Amen. All right, I'm going to
read in Acts chapter 15, verse 37. Let me start again
at verse 36. And I'm going to go through verse
5 of chapter 16, just to give a context that will allow us
to advance beyond what we dealt with a couple, two or three weeks
ago. So here's where we start, verse 36 of chapter 15 and some days after Paul said
and some days after Paul said unto Barnabas Let us go again
and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the
word of the Lord And see how they do. This really is a bookend
This is the premise. This is the objective of the
Apostle he having dealt with the Rulers in Jerusalem now wants
to go back through the churches that he had established in his
first missionary journey with Barnabas, and he wants to see
how they do. Upon this desire, Barnabas determined,
verse 7, to take with them John, whose surname is Mark. But Paul
thought not good to take him with them, who departed from
them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work. And
the contention was so sharp between Barnabas and Paul that they departed
asunder one from another, And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed
unto Cyprus. And Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he
went through Syria and Sicilia, confirming the churches. Then
came he to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which
was a Jewish and believed, but his father was a Greek. which
was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised
him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they
knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through
the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that
were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
Verse five. And so were the churches established
in the faith and increased in number daily. Chapter 15 verse
36 is the first bookend. The apostle Paul wants to go
and confirm the churches. And in chapter 16 verse six,
and so were the churches established in the faith and increased in
number daily. Can you see that connection?
His desire to go back and help the churches was rooted in his
apostolic calling and his pastoral intuition. He wants to make sure
that the churches that were established did not get uprooted by some
unfortunate event, whether by virtue of outward persecution
coming to them from the Judaizers or from the secular pagans who
would seek to overthrow local gospel churches or by internal
strife and conflict that can also occur in the local church,
where that local church is not rooted and grounded in Christ.
In other words, it's not a given that when you start a church,
that that church will root and ground, mature and grow. It is not a given. It is not
a given that because you have a child, that that child is gonna
grow up healthy, mature and productive in life. It is not a given that
when you get married, your marriage is gonna be healthy and solid
and biblical just because you get married. All these things
require work. They require work. And so the
apostle Paul knows that the work at church is being established
and growing and maturing and developing and being productive,
which is the mark of God's favor on them, require the continual
attendance of apostolic ministry, the prophetic ministry of those
who were called to speak into the lives of those churches,
local pastorship, et cetera. Things which we will be getting
into here at Grace over the next couple of weeks, very intently
as we deal with our leadership classes. But what we saw a couple
of weeks ago was that there was a problem. that the Apostle Paul
and Barnabas, who were good friends, Barnabas played a critical role
in commending Paul to the Apostles, as you guys remember, Acts chapter
9. Here comes this maverick into
the apostolic culture, who basically was a terrorist against Christians,
who is now being commended by Barnabas, and they are a tandem
for a number of years, establishing the local church, Paul wants
to go back and exhort the brethren. Barnabas wanted to take his little
nephew with him. Paul said, no. And a conflict
emerges, doesn't it? Hence, we're dealing with our
outline. I think, if you will, you can follow me starting in
your outline at, let's see here, where am I at in my outline?
Point number three. This is where we were last time.
This is probably the best way to deal with it a loving choice
that divides That's the way I structured it a loving choice that divides
Let's see if we can make some practical application out of
this as we work it through This is the way I summed up verse
37 through 39. Was it not a loving choice? For
Barnabas to want to take his nephew mark with them to the
work a second time around Of course, there is nothing inherently
wrong about that. There was nothing intrinsically
bad about what Barnabas wanted to do. There was nothing for
which we would say, Barnabas, you are acting unethically. This
was not appropriate for you, Barnabas. Barnabas's desire,
I think, was legitimate. So Barnabas, we have already
learned, is called the son of what? Consolation. What does
that mean? Comfort, right? Encouragement. That's who he is. He's an encourager. He's naturally bent on being
positive. His inclination is the cup is
half full, not half empty. His desire is to see to it that
a thing that has potential can reach its full capacity. That's
Barnabas. Nothing wrong with that. But
Barnabas and Paul, while they are a tandem in the work, are
two sides of the same coin. Paul definitely understands the
idea of positivity, but what he does not get with is evidence
that speaks to the contrary being overlooked. In other words, you
can't be so positive about a thing as to deny the fact that there
are precedents that indicate that there would be a problem
if we do the same thing this time that we did last time when
we had the outcome that we did last time. You guys follow that
logic? You guys have heard it. If you
do the same thing over and over and over again and expect different
results, that's the definition of what? Right, that's a contemporary
definition, doesn't even come close to what insanity means,
but we do understand that you are actually exercising a kind
of cognitive disconnect When you think that if you actually
have the same behavior patterns, that they're gonna produce different
fruit, that's wrong. For Paul, what Barnabas had done
in leaving the work was a critical insight into the character of
Barnabas that Paul felt was a detriment to the ministry. So for Barnabas,
what John Mark had done, for Barnabas, he was hopeful. Paul
was a realist, Barnabas, hoped that his nephew had learned the
lessons, Paul felt like, no, we don't want to take the what?
