2 Timothy 4:1-4 "Preach the Word!"

We have previously seen in 2 Timothy 3:1-9   that we live in a world that doesn’t  take naturally to the truth  of God’s Word.  This  is confirmed once more in  our text, in 4:3,4, in which  we shall see  that people  do not  naturally love  to listen to sound, plain  teaching from the Word of God [cf.  2 Cor. 4:1ff]. 

Even though  the Bible is an extra ordinary, God inspired book   book,  we  find that we  are not naturally drawn to the reading  of the Bible  and to the listening  of the  simple  and clear exposition of the Bible, without gimmicks added.  

We struggle to keep up a basic discipline to read the Word regularly and systematically and to sit regularly  under public Bible teaching.  By nature people  are  more inclined  to love myth. By nature they love drama and hype and noise., and therefore they would far sooner gather around themselves teachers who tell  them  what  they  want to hear, rather than what  they  need to hear.

Our appetite for truth  and obedience  and love for God  does not  come naturally, even after we are converted. We struggle because  our old nature  battles with the new nature which we have received at conversion (Eph.4 :17ff).

In truth it sometimes feels  as  if two  dogs  were living inside of us – a good  dog and an evil one, and, depending on which dog we feed more – that dog wins  the battle for our heart and minds. Because of this, Christians  that frequently wander away  from  the Lord tend to struggle  with depression.

All this is due to the fact that we continue to live in a fallen word in which there is a fallen being, which the Bible calls Satan. John says that the world is in the grip of the evil one (1 Jn. 5:19). The apostle John calls this the spirit of the anti-Christ  (1 Jn. 2:18,22). The apostle Paul calls this “the devil’s schemes”, the “powers of this dark world … spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms“. Paul   also reminds us in Ephesians 6:10-18, that our life is a battle against the devil  who seeks to  control and manipulate this world which God has  created.

This battle manifests itself primarily in a dislike for absolute truth. The Bible claims such status for itself: It is absolute truth (John 17:17), and for this reason Satan among many other schemes  has made sure that there would be a massive battle for the reliability, authority and trustworthiness  of the Bible  in the last century. Satan knows that God’s truth is against him. And so he tries to minimize and relativize the significance of God’s Word.     Satan’s strategy in the garden of Eden, by which he deceived  Eve  is still the same  strategy which he uses  today. He still whispers into our ears, “Has God really said … Did He really  mean this?” (Gen. 3:1)  He wants us to question God. He wants us to question God’s authority. And people under his power do the same.

Thankfully, I can tell you this on the authority of God’s word, that this battle, though it is often  very testing and trying,   it is ultimately  a battle  which  belongs to the Lord.  Our text here  in 2 Tim 3:14 - 4:2  teaches us a high view of God’s Word,  and it speaks to us of the fact that there will be a day of vindication, ‘by his appearing and his kingdom’,  when Christ shall instantly  overturn the works of Satan, and when His truth shall reign.

Having then discussed  the state of the world  in 3: 1-9, and having established the basis for the inevitability of evil and   suffering  and the Christian’s perpetual struggle against it (in 3:10-13) and having given the  antidote  against   all evil  and  deception by holding on to the authority of  the Word of God  ( in 3:14-17), Paul now  makes a solemn charge  to Timothy, pastor in the city of Ephesus in 4:1-4.

Observe then:

·       V.1 The seriousness  of the charge.

·       V.2 The content of that charge.

·       Vv. 3,4  The  context to this charge.

1.  A serious charge (v.1)

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.  You and I are living in the midst of this  great battle for faith. What must Timothy do – what must we  do in the meantime, while we wait for  Christ’s appearing and kingdom? Paul is giving a solemn charge, and it sounds almost like  a charge  made at an ordination service or the administration  of an oath in which  he calls on God to be  a witness.  In doing so he piles up  five  solemn phrases:  (i)  “I  charge you....” (ii)   “ in the presence of God” (iii) “and of Christ Jesus“  (iv) “Who is  to judge the living and the dead” (v)  “and by  his appearing and his kingdom”.

What Paul is about to say is a very weighty matter. “In the light of all that I have said before I am charging you before God with this, Timothy!  In the light of the days that we are living in and the circumstances that we are living under, don’t fail in this! For this you will have to give account ultimately not to me or to your  congregation. You  will have to give  an account to God the Father and  the  Lord  Jesus (and I want to add, the Holy Spirit because  he has inspired the Word  cf. 2 Tim. 3:16) – the Tri-une  God  is the  One we have to look  to and give account to!

2. The content of the charge (v.2)

‘Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and instruction.’ Take note of the 5 imperatives: preach, be ready, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. All this is contained in the duty of preaching the Word in these days.

