The Mind of Christ in the World We Live In

If you have your Bibles with you, open them. This to Second Timothy, sewod Timothy. This last session that we have, we're going to try to combine a couple of things. Second Timothy, it's interesting. Chapter three we'll address this sort of mind of Christ in the broader culture at large. In chapter five, really, I believe, addresses the idea of the mind of Christ in the church, and both of those center around the mind of Christ in the Word of God. If you look, beginning at verse ten, verses one through through nine. There in two, Timothy gives us one of Paul's long lists of cultural degradation, and then in verse ten he says, you, however, he's distinguishing right, there's the culture. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, And yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There's a promise, you know. We always try to claim promises from the scripture. And most of the times we claim promises that are not our promises to claim right, we claim something that the Lord has promised to is people, Israel, or you know. But this is a promise that we can absolutely claim. You are free to claim your persecution. It's yours, while evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But asked for you, so verse ten, we get you, however, verse fourteen, but ask for you. This contrast is building. Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And then that very familiar a couple of verses, All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. There's that picture and that contrast between the people of God and the world in which we live, and how the sacred writings, how the scriptures equip us for every good work. That's where we find the mind of Christ. That's where we learn to put off the old man and put on the new man. And then beginning of chapter four, verse one, we read, I charge you in the presence of God and the Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead. After he's made this statement about the scriptures. After he's made this statement about this distinction you, however, but ask for you. You're separate from that, You're rescued from that. You're distinct from that. And it's the scriptures that make you distinct from that. So now he's calling on Timothy to use this I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and by his kingdom, preach the word that same word you read about earlier. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Here's the why, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into mythst ask for you. So now we've got you. However, in verse ten, but asked for you, and verse thirteen, and then in chapter four, verse five, we have asked for you again. Always be sober minded, in der suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. There is a very real sense in which we are in the midst of a battle of world views. We're constantly in the midst of a battle of world views. Whoever we are, wherever we find ourselves, there is the mind of Christ. There is the Biblical worldview, and there is the world around us that is at odds with the mind of Christ, that is at odds with the Biblical worldview. Depending on where we find ourselves, that can be something that is very nearly aligned with Biblical worldview, yet will still be in opposition, or something that is completely misaligned with the Biblical worldview. And I know that you know, as things change in the culture at large, we feel more and more that we are completely misaligned. But I assure you that's not the case. Even here in New Zealand, that's not the case. We're not completely misaligned. And I'll explain why. Even when people are arguing for things that oppose the biblical worldview, they use the biblical worldview to argue for them. So when we're arguing for a view of marriage that is completely out of line and out of step with the biblical model of one man one woman in a covenant marriage, what do we use? We use terms like marriage equality. Where does that come from? It comes from the same worldview that we're opposing. We still want marriage, but we just want to shift. We still want to use that same worldview that calls for justice and equality and that that that calls for a high value placed on the individual, but we want to twist it just a little bit. Even when we're railing against the patriarchy and a culture that's arguing for it based on placing a high value on women in their protection, which is still in line relatively speaking. We're not, for example, in a culture that says that we want to look the other way at honor killings. But we're not in a culture that wants to, you know, burn widows on funeral pires. We're in a culture that's arguing for something very similar to this biblical worldview. And it's this incremental change that makes us more and more susceptible, and makes it more and more necessary for us to be hyper vigilant in this regard, which is why it is incumbent upon the church to be a place that's committed to biblical truth, a place that's committed to a preacing the Word. So that's what Paul tells Timothy here. So look there in chapter four, beginning of verse one. First of all, we see this as a solemn calling, says I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and by his kingdom. This is a solemn calling. Go back with me, if you will, to chapter one, to the beginning of this letter. One of the characteristics of two Timothy is that it is one of the most intimate letters in the New Testament, arguably the most intimate letter in the New Testament. Look at the way Paul writes to Timothy, beginning, for example, in verse three, I thank God, whom I serve as my ancestors with a clear conscience, says I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I'm