Chance. Right. For Paul, he's looking
at the real nature of missionary work and the apostolic ministry
to which he had been called personally by Christ. He knew that the work
that he was doing required suffering. He understood it to be part and
parcel with the martyrdom principle that Christ had called all of
his disciples to. If any man is going to follow
me, he's going to have to do what? Deny himself, take up his
cross. He's going to suffer if he follows
me. Paul knew that. He knew the ethic of suffering
in order to advance the gospel. He did not see in John Mark the
qualities essential for that young man to be able to endure
the arduous nature of missionary work. Was Paul wise? Was he prudent? Was his perspective
on it valid? Was it? Right, so you know what
you just said? You said Barnabas had a right
heart, Paul had a right head, both are right in their own ways,
but now we have a conflict, don't we? Right heart, right head,
Loving choice that does what? Right. So there are three things
we want to kind of meditate on briefly as we make our way through
this text. There are times when decisions
are made on the part of people towards an issue that are coming
from different directions, where if those persons don't try to
find a happy medium, they're going to be divided. They are
just going to be divided. And in this case, we have three
things, the priority, of companionship and mentoring that Barnabas was
emphasizing. You see sub point A? Companionship
in what? Right, so companionship is given
to us in Luke 10, one and two, where our Lord gave the model
for missionary word that when you go out, you do not go out
as one, you go out as what? Two, right? At least as two. And the reason you go out as
two is because the rule of two is out of the mouth of two or
three witnesses, let every word be what? Right now that's not
an automatic or what we call axiomatic principle. It's not
true that two automatically affirm a thing. One person can be a
liar. The other person can be ignorant.
And therefore there is no real affirmation of the truth. Both
persons can be liars and therefore subordinating information like
the Jehovah witnesses that I was actually dealing with on my trip.
That's a whole nother story. But I did have some time in that
too. Hallelujah. I wasn't just laying back having
grapes thrown into my mouth and big old fans blown on me. I got
a chance to do some work. You know, the rulers have suborned
false witnesses against Jesus. So the term out of the mouth
of two or three witnesses presumes that the character of the witnesses
are one of integrity and character. that they have integrity, that
they are willing to tell the truth. And in that context, the
proverb is right in the book of Ecclesiastes, when it says
two are better than one, because when one falls, the other person
can do what? Pick them up. And a three-fold
cord is what? Not easily broken, because they
can fight off the dangers of whatever would come at them in
the context of their journey. That's the companionship principle.
Luke chapter 10 verse one is where our Lord sent the 70 out,
and in some context, 72 out by twos. That's Luke 10, one and
two. Colossians chapter four, 10 describes for us, or gives
us insight into the fact that John Mark was actually a relative
of Barnabas. So if you will pull it up, Colossians
chapter four, verse 10, so that we can see that. Just for you
to know, because you'll read commentaries, And sometimes the
commentaries will give you the references and sometimes not.
But in Colossians chapter 4 verse 10, here's what we read. And
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, salutes you. And Mark, Marcus
is the same as Mark, sister's son to who? Touching whom you
receive commandment. If he come unto you, receive
him, which means that over time, Mark was reinstituted into the
fellowship of the gospel and became productive and useful.
Mark's name is brought up back again in the second epistle of
Timothy, where Timothy is told by Paul that Mark has become
useful in the cause of the gospel. But why would Barnabas bring
Mark along, even though Mark has all of these deficits in
his character in the ideas of mentoring? Mentoring, do you
see that? Not just companionship, Paul
and Barnabas are companions. Mentoring is when you are ready
to take a young man or a young person with all of their fallacies
and all of their weaknesses and all of their deficiencies and
then help them understand the paradigm or the framework or
the model into which they are to be formed and to influence
them that way. Barnabas wanted to be that for
Mark. So what Barnabas chose in his
decision to wanna bring Mark with him is to go their own way. So under, again, a loving choice
that divides, we have not only the companionship factor that
Paul was emphasizing, I need a compatible companion with me
in the word because we could die. And I don't need a brother
running out on me. I turn around and all I see is
dust when people wanna stone us for the cause of the gospel.
Companionship and then mentoring is where Barnabas says, hey,
I am willing to cover him and protect him and to kind of show
him the ropes until he is able to negotiate such a mature gospel
ministry. Subpoint B, the immature fruit
of what? Youth, right. And this here is
correlative to our first subpoint. The immature fruit of youth,
that does happen. This is Acts 13, 13. What we
had learned was when Mark came along, John Mark came along,
He came along with good intentions, but he was thrown into the midst
of a massive spiritual warfare that Paul and Barnabas were engaged
in, where they're casting out demons. They're executing apostolic
judgments on false prophets and false teachers. This man has
seen people blinded for days under the powers of the apostles,
that's Acts 13, 13. And for, for John Barth, it was just too
much for him. It would have been cool if they
were just doing Bible study. But for you to preach the gospel
and then masses in the crowd wanting to stone you, and for
you to not only be engaged in preaching the gospel, but now
you're confronted with demonism. And then not only are you, because
some people are scared to death of that parallel world that we're
talking about. The world of spiritual realities
where we have fallen angels that control the hearts of men and
all kinds of manifestations occur in pockets of our world where
that's a reality. That can be very problematic
for people. And I would suggest that an individual who is not
not only called incapable and qualified, I would suggest that
you never expose yourself to that type of dimension of reality. Do not expose yourself to that
dark world. You cannot handle it. The impact
that it can have on your psyche and your emotions can disturb
you for the rest of your life. You ought never to want to be
just involuntarily exposed to that. We'll see that when we
get to Acts chapter 19, when the seven sons of Sceva, find
themselves confronted with a demon who helps them understand that
they are way out of their rank. And so John Mark sees some of
this and he says, man, I don't want this. That's immaturity. We do a prison ministry. We do
street ministry. We do other kinds of ministries
that are far less tame and far more volatile than when you come
to church. Street ministry is very volatile.
