And we’re back! I usually start each year with high hopes to do more blogging… so many thoughts, so many blog drafts begun. I’m hoping this year will be different… but ah well, I say that each year!
One way to kick off writing is to share share some of my notes each day from the Ignite Training Conference.
My mate, Scott Curtis, from Hunter Bible Church is here with us this week opening up 2 Timothy – one of my favourite letters.
In previous years I’ve tried to just write down everything – this year I’m hoping to pick up key points. Hopefully it all makes sense :)
Talk 1 | Empowered | 2 Timothy 1:1-18
1. What is worth suffering for?
People devote their lives to big things – work, career, justice, or even spending 5 months lined up for Taylor Swift tickets (apparently in Brazil). What is it for you – what is worth suffering for in your life?
In 2 Timothy we meet Paul, who will write in a way that challenges us to have an undivided focus on the gospel – a cause worth suffering for.
2. Paul and Timothy
Paul and Timothy probably knew each other for 15 years by the time of the writing of this letter. In 2 Tim 1:1-5 we get a hint of the closeness of this relationship. We see affection, the beauty of Christian fellowship.
If you want close relationships in church – serve with people together. For the long haul.
Paul writes 2 Timothy to help fix Timothy’s focus on the gospel and serving God.
3. Encouragement to Suffer
When faced with suffering, or potential suffering, the temptation is to shrink back. For timid Timothys – and all of us – the big realities of the gospel, and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, compels us to stand firm and testify boldly.
Another challenge is also the pain of suffering of those who abandon us. See 2 Tim 1:15ff. That is painful stuff.
We live in a culture also that has bought the lie that we need to be comfortable. We’ve heard of helicopter parenting… now there’s something called ‘lawn mower parenting’ where some parents will mow down everything in their children’s path to ensure no suffering. Have we bought into this sort of culture in life too – that we expect not to suffer?
4. The Reason to Suffer
The gospel breaks sin’s hold and breaks open eternal life for us. There is suffering to expect in the Christian life… but there is also so much blessing. More blessings to make the suffering totally worth it.
(This reminds me of how CS Lewis once said that eternity will work backwards – that the joys of eternal life will work backwards to make all suffering worth it.)
Paul was not ashamed to suffer for the gospel – because he had that undivided view of the goodness of the gospel and Jesus.
5. How to Suffer
Don’t focus simply on self-care to avoid suffering. Does serving Jesus become first on the chopping block when things get tough for us?
We do not suffer as stoics – through gritted teeth, expecting it and through your own strength and fortitude to get through it. The stoic mind is not a Christian response – it is a joyless response that will burn people out.
These two are both ends of the spectrum.
How does God want us to suffer and not be ashamed?
Depend on the power of God at work in you. 2 Tim 1:7 – the Spirit that doesn’t make us fear, but empowers us to love and self-control. 1:13, guard the gospel by the faith and love in Jesus, 1:14 by the Spirit who dwells in us.
We suffer not be depending on ourselves in all of our weakness, but by the power of God who dwells within us. God lives in us! God has made his home IN US. And it’s not just the Spirit who lives in us – but we’re reminded in John 14 that Father AND Son also dwell in us.
Talk 2 | Entrust | 2 Timothy 1:1-10
1. Undivided Devotion
Scott used to be a physio for the men’s disabled rugby team – astonished at how much undivided devotion they put in to the mental and physical exertion to achieve gold. How much more should we be undivided in our devotion to guarding and passing on the gospel?
2. The Task
2 Tim 1:1-2 – the task: entrust the gospel you have heard to faithful men.
Paul wrote from a prison in Rome, the end of his life approaching, keen to have the gospel outlive him for generations to come. Paul wants Timothy to expand the scope of the gospel.
Our tendency: to narrow the scope. To think of it as ‘my personal relationship with God’ – we struggle to lift our eyes to the globe to make disciples of all nations. But more difficult – to have a gospel vision of it passing onto future generations. In v2 there are 4 generations mentioned: Paul –> Timothy –> faithful men –> others also.
Where we stand today is because of the work of others before us.
We guard the gospel by entrusting it, propagating it, sharing it, and passing it on.
Paul is calling Timothy to MORE than evangelism, MORE than edification. Paul wants Timothy to ensure that OTHERS are able to evangelise and edify.
The goal of Ignite: to become Entrusters. To equip ourselves to equip others to equip others.