Preach!  (Gr. kērussō – to  announce/ herald  - making a public announcement).  Publicly proclaim the divinely authorized message from God to man. This is really the same work that the Lord Jesus came to do (e.g. Matt. 4:17). He made a public announcement: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  That same work He gave His disciples to do at various times and in the great commission (Matt. 28:18-20). This became the work of the apostles and many others after Pentecost. They preached the word of the gospel to all nations!

Why is it so crucial and so very urgent that this same Word needs to be preached today? Because every new generation needs to hear this.  Because there is a judgment to come!   

When does the Word of God need to be preached? In season (Gr. eukairos) – when  the time is opportune  and when  people are eager  to hear, and out of season (Gr. akairos) when, as in the days of Jeremiah  nobody wants to listen. The Word from God needs to be preached  whether   people think it is relevant or not; when people are responsive or not.

How does this word  need to be preached?  

·    “Reprove and rebuke…”. Preaching is not only the proclaiming of what the Bible teaches positively. Preaching needs to contain warning. There is no prophet in the Bible that did not, in the Name of God,   warn the people of his day. The work of the prophet was to hold the Word of God before people and to warn them   concerning their   sins. They spoke to the people’s conscience, and they aimed for conviction with a view to repentance.  The prophet reminded people of the consequences of sin, and he wasn’t allowed to water down the truth.  It is very tempting to focus only on positives, and never say what is wrong.  Preachers need to do both, and people need to know the difference, and that means being both positive and negative in our proclamation.

·       Exhort (Gr. parakaleo – admonish, urge).  Get alongside them and speak to them   in a fatherly or motherly way. Persuade them to turn from wrong things or from a wrong course of action.  Encourage them to do  what is right in God’s  eyes.

Remember that  the power for salvation lies in the preaching of the Word [Rom. 1:16-17] "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the gentile."

 3. The Context of this Charge: (vv. 3,4)  

3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Timothy needs to keep on preaching the truth, because a time is coming when people will prefer myths to truth. They will prefer messages that their itching ears want to hear. They will prefer that to listening to God’s Word, and in the midst of such times there needs to be the proclamation of that unchanging prophetic Word of God, standing out as a  tall beacon of eternal truth, even when men and women  prefer myths.  

The task of preaching  the Word of God is so urgent because of the imminent spiritual dangers to the flock of God, and in the light of His appearing.  Let me say this again. The world is for ever pressurizing the church to of compromise the truth. And it’s a subtle pressure. But it always relates to the seriousness with which we regard the Word of Truth. And so we find that churches no longer read the Bible publicly. We find   services where the word of God may be read, and then the message has absolutely nothing to do with it; and then we have services which lead the people astray with false teaching.  We see this everywhere  and I have to deal with this on an almost weekly basis.

And the  preaching of the Word is so urgent  because of  the fact that God has appointed a  time of accounting when  at the time of His appearing He will judge ALL people  by the standard of His Word. Flee from the wrath that is to come! (Lk. 3:7)

More than ever  we need to be urged   to  preach the Word  because of these days  that are reflected in  vv. 3 & 4 ,  are reflected in our own times.   God’s kingdom is appearing. Every day, hour, minute and second it is coming nearer. The Judge is  standing at the door (James 5:9). And when He is  here  the day of salvation is over. That is why the counsel of Hebrews is critical-  “TODAY, if you hear his voice … do not harden your hearts”  (Hebr. 3:7,15;4:6) 

Now, you may be saying, ‘That's all very  fine and good’. This is not for me. This  is a word for preachers.   But think very carefully  about your response .

·       This is a word for you too because you have people in your circle that no pastor- preacher can reach.  Have you not been entrusted with the gospel? In fact, your pastor preacher is there to equip you to do the work of  the ministry (Eph. 4:12).  

·       This is a word for  you. You need to hear the urgency of the Word - ”by  his appearing  and his kingdom: PREACH THE WORD!” When this season of grace is over men and women will have to give an account of themselves before God. And it will  be gnashing of teeth for many.  Tell them now  before it’s too late.

·       This is a  word for you.   We need faithful, systematic biblical teaching and expository preaching, giving us the whole counsel of God.  You don’t need psychological pep talks and feel good sermons.  No, you need  God's logic- God's way of thinking about this world! Granted, it can be  challenging to sit under God's Word  because it  convicts you  in  areas that you might not want to have touched or addressed. The Word of God  plainly spoken  has the habit to invade  places in your inner being that you have been trying to keep God out of. That  can be very painful, and yet, it is so very necessary that God should do this work in us, for the Word of God is  given  to cure us of our spiritual (and associated)  diseases.      

That is why we  remain   committed to expository preaching.  When you’re preaching God's word, you are giving people answers to the real questions and issues in life. So  this is relevant for you,  for it helps you to pray for your preachers who are charged to  preach the Word  and who lead by example.