Fan into flame ( 2 Timothy 1:6-18)

Something has changed, between Paul’s first letter to Timothy and his second. It’s not the context Timothy is still is Ephesus where Paul had sent him to counter the false teaching there that was stopping the church fully participating in the mission of Jesus Christ.

Something has changed. Paul’s circumstances have changed, in first Timothy he was travelling and ministering in Macedonia and had left Timothy in Ephesus, now he is in chains and in prison in Rome.  A prisoner for the sake of the Gospel. But Paul’s passion for the gospel his passion for Jesus has not changed. He writes to Timothy again to encourage him to continue in his ministry and mission.

Something has changed. You get the sense that the change has come in Timothy’s life. He hasn’t lost his faith in Jesus, as we read on Mother’s day Paul knows the faith that he has received from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice is strong. But the spark has gone, his enthusiasm for ministry seems to have waned and if we were to use modern terms you could say that he finds himself burned out: The tank is empty. We all face it, it’s that challenging question “have you felt like giving up, recently?”

Maybe it was the constant battle with false teaching and having to explain the gospel of Christ and Christ crucified, not a popular message competing with  the supposed more spiritual teaching of the false teachers. I don’t know about you but sometimes it can sap ones enthusiasm for talking about our faith and about Jesus when other Christians seem to shoot us in the foot when they express their faith in ways that make us cringe and feel ashamed, they put the good news badly or the media picks up on the excesses of fringe elements or the seeming money hungry and our faith is judged by that. Even those who are praised for their good deeds are acknowledged as humanitarians and not people motivated by the love of Christ.

Maybe it was that things were difficult and hard. Paul was in prison, he wasn’t always the most popular of people and now Timothy’s mentor was spoken against and written off. The headway Timothy had made was lost, his relationship with Paul now seen as a liability not an advantage. It is easy to get despondent as we tackle one problem after another. I love Winston Churchill’s definition of success, that success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”,  but you and I know that kind of enthusiasm is not easy to maintain and that success  not easy to achieve.

Maybe it was simply the demand and challenge of an on going consistent ministry. I got given a book as a thank you gift for hosting a seminar here at St Peter’s last Saturday, a book on preaching (text messages: preaching God's word in a smartphone world edited by John Tucker) and I opened it up to an article (by 'depleted no more by Philip Halstead) talking about burn out in preachers. I read  a sentence that talked of frantic schedules, unrealistic expectations and incessant demands causing stress and resulting in anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger depression, fear and alienation.” And a quote from, Andrew Pichard, who I know and respect as a preacher, who said “Preaching was often bad for my health. At the worst of times it became a robber. I allowed it to rob me of health, sleep, and sanity, and I allowed it to rob my family of a husband and a dad”. I know many of you who do things in the church feel that way, it can be a tough grind and a seemingly thankless task. I know it is easy to feel that way and Christian witness and showing Christian love can become one more thing on a never ending to do list in a busy and hectic life.

Something had changed, the zeal and passion of Timothy as a young man was now tempered and flagging. So Paul writes to encourage him to help him fan into flame the gift of God. To recapture the fire. Paul’s encouragement of Timothy is equally helpful for us as we face similar challenges on our road to maturity and ministry following Jesus Christ. For Paul the answer is found in our understanding of God and in the passage we are looking at today Paul encourages Timothy with three things that have not changed and will never change.

The first is to remind Timothy of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in his and our lives.

Paul commands Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands.” Some people have equated this with the ministry gift Paul had told Timothy not to neglect in 1 Timothy 4:14 as it to was imparted by the laying on of hands by the elders. But here Paul is very careful to talk of the gift of God and as he goes on to talk of what it does in a believers life in v7   he talks of God’ Spirit not giving ‘us’ a spirit of timidity but of Power and love and self-discipline. Paul is reminding Timothy to remember the abiding presence of God, by the Holy Spirit in his life. God dwells in us. While it may be easy to forget that and try and do things in our own strength or give in to natural timidity and reticence to be different from those around us, which is the impact of shame in a shame culture, Paul reminds Timothy of God’s Spirit with him, and with us.

A spirit that Paul says imparts three things.

