2 Tim 4: Loving His Appearing

Sermon Outline

Text: 2 Tim 4:1-8

Paul about to be killed in Rome

Paul passing the baton to his disciple and spiritual son, Timothy

Recap

Chapter 1: Paul gives Timothy the charge to guard the gospel
Chapter 2: Paul gives Timothy the charge to suffer for the gospel
Chapter 3: Paul gives Timothy the charge to continue in the gospel
Today, we’re in final chapter of this letter, chapter 4.

2 Tim 4:1-2

Paul charges Timothy with one final thing–proclaim the gospel

You think Paul is a little concerned about the gospel?

Why is Paul so adamant that Timothy takes the baton and guards the gospel and suffers for the gospel and continues in the gospel and keeps proclaiming the gospel over and over again?
It’s because if you fail to understand the gospel, you can’t be saved

In the Bible, there are many, many other good ideas and advice and tips for wise, happy living

Topics: purpose, meaning of life, marriage, parenting, community, social work, how to win friends and influence people, the importance of integrity and honesty and telling the truth
But if you miss this one message–the gospel–you might know a lot of Bible and you might have many good biblical ideas in your head, but if you fail to grasp the gospel, then you’ve lost everything

We just celebrated Easter

Passion Week leading up to Easter Sunday pretty summarizes the gospel
What is this gospel that Paul is so obsessed with?
Define the gospel

Why is it so hard to hold onto the gospel?

2 Tim 4:3-4
It’s hard to hold onto the gospel because we live in a time when people are no longer tolerant of sound doctrine (=gospel)
Instead of holding onto the gospel, the truth, they turned away from the gospel and turned aside to myths, to false ideas which were not based on the gospel

What was the trigger to cause people to want to turn away from the gospel?

2 Tim 4:3
They had an “itch to hear something new”
I don’t know about you, but I hate re-runs
Like a movie or a TV show, I have a hard enough time staying awake for the first time

Paul is basically saying, hit rewind and play the same track over and over again

Not shuffle mode on your ipod, but repeat mode with one track called the gospel
Paul must have seen the battle ahead with the rise of false teachers who would be quick to teach novel ideas, new teachings that satisfy the itching ears of the hearers
Paul knew how hard it would be to major in the gospel and let other ideas remain as minor, peripheral teachings

If you are at a church for a few weeks and certainly after a few years, you can get a sense of what their main thing is

Missions, evangelism, helping the poor, discipleship, community service
But it is my prayer that we would be a gospel-centered church
That means, whether you are here for a few weeks or a few years, by listening to the preached Word, you walk away knowing how important the gospel is

I admit, sometimes I am tempted to teach some new vision, some new revelation, a new project, new program

Because I get worry–what if you guys get bored hearing the same message over and over
Think about how difficult it is for me to preach the same message over and over
But this is Paul’s charge to Timothy–proclaim the gospel–and it remains a charge for all ministers of the gospel since

For Paul, he preached the same gospel over and over and what was the result in his personal life?

2 Tim 4:6-7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith
This was his shout of victory as he neared the end of his life–I made it, I have kept the faith!
He didn’t shout, My churches! Look at my churches! Look at how much ministry I did!
He said, I have kept the faith and this was the direct result of preaching the gospel, not only to the Gentiles, to others, but preaching the gospel to himself

When was the last time you preached the gospel to yourself?

Jesus died on the cross for YOUR sin, my sin
Jesus was raised from the dead for YOU and for me
God loves me THIS much
I am His child
My worth comes from my identity as His son or daughter
It’s not about my performance, it’s not about my accomplishments, or how great everyone thinks I am
The only thing that matters is keeping my faith in Christ to the very end

When is the last time you preached the gospel to yourself?

I hope you did it today, and if not, I hope you did it yesterday, or the day before, or two days ago
We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day

What are you going to shout at the end of your life?

My money?!? Sorry, you can’t take a cent with you when you’re dead
Or, my achievements?!? Sad to say, I hate to break it to you, but most of us will not be remembered at all outside of our family when we die
Even if you were a smashing success in this life, your life will not amount to much more than a few lines in a textbook
Or a manilla folder of a few publications in some obscure journal that nobody reads
Or maybe a box of books if you were a prolific writer, maybe at best your life will amount to a two hour movie special, but that’s it

What are you going to shout at the end of your life?

