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2 Timothy 4 "Paul's Charge to Timothy"
This is the last chapter of the writings of the Apostle Paul. In it he gives his last charge to Timothy and his last message is the view from the finish line, looking back on the race that is over, and forward to glory. First the charge.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 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; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. (2 Tim 4:5)
Sometimes my dad teases me, saying that pastors only work
one day a week. Oh, I wish that it was so. Some of you might be wondering
what I do Monday through Saturday. First, the Bible says that God created
the world in six days and on the seventh He rested. I figure that if
God needs to rest then so do I. So every Monday I spend time resting
with my family. If you have a terrible emergency, call me, but most
likely I will be out at a park or the zoo and you will only get my answering
machine. The rest of the week I find is divided up between things that
I have to do, and things that I want to do. I rarely have a typical
week. I cannot say that every day I do this or that. Instead, I get
an e-mail or a telephone call, I have an appointment or visit somebody
for lunch. There is time that I spend in my office, organising events,
reconfirming details, contacting people and talking to answering machines.
It is easy for a whole day to go by without even thinking about it,
because the work that has piled up is demanding my attention. I am sure
that I am not much different than you are in this regard.
But I have been given a charge, through Timothy, by Paul, to "Preach
the Word." Not just in the proper time and place for it on Sunday
morning, but also in times and places where the focus of attention is
not on the Word of God. In season and out of season I must let the Word
of God be known. In season, I preach the sermon on Sundays, three times,
always using the Bible, explaining the meaning of the text to you. At
Tokyo Horizon Chapel we do not preach about peace or love or social
justice or sin or grace or whatever else. Instead we explain the meaning
of the Bible. We do this chapter by chapter so that you will hear the
whole balance of what the Word of God teaches. This way we do not get
stuck on one thing that happens to interest me. To do this I have to
study the Bible. I have to spend time each week preparing for the message
on Sunday. I cannot just get up and speak without researching what these
words mean and looking up how it fits with the rest of Scripture. I
have to confess that sometimes my time for study gets squeezed. But
I want to make a promise to you that I will be faithful to keep it as
my first priority. Without it, I cannot preach the Word, I would only
be speaking out my words.
But how do I preach the word, "out of season"? I do this by
keeping the Bible as my center. When I counsel someone on the phone,
or over coffee, or in their home, whether I am holding a copy of the
Bible in my hands or not, I am using the words of the Bible in my speech.
When I write a letter to someone through the e-mail, again I try to
center my words on the truth of the Bible. In my actions and responses
to people I am trying to live out the truth of the Bible. But how do
I prepare for this kind of preaching? Many times I have no warning at
all before receiving a phone call. Many times I have to make a decision
on the spot, where I must choose to act out the love of God, or His
grace, even though it goes against my own personal inclination. How
do I get ready for "out of season" preaching? I must know
the whole counsel of God. I cannot just know the popular parts, or the
parts that I am interested in. I must know all of it.
What does this "out of season" preaching look like? It is
different than "in season" preaching. In season, I wear my
suit and tie and you wear your nice clothes and sit listening attentively
to what I am saying. You might be interested and you might not. I am
preaching to everybody and praying that the Holy Spirit will connect
the word with your hearts. Usually, I stick to teaching what the Word
says and giving a general application of how we can apply it to our
lives. But the "out of season" is different. Paul describes
it like this, "Convince, Rebuke, Exhort with all Longsuffering
and Teaching" Often an "out of season" preaching time
comes when there is a problem. My little baby, Gracie, doesn’t
just cry. She is either hungry or needs her diapers changed. The other
week Rie had some errands to run and left Gracie home alone with me.
But no matter what I did, she would not stop crying. I changed her,
held her, fed her, tried all kinds of music and different dance steps
but she would not stop. The next day we took her to the doctor and found
out that she had an ear infection. When a problem is brought to me,
I will apply the truth of the Bible to it. Paul gives us five steps,
that you can expect me to use when I preach "out of season".
The first step is to "Convince". The Greek word for this is
to call someone to account. I want to hear from you what the problem
is, in detail, as truthfully as you can do it without leaving out the
parts where you were wrong. Now I do not dig for sins. I believe that
the Holy Spirit works in your heart to convict you of sin. I am not
going to accuse you of anything that you do not know is already wrong.
