Sermon Preached 11.08.13 at The Old Schoolhouse, Morningside. Part of the 2 Timothy sermon series preached by the Edinburgh Young Preachers Group
MP3 Audio Link
2 Timothy 1:8-18
“The Spiritual Reality Check”
“Do not be ashamed... but share in suffering for the Gospel”
I wonder if you can remember that last time you had a reality check moment. When you suddenly realised something and it humbled you. Maybe it was something as simple as realising that you are just not that supple anymore. Or like me you now realise that you can’t write more than a page of text with a pen without you hand cramping up because you’re too used to writing on a keyboard.
I recently experienced a bit of a reality check. You see my wife Cath, when we meet new people has on occasion sneaked into the conversation that one of my hobbies is breakdancing. Now often to my dismay the first response of people is “Really? But he doesn’t look like a breakdancer?” But then the follow up question is directed at me “Come on then let’s see some.”
Now usually the location prevents me from performing a move and I manage to make my excuses. The floors not right or I’m not exactly dressed correctly (Which by the way if you ask will be today’s excuse) but recently I did take up the challenge and decided to perform a few moves, three to be precise, and each one ended progressively worse. In the first I overbalanced and fell to the floor. In the second I hit my head and in the third I pulled my groin!
You see I am a breakdancer, or more precisely I did breakdance and I trained quite regularly all through university. But the thing is that was almost four years ago now and I have not kept up my training well enough since. So I had a bit of a breakdance reality check.
Some reality checks can be funny and some can be sobering like the parables of the prodigal son in Luke 15:17
“And when he came to himself (That is the prodigal son), he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”
Sometimes we can have a spiritual reality check, sometimes we need a spiritual reality check. We have all these symptoms, things are not going right, we are worried, we are fearful, we are drained, we are overwhelmed and what we need is someone to come in and give us a spiritual reality check. This is the situation we find here in our passage.
Timothy is a leader in the Ephesus church battling false teachers and lack of godliness. Timothy was struggling and he wasn’t able to see the solution so in comes Paul with his diagnosis and his spiritual reality check.
So we are going to look at this diagnosis of Paul and we are going to look at it in three parts. The calling vs5-7, The Stalling vs8-14 and The Falling v15-18.
So let us first look at the Reality Check of Timothy’s Calling
2 Timothy 1:5–7 (NIV)
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
We can see from this passage that Timothy is in a blessed position in relation to family members. Although his Father was not a Christian he had the great example of his mother and his grandmother from which to observe a sincere faith. And Paul makes comment that he also observes the same sincere faith in Timothy.
So Timothy is a Christian, he is not an atheist, or an agnostic this is a man with a sincere faith. This is a man who has gone through the first Spiritual reality check. He has spent time observing his father who did not have faith in Jesus and he has spent time observing his mother and grandmother and he has seen the reality of faith. He has given his life to Jesus, he has become a Christian.
It maybe your position this morning that you are yet to make the first step of a commitment to Jesus. Well I would encourage you to look around find someone with a sincere faith and observe what they are like and start to think. Why do they do the things they do? What is different about them? They have a security about them a peace that is not present in my own life.
Listen this is not a magic formula this is an understanding about reality. We are made to be in relationship with Jesus and if you don’t know Jesus today is a good day to begin.
For most of us here this morning I think we would relate to Timothy. We have witnessed the sincere faith in those around us and have made the conscious decision to follow Christ at some point in the past. We have a sincere faith we are certainly not an atheist not an agnostic but our faith is not making the impact on the hostile world that is should. We seem to be stuck, serving faithfully in the church but any impact beyond that is minimal at best because to take our faith beyond the walls of the church or even within the church is costly we are far more likely to experience opposition than acceptance. This has certainly been a realisation for me recently and something the Lord has been convicting me of this past year. This chapter has really challenged me to check my own position as Paul calls Timothy to.
In the Christian life we go forward or we go back. Timothy has chosen the former. He is shrinking back from the opposition that he is finding within the church. He is fearful we read it here in verse 6 and 7.
Listen Timothy Paul says, you have been given a gift, as all Christians have, you have got to fan it into flame. There is no use just sitting on it, protecting it for dear life, keeping it safe, fearful of what might happen to it. You have to fan it into flame.
Remember the parable of the talents Matthew 25:14-30. A master entrusted to his servants his property. To one he gave 5 talents, to another he gave 2 talents and to the third he gave 1 talent. The first two went out boldly but the third dug a big hole and sat on his talent in fear until the master came back. And when the Master came back it did not go well with the third servant “You wicked, lazy servant” His one talent was taken from him and he was cast outside into the darkness.
