Another of Pastor Gehrke's sermons, preached at Butternut Bible Church, on August 4, 1977, and still as relevant today.
Today's text:
Acts 16:1-5
As I have again and again, been encouraging you to go deeply into our Lord's blessed Word, I have thought to myself, Oh, the blessings we deny ourselves because we wade where God would have us plunge deeply. God is not pleased for us to have a shallow, surface knowledge of His Word. We shall be shocked when we arrive in heaven to discover what God had intended, what great plans He desired, but had to lay aside because we refused to study His Word in depth. The chief weapon of God the Holy Spirit, is the Word.
Within the four verses above is the culmination of such a story. I am convinced that a creative student of the Word, could write a book about it. A story that would challenge the mind of every person today, who calls himself a
Christian. It is the story of a boy, a Book, and a great battle. Let us first set the stage.
The place is Lystra. Lystra was a bawdy, brawny, frontier outpost filled with the Roman Guard. It was in the Province of Lyconia in Asia Miner about 45 miles southeast of Iconium. It was a GI town... a town where the military was stationed, a good place to live for that reason... it was protected.
It was a place that attracted fine Greek businessmen along with Jews who were equally adept at making the most of a prosperous community. The Jews who were there were from the dispersion. As Jews always did and will do, they, though dispersed, adapt and become prosperous and well to do. One of the families of wealthy Jews in Lystra had a beautiful daughter named Eunice.
There were as you know, Greeks present. Some of the Greeks had been enslaved while others, because of the Roman reward system, had become merchants and free men. One of the Greek merchants who had done well was a young Greek man, who's eye was caught by the young Jewess, Eunice.
In all probability it started innocently. Eunice, was a fine, young, attractive woman who had been raised by a wealthy, progressive Jewish family. In fact they were such a progressive family that she had been taught to read. Not only could she read but her mother, Lois was also literate. That was a very progressive thing in a Jewish household because at that time, it was for a woman to do things around the home, not to learn to read! So Eunice was more than a typical, nicely dressed, young Jewish woman. She was cultured enough to catch the eye of a wealthy Greek merchant.
It is not unusual for prosperity to cause the lowering of standards. Even in the best of families, this can happen. It happened in this family. They probably never meant for it to go as far as it did, but it did and the young Greek man and the godly Jewish girl fell in love.
I suspect the father of Eunice was dead by this time for I cannot imagine a Jew, who so faithfully taught his family the scripture, would ever have allowed the marriage. This is strictly speculation. So I will add to the speculation by saying that it wouldn't surprise me to find that the mother of the family, Lois, saw the request for the hand of her daughter through the eyes of one who needed security for them both. At any rate the two of them were joined in marriage.
The marriage would be no problem for the Greek man for he was typically Greek and broad minded. I can hear Eunice setting before him the conditions prior to their marriage. "Now you must agree, if we have children, they must be brought up to fear God." He must have replied, "Oh, don't worry, I myself have a great respect for God."
He might have forgotten to mention that all gods were the same in his Greek culture. "We are to be broadminded on the subject, and who am I to say that my god is better than yours?"
So life began to flow and unfold. A home was started in Lystra. The Greek husband's business did well and occupied his attention. Lois moved in with them and life seemed to be all they had ever dreamed it would be.
There in the corner somewhere or maybe up on a shelf in a lovely vase of this upper class home, was a scroll. And on that scroll was recorded the very Word of God. Daily, Lois and Eunice read and studied it together.
Then one day Eunice realized that she was going to have a baby. It had to be a time of great excitement to the young Greek father. All the Greek fathers desired sons... a scholar who could compete and excel in athletics and bring pride and honor to the family name.
And sure enough, Eunice had a baby boy. They decided they would name him a Greek name and compromised that his name would mean "Honored of God". I told you he was a broad minded fellow!
Immediately it began. Paul, you remember in 2 Timothy 3:15, reminded Timothy, "that, from a babe (brephos, the smallest kind of a babe, possibly even a fetus) thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
Lois and then Eunice would take turns. One would hold the young baby and the other would go to that Book, that old book up there in the lovely vase and take it down and unroll it. And they would read to the baby from the sacred writings.
"In the beginning, God (Ywh, Jehovah God) created heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep"
"And God spake all these words, saying, I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
"And when the days of their purification according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled,"... they desired to bring Timothy to the temple to be circumcised. Eunice approached her Greek husband, knowing that he would not understand.
"Husband, it is that time."
"What time is that?"
"It is that time for me to take him to the temple and have Timothy circumcised."
"No! No son of mine shall be subjected to such a foolish and stupid practice. I will hear no more of this idiotic talk and that is final!"
That was the beginning, the start of the battle for the mind and soul of Timothy.
Day turned to week, turned to month, turned to year and one day the father came home and looked at the young boy and said, "He is now 6 years old. It is time to begin his education." He called a Greek slave/teacher, a man of refinement and letters, but a slave none the less.
This man would take control of the educational needs of Timothy and all he had to learn. All the years preceding this time, the reading of that Book, were of no importance to his new teacher. Now he would be reading to him from other books. The battle for the mind of Timothy was at full pitch now. The young boy was taken out of the home and taught the best that money could buy. He would be taught as well, athletic. He was going to be living proof that the pride of the Greek father was not just words. Now there new books brought into the life of Timothy, the Illyad and Odyssey by Homer for example.
