WWUTT 668 By His Own Purpose and Grace?

You have a name that you didn't give yourself, somebody else probably named you, right? Even your last name came from your father or your grandfather and on down the line. So we who are followers of Jesus, we have been given a name when we understand the text.

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Paul’s Greeting and Timothy’s Sincere Faith

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 2 Timothy chapter 1, picking up where we left off yesterday at the end of verse 7. But as we get started with our reading today, I want to go through this entire first chapter.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus 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 dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phagellus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. Whenever a man and a woman get married, it's customary for the wife to take her husband's last name.

So if she was a Jones and he was a Smith, when they get married, she drops the Jones and they become Mr. and Mrs. Smith. And that's traditional. It goes all the way back into Bible times. Even in the Old Testament, we see that when a woman would marry a man, she came under his name.

He would be the head of the household. He was the patriarch. And so everyone in that home would come under his name. Even their children would would bear the name of their father. For example, when Jesus refers to Peter in Matthew, chapter 16, as Simon bar Jonah, that means that he is Simon, son of Jonah.

And we we see that even in the Bible, both Old and New Testament. Somebody would be identified by their father or maybe the town that they came from. So the the man is the head of the household and everyone in that household comes under his name.

The Family Name We Bear in Christ

Well, today it's become popular among feminists to not take their husband's last name. And so if a Jones marries a Smith, she will either keep her last name Jones or she will hyphenate the last name and it will be Smith Jones.

The ironic thing about this is that even though she's trying to claim some kind of individuality and saying, hey, I'm not submitting to some kind of patriarchal system. Her last name still came from somewhere and her last name likely came from her father.

Or if she was born to a single mom who never got married and never took a husband's last name, she would have the last name of her grandfather. It's still some it still goes back to some kind of patriarch over that family.

As much as we want to claim some kind of individuality, our name came from somewhere. You did not give yourself your own name. And so this is what Paul is telling Timothy here in Second Timothy, chapter one in a large bulk of this chapter.

The faith that Timothy has did not come from him. It came first and foremost from God, as he says here in verse nine, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

But even before he gets to that part there in verse nine, he says in verse five, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And now I am sure dwells in you as well.

So there were faithful women who went before you, and because they feared God and believed in Christ, they taught you about the ancient scriptures and you have come to faith because of their faithfulness.

So we so this is the case with the name that you bear on your driver's license or on your birth certificate. It came from somebody else. It did not come from you. The same is the case also with the name we bear in the faith.

As Paul says in Ephesians chapter three, every family on Earth is named by God, the father. And so we spiritually also bear a name that has been given to us, not by our own doing and not by our own will, but by the faithfulness of those who went before us, who heard the gospel and then preached it to us.

And then we believed it. And so Timothy continues with this tradition, this responsibility, this name that we bear over our family, the name of God, our father through the Lord Jesus Christ, by being faithful to the gospel.

That's what Paul is calling Timothy here through this opening section of this passage. Note that after his greeting, Paul says, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience. And then Paul pointing out to Timothy, you also, even though you had a Greek father, you have a sincere faith that has come to you through the faithfulness of the women who raised you.

And so you must fan into flame the gift of God, verse six, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. This is a rich tradition that you have been baptized into as you have come into the family of God.

So fan that flame. May it grow into a raging fire and spread as you preach the gospel faithfully. Therefore, verse eight, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. And when we talk about testimony here, we're talking about something that runs deep.

Not like an not like an individual testimony. I was doing drugs and I was hopping bars until God struck me with a lightning bolt. Now I follow Jesus and that not that kind of testimony. But the testimony of our Lord Christ that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when after Adam and Eve sinned against God and he cursed all of creation, he said to the serpent.

I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And this is the part of scripture. Genesis 315. That is referred to as the proto Evangelion, the very first declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ that a deliverer would come.

And so from there in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 315, all the way up past the cross of Jesus Christ that Paul refers to here manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

This is the testimony that Paul had preached. And he is now telling Timothy to guard as a good deposit entrusted to him. Hold fast to the sound doctrine. Remember the words that Paul wrote to Timothy before?

Don't teach anything else and don't let anyone teach anything but that which flows from the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. We continue this tradition of this testimony. You must hold fast to this.

It is true. It is established. It is the only thing with the power to save a life from hell and grant them immortality. There is no such thing as new thought. There are only old heresies that are repackaged with shiny bows.

We must hold true to the tradition that has that had first been laid down by God in the Garden of Eden and then revealed to his prophets and apostles from there on out. In Romans chapter 15 verse 4, Paul wrote the following.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. We have this only in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The testimony that Timothy has been entrusted with teaching. So once again, verse 8, 2nd Timothy 1 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. So we continue with that that vein of tradition, right?

Well, Paul is part of that tradition now as an apostle appointed by Christ to take the gospel to the nations, which he has done and has suffered greatly for doing so. If you are ashamed of Paul, you are ashamed of the words of Christ.

