The last words of a person condemned to death carry a special poignancy and significance. If you were condemned to die, and knew that your time was running out, what would you write to a special godchild, or to a much loved nephew or niece?
It was like that in this second letter of Paul to Timothy. It was written during Paul's second imprisonment in Rome.
He was chained up in a dungeon. He was cold, and he was lonely. Christian friends had had a job even finding him in the dark underworld of Nero's prison. He knew the end was near - "I am being poured out," he wrote. "The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race." (2Tim 4:6,7)
And so one of the last things Paul did before his execution was to write this letter to young Timothy, his "true son in the faith" as he called him. (1 Tim 1:2) And what did he say to Timothy? Well one thing on his heart was to urge Timothy to take the Scriptures seriously - which was our second reading this morning.
"Continue in what you have learned," he wrote. "From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures." How come? Because we know from chapter1 that Timothy was fortunate to have a grandmother, Lois, and a mother, Eunice, who were godly women of sincere faith - and no doubt, from his infancy, Timothy had been brought up on Bible stories. He had been fed on Scripture. Here is a message calling all mothers and grandmothers (not to mention fathers and grandfathers). We owe it to our children and grandchildren.
"From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. "All Scripture is God-breathed," Paul went on "And is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." "So preach the Word!" he urged. (2 Tim 3:14-16; 4:2) Famous last words! Words which I doubt Timothy ever forgot.
Paul valued Scripture, and he wanted Timothy to value it too. Scripture makes you wise about salvation.
Scripture teaches, rebukes, corrects, trains. Scripture equips you for the Christian life.
So, read it! Learn it! Teach it! Preach it! St Paul's heartfelt last advice to Timothy.
But lets stop to think a moment - what Scripture was Paul referring to? The New Testament, as we know it, wasn't yet written - bits were, but most wasn't. So what Scripture was Paul referring to? Well, by and large, he must have been referring to the Old Testament. Nowadays there is a tendency among Christians to ignore the Old Testament.
Why? Well because it's long, it's complicated in parts. It goes on about sacrifices and temples - things we don't relate to. Obsessional details about sacrificing spotless lambs, and wearing phylacteries, and not eating rock hyraxes or lobsters. Rules! Rules!
Parts of the Old Testament are really violent, even offensive - like God apparently ordering the slaughter of Philistines and so on. Many of its characters, even the leading ones, are pretty unsavoury. And so we dismiss the lot.
It's all so out of date, culturally inappropriate, politically totally incorrect, difficult to get your head around. And yet ….. here is St Paul urging young Timothy to value it, and to read it, and learn from it, and preach it.
And what about Jesus? Well, the Old Testament stories were, like with Timothy, His bed-time stories, as a child.
With my Bible reading notes I have just finished reading again the story of Joseph - gripping stuff. It's the very same story that Jesus would have had read to Him as a child. Jesus knew His Bible. He grew up reading and learning and reverencing the Old Testament Scriptures. He frequently quoted the Old Testament. He recognised Himself in Old Testament prophecies. On the road to Emmaus, after the resurrection, He opened up the Scriptures to those 2 disillusioned disciples. "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets He explained to them what the Scriptures said concerning Himself." Never once did Jesus rubbish the Old Testament Scriptures. Rather He quoted them, and, in His teaching, He built on them. "You have heard it said …. But I say ….."
So what, today, are we modern folk to think of these ancient writings? Well let's not deny that parts are difficult to understand. And parts are long-winded, and detailed, and, frankly, boring. But lets not throw out the baby with the bath water! So much of the Old Testament is so rich. It's more like a library than a book. It's a compendium of history, of stories, of prophecy, of poetry and of songs. And it teaches us so much about God, And also so much about human nature.
About God - the Old Testament teaches us that God is a God of emotions - a God of love - a God of compassion - a God of infinite patience, as again and again His people let Him down, and still He welcomed them back. He was also sometimes a God of anger against injustice and hypocrisy. But above all we learn that God is a God of holiness. Jahweh; Jehovah; the Lord Almighty. A God so great and pure in His holiness that His people did not dare to speak His name or to enter His presence. A God so unapproachable that when, just once a year, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, he had a rope tied to his ankle, so that if something went wrong and he died in there he could be dragged out without any one else having to enter that sacred place. A holy and awesome God.
And the Old Testament also teaches us about human nature - the fallibility, the fickleness, the sinfulness of man.
Even the great heroes of the Old Testament were flawed. Abraham pimped for his wife in Egypt. Jacob cheated his brother. Joseph was insufferably conceited. Moses was a murderer. David committed adultery, and had the inconvenient husband killed. And so on. We read about God's chosen people again and again cheating on Him, and doing blatant wrong. And the Old Testament draws out this unbridgeable gulf between Jahweh - the Lord, the Holy One - and mankind - piteously unfaithful, and sinful, and flawed.
And it's the story of God's heart, breaking in longing for His people - a story profoundly described, for instance, in the book of Hosea, where God cries:" I long to redeem my people." - a love relationship beautifully and tenderly portrayed in the Song of Songs. A longing expressed in Isaiah, where God says to His people: "I have called you by name; you are mine. You are precious and honoured in my sight, and I love you" (Is 43: 1,4) "See , I have engraved you on the palms of my hands" says the Lord (Is 49: 16)
The love-longing of a holy God. And the unfaithfulness, the rebelliousness, the sin of His people. And there's a vast gulf between. It's a gap that they attempted to bridge with futile sacrifices of doves and sheep, of rams and bulls.
