January 12, 2025

Christianity One-On-One

Pastor: Wade Trimmer Series: Gospel Shaped Living Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:1–3

Most who read, teach or preach from 1 Timothy tend to overlook the significance of the salutation or greeting. In a relatively few words, a large part of the Ephesian problem is addressed, the core of Paul’s solution given, and the tension between a private letter and a public message established. (1) The Ephesian problem arose because the church had turned away from Paul’s authority and from the salvation through Christ that he preached. So Paul begins by asserting that his apostleship is by a command from God and Christ; this will be placed in contrast to the opponents who merely “wish” to be teachers (1 Tim. 1:7). (2) The solution is that the church should listen to Timothy’s teaching since Timothy, and not the opponents, is Paul’s spiritually legitimate son. (3) The letter is private in that it is written to Timothy, but public in that Paul is writing through Timothy to the church. The epistle’s conclusion (6:21) makes this dual nature obvious when it says, “Grace be with you [plural]”

In the greeting we get a glimpse of Christianity-One-On-One – Paul and Timothy.

Coupling the first three verses in 1 Timothy 1 and the first two verses in 2 Timothy 2, and we see the heart and soul of the biblical standard and strategy of disciple-making. They involve the greatest disciple-maker that ever lived apart from the Lord Jesus himself, the Apostle Paul, and perhaps the greatest model of a disciple in the process of being built into a reproductive, multiplying, world-visionary, world-impacting disciple in Timothy.

While there was a great multitude that stood out to Paul as his spiritual children in the Lord, there was one man whom Paul considered special in a peculiar way.  This man was Timothy, the son of Eunice.

In six of Paul’s letters, Timothy’s name is associated with his own in the opening lines, and in four of these Timothy’s name is the only one associated with Paul’s in this way.  From the beginning of their association, Timothy shared Paul’s ministry on a permanent basis. Timothy was Paul’s disciple, or intern, or understudy, or apprentice. In the letter to the Philippian church, Paul uses Timothy as a role model for the Philippian church. Philps 2:19-20, “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.”  

With this in mind, we will do a brief profile of the process of disciple-making, using Paul and Timothy as a pattern.

I. A Father for Imitation – 1 Tim. 1:1-2

  1. This Provides the Model that Results in the Transformation of Life - “Paul and Timothy.” Here is the genius of the strategy of Jesus. That innocent sounding phrase combines all the factors:

(a) A revelational Christian - “Paul”, the kind every Christian should be in the sense of modeling life, love, and learning.

(b) The relational conjunction “and”, all the relational mandates of the New Testament funnel into that one tiny word. Everything succeeds and continues only if your name is followed by the “and” of a disciple’s name and reproductive history.

(c) The reproducing colleague - “Timothy”, here is one of Paul’s many successors, and the fact that he had many accounts for the success of his ministry.

1Timothy 1:2, " To Timothy, my true child in the faith ..."

2 Timothy 1:2, "To Timothy, my beloved child ..."

2 Timothy 1:4, "As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy."

Philippians 2:22, "But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

1 Corinthians 4:14-17, “I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.” 

1Corinthians 11:1, Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” 

Twenty-eight times in the New Testament we come across the command to “imitate” or “emulate” another person; to trace our lives off another as a vital means of growing in Christ.

Among these various expressions, sons, soldiers, farmers, builders, etc., it appears that Paul's favorite was that of spiritual parenting. The reason for this is because the goal of true Christian parenting is almost identical to the goal of disciple-making.

 The ultimate goal of the disciple making process is generational transfer or fatherhood, for fathering is where reproduction takes place. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 4:15 that there are many teachers but few fathers and Paul lamented this fact. What is the difference between teachers and fathers? Teachers impart lessons - Fathers impart their life! Teachers teach a subject in an impersonal format and go home every night. Fathers train a life in a personal relationship by their life and learning from babyhood to sonship, to fatherhood. Every parent understands this. It is much easier to be a teacher than a father because relational reproduction requires risk, resource expenditure, and intimacy.

Discipling is spiritual parenting and one of the essential elements of good parenting isn’t first rules and regulations, but having and maintaining a love relationship between parents and children. Fathers are about ensuring the future by reproducing sons in the present. It is imperative that every father imparts life and learning to his sons before he departs this life. Teachers may impart knowledge and prophets may predict the future, but fathers shape it. One is like a thermometer and the other is like a thermostat. Fathers rear what they reproduce. Fathers are defined, not by their own success but by that of their offspring.

