2nd Timothy 1:1-7
Vern Peterman · Sep 25, 2011
1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492624866519

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

We have completed 1st Timothy and we are beginning 2nd Timothy. This is 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 1 through 7. At this point in time, I'd like to just kind of take a look at, you know, what's the historical background. There's actually an interrelationship between 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, aside from the fact that they're all three, you know, books written from Paul to someone kind of on assignment as an apostolic delegate.

We have sort of a historical sequence here. And the reason I say sort of a historical sequence is that the order of events and some details of the events are not completely certain. That is, we don't have all the information. And so that's why this says the probable order of significant events is this.

We have another complication, and that Nicopolis is mentioned, and it's not a question of whether there was a Nicopolis, it's a question of which of the three cities called Nicopolis is meant. It's like if someone says Denver in the United States, or even internationally, the assumption is that it's the Denver that we're in right now. However, there are more than a half dozen Denver's in the United States. So we're only in one of them. In this case, there were three cities named Acropolis, so that's an uncertainty. We'll take a look at that.

The first one, Paul was released from his house arrest in Rome. That was where we find him at the end of the book of Acts. That was where he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Apparently, his accusers didn't choose to press their charges against him before Caesar. That was one thing that Paul says, you know, I appealed to Caesar, which he had a right to do as a Roman citizen.

But that also gave him another advantage, even though he was under house arrest, when he finally appeared before Caesar, if anyone was going to press charges, they had to travel to Rome to press them. And because things weren't on a well-communicated schedule, it meant that they might have to hang around Rome for years. Like no business resources or anything, just hanging around Rome. So you could see why someone, even if they had something that they felt was of merit, would have a tough time pressing charges.

So you can imagine Paul saying, well, I appealed to Caesar, which he had a right to do as a Roman citizen, put him at a special advantage in terms of the likelihood of it ever being, you know, So, the case was lost by default then, and Paul was freed. Well, there's nobody here to charge you, so you're done.

So then the next thing, Paul visits Ephesus, left Timothy there to supervise the churches, and went on to Macedonia, which is northern Greece, and particularly the area around Thessalonica, and Berea, and Philippi, and that. From there he wrote 1 Timothy, just having seen Timothy. And then the next, number four, he visited Crete, left Titus there to supervise those churches, and went to Nicopolis. Again, we have three of them, so we're guessing as to which one it is. Let me use this map here to kind of pinpoint So he goes from Rome, which is off the edge of the map here, to Ephesus and then heads up in this area, in Macedonia, in Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica would be about in here. And then this is one of the necropolises and probably a likely one, this one right over here, and Achaia would be right nearby.

And so it's at that point there, Then number six, he visited Troas, which is a place he'd been before, right here, up on the map. And where he was suddenly arrested, taken to Rome, imprisoned, and finally beheaded. Number seven is, before he was beheaded, obviously, from Rome during his second imprisonment, he wrote Second Timothy.

Now it's quite possible that the second imprisonment was far more serious. In fact, it's even likely. Paul had more severe and intense needs. Probably was not under house arrest, but was actually in a prison situation. So that's where we see Second Timothy coming up. Now let's ask you this question. This is Second Timothy. the last letter of his that we have and possibly the last letter period. As we go through it, we'll find out that Paul himself recognizes he's about done. He's about through. And yes. You know, we don't know the specifics of that. As we go through the book, we'll get some indications, but what had happened is during the 60s, and I'm not talking 1960s, right? During the 60s of the first century, initially the opposition came from the Jews, didn't it?

As time went on, however, the opposition became increasingly from the Romans themselves. And it was under Nero, who had first dismissed Paul, it was under Nero that there was the first wave of persecution against the Christians under the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had a total of ten waves of persecution, and Paul lost his life in the first one, and Peter as well. So there was this increasing, you know, opposition.

We don't, in every case, know the detail. Initially, when the Jews wanted to get the Christians in trouble, they would falsely accuse them and use mob pressure, because that was actually a part of the Roman justice system, is mob pressure. You know, screaming, crucify him, crucify him, right? Things like that. influencing the judges, or the judge as the case may be. That was the initial movement, but now in the middle sixties of the first century, the Roman government themselves began initiating direct persecution without the Jews being in the midst of the process.

