The Worlds Lighthouse No.6 Operation Timothy

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Unaccompanied, unaccompanied, he's my Lord, he's my Lord. He is risen from the dead, and he's my Lord.

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Father, on that exultant note, we commence our worship, bringing to you not only the praises of our lips, but the devotion of our hearts. And we ask that this hour and a half together may be special, whether it's the babies in the crèche, be with them and their helpers, our boys and girls in Pathfinders, our young people in their clubs, or those who are away from us at the moment.

Lord, just bless this service, bless the church family and every church and home represented here for Jesus' sake. Amen. Do sit down.

Andrew, good to have you with us. Thank you. Andrew's a schoolteacher, so you've got to behave yourself, and he's often helping us in morning worship.

Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. Right.

Good morning, everybody. I'd like to start this morning by asking you one or two questions. And when I very occasionally stand up here, I like to involve everybody.

So the mums and dads, the grannies, the grandpas, everybody is allowed to put their hand up and take part. In fact, I would say as a schoolteacher, I suppose I put my hat on and say, please do. First thing I'm interested in this morning is can we count? Can we count? What comes after one, please? Two down here.

What's after two? Three. Right, girls and boys, we'll go up to ten, shall we? After three, what comes next? Four. Come on, I can't hear you.

A bit louder. Four. Still can't hear.

I'm going deaf. Four. Better.

And after four? Five. Five. Six.

Good. Come on. Seven.

Come on. And again. Eight.

That's better. Nine. Ten.

And if I keep going, I go on and on and on. Can anybody... Eleven. Well done.

Can you tell me what... Can somebody give me a very, very, very large number? A large number. Very big. Think big.

Two thousand. Two thousand. I want something... Just a minute.

I'm going to ask some of the girls and boys at the back now. Yes. Yes, guys, can you help me? Sorry? 980.

980. Bigger than 2,000. Come on, I want it bigger than 2,000.

I need it bigger than 2,000. Yes, Emma? Something sensible. 2,000,001,900.

Is that right? Or just about? Right. Okay. Now, I want us to think... We're thinking about large numbers.

The other thing I want to think about is there are probably lots and lots of people in this church this morning who've got a similar name. Would that be right? I mean, mine is Andrew, and I would think there's a good... Well, I don't know how many... I don't want to embarrass anybody, but who else has got the name of Andrew in the church? Or is there just me here this morning? Two? Three? There's a few of us. Okay.

Well, I'm sure that you would find that there are other folk with names that are common, that we've all got names that we could count up and say, well, there's nine, ten, twenty of us, and so on. Okay. Now, we've counted.

We've said two million. We've said all sorts of things like that. Now, I'm going to put... I decided that I'd bring along one of my Christmas presents.

Well, it's not a Christmas present, but if you look at me, I've got on my head... What is this? Don't say it's Andrew Caird looking at Twit, please. I probably do, but that's not the point. What is it that I'm wearing, girls and boys, please? What have we got here? A Christmas decoration.

I've got a... It looks like a Christmas decoration. Something... Yes, Naomi? A wig. It's a wig, isn't it? And what is a wig made up of, please? What's a wig made up of? Hair.

Yes, the young lady on the organ. Can you tell me? Hair. Hair? It's a different kind of hair.

Well, this is a kind of tinsely hair. Anybody like to tell me how many numbers of hairs they think are on that wig? How many hair... How many tinsely bits of hair do you think are on this wig that makes me look so awful? Yes? How many, sorry? I'm sorry, I didn't count. Infinity.

Infinity. Lots and lots and lots. Well, I think that deserves a round of applause.

Very good. Infinity. That's very good.

Well, I'll take this lovely hair piece off. Now, we're going to get the opposite of this now. There's quite a lot of hair on there.

We've counted... We think there's... Well, there's a good number. A million, perhaps? Not quite. Ten thousand.

Ten thousand. That could be about right. The point is, though, that the hair... We can count lots of things, and the amazing thing is that God knows all about the amount of hair we've got on our head.

Now, in my case, that's the opposite. If you look at my head, if you look at me straight on, you'd probably think, well, I've got a bit of hair on my head. Do you see that? Does it look as though I've got quite a lot of hair on my head from here? Well, I'm going to show you something that some of the boys and girls at the school I teach at already know, and if you look very carefully, you'll see all my hair is going on the top.

Do you see that? Do you see? What have I got on the top of my head? Have I got any hair at all? Not... Have I got any hair at all? You haven't got much. I haven't got much. You're quite right.

