed the promise of the Messiah to come. They believed in the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent, yet to be revealed, yet to appear, but they believed in him. The Apostle Paul, in hardness of heart, when Christ came, he rejected him, persecuted Christians.

And then the Lord Jesus Christ, in his glory, appeared to Paul, brought him to his knees and made him blind while also giving him the ability to see spiritually, and then restored his physical sight. And he recalls that his forefathers remembered the Christ to come, looked forward to the Christ to come, and they believed and served God with a pure conscience.

And Paul was brought to believe the gospel after Christ had appeared. And Paul thanks God, whom he serves with a pure conscience, as without ceasing he remembers Timothy and his prayers night and day.

This without ceasing, I want you to remember, we think of without ceasing, we think continuous, we think like Paul woke up, 5 .54 a .m., starts praying for Timothy, eating breakfast, still praying for Timothy, guards come in for the daily beating, still praying for Timothy, lunch, still praying for Timothy, right, falls asleep, still praying for Timothy as he goes out of consciousness.

That is not the idea. The idea is not that there's a continuous praying, literally, every moment of the day for Timothy. The idea is that without breaking, he has morning worship and evening worship, because this is what was talked about with the sacrifices in the old covenant, the idea that there was without ceasing to be the offering of sacrifices, morning and evening.

And so the idea is in his set times of prayer, morning and evening, he always prayed for.

Timothy.

Every morning, he remembered Timothy and prayed for him. Every night, he remembered Timothy and he prayed for him. The kind of love that that takes. There are many people that I pray for pretty frequently.

There are very few people that I pray for every morning and every evening, and Paul prayed for Timothy every morning and every evening. He greatly desired to see Timothy, being mindful of Timothy's tears.

And part of Timothy's tears would be over difficulties, to be sure, but also to hear about Paul's suffering. Paul prays for Timothy and he gives thanks to God and is filled with joy when he calls to remembrance the genuine faith that's in Timothy.

And Paul has seen so many hypocrites, been betrayed by so many hypocrites. The genuineness, the unhypocritical nature of his profession of faith was to Paul precious. To have a fellow worker that wasn't just using his place or using the station for his own comfort or benefit, and didn't just run away, but continued to work, continued to fight, even when things got very hard.

When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. Commentators make much of the fact that the grandmother and the mother are mentioned.

It seems to possibly be a case where there was a Jewish mother, Jewish grandmother, who were married to unbelieving men. And God, in His mercy, like with Augustine, caused a son to be raised up in faith there.

Women, your care for children, your raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord is the handling of immortal souls. The impact you can have on the raising of a child, the care as you speak words.

You can speak words of life, you can speak words of death. You can discipline and encourage to godliness, or you can encourage to wickedness, to selfishness. The power of mothers and grandmothers to influence children and to influence other women and to see a culture passed on, to make a home beautiful and joyous or miserable and ugly.

Women hold a great power. Men have the duty of carving out space in the world. They have a duty to provide a frame and structure and covering and protection. They must go out. They must fight. They must conquer.

They must bring home. And women, that home, that domain with children and with all the things the man brings home, you can take all that that he brings back to you and you can make it beautiful and manage it well and you can work in the lives of those children to do great things.

Or you can squander it. Or you can twist it. Women hold a great power. And one of the reasons the Marxists encouraged feminism so much was to make sure that women would not raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

And to make it so that women would not focus on serving their husbands and would be dissatisfied with the rule of their husbands. But Lois and Eunice raised up Timothy, gave him the word as milk for his soul.

And his faith that was nurtured from his childhood by a godly grandmother and a godly mother made it so that he was a faithful fellow worker to Paul when others ran away. He had cement that had hardened, having long received the word.

And so he was stable as a fellow worker with Paul. So much so that when Paul was abandoned and when Paul is stuck in prison, that he is able to focus on thankfulness because of the genuine faith of Timothy.

Mothers, grandmothers, pour into your children and grandchildren such that they would stand with Paul. Verse 6. And Katie, can you take that timer and set it to the appropriate time for me and start.

It?

Thank you.

Stirring Up the Gift of God and the Spirit of Power

Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. The laying on of hands is used in blessing. The laying on of hands is used in the old Levitical Aaronic priesthood for the laying on of hands for the transference of guilt on sacrifices.

And the laying on of hands is used for the transference of authority in ordination. I assure you the Apostle Paul was not offering Timothy as a sin offering. So we can eliminate the second meaning that's possible here.

So what's left over for us is the discussion about the idea of laying hands on him in blessing and laying hands on in ordination. And here's a secret for you. Laying hands on in ordination is also a blessing.

So I'm going to say what's being focused on here is his call as a church officer and the idea of the laying of hands on him to call blessing but to ordain. And there's gifting that comes there. It's interesting, as Protestants, because we want to make sure to acknowledge the fact that salvation is not worked by the working of the work.

