SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what a beautiful, good morning it is to you guys.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Justin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here at Sacred Mission.
SPEAKER_00: It's my joy to bring God's word to you this morning as we kick off a brand new sermon series working verse by verse through the book of 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: So our focus this year at Sacred Mission is going to be on discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at what it means to be a disciple in the first part of the year, and now we're going to be breaking into our normal rhythm of preaching through books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We've got some great ones coming up this year.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy, Daniel, Acts, and so we're really excited about this series.
SPEAKER_00: But before we really get dive into the text this morning, I would love to take a moment, as I've been uh preparing this sermon, thinking through uh 2 Timothy and so forth, it just reminded me of the persecuted church.
SPEAKER_00: That there are people throughout the world who are facing uh the loss of their life because they claim the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but there are people willingly risking their life to make Jesus known to others who don't know him yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to pray for them.
SPEAKER_00: We we want to be a church that is aware of that reality, conscious of that reality, leaning into this global reality of the church that we do share in the very sufferings of these brothers and sisters who are worthy by the Lord to be considered to suffer in such a way.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's take a moment and just pray for the persecuted church and we'll dive into our text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, your name is the only name worthy to suffer for.
SPEAKER_00: Your promises are the only promises that are guaranteed to us in the face of any circumstance that we could face, no matter how dire or despairing it might be.
SPEAKER_00: Your promises endure.
SPEAKER_00: And that needs to give us courage and confidence to be able to face whatever this world has to throw at us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, there are brothers and sisters throughout the world that are facing the very loss of their life even today, because they claim your name and they stand upon your promises.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we pray for them.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would comfort them.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would give them courage and boldness, that they would not allow fear and timidity, anxiousness and worry to overwhelm them, but they would be driven by mission to see others come to know the saving work of your death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And that, Lord, the church would flourish even in these persecuted areas for the glory of your name and the good of your people.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may we desire to continually lift them up in prayer, to be a position of support and strength for them, interceding for them and their welfare and their well-being as they face circumstances and trials that we could never even imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, let us be a great cloud of witnesses, cheering them on to the end of the race of which you've called them to.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So what words would you pin if you knew that they would be remembered as your final instruction before your death?
SPEAKER_00: What would you say?
SPEAKER_00: What urgency would you feel of communicating these things?
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is the context of the letter of 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's final and most personal letter.
SPEAKER_00: Most scholars place the actual timing of the letter just a matter of days before he would go and be beheaded.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's residing in a prison in Rome awaiting his execution.
SPEAKER_00: He's suffered abandonment by most of his friends and fellow gospel laborers out of a growing fear that they would actually meet his same fate.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the persecution of Christians was growing stronger under the tyranny of Emperor Nero.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a true and present danger in simply being a Christian, let alone being a leader within the church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul knows his ministry is coming to an end.
SPEAKER_00: That soon he will face death.
SPEAKER_00: And so he writes to Timothy, not only one of his few remaining co-laborers in gospel ministry, but it's his beloved child in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to exhort Timothy to boldness, to endurance and faithfulness, and the ever-increasing dread of opposition and persecution that he faces.
SPEAKER_00: Paul sets out to remind Timothy that following Jesus involves risk, sacrifice, and it invites tension and discomfort into your life.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds Timothy that dark, painful, or difficult moments are not a sign of Jesus' absence in his life, but it's an opportunity for Jesus' love and faithfulness to be most tangible to him.
SPEAKER_00: If anything, this letter works to steady Timothy's feet, to recapture his focus and to impart to him courage for the mission.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, we read just a moment ago, but it says this Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's introduction actually seems pretty unnatural at first reading.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 16 records this calling of Timothy for us.
SPEAKER_00: It says this Paul came also to Derby and to Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.
SPEAKER_00: He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra in Iconium.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
SPEAKER_00: So Timothy was very familiar with the reality that Paul was an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: An apostle within Jesus' church, one who had seen the risen and resurrected Christ, and who had been chosen and commissioned by Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy knew this about Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for certain, Paul had struggled with his identity as an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: And he faced many who opposed the genuineness of his claim.
