Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
One Who Honors God
Though Timothy’s Gentile Father no doubt tried to regale him with stories of the Greek gods, the conquests of Alexander the Great, Timothy’s Mother and Grandmother reared him on the narratives from their Old Testament Scriptures. They enthralled his impressionable mind with the histories of men and women who were valiant for God and God’s people, like: Moses, Elijah, David, Ruth, Daniel, Esther, and Joseph. They taught him about the prophecies of the coming Redeemer.
Then the Apostle Paul had come, invading Galatia with the gospel of Christ. His arrival in Timothy’s hometown of Lystra was exciting and controversial. The whole city was in an uproar when Paul healed a local cripple, who had been lame from birth (Acts 14:8-11). The astonished locals proclaimed Paul and Barnabus to be incarnations of their gods: Mercury and Jupiter. The local priest prepared to sacrifice oxen in their honor. But Paul had refused to allow it.
Imagine the events of that remarkable day as they were discussed at the supper table in Timothy’s home. Soon Paul’s stirring news that the Christ had come, been sacrificed, had risen from the dead, and ascended back to heaven in the presence of witnesses– caught fire in young Timothy’s soul, and He became a believer in Jesus, the Christ. It appears Timothy’s Gentile Father had already passed away but now he had someone he would trust, look up to and admire as a father for the rest of his life, the man who had become his spiritual father, Paul.
This message is an introduction to an upcoming study on the book of Timothy. It is a biographical sketch of one of the great young pastors of the early New Testament church. In it we will also answer some of the questions about Paul’s incarceration at Rome and how it relates to the pastoral epistles.