In these books he would learn that there are many gods. Gods that were like men, brawny, sensual gods who could run with great speed, and throw with great accuracy and love with great fervor. They were gods who were bigger than life and they lived on Mount Olympus. These gods was like the men who worshipped them and were as likely to be drunk and angry as sober and content.
Then Timothy would come home and Eunice would reach up and get that old Book and would begin to read to him of a holy living God who lived in glorious light, whose radiance was so bright that none could look upon Him.
Then he would go back to his Greek school and learn of Aristotle's "Golden Mean" which taught that all good lives of men of common sense contain happiness. What is the good life? A life of happiness.
He would also learn what Plato had to teach him, that if a man can discover what is right, he will do it, therefore evil is the result of the lack of knowledge.
And then he would come home and they would read to him from "That Book", that God was a holy God and He had said:
Thou salt have no other Gods before Me.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in Vain.
Thou shalt remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet.
He would go to his Greek school and hear and read of the great warrior heroes... men who seemed to always succeed for their own sakes.
And he would come home and they would read from that Book about men who failed miserably, but who's great claim was their repentance and their faith in God, men like, Abraham, Jacob, Saul, David, and Solomon.
The great battle rages... mother and the Bible, father and the things of his world that would win man's laurels and acclaim. One old saying of the Greeks said, "We Greeks do not need a God-Blanket like a woman!"
And Timothy looked around and it was obvious that these two worlds did not mesh. They do not line up for the boy, the Book and the battle.
In Acts 14 we see that Paul through the pressure of opposition was preaching now in the Province of Lycaonia, having been turned away by the Jews and now is ministering to the Gentiles. Every where he went the Jews seemed to follow and try to destroy what Paul would accomplish. That is why he had been forced to flee to Lystra.
This was the story of when Paul had preached to the people of Lystra and healed a man. When the people witnessed the healing they tried to worship the disciples, who refused their worship then the Jews stirred up the people against them and they stoned them and Paul and Barnabas barley escaped with their lives. There's a possibility that in that crowd were Eunice and Lois. Or maybe they heard the story from other Christian believers in Lystra. At any rate they became believers and they then told Timothy. The great battle for the boys mind was won by the Lord Jesus Christ. He became a believer.
Now on the second journey of Paul to Lystra, to come back and preach something exciting happened. They learned that the young convert, Timothy who had been so immersed in the Word of God had been preaching the Word, in "season and out of season". He was just a young man and some had "despised his youth" but he preached it with authority. And when Paul came back, the Christians told him that they had a fine preacher in Timothy. And Paul went and heard the young convert and he loved him as a son. He saw that through the conversion of a child a might victory had been won.
Spurgeon once returned home and said to a man, "I have been privileged to lead two and a half people to the Lord today." The man said, "Oh, two men and a child?" "No." Came the reply. "Two children and a man."
We need to teach our children to be Mastered by this Book, not to just master the book.
Too many people have this turned around. They win the battle for emotions or even service at different times in their lives but they don't win the battle for their minds.
When was the last time you shared with your children, the importance of the Word in your own life? And for you fathers who think, "Oh, that is woman's work." Is it really? That was Timothy's father's attitude and we don't read of anything significant in his life except that he was a Greek.
He was a Greek. That was God's way of saying, "He really didn't care or believe anything. He was a Greek.
And like Timothy's father, so often parents today don't realize how great a struggle is going on for the minds of our children. We see them busy in this or at, not causing any problems to us or others, faithful to church and we equate that with a committed mind set. Don't misread your son! "He'll get his religion later", or "He goes to Sunday School." You are in a battle and it is in earnest and if you don't realize this every day, you are losing it by default.
Or maybe the battle for your mind has not yet been won. Do you just accept your faith because of your emotions or is your mind and heart committed to Christianity?
We send our children off to secular schools where a secularized teacher pumps their minds full of the world's humanism for most of their day and we don't even know what's happening to them. We're like the frog being boiled in water. Before he even knows it he's asleep, then before he knows it he's cooked! Satan turns them to humanism from God's grace. We come to God's Word with our cookie cutter minds and God can't even speak from His Word because we think it is up to us to approve or disapprove what He says to us. That is the essence of Humanism!
I don't wonder your are a stubborn man and proud of it.
I don't wonder that you are a proud, stubborn woman.
I don't wonder that your children are very understandably walking down the same path you are.
Eunice and Lois believed that old Book and devoted their lives to studying and reading it and teaching it to their children and because of that, not only by their persistence, but by example, they were able to produce a son who could stand in the face of all the pressures and diversions that Satan and the world would throw at him.
So, how do we raise a Timothy in such a world as ours? We raise him by the Book, day after day until the battle for his mind is won!
The end of the story of the young man in Chicago has not yet been written but when it is, those of us who are privileged to read it will be blessed. We'll see the hand of God in the situation and once again proclaim with the Apostle Paul that "All things work together for good, for those who love God...." (Rom. 8:28) Until then we need to learn to take the long view. We need to be satisfied to wait upon the Lord. Hebrews 11:13 says that the heroes of the faith mentioned in that chapter, from Abel to Sarah, "died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." They had a far view and were satisfied to leave it with God. Ultimately their faith paid off. The work of the Messiah was the culmination of what they were promised, but they didn't live to see it. We have to have the same long view of God's work on this earth. We must cling to our assurance of His goodness, no matter how disappointed we are at how things turn out. Rescue doesn't always come in our time but it will come. Another verse in Hebrews says, "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross,..." Hebrews 12: 1b