Parenting which empowers children to maturity is in its basic concept very similar to the New Testament depiction of discipling.” Parents, having brought a child into the world, are responsible to mother and father it from a consumer to a producer to a reproducer. This is the standard stated by the apostle John in 1 John 2:12-14, where we see 3 groups – children, young men, and fathers. In this light discipleship needs to be redefined to include the idea of “spiritual parenting,” “spiritual nurturing,” “spiritual mentoring” or “spiritual coaching.”

Fathers are known for calling, challenging, sending, and reproducing.

II. A Teacher for Impartation

A. This Proclaims the Message for the Transmission of the Truth

1 Timothy 1:3, "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,"

1 Timothy 3:2, "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,"

1 Timothy 4:11, "Command and teach these things."

1 Timothy 4:13, "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching."

1Timothy 6:2, "... Teach and urge these things."

 2 Timothy 2:2, "and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

2 Timothy 4:2, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."

As you can see from the above references in Paul's two letters to his disciple, Timothy, teaching is given major emphasis. Teaching is foundational and must be transmitted to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Jesus said in Luke 6:40, that when a disciple is fully trained, he will be like his teacher.

In summary, a disciple is:

  • a life-long learner who develops through a learning process;
  • a committed follower who provides a significant model for people to follow;
  • a fruitful reproducer whose lifestyle is marked by love, faithfulness, and fruitfulness.

All Christians should have a thorough and first-hand knowledge of the Bible, but this alone is a poor substitute for Christianity-One-On-One discipleship. Jesus said we should teach them to observe or obey all He commanded not just know all He commanded. A mature disciple is committed to a way of life motivated and empowered by the same principles, character traits, and inner motivations that characterized the life of Jesus. This multiplies the number of disciples as the church expands through the intensive occupation of mature, spiritually minded Christians with small groups of believers, who build their life and learning into them to make them like their teacher.

This cannot be done by the attempts of one responsible leader who tries to do justice to dozens, hundreds or even thousands at once from behind a pulpit. True spiritual growth and fruitful training occurs when spiritually minded, mature Christians concentrate on a small group of spiritual children, with whom they share life and instruction until the children have become independent adults, themselves capable of taking on responsibility for others. This is the best way to fulfill the Great Commission,“... Make disciples of all nations ... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20).

III. A Coach for Participation

A. The Participation in the Mission Results in Reproducing Disciples who Make Disciples

Paul chose a man of most unlikely character – very timid, fearful, and very many years younger than he and discipled him into a champion for Christ. Disciple-making is spiritual parenting. Timothy wasn’t Paul’s “blood son” but his “under the blood of Jesus” son!

Perhaps a better word than coach or even disciple-maker would be apprenticeship. Throughout the Bible we see examples of leaders apprenticing those who would follow in their footsteps. Moses apprenticed Joshua. Elijah apprenticed Elisha. Paul apprenticed Timothy. In fact, one of the most frequently cited texts on the subject of apprenticing and discipleship comes from Paul’s second letter to Timothy: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2)

Maybe the clearest example of apprenticeship is Jesus and the twelve disciples. The word 'disciple' literally means learner or follower. Jesus never did ministry alone. His disciples were always with him.

After praying all night about whom he would select as his 12 apostles, we read in Mark 3:14b --“… chose twelve that they might be with Him…”)

Knowledge was gained by association before it was understood by explanation. The process is better caught than taught. What you’ve got is what the person closely and regularly associated with you is going to be infected with.

Withness, Togetherness, Community, Fellowship – these words express the very reason for God saving us. God’s desire is for a Huge Family of hot-hearted, passionate sons who delight in Him and in each other, not a Labor Force of Field Hands who work for Him.

From the twelve, Jesus had an inner circle of three - Peter, James, and John - who were often alone with him in conversation and prayer. We might call this “Christianity-One-On-Three”! Jesus involved them in everything he did. He saw beyond his three years of public ministry, and he knew that the Father's plan for growing the church involved leaving behind transformed and transforming leaders who would entrust what they learned from him to others.

John 3:22, is a verse that you can read many times and not see anything extraordinary revealing about it: After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained (tarried –KJV) there with them and was baptizing.” The revelation is in the word “remained”. It is the Greek word, “diatribō”, which is made up of two words – dia, meaning through, and tribo which means “to rub”. While Jesus was with them, He rubbed off on them. Like a contagious disease, they caught what he was carrying!

