SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_00: Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.
SPEAKER_02: So uh we're continuing our series called The Way of the Steadfast this morning, and we're kicking off Second Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul's second letter to Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: You can grab your Bible or a Bible in front of you, turn to 2 Timothy 1.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give us an introduction and a setting of this letter.
SPEAKER_02: Um in this in this first chapter of 2 Timothy, Paul is gonna give five commissions to Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm calling this message five commissions for steadfast leadership.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we know from Pastor Marcus a couple weeks ago that 2 Timothy is one of three pastoral epistles.
SPEAKER_02: So we have 1st and 2 Timothy as well as Titus.
SPEAKER_02: These were all pastors, and the both these guys were pastors in the first century.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul wrote these letters as their spiritual father, endeavoring to give them wisdom, doctrine, help them navigate what it looks like to pastor the church or a group of believers.
SPEAKER_02: And between last week and this week, we're fast-forwarding about five or six years.
SPEAKER_02: So from the first letter that he wrote to Timothy to now, a lot has happened in his life and also in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_02: So most likely he wrote this final letter in around 67 AD.
SPEAKER_02: This is the last thing that Paul will write.
SPEAKER_02: And that's very significant to me.
SPEAKER_02: And he's writing from a prison in Rome, and that prison is uh it's a Mamertine prison known as the Carcertulianum.
SPEAKER_02: It's located in the Roman Forum, and it was originally made as like a cistern for water, so it's just a big hole in the ground, and Paul is down in there, and they this is where they would keep high-profile prisoners that were on death row or awaiting trial.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul is a high-profile prisoner.
SPEAKER_02: He's like public enemy number one according to Rome.
SPEAKER_02: And um he's actually going to be executed later this year, most likely.
SPEAKER_02: So Eusebius wrote in his in Chronicles that Nero executed Paul in the 14th year of his reign over Rome.
SPEAKER_02: So that was in 67 AD, likely around the same time that Paul wrote this letter.
SPEAKER_02: He's going to be poured out as a drink offering.
SPEAKER_02: He says this in chapter 4, verse 6, and the time of his departure is at hand.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul's acknowledging I'm about to graduate from earthly ministry to heavenly ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And uh Nero's gonna chop his head off.
SPEAKER_02: Pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_02: And he's writing this as a man on death row, as public enemy number one, as a high-profile prisoner.
SPEAKER_02: And a few years before this letter in 64 AD, Rome burned.
SPEAKER_02: So Tacitus, who was a first century Roman historian and politician, wrote that Nero set fire to Rome because he wanted to do this renovation project for ancient Rome.
SPEAKER_02: He had this vision in his mind, we're gonna rebuild this area and we're gonna revamp this area.
SPEAKER_02: And he presented it to the Senate, and the Senate said, no, that's gonna cost too much money.
SPEAKER_02: So Nero, being the psychopath that he was, he hired somebody, most likely hired somebody.
SPEAKER_02: People say he did it, I doubt he did it himself, to burn Rome to the ground.
SPEAKER_02: And ten of the 14 precincts of ancient Rome burned to the ground in 64 AD.
SPEAKER_02: And then it was a win-win for Nero because he got to do his renovation project, but he also got to blame that terrorism on the Christians.
SPEAKER_02: So from 64 AD on, we see intense, and I mean intense, persecution of believers.
SPEAKER_02: And this is thrilling to Nero.
SPEAKER_02: Nero enjoyed dipping Christians in oil and setting them on fire and using them as torches for his garden at night.
SPEAKER_02: So this is the guy we're talking about.
SPEAKER_02: This is the guy ruling the world during this time, and Paul is in prison, about to be executed by him, and he's writing this letter to Timothy from Carcertulianum.
SPEAKER_02: Most people would agree that this is Paul's second imprisonment in Rome, but in the book of Acts, we end at his first imprisonment.
SPEAKER_02: So Luke finished the book of Acts with Paul being imprisoned the first time in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: Most likely he was released and then re-incarcerated later, probably from Troas, because later in this book he's going to ask Timothy to bring him a cloak that he left in Troas, which also tells us about the conditions of his imprisonment.
SPEAKER_02: Rome didn't really care about their prisoners.
SPEAKER_02: They were totally fine with people freezing to death.
