Teach the Truth

It is essential that every believer must trust the truth, teach the truth, and expect transfer of the truth, despite, and because of, suffering. This is how we serve The Next Generation.

Well. Good morning. Good to be with you all today. Imagine with me a little if you will, let me set the scene. Imagine a small, modest kitchen, green walls, pots and pans around small kitchen appliances. In the foreground, there’s an adult woman standing, and she’s peeling potatoes. And then here in the back corner of the kitchen, there’s an older man cutting vegetables. They’re obviously getting dinner ready, you see. And while he’s cutting the vegetables, the woman says, “Dad, how’d you like that gift I got you for your birthday?” And he said, “oh, it works great.” And she said, “well, how are you doing with the with the apps on it?” And he said, “What’s an app?” He walks forward, takes his big kitchen knife, scrapes off the cutting board and gets the vegetables into the bowl next to where she was working. He goes around her with the cutting board, rinses it off in the sink, then opens the dishwasher, places it inside, closes it back up because he’s ready to, of course, wash it. And when he looks at his daughter, she’s looking at him dumbfounded because he was using an iPad as a cutting board. It’s the dishwasher that gets you right. Here’s the thing. When it comes to gift giving, I would argue that one of the measures of whether or not a gift is good is whether the person receiving it can actually enjoy it, can actually use it, can actually use it in the way it was intended to be enjoyed. That’s probably the main measure of whether or not something is a good gift. And I think as a gift receiver, we want to be the kind of people who use a gift the way it was intended. We want to honor the gift giver in that way, or at least we should. And this is an idea I want to explore with you today a little bit as we continue forward in our 2 Timothy series, because everyone who calls on the name of Jesus must know that the gospel is a gift that isn’t to be kept secret. It’s a gift that’s meant to be given to others. And so, here’s our big idea that we’re going to be pursuing together today.

Every believer must trust the truth, teach the truth, and expect transfer of the truth. We’re in this series called The Next Generation, where we’re going to look at how faith is sort of transferred from one generation to the next. And today’s passage, does some work in really helping us understand what this letter is trying to accomplish with that theme. As we walk through it, verse by verse together, you’re going to see a few key things come out okay. First is that there are four key imperatives that Paul is going to give to Timothy here. Here are some things you need to do, Brother Timothy. There’s going to be a pattern for discipleship. That trust, teach, transfer pattern is going to be there, and it’s supported by a series of metaphors. Paul does this sometimes he kind of goes all over the place, but he’s making a point. And then the third thing that you’ll see as we walk through this together is a pattern of discipleship where suffering for a greater purpose is a key part of what it means to follow Jesus.

So, let’s go ahead and look at verse one together. And I was pointed out to me that I have the total wrong address on my slides today. It’s 2 Timothy 2:1-7. So, if you’re following along, sorry, messed that up. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. This is very interesting language here because Paul is not Timothy’s actual father, right? Paul is using familial language for a couple of reasons. He’s trying to create a sense of familial closeness with Timothy. They were very good friends, obviously. He’s also, I think, trying to carry a little bit of fatherly weight with his words, as it were. Timothy, you should listen to me. I’m your father and I know best. Basically, it’s sort of that kind of a metaphor, but I think it’s not without consideration here, what Paul is about to ask Timothy to do. He refers to him as a child. And what he’s basically saying is, see, Timothy, just like how I’m not actually your dad, but I’ve taken on a father’s sort of responsibility towards you, I want you to do the same with others. I’m modeling this to you, even in the way that I address you in my letter.

