Acts 16:1-5 - Homiletics

The choice of a fit person.

The ordination of Timothy to be a minister of God, and St. Paul's fellow-laborer in the gospel of Christ ( 1 Timothy 4:14 ; 2 Timothy 1:6 ; 1 Thessalonians 3:2 ), was a great event in the Church's history. The character of her individual bishops and priests has always been a matter of paramount importance, and in nothing do we see the wisdom of the great apostle more conspicuous than in the choice of his fellow-laborers, He who refused Mark, because he was not sure of him, discerned in Timothy, young as he was, that simplicity of purpose, and that sober and docile zeal in the service of Christ, which made him a fit instrument for the most arduous missionary work. Many qualifications concurred in Timothy. There was his thorough grounding in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures through the pious care of his mother and grandmother, which gave strength to his own faith, and made him capable of reasoning with the Jews. There was his Jewish birth on his mother's side, which, when he was circumcised, would make him acceptable to the circumcision; and there was his Gentile birth on his father's side, which would enable him to sympathize with the Greeks, and would dispose them to listen to him. There was his early acquaintance with the afflictions of the gospel, which he had seen so bravely borne by the apostle at Iconium and at Lystra, and which he had dared to share by taking upon himself the Christian profession in the very heat of the persecution; and there was his warm attachment to St. Paul as of a son to his father. All this Paul saw in him, and foresaw that, of all his missionary band, none would exceed Timothy in devotedness to the Lord's work, and in singleness of aim for the Church's good (Philippians it, 19-22). The event fully justified his expectations. Not Luke, the beloved physician; not Silas, the faithful brother and indefatigable evangelist; not Titus, his "own son after the faith," were greater helps and comforts to him than this young disciple from the rude community of Lystra. In him he had one like-minded with himself—always ready for work, always seeking the things that are Jesus Christ's; never ashamed of the gospel, ready to endure afflictions as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The great day will reveal the value of Timothy's service in the kingdom of God. The lessons for us to learn are: for the bishops of the Church, to give their utmost care to make choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred ministry of the Church; for the persons chosen, to throw their whole heart and soul into the work, that it may be well and worthily done; for the Church at large, to pray very earnestly that God would raise up faithful, wise, and earnest men to preach his gospel, to feed his flock, and so to build up his kingdom that the Churches may be "established in the faith, and increase in numbers daily."