Guardians of the Gospel

Happy Sunday, Crossway today. You have our friends Cade and Corey Hennessy with

you. And when we think of Kade, we think of the word zeal.

Yeah, Kate Hennessy shows so much zeal for the people of God.

He shows so much zeal for Godliness. And Cade is showing a lot of

zeal by pastoring Vertical Life Church right now as he has stepped into the senior

pastor rolled there and leading that church with zeal and this morning. I know

that he's going to bring God's word with zeal there at Crossway this morning.

So thanks for welcoming Kate Hennessy. Thank you brother. Well, hey,

good morning everyone. I am so glad to be here. I want to

tell you greetings from your sister church in Houston, Vertical Life. Our elders

there, the deacons there, the body there, we love you, we

pray for you, and I want to extend a greeting on behalf of them

this morning. And I have to tell you well before I do that,

let's see if anybody left your Bible on the kitchen table or out in the

truck. If you need one, just raise your hand and an usher would

be glad to bring one to you. You'll need those as we will be

in Second Timothy chapter one this morning. But I gotta tell you my time

back here in San Antonio. Coming here to preach this morning has been a

little bit of a homecoming as we've been there in Houston, my wife and

I, and we're certainly happy to be here. And you know, I

moved to San Antonio after I got out of the Navy, so that was

many moons ago. But got out of the Navy, and I had to

decide did I want to make my home in Austin or San Antonio, And

of course san Antonio won, So that's that's right, and uh, and

so I love San Antonio, and we're glad to be here. Even as

we've been driving around over the last couple of days, kind of seeing our

old stomping ground. This is where I met my wife. She's from here,

this is where trying not to cry, this is where uh, this

is where I had the honor of dating her and uh. And so even

as we've driven around and seen some of these places like old movie theaters and

stuff that that that we might have gone to, it just tied so well

with how I wanted to start the sermon this morning with this this movies?

Did you did you hear there's another superhero movie coming out? Did you like?

Everybody go like this? Because that's the only kind of movie they make

now, right, And there's a new one that comes out every week.

Why are they so popular? Why? Well, I want to give you

a couple of reasons that why I think they're so popular. One of them

is in the name, right, a super hero. We love heroes,

especially super ones. Right, they're protectors, they're guardians. And there's a

particular series of these kind of superhero movies that's called The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Do you know the Guardians of the Galaxy? All right, So that's

a bigger response than I thought. So. It's based on a comic book

from nineteen sixty nine, also called Guardians of the Galaxy. There it's a

space fantasy where this band of quirky misfits they team up to stop the intergalactic

bad guys from destroying the universe with this thing called the Infinity Stone. Now

some of you are looking at me a little weird. Don't worry, you're

not at comic Con. This is church. You're in the right spot.

But my point is not those movies. My point is that these kind of

movies draw people like a magnet, and I want to propose to you that

some of the reasons for that magnetism that they have really are theological. So

one of those specific ones is that we are created in the image of God.

We were designed to want what He wants. He created life, and

so we're attracted to stories about protectors of life, defenders of the week,

and those who belong to God. While we likely are a band of quirky

misfits, we're not the guardians of the galaxy. We're something more. We're

something real. We're guardians of the Gospel. And that's what God's word tells

us today, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul telling young pastor Timothy and

so telling us that we are to be guardians of the Gospel, and not

just saying that we are, but that guardians of the Gospel. And this

is going to be our main point up here today. Guardians of the Gospel

willingly suffer without shame. So let's go turn with me. I want to

show you how I got there. Second Timothy, chapter one, verses eight

through fourteen. I'll read you follow along with me, fossil paul rites.

Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of

me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the Gospel by the power of

God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because

of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which He

gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been

manifested through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and

brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel for which I was appointed a

preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and

I am convinced that he is able to guard it until that day. What

has been entrusted to me follow the pattern of the sound words that you have

heard from me in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, by the

Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

This is God's word for God's people. So I want to begin there in

verse eight. But in order to do that, we actually do have to

back up to verse seven because it's gonna give us some context so that we

can understand verse eight. So let's back up to verse seven. Let me

read that for you. It says God gave us a spirit not of fear,

but of power and love and self control. Therefore, or because of

that spirit he gives us, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our

Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the Gospel

by the power of God. And that's gonna bring us to our first point

today, do not be ashamed to suffer for the Gospel. So let me

add a little bit more context. I heard you guys like context here,

so let's add a little more context. See Paul, he was constantly being

arrested. He was being a drug in front of courts, drug in front

of the authorities, beaten, chased, run out of town, and now

he sits in a Roman prison cell waiting to be executed. Paul had gained

a certain reputation, so much so that those who were on his ministry team

they had abandoned him. You can read about that later today read the rest

of Second Timothy. But for now, it's enough to say that they didn't

want to be seen with him at all, all the suffering that Paul was

going through, they didn't want it. So he tells Timothy in this letter

essentially, don't be ashamed to suffer for the Gospel. Don't run away,

don't avoid the injustice that you see me going through. Because our willingness to