And do you know, it's all going. And it's getting less and less and less. But the point is that God knows how many hairs are on your head.

He knows every little detail of our lives. He talks, there's millions of hairs on your head, then some of us lose it, and we get balder, and my dad is well into his 70th birthday. He's just had it, and he hasn't got any hair on his head at all.

So you can imagine how much I'm going to have. But the point is, though, that God counts all the hairs on our head. He knows them all.

And I want you to listen just to a verse out of the Bible that tells us a little bit about this, please. But it also tells us that God thinks it's very important. He wants to know about every little bit of our lives.

He knows about every little hair on our head. Can you listen to this? It talks about not being afraid of things, not being afraid of things around about us. So here we go.

This is in Luke, Matthew 10, verse 26. It says, Do not be afraid of people. Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known.

And then it goes on to say, For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your father's consent. As for you, even the hairs on your head have been counted. So do not be afraid.

You are worth much more than many sparrows. Now, the message, girls and boys, this morning really is that God knows all about the number of hairs on our head. He knows how far we can count.

He knows all the things about us. So when we're afraid of things that worry us, perhaps at school, then we're to let not be afraid. We're not to be afraid of those things that are going on at school that worry us, but we're to trust God to help us get out of that because he's very concerned about that sort of thing.

All right? So I want you to remember this morning that we are all important to God, that every little hair on our head is counted. And if God thinks so much about those sorts of things, then we should be able to trust him to help us in times that we are afraid. But we're not to be afraid of God, but to trust him.

All right? Can we just have a little prayer, and then I'll hand this back to Pastor Tony. All right? Can we just bow our heads in prayer a minute? Lord Jesus, we thank you, each one of us, that you know exactly how many hairs there are on our head. You are concerned for each one of us, Lord.

And we would pray that you would help us today to put our trust more firmly in you. When we are afraid at times, Lord, would you help us? Would you help us just to help us to get out of the difficult situations we sometimes find ourselves in? Amen. Let's turn in the word of God to this glorious letter of Paul to the Thessalonians.

And let's read together some very domestic verses. We thank God for this sort of teaching in his word, which speaks to our hearts and shows us just how practical the early church was and how God in his grace used ordinary people like you and me in their day. So, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. So, when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens.

We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker, in spreading the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you in your faith so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted.

And it turned out that way, as you well know. So, for this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless.

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith.

For now, we really live. Since you are standing firm in the Lord, how can we thank God enough for you? In return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you, night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.

Well, as I mentioned, it's very wonderful that in this passage of Scripture, you find something that is as domestic and as personal as these sentiments. The Apostle Paul unfurling his heart and once and for all giving evidence that he is not some academic theologian, all brain and no feeling. A man wrote to me just a little while ago, I have only just had an opportunity to open my mail for this last week.

And his note was in the Post. He actually comes from Nigeria, though for a long time he was resident in Worthing. And he was an attender at St. Mary of the Angels Church across the way, a Catholic.

He would go to Mass and then he would come to the tab. The second person to my knowledge who has trained for the Catholic priesthood and yet has found help in coming away from the Catholic Church to a gathering around the word of the Lord and has subsequently entered or prepared to enter the Catholic ministry. But the reason why I make reference to Paul's letter is this, he's just done four years of training, four out of six.

And he says, I thank God for the tab. I have prayed for you, Tony, every day for four years. I couldn't say that of him.

Sometimes we need to pause and recognize the spiritual disciplines that there are within Christian communities that don't quite fit into the evangelical category. Here is the Apostle Paul. Night and day, he says.

Night and day. I pray for you, you Christians in Thessalonica. If I'm a man who is God-intoxicated, thinking always of the Lord and of his Christ, it is also true that I am a man obsessed for the well-being of those who I have won to the Lord.

For as you have discovered in this series which Tim and I have been privileged to bring to you consecutively or almost so on a Sunday morning, the Apostle Paul had a great love, a paternal love for those he won to the Lord. Writing to the Corinthians, he could say, you only have one Father in God. I was the one privileged to share with you in Corinth the blessed gospel of Jesus.

And it's exactly the same here in the Thessalonian letter. Paul unfurls his psyche, his emotions, and tells them, and thank God, therefore, leaves a record for us what it's like to have a pastoral heart as well as apostolic authority. Paul here makes reference to his concerns to see his brothers and sisters who he has not been able to physically contact since the time that he was in Thessalonica.

