2 Timothy 1:1-7

As we start a new series on 2 Timothy, this book is going to ask us a question that has been helpful for the church throughout the ages: what is a pastor supposed to be? I think this is a good question, and it's a question I ask myself. Oftentimes I get asked what I do during the week. Being a pastor is kind of a weird job — you know what I do on Sunday mornings, but what happens during the week? I've had people at other churches ask their lead pastors, "You seem like you've got the best job in the world, you only have to work one day a week — what do you do the rest of the time?" It's hard to know exactly what a pastor does day to day. Unlike other jobs — when you meet a teacher, you kind of know what they do day to day — there is a wide variety of what pastors do, and the expectations can be all over the place.

I asked a bunch of my pastor friends about the expectations they've felt placed on them by their congregations, and I got some good responses. I want to lay some of these out, because I think if you ask ten different people, you'll probably get twelve different explanations of what a pastor should be. Here's what they texted me back: a pastor should be a great public speaker, a skilled biblical counselor, a great manager of staff and volunteers, a strategic planner, able to navigate a board or council, an expert communicator, someone who can handle difficult conversations well, someone who can manage budgets and build systems and processes, someone who is available in crisis and emotionally intelligent, someone who protects the church from false teaching, someone who can handle criticism graciously, someone who visits the sick and dying, someone who has a healthy family life. And this is one of my favorites — one of my best friends sent me this — all of those things above, and someone who never appears tired of any of it.

Some of these things are crucial and important. Some of them are very good. But the question is, who gets to decide which ones are the most important, or important at all? The good news is the Bible gives us a great answer. 2 Timothy is going to show us what it is that we look for in pastors.

Big Question

What is a pastor supposed to be?

So keep your Bibles open with me as we open up this passage. We're going to see two main sections in these seven verses: a letter the church needs, and a gospel worth dying for.

Outline

1. A Letter the Church Needs

2. A Gospel Worth Dying For

1. A Letter the Church Needs

As we start this new series on 2 Timothy, it's good to understand some basics about this letter. This is a pastoral letter, or a pastoral epistle. There are three pastoral letters in the New Testament — 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. These three are written primarily to pastors, to encourage them and challenge them on what they need to be.

This letter is the last letter Paul will ever write. He writes it to his friend, someone he calls his beloved child in verse 2 — a young pastor in Ephesus, the same church the book of Ephesians was written to. Timothy is probably twenty to twenty-five years old. Paul and Timothy did a lot of ministry together; they knew each other, they had traveled together, they had preached the gospel together, and now they are apart. Paul was his mentor, but more than that, he was his spiritual father.

As we lay out this groundwork, a question that might come up in our minds is this: why are we looking into this? Why would we spend weeks on end in a pastoral letter when there's only one pastor in this church? I think first and foremost, you are called to participate in faithful gospel ministry. But the second part of that is you have a pastor. It's important for you to understand what a pastor needs to be. You need to know what the Bible says I must be doing. You need to hold me accountable to what Scripture tells me, and never allow me to be less than that.

This is important because we've seen in our culture too many pastors walk away from ministry for reasons that shouldn't be, too many pastors wander away from what they were called to be. There are two major errors we see in our culture. There are pastors who are more pragmatic — concerned with shaping what a pastor means into their own vision, becoming a CEO of a corporation to change and grow it. These pastors often put too much on themselves; they burn out and fall into sin, or they leave ministry entirely. The other error is pastors, more on the theologically liberal side, who change what it means to be a pastor, forgetting what it means to preach the Word, saying instead that the primary job of a pastor is to embody justice in the world. Both of these spectrums fail to see Scripture and preaching the Word as the primary goal of what the Bible calls pastors to be. To stray from what's important is something I'm asking you to help me and keep me accountable never to do.

Paul knows he's about to die. He has one chance to write one final letter to his people, to the church. He writes it to Timothy, and he doesn't give Timothy a job description on how to become a better executive. He gives him a charge: guard the gospel, endure suffering, and preach the word. This isn't a call for everyone to be a pastor, but we must know the kind of preaching that we need — that you should demand, that you should receive, that you should pray for, protect, and refuse to trade in for anything else. This is why the global church has needed this book throughout the centuries. Whenever the church goes awry, whenever pastors go awry — when the Roman Catholic Church needed a Reformation in the 1500s, the Reformers loved 1 and 2 Timothy. It was a ripcord for the church to bring pastors back to what they were called to be.

