Episode 238: Second Timothy: Three Buckets | Tim Henderson+

Introduction

Thank you, friends. Good to see you all. You doing okay? Alright.

Hey, I'm gonna read you something and I'm curious. I wonder if some of you might recognize this. Probably the older you are, the more likely you are to recognize this. So you're about to out yourself.

Fans, for the past two weeks, you've been reading about a bad break I got, yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I've been in ballparks for seventeen years, and I have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with even one of them for one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Rupert, also the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow, to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins, and then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy.

Sure, I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat and vice versa, sends you a gift, that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in the white coats remember you with trophies, that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it's a blessing.

And when you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, well, that's the finest I know. So I close in saying that I might have had a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Thank you.

Do you know it? What was that you guys? Lou Gehrig. That's exactly right. Some of you might remember the name of Lou Gehrig. That's known as the Gettysburg Address Of Baseball. It's the farewell address of Lou Gehrig. After, of course, what precipitated that speech you guys?

ALS, that's right. Shortly after he discovered that he had he had ALS, which is a dreadful, debilitating, progressive death sentence, he gave that speech.

There is something about farewell addresses. They crystallize and they focus on what's important, while the less significant things tend to fade away. In Lou Gehrig's case, the thing that remained when everything else passed was gratitude.

Right? He has this news that any reasonable person would dread, and yet he exuded thankfulness. I think people's last words take on a special weight.

There's a bunch of them in the bible, there's Moses' farewell address on the banks of the Jordan, which is essentially the entirety of the book of Deuteronomy. There's David's farewell address, the end of Second Chronicles. There's what you might consider to be Jesus' farewell address in the later middle chapters of John, kind of the upper room discourse. And there, others that we've captured throughout history.

Right? George Washington's farewell address is a big one. That'd be worth going home and googling. That was just prescient insights. Eisenhower's farewell address, that was also really important. And maybe, honestly, so was your mom's, even if you're the only person who had a chance to hear it.

Right? Farewell addresses matter. They take on a special weight. And this week we're gonna start a new series on a farewell address in the bible known as Second Timothy. Sometimes we'll call it Second Tim.

If you looked at it, if you just kinda read it, it would look like two Timothy, which is the way our British Christian brothers and sisters say it. The name is meant to indicate, kinda as Al indicated, that it is the second of two letters written by the apostle Paul to his favorite protege, a young pastor named Timothy.

Now while we're here, I'll just throw this out there that the naming convention in the New Testament is a little bit inconsistent. Right? Sometimes what you'll get is letters are named after their authors. So First John, Second John, Third John, First, Second Peter, James—that's all indicating who wrote the letter, but Paul just wrote way too many.

So we don't call them first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, Paul. We name Paul's letters after the recipients, whether they're individuals like Timothy, or Titus, or Philemon, those are all from Paul to those men, or if they're written to communities of believers like the Ephesians in Ephesus, or the Romans of Rome.

Okay? So Second Tim is from Paul to Timothy, and it's the second and last letter that he wrote to him. And in fact, as near as we can tell, it's the last letter that Paul wrote to anybody.

It's certainly the last letter that he wrote that was included in the bible. It is his farewell address.

And we're gonna be in Second Timothy for about the next seven or eight weeks, I think. And today, my job is to try to give you like the overview. We're gonna zoom out and give you the big picture of Second Timothy so that everything else that you're gonna hear in the weeks to come will kinda have a category you can fit it into a box that you can place it.

And what I hope that you might do is after we're done looking at the overview today is go home and read it. It's four chapters. It would take you, I mean, ten minutes. If that, maybe eight minutes to read through the whole thing. Okay?

And I want you to see, I'd love you just to grasp and understand the structure to know what were the final things that were on Paul's mind. Because you guys, Paul was an absolute giant of a man. He is enormously significant.

In fact, more than any of Jesus' followers in that first century, I think Paul is our guy. He, more than anybody, he laid the foundation for the church. He was enormously significant. His theological insights were just of an extraordinary depth and breadth. His sufferings and his travel to plant churches were unparalleled.

He was the chief evangelist. He was the chief discipler in the first century of the church. And in fact, I would say, this is somewhat insulting to the other 12, but I think that his contributions really did outpace any of the other 12 disciples, which is a little bit extraordinary if you think about it.

We had these 12 men who had the incredible privilege. They spent three years up front, close, directly engaging with Jesus. They walked with him, they heard his stories firsthand, they watched him die. And Paul wasn't part of any of that. He didn't meet Jesus during any of those years.

In fact, it was three or four years later after Jesus had died and risen from the dead that Paul had this experience, this engagement with the risen Christ that completely changed his life, and as a result of that, the man turned the world upside down.

