Stand Up, Expect Suffering, Keep the Faith!

It may come as no surprise that the influence of Christianity in the United States is waning. Rates of church attendance, religious affiliation, belief in God, prayer and Bible-reading have all been dropping for decades. By consequence, the role of religion in public life has been slowly diminishing, and the church no longer functions with the cultural authority it held in times past. These are unique days for the church in America as it learns what it means to flourish in a new “Post-Christian” era. This is people who identify a lack of Christian identity, practice or belief.

Post-Christian Metrics To qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals had to meet nine or more of the following factors. “Highly post-Christian” individuals meet 13 or more of the factors (out of these 16 criteria).

Do not believe in God,

Identify as atheist or agnostic,

Disagree that faith is important in their lives,

Have not prayed to God (in the last week),

Have never made a commitment to Jesus,

Disagree the Bible is accurate,

Have not donated money to a church (in the last year),

Have not attended a Christian church (in the last 6 months),

Agree that Jesus committed sins,

Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith”,

Have not read the Bible (in the last week),

Have not volunteered at church (in the last week),

Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week),

Have not attended religious small group (in the last week),

Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week) or disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate,

Not Born Again

According to Barna’s recent data, the most post-Christian city in America is Portland-Auburn, Maine (57%). In fact, New England and the Northeast—considered the foundation and home-base of religion in America—figure prominently: Eight of the top 10 most post-Christian cities are in this region. On the West Coast : San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA (50%), and Seattle-Tacoma (50%).

Here in LA: Baton Rogue — 26% (79); New Orleans 25% (81); Shreveport 12% (100)

Why is this important for us to know: If you were a participant in their research, and you answered their questions honestly, Are you in danger of being considered a “post-Christian”?

How close are you to losing/forsaking your identification with Christ? (only takes 9)

With that in mind please turn to 2 Timothy 1:8-14.

We are living in difficult days. (Explain theme for year and reiterate what Pastor Matthew shared last week in where we are going and why)

Historical background

Paul knows his life is about to end…2 Tim 4:6…so this letter to young Timothy is sort of his last will and testament…his swan song.

Paul is passing the torch to Timothy so that he will pass the torch to others…2 Tim 2:2.

Paul is writing at a time when the church was facing a variety of threats, some external and some internal…the impact of which brought the continued existence of the Christian community into the next generation into question.

From a human perspective, the thought of the church continuing to exist in a few years was highly doubtful.

It was not a time where the church was making great gains. The cultural impact was minimal. The church was well beyond the time of thousands being added to the church everyday as seen in Acts 2.

In fact, the church was under heavy persecution of Nero and people were defecting from the things of Christ. Paul was sitting alone in prison, viewed as a criminal by society and fellow believers ashamed to be associated with him.

Since people were walking away back then, how much more is that being realized today?

Main Point: Stand Strong by Being Identified With Christ!

Therefore — in light of the truth that God did not equip him with a spirit of fear but of power, love, and discipline, Paul writes to exhort Timothy how he could stay strong to the end.

Paul gives three imperatives to obey that will help us stay strong.

Stand up!(8a)

Paul admonishes Timothy to “not be ashamed”

Not being ashamed is a key idea in this chapter. From verse 8 to verse 16 Paul mentions it three times.

He was not ashamed — v. 12

He admonished Timothy to not be ashamed — v. 8

He reports that Onesiphorus was not ashamed — v. 16

The word ashamed means to experience a painful feeling or sense of loss of status because of some particular event or activity.

Paul did not want Timothy to have any reason for feeling foolish for believing in Christ, or to believe that being identified with Christ is something that should be hidden out of fear of loss.

The pain of loss was a real threat to the believer of Timothy’s day.

The tense Paul used here indicates he had not seen Timothy already being ashamed. Paul recognized it was a real threat and wanted to preempt Timothy from choosing that path.

Don’t Be Ashamed to Identify with Christ

“Don’t be ashamed of the testimony of Christ” — testimony, witness, proof — Don’t be ashamed to testify, to be associated with Christ, to acknowledge the truth about Him.

This is a call to testify with openness.

We need to understand that both Jews and Gentiles viewed the crucifixion as the ultimate emblem of disgrace and dishonor.

It was a punishment reserved for the worst of criminals. In their eyes, to identify with Christ was to identify with a criminal.

In their day, the preaching of the cross was foolishness. Paul told the believers in Corinth...

1 Cor 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,”

To think that a poor, Jewish, son of a carpenter could save people from their sins was ludicrous to them. You are a fool if you follow him.

Timothy is pastoring the church in Ephesus. This is an economical hub for the region which brought people from all areas and from all walks of life. It was a city filled with competing religious systems and worldviews.

It was a city full of idols.

It was a city where riots broke out because of Paul’s ministry there (Acts).

There is no doubt people here shared the same view as those in Corinth.

It would have been very easy for Timothy to listen to the culture of his day and move away from his identity in Christ.

