My Own Son

I want to read the text. I’m going to actually read three verses, but we’re going to focus on the first two of 1 Timothy 1. It starts with, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,” or as a better translation would have it, Christ Jesus, “by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ,” or Christ our Lord, “which is our hope; 2 Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul says, “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went to Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.”

It’s always a challenge for me to introduce not only the teaching for the night but for the whole book that we’re going to undertake. As we go through the book, we’ll get to know the book, we’ll get more background in the book, we’ll get to know Paul and Timothy, and we’ll understand the book. I want to introduce the book to you tonight, and I also want to look at the opening greeting or salutation, so-called, in verses 1 and 2. I’ve titled the study tonight: My Own Son. Paul used that expression or phrase for Timothy. In the Greek, he’s actually saying, “My genuine child, my authentic child.” He had led Timothy to Christ. Timothy was his son in the faith (not his biological son but his spiritual son) as Timothy came to know Christ through Paul’s ministry.

This book of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus have been very near and dear to my heart for many years. There’s a couple of reasons why. The main reason, first of all, is that they are known as pastoral epistles. In other words, Paul is writing to Timothy who was a pastor, and he’s writing to Titus, who was a pastor, and he’s writing not only about their ministry but about the church that they pastored and how it ought to be organized, arranged, and what it ought to be. I’ve been a pastor now for over 45 years, and I started pastoring when I was very young. I was actually in my early 20s, and I was a pastor. I got married at 25. I was actually a pastor for five years before I was even married. Paul was writing to Timothy, who was very young. He actually says in this book, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers,” and as a young pastor that meant a lot to me and encouraged me.

I also learned (and we’re going to learn in this book) that Timothy was naturally kind of shy. He wasn’t very forward. He was kind of withdrawn. He was a shy person, and I can relate to that. I, in the early years, struggled with getting up in front of people, talking and preaching publicly. It was a challenge for me. The first few times I ever preached I physically got sick, and it took me a day to recover. I still get kind of wound up, my blood pressure skyrockets, and all kinds of things. After all these years, the adrenaline still starts to pump. Timothy was also a man who was physically suffering, and Paul wants to encourage him to stand by the charge to preach the Word, to combat false doctrine, to organize the church, and to set things in order. We’re going to look at the key text of that in just a moment. This book of Timothy…and it comes chronologically in this order: 1 Timothy, then Titus, and then 2 Timothy, are three of perhaps the last letters that Paul ever wrote. Second Timothy is indeed the last letter that Paul ever penned.

Turn to 2 Timothy for just a moment. I couldn’t resist because it’s going to take us many, many weeks before we get there, but I’ll share with you what I’ve adapted as my life verse from 2 Timothy 4:1-5. This is why this book is so near and dear to my heart. Paul says, “I charge thee,” now that “charge” expression is a military concept—I’m giving you a solemn order. It was also used for an order of a king to his subjects, so it’s a very solemn charge. “…therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick,” living, “and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom,” here it is, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine,” or teaching. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Paul says to Timothy in verse 5, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry,” or fulfill your ministry. The charge that Paul is saying to Timothy (and this is the text that my recent little book, The Charge, was based on) is basically a charge to do one thing, to preach the Word—not to preach about the Word, not preach from the Word, but preach the Word which means that you do exposition of the text—you read the text, explain the text, you apply the text, and you do it in its historical, grammatical and theological context. You don’t just take a verse and impose your idea on that verse or give a little pep talk and throw verses into it to make it sound like a sermon; but you actually take a text, read it, explain it, and apply it in its historical, grammatical, theological context. That’s what it means to preach the Word. What is happening is there’s a drift today, as Paul said in the last days that men will not endure sound doctrine, there’s a drift away from this kind of expositional preaching and teaching. I believe that as Christians we need to know the Bible so that we can live the Bible for the glory of God, so this has been a life passage for me that kind of sets the direction for me as a pastor—who am I? What do I do? What am I supposed to do as a pastor of a church? Go back with me to 1 Timothy 1.

The place of these epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus in the New Testament…when I start a new book, I like to set the context of that book. Whenever you’re studying the Bible, (let me give you a little tip here) ask yourself, “What kind of book or what type of literature am I in?” Scholars might use the word “genre.” In the New Testament you have three different kinds of literature—history, didactic (doctrinal teaching, which are the epistles), and prophecy (the book of Revelation). You have history, then doctrine, that is, the epistles, and then the prophetic book of the Bible, Revelation.