He's in Athens, an equally God-dishonoring city full of idolatry. He longs for companionship. You read the tail end of most of Paul's letters and you'll find that he refers to people who he has met on life's journey and he's always sending his love and his expressions of thoughts to them.

And he's got a problem in Athens because, well, news from Thessalonica seems to have dried up. How are the Christians there doing? The only way that he can contact them is by sending his sole companion or so it would have seemed at this point, Timothy. So Saul will opt for isolation as far as fellowship is concerned in order to send his emissary, Timothy, to the Thessalonians so that he can discover just how they are doing and bring back news to Paul.

How goes it in your diary in terms of listing people who are serving God abroad for who you are praying or to whom you are writing? You see, this is a domestic issue that Paul addresses here in Thessalonica and it's a contemporary issue. Do you love to get news from abroad? Do you love if you cannot go yourself to send an envoy in terms of a letter? Do you keep yourself up to date with men and women who have left this church or other church fellowships with which you were previously associated? Do you long to have news of them? This is agape love. This is the tie that bound together the early Christians.

This is the same cement that binds men and women together today. And so here is the apostle Paul and what does he do? Well, he gives to Timothy a task. Verses 1-5 indicate the nature of the task though I've just preceded it.

He is to set out for Thessalonica and to minister on Paul's behalf in order to discover news of them. The envoy's role. What is he going to do when he gets there? Well, he's going to strengthen, verse 2, and encourage the Thessalonians in the faith.

Why? What's the reason for this? Well, you see, the apostle wasn't at Thessalonica very long, was he? As far as we know, just a matter of weeks. He didn't have an easy time. And can you imagine it? Just think away all the Bibles you have.

Think away all the Christian experience that you've gone into. Not easy. Think away everything that you take for granted within the Christian heritage in the 20th century.

Those Thessalonians, they had none of this. Here comes this small man with receding hair. And he speaks a message the like of which they've never heard before.

And some respond and they become the nucleus of a church that will grow and send out its own ambassadors. But Paul has gone. There's no literature.

There are no tapes. There is no ministry coming in from Jerusalem. All that they ever had was what they heard from the lips of this man and those who were with him in his missionary journey.

So Paul is away. And along come the critics. Other Christians.

This man who was with you. Where is he? He's no longer around. This business of turning from idol gods.

Don't you think it was rather precipitous on your part? Don't you think it was something premature? Don't you feel that now you've got no further physical support from this man? He was just a spiritual tramp. He's gone from place to place. You're on your own.

You see, the pressures to convert or the pressures rather against those who have converted in a pagan society are enormous. You take that man Robert Hussein. You heard of him a year or so ago.

He committed his life, or seemingly so, to the Lord. He's in Kuwait and he's in tremendous difficulty. As soon as he confesses that Jesus is Lord, he's up against it.

And he goes out to the United States and further pressure is put on his family back home. And recently we hear that he recants on his Christian profession. Now that's a tragedy as far as we Christians are concerned.

But I use it as an illustration to demonstrate that what was a problem here in Kuwait was an even greater problem for the Thessalonians. And here is this man whose heart is towards his children, be they in Thessalonica or Corinth or the umpteen places that he's visited in the world. He can't be everywhere at all times.

And so he sends Timothy as an envoy to minister on his behalf. When I could stand it no longer, I sent Timothy, my brother. And on another occasion you remember when he's writing a letter to Timothy, he doesn't just call him brother, he calls him son.

My son in the faith. I don't believe that Paul had children, though I do think that he probably had been married. But Timothy was as good to Paul as a literal son would have been.

There are a couple of sheep in Scotland called Meg and Morag. If you're interested in them, then you read all about them in my last book. The clones.

Identical. Now what I'm suggesting to you at a spiritual level is this, that Timothy is a sort of clone of Paul. He's picked up the heartbeat of Paul.

As David was of the stem of Jesse, so Timothy was of the stem of Paul. As Paul was the spiritual father of Timothy, so he was the stem of our Lord Jesus Christ. What he caught from the Savior is passed on to Timothy.

And Timothy comes as an envoy to encourage the Christians in Thessalonica. If the only ministry you can identify in your walk with the Lord as far as other people are concerned is the ministry of encouragement, I tell you, it's a significant one. And thank God that you've got it.

What did the Thessalonians need? What does your child sometimes need? What does your husband sometimes need? What does your wife sometimes need? What does your sister, your brother, your Christian friend need? They need an arm put around them and someone to say, you're doing fine. You're doing fine. I once remember a lady saying to me of her husband, I'm so proud of him, but I wouldn't tell him.