SPEAKER_02: They were totally fine with people being naked.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is chained up at the bottom of a cistern, a hole in the ground with bars over the top, and he's freezing.
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't feed their prisoners then either, unless they absolutely had to, but rarely would they do that.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul, I'm sure, is used to starving.
SPEAKER_02: He's used to fasting, he's used to going without food.
SPEAKER_02: And he's telling Timothy, hey, I want you to come and visit me if you're brave enough.
SPEAKER_02: And I want you to bring my coat, because I'm really cold, and I want you to bring my letters, my writings.
SPEAKER_02: So even at the end of his life, the dude loved Scripture and was longing to study Scripture and study his writings, study some scrolls.
SPEAKER_02: Pretty amazing stuff.
SPEAKER_02: So if you knew you were about to die, what would be the last things you would write to your closest spiritual son?
SPEAKER_02: And this is the letter that Paul writes at the height of his spiritual maturity and the height of his revelation.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he's not going to get smarter than this.
SPEAKER_02: He's not going to know more about God than this until he graduates up to heaven.
SPEAKER_02: He's sharing it with his dearest spiritual son from a cold, damp prison impending his martyrdom.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the final counsel of the man of God on death row who has done all to stand.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, he he said in Ephesians 6, stand, having done all to stand, stand therefore.
SPEAKER_02: And he's doing that at the bottom of a cistern prison in chains.
SPEAKER_02: And his chains right now are his only companions.
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to read these first seven verses.
SPEAKER_02: I want to pray before we do.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I ask you to breathe on this scripture today and make it fresh for us.
SPEAKER_02: Apply it to our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Speak to our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: God, bring conviction.
SPEAKER_02: God, bring encouragement and exhortation.
SPEAKER_02: God, bring comfort in this season that we're in.
SPEAKER_02: Some challenging for others.
SPEAKER_02: It's a great time.
SPEAKER_02: God, would you meet us where we're at?
SPEAKER_02: Would you help me not to speak anything out of turn that's dishonoring or heretical?
SPEAKER_02: Help me not to say anything stupid.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So 2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_02: You can read with me in your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, a beloved son.
SPEAKER_02: Grace and mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: It's one of my favorite things.
SPEAKER_02: So the first thing that I wanted to talk about is this word apostle.
SPEAKER_02: I haven't heard this taught in detail since I've been here, so I just wanted to highlight this.
SPEAKER_02: It's really encouraging to me.
SPEAKER_02: The word apostle was a Greek term.
SPEAKER_02: It's apostolos.
SPEAKER_02: And there's three historical meanings for the Greek term apostolos.
SPEAKER_02: So anybody that heard that word that was in ancient Rome would have completely understood it because it was coined a few years, a few hundred years before the life of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And the first historical meaning is it was the name of an admiral of a specific fleet of ships.
SPEAKER_02: And this fleet of ships would go to conquered but uncolonized provinces of ancient Rome.
SPEAKER_02: So they had this fleet of ships.
SPEAKER_02: The admiral of that fleet of ships was known as the Apostolos.
SPEAKER_02: And who was on these fleet of ships were language teachers, architects, road builders.
SPEAKER_02: There were people that could come in to an uncolonized region and bring the knowledge and culture of Rome until it looked like Rome.
SPEAKER_02: So they would build roads, they would change the architecture, they would teach people Greek so that they would be like Roman citizens.
SPEAKER_02: So they were taking conquered barbarians and making them into Romans.
SPEAKER_02: That was what an apostolos did.
SPEAKER_02: And then after a few years, once they did their job, they'd pack everything back on the ships and they would go to the next uncolonized land.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what an apostle is supposed to be doing as well.
SPEAKER_02: So someone that is an apostle, like Paul or the other writers of Scripture, or the other disciples, or even people like in Romans 16, it talks about Junius being a female apostle and some other people being apostles.
SPEAKER_02: Those apostles would come in to an area and they would bring the culture of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: See what I mean?
SPEAKER_02: So they're coming in as apostolos, bringing the architecture of heaven, bringing the language of the kingdom, bringing the culture of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And their job was to make a conquered land look so much like Rome so that if the emperor ever visited, he felt at home.
SPEAKER_02: And that's really what we're doing as Christians is we're colonizing in a kingdom sense.
SPEAKER_02: Don't read the negative sense of that word.
