Mothers and Sons

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Mother's Day, Sunday the 8th of May, 2022, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.]

In six days God created the universe out of nothing, our world, and all that is in it.  He created each plant, each flower and each tree.  He created each creature that roamed the earth, flew the skies, or swam the seas.  And then He created man, in His own image.  So the man would not be alone, God created woman.  Not too long after this, the woman gave birth to sons, and the first family was formed.

From the very beginning, God intended for us to be a family, to be part of a family, part of something greater than ourselves.  That is why He adopts us - we who believe in His Son and accept Him as Lord – into His own great family.  And while the man might be considered the “head of the family”, there would be no family at all without the woman, the mother.

From that first family on, there has been a special relationship between mothers and sons.  Yes, there is also a special bond between mothers and daughters too, for little girls look to their mothers to learn how to become a woman, too.  Just as boys look to their fathers to learn to be a man.  But mothers and sons have a special place in the story of mankind, and especially in our Bible.  Today being Mother’s Day, I’d like to look at one individual that exemplifies how important a mother’s influence is on her son.

Since I am going to spend a few Sundays examining the events of the early church, this particular individual is first briefly identified in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.  Please listen and follow along to what the Apostle Luke recorded for us in chapter 16 of his Book of Acts, verses 1 through 5, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, 3 so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. 4 Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day.

--Acts 16:1-5 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving us a family to belong to.  And thank You especially for our mothers who nurture us and influence our entire lives.  Thank You Father for extending Your great family to include all those who believe in Jesus and accept as our Lord.  Forgive us, please, when we abandon our family, for whatever reason.  Forgive us when we fail to honor our fathers and mothers, when we don’t always treat other believers as “family”.  Please help us remember that You gave us families for a reason, so that we are never alone.  Help us be better sons and daughters, not only to our earthly family but also to You, our heavenly Father.  And Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who do his work.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Show us how important our family is to us.  Help us be better, more supportive and obedient members of our Christian family.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

I've probably used this before, but it bears repeating.  In his book, Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise, John Killenger gives us this affirmation of our faith and our love:

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the loving God, who was born of the promise to a virgin named Mary.

I believe in the love Mary gave her Son, that caused her to follow Him in His ministry and stand by His cross as He died.

I believe in the love of all mothers, and its importance in the lives of the children they bear. It is stronger than steel, softer than down, and more resilient than a green sapling on the hillside. It closes wounds, melts disappointments, and enables the weakest child to stand tall and straight in the fields of adversity.

I believe that this love, even at its best, is only a shadow of the love of God, a dark reflection of all that we can expect of Him, both in this life and the next.

And I believe that one of the most beautiful sights in the world is a mother who lets this greater love flow through her to her child, blessing the world with the tenderness of her touch and the tears of her joy.

There is arguably no greater earthly love than a mother’s love for her child.  It is a protective and nurturing love.  We see examples all the time in the animal kingdom, with a mother bear or mother lion charging into the face of danger to protect her cub.  We watch as a mother wolf teaches her pups how to hunt.  We even see that great love in a mother bird as she nudges her fledglings out of the nest, forcing them to fly on their own.  And of course, we can not only see but also experience the bond between a human mother and her child, which begins in the womb.  We can see it in her smile as she holds her newborn for the very first time.

And yet, Mr. Killenger reminds us that this greatest earthly love is merely a shadow, a brief taste, of the love of God.  How beautiful and blessed the mother who passes this greatest love of all onto her child.

This is precisely the case of our study subject Timothy, as we will see shortly.  Luke briefly introduces us to Timothy as being a resident of the Roman colony of Lystra, which was located in present-day Turkey.  Timothy’s mother was a Jewish believer in Jesus as the Messiah, but his father was a Greek, a Gentile.  The young man already had a good reputation in the area, and Paul wanted him to go along on their missionary journeys.  Since everyone knew that Timothy’s father was a Gentile, and since they would be going to and among the Jews on their travels, Paul arranged to have the young man circumcised by Jewish custom.

And so they went from town to town, spreading the Gospel and sharing with believers the importance of following the decisions made by the apostles and church elders in Jerusalem, establishing a church hierarchy, if you will.  And the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger day by day.

So right there, we get a glimpse of how important Timothy was to the beginnings and growth of the early church.  If nothing else, by his own good reputation he helped Paul become more readily accepted by the locals in the towns so that Paul could do his work to greater success.  But why was Timothy so effective in his own right?  Why was he so well respected by the Christians in the region?  I think it all goes back to his mother, with some help from his maternal grandmother.

While Luke doesn’t get into much detail about Timothy, the man who became like a father to him does.  Paul tutored the young man, mentored him as his protégé, groomed him for the ministry, and put him in place in churches in that region.

We know of two letters Paul wrote to the one he called his son in the faith.  The first was likely written while Paul was in Macedonia on his way to Nicopolis, and was intended to guide Timothy in the conduct of his pastoral responsibilities.  The second letter, though, was penned after Paul completed his missionary journeys, and while he was imprisoned in Rome.

