Preach the Word
Notes
Transcript
Intro
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:
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
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.
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The Authority
The Authority
Before Paul charges Timothy, he appeals to the authority by which he is charging him.
“By what authority do you do this?”
Explanation of the power behind this authority.
This is the same thing that Jesus did in the Great Commission.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
The Charge
The Charge
Preach the word.
The clarity of a message in such a short sentence.
Preach.
Not only Sunday preaching
we all proclaim about many things
we proclaim what matters to us
the Word.
The message of God the Gosprl of Jesus Christ.
Be ready in season and out of season.
To do three things. Reprove, Rebuke, and Exhort. Three things that are essential to the Gospel being proclaimed.
Reprove - Expose.
Make clear what the issue is.
We cannot preach the word without this process of reproving or exposing.
The Gospel is the “good news.” But there is no good news without bad news. When we reprove others, we expose their sinfulness and need of a Savior.
Rebuke - Warn.
Warn those who are listening.
Warn them of the wages of the sin that they currently walk in.
Exhort - Call to response.
Call the to response. Implore. Beg.
These three things are present when the Gospel is appropriately proclaimed.
People are caused to be face to face with their sin.
They are warned about the consequences of their sin.
And they are called to respond to the work of Christ.
With complete patience and teaching.
Remembering Christ’s patience with us.
Explaining and teaching the truth we have been entrusted with.
Giving reason to the faith.
We follow God by faith, but our faith is well founded.
This patience and teaching serves the purpose also of giving believers a firm foundation with which they can face the world.
This gets to the reason that Paul explains that he is supposed to do this.
The Reason
The Reason
Why is Paul charging him to do this?
First and foremost, because it is the primary objective of the Christian life. To proclaim the gospel and make disciples.
Specifically though, Paul says that people will soon reject sound teaching in favor of teachers that tickle their ears.
You can find someone with a Ph.D. to support just about anything.
We naturally seek the things that confirm our preconceived ideas, rather than challenge them.
Sometimes when I make a purchase that I am unsure about I like to look up positive reviews to just remind myself that I made a good decision.
We preach to ourselves.
Jesus said that whoever would follow him must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow him.
As we follow we must constantly deny our flesh and seek to be obedient to the Spirit’s leading.
We do this by regularly examining our lives in view of the Gospel.
Daily we:
Seek to reprove or expose any sin within ourselves.
Taking seriously this issue, we consider the gravity of our sin.
We then respond to the mercy and grace extended to us.
“Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I am constrained to be.”
Should we ever stop thinking that, we have forgotten the first step to being a faithful servant.
We preach to the church.
From the place of striving for personal faithfulness, we go to our Christian brothers and sisters and we speak the Gospel to one another.
Through our words and actions we regularly remind each other of the Gospel.
This will build a firm foundation so that:
People will remain firm and grow in their faith.
The Gospel remains the primary focus.
We preach to the lost.
All believers should disperse from our church gatherings still preaching the same message that we gathered to sing about and talk about.
This is what Christ calls us to do.
To be his witnesses in all the earth.
To make disciples of all nations.
This Great Commission that we have been entrusted with is the very reason that we sit here today.
What is the reason that pastors and messengers from over 40 churches have travelled to come together in this place on a Saturday morning?
What is the reason that First Southern has graciously opened their doors to host all of these people from other churches?
What is the reason that Kenny drives over that money saving bridge to serve an association the church he pastors isn’t a part of?
It is a very simple answer: the desire to fulfill the Great Commission
The entire reason the SBC exists is to fulfill the great commission. To seek to make disciples of all nations.
It is the belief that we are better together.
That if we southern baptist churches. All autonomous, but alike in belief in practice, will set aside whatever differences we do have for the sake of the Gospel, that we will be better able to reach this world for Christ.
As Paul explained what and why he was calling Timothy to do, he let him know that it would not be easy.
The Challenge
The Challenge
Sober-Minded
The idea of being sober-minded.
Most often we would go to alcohol, but this is far broader than that.
The things that can get us fired up:
Israel
Ukraine
Covid
Racial tensions
Immigration
Political Affiliations
Economic Policy
If I were to take a firm stance on any of the issues listed above, there would be people who just as firmly disagree with that stance.
