From familiar Scripture as a young man near Jesus,
or an old man on Patmos;
or do you see a faithful man following Jesus on an extraordinary journey lasting many years?
INTRODUCTION to JOHN’s Apostolic Faith
late A.D. 20’s at the Jordan river near Bethany
John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following.
“What do you want?”
“Rabbi”
“where are You staying?”
“Come and see,”
So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him.
Gospel of John 1:35-39 excerpt, BSB
James and his young brother John were not sleeping when the Messiah of Israel came to their Rabbi, John the Baptist.
In fact, these two sons of Zebedee had sought the savior of Israel, and then found and followed John the Baptist (who many Jews believed could be the one).
Then they would join the Master of whom John spoke, and follow Him when the Lord sought His own disciples from their own little fishing village far removed from Jerusalem.
Introduction to Jesus’ Disciple John
John is a familiar and beloved Disciple of Jesus, well-known to Christians and unbelievers alike through the Gospels, as well as numerous illustrations and paintings often commissioned by the Roman or OrthodoxChurch many centuries later.
~ in the year of our Lord 30
He and others likely didn't have a visible halo over their heads. And art such as DaVinci's, 'The Last Supper,' — with young John clinging to Jesus, which illustrates John's actual devotion — shows a long table and chairs never used in upper rooms of the A.D. first century.
A.D. 30’s – A.D. 50’s
Perhaps Christians will recall that prior to His crucifixion, JESUS sent the Twelve out to some cities to proclaim the Gospel.
And some may recall that the APOSTLE John was with Peter when both Apostles had been sent to preach in the Temple after Pentecost (~A.D. 30), were witnessed to work miracles.
“How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?
Followers of Jesus Christ in these last days will generally picture the Apostle Jesus loved as he began his faithful path of life in the early years of John’s life (when he was only in his twenties).
Even in Acts of the Apostles, our early focus turns from Peter (and John, somewhat) primarily to Paul.
Although John’s Gospel details key witness of the Lord Jesus Christ prior to the Lord’s death, resurrection and ascension, the Apostle wrote his Gospel for the Church many years later, around the year of our Lord (A.D.) 85 – fifty some years after Pentecost.
~ A.D. 50 – ~ A.D. 100
The Apostle John wrote his final letters near the end of the A.D. First Century!
Written between a mid-first century Council in Jerusalem and his own natural death near the end of the A.D. First Century, the Epistles of John reveal a familiar festering of indignancy between Jerusalem’s Jews and occupying Roman legions.
Christians were caught in a new light leading them to dangerous intersections of worldly clashes affecting the lives of Jews, Romans, Greeks and every saint seeking Christ.
Pictured: A.D. 70 burning of the Temple in Jerusalem by the occupying Roman army.
Writing to the Jews, the saints and the Romans
The saints of the Church witnessed Apostolic faith in a Roman governed world with diminished Jewish influence throughout Syria, Asia, and Europe (including Rome) — and even in Rome’ s local Herodian tetrarchies which included Galilee and Judea, with the city of Jerusalem.
The Apostle John wrote to saints who came to Christ from all of these varied backgrounds — saints and their Elders new to the Gospel, in need of sound teaching and vulnerable to temptations of false teaching.
Introduction to John’s Epistles
In order to further understand a turbulent historic setting for this SERIES on the final LETTERS of JOHN, we will first take a brief look at the first century Church and also look ahead to John’s other well-quoted book, Revelation.
FINALLY — with God’s help and that of theologians more studied than me —I hope to tie it all together by studying the two briefest letters in the New Testament: the Epistles of Second John and Third John.
COMMMENT with your QUESTIONS and observations about the THREE Letters of John at anytime. Your input may be important to our understanding of John's letters.
NEXT: Reintroducing John, the man, disciple, Apostle and Elder
The Apostle now closes his final letter to Timothy noting that his course redirected by Christ on a road to Damascus so many years before — his marathon race of missions into all the world — indeed even the end of the Apostle’s mortal life is at hand.
in the N. T. σπένδεσθαι, to be offered as a libation, is figuratively used of one whose blood is poured out in a violent death for the cause of God
Paul, with Timothy about five years earlier, had written to the church in Philippi:
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to boast because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.
But even if I am being poured G4689 out G4689 as G4689 a G4689 drink G4689 offering G4689 upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
And you also, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
Epistle of Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi 2:14-18 LSB
The Apostle had then sent Timothy and Epaphroditus to the church at Philippi.
