What does a preacher look like? The photo above shows what I thought a preacher looked like when I was growing up. But ultimately, it does not matter what a preacher looks like. What matters most is what is preached. And that is what we are going to talk about as we examine Paul's Second Letter to Timothy today in our journey along "Route 66"...
Author
As we saw last week, Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles has been questioned by many modern scholars. But the internal claim to Pauline authorship is clear in each of these letters and the early church was agreed that Paul wrote the Pastoral Epistles. Moreover, as I mentioned last week, I find all the personal references in these letters to be conclusive evidence of Paul’s authorship. I find it difficult to believe that another author would have made up all these references to fit “just so” and deceive his readers into thinking that these letters were written by Paul.
Date
I also mentioned last week how many scholars who do believe Paul wrote these letters also think that Paul was released from his first imprisonment in Rome which is recorded in Acts 28. These same scholars think that Paul went on a fourth missionary journey after release from his first imprisonment in Rome. This conclusion is based upon three facts:
- Paul declared his intention to go to Spain. (Romans 15:24,28)
- The early church historian, Eusebius, implies that Paul was released following his first imprisonment in Rome. (Ecclesiastical History, 2.22.2-There are statements in early Christian literature indicating that Paul took the gospel as far as Spain. (Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 5; Actus Petri Vercellenses, chapters 1-3, Muratorian Canon, lines 34-39)
Thus, some scholars believe that Paul wrote 1 Timothy and Titus during his fourth missionary journey and that he wrote 2 Timothy during his second and final Roman imprisonment, around 64 CE or shortly thereafter.
In contrast to his first imprisonment, when Paul was under house arrest (see Acts 28:30), during his second imprisonment in Rome he was chained (2 Timothy 1:16; 2:9), possibly in the Mamertine Dungeon. During this second imprisonment, Paul’s friends had a difficult time finding where he was being held (see 2 Timothy 1:17). And Paul sensed that his life on earth was nearing its end. (See 2 Timothy 4:6-8.)
Themes
Paul may have had more than one reason for writing this second letter to his disciple Timothy…
- It is quite possible Paul was lonely. Some of his friends had deserted him. (See 2 Timothy 1:15; 4:10.) Others were simply away from Paul for a time. (See 2 Timothy 4:10-12.) Only Luke was with him. (2 Timothy 4:11) It is evident from this letter that Paul loved Timothy and very much wanted Timothy to join him in Rome. He urges Timothy poignantly, “Come before winter.” (2 Timothy 4:21)
- Paul was certainly concerned about the welfare of the Church at Ephesus and Timothy’s ministry there. (See 2 Timothy 1:8,14; 2:3; 3:14; 4:2.)
- Paul wanted to address the Ephesian Church through Timothy. As at the end of 1 Timothy, the “you” in Paul’s farewell is plural… “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.” (2 Timothy 4:22)
Structure
The structure of 2 Timothy works out like this…
- Introduction (1:1-4)
- Paul’s Concern for Timothy (1:5-14)
- Paul’s Situation (1:15-18)
- Special Instructions for Timothy (2)
- Warning about the Last Days (3)
- Paul’s Closing Remarks (4:1-8)
- Final Requests and Greetings (4:9-22)
Key Concept—Preach the Word
I mentioned when preaching on Philippians that it was my favorite book in the Bible and that is true. But I have long felt a very personal connection to 2 Timothy and have felt like the words, in many cases, are spoken directly to me. I imagine other pastors and preachers have felt the same. In particular, the verses in 2 Timothy 4:1-5, have inspired my own call to ministry. These words were read and used as a charge at my ordination service 32 years ago. I would like to read and talk about these words with you today…
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:Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship,do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
The first thing I would like to highlight is that Paul gives this charge to Timothy in light of five unchanging realities.
The first unchanging reality is God. He is the ultimate unchanging reality. What you believe or don’t believe about God doesn’t change the fact that God exists, and that God has revealed and will continue to reveal himself. If you don’t believe that God exists but you are open to finding out whether God is real, I challenge you to pray something like this, “God, I’m not sure if you exist, but I ask you, if you do exist, to reveal yourself to me while I read the Bible.” I would challenge you to pray that prayer and read the Gospel of John. That is a great place to begin. If you pray that prayer and seriously seek God through reading the Gospel, I believe he will reveal himself to you.
The second unchanging reality Paul mentions is Christ Jesus. Jesus is generally recognized as a historical figure. There is hardly a reputable historian in the world today who believes that Jesus didn’t exist. But believing that Jesus is a living reality, a person who we can talk to today, that is another story. And that is what Christians believe. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
The third unchanging reality Paul mentions is the judgment. A judgment day is coming, and Jesus is going to be the judge. You can go to the bank on that. Hebrews 9:27 says, “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment”.
The fourth unchanging reality Paul mentions is Christ’s second coming: “in view of his appearing”. It was the universal belief of the early church that Christ will one day return to the earth visibly and bodily. This belief is enshrined in the Apostles’ Creed where it says, “from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead”. The quick are not the fast. “Quick” was an old English word to designate the living. While some of us are living, we may not feel very quick anymore. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that one day Jesus is going to return to the earth, and he is going to judge all those who have died as well as all those who are living on the earth when he returns. As Paul says about Jesus in Philippians 2,
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
One day every person who has ever lived will bow before Jesus and acknowledge that he is Lord. How much better to bow before him now, to acknowledge him as Lord now, rather than wait!
The fifth unchanging reality that Paul mentions is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Our ultimate citizenship as Christians is not vested in any nation of this present world order. If we are followers of Jesus Christ, then we are citizens of his kingdom which is both a present reality and a future hope.
In a world that is constantly changing, seemingly at the speed of light, it is wonderful to know that there are five realities that will never change: God, his Son Jesus Christ, the final judgment, the second coming, and the kingdom of Christ.
It is in light of these five realities that Paul says a second thing. He gives this charge to Timothy: preach the word! What is the “word” that Paul charges Timothy to preach?
Well, it stands to reason that Paul wanted Timothy to preach the same word that he preached. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul wrote…
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
I believe that the word Paul wanted Timothy to preach was the good news about Jesus Christ—his life, his death, and his resurrection. This is confirmed by what Paul says a few verses later in 2 Timothy 4. He says to Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist.” An evangelist is one who proclaims the evangel, which is the good news about Jesus.
Many years ago, in seminary I learned about the threefold form of the Word. The prologue to John’s Gospel calls Jesus “the Word”. He is the living Word. Scripture contains the words of Jesus and words about Jesus. The Old Testament points forward to Jesus and the New Testament points backward to him. But Jesus is the living word—the main event. So, there is Jesus, the living word, there is the word about Jesus in Scripture, and there is the word preached. The word preached and the word in Scripture have value only in so far as they point to Jesus who is the living word.
Then Paul tells Timothy a third thing. He tells him to be prepared in season and out of season.
Evangelist and pastor John Guest once summed up this charge to me in this way… He said, “Paul called upon Timothy to preach the whole word, the whole time, to the whole person.” Paul was calling on Timothy to preach the word in all seasons of life—when he felt like it and when he didn’t.
I imagine that one day I will retire from being a full-time pastor of a local church. But I hope I never retire from preaching the word. I believe God has called me to preach in season and out of season until my final breath.
Paul uses three key words to define three different aspects of preaching. He tells Timothy to… “correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
The word for “correct” can be translated as “convict”. I think in this instance that is a better translation.
Billy Graham once said, “It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love.”
I am in total agreement with Billy on that. When I began to realize it wasn’t my job to judge anyone it took a great weight off my shoulders and gave me great relief as a pastor. What I try to do in preaching is simply present what I think the Bible is saying. I believe when that is done, the Holy Spirit can take that message and speak to people’s individual situations.