Prison ministry is very volatile. Ministry in facilities where
we are dealing with addiction is very volatile. Because in
those realms, not only are we dealing with broken people that
have psychological issues, but psychological issues that are
very dangerous. Anger, irrationality, resentment,
anti-authoritarian predispositions and things like that. That can
be very problematic when you are coming in telling them about
God and then calling to light issues like sin and the wrath
of God. and the punishment for sin and
going to hell. That can be very problematic.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? You go to share the gospel
with someone and they were brought up in a very abusive context,
an abusive church. And here you are sharing the
gospel and they connect what you are saying with what they
went through. And then all of a sudden they
are hostile towards you and you don't know why. Well, you should
have been prepared for that in the prerequisites necessary to
minister a missionary work. that some people that you're
talking to are already bent back in their bow, in their sling,
ready to assault you the moment you talk about God. Because for
them, God is a monster that just ruined their life when they were
little, sometimes unqualified, sometimes undisciplined, sometimes
abusive rulers that were in their life. Am I making some sense?
The ministry is not just as simple as talking to somebody and them
coming to Christ. It's a lot of hard work in general,
and especially when you are in the context of evangelism. Going
outside of the four walls of the church means that you are
wide open and you have to be very, very discerning. So the
immature fruit is seen in Acts 13, 13, where it says, and I
just want to make sure we see that before we move forward,
with regards to John Mark, in Acts 13, 13. Now, when Paul and
the company at Luz from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia,
and John, that is John Moore, departing from them, went back
to Jerusalem. He went home. You guys see it?
John's out, I'm out. As soon as they went left, he
went right. As soon as they went north, he
went south. Paul marked that, by the way. He marked it. He
wasn't mad, he just marked it. And then some point C, under
a loving choice that divides, gonna push me now into a little
bit more of the ethics of relationships that's gonna come home a little
bit. Subpoint C says, contentions leading to what? Contentions
leading to separation. If you notice what the text says
in chapter 15, the latter part, here's what it says in verse
39. And the contention, was so sharp
between them. Do you see it? And the contention
was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from
another. Now, what that means is that
they didn't have one conversation over this. They had several. And every time Barnabas said,
I wanna bring Mark, Paul said, no, and why? And when Paul said
no and why, Barnabas retorted by saying, but. And the no and
why over against the but began to escalate. And as they began
to argue, their arguments became so pejorative that the term contention
in our text is a term that means to poke or spite someone as if
you were wearing spurs and you jabbed at your horse to get him
going. That's what the word means. The word means to provoke, provoke. It's used in Hebrews chapter
13, or chapter 12, verse 24. Pull that up. Hebrews chapter
12, verse 24. And notice what it says in that
context. In Hebrews 12, 24, it's used in a positive way, but in
our context, it's used in a negative way. In Hebrews 12, I'm gonna
read at, well, it's gonna be Hebrews 10, 24. Sorry, Hebrews
10, 24. I'm gonna read at verse 23 through
25, and we'll notice it in verse 24. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.
Here it is, verse 24. And let us consider one another
to do what? Provoke unto what? And to what? Right. So now when this imperative
is given to exercise this device of provocation, we are being
encouraged to do whatever we can to motivate our believer
to act in accord with the will of God. You guys see that? We
are being encouraged to do whatever is necessary to motivate you
now. So I want you to think about this. In a loving way, believers
ought to go the extra mile in encouraging people to do the
will of God. In a loving way, believers are
to do what is necessary to provoke believers to do the right thing.
The inference of that is that believers can be told to do the
right thing and won't do it. The inference is that you and
I can sit under preaching and teaching week in and week out
and not do the will of God. The inference is that we can
be hearers only and not doers of the word of God. And that
a component of exhortation, as you guys are gonna learn in about
four weeks when I deal with the importance of preaching, that
the component, a component of exhortation is to spur you on
to good works. All right, so that's what the
word spur means. It means to press you to the
point where you move, where you move out in obedience because
you won't by nature. We are more inclined to just
simply be hearers of the word and not doers. And when you actually
understand that kind of ethic and instrument then we understand
that it is holy of God to see that the people of God move in
obedience because that is the way God works to actually bring
about his will in our life. That it is not unseemly or wrong
for the preaching and teaching and exhortation, even on a personal
level between believer and believer, to have the element of urging
you to do the right thing. That's not wrong. In some cases
we are so stagnant and our feet are like cement blocks that we
will not move in obedience to Christ until somebody speaks
in such a way that it breaks through that hard calloused heart
and pierces the flesh of our soul and causes us to realize
that I'm lazy. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And that's a blessing when it
happens because sometimes you won't detect that you actually
have built a fortress of justification around obedience to Christ in
a certain area. And God then has to speak louder
than the normative formalities by which you and I are used to
him talking to us. He has to bring a sledgehammer
to it, break it down and expose us for actually being in rebellion
to act. That's the positive side. Can
you imagine what happened contextually between Paul and Barnabas? as
daily between the time that Paul suggested that we go, and then
finally resolving to go two different directions, how it could escalate. Do you know how when you have
a contentious issue that diplomacy would have you to stop talking
about it today, but because you haven't resolved it, at some
point it's brought back up again? Am I making some sense? And because
you have not prayed about it and strategize how you are going
to resolve it, inevitably, you're gonna come to a head again. And
if you are not emotionally prepared for coming to a head, it's actually
going to now be exacerbated. Is that true? It's exactly true. And that's really what's being
stated here in Acts chapter 15. And the contention was so sharp
between them. You can cut it with a knife,
cut the air with a knife. Whenever they were together,
even their silence was screaming conflict. You guys got that?
