First Timothy lesson 1 cont.
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Feb 25, 2024
1 Timothy, No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261934181914

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we're in, just started chapter one of 1 Timothy. We did a little overview introduction last week, and we started into the questions. What I find, what I'm finding interesting, and give you a heads up of what's coming, verses three and four are really, They're coming up after this really a challenge to understand exactly what Paul is asking Timothy to do. But to set this up, a couple of questions that will help fill in. One is, what does the name Timothy mean?

It's really interesting that you would have this name. honoring God or honored by God? To honor God. Yeah, that's what it's about. It's one who honors God. So I find it interesting that, how does he get a name like this? You have to understand about Timothy, he's a Greek. And yet he gets a name like this Timothy, who did he get it from?

His mother and his grandmother. Both of them were believers at that time. His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois. And they taught him, they were godly women and they taught him the scriptures and they trained him brought him up in the Word of God, what they had, which meant what? Old Testament. We would call it Old Testament. And so they named him that, which they were hoping that as he grew, he would fit the name.

I find it interesting how the sovereignty of God and how He works sometimes in a situation like this where mother and grandmother name, son and grandson, this name, and then He turns out to be what they were praying and hoping that He would be. Okay? So, the next fill-in question is, How does Paul designate himself and what does it mean? Look at the verse.

What's an apostle mean? What is an apostle? when he proclaims Christ's representative. Okay, so we... Apostle is a Hebrew word. If I was an apostle of, say, Mike, you wouldn't call me an apostle in contemporary vernacular, what would you call me? An ambassador. What does an ambassador do? He represents his country or a person or a belief. And the unique thing about being an ambassador is that you don't get to infuse your own opinion into what your message is. You only have one job, and that is to relate precisely who your ambassadorship is with to the persons that you're supposed to deliver the message to.

So I think apostles, we're used to that word, but really what they were were ambassadors of the resurrected Christ. That's really what they were. Now, in addition to that, they were incredibly powerful men in terms of gifted by God to You know, a lot of times, especially the ones that were dealing with Jewish people would perform miracles to verify their ministry. But I think it's important to understand that the uniqueness of what an apostle is in terms of their relationship with the one who sent them, which is the resurrected Christ, and they were to not insert their own opinion.

Or if they did, they said, this is my opinion. That's what Paul would do. He'd say, this is what I think. OK? Kind of cool, really. We have, I think, ambassadors today, but I wouldn't call them apostles necessarily. Do they have any authority? No. I don't think so. Yeah. And that's hard because, you know, you're always dealing with the sin nature that wants to be at least recognized. You know, for, well, let me put it this way.

Did the Lord Jesus have authority of his own? On the basis of Michael Paul, where he would say, this is my, my opinions. And he would say so. They were messengers, but they weren't given authority. Not of their own, but they were agents that could act on behalf of God and explain, certainly being able to author the scriptures themselves. Yeah.

There was another level of ambassadorship that the Apostles had, and I don't know how to quantify that in words, but it was given authority and the ability to utilize their own unique personalities to communicate the message that the Sender had given them. Just not of themselves. It wasn't of themselves, but it did take on their unique voice and their unique experiences. So, in some ways, it's different than saying, I'm an ambassador.

I can't say that I'm an apostle, clearly. So there's a distinction between ambassador and apostle that goes a step further, being given the divine authority to author scripture. Yeah, I mean, the Holy Spirit did that, right? Yeah, I think that's the key. I think that's the key element, that they're indwelt, not only indwelt, but empowered by the Holy Spirit for that office.

The incident that comes to mind is Peter healing the man on the way into the temple. How many hundreds of times have you walked by this guy? And then that one day, He just got tired of listening to him. He said, I'll heal him so he doesn't bark at me anymore. No, I mean, he did that at the direction of the Lord. Now, was it, Peter, we got to have a meeting before you go to the temple and here's what I want you to do.

