Sermons

Theme: God’s Word is our living guide for the Christian life Points: 1. Scripture is God’s Breath 2. Scripture is Useful 3. Scripture’s Effect

Taking stock of the year that has gone by and looking ahead to the New Year, can be helpful in considering if we have grown in our faith this past year. A spiritual review of the year is like a spiritual health check, asking questions about certain areas of our faith to consider our maturity and to consider the kind of habits we are in or might seek to make. This first week looks at bible reading. Do we see it as necessary or simply an optional extra? Do we prioritise it, or have we more important things that need to be done? Do we consider it to be something that is of great benefit or just too much effort for little return?

What Paul is doing right throughout this letter is putting steal into Timothy’s weak frame. Timothy was timid, shy, reserved and young. Timothy not only had to deal with his character, which was naturally reserved but he had to deal with a political atmosphere that was anti-Christian, plus a difficult congregation, plus those who had simply gone off the rails in terms of their Christian life and teaching. All up Timothy lived in a pretty messed up kind of world and a really messed up church. What is so amazing about Timothy’s situation is that it isn’t all that far removed from our own. This sermon seeks to capture Paul’s intent on writing this letter!

Paul goes through immense difficulties and in fact suffers many disappointments, the greatest being that those he should have counted as friends were not there for him. What made the difference was that God was by his side and sustained him. Lord will, we too will be alongside those who we consider to be Christian brothers and sisters.

Some people really had it in for Paul, like Alexander the metal worker. Paul warns Timothy about him and then says that he has handed him over to the Lord. The question for us is how we deal with these kind of hurts and what it means to hand a person over to the Lord.

We tend to perceive Paul as a spiritual giant amongst men and he is. He was the greatest missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ that ever walked on the earth. He was a man that penned a great deal of the New Testament. We might possibly perceive him to be a man who was so close to God that he didn’t need or even care about the ordinary things of life. We can read about his determination, the persecutions that he suffered, his boldness in proclaiming the gospel, his will to complete the race and win the fight. It is hard to picture him lonely, cold and vulnerable and yet that is the picture that we find here in our text today.

There are no holidays in regard to the Christian life, no sabbaticals, no retirement, no taking the foot off the pedal and coasting. We are at war and the spiritual battles (Ephesians 6) never ceases. The Devil is like a roaring lion looking for victims and we can’t simply walk away from this war. As Christians we want to finish the race well! That race will not finish till we die or until Christ returns.

I wonder at times about our ability to stand firm and not be swayed by popular opinion? The thing is this! I think every person I know wants to be liked! For many people, the way to be liked is to blend in and to cave into the group or the crowd you are in. You might not like to drink but the crowd you are in insists that you do. You might not like to use rough language but you do when you are in a particular kind of group. How does one stand up for Jesus?

No wonder that Paul says to avoid such people and to avoid those who teach this type of faith. In the history of the church the false prophet will reveal himself in the end. We have a standing order as Christians to avoid people who tells us to pamper to self, rather than to serve and love God as well as our neighbour. Just as counterfeit money is worthless, doesn’t matter how good it looks, so counterfeit religion is worthless.

Which Christian parent would not urge their own children to go on in the faith? Which Christian parent would not try to be a model for their own children? Which youth leader would not want those they lead to know more about Jesus? It is in that sense that our lifestyle, our faith, our perseverance, our sufferings, our love come into play. These things inspire others to continue to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

The problem with these men (false teachers) was that they had an amazing power to deceive. They used the right kind of language! They might have spoken very religiously and even Christianly. Because of their trickery or magic arts they had the power to impress people. They were men who were impressive but were diametrically opposed to Moses and the will of God. Yet, because of their character, their tricks, they tended to gather in a great following of people and it seemed that some in the Ephesian Church were vulnerable to their false teaching.

“But mark this”; “But know this”; “But understand this.” There will be terrible times in the last days.” There will be dark days in the last days! That is abundantly clear from scripture. Yet, the battle is not just between the Christian Church and our society but inside the Christian Church itself. The battle Paul talks about is not just with those outside the church but those, perhaps influenced more by the world, who are inside the church.

If we want to be workers approved… then we need to have work that is approved and that means, in the context here, speaking God’s Word in a straight forward and plain manner. This Word has to be presented well, or should I say truly and biblically because if we get it wrong then we can bring catastrophe on others. We rather bring catastrophe or blessing.

Paul urges Timothy to continue to remind those he ministers to of the truths of the Christian faith and about the gospel. Remembering God and his dealings with us is an essential part of the Christian life because we tent to lose information so easily.

The sermon concentrates on verses 12b and 13. “If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself.” The text itself has always seemed clear to me but I had to re-think the text as I was doing my research and came to a different conclusion. To deny Christ or to be faithless are two actions that we would never want to do and Paul urges us to remain faithful and true, to persevere in our determination to follow Christ. So many around Paul had been ashamed of the gospel and Paul urges us to endure.

When it comes to most kinds of work you are looking for this quality of person. You are looking for people you trust to get the job done. There are so many people you know who don’t fulfil what they said they would do. This can happen in all kinds of circumstances and it certainly can happen in a church community where someone commits to doing something and yet you don’t have any real confidence in them because they have a history of not delivering. Paul encourages Timothy to pass on the treasure of the gospel to reliable men!

As far as invitations go, you mightn’t think too much of this one! We like invitations that speak of fellowship, personal advantage, even comfort but an invitation to join someone in suffering, for the gospel, isn’t really that exciting. I can well imagine that young Timothy would think to himself, “I’m not at all sure that I like this!”

The verse we are looking at tonight is the key verse around which Martyn Lloyd Jones writes his book, “I am not ashamed.” I personally have always found this verse encouraging and I suppose it has some nostalgia for me as when I was growing up Mum used to belong to a choir, and they would sometimes sing the hymn, “I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me he has made known.” What Paul tells us in this text is that he is not ashamed because “He knows who he has believed!” As a Christians, as an Apostle of Christ, he feels confident in God! He feels confident in Jesus Christ. He knows that one whom he has placed his confidence and he knows that he will never be let down!

I think one of the reasons as to why we are so often ashamed to stand up for Jesus, is because we have taken for granted what Christ has come to achieve. Why would we be embarrassed about our Christian faith, or embarrassed about Christ or embarrassed about the preachers of God in the world? The answer is that we have failed to appreciate the enormity of our own sin, and magnificence of Christ’s sacrifice!

Timothy is encouraged to fan into flame the ministry that he has. I think all of us know about getting oxygen into the fire. Anyone that has ever made a fire knows how important it is to get as much oxygen in there as possible. Thus, we wave madly about with newspaper or in the old days people had bellows to make the fire of the Smithy hot enough to melt, bend and temper metal. Who was to do that? Timothy was to do that! Timothy was to take responsibility for his own spiritual growth as a Christian.

What we see here is someone who says he is converted, says he is the servant of the master, who is living as if there is no master, no king or ruler in his life. It is the so called converted – living the unconverted life. He isn’t ready because he has simply dismissed the Lord from his mind and banished him from his life. Now this is extraordinarily worrying! Instead of looking out for the interests of his master he is simply looking out for his own interests.