Timothy

LIFE LESSONS
TIMOTHY
DR. JIM DIXON
1 TIMOTHY 6:6-16
AUGUST 28, 2005

“By the blessed and only Sovereign, King of Kings and Lord of Lords who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

That doxology was written by Paul and included in his letter to his close friend and associate, Timothy. A doxology is a word of praise towards God. A doxology is a word to honor God. It is a word to glorify God and it is so appropriate that Paul would include this doxology in his letter to his friend Timothy, because the name Timothy comes from the Greek, “Timotheus” and that means, “one who honors God,” “one who glorifies God,” “one who gives praise to God.”

We live in a world where most people live to honor themselves. We live in a world where most people seek their own glory and they seek their own praise. Timothy was a different kind of man. He lived to honor God and the church of Jesus Christ is called to be “timothian.” It’s called to “honor God,” “to glorify God,” “to praise God.” If you would be a person like that… If you would be a person who be different than the world, if you would seek to honor God, then this morning we have three life lessons from the life of Timothy, all having to do with how we honor God.

The first life lesson is this. If you would honor God, then you must believe in His Son. If you would honor God, then you must believe in the one whom He has sent, His Son.

About a week ago Barb and I were up in Dillon in Summit County by the lake. We pulled into the parking lot at the City Market. Barb wanted to go in and get something. I stayed in the car. A woman in another car pulled in right next to me. She had a bumper stick on her car and the bumper sticker said, “I support troops but not the fool who sent them.” Of course, I’ve seen more recently in the last few days other bumper stickers with those same words, “I support our troops but not the fool who sent them.”

I don’t know how you feel about bumper stickers like that. I don’t know how you feel about those words. I do know that the war in Iraq has divided our country and in the midst of the divide, many people have lost their civility. I also know there’s one person, surely one person who hates bumper stickers like that and that one person if the father of our President, the father of George W. Bush. That one person is George Herbert Walker Bush who was the 41st President of the United States. He has recently said he can’t stand it when people mock his son. He’s recently said that he wants people to believe in his son and regardless of your political persuasion, you can understand how a father would feel like that because as moms and dads we want people to believe in our kids.

About two months ago I received a book in the mail along with a letter. The book was written by Craig Parrot. He sent me the book along with a letter. He asked me in the letter how our daughter Heather was doing and expressed again how much he admires and appreciates her. Craig Parrot is a teacher at Lutheran High School here in town. I’ll always be grateful to him because he believed in our
daughter. When Heather was going through a kind of tough season in life and she went in her senior year in high school, Craig Parrot was one of her teachers. He saw the inner beauty in Heather. He saw the strength that was within her and he saw the gifts that God had given her. He wrote me a letter during her senior year telling me that he believed that Heather was one of the finest Christian young women he had ever seen. Barb and I just felt honored that he believed in Heather. Of course, we feel that way about those who believe in our daughter, those who believe in our son Drew and those who believe in our son-in-law Chris. We want people to believe in them and we feel honored when they do. But of course, it really is not of great concern for you. I mean it’s not going to be significant in your life whether you believe in our daughter or our son or our son-in-law.

It’s really not that significant in your life whether you believe in the son of George Herbert Walker Bush, but it’s incredibly important whether or not you believe in the Son of God. Everything depends on that. You see, God sent His Son into the world with a mission. He sent Him into this world to bear our flesh. He sent Him into this world to live a sinless life, that He might be the perfect Lamb of God. He sent Him into this world to die on a cross for the sin of the world in atoning sacrifice and he wants us to believe in Him that we might find Him as Savior. He sent Him into the world to conquer death, to rise from the dead in power and great glory that we might believe in Him as Lord and receive eternal life. He sent Him into this world to start His church that we might believe in Him and enter this eternal community. Everything is tied to that. If you don’t believe in His Son, you don’t honor the One who sent Him. You don’t honor God unless you believe in His Son.