This is why Paul says in verse 5, "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well." Paul's point isn't just to thank God that Timothy had a grandmother and mother who loved Jesus. His point is that Timothy's faith isn't his own — he received it from others. This is something we know to be true about us as Reformed people: we are not the ones who start our own salvation. There is a spiritual lineage — people who shared the gospel with you, and the people who shared the gospel with them, tracing all the way back to the apostles, all the way back to Christ himself. We don't receive the gospel through osmosis, or through a bloodline, or because we were born into the right family. We are Christians because someone loved us enough to teach us the gospel. God changed our hearts first and allowed us to love him, but it was through someone else proclaiming the word to us. This is why we practice infant, covenantal baptism here — because we believe it isn't our choice as individuals, it isn't our own ability. Someone else started it for us: God primarily, and then the people around us.

That's why Paul says in verse 6, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God." It's the job of pastors to make sure the church understands the gospel, the power of what we have, that we have to guard it, not walk away when it's hard, and that we must pass it along to the next generation. The language of "fanning into flame" isn't about starting a fire anew — it's about taking a coal that was already burning and giving it oxygen. Timothy is that coal. Paul is writing because Timothy is discouraged. He's questioning whether it's worth it to continue on in Ephesus to preach the word.

2. A Gospel Worth Dying For

Why should Timothy continue at all? Paul is in Rome, under house arrest, in prison. This is his last letter to the church. He won't return to his earthly home; in a couple of months he will be beheaded. Imagine you're Timothy for a moment — you're already discouraged about what's happening in your own church, and your mentor, your spiritual father, is in prison for the very gospel you are proclaiming. He's about to be beheaded. Here's a man on death row, probably in his sixties or seventies, whose life will end because of his love for Christ and his refusal to remain quiet about the gospel.

Why should Timothy keep going? Why should he endure the very suffering that might land him in the same spot Paul is in now? This letter is Paul declaring that it is worth it — that all Paul has gone through, and all Timothy will go through, is worth it. The glory of the gospel outshines any momentary affliction Timothy might go through. If there were a letter where Paul could be honest about any trepidation, any hesitation, any wavering at all, this would be it. It would make sense for Paul to say the gospel is worth dying for, and to go to his execution willingly — but it would also make sense for him to tell Timothy to be strategic, to avoid the trials Paul has gone through, to have a longer ministry career. That's not what he says.

Instead, one verse further, Paul writes: "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." He's saying, join me in suffering. What kind of thing must you possess to call someone to join you in suffering? You have to be holding something so worthwhile that you can say: I know this will be painful, this will be excruciating, but join me in it, because the gospel is worth it.

What kind of message would make a man on death row say that? It's only this: the glorious reality that God came to us, that God became a man — not just to be a good example, not to be a new teacher, not to be our own comfort — but to suffer and die. He came to make it possible for wretched sinners to become saints, and he did it in the most painful way possible: enduring the cross, the Roman crucifixion, maybe the most anguishing, excruciating torture humanity has ever known. Later, in the pinnacle of this book, in chapter 4, verse 2, Paul gives us three words — the culmination of what he is building toward: "Preach the word." Essentially, Paul's dying words to the church, to Timothy, are: preach the word. What Paul gives us is this: guard, endure, and preach the gospel without shame.

That's the main idea of this entire letter — the melody that plays throughout it. Timothy has received the faith; he must guard the gospel now, and he must be willing to suffer for the faith he has and proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. Why? Because the gospel does not belong to Timothy — it has been entrusted to him by the risen Christ. Because Christ has conquered death and entrusted us with the gospel, we must guard it faithfully, endure suffering without shame, and proclaim it until the next generation receives it.

This is a command, a demand — not an add-on, not something we get if we pay a surcharge and upgrade our subscription. This is the bare minimum. This is what makes a church a church. If we do not have the gospel, what we're doing here is just an expensive country club, and it's a waste of our time. We can have the greatest Christian fellowship, decent ministry — but if we do not have the gospel, we are wasting our time. Because the gospel, when it is preached, is the most powerful thing. The church, when it has the gospel, becomes the most powerful institution on the face of the earth. It is not through us that we get to change people's hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, but through proclaiming the gospel.

Every one of our lives is short. Paul will die, Timothy will die, Lois dies, Eunice dies, every pastor dies, every generation in the church will come to an end. But Christ, risen from the dead, and his gospel cannot be chained. So the call to us in this letter is to guard it, to suffer for it, to preach it, and to hand it to someone before our race is finished. When you're in heaven looking back at your life, you will not care whether your pastor was cool or a nerd, clever or dull, elegant or clumsy. But you will care deeply whether he preached the Word, whether he proclaimed the gospel regularly to you.

