Advice No.1 Be Bold

Can we continue our worship this morning by reading the word of God? We're reading not as Notes and News says from 1st Timothy but from 2nd Timothy and it's the first chapter. Father thank you for your word, thank you for the truth and the relevance of your word day by day. Thank you that you provide your word for us, that you've kept it through the centuries and that we can learn so much from your word.

We thank you that it is the light to guide us and a lamp to our feet. So we pray that you would come by your spirit upon us now and help us to hear your word and hear you speaking to us and bless Tony as he opens your word out to us in a few minutes time. In Jesus name, Amen.

Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy my dear son, grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 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 recalling your tears I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

I have been reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I'm persuaded now lives in you also for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power of love and of self-discipline so do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or ashamed of me his prisoner but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who has saved us and called us to a holy life not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time before the beginning of time this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our savior Christ Jesus who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel and of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher that is why I am suffering as I am yet I'm not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day what you heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us you know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me including Phygelus and Hermogenes may the Lord show mercy to the household of Vanessaphorus because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains on the contrary when he was in Rome he searched hard for me until he found me may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day you know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus may God bless his word to us well let's keep our bibles open at that passage which begins for us as we read it through and look at it this morning a series of studies which will last us four weeks as we consider the apostle Paul speaking out advice an elderly man to a young man and I've taken as the general heading for this little series advice to a young man imagine a few things for some of you it won't be too difficult first you're a Christian second you're elderly and thirdly you want to give some considered advice and fourthly the person to whom the advice is being directed is one you have led to the Lord and you love dearly now if you've got those four things in place then you have so to speak the feel of this particular chapter indeed the feel of this whole epistle Paul had so to speak engaged in the first part of the relay race he was a pioneer evangelist in the first century living sacrificially heroically for the cause of Christ and yet his lifespan was limited as our lifespans are limited and what he wanted to see was someone on the horizon who was ready to take over where he had left off a younger man with the same sort of dedication and understanding of the of the faith as Paul had and so he writes this letter for a runner who he believes is there ready to have the baton slipped into his hand but imagine as is the case with many of those here you don't feel worthy to do anything for the Lord you don't have that same confidence that maybe the apostle has gained in some measure in the years that he's been an evangelist instead of being bold you're timid instead of being up front you prefer to be on the back seat what do you need very often in a relationship where there are two people working together or a team of people no captain of a football team is worthy of his salt unless besides being a good player he can inspire confidence the confidence factory is so important it's it's one of the most vital things that often alas is missing in marriage to lift the confidence of your partner to encourage him to encourage her you can do it jesus our lord when he was taking his leave of his disciples giving to them the task of continuing the work that he had commenced he in effect says in the last chapters of john's gospel together we can do it he lifted their confidence here is paul an apostle writing to a young ordinand timothy paul mentioned in the first verse timothy in the second and paul uses such endearing language there is joy in spiritual parenthood those of us who have never had the honor of being privy at the gynecological level to bringing a child into this world still have the pride and the opportunity of influencing other people so that they become our sons if you like our daughters in the faith and this is what you've got here paul an apostle writing to one who he has adopted spiritually as his son and he wants this somewhat reluctant timid man to develop a boldness that will be necessary for the task for him as the years open up in front now how does he induce this how does he encourage this let me just show you by reference to the content of this uh of this chapter under three heads first of all he uh from the third verse to the seventh he makes reference to the family from which or from whom timothy comes the family from whom timothy comes he refers to and i'll comment on this in a moment to unise he refers to lois the relatives of of tim of timothy be bold as your family were what is more he goes on to say and these are just general headings to help us work through his argument behold be bold as i have been from the eighth verse he becomes quite personal he speaks of he paul who's trying to