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Good morning “Walking with Jesus ” friends,
Today is Monday, January 6, 2020… are you getting used to saying and writing 2020 yet?
We’re only looking at 3 verses of God’s Word today, 1 Timothy 1:18-20, but they are very powerful verses. The Apostle Paul wrote them to his young friend Timothy whom he had left in the big city of Ephesus to deal with discord and confusion among the Christians in Ephesus. Christians, Paul himself had led to Christ, and taught during his three years living in that city… but that was a few years before, and without his leadership, things had begun to unravel spiritually in Ephesus.
Discord, disagreement, conflict are all too frequent and unwelcome intruders into our lives, aren’t they? We’ve just come through Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I would imagine many of us in the “Walking with Jesus” community, experienced these three words over the holidays in our own relationships, whether family, work groups, or even churches. Sadly, it’s part of life. . .but Jesus helps us be PEACE-MAKERS rather than “PEACE-BREAKERS”, doesn’t He?? We’ll learn more about HOW to be a ‘peace-maker’ this year. For today, Paul wants us to learn some important things in these three verses, so let’s dig in:
“Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight.” (1 Tim. 1:18) Now we know Timothy was not Paul’s biological or adopted son. Acts 16:1 tells us Timothy’s father was a Greek man whom we presume had not trusted in Jesus, but his mother was what we today call a “Messianic Jew”. She was Jewish, but she had trusted in Jesus as her Messiah and her Savior.
Paul was Timothy’s spiritual father, and they’d spent years together with Paul “discipling” him. Now that’s a word you’ve probably heard many times, but what does it really mean?
Remember Jesus said “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19,20) Perhaps you’ve heard those verses called “The Great Commission” and often heard them used with missionaries. But may I give you this… the more accurate translation of what Jesus said is this...“As you are going through your normal life, make disciples…”
It means it should take place all the time, as a normal part of living life every day, as a follower of Jesus. It also means it’s all of us, EVERY Christian, not just missionaries or pastors. And it means EVERY person we touch should be on the receiving end of our ‘making disciples’.
Discipleship is simply helping others develop their relationship with Jesus as they watch us growing in our relationship with Jesus. That sounds a lot like parenting doesn’t it? Do we understand that friends? Ponder that a moment… what could this mean in your life and mine in 2020 if we really LIVED this!?
Both Jesus and Paul modeled it for us. It was a daily experience for those who were walking life with them. That’s why I call this “Walking with Jesus”. Neither Paul nor Jesus ‘discipled’ their followers by holding seminary classes each day in a building somewhere. No, it was a normal part of everyday life. The people close to Paul & Jesus learned as they watched and listened, in the normal routines of life. That is true “disciple-making”.
You see, as you and I follow Jesus, growing in our relationship with Him everyday, living obediently to Him and constantly alert to His presence with us at all times, the people our lives touch will learn as they watch us! Do you see that friends? That means EVERY moment, EVERY situation, EVERY problem, EVERY conversation, EVERY relationship is a ‘disciple-making’ moment …for we are learning how Jesus would act in that moment, and if we are obedient to Jesus, those people our lives touch, are learning from us! WOW… what a difference we would make if we lived like that… all the time! Right?
So in 1 Timothy 1:18 Paul is reminding Timothy of the very special discipleship relationship they have, but also he’s calling Timothy to remember that he was prayed over and commissioned to a special calling in life. 1 Timothy 4:14 seems to refer to this special event, even though we don’t have any detail of where or when it took place. Acts 16:1 tells us young Timothy had a very good reputation, but here we see there must have been a time when spiritual leaders gathered around young Timothy, prayed for a special anointing of God’s power upon him, and commissioned him to a special work as a student of Paul and future spiritual leader. But also, it appears a ‘prophetic message’ was spoken over him in that event. Do you see that in 1 Tim. 4:14?
Throughout the Old Testament there were men and women whom the Bible calls “prophets”. Normally their primary role was calling God’s people back to God from their spiritual & moral drifting or apathy.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit of God gave these ‘prophets’ a special message for a person or group of people in a special situation. Sometimes prophets received from God a message that predicted something in the future which God wanted His people to know. Several books of the Old Testament were written by these ‘prophets’ and contain their messages. Some of these are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and smaller ones like Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah etc.
But when Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, in describing how a healthy church of Jesus followers should function, Paul was led of the Holy Spirit to write: “It was He (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets and some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith…” (Ephesians 4:11-16). Yes, Christians with the spiritual gift of “prophecy” were an important part of the first century church and also are an important part of healthy churches today.
Timothy had evidently experienced a wonderful commissioning to ministry with Paul that included some ‘prophecies’ spoken over him, from someone who had received a special word from the Holy Spirit, and Paul wanted Timothy to remember this, as he now gave him special instructions about the assignment Timothy had as spiritual leader of the troubled church in Ephesus. I wonder… does Jesus have a special assignment for you or me in 2020 my friends? An assignment in your extended family, or the neighborhood where you live, or the affinity groups you’re part of, or even in your church family? As you ‘walk with Jesus’ will you be alert enough to discern your assignment from Jesus? Will you joyfully receive it and live it with His help? What does God want to accomplish this year through you my dear friends… each and all of us? Does Jesus see us as ready?
Do you see Paul urged Timothy to remember the prophecies spoken over him and “…follow them so you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.” (1 Tim. 1:19). The truth is, sometimes living as a follower of Jesus Christ is a struggle, a battle, have you experienced that? Jesus predicted that when He said to His disciples: “…in this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have over come the world.” (John 16:33) “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world… if they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also…” (John 15:18-22)
So here we learn that we can ‘fight the good fight’ if and when we hold on to our faith in Jesus and protect our good consciences, and that means protect the purity of our hearts, for there is where the Holy Spirit will be working to guide us as we ‘walk with Jesus’!
Now finally, we have to look at the warning Paul gives Timothy in vs. 19 & 20. It’s the warning of what can happen if we reject Paul’s advice to Timothy and we disregard the work God is attempting to do in our lives, and we don’t protect our hearts in the daily battle with darkness all around us. “Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander,whom I have handed over to Satan, to be taught not to blaspheme.” Oh my that’s frightening isn’t it?
Do you see the strong word “rejected”? Friends, it’s a very dangerous thing to reject God’s truth, God’s loving invitation to come to Him in repentance, and reject the work of the Holy Spirit in your life! When we do that, the devil is quick to step into that rejection and fill our minds with doubt and pride and our hearts will harden toward God. That’s the warning of Ephesians 4:27&30!!! “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit and do not give the devil a foothold.” And it’s the reality of the downward spiral of Ephesians 4:17-19.
It can happen to anyone who doesn’t realize their spiritual drift & apathy, and soon finds themselves rejecting God. But, as we saw back on October 18, in our “Walking with Jesus” that day, God has an answer in Ephesians 4:20-24. It’s never too late to repent and return to Jesus and let Him do His powerful restoring & cleansing work in a rebellious heart!!
Finally, who are Hymenaeus & Alexander? I think Alexander is the man we find in 2 Timothy 4:14,15; and Hymenaeus is seen in 2 Timothy 2:17-19.
And what did Paul mean when he said “I have handed them over to Satan to be taught not blaspheme…”? Evidently both men were openly opposing what Jesus was doing in Ephesus, even though they claimed to be Christians themselves. They were breeding division, discord, disagreement, conflict among the Christians. So Paul, evidently, put them out, told them to leave the Ephesus church group and ‘shunned’ them, to use a word from the Amish world.
In so doing they lost the fellowship, friendship, support, love and encouragement of God’s people, and were no longer part of corporate worship, prayer, study of the Word. That isolation placed them entirely on their own and they would quickly discover how painful and difficult it is to live life as a Christian without any Christian relationships and support. They would be continually under attack of the dark kingdom without the help of fellow Christians, and in their ‘rejection’ of God’s work in their lives, they’d find themselves soon in a place of deep inner turmoil and despair.
Of course this did not undo their salvation, if they were genuinely saved by Jesus. Nor was this permanent. Repentance would always be the road back to spiritual health and restoration of relationship with Jesus, Paul and all the Christians in Ephesus. It’s an important lesson for us to learn my friends.
I know I’ve run long today, but this has been so important hasn’t it? Do you know the song “The Altar”? Oh my friends, it’s powerful… I invite you to take just a moment and worship, and invite the Holy Spirit to refresh your relationship with Jesus today!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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