My kids?!? You can’t save them. They will stand alone before God just like you and me
My ministry?!? Ministry will not save you
Only Jesus saves

You began your spiritual life with, Jesus, have mercy!

And at the end of our lives, won’t we be shouting the same thing? Jesus, have mercy!
The only thing that saves is Jesus Christ and so may our last words of victory be, I have kept the faith in Jesus Christ because He alone can forgive sins and save me

What if you attend a gospel-centered church and you preach the gospel to yourself every chance you get, does this guarantee that you will enjoy a Spirit-filled, fruitful, joyous, bold, unstoppable, overflowing, abundant Christian life? REPEAT

This is in my humble opinion, the limitation of the Reformed position, esp. the cessationists

People in the Reformed camp give off the impression, at least to me, that as long as I have the Word, I’m set
I speak this critique as one who identifies very much with the Reformed camp
I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, I believe in the inspiration of Scripture, the authority of Scripture
I believe it is every minister’s duty to guard the primary message of the Bible–the gospel–from corruption because there are a lot of false teachers around us
I believe we must preach and proclaim the gospel to ourselves and to the world
But if it ends there, I think the Reformed camp has done a great disservice
Because they give the wrong impression that as long as your doctrine is tight and in order, then you’re fine
No, this is so untrue

There is a thing called life

It’s one thing to preach the gospel, it’s another thing entirely to live out the gospel with power and conviction and joy
Preaching/teaching AND living–these are two separate matters
1 Tim 4:16 – “Pay close attention to your life and your teaching.”
Of course, if your teaching is off, then you haven’t even gotten to first base
Teaching is very important
But teaching is only a necessary prerequisite
Good teaching alone will not help you fight your good fight and finish your race and keep your faith to the end

Just because your understanding of the Bible is solid doesn’t mean that you’re a Christian

There are many people in the world who fill up pews and they say they know Christ, but on that day, Jesus will say, I never knew you
Our doctrine alone is insufficient to save, even the Word of God is insufficient
Satan is a better theologian than any of us and look where he’s going

The ultimate litmus test of saving faith is your life

Are you living out the gospel?
Does your life bear the marks of what a Spirit-filled, fruitful disciple ought to look like?

2 Tim 3 warns against those within the church who act like they are saved but they are not

Paul describes them as people with a form of godliness
An outer shell, hollow, lacking substance
With solid, Bible teaching, you can have a great looking exterior, you may have the form of a Christian

But where does the substance come from?

From a real encounter with Jesus, or a filling of the Spirit, which come through the preaching of the Word
The preached Word of God is important because it is the vehicle by which the vast majority of people are saved
But hear me on this–the Word is merely a vehicle, a channel through which the Spirit blows and God breathes life into dead spiritual corpses
It’s the Word and the Spirit coming together
A real encounter with Jesus occurs
The result is a new life, salvation

The Reformed camp and the charismatic camp must be brought together

When these 2 come together, you get a changed life

If we treat Paul as a divinely inspired writer of these letters and we divorce Paul the writer from Paul the person, we’re just left with a shell

So we have pastors today trying to imitate either Paul’s message or his ministry
What was his message? Preach the gospel. Okay, all I need to do is to be faithful in preaching the gospel
Or, all I need to do is to be a ministry machine like Paul

For me, I feel myself swinging between these 2 pendulums

In my early years, Christian life is all about ministry
In recent years, Christian life is all about being faithful to the preaching of the Word, specifically the gospel

I believe both extremes are wrong

Paul is not merely a theologian and preacher
And we are not mere students of theology who hear a lecture and regurgitate facts to prove that we understood what was taught
And though Paul did plant many churches and do a lot of ministry, it would be an unfair characterization to call him a ministry machine and to imitate him in this ministry methodology and missions strategy

Brothers and sisters, we are not called to be professional scholars in terms of our faith

Nor are we called to be professional employees reporting to God, our Boss, with status reports of all the ministry we have done in His name
We are called to be Christian, Christ followers, a little Christ, ones who embody the grace of God and who display to the world the power of the gospel to transform lives

