This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “II Timothy” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 3, 1988.
About this sermon
The pastoral epistles speak to every believer, beyond those in office, and they reveal a real intimacy between Paul and Timothy. Timothy’s conversion was a kind of resurrection, a living example of the gospel’s liberty. What happens to one convert shows what happens to the whole church.
Sermon transcript
in the book of Acts, chapter 16, reading the first three verses. Then came forth Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy. the son of a certain woman who was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek.”
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of Thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see Thee, being mindful of Thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in Thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it is in thee also. 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.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath 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 us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause 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 that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us.” from Ephesians, briefly, chapter 2, verse 11 through verse 16.
Therefore remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.”
Your word, O Lord, is a light to our path. It is a lamp for our feet. And Father, we would have your word before we would have the words of men, for by your word we are given life and eternal life. We ask you, Lord, that our souls might feed well upon your word this day and bring to our mind those things that are so vitally important to us and the well-being of our souls. We pray it in Christ’s name. Amen.
It has been five years since we were in the pastoral. Believe it or not, it was five years ago that we completed our series on 1 Timothy, the first of the pastoral epistles. You know the pastorals. They are those letters written by Paul to pastors, specifically to Timothy and Titus, and thus far we have considered 1 Timothy And now we begin a consideration of second Timothy. You might be wondering once more, well, what’s the relevance of this beyond the point that, of course, second Timothy with the other pastoral appears in Scripture and is there for our profit.
But you’re thinking these are letters written to pastors. of what significance, then, are they to me? I’m not a pastor. I’m sitting here in the pew. These letters obviously are not relevant to me. Well, I think you realize that pastors are not to be considered in abstraction. They are not to be considered in a disassociated fashion, that is, disassociated from congregations, for pastors pastor. They pastor flocks, they pastor congregations, churches, and these men to whom Paul writes, they too are ministering to flocks. Timothy, where does he serve? Where did Timothy serve? He served at Ephesus, not without reason. We have read from the epistle to the Ephesians this morning. He was the pastor at Ephesus. Titus, you might know, was the pastor in Crete, pastor of a congregation there.
But not then just the pastor. But two congregations, and that’s the way in which Paul intended it anyway, for when he wrote to the ministers, he expected that his letters would be read by them to their people, and that their people would profit from what he had written. So then, pastor and people, minister and flock. But there’s a further relevance, of course, to the pastoral and to second Timothy.
You may recall that back in nineteen eighty two when we took up first Timothy, we did so in connection with elections that had been held or were to be held in our congregation. Elections for ordained officer. and so it is here when we return. We in this congregation have just experienced an election, and we have officers elect, poised, and ready for ordination, and we do well to think about the structure of the church. We do well to think about the nature of office in relationship to that structure the form and ordering of the church. Now I know that invariably what happens when we come across this matter of structure, order, and office is that we tune out. It doesn’t interest us very much unless we are officers, officers in training, concerned ourselves how we might function in office.
But let me suggest to you that our forefathers in our Presbyterian faith held that this whole matter of structure and order and office was essential to the right preaching of the Gospel. They were as adamant about the nature of the office of elder, for instance, as they were with regard to the integrity of the Gospel and the fact that Jesus had died on the cross to bear sin and had been raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, for our justification. Structure, order, and office That whole complex was a matter of great importance to our forefathers in the faith, and it remains a very important issue for us today, and I think that that is evidenced by the fact that the Church is sadly crumbling for lack of attention to these details. pastors, people, structure, order, and office. But are the pastorals, after all, simply pieces that appear in the New Testament because of their administrative value, as if they were a manual written down by Paul for the sake of administering the church? Not at all.
For as much as he’s concerned about the administration of the church, there is breathing throughout these letters, and specifically in 2 Timothy, there is breathing throughout that spirit, that spirit of extreme intimacy. and intimacy that we observe in Paul in his relationship with Timothy, this one that you note in the second verse of the first chapter, this one that he calls my beloved son.
I don’t think that there is any description more endearing than that. Now, I will say as an aside, I don’t mean to develop this this morning, but just for your own reflection, where do you think, where do you think Paul got those words? From where did he derive those specific words that he now applies to Timothy, my beloved son? You think about it. You think about it. You see, it is in light of your conclusion with regard to those words that you now make your assessment concerning the seriousness and the depth of that intimacy in the relationship between Paul and Timothy.
