2 Timothy 4:9-22 : Little comforts and Great Comfort

As you go through your mental filing list of people that you have deeply loved,  people  that you have had unpleasant partings with, people that you remember from long ago, what goes through your mind?  Paul was in prison in Rome, and as a prisoner he had a lot of time to think about people. This final chapter of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, and indeed  this final correspondence of Paul contains  a  list of people, some whom he remembers fondly and others with great  concern, alarm. 

Paul is always surrounded by people. He knows someone in every town. He is connected.  There are 17  people listed in this ending.

Paul ends this letter to Timothy, pastor in Ephesus, on a very personal and touching note, and with a few requests. Here we find Paul, a man portrayed  with the same human desires and longings and discouragements that you and I   face.  I wanted us to see that this great, revered apostle and contributor to a third of our New Testament  had a very human face. I wanted us to see that he was very much a human being  like you and I, feeling  the need   for human company and comforts and intellectual stimulation. He experienced the joy and pain of human relationships as you and I do. He flourished and suffered because of these relationships. In one sense nothing in life gives more joy than our relationships. But  it is also true to say that  no experience in life can be  harder and more taxing than broken  relationship. But in the end, what counts in all the hardships, is the knowledge that  God, the never changing, ever faithful  heavenly Father,  throughout all his  many trials  stands by  Paul, strengthening him in his spirit and in his work.  

As always, I direct your attention to the text and discover what is there, learning the  lessons that the Holy Spirit intends to teach us today (cf.  2 Tim. 3:16,17)  

1.     Paul longs for  Timothy’s company:  v.9  “Do your best to come to me soon”. In v.21 He says ‘Do your best to come to me before winter’.  Paul needed to see him soon- before winter, before the sailing season in the Mediterranean was over, and bad weather set in (see Acts 27). At the beginning of this letter, in 2 Tim 1:3 he tells Timothy, “I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy”. Among the people that Paul longed to see was this young man, now pastor of the church in Ephesus. Here was a man that filled Paul’s heart with so much joy. Do you have people like that in your life? People to whom you write and say, ‘can’t wait to see you’?   The temptation is to think of Paul as someone that is very aloof. He always helps others, and gives advice to others, but he himself doesn’t need help. Not so.  Paul needs people, and particularly at this time. He wants Timothy to come.  Luke, the doctor, and travelling companion of Paul, the human author of the Gospel and  of the Book of Acts   alone is with him (v. 11), and surprise, surprise,  he is asking  that Timothy  would bring Mark with him, ‘for he is very useful to me  for ministry.’  You will remember that Paul and Mark (i.e. John Mark) had not always been on great terms. In fact, Paul and Barnabas have a sharp disagreement and a separation because of him in Acts 15:39. Paul felt let down because John Mark had deserted them during their first missionary journey in Perga, Pamphylia (Acts 13:13).  On the second missionary journey when Barnabas wanted to take him along, Paul disagreed and they parted company.    But clearly now (and isn’t that great?), relationships have been restored, and Paul says to Timothy, “bring John Mark with you, he is useful!” It is wonderful to see in these closing verses how important people are to Paul. Treasure  your relationships!

2.     Paul is lonely  and disappointed by  some whom he  once worked with  and  who  have either deserted him or have left him otherwise in a lurch, when he needed them: Demas is mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and in Philemon 24, but he has now  fallen in love with the present world (v.10). People  drop out of our lives. Sadly these things do happen. In addition Paul mentions the loss of company of two others, but not in any way like Demas. Crescens (not named elsewhere) has gone to Galatia (v.10). Titus,who was  formerly  on the island of Crete (Titus 1:5)  is now reassigned to  Dalmatia  (in today’s Croatia).  Tychicus has been sent to Ephesus. It is likely that he was   going to stand in for Timothy at Ephesus, once he came to visit Paul. Isn’t it interesting how Paul remains the ‘director of missions’ during his imprisonment?  In vv.14,15 we see some of Paul’s deepest hurts expressed: “Alexander the coppersmith, did  me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.“  He might be the same Alexander that is mention  in 1 Tim. 1:20 and in  Acts 19:33. Whatever he did we cannot say, but it deeply affected Paul, and he needed  to warn others concerning him. Sadly  so, some people  that we rub shoulders with  have become toxic, and from Paul’s perspective it is they who, after having followed the gospel for a while, now become enemies of the gospel  e.g. 1:15 (Phygelus and Hermogenes);  2:17 (Hymeneaus and Philetus);  3:8 (Jannes and Jambres)  