So as one of the old Proverbs puts it, Proverbs 18, 19, can
you pull it up? The offense of a brother is like
the bars of a castle. A brother offended is harder
to be won, harder to be won, harder to be won than a strong
city. A brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city. A fenced city, a guarded city,
a protected city, a walled city. A city that has a sentry and
a military protecting it is harder to be won than a strong city.
A brother offended. Y'all know what I'm talking about.
Do you know what I'm talking about? Most of us, if we've done a few
years in Christianity, we've got brothers or sisters with
whom we have such an art that we have not resolved. It's true. It's true. The sad reality is
that we all have had experiences with people with whom Either
we have offended them or they have offended us and it has resulted
in a breach of the relationship. That is the sad reality. That's the sad reality. A brother
offended is harder to be won than a strong city and their
contentions are like the what? Bars of a castle. You will not
bend them. Done, sealed, breach, done. Sometimes we die that way. Sometimes
we die that way. The Hatfields and the McCoys.
Let's go back to our text and work through a few other things. You don't have it in your outline,
but our PowerPoint should have had the extended version that
I wanna call your attention to. And that extended version will
have to play into chapter 16 that I actually want to deal
with. This is called Timothy Paul's
choice. So some questions are going to
be raised here. Earlier I said, was Barnabas right in what he
did? And you said, I think so. He cared about John Mark. I could see Barnabas being inclined
to want to have John Mark in the work. He wanted to mentor
him. He was a second chance guy. You
got to have those people. It's Barnabas's nature. And then
I said, was Paul right? And you said, yeah, Paul was
right. Paul is a no nonsense guy. His emphasis was the strengthening
of the brethren, but he was clear that this is a warfare and you
need people who are mature and ready for the conflict, right? But when you go through church
history and you go through commentaries and the archives and the scholars
and the views on what had happened, You get various opinions. My
opinion is this, that chapter 16 fundamentally demonstrates
that Paul's leading was much more inclined with the spirit
than Barnabas'. That the way that Luke closes
out chapter 15, the last verse of chapter 15, And then the first
six verses of chapter 16 would lead me to draw this conclusion
that Paul was actually being driven by the spirit of God to
the work with a right attitude and the right mind. And that
Barnabas was probably a little bit more emotionally attached
to John Mark than he should have been. Does that follow? So let's
just kind of look at how this falls out. Timothy was Paul's
choice. This is quite fascinating because
what it says in verse 40 of chapter 15 is this. So Paul chose Silas
to go with them instead of Barnabas, right? And they departed. And do you notice what the next
line says? Being recommended by the brethren unto the grace
of God. You see that? So now the church
is now once again, recommending Paul to the word, even though
Paul and Barnabas had broken up and they are commending both
Paul and Silas to the work. Now what happens to Barnabas? He goes his own way into oblivion. You never read about him again.
You never, read about Barnabas again. You guys follow that? The point is is that our choices
can be good but not necessarily guided by the larger objective
of God on a spiritual level. It doesn't mean that Barnabas
did something overtly sinful. But if a choice is rooted more
in emotion or in the predilections of my own character than the
larger ministry objective, I may find myself inadvertently made
non-useful. You follow the logic? Just something
to think about. So when Paul and Barnabas went
their separate ways, Barnabas took Mark and I They probably
just went on into the classroom of mentoring and training. But we don't find those two breaking
any new ground in ministry, bringing about conversions and the establishing
of local churches or the strengthening of the church. Am I making some
sense? But here's what we find with Paul. We find that he doesn't
miss a beat in the area of his objective, which was laid out
in verse 36. Let's go back. and see how the
churches are doing. Well, we did our first missionary
work. This is why in chapter 16, verse six, I said, verse
five, I said, and so were the churches, what? Established in
the faith and increased in number daily. In other words, I see
a marked evidence of the approval of the spirit of God in Paul's
choice. Then what else I see is Sometimes
God will allow a loving divide to occur because he has other
rams in the thicket that he wants to bring into the equation. This
is the serendipity of the providential work of the spirit of God that
sometimes is inexplicable to us. Am I making some sense? You
and I don't always know how God's gonna work it out, but God always
knows how he's gonna work it out. And you and I may make choices
that will appear superficially and on the surface to leave vacuums. But God never has a vacuum. Like
God is never without the full number of all that he has purpose
to use whenever he uses it. Paul will say he was born as
one out of due season. But God wouldn't have said that.
You hear what I'm saying? So in the same context, here's
what we learn is that We can make mistakes and it won't be
the loss of our salvation. We won't find ourselves completely
and totally useless, but we can make wrong choices that can diminish
our usefulness. It can diminish our usefulness
if our choices is rooted out of human wisdom, emotionalism
versus the larger objective of God. These are questions and
these are thoughts that can be troublesome to us. And I don't
want it to be troublesome to you. I just want you to be aware
of the acute nature of our choices. That our choices do matter. That
while we believe in the sovereignty of God, his absolute control
over every detail in our lives, known and unknown, down to the
most meticulous particles in the universe, subatomic particles,
as I've said so many times before, but that unseen dimension of
the, where everything made is completely controlled and absolutely
under the influence of God. Even our choices, you believe
that, right? Even our choices are, but our
choices still have consequences to us because of our liability
and accountability to our actions. Right. So we have to be able
to retain both of them in a healthy, sober way. God is in control,
but I'm also accountable for my actions. And therefore I may
reap what I sow. If I don't really think through
my motive, if I don't think through my attitude, if I don't think
through my blindnesses and my choices and proclivities and
these choice, if I don't think about the implications or the
ramifications of my actions, I may find myself diminished.
