When it is Dangerous to Believe A Study of 2 Timothy

Transcription

1 When it is Dangerous to Believe A Study of 2 Timothy Sermon Transcript September 25, 2016 Ordinary Faith! Extraordinary Church! 2 Timothy 2:1-13 This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on September 25, 2016 at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. This is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) An audio version of this sermon may also be found on the church website at 1

2 Sermon Text 2 Timothy 2: You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. 2

3 Introduction We are walking through 2 Timothy, Paul s intimate letter to his protégé, Timothy. It is an intimate letter because of the nature of their relationship. At the beginning of this letter, with great affection, Paul calls Timothy my beloved child. This was Paul s most intimate of friendships. If you recall, he heaped high praise on Timothy in his letter to the Philippians when he said of Timothy, I have no one like him. Theirs was a deep relationship forged out of shared experience and high intentionality on Paul s part. Paul invested his life into Timothy. This is an intimate letter also because it is the last letter we have from Paul. Paul knows that his life is quickly coming to an end. He is sitting in prison while Nero is unleashing a most cruel persecution against the Christian community in Rome. Falsely accusing the Christian community for setting a fire that destroyed much of the city of Rome, Nero persecuted the Christian community in order to deflect attention away from his growing unpopularity among the citizens of Rome. During this time, two of the most high profile leaders of the early church became martyrs for the cause of Christ: Peter and Paul. And so you can hear intimate tones in this letter when Paul invites Timothy to come and see him, perhaps for one last time. To his closest friend, he writes with a sense of urgency in 2 Timothy 4:9, Do your best to come to me soon. Who knows? This letter may very well be the last word Timothy ever received from Paul. I don t know if Timothy ever made his way to Paul before he was taken and executed. Now the reason we are walking through this letter is not just to observe the instruction that Paul gives to Timothy during a very difficult and fearful time for both Paul and the church in Rome. Rather, we are putting this letter up against the backdrop of what we are experiencing as we live out our faith in an increasingly growing secular culture. What makes these words from Paul to Timothy so relevant to us and our situation is not just that our culture is adopting an ever growing secular worldview. But there is a militant nature to this growing secularism that is fueled by the ongoing sexual revolution. Consequently, it is starting to cost us something to stay true to what has been passed down to us through the Scriptures. Or as Mary Eberstadt has put it with the title of her recent book, It s Dangerous To Believe. In fact, that is exactly the nature of the danger posed to people of faith in the West. It is dangerous simply to believe. In 2014, HGTV canceled a reality show they were about to launch featuring twin brothers David and Jason Benham. This reality show was to feature these twin brothers buying and renovating properties and then helping people to buy these newly renovated 3

4 homes. The show was cancelled when a group called Right Wing Watch denounced the brothers because they were pro-life and because they held to a traditional view of marriage. Even though there had been no demonstration of discrimination in their past when it came to helping people find a home, their show was canceled in a matter of a day. Their crime was what they believed. And so they said, If our faith costs us a TV show, so be it. 1 Reflecting on this story, Mary Eberstadt captures the dilemma many Christians feel they are being forced to wrestle with as they try to figure out how to live out their faith in this new public arena. She poses the dilemma this way.... My faith vs. my job My faith vs. my social standing My faith vs. my future For more and more Christians, such either-or thought experiments aren t theoretical exercises. They are constant real-life companions. 2 Even more disconcerting than being able to keep a TV show, is the way this militant approach is applied to both Catholic and Protestant charities, who in many cases are the backbone of caring for the poor in many of our communities. The constant litigation that comes up against them because of their traditional view of the family has caused some to simply close down their services while others are distracted from doing good because of the attention and the resources needed to defend their religious freedom. At the end of the day, the poor suffer as a result. It is widely documented that religious believers, especially American Christians, give significantly more of their time and money to charities of all kinds than nonbelievers. 3 Arthur Brooks wrote the definitive study on this subject and the gap in charitable giving between the person of faith and non-faith is so pronounced that he dubbed it the charity gap. 4 This is what forms the backdrop for our study in 2 Timothy. The reason we want to pay attention to what Paul has to say to Timothy is because Paul is writing out of a context of severe persecution. He is about to lose his life. So what does he say to Timothy about living out his faith in that context that we can embrace in our context where things seem to be getting a little more challenging. Well for starters, we saw Paul address the spirit of fear which seems to be a growing spirit within many people of faith in the West. If nothing else, at the beginning of this letter Paul says, for God gave us a spirit not of fear. So all throughout this letter you do not find words of fear. Rather, you find words of hope. He tells Timothy to keep at it 4

