When the Apostle Paul wrote letters he did so for good reasons and his first letter to Timothy is no exception to that rule. Timothy had been sent by Paul to pastor and teach the believers at Ephesus in the first century AD. The church had been torn apart by an influx of false teachers who were leading many astray from the truth of the gospel, so Paul sent Timothy there to bring it back onto the straight and narrow. As this is a personal letter from Paul to Timothy, it would be easy for us to set it aside as irrelevant to modern needs, but nothing much has changed since those days. The need remains for sound teaching that will bring a church back to health, and this sound teaching must and will show itself in the fruit and the grace of love. God’s people are to be a people who love the truth while also known by their love.
Philip Burns
Rev Philip Burns is the minister of Bendigo Presbyterian Church.
‘There’s work to do before Jesus returns’ (2 Thessalonians 3:6-18)
Waiting is hard. You only have to look at husbands waiting for their wives outside the shops! Some of the believers at Thessalonica were also having trouble waiting for Jesus to return as he promised. In 2 Thessalonians 3:6-18 we find that some of them had adopted a passive attitude to the extent that they no longer worked with their hands and were relying on the generosity of others to live. Paul would have none of this. He urged the believers at Thessalonica to live with a sense of the balance, purpose and discipline. The fact that Jesus is coming does not give us an excuse to put our feet up but instead get busy with the work of the gospel.
‘These things must be done until Jesus returns’ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5)
After Paul had told the believers at Thessalonica to beware of the rise of the Antichrist and the rise in the spread of error in the last days, in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5, he then urged them to continue to believe the gospel that he and the other apostles had taught. In believing this truth, the Thessalonians were also urged to not move away from the truth but to hold firm to it, to live it out in their daily experience and also to pray for the spread of the gospel throughout the world. Instead of retreating into their shell, the believers were to be active in letting the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ be known.
‘This man must come before Jesus returns’ (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12)
Though persecution from the enemies of the gospel had come against the Thessalonians with little negative effect apart from causing their faith to grow stronger, a greater danger that faced these believers was some false teaching concerning the second coming of Jesus. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 we find that this teaching stated that the return of Jesus had already taken place and the Thessalonians had missed it. To allay their fears and to remind these believers of what he had taught them, Paul then reminded his readers of the facts concerning the appearance of the ‘man of lawlessness’ (Antichrist) before the day of the Lord’s return. Much has been written about the identity of this man, but the Bible is far more concerned with our need to remain faithful to the Lord rather than wasting time speculating on identity.
‘It will all be different when Jesus returns’ (2 Thessalonians 1:1-12)
In Paul’s second letter to the believers at Thessalonica, the apostle has much to say about the return of Jesus. Not times and dates, which most people are concerned with, but how to live in the light of his return. In 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Paul commended the Thessalonians who had endured some bitter persecution from the enemies of the gospel. This persecution had only enhanced and intensified their faith in God, their love for each other and their hope in the return of Jesus. Paul also explained that while believers can look forward to the great Day of the Lord, that the return of Jesus will not be a great event for all. Those who refuse to bow the knee to Jesus will only face Him as Judge and not Saviour and the consequences of this will be played out for all eternity. It is vital to respond to Jesus and the gospel now before that glorious but terrible Day comes.
‘What does the virgin birth of Jesus have to do with you?’ (Luke 1:1-4, 26-38)
There’s no denying that Jesus born in Bethlehem has had a great impact upon the world. There is no-one like him nor has there ever been. So many things set Jesus apart from ordinary human beings, even aspects surrounding His birth. The gospel writer, Luke, set out to establish these things as fact and tells in Luke 1:26-38 that Jesus was born of a virgin. The virgin conception of Jesus has long been hotly disputed, but is so vital to so many aspects of the Christian faith which stands of falls on the test of truth. If it is true, then it is one of the most amazing events ever to happen and should cause us to view Jesus in a totally different light.
‘Ancestors and descendants: Lessons from Jesus’s family tree’ (Matthew 1:1-17, 12:46-50)
All of us fit somewhere into a family tree. None of us would be alive were in not for those who have gone before us. Just as many family trees make for interesting studies, so too the family tree of Jesus whioch is recorded in Matthew 1:1-17, one that even has one or two ‘black sheep’ who might be something of an embarrassment to the family. Old Testament characters such as Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba all feature. These women were either from the wrong side of the tracks or who had some shortcomings that the Bible notes. King David is included too and even though he was a great King, even then his own sin and failure are not hidden from the pages of the Bible. God graciously included such people to show that he receives sinners, something that Jesus did through all His life. And what of His descendants? Well there are no physical descendants of Jesus, but He has plenty of children whom He adopts as His own. They are those who come to Him in repentance and faith and trust Him to save them.
‘Blind and deaf to the glory and voice of God’ (Psalm 19:1-14)
There are three vioices in Psalm 19:1-14. The first voice is the voice of creation. Like other parts of the Bible, Psalm 19 teaches that all that we see in the created order testifies to the truth that God exists and that by all that He has made, He has spoken to all mankind about His existence. This is true for people all over the world. No-one can say they did not know that God existed. The second voice in the Psalm is the voice of God’s Word. While God’s voice through creation can be ignored or misinterpreted, He has also spoken to us through His Word, which, for the writer of the Psalm, were the books of God’s law which he treasured above everything. The third voice in the Psalm is the voice of God’s servant, who asked God to cleanse his heart from hidden sins and faults. The one who loves God over all things will want to be pure in order to serve Him and be ready to obey Him from the heart.
‘The sin of the unequally yoked’ (part 2) (Ezra 10:1-44)
After Ezra had wept and prayed about the sin of the people of God in taking themselves foreign wives, a deep sense of conviction followed and the leaders of the people urged Ezra to take action. In Ezra 10:1-44, we not only learn the names of the men who took foreign wives, but also the way in which this matter was to be dealt with as the wives, and in some cases their children, were sent away. While this sounds harsh to modern ears, Ezra’s goal had been to establish a sense of the need for personal and national holiness. The Messiah who was still to come, would not be born from a ‘mixed- marriage’. At the end of the book the reader will realise that the promised kingdom had still not arrived. And when the King in that kingdom did come (Jesus), he did not send people away because they were law-breakers but gathered them in because of grace.
‘The sin of the unequally yoked (part 1)’ (Ezra 9:1-15)
When Ezra finally returned to Jerusalem with the ‘second wave’ of returning exiles with him, he soon found that all was not well in the beloved capital. Ezra 9:1-15 tells us that news came to him from the mouths of the officials of the people that many of the returned exiles had married people of the surrounding nations. This was no small thing to have happened, but was serious. God had forbidden His people from the outset of being ‘unequally yoked’ with those who were not His people, and this act of the returned exiles was a breach of that directive. The news shocked Ezra and drove him to express great grief, but it also led him to pray and confess the sin of His people to God, pleading with God for forgiveness. The prayer recorded in Ezra 9 is one of the great prayers of the Bible and clearly reminds us that while the world ‘winks’ at sin, God sees things far differently! We are all guilty before Him on many counts and need His mercy and forgiveness, which He gives to those who ask because of His Son, Jesus.