Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 23 Oct. 2011
By Captain Michael Ramsay
2 Timothy 1:12: That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Today’s message (sermon/homily/preach) on 2 Timothy 1:12 is entitled ‘Learn to Suffer’. ‘Learn to Suffer’ is motto of a Scottish Clan. Anyone know which clan? Clan Duncan: John Duncan, I did a little bit of research into your clan in preparing for today.
The Clan motto is ‘Learn to Suffer.’ Did you know that 2 of the early kings of Scotland were Duncans: One was Duncan I and do you know who was the other? Duncan II. Duncan I obtained the throne through murder and Duncan II lost it the same way. The Duncans would learn to suffer. The Duncans historically weren’t so good at choosing the winning side in important battles. They supported the victorious Robert the Bruce in his wars and received benefits from that. But later they supported Charles I, who was defeated, murdered and his country conquered by Cromwell’s Puritans. In supporting the losing side in this war, the Duncans would learn to suffer. They later supported Bonnie Prince Charlie in the Jacobite revolt and then they really learned to suffer, suffering all the consequences that come from launching an unsuccessful revolution. Most of the Duncan lands were even taken from their family. They indeed learned to suffer. And as Romans 5:3,4 says, I am sure it helped build their character.
Today we are looking at 2 Timothy 1:12: “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”
We are going to pull out a few things from this verse:
q Paul, as he writes this letter is suffering in jail for the Gospel of Christ, wants us to learn to suffer properly;
q He is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering because he knows Christ; nor should we be ashamed as we know Christ;
q Christ is able to take care of, to guard everything Paul and we entrust to him.
1) Christ is able to take care of, to guard everything Paul and we entrust to him.
Paul has given up his whole life to follow Jesus. Much of his life as a Christian, Paul actually spends in jail for the gospel of Christ. He learns to suffer. We said last week that Paul would die in prison but even still and especially because of this then he trusts God and Christ with everything because Christ is able to guard whatever we give over to him to guard. When I think of that sentiment of Christ as a guard, I am reminded of a parable Jesus told. Last Halloween, I preached on the parable of the Haunted House.[1] Luke 11:24-26: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” The house is haunted by more demons than it was in the first place (Cf. TSA doc. 9).
But, Luke 11, Verses 21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils (Luke 11:21-22; cf. Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27)”
Jesus is the strongest strongman. He is absolutely able to guard what we have entrusted to him. Jesus is stronger than anyone else and he is the only one who can guard what we have entrusted to him – even our very lives for now and forever.[2] Everyone and everything else can be over-powered by evil, others, and/or ourselves but Christ is able to guard whatever we have entrusted to him for that day.
2) Paul is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering because he knows Christ; we should not be ashamed for we know Christ.
In Romans 1:16, Paul uses this same phrase declaring that he is ‘not ashamed of the gospel’.[3] It is likely that there is a connection with what Paul is saying here to Jesus’ claims that if one is ashamed of Jesus, then the “Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; cf. also Psalms 31:1-3; 71:1-2; 143:1).” Paul, in 2 Timothy 1:8, says that we should not be ashamed to suffer for the gospel. We must learn to suffer for the gospel. The word ‘gospel’ is a rendering of the Greek word euangelion, which means ‘good news’ or ‘good message’ (cf. Isaiah 40:9, 52:7). “The gospel is not merely the initial proclamation of Christ which wins converts, but is the whole Christian message”[4] (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:6, 23). And For Paul, “the gospel was the sovereign message, from none other than God, concerning Jesus the Messiah, God’s unique Son…[It is] news that Jesus had become the spearhead of God’s ‘age to come;’ news that, within this new age, the principalities and powers…and sin and death themselves had been defeated and were now summoned to allegiance.”[5] This is exciting. This is something that we should not be ashamed of; rather we should yell this from the rooftops. Even as we must suffer for the gospel, we must not be ashamed of the gospel. Point 2, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering for it because he knows Christ; we should not be ashamed of the gospel for we know Christ. This brings us to our main point for today, point 3.
3) Paul as he writes this letter is suffering in jail for the Gospel of Christ and as our suffering will come, he wants us to learn to suffer properly.
2 Timothy 1:8: “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” Clan Duncan says ‘learn to suffer’.
The Apostle Paul says ‘join me in suffering’.
Paul is not only warning Timothy and the Ephesians here about the imprisonment, persecution, and suffering that he is experiencing but he is also encouraging Timothy to suffer and ultimately he is encouraging us all to join him in suffering for the gospel.[6]
Not only are we to endure our suffering but also Paul says elsewhere that we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (Romans 5:3,4 cf. Philippians 2:17; 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Philippians 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’
So this is important: we aren’t supposed to lick our wounds when we suffer for doing the Lord’s work but we are to rejoice.
Paul, in Romans 5:3,4 says that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel of which Paul is not ashamed (2 Timothy 1:8, Romans 1:16) then our suffering will produce perseverance and you know what perseverance is good for right? It gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us that ability to get through more suffering and difficult times, because we’ve got more difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in our perseverance through suffering; we can rejoice because in this we will be ready for the even more difficult times that are still to come.[7] We must rejoice in the Lord as we learn to suffer for Him.
I have shared some of our story here before about the suffering we saw and experienced for the gospel when we were serving in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and other places and times that I will not go into again today. Even here, in Swift Current suffering may not be so obvious but when you serve the Lord, suffering is waiting for you; so, like the Duncans’ motto says ‘learn to suffer’ and like the Apostle Paul says, 2 Timothy 1:11,12a “… of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am...” So, 2 Timothy 1:8, “join with me in suffering[8] for the gospel, by the power of God.”