and my desires and objectives before God. I better think this
through. And sometimes, as we get ready to deal with this part,
opposition to what I am doing may be from God. Opposition to
my choice may be from God. Must I assume that my brother
who is opposing my decision to bring my nephew with us because
I have such a philanthropic attitude towards him, and I'm very hopeful
that he's going to grow up to be a stalwart in the faith? Must I assume that my brother
who doesn't want him is utterly blind, ignorant, insensitive,
and out of step with the Spirit of God? Must I assume that? No. No. I might ask the question,
if I'm more objective. Lord, are you in this? Am I making some sense? Lord, are you in this resistance? Are you in this opposition? I'm
not going to treat Paul like an enemy just because he doesn't
agree with me. I'm not gonna call him an imbecile. just because I don't sense the
level of sympathy that I think an apostle ought to have, he might be more keenly aware
of factors important to the advancement of the gospel than myself. That's always possible, isn't
it? Well, I'm just working your senses on this because the way
our lives will fall out, all of our lives, yours and mine,
is that In the totality of the micro-choices and macro-choices
that we make, there will be good fruit and bad fruit. There will
be some growth and some diminishing. To the degree that God graces
us to remain sensitive to the presence and approval in favor
of the Spirit of God, to be led by the Spirit is the best way
to go. because in being led by the spirit,
I may not fully understand where God is going and what he's doing.
This is what I will know. The outcome will be according
to the will of God and the outcome being according to the will of
God will always be the best. Does that make some sense? Right.
So, you know, this is where the sensitivity factors have to come
in. So here's how this works. Timothy, being Paul's choice,
we have three sub points to deal with. Do you have that outline
out there, that PowerPoint? Pull it up. Timothy, Paul's choice. There are three sub points that
I want to consider. First, Timothy being Paul's choice is given
to us in verse one of chapter 16 as being the product, the
product of faithful parents. Here's this young man that Paul
discovers in the process of ministry. He didn't look him out. He didn't
look for him. He bumped into him in ministry. Here at Lystra is the place where
Paul is headed and a certain disciple was there. That's verse
1. Then came he to Derbe and to
Lystra, and behold, a certain disciples was what? There. I was right. So here's how this
works. Sometimes when you and I go through
a crucial conflict that divides and sends us down a certain path,
we don't necessarily know what God was up to. We know that we
have been smarted for it. We may have been disciplined.
We learned our lesson, et cetera. May be humbled because anytime
you enter into conflict with anyone, It's humbling, right? It's humbling. But if you and
I are able to overcome that experience and then move forward, we can
look up and we can see God's approval by the budding and flowering
of something relative to what God has called us to do. And
we see this in verse one of chapter 16. Here it is. Then came he
that is Paul to Derbe, Paul and Silas, and Lystra. Behold, a
certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain
woman, which was a Jewish, and she believed, but his father
was a what? Right. So what Luke does for
us now is actually show us how that there's a young man that
God had been working on and grooming and preparing in conjunction
with his exposure to the apostolic ministry. Watch this now. That
is going to be perfectly suited for the ministry of Paul. Are you with me? It's interesting. So in your outline, the product
of faithful parents, Paul talks about him in second Timothy chapter
one, verse three and four. Let's just look at that briefly
and just see what Paul says about Timothy. Cause this young man
in chapter 16 is about to become what a pastor of the apostolic
band and one of Paul's chief ministers of the gospel. And
so we read in 2 Timothy 1 verses 1, 2, and 3. I'm thinking here,
no, it's 1 Timothy 1. Nope, 1 Timothy 1 verses 3 through
6. Here it is. 2 Timothy 1, I'm
sorry, 3 through 6. I thank God whom I serve with
my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance
of you in my prayers night and day. This is how Paul thought
about Timothy. But that's no big deal. Paul thought about
that with a lot of people. Verse four, greatly desiring
to see you being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with
joy. See verse four, insight into
the deep profound connection between Paul and Timothy. Is
that true? Timothy loved Paul, didn't he?
Paul said, I'm mindful of your tears, I wanna see you. There's
a larger context here that has to do with Paul's getting ready
to be killed and wanting to give Timothy the last word to pass
the baton on him. But I'll develop that when we
deal with preaching in a few weeks, verse five. when I call
to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in you. See Paul's assessment
of Timothy, you got real faith. You've got authentic faith, genuine
faith. Watch this, which dwelt first
in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, what? And I am
persuaded in you also. So this is, we have a clear affirmation
by Paul and we've gotten that which is given to us by virtue
of information from Luke that Timothy is the product of a Jew
and a Gentile, that Timothy is the product of two faithful believers
in God. The Gentile was a proselyte Jew.
The Jewish woman was a blood descendant of Abraham. They both
believe the gospel. They raised Timothy up in the
word of God. And when the apostles came along,
the gospel exploded in Timothy's heart and he became a follower
of Christ. but he's suited to the task that
God is calling Paul to, for which our next sub-point is given. Timothy, Paul's choice is the
product of faithful parents. Sub-point B, shaped by providence
for a Pauline ethic of ministry. You guys see that? Shaped by
providence. What do you mean shaped by providence?
His mother's a Jew. His father's a what? Gentile. shaped by Providence. In other
words, Timothy is not the product of pure Judaism. He knows the
Jewish culture and he knows the Gentile culture. He's shaped
by Providence for appalling ethic of ministry. What do I mean by
that? That Timothy will be more inclined
to than John Mark to deal with the dynamics of a Gentile culture,
a pagan Gentile culture into which Paul is projected by the
gospel to bring to the pagans. Because Timothy Daddy is a Gentile.
