First Timothy Lesson 21 end, begin lesson 22 (Q1-2)
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · May 11, 2025
1 Timothy, No. 65
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261939222006

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

All right, we're just gonna do one question, and then Courtney will come up. I'm gonna do two questions. I'll answer my own question on 11, and then we'll discuss 12. Is the hope referred to here, oh, I better read the verse. Verse 10, we're in 1 Timothy. Chapter 4, is it 4.10? Yes.

It is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially believers. Prescribe and teach these things. So is this hope referred to as sort of wishing that the living God will do something? It's a trick question. No, because it's a living hope in a living God. It's also interesting the word hope. Alpizzo is in the perfect tense.

Literally, we have set our hope upon the present result that is a settled hope. The thing about biblical hope is not your hoping. that something's gonna happen in the future if you pray hard enough or God desires it. It's already in place and the hope has to do with our realization of something that's already true of us. Best example is when we leave the planet, you're instantly face-to-face with the Lord. There's a lot of hope about that.

So does the phrase, on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, mean that he will save everybody? Does that mean He'll save everybody? Because this verse says God is the Savior of all men, especially believers. So what do you think? Say no, we've got to explain. He offers to everyone. The gift is for everyone. It's offered to everyone. It's just believers are the ones who accept the gift of salvation. The word Savior means deliverer or preserver. So he's not teaching, this is what a, if you ever, I don't know why you would, but if you ever went to a universalist church, they teach that God saves everybody. Yeah. Nobody's lost? Nobody. Yeah.

And this word savior has been a word that has been attached to ancient gods and dictators and Caesar and all of that for centuries. So in Rome there was what they called the cult of Caesar. And the cult of Caesar, he was known as the savior of the world. It's like some people think Donald Trump is the savior of the world. No, he's not. Now what's this, the universal church? Universalist, yes. They don't understand Romans 1, 2, or 3. They don't ever read Romans 1, 2, or 3.

So, hear of God as Savior. in the sense that the Savior of the world, John 4.42, and they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the Savior of the world. In other words, the opportunity for salvation has been provided by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

It's there. But you have to respond. You have to believe that He is and what He did. So He is our Savior. You don't have any problem. And He's potentially, put it this way, the Savior of every unbeliever. And you know what I find interesting? talking to people. I had a talk last week with a guy. We were talking, I've known this guy forever, and we were talking about his kids and grandkids. He said, well, they believe in God. I said, well, everybody believes in God. What about the name Jesus? Oh, they don't ever talk about Jesus.

I said, he's the one. He's the one. Salvation is based on what you know about him and do you believe what you know. And then he will save you. just because you believe in God, the angels, and the devils believe in God. I think that's prevalent in the un-churched. It's Romans 1, everybody knows there's a God. So they make it out to be, he's gotta be a good God, so he'll save me. Or I do, I'm a good person, I walk the little old lady across the street, or I help my neighbor, or whatever. They know there's a God and they think he's good. but they don't know the mechanics of salvation.

Yeah, well, you know, it's like my friend at dinner a couple months ago said to me, said to Don and I, I don't understand why Jesus had to die. That's the question. We're going to celebrate the Lord's table today. Why did Jesus have to die? Did he have to? Yeah, he did. Not necessarily. The number one purpose was not to save me. The number one purpose was to satisfy God about the offense of sin. And his satisfaction is our satisfaction. That's right. If he's satisfied about it, why shouldn't I be? Yeah, well. You know, this is one of those ones I think of, and I don't know if we've disagreed on this or not, but, you know, it's one of those ones. This is from the eternal covenant. Before we were ever created, God and Jesus made the covenant.

But they made it such that they knew we were going to fail. They created mankind, humans, with the knowledge that they would fail. They could have done it in a different way. I mean, they literally could have. And this is where I think we get into disagreement. I mean, they could have, because they're God. They could have made it totally different, but this is the way they did it. And I think it's to show God's love, is by showing that we created you knowing this, and yet we had to pay the price through Christ coming, taking on flesh, and dying, to show His love and show who He is. You know, my thought about that for a long time has been, you know, we can't think other than at a certain time something started, but they've always been what they are.