We don’t know when Timothy first came to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We do know that Timothy lived in Asia Minor. We know that he lived in the town of Lystra not too far from the town of Derbe. We know that he had a mother who was Jewish and her name was Eunice. We know that Timothy had a father who was Greek but we do not know his name. We know that Timothy’s grandmother was Jewish and her name was Lois. We know that the mother of Timothy, though Jewish, was not devout in the Jewish faith because she married a gentile and, you see, a devout Jewish woman in those days would never have married a gentile. We also know that Eunice, the mother of Timothy, was not devout in her Jewish faith because she did not demand that her son Timothy be circumcised and every Jewish mother in those days in that part of the world would have required that her son be circumcised if she were devout in her faith. But we also know that there came a day when Eunice, the mother of Timothy, and Lois, the grandmother of Timothy, found faith in Jesus Christ and in the Christian faith they became devout. We believe it happened about the year 48 AD. In the year 48 AD the Apostle Paul came to Asia Minor. He came to the town of Lystra and we believe through the Apostle Paul’s ministry the mother and grandmother of Timothy placed their faith in Jesus Christ and asked Him into their heart.

It’s perhaps true that the mother and grandmother of Timothy led Timothy to faith in Christ or maybe Paul on that first missionary journey to Lystra led Timothy to Christ. We don’t know. We do know that on the second missionary journey Paul called Timothy to join him in the Gospel ministry. We know that Timothy became a person strong in his commitment to Jesus Christ. He honored the One. He honored God who had sent His Son into the world by believing in His Son. God wants you to know it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in your life. You can come to Christ and you can believe in Him.

I see where, in the upcoming months, a movie is coming out about Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix is going to play the part of Johnny Cash. I’m kind of curious what kind of portrayal of Johnny Cash Hollywood is going to make. Johnny Cash is of course viewed by many as the greatest country folk singer in American history. He rose quickly to fame and to fortune. During that time as he sold countless gold records, Johnny Cash became drug addicted and he began to live a horribly promiscuous life, a tragic life. In the year 1965, Johnny Cash was arrested and they found more than a thousand amphetamines on his body, in his pockets. His weight had dropped from 200 pounds to 140 pounds. He’d been in a horrible accident and his body was broken. He’d been in that accident when he was in the midst of a drug stupor. In the years that followed, he was in and out of rehab but finally there came May 9, 1971. It was on that day that Johnny Cash, broken and sick, found himself sitting in a pew in a little church in his hometown. The pastor preached the Gospel. Johnny Cash had heard it before but somehow it never tugged on his soul like this and that day, May 9, 1971, Johnny Cash gave his heart to Jesus. The pastor invited those who would commit their life to Christ to come down the aisle and Johnny Cash walked that aisle. He received the One that God sent into the world. He honored God. He believed in His Son and his life was forever changed.

You see, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter what you’re into. Christ is willing to forgive you. He’s willing to welcome you, willing to befriend you, willing to save you if you’ll make that commitment to Him. It doesn’t matter what stage of life you’re in.

I know most of you, perhaps all of you, have heard of Ty Cobb. Ty Cobb was born in Royston, Georgia and he was called the “Georgia Peach.” His baseball swing was sweet. For eleven years Ty Cobb won the American League Batting Championship and for four years he batted over 400. His lifetime batting average was 367, the highest lifetime batting average in the history of professional baseball. He was one of the first five inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb was one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. He had many important dates in his life but the most important date of all for him was July 17, 1961, It was on July 17, 1961 when Ty Cobb asked Jesus into his heart. He embraced the One that God had sent into the world. He believed in God’s Son. He said, “Tell all Christians everywhere I’m sorry. Tell them I’m sorry I waited until the last part of the ninth inning to accept Christ. Tell them I wish I had accepted Christ in the first half of the first inning.

I don’t know what inning you’re in. If you think of life as nine innings, what inning are you in? Maybe you think of yourself as in the third inning. Maybe you think of yourself as in the ninth inning. Maybe you feel like you’re in extra innings. Maybe you’ve just been told you have cancer and it’s terminal and you feel like the game just got rained out. They just called the game for you. But, you see, it doesn’t matter where you are in life. Now, is the time to believe. Now, is the time to honor God and embrace the One He sent into the world.

