Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - January 31, 2021

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 2 Timothy 2:1-3, 4:1-5.

In our hum drum lives there are things that lift us up.  Things that we really look forward to.  What are some of the things you look forward to?  Christmas.  Vacation.  Birthdays.  Weddings.  There isn’t a day in the year that gets my juices flowing like Christmas.  I look forward to stringing the lights on the bushes out front.  Decorating the living room just like I have for the last sixty years.  Putting up the manger on the cabinet beside the fireplace.  Now, one of the three wise men has to have his head glued back on yearly.  The sheep brought to the manger by the shepherd boy no longer has one leg so he kind of perches gingerly on three legs.  And Joseph’s staff is long gone.  The manger scene has seen better days, but, I remember my granddaughter spending hours seated in front of it moving the donkey around; having Mary move out of the manger to greet the little shepherd boy; or putting the camel on top of the roof.  Nope, Christmas wouldn’t be same without that beat up old manger sitting on the fluffy cotton sheets on the cabinet beside the fireplace.

Then there is the decoration that has elves twined around the letters that spell out “Noel”.  One Christmas morning about fifty years ago, Jackie and I came into the living room and found that the letters had been re-arranged by our youngest son to spell “Leon”.  So, every Christmas the letters are placed so they spell “Leon”.  It is so ingrained in our celebration of Christmas that when we had our Christmas Eve party and gathered around to sing Christmas carols, the highlight of the songfest was to sing “The First Leon.”

Why is it that we look forward to things?  They represent something out of the normal pattern of our lives.  Events that get us out of our rut.  Sometimes it is silly things like spelling “Noel” as “Leon”.  Sometimes it is relaxing things like a trip up to Peaks of Otter with no telephones or TV ( although I always carried one so I could see Washington lose on Sunday).  It was just relaxing to sit on the porch and read a book or watch a fish break out of the water on the lake.  Sometimes it is a life changing event like waiting for your first child to be born, see him take his first step, go to school and finally waiting for him to grow up and move out so we could get rid of all of those Beatle tapes.

In today’s lesson Paul talks to Timothy about something that the church then was looking forward to - the return of Jesus.  

2 Timothy was probably the last letter Paul wrote.  He is a lonely old man in prison in Rome who has been deserted by most of his friends and is facing the probability of death.  It’s about 67 AD and after over twenty years, Paul’s missionary journeys are about to end.  In the fourth chapter he tells Timothy, “I am already poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness.”  Can’t you imagine Timothy sitting in Ephesus reading that his dear friend and teacher was coming to the end of the road?

Timothy was the son of a devout Jewish mother and a Greek Gentile father.  His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, saw to it that Timothy knew his Jewish background and passed on to him the Old Testament faith.  Paul met Timothy on his first trip to Lystra and gave him the Good News.  Since Timothy was half Gentile and half Jew and his father had had his way in not circumcising Timothy, the Jewish faction there weren’t too keen on having him join their group.  In order to get over this hurdle, Paul had Timothy circumcised.  They became very close.  In Paul’s words, Timothy was like a son to him.  Timothy appears in Acts, Romans, First Corinthians and First Thessalonians and is included as being with Paul in the openings of  Second Corinthians, Philippians, Colosians, First and Second Thessalonians and Philemon.  So for about twenty years, Timothy and Paul worked closely together.

As we learned  earlier,  this letter was written when the church was under attack from a heresy which was gaining strength in the congregations - Gnosticism. Gnostics basically believed that all matter was evil and only the spirit was good. They took this philosophy and then tried to twist Christianity to conform to this idea. Endless hours would be spent taking accepted Christian doctrine and bending and fitting this doctrine into their Gnostic beliefs. These Gnostics were intellectuals who were stimulated by debate and argument, so words meant a lot to them. They were knowledgeable people who just wanted the church to be relevant to the times. Some were even church leaders. There were others in the church, though, who weren't intimidated by these intellectuals so they challenged what the Gnostics said.  