Sometimes, when we are listening to a message, the Holy Spirit convicts us. In other words, he shows us where we are wrong. But thankfully, the Holy Spirit never leaves us there.
I believe the Holy Spirit will always move on to the next step, which is to rebuke. But I know that sounds harsh. A better translation of this word would be to correct. The idea here is that the Holy Spirit first shows us where we are wrong, he convicts us, but he doesn’t leave us in that despair. The Holy Spirit also shows us how to be set right.
And then the Spirit goes on to the third step which is to encourage. If we are not, in the end, lifted up by the preaching of the word then it is not Christian preaching; it is mere moralism. Christian preaching always ends with encouragement. Convict, correct, encourage. Those are the three essential aspects of preaching. But I believe it is the Holy Spirit who ultimately does the work of all three. My job as a preacher is to simply get out of the way and let the Spirit do his work.
Charles Spurgeon was, perhaps, the greatest nineteenth century preacher in London. He preached from one of those high pulpits, with many steps up to it. And Spurgeon used to mutter under his breath on each step he climbed before preaching… “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” I try to remember to make the same silent confession every time before I preach.
Now, you may say, “Why do people need to be convicted and corrected at all? Why can’t we just focus on encouragement?” The reason is because of what Paul says next…
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Does that not sound like a description of our culture in America today? In some ways we really aren’t that different from first century Roman culture. People are still seeking teachers who will say what they want to hear.
Evangelist Luis Palau once described America as one big mouth. He said, “Everyone’s talking but no one is listening.” There are all these voices out there. Many of them are talking about spirituality. Sometimes we are like the ancient Greeks. There is this tendency today to think that all spirituality is good. But that is not the perspective of the New Testament. The New Testament makes it clear that there are good spirits out there and there are evil spirits as well. That’s why 1 John 4 says…
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God is good. And we can always test things according to what the Bible says because the Bible is our most reliable source for teaching about the person and work of Jesus. The Bible is the word that points to the Word.
How is Timothy to respond to this situation where no one wants to hear the truth anymore? Should he just shut up? No. Paul tells Timothy to do four things: (1) Keep your head in all situations. (2) Endure hardship. (3) Do the work of an evangelist. (4) Discharge all the duties of your ministry.
So, in light of the crazy world we live in, the Christian needs to remain calm and sober. That’s what the words “keep your head” mean.
Secondly, the Christian must face up to the fact that there will be hardship, there will be suffering in this life. Why? Because the task of the Christian is to go against the flow of this world. We are marching to the beat of a higher drummer.
But that doesn’t mean we are to keep to ourselves. We have good news about Jesus to share with others. As St. Francis is purported to have said, “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” Our lives may be the only Gospel that some people ever read.
And then finally, Paul tells Timothy to discharge all the duties of his ministry. The word for ministry means service. People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. We need to live out the good news in action, in service to others.
My father used to tell me, “You must win a hearing for the Gospel.” In other words, as Christians we must earn the right to speak into the lives of others. When my father first went to Spanish Harlem to try to reach teenage gangs with the good news about Jesus, he spent many months building relationships. He started a club for boys where he taught them electronics. At first, he did not say anything about his faith. Then Billy Graham came to town and my father invited Mr. Graham to speak to his club. That night my father shared for the first time with those gang boys the story of how he was once involved in organized crime and came to faith through hearing Graham’s message about Jesus.
Soon, one young man, Eddie Suarez, committed his life to follow Jesus Christ. My father told Eddie, “Do not tell anyone about your newfound commitment. Wait until they ask you.” The young man thought this procedure strange, but he followed my father’s instruction. As a result, Eddie focused on simply trying to live the way a Christian should. One day, a local police officer said to my father, “There’s something different about that Suarez kid. Do you know what’s going on with him?” My father said, “Why don’t you ask him?” By that time, Eddie was busting to tell someone the news about the difference Jesus made in his life.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
Comments