Introduction
Well, good morning everybody. I hope, whatever circumstance you find yourselves in, that you are experiencing the Lord's presence with you. God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus said, I will be with you always to the end of the age. Promises to hold on to.
We've come to the end of this series on 2 Timothy; and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
If you’ve followed
the series so far, what do you think God has said to you most clearly over the
last few weeks?
- Is it ‘fan into flame the
spiritual gift that God has given you’?
- Is it ‘be unashamed of the
gospel and unafraid to tell others about Jesus’?
- Is it ‘give the Bible
greater prominence and priority in your life because it is breathed by
God’?
- Is it ‘be clear about truth
in a world that says “the only truth is what seems true to me”’?
- Is it ‘be strong in the
grace that is in Christ’?
As we have seen, this is the last letter Paul wrote as he faced death. And it's to a younger leader called Timothy to pass on a baton, hoping (and in fact trusting) that he will not drop it, but grip it tight, and run his lap with all his energy before he in turn must hand it on to the next generation.
But though this is a personal letter, it's not a private one. Paul is consciously writing, not just to an individual, but to the whole church in every era.
And we know this because, in very last verse of the letter, Paul says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” The word “you” there is singular. But then he says, “Grace be with you.” And there (in the original manuscript) the word “you” is plural, so the NIV translates it “you all.”
This is God's voice
speaking to all of us.
Let’s read chapter 4, verses 1-5.
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Well, Timothy, we have seen, has many good qualities. He takes a genuine interest in others, he has a caring heart. Timothy will not let you down. He's reliable. He’ll tell you, “I’ll be there at two o’ clock - and at two o’clock, without fail, there he is waiting. Paul says elsewhere as he talks about his apostolic team, “I have no one else like Timothy.”
But he does not have a strong personality at all. He seems to need a lot of encouragement. And protection. Paul has to tell the Corinthians, “When Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you.” He’s young, inexperienced, frequently ill, very sensitive and a bit introverted perhaps.
We sometimes imagine that God only really calls dynamic characters. Self-confident extroverts with heroic personalities. But that’s not the way in the Bible at all.
When God says to Moses, “I’m sending you,” Moses says, “But I’m no leader; I’m useless up front, I get my words tangled up and I st- st- st- stutter. Could you maybe send someone else?”
When God says to Gideon, “I’m calling you,” Gideon says, “But I’m nobody. My father is a nobody. I come from an insignificant family and I’m the least impressive of the lot.”
When God says to Jeremiah, “I’m appointing you,” Jeremiah says, “But I’m obviously much too young, Lord. I’ve got no experience, no one will take me seriously.”
But each time God does not take “no” for an answer. He appoints and then he empowers.
Don’t ever say, “Oh, I don’t think I’m the sort of person God would want to use.” We need to understand that if God calls me, it’s because of his grace, not my giftedness, and he will supply what I need to prevail.
1. Preach the Word
I’ve got two points
coming out of these 8 verses and here they are: 1) preach the word and 2)
finish the race.
Verse 2 says “Preach the word...” Preach the word. Not a word. Not any old words. The word.
Preach God’s eternal, inspired, indestructible, omnipotent, forever dependable, unimprovable, heart-transforming, life-imparting word.
You might say “Well, I’m not a preacher, this doesn’t really apply to me.” Fair enough. But these verses tell you what kind of qualities you should want to see in a preacher and what kind of leader you should follow.
The great 20th Century preacher W. E. Sangster once interviewed a candidate for the Methodist ministry. It was a shy and retiring young man who evidently did not have a lot of self-confidence. He said, “Oh, I'm not the sort of man who'd set the Thames on fire.” Sangster looked at him and said, “My dear young man, I'm not interested to know if you can set the Thames on fire, what I want to know is this: if I throw you in the river will it sizzle?”
Some sermons I’ve heard in my time you could throw the preacher in the Thames, and they're so cold, so frigid, they'd actually lower the temperature of the river!
