Be Not Ashamed

I wonder if you know what it feels like to let the side down. And by that I mean you’ve said or you’ve done something that has caused the people around you to want to distance themselves from you, to slowly back away from you and suddenly pretend that they don’t know you. Perhaps you did something embarrassing. Perhaps you opened your mouth and said something stupid, or I hope this isn’t the case, something offensive and people suddenly moved away from you. Or maybe somebody was counting on you to get something done, to do something, and then you failed spectacularly to do it, resulting in disappointment and failure. Our brains have a way of filtering these experiences out, but with a bit of effort, we can bring them back. And that’s a little challenge I gave myself recently to try and think of some times when I have maybe made those around me be ashamed of me, and the first thing that came to mind was golf. Now I don’t pretend to be any kind of golfer at all. I haven’t played many rounds in my life, but it’s something I enjoy doing once or twice a year. And so for the past couple of years, a good friend from here at Calvary has asked me if I want to join him and others to play a foursome for a local fundraising event, and every year I say, okay, I’ll do it. And then every year, without fail, I play terribly. The shots go wide, they go left, they go right, but most of them just go about five yards in front of me across the grass. Now we’re playing best ball. So that’s okay. I get carried by the other members of the team who are way better than I am. And it ultimately doesn’t really matter about my performance too much. But the point is that those guys would have good reason to be ashamed of me and my skills, especially if others are watching. if they weren’t good friends, I would have good reason to be ashamed of my abilities as well. It’s amazes me that I get asked back every year to play. I don’t know why that is. Or how about another example when I was racking my brains? This goes back a few years to where my girls were younger, and we went to the kids sports day at school. I don’t know how it operates here in the US, but in the UK, Sports Day involves a time when the parents are invited to come up and partake in a race. So all the mums get invited up and all the dads get invited up and race against each other. And so when they did the call for the fathers, I thought, here we are, here’s my chance to prove my athletic abilities to my kids, my family, and to everyone watching. So I came up to the start line and the race started, and I actually got off to a pretty good start. I think I was making good progress. I could see the finish line coming towards me, so I increased my speed, genuinely thinking in my mind I could win this thing. Have you ever had it where the top half of your body overtakes the lower half of your body? That’s

exactly what happened to me. I ended up completely falling over. In fact, I rolled and I think I crossed the finish line on my face in fifth place or something like that. So there I was, hoping to prove my athletic ability, and I just ended up making a fool of myself. Now, my family had every good reason to be ashamed of me, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. They found it hilarious and they just laughed at me. And so we just said nothing more and carried on with the day. Now, both of these examples, the people with me had really good reason, I think, to be ashamed of me.

But these are trivial examples. These are really just embarrassing stories. But maybe you’ve had situations in your life or in your family where you yourself, or you know of somebody in your family that really has brought shame upon themselves or upon the family. Maybe there’s an awkward parent, or an aunt, or a sibling who did or said something that was so embarrassing that you just had to get as far away from them as possible. Maybe a family member humiliated themselves and brought disrepute on the family and has now been disowned. Well, this morning we’re going to look and see how Paul, who is writing to encourage Timothy, make the case for Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel. And if I was to summarize Paul’s teaching to Timothy here in our passage today, I would summarize it this way. I would say, far from being ashamed of the person and work of Jesus, be so positively unashamed, bold and confident in the eternal truths of the gospel that you’re willing to suffer for it, knowing that he has chosen, called, and equipped you to do so. And so in our passage this morning, we’ll see Paul lay out his reasons why Timothy should not be ashamed, not ashamed of Jesus, not ashamed of the gospel, and not ashamed of Paul himself as he’s being held captive in prison. And we’ll see how the powerful message of the gospel spurs us on to live for Christ in such a way that we don’t want to hide our faith from others, and we’re going to see how the truths of the gospel message itself give us the strength to endure suffering, and how they equip us to be bold in our sharing of Christ with others.

