THE MINISTER OF GOD (1 TIMOTHY 2:1-7)
https://bible.ryl.hk/web_en Grammar Bible (English)
https://bible.ryl.hk/web_Bah Tatabahasa Alkitab (Indonesian)
https://bible.ryl.hk/web_Esp Biblia de Gramática (Spanish)
https://bible.ryl.hk/web_Tag Gramatika Bibliya (Filipino)
https://bible.ryl.hk Chinese Bible (Chinese)
Many have asked me, “How did you come to serve in this church?”
A month before I arrived in Hong Kong in August 2008, I met Rev. Patrick So for the first time in Los Angeles. I told him I was headed to Hong Kong to teach in a local seminary and he said to look for him in Hong Kong. Since we lived nearby at that time, we attended his church. Rev. So invited me to help in fellowship, but I politely declined because the attendance at the last church for the last ten years where I was the pastor was around 80 on a good day. I cannot imagine leading or supporting 300- to 500-strong fellowship with more people than a church.
Two year later with more understanding of the church task at hand, tears rolled down my eyes one Sunday worship morning as I hear of more coworkers resignation, fired or burn-out. The next week by God’s providence I met Rev. So at the lobby, so I quickly seized the opportunity and asked him, “I do not want to work with fellowship groups, but I would like to work with incoming pastors.” It was an unheard of ministry and position at that time. Knowing Rev. So, the answer was “Done! We have a big need.” Mentoring incoming coworkers is still my number one passion at church, , not preaching or leadership.
Young or incoming coworkers are in a precarious position. Those who do not make it leave before three years and eight months are up. Many of them cannot afford to fail because the average graduate is in the 40s. More often that not, they are no closer to the five “dao” the church requires. In America more than 1,700 pastors leave the ministry every month due to moral failure, financial need, physical health, marital problems, work conflict and emotional issues such as burnout, discouragement , anger, loneliness and compulsion.
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/161343-tim_peters_10_common_reasons_pastors_quit_too_soon.html
Paul’s relationship with the young minister, his star protégé and favorite coworker can be best characterized as a father-son relationship. Paul affectionately called Timothy as son Timothy (1 Tim 1:18), my son (2 Tim 2:1), my own son in the faith (1 Tim 1:2), my beloved son (1 Cor 4:17) and my dearly beloved son (2 Tim 1:2), calling him son more times than calling Titus (Titus 1:4) and Philemon (Philem 10).
What challenges, risks await a young person in ministry or service? What advice would you give to a close friend or a new graduate? How would you hope to teach or train him or her? Why should be involved in blessing and bringing up the next generation of kingdom workers?
Pray for All (vv 1-2)
1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Timothy 2:1-3)
How often do people pray?
How often Americans Pray:
More than once a day – 24%
Every day – 31%
Several times a month – 10%
Several times a week – 16%
Several times a year – 9%
Never – 9%
Not sure – 1%
Source: Lutheran Brotherhood, USA Today Feb 7-9/1997
If you want to see how popular the church is, attend Sunday morning worship. If you want to see how popular the pastor is, attend Sunday evening. if you want to see how popular God is, attend the prayer meeting.
Armin Gesswein Everything by Prayer, Fred Hartley, page 123
The early church chose seven deacons to serve tables (Acts 6:1-4) so that the apostles can devote themselves to ministry of prayer and ministry of the word, in that order (Acts 6:4). First Timothy 1 reflects the teaching ministry, followed by prayer ministry in chapter 2. The noun “prayer” (proseuche) occurs more times in Acts (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 3:1, 6:4, 10:4, 31, 12:5,16:13,16) than any book of the Bible, more than double any book of the Bible and more than all the gospels added together. The early church already set up this format. In chapter 1 the noun commandment (1 Tim 1:5, 1:18)occurs twice, more than any book of the Bible. The early church and her leaders had their hands full with false teaching. As a pastor Timothy and the church at large could not help but get more learning, training and experience, but Paul used a “therefore” to urge Timothy in prayer for four things to two categories of people - all people, and kings and all in authority. There are two and not three prepositions “peri” (concerning), one for “all men” and another for “kings and those in authority.”
Petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving. Petitions is more urgent.