Gnostics had a major problem with creation.  Since all matter was evil and the universe was made from matter, God couldn’t possibly contaminate himself by handling matter.  Here is how they resolved the problem.  God hired a guy to make the universe but this still made God too close to the construction.  He was only one person removed from the job.  He wouldn’t be able to resist stepping in and correct a mistake.  So this guy hired another guy.  Still too close so this second guy hired a third guy.  This kept up until there were a long long line of subcontractors between God and the project - so many that God was for all practical purposes too far removed to actually play a part in the construction.  In math we have a concept of infinity.  If you divide one by two you get one half.  If you divide one by four you get one fourth.  The larger the number on the bottom, the smaller the result.  If a number on the bottom becomes really, big then the result becomes very very small.  The absolutely largest number is assigned a value of infinity.  This number, infinity, divided into one becomes such a small number that, for all practical purposes zero.  It is infinitely small.  This is the back bone of all higher math - a number so small that it is approaching zero in value.  Gnostics used this principal to shield God from the taint of matter.  The value of his input was zero so now the universe can be created proving that matter doesn't matter

Jesus presented a difficult problem for Gnostics.  Since everybody's body is matter, Jesus couldn’t have possibly become man and have to live in a nasty corrupt  human body.  That would make Jesus sinful since his human body would be full of evil.  They solved the problem by saying that even though Jesus was seen and heard, he was really a spirit all the time. Being fully spirit meant that Jesus was fully good and this agreed with scriptures description of Jesus and suited the Gnostics.  But, believers would argue with the Gnostics and say, “How about the time Jesus was walking down the road?  He sure seemed human to me.”  The Gnostic would say that if they really had have looked closely, they would have noticed that Jesus didn’t leave any foot prints in the dusty road.  That’s because Jesus was really a spirit and everybody knows that spirits don’t leave foot prints. 

Paul saw Timothy as the man who could answer the Gnostics.  It was challenges like this that convinced Paul that Timothy was the man to take over for him when he was called home. .

2 Timothy 2: 1 You then my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus;  2 and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. 3 Share in suffering like a soldier of Christ Jesus.

Paul tells us how he felt about Timothy when he addresses him as his child.  As any father would do, Paul wants to pass on the wisdom of faith he has gained over his many years.  For most people their beliefs are passed down to them from their parents.  I still have a problem singing before breakfast because my grandmother said that it was unlucky to do that.  Timothy had his Jewish beliefs passed down to him by his mother and grandmother and then his Christian beliefs passed on to him by his adopted father, Paul. Timothy and all of us are involved in two aspects of faith.

(1) The reception of faith - the reception of faith depends on two things.  It starts with hearing the Word.  Timothy first heard the truths about Christianity from Paul.  But just as importantly, these truths were confirmed by other people.  If I tell you that Pungo produces great strawberries, you may believe me.  But if other people tell you, “I go to the strawberry festival every year and there is no doubt that Pungo has the sweetest strawberries grown anywhere."  This is proof attesting to the truth.  Paul says, “Don’t take my word for it.  Ask other people what effect the Gospel has had on their lives.  They’ll tell you that what I said was true.”  This also brings up another important point.  Even if you don’t have the gift of teaching, you can still testify to how the Gospel has changed your life.

(2) The transmission of faith - we have a duty to pass this faith on to others.  Every Christian should look on himself or herself as the one link between two generations.  Like in a relay race, we have to pass the baton on to the next guy if the race is to be finished and our side win.  If the next guy doesn’t run after getting the baton, then no gold metal.  But we don’t pass it on to just anybody.  We pass it on to good women and men who are committed to pass it on to others who haven’t heard it.  You see, the Christian Church is dependent on an unbroken chain of passer-oners.  They are the links in a chain that stretches from this moment right back to Jesus Christ.

The church expected the Second Coming to happen any minute.  Remember that the early Christians came from a Jewish background which taught that all time was divided into two ages.  There was the present age which was totally evil and the age to come which was the golden age of God.  In between these ages was The Day of the Lord.  This was a day when God would enter history and destroy the world in order to remake it.  To mark the coming of this Day there would be a time of terror during which the Devil would wage his last assault.  The whole world will be shaken to it’s very foundations.  Early Jewish Christians figured this would be when Christ returned.  So, Christ’s return would be a scary time.