5 and to fan into flame the gift of God that was affirmed at his ordination. He tells him to not be ashamed of our Lord nor of Paul, a prisoner of the Lord. And so we come into 2 Timothy 2 this morning and I find it to be a passage that exudes supernatural confidence. It is not a confidence that comes from self-denial. The theme of suffering still permeates the air of this passage. There is the repeated invitation in verse 3 to share in suffering. This passage also includes the constant call to endure. And so, the confidence that exudes from this passage does not come from a false optimism that downplays the hard realities that come in living out our faith in a setting like this. And yet, in spite of these hard realities you can hear the ring of confidence in Paul s voice when he says in verse 8, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Or in verse 9 where he refers to his own limitations because he is bound with chains, and yet with confidence in God he says, But the word of God is not bound. And so, Paul encourages us to be confident that God is still at work in this world. To this end, I offer you four thoughts for your encouragement from this passage. Our Calling: Ordinary Faith When Paul was writing this letter to Timothy, there is no doubt in my mind that Paul felt they were living in extraordinary times. The persecution they were facing under Nero was the first documented case in church history where persecution of the church was carried out by an emperor. Truly this was extraordinary. And yet, for extraordinary times like this, I find Paul s instructions for Timothy to be rather ordinary. He writes in verses 1-2, You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. These words speak to the rather ordinary way faith is passed from one generation to the next. Timothy was to take what he had received from Paul and he was to pass it on to faithful men who will in turn teach others. Paul alludes to this ordinary transmission of faith in 2 Timothy 1:13 when he says to Timothy, Follow the pattern of the sound words you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. These sound words passed onto Timothy have to do with the content of what he was taught by Paul. Clearly, the gospel is at the center of what he learned from Paul. This gospel had already been referred to in verse 10 as Paul spoke of Jesus who abolished death through the cross of Christ and brought life and immortality to light through his resurrection from the dead. These were the sound words passed onto Timothy and he was to guard this good deposit entrusted to him. But Paul didn t just pass doctrine onto Timothy. Paul was an 5

6 example to Timothy of how Jesus impacts and shapes a life. He was to follow what Paul passed onto him in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Paul also set an example and passed onto Timothy a way to live. And so when you come to these verses in the beginning of 2 Timothy 2, Timothy is to now take what was invested into his life and he was to do likewise. In a rather ordinary way, Paul says, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. And so this faith is transmitted from Paul to Timothy, who will then invest in some faithful men who will then teach others and so on and so on and so on..... and here we are. In a rather ordinary way, we are part of that long chain that has connected us to God s people who have gone before us.... and who will continue after us. So what is the answer for the church in the West for these extraordinary times? Stay committed to the ordinary process of transmitting the faith to the next generation by guarding the good deposit of the gospel and by living it out in your family and with your church family. It is all rather ordinary. At the beginning of the month, the cover article for TIME read like this: Ordinary Families. Extraordinary Kids. The title caught my attention. The article traced nine families who were rather ordinary. Some of them actually lived in poverty. Quite a few of them were immigrant families trying to make a better life for their children. And yet, is spite of being rather ordinary families, their children became rather successful and they did some extraordinary things. The article sought to identify some of the common denominators that contributed to these kids being so extraordinary. I found it interesting that one of the common denominators among these families was a strong bond between the child and the parents. Many of these kids recall intense conflict among their brothers and sisters but little conflict between their parents. 5 As we are dealing with some of the new realities of living out our faith in the West, there is a sense that we are living in extraordinary times. Things aren t as they were and who knows what things will be like tomorrow. Not only does it seem like the climate in our culture is changing, but the speed with which things are changing is part of what makes things feel so uncertain and at times makes us fearful. So what are we to do? Do we need an extraordinary faith for these extraordinary times? I don t think so. We need to simply stick to the ordinary process of passing faith to the next generation and this ordinary faith is what leads to an extraordinary church. In fact, it is a timeless process that predates the church. All the way back in Deuteronomy 6, the ancient children of Israel were told to take the law of God and to teach them diligently to your children and talk of them when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. The 6

