Proud to be his messenger (2 Timothy 4:1-22)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

Here is the image involving the disqualification of Apolo Anton Ohno on Friday’s 500 m finals short track competition. He was disqualified for pushing Canada’s Francois-Louis Tremblay into the padded boards. He later won bronze medal in men’s 5000 meter relay to make it total of eight medals.

He said this about the disqualification… “I kept waiting and waiting and on the last corner, I ran up on the Canadian guy… I put my hand up so I wouldn’t run into him. There was just no space to move up.” “You know, it’s the head Canadian referee out there and there were two Canadians in the race.” He was implying that the judges were somehow favoring Canadian player and unfairly ruling the case against him.

Well, last Friday on that track, whatever Ohno thought happened didn’t matter. What really mattered was what the referees saw and judged. People can argue over it, but at the end of the race, the final call came not from Ohno, but from the judges.

Judging from how Paul used to illustrate spiritual journey with the sports theme, I bet he would have loved watching the Winter Olympic. To Paul, finishing the race was very important to him. The most important thing about finishing the race was the opinion of the righteous Judge. Paul says in 4:1 that it will be the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who will be the righteous Judge who is going to judge the living and the dead. And, sitting in his prison cell, there was genuine happiness about the way he ran the race… “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” No disqualification here… He looked forward to the moment when the righteous Judge would award him on that day, the crown of righteousness for finishing the race well.

Paul said in verse 6, “the time has come for my departure.” He meant the moment of execution. Looking back at his life and looking ahead for his impending execution, and his eternal life, Paul wanted nothing more than Timothy, his spiritual son to run the race and to finish the race without disqualification. So, he wrote his final words to Timothy. That’s what we have it here in the last chapter of 2 Timothy. Would Timothy finish the race, run the race without being disqualified, would Timothy preach the word even though it would cost him?

• Are you proud to be his messenger?

One day, without any exception, we will all face the righteous Judge who is going to account the quality of our lives. Paul knew that the Judge will disqualify many for not finishing the race, not running the race at all, for cheating.

So, Paul gives this solemn charge to Timothy, “Preach the word.” Perhaps, when you hear the word “Preach,” the immediate image that comes to your mind is the ordained clergyman like me standing in his pulpit on Sundays preaching. When Timothy heard the charge to preach, this isn’t exactly the kind of image that came up in Timothy’s mind. Rather, the original Greek word evoked in Timothy’s mind an image of the imperial herald; as the spokesman of the emperor, the Imperial herald proclaimed with authority on behalf of the emperor; and it was understood that the message delivered by the imperial herald was to be accepted and be carried out without delay.^[i]

To preach the word is to be King, Jesus’ messenger. This preaching the word, proclaiming and announcing the King’s message requires a sense of pride. Are we proud of the message contained in the word of God? Are we proud of Jesus Christ? Are we convinced that the world needs to hear what the King of the universe has to say to them? Are we so convinced that our non-believing friends, families, coworkers, neighbors, colleagues need to hear the message from Jesus?

Let me share you few accounts of men and women from the first three centuries. These are stories of those who were proud of Jesus Christ and his word and proved their pride in the message of Jesus with their lives.

Ignatius of Antioch was one of the earliest post-New Testament martyr. He was the second/or third bishop of Antioch arrested for atheism, denying the roman gods. Upon his arrest Christians tried hard to free him. But, to those who tried to free him he wrote, “I fear your kindness, which may harm me… You may be able to achieve what you plan. But if you pay no heed to my request it will be very difficult for me to attain unto God.” What was that he desired to attain unto God? He said, “Now I begin to be a disciple… Let fire and cross, flocks of beasts, broken bones, dismemberment… come upon me, so long as I attain to Jesus Christ.”

