Leaving a Legacy of Faith | 2 Timothy 1:1-5 | Pastor Dave Hentschel

Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy.

We gather here as members of a historic movement, a gospel movement with a message that saved and changed the world.

When this church began in 1851, it was during a time when our nation was divided against itself.

Though our country was still young, it was a time leading up to the Civil War in the United States.

But the leaders of NBC were united by a common purpose.

They were unified about what they were fighting against, and they were also unified about what they were fighting for.

And so our church was born.

The scriptures tell us that the gospel is a foolish idea, a scandal.

But in this delusion, we embraced a vision of putting an outpost for the kingdom of heaven right here at 520 King George Road, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and Millington Baptist Church was born.

Our original core group did this together.

And under the current leadership of this church, we will once again take on the task of envisioning a new future, driven by a vision of a future as a gospel-preaching church that will serve as not just the hope of our own community, but as part of the universal church of Jesus Christ, which is indeed the hope of the whole world.

The church was founded 175 years ago, but the roots of this movement are from long before that.

We're part of the movement that was predicted by the Lord Jesus Christ that he prophesied to build when he was at Caesarea Philippi, saying, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

We are his body.

We are bound together by the deepest bonds that a human could possibly ever share, forged together by the one blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his one Holy Spirit is living inside of us.

We are here today because of the sacrifices that our forefathers had made together for the resources that we are heir to today.

It was right here on this corner where our church was started.

It was right here on this corner where so many missionaries have been sent out all across the globe.

It was right here from this corner where we birthed a ministry known as Liquid Church, a very fast-growing church in New Jersey today.

And it is right here where the Lord continues to direct us and to continue these same ministry efforts in our day today.

So we're here today as again our nation is at war.

This time there's an international conflict abroad, and we are also polarized here at home.

Today many in our culture think that they have moved on from a need for the gospel, thinking that Christianity is regressive at best or hateful at worst.

We have different worldviews that are on a collision course.

We have faced challenges before.

The church has been here in days past, and we will face these challenges again.

This is why we need a compelling vision, and this is why God has given us one.

We want to be a church full of disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who are firmly planted, growing together, and made to multiply.

We want to build a church that's stronger and prouder and prepared for the challenges of our children.

We want to prepare a foundation for doctrinal instruction and catechesis.

We want to engage our culture by defending the faith in apologetics.

And we want to display our faith through serving the outcast and the oppressed in a society as we become a social witness for the Lord Jesus.

What we have inherited together is something that is unique and it is distinct and it is irreplaceable.

If we move and act together, we will hold back the forces of darkness that threaten civilization around us.

My personal story began here about 10 years ago as a pastor.

Many of you have been here much longer than me.

But however long you've been here, we have inherited together a powerful and proud legacy here.

We have a children's ministry that serves the needs of our youngest little ones and builds a strong foundation.

We have a youth ministry that's on fire for the Lord Jesus, who are shining like stars in a crooked and perverse generation.

We have a staff that's skilled and gifted and up to the task of taking our church to the next phase.

And as one of your pastors, I want to tell you right now that we are ready.

We are ready to take this next step, and we want to do it together with you, with all of our congregation, functioning as one.

This past year has been an incredible year of growth, as seen quite obviously in almost every single metric: attendance, record giving, record baptisms, and the largest classes of new membership I've ever seen.

We should be very proud of what we've achieved together over the last year, over the last few years, but now we must confront and embrace the opportunities to come.

Yesterday is now behind us and over.

The future is in front of us, and together our destiny awaits.

Every generation of Christians faces the same exact question.

Will we faithfully pass on what we received?

Some of you may remember a few months ago I talked about the image of a relay race and needing to pass the baton and how the exchange zone in a relay race is the most vulnerable and important part of the relay race.

We must pass the baton, the baton of the gospel, carefully.

The consequences of not passing the baton well are nothing short of catastrophic.

And that is the moment that we find, I think, here in the book of 2 Timothy.

So today we're beginning a sermon series through this book entitled Passing the Faith to the Next Generation.

This will be an 11-week series that will take us to the end of May.

You can see on the back of the bookmark that you got on your way in.

If you have that, the series is all laid out for you.

If you don't have it, pick one up on your way out so you can follow along and be prepared for what's coming up each week.

Last year, if you were here, we studied the book of 1 Timothy.

And originally we were thinking about doing these two studies back to back, but as we studied them, something about that just didn't feel quite right.

Those two letters are very different.

And so this study, this time, is actually perfect for where we are as a church as we celebrate our 175th anniversary.

