“REKINDLE …”
“REKINDLE …”
Eric Burr
I read just this verse to count on the Lord that He will give grace to us so that there is something rekindled in every one of us. I have been around for quite a long time. I have, as the brethren well know grown up in the company, my father honoured, my grandfather was there, and I have seen generation after generation. Where I gathered in my childhood the place is used for other purposes which are themselves a sign of the turning away of people from the Christian testimony. You will find that in other places too, that meeting rooms with which we were familiar are now devoted to other purposes altogether. We notice that with sorrow and we notice the public decline of Christian profession. We should pray about it, we should not just let it go, we should not just say, things go that way, don’t they. One thing I pray about is that there might be revival in the present day. It is conventional among us to slightly to decry revival and rather say things like, Well you get these big campaigns and a lot of people make confessions but where is the result? But, beloved, there is some result and it would be worth a great deal in our testimony one or two, ten, twenty people were converted and came to the Lord through the testimony that there is among us. I would be prayerful ,and it is worth praying for, that there might be something increasingly established for Christ amongst us. Virtually every week in the prayer meeting there is prayer for addition, there is prayer for those from whom we are now separated that they may be able to judge what they have joined and come and find a place where they really belong. There is prayer that other believers might come along too and share with us, and not only share with us, but we might share with them what they have in relation to Christ. These expanding views should be amongst us.
There is prayer about the young people among us that they might find their way in faith in Christ to find their place in identification in the breaking of bread with those who all ready break bread in the place. May I say to the young people that to break bread is not just the means of joining a Christian community; to break bread is a public confession that Christ is now your life, that it is worth giving up many other things for the sake of Jesus Christ, it is worth committing yourself to a new way of life, worth finding you way not just to attachment to a company of Christians, but it is worthwhile to identify yourself publicly with the Name of the Lord Jesus. May I just remind you that if you ask to break bread, and we trust that young people among us might be moved to break bread, if you ask you are not just asking to join a particular Christian community, you are publicly identifying yourself with a Man who was crucified here. The emblems on the table are a symbol of His death, and, beloved, if you break bread you are identifying yourself with the death of Christ publicly.
I say these things because I would encourage the younger brethren to find their place publicly in what the loaf speaks of as the one body, but I say these things with a cautionary touch, because what history gives me apprehension about is lest we become a kind of hereditary fellowship, where grandfathers and fathers and parents and children and grandchildren all have followed each into the same line of things. Unless there is personal and deliberate exercise the things with which we have been identified and which we have greatly valued will disappear, because the light will go out of them.
Therefore I refer to this scripture, Paul says to Timothy, “I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift that is in thee”. We are all familiar with Mr. Darby’s footnote that the whole subject of the epistle is energy in the darkening state of the assembly. I am surprised that Mr. Darby wrote that because the assembly in itself has never been in a darkening state. The assembly itself is Christ’s treasure and He sees it here in all the glow and shining which one day will come out publicly. I often think of that hymn, The church’s one foundation -
Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore opprest,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distrest,
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
The cry goes up, “How long”?
And soon the night of weeping,
Shall be the morn of song.
And the next verse says:
And the great church victorious,
Shall be the church at rest.
Beloved, Mr Darby may have put the darkening state of the assembly in a footnote, it may relate to what there is publicly, but it does not relate to the powerful and inward side that what there is in the establishment of God is indestructible. The assembly is here in its power and in its life and in its reality and if we are to be rekindled then let it be not as if we are trying to rescue some perishing element that is here, but because we are anxious to bring in the light, power and glory of what one day, to this world, is going to be displayed in that city that comes down out of God. It is conventional amongst us to say, it will be displayed to a wondering universe. I can remember a brother saying to me, what do we mean by a wondering universe, because all those who belong to it will be with Christ and it will come down to take up with Christ the place which He will have in relation to the world to come, and the glory of the assembly will always be eclipsed by the glory of the Lord. How wonderful these things are and they lighten your soul even as you speak about them. Mr. Darby says that the whole subject of the epistle is energy in the darkening state of the assembly.
One thing that is interesting about 2 Timothy is how much Paul says about himself. He says, I have been this and that, and in the last chapter he says I am already being poured out. He had come to the end of things, he had come to the end of what the Lord had committed to him. He has committed it in letters that we have to one local assembly and another, and we have had great gain even from reading the Bible to find out what the Lord’s mind is in relation to local churches, but Paul is now closing his own book knowing that he has his part now with the Lord. He is waiting to be poured out, indeed he says, “I am already being poured out”. What a triumph, what a way to die to say, I am already being poured out! I just warn the brethren that the footnotes in the Bible are not actually scripture. There are some that give you alternative translations of an original word, but other footnotes are comments, valuable as they may be, but they are still comments. Leaving aside any question as to the darkening state of the assembly, what Mr. Darby comments on here as to energy in the darkening state of the assembly, and the darkening state of things publicly, and that is all around, is needed in our own day.