If you feel like, if you've ever felt like you're a little bit at a disadvantage, that you didn't get that three-year up-close tutelage with Jesus, well, neither did Paul, and he crushed it. Okay? I would I would put this guy as number two behind Jesus, as the second most influential person who has ever lived. He is he is an absolute giant.

And these are his last words. Okay? So what we're gonna do, as I said, 30,000 foot overview of Second Timothy, and then invite you to go home and read it and kinda see how this make. I'm not making this up. I think if you listen here and you go home and read it, be like, oh, yeah. That was all true. It is true. Okay?

Look for the markers that I'm about to give to you. Learn the contours of the book because while Paul, how do I do this without covers a ton of ground. Pretty much everything he says is gonna fall into one of three general areas. Three buckets, three themes, three topics that you can organize his comments into.

So what we're gonna do, we'll play a game. I'll read you a bunch of passages and then you tell me what unifies this. What's the bucket that defines these, you know, half a dozen or so texts. Okay? And we'll have them on screen.

So Second Timothy, or all Second Timothy chapter one verse six. Come up with a heading for these. Paul says,

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self discipline.

Or how about this, one eight, Paul says,

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

Or later on, chapter one verse 13, Paul says,

What you have heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was guard it, the deposit that was inherited to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Chapter two, he says,

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And two three,

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Two ten,

Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

What unifies those? What seems to be the theme that pulls all these passages together? What's he saying?

Persevere, endure, what else? Be bold, suffer, take the hit, don't give up, don't be a sissy. Stay in the game, Timothy. Right?

That's what he's saying over and over and over again. It's going to be hard, you're going to suffer, it's going to be painful. Do it anyway. Suffer. Dig in. Don't wimp out. Take the hit.

These are Paul's last words. Paul is dying. He knows that he is dying, and he is passing the torch to Timothy. He says, Timothy, it's yours. Don't blow it. Suffer. Stay in the game. It kinda read this idea reaches its climax in chapter four.

Look at, listen to four one. This is like so solemn from Paul, this dying man to his protege.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge. Preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.

Paul is telling Timothy, dude, don't give up. It is this letter is a call to arms, to Timothy, but also to us. Okay?

The Second Bucket: False Teachers and the Coming Collapse

Listen to this pharaoh speech. Listen to the refrain here, and tell me what unifies this.

Warn them before God against quarreling about words. It is of no value, and it only ruins those who listen.

Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene.

Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they produce quarrels.

But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents.

Don't you love how he slips that one in there? Ungrateful, unholy, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure other than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, have nothing to do with them.

They're the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

Loaded down with sins, dissuaded by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

Evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Finally, chapter four verse three, for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around themselves a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

What's the bucket, you guys? What what unifies all of that? What what the threat that Paul sees?

Collaps.

Is that what I heard? Yeah.

And what what what form? What's gonna lead to this collapse, George? What's what's what's coming? What's the threat?

False teachers.

Now there's all kinds of implications. Immorality flows out of this thing, but the centerpiece of this is that Paul looks into the future and he sees this dreadful specter of false teachers that are coming.

He says, Timothy, error is coming. Dark days are coming, and it is absolutely crucial that you teach your people the truth of the gospel. Prepare them, equip them. They've gotta learn how to read the scriptures. They've gotta learn how to discern truth from error.

Do not let them get caught up in these stupid little eddies of foolishness, these dumb ideas that people are bouncing around. The heretics are coming. They're gonna spin up controversies. They're gonna lie to you. They're gonna sow confusion.

You, Timothy, you must ground your people in the word of God. Remind them what I taught you. Do not let the liars and the heretics get over the wall. They're coming, don't put them in your pulpits. Prepare the people so that when they come, they find no fertile ground, no minds able to receive the stupidity and the lies and the heresy, the apostasy that they seek to bring with them.

Don't let it happen.

The Third Bucket: Loneliness, Faithfulness, and Forgiveness

Listen to this. Chapter four, verse nine.

Do your best to come to me quickly. For Demas, because he loved this world, deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Croesus has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatians, and only Luke is with me.

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. And he says, you should be on your guard against him too.

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

Do your best to get here before winter.

What's bucket, you guys? What is it?

Forgiveness.

For okay. So there is this attitude of graciousness to all these ones that have deserted him. That's absolutely true. I don't think that's the center, but that is Paul is he's a disciple of Christ. He's gracious. He's kind to all these.

What else? What unifies this, you guys?

He's lonely. He's sad. Like everyone has deserted him. He's like under these incredibly difficult situations why he needs to forgive him because they burned him, right?

He is as Timothy writes this letter, he's in prison. Now, Timothy has been in prison before. In fact, he's kind been in and out of prison most of his adulthood, and he's written letters from prison.

