Series: New Testament Overview
Category: Core Seminars, Church Leadership, Pastoral Ministry, Preaching & Teaching, Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible, Work of Christ, Grace, Perseverance of the Saints, The Gospel
Detail:
2 Timothy: The Continuation of the Kingdom
Some of the most memorable words a leader speaks are those given in a farewell address. A lifetime or career of achievements, setbacks, joy, and pain can give us perspectives we didn’t have earlier in life. From farewell addresses we gain insight into the life of the person speaking. We sometimes learn interpretations of past events from their point of view. We learn what the person valued. And often we’re left with inspirational words for the future. Consider some of these memorable words from farewell addresses:
General Douglas MacArthur,
“Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.”
Reagan,
“My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference.”
Nathan Hale said,
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
And of course, Oscar Wilde: “Either this wallpaper goes, or I do!”
2 Timothy is thought to be the last letter written by the Apostle Paul—Paul’s farewell address. In it, Paul pens these now-famous words: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Those lines are among the most famous last words ever spoken. Along with the content of this final letter, they serve to tell us something not only about the man who spoke those words but also about the gospel purpose for which he lived. But Paul write this letter to convey more than just his personal hope in the gospel. Like in a last will and testament, Paul wants to ensure that his stewardship of the gospel will be passed on well to the next generation, and he directs Timothy here in how to do that, by God’s grace.
The message of 2 Timothy : In his farewell letter, Paul exhorts Timothy to protect the gospel, to preach the gospel, and to persevere to the end—in the face of expected suffering.
Background: First, some background.
Paul seems to know these are his last written words. Thus, there is a clarity of expression as Paul has perhaps his last communication with his son in the faith, Timothy. Paul had been re-arrested at some point, and he is being kept under more severe conditions and expects that death soon awaits him. Notice how his companion has to search diligently for him to find him—this isn’t the same kind of house arrest he was previously under.
Paul’s trial in Rome has begun. His confidence has shifted from the confidence he had on his previous imprisonment. There he had famously written, when musing over whether it was better to stay here for the sake of the church or depart and be with Christ:
Phil 1:24-26
But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
But now we see his hope is elsewhere:
2 Tim 4:6-8
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 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.
More broadly speaking, it’s likely that Nero is the Caeser at this time, which explains the weightier persecution Paul is facing—and also explains some of what Paul is trying to accomplish in this letter.
Imagine things from Timothy’s perspective: He’s been given a big task, Paul (his spiritual father) is about to die, Nero is trying to stamp out Christianity, and of course there are false teachers distorting the gospel. Into those seemingly bleak circumstances, Paul writes this letter to encourage Timothy to keep going.
That is a lot of information about context, but I think we’ve seen how important context is in helping us understand the weight of the message in these New Testament letters. Any questions or comments on the context?
Summary/Structure:
Before we discuss the book’s major themes, let’s briefly look at an overview of its structure. There’s an outline printed on the back of your handout. To be honest, I found it difficult to break this book up neatly into separate sections. The letter has themes that repeat throughout.
Introduction and thanksgiving (1:1–5)
Main Body
Paul’s Concern for Timothy (1:6–14)
Paul’s Situation (1:15–18)
Special Instructions to Timothy (ch. 2)
Call for Endurance (2:1–13)
Marks of a Worker Approved by God (2:14–26)
The Way of Godlessness (3:1–9)
The Way of Godliness (3:10–17)
Charge to Preach the Word (4:1–5)
Paul’s Victorious Prospect (4:6–8)
Final Requests, Greetings and Benediction (4:9–22)
Themes
To Timothy and to us, Paul’s message can be summed up in three words: Protect, Preach, and Persevere . Protect the Message that has been entrusted to you, Preach the Word no matter the personal cost, and Persevere to the End. We’ll take each of those in turn.
Protect the Message: First, Protect the Message.
That prompts an immediate question: What is the message that we are protecting? It’s the gospel! Paul explains in 1:7-14:
“7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. 13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” (1:7-14).
