St. Timothy, Pastor and Confessor/ Septuagesima
Dear friends in Christ. In the Epiphany season we just celebrated, we saw that Jesus, true man born of the virgin in Bethlehem revealed Himself also as true God. The other theme of Epiphany is also one of Jesus revealing Himself—this time to those who do not know Him; Epiphany, then, also has a theme of missions, of us telling others the Good News about Jesus so that through the word that we and missionaries the world-over share with those who don’t know Jesus or know Him rightly, Jesus may reveal Himself to them. In a usual Epiphany season there are days that focus in on missions as we remember the Conversion of St. Paul or St. Titus. But not this year—because of Easter’s early date there was a very short Epiphany season. This year, the date we remember St. Timothy, today, got bumped out of the Epiphany season to this Sunday of Septuagesima, the first Sunday of the season of Pre-Lent.
We read a bit about St. Timothy in the book of Acts. Timothy’s mother was Jewish and his father was Greek. Timothy knew the Holy Scriptures from childhood, being taught by his mother and grandmother [2 Ti 1.5; 3.15]. Timothy came to recognize that Jesus is that long promised/ awaited Savior. St. Luke records that Timothy was [Ac 16.2,3] well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him on his missionary journey since Sts. Mark and Barnabas had left. Timothy did and helped Paul with important work. Being ordained, he was sent as Paul’s representative to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, and Ephesians and was appointed Bishop/ Pastor of Ephesus. Paul wrote letters to Timothy—two of which we have in the NT. In these letters Paul wrote to Timothy, we see a bit of a description of a pastor’s/ bishop’s role—including correcting false doctrine and that most beautiful of exhortations [2 Ti. 4.2]: Preach the Word! What a tremendous comfort St. Timothy must have been to St. Paul who begged Timothy to come and comfort him in prison in Rome.
As we look at our text, Paul’s words to Timothy, we see St. Paul’s instructions to him: But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ… Yes, these instructions apply in a special way to the young Bishop, St. Timothy, but they also apply to each of our Lord’s dear Christians—you and me.
As we examine our text, we will see that our earthly lives and what we do in and with them matters. That means we are to gear our lives focused on eternity and to do that the Lord has given us His holy word.
1. Dear Christian, God has given us the gift of life; He has given us life now so that we may have life eternally with Him. Life is His great gift to us. It is absolutely vital that we keep this in mind as we join many churches in our nation and in our synod in recognizing the Sanctity of Human Life. We remember that life is a gift of God that only He can give and which only He should end. All human life—even those lives not valued by society: the preborn, the handicapped, the ill and suffering, those not having some pre/ self determined “quality of life”—has value and worth because it is given by God. He gives life; therefore it has value, regardless. Our life here on earth is a time of grace—God showering His grace upon us and we responding to it in faith and love—of God and neighbor. Luther helps us understand this as he says at the end of his explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, which deals with God’s gift of creation and life and that He treasures and preserves His creation, life: All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
Our earthly lives do matter. That’s why we are to use our time of grace the Lord now gives us and gear our lives for eternity. The cynic may ask/ think: if God wanted us to live forever with Him in heaven, why doesn’t He just create us and stick us in heaven and avoid the time on earth with its trial and suffering? Dear Christian, that is not a human being, the crown jewel of God’s creation; that’s a robot. Our life here on earth is the time that God shows us His love and grace; it is the time that we come to know and experience that the Lord is good; it is the time we come to know and love Him for Who He is and His work for us. Precisely now, in the midst of this world full of sin and suffering, God’s love and grace toward us shines forth all the more beautifully. Now, knowing and experiencing God’s love and grace to us in Jesus, we love Him all the more and yearn all the more for Him, His graces, His gifts, heaven and so we live our lives in faith and loving Him so that we do not lose Him but treasure Him above all.