Second Timothy is the last letter that the Apostle Paul ever wrote.

Think of that.

If you knew you only had one letter left to right, what would you write?

What would you say?

Today we'll find out what Paul says as we look at chapter one.

The title of my message is Leaving a Legacy of Faith.

We'll look at the first five verses.

And we'll see three things in our passage today.

We're gonna look at the messengers, and then we're gonna look at the message, and then we're gonna look at the method.

And with that as our plan, let's ask God for his help.

Would you pray with me together?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for gathering us here today as your people, your church.

You're the God of our generation, but you are indeed the God of every generation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who's faithfully sustained your people, your church through the centuries.

So we want to thank you for the legacy of faith that we have received, for those who prayed for us and taught us and pointed us to Christ.

And now, as we open your word, dare we ask that your Holy Spirit would speak clearly to us.

Give us ears to hear and hearts to believe, and then courage to live out the gospel that we've been entrusted with.

Strengthen our faith, I ask.

Deepen our love for Christ, and prepare us to faithfully pass the baton of the good news to the next generation.

For we ask this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

And everyone said, Amen.

Movement one, the messengers, we'll start by looking at the opening greeting in verses one and two.

The letter starts like this Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Pretty standard Pauline introduction.

This letter was written by the Apostle Paul.

Paul writes this letter to someone who was very precious to him, to Timothy, his beloved child.

Why does Paul refer to Timothy as his beloved child here?

The reason is because Timothy was a convert of the Apostle Paul at his first missionary journey that he took in Lystra, where Timothy was from.

So here, Paul, I want you to see is not writing to a co-worker, he's writing to his spiritual son.

Now, all three pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, mention Timothy, and they mention a kinship that Timothy had with Paul.

In 1 Timothy, he's called his true child in the faith.

Here he's called his beloved child, and in Titus 1:4, he's called his genuine child in a common faith.

Titus 1:4

All have a personal touch, but 2 Timothy is far more heartfelt and far more personal than any other letter that the Apostle Paul writes.

In fact, this letter contains 14 verses of introspective and autobiographical comments in its conclusion of chapter 4.

What's the setting?

Where did all of this take place?

Well, the recipient, Timothy, is a pastor at the church at Ephesus.

He's serving as the pastor there, and he has been serving as the pastor there for many years.

We learned about this in 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Paul said, as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus, so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.

So Timothy is remaining at Ephesus.

He's ministering there.

We have no evidence to think that the situation has changed whatsoever.

He's still pastoring at Ephesus.

That's where Timothy is.

Where is Paul?

Where is Paul writing from?

Well, Paul is writing from the capital of the Roman Empire.

Look at 2 Timothy 1, 16 and 17.

It says, May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onecephorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me.

So what we learn here is the geographical location of Paul as he's writing this particular letter.

And we also learn about his condition, don't we?

He's in chains.

He is a prisoner.

Again, we see this in verse 8, where Paul says, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

So Paul is in Rome and he is a prisoner.

Paul is now an accused criminal.

And there is a negative stigma in their day, as in our day as well, in terms of anyone being in prison.

And so, because of that negative stigma, there's going to be a great temptation for Timothy here.

And the great temptation is for Timothy to be ashamed of the Apostle Paul.

And we'll talk a lot more about that next week.

For some further context, back in 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul had given some important instructions to Timothy, and it appears that the context is very different.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Look how he writes back in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Paul says, This, I hope to come to you soon.

But I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

Notice as he writes 1 Timothy, Paul is not in prison here.

He's not constrained whatsoever.

He hopes to come and visit Timothy.

He hopes to come soon.

Not the case as he writes 2 Timothy.

He's not hoping that he will come.

In fact, he's expecting that this imprisonment will end in death.

Skip over to the ending in chapter 4, where Paul writes this.

He says, Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he's very useful to me for ministry.

Tychicus, I've sent to Ephesus.

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpis at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

Notice here, Paul is expecting Timothy to come.

And Tichochus is evidently being sent.

And the likely reason that Timothy is being sent, uh I'm sorry, the likely reason that that I'm getting my name's mixed up, that Tychicus is being sent over to Ephesus is to replace Timothy as the pastor at Ephesus so that Timothy can leave and go be with Paul.

Notice it looks like Paul has recently been visiting Troas, if you see that.

His cloak was left there, along with some parchments that wouldn't have been left there unless he had recently been there.

Now I want you to think about this for a second.

Paul is the most important Christian in the whole world.

And this guy has one cloak.

