The Unashamed Worker.
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If you have your bibles open them up to 2 Timothy 2. I have titled the message today The Unashamed Worker. Pray with me.
Here we are continuing are study in the pastoral epistles, and I am excited to be in todays text. Every Sermon I preach convicts me but this one has caused me to rethink many of the things I am doing as a worker for the Lord and I will address that as I preach today. As I have mentioned in every sermon so far of 2 Timothy. Paul has recieved his death sentence from Rome, and he is writing Timothy a letter that he must hold on to as he pastors in this difficult place.
Now when it comes to the title today when examining the text I really wrestled with this idea of a worker who is unashamed. In fact when I thought about it. My mind immediately went to Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
So this idea of an being an unashamed worker comes from being unashamed of the gospel and the power of its message, and the power of its savior.
So by faith an unashamed worker is going to seek to honor the one who bore all the shame for them on the cross.
SO what I want you to get as our main idea is this…
The unashamed worker sets themself apart in order to serve the Lord.
The unashamed worker sets themself apart in order to serve the Lord.
2 Timothy 2:14–26 (ESV)
14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 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. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hi-ma-naeus and Fa-lete-us, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
several points today the first is this.
The unashamed worker knows how the handle the Word of God.
The unashamed worker knows how the handle the Word of God.
In verse 15 you clearly see Paul tell Timothy 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. Now for Timothy who is a pastor this is key for me who is a pastor its key, but I would argue to you today that even for the average layperson this is key.
Paul starts the text we are in today saying remind them of these things.
What things he is referring to? I believe he is referring to the word of God. He wants to remind the Christian leaders in the church to remember the word of God.
As your pastor my job when I preach the word is to remind you of what it says. Our own Paul Winslow likes to say we need to be told at least three times as baptists but I would argue we need to be reminded over and over and over again more than just three times. We see the forgetfulness of people all throughout the Old Testament, and God over and over again had to remind them of who is he and what he has done. Remember last week I said remembrance is the key to faithfulness.
I read something this week I thought was really good it said. “ When you are preaching something that is from God, rather than a simple word from man, its worth repeating.”
I believe that is the case because over and over again in Paul’s letters he stresses certain things.
In fact he says in Romans.
15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God
He wants the people to keep on hearing things they need to be reminded of.
In fact in another letter he says..
1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
You might say sometimes I am tired of hearing the same old things, I want to hear something new, but the reality is when you hear the word of God over and over again its safe for you.
Peter himself even says something like this.
12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Notice he says he always remind you of these things. Peter says you already know them, but as long as I am ministering to you I want to stir you up in remembrance of these things.
We are a forgetful people you see that in the scriptures. God tells each and every generation the same things because we need it. And Paul says remind your people of these things.
But he adds to that. He charges Timothy and us to not quarrel about words. Now if you look at the greek Paul seems to be eluding to the fact he does not want people to make war on the very Word of God. Like so many of the false teachers were doing.
As I mentioned for the point here he wants them to rightly handle the truth. He wants them to do this well. He doesn’t want them to do this half way. I recently posted something on my facebook describing what goes into sermon prep, and it was an image of an iceberg and the top had the sermon what you can see from the iceberg, and the bottom was preparation the iceberg is deeper than it appears. Getting a deeper understanding on how to handle the word of takes work, but if you want to be approved by him as a worker who is not ashamed you have to work, and you have to lead people down a strait path.
This word rightly should be understood as someone who is trying to cut a strait path. The worker of God must do that very thing. Proverbs 3:6
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Remember him, and he will make your paths strait. Its my job to rightly handle the truth. If you are a parent you want to teach your kids the right things ect… You do this because you don’t want to be ashamed of the one who enlisted you for good service.
Paul makes it clear to avoid things that have no value. For a couple reasons one it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. This is what I don’t get sometimes with pastors they spend more time speaking on things that don’t matter or go against the word of God than expositing the truths of the word of God. The message preached or taught to you should always lead you to God not away from him. It would be shameful for someone to handle the word of God in such a way that drives the saints of God further from him.
Paul says teachers like this talk is like gangrene. This is serious language, because what gangrene does is it destroys the tissue and spreads in such a way that kills the organism. According to John Hopkins Medicine. Gangrene is a dangerous and potentially fatal condition that happens when the blood flow to a large area of tissue is cut off. This causes the tissue to break down and die. Gangrene often turns the affected skin a greenish-black color. However, the word gangrene is not related to the color green, but to the condition itself. It comes from Greek and Latin words for a gnawing sore or decayed tissue.
Think about Pauls use of the word here. When you put value on things that have no value it affects you so much that it kills you, and when you get dose after dose of false teaching and false beliefs then over time it will have disastrous affects on you. And Paul does not shy away to call others out for this. He says among them are Hi-ma-naeus and Fa-lete-us. Those are some baby names I would avoid, but these men were ones who were false teachers.