This word belief in the Bible—“God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believes in Him will never perish.” That word “believe” is “pisteuo,” and that word means, “to commit your life.” You can do that today. Even if you have doubts, you can find Jesus if you have faith enough to make that commitment, to commit your life. That’s what God wants you to do. That’s why He sent His Son into the world.

I’m sure that most of you have heard of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous German poet and playwright, author and scientist. Goethe was not an atheist but he was an agnostic. He’d heard the Gospel many times but he couldn’t make the commitment. He just couldn’t. He felt like he needed a little more information. On his deathbed you might recall that it was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe whose final words were, “more light, more light, more light.” His family and friends surrounded him. They didn’t go and open the shades because they knew what he was talking about. He wanted more light from God but, you see, Jesus is the Light of the World. You’ll never get more light. He’s the Light of the World come into the world. Believe in Him. Today is the day.

If you would honor God, you must not only believe in His Son but you must also talk about His Son so this is the second life lesson from Timothy. If you would honor God, you must tell others about His Son.

Timothy traveled all over the ancient world. Timothy traveled through Asia and Europe. He went to Thessaloniki, Philippi, Berea, Athens, down into Corinth, all through Macedonia. He came of course to Ephesus, as far as Jerusalem in the East and perhaps further, Rome in the West. Timothy traveled. What was that all about? It was all about Jesus. Everywhere Timothy went, he talked about Jesus. He told other people the story of Jesus. Of course, the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “Do the work of an evangelist,” which means, “tell people about Jesus.”

You might think, “Well, that’s hard to do and maybe there are others to do it.” You might think, “I don’t need to do that. Other people can be evangelists,” but do you know, biblically, every single Christian is called to do the work of an evangelist. Biblically, every single Christian is called to talk about Jesus Christ. Everything depends on this, that you would be faithful in the time that God has given you on this earth to honor God by talking about His Son.

We live in a divided Christian world now. There are a lot of Christians who say, “Hey, I’m a Catholic Christian.” Some say, “I’m a Protestant Christian.” Some say, “I’m an Orthodox Christian.” Some say, “I’m a denominational Christian.” Some say, “I’m a non-denominational Christian.” Some say, “I’m a Pentecostal Christian.” Some say, “I’m a dispensational Christian.” It doesn’t matter. If you’re a Christian of any sort, you must be an evangelist. You must be evangelical. The biblical word is “euangelion” and it means, “Gospel.” It means, “good news.” It means, “good message.” There is news that’s meant to be shared. There’s a message that’s meant to go out and it’s meant to go out through you.

I’m a pastor. My call, my burden, my responsibility is to motivate you, equip you, encourage you to go out into the world and talk about Jesus. I’m sure that Timothy did it with gentleness and with kindness. I know Jesus wants you to do the same but don’t be silent.

Some of you have heard of Clarence Hall. Clarence Hall was a famous World War II newspaper correspondent and he tells an amazing story. It took place on Okinawa at the end of World War II. American forces were there in April, May and June and the fighting was severe and many died. Many cities and many villages in Okinawa resisted but Clarence Hall speaks of one village in Okinawa, a village called Shimabuku. When the American forces approached that village in Okinawa, they were stunned as two Japanese elderly men came out of the village and welcomed the American Army in the name of Jesus Christ. The leaders of the American forces did not know what to do. They called on the Chaplain. Clarence Hall explains… this famous newspaper correspondent explains as the Chaplain sits down with these two elderly Japanese men from this village. The Chaplains discover that a missionary came to this village in the year 1913 and two people in the village accepted Jesus Christ and their names were Kena Shoshi and Mojan Tina and these two were now old and these were the two standing before the American forces. They had led their entire village to Jesus Christ and many individuals in other villages, but in this village they led the entire village to Jesus Christ and now they received the American forces in peace. As the American forces went into that village they could not believe the loving relationships. Clarence Hall, this newspaper correspondent said, “It occurred to him for the first time in his life that perhaps we’re using the wrong strategy in trying to remake the world.”