reminded of your sincere faith of faith that dwelt first near grandmother Lewis, and then your mother Eunus, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. He identifies him in verse two as Timothy, my beloved child. So here is this very personal, very intimate letter. Paul is writing to his young protege, a young man whom he loves dearly. They've shared tears together, he says, earlier you were with me during my persecutions. They shared life together, they shared ministry together. They are friends. There's this close bond between the two of them. Yet chapter four, verse one, he's not speaking as a friend. He's speaking as an apostle giving a sacred charge. This reminds me of something I've seen in a number of instances. I come from a family of people who've served in the Armed Forces and been a number of number of Marines in my family, a number of people who served another armed forces in my family. But one of the things that often happens is when a young man is commissioned as an officer, if he has a family member who is serving as a higher ranking officer. Oftentimes this higher ranking officer has the privilege of pinning the insignia on his son or grandson or whoever it is who's becoming an officer, and it's a special thing when this happens. But sometimes it happens during wartime. And when it happens during wartime, you have a father pinning the insignia on his son and essentially saying, I am you off to war. At that point, it's not just a warm, fuzzy family encounter at that moment. It's something very serious. At that moment, it's I'm not just your father, I'm your ranking officer. And when this is over, you're going to turn around and you're going to battle, and you might not come home. It becomes solemn, and that's what's happening here. Paul is in prison. He has a sense that this may be his last time. We read that, for example in verse six famous passage in verse beginning of verse six, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. In other words, he knows that this could be the last time. He tells him elsewhere, do your best to come to me quickly, because this may be his last time, and in fact it is he's going to be killed for his faith. He's going to die for preaching the gospel. And essentially in this letter he is saying to young Timothy, they are going to kill me for preaching the gospel. And when they do preach the gospel, it is a solemn charge. It's serious. It's not a plaything. I saw. Somebody sent me a reel, an Instagram reel that you ever get. Somebody send your Instagram reel and you watch it in an instantly, which you hadn't. It's an Instagram reel and it's church in Georgia, and it's an advertisement that they have for their Easter service. And the pastor of the church is in this car. This car drives up, the door opens and there's smoke billowing out of the door of the car. The pastor gets out. He's in a green track suit. Did you know that Easter falls on four to twenty this year. What we do invite you to Easter service and if you come with the munchies, they'll be breakfast at nine point fifteen before our service at ten. Now, see, some of you have no idea what I'm talking about, because you don't understand that four to twenty is actually slang for smoking marijuana. And in America we do the date the other way around here. Easter is on twenty of four. Right in America, it's on four twenty. So the whole idea, as the pastor is smoking weed in the back of the car, the car stops, he opens, smoke is billowing out because he's smoking weed, and he says, do you know. Do you know that Easter this year is on four to twenty, which is the day when we celebrate smoking weed. And when he says, if you have the munchies, will have breakfast at nine fifteen, that's because when you smoke weed, you get the munchies. How disgusting. That's someone who has no clue that there is this solemn charge. That's somebody playing games with God. This is a solemn charge. We are not here. We feed sheep, we don't entertain goats, and we certainly don't cater to wolves. That's why the apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's it. At the end of the day, I'm just a preacher. It is a solemn charge and of everything else. It's what we're called to do because God's people need the ordinary means of grace. God's people need the Word of God. God's people need to be conformed to the image of Christ and the word of God the means that God uses in doing that, by his spirit, his word. That's how he does that. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and by his kingdom he calls on that which is most holy. He didn't charge you. Didn't say I charge you by our friendship. I didn't I charge you by you know whatever, on the life of your mother. No, no, no, no, no, Christ and his kingdom. And what's the charge? First two? Preach the word. Preach the Word. That's what we do. Preach the Word in an era where we may desire to be known for other things. And the culture. The culture does this to us as well. For example, if you if you're watching a television show or a movie or some kind of series and there's a Christian on there, if it's a Christian who is about the Word, it's going to be a villain. Amen, they're gonna be blowing up an abortion clinic, or they're going to be abusing children. Or if it's a Christian that is seen positatively, if it's a Christian that's shone in a positive light in a movie or a television show, they're going to be running a soup kitchen or AA meetings out of the church. You know I'm right. You know I'm right, because that's all we're allowed to do is to be social activists and philanthropist. If you're doing social activism, if you're doing philanthropy, then you're the good kind of Christian that we want in