We sometimes make sure to think that no works do anything. I would like to suggest to you that first, salvation is not accomplished by the working.

Of the work.

If you're baptized, it doesn't guarantee your salvation. And if you're ordained, it doesn't guarantee that you're saved either. But I would like to suggest this. At baptism, there is some work of the Holy Spirit, even in unbelievers who are baptized, to give gifting, just like Judas.

The same with ordination, that this work is done by the Holy Spirit there. Remember, Judas had gifts of the Holy Spirit. He prophesied, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many works in your name?

There can be Holy Spirit-empowered works, and you can still go to hell. Justification is by faith alone. Understanding and believing the gospel that Jesus Christ died to pay for your sins and to provide you with a righteousness that's not your own.

Believing that Jesus Christ is your Savior by that work, and believing that Jesus Christ is Lord who has the right to give you commands. You must believe that Jesus is who he is, and that he's done what he said he's done.

But there is work of the Holy Spirit that accompanies these outward ordinances. And when the Apostle Paul ordained Timothy and called for the blessing of God upon him, there was a gifting that occurred.

And so Paul is telling Timothy to stir up the gift of God which is in him through the laying on of Paul's hands. We're told elsewhere that the presbytery laid hands on him. So Paul was apparently a part of that presbytery.

He was a part of the group of elders that laid hands on Timothy. Verse 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The Apostle Paul is encouraging Timothy to not be timid.

You know, it is possible for men to have great fortitude and endurance and to not retreat but to still be timid. If you fear God and want to do your duty but you feel unskilled, you might say, I'm not retreating.

I will not abandon my post. I don't know what to do. Sometimes men can be courageous in holding the line but be uncertain about what to do.

Next.

And so Timothy, in the midst of the great apostasy where many are falling away and the great tribulation where Nero is starting to persecute alongside with the Jews, persecuting Christians. We have this time of great apostasy and great tribulation and Timothy is holding firm.

But couldn't you understand, even if he's holding firm, that he might be timid and afraid and not know what to do. And so Paul speaks words of life and says, Timothy, I love you. I am grateful for you and I want you to stir up the gifts that have been given to you.

Because you have not been given a spirit of fear, Timothy. You have been given a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind. So think clearly. Seek the good of your neighbors and God and exercise the power, the gifting that's given to you with courage.

These words, coming from an older man at a time when everything's falling apart, would be important words of life. Older men in the congregation, your duty, if you are more stable, if you're more sturdy in the faith, you've seen lots of battle, you've seen lots of people apostatized, you've seen lots of sin, with some people repenting and some not.

New troubles come and you go, I've seen this. I have seen the armies of hell seek to batter against the lines of the troops of the kingdom of heaven and I have seen them break against our lines over and over again.

And every time we come up to their gates, they eventually give way. And every city falls. Don't retreat. It is the job of older men to remind the younger soldiers in the faith, we always win. You remind them of all the victories that have come by the hand of God in your whole life.

And you remind them of your forefathers in the faith who persevered to the end. And you remind them of the six millennia of Christian history that we have. From Adam all the way to now. That every time Christ advances, it is the job of the older Christian man, of the more mature Christian man, to stabilize and steady.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You know, a sound mind is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Everybody is crazy except for Christians. You walk around the world, you talk to people, you know, people are crazy, crazy.

And it didn't just start now. It's not like it started when people didn't know the difference between a boy and a girl. That's just one of the newer forms of crazy. The craziness has been around for a long time.

It becomes more and more mature. Insanity matures, right? Crazy starts out and it doesn't seem that crazy. Well, I don't know. And then over time, the crazy becomes more and more evident, more and more wild.

Our culture has been crazy for a long time. I remember in the 1990s when Democrats basically had the position on abortion that Republicans do now, you know, safe, legal, rare. And this whole idea that, you know, you would care about the character of a person running for office.

And then all of a sudden, with the Bill Clinton sex scandals, everybody going, you know, just because he broke a covenant with his wife, how does that really affect his trustworthiness in public office?

I mean, do you see how they're totally disconnected? In this argument, people said it with a straight face on national television. We should totally trust him, even though his wife can't trust him. The level of crazy, that was pretty crazy.

And the crazy keeps building in the culture. Crazy is a marker of not having faith. Because a sound mind is something that is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Thinking rightly is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And you know, when you look at yourself, when you think back on all the stupid stuff that you've done, each one of us can look back on all the stupid stuff we've done and go, man, that was crazy.

Now, your crazy might be a lot smaller than other people's crazy. But you know, as the Holy Spirit sanctifies you and grows you, that the crazy you used to have was a lot worse than the crazy you have now, because the Holy Spirit is making your mind more and more sound, more and more stable, more and more right in thinking.

The sound mind, the calmness of mind, the clarity of thought that comes as the Holy Spirit matures you across time. These are things that Paul is reminding Timothy of. The love that comes from the Holy Spirit.