Either one may have been the case. Yes? Was that first persecution brought about That was the period of time when that was brought about. And you know, the exact reasons and records for it, you know, precisely how that all came about is one of those things where we have bits of evidence rather than here's some nice full objective account.

Yeah, the story of Nero fiddling while Rome burned, that's this period of time. Nero was nuts, but that didn't change anything. He was still the emperor. At various stages during his persecutions, sometimes the perspective of the emperors was Shocking, puzzling. One of the emperors said, while he watched this later on, while he watched the Christians being attacked in the Colosseum, he said to one of his friends, look how they love one another.

I mean, really bizarre. Strange behavior. Nero is no less strange. I'm sorry, I saw a hand. What was that reference for Poseidon? Okay, this must be a typo and I'll have to look that up Second Timothy fourth. Yeah, that's must be a typo that we didn't catch. So I'll have to take a look at it Chapter four isn't that long. So perhaps somebody find it.

Yeah I Yes, that's correct. About 67, 68 AD. Which would have been two years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Yes. So basically, God saved him from having to go through that period of time, which must have been awful. Yeah, if you think about it, what happened with the time of Stephen?

With the time of Stephen, as recorded earlier in Acts, a lot of the Christians were pressed to leave the area around Jerusalem. And on the one hand, that was very difficult, but on the other hand, that ended up preserving a great number of the Christians just by scattering them elsewhere. The accounts are significant in their persuasion, but not conclusive. that Peter actually spent decades of time in Antioch, not in Rome. As a matter of fact, the tradition in the Antiochian Orthodox Church is that he spent about 25 years there. There is some biblical evidence in support of that as well. But nonetheless, Christians were in great part taken out of Jerusalem before the Roman attack. so that there was actually very little Christian loss of life during that time.

James, Jesus' half-brother, had died earlier in that decade. James was killed, according to Josephus, while Paul was in house arrest in Rome. They lived, obviously, very long periods of time. But a lot of them died just preceding the worldwide flood.

And I always thought that was kind of interesting how God's timing is always so perfect. Yeah. What's interesting, I mean, people are going through the persecution of the Christians at the time of Stephen. I'm sure they're going to look at this and say, what a wonderful thing.

And yet, in retrospect, we look back on it and say, no, this was the Lord's hand to spread the gospel elsewhere and to get them out of Jerusalem. So, you know, did they look at it as a good thing? No. In retrospect, was it something that God used to preserve the church and preserve the gospel? Quite so. you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And he didn't say, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem, and Jerusalem, right? But he got them out. That's a good observation. Okay. Did anybody find that correct reference there? Pardon? 413, so we should correct that.

2 Timothy 4.13 is the reference to Troas rather than 4.33. Thanks for catching that. I'll see that the master gets correct. Okay. So with that as an intro, you have what here is a likely sequence. This is taken from the introduction of Titus in the Ryrie Study Bible. And I think it's a pretty good assemblage, even given a few uncertainties. And this is something else to think about. It is wonderful that we have the book of Acts.

Here is close to 30 chapters connecting things, without which somebody, you know, who's Paul? Imagine going from, here's the Gospel of John, and the next book is Romans. Who's Paul? Why is he writing to the Romans? Before going very far, who's Timothy? Who are these people?

Right? We have not a clue. Instead, we have quite a bit of information. And here's what's curious. With Timothy, especially given the account in Acts starting in chapter 16, we have more information about Timothy than we do about some of the apostles. Very interesting. The Lord has chosen to reveal things and to connect there with this book of Acts. So we get a lot of insights. Nonetheless, it is not an exhaustive book, is it? When Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he told how many shipwrecks he'd been in, you look in Acts, it doesn't record them. In fact, the shipwreck that is recorded in Acts adds to the number that he gave the Corinthians.

Okay, so middle of page one there, 2 Timothy 1.1.

Paul an apostle is a specially commissioned messenger of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to, that is consistent with, and by the way when you see according to in the New Testament letters If you're saying, well, what does according to mean? If you replace that in your mind with consistent with, that's a good way of understanding. What does according mean? It has nothing to do with accordions. So consistent with the promise of life in Christ Jesus.

So here's Paul writing his last letter. And by the way, if you're writing your last letter, Wouldn't you think, that's when you boil it down to, boy, you know, I don't have much left. I think what I'll write about is going to be pretty important. This isn't the time to crack blonde jokes. Right? So you boil it down, you know, I've got a very few, you know, days, weeks maybe, of time left. I think I will say what is really critical and important to get across, because this is probably my last chance.

And that's the character of this letter, and I think we can approach it with that. Here's a guy who already is a deep thinker, and also has immense spiritual depth, and has been personally taught by the Lord. And now he's writing his last letter, possibly the last letter of all. but the last letter that we have of any of his letters.

So with that, is being an apostle and adding by the will of God redundant? Since an apostle is a special messenger, is it redundant or is there something conveyed by making that what might be seen as a double statement? Are there shades of difference between just saying a special messenger of Christ and by the will of God. Are those just exactly the same things or slightly different?

Yeah. It would be slightly different because it would be like, let's just use the example of a Roman Caesar sending out a runner or a an emissary to another location, okay, he has the approval of Caesar to do whatever it is he's going to do, but it certainly doesn't hold the authority and the supremacy and all the other things that go along with that particular office. And God's supreme, I mean, that certainly would be more, I think that would be more authoritarian than even coming from one of his best Okay, alright, okay, now that's a valid perspective. Let's ask this thing. Is it possible for someone to be initially sent out and as a valid assignment, but it to be a separate issue that they continue to be and are now operating according to the will of God? Could I be sent out on an assignment and not operate by the will of God.

Could that happen? Yeah, it could. And unfortunately, in human action, things like that happen. People start off with, well, this is what we started off to do. And it's something about, you know, I thought we were supposed to go out and drain the swamp until I found myself up to my keister in alligators, right? It's when you get out in the circumstances, then how do things turn out? Right? And so part of it is, yeah, I had this initial assignment where Christ said, I'm sending you out.

But I even now am operating by the will of God. So part of it could be kind of a time statement. Also, one other thing. If he was an apostle of Jesus Christ, that's the usual way that that word apostle is taken. and by the will of God, does it imply something that Christ is completely of the same mind and in sync with the entirety of the Godhead?

So it isn't like, well, Jesus sent me, but the rest of the crew, they're not sure. No, in fact, what it says is all of the Trinity is behind this. Was then, is now. Right? All of the Trinity is behind this. This is not just Jesus kind of going out and doing his individual thing. All of the Godhead is of one thought in this. Right? So what I, my initial assignment and what I'm doing now is all of God is involved in it. Does that make sense? Yes.

So it's kind of like you said a couple weeks ago, whoever got sent out with Judas. It just cracks me up to think about that. When you think of that, I mean, there's a crime example. I mean, they were all sent out by Christ. They had the authority of Christ. They were doing the will of Christ. But you have to wonder if maybe Judas was totally doing the will of Christ when he was there.

Maybe he was, I don't know. Thoughts like that can be a little shocking to ponder at times. You think about whatever disciple it was that went out with Judas, he might have gotten creeped out later. Just shuddering at the thought of, who was I working with? You can imagine him wanting to ask, I don't know if he ever did, but, Lord, why did you put me with that guy? I could have taken any other assignment, but not that one. Let's take a look here.

How about, if something is the will of God, does that mean that you will do it absolutely, and that a person cannot choose contrary to God's will? If it's the will of God, does that mean you're just going to do it and that's the way it is? Or, is it possible that someone can, even though they know God's will, even though that's their assignment, they could choose not to do that. Yeah, they could.

Here's Timothy, and he says, Paul, I haven't heard from you for weeks. And he finds Paul is just schnockered. What? What are you doing? He could have made that choice. He was free to make that choice. Did he? Of course not. What Paul did, it was the will of God for him to do this and he chose to abide by God's will, right?

So there's a decision there. It's interesting in some of the more Calvinist, you know, harsh Calvinist viewpoints, you know, they look on well God's will is whatever happens, you know, and that's actually the viewpoint of Islam. Interestingly enough, if the Islamic soldier kills you, it's God's will. Whatever it is, that's what happens. The will of Allah. Next one, last bullet there.

How significant is the promise of life in Christ Jesus? Is Jesus just a hopeful source of life, or is Christ just another Just one of the better options out there. How singular is that promise of life? Due to the fact that Christ is the propitiation, the one who satisfies God's wrath against sin, I would say that he is probably the one and only way to live life.

I mean, it's not like the GOP candidates now where you get close to a dozen of them up there at once. It's not just, here's one of the options. Yeah, that's right. God didn't say, hey, let's take a poll. And once you vote and then click on yes or submit, and then it gives you the score. None of that. God didn't say, what would you like?

Jesus Christ is the one singular answer, the one singular source of life. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself said it. It's simply translated, I am the way, the truth, the life, right? But the I am is the expression egoi me, meaning I am in fact deity. am in contradistinction to all the other options in the singular way, the singular truth, the singular life.

Amazingly clear. Okay. Yes? What would Jesus do, group? Yeah. That sounds like they'd make it a choice or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just kind of one of the options, and this would be your preferred option. Right? Yeah. Yeah, by the way, the Jews have, what would Moses do? So, yeah, right. What would Moses do? Yeah. OK.

First Timothy 1.2.

To Timothy, my beloved, the root there is agape. That's the word beloved is derived from that. My beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So if Timothy is Paul's beloved son, is Timothy beloved by God, by Paul, or both? He's beloved by both, obviously. Okay. Yeah, I think you're right. But why would you say that? Well, he's in Christ.

The Lord loves him. Paul obviously loves him. It is abundantly clear from Paul's writings that the Lord dearly loves Timothy. And we're going to see, because I'm actually asking a little bit of a trick question, we're going to see a little bit farther on this very same passage we're studying that Paul directly says that he is dear to him.

So your answer is correct. And just looking at the larger context of scripture, you could put it, I don't know that it's put this way, you're beloved twice, right? So, you're beloved twice, Timothy, right? He could have more explicitly put it that way.

Okay, the last bullet on that page, grace was the typical Greek greeting. They would greet one another with charis. And by the way, they didn't mean what we understand the New Testament to mean by grace, the word grace. Charis was the word grace, but it meant a favor to a friend or a relative. for which you didn't expect something in return. That was the magnitude of grace. So when we talk about grace that's so phenomenal that God's going to demonstrate it in the rolling ages to come, that God showed us grace while we were yet sinners, enemies, that's way out of bounds from the pagan definition for grace.

So grace was the typical Greek greeting, and peace was the typical Jewish greeting. How is that stated? Peace be with you. Yes, that's true. But shalom, right? In the Hebrew, shalom. And as a matter of fact, Jerusalem is the habitation of peace, so it's Yerushalom, right?

So why add mercy to it? I mean, if you've got the Greeks and the Jews covered, why put mercy in the middle of it? Are you creating an ethnic tension by putting mercy in the middle of it? So, maybe mercy is just the same as grace. Is that maybe what you think? What's the resolution here? Did you decide to throw something extra? Okay, he's merciful to all. Is he gracious to all? You can't have grace without mercy. Well, why not? Well, because, you know, you have to have a great love and feelings and mercy for a person to give them such a gift. Okay, alright, okay.

It seems like they go together, don't they? They go together. As a matter of fact, something that's very interesting, we'll be looking at another passage this morning in the main service that we looked at last week. Ephesians 2, 4-7 starts with the riches of God's mercy and ends with the riches of His grace. And so, they do go together. Sometimes right together like this, and other times kind of sandwiching a passage. But you do find them together. And let's think about that.

Here is mercy, which is a withholding of punishment due. I could give you this, but I won't. So one way to summarize it is, mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. That would be a simple way of summarizing it. I've given a brief illustration from time to time. I'll venture to do it again. Just please don't throw the hymn books at me. That's Mercy, right? Okay.

Suppose that I pull into the driveway here at 55 miles an hour, and a policeman's right over there, and he pulls me over. Now, Mercy would be, he comes up, And he says, you know, you came into the driveway, I clocked you at 55 miles an hour. And that's way too fast. And I could give you a big, whopping, painful ticket for that. But I'm going to just give you a warning this time. I'm going to withhold the judgment that is due.

That's mercy. Grace. Now, Grace is different. Grace, he says, here's the ticket, see you in court. And then the judge says, Vern, did you drive in the driveway at 55 miles an hour? Yep, sure did. And he says, well, you know, that'll be 250 bucks. And the cop comes up and gets out his checkbook and writes out the penalty. And then walks over to me and says, what are you doing for dinner?

So the mercy is a withholding of judgment. Mercy looks to pull back on the pain. And the grace seeks to bless above what would be the call of duty. And so God does both. It's not that God just decided to be merciful or decided to be gracious, but as Ephesians 2, 4 through 7 points out, God has a wealth of both. And so you're right, Bev, it's because of his character. He is wealthy in both things, and they go together. So that's why Paul writes here grace and then mercy, even though it's between the usual greetings for the Greek and the Jewish culture. He puts mercy in there because it fits. Not because it's a standard greeting, but because grace and mercy most certainly go together. They are infinitely of God's character. Right? Yeah? Now, you know, we're doing a study in law and grace, and it's interesting, I didn't think of, well, maybe I should have done law, grace, and mercy. Anyway, we'll think about that.

Okay, next page here, page two. 2 Timothy 1, now we've got two verses, three and four. It says, I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience. We've heard that a pair of words before. the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy."

Okay. Now, first of all, in the culture, where we try to teach our kids, and I even try to teach my grandkids, right? Please and thank you, and things like that. In the culture, it was considered very bad for somebody to directly say thank you. And that may seem a little puzzling, but the reasoning is this. The appropriate thing to do is to thank God, or in the pagan culture, the gods, directly for something. You know, I thank my God for you, right? That kind of a statement.

Because to thank you directly, when I should be thanking God or the gods, was to actually call down a curse on you. Because if I said thank you when I should be saying that to the God or the gods, then the idea would be that if I said thank you to you directly, that the gods would be jealous of that acknowledgement and then curse the person that you just thanked. So if you went to somebody and said, thank you, and you took their hand and started shaking them, they would go, ah! Because you would be, even though your intent was good, calling down a curse on them.

Isn't that bizarre? Anyway, that was the thinking. So that's why you see, in fact, you look throughout the New Testament, it will be rare to non-existent that you will find somebody saying directly, thank you, and for that reason that I just explained. whom I serve with a clear conscience." So now, given that, Paul seems to be in sync with his Jewish forefathers here. Doesn't it sound like it? The way my forefathers did, okay?

Acts 23.6, he's standing in front of the Sanhedrin, and he says, I'm a Pharisee! Whoo! Right? Okay.

But in other contexts, he considers his background in Judaism as a write-off, and he uses financial terms. Write it off. Are these in conflict, or is there perhaps a resolution between those viewpoints? It seems like he's thinking about his ministry as the continuance of that of the true believers, the decalcists. and maybe relay clear conscience to those forefathers.

Yeah. Okay. Alright. So, yeah. Stan? That's also, the forefathers, it was works. Okay. But that's where the gospel began. Yeah, no, it was... It was the promises. God gave the promises to those people. So, but it was works. It turned out to be works, whereas Paul learned through Christ. Yeah. And as the apostle, So that he had learned that it was a different dispensary.

Did the Pharisees accept the whole Old Testament as inspired Word of God? Did the Pharisees accept the whole Old Testament as inspired Word of God? It was the Sadducees who accepted it. That's right. It was only the Sadducees that said the first five books. And even that they were skeptical of.

So the Pharisees, of which Paul was one, actually, at least in some way, embrace the whole Old Testament as inspired scripture. Several years back, I sat down with a local Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Yossi, and his introductory statement to me is, he says, we are the Pharisees. We are the inheritors of their mantle. And he says, all these are holy books, referring to the Old Testament. in those books that they would indeed read and study.

Here's Isaiah 53. Who will believe our message? So belief is key, right? And this servant in Isaiah 53, this servant will die for the sins of others and be buried and raised again. Do you believe that? Did Paul? Yeah. Did Isaiah write it? Yep. Did the Pharisees say that was a holy book? Yep. So there were a lot of things about it. You look at it and say, that is right on. There were other things about it, frequently the rejection of Christ, frequently the reliance upon what I do. You'd have to say, that is not right.

Where he writes it off in Philippians chapter 3, He gives four things that were just basically things he was born into. I'm a Hebrew, I'm of this tribe, and all that, and three things that were personal accomplishments. Saying, well, you know, that doesn't matter so much, but are these the holy books? Do these holy books talk about the Messiah? As a matter of fact, even this, did the Pharisees believe in a resurrection? Yep. Did the Pharisees believe in a coming Messiah?

Yep, they did. And so in those things, Paul could look at it and say, I'm in complete agreement. He could look at that and say, right on. He was a completed Pharisee. He was a Pharisee that had his eyes open to where God had in fact fulfilled the things that were written there by inspiration.

Okay, so I think that while on the one hand you can look at, yeah, there's great conflict and division, on the other hand, there's a great deal of it that you can embrace and say, yep, that is right on. That is right on. I believe in the resurrection. As a matter of fact, let me tell you about somebody who resurrected. I believe in the Messiah, and let me tell you, I've met him.

So, yes, there was immense truth to be agreed with. Okay, is Paul going overboard to pray for Timothy night and day? I mean, is that a little bit over the top? What do you think? Should he switch to day and night? Which, by the way, brings the question, when does the Jewish day start? The Jewish day starts at night, right? The sun goes down, so night and day would actually be the sequence. Yeah, yeah, good question.

Yes? To answer that question, I think if you think about what Christ told his disciples the last night, he said, why couldn't you pray with me? Yeah. So the importance of Have you ever gotten in a situation where you're at your wick's end and all we can do is pray? Yeah, it's come to this. All we can do is pray. Isn't that great? Sometimes we get in that situation where all we can do is pray. And probably if we find ourselves in that spot, it's probably because that's exactly where the Lord wants us to be. All we can do is pray. Night and day or day and night, I'll let you pick which sequence, but, you know, I don't think it matters terribly. And no, it isn't over the top. As a matter of fact...

Do you think he repeated the same prayer over and over? Yeah, here's a good question. Beth, you asked a good question. Should we submit a prayer to the Lord once and say, that's it, never again am I going to pray about this? Or should we go and say, well, I'm going to repeat the prayer, in fact, I'm going to make sure I repeat it 256 times. Which one of those should I do?

I guess because I keep repeating. And is that vain repetition? Persistence. Yeah, Jesus tells an account of praying persistently. And see, here's the interesting thing, whereas on the one hand there's this warning in the Sermon on the Mount against doing just the repetitive prayer, but the repetitive prayer is a matter of just doing the motions.

We have this guy who's a spokesman for at least one sect of Buddhism, and that's the Dalai Lama. And he said a prayer on a hard drive is really good, because that goes around a lot of times. Anyway, yeah. As a matter of fact, they have special prayers, you know, special prayers you put on your hard drive, because then it keeps, while you're sleeping, it keeps going around and praying, right? So you can download Buddhist prayers to put on your hard drive because it goes roughly 3,000 times a second or something. What's the Lord really count here? My daughter has a friend that she is in constant, her mind is purple all the time. So she left her boss a message on the telephone, a long message. And at the end of it, she said in Jesus' name.

I think it would depend on the circumstance. If you're praying for someone like a missionary, that prayer is probably going to be repeated over again. There are some things we believe Jesus speaks to you. Let's ask another question that's not too dissimilar.