SPEAKER_00: We see this even indirectly being addressed in his letter to the church at Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians 15, 8 through 9, Paul says, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
SPEAKER_00: For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be to even be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul may have struggled with his position and his office and the genuineness of his calling, but it's hard to believe that Timothy would ever struggle to know and see Paul as the apostle that he truly was.
SPEAKER_00: I think there are two reasons for Paul opening the letter here with this formal greeting.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I believe that Paul wants Timothy to know that this isn't a casual letter.
SPEAKER_00: I think that Paul wants to grab Timothy's attention right from the beginning with the gravity of this letter.
SPEAKER_00: And two, this letter isn't just for Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: But it's intended to be shared with the whole church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: We see later in the letter that it contains instructions and guidance for church leadership that would be relevant to the entire congregation, not just for Timothy, who was their lead pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Paul characterizes his apostleship as by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You see, his situation would appear to be very dreadful.
SPEAKER_00: He's imprisoned for a second time there in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: He's abandoned by most of those whom he loved and trusted and had poured his life out into.
SPEAKER_00: He's awaiting the very outcome of his trial that he knew was surely going to end in death.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says all of this suffering is by the glorious and sovereign purpose of God that he might know and obtain the promise of life that is only found in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here, Timothy, in this prison cell, suffering this way, not because I've made bad choices in my life, but because I'm called by the will of God for the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus, his son.
SPEAKER_00: So you may look at my circumstance, Timothy, and it may be filling you with fear and worry and anxiousness, but I want you to know I'm here because God's will is on me.
SPEAKER_00: His sovereign hand has led me.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is important.
SPEAKER_00: And it's important that Paul brings it up at the very beginning of this letter because as we study 2 Timothy, it's going to talk a lot about the cost of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to talk a lot about the cost of suffering for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that being faithful to Jesus invites a great risk to our natural well-being.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this question that actually underlies itself throughout the entire letter.
SPEAKER_00: Is this all worth it?
SPEAKER_00: If Timothy's fate looks like that, rotting in a prison cell or waiting for some tyrannical leader to cut your head off.
SPEAKER_00: Is this worth it?
SPEAKER_00: Is this worth everyone that you've known and loved abandoning you?
SPEAKER_00: Deserting you at your greatest moment of need.
SPEAKER_00: Is this worth it?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question that Paul's trying to answer for Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth it?
SPEAKER_00: You see, looking at the miserable condition that Paul's life has culminated into, if there isn't a promise on the other side of the chopping block that stands before him, then Timothy should flee into the same selfish self-preservation that the other unfaithful men have cowarded into.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, if there's nothing after this, then run.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, Timothy, there's life.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul wants Timothy to know right here, right now, though you see me in my imprisonment and despair, know that there's the promise of eternal life before me.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy was Paul's spiritual son and co-laborer in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says in his letter to the Philippians of Timothy, I have no one else like him.
SPEAKER_00: He was charged to remain in Ephesus by Paul to pastor the church there that had actually been established through their gospel witness and labor.
SPEAKER_00: He was young.
SPEAKER_00: And he was prone to feelings of inadequacy, often in need of being encouraged and reminded of the work of God in his life.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul writes in his first letter to young Timothy, he exhorts him to say this in 1 Timothy 4.12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, don't doubt yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I see a work of God in you.
SPEAKER_00: Now be faithful unto the calling.
SPEAKER_00: You can gain a sense of their cherished relationship with one another as Paul calls him my beloved child.
SPEAKER_00: Though, to the best of our knowledge, historically speaking, Paul had no biological children, but yet he fathered Timothy in every sense of the word.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Charles Spurgeon speaks of their relationship.
SPEAKER_00: He says this this is a relationship that even death will not destroy.
SPEAKER_00: When all the ties of natural descent shall be forgotten, sonship in Christ will continue.
SPEAKER_00: I do not doubt that in heaven Timothy is still Paul's son, and Paul is still father to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: What a glorious picture that is.