7 process is all so rather ordinary. But it is what leads to an extraordinary church. These two verses have deep personal meaning to me. They were inscribed on the inside cover of the Bible my dad gave me when I was twelve years old. At the time, neither of us knew that I would follow in is footsteps and become a pastor. I can t help but see these words as being somewhat prophetic words for my life. These words apply to my calling as a pastor. This letter, 2 Timothy, is written to a pastor. This defines my task as a pastor. I am to invest in others so that they may be able to teach others. I am to guard the good deposit I received from my upbringing and I am to entrust it to others. And yet, when these verses were given to me by my father, they were given from a father to a son. He was calling me to simply do what was done to me. Now my parents weren t perfect in the way they raised me, and nor was I perfect in the way I led my home. But right now, I live life suspended between two living generations. My parents are still living and my kids are now young adults. And I can give testimony to the power of an ordinary faith that has continued from one generation to the next and to the next. The ordinary thing that was done was simply this: Jesus shaped the tone and the values of our home. The church was a constant presence in our home. Jesus was part of our conversation in the home. I saw it last week when Kyra Culup was leading us in worship. Kyra is a college student and her sister Kelsey, a high school student, was also leading us. But off into the corner was there dad playing that cool box and their mom was doing the slides. It is all rather ordinary the way God forms this extraordinary church. And by the way, on that team was another high school student, Victoria, and another adult, Jim. And so it is not just through the family this ordinary faith gets passed on to the next generation. It is through the church family and the relationships that are formed in an ordinary way that God forms an extraordinary church. Do you know what is true about the sexual revolution? It can t keep its promises. In fact, some secular sociologists who are looking at our culture with a critical eye, are coming to this very conclusion. There is a coming fallout to the sexual revolution. But as we choose to follow God s Word in an ordinary manner, when people around us come to the end of themselves, we will be there with something solid to offer them. Mary Eberstadt says it this way, Christianity is being built by people who have come to embrace the difficult, long-standing rule book not because they know nothing of the sexual revolution and its fallout, but because they know too much. They are the heirs of St. Augustine and every other soul who ever found in Christianity s tough code a lifesaver, and not a noose. And then with the confidence we see with Paul, she says, What s more, they aren t going away. 6 In others words, as our culture continues to call 7

8 the church to evolve with the times, in rather ordinary ways we hold to the truth passed down to us and live it out. Through this ordinary process, faith is passed to the next generation and it forms an extraordinary church that remains a true and faithful light in a dark time. These extraordinary days call us to stay committed to the ordinary process. Our Attitude: A Determined Faith It is important to know that when we talk about an ordinary faith we are not talking about a casual faith. Living out our faith in our culture requires a determined faith. In verse 3, Paul invites Timothy again to share in suffering. Like we saw last week, Timothy was to take his share of ill-treatment. There is nothing casual about that invitation. In the article about ordinary families, there was nothing casual about the way these parents raised their children. Living in the South Side of Chicago, in a rat infested apartment, every night, Gino Rodriquez would whisper into the ears of his three daughters as they slept, I can and I will. Every morning, he would have his girls look into the mirror and while doing a series of jumping jacks they would repeat that phrase, I can and I will. Through this determination, one went to Harvard Business School, one is a medical director of a health clinic and one has won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress. 7 So it is with our ordinary faith in these extraordinary times. We must be determined. Paul uses three metaphors to describe for us the kind of determination we need in order to live out our faith in our culture. In verses 4-6, he refers to a soldier, an athlete and a farmer. Each of them is a picture of the kind of determination we need to live out our faith in this culture. Paul starts by saying, Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. A soldier in the Imperial Roman Army was much like a soldier in our military. He volunteered to serve. He enlisted. He signed up for it. Most served as a soldier for at least 20 years. By signing up for the military, a soldier voluntarily takes on the responsibility to protect the interests of the state and if necessary, he puts his life in harms way. This is what Timothy signed up for when he became a leader in the church. But we also discovered last week that the call of the gospel is to take up our cross and follow Jesus. It is an invitation for all of us to die to ourselves. Or as Jesus puts it, seek first the kingdom of God. With a sense of determination, God is first in our lives and we order our lives not by the changing values of culture, but by the call of God on our lives. Like a good soldier, we live to please God. 8

