SERMON TITLE: Continue
TEXT: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
SPEAKER: Matt Heft
DATE: 7-10-22
Watch the sermon here.
Take notes here.
Good morning. My name is Matt Heft. I’m an elder here at Gateway. On most Sundays, you’ll find my family and I worshipping and serving at our North Main Campus. It is good to be with you this morning.
Let’s get started by reading through our full text that we’ll be studying. If you would, turn to 2 Timothy 3:14. We’ll be reading all the way down through chapter 4 and verse 5.
Before I read, I wanted to say a thank you to Pastor Robert and Justin for bringing us to this point in 2 Timothy. You might even recall that earlier in the year, Pastor Josh preached on the few verses in between Justin’s passage and what we’ll be studying today.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
This passage is part of the second letter Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy. It ended up being his final letter, not just to Timothy, but to anyone. I believe in this letter, Paul provides some final instructions as he passes the torch to the next generation of leaders.
Many of you have been to the North Main Campus or you’ve at least driven by and you’ve seen the large stained glass windows. We could probably talk for quite a while about the symbolism of those windows and what artwork is in them. But I want to draw your attention to a different part of the window.
Down at the bottom of each window, there’s a small pane that says who the window was donated by or who it was donated in honor of from way back in the day. First, we have Dr. S. C. Miller. It actually says that it was his Sunday School class that donated the window in his honor, because of his faithfulness in teaching their class for many years.
After Dr. Miller, we have Henry Shank and Wife, Allen Cooper and Wife…that’s how it’s written, don’t complain to me. And then Charles Taylor is on one in the very back. I was trying to make a connection to Chuck Taylor, like the shoes, but I’m pretty sure it’s a different person. The “shoe” Chuck Taylor is from Indiana. If we had someone that was really into history and genealogies, maybe they could find out some more about these folks for us, but for now we’ll just have to accept it as a bit of a mystery.
Finally, there’s one nameplate that has the letters YPSCE.
YPSCE, what in the world does that mean? It stands for Young People’s Society for Christian Endeavor. The YPSCE was founded in 1881 by Francis Clark. In the little bit of research I’ve done, it seems a lot like a Young Life or Youth for Christ for the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. From what I can tell, it was a solid organization and was the precursor for many youth programs that started to happen within individual churches and denominations.
I want to read for you a portion of the pledge that all members would take when they joined the YPSCE:
“Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise him that I will strive to do whatever he would like to have me do; that I will make it the rule of my life to pray and to read the Bible every day, and to support the work and worship of my own church in every way possible; and that just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life.” -YPSCE Membership Pledge
Let me read that last phrase one more time: “And that just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life.”
And that’s the point where I want to turn from the stained glass windows at North Main back to our passage for today.
Our passage seems to start out easy enough. “But as for you, continue”. Paul tells Timothy, keep going in the direction you’re going. Keep going forward. Don’t change course. Remember how they ended the pledge from the YPSCE, “throughout my whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life”. In other words, I will continue.
The choice to continue is one that we have with us every single day. As the world throws ever increasing amounts of junk at us, we have a decision to make. Am I going to continue or am I going to turn away and follow what the world is offering?
In case the word “continue” isn’t resonating with you, let me give you a few others to consider: abide, don’t make any downward progress, do not go astray, remain, stay, and how about one from pop culture, please, oh please, do not deconstruct!
I have to pause a second here and make sure we all get on the same page. Throughout this sermon, you’re going to hear me say “continue” quite a bit. Just like Paul told Timothy to continue, I’m going to be telling you to continue. You may be sitting there thinking, “but what if I haven’t started anything?” “What if I have started following Christ, what is it that I’m to continue doing? Exactly what I’m already doing in every circumstance of my life?” Not all.
Paul adds some clarity here. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it”. I’m not talking about and Paul wasn’t talking about continuing in sin or slothfulness or other destructive and hurtful behaviors. Paul is saying, you know what is right. Since you’ve been a child you have been learning this and you firmly believed it. Timothy, continue in that. Gateway Church, you know what you have been taught too. Continue in that.
And where did this teaching come from that Paul was reminding Timothy of? We know from 2 Timothy 1:5 that the faith Timothy had was passed on to him from his mom, Eunice, and his grandma, Lois. We don’t have many details, but based on this verse, we know that there were other faithful believers pouring into young Timothy. Timothy had learned the truth of the Gospel from his mom and grandma. Listen, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, Foster Parent, Fill-in Mom, Fill-in Dad, you play a vital role in bringing up the next generation. We need to be sure we are passing on our faith in our homes.