So if you haven’t done so already, I really encourage you to get out your phone with the Bible or the Bible in front of you and turn to Second Timothy, chapter one, starting at verse eight. And as we heard, just read and it’s on page 995, in the pew Bibles. For those who were here last week, Pastor Kyle kicked off our summer sermon series with a real strong challenge to consider the ways in which we are playing our part to help take

this message of Christ to the next generation, to those who follow after us. He left us with that really great picture. I thought of the stage. The stage where people come and go, where they pay their play, their part to pass on the good news of Christ to others. And we have people up who have been doing this for a seasons, and then they’re getting ready to walk off and others are coming on to stage, ready to serve and and play their part in, in the gospel. And so this is really in the forefront of Paul’s mind. He wants to ensure that the message of the gospel, the message that has been entrusted to him, is passed on to Timothy so it continues to spread and flourish. In the preceding verse, so in verse seven, which was the last verse from from last week, Paul instructs Timothy to not be afraid to not have a spirit of fear. So it would be natural, I think, to assume that he’s going to continue in this language of fear, but he doesn’t do that. There’s good reason for fear with the gospel. There’s fear of opposition. There’s fear of persecution or fear of failure. But he doesn’t do that. He says here in verse eight, therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. Why this change? Why this switch in language from fear to shame. What a fear and shame have to do with each other. Well, I think if we stop and actually think about it, there does seem to be some kind of relationship between fear and shame. When we’re ashamed of something, we tend to be afraid to confront it or to talk about it. More often than not, when we say or do something that is shameful or embarrassing, we’re afraid of what people are going to think of us. But it’s also true if we fear something, we can feel ashamed of those feelings and keep them hidden from others. People who have irrational fears, for example, often feel ashamed of those fears and they keep it to themselves. So these two responses, fear and shame, both have the potential to have the same effect on Timothy and his ministry. They may cause him to abandon it, or at least hinder his boldness in sharing the gospel. In the words of the author Phillip Jensen, shame and fear are first cousins. Our shame makes us afraid of other people, and our fear makes us ashamed in front of other people. And Paul knows this. He knows full well that Timothy has good reasons to be fearful and to be ashamed. Anyone who looked at Paul through worldly eyes would see him as a complete failure. They would have seen his his constant opposition, his arrests, his public beatings, his multiple imprisonments. Paul and the other Christians who were openly and actively proclaiming Christ were seen as fools and failures by most people in the culture around them. The natural response would have been to put distance between yourself and those Christians, to almost disown them, to deny that you knew them. And if

someone made that decision to follow Christ, to become a Christian in that first century, it was not a good career move. Christians were seen as people of defeat. They were seen as people of failure and humiliation, not success or power or glory, and they were at risk of being arrested or beaten, jailed or maybe even executed. And this is at the forefront of Paul’s mind. He knew that the life of a first century Christian would be marked with humiliation and suffering. It was almost inevitable, especially for anyone who was going to publicly share this message in the same way that Paul had been doing.

So what is it that would have the power to combat these feelings of shame and have the power to inspire boldness and courage in the midst of suffering? What fatherly advice is Paul passing on to Timothy at the start of this letter? Well, I believe that we can see four truths about the gospel here in our passage this morning that combat shame. They inspire boldness and courage and help us to endure suffering. And as we’re about to see, it’s not just the gospel itself which has power, it’s the eternal truth of the gospel.