influence timothy take your confidence from your family what they were like so you reproduce take some encouragement from me what i was like what i have been and finally take some example from an extraordinary fellow believer onesiforus and see how his classic example will stimulate you so timothy your family myself and our friend onesef on isa for us let those be the stimuli so that instead of being ashamed instead of being reticent in your christian faith you might be completely the reverse for timothy verse seven god did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and the apostle uses a figure of speech which is known as litotes where he stresses the negative in order to bring out a positive so do not be ashamed and i'll say that again twice to timothy don't be ashamed and the opposite from not being ashamed is to be bold jesus tells us in matthew's gospel that those who confess him and are not ashamed to confess him before men he will confess before his father who is in heaven so what's the advice that you and i need whatever our years may be if perchance we feel somewhat inadequate in our christian profession surely it is to be bold to be strong as something that comes up in the second chapter but back to the emphasis of the of the first be be bold and and as far as timothy was concerned he had a very good example back in his family eunice and lois his his grandmother and his mother verse three or rather verse five isn't it interesting that the apostle himself has made some reference to his own family i thank god verse three whom i serve as my forefathers did with a clear conscience as they were of help to me even though they were jews so your parents can be of help to you your grandmother your mother timothy was born of a mixed parentage his father if you check in act 16 and the first verse was a greek and it seems as though he had not responded to the gospel but but grandmother and mother had and here is paul who when he makes reference to his own ancestry and do remember that though paul's ancestors were not christian when a jew responds to the christian faith he does not change his religion he deepens it for christianity and inextricably linked so paul is saying i was helped by the prayers of my ancestors as you timothy have been helped by the influence and the example of your grandmother and your mother here in the opening chapter of second timothy addressing these remarks to a relatively young christian the gospel has already affected three generations his grandmum his mom and now himself so paul says be bold as they were bold be courageous for the lord jesus says paul i constantly remember you i long to see you but but in the meantime take this piece of advice from me because as i remember you i remember your family and what's more he seems to suggest i remember your ordination to the ministry i can't prove this but maybe louis the grandmother and unice his mother was present on this occasion i remind you to fan into flame the gift of god which is in you through the laying out of my hands i have a letter which actually partly stimulated my very rapid visit into eastern europe during these last couple of days from a young man who is pastoring a church as large as this lupeni baptist church younger than i was when when i came here and he wrote me this pleading letter this coming sunday in other words today i was speaking as though i was in romania just three days ago when i referred to this coming sunday today hands will be laid upon him as he is inducted into that pulpit as he becomes a recognized minister in that church and if there's anything that young man needs in terms of advice it is for him to be bold in that situation that he faces in romania so here is paul and he's got this reluctant young man who unnecessarily puts himself down and paul says you're dear to me and you know you've got a good background you've got a praying family and what's more when hands were laid on you there was the infusion of the spirit of jesus which replaces that spirit of timidity so that you can have power and love and self-discipline and therefore be poised for this exciting ministry which beckons you as you take over from the likes of me thank god if you had christian parents but if you didn't you have the equivalent of your pause you have those within the church fellowship who pray for you and your negative reaction sometimes to what god wants you to do in terms of i'm not qualified is unacceptable as unacceptable as was timothy's claim to be a timid man human temerity joined to the empowering of the holy spirit can create a personality who is not proud because he has no confidence in himself but he becomes bold in god so paul says to timothy take encouragement in this be as courageous as your family were but what's more paul goes on as he encourages timothy and he makes reference to himself but be bold as i have been verse eight do not be ashamed to testify about our lord or ashamed of me his prisoner next to your family your friends influence you most now paul doesn't hesitate to push himself forward as an example to be copied i couldn't do that but paul is not coy about this he speaks of his personal convictions and as paul is not to be ashamed of the gospel neither is he to be ashamed of the gospeller don't be ashamed about this gospel indeed boldly proclaim it and don't be ashamed of me hey where is paul well like my good friend joseph ton who preaches from a powerful pulpit in north romania but spent time with his freedom lost the hands of ceausescu and the securitate like my colleague richard wormbrande paul is in jail he's been arrested they've carried him off as a common criminal paul is in prison as a preacher for his convictions convicted for his convictions now says paul don't be ashamed of my convictions theologically nor be ashamed of my conviction as a prisoner if i have suffered