2 Timothy 2

God, How we thank you and praise you for your goodness and mercy and kindness towards us. How we thank you and praise you for this yet another opportunity to gather together in your presence and among your people, for this another opportunity to seek you through your word, to set our mind's attention and heart's affection on you, and to praise you for who you are and for what you've done. To hear from you, and the great hope that our lives might be changed, that we might be transformed and conformed to the very image of Christ. But we do ask these things in His name and for his sake. Amen. It's always a blessing and a challenge to come and to here in a setting and situation like this. I'm so used to preaching and preaching through you know, series of messages and you know, being at conferences where I'm dealing with a topic and I have my assignment, and then I have the opportunity to come here and it's not a part of the regular teaching preaching ministry. Here, I don't have an assignment from a conference, So I have to fight not to just be a grandpa who just gets up here and drones one until I'm tired. It is always an incredible blessing to be reminded of God's goodness and his providence. And as I thought about today and just being reminded of God's goodness and his providence, it brought me to a passage. Scripture is the same place that we were in and the conference we were in two Timothy, we were looking at chapter one. Today I want to look at chapter two and I want to ask a question. And the question is this, what are we doing? I mean, really, what are we doing? And I mean that question on the personal level and on the corporate level, what are we doing? I don't want to offer an answer to that question yet. First I want to make some observations and then get back to that question. Remember, our question is what what are we doing when it comes to worship, when it comes to church and the way we do church, when it comes to why we gather at church, why we come to church or don't come to church, why we belong to church or why we don't belong to church, why we worship, and what we're doing when we're here at worship. There are several things that motivate us. One thing that motivates people. I think there are a few major types of motivation. One type of motivation is the motivation of appeasement. We come to church so that we can appease an angry God. This is very much And again when I say these, I'm speaking in generalizations because I think these generalizations help us. I'm not trying to impugne anyone, but hopefully as I give you these generalizations, you understand how they help us. This is what I call the Roman Catholic approach to worship. And some of you have come from Roman Catholicism, you understand Roman Catholicism. Worship and life in Roman Catholicism is very much about appeasement. You go to confession, right, and then you have to do penance. Everything that we do, it's about appeasement, the sacraments of the church. Why are we here. We're here to receive the sacraments of the Church so that we can appease God. And ultimately that appeasement will never be enough, because you'll die and you'll go to purgatory and whatever you didn't finish off here, you'll finish off there because God has to be appeased, and so worship and our understanding of worship and our understanding of life, which you can't separate from your understanding of worship, is about appeasement. It's about appeasement. And some of you come from those that background. You may have not even been a part of a Roman Catholic church. Fundamentalism has the same kind of attitude. Right, it's about appeasement. There's a second approach, and that second approach is the approach of manipulation, manipulation. When I hear to appease God, we're here to manipulate God. And again, speaking in broad categories, this would be kind of the Pentecostal approach, the Word of Faith movements approach to worship. Right, we're here to manipulate God. We are here to do whatever we need to do in order to get whatever we want. Right, So we need to serve God in certain ways, worship God in certain ways, praise God in certain ways so that we can manipulate God and get what we want. The classic phrase you know there is you know it's in your praise. Right. There's a very popular gospel song that reiterates this. Right, your healing is in your praise, you know your salvation is in your praise, right, Your deliverance is in your praise. It's in your praise because again very popular saying, when praises go up, blessings come down, right, And so we need to be highly emotional. There needs to be a lot of noise, a lot of energy, a lot of every why because we have to get God's attention through our praise so that God can look and say, WHOA, there's some serious folks over there. I'll visit them, I'll give them what they want. And so this is a very manipulative perspective on worship. There's another approach and perspective, and that is the idea of Catharsis. The idea of Catharsis worship as Catharsis, we are here to have an emotional experience. We're here. You go out through our the week and you're beat up by the world, and then you need to come here to refuel, right, or or you know you've got problems in your life and so you need to come and be taught how to deal with those problems. And this is kind of a general evangelical view, right, that we are here to have an experience. We're here for some sort of catharsis some kind of self help, some kind of some kind of something that we're here to get out of this. And it's interesting. You're pastoring a church, shepherding a church. You run into this with people as people come into and out of the church. Basically, what you find is there are people who who who come to the church for whatever reason, and when they come to the church, they're looking for these types of things right, and a lot of times, especially for us, you know, reform Baptist folks, you get people who were just introduced to the doctrines of Grace, just introduced to Calvinist right, and they're like, you know what, I'm dropping everything. I'm coming to this church right here because the teaching that is at this church. We've got to get this teaching. We've got to get this truth. And then they come and they hear this truth, and they bathe in this truth, and