Realizing his death was near, Paul wrote this second epistle of encouragement and instruction, reaching out one last time to his son in the Spirit.  Please listen to the words Paul wrote in his 2nd letter to Timothy, starting in chapter 1 verses 1 through 7 and 13 and 14, then skipping to chapter 3 verses 14 and 15…

1:1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life He has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 I am writing to Timothy, my dear son.

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.

3 Timothy, I thank God for you — the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.

5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. 6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

13 Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me — a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 14 Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.

3:14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.

--2 Timothy 1:1-7, 13-14; 3:14-15 (NLT)

And now we see how important a role mothers play in our lives.  Paul first speaks of the faith that first filled Timothy’s grandmother Lois.  Lois passed that faith along to her daughter Eunice, who in turn passed it on to her son, Paul’s beloved Timothy.  This was a genuine faith that burned strong in all three, a faith that Paul cautions Timothy to keep fanning, to keep his spiritual alive and active.

And this is where Paul reminds us all that God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.  We are to hold on to the pattern of wholesome teachings that we gained from our own mothers and those who have taught us the Gospel, the pattern shaped by our own faith and love that comes from Jesus.  We are to guard the truth that has been entrusted to us, remaining ever faithful to all we have been taught.  Just as Timothy was taught by his mother and grandmother, from childhood, who gave him the wisdom to receive salvation that comes only by trusting in Christ Jesus.

I can’t help but wonder what might Timothy have been like had Lois, his grandmother, not given Eunice, his mother, a strong foundation of faith, which Eunice in turn passed along to her son.

There is one more incident in our Bible concerning mothers and sons I’d like to look at, one that occurred before the events recorded in Luke’s Book of Acts.  I believe this one clearly expresses the importance of motherhood to God, and to Jesus.

While suffering great and horrible agony on the cross, with His last dying breaths Jesus uttered these few words, as recorded by the Apostle John in chapter 19 of his Gospel account, verses 25 through 27…

25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw His mother standing there beside the disciple He loved, He said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And He said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

--John 19:25-27 (NLT)

I know Jesus suffered on the cross; suffered physically from the pain and torment, and suffered spiritually for taking all our sin upon Himself.  But I can’t even imagine how much His mother suffered, standing there, watching all this happen to her Son.  You can see her heart breaking, the tears streaming down her face, her knees buckling under the weight of emotional and spiritual pain.

Jesus saw this, there from the cross, and took pity.  He noticed that His beloved disciple John stood there at her side, so He gave them both a new assignment.  Speaking to Mary He said, “Dear woman, here is your son.”  And then to John He instructed, “Here is your mother.”

Now we need to understand that this was more than just a symbolic gesture.  In effect, Jesus was telling His mother that this man who He had personally called to follow Him would now be as a son to her.  And He commanded John to accept Mary as his own mother.

In those days, a woman was dependent upon her husband and later on her children for she would have no others means of income and support.  We don’t know what happened to Joseph, only that he was not around at this point.  Jesus wanted to ensure His mother would be taken care of, so He turned that responsibility over to John, who readily accepted it.  This is the love of Jesus for His mother, the love of God for a mother’s critical role in the family.

Family, there is one simple, biological truth:  we all have or had a mother.  She may not be or have been the greatest person in the world, she may no longer be with us, but we’ve all had one, we were all given birth by a woman.  We were all given by God to be part of a family.

Not all women are cut out for motherhood, but I’d like to think they all do their level best.  Sometimes, though, the world just gets to be too much for them and their maternal feelings fly out the window.  Those mothers need our prayers.  All mothers need our love.

Let’s remember our mothers, this Mother’s Day and every day.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving us families.  The family unit was part of Your earliest creation, and has the greatest influence on our lives.  Sadly, not everyone was able to enjoy a stable family life, but we all can be a part of Your great family by simply believing in Your Son Jesus and accepting Him as our Lord.  Thank You, Father, for providing for us to have a family, to be a part of something greater than ourselves.  Father, sometimes we take our family for granted.  Sometimes we fail to honor our parents as we should.  And sometimes we ourselves are not very good at being parents.  Forgive us, Father, for our weaknesses.  Forgive us when we are unable to carry out our duties and responsibilities in a loving manner.  Please help us be more obedient to Your commands.  And Father, please help us remain strong, faithful, and true through all that we face in this age.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You showed You love for Your mother by ensuring her needs would be provide for after Your death, resurrection, and ascension.  You instructed Your beloved disciple John to take care of her and watch over her as if she were his own mother.  Thank You, Lord, for showing us just how important motherhood is to You and to us as well.  Please, Lord, forgive us when we tend to put ourselves first, not giving the honor and respect our mothers deserve.  Help us show all mothers Your love through our love.  Remind us that God created and loves all mothers, and so should we.  Show us how we can be better members of our individual families and our larger family of God.  And Lord Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on what this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.