Soldiers for Christ: 2 Timothy 1:1-3

Someday you will say the last words to your spouse or to your children or to your grandchildren. What do you want them to hear? I have enjoyed studying the lives of many Christians and I enjoy seeing what they say last. at that moment when they have probably the best perspective about life because they are at the end of it and they know they are about to cross from this life to the next. John Wesley, as he was with his family, uttered his last words.

The best of all is this, he said, God is with us. and then he was silent for a while and then he apparently began to try to sing a hymn but he could only utter the first couple of words and he just kept saying them over and over and the words were, I'll praise, I'll praise, I'll praise. Lottie Moon returning from China in December of 1912, really she starved to death. the Chinese had no food so she didn't eat either but as she was in her weakened condition the last words she spoke to her caretaker before she passed from this life to the next were these we are weak but he is strong. Susanna Wesley was with her children on July the 23rd of and she made her last request of her children just before she slipped away.

She said, children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God. And when she died, her children gathered around her bed and began to sing praises to God. William Carey, June 9, 1834. he opened his eyes one last time and he looked at those around him and said, I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. But when I think that I am about to appear in God's holy presence, I remember all my sins and I tremble.

Well, if it had not been clear before, it was clear as Paul wrote his last words in the book of 2 Timothy, which is where we're going to begin a study today. 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul's last words before his death. If it wasn't clear before the time Paul was imprisoned, it had become clear in a great event that Christianity and those who were Christian and held to the faith of Jesus Christ were in a world at war. In a world that was engaged in spiritual warfare. Up until the time of the Emperor Nero, the persecution of Christians had largely been persecution that came at the hands of the Jews.

The Jews didn't like this new sect called Christians who proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. And many of the Jewish authorities viewed the Christian faith as taking people away from Judaism, and therefore they opposed the Christian faith. go and teach and preach in various cities, he would be opposed by the Jews, and it would be the Jews that would persecute him. The Romans would persecute occasionally, but it was really not until the time of the Emperor Nero that the Roman power was explicitly exerted against the Christians. And that persecution resulted from a great fire that began in the late evening of July the 18th of A.D. 64. It's called the Great Fire of Rome. The fire broke out at the northeast end of the Circus Maximus in the city of Rome. The fire would rage for five whole days. Fourteen of the city's divisions, Rome was divided into divisions in those days, of the fourteen divisions of the city, ten of the divisions would either be completely destroyed by the fire or experience serious damage. It was a huge conflagration. Though the Emperor Nero was away at the time the fire broke out, rumors began to circulate shortly after the fire that somehow he had been responsible for the fire beginning. People knew that the Emperor Nero wanted to rebuild Rome to make it more of a city to his liking. So some believe that possibly he helped start this fire so that he could then begin his rebuilding project. He probably didn't, but those rumors began to circulate. So Nero decided he needed to do something to turn suspicion away from him. So he began to look out among the population for a group of people to blame for the fire. And he decided that he

He knew that they were a small minority at this time, despised by many people, so they were an easy target for his blame. We have a record written about 50 years after the fire by the historian Tacitus that tells of some of the torment and torture that the Christians suffered, and I think I gave it to you in your handout there. Let's just read it together. Besides being put to death, they, that is the Christians, were made to serve as objects of amusement. They were clad in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs.

Others were crucified. Others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed. Nero had thrown open his grounds for the display and was putting on a show in the circus where he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or drove about in his chariot. All this gave rise to a feeling of pity even toward men whose guilt merited the most exemplary punishment, for it was felt that they were being destroyed not for the public good but to gratify the cruelty of an individual. Nero was a crazed and cruel emperor.

He had become emperor in AD 54 at the age of 16 after his mother, Agrippina, poisoned his adoptive father. So Nero learned from his mom the ways of the Roman world. She had poisoned her husband, Claudius, so that her son, Nero, could become emperor. Nero would later have his own mother executed. He would have his wife, Octavia, beheaded.