No, it's instantaneous. I remember an illustration that I was told a while back that the apostles were like ships at sea, and the Holy Spirit was the one who guided them as they went, so to speak. Yeah. Carried along? Yeah, they were carried along by the Spirit in the direction that He had, but they were unique in their own being, person. Yeah, from a person's standpoint. Why would I not be an apostle? That's the question. Why am I not an apostle? I'm an ambassador. You're too young. I'm too young.

Well, one of the criteria's is that you had to have met him personally. You know, in the flesh. It's more, you know, you can be on a mission. Yeah, you really are. Yeah, I think that, you know, the basic reason is, is that you start with the fact that you had to have met him personally, and you had to have been given your apostleship from him directly to you. You know, nobody sent you a note, you know.

And that's why you see things like, is it Philip that's talking to one guy, and the next thing he knows, he's riding along with an Ethiopian, and talking to him about the gospel, and boom, then he's gone again. That would be really weird. But that's what an apostle, how do I say this? I don't think an apostle could, necessarily say, well, God won't do X, because he might, as an ambassador, as an envoy of God himself.

I mean, Paul goes through all kinds of suffering, but there's a lot of times that he escapes, gets out of town just in time, so to speak, and that he does leave. You understand? He isn't going to stick his chest out and say, well, I'm going to go stand against my detractors and let them hammer me around. I'm going to move.

But in verse 2, Timothy is a true child of the faith. And so there's a relationship there, but Timothy is not referred to as an apostle or an ambassador, if we're using that looser definition. So certainly Timothy was an ambassador, but he was not an apostle. No. He was a true child in the faith, and he does carry out ministry. Paul's to it, but there's a distinction there between Paul and Timothy.

And I think that that points up the fact that the Apostles had the ability to give marching orders, and that they were, you know, in the flesh the final say. Because we'll see that in verse 3 and 4, when Paul tells Timothy, here's what I want you to do, and here's what I want you to say. It's the same kind of thing, but Timothy gets his authority from God through the apostle.

Do you think that's the way it goes today? I think so. It's just a strange thought to think, oh, well, you've taught me. but you were taught of the Lord. You walked with Him, and you're telling me what you heard. I didn't walk with Him. I mean, certainly not in the flesh, but that's the first degree of separation, right?

Well, it's interesting today with elders and teachers and deacons and people like that, You can see why an elder is called an elder, not necessarily because of his age, but the fact he's been around a while and he's been living and walking with the Lord. I always considered Miles Stanford an elder, although he wasn't one, but he was.

He was certainly an ambassador of the Lord. But in this church as we kind of grew spiritually here, the guys that were quote-unquote elders, you know, we without any stress or strangeness put ourselves under them. We wanted to learn from them. We as believers, and certainly this has to do with church leadership, so let's just say you as an elder.

You didn't walk with the Lord, but you're one degree separated from that, just like Timothy. You're no different than Timothy is because you have the exact same information from Paul that Timothy had. I don't know. When you were talking, I was thinking, I'm one of the hired sheep herders. The sheep don't belong to me, but I'm supposed to be out there telling them to go this way or that way.

You're not being urged to depart Macedonia, but you definitely have the same, these are the same qualifications for you as they were for Timothy. Yeah, they are. They really are. And, you know, they're, what's the word I would use? They're pretty sharply defined. You know, they really are.

And you can't, a person can't function in that position without the Spirit of God, you just can't do it. You can barely do it with the Spirit of God. So the same words and the same spirit that Timothy had in Macedonia was the same that you have in Denver, Colorado. Yeah. No, that's true, and I think you're right about that.

You know, people always ask me all the time, well, how come X seminary was really great and then went, and how come this church was really great and then it went away, and that kind of thing. I think that God's plan is no clergy, no denomination, no heads, everything is local. And a local church is probably a smaller group with elders and deacons and servants of the Lord, growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, and there may be another one three blocks away. But we don't belong, we're not associated in any way other than doctrinally. We will get together and learn from each other, but nobody is going to say, well, you know, you're the first church of the what's happening now, and I'm the leader of it, and this is what we're gonna do.

He didn't do it that way. Paul set up autonomous churches as he went along. Now, if there was a problem, he would circle back either with a letter or go back and visit again and try to straighten it out. But he had set up, okay, we've got elders in place and deacons in place, you're subject to the Holy Spirit, I'm moving on, kind of thing.