That they determined to create a race of creatures like themselves. And in order to make them like themselves, they had to give them a will. They weren't dogs, they weren't animals. They have a will, which means they have the capacity to turn against them as the creator. So he puts, he creates Adam and puts him in the garden, and then he creates Eve. And he says to them, I'm gonna give you one test. There's this tree down there, just don't eat of the fruit. That's it, everything else is yours. But don't do this. What was the test about? Would they exercise their will for him or for themselves?

And as you read the account of Eve, she keeps looking at the fruit and pretty soon it dawns on her, oh, that's pretty cool looking stuff for me. It's designed to make one wise. It's good to eat. I think I'll have some. Well, even more interesting, he created the devil or the serpent. And they had wills. But he created them also for the test. Yeah. It wasn't just them. It was also he created the one that went, hey, that tree looks pretty good.

Do you know what that test is for them? I don't. I have an opinion. Biblically, I don't know what the angels test. Well, Lucifer's test is pretty simple. He looked in a mirror. As soon as he did that, he was toast. Because he was magnificent, you know. He thought he was God. Or he was like God, and he was going to... Why do I let him run the show? Maybe I want to run the show.

1st Timothy chapter 4 verses 12 and 13 So finishing up this section So I'll read them, and I'm going to read them in the NASB and the New King James, because they translate a little differently. I think Ron and I were just talking about a little bit how I lean towards the New American Standard as more of the literal translation from the Greek, where some of the words that are translated in New King James aren't exactly with what the Greek says. NASB typically is more literal, I think, to the Greek, although not always, which sometimes the New King James actually is a little bit better. So chapters 4, verses 12 and 13. And I'm going to just read verse 12 now for the first questions here.

And this is the NASB. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. So that's the NASB. The New King James is, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity. So there are differences between the two versions. Again, look down on your youthfulness. Let no one despise your youth.

So different translations do make a little bit of a difference in how we approach this and the words. So first one is kind of a relative one. So how old do you think Timothy is here? So I don't know if Mike was trying to see personally whether he's young or old or something. So I said, first, let's think about it from a human perspective. If you're 30 years old, what do you think is young?

15. If you're 80 years old, what do you think is young?

79. So would it be relative to various cultures also? So not only how old you are and what you look, and it's always how old is old. Usually it's about 20 years ahead of what your age is, is what old is. And young is kind of the same way, down 20 years or so or whatever. It's always way below what you are as young. But also culturally. Some think wise people have to be 80 years old in order to be wise. They have to have white hair.

Well, you know, I thought about this, didn't know if I'd bring this up, but you know, in the engineering world, when I was a young engineer, and going, it was, I always kind of wanted to be one of the white hair guys, because those were always the guys with the wisdom, or they always looked up to those guys. because they had 30 years of experience, 40 years of experience, and now, in that 30 to 40 years of experience, those young guys don't think anything about me right now. The young bucks don't care about us old coots.

Although they do, it is, I did think of that when I was younger. It's like, boy, I don't get the same respect as those guys, even though I probably had some different new engineering abilities or whatever. But it was kind of like, yeah, I always wanted to be one of those guys. And now I am. And it's like, I want to be one of the young guys now. So young is now 30 years old. You're never satisfied. Never satisfied. Never satisfied.

So I said, do you think what people thought was young 30 years ago has changed? 30 years ago, do you think what is old and young has changed? Maybe 100 years ago. What about 1,900 years ago? What old and young perspective was? Well, they only lived back then in their 40s. Yeah, they were old. I mean, you've got the 60s. John the Apostle lived to how old?

90. 90, yeah. So, because he was, yeah, his, when he was in Patmos or whatever he was there, he was up, I think, in his 90s, yeah. So they did, but the majority were a lot younger, the lifespan was a lot younger. So, again, that kind of perspective, I just wanted to put it in the perspective of this question, because this is 1900 years ago, and they're looking down upon his youthfulness. Well, what was that? How old was he?

And so I think Mike had some things. So Paul is addressing what may have been a concern for Timothy while he ministered in Ephesus. He may have felt that his age was hindering him with some of the older believers. So he's thinking he's being looked down upon from some of these older people here. So Vincent says that Timothy was probably about 38 to 40 years old at this time. So, you know, if the lifespan is about 60 some odd, you know, he's halfway, two-thirds of the way there, and they're looking down on him. So, Expider's remark, many probably of the Ephesian Presbyters were older than Timothy.

