An Enduring Legacy

There is something inherent in every human being for a sense of permanency. As Christians, we believe that this is because God has put a longing for the eternal in every person. We are meant to be connected to the divine. Faced with our own mortality, however, has pushed many to immortalize themselves through history. We still remember Egyptian Pharaohs, the Roman Empire, the first President of the United States. We all want to be remembered. We call that legacy. What does it take to leave an enduring legacy?

We are going to look at 2 Timothy today. It is the last letter we have that Paul wrote. His writings comprise a significant portion of the New Testament. He writes thirteen letters, most of them addressed to churches. The others are addressed to individuals, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The letters to Timothy and Titus are pastoral in nature, one pastor speaking to another. Timothy was Paul’s closest friend. More than that, he called him a son in the faith. He taught him and trained him. Paul was arrested again for his missionary work and was awaiting a second trial where he expected he would be executed. This sets the context for the letter.

Now imagine you receive a letter, though now it might be a video recording, from the person closest to you. This person mentored you, molded you, shaped you into the person you are today. This person begins to share through this correspondence that this is likely the last time you will hear from them. The weight of those words are going to be different. That is how we should try to read these words.

Life begins at a moment in time and ends at a moment in time. That is true of people, but it is also true of institutions. Lifeway Research showed that in 2014 there were 4,000 churches opened compared to 3,700 closings. In 2019 there were 3,000 openings, but 4,500 closings. In 2024 there were 3,800 openings but 4,000 closings. There is a life cycle for every church. Nobody lasts forever. No church lasts forever. There is not a single church in the New Testament still standing today. But they have passed on an enduring legacy.

What does it take to pass on an enduring legacy? Paul spells it out for Timothy in only two verses.

2 Timothy 2:1–2 NASB95

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Paul previously mentioned that many had deserted him. When times get tough, people have a tendency to flee. Paul felt abandoned by all but a few. He is writing to Timothy to encourage him to keep the faith and stay strong, which we see in the opening verse of chapter 2.

The second verse is the outline for passing on an enduring legacy. Timothy is instructed to take what he has received from Paul and pass it on to faithful men, who can then pass it on to others. It is super simple. In one verse you have a blueprint for making disciples, but it is hard to do.

The people business is not an easy business. But if we want to leave an enduring legacy there is a pattern to follow. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you are confident that you will be in heaven with him if you died tonight, I want you to raise your hand. Who told you about Jesus? If I came to you right now and asked you who told you about Jesus, could you tell me? Nobody comes to Christ in a vacuum. Everyone comes to faith in Christ because a Christian told them. Even those who have dreams and visions are at least aware of Christ before they have those dreams or visions. Paul told Timothy, and now Timothy is telling others.

I got the opportunity to visit Grace Baptist Church in Davao City in the Philippines a couple weeks ago. Today, I get to share with you in greater detail what I experienced on that trip. Grace Baptist Church began in the 1960s through an American missionary who traveled to Davao and lived there for twenty years. Through a line of succession, Pastor Luciano Bariquit became the pastor of the church. Ten years ago, he began going into jungle communities feeding poor children and sharing the gospel with them. He began with one community, which has now turned into five.

The process is pretty simple: gather the kids, build relationships, feed them, teach them songs, read Bible stories, and invite them to church. Over time, the children respond to the gospel, and are then trained to take part in the ministry. This is how the ministry is sustained.

He told me a very interesting story. The largest religion in the Philippines is Roman Catholicism. Protestant churches were only officially recognized by the government a few years ago. In spite of that, there are approximately 100 Baptist churches in Davao City. All of them are small. For example, Grace Baptist Church has two buildings on their property. They are both similar in size and each one is smaller than our Fellowship Hall. If I was a betting man, if you combined the square footage of both buildings, I bet they would fit within the walls of our sanctuary. When a new church is started, the one leading the missionary effort starts the church, but the first member to join the church is trained to become the pastor of the church. They accomplish this with very little access to formal theological education.

Now, think about how this was accomplished in the early church. Twelve men who followed Jesus every day for three and a half years multiplied a movement to one of the largest religions on the planet. They did it without building buildings, starting seminaries, and working fulltime jobs. This is what I saw in the Philippines. Now, while some of them were full-time pastors, many of the workers in the ministry were either getting a college education or they had jobs. But it became abundantly clear that the work they were doing mattered. They stepped up to serve because they were the ones who were being served before.

So how do you build an enduring legacy?

You can’t give what you don’t have.