suffer for the Gospel proves our unashamed loyalty to the Lord. So how does

this strike you? If I ask that same basic question. Are you unashamed

of the Gospel, so unashamed of Jesus that you're willing to suffer for the

survival of his message? What do you say? Because the truth is that

most of us can't even handle a little red cheeked embarrassment, much less actual

suffering. It's why we miss opportunities, whether it's at work or home,

or school, or wherever you find yourself. We miss opportunity so often when

people come to us and their lives are broken, and they share with us,

telling us how they're hurting, telling us how they're suffer ring, and

we may be the only ones in the room with an answer with any substance

because we have the Gospel, but because of the embarrassment. It's looking different.

We don't do it, we don't share it. And you know,

I find that it's not so hard to share the Gospel with a complete stranger,

with someone that you will never see again. But when it comes to

people, we know, somebody that you're going to go to work and see

tomorrow, or someone in your own family that you may eat Christmas dinner with.

We don't want to be seen as as strange or weird for different.

John wrote and John Chapter twelve, verse forty two that even many of the

authorities believed in Jesus, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not

confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.

For they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes

from God. What others think more than what God thinks. Fearing the loss

of position, worried about careers, or that we might lose the respect of

our peers, or clout in a social group, or bring discomfort to a

relationship, were tempted to hide to avoid avoid the nervousness and the flushed face

of being seen as different. We want to fit in, We want to

be accepted, by everyone else. We don't want to be looked at as

a quirky misfit. But if we ignore Paul's words to Timothy and we run

and hide from these small, self perceived embarrassments, do we really have any

reason at all to think that we will stand when real Christian suffering comes?

Peter said my first Peter four verse sixteen. If anyone suffers as a Christian,

let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

So where the name of Christian without shame, glorify God with that Moniker

be unashamed. Listen to God's word, listened to the apostles Paul and Peter.

And you know, Peter, he knew a thing or two about shame,

didn't he? He was no stranger to it. He learned the hard

way. Peter was like me, a guy that's often real quick to speak,

like when he was challenged in John thirteen. And Peter found it so

easy to proclaim, Jesus, I'll lay down my life for you. But

when suffering came knocking at Peter's door, what did he do? Peter,

on the night that Jesus was arrested, watched as soldiers tied him up,

and they led him like a disgraced criminal, to the high priest, and

Peter stood outside the courtyard there watching Jesus be condemned. In Luke, chapter

twenty two, verse fifty six, tells us that a servant girl saw Peter

as he sat in the light, and looking closely at him. She said

this man also was with him, but Peter denied it, saying, woman,

I do not know him. And a little later someone else saw him

and said, you also are one of them, but Peter said, man,

I am not. And after an interval of about an hour, still

another insisted, saying, certainly this man was also with him, for he

too is a Galileean. But Peter said, man, I do not know

what you were talking about. And immediately, while he was still speaking,

the rooster crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Can you

imagine that level of shame, What that would have felt like. Put yourself

in Peter's shoes, to declare so easily that you're ready to give up everything.

I'll give up everything for Jesus. But when the time of suffering comes

knocking at the door, to panic, abandon the truth, avoid to hide

your association and then to have to look Jesus in the eye. One day

you and I will have to look Jesus in the eye. But praise God,

Praise God that we have the benefit of learning from Peter's hard lesson.

We know that Peter went on to be forgiven by the risen Savior, to

be redeemed, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and Peter became one

of the greatest guardians of the Gospel. But the world has ever known,

and in the end, Peter did indeed lay down his life for Christ.

