Sermon Tone Analysis

As you know, tonight is the last time Heidi and I will be with you.

We will depart this coming Sunday for Westminster Seminary California, where we will be for the next 3 years.

I will be studying there for pastoral ministry to the Reformed church.

I know I’ve been probably one of the biggest advocates of

I was scheduled to teach tonight before becoming aware that it would be our last night here.

I guess God in his providence decided that it should be this way.

I guess tonight is a bit of a farewell address, a farewell lesson.

Once it became clear that we would be leaving soon and that this would be our last night, I started thinking conceptually about the concept of last words.

There is obviously much made of last words, be they the last words someone says before they die, or whether they depart one place for another.

And, as it stands now, tonight will be effectively my last words to this group.

That’s a bit heavy.

You guys have been a big part of my life now for the last 3 years and for Heidi the last 2. Now this is not to say that we will never come back or visit or anything, we would like to, Lord-willing, but we can’t say that with certainty.

And even if we do, this group is quickly changing and evolving.

We have brand new people here, which is great.

We’ve also seen many departures in recent months, such as the Dalrymples, who founded and hosted this group for so many years.

We’ve seen the Fosters, Kaufmans, others, gone.

In coming weeks and months, the Foos, Matthies, and Larsen families will be leaving too.

With all of this thought of pending goodbyes, I began to think about, what is the last thing I want you to hear from me?

If I am to leave, and never see any of you again this side of eternity (because, who knows) what do I want you to hear, and what do I want you to remember?

So I have decided, as my last words to this Bible study for now, to look at the last words from someone else in Scripture—Paul.

We will look tonight at 2 Timothy chapter 4.

A little background on 2 Timothy.

This book was likely the last of Paul’s canonical letters (letters recorded in Scripture) and would have been written in the late 60s.

By this point, he was on his final imprisonment in Rome.

Tradition says that Paul would have been beheaded outside of the city gates of Rome after a trial before emperor Nero who, as you might recall, was not kind to Christians.

At this time, Christians in Rome were being severely persecuted and put to death right and left.

Around A.D. 67, there was a fire in Rome that was intentionally started.

Nero blamed the Christians for starting the fire, even though he likely did it himself.

With the Christians being blamed for the fire, they were being slaughtered.

They were often made into Roman candles—they would be tied up and set on fire on the side of the road for all to see.

There’s actually a recent movie, “Paul: Apostle of Christ” which captures the plight of the Christians in Rome in this time very well.

It’s ugly and bleak.

Timothy was a young associate of Paul’s from Lystra.

He first appeared in .

His mother was a Jew and his father was a Gentile.

He became a trusted companion of Paul’s.

Paul would often send Timothy to places where he could not go himself to start and help churches.

He would have been much younger than Paul, and Paul often refers to him in these letters as a son.

Timothy served at Ephesus for a time, and this was likely where he was when Paul wrote 2 Timothy.

He was a young pastor, an elder in the church.

Paul, knowing that his end is near, is providing Timothy some final instructions on how he is to lead in the church through the troubled times present and future.

I selected it as a text tonight because I think it is a great biblical demonstration of, when times of difficulty and uncertainty may lie ahead, what really matters and what we as Christians should practice and prioritize, and what the church should do.

Preach the Word

4 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: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

3 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, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

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.

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

4 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: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

3 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, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

When Paul writes “I charge” he is essentially placing Timothy under oath.

Essentially, “God is my witness as to whether or not you do what I am about to tell you.

Paul appeals to important historical facts and future realities concerning God.

God will judge he and Timothy alike.

When Paul writes “I charge” he is essentially placing Timothy under oath.

Essentially, “God is my witness as to whether or not you do what I am about to tell you.

Paul appeals to important historical facts and future realities concerning God.

God will judge he and Timothy alike.

And what is it that Paul charges Timothy so solemnly to do? 5 things, as we see in verse 2:

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Timothy is told to preach.

But what is he told to preach?

The word.

That is, the word of God.

Paul has already in this letter laid out the infallibility and authority of scripture at the end of chapter 3.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The scriptures—the whole scriptures—are vital in the life and ministry of the church.

That is what the church is the preach.

And as Christians, that is what we are to expect to be preached at our church.

Sadly, in our day, the church is losing this.

Once Heidi and I visited a very large church in another town and had a bit of a strange experience.

The “sermon” consisted of about 20 minutes of a secular Hollywood movie interspersed with various commentary on the wisdom that could be gleaned from the movie, nebulously linked to some cherry-picked verses.

This church had chosen to take worldly wisdom and put it as front and center instead of the counsel of God.

This was a blatant example, but there’s more sneaky, insidious forms of this.

Churches might go to eisegesis instead of exegesis, where preachers will start with their conclusions and cherry-pick scripture to make their point.

Or messages may focus simply on good, practical truth, but that which is devoid of God’s insight, such as, practical advice on how to have better kids, a better marriage, and the like.

What has made this group work for the years it has existed?

Sure, there’s lots of great things.

There’s the fellowship.

There’s the service of one another and generosity.

There’s the showing up to help people pack and move, which I am fully confident you show up in force for on Saturday (wink, wink).

But at the core of this group, what has made it work for this long, and what keeps it working is the faithful proclamation and study of the scriptures.

We’ve spent nearly 3 years doing about 2/3 of Isaiah.

It is deep, rich, verse-by-verse, word-by-word study of God’s truth.

As Christians, that is our lifeblood.

We are God’s people, and we need to hear God speak to us.

This is how God speaks to us.

So many Christians want God to speak to them in various ways, but God has already spoken plainly and clearly to us in the Bible.

When is Timothy to preach the word?

The second command is to “be ready, In season and out of season.”

When I hear this, I think of farming language.

When something is “in-season,” it’s ready for the harvest.

I like fresh cherries.

This time of year they are easy to get at decent prices, about $2.00 a pound, because they are in season.

Most of the cherry-growing world is harvesting about now.

But in the winter, if I want my cherries, they are $5-$6 a pound and I don’t bother.

The language of harvest is often used in scripture to describe people being ready to come into the kingdom of God.

Jesus used it a lot in his parables, and I think that is what Paul is getting at here.