I wanted to give you the four categories that you can break down the New Testament. There are different ways to break this down, but I wanted to place the pastoral’s in their proper category. First, there are the historical books of the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. We just finished Acts on Wednesday night. Secondly, you have what’s called the Pauline epistles or the letters written by Paul. That’s another category which includes Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1-2 Thessalonians. They also include the pastoral epistles, 1-2 Timothy and Titus. They are found in that category known as the Pauline epistles, so they are doctrinal.

The third category is that of the non-Pauline epistles. You have all these letters that are doctrinal that weren’t written by Paul. They would be Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude. By the way, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon are the only books of the New Testament that Paul wrote to an individual. The other books were written to a church, so he’s writing to individuals in those pastoral epistles as well as the book of Philemon. The fourth category is, very simply, the book of Revelation. It’s a prophetic book. As I said earlier, you can have the history, the doctrine or the epistles (Pauline and non-Pauline, called the general epistles), and then you have prophecy. There’s only one book of prophecy in the New Testament, that is, the book of Revelation, which we are all so familiar with.

The time that Paul wrote is very interesting. We ended the book of Acts with Paul in Rome in prison, right? Paul was under house arrest. He had rented his own house. He was receiving people, preaching the gospel. This is the way it kind of goes (without getting bogged down in too much detail). Paul was evidently released from prison. He was found innocent and released. He traveled for a short period of time. It was after this release that he actually went to Macedonia and then to Ephesus. He left Timothy there. Timothy was with Paul when he was in prison, and Timothy (we’re going to be introduced to him in just a moment from the text) was a traveling companion of Paul. He was with Paul when he was in prison. They left Rome and went to Macedonia. They sailed across the Aegean Sea to the continent of Asia, went to Ephesus (and we have a letter of Paul to the Ephesians), and then Paul left Timothy in Ephesus. When you’re reading the book of Ephesians, you gotta remember that Timothy was a pastor there for some time. When Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, he is in the big city of Ephesus. They worshipped the Greek goddess, Diana. It was a very, very large, very wicked place, and very difficult to do ministry. It was on one of the main thoroughfares from the east to the west, and Paul left him there.

The chronology is that Paul then was arrested a second time. This time he was arrested not because of religious reasons brought on by the Jews in Jerusalem, but by the very Roman government. They were accusing him of being an insurrectionist, so he was brought to Rome, not in his own hired house but actually put into a dungeon or prison. It’s known as the Mamertine Prison. It was just a real pit that he was put in. It was there in these last days of Paul when he was in prison that he asked Timothy to come and visit with him, to help him, and to bring the coat and the parchments that he left behind. He wrote 2 Timothy during this time. When I read those words, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine,” he’s telling him to preach the Word, how to preach the Word, and why to preach the Word because men will not endure sound doctrine. Those were the very last words Paul ever penned. The thing that was uppermost on Paul’s heart, and mine, was “Timothy, preach the Word.”

The word is kerysso. It means to herald or to proclaim with authority and gravity—“Preach the word.” Paul was re-arrested. He was in the dungeon in Mamertine Prison and wrote to Timothy, but this time he was tried before Nero and found guilty. He was taken outside Rome. His head was placed on a chopping block, and they severed his head from his body. The great Paul the Apostle who said in 2 Timothy 4, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” The moment Paul’s head was severed from his body, he was in the presence of the Lord wearing a crown. Amen? What a glorious prospect that is. What a glorious prospect! So, we need to do the same. When the battle is over, we shall wear a crown. We’re going to wear a crown in that New Jerusalem, so we need to labor until the Lord takes us home.

The epistle of 1 Timothy was written about 62 or 63 A.D. We can spend a lot of time on its purpose (and I don’t want to get bogged down with you), but I want to show you what is considered to be the key text to explaining why Paul wrote 1 Timothy. It’s in 1 Timothy 3:14-15. Turn there with me in your Bible. “These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly,” so, “I’m writing for this reason, and I want to come see you shortly,” here it is, verse 15, “But if I tarry long,” if I don’t get there for a while, “that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God.” That word “house of God” is actually the family of God or the household of God. The word “household of God” conveys the idea of the church being the family of God and it is. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and God is our Father in heaven. Amen? So, we’re the family of God, and he wanted Timothy to know how to live and behave in the family of God. So many churches are struggling today with: Why do we exist? What do we do? Why are we here? Then he explains what the church is in verse 15, “…which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.” It’s the church of the living God, and it’s the foundation and the pillar and ground of truth. Simply stated there, Paul is telling Timothy, “I’m writing this letter so that you can know how to behave in God’s family, how to live in God’s family, how to get along in the church.”

