Pastor's Bible Study

Jesus is God robed in the flesh of humanity.

The importance of virgin birth of Jesus Christ cannot be overstated. If Jesus were not born of a virgin, then Jesus was a man like you or me. He had a sin nature like you or me. If Jesus were not born of a virgin, then he could not be the Son of God, he could not be sinless, he could not be a substitutionary sacrifice, he could not be the Savior of mankind.

The word “trinity” is derived from two Latin words: “Tres,” which means three, and “unitas,” which means unity. The meaning of the word trinity is “three in one unity.” There are not three Gods. There is only one God. In the totality of His essence, He is revealed to us in the scriptures as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Is the Bible the Word of God? There are two possible answers. Yes or No. It either is or isn’t. If you are not clear on the understanding of what the Bible is, then you will not be clear on any other truth that relates to genuine Christianity. Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.

After a person has become a believer, they need to proceed in the area of discipleship, i.e. become a learner and follower of Jesus. This deals not only with acquiring knowledge about Jesus, but even more importantly, applying that knowledge to our attitudes and behavior.

Paul is coming to the end of his letter to Timothy and to the end of his life. He knows that his trial could be any day now and his expectation is a sentence of death which would be carried out swiftly. As hard as it was for Paul, he was gracious. He exuded grace in the face of death. The Apostle Paul at this point in his life has no one with him but Luke. And yet when you hear his final parting w...

Paul is coming to the end of his letter to Timothy and to the end of his life. He knows that his trial could be any day now and his expectation is a sentence of death which would be carried out swiftly. In these moments he is alone and lonely. Leadership and loneliness go hand in hand. Paul had always had an entourage, students he taught, people he ministered to. Now he is alone. The lonely leader...

In verse 6 Paul turns his attention away from “you” to “I,” “me,” and “my.” Paul shifts his focus from Timothy to himself. As he nears and approaches what he knows is the end of his earthly life, Paul glances back over his shoulder and then peers into the future as a man prepared to die and do it with no regrets.

AW Tozer - “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. …No people has ever risen above its religion, and…no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” This lesson presents 6 philosophical arguments for the existence of God.

Paul encourages Timothy to preach the Word. "Timothy, just as I have sought to teach and encourage you, now I want you to teach and encourage others with the Word." Paul summons Timothy to remember that he will stand before Jesus, the one who called him, to give an account of how he has served. He asks Timothy to do three things: preach the Word, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill his minis...

Timothy had benefited from the very best training from the earliest days of his life (v. 15), which continued for no less than fifteen years under Paul’s discipling (vv. 10-11). Paul has told Timothy to stick with it, you can do it. You can do it in the future, you can do it now. (vv. 12-15), and you can finish well. Finishing well is predicated on allowing God’s Word to do what it is designed to...

In these verse Paul encourages Timothy by pointing out that he can make a difference in the world and to the people around him in spite of the depravity of mankind all around him.

As Paul writes this last letter to Timothy, he seeks to encourage Timothy to journey on to spiritual maturity. The journey won’t necessarily be easy, but it will be rewarding in this life and the life to come.

There are two things that we can invest in that will last forever: God's Word and people. As Paul approaches his impending death, he turns his attention and thinking to these two eternal things (God’s Word in vv. 13-14 and people in vv. 15-18). There are so many things that vie for the investment of our attention, time, effort, and energy, but the two most important things we can invest in are God...

As Paul continues in the opening chapter, he challenges Timothy to strengthen his resolve. And we need to do this too. Strengthening our resolve is not about drawing on our own power or self-enthusiasm. To strengthen our resolve we must let the Spirit of God work in us and through us to carry out God’s will, in God’s way, in God’s time, and for God’s glory.

As Paul begins his second letter to Timothy he is sitting a jail cell awaiting his imminent execution. He had previously written to Timothy to encourage him. Now he writes to request Timothy to come see him. To do so would bring joy to the apostle's heart. Paul knows he will soon be leaving this world. He writes to Timothy to inspire confidence in Timothy as Paul will be passing the torch of leade...

As Paul closes his first letter to Timothy, he tells Timothy to "guard it," i.e. guard your ministry and guard the very thing your ministry is all about – God’s Word.

Peace and contentment are two things (concepts) that generally go together. When you think of one, you will often think of the other. When you have one, you generally have the other. But the similarity between the two is more than a partnership or relationship. The similarity is their nature. True peace is inward. When you have peace, you have an inner calmness despite outer circumstances or condi...

Everyone is subject to authority, but do we submit to it? In the first two verses of the text, Paul is speaking to the issue of slaves/servants submitting to the authority of masters. In our day and age, these words can seem somewhat confusing and perhaps not applicable in our lives. However, what Paul says makes much sense in the setting and timing he was in (i.e. the early church age), and in te...

Paul encourages Timothy with how to relate to fellow elders in the church who serve with him in terms of paying elders, disciplining elders, and ordaining and selecting elders.

Paul chooses an analogy of family to illustrate how a pastor should interact with various members of his congregation. He purposefully used a term of family (e.g. father, mother, sister, brother) instead of business or government, because the church is a family. Church members share a common father. We look to Jesus as our older brother. We live in a household (church) with extended family. This i...

To be a good minister, Paul tells Timothy (in addition to pointing out the truth concerning apostasy) to do these things: exercise spiritually, make God your goal, be an example to the believers, give your attention to God’s Word and yourself so that you persevere for your own good and the good of others.

Between the two main sections of the book there are three verses that form a kind of pivot point where Paul pivots from one section to another. This link is very intriguing. It in essence teaches us that the church is to display the truth of God’s Word and bear witness to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

After Paul speaks about the qualities of a man necessary to fill the office of pastor, he turns his attention to the qualities of a man necessary to fill the office of deacon. Of the offices in the church, the most Christ-like is deacon. This is why the qualifications are stringent. Not everyone has what it takes to fill the office of deacon.

To say that the Bible teaches that all Christians must abstain from drinking wine would not be accurate. The Bible does not clearly teach against a Christian partaking of alcohol. There is no command in the Bible to not drink, but there is also no command to drink. There is liberty. However, just because you have liberty to do something doesn’t mean you have to. Exercising liberty (freedom) means...