Proclaim the Word
2 Timothy • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Chapter 4:1-8 is the crux of Paul’s letter to Timothy. This is the main point and what Paul ultimately wants Timothy to know before he leaves the earth.
Solemnly Charge - This is a different level of attention that Paul is exhorting Timothy to.
Final comments before he goes to the chopping block.
Exceeds all previous charges in solemnity, intensity, and urgency.
This saying is formulaic of an oath.
Today we’re going to look at
The Solemnity Of The Charge
The 2 Judgments Mentioned In The Charge
What Are We Charged To Do?
Read 2 Timothy 4:1-5
The Solemnity Of The Charge (vs 1)
The Solemnity Of The Charge (vs 1)
He invokes the presence of God.
I am giving you this charge as if God was standing right here watching over this as a witness.
As God is my witness...the root word is marturomai - to bear witness.
He invokes the presence of His Son, Jesus.
He places the title of Jesus first as if to emphasize it.
And of the Messiah - Jesus.
Thus also presenting the 2 as equals
This language presents itself as a confirming reality to the matter being sealed.
This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
He reminds Timothy of the role of Jesus in the lives of mankind.
Christ is the end time judge of the entire human race.
Who is to judge the living and the dead (Apostle’s Creed) - a phrase intended to highlight the whole of humanity and that no one is left out.
From head to toe
From bumper to bumper
From front to back
But more specifically it’s about those who are alive in Christ vs. those who are dead in the flesh.
2 Different Judgments: The Judgment of the Living and the Judgment of the Dead
By His Appearing
A reference to the 2nd Coming of Jesus
Which leads to the Great White Throne judgment for the spiritually dead.
By His Kingdom
A reference to the physical coming of the Kingdom of Christ and the rapture that occurs just before it.
Which leads to the Bema Seat Judgment for the spiritually alive.
The 2 Judgments Of Mankind (vs 1)
The 2 Judgments Of Mankind (vs 1)
The Judgment of the Dead - His Appearing
By His Appearing (epiphany)
conveys the idea of brightness, radiance, splendor or glory.
It may also reflect the OT concept of the Shekinah cloud of the glory of God’s presence as seen throughout the OT.
The significance of the glory cloud in this motif is brought forth.
The cloud in the wilderness
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out;
The cloud of Solomon’s Temple
It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
The son of man coming in the clouds...
OT background prophecy
“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.
Jesus references that prophecy in regards to Himself and the fulfillment of it.
“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
A connection of His coming and judgment.
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
The wrath of God upon the unrighteous and ungodly ones - The Spiritually Dead Ones
At the blowing of the 7th Trumpet which inaugurates the last 3.5 years of the tribulation period, the wrath of God is unleashed on the ungodly.
(24 elders) saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged...”
Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.
The wrath of God unleashed in the 7 bowls or 7 cups of wrath.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.
The 2nd coming occurs as part of the 7th bowl being poured out and Jesus returns to earth.
Known as the Battle of Armageddon.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
The Great White Throne Judgment of the spiritually dead.
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
judgment for those whose names are not written in the Book of Life.
The dead are judged according to their deeds.
The problem is, the Bible says in Isaiah - that all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
The Judgment of the Living - His Kingdom
His Kingdom - Finally God’s Kingdom comes physically and Jesus begins to reign.
Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
This scene occurs at the midpoint of the tribulation.
Upon the blowing of the last, that is, the 7th trumpet, the transfer of the Kingdom begins and becomes final.
“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
During the last 3.5 years there is a rewarding of the Saints.
(24 elders) saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great...”
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
The Bema Seat Judgment - the rewarding of the spiritually alive.
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
What is the Bema seat?
in the Greek games it was what one stood before in order for the winner to be given the victor’s crown.
This is the awards stand.
What does that Bema Seat judgment look like?
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.
If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
These works are not for salvation, but what we have done with our lives after coming to salvation.
Those good works will be taken into account for a reward.
The bad works will be burned up.
The good works we do for the glory of God and are pleasing to Him, even if tainted, are covered in the blood of the Lamb and we are rewarded for them.
Thankful, because those things we do for the glory of God don’t have to be “perfectly” done.
We seek, obey, and bring our fishes and loaves and let God do the work, we serve, we love, we worship, we share Christ, and they don’t have to be perfectly done.
The bad works are those things we did not do for the glory of God.
They will be burned up.
sounds bad, but it’s more grace.
Nothing impure will enter Heaven, so even the works that were done with impure motives will be gone, and implied with that, any regret along with them.
So all that we have to bring into Heaven are the rewards and rejoicing to the praise of God.
No more guilt, shame, or reminders of such.
All the missed opportunities, twiddling of our thumbs, and procrastinations gone.
All my screw-ups, all those things I did for selfish intent...burned up never to be remembered anymore.
What Are We Charged To Do? (Vs 2)
What Are We Charged To Do? (Vs 2)
So, In Light Of All That...
We are to do 4 things.
Preach (proclaim) the Word
To proclaim as a herald
we are official heralds of the King of Kings.
as a herald we are not free to choose our own message.
We are given the message to proclaim by the King Himself.
Our message is THE Word, that is, Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The fullness of Glory
The fullness of Grace
The fullness of Truth
That is, the fullness of the Word of God Jesus.
Found in the fullness of the Word, the Gospel.
That is our message: Proclaim the fullness of Jesus!
Be Ready In Season and Out Of Season - always in a state of readiness
in opportune and inopportune moments.
in favorable and unfavorable circumstances
when I want to and when I don’t
With All Patience And All Instruction
patience - all makrothumia -
restrained wrath.
The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so.
patience in regard to people.
instruction - all didache -
the act of instructing or tutoring.
Content taught with the authority of that which is taught.
The inherent authority of the Word of God.
The authority comes not from me, but from God.
From the Word
The context is more about how we are treating the truth and less about behavior.
The embracing or rejecting of the truth will manifest itself in one type of behavior over the other.
Instead of focusing on behavior first, focus on what and in whom you believe.
Then address the behavior based on the truth.
Remember our hearts AND our minds must be transformed so that we can offer up ourselves as a holy sacrifice in worshipful service. Rom 12:1-2
Reprove - to convict, to prove one is in the wrong.
To convince of error. same word from 3:16.
To put on trial so as to prove one’s guilt.
to show where someone is wrong about Jesus or the Scripture.
Rebuke -
To admonish strongly with urgency and authority, with the idea of censure being applied.
One may rebuke another without bringing that one to a conviction of any fault.
Stop spreading lies about Jesus and Scripture.
Stop leading people astray.
Do not listen to so and so, they are not holding to sound doctrine.
Exhort -
Every reproof and rebuke should be done with the motive of encouragement.
To call upon someone to come alongside you, so that you might point out where they have erred and how it is hurtful or damaging and encouraging them in the right way to proceed and why.
This is why I believe so much in biblical counseling.
Those who have come to me for counseling can attest to how much I use Scripture in my counseling.
People can also attest to how much I use Scripture to encourage them in the midst of any reproof or rebuke I might give.
But this all goes back to the authority of The Word of God.
The Final Word
The Final Word
This is a really, really, really, really important charge.
As the Almighty, Creator God is my witness
As the Messiah, Judge Jesus is my witness
In light of the fact that everything that I do will come under scrutiny in that final day.
Always be in a spirit of readiness to proclaim the fulness of Jesus, His Gospel, His Glory, His Grace, and His Truth
If opposition arises, or correction in teaching is needed
With patience and using the authority of the Word of God
Point out and chastise their errors, if necessary, and encourage and tutor them to a better understanding.
If you are not as equipped or able to do so, but notice it, encourage them to go with you to a mentor who can do so.
Maybe you’re finding yourself on the outside looking in.
Maybe you have not given your life to Jesus and you find yourself spiritually dead...in danger of the Great White Throne Judgment.
Maybe you have given your life to Jesus, but you have found yourself not living for Him...Surrender all.
Maybe you have given your life to Jesus and you are trying to live for Him, but you don’t find yourself in a state of readiness to proclaim Jesus and all that is...Bible study
Closing Song: “I Surrender All”
