A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim 2:1-13)

If you have your Bible, please turn to 2 Timothy 2:1-13.

As you turn there let me remind you of where we’re at in 2 Timothy. We’re working through Paul’s letter to Timothy and last week, we did both the introduction to the letter as well as Paul’s primary exhortation through the letter, that Timothy needs to guard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In last week’s message, we explored two distinct ideas: (1) the first of which had to do with Timothy himself—that he is indeed qualified to be leading the church in Ephesus. He was raised in the faith and he genuinely believes; he was gifted by the Holy Spirit to lead the church; and this gifting had been confirmed by other faithful believers. (2) the second idea is that because these things are true, he then needs to protect the Gospel, which he was raised in and in which he believes.

Today’s passage builds on that concept of defending the Gospel and to drive home his point, Paul utilizes military terminology, which is rather simple for us to understand.

But before I get ahead of myself, let’s read the passage and I’ll explain how we’ll break it down:

2 Timothy 2:1–13 ESV

1 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. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

As we study this passage, we’ll break it into two parts: (1) Endure for Jesus (1-7) and (2) Jesus’ Example of Endurance (8-13). In the first section, we see Paul encouraging Timothy to endure and keep defending the Gospel despite suffering. In the second section, Paul utilizes the example of Jesus not as proof that Timothy could endure, but rather proof that God’s Word will not be bound—or, in other words, the idea is that even when we experience suffering as those who are proclaiming the Word of God or the Gospel, God’s Word still prevails even in the midst of great suffering. What this sermon will do is two-fold: (1) it will encourage us to keep defending the Gospel despite suffering and (2) it will remind us that God’s Word never fails.

Prayer for Illumination

Endure for Jesus (1-7)

Our text starts with Paul exhorting Timothy and there’s three parts of this exhortation: (1) he exhorts Timothy to be strengthened, (2) he tells him to go and teach what has been taught to him to faithful men who would be able to teach others, and (3) he encourages him to share in suffering. Let’s look at all three ideas:

The strengthening is to be done “by the grace that is in” Jesus and quite frankly, many people would hear that idea, nod their head as if they understood every word, and then walk away without actually understanding what it meant. So, what does it mean to be strengthened by Jesus’ grace?

Well, grace is the idea of an unmerited favor that’s been granted to someone on someone else’s behalf. In this case, Paul refers to an unmerited favor that’s been granted to Timothy by Jesus.

And the very concept of unmerited favor or grace is that it is something that’s completely unearned, that the individual cannot work to obtain, and considering the context of 2 Timothy and what we’ve learned from last week, I don’t think it would be a stretch to see this as referring to both the Gospel itself and the result of the Gospel, which is the culmination of the grace that we receive from Jesus Christ.

Just think of it—the Gospel itself is completely unearned, we cannot work to obtain it. It is something that’s completely unmerited because it is something that Jesus has done for us.

Likewise, the result of the Gospel, which isn’t just salvation, but the ability that we have to now come into the presence of God and dwell with Him is something that’s completely unearned, we cannot work to obtain it. It is something that’s completely unmerited because it is something that Jesus has done for us.

Knowing that we cannot earn our salvation nor the Gospel or the ability to dwell with God is something that ought to bring about not just praise and worship, but genuine comfort because it’s all about what Jesus has done and not what we have done.

Because it is something that we don’t do on our own, we can find our strength in it because it’s purely something that we receive by God’s grace.

Now, you might ask, “how exactly do I get strengthened in the grace of God or the Gospel or the ability I now have to dwell with Him?” Grace is mediated through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You start experiencing grace when He starts calling you to Him. You obtain grace when you repent of your sins and call on His name. You continue to experience grace as you partake in what’s sometimes referred to as the ordinary means of grace.

You experience grace through His Word—both hearing the preaching of and reading of His Word.

You experience grace through participation in church ordinances—both the Lord’s Supper and baptism.

You experience grace as you pray—both in corporate settings like the local church and in your own metaphorical prayer closet.

Or in other words, you experience the grace of God as you participate in the average walk of a believer. You experience God’s grace as you learn and grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Paul’s exhortation is for Timothy to be “strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” which only happens when the individual (in this case, Timothy), intentionally seeks to grow in his relationship with Jesus.