Our culture today is much like Timothy’s time. We live in a world with competing religious ideas and full of idol worship. (Celebrities, Athletes, Social Influencer) It is a culture that is accelerating the descent away from God. It is one that openly, brazenly, at times militantly, attacks those who identify with Christ. To take a stand for biblical truth often brings intense persecution to the point that believers are afraid (ashamed) to be identified as a believer.

Shame often shows itself through silence. It is not that we live wickedly or in open defiance of Christ. Shame appears when we are silent to go along with the way everyone else lives. There is no difference in our ethics, moral positions, values or ambitions.

Fear and shame are partners. We are afraid of the cancel culture so we hide our faith in our silence.

Just a few weeks ago, John MacArthur preached a message on biblical sexuality and declared that God created us male and female. You Tube labeled that message as “hate speech” and removed that from their platform. He was not ashamed to preach the truth regardless of what the world thought.

We broadcast live on Facebook every Sunday and there is a real possibility that the Facebook fact checkers may hear something they don’t like and shut us off. So I am going to say something right now that I hope they hear very clearly.

We at Open Door Bible Church are not ashamed of the gospel. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven. We understand His word is our final authority on all matters of faith, morality, and practice. We do now and will forever stand on the truth of His word and proclaim with every breath the reality of who Jesus is, God in the flesh. We proclaim loudly the reality of sin being anything that violates the holy character of God and that sin has separated us from Him. Our sin created a debt to God that no one is able to pay on their own. It is only by the grace of God and through the shed blood of Jesus Christ that men and women can be forgiven of their sin and guaranteed an eternal home with Him. Any efforts on our part to acquire God’s favor are grossly inadequate to earn our way to Him. Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me. Without the completed work of Jesus Christ and His righteousness being imputed to our account, we will die in our sin and be eternally separated from Him. It is only by God’s grace through faith that we declare we are forgiven and on our way to heaven. We rest in the guarantee of God’s salvation and promise to make us whole in Christ. One day we will see Him and be perfected in holiness.

Today is the day when God calls you to repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation! Unless your sin debt has been reconciled to God personally, you will experience the judgment of God for you are bound for an eternity separated from Him!

Again I say, We are not ashamed and will never be ashamed to stand for Christ and be identified as His disciples!

We need to remember Jesus’ words in Mark 8:38 ““For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.””

On this side of heaven, cross-mockers will always exist. But the day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue confess…until then, we must take our stand with Jesus, obey His word and let what happens happen.

Don’t be ashamed to be identified with Christ.

Don’t Be Ashamed to Identify with Other Believers

…or of me His prisoner...

There were some in this church who viewed Paul’s sufferings and imprisonment as proof that the Holy Spirit was not with him…2 Tim 2:17 “and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,”

His enemies in the church believed the resurrection (spiritual resurrection) had already taken place and those who experienced it were so endowed with the Spirit that their difficulties disappeared. They linked his imprisonment and shame of being a criminal to the disapproval of the Holy Spirit.

There was a social stigma for those who associated with Paul since he was a prisoner.

Paul is exhorting Timothy to not be ashamed of the reality that he is in prison because he is in prison for the cause of Christ… “his prisoner.”

Paul was in chains and people were leaving him left and right. He did not want Timothy to follow suit.

Regardless of what they did, Paul did not seek their approval. He viewed himself a prisoner of Christ. It was an honor for him to be identified in this way.

Don’t Be Ashamed to Identify with Christ and His people!

Expect Suffering (8b-12)

… “but join with me in suffering fro the gospel according to the power of God.”

Instead of being ashamed of Christ and Paul and the gospel Paul uses a word here that is unique to this letter to Timothy. It is used again in 2 Tim 2:3 “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

When Paul says “join with me” he uses a word that means “take one’s share of ill treatment”. Paul is exhorting Timothy to stand stall and freely choose to suffer with him. Paul is encouraging Timothy to expect suffering as par for the course.

Oswald Chambers is right:

1 and 2 Timothy and Titus—To Guard the Deposit Suffer

To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God’s will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God’s will, as Paul did, whether it means suffering or not.”4

Jesus makes this clear…John 15:18-20 ““If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

Matthew 5:10 ““Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Acts 9:15-16 Commissioning Ananias to minister to Paul: “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.””

Paul encouraged the Colossian church that suffering is a privilege…Col 1:24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”

He did the same in Philippians 1:29 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,”

Later in this letter, Paul would tell Timothy that every believer who chooses to be godly ought expect suffering.

2 Timothy 3:12 NASB95

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

This 1st century theology needs to be central to our 21st century theology! Persecution is inevitable for the serious believer! It is a blessing to suffer for Him! It is to be expected. It is never pleasurable, but it is bearable. We can even rejoice in it in the presence of other believers.

