Standing Firm, Working Hard, and Reaping the Reward

Second Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

We'll start in verse 1.

We've talked about the last couple of weeks as suffering for the Lord.

Paul had talked about that and given Timothy some instruction about that.

It is sometimes hard to do the Lord's work.

It's not always easy.

And sometimes it leads to great suffering.

Paul certainly knew about that.

And he had just finished telling Timothy at the end of Second Timothy chapter 1 about

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

some that had abandoned him.

A lot of people had abandoned him.

All of Asia, these people had turned from him.

But there was one that had not abandoned him.

And for that he was grateful.

And so he was explaining that at the end of Second Timothy chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

So we'll begin tonight in Second Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

So let's pray and we'll get started.

God, we come to you.

We thank you for your good word.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among us tonight.

I pray that you had hide me behind the cross.

That I would preach and teach in a way that brings glory to you.

That you would help us, dear Lord, to hear your word tonight.

That you would help us to be those who are faithful to you, dear Lord.

That run the race with endurance.

That are faithful to follow your commands and to work hard for you, dear Lord.

I pray that you just would let these words be good to us tonight.

That we'd be free of worries and distractions.

And I pray that your Holy Spirit would work in this place.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 1.

2 Timothy 2:1

You, therefore, my son, be strong and the graced that is in Christ Jesus.

So he'd just been telling him in chapter 1, look, there's suffering.

Paul had suffered.

He'd been in prison.

There was a lot of suffering going on, especially in the early church for these who were trying

to speak out and trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was not well received by some.

We saw in the book of Acts that Stephen, as he begins to preach this beautiful sermon

explaining how everything in the Old Testament is pointing up to Jesus.

And when he preaches the beautiful sermon, it says that they close their ears and they

hollered at the top of their lungs and they begin to stone him.

And so it was a difficult time in the early church.

And really, it's not any better today.

We have it better here in the United States.

It isn't as bad.

But there are certainly plenty of places in the world where people are still killed today

for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So people are always going to be hostile toward the truth of the gospel.

And so Paul had told Timothy that.

He said, look, you need to be ready to suffer for the gospel.

And you need to know, look, even in my ministry, there's been suffering.

There have been those who have quit supporting me.

There have been those who have abandoned me.

But there are some who have stuck by me.

And so there's bad and there's good.

And he tells Timothy, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

So be strong, Timothy, because you're going to carry on this work that I've started, this

work that others are currently doing.

And Paul is continuing to prepare Timothy to do this work.

Now, Timothy obviously had been doing this work and serving the Lord and doing many of

these things that Paul did for quite some time now.

But nonetheless, Paul is still investing into Timothy.

He's still giving Timothy some wisdom and some guidance and some instruction and some

encouragement.

And part of that encouragement is, hey, it's not always easy, but you need to be strong

in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Don't give up.

Don't be discouraged when the suffering comes.

Don't be surprised when you stand up for Jesus if others who also claim to stand for Jesus

abandon you when the going gets tough.

But also be aware and rejoice in the fact that there are going to be brothers and sisters

in Christ who will stand by you, who will not give up on you, who will not stop doing

the work alongside of you.

And that had been Paul's experience that he had told him about in the previous chapter.

And so he says, with that in mind, therefore, be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Be ready for this work.

Be ready for it.

Verse two, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit

to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

So what is Paul teaching here?

What Paul is teaching here is discipleship, similar to what Jesus said.

Whenever Jesus told the apostles before he ascended and went to heaven, he says, go,

therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So what did Jesus want his disciples to do?

To go and make disciples.

That is, they had heard, they had learned from Jesus, they had trusted in Jesus, and

they were to continue the work of Jesus because Jesus was going to be seated at the right

hand of God.

And so his disciples were to go and make other disciples who would then go and make other

disciples.

And that's why you and I are here tonight, because there have been men and women throughout

the last couple thousand years who have gone and made disciples.

