Audio Access Available Above
"Preach
The Word" • 8.28.16 • Calvary
Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- Paul is physically sitting in a Roman
dungeon, in a world that is rapidly turning itself away from the truth claims
of the gospel. These are his final days.
- What is important to him? What would be
important to you? For Paul, there is one subject that dominates his thinking.
- As the world slides into apostasy and apathy,
he longs for his dear son Timothy to stand in his place and to take the baton
that he is handing over. Let's pick it up in verse 1.
Text
•
II Timothy 4:1,2a : "I charge you therefore before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His
appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word!" : This
entire letter has been filled with commands, but in this case, Paul strengthens
what he is about to say by testifying before the court of heaven itself!
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This isn't the first time that Paul has convened members of heaven's court to convey
the gravity of his command to Timothy.
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In I Timothy 5:21, Paul called the
same witnesses, as well as the elect angels, to ensure that Timothy would judge
matters within the church with impartiality.
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He uses the same sort of language in I
Timothy 6:13, calling Timothy to fight the good fight of faith. It goes
without saying that these are matters of the greatest concern to Paul.
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He is calling Timothy into the courtroom and making him swear before the Authority
that has been responsible for setting both he and Paul in their respective
positions.
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Our Christian life and the way that we minister is not a matter for our own
assessment. There is a real and true court of authority, which begins and ends
in the Lord.
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Paul says, "I stand here to add my voice before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ." Don't miss that they are both in attendance, both in authority,
equal to one another, but separate in identity.
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The only person of the Trinity that is missing here is the Holy Spirit.
Otherwise, understand that the two that are One, are not One in the same.
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God the Father has given the Lord Jesus Christ the role of being the Judge of
the living and the dead according to Peter's sermon in Acts 10:42.
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He will stand as the Righteous Judge over the souls of men, making their final
destiny clear to them. Those who have believed will be ushered into the
eternal, favorable presence of God!
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Those who have rejected Christ will be set aside for conscious torment, outside
of the favorable presence of God, suffering the wrath of God for eternity!
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This is what Christ will have charge of doing, but when will this happen? At
His appearing and His Kingdom! Wait a minute? I thought that we were living in
His Kingdom now!
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We are and we are not. We are living ACCORDING to His Kingdom as we,
Christians, align ourselves with His Holy Spirit's leading and conviction.
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As we submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit's authority, we are experiencing the
practical rule and subsequent benefits of the Kingdom of God.
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We are acting upon our King's decree, but we are not anticipating the final
rule or the total scope of His Kingdom until He comes!
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He is the King now and we acknowledge His authority. Today, men and women have
the luxury of ignoring that. When He comes, that luxury will not exist!
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When He comes, the Kingdom that has been alive in us, will become the standard
for the nations of the world, both those who are living at His appearing and
those who had died before!
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For Timothy's part, he is to consider the believers in his life, all who will
stand before the judge, as he receives Paul's command: "Preach the
Word!"
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This single command tests the heart of every minister, as it reveals the depth
of a ministers commitment and value of the Word. Does he hold a high or low
view of scripture?
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How we proceed from here will prayerfully, make that abundantly clear to each
of you.
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Paul commands Timothy to continue preaching as he has been doing. In light of
his own performance as a man commissioned by God, as well as his parishioners,
this is a vital necessity.
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To "preach" signifies the action of a herald. During ancient times,
when official news broke in the royal halls, men were dispatched with
instructions to precisely convey the King's wishes.
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Armed with their official scroll, they would come into the center of town, open
their scroll and carefully, loudly express the contents to the waiting public.
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That is the idea that Paul is communicating to Timothy. God's Word is His
official news, breathed out by the Lord Himself for the purpose of instructing
His subjects for their ordained task.
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As such, Timothy understands that his priority is simple transmission, from the
royal courts to the city streets. He is not there to promote his own ideas. His
audience expects to hear from the King.
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They aren't looking for him to be creative. They simply require that he be loud
and clear enough to be able to hear. "Timothy, proclaim the Word!"
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Not, "Proclaim your ideas." Not "Proclaim your commentary on
societal ills based upon your own observations!" Timothy, proclaim the
Word! Literally, proclaim "the logos."
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The "logos" is the very person of Jesus Christ according to John 1. The Greeks considered the logos to be the divine reasoning
behind the universe.
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John identifies Him as the Lord Jesus Christ! Paul alludes to Him here! Follow
Paul's thought.
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As you know, the original texts of scripture are not divided by chapter breaks.
This is the continuation of what Paul has just been telling us about in the
final verses of chapter 4.
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The "Word," Jesus Christ, is discovered in the "God breathed,
profitable revelation of God, which is capable of teaching God's people the
necessary components of saving faith."
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It protects them from themselves and causes them to stand upright again when
they fall. It leads them to live a righteous life, making them fit and equipped
for God's service!
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Why? Because it is centered upon the very person of Jesus Christ! Hebrews 10:7 tells us that the volume of
the scripture was written about Jesus!
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The Word of God, scripture, is the revelation of the Word of God, Jesus Christ!