God saved us, not because of what we had done but because of his own grace and for his own glory. This plan began before even the ages began. And God has brought it to fruition now through Jesus—who “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” What a glorious thought. No more death. But instead, endless life with our Creator and Redeemer.
In much of this section, then, we see that the task of protecting the gospel message doesn’t begin or ultimately depend on us. It begins with the One who gave the message; the One whose idea it was from the beginning. He will not fail to accomplish what he has started. God gives us the good news. God saves us and sustains us. God calls us. God gave a spirit of power. We suffer for the gospel by the power of God. God appointed Paul as a herald of the gospel. And Timothy is now to guard that message with the help of the Holy Spirit.
In the midst of this solemn charge to protect the gospel message, we must be reminded that the task isn’t ultimately contingent upon us. No, it is God who gives us the gospel and it also God who gives us the ability to “guard the good deposit that was entrusted” to us.
But notice that God entrusts the gospel to us. God’s children are the means God uses to guard the good news. So how are we to guard it? In a sense, our call is to do nothing new. And that is substantially more challenging than it might at first appear. You and I are not called to give out another message; or to come up with something that has more surface appeal; or to craft a gospel better suited to modern needs, as we see them. We are called to give the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. If the gospel of Jesus Christ is altered, it is lost.
What does the gospel need to be guarded against? Many things. At a personal level have you ever been tempted to alter the gospel? Wanting to give in to our sin, we forget the costliness of grace and deny the Gospel call that once we become God’s children Jesus is our Savior and our Lord. Remember Paul’s words in Romans 6:
“Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:1-4)
Or maybe we’re tempted to alter the gospel in the moments after we sin. Overcome with guilt, we feel we have to do something to make us right with God—fast, go to church, read a book of the Bible. None of those things can justify us before God. Remember, Christ’s work on the cross is accomplished—all our sins are wiped away. So keep repenting of your sin and trusting in what Christ has done for you.
Or perhaps we’re tempted when we evangelize. The corners of the gospel can seem sharp when we share with an unbeliever. The thought of Hell seems so harsh to their ears—“would God really do this to me?” And so, in fearing man, we round out the corners of the gospel, downplaying man’s utter depravity and God’s righteous judgment. The consequence, of course, is that our message becomes so watered down that it becomes simply one of many nice things to believe in. There is no immediacy to it, and there is no more need of a Savior. Be careful to stay true to the gospel when we share with others.
There are other external pressures too. Timothy would have faced many temptations to alter the gospel in the face of false teachers. After all, the Christian gospel was not exactly the fast track to popularity in ancient Ephesus. While the gospel will remain and continue to spread throughout the world, individual churches may become compromised if they do not guard this message.
There are three particular aspects of the gospel message we must take special care in guarding today, because they are so often challenged or changed.
First , we must carefully guard how we present human need. Most fundamentally, our need is a spiritual need caused by the fact that we have all sinned against God. And those sins deserve his condemnation. Meeting people’s physical needs, of course, is not bad thing. In fact, it is very important. But our physical needs are temporary. Christians care about suffering, but according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, humanity’s main need is to be saved from eternal suffering.
Second , we must also guard how we present God’s provision for our need. We need to be clear on Jesus; he wasn’t just a good teacher. Rather, Jesus is the rejected Messiah of Israel who died as an outlaw on the cross. And by dying on the cross, he bore the sins of everyone who would ever turn and trust in him.
At many points in the history of the church the gospel has undergone attacks from outsiders, those who believe the message to be harmful or offensive. Some of the most sinister attacks upon the gospel, however, have come from those who claim to be preachers and teachers of this message. When men entrusted with this gospel begin changing it to make it more culturally palatable, they begin traveling down a path that leads to a denial of the essence of the message.
Third, an additional danger to avoid in the protection of this message is assuming the message. The plunge of many churches into theological liberalism in the early and mid-20th century didn’t happen overnight. Many churches that had once stood strongly for the gospel message, began assuming the gospel. They started focusing exclusively on the implications of the gospel. While we should be interested and concerned about the implications of the gospel, we never graduate from the basic gospel message.