And I think we miss it in our society that bigness is betterness. I don't think it is. And certainly not denominationalism. Certainly not some other authority outside the building that directs, well, we're going to—y'all all have to be baptized to join this church or some craziness like that. Okay. Why, verse one, Christ Jesus is better than Jesus Christ, why?

This is something, I think I got this from Weist. Just read a couple things that he says. These names are used by the average English reader merely to indicate the identity of a person of whom you have reference, but to Paul, and his Greek readers each had a special significance over and above what the identity of the person.

The word Christ is the English spelling of the Greek word Christos, and this in turn is translated in the Hebrew word which we know as Messiah. Both words, Hebrew and Greek, meaning the one who is anointed. In a Jewish setting, such as the gospel according to Matthew, the word refers to the Messiah of Israel, the anointed of God, who is to become its king. In the church setting, as here in 1 Timothy, it had the significance not of a covenanted king of Israel, but of an anointed one of God to Paul and his Greek readers. So the idea of a king is not part of what Paul's message is about.

The name Jesus is the English spelling of the word Hesuos, which in turn in Greek spelling of the Hebrew word is known in the translation from, how do you spell it, Jehoshua. the H disappearing since the Greek doesn't have any H, so it's Jehovah. The Greek word means Jehovah saves. This was significant to Paul and his Greek readers, so all that to say, for the Jewish For the Jehovah of the Old Testament could not save lost sinners unless he paid the price of their sins, thus satisfying God's justice. The price being outpoured blood since the penalty of sin is death. So he could not die unless he became incarnate as a human being. So a lot to say that it's good to know what Jesus Christ means, but perfectly unclear.

The next question, how did Paul get to be an apostle? I think we've already... I would say that Paul got to be an apostle by way of command. Yeah, this is what you are, yeah. It's the same thing, how did Jesus Christ become Jesus Christ? By command of the Father. Okay, now we're gonna get to, you have to think, why is Christ Jesus referred to as our hope? See it in the verse? God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Why that? He's our only hope. He's our only hope. And what do you mean by hope? You hope, hope, hope it's going to be true?

The hope is a definite truth. OK. OK. Definitely. So, Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ Jesus who he is and what he did and now who he is and what he did has become our hope. Okay. So, Christ Jesus points to the past. Hope points to the future. It's our hope. Yeah, it's interesting that our hope. Don't you like the fact that our hope isn't a theology or a tenant? It's a person. All of our hope is wrapped in a person. All of it. All of it. And it's all wrapped in his veracity. Is he telling me the truth? That's really what it comes down to. Do I trust him?

So my hope- And it could be yours. Huh? And it could be yours. Mm-hmm. It's possessive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have hope? Well, there's only one answer to that question. Sure. Despair is the opposite, right? And that's what you have without the Lord Jesus. You have lost. You have despair, anguish.

I like that point because I was thinking about Romans 7. Is it, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? It took Paul all this time to figure out that his deliverance was a person, not a program, not a system, not a psychobabble, not a supplement. It was a person. That's the same with us. We're always looking for methodology when, in fact, the person who is the savior is standing right there. I love Colossians 127, and then you probably were going to read it. Go. Yeah.

To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. There's a mystery. What was that mystery? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Yeah. That's the hope, is Christ in you. Yeah. So that brings up the second part of the question, what am I hoping for? What's the hope that I'm not going to burn in hell? What's the hope that I have? What's the subject of the hope? You just read it. It's glory.

It's the glory, to share the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't do that without beholding His glory. And you can't do that without being with Him. It's pretty cool that God would set it up so that everything centers in the person of the Lord Jesus. That's kind of cool. Okay. Why does Paul, in speaking of saving action of God, use the Aorist tense? So, let's just look at some verses. You got your Bible, Mike? Yeah.

2 Timothy 1.9.

Titus 2.11, JD, and Donna, Titus 3, 4, and 5. Did you just make me an assignment and I didn't catch it? What's that? Did you want me to read something? Yeah. Which one?

Titus 2.11.