SPEAKER_02: I know that's a negative word for a lot of people nowadays, but we're taking the culture of Christ, the culture of heaven, the culture of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, so that when Jesus comes, he feels like he's going from one heaven to another.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's actually going to happen at one point in the second coming of Christ, but it also can happen now in our churches, in our regions.
SPEAKER_02: What would it look like if Colorado Springs looked just like heaven?
SPEAKER_02: I believe that the presence and the nature and the character of Christ would come in and saturate this region and we would see the culture of heaven before our eyes.
SPEAKER_02: I believe it's available for the road church.
SPEAKER_02: We can be an apostolic people.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I gotta keep going.
SPEAKER_02: The second historical meaning was a passport.
SPEAKER_02: Apostolos was the name for a passport in ancient Rome.
SPEAKER_02: So if you wanted to travel from one region to another region, you needed an apostolos.
SPEAKER_02: And in the same way, an apostle or an apostolic group of people, we can be an apostolic church.
SPEAKER_02: Remember the five-fold ministry in Ephesians 4?
SPEAKER_02: One of those offices is the apostle, and his job is to equip the saints for the work of apostolic ministry.
SPEAKER_02: So an apostle makes people apostolic.
SPEAKER_02: So we're called to be apostolic.
SPEAKER_02: And we can be like a passport for people in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, Paul wrote in Corinthians about the ministry of the unveiled face, where we come up to people that have veils over their eyes to the gospel, but when they come to us, the veil is taken away so that they can see clearly.
SPEAKER_02: And we can be apostolic to this region.
SPEAKER_02: We can do more than preach the gospel as in the saving knowledge of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We can also preach the culture of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: We can also shift the way that we see things.
SPEAKER_02: This is a message for Colorado right now, you guys.
SPEAKER_02: Our state is looking less and less kingdom because of our legislation, but we as an apostolic people, through our neighbors, through people that we meet, through our friends, through our soon-to-be friends, we can bring the kingdom and the culture of the kingdom and be like a passport that takes people into the kingdom realm, even though they don't have one of their own.
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting that we belong usually before we fully believe.
SPEAKER_02: And unbelievers should begin to feel at home around us so that we can function like a passport in their life into revelation.
SPEAKER_02: And an apostle even brings Christians into deeper and higher levels of scriptural revelation.
SPEAKER_02: You've probably experienced this.
SPEAKER_02: You can tell when somebody has an apostolic call on their life because you're sitting to them, sitting under their teaching, and then something you were trying to figure out all week suddenly makes sense to you.
SPEAKER_02: And it has nothing to do with what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_02: That's the spirit of revelation.
SPEAKER_02: It rests on apostolic teachers, it rests on apostolic people.
SPEAKER_02: There's some people you feel smarter around.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, man, stuff just makes sense when I talk to this person, and they're not even explaining anything to me.
SPEAKER_02: I just come away from conversations with them, and I'm like, oh, that all makes sense now.
SPEAKER_02: That's apostolic.
SPEAKER_02: And the third historical meaning of apostolos was an envoy or an ambassador.
SPEAKER_02: You know, a representative, emissary, messenger, agent.
SPEAKER_02: I think we're all familiar with that.
SPEAKER_02: So an apostle was like an admiral, one leading a team to colonize unbelievers and to bring the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: He was like a passport who could take places, people, places spiritually.
SPEAKER_02: You couldn't go on your own.
SPEAKER_02: And he was a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul says, this is by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So it's not by his will, it's not by his own ambition, it's not by the will of man, it's by the will of God that he's called as an apostle.
SPEAKER_02: And it's according to the promise of life.
SPEAKER_02: He never writes the phrase the promise of life in any of his other letters.
SPEAKER_02: So it's interesting to me that coming from a pen of a man who knows he's dying, he's holding on to the promise of life.
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty amazing what faith does when you're staring death in the face and you call it the promise of life.
SPEAKER_02: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_02: God help us.
SPEAKER_02: Because our promise of life is the same as his, and it's also in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 When this corruptible has put on incorruption, this mortal is put on immortality, it shall be brought to pass.
SPEAKER_02: The saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_02: O death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_02: O Hades, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_02: This same apostle wrote to the Philippians, To me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
SPEAKER_02: This isn't something new for him.
SPEAKER_02: He's been preaching this for a while.