So what Paul is saying is, look, I've been doing the work of God, and now I've invested

in you and I've taught you some of the things that I know, and I've tried to help you and

guide you and lead you and teach you.

And Paul's time would certainly be coming to an end soon.

It seems clear as we read the letter that he knows his time is getting short.

So therefore, he says, now it's your job, Timothy, to continue to do the work of God.

And so therefore, what does he tell him to do?

He says, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to

faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

So keep it going.

Timothy, you're ready for the job.

Your training is complete.

I've told you what you need to know.

You're ready for the job.

You're on the job.

You're doing the job.

You're working for God.

Now surround yourself with faithful people that you can teach them the gospel of Jesus

Christ, that they too would be well-equipped, that they too would be able to go out and

teach other people.

And no doubt, Timothy did just that.

This is good instruction for us.

This is what we as brothers and sisters in Christ are called to do.

Now, certainly those who are in ministry positions or missionaries, certainly there's that call

there to try to disciple people and to teach people.

But I think on some level, that's all of our jobs as Christians, is to take people we know

that come to Christ and to disciple them.

And I don't know that we always do a good job of that.

That's myself included, preachers included sometimes.

We need to make sure we do a good job of discipling people, whether they are children, whether

they are adults, that they come to Jesus Christ and we try to help them understand the word

of God.

And what does Paul do here?

He encourages Timothy.

He says, look, here's some things you can rejoice in and praise God and the grace of

God and all these good things, but also here's some things you don't need to do.

Here's some things you need to avoid.

He kind of held his feet to the fire a little bit.

And so that's part of discipleship, as the scripture says, is iron sharpens iron.

So one man sharpens another.

And so we come on services like this.

We come to Sunday school or Sunday mornings or wherever we meet in fellowship or in whatever

way it may be, even if it's not a church service.

And we begin to talk about God's word and we begin to kind of confess some of our sins

and our struggles.

And we kind of, we just open up and we pour our heart out in times of pain and suffering.

What we're doing when we confide in one another and we kind of let our guard down is we're

telling our brother and sister in Christ, I need help.

I love you.

I've trusted you and I'm coming to you to help me.

And so, so there's this idea as Christians that we are to come together and we are to

grow in the Lord and we are to grow among one another.

And that's a beautiful thing when you see that type of growth and discipleship that

we don't, that we don't stay stagnant, that we don't just keep reading the same verses

that we've read our whole life, the ones that we love, the same handful.

And I'm not saying it's nothing wrong with verses that we like.

We all have verses that we like, but maybe there are other parts of the Bible that we

don't explore much or topics we don't understand much.

Maybe we need to dig a little deeper or maybe we need to say, God, what are some areas in

my life that need work?

Maybe we look at some scriptures and we say, yeah, I got that.

Maybe we do, praise the Lord.

Maybe there are some areas in our life that we do really good, but maybe there are some

other areas that's kind of lurking around back there in the dark and maybe we need to

say, okay, God, help me to see these things.

They may not be obvious to me, but help me to see these areas in my life and in my heart

that need work so that I can grow in you.

And as followers of Jesus Christ, we want to be those who grow in Jesus Christ and help

one another to grow in Jesus Christ and especially new Christians, young Christians.

I don't mean young in age.

I mean young in that they just became a Christian.

They might be 80 years old.

So be it.

We need to invest in those people and we need to find people who are going to be faithful

to the word of God.

And that's what Paul tells Timothy, commit to faithful men, the things that you have

learned from me so that they will be able to teach others.

And the cycle will continue.

Verse three, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life.

He seeks to please the recruiter.

So here we have some examples in these next few verses here.

Paul's given some real basic examples of how we are to live.

And here's the example he gives.

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, not one serving as a soldier who gets

entangled in the concerns of the world, but one who seeks to please the recruiter or the

commander or the one who has enlisted him, the one who has called him to serve.