Paul’s exhortation is for Timothy to find strength in what God alone can provide, which is experienced through the Word, through church ordinances, through prayer. It’s experienced by seeking Him.

In addition, Paul then tells Timothy to go and “entrust to faithful men” “what [he has] heard from [Paul].”

Now, there are many ideas that we could postulate about what he means by the things that Timothy had heard from him, but consider it in context of the passage.

We’re in a text in which Paul reminds Timothy to guard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just like the other disciples, Paul was given a command to go and make disciples of every nation and to teach them everything that Jesus had taught them.

We could rightfully assume that when Paul speaks of the things that he told Timothy, he’s speaking about all the things that Jesus had taught him.

The idea would then be that Paul is exhorting Timothy to go and find men who are faithful and teach them everything that he was taught from Paul, which was ultimately from Jesus.

And the whole goal is so that these faithful men would learn the truth of the Gospel and then go and teach other people the Gospel and to teach other people everything that Jesus had taught him.

The second part of Paul’s exhortation for Timothy is for him to continue in the Great Commission—to continue making disciples, to continue teaching all that Jesus had taught.

The third part of this exhortation is found in v. 3, “Share in the suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

I find it so disconcerting that in the United States, there’s such a prevalence of the prosperity or “health and wealth” gospel when we read statements such as this—that Timothy is to “share in the suffering . . . of Christ Jesus.”

The reality is that this life is filled with suffering and to pretend that there isn’t suffering or that you can obtain a lack of suffering with enough prayer or enough giving is simply a lie.

Paul anticipates suffering for Timothy. Likewise, Jesus anticipated suffering for His people, after all, Jesus said in John 15:18-21 “18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”

Just about every book of the Bible speaks of suffering to some extent and every author of Scripture presupposed true and genuine suffering for those who claim belief in Jesus.

Paul says that when it comes to suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ, Timothy ought to be a good soldier and share in that suffering.

Which implies that this sort of suffering that Paul speaks of is primarily about persecution against genuine believers of Jesus.

Meaning, when people start attacking you because of your faith, don’t run from it, don’t hide from it. Stand firm as a soldier stands firm.

I think it’s worth noting that despite the suffering that Paul says Timothy ought to share in as a good soldier, he’s still expected to be strengthened in the Gospel and to disciple the next leaders of the church.

The idea is actually rather simple—Paul tells Timothy to expect trials and tribulations and sufferings, but to not shut down due to those trials and tribulations and sufferings.

Rather, he is to find strength in the grace of God and he is to continue in the work of the ministry—training and teaching others to go and make more disciples.

Now, in vv. 4-6, Paul utilizes some illustrations to encourage Timothy. All three of these illustrations are instances in which there is fruitfulness despite great cost:

The first is a soldier who, despite the temptation of what Paul calls civilian pursuits, focuses on pleasing the one who enlisted him.

The idea is that despite what could be distractions, soldiers focus on the overarching goal.

Paul’s idea for Timothy is to not be distracted by things around him, but to keep his focus on what the actual goal is.

The second is an athlete who is seeking to win, but recognizes that winning requires following certain rules.

The idea is that an athlete in order to win needs to understand not just the rules of the game, but he had to prepare to play the game as well.

In the first century olympic games, athletes were required by oath to affirm that they had prepared, which meant at least ten months of rigorous training that they had to endure.

Paul’s idea for Timothy is that he needs to endure like an athlete would endure his training.

The third is a farmer who works hard and because he works hard ought to have first share of the crops.

The idea at hand is that farming requires hard work before reaping the reward of farming.

Likewise, Paul’s idea for Timothy is that he needs to work hard in his ministry.

So, the idea is that Timothy needs to be strengthened by grace, that he needs to teach faithful men to go and teach others, and that he needs to share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

He is to do this as a soldier who stays focused on the end goal.

He is to do this as an athlete who has prepared and will endure.

He is to do this as a farmer who works long and hard.

And then Paul gives an example of all of this in Jesus Himself. Paul gives an example of what it means to endure found in Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection. Let’s look at vv. 8-13 together:

Jesus’ Example of Endurance (8-13)

2 Timothy 2:8–13 ESV

8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Paul uses the example of Jesus, who endured through His death, burial, and resurrection, but you’ve probably noticed that he doesn’t sit on that example long—he essentially mentions Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and then moves on.