Why?

Why wouldn't he just say, Go buy me a cloak?

The reason is because he's poor.

Think about that.

This is the apostle Paul.

Paul standing in the church, even here, is awesome.

And yet he's nobody.

So he says, I have this important cloak.

I left it over in Troaz.

It keeps me warm.

I didn't realize I'd be spending the winter over here.

When you come, can you just bring the cloak?

You can still visit the dungeon where they kept Paul if you go to Rome today.

It's the Mamertine prison.

It's a dark and dank and cold, confined Roman jail cell.

Look at that.

That place is where he was confined, where they kept him.

And that place is where he writes one of the most wonderful, personal, heartfelt, warm books of the Bible.

This is Paul's second imprisonment.

After the first imprisonment, he had got out.

But now, for a second time, he's back in prison, and the timeline here is around 67 AD.

And this time it's his last time.

In fact, he knows this, which is why he says in verse 6 of chapter 4, for I am already being poured out like a drink offering.

And the time for my departure is near.

I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith.

Notice, Paul says, the time of my departure is near.

Not maybe it's coming.

No, it's here.

That word departure there is fascinating.

It means to untie.

It was used to untie a ship and set the ship out on its voyage.

This is the way Paul views death.

Not as the end, but as being untied and being set out on a voyage.

This is what he's taught us elsewhere, right?

In Philippians chapter 1, he says, if I stay here and live, that's good.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

Like let's say get to work.

But if I die, that's actually better.

For to me, to depart and be with Christ is better by far.

To live is Christ, but to die is gain.

So here he says, I've I've fought the good fight, I've kept the faith.

What this letter is, is it's like the last will and testament of the Apostle Paul.

So let's review.

The situation here as we enter into this study is what we find is that Paul is beginning a very authoritative and yet heartfelt letter.

And what we also learn is that Timothy is supposed to come and see Paul.

Antichicus is going to take his place.

And Paul wants him to come.

He says, I want my cloak and I want my books.

Why?

So I can do ministry here while I can, while I'm still alive.

So that's the messengers.

And now let's talk about the message.

For this part, I want to look at two things.

I want to look at the source of the message and then the structure of the message.

First, the source of the message.

Look again at verse one.

Paul refers to himself as an apostle.

That was a term that carried with it a great deal of authority.

The word apostle just simply means one who is sent.

Like the Greek term apostelo means to send.

They had these ships that they called apostelic ships, where they would carry cargo and take the cargo from one place to the next place.

They were sent on these apostolic ships.

Paul is an apostle.

He's been sent to carry the good news of the gospel from one place to the next.

He is like one of those ships.

And Paul says, I'm an apostle according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus.

And that phrase to begin this letter is supposed to be striking to us, considering that he's writing from prison, because Rome sees him as a condemned prisoner.

Rome sees him as someone who's a dead man walking.

Rome sees him as someone who is awaiting his own demise, who is waiting for his own death.

But Paul does not see it that way.

Paul sees himself as an heir to the promise of eternal life.

This is important because later in the letter he will exhort Timothy to endure suffering with the hope of eternity on the horizon, appealing to his own situation and his own authority to give that exhortation some special weight.

So the gospel promises life even when this world threatens death.

That is the hope that the early church hung on to.

That is the hope that turned this world upside down.

The first century church did not know about that hope.

They did not understand the Christians.

But yet, this is the kind of hope that they had.

And this is what Paul is testifying here.

Notice also it says, Paul is an apostle by the will of God.

See that?

What that means is that Paul did not self-appoint himself.

Paul, formerly known as Saul, was basically uh, you know, a Jewish Pharisee that was turned into a terrorist that was killing the early Christians.

In the book of Acts, that's where we first meet him, named Saul.

He's this guy that's going around wreaking havoc on the early church.

Everybody's terrified him.

And God like knocks him off of his horse in Acts chapter 9 on the road to Damascus and says, I'm going to use you to be my witness to the Gentiles.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

To try to illustrate this, I just want to get you to see that Saul starts out as one man and he ends up like a totally different man.

And the image I want to give you to kind of get this is this picture that was taken back in 2015.

This picture captured the hearts of the entire world.

You had these religious terrorists, these ISIS members, those are the ones dressed in black, and they captured these 21 Coptic Christians, those are the ones dressed in the orange jumpsuits, down in Libya.

And they told them with knives at their necks that they should convert to Islam or they would record a video of them being beheaded on camera and circulate the video and show it all over the world as a threat to the rest of the world.

