SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/4/2025 10:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Teacher”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy 2:2
Message of the
verse: “The
things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men
who will be able to teach others also.”
Now as I begin to look at this verse
I can look at the highlighted portion of the verse to see where it was that
John MacArthur entitled this section “The Teacher.” This is the first metaphor that we will be
looking at as mentioned in the last SD where I listed what we will be looking
at as we go through this section. Paul
was a teacher and he is teaching Timothy who is the one who will be taking the
place of Paul as Paul mentioned in this letter to Timothy that he was about to
be killed for the cause of Christ. I
mentioned that Nero, the Roman leader set fire to Rome and then blamed it on
the Christians and that is why Paul was put into prison to be later killed as a
part of the craziness of Nero. I have to
say that there is little doubt that Satan was behind this evil that was coming
from Nero.
Now as we look at being a teacher, a
teacher teaches other teachers, who then teach still other teachers, and what I
am talking about here is Biblical teachers.
Now although Paul mentions only four generations of teachers, the idea
is that of a continuing process.
John MacArthur writes the following
to help us understand what the Bible teaches and what it does not teach. “The New Testament neither teaches nor
supports the idea of apostolic succession.
But it does clearly teach, in this passage and elsewhere, that the
gospel is to be promulgated from generation to generation. Jesus, of course, was the Master
Teacher. He taught the apostles, who
then taught others, who taught others, who are still teaching others, and so on
throughout the church age. William
Barclay comments, ‘The teacher is a link to the living chain which stretches
unbroken from this present moment back to Jesus Christ. The glory of teaching is that it links the
present with the earthly life of Jesus Christ’ (The Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon [Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1957], 182). In every
generation, God has raised up new links to this living chain of faithful men to
pass on the good news of Jesus Christ to the people of their day.”
I have to say, and I have mentioned
this before, that when I became a believer that I did not attend a church for
four years, but was involved in Bible Studies for those first four years. When our daughter was born my wife decided to
join the church that I would join sometime later. I have to say that one of my deepest regrets
was missing the baptism of my wife when she joined that first church that we
were members. Now the Pastor that we set
under was the perfect Pastor for us as we were quite young in the Lord. We sat under him for a number of years and
then he retired and he and his wife retired in Florida. Our next Pastor was a former professor at a seminary
and after that was a Pastor in Iowa.
When my family visited our first Pastor he stated that the Pastor we now
have was a step up for the church to which I agreed, and I certainly was not
putting our first Pastor down at all. It
was just the way that God chose to do things in our church. I have mentioned that my wife and I left that
church and joined the one we attend now a long time ago and the reason was that
the Pastor that was called after the second Pastor we sat under was a big step
down in being a Pastor. Our journey at
our new church began with a new Pastor who served for about ten years and was
called to be the president of Baptist Mid Missions. I can say that he is still missed by me
although I do like our new Pastor, but the two in the middle of our going to
church were really the ones that I look up to the most.
Sorry I got off track, but perhaps
it was good to hear about the Pastors that my wife and I sat under as it goes
along with what John MacArthur wrote about in the last quote that I quoted from
him.
Lord willing we will look at how
John ends his gospel which goes along with what we have been looking at in the
next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
I am thankful to the Lord for leading my family and I into the places
that he has led us as far as churches we have attended. It has only been two, but two good Bible
believing churches.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to follow 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved to
God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
1/4/2025 10:57
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment