Bad Examples

Title:  Bad Examples

Text:  2 Timothy 3:1-9

Main Idea:  As Christians living in the last days, we must avoid the examples of those who oppose truth and live with misplaced love.

QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT:

baptism of kids linked to those who serve

sunday morning teachers!! midweek teachers!!!

INTRODUCTION:

NOW:

I don’t know what your night was like last night.... but i spent mine with superman, the hulk, michael jordan and harry potter

it was fun..

but at the end of the night... that little kid dressed up like superman.... i become his cryptonite. they don’t want any part of me. it is time to go home!

brooke is the fun parent in our home. all the kids love ms. brooke.... but by the end of the night i’m ready for everybody to leave so i can go to bed. brooke is ready to get em all in inside and start playing some kind of game! the night’s just getting started!

thankfully we got an extra hour of sleep last night!

but we’ve always liked Halloween. kids dressing up in costumes, running around mimicking their favorite athletes, superheroes, and movie characters

we learn at such a young age to mimic others… don’t we? to follow someone else’s example.... sons watch their fathers....

problem with examples is that not all examples are good examples...

THEN:

Timothy was a leader at the church in Ephesus and Paul, in his 2nd letter to Timothy, is concerned about the bad example of some of the religious leaders there. In our passage this morning, Paul describes what these “false teachers” were like and warns Timothy to avoid them and their characteristics in order to successfully lead the people into a knowledge of the truth.

ALWAYS:

what i want you to hear today is this:

As Christians living in the last days, we must avoid the examples of those who oppose truth and live with misplaced love.

READ THE TEXT:

2 Timothy 3:1–9 ESV

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

SHORT PRAYER

the apostle Paul, lying in his cell, a prisoner, is still focused on the future of the gospel. He’s thinking about how evil the times are and how difficult things are for his friend Timothy trying to lead the church in Ephesus. Timothy wasn’t a strong, confident, bold type of guy yet he is the man in the position to be called on to fight for the truth no matter how strong the opposition.

BODY:

I.  We are living in the last days and should expect difficulty (vs. 1)

“understand this” - opposition to the truth is not a passing situation but a permanent characteristic of the age

Jesus in John 16… “in this world there will be trouble”

maybe Timothy was thinking, “hey, if I lay low for a while, these hard times will go away and then I can get back to leading confidently.” and Paul is saying.... “NO”

expect difficulty… ongoing difficulty because you are standing for the TRUTH and the world is going to increasingly not want to hear it… sound familiar?

[Last Days] it would be easy to think Paul is talking about something far in the future here but that is not how scripture interprets the “last days”.

the last days were ushered in by Jesus. Peter, on the day of pentecost, quoted the prophecy from Joel 2 about the Holy Spirit being poured out on all flesh in those days. Peter said that prophecy was being fulfilled at that moment while he was speaking.

the old days before Jesus have passed away and the last days are here.

so timothy is living in the last days and so are we! paul is saying to him “understand this”.... part of living from now on … is facing difficulty if you try to stand for the truth

timothy needed to know this.... we need to know this!

II.  The difficulty comes from people (vs. 2-8)

this list is long! notice how Paul bookends the list with the characteristic “lovers” (lovers of self..... rather than lovers of God)

these people have misplaced loves

the difficulty comes from people .... what kind of people?

a. People who love themselves

lovers of self

lovers of money

proud

arrogant

swollen with conceit

not following Paul’s recommendation in Romans 12 when he says to man “to not think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment”

more concerned with the twitter and instagram following or their youtube views than they are with communicating the truth of the gospel

people who love themselves

they are also:

b. People who do not love people

abusive

disobedient to parents

ungrateful

unholy

heartless

unappeasable

slanderous

without self-control

brutal

not loving good

treacherous

reckless

they don’t care who they hurt while making sure they get whatever it is they want

they do not love people

they also are:

c. People who do not love God

lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

they have learned to love the creation rather than the creator!

basically, we can boil it down to say, these people do not follow the two most important commandments. love the lord god with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. love god and love people. Jesus himself said all the rest of the Law hinges on these two things.