And the guys in the orange jumpsuits, they were not pastors or theologians or seminary professors or bishops, or they were just day laborers.

They were Christian construction workers.

And so they get this message that basically says, convert or die, and all 21 of them refused to convert.

Twenty-one out of 21 stay faithful to the Lord Jesus to the end.

In fact, the last thing on their lips, it's on the video, I do not recommend you watch this video, but the last thing they say is Yarab Yeshua, oh Lord Jesus.

These guys die with the name of Jesus on their lips.

That guy in camo there, you see him kind of in the middle, he's like the leader of that terrorist cell, that ISIS cell.

Now, when you meet the Apostle Paul in Acts, he's like the guy in Camo.

He's the leader of this terrorist group, and he's going around hunting down people who name the name of Jesus and killing them to terrorize this early Christian movement.

That's where God finds him.

Saul starts out as one guy, and he ends up as a completely different guy.

And I think the lesson that we can learn right here, friends, is this God can save anybody.

God can take the guy in black and actually turn him into the guy in orange, because that's what happened with Paul.

He was the guy in black at the beginning, and by the end of his life, he's the guy in orange.

This is the life changing power of the gospel.

And Paul comes to the end, he's in this dungeon, he knows he's about to get beheaded.

That's how He dies.

He knows that and he's fine with it.

I fought the good fight.

I've kept the faith.

Wow.

Is that anything that lines up with your definition of success?

Mark Dever said this quote What if you were executed as a terrorist for Jesus?

Could you still consider yourself a success?

Answer that, Mark says, and I will tell you if you've understood 2 Timothy.

And I will tell you if you've understood the gospel.

And I will tell you if you've understood life.

This is success.

Back to the text, Paul says, I'm an apostle by the will of God.

God came and got me.

The gospel was not a human invention.

The ministry that he's received is a ministry that's a stewardship.

Unlike other successful organizations, the Church of Jesus Christ does not exist because of human vision.

It exists because of the will of God.

The source of the message of the gospel is super clear.

The gospel is from God.

Notice the words that are used in chapter 1, verses 9 and 10.

You see these words like gave and manifested, and words like revealed and brought.

This is the kind of message that Paul has received, and now he's got to pass it along.

This is what Christians are supposed to do.

We need not be inventive or original.

Timothy is to take this message and to guard it.

It's kind of like a trust, if you will.

Look at 2 Timothy 1, 13, and 14.

This makes this more clear.

Paul says, follow the pattern of the sound words that you've heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

Guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

He's got a trust underlying that section of your Bible.

The gospel was entrusted to Timothy, and it's been entrusted to each generation up until our generation, it's now been entrusted to you and me.

You and I are not called to change the message or give out another message or to come up with something that has more surface appeal or to craft a gospel better suited to meet modern needs.

We are called to deliver the gospel from God to people.

You know why?

Because if the gospel of Jesus Christ is altered, it's lost.

If the gospel is altered, it's lost.

And so Paul was sent, and then Timothy was sent, and then each generation gets sent with this message.

To give you another illustration, it's kind of like a mail carrier, if you will.

The mail carrier that comes to your house every day.

The mail carrier is not supposed to go visit the store, buy a bunch of postcards, fill them out, stamp them, address them, write them to you, put them in your mailbox.

The mail carrier is supposed to take mail from one place and deliver it to another place.

That's what the mail carrier is hired to do.

Just deliver the mail.

That's the same really mission you and I have been given as well.

Take this, bring it over here.

175 years ago, our church got that.

Mount Bethel Baptist Church was a church that was founded in 1767.

I actually pastored that church for eight years.

There was 80 people that came from that church and planted this church in 1851.

They had this gigantic revival, second great awakening, Reverend E.

C.

Ambler, a bunch of people came to Christ, and this new work of God was started on this corner back then.

That generation understood the mission, and every single generation had to continue the mission, continue sharing this, to continue sharing this same message, just as it was back at the beginning.

So that's the source of the message.

Now I want to look at the structure of the message.

It helps sometimes when we begin a new study to see kind of a bird's eye view of the whole letter, the macro level structure.

Timothy has two letters to his name.

Second Timothy has four chapters, and it's easy to remember there's four parts.

And I'll give you the major thrust of each chapter.

So chapter one is all about this guard the treasure.

Timothy, kindle afresh the gift of God that is in you and guard the treasure that's been entrusted to you, which is of course what?

The gospel.

Chapter two, Timothy, multiply your ministry.

The things that you heard from me, I want you to pass those along to faithful men who will be also able to teach others.