 Power: Power is an attribute of God. God is able to do what he says he will. In Romans 8:11 Paul talks of the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us and gives us new life. In Acts 1:8 Jesus last words to his disciples were to wait in Jerusalem till they received power and they would be his witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.  Of course at Pentecost we saw that become a reality, as he Spirit filled each believer gathered in the upper room and they began to praise God and Peter preached and three thousand believed in Jesus Christ. It is the spirit of God that enables and empowers us to live for and witness to Christ. Paul even calls Timothy to share his suffering for the gospel, and he is able to face that because of the power of the Holy Spirit. To the church in Philippi Paul in chains says facing hardship and prison “ I can do all thing in Christ who strengthens me.

 Love:  In the pastoral epistles love is usually connected with faith and is seen as the outward visible expression in horizontal relationships of the reality of that invisible relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are not called to love out of our own selves but again it is the Spirit of god living in us that allows us to experience and now the love of Christ and enables us to serve others in a self-sacrificing way. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks of God giving gifts to enable us to work for the common Good and in 1 Corinthians 13 says they are to be used in love. It is the grace of God and the presence of the spirit that enables us to love others. In Galatians 5:22 Paul says the fruit of the Holy Spirit and walking with the Spirit in our lives is love.

Self-Control:  The Spirit’s presence allows us to order of lives in tune with the gospel. We are no longer slaves to sin and death, the spirit is the friend who leads and guides us. Self control is what we need to keep the good spiritual disciplines which enable us to become more aware of the Spirit’s presence and aid  as Philip Towner says ‘it allows timothy the clarity of thought necessary to trust in the invisible God despite  the threats of very visible opponents”.

That same Gift of God is with us. Paul calls us as he did timothy to renew our dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God that dwells within us.

The second thing Paul does is he directs Timothy once again to remember Jesus and what he done for us. .

In a sermon to the dioceses of Bath and Wells  Justin Welby, the arch bishop of Canterbury was asked to address their new mission statement ‘evangelism and mission at the heart of everything. In it he said that was a noble ambition and vision, but that no amount of training for or talking about it was going to make it a reality, what was going to make people enthusiastic about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ was if they became captivated once again with Jesus Christ and his unconditional love for us. This is what Paul does with Timothy he reminds him of the Gospel of what Jesus has done for us.  In verses 9 and 10 we have this wonderful exposition of the gospel. It focuses on the grace of God shown to us in three ways.

Christ saved us, the grace of God is shown by his life and his death and resurrection that we have been put right with God. Our sins have been forgiven by Christ’s death on the cross and we are able to experience new and abundant life because of his death and resurrection. It is not because of who we are or what we have done, but it is because of Gods unconditional undeserved grace and love shown in Jesus Christ. We are loved and we have been longed for and sought and God has sent his son into this world to bring us out of darkness as it says in 1 pater 2 into his wonderful light.

Christ calls us to live a holy life, you and I have been invited to live a life in relationship with God as our loving father, a relationship with God that is holy, not out of some sense of unobtainable moral perfectionism but because, we show the love that we are shown by Christ, our lives reflect the one whom loves us. It is a holy life because it is lived in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. A life of meaning and purpose, of hope and transformation. Paul reinforces that in this passage in verse 11 and 12 where he speaks of his own sense of call and how it allows him to withstand the suffering he has to endure while not being ashamed of the gospel.

Thirdly, Jesus Christ has destroyed death and has bought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Paul is able to say we don’t have to fear or worry about suffering for the gospel, while it is very real and painful reality the ultimate reality is that Christ has conquered death and we have the assurance of abundant life with him despite the circumstances we face, and life with him on into eternity because it is lived with and in and through the eternal God.

When we become captivated again by Jesus and what he has done for us and we experience its reality in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit we fan into flame the gift of God within us and we are able to face suffering and hardship for the gospel because of Christ’s abiding presence.

Finally Paul begins to tell Timothy about the practical ways he can fan that flame into a fire again.

Note I said only starts because Paul through out the rest of his letter will encourage Timothy in his ministry again. Here it simply starts with focusing again on the pattern of sound teaching he has received. This is both the content of that teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is to be lived out by loving others and the communication of it to both study it and proclaim it.

