Sermon 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5

Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5
Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church
October 21, 2007

Tomorrow evening we will have a very important speaker here at Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church. Sue Kinsler will be here to tell us about her work as a PCUSA missionary to North Korea. This will be a time when we will hear about what God is doing in a part of the world that is usually off limits for Christians. Sue is doing tremendous work with orphans and the disabled. Please come tomorrow night at 7:30 to hear this important guest.

Will you pray with me? Holy Spirit we ask you this day to be with all those who are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Be with us now as we read God’s Word and use it to transform us into the image of God as we were created to be. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5 ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. ^NRS 2 Timothy 4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: ² proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Timothy was used to conflicts. He had grown up in a mixed family. His father was Greek, and his mother Eunice was Jewish. She saw to it that he was well instructed in the Hebrew Bible, what we know as the Old Testament. So when the Apostle Paul came to Lystra, Timothy’s home town, he was impressed with the young man and his knowledge of Scripture. Paul realized that God could use Timothy so he asked the young convert to accompany him and Silas on their missionary journey. But first, Paul had Timothy circumcised so to not offend any of the Hebrew Christians he might meet.

As Timothy’s experience grew Paul was able to use him for special missions. He was sent to Thessalonica to encourage Christians who were being persecuted. Timothy was with Paul in Corinth and Ephesus and was sent on an important mission to Macedonia when he was called to return to Corinth. There he experienced conflicts within a church and became quite unsettled. Eventually he was replaced in Corinth by Titus.

Timothy went with Paul to Jerusalem and helped Paul to write Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians while Paul was in prison. Eventually Paul went back to Ephesus and left Timothy there to deal with a church troubled with false teaching. As Timothy became discouraged with this assignment, Paul sent a letter from prison to encourage him in his important ministry.

Paul reminded Timothy that the foundation of all ministries is the Word of God. For Timothy the Holy Scripture was the Hebrew Bible that his mother and grandmother had taught him in his youth. It is very important to teach Bible stories to youngsters because it gives them a biblical foundation to work from as they get older. I have been privileged to attend chapel services at our Westminster Child’s Center. Elder Caroline Harris brings the two, three and four year olds into this sanctuary. They sit in a circle arranged by rooms with their teachers. Caroline leads them in song, singing a tune that I remember from that age, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me”. Then she tells them a Bible story. Think of the hundreds or thousands of children who have passed though these doors over the last four decades and the biblical foundation that this church has given them. When they experience death or disease or loss of any kind, because of our work, they remember these simple words, yes Jesus loves me.

But Paul knew that Timothy’s faith was far stronger than just being able to remember a few words of comfort from his youth. Timothy had spent a lot of time around Paul and had heard the stories about Jesus over and over. He knew the good new that forgiveness of sin was available though faith in Jesus Christ. This is the true gospel that Timothy was left in Ephesus to proclaim. But by what authority could he proclaim it? He knew the importance of the Hebrew Bible as God’s Word. But this new Gospel of Jesus Christ was not in the holy writings; it came from the lips of Paul.

Paul’s response was that just as the Old Testament scripture was inspired by God, literally God-breathed, so too was the wisdom that Timothy had heard about Christ from the Apostles who had witnessed the resurrection. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel message were authoritative in all matters of faith. By the end of the first century the church was accumulating many of the writings about the good news of Jesus Christ that would become the New Testament. And in the second century, by the time of Irenaeus, the New Testament was established and considered the inspired Word of God.

Paul told Timothy to use the Old Testament and the Gospel to teach the congregation at Ephesus how God expected them to live their lives. And if their lives came up short then Timothy was to use Scripture and the Gospel to show them where they went wrong and how they could do better so they could live lives in a way pleasing to God. That way the people of Ephesus would become what God had created them to be and they would be prepared to do God’s work in the world.

Of course it is easy to write these things in a letter, but it is difficult to do them with a congregation. Am I really to stand up here and compare your lives to the ideal in scripture? Do you really want me to point out your flaws and tell you to change? According to Paul I don’t have a choice in the matter. You see when I stand here and proclaim God’s Word to you I am standing in the presence of God and Jesus Christ. And they demand that I be faithful to Scripture whether you like what I say or not. I have to tell you when you go wrong. I have to scold you. But I also have to encourage you when you need encouragement and comfort you when you are down. I have to patiently walk with you though your journey of faith.

I know that many people will not want to hear what God has to say to them. Like Adam and Eve in the garden we prefer to hide from God in the bushes. We desire to hear affirmations of our own behaviors and lifestyle, but we don’t want to be challenged to change. And if we attend a church that does not affirm our own behavior we can simply move to another church that does. We often prefer false myths that don’t offend us to a true gospel that does because we have been tricked to believe that sin does not exist. But sin does exist and it has to be confronted by God’s people.

This seems like a hopeless proposition. I am to stand here and proclaim what you don’t want to hear. Why would anyone want to go through something like that? The prophet Jeremiah had the answer. God has written the new covenant on our hearts. So even if the message here is one that you don’t want to hear you came here anyway because God wants you here to hear this message today. You have been chosen by God and brought here today to listen to His Word. And the Holy Spirit, working within you, will take the words you hear today write them on your hearts and use them to make you what you were created to be whether you like it or not.

So I must persist in the proclamation of God’s Holy Word because your life depends on it. If I move away from the gospel and give you what you think you want then no transformation takes place and you have been cheated. But if I boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ then I am confident that you will walk out of here a little different than when you came in. And, if like Timothy, you spend a lifetime hearing God’s Word you will approach perfection as one created in the image of God.

How does all of this happen? First of all, the Holy Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God. God has revealed himself to us, though the writings of men and women who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. God has given us, in this revelation, all that is necessary for our salvation though faith in Jesus Christ. And in Scripture God has taught us how to live godly lives in accordance to His will. Therefore whenever I faithfully preach the Word of God my preaching becomes for you the Word of God. Now you may object to this. What if, you might ask, a scoundrel of disrepute preached faithfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Would that still be the Word of God? Well, yes because preaching that is faithful to the Bible becomes the Word of God not because of the character of the preacher, but by the faithfulness of God. So long as I faithfully proclaim to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God will transform my words into God’s own words and will write them on your hearts.

So if God writes his Word directly on our hearts why do we need to go to church? Can’t we simply stay at home and have the same effect? Of course not. As Paul told the church at Rome, faith comes from hearing. Thus when we hear from preaching the Word of Christ the result is faith. This in no way limits what God is able to do. God can speak to anyone at any time. But speaking to people through the preached Word of God is the usual method God uses to reveal himself to the world and effect the transforming work that God’s Word has on God’s people.

So rather that trying to win friends by preaching what people want to hear Paul’s instruction to Timothy is to preach the Gospel and expect to suffer hardships. He is to continue proclaiming the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ as an evangelist to the people of Ephesus. This is the best service the Timothy can provide to these people who desperately need the hope that only faith in Jesus Christ can bring. And this faith comes from Timothy’s faithful preaching of God’s Word where God is revealed to us in the Old and New Testaments.

So continue to come to Church each Sunday to experience the transformative effect that God’s Word will have on you. I promise to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as faithfully as I can. The Holy Spirit has promised to work transformation in your heart. And together we will experience the growth of our faith and the transformation of our lives.

Holy Spirit, we thank you for this opportunity to come into the presence of God in worship to hear God’s Word proclaimed. Use the Word of God that has revealed God to us this day, and work in us the transforming power of Jesus Christ. Amen