So do not forget even I and what I have done for the gospel in obedience to our Lord Christ. Do not be ashamed of this testimony, nor of me, his prisoner. For Christ even identifies with his own. In Matthew chapter 25, he said that which you do to the least of these brothers of mine, you have done also to me.

And when one neglects or persecutes another Christian, it is the same as if they were neglecting or persecuting Christ himself. Remember what Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus when he first appeared to him.

He said, Saul, Saul, because that was Paul's Hebrew name. His Greek name is Paul. Hebrew name was Saul. So Jesus appeared to him and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Well, we might look at that and say, well, Paul was on his way to Damascus to round up Christians.

He couldn't persecute Christ. Christ was seated at the right hand of the throne of God. But this is how closely Christ identifies himself with his own followers. What you do to one of Christ's followers is what you do unto him.

Which is why it is so important that as as brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are showing kindness to one another, for it is the same as if we were showing kindness to our Lord Christ. Remember what John wrote in his first epistle, that if you do not love your brother whom you see, then you cannot love God whom you do not see.

Jesus said to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey what it is that I command you. And this is how we show love to our Lord Christ by doing what it is that he told us to do. And a new commandment I give you, he said to his disciples, that you love one another.

And so it's out of Timothy's love and affection for Paul that he would even be obedient to this calling of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. It is going to be the power of God within you that will give you the courage to preach the gospel even in the face of such great danger and persecution.

As Timothy knew that Paul was undergoing at that time, at the time that Paul wrote him this letter, he was in prison in Rome. This would have been Paul's second imprisonment, not his first. So we have in the epistles what are referred to as the prison letters, which is Philippians, Ephesians and Colossians.

That's not the right order. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and also Philemon. For those letters Paul wrote while he was in prison in Rome, that was his first imprisonment. And he said to the Philippians, I am confident that I'm going to be let go so that I can come and see you again.

The spirit is going to deliver me to you. When Paul got out of prison, church tradition holds that Paul made it to Spain and preached the gospel there. And then as he was coming back east again was when he got arrested and was put in prison in Rome.

Yet a second time, this time to await his death under the persecution of Nero. So Paul knows that his hour has grown short. He has fought the good fight. He has been obedient to the Lord Christ. And now triumphantly, he is going to meet his end and be with Christ in glory.

So he says to Timothy to share in this suffering for the gospel by the power of God. It was by the power of the spirit of God that was within Paul that he was able to do the things that he did and endured the things that he did.

So that same name is upon you. We all bear this name of Christ sealed in the Holy Spirit by the power and will of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus.

This is one of Paul's patented run on sentences that we have here, starting in verse eight and I think goes all the way through verse 12, which Paul had a very similar run on sentence with the Ephesians.

And he said very similar things. And so I think it's likely that Paul is reminding Timothy here of things that that Paul had already said to Ephesus and that letter would have been there in that church.

So he's applying these things to Timothy that he has already written. Here's what we see in Ephesians one, starting in verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

So, again, as Paul is talking about being called to a holy calling by his own purpose and grace in love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved in him.

We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Sounds pretty similar to what we're reading here at the start of Second Timothy, isn't it? And there, Paul to the Ephesians saying, we have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ. We bear his name.

And later on in Ephesians three, as I mentioned, saying that it is by the father that we, as the family of God, have been named. We are under the headship of the father through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore, Timothy is being reminded of whose name he bears, who he represents in this faith that he has, which did not come from him. This isn't an individual faith. We have it because of our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so all who then come to the faith have been purposed by God to receive it. God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace. Now, I think there probably is a double meaning here when Paul says that God saved us and called us to a holy calling.

Paul and Timothy have different responsibilities than most Christians have. Paul, especially as an apostle, which he refers to as he refers to the Romans as having a particular kind of grace that has been given to him.

Instead of once being a persecutor of Christians for which he deserves death and destruction, God showed him grace to make him an apostle, which is a kind of grace that not everybody receives, only the apostles of God.

Likewise, Timothy has been called to be a teacher, which Paul appointed for him to do there in Ephesus. So he's been called by this holy calling, Christ who called Paul to be an apostle, called Timothy to be a minister there in Ephesus, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace.

So I think that's one application of that. Another application is the way that it applies to us all, that we have all been called to walk in holiness and godliness, all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. As we represent the name of God, may we live as worthy sons and daughters of God. And I want to close with this at the end of Titus chapter two, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope.

The appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

Let us pray that together. God, I pray that you would teach us and train us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, that we would live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

As Paul said to the Philippians in Philippians 2 .14, shining as stars in the universe in a crooked and twisted generation. As we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and make us a people for his own possession.

May we be zealous for the works of God and do what our heavenly Father has called us as his children to do in his name. And it's in the name of Christ that we pray. Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.