Listen to Believers

Listen to Believers

(2 Timothy 1:1-7)

10:30 am, Sunday, February 3, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

This is a rhetorical question; you don't have to answer out loud, but... have you ever arrived at a church service, read who was speaking that day, and thought, “Oh... this would have been a good week to be away”? Ya know, years ago maybe it was the missionary with a slide projector that warded some people off. Or there's that certain local pastor you don't enjoy hearing from.

On the other hand, we also have moments we meet up with someone, and are so glad, and want to talk, want to hear from that person. 

To listen to different believers is important for us. Helpful. Blessed by God. I had Alison read from the start of Paul's second letter to Timothy today because of all the talk about how other believers guided and blessed Timothy. I think it's implied, as well as taught, here, that hearing from other disciples of the Master is good for us, even necessary, part of the plan.

Paul rejoices, as he starts this letter, in Timothy's wonderful faith, passed on to him from his mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois. And yet, Tim's own faith was his, it was personal, alive, and led him into a different life: the life of one of the first traveling missionaries for Jesus Christ.

And Paul writes about Timothy’s spiritual gifts that were celebrated when Paul laid his hands upon him, ordaining him, we would say. Paul was Tim's mentor, his spiritual father.

What will listening to other believers do for us? What difference does it make? Will it make? Did it make already? In a few minutes, I'll ask a few times if any of you would mention someone – some believer – who helped you in your walk with the Lord. And how he or she did it, helped you.

I remember a man in the Middleton Baptist Church who was a fairly young man in the 1980s. He was the leader of the boys group called the Christian Service Brigade. Some of you were involved in that here, I know. Mr. Tufts ran a well-organized program, according to the plan, but with lots of interesting special events, games, guests, and outings. And, best of all, Mr. Tufts was funny, goofy, crazy. I remember hiking around Mosher Island, along narrow goat-trail, going around corner after corner. “Are we there yet?” we boys asked, and Mr. Tufts said, again and again, “Yes, the lighthouse is just around the next point of land.” It wasn't; it seemed a long time before we reached the lighthouse. I never shall forget camping on Isle Haute in the Bay of Fundy, and piling up a giant heap of driftwood on the beach. It was like driftwood haven in Advocate. After dark, we set fire to this pile as big as a cube van. That was impressive fun to a boy of 15. We later heard that people along the Fundy coast thought a boat must have been on fire that night. Putting out the little fires all over the driftwood beach that started from the sparks was fun too.

One thing I gained from Mr. Tufts, when I was a young believer, was to have fun as a Christian. He lived it, he encouraged it. I learned many other lessons from him. Once I had grown up, we talked about the good ole days, and he said about youth programs two things: they have to be fun, and they have to be Christ-centred.

Who is a believer who mentored you? Can you share something?

Listening to believers will start us farther along: teach us. Surely this is like Timothy's mother and grandmother teaching him, and Paul teaching him. So we don't have to start a square one. As my New Testament Professor would say, we are pigmies standing on the shoulders of giants!

Listening to believers will inspire and encourage us. In chapter one of 2 Timothy, Paul writes: May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain... (16)

Listening to believers will show us the big picture, keep us in balance, remind us of the truth. It is here in 2 Timothy that Paul wrote: But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (3:14-17)

Listening to believers will help us relate better to different experiences and ideas. In 2 Tim 3 Paul wrote and said: Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. (10-11) How helpful such sharing would be to Timothy, who might easily face the same challenges.

Listening to believers will help us hear and respect other believers. In Paul's first letter to Timothy he'd written a bunch of advice along these lines: Do not speak harshly to an older man [an elder], but speak to him as a father, to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters – with absolute purity. (5:1-2)

Listening to other believers will show your heart that you are not alone. Read the final half of 2 Timothy 4, the final words of the letter. Many believers are mentioned, some famous, some to totally anonymous – at least to us: Luke, Mark; Tychius, Carpus. A couple folk mentioned became troublemakers: Demas, and Alexander. But just listen to the circle of fellowship in these simple words of Paul to Timothy, the end of the letter:

Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained in Corinth; Trophimus I left ill in Miletus. Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers and sisters. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. (19-22)

No matter what prison Paul was in, no matter where Timothy traveled, they were not alone. They had more than the Spirit of God with them. They had each other, and the many others who had discovered Christ, crucified, and risen from the dead!

To listen to our fellow believers will do us such good, and many other things, by the grace of God. Be solemn, but rejoice also at the Lord's Table. Here we gather at His Table, with believers the world over. We are not alone. Christ reconciles us by His blood.