A sermon based upon 2 Timothy 3: 12-17
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Disciple Series, 1 of 15, August 12, 2012
You can get into all kinds of trouble when you read, believe, live or
teach the Bible. A.J. Jacob’s, in his
book, The Year of Living Biblically,
reminds us of all kinds of Bible texts we had better not put into practice
today, such as “the stoning of stubborn
and rebellious children” . (Deut 21: 18-21). There are many more.
In our text Paul
reminds Timothy right up front: “In
fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted”(12). To live “a godly life” in a world that is not
convinced nor sold out on God’s “revelation”
of righteousness (Romans 1:17) can cost you. It might cost you a friend. It might cost you your job. It might cost your reputation among some. It might also cost you money and, but
hopefully not, it could, as it does in some places, even cost you your life.
The recent Chick-Fil-A
controversy is a case and point to the “cost” of living “biblically”. The
controversy has not about using cows in advertising, nor eating chicken, and
not even about eating fast food, but it has been over America’s continued
stewing over what defines a marriage or a family. It all started when son of Chick-Fil-A
founder, Truett Cathy, made a bold statement recently in the Biblical Recorder stating how his
company stands for the “biblical
definition of the family unit”. (http://www.brnow.org/News/July-2012/%E2%80%98Guilty-as-charged,%E2%80%99-Dan-Cathy-says-of-Chick-fil-A).
Stating that his company operates on “biblical principles” is a great witness to truth as “revealed” in the Bible, but it was when
Cathy went from witnessing to “preaching” on a news talk television show that
he got into trouble. “…I
think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at
Him and say 'we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage' and I
pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude
to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about." (http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2012/07/audio-chickfila-president-coo-dan-cathy-says-arrogant-same-sex-marriage-shaking-fist-at-god-invites-god-judgment.html .
When you move from selling chicken in the world and to “preaching” the
worldview of the Bible to the world, you are asking for trouble. As
Paul says in our text, “Scripture…rebukes,
corrects and instructs.” Here,
already, Paul knew what Dan Cathy now knows, the “world” cannot always
receive, understand nor appreciate biblical values. If you speak up for what you believe in the
midst of the moral, spiritual and the increasing societal confusion of today’s “culture
wars”, people will take shots at you.
Even if you are trying to say what you are for, rather than trying to be
against anyone, as Cathy later explained he was doing, (He was not anti-gay,
but pro-marriage). Even though New York’s
mayor Bloomberg, who disagrees with his Cathy’s view on marriage, defended
Cathy’s constitutional right of “free speech” (www.nypost.com), the truth of matter is that speech is
never completely free. The words of God
in the bible aren’t free either.
The problem the Chick-Fil-A controversy depicts the greatest problem humans
always have with the Bible. Mark Twain
once commented, “It ain’t the parts of
the Bible I don’t understand which trouble me, but it’s the parts of the Bible
I do.” We can come to understand even most of the
difficult parts of the Bible, but will we?
How do we actually receive, learn, believe, and hopefully, come to live
the words of the Bible?
READ THE BIBLE---- LIVE A GODLY
LIFE IN CHRIST
If you want to find the power and authority for life in the Bible, it
will require effort and learning on your part.
Paul tells Timothy to “continue
in what you have learned …” (14a). The way of a Christian disciple is based
upon the fact that you have “learned”
the truth about Jesus Christ, and that
you still need to “continue” learning,
as the old hymn says, “more about Jesus.” In fact, the very word disciple means
“learner”. A true follower of Jesus
Christ continues to be a “life-long learner”, as you can only “grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus
Christ” when you keep learning, one day at a time.
But we surely can’t “continue”
in what we haven’t learned, what we haven’t really read, what we aren’t reading,
or haven’t studied. The foundation of
living the godly life revealed to us in Jesus comes from taking time to read,
meditate upon, and pray Scripture. Are
you part of a regular Bible Study? Are
you daily reading and learning what God has said, and what the Spirit still
says? I know this sounds elementary (my
dear Watson), but you can’t beat simplicity for grasping the truth. You can’t know, find, discover, or learn
God’s eternal truth for yourself unless you take time and effort to read and
learn the saving story of Bible for yourself.
The Bible is expansive in its scope, substance and subject. It’s made up of two major sections: The Old
and New Testaments or Covenants. It’s
tells about the History of Israel and the Coming of Jesus in that history to
redeem them and us. The Bible was
written over a period of over 1,500 years detailing both religious experience, religious
progress including religious failure, so that it can be now be “received” as a guide
for faith and the “supreme revelation” of God’s redemptive truth in history. In more recent Church history, scholars like John Wycliff and William Tyndale were hunted down and burned at the stake because
they believed you and I should have a Bible to read for ourselves. And do you know who hunted those men down and killed them for translating
and printing the Bible? Strangely
enough, it wasn’t the world, but it was “church” that didn’t want people
reading the Bible. There was a time when
the church assumed it could make up its own “authority”, just like people do
today, rather than following the word of Scripture.
So, at the very heart of learning the way of discipleship begins by
learning the Bible, especially learning the Bible as children. Paul reminds Timothy how “from infancy he has learned the Holy
Scriptures” (3.15). It is his
learning of the Bible that will give Timothy the ability to endure, grow and
continue following the way of Jesus.
Everything young Timothy has learned and will continue to learn about
Jesus is grounded in the ‘authority’ of the Word of God.
BELIEVE THE BIBLE----KNOW THE
GOD WHO GIVES LIFE
The second word Paul advices Timothy is to “continue…. in what you have become convinced of.”