SPEAKER_02: He longs to go home and see Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2, to Timothy, a beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is not Timothy's biological father.
SPEAKER_02: He calls him a son in the faith in 1 Timothy 1, verse 2.
SPEAKER_02: It's good to have spiritual fathers and mothers, and it's good to be a spiritual father or mother.
SPEAKER_02: We should all be striving to do that.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care if you're 18, you can be mentoring someone else, you can be pouring into someone else.
SPEAKER_02: Ultimately, God is our father, right?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, call no one your father, call no one your teacher, because God is your father and teacher.
SPEAKER_02: But he created us and designed us to need one another.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: In Ephesians 4, he said that we're joints of supply.
SPEAKER_02: Ephesians 4, 16, to one another.
SPEAKER_02: So we shouldn't be independent from one another, but we should be seeking out spiritual fathering, spiritual mothering, and we should be seeking to be spiritual fathers and mothers.
SPEAKER_02: This is a good thing, and it's something that Paul operated in.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 3, I thank God.
SPEAKER_02: It's a different kind of faith that keeps a prisoner on death row thankful.
SPEAKER_02: We can see from the context, he's primarily thankful for Timothy, his relationship.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, he wrote to the Philippians in chapter Philippians 2 19, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state, for I have no one like-minded who will care for your state.
SPEAKER_02: So of all the people Paul could send, and I'm sure he had a lot of people that he could send when he wrote Philippians, he said, There's only one person that's like me.
SPEAKER_02: There's only one person that's going to love you well, and that's Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul's opinion of Timothy is extremely high.
SPEAKER_02: And uh that's very significant to me.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be one that the Lord Jesus can entrust people to.
SPEAKER_02: See, when you if you're looking for the Father, you just need to close the door.
SPEAKER_02: Just need to get everybody out of the room and close the door, and you'll find the Father.
SPEAKER_02: That's where He lives.
SPEAKER_02: That's where He longs to meet you.
SPEAKER_02: As without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers night and day.
SPEAKER_02: Paul was a praying man.
SPEAKER_02: He often emphasized the importance of night and day praying, which just means continually.
SPEAKER_02: It at least means twice a day, right?
SPEAKER_02: Night, day.
SPEAKER_02: But I think it probably means more than that.
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: You throw a man of God in prison and he'll thank you for the prayer closet.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, wow, this is a really cold prayer closet, but hey, I'm glad I have these chains to keep me company while I pray in tongues more than you all.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul, like any of us, gets joy from family.
SPEAKER_02: It's obvious that he sees Timothy as family.
SPEAKER_02: Who knows what Timothy's tears were about, but Paul met him when he was about 15 years old.
SPEAKER_02: We can read about that in Acts 16, Acts chapter 16.
SPEAKER_02: But most likely, uh these tears were the last time he watched Paul leave.
SPEAKER_02: And uh it's not supposed to be easy to leave.
SPEAKER_02: That's really significant to me.
SPEAKER_02: If it's hard to leave, that's good.
SPEAKER_02: What's not good is being able to go, ah, I don't really like this church anymore, I'm just gonna go to a different one.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be easy to do that.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be easy to switch cities, switch churches, switch friend groups.
SPEAKER_02: It's supposed to be really hard to do that.
SPEAKER_02: That's how you know you're loving people well.
SPEAKER_02: If it's hard for you to let go of people, if it's hard for you to transition, if it's hard for you to move on, you know.
SPEAKER_02: Uh almost four years ago I came on staff at this church.
SPEAKER_02: Before that, I was at the same church in Pueblo since 2011.
SPEAKER_02: You know, they they mentored me, they pastored me, they walked me through really hard seasons, and then they made me a worship leader, and I went from that church to this church.
SPEAKER_02: That was really hard for me to do.
SPEAKER_02: I also left a teaching career to go into ministry.
SPEAKER_02: That was really hard for me to do, and I cried a lot.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I was really excited, I knew God was sending me, but it was still really hard.
SPEAKER_02: And you can ask Pastor Steve, it was probably a little frustrating for him and Pastor Ryan because I kept going, Oh, I don't know, I've I feel like I probably need to do another year.
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, dude, what is going on?
SPEAKER_02: It was hard.
SPEAKER_02: It was hard for me to leave those people because they loved me and I loved them, and that's the way it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_02: So if it's not that way, change something.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 5, I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.
