Guard the Gospel
Clay Spencer
July 13, 2008
Key Scripture 2 Timothy 1:5
Introduction and background:
We have been teaching on the greatness of the gospel for some weeks now, and one thing often escapes us, being so far away from the events that Paul describes. That is the setting and the climate of the nation of Israel at the time when Jesus lived. The Jews were looking for the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed one of God. They had promises that God had given them for centuries. They had had at one point been overrun by foreign governments and taken captive from their lands, because they didn’t pay attention to God and the way that He wanted tem to live. So it was a punishment for their failures and for falling away from God. But God, in His mercy, prophesied to them that at a certain point He would bring them back and restore them in such a way that the restoration would be greater than anything they had known prior to that. That was the hope that was in the people. They wanted to see God’s word fulfilled.
By the time Jesus was born, they were dominated by the Roman Empire. While there were some good things that this brought, at the same time, it was a cruel and difficult thing to be under subjection to the Romans. So they were looking for the Anointed one to come from God and deliver them from this oppression. While they had been brought back from captivity, resettled in their own land, re-established in their city, and rebuilt their temple, they had never come back to self-government. They looked forward to Messiah’s coming, expecting Him to come with military might and authority,
In the gospels, Jesus didn’t really talk a lot about who He was; not because He didn’t know, but because of the confusion that it would have brought to them at that time. They were so locked into their ideas of what Messiah meant. It was really only until the last days, at His trial, when the high priest asked him,” Are you the Son of the Blessed one? The Messiah, when Jesus answered them, “Yes, I am.”
At an earlier point when Jesus asked his disciples “ Who do you say that I am?”. Peter answered, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God.”, And Jesus acknowledged it was true. He said” flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but the Father in heaven.” Then He warned them not to tell anyone about it. Isn’t this what it is about? Aren’t we supposed to tell people about Jesus Christ? But there was this confusion about what people thought Christ was about and what He was really about.
Paul’s problem was that Jesus didn’t look anything like what he thought the Messiah was supposed to look like. Paul was well educated and he knew the scriptures. So that people believing that Jesus was the Messiah was a crisis for him. So he persecuted them, tried to put them in jail, wanted to kill them and wipe them out. He wanted so badly to please God, so that God would bring the prophecies to pass, the true Messiah would come, and they would be delivered from the Romans.
This is the problem when Jesus was hanging on the cross and Pilate put a sign over Him that said “The King of the Jews”. And he says it in three languages, so that if you can read, you understand it. The priests say, “No, write that he said that he was the King of the Jews.” But Pilate won’t change the sign. It is all about Is He the Messiah? Paul believed that he was a false Messiah, but a very powerful person. So he wanted to eliminate the Christian movement.
Paul said Christ crucified is a scandal to the Jews, because if you were really the Anointed one from God, you would be lifted up, exalted, not suffer the most horrible and humiliating death possible in those days. Islam says the same thing…”Oh yes, we believe that Jesus is a great prophet of God, but the Koran says that it’s just a myth that He died on the cross, because God would never let that happen to a true servant! He’s not like that.”
But if you eliminate Jesus’ death on the cross, you eliminate atonement for sin. If we eliminate His death on the cross, we also eliminate His resurrection from the dead. Paul said, if you eliminate His death and resurrection, then we are all still in our sins and of all people most to be pitied, because everything we believe is in vain. (1 Cor. 15:12-19) Everything happened on that day. The crucifixion and resurrection are pivotal to all that we believe as Christians.
The gospel says not that we have been liberated from Rome, but that we have been liberated from death itself. That’s a much greater enemy. All Rome could do was kill you. But we’ve been liberated from the power of death. So if they kill us, yet well we still live to praise Him. What a glorious gospel!
Who would it have expected it to come the way that it came? So Paul writes,” I used to know Christ according to the flesh, I looked at him with natural eyes, thinking…he’s not someone God has exalted but someone humiliated. Someone who hangs on the cross is a loser. This can not be the King of Israel.” But then his spiritual eyes were opened and now he says, “I no longer look at him with eyes of the flesh, I now look at him with eyes of the Spirit. For now I know this Christ, I know this King, this Lord, this God who is God Himself.”