That leads us to our first point of application: hold your pastor accountable. We're coming up on one year of me being here, and I need your help. Just like Timothy needed Paul's help, I need you to know what a pastor must be so that I can be that. Prosper does not ultimately need me to be more impressive, the funniest preacher, or to have all the newest ideas. You don't need me to build my own kingdom here. What you need, what God's word commands me to be, is to preach the gospel — because I need it too, and because that's what God says his bride needs. This church and every church needs the word of God opened faithfully, clearly, courageously, week after week. We need to hear about our sin, the holiness of God, the grace of God, that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again for sinners. We need to be called to repentance, and we need to be reminded there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. If I ever avoid difficult truths because I am afraid of what people think, do not accept that from me. If I ever become more concerned with being liked than being faithful, do not accept that from me. If I start preaching my own opinions rather than the Word of God, do not accept that from me or any other man who fills this pulpit. I need you to hold me accountable, and I need you to pray for me — that in ten years, in twenty years, in thirty years, however long we have together at this church, I will still be standing here proclaiming the same gospel that Paul died for. Church trends will change, churches will change, pastors will change, but Prosper Christian Reformed Church will always need the gospel.

That leads us into our next point of application: read 2 Timothy this week. Don't let me be the only person reading this letter. Sit down and read all four chapters — it doesn't take long. As you read it, notice the urgency in it; Paul knows his life is over, so pay attention to what a dying apostle believes is most important to say one last time. Underline the commands. Circle the places where Paul talks about suffering. Notice how often he talks about guarding, remembering, teaching, preaching, and passing on the gospel. Then ask yourself: if these were some of Paul's last words, do I care about the same things Paul cares about? Over the next several weeks, I don't want you merely hearing sermons on 2 Timothy — I want 2 Timothy to be placed inside you, something you embody, something you know.

That leads us to our final point of application: pray about your calling during this series. Some of you may be called to pastoral ministry, and I mean that — there may be young men, or older men, in this church whom God has gifted and whom the church should eventually recognize and send into pastoral ministry. Don't dismiss this simply because ministry looks hard. Timothy had reasons to be afraid; pastoral ministry isn't easy. But Paul doesn't tell him to go find something easier — he tells him to fan into flame the gift God has given him. And pastoral ministry isn't the only calling in view here. Some of you should seriously consider whether God is calling you to serve as an elder or a deacon. Some of you may be called to mission work, to teach children, to disciple young believers, or simply to start having serious spiritual conversations in your own home. The question is not, am I called to full-time ministry? The truth is we're all called to full-time ministry. The question is, where has God placed me, and how can I faithfully hand this gospel to someone else? Every Christian is entrusted with the gospel and charged to hand it off to someone else. So during this series, pray — not "Lord, give me something impressive to do," but "Lord, where have you called me to be faithful? Who have you put in front of me? What gifts have you given me that I have left unused? Where am I allowing fear or comfort or busyness to keep me from serving?" And after you pray those things, be willing to obey where God calls you. None of us, as disciples, get to keep the gospel for ourselves — a disciple who doesn't make disciples isn't a disciple. We received the gospel from someone else, and, Lord willing, we will hand it off to someone else as well.

Paul dies, and his final letter to Timothy is about guarding the gospel, about proclaiming the gospel. So here it is, plainly: God is a holy God who created us in his image. In the beginning, he created man and woman to be image bearers, little kings and queens on the earth, to reflect his glory. In Genesis 3, they sinned, they fell, and because of their sin there was an infinite gap between humanity and God. God had every right to leave us, every right to let us follow through on the consequences of our actions, to be separated from him forever. But God, being rich in mercy, while we were still sinners, while we were enemies, loved us enough to send his Son to die for us. Jesus Christ, the eternal second person of the Trinity, came to earth, born of a virgin — grace clothed in skin — lived a perfect life, fulfilled the entire law, not only obeying everything God said we should do but resisting everything God said we shouldn't. And because of his good works, he deserved glory and power and a throne that lasted forever. Instead, he received a crown of thorns and a cross — an excruciating death. On that cross, Jesus Christ took the wrath we deserved, all the punishment we should have gotten because of our own sinfulness. Jesus was treated like us, so that we could be treated like Jesus. He died, and three days later he rose from the grave, proclaimed victory over sin and death, and ascended into heaven, where he will judge the living and the dead. This is the gospel, and it is ours for anyone who has faith, who will believe in it. This is the coal, the ember burning inside of us — all we need to do is give it oxygen, and it will be aflame, it will be powerful. We need this gospel. The world needs this gospel. The church needs this gospel. And this is what Paul told Timothy, and this is what we need to remember: guard, endure, and preach the gospel without shame.