Paul tells Timothy in verse two, “The things which you have heard from me...” That is the things Paul taught Timothy about the gospel of Christ. Back in this time period, very few people had access to the totality of the scriptures. You had to be insanely rich and a very big space to have a copy of the Hebrew scriptures. The New Testament is being written, this letter being a part of it. So how did Paul transmit theology to Timothy? Through relationship.

Think of it this way. Before there were established schools, most people went to work in the family business. How did they learn? They were taught by their father. How did a blacksmith become a blacksmith? He was taught by another blacksmith. The process is called apprenticeship. I am going to teach you the thing I am doing so that you can do it too, and then you can teach others. You can’t teach a skill you don’t have. I am worthless at teaching skydiving. I’ve never been skydiving. You can’t give what you don’t have.

The question is this: do you know Jesus? Have you received the salvation he offers? You can’t give what you don’t have. Can you accurately articulate the gospel? You cannot give what you do not have. If you don’t have saving faith, you cannot pass on saving faith.

You need people to invest in.

The second part of verse two is “entrust these to faithful men.” It means to set something before someone else. It is a “this is yours now” kind of statement. It is doing for someone else what was done for you. I received this, therefore, I will give you that. Paul trained Timothy, so Timothy will train others.

Our evangelism training started last week. The challenge is to develop relationships with people we know who are far from God. Those who are far from God fall into two categories. The first is those who never knew him. These are the people we would call lost people. These are people we know would not go to heaven if they died tonight. The second category is those who have fallen away from the faith. It may be that they made a profession of faith years ago, and maybe they were faithful in the church, but now they are not going anywhere and their lifestyle does not line up with scripture. Both need the gospel of Jesus Christ. One needs to be reminded that faithful obedience is the only way to experience God’s design for their life and the other needs to hear that trust in Jesus and walking with him is the only thing to heal their brokenness, and experience what it means to be whole.

Everyone in the evangelism class is asked to come up with four or five people they know who fall into one of those two categories. As they are trained in a method for sharing the gospel, they are asked to begin praying for those people, and we will then begin the process of sharing with those people.

None of this happens by accident. I preached a sermon a while back about passing the baton. It is unavoidable and it is intentional. None of it happens by accident. The Christian faith endures because it is passed on from generation to generation. First Baptist Church in Three Rivers has been here for 113 years. Those in the church before us were faithful in reaching out to those outside the church. It is necessary and intentional.

When you find your people, you invest in them. Teach them everything you know. Who are your people? Who are you transmitting your faith to in the church?

Your job isn’t done until it is replicated.

The last part of verse two qualifies the type of people to invest in. Entrust the things I told you to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. There is an expectation not only to pass on what you know, but to pass on what you know to someone who will commit to teaching someone else. The gospel is not something we hold onto and keep to ourselves. It is to be shared.

The Great Commission usually ends with baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But that is not where it actually ends. The rest of that verse also says to teach them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. We understand that evangelism is the job of every Christian. If evangelism is the job of every Christian, then so is discipleship. If discipleship only happens in the context of a Sunday morning worship service or a Sunday School class, you will never arrive at a fully formed disciple of Jesus.

If I share the gospel with a guy named Chris, and Chris places his faith in Jesus, then it is also my job to teach Chris how to follow Jesus through the things we call spiritual disciplines. As he learns the Word and applies the Word, his hunger for Christ ought to grow. Then I have the responsibility to teach Chris how to share with others and invest his life in them. My job is not complete until Chris has shared the gospel with someone and is now walking with them teaching them everything I showed him. That is discipleship.

Are you in this room today a saved believer in Jesus Christ? Have you acknowledged that you have a personal responsibility to the Lord to share the gospel with people where you live, work, and play? But that it is also your responsibility to train them to follow the commands of Jesus? Do you also know that your job isn’t done until that work is replicated in someone else?

You need to know that it is my job to equip or train you to do your job. An opportunity is coming in a few months for you to start a process that will help you live this out. Until that happens, you have the opportunity to practice getting really good at evangelism. You can join us next week for an in-person class, or you can access the same material online through the RightNow Media app. But it is up to you to take the next step. If you want to be part of building an enduring legacy, you have to prepare yourself for the work.

So what do you need to do? Is your next step placing your faith in Jesus? Is it to agree with God that you have a responsibility to invest in those around you for the glory of God? Do you need to train yourself in evangelism or discipleship? Let’s at least do one thing: if you need to shift something, don’t leave here without an appointment with me if you need it.