SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). Strong in Grace (vs 1)
(2). Commitment to discipleship (vs 2).
(3). Faithful through hardship (vs 3-7).
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
A man was given a guided tour around a building/construction site,
• He saw a carpenter and asked him, “What are you doing?”
• The carpenter replied, “I am sawing a piece of wood.”
• He saw an electrician and asked him, “What are you doing?”
• The electrician replied, “I am installing the electrical system in these buildings.”
• He saw a bricklayer and asked him, “What are you doing?”
• The bricklayer replied, “I am building a wall.”
• He then saw a labourer pushing a wheelbarrow and asked him, “What are you doing?”
• The labourer replied, “I am building a cathedral.”
• TRANSITION: out of the four people questioned,
• Only one man saw the bigger picture!
Question:
• Now if someone asked you the question this morning, “What are you doing?”
• How would you respond?
• I would suggest the answer for all Christians should be,
• “We are glorifying God, we are building his Church, we are extending his kingdom!”
Question: How can we best do that?
Answers:
• The answers may be varied depending on who you listen to,
• But 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1-7 give us some pretty good advice.
• On how to glorify God, build his Church and extend his kingdom!”
Note:
• When talking about, ‘The Church’ we are talking about people not buildings!
• We may call are buildings ‘Churches’ but the Bible does not,
• That is a traditional idea not a Biblical one.
• The New Testament never refers to the Church as a building,
• In the New Testament the word ‘Church’ is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia,
• Which means "a calling out."
• It never refers to a building or meeting place,
• But always to people, the ones "called out" of the world's society,
• And called into God’s family and service.
Ill:
• In the New Testament, no synagogue, temple, chapel, tabernacle, building,
• Or any other meeting place was ever called a “church.”
• TRANSITION:
• The term always referred to the meeting together of Christians,
• And, in the New Testament, it was used in two ways.
• FIRST: For the local community of believers, or the church gathered.
• (Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25).
• i.e. local gatherings of Christians who meet regularly to worship and serve together,
• Churches such as those in our area, we call them, DRC, Waypoint, St. John’s etc.
• In one place it may be thousands of believers gathered.
• In another place believers may gather in small groups.
• But both are examples of the church gathered.
• SECOND: For the overall collection of Christians, i.e. Church universal.
• (1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13)
• i.e. made up of all the true believers throughout history,
• From every kindred, tribe, and tongue!
Note:
• You know the old cliche, “There is no such thing as the perfect Church,”
• If you do find it, please don’t join it or you will spoil it!
• I would suggest that there is no such thing as the perfect Church model.
• By that I mean there is no one way, one model or idea,
• That all local Churches should conform to.
Ill:
Just think about how different the New Testament Church fellowships were.
• e.g. The Church in Jerusalem, 5,000 strong (Acts chapter 4 verse 4).
• It was very Jewish in its style of worship and culture.
• They met in the Temple Courts (Acts chapter 2 verse 46).
• e.g. In the book of Acts we read of Church plants in homes,
• So maybe 15 to 20 in number, I guess no bigger than 50.
• Acts chapter 12 verse 12 they met in home of Mary,
• Acts chapter 16 verse 40 they met in the home of Lydia,
• Acts chapter 18 verse 1-2 they met in the home of Prisca and Aquila.
• Colossians chapter 4 verse 15 they met in the home of Nympha.
• Philemon verses 1-2 they met in the home of Philemon and Apphia.
• As the house Churches grew, they moved from homes into buildings,
• So that the whole Church could be together,
• Acts chapter 20 verse 7 would suggest a public meeting room,
• It’s the story of when Eutychus nodded off to sleep and fell out of a window.
• And as the gospel spread and Gentiles became Christians,
• They would worship God in a non-Jewish but culturally appropriate ways.
• e.g. different musical instruments, different bodily positions for prayer etc.
• TRANSITION:
• I would suggest that there is no one way to do Church.
• By that I mean there is no one model or idea,
• That all local Churches should conform to.
• Every local Church (body of believers) has the liberty, the freedom,
• To worship and serve God in different ways.
Note:
• What we do have in the New Testament,
• Are instructions, principles, guidelines, and examples to follow.
• Instructions:
• e.g. #1: Doctrine. The Churches were to teach sound doctrine (2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 13)
• Put simply, doctrine is what we believe about key issues e.g. God, Jesus, salvation.
