Be What You Are!

Reading: 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1-13.

In this chapter the apostle Paul presented a number of pictures;

• That describe not only the Christian minister, but also each Christian.

• We are going to look at five of those pictures tonight.

• Each picture has many applications;

• We could make three or four points on each picture mentioned.

• I am going to be very disciplined tonight;

• And just choose one or two applications from each of the four pictures mentioned.

(1). The steward (verses 1-2):

“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others”.

Ill:

The word ‘Steward’ is not actually a Biblical word:

• And it is not in the text.

• It comes through the Anglo-Saxon, from the word ‘Sty warden’;

• A ‘Steward’ was someone who had the responsibility of looking after a sty (house),

• A steward was originally a House Warden.

In New Testament times the word translated into English in the K.J.B. as ‘Steward’:

• Is someone who had the responsibility of looking after not the building, house warden.

• But the occupants, those who indwelt the house.

• A ‘Steward’ carried the burden of responsibility for the household;

• To which he was appointed.

• It normally meant that the education and upbringing of the children was entrusted to him.

• It was a burden placed upon him from which he could not escape.

This word (although not biblical) is a great picture of what verses 1-2 are saying:

• Verses 1-2 are telling us two things;

• We are receivers and we are guardians.

(a) We are receivers of the Christian faith;

Timothy had a big advantage in his life that I for one did not have:

• He had a Jewish grandmother called Lois, who was converted to Jesus Christ.

• She was the first one in the family to come to faith.

• He also had a Jewish mother called Eunice;

• She too became a follower of Jesus Christ.

• As for his father we know very little;

• All we can glean about him in the Bible was that he was a Greek.

• Timothy heard the truth of the Christian faith from family members.

• “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing the word of God”.

Quote: BILLY GRAHAM who said:

“Children will invariably talk, eat, walk, think, respond, and act like their parents.

Give them a target to shoot at. Give them a goal to work toward. Give them a pattern that they can see clearly, and you give them something that gold and silver cannot buy”.

• Timothy’s mother and grandmother had given him something that gold and silver cannot buy.

• A sincere faith, that brought him into contact with the living Christ.

• His mother Eunice & grandmother Lois had sown the seed in his heart(chapter 1 verse 5)

• But it was Paul who reaped the harvest, Paul that led him to the Lord;

But notice there is a second witness mentioned in verse 2:

• The words that Paul spoke to Timothy;

• Were confirmed by many witness

• Timothy encountered many people who were willing to say:

• "These words of Paul are true-and I know it, because I have found it so in my own life."

Ill:

• You might not be a great preacher,

• You might not be an upfront, a public person.

• But every Christian is a witness and can back up what is being said;

• "These words are true-and I know it, because I have found it so in my own life."

(b) We are guardians of the Christian faith;

• It is not only a privilege to receive the Christian faith,

• It is a duty to transmit it.

• If we want folks to be saved we must speak out the gospel to them;

• Challenge: When did you last speak to a stranger? Family member or friend?

• Every Christian must look on himself as a link between two generations.

• Quote: E. K. Simpson writes on this passage:

"The torch of heavenly light must be transmitted unquenched from one generation to another, and Timothy must count himself an intermediary between apostolic and later ages."

Ill:

One day King George V:

• Was to give the opening address at a special disarmament conference,

• The speech was to be relayed by radio to the U.S.A.

• As the broadcast was about to begin, a cable broke in the New York radio station,

• And more than a million listeners were left without sound.

• A junior mechanic in the station,