Also, in any case, the terms young and old are used relatively to the average age at which men attend to positions in the world. So 40 is reckoned old for a captain in the army, young for a bishop, and very young for a prime minister. I added, 40 is old for a running back in football, or hockey, or basketball. 40 is young for a president, a general, or a pope.

So different perspectives of what age is. You're young for some. Like I said, if you're a hockey player, you're 40 years old. They're pushing it around the ice. But if you're a pope, you're young. Well, this latest pope is in his 60s, and they say, oh, he's a young man. He's a young man. Yeah, he's a young man. So again, when this question that Mike put out there, it's like the perspective of what is young? And just I started to think all the different variants and different categories.

For him being a leader in Ephesus, was this young? Was this young for somebody who was leading a church? You know, Titus, or how old was Titus? And he was in charge at the church in Crete. How old was he? You know, I don't know. I just, you know, I was trying to figure it out. I couldn't find. how old he thought he was, but was he suffering the same things?

Or any of the leaders that Paul left at all these churches that he started, were they young or old? And were they following the same things? It's obvious that Paul, through some expression from Timothy, got this feeling that he was being somewhat put down because he was young.

So Paul's addressing it here. He's saying, don't worry about it. We'll get into it. But somehow, Paul knew that Timothy was feeling this pressure, that, you know, I'm feeling the old guys aren't listening to me. And it's somewhat, as I relay upon the engineering, you know, when you're younger, sometimes those guys, yeah, just, you know, don't let, you know, we've had 40 years experience, and we know. So, you know, I think it's the same sort of thing you can get into.

So, again, I don't know if this is prevalent or this was just Timothy and he was younger than Titus or some of the others that he left there, but obviously he'd expressed it to Paul that there was a concern that he was not being listened to. So, question two, how is Timothy being treated by older people in the congregation? So, in the New American Standard, let no one look down on youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. So what does the verse say was happening with Timothy within the people he was ministering at Ephesus?

You just explained it. What was going on? They were looking down. What does that mean? What is he looking down on? What does that mean? Discounting what he was saying. Not trusting him. Yeah, it's all these things. If you look down upon somebody, it's like, no, just stay in your corner and don't say anything. Or, I don't trust you. You're a young buck. I'm an old guy. I've been around for a long time. You just sit down because you're a young person.

You don't have the experience that I have. So I'm going to discount whatever you say. But God is no respecter of persons. Yeah, he could not respect Timothy or anybody. He sees man either in Christ or not in Christ. Yeah, but this is an operational question. This is an operational within the church deficits. This is saying, hey, Timothy, I left you there to take care of the church at Ephesus.

And he somehow expressed to Paul that he doesn't feel like he's being listened to, that now some of the older guys are kind of pushing him aside and saying, we know better, which probably gets into some of the things that we've talked about in the previous chapters.

Remember how some were coming in all the new doctrine or listening to false doctrine or don't even listen to these guys. It may be part of that, too, that some of these older guys are the ones spreading the misinformation, the non-truths, that he was trying to, you know, tell against, bring the truth to them, and they're going, you know, you're just a young buck, let us tell you, we've been in the Jewish, or, you know, in the world much longer than you, so just, you know, cut this stuff down a little bit. That's the kind of impression that I get, that he's just being shunned because he's bringing the truth to them, and somehow they're just discounting it and saying, you know, you're a young guy, just listen to us old guys. So that's kind of the feeling I get from the expression in this, that they're just pushing him down a little bit. Yeah, ignore it. And again, put this in perspective of all the things we've gone through in 1 Timothy already about the false doctrine and listening to these people and the people who want to take you away from it, all that.

And then he's saying, you know, and these guys are putting me down. These are the guys who are putting me down. So Paul's encouraging him here. He's saying, you know, buck up, you know, you're doing the right thing, and then we'll get to what he's doing and what's good. But that's right, they're probably ignoring him, they're probably telling him, you know, just stay in your corner, stay in your lane over here, we're going to tell you what to do.

