2 Timothy 2:2-4
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Be strong in grace
Be strong in grace
3 weeks of transition
September 11, 18, 25
Grace is unmerited favor
Luke 2:51-52 (NKJV)
51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
That word subject to them Is OBEDIENCE
1. There’s supernatural favor tied to our obedience
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
2. Grace is multiplied in the knowledge of Him
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
Speaking of Obedience lets look at Timothy
Acts 16:1–2 (NKJV)
1 Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.
Timothy’s reputation proceeded him
A lesson in stewardship
Using your talents wisely
Be obedient because you never know who’s watching
2 Timothy 2:2
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
He’s breaking down the chain of teaching here
The reception of faith is baised upon two things
Teachers
Hearers
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
God is looking for some preachers
Not more people on soapboxes are stages
But people who are surrendered in pure obedience to him
Completely sold out to his purpose and his will
People who serve God not only in words but in actions
True worshipers of God that worship him in Spirit and in truth
It was from Paul that Timothy heard the truth of the Christian Faith
Not only have you heard it from me but from many witnesses
Now Pass on the favor
Commit these things to faithful men
This is Paul speaking generationally here
First thing I want you to get from these passages
We are a generational Link
every Christian must look at his/herself as a generational link in the body of Christ
Think about this:
E. K. Simpson: “The torch of heavenly light must be transmitted unquenched from one generation to another”
William Barclay: “The teacher is link in the living chain which stretches unbroken from this present moment back to Jesus Christ.”
What are you teaching?
Who are you teaching?
Paul goes onto to say, Commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others
The word faithful here is the Greek word
Three fold word here
Pistos: a man/woman who is believing, who is loyal, a person who is reliable
Falconer wrote: “believing men are such that they will yield neither to persecution nor to error.....no threat of danger will lure him from the path of loyalty and no seduction of false teaching cause him to stray from the straight path of truth”
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
They will turn aside from truth
Paul is warning him what is going to come
Be ready for it
3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Paul is comparing Christianity here to the aspects of military service
We must endure hardships, like it’s our job
Paul uses this terminology several times in his letters
Philippians, Philemon and here in Timothy
Aspects of the the soldier Paul highlights:
The soldiers service must be concentrated
Concentrated-Intense; in an extreme degree; -- of mental phenomena.
Having a high density of (the indicated substance).
ordinary is out of the question
we are now wearing a different uniform
we walk in a different grace and authority now
The Roman code Theodosius is “we forbid men engaged on military service to engage in civilian occupations”
A soldier is a soldier, nothing else
We are in this world but not of it
Living Christianity should be at the top of the list
Obedience to God is our number one priority
It doesn’t mean we don’t engage in wordly affairs but it does mean whatever task we’re engaged in we reflect Christ.
Always.
2. The soldier is conditioned to Obedience
There’s that word again
The early training of a soldier is designed to unquestioningly obey the word of command
There may come a time when instinctive obedience will save his life or the life of others
7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12 So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”
Elijah just thought he was going to get food
17 Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?”
19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” 21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” 22 Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.”
What he didn’t know is that that boy’s life was saved because of his obedience
People’s lives are hanging on the balance of your obedience
Instinctive obedience
I love this concept
We all have reactions hidden inside us
Fear, anger
responses hidden inside us waiting for the opportunity to come out
What is your reaction when storms come?
45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
What is your reaction?
3. A soldier is conditioned to loyalty
15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
Ruth found her husband Boaz in her loyalty to Naomi
Ultimately scripture was fulfilled to the lineage of David to Jesus becuase of her loyalty
Ruth was David’s great grandmother
The 4 aspects of the soldiers Paul is making a correlation here are:
Concentrated service
we’re Christians first
Its a service of obedience
b. there’s people attached to our obedience
3. It’s a service of loyalty
c. legacy is attached to our loyalty
4. A solider is conditioned to Sacrifice
We make sacrifices daily
We are not our own anymore
We lay our lives down at the feet of Jesus and we pick up our cross
You sacrifice your rights as a Christian
Mathew 16:24-26
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
You sacrifice your right to be offended (forgive everyone always)
You sacrifice your rights to be angry (be angry and do not sin)
You sacrifice your rights to speak you your mind (the truth in love)
This is a life for life exchange
This is so much more
Paul led by example and was martyred not long after writing this book
Everyone of the disciples except for Judas and John was martyred for the gospel
and John wasn’t martyred not because they didn’t try but he refused to die
3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Timothy’s death is not recorded in the bible
“Infamous for its idolatry and temple to Diana, Ephesus is the traditional burial place of Timothy.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
Which Timothy stays loyal to the commands of Paul
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs states that Timothy’s death occurred in AD 97 during the reign of Domitian (Claxton, 1881, p. 20). This would place Timothy’s martyrdom shortly after the exile of the apostle John to the island of Patmos, which occurred around AD 95. According to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, “as the pagans were about to celebrate a feast called Catagogion, Timothy, meeting the procession, severely reproved them for their ridiculous idolatry, which so exasperated the people, that they fell upon him with their clubs, and beat him in so dreadful a manner, that he expired of the bruises two days after” (op. cit., p. 20).
Jesus paid the ultimate sacrafice:
Making him savior is one thing/making him Lord is another
We serve a God who gave his son
A son who laid his life down so that we could live eternally
he gave us the ultimate example of sacrafice
must like the soldier gives up his life in battle
before Jesus is crucified on the cross says “this is my body, broken for you”
