Paul's Charge to Timothy - Part 4

 Part 4 of a 6 part eries: Click here for part 3 or here to go to the start

During the last three posts ,we looked at the three facets of preaching that Paul gave to Timothy.  - Exhort, Reprove and Rebuke.    We saw that we Christians love the exhort part but we could be accused of seldom reproving and even shun the idea of rebuking.  We looked at how the word rebuke is not to be confused with being judgmental, but that in scripture, judging is discerning.

The words preceding the three facets provides further instruction on this - 'Be Ready, whether convenient or not." We will look at the first part - "Be Ready"

How is Timothy to be ready?

Firstly, Timothy prepared himself with prayer. Paul instructed Timothy this at the start of his first letter following the introduction and greeting.  “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;” (1 Tim 2:1)

Spurgeon says this gem

“Notice, that is was a prayer that came before anything else. It does not say that Nehemiah set a watch [ed: this is a watch as in a guard, not a timepiece] and then prayed, but, ‘…Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch’ (Neh 4:9).  Prayer must always be the fore-horse of the team!  Do whatever else is wise but not until you have prayed!  Send for the physician if you are sick, but first pray.  Take the medicine if you have belief that it will do you good, but first pray. ‘Well, I am going to do so and so,’ says one, ‘and I shall pray a blessing on it afterwards.’  Do not begin it until you have prayed!  Begin, continue and end everything with prayer, but especially begin with prayer.  Some people never begin what they are going to do if they prayed about it first, for they could not ask God’s blessing upon it. Is there anybody here who is going out of this Tabernacle to a place where he should not go?  Will he pray first? He knows he cannot ask a blessing on it and, therefore, he ought not to go there!  Go nowhere where you cannot go after prayer!  This would often be a good guide in your choice of where you should go.  Nehemiah first prayed and then set a watch” (Sermon 2254 (1892))

Several years back when I started my ministry I was reading 1 Peter 3:15.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:(KJV)

The words, “be ready always,” stuck out more than the rest.  I remember asking myself this question (or was it the Holy Spirit prompting?)  “Am I ready?”  At the time I confess that the answer was, 'no.'  I keep asking myself that question, “am I ready.”  The easy answer for most is no, and use that as an excuse for others who can say yes to do the work of spreading the message for Christ.

I have asked myself these questions over a period of time and I want you to ask yourself the same,

• “If someone came up to me and wanted to come to Christ, what would I say?”
• “If I met a person in a desperate situation, what would I say that would lead them to Christ as their only answer?”
• “If I heard a message that seemed to not be based on scripture, what would I say?”
• ‘Am I prepared?”

Rich Vermillion wrote an excellent article on his blog where he outlined a simple test to prove if you are a mature Christian or not.  

One part of that test asks much the same as the questions I posed.  But he added that a person that calls themselves mature in Christ can fire off quotes from scripture on demand to anyone who is seeking salvation – and he means more than John 3:16.  How many Christians can do that?  Sadly not enough. I freely admit that while I can fire off plenty of verses, I am pretty useless at remembering the place where they are. I will usually say, “It says in Philippians that…..”  Fortunately I do carry bible apps on my phone and tablet so can look them up.  Nevertheless it showed me that I have a way to go before declaring myself mature.  How about you?

Paul helped Timothy out here by telling him, “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” (2 Tim 4:13), “ By pointing out such things to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, having nourished yourself on the words of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.” (1 Tim4:6) “Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.” (2 Tim 2:15).  

The King James Version states the last verse this way “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 

I am going to take you on an important tangent for a small time as we examine this more closely.  The last part of that verse is explained in more detail in Hebrews.  "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedgedsword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb 4:12). The overall theme is that the word of God is the ultimate source of discernment (Judging).  We see four facets of us humans here, the body (joint and marrow), the soul (incuding the spirit), the mind (thoughts) and the heart (intents) The four things we are supposed to Love the Lord our God with.  Furthermore, the two sets of soul/spirit and thoughts/intents (or heart/mind) is difficult to rationalise and explain well.  

From personal experience, when I was trying to explain in Bislama what the soul/spirit/mind/heart difference was, it proved a bigger task than what I imagined.  There is a whole series I could write on those four facets but in brief I will say that the pairs are difficult to separate as they are very similar as to appear the same.  The point is that the word of God can make that separation.

Also I want you to consider the fact that Christ himself is seen in John's revelation as having a sharp twoedged sword going forth out of his mouth.  I need not remind you again that, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.  Take a close look at the Hebrews verse again and notice that the word of God is a discerner.  'Discerner' is a noun that represents something that can perceive, detect or distinguish differences.  That implies that it is capable of comprehension meaning the word is alive, does it not? The Apostle Peter agrees (1 Pet 1:23) and the King James translation of Hebrews also agrees. Christ is alive, word of God is alive,   the scriptures tnat we know as the Old and New Testament are also alive.  Christ and the word are inseprarable.  I want to throw out to you this point - The word of God, is the Bible, is Christ, the son of the living God, is God.  To deny gods Word is therefore to deny Christ, deny the Bible and to deny God.  Deny any one and you deny them all.  Devalue any one and you devalue them all.  

