2 Timothy 4:1-5
Let us hear from God’s word together.
Second Timothy chapter four verses one through five. The apostle
Paul says to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and
of Christ Jesus, who is the judge, who is to judge the living and
the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word,
be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and
exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is
coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching
ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their
own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and
wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded,
endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry. Pray with me. Our Lord and God,
we come before you. We come before you as your people
expecting, expecting to hear from you. May the words of my
mouth, the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight.
May it be of comfort and strength and edification to the souls
of those who are within the sound of your voice as your word is
read and preached. Give us your spirit so that we
can we can hear, that we can see, that we can understand,
and most of all, that we might believe. We ask all this in the
name of Jesus Christ. Amen. A number of years ago when I
was a pastor in Greensboro, there was a group of ladies that all
lived together in a retirement village. And so about once a
month, a group of us from the pastoral staff, usually myself
and a couple of our pastoral interns, we would set a date
with these ladies and we would show up over at their place of
residence and they would have tea and cookies and coffee and
all sorts of things. And this one lady, Nancy, was
sort of the ringleader. She was the ringleader and would
set this up. When we would all sit down together,
here we were as pastors and interns, kind of the leaders of the church,
and she took right over that meeting. And one time in particular,
she wanted to get to know me. I was the new pastor at the time,
and she wanted to know how I was called to ministry. Well, I thought
this was the perfect opportunity to retell a story that I heard
from someone else about their call to the ministry. Back in
the days when your parents might go out on a date, you would stay
at home sometimes, and parents would leave their marching orders.
And they would say, don’t let anybody in the house, don’t answer
the telephone, don’t turn the stove on, don’t burn the house
down, don’t let anybody in, all those good things. Well, there
was always the don’t watch the TV rule. And back in the days,
you would get the itch, you would turn the TV on, and you would
get lost in wonder. be lost in the story and the
narrative on the television screen. Well, one particular time I told
these ladies, mom and dad went out. They said, don’t turn on
the TV. We turned it on. We watched and we heard them coming home
and we turned the TV off. Now you remember those old TVs
when you turned it off, the screen slowly went away and his mom
and dad were coming in the door. We prayed, Lord, if you get rid
of that white dot, we’ll become missionaries and preachers. So
I told that story. This was someone else’s story.
I told this to the ladies and they were mesmerized. And I said,
no, that’s really, really not how it happened. But it was a
good one. They fell for it, at least for
a little while. But the calling to gospel ministry,
the calling to preach the word, the calling to be a minister
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a serious and high
calling. It’s a wonderful call. to proclaim
as a herald for the King of Kings, his good news, his word, his
will, and his salvation. And the Apostle Paul in our passage
today from 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5, is in
a real sense writing his last words to Timothy. Now, we just
finished studying Paul’s letter to Titus. And if you look at
the chronological order of Paul’s letters, first Timothy, Titus
and second Timothy are Paul’s last letters. We believe that
sometime after his letter to Timothy, the second one, he was
arrested. He was sent to trial. He speaks
of it at the end of his letter. And then he was put to death
by Roman execution. We believe the apostle Paul was
trying to make his way all the way as far west as Spain. And
we don’t know how far he was able to go. But in his last letter,
in his last words that we have recorded in Second Timothy, he
is writing a word. He is writing a charge, a solemn
charge. He says in verse one, I charge
you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
the living and the dead. and by his appearing in kingdom.
He is speaking to Timothy about accountability. He is speaking
to Timothy about urgency. He is speaking to Timothy about
the one for whom he speaks. And he gives two main headings
in this passage. One is preach the word. We find
it at the beginning of verse two. And then in verse five,
Fulfill your ministry. And I want us to look at the
means of grace, the preaching of the word of God under these
two headings, preach the word and fulfill your ministry. First of all, preach the word.
