We have started 2 Timothy! Graham has been unwell for a while but now he’s back and on form.
2 Timothy 1
Intro
Reasons for writing, according to the NIV study bible:
- He was lonely.
- Concerned about the welfare of the churches.
- He wanted to write to the Ephesian church through Timothy.
1 “According to the promise of life…” verse 1
These are the words of a dying man. By that I mean
(a) he is aware of his mortality, as we all should be
(b) now imprisoned by Nero, he knows he approaches his end, his execution
But Paul knew where he future home was.
Job 19:25-27 (New American Standard Bible)
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
Hebrews 11:21
By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
John 5:25
I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
You may not be an apostle but you are a minister of life and of the promise of life.
2 “I long to see you…” verse 4
He wanted company, but he wanted the company of someone of faith.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Note, (a) effects of fellowship (b) equality in fellowship (two equal elements).
Koinonia, in the NT translated variously as ‘fellowship’ or ‘communion’. Literally it means intimate participation.
Isaiah 12:2-4
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
In that day you will say: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.
To draw from a well was not a community task, unlike the Samaritan woman in John’s gospel who went to the well at an odd time to be there alone.
3 Verses 6 and 7
Refer back to Timothy’s need for courage mentioned previously. Now in new context. From his prison dungeon he knows what the hope for the future is, it is Holy Spirit empowered people.
Many Christians, at the end of the 1800s were eagerly anticipating the return of Jesus which they believed would happen once they had evangelised the world. The end of the 1800s and beginning of the 20th century saw many young Christians giving themselves to world evangelisation.
Along with this international missionary endeavour there was a crying out for more power of the Holy Spirit. It was into this appetite for more of the Spirit that the outbreak of modern Pentecost came.
About Dr Griffith John (in the 1870s):
Griffith contributed several articles to the book “Evangelisation of the World” one of which was entitled “Our Pressing Need is for a Baptism of Divine Power”. He was a Welsh missionary in China with the London Missionary Society
In Hankow, Hudson Taylor and 3 of the Cambridge 7 were given hospitality by Dr Griffith John. John had already been in China for 30 years and had a thriving congregation in Hankow.
Griffith John’s wife, returned to China from a stay in America in the 1870s having been influenced by the Holiness movement. John describes it as follows “The Heavenly Dove descended upon her as a spirit of sanctity and power”. John was impressed by the change in his wife and began to desire an experience himself. He wrote of this desire “It is the Holy Ghost in us that is everything…My cry these days is for a Pentecost”. According to Gibbard, he attained this experience when he was going out to preach in China with no specific text in mind “God, however, opened his lips and endowed him with exceptional power, such power that he had no doubt as to its divine origin. It was a baptism of the Holy Spirit of God”.
The power of the Holy Spirit is still needed by believers today.
We should submit to receive
- in fellowship
- in the laying on of hands
- admitting our need, always, for the Holy Spirit
