Getting Started

Introduction

I first started in full-time pastoral ministry at the ripe age of 21. I graduated from a pretty nice and heady Christian college with an undergraduate degree in Biblical and Theological studies - emphasis in Old Testament studies, international theology, a spattering of Greek… and one week after convocation I took over as youth pastor and director in Merrill WI, overseeing ministry to 6th-12th graders.

I have been desperately trying to remember, and as much as I try, I’m fairly certain my orientation to ministry was being handed a set a keys to the church, and to the downtown, after-school youth center I was to run, pointed towards some very faithful, very diligent key volunteers, and told to get to it.

Barely a few weeks after starting, a dad walked into my office one afternoon, sat down, and started to explain how he was having marriage issues and struggling to connect with and parent his sophomore daughter. What advice did I, Pastor Dave, have for him, in his marriage, or in parenting his teenage daughter - who was in my ministry?

I remember sitting there with my head spinning. I could decline a Greek noun, and I could really faithfully explain how the geography of the valley of Elah had led the Israelites and the Philistines to face off right there - but all I could think of in that moment was, “Dude, your daughter is five years younger than me. I have nothing for you.”

This morning, we’re are continuing in our series titled, “Take the baton, pass the baton,” through 2 Timothy. We’re thinking about Paul encouraged Timothy to be faithful receiving and sharing the necessity of Christian life.

But we also have to remember that in between taking and passing, is carrying the baton - it’s living a faithful life in the place that God has called us. And what does that look like? That’s a question I didn’t feel like I had an answer to as a young pastor - I wanted someone to say, “Ok, Dave, these are your responsibilities - this is what will mark this season of life for you as one of faithfulness, or one of waste. This is what it looks like to run the race at this time.”

This is the tension, in part, that Paul sets out to address for Timothy in our passage for this morning in 2 Timothy 2:1-7. As a young pastor, what will faithfulness look like? I wish that I had been wise enough or had been directed to this passage, and other’s like it, in my early ministry.

Most of us gathered here this morning are not pastors but we’re still all called to live a life of faithfulness, in whatever specific area God has us. What does that faithfulness look like? What will allow us to live out that faithfulness? We’re going to look this morning and see three commands, this is the what of faithfulness - and three tools - the how.

Let’s start by praying and then reading our passage.

3 Commands

Paul begins by giving three clear commands to Timothy - each of these verbs in verses 1, and 2, and 3 are in the imperative voice - these are commands - do this! - they’re things Timothy must do in preparation for faithful ministry.

In our passage last week, Pastor Brian showed that Paul was reflecting on who God wait - on God’s faithfulness and on the size of the call we have to steward - to proclaim the truth of the gospel.

Be Strengthened by Grace

First, Paul says that Timothy is to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. This is to be an ongoing reality in Timothy’s ministry - this is a present tense verb, which means it happens now, and continually, forever. And he’s supposed to be strengthened by Christ’s grace. There’s two parts to this imperative.

And it’s the second part there that’s the foundation, it’s the bedrock. The daily nutrition of the Christian life is Christ’s grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is saying: for ministry, for day to day life - whether you’re going to the store or spending time with peers or at home by yourself the place you build your life is on the grace of Jesus Christ.

We spent some time processing this

And what about the first part - what does it mean to be strengthened? What Paul’s getting at here is an empowerment and equipment for everything that God would have Timothy do. This verb is used later in 2 Timothy 4:17 - Paul, speaking about his own persecutions and sufferings, says that, “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that - that’s purpose - so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed.

Paul was strengthened for the purpose of faithful and fruitful ministry.

Philippians 4:13 - an often misapplied verse - I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul is talking about his ministry contentment - his ability to accomplish the purpose that God had given him. “I can do it!” because I’m equipped and empowered by Him.

Many times I’ve heard it said, “God never asks us to do anything that He doesn’t also give us the strength to accomplish.” This is Paul’s admonition - Colossians 1:29: “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

So this is the first command in living faithfully - be strengthened by Christ’s grace.

How does this look

Grow in Community

Secondly, Paul says

Empower Others; Do ministry with people; gather people around you (what you have heard from many witnesses - the grammar is questionable in the language, and our main understanding is influenced by crysanthomum, which only explains the meaning! We're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses!)

Kent Hughes: “In the early seventeenth century Dr. Richard Sibbes wrote a little book about Christ called The Bruised Reed. A copy of that book fell into the hands of a tin peddler, who gave it to a boy named Richard Baxter, who became the greatest of Puritan pastors. Baxter wrote, among other things, A Call to the Unconverted, which Philip Doddridge read in the early eighteenth century, and he in turn wrote The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul.

William Wilberforce read that book, and it so changed his life that he led the fight for the abolition of slavery. He was a tiny, stunted man but had such eloquence for Christ that James Boswell immortalized it by writing that during one of his speeches “the shrimp grew and grew and grew and became a whale.” Indeed Wilberforce became a huge influence in nineteenth-century British culture and saw the abolition of slavery in Britain just three days before his death. Significantly, Wilberforce has been an inspiration for Charles Colson and the organization he founded, Prison Ministries.”

Hughes, R. K., & Chapell, B. (2000). 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: to guard the deposit (pp. 193–194). Crossway Books.

Prepare to Suffer

Finally, in verse 3, Paul says that Timothy is to - and remember, this is a command - he’s to “share in suffering.”

3 Tools

3 tools (v4-6) HOW - each of these has the reward in sight. That is the motivational element of each of these.

Soldier - Discipline - for joy

Athlete - cf 2 tim 4:8 - on that day - Submission - for and Foresight - trust race markers? As an analogy - kinda like

Farmer - reward. Cf 1 cor 4:12 - hardworking, 1 cor 15:10,