Petitions Prayers Intercession Thanksgiving
Cry to God
Communication
With God
Confide in God
Cheer from God
Struggle Surrender Support
Share
Strength in God
Energy
Engagement
Empathy
Encouragement
Paul uses the verb urge or exhort (parakaleo) 17 times in his epistles, translated as beseech (Matt 8:5), besought (Matt 8:31), desire (Matt 18:32), exhort (Luke 3:18). It spells of determination, decisiveness and definite not dismissive, distant, or demanding as in an imperative. The foremost beneficiary of Paul’s prayer are all people, followed by kings and authorities, not vice-versa. The common thread in this text is not kings and all in authority, but all men, followed by kings and authorities. The emphasis on “all men” is unmistakable (vv 1, 4) in the context because the two words are the most repeated words in the paragraph is all (vv 1 twice, 2 twice, 4, 6) and men (vv 1, 2 5 twice). A fair and just society begins with all people, followed by kings and others - to be involved and impartial, not to be indifferent. All means no one left behind, Jews or Gentiles, rich and poor, young and old, men and women, protesters and police, not forgetting or forsaking others. Prayer by definition is non-discriminatory, non-divisive and non-deliberate or distancing.
The authorities do not mean government officials, but “excellency” in another passage (1 Cor 2:1). The Greek is the hyper- or above-having ones. It could be those with power, privilege, plenty, prosperous and patronage. Kings have positions but authorities have power.
Why did Paul include kings and those in authorities? Were not Christians persecuted by them? My wife wisely said, “Government is better than no government.”
Since 1953, America has the yearly National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on the first Thursday of February each year. A series of meetings, luncheons, and dinners is typically attended by some 3,500 guests, including international invitees from over 100 countries. It is designed to be a forum for the political, social, and business elite to assemble and build relationships. Past keynote speakers include believers such as Max Lucado (1999), Francis S. Collins (2007), and Ben Carson (2013). Musical guests have included Michael W. Smith, Point of Grace, and CeCe Winans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast
The most influence on the king is not you, but the King Eternal (1 Tim 1:17) and King of Kings (1 Tim 6:15). Prayer, on the other hand, draws us to God, who alone holds power in His hands. Our mass movements today is righteousness without holiness, is overwhelmed by passion but not love, advocated in rage but not reason. Praying for kings is not the same as championing the king, condoning the king or choosing the king; it is to
The purpose (subjunctive) is to live or lead (KJV) peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. The verb “live” is the preposition “dia” and the verb “ago” or lead or bring. Live or lead does not mean short, skeptical, spineless or sickly, stonyhearted scuppered, but stable, strong and safe, smooth, sovereign, sincere. There must be fundamentals, foundations, and formation, factual future, not fragmented, fury, or fault-finding.
NIV and KJV’s quiet and peaceful are reversed, with the noun “quiet” coming first in Greek. The word “quiet” is one of a kind word in the Bible and is taken from the desert. The desert does not stand for desolation, doom or dread, destitution, but stands for calm and carefree versus free from confusion, commotion and chaos, versus serenity, simplicity, strength. As nouns the difference between quiet and peace is that quiet is the absence of sound; quietness while peace is a state of tranquility, quiet, and harmony for instance, a state free from civil disturbance. http://the-difference-between.com/peace/quiet
So there is a kind of “quiet” now in Gaza, but it is far from “peace.”
The word “peaceful/peaceable” settled, stable, sober, simple and secured life, not shortened, simmering, stressed, squabbling and stormy. The English translation for “godliness and holiness” is godly and honest, honest is translated as dignified (ESV) and respectful (RSV). Godliness is a prime word in 1 Timothy. Eight of the 15 times it appears in the Bible are taken from 1 Timothy (1 Tim 2:2, 4:7, 8, 6:5, 6, 11). Peaceful and quiet refer to the outward and godliness and holiness refers to the inside.
The theme of this passage is to pray not to police or pacify, participate or plot, promote or publicize events. Paul did not advocate activism or pacifism, conservatism or liberalism, monarchy or democracy, but humility and harmony. The end goal of prayer is not to motivate the people, but move the Lord and minister to them.
Proclaim to All (3-6)
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
Waking up this morning (Jan 16, 2016), I was inspired to tell the story of Doris and her nephew Josiah, whom Doris spent lots of time playing with the young boy as he grew up. The family urged him to join us for studies in USA, where he spent two years with us before transferring to UC San Diego, where he found a stable church, job, and girlfriend, an believer. Nobody could change her, but she was not opposed to attending fellowship or worship. Last year they did not marry in church.
At the same time, my wife who has cancer wrote to friends on Oct 1, 2015 on her blog: “I don’t think there is much for me to do on earth. If there is, I pray that God will show me. Although I cannot do much, I can pray. So I am going to devoted myself to prayer. If you have any prayer request, send me an email (moknyap@gmail.com) or whatsapp me. It would be the most meaningful task while waiting on the Lord on earth!”