In 1 Tim 1:20 he mentions one of these two men.
20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
So we know Hi-ma-naeus was one who was a blasphemer, and we know so was Fa-lete-us , and so what they were doing Paul says is they are swerving from the truth, saying the resurrection has already happened. It is believed they were teaching that believers had already achieved resurrection in a spiritual sense and that the physical resurrection was not going to take place. They took a little bit of scripture and taught something wrong. Which is a misunderstanding of Pauls teachings, and the teachings of the scriptures. There is this already not yet reality believers have. We have been raised to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit but we do not yet have our glorified bodies. This upset people so much that it affected their own faith. Causing some to questioned what they really believed about God and his word.
To deny this greatly upset Paul in fact 1 Cor 15 talks about the importance of the resurrection and that if it did not happen we would be people who would be more pitied. To deny the resurrection Paul says it to deny the faith. It would be like people saying the bible is just a fairy tale its not true its full of errors. It would be like people saying Jesus is not fully God and fully man he was just a man who was a good teacher, it would be like saying God is not Triune. It would be like someone saying Jesus does not save your good works do, all you have to do is the right things. Those things I just said were blasphemy and this is what these false teachers were doing. The were swerving from the word of God, and they still do that to this day. These people are pastors, they are your friends, family so you need to know how to rightly know the word of God.
But even though there are so many who miss this, God’s firm foundation stands. This is comforting. There are many good churches even in this area, where the foundation is being clearly magnified. God always has his people, because he has put this seal on them.
I love what one scholar said.. The gospel is like a foundation because God's people build their life and faith upon it; they find in it their meaning and purpose in life. The gospel undergirds everything; it defines how God's people live and relate to one another. How sturdy can this foundation be if false teachers infiltrate the ranks of the faithful? Yet the foundation stands; false teachers may advance temporarily, but the gospel will always come roaring back. The gospel will not be thwarted ultimately by false teachers. The foundation will hold.
The foundation stands not because of what people do to maintain it but because of what God has done. x2 The foundation stands because it bears a "seal." A seal is the mark or impression made by some sort of signet— perhaps a ring.
Wax would be used to seal a document, and a signet would be pressed to make an impression on the wax. The resulting inscription on the seal would thus indicate ownership. We saw that when we studied Esther. The seal here is a metaphor for God's guarantee of ownership. Inscribed on this seal is not God's name but his promises, consisting of two verses from Numbers 16: "The Lord knows those who are his," and "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."
This scholar said. These two verses appear in the context of the narrative of Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16. Even though false teachers were in the midst of Israel (Korah in this case), they would not threaten the foundation God had already laid. Why? Not because of Moses and Aaron's efforts but because of God's efforts. The Lord knows those who are his and shows them the path of escape. This path involves fleeing from evil, which God's people do. "God knows and chooses his people, and they manifest that reality by abstaining from evil."
Friend next point I want you to see is this…
The unashamed worker strives for holiness.
The unashamed worker strives for holiness.
what does it mean to strive for something. It means to make a great effort to achieve or obtain something. This is something I have been wrestling alot with lately, because there is a call to holiness for every Christian if your a pastor or not, and I have said this recently but because we are baptists, but more importantly sinful people we need to hear this over and over again. God calls you and I to a life of holiness to be set apart, there are to many of us including myself that say so and so is doing it and they are a believer so I can do it, well did Christ do it? Amen or ouch huh.
Paul says there is this great house, which is filled with all these things. Some vessels of Gold and Silver which are used for honorable use, and wood and clay that is used for dishonorable.
So in order to be useful to God you need to be set apart, Holy. Useful to the master ready for every good work. Well you may ask pastor how can i do that? You purify yourself. You don’t become like those false teachers. You know how to handle the word rightly unashamed. You may feel so ashamed because you are not pursuing purity. If you have ever cooked before you want the best utensils to do the job, you dont want to making tacos with plastic wear, I remember years ago Megan and I got a mix and chop to cook our tacos total game changer. It helps you chop the meat so much better than a spatula does because it has many ends to do so it makes it perfectly because its covered at all angles. It serves it purpose because its built perfectly are you? Can you say I know the word of God, I know the plots of the enemy, I am setting my self apart, I have been made right by Jesus through faith, all my directions are covered because of God, and the work he has done in me, or are you a dishonorable vessel?
The dishonorable vessel examples Paul uses are wood and clay these would be often thrown out with garbage and feces. They are not useful, because they ignore Gods word’s they cling to all that is unholy and have turned away from the Lord. One bit of reading reminded me THAT God uses these vessels in his plan such as will Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and King Xerxes. But these are outliers. Want to be one who is an unashamed worker pursue holiness be an honorable vessel.