One of the key ways that we are made aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives and that we can be captivated a fresh by Jesus is through good spiritual disciplines that focus on scripture and prayer.  It is the key way that the Holy Spirit is able to speak into our lives. As we read and reflect on the gospels that is how we again see and know and encounter Jesus our saviour and Lord. Timothy didn’t have them in written form rather he had the oral traditions that were passed on from Paul and the apostles, but by focusing on them and how they apply to our lives, sound teaching in the pastorals usually means the gospel worked out in action… faith and love in Jesus Christ.

It’s interesting here that Paul speaks of two groups of people as well. One were the people from the province of Asia, who were with him in Rome but deserted him and it seems that Phygelus and Hermogenes were of great disappointment to him. Ephesus of course is in the province of Asia so this may have impacted on Timothy. You can sense Paul’s disappointment and pain at this. Then Paul speaks of the household of Onesiphorus who is also from Ephesus and who has sort Paul out and been an encouragement and help to him. Part of the fanning into flame is being aware that Christian brothers and sisters will let us down at times, but also that part of the grace and love of God for us is to be found in the care and love and support of other Christians, part of God’s gift to encourage us and help that love of Christ swell up within us.  We need each other to rekindle the flame. Prayer encouragement support and simply sharing our hope and enthusiasm for Christ.

Something has changed, maybe you find yourself in Timothy’s place and the fire and passion has dwindled to an ember or you feel like there is just some charred wood left in the hearth where once there was a raging fire. Your tired, disheartened or simply feeling the affects of the hard slog of it all. But the logo of our Presbyterian church is the burning bush and it’s moto is ‘burning but not consumed’ So today  Hear Paul’s call to action to Timothy to ‘fan into flame the gift of God which is in you’. Reawaken and allow the holy Spirit to again fill you up and give you the power, love and self-control you need.  Become captivated again with Jesus Christ, Christs unconditional love for us, that you are loved by God. You know fanning a ember into flame again requires some work on our behalf and once again put into place those healthy practices that open us up to the oxygen of the spirit that allows our hearts to reignite with the love of Christ. As that fire begins to burn people will come to be warmed and illuminated by its glow. 

A Prayer based on Psalm 68:1-6

Almighty God,

When we consider all the difficulty and pain and suffering in the world

We are tempted to desire that you might act now and definitively

That you would rise against those who oppress and exploit

Come against the violent, the

We find comfort in the image and idea of God as warrior

Our enemies vanishing like a puff of smoke before you

Melting like wax in the fire of your power

The wicked vanquished and the righteous rejoicing

Gracious God,

In the face of that suffering and wrong we see you at work

Yes you are holy and mighty but you respond with care and compassion

You are with and for those at the margins and who suffer

You are father to the fatherless and protect the widow

You invite us to dwell with you in your presence

You are with the lonely and lowly and invite us into your family

You lead the prisoners free with singing and joy

Great is you love for us

God who stoops down to care

We are grateful that you act in this gracious manner

We know that we have done wrong and deserve your enmity

Our unlove and indifference has contributed to the worlds sorrow

Yet you have shown us your justce, mercy and compassion

You sent  Jesus into the world, to show us your way to live

Jesus, invited us back to you and by the cross made the way possible

You showed us your great love, in forgiveness and reconciliation

You dwell with us to call us to be your people to live out your love

Compassionate and caring God,

You respond to the world sorrows by sending your spirit to dwell in us

To empower us to see your kingdom come your righteousness reign

Sometimes we see our faith and prayer as a hope for reprieve and escape

But while we wanted an airlift out you jump right into it with us

We pray for the mountains of injustice and suffering to be removed

You roll up your sleeves and get to it and inviting us to work with you

Fill us with your spirit’s presence to witness and work with you

That the world would know your justice and mercy to your glory

Fight the good fight: A Charge to Persevere ( 1 Timothy 6:11-21)

AS I was preparing for the sermon this week I came across this wonderful cartoon posted by Middle School West Auckland on facebook. It uses the idea of an iceberg to graphically illustrate all the effort and energy, sacrifice and determination, sweat and tears, ups and downs, joys and sorrows away from the public gaze, that goes into sporting success. It is also a great illustration of what Paul means when he says to Timothy ‘fight the good fight of faith”… it’s not a military metaphor but a sporting one, contending in such a way as to win the prize. Or as The Message puts it ‘Run hard and fast in the faith.’