The call to protect the message is not an easy call. Paul knew that calling Timothy, and all those who would follow, to guard this message would invariably lead to suffering for the sake of this message.
Of course, protecting the Gospel will often lead to suffering for the Gospel, which brings us to the next reason Paul writes this letter to Timothy.
Preach the Word, No Matter the Cost: (2:1-2; 4:1-5; also 2:14-26)
Timothy is not only called to protect the gospel himself; he is called to preach the Word to others—which is ones means of protecting the gospel. Part of Timothy’s calling is to entrust the gospel to other faithful men. Paul says to Timothy, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2:1-2).
It is not enough to merely teach others what the gospel is. It is the responsibility of those who have preaching/teaching ministries within the local church also to be raising up and training others to have such teaching ministries for the next generation. He does this, through persecution, for the sake of the elect. (2:10)
This is why we spend resources on this as a church. And part of what we must communicate to that next generation of those who preach the gospel is that sometimes that will involve suffering.
We already saw in 1:8 that Paul has called Timothy to join him in suffering for the gospel; in chapter 2, he continues this encouragement, saying: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2:3). Paul goes on to speak from experience, “as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” (2:8b-9).
We Christians must be willing to endure suffering and opposition to the truth. When opposition to the gospel comes, we have a choice: We can endure it, or we can avoid it by disowning the gospel. Often in life, we can hold the gospel with one hand and our comfort with the other. Circumstances permit us to carry both, so who’s to question our sincerity? But comfort has a slow, creeping way of taking over our hearts. It starts with genuinely and earnestly seeking to provide for our families, then turns into buying into what everyone else says is normal. Then, it ends up on the throne of our hearts. Suppose, then, a difficult trial hits you. You have a choice: You can be faithful to the gospel, or you can hold on to your comfort? Paul tells Timothy he may need to make this choice one day. He tells us the same thing. Remember, Christians are characterized by inconvenient love.
Whether Timothy was called to face suffering sooner or later, Paul encourages him to remain steadfast in preaching the Word. Paul gives very direct guidance to Timothy on what this looks like in 2:14-15: “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
This includes refuting error as well (2 Tim 4:1-5). Like first century Ephesus, we live today in a pluralistic world. People can hold to several contradictory things at once. A pastor must be able to say what the gospel denies , as well as what it affirms. This means that a pastor will need to be capable of rebuking and correcting, as well as instructing and training in righteousness. And often his greatest suffering will come at the hands of those inside the church. Pray that the Lord will continue to raise up such men for His church. Pray that we would support such men as they lead. Pray that we would be such Christians.
The preaching that Paul is calling Timothy to do should act as a corrective and counterweight to the false teachers. Paul goes on to describe the nature of this preacher and his preaching saying, “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (2:24-26). This is what a teacher should be like. Actually, this is what all Christians should aim for: utterly resolved to sacrifice themselves for the good of others and the glory of God.
Note, too, that the character of the preacher matters. So does how Timothy teaches. Paul says, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (4:2). Great patience is required by the very nature of teaching. This is how God is patient with us. A teacher of the Word must instruct carefully and with great patience.
Persevere through Suffering to the End: (positive—1:6, 2:12; 3:10-17; negative—1:15; 3:1-9; 4:10)
After encouraging Timothy to be faithful in preaching the word, entrusting the gospel to faithful men, resisting false teachers, and doing all this regardless of the cost, we get to a final theme of this letter. Paul has remained faithful to Christ through joy and difficulty, and now he concludes his exhortation to Timothy by encouraging him to persevere to the end too. Maybe Paul felt the need to tell Timothy, “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed” (3:14), because he had witnessed others fail to continue in the faith. He tells Timothy, “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.” (4:9-10). Other examples in 1:15 and 3:5 (“appearance of godliness, but denying its power”). Not all who claim to be followers of Christ, persevere in following Christ. Do you remember Demas? He was with Paul when he wrote the letters of Colossians and Philemon. Paul sent his greetings to the church at Colossae. And yet in the end he deserted Paul.