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
2 Timothy 4:6 – Greek NT, LSB:
Although Paul was formerly housed in Rome for some time as a citizen having appealed to Caesar, the Apostle is now imprisoned with many others awaiting the whim of a merciless new Caesar Nero.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 4:7 NKJV
to struggle, literally (to compete for a prize), figuratively (to contend with an adversary), or genitive case (to endeavor to accomplish something):—fight, labor fervently, strive.
That would be the Apostle Paul alright. Every saint of the church recognized his example which the Apostle expected them to follow, as they would Christ, who said:
“Strive G75 to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
Gospel of Luke (the physician who traveled with Paul who had written his Gospel while accompanying the Apostle) 13:24 LSB
Paul had written to the saints in Corinth [~A.D. 55] some ten years ago:
Now everyone who competes G75 in G75 the G75 games G75 exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9:25-27 LSB
I have finished the course
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Acts of the Apostles 20:24 NIV – Paul’s Farewell to the Ephesian Elders
Paul, since his conversion by Christ on the road to Damascus is, if nothing else, consistent in his persistence for the Gospel, even though the Apostle’s mortal life seems always in peril.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course..
to do just as commanded, and generally involving the notion of time, to perform the last act which completes a process, to accomplish, fulfill
Luke recounts what Jesus had told the Twelve prior to His crucifixion:
“I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how it consumes me until it is finished [or accomplished – teleō]!
Do you think that I came here to bring peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
Gospel of Luke 12:49-51 CSB
And in his second account Paul’s physician reports of Christ’s crucifixion, where the Lord Himself spoke, “It is finished,”
When they had carried out [teleō] all that had been written about him, they took him down from the tree and put him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and he appeared for many days to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
Acts of the Apostles 13:29-31 CSB – from Paul’s Sermon in Antioch of Pisidia
I have kept the faith
What does that mean to you?
Do you have the Apostolic faith of Paul.. or Timothy?
Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure,
I am clean from my sin”?
Proverbs 20:9 LSB
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;
just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love [agapē].
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be G4137 complete G4137.
John 15:10 -11 LSB – JESUS
And PAUL personally addressed Timothy earlier in this second letter:
… I unceasingly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, having remembered your tears, so that I may be filled [plēroō ] with joy, receiving remembrance of the unhypocritical faith within you.
Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy 1:3b-5a LSB
At last the champion’s wreath
Paul finishes his final epistle:
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day,
and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
More than thirty years earlier the Apostle Peter preaching on Pentecost had charged all Israel to accept JESUS as both God and Christ:
“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses…
And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying,
“Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
Acts of the Apostles 2:32,40 ESV – Peter preaching on Pentecost ~AD 30
You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,
commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Second Letter of Paul to Timothy 2:1-2 Christian Standard Bible
The Elected Saints (among the Gentiles)
By the grace of God, Paul — that is, Saul of Tarsus — was commissioned by Christ on a road to Damascus to fulfill his election as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
It had been some thirty years ago and Timothy, who had first met Paul in Lystra and followed the Apostle is now a pastor to the church at Ephesus.
Be Strong in the Lord
Paul points to Christ, writing:
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:3 CSB
The Apostle had enlisted Timothy in the service of Christ back in Lystra.
No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life; he seeks to please the commanding officer.
2 Tim 2:4 CSB
In his humility and citing other witnesses Paul has pointed to Christ whom he serves as well. Certainly a soldier of Jesus Christ, risen from death, will be strong in the word given directly to the Apostle who enlisted his service.
Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
2 Tim 2:5
If ever there was a zealous follower of the rules it would be Paul, that is, Saul. And the Apostle had even insisted on circumcising Timothy (though not other gentiles) to fulfill the Lord’s purposes among the Jews.
Remember that Timothy’s absent biological father was Greek, but his grandmother had been a faithful Jew and his mother a Christ-follower.
Why does the Apostle use these two illustrations and the work of the farmer which follows?
Paul has written to the saints in Corinth:
To the Jews.. I became as one under the law–though not being myself under the law–that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law (that is, Gentiles) I became as one outside the law.. but under the law of Christ–that I might win those outside the law. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
1 Corinthians 9 excerpt CSB
The Apostle with whom Timothy also traveled to Corinth also writes words likely recalled now in Ephesus:
I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it.
Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize?
So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
1 Corinthians 9:24-25 NET
Paul will return to this before the close of this final pastoral epistle.
The Gospel for the Elect
Remember that Jesus Christ,
of the seed of David,
was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains;
but the word of God is not chained.
Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy 2:8-9 NKJV
As the Apostle nears the finish line of his race into the gentile world of the Roman Empire, Paul’s encouragement of Timothy as pastor of the elect Ephesian saints builds up a key church in a city of a quarter-million people, the third largest in the Empire.