• e.g. #2: Where possible a Church should have elders and deacons.
• (1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 2-13 & Titus chapter 1 verses 8-9).
• e.g. #3: We are told to encourage every member ministry.
• 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 14–26.
• Any activity performed as service to the Lord rightly counts as ministry.
• Principles, guidelines, and examples.
• We are told the Church met for teaching, fellowship, prayer, breaking of bread.
• (Acts chapter 2 verse 42)
• Notice we are given the principles and example to do these things,
• But we are not told in detail exactly how, we are given flexibility and variety.
• No doubt each denomination (including us) thinks they are doing it the best way!
• The Biblical way!
Pause to say:
• This may seem a strange passage to use to start a series of talks on the Church.
• But actually, ‘it hits the nail on the head.’
• Because it reminds of ‘Essentials we can’t do without!’
• We have in these verses three great truths,
• That never go out of date and every Church needs to hold on to them.
• So, what are the three essentials listed in this passage.
(1). Strong in Grace (vs 1)
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
• The apostle Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, his son in the faith.
• That means through the ministry of the apostle Paul Timothy had come to faith.
• So, it is an many ways a personal letter.
• But Timothy was leading a Church, and this letter is included in our New Testament,
• For Churches to read, to study and to learn from.
• So, we can glean from its essential truths for building a Church.
Backdrop to this letters dos the apostle Paul is writing from a prison cell in Rome.
• His crime is preaching Jesus Christ is Lord,
• So, he is imprisoned for the faith,
• A prisoner of Emperor Nero who claims there is no Lord higher than himself!
• From that prison cell he wrote to Timothy in Ephesus.
• This is Paul's last letter.
• What we have here is seasoned advice from an experienced man of God.
• The apostle Paul has proved these truths to be true and tested again and again and again.
• So, from his wisdom and experience he writes…
Notice what he says, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
• He did not say, ‘Be strong Timothy,’
• i.e. You might as well tell a snail to be quick, or a horse to fly,
• i.e. Or tell a weakling to be strong, or a shy man, ‘Be brave!’
• The advice might be good, but it will not make any difference!
ill:
• In the biography of J.I. Packer.
• (Who was an English-born Canadian evangelical theologian, cleric and writer).
• He tells the story of how his non-Christian mother wanted him to be confirmed,
• She thought religion was what he needed and would do him good.
• So, James Packer met with the vicar,
• Who was supposed to explain to him what confirmation was all about,
• But the vicar simply talked about the morality of Christianity,
• You need to live a good life, one of good conduct.
• Packer says, there was little explanation of why we should live like that,
• There was no explanation of how trusting Christ day by day,
• Gives us the desire and the power to live like that!
• The advice might have been good, but it will not make any difference!
• Because the vicar did not tell him how to get the power to change!
Ill:
• A torch is only as good as the batteries inside,
• If the batteries are weak or even dead, the light will be weak or non-existent.
• TRANSITION: The apostle Paul’s advice and instruction is spot on!
• Because Timothy is NOT instructed to be strong in himself,
• Paul never said to him, “Search for the hero inside yourself.”
• That’s Disney theology not the Bible’s.
• Paul never told him to,
• “Grit his teeth, to clench his fists, to set his jaw.”
• But the apostle Paul did say, ‘Be strengthened,’
• But strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus!
Note:
• Let me tell you something about grace,
• Lots of people don’t realise that grace is never available to strong people!
• That is what makes it difficult for us to get hold of and then to keep it.
• Strong people think they don’t need grace,
• They can handle it all themselves – self-sufficiency!
• But grace says you cannot – you need outside help!
That is why the New Testament instructs us again and again to,
• “Be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18).
• Or “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you” (Colossians chapter 3 verse 16)
• We need outside help to keep us strong!
Grace should breathe life into any Church fellowship.
• We need to be a people who are graceful,
• Graceful in our speech, graceful in our actions and graceful in our attitudes.
• That will only happen as we are “strengthened within.”
• And that does not happen naturally!
Ill:
• A preacher once spoke on the topic, “Why your dog does what it does”.
• Well, being an unusual title for a sermon, many dog lovers came out to hear him speak.
• What he shared was obvious but so often overlooked.
• His main point was this, “A dog behaves like a dog because he has a dog’s nature”.