The first imperative then he gives him is be strengthened. You, then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now, as we consider what this means, we have to remember sort of the historical context in which Paul is writing to Timothy. You see, there’s real persecution and therefore real suffering happening to Timothy and his fellow Christians at this time and in this place. And so, what Paul is inviting Timothy to do is he’s saying, look to the example of Jesus. Jesus, too, was persecuted despite having done nothing wrong. Jesus too was mocked and betrayed. Jesus too faced death. But because of that, you can look at Jesus as inspiration of how to face a dangerous, oppressive situation. Timothy can be strengthened by the example of Jesus. But there’s a second piece here, right? He says specifically, he should be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And of course, that connects us back to our gift idea that we’ve been talking about. Because that’s what grace is. Grace is a gift that God gives to his people. And what grace is right is it’s a gift that’s given to encourage and strengthen people’s faith. That’s what it’s there for. Well, it’s not the only reason it’s there, but the gift of grace is meant to be an encouragement, and it’s meant to be an anchor to people when circumstances are hard. Basically, no matter what happens, no matter what you’re facing, God’s grace is bigger. And so what Paul is getting at here is that the circumstances for a follower of Jesus are entirely irrelevant. Grace, God’s unmerited favor given to his people, can overcome and endure any heartache, any loss, any grief, any death, any financial ruin, any tarnished reputation, any betrayal, any failure. God’s grace is greater than all of those things in Christ Jesus. And what grace does for us is it gives us hope. If we are anchored in grace, if we understand the love that God has offered to us, we can always have hope in all circumstances, in all situations. My guess is that you’ve experienced the opposite before. My guess is you’ve observed people who have put their hope in something other than the grace of Jesus. The most profound experience I ever had with that was a funeral that I had to do as a young pastor. It was a single mom who had lost her 24-year-old son. It was a pretty rough situation. And while every funeral, of course, has grief and loss. This one hit different. And on reflection, what I realized is the reason why is because the source of her hope, that mom’s hope was lying in the casket. And at that moment, she had nothing left because her hope wasn’t in the grace of Jesus. It was in her son. So we have to focus on the grace of Jesus. No matter our circumstances. We need to trust the truth to spite our circumstances. And this news is incredible. Like the fact that we can endure anything is really good news. And that really good news requires a response.

And that’s what we get to in verse 2. And what you have heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Now what you have heard from me is an interesting phrase to point out the kind of discipleship relationship Paul and Timothy had. This isn’t just like, hey, remember that one time I was preaching on the street corner and you heard me talk about Jesus? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. No, no, no, this implies a much deeper relationship between Paul and Timothy, right? This is this is more than just a one-time proclamation of the gospel. This is a relationship where the gospel was discussed and considered over and over and over again, where questions were asked and answered. And the context here is clearly not that Paul was just giving Timothy advice about fishing or something lesser. This is about the teachings of Jesus. But Paul also points out that it isn’t just him talking about it. It’s a great crowd of witnesses to who Jesus was and what Jesus had done, who were all speaking into Timothy. There was a community around him. One of the errors I think we sometimes make in American Christianity is we think that discipleship is a top-down endeavor, because so often in our workplaces, that’s how it works. The more powerful person sort of speaks into the less powerful person. And while obviously that’s somewhat true here, Paul is older than Timothy. He’s more mature in Christ than Timothy. He’s been following Jesus longer. What this great crowd of witnesses helps us to understand is that discipleship is a community activity. I would argue that while Paul certainly did disciple Timothy, Timothy also was discipling Paul and the community was discipling each other. That’s how it’s designed to work. We don’t just get discipled by one person, other than Jesus, but we do these things in community. That’s what’s so essential. It’s gospel based friendship. It’s spurring one another on to love and good works. And this is why we want this for every person here, every one of us should have that kind of gospel based friendship. That’s why we push small groups pretty hard around here. And if you need a group, I’m your guy. Come talk to me. Let’s figure it out. We want to help you find a spot.

So then we moved to the second imperative. He says entrust to faithful men. That’s what Paul says to Timothy. Now, just to get this one out of the way in this verse, men actually means mankind. This is not just for pastors and elders or something like that. This is for people entrust to faithful people. The word entrust, the key point here is, that we need to give, yes, but more than give. We need to give with expectation. Entrusting is giving with expectation. We all have the same idea with giving regular gifts, right? To return to our earlier metaphor. If I give someone a sweatshirt because I really think they’ll like it.  I give it to them, hoping that they will enjoy that gift. And then let’s say a few months later, I go visit them and I happen to see in their closet that same sweatshirt with the tag still on, not having ever been worn. It’s that’s disappointing, right? Because when we give a gift, we hope and expect that it’s helpful, that it’s useful, that it will be enjoyed. And it’s disappointing when it’s not. And some of you are like mental note don’t invite Brian over, he looks in people’s closets. Fine. I understand that was hypothetical. Okay, that was hypothetical.  But as much as we like to give a gift so it can be enjoyed, certain kinds of gifts need to be understood differently. The gift isn’t really enjoyed unless it’s shared. And I think that’s true of the gospel. Let me give you a better parallel. Maybe a friend of mine. His name is Frank. Frank works for a foundation. His job is basically he receives money from a very successful company. They put it into this foundation, and his mandate is to spend that money on Kingdom advancing opportunities anywhere in the world. That’s his job. So he assesses what those opportunities might be, determines which ones are the greatest, and gives them money to accomplish them. Pretty cool job. Frank loves his job. He’s good at it. It would be a complete violation of his job description for him to collect the money and not give it away. That’s not how that’s supposed to work. That would be a betrayal. So, we’ve been given this good news. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you’ve been given this gospel message and you can’t hide it away in a closet. You need to live in it and use it, yes, but it’s further than that, if it’s entrusted to us, it’s given to us with expectation. And the expectation is that you proclaim it, that you share it, that you disciple others, teach others, speak the truth of who Jesus is. And so, it says, these faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So who are the others? Well, the others, I would argue, fall into two camps. There’s the spiritual next generation, those who haven’t heard about Jesus yet, but will. That’s the next generation, spiritual next generation, and the familial next generation. Like, you know, the little ones that need to hear the truth of who God is. It’s both of those things wrapped up in here. Now, let’s just make sure we’re very clear altogether. As we’re doing this series and talking about the next generation, we are not only talking to parents who have kids in the home. You all understand that, right? Like we all have responsibility for the next generation of Jesus followers. Whether the tiny humans or the ones who haven’t claimed Jesus yet. Both of those things need to be poured into, and both of those things are implied here with this passage. It’s really important that we understand that. So what we see, though, is a pattern of discipleship between Paul and Timothy and beyond. In fact, we see at least four. You could argue five. You could maybe even argue six generations, next generations going on here. You could put Jesus at the top if you wanted to, because Jesus discipled Paul in a very unique way, didn’t he? But then you’ve got Paul to Timothy and Timothy to faithful men and faithful men, to others who will then teach others.

