Restoration 2016:  Unto Me

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Restoration Ministry

Kickstarter Series '15-'16

David Machado

A Match Made on Earth

A Match Made in Heaven

Allen Lloyd

Enhancing Emotional Intelligence

The Frontal Lobe and Self Control

Kameron DeVasher

Cutting Timothy

First and Second Barcelonians

Clayton Leinneweber

With Jesus in His Sanctuary

Man’s Walk Through the Sanctuary

But my name is Cameron DeVasier, and I am a pastor from the Michigan Conference of Seventh Diavenis, and I'm out here in Loma Linda.

And I want to thank you so much for your hospitality.

It is what we like to call not Michigan here.

So thank you for having that in abundance.

And I honestly don't particularly know the demographic of our congregation this morning, this afternoon, whatever line we're on there.

But I assume that we're all at least Bible-believing Christians, or at least interested in being Bible-believing Christians, or don't mind eating free food next to Bible-believing Christians.

By the look of the congregation, to be honest, I assume many of you are Seventh-day Adventists, as most of you sat in the back at a religious service.

But I do want to commend those brave souls who ventured within the first 4 rows and blessings on you and your house.

And for the rest of you, if you can hear my voice and see the screen, we're going to be okay today.

But I wanted to share with you just a couple of messages today.

I believe it was advertised as by all means, sketches from the life of Paul and that statement comes from the book of 1st Corinthians where the Apostle Paul talks about his gospel outreach methodology.

Okay, This is not necessarily the doctrine of Paul, like you might get into in a study of Romans or something like that, but this is literally how Paul preached what he preached.

And Paul says some pretty interesting stuff.

In 1 place he says things like, to a group of believers, he's like, I caught you with guile, or craft and cunning.

He's like, I tricked you, and I got you here with free food or whatever.

But the statement comes, by all means, comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 9, where he kind of, again, explains his thinking.

And he basically says in verse 22, I have become, and you probably know this, you might know this, I have become all things to all men that by all means I might save some.

I've become all things to all men, so by all means I might save." And his goal wasn't to save all.

Obviously he'd like to save all, but his expectation is, man, if I can put it all out on the line and save some, that's a good day's work.

And so what I want to do in these 2 messages is very, very straightforward, very simple.

I want us to study some instances, some encounters, experiences, or sketches as we call them, from the life of Paul from the Bible and inspired sources that comment on it, and understand how he went about being a Christian, a Bible-believing, Gospel-presenting, Spirit-led Christian in the day and age in which he lived.

You understand he was God's ambassador to the Gentile world and he was in a pagan environment.

How did he represent the present truth that he had been given by God in a world that maybe wasn't ready to hear it?

So before we dive into our study today entitled Cutting Timothy, I want us to just quickly bow our heads for a word of prayer and then we're gonna launch into a study of God's Word, so if you would.

Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this absolutely gorgeous day and I want to thank you for the opportunity, these few precious minutes you've given us to be together.

Please, Lord, I would ask that you send the Holy Spirit, as you have promised, to enlighten our minds, to see your truth, and not just in a theoretical information way, but Lord, Transform us into your image and put into practice the things that we learn.

If you have your Bibles with you, and if I was in a church, I would say since you have your Bibles with you, but I assume that you don't.

So I've got it on the screen, and the pertinent passages will be available so you can just, you know, think.

That's all I want you to do is focus and think.

But in Acts chapter 16 is the first mention in the Bible of a young man named Timothy.

Acts chapter 16, a young man named Timothy.

Now we're not quite to that part yet, but we basically get 5 verses introducing us to Timothy.

And by verse 3, Paul has him circumcised.

Basically, he says, behold, there is a man named Timothy.

Paul walks in and he says, Hey, let's cut you.

And it's a pretty abrupt opening, honestly, to this introduction to Timothy.

And we're gonna find out why, at least the burden of our study, to see why did Paul have Timothy circumcised?

Why did he cut him, especially at the time when he did?

So in order to introduce Timothy, though the Bible mentions him specifically in Acts 16, we really have to go back to Acts chapter 14 and that's what we're gonna do.

Here's the Apostle Paul, faced a lot of persecution, in fact, all the time.

Opposition, persecution, fault finding, just a mess.

Then the Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

So it was a very full beating, if you will.

They really thought they had done their job, and they were dragging him off to dispose of the body outside the city wall.

However, when the disciples gathered around him, Now I want you to think about that for a moment.

He was dragged up by these people, left for dead after being stoned to apparently a pulp enough they thought the job was done.

They dropped him off there, but believers came around him.

He had been in that city, he had been raising up new believers, preaching the word, and these new believers come around and huddle around Paul just to give respects to his body and honor his work.

However, when the disciples gather around him, he rose up, which had to be startling.

He got back up and kind of dusted, and went back into the city.

And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby.

So he just got back up, went and spent the night in the same place that threw him out, and then continued his journey.

Now, why is that significant in our story about Timothy?

Well, in an inspired commentary on this, we read, among those who had been converted at Lystra and who were eyewitnesses of the sufferings of Paul was 1 who was afterward to become a prominent worker for Christ and who was to share with the Apostle the trials and the joys of pioneer service in difficult fields.

This was a young man named Timothy." So think about this, a young man.

The Spirit of Prophecy never mentions how young, but every time his name is mentioned they always use the adjective young or youthful or something like that.

And he watches, he hears the message of Paul and is converted to Christianity and then he watches Paul suffer for that cause to the point of death, then he gathers around him and Paul raises up miraculously, and for a young man, there's nothing he wants to be but like that hero.

When Paul was dragged out of the city, this youthful disciple was among the number who took their stand beside his apparently lifeless body, and who saw him arise, bruised and covered with blood, but with praises upon his lips, because he'd been permitted to suffer for the sake of Christ.

Paul gets up and doesn't say, oh, he's like, that was great.

And to young Timothy, I mean, the message of Christ, but to see it reflected in the person of Paul had to be shocking, had to be astounding, and life-altering.

Then it says, he came to Derbe and Lystra, back to the Scripture now in Acts chapter 16.

This is where we get the second meeting now.

So in Acts chapter 14, Timothy was 1 of those young disciples looking at Paul as he raises up.

Now in Acts chapter 16, just 2 chapters later, he meets Paul for the second time.

Then he came to Derbe and Lystra and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.

His mother, and we're going to find out grandmother, had taught him the Jewish faith.

They were Jewish, but his father in his household, therefore, was Greek.

So he grew up in a mixed home, if you will, spiritually speaking.

And when Paul came along, he wasn't just Jewish, and he wasn't Greek, but he was Roman, and he was Hebrew, and he had been a Sadducee, and on the Sanhedrin, but now he's accepted Christ and it's...

And it says in the Bible that he was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

And again, Acts of the Apostles, page 202.

Here Paul again met Timothy, who had witnessed the sufferings at the close of his first visit to Lystra, and upon whose mind the impression then made had deepened with the passing of time until he was convinced that it was duty to give himself fully to the work of the ministry.

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Series

Kickstarter Series '15-'16

Cutting Timothy

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Other Teachings in Series

A Match Made on Earth

39m

A Match Made in Heaven

51m

Enhancing Emotional Intelligence

37m

The Frontal Lobe and Self Control

44m

Cutting Timothy

42m

First and Second Barcelonians

54m

With Jesus in His Sanctuary

36m

Man’s Walk Through the Sanctuary

51m

Sound Doctrine