How do you pursue holiness you flee from the sinful, and you run towards what is right. Thats what repentance is. Paul wants Timothy wants us to flee from any desire that God has forbidden. Now he alludes to these being youthful desires because these are desires of one who either is not saved, or also one’s who may be immature in the faith. He is saying flee from being undisciplined. He is saying don’t pursue the things that got you in trouble before you were saved or when you were new saved. He is saying have some self control, and pursue the right things. There is this idea of putting off the old and putting on the new when you are a believer. Paul talks about this in a few of his letters. Colossians, Ephesians. But that is a sermon in itself for a later time.
But in addition he wants us to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace in a community. Three out of the four things he listed is a fruit of the spirit that we see in the book of Galatians. It should become a natural response to someone who has been born again to want to run away from the bad and run towards the good. but notice he said do it with other believers. This is what makes Heb 10:23-25 so important.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
You need people in your life to tell you when to flee, and when to run to Jesus. We need to be people who strive for holiness so that we can be useful to God. Listen to these words.
Spurgeon said, "But let a man once become really holy, even though he has but the slenderest possible ability, and he will be a fitter instrument in God's hand than the man of gigantic accomplishments who is not obedient to the divine will, or clean and pure in the sight of the Lord God Almighty. " In our pursuit of many things in this life let us be people who pursue Holiness in all of our ways.
Third point today is this…
The unashamed worker serves the Lord.
The unashamed worker serves the Lord.
If you remember what we talked about last week the solider does not get entangled in civilian pursuits neither should a servant get caught up in foolish things. Ignorant controversies, because they breed quarrels. Notice the word breed, what does breeding do it reproduces. Its like that gangrene we talked about. We need to stay away from those things and serve the Lord. Be faithful. And in our service the Lord is going to save his people.
Can I be honest with you for just a min, I wish verse 24 and 25 said something different. Because Ill be honest with you Ill fight the good fight of faith all day long. Ill come out swinging the sword and I wont stop and until there is nothing left, but Paul doesn’t say do that here does he.
So Paul writing to Timothy, writing to me writing to you says. The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind, able to teach patiently enduring evil. Ouch right. I read something this week I know I need to here, and man its been weighty.
It said.. It matters not only that Timothy contends for the faith but also how he contends. x2 If he is angry and pugnacious instead of kind, no one will listen to him , He must "patiently endure) evil" not avenging personal slights but defending the truth of God and advancing his mission.
Couple Scriptures with that. Prov 15:1-2
1 A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
Ouch.
21 The wise of heart is called discerning,
and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
Ouch. Ill be honest with you I tell people the truth of God, because I want people to come to their senses like Paul says in verse 26. I don’t want anyone I know to go to hell, to live sinful lives because I love them. I want them to turn away from the devil so they wont do his will anymore, but in the process I may be going about it with the wrong servant mindset.
Paul tells Timothy look, Be able to teach these people who are far from Jesus, but do it the right way. One man said Paul said to the Thessalonians we were gentle among you as a nursing mother nutures her own children. What an Image. This man also said. Do not miss what else Paul says. He does not tell Timothy to shrink back. That would be inconsistent with that has already been said in this letter. No the Lord servant was also charged to be instructing his opponents v25 gentleness does not mean timidity. Its strength under control. Timothy was called to do so gently. I really like that gentleness does not mean timidity its strength under control its a mature way to go about witnessing for Jesus.
Why do we do this this way instead of guns blazing well because of what Paul says.. God may perhaps grand them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. That is why we serve the Lord the way he wants us to so he may be glorified, and others may be saved.
This text really makes you think about Jesus doesn’t it?
Because if we could think of someone who is unashamed worker more than anyone else including Paul it would be Jesus am I right?
Jesus did not quarrel about words. He did not argue about scripture. In fact when the devil came promising him the world what did he say. Matt 4:10
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
He presented himself as one who was approved, a worker who was not ashamed. In fact during his baptism God the Father said this…
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus handled the word of truth rightly because he was the word. John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
His word breeds life not death. because Jesus is life. John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the resurrection.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus is our firm foundation.
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
He is why we are sealed. John 3:33
33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
He took our iniquity.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Jesus sets us apart to be useful to the master by sanctifying us.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Jesus pursued righteousness in every with the purest of hearts because no sin was found in him. 1 Peter 2:22
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
And he was kind when he healed the sick, preached to sinners, and forgave those who betrayed him. But more than all that he died so that you could know him. Could be free the the pangs of death, and the snare of the devil. Col 1:22
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Jesus was one who was truly unashamed. So he could take away all your shame so that you in turn could live as an unashamed worker for his glory. Do you know him today? Let us pray.