We see in verse two, preach the word, be ready, reprove, rebuke,
exhort. with complete patience and teaching
for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching
but will have itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn away from
listening to the truth. Preach the word. The Apostle
Paul is giving a solemn charge. He’s not giving advice. He’s
not giving a few tips on how to win friends and influence
people. He is telling It’s his last words. Does he know it? We are not sure,
but he’s writing as if it’s his last letter to young Timothy,
the pastor at the Church of Ephesus. And he says to him, preach the
word. Don’t preach opinion. Don’t preach
politics. Don’t preach popular culture.
Don’t preach whatever wind of doctrine has arisen in the world
around you. Preach the word. Dear brothers and sisters of
the Lord Jesus Christ, as members of a reformed congregation, as
members of the Protestant church that loves and revels in and
is thankful for our Reformation heritage, where the empty rituals,
the empty services of pre-Reformation times were eradicated and were
reformed and reshaped, we remember well that the pulpit, which in
some cases did not exist, it was brought front and center
into the congregation because of commands like, pause to Timothy
here, preach the word. In this couple of verses, these
few verses, one through five, simply in two verses, really
in verses two through five, you have nine imperatives. Now you
moms know what imperatives are. It’s when you tell your children,
do something. Eat, clean up, pick up, come
home. It’s a command. It’s a do word. And so in just five short verses,
mainly, though, these imperatives are found in verses two and five.
We have nine imperatives. Don’t you think the Apostle Paul
wants Timothy to get it, to get it, to understand this is what
you must do. Preach the word. You need to,
Timothy, as a minister of God’s gospel of grace, you need to
take what is written because God has spoken and you need to
convey that to the world. You need to pass those words
along to the church, not pipe psychology. Not statistics, not
funny stories, not humor, not pop culture, not politics, not
every other topic under the sun, which sadly in many American
pulpits is what you get today. Preach the word. And he goes on with the second
imperative and says, be ready. Be on duty. Take your stand,
be ready in season and out of season. You know, dear brothers
and sisters of Christ, it is not popular to preach the word. It is not well received. It is
not well respected. And the apostle Paul here is
saying, preach the word in season and out of season. And he’s saying
that in the context of the Greco Roman culture, where oratory
was a popular practice. And sometimes it was appropriate
according to their customs to speak. Other times it was not
appropriate to speak. You withheld your words in some
seasons and you gave forth your words in others. And the Apostle
Paul is taking that that culturalism of Timothy’s day. And he’s saying
it will never be popular, but you preach the word. It will
never be well received in some cases, but you preach the word. Others will have itching ears
for certain things other than the word, but you preach the
word. You preach the word, you be ready
in season and out of season. And then he gives a couple of
more imperatives. Not only does he say preach the
word, not only does he say be ready, but he says reprove, rebuke
and exhort with complete patience and teaching. You see, the ministry
of the word is one where we reprove, we persuade, we give evidence. We give evidence in attempt by
words, but also knowing the spirit must work to compel people unto
salvation. To compel people unto obedience,
to move people from complacency, to have a heart full of fervor
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Preach the word, be ready. Reprove. Rebuke. Rebuke is kind of a sharp
word. You know, sometimes when we’re
grouchy, we reprove somebody. My kids with air conditioning
season, they know now daddy’s going to be grouchy about keeping
the door shut. You know, don’t let the, what do we say? Don’t
let the bottom air out. And sometimes we’re sharp and
he’s not meaning that. You know, sometimes we’re edgy,
we’re touchy and we give a sharp word to somebody. No, he’s speaking
of a positive rebuke, a sharp word that awakens someone out
of their stupor and so that they will stop dead in their tracks
and say, what I’m doing is wrong and I must turn and do that which
is right. Preach the word, be ready, reprove,
rebuke. Exhort or encourage. We encourage one another in the
faith, you know, sometimes with a week gone by since we’ve been
in the house of God, maybe by middle of the week, we’ve suffered
something. By middle of the week, we’ve
endured something. By middle of the week, all hell
has broken loose in our house and we need to be exhorted. Remember
God. Remember God is faithful. Remember
his past actions, his present actions and his future promises.