Paul writes to Timothy, his traveling companion and close brother in the Lord. It is believed that 2 Timothy is the last of the letters that Paul wrote, that we have record of. Paul has written a good deal of the New Testament and most of our doctrine about what the life and death of Jesus mean. But now he is expecting to die soon. He’s been in and out of prison, suffered a lot of things. But something about the events transpiring at this time makes him think this time he’s not going to escape. Really, he is asking Timothy to come to him. These are his last words to Timothy and last words can be important.
Paul is in Athens and Timothy is in Thessalonica. Paul is concerned for the brand new Christians there because persecution has broken out against them, and he is concerned that they wouldn’t be able to stand all the struggles that they were going through. Paul has sent Timothy there to strengthen and encourage them so they don’t think they have to suffer all this alone. Paul always warns people, “If you come to Christ, you will suffer persecution.” It is just a part of it.
Another time Paul and Timothy are in Ephesus, and Paul writes a letter to the church in Corinth. The church situation there was a huge mess; sexual immorality, in-fighting, etc. So Paul sends Timothy there with his letter. And he is there in the midst of it praying and seeking God.
At another point Paul sends Timothy to the Philippians with a letter. He says, I don’t have anyone else like Timothy. He loves you like his own heart, like I love you.” They were very close. At times Paul calls Timothy “my son, my child, my offspring”. His life is so tied to Timothy and he believes that his life is going to end. He’s got this gospel in his heart and he’s trying to communicate this last important thing to Timothy, who is going to keep carrying the torch of the gospel.
2 Timothy 1:5-11 “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands. For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, 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, for which I was appointed a preacher, and apostle, and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.”
Verses 5-7 Paul says, “I’m reminded of your sincere faith.” In the Greek sincere means un-hypocritical, earnest, pure, real, no pretensions. It was the same faith of his grandmother and mother. Paul was persuaded that Timothy had this same faith dwelling in him. He told him to fan into flame this gift of God, literally to fire it into life, to fire it up. He is saying, I know something (the gospel) is alive in you, so put it on the front burner. You’re going to need it, because I’m leaving.
He says, “God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power (courage), love for others, and a sound mind.” He says, “I know you are not a coward because the gospel gives you courage.”
A sound mind means self-discipline, the capacity to direct yourself, to tell yourself what to do, and not to be carried about all your desires and passions. Through your faith you’ve been given the capacity to be self-controlled, self-directed.
So this faith in the gospel gives you courage, love for others, and the ability to direct yourself. Paul tells Timothy, these are all things you are going to need.
Verse 8--He also tells him, “Don’t be ashamed of the gospel or of me, a prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” Rather than be ashamed, be proud of the gospel. When we’re ashamed of something we avoid it, we don’t want it to be exposed, we draw back. He’s saying “don’t draw back from me or the gospel” because of the persecution. It was a very hostile environment they were living in. There were thorns! But Paul was saying “pull the thorns into you, don’t walk around them. Share the pain, share in the suffering, by the power of God. Don’t be humiliated by it, but by courage, love for others, and the freedom you have to direct yourself, go into it.”
Verse 9-10--“ God who saved us and called us to a holy calling….through the gospel.”
Paul is saying God has called you and me to the same purpose. He has given us a destiny to walk out before the world began and we need to walk in it!
How are we going to walk out our destiny?
- With courage
- With love for others
- With the freedom to direct ourselves
This power comes to us through the gospel, which abolished death and rendered it inoperative in our lives.
Romans 6:1-2 “ What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!”
Romans 6:6 “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin.”
So our old nature (the body of sin) was crucified with Christ. It was abolished, done away with. What is this body of sin? It is this body we were born with, characterized by sin, because with it we sin! It was crucified with Christ. Christ hung on the cross and became a curse for us that God might deal with the root of this body, so that we are not enslaved to sin.