When you look at how Jesus and Paul viewed and practiced discipleship, it is pretty hard to miss that it is very much like an apprenticeship. That said, I think it’s one that the church as a whole today really struggles with.

I think the church struggles with the idea of “discipleship” because we have over time confused it with “conversion” and with “learning doctrinal truth.” In Jesus’ day, the Scripture was already known by the time you became somebody’s disciple. The Torah was memorized by the time you were 15 years old). So discipleship as Jesus and Paul understood it wasn’t primarily about learning Scripture or about learning theology, rather it was about learning the practice of scripture, the practice of theology; it was about the practical application of scripture to everyday life, to every facet of life. It was more about on the job training in life instead of just the classroom teaching of a lesson.

We need people who are modeling for us what loving God and loving others looks like. It’s simply not enough just to know all the facts. The Bible does not speak to every particular situation. We need to figure out how to apply it to every particular situation.

That’s not something you can just Google. To do that we need people in our lives who understand the bible well, who are listening to Jesus, are following his Spirit, and who has taken his yoke (Matt.11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me” - His interpretation of scripture. To “take a yoke” in that day meant to become a disciple.) and know his way of life (His application of scripture) and can help us figure that out and lead us through that process and know it well enough that we can teach other people how to do it.

This is what Paul did for Timothy; he apprenticed him so that he could master his way of life, which really was Jesus way of life. This apprentice aspect to discipleship that we see being practiced by Jesus and Paul in the New Testament is a model for us to follow.

Sometimes when we think of the relationship that Paul and Timothy had together we somehow think we can’t do that. “He was an Apostle,” we say to ourselves, “Paul was inspired. Paul had it all together. That’s certainly not me, I can’t do that.”

When we think of Jesus with his disciples we tend to think, “Jesus was the son of God. Jesus had a perfect relationship with his Father. Jesus perfectly understood the Scriptures. You could never get wrong advice or counsel from Him. I can’t do that. How can I possibly do that?” And more than that, we know people aren’t in those positions. We know people are not divine like Jesus was or inspired like Paul was, or sent as apostles like Peter, or James, or John were. We don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we are looking to people who are not qualified to teach us and we certainly don’t want to get into a relationship where we are listening to people who lead us the wrong way.

But as understandable as this reaction is, the objection is unacceptable because this is the model of discipleship that Jesus set for us. Jesus’ relationship with his disciples and Paul’s relationship with Timothy were not meant to be a unique one of a kind for all times process. They were meant to be normative; they were meant to be examples for us to follow. We were meant to look at the Scriptures and see what they did, see how they related to one another, and use that model to do the same things together. When we don’t do that, we put ourselves at a real disadvantage for learning and growing in the Christian life because it’s something that has to be shown, it’s something that has to be mentored, it’s something that hast to be apprenticed.

Could Timothy have become the man he was in Christ had Paul just given him a hug when he accepted Christ and told him to start using the gifts God gave him? I don’t think so. I think Paul thought his apprenticeship of Timothy was a Spirit-led necessity for Timothy’s growth.

Jesus is our ultimate Rabbi, but Jesus Himself taught that we need people in our life whom we can see, follow, and learn from; someone who in and under Jesus’ authority and leadership serves in the rabbinic role of teacher and guide. That is what the Great Commission is about. It was a commissioning to continue what Jesus did with His disciples. He was telling them to continue making disciples after He ascended to heaven. We learn how to live for God through Christ by being apprenticed by a person who knows, follows, and lives Jesus’ yoke and way of life.

Jesus clearly modeled the strategy which He mandated in the Great Commission, and both model and mandate are exemplified in the words, “Paul and Timothy.” The Commission of Jesus is to “turn people into disciples,” and His own method and ministry provide the only acceptable interpretation of His command. Every Christian is commanded to “turn people into disciples,” and this must be done reasonably after the model of Jesus if it is to be done properly. One of my most important environments is the small atmosphere which prevails around me and my disciple. One of my most important involvements is my involvement with my disciple. The procedure and product of my disciple-making ministry must be constantly measured by those of Jesus, so the final test is in the product. I cannot succeed without a successor, a disciple. The principle of succession is an indispensable principle in true Christianity.

Who is your “Timothy”?

 

 

 

 

other sermons in this series

Jan 26

2025

Jan 19

2025