[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 26th of August, 2018, our Back-to-School service. This service also included our annual Blessing of the Backpacks. Look for the video of this and our other services on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
Paul was in prison yet again, but this time he was pretty sure his end was near. So he sat down to write off a note to his young protégé, the one he called “son”: Timothy. This was Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy saved for us in the New Testament of our Holy Bible. And to our knowledge, this was Paul’s last letter, written a few weeks before his execution.
In this epistle, Paul instructs Timothy on how a Christian should walk, should behave: in love, with all others, in unity with other believers, in humility. It is a lesson we should all heed.
Please listen and follow along as I read from the Apostle Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy, chapter 3, verses 10 through 17, as translated by the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible…
In this epistle, Paul instructs Timothy on how a Christian should walk, should behave: in love, with all others, in unity with other believers, in humility. It is a lesson we should all heed.
Please listen and follow along as I read from the Apostle Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy, chapter 3, verses 10 through 17, as translated by the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible…
10 Timothy, you know what I teach and how I live. You know what I want to do and what I believe. You have seen how patient and loving I am, and how in the past I put up with 11 trouble and suffering in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Yet the Lord rescued me from all those terrible troubles. 12 Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others. 13 But evil people who pretend to be what they are not will become worse than ever, as they fool others and are fooled themselves.
14 Keep on being faithful to what you were taught and to what you believed. After all, you know who taught you these things. 15 Since childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise enough to have faith in Christ Jesus and be saved. 16 Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. 17 The Scriptures train God’s servants to do all kinds of good deeds.
--2 Timothy 3:10-17 (CEV)
Let us pray… Father God, we know that everything in the scriptures, everything in our Bible, is Your word and the truth. Your Son Jesus gave Paul an incredible insight into Your truth and into the true mission Christ came to carry out. Please help us to listen to Paul’s message, Father – to Your message. Help us to hear and understand what You would teach us this day. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Author Judith Swanson once wrote in Reader's Digest:
From the day we entered the ninth-grade health class, one blackboard was covered with the names and locations of the major bones and muscles of the human body. The diagram stayed on the board throughout the term, although the teacher never referred to it. The day of the final exam, we came to class to find the board wiped clean. The sole test question was: "Name and locate every major bone and muscle in the human body." The class protested in unison: "We never studied that!" "That's no excuse," said the teacher. "The information was there for months." After we struggled with the test for a while, he collected the papers and tore them up. "Always remember," he told us, "that education is more than just learning what you are told."
Last week I mentioned how messages are not always contained in words. This little story illustrates that some of the lessons we are taught are not necessarily presented in a direct manner.
I think Paul may have been trying to point out a few of these, in his 2nd letter to Timothy. In our scripture reading, Paul talks about how much he suffered and all he had to deal with, yet his faith never wavered and he gave all credit to Jesus for seeing him through those troubled times. Isn’t that trying to teach us to be patient, to have faith in the Lord, to not give up even when it all seems hopeless? Keep on being faithful, Paul instructs. Be faithful to what we’ve been taught, to what we believe. The Holy Scriptures, God’s word, have everything we need for wisdom, and to know the truth of salvation through Christ Jesus.
And then comes another indirect point. All of God’s word is useful for teaching and helping people, for correcting them and showing them how to live. The scriptures can be used to train God’s servants. But people must be taught, they must be shown, they must be trained, otherwise it is all for naught.
So who is to do the teaching? We are. If nothing else, we need to be the blackboard on which God’s word can be seen, even if not spoken aloud.
I’ve mentioned before that we don’t have to feel like we’re going this alone, that Jesus assures us He will be with us always, no matter what we’re doing. Jesus also promises additional help. In the Gospel account of the Apostle John, chapter 14, verses 25 and 26, Jesus reassures us…
God’s Holy Spirit will help us, teaching us what we need to be able to teach others, reminding us of everything Jesus said. But it’s kind of a scary thought for most of us, isn’t it, that we might be called on to teach? Do we even know enough to teach? I’ve always heard it said that the best way to learn any subject is to teach it, and that is certainly true when it comes to God’s word. But again, there’s more to teaching than speaking words of instruction.
Basketball superstar Charles Barkley was once asked about his bad behavior on-court, and sometimes off. The interviewer questioned whether this was setting a good example for children watching the game. Barkley responded, “I am no role model.”
Well, Charles was wrong. He was indeed a role model, just not a very good one. For you see, people watch us. They watch what we are doing. If they admire or can relate to what we are doing, they just very well may adopt our practices and behavior as their own. And this goes for bad behavior, as in the case of Charles Barkley, as well as for good. This is especially true for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, who call ourselves Christians. The world is watching us closely, waiting for us to slip up and do something we shouldn’t.
We are all teachers, whether we want to be or not. If we do it right, if we live as we’re supposed to live, if we walk as Paul instructs us in his 2nd letter to Timothy, then some in the world may want to know more about our faith, giving us an opportunity to help bring them to Christ.
It isn’t an easy thing, being a Christian, walking the Christian walk, living as Christ would have us live. It isn’t easy loving all others, especially those who would do us harm. It isn’t easy trying to teach an uncaring world about Jesus, about His love, about His offer of salvation. But as I said, we are all teachers.
In this same letter, in chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, Paul confirms to Timothy what I just said…
This won’t be easy. We must be prepared to face hardship as good soldiers for Jesus. But we can take strength in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
Like Paul, Timothy was a preacher, an evangelist. Paul instructs him to commit everything he has been taught to other faithful people so that they too can in turn teach others. We are faithful people – we are to teach others.