I have a lesson from history for us to remember today about suffering for the gospel:[9]
In the 1800s, the Hawaiian Islands suffered a severe leprosy epidemic, which was dealt with largely by isolating lepers on the island of Molokai. They were simply dumped there and left to fend for themselves. The crews of the boats carrying them there were afraid to land, so they simply came in close and forced the lepers to jump overboard and scramble through the surf as best they could. Ashore, they found no law and no organized society, simply desperate persons waiting for death. A Belgian missionary priest, Joseph Van Veuster (Damien of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart), …came to Hawaii in 1863, and in 1873 was sent at his own request to Molokai to work among the lepers.
We all know what leprosy is, right? It is a terrible disease, whereby you lose feeling in parts of your body, penultimately you can even lose body parts and ultimately you die. Apologist and Philosopher, Ravi Zacharias, tells us this story about the Missionary Priest, Damien: [10]
One morning before he was to lead their daily worship [for the lepers], he poured some boiling water into a cup when it swirled out and fell on his bare foot. It took him a moment to realize that he had not felt any sensation. Gripped by the sudden fear of what this could mean, he poured more water on the same spot. No feeling whatsoever. Damien immediately knew what had happened. He walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, and no one at first noticed the difference in his opening line. You see, he normally greeted them, “My fellow believers.” But this morning he began with, “My fellow lepers.”
Darren Provine tells us what God did through Damien:[11]
[Damien] He was fully aware, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, that it would be His Father’s will to crush Him. Still, he came. He organized burial details and funeral services, so that death might have some dignity. He taught the people how to grow crops and feed themselves better. He organized a choir, and got persons to sing who had not sung in years. He gave them medical attention. (Government doctors had been making regular visits, but they were afraid of contagion, and would not come close to the patients. They inspected their sores from a distance and then left medicines on a table and fled. Damien personally washed and anointed and bandaged their sores.) There was already a small chapel on the island. It proved too small [with what the Lord was doing through Damien], and with the aid of patients he built a larger one, which soon overflowed every Sunday. Damien …continued to work there until his death on 15 April 1889.
Ravi concludes his thoughts about Damien, thusly; he says:
Think of the cost! It is one thing to minister and pour your life into others when distance remains between the minister and the receiver. It is quite another when sacrifice closes that distance in painful relief. In the greatest condescension imaginable, Jesus came into this world knowing what obedience to the Father would cost Him.
Jesus, Himself, was the suffering Saviour. He died via state execution, on the cross, for us. Jesus suffered and died for us. Peter, Paul, and the other apostles, tradition has it all suffered and, save John -who actually lived through an attempt to boil him alive- tradition has it that they all accepted their martyr’s crown. Paul -in this letter to Timothy and to the church there in Ephesus- encourages us all to this same resolve. Paul was not sad in his suffering for this gospel, this good news, this good message that Jesus defeated death and sin between the cross and the empty tomb so that we can all live holy lives wholly dedicated to him is glorious news indeed (TSA doc. 10). [12] Even if we fall asleep before Christ returns we don’t have to worry as long as we faithfully serve the Lord, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him need not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Whatever we have to suffer on this earth and many, like the Apostle Paul in Rome and like the Missionary Priest Damien in Hawaii, like many, have suffered much; whatever suffering we must bear pales in comparison to the joy that will be experienced by us, the joy experienced by those whose lives we touch when they experience God’s salvation and the joy felt by God Himself, as He rejoices over every sinner saved. In our suffering, let us rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. For that is why I am suffering as I am. And I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Let us pray.
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[1] Captain Michael Ramsay, Luke 11:14-28 (Matthew 12:25-29, Mark 3:23-30): The Parable of the Haunted House. Presented to the Swift Current Corps 31 October 2010. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/10/luke-1114-28-matthew-1225-29-parable-of.html
[2] Cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 837.
[3] W.E Vines, “I am not ashamed”, in Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word Vol. IV. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), p. 292.
[4] James D.G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p. 47; cf. Donald Guthrie,: Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 145
[5] N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), p. 427.
[6] Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008 and Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html
[7] Cf. RCH Lenski, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, p. 338.
[8] Ralph Earle, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Timothy/Exposition of 2 Timothy/III. Suffering for the Gospel (1:8-18)/A. Plea to Timothy (1:8), Book Version: 4.0.2: "Join with me in suffering"—all one word, synkakopatheson (only here and in 2:3). It is compounded of patheo, "suffer"; kakos, "bad"; and syn, "together." So it means "bear evil treatment along with," "take one's share of ill-treatment" (A-S).
[9] Darren Provine, Damien, Priest, Missionary, and Martyr 15 April 1889, (Rowan University: Cited 20 October 2011) Available on-line: http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/04/15.html
[10] Ravi Zacharias, The Price of Sacrifice, Monday, August 14, 2000: http://www.rzim.org/resources/read/asliceofinfinity/todaysslice.aspx?aid=9131
[11] Darren Provine, Damien, Priest, Missionary, and Martyr 15 April 1889, (Rowan University: Cited 20 October 2011) Available on-line: http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/04/15.html
[12] cf. Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 146: God has called us to a holy life because he himself is holy. His activities partake of his own character. The same idea is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 where the call to holiness is set over against uncleanness.
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