No doubt many in here, have strong opinions on some of these topics.
The only point that I seek to make by bring up topics that have such fierce debate behind them is that in these and all other things we must be sober-minded.
Reference back to 2 Timothy 2:3-4
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
When we fail to be sober-minded we find ourselves entangled in things that are not our primary objective.
Just like an intoxicated person cannot walk a straight line, a the believer who allows their mind to be intoxicated by the cares of this world cannot fulfill their aim of pleasing God.
This does not mean that believers ignore important issues. Far from it! Many issues we face God is clear on, and we should respond in kind.
It does mean, however, that we remain always sober-minded and deal with all situations with the mind of Christ.
We do all these things in pursuit of fulfilling our goal, and we refuse to let it get in the way.
Endure Suffering
Also referenced in verse 3.
Suffering should be expected as we follow Christ.
Important: As we follow Christ! Being a Christian does not mean you will suffer, especially in America. It means that if you live your life like Jesus, seeking to fulfill the mission he has given us, you will face suffering.
I am not very old, an in my lifetime I have seen dramatically how the world has changed.
People seem less concerned about God.
People seem less bothered by sin.
This is reflected in data.
In my conversations with people, it seems that the longer a person has lived the more they can echo this sentiment.
The question that we must face then, “If the world, as we have observed, is so evil, why is it that so many Christians experience so little suffering?”
If we experience little to no suffering, are we faithfully following the God of the Bible?
There can only be two answers.
The world isn’t that evil.
Many Christians aren’t being faithful to the life that God calls them to live.
Peter and John could have lived peaceful normal lives.
Those who persecuted them said it themselves. We are letting you go, just don’t teach or speak in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,
for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
They were willing to endure suffering because of what Jesus has done.
Paul echoes this in Philippians when he said that he counts it all as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.
This leads to the next point...
Do the work of an evangelist
This is simply what we have talked about. Proclaiming the message of Christ to the lost.
Fulfill your ministry
The idea of doing what you are called to do.
We aren’t Timothy. His ministry isn’t ours, but I believe we all he a ministry that God is calling us to fulfill.
Two examples:
The parable of the lazy servant.
The example of Paul
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Preach the Word
Preach the Word
I firmly believe that if you are here in this room today, you have a God-ordained role in the proclamation of Gospel and the Making of disciples here in Southwestern Indiana.
It is a different time, a different place, with different people. But the ministry we carry is the same one that Paul and Timothy carried. The one Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians 5.
The ministry of reconciliation. Carrying the message that in Christ, there is forgiveness. That our sins may not be held against us, because for our sake he made Jesus who knew no sin, to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
I genuinely believe that if we will humbly and obediently seek God, and obediently take part of what he is doing that we can see amazing things happen.
There are around a half a million people within a reasonable distance of our partner churches.
If we were to take the very generous statistic of the US that 64% are Christian.
That leaves around 180,000 people who self identify as not knowing Christ.
Evenly divided, that would mean each of our churches would have to reach 3,600 people to reach them all.
We don’t have to look far for the mission field. It is all around us.
Factor in that cities like Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, and St. Louis are a day trip away… The mission field is staggaring.
As Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
And we know the reality of those many souls who stand opposed to God. That they are dead in their sin with no hope apart from Christ.
It is for that reason that today I would charge myself and each and everyone of you here today. Preach the Word.
Let us be people who take seriously the ministry of reconciliation that we have been entrusted with.
Let us truly believe and be unashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of salvation for all who believe.
Let us boldly go, with sober-minds intent on our mission to proclaim this good news to the world.
Let us faithful to the point of encountering suffering for the cause of Christ. Let us endure that suffering.
Let us each fulfill the ministry that God has for us. Part of our ministry, for every believer, being to go make disciples.
Let us take this seriously, knowing that we have the Gospel. The good news, that in Christ there is forgiveness of sins.
Let us be burdened, knowing that those outside of Christ stand condemned. Let our hearts be broken for the lost all around us.
Let us Preach the Word.
I close with this quote from Charles Spurgeon:
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