If you read Philippians, Philippians was written in jail, but it has a totally different tone. Philippians is the book that says, rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice, right?

There's this hopeful optimism, there's this enthusiasm that permeates Philippians. Not so Second Timothy. He is in a dungeon, it is dank, he is cold, and he knows, you guys.

We don't know if he knows this simply by the observation of the facts, things that are around him, or if he knows by divine revelation, but he knows that he's going to die here. It is dank. It is cold. He is alone. He has been abandoned.

And he asks Timothy, come soon, hurry, hurry, hurry. Right? Twice. In verse nine he says, do your best to come to me quickly. In verse 21 of chapter four, do your best to get here before winter.

He asked him when he says, when you come, bring a blanket and a bible. That's what he means when he says, bring my cloak, bring my scrolls, especially the parchments.

He is sad, he is lonely, wants his bible and his blankie. Right? He's in a dungeon. And he rattles off all these people that have abandoned him. Right? You know, Demas, unlike that guy. Alexander, he was bad news. All the unnamed deserters.

I guess when I read this, this hurts me because I love Paul. I feel an enormous fondness towards him, enormous amount of gratitude towards him.

There is so much goodness in my life because of this one guy. The benefits that I have received, because of what he wrote, what he suffered, his faithfulness to preach the gospel is just absolutely enormous.

I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but I am, and you very you too, I think both of us, all of us, are very likely direct descendants of the apostle Paul.

It is very likely that Paul shared the gospel with someone who shared the gospel with someone who shared the gospel with someone who shared the gospel with you. You are probably a Christian today because of the faithfulness of the apostle Paul, and he suffered terribly.

Right now, as he writes this, the wheels have come off. He has given his life to the spread of the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. He's dying in a dank prison. The false teachers are coming. Everyone is deserted, and he tells Timothy, dude, you have got to get it done, because I'm not leaving this hole.

It's gonna be up to you. There's this urgency to the message, his final words, this Pharaoh address. He's saying, listen, the Lord's purposes will prevail. It doesn't sound like he's worried about that. It's gonna happen. But it's going to hurt, so get after it.

Everything hangs on the faithfulness of the people of God.

A couple weeks ago, Andy Fetzer said, we are plan A, and there is no plan B, so let's go. And that's what Second Timothy is all about. It's quite a letter.

Application

Okay, that's the big picture of Second Timothy. Three buckets. Bucket one again is what? Take the hit, suffer, don't be a sissy. Bucket two? False teacher to come and strap in, learn your bible, teach in the scriptures. Bucket three? Sad, I'm lonely, he's hurting, okay?

Now, that's the big picture. I want to indulge me for a second more. I want to show you chapter one just a little bit. I'm gonna give you the opening paragraphs of chapter one. That's the big picture, but in chapter one we can see it.

So everything I just said to you is true. You're gonna watch it happen in the first opening paragraph here. Look at one one.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus to Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

All that means is it's from Paul to Timothy, just like we said. Okay? But it's to Timothy who he loves. He adores Timothy. Timothy is Paul's favorite.

And he says this in verse three,

I thank God whom I serve as my forefathers did with a clear conscience. As night and day, I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

What bucket is that? That's bucket three, right? It's lonely. Come soon. I long to see you. I'm saying, permeates the letter.

Okay? So the third letter is lonely. Come. Come before winter. Bring my bible.

Now how about this, which bucket is this? Skip ahead to six, seven, and eight, and tell me what's the bucket, what's theme is this?

Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self discipline.

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

What bucket is that? Suffering. That's the first one, suffer. He's like, it's the first one. It's Timothy, don't be timid. Don't shrink back. Don't be ashamed. Join me in suffering.

He's like, it's the first one. It's Timothy, don't be timid. Don't shrink back. Don't be ashamed. Join me in suffering. Okay?

Now we've seen it in the permeates' letter. It's all over the place. When you go back this afternoon and you read through it, you're gonna see it all throughout the whole letter.

What's a little bit different here, and the value add for this, is this time he doesn't just tell you what to do, which is to engage, Ruth Allen. Don't kill. Don't quit. Don't give up. Stay. Suffer.

He doesn't just tell you what to do, but he tells you this time how to do it. Here's the resource from which you can draw so that you can remain in the game.

Go down to, and I didn't make a slide. I don't know why I blew it. I didn't make a slide for this part. So look in your Bibles. Nine, verse nine, and then verse 11.

God has saved us, and he called us to a holy life.

And of this gospel I was appointed a herald, and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am.

What Paul is saying is this, he's saying, Paul was called. Paul was appointed, and therefore, he suffered.