Paul says to Timothy here, “For which cause I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands”. Paul uses an interesting expression in the first epistle to the gift that Timothy had through prophecy. It is rather a difficult thing to understand; nevertheless Timothy had this gift which was bestowed upon him through the laying on of Paul’s hands. We find the history of Timothy in the Acts, father and mother of different origins, you might even say of different faiths but he was the product of that line. It has sometimes seemed to me that Timothy had every advantage of understanding the new man, because one of his parents was a Jew and other was a Gentile, and you might say that Timothy had the advantage through that of finding what the new man actually meant, that it owed nothing to Jewish origins and nothing to Gentile origins but he owed it to the reality of the work of God in him.
I go on to raise this question, I have raised it with myself, what was the gift that Timothy had – “the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands”? I think we can fairly say he was not an apostle. There are allusions to him which give him an apostolic character, he is an apostolic messenger especially on the part of Paul and he went to one or two localities of which we have an account and he was to bring out in those localities the characteristics of Paul himself, but I do not think that he was actual an apostle as others were. He may have had apostolic character but he was there as a believer and as representative. Whether he was a prophet is a question too. We have nothing in the scriptures that is a direct prophecy on the part of Timothy. Always remember that these two epistles were not written by Timothy himself and what they foreshadow are the feelings of Paul addressed to his own true child in the faith that he should understand what the present state of Christianity was and what the future was as well. I doubt whether we could say he was a prophet. He was shepherd in degree because he was sent by Paul to these other places in order that he might show them what kind of person Paul was, but in order also to help them to be kept within the parameters of the Christian testimony so that they were here for him. He was a timid man, “if Timothy comes see that he be among without fear”; he was a young man too, and you might say he had shepherding characteristics but whether he had gift as a shepherd is a question. There is a difference between having a gift and being the delegate of someone else who has a gift. I doubt therefore whether Timothy was a shepherd, as a gift. I just remind the brethren of what our brother said in the address in our three day meetings and the question that he raised in that address, as to who amongst us is prepared to take on the service of shepherding. Has anyone come to a decision about that since those meetings? Has anyone decided that under the Lord’s hand they will take on the shepherding of the saints? You have had quite a time, something like fifty days since then. The disciples were left alone for fifty days and they had to come to some conclusion in that period, and something like fifty days have gone by, has anyone come to the conclusion that under the Lord’s hand they will devote themselves to shepherding the brethren? You say, I am not up to that. Timothy was not up it. You say, there are others here more able than I. Beloved it will not do, the question is you. All ministry is personal. The Lord is looking for people to respond to what He says. Let me remind the sisters that the Old Testament has in it several shepherdesses. Are any sisters who listened to that address willing to take on the service of shepherding? There are things that sisters can do amongst the young people, some of which are better done by sisters than by brothers. Even a word of comfort and encouragement, the shepherding that sisters can do comes out in very small things; it does for brothers too. Brothers are not all that big, but there are things sisters can do. You see a child crying at the back of the meeting room and someone puts their hand on its knee and just reassures them; that enters into shepherding, shepherdessing. There is a care that sisters can display and take in relation to the younger brethren that is invaluable amongst the people of God. It is often said because of exercises that were raised at the time that we do not have Sunday schools, but there is room for shepherding which has in itself a teaching character. A few simple words about the Lord Jesus to a child is calculated to nurture what we speak of as the work of God in him and help them. I do not think that Timothy was a shepherd by gift, but he took on shepherdly activities, and the Lord would have you take them on. I just raise the question again, who has answered to the word. Could I ask who listened to it? We do not all listen, we come to meetings and we do not all listen, our minds go here, there and everywhere. I have often thought when you are giving an address, if you see the company beginning to move a little and start to look around, you are losing them because they are not attending, but, beloved, the word was given about shepherding and who is going to take it on? You have had time to think about it.
Then there is teaching, shepherds and teachers. Was Timothy a teacher? He is encouraged later in this epistle to have an outline of sound words by which is able to instruct others. If I may say so, not being a great teacher myself, one of the greatest needs amongst us at the present time is of teaching. By teaching I do not mean the recitation of what you have read somewhere else. Quotations from ministry are as, if you are teaching English you might quote Shakespeare, if you are teaching Greek you might quote something from Virgil, if you are teaching mathematics you would be quoting Euclid. Instructing one another in the teaching is not just by quotation; it is what you have understood by the teaching. While I was at school we were reading one of Shakespeare’s plays. We had read it and come to the end of it and the master said, write an account of that play. If you had been taught in that play you would be able to say, the substance of this play was this and the object was that but I myself had not a clue what the play was about. By some surreptitious looking at the text book I managed to fill up the appropriate amount of paper with reference to this play, and the master wrote on the end, ‘reads like somebody who continued to look at the book’. I had not learned. Beloved, some ministry comes like someone who has been looking at the book. The purpose of reading is to go on reading so that the instruction there begins to form your outlook and your apprehension of what was being ministered at that time. The Lord is not giving us ministry so that we may learn it by heart, but He is giving us ministry so that we may be formed by it in ourselves, and then have something of ourselves to say. We may illustrate by quoting, but these things come in by way of illustration; to grasp the substance is another thing altogether. I encourage the brethren to pray for teachers amongst us. I say it without disregard for what there is amongst us, but we have not at the moment enough teachers. The Lord would raise exercise amongst us.
