Preach the Word (2 Tim 4:1-8)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to 2 Timothy 4:1-8.

We’re starting to wrap up our time in 2 Timothy and as such, right before he switches to personal instructions and greetings, Paul has one final statement to make and it’s really a command. And it’s really only three words, though Paul does embellish a bit. The command is for Timothy to “preach the Word.” Paul gives this command and then builds on this idea by explaining what exactly he means by “preach the Word.”

You’ll note that Paul’s reasoning for this is two-fold: (1) because of false teaching and (2) because he knows that he’s about to die. In many ways, this is Paul’s final words to Timothy and his final command is for Timothy to stay faithful to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.

Keep this in mind as we read 2 Timothy 4:1-8 together.

2 Timothy 4:1–8 ESV

1 I 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: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Preach the Word (1-5) and (2) The Reward for Faithfulness (6-8). In the first section, Paul gives a command to Timothy and the command is abundantly simple and yet, it has significance to this day. Paul’s command is for Timothy to preach the Word of God and for him to be ready to do this no matter what the situation is or what life is like. Timothy is to preach the Word just like Paul preached the Word faithfully, which is what the second section is all about—Paul’s example of faithfulness.

Prayer for Illumination

Preach the Word (1-5)

Our text starts with Paul explaining by what authority he makes the command that he’s about to make. He says in v. 1, that the charge that he’s about to make is “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.”

What he does as he makes this statement is two-fold:

First, he makes it abundantly clear that this is something more than just his opinion. No one says anything by the name of God if it was simply an opinion of his own.

Second, he adds significant weight for what he’s about to say. This isn’t just an opinion, this isn’t just what Paul thinks—what Paul says next is something that he knows he can say because he knows that the command is grounded in what God has commanded.

He then describes just how weighty this is by defining who Jesus is in terms of what is to come,” I charge you in the presence of . . . Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.”

Again, this adds weight to what Paul is about to say and it helps us see the gravity or the seriousness of his command.

We could say that this is the most important command that Paul gives in this letter to Timothy because of the weight and seriousness that Paul adds to the command here.

And the command is simple, it’s literally three words, Paul tells Timothy to “preach the Word.”

Now, I say it’s a really simple command, but the fact that Paul tells Timothy to do it with such seriousness and gravitas tells us that there’s a significant problem in that people will be tempted to not preach the Word despite such a clear command.

Now, it could be that the individual decides to not preach the Word at all, which truthfully, it doesn’t take much to find churches with pastors today that don’t preach the Word of God; but I think with the information that we know about Timothy, that this wouldn’t be an issue of him not preaching the word at all.

Think about Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to not allow his youthfulness to deter him in ministry—don’t let those around you to use your age as a reason against you. For those that are younger in ministry, for those that might have a personality that’s a little more timid, there’s a temptation to dumb down the message, to adjust the message, or to change the message to make it more palatable for people who might disagree.

There’s also a temptation for pastors who preach to preach just about anything other than the Word of God—whether that’s politics, sociology, philosophy, or psychology. There can be a temptation to turn sermons into story time or a stand-up routine because it draws people in and entertains them.

But Paul says that Timothy is to preach the Word and to preach the Word of God alone—nothing else and nothing more. Paul then says that he is to do this in a certain way. In v. 2, we read that he is to preach the word “in season and out of season.” He is to preach the Word by reproving, rebuking, and exhorting. And he is to preach the Word with complete patience and teaching. Let’s look at these ideas:

Paul says that Timothy is to be ready to preach the Word in season and out of season—what this means is that there will be times in which preaching the Word of God will be seen in a favorable light and there will be times in which preaching will be seen in a negative light.

In the United States, the light is shifting and good, biblical preaching and teaching is seen in more of a negative light than positive light.

We see this both outside of the church looking in and even within the church—where people claim to believe, but disdain hearing good preaching.