He died making sure that the Gospel message lived on. And so we learn

from Peter's example. We learn from Paul's example here in our text today,

and we learned from the warning of Jesus in Luke chapter nine, verse twenty

six, he says, forever who for whosoever is ashamed of me and my

words of him, will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in

his glory and the glory of the Father and of the Holy Angels. Don't

be ashamed of the Gospel. Us fy these minor temptations to avoid our association

with Jesus in certain settings, to treat it like it's no big deal,

because there is a storm brewing outside these doors. The clouds are gathering,

and it is coming our way, and we must prepare, We must get

ready. Now we have to view these minor temptations to hide as testing and

training to stand for Jesus. Now, so if you find yourself in a

situation where the truth but your cheeks feel hot and your stomach begins to sink,

just know that that is the Holy Spirit rising up in you. Train

yourself to tap into him, a spirit not of fear, but of power,

and you rise to the occasion. Train now in these small things not

to be unashamed, so that when the storm of suffering hits our shore,

you will stand up. You will stand up in the name of Jesus,

unafraid, unashamed, locked arm in arm with Peter and Paul and Timothy and

your brothers and sisters here ready to suffer as guardians of the Gospel. Because

He saved us. He saved us, and he called us to a holy

calling. That's the reason. In fact, the reason and the evidence are

here. Look at verses nine and ten. Let's look at those together share

in suffering for the Gospel by the power of God who saved us and called

us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of

his own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the

ages begin, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our savior,

Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light.

Through the Gospel. You see, election is the reason, resurrection is the

evidence. Verse nine says that God saved us and called us to a holy

calling, not because of us, but because of him his election. He

saved, He called, not chosen by our works, but elected by his

grace for his purpose, and before the ages began. Before the ages began,

he made a way for his grace to be given. The verse says

clearly his grace which he gave to us in Christ Jesus, the grace of

the Father received through the Son, has always been the plan. The fall

of man in the garden was no surprise to God. The plan for the

Son to crush the head of the serpent wasn't an emergency protocol. It wasn't

damaged. Control. Jesus isn't Plan B. There is no Plan B.

Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the life. And no one

comes to the Father except through him, his sacrifice, his cross, his

blood, his atonement. He is the martyr, He is the hero,

He is the prize. He is plan. A man, he always is,

he always was, and he always will be. A plan before the

ages begin, a plan to rescue and save, a plan to sanctify and

glorify, A plan to give a spotless bride to a glorious Groom's plan of

grace, and God's words says that that the Church is the bride, says

the church are the elect, the ones who have faith, the ones who

are saved and called to this holy calling. Now, as we grow in

our comprehension of the Bible and our theology begins to mature, the tension that

exists between our experience of choosing God and the biblical knowledge that He chose us,

that tension begins to relax a little, as grace comes into focus and

we begin to understand it better. The gift of faith freely given, not

earned, not deserved, but given freely by God, like a medic giving

unearned mouth to mouth to a dying man laying on the floor. God's Holy

Spirit breathes life into a dead heart. And says, get up and walk.

Sure, we experience faith as a choice, but it is an experience

that we never would have lived without God first breathing life into us. And

our election, or as our text says, our calling, as we find

it, gives us unshakable reason to willingly suffer without shame. So election is

the reason, but resurrection is the evidence. Verse nine said that his plan

of grace through Christ began before the ages, but now, in verse ten,

now it has been manifested through the appearing of our savior Christ, Jesus

who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Christ

has always been plan A even before time began. But now the plan has

been manifested through his appearing. Don't miss it. The plan that always has

been the eternal Son. He has come. The plan appeared, the plan

arrived, He manifested, He made himself known. And what did he do?

He lived the holy life that you and I should live. He died

the just death that you and I deserve for our sin against God. He

transferred our sin upon himself, crediting us with his righteousness, so that we

could be seen clean by our Holy Father. He died and was placed in

a sealed tomb, But after days, in accordance with the prophecy of scripture,

he rose again from the grave, proving that He is who he says.

He is, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Rescuer,

the Messiah, the Savior. He is, and he was and he

always will be. Plan A. This is the gospel for which I am

a guardian. I am a believer. I am of the elect. Are

you do you believe the gospel? Will you see the evidence of Christ's resurrection

as proof that he abolished death and brought life, an immortality, a light.

Will you believe this message and be changed by it? Will you follow

him? Will you love him? Will you obey him? Will you hate

your sin and turn from it? Are you willing to suffer for him?

If your answer to this is yes, I believe, then you too are

of the elect. You two are a guardian of the Gospel, one who

is willing to suffer without shame for the sake of Christ. Like the Apostle

Paul. Apostle Paul, he was a model guardian for us. He tells

Timothy here in verse eleven, he tells Timothy the gospel for which I was

appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I

do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed,

and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what

has been entrusted to me. He tells Timothy exactly without sugarcoating why he suffers

because he's a preacher, a herald of the Gospel, an apostle, an

emissary of Christ, a teacher, an instructor of God's word. Paul's all

these things, yet he finds himself deserted, broke, in prison, on

death row. He's suffering, but Paul's not ashamed. He's a guardian of

the Gospel. He willingly suffers without shame. He responds to suffering with I

know who I believed God, and I am convinced that from now until the

day Jesus returns, God will guard the Gospel message which has been entrusted to

me. You see, Paul understands the human responsibility factor, but here he

elevates his dependence on God because he knows that God is the success right.

