Strengthened by Grace

remain standing for a moment longer and open up now your scriptures to 2nd

Timothy chapter 1. Just so you know, in this chapter there's one place where the majority text differs from the what's called 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 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 just wanted to make you aware of it ahead of time. Obviously I'll be reading from the majority text.

Now, 2nd 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 for jealous and homogenies the

Lord grant mercy to the household of Vanessa for us 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 you may be seated the book of 1st

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 2nd Timothy is written somewhere between a little bit less than a year up to three years after the writing of 1st

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 we praise 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 is previously excommunicated at Paul's behest and we find that Anesophorus 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 Anesophorus that he would be victorious in the day of his trials 2nd

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're 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 you when you hear old preachers preach on 2nd

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

I think my son Ethan printed out for you all an outline of the book from Pastor Kaiser you all have that so he said 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 want to do says

Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus so Paul is the one who's writing and and he is an apostle right 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 like a last name to Jesus like Jesus Christ you know of the

Christ family and that's not the case right the tight the word Christ is a title 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 any it's not just one office what does

Christ mean Christ means anointed it is the Greek word for the Hebrew word

Messiah 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 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'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 and that the promises for those who have faith in Christ Jesus a promise that is a gift 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 is 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 and 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 for 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 and the removing of strife all 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 these introductory verses and we're so tempted to deal with them as throwaway lines to move on 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 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 forbearers 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 rather than seeing the

Old Covenant Church as this continuous connection into the

New Covenant Church with a change of administration and expansion out to all the nations to see them is totally broken apart but what we find is the

Apostle Paul talks about his Jewish forefathers and what were 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 he looked forward to the Christ to come and they believed he 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 in a pure conscience as without ceasing he remembers

Timothy in his prayers night and day it's without ceasing I want you to remember we think of without ceasing we think continuous we think like Paul woke up 554 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's 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 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 a 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

I 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 the faith there women your care for children you're 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 and 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 that 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 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 he's 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 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 it'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 gonna say what's being focused on here is his call as a church officer and the idea 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 and there's work is done by the

Holy Spirit there remember Judas had gifts of the Holy Spirit he prophesied

Lord Lord did 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 the 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 at 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 for seven 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 and holding the line but be uncertain about what to do next and so Timothy in the midst of the great apostasy 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 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've been given a spirit of power and love and 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 apostasize 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 in steady for God has not given us a spirit of fear but a power and of love and of a sound mind you know sound mind it's one of the gifts of the

Holy Spirit everybody's crazy except for Christians you walk around the world you talk to people you know people are crazy crazy it didn't just start now it's not it's not like it started when people didn't know the difference between a boy and a girl right 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 the 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 and 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 you're crazy be a lot smaller than other people's crazy but you know as the

Holy Spirit sanctifies you and grows you at 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 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 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 aren't you stop that nose that's no you need to do more of those things keep that for yourself the things the good works of the

Holy Spirit causes to flower forth are things that 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 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 like 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 might but used to be great efforts now you kind of don't even think about for those of you who now or habituated to morning and evening worship do you remember when you first started and how it seemed hard maybe a little bit crazy you would start every day with the worship of God and every day with the worship of God and the

Sabbath and the idea of worshipping God in the morning in the evening with people at church at church this idea of having to do that twice these things at a certain point it 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 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 that's what the

Holy Spirit does and older men and men of station and rank and the duty of reminding those that are of lower rank or station or they're 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 then 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 because I'm not ashamed of the gospel and 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 people want to go you know people run around saying your

LGBTQ rights and all this and you know 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 as you 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 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 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 it 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 but share with me in the suffering for the gospel according to the power of God right the the power of God gives you strength to undergo suffering it gives you endurance fortitude power to be able to do it verse 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling but God saves he sovereignly saves he saves his

Saints he does it by calling that there's two main ways we talk about calling in the scriptures one is the external call the word comes it pounds the ears where you look at a page and the light pounds your eyes that's an external call but there's an effectual call that is the work of the

Holy Spirit inwardly to cause you to understand and to believe and the

God of the scriptures is powerful to save and powerful to call and this calling is not a calling based upon your works he doesn't look down the corridors of time and say that one's good enough

I will call him no he predestines you to faith by giving you that calling and he causes your good works as a fruit of his spirit this calling is not a calling is based upon works the salvation is not a salvation is according to our works what is it according to its according to his own purpose it's according to his own grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began this salvation was given to us before time began this calling was predestined for us before time began it is according to his own purpose that he might display his own glory it's according to his own grace that the objects of his love in Christ by the merits of Christ not their own merits the merits of Christ that they would be saved that they would be brought to faith 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 this salvation and calling have been revealed by the appearing of our

Savior Jesus Christ when Christ came into the world at his first advent when the incarnation occurred our salvation was put on display our calling was put on display the purpose of God was put on display the grace of God was put on display the

Lord Jesus Christ eternal God and true man kept the law perfectly and died the curse death of the cross to pay for the sins of God's people that appearing of our

Savior Jesus Christ when he died for us he abolished death he was raised again he really and truly in time and history was raised from the dead his body separated from his soul for three days was reunited to his soul and he rose again he has ascended he sits now at the right hand of God the

Father and he has sent forth his Holy Spirit to empower his church and by his church his body he is conquering the world

Christ abolished death and he brought life and immortality to light for the gospel we know that our death is no longer a thing with a sting because Christ has taken away the sting of death and we know that we have life everlasting and a life everlasting that is in joy and peace because of the light of the gospel and we have life in our souls already and we look forward to the life of the resurrection to come verse 11 to which

I was appointed a preacher an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles like Christ Christ appointed

Paul to preach this gospel to be a messenger of this gospel to teach this gospel to the

Gentiles and we see Gentiles and we read not Jew and that's that's right that's right but the word means nations there's the nation the

Jews which the gospel was brought to and there were 12 apostles for the Jews and Paul was one of the 70 apostles to go out to the 70 nations and he's made an apostle a preacher and a teacher of the nations here he is in prison in the great capital of the nations capital of the

Empire that has conquered the nations and you may remember back in Daniel this story of the four empires an empire of gold silver bronze and then of iron this is the

Empire of iron Babylon replaced by Persia replaced by Greece replaced by Rome and do you remember what happens this iron

Empire rock comes and shatters it and then the rock starts growing until it fills the earth and that Empire is the

Empire of Christ and so the Apostle Paul is there in the capital of this

Empire and he's in the middle of shattering it in prison in chains shivering for this reason

I also suffer these things nevertheless I am

NOT ashamed for I know whom I have believed that's right the

Christ Jesus you remember that from verse 1 prophet of prophets priests of priests king of kings do you have any idea how much

Nero is going to freak out when he is judged for killing an emissary of the

King of Kings he thinks is real great stuff killing

Paul on the Day of Judgment when the King of Kings is judging Nero he will not think he's such great stuff 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 what did the

Apostle Paul commit to Christ in whom he believed every day every day the

Apostle Paul prayed for and thanked God for Timothy he thanks God for the

Saints that he has ministered to and he's about to die and he's sitting there in prison and he's thinking

I'm going to die but the church will thrive and when

I'm gone Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father will still reign