Three Simple Steps Acts 16:1-5
Mother’s Day Sermon, 2014 by Don Emmitte, Grace Restoration Ministries
Take Your Bibles, Please…
Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. (Acts 16:1-5 ESV).
Some people believe that a person is the product of his environment. That is he has come to be largely what he grew up watching, hearing, and learning from his parents, home life, and friends.
All of us have known of this influence in extreme cases. Mickey Mantle, one of baseball's greats, came into baseball at a very early age because his father wanted him to play ball. At the age of three he began to catch, throw and hit a baseball. It's really not very amazing that he is now a legend and a member of baseball's Hall of Fame.
This being true, we should ask ourselves what we are putting into the lives of our children to determine their future. Are our homes those that might produce a mature Christian? This usually takes more than an average or mediocre home. It takes a home that is genuinely deep and sincere about the great work that God has for men and women to do. It takes a home of real Christianity.
In this passage we are told of such a home. It was Timothy's home. His Mother, Eunice, and his Grandmother Lois, provided an atmosphere for Timothy to grow in the nature of the Lord. Would you like to have a son like Timothy? Oh, I don't necessarily mean a preacher, though Timothy was; what I mean is a bone-deep Christian, daily active in the work of the Lord. All of us would want that. The Scripture outlines Three Simple Steps.
Some Introduction
Certainly as I talk about parenting being “simple” it seems like I’m saying it is “easy.” Nothing could be further from the truth! You may have heard the story of a small boy, told not to go swimming in a nearby pond, came home with his hair wet. He told his mother he had fallen in the water. "Then why aren't your clothes wet, too?" she asked. "Well," he replied, "I had a hunch I might fall in, so I took off my clothes and hung them on a limb.” Sound familiar?
Especially on the warmer days like we have had this past week, I can see this being a conversation that some of you may have already had with your children or grandchildren. Raising our children is never an "easy" task! However, these three principles are about as simple as any I've ever seen.
First, Help Them to Love and Stay Close to the Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14-15).
The Apostle Paul gives us this insight when he writes to Timothy later in his life:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV).
If there was any one influential thing in the life of the young pastor Timothy, it was that he learned and appreciated and was associated with the Scripture. Surely it must be significant to us that Timothy's formative years in his life was shaped and molded around Scripture. Note the following:
Can't you look at this young man, Timothy, and imagine how mentally he camped at the riverside with the Israelites? He ran up once to the Red Sea and saw the water there, but all of a sudden because of the great work of God, it parted. He walked up Mount Sinai with Moses and heard the voice of God. He saw the fire on the mountainside. He walked down it with Moses.
Can't you see young Timothy as he walked with Abraham, who by faith was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God?
Can't you see young Timothy, in all of the vigor and vitality of his young life, walking with Joshua around the walls of Jericho, watching those walls fall?
Can't you see him standing with Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones when all of a sudden the voice of God came and those bones began to join joint to joint and flesh came upon the bones and they began to speak?
Can't you imagine young Timothy in the den of lions, scared to death for his young friend Daniel? Then his mother read, “God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths," and what a joy must have come in that young heart.
Can't you see him in the belly of the whale with Jonah? His mother may not have finished the story that night and little Timothy may have gone to bed wondering what the results were going to be.
And can't you see him with Isaiah who wept at the death of King Uzziah?
Can't you see him preaching with Amos, crying, "Let judgment run down as waters"?
Can't you see young Timothy hear the repentant psalmist say, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears"? What do you think young Timothy must have thought when his mother read from Proverbs the words of Solomon, "As vinegar is to the teeth, as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him" (Proverbs 10:26).
When he read in the Bible about Jacob talking Esau out of his birthright, he learned the tragic truth of life that some men are willing to sell their most important possessions for one moment of pleasure. All men need to realize that so they can avoid that pitfall.
Did not he learn when he read the story of David and Goliath (or when it was read to him) that just as God sent David to conquer the nation’s greatest foe, so He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus to conquer our greatest foe? Death could only fall before the might and majesty of the atoning work of Christ.
Don't you think when somebody read to him about how Hosea forgave Gomer because God told him to that Timothy learned something about the forgiveness of God? That's a mighty lesson indeed.
