We are a community gathered around the
word. Uh the theme for this fall is uh
the middle portion of our mission
statement to minister God's word. And
we're taking as our instruction the
pastoral epistles. And so I'm going to
invite you to turn with me in your
Bibles to Second Timothy chapter 4. Uh
we're launching um with Paul's
exhortation that we be about the
preaching of the word and that's uh
relevant for all of us no matter our
vocation. Of course, some of you will
launch into very public and formal
ministry settings where you will preach
on a regular and daily basis. Others of
you will be uh ministers of the word
more informally as you lead Bible
studies, as you uh mentor people um in
church adjacent settings. But regardless
of our vocation, all of us uh need to
recognize the priority that our God has
given to the communication of his word
that the communication of God's word is
at the heart of the mission of God in
this world. And so let's begin as we
read together in verse one of chapter 4.
I charge you in the presence of God and
of Jesus Christ who is to judge the
living and the dead and by his appearing
and his kingdom preach the word. Be
ready in season and out of season.
Reprove,
rebuke, and exhort with complete
patience and teaching. For the time is
coming when people will not endure sound
teaching, but have itching ears. They
will accumulate for themselves teachers
to suit their own passions and will turn
away from listening to the truth and
wander off into myths. As for you,
always be soberminded, endure suffering,
do the work of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry. This is God's
word. Let us pray and seek his blessing.
Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for
your word. We know that it is living and
active.
And we pray that now by your spirit, you
you would
open our hearts, that you would make us
uh soft and fertile soil that that your
word might uh take root
and bear fruit as we go forth from here.
Your servants, your ministers, your
preachers and teachers of this your holy
word. So bless us now we pray in your
holy name. Amen. This weekend launched
the sport and spectacle of college
football and I just want to give
everyone a a little moment here. I know
some of our professors are rolling their
eyes as I bring up the subject of
college football. But for me this is an
exciting time of the year, right? all of
the expectations that are in front of us
as visions of national championships
dance in our collective minds. Um we
have so much to hope for as we look
ahead. Uh in the midst of that
enthusiasm, we sometimes forget that our
cheering makes little difference to what
happens on the field. Right? It's not
really up to us. It's what the players
do. It's the performance
um that they give themselves to. It's
their skill that translates into wins
and losses.
Uh but we persist right in the
pageantry, the pandemonium, the
tailgating, the smacktalking. I'm sure
you uh are doing that with your friends
about your favorite teams. We we want
them to win.
But as the season unfolds, so do our
expectations, right? They begin to
unravel as the losses mount and those
cheers turn to jeers, right? Booze, the
taunts, we get frustrated and it's
enough for our teams and their players
and coaches to lose their nerve. Uh to
throw in the towel on the season, for
example, I've already taken great
delight in the criticism of Alabama
losing its first game
right to Florida State. As an Auburn
fan, nothing is better. Maybe even
better than Auburn winning. It's Alabama
losing.
I was so excited.
And you know what? If Alabama loses
again, that those cheers are just going
to well turn to jeers. That the booze
are going to get worse. The taunts are
going to continue.
And it'll be the same for Texas and
Notre Dame, Clemson,
and your team, too.
Right. That's that's how it is. Now,
there's not a lot about the start of the
college football season that is
comparable
uh to the task of preaching the word.
But there are a few things that might be
worth our attention, few things that are
worth considering. First of all, college
football is in a pageantlike
environment, right? Think about the uh
well the filled stadiums, the the frenzy
of the media, the the the spectators all
dawning at their favorite colors. And
similarly here in chapter 4, but Paul is
well painting a picture of a most solemn
holy assembly,
but this time we're not the spectators.
In in this assembly, go God is himself
gathered. Paul summons God the Father.
He summons the the the beloved son of
the father, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because just like in college football, a
lot's at stake. Of course, in college
football, it's about the wins and the
losses and whose coach is on the hot
seat. But here, it's about the even more
momentous
well task of the kingdom of God.
and every single image bearer is at
stake. That their eternal destiny is at
stake, called to witness in this solemn
assembly. And what is more, but Paul
reminds us that this task will be hard
and it will invite resistance. And
sometimes even when we've faithfully
performed our task,
we will still be jered
and we will still be resisted.