We should anticipate the desire for good biblical preaching of the Word to grow and wane, but even when it wanes, Timothy is to preach the Word anyway.

Paul says that Timothy is to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with the Word of God—which means that there are certain uses of the Word of God and that preaching has specific roles, we see this in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 as well when we’re told of Scripture’s source, “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

The idea behind reproving is that of exposing your sin and of convicting you for your sin. It’s that of correcting someone when they’re in sin.

The idea behind rebuking is to confront people when necessarily.

The idea behind exhorting is that of encouraging almost with a sense of nurturing.

The point being that true biblical preaching and teaching of God’s Word will convict you, confront you, and encourage you. And note, that it is God’s Word that convicts, confronts, and encourages. If the preacher accurately preaches the Word of God, you will feel conviction at times and you will be confronted at times and you will be encouraged at times.

Conversely—if you attend a church and you never feel conviction from God’s Word and you’re never confronted for your sins by God’s Word, and you’re never encouraged by God’s Word, then the person preaching is either not preaching God’s Word or He’s not preaching all of God’s Word.

Paul says that Timothy is to preach the Word and even with the ideas of people getting convicted and confronted, Timothy is to preach the Word with complete patience and teaching.

Timothy needs to be patient because there could be a temptation to be angry or a tendency to quit when under pressure in a local church.

And he needed to provide teaching that’s reasonable because without sound teaching, reproof and rebuke will never fix the problem.

Or, in other words, what Paul tells Timothy here is that as he proclaims the Word of God and as He reproves, rebukes, and exhorts with the Word of God, he needs to be patient with the people.

Implying that he doesn’t force people to think biblically, he doesn’t yell at people when they disagree with him, he doesn’t fight and argue with them, but he’s patient with them.

And he needs to be offer actual reasoning and teaching for reproving, rebuking, and exhorting people. Meaning, what he says when he proclaims the Word of God actually needs to teach the Word of God. He can’t just tell people his own opinions or his own thoughts, he needs to actually teach what God’s Word says and he needs to help his people understand how to understand the Word of God.

As he proclaims God’s Word, he needs to be patient, gracious, merciful; and he needs to provide the sound teaching needed to validate what he claims Scripture says.

Duane Litfin, “The content of Paul’s charge represents the central thrust of every minister’s task: Timothy was to preach the Word . . . Because the Word is inspired and profitable for all aspects of the ministry, proclaiming that Word was to be Timothy’s business in season and out of season, that is, he was to stand by this duty whether the opportunity seemed ripe or not. Those in error he was to correct; those who were sinning he was to rebuke; those who were doing well he was to encourage. These are the facets of public ministry: proclamation, correction, rebuke, and encouragement—all of which must be done with great patience and careful instruction.” (Duane Litfin. “2 Timothy.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 757-758)

Now, the reasoning for Paul’s command to Timothy here is more than just to remind him of the general purpose of eldership within the local church. In fact, he has a more specific reason for Timothy to focus so much on preaching the Word of God alone and it is found in vv. 3-4, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

Paul’s command is actually a preemptive strike. Timothy needs to focus intently on preaching the Word and proclaiming the Word alone because there will be a time when people won’t stick around for sound teaching.

And I will say, in the first century, that happened rather quick—between the Judaizers, the gnostics, and other false teachers, there were plenty of folks that were already following them because they liked what the Judaizers, gnostics, and other false teachers had to say.

In our present time period, we see it all the time—people will leave healthy churches to go to unhealthy churches that instead of correcting and reproving, they’re affirmed. Or they’ll stop listening to a pastor preaching God’s Word because another church doesn’t expect as much, they just expect them to show up, sit down, and put their offering in the plate.

Paul says that there will be time in which people won’t listen to sound teaching. Instead, they’re going to intentionally go and find other teachers that suit their own passions.