SPEAKER_02: So, like I said, Paul met Timothy when he was 15.
SPEAKER_02: Timothy's mother and grandmother were both Jewish, and uh Jewish heritage has passed through the maternal side, so that makes Timothy a Jew as well.
SPEAKER_02: But uh he wasn't really the traditional Jew because his dad was a non-believing Greek.
SPEAKER_02: And it was actually Paul who circumcised Timothy in his teenage years so that he would be more acceptable to Jewish people.
SPEAKER_02: It really gives you a different view of being all things to all people, right?
SPEAKER_02: Timothy's like, you want to do what, Paul?
SPEAKER_02: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I better move on before I get in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: But Paul really stepped in as his dad.
SPEAKER_02: Paul came and found this young 15-year-old gung-ho Christian.
SPEAKER_02: His mom and his grandma came to faith because of Paul's preaching.
SPEAKER_02: So they were Jews, but they became Messianic Jews because of Paul's teaching.
SPEAKER_02: And then it says that their genuine faith became Timothy's inheritance.
SPEAKER_02: So don't underestimate the power of a praying mom.
SPEAKER_02: Don't underestimate the power of a praying grandma.
SPEAKER_02: Don't underestimate the power of training up your kids at home.
SPEAKER_02: Because we hear about Lois and Eunice, not because they performed signs and wonders, not because they preached a good word, not because they did some huge cultural reform, but because they raised Timothy with faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's a big inheritance.
SPEAKER_02: And they're immortalized in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: They're known because they were good moms.
SPEAKER_02: Being a good mom is really important for the Man of God on death row to remind himself of two women's faith.
SPEAKER_02: That is significant to me.
SPEAKER_02: So hug your mom.
SPEAKER_02: I love he says call to remembrance.
SPEAKER_02: That is one Greek word, and it literally means to actively bring to mind and mention out loud.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul is in the bottom of this pit.
SPEAKER_02: It's cold, it's damp, he's shivering.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna ask Timothy to bring his cloak later in the letter.
SPEAKER_02: That's how cold it is.
SPEAKER_02: And he's chained to the floor, probably, or to the wall, and he is actively bringing Timothy to mind night and day and mentioning him out loud.
SPEAKER_02: Boy, I'd love to be on Paul's prayer list.
SPEAKER_02: That is intercession right there.
SPEAKER_02: And uh it's it's an important thing for us to do, and Paul is gonna remind Timothy what he needs to call to remembrance in his own life.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore I remind you, he says, I call to remembrance, so now I'm reminding you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
SPEAKER_02: So there's five commissions that Paul specifically gives to Timothy in this chapter, and the first one is this to stir up the gift of God.
SPEAKER_02: He's referring to Timothy's ordination when Paul laid hands on him, and through the ministry of impartation, he imparted the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: This is the same kind of thing that happened to the early church where Jesus said, Wait in Jerusalem, for you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Paul is talking about.
SPEAKER_02: He's exhorting him, stir up the gift of God.
SPEAKER_02: And this isn't a stirring up like stirring in a sauce tea or pasta.
SPEAKER_02: This is like stirring up a fire.
SPEAKER_02: And it means to stir up, to kindle, to blow upon coals that have grown dormant.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul is saying all this great stuff.
SPEAKER_02: He says, you have genuine faith, but you're growing cold.
SPEAKER_02: Timothy, you, your mom, your grandma, you have genuine faith.
SPEAKER_02: But I remember when I laid hands on you and you were so on fire for God.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to remind you from my prison cell to stir up the fire.
SPEAKER_02: Stir up the gift of God.
SPEAKER_02: Don't let it grow cold.
SPEAKER_02: Get piping hot with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna find out why.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 7 for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's reminding Timothy, he received the gift of the Holy Spirit who will enable him to push through the fear of death and embrace the soundness of mind that comes from the power and the love of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So this word for fear is delia in the Greek, it's not phobos.
SPEAKER_02: So this is the only time in the Bible that this word is used.
SPEAKER_02: So a lot of translations translate it as timidity to differentiate between phobos, which is phobia, you know, fear, perfect love casts out fear.
SPEAKER_02: This is the only time that Paul or any of the writers use this word, delia, and it means timidity, cowardice, or fearfulness.
