Audio Sermons

Building Up the Church of Christ:

Timothy: God’s Channel of Blessings

Life B-P Church Worship Service, 27^th August 2023

Text: Acts 16:1-5

1. The Challenges in the Mission

1.1.      The Contention: Paul and Barnabas were not in agreement to bring John Mark along in this second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-38).

1.2. The Challenges: The issue was not doctrinal but on the different focus regarding the Gospel mission: (i) mission-oriented or (ii) people-oriented.  Different perspectives towards the mission work can split a solid team (Acts 15:39-41).

1.3. The Courses:

1. Barnabas took the original route by sailing to Cyprus with John Mark. Cyprus was the starting point of their first missionary journey.
2. Paul took the land route to Derbe and Lystra. Derbe was the last point of their first missionary journey. He did not take the same route as Barnabas to compete with him or to prove him wrong.

1.4. The Concern:

1. Abraham gave way to Lot when there was a contention between Abraham’s herdsmen and Lot’s although Abraham was the uncle and that Lot was blessed because of Abraham (Gen. 13:6-18).
2. Paul’s concern was that the Gospel work would not be jeopardized. Let not our own perspective on how things ought to be done prevent us from doing the will of God in the Gospel work.

2. The Co-labourers in the Mission

2.1. The Choice: Paul picked up a young man called Timothy at Lystra to be part of his team (Acts 16:1-3).  His mother was a believing Jewess while the father was an unbelieving Greek.

2.2. The Character: Timothy was young, timid and lacked experience.  However, he had a good upbringing under his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2Tim. 1:5).  He bore a good testimony among the believers at Lystra.

2.3. The Circumcision: Paul had Timothy first circumcised.

1. Paul had to fight against the Jews who came from Jerusalem and taught that the Gentiles must be first circumcised in order to be saved, with the Jerusalem Council ruling in his favour (Acts 15:1-21).
2. The Errors of Baptismal Regeneration: that a person must be baptised first in order to obtain salvation. The Scriptures proves otherwise when the believing thief who died on the cross was given the assurance of salvation by the Lord (Luke 23:43). We are saved when we believe in the Lord (Gen. 15:6).

iii. Paul had Timothy circumcised not pertaining to salvation but to prevent the Jews from using this as an issue to object to the work of the Gospel.  Do not let issues distract and drain us from our focus on the work of the Gospel.

2.4. The Compliance: Timothy willingly allowed himself to be circumcised without any protest because he saw the work of God more important than his own personal rights.  We must choose people who have a heart to honour God above self in the team.

3. The Channel of God’s Blessings

3.1. The Commands: They went about the cities teaching and delivering the commands / instructions of the apostles and the elders (Acts 16:4).  Every church must be founded strongly on the Word of God (Eph. 2:19-21).

3.2. The Channels:

1. The churches were established in their faith through the ministry of Paul and his team when they yielded themselves completely as channels of God’s blessing (Acts 16:5).
2. We are not the reservoirs of God’s resources but the channel of God’s blessing to minister to the needs of others (John 15:4-5); e.g. the miraculous feeding of the 5,000.

Closing: Different perspectives in the work of the Gospel may split us but we must not let them jeopardize the Gospel work.  We must co-labour with those who choose to honour God and work together for the Gospel’s sake.  We must yield ourselves as a channel of God’s blessings so that the church of God must be established and edified.