Now this is a beautiful illustration that we are to be soldiers of God, a song that

probably some of us learned as a child, Onward Christian Soldier.

That's one that I remember I used to sing as a kid or maybe we used to sing it at Bible

school.

Onward Christian Soldier.

I fought the good fight, Paul says.

So this idea of fighting and being a soldier is the idea he's talking about here.

And he says, be ready to share in the suffering as a good soldier.

That is to say, in the midst of the battle, a good soldier does not run away.

A good soldier does not run away.

A good soldier stands firm.

He plants his feet in the ground, his shoulders up, his chest out, his shield up, his sword

up and he's ready to go.

That's what a good soldier does.

A good soldier like David.

What happened when Goliath come onto the scene?

Everybody was scared.

Everybody, oh, they ran.

That's not a good soldier.

What did David say?

He said, wait a minute, what is this guy doing?

This guy's talking about God?

David said, I'm not worried about this guy.

And David went right up to him and he killed the giant.

And here Paul says, look, be ready to suffer as a good soldier.

Okay?

When we serve God, it's not easy.

We battle.

It's tough.

It's tough when the world comes against us and people come against us and people want

to reject the gospel.

It's not always easy.

But Paul says, look, you need to be one who is a good soldier, who is ready to serve and

not one who's going to run away in the midst of the battle.

One who seeks to please his recruiter.

One who seeks to please the one who has called him.

One who seeks to please his commanding officer.

It is God who has called us.

It is God who has recruited us to be part of his kingdom.

It is God who has called us to be in his army.

And so we don't want to be those who run away when the going gets tough.

We don't want to be those who are torn away by the temptations of the world.

A good soldier doesn't get tangled up with the things of the world, it says.

But a good soldier is focused on his mission.

What is the mission?

Here's the mission.

We got to go to this zone.

We got to complete this task.

We got to do this.

We got to go here.

Okay, where am I going next, commander?

The commander's going to tell you.

Here's where you're going next.

That's what a good soldier does.

A good soldier takes the order from the commander and does what it says.

Doesn't get caught up in things of the world and doesn't run away when the battle gets

tough.

So God is our leader.

He is the one who we seek and say, okay, God, I need my marching orders.

I need you to tell me where I'm going next.

I need you to tell me where I'm going to serve next.

And then we get there and we say, hold up.

This is a big battlefield.

There's giants over there.

And then we got to decide, all right, am I going to run away or am I going to stand firm?

And so we need to pray that God would help us to be able to stand firm.

And it's not always easy.

It is not.

And there are times that we probably fail, but we want to pray that God would help us

not to be those who fail, not to be bad soldiers, but to be good soldiers.

Another example here in verse five.

Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according

to the rules.

Now, this is kind of fitting.

We're right in the middle of the summer Olympics right now.

And I love the Olympics because you have the best of the best athletes in the world.

And you watch these men and these women who are swimming, you know, it's eight of them

out there.

And the one who wins beats the one who finishes eighth by like the whole length of the pool.

And you're like, golly, that eighth place person is pitiful.

How'd they even get out there?

But that eighth place person is the eighth fastest swimmer in the world.

I mean, they're just, they're all of these people are strong.

And even the worst of the worst is just absolutely amazing.

And these runners are fast and these gymnasts are so strong and so precise.

And we're sitting home and we're watching them and we're judging them like somehow what

they're doing is easy.

And we're all experts now on how to judge.

This man's a little bad.

I don't think they're going to get a good score, you know.

And somehow we're all experts now at judging gymnastics.

And it's like, I can't believe they fell off that beam.

Oh yeah.

Because it's so easy to flip around on a beam that this wide, right?

But all of these athletes, they're good.

Even the ones that fall and even the ones that are a little slower, these are the best

of the best men and women.

And do you know why they're the best of the best men and women?

It's because they go home every night and they lay on their couch and eat potato chips

and they get up every four years and they get on a plane and they get in the pool.