Multiply your ministry.

Chapter three.

Timothy, stick with the scriptures.

Here's the thing things are gonna go from bad to worse.

In time, evil men will come.

You, Timothy, stick with what you've been trained in already.

All scriptures inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the good man might be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Chapter 4.

Finish well.

Timothy, preach the word.

I'm being poured out like a drink offering.

I've fought the good fight.

I've kept the faith, and now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who long for his appearing.

Finish well.

So this is Paul at the end of his life.

He's in prison, he's in chains, and he knows he's reached the end, and he is passing the baton to Timothy.

It's like that four by one hundred relay race where the first guy takes off running and puts that stick out and goes, stick, and then the next guy takes off running, stick.

This is the Apostle Paul saying, stick.

That's the heart of 2 Timothy.

So that is the message.

Now let's take a look at the method.

We've seen the messenger, we've seen the message, but that's not all.

Now I want you to picture this.

Imagine you're in Paul's shoes, okay?

You're alone, you're incarcerated, you're probably hungry, you're poor, you are isolated, you're about to die.

This is how he begins the body of this letter.

Look at verse 3.

I thank God.

Whoa.

Paul has this amazing attitude of gratitude, even despite the worst conditions you could possibly imagine.

Paul is thankful.

Now, what's he thankful for?

Well, let's continue.

He says, I thank God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience.

As I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day, as I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy.

Notice a couple things here.

Notice, first of all, that word ancestors.

This is Paul's nod to his Jewish ancestry, his general affiliation to the God of the prophets, the patriarchs, his spiritual heritage.

Paul is not saying that Christianity continues Judaism unchanged, but that it is the fulfillment of the promises to the patriarchs, and there's one larger story with the Messiah Jesus who caps it all off.

Second, I want you to notice how close this relationship is here between Paul and Timothy.

Take notice of the words.

Timothy, I thank God for you.

I pray for you night and day.

I remember your tears.

It shows the deeply emotional tenor of this letter.

It shows the emotional depth of their Christian friendship.

These are brothers.

He says, I long to see you.

You bring me so much joy.

This is a relationship that's clearly been invested in.

And that's the method.

Ministry is deeply relational, it's not just functional.

What we learn here is that faithful ministry is sustained through relationship, through prayer and relationship together.

That's very important if we're to understand our task.

The message of Christianity doesn't move forward through institutions, it moves forward through people, it moves forward through relationship.

Every believer needs somebody who has invested in their faith.

And behind every faithful Christian is someone who has prayed for them and who has taught them and who has encouraged them and who has corrected them at times.

A healthy Christian life always includes deep, significant spiritual relationships, never isolation.

There is no such thing as the lone Christian in the New Testament.

Paul continues in verse 5 saying this, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith without hypocrisy, that's that word, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

And now, take this to heart, grandmoms and moms.

And now, I am sure it dwells in you as well.

Timothy's story did not begin with Paul.

First, it was his Jewish grandmother named Lois.

And then it was his mom, Eunice.

They laid the foundation.

This is a generational thinking.

This is generational faith we're talking about here.

Now notice that word faith used here.

In this context, this is not talking about a momentary decision.

Rather, this is a virtue that's formed over a lifetime through teaching, through example, through imitation.

This is the faith that's being taught and passed on by parents and grandparents and church family.

Dr.

Caravilla in his commentary on this letter says the fidelity shown by parents and teachers toward the young and emulated by the young and the formation of their character is a critical part of the formation of this theological virtue.

Faith here is not a momentary decision that occurs at a moment of crisis or conversion.

Rather, it is a virtue that can grow through the stages of a person's life.

This is the kind of faith that each generation is supposed to pass down, which is why there's such a burden right now for where we are in our cultural moment.

Because there's some troubling statistics about kids who had parents who associated themselves with Christianity but who aren't maintaining that faith today.

In his book, Nonverts, The Making of an Ex-Christian America, Stephen Boulevant chronicles what has happened in America over the last few decades.

For example, he states, quote, all across the United States, cradle Catholics born since 1970 and raised in a Catholic upbringing has produced twice as many nuns as it has weekly mass going Catholics.

And he goes on to chronicle the statistics of the decrease of self-proclaimed Christians over the last couple of decades.

That book has further details about that.

But to go against the tide, we have to embrace our responsibility being spelled out here.

Because it's not just about the messenger and it's not just about the message, there's also a method that he's spelling out for us as well.

When God, by his perfect timing, brings the two parties together.