I believe that war is sometimes necessary to deter evil on the earth but I think as the church of Jesus Christ, have we ever asked, “Are we using the wrong strategy?” I talk to so many Christians who are so concerned politically. They’re almost militant politically and certainly politics are important and we’re blessed to live in a country where we have freedoms to be politically active and Christians should be. I know that sometimes Christians need to take a prophetic role in cultures and it’s never easy to be a prophet, but I think our primary strategy—and for most of us as Christians—the call is really just this, to talk about Jesus, to be faithful to do that one thing, talk about Jesus, to go out into the culture and the world and be His witnesses and to tell other people about Jesus. Are you doing that? Do you have the courage to do that? Do you have the guts to do that?

I want to tell you a story. I told part of this story before and part of it I’ve never told. The story begins in the summer of 1850. It was early June, 1850. A young man 18 years old named James arrived on an Ohio farm, a farm that belonged to a man named Worthy Taylor. Worthy Taylor’s farm was just outside of Cleveland. Worthy Taylor was fairly wealthy. James approached the farm, this 18-year-old boy, because he wanted a summer job and he’d heard that Worthy Taylor hired young men to work his farm during the summer so James showed up, 18 years old. Worthy Taylor looked at him. He could see that James was tall, he was strong, he was athletic, he was good looking. He had blonde hair, and he was kind of like this All-American boy but Worthy Taylor didn’t like him. Immediately Worthy Taylor didn’t like James because he could tell that James was poor. He wore shabby clothing and he could tell that James was poor. Worthy Taylor looked down on the poor and yet Worthy Taylor really needed another worker on his farm so he told James that he could work for the summer.

Worthy Taylor had two guest rooms in his house where he kept many of the summer workers but he didn’t want this poor boy to live in his house. He didn’t want James in his house so he told James that he had to stay in the barn, and he could make his bed up in the loft with the hay. James did that and he worked that whole summer of 1850 on Worthy Taylor’s farm. Worthy Taylor was impressed. James worked hard. He was hard-working and responsible but by the end of the summer Worthy Taylor discovered something that really scared him. James had fallen in love with his daughter and his daughter had fallen in love with James. Worthy Taylor didn’t like this so he went up to James and he said, “Listen. You’ve got to get out of here. I don’t want you seeing my daughter. You’re not worthy of my daughter. Leave my farm. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

James left at the end of that summer of 1850. Years passed. Many years passed. It was the summer of 1881, 31 years later. Worthy Taylor was old. He was old and his barns were old. He went up into his barn that June of 1881. He went up into the loft in his barn. He was thinking of whether or not he needed to build a new barn. Is this thing too old to stand? He went up into the loft to kind of see whether the wood was crumbling and whether the structure was still solid. There in the loft he looked at the back of one beam and he saw something he’d never seen before. He saw that James had carved his name on the back of one of the beams in the loft, his full name, and Worthy Taylor was stunned because at that very moment James was the President of the United States of America. James A. Garfield carved
right into the beam of the loft of the barn of Worthy Taylor. James A. Garfield. James had become President.

Of course, he had only been President for a few months and it was only one month later in July 1881, July 2, 1881 James A. Garfield was shot by an assassin, two bullets, one lodged near his spine. They tried to heal him. They tried to save him. They tried for a few months but they could not save him. Even Alexander Graham Bell tried a special device to locate the bullet on the spine but they could not locate it. James was sent to a seaside cottage near New Jersey to die and it was there that James died September 19, 1881. We’ll never know what kind of President James A. Garfield would have been but we know this. We know what kind of man he was.

He was, first of all, a brilliant man. James A. Garfield was brilliant. He was a University Professor of Ancient Languages and he could write Latin with his left hand and Greek with his right hand simultaneously. Most of you have to use one hand at a time to write Greek and Latin! But just
· think how brilliant this guy was. He was brilliant. He became a University President and of course he had been a soldier and a statesman. He was a brilliant man.

He was also a wonderful Christian man, a devout Christian. He loved Jesus Christ and James A. Garfield had accepted Jesus into his life when he was just a kid. He loved Jesus all of his years and he talked about Jesus everywhere he went. He talked about Jesus when he was a Professor of Ancient Languages. He talked about Jesus when he served as a University President. Whatever he did, he talked about Jesus. Whether he was a soldier or a statesman, everything in life he did, he talked about Jesus. For a period of years, vocationally, James A. Garfield actually served as an evangelist. Everywhere he went, all of his life, he talked about Jesus and even as he died in that seaside cottage in New Jersey, he still talked about Jesus and that’s what Christ wants from you. That’s what God wants from you, that you would honor Him and talk about His Son.