3.     Paul needs creaturely comforts. He needs his cloak which he left with Carpus at Troas (v.13).  He needs warm clothes. You can imagine. He is in prison, and it’s cold.  Paul, even though he has said that he has finished the course and fought the fight  and   run the race, anticipating his heavenly reward,  is aware  of the possibility that he may  yet have to spend another winter in prison. We are immortal until  our work is done.[1]   And so, on a  very practical note, he needs his coat! We have  lived through two Klein Windhoek- Avis (where we live)  winters  by now, and we are very happy to have  warm cloaks and a winter duvet!

"So, Timothy if you come (and please come before winter) pass through Troas and pick up my cloak  which I left with Carpus.”  We live somewhere between acceptance of everything that God allows us to go through and a desire to improve ourselves and our conditions.  Paul was in prison by God’s appointment. He writes to the Philippians from prison, “what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel . . . that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or death” (Phil 1:12-20), and yet he can say, Please bring me that cloak.

4.     Paul needs books!  V.13b ”bring the books and above all, the parchments…”   Spurgeon,  in a sermon  on this very text says, “ He is inspired, and yet he wants books.He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books. He has seen the Lord, and yet he wants books. He's had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books. He had been caught up into the third heaven and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, and yet he wants books. He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books and parchments.” What  an important reminder of the fact  that God has given us a book to read. Do you read your Bible regularly? Do you read good books? Reading Christians are generally growing Christians. What were  these books and parchments? In all likelihood  it  would have been a copy of the Greek Old Testament, and perhaps also his ‘notebooks’, the parchments, things which  he might have written (or half written).  Paul, even in prison, facing death  wanted to learn, wanted to be stimulated. Start  reading!

5.      Paul testifies  to  God’s  comforting presence in prison (vv. 16-18)  Notice what he says: “The Lord stood by me” (v. 17). Evidently some preliminary trial has already taken place (v.16)  and some deliverance had  happened. He tells us that like Daniel in Babylon he has been delivered from the lion’s mouth (v.17), and again in v. 18, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed ....”; and then in the closing benediction he says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you”. Here is the apostle Paul  in this terrible situation, alone and abandoned by many, but he knows that he  is not alone.  God is there. He is tangibly present. 

     Welsh Pastor, Geoff Thomas,  now retired,   tells the story  of Pastor Sandor of Romania  who was imprisoned in the 1950s. Kept in an overcrowded cell he longed for time to be alone with Jesus, for deeper prayer and an increased spiritual usefulness. And then, for helping a weaker prisoner he was sentenced to a lengthy spell in a below-ground punishment box where he could hardly sit, enduring insufferable heat, no sanitation and minimal food and drink. Initially he was despairing and confused, and then he remembered what he’d been praying for, and realized that Jesus was with his spirit there, that he has been given two weeks of undisturbed fellowship with the Lord. He always afterwards blessed God for that wonderful cell. There he knew this presence, this real, protecting, transforming, faith-enriching, holiness-developing, wisdom-granting, preacher-emboldening presence that would sustain Timothy and enable him to stand alone in Asia Minor and triumph over all these adversaries in the world and in the professing church.

So, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us in this section?  When we  are lonely  we  need friends. Poor relationships affect us and trouble us.  When our body is cold we need clothing. When our mind is unoccupied we need reading matter. We are human. These are legitimate human needs. But when everything is said and done, and nothing has become tangible  for us, God is there, an ever present help in trouble (Psalm 46)

I close with this story about William Tyndale (1494 -1536), that great English Reformer. He was the author of a number of books and of the Tyndale Bible.  There is only one letter that has survived.[2] It was written while Tyndale was a prisoner at Vilvoorde Castle in Belgium, about 10 km’s north of Brussels. There he was being kept in a cold and dingy dungeon.  Let me read it to you: “I believe, right worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me. Therefore, I entreat your Lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here during the winter, you will request the Procurer to be kind enough to send me from my goods, which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh [inflammation in the nose or throat], which is considerably increased in the cell. A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin; also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings: my overcoat is worn out; my shirts are also worn out. He has a woollen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have also, with him, leggings of thicker cloth, for putting on above; he has also warmer caps for wearing at night. I wish also his permission to have a candle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark. But above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the Procurer that he would kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study. And in return, may you obtain your dearest wish, provided it is always consistent with the salvation of your soul. But if any other resolutions have been come to concerning me, before the close of the winter, I shall be patient, abiding the will of God to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart. Amen. William Tyndale

Just as Paul did in 2 Timothy, Tyndale asked for his cloak and for his books. He would be led from the castle and martyred on Friday, October 6, 1536 through strangulation and burning.

THE GREATEST NEED IS FOR THE LORD AND HIS GRACE TO BE WITH US.

Paul's closing  words  from a prison cell are comforting: “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you” (v.22). 

This is what Timothy must have. 

This is what we must have, actually more than friends, warm clothes and books. 

After all is said and done, we must  have  the comforting presence  and fellowship of  the Lord Jesus with our spirits.

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[1] George Whitfield : letters p.1

[2] https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/tyndales-only-surviving-letter/

2 Timothy 4:5-8 "Finishing the Fight; Running the Race; Keeping the Faith."

The Bible  often compares the Christian life to a walk  or a pilgrimage, and  in Paul’s letters to  Timothy  the  Christian life is  also compared to a fight (cf. 1 Tim. 1:18,6:12) and a race[1].We see this in our passage. These metaphors all have one thing in common. They all have an end-goal, a destination in view.  You walk and run to get to a destination.  A boxer or wrestler fights to get a victory. There can be nothing aimless about the Christian life.  Where are you going with your Christian life? The call is to  go onward and forward, often engaging in  spiritual battles along the way, always striving  towards the goal and the prize- the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the Righteous Judge will award on that Day.

This is part of Paul’s parting counsel for Timothy, who has been called to work as a pastor-shepherd in this very challenging environment in Ephesus. His goal as a pastor would be to be to present all God’s sheep perfect (ESV mature) in Christ, so that they too would win the crown of righteousness.

When we are  born  and  grow up without  the gospel  our goals naturally   become  focused around ourselves and the  best we can think about is how to  work for a good retirement policy, dreaming about ending our lives in  a house at the sea or on a  quiet farm somewhere. There is almost  no thought about where my immortal soul will go after I die, and little thought about the fact I am ultimately accountable to the God who has created me. Consequently, I do not take cognizance of the fact that a life without Him now will also issue in an eternity without Him.   From the moment you are born again however, all that changes. When Jesus takes hold of you, He by His Word helps you to see that you are on a journey, a pilgrimage, a walk and in fact a race to get to the finish line called heaven.  Where are you heading?  Where is your journey leading you to? Where are you going to?

The second letter to Timothy is our final record of Paul’s earthly correspondence.  In this past week a  well -known newspaper man in Namibian circles, Des Erasmus, died at the age of  81. He wrote his last column on the 31^st August 2018, when he knew he was dying,   and he entitled it,  ‘Ek sê koebaai” (I am saying goodbye).We trust that he knew where he was going when he said his last farewell to his appreciative readers. These are Paul’s final words, and he knew where he was heading. Next time, in our last sermon from 2 Timothy we will consider his final greetings.    