I want you to turn also to 1 Timothy 4:12 for just a moment. This is where Paul says to Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth,” it’s believed that Timothy was somewhere in his mid-thirties, maybe forties. I used to chuckle if Timothy was 40 and Paul was calling him a youth. That’s pretty interesting. He says, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation,” that is, what you say, how you live, and how you love, “in charity, in spirit,” that’s your zeal, “in faith, in purity.” He gives him the categories of where he’s supposed to be an example. Then, he says this (verse 13), “Till I come,” this is what you’re to do as a pastor in the church. You’re to, “give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery,” of the leadership. “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting,” your advancing, “may appear to all. 16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” Again, we’re going to get to these verses in a few weeks, so I don’t want to take too much time with them, but Timothy was young. Timothy is also timid. He says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear,” or timidity, “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Paul tells Timothy to do three things (verse 13). He tells him to read, to exhort (apply), and to teach the Scriptures. It would come actually in this order: you read the text, explain the text (doctrine), and apply the text (exhortation). That is a prescription for what a pastor is supposed to do. A pastor should read the Bible. It’s funny. Some people go to church and don’t take Bibles, or they go to church and don’t read from the Bible. The church becomes a social club. If we don’t get into God’s Word, why are we here? So, you read the text, teach the text (explain it), and then apply it (exhortation). Then, he says, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine,” so two areas, take heed to your own personal life, your own character, and to your creed—how you behave and what you believe. Let me say it like this: How you behave is based on what you believe. What you believe will determine how you behave, so doctrine is important. Everyone has some doctrine, which just means teaching. How you believe will determine how you behave. We all know pastors that’ve made shipwreck or have crashed and burned, have fallen from the faith, or they have had moral failure. So, he says, “Timothy, it’s so important that you take heed to yourself and to your doctrine because if you do that, you’re not only going to save yourself, but you’re going to save those that hear you.”

I was going to outline the whole book, but we won’t do that. I want to go back to chapter 1, verse 1, and look at three things in what’s called the salutation or the greeting. I want to look at the writer (verse 1), the reader (verse 2), and then the greeting (end of verse 2). Go back with me to verse 1. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,” the words “which is” are italicized so, “our hope; 2 Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith,” or my own son in faith, “Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.”

It starts with Paul in verse 1. That is the human author or writer of the epistle. If you read a commentary, it’s funny to me, they’ll spend pages talking about whether Paul wrote Timothy or not. It’s kind of silly to me, his name is right here! Certainly Paul wrote it. Some say, “Well, it was a forgery. Someone else wrote it down,” and they have all these arguments that they go into. I’m not going to bore you with them tonight, but for many, many, many years the church has accepted and believed for a lot of good evidence and reasons that this is Pauline, that it’s an authentic epistle of Paul the Apostle.

Now, we know Paul very, very, very well. He was first known as Saul of Tarsus. The name Saul was probably given to him at his birth after the first king of Israel. The name literally means, asked for or asked of. He was probably named after the first king of Israel, King Saul. He was raised in a Jewish home and was a Jew, but his father had Roman citizenship. He was suited quite perfectly to do the ministry that he did because not only was he Jewish but he had a Roman citizenship and was born and raised in the city of Tarsus. As a young man he was sent by his parents to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of Gamaliel the noted Rabbi. It’s believed that he became a Pharisee. He became a great scholar, and you can read in Philippians 3 about his religious pedigree according to the flesh before his conversion. He was “…a Hebrew of Hebrews…a Pharisee…touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Circumcised the eighth day,” I mean, he just had everything going for him, and he was persecuting Christians.