I don't know how big the church was in Ephesus, you know, it must have been a fairly significant Church? Ephesus was, yeah. I think it was a fairly good-sized church that was there. So, I mean, you know, he's there and how many of these older guys are there? You know, is it one against ten, one against twenty? And, you know, Paul sent him there to, you know, organize and instruct this church. And now he's getting shunned.

What's interesting about the church at Ephesus, in terms of the epistles, and their spiritual content, Ephesus, the epistle to the Ephesians is the pinnacle. It's at the top of the list. So, obviously, by the time Paul wrote that from Rome, the Ephesians had a reputation of spirituality that a lot of the other churches didn't have. And at that point, Timothy was there.

So he's instructing, things are going, but somehow he's feeling the pressure. And I also think, too, that sometimes when a guy like Paul, he's the head guy in starting the church, he leads certain people in certain spots. And after he's been gone a while, people look at the person who's left and say, well, you know, just because you know Paul, who do you think you are? Right.

And I wonder how much communication there is, because obviously Timothy had communicated to Paul. Somehow through either personal or written or something, Timothy has written or communicated with Paul that this is what's going on, because Paul responds. Or somebody else has written to Paul and said, Timmy's having a tough time.

Yeah, somebody came out of Ephesians and I don't know where Paul is. Paul Ness, at this point I can't remember where he wrote Timothy. But didn't the elders lay hands on him? Timothy Mall is the one that appointed the elders. He's the one who did it. Yeah, and Paul sent Timothy to this church, or to the church at Ephesus. Again, but there had to be some personal communication to Paul that this was going on because he responds in this letter. Age was the issue. Yeah. I'm wondering, the age is what's here, but I think it's a culmination of everything.

All this false doctrine that's going on, and I think Timothy's saying, I'm teaching these people, but they're just not listening. They're telling me I'm a kid, and you don't listen. So I think it's wrapped up in the whole thing, but it's kind of that they're not listening to them. All we've got to do is look at some of the titles that we have in the church. What do we call our leaders?

Elders. They tend to be more elderly. But again, going back to question one, what is elder? I mean, what is the age group in 1,900 years ago? 38 is pretty old, actually. So I don't know. I'm assuming that, obviously, it had to be older people who were pushing them down by the context of what's said here. Somehow it was older, and they were discounting them. Well, there's a couple of factors here.

One is, is that all of the church doctrine was initially given to Paul. So he was the source that communicated out to the men that hung around with him, or he appointed or he invited. There wasn't any seminary, right, or book or even scroll about the church. And so I'm sure a lot of people came to Christ and had experiences in being whatever they were, and they were trying to incorporate things from the world into the body of Christ and Timothy.

That was a battle for that. You know, I think about that quite a bit, you know, the engineer in me and, you know, how did it get around? And all these men were taught by, and they spent a great amount of time, like 24-7, for a great amount of time. You know, Paul would go in three months or a year and spend with him. Not all day long. That was daily. All day long.

And I think it's a combination of that plus two other things, that the Holy Spirit will bring it to your remembrance. So I think the Holy Spirit was very active in the early church at bringing to those people who were exposed to what Paul was teaching, that the Holy Spirit was very active in bringing that to their remembrance. The other is, I think, the miracles and signs were very prevalent, which was added to them. And I think, you know, lots of them were doing miracles and signs. The Holy Spirit was bringing it to their recollection, because that's how the church spread.

Because I don't understand otherwise. Because if you, you know, if I spent a month with you, I'd remember and make six months or nine, well, yeah, I'd have to be committed after that. Besides that, six months later, nine months later, how much would I remember?

Well, that's a great point, because I'm sure that the people that were taught all day long by Paul in any city he's in, those that could write took notes. And so they had some documentation based on what Paul said. But as it turns out that the bottom line authenticated information was in the form of letters.

Yeah. From him. From him. From other... But yeah, what was then copied or, you know, just his time with them. Did they take notes? Yeah. And you know, those notes were never recovered or put into our Bible, or our Word. But I just said, you know, mechanically, how did this happen?

And then the only two things I can say is the Holy Spirit was bringing to recollection all these men that he left there and taught. intimately for a long period of time, it was brought to their recollection and miracles and signs. To verify to all the people that what these guys were remembering from Paul and brought out by the Holy Spirit is true. It gives them some kind of, you know, the sign gifts initially. That's how the church had to have spread in my mind. Because they didn't have a Bible. They didn't have the internet. They didn't have the internet.

