5.24.26 2 T 2:8-13
In the early 80’s I read Richard Wurmbrand’s book “Tortured for Christ”, I was deeply impacted by the faithfulness of this Romanian pastor who suffered 14 years of confinement and torture in a communist prison for his faith.
To say I was challenged, would be an understatement…I read it several times over several years, trying to imagine if I could endure like that, how to become a man of faith like that.
Fast forward about 10 years, River was just two years old, and I read Chuck Colson’s book, “The Body” it was impactful in a different way because at that point I was a new pastor thinking not just about my life as an individual follower of Christ, but about leading a church, a local Body of followers of Christ.
Not just what would it mean for “me” to found faithful…but what did it mean for “we”?
In the book he tells the story of how the church in Romania was a crucial part of the downfall of the communist party in that nation.
The party had put over half a million of its citizens in prison for political dissent or for their Christian Faith (including Pastor Wurmbrand)…1 in 5 of them had died in prison.
Together the books tell the story of the Church changing an entire culture.
Not through political movement per se… but through the long-term faithfulness of individual Christians willing to suffer to be found faithful.
Many pastors died in a communist gulags, some lived to see the change in their nation, some eventually became part of the political change…a change that led to widespread religious freedom.
The early church in the Roman empire would see many followers of Christ imprisoned and killed and it would be about 200 years after Paul and Timothy’s deaths before Christians were allowed to fully practice their faith in freedom.
This is not a message about politics and faith…there are a lot of different opinions in the church at large about how Christians should engage with politics and the wider culture.
I am a Christian who loves the church.
I am a patriot who loves this country that God has placed me in.
And I do believe that Christians are called to change the world…but I believe it is primarily through individual faithfulness to God’s call in our lives and corporate faithfulness to one another in the body of Christ.
So, there is a great debate among Christians about the church and politics.
But I believe it is beyond debate that our primarily calling is to be found faithful.
The church is made up of individual members…who are parts of local bodies, and parts of the larger world-wide body of Christ.
Though we are globally connected, we live out our faith in local ways, local congregations…like River and the many others in our community, nation, and world.
Each member of the Body has his or her unique role…but all have the same goal…the glory of God revealed through personal faithfulness.
Some in our church have lead companies, became involved in politics, or social change, some have taught school, raised children…some have died young from cancer…Jaza, Jeff…to mention just two.
Different roles…same ultimate goal…be found faithful.
Look in your Bible to 2 Timothy 2, verses 8-13
Remember, 2 Timothy is Paul’s death cell letter to his protegee, Pastor Timothy.
Before we read let’s remember the context…content is understood by understanding context…both historical and grammatical
Today’s passage…follows the passage we looked at last week that had two challenges:
Be strong in grace, and Engage a multi-generational ministry
Then three examples: Soldier, Athlete, Farmer
Those three examples have some commonalities:
All three have clear objectives…they are about a prize to win.
All three have a fair amount of grit, tedium to them.
All three have to submit to authorities outside of themselves…commander, rules of the sport, natural laws.
From those two challenges and three examples we come to today’s passage.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 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.
We will zero in on three points from this passage:
1. Keep your focus on Jesus.
2. The word of God is never chained, even if you are.
3. If you endure, Christ will bring fruit from your faithfulness.
1. Keep your focus on Jesus.
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David”
Monday night, Christy was out of town, so I had my four grandsons age, five to twelve over for a sleepover.
We watched a couple of movies, and they slept on the floor in sleeping bags, but I had told them beforehand that during dinner we were going to talk about Jesus.
They were not surprised; we do this often…but I wanted them to be thinking about it.
I told some stories of faith…then I asked them some questions.
Like, “Why does Jesus answer some prayers and not others?”
I asked Joseph, who is 5, if his mother ever says “no” to things that he asks for, he said, “All the time.”
I know for a fact that she says “yes” a fair amount of time…but the point was, he doesn’t doubt her love for him even when she says “no.”
Ellis, my second youngest grandson, said that sometimes he has trouble believing that it’s possible that Jesus did all the Bible says that he did…fair enough, I said.
We talked about how Jesus is unique among every human who has ever lived.
We ate pizza and we remembered Jesus, risen from the dead, the offspring of David.
It wasn’t complicated, but like all good remembering…it was on purpose.
Jesus, risen from the dead, the offspring of David…is Paul reminding Timothy to remember to remember.
Jesus actually lived, and he rose from the dead in space and time… he is a historical human…with a real lineage.
This is vital to remember, and easy to forget.
Ellis struggled to think about Jesus as a “real person”…that’s not uncommon…so we remembered him as we munched on Pizza.
I told them…”Jesus is 100percent God and 100percent man…no wonder we can’t get our minds fully around him.”
But you know what, we tried…we remembered to remember
My point of this is…what we choose to put in our minds is what we are letting shape our lives.
We must train our minds to consider Jesus…in order that we will live ready to live for him, to suffer for him, to be embarrassed for him, to obey him.
Remembering is built into the Scripture…God knows how he made our brains and he tells us to actively remember…because what we choose to focus our thoughts on is what will direct the course of our lives.