In 1 Timothy it is like Paul is Timothy’s coach, he has trained him from the start, he has set the goal and the task that Timothy is to achieve, countering the false teaching at Ephesus so that Church can again fully participate in God’s mission of seeing all peoples be saved and come to knowledge of the Truth in Christ Jesus. He had outlined the strategy and tactics of the enemy  and given Timothy the tools and the strategy to counter that:  holding fast to the faith, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, and living it out in love.  Now it is as if we have this final motivational speech, maybe like a coach would give to a sports team that had come in after a hard fought first half, heads down breathing hard, batted and bruised, everything on the line, a speech to lift their heads and focus them to persevere and to keep going till the end.

While this last charge is specifically for Timothy it resonates with, and applies to us as well as we are called to maturity and ministry in Christ Jesus, we are called to fight the good fight and run the race. So what is Pauls charge to Timothy and how does it relate to us.

Well it is a race that we are called to run, a fight we are called to content in.

Paul starts ‘But You, son of God’ he had been talking about what was going on in the church around Timothy and the false teachers and now here he stops and focuses on Timothy. The answer to what was happening the danger of the draw of wealth and the false teachers focus on controversy and derision was for Timothy to be and live differently, to live the calling he had to be a man of God.

Man of God is a term that is only used in the New Testament in Paul’s letters to Timothy, I wonder if it wasn’t a personal term that Paul had for Timothy, but in the Old Testament it was used of people like the prophets or beloved leaders, like Moses, David, Elijah and Elisha, who were set aside and called by God for specific roles and tasks.  You might think well I don’t fit that title or identity. I’m a women; well Paul used the Greek word Anthropos which means human being rather than a specifically male, so it can be man of God or women of God, or the gender neutral person of God. You might say it obviously applies to a special person not me! But in Christ’s death and resurrection we have all become the people of God, you are a person in that people. God has commissioned as all and set us aside to proclaim the kingdom of God. God has poured his Holy Spirit out on all who believe that we are enabled and empowered to do what God has called us to do in Christ. 

The but you applies to us; change, renewal and transformation starts in us. As we live out that identity in Christ.

Paul sets out the course we are to run, he shows us the direction, sets the start line and the finish line.

Paul tells timothy the direction he is to run…that he is to flee from all this, The all this is what he had been speaking about in the previous section, the false teachers had focused unhealthily on controversy and obtaining wealth and it had led to unhealthy outcomes envy, strife malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction. But it wasn’t to flee in any old direction rather it was to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith. Love, endurance and gentleness. A virtue list diametrically opposed to the false teachers. Righteousness and godliness speak of a life of integrity where who we act and react reflect the God in whom we believe. Faith in the pastorals refers to that invisible vertical relationship with God made possible through Jesus Christ, and here it has the added dimension of being faithful to that in how we live. It is linked again with love and we see that faithfulness to our covenant relationship with God lived out in sacrificial service to others. Endurance and Gentleness fill that out in how we show that love. Endurance speaks of patience, its active patience committing ourselves to the faith and to love, by how we treat others and gentleness is the word meek. Which means that all our strength is harnessed to achieving the common good and the common goal and we will not be nudged or bumped off course or loose our discipline, because of the harsh words and slights, sledging, the stray elbow and jostling or down right dirty play of others. That is why the meek will inherit the earth, they will not be put off loving others by anything.

Our race also is one of fleeing and of pursuing, turning away from those things that do not reflect our identity in Christ and pursuing a Christlikeness, as we pursue Jesus Christ. I like the idea of pursuing because Paul acknowledges that he is also in the race with us, he is in the fight with as well and that you know we are all out there on the course somewhere, we haven’t made it yet, the key thing is that we are keeping moving forward in the right direction.

Paul tells us that the start line and the finish line. He says to timothy grab hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made good your confession in the presence of many witnesses. The starting point is when we confess our faith in Jesus Christ. Paul here was probably referring to Timothy’s baptism. The start line was when we professed Christ, in referring to Jesus confession before Pilate Paul is talking of that affirmation of Jesus as Messiah and King in front of those who would oppose him. It’s an open Public confession in front of both supporters and those who would think it a wrong. We live in a world where many find it a difficult thing to confess Christ. I read an article this week about a girl in Laos who became a Christian and her family beat her and threatened her with death, she finally had to flee from them when she overheard them deciding to take her to a big city and sell her into prostitution because it was less shame on the family.