And I knew the man. And if there was any word that he needed from anyone, it was that word, and from her. So here is Timothy, the mouthpiece of Paul, and he's got this role of the envoy.

He wants to firm up their faith. He wants to tell them on behalf of Paul, if this is the case, you're doing fine. You see, the difficulty was that Paul had gone through a lot of troubles.

Now this wasn't surprising. He predicted that this would happen. It turned out that way, verse 4. We told you that we would be persecuted.

And the apostle is concerned that the trials that he has gone through, news of them might filter through to the Thessalonians, and they would be discouraged. And so Timothy is to address this particular condition and to strengthen and to firm them and to remind them that Paul had taught them, as Jesus had taught, that those who follow the Lord will know persecution and difficulty. So that was his role.

What was his goal? Well, he wants to ensure that the goal of the enemy of souls is not achieved. What does the devil want to do? Well, he wants to rub the Thessalonians of their faith. He's called here significantly the tempter.

As the church has its envoys, so the devil has his envoys. And he uses circumstances to pit against someone's profession of faith. The word here, which refers to the Christians being settled and not disturbed by the devil, is a very interesting one.

It's the concept of the devil coming along in a deceitful fashion and wagging his tail. That's what the original Greek means. Dancing in front of them, seducing them, and because of the circumstances of the apostle and all the problems that there are in a pagan society in Thessalonica, deflecting them from the faith.

That's his goal. The devil is always active. That's why the apostle Paul has many ways of describing him.

He calls him the slanderer in Ephesians 4 and 27. He calls him the adversary in 1 Corinthians 5 and 5. In 2 Corinthians 4 and chapter 3, he calls him the god of this world. And in Ephesians, the prince of the power of the air.

If the role of the envoy is to encourage, the goal of the enemy is to destroy, to pull up what Paul has put down. And so, to frustrate him, Paul sends Timothy with a task to perform. Well, when Timothy is through, what happens? Well, go to verse 6. But Timothy has just now come to us.

In other words, from Timothy's occupation in Thessalonica, we're introduced to Timothy giving a rehearsal of all that he'd engaged in as he returns to Paul, presumably at Athens. And it was a good plan that Paul had had. His pastoral policy worked.

And Timothy comes back and brings good news. Isn't it wonderful not just to preach good news, but to get good news of those who are proclaiming good news? Here's a maxim for the worldwide evangelization crusade, for our Arab world ministries, for the Far East Broadcasting Association. Blessed are those who do not stop with just issuing prayer requests.

How wonderful to hear from Bianto and from Phoebe of the blessings of God that are attending the ministries, be it in Africa or the Middle East, amongst the Muslim world or amongst the Hindu world. Well, here's Timothy. He's engaged in his task.

And now he comes back with his testimony. And Paul, because he's a warm-blooded man, he responds to what Timothy has to say. Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love.

He has told us also that you have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that purely human? You've got good memories of us. I mean, here is the mighty apostle Paul, the great mind of the early church, this theologian, this ambassador extraordinaire, this one who writes the epistle to the Romans.

And yet, can you believe it? He's cock-a-hoop. As we say in the north of England, he's tickled to death. Incidentally, when I was in Mexico, on one occasion, an English preacher used that expression, tickled to death.

And the translator put it through, literally, into his language. I am so happy to be here, I shall proceed to scratch myself until I die. You know, there's great danger in speaking by interpretation and using a colloquial expression.

Well, here is Paul cock-a-hoop. Here is Paul tickled to death. What has occasioned this elation in his spirit? Well, he's told us that you remember us.

And you don't just remember us, you've got pleasant memories of us. Isn't that wonderful? Really, friends, aren't you glad that the Word of God is so human in one sense? Here is a mutual love. The love the church planter had is reflected in the church that was planted.

And I write in my notes, nostalgia can be an aperitif to the soul when the memories are good. But not just a mutual love. It occurred to me when I was out in South Africa, just developing the notes I gave you, a fraction, and lifting them to a slightly higher level at this point.

Here is a maternal comment. Verse 8. For now we really live. You see, here was the apostle, you remember? He's used the words of a mother before when he speaks of his children, when he speaks of the Thessalonians.

And what brings more heartache to a mum than the thought that her child might be in difficulty, that her wee Ben may have had an accident, that the children are in a state of prodigality. And mum gets good news, all's well. A telephone call out of the blue.