We are the servants in that story and Jesus the master. Each of us has been given a gift. The gift is not ours but is given to us that we might boldly go out with it, not bury it and sit on it with fear. Society around us tells us that faith is a private thing best kept at home. Well that is a lie a deception of the Devil to keep us fearful of the gift we have been given.
What does Paul say to Timothy. God did not give us a spirit of timidity. See the way Paul has wiped away our excuses. He doesn’t say stop being timid he says you have not been given a spirit of timidity. Within our gift we have been given the very means by which we are to be bold.
Now we all have different characters, some are quiet and some not so much but that has nothing to do with how bold or timid we are. We can be the most outspoken center of attention person in the room but timid in faith. We can be the quietest, wouldn't say boo to a goose, type of person and be bold and courageous in our faith.
We have been given a new spirit and that spirit as we read in v7 is a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline. If you are a Christian in this room you can be sincere in your Faith, Timothy was, you can have in your possession the spirit of power, of love, and of self discipline, Timothy did but like Timothy, like the servant with the one talent we can be sitting nice and comfortably on a pile of freshly dug soil because we have gone ahead and buried the greatest gift the world has ever seen. We tell ourselves, we are just keeping it safe.
This is the reality check of our calling. If you are a Christian here this morning you are gifted, you are empowered but unless you are fanning that gift in to flame you are just stalling. And that brings us to our next point. If we don’t understand the spiritual reality check of our calling we are going to get hit with the spiritual reality check of stalling. v8-14 read along with me.
2 Timothy 1:8–14 (NIV)
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. 9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
So we have seen Paul provide the reality check to Timothy of his calling and the gifting that he has been given. Fan it into flame is Paul’s encouragement because if you don’t the next reality check is that of stalling. The reality check of stalling is twofold we read first Paul says that stalling causes Timothy to be ashamed to testify about Jesus. And by extension of that he is ashamed to associate with Paul because he is so outspoken about Jesus.
So what does it look like to be ashamed to testify of Jesus or ashamed of his most faithful servants. It means that we believe what Jesus has done in our lives but we don’t believe he has the power to change anyone's else’s life, we don’t believe that Jesus is the answer to the world’s problems.
We shy away from talking about Jesus with the people we meet, we don’t make it a priority and if someone else is talking about Jesus we cringe inside. We are like the Father in the story in Mark 9. Jesus had just come down from the mountain with Peter, James and John his disciples after the transfiguration. His disciples had been trying to heal a boy of possession by a spirit but they couldn’t.
Jesus in frustration cries out “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?” The father then approaches the Jesus and says “if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus replies “ ‘If you can’?” “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Then Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed with the well known phrase, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
If we are stalling as Christian’s we are part of that unbelieving generation we are walking round with a spirit of timidity instead of a spirit of power, love, and self discipline. We are walking around saying to Jesus “well, maybe if you can, please help me, if you possibly have the time, if you could just take pity on my situation.”
And this leads to the second consequences of stalling in our Christian calling where we shrink back from suffering for the gospel. We can do that as Christians we can work very hard to organise and control our lives in order to minimise any possible upset, any rocking of the boat. We keep our faith hidden internalised and avoid any conflict and this all flows from the spirit of timidity that we are clinging on to.
Because the reality is that if make a stand as a Christian we will be persecuted, perhaps not to the extent that Paul was in prison facing death but in this current political climate imprisonment for our faith may not be far off. So the reality check of stalling Is it causes us to be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus, it causes us to take a step back from Jesus’ faithful servants, like Paul and it causes us to shrink back from suffering for the gospel.
But if we meditate on the truths of the gospel as Paul outlines here our gift should should be having the reverse affect on us. The reality check of our gift is we have been saved by the power of God, we have been called to a holy life. A life separate from the world, standing for the truth. We have been chosen not because of anything that we have done but because of the grace of God and for his specific purpose. He has gifted us and not gifted us to to go and sit on it.
This was not just a second thought on God’s part either this grace was given to us before the beginning of time. This was truly preplanned and has now been revealed in our time through the appearing of Jesus who has destroyed death.
Death now for the Christian is no longer some unknown to be feared but a joy to be embraced as through death we get to be with our Lord and Saviour. And Jesus has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.
This Paul tells us is why we have no need for a spirit of timidity but instead we can be heralds of the Gospel because this is the greatest news the world has ever received. And we have no need to worry because as with Paul we can fully trust Jesus that whatever this world throws at us Jesus is able to guard us until the last day.
So what does Paul call us to do? He calls us to guard this gift that has been entrusted to us. Not to bury it but to guard it that it would not be distorted through false teaching but that it would be kept pure. And this is not in our own strength but we are to guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives within us as Christians. And it is that same Holy Spirit that enables us to have the spirit of power, of love and of self discipline.