I would suggest to you that if you don't think that you're called, if you don't think you have an assignment, if you don't think that God particularly cares what you do with your life, then you're probably going to do whatever you feel like doing.

And it's very unlikely that you feel like suffering. I don't think Paul did. You probably feel like spending your time, your energy, your money, your life, and whatever happens to amuse and delight you.

Of course you do. So do I. So did Paul. But overriding that, Paul believed that he had been given a gift. And he believed that Timothy was given the same gift.

The gift of a calling, the gift of an assignment, the gift of a mission. Paul was not doomed to a life of insignificant self amusement. He was given the gift of meaningful suffering to a glorious end, and he thought that Timothy had been given the same gift as well.

That is what drives this whole thing. Timothy fanned into flame the gift. Don't be timid. Join with me in suffering. Not meaningless suffering, but suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

You guys, for the next eight weeks, you have two options. Okay? First option is not bad. You can listen to us talk about Second Tim like it's somebody else's mail.

Paul was given a gift, Timothy was given a gift, and it's interesting to read about that. Right? They had a calling, they had a mission in their lives, had a painful but glorious mission.

And it is perhaps good enough to be an audience member to that great show. But there is another option, and that is this, that you can believe that you are also a recipient of this letter.

That Paul wrote it to Timothy, but God wrote it to you. Perhaps he wrote it to you to call you deeper into the journey, and deeper into the suffering, and deeper into the glory of the work of Christ on the earth.

You could accept that gift, and you could accept the fact that your life is not to be misspent in vain amusements and purposeless suffering. For you're going to suffer either way. Why not suffer for something that will matter in a billion years?

I hope that you will have the courage to believe that God has called you into a more arduous and far more glorious journey. That maybe even you'll literally do this with your pen and your bible, literally cross out the title Second Timothy, and write in First Warner, First Joe, First Nancy.

Is the letter written to you or isn't it? If it's a letter written to you, then you could enter into the glory of what he's called you to.

I wonder if you guys know the poem. Do you know anybody know the poem In Flanders Fields? Probably the most famous tribute from World War One. Was written by one of our Canadian allies. I wish it was written by an American because they always root for the home team, but you know, whatever. Okay?

This this poem, you'll you'll you'll hear it in a second. This poem, it captures the spirit, I think, of Second Timothy pretty well. Flanders Fields is a battlefield that was turned into a cemetery in Belgium, where literally and actually a million people gave their lives.

The poem goes like this.

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow between the crosses row on row that mark our place. And in the sky, the larks still bravely singing fly scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago, we lived, fell dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe. To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high. If ye break fight faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.

The question of Second Timothy is, will you take up the torch? Yes.

Paul and Timothy labored to see that the good news of Jesus Christ would spread throughout the earth, not just the Roman world of that day, but throughout the centuries all the way to you. And they succeeded.

But y'all, the gospel came to us on the way to someone else. They made disciples who made disciples. They did not waste their lives so that we might be disciples. Who make disciples? That we would be willing to suffer? That we would guard our doctrine closely? We would teach true things in a world that just loves to lie?

And they throw the torch to us. Guys, the generation now living is our stewardship. If we fail at this and our children pick it up, if the generation that come comes alive and preaches the gospel and succeeds in the mission, they can do nothing for the generation that passes their probation with us.

Those that are alive today are ours to reach. They are ours to serve. They are ours to suffer for. And so I invite you, don't let this book be someone else's mail. Cross out Second Timothy. Write down your name. Suffer. Guard your teaching. And in the loneliness of the gospel, persevere.

Invitation and Closing Prayer

I'm gonna invite you, if you'd like to come forward here, the rail is for you.

It might be that you've been in the mission, you've been in the game for a long, long time, and you're weary and you're tired and you don't wanna play anymore. I get that. Paul gets that. Paul has these moments where he just can't go another step, and the Spirit refreshes him, reminds him that it's only by the Spirit's power that we do it.

Come down and ask him again to renew you to stay in the game. Or maybe for the first time you think, I didn't know what was written to me. It is. And you can come and you can be part of it.

Whatever God is doing in your life, we invite you to come forward and to meet with him.

Lord Jesus, you are the one we love. You are the one we adore. You are the one, Lord, who persevered to the uttermost. You are the one that suffered just the agonizing miseries of the garden and the greater agonies of the cross.

You are the great teacher. You are the one who always says true things. You are the embodiment of perfect doctrine. You are the one we love. And you are the one who was lonely. Lord, you know what it is for all of your friends to abandon you at your greatest moment of need.

And I pray that you might resource us to be like you, that the Spirit that dwelt in you would dwell in us. And that we would faithfully take up the torch to your glory and our joy. Come soon, Lord Jesus. We love you. Amen.