Authentic models of ministry

2 TIMOTHY 3:10-17 (3)

About 17 years after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Christian church in Antioch sent two of its leadership out on a missionary trip. Their town was about 300 miles North of Jerusalem, and about 16 miles from the Mediterranean coast. The two men who set out to preach the Gospel were Paul and Barnabas. They travelled to Cyprus and saw the Lord work powerfully there. Then they sailed North to the coast of modern Turkey and went to preach in Antioch in Pisidia. He preached the Word of God so powerfully in the Jewish synagogue that many Jews and Gentiles converts to Judaism turned to Christ. Word began to spread about this man’s ministry.

The leaders of the Jewish community were so upset by this that they drove the apostles out of town. You can read about these events at the end of Acts 13. But we read, the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. They moved on to a town called Iconium. The journey was about 90 miles long and involved at the end an ascent to the city of some 3,400 feet. Again Paul preached in the synagogue and a significant number of Jews and Greeks turned to Christ. Some remarkable things happened in this city in terms of powerful miracles performed through Paul’s ministry. There was opposition and the beginnings of persecution. A plot was hatched by their enemies to stone them, so Paul and Barnabas moved on to the cities of Lystra and Derbe. Acts puts it very simply, where they continued to preach the Gospel (Acts 14:7).

Lystra was about 18 miles from Iconium, and Paul started his ministry here with a miracle of such amazing power that the people wanted to garland Paul and Barnabas as Greek gods come in bodily form. But it wasn't long before Jewish leaders from Antioch (90 miles away) and Iconium (18 miles) came to make trouble for the missionaries in Lystra. They whipped up the kind of riot you can see on your TV in some Middle Eastern cities, and the crowds stoned Paul and then supposing that he was dead, dragged him out of the city and dumped him beyond the gates.

The disciples gathered around the bleeding, unconscious preacher who surprised them by getting up and walking straight back into the city; not a direction I would have taken!

So, the little team went on the next day to Derbe and conducted a preaching mission there, before returning to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. And what was their message on these return visits? Acts 14:21-23 (ESV) 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

So, there’s an interesting first missionary tour for you, and in the interests of time I haven't described the astounding events on Cyprus.

I mention all this historical stuff that you can read in Acts 13-14 because five years later Paul was back again in these cities. And the church leaders urged him to take an apprentice. They spoke very highly of this young chap called Timothy. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. So, he either knew of the events of the first missionary visit first hand or the stories had been passed on to him by his mother and grandmother and some of the other church members who'd been converted on that first extraordinary trip.

That’s the background to our studies in 2 Timothy 3. We've seen in verses 1-9 a description of spiritual gangrene growing in the life of the church in Ephesus where Timothy was exercising a ministry. False teachers had gained influence in the life of the church and were causing the diminution of the life of the Spirit in the church, and a growth in worldly attitudes and habits. Men who change the Gospel of God always harm the church. And the harm they cause always results in the church becoming more like the world. The dreadful attitudes and practices listed in verse 1-9 were growing in the life of the Ephesian church.

Well, We've begun to look at the antidote to that terrible development. Timothy must follow the apostle Paul’s practice and preach the truth and nothing but the truth; he must live a life that reflects that truth; AND he must train up a generation of new workers who would carry forward the work. So, here in verses 10-17 we're considering the vital principle:- lovingly embrace authentic models of ministry. That’s what had made Timothy the man he was, he'd lovingly embraced the authentic model of ministry that he'd seen and followed in the Apostle Paul. And as chapter 2:2 tells us he was to do that for other faithful men, who would in turn mentor others.

And, the challenge is there for all of us to be authentic models of ministry to the people who are influenced by what we are. Everybody influences someone in the church.

Paul modelled to Timothy a passion for truth (my doctrine) and he modelled a purpose-driven life (my conduct, my purpose).

I want us to look at the rest of these qualities described in verses 10-13. And, some of these qualities had been especially on display in the events recorded on that first missionary journey.

1. SEE A PERSISTENCE IN FAITH (v 10)

My faith. Now, that’s one we could skip over quickly in the interests of time because we all know what faith is, do we not? It’s belief in the Gospel. It’s trusting that the Gospel is true, that Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins on the Cross and rose from the dead in order to usher in a new age. Well, of course, the Devil believes those things because he knows them to be true, but he doesn't have saving faith. Saving faith occurs when you trust yourself to the God revealed in the Gospel and surrender who you are and all you are to His rule. Faith happens at the beginning of the Christian life in that initial surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; BUT it’s also the daily trust that God is God.

Round about 48 AD Paul had been stoned by his Jewish opponents, they'd dragged his apparently lifeless body out of the town and dumped him on the road and left him for dead. There he lay bleeding and bruised. Let’s not minimise that. Picture a man who’s been hit on the head and body by dozens of stones thudding into his flesh and bones. There’s some evidence in Paul’s letters that he had very poor eyesight; the Galatians, he says, would have plucked out their eyes and given them to him if they could; he writes with large letters. I just wonder if the damage was done here in Lystra.