Polycarp was a bishop of Smyrna. He was arrested at the age of 86 for his message of the gospel. Before the local proconsul, Satius Quadratus Polycarp was threatened to be thrown to wild beasts, to be burned at the stake… To this Polycarp responded by saying while the proconsul’s fire lasts but a little while, the fires of judgment cannot be quenched. And, he concluded, “But why do you delay? Come, do what you will.” So, the soldiers grabbed him to nail him to a stake. Polycarp stopped them and demanded, “Leave me as I am. For he who grants me to endure the fire will enable me also to remain on the pyre unmoved, without the security you desire from nails.”

Perpetua… a Christian noblewoman at the turn of the third century lived with her husband, her son, her servant, Felicitas in Carthage of North Africa. Emperor Septimius Severus was determined to cripple Christianity so he focus on North Africa. She was arrested as she and four other prepared for baptism. All she had to do to be free was to deny that she was a Christian. On her trial, Perpetua’s father who was a pagan intervened by carrying Perpetua’s son in his arms and burst into the room and begged Perpetua, “Perform the sacrifice. Have pity on your baby!” And, the governor, Hilarianus chided her, “Have pity on your father’s gray head; have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor.” To this Perpetua replied, “I will not.” “Are you a Christian then?” asked the governor. “Yes I am,” Perpetua replied. She and others were sent into the area floor to be devoured by the beats and be slayed by the sword.

Timothy lived in the time the cost of believing in the message and the cost of proclaiming the message confidently and proudly was huge; Paul was the living example of how costly it was to preach the word in the pagan world.

Paul experienced rejection from the people who rejected and opposed the gospel message, but he also experience rejection even from well-meaning Christians when they deserted him at his first defense in Rome (4:16).

Yet, we see Paul unfazed, so confident and proud and faithful witness to God’s message. He had his head in all situations, always sober, clear-minded, he endured hardship, and he discharged all the duties of his ministry that is he fulfilled his ministry. We see no fear as death stared at him. Death was simply the time for his departure (4:6) into present of Christ whom he longed to see (4:8).

How was this possible? I believe it was because Paul was proud to be the messenger of Christ? Are you proud to be his messenger?

• Are you ready?

How do you know if you are really proud of Jesus? How do you know when people are proud of something? They show it by their enthusiasm. Don’t they?

Mark my words… in short months, you are going to see people walking into your favorite coffee shops and café with their brand new IPad. Eyes will turn and people will talk.

Have you met parents who cannot stop talking about their little children? I might be one of them. I don’t normally update my Facebook. But, when I do, you bet it has something to do with my girls. Latest update on my Facebook reads… “My 4 yr old girl asked me, “Can God juggle?” My answer, “Well… I think God can juggle!” LOL. How would you answer her?” Guess what… I got zero responses… I thought it was so cute how Audrey thought about God and wanted to share it with the world. But, the world doesn’t seem to get excited about it. But, guess what… the next time I share something on Facebook, I bet it is going to be something about my girls…

When people get genuine excited about something, they tend to be spontaneous instead of calculating to find the exact moment to display their excitement. Imagine what would it be like to be so genuine excited about Jesus Christ and we start talking about him spontaneously? Paul had this uncontainable excitement, enthusiasm and conviction in the message of Jesus Christ that, even in the most hostile environment, he managed to share the message of Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I have this tendency to wait for the right “even” divine moment to share the gospel message with someone. To this Paul says, “No, you don’t wait for the right or perfect moment to share. You don’t wait for the opportune time. You don’t wait until when people beg you to share the gospel. You share because you are proud of Jesus. You share because you are convinced that people need Jesus; it just they don’t know it yet. You share because you know that there will be a day when everyone will have to stand before the righteous Judge and all must give account for their lives. You share because you want to expose the lies of Satan, expose the wrongs, and encourage and cheer for that which is right.

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^[i] Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997).

Are you built on the Scripture to shine? (2 Timothy 3:10-4:8)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

Illustrations for two different foundations…

A vulnerable foundation… under heavy rain solid soil turns socks up rain and turns into mud… And, what you see is once a solid foundation turned into mudslide, destroying any structure built upon it.