However, the idea is that Timothy ought to remember Jesus’ endurance through those situations in life.

Or, in other words, the idea at hand is that Jesus suffered, but He endured. Likewise, you ought to share in the suffering while enduring.

The fact that Paul briefly mentions this gives the impression that he’s not seeking to dissect Jesus’ example or expound on it, but rather, he wants Timothy to go and reflect on it or meditate on it.

Which is something that we ought to take note of because a consistent reflection on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus would be beneficial for us today.

Paul briefly mentions Jesus and His endurance through His death, burial, and resurrection before he states something that drives the next few ideas. He says at the end of v. 8, that the Jesus who was risen from the dead is “as preached in [his] gospel.”

Or in other words, what he’s emphasizing is this idea that Jesus died, was buried, and was resurrected just as he has been preaching and teaching.

And it’s that preaching and teaching of this Gospel message that has caused tremendous suffering for himself. In v. 9, he says that the Gospel, which he has been preaching, is why he is suffering, “bound with chains as a criminal.”

But he says something in particular that brings about encouragement: “but the word of God is not bound.”

So, even though Paul is in chains as a prisoner, even though he is suffering, even though he tells Timothy to not just to expect the possibility of suffering, but to share in that suffering for the Gospel.

There is a hope in this, that despite the suffering, despite the persecution, despite the rejection of the Gospel by those around them.

The Word of God is still being proclaimed and it is still spreading and it is still pointing people to the Jesus that it’s all about.

Consider Isaiah 55:11 “11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

God’s Word will always accomplish what God intends for it to accomplish because it is not bound.

Paul then says that because of the fact that God’s Word is not bound (and really in context, he’s still thinking on the importance of the Gospel itself, which we spoke about last week) he is willing to and able to “endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

Or, in other words, what Paul is stating is that God’s Word will accomplish whatever Jesus wants it to accomplish.

What God will accomplish is that He will save the elect—that the elect may obtain salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, we still have a duty as Christians to go and proclaim Jesus to everyone who will listen even if it means suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

What Paul is saying is that the sufferings that he’s experiencing for proclaiming Jesus and preaching the Gospel, they are worth it because the salvation of the elect is worth it.

It is worth suffering for the preaching of the Gospel, it is worth being in chains to proclaim Jesus, it is worth losing comfort to be a better witness of Him who provides salvation.

It is worth all this because people have souls and every soul spends eternity somewhere and the only way to spend eternity with God is through Jesus.

Paul says it is worth suffering because the Gospel is worth suffering.

He reiterates all of this with a simple saying in vv. 11-13, “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”

This last little section is a poem, some scholars believe it is a verse from a first-century hymn, but that’s a bit speculative. In the last few verses, we see two positive statements and two negative statements.

The two positives are “if we have died with him, we will also live with him;” and “if we endure, we will also reign with him;”

The two negatives are “if we deny him, he also will deny us;” and “if we are faithless, he remains faithful,”

And it’s all speaking again of this idea of endurance despite suffering.

From the positive ideas, when speaking of dying with him, it calls back to baptism and the idea of being united in his death and united with his resurrection.

As a believer, the old man has died; and the new man is given life.

This is a reminder of what Jesus has already done for Timothy.

When speaking of enduring, it points towards the future.

That despite the suffering we face now, there will come a time when we aren’t suffering.

And depending on what you believe about the eschaton will inform what exactly you think is meant by reigning with Jesus, but that’s a completely different discussion for a different time.

The focus isn’t so much on the minute details, but rather the fact that the need to endure suffering is only temporary. What’s happening now isn’t even worth comparing to what will come.

From the negative ideas, when speaking of us denying him, it’s speaking from the perspective of those who claim to believe and they might say the right things and do the right things initially, but they never actually believed.

In this case, the fact that they deny Jesus despite their initial claim in believing reveals that they never truly believed.

And thus, just like they reject Jesus, he rejects them.

When speaking of being faithless, he’s speaking about people who genuinely do believe, but struggle with doubt on occasion.