society. If you believe the Bible and preach it, we want you gone. Guess what we're called to do. Preach the Word. Not that those other things are bad, but if we feed the hungry and don't preach the Word, then they just go to Hell well fed. If we clothe the naked and we don't preach the word, then they just go to Hell well dressed. We must preach the Word. That is our solemn charge. Everything else that we do comes after that, and has to come after that, because that's the only way that we do anything else with the mind of Christ. Notice what he says be the in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience, and teaching in season good time, out of season bad time. You know, there are times and there are places where people yearn for the preaching of the Word of God. I'm fascinated, for example, by the preaching of George Whitfield. You know George Whitfield, right, great American preacher of George Whitfield. People would come by the thousands to hear him preach in the fields. Benjamin Franklin once worked out geometrically and mathematically how many people there were in a place listening to George Whitfield. Word would get out that Whitfield was coming, and people would camp out so that they could come and hear him preach. That's a good time for preaching, Amen. There are other times when it gets you put in jail. Are worse yet stoned to death? Preaching Right now in parts of Nigeria, they get you stone to death. The greatest persecution, arguably that the Church has ever seen, is going on right now, right now in parts of South Saharan Africa. And yet what do we call to do. We're called to preach the word. It is the means of grace that the people of God need in order to hear the Gospel, confront their sin, but also to be conformed to the very image of Christ, to know the mind of Christ. Why is it so important that he brings this solemn charge to young Timothy, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves. Teachers to suit their own passions, will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off in the minds. The time is coming when people won't do this. But here's why you need a solemn calling, the solemn reminder, Because if we don't have the solemn reminder, our tendency and temptation will be to shave the edges off the gospel so that we can give people what they want. The tendency and the temptation is going to be to watch as as false teachers gather large numbers in their compromise and try to figure out what it is that we can perhaps change a little bit here or there in order to appease those sane people who are running there. You know, before we left Houston to go to Lusaka. We we couldn't go anywhere without hearing about smiling Joel Joel osteen, you couldn't go anywhere and people would to ask about this. You see, their church is an NBA team in Houston, the Houston Rockets. The Houston Rockets built a new stadium in downtown and so they had their old stadium to NBA basketball stadium. It seats what twenty thousand people. Joel Ostein's church bought that building and has multiple services in there on Sunday. Try to wrap your head around that. And people often ask, how is it? How is it that a false teacher who folds like a cheap suit every time somebody asks him about an important issue of the day. So sexuality of saying I don't know, how is that growing? How are so many people flocking to that? You know how I answer that question. People are flocking to that because the Bible is true. Let me read it again, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and will wander off into myths. Churches like that grow because the Bible is absolutely true, because people have itching ears and they're wandering off into myths. And if we're not careful, we'll be tempted to give the people what they want as opposed to what they need. To be a parent who doesn't make your child eat their vegetables and watches their tears throught as you give them what they want every meal. It is a solemn charge, and we have to remember this solemn charge because the temptation will come to back away from this solemn charge. But this is absolutely what God's people need, desperately need more and more as the days grow darker. Finally, ask for you. Here's that statement. Four things. Always be sober minded and dear suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. These are the four things. This is what we're looking for in a church. This is what we're looking for in church leaders who have the mind of Christ and who are committed to leading and teaching and shaping of people in the mind of Christ. These four things number one. Sober mindedness, sober mindedness, seriousness, a solemn understanding of the call that we have By the way, I am not saying that the person has no sense of humor and has no sense absolutely not. You know me better than that, Amen, that's not. But I'm saying sober minded in the sense that very serious about the Word of God, very serious about the times in which we live, very serious about what is at stake, very serious about what matters, very serious about what souls need, very serious about protecting the sheep. Sober minded about the mission of the church. Look for that. Seek that out. By the way, notice what comes next, and you're suffering. When you're serious about this mission, you will have to endure suffering. Why a couple of reasons. One is because of what we just talked about. You're gonna have to endure the suffering that comes when you recognize that there are people who are have itching ears and they're wandering off in the mission that they won't endure sound teaching. There's suffering that comes with that. Having meetings with people, having meetings with families who say, you know that they love your church, they