And God saw the futility and insincerity of it: "I hate, I despise your religious feasts" He said. "I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring Me burnt offerings I will not accept them. Away with the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the music of your harps. BUT let justice roll on like a river; righteousness like a never-failing stream" (Amos 5: 21-24)
You see God wanted something from the heart. He wanted something real. He wanted the fragrance of changed lives, not the fragrance of burnt offerings. And again and again, in the stories of the Old Testament In the poetry.
In the Psalms - which echo the honest cries from the heart of humankind - the rage, the despair, the doubt, the fear, the confusion, yes, and the joy and the praise, that sometimes you and I feel. Again and again in the Old Testament we see this dilemma - of a holy and loving God, who longs for a relationship with His people, - and of a people who keep failing, and turning their backs on Him. And every attempt to bridge that gulf fails.
And yet, throughout, we keep getting glimpses of the hope of a break-through; Of God's ultimate remedy. Of a Messiah, the Christ. One Who would take up our infirmities and carry our sorrows. One Who would be pierced for our transgressions, Who would be bruised for our iniquities. Who would take upon Himself the punishment that brings us peace. By Whose wounds we would be healed. The One on Whom God would lay the iniquity of us all.
It's a scarlet thread of hope that runs through the pages of the Old Testament . And so the New Testament begins to make sense. It is a necessary outcome of the Old. It leads on from the Old. The scarlet thread leads from the Old Testament into the New. The Old Covenant is transformed into the New Covenant. Without the Old Testament the New Testament doesn't make sense. Without the background of the Old Testament the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross doesn't make sense.
But equally, without the New Testament the Old Testament is an unfinished story - a thriller without a conclusion; - a mystery without a solution; - a dilemma without a resolution.
In his excellent book "The Bible Jesus Read" Philip Yancey tells of a Chinese philosopher who always insisted on riding his mule facing backwards, so that he would not be distracted by where he was going, but instead could reflect on where he had been! And in a way that is how we need to read the New Testament -
Looking back at the story which began in a garden, and which culminated in a garden. It began in a garden where all was as God intended it to be, but where Man fell out with God. A story which travelled by way of a rebellious people.
A story which led eventually to a manger and a cross. And which culminated in another garden, with an empty tomb
where God finally bridged the gulf, and won us back.
I sometimes think it's all a bit like the Queen. As a student in London I loved to turn out on state occasions to see the Queen ride by in her coach. To see her in all her majesty and pomp; to see her surrounded by all the panoply of state, the trappings of royalty. We wave. We cheer. But we watch from a distance. She is majestic. Awesome. Glorious. But remote and untouchable. After all, she is Queen. I am a mere citizen of her realm.
But then imagine that one day she invites us to tea. I don't mean to a garden party, with 7,999 others present.
But to tea, at her fireside. And she chats, and asks us about ourselves. How special would that make us feel?
What a different, and intimate, and personal perspective that would give us! It wouldn't make her any less majestic or awesome. She would still be Queen. But it would give us a very different perspective of her majesty.
The Old Testament is a bit like the first relationship we see God in His splendour and holiness and awesomeness. Unapproachable - remote. We get an idea of Who He is, and of who we are. But then in the New Testament , in Jesus, God actually comes to us, and as it were has tea with us, and looks us in the eye. And we see Him in a whole new light. It doesn't make Him any less holy or awesome. If anything it takes our breath away even more - that such a God could do even this, for me. So we have the Old and the New Testament perspectives of God.
So back to 2 Timothy. No wonder Paul urged him to value Scripture - God-breathed Scripture; life-giving Scripture.
We live in a rather arrogant and cynical age, in which we are quick to judge authority and things according to whether we think they are acceptable to us; according to whether they fit in with our views. And there is a tendency for us to sit in judgement on Scripture: "I don't understand that bit, so I'll disregard it" "I don't agree with this bit, so I'll reject it."
"That runs counter to my life-style, so I'm not going to go along with it."
As Paul says to Timothy, in our reading: "The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
People judge Scripture, and cherry-pick the bits that suit them, or reject the lot. But, in fact, Scripture judges us.
Our lives, our life-styles, our opinions, come under the scrutiny of Scripture. As I read some of those Old Testament stories I see myself. In those flawed characters I see my own flaws. As I read the cries of the Psalmist they speak from my heart too.
As I move into the New Testament God, in the face of Jesus, looks me in the eye, and incredibly I see a God Who came looking for me - and for you; A God Who loves me so much that He sent His Son on a rescue mission.
A God Who bridged that unbridgeable gulf between His holy presence, and my fallible, sinful self. The New Testament does indeed make me wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Let's treasure and value these timeless words of Scripture. We are just so fortunate that here in Britain we have it, freely available, in a multitude of versions, with all kinds of notes and commentaries to help us understand it.
Let's grasp it. Let's read it. Let's read it to our children and grandchildren. Let's absorb it.
Let's soak ourselves in its richness and beauty; in its challenge and uncomfortableness; in its words of life.
Let's feel the breath of God, blowing by His Spirit through its pages, into our very souls, The Word of God, speaking to you and to me today.
David Webster
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