A miracle happened 18 days later, she wrote on Oct 19, 2015: “The commitment to pray has been good. I prayed for a church evangelistic meeting in U.S. and was delighted to find that a family member attended and accepted Christ. This brings great joy to our family. “
What happened? My wife’s request for prayer items ended up in the distant hands of the USA pastor where her nephew goes to church. The pastor was one of the recipients of her prayer letter. He promptly asked her to pray for an evangelistic gospel event that featured a Hong Kong music group. She prayed without knowing her nephew and recently-married wife were planning to attend, and she accepted Christ that day.
Praying for others is good and pleasing to God, but salvation, steadfastness and sovereignty and understanding the nature of God is more important. Pleasing means acceptable (KJV), approved, applauded, not adequate, average, antithesis or amateurish. Good is the measure, pleasing is the motivation, used twice in the Bible, both in usually before in the eyes or sight of God (1 Tim 2:3, 5:4)
The constant reference to “all men” shows that Paul’s target group is all men God is unbiased, unlimited, unbound and unbroken, unconfined, unconstrained.
Joy is the ability to be happy in small ways.
Our prayers fail when our eyes are not on God, when we fail to understand His nature and purpose. A government or society cannot hope for much stability if it is not rooted in God our Savior (v 3), the mediator (v 5) and a ransom (v 5). To Paul God or Christ is always “our Savior,” and never “my Savior”. The phrase “our Savior’ makes its debut in 1 Timothy and nine of its 11 occurrences in the Bible are in the pastoral epistles (1 Tim 1:1, 2:3, 2 Tim 1:10, Titus 1:3, 4, 2:10, 13, 3:4, 6). Everything is collective in this chapter, all (vv 1, 4, 6), our (v 3) and one (v 5).
Savior Mediator Ransom
Rescuer Reconciler Ransom
Salvation Solution Sacrifice
Pardon Priest Penalty
Advent Arrangement Amount
Initiator Intercession Involvement
Savior is rescuer for sins, mediator is reconciler for mending relationships, and ransom is the redemption sacrifice. Savior is a person, Mediator is a process, Ransom has a price. One is the pardon, the next is the priest, and the last is the penalty. Outcome is peace, payment, power, person providence.
Christian activism is doing good rather than sharing the gospel.
Persevere in All (7)
7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles. (1 Timothy 2:7)
What it takes to be great
FORTUNE Magazine
By Geoffrey Colvin, senior editor-at-large
October 19 2006
The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. Researchers maintain that the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule. John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.
Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.
Prayer is the mandate, God is the message, but we are the means. God has given us patience in all things, not partial.
Paul’s favorite introduction of himself in the epistle is as an apostle (1 Cor 1:1, 2 Cor 1:1, Gal 1:1, Eph 1:1, Col 1:1, 1 Tim 1:1, 2 Tim 1:1, Titus 1:1), next is servant and apostle (Rom 1:1, Titus 1:1). An apostle is a witness to the Lord. A teacher of the Gentiles is an unlikely calling and an unpopular calling.
Herald Apostle Teacher
Announcer Anchor Ambassador
Sound out Sent out Speak out
Proclaimer Pillar Pioneer
Communicated Chosen Commissioned
Brethren Bedrock Bridge
Outside Inside Blindside
Expression Eyewitness Expositor
Commoners Church Continents
Affinity with Jews Authority as Apostle Audacity with Gentiles
Gather the church Guard the church Grow the church
Preaching Protecting purity Progressing her purpose
Paul is a person given to the Lord. There is nothing left for himself. As a herald, he had to cry his voice till it is coarse. He must be faithful, fine and fruitful or not. He had to carry the burdens of the unsaved, the church and the Gentiles. Paul has the threefold task of preaching the gospel, protecting the church and proclaiming to Gentiles. He was proclaimer, protector and peacemaker. It requires steadfastness, sincerity, singlemindedness; voice, vision and variety; time, tenacity and trustworthiness to Paul’s mission. Gentiles are translated as heathen and nations (Gal 3:8). His job was mission impossible as theologian, teacher, and trader.
None of Paul’s work is wise or workable or welcome today. He had to do three jobs in one. Which is more difficult? Work with outsiders, insiders or foreigners? It is difficult in these ISIS days, coworkers have to be faithful, fit and fearless. There were perils, persecution and pirates.
Conclusion: What are you placed on earth to do today? Have you prayed for the next generation? Have you abandoned them or are merely angry with them? Have you been the bridge and peacemaker in society? Do you have the passion, perseverance, patience, and purpose that count?
