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Good Wednesday morning my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends around the world;
When is the last time you received news of the death of someone who was a hero to you? Someone you admired, someone who had great influence in your life? How did you respond to the news? Today we begin the last letter the Apostle Paul wrote before he died. In the closing lines of this second letter to his friend Timothy, it appears Paul knew his death was imminent.
We can imagine Timothy was always greatly encouraged whenever he received word from Paul, but this time his joy would have turned to deep reflection and sadness, if the bearer of this letter also brought news of Paul’s imminent death.
As I’m writing this, well before daylight, I have just received word of two deaths which have touched me. One was an adult missionary I knew when I was a child growing up in Haiti as a ‘missionary kid’. To me he was “Uncle Walt”. The place I lived had almost 20 adult missionaries, men and women, married and single, from all over North America. This was back in the 1950’s and 60’s. They were remarkable people, each with their own story of how God saved them and called them to serve Him in Haiti. My life as a boy was profoundly impacted by them as I watched them live their missionary calling everyday.
The other was a man I have known for only three years, and we’ve never met face to face. We’ve spoken by telephone from time to time, as he lived in Canada. But in the early 1950’s this young man walked, with his wife and another young medical doctor and his wife, from India into Nepal. Walking was their only way in. For four days they hiked, with their little children and hired helpers carrying all their belongings. For 40 years they served together as missionaries in this remote place, serving the lepers and other medical needs, and telling the Nepalese Hindus of a Jesus they did not know. The stories Peter has told me would be the stuff of which legendary Hollywood movies are made! The legacy of changed lives they left in Nepal is remarkable and all for the glory of God!
Yet for both these men there will likely be modest celebration of life services, attended by family and friends, and likely their earthly remains will be buried in a place few will remember years from now. But both in Haiti and Nepal, their legacy will live on for generations, in families profoundly impacted by the Jesus these men introduced to the people there so many years ago.
From that perspective, I open God’s Word, the Bible this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 1. The year is about 66ad. Paul is once again a prisoner in Rome. We do not know when or where he was arrested by Roman authorities, but we do know things have dramatically changed in Rome since his last imprisonment there a few years before (Acts 28:30,31). In ad64 a great fire raged across the city, something like the great Chicago fire of October 1871, or the great Boston fire of November 1872, or even the great London fire of September 1666. In all these, the fires raged for several days and destroyed vast amounts of these great cities.
According to Wikipedia, ‘the great Rome fire began in the merchant shops around Rome’s chariot stadium, Circus Maximus, on the night of July 19, 64ad. After six days the fire was brought under control, and before the damage could be measured, the fire reignited and burned for another three days. In the aftermath of the fire, two thirds of Rome had been destroyed. According to Tacitus and later Christian tradition, Emperor Nero blamed the devastation on the Christian community in the city, initiating the empire’s first persecution against the Christians.’
Much has been written about the horrific persecution, torture, and execution of many Christians in the years following that great Rome fire. Many Christians fled Rome, but the persecution spread all across the Empire. As we’ll see later, this was the ‘suffering context’ into which Peter wrote his letters.
In Paul’s opening lines to Timothy, we see he is looking ahead to heaven. May I paraphrase Paul’s words? ” I am Paul, privileged to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. I live daily according to the promise of eternal life that is mine in Christ Jesus. I am writing to Timothy, my dear son in the faith. I pray that you may experience a fresh anointing of the grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now, let’s just ponder that a moment. What do you hear in Paul’s greeting to his dear friend? How would you open your final letter from a dungeon in Rome if you knew your days were numbered?
Perhaps you have had someone say to you “I’ll be praying for you”, and you wondered to yourself if they ever will. How do you suppose Timothy felt as he read the next lines from Paul in this letter he has just received? “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.“ Do you have some people whom you are confident lift you up before God in prayer regularly? Are there some people who are counting on your faithful intercession for them? What difference does it make in your life, to know you have people you can contact, when you need intercessors?
Do you also see Paul referring to his “clear conscience” with which he has served God, as his forefathers did? Paul as a Jewish man, was able to look back at his Pharisee days of religious ferver. But he also remembered his remarkable and life changing encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, and then the rest of his life as a missionary, proclaiming to anyone who would hear him, that Jesus is the Christ, and His salvation is available to Jew and Gentile, anywhere in the world! Are you able to look back on your life with a clear conscience? Is there anything the Holy Spirit nudges you to bring to Jesus today, and finally be set free from that which haunts your conscience?
Have you found my friends, that the Christian life is not always joy-filled fun? How do you suppose Timothy felt as he read Paul’s next line: “Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.” (1:4) We don’t know exactly which event Paul is referring to here, but I suspect it may have been the last time they saw each other, as Paul left Timothy in the great city of Ephesus to lead the Christian movement there, while Paul headed on down the road, always looking ahead to another place where he could bring the Gospel.
Tears are powerful things aren’t they my friends? What brings you to tears? What happens in your heart when you see tears in the eyes of those you love? Have you found God often touches your heart when the tears flow? It must have been encouraging to Timothy to again hear from Paul how much joy he brings to the old apostle. Who are those people who bring you great joy when you see them or even talk by phone with them? Have you told them lately, how much they mean to you?
Finally this morning may we look at one more phrase today, which Paul writes? It must have touched Timothy deeply: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded now lives in you also.” I wonder if into Timothy’s mind quickly came this verse from Psalm 61:1,5 “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer… For you have heard my vows, O God; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.”
Are you able to say those words my friends, as you look back over your family heritage? What character traits have you inherited from your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents? What family reputation were you born into? Of all the things associated with your family heritage, what do you treasure most? I am so grateful that I can thank God for a spiritually rich family heritage.
But here’s the more important question for all of us my friends, who are on the ‘Walking with Jesus” journey together, all around the world: what have we done with the family heritage which was passed to us?
If you compare the family heritage into which you were born, with what it is now, how has your life impacted your family heritage? How will it be different as you pass your family heritage on to your children and grandchildren at the end of your life? Regardless of what your family heritage was, can you confidently say is it much richer spiritually now, because of the spiritual journey YOU and have been on, and how your journey has contributed to, and maybe greatly changed, your family heritage? Are your children and grandchildren grateful for the change their family heritage experienced due to your life contribution?
None of us has grown up in a perfect family, we are all sinful human beings. Do you remember what Paul wrote about himself: “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a violent man, I was shown mercy… the grace of God was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus… I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.” (1 Tim. 1:13-17) My friends, would it be an honorable ambition for all of us, that by the end of our lives, we have so impacted our family heritage, that it is more God honoring than anyone can remember, going back several generations?
In closing, may I invite us all to pray about that right now? What does God want to do IN each of us during the rest of our lives, that would significantly contribute to the spiritual heritage of our family? May I urge you to take a piece of paper and write what you believe to be the family heritage your parents were born into, and how that changed by the time you were born, and what it is like today? And then lay out that paper before God and ask Him to show you what more He wants to do in your family heritage before your life ends?
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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