Now let me start reading verse 14 from the beginning and include all of 15, because we still haven’t gotten to the most important part. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
These sacred writings, the Word of God, can make us wise for salvation. Being wise for salvation must be our starting point before going any further. Before you can continue in something, you must start. And right here I want to recap the Gospel message, the only hope for salvation, that is found in faith in Christ Jesus. First, we must acknowledge that we have fallen short of God’s perfection. We know instinctively that we aren’t as good as we would like everyone to think. We know that sin is an active and hated thing in our lives. But here’s the good news. If we will call out on Jesus’ name and repent of our sin, he will take that blood he shed on the cross and wash our hearts as white as snow. This is some good news and I desperately need it, you desperately need it. If you have not started a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to encourage you to do that today.
In a book I was reading recently, Jarvis Williams emphasized that “The gospel includes both entry language (like repentance and faith, justification by faith, and reconciliation with God) and it also includes maintenance language (like walking in the Spirit, reconciliation with others, and loving one another in the power of the Spirit).” (Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention, Williams, Jarvis J. and Jones, Kevin M., p. 31).
Just like we read, the Scriptures will make us wise for salvation. The Scriptures provide the entry language, the starting point. But if we’re going to continue, we also need the “maintenance language of the gospel”. And that maintenance language is also found in the Scriptures.
Let me explain this maintenance language some more by moving into our next couple of verses. I would point out that these next verses are written to believers, to those that have already started and need to continue. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
I’ve already made it clear that the theme of my message this morning is to continue. We’re going to spend the next several minutes talking through how God’s Word helps us to continue.
Here in Findlay, we seem to have quite a few physical therapists. If your knee, or back, or shoulder, or neck, or anything is hurting, they can work with you to usually make it feel better. They seem like miracle-workers. But maybe that’s because they follow a basic biblical model. Here’s what I mean.
Now I’m sharing this with her permission, but in the past few months, my wife began experiencing some popping in her jaw. It was often annoying, but on some occasions when her jaw would pop it was downright painful. She put off getting any help with it, but when a physical therapist friend thought he could help, she finally scheduled an appointment.
Verse 16 starts by telling us that God’s word is profitable for teaching. When thinking of physical therapy, the therapist is going to start by saying, Amberly, this is how your jaw should move. They might use a video or pictures or even demonstrate themselves. But the physical therapist will start by teaching the correct way to move. Like physical therapy, God’s Word starts by teaching us. Again, I’ve already acknowledged that God’s Word teaches us the entry into the Gospel. But God’s Word also teaches us the maintenance - how to walk in the spirit, how to reconcile with others, and how to love one another.
The second thing in this list from verse 16 is reproof. That’s a little harder to accept than teaching. This is where Amberly opens and closes her jaw for the physical therapist and he looks at her and says, “no, that’s not right”. “When you open and close your mouth, your jaw should not move in a Z pattern.” Our physical therapist teaches us the correct way that our body should move, but they also tell us the incorrect ways that we’re moving our body.
God’s Word will do the same for us. It will tell us, this is the correct way to live, but you’re living like this and that’s wrong. It might be an attitude of the heart or a visible sin or even a sin of omission, one of those sins where you don’t do anything wrong, but it’s actually your lack of doing that’s wrong. I have to know that I’m doing something wrong physically, so that I know it needs fixed. We need to know where we are starting to veer from God’s truth, so that we can begin to fix our spiritual condition. And that takes us to our next point.
The third thing the word of God does for us, is it corrects us. At physical therapy, after teaching and reproving, they begin the process, sometimes a very slow process, of correcting. I may not like a reproof, but it really doesn’t hurt me all that bad. What really hurts is when the work of change starts to correct what I’m doing wrong. Now that hurts. How many sermons have we heard where we hear the truth, the Holy Spirit helps us to see the error in our own hearts, we come to the point that correction is needed, but it’s too hard or too painful, so we give up and keep living however we were before.
Any physical therapist will tell you, you can give up at this point, but the pain from whatever is going on with your body will likely get worse and worse, but if we can begin the difficult process of correction that is needed, that pain will start to get less and less. Amberly could have been taught and reproved, but if she didn’t do the work of correcting the problem, at some point, the issue with her jaw would be very serious.
I don’t like to go back to the Greek too much, because I’ve never studied Greek and have to rely on the commentaries, but this word for correction can also mean “a straightening up again”. Maybe Paul was describing his latest experience with a physical therapist.