We were introduced to Saul in the book of Acts. Remember in chapter 9, he got papers of authority to go from Jerusalem to Damascus (which is in Syria) to find Christians, have them arrested, bring them back to Jerusalem, and throw them in prison. On his way to Damascus, what happened to Saul of Tarsus? (Nobody wants to venture? You’re like, “You’re the preacher, you tell us,” right?) Acts 9, Saul of Tarsus, Damascus Road? He got saved, right? It’s almost proverbial for a radical conversion today. We use the expression, Damascus Road experience, and in the noontime it was bright and sunny, but the light of God’s glory shone round about him and he was forced down to the earth. An audible voice came down from heaven. It was Jesus Himself. He said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Saul asked the Lord back, trembling, and says, “Who art thou, Lord, that I might serve You.” The Lord said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,” and he probably thought, I am dead meat right now! I am history! But he got up. He was blinded by the experience and was led by the hand to the city of Damascus. God spoke to Ananias and sent him to lay hands on him, “Brother Saul, the Lord sent me to lay hands on you that you might receive your sight, receive the Holy Spirit, and be saved,” and he was converted. Whether he was converted on the road, I believe he was converted on the road, but he received the Holy Spirit and was filled there in Damascus, and his eyes were opened. Then, he began to be taught by the Lord. It’s believed that he went out into Arabia for three years and was taught by the Lord by direct revelation.

We’re going to see in the very next phrase of our verse that it’s Paul the Apostle. There were the 12 apostles, minus Judas, and then Matthias, but then there was a 13th apostle. That 13th apostle was Paul the Apostle. I’ll talk more about apostleship in just a moment. Then, God called him to go to the Gentiles to begin to preach. We got all of this in the book of Acts. You know all about Paul. When Paul was on his first missionary journey, he went to the city of Lystra. There in Lystra was a woman by the name of Eunice and a grandmother by the name of Lois, and she had a little boy named Timothy. His name means one who honors God. They heard Paul preaching and were converted. On his second missionary journey, when he came through, by the way, his first trip in Lystra where Timothy was a small boy, Paul was stoned to death. He probably was in the crowd, saw the apostle stoned, God healed him, and he stood back up and went back into the town to preach. That’s how that man’s life so impressed that young boy, Timothy. On Paul’s second trip back, Timothy joined Paul’s traveling missionary team, and he became a traveling companion of Paul from that day forward.

As Paul began to serve the Lord and go into Gentile territory on his missionary journeys, there’s a point in the book of Acts where his name is switched from Saul to Paul. So, if you’re confused tonight at this point, we’re talking about Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle, and that’s how he uses his name in verse 1. The name Paul is from the latin Paulos which means small or little or short. My middle name is Paul. My grandmother told me when I was very young, she said, “John Paul, you’ve got a good name. Live up to your name.” John Paul, and by the grace of God I hope and pray that I’ve done that. I love Paul, and I love this name Paul. Paul became an apostle to the Gentiles, and many believe that he adopted that name when he was on the island of Cyprus where he stayed at the home of Sergius Paulus. It’s the same name Paul, and he came to Christ. Many believe he was Paul’s first convert on that first missionary journey and that he may have taken the name or, more likely, he was given the name when he was born. Many Jewish boys and girls were given both a Jewish name and a Greek name. He was given the name Saul, which is Hebrew, and Paulus, which is the name that was used for the Greeks. It was a Greek name.

Notice Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ. The word “apostle” means that he is one sent out and commissioned. The word apostle is used here in this case in a very strict sense of one who has seen the risen Saviour. You had to have certain things to qualify as an apostle. In this primary sense, I don’t believe that there are apostles today because they spoke with apostolic authority to write Scriptures, they performed miracles, and they were the foundation of the church. There were the 12 apostles—first disciples then apostles—as they were sent out on the great commission. Then, Judas died and Matthias took his place. Then it says Paul was an apostle that was born out of due time later. An apostle is one that had to have seen and experienced the resurrected Christ. The other apostles saw Jesus. They saw Him risen from the dead. For 40 days He appeared and re-appeared to them, and they saw Him ascend to heaven. Paul wasn’t a part of that original group, so when did Paul see the resurrected Christ? On the road to Damascus. That was his experience. Then, he was directly commissioned by the Lord, and he was able to speak with apostolic authority.

Now, there are people today in the church, and the reason I go into this is because there are people in the church today who claim to be apostles. It’s interesting that the Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, actually teach and believe that they have apostles that are in direct succession from the original apostles—they have their apostles; they believe that they were all handed down directly to the apostles that they have today. Obviously, they hadn’t seen the risen Christ and He hadn’t commissioned them, and they laid the foundation of the church. Now that the foundation of the church has been laid, the Bible says God has given us pastor teachers for the edifying of the saints and for the work of the ministry, and evangelists. So I don’t believe that in this primary sense that there are apostles. If somebody wants to take that title and that claim, go for it if you want, but there are no apostles in this sense.