Titus 2.11, okay. After Mike reads, go.

2 Timothy 1.9. It saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our words, but according to His own courtesy and grace, which was bringing us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. Okay, so that kind of tells us about the potentialities of our hope. J.D.?

Yeah, Titus 2.11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all living. has appeared, now we're talking about something that's already done, bringing salvation to all men. It's all right there. Okay, Donna. Three.

That kindness and love of God, our Savior, Lord, man, appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. So, Mike starts out with the potential of salvation.

J.D. talks about, in Titus 2.11, the fact that salvation is here, available for all men. And then, while Jesus is a righteousness besides being a meritorious cause, it could be said that he's the formal cause, too, for the righteousness of God.

We lost your audio again. You hear me now? Yeah. OK. I'm going to leave that out of my pocket. So the Lord Jesus is made unto us righteousness and sanctification. Righteousness is rightness, right standing. Sanctification is being set apart. So it's interesting that these three verses, or four verses that we read, go from salvation to sanctification. And he's all through all of those things.

And accordingly, you can't narrow down the concept of the idea of Christ Jesus, our hope. He's the hope of Israel, isn't he? You don't have to look it up, Acts 23, 6, but rather, the historical manifestation of the Son of God as Christ Jesus is the ground of our hope of glory. We already talked about that. Our hope is that the body of our humiliation will be conformed to the body of His glory. Our hope is that we shall be like Him.

Do you ever think about that? I don't think about that so much as I think about the fact that I just want to see Him face to face. I mean, the rest of it is, yeah, it's part of it. The only thing that really matters is face-to-face to me. Maybe I'm weird that way, but I can't tell about a person until I'm eyeball-to-eyeball with them. Yeah, that's right. changed in order to have that experience that you're talking about.

Yeah, and I think we see, like in 2 Corinthians 3.18, you can behold His glory reflectively while we're here, but it's not face-to-face yet. And I think that He's going to be so magnetic, is probably the word, or attractive, that I'll never look away.

I wouldn't want to. Do you understand what I'm saying? In other words, I'm not going to look and see, well, did I get the new body or not, or am I in glory or not? I'm not going to care about that. Yeah, I'll be there, but it's him. I'm reading some stuff now where a guy's going on and on and on about future stuff and he doesn't really see the value in just being face-to-face with the Lord Jesus. I can't imagine anything cooler than that. I'm speeding through this stuff. Okay.

Why does Paul call Timothy my son in the flesh? And the word son here is not we, us, which an adult son, but it's technon, a child, a born one. So the emphasis is on the birth relationship between a child and a parent. And then he uses the word own, my own. Legitimately born, not spurious, but it's genuinely, genuine and true. His own son, yeah. And faith here is Christian faith. So he says, my own son, my own technon, mine legitimately born in the faith. You can say that physically about your own children, but Paul says it about Timothy when it comes to new life in Christ. that he is a son, his own personal son.

Ever led anybody to the Lord that you know of? And do you view them as your son? As far as I know, I've only led two or three people to Christ. I'm a terrible evangelist, probably talk too much. And one of them was my brother, my older brother. He's home with the Lord, but I would love to say to him, you're my legitimate son in place.

You know that, don't you? Did I miss it? No. Speaking of saving action of God, why does he use the Aorist tense? The action, because it's done. So, is this all just in these first two verses? He says that Timothy, he refers to Timothy as my own son in the flesh. The guy that led me to the Lord, I don't think he would think about saying that to me. But I viewed him as my spiritual father. I really did. Because he was the one that led me into new life.

Who's that? Bob Strong. And well, actually, there were two guys in the room. The other one, Dennis, is still alive. I remind him all the time. He's my spiritual father. He doesn't want to hear it. All I had to hold on to was... It's pretty dark out there. Yeah. North Dakota? Yeah. What?

Better check the time. God forbid that I go over, right? Oh, I'm over. Well, we'll stop there. Hmm. We'll talk a little more next week about my own son in the flesh, and then we'll talk about grace and mercy. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you again for your word. Thank you for the freedom to study it and to learn and to grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear son, the Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.