These are the fruits we should be observing in our lives if we are fanning into flame the gift that God has given us not the fruits of timidity, shame and flight.
To have a spirit of power as a Christian means that we let the Spirit of God flow through us to impact the lives of others. Like we see demonstrated in the life of Jesus and Paul. People never came away from encounters with Jesus or Paul unchallenged ot unchanged. The Holy Spirit that was present in their lives did the work of convicting of sin, righteousness and judgement and people just could not sit on the fence. There was a decision to be made. left or right, one way or the other. This is not some big charismatic effect but simply boldly a declaring the truth and allowing God to work in people lives. That is the spirit of power.
The spirit of love is not some kind of wishy washy love but the kind of love that we see Jesus model. A love that drove Jesus from up in heaven, down to earth to be born in humility that he might live and die for his bride the church. This is a love that rolls its sleeves up and gets down in the dirt, touching the sick, confronting the pharisees, patiently teaching the people, driving out the money changers in the temples, eating with tax collectors and sinner and rebuking his disciples. Jesus lived and breathed a gritty love that got in and did the business. This is the Spirit of love we are called to.
The Spirit of self discipline is not some kind of strict religious obedience but a living of life on purpose, being self controlled. This is a life that keeps on top of the practical aspects of life that we might be more effective in our spiritual call. This is a self discipline of staying far from converting and jealousy removing greed and overreaching from our lives, staying sober minded right down to the practical aspects of running our households well, staying debt free and being spiritual disciplined. This is the spirit of self discipline.
We have been given a great gift, we have been given the spirit of power, love and self discipline and we have been given the Holy Spirit as our helper. This life is not to be lived in our own strength but we need the reality check of our calling and the reality check of avoiding stalling. We need to be people who fan into flame the gift God has given to us.
If we do not then we will fall into the trap of the final reality check that we see in this passage the reality check of falling.
2 Timothy 1:15–18 (NIV)
15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.
If we neglect to fan into flame the gift God has given we do not understand our calling, we end up stalling and finally we end up falling as we see the Phygelus and Hermogenes did. Falling away from the work that the Lord is doing. Deserting the faithful servants of the Lord.
This may look practically like stopping to meet with other faithful believers, stopping going to church, or simply straying so far from the gospel that you begin to deny the key doctrines of our faith. It is in this dangerous territory that one would even need to question salvation. Not that we can lose our salvation. We did not gain it of our own merit and we cannot lose it but a judgement can be made to the reality of a saving faith.
People like this can still be found in churches, there can even be whole churches of them, these people can be Elders and Pastor even. There is no way to stand still in the faith. Either we move forward or we slip back. Being ashamed of Jesus will eventually lead to abandonment of Jesus altogether. Stalling leads to falling.
Instead Paul points us to Onesiphorus. This is a man who displays all the qualities that Paul has been encouraging for Timothy. He was not afraid of Paul and his suffering and he was an encourager, often as we are told, refreshing Paul. Not only that but he goes out of his way. This is a man who does not shrink back but actively lives out the spirit of the gospel. You can just imagine him going round all the prisons. Is Paul here, nope. next next. Is Paul here Nope next.
And finally we see that Paul comments to Timothy in v18b. You have seen what this looks like you have observed Onesiphorus for yourself in the many ways that he help me in Ephesus. You know the theory Timothy, you have seen it in practise, in my life and in Onesiphorus and so we read in the first verses of chapter 2.
2 Timothy 2:1–2 (NIV)
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
Model this life yourself Timothy and don’t just stop there, entrust it to others. That is our calling as the church that is our spiritual reality check. We have a calling and if we are not living in the spirit of it in power, love and self discipline then we are stalling and run the risk of falling. Instead let us mirror the examples of Paul and Onesiphorus as they follow Christ.
But let us not forget that this reality check is not about feeling guilty, it’s not about trying harder. We can no more save ourselves that we can live the life of the Christian by ourselves. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us take time today to check ourselves. Are we aware of our calling? Are we stalling? Or have we fallen? Jesus has saved us and we have a joyful job to do as heralds of the gospel!
If you are not a Christian here this morning but perhaps the Holy Spirit has been working in your life to give you that reality check, that this world is tough, that there is a relationship missing, there is a life purpose missing, we no longer have to be far from home feeding the pigs on the farm hungry for more as the prodigal son was. Jesus said I am the bread of Life, I and the water of life all who hunger and thirst come to me and be satisfied. We were made to be in relationship with our creator and this morning I encourage you to give your life to Jesus as Paul says in the chapter he is the only one you should trust with it. Let’s face it we can’t even trust ourselves.
Luke 17:33 (NIV)
33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
So I would encourage you to give you life to Jesus today.
Let’s Pray.