Does that make some sense? Timothy knows the ways of the
Gentile and Timothy as a believer even presently is not captivated
by his Jewish identity. How do we know that? He hasn't
been circumcised. Do you see it? He's a believer
in Christ. He's free in Christ. He's not
bound by the law. He's not owning his Jewishness,
which I say this, when you meet the average Jew slash Christian,
you meet a man or a woman that's in conflict. You do. When you meet a Jewish Christian,
you meet a person in conflict. because they're owning their
Jewishness while trying to own Jesus at the same time when both
systems often compete against each other. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? When in reality, a Christian
is a full grown Jew. I know that challenges people's
theology, but I don't care. The whole purpose for the Jewish
nation was to bring the seed Christ into being, who then would
be the head of a new race of people called new creatures in
Christ, true Jews. So to go Jew Christian is an
oxymoron and a redundant statement, is it not? Which one do you more
identify with? Your blood descendancy to Abraham
or your spiritual descendancy to Jesus? And I say, sometimes
there's a major conflict in this kind of bifurcation, in this
kind of dynamic going on between boasting in your Jewishness and
boasting in Jesus and trying to conflate the two. And I've
seen it on a psychological level with these brothers. Timothy didn't have that problem.
He didn't have that problem being a sinner saved by grace. So Timothy
being Paul's choice, Acts chapter 16 verse one, the product of
faithful parents, shaped by the providence of God for appalling
ethic of ministry. What do I mean by that? Galatians
chapter two verse eight tells us that Paul is clear that he
was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Ephesians chapter
three verse eight says that God made it very clear that his job
was to reveal the mystery of the gospel. And that is this,
that the Gentiles would be brought into the commonwealth of Israel.
Paul knew he was the man for the Gentiles. Timothy is a perfect
choice. You guys got that? Third sub
point. He was quickly made useful in
the missionary work. Quickly made useful. Who was?
Timothy. Quickly made useful. First Thessalonians
chapter three verses one through six will underscore this. Look
at this. And then you'll see it in just three chapters when
we get to chapter 19 and 20. where Timothy will be the main
minister by Paul to the church at Ephesus. But in 1 Thessalonians
3, verse 1, just listen to what it states along these lines. This is why I was saying earlier,
as we think through, again, the micro choices that we make, we
have to be very careful of their origin and the things that we
may or may not know about them, because the outcome can be radical.
I'm trying to get there. 1 Thessalonians chapter three,
verse one through six. Wherefore, when you could no
longer forbear, we would... Okay. Wherefore, when we could
no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens
alone. And we sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God
and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish
you and to comfort you concerning your faith. Do you guys see that?
What is Paul doing? He's recalling to the Thessalonians,
of whom we will be dealing with in just a couple of chapters,
that we were able to actually send Timothy to minister the
gospel to you. And notice what it says. And
we sent Timothy as our brother and minister of God. He's not
only our brother, he's a minister of God. Not only is he a minister
of God, he's our fellow laborer in the gospel. See what the Holy
Ghost says about Timothy? Fellow laborer in the gospel.
Christ and not only that we sent him to establish you and to comfort
you concerning your what qualified quickly to enter into the work
look at this that no man should be moved by these afflictions
for you yourselves know that we are appointed there unto what
is he talking about now watch this now this is why I said we
want to be careful to be able to assess God's approval of Paul's
actions over against Barnabas's God quickly gives Paul Timothy
a And Timothy is thrown into the fray of Gentile ministry.
And just in a couple of chapters, he's going to be used to not
only strengthen the church at Thessalonica, but to strengthen
them over against the afflictions of persecution that come for
the gospel sake. That's what the text says. Do
you see it? He says that no man should be
moved by these afflictions. We're going to send Timothy who
is a minister of God, a fellow laborer in the cause of the gospel.
We're gonna send him to exhort you in the faith, to help you
be strong in the faith, to strengthen you over against the trials that
you go through. There's no way that Paul would
have been able to do that with Mark, right? There's no way. Mark would not
have been ready. So then look at the hand of God,
look at how God works. When the motive is right and
when the thinking is right, even though we don't always have the
parts, God can quickly give us the parts necessary to get the
job done. Here's the other part to this.