And so reproving or compelling is appropriate. Rebuking sharply
is important, but sometimes we just need to be exhorted or encouraged
or urged. And what is the way a minister
preaches the word? What is the way about which he
reproves or rebukes or exhorts? Well, we find it at the end of
verse two with complete patience and teaching. Remember our little
passage in Titus in chapter three, we looked at it over the Easter
weekends. Remember, you too once were foolish, disobedient, led
astray. You were following the passions
of this world and on and on it went. In Christian ministry,
sometimes we have in our minds this ideal. We want people here
when they’re down here. And to get from here to here
is a stage, it’s a process. It’s a process we call sanctification
and growth. And sometimes as ministers, we
beat our heads against the wall saying, how can I get people
from here to here when they won’t come or they won’t listen or
they love what they are complacent in? And Paul says to Timothy,
you preach the word with complete patience, with long suffering,
he says. and teaching, you keep at it,
you stick to it, you be ready. Don’t let these sorts of things
get you down. He says in verse three, where
there will be a time coming. There’s a day coming when people
will not endure sound teaching. Remember in Titus, and he’s dealing
with a similar thing to Timothy, there were false teachers, there
were heretics, there were divisions in the church. And so in some
real sense, there was already a day in the churches on Crete
and the churches in Ephesus where Timothy was, where people were
not enduring sound teaching. They had gathered for themselves
other teachers, because their itching ears did not want to
hear the word preached. They wanted curiosities. They
wanted bunny trails and rabbit trails, and they wanted this
curiosity and this little thing, myths, genealogies, whatever.
They wanted these things taught. And you know how it is. You’ve
been in church a good bit of your life, I’m sure. You’ve seen
how the church can faction apart, it can divide up. And we go to
the trough, where we like the food the best. And we go to the
trough that teaches cheap grace. We go to the trough that doesn’t
confront our sins. We go to the trough and we feed
from the trough that says, you’re OK, just the way you are. And God is saying here, preach
the word, reprove, rebuke and exhort. And you may be preaching,
he says, to a church in Ephesus where people’s ears are itching. Isn’t that a wonderful word picture? Their ears are itching and they
want curiosities, not godliness. They want myths and genealogies,
not the sound word of God. And he says they will accumulate
for themselves teachers. to suit their own passions, and
they will turn away from listening to the truth. Dear brothers and
sisters, the command, the call to preachers is to preach the
word, not to wander off into curiosities, not to wander off
into pop psychology, not to wander off into politics and other things
as interesting as they are. The job of the minister is to
preach the word. Remember, in Ephesians, chapter
four, when the apostle Paul, in another context, in another
season of his life, he is proclaiming the wonders of Christ. And in
chapter four of Ephesians, he speaks of when Christ ascended
from earth back into heaven after having won the victory on the
cross. And when he speaks of Christ’s ascension, he reminds
us of the Old Testament picture of a king returning from war. And you can imagine maybe you’ve
watched some medieval type movies and you’ve seen the king returning
from war with his wagons and his soldiers. They’re tired,
they’re sweaty, but they’re victorious. And the people line the streets
and they say, long live King so and so. He’s defeated the
Germans or the French or the Moors or whatever. And the people,
as they line the streets and cheer for their king, they give
gifts. They give their money, their gold, their artifacts.
Well, the apostle Paul takes that Old Testament imagery and
he translates it. He makes a new meaning out of
it. And he says, when Christ ascended
from earth to heaven, he walked the road, if you will, from earth
back to heaven, proclaiming victory to the world over sin and death
and darkness. It says Jesus gave gifts. He did not receive gifts, but
he gave gifts. And this wonderful spiritual
picture that we have in Ephesians chapter four says that Jesus
gave gifts to his church. And one of those gifts that he
gave to his church was preachers. To preach the word, to rebuke
and to reprove and to exhort, to have complete patience and
teaching and to even minister through hardship where when people
have their itching ears and as they gather teachers for themselves,
he continues on proclaiming the word of God. You know, it is
very easy. It is very easy as a minister
to want to be popular. And you can gather a people.
