proclaim the Gospel

2 Timothy 4

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A Final Word of Warning.

2 Timothy 4

Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. – 2 Timothy 4:2 NLT

This was all serious business for Paul. He wasn’t mincing words or beating around the bush. The proclamation of the Gospel and the desire to one day present those under his care as mature in Christ drove Paul’s efforts. He lived and worked as if God was watching his every move. Paul answered to a higher authority, namely God Himself, who was relentless in His desire to have His Son’s saving work proclaimed to the world and His Word carefully and accurately taught to the church. So Paul viewed his work with a certain soberness and seriousness, and he attempted to pass that attitude on to his young disciple, Timothy. As he wrapped up his second letter to this young man, he warned him to remember that God was watching. The righteous Judge of the universe was observing his every move and would one day pass judgment on all that he had done. So Paul encourages him to “preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2 NLT). In other words, he was to stay the course, do his job, maintain his focus and not lose sight of his primary responsibility as a shepherd of the flock of Jesus Christ.

These words of warning were necessary because Paul knew the truth about the world in which he and Timothy both lived. Paul was neither a pessimist or a wide-eyed optimist. He was a realist. He knew that mankind, apart from Christ, was on a downward trajectory and that any efforts to spread the Gospel were going to be met with apathy and even antagonism. One of the primary problems Timothy would face would be resistance to the Gospel message – not so much in the form of outright defiance as in the more subtle, but no-less-insidious form of apathy. In every generation, those who attempt to proclaim the truth will be faced with the constant temptation to twist its content in order to make it more sensational, palatable, and successful. The desire for larger audiences and a greater impact has always been the siren call of ministry. The danger comes when, in an effort to attract more people, we begin to alter the truth to make it more appealing. Paul warned Timothy, “a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:2-3 NLT).

Packed pews, popular Podcasts and best-selling books are not the litmus tests for successful ministry. The temptation will always exist to judge our effectiveness based on numbers rather than transformed lives. The key for Paul was the faithful proclamation of the Word of God, regardless of whether people wanted to hear it or not. The truth is not always popular. Our job is not to tell people what they want to hear; providing them with false hope and ourselves with a false sense of accomplishment. Timothy was to preach the Word, patiently correcting, rebuking and encouraging. Telling people what they want to hear will never help them get where they need to go.

This entire letter has been filled with admonitions regarding faithfulness. Paul wanted Timothy to remain faithful to his calling, faithful to the Word, faithful to his flock, faithful to Christ and faithful to the end – just as Paul himself had been. “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful” (2 Timothy 5:6-7 NLT). Paul wasn’t bragging. He was simply encouraging Timothy to consider his life as an example of faithful service. Paul didn’t measure his success based on numbers, but on his own determination to remain faithful to his calling. He was willing to leave the results up to God. Because he had proclaimed the Gospel, preached the truth and prepared the people of God by faithfully and accurately teaching them the Word of God – he could face the future with confidence. He could eagerly look forward to the return of Christ and fearlessly face God knowing he had faithfully fulfilled his calling to the best of his ability.

Paul’s life had not been an easy one. It had been filled with trials and difficulties of all kinds. But he was content and confident that he had lived his life well. He knew that God had been a constant part of his life over the years. “But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death.Yes, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen” (2 Timothy 4:17-18 NLT). His life had been a joint effort between himself and God. He had faithfully played his part and he knew that God had been beside him every step of the way – even in his darkest moments. But his greatest confidence was that God was going to faithfully take him home. His hope was in the future, not the present. His motivation was eternal, not temporal. His ultimate reward was in heaven, not on earth. As believers, we will not be held accountable for the results of our efforts on behalf of God. God will not measure our effectiveness based on our own human achievements, but on our faithfulness to Him. Faithfulness requires dependence on God. The Old Testament prophets were rarely successful – if we judge their efforts based on numbers of converts or the popularity of their message. But they were successful in God’s eyes, because they were faithful to their calling. They did what they had been called to do. They remained faithful regardless of the circumstances or the apparent failure of their message. Their reward was of a heavenly nature, not an earthly one. They had to remain faithful to their calling and trust God for the outcome. That is one of the hardest things for us to do as believers. We are results-oriented. We are trained to judge success based on visible results. Too often in the church, nickles, noses, and numbers are the criteria we use to measure success. And in our efforts to produce those results we can find ourselves tickling ears, twisting the truth, and compromising our faithfulness. Oh that we might hear and heed the call of Paul today. “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”

Father, may we be a people of faith and faithfulness. It is easy to come to faith in Christ, because it is completely provided for us by Him. We simply have to believe. But to live in faithfulness is difficult. To keep our eyes focused on the future reality of our faith is hard for us to do. We get distracted by the cares of this world and we measure our success by the wrong standards. You have called us to live faithful lives based on a reliance on Your Word and a dependence upon Your power. Don’t let us compromise Your message in an attempt to get better results. Don’t let us rely on our own efforts in the hopes of producing greater success. Keep us faithful to You.  Amen.