And so friends, when Paul says, "Preach
the word," he he he's saying a lot. And
we need to give some attention to to
what he means. And as I look at this
passage that there are three things that
I want us to think about. First, what
does he mean by preaching the word?
Secondly, why this will be hard? And
thirdly, what's our encouragement?
First of all, what does he mean when he
says preach the word? At its most basic,
I think it just means preach the
scriptures. the scriptures of the Old
and New Testament. That the word here
that he uses is the verbal form of the
word that translates to preacher or
herald. Karuks,
right? A preacher is more than a
spokesman, but rather a herald, a
spokesman of the living God. Dr. Brian
Chapel, he he talks about this in his um
work, not Christc centered preaching,
but Christc centered worship. Preaching,
he says, is simply saying what God says.
And that definition helps us understand
why Paul is commanding us to preach the
word that which is qualified and shaped
and normed by the entire Bible. So to
preach the word is to preach the whole
word.
Charles Simeon, a famous evangelical
Anglican from the early 19th century, he
put it well when he said that my
endeavor is to bring out of the
scriptures what is there and not to
thrust in
what I think might be there. So, so
preaching is pulling out what is there,
what God has given. But we can go
further, right? This word to preach
almost always when Paul uses it is
referring to gospel proclamation in
Romans chapter 1 all throughout his
letters to the Corinthians in Galatians
chapter 2. To to preach is to proclaim
Christ and him crucified. To preach is
to preach Christ as Lord and us as his
servants. To preach
the word is to have our lives well
wrapped around the story of Christ as
it's told in the whole word. His life,
his death, his resurrection to to preach
the word is to be both biblically
saturated and Christ centered, Christ
anchored
around his life, death, and
resurrection, which also means that it's
not just a gospel word. It's an applied
word.
Christ aims to capture our hearts, to
transform our lives.
It's amazing. Paul packs nine
imperatives into these five verses. Nine
commandments.
The most important obviously is preach
the word. Three of the more important
ones come here in verse two. Reprove,
rebuke, and exhort with complete
patience and teaching. That this is the
kind of preaching Paul is recommending.
It's preaching that aims at life change.
This is what makes preaching different
than a lecture. Let lectures inform us,
but preaching aims to captivate us
in a way that we go forth different to
transform us
by challenging us with the claims of
Christ. This is why John Piper talks
about preaching as exaltation.
Preaching is exaltation because it aims
to get us caught up in the story of
Christ that we will be gathered in
worship of our triune God.
It's not simply about explaining what is
true. It's leading us to a confrontation
with the truth, the word, the person of
Christ that we might well be brought
into that relationship. And this is also
why preaching that is applied will be at
turns confrontational and consoling.
To if we're to rebuke, if we're to
reprove, if we're to exhort, it means
that sometimes we will have to convict
with what we say.
We will have to confront unbelief and
sin
and indifference
with what we say.
But at other times in the midst of the
brokenhearted, we we will comfort with
the balm of Christ that we will bring
his grace to bear in the hearts of the
needy. That the one thing preaching must
never be and that is indifferent
to to those that we're speaking to.
To preach the word is to preach
to a hurting world
that needs Christ.
I'll never forget I was attending a camp
with one of my children
and and we were we were going to the
chapel service and uh the person the
officient I don't know who he was but it
was like a 12minute chapel service it
was very brief and he his homaly I think
was maybe three minutes maybe a little
bit less
and at the end we we were dismissed not
with a benediction not with a blessing,
not a a word of thanksgiving, but rather
with self- congratulatory comments about
how brief the service was.
And I thought, how sad
outside the biggest priority
for this speaker was, how can we get
done with this so that we can move on
with our day?
Friends, to preach the word is to preach
the word as though
it matters.
Because it does,
right? The eternal destinies of people's
lives
are at stake.
And you can know when it's happening.
You can know when you're applying God's
word because people will start talking
back to you.
You can know if
if if well if you're indifferent or or
if you're pressing on their hearts
on occasion you'll hear them say,
"Preacher, thank you."