This letter strongly indicates that he is aware that he does not have long to go. He is  heading for  heaven, and he wants to leave vital counsel with Timothy.  Please note the ‘as for you‘ in v. 5 and the ‘as for me’ in v.6 .  Paul is ending his ministry and Timothy is really only  at the  beginning of his ministry.  And so, these are his  words:

5 “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

It is good to think about, and prepare for the day of our death. All of us will find ourselves in a similar situation to Paul, when we must say… the time for my departure has come. And we want to be sure that those that follow  are  well instructed  and focused  on  their Christian pilgrimage!  

1.     By  being seriously  ministry minded NOW  (v.5)

2.     By facing the reality of  our  own death (v.6)

3.     By  fighting  the good fight, finishing the race, keeping the faith(v.7)

4.     By looking forward to heaven (v.8)

1.     Being seriously ministry minded- NOW! (v.5)

“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Paul was going and Timothy was coming.  It was important now for Timothy to be sober-minded, to endure suffering, to do the work of an evangelist, and to fulfil all the duties of his ministry because soon he was going to be on his own. Soon there would be no Paul to consult.

•    “...Be sober-minded.” The NIV translates, “keep your head in all situations”. Paul is saying to Timothy, ‘be calm and collected…be composed… keep a cool head … stay focussed on Christ Jesus. Don't get taken in by what the world around you says and does … by what the false teachers (3:1-8) are saying and claiming. Keep focussed on that goal. This is an important exhortation for a minister of the gospel because there are (believe me)  so many voices continuously shouting at a pastor for attention … this way, that way and the next way…Timothy, be sober-minded!
• “Endure hardship.” How many times have we heard Paul say this in the pastoral letters. The nature of the Christian ministry is a continuous spiritual battle.  This is par for the course. Expect it, live with it, plan for it, and do not be surprised when this happens. Jesus has warned us: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)    
• “do the work of an evangelist.” The goal of the Christian ministry is to evangelize –to announce the Good News of God’s salvation plan to the whole world. The goal is to seek the lost sheep of Jesus. This is the responsibility of every Christian. Our eyes continually scan the horizon to see where those lost sheep might be.  This is the heartbeat and longing of the Christian church- to see people delivered from the life of sinful meaninglessness and self- absorption, gathered to Jesus. To this end we labour and strive, says Paul in 1 Timothy 4:10.  We ought to be longing for and pray for true  conversions.
• “...fulfill your ministry.”  Do all of the things that you are called to do by God.

2.     Face the reality of  your  own death (v.6)

Paul was in prison and on trial in Rome. From the book of Acts we learn that he had chosen to go there, to appeal to Caesar. He had been brought safely through the first hearing (v.17), but he fears that he is not going to escape the clutches of Roman emperor Nero for the second time. He was sure the end was near.

• “I'm being poured out as a drink offering.”  The picture comes from Numbers 15. Apart from the sacrifice of a lamb upon the altar, wine was also poured out next to the altar. Paul is saying to Timothy, “I'm being poured out like that wine, next to the sacrificial lamb on the altar. I have poured myself out for the gospel of Jesus - the Lamb that was slain.” By his example he is encouraging Timothy and us to do the same.  Knowing that you have to die, and to leave this sinful world for paradise, offer up your life, next to Jesus. Be poured out next to His sacrifice. That is the picture here.  For Paul his whole life and all his actions were an offering to God.
• “The time for my departure has come”.   The ship is leaving port, and as it is released from the ropes  at the quay,  it is slipping away quietly, as  the gap steadily  widens between the quayside and the ship, ready to head for the next  harbour.  That is the Christian approach to death. Beloved, in death, we as believers are not facing nothingness, and gloom and darkness. We are setting out on the final journey to our promised reward- a most wonderful place. Dying  for the Christian  is the beginning of a new life. In fact,  Paul throughout his life had a desire to depart and be with Jesus. That better, by far! [Phil. 1:23]  

