2 Timothy Intro (1:1)

Why study 2 Timothy?

To gain insight into the final thoughts of a die-ing man!

What he values at the end of his life

What his perspective is on life with hindsight (hindsight is 20/20)

How Far will we go Tonight

We will start with vs 1 and will not likely get any further tonight.

After setting some context that will help us understand the rest of the book, we will end on the following question:

How does Paul identify himself and where does his confidence come from?

Background and Setting

At the end of Acts we leave off with Paul arriving in Rome on a type of house arrest awaiting trial because he has appealed to caesar as a roman citizen after the Jews have attempted to kill him over the claim that he spoke against the Jewish law, Jewish temple, and brought a gentile into the temple area.

After Acts and during the house arrest, Paul writes Ephesians, philippians, Colossians, and Philemon where we see a positivity to Paul’s imprisonment.

we can conclude that Paul was set free and won his trial as after those books, In 1 Timothy we are able to see that Paul is free and traveling through Greece when he writes of his plans to spend winter in Nicopolis 200 miles northwest of Athens on the west coast of Greece.

Some tradition even holds that Paul did indeed make it to Spain as he intended to at the end of Romans. This is based on the writings of Clement to the Corinthians. Clement in the Roman Catholic faith was the third pope after Peter, for us we simply recognized him as a bishop or leader in the early church. He is written about and attested too by numerous early church historical writings. We believe he was a real person, his writings are not inspired by the holy spirit though he is still a faithful believer and at least trustworthy enough to use in our historical setting.

He writes this about Paul sometime before ad 100 in 1 Clement chapter 5:

Lake’s Apostolic Fathers in English Peter and Paul

5 Through jealousy and strife Paul showed the way to the prize of endurance; 6 seven times he was in bonds, he was exiled, he was stoned, he was a herald both in the East and in the West, he gained the noble fame of his faith, 7 he taught righteousness to all the world, and when he had reached the limits of the West he gave his testimony before the rulers, and thus passed from the world and was taken up into the Holy Place,—the greatest example of endurance.

By the time we get to 2 Timothy, Paul is back in prison. This time the circumstances are different. Paul does not have any hope of being set free of even of living (based on clement writing Paul has good reason to loose that hope). He has been on trial and already made one defense of himself before the trial (2 Tim 4:16) Everyone he knew left him with no one to back his story at this defense. Paul is left standing alone before the Roman Empire. When he goes back to the second defense he expects God will “pour him out as a drink offering as his time to die is at hand” 2 Tim 4:6

We can date this letter to the late 60’s. We know based on Clement that Paul is already dead in a earthly sense by 100 AD. In the second century, an account of Paul is written titled the ACTS of Paul. This states that Paul was beheaded under the crazy emperor Nero (ruled between 60 to 80 AD). While I would not trust this book as it is written past the first century and appears to contradict teaching found in the real scriptures, the timeline we are building does seem to match up with Nero’s reign. Paul would have also been beheaded since a Roman citizen was to have a cleaner death.

So we conclude that Paul is at the end of his life, about to die, roughly 30 years after Jesus has ascended, and the young church is organizing itself under leaders. One of them being this young man named Timothy.

Paul knows that times are getting worse for these church as he portrays portrays here

2 Timothy 3:1 ESV

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

He warns that following Jesus in this time will be very difficult

Some of this difficulty is coming from:

Mythical teaching (2 Tim 4:4)

geneologies teaching (1 Tim 1:4)

a concern for the law- teaching (1 tim 1:7)

higher knowledge -teaching(1 Tim 6:20)

controversy, arguments, and speculation (2 Tim 2:14, 16, 23)

deceptiveness (2 Tim 3:13)

immorality (2 tim 2:16,19)

desire for material gain from teaching (2 tim 3:2,4)

forbidding marriage, eating meat, and teaching the resurrection already happened (2 tim 2:18)

These teachings were opposed to the apostolic teaching and to the truth (2 tim 2:18)

These difficulties will progress in persecution

2 Timothy 3:12 ESV

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

And in light of this difficulty and with his die-ing breath (so to say) he spurs his disciple to dig in harder into the word of God

2 Timothy 3:14–17 ESV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Now with this setting, we come back to our hope as a college group

1. That we would be complete by the training of the Scriptures, to do that we must know them.

2. We would value what Paul values

3. We would be confident and equipped to live our faith in spite of the changing world around us.

Paul’s Confidence

2 Timothy 1:1 ESV

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus,

In Paul’s simple introduction:

He first identifies himself as

an apostle of Christ Jesus

By the will of God according to the promise of life in Christ

1. Apostle: After resurrection the apostles were commissioned as such by the qualification that they had seen Jesus’ earthly ministry and witnessed his resurrection. In this sense is how Paul is identifying, one who is a witness of Jesus’ resurrection himself.

2. By the will of God according to the promise of life in Christ

As directed in Acts 2, we live in the legacy of the apostles and follow in their teaching but we can’t identify as one in the sense that Paul can. In this second piece, Paul clearly and confidently states that he is what he is by the will of God.

Are you confident enough to say “______, I am who I am by the will of God”. Do you have peace that you are in the will of God right now? If not how could you have this same confidence as Paul?