Over 200 times in the Bible God tells us to remember his faithfulness so we will be faithful.
Some of that remembering is through symbols, ceremony…baptism, Lord’s supper, weddings and funerals and worship services.
But remembering Jesus on a regular basis is not merely symbolic it is actionable.
Here is a sampling of Scripture on how we are to take action by choosing what we put in and allow to say in our minds.
Colossians 3:2: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
-This won’t cause us to miss what is going on around us, but it will mean we can actually understand what is going on around us…we will see what we are looking at.
Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”
-This isn’t magic, it is intentionally actively choosing thoughts that are true and real…that is the definition of a “steadfast mind.”
2 Cor. 10:5 “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”
-This sounds complex, but it means we don’t let rogue thoughts, thoughts that are outside the parameters of what is real and good and true…outside the gospel…perform a coup in our minds.
A coup is a hostile takeover…we don’t allow rogue thoughts to take over our minds.
This is very proactive and aggressive…to take someone captive is not a polite process…to take a thought captive is not passive.
We can blow past how practical and important it is to remember to remember in order to train for godliness.
So, as I read, “Remember Jesus”…it is likely your mind didn’t turn this into something actionable…but it is enormously so.
Northern Command is the major military organization tasked with the defense of our homeland.
It was stood up after 911…I’ve been there several times.
Outside the Northcom HQ building in Colorado, there is a memorial made from a steel beam recovered from Ground Zero, and a Pentagon-shaped base filled with soil from the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site.
Matt Statler told me last night that 5 out of the 15 people in his office at McConnell remember 911…so in case you don’t know…these three symbols represent the sites of terrorist attacks.
More and more the people who walk into the Northom building, weren’t even alive on 911 or they were they were children…or it has become a distant memory for them.
The first time I stood in front of the memorial…I was moved.
People walked past me into the building…without noticing it.
I understand how this happens.
But they walk past this visible reminder of why they do what they do all day…they forget to remember.
This means the vital importance of their work can diminish…and this makes us less safe, but it also makes their work less meaningful to them.
I am belaboring this point because it is important, practical, and neglected.
Remember to remember, Jesus.
This is how you train to trust Jesus rather than being trained to be a people-pleaser, or a people-fearer…like Timothy struggled with.
This is how we train to trust God rather than train to merely run from trouble.
It is how you train to value what is valuable…so you will live in line with those values.
It is proactive choosing to think about, talk about, remember Jesus.
In the OT Deut 6 was called the Shema, it is first word in Hebrew translated…”hear”
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
It is interesting how we are told to pull off this “full hearted mind soul love for God”
Listen to what follows…
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
All this is proactive remembering…going to great lengths to keep God and his word front and center.
Paul tells Timothy…remember Jesus…this is essential to faithful endurance in his work.
Let’s move on…
2. The word of God is never chained, even if you are.
verse 9 “Remember Jesus and the gospel…for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!”
It’s improbable, though not impossible that you will actually be chained for your faith.
It is highly probable that you will be in a situation sometime in your life, if you haven’t already.. where you will be faced with the possibility of paying some price for your faith.
I spoke with a friend this last week who was forced to a job he loved…because of his Christian faith.
-He was a good employee; they wanted him to stay…but he would have had to compromise clear biblical truth to do so.
We must be careful to not cause trouble for ourselves because we are stubborn and arrogant.
However, there have been many people who are not hardheaded but lost their jobs, or other opportunities because of their faith and faithfulness.
We should be prepared for this…we need godly courage.
In many parts of the world there is the real possibility of losing your life for your faith…but again, it is always a high probability that your faith will cost you something…maybe embarrassment, maybe a friend…but something.
Are you prepared for that?
Peter gives us this probability with great clarity in his letter…along a warning to make sure we are not suffering because of our own sin or stupidity.
1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
So, we focus on Christ and we believe that no one and nothing can stop the Word and the work of God.
This fact inspires our faithfulness.
We know that our faithfulness brings fruit in God’s good time…we may be chained, his Word never is.
If you focus on some clear evidence of current fruit…you will probably become discouraged, and maybe quit being faithful.
It’s hard to wait for a harvest during dry seasons…to remain faithful when you are chained…or fired.
So as followers of Christ…in every aspect of our lives…the fundamental measurement of our lives has to be focused on faithfulness.
“Isn’t faithfulness just an excuse for passivity or mediocrity?”
No, because being passive by definition isn’t being faithful.
Faithfulness is about giving God our level best…that will never be, in ultimate terms…mediocre.
Faithfulness is a focus on the choices I can control coupled with a faith in God for the factors I cannot control.
Paul was chained…he could not control that.
God’s word was off the chain; the seeds he had planted were going to bear fruit.
Paul was able to be content with the will of God in his life, because he was confident that God’s will would be done.
Since Christ suffered and God’s word is unbound, Paul is ready to go through anything…he knows that his labor in the Lord will never be in vain.
This brings us to yet another tension in Scripture…God is sovereign and we are responsible.