He's the security of success, and Paul as a model guardian his confidence is

not in himself, and it's with his confidence in God that he tells Timothy

and us how we can guard the gospel. What can we do? Look

at verse thirteen. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard

from me in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. In other words,

you want to know how stick to the standard of truth. Follow the

pattern. Stick to the standard. He's saying, do what I've taught you,

follow my leader, don't deviate from the truth, don't water it down,

don't change the gospel. So how does this play out in our lives?

Right? I mean, this is crossway Bible church. We don't have

a bunch of scripture twisters running around in here. We don't. We don't

preach the prosperity gospel. We don't preach the self esteem gospel or any other

false gospel. Not here. So where's our blind spot? Well, it's

often back in those moments that I talked about earlier, back to the issue

of pleasing man instead of pleasing God, feeling nervous, are embarrassed about expressing

our faith and sharing the gospel. So in this example, let's say,

let's say at least we were able to get some words out right. This

time we got some stuff out. But the problem comes when the words that

we use amount to a half Gospel. We're tempted to leave out things like

sin, to leave out repentance, anything it's offensive, obedience, to leave

out Jesus. Some of you are looking at me like, what are you

talking? How can you share the Gospel and leave out Jesus? Like That's

happens all the time. I call it god talk. That's when someone shares

the good news about the goodness of God and how God has changed their lives

and what God means to them, and how God is an answer for their

problems, but never gets around to what God. How do I know God?

How do I turn to God? Who is God? They never mentioned

Jesus. We gotta say the name. The problem is that we live in

a post Christian world where vague just God talk, especially here in Texas,

it's as common as talking politics. And if we're going to stick to the

standard of truth, if we are going to be guardians of the Gospel,

then we got to say the name of Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,

say it early, say it often. I'm glad you amen, that

we gotta be really specific about the truth. We have to make sure that

the good news we deliver is the gospel of Jesus Christ, because without Jesus,

there is no gospel. And we cannot confuse people with vague, generalized,

comfortable, socially acceptable to God talk. We can't confuse them, and

we also can't confuse ourselves in the thinking that our testimony is the same thing

as sharing the Gospel. We're tempted sometimes, and believe me when I tell

you this, I'm preaching to me. We're tempted sometimes to simply just share

our testimony and then walk away. Go and count it two points on the

board, another score for Jesus. Our testimonies are not the gospel. They

are evidence of its effectiveness to change the hearts of hearers and believers. But

our testimony is not the Gospel itself. We have to talk about Him more

than we talk about us. There can be half gospels at Crossway or at

Vertical Life or Redemption or Radiant or Hill City or Living Hope or any other

church that guards the gospel. We have to stick to the standard of truth,

and we do this. We guard it. The scripture says, in

faith and love, we do it by giving it away. That's going to

be our final point for today. Guard the gospel by giving it away Verse

fourteen. By the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, guard the good

deposit entrusted to you. You see, Timothy, along with every believer,

has the good deposit of the Gospel entrusted to them, and every believer has

the Holy Spirit empowering them to guard it. We don't guard it by hiding

it. We don't guard it by burying it wear We guard it by giving

it away. Remember, the best way to snuff out the truth is to

bury it super deep where no one can find it. The wicked always wanted

to watch the news. The wicked always want to bury the truth. But

a good deposit has been entrusted to you. Give it away. Let it

shine like a light through you for everyone to see. Jesus said, if

you're the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be

hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket,

but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house. In

the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may

see your good works. And give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So shine brightly, you guardians of the Gospel. And you know,

you remember those other guardians the comic book ones I talked about earlier. It's

a goofy image, I know, but we do have something in common with

them. Like them, we two are band of quirky misfits. So just

own it. Just own it, because if there's something I can tell you

from reading God's word, it's that God loves himself a bunch of quirky misfits.

So don't be ashamed to suffer for the gospel. Election is the reasons,

a direction is the evidence. Follow Paul's model of sticking to the standard

of truth and guard the Gospel by giving it away. And remember that guardians

of the Gospel suffer willingly and without shame.