No that's not why.

You know that's not why.

You know why?

Because they get up early every morning.

I'm just guessing.

But I'm going to guess this.

I'm going to go on a limb.

They probably all get up early every morning.

They probably are all on a strict diet.

They probably all work out more than you could possibly ever imagine.

They eat, sleep, and they drink Olympics.

That's all they do is exercise and they fly wherever they're going to fly for that one

chance.

That's what they do.

That's what their focus is.

They are so dedicated on this is what I'm training for so that I can be ready to compete.

And what does Paul say here?

He says if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according

to the rules.

There is no shortcut.

There is no easy way out.

If we're going to be one who's ready and willing to serve God, then we've got to put the time

in and we've got to train.

There are no shortcuts.

There are no shortcuts.

We're not going to receive the crown of life.

We're not going to receive the reward at the end of our life.

We think we're going to somehow get a shortcut in and say, oh, God, I was pretty good.

So maybe you just need to let me in here at the end.

Nope.

Those who are of God need to be those who live for God and who are focused on God and

who train in the word of God and in the commands of God to live by God so that when the time

comes, we will be crowned.

It's a beautiful thing.

You see these folks that they train and they train and they train, and then at the end

of it all, they get that gold medal.

Man, that feels good.

And you feel bad for the ones that come close to the ones that get hurt or the ones that

fall off.

You feel bad for them because they've trained just as hard and they don't make the cut.

But the good news for those who are in Jesus Christ is we're not going to miss the cut.

If we are those who put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and who live for Jesus Christ

and are obedient to his commands, who follow the rules and the commands of God, we will

be crowned as champion when the time comes.

So we don't want to be those lazily athletes for the kingdom of God.

We want to make God's Olympic team, so to speak.

We want to be those who train hard and don't try to cut corners, but those who at the end

of our life are going to hear those words that we all desire to hear, well done, my

good and faithful servant.

And that's going to be a beautiful day for those who trust in the Lord.

Verse six, another example here.

The hardworking farmer ought to be first to get a share of the crops.

Consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to get a share of his crops.

Now probably most of you in here have farmed and farming is hard work.

If you want to have a good garden, and sometimes you work hard and you don't have a good garden.

Sometimes you can work and work and work and you still don't have much to show for.

But one thing I can guarantee you is if you don't do any work, you're not going to grow

anything.

I can attest to that.

You know how much stuff I grew this summer?

Nothing.

I didn't grow anything.

Do you know why?

Because I didn't plant a garden.

I didn't break no soil.

I didn't put no seed out.

I didn't put no fertilizer out.

I didn't water anything.

And guess what?

There ain't nothing coming up.

So if we want to grow something, we have to be those who work hard.

There's a theme we're kind of seeing here is we have to work for the kingdom of God.

And sometimes it requires suffering.

Sometimes it requires a lot of work and a lot of training and a lot of getting our hands

dirty.

And that's what Paul says to Timothy.

You got to be ready to get your hands ready dirty and do the work for the kingdom of God

and serve God and follow his commands.

And don't you give up when the going gets tough because you will reap what you sow.

A farmer farms and a farmer is going to reap what they sow.

And if you don't sow any seed, if you don't sow any works of God, then there's going to

be nothing good to reap when the time comes.

So Paul is telling Timothy, work like a farmer.

You're going to reap one day.

You're going to be the one who's going to be able to reap from what is sown with God

working in your life.

If you suffer for his kingdom, if you follow him and you listen to him, there will come

a time that you will be rewarded, that you will receive that crown, that you will receive

that crop, that you will reap what you have sown.

And these are all good examples.

They're all simple examples that we can understand.

We can understand soldiers and we can understand athletes and we can understand farmers.

And Paul says as Christians, these are the type of people that we need to follow their

ethic and the way that they do things and how their life is going and laid out.

This is an example for how we are to live our life for the kingdom of God.