If we put it on the church prayer chain and ask dozens of people to pray about something, is that any different than a repetitive prayer? Or is that the fine print that allows us to pray a whole bunch of times, right? Ultimately, you think about that, what do you think the Lord's looking for? Do you think we've got little prayer rules that the Lord says, ah, you've got to abide by this little point in the checklist, you know?

That prayer is no good. It bounces off of heaven's floorboards, right? And it's no good because you said this twice before, and that's once too many anyway. He says pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing, okay. About the same thing, or say it once and that's it?

He looks off a mark. I think several things to look at. One is, the Lord's going to look on the heart, not on the hard drive. The Lord's going to look on the heart, not on the hard drive. Sorry, Dalai Lama. So that's part one. The other question is, does the Lord value our prayers? We pointed out in Revelation, our prayers are kept in golden bowls. They're not lead bowls or clay bowls. They are valued in heavenly realms. So prayers are valued. God looks on the heart. And let's ask something else. Is it possible I can pray not quite right and the Lord will still answer it? Yes. Yes. That's right. Romans chapter 8 says that the Holy Spirit takes my prayer and fixes it. So I can have a prayer that's not quite right on, and the Lord can fix it.

I can have a prayer, you know, the Lord doesn't say, well, you know, once is all you get, or five, or, you know, pi, 3.1415, anyway, forget that. There isn't some specific magic number, there isn't some checklist that we operate by. What if we're told, be anxious for nothing, but in all things, prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. If I get anxious five times, am I only supposed to pray once? No. No. And so the reality is, Jesus is saying, he's warning, with the repetitive prayer caution.

Don't let this be mechanical, like the Buddhists do, where you sit there and you have a whole row of prayer wheels and you run up and down the row and keep them going. Or you just download it and put it on the hard drive. It's not that. He does look on the heart, not on the hard drive. If you need to pray five times as an alternative to being anxious, that's biblical. Or fifty.

And there's that passage that says, the prayer of the righteous person accounted for much. And so then you go back to the righteous and that, you know, like David had a heart for God, and so your desire and your, you know, all the other things that go along with And here's an interesting point, too. I'm not saying we shouldn't have a prayer chain. My wife is the one who kind of initiates those things. But look at it. Your point is well taken. The prayer of one righteous person has great impact.

Is that a rule against having multiple people pray for something? No, it is not. But interesting in terms of, you know, do I have to have a gazillion people praying in order to have effectiveness? Not necessarily. So it's not a prohibition against multiple people praying, but what it says is it's quite possible that the Lord will listen very carefully to that one person. Isn't it interesting how the Lord's really quite gracious about this prayer thing?

Okay. Verse 4 seems so filled with emotion. Shouldn't Paul be a little more objective? Or can we give him a little attitude for emotion at this moment? Yeah? Actually, from some of the other comments in Scripture, I think this is a paper of plus for Paul. How he treated Mark and some of the other things that he said. His focus and his zealousness.

One of the things that you will hear described of guys who have been in battlefield situations, especially if they've been there at length, is that there's a joining among them who are unrelated, you know, by blood and marriage and all that. There's a joining among them having been through this situation. has not Timothy over a period now of more than two decades. Here's Timothy over a long period of time and he's been there with Paul where the rocks were flying and the crowds were running and all sorts of crazy things. He's been through thick and thin with this guy.

And now the last days, maybe weeks, are about there. I think we can give them a little room for getting emotional. It's one of those things where, you know, if we've been through a lot, I'm about to see you on the other side. I'll see you when we're both home. Imagine yourself writing your last letter. Yeah. Put yourself in that spot.

Second Timothy 1.5, 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. Look at the credit that Paul gives Timothy's grandmother and mother here. Let's also read 2 Timothy 3, 14, and 15. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which were able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Same book, just a couple chapters later.

So why isn't Timothy's father or grandfather given credit in 2 Timothy 1.5? How come their names aren't on here? Pardon? Yeah, there's no indication that they were of the faith. Matter of fact, there's an indication in each case that they had no regard for even the Jewishness.

First of all, let's ask this question. Timothy's mother here, what's her name? Eunice. Timothy's mother married a Greek man. Was that supposed to happen? Wasn't supposed to happen. Did the Greek man make sure that Timothy was circumcised? No. Acts chapter 16, first several verses, Paul circumcised Timothy. So he didn't care to even make sure that Timothy was circumcised.

That would have been a key point. Now, one more thing. The grandfather, what tells you that he's not in the mix? In the Jewish custom, how would a marriage be put together? Timothy's mother, who was Jewish, would have been put together with a Jewish man. That would be valid. Putting Timothy's mother together with a Greek man would not be according to the Jewish law. And so both Timothy's grandfather and his father were people who didn't care about the fact that Timothy was of Jewish background. They didn't care about carrying out the fundamentals of the law.

Now, so which are the sacred writings that Paul refers to in 2nd Timothy 3.15? So is this the Baha'u'llah Gita? Is this the Quran? What are the sacred writings he's talking about?

The Old Testament. Certainly the first five books, the Torah, but actually the entire Old Testament would be considered the sacred writings at this point in time. By the time Second Timothy was written, a number of New Testament books had been written. Some of them may not have had wide circulation yet. Some more likely than others. But the Old Testament books, the Jews call it the Tanakh. What's that?

Yes, he and Paul would likely have made sure, okay, you got my letters, there's those. But for example, it may have taken a while for the letter to Titus to get around to Timothy. So, why does Paul point to faith in both of these passages? 2 Timothy 1.5 and 2 Timothy 3.14 and 15 both make mention of faith. Do you have an idea why?

Why is faith so important? It's impossible to please God without faith. That is the way God has set things up. Faith is fundamental to pleasing God. Any other reasons? As he said, it's that faith that's in Christ Jesus. Put trust into God's special revelation to Christ.

Some place in Isaiah that he's the hidden God, and in many of the Psalms it talks about not being able to see Him and His presence isn't there. So if you go to Hebrews chapter 11, you go to that first sentence, it talks about believing in things you can't see. So you can't see God, you might be able to see the cloud and the pillar of fire, but you can't see Spirit. Last part there, 2 Timothy 1, 6 and 7.

For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, actually that could be translated cowardice. Wow, that's intense. But of power and love and discipline. So, why does Paul give these reminders?

Why not just kind of go with the flow? Hey Timothy, you know, whatever works for you, just kind of, you know, just go for it. If you kind of feel like doing this way, just go ahead and do that way. If you feel like going this way or that way, you know, however you're inclined, you know. Why not just go with that, take that route? I mean, isn't that easier, simpler, less complicated? Potentially less stressful. Why go with this reminder stuff? Do we need reminders, by the way?

Kind of like a road map. If you follow the rocks, then you'll get where you're ultimately going. But if you go where there are no roads, I mean, it can be rough, but you'll achieve your goal. Okay, alright. You're going to end up where you're supposed to, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Should Christians be completely free of any sense of ought? Should Christians Take the other approach. Should Christians be full of a sense of oughtness? I ought to do this, I ought not to do that. So which extreme is right? To be completely free of any sense of ought, or to be full of all kinds of senses of I ought to do this, I ought not to do that.

Yes. That's the whole purpose of basic training, particularly marine basic training, as I understand it. So when you go into battle, you remember these things that are stuck in your mind and they've been repeated a hundred million times. So that when you are there and you don't have time to think, you do what you ought. Yes. Okay. All right. Consider yourself dead to sin. So that's an ongoing thing. Ought you to consider yourself dead to sin? And the other half of it, a life to God? Ought you to do that? Should you feel guilty if you don't? What do you think God intends here?

This is something for Christians I think to ponder because there's a good deal of Christendom that says the more aughts you got the better, right? A whole bunch of aughts. And are we under grace free of aughts or do we have aughts and they're motivated and worked out differently?

I'm able to, or I can, but by grace, I want to. Because I'm saved, I want to. This is a tremendous question, but they're about to break the doors down. Let me pray. Okay. Lord, we thank you for this tremendous passage. We thank you for these great questions and great answers and discussions. We just commit our thoughts and our time to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.