How To Stand Firm

[SLIDE] I’d like to start today’s talk by showing you a picture. There is a crowd, going one way, and there is a man going the opposite way. The crowd aren’t giving him a hard time; it’s all quite peaceful. In the Christian life, we sometimes have to go against the majority. Quite often, in fact. That was the case when Paul wrote his letter to Timothy, it has been the case through most of the past two thousand years and it’s the case today.

TWO WEEKS AGO we started a short series on Paul’s second letter to Timothy. We started by looking at chapter 1 and I focused on verse 8. Paul tells Timothy, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God…” I think this is Paul’s central message to Timothy. If I was to put it in my own words it would be, ‘Hold fast to the Christian message! Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed of it. Doing that WILL get you into trouble. But take it on the chin. Hold fast. Don’t go off course.’ I looked at why Christians might be ashamed of the Christian message in our society today. And we looked at some of Paul’s advice to Timothy why he shouldn't be - and nor should we. Let's do a quick review.

[SLIDE] "8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but SHARE IN SUFFERING for the gospel BY THE POWER OF GOD, 9 who saved us AND CALLED US TO A HOLY CALLING, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, WHO ABOLISHED DEATH AND BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT through the gospel…"

1. Paul acknowledges that there will be SUFFERING. He doesn’t sweep that fact under the carpet.

2. Second, Paul told Timothy to ‘share in suffering for the gospel BY THE POWER OF GOD.’ God gives us POWER to endure.

3. Third, Paul told Timothy that God ‘saved us AND CALLED US.’ If God calls us to do something we can be sure it’s good and righteous and worth doing; it isn’t some dodgy task that we might be ashamed of. And if God calls then we need to persevere at it.

4. Fourth, Paul reminds Timothy that Jesus ‘abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.’ We have A WONDERFUL MESSAGE! Why should we be ashamed?

LAST WEEK we looked at chapter 2 and went off on a slightly different tack. I said that, surprising as it may seem, in the Christian life it’s sometimes necessary to go against people in church. We looked at the story of three men who did just that in the time of the Reformation. They made a stand for their faith. They were Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley. Their dispute wasn’t with people outside the church; it was with people in the church. At one level their dispute with the church was over the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation: that the bread and the wine at Communion become literally Christ’s body and blood. But at a deeper level their dispute was about where authority lies. If the Catholic church had the right to tell them what to believe then the Catholic church has authority. But if only scripture - which we accept as God’s word - can tell them what to believe, then God has authority. Latimer, Cranmer and Ridley were not willing to change course and it ended up costing them their lives: they were burned at the stake. In 2 Timothy 2 we saw two reasons TO ENDURE, to stand firm. Paul wrote:

[SLIDE] "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…"

1. If we endure, we help people find salvation. Paul told Timothy: ‘I endure everything for the sake of the elect, THAT THEY ALSO MAY OBTAIN THE SALVATION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS.’ We all struggle with communicating our faith. But people come to faith and find salvation because someone tells them about Jesus. We want people to find salvation so it’s really important that we endure, we put up with anything!

2. If we endure, what’s the result? WE REIGN WITH JESUS! I don’t know exactly what reigning with Jesus means, but it sounds pretty good to me. In the book of Revelation, Jesus writes to the church in Philadelphia and tells them: ‘Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.’ There’s a crown in store for us. But we need to endure, to not quit when life gets hard.