SPEAKER_00: Grace, receiving the blessing and favor of God that we do not deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, you've been graced.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Not receiving the punishment of God's wrath against our rebellion and sin, which we do deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, you've received mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And peace.
SPEAKER_00: Being reconciled into wholeness and completeness in relationship with God our Father.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, you have peace.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the reminder of these spiritual gifts were customary for Paul's letters, undoubtedly.
SPEAKER_00: But surely they would carry a distinct weightiness to them as Timothy would continue reading this letter.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, let me remind you, you've been given grace, mercy, and peace.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved son, don't forget these things.
SPEAKER_00: Verse three.
SPEAKER_00: As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy.
SPEAKER_00: I am reminded of your sincere faith, of faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear Paul's encouragement to Timothy?
SPEAKER_00: This fake faith we've witnessed in these other men who have ran into their coward hiding.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, Timothy, I see something different in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a sincere and genuine faith that I see in you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not even of your own fully, but it's been a heritage that has been passed down to you by faithful women who have given you the scriptures from birth.
SPEAKER_00: Paul opens the very body of this letter by giving God thanks for Timothy and letting him know that whenever his mind is set to prayer, it is also set on remembering his true child in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: And remembering Timothy, Paul remembers the tears that he shed the last time that they were together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we're not very sure of the exact instance that Paul is speaking of, but it very well may have been his farewell to the elders in Ephesus that we read about in Acts 20, as he's exhorting them and challenging them to be sober-minded because fierce wolves will rise up.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells them, I'm not going to see you after I depart from here.
SPEAKER_00: We read in Acts 20, 36 through 37, and when he had said these things, he knelt down and he prayed with them all.
SPEAKER_00: And there was much weeping on the part of all.
SPEAKER_00: They embraced Paul and they kissed him.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Paul had told them even then that they would not see his face again, that this was it.
SPEAKER_00: He knew what was waiting for him.
SPEAKER_00: But yet he still desperately wanted to see Timothy one last time.
SPEAKER_00: So he could be filled with joy by his presence.
SPEAKER_00: If this doesn't show us this relationship of fatherhood, throughout the scriptures, what we actually see is in this understanding of joy, it's rooted and established in this premise of God's face shining upon his people.
SPEAKER_00: That he's actually glad to be in their presence.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the blessing of numbers, it actually declares, Lord, cause your face to shine upon your people.
SPEAKER_00: At the most historical moment of the absence of joy was when the father turns his face away from his son.
SPEAKER_00: So think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wants his face to shine on Timothy one last time.
SPEAKER_00: That his joy might be filled.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants to look upon his son.
SPEAKER_00: This is the heart of a father for his son.
SPEAKER_00: If death was standing before him, then he's praying to let his eyes close in the sight of Timothy's face.
SPEAKER_00: He then goes on to remind Timothy of the sincere and genuine faith that he has had and from where he inherited this rich spiritual heritage.
SPEAKER_00: His grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know they played a big role in Timothy's life because later in the letter in chapter 3, Paul writes these words in 2 Timothy 3.
SPEAKER_00: But as for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 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.
SPEAKER_00: John Calvin writes that it's as if Timothy took in Scripture with his mother's milk.
SPEAKER_00: From infancy, he's been taught and prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: You see, in a time of Timothy's life and ministry where he may be tempted to feel isolated and alone, he needs to be reminded that he's not.
SPEAKER_00: That he needs to be reminded of the people who have stood with him and poured out their life into him to become the man of God that he is.
SPEAKER_00: That God's purpose and plan for his life was always bigger than the circumstances that stood right before him.
SPEAKER_00: For his sovereign hand had been nurturing him from birth to fulfill this calling.
SPEAKER_00: Young Timothy, whose spiritual father is in chains and soon to be put to death, whose fellow elders are showing themselves to be fierce wolves, masquerading as shepherds, who sees his brothers and sisters being hauled off in chains.
SPEAKER_00: Young Timothy, who doesn't know if he has the grit to keep going any longer.
SPEAKER_00: Young Timothy, he needs courage for the mission.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was writing to embolden Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that he saw, everything that he was experiencing would have caused him to desire to give up.