It's like you were inside my head. It's
like you knew exactly what was going on
in my life at that moment. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for bringing Christ
to me.
But but at other times
because you're pressing into their
hearts
that they will say other things
like were you preaching about me?
How dare you?
How dare you say that?
Who do you think you are?
See, preaching the word is to preach the
whole word. a gospel word and an applied
word that is of reproof and exhortation
and rebuke. And finally, it's a ready
word, right? Paul says, "Be ready in
season and out of season." It's not just
about the content, it's about the
context.
We have to preach in those times that
are convenient, but also those times
that are inconvenient. when we're ready,
when we've prayed and we've well
prepared and we've been trained and
we've we've done all the work, but also
in those times when we weren't ready
and we have to bring God's word, the
baseball field
with a parent who's grieving the loss of
a spouse
or child
or experiencing betrayal, the loss of a
job or in hospital room.
We weren't ready to share the word or in
the counseling room where we need to
bring the truth of Christ.
We're not ready. But Paul says we must
be ready in season and out of season.
To be ready to preach and teach in those
moments in which we feel prepared and
those moments in which we don't feel
prepared. regardless to preach the word
is to bring all of the word, a gospel
word, an applied word whenever God
summons us to that task.
Be ready.
And if you do that kind of work, it's
going to be messy.
It's going to be hard.
It's going to be physically taxing.
I mean, it's true. regular preaching
can challenge at the most capable of
servants.
I mean, those Sundays just keep coming.
So, one thing I tell church planners
when they're readying to church plan, I
said, "Just be ready because that Sunday
never stops.
You always got to be ready." But but
that's not the kind of difficulty that
Paul is talking about here. He's not
talking about the difficult challenge of
preaching preparation, but but rather
the resistance
that arises from dull and unbelieving
hearts in the face of preaching the
word. Look what he says in verse three.
For the time is coming when people not
endure sound teaching, but have itching
ears that they will accumulate for
themselves teachers to suit their own
passions. They will turn away from
listening to the truth, wandering off
into myths.
We've heard this before,
right? What does the proverb say? Every
way of man is right
in his own eyes.
But Paul's just capturing the
inclination of the human heart to seek
its own path, to follow its own plan.
And what Paul is saying is that
inclination of the human heart will pop
up as resistance
against the preaching of the word. And
unless we think Paul when he says to
Timothy, "A time is coming at some
faristant moment in the future." Now,
this is just Paul saying,
"There's a time coming, buddy.
You need to be ready.
There's going to be resistance in your
path.
People aren't going to like everything
that you say. That they aren't going to
like everything that you do. that they
they aren't going to appreciate the
stands that you take. They're not going
to endure sound teaching.
And that resistance will be both direct
and indirect.
I mean, it'll be the flatout denial. I
don't believe that, pastor. That's just
wrong. That's not true. That they will
disbelieve.
That they will turn away. That that's
the story of the early 20th century
movement of
liberalism.
Right. In the desire to accommodate
Christianity to to a scientific world
view, the well the uniqueness of Christ
had to be denied. That the
trustworthiness of the Bible had to be
denied. Jesus substitutionary death on
the cross for sinners had to be denied.
And so the church was evacuated of its
power.
But perhaps the the more dangerous path
is the indirect resistance that we
receive. That which takes up the
machinery of the church,
the machinery of Christ's mission in
this world, uh prayer and the Bible and
Christian practices, etc., and then puts
them in the service of of a path that
takes us away from Christ.
This is essentially what the Pharisees
did right in Jesus day that they had
searched the law and not seen Christ.
They had added up big burdens upon the
hearts and lives of their followers and
yet not led them to the well the beauty
and grace of the covenant.
And friends, we're doing the same things
today, right? Mi misinterpreting, taking
the word of God and putting in the
service of truths that take us away from
Christ.
It's part of our politics today,
right? Those who would say that there's
something intrinsically unique about
Jesus mission and the United States, for
example,
that this is part of God's plan.
