Sermon Tone Analysis

But As For You

Ron Dunn

2 Timothy 4:1-8

 

I want you to open your Bibles to 2 Timothy 4:1–8.

Paul says,

 

"I solemnly 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: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

But you [literally: 'But as for you'] be sober in all things, you endure hardship, you do the work of an evangelist, you fulfill your ministry.

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 course, I have kept the faith:  In the future 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."

Some time ago I was visiting with a friend that told me about a little incident that had happened in his family.

One night he and his wife decided they would like to have a family night out.

So they thought it would be nice if they could find a movie that was suitable for the whole family to attend.

They looked in the paper.

But it's not always easy to tell because they say it's suitable but then they will have about seven exceptions in there.

So he decided to call the theater and talk to the manager.

He said, "Now, I'm planning to bring my wife and children to this movie tonight and you say in the paper that it's suitable.

But I want to now if this movie is suitable."

The manager assured him that it was suitable.

So, taking the managers word, the man took his wife and children to the movie.

He said the movie hadn't been on about fifteen minutes until he just couldn't take it any more.

He was so embarrassed to be watching those things and listening to that language in the presence of his children.

He just grabbed his kids and wife and they left.

He mused on that for a moment and said, "I forgot one very important fact."

I said, "What is that?"

He said, "What is suitable for the world is not necessarily suitable for the Christian".

Just because the world says this is suitable, for the Christian that doesn't necessarily mean it is suitable.

Of course, we are getting that way.

Things are getting more suitable for us every day.

The world is rapidly accelerating this suitability.

The things that were not suitable even to the world a few years ago are now suitable to the world.

The day has long since past when the Christian ethic is accepted by the world.

The farther we go, it seems, that the world has this marvelous magic machine that can just make anything suitable.

Things that were abhorrent and disgusting just a little while ago, they are now declared to be suitable.

And Christians are coming along with it.

We're an accommodating bunch, wanting to get along with everybody.

After all, you are in this world and therefore you have to live in it.

We find ourselves accepting the 'suitableness' of the world.

Anytime the church and the world sit down at the negotiating table you can always bet that the church is going to come out on the loosing end.

It is the church that compromises.

The world never compromises its standard.

What has been happening in the past few years, well I guess has been happening since the beginning of time, is that gradually the Christian people of every age find themselves gradually brainwashed by the world and the flesh and the devil until everything becomes suitable to us.

And it was no different in the days of Paul and Timothy.

As Paul is writing this last letter addressing it to this young son in the faith, Paul knows that his time is about over.

As a matter of fact he says, "I'm already in the process of being offered.

I'm already in the process of dying."

Paul is concerned about the preservation of the gospel, this gospel that Paul himself has so jealously guarded and for which he has so heroically suffered all of these years.

Now it is up to him to pass it on to somebody.

And of course his choice is to pass it on to Timothy.

Timothy is that one that he calls the son in the faith.

More than likely Timothy was Paul's favorite young preacher.

Maybe perhaps converted to Christ by Paul, but all the way through these letters you get the idea that there was a very special relationship between Paul and this young man Timothy.

As a matter of fact, mention is made that the last time they saw each other, Timothy broke down and wept.

Paul, as he comes into this letter, he will say, "Timothy, I want you to do your best to get here.

I want to see you one more time before I die so that my joy may be fulfilled."

So he is passing the torch to Timothy.

But he recognizes that Timothy doesn't have the best qualifications for this kind of leadership.

It always amazes me, yet it shouldn't, the kind of people that God chooses for positions of leadership like this; beginning with the disciples and Israel; as the man said years ago, "How odd of God to choose the Jews".

We would never have chosen the band of disciples that Jesus chose.

Yet here is Paul the apostle as he is having to pass on the torch, somebody is going to have to preserve and protect the gospel in all its purity.

And his choice is Timothy.

But Timothy lacks certain qualifications and has certain characteristics that are going to make it difficult.

For one thing he's a young man; at least he was by their accord.

He may have been in his mid thirties.

But the Romans only really recognized two ages:  that was when you got to be an adult at about forty plus and when you got to be really old, about sixty or seventy.

Timothy in his mid thirties was still considered to be a young man.

There are several references in the letters that no man is to despise his youth.

He's a young man.

Not only that, he's not in good health.

I have an idea that you have to be pretty tough in order to do the things that Paul did.  Paul says in one place for Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake and for his frequent afflictions.

Timothy just didn't have a stomach ache once in a while, he had frequent afflictions.

Most of all Timothy was timid.

This, I think, comes through in so many places.

Timothy was not the bold and audacious type that perhaps Paul had been.

There was some natural timidity in this young man.

This is why Paul said in one place, "God has not given us the spirit of fear".

(2 Timothy 1:7) 

 

He's saying, "Timothy you're letting the world intimidate you, but God has not given us that fear.

You need to stir up the gift of God that is in you."

So Timothy had a natural reticence, natural reluctance, and some natural hesitation.

Yet here is the young man that Paul is dumping the gospel on and saying, "It is up to you to preserve it, protect it, and to preach it".

The phrase that I think really strikes the note is that phrase in verse five (2 Timothy 4:5), where Paul after having described the current situation and having described what's going to happen in the future, he says in verse five emphasizing contrast, "But as for you Timothy".

That phrase is found four times in this second epistle and it's found several times in the first one.

What it simply means is that Paul is hammering down this fact to Timothy.

It is like Paul is saying to him, "No matter what the world does, no matter what anybody else says, no matter how anybody else preaches...BUT AS FOR YOU.

But as for you:

You've got to be different.

You must stand against the tide.

You must resist the prevailing mood of the day."

I think that if Paul would write to us today one of the paramount things he might say to us is this, "But as for you".

Regardless of what the rest of the world says; regardless of what everybody else preaches; regardless of what everyone else believes...but as for you.

You are different.

You are a person of God and you're supposed to be different.

What is suitable to the world can never be suitable for you.

But as for you...

 

Three reasons for Paul's charge to Timothy

 

Now there are basically three reasons why Paul makes this charge to Timothy and I want us to look at them now.

Paul is saying to us, "But as for you, you are to stand firm and preach the Word and be faithful to the Word".

1.

The first reason is because of the presence of the God-man

 

Number one: because of the presence of the God-man.