This shows us that in apostolic ministry, that this was not all
about Paul. As an apostle, he's a facilitator
of the spread of the gospel by quickly training and strengthening
men and being able to send them forth. If he wouldn't have had
somebody to do this, he would have been in a quagmire. He was
able to send our brother Timothy. Let me read the next three verses
and then we'll go on. Notice what it says. For verily,
when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer
tribulation, even as it came to pass. And you know, for this
cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your
what? lest by some means the tempter
having tempted you in our labor be in vain. See how verse five
corresponds to the way I opened up talking about the nature of
the church and that when you are a sound, solid pastor slash
apostle as Paul was, your care is to make sure that the church
is rooted and grounded and built up in the faith because you got
enemies without and enemies within. and that the assumption that
because you start a church, that that church is going to continue
and grow and thrive and prosper is a faulty assumption unless
we are constantly pouring into that church all of the things
that are necessary for its growth and its maturity and its development,
which is why preaching is so very critical to this very cause. Look at verse five and six then,
here it is. Verse six rather, but now when
Timotheus came from you unto us, that is he has finished his
assignment, and brought us good tidings of your faith in charity,
and that you have good remembrance of us always desiring greatly
to see us as also to see you. Paul now has been able to say
to the church at Thessalonica, we sent Timothy, he ministered
to strengthen you, and he was able to come back with a good
report to us about you. Paul is happy. God has blessed
that work. Do you guys see that? God has
blessed that work. All right, let me go to my second
point under Timothy Paul's choice to close out our thoughts for
tonight on this subject. The church is established and
strengthened. Do you guys see that? That's
in chapter 16. Go back to chapter 16. The church
is established and strengthened. That's exactly what Paul wanted
to do. He wanted to go back into every city where they had preached
the word of God and see how they are doing. In verse five says,
and so were the churches established and strengthened. And so were
the churches established and strengthened. Now let's see how
that works. Under the churches established
and strengthened, verse three tells us these words. Him would
Paul have to go forth with him, that is Timothy, and took and
circumcised him because of the what? which were in those quarters,
for they knew all that his father was a Greek." See that? Timothy
was so down for the cause of the gospel that as a grown man,
he was willing to be circumcised in order to avoid unnecessary
conflict and distractions from the religious folks. Think about that for a moment,
and I won't dwell long on it, because I know you're tired and
ready to go home. Just think about what is demonstrated in
the life of Timothy, Paul's protege, this young man. It's the ethic
that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 9, of becoming all things to
all men, that if by any means he will win some. Isn't that
what he says? So now, for a grown man, to submit
himself to the humility of circumcision when it had nothing to do with
the gospel but it had everything to do with the gospel pastor
you're contradicting yourself no i'm not because while the gospel is free
and it's rooted in the finished work of christ the application
of that gospel will require us to become slaves for Christ in
order that the freedom of the gospel might be experienced by
those who are presently slaves of sin. Does that follow? I therefore then can perceive
and embrace the idea that I might be brought into a situation where
I am made to look like a legalist in order that I might have a
position to actually speak to the legalist about the freedom
that I have in Christ. Did you get that did you get
it Well Is that what Christ did? Did not Christ submit himself
to the whole system of Judaism and law-keeping and works righteousness
When he was the freest human being in the universe Didn't
he do that to identify with his own brethren that as the freest
man in the universe, he became a slave to righteousness, that
he might win those who were slaves to sin to the righteousness that
was in him? Absolutely, absolutely. And again, this is the ethic
of the gospel that God would call us to when it's necessary,
but you have to be somebody prepared by God to do it. Isn't that so?
See, Timothy didn't have to do it. If he wanted to argue for
the freedom of grace in his life, he didn't have to do it. But
what was Timothy? He was perfectly suited by God
to be the protege of Paul to advance the gospel among his
own Jewish brethren. And so what they did was fundamentally
avoid unnecessary arguments and distractions. Can you imagine
that? Here come Paul speaking to a
cluster of believers Among those are serious Jews who are fastidious
about the law, looking at Timothy and go, hmm, he kind of looks
Jewish. Let me see if you circumcised
boy. I mean, you know, later on down
the line, we do know it that Paul gets in trouble around this,
doesn't he? This is how insane religion can
be though. Are you circumcised? Do you speak
in tongues? Do you pay your tithes? Were you baptized in Jesus name
only? All of that old crazy stuff is
foisted on people as a shibboleth or sibboleth by which you are
approved of men and not of God. Did you guys hear what I just
stated? It's a mess. It's an absolute mess. Let me
go. So the church is established
to strengthen the faith. Verse three, the sub points is
the work of the gospel wrought in wisdom. That's what I mean
by verse three, the work of the gospel is wrought in wisdom.
Paul didn't see any reason to be arguing with his Jewish brothers
who are still struggling with law keeping Timothy in circumcised,
man, they'll overcome this at some point. Sometimes they wouldn't.
Sometimes he wouldn't. Sub point B, The decree agreed
and propagated. I love this. Now, this here shows
the character and attitude of Paul as a servant. Verse four
says, and as they went through the cities, they delivered them
the decree for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and
elders, which were at what? You guys remember one chapter
back. the whole battle over what the gospel is and how it should
manifest itself in the life of the Gentiles. So as Paul clearly
affirmed, right along with Barnabas as a witness, Peter and James
affirming what Paul said is God has saved the Gentiles by grace
alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone, apart from works. But let's just tell our Gentile
brethren, stop committing fornication and stop committing idolatry.
That ought to hold them. And you know what the text says?
Not only did the apostles see this as good, but also the Holy
Ghost. I think I shared that with you
before. I just want to share it with you again, just in case
you didn't quite get it. The apostles saw this as good
as well as the Holy Ghost. Let's see here. Chapter 15, verse
25. Watch this. Chapter 15, verse 25. And then
chapter 15, verse 28. Are you there? Chapter 15, verse
25. It seemed good unto us being
assembled with one accord. That's a great way to assemble,
right? In unity. To send chosen men
unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. So the church had concluded
that we're going to write a letter, have it sent to all the Gentile
churches. And this is what seemed good to us as we worked it through
in council, right? Watch this. Men that have hazarded
their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent
therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same
things by mouth. For it seemed, here it is, verse 20, are you
there? For it seemed good to the what? And to us to lay upon
you no greater burden than these necessary things. Amazing. The Holy Ghost confirmed their
conclusion that the only ethical response to the gospel that the
Gentiles should demonstrate by way of repentance and faith is
the abandonment of this gargantuan sinful mark that dominates Gentile
cultures, which is fornication and obviously the idolatry out
of which they have been delivered by the grace of God. How that
you have turned from idols to serve the true and the living
God. But this underscores for us as a point of application,
as I do so many times, is to tell you and I, in our present
culture, if we say that we are believers in Christ, it ought
to be clearly indicated by a radical departure from our former lifestyle
of fornication and idolatry. If we say that we are believers
in Christ, it ought to be clearly indicated by a radical departure
from our previous idolatrous worship of self, gratified by
fornication, which is the hallmark of this unregenerate culture
we live in. A break from that kind of allegiance
to sin and self is an indication that a work of grace has really
begun to occur in our lives. that until we have seen the power
of grace freeing us from this ubiquitous idolatry of the worship
of self, being rewarded by a universal practice of fornication, which
is the hallmark of our present Gentile culture, we have no reason
to believe we've been born again. Are you guys hearing me? We have
no reason to believe that we've been born again. If a man or
woman says that God, and this is, I'm praying that you guys
get what I got over my vacation, because God gave me some revelations
that I really want to share with you over the next several weeks.
