“Motivation to be Faithful”
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-Take time to Welcome everyone.
-Thank Adam for Speaking last week.
-Quick Announcements.
-Open in Prayer.
-Read Text.
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.
I wanted to take time tonight to read the rest of this section. However, I am going to split this specific section into 2 parts. Tonight we will look at verses 8-9 and then next week we will look at verses 10-13.
As Paul takes time to write out this final letter of his life to Timothy, Paul realized that his life on earth was coming to an end. We have talked about this several different times throughout our study. In fact, later on in chapter 4 in verses 6-7 Paul says this.
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.
Timothy himself understood that as he ministered and served the church there in Ephesus he too may suffer persecution and suffering.
With this in mind Paul may have been thinking there may come questions and doubt especially after the admonition of verses 1-7 that we saw last week. Timothy may have wondered why and how do I continue to be a faithful teacher and preacher? Why should I suffer hardship like a soldier or continue to train hard like an athlete, or even toil hard like a farmer? These may have been questions that Timothy thought about? Whatever Timothy been have been thinking about or going through, Paul offers up some powerful motivation to continue to be faithful. In fact, there were 4 major areas that Paul shares with Timothy.
Tonight we will look at the first 2 and then next week we will look at the last 2. Here are the 4 motivations in being faithful.
-Remember the Superiority of Christ.
-Remember the Power of God’s Word.
-Remember the Purpose of the work.
-Remember the Promise of your Reward.
1. Remember the Superiority of Christ.
1. Remember the Superiority of Christ.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel,
As we come to verse 8 Paul desires Timothy to know that he can have greater courage, boldness, and endurance if only he will remember Jesus Christ and His superiority. This Jesus is fully God and yet also fully man who was born of a virgin and gave His life so that we may have life everlasting.
Notice here in verse 8 the word Remember. The Greek verb remember here is an imperative just like the word remind in verse 14 and to do your best or be diligent in verse 15 and to avoid in verse 16 and to depart in verse 19 and flee and pursue in verse 22 and finally to have nothing to do with in verse 23.
All of these are commands and powerful motivators for a faithful and productive spiritual life. For a believer these are not options but imperatives because they characterized the perfect and superior life of our great example Jesus Christ.
20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
So, this Greek verb remember carries the idea of continuing to remember. We remember what Christ has done for us throughout the week and then corporately on Sunday’s and specifically when we take the Lord’s Supper. The idea here is to continue to keep in mind what Jesus has done for you. Jesus is our supreme and great teacher. Christ was the greatest soldier, athlete, or even shepherd or farmer who has ever lived. Christ has fought the good battle and has won the victory over sin and death. Jesus has reaped the perfect harvest and now invites us to know and follow him.
There are 3 specific lessons on why we must remember Christ.
-First, We remember Jesus because he has risen from the dead. Anyone who has ever read 1 Corinthians chapter 15 will understand Paul’s seriousness of the resurrection. In fact, 1 Corinthians 15 delivers the most important instructions of the resurrection in all of Scripture. The resurrection of Jesus is the focal point in which all Christianity hangs on. Without the resurrection our faith is in vain, but it is not because we know from verses like this in 2 Timothy that Christ did in fact rise from the grave and today we can celebrate the wonderful news of this reality.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Paul wants Timothy and us to remember Jesus Christ who is alive because he has risen from the dead. Today we can worship Christ and serve him because he is no longer dead but alive. As Christians we worship and serve a living God unlike any other cult or false religion. When we remember or focus our hearts and minds on the risen Christ we have a great motivation to remember that Jesus broke the power of sin, death, and Satan in our own lives. We can live faithfully for Christ even in the midst of difficult days.
-Second, We remember that Jesus in his humanity is the offspring of David. Jesus in his human side is our sympathetic and merciful high priest. Jesus knows all our suffering and has felt our pain. (Hebrews 2:14,18) There were many times where we see how Christ could be traced back to the family line of David.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Knowing these things help us to know that if Jesus is our divine Savior and sovereign Lord, why should we worry about what happens in this life??? Jesus was tempted in all things as we are, and yet Christ was without sin. That is exactly why we need to come to him and trust in him when we go through difficult days.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
-Finally, Paul tells us to remember the gospel. Paul says specifically as preached in my gospel. Keep in mind here that Paul is not speaking about his own opinion about the gospel but the perfect and wonderful message of Jesus Christ entrusted to him and that he proclaimed as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul came to understand and preach that Jesus was the central theme of the Gospel. Paul desired for Timothy to keep his focus on Christ. To remember the superiority of Jesus who was the Son of God as well as the Son of man, and as Savior, Lord and King.
Question = How does knowing that Jesus is Superior help you or motivate you to be faithful to Christ?
2. Remember the Power of God’s Word.
2. Remember the Power of God’s Word.
9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!
The second area of motivation to faithfully follow God is to remember the power of God’s Word. It is interesting here to see that Paul actually contrasts his own imprisonment to the freedom of God’s Word. God’s Word is not bound or imprisoned. Even though the Apostle Paul followed the Lord and served Christ’s authority, he was subject to the Roman authorities who had placed him in jail. Just as Christ suffered unjustly and went through a unjust trial and was subject to evil treatment by ungodly men, so too was Paul. Think with me for a moment about Paul’s life. Paul was not a bank robber, he was not a thief, he was not on trial for murder, and yet he was placed in prison in Rome and awaited certain death.
What is so interesting about Paul’s circumstance is that he was not upset about his current situation, but admonished Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord.
I believe that Paul’s main focus here was not to complain about his own condition, but rather to point up to God and to focus on His unchanging and true Word. The Apostle Paul agreed with what the author of Hebrews said about God’s Word.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Men we must be certain in our lives that God’s Word is living and active. It is true and shows us how to live our lives.
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
Every day we must fill our hearts and minds with the Word of God and let it sink in so that we may know how to think, act, speak, and live.
There have always been people in the church who believe that the power of the gospel is restricted by social or political reasoning. So, they compromise and don’t teach the truth of God’s Word. Many pastors have stopped preaching against sin, repentance and what Christ has done in order to make the message more acceptable and supposedly more effective. We must not and cannot stop preaching and teaching the full counsel of the Word of God. Why? Because there is power in the Word of God! The Word of God is not and cannot be bound or imprisoned.
Illustration: At one time in the city of Rome there were 600 miles of catacombs under the city streets. In the early centuries of the church, the catacombs served as meeting and burial places for as many as four million Christians. A common inscription found on the walls there is “The Word of God is not bound.”
In his famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” Martin Luther said, “The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still.”
Down through the pages of church history there have been many who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel. During the 1940’s and 50’s there were hundreds of thousands of Chinese Christians who lost their lives for Christ. Although written copies of God’s Word are still very scarce, the truth of God’s Word endures in their hearts. Its power cannot be bound. The more it is attacked, the more it prevails.
Question: How does knowing that there is power in God’s Word and it cannot be bound help you to be faithful?
Next week we will look at the last 2 motivators for being faithful.
-Remember the Purpose of the Work.
-Remember the Promise of your Reward.
(Pray and Dismiss)