He would have his mistress, Papaya, killed. He actually kicked her to death while she was pregnant. He was a terrible and evil man. But it was in him and through his reign that war, the war of the spiritual world, the war between the gods of Rome and the God of the Christians became evident. It was during and after this persecution of the Christians that the Apostle Paul would be arrested and imprisoned.

And it would be while he was imprisoned that he would write this letter we call 2 Timothy. I want us to think today about the idea of spiritual warfare. I've entitled this series on 2 Timothy, Soldiers for Christ, How to Live in Enemy-Occupied Territory. I've just finished reading a book by John Eldridge called Waking the Dead. John Eldridge was a co-author who wrote a book called The Ransom of the Heart.

Is that the name of it? No, The Sacred Romance. And then he wrote one other book called Wild at Heart, and he's just come out with a book called Waking the Dead. And John Eldridge says, you were born into a world at war. And he goes on to say, Christianity is not a religion about going to Sunday school, potluck suppers, being nice, holding car washes, sending our second-hand clothes off to Mexico, as good as those things may be.

Something large and immensely dangerous is unfolding all around us. The birth of Christ, he says, was an act of war, an invasion. He's picking up on a thought that C.S. Lewis had in his book called Mere Christianity, where C.S. Lewis said, enemy-occupied territory, that is what this world is.

Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, in disguise and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church, you are really listening in to the secret wireless. That is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. This warfare, this spiritual warfare between the things of Christ and the teachings of Christ and the things of the world is something we experience today, but it was when And Paul wrote 2 Timothy that this warfare was so evident as the Roman Empire put its weight and power and authority against the Christians and in an effort to squelch out the Christians. And the Apostle Paul picks up his pen to write his last letter to probably his most trusted disciple, Timothy, to tell Timothy how to be prepared to preach, teach, and live in enemy-occupied territory.

Now, why do I call this world enemy-occupied territory? I mean, has some enemy occupied the United States? We are certainly a world at war in a certain sense as we fight in Iraq and so forth. But what enemy am I talking about when I talk about this world being enemy-occupied territory?

The teaching of Scripture, I think, is pretty clear that before the beginning of time, Lucifer rebelled against the king of kings. And he and his followers, his angels, were cast from heaven. And they now are a spiritual force waging war against the king of kings here on earth. And that warfare becomes evident to us in times and places such as that under the reign of the emperor Nero. It's a warfare that I think if we could peel away the veil, we would see going on around us.

But it's a warfare that's often hidden from us. But with someone like the Emperor Nero, I think we see the warfare erupting. And the Apostle Paul, when he writes to Timothy, I think realizes this warfare is going on. And he writes to Timothy to say, my time is short. Let me tell you, in these last words of mine, how to live in this enemy-occupied world.

And that's where we're going with our study of the book. How do we as Christians live in enemy-occupied territory? My only concern about talking about spiritual warfare is that we in our humanity want to use human weapons to wage war rather than spiritual weapons. And we as Christians, as soldiers for Christ, our weapons of warfare are not worldly weapons. Our weapons are weapons of the Spirit.

our weapons are weapons like the power of god's spirit the truth of god's word the love of jesus christ the hope of the gospel the fellowship of believers the power of prayer these are our weapons but what we need to do is to wake up and realize that there's warfare going on around us We need to be prepared for that warfare. We need to understand that this life is often difficult because there is a warfare going on around us. And the goal of the enemy is to destroy us. Do not be deceived. Satan and his legions hate us, those of us who proclaim the name of Christ.

and they will use their influence and they influence people to oppose the things of Christ, to oppose Christians, and to seek to thwart the message of Jesus Christ. There are always casualties in war and the same is true in the Christian life. The Apostle Paul will be one of those casualties. He will die because he stands for Christ. He starts out the book of 2 Timothy by telling us some things about himself.

And that's a picture of Nero right there. That's a bust. It shows you what he looked like. The apostle Paul starts off 2 Timothy by telling us that he is an apostle by the will of God.

Do you remember the Damascus Road, Paul's conversion? There are three accounts of his Damascus Road experience in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 9, chapter 22, and Acts 26. In each of those accounts, Paul gives us a little more detail about his Damascus Road experience. It would be worthwhile to go back and read each of those accounts.