A spiritual legacy is passed on through ordinary faithfulness as God uses generations to safeguard the advance of the gospel.

Paul will say later in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15.

Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

And how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which were able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

See, Timothy had a mom and a grandmom who got this vision.

Timothy had a family who understood this.

So Timothy had a wonderful advantage.

He had a godly grandmother and a godly mother, Eunice and Lois, who taught him the scriptures, meaning the Jewish scriptures.

And so from childhood, he had learned them.

From childhood, he had been taught those scriptures.

I can almost imagine Eunice and Lois talking, saying, What scripture should we read about and teach young Timothy today?

What should we tell Tiny Tim about today?

And maybe one day they teach him all about the story of creation.

And maybe one day they teach him all about the story of Noah and his ark.

And maybe one day they teach him all about Abraham and his son Isaac on Mount Moriah.

They are preparing him for what he would one day learn about when he was much older.

Because one day a missionary would come to their city, Lystra, named Paul, and there Paul would preach the climactic message, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There he told the simple story of salvation.

And at the end, Paul gave an invitation, and Timothy crossed the line of faith.

And that day, Timothy became wise for salvation in Christ Jesus.

I wonder if Paul even knew how significant that day was at the time.

I wonder if the other elders and leaders at the church at Lystra knew after the teaching time.

Maybe they got together for like, I don't know, roast beef or something.

And maybe they're like, how is church today?

Anything significant happened at our gathering today?

Maybe one elder goes, not much.

You know, we had that long-winded preacher.

Another elder goes, oh yeah.

Well, one thing, Eunice and Lois' boy, Timothy, accepted the gospel.

Not much.

Here's the man who will become the traveling companion to the apostle Paul.

Not much.

Here's the man to whom two books in your Bible are written.

Not much.

Here's the man who will pastor the most important church in the first century, Ephesus.

Not much.

The Bible says, when one sinner repents, there is rejoicing by the angels in heaven.

Timothy crossed the line and became wise to salvation.

This is what the scriptures do, and that's what happened to Timothy.

But that foundation was first laid a long time earlier by his grandma and by his mom.

And Timothy's faith was born and it grew as he was ready to take the torch himself.

That's really what the book of 2 Timothy is about.

If I could give you the big idea in a sentence, I would say it like this.

2 Timothy is about this.

The gospel survives when one generation receives it faithfully and passes it on courageously.

That's what 2 Timothy is.

This letter really, it's about third generation Christianity, if you know what I mean by that.

The first generation were the generation of the apostles.

And then the second generation was Timothy and his generation.

And now Timothy is building into that third generation.

This letter is for people who did not witness the actual earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ firsthand.

They had to take these things on faith, just like you and I have to take these things on faith.

Remember, Jesus said to doubting Thomas, Blessed are you who see and believe, but blessed are those who don't see and still believe.

That's the third generation, and that's the same situation that you and I find ourselves in.

We have to pass the faith to the next generation just as they did.

Years ago, we talked about a concept here called being a three-chair church.

And here's the concept kind of spelled out for you right here down front, just to remind you.

So we have three chairs up here.

And let me just explain what the three chairs mean and what they represent, if you will.

So I'll start with this middle chair.

The chair in the middle represents my chair, your chair.

The chair in the middle represents our place in the family of God.

This is where you're sitting today.

Your chair was here.

You and I, when we first came to this church, there was a chair for you.

Did you notice that?

Yes.

We all had a chair when we got here.

Hopefully you did.

Some of you, maybe you remember where you sat for the first time.

Some of you have never moved your seat since you sat there the first time.

That's where you sit.

Some of you remember where you were sitting when you gave your life to Jesus.

Some of you remember where you were sitting, where you heard a word that was encouraging to you, or you received an exhortation that was really important to you, or you remember the chair that you were sitting in when God spoke to you or gave you direction in your life.

And that chair was very critical to you and your own relationship with God.

That's the middle chair.

Then there is this chair to my right.

So this chair to my right is here visually to remind me that somebody came before me.

Somebody was here before I got here.

Somebody invited me.

Somebody made a place for me.

Somebody sacrificed for me.

Somebody was made uncomfortable for me.

None of us came by ourselves.

All of us came to Christianity because somebody thought about that before we ever knew about that.

In fact, you could picture a whole line of chairs going from here all the way back to Jesus and the first generation, and they were faithful every single generation to have chairs and never skip the generation.

If they would have skipped a generation or two, then we would have a big problem, right?