We are all students, still learning. But we are also all teachers, instructing others by the example of our own lives. Let us teach others how to live as Christ Jesus wants us to live. And one by one, we can help save the world.
In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You inspired certain men and women to record for us the lessons You need us to learn. And then You breathed life into them, making the scriptures Your word. Your word has all we need to live a faithful and righteous life. It is up to us to share Your word, if by no other means than by how we live our lives. Please help us walk the true Christian walk. Help us to love others as we love ourselves, and to show them Your love. Forgive us when we let our fears or life itself distract us from teaching Your word.
Please hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking from our hearts, thanking You for Your many blessings, promising to turn from our sin, and asking for Your help as we do so…
Lord Jesus, You showed Your servant Paul how a true follower should live, and he in turn shared that insight with all of us. Please help us to be true to that life, Lord Jesus. Help us walk always in Your light, that we might be able to shine the truth among mankind. Help us to be good and proper teachers, instructing others in how You would have us all live. Help us to be better examples, better servants.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, our only hope. Amen.
Author Judith Swanson once wrote in Reader's Digest:
From the day we entered the ninth-grade health class, one blackboard was covered with the names and locations of the major bones and muscles of the human body. The diagram stayed on the board throughout the term, although the teacher never referred to it. The day of the final exam, we came to class to find the board wiped clean. The sole test question was: "Name and locate every major bone and muscle in the human body." The class protested in unison: "We never studied that!" "That's no excuse," said the teacher. "The information was there for months." After we struggled with the test for a while, he collected the papers and tore them up. "Always remember," he told us, "that education is more than just learning what you are told."
Last week I mentioned how messages are not always contained in words. This little story illustrates that some of the lessons we are taught are not necessarily presented in a direct manner.
I think Paul may have been trying to point out a few of these, in his 2nd letter to Timothy. In our scripture reading, Paul talks about how much he suffered and all he had to deal with, yet his faith never wavered and he gave all credit to Jesus for seeing him through those troubled times. Isn’t that trying to teach us to be patient, to have faith in the Lord, to not give up even when it all seems hopeless? Keep on being faithful, Paul instructs. Be faithful to what we’ve been taught, to what we believe. The Holy Scriptures, God’s word, have everything we need for wisdom, and to know the truth of salvation through Christ Jesus.
And then comes another indirect point. All of God’s word is useful for teaching and helping people, for correcting them and showing them how to live. The scriptures can be used to train God’s servants. But people must be taught, they must be shown, they must be trained, otherwise it is all for naught.
So who is to do the teaching? We are. If nothing else, we need to be the blackboard on which God’s word can be seen, even if not spoken aloud.
I’ve mentioned before that we don’t have to feel like we’re going this alone, that Jesus assures us He will be with us always, no matter what we’re doing. Jesus also promises additional help. In the Gospel account of the Apostle John, chapter 14, verses 25 and 26, Jesus reassures us…
25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."
--John 14:25-26 (NKJV)
Basketball superstar Charles Barkley was once asked about his bad behavior on-court, and sometimes off. The interviewer questioned whether this was setting a good example for children watching the game. Barkley responded, “I am no role model.”
Well, Charles was wrong. He was indeed a role model, just not a very good one. For you see, people watch us. They watch what we are doing. If they admire or can relate to what we are doing, they just very well may adopt our practices and behavior as their own. And this goes for bad behavior, as in the case of Charles Barkley, as well as for good. This is especially true for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, who call ourselves Christians. The world is watching us closely, waiting for us to slip up and do something we shouldn’t.
We are all teachers, whether we want to be or not. If we do it right, if we live as we’re supposed to live, if we walk as Paul instructs us in his 2nd letter to Timothy, then some in the world may want to know more about our faith, giving us an opportunity to help bring them to Christ.
It isn’t an easy thing, being a Christian, walking the Christian walk, living as Christ would have us live. It isn’t easy loving all others, especially those who would do us harm. It isn’t easy trying to teach an uncaring world about Jesus, about His love, about His offer of salvation. But as I said, we are all teachers.
In this same letter, in chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, Paul confirms to Timothy what I just said…
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
--2 Timothy 2:1-3 (NKJV)
Like Paul, Timothy was a preacher, an evangelist. Paul instructs him to commit everything he has been taught to other faithful people so that they too can in turn teach others. We are faithful people – we are to teach others.
We are all students, still learning. But we are also all teachers, instructing others by the example of our own lives. Let us teach others how to live as Christ Jesus wants us to live. And one by one, we can help save the world.
In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You inspired certain men and women to record for us the lessons You need us to learn. And then You breathed life into them, making the scriptures Your word. Your word has all we need to live a faithful and righteous life. It is up to us to share Your word, if by no other means than by how we live our lives. Please help us walk the true Christian walk. Help us to love others as we love ourselves, and to show them Your love. Forgive us when we let our fears or life itself distract us from teaching Your word.
Please hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking from our hearts, thanking You for Your many blessings, promising to turn from our sin, and asking for Your help as we do so…
Lord Jesus, You showed Your servant Paul how a true follower should live, and he in turn shared that insight with all of us. Please help us to be true to that life, Lord Jesus. Help us walk always in Your light, that we might be able to shine the truth among mankind. Help us to be good and proper teachers, instructing others in how You would have us all live. Help us to be better examples, better servants.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, our only hope. Amen.
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