I thank God for leaders here who love God’s word. Who feel the weight of this solemn charge to preach it. Who believe it passionately. Who take seriously the thought that God will judge with greater strictness those who preach and teach, so they work diligently and prayerfully at this ministry.
But the value of God's word is contested in our time. There are three types of people who are uncomfortable with this charge to preach it.
Firstly, and perhaps most common in evangelical circles, is quite subtle; a kind of casual replacing of God’s word for whatever the latest fashion is.
A few years ago, a well-known speaker at a popular Christian summer conference took to the stage and said, “I’m not going to open my Bible tonight, I’m just going to share my heart.” My heart sank. I thought, Seriously? I’ve come a long way for this. I don’t really want to hear your heart while I look longingly at the closed Bible on your chair. I wanted to say, “Open your Bible or shut your mouth!
Obviously, being English, I didn’t stand up and make a scene in front of thousands of people. I just sat there annoyed - and bored - for an hour. But God’s people don’t gather in their thousands and endure a week of camping purgatory just for human wisdom, or precious thoughts or personal anecdotes.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” We want every word that comes from the mouth of God. So Paul says to Timothy, “preach that.”
The second kind of person who doesn’t like this charge to preach the word is found in more liberal circles, where there is a selective approach to the total truthfulness of Scripture.
Bryan Chappell, of Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, was once challenged by a student who complained that the Bible is outdated and full of errors.
So Chappell took some scissors from a drawer and he said to his student, “Here, take these and cut out from your Bible everything you don’t think should be in it. But you should understand that by the time you are done picking and choosing what should be included, and what should be left out, the only wisdom you will have left is your own.”
No, as we saw a few
weeks ago, ALL scripture is God-breathed.
And the third attitude pervades society. The dominant mood in our postmodern world is to reject clear, authoritative beliefs about anything. Many people are sceptical when we say that we can be sure about truth.
They prefer a flexible world where you can’t be certain about anything and each person has to find the way for themselves. But the Christian worldview says, God has spoken and his word is true.
So preach the word. Then v2 says “Be prepared in season and out of season.” In season and out of season means when it’s convenient and when it’s not, in promising situations and unfavourable ones, when people are responsive and when they seem closed. Always be ready.
The former Olympic decathlete Daley Thompson was once asked what his favourite day was. He said, “Christmas Day.” The interviewer said, “Ah, one day in the year you can allow yourself some mince pies and a glass of wine!”
He said, “No.
That’s not why I like Christmas Day. On December 25th I train
harder than any other day while all my rivals are taking a day off. It gives me
a competitive advantage. That’s why it’s my favourite day.”
“Be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, encourage…”
Of course, we would all rather be encouraged than corrected and rebuked but “All scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
The natural state of the human heart is to be in rebellion against God. So it’s understandable that this book, which tells me what God doesn’t like as well as what he likes, will sometimes offend me. Preachers have to say is as it is.
A woman once went up to the great evangelist George Whitefield and complained to him, “Every time I’ve heard you preach, all you say is, ye must be born again. Why don’t you ever say anything else?” Whitefield looked at her and said, “because, madam, ye must be born again!”
And it says this: (v3-4) that a time is coming when preaching will be unpopular. We are in those days now actually. It says, “People will shut their ears to sound teaching.” They will call for a message that merely recycles the norms and values of the prevailing culture.
Every preacher battles the temptation to skate over uncomfortable truths in a passage when the body language of the congregation is disapproving and negative.
Jesus was once approached by his disciples who said to him, “Do you know that people were offended by what you just said?” Jesus replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.”
In other words, religious tradition and pious wisdom that’s not in line with the Word of God will come to nothing.”
That won’t cut it.
Preach… the word.
As I said earlier, you may not be called to be a Bible teacher. But you are called to be discerning about who you let shape your thinking and values. Either you stand up for what you believe, or you become part of what somebody else believes.
2. Finish the Race
Second and last
point - and more briefly; finish the race. Verse 6:
The time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day…”
A well-attested tradition records that Paul was beheaded around 64 AD about 3 miles outside Rome’s city limits.