But Paul’s hope is that Timothy will persevere. How? He should follow Paul’s example —and so can we follow the examples we see in the Bible and in real life. And he should be careful to study Scripture . Paul continues: “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. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (3:15-17). If you wish to continue to the end, you cannot neglect the Scriptures. This is one of the main ways God has given us to endure to the end. If we are Christians, this is what we are called to do—feed upon God’s Word. And do you help others to feed on it as a way for us to persevere together?
For Paul, persevering to the end involves more than just ourselves. In Paul’s final charge, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” (4:6ff), we see an additional reason Timothy must persevere to the end. Paul was soon going to be off the scene. It is not enough for one generation of Christians to persevere. As the Gospel is passed from one generation of believers to the next, it is imperative that men and women continue, persevering in that Gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints! Persevering includes teaching the next generation to persevere, so they can do so with the one that follows, and so forth—until Jesus comes again.
Did you see how Paul’s calls to perseverance go so far beyond what we normally think of? When we think of a call to persevere, we so often think of the need to grit our teeth, hunker down, and wait for the storm to blow over. But in Paul’s mind, this isn’t about our own staying power at all. It’s about God’s Word. That’s how we persevere. And beyond that, we don’t just think of this as individuals. No: persevering as an individual is tied up with the ability of the Christian community around me to persevere. So as I patiently teach and instruct others, I am not only doing them a great service but myself as well. And then, beyond that, the goal isn’t ever about just one generation. We are to persevere in the gospel so that the next generation may do the same. And so persevering also means protecting. And preaching. All for the glory of Christ in this world.
Conclusion:
Paul serves as an example of one who Protected the Message, Preached the Word regardless of the Cost, and Persevered to the End. So, how did that turn out for him? How do we expect that to turn out for us? [NOTE: Can cut/summarize this closing if not enough time.] I’d like to close our time with a section from a biography of Paul, based on the New Testament, that was written by John Pollock.
The ancient tradition of Paul’s execution site is almost certainly authentic but the details cannot be fixed. Whereas Christ’s Via Dolorosa may be followed step by step, Paul’s remains vague. He would have it so. And because Christ had walked that earlier road, Paul’s was no Via Dolorosa, for they were walking it together: “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph.” “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
They marched him out through the walls past the pyramid of Cestius which still stands, on to the Ostian Way toward the sea. Crowds journeying to or from Ostia would recognize an execution squad by the lectors with their fasces of rods and ax, and the executioner carrying a sword, which in Nero’s reign had replaced the ax; by the escort, and by the manacled criminal, walking stiffly and bandy-legged, ragged and filthy from his prison: but not ashamed or degraded. He was going to a feast, to a triumph, to the crowning day to which he had pressed forward. He who had talked often of God’s promise of eternal life in Jesus could not fear; he believed as he had spoken: “All God’s promises find their ‘yes’ in Him.” No executioner was going to lose him the conscious presence of Jesus; he was not changing his company, only the place where he enjoyed it. Better still, he would see Jesus. Those glimpses – on the Damascus Road, in Jerusalem, at Corinth, on that sinking ship; now he was going to see Him face to face, to know even as he had been known.
They marched Paul to the third milestone on the Ostian Way, to a little pinewood in a glade, probably a place of tombs, known then as Aquae Salviae or Healing Waters, and now as Tre Fontane where an abbey stands in his honor. He is believed to have been put overnight in a tiny cell, for this was a common place of execution. If Luke was allowed to stay by his window, if Timothy or Mark had reached Rome in time, the sounds of the night vigil would not be of weeping but singing: “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as dying and, behold, we live.”
At first light, the soldiers took Paul to the pillar. The executioner stood ready, stark naked. Soldiers stripped Paul to the waist and tied him, kneeling upright, to the low pillar which left his neck free. Some accounts say the lectors beat him with rods; a beating had been the usual prelude to beheading but in recent years not always inflicted.
If they must administer this last, senseless dose of pain to a body so soon to die, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation . . . or sword?
“I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with” – the flash of a sword – “the glory.”