Now this last verse here, verse seven, consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding

and everything.

That's kind of seems out of place there a little bit maybe because those things are

somewhat understandable.

It's not too hard to understand those things, but nonetheless, maybe it is.

Maybe there's some understanding there that he thought Timothy wouldn't get and maybe

there's some understanding there we don't get tonight.

Maybe there's some things we miss.

Maybe I totally misunderstood this passage.

Now that could be applying to the words that he just wrote or it could be applied to the

rest of the words that he is going to write.

But regardless, this passage is a good passage for us.

This verse, consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding and everything.

And I would venture to say that every one of us in here would agree that we need more

understanding than we have.

None of us understands everything perfectly.

There are lots of things in God's word that we just don't really understand.

I wish I understood everything in there and you guys probably do too, but there are some

things that we've read time and again and we've talked to some of the smartest people

we know and we still don't really understand them.

And so we need to pray that God would help us to have understanding in everything.

The thing that is his will for us to have understanding in and we need to pray that

God would give us understanding.

But that's true not only in the word of God, but really in every aspect of our life because

it's hard for us to understand why that we worked hard and we've trusted God and we've

been obedient and then we lose our job.

Well, what's going on God?

Why did I, what happened?

It's hard to understand why somebody gets sick all of a sudden.

Well somebody gets cancer.

It's hard to understand some of these things.

Well I was healthy and I ate right and I didn't abuse my body and then I get sick.

It's hard to understand these things.

It's hard to understand why there's so much evil that one runs rampant in the world.

It's hard to understand why bad things sometimes happen to good people.

We could write a whole book full of things that throughout our life that we don't understand.

And quite frankly there are some things that in this life we will never understand.

We'll go to the grave not understanding some things.

But there is one thing that we need to understand and we can understand that I believe and that

is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who gave his life on the cross so that we could

be forgiven.

He was crucified and he was resurrected.

We are all sinners in need of grace and that grace comes through Jesus Christ.

And God's word calls us to put our faith in Jesus Christ and Paul says, and when you do

that Timothy, and I think it's good for us too, and when you do that be a soldier who's

not afraid to suffer for the kingdom.

Be a soldier who does not abandon the commands of God.

Be an athlete who trains.

Be one who is ready to do the work of the kingdom of God.

Don't take any shortcuts.

Don't take too many days off.

Be one who works hard and when the time comes you will get to reap the rewards of the kingdom

of God.

And the crown of life you'll receive eternal life when you get to be with God.

And that is the truth that we can understand.

But for the stuff we can't, God help us to understand those things that we fail to.

Let's pray.

God we come to you, we thank you for this good passage and I pray that we would model

our life after these examples dear Lord, that we would be those who are ready to suffer.

Dear Lord we don't wish for suffering and we don't wish it for ourselves or anybody

else but God if it comes, when it comes, let us be those who do not flee, who do not run

away but let us plant our feet in the ground.

Let us stand with our head held high dear Lord and follow that example of David and

say, nope I'm standing up for God.

Dear Lord let us be faithful to work hard for you, to not be lazy but to really study

your word and to really seek you, to train as an athlete would train dear Lord.

God I pray that you'd let us be those who work hard for your kingdom.

That we would not be those who sow evil and just sinful things but God that we would be

those who would sow the goodness of your word and wisdom and love and faithfulness.

Dear Lord we don't think that God we would be able to reap the reward of eternity.

God we don't deserve it.

God not for a second do we think that you're going to reward us because our works are going

to get us to heaven.

No we know better than that dear Lord.

We don't work to earn our salvation.

We work because Jesus through his grace of giving his life for us has assured our salvation.

So we work for what has already been done for us dear Lord not because of anything we're

trying to earn but for what was freely given through Jesus Christ and I pray that if there

are any here tonight that have not put their faith in Jesus or any listening online that

tonight they put their faith in Jesus Christ and I ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen.