Bible Study Class 104 - 2 Timothy Chapter 4: Preach The Word In Season & Out Of Season; Preach Sound Doctrine; Endure Afflictions & Temptations

Posted : 3 May, 2011 08:03 AM

Bible Study Class 104 - 2 Timothy Chapter 4: Preach The Word In Season & Out Of Season; Endure Temptation by David Guzik

A. The final testimony: The truth matters.

1. (Verse 1) A solemn charge to Timothy.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.

a. Charge is a strong word (diamarturomai), usually translated testified (such as in Acts 8:25). The idea is that Paul is giving solemn testimony to Timothy, testimony that Timothy must heed if he will be a godly pastor.

i. "The verb diamartyromai has legal connections and can mean 'testify under oath' in a court of law, or to 'adjure' a witness to do so." (Stott)

b. The members of the court where Paul gives this testimony make it all the more significant: before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead.

i. As Paul sits in his cold, damp prison cell, he understands there is a spiritual reality present that goes beyond the walls of his cell. Spiritually, through a letter, he is giving solemn testimony to his young friend and associate, and doing it in the presence of the God who will judge us all. This is important!

ii. There are some important things in life, more important than making a buck or being popular or having the latest fashionable things. There is a God in heaven who cares about everything we do, and wants to point us to the most important things, the things that really matter.

c. At His appearing and His kingdom: Paul still believes in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He has been in ministry for more than thirty years, and his earliest letters (such as 1 and 2 Thessalonians) talk about the return of Jesus. Now, so many years and experiences later, he still believes it with all his heart.

i. "The words 'shall judge' more literally are 'is about to be judging'; they point to the fact that Paul was living in the hope of the imminent return of Christ." (Hiebert)

2. (Verse 2) The testimony: Preach the word!

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

a. Paul's emphasis on the word of God has been constant; there are some 36 references to the true gospel in this letter, and some 17 references to false teachings.

i. Examples of this constant emphasis: Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord (2 Timothy 1:8) . . . Hold fast the pattern of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13) . . . the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2) . . . rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) . . . a servant of the Lord must be . . . able to teach (2 Timothy 2:24) . . . All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16). It's pretty clear!

b. Timothy, as a pastor, isn't required to merely know the word, or like the word, or approve of the word; he is required to preach the word. The word of God must be preached by Timothy; it is to be the content of his message, it is what must be proclaimed.

i. Not everyone who opens a Bible and starts talking is preaching the word. Many well-intentioned preachers are actually preaching themselves instead of the word. If the focus is on the funny stories or the touching life experiences of the preacher, he may be preaching himself.

ii. Often, people love it when the preacher preaches himself. It is revealing, it seems intimate, and it is often entertaining. It is tempting for the preacher, also - he sees how people respond when he focuses the message on himself. But the bottom line is that the preacher himself can't bring you to God and save your eternal soul; only God's word can.

iii. Is it wrong for a preacher to tell a joke? To use a story from his own life? Of course not; but it is all a matter of proportion. It's like asking, "is it all right to put salt in the soup?" Of course, but don't put in too much. And if, week after week, too much of the preacher is in the sermon, it is wrong: For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake (2 Corinthians 4:5)

iv. Pastor, you know the word: do you preach it? You respect the word: do you preach it? You love the word: do you preach it? You defend the word: do you preach it? Preach the word!

c. When is the pastor to preach the word? Always - in season and out of season. Preach it when it is easy, and preach it when it is hard. Preach it when the fruit is evident, and preach it when the fruit seems invisible. Just preach it!

i. There was once a Church of England clergyman who was gloriously saved. When Jesus Christ transformed his life, he started preaching the gospel to his whole parish, and they all got saved. Then he started preaching in neighboring parishes, and the clergymen of those parishes became offended. The asked the bishop to make the man stop. When the bishop confronted him, he said "I hear you are always preaching, you don't seem to be doing anything else." The transformed man replied, "Well bishop, I only preach during two seasons of the year." The bishop said, "I'm glad to know that; what seasons are they?" He replied, "In season and out of season!"

d. Timothy, in his preaching, must bring the word to bear on the lives of his people: Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. Timothy isn't to treat the word as if it were filled with interesting ideas or fascinating theories. He was to hold up the word of God against the lives of his people and let God do a work.

i. The Biblical preacher will comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

3. (Verses 3-4) The need for the true preaching of the word.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

a. They will not endure sound doctrine: Timothy needs to keep focused on the word of God because man, by his natural instinct, does not want God's revelation; he would rather hear what he wants to hear - something to scratch his itching ears.