What scares you?  What strikes terror in your bones?  Darkness.  Screaming women.  Anything I cook.  Remember those old movies where this beautiful girl, it is always a beautiful girl, being somewhere she shouldn’t be and even the dumbest people in the audience realize this.  Now the girl has left the safety of the locked bedroom and is wandering down the dark hall.  Only candles light the hall.  Then the last candle goes out and the girl is plunged into total darkness except that we can still see her face frozen in terror.  Then we see emerging from behind her head a bony hand with grasping fingers.  What will happen to the lovely Daphne?  What evil menace is behind that grasping hand?  Will the electric bill be paid in time so the light will come on? 

Paul tells Timothy he has to be a good soldier in serving Christ.  The idea of being a soldier and life being a battle was part of the Roman and Greek culture.  One philosopher of the day said to live, was to be a soldier.  Another philosopher said that life is a kind of battle which is long and comes with a lot of changes.  Paul is urging Timothy to fight the good battle.  Later Paul is to say that he fought the good fight, so he wasn’t giving advice that he was willing to take himself.  What were the qualities of a soldier that Paul wanted to be repeated in the Christian life?

(1) A soldier has to concentrate on his job and duty.  A Christian must concentrate on his Christianity.  That doesn’t mean that a Christian should not live in the real world.  He still has to make a living.  He has responsibilities that go along with having a family.  What it does mean is that a Christian should see in everything he does an opportunity to demonstrate his faith.  Whether it is physically helping out someone in need or lifting  someone in prayer, you are testifying to your faith.

(2) A soldier is conditioned to be obedient.  A soldier has to take orders without question.  The officers above him have a broad view of the battle that the soldier cannot have.  If every soldier decided on his own how he should fight the battle, then there would be chaos and would guarantee defeat.  A Christian takes his orders from God and follows them even if he doesn’t know exactly what God has in mind.

(3) A soldier is conditioned to make sacrifices.  In a battle there is always the possibility of death and the soldier has to live with that fact.  The Christian has to recognize that he may be called on to make the ultimate sacrifice.  If we are to follow and imitate Christ, we have to remember that it was Christ who said, “This is my body broken for you.”

(4) A soldier is loyal.  A soldier when he joins the army swears loyalty to the USA.  The Christian must be loyal to Christ through all of life’s chances and changes right up to the time of death.

2 Timothy 4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom.  I solemnly urge you:  2 proclaim the message: be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.  3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their iown desires,  4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.  5 As for you,always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Paul is coming to the end of this letter.  Now he wants to challenge Timothy to deal with the problem at hand.  He reminds Timothy of two things about Christ:

(1) Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead.  Timothy’s work will be tested.  But, the biggest test will come from Jesus, himself.  All Christians come under this testing.  The idea here is that we must do everything as if we were going to be doing it for Jesus.  Our main concern isn’t the criticism or approval of men but, the approval of Christ.  If we work this way, then we won’t give up when somebody might put down our effort or feel puffed up with our own sense of importance when we are praised.  The only reward that Christians should strive for is to hear Jesus declare, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

(2) Jesus is the King.  At some point the kingdoms of this world will be replaced with the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Christians are to work and live so that they will find a home and citizenship in that kingdom.   

With those things in mind, Timothy has a responsibility.  It is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ no matter what.  He was to use all of his time to do whatever was necessary to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  Then Paul tackles a problem so prevalent in our day.  Watch out for the preachers and leaders who tell us not what God would have us hear, but what we want to hear.  What do we want to hear?  That we are doing enough.  That we don’t have to go out of our way to spread the gospel.  That TV will be our missionaries to the unsaved.  That a gimmick or slide show will substitute for a good Bible study.  If we only want to hear what makes us feel satisfied with doing little, then we don’t want to hear the truth.  Then we will be like the prosecuting officer at the trial for a man who had done things his way in the movie A Few Good Men, when he said that all he wanted was the truth.  The Jack Nicholson character answered, “The truth! You can’t handle the truth.”  That is what Paul is driving at - handling the truth of the Gospel.

Sometimes we look forward to nice times like Christmas.  Sometimes we look forward to peaceful times like up on the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Sometimes we look forward to the fellowship of other Christians on Sunday morning.  But, folks, I’m here to tell you this morning that we Christians have abundantly more to look forward to than the unbelievers.  We can look forward to a lake front room in the Kingdom of the Lord for all of eternity.

Prayer: Father, open our ears so that we hear the clear message of the Gospel and our hearts so that we will act on that message.  Amen.