2018 Maryland Men of Faith: The Want of Men

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Maryland Men of Faith

Kameron DeVasher

Cutting Timothy

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Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for another Sabbath day.

And Lord, as we round out these edges of the Sabbath, Lord, we want to leave encouraged yet challenged.

So we ask that you would lead us in the way you would have us go, hold us up where we are weak, and see us through to the very end.

Please take out your Bibles I'm gonna dive right in Acts chapter 16 our message is entitled cutting Timothy cutting Timothy and it sounds like I don't know I'm getting a little feedback here I don't know but Acts chapter 16 verse 1 then he that is Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.

He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted to have him go on with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek." Here in Acts 16, the chapter opens rather abruptly with the circumcision of Timothy.

We get 5 verses of introduction to this young man, and by verse 3, they're cutting Timothy.

Let's dig deeper into the Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy to fill out this picture more completely.

This was not Paul's first encounter with Timothy.

And we mentioned in an earlier message, and you're hopefully going to see these 2 overlap and intertwine, but how the brilliance of the Lord led the apostle Peter to be first sent to the Gentiles to pave the way for the broader ministry of the Gentiles that the Apostle Paul would do in his work.

And all throughout the Apostle Paul's ministry, as everyone went to do the work, there was this group, a gang, a cadre, of harassing, unbelieving opposition to his ministry.

And we don't have time to go through every word of it, but we'll start there in verse 1.

Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude of both the Jews and the Greeks believed.

But, " verse 2, "...the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren." So it's not like Paul just had a difficult road because there were Gentiles and unbelieving Jews, but there were also opposition.

Every time he would make steps forward, they would kind of come and undo what he had done and poison their mind against the progress he had made.

And he goes on, look at verse 4, "...but the multitude of the city was divided, part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it, and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and to the surrounding region.

And they were preaching the gospel there.

So they get run out of town, they make progress, but the poisoning of the minds turns against them, they get the rulers there, and there's going to be a plot on their lives, so they have to run.

Well when they get to Lystra, they have this miraculous encounter where they heal this man, and the healing was in such a marked way that the Gentiles were so awestruck by what they had witnessed, that they prepared to sacrifice livestock in the name of Paul and his companions, and worship them as gods.

It took everything in Paul's power to persuade them otherwise.

And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.

It was everything they could do to stop people from worshipping them.

Talk about going from a low to a high and up and down.

So in 1 town they want to kill him, in another town they want to worship him, both are bad.

Then look at the very next verse, verse 19.

Then the Jews from Antioch and Iconium, which the places he had been before, came there, that is to Lystra and Derby, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

So he was threatened from his life in 1 town.

A healing happens and they worship him, or almost worship him, as a god.

But then 1 verse later, those other people from the first town come up with poison, the new town against them, and they take him.

And this time, they don't just attempt to stone him, They stone him.

And they stone him so severely, that they thought the job was done.

They drag his apparently lifeless body out of the city and dump him, like so much garbage.

Now, verse 20, things get interesting, as though that's not interesting enough.

Verse 20, however, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city.

And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

Paul wakes up from that beating, from that stoning.

And the Bible kind of just kind of puts it in those terms, but notice he was, even the people trying to kill him thought the job was done.

So you can imagine the physical condition of this man, and they drag him out there, leave him for the buzzards, the disciples gather around, I suppose to mourn their loss, when at that moment, He comes back up, he's like, let's go back into town.

Now, I don't know how many of you grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but I remember a thing called Mission Spotlight, right?

And you'd hear all these stories, and you'd grow up with books about missionaries, these awesome tales of things that they're going on the islands of the sea and the jungles over far far away and all these miracle stories.

As a young person you want to be a missionary.

By the way, we need to bring back that missionary spirit.

Young people should want to be doctors and nurses and dentists and lawyers for Jesus as missionaries.

Okay, now, I told you we were going to be introduced to Timothy, but his name isn't mentioned here.

Among those who had been converted at Lystra, and who were eyewitnesses of the sufferings of Paul, was 1 who was afterward to become a prominent worker for Christ, and who was to share with the Apostle the trials and the joys of pioneer service in difficult fields.

When Paul was dragged out of the city, this youthful disciple was among the number who took their stand beside his apparently lifeless body, and who saw him arise, bruised and covered with blood, but with praises upon his lips, because he had been permitted to suffer for the sake of Christ." Now, we're never told exactly how young he is, but both in the scripture and the spirit of prophecy, they always mark on how young Timothy was.

What impression do you think that would leave on a young man who loves the Lord, has been a follower of this apostle, and witnesses his death, then goes to the funeral, during which the corpse comes to life, shakes off the blood, and goes back into town.

Do you think that would stir some sort of like, yes, I want that, right?

Timothy first meets Paul when he's beaten to a pulp.

And when he rises up, shakes it off, and heads back into town, that left an impression on Timothy.

Another thing, young people are watching be a faithful witness anyway with that background let's go back to our opening scripture of Acts chapter 16 Go back now to Acts chapter 16.

And now, when we read chapter 16 verses 1 and 2, it makes a little bit more sense, given the fact that we know the background a little bit.

Now when we go to 16 verse 1, "...then he came to Derbe and Lystra..." This is after that Acts chapter 15, Jerusalem Council, and he goes back to some of those places he had been and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy.

Now when it says, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, it was not an indication of surprise that Timothy was there.

Rather Paul is relieved to note the strength of his faith and life in Christ.

Man, last time I saw you, you were this big!

Oh, how I wish we had more testimonies like that in the Seventh-day Adventist church.

Again, Acts of the Apostles, this time, page 202.

Here Paul again met Timothy, who had witnessed his sufferings at the close of his first visit to Lystra, and upon whose mind the impression then made had deepened with the passing of time, until he was convinced that it was his duty to give himself fully to the work of ministry.

His heart was knit with the heart of Paul and he longed to share the Apostles labor by assisting as the way might open." You can imagine, he's like, Man, I saw you stoned for Jesus.

It says in verse 2, of course, "...he was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium." So he had developed a good reputation amongst the people there in that locale.

And it says in verse 3, "...Paul wanted to have him go on with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.

So in preparation to take Timothy under his wing as his missionary apprentice, Paul circumcises Timothy.

This passage isn't particularly surprising.

After all, they were going to encounter a lot of Jews, and it would be a major distraction to always be explaining why Timothy wasn't circumcised, were it to be found out.

What makes Acts 16.3, what we just read, fascinating, at least in my mind, is Acts 16.4.

And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem." Well, some of you know where this is going.

Cutting Timothy

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