So I would encourage you to go to Acts 9, 22, and 26 and read each of those accounts. But one thing that Paul makes clear as he begins 2 Timothy is that he is an apostle. That is, he received a commission directly from Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road by the will of God. Do you recall, was Paul, as he traveled on the Damascus Road in search of Jesus, was he trying to find Jesus Christ? Was he trying to find the way of salvation?

No. He was on a road to try to imprison and even have executed the followers of Jesus Christ. So it wasn't that it was the will of Paul to become an apostle. Instead, it was the will of God. Paul didn't find God.

God found him. And in a dramatic experience brought Paul into the faith. The reality is, though our experiences are probably all different in how we came to faith, found you wherever you were in whatever circumstances you were and brought you to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul's experience will be both a conversion and a call. Not only was he converted to faith in Christ, but on the Damascus Road, Jesus Christ told him that his mission in life was to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And that is what Paul spent his life doing from the time of the Damascus Road experience until the time he is imprisoned under the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. He was an apostle for a purpose. As the text says in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1, he was an apostle according to the promise of life in Jesus Christ.

In other words, it was the apostle Paul's purpose to proclaim to the world, particularly to the that eternal life is found in one name and one name alone, a name that is above every name in the name of Jesus Christ. If you hear nothing else this morning, hear this. There is salvation in no one else. It is only in the name of Jesus Christ that anyone can be saved. apart from Christ, there is no salvation.

That is a central doctrine of our faith, a central truth that is much under attack today. So I want to take a moment to show you from the text of Scripture where this is made abundantly clear. So get your Bibles, and let's start. We're going to go look at several passages that affirm this reality that the promise of life is in Jesus Christ alone. Turn to the book of John.

Chapter 1, verse 12.

John chapter 1, verse 12, where John writes, Yet to all who received him, and the him there is Jesus Christ, to those who believed in his name, and his name is the name of Jesus Christ, he gave the right to become children of God. So you must receive Christ and believe in Christ's name to become a child of God. Next verse, John 3.16.

Most of you probably know it by heart. For God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Buddha, whosoever believes in Vishnu, the Hindu God, no, whoever believes in him, Jesus Christ, shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3, verse 36.

Whoever believes in the Son, John 3, verse 36, has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. It is only those who believe in the Son who have eternal life.

I didn't write it down on your handout, and I should have. John 14, 6. Make that note. John 14, 6. John 14, 6 where Jesus says John 14, verse 6 I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father except through me a very direct statement No one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ.

All right, go over to the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 12.

This is Peter speaking. Acts 4, 12, and he says, Salvation is found in no one else, For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. There is no other name. And that name is Jesus Christ. Romans 10.9

Romans 10.9 If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Jesus is Lord, and that he was raised from the dead, you will be saved. And one last verse, 1 John 5, 12.

1 John 5.12 where the apostle John writes again I think this is just a very plain and clear statement 1 John 5.12

He who has the Son has life He who does not have the Son of God does not have life

I'm going to submit to you that these passages and the whole tenor of Scripture as it relates to Jesus Christ makes it abundantly clear that it is in Jesus Christ alone that there is salvation. If you want to live eternally in heaven, you must commit your life to Jesus Christ. You must proclaim him as your Lord. Believe he is a living Lord. That is, he was resurrected from the dead.

And let him be your master and savior.

Questions? Any dispute? Discussion? I imagine in this group, most of you are at least are persuaded of that truth. But don't let anyone mislead you.

The teaching of scripture is clear on this point. Anyone who proclaims to teach you what scripture says and says at the same time to heaven or to the Father other than Jesus Christ, that person is a false teacher, is not teaching the truth.

I would much prefer someone to say, I reject the teaching of Scripture, and I believe there are many paths to life. That's at least being honest. But anybody who tries to say scripture gives any other teaching than that Jesus is the only way of salvation is a false teacher. Well, it is because of this teaching, because of Paul's allegiance to Jesus Christ, because he is one of that sect called Christians who have affirmed that Jesus is king and that he is the Caesar of the universe,

it is because of that that Paul wound up imprisoned in the persecution under Nero. He was imprisoned in a small prison not far from the Colosseum in Rome. The Colosseum had not yet been built when Paul was imprisoned, but that's a picture of the Colosseum as it looks today in the city of Rome. He would be imprisoned in the Mamertinum prison, which is about a quarter of a mile from the Colosseum.

