Sermon Outline

Havasu Christian Church

September 7, 2025,     

Series in I Timothy

I Timothy 1:1-2

INTRO: Today, we begin a series in the book of I Timothy.

      I’m not going to spend ten minutes telling you why you should believe this book is the true Word of God. The fact that you are here probably means you already believe that!

      Instead, we’ll just dive in!

I Timothy 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

1. First, we meet Paul.
2. Paul is an Apostle = One sent.
3. In Paul’s case, it was a difficult road he travelled to get there!
4. He is a Pharisee.
5. He is a persecutor of the Church.
6. Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus.
7. Paul spends 3 days fasting and without water, repenting of what he’s been doing.
8. Annanias shows up.
9. He heals Paul of the blindness Jesus struck him with.
10. He tells him that God has chosen him to be a special instrument that God will use in a special way.
11. He also tells him “Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.”Acts 22:16
12. Paul is an Apostle of Christ Jesus.
13. Christ:
14. The Greek synonym of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”
15. Jesus is the one that God sent!
16. Jesus:
17. Name meaning “savior” or “God is salvation” given to the Messiah.
18. The angel instructed that Mary’s Son be given this name.

Luke 1:31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.

1. This name is used 985 times in the New Testament!

1. Paul is an Apostle because he is following orders.
2. These orders come from “Our God our Savior.
3. These orders also come from Christ Jesus!
4. Jesus, our hope.
5. How is Jesus our hope?
6. Jesus’ death on the cross got rid of our sin!
7. Jesus’ Resurrection proved that He had conquered death!
8. We have the promise of Eternal life!

1. Secondly, we meet Timothy.
2. Timothy is Paul’s “True Child” in the faith.
3. When began travelling with Paul, he was already a Christian.
4. Trained by his mother and grandmother.
5. Well spoken of by the Churches.
6. Willing to leave home and everything he knows to serve his Lord.
7. Paul thinks of Timothy as he would think of a son.
8. Paul relies on Timothy as he would a biological son.
9. Timothy has been a helpful partner in “the family business.”
10. Timothy has been right there helping in the work Paul has been doing.
11. He has been travelling all around the Roman world with Paul.
12. He is a true helper. He shares the load.
13. Timothy has even been willing to be left behind when things got “hot.”

1. God pronounces a blessing on Timothy, through Paul.
2. The Blessing of Grace.
3. Unmerited favor.. Grace is what God gives us INSTEAD of what we richly deserve!
4. God’s grace isn’t something we earn, it’s a gift from God.
5. God’s grace comes in many ways.
6. The grace we receive as it pertains to Salvation comes through the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!
7. Second chances… and third chances, and 4th, and 5th, and 210th.

From the Lexham content commentary on the Old Testament:  

THE OUTRAGEOUS GRACE OF GOD INDIVIDUALLY EXPERIENCED BY THE PROPHET JONAH (1:1–2:10)

The first division of this narrative, consists of three sections, all related to the overriding theme of Yahweh’s grace. In the first (1:1–3),

Yahweh announces his mission of mercy and his election of Jonah (2 Kgs 14:25) to be his agent of grace to the hated city of Nineveh. To Jonah and his fellow Israelites, Nineveh represented the Assyrians, who had been tyrannizing the region for several centuries (cf. Nahum). * The second section takes up the bulk of the narrative, portraying Yahweh engaging the forces of nature to discipline the prophet and give him a taste of the fate that awaits the Ninevites (1:4–16).   

The section ends with Jonah getting what he deserves and floundering around at the bottom of the sea, while the pagan sailors onboard the ship celebrate Yahweh’s undeserved grace.

This comes to a climax in the third section, which the narrator cast in a totally different genre, a poetic recollection of divine rescue from the belly of a great sea creature (1:17–2:10). This prayer celebrates the theme of the first division—God’s grace individually applied—and introduces for the first time a key concept in the story, Yahweh’s ḥesed (“unfailing love”; 2:8). With a simple command to the fish, Yahweh’s fury gives way to his grace, captured in Jonah’s concluding exclamation, “Salvation is Yahweh’s to deliver.”

1. God’s Grace extends to the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the “just, and the unjust.”

1. The blessings of mercy.

From Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible:  The biblical meaning of mercy is exceedingly rich and complicated, as evidenced by the fact that several Hebrew and Greek words are needed to comprehend the many-sided concept. Consequently, there are many synonyms employed in translation to express the dimensions of meaning involved, such as “kindness,” “lovingkindness,” “goodness,” “grace,” “favor,” “pity,” “compassion,” and “steadfast love.” Prominent in the concept of mercy is the compassionate disposition to forgive an offender or adversary and to help or spare him in his sorry plight.

1. Mercy is when you have control of an adversary and can do what you wish with them.
2. In various Martial Arts, you can “tap out” instead of being “choked out,” or having a limb broken.
3. In our sin, fighting against God, we made ourselves His enemy.
4. But when we come to Him in Faith, instead of being adversaries, we are SONS!

1. The blessings of peace.

From Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible:

In the OT. Shalōm, the most prominent OT term for “peace,” held a wide range of connotations (wholeness, health, security, well-being, and salvation)

      The presence of shalōm in any context was not considered ultimately as the outcome of human endeavor, but as a gift or blessing of God.

      In the NT. The Greek term for “peace” used predominantly in the NT is irēnē, a word expanded from its classical Greek connotation of “rest” to include the various connotations of shalōm discussed above.

      The nature of this gift of peace brought by Jesus may be easier to explain by stating what it is not. It is not an end to tension, an absence of warfare, domestic tranquility, nor anything like the worldly estimation of peace (Lk 12:51–53; Jn 14:27; 16:32, 33). Its presence may, on the contrary, actually disturb existing relations, being a dividing “sword” in familial relations (Mt 10:34–37). Jesus’ gift of peace is, in reality, the character and mood of the new covenant of his blood which reconciles God to man (Rom 5:1; Col 1:20) and forms the basis of subsequent reconciliation between men under Christ

Conclusion:

• Like Paul, we are men and women with a mission!
• Our mission may be very different from that of Paul, but it is our mission none the less.
• The road to that mission is also different for each of us.
• Most of us probably didn’t have as “rough a road” to get to Jesus as Paul did, but then again, maybe you did!
• What’s most important is that you got there!
• Like Paul, we are apostles of Jesus!
• Messengers!
• In what we say.
• In how we act.
• During our good days.
• During our bad days!
• What we do reflects on the One who sent us!
• Like Timothy, someone shared their faith with us!
•  It may have been a parent.
• A grandparent.
• A Sunday school teacher.
• A preacher.
• A total stranger.
• A close friend.
• But someone shared Jesus with us!
• Like Timothy, we are called to share our faith with others as well.

2 Timothy 2:1–2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

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.

• We learn, we teach.
• They learn, they teach.
• And on and on it goes!

• Like Timothy, we are called to serve!
• Again, our “job in the Kingdom” will be chosen especially for us.
• “When God gives you a job, He has already factored in your stupidity”
• God has also already factored in our strengths and weaknesses as well...
• Like Timothy, we have been blessed!
• With God’s Grace!
• He loves us in spite of who and what we are!
• With God’s Mercy!
• God gives us the “benefit of the doubt” way more often than we deserve.
• We just have to come back with a repentant heart, to be forgiven.
• With God’s Peace!
• Calm amid the storm.
• If you aren’t feeling it, ASK for it!
• Think about the fact that God has Got this covered!
• Knowing that God created the entire Universe in 6 days, I think my problems aren’t probably too big for God to handle!

Hand your life over to Him!