Right, that it’s this sequential, orderly thing where the message is being shared over and over and over again. And so this is the pattern we are to take on. Should we do it in our homes with our children? Of course we should. But is it bigger than that? Yes it is. We see evidence of this in a similar passage with some similar themes. Very famous passage in Deuteronomy chapter six. Moses is about to die. He knows this, and so he decides he needs to share the most important things with the nation of Israel. So he gathers them all together and he gives this speech. And here’s what he says in Deuteronomy 6, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. He begins his speech with the most important thing. He says, God is God. He says, Love God with everything that’s in you and remember what he’s done. That’s what he says. And then he continues. The next most important thing in his mind is this, you shall teach them the things of God, diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Collectively, what Moses is arguing for here is he’s saying the truth of God needs to be everywhere. It needs to surround you. It needs to surround your children. It needs to be a part of every part of your day. This covers morning. It covers bedtime. It covers during the day. It covers when you’re traveling, when you wake up, when you lie down, all of these places collectively. It’s saying, all of these places together need the truth of God. It needs to saturate the lives of our young people. It needs to saturate the lives of everybody. And to be clear, when it says, teach them to your children. This is not like the children who live in your home. This is to the collective community of children. All of the kids. All y’all’s kids, right? So yeah, it applies to the kids in your home, but it applies to all of your kids. And I think a fair application of this point and of this passage is that collectively, as a local church body, you have a responsibility to all of the kids around here. I like to say I got my kids and my kids. I got five kids in my home and 500 or so that engage with Calvary at any given week. They’re all my responsibility. They’re all your responsibility. And y’all, there’s a lot of them so we need some help. Okay, we’ll talk about that in Fan the Flame after this. The good news that this pattern shows us is there are lots of ways to proclaim the gospel. There’s lots of ways to be teaching the next generation. It’s not only one thing. It’s not like the only way that you can serve the next generation is to preach to middle schoolers, which would terrify some of you. It’s not the only way to do it. There are many ways to enforce and teach the truth. The poetic language of this passage encourages us to know that all times are good, times to be teaching the truth. But here’s the point. What Moses is saying to Israel, what Paul is saying to Timothy are the same thing. Teaching the truth to the next generation is not optional. It is essential for the Christian life. It’s just something you have to do, right? You have to trust the truth, teach the truth, and expect transfer of the truth. It is expected and it is necessary.