This is inside the prison where Paul was today in Rome. This is a picture I took when I was there. The little altar has been added. The reason there's an upside-down cross on the altar is that the apostle Peter was also imprisoned here before he was executed. This was the prison where Romans took people who were to be executed before they were to be executed.

row of Rome and the upside down cross is there because that's how Peter was executed upside down on the cross. There's a plaque on the wall above the little altar and it shows a man being baptized. The story on the wall, there's a plaque up there and according to the story in the Mamertina prison in Rome, the jailer, who was the jailer for both the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul, came to faith in Christ under the witnessing and testimony of the apostles Peter and Paul. There's a good likelihood that Peter and Paul were together in this prison, at least for a period of time before their execution. Can you imagine being the jailer and having those two guys witnessing to you?

but he came to faith in Christ. But Paul, from that prison, cold, rock prison, damp, the ceiling's just above your head, it's about 25 feet across in diameter, it is from that prison that Paul wrote this book of 2 Timothy,

telling his most trusted follower to be ready. The war was on. teaching and preaching to his people. Timothy is called in the text, my dear son.

In 1 Timothy, Paul calls Timothy my true son. That word in 2 Timothy, my dear son, it's a term of endearment. It means my beloved son. It is most likely that Timothy was converted under the teaching and preaching of Paul on his first missionary journey. And as Paul reaches the end of his life and is imprisoned, he misses Timothy.

And he calls him my dear son. Let me give you just a little quick background on Timothy. He was born in the city of Lystra.

You see it? He was born, his father was Greek, a Gentile. His mama was a Jew, but she became a Christian. Her name was Eunice. His grandmother, Lois, was also a Christian.

On the first missionary journey that Paul took, you see the Arras, he went through the town of Lystra, and there he met Timothy. And it's likely that on that first missionary journey that Timothy was converted. would become Paul's companion on Paul's second and third missionary journeys. The second and third missionary journeys. Timothy would be with Paul essentially for the rest of Paul's life.

He would be Paul's most trusted worker. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 and just hear what Paul says about Timothy. And you see how much Paul loved Timothy. Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 to 22, where Paul writes to the Philippians and he's talking about Timothy and he says, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.

For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself. Because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with you. And you get a sense of how much Paul trusted Timothy in that passage.

He trusted him so much that after his third missionary journey, where the Apostle Paul would spend approximately three years in the city of Ephesus, the most populous city in Asia Minor, when Paul left that city, he appointed Timothy to remain in the city and to be the leader of the church in the city of Ephesus. Do you see Ephesus on the far left?

Y'all see that?

I don't know if I can leap that high, but it's on the far left, kind of in the center of the screen up there. And so Timothy is at Ephesus. He's a pastor at Ephesus when Paul writes his letter of 2 Timothy. And he's writing to him to give him advice about how he can best pastor the church there in Ephesus. was apparently a young man.

He was apparently very timid. And so Paul has to write him to say, come on, man, you're a soldier in the army of the king. Now get in there and do it. Don't shrink back, but get into the battle. And as we go through this book of 2 Timothy, we'll see how Paul tells Timothy to be in the battle.

Let me just say a word about Ephesus, and then I'm going to close with some thoughts for today, for life for today. Ephesus was a key city where Paul went on his third missionary journey. It was, in New Testament times, a seaport town. It was the greatest and most populous city in Asia Minor. This is where the country of Turkey is today.

It was a place of education, a place of learning, a place of entertainment. There was a huge coliseum in Ephesus with a huge amphitheater that would hold 25,000 people. They had a huge library in Ephesus. And this is a picture of the remains of that library where they had many, many, many volumes of books and literature. It was a great place of learning and a great place of commerce.