You might think, “Well, James A. Garfield lived in a different time. When he lived you could talk about Jesus and it might actually help your career,” but of course that wasn’t true, not always. It’s never easy to be a Christian but the call is always the same. Do the work of an evangelist. “Be My witnesses,” Jesus says.

Thirdly and finally, if you would honor God, you must serve His Son and His church. If you would honor God, you must believe in His Son. If you would honor God you must tell other people about His Son and if you would honor God you must serve His Son and His church. You’re probably thinking, “Well Jim has to say that because he’s a pastor of a church.” But, you see, before I ever became a pastor Barb and I still served the church. We tithed to the church. We taught Sunday School at church. We tried to advance the cause of the church. When and if we ever retire, we will still serve the church of Jesus Christ because that’s how we honor the Father by serving the Church of His Son. Jesus said, “I’ll build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

You may say, “The church is flawed.” Sure it is. The human race is flawed but it’s God’s chosen instrument in this world. Timothy served the church. According to Eusebius, the great church historian, Timothy was appointed by Paul to be the Bishop at the Church at Ephesus. He served as Bishop of the Church at Ephesus until he died January 22 AD 97. The truth is, wherever Timothy went he served the church of Christ. That’s what his life was about. Paul said to Timothy, “Fulfill your ministry.” The word for ministry is “diakonos” which in the Greek means, “service.” Timothy was a server, a servant of the church of Jesus Christ and that’s how we honor God is by serving His church.

I want you to see a clip—I know our time is short—but I want you to see a clip from a movie called “About A Boy” starring Hugh Grant.

Well, “About A Boy” was not really a family movie but a movie with a wonderful message and that wonderful message is “no man is an island.” You can’t just sit around with your television set or your computer, getting a little food from the refrigerator and minding your own business. No man is an island. You can’t just pursue your own career and mind your own business. No man is an island. Of course, maybe one of the reasons God brought children into the world is that we would have to leave our island. Maybe one of the reasons God brought families into the world is that we would have to leave our island. I can tell you this. The reason God brought the church into the world is so we would have reason to leave our island and come onto the mainland. Leave our island and learn what it is to serve an eternal cause. It’s something awesome and great and that’s the call of Christ on His people.

I know you’ve all heard of John D. Rockefeller Sr., one of the most famous people in American history. He founded the Rockefeller Dynasty. He was, as a young man, strong and he was a man of strong ambition. By the time he was 33 years old, John D. Rockefeller made his first million dollars and that was at a time where hardly anybody ever made a million dollars in a lifetime. By the time he was 43 years old, John D. Rockefeller was the CEO and really the controller of the largest company in the world. By the time John D. Rockefeller was 53 years old, he was, historians tell us, the richest man on earth and he had become the first billionaire in world history but he was miserable.

The world hated him. They viewed his rise as a rise that was based on greed and oppression of others, cruelty. His hair began to fall out. He suffered from what doctors told him was Alopecia which really means, “the loss of hair,” but his hair just fell out en masse from his head, from his eyebrows, from his eyelashes. His body began to be devoid of hair and he had begun to look gaunt and he couldn’t eat, couldn’t digest, couldn’t swallow food. He lived on nothing but milk and crackers. He could not sleep at night. He never smiled by day or night. He was a miserable man and the doctors told him when he was 53 years old that he would not live past age 54. Fifty-four would be it. Historians tell us that newspapers actually began to write his obituary in advance, but one night when he was 53 years old, he went back to his house and for the first time in his life he looked into his soul. John D. Rockefeller looked into his soul. He didn’t like what he saw. He realized that he might not live much longer and he could not take one dime beyond the grave. He thought, “What’s going to happen to me?”