And I remember not being as loving as I am today. And I remember having more bitterness, having more selfishness, having more motives that were malicious. I remember these things from decades ago and how different that is.

I remember more recent struggles. I remember those things and the taming of hatred and the flowering of love. The things that I try to do for people now, I feel like me from 20 years ago would have been like, what are you doing?

Why don't you stop that? No, that's, no, you need to do more of those things. Keep that for yourself. The things, the good works that the Holy Spirit causes to flower forth are things that start to become habitual and easy to give and to bless people with compared to where you start when you're not a believer or early on in your Christian walk.

The love that is brought forth. I remember as a child seeing my grandmother deal with people getting very emotional or very angry or very selfish. And her constant calmness, gentleness, generosity, and the way that she could minister to people and take people who were hateful and cause them to break down.

The power of that. And not understanding how she could possibly pull that off. And now decades down the road, looking back at that memory and being grateful for the example, understanding more. The spirit of power.

This ability to be effective, to do things, to get stuff done. The Holy Spirit's giftings and powers to make stuff happen. You know, it's funny, things, as you grow in giftedness and skill, how things that seemed really hard before become just easy.

How competencies grow across time and gifts by use make it so that things that used to be great efforts, now you kind of don't even think about. For those of you who now are habituated to morning and evening worship, do you remember when you first started and how it seemed hard and maybe a little bit crazy that you would start every day with the worship of God and end every day with the worship of God?

And then the Sabbath and the idea of worshiping God in the morning and in the evening with people at church. At church!

Right?

This idea of having to do that twice. These things, at a certain point, it's just because, well, I mean, not doing it would.

Be hard.

There's a power of the Holy Spirit to flower forth in good works and usefulness and gifting. I remember when giving one sermon a week was hard. So the spirit that God has given to us, I say all those things not because I want to boast in power or love or soundness of mind, but because I think you can all relate to that in the growth that you've had in different ways.

That you can see your own growth in gifting. You can see your own growth in ability to love. And you can see your own growth in your ability to have a more stable and sound thinking. And that's what the Holy Spirit does.

And older men and men of station and rank have the duty of reminding those that are of lower rank or station or that are younger than them of all the ways that God has upheld them and supported them and advanced them so that they will hold their post in times of trouble.

So older men, if you are 30 and above, I'm asking you to think of yourself as having the job of helping to stabilize others in their faith and duties. And when you see somebody on the line beginning to tremble and looking like they might bolt, that you slap them on the shoulder and say, not today, brother.

We stay here together. Verse 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling.

Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

For this reason, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day. This call to not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, the Apostle Paul talks about this in Romans as well, to not be, he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, I am not ashamed of the testimony of Christ, he's not ashamed of the truth.

And we should all be able to say that we are not ashamed of the truth. And sometimes, out of fear, or because we don't feel like we're equipped to deal with it, or because of the mockery of the world, we are tempted to shame.

And when we are tempted to be ashamed, again, those who are of higher authority, fathers with your children, mothers with your children, older men and women, remind the younger to not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The world wants to mock us in so many things, and one of the ways for us to be able to deal with that is to mock back to some extent. This idea that people want to go, you know, people running around saying LGBTQ rights and all this, and you're a bigot and all that, I think the best response you could say when somebody's holding up one of those signs or trying to push you on something about that is just say, that's gay, because it is.

And that kind of mockery is the appropriate thing to remind everybody of how ridiculous.

It all is.

The world is insane. They do not have a sound mind. And so this idea that you can remind your brothers to hold their ground, mock the enemy in their foolishness, and remind our brothers to not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.

And here's the thing, sometimes older saints aren't particularly cool. They're not the coolest. And so we're tempted sometimes as they get mocked, as they get marginalized, as they're not the most with it, to be ashamed of the servants of the Lord.

And we should not be ashamed of the servants of the Lord, and we should not be ashamed of their stripes when they suffer for righteousness' sake. So when we see people marginalized, mocked for the sake of the gospel, we should not be ashamed of the gospel, and we should not be ashamed of them, and we should seek to come to their side.

So Paul says, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. Notice Paul is not a sunshine pump.

He's not like, you know, Timothy, it's a little cold here, but at least it's not sweltering. I may be slightly chilly in my cell, and please do bring my cloak, but, you know, it's better than being in Egypt in the summer.

None of that. He just says, I am suffering. I'm suffering. And you should join me in the suffering.

It's worth it.

We can't, we shouldn't be all downer, and we shouldn't express lies like that we're going to lose here, but we also shouldn't deny the reality of the sufferings that we're going to have. It's hard work.

It's going to be hard. There is suffering. There will be suffering. If you desire to do good works, you will be persecuted. If you desire to honor the name of Christ, you will be persecuted. It's worth it.

It's worth it.

Join the saints in that. Join and be a fellow worker in that. Allow the name of Christ to be known over your name. Accept the suffering, knowing that it brings better rewards. Share with me in the suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.