Or or we think of his love,
God's vast and immense and
incomprehensible love and yet divorce it
from the light of his truth
and the norms of his law
or or when we when we speak about our
fidelity to Jesus Christ,
how we want to follow him and serve him
and yet divorce it from our collective
obligation to participate in the life of
the church. friends, all of those are
taking up the things of Christ and yet
leading us away from him.
Right? It's the whole word. It's the
gospel word. It's the applied word and
it's the word now in this moment
and it will be resisted.
People will gather teachers as Paul says
to suit their own passions.
And so Paul says to Timothy, "Be sober
minded, endure suffering, do the work of
evangelist, fulfill your ministry. It's
going to be hard.
No wonder
so many young people are thinking, I'll
pass.
I don't want to be that guy. I don't
want to be that person standing in that
place saying those things
that just seems like it's too hard.
How do we how do we move forward in that
task?
Where do we find our encouragement?
So you think think about college
football. I said the spectators don't
have very much sway in the outcome of a
game. And that's definitely true because
my team is so bad.
But the spectators that Paul has
summoned in the presence of God and of
Jesus Christ, these spectators not only
have come to bear witness to the task
that we've gi been given, but rather to
bear us up in this holy charge,
right? H how do we find the strength to
endure and persevere and do the work
that Christ has called us to do? It's by
depending upon the father who has called
us. It's about being strengthened
in the strength that comes in Jesus
Christ as he's given us that strength in
and through the Holy Spirit. Only by
depending upon the grace supplied to us
by our triune God can we endure and bear
fruit in the task of preaching the word.
I wish I could say that the most well
rhetorically powerful preachers are the
ones who bear the most fruit, but they
aren't.
That's not true.
I wish I could say that the most
empathetic and curious counselors are
the ones who make the biggest difference
in the lives of their clients, but
that's not true.
I I wish I could say that if we've well
trained the most
then we will have the most significant
impact.
But but that's not the case.
And that's because friends, the power of
transformation and the strength of our
encouragement is not found in us. It's
not found in what we do.
It's rather found in the one who's given
us his word and the word that he has
given us to preach.
Right? This is the power.
This is the grace
that we bring to bear in the lives of
our listeners. This is where our
confidence is found. It's found in the
Lord who's gathered to our side and in
the word he's given us to preach. That's
not to minimize the importance of our
preparation and our training. believe in
you, Thurman.
No, it's just to remember that we're not
preaching ourselves, right? We're not
we're not we're not bearing up
ourselves. We're bearing up Christ.
We're telling the whole word, the gospel
word, the applied word, a word in
season.
Now, I know this word is as preacherly
as they come, right? This is the one
that gets told at and preached on at
ordination services and well church
settings where officers are being voted
on. But but it is true
if you're a Christian you're going to
listen to a lot of sermons
and people flock or flee according to
the sermons that they hear. The other
thing they do is they offer constructive
feedback.
I love constructive feedback.
I've gotten my fair share over the
years. That that sermon was too long,
too short, too much grace, too little
law,
too political, not political enough, too
much head or too much heart. My my
favorite ones though, and these have
really happened to me on more than one
occasion, is when I'm at the back of the
service and I'm greeting some, you know,
the people as they walk out, the members
and the the well-meaning parishioner. I
guess maybe they had seen what I was
going to be preaching on that morning
and they looked up their favorite
celebrity preacher and they listened to
that sermon on the way before church
and walking out of church say, "Thank
you, pastor.
Hey, I was listening to, you know,
pastor whoever is their favorite pastor,
and he was preaching on this same text,
and it was a really good sermon.
You may want to check that out.
It's exhausting,
right? That's preaching. That's what
it's like. It's exactly like that.
But friends, people aren't the barometer
of what we're doing.
People aren't the barometer. Paul has
summoned God the Father
and Christ the Son
in light of the stakes that are at hand,
the eternal kingdom, the the the Lord of
the living and the dead. He is our
barometer
and we're guided into this task
according to his word
and we're empowered in this task
according to his grace. Let's pray
together. Jesus, we're thankful for your
word.
We're thankful for your whole word, the
gospel word. May we be servants of its
application both in season and out of
season. And may you use our proclamation
to bear fruit in the lives of your
servants. All for your glory and our
joy. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.