2 Tim 4:8

This is one verse I want you to remember for the rest of your life
Who is going to be saved along with Paul?
“…all those who have loved His appearing”
Whose appearing? Jesus
The word for “appearing” in the Greek is the basis for our English word for “epiphany”
It means there was a manifestation, glory showed up, light shined in
That’s a good way to describe salvation
While you were not yet saved, you never thought about Jesus deeply, or if you did, He was just some religious teacher, but one day, you had an epiphany
You had your Aha moment

NIV – translates this verse as “longed for” his appearing

I think a better translation for “longed for” is “loved” (HCSB and ESV)
It’s not wrong to say, longed for his appearing, because you do long for something or someone whom you love
If you are a parent away from your spouse or your kids, you long to see them again because you love them
But I think “longed for” but is an unfortunate translation because it gives off the impression that Jesus’ appearance is entirely future
We all agree that the Second Coming is going to be a future event

Does that mean that there are zero appearances by Jesus between his first and second coming?

I don’t think so. For one, the grammar clues us into the fact that Jesus is always appearing
The word for “love” is actually a participle in the perfect tense
Hence the title of today’s sermon, Loving His Appearing
We are a people loving his appearing

Loving is a participle

And it’s in the perfect tense–the perfect tense refers to an action that was COMPLETED at a specific point of time in the past with results CONTINUING into the present
For example, I might say, I have closed the door–this speaks of a past completed event But the implication is that as a result, the door is still closed
I have closed the door and it is closed at present
Likewise, Jesus appeared 2,000 years ago at a particular point in history
Some who were alive to witness this life of Jesus in the first century became his disciples and they loved His appearing then

For the believer today, we, too, loved His appearing

The first time when Jesus met us and we encountered Him, probably at church, or a retreat, or when a Christian shared the gospel with you, as the Word of God was spoken, Christ appeared in your life for the first time and you were born again
But is that the last time you met Jesus? I hope not.
Preached Word, open your Bible in the morning, prayer time, answered prayers, miracle of salvation

Paul was not merely a theologian or a ministry machine

Paul was a witness to countless appearances of the Lord throughout his 30 year ministry
A witness is someone who sees and hears something
If you get into a car accident, you might two parties involved, one guy gives his side of the story and the other guy gives his side and what do you do if the stories don’t match
You look for witnesses
I saw that the light was yellow and the guy sped up and arrived at the intersection when the light was turning red
The witness acts to validate or verify one of the stories

Likewise, Paul was a witness

Acts 26:16 – “But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and of what I will reveal to you.”
He saw and heard things
We know about his miraculous salvation
He had an epiphany
Jesus showed up as a flash of light that blinded Saul of Tarsus before he was renamed Paul
He heard the voice of the Good Shepherd

If that was the only time Paul witnessed the appearing of the Lord, then it would follow that he would write in 2 Tim 4:8 that he longed for his future appearing

But he doesn’t–he writes, loving his appearing
Why?
Because the Lord appeared to Paul numerous times

Paul writes about one appearing of the Lord in 2 Tim 4:17

The close of this letter from v9 to the end show Paul’s human side
He is discouraged because close companions like Demas have fallen away and he is sad humanistically that the rest have departed due to the call to preach the gospel in other areas
He asks for Mark, the one who had deserted him in an earlier mission trip
By now, Paul is lying in a dark prison and must be cold so he asks for his cloak
And he asks for the scrolls because he is bored for a lack of reading material inside a prison cell
Then, in v14-15, he mentions being persecuted severely by Alexander the coppersmith
Why was Alexander so upset? Because the sale of silver idols was a big money making business, but due to the success of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, sales were in sharp decline
Paul was put on trial and he was deserted, he was alone
But in the midst of his loneliness and while he is on trial, v17 happens
The Lord appears and his appearance makes all the difference
Paul was strengthened

Let me share a few more appearances from the book of Acts 19:21

Paul did not plant churches haphazardly
Paul did not go from city to city because he got tired of one city and wanted a change of scenery
Paul’s ministry in Ephesus was thriving – read Eph 19-20
Logically, he as the pastor of a thriving congregation should have stayed in Ephesus
Yet, why did Paul feel compelled to leave Ephesus and go to Jerusalem?
Only one reason – the Lord appeared
It says, Paul was resolved in the Spirit, capital S
The Holy Spirit gave him inner resolve to go to Jerusalem
The Lord appeared, the Lord spoke and Paul immediately obeyed

In Acts 20:22-23 when Paul is saying his tearful farewell with the Ephesian elders