I love to picture the scene in heaven, moments afterwards. Just as Paul’s arriving, high fiveing a few old friends, the crowds part and there’s Jesus in all his triumphant glory. “Paul!” he says. “You made it! You fought the good fight. You finished the race. You kept the faith. Here's your crown!”
It’s what he’s going to say to you one day, if you keep battling, stay in the race and cross the line. Fight the good fight. Finish the race. Keep the faith.
At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, at the 19-kilometre point of the marathon, one of the runners John Akhwari dramatically fell to the ground, dislocating his knee and shoulder. The heat and lack of air at altitude were so brutal that 18 of the world’s most elite long-distance runners failed to finish at all. But John Akhwari kept running for 23 more kilometres, in searing pain and cramped up because he had never trained at altitude.
He finished last (of those who actually completed the course), over an hour after the winner, after the medal ceremony, and in fact after the sun had set. The stadium was all but empty when he finally entered it. But as he limped crossed the finish line there was an emotional and appreciative cheer from the small crowd still there.
They interviewed him and asked him why he bothered to keep running. He said, “My country [Tanzania] did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”
That’s your mission
and mine.
Some people wish they had a more exciting testimony of how they came to faith. But it doesn’t matter how you started the race of faith as much as the fact that you keep running till it’s done, keep the faith.
Are you still running the race? Are you going to finish it and win the crown or will you drop out and lose everything?
Ending
If you’re a
Christian you look at life - and death - differently.
There’s a church leader down in Bournemouth called Tim Matthews whose grandfather fought in the D-Day landings in World War II. He got a finger shut off and so many terrible things, but survived to tell the tale. He used to tell his grandson war stories including one about arriving in a French village, driving his truck in a convoy to resupply the front lines.
They were told that the village had most probably in mind by the retreating German army and had not yet been cleared. There was no viable alternative route and the front lines had to be re-supplied immediately, so the convoy had to take its chances and drive through the village.
The commanding officer approached Tim’s grandad in the cab of his truck and said “Albert, you’re a Christian, aren’t you?” Albert replied that he was. So the commanding officer said, “well, since you know where you’re going when you die, you can drive an empty truck through the village and the rest of the convoy will follow your tyre tracks. If you get blown up, we all know we have to take a different route!” Albert said a prayer, set off, utterly at peace, and drove straight through the village without incident.
And what if you’ve not yet become a follower of Jesus Christ? Maybe you’ve been thinking about it for ages.Why don’t you give your heart to Christ today?
You might say to me, “But I’m very happy in life, I’ve got everything I want. Why do I need Jesus? Everything’s just fine.”
But that’s talking as though our life on this earth goes on forever. Chances are we’ll live a bit longer than our parents did, but none of us can keep the sand running indefinitely. Last time I checked the death rate was the same as it’s always been; 100%!
Then we get to see that nothing we owned was ever really ours. Everything we have now and call ours is just on loan. And it all has to be returned when we leave this world for the next one. Jesus said, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet lose their soul?”
You may have shut him out of your life for years. Is today the day when that changes? The Bible says “draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.” You may have drifted far away from God. Come back to Christ today. He’s waiting. It’s not too late.
I remember the evangelist Billy Graham was interviewed on BBC Radio once and the presenter said, “Billy Graham,
- you’ve travelled the
globe,
- you’ve preached to
millions,
- you’ve seen countless
conversions to Christ,
- you’ve appeared on
Gallup’s Most Admired People in the World for thirty-two
consecutive years,
- more than any other
individual in the world,
- you’ve spoken personally
with world statesmen,
- you’ve led prayers at the
inauguration of several American Presidents…
when you finally
get to those pearly gates, what do you think will be your finest
achievement?”
And without a moment of hesitation, Graham said, “Just to have got there, just to have made it.” Billy died three years ago; he was still running; he completed the course and is now with the Lord. Those who persevere to the end will be saved.
Finish the race,
keep the faith.
Let’s pray…
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 28 February 2021
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