Can you imagine then, with all of the adventures of the Old Testament a part of Timothy's life, how he could not help but be different? Do you want to rear Timothy in your home? Help him to love the Book; help him to love the Word; help him to know the Bible more than he knows anything else in the world. When Abraham Lincoln, was elected president of the United States, his mother was asked what she thought of his election. She said, "I would rather Abe Lincoln know the Bible than to own the biggest farm in Pennsylvania and to be president of the whole world." It is no coincidence that Lincoln went on to be one of history's greatest leaders. This Bible, this Book, how badly our young people need to be taught it. How ill-equipped they are with all of their special classes, tools, and technologies without the knowledge of the Book!
Second, We Surround Them with the Best Christians You Know.
If you want to raise Timothy, surround your child with the best Christians you know. Paul talked often about Eunice and Lois. He talked of their genuine faith and courage. How he loved them. Often Paul and Barnabas, in the heat of the day, might have stopped by the house of this lovely Mother, Eunice, and lovely Grandmother, Lois, and found inspiration as they talked about the great work of God the Old Testament and how God had sent Jesus as the Messiah.
Now Timothy's home was not without its share of difficulty. There was a man living in that house who was a pagan. Timothy’s father was a Greek, an unbeliever. All the more reason for Eunice to surround Timothy with the best Christian friends she knew.
Lord Byron said that he grew up to be a worthless man. He was born with a crooked foot. One time while in the way of his mother, she looked at him and said, "Get out of my way you lame brat." He said that from hearing statements like that from his mother, day in and day out as he was growing up, he could not make himself to be what he knew he should be. Mrs. Beecher, the mother of those two great preachers, Henry Ward and his younger brother was asked, "How did your children become such great preachers and missionaries?" She said, "I don't know. I really don't." "But Mrs. Beecher, is there not some secret behind your spiritual success with your children?" She said, "No, I just did what all mothers do every night before I went to bed; I bowed my knee on the floor and put my head on the bed and I said, ‘Lord, let my boys be a preacher or a missionary for Jesus.’"
Did she just do what all mother do? Oh if it were only true! When Paul and Titus and some of the other brethren were in town on missionary work, do you know who invited them to dinner? Yep, you guessed it, Eunice! Young Timothy was playing around the house; he didn't look up to see somebody who was a bad influence on his life, he looked up into the face of the greatest Christian that ever lived, Paul. What an influence on his life! Wise parents will always have great Christians in their homes.
Third, We Should Help Them Love God’s Work.
1. Eunice did this in at least three ways. The first was by example. Do you think that Timothy was ever required to do anything that Eunice would not do? I doubt it. Eunice knew if she taught her child to do certain Christian things, she must do them herself. She must be an example. One of the great ways to teach your children how to be Christian is to be that yourself. Children usually have the habits that their parents have.
2. She also taught with intention words. Timothy knew of God's work because it was a part of her daily language. This is really where most of us fail. This is difficult for us to understand, but it's easier for us to live the Christian life than to teach it. It's usually the other way around. We usually can talk about it, but we can't live it. I have found just the opposite to be true among the best people that I know. They expect themselves to be at church for worship and Bible Study, but it's all right for the young college student at home to sleep through those things. After all, when you're a sophomore in college you don't care for that kid stuff anymore. The greatest problem Christian parents have is not the living, but the teaching. If we live our Christianity but do not expect it of our children, we are saying to them, "I do it, but only because it's a habit, only because I'm expected to be there." Eunice taught.
3. Timothy was reared not only by example and teaching, but also by experience. Timothy learned by experience. Eunice put him into the work. She wanted Timothy to love the work. Now notice something, the Scripture says, Paul "took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters." Timothy was at a much older age than when a boy usually was circumcised. So for Timothy to be willing to do this at this age indicates the extent to which he would go to be qualified to belong to God's work. Circumcision would help prove that Timothy meant business for God. It was an indication of religious cleanliness.
A Final Thought
Three simple steps are all it takes. Remember, these are not easy; they are simple.
There is one final bit of counsel I would offer you today. It may be the most important. Remain friends with Jesus Christ. He loves you and understands all of your needs and desires. He will be there to share your brightest days and your darkest nights. He will guide your every step. Surely this is the wisdom Solomon received and recorded in Proverbs 3:6: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."
Will you acknowledge Him today?