 

Compares this to this picture of Tillamook Rock lighthouse built on the solid rock formation off the coast of Pacific Ocean of Oregon. Built in 1881 and deactivated in 1957, for 77 years, nicknamed, “Terrible Tilly” had withstood the enormously powerful ocean storms pounding on it without mercy… Its light was visible 18 miles out to sea. When it was deactivated and replaced by a red whistle buoy, Oswald Allik, the keeper penned the final entry in the logbook. After turning off the light for good, this is what he wrote in the log (displayed at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon):

Farewell, Tillamook Rock Light Station. An era has ended. With this final entry, and not without sentiment, I return thee to the elements. You, one of the most notorious and yet fascinating of the sea-swept sentinels in the world; long the friend of the tempest-tossed mariner. Through howling gale, thick fog and driving rain your beacon has been a star of hope and your foghorn a voice of encouragement. May the elements of nature be kind to you. For 77 years you have beamed your light across desolate acres of ocean. Keepers have come and gone; men lived and died; but you were faithful to the end. May your sunset years be good years. Your purpose is now only a symbol, but the lives you have saved and the service you have rendered are worthy of the highest respect. A protector of life and property to all, may old-timers, newcomers and travelers along the way pause from the shore in memory of your humanitarian role.[i]

Paul was built to shine brightly; he was a Christian sentinel, working tirelessly against the torrents of the false teachers, persecutions from the Jews and the Gentiles alike. In the dark and demonic world oppressed with fear and drunk with selfishness, he burned brightly shinning the gospel of the radical love of Christ from Jerusalem to the very heart of Rome. Now, he had reached the end of his earthly journey and was waiting for his execution. Yet, he was not resigned or helpless in the inevitability of the impending execution; he was ready to depart, to sail beyond the horizon into the very presence of his passion, his life, his everything, Jesus Christ. Looking beyond the horizon, you see Paul determined to see his spiritual son Timothy be built to shine brightly with the gospel in the midst of all kinds of trails and persecutions.

So, we see Paul writing to Timothy in verses 11 about his first missionary journey which is chronicled in Acts 13 and 14. Paul wanted to remind Timothy how he was persecuted and suffered for the gospel and how the Lord rescued him from all. At Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas, his coworker, faced the jealous Jews who stirred up persecution against them and expelled them from the city (Acts 13:14-52); At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas fled from the Jews and the Gentiles alike who plotted to mistreat them and stone them (Acts 14:5-6); In Lystra, Paul and Barnabas were welcomed by those who thought they were gods. But, in the hands of those who opposed the gospel, he was stoned and dragged outside the city left to die. But, Acts 14:20 records how after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up… and continued on with his missionary journey. In such ways, the Lord rescued him from all persecutions; so he endured persecution and sufferings. Paul was built to shine the gospel in the harshest and darkest environments. And, he was determined to see Timothy do the same, built to shine.

If you were to be featured in ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, what kind of buildings would accurately represent your persona?

Is this what you picture in your mind, one of the many varieties of nice homes?

The cover for ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST FOR CHRISTIANS… if there is such thing, it would prominently feature the lighthouses built on the solid foundations to shine their lights far.

The questions I want you to ask this morning are… Are you built to shine brightly? Is your way of life, your purpose in life built so that you experience persecution and sufferings? But, you endure persecution and suffering patiently and passionately without wavering in your faith in God’s ability to take care of you. These questions are designed to probe if you are living a godly life in Christ Jesus?

Paul says in verse 12, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” When you are built to shine brightly in darkness, you are bound to face some people who dislike you, hate you and even curse you in pain for shining brightly their eyes with the gospel light that are only accustomed to darkness.

The reason so many of us don’t experience anything near persecutions or sufferings is because we have not taken seriously our true identity as spiritual lighthouses. God is in the business of building light houses that will shine brightly in darkness. And, Paul identifies the Scripture as the bedrock of the spiritual lighthouses.