So they were faithful every single generation to get up to this generation here, that then passed the baton, passed the faith over to us.

This is the chair on our right that we have to honor as well.

And then there's this third chair.

So this chair, the left-hand chair, represents the people who aren't here yet.

So this left-hand chair represents the people that are still coming.

This left-hand chair represents somebody nobody really thought about yet in this room.

Somebody that's coming, but we just haven't seen them yet.

So the person in the left-hand chair doesn't know that this is their chair, but it's here for them.

And it's our turn, those of us who sit in the middle chair, to make a sacrifice for the person who's going to be in the left-hand chair.

Now it's our turn to make sure that there's a seat for the person who's going to be coming and sitting in the left-hand chair.

And we want them to have a place and be comfortable in the family of God when they come.

We want to make sure that there's a seat for them.

That's the left-hand chair.

You might think about these three chairs like this: this is the past, this is the present, and this is the future.

This is what it means to be, if you will, a three-chair church.

That's the kind of church that we want to be.

Three-chair churches honor the past and they give thanks for the faithful people that have gone on before them and made it possible for our church to be where we are today.

And three-chair churches also sacrifice for those yet to come who will sit in the left-hand chair.

Now, sadly, here's the problem.

Some churches, maybe you've run across this kind of church.

Some churches are only two-chair churches.

They only have these two chairs.

Maybe you've run across a church like this.

Um, this is the kind of church that maybe used to be a church, but it's no longer a church.

Now it's like turned into a restaurant or something like that.

Now like the church is a bank, or there's there's there's only two chairs because nobody at this church was ever thinking about the left-hand chair.

Uh, this is have you ever been to a church and like nobody's there under the age of 60?

That's what I'm talking about.

There's a there's a there's a a blankness here where the people are not making consideration and thinking about who's coming after me, who's gonna be in this third chair, and they're not really making good preparations for that.

And it's sad because you see a once maybe thriving ministry, there was a vision, but now there's just a church in decline.

That's not gonna be our story, though.

So, our story is gonna be we're a three-chair church, and we want to reach people and we want to pass on our legacy of gospel faithfulness to the next generation.

To do that always takes effort.

To think about the person that's not here yet and advocate for the person that's not even in the room always feels uncomfortable.

It always feels like effort, it always feels like sacrifice, it all it's never about me, it's about the person who's not here.

It always feels like oh, this is gonna involve some change.

And who likes change?

Not me.

I mean, I'm a Baptist.

Change.

I'm like I'm like a baby in a poopy diaper.

I don't want to be changed.

I know it smells, but it's warm and it's mine.

Okay, so that's that's that's how I feel about change.

But to do this, to think about the third chair, the left hand chair, that's gonna take change.

That's gonna take effort.

Have you noticed that there's a parking shortage on some Sundays?

Does anybody notice that?

Does anybody notice it's kind of like dangerous right around 10:30, right around that spot over there sometimes?

I'm worried.

Anybody notice some Sundays you come in, it's kind of hard to find a seat.

So to accommodate for the left-hand chair, we got to think about strategically how are we gonna make sure there are parking spots and seats for the people that aren't yet here.

We're gonna have to think strategically about that.

Like this Easter, we can't do two services, we have to do three services.

So uh that extra service might mean some of you changing your service time, maybe coming a little earlier, so the left hand chair could be for somebody who hasn't yet come.

And so the third chair requires sacrifice and effort and sometimes change.

But I think that's exciting.

I think it's exciting to even think about that.

We might need to think about the third chair and change because that means God's using us and our community needs us, and that's why we're doing this.

And so, though it's difficult to be a three-chair church, I would rather do that than anything else in the whole world.

So, this is our job.

The gospel survives when one generation receives it faithfully and then passes it on courageously.

That's really the message of 2 Timothy.

Paul is saying, I carry the torch.

Now it's your turn.

So as we apply this message to our own lives, let's think about this in a few different ways.

I'll just pose them in terms of questions.

How can we apply this to ourselves?

Here's three questions.

Question number one: have you received the faith?

Are you here and have you yet crossed the line of faith and made the Lord Jesus your Savior?

If that's something you're still thinking about, we're so glad that you're here.

I would love to talk to you more about that.

Please come see me.

We have little tracks in the foyer called What is the Gospel?

We would love to explain all that to you so that you can make sure you have your relationship settled.

Secondly, are you growing in sincere faith?

Everybody should be growing.

Amy Huber, our director of discipleship and connections, is putting together a discipleship growth pathway so that it'll be very clear how we can grow here.