• If you could somehow transplant into the dog the nature of a cat, or a horse or a rabbit,
• Then the dog’s behaviour would radically change!
• TRANSITION: You and I will always revert to and behave like unconverted people,
• Because we have a human nature,
• Unless we allow Christ to reign in us daily and us,
• Unless we are “strengthened within.”
• We are not going to consistently change for the better.
• That is true individually and also collectively!
• We need to rely on God’s strength,
• We get that power from the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
• So that we become a people who are graceful,
• Graceful in our speech, graceful in our actions and graceful in our attitudes.
(2). Commitment to discipleship (vs 2).
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
• Discipleship is not a second step in Christianity,
• As if one first becomes a believer in Jesus and then (if he chooses) a disciple,
• But from the beginning,
• Discipleship is involved in what it means to be a Christian.
• Jesus said, (Luke chapter 9 verse 23),
“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Ill:
• After a distinguished performing career,
• Virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz (Jas- ka Hi-fe-tz),
• Was appointment as professor of music at The University of California, Los Angeles.
• Asked what had prompted his change of career,
• Heifetz replied:
"Violin playing is a perishable art. It must be passed on as a personal skill.
otherwise, it is lost."
• TRANSITION: We need to listen to this great musician.
• What we have is perishable unless we pass it on to others.
Note:
• There two great descriptive words used by the apostle Paul in this verse.
• In English they translate as, ‘entrust’ and ‘reliable.’
• FIRST: term ‘entrust’
• This was a baking term.
• You took your savings and entrusted them to the safe keeping of the bank.
• And the bank guarded and kept it safe.
• The spiritual application is simple,
• We too are to keep safe our doctrine by protecting it from falsehood and heresy.
• SECOND: term reliable.’
• Question: How can we tell who is our spiritual security guards?
• Answer: says the apostle Paul is look for people who are faithful.
Quote: William Barclay explains the Greek word this way.
“The Greek for faithful, pistos, is a word with a rich variety of closely connected meanings.
A man who is a pistos is a man who is believing, a man who is loyal, a man who is reliable. All these meanings are there.””
• The apostle Paul knew he was in his final weeks of life,
• Before Nero would have him beheaded, executed for the gospel.
• He had already entrusted God’s Word to Timothy,
• Now he tells Timothy to deposit it into the lives of others.
• And he wants those ‘others’ to also pass it on in an ever-multiplying transaction.
• The Christian Church is dependent on an unbroken chain of teachers.
Ill:
• Clement of Rome was an early church father,
• Who lived and ministered at the time the apostles like Peter & John were dying,
• At the end of the first century.
• He was a leader/bishop of the church in Rome,
• Best known for a letter that he wrote from Rome to the church at Corinth.
• When Clement was writing to the Church at Corinth,
• He sketched that chain of continuation,
"Our apostles appointed the aforesaid persons (that is, the elders) and afterwards they provided a continuance, that, if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their ministry."
• TRANSITION: In other words, the teacher is a link in the living chain,
• Which stretches unbroken from this present moment back to Jesus Christ.
• Every Church need committed, consistent, responsible men and women,
• All Christians are meant to be, trustworthy, reliable, faithful, Christians,
• But some will also have the gift and be ‘qualified’ to teach the Word to others.
• That may be from the platform, in a house-group, in Explorers (Sunday School) etc.
• So, the apostle Paul had already entrusted God’s Word to Timothy,
• Now he tells Timothy to deposit it into the lives of others.
• And he wants those ‘others’ to also pass it on in an ever-multiplying transaction.
(3). Faithful through hardship (vs 3-7).
“Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give your insight into all this.”
• The third and final essential from these verses,
• Is a godly Church being faithful through hardships.
• The apostle Paul uses three images,
• To help us understand what this kind of loyalty looks like.
• We don’t have time to expand on the images,
• So let me give you the pints and you can ponder them later.
Image #1: The soldier (vs 3-4).
Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Ill:
• Dwight L Moody (1837-1899) and Ira D Sankey (1840-1908),
• Were American evangelists who attracted vast audiences to their meetings,
• Both in the USA and on their visits to Britain.
• D. L. Moody was a powerful preacher.
• Sankey was a writer and singer of hymns (he accompanied himself on a small reed organ)
• D. L. Moody would not allow his song leader Ira Sankey.