So then we move on to verse three and we get this theme of suffering entering in. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Now keep in mind who’s writing this. If anybody is an authority on suffering, it is Paul. Certainly, we have lots of documented, recorded things of Paul getting beat up, sent to prison, persecuted in multiple, multiple ways. That’s what happened to Paul as a believer. But remember, Paul used to be on the other side of it too. When he was a zealous Jewish leader, he was causing the suffering and the persecution. When Paul talks about suffering, pay attention. He understands it much more acutely than any of us. So he says that we should share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ. Keep in mind, the first century Christians, they’re facing real suffering. Oppression from Rome, from Jerusalem. They’re getting kicked out of their synagogues, all of these kinds of things but notice what Paul doesn’t say. What he doesn’t say to Timothy is, hey, man, you know, I’ve been through the wringer. Let me tell you how to avoid persecution. Let me tell you how to skirt the system. Let me tell you how to avoid the bad guys. He doesn’t say any of that. He says instead, share in the suffering. Embrace it. Now, that is hard for me to understand. That’s hard for me to understand as a modern Christian. Because here’s the thing. The greatest idol of American Christianity has to be comfort, right? Like, we love comfort. I can prove this in my own life with one word – sweatpants. Like, if I am home and I have nowhere else to go tonight, I’m in sweatpants within 90 seconds of being home. That’s what’s going to happen. They’re just a superior piece of clothing, are they not? They just are. Okay, now. Well, that’s goofy. It probably does speak to my spiritual reality. I’m not walking around looking for suffering, are you? Why would you? Being comfortable is awesome, right? But something’s going on here. What Paul is arguing is that suffering is part of the deal. It’s part of what it means to be a good soldier for Christ. In fact, it’s baked right into it. I don’t say this with any disrespect, keep in mind, ancient warfare was a little different than modern warfare. Like, nobody was flying drones in the ancient world, you know what I’m saying? This was hand to hand, man to man combat. If you were lazy and unengaged as a soldier, if you weren’t physically fit as a soldier, you would die real fast. You have to go through the suffering that is personal training of fitness and health and all of those things in order to be a good soldier. And so the takeaway is pretty straightforward. It’s don’t avoid suffering if that’s where the ministry opportunity is. I mean, don’t be a fool, but just because something is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it if that’s where the ministry opportunity is. Just because something is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t proclaim the gospel in that place or in that situation. That’s not what it means. A Christian doesn’t have the right to say that. In fact, I think that in light of suffering, we actually need to expand kind of our main point today. Yes, it’s true every believer must trust the truth, teach the truth, and expect transfer of the truth. But they must do that despite and because of suffering, despite and because of suffering. Suffering doesn’t give excuse to not teach the truth. If you’re teaching the truth and it challenges you, or it makes you feel incompetent or uncomfortable, if it makes you persecuted, you’re probably doing something right. You might even say, just as an example, you might be like large groups of preschoolers stress me out. Maybe that’s the suffering you need to endure to grow closer to Jesus, my friends. I’m kidding but I’m also not. You know what I mean? Maybe this is how you can grow in Christ. Maybe this is exactly what is needed. But the other reason why it’s so essential is that suffering will come, and it’ll come for the next generation, too. So we need to teach them that this is part of the deal, because the best time to develop a theology of suffering is before the suffering happens. After is kind of a bad time to do it.

So moving on to to verse four. It says no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. What we have here are three metaphors with one unified message, but also that each one does a little something to add to the overall picture. So it’s three. It’s one. Mm. Interesting. Let’s start with the soldier. Of course, soldiers had civilian connections. What it says is that they shouldn’t get entangled in civilian pursuits. They might have a civilian wife or a civilian parent. They engaged with civilian life, but it makes the point here that the soldier needs to sacrifice and suffer, at least for a time. In order to accomplish the greater purpose for the nation. See, because what the soldier needs to do to be successful, is the soldier needs to please his commanding officer. He can’t get distracted by other things in this world. He needs to stay focused on what he’s supposed to do. He needs to please his commanding officer. And it’s the same way with God. Paul is arguing here that one who can stay focused on what God wants him to do brings honor and glory to the father.