then all of a sudden, way down deep in their soul, worship is supposed to be appeasement, and I don't experience that. Here. Worship is supposed to be manipulative. I don't experience that here worship are supposed to be Catharsist. I don't experience that here, and so then after a while the conversation comes. I really really appreciate the teaching here, learned more here than I've ever learned at any other church. What we just feel like we need to go somewhere else that's more in line with our Stop me if you've heard this before, because way down deep, we believe worship as catharsis, worship as manipulation, worship as appeasement. And so we'll take that detour for a while when our world is rocked by truth. But unless we get over the hump and answer that question I remember that question that we started with why are we here, then we miss it. And so I want to answer that question while we're here, and I want to answer it on the micro and the macro level. And what I want to say is our approach to worship need to be covenantal and instead of looking at worship as appeasement or looking at worship as manipulation or worship as catharsis, we need to look at worship as communion, communion with God, communion with God. And I think it's interesting and there's no small coincidence that in churches that look at this right churches that look at worship as appeasement or manipulation or catharsis, there is rarely communion. The lord's supplants just not emphasized. The Lord's table's just not it's just it's not even a thing, and you go you have well, you know. But the Catholics, right, they do that as the center of their worship. Sort of the people don't get the cup. The people don't get the cup. So the priest gets to have community, but the people kind of don't because that's not the emphasis. By the way, there's a reason that that's important, right. The reason that that's important is because Roman Catholicism is not just sacramental as Sacerdotal. Sacramental means Grace's dispense through the sacraments. Sacerdotal means the sacraments are only efficacious when they are dispended through the priests who are above you and closer to God than you, and on whom you depend. And you're reminded every week because you get the bread, but only they get the copy. Why are we here communion, communion with God and communion with the saints. But in reform circles, I want to be clear, there's more dimensions to our communion. It's not just communion with God and communion with the saints. One of the things you'll notice, right and you may not. You'll notice it, but you may not recognize it. You'll notice it, but you may not recognize it. When we say communion with the saints, we don't just mean the ones who are here and now. Our communion is also historic. So when we read creeds and confessions and sing songs that are more than a couple of years old, that is a reminder of our communion with saints or not even here. This constant pointing backwards, the constant historical markers and rejecting the idea of contemporaneity, contemporarity, that idea that what's contemporary is best, what's new is best. And interestingly enough, and many circles, in many environments, that's where we always are. What's the newest, what's the latest, what's the coolest. And I'm not saying that in reform circles and reform worship. You know that that you know, we're get out the crucifix and the garlic and all that you know for the new science. No, No, that's that's not my point at all, because we have communion there too, Amen, But we don't neglect the other. But why why back to our question, what are we doing? Why do we do that? Why do we do things the way we do? Why do we emphasize the things that we emphasize? Well, two Timothy Chapter two, look beginning there in verse one. We're looking verses one through thirteen in order to answer this question. And when I'm answering this question, I'm answering it. Remember on the map crol level and on the micro level, because this is another thing that we do. Right if I view worship in one of these other ways, we come to church in order to get something that you get at church, right, this this this model where we come in order to appease God. I can't appease God outside of church the same way that I can appease God in church, right, I really can't do that. Or if it's not this appeasement model, it's this manipulation model again. There, we we got to be together for that energy to be here, for us to be able to grab God's attention the way we need to grab his attention. Okay, that that Catharsist model I can't really create that in my home and in my own environment. But this other I believe has a greater degree of consistency on the micro level. Let me explain why. First one, you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. A couple of things here I did I want to observe here in this first verse. First, I want you to see the intimacy here. I want you to see the intimacy here. This is one of the things that's often lost and unfortunately one of the things that is often de emphasized if we're not careful in our reformed covenantal Lane, is that idea of intimacy when we have a commitment to our liturgy. And I know some of you have been there, so I mean you have been raised there in places that were committed to liturgy and it was just dead. There was no intimacy, and you couldn't wait to get away from it. Amen. But I want you to notice this, he says, you then, my child. And it's not just that he uses this word that he uses this phrase. Go back to chapter one and look at the beginning of the letter. Chapter one and verse one Paul and Apostle of Christ Jesus. That's formal, right, that's formal, Paul and Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the way of God, according to the promise of a life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child, you don't have to choose. You don't have to choose. Who are you, No apostle, theologian or my father in the faith who loves me? Paul says, yes, why, yes, I am. This is an incredibly intimate letter, and there are several parts of it where Paul is unbelievably vulnerable when he talks about the pain that he's experienced. Look for example, in chapter one, verse fifteen, you are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are if Jealous and Homogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onnycypherus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day? And you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus go down with me and look. For example, Ian chapter four, verse nine, do your best to come to me soon again. This is after beginning of a verse six, he alludes to the fact that he's probably going to die. Do your best to come to me soon. For Demus, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonaika Crescence has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get marked and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me. For ministry Chichikus I sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and of all the parchments. Alexander, the complers smith gave me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. This is incredibly intimate, and as just an aside here, I often point to this as arguably the strongest evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament for people who argue that this was just a sham and a fraud. Right that these were just some guys trying to manipulate people and create a religion. No, you don't, you don't. You don't do that. You don't do that. So this is incredibly intimate. It's also incredibly spiritual. Look back again chapter two, verse one. You, then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It is spiritual. Paul is writing this letter to young Timothy, and he's communicating something here. This is one of the you know, the pastoral epistles, and he's he's communicating some things here to young Timothy about how it is that you run the church, how it is that you do ministry, how it is that this is. This is incredibly important stuff. It's formal stuff, but it's spiritual stuff. He doesn't just tell him, he doesn't just give him how to. This is rooted and grounded in the spiritual reality, and that is that we're strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We don't do what we do because we believe in systems. We don't do what we do the way we do it because we believe in systems. We recognize that we are strengthened only by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, not by our formal processes, not by our liturgies, not by our catechisms, not by our creeds. We are strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, period full stop. It's because of that that it is formal and liturgical and confessional. Look at verse two, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust a faithful men who will be able to teach others. Also, I say that it's formal and that it's liturgical. Let me back that up. I'm gonna go backwards, and then I'm gonna go forward in order to make my point. Go backwards and look at verse thirteen and fourteen and chapter one, I'm sorry, backwards to chapter one, verse thirteen and four and notice what he says here. 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 entrusted to you. There is this good deposit and there is this pattern of sound words. Now chapter two, verse two, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust a faithful man who will be able to teach others. Also, not everything he's talking about something very specific. Here you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. This is formal stuff. This is formal teaching. Here there's a pattern of sound words. It's formal teaching. So not only do we have an allusion to the idea of something that is concrete, something that is formal, something that is organized and memorable, but we also have concrete examples. Look down with me, if you will. In verse ten, Oh no, look at verse eight. First, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. That is a summary. That is a summary, a summary statement. So we have pattern of sound words. Good deposit things that you've heard from me in the president of any witnesses. And now in verse eight he gives a summary statement. Remember Jesus Christ, who is Jesus risen from the dead, the offspring of David right, as preached in my gospel. Now did preach he preached a lot more than that. But what is this an allusion to? This is an allusion to the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is an allusion to Christ as the promised Messiah, the promised Seed of David, and an allusion to what promised Messiah, the promised Seed of David actually did and accomplish. He died on the cross, and he rose again on the third day. This is a summary statement. By the way, there's another summary statement. Go back to chapter one and look at verse two again. To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord, Grace and peace. Summary of the Gospel. We see it all over their due testament. Grace in peace. He adds here mercy, grace, mercy and peace. This is a summary statement of the gospel, but it doesn't end there. Look at verse eleven, twelve, and thirteen. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Now in your Bible that ought to be written and structured differently than the other text around it, because that's a hymn. There are many hymns in the New Testament, and this is one of them. So now back to verse two. Remember, I'm arguing that this is an allusion to the idea of being confessional. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust the faithful men who will be able to teach others. Also, you can't do that with every discussion that we ever had. It can't be that, right, everything that we've ever talked about. No, you can't do that. That's not what you pass on. What do you pass on. You pass on the outline of the faith. You pass on those concrete statements. You pass on those hymns that are designed to give these things to you in very memorable ways. That's what we're doing. That's why we do worship the way we do worship. So again, in the first instance, if we believe that our worship is about appeasement, about appeasing God, then what are we trying to do. We gathered together to demonstrate enough contrition, right, we gathered together to tick off enough boxes. We gather I mean we gather together to do the do the things that we have to do in order to make it right. One of my favorite you know, allusions to this, it's the movie The Godfather, and I don't I'm not recommending that y'all go out and watch The Godfather. The Godfather came out when I was a younger man, and I remember the Godfather movies, and