Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 09 Oct. 2011
By Captain Michael Ramsay
2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” I have a story here that Harvey put in my in-box about thanking God… or talking to Him anyway.
A golfer, now in his golden years, had a lifelong ambition to play one hole at the famous Pebble Beach in California, the same way the pros do it: The pros drive the ball out over the water straight onto the green that is on a spit of land that juts out off the coast. It was something he had tried hundreds of times without success. His ball always fell short, into the ocean. Because of this he never used a new ball on this particular hole. He always chose an old one with a cut or a nick in it.
This one time when he came to Pebble Beach to try again and he arrived at that particular hole, he teed up an old, cut up ball and said a silent prayer. As he was about to strike the ball a loud voice from the heavens says, “Wait! Replace that old ball with a brand new ball.”
The old golfer did but he still had some misgivings. He still lacked faith a little bit that he would ever see his ball again despite the fact that the Lord seemed to be implying that he was going to finally achieve his life-long ambition of avoiding this water trap, just like the pros. Hesitantly, the old golfer stepped up to the tee one more time, this time with a brand new ball and as he did, he heard the voice again from above: “Wait. Step back. Take a practice swing.” He did.
The voice boomed again, “Take another practice swing.” He did. Then, after a moment of silence, the Lord finally said, “put the old ball back on the tee.”
2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” Here the golfer can thank God that He spared him his new golf ball.
We are going to be looking at the book of 2 Timothy in our lead up to the Advent Season this year. Assuming Pauline authorship,[1] Paul probably wrote this letters while he was in prison in Rome under Emperor Nero in the mid-60s CE. Now, this imprisonment was different than other imprisonments that Paul had suffered. Previously Paul was under house arrest – an electronic monitoring type of situation, albeit before electronics of course - where Paul had a fair bit of leniency in his imprisonment. Now, however, he is in a dungeon. Tradition has it that this is Paul’s final imprisonment as well. He will only leave the dungeon for the grave. Paul will die via capital punishment here in Rome and he is now in prison awaiting that conclusion.[2] The conditions in the dungeon were probably not as bad as those for the people today trapped in Guantanamo Bay – I doubt that the Romans were actively torturing him like today’s paramount superpower is doing down in Cuba - but Paul’s experience may not be entirely dissimilar and probably even worse than prisons in this country. It certainly is not the house arrest that Paul had experienced earlier.[3] This is a new style of imprisonment for Paul and this is what life is like for Paul as he is writing this letter to his friends and church family.
In his letter, one can see that Paul is obviously lonely. He misses his church family (2 Timothy 1:4). (Does anyone remember where this church is located that is receiving the letter? Ephesus.) He is remembering in this letter his church family in Ephesus,[4] especially Timothy and Timothy’s mother, Eunice; and Timothy’s grandmother, Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). Paul wants to see them again. He misses them. And we here in this congregation today understand a little bit of what it means to be missing people, who are serving God elsewhere, don’t we? Dusty and Laurie and their children have gone off to Training College in Winnipeg to serve God, the Kingdom, and the Army; leaving behind family, church family, jobs, and friends. Jessica and Alyssia have gone off to the big city. Jessica is going to University, and she, as well as friends and church family, is leaving behind her younger sisters with whom she is very close. Julie Arnold has gone out from us preparing for her own missionary journey to Indonesia. (Hopefully she isn’t offered her martyr’s crown like Paul was! I have confidence she wouldn’t decline it.) As a congregation, between Dusty and Laurie, Jessica and Alyssia, and Julie, many of us also have that same longing today that 2000 years ago this church in Ephesus, Timothy, his mother, and his grandmother would have for Paul as Paul is away from them serving the Lord. Paul, as he expresses his loneliness in this letter, is in all likelihood having feelings not entirely dissimilar to the feelings experienced by those who have left us to proclaim the Gospel (cf. Romans 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6 and Philippians 1:8). We are separated from those we love and with whom we have together served the Lord.
The youth here have recently just written letters of encouragement to those who have gone out from us. Julie sends us regular updates as she prepares to share the Good News in Indonesia. Paul, the apostle, is reaching out in this letter to his friends and church family and look: what is one of the first things that he tells them? He says, “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers” (2 Timothy 1:3).
Paul says that he thanks God day and night as he constantly remembers them. The Authorized Version reads, “without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.” Without ceasing (Greek: adialeipton) Paul remembers his Christian brothers and sisters in his prayers (cf. Romans 1:9-10; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:31; Thessalonians 1:2; 3:6). While this sentiment is prevalent in the New Testament, The Greek word used here, adialeiptos (unceasingly), is a powerful word and is found elsewhere in Paul’s writings only in Romans 9:2 (cf. Romans 1:9-10; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:31; Thessalonians 1:2; 3:6).[5] Paul in this letter is saying that whenever – day or night - the Lord brings Timothy, Eunice and Lois to his mind, Paul prays for them.[6]
Paul knows the power of prayer. Paul in another letter to this same church in Ephesus states about prayer that after we have put on the full amour of God that we are to – Ephesians 6:18- “…pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
Prayer is a powerful thing and even when Paul is imprisoned, he still has access to this power of prayer and he is not afraid to use it. 2 Timothy 1:7: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”
This is important for us to remember. We need to constantly remember our Christian brothers and sisters in prayer. We have, of course, those like Dusty and Laurie and Julie Arnold whom the Lord has called away to serve him elsewhere. We should continue to uphold them in prayer. We should also pray for all the saints, as Ephesians 6:18 records.
