Faithful Men

Our text today is found in 2nd Timothy in chapter 2. You can turn in your Bibles there now friends. We will be in verses 1 and 2. Timothy was Paul's disciple and Paul wrote this second letter to Timothy from a prison in Rome toward the close of his life. As the mighty evangelist sits in chains in a cold Roman prison, he has time to reflect on his life in ministry for the Lord Jesus and to impart some fatherly advice to his young disciple Timothy.

2nd Timothy for Paul is a swan song so to speak and he holds nothing back in either doctrine or personal feelings. The title of my message today friends is faithful man and as Paul's disciple Timothy was a faithful man so too Paul exhorts his young disciple to go and teach what Paul has taught him to other faithful men. We see this in the beginning of chapter 2. Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

As Timothy was Paul's disciple so Paul exhorts Timothy to go out and find faithful men to disciple as well and once he finds them he is to pour his life into them as Paul poured his life into Timothy for the sake of the gospel and the souls of men. What does Paul mean by faithful man? Surely Paul knew the difference for read over in Colossians 4.14 as Paul is sending greetings to the church at Colossae he writes Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you. Then we turn to Paul's closing words of 2nd Timothy in chapter 4 and verses 10 and 11.

For Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica. Only Luke is with me. Here is Demas.

Here is Luke. One remains faithful to the end. The other goes back to the world.

I've seen this very thing time and time again as I've had the privilege of discipling men in my home for several decades. Some men were faithful and went on to better things for God while others blossomed for only a brief time and fell back like Demas into the love of the world. I've learned that the best of men are only men at best.

So Paul exhorts Timothy to find faithful men to disciple so that a multiplication effect will be brought about. It works like this. Timothy trains one man.

That man goes and trains another man and so on and on the circle of multiplication continues having a great influence upon the church. Perhaps you friend might pray about starting your own discipleship group. I remember years ago when I prayed about starting a discipleship group I told the Lord that if he would provide the men I would be diligent to teach them.

It wasn't long after that prayer that on Tuesday evenings in my home I had anywhere from twelve to fifteen men weekly as we studied together. I would have my wife make some light refreshments so the men could fellowship with one another before we began the meeting. Then I would have them sit on the floor in a circle around me and we would begin with prayer going around the circle each man praying and then on to the next until all had briefly prayed.

Then I had a globe of the world before us and we would choose a nation to pray for to pray for the spread of the gospel. We would place our hands on that globe on that nation and we would pray that God's spirit would work among the people in that nation and that the gospel of Christ would be heard. I would then pass around a basket with Bible verses on pieces of paper and each man would draw out a Bible verse to memorize that week.

I told them to put the Bible verse somewhere where they could see it each day. Well some men taped it to their bathroom mirror. Others kept it taped to their sun visor in their pickup truck.

But the point was each of us was to hide God's word in our heart and then next week as we gathered I would have the men go around the circle each repeating their Bible verse for the week. The accountability factor in that group of men made it strong. I would hand out copies of paperbacks on biographies of men of faith that my men could take home and read throughout the week.

We had biographies on men of faith like D.O. Moody and Jim Elliott and Charles Spurgeon and others so the men could find spiritual nourishment and encouragement throughout their week. Then we would have a brief Bible lesson that would change week by week based on the men's spiritual development and I would close each meeting with prayer, a prayer request time. This was an opportunity for the men to share with the others in the group issues they were struggling with and this became a very personal and valuable time of that group where the men bonded together.

At the very outset of the group I was standing with Henry Blackaby one day and I asked him for some advice on how to disciple a group of men. I said, Dr. Blackaby if you were in my shoes how would you take a group of men each week and disciple them? Well Dr. Blackaby gave me the sage advice of Jesus had a few truths he wanted to teach his men and he taught those same truths to them over and over again until they learned them. Well that's what we did friends.

Well let me ask you friend, are you on the lookout for faithful men to disciple? Where is your Timothy? Where is your Titus? Let us pray.