Are you spending time correcting what’s wrong in your life or do you just keep taking in the teaching and you hear the reproof, but you never put into action the correction? We’ve got to be careful not to ignore this step of correction, this step of “straightening up again”.
Depending on what physical therapist you go to, the last thing they will do during your visit is print out some exercises or talk you through some exercises that you should continue to do on a daily basis. These exercises will train your body to move correctly during the time you’re outside of their clinic. God’s word provides us with that training too. It provides us with the spiritual exercises we need to keep our lives in correct alignment. Let me start with just two simple spiritual exercises: read your Bible and pray every day. If you’re someone who needs a time limit…start with just five minutes of each.
And why would we do all this being taught, reproved, corrected, and trained? From a physical standpoint, we want to be able to move freely with minimal or no pain. From a spiritual perspective, it tells us in verse 17, “so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
After our physical therapist is done working with us, they will hopefully tell us that we are equipped and ready to do all kinds of things. Once you’ve allowed God’s Word to work in your life, you will be equipped to serve your neighbor, to forgive that family member that hurt you, to love someone that previously seemed unlovable. You will have been taught, reproved, corrected, and trained, all so that you can do good works. And not good works for salvation. These are good works that we are excited to do because of our salvation. Good works that we will do as we continue in our walk with God.
One fear that I have with these verses is that we try to apply them too much to others, including non-believers, long before we make any attempt to apply them to our own lives. Like I mentioned, these verses aren’t even written to non-believers, they are written to believers. But isn’t that our nature? We think that if everyone else would change, then everything would be alright. It’s our hearts that need to be changed so that we can continue. Paul was writing to Timothy to make sure he knew this.
If you’re here this morning and all this talk of following Jesus and being a Christian seems foreign to you, you may feel like someone that has a sore back and would really like to visit a physical therapist, but you’re just not sure about how to go about finding the right one, or scheduling an appointment, or what it will be like when you get there. If your back is hurting today, let me know, I’ve got a list of physical therapists I can recommend. But if your soul is hurting this morning, the only fix for that is through the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ and the abundant life he has in store for you. In both cases, let me encourage you to get started.
As we flip to chapter 4, Paul speaks to Timothy even more directly.
Let’s spend a minute talking about how we should be looking at ourselves in light of these verses. Paul is writing these statements to Timothy, an emerging leader in the church. They are things that the leader should be doing. The flip side of this, but not said as directly, would be the message to followers. As we work through these last five verses, I’ll do my best to talk about them from both a leader and followers’ perspective.
Reading now in chapter 4, verse 1, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom” 2 Timothy 4:1. Paul is wrapping up his letter and it’s like he is grabbing Timothy with both hands and saying, “Listen to me! God is my witness!”
Timothy, here is what you’re to go do in order to continue this ministry. “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” 2 Timothy 4:2.
What is Timothy to do?
And finally, how is Timothy to do these things? With complete patience and teaching.
Let’s look at each of these. First, when Paul says preach the Word, you should be thinking about “the word” as in the Gospel of John usage. Who was “the Word” in the Gospel of John? We know John was referring to Jesus. So here, when Paul says, preach the Word, he is saying Preach Jesus. Each Sunday, there are so many things that Pastor Josh could get up here and talk about. The only thing of lasting value is Jesus. And as he preaches the whole of God’s Word, he does preach Jesus, because Jesus is all through this book from start to finish.
Now you might say, I’m not the preacher, how can I preach Jesus? As a follower, listen for Jesus. Listen for Jesus in the sermon, listen for Jesus in your daily time of reading his word, listen for Jesus in that next conversation you have.
It’s when we start to look to other sources for hope, strength, and answers that we start to veer off from the path that God has for us. I hope that not only are you hearing a steady diet of Jesus being preached on Sunday, but also when you consider what books to read, what podcasts to listen to, and what media to consume, you are hearing Jesus.
Next, Paul challenges Timothy to be prepared in season and out of season. In the words of an early church leader, “the rivers, though none drink of them, still run, so must we do all on our part in speaking, though none give heed to us” (Chrysostom, 'Homily' 30, vol. 5:, p. 221). Let me say that a little differently. When we were on vacation a couple weeks ago, we had the opportunity to go tubing down a river. But you know what? That river didn’t care a bit whether we were there, whether 100 people were there, or whether no one was there. The river still flowed. The river was still fulfilling its role of moving water from point A to point B and beyond.