I’ve used some examples of people leaving healthy churches to go to sinful and unhealthy churches, but that idea of finding other teachers that suit their own passions can imply that some are leaving healthy churches to go to churches that aren’t necessarily sinful but the preaching and teaching isn’t as healthy as they ought to be.

For instance, the preacher is hyper-fixated on one idea or one part of Scripture and rarely if ever preaches and teaches the whole counsel of God—this happens a lot with people who want to focus significantly on the End Times.

Or, the preacher might not say anything technically wrong, but they aren’t exactly preaching God’s Word in the passage that they’re using, they use that passage as a staging ground for their own thoughts and ideas—you can tell because the preacher will have you open up to a passage and he’ll start preaching and you’re sitting there following along in your Bible and you’ll typically get to the point where you’re like, “I don’t see what he’s saying in this text, but he must be right since he’s the preacher.”

Those examples focus a lot on the preacher itself, but from the viewpoint of Paul in 2 Timothy, the idea is that there will be people within the church that instead of intentionally choosing a healthy church with a pastor who preaches the whole counsel of God—the Word of God, he will focus on the topic that the people want to hear or he’ll use the Bible to make it say what he wants to say or what he thinks the people want to hear.

And these people will turn away from the truth because they’d rather listen to the things they’d rather hear and they’ll wander into myths.

But Paul’s exhortation to Timothy is that despite this issue of people rejecting sound teaching, despite the issue of people wandering off into myths, he needs to “always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, [and] fulfill [his] ministry.”

Timothy is to keep his head straight. He is to remain steadfast. He is to continue proclaiming the Gospel and reaching the unbelievers around him. He is to focus on fulfilling his ministry.

Or, in other words, he is to “keep his head” from getting confused or distracted by the things around him and he is to focus on what he has been called by God to do. In many ways, it reminds me the blinders that people place on horses so that the horse can only see what’s directly in front of him and he won’t get distracted by things going on around him—similar concept.

Instead of getting distracted by everything happening around him, Timothy is to focus on doing what God has called him to do.

Timothy is to endure suffering, which has been a reoccurring theme in this letter. Paul has repeated mentioned suffering, persecution, and hardship in life.

That could just be because Paul, himself is in prison while he’s writing this letter.

Or, it could be because he recognizes that while there can be times in which the Gospel is especially well take—most of the time it isn’t. There’s a reason why Paul tells Timothy to be ready to proclaim the Word in season and out of season.

Timothy is to do the work of an evangelist and don’t confuse this with our modern-day idea of traveling evangelists.

In modern America, we have people who as full-time ministers, travel the country and they hold evangelistic or revival services at various churches around the country. I have a few friends who do this, though, I will admit that this idea of traveling evangelists is starting to die out a little bit. That’s a very modern idea—having someone who is a full-time evangelist.

What Paul’s referring to is the very duty of every Christian believer. We are all called to do the work of evangelism because evangelism is the very proclamation of the Good News, the Gospel.

In fact, the word evangelist comes from Greek—euangelion and it refers to the messenger that was sent back to a town after a battle to proclaim the good news that they had won the battle.

Paul’s statement is that Timothy is to be that messenger proclaiming the good news that Jesus has won.

Now, there’s a lot in what Paul has already said before he gets to his last three verses and it could seem to be like he’s completely changing topics, but he really isn’t. Let’s read those verses.

The Reward for Faithfulness (6-8)

2 Timothy 4:6–8 ESV

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 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.

What Paul is doing as he wraps up this section of the passage is this, he just gave Timothy a command of what Timothy is to do—preach the Word, regardless of if it’s fashionable, correct those who are teaching wrong things, confront those who are in sin, encourage the people while being patient and with reasonable teaching . . .

Now, he’s essentially saying, look at me as an example of one who has preached the Word, regardless of it it was fashionable. Look at me as an example who has corrected wrong teachings, confronted those who were in sin, encouraged people while being patient and reasonable.

Because my time is up—In v. 6, he speaks of his impending death, which he implies will be filled with suffering, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.”