9 Paul refers next to the determination of an athlete. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. We are all familiar with the discipline it takes to be an athlete who achieves success. When you watch a game, you see the glory of the athlete. What you don t see is the sweat and the work it takes to get there. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul tells Timothy to train yourself to be godly. He actually compares this discipline to bodily exercise, which he says has some profit but eventually the body passes away. This word train is a gymnasium word. It is a word filled with sweat. And so with great determination we embrace the disciplines of the faith. We read God s Word. We spend time in prayer. We make the church a priority in our lives. We practice generosity. We extend mercy to the one in need. We share with others what God has done in our lives. And sometimes you might say, this is hard to do. Yes, that is why they are called disciplines. But like an athlete we embrace the discipline so we can be used by God in the ordinary process of passing faith to the next generation. And then, finally, Paul says, It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. I grew up in a rural community surrounded by farms. I witnessed the cycle of preparing the soil, spreading the manure, planting the crop and waiting for the harvest. My grandfather was a farmer in Lancaster, PA and it was hard work. But every farmer endures with determination through the hard work because he has is eye on the harvest. As we commit to the ordinary process of passing faith to the next generation, we do so with our eyes on the harvest. When I look at the children and the students that come through this church family, here is what I know for certain. There will be a legacy of faith that will endure to the next generation. It always has endured through time and I have confidence that it will continue to do so. Therefore, with confidence in the ordinary passing of faith that has endured down through time, we live out our faith with great determination. Like a farmer, we do what we do with the harvest in mind. Like a soldier... Like an athlete... Like a farmer, with great determination we do not live in fear of the challenges of our day. Rather, with great confidence and determination, we commit ourselves to the ordinary and timeless process of living out our faith, trusting God and seeing God form an extraordinary church in us. Our Confidence: God at Work One of the common fears that plagues the church in the West is the fear parents have for their children growing up in this culture. In the introduction to her book, Mary Eberstadt, thinks back on a dinner conservation she had a few years ago with a group of 9

10 Christian friends. One mother, while cradling her infant wondered out loud how as believing parents they could protect their children from the toxic surges of today s society. One of the guests even wondered out loud whether or not in twenty years practicing Christians would be admitted to elite institutions or prestigious companies. 8 Later in the introduction she referenced the fear of a journalist who was concerned that his own children would grow to hate him because they will believe the terrible things said about the faith in the public square. 9 While these are some of the legitimate fears people of faith have in our culture, Paul speaks instead into our reality with words of confidence. In verse 8 he says, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. In other words, through the resurrected Jesus, the kingdom of God has come into this world. And furthermore, Paul may be sitting in prison bound in chains. But with a tone of confidence he says, But the word of God is not bound! Some have tried to chain the Word of God. We spoke last week about Iran being the country where the church is growing the fastest in the world today. In 1979, the Bible was banned from Iran. But in the past 20 years, more people have come to faith in Christ in Iran than the previous thirteen centuries put together. Look at China! Is that not a modern day example of the boundless power of the Word of God? I know when Paul says in verse 10, Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory that it raises all kinds of questions. What does he mean by the elect? Can I tell you one thing it means. It means that when you share your faith, even in the context of suffering, you can do so with the assurance of the success of the proclamation of the gospel. How so? Because you know that God has people that he is bringing to himself and nothing can thwart the effectual calling of God on the life of a person. Sure, there may be hardship in the days to come. No doubt, there are real fears about what kind of world our kids will find when it comes to faith. But Jesus is still risen from the dead! As we will see in a couple of weeks, the Word of God is inspired by the Spirit of God and so it is alive and active in the hearts of people. So with confidence in the truth that God is still at work in this world and that he has his people that he drawing to himself, we can commit ourselves with great determination to the ordinary living out of our faith. I have every confidence that some of the leaders of the church in the future are sitting in this room this morning. Why? Jesus rose from the dead and the Word of God can not be bound. Even in this culture and even in New England we have confidence that God is on the move. 10