3.      Fight  the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith (v.7)

• “I have fought the good fight”. The Christian life in this world is a continuous fight against the world (religious and pagan opposition), the flesh (indwelling and original sin) and the devil (the god of this world – 2 Cor. 4:4).
• “I have finished the race”. When God met Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9) and set his face on a new path, Paul began a race  from which he never flinched. When Paul met with the Ephesian elders he expressed his desire: “if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:24). Well, by now 10 years have passed and he is about to finish his course.   Every Christian has a course set out for them.  Everyone is exhorted to finish that course.  The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us to “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb.12:1). God,  our heavenly Father  has mapped out each course and He will provide you  with  the stamina, determination and the means  to finish the course.  
• “I have kept the faith.” I defended and proclaimed the true gospel. Paul was not always popular, nor was he always comfortable, nor was he always easy to understand, but he was always faithful to his calling.

This is what  is before you, dear Christian. Fight, finish and keep  the faith. May all of you die in full assurance of these things! 

4.     Looking forward to heaven. (v.8)

What does Paul anticipate as he looked ahead?8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Paul anticipated facing an evaluation of his life, a judgment, a vindication and a reward. God has so designed it  that we live in a  moral universe in which,  what men sow,  that they will also reap.  Note this.  Paul fully expects to receive a reward upon entering into glory. This is not a  contradiction of the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. He is not smuggling a doctrine of works  into  his doctrine of salvation. The Bible undeniable teaches a doctrine of rewards.  God will reward His faithful servants.  Paul anticipated every  faithful Christian to receive  a  reward. “– and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing”.

The main thing we need to see is this. Paul’s life was driven by something greater than this temporary life.  He wasn’t working for his pension fund. His treasure is not here. His reward is in heaven with God. His reward is the crown of righteousness.  Now, he has already been made righteous, but he is still living in the present in which there is so much unrighteousness.   He longs for a day when sin will have been totally eradicated from him, when its presence and power is gone. This will happen  at the  appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you long for the coming of Christ?

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[1] See also Acts  20:24; 1 ; 1 Cor. 9:24; Gal. 2:2;5:7; 2 Tim 4:7; Hebr. 12:1

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.

2 Timothy 3:10-17 "The Inspiration of the Bible "

Today we shall consider  the  important subject  of the  inspiration of the Bible. The passage before us contains  an important testimony to the nature of the Bible and its divine origin. And the big question is this:  This book that you now hold in your hand – is it an ordinary book, or is it a truly extra-ordinary, God inspired book?  

And if it is an extra ordinary, God inspired book, then what is our response to it?  And what may we expect it to do to us and for us?  This question we expect to answer today. 

Our key text is found in 3:16,17 but before we  get there let us see how  Paul  comes to make this astonishing assertion  concerning the  inspiration  of the  Bible.

In this personal  letter,  Paul had  reminded Timothy,  Pastor of the church in Ephesus  concerning the way  people  will generally behave in the last days (3:1-9) – the days between Christ’s ascension and His second coming. He and we need to see this and expect this. The Christian ministry is lived and conducted in a very messy world. This does not mean however that Christians need  to conform to this world. In  Romans  12:1,2  Paul urges Christians not to be conformed to this world. Christians need to go against the flow  as  they deliberately follow Christ. For this reason  Paul exhorts Timothy to follow his teaching, conduct, aim in life, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, persecutions, sufferings. 

Paul encourages Timothy to imitate him in these things, not because Paul was anything special in himself, but   because Paul himself  was imitating and following the Lord Jesus Christ [cf. 1 Cor. 11:1 “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ“]. Notice how he includes sufferings and persecutions in the deal. These, says Paul to Timothy,are a part of your Christian discipleship. You cannot avoid them. They are part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian… “ Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted.” (3:12) There you are! Living counter culturally is not for sissies.   

And do not ignore the second part of that sentence begun in 3:12:  “while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (3:13). Why are they going from bad to worse and why are they being deceived? They do not listen to the Word of God (sound teaching). They do not know how to conduct themselves. They have no aim in life except to gratify and please themselves. They have no faith in God, no real  patience towards anyone , no real  love, no steadfastness… and because of this they are pawns of the devil, who has held them captive to do his will (2 Tim 2:26). Also, they would for this reason not experience the typical kinds of persecutions and sufferings that Christians experience  for righteousness’s  sake (Matt. 5:10).

And so Paul exhorts Timothy in 3:14,15, “But as for you continue  in what you have learned  and have firmly believed, knowing from who you have learned it” (cf. 2 Tim. 1:5) and how  from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”   

Notice three things: 

1. Timothy had been discipled in the faith from childhood by his godly mother and grandmother. 

2. He himself had become convinced of what he had been taught- namely the sacred Scriptures (which is the OT!). 

3. These Scriptures had made him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  These Scriptures led him to faith in Christ. So, please take note that these Scriptures and the Lord Jesus Christ are inseparably connected. 

In John 5:39 Jesus Himself says that “(these Scriptures) bear witness about me…”.  

Do you remember the incident in Luke 24? Following the death of Jesus we find two depressed disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were talking to one another about the recent events surrounding the crucifixion and death of Jesus. They struggled to interpret the death of Christ and forgot that He had said that He would be raised on the third day. Jesus, who by this time had risen, met them on this road, and they were kept from recognising Him (Lk. 24:16). In this dull state Jesus  came among them and,  “beginning with Moses and all the prophets  he interpreted to them  in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk. 24:27). From this story we learn many things, but the one thing I want us to see is that  Jesus  presented  the  OT as that inspired book  that  spoke about Him, the promised Messiah – the Saviour of  this sin sick world. 

    

So,  says Paul, “Timothy , you have been acquainted with the sacred  writings  which have led you to the Saviour, Jesus Christ.”  And to crown this  all, Paul  now  makes this powerful crowning statement concerning these Scriptures that have made Timothy and countless others  wise for salvation through faith in Christ.  

Three Reasons  Why You Can Trust The Bible [Vv. 16,17]  

1.     The Bible Is Inspired.

Some people   think that the Bible is inspired, in the sense that it inspires us in the same way a well written book  may inspire us, the focus being on you who is inspired by the reading of that book. That is not what Paul is saying here at all.  He is saying that the Scripture themselves, in their very essence and being are inspired- whether it makes you feel inspired or not. It is a fact outside you. So then we take note that, "all Scripture is breathed out by God…”.  The phrase translated directly from the Greek (theopneustos) is God-breathed, and hence our translation. The Bible is God talking. This is from the mouth of God. In the truest sense of the word the Bible is not inspired, but expired.  I know that doesn’t sound too good, but in its most literal sense, that’s what it means, at least in old English. Even now we say that when one dies, one breathes out his last; he has ‘expired’. The Bible is the expiration of God. It is the final Word of God as it is breathed out by God. 2  Peter 1:19- 21 describes how that happened.    

Notice that all Scripture (not just some Scripture) is God-breathed. There  have been many in history and even  today  who   have treated   the Bible  in  a ‘cut and paste’  fashion, choosing whatever  they like, and dispensing with whatever  they don’t like.  You cannot deal with the Bible like that. You cannot choose to believe some Scriptures and not others. 
All Scripture in every word, sentence and book is inspired. You cannot say that some books are more inspired than others.  In a subjective sense you may find Leviticus less inspiring, but in truth it is just as important as the Gospels or the book of Hebrews. In fact you cannot really understand the book of Hebrews or the Gospels without the holiness code in Leviticus. This book teaches in a most profound sense that God is holy and that every form of sin is an abomination to this holy God. It shows us that God hates sin and that sin kills.  It shows us that sin is so serious that it needs atonement, and so we find there the doctrine of the   atonement.  An animal dies in the place of the sinner.  But can an animal truly take away human sin?  The sacrificial system  in the OT points to its grand fulfillment in Christ, the Lamb of God   in the NT. This is shown in the gospels and the epistles of the NT.