Nevertheless, despite his impending death, he’s confident in where he is headed. In v. 8, “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 the reason he’s confident in this is because he “[had] fought the good fight,” he had finished the race, he had kept the faith.”

Note that he’s not resting on his own laurels, but rather, he’s pointing out his faith in Jesus.

If anyone in the New Testament could’ve boasted in what he had done for the Kingdom, it would’ve been Paul; and yet, he doesn’t boast in himself. All he says is that he had endured in his faith as a fighter who kept fighting and a runner who kept running.

Really, what Paul is doing is he’s using himself as an example for Timothy .

He’s using himself as an example of one who experienced tremendous hardship, who fought against false teaching, who called out sin, and encouraged believers with complete patience and teaching. He’s using himself as an example of what it means to preach that Word in and out of season.

He’s using himself as an example of what it looks like to be sober-minded, to endure suffering, to do the work of an evangelist, and to fulfill his ministry.

And again, he’s not doing it to puff himself up, but rather to show that it is possible to endure through what Timothy is enduring through in Ephesus if he remains steadfast not on himself, but in Jesus Christ.

Which leads us this morning to our application. You may have been following along and you might have thought, “well, this is all fine and dandy, but I’m not a young pastor in a city nor do I have plans to be, what does any of this mean for me?” And the answer is actually two-fold. The first way that we can apply this for someone who thinks it might not apply because they don’t have any plans to pastor a church is point out that the word translated as preach in v. 2 can also be translated as proclaim. So, it doesn’t necessarily need to refer to someone who is a pastor, but simply to someone who is called to proclaim the Gospel, which includes all Christians according to the Great Commission. The second way that we can apply this is by looking at what Paul tells Timothy to do and then asking ourselves if we’re willing to be on the receiving end of it. So, let’s look at those two applications.

Application

First, you need to proclaim the Word of God faithfully.

Now, that sounds almost as if it ought to be common sense—especially when considering Jesus’ command for us all to make disciples of every nation. How do you make disciples if you don’t start with proclaiming God’s Word?

And yet, for most of us, we struggle to make the idea of proclaiming God’s Word to those around us a priority—and I think there’s probably two primary reasons for this: (1) Jesus isn’t as big a priority as you think He is in your life or (2) you’re simply afraid.

Now the first reason is really an issue of idolatry—you’ve placed something or someone or really anything ahead of God in your life. That could be a relationship, it could be your house, it could be some sort of substance; and the only way to correct that is to repent of your idolatry and return to Jesus.

The second reason is a lack of trust in God—you fear man to the extent that you disobey God’s command to proclaim the Word and to make disciples because you don’t trust in God’s ability to use every situation in your life for your good. You are making men big and you’re making God small in your mind and in your heart.

The reality is that we ought to be proclaiming the Word of God as often as we possibly can to anyone who will listen to what we’re saying. The idea of being ready in season and out of season applies to us today.

Consider 1 Peter 3:15, that we are to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. That isn’t just a statement for apologetic defense of the faith—its a statement that you ought to be ready and willing to proclaim the truth to anyone.

The same ideas of reproving, rebuking, and exhorting are things that we all are charged to do. For instance, the commands throughout the New Testament to lovingly call out our brothers and sisters in sin in hopes that they repent is a call for us to rebuke those in sin. The commands throughout the New Testament to correct false teachers and false teaching is a call to reprove. The command to gather together for worship and to mutually build each other up is a call to exhort or encourage one another.

And really, the only way that we can do any of this is by accurately, lovingly, patiently, teach the Word of God and proclaim the Gospel.

Friends, the reason that we planted our church in the first place was because we had noticed a significant problem concerning a lack of proclamation of God’s Word in our area.

Yes, we have over 100 churches around Philipsburg, but when you remove churches that have rejected the inerrancy of Scripture—those who have starting questioning whether God’s Word is legitimately God’s Word and once you remove the churches that are blatantly teaching false things, you’re actually left with a rather small group of churches that are proclaiming God’s Word and teaching the whole counsel of God.