• To use the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” in any of their evangelistic meetings.
• Moody thought that the Church as he knew it,
• Did not look or act like an army of Christian soldiers.
• It lacked commitment, discipline, sacrifice and offensive evangelism.
• TRANSITION: I wonder if Moody was in the UK in 2024,
• He would be willing to sing it. Sadly, I think the answer would be no!
Notice:
• He describes for us in these verses,
• Characteristics of a "good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
• (a). They endure hardships (vs 3).
• Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
• (b). They are consecrated – set apart (vs 4a).
• “No-one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs.”
• (c). They are obedient (vs 4b).
• “He wants to please his commanding officer.”
Ill:
• When the Roman soldier joined the army, he took the sacramentum,
• The oath of loyalty to his emperor.
• The soldier's supreme virtue is that he is faithful unto death.
• TRANSITION: Key thought, ‘commitment’.
• The Christian too must be loyal to Jesus Christ,
• We have voluntarily enlisted into his army, and we are now under his command!
Image #2: The athlete (vs 5):
“Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.”
Question: What do Diego Maradona, Lance Armstrong, Tonya Harding,
Answer:
• They are considered some of sports greatest cheats.
• Footballer Diego Maradona, - The ‘Hand of God’ scandal.
• Cyclist Lance Armstrong - used performance-enhancing drugs.
• Ice-Skater Tonya Harding - her ex-husband smashed rival skater Nancy Kerrigan in the knee.
• Paul often used athletic illustrations in his writings:
• He mentions wrestling, boxing, running, and exercising.
• The Greeks and the Romans were enthusiastic about sports,
• And the Olympic and Isthmian games were important events to them.
• TRANSITION: Key thought, ‘honesty.’
• The apostle Paul is telling Timothy:
• What is the point of winning the race only to be disqualified later on!
• Paul is reminding Timothy that as Christians,
• We are not running the race to please people, or to get fame.
• We are running to please Jesus Christ! He is our motivation and inspiration!
Image #3: The farmer (vs 6-7):
The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.
7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give your insight into all this.
Ill:
• I love the old joke,
• The Farmer who advertised in a newspaper lonely hearts column for a new bride.
• He wrote, “Farmer seeks wife with her own tractor, please send photo of tractor!”
• TRANSITION: Key thought, ‘Diligent.’
• A farmers life requires hard work!
• Even in our high-tech age farming is still hard work.
• In the days when this letter weas written,
• There were no tractors, no combined harvesters,
• Not even modern hand tools made from light metals.
• You literally toiled for every grain or grape or olive you harvested!
Question: Want to know what it takes for Church to remain faithful and grow?
Answer: According to this verse - Hard work!
Ill:
• The very first person to reach the status of billionaire,
• Was a man who knew how to set goals and follow through.
• At the age of 23, he had become a millionaire, by the age of 50 a billionaire.
• His name was J.D. Rockefeller.
• He once gave away the secret of his success, 3 things he said.
• (1). Go to work early.
• (2). Stay at work late.
• (3). Find oil!
• TRANSITION: J.D. Rockefeller like many before him,
• Realised that hard work sits alongside anything else if you want to succeed.
Ill:
• In the sport of basketball, LeBron James is a big name!
• He was the 1st player in NBA history to surpass 39,000 career points,
• He is the NBA's all-time scoring leader.
• A few years ago, he returned to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers,
• And Nike who sponsored him released this commercial.
• YouTube Video Clip: LeBron James New Nike Commercial - Together (2014)
• Link: https://youtu.be/-8yOG3qYk08?si=KvHLzdA9j4uDS2Kw
• TRANSITION: The advert is simply saying,
• Hard work and unity and teamwork wins through!
• There are no passengers everyone has a part to play!
• And if that is true in baseball, it is even more true in Church life!
ONE KEY TRUTH FROM THESE THREE PICTURES.
• The soldier is faithful & loyal inspired by the thought of final victory.
• The athlete honest & since upheld by the vision of the medal/crown.
• The farmer is hardworking sustained by the hope of a good harvest.
• So, it with the Christian.
• Rewards come to those who partake in the battle, the race, the task set before them.
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=dZeavi6QtTq3SJ9IqhGMrYQPpr9RUe2j
SERMON VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/YXWJo3aPkzk