Ken Miller Grow Pastor
& Minister to Men kenm@christchapelbc.org

Day 150 – Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:44-49

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Go!

Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:44-49

“Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” – Mark 16:15-16 NLT

The Great Commission. These are the last words spoken by Jesus to His disciples. So they carry a significant amount of weight. After three and half years of ministry together, a gruesome death and His miraculous resurrection, Jesus is now leaving His disciples, but He had one last thing to tell them before He departed. It was a commission or charge. He told them to “Go!” He was sending them out as His ambassadors and emissaries with the message of the Good News of salvation through belief in Him. And they weren’t just to go to their neighbor, they were to take this vital message to the ends of the earth. They were to preach to all the nations. Think about what Jesus said. Give some thought as to just whom He is speaking to. These are the same 11 men who He had chosen three and a half years earlier. They were common men. They were uneducated for the most part. They were slow to learn and had missed out on so many of His important messages to them. Even after His resurrection, they still struggled with belief. But He was giving them a commission to act as His spokesmen and to take His message of salvation to the world. I can’t help but think that they felt overwhelmed at His words. They could not have been brimming with confidence at the thought of pulling off His command, especially in light of all that had just happened to Him. But Jesus was giving them authority – His authority – and they had seen what they could do with that kind of authority. He had sent them out before with authority to heal diseases and cast out demons, and they had returned reporting, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” (Luke 10:17 NLT). So they had first-hand experience regarding His authority and what they could accomplish with it. Jesus even suggests that their efforts on His behalf will be accompanied by miraculous signs, including the casting out of demons and speaking in new languages they didn’t know. Then He gave them two other “signs” that were a bit more spectacular or odd. He told them that anyone who believes will be able to handle poisonous snakes with safety and drink poison without ill effect. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and see them healed. Now we know that many of these signs took place shortly after Jesus ascended back into heaven and after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples proclaimed the Gospel in languages they didn’t know to the multi-cultural crowd who had gathered. Later on, they healed the sick. Paul, on one of His missionary journeys, was bitten by a poisonous snake and shook it off with no harm coming to him.

While there are those who want to use this verse as a proof-text to justify their believes in sign gifts and tongues, I believe Jesus is addressing two kind of belief in this passage. He said, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16 NLT). At that point, Jesus is talking about anyone who responds to the Good News and believes. Their belief in the Gospel message would result in their salvation, and should be followed by water baptism. Refusal to believe the Good News would result in condemnation and eternal separation from God. Then I think Jesus addresses a different kind of belief. He looks at the disciples and says, “These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe” (Mark 16:17 NLT). At this point He is addressing the disbelief of the disciples. They can’t believe what He is asking them to do. They can’t comprehend how they are going to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. It all sounds impossible and inconceivable. So Jesus reminds them that if they will believe in Him and His promise of authority, their going will be accompanied by miraculous signs, just as they had experienced before. Jesus is not necessarily telling them that these are the specific signs they will see, but the kinds of signs that will accompany their efforts. Speaking in foreign tongues makes sense because they are going to be going to all the nations, attempting to minister in languages they don’t know. They will need to cast out demons just as Jesus had done, because spiritual warfare was going to increase, not decrease. They would find themselves in situations, like Paul, where they were in remote places and exposed to dangerous circumstances, facing everything from poisonous snakes to enemies who might try to poison them. Whatever happened, they were not to worry, but believe. They would have the authority of Jesus on their side.

These words of encouragement were needed. Jesus was leaving and He knew that things were going to get difficult for the disciples. He wanted them to know that just as belief precedes salvation, belief would have to precede their efforts at global proclamation. What He was asking them to do was impossible. They were ill-equipped and under-educated for the task. But they simply needed to believe, then go. He would take care of the rest.

Father, it almost seems easier to believe in order to be saved, then it is to believe and obey Your Son’s command to go and tell. We find it so easy to justify our inaction due to inability or lack of training. But Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to go when they were ready or equipped. He simply said believe and go. He would take care of what they needed. He would be with them. We are to believe what Jesus told us to do and go and do it. Obedience requires faith. We have been given authority to go, so we must take Him at His word and do what He has called us to do. Faithfully. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org