11 Our Motivation: Our Hope Conclusion Paul ends this section with a hymn. It is a hymn of hope. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. In a rather ordinary way, our calling is to endure during the time God has given to us. Our hope is that we will live with him and we will reign with him. There is a warning to not deny Jesus and I think he is speaking about an utter rejection of Christ. But then there is comfort that covers our weakness, like God was gracious to Peter, if we are faithless, he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. That is how closely God is attached to us! And so with this hope, we press on. I call you this morning to recommit yourself to the life of the ordinary. Guard the good deposit of the gospel that has been passed onto you and live it out. Invest yourself in others. Invest yourself in the next generation. Be a Paul to someone. Live it out in your home. Commit to a lifestyle of worship, community and service as you commit to this way of life in our church. And by this very ordinary process, God will take us and use us to impact the next generation. It does require a sense of determination, but it is undergirded with the confidence that God is at work in this world through us. And so with great hope in the future, we commit ourselves to this end. I look forward to seeing what God will do through us. 1 Lisa de Moraes, Brothers Yanked by HGTV Respond: If Our Faith Costs Us a TV Show, So Be It, Deadline Hollywood, May 8, 2014 deadline.com 2 Mary Eberstadt It s Dangerous To Believe: Religious Freedom and It s Enemies (New York: Harper Books, 2016) Ibid, 90 4 Arthur Brooks Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism (New York: Basic Books, 2006) 10 5 Charlotte Alter The Secrets of Super Siblings in TIME September 5, 2016, 34 6 Eberstadt, Alter, Eberstadt, Introduction 9 Ibid by Dr. Scott Solberg - All rights reserved 11

12 Sermon Title: Ordinary Faith! Extraordinary Church! Sermon Text: 2 Timothy 2:1-13 Sermon Date: September 25, 2016 Getting To Know Me Questions 1. What is a hobby you like to do? What do you like about it? How did your love for this hobby get started? 2. How have you recently seen God take good care of you? Diving Into The Word 3. Read 2 Timothy 2:1-2 (See also 2 Timothy 1:13-14 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9). How does the ordinary passing of faith from one generation to the next shape your view of what it means to be part of a church family? 4. Read 2 Timothy 2:3-7. What do you think Paul is trying to communicate about our faith through the illustration of a soldier, an athlete and a farmer? 5. Read Psalm 1. What words of wisdom does this psalm offer? How does this psalm give you insight on how to pray for the ministry of the church in light of the two previous questions? Use this psalm as a way to pray for the ministry of WEFC. 6. Read 2 Timothy 2:8-10. What are some concerns you have about living out your faith in our culture? What do you find in these verses that encourage you and give you confidence to give yourself to the work of the church? 7. Read 2 Timothy 2; What promises do you find in this closing statement that give you courage to live out your faith? Taking It Home 8. List two or three principles from 2 Timothy 2:1-13. (A principle is a fact or a command stated or implied in the passage that is relevant to your life.) 9. Choosing one of the principles stated above, what will you do differently this week to apply this principle to your life? 12