I know there are many arguments for affirming the “truth” in and of
the Bible. Arguments never work to convince anyone. But let me simply ask you: WHAT EMPOWERS
YOUR LIVE? What gives you the confidence
and assurance to face each day? Do you have
the “authority” to live the kind of life that keeps on giving life and
hope? Some people pick and choose a
lifestyle that drains them rather than sustains them. In contrast, the Bible’s authority is based
upon living by a set of truths, boundaries and rules which empowers love and
life.
On the very first pages of the Bible, we have an unforgettable image of God's claim on our lives. In the second chapter of Genesis, we find that life is not absolutely free life without conditions, moral boundaries and God-given limits.
For human life to flourish and to continue on earth, humans must bow to the ultimate authority of God. As the text in Genesis says: “And
the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden; but you must not eat from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
certainly die." (Gen 2:16-17 TNIV).
The gift of God’s life-giving
“yes” comes with a death preventing “no.” As the giver and gate-keeper of life, God warns that there are lines we humans must not cross. If we reject God’s word of truth for life, we choose death.
Interestingly, on the very first pages of Scripture, God not only gives
life, but God also puts our own lives into our own “human” hands. Our God-given power
to choose life or death, becomes even clearer with Moses, as he charges the
Israelites with the God-given conditions for life: “The word
is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey
it. See, I set before you today life and
prosperity, death and destruction…. (Deu 30:14-15 TNIV)…. Now choose life, so that you and your
children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice,
and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life… (Deu 30:19-20 TNIV). When I read such powerful words, already, even in the first books of
Law, called Torah, it’s no wonder
many Jews still say the “Torah tells us
the truth all need to know about life.”
From the very beginning and continuing until the full revelation of
God’s truth in Jesus, God has given his people the power and authority for life. By giving us Scripture, God has put
the choice for life into our own hands.
LIVE THE BIBLE---GOD GIVES LIFE
THROUGH SCRIPTURE
Finally, we can see this direct connection between God's life giving
Spirit and the God’s life giving Word by comparing two unforgettable
biblical images, one from Genesis and this one from Second Timothy. Do you
remember how God creates Adam? The text
graphically describes how God “breathes
into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life.”
Even though Adam is only made from the dust of the earth, God breathes his
own life-Spirit into Adam so Adam can live (Gen. 2.7). Now, in today's text, the same kind of life-giving picture returns in Paul’s words about Holy Scripture. Scripture is “God-breathed” or “inspired”
by God (16). This means that Scripture
does not have a life of its own, nor is it limited by human words. No, when Paul tells Timothy that God has
breathed God’s life into Scripture, he says the “written Word” points us back
to the life of God himself. When we
read, believe and live the true ‘word of God’ in Scripture, God gives the same “God-breathed” or “inspired” life he
gave life to Adam, to Moses, to Timothy, and now makes available for us. It is this very life-giving word from God’s
own life, based upon God's on authority and power for life, the Bible becomes “useful” for “teaching”, “rebuking”
for “correcting” and for “training” in “righteousness” to help “God’s
people be equipped for every good
work”. As sure as the word reveals God’s
divine life, God continues speak the very words of life through Scripture.
Notice once more, with a keener eye, the most basic truth Paul is reminding Timothy in
this text. He is speaking to this young Timothy who has
known the Scriptures since birth, who is already a follower of Jesus, and who
is studying to be a minister and missionary along with Paul. Paul writes to this one who has known the
Scripture all his life, even since infancy, these words: “But as for you, CONTINUE IN WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from
infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE YOU WISE FOR
SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. (2Ti 3:14-15 TNIV). Do you grasp the meaning here? Timothy
needs to “continue” in the
Scriptures not because Timothy can lose his salvation, but Timothy needs to
stay in the Scriptures because God has not given all of life or salvation to Timothy
yet. God still gives the life-saving, and life-renewing conditions for life and hope through God’s revelation of himself, particularly revealed in life of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
This brings back to the word “authority”. It
also brings us back around all the hot button issues about who can rightly
define marriage, or even about whether or not one should “eat more chicken,”
---or any other question a person might put to the Bible. If God’s word of truth found in Scripture “rebukes” or “corrects” our thinking, and hopefully “trains us” us about God’s “righteousness”, then the living Word of Scripture is only
considered “useful” for the purpose
of making people “wise unto salvation”.
We must not “use” or misuse Scripture
for proving our own points.
Scripture already has a purpose and a point.
As followers of God’s word and people of the book, we don’t have to defend
Scripture to the world, nor beat people over the head with its revealed truth
about marriage nor even about its most important revelation of Jesus as God’s
son. The living Spirit of truth is
perfectly able to protect the truth and judge the world. Spurgeon, the great Baptists preacher of
another age used to say, “The Bible is like a lion, just turn it loose and let
it go.”
So the question about God’s authority for life revealed in Scripture put
to us is not “how we you using the Bible”, but do we let the Bible’s message
find us? Do we let the message of Scripture useful for “making us wise unto salvation” in
Jesus Christ? In the moral confusion of our times, sharing
Christ’s love is how we show the life-giving power and authority of the
Bible. The apostle Paul gave us all way
to express the ultimate “saving” message of the Bible, when he pronounced this final
blessing. In his second letter to the
Corinthians, Paul closes with this prayer: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2Co 13:14-1 TNIV). When we “continue” to mediate upon the “grace
of our Lord Jesus” and “continue”
to learn more of the “love of God” “for all”, and when we study the Bible, not
alone, but in the “fellowship of the
Holy Spirit”, we gain the very life of God. This ongoing experience of grace, of love
and of fellowship, is how God continues to inspire and instill the power of life
and the authority for life in us and through us. Amen.
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