We don’t have to sin anymore. We still have desires to sin, passion for sin, but now we have a choice not to sin. Sometimes it occurs to us after the fact, like the old V-8 commercial. Oh, I could have done something righteous here!
Illustration: I (Clay) was teaching high school English to kids who had to be there but would rather be anywhere else. We were at war everyday. Occasionally I would lose my temper. When teachers start to scream, everyone lowers their heads, looks at the desk, and quietness comes in the room. Everyone is thinking, could someone just come in the room and rescue us from this maniac? None of what the teacher is saying is getting through. All they hear is blah, blah, blah, When you are the teacher who is screaming, you can see this happening but the more you scream they more they hope someone will come and rescue them,
Having a conscience (I was now a Christian) I prayed, “God help me, I don’t want to do this. I’ve already lost them, the whole day is ruined, and I’m not able to teach them anything. God help me.” One day it started again, I was ramping up to let them have it, and the Holy Spirit opened a door. He said, “You don’t have to do this.” But I said,” I want to!” I did it and then said, ”Why?” It was so stupid!
Before I knew God there was never an exit, never a voice. The next time I heard the voice I listened and went that way.
What God has done is rendered inoperative this body that is characterized by sin. He has thrown it into neutral. It can rev itself up again, but you don’t have to go in its direction. That’s the freedom we’ve been given, the freedom to direct ourselves. Sometimes the Holy Spirit wants you to go in another direction. For me the Holy Spirit was saying stay out of conflict, don’t go there.
Other times He says,” I want you to go into that conflict.” But we may say, “Oh no Lord, I’m a peaceful Christian, I just want to walk with you and be blessed.”
You have read the list of all that Paul had been through; he was flogged, starved, beaten, shipwrecked, and left for dead, but he kept on going the way that the Holy Spirit wanted him to go. On the surface, things weren’t going so well. He says, “Everybody in Asia has deserted me.” If you are counting numbers in the church, or everyone in the church is fighting, it’s not going so well. It doesn’t look that wonderful. As Terry Virgo would say,” You’re in a bit of a rough patch” which means, you’re walking through hell! You have to have courage, love for others, and the ability to direct yourself. Keep going. This is how the gospel wins!
Illustration: Jesus hung on the cross at Golgotha, which means cranium, or skull. He was crucified outside the city at a quarry that was dug out of a deep outcropping that looked like a skull. It was not on use at the time. They filled in the quarry with soil, planted a garden there with vertical walls all around it, and there were some tombs there. Jesus was buried there in a tomb. The most important thing in all of history happened there. After Jesus died and was resurrected, the Romans came in and filled it all in and built a temple to Jupiter there with a statue to Jupiter over the tomb. Where the cross was a marble temple was built for the worship of Venus. If you were a believer in those days, it would have been very discouraging. It wasn’t looking good. So it stays that way until 325 A.D. when the Emperor Constantine becomes a Christian. He tears down the temple, digs it out and finds the tomb. They build a basilica over it. And he moved the center of the city over so that the basilica becomes the center of Jerusalem.
Paul says, “ I am in chains but the word of God is not chained!.” I can’t move but the word of God is still moving! You are free from your chains now 2000 years later. The gospel just keeps going and going. Things don’t look very good for Paul, but he tells Timothy these last things that he wants him to remember. Have courage, love one another, exercise your freedom to direct yourself, to tell yourself what to do.
Romans 1: 13-14 – “ Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit (the gospel) entrusted to you.”
Romans 2: 1- 2 “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 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. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
Paul is telling Timothy to hold on to the gospel which he preached and taught to him, to be strengthened by the love and grace of Jesus, to have courage by the Holy Spirit, who lives in him.
Then he uses the examples of a soldier, an athlete and a laborer.
Verses 4-7--If you are a soldier you sign up for suffering. Don’t get embroiled in things that say I don’t have time to suffer or it’s inconvenient to suffer.