SPEAKER_00: Is this going to be worth it?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's about to be executed, my spiritual father, my elders are rising up as wolves against me.
SPEAKER_00: All of those whom we did gospel ministry with are abandoning the faith and cowarding.
SPEAKER_00: Is this worth it?
SPEAKER_00: But Paul wanted to spur him on in the work of ministry to remind him that even if it costs him his life, it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he goes quickly into verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
SPEAKER_00: For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Paul is speaking of Timothy's ordination into the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We see in his letter of 1 Timothy, where he called and appointed Timothy to be the lead pastor there in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul wants to help him understand is that where God calls him to, he will supernaturally gift to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Timothy 4 14, we actually see the felt need that Paul has to continue to remind Timothy that though he may feel inadequate, God has gifted and graced him for this purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Do not neglect the gift that you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, remember, where God calls you, he will supernaturally gift you to accomplish the calling.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the laying on of hands by the elders was an affirmation that of what they witnessed and observed with inside the life of Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: One thing we have to remember as a church: pastors are never made, they are simply affirmed.
SPEAKER_00: We can't make pastors and leaders within the church.
SPEAKER_00: We can work to equip and build up and train and encourage, but at the end of the day, if the Spirit of God hasn't called this man and gifted him into this office, then we can't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't make pastors, we simply affirm them.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what the men did there with Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: They observed a gifting and a calling in his life, and they affirmed it by the laying on of hands.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's final words of encouragement before he gets into the very substance of this letter is to remind Timothy of the very Spirit of God that resides within him.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God did not give Timothy a spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_00: So to be afraid, timid, anxious, fretful, that would be fundamentally contrary to what God had established within him.
SPEAKER_00: What lives in Timothy is a spirit of power, love, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And he would need to cultivate these attributes if he was going to finish well.
SPEAKER_00: If he was going to share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Another theme that we see within this letter is Paul showing us how to finish well.
SPEAKER_00: And it's seen most clearly in his faithfulness to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, Timothy, if you allow this lie of fear, if you allow this lie of worry to overwhelm you, you won't finish well.
SPEAKER_00: But God didn't give you that.
SPEAKER_00: God gave you a spirit of power, of love, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, finish well.
SPEAKER_00: If Timothy was going to grow in courage, he would need to look outside of himself to the people who had labored with him to become the man that he was.
SPEAKER_00: And he would need to look inward to the gift and grace of God that had equipped him for the battle ahead.
SPEAKER_00: I think the primary theme of this letter is courageously proclaiming Christ and courageously suffering for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The overarching theme of this letter: courageously proclaiming Christ and courageously suffering for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If Timothy was going to continue in the mission, because there was still work to do, Paul was going to be dead soon, but that didn't mean that the end of work was before them.
SPEAKER_00: It meant that there must be a transfer, a handoff.
SPEAKER_00: Someone needs to stand up and continue what needs to be done.
SPEAKER_00: If the mission was going to drive forward, if he was going to continue in preaching the gospel, making disciples, equipping the saints, planting churches, he was going to need courage.
SPEAKER_00: Because looking out across the circumstances of his life, it all didn't appear to be worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Especially if he was going to end up in the same situation as Paul.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with this inherently within our very life.
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth losing the relationships that we are threatened to lose because we name Christ and because we desire for them to know Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth the loss of status?
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth the loss of job?
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth the loss of life?
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth it?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe many of us have believed the very same lie that Timothy was tempted to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Son, you ain't got it in you.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think you are?
SPEAKER_00: Look at what's happening to all these other men.
SPEAKER_00: Look what's happening to the people who said that they cared for you and were standing beside you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Paul, your own father in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Look at him.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do is shut your mouth and just live out the rest of your days in safety and self-preservation.
SPEAKER_00: And all of that thought is rooted in this question.
SPEAKER_00: Is this worth it?
SPEAKER_00: This letter is the final words of a spiritual father to his beloved son, ensuring him above all things that it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Because on the other side of death awaits the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.