Another gift you might consider in relation to Timothy was, was he an evangelist? He is told to do the work of an evangelist which implies that he did not have the gift for it, unless Paul means ‘Timothy you are an evangelist, go in for it, get the gospel over to people’. The impression generally held among us from that scripture is that Timothy was not by gift an evangelist but he was to do the work. Beloved, we are too apologetic about the preaching. You ask someone if they are preaching tonight – Well, one would seek help to give a word. Are you preaching tonight, They have asked me at such and such a place and I will do what I can. Beloved that is all wrong: if you have something to say in relation to the gospel you should be pleased and ready to say it and to say it with such power as the Lord gives you at the time. The preaching of the gospel is not the lowliest service amongst us, if anything it is the highest service amongst us because it has to do with the work of God and its initiation and maintenance in the souls of those who are present to hear. Do not underrate the value of the preaching the gospel. We need evangelists too. If I were to ask you to name an evangelist amongst us, how long would you have to think? You could tell me some preachers, but suppose I asked you to name an evangelist, would you be a long time in answering, I wonder? Beloved, we need evangelists. The gospel is the foundation of everything in us that is for God. It is the end of one order of things in us that is not for God, but it is the foundation of everything else in us that is for God. It is the clearing of the ground in order that this great divine structure which is the work of God in you, and then the work of God in others and their binding together in a company, as the great foundation on which that is laid. Timothy was just told to do the work. Perhaps that is what you do, perhaps that is what I do. None of us is particularly proud of our service, I trust, but let us pray that the Lord will raise up the gift of evangelists among us so that there might be that convicting power in the preaching every Lord’s day evening, and through the week as well, that results in the foundations being laid and secured in the souls of the brethren.
Having said these things as to the gifts in Ephesians as to which Timothy may not have had, what then was the gift that he is to revive? What I think about that is also in Ephesians 4 “But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ” (v.7) and everyone has that. In a certain sense it hardly needed Paul’s laying on of his hands to give that to Timothy, but the laying on of hands in the Acts is the confirmation that those already in the pathway are committing themselves to someone else in the pathway, either in the gospel or in the power of maintaining the work of God in others. Therefore I look at this epistle and try to discover the characteristics of the grace that had been given to Timothy. The first thing I came to was faith, “calling to mind the unfeigned faith which has been in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice” (v.5). Beloved young people, be thankful for your mother and your grandmother. What they have came into you at a time when you were hardly conscious that they were doing it and it is something that is of permanent value to you. What they helped into Timothy was faith. How much faith do you have? There will be no fresh rekindling in the darkening state of the assembly unless there is faith. Faith – we might begin with faith in what? Your faith in God. You will get nowhere at all without faith in God. The foundation of Christianity is faith in God, but before that it is belief in the God who lives. Then there is faith in what God is towards you and it is clear from the history and the way Paul is able to write to Timothy that he had faith even in regard to the gospel. He had believed the gospel, and that is very largely the first movement in yourself of faith that you will recognise. It was presented to you, and a brother said something in the preaching that stimulated your soul and spirit, and the result is that you have faith in God and faith in Christ as your Saviour, and that began your Christian life. Christian life does not end with the gospel, and you need to be maintained in faith for the whole of your Christian life. Your daily doings need faith. James says, “if the Lord will”, we will do this or that; that is faith. Everything you do you look to the Lord about. You say, if the Lord will, and you have faith. One thing that we notice at the moment is how many marriages there are among us. Last year there were less, the year before there were a lot, this year there are a lot too. Are these undertaken in faith? When young men and young women start a relationship together, is that in faith, is there faith in both, faith in regard to God, believing in God, resting in Him, discovering His mind – is that all there? Beloved, it ought to be. You are in for a rocky time if that does not exist, unless the premise of your being together is that you both have faith in God and faith in Christ. Be sure you have it. Stimulate one another. How many brothers here regularly talk to their wives about the Lord? How many wives regularly talk to their husbands about the Lord? We take a lot for granted. If you bump into another believer, they are talking about the Lord almost straight away. Do you talk about the Lord in your own kitchen? All these things have their place, but the foundation of a Christian marriage is that you both have faith in God and faith in Christ and you both have the power of the Spirit. If there is one place where the reality of the Spirit as the bond is to be known it is in Christian marriage. I invite the young people to consider their way in that respect. It is very easy to be taken up by someone else’s charms, but we used to be told when we were younger that beauty was only skin deep, and charm may only be skin deep. Beloved what is of God in one another is what will matter and if you are going to have a relationship with a young brother or young sister – may God preserve you from a relationship with anyone who is not – let it be established in faith and your common faith in God – “the unfeigned faith which has been in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother … and in thy mother”. Let these things be established in you. That is one thing that Timothy was to be rekindled in.