IT COMES DOWN TO THIS - ANYONE OR ANY SO CALLED CHURCH OR BELIEF THAT DENIES OR DEVALUES GOD'S WORD, ( That is, Christ and the Bible), DENIES GOD.  So simple!

The more that you study the word, the more you will be able to discern, or judge, what is true an what is false.  We do not judge, but the word of God can.  We are expected to judge according to that word of God.

Now we return to the place where we left the story: So from those three verses which provide instruction to Timothy we can see that in order to proclaim the message that is the Gospel and the message of the word of God, he must devote himself to the study of scripture.  Again I emphasise that Timothy needed to be grounded in the Word of God so much that he had to live and breathe scripture.  He was as Rich Vermillion defines it, a mature Christian.  For Timothy was well prepared to extoll, reprove and rebuke using scripture!

Apollos, “refuted the Jews vigorously in public debate, demonstrating from the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.” (Acts 18:28).  Notice here that Apollos refuted vigorously.  Can you imagine what Apollos would say if the Jews said, “do not judge!”

Now when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul became wholly absorbed with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. (Acts 18:5)

Proverbs tells us, “My child, keep my words and treasure up my commands in your own keeping.” (Prov 7:1)

 While we are in Proverbs, an extension to this verse can be found back in Chapter 2

Prov 2:1-15 (NET)

1.  My child, if you receive my words, and store up my commands within you,

 2.  by making your ear attentive to wisdom, and by turning your heart to understanding,

 3.  indeed, if you call out for discernment – raise your voice for understanding –

 4.  if you seek it like silver, and search for it like hidden treasure,

 5.  then you will understand how to fear the LORD, and you will discover knowledge about God.

 6.  For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

 7.  He stores up effective counsel for the upright, and is like a shield for those who live with integrity,

 8.  to guard the paths of the righteous and to protect the way of his pious ones.

 9.  Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity – every good way.

 10.  For wisdom will enter your heart, and moral knowledge will be attractive to you.

 11.  Discretion will protect you, understanding will guard you,

 12.  to deliver you from the way of the wicked, from those speaking perversity,

 13.  who leave the upright paths to walk on the dark ways,

 14.  who delight in doing evil, they rejoice in perverse evil;

 15.  whose paths are morally crooked, and who are devious in their ways;

Another word from Spurgeon who said,

”The open volume of the Word of God is our open evidence of salvation” (Sermon 2297 (1893)). 

Then Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.” (John 14:23) 

We have covered two important points are important for Timothy to prepare or ‘Be ready” for his mission – prayer and study of scriptures.  There were other preparations but we will leave it for this post at those two.   
I want to tie these in and demonstrate how this does not solely apply to Timothy but to us all.  I take you back to the words of Jesus when he was asked a trap question as to which commandment is the greatest.

 Matt 22:37-40 (KJV)

37.   Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38.  This is the first and great commandment.

 39.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 40.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

In the proof texts above we see that keeping Gods word (obeying His commandments) is paramount to being an effective servant of Christ.  Devotion to the study of the Bible, prayer are two elements that demonstrate that you keep His word.  To keep His word you have to read His word.  To love his Word is to Love Him.

As AW Tozer says

“To love God with all our heart we must first of all will to do so.  We should repent our lack of love and determine from this moment on to make God the object of our devotion.  We should set our affections on things above and aim our hearts toward Christ and heavenly things.  We should read the Scriptures every day and prayerfully obey them, always firmly willing to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourself.” (In Pursuit of God – emphasis mine)

Since we are expected to obey and keep Gods commandments then naturally we are therefore expected to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul and mind. To love God we must love His word, to love God we should pray to Him.  If you are to be useful in spreading the Gospel message and of absolute importance if you are to be in Church leadership with the responsibility that entails, you must be ready.  Can you effectively use scripture to reprove, rebuke or exhort? Paul knew it, Timothy knew it, all the Apostles knew it, Even the Old Testament prophets knew it (but they did not yet know personally the Messiah yet, but they were aware of the Holy Spirit – Spirit of God.) 

Do not read this and think, yeah, well I am not in leadership and I am not likely go out and spread the gospel then, consider this: 

Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15 to be ready to give an answer.  He was addressing who? – He addressed his letter to the “strangers all around Asia Minor”! (1 Pe 1:1).  He was not talking to church leaders, or evangelists and the like.  He was talking to common people spread all over Asia Minor who were, on the road spreading the gospel message.

This is the same as you being a stranger to me wherever you are since I have no idea who you are! .I am a stranger to you too.  Yes you may be a brother or sister to me in Christ but you are still a stranger.   Here in Vanuatu I am adopted into two families.  Family structure here is massive compared with the West.  As such, I have tens or even hundreds of relatives, yet I have no idea who they are!

So, no offense intended when I tell you that I don’t care it you are a bishop, pastor, priest, elder, deacon, evangelist, missionary, organist, flower arranger, church usher, or pew sitter.  You are a stranger in another land, and Peter would have thought the same!    (I am literally a stranger in another land - I am an ex-pat New Zealander living in Vanuatu!) Therefore I implore you to be ready also!  Never did Jesus or an Apostle say that this is exclusive for some.  They never condemned anyone for sharing the true gospel.  To be ready then, you need to have a good grounding in the Word of God and to do that you must incorporate bible study into your life.

The Bereans – Example to us all

A great example of a group that got studied the scriptures daily and use that to discern whether teachers were telling the truth or not were the Jewish believers from Berea. This passage is coming out loud and clear in a tremendous amount of apologetic ministries these days so it is important that you heed the lesson. 

Acts 17:10-12 (NET)

10.  The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea at once, during the night. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

11.  These Jews were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so.

12.  Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men.

One thing that I find interesting here is that the Jews in Berea are compared with those in Thessalonica. Berea is literally just down the road from Thessalonica, Macedonia, which is part of modern day Greece. 

We have looked at two sections from Thessalonians previously when we were investigating the three facets of the use of the message – exhorting, reproofing and rebuking.  It was mentioned that there was considerable conflict between the more Orthodox Jews (I am not sure if they were called that then) and the Christian Jews. Paul and company had a difficult time there.  We don’t need to concern ourselves with that at this time, but I want to focus on the verse 11 as a whole as it applied to the Bereans. But first I want you to not forget the context of this passage.

Another interesting thing to come out of the Thessalonian experience was that Paul and company preached in the synagogue yet there were many prominent Greek men and women that got converted. (Ac 17:4). These Greeks were most likely proselytes converted to Judaism since the Jews accounted for about 20% of Thessalonica at the time of Paul’s visit. However, the result of the Greek converts to Christ made the Jews jealous.  A characteristic of Paul’s ministry was that wherever he went he preached to the Jews first then the Gentiles.  This is an interesting point that Paul raised with the Romans:

I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. Romans 11:11. 

The events in Thessalonica testify to that having resulted.  However, also in Romans, and four verses earlier we read, “ What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened,”

The New English Translation calls the Bereans open-minded.  The King James calls them, “more noble.”  Given the reason for that description, the term open-minded appears more apt.  However note that while both are Jewish groups, it was the Bereans that had the difference in that they, “eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so.”  In many respects that Bereans could be regarded as part of that remnant Jewish group that found the Messiah.  How they found the Messiah was because they eagerly received the message (the Gospel) through careful and daily searching the scriptures.  They did not blindly accept, nor did they throw out Paul’s argument on the basis that it went against their current traditions. 

You can be certain that Paul quoted a tremendous amount of Scripture to them.  We see his knowledge of scripture to be top class.  He was after all a member of the Sanhedrin (or rather was, before he encountered the living Christ)  and therefore by nature of that office, he was well educated in scripture.  The Thessalonian Jews by and large did not examine the Word and see if what Paul was saying was true or not.  They were blinded and prophetically, became jealous when the Greeks accepted their (albeit rejected) Messiah.   The remnant Berean Jews did accept the message and it is my personal opinion that they helped form the modern extreme form of Messianic Jews that adhere to Judaism.

What is most important here that Paul most likely spoke the same message to both groups.  (In fact he probably spread the same message to every group!  There is after all One True Message – The True Gospel of Jesus Christ).  One group believed and the other did not (or only a few did).  The group that believed did so because they studied carefully and daily, the Word of God.  Therein lays a secret that some know but many don’t -  It was the Word of God that led them to salvation, not the eloquent and convincing argument of Paul and company.  That is an important message for everyone who desires to bring people to Christ and it is vital for the Christian believer as well.  You can bring someone to Christ but you cannot save their souls.  Only the Word of God can do that.  Any Christian knows that the bible is the Word of God (or at least they should).  But it takes a careful study of Scripture to reveal that the Word of God is, of course, God’s spoken word.  That word inspired men to write scripture so the bible is the written word of God.  But the Word also came and dwelt amongst us (Jn 1:14) and that Word was with God and the Word was God. (Jn 1:1).  That Word is Jesus Christ.

If you want to know Christ, read the Word of God. If you want to know God, read the Word of God. If you want to keep his commandments, read the Word of God. If you want to know if what I am writing is true or not, or if your pastor's last sermon is true, read the Word of God.  If you want to help someone to come to Christ – read them the Word of God.  The Holy Spirit will convict them through the Word of God, as He did with the Bereans.

 If you need to exhort, reprove, or rebuke – READ THE WORD OF GOD  -but first of all PRAY!

In the next post we will look at not only being ready, but as Paul instructs, be ready whether convenient or not.