And so the first of these here is that he reminds Timothy that he has been chosen for a holy calling. Let’s pay attention to the way in which Paul lays out the good news here to Timothy. In verse nine he says, God saved us not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. What Paul is laying out here is the grand, overarching, redemptive purpose, and plan of God in Christ. It’s these eternal truths of the gospel, truths that start way before we were born, and they go way on into eternity after we die. And Paul begins with the eternal truth of our calling, determined before our birth. He’s saying, look, we’re not saved because of our works. We’re saved instead because of God’s work, were saved because of his purpose and his grace. Nothing that we’ve done up until this point in our life, and nothing that we will ever do from this day forward until we die, is going to determine the security of our salvation. For many of us here, there was a definitive time in our life when we accepted Christ and committed our life to him. I can remember that time well. For me it happened when I was 18 years old. I can remember the situation, the time and the place and my decision to trust in Jesus at that moment. And I’m sure many of us here in the room today, maybe able to recall a similar time when you made that decision. But even

that moment of salvation was a gift from God. It was granted to us as a gift from him. It was he who opened our eyes to see him afresh and anew. It was he who unblocked our ears to respond to the message. So yes, we played our part, but it was all part of his perfect plan for redemption. And so Paul is bringing this reality back into the forefront of Timothy’s mind, saying to him, this is God’s doing. You didn’t choose God. He chose you. This is a specific plan that God has had for you since before you were born. This goes way further back than that. It goes back before the ages began. And it’s this foundation of our calling and the fact that God has chosen us, that sets up our next truth about the gospel.

We can see. The second truth is that Paul knows, once we grasp this, that we have been chosen and called. It gives us confidence and boldness that God is in control and he knows what he’s doing. Everything that has happened so far in history is part of his plan, and everything that happens from this point forward is part of his plan for us. And this mindset is clear throughout Paul’s writings in the New Testament. In 1 Ephesians he writes, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be a holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Paul is appealing to Timothy here that he has no reason to be ashamed of the good news, because the good news is part of God’s eternal plan. Nothing is going to stop it. It’s the most certain thing in existence. And if we allow this truth to really grip us and get a hold of us, it will result in boldness and certainty and will allow us to withstand anything. If we truly understand that God Himself, the one who made all things and holds us together with all things, has called us and chosen us, and secured our future with him for eternity, it results in confidence and courage that combats those doubts and those fears. And so he continues in verse ten to remind Timothy that this plan has been fully revealed to the world. The word used here in our ESV translation is manifested, which means to bring into existence the power of God has been fully displayed and brought into reality through the appearing of Jesus Christ. The plan has been demonstrated and realized. It’s not just some theory, and the word appearing here is likely referring to two things. Firstly, to the appearing of Jesus into the world. The Son of God became flesh, became one of us. He appeared with us and walked with us and worked out his plan here on earth. But the appearing is also likely referring to Christ’s

appearance after his resurrection. Paul knows that the resurrection is central to the message of the gospel, and unless Christ actually rose from the dead, there is no power in the gospel. But because he did conquer death and he did rise from the dead, and he did appear to people afterwards, many people, 500 or more, the power of God has been clearly demonstrated. It’s been proven and it’s been displayed. The power of God has been manifest in Christ. And this eternal plan, the plan from since before we were born and goes on to the end of eternity, this plan now has an anchor point in time and in space. Paul knows and understands the power of the gospel. He knows from firsthand experience how it’s changed the lives of countless people. But he also knows and understands the opposition that there is out there to the gospel. He’s seen and heard and felt the hate and the anger that has arisen when he’s preached the message of Christ crucified.

These two reactions of the gospel, they go together. They can’t be separated. As Pastor Kyle recently reminded us, we should expect both reactions. We’re simply called to preach the gospel, share the good news clearly and faithfully. And for many, God will use that message to open their eyes and for them to respond to the repentance and the forgiveness in Christ. And they come to trust in him. That’s the power of God at work through the proclamation. But for others, it will lead to a hardening of their hearts as they reject Christ. And in some societies and cultures the good news will, will flourish and will be accepted, and in other cultures it will lead to suffering and persecution. This is why Timothy has to keep the eternal perspective of the gospel in view. For if death has been defeated, what is there to be afraid of? If there really is eternal life and immortality with Christ, then what can come against him? But notice how Paul here frames this in verse 12. What he’s not saying is I know what I have believed. He’s saying, for I know whom I have believed. You see, for Paul, it’s more than just a theory. It’s more than a set of facts or an idea or a concept. He’s trusting in a person, and this is what gives the message its power. It’s rooted in the person of Christ. God’s purpose and plan, yes, was worked out through Christ’s life and death and resurrection, but that same power is also at work in the proclamation, the good news itself, the announcement. It has power. And this is this is so important, I think, for us to understand and see that when we’re sharing the good news with a with a family member or a friend or a colleague, there is power in the good news. That’s how God brings people out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of

light. It’s how they’re saved through this power in the proclamation. And this is why Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

