Note: This sermon was introduced with a drama called "Conversion"
In many ways, sharing our faith in Jesus Christ can feel like coming out of the closet with a dark secret. In our culture today, talking about your faith seems too personal for public discourse. People prefer that we keep issues of faith private, rather than talking about our beliefs in public. So because of that, it can seem like we’re breaking the social rules when we talk about our faith.
When I was a new Christian and a student at Chaffey College, I was struggling with how to best tell people about Jesus Christ. There were two different campus Christian groups that took entirely different approaches to outreach. There was one group of Christians at Chaffey who were very aggressive in talking about Jesus. In fact, other students nicknamed this group of Christians "the God squad" because they were so pushy and obnoxious. This group of Christians acted as if people coming to Christ depended completely on them.
But there was another group on campus that took an entirely different approach to outreach. This group of Christians believed that outreach was completely God’s work, so it wasn’t really necessary for us as Christians to tell people about Jesus. In fact, this group followed the "God squad" around campus, telling them that they shouldn’t be telling other people about Jesus. They said, "When God wants a student to come to faith in Jesus, he’ll do it without your help." According to this second group, when God brings a person to faith in Jesus he does it entirely through his power and without any human effort or involvement.
Well as a new Christian I was confused by the entirely different approaches of these two campus groups. The debate between those two groups raises a very important question about sharing our faith in Jesus Christ with other people. How much depends on us and how much depends on God? The God squad group acted as if it all depended on them, while the second group acted as if it all depended on God.
I’ve learned since then that neither group was entirely right. Certain aspects of outreach do depend on us, but certain aspects also depend entirely on God. Finding the right balance is absolutely essential if we want to share the good news of Jesus effectively and compassionately with those around us.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy called Deepening Your Life With God. An absolutely essential element of deepening our life with God is sharing the truth of God with those around us. In fact, the New Testament teaches that its impossible to deepen our lives with God unless we’re sharing the message of God with those around us.
Today we’re going to discover that sharing the truth of God with people is a partnership between us and God. Reaching out to unchurched people with the good news of Christ is a partnership of trust between us and God.
Now to some people, the very idea of being in a partnership with God sounds outrageous and disrespectful. I mean God is God, and obviously we’re not. Why would the Creator of the galaxies enter into a partnership of trust with humans? It does sound outrageous. Yet I think you’ll see today that God has done exactly this and entered into a partnership of trust with us when it comes to outreach. Today we’re going to find three ways God trusts us in outreach, and three ways we need to trust God in outreach. If we get our part and God’s part confused, we’ll find our attempts to share Jesus with those around us frustrating and ineffective.
1. How God Trusts Us
Let’s begin by looking at vv. 11-18 together. There are two key words that tie this section together. The first is the word "guard," which we find in v. 12 and then twice in v. 14. The second key word is the word "entrust," which we find in v. 12 and then again in v. 14. God trusts us to guard certain things, and we trust God to guard certain things. This is why outreach is a partnership of trust, because God entrusts certain aspects of outreach to us, and we entrust certain aspects of outreach to God. So, as outrageous as it sounds, sharing the good news of Christ with others really is a partnership of trust between us and God.
Now let’s start with how God trusts us. In v. 11 Paul describes God’s calling in his own life as threefold: God had called Paul to be a herald, an apostle, and a teacher. A "herald" is a person who makes an announcement. Last month we sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," which was a way of describing the angels who announced Jesus’ birth. A herald was the equivalent of a town crier, or perhaps more up to date in our culture today, a press secretary.
An apostle was an official representative of Jesus Christ, someone who speaks and acts with Jesus’ own authority. It’s because Paul is an apostle that his 13 letters are included in the Bible, because the writings of apostles were considered inspired by God. We don’t have apostles in this same sense today.
A teacher was someone who systematically instructs people in the truths of God. This threefold calling described all that Paul sought to be and do in his ministry. Now of these three callings, one was unique to Paul (apostle) another only applies to some Christians today (teacher) but another applies to all Christians, that of being a herald. All followers of Jesus are called to be heralds of the good news of Jesus Christ. This is what the rest of the New Testament means when it calls us witnesses to the good news of Jesus. In fact, back in v.8 of this very chapter Paul wrote that we shouldn’t be ashamed to testify about the good news of Jesus Christ. That’s what being a herald of the good news is all about.