i. A pastor who preaches to scratch itching ears is not being faithful to his calling. Preach the word or get out of the pulpit!

ii. This also shows that if we do want to hear God's word, God is doing something wonderful in us. Left to ourselves, we would rather do it our way, but God changes our heart in wonderful ways, giving us a desire for His word.

b. They will heap up for themselves teachers reminds us that the most popular teachers are not necessarily the most faithful teachers. We shouldn't assume a teacher is scratching itching ears just because he is popular, but neither should we assume that he is faithful to God's word just because he is popular.

i. When you have hearers with itching ears, you will have preachers with itching palms - wanting to be scratched by money, and satisfy the "market" of itching ears.

c. And be turned aside to fables: Once people leave the word of God, they start embracing the most fantastic fantasies. When a man rejects God's truth, it isn't that he believes in nothing: he will believe in anything.

i. How about this: our destiny, when we die, is to make it through a series of heavens and after-lifes, until one day we become god over our own planet, like Elohim is god over earth, living on a planet named Kolob. When we are gods over our own planets, we spend the rest of eternity have celestial relations with a harem of goddess wives, producing spirit babies to populate the earth we are god over. Joseph Smith and the Mormons have turned aside to fables!

ii. Or how about this: There is no God who created everything; instead, everything just came about by chance.

In the beginning, there was light - but also quarks and electrons. The Big Bang spewed out energy that condensed into radiation and particles. The quarks joined into protons and careened wildly about in a hot, dense, glowing goop as opaque as a star.

Time (300,000 years or so) passed. Space expanded. Matter cooled. The electrons and protons, electrically irresistible to each other, merged into neutral hydrogen, and from this marriage, the first atoms were born. Space between atoms became as transparent as crystal - pretty much the way it looks today.

The rest, as they say, is history. Atoms merged to form dust clouds, which grew into stars and galaxies and clusters. Stars used up their nuclear fuel, collapsed and exploded in recurring cycles, fusing elements in the process.

Occasionally, a stable planet condensed around a second-generations star, where carbon-based life forms grew into, among other things, cosmologists, the better to contemplate it all. (From a sidebar to a science article in the Los Angeles Times, titled "The Big Bang and What Followed It")

Those who believe something can come from nothing, that chance has some power to create, have turned aside to fables!

d. What fables have you bought into? Into the fable that you must earn your way before God? The fable that God only loves you when you are good? The fable that you should walk around thinking of yourself as better than others because you are a Christian? May an understanding of God's word free us from all these fables!

4. (Verse 5) The testimony restated: Fulfill your ministry.

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

a. But you: "The more determined men become to despise the teachings of Christ, the more zealous should godly ministers be to assert it and the more strenuous their efforts to preserve it entire." (Calvin)

b. Be watchful in all things: Timothy could not fulfill his ministry unless he was paying attention - being watchful in all things. Any good shepherd has his eyes open.

i. A magazine had a contest for the funniest church slogan, and there were several outstanding entries: "Come in Your Car . . . Come as You Are" or "Midway Between Methodism and Golf" or "We want you in our pew." But the winner of the contest was this slogan: "A Friendly Church with an Alert Minister." It's a goofy slogan, but it is a good principle: Be watchful in all things.

c. Endure afflictions: Ministry is just like life - there are afflictions to be borne with. This should not be news, but for some it comes as a rude awakening - they thought because it was the "ministry," that it would be one spiritual glow to another. There are plenty of wonderful "highs" in serving God, but there are also afflictions to be endured.

d. Do the work of an evangelist implies that Timothy was not particularly gifted as an evangelist, but he still had to faithfully conduct that work as a preacher of God's word.

e. In doing these things, Timothy would fulfill [his] ministry. We all have a ministry, a service before God to perform. Are you fulfilling yours? The pastor hopes he is fulfilling his ministry; but you have your own to fulfill. Press on and do it for the glory of the Lord!