then you too may have to suffer but take your encouragement from your family and also from me join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of god who has saved us and called us to a holy life why be so proud of the gospel well the gospel is the most remarkable message that the world has ever known and from the 10th verse to the 11th he gives us distilled teaching about the gospel so important that i want to pick it out and show you the origin of the gospel as the apostle makes reference to it it's outside of time paul becoming a christian was actually something even though it's difficult to understand and cause stephen when he was reading this to us a few moments ago to repeat it this grace was given us in christ jesus before the beginning of time at timothy like me like you men and women in lupin baptist church romania like you men and women in worthing tabernacle england before time was god had a plan to bring you to himself the gospel its origins are outside of time and they are planted in the will of god you say you don't understand that join the club none of us do but this is what the apostle is saying this gospel has saved us this gospel has called us to a holy life and its origin was before time ever became into being but though this gospel has its origin outside of time its anchorage is in history god stepped into time look at verse 10 it now has been revealed through the appearing of our savior christ jesus our lord was born in bethlehem a human being a little baby as a man he he dies on the cross and as a result of that death on the cross certain benefits accrue to people like paul to people like timothy to people like you and me what are the effects of jesus dying on the cross well the apostle makes it quite clear christ jesus when he died on the cross destroyed death we have to we've had to think a lot about death in this church in recent days because several folks have slipped over from this side of eternity into eternity itself what does the bible mean here when it says that jesus has destroyed death obviously it doesn't mean he's eliminated it because people still die and yet our lord jesus went on to say when he was talking about death you remember in that remarkable conversation that he had with a woman at the point of lazarus's death he who believes in me shall never die and yet people do die what does he mean what's the answer to that conundrum well you see it's it's all really wrapped up in the word that i've put in on the overhead our lord jesus has nullified death oh death where is your sting uh oh grave where is your your victory the body yes it decays the body is subject to natural law but not the spirit so here is the apostle paul and remember you're not dealing with an academic theologian he's in jail he can almost see the executioner's knife about to come down on his head and yet when he has this circumstance to cope with and he writes to this young man timothy who he wants to take over as his successor he speaks of the gospel that he so proudly proclaims and he says christ jesus has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel one of the things that is obvious when you study the old testament over against the new is that the first part of our bible is very foggy in regard to eternal life i mean there's some reference but it's failed uh you wouldn't know too much about what lies in store for you if we only had the old testament there are those couplets of uh of statements that you find in the psalms psalm 23 for example surely i will dwell in the house of the lord forever you've got david on the death of his son saying he will not come to me but i will go to him you've got the psalmist saying i shall be glad when i awaken in your likeness but but really when you ransack the old testament you don't have many statements about what happens when you die but jesus comes along you see and he brings immortality to life to light he has a spotlight so to speak and he will teach you about death and what lies beyond that's why he says i am the resurrection i am the life it is christ jesus who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel and of this gospel i was appointed a herald you see this a gospel that the apostle paul has embraced and timothy too has begun to understand and enter into the blessings of it it is so unique you should be proud of it it is the only hope that the world has and this is why the apostle when he's writing this chapter to this young man he gives him the essentials of the gospel in that wonderful statement about jesus christ who who has stepped from eternity into time jesus christ who mysteriously with the father and the holy spirit has elected an innumerable number of people to be christians now moves into time and effects on the cross the payment for the redemption and not only does he do this so so courageously but but when he himself is brought back from the grave he gives an impression as to what our experience will be in the future when our bodies are raised but he makes it quite clear too that at the point of your death your physical death even though it could be a harrowing experience brought on by sickness even though you're threatened for weeks not knowing when the death sentence may will be applied because you are paying the price of being a christian nonetheless you can face it with peace absent from the body present with the lord oh death where is your sting oh grave where is your victory i tell you something give me a christian service to preach at any time at a funeral i've got something to go on i can send people out feeling well yes sorrowful but elated i can remind them as paul reminded timothy of the greatness of our lord jesus christ of this wonderful gospel timothy be proud be proud of the gospel don't be ashamed timothy be bold you've got a good ancestry you've got your grandmother and your mother's blood in