So here we find the first way God trusts us in outreach. GOD TRUSTS US TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST WITH OTHERS.
If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, you’ve been subpoenaed to give your testimony. You’re not called to be an expert witness who has all the answers, but simply called to tell what you know. You’ve been subpoenaed to verbally tell people around you how Jesus has changed your life, how Jesus’ death on the cross has brought you forgiveness of your sins, how Jesus’ resurrection has given you hope.
Far too often we’re like a teenager who takes a phone message for a parent. Have many times have you called a friend on the phone, and their teenage son or daughter answers the phone? Even as you’re leaving your message, you’re sure your friend will never hear that message. The kid doesn’t mean to be flaky, but as soon as he or she hangs up, they totally forget the message you left. God trusts us to relay the message.
In v. 12 Paul admits that its because of his calling that he’s suffering. When Paul wrote this letter he was in a Roman prison cell. Shortly after writing this letter, the Roman government would execute Paul for living as a herald, apostle, and teacher of the good news of Christ. The good news of Jesus Christ wasn’t always a popular message.
To the Romans, the good news was a threat because it undermined the worship of the Roman emperor. The early Christians claimed that there was only one true Lord, so it was wrong to call Caesar Lord. Well refusing to call the Emperor Lord was tantamount to treason in the eyes of the Romans.
To many of the Jewish people, the good news was far too radical because it suggested that non-Jewish people could become part of God’s people by simply believing the good news. So Jewish people opposed the Christian message, because they felt like it undermined their status as God’s special people. If you didn’t require circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and dietary laws, the Jewish people of the first century were afraid anyone could become part of God’s people.
To the Greeks, the good news was controversial because it claimed that Jesus rose from the grave. Greek thinkers found this idea absurd because of their belief that the physical body was a prison house to the soul. They felt that the entire idea of a resurrection was ludicrous and laughable.
Yet despite these objections from Romans, Jewish people, and Greeks, Paul was not ashamed of the good news of Christ. This is the second way God trusts us. GOD WANTS US TO BE UNASHAMED OF THE GOOD NEWS EVEN IF IT MEANS SUFFERING FOR IT.
Imagine if Paul had been ashamed when he suffered for his message. Imagine if he compromised with the Romans, and called the Emperor Lord as well as Jesus. Imagine if he compromised with the other Jewish people and insisted that people had to become Jewish as well as Christians to be part of God’s people. Imagine if he compromised with the Greeks and left out the resurrection from his message. Paul wouldn’t be sitting in a Roman prison cell, but he’d have violated God’s trust.
There are times when we’ll suffer because of our belief in the good news of Jesus Christ. It happens to the Christian executive who is overlooked for a promotion because of her faith. It happens Christian high school student who’s given a lower grade because he’s been vocal about his faith in class. It happens to the Christian wife married to a non-Christian husband she’s ridiculed and berated for going to church. And of course outside of our borders followers of Jesus Christ suffer much worse than this for their commitment to the good news of Christ. If we really believe the good news of Jesus Christ is true, God trusts us to be unashamed of it.
Now look again at vv. 13 and 14. Timothy is commanded to keep Paul’s teaching as a standard for what sound teaching is. In other words, Paul’s teaching about the good news of Jesus Christ is a standard by which to judge other teachings. Paul’s teaching is like a ruler Timothy can use to measure other messages, to see if they measure up to the truth. Paul could say this because he was an apostle.
Yet Timothy must hold on to this standard with faith and love. In other words, how Timothy holds on to the standard is just as important as holding on to it. Faith sums up the Christian’s lifestyle toward God, a lifestyle of trust in God. Love sums up the Christian’s lifestyle toward other people: a lifestyle of caring for people. Far too many people hold on to the standard without faith and love, and as a result they become very judgmental, angry, and obnoxious people. They think they’re suffering for their message, but in reality their experiencing the consequences of no faith and love.