B. The final words from Paul: his triumphant confidence.

1. (Verses 6-7) Paul's triumphant confidence.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

a. I am already being poured out as a drink offering: A drink offering brought wine before the Lord and poured it out at His altar, "giving" it unto Him, even as a lamb might be "given" to the Lord.

i. The idea of a drink offering is first presented in Genesis 35:14, where Jacob poured out a drink offering before the Lord as a sacrifice. In the Mosaic law, drink offerings could be a part of sacrifice to the Lord (Exodus 29:40-41, Leviticus 23:13).

ii. There is also a Roman idea here. Every Roman meal ended with a small sacrificial ritual to the gods - a cup of wine was taken and poured out before the gods. Paul is saying, "The day is done, the meal is just about over, and I'm being poured out unto God."

iii. Poured out has the idea of a complete giving, with no reservation - the liquid is completely emptied from the cup, and totally given to God.

iv. So Paul is already being poured out - though his head is not on the executioner's block yet, his heart is there. He is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

b. The time of my departure is at hand: Paul feels that he is in the airport, and his "flight" to heaven is ready to depart. He is awaiting his boarding call!

i. Paul's exhortation to Timothy is all the more meaningful because he knows he is passing from the scene, and Timothy must carry the torch. God's workmen pass on, but God's work continues.

c. He can now say that he has finished the race. Throughout his ministry, Paul has used the picture of the race, and the Christian being an athlete running that race. Now he knows his race is just about over.

i. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

ii. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)

iii. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

iv. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. (Hebrews 12:1)

3. (Verse 8) Paul's crown of righteousness.

Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

a. There is laid up for me: Paul knew there was a crown waiting for him in heaven, and he was ready to receive it. He is certain of it!

i. There are two main words for crown in the New Testament; one refers to a royal crown, and the other refers to the victor's crown (the stephanos). Here, Paul is referring to the victor's crown - the crown that was essentially a trophy, recognizing that one has not only competed according to the rules, but has won the victory.

ii. In Paul's day, at an athletic contest, they would give the winner a crown - but it was a crown of olive or ivy leaves, and it would soon wither and die. But the crown we receive will last forever (1 Corinthians 9:25, 1 Peter 5:4).

iii. We are promised the crown of life if we will endure temptation (James 1:12).

iv. Some people wonder if we will walk around heaven with crowns on, and everyone will notice who has the bigger and better crowns. But in Revelation 4:10, the elders surrounding the throne of God take their crowns and cast them before Jesus - giving any trophy they have received right back to Jesus.

b. Before Paul was a Christian, he supervised the execution of the first martyr, and then Paul began killing as many other Christians as he could. But now, at the end of his days, he is read to receive a crown - a stephanos, and surely he must remember the name of the first martyr, who died at Paul's own hands: Stephanos (Stephen)

c. Which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day: Paul envisions an "awards ceremony" where he is given the crown that is awaiting him. Paul was about to be condemned and executed by an earthly court, but he was also going to be rewarded by a heavenly Lord.

i. Some feel that this is kind of craven of Paul; that he is too fixated on rewards. But that isn't the way to see it. God has no problem motivating us with heavenly reward. It will be worth it. We must hang in there now. We will be rewarded.

ii. All sorts to questions flood the minds of some at this point. What if I don't get a crown? What if my crown is really small? What if the Lord is disappointed in me? Put all that out of your mind (because it is all speculation anyway), and get busy serving and glorifying God! Your crown will take care of itself.

iii. But if you are saying, "Look, I don't care about a crown. Just tell me how little I can do and still make it to heaven." What kind of heart is that? God help you!

d. Also to all who have loved His appearing: This promise is for us - if we will set our focus on heaven, and on the Jesus who both walked the earth and now reigns in heaven, waiting to receive us.

C. Paul's last words from prison.

1. (Verses 9-13) The solitude of the great apostle.

Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica; Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.

12 And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come; and the books, especially the parchments.

a. Be diligent to come to me quickly: Paul was a man of God - perhaps no one since him has walked as closely to God. But he was not superhuman. He needed, and wanted, companionship. Paul was lonely.

b. Paul remembers those who have forsaken him. Some (like Demas) left him because they had loved this present world (literally, "the now age"). Others out of necessity (like Crescens and Titus), or because Paul sent them (like Tychicus).

i. Demas was mentioned in Paul's earlier letters as a fellow worker - but now he has gone astray (Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24). This made it all more painful for Paul.

c. Only Luke is with me: Luke, who had traveled with Paul on many of his missionary journeys, remained with Paul. Everyone else was gone.

d. Get Mark and bring him with you: The "redemption" of Mark is touching; Paul had wanted nothing to do with him in Acts 15:36-40.

d. Paul stayed a scholar to the end, wanting his books - but especially he wanted the parchments, which would be portions of Old Testament.

i. "Still more does this passage refute the madness of the fanatics who despise books and condemn all reading and boast only of . . . their private inspirations by God. But we should note that this passage commends continual reading to all godly men as a thing from which they can profit." (Calvin)

3. (Verses 14-15) A warning to beware of Alexander the coppersmith.

Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.

a. In 1 Timothy 1:20, Paul mentions Alexander as someone who whose faith had suffered shipwreck; now, Paul warns Timothy about this same man. Paul simply says that Alexander did me much harm - but that he would also oppose Timothy (You also must beware of him).

i. I wonder how Paul would have regarded it if Timothy would have said, "Gee Paul, Alexander has always been nice to me. He has his faults, but don't we all?" Instead, we can be sure that Timothy respected Paul's judgment - and took his counsel to beware of Alexander.

b. What did Alexander do? The suggestion in did me much harm is "informed many things against me." Perhaps Alexander was a traitor, an informer who betrayed Paul to the Roman government was responsible for his current imprisonment. Perhaps the thought of he has greatly resisted our words means that Alexander was a "prosecutor" of Paul at his first defense.

i. "Informers were one of the great curses of Rome at this time. And it may well be that Alexander was a renegade Christian, who went to the magistrates with false information against Paul, seeking to ruin him in the most dishonourable way." (Barclay)

ii. What possibly could Paul be accused of? What was his crime? "They were accused to 'atheism,' (because they eschewed idolatry and emperor-worship), of cannibalism (because they spoke of eating Christ's body), and even of a general 'hatred of the human race' (because of their supposed disloyalty to Caesar and perhaps because they had renounced the popular pleasures of sin). It may be that some of these charges were being leveled against Paul." (Stott)

c. Alexander's judgment is simple: He will be repaid according to his works. Is there any more severe judgment than for anyone to be repaid according to his works?

4. (Verses 16-18) God's faithfulness to Paul at his first defense.

At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!

a. No one stood with me: Paul was all alone - but Jesus stood by him, and Paul served God faithfully during his first defense (But the Lord stood with me).

i. But Paul wasn't bitter - May it not be charged against them. Can you say that about the people who have let you down? About the people who have forsaken you?

b. What was Paul's first defense? It could have been his first imprisonment in Rome (spoken of at the end of Acts), or it could have been a first hearing under his current imprisonment.

c. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion: God had delivered Paul before, so he had no doubts about God's power or goodness. Paul just didn't know if this time, his fate would end with be delivered out of the mouth of the lion or being preserved for His heavenly kingdom.

d. Here is Paul at his last moment - penniless, friendless, possessionless, cold, without adequate clothing, and destined for a soon death. And knowing the heavenly reward waiting for him, he wouldn't trade his place for anything!

5. (Verses 19-21) Paul's closing greetings to his friends in contact with Timothy, and from Roman Christians.

Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, but Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren.

a. In his parting words, Paul's heart is for the people he knows - he is thinking about others, not himself. Paul knew the nature of Jesus, and was an other-centered person, just like Jesus.

b. Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick: Paul was a man used by God to perform remarkable miracles of healing (such as in Acts 14:8-10 and 19:11-20), yet he left Trophimus sick. This shows that even the apostle Paul did not have some kind of "miracle anointing" at his own disposal. He could only give a gift of healing if God it was God's will and timing.

2. Good men may be laid aside when they seem to be most needed. 3. Good men would have the Lord's work go on whatever becomes of them.

c. Do your utmost to come before winter: This has much heart and emotion behind it; this old man dearly wants to see his young associate before he is to die for his Lord. We don't know if Paul ever saw Timothy again, but we can be sure Timothy did his utmost to come before winter.

d. What did happen to Paul after this?

i. His imprisonment in the Mamertine prison (a bleak building still standing in Rome, built 100 years before Paul's imprisonment for political enemies of Rome) lasted until he was beheaded under Nero outside Rome's Ostian Gate at a place called "Three Fountains."

ii. An absurd legend was formulated that said that when he was beheaded, his severed head bounced three times, and at each place it hit the ground a fountain sprung up - one hot, one warm and the third cold - thus, "Three Fountains."

iii. Paul was martyred in the aftermath of the great fires that swept Rome in 64 AD - which Nero, in some manner, tried to blame on Christians. According to some traditions, he was beheaded on the same day Peter was crucified - upside-down (Paul, being a Roman citizen, could not legally be crucified).

6. (Verse 22) The last words from the pen of Paul.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

a. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. The last words of Paul reflect a man who simply loved Jesus and had received His grace. This simplicity, and all the power that went with it, marked the entire ministry of Paul.

b. There was no question about Paul. The only question is, "would Paul's passion and message carry on?" It did through Timothy; but will it carry on through us? Will it carry on to the generation after us?

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