The Bible’s inspiration (being God breathed) means that it is  accurate,   inerrant and authoritative, and timeless   because it is the word of God. For this reason Paul could write to the Thessalonians and say, “ We thank  God…. that you received  the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”  (1 Thess. 2:13). 

And so we have a high view of Scripture, because the internal claim of the Bible is that it is not the word or commentary of men, but the word of God.  Our own Church and Confession of Faith  rests  on this  foundation. The Bible is our final authority for faith and practice.  

Our  own 1689  Baptist Confession of Faiths reads,  

"The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God”.

It is one thing to say that you have a high view of the Scriptures but it is quite another thing to live and behave in accordance with the Scriptures.  Once again we see this in the Bible.  The Pharisees had a high view of the Scriptures -  in theory. But in practise they took liberty in interpreting and living out the Scriptures in a manner that suited them, and thus it became the traditions of men (e.g. Mark 7:6-9).  We face the same challenges today. The Bible is  used and abused and selectively quoted and taken out of context  by many so called Bible teachers, and by so many sects  and cults. 

Our challenge is to follow the injunction of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Take time to read  and appreciate this passage. 

2.     The Bible Is Profitable For Teaching, For Reproof, For Correction And For Training In Righteousness

"All Scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Scripture is not only the out- breathed Word of God,  but for this very reason it is also  logical  that it must be profitable  to our souls in every way.

It is profitable for teaching. It is profitable for reproof or warning. The Bible warns us against the errors we so easily make. It warns us of the traps into which we so easily fall. It is profitable for correction. The Bible corrects and redirects our spiritual course when we have gone off in search of many things. The Bible is profitable for training in righteousness. In this sense it is not to be used as a book to bash others with. Remember that you who teach are also subject to its teaching and therefore you must teach with all humility as you also remember that you are a fellow sinner in need of instruction.  The Bible is God’s manual for training in righteousness- in practical godliness. The reason why we often do not think that the Bible is practical is because the Bible often clashes with our own desires. The truth is that the Bible’s complete counsel is true, trustworthy and very, very practical. 

3.     The Bible  Completes  Us And  Equips Us For Every Good  Work.

“...that the man of God may be  complete , equipped for every good work.”

Believing in the Word of God and living by the Word of God completes and equips us. The Bible is not just a good book of good ideas.  God wrote it for the purpose of it being lived out in our lives. We are called to live by the Book!  The Bible is the book that teaches us  about marriage. It teaches us to be a biblical husband or wife. It teaches us about parenting, and  being a good employer or employee. The Bible teaches you how to  think and cope with  depression, anxiety, guilt and a host of other emotional issues. The Bible teaches you how to cope with sickness and dying.  The Bible saves a man from being a wimp, and delivers him from being a nerd  says Geoff Thomas. It transforms him into being “the man of God … thoroughly equipped for every good work” (3:17). The Scriptures are able to make  us  thoroughly equipped for every  situation in life. 

Could it be true, that the reason some of you are  struggling so much with your personal issues, because you are not resting in the Word of God, but in your own appetites (or lack of spiritual appetite)  and desires.  

Follow the man of Psalm 1. 

The opening words  teach us, “His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his  law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2). Here is a man who really loves and obeys  the Bible.  That is the true test as to whether you believe in an inspired Bible. You are not only someone who  understands the correct doctrine of Scripture in all its context, and  who reads the Bible every day, and who sits under  good, sound preaching every Sunday, but more than all those things, that  you actually love and  live   the Bible  because you have love Jesus, who gave this Word for your comfort and that you may be thoroughly equipped  for every good work.

Embracing the authority of the Word of God is vital for discipleship and a healthy Christian life. 
And  Inspiration  requires perspiration  on your part!