In v. 14 Timothy is also told to guard the good deposit entrusted to him. Clearly this refers to the content of the message, the claims contained within the good news. The good news of Jesus is like a treasure that’s been given over to Timothy for safekeeping. One day, when Christ comes again, God will ask Timothy to give an account for how he’s held on to this treasure, whether he’s kept it close to his heart or whether he’s lost it. So Timothy is to guard the message. Yet he can only do this by relying on the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of Timothy and Paul, and who also lives inside every other follower of Jesus Christ.
Here we find the third way God trusts us. GOD TRUSTS US TO PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE GOOD NEWS.
The Bible gives us incredible freedom to be creative in how we communicate God’s message, but the Bible consistently warns us to never change the content of the message. God trusts us to preserve the integrity of his good news, he’s entrusted it to us for us to guard.
Sometimes people compromise the integrity of this message by adding things to it. You can see churches do this all the time, when they get excited and obsessed about other things so much that they stand for that other thing as much or more than they stand for the good news of Christ. It can happen with politics (either on the right or the left), it can happen with Bible prophecy, it can happen with worship styles, or a host of other issues churches get distracted over. Whenever we add anything to the good news of Christ, we dilute the integrity of God’s message, and violate God’s trust.
Other times people compromise the integrity of the message by taking things away from it. Some churches refuse to talk about things like sin and hell because they’re afraid to offending people. When I was a student at Biola University, the school choir was invited to sing at a large church. One of the songs they were to sing was "Amazing Grace" and the church asked the choir to change the word "wretch" to the word "soul." Their reasoning was that "wretch" was too negative, it made people feel bad about themselves, and they didn’t want to offend people. Some churches preach people and their potential instead of Christ and his cross. That dilutes the integrity of the message, and thus violates God’s trust.
God gives us incredible flexibility in how we share his message, but he trusts us to preserve the integrity of his message.
2. How We Trust God
But outreach doesn’t depend totally on us. It’s a partnership of trust, where God trusts us with certain things and where we trust God with certain things. This text also gives us three ways we need to trust God in our outreach.
Look again at v. 12. Paul is persuaded that he knows what God is like. This deep, heartfelt conviction about God’s character leads Paul to trust God to guard what he entrusts to God. Notice the similarity of language with v. 14, that just as God trusts us to guard what he entrusts to us, so also we trust him to guard what we entrust to him. Now Paul doesn’t define exactly what it is that he trusts to God, but in the context I think it must be the results of Paul’s ministry. Paul is probably feeling powerless and alone as he’s locked in a Roman prison cell. As we’ll see later in this letter, Paul knows that he’s not going to get out of jail this time, that his execution is imminent. So he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to guard the results of his ministry, even if Paul dies.
Here we find the first way to trust God. WE TRUST GOD WITH THE RESULTS OF OUR OUTREACH.
Every time we share our faith in Jesus, it’s like planting a seed. Some of those seeds will sprout and grow, and others won’t. So every time we plant a seed, we trust God to bring about a result.
One of my agnostic friends asked me this week why the Christians he knows are so obnoxious and pushing when they talk to him about their faith. My friend’s theory was that Christians are naturally obnoxious. I told him I thought the real reason was that many Christians don’t trust God enough when they share their faith. They think God needs help bringing people to faith in Christ, so rather than simply sharing the good news, they exert pressure to the will, trying to push and prod the person to faith. That’s what the God squad did at Chaffey College nineteen years ago.
God doesn’t trust us for the results, but he calls us to leave the results in his hands. In our 201 Seminar Discovering Spiritual Maturity we define effective outreach as, "Taking the initiative to share the good news of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God." We tend to struggle with leaving the results to him.
That brings us to the two individuals who Paul says abandoned him. In v. 15 he says that everyone in Asia abandoned him, and the ringleaders of this abandonment were these two individuals Phygelus and Hermongenes.
Now we don’t know anything else about these two guys.
But we do know that Paul was an extremely controversial figure among the early Christians. There was a whole conservative wing of the early church who thought Paul was watering down the message of Christ. By refusing to insist on circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and food laws as requirements to please God, Paul developed a reputation for being liberal. I find it likely that these two people were part of that group. By mentioning Phygelus and Hermongenes, Paul in essence releases them to God.