And she's doing a fantastic job.

You'll hear more about that in weeks to come.

Number three.

Number three is this who are you passing it to?

Who's that one that's in your life that God has strategically placed you around, where you get the messenger, you got the message, and then the method is going to be God's perfect timing when he opens the door for you to share.

Maybe it's a co-worker, or maybe it's a family member, or a neighbor, or I don't know.

But Easter's coming up, and I would encourage you to take this card on your way out and give it away.

The gospel never moves forward automatically, it moves forward when Christians like you and me receive it, embrace it, and then pass it on.

So as we start this series, I want to give you a homework assignment today.

I want you to think about somebody in your life, and I want you to think about the person who first introduced you to the Lord Jesus.

Who was that person for you?

If you were a child, maybe think about the person that shared with you then, or maybe somebody who shared with you when you were older or old enough to understand the gospel, or that person who shared when you were 18 or 19 and shared with you the message that brought you back, or maybe reintroduced you to the grace of God at that time in your life.

Who was that person?

Who was that messenger for you?

Now, what I want you to do for homework is I want you to do an exercise that will take you 10 minutes.

Here's what I want you to do.

And this exercise will remind you of two things.

It will remind you, first, that you were once an object of God's mission.

And number two, it will remind you of the gratitude that maybe you forgot that you had.

Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go home this week.

I want you to sit down with a cup of tea or coffee, and I want you to write a short letter.

And I want you to write a letter to the person that introduced you to Jesus Christ.

You don't have to send it.

That person might not even be even alive anymore.

The point of doing this is to remind you that somebody took a risk, that somebody broke the sound barrier, that somebody was bold enough, that God used somebody in a terrific way, and if it wasn't for them, you would have never heard, or you would have never known about the God who loves you.

So here's my letter.

I sat down and I wrote a letter.

I'll read it to you.

This letter's to my mom.

Dear mom, I'm writing a letter today to say thank you.

I was five years old when you asked me what happened, when I asked you what happens after people die.

And I can still remember when you explained to me the way of salvation through Jesus, that Jesus died for me to go to heaven with him.

And that day, I prayed to ask Jesus into my heart.

As you know, my wife and I have now had the privilege of leading our three children in prayers similar to that one that you led me in.

And for my entire life, I have anchored my soul to that simple prayer between you and me and God.

And I just want to say thank you.

So here I am, almost 50 years later, writing this letter, preaching the same message of salvation to anybody that will listen to me.

My encouragement, friends, is that someday somebody may sit down and write a letter like that to you.

To you.

And you might think to yourself, man, I had no idea.

Like all I did was, or all I said was, and all I meant was, but yet in God's perfect timing, he took the messenger and he took the message, and with his method, he used you to make an eternal difference in the life of somebody who doesn't even know what they're missing.

So I beg you, and I beg you on behalf of your lost friend, and I beg you on behalf of this community, and I beg you on behalf of this church, and I beg you on behalf of your own reward when you stand before the Lord to embrace God's role for you to share the faith to the next generation.

I want to invite the worship team to come, and I want to close with a poem, and it's one of the most powerful poems I've ever read.

It was a poem that was written a hundred years ago during World War I.

The poem is called In Flanders Fields.

You've probably heard it before.

The reason I want to share with you is because 2 Timothy is like the Flanders Fields of the Bible.

It's a poem that was written about the World War I dead by a former World War I sergeant.

And it's written about where the soldiers' graves were located in Belgium and the poppies started growing there.

So I'll read the poem for you.

It says, 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, felt 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 faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.

Here's Paul the sergeant saying to Timothy, his lieutenant, and to the next generation, I fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I've kept the faith.

Now it's your turn.

To you from failing hands, we throw the torch.

This is what Paul is doing in this letter.

The apostles have thrown the torch to us.

The question for you and for me and every generation is will we hold it high?

Would you pray with me as we close today?

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gospel that you've entrusted to us, the message of life, the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Thank you for those who faithfully went on before and passed the faith to us and for the generations of believers that have carried this torch before us.

Lord, would you now help us to be found faithful in our generation?

Would you strengthen our resolve and deepen our love for you, for your word?

And would you give us a heavenly boldness to share the hope we have in Christ?

Help us to invest in others.

Open doors.

We promise to walk through them.

Help us to disciple the next generation and to live in such a way that the gospel continues to move forward through our lives.

And may our church be a place where the faith is received and nurtured and then passed on for many, many years to come.

For we pray it all in Jesus' name, his mighty name.

And everyone said, Amen.