your veins but even more you've got the dynamic of the spirit timothy pick up your boldness from the example that i'm showing you i'm facing death timothy but i'm not worried why well because of this great and glorious gospel of jesus christ it has now been revealed through the appearing of our savior who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel so the apostle is proud you see he's been appointed a herald verse 11 and an apostle and a teacher that's why i'm suffering as i am i know this as paul it was the same with joseph tom it was the same with richard wormbrand if they had not been so dogmatic about their faith they wouldn't have suffered so much but then they counted it a pleasure to suffer they counted it a privilege that is why i'm suffering as i am yet i'm not ashamed why because i know i know whom i have believed and i'm convinced that he is able to guard that which i've entrusted to him for that day you know i had the privilege once of being in bucharest just after the downfall of ceausescu and uh a small group of people were with me only one or two english when they were romanians some were orthodox priests from the romanian church together we were discussing the possibility of the new translation of the romanian bible and in the 10 minutes i had to address this rather august influential company of people in the in bucharest i made reference to ton and to wormbrand and the impact it had on my life and a man got up after i'd made my observations and spoke in romanian so i couldn't understand him until my interpreter came along and and helped me out and he offered an apology on behalf of the romanian government for the way the christian church had been treated down the centuries i remember joseph tom saying to or telling me that when he was confronted by the security police who put a pistol against his head he said go and shoot me shoot me my tapes are already circulating in romania baptize my tapes with my blood and you will enhance the impact of the gospel of christ in this country you see that's the pauline spirit now this is thinking i mean this isn't being so so reckless that you're you're making decisions without any reason without any logic that you're a christian you can't lose you live for his glory you die to be with him says timothy paul to timothy man you've got a great future as i was saying to that young romanian pastor you have a future here you can make an impact upon your society as you're boldly proclaiming the gospel of christ come what may there is an incredible article in the reader's digest of this month actually it's next month's march 98 we're virtually we are in march aren't we one of the bravest articles i've ever seen that a secular magazine has dared to print because most secular magazines will not print articles about islamic fundamentalists persecuting the christian church it says never before have so many christians been persecuted for their beliefs an estimated 200 million to 250 million christians are at risk in countries where incidents of torture are occurring let me read that statement again this isn't me this isn't a publication of a mission society this is a reader's digest the current month an estimated 200 million to 250 million christians are at risk in countries where real persecution torture rape enslavement imprisonment forcible separation of children from parents are happening references made to the sudan where so many people have been uh killed the act of genocide is really almost unparalleled in the history of christian persecution sudan's nuba mountains where christians have lived since the sixth century are now a wasteland of mass graves destroyed villages and camps filled with starving women and children half a million new but christians virtually all men have been killed in the past decade the word genocide is thrown around too often in the case of sudan it is a factual description and now i bring this to you because it's shocking it's something that you should know the problem is you can't get the british government to believe it or to do anything about it in some of these lands when we tell them what's happening in saudi arabia when you tell the palace at at buckingham palace what's happening within some of these countries they just do not want to know and the reason of course is the economic potential that would be lost if if we took a very strong line against certain of these things that's murdoch and his uh companies concern not to let a book go forward by by the late uh governor of of hong kong in case his business assets are threatened in china i tell you that some of the things that are happening today in terms of the expansion of the christian church are not only exciting they are also devastating as far as the treatment of christians goes but if the apostle paul was here he'd be writing exactly the same thing to the christians in the sudan to christians in saudi arabia to christians in in china don't be ashamed don't be over fearful i wasn't why i know in whom i have believed i'm convinced that he's able to guard that which i've entrusted to him for that day oh timothy take confidence take courage from your parents take courage from me what's more take courage from one of our friends you know verse 15 there has been difficulty there has been problem in the church that there i went to asia minor and there was a great awakening you can read of that in the 17th and following chapters of the acts of the apostles hundreds of people probably thousands came to christ it was wonderful but sometimes a great awakening can be followed by tremendous problems and tremendous testing and this is what had happened there the awakening was followed by a great defection you know verse 15 everyone in the has deserted me including phygelus and hermogenes what do you do when the church seems to be in reverse what do you do when an initial response to the gospel peters out do you show a clean pair of heels what do you do when the most incredible evangelist of the first century has been arrested by the securitate has been carted off as a common prisoner even trailing his chains well you have the option of going along with him and being faithful to him as did onessa for us or joining the party of those whose commitment to christ was not genuine hey timothy here is a messy for us and surely he's going to put some some metal into you he's going to put iron into your soul but what did he do well he was refreshed me he wasn't ashamed of my chains he was there when i was arrested he went off to rome on his own and he looked around rome until he found the dungeon in which i was imprisoned he searched hard for me until he found me paul prays for a messy forest twice verse 16 may the lord show mercy to the household of forest verse 18 may the lord grant that he will find mercy from the lord on that day you know how many ways he helped me in ephesus so here is paul and you know he's he's always a wonderful pastor is paul what to god that we had pastors like paul such a great theologian such a great humanitarian he's at the end of his life he's an old man in jail he's he's learned a thing or two he knows that outside of god's grace he's he's really nothing but in god's grace he's done such wonderful wonderful tasks for the lord if you'd have asked him 30 odd years ago paul will you ever become a great evangelist and church founder he'd say no why not well i can't speak you know i'm not a trained philosopher or trained in the greek art of rhetoric and yet paul is infused by the spirit and as a result god releases him and he goes across to europe he goes across asia sometimes it's said of paul that following his footsteps is like following the footprints of a bleeding rabbit in the snow because he was so abused he was so ridiculed and yet he kept his faith and he was so successful now he's at the end it's so necessary for a successor oh how we need to pray for successors timothy's there paul i can't do it like this young man tells me in romania i can't do it of course you can do it think of your background your mom your grandmama think of your ordination think of those who've gone before think of the minority party those people like almasy forest you can't do it of course you can do it and you can do it not simply because of this but you can do it because of the great power of god do not be ashamed verse 8 join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of god look at verse 14 god the good deposit that was entrusted to you god it with the help of the holy spirit who lives in us let's take the whole slide just once again here is the apostle and he is concerned about this young man concerned to get someone to take over from him and so he says of the gospel which he is to embrace and to be so proud of guard it faithfully spread it actively suffer for it bravely and it's the same today don't you understand your dear friends doesn't matter that you live in worthing and not in eastern europe doesn't matter that you live in the 20th century not in the first century the gospel's the same the power of god is still the same doesn't matter that you never went to theological college doesn't matter that you can't rub to hapeness for in your purse that really is not important god can take the weak things that despise things the abuse things things that seem so low and he can make them so wonderful i'll finish with an illustration which i may not be able to get through i was in a hospital in romania dr bratula's hospital to whom reference is made in this uh in my notes or the notes and news he showed me a woman who got 65 burns beautiful woman she was there's hardly any clothes just a little modest sheet on her and then he he took me he's a brilliant surgeon he took me to the next room and there were eight men he explained who i was and they just dropped their clothes on the bed they just took their their uh their sheets off and i saw these eight men and i looked at their thighs and each thigh had about six inches removed from it and about six inches wide eight men 16 legs 16 pieces of skin they had given so that this woman who was one of their work colleagues and who'd suffered tremendous burns might have the possibility of her life being extended by the sacrifice of their skin i think brothers and sisters what god is calling us to do and for an even greater reason is also to give our time and our effort and our love sacrificially in order that this great and glorious gospel can be promoted around the world god says put aside your temerity and receive the empowering of his spirit timothy with jesus christ together you can do it but stand up we wouldn't generally sing be bold be strong because it tends to be a bit of a children's song at the end of a service like this but really that's what we need to do right now and we'll do it and we'll do it with thought be bold be strong for the lord your god is mighty i'm not afraid no no no oh well the kids can sing it and they can almost joke as they're doing it that's understandable they're immature boys and girls in sudan in china saudi arabia i'm not afraid lord grant that that uh bestowal of courage to keep them and grant that we too may be more bold and more strong as we live out our lives for you here in worthing and where there are people who in the name of jesus christ where there are people who are being persecuted for righteousness sake where there are brothers and sisters whose shoelaces we feel would hardly be worthy to tie up who are paying an enormous price for being members of the church of christ lord be with them and bless them and bless us here and make us strong forgive us our weakness and forgive us our inadequacy and this day do a new work by your spirit amongst us all for jesus christ's sake amen