That’s why our earthly lives matter—we gear them toward eternity, where we will be with our holy and gracious Triune God in heaven in both soul and body forever. That’s why St. Paul here writes to St. Timothy and us: But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. We flee from these things / sin like from the enemy it is. We recognize that all that is contrary to the Lord’s will and way is something that, if left to go unchecked, will condemn us eternally in hell. We flee from sin both in our outward actions and in our heart—not entertaining sin and temptation, how we might carry out our sinful desires. Fleeing from sin is the beginning of repentance. Repentance means to recognize my sin by examining my life in the mirror of God’s holy law, to recognize it as an affront to God’s holiness, that by it I deserve nothing but God’s wrath and damnation in hell, that I can claim nothing before God—no merits or worthiness. But the second part of repentance is faith—faith in Christ and the forgiveness of sins He won for us by His holy life and His innocent suffering and death. That’s why the blessed Apostle writes to St. Timothy and us: But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. For if we recognize something as sin, something contrary to God’s holy will and something that earns us His wrath—why wouldn’t we want to flee it? If we recognize something as sin but recognize that Jesus died for that sin and gives us forgiveness from that sin, why wouldn’t we, in love and thankfulness, want to flee from that sin? Why would we treat Jesus’ grace lightly and trample His saving work in the dust?
Our earthly lives do matter as we use them as a preparation for a glorious eternity in heaven. Not only do we flee from these things / sin, but we pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Our lives now as Christians are lives of both fleeing and pursuit. We are sinners; we still have an old sinful nature, that’s why we will always throughout life have to keep running away from sin—we will never get to the point we are perfect, without sin; we will always need to repent. And because we are sinners until our dying breath, we will have to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness because we will never perfectly attain them. That fleeing and pursuing, looking forward to eternity, is what gives significance/ meaning to our lives now. And the more we flee sin and pursue righteousness, the more we value/ treasure God’s grace to us.
2. Remember how the apostle addresses St. Timothy here: But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness... Even St. Timothy is not perfect but must still flee from sin and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, [and] gentleness. Just like God doesn’t bring us to physical life and then leave us to our own devices but instead cares for and preserves His creation, so too with us spiritually. Our Lord in grace brings us to spiritual life by His Holy Spirit at work in the word and sacrament. But He doesn’t just then leave us to our own devices. Instead, by that same Holy Spirit at work in word and sacrament, He preserves us in the faith. That’s why our earthly lives now matter. Yes, the Lord has brought us to faith; and now He strengthens and keeps us in the faith. Our lives now matter because now is the time to make faithful and diligent use of these means of grace, the word and sacrament. Being around our Lord’s word, reading, studying, pondering it, frequently and regularly receiving Jesus’ body and blood, is making the best use of our lives now for eternity. And it doesn’t stop there! The more we grow in our faith in and love of the Lord, the more our lives will be focused outward on others and filled with love and good works toward our neighbor—showing them the same mercy we ourselves have experienced.
Will our lives now, lives of meaning/ significance be easy? Hardly! That’s why Paul here tells Timothy: Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. At our baptism we were called to and given eternal life. There, as faith was created by the Holy Spirit in baptism, we confessed that faith—as infants our sponsors or congregation verbalized it—but we confessed that faith before people, angels and the Holy Triune God. Now our task, is to keep holding that faith and that eternal life the Lord has called us to and entrusted us with and we fight the good fight of the faith. In Spirit-worked faith we hold to our Lord’s word and with it not only defend ourselves against all the lies and deceit of the devil, the world and our own sinful nature but as we tell others the good news about Jesus/ share our faith, we fight and advance against the forces of evil so that others too, through that life giving and life preserving word may be rescued out of the devil’s kingdom. Through that word—perhaps the very word we share—Jesus will reveal Himself to someone who doesn’t know Him and call that person to and give that person eternal life. How rich, meaningful and full of significance our lives now are.
Our earthly lives now matter for eternity—for us personally and for others. That’s why the Lord has given us His holy word. Hear again what the blessed Apostle tells St. Timothy: I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. What an important and solemn responsibility Paul here gives Timothy—calling on the Father and Son as witnesses: to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach. The commandment is the entirety of Christian doctrine. The doctrine the apostles left to the Church is a finished product; it is complete, perfect and fixed. There’s nothing more to add. All that we need is in the doctrine Jesus entrusted to His apostles and thus to the Church. That’s why St. Timothy is so vital. He was that next/ new generation; they didn’t see/ hear Jesus but what they heard from those that did—the Apostles—they faithfully passed down unstained and free from reproach. That’s the job of each generation of Christian—to pass down to the next, the totality of Christian teaching unstained and free from reproach. That’s our blessed and solemn task until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, in all His glory.
Dear Christian, our lives now are of vital importance. Gear your life to be focused on eternity in heaven—flee from what hinders that and pursue what furthers it. Now is the time of grace. Make use of the grace the Lord gives you in His word and sacrament. He will strengthen and preserve you in the faith until life everlasting. INJ Amen