Then he talks about competing as an athlete. You can’t win unless you pay the price of suffering, and being uncomfortable. It is part of the game. Directing yourself to go somewhere that you don’t want to go can be uncomfortable.
Then he talks about the farmer, the laborer. It is necessary for the laborer to share in the harvest. His payment is delayed until the harvest is in. It’s coming, but it can be hard waiting for he payment.
So he says suffer with me.
Verses 8-10 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”
How does he endure suffering? By having courage, loving others and having the strength to direct himself. The word obtain means to hit a target. Sin is to miss the target. He endures suffering so that the elect may hit the target of salvation.
Why does God need us? We have to guard this gospel, to proclaim and preach the Rhema word of Christ to others. In proclaiming the word, hearing comes, and by hearing, faith comes, and by faith sight comes. People are then no longer slaves of sin but become free. Paul says for the sake of those people, I must suffer all things, so that they may hit the target, not just to have a form of godliness, and not have the power of God in their own lives. Not to think that religion is about not eating pork rather than about knowing the love of God. He says I have to make the target big, so they can see it, so as God directs, they can hit it.
Illustration: Happened to Clay- I was visiting a lady who wanted to be baptized. She looked as if she had had a very difficult life. She was on oxygen and having a hard time breathing. 9 months after her baptism she died. She didn’t have much education but she really knew Jesus, and was so happy to be delivered from her sins. I asked her how this had come about. She said she had been committed to Mid Mo. Mental Health Hospital and while there she met a member of our congregation, who was also there as a patient, and who led her to the Lord. When I heard this, I started to cry because I know this person and that this person has a mental illness. How glorious that in our lowest state, our weakest condition, if we have courage, love for others, and the ability to direct ourselves, we can speak the gospel and bring life to the dead!
I know that Mid Mo. Was not a place this person wanted to go. She could have chosen to just say,” enough, I am getting out of my suffering.” But, in whatever her state, she went there and was used of God. She represented God in that place. She endured her suffering and was used of God and changed the other woman’s life.
I used to struggle with depression. I thought surely I was going nuts, I’m going to the looney bin. Finally I said” Lord, if you want me to spend my life in the looney bin, if that’s the script you have written for my life, I’m o.k. with that. I’m still going to tell people who you are, that you love us.” As soon as I said that it was over (the depression). I said,” God you own me. Wherever I go, I’m going for you, and I’m going to tell people about you.” That is the gospel. He owns us. He is not just a wise man who lived. He is my creator, who came after me.
Romans 5 and 6 tell us that our old man was crucified with Christ. The old man represents Adam. The new man represents Christ. Adam got us in trouble by trying to climb up, to be like God. The temptation was: ‘God has these rules, He’s trying to keep us tied up, because if you’re like him you will rule, but if you disobey Him you will be like him. So Adam disobeyed God and tried to climb up.
The new man (Jesus) who had a body just like I have, but never sinned, was tempted in the everyway that I am but never sinned. He didn’t climb up, He climbed down for me and you. He came down to come after you.
Paul says, “ For this reason, I endure suffering, for the sake of the elect, that they might obtain salvation (hit the target.) For this is our destiny, Timothy. This is what God has destined for you from the beginning of time, that with courage, and love for others, and the freedom to direct yourself, you might put yourself in the midst of conflict and difficult situations, lovingly. And that you might not be passive but active, and the power of God will be freed and do wonderful things!
Discussion questions:
What was the prevailing concept of the “Messiah” at the time of Christ’s life?
Why is the teaching of the crucifixion and the resurrection pivotal to the
Christian faith?
Have you ever experienced suffering for the gospel?
Have you ever been ashamed of the gospel or afraid to share it with someone?
Describe a time when you knew you had the choice to sin or obey God’s voice. What did you choose?
Have you ever “hit a rough patch” when things weren’t going well? What enabled you to keep going in the right direction?
Why does God need us? What is our God given destiny?