The other thing that was going on in small towns There was always several guys around that were the local historians. The local pain in the head. That they remembered everything. I'm sure he was dealing with some of those guys. But it is just an interesting thought how the church started. And these are the battles, not the battles, but some of the things that were going on.

Timothy was taught and obviously gifted by the Holy Spirit to minister here, and he's now being looked down on. And he's a little frustrated here. But Paul gives him encouragement in the verse in 12 and 13. The word despised, looked down, is kataphoneo. It speaks of that contempt felt in the mind, which is displayed in injurious action. So these guys were being rough on Timothy.

They were not just blowing him off. They were like, hey, get out of the way. Get out of here. We're the old guys. We know what's best. So it's a strong term for disrespect, meaning to despise, to scorn, to treat with contempt. So this isn't just leave me alone. It's like you're not worth being here.

Timothy is told not to let men push him aside as an adolescent. In all the New Testament passages, the action encouraged by contempt seems implied rather than the mental state. It's implied that they're putting him down. The verb is a present imperative in prohibition, forbidding the continuance of an action already going on. Timothy was being despised. He was being despised, put down. It wasn't that he was thinking about it. It was happening to him.

And Paul basically says, stop allowing anyone to despise you. Paul means assert the dignity of your office, even though men may think you are young, to hold it. Let no one push you aside as a boy. So he's encouraging him, like, don't let these guys bug you. You know, you are commissioned by me. You are taught by me. Don't let these guys push you aside.

So he's encouraging him to not be discouraged by this. The command to let no one look down on you is constructed in such a way as to forbid a practice that was going on. So stop letting anyone look down on your youth would bring this idea out. So stop even thinking about this. Don't let them bug you. You know it's the truth, and keep going. the despised is the concern, then Paul starts now adding the positives to this. So in question 3, what is Paul's recommendation for a solution to this problem?

So I see in both the New King James and the NASB it's a little bit different. the words. So in New American Standard, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. And then in the New King James, it's a little bit different. So in the NASB, but rather in speech, conduct, love, in the New King James, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and purity. So it's a little bit different. So in the New American Standard, it says, but rather in speech, we're in the New King James, but be an example to the believers. It's a little bit different. It's kind of be an example or in in the New King James But in the New American Standard just said but rather in speech, so just it kind of a little bit different Aspect of it.

So first what would we have recommended Timothy do regarding the others who disrespected them? What would our advice been? go pound sand, if that comes to mind. I think we would have said, buckle up, go after them. Come on, Buttercup, go get these guys. That would have been our advice. Toughen it up. Be strong. Get after them. Get in their face. That would have been probably our advice to them. Paul has a little different tact than what probably we would have done.

So, the word be in the New King James is not the ordinary verb of being in the Greek, but ginomai, so it's to become. Paul's saying keep on becoming. And also the Greek word tupos is here, is used, the Greek word tupos is used here that means a prototype or pattern, or as Odi says for the verse, figure to lead an example, pattern to be imitated or followed. So keep on being an example. Keep on being a pattern to be imitated. Keep on having people follow you. That's what Paul is saying here. Be an example. Be something that will be imitated. Don't be like what I would say.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I just realized the time. Are we out of time? Yeah, we're out of time, but... Oh, we are. Do you want to, last thing, or? This Ginnomai word, it means to become, it means to. It's a word that directly, he's telling Timothy, your spiritual growth is really important. You're becoming a spiritual man. Keep on that track. And you're becoming an example. Yeah. And by doing that, you're an example. To be imitated. Yeah. All right, we'll finish this question next week. So we'll start in the middle of question three. So let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this time. We thank you, again, just where we can delve into your word.

We just look at this scripture and as we'll realize, it's not only for Timothy, but it's for us also. The words of wisdom for us as believers in addressing those around us, both believers and unbelievers. And again, we just thank you for your word that gives us direction. We thank you most importantly for the indwelling Holy Spirit who reveals your truth to us. and makes it just a reality in our lives. So we just thank you for that. We pray for Mike in the next meeting, just to bring forth the word accurately and just prepare us to receive it. And we thank you again for this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.