Clement of Alexandria, second largest city in the Empire, would be an important convert in the second century of our Lord Jesus Christ and of course Rome remained the Empire’s largest metropolitan area.
For the Sake of Salvation of the Elect
WHY do all these early Christian saints endure persecution, martyrdom and rejection by the vast majority of those in the cities in which they preach?
Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:10 NKJV
Among the millions of souls surrounding the Apostles and martyred saints in Rome, Ephesus, Corinth and throughout the Empire, Paul encourages pastors in what Christ Himself has promised in the salvation of the elect — believing Jew or pagan Gentile.
The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. – Gospel of John 14:19
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. – Gospel of Matthew 19:28 NKJV
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 10:33
if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven… – Matthew 24:35-36a
Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy 2:12-14 ESV – quoting the Gospels and other Scripture
You may recognize my Heading from Joshua's challenge to the Elect to remember the LORD of their Salvation.
(Remember that this successor[יְהוֹשׁוּעַ] of Moses has a name [yᵊhôšûaʿ] meaning: "Jehovah is salvation" — iēsous, the Greek name for Jesus having the same Hebrew root.)
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
.. “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ..
“Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served…
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, …
But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24 excerpt NKJV
PAUL now encourages young Timothy — the Apostle builds up pastors and saints to follow until the Day of Jesus Christ.
Remind them of these things, solemnly charging them in the presence of God..
Second Letter of Paul to Timothy 2:14a LSB
Many commentators cite the importance and difficulty of these key verses in 2 Timothy 2:10-13. We will close this section with these observations for your consideration (IF you are among the remnant elect saints of this Common Era):
God must be sovereign in our salvation precisely because we are neither willing nor able to choose salvation for ourselves.
John MacArthur – THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE
Why did the world hate Christ?
.. Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus explained,
“The world … hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil” (7:7)
Fallen man does not want to be confronted with the true nature of his heart, he doesn’t want to face his inherent wickedness.
He has to find a way to tolerate and excuse himself from the guild he naturally faces each day.
So he falls back on his most dominant sin, pride, and imagines a version of himself that can escape condemnation. He spins a web of delusions, convincing himself that he is truly good and noble—anything to distract from the fact that his deeds are evil.
ibid. pp 7-8
It was true in Ephesus and Rome in the first century AD; it is true in this twenty-first century of the Common Era in Rome and in every other city.
Salvation in God alone
“It’s a well established reality that the doctrine of election is disturbing to many people,” observes MacArthur.
He continues, “Numerous ministry leaders, pastors, and major authors harbor animosity toward the doctrine of election.”
ibid. pp 55,56
Note a later idolatry and heresies which crept quickly into the churches with false teaching seeking to include men as only interpreters of Scripture and intercessors for active sin through memories of saints gone before.
MacArthur cites numerous Scriptures besides those here [2 Timothy 2:10]
ibid. 68-
Before we return to a brief MacArthur outline from this section from his commentary on 2 Timothy, note his QUOTE of Martin Luther introducing this section on:
DIVINE ELECTION:
NO MAN CAN BE THOROUGHLY HUMBLED UNTIL HE KNOWS THAT HIS SALVATION IS UTTERLY BEYOND HIS OWN POWERS, DEVICES, ENDEAVORS, WILL, AND WORKS, AND DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON THE CHOICE, WILL, AND WORK OF ANOTHER, NAMELY, OF GOD ALONE.
MARTIN LUTHER
2 Timothy – NEXT in our outline
An overview Outline of 2 Timothy [Kress Biblical Resources] follows Paul’s brief prologue (2 Tim 1:1-2) with an extended section we have just completed:
Persevere in the ministry and be unashamed to suffer for the gospel (1:3-2:13)
The following extended section we will follow next pivots on 2:14.
Proclaim the truth and be unashamed to confront error (2:14-4-8)
John MacArthur in his NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY OF 2 TIMOTHY outlines this section of Paul’s second letter to Timothy:
The Elements of a Strong Spiritual Life [2 Tim 2:1-7]
Motives for a Sacrificial Ministry [2 Tim 2:8-13]
The Danger of False Teaching [2 Tim 2:14-19]
and completing 2 Tim 2 – An Honorable Vessel
Remember
Paul’s pivotal imperatives of this section of the Apostle’s second pastoral epistle.
BE STRONG – v.1
CONSIDER – v.7
REMIND – v. 14 (our pivotal hinge today)
AVOID, ABSTAIN, FLEE, PURSUE, REFUSE
ALL next in Paul’s commands to Timothy.
MACARTHUR NT COMMENTARY 2 TIMOTHY, p. 55
Looking for some more Apostolic controvery?
NEXT – We’ll address these warnings against false doctrine.
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