one of the things I remember just thinking, there was a lot of things that will just like never go away from my mind about the Godfather move but one of the things that I remember, and again, I wasn't a believer. I wasn't raised in church. My mother was a practicing Buddhist. But I watched the Godfather movies, and these are incredibly violent men, wicked admitt and early on in the movie there's the scene of one of the guys having this party at his house because of his kid's first communion or baptism or something. So here were these very committed Catholics who did all the stuff to appease, who were very committed mobsters. How do you get there from here? We just go there to go through the motions and appease an angry God. You don't need to know anything you know, In fact, you don't even need you don't need Why do you need a Bible? You don't need to read the Bible. Just go to the guy who can take care of your sins and let him tell you what you need to do. Five Hill Mary's three Our Fathers. We're good in the manipulation aspect of this. Again, what do we need catechisis for that? Do we need? Do we need the great hymns of the faith? Do we need the great content of the faith, the connection to these historical truths? Do we need theology? No, we don't. We just need to be emotional and sincere and loud and make a lot of noise. That's what we need. And if that's the way you worship. You come to a Covenant home service and it's like, what is this mess? And if it's Catharsis, If it's Catharsis, what do you What do you need? Man? I had a hard week. Make me feel better, Encourage me. People don't need to hear about sin. They know they're sinners. People need to be encouraged, They need to be lifted up. They need to be made to feel better. They need to know. Three ways to have a happy life and five ways to raise healthy, happy kids. And four ways to improve your marriage, and three ways to be a better employee. You know, useful stuff, d you see. But if we're holding to this, what do people need? They need to be rooted and grounded in the truths that almost truly believed among us and have been throughout the ages. They need to be connected to these truths. They need to realize that error is out there and it's always stalking us, and error is always trying to infect our Christianity, and we need to continue to fight error with truth. And if you're just committed to catharsis, and if you're just committed to manipulation, and if you're just committed to appeasement, then error will be all over you and you won't know and you won't care. Because this only happens when we do it on purpose. That's why we cover this ground again and again and again, because it only happens if you do it on purpose. Listen to what Look at what happens next verse three in chapter two, Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Remember reverse two what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. And trust the faithful man who will be able to teach others. Also hold onto this, hold onto this, connect it, leave it, leave it to the next generation. Leave this. Don't just leave anything to the next generation. Leave this truth, these particular truths, to the next generation, and make sure that they in the next generation are holding on to them in a very specific way, so that they can leave them precisely to the next generation and the next and the next and the next. Do that, do that, and don't mess with it, don't play with it. So in verse three, share and suffering as a good soldier Jesus Christ, and then verse four through six, he emphasizes something here, no soldier. He uses three illustrations. No soldier gets entangled into the pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. Verse five. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Verse six, it is a hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Discipline discipline. You think of a soldier discipline, discipline, commitment to the mission, discipline, an athlete discipline, commitment to the mission, discipline a farmer discipline, commitment to the mission discipline. The stakes are high. The stakes are high. The soldier, you want to achieve the mission and you don't want to die. Amen. The athlete, I want the goal, I want the reef. The farmer, we got to eat. Amen. The stakes are high, and you're disciplined because use the stakes are high. Welcome to the answer to our question, what are we doing and why do we do it this way? On the macro level and the micro level? What am I doing as a parent? Do I live a life that just says I've succeeded as a parent. If I get my kids to the church house once a week, couple times a month, I've succeeded, you know, if I do it or or do I take this seriously as well and see it as my duty to have them properly catechized and discipled and to see that they understand the truth and what we're connected to. Do you see this? If my approach to worship is the approach one of these other three approaches, I just need to get him there, right, I need to get you to the church. Okay, let's look at the first model. And now I've looked at the macro, let's look at the micro. In the first model, the appeasement model, right, what do I need to do first? I need to get you to the church soon after you're born, so that we can get you baptized, christened, whatever, right, Because that's the first that's the first sacrament. Appeasement, appeasement. I need to get you there. I need to get you there. For appeasement manipulation model, what I need to do? I need, I needed, I need. I need to get you there. I need to get you there. I need to get you there. Why. Well, for one thing, I want blessings to go up. I mean what it praise it to go up and blessing to come down. One of the blessings I want is the salvation of my children. So I want to put them in that space where the blessings fall. Do you see Catharsis? It's just about this time and this experience. Where's the motivation in any one of those models to have a regular commitment to a family alter for what? Because I can't deliver appeasement, manipulation or Catharsis at home That happens corporately and with the right people delivering. It is no coincidence that there is a greater likelihood to be committed to family worship, a greater likelihood to be committed to the family, alter the family discipleship to