So not just a mandrel about administration. These epistles are filled with the heartbeat of an apostle who loves the ones to whom he writes, with a love that is as deep as the oceans and as high as the heights of heaven. our return, then, to the pastors. And as we do, it’s well that we, in this first message, reacquaint ourselves with Timothy. Reintroduce ourselves to this young pastor. Who is Timothy?
Well, first of all, he is a citizen of the village of Lystra. Do you know where Lystra is? If you have a map in the back of your Bible, you may want to check it out. It was a small village not far from the southern coast of ancient Asia Minor. In the southern provinces there, there was a plateau. On that plateau there were many villages, and Lystra was one. It is a village which is particularly unspectacular. And when you find that out, reading something about the archaeology of the first century, you’re somewhat amazed. You’re even more amazed when you are acquainted with contemporary theories of missions and evangelization.
Because now we’re being told by our mythologists and by our evangelists and by our evangelism experts that the methodology of the Apostle Paul was always, invariably, to go to the great urban centers. That is nonsense. And that the constraint that was on the Apostle in his movement, in his missionary journeys, was the potential for mega-growth. And that, too, is nonsense.
What was it that drew the Apostle Paul to the city of Lystra on his first missionary journey. Well, it obviously wasn’t the size of the town. It was the fact that in that town there was a synagogue, that in that town there were some people who were well-versed in the scriptures of the Old Testament, who were acquainted with the covenant, and that’s what drew the Apostle Paul to that city. as unspectacular as it was. So Paul comes to Lystra on his first missionary journey, this journey taking place approximately fourteen years after the death and resurrection of Christ. He had come there after having visited some other villages in the region anti-occupied city and then down to Iconium and then comes to this town of Lystra. When he enters the village, he meets a man who was born crippled and he heals him.
The consequence of that was that he and Barnabas, the one who was traveling with him, were worshipped as God by the Gentiles. They put the Gentiles off, preach to them the gospel, end up in the synagogue, proclaim the gospel there. They are first welcomed, but then the Jews are hardened, and they turned against them, and Paul was taken outside the gates of the village and stoned. He was left for dead. But he survived, as you know. He survived well enough to engage in two other missionary journeys, and even visit the city of Lystra later on, on the second journey.
There are indications that during this first visit to Lystra, Timothy was converted, so not only is Timothy a citizen of Lystra, he is a convert of Paul. Very likely converted during that first missionary visit, and very possibly a witness to Paul’s sufferings, even the stoning which Paul endured. But at any rate, By the time Paul returns, and you have the account of his return in Acts 16, and that’s why we read that passage this morning, by the time Paul returns, Timothy is described as a disciple, one who is devout.
And his mother is described as a believer, also devout. Now, it’s at this point that we are introduced into the complexity of the character of Timothy. We are told, for instance, that his mother, we find out from 2 Timothy that her name is Eunice, that his mother is a Jewess, thus forming the one side of the complexity of his character and personality. His mother and very likely his grandmother, her name being Lois, they were Jewesses.
And we are told also that they were faithful in the faith. Now, I know that there is a great deal of argument as to the significance of what is said in verse 5 of that second, verse 5 of the second letter to Timothy, its opening chapter. Paul writes, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. It used to be that most commentators concluded that the reference there to the sincere faith was to Christian faith, but it seems that there has been a shift in the assessment of commentators, so that now they relate what is said in verse five to what is said by Paul about himself in verse three, that he has served with a clear conscience in the way in which his forefathers did, thereby making reference to the faithfulness of Jewish piety and godliness. The suggestion then being that Timothy’s grandmother and his mother were faithful Jews, devout.
And this is reinforced by what we read later on in 2 Timothy 3.15, where we are told that from his earliest days he was schooled. He was schooled by these women in the scriptures. He was taught the scriptures from his childhood. And he was even taught and instructed in the hope of those scriptures, those Old Testament scriptures.
Well, that’s the one side of the complexity of Timothy’s character, his personality. But then, as we flip back to Acts 16, we are told there that his father was a Greek, and obviously an unbelieving Greek. And because of this, Timothy was never circumcised. He was never recognized as a full Jew. In fact, he was denied right. Within the associations of the Jew, despite his mother, despite his grandmother. Timothy. Timothy, then. Is the child of a mixed marriage. Now you might be asking yourself the question.
How can we on the one hand say that this fellow Timothy has a devout mother, a devout grandmother on the Jewish side, but yet has a pagan father? Does a devout Jew marry a Gentile? Does a devout Jew marry an unbelieving pagan? An uncircumcised pagan? Well, it is that question that has been the stuff of novels and great melodrama.