But I do want to know as clearly as I can the whole situation. You need
to be convinced that you have a problem with sin before we can do anything
else about it.
The second step is to "Rebuke". This word sounds very harsh
to us, but as I look at how it is used in the Bible I can see that it
means to talk straightly with someone. It means that instead of using
the guarded conversation that we normally have, we lay everything out
as truthfully as we can. What I try to do is show what the result of
sin is in our lives. The person may be experiencing some of those results
already. That is why they are in trouble to begin with. But sin is like
a rock thrown into a pond. It sends out ripples in all directions breaking
down relationships with many more than you first imagine. So we must
speak with absolute honesty about sin and what the consequences of sin
will be in their lives if they do not deal with it.
The third step is to "Exhort". It means to call someone to
your side. Put your arm around them and show them practically how to
back to safety. It means to comfort them. Most people when they are
truly convinced of their sin, and see the far-reaching results that
sin will have, are broken. They cry and wonder if there is any hope
for them at all. It is at this point that we must stand with them, rather
than stand above them. We must be preaching the good news of Jesus,
God with us, with both our words and our actions.
The fourth step is "Longsuffering". Unfortunately, just because
you are convicted of sin and learn the consequences of sin, just because
you are encouraged to walk away from sin, does not mean that you will
not sin again. In fact many people struggle with the same sin, over
and over. The word longsuffering means that your passions are locked
up. It is easy for me to become disappointed with people, Frustrated
with people, overwhelmed by people and just plain angry with people.
For "out of season" preaching I must keep my emotions under
control. My emotions don’t help in this kind of circumstance.
Instead I need to cooly apply the word. This is not as easy as it sounds
because all of you are not just people off of the street that I do not
care about. You all are my family. Usually a doctor is not allowed to
operate on his own family members because emotions run too high. But
a pastor has to operate on family members all the time.
The fifth step is "Teaching". When my son goes to the dentist,
he looks in my son’s mouth and fixes the problems that he sees
there. But he also does something more. He usually gives my son a toothbrush
and teaches him how to brush his teeth the right way. This is called
preventive medicine. I also must show you the right way to walk with
God by teaching you the Bible. I have noticed that those people who
come to church regularly to hear the "in season" preaching,
come to me for "out of season" preaching much less frequently.
But those people who almost never hear the Word preached on Sunday are
the ones who end up with huge problems that they need my help with.
Of course everyone has problems, but if you regularly get teaching from
the Word you are much better prepared to deal with those problems as
they come.
Now for the view from the finish line. Paul at the end of his life and ministry looks back and looks ahead.
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. (2 Tim 4:6-8)
Paul finished well. Not everyone does. Many start well,
but not so many finish well. David had a great beginning, but at the
end he was not following God as he should have. Solomon had a great
beginning, but by the end he was a failure in the eyes of God. People
are not like wine, they do not get better with age. I think that they
are a lot more like fruit. They have a tendency to go bad. With age
we tend be just like we always were, but more so. At the end the aches
and pains of our mortal flesh turn up the volume and crowd out thoughts
about others or thoughts of God. It is easier to be selfish because
people expect it and will let you get away with it. It is harder to
put down sin because you are just going to die anyway and it is hard
to teach an old dog new tricks. How did Paul make it to the finish line?
Because his vision was firmly fixed on the reward. In the games that
would one day become the model for the Olympics, the victor in the races
would be awarded a wreath to worn on his head. After that, like Mark
McGuire, he would be the toast of the town. Like the gold medalists
at the summer or winter games, he would be on the cover of cereal boxes,
and get multi-million dollar advertising contracts. In short they would
get the glory. This is what Paul had in mind as well. Except he was
not settling for any old wreath, he wanted the crown of righteousness
that God had reserved for him in heaven.
Why do we need to worry about sin in our lives? Because we want to have
treasure in heaven. We want to have the crown of righteousness that
Paul says God has prepared for us too, for all those who love His appearing.
Sin is like putting heavy weights in your running shoes. It won’t
keep you from heaven, but it will sure slow you down. The charge from
Paul to me is to preach the Word, but the example of Paul to you and
I both is to apply that Word to our lives, leaving behind sin, and moving
steadily forward to the finish line and the glory beyond.
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