love the teaching, but they're just gonna go down the road somewhere else. How you find out where they're going, and it's eartickuling because they like the music, they like the atmosphere, or because they like the stuff that they have for young people, which is about the music and the atmosphere. There's the one type of suffering, but there's the other type of suffering. The other type of suffering I alluded to earlier. That's the type of suffering that comes when the culture says, you're not the kind of Christian that we will accept. You're the kind of Christian that we will denounce, that we will castigate, or you're the kind of Christian that we will arrest and imprison, or you're the kind of Christian that we will kill in the streets. And all of those things are happening in our world today to people who are sober minded and committed to the proclamation of the Gospel for the saving of souls and the sanctification of the saints. The third thing, do the work of an evangelist. Do the work of an evangelist. I love meeting people's needs, I really do. But I recognize that people's greatest need is to know Christ. Their greatest need is the Gospel. Being in Zambia for ten years, I would often joke, you know, their beautiful trees all around us. We were in the capital city and I often joked that if you took a rock and you threw it in any one of those beautiful trees around Lusaka, a young twenty something meter female missionary would fall out of the tree. Because they were everywhere everywhere, huge warm hearts, loving on people. They're being missionaries unconnected as far as any church goes, doing some kind of service oriented ministry that was virtually disconnected from the Gospel. It's wonderful to help people with their outward needs, but the mission of the church begins and ends with the work of evangelism. The mission of the church begins and ends with introducing people to God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The mission of the church begins and ends with calling lost sinners to repentance and faith. That's who we are. Everything else is secondary to that. Then the final peace fulfill your ministry, man your post, do your job, be faithful. That's interesting. I didn't get it. I didn't really get it. I started preaching early on. I started preaching well, I think when I was about twenty, and I didn't really get it until the first time I did a funeral as a pastor, and I'm standing there doing this funeral and it just hit me, this is the job. My job is to prepare people to die and meet God. I mean, at the end of the day, that's the job. Everything else that I'm doing, it culminates in that every person I'm ministering to is going to die and face God. And at the end of the day, my job is to get them ready for that. Do your job, man, your post. You put these things together, and it's a glorious picture of what the Lord has called the Church to be in the world. This beacon, this light that's shining in the darkness, that shines brighter the darker it gets. By the way, this place, with these peculiar people who have been called together as a royal priesthood, who offer acceptable sacrifices to a pure and holy God, through pure and holy lives, through a righteousness that is not their own, walking through this world being conformed to the image of Christ, and absolutely being a blessing to everyone and everything around them because of the hope that we offer through the message of the Gospel and the lives that we live that have been transformed and that are being transformed through the work of the Gospel, absolutely touching the lives of others in myriad ways, meeting the needs of others in myriad ways because of who we are through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with every touch bringing to bear the truth of that gospel and the distinction between that gospel and everything else in the world. That's what we do, and the world would love nothing more than to convince us that there's something else more important. Where we're staying in the city of the city center and out close to the big Rainbow sidewalk and big Victorian church that perhaps at one point was a place where you could go and hear the gospel, but now I understand that it's the inclusive church, you know, the twos LGBTQIA plus church. Here's what's said about that. There are people there who believe that what they're doing is going to cause the world to love them because they're not being judgmental like those Gospel people. And what inevitably happens to churches like that is they shrivel up and die because the life of the church. He said that God Gospel, what we have to offer the world is in the gospel, and eventually what churches like that find out. What they discover is that you will never be able to compromise enough to be acceptable to the world. You shave this off and the world says, yeah, that's fine, but you still got that. And then you shave that off and the world goes, that's fine, but you still got that. And you shave and you shave, and you shave and you shave until there's almost nothing left. And then it's too late because the only reason that you were willing to shave off this and that and the other is because you left your solemn call. And at the end of the day, that's all you had. Now you have nothing. You're just a social club with a nice building that you probably can't afford any more work because nobody's really committed to it. Sober minded, enduring, suffering, doing the work of an evangelist and manning a post. It's simple, but it's the highest calling that the world will ever know, because at the end of the day, it is the means by which God saves sinners. It changes the world. May He grant us grace to do precisely this. Amen, Amen,