If it's true that our hearts have been invaded by the omnipotent
God, does not that omnipotent God
have the capacity to steer the ship of our life as sovereign
Lord, away from behaviors as poverty stricken and penury as
worshiping dead gods and committing something as low and vain and
empty at the end of the day as fornication. Does that make some
sense? Fornication. Why would we go
to hell for such a pittance of an act. Why would we go to hell? But this is the blindness and
depravity of the mind, is it not? There's a blindness and
depravity of the mind to think that somehow that this here is
the essence of living and life and gratification, something
that's pittance and poverty stricken as an orgasm that only lasts
a second, which can send you to hell. This is how deceived
we are. And what God is doing and has
been doing for thousands of years is saving people out of that
mess. Saving them out of that mess. Saving them out of that
mess. One of the things you get to
ask yourself when you say I believe in Jesus is whether or not the
power of the gospel is reigning in your soul. This is really
the nexus. This is really the point of crisis
around the authenticity of the gospel today in our present culture.
Is it a gospel that actually has power to save us or to just
make us religious? This is true. So the last point
that I wanna deal with and we'll close here is verse number four. the decree
agreed and propagated. What I appreciate about the fact
that, and they went through the cities and they delivered the
decrees for the keep that were ordained of the apostles and
elders, which were at Jerusalem, is that now Paul and Barnabas,
Paul and Silas and Timothy are actually serving as servants
to the leaders at Jerusalem. In other words, Paul is not breaking
away from the apostles at Jerusalem just because he's an apostle
to the Gentile and doing his own thing. He's working in concert
with them by a set of agreements that they had made in the council
at Jerusalem to share the gospel and expect these responses out
of the Gentile brethren. So that when they receive these
decrees, they receive these decrees from all of the apostles, not
just Paul. This would serve to unify the church. Does that make
sense? This would serve to unify the
church. And what is it that we are called to do by which the
church is unified? Be servants of the apostle of
Jesus Christ, who has given us the decree, and that decree is
his word, to share with Christians everywhere This is what the Lord,
the sovereign Lord of the church has said we should do. And if
we follow this book, guess what? We'll be unified. Am I making
some sense? If we follow this book, we'll
be unified and we don't need no denominational titles. Boom! No denominational titles. And
the last point here, and we'll close here, is not only the decree
agreed and propagated, but God smiles upon the work affirmed. We can see how God blessed this,
didn't he? We can see how he blessed it. Look at verse five.
And so were the churches established in the faith. And what happened? And increased in number daily. Isn't that wonderful? Increased
in numbers daily. So we frequently say that God
is not into numbers, but that's actually a kind of misnomer.
Okay? God is not dependent upon numbers,
but God is definitely into numbers. Every one of God's elect is a
number. Does that make sense? An increase
is an evidence and mark of God's character and approval upon a
work. Is that not true? And so the
believer ought never to be settled with status quo or stagnation
or limitations that don't correspond to the character of God and the
ministry of the gospel. We are not beholden to numbers
as if somehow that alone is the testimony of God's presence of
proof, because if we're using a wrong method and a wrong approach
to ministry, then that's simply a man-made, as I've stated before,
sort of steroid-induced ministry. You know, hormones. of human
methods by which we grow the church. But if we're doing the
right thing by way of the Lord, here's what's going to happen.
The gospel church is going to be established. It's going to
be rooted and grounded in Christ. It's going to bear forth the
fruits of righteousness. And it's going to expand and
grow. If we're doing the right thing in patience and with soundness
of doctrine, it's going to be established in the faith. grow
up and bear forth the fruits of righteousness, impatience,
and humility, but it's going to continue to grow until all
of God's elect are brought in and then Christ will return.
Does that make some sense? All right, we're going to close
in prayer. Chana, is there a ministry going on tomorrow? All right,
if you guys aren't doing anything, you want to come out and help
us get some Bibles to our brothers and sisters in prison. We got
ministry work going on tomorrow morning. I think around eight
o'clock till about two o'clock or three o'clock. So if the Lord
lays it on your heart, come on out. Let's stand for prayer.
Looking forward to talking to you guys on Sunday. Father, we
thank you for this time. We thank you for your word. We
thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the grace of
God in Christ. We thank you for the president lordship of the
spirit of God, which is able to take these things and make
them apply to our own souls. We are warned in your word about
divisions and conflicts among the brethren. that have no basis
in the advancement of the gospel. We are taught, oh God, also,
of the priority of the cause of the gospel to actually be
the thing by which we are led. We seek to do that not in an
insensitive way, but in a way of priority. For first and foremost
is the glory of God to be the thing that is the motivating
factor in our life. And then to do that according
to your will. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies, we pray, prepare us to worship you on Sunday, And
we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you guys.