I think it’s fairly safe to say that not many of us have been faced with persecution and with suffering, certainly not in the way that Paul did. Most of us here have been blessed to live in a culture that, up until now at least, has been relatively accepting of Christianity. That may well be changing, as I think we can probably sense in our culture and we don’t know how things are going to look in the future. But not many of us here have suffered in the way that Paul suffered for the gospel. And yet there is a very real cost to living as a Christian in the world today that leads to a form of suffering.

As we stand up for the importance of the Bible, we may encounter opposition as we promote a biblical view of marriage. We may receive slander and abuse. As we defend God’s design for gender and for sexuality some may lose their jobs. As we tell a proud, rebellious, self-centered world that it’s in need of a Savior, we may receive anger and retaliation. And so the temptation for us is to feel ashamed of some of these aspects of the good news. It’s a very real temptation. And the reality is, I think most of us could agree that we just want to keep things simple and safe. We want to avoid suffering and persecution. But because Christ himself suffered and he is our head, we also will suffer. The Apostle Peter understood this when he wrote in 1 Peter chapter four. He wrote, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you’re insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. It’s this union with Christ that sustains us in times of suffering. Knowing that Christ understands our pain and our despair gives us comfort. Knowing that he’s working out the situation for his good purposes and for his glory that sustains us. And this is what it means to share in suffering. Many here today in this room will know from first hand experience that there is a sweet union with Christ that comes during times of trial, knowing that he understands our despair and our sorrow and our desperation. And even if we don’t encounter the kind of suffering that comes through persecution, we are going to endure other forms of suffering living in this broken world.

It’s a reality that we have to deal with things like relational breakdowns, disease, sickness, struggles, disappointments, depression, loss, death, and sadness. But for all these sufferings that we encounter in life, these same eternal truths of the gospel, they remain the same. We’re chosen. Were called death has been conquered and we we look forward to everlasting life with Christ. Our perspective is recalibrated when we fix our eyes upon Christ and the overarching plan of God that stands above our our short lifespan here on earth. A few years ago, I was asked to look after a cello by a fellow musician. I was working as a music director at a conference centre in the UK, and I had an office that was full of musical instruments, and people would come and go to borrow these instruments. My office was open most of the time.This lady who was at the conference center for the week wanted somewhere so she could leave her cello during the day and then just occasionally come and get it to practice with. And so I offered my office as a place for to keep it. And she accepted. And as she came to drop it off on that first morning, she asked me if I could guess how much it was worth. Now, I know cellos are expensive, and so I came in a little conservatively. I said, well, maybe 5 or £10,000, which I think is about 8 to $12,000. And she smiled and looked at me and she said, no, it’s about £180,000, which is $230,000. That was the value of her instrument. So as soon as I realized that, my whole attitude changed. I still said, yeah, I’ll keep this for you. But I made sure that office was locked and protected and no one else was going to go in there apart from me and her. You know, being entrusted with something valuable by someone is a is a huge responsibility. It requires us to be careful and vigilant and guard against damage or theft.

And this brings us to our fourth truth of the gospel. This powerful proclamation of the good news that transforms lives is deposited in us. It’s been entrusted to us. When we believe the message, we carry the message we’re entrusted with that message. But you might be wondering, as we’ve read this passage this morning, is Paul referring to the deposit being our own personal salvation, or is he referring to this deposit about the ministry, the work that we are called to do? And I think there’s a really good case to say. It’s both of those things. There’s a good case to say that Paul is referring to his own personal salvation, because his salvation was not his own idea and was not something he achieved by his own good works or merit. God will guard it. It belongs to God because Christ has fully demonstrated the power of God unto salvation. He need not

worry about losing it. God is trustworthy as far as his salvation goes. But there’s an equally good case, I think, to be made, that he’s also referring to the message itself, the actual gospel message, the ministry that he’s been involved in. That God will guard and entrust that as well. And we here today are a fruit of that early ministry that was passed on through century after century. This is Paul’s holy calling, as he says. Paul knows that his life, from the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus until now, as he’s in prison, has been dedicated to this message. He’s preached it and he’s lived it out in his life. He’s commending Timothy to follow his teachings. He has full confidence and assurance that he has preached nothing but Christ and Christ alone. He’s boasted in nothing apart from the cross of Christ, and so he’s able to point Timothy to his own life and his own teachings as a reliable source of truth, to be lived out and to be passed on to others. He’s able to say to Timothy, look, follow my example. Follow me in the ways that I have shown myself not to be ashamed of the gospel. Follow me in the ways that I have endured hardships and sufferings and trials.

And so this passage ends with a plea to guard and protect what has been entrusted to him, which at first glance might seem to contradict what Paul said in verse 12. In that verse Paul wrote, I am convinced that he that is Jesus is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. But then in verse 14, he writes by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. And although it might appear that there is some contradiction between these two verses, it’s more about cooperation I think. You see, there is an element of mystery here about how this works. God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us and to guide us. The Holy Spirit illuminates the Word of God. He equips us for each and every good work. Jesus guards everything and keeps all that he has given to us. And yet there is also a part that we have to play. We don’t just sit back and expect God to take care of everything, to look after everything for us. We have to actively guard the good deposit. But the key here is that the guarding work that we have to do is done in, and it’s done through the power of the Holy Spirit, not in our own strength and power.

So what does it look like for us to guard our own good deposits? If I look around this room, there are many good deposits that have been placed in you. And how do we guard what has been entrusted to us? Well, I think it’s about keeping ourselves regularly in

God’s Word. It’s the word that the spirit uses to teach us, to correct us and keep us abiding in him. It’s meeting often with other believers, as we’re doing right now, to worship and to pray together. It’s taking action during the week to resist temptation and flee from things that would lead us astray. It’s refusing to allow the path that the world would have us on with its own greeds and needs and desires, ignoring the needs of those around us. It’s treasuring Christ, continually reflecting on his beauty and his majesty and his glory. And I think it’s what Paul is doing here in thisletter to Timothy. It’s it’s keeping the overarching perspective of the gospel in view all of the time.

So as we draw to a close here this morning, I want to leave you with this challenge. Have these eternal gospel truths gone deep down into you? Has the truth of what God did before you were born and what he’s promised to give you after you die broken into your life here on earth? Is it real to you? Do you believe it? Do you know the deep down joy of knowing that in Christ you have been chosen and called and saved to an eternal life with him? Can you see that God gave you grace in Jesus since before the ages began? Can you see that your salvation was his idea, and that he brought about the circumstances in your life for you to come to a knowledge of him? And can you see that he will hold you fast until the very end? Is it a reality in your life that he has equipped you for this holy calling to live out your new life in him in such a way that it points him to others that he’s entrusted you with the gospel. It’s a treasure greater than anything here on earth, and that you’re able to take that message of hope to those who are living in darkness. And when suffering comes, do the trials push you further into God, or do they pull you further away from him? Do you know that if you’re in Christ, these sufferings have a redemptive purpose? In his wisdom, God has decided to display the power of the gospel through weak vessels so that his light might shine through us and continue to bring others into the kingdom from generation to generation. So, church, let’s not be ashamed of the gospel, but instead be bold and courageous, commending Christ from generation to generation. Let’s pray.