That’s the connection we see in verse 14-16…

“But as for you…” unlike those evil men and imposters going bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived,” because they ignore and reject the Scripture, as for you Timothy, “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

When the bedrock of the Scripture teaches, informs and shapes your way of life, your purpose, when the Scripture becomes the foundation of your faith, your patience, your love, when the Scripture becomes the bedrock of your spiritual lighthouse, then you will shine even in persecutions and sufferings.

So, the key to realizing your identity as the spiritual lighthouse is how seriously you take the Scripture and build your life on it.

Your attitude towards the Scripture

So, this morning I want you to think about your attitude and understanding of the Scripture, God’s word, the Bible.

The attitude towards the Old Testament… V. 15, “the holy Scriptures [literally “the sacred writings”], which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Paul here is referring to the Old Testament which was taught to Timothy even from his infancy.[ii] He grew up hearing God’s word as it was “the responsibility of every father to instruct his sons in the Torah, starting at age five to six; evidently they began with Leviticus (Str-B 3:664–66).”^[iii] There are some Christians who readily dismiss the Old Testament as not as important as the New Testament… but they are seriously mistaken. Without the Old Testament, you lose the big picture of God’s salvation plan. You lose the perspective about God who is God of the history, God of eternity.

Poetries, histories, laws, prophecies of the Old Testament witness to God who patiently, sovereignly, faithfully works out his salvation plan to bring up new generation of faithful out of unfaithful generations, to point the new generation of faithful to his Son, the Messiah long promised, who was prophesized to fulfill his destiny to give his life for us all. Your Bible reading should not neglect the read of the Old Testament.

The attitude towards the inspiration of all Scripture… V. 16, Paul talks about “All Scripture as God breathed.” This is one of the most important statements about the inspiration of the Bible.

• All Scripture is God-breathed means the writing of the Scripture was inspired by God, directed by God, recorded by God without disregard to personalities of the individual writing. It also means all Scripture as written in the very earliest original text are without errors.  With each proceeding manuscripts, that is copies of the original, mistakes can be introduced.
• But, as for the Old Testament, when the scholars compare the newer manuscripts copied by the special groups of Jews called Masoretes and the ones found in Dead Sea which predates the newer manuscript for over 1000 years, they differ only in three words and only in spelling. Two manuscripts copied 1000 years apart, but only three words in difference? That’s remarkable.[iv]
• Consider the sheer amount of 24000 some fragments of New Testament manuscripts other than the original Greek language, 5000 manuscripts in Greek language; these are manuscripts made within first few centuries since the original writings. There is one manuscript of entire book of John that copied 150-200 years later from the original, one almost entire New Testament copied 250 years later, and two complete New Testament manuscripts copied less than 300 years.
• What does the sheer volume of manuscripts available for the New Testament and the short number of years between original and earliest surviving manuscripts? F. F. Bruce explains the significance this way: “If the great number of MMS [manuscripts] increase the number of scribal errors, it increases proportionately the means of correcting such errors, so that the margin of doubt left in the process of recovering the exact original wording is not so large as might be feared; it is in truth remarkably small.”[v]

  Name	Number of years between original and earliest surviving manuscript	Number of existing manuscripts
  Caesar’s Gallic Wars	900	10 good ones
  Tacitus’ Annals	1,000	2
  Thucydides’ History	1,300	8
  History of Herodotus	1,300	8
  New Testament	150-200	1 (entire book of John)
  250	1 (almost entire New Testament)
  Less than 300	2 (complete New Testament)
  Within first few centuries	Over 5,000 Greek fragments; 24,000 in other languages

(source: http://www.irr.org/bible-reliable.html#5)

• Consider the Incredible unity of the books of the Bible (39 ­Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books)… imagine what kind of unity you would get if you put some of the great writings of the world by Plato, Aristotle, Josephus, Dante, Shakespeare?
• Consider the insurmountable opposition to destroy God’s word and the followers… emperors, dictators, totalitarian governments have unsuccessfully tried to destroy the Bible… burning, confiscating, imprisoning and persecuting anyone found reading it, or secretly keeping it[vi]…

The attitude towards its power to transform…

Does God’