For the Sake of Others

Context

Growing Together. Learning from Paul’s writings to the first churches.

Today’s lesson from Paul’s second letter to Timothy.

Paul is in prison, or at the least chained to a Roman centurion, while under a kind of house arrest.

He is faced with the prospect of death. Nero is a violent emperor, often controlled by fits of passion and paranoia, leading to the death of individuals, even family members, that he viewed as threats to his power.

Paul has been preaching that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of the Jews, and had been raised from the dead, and had thus been proven to be the one true Lord of all — Jew and Gentile alike.

This message was viewed by the powers of Rome as a direct attack on traditional pagan deities and the religious/political structure of which Nero was the head.

Text

2 Timothy 2:8–15 “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure: 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 will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.”

Introduction

Hardship and suffering.

Why is this happening? The reason often clear — other people; age; disease;

But a deeper level to this question: why is this happening? Is there any good that can come out of suffering…for scriptures says, God causes all things to work together for the good of those who believe…

Paul was clear about the Why. On one level: It was for preaching the gospel in a hostile world.

On a deeper level, a deep good was also at hand…

Exegesis

So Paul was in prison for preaching the gospel, marked for a trial that likely would end in his death.

Paul does not in the least recant his message. Instead he writes to Timothy and says, “remember.”

2 Timothy 2:8 “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel,”

Not that Timothy would forget, but that these core elements of the Gospel should be central in his mind.

Jesus (of Nazareth, a real historical man) was the Son of God.

He is the Christ, the expected one of God, promised throughout the Scriptures.

He had died for the sins of the world and God raised him from the dead to give eternal life and peace to all.

Jesus Christ was the descendent of David, the golden-age king of the Jews, and he would sit on a throne forever and judge all the nations.

Paul says: this is my message, the gospel…for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal.

Paul is not complaining about his hardship. He is EXPLAINING — to Timothy and to the centurion and to all — that his predicament is a result of his message…not any other reason. He suffers not as a criminal, but because he preaches Jesus Christ.

This was not new to Paul.

Over the years he had suffered much hardship for the gospel.

Something DEEPER going on. He had come to see that Christ worked through his suffering.

Damascus — Jews plotted to stone him but he preached powerfully and many believed. (Acts 9:23)

Jerusalem — the Hellenists attempted to kill him, but he preached and the church grew (Acts 9:31)

Antioch of Pisidia — Paul was driven out of the city, but the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13:50)

And similar things happened in Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. He was stoned and apparently dead in Lystra (Acts 14:19)

Even on his way to Rome, it was while being shipwrecked that Paul was able to share Christ with the panicked crew.

Paul is stable in his hardship. He has come to know that it is precisely through his sufferings that his gospel message has takes on power.

Jesus himself said to Paul: 2 Corinthians 12:9 “…“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

And Paul concluded: 2 Corinthians 12:10 “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

When he suffers, the gospel advances…then his ministry is at its strongest.

So he looks at his chains…I am chained but the gospel is not.

2 Timothy 2:10 “… I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”

I endure everything for the sake of those who believe and who will believe. I am chained by the word of God is not. My body is locked here, but other people’s spirits will be set free.

Paul draws additional comfort from the lyrics of what may have been an ancient baptismal hymn, now lost. It is trustworthy:

If we have died with him (and we have by baptism), we will live with him in resurrection.

If we endure, we will reign with him.

If we deny him, he will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself.

Paul cites this hymn because the baptismal identity is the Christian anchor in life…The baptismal call is that Christians must be brave to die and suffer and affirm Christ in all circumstances…yet even if by their own weakness they fail, Christ never does.

Paul does not want Timothy to think that he is immune to occasional times of despair. Hardship does challenge one’s faithfulness. But reminds Timothy of the baptismal promise:

Jesus Christ is faithful.

Jesus gives himself to them and works through them — even when they are in prison, even if they sometimes despair — so that other people enter into eternal life.

Paul in prison for the gospel. One one level: because the Romans didn’t like his message. On a deeper level: because Christ was evangelizing the world through his suffering.

Interpretation

Today we are the stewards of the gospel. The same gospel as Paul’s: Jesus Christ, Son of God, suffered and died, and rose again from the dead.

So like Paul we are called to see a deeper meaning in our suffering — it can be means by which Christ evangelizes the world around us. Before we reject this as a strange notion, consider this.

Example: Some of you may be familiar with name Vicktor Frankl.

Frankle was a psychiatrist in Vienna (Austria) in the 1930s and 1940s.

He studied or corresponded with such luminaries as Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler.

Freud believed humans are controlled by unconscious drives;

Adler focused on how social dynamics influence us;

but Frankl eventually founded his own school of therapy. His basic idea was that human beings are driven to find meaning. Without a sense of purpose, human beings succumb to neurosis and eventually lose the will to live altogether.

As Frankl was working out this thesis, the Nazis rose to power.

Frankl, being Jewish, was sent to the concentration camps, in 1942. His father succumbed to pneumonia. His mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers. His wife, Tilly, to whom he had only been married for 9 months, died of Typhus.

Frankl spent three years in the concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

During his time as a prisoner, Frankl viewed his situation from the vantage point of a emerging theory about meaning and psychological health. Consequently, he noticed that when his fellow prisoners relinquished a sense of purpose.. even if that purpose was only to suffer with dignity…they soon died. They had no reason to endure the suffering, so they wilted, and expired.

Frankl credits his own psychological survival to having preserved a sense of purpose. Essentially, he converted his experience into a research opportunity.

His goal was to eventually use his observations about purpose and survival in the most horrific situation to help others find psychological wellness.

When everything else was taken away from him, his loved ones, his health, ..Frankl had one thing that the Nazis could not violate: a sense of purpose.

He survived the camp and wrote his most famous book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” — a standard in the field of psychotherapy, and which has helped million of people ovecome despair.

“It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future — and this is his salvation in the most difficult of moments of his existence…” (p. 81)

We are not concentration camp survivors like Vicktor Frankl.

We are not imprisoned for our faith, like Paul was.

But like them both, we are called to deal with adversity in whatever form we encounter it with our eye fixed on our purpose.

If we see our suffering as merely circumstantial, then we wilt. When we connect our suffering to our higher purpose then we can endure.

As Christians, like Paul, our purpose is rooted in Jesus Christ…the highest of all purposes.

Christ suffered and patiently trusted in his heavenly father to bring everyone into the kingdom of God.

So, being united to Christ, our own suffering, can be a vehicle for his ministry to the world around us.

One of the greatest encouragers of my faith is a dear sibling in the Lord, whose spouse was sick with cancer. All the while they kept their faith in Christ.

Not only to me but to family and friends.

When he was at his weakest, his testimony was at its strongest.

Just as Jesus said to Paul, my power is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient for you.

We trust him when we are unemployed, when our marriage is failing, when our kids hurt us, when we are struggling with illness, when we are lonely.

Through our weakness, Christ’s strength shows forth. He holds us up faithfully.

If we love our friends and family members and community around us……we will as much as possible go through our suffering with the purpose of Christ.

We will in our hardships say, I endure it all for the sake of those whom God is calling into eternal life, along with me.

Application

How to keep this purpose in mind. Note what Paul does.

Recite the gospel. Just state the facts. This is what is going on. Yet Christ is with me and active in my life.

Talk about it to whoever is around, even the guard or the hospital tech.

Write a letter or a card.

Pray.

Trust.

And should these things fail, cover us with your mercy. And should our hope fail, let us trust in your love which never fails.

Conclusion

Paul said, I endure all for others, as Christ did for me.

May that be true for all of us.

Announcement

offerings

Jesse Harrington

Jean Meredith for Mission