Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 20 Nov. 2011.
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Paul gives us some sage advice in this pericope so I thought that I would say some wisdom that was imparted to me this week….
q War doesn’t determine whose right…only whose left
q To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many people is research
q If I agreed with you…we’d both be wrong.
q Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be
q The last thing I want to do is hurt you…but it is on my list.
q You don’t need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice
q A bus station is where the bus stops; a train station is where the train stops; on my desk I have a work station
q When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.
q Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad
Let’s see what wisdom Paul has for us today. There are two thoughts in this pericope that we will concentrate on today: Verse 2a, “Preach the Word; be prepared in and out of season” and Verse 3, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine…
To be blunt: this time is now. In this country we are no longer putting up with sound doctrine. We have spoken many times from the pulpit about how people’s religious freedoms in this country are being quickly eroded. People in Ontario have been arrested for praying in public meetings. In BC, teachers at one time were not only told not to mention Christ in the classroom but they were even told not to even mention Christmas. We have also seen Gideon Bibles removed from many locations around our country and even in our own province. Canada is discriminating more and more against Christianity. That’s not the worst of it. Last week we listed a number of Christian churches that no longer put up with sound doctrine or uphold the traditional value of the Scriptures. And I have heard many Christians here do the same thing in their lives. Here’s one more line, like the ones I read earlier, at the beginning of our time today, that exemplifies this idea: ‘I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way…so I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.’ It is too bad but I think a lot of us Christians can be tempted to act this way from time to time. We know what is right, but then we do whatever we want anyway…and then we stop reading our Bible and praying all together, so that we don’t even have to hear the helpful, sound doctrine. Verse 3, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” And look at how we spend our time. Who and what are we gathering around ourselves? Who or what do we spend more time with, God and the Bible or TV? What our we filling our minds with? Who or what do we spend more time with, God and the Bible or internet? What our we filling our minds with? Who or what do we spend more time with, God and the Bible or coffee house gossip? What are we filling our minds with – sound doctrine or whatever tickles our ears?
I have spoken quite a bit about this kind of thing over my time here – including the last couple of weeks - so I won’t dwell on it too much now. Let’s move onto the other important piece of wisdom for us here today and that is to preach both in and out of season. This means to always be prepared to preach the gospel. We have been spending a couple of weeks studying this letter of 2 Timothy, so I want to review a little bit. Here is a mini-test. (Answers below):[1]
- Who wrote this letter (2 Timothy)?
- To whom did he write it?
- Where were the people who received the letter?
- Where was the person when he wrote the letter?
- When would the author leave his present location?
Paul when he writes this letter, telling people to always be prepared to preach ‘in and out of season’, is in prison because he has been preaching. Rome at this time was having their own War on Terror where, not unlike the War on Terror today, they were scooping up their adversaries –both real and imagined- and putting them in jail. Serious fires in Rome provided all the excuse they needed to round up all the Christians who were preaching ‘in and out of season’, blame them for fires, conspiracies, terrorism, and put them in jail. Paul was caught in the middle of this first century War on Terror.
This is important: Paul, when he is writing this letter that we are looking at today, Paul is in prison and Paul is about to be executed by his own government for preaching ‘in and out of season.’ and Paul, when this is happening, is writing to his friends in Ephesus and what is he telling them? Is he telling them, “Shhh… keep quiet; don’t let anyone know you are a Christians or this could happen to you? (No) Is Paul telling them ‘Disband the church, flee for your lives, go into hiding so you don’t wind up in jail awaiting the death sentence to be carried out like me?’ (No) Is he telling them to live a good life but to just keep their religion private because it is only your personal relationship with Christ that matters? (No) Is Paul telling them to just keep quiet, live a good life, don’t tell anyone about Jesus –or you’ll be killed and them what good will you do them? (No) Today we hear people say tall these kinds of things, don’t we? We hear as reason for not telling people about Jesus: ‘We wouldn’t want to offend anyone’ or ‘I’m too scarred’ or ‘I don’t want to impose my beliefs on anyone else’ but these aren’t Christian statements. Paul, even when he is about to be executed via capital punishment for preaching the Word, he is not only continuing to do so but he is encouraging his closest friends to the same. Paul is telling them, regardless of the circumstances and even though there will be suffering attached to it, we should preach in and out of season. We should always be prepared to preach, even if it costs us everything.