Since the word is also used as one who is sent out or commissioned on an errand, it’s used in the Bible for those who were apostles of the church. In other words, a church would send Timothy to do a job, to do an errand, to do a ministry, and so he would become an apostle of the church. Paul makes it clear here, he was an apostle of Jesus Christ (or as I’m going to point out in a moment, actually Christ Jesus in the better manuscripts). So, apostle, yes; but not in the primary sense that you have apostolic authority to write Scriptures, to tell people what to do, or to create doctrine. We are to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once," and for all “delivered unto the saints.” Some say missionaries today are modern apostles. They could be thought of in that sense that they’re commissioned by the church to go out on an errand to have a job to do.

The word “apostle” would also today be the concept of an ambassador—one who represents their country with all that power and all that authority of their country behind them. They’re sent as an ambassador or on an errand. I’m a little leery with pastors and church leaders today that put the title “apostle” in front of their name because generally they do that to try to elevate themselves above other pastors or people. They do that to try to claim to have more authority over people. The only authority over you is Christ and the Bible. I’m not the authority over you. Jesus is the pastor of the church. He’s the head of the church, and the authority is the Word of God. It’s not me, and you need to understand that. So, be a little careful when someone says, “I’m apostle of this,” or “I’m Apostle that,” and they speak with apostolic authority. A lot of times they’re not even expounding Scripture, they’re “getting direct revelation from God,” and that’s very dangerous because that has to be kind of checked and aligned with the Word of God.

The writer is Paul the Apostle, and notice about his apostleship, it’s “…of Jesus Christ,” (I’m reading from the King James translation). As I said, I found it interesting that in the majority of manuscripts and in the older manuscripts and some of your modern translations actually reverse the order and have “Christ Jesus.” Now, same names, just reverse the order. It is true that in Pauline epistles, most often Paul used that expression—not Jesus Christ but Christ Jesus. You say, “John, you’re getting really technical tonight.” It’s like, “What did you drink for dinner tonight? What’s got you so hyped up?” Let me just say this about that. It could be, and we don’t know why Paul would reverse that order, but it could be that Paul is intentionally trying to emphasize His deity, His majesty, and His Messiahship.

In the Greek language, whatever word comes first in a sentence is there for emphasis. It could be that he puts Christ before Jesus. Some theorize (and I heard J. Vernon McGee is big on this) that because Paul was an apostle born out of due time later, and didn’t know Jesus in the flesh, that the other apostles usually had Jesus Christ which emphasized His humanity and Christ being His Messiahship, that Paul knew Him only as Messiah, the Lord of Glory, so he focuses more on Christ Jesus. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know this, that Christ or Christos is the equivalent of the Old Testament Messiah, Meshiaak. It means the anointed One. If he started with Christ, he’s actually saying, “He’s the anointed One. He’s the Messiah. He’s the Meshiaak. He’s the anointed One.” Jesus is His earthly name, His name of humility, which by the way is a beautiful name. It means Jehovah saves. In the Old Testament it is Joshua, Jehovah Shua, God saves or God is salvation.

Notice that Paul’s apostleship was “…by the commandment of God,” and then he uses a very cool expression, “our Saviour,” which is pretty rare, “God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ,” or our Lord Christ Jesus, “which is our hope.” So, the writer is an apostle. He’s directly commissioned by our Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn’t self appointed. It was something that God commissioned him. If you’re going to be called to preach the Word, you need to be commissioned to preach the Word. You need to have a call upon your life, and Paul had that sense of that calling.

Now, notice to whom Paul was writing, but before I go into verse 2, I missed it. Notice that He is “God our Saviour,” which looks back to our source of our salvation comes from God our Father—that’s a reference to God the Father—then he mentions our “Lord Jesus Christ,” and then says He’s “our hope.” I love those two expressions. You have “God our Saviour,” which means that He’s the source of our salvation, that He provided Jesus and Jesus is the Redeemer; but then he says Jesus is our hope. In Christianity, a hope is something always that’s sure, stedfast, and real. It’s not kind of you’re crossing your fingers, “Hope it’s going to happen,” but it’s a confident assurance. The two look in two different directions. We look back at God our Saviour who provided redemption in Christ, then we look ahead at Jesus our hope who is coming again to set up His Kingdom and we’ll reign with Him for all eternity—Christ our hope.