Because he is off to Jerusalem in obedience to the Holy Spirit, again Paul reveals that the Holy Spirit has been regularly appearing to him
Every town that Paul moved to was a direct result of the Holy Spirit appearing to him
And from town to town, each time, the Holy Spirit testified the suffering that awaited Paul
How much more frequent these divine appearance must have been to Paul given the fact that Paul was moving to Jerusalem and Rome, his final leg of his ministry where the suffering would be fiercest

Starting in Acts 21, Paul is in Jerusalem and then in Rome and just as the Holy Spirit warned, he is in a fight for his life

In Acts 23, the Jewish leaders are so angry with Paul that they conspire to kill him

Acts 23:11

The Lord appears again, perhaps because Paul’s courage is failing
God intervenes to stop the ambush
He mobilizes son of Paul’s sister in v16 to tell Paul about the ambush and then Paul tells one of the centurions and then Paul is safely escorted out of Jerusalem to Caesarea

From this point, Paul goes on a series of trials before Roman officials, the Roman governor Felix, then Festus, then King Agrippa

Paul fulfills his ministry to be a witness to them of what he has seen and heard about the Lord
Now it’s time to sail for Rome
On the way, a storm hits and everyone is fearing for their lives, except for Paul
Why?
Again, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
Acts 27:21- 25
What gave Paul peace in the midst of a life threatening storm? A divine visitation, an appearing

What do we make of this Paul? He’s not a dry academic and he’s not a ministry machine

He’s this interesting mix of preacher, teacher, evangelist who is Spirit-filled and regularly visited by the Lord
When Paul is on trial before King Agrippa, Paul says this in Acts 26:8 – “Why is it considered incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?”
This is the crux of the Christian faith–we believe that very Son of God walked on this earth and He died and rose again
And Jews put him on trial because they refused to believe that God would work in this way
They put God in a box
This Jesus didn’t fit into their box
The resurrection ought to explode the box of religion forever
From beginning to end, the Christian faith is a supernatural faith
God is too big for our boxes, He doesn’t fit into our boxes
We can’t fully explain Him with our doctrine and creeds
He’s an infinite God

Even among the Jews in Acts 23, there are 2 groups

The Sadducees and the Pharisees
It’s interesting because there is a key difference between these 2 groups
Acts 23:6-8
The Sadducees deny the supernatural completely
There can be no resurrection, no angel, no spirit, nothing supernatural because you can’t fit the supernatural into a box and explain it neatly
For the Pharisee, on the other hand, the supernatural is possible so some even concede in v9 – “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken” to Paul?

Forgive my bluntness, but I think there are many modern day Sadducees in the church today

Other than the resurrection, they completely deny the supernatural
The Sadducees is not only a Jewish problem
We all have this tendency to be Sadducees
Many today even go so far as to say that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased
I hope I’ve made my case that you can’t take Paul’s teaching without looking at his life
And Paul’s life from beginning to end is supernatural
The Lord appeared to Paul countless times
He didn’t just encounter Jesus once on the Damascus Road during his conversion but he encountered Jesus, the Holy Spirit, angels sent from the Lord on a regular basis
You can’t explain Paul’s life without seeing the supernatural hand of God molding and shaping, guiding, comforting, strengthening, empowering him

Don’t be a Christian Sadducee who says, the Bible is all I need

Yes, you need the Bible, but the Bible is just a vehicle of redemption, a channel through which the person of the Holy Spirit blows and God breathes life into dead hearts
We must bridge the gap between the Bible and the present workings of the Holy Spirit–the two will not contradict each other
We must be a people who love the appearing of Christ, not just once, not just twice when He returns, but every day of our journey to see Him face to face

Acts 28:23-28

The book of Acts ends with Paul preaching the kingdom of God from dawn to dusk about the gospel of Jesus
And because the Jewish people refused to receive Jesus, they fulfilled the prophecy written in Isaiah that the gospel would move on to the Gentiles
This is God’s judgment against the Jewish nation: you will listen but not understand, you will look and never perceive
We can spend decades in the church and listen and look and have absolutely nothing enter our hearts
God is looking for people who will be true witnesses, those with open eyes and open ears, people who see and hear things
People who have personal testimony of the Lord appearing to them through his Word, through prayer, through amazing orchestration of circumstances