SPEAKER_02: It's significant to me because the context of Paul's letter, in the next verse and later in this letter, you'll find that most of the church has abandoned him in his imprisonment and has become ashamed to be affiliated with him.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul doesn't want Timothy to fall into the fear, he wants him to be bold.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be timid, Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: Be bold, be full of courage.
SPEAKER_02: How?
SPEAKER_02: He's giving him three keys: power, love, and a sound mind.
SPEAKER_02: The word for power is dunamis, it's also the word for miracle, it's where we get dynamite from.
SPEAKER_02: It's the explosive power of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's the power that came upon the apostles at Pentecost, which by the way, today is Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Happy Pentecost.
SPEAKER_02: Yeehaw.
SPEAKER_02: I believe today God wants to pour his power out again.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: For those of us that have grown cold, for those of us that have grown timid, guys.
SPEAKER_02: I I've been reading this book over and over and just weeping because I relate so much to Timothy right now.
SPEAKER_02: I'm 31, I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_02: I have a music degree and I'm preaching the Bible to people.
SPEAKER_02: I look out here and I just see a sea of wisdom, and I'm supposed to teach you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm kind of scared of you, to be honest.
SPEAKER_02: You know?
SPEAKER_02: But but the power of God is present to cause me to overcome fearfulness and timidity and to be bold.
SPEAKER_02: The second thing that's present to cause me to overcome timidity is love.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you'll do for love what you won't do for anything else.
SPEAKER_02: If I was on a skyscraper with a two-foot beam connecting to another skyscraper and you put a briefcase on the other side with a million dollars, I'm not walking across there even for a million dollars.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna die.
SPEAKER_02: But if you put my family over there and you say, if you don't get over there, I'm gonna push them off.
SPEAKER_02: I'm running across that beam.
SPEAKER_02: What you'll do for fear, you'll put your life at risk for love.
SPEAKER_02: That's why John wrote, perfect love casts out fear.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul is giving Timothy another key.
SPEAKER_02: If you can stir up love in your heart, this is agape love.
SPEAKER_02: That's the word here.
SPEAKER_02: It's selfless love, it's love that seeks others before yourself.
SPEAKER_02: It's the same love that God had when he endured the cross.
SPEAKER_02: That love will drive you to do things that you're scared to do.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what I feel in my heart toward you guys today.
SPEAKER_02: And I look out there and I see people that love me.
SPEAKER_02: And I see people that I love.
SPEAKER_02: So it makes it a lot less scary to stand up here and talk, and I could put my foot in my mouth, and most of you would be like, ah, it's all right.
SPEAKER_02: We love you more for it anyway.
SPEAKER_02: You know?
SPEAKER_02: Can make a fool out of myself, and you guys would just think I'm cool because there's love in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: And there's love in my heart.
SPEAKER_02: That's gonna carry us through very difficult times.
SPEAKER_02: Love will prevent us from folding to fear, offense, lust, and deception.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll be empowered by the Holy Spirit to overcome those temptations.
SPEAKER_02: And the last thing he gives him as a key is a sound mind.
SPEAKER_02: The word is sopranismos, which comes from the root words sozo and fren.
SPEAKER_02: Sozo is the root word of soteria, that's salvation, it's healing, it's deliverance, it's the finished work of the cross.
SPEAKER_02: When sozo impacts sickness, you get healed.
SPEAKER_02: When sozo impacts addictions, you get free.
SPEAKER_02: That's what sozo does.
SPEAKER_02: So sophrenismos is sozo-mindedness.
SPEAKER_02: Fren is a way of thinking, it's a thought process.
SPEAKER_02: So a sound mind, you could say, or disciplined mind or self-discipline, it actually comes from the understanding and experience of God's salvation impacting your thinking.
SPEAKER_02: And Timothy has this opportunity that Paul is reminding him of to put salvation in his mind.
SPEAKER_02: You might be scared to preach the gospel, Timothy, but remember the salvation, remember the work of the cross, and put that on your mind and watch yourself become cool, calm, collected, and unwavering.
SPEAKER_02: These are three keys for Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: And I love this verse in Revelation 12, 11.
SPEAKER_02: We usually quote two-thirds of it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna quote all three parts.
SPEAKER_02: They overcame him, him being Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to death.