Here we find the second way we trust God. WE TRUST GOD TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE WHO CRITICIZE US FOR OUR OUTREACH.
I guarantee that if you share the good news of Jesus Christ, you’ll be criticized by other Christians. Every church I know that truly makes outreach a priority gets criticized by other Christians. People say, "They’re just telling people what they want to hear, watering down the truth. That’s why people are going there." I had a friend tell me that if a church is growing, that’s an automatic sign that the church is compromising. I thought it was a good thing my friend didn’t live in the first century, when the church was exploding.
When people criticize our church for making outreach a priority, I’m tempted to defend what we do. I’m tempted to persuade them of the biblical basis for what we do. I’m tempted to pour lots of time and energy into justifying our approach to ministry, that we’re totally committed to preserving the integrity of the message, but we want to share it in a creative, relevant way. But when I’m tempted to do that, I’m reminded to trust God to deal with critics. Sure I’ll answer a question if someone asks me, and I’ll talk to an honest inquirer about why we do what we do, but I refuse to get into a debate or an argument about it.
A few years ago I coached a little league team. One of the parents on the team knew I was a pastor, and one day he got really mad at me. In between innings, when I was helping the kids get to their positions on defense, he came out and started yelling at me. He said, "You call yourself a man of God? You call yourself a pastor?" I faced a choice at that point, and the choice I made was to trust God to vindicate my reputation. You see, I wasn’t just involved in little league for my boys to learn to play baseball, but I was also there to share my faith in Jesus Christ, and here was a critic. So I chose to not defend myself, but to let God deal with him.
I can’t change people’s minds, so I trust God to deal with those who hurt or criticize me when I share my faith.
Finally, Paul prays for a guy named Onesiphorus and his family because of the way he’s encouraged Paul. Paul was refreshed by Onesiphorus, and Onesiphorus wasn’t ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment like Phygelus and Hermongenes apparently were. When Paul was arrested, Phygelus and Hermongenes probably said, "See. It serves Paul right. That’s what he gets for his liberal message." But Onesiphorus looked for Paul to visit him, to encourage him, to support him.
Here we find a final area to trust God. WE TRUST GOD TO BLESS THOSE WHO HELP US IN OUR OUTREACH.
The encouragement and refreshment offered by Onesiphorus was just as important a part of Paul’s outreach as Timothy was. So Paul trusts God to bring his blessings into Onesiphorus for his partnership in the ministry.
You’ve heard the saying, "It takes an entire village to raise a child"? Well I have another saying for you: "It takes an entire church to reach unchurched people." We need each other in our efforts to share the good news of Christ. We’re in it together, which is why we see outreach as something we do in our worship as well as something we do when we’re scattered throughout the week.
Conclusion
So outreach really is a partnership of trust between us and God. God trusts us to share the good news of Jesus, to be unashamed of the message when we suffer for it, and to preserve the integrity of the good news. God will help us do those things, but he will not do them for us. He’s trusted you and I to do these things.
But then we trust God with the results of our outreach, to deal with those who criticize us, and to bless those who help us. Those are things we don’t have to get involved in because we can trust him to do these things for us. In fact, when we get involved in the results business, or dealing with critics we inevitably find ourselves in trouble.
How was Paul able to strike this delicate balance so well? It goes back to that phrase in v. 12, "I know in whom I have believed." Paul was utterly persuaded of God’s faithfulness, power and grace. Paul knew that it was impossible to trust God too much.
So rather than encouraging us to all go out and try harder in our outreach this week, I have a different question for you today: Do you know in whom you have believed? I’m not asking if you’re a Christian, but do you know the character of this God you’ve trusted? Do you know his power? Have you experienced his faithfulness? Have you gotten a glimpse of his awesomeness and his glory, his greatness and his majesty? Only the true and living God, the awesome and powerful, majestic God can be trusted in this way.
Only if we know God’s character can we do what he’s trusted us to do and trust him to do what he’s promised to do.