Did I sign up for this? Am I able to do this? What sort of special sauce do I need to do this?
2 Tim 1:2 – the people who do this are simply: faithful men able to teach others also.
Men have a tendency to abdicate responsibility – just like Adam in the garden. We need godly men to step up and lead in our churches.
Women – while not given the responsibility of shepherding the whole church, women are just as gifted and equally as needed in the work of ministry.
Faithfulness – dependable, focused, showing up, those who live it out.
Able to teach – they can do it. They can pass on the gospel.
3. The Nature of the Task
Three images are given by Paul to picture the nature of the task. A soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. Soldiers are focused, not distracted by home stuff, but focued on their mission. Athletes don’t break the rules, they don’t slip up, the race, the crown. The farmer slogs away sowing with hope of harvesting in the future.
These images are not images of balanced lives. The pictures above are all of undivided focus. Paul wants Timothy and us to deny ourselves for the sake of the gospel – to say no to good things, so we can focus on entrusting the gospel to future generations.
What might we need to say no to in order to keep entrusting the gospel? What decisions will help me grow the cause of the gospel… or take me away from it?
4. How to Persevere in the Task
2 Tim 2:8ff – remember Jesus, remember the gospel which is unchained! Endure everything for the sake of elect! There are those who are predestined to salvation: let’s get out there.
Talk 3 | Established | 2 Timothy 2:11-26
1. Truth and Love Go Hand-in-Hand
The culture we live in today – my experience of events is the foundation of reality rather than objective truth. ‘My Truth’ is pre-eminent. In a post-truth culture, we’ve lost any foundation of reality.
Christians must be established in the truth. In 1 Tim 3:16 Paul says the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Which is why in 1 Tim 4:14-16 Paul wants Timothy to guard the gospel closely in his life. Eternal salvation is on the line – for yourself and your hearers.
2. A True Saying
In light of the above, the ‘trustworthy’ saying in 2 Tim 2:11-13 gains further weight.
2 Timothy 2:11–13
[11] The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
[12] if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
[13] if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself. (ESV)3. Hand the Word (Truth)
We don’t know the exact heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tim 2:17) but what we’re given is a model for how to engage them.
The impact of their heresy: ruins hearers (14), irreverent babble leading people to more and more ungodliness (16), upsetting the faith of some (18).
So – don’t quarrel about words (14), avoid irreverent babble (16). But Paul is not saying don’t engage with this. He is to remind them of the truth (14), do your best to present yourself as approved by God rightly handling the word of truth (15) (handling = cut straight, like a stone mason who would cut stones with his tools for a home).
Engage false teaching not by quarrelling (engage in disagreement for my sake, to prove you wrong, to destroy you/mic drop) – but (from v22ff) teach, be patient, endure evil, correct with gentleness. The hope of this: that God would grant them repentance (25).
While this is a battleground for eternity, engaged in a spiritual war, that this is evil and shipwrecking people’s faith… Timothy is to be kind, patient, and gentle in his correction and teaching.
Truth and Love go hand in hand. Love without truth is no longer love. Watering down the truth is deeply unloving. Truth without love contradicts this very word from Paul.
4. Live the Word (Love)
Paul says to Titus that a knowledge of the truth leads to godliness. Living out the word is the goal of our lives. We are to flee, not flirt with, youthful passions and sin. To pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with other believers (22).
This isn’t easy. It means suffering and internal hard work to become more like Christ. And awkwardness in our church life when we approach each other to chat about each other’s godliness – but let’s learn to lean into those moments rather than fight/flight. Let’s have an openness to loving correction.
And we have to love people enough to call out false teaching.
Talk 4 | Endure | 2 Timothy 3:1-17
(Ed: Wow, the tiredness is real! Re-Ignite evening last night was fantastic, but many of us are feeling it – please pray for a good day today!)
1. What Hope is there for the World?
What are the western hopes for the world? From the Rennaissance,2 there is an optimism about the progress we can make in the world. Humanism focused on the potential we all had. This led to the Industrial Revolution, which by the turn of the 20th Century gave us a growing optimism.
Then WW1, the Great Depression, and WW2 happened. Humanities great inventions killed a great number of humans. Each big thing that’s happened has dented that initial optimism. Do we think the world is getting better or worse? What do we think is the hope of the world?