Acts 5:41 “So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”

Here’s the beauty of what Paul says here…Timothy you can expect suffering because God is with you in it and empowers you to do it!

You can suffer because God empowers you with grace! (9-10)

His grace is sovereign.

He saved us…He called us…He makes us holy…not according to our works but because of his own purpose and grace

The power or ability to suffer is not anything we have to offer. It is all rooted in God’s sovereign grace.

The gospel originated in God and is totally a message of God’s grace.

If our salvation depended upon us, our position, or any estimate of ourselves, we are hopeless.

Instead, it is all of grace…God gets all the glory for our salvation. He receives all the praise for His sustaining grace

His grace is eternal.

… “granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity”…literally “before times eternal”

Grace preexisted in Christ…listen to Eph 1:4-6 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

God gave us grace before we did or could do any good works…Our salvation is only due to God’s eternal grace.

His grace is visible.

“Now has been revealed...”

God’s sovereign and eternal grace became visible and effective in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

abolished death…death is made powerless over believers…even though we did physically, there is no sting in death…we are victorious over it because of grace that was made visible in Christ.

life and immortality — what the Old Testament saint saw dimly we see clearly…an eternal home in heaven with God because of grace made visible in Christ!

Every day we can think about this way.

In and by His grace, God saved you from the penalty of sin (past), rescues you from the power of sin (present), will deliver you from the presence of sin (future).

You can suffer because God gives you a purpose (11)

From the very beginning God established his purposes and put them into effect in history through Christ. The life that Jesus brought is extended to all.

That is the message of the gospel…once you have accepted the truth of the gospel, God sets you on a path of holiness to live out the power of the gospel and bring that message to others.

Once again Paul draws attention to his calling by God.

Preacher = herald = he was to announce the gospel…to proclaim it.

Apostle = one sent = missionary work is God’s idea…God appointed him to it…he spoke with authority.

Teacher = one who instructed others in faith and life.

For this reason I suffer…Paul was beaten, lonely, imprisoned, hungered, shipwrecked, violently attacked, criticized, misunderstood, and rejected. He accepted the call of God on his life was one filled with suffering. Regardless, he was going to fulfill His ministry and was encouraging Timothy to do the same. I suffer because the gospel is worth it!

Rom 1 16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

All of us are called by God to live holy lives…we are to fulfill the mission that God gives to all of us…make disciples.

Colossians 1:28–29 NASB95

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

Being committed to this, especially in our present culture, will no doubt bring difficulty to us. But we can accept our calling of God with great assurance!

You can suffer because you can be confident God secures you (12).

Paul was not ashamed…Why? Because of who he knew!

Notice he did not say “what” he knew…he said I know whom I have believed…salvation is not the result of believing certain doctrines…sinners are saved by grace because we believe in the PERSON — Jesus Christ the Savior.

Paul wrote this in the perfect tense meaning it was a one time decision that had ongoing affects...

Paul deposited his soul in the care and keeping of Christ and he was fully convinced, (settled)…there was no wavering, no doubt, only a profound confidence of perpetual faith and a constant relationship with God.

Paul lived with a certainty that God would guard his life’s commitment to the gospel until that final day…Christ’s return and final judgment.

Paul knew his death was on the horizon but that never caused him to waiver in his faith, because he knew the one who gave Himself for him. He rested in knowing his eternal destiny was secure and that God would make sure the message of the gospel would continue even after his death.

As a young preacher from Zimbabwe so memorably expressed it:

I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit’s power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made; I’m a disciple of His! I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.… I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. (Hughes, R. Kent, and Bryan Chapell. 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: To Guard the Deposit. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000.)

Keep and Guard the Faith (13-14)Stand

Paul concludes his exhortation to Timothy with two parallel commands...

Keep the Faith

Retain the standard of sound words — standard = form = means “a pattern, an architect’s sketch” — “sound” = healthy.... Timothy was to follow the outline of doctrine that Paul and the apostles taught…make it yours but follow the pattern…make sure the words fit with what is healthy (spiritually).

By holding on to this, others who came along preaching and teaching were to be measured by this standard, this example, this outline.

Temper your teaching with faith and love…Eph 4 15 “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,” is the pattern God wants us to follow...

Guard the Gospel

Guard the treasure — literally guard the good deposit — Paul said this also in 1 Tim 6:20-21 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”

We’ve been entrusted with gospel…God wants us to protect it.

We always want to be loving but we must remain vigilant…we have to be tough when we see and hear that which does not fit the healthy teaching of the Scripture.

Don’t do it alone…do it with the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit...

Come full circle — Timothy, live out your ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit (6-7)…Do not be ashamed…join with me in suffering…Keep the pattern…Guard the good deposit…with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in you.

Are You Going to Stand up and Be Counted?

As our culture moves further and further away from God, as more and more people who once identified as believers forsake the truth, let that not be true of us.

Stand up, be Counted because you KNOW whom you have believed and you are convinced He will keep you secure.