And you can say all kinds of things that are not the word
of God and people will love you. They will come by the thousands
to your church. You will have a brand name. You
will write books. You will be an internet sensation.
People will drive across the country and from around the world
to hear the sound of your voice. But if you are not preaching
the word, if you are not proclaiming the excellencies of God and Christ,
then you have become a leader. showing people how to wander
off into myths and away from the truth. And so dear brothers
and sisters, we have a sacred trust as a church of the living
God to make sure that whatever happens inside our doors, under
our roof, on our campus here in Burlington, North Carolina,
that whatever else the world is doing, we preach the word
in season and out of season. But there’s a second thing the
apostle teaches Timothy about his ministry. And I use the very
last words of verse five, where he says, fulfill your ministry. He says, as for you always be
sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry. These last four imperatives are
added to preach the word, are added to be ready, are added
to reprove, added to rebuke, are added to exhort. And he says,
be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry. Don’t you think those words rang
into Timothy’s ears? Even as an old man, as an old
minister, fulfill your ministry. Do you know how many times ministers
of the gospel wake up on Monday morning with what we call in
ministry, the Monday morning blues. And they’re thinking about
selling insurance. They’re thinking about going
into construction. They’re thinking about selling cars. They’re thinking
about doing something other than preaching the word. Because very
often preaching the word is done out of season. Preaching the
word is done under unpopular circumstances. Preaching the
word is often done in not so much glory and joy, You know,
most often the word as it is preached and proclaimed, it is
affecting people. And sometimes it’s affecting
people in such a negative way that they’ll come and let you
know it. And they’re not really mad at you, the preacher, they’re
mad at Christ. But we are filling up what is
lacking in Christ’s sufferings. And so, so often many ministers
lose sight of their task. And so I can imagine as a minister
of the gospel, these are great and gracious and encouraging
words for young Timothy. Be sober minded. Be vigilant. Keep your head, Timothy. It’s
going to be hard. And maybe deep down in the apostle
Paul’s mind and heart, he knows, and I’m not going to be here
to write another letter to you. We’re not going to winter together
in a certain city and encourage one another. But you keep on. You keep on preaching the word. You be sober-minded. You pursue
a course. You plan your preaching. You
plan your ministry. You be diligent about it. You
do not get off the beaten path. Be sober-minded, he says. Endure
suffering. Ministry’s hard. Life is hard.
Raising children is hard. Working out in the marketplace
is hard. And this could be a word to all of us, but particularly
to ministers, he says, endure suffering. And then thirdly,
he says in verse five, do the work of an evangelist. Timothy is preaching in Ephesus.
It’s a dark culture, a dying culture, a sick culture, a twisted
culture. Do the work of an evangelist.
There’s an urgency. If you get nine imperatives,
not just nine Times told to do the same thing, you know, come
in and eat, it’s time to eat. You know, your mom hollers up the
stairs, come and eat. I’ve told you eight times, here’s the ninth.