It’s about priorities. It’s not about lack of connection. It’s about prioritizing the connection that’s most important. God is the commanding officer in this point. The second one is the athlete. The athlete has to suffer for a greater purpose too. I was an athlete growing up. I remember two a days that was horrible. That was terrible. And even ancient athletes, we know we have documentation of athletes had to train for the Olympic Games for a minimum of ten months to make sure that they were at peak physical fitness. There is a suffering that happens with being an athlete. And what this picture adds to the overall picture is this. It’s this idea of submission to authority. It says the athlete can’t win unless they play according to the rules. They have to submit to the authority above them in order to accomplish what needs to happen. And it talks about them being crowned. You probably actually know what that is. It’s the crown of leaves that they used to give the athletes when they would win. In order to win, you have to compete according to the rules. That means you have to submit to authority. And any time we willingly submit to authority, what we’re doing is we’re suffering a little bit by sacrificing ourself, giving up our self for that greater picture. Submission to authority is the second part. The third one is the picture of the farmer. And of course, the ancient world, highly agrarian. If you weren’t a farmer, you knew one. It was a huge part of the world. And it says that a hard-working farmer ought to have the first share of the crops. That’s what it gets at. And let’s just be honest. Even with modern machinery and modern farming, farming is still a lot of hard work. I want you to hear my heart in this. I think that farming is a wonderful and noble profession. All right. It’s great, I respect it. But, if I ever committed a crime and I needed to serve out a sentence for that crime, making me be a farmer would be a pretty good one. Like, I don’t want to do that with my life. Like it is hot and sweaty and outside, and I don’t I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do that. Mad respect for the people who do. I would hate my life if it was me. And I say that because I understand this one more than any of the others, that it’s hard work. There is suffering involved with being a farmer. The farmer picture adds two things I think to the overall picture. The first is that when somebody suffers, we should honor it. We should honor it. They get the first fruits because they did the hard work. They deserve that. And the second thing though, and this one’s a little more subtle, but I think it’s important. It’s that their suffering benefits not only them, but the entire community. See, because a farmer doesn’t really farm only for himself, a farmer farms for the benefit of the community. Sure, he gets the first of the crops, but the community benefits from the rest. A healthy, vibrant follower of Jesus should be the greatest asset to any neighborhood or community that exists in the world. And that’s what this is talking about. A Christian should bring light to their neighborhood, even if none of their neighbors are Christians too. That’s part of what the farmer is showing us. So together, what we see these three together shows us a picture that suffering and discipline are worthwhile for the sake of something greater and better. And the greater and better thing, of course, is to follow Jesus, to honor God. Remember the soldier. Keep the main thing, the main thing, despite the suffering. Remember the athlete. One can only play and only win if he or she plays according to the rules. Even though it’s hard, it’s a submission to authority issue. And remember the farmer, someone who toils and fights through suffering will have a reward that helps them and that helps their community. This is what this picture is trying to show us.

All right, lastly, verse seven. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Here we get the fourth and final imperative from Paul to Timothy. He says, think over what I say. It’s an imperative I like to give my children sometimes. It’s an invitation to use his mind, but also to reflect in prayer what is being explained here. The metaphors he is using, Paul understands, are not the most direct way to the truth of what is being shared. And yet it’s through metaphor, it’s through story that the ideas get parsed out and teased out in a deeper way. It’s frankly another pattern of discipleship that Paul is trying to show to Timothy. We don’t necessarily only learn, and we certainly don’t learn best only through rote recitation and memorization. Those aren’t the best ways to learn. It’s certainly not the best ways to disciple. Discipleship requires a conversation, a relationship. That’s what it looks like in using word pictures. Help helps fill these things out more. It’s not just about the transfer of knowledge, it’s about the transfer of trust in the Lord. It’s deeper. Paul is giving Timothy another example of the pattern of discipleship he needs to understand, as he then teaches others who will teach others. He’s showing him this right here in this. And so I think when we read this, we’re convicted. We’re compelled to have to believe that every believer must trust the truth, teach the truth, expect transfer of the truth despite and because of suffering.

And so with all that in reflection, I want to ask you two key questions as we leave one another here today. The first one is pretty simple. Who is your Paul? You know who entrusted the gospel to you? And when they shared it with you, what do you think they were entrusting you with? Did they want you to keep the sweatshirt in your closet, or did they want you to savor it? Did they want you to share it? Did they want you to do something more? Maybe one application point from today is to think about who your Paul or Paul’s are or were, and maybe take the time to thank them for the ways that they shared with you and encouraged you in the Lord. And the second question is this who’s your Timothy? Who are you pouring into? Who is the next generation that you are able to share the gospel with, that you’re able to teach and to help transfer the faith to the next generation? One way I’d urge you to think about this is to think about the young people in your life. They need you to be an example of trusting the truth in your life. They need you to teach them the truth, and they need to be expected to transfer the truth too. Now, I’m going to say something here. And many of you know that last summer I transitioned out of almost 20 years in family ministry, working with kids and students to now working with adults. I’m finally mature enough that they’re letting me work with the adults. Took a while, but I got there. I worked with kids and teenagers for a long time, and I’ve stood up here and made appeals for help before. Sometimes we got to do that. We’re going to do that at Fan the Flame after this because we do need your help. But I want to make a different appeal to you today, a slightly different one. As much as our kids need to be taught and they do, I need faithful men and women to be pouring their lives out to kids because they need it. See, kids need to be taught, but faithful men and women need to be teaching because teaching the truth is an essential part of growing in Christ. If you’re not teaching the truth to anyone, you’re doing it wrong. But additionally, I would say if you’re not teaching the truth to anyone, you’re undercutting your own growth potential and possibility. You need to teach because you need it. It’s through teaching others that we learn the most. It’s through teaching others. We honor those who came before us, and it’s by teaching others that we follow through in obedience to the Lord, because the next generation needs us. Let’s pray.