but here’s another thing you might not have expected. the difficulty will come from people… people who love themselves, people who do not love people and people who do not love God.. but also...

d. People whose religion is for show

not just sinners that Paul is telling Timothy and the church to avoid.... Jesus was a friend of sinners. his final command was to win sinners with good news preaching of the gospel.

no, these people who love themselves and do not love God or others are INSIDE the church! (cue the Vince Lombardi clip)

heathen Christianity

religious sinners

Paul dealt with something like this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 (… deliver this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh… so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord)

we just read last week at the end of chapter 2 to “patiently endure evil” “correcting opponents with gentleness” so that God might grant them repentance. but here… only a few verses later… i think Paul is saying, “yeah, but that’s not going to happen with some of them”

having the appearance of godliness

denying its power

form without power

outward show without inward reality

religion without morals

faith without works

a bad tree does not produce good fruit!

target the weak (vs. 6-7)

this isn’t a statement about all women… but women who were idle, silly and their weakness was double. first, they were morally weak.... continuously struggling with sin and tossed back and forth by their impulses.

secondly, John Stott says, “they were intellectually weak, unstable and gullible. the kind of women who would listen to anybody and at the same time never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

Bishop Ellicott comments, this tactic is “as old as the fall of man’, for the serpent first deceived Eve. It was also employed by the Gnostics, and has been the regular ploy of religious commercial travellers right up to and including the Jehovah’s Witnesses of our own day.”

Paul says these false teachers were targeting these women, creeping into their homes, probably waiting for the men to be off to work for the day

he goes on to say that they actually oppose the truth

here Paul uses the example of Jannes and Jambres

now this is interesting because you will not actually find the names Jannes and Jambres anywhere else in your Bible. but according to Jewish tradition these are the names given to the magicians in Pharaoh’s court who were able to recreate some of the signs done by God through Moses and Aaron when Moses was sent to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

These men had opposed Moses and therefore opposed God. Now, in Ephesus, these false teachers were opposing Paul and therefore opposing God.

but here’s the deal, and this is the third thing for today:

III.  We can have hope because the difficulty is temporary (vs. 9)

just as Jannes and Jambres were eventually found out, (they were able to recreate some of the signs but eventually their magic tricks could not compete with the power of God) so too will these false teachers will be found out because there is no power behind their message and this will be plain to all

we can have hope

this also echoes Jesus’s statement in John 16… in this world there will be trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world!

there will be times of difficulty.... there will be persecution… there will be times of questioning… but it will be short lived because Jesus will have his day! and it has been promised that on THAT day… EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue confess that He.... is.... LORD!

CONCLUSION:

As Christians living in the last days, we must avoid the examples of those who oppose truth and live with misplaced love.

i love sports. and in sports, in times of questioning.... in times of difficulty… when you’re not sure about right course of action, we return to the fundamentals…

in basketball, maybe we’re turning the ball over so much because we’re making bad passes.... maybe we’re missing so many free throws because we’ve gotten lazy about good shooting form.. keeping our elbow under the ball

you know if braxton’s golf swing starts to get weird and we’re having trouble diagnosing it, what we do? alright, let’s check your grip, let’s check your setup, ball position.... maybe we’ve gotten into a bad habit because we’ve not focused on our fundamentals for a while

sometimes getting back to the basics helps us to clear our minds and focus .... drill down on the things that help us to be successful.

so in the midst of difficulty, what are the fundamentals of knowing the Truth? of following in God’s ways?

I’ll give you 3 things this morning:

Spend time in God’s Word

Spend time in prayer (holy spirit crying out to God, “Abba Father”)

Spend time with the church (last 8 months…)

i would add the word daily to the end of each of those. daily? our opposition is ongoing. Satan does not take days off. his days are numbered and he knows that so he is spending every second he has trying to deceive you and destroy you.

but do you know what Satan’s cryptonite is? satan’s cryptonite is the name of Jesus!

so spend time with his word. spend time communicating with him through prayer. spend time with his bride. and you will arrive at a knowledge of the truth and get this… you’ll be successful in bringing others with you.

let us pray.