How is it that Eunice, Timothy’s mother, came to be married to this unbelieving Gentile? Well, you know, some have said, that the Jews weren’t especially particular in those days. I can’t believe that. At least if they are considered to be faithful in the way in which Paul describes Eunice and Lois here in 2 Timothy.
Others have said, well, it’s obviously a case where this girl, Eunice, in her younger years She became rebellious, and she decided for a time to throw off the faith of her heritage, to abandon her Judaism, and to pursue out of her rebellion a relationship with an unbeliever. Well, that could be true, and we certainly know any number of cases in which that has been the course of action unfortunately. A course of action which it seems that Eunice repented of later and regretted it. Or was it that she was a young Juliet and for the sake of love she cast over everything including family to pursue her love.
Well, I don’t think so, because I don’t think any of these suggestions that have been made with seriousness fit what we read from Paul concerning Eunice and also the environment in which she was raised by her mother, Lois. The ancient world through which we are strangers was a very complex world. Do you realize that in order to save your life, you may well have to marry someone that you had no business marrying at all? Do you realize that for the sake of economic survival, bread on your table, you could be forced into a situation in which you had no alternative? Now I’m conjecturing, I realize that, that it could very well be that that was the case. Her devotion remained. Her faithfulness was consistent. She loved God. The pressures were brought to bear upon her and her family, and she had no alternative. And thus, she finds herself in a marriage with an unbelieving Gentile. And one who seems to be quite adamant about his unbelief, seems to dominate the relationship quite well. The boy will not be circumcised. So Timothy is denied the sign of the covenant.
All right, a citizen of Lystra, a convert of Paul, a complex figure. But it is into this circumstance which seems utterly impossible. The faithfulness on the side of Timothy’s mother and grandmother, the unfaithfulness on the side of the father, he, as it were, looking at two worlds and welcomed in either. Really? Welcomed in need. For in the end, he’s neither Jew nor Gentile. But here comes Paul, striding through the ancient world with a message of liberty and hope, the message of the gospel.
And that’s where it comes to this family. And suddenly it doesn’t matter whether you’re circumcised or you’re not. In fact, it doesn’t matter that the believing parent in your family is the mother. A figure who in the ancient world mattered little or nothing at all, for no one inherited their patrimony through their mother, especially in Israel. that now the gospel breaks in upon a little, obscure, unspectacular village in Asia Minor, and liberty explodes. And it’s as if this boy comes to life. Nothing could have been more grand, nothing more glorious. It’s as if he has life from the grave. Born again.
Timothy, citizen of Lystra, convert of Paul, complex figure and finally companion of the Apostles. We read in Acts 16 that Paul wants him to go with him. But then you see what Paul does. He takes this fellow and he has him circumcised as if acting as father on his behalf. to see why Timothy is the beloved son. He has him circumcised, not because circumcision means anything, but because now Timothy is a testimony to the fact that the circumcision in the end doesn’t mean anything. The young man is ordained. He’s recognized his gift But this figure, now accompanying Paul on his missionary journey, becomes a living sermon, an exposition in the flesh of that passage that we read in Ephesians 2. That one in whom the middle wall of partition, as it were, has been torn down, for he has been both uncircumcised and circumcised. He has been both Jew and Gentile. He is one new man in one body declaring in his person the gospel for everyone to see. Paul takes him around with him as a living visual aid. As a living, walking visual aid.
Jew, Gentile, the most extreme of the divisions in the world, and that resolved in and through Christ. Made obvious to us in what Christ has done in and through Timothy. But if the most extreme of divisions is resolved, the division between Jew and Gentile, what of the lesser divisions that arise within the Church? For Timothy will not only be illustration, the usefulness of which is medicine for the divisions that exist between Jew and Gentile. But his presence and ministry will mean healing in congregations. What Christ accomplishes in him, he also accomplishes in us. So that partitions are dissolved and peace reigns.
Let’s pray. O Lord, there couldn’t have been one better fit or suited than Timothy. And so he becomes an illustration, a living, breathing illustration to the ancient church concerning the significance of Christ. How would he appear to those congregations in which he served, especially the church in Ephesus?
Again, divisions threatening, will they not be dissolved through Christ? that one who brings together from among all the tribes and peoples and tongues one people for himself, serving him in gladness beneath the umbrella of his peace. Lord, we pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.
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