The idea is that they’ve truly repented from their sins and believed in Jesus, but occasionally they’re like the man who came to Jesus for help in Mark 9 when Jesus confronts a man for his lack of faith and he responds with, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

In the vernacular, we would say something like, “I do believe, help me overcome the instances when I don’t have enough faith.” or even “my faith isn’t perfect, but if I don’t have enough faith, help me to have more.”

Paul’s idea here is that for those who genuinely do believe but struggle with doubt on occasion, it’s alright because Jesus is faithful even when we struggle with doubt.

It’s a profound statement because moments of persecution would naturally cause someone to doubt whether their faith is worthwhile; and yet, Paul says, Jesus is faithful to His elect even when they aren’t faithful to Him.

Now, I will say that it could be very easy to lose precisely what Paul is saying in this text because it seems as if he’s said a lot and in some ways it seems as if he’s talked about several different ideas, but let me point out that he’s really driving at one specific point and it builds on the foundation of the passage from last week—that the Gospel is worth protecting because it is through the Gospel that Jesus saves.

Thus, because the Gospel is such a big deal—Paul tells Timothy to find strength in Jesus’ grace, find others who are faithful and trust them to also go and teach others the Gospel, and to not just be prepared for suffering, but be willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel as a military soldier would go about his duty in war.

This leads us this morning to our application and our application is actually simple because it’s precisely what Timothy’s application is. Again, in the overall context of 2 Timothy, the idea is that Timothy needs to be hyper-fixated on the Gospel itself and as part of that hyper-fixation on the Gospel, he ought to be willing to suffer for it and he ought to be willing to defend it even if it means dying for it.

Likewise, we as believers today need to be hyper-fixated on the Gospel—it shouldn’t just be something that we only think about on Sundays, we need to be completely saturated by the truth of the Gospel to the extent that it influences every aspect of our lives including what we do when we aren’t at church on Sunday morning. It should soak into every part of your life.

It is only when you start to understand the importance of the Gospel and you allow it to influence every aspect of your life will you then understand the reasoning for today’s application.

Application

Paul tells Timothy to find strength in Jesus’ grace, find others who are faithful and trust them to go and teach the Gospel, and to be willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. That’s our application as well:

You’ve heard me say it before, but I’m going to say it again. We live in an increasingly pluralistic society, which simply means that Christianity isn’t the majority religion in the world around us.

If you were to go and ask people in our immediate area (Philipsburg and the surrounding communities), what you might hear is that:

many people would say that they’re Christians—whether they are or not is a different discussion;

some people would say that they’re not religious at all—they might use terms like Atheist, Agnostic, or that they have a naturalistic mindset;

in our immediate area, you might not see too many people that practice other religions, but I will say that there are—you might run into people that practice Buddhism or Islam in our area.

As you spread out of Central Pennsylvania, you’ll find this:

Most people would say that they’re not religious at all—they might use terms like Atheist, Agnostic, or that they have a naturalistic mindset;

You will see people practicing other religions—in particular, in the US, you’ll see Islam, Buddhism, and in some urban centers, you’ll see Hinduism.

And you’ll find some that actually claim to be Christian, but you have to clarify what they mean by Christian because there are plenty who claim to be Christian, but what they really are are nominal Christians who believe an eclectic mix of eastern religions mixed with philosophy and Christianity.

As the world around us becomes increasingly pluralistic, you’ll find that those who take a firm stance on the Gospel are going to be the first to experience genuine persecution.

Here’s why—there’s a push for an ecumenical mindset that has spread beyond Christian denominations—that no one religion is 100% correct and thus, it doesn’t really matter what religion you practice just as long as you practice something.

But according to Scripture, this mindset is absolutely wrong—Jesus is the only way to the Father. Faith in Jesus alone is what saves.

So, the moment that you say that, you will be attacked for it—and as our world continues to reject the exclusivity of Jesus, they’ll start to reject Christians, and eventually they’ll start persecuting us significantly.

We shouldn’t be surprised by any of this—and here’s why:

From the beginning of Christianity, Christians have faced persecution for what they believe.

It’s actually more surprising that we’ve experienced a relative lack of persecution of the past few centuries than it would be if persecution started tomorrow.

Now, as the world continues in this path, Paul’s words will ring true and his exhortation will be even more needed:

We need to be strengthened by the grace that is in Jesus.

We need to keep making disciples and equipping believers to do the work of the ministry.

And we need to share in the suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Let’s talk about what exactly that looks like. As the world continues to reject Christianity and really Jesus:

First, we need to be strengthened by the grace that is in Jesus Christ. Now, God uses many ways to help strengthen us in this way, but we’ll really only focus on a handful and these are typically what we refer to as the ordinary means of grace, which we find in Acts 2:42, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

It’s precisely what every church is supposed to be doing when they gather together—we are to focus on the Word of God, share life with one another, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and pray together.

Now, of course, that’s what the church is supposed to do together, but it’s also what we’re supposed to do throughout the week—we are to focus on the Word of God, share life with fellow believers, remember the Lord’s Supper (the sacrifice of Jesus and what it means for us) and we are to pray without ceasing.

It is through these ordinary means of grace and the daily keeping of these means that God strengthens us through the Holy Spirit—this is how we are strengthened in the grace of Jesus Christ.

It isn’t a quick process—it is a slow process that takes a lot of time; you cannot expect to pray that God strengthens you today and assume you’re going to be fully mature tomorrow.

It requires daily commitment to Jesus and a daily desire to seek after Him for you to slowly grow in the grace that He offers.

The Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and without the daily exercise of these means of grace, you will struggle to endure through the sufferings of life—in particular, when persecution comes around.

You need to regularly be participating in these means of grace because it is through them that you will be strengthened and without them, you won’t endure.

Second, like Timothy and the commission that he has been given by Paul to find faithful men to train so that they can go and make more disciples by proclaiming the Gospel, we too are given a commission to go and make more disciples.

There’s a reason why our little church has always had a significant emphasis on equipping believers to make more disciples and the reasoning’s rather simple—in our modern US church culture, the misconception is that ministry is something that the professional Christians do, when in reality, ministry is something that we’re all called to do.

We are all supposed to be pouring into other people to make more disciples and to train them up in Jesus Christ—the question is, are you?

Are you actually pouring into someone else to help them see Jesus and be trained up in Jesus?

Now, you might wonder why exactly that’s an exhortation of Paul during a time like what Timothy’s facing with persecution and the reasoning for it is rather simple:

Regardless of what the situation around us is like, we are told by Jesus to go and make disciples—we are to do this when we face tremendous persecution and we are to do this when we face very little persecution.

Later in 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy to be ready to preach the Gospel in season and out of season—whether it’s fashionable or not. He is to proclaim the Gospel.

Likewise, we are to make disciples because we are disciples of Jesus Christ—as disciples, we are to make more disciples in season and out of season—whether it’s fashionable or not.

In Timothy’s case, just because he’s facing persecution, doesn’t mean he can stop doing what he’s supposed to do. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we have an excuse to stop.

You need to be participating in the Great Commission regardless of how difficult it may be—suffering in life does not exonerate you from doing what you’ve been commanded to do.

Lastly, when persecution comes, we need to be ready and willing to suffer.

It doesn’t sound like fun nor does it necessarily sound like something that you’d hear in a church, but the reality is that when persecution comes, we don’t have an excuse to waiver in our faith.

Shortly after writing this letter to Timothy, Paul was martyred for his faith—most historians believe he was beheaded.

According to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Timothy died in AD 97 when he reproved a group of pagans for their idolatry and they beat him to death.

Every apostle that followed Jesus in the New Testament with the exception of John, died a martyrs death. John died a natural death, but he was also exiled to Patmos for several years.

It is normal for Christians to suffer at the hands of persecutors who refuse the Gospel—we’re not necessarily looking for persecution and suffering, but we ought to be aware that it could happen and we should be willing to stand firm on our faith regardless.

You need to be ready and willing to suffer for your faith if persecution comes.

Put simply, what we learn from 2 Timothy 2:1-13 is that the Gospel is indeed worth suffering for. Before that persecution comes, we need to strengthen ourselves in the grace of Jesus; and when that persecution comes, we need to be willing to suffer if it comes to it and we need to continue to make disciples of every nation.

When Paul exhorts Timothy to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, this is precisely what he means—be ready and willing to suffer for the sake of Jesus, be willing to stand firm despite persecution, and continue to be all about the Great Commission.

Pastoral Prayer