He remembered as a child accepting Christ in a church but he knew he had never lived for Christ. That night he began to cry in his room. As he cried, this richest man in the world gave his heart to Jesus, recommitted his life and promised to serve Jesus as long as he lived.

Everything changed. It was amazing. John D. Rockefeller began to give all of his money away by the millions, by the tens of millions, by the hundreds of millions and he became the greatest philanthropist in the history of the world. He began to love people. He began to love God. He gave his money away to the church. He gave his money away to missionaries. He gave his money to the poor and the oppressed and he founded the Rockefeller Foundation and he began to teach Sunday School. How would you like to have that guy as your Sunday School teacher? John D. Rockefeller began to teach Sunday School. He began to serve the church of Jesus Christ and he began to be able to eat and he began to be healthy and he began to smile and he began to sleep and he didn’t die at age 54. He died at age 98. His life was transformed.

I’m not saying that you’ll live to 98 if you serve the church. I’m not saying that but I do know this. You’ll have a joy and a sense of purpose and life will be better. If you honor God, if you believe in His Son, if you talk about His Son, if you serve His Son and His church, I promise you that. I promise you.

As we close, I want to tell you a little story that happened to me about 13-1/2 years ago as Barb and I were living here in Colorado. My mom and dad lived in California. Thirteen and a half years ago, Mom and Dad came out to visit us at our house and to stay at our place. My Dad died almost ten years ago. My dad was 77 years old at the time that they came to visit us. My dad was very active at age 77. He always loved to hike. Honestly I never had much love of hiking. I did like hiking when the trail was fairly flat and there were lakes and meadows but I didn’t really like what my dad liked. My dad liked switchbacks. If you didn’t rise a thousand feet per mile, it wasn’t much fun for him. He just loved rugged hiking.

Dad was there at our house and he said, “Son, I wish I had someone to hike with me. I would love to have someone hike with me.” I said, “Dad, out in California you have a lot of people to hike with you.” I know my brother Gary often hiked with Dad in California. Dad said, “No, I mean here, Son. I mean here.” I tried to act like I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. Later in the day as I thought about it and prayed about it, I thought that the Lord was saying to me, “hike with your dad” so I went to Dad that night and said, “Dad, let’s go hiking this weekend. Let’s go on a hike.”

Dad took us over to Morrison and Dad and I took off from a trailhead in Morrison. It was a trailhead called Castle Trail. It went up into the mountains to Falcon Park and it rose three miles. It was three miles up and three miles back. The first two miles were all switchbacks and really steep. Along the way Dad would say, “Son, this isn’t so bad, is it?” I wasn’t so sure. As we got higher, we got up on the top and there was this flat trail called Dream’s Walk and you could look to the west and see incredible mountain peaks and to the east you could see the plains of Colorado and the city of Denver. High up there, there was a castle that in 1911 they began to build as the Western White House. The ruins of the castle are there. It’s just beautiful if you walk around it. My dad was so excited and he kept saying, “Son, thank you. Thank you for hiking with me today. I’m so glad you’re here with me, Son. I’m so glad!”

And, you know, I began to be really happy. I began to have a really great time and it was just an incredible experience being with my dad and sharing his joy. As we hiked back and came home, I still felt great. For days I felt great because somehow his joy of doing that together had become part of my joy. I think most of you can understand that. I’m sure most of you can understand that but look at it on a spiritual level and think of God the Father and what He might want of you. Think of God the Father. He wants you to do some things with Him and there are certain things He wants you to do by way of service of His church. Maybe you don’t want to do it but, you know, if you could enter into His joy, it’s life¬ transforming. If you’ll agree to do something with your Heavenly Dad and make what feels perhaps like a sacrifice and you won’t believe the rewards you’ll get, the benefits, the blessings. His joy will come to you in an incredible way. I want you to understand that as we go into the 40 Days of Purpose. This is an incredible time in the life of our church.

I know it’s hard on some of you to come six weeks in a row. I know it’s hard on some of you to be in a once-a-week book group. Maybe there are other things that are hard and it’s hard maybe inviting people from your community, telling others about Jesus or even just inviting them to church but if you’11 do this in this special time in our church, we’ll know the Father’s joy in a way we’ve never known it before. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.