2. Life in the Last Days
Paul tells Timothy that in the last days there will be difficulties (2 Tim 3:1). So when are the Last Days? Acts 2:15-17 and 2 Peter 3:3-4 indicate that the Last Days are the days between Jesus’ ascension and his second coming.
And in that period, the last days will be marked with difficulty. What sort of difficulties? Natural disasters? Old bodies? Not quite – 2 Tim 3:2 – the difficulty of people. People who are lovers of self, money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than God, the appearance of godliness but denying it’s power.
What a list.
Another warning: there’s people who will creep into households, capturing the hearts and minds of women, and grow their corruption among others.
3. The Example of Paul
Paul then puts himself out as an example – that Timothy both knew and experienced. Highlighting that the gospel Timothy received was taught AND caught – he heard Paul and saw Paul. This is important because when he encounters these ungodly men and false teachers he’ll need to fall back on both what he’s learned and experienced of true gospel message and life.
2 Tim 3:12 – Paul then notes that all who seek to live a godly life will be persecuted. That’s the expectation for everyone. It’ll be good to keep being clear on this for ourselves!
So, Paul says, continue in what you’ve learned – 2 Tim 3:14. Remembering who he learned it from: his mother and grandmother. A weighty responsibility for parents, and an encouragment for us all to be the uncles and aunts for everyone.
4. How do we endure in the Last Days?
a. Fellowship
‘Fellowship’ (koinonia) is the most common word to describe our relationships in church. We need each other – commit to each other, commit to growing. Don’t just commit to coming on Sunday, commit to going beyond the time at church because that will help us endure.
b. The Word of God
And the Word of God – the Old and New Testament – will help us. It’s sufficient for all that we need to grow, be equipped, and head towards completion.
Why is it so powerful and effective? Because it’s ‘breathed out by God’, it belongs to him, it cannot be divided from him. He works through His word, because he is in it – and therefore it has the power to grow and change us and held us endure.
So let’s keep growing in it.
Let us keep leaning on God, his word, and his people, to endure to the end.
Talk 5 | Evangelise | 2 Timothy 4:1-22
1. The Future Shapes Our Present Lives
When eternity is brought to the forefront of our minds – like when we’re faced with a terminal diagnosis – it sharpens and crystalises what we really need to be living for. When faced with impending death, how can the gospel not take centre stage?
2. Paul at the End
As Paul comes to the end of his life, and as we see the list of people from 4:9ff, we see the relationships that were both helpful and harmful to Paul. He also recounts a miserable picture of his life – been deserted, in prison, cold, persecuted, under fire for his faith, and facing his impending death.
How would we feel in Paul’s shoes? What would we say to people?
See Paul’s reflections in 4:6-7 – despite how hard things have been, he’s made it. There’s immense contentment, joy and accomplishment in his words here. There’s a thankfulness and joy in the people he has passed the baton onto (like Crescens, Titus, and Tychicus).
In the impending face of eternity, Paul reflects on his life well spent for the gospel – and is thankful.
3. Paul’s Strength & Future Reality
The future for Paul is so clearly before him, and it strengthens him in these final days of pain. Because the future reality is extraordinary – a crown, the people he’s ministered to, the joy of growing responsibility from the Master, and perfect relationship with God.
Do we long for that day, and meditate on eternity, do we bring it front and centre for our souls? Perhaps one of the reasons we get dragged down in life so much is because we don’t meditate on eternity enough. As we look at Paul, he’s able to persevere joyfully because he has his eyes clearly on the prize.
4. The Charge
Knowing that when Jesus returns this world will pass away, that we are citizens of heaven, and when he returns people will either experience eternal judgement or eternal forgiveness and joy – this causes Paul to keep rejoicing and hoping, and preaching the gospel.
And in the light of all that, Paul charges Timothy with one clear job: preach the word (cf 4:2). Remember the days we’re living in – people aren’t going to be happy to hear sound teaching, they are going to gather teachers that will suit their own passions – but you Timothy, be sober (keep your head), endure, evangelise, fulfil your ministry.
We are living on the edge of eternity. Our future reality is heaven, eternal glory. For many, their future reality is hell, eternal wrath. Now is not the time to be making life comfortable for here and now. Now is the time for preaching the gospel.
Now is also the time to embrace and endure suffering for the gospel, depending on the grace of God alone to persevere. We can have confidence that we’ll get through because our confidence is in our powerful God who will get us through.
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