The next thing to which I draw attention which might be rekindled in Timothy is grace, “be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus” 2 Tim 2:1. The relationships that I have mentioned already will call on grace day by day on both sides. We test our wives a lot, but grace – “be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”. That is the manifestation of what the work of God in you is that you are able to live here in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What has been given to us of God, the gift, “But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”. If there is grace given to you be strong in it. You say, I tried to give a soft answer but it would not come. Beloved, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Learn the power of it, learn what grace can do, learn what power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. “You know it”, Paul tells the Corinthians – “who being rich became poor in order that we through his poverty might be enriched”. What are we enriched in? The first thing we are enriched in is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Cultivate it, learn it, you will not get it out of a book. You will not learn grace from a book. Where you learn grace is in the presence of the Lord Jesus, in the presence of God, and you learn what He is there and you learn it from Him – “learn of me, I am meek and lowly of heart”. He would have us learn grace from Him. Beloved, “to everyone who has been given grace” – rekindle that, sharpen it up, brighten it up, put on it some of that spirit which readily goes into flame and causes warmth to everyone who come in touch with it, that is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God may have to quench things, but He is the most stimulating power that there is to be known amongst men.
Then I just also touch this, that at the end of chapter 2 Paul speaks about meekness, “in meekness setting right those who oppose”. Have you tried that? How quickly we get on our high horse, how quickly we get our armour on and quote scripture. There have been those who oppose; it would have to be said that there have been difficult brethren among us, and perhaps there are still. Not everybody finds me congenial, but beloved, “in meekness setting right those who oppose”. Let something else come in that is able to adjust, something about Christ that is able to adjust, to put matters right without spreading conflict here there and everywhere. If you stimulate someone into a hostile reaction it will not be long before the knowledge of that reaction to what you have said has been spread – ‘I only did so and so and do you know what he said to me?’ People do not boast in meekness, they do not boast in having been the objects of it either, but beloved it is one of the most healing things that there is and it is free. You do not have to be sixty five or sixty to get that gift free. How contrary it is to the dispositions of persons, and yet “in meekness setting right those who oppose”.
Just one other thing to which I draw attention is in chapter 3 where Paul says, “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete”. It is in order that the man of God may be complete, it is in order that what is lacking in you might be made up, the man of God may be complete, full growth. Reading the scriptures is the way to full growth. The way to full growth in Ephesians is by other means, by gifts, but here “that the man of God may be complete”. Do you have an ambition to be a man of God who is complete? We might say, I think I could have given a word then. No beloved, that the man of God may be complete is not by serving in ministry, it is by reading the scriptures. The scriptures are there, ministry applies the scriptures to the state of the person, but beloved you have to start with the raw material, the scriptures which are divinely inspired and they have been ordered that the man of God may be complete.
I have spoken about these things and no doubt others could be discovered, but in concluding what I have to say, what I want to say is this – if you look for faith where is the great exemplar of faith? The great exemplar of faith is in the life of Jesus, “I was cast upon thee from my mother’s womb”. The great exemplar of faith is in Jesus. When he was on the cross they said, “he trusted in God, let him deliver him”. There He had been and no doubt known by many people for thirty years and known in public testimony for three and half years and what they say about Him when He is crucified is, “he trusted in God”. The great exemplar of grace is in Jesus “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and the great exemplar of meekness is in Jesus, “I am meek and lowly of heart”, and you will find rest to your soul, and the One who had the great grasp of the scriptures and was the Man of God who was complete and was never anything else, is Jesus. And what is to be rekindled in you and me is the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal flesh. That is what Paul is looking for in a young man like Timothy, “rekindle the gift of God which is in thee”, and while I may or may not fully have credited Timothy – or for that matter the Lord – in whatever Timothy had, one thing he had was faith, and one thing he was responsive to was grace and another thing he was responsive to was meekness and another thing that he was responsive to was the scriptures, so that the man of God might be complete. All those things are the life of Jesus on the earth and the rekindling of ‘the gift that is in thee’ is intended for the manifestation of the life of Jesus in our mortal flesh.
May the Lord work with these impressions amongst us, For His Name’s sake.
London
18 May 2002