And mum says, now I really begin to live again. Well, so the apostle Paul uses the maternal language and he says, for now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. And he goes on to what I now call a moving response.

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God? How can we? Well, you can't. I mean, this is a rhetorical question. How can you praise God from whom all blessings flow? How can you praise him sufficiently? I say in the notes it's a mistake.

It develops into three things here. It actually develops into two. There is doxology and there is further petition.

Doxology, well, now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus, he thanks the Lord. I'm sorry, verse nine. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? That's doxology.

That's praise. And that should always be part of the Christian's response to what the Lord has done. But to the doxology, Paul's saying, how can we thank God enough? He actually links another prayer.

And he says, well, we're gonna ask him that we might indeed come and see you again. As a result of Timothy's testimony, Paul responds by praising the Lord and asking God for more as far as his folks there in Thessalonica are concerned. What does he want? Well, he wants to supply what is lacking in their faith.

What does he mean by that? It's not a hurtful comment. You see, these people, they've had so little training, so little theology. Sometimes I think we have maybe in evangelical circles too much theology.

I don't know. Maybe I'd want to qualify that comment if I thought it through a little more carefully. But here are these people, and they've got no reference books, as I've told you.

They've got no tapes. And Paul wants to fill up what's lacking in their faith. This business of the second advent that we're coming on to look at later on, well, they don't know all the answers.

In fact, the doctrine is so new to them. So Paul says, night and day I stand before God earnestly seeking that we might be able to come again and fill up, strengthen flesh out further what is lacking, what you don't understand at this point. So we come to the conclusion of these domestic comments that Paul makes.

Paul, who loves so much that he sends young Timothy with a task to act as an envoy. And Timothy does it supremely well and comes back with a testimony that puts heart into the old man. Basic to Paul is love and sacrifice.

He was prepared to send Timothy. And eons ago, before the world was ever made, as God anticipated the creation and the fall of man, he said, who will go? Who shall I send? And our Lord Jesus Christ took flesh and became as you and I without sin. In order to do what? An even more important ministry than that of Timothy.

He came to declare that God is love and that sin can be dealt with as He ultimately offers the value of a sinless life on the cross for you and for me. God, He gives the inspiration for Paul. Paul will send his best because God sent his best.

And don't you see this is your privilege? My brothers and sisters, I'm not just speaking in the realm of finance, so I think that when a man is converted, his checkbook responds to his conversion. I'm not just thinking in terms of going out to the areas where the gospel is still to be preached, the cutting edges of evangelism. I'm talking about your concern to give to the Lord of your time, of your energy, here in the local church, within the community, within your family.

I'm talking about fathers having time with their kids and teaching them about Jesus. I'm talking about mothers having time with fathers. I'm talking about singles having time with marriages and marriages having time with singles.

I'm talking about the church of God and not a block of flats. I'm talking about a God who sends His best and so stimulates Paul so that he sends his best. And Timothy comes back and says, You know, it's okay, Paul.

And I speak with respect. There was a day when the eternal Son of God, having taken flesh, having been crucified, was raised on the third day. For 40 days He appeared to men and women and then He returned to heaven and He said to the Father, They're doing okay.

They're doing all right. Those disciples, the embryo of the church that you are giving me, it's under my supervision. I've been, and all is going according to plan.

Have you a generous heart? Are you concerned for the lost? Are you praying for the ministries here? Are you praying and loving and forgiving one another? Are you opening your wallet? Are you opening your home? Are you opening your heart? Are you demonstrating what Paul clearly showed here, that there was an agape love that flowed through the whole of the church, not only to Thessalonica and to its Christians, but back from Thessalonica to Paul, the little man, who needed their love and assurance that he, the great Paul, was in their thoughts. Blessed be the tie that binds and fills our hearts with Christian love. Let's turn and sing that together, shall we? It's number 60 in our hymn book.

The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father's throne we pour out ardent prayers. Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one.

Our comforts and our cares. Number 60. The expectation is I long to see the day of sorrow, of sorrow, that day at sea we shall be free and proud we shall and free we shall.

Father, we come now. Thank you for the absolving love of Christ. Thank you for the gift of his grace.

Thank you for the blood of the everlasting covenant of which we were reminded earlier today. Minister to those who are brokenhearted. May there be such a love in this place between the old and the young and the middle-aged, between the sexes, between those who are married and those who are not married.

Bind this church together. We thank you for Jesus.