And just like that river, those that bring you the Word, like Pastor Josh, are to prepare no matter the circumstances that may be going on around them. The river will still flow, even if no one is floating in it. Pastor Josh is to be prepared when the congregation is ready and eager and he is to be prepared when we’re not good listeners. Josh is to preach Jesus, even when no one seems to care and when Jesus and the Gospel seems to be out of style.
But how does this speak to us as followers. Well, let’s make sure that Pastor Josh feels like he has a lot more weeks where his congregation is ready and eager. Let’s make sure that we are prepared for worship each Sunday, by preparing all week long. And how do we prepare? By spending time in God’s Word, by spending time in prayer, fellowshipping with other believers outside of Sunday morning, by being a servant within our church, and by going around the world to share the gospel. All of these are ways to ensure that we are prepared to hear Jesus being preached. All of these are ways to make sure that we have our inner tube and are ready to jump in the water.
Timothy is told he is to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. A couple weeks ago at our Session meeting, all the elders talked about it, and we agreed that Pastor Josh needs to rebuke us more. No, that didn’t happen. But isn’t it interesting that Paul has to tell Timothy to do these things. You see, it’s not fun to reprove and rebuke. You may not have heard me right…I said it’s not fun to reprove and rebuke…I know we don’t like receiving them, but it can be just as hard or harder to give them. Exhorting can be a bit more enjoyable, but reproving and rebuking can be gut wrenching. Pastor Josh does this for us when he’s preaching, but he also does it on a one-on-one basis. Those that are members, you may have had your shepherding elder reach out and reprove, rebuke, or exhort you. This work is easy for leaders to avoid, but when your leaders avoid it, that is to your detriment.
None of us like to be told we’re doing something wrong. As good protestants, we’ve gotten comfortable with the Bible telling us where we’re in the wrong (or at least we give that lip service), but let Pastor Josh or one of the elders tell me I’m doing something wrong… “who do they think they are?”. How can we be good followers when it comes to accepting reproofs and rebukes? We need to be taking the counsel of the Word and the counsel of our spiritual leaders. We wouldn’t only read a physical therapy textbook, but then ignore the trained physical therapist who has seen multiple cases of exactly what we’re struggling with. Why would we do that with our spiritual well-being?
We then get to the last part of this section. I think it was added for me. “…with complete patience and teaching.'“ Patience in these matters is not my strong suit. I want to see change and I want to see it now. Not just in others, but in my own life too. I don’t really like the mess in between where we’re at now and where we need to go. But Paul commands Timothy to do all of this with complete patience and with teaching. On the teaching side that means that we can’t just bark out orders (apologies to my former drill instructor friends that are listening), we can’t just bark out orders and expect people to change. We need to teach. We need to be patient. We need to teach. We need to be patient.
So what does this look like from a followers perspective? You need to come and be ready to be taught. You need to have an attitude that is interested in and ready to learn. And you need to do that quickly, so that I don’t have to be as patient. In all seriousness, just like when we talked about that work of correcting, it is hard work and it can be very easy to put it off. Is there an opportunity to lean into that change that’s needed and pursue that growth that God is calling you to?
In verse 3, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3. This verse is written in future tense. Let’s be honest, I think that time has arrived. This is no longer some future scenario. This is now what we see all around us. People won’t put up with sound teaching. They accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. This has our society stamped all over it. When someone offends us or says something we don’t like, we unfollow them and go on the hunt for someone that we like a little better. And when that person starts to say something we don’t quite like, we unfollow them and follow someone else. When Timothy, and in turn, your current spiritual leaders are given the charge to reprove and rebuke, this is one of those things that they fear. The fear that you will just leave to find someone that says things more to your liking. That doesn’t change the command to do it, but it does cause some pause when every time your leaders have to consider, if I say something about this, is it going to push them away? And if it does, where will they land?
What should this verse mean for you and me? Well, it’s a great reminder that we need to continue in the truth and in sound teaching. And not the truth that this world offers, not truth based on popularity or rankings or ratings, but the truth that comes only from the Word of God.
We are so quick to turn away from listening to the truth, God’s Word, and wandering off into myths. Why is that? If I’m being honest, laughing at video clips from the Johnny Depp trial a month or so ago was just more entertaining. That might explain why we would look to myths, but why would we turn away from the truth? Because it takes time to dig deep into the truths of God’s Word. In a society that is ready to serve up anything, and I mean anything, we want at any given time, taking the time to sit and read and study God’s Word, or to spend time in prayer sounds so boring, and unproductive, and inefficient. Doesn’t God know that I need to get things done?
