May 3, 2009

Back to the Blueprints
(17) Who is Your Timothy?
Acts 16:1-5

Rev. Glenn McDonald

When it comes to following Jesus, it’s not what we say. It’s what we do. What do we actually believe about advancing the cause of Christ in this world? This, by the way, would not be the time to whip out the Apostles’ Creed. Instead, we must take a real-life inventory of our actual behaviors and relationships. That’s what we really believe.

A few years back a church discovered that digital technology could revolutionize their preparation for funerals. They learned they could use the same printed liturgy that had been part of the previous funeral by instructing the computer to change the name of the deceased every time it appeared. That’s how they prepared the bulletin for a woman named Edna. Unfortunately, the previous funeral bulletin was for a woman named Mary — and the Apostles’ Creed happened to be a standard part of the service. Therefore those in the congregation stood and affirmed their trust in “Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Edna…”

That’s one of those moments where people find themselves thinking, “You know, that doesn’t sound quite right — but it must be, since it’s printed right here in the bulletin.”

Michael Novak suggests that all of us have three kinds of belief. The first is what he calls public convictions. Those are the things we say out loud in front of each other because we’re supposed to say them, even though we don’t necessarily believe them. Thus a candidate will declare, “This is the most important election in our lifetimes,” even though it’s hard for any of us, even the candidate, to take that kind of rhetoric seriously. All the professors at my seminary had to affirm that they believed in a certain brand of end-time theology, or they wouldn’t get paid. It didn’t take long for us students to find out that for some of those professors, that belief was, shall we say, economically motivated.

Novak says that private convictions are the things that I think I believe, but which may not necessarily stand up under stress. Remember Peter on the night Jesus was arrested? “Lord, I will never fail you!” He believed that he believed that, but his actions proved otherwise. Likewise I believe that gossip is wrong, and that I shouldn’t pay extra attention to people who are wealthy, or beautiful, or important. But all too often my actions reveal that I don’t actually believe what I say I believe.

That brings us to Novak’s third category of belief, which represents my core convictions. Core convictions are revealed by what I actually do. Here we have to become students of our own behavior. As John Ortberg puts it, “Faith is coming to believe with my whole body what I say I believe with my mind.”

For instance, your core convictions are revealed by what you would say, and do, and watch on TV versus what you would say, and do, and watch on TV if your mother were sitting in the same room. Would those two sets of behaviors be identical? Ortberg points out that a whole lot of sinning might be cut down if we knew that Mom was always watching us. Well, here’s the kicker: We say that God is always with us. Do our intentions to tell the truth, and pursue holiness, and always encourage other people reveal that we really believe that God is always with us? Is bringing glory to God in every circumstance one of our core convictions, as revealed by how we actually live when only God is looking?

Since the beginning of this year we’ve been going back to the blueprints of the early church as revealed in the book of Acts. The very first disciples of Jesus go through the trauma of deciding whether they will live what they say they believe.

Jesus tells them that nothing is more important than taking his good news to the ends of the earth. Do they believe that enough to pull up roots and leave home? Through their travels, Paul and Barnabas answer yes. Do the disciples believe that prayer is a better strategy than worry, that the Holy Spirit is our only real source of spiritual power, and that having dinner with Gentiles is more powerful than preaching sermons about the fact that God loves Gentiles? According to the choices that Peter makes, he also says yes. Do the disciples believe these things enough to die for them? Through acts of heroic sacrifice, Stephen and James say yes.

Now as we come to Acts chapter 16, we see the apostle Paul making a decision that reveals the extent to which he believes that disciples aren’t born, but must be made. We can say whatever we want about the Jesus-following life, but until we actually develop the skills to live such a life, we’re just reciting a creed. What Paul shows us again and again in the New Testament is that the pathway to learning how to be a disciple of Jesus is by keeping company with at least one other disciple of Jesus. Let’s look at the first five verses of Acts 16:

He [Paul] came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Who is this young man named Timothy? He is apparently someone who had come to Christ when Paul visited the village of Lystra about five years earlier. Timothy is the child of a mixed marriage. His mother is Jewish, while his father is Greek, which means his dad was a pagan. Now according to Jewish custom, a child ought to be raised with the faith of his mother. But in the Greek world it was assumed that a child ought to be raised according to the faith of his father. Since Timothy has never been circumcised, he’s been left in a kind of spiritual no-man’s land, at least from the standpoint of public perception.

Now Jewish people in the ancient world could be fairly uncompromising about these situations. If a Jewish boy had married a Gentile girl, or if a Jewish girl had married a Gentile boy, then the Jewish participants in those relationships were often treated as if they were dead. They had abandoned God’s true community. Sometimes they were even memorialized in a mock funeral, complete with an empty casket with their name on it.

So what does Paul do? Timothy and his mother have both come to Christ. Paul wants Timothy to become his protégé or apprentice. But the Jewish community is always going to look at Timothy as a kind of half-breed. So he decides to circumcise Timothy, giving him the covenantal mark of full Judaism. By the way, I think this is where Timothy would say, “I’d be willing to look into other theological possibilities here…you know…just to make sure we’ve considered every option.”

Was Paul in fact acting consistently with the gospel when he circumcised Timothy? Isn’t Paul the one who makes the Bible’s strongest case that Gentiles don’t to be circumcised in order to enter the kingdom of God? That’s all very true. But Timothy is the son of a Jewish mother. And in order to remove any possible stumbling block amongst the Jews in their future ministry together, Paul takes this unusual action.

Until late this week, it was our plan to serve communion today. We don’t have to serve communion on the first weekend of each month, but that’s long been our practice. However, since there’s now been a confirmed case of the H1N1 virus within ten miles of this corner, and having consulted with some physicians in our congregation, we felt the need to balance tradition with caution. The Lord’s Supper might have become a stumbling block for a few of us today — and that’s not worth compromising our far higher priority of being here together in God’s presence. Paul takes an extreme step with Timothy so that no one is needlessly distracted from the real goal of pursuing God.