We move secondly (and we won’t tarry as long) on the reader or the recipient of the letter. Notice verse 2, “Unto Timothy,” and here’s that statement, “my own son in the faith,” a simple statement writing to Timothy. The name Timothy, sometimes translated Timotheos, literally means one who honors God. We know a lot about Timothy in the Bible. As I said, he had a Christian mother and grandmother. It would seem as though maybe his father was not a Jew, was a Gentile. His mother and grandmother were Jewish, so when he was converted and started to travel with Paul, Paul had him circumcised because they’re going to go into Jewish territory, but he became a traveling companion to Paul.

I want to just give you a couple of references to Timothy. One of them is Philippians 2 where Paul talks about Timothy being like-minded. That word in the Greek means he is of a kindred spirit. He’s got a kindred spirit. “We’re one soul. I have no one like-minded like Timothy.” They were very close with one another. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 1:5-7. I want to show you these verses. We’ll get them in a few weeks. Paul says, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith,” he’s describing Timothy, “the unfeigned,” or genuine, authentic, “faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice,” praise God for Christian grandmothers! If you’re a Christian grandmother, awesome! You have a great responsibility to pray for and seek to influence your grandchildren, and he had a Christian mother. So he says, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith,” genuine faith, “…which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. 6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear,” that word in the Greek is the word timidity, “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Timothy had a timid heart and needed to be encouraged that he shouldn’t be afraid.

Turn to 2 Timothy 3:14. Paul tells Timothy, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them,” he learned them from his mother, his grandmother, and from Paul the Apostle. That phrase is, probably in the context there, referring to Paul’s instruction and teaching in Timothy’s life. But notice verse 15, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,” that is, what is right, “for reproof,” that is, what is wrong,” “for correction,” that is, how to get right, “for instruction in righteousness,” that’s how to stay or live right, “That the man of God,” referring to Timothy, “may be perfect,” or mature, “thoroughly furnished,” or equipped, “unto all good works.” Turn with me back to 1 Timothy 1.

As you go through the pastorals, in 1 and 2 Timothy especially, you’ll find a lot of information about this young man, Timothy. He’s one of my favorite characters in the Bible. He must’ve been an amazing young man used by God even though he was frail, timid, and young. God uses weak instruments. God uses broken instruments. God doesn’t use people that necessarily have great talents and great abilities but people who are available, yielded, faithful, and committed to Him. If you’re here tonight and you think, God is really lucky to have me on His team, I don’t want to watch. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We’re going to get into the section of 1 Timothy where Paul explains who should be selected for spiritual leadership, and it says, “Not a novice,” which is a new convert or newly planted person, “lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.” So, if you think you’re somebody special, you need to be humble and realize that you have to give to God everything that you are. But if you’ll say to God, “Lord, I don’t have anything to offer but just my broken life. I don’t have any great talents or abilities, but You can call me and You can equip me and You can use me. Here I am,” Romans 12, “…present your bodies a living sacrifice,” right? “holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable,” act of worship. I believe that God will take you and He will make you and He will use you, but you need to take heed to yourself and to your doctrine if you’re going to be used by God.

Paul is the writer, Timothy is the recipient or the reader, and then he closes in verse 2 with the greeting. “Grace, mercy, and peace,” and it comes from what source? “God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Most likely, again, it’s in that order—Christ Jesus and Lord. Notice three things: grace, mercy and peace. If you’ve never noticed it, it’s kind of cool that in the opening greetings it’s pretty typical for Paul to start with his apostleship. He did that even though he’s writing to Timothy that he knows so well because he wanted to make sure that Timothy had all that apostolic authority behind him to set things in order in the church. He’s got a lot of things to deal with. One of the things he’s going to be dealing with (you see it there in verse 3) is false teachers. He has to confront, deal with, and rebuke them. He wanted Timothy to know, “I’m writing as an apostle with all apostolic authority. I’m commissioning you. I’m charging you.”

Repeated through this epistle is the word “charge,” and as I said, it’s a military term. It means an order that must be obeyed, that you set things in order and tell people to teach no other doctrine. So he writes to them as an apostle, but he’s writing to Timothy who is the recipient, but what I was going to say is that only when he writes to the pastors does he throw in a little extra in his greeting. His greetings are normally, “Grace and peace,” right? Well, he knows pastors need all the help they can get, so he throws mercy in there. I do believe that’s significant—Pastors need the mercy of God.