SPEAKER_02: They loved Christ and the elect so much that the fear of death had no hold on them.
SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting, most of the places in the book of Revelation that use the word overcomer, they're talking about somebody who's martyred.
SPEAKER_02: And the word for testimony is also the word martyr, and the word for witness is also the word martyr.
SPEAKER_02: So it tells you that when you lay your life down, both figuratively and literally, because Paul's gonna do that, and Timothy's gonna follow in his footsteps later on in life.
SPEAKER_02: Timothy will also be killed for his faith.
SPEAKER_02: When you are martyred, it is the best witness and testimony of Christ you can offer.
SPEAKER_02: The laying down of one's life.
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, it you don't have to necessarily die.
SPEAKER_02: We know what laying down our lives mean.
SPEAKER_02: That is the best witness we have.
SPEAKER_02: When you do what you don't want to do because God's asking you to do it, that grace that comes to empower us to do hard things.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we overcome.
SPEAKER_02: As a church, as believers, these three keys are gonna help Timothy out of cowardice, timidity, and fear by stirring up the fire of God through recalling his mighty acts, receiving prophetic words, receiving the impartation through laying out of hands.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do that today.
SPEAKER_02: We can walk out of timidity and into God's dunimous power, his agape love, his sozo-mindedness that causes us to overwhelmingly conquer, even to the point of death.
SPEAKER_02: I gotta get a move on.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go to verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.
SPEAKER_02: This is Paul's second commission to Timothy in the first chapter.
SPEAKER_02: Do not be ashamed.
SPEAKER_02: Now we have a better view of what Paul has in mind as he's exhorting Timothy out of timidity.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, You might be fearful and become ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: He's later going to say that others are ashamed of his chains or ashamed of his imprisonment.
SPEAKER_02: But verse 8b, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.
SPEAKER_02: This is Paul's third commission.
SPEAKER_02: Embrace suffering for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's going to use the word suffering four times in this letter.
SPEAKER_02: So it's a significant theme.
SPEAKER_02: It makes sense.
SPEAKER_02: Many in our culture have abandoned the inevitable, inevitable necessity of suffering and preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: But here we read Paul encouraging his son in the faith to suffer with him.
SPEAKER_02: Suffer with me is one word in the Greek.
SPEAKER_02: So it's to see someone suffering and choose to engage in their suffering with him.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is telling Timothy, come suffer.
SPEAKER_02: Come suffer with me.
SPEAKER_02: Come share in my suffering.
SPEAKER_02: And Timothy's going to do that.
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_02: God's power is what enables us to endure and embrace suffering.
SPEAKER_02: So if Timothy's being exhorted to unashamedly and boldly testify about the Lord, how much more are we to step out in the power of the Spirit to share the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: Paul and Timothy risk their lives every day for our message.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm afraid to inconvenience people with it.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 8:17.
SPEAKER_02: Says, if children and heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if we indeed suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.
SPEAKER_02: See that air, that sonship authority, it's connected to our willingness to join in with the sufferings of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 9 Who has 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 to us in Christ Jesus before the time began.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's going to spend the next three verses showing us and reminding us why we should embrace suffering.
SPEAKER_02: God saved us, he called us according to grace, not because of our works.
SPEAKER_02: He did it outside of time.
SPEAKER_02: We were predestined to sonship to be conformed into the image of Christ through grace.
SPEAKER_02: We've got some verses in the notes on the app if you want to look at those through the week.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_02: For this reason I also suffer these things.
SPEAKER_02: Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
SPEAKER_02: There's those words again.
SPEAKER_02: For I know whom I have believed.
SPEAKER_03: I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day.
SPEAKER_03: Paul says he's not ashamed and he's embracing suffering for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the elect.
SPEAKER_02: He uses that terminology in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_02: It blows my mind.
SPEAKER_02: I'm suffering for the sake of the elect.
SPEAKER_02: I'm suffering for you.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: Notice that Paul doesn't say, I know what I have believed.
SPEAKER_02: He's not leaning on his knowledge about God or his expertise in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: He's leaning on his beloved Savior.
SPEAKER_02: I know whom I have believed.
SPEAKER_02: He's clinging to Jesus, like the bride in Song of Solomon 8.
SPEAKER_02: Coming up from the wilderness of this world, leaning, clinging to his beloved.