But says Paul the finish line is eternal life. Paul says Timothy is to contend to grab eternal life that he had received when he made his confession of faith. It is a gift that we are given from Jesus Christ as we come to know him as our Lord and Saviour, we don’t contest to somehow earn it, we are not like mice caught in a spiritual running wheel, trying to get to the top and never managing it till we are exhausted and frustrated. Rather as we flee and pursue that eternal life that we will have when Christ returns enters our lives now, in what we would call abundant life, a life full of the presence of God and that reflects Christ’s presence to those around us. In verse 19 Paul applies this teaching to those who are have wealth and he say they are to invest not in this world but in the kingdom of God, that they may take hold of life that is really life. Take hold of is used in both places it is as we pursue a life that reflects Christ that we find out what real life is really like, a life that will go on into eternity.

There is an ethical element to this as well as Paul tells Timothy to run the race with out spot or blemish. 

Paul also tells us about the glory that is there in running the race and contesting the fight. It’s not like the adulation and acclaim of the athlete or team that wins the trophy or the tournament or the gold medal in the race that is focused on us and is there for a while and then fades and is placed in a draw somewhere and pulled out now and again to show people. But for Paul the glory is that of Jesus Christ and God himself. Paul finishes this section of his letter with a doxology a song of praise to God. Paul focuses on God’s sovereignty, he is the great ruler, king of kings and lord of lords are titles that human rulers have claimed for themselves, but here Paul applies them to God. When we think of the race through life it is reassuring to know that God is sovereign and in control. That the course has been planned out with purpose and precision. He also focuses on the holiness of God, the only true God who dwells in unapproachable light. What a great thing to know the one who reigns and rules in glory.     The glory of the race is with God. The one who initiated it by creating us to know him, who saved us by making himself known in Christ Jesus, who stepped down and gave his life for us, who enables us to run the race by the presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. Who welcomes us into fellowship. To know and meet with face to face. To have run and been part of the God story and the God mission, to the glory of God. That is a great prize.

Paul tells Timothy how rich people are to run this race as well.

Remember from last week he had talked about the dangers of fixating on getting rich, now Paul turns to address a group in the church who were rich, who must have been wondering if that would disqualify them from the race. Is the gospel anti wealth? Pauls response is to tell timothy to command them not to be arrogant, or put their hope in wealth, rather to put their hope in God, who is the one who richly provides for all what is good.  To become rich in good deeds and be generous and willing to share. He finishes by echoing Jesus teaching of storing up treasure in heaven on focusing on the kingdom of God not the kingdom of this world.

In the end for those who are rich the race is the same they are to flee and to pursue. Flee from self-reliance. Self-indulgence and self-importance to focusing on trusting God, showing that trust in care and compassion and practical love for others and focusing on Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

Paul finally tells timothy what he should hold on and bring with him on the race. Here the focus is the apostolic teaching that he has received, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I think that means more than just having a joggers bible with him or listening to teaching on his MP3 as he runs. Rather it is the good news of Jesus Christ, that body of truth that is our basis of our faith: That Christ came into this world lived and died and rose again. And to throw away and dodge carrying the false teaching.

You know when I have a look at that cartoon we started with and think of the sporting analogy we’ve been using all the way through this message there is one thing missing. It’s easy to miss, its easy to think that the focus is all on our endeavour, our effort. It’s easy to miss the four words that Paul finishes his letter with, to simply see them as a polite nicety, but they make all the difference. Grace be with you all. Grace be with you all. Of course when Paul says grace,  we know it is the grace of Jesus Christ that he is talking about. Out on the course, in the fleeing and pursuing, the contending for the prize, we are not alone, we have grace. It is Christ who called us and made it possible for us to become people of God, by his death and resurrection, it is Christ who promised to be with us till the end of the age, it is Christ who has run the race before us and who goes with us and encouraging and strengthens us on the way who marshals us and sustains us. Who stops to pick us up and restore us when we fall, who sends companions and team mates to contend alongside us, who provides the coaches and mentors to keep us on track and calls us to do that for others. It is Christ who waits for us. Grace be with you all.