This is important. This is one of the key parts of Christianity. Do we believe in Christ or not? The gospel in a nutshell: the world as we know it is fading away. Until Christ returns, we are all going to die. But we don’t all need to perish. We don’t all need to suffer separation from God forever. The word ‘gospel’ actually means ‘good news’. Christianity is supposed to be good news. It is not supposed to be some selfish or private religion; it is instead good news and good news is meant to be shared. This good news is best summed up, I think in John 3:16 -17: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (NKJV).’ This is good news. Remember that Paul is condemned to death by capital punishment here as he is writing this letter to Timothy but the good news is, John 3:17, ‘For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (NKJV).’ This is good news: that we can live forever with Christ and it is so important to Paul that he is even willing to die so that even more people can live. We have just come off of Remembrance Day here where we remember the number of people who risked their life and limb so that we could have the choice and the chance to live. This is what Christ did, he lived and died and rose again so that we can do the same. This is what Paul is encouraging us towards. The gospel of Mathew, 13:44-46 records about the value of this good news, this eternal salvation, pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
The Apostle Paul here has given away his freedom and even his life to gain this eternal life and share it with everyone he can. He knows what Jesus tells us, Mark 8:35: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35, cf. Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:12, 17:23) And, Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
We can have eternal life. We don’t need to perish. All we need to do is Romans 10:9: “… confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is what Paul couldn’t keep quiet about. This is what Paul was willing to give up his life for. I look at the good news and sharing the good news like this:
It is like when I went to help out after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Island a couple of years ago. Even though 100 people chose to stay behind and perish, even though we met with, spoke with and prayed with people whose family members chose to reject salvation from the hurricane. The people all knew it was coming; they had a choice and as a result thousands of others were saved.
Can you imagine if the news announcers were so ashamed of the fact that the hurricane was coming that they didn’t share information that it was coming? Can you imagine if the meteorologists were so embarrassed of the fact that they did not know the exact time and hour the hurricane was going to strike that they didn’t tell anybody? Can you imagine if your neighbour knew that the hurricane was coming and she evacuated but she never told you because she was afraid she couldn’t explain exactly what, why, where, how, and when the hurricane was coming? Can you imagine the horror as you look up to see your life being swept away – and no one ever told you how to be saved?
Well, there is no need to be ashamed of the Gospel: an eschatological hurricane is coming and it is a lot more dangerous than Hurricane Ike. There are people in this city here today who are sleeping in their beds or watching their TVs right now who have no idea that the end is coming. There are people who are lost and just waiting for us to point them to salvation.
So today, let us do that. Today let us be like the rescue workers who go around pointing people to safety. None of us know when our lives are going to end. We may be taken tomorrow. None of us know when the Lord is returning and bringing with him the end to our world. But, like the weatherman watching the storm, we do know that the things of this earth are going to pass away (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, Revelation 21:1) and it is our job to share with everyone we meet the good news of the way to salvation so that they do not need to perish but instead can experience the full power of God for Salvation.
It is our responsibility to share the Gospel for, indeed, the Gospel is the power of God for all to be saved both now and forever. To this end then, I encourage us all to look for opportunities to share the good news of salvation in the upcoming weeks here so that all of us here may turn to God and experience the full power of His Salvation.
Let us pray.
[1] Answers to quiz: 1) Paul, 2) Timothy (and his mother and grandmother in Ephesus), 3) Ephesus, 4) a dungeon in Rome 5) Only upon his execution for a capital crime
Posts