Let me look, just quickly, before we wrap this up, at each one. Grace is the Greek word charis. It was the normal Greek greeting. The Greeks would actually, “Charis,” when they would meet on the street. The word charis means all that is beautiful and lovely and charming—a great name for a girl, by the way. It has the idea of God’s unmerited favor, and that’s where it all starts. Because of God’s grace, we are saved so we have saving grace, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” So, we have salvation grace, then we have grace for service—that we serve the Lord relying upon His grace. Then we have grace for sanctification to live a holy life. Grace for salvation, grace for sanctification for living, grace for your service—God’s unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor.

Then Paul gives him the mercy of God. The mercy actually has the idea not only that God doesn’t give us what we deserve (grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve), mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve; but another little insight to the concept of mercy that I don’t think we often mention or hear or talk about is that mercy is for those who need help. Mercy is for the pitiful, the weak, the outcast, and for the broken. That’s what that word conveys. God have mercy. How about in the Psalms when the psalmist, David, would sin. Psalm 51, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness…blot out my transgressions.” He would cry for mercy. The concept of mercy is that the recipient is somebody that’s broken and destitute and needs help. Would to God that as pastors, myself included, that they would walk in more brokenness and humility and need the mercy of God.

Not a Sunday happens here at Revival but what when I come out on the platform I pray and say, “God, help me. God, have mercy on me. God, strengthen me. God, quicken me. God, help me. God, use me. God, speak through me. God, help me to be faithful to Your Word. God, I need Your strength. I need Your power. I need Your wisdom. I need Your love,” because I realize how destitute I am. So, he throws that in for the pastors—they need mercy—but guess what? You need mercy. Amen? Do you realize that you need help from the Lord? I do. So, they call out for mercy.

Paul moves from mercy to peace. As it’s been pointed out, and it’s so true, you can’t have peace until you first experienced grace. Grace always comes before peace. Peace is the word shalom. In Israel today, that’s the greeting. In the Greek world it was charis, grace. In the Hebrew world it’s shalom, and if you really want to greet somebody with a hearty greeting, “Shalom, shalom,” you give them a double shalom. You give a little extra there. The word peace literally means…the etymology of the word peace, this is interesting and has a lot of significance, it means to be one. It means to join together. When you’re not at peace and your life is in turmoil, you’re being torn apart—your hopes pull one way and your fears pull another way and you’re being torn apart. You’re in turmoil. When you have peace, it’s that everything comes together. It means at-one-ment. Now, there’s different kinds of grace and there’s different kinds of peace. It starts with peace with God—that’s salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s when we are saved. When the little white flag goes up in your heart and you’ve been at war with God and you say, “God, I surrender. God, forgive my sins. Come into my heart. Make me Your child.” You all of the sudden have peace with God.

After having peace with God, there’s a second kind of peace, the peace of God. That’s a sanctifying peace. That’s what Paul talks about in Philippians, “And the peace of God,” will guard and garrison, “…your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” There’s a lot of Christians that have peace with God but don’t have the peace of God. They don’t have that peace in their heart. They’re agitated, in turmoil, worried, and fretting. They’re just not living the peace. I like to think of it: they’re going to heaven, but right now they’re living in hell. God wants to bring heaven to your soul. He wants you to have peace with God and the peace of God.

There’s another kind of peace. We’re going to talk about the family of God. Do you know what the other kind of peace is? Peace between you and me, peace between husband and wife, peace between parents and children and children and parents, peace between co-workers, peace between people in the city, in the state, and people in the nation and in the world. The only way there’s going to be peace between us and peace between others and peace in this world is if we come to a peace with God. Amen? That’s the only way there’ll be peace, and the only way there’ll be ultimate peace in the world is when Jesus Christ comes back—the Prince of Peace—and He will establish His Kingdom and rule and reign for a thousand years!

I want you to note the source (verse 2), and I obviously have taken longer than I expected tonight, comes “from God our Father and Jesus Christ,” or Christ Jesus, “our Lord.” He is the source of grace and the source of mercy, and He’s the source of peace—God the Father, God the Son, and it’s mediated through God the Holy Spirit. It’s interesting, in these first two verses Paul is mentioned once, Timothy is mentioned once, God the Father is mentioned twice, and Jesus Christ is mentioned three times. Paul was all about Jesus. We should be all about Jesus. Amen? Let’s pray.