And when we’re only willing to give a glance to God’s truth, but then allow our hearts to constantly ingest what the world offers, is it any wonder that we wander off into myths?
And what is Paul’s final charge in our passage today? Chapter 4 verse 5 says, “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
As Paul turns his attention solely to Timothy, he wraps up with four direct commands. Let’s walk through each of those. I think they readily apply to all of us.
First, be sober-minded. When we hear the word sober, it makes us immediately think of not drinking alcohol, or if you do, staying sober. But I think this has to do with a lot more than alcohol. I like the New International Version: “But you, keep your head in all situations…”. This translation reminds us that it could be a host of things that could cause us to lose our heads. Think of those times when our anger allows words to come out that we would never say, if we were “sober-minded”. Or those times when that vine of temptation grabs at us and pulls us closer and closer to sin. We can all relate to that point where we stop being sober-minded and instead give into the temptation.
Next, Paul challenges Timothy to endure suffering or hardship. I would imagine that Timothy faced at least some degree of poverty, he likely faced the reality of death in his congregation, there were likely attacks from outside the church, attacks from inside the church. Whatever the suffering and hardship may have been, Timothy was to endure. Life can throw us curveball after curveball. But regardless, we are to endure and stay faithful to the calling of the Gospel.
Third, do the work of an evangelist. Tell the good news. Don’t just stay inside these walls. We need to be talking to our neighbors, friends, and co-workers about the good news of Jesus. But first, we have to know our neighbors, get to know your friends, and co-workers, so that you start to have those kinds of opportunities. And whenever we get the chance, let’s go to new areas here and around the world to share the gospel.
Finally, Paul says, fulfill your ministry. After all of these other specific commands, this seems a bit vague doesn’t it? Again looking at the NIV, it says, “discharge all the duties of your ministry”. Don’t shy away from those hard things, don’t get lazy, do all of the things that you have been called to do.
I don’t stand up here to boast, but I feel that as an elder at Gateway Church, I have been called to do a lot of things. I take my ministry as an elder to our congregation very seriously. But I also have a passion for the people of Cuba and support the house churches there with both my time and my money. (By the way, if any of you would like to go on a future trip, let me know). I teach once a month in Kidway, I’m a greeter at the backdoor at North Main once a month, and once a month Amberly and I are the prayer team. I know it seems like a lot, but I see it as a part of fulfilling our ministry. What is your ministry and how are you fulfilling it? Continue in fulfilling your ministry.
I began my sermon with a quote from the YPSCE: “just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life”. From Paul’s words, we were challenged to continue.
In order to continue, we must start. If you have not entered into a relationship with Jesus let’s talk after the service, or talk with one of the other elders or Pastor Josh or Robert, about how you could begin that relationship.
And then, we must continue through the truths from God’s Word, as we allow it to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us. This doesn’t happen by osmosis though. We will have to spend time in his word every day, intentionally growing to look more and more like Jesus.
And as we rounded the corner into chapter 4, we saw some additional ways that we could “continue”, all centered around the Gospel and allowing God’s Word to change us, as God uses our spiritual leaders.
Young person that was raised in church and is about to head off to college or that first job or the military, continue.
Husband and wife that are struggling, you’re not sure that things are going to work out. Open up God’s Word and allow him to transform your marriage. Don’t give up. Continue.
Mom and Dad, I know it can be hard, no matter what stage of life they’re in. Keep praying. Keep teaching. Complete patience. Continue.
Entrepreneurs and leaders in the workplace, don’t forget the work God has done in your life. Stay close to him. Lead the way God would want you to. Continue.
Those seeing firsthand the effects of inflation as the paycheck runs out before the next one comes in. Place your trust in God. Don’t give up. Let the church come around you. Continue.
Pastor Josh, keep preaching Jesus. Keep teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training us with the Word of God. Keep that river flowing. Continue.
You, whatever life may be throwing at you right now. Continue.
Let’s pray.
Father, help us to continue. We thank you for the gift of the Gospel, the good news that you sent Jesus to die for our sins. We thank you for your scriptures that have provided both the entry language and the maintenance language for the Gospel. I pray that we would endeavor to live for you throughout our entire lives and that we would continue. Amen.
As you go today, continue. Allow the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, and your earthly spiritual leaders to teach, rebuke, correct, and train you in righteousness. Go, knowing that he gives us these instructions so that we will continue. You are sent.
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