It’s not that. These are nine different imperatives. And so
can’t you feel the urgency in the apostle Paul? Preach the
word, be ready, exhort, rebuke. Reprove, be sober minded, endure
suffering, do the work of an evangelist. Friends, there are
lost people. I’ve been reading recently about
Some thought, and I think it’s good thought, but ministers,
while it’s good that they labor in their own congregation, they
need to go out in the community and be evangelists. There’s a
church here in Burlington that in the 1920s and 1930s, out of
that one church were formed other congregations. And it was because
that minister did not go home and eat his Sunday lunch and
get fat on turkey and fall asleep in his easy chair. He, every
single Sunday, went out into a new part of the community and
he preached the word until a new church was established. And he
did that over and over and over until several churches, which
I believe many of them still exist to this day, because he
preached the word and he did the work of an evangelist. A
couple of weeks ago, I met a man in our denomination who preaches
at his one rural church in the morning. And after Sunday lunch,
his family gets in the car, drives 70 miles to a major city in his
state, and he preaches the word. He does the work of an evangelist,
70 miles away on Sunday evenings, and his hope is to build up a
church, a witness for Christ in that city. There’s an urgency. It’s a dark world that needs
the gospel. And the last imperative, fulfill
your ministry. Don’t quit. There’s work to be
done. Now, you know, in other places,
if you read 1 Timothy, the apostle Paul has to tell Timothy, don’t
be timid. He has to tell Timothy, fan into flame the gift, the
gift of preaching that you have been given when hands were laid
upon you. You see friends, we have to work
at our ministries. As ministers, we have to sharpen
ourselves. We have to study. We have to have time. We have
to rest. We have to have energy to do the work of the ministry.
And the apostle Paul in these last words is reminding. He’s reminding Timothy as a minister
of these things, preach the word, fulfill your ministry. And y’all
probably think you’re getting off the hook today. This is all
a sermon about ministers. Let me ask you a question though.
What kind of listener are you? Preach the word. Reprove, rebuke,
exhort. Be sub reminded, endure suffering,
do the work of the evangelist, fulfill your ministry. What kind
of listeners are you though? Do you, when the word of God
is read, do you have a sense of holy fear in you? This is
the word of God. This is as if God himself is
showing up and saying, this is my will for my people. You listen to the word preached
as if God himself is speaking, you know, Paul in another place
and second Thessalonians says he’s thankful for the Thessalonians.
For when they heard the word of God, when they heard the sound
of preaching, they did not take it as the word of men, but they
received it as what it really is, the very word of God. Do
you know that when the word of God is faithfully read and preached,
not unfaithfully, you understand that, but when it is faithfully
read and preached, it is God himself speaking. How many of you would do your
best to get here? If we sent out an email, if we
put on Facebook, if we plastered it on the marquee, we put an
ad in the Times News, we posted it on Google, Jesus will be here
on Sunday, April 29th. This place would be full. You
come early, you get a seat. Others would visit. Well, let
me tell you something, friends. In Christ Jesus, when the Lord
Jesus ascended on high and he gave gifts to his church, he
gave preachers who speak for Christ. And so Christ, in a real
and spiritual way, is here every Sunday. What kind of listeners
are we? Do we expect Jesus to speak?
Do we expect him to rebuke us and to reprove us and to exhort
us? Do we expect when the word of God is faithfully preached
that Jesus has got a divine appointment and he showed up? How about you? What kind of listener are you? You see, dear friends, we can
only grow insofar as we listen. And we can only listen well when
we understand the realities of preaching the word. So let me
leave you with that today. What kind of listener are you? Pray with me. Our Lord and God,
we thank you so much with all our hearts that you have not
left yourself in this world without witness. but you have by your
wonderful wise plan and providence, you have put your words down
on the pages, pages that we can read. You have put your words
into the hearts of preachers that they might proclaim as heralds
of you, the great King would help us to hear where we have
so many resources at our disposal. We have study Bibles and podcast
and sermon tapes and CDs and sermon audio. We have, multiple
opportunities on Sunday to hear of your word. Lord, help us to
see and to value it. And we do pray also, Lord, with
all our hearts that preachers around the world would preach
the word. And that as your word is preached
and as your spirit works, that lives and hearts would be changed
and that your name would be made famous to the ends of the earth,
that your kingdom would be advanced, that your glory would fill the
whole earth and that culture and society would be a better
place because it is full of your children. The offspring of Abraham,
who promised, was promised long ago that his children would be
a blessing to the world. Lord, this is no small thing.
And so help us. Hear us as we pray in Christ’s
name. Amen.