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That is what Timothy is to preach. All of the scripture proclaims Him in one
form or another! The laws lead us to Him. The characters are complete in Him.
He is the very center of scripture!
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At this time, please note some very important distinctions regarding what he is
not to preach.
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Timothy is not to preach FROM the Bible. That is, he is not to prepare his own
ideas, form his own pre-suppositions and then add in a few Bible verses to
commend his ideas to God's people.
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He is not to preach ABOUT the Bible. He's not to stand before the people and
simply lecture to them about the virtues of scripture or the wonder of some of
it's finer doctrinal moments.
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This is almost as bad as to preach WITHOUT the Bible. Using the pulpit to
endorse political agendas or share the social struggles of the world is
inappropriate.
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Preaching the Word involves submitting to it's various literary genres, noting
the meaning of words in their particular contexts.
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When that is established, there is the simple declaration of God's authorial
intent and reconciling that in the person of Jesus Christ.
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This is why you cannot simply take a story or a verse from a passage and make
it mean what you want. The text means what it means and cannot be divorced from
it's native environment.
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Paul is calling Timothy to maintain the highest honor for the word of God and
to make that the center of the church's experience as they gather. This was to
be his regular practice.
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God is not against topical teaching. Occasions will rise where topical teaching
is necessary. But the church's main diet will be sequential expository
preaching. Verse 2b.
•
II Timothy 4:2b : "Be ready in season and out of
season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." : Timothy, "Be ready." Be prepared, urgent, instant and
earnest.
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Be ready whether there is a good opportunity before you or no opportunity
before you. The HCSB translates it like this: "persist in it whether convenient or not."
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There are times when a need for proclamation will occur when you have planned
for it. There are other times when an opportunity will present itself that you
couldn't have imagined.
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Be prepared at any moment to proclaim the Word of God! If someone were to ask
you today after church, "How can I be saved?" What would you proclaim
to them?
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How about at an unusually long line at the grocery store? A chance meeting at a
coffee shop? A run in at the gym? Be ready to proclaim God's Word whether it's
a good time or not!
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What does that look like? Timothy must be ready to convince. The idea conveyed
here is to refute by telling a fault. It's connected with the feeling of shame.
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The "shame" in question is not that of a personal nature, but a
positional nature!
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Timothy was to aim at convincing believers of the correct view to maintain from
scripture and not to shy away from it because it stood in contradiction to
popular belief.
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In other words, there should be an atmosphere of understanding that would lead
someone to be ashamed of a position that they have held, in light of the
authority of God's Word.
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There should be moments when the lights come on and you or I realize that we
have been in error about a dearly held position. "I've always believed,
but it says this. I'll go with that!"
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That has happened to me multiple times when studying and I have been told that
it has happened here as we have exposited the Word.
- As listeners, we
should be ready to have the Word fly in our faces when we are mistaken or when
we have taken a position in ignorance or obstinance.
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There is no virtue in believing something simply because we have always have!
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Timothy was to charge people, to chide them severely in such cases. Rebuke the
congregation if they rebelled against the Word in some way.
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"Convince" has an "apologetic," clinical tone to it. To
rebuke requires passion, and that of the Holy Spirit for the sake of the truth!
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At the same time and perhaps in the same message, Timothy was to exhort with
the Word. We've seen this word repeatedly. It speaks of coming alongside of and
lifting a person up.
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The Word and it's Pastor is to bring encouragement. One of my favorite verses
from the book of Job speaks to this directly. Eliphaz makes this comment to Job
in Job 5:18.
•
Job 5:17,18 : "Behold, happy is the man whom God
corrects; Therefore
do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For
He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His
hands make whole." : You might need to be torn
up, but the Word of God will also bind you up! He makes us healthy and whole
through His Word!
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That process happens as Timothy continues with all longsuffering and teaching.
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He is to go at this business with patience. Why patience? He is to endure
through all, including the potential discouragement of those that would take
issue with him.
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Remember that he is a young Pastor for the time, who also has the stress of
having to consider the inevitable persecution that Paul was facing.
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With whatever time he had left, it would be a temptation to rush through and
force people to figure it out, to "get it." But that isn't the thrust
of Paul's words.
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Endure through discouragement, when they disagree or seem to be at odds with
the text. Let them be. Entrust them to the Lord! Be a worker that doesn't need
to be ashamed.
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Truthfully, when you spend the proper time making sure that you have done your
work in preparation, the congregation, though slow to agree, will eventually
see the truth.
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That's Paul's last instruction: Teach them. "Carefully instruct," the
NIV says. Take your time and know what the Word says, then declare it and let
the Lord work it out in His people.
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Why should Timothy take this tact with the people of God? Note verse 3.
•
II Timothy 4:3,4 : "For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because
they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away
from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." : Ultimately, in Timothy's lifetime, there would be a window of
opportunity regarding the truth of the Word which was about to shut.
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How much more is that the case today!? A time was coming when the people who
were listening to Timothy would cease to desire to bear up under healthy,
literally, hygenic, teaching.
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The issue isn't a lack of understanding or a perceived loss in relevance. The
issue isn't that the power will have been drained from the scripture.