We all know what the Bible means when we read the word ‘saint’ in the New Testament, right? In the New Testament a saint is NOT a dead person through whom God does miracles. ‘Saint’, when we read the term in the New Testament just means, ‘Christian’.[7] The word literally means ‘holy’ or ‘holy one’ and as the word ‘Christian’ is only used a handful of times, ‘saint’ was what Christians were commonly called in the first century (cf. TSA doc. 10).[8] When we read the word ‘saint’ in the New Testament, in our mind we should probably hear the word, ‘Christian’. We should pray for all the Christians and we should, like Paul, pray for people without ceasing day and night, whenever the Lord brings them to our thoughts (cf. for ex. Acts 9, Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, Philippians 4:21-22, Colossians 1).
When Susan and I were urban missionaries in Canada’s poorest postal code, on Vancouver’s downtown eastside (DTES), with The Salvation Army’s 614 Corps, they began a War Room there. The War Room was our prayer room. We had a room in a slum hotel that looked out on that infamous corner of Main and Hastings Street in the DTES of Vancouver. There were people praying in that room overlooking that intersection, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for more than a year anyway. We would each sign up for 3-hour shifts of prayer in the War Room. I often took the 5am – 8am shift. At first a 3-hour prayer shift seemed like a long time but by the end of each shift one inevitably wondered how the time passed so quickly. It was a wonderful time and place to commune with God. Some would take one prayer shift in the War Room a week, others one shift a day, others sometimes more. Twenty-four hours a day, morning and evening, day and night, someone would be praying in that War Room in that slum hotel on Vancouver’s DTES and wow what a blessing that was. 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”
Like we said before, prayer is a powerful tool and even when Paul is imprisoned, he still has access to this power of prayer and he is not afraid to use it. 2 Timothy 1:7: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” The Apostle Paul when he was in a dungeon awaiting execution, with a clear conscience, day and night would remember the saints in prayer. Paul, while he was in the dungeon, he was praying for the saints, the Christians, the other believers. Paul, while he was in jail awaiting execution, was praying for all those on the outside that the Lord was bringing to his mind.
This is important. We need to uphold each other in prayer. There are many things that need prayer. It is good to pray that in our own lives, that we follow the will of God and it is also important to pray for others. We mentioned those who have gone out from us here into the mission field, God will use our prayers to use them to do His will. Another member of the congregation here shared her testimony this week. As we pray for her, God will use our prayers to use her to do His will. We have members of our corps who have been sick and or on leave; as we pray for them, God will use our prayers to use them to do His will. Prayer is a powerful tool and the church that prays together stays together. Prayer is a powerful tool and we should not be afraid to use it. Richard and any others who can gather every week in the meeting room before church pray for the saints and the community. Ray comes into my office all the time to say prayers, as he also visits other people here and around town praying with them and for them. Prayer is a powerful tool and we should not be afraid to use it.
We have all heard of, if we have not experienced ourselves, the power of prayer for salvation in people’s lives. How many people have we led in a prayer of confession of faith after family has been praying for them for years? We know the story of St. Augustine, of course; this was his story. His mother, St. Monica, prayed for him for many years before he came to the Lord and then the Lord used him to influence the church even unto this very day. Prayer is a powerful tool and we are to use it to uphold our Christian brothers and sisters day and night as the Lord brings them to our minds. This is important. We need to pray for each other.
Susan shared with us earlier, that General Linda Bond, the international leader of The Salvation Army has called us all to pray as an Army. She has asked us to pray Thursday mornings for half an hour from 5am – 8am. Susan, recognizing that mornings are not necessarily the best time for each of us, has created a 24-hr prayer sign up sheet for Thursdays. The shifts are only ½ hour long, not the 3-hour shifts we had in Vancouver but you can string together more than one shift if you would like to pray longer. It is our goal that everyone here in our congregation, would sign up for at least one 30-minute shift every Thursday. You are welcome to pray here when the building is open or you are welcome to pray in your home or you are welcome to pray wherever the Lord leads you to pray. I have left the sheets on the altar. I encourage us each to sign up for at least one ½ hour shift for each Thursday from now until Christmas. Let us here, as a church family, like Paul, let us, 2 Timothy 1:3, thank God, whom we serve, as our forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day we constantly remember each other in our prayers.
Let us pray.
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[1] But cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 776-781 on authorship and date.
[2] R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964),474.
[3] Walter W. Wessel and George W. Knight III, Introduction to 2 Timothy in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002),1882
[4] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 781.
[5] Donald, Guthrie: Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 140
[6] W.E. Vine. ‘That without Ceasing’. In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939),; cf. Expositors
[7] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, ‘40: Hagios’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.1.
[8] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. Cf. G.B. Stevens in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary. Cited W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 557.Cf. Paul Minear, Interpretation 37 no 1 Ja 1983, p. 22: In his death and resurrection, Jesus' holiness or sanctification became the measure and standard of all holiness, whether of places, times, things, or persons. (Key passages which reflect this are John 10:36; 17:17-19; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 12:14-24; 13:12-14.)"
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