You’re left with just a handful of Gospel-preaching, Bible-proclaiming churches to reach over 55,000 people that live within 15 miles of Philipsburg.

We planted because our communities need more churches that only preached Jesus and Him crucified, that taught God’s Word as the inerrant, infallible, Word of God, and actually saw the local church not as a country club, but rather a place to worship Jesus together, get equipped for ministry together, and to go make disciples together—we needed a church that was a place to get prepared for the mission.

Our church needs to be a church that is all about Jesus, His Gospel, and His Word.

This will only happen when you as the members of our church are all about Jesus, His Gospel, and His Word. You need to be all about proclaiming Jesus, His Gospel, and teaching His Word. And you need to be all about the proclamation of Jesus faithfully, like Paul, and like what Paul was encouraging Timothy to do.

Second, you need to be looking to God’s Word for reproving, rebuking, and exhorting and you need to be looking for pastors who teach God’s Word in and out of season to reprove, rebuke, and exhort you.

Our sinful tendency is that anytime we go to a church or we open up God’s Word, we don’t typically want to be reproved, rebuked, and exhorted.

I call this a sinful tendency because it’s rooted in our fleshly desire to be comfortable above all else. We’re alright with opening up the Bible or listening to preaching and teaching that makes us feel good about ourselves.

But the moment that we read a passage that we don’t particularly like or we hear preaching that explains what the text says and the text steps on our toes, we get upset and we choose to either ignore what the Bible says, disobey God’s Word, or we stop reading it or stop attending the church that makes us feel uncomfortable.

The issue with this is that the Bible, rightfully understood is supposed to reprove, rebuke, and exhort; and preacher, rightly teaching and preaching the Bible is supposed to reprove, rebuke, and exhort.

When you come to church or when you read your Bible, there ought to be times in which you feel convicted for your sins and there ought to be times in which you are called out for your sins, and there ought to be times in which you know you’re wrong not because the preacher has an opinion, but because he tells you what God’s Word says and God says you’re wrong. There ought to be times when you’re encouraged or exhorted, not because the pastor makes you feel good about yourself, but because God’s Word rightly understood brings comfort and joy.

Do you catch what I’m saying? Our tendency as sinful humans is to always look for the easy way, it’s to always try to be comfortable, it’s to always focus on ourselves and what makes us happy.

So we tend to read the Bible or go to church looking to be comfortable, looking for things to be easy, looking for things that can make us happy.

When the reality is that our reading of Scripture and our time being taught from Scripture ought to convict, it ought to correct, and it ought to exhort or encourage.

Or put how Paul states in, there are those that won’t endure sound teaching because they will try to find teachers that simply suit their own desires, which leads them away from the truth and causes them to wander into myths.

Make sure you aren’t one of the ones who refuse to listen to the truth and only listen to those who tell you want you want to hear.

Be one who not just endures sound doctrine, but what’s to be corrected, convicted, and exhorted by sound doctrine. Be one who wants to hear God’s Word as He intended you to hear it.

You need to be looking at God’s Word, not to make yourself feel good about yourself, but to be corrected, to be convicted, and to be encouraged. You need to be listening to and watching preachers and teachers who don’t just make you feel special, but rather, they preach God’s Word and through right understanding of God’s Word, you’re corrected, convicted, and encouraged.

Put simply, what 2 Timothy 4:1-8 teaches is this: (1) you need to be all about Jesus, His Gospel, and His Word, He is all that matters and (2) you need to read and hear God’s Word and be corrected, convicted, and encouraged. You need to hear and read God’s Word and be changed by it.

As a Christian, the most important thing about you is Jesus, His Gospel, and His Word. Keep yourself focused on Him by be changed by seeking Him in His Word.

Pastoral Prayer