Paul is now free to develop a coaching relationship with Timothy that is going to pay huge dividends for the early Church. From beginning to end, the Bible holds up the value of passing the torch from one spiritual generation to another. Moses mentors Joshua. Elijah walks with Elisha. Elizabeth bestows the gift of friendship and encouragement on Mary. And Paul reproduces his own commitment to Christ in the lives of Epaphras, Titus, Phoebe, Silas, Epaphroditus, Priscilla, and dozens of other men and women that we know from his various letters.

So how does this happen? Transformation into the ways of Jesus — actually learning to do what we say we believe — is never going to happen through a program.  We learn to live wisely by getting close enough to other wise people to imitate how they live. Francis de Sales, one of the greatest Christian teachers of the last 500 years, wrote, “Do you seriously wish to travel the road to devotion? If so, look for a good [person] to guide and lead you. This is the most important of all words of advice.”  

Ben Patterson tells of the common experience of Westerners, especially missionaries, arriving in the dense jungle domains of the Amazon basin and asking for directions. “I have a compass, a map, and some coordinates,” they will say. Inevitably a villager will respond, “Let me take you there.” The visitor will then say, “No, just tell me how to get there. All I need are good directions.” “No,” says the villager, “I will take you there myself. You must follow me.”

Most of us would rather have a set of directions. We like principles, steps, and holding on to the map. As long as the compass is in the palm of my hand, I’m still in control of the trip. But God has made us in such a way that virtually everything worth finding out about we must learn from him through relationships with other people. We don’t so much need directions as a guide.

In verse three Paul wants to “take Timothy along on the journey.” That’s the key. We take the walk together. The desperate need for today is not a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but of deep people who have learned how to trust God and trust each other. One-on-one discipling relationships are one of the proven pathways to such depth.

Once again, let’s be clear: When it comes to following Jesus, it’s not what we say. It’s what we do. Are you serious about true discipleship? This morning’s video introduced you to some of the men and women here at ZPC who have chosen to be part of a discipling relationship. Two weeks from today we’re going to hear from some of the students of our church who are doing the same thing.

Whether you are a Paul who’s in search of a Timothy, or a Timothy who’s in search of a Paul, or someone who simply wants to experience an intentionally focused friendship for the sake of growing deeper in God, we can help you. Staff members and volunteers, led by Sally Bias, can help you find a discipling partner. We don’t have to be counselors, gurus, therapists, or theologians. All we have to be is friends who are serious about helping each other know the Lord.

One sentence from Paul’s hand, more than any other, helps us understand what this is all about. It’s a word of encouragement that Paul sent to Timothy as many as 20 years after the events of Acts 16. In 2 Timothy 2:2 he writes: “And what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.” If we look closely at these words, we can see five discipling generations.

First, there’s Timothy. He’s the “you” in this sentence. We know that Timothy was at first a raw and sometimes painfully shy recruit, but that he gradually grew up into his role as Paul’s prime helper. He was sincere and devoted, but was sometimes intimidated by theological opponents. In various letters Paul tenderly describes him as “my true child in the faith” (I Timothy 1:2) and “my son” (I Timothy 1:18), and even says to the Philippians, “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (1:20).

Then there’s Paul: “What you have heard from me.” Timothy didn’t learn how to follow Jesus by taking a course at a local community college and then memorizing his notes. He grew up in his life with God by walking alongside Paul.

But where did Paul pick up the spiritual curriculum that he passed along? That heritage was received from “many witnesses” — Barnabas was certainly one of them — who had taken the time to invest in Paul. Theologically we do not re-invent the wheel. Helping others grow in Christ means guiding them along the pathways of previous generations. Good news always reaches us from someone else…on its way to another someone…and we are accountable for making sure the whole message is passed along intact.

Paul tells Timothy he needs to entrust these teachings to faithful people. In Greek the word “entrust” means making a secure run to the bank to deposit a treasure.  Discipling another person is not doing a “data dump” into an unusually receptive brain. Disciples are not widgets. Paul knew Timothy and he loved him, and Timothy was now to invest in the same kind of relationships with others.

The decisive phrase in 2 Timothy 2:2 is the last one: who will be able to teach others also. Effective disciplemaking thus involves five generations. Paul, who has been resourced by faithful witnesses, pours into Timothy, who’s doing the same thing with a few others — with the key proviso that Timothy must find a way to carry out this mission so that the chain will not be broken — to ensure that the fourth generation will know how to raise up the fifth generation.

Early in my Christian life I was part of a group that was famous for its intense discipling relationships. They were called “man to man.” The girls in our group wanted in on that action. They sometimes called their relationships “ma’am to ma’am” — a name that didn’t seem to have quite the same punch. For two years I was under the influence of a man named Charlie Greene. Charlie never grew tired of saying two things. One was a question and one was a challenge.  No matter what the circumstances — no matter what joys or disappointments or mid-course corrections had come into my life — he would always ask, “What have you learned from it?” Charlie cultivated the attitude that God is always at work, and that every situation is an opportunity to trust him more deeply.

Charlie would also take hold of his Bible and say, with great earnestness, “Make this book your own. You can listen to other people talk about the Bible, and you can read what others have to say, but in the end, if you want God to do great things through your life, you will have to make this book your own.” I haven’t seen or talked with Charlie Greene since the spring of 1974, but that question and that challenge are still planted deeply in my mind. Charlie’s tenacity helped form my life for God.

That’s the power of mentoring. Are you willing to make a commitment to share life with at least one another person so that together you can go deeper and grow deeper in the Lord?