Knowing how often this question comes up, I think its fair to jump aside for a moment in this text and talk about this idea, how the Bible portrays it, and therefore how Paul must have viewed it

Three ways we see the “will of God” outside the Bible

Some may argue that God’s will is everything you don’t want to do, everything sad and hard

God’s will is a magical adventure much like the lottery. You have a chance at winning but your just as likely to accidentally throw it away on accident

God’s will is a specific plan where there is only one clear right way to live your life. Like a series of dots you have constantly be trying to connect them to find what God wants for you

The Pursuit of God’s will is a healthy and worthy pursuit

Psalm 143:10 (ESV) — 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!

David here is not asking what the will of God is but simply help me to do it! How did he know what to do?

English Standard Version Chapter 22

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Jesus lived for God’s will

1 Peter 4:2 ESV

so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Peter lived for the WILL of God

English Standard Version Chapter 4

that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God

The Paul that we see in Timothy when writing to the colossians (4:12) believed that all Christians can be fully assured in all the will of God!

The Will of God defined in God’s own words

In God’s own words, he says both that HIS will is unstoppable and always happens no matter what we do as well as HIS will is a desire that he asks us to obey.

At face value, if HIS will is something they we are commanded to obey, that would imply that we can disobey it.

These two views appear to be contradictory?

Let’s see how these two views are shown in the Bible

God’s will of Decree

Psalm 33:10 ESV

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

Isaiah 46:9–10 ESV

remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Ephesians 1:11 ESV

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Matthew 10:29–30 ESV

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

The world tries to make plans but God makes them look silly! His plans stands and he will accomplish it every time. He works everything to HIS own council, all the way down to how many hairs you have and the life span of each and every individual animal for all time. No detail is spared or missed by Him!

Even with all the possible decissions man can make, God takes that infinite number and in His wisdom works them toward His purposes

Kevin DeYoung phrases this well with:

“Everything comes to pass is according to God’s sovereign decree. And all that He decrees will ultimately come to pass. God’s will of decree cannot be thwarted. It is immutable and fixed” God is sovereign over all things- nature and nations, animals and angels, spirits and Satan, wonderful people and wicked people, even disease and death…God’s will of decree is absolute”

This is God’s will of decree. With this view we can have confidence like Paul we are in the Will of God simply because His will cannot be stopped. We cant be out of it!

Now let’s look at the second piece of God’s will in the Bible

God’s Will of Desire

“If the will of decree is how things are, the will of desire is how things ought to be”-Kevin DeYoung

In light of the Will of decree, we can know that we cannot disrupt God’s plan with our decisions, but with the will desire- we can disrupt our blessing, joy, obedience, usefulness, now and forever!

We are held accountable to DO the will of desire!

If are held accountable- this is pretty serious? How do we know what he desires of us!

We look to his word:

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Here we see that God’s will of desire is that you say no to the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and our pride of possessions

Hebrews 13:21 ESV

equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Do what is pleasing in His sight!

What might that be?

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

This God’s will of desire, that you would be obedient to what He simply has already revealed to you. That’s it.

If you want to know what is revealed and what your accountable to then you need to be in God’s word!

I think our issue is not necessarily with God’s will of desire but before we move on from this, let me briefly summarize what you might find if you searched your Bible for the will of God:

That you be saved and trust in Christ (Mark 9:7)

That you are Spirit Filled (Eph 5:17- controlled by spirit not out of control with drunkenness, eph 5:19-21/ col 3:16-17 same results from the spirit come from the word of God dwelling in you. Dwelling of spirit=dwelling of the word)

That you are sanctified-Seperated from sin (1 Thess 4:3-7)

That you are submissive (James 4:7, Ephesians 5, Hebrews 13:7, 1 Peter 2:13)

That you be saying thanks (1 Thess 5:18)

This is God’s will of desire for your life: That you trust Christ, be spirit filled, be sanctified, be submissive, and be saying thanks!

For some of you, you may need to go back through that list and verses, read them, memorize them, and let them dwell in you because you are currently out of God’s will of desire. For others maybe you have grown up with this and this feels like a let down. You try for this these things but still struggle with the will of God

A life in the middle of the God’s will of desire and God’s will of decree

What we really want is a will of direction.

whether its because we lack courage

we fear the responsibility of our decisions

With these fears we are implying that we have a sneaky God and its that underlying thought that leaves us paralyzed looking for direction.

Paul had confidence that he was an apostle 1. because of God’s will of decree allowed him to be one 2. Because he knew God’s will of desire (that he be spirit filled, saved, sanctified, submissive, and saying thanks) and he spent his life pursuing those things.

It was these thoughts alone that empowered Paul to say “I am what I am by the will of God” without adding any other qualifiers.

Paul knows the promises in Christ, he knows the revealed of word of God and the plan of salvation from before time and he has made that mission to see first the kingdom is primary objective. For that reason he has confidence!

The last thing I will say is this.

If you pursue the will of desire, you can trust in the will of decree and do whatever you want!

If guidance is what your looking for- look to wisdom

Proverbs 1:5 ESV

Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

Proverbs 12:15 ESV

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 15:22 ESV

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs 19:20 ESV

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

God sometimes may open doors and close them it isnt always the easy ones or it isnt always the hard ones.

God’s will of desire is that you be sanctified and trials and discomfort make us holy.

Seek wisdom, deny yourself and take up your cross, look to Jesus and imitate him, seek first the kingdom, and let everything else be.

Do whatever you want and be confident you are in the will of God

How does Paul identify himself and where does his confidence come from?