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The problem will be that there will be a loud and large enough contingent who
will no longer have the willingness to observe and obey the good words of God!
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They have the capacity to understand, but not the willingness to apply. Why is
that? Because of their own desires. Their cravings will drive and determine
their spiritual appetite.
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They won't consider their spiritual well being. They will be led from their
base desires having itching ears. Their desires will lead them to listen
exclusively to pleasant things.
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The will seek those that scratch their itch, accumulating piles of teachers to
do the job!
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The picture is that the person Paul speaks of will simply go from teacher to
teacher until they discover a person who will conform to their own craving or
meet their own criteria.
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This could apply to those that refuse to listen to Bible studies, but enjoy the
spiritual discussion with a little scripture sprinkled over the top!
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On the other side of the spectrum, there are people who only want to listen to
deep theologians and never be confronted with their own lack of spiritual
discipline.
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There are thousands of ministers who only speak upon the deepest of theological
subjects. Both kinds of people have deserted the cause of the truth and have
turned themselves over to fables.
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We've seen this word before. It refers to myths. It is a fiction. A narrative.
A story. Essentially, it's the narrative that they wish to follow! What does
Paul tell Timothy to do?
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"Follow them! Adapt your methods. Do what you can to make yourself
relevant. Meet them where they are." That has been the church's adoptive
wisdom for the last 30 years of my life!
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Let's listen to what Paul tells Timothy and see if there isn't a contradiction.
Verse 5.
•
II Timothy 4:5 : "But you be watchful in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." : This first phrase is variously translated. Paul is telling him
to be calm and collected in his spirit.
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It speaks of being "sober" (NASB) and "serious" minded
(HCSB). "Keep a clear mind" (NLT) and "always be steady."
(RSV)
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The thought is that when all these things come to pass, when people will not
endure sound doctrine, but will heap up teachers for themseves, he's not to
simply give in and go with the flow.
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Keep your mind clear. Don't be moved by the emotion of the moment or the
momentum of the movement. That isn't easy to do, but because Paul commands it,
there is a choice involved.
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You make those choices everyday. The world is choosing to cheat it's employers.
You have remained steady. The world attacks marriage. You have kept a clear
mind focused on the Word.
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Timothy was looking down the barrel of irrelevance. The world around him was
going to choose fluff and style over faithfulness and substance. "Be
steady in all things!" says Paul!
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When things go bad, endure through the affliction. They will come. Endure
through them. Don't seek them, but don't run from them either!
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Keep working, proclaiming the word of salvation. Let me remind you: Do the work
of an evangelist. He's not telling him or you to be an evangelist, but enter
into their work!
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It's not someone else's job. It belongs to every believer! Timothy was to make
full use of his ministry. Take every facet and make the most of it!
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"Fulfill" carries this meaning. Don't leave anything out and don't
leave with anything left!
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Be completely useful and look for every opportunity to make much of Jesus
Christ!
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Why is Paul so urgent? Obviously, the times demanded it. Persecution was on the
rise and there was an ever encroaching ceiling that Timothy was reaching.
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On the other hand, the opportunity was waning. Soon, the majority of the people
who once willingly heard and reveived the truth were turning themselves from it
and turning to fables.
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I'm convinced that Paul has a much more personal reason. Verse 6.
•
II Timothy 4:6,7 : "For I am already being poured out
as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I
have finished the race, I have kept the faith." : Listen to the words of an older man who has lived the life.
He's been where Timothy was now. He sits now at the end.
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Right this minute, he's being poured out as a drink offering. He is ready to be
offered. The drink offering was offered on top of the altar or the meat
offering. (Exodus 29:40, Numbers 15:5-7)
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Paul sees all of his work as an act of worship. The end of his life will
complete the sacrifice
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His opportunity to depart is near. The word Paul chooses is beautiful.
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He will die by decapitation, but he chooses to see it as a man lifting the
ropes that tie his boat to the dock, just prior to sail. The moorings are being
let loose and soon, he'll be out to sea!
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He has agonized in the good fight. This is the fight that he has been calling
Timothy to fight in I Timothy 6:12.
It was the fight that lead to grabbing ahold of eternal life!
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He was done. He could see the finish line and he still held the baton! He had
kept the faith with an iron grip to the very bitter end.
•
II Timothy 4:8 : "Finally, there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to
me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His
appearing." : At the end of it all, Paul isn't
complaining about the life that led him here. He is looking at the inevitable
future.
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At the end of it all, there is something reserved, set aside specifically for
Paul. It's a crown of righteousness.
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Paul sees the Lord, the Righteous Judge, standing at the Bema seat, ready to set
his crown upon his head. He won't be alone. This crown is standard issue for
all that loved His appearing!
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I have lived for and loved the notion of His appearing for most of my life. I
trust that that sentiment is building in yours as well. See yourself there, in
His presence, with reward in hand!
Conclusion
- The Holy
Spirit is writing to your heart today: Preach the Word because the time is
short. Men's souls hang in the balance. You might have to endure hardship, but
it's worth it.
- Your King who
has commissioned you stands ready to reward your faithful service to Him. Live
for that moment and be about His business!