He regained consciousness. Stood up. And walked back into that city to preach Christ. That’s faith. That’s a man trusting God in the face of huge problems, life-threatening dangers, and believing that God would bring glory to himself through the apostle’s life.

It’s hard, it’s dangerous, but I'm trusting God. He accomplish his sovereign will whether through my life or death. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. One of our elders writes has this at the end of all his emails, God is good. Is he? Do you trust that? Do you walk through life in that conviction?

One of our church youngsters recently had a scare over a possible diagnosis of breast cancer. Mercifully it was a scare and not the real thing. She wrote this:- It made me think though, how grateful am I to God that he saved my life? How much more grateful should i be that he has saved my soul?! He is good and merciful. I know now that just because I am 20 doesn't ensure me a painless and long life ahead, on the contrary, it ensures me a walk along the calvary road.  He is good and merciful.

Timothy saw that faith modelled in a mentor who constantly trusted God and His purposes in days of pain and adversity. His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim, He knows the way I taketh and I will walk with Him. That’s faith. And Timothy saw it in Paul. When the churches turned fickle and were damaged by false teachers; when the apostle was shipwrecked by the weather and whipped across the back in the market square; when he was hungry and cold; when he was penniless and in pain; he saw steadfast faith that God is God and He is good.

So, what kind of mentors are we - to our friends, our kids, our friends in the church, our mates on the team, our girlfriends out shopping in the Bentall Centre. What kinds of mentors are we in our attitudes and conversations. Paul could say, you saw and followed - MY FAITH.

2. SEE A PASSION FOR PEOPLE (v 10)

Paul uses a Greek word which despite my almost complete lack of the Greek language is one of my favourites. Macrothumia.

The word here is makrothumia; and makrothumia, as the Greeks used it, usually meant patience with people. It is the ability not to lose patience when people are foolish, not to grow irritable when they seem unteachable. It is the ability to accept the folly, the perversity, the blindness, the ingratitude of men and still to remain gracious, and still to toil on.—Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT) If I might paraphrase its meaning, Taking a long time to blow up. It’s the equivalent of having a long fuse.

Paul says back in 1 Timothy 1 that the Lord Jesus had been longsuffering in his approach to Paul during the days when Paul had tried to destroy the church of Christ. I was a blasphemer and a persecutor, but the Lord Jesus was mighty in patience as he dealt with me. Now, I'm a minister to the church. People are sometimes wayward and silly and awkward, but I'll patiently seek to minister to them pastorally and compassionately, because that’s how the King dealt with me. He didn't drop me in a box marked “hopeless case” and put me to one side ready for hell. He saw that he could do something with me, and he visited my heart and won me over to his cause, and then showed me how to live and serve. And, Timothy, you've seen me do that in the church.

Maybe there’s a youth worker or a parent here, who’s almost despaired of that recalcitrant youngster. Be patient, there might be an apostle lurking in that aggressive, uncooperative personality.

Makrothumia.

And, of course, this people person, not only had makrothumia, he had agape. The love that’s modelled on and stimulated by the love of God in Christ. For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only son .... contains the verb upon which this noun is based. I heard recently about a couple who came to resent and despise the church of which they were members. They were constantly ignoring the care and attention they received and chose instead to moan and groan about the care and attention they felt they didn't receive. No one talked to them after the service, they said, despite the fact that the pastor of that church once had to wait 45 minutes to get a word with them because so many church members were engaging them in conversation. There’s a bitter spirit that only sees the negatives and doesn't value the positives. They take account of wrongs. They're mean and narrow. They've left that church and gone off in high dudgeon to another.

And, what do they want to do? They want to become full-time Christian workers. But agape is kind, patient, doesn't take account of wrongs, is never puffed up with a sense of its own importance, doesn't put itself ahead of other people in the church, doesn't seek it’s own gratification, doesn't make a meal of other people’s sins, isn't easily provoked, doesn't think the worst of others. That’s agape according to 1 Cor. 13, and yet you can apparently be almost devoid of that and yet seek to pursue full-time Christian work in which one of the major requirements is to model love.

Timothy, you saw how I sought to model agape day by day as I dealt with the people I encountered in my ministry.

You see how all these pearls hang together on the same string?

Spiritual gangrene isn't prevented from spreading in the life of the church only by men who are passionate for truth, but by men who are intimate with Jesus Christ, who are living under the shadow and impact of the Cross, and who are moving in the realm of longsuffering and love. A loveless theologian will do as much damage as a loving false teacher.

If we are to have authentic models of ministry for our people to lovingly embrace then longsuffering and love must be woven through the fabric of their life before God. And, if you want to influence people for God’s glory, then intimacy with Jesus, and the love that will develop for others within that environment, is absolutely essential. Because even if you know all mysteries and can explain all doctrines but have not love, you're a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.