This tension should lead to confident endurance…and from our enduring faithfulness, God will bring fruit that lasts.
3. If you endure, Christ will bring fruit from your faithfulness.
verse 10 “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. ”
One of our Monday night Pizza questions dealt with the tension of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility.
God is in control and our choices matter…how does that work?
In Scripture the fact that God chooses recipients of his covenant blessing works together with the offer of salvation to all who choose to believe.
God saves and people choose to believe…and we are to choose to share the gospel.
This is complex…no one has figured this all out…but it works in the real world…because it is real and true.
I know there are a ton of opinions on this…just as there are on the church and politics.
Churches have split, pastors fired, friendships lost…over the debate about God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.
Sometimes more technical terms, or the names of historical movements or human figures are used to describe positions…Calvin, Arminius, the reformation.
…but it is essentially about the fact that God is in control, and our choices matter.
…then the practical question of how does this all work together?
You are free to care a lot about this or very little about this…but to live with Biblical balance, at the very least you must hold to this tension.
God is completely sovereign and you are completely responsible…your responsibility means you must be faithful.
I said last week that the wise farmer prays and asks God for a harvest, he thanks God for a good harvest, and trusts God when there is a bad one.
But it is the foolish farmer who sits in the house and asks God to plow the field and plant the seed for him.
Scripture teaches that God is fully sovereign and humans are fully responsible…this is mystery not contradiction.
A recent “ask pastor Terry” question from a young girl upstairs was: Can God make 2+2=10?
This is a version of the old, “Can God make a rock so big he can’t pick it up?” question/trap.
It is supposed to point out a contradiction.
Supposedly if you answer “no” then God is not all powerful.
If you answer yes, “then God is not all powerful.
How do you answer it?
You say, “God can do anything that can be done.”
He can make a cosmos with a word, he can raise the dead, he can become incarnate…but he cannot lie or die.
Making a rock too big for him to pick up is not a thing to be done…it is an inherent contradiction…merely a collection of words strung together with no basis in reality.
2 rocks plus 2 rocks cannot be 10 rocks…that is a logical fallacy not a real thing to be done.
God can make 10 rocks, or a planet made of rock, or a cosmos from himself plus nothing.
And God can be sovereign and make a world were humans have real choices that actually matter.
This is mystery it is not a contradiction.
10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
“I endure” (Paul’s choice)
“For the elect” (God’s choice)
That they may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus
Somehow…human choice and God’s choice are both factors in this outcome.
Look again at verse 11 .
The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him if we endure, we will also reign with him.
Paul is repeating our reason for gospel confidence that he wrote about in his letter to the church in Rome.
“Our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6)
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Rom 6:8).
We died with Christ to the old way of life and to sin’s mastery over our own lives.
We know that we will live forever with him…great gospel confidence
Then a somber gospel warning.
“If we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.”
This is a repetition of Jesus’ warning,
“But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” (Matt 10:33)
We see the strong confidence and strong warning together in John 15:5-6
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
We are to live with confidence but without presumption
No self-confidence…only confidence in Christ.
We don’t live in fear of losing our salvation…because Christ is able to keep us.
But we don’t take our faith for granted, because if we don’t remain faithful to the end, then Scripture says we are not saved.
Now we must not measure too soon…some people walk away from God, and then God (often through troubles)…brings them back.
But if a person walks away permanently…by definition they were not his…he keeps those who are his.
God will be faithful, even if we are not…there is comfort and confidence in that.
God’s faithfulness to his own justice means that if we fail to endure in faith and faithfulness…if we deny him, he will deny us.
CS Lewis said in the end there are two only kinds of people:
-Those who say to God…”Your will be done”
-Those to whom God says…”Your will be done”
If people permanently walk away from him, Scripture says, they were never his.
We don’t live in fear of this…the ones who are worried this might happen, shouldn’t.
The ones who are danger of doing this don’t really care about falling away from God.
We must not focus on fear of failing; we must focus on being found faithful.
This is a daily, relational practice that keeps our faith fresh.
God help me be faithful today…you should pray it every morning.
God help me faithful in this moment…you should pray it throughout your day
God forgive me for being unfaithful today, find me faithful tomorrow…that should be our nightly prayer.
*I walked this past week with a longtime friend who lives in Montana…his wife has a very difficult job.
She works all day, every day with troubled veterans.
She can get in trouble for spending too much time talking to one of them, she has quotas…even if that person is in a desperate situation.
She can sometimes feel helpless to help them…she can only do so much
Even though her work is important, she can feel like Sisyphus from last week, rolling the stone up the hill all day, only to have it roll back down at the end of the day.
I told my friend, “Remind her (she is a friend of mine as well) that God has called her be faithful, not to save veterans. She has a heart for them and that is good, but she must keep set her heart on being found faithful.”
Faithfulness is unblockable, it is the only unblockable goal, unblockable vision for your life.
All other goals can be blocked by external circumstances or by others.
Remember to remember Jesus.
Remember that God’s word is never chained…God is at work in the world, nothing can stop him.
Be faithful, because God will bring fruit that lasts from your life if you endure.