SPEAKER_02: He knows whom he has believed.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is his fourth commission.
SPEAKER_02: Hold fast to sound scriptural teaching.
SPEAKER_02: This implies that Timothy's going to be challenged in the soundness of his teachings, and Paul's very familiar with that.
SPEAKER_02: There were constantly people turning and bewitching the churches Paul planted to the point that he called them a thorn in his flesh.
SPEAKER_02: So we know Timothy's going to face the same challenges in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's helped him address some of those things.
SPEAKER_02: You know, they had one of the seven wonders of the world, which was the temple to Artemis.
SPEAKER_02: So women would pilgrimage to Ephesus because they believed that Artemis would save them in their childbirth.
SPEAKER_02: So he says to Timothy, they're saved through childbirth with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: They don't need Artemis.
SPEAKER_02: They don't need to pilgrimage to pray to Diana.
SPEAKER_02: Christ will save them through their childbirth.
SPEAKER_02: There's all of these things that this pagan culture believed, and we're in a post-Christian culture now, and Paul is telling Timothy and us by extension to hold fast to sound scriptural teaching.
SPEAKER_02: He says, That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
SPEAKER_02: His fifth and final commission to Timothy is to keep and guard the good things committed to you.
SPEAKER_02: This is done only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Don't waver in your calling.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you've been timid.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you're tempted to shy back in fear.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you've been despised for your age, but you have the Holy Spirit, and he will enable you to do all that God has entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_02: So keep and guard those things.
SPEAKER_02: Reminds me of Proverbs 4, 20 through 24.
SPEAKER_02: You know, keep those words.
SPEAKER_02: Keep his sayings in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Guard your heart, for from it flow the issues of life.
SPEAKER_02: My word is life to those who find them and to all their being.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be searching in the word of God so that we're guarding and keeping our heart.
SPEAKER_02: There's really only one way to guard and keep your heart.
SPEAKER_02: It's through the power of the Holy Spirit, and it's through constantly allowing Him to teach us from His Word.
SPEAKER_02: This you know that all in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Fagellus and Hermogenes.
SPEAKER_02: These are two leaders who have not remained steadfast or followed his commissions.
SPEAKER_02: I would hate to be immortalized like them in Scripture forever for abandoning Paul and abandoning the gospel in fear and shame and timidity.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, grant mercy to the household of Vanesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.
SPEAKER_02: But when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day, and you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.
SPEAKER_02: So, in contrast to Fagellus and Hermogenes, Onesaphorus was not ashamed to be affiliated with Paul and instead sought him out.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine that, like this dude's gonna get executed for being public enemy number one, and Onesaphorus goes, That sounds like somebody I'd like to visit publicly and make it known.
SPEAKER_02: It's in the Roman Forum.
SPEAKER_02: He's probably like laying on the ground.
SPEAKER_02: Hey Paul, how you doing down there, bro?
SPEAKER_02: Like everybody sees.
SPEAKER_02: He's not scared, he's not ashamed.
SPEAKER_02: That's who I want to be.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, but I'd rather make it onto Paul's prayer list than be used as an eternal example of timidity and shame.
SPEAKER_02: So, in conclusion, there's five commissions for us today to be steadfast leaders.
SPEAKER_02: Think everyone in this room is a steadfast leader.
SPEAKER_02: Stir up the gift of God.
SPEAKER_02: The things that have grown cold, blow on those coals.
SPEAKER_02: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_02: Ask people to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: Get some impartation.
SPEAKER_02: Find people that are doing what you hunger to do and go where they are and ask them to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: That's why I went to Brazil in December.
SPEAKER_02: Do not be ashamed.
SPEAKER_02: Embrace suffering for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what that looks like in our culture fully, but I think what it looks like is letting power, love, and a sound mind influence you and not fear.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's the first step.
SPEAKER_02: And you'll find yourself falling into trials, you'll find yourself falling into suffering.
SPEAKER_02: I think our church has gone through a trial right now, but I'm so proud to be here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so proud to be on staff with these pastors.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so proud to be in this room with you believers.
SPEAKER_02: There's men and women of faith in this room that I greatly admire and respect.
SPEAKER_02: And you're not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Hold fast to sound scriptural teaching.
SPEAKER_02: Keep in guard the good things committed to you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in the world.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: That's therode.org.