But one of the central things about the city of Ephesus is that it was the place where the temple of Artemis was located. The temple of Artemis, who was the goddess of fertility, the fertility goddess. There's a picture. This is a statue of Artemis. You see, she's a multi-breasted.

She doesn't have just two breasts. She's got multiple breasts. and that was imagery of her being the fertility goddess. The Ephesians believed that her image fell from the sky of heaven into Ephesus and that that's how they got this image of her. It was a God-given image, they believed.

They built a temple for her that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was four times larger than the Parthenon in Rome. There were 127 columns in the temple of Artemis, each of them 60 feet high. It was a huge, grand, majestic temple built to this goddess. And the goddess of fertility, like people, doing a lot of sexual kind of things in her temple.

And they would have temple prostitutes, male and female. and you would go to church and basically have sex as an act of worship. You don't know the degradation that people faced because of this, the diseases, people really being enslaved as prostitutes in the temple. It was a horrific lifestyle for those who served in the, quote, but worship of Artemis in many ways. But this was their belief, that she was the true goddess and was deserving of worship.

We also know that the city of Ephesus was a place of the occult. In Acts 19, the story is told of how Demetrius, who was a silversmith who made little shrines of Artemis, stirred up the people against Paul. And the reason he stirred up the people against Paul is Paul was preaching against Artemis. And it was hurting Demetrius' business because there was a whole raft of businesses related to the temple worship of Artemis.

We also know from the book of Acts that the people relied on sorcery for success and happiness and health. So it was a place of learning on the one hand. It was a place of great belief in sorcery and the occult and witchcraft. doesn't it? I mean, people think we're so educated and so forth, yet we have all this stuff related to palm reading and so forth. So this is where Paul puts Timothy, this timid young man, is in this city of Ephesus. Well, here are my lessons for life for today in this introduction to the book of 2 Timothy. My first lesson for life is that we are soldiers for Christ. We need to view ourselves as being part of an army that has a mission.

It is imperative, secondly, that we think less about serving ourselves and more about serving our Savior. We are so focused on ourselves that we often forget that our primary role is to serve Him. Thirdly, serving Christ requires devotion, effort, and sacrifice. cost you anything recently? As I've been in Bolivia and in Venezuela over the last couple of weeks, I have been reminded again of many who pay the price for serving Jesus Christ.

Missionaries who are serving in remote places in very difficult circumstances so that they can serve Christ. We have it so easy here and we just don't realize it. The enemy will do whatever he can to distract us individually and as a church from serving Christ. Do you hear me? He will do whatever he can.

Often he will offer something that seems good to distract us from that which is most important. Can you think about the present situation of our own church? Are we distracted?

Discussions about traditions How will we spend our money? How will we worship? The battle rages on the inside Yet the greater war is on the outside Satan wants us to be divided Caught up in things about ourselves Rather than looking outward and being engaged as soldiers for Christ outside the walls of our church. Let's beware. Let's not let ourselves be distracted from our mission here on earth.

Fifthly, no sacrifice is too great in the service of our king.

I believe in many respects we have forgotten what it means to sacrifice. We have lives of such ease and comfort. We need to be people who are willing to sacrifice. Sixthly, we must prepare and equip our young people to be good soldiers for Christ. And we must be willing to let our children serve and encourage them to do so.

While we were in Bolivia, they were talking to the youth who were there about being part of the extreme team in Bolivia. They're going to start with young men, single young men, ages 21 to 29. of intense training in Spanish, survival skills, how to live in the wilderness, and then they're going to send them out for two years into the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, living in a 16,000 feet elevation where they will go and try to contact tribes of people that have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. I began to think about, what if my son Caleb wants to go? or what if your child wants to go?

What would we say? We're at war, folks. The king has called us to be his soldiers. We need to be preparing our young people to be those soldiers as well and asking them to go into the battle. But that means we've got to be willing to let them go.

There is no sacrifice too great in the service of our king. One day, one day, we will look back and we will say the sacrifice was nothing compared to the glory that awaited us. But as we go through this book of 2 Timothy, I want us to look at our own lives and ask ourselves the question, am I a good soldier for Christ? Am I living as he wants me to live in this enemy-occupied territory?