catechising children within the context of a confessional performed communal approach to worship. It just makes sense. And it's not because now because we're better people, because we ain't. I would have said we're not. But that's not strong enough, right, it's not. We just recognize our dependence differently and it changes. It changes what we do, changes what we do. Back to those conversations, the set, those conversations are always sad. You know, we're hearing the teaching has been great, but we just you know, some of the saddest ones though, the saddest ones were, you know, we're here, we love it. The Lord has done more in and four and to us at this place and you know, anywhere we've ever been. But our kids really just like dot dot dot when I when I hear that. So it's almost like Charlie Brown with the teacher talks. You know, I want to matter once. Once I once I recognize where people are going, my brain just fills in different words and they're saying whatever it is they're saying, and what I'm hearing is this, I'm like, listen, we so appreciate, we so appreciate that we come here and you give us balanced meals, awesome fresh vegetables, fruits and meats and you know healthy. It's awesome. You just feed us so well. Here. My kids really like cereal, so we're all gonna go and eat that for the rest of our lives. And again, I'm not saying that there's no truth anywhere else. Hey man, it's like saying there's no nutrients in cereal. I mean, sure, you put them some cereal and some milk. There's some stuff there. Amen, you can't throw it. It's just not enough kill you. It'll kill you. We are utterly dependent. And it goes back to that first verse. You, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We don't do what we do with the way we do it because we think there's some kind of magic, but because we recognize that spiritual reality, we must be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. How can we be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus If we're wrong about Jesus and wrong about grace, we have to be right about it. Amen, strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Awesome, awesome, that's what we need. Do we find that if we go someplace where Christ is not priest, where he's not rightly priesched, No, no, we don't. Or the gospel, the historic gospel, the God centered Christ centered, cross centered, grace centered gospel, is not priest. No we don't. It's not there. Do I find it by just resting on my experience? Is no? No I don't. I can't. I need to be rooted and grounded and bathed in these truths over and over and over again. I need to be reminded. And by the way, look at verse fourteen. This is beyond our particular text, But look at look at where you again remind them of these things, because that's what we need. We don't come here week by week because we need to be reforgiven. We don't come here because we need to be re empowered. We don't come because we need to be rejuvenated. Come because we need to be reminded. We need to be told that old, old story we we forget and there's so much more of it for us to wrap our minds around, and when we're in a space that is committed to this convenental view, we are continually being reminded of the things that we've been taught and being deepened and expanded in the things that we are yet to be taught, because we will never exhaust them. That's what we're doing, and that's why we do it the way we do it, because we we can forget. You know, at ACU, one of the things that our students are are aware of, constantly aware of Harvard. We talk about Harvard a lot at ACU. There's a couple of reasons we talk about Harvard. We talk about Harvard because our model of education and the approach to our university is rooted and grounded in the model that established Harvard in the sixteen hundreds. That same model that the Puritan model of education, classical Christian liberal arts, biblical worldview education, that same model that the Puritans had when they came and established their colonies. And the first thing that they did was to build places for them to live, and the next thing that they did was to build places for them to worship. And the next thing that they did was to build institutions for their government. Notice anything about that. Three institutions, right, Three institutions take care of the home toake care. The church took care of the civil government. And the very next thing they did was to build Harvard College. Why so that their children's children would have trained clergymen. Motto of Harvard University Veritas right. No, actually it's not Veritas Cristo et Ecclesia truth for Christ and his Church. That's the motto of Harvard. They just don't include the last statement anymore. Why because they broadened their view. They divorced the institution from the Church, then they divorced the Divinity School from the university, and then they divorced both of them from Christianity. And now they're gone. One of the greatest enemies of the faith that you'll ever find. So we talk about Harvard all the time, first to remind us, to remind us of these great truths that established arguably the greatest institution of higher learning that the world has ever seen, even though it's gone astray. But secondly to remind us that they left. Unless we think we're better, let him who think he stands take heed lest he fall. You see the problem with these other approaches. He said, he don't remind me of my great need and root me and ground me over and over and over again in those great truths, And they are all inadequate answers to the question doing. What we're doing is we're engaging communion with God, communion with our brethren, those here, those now gone, and those yet to come, who will be connected to these sane truths because we have the same commitment. Paul urged young Timothy to have to take this pattern of sound words, these things most surely believed among us, and to communicate them faithfully to those who can communicate them faithfully for generations to come. For Christ at his church. Let's pray God again, We thank you for your mercy and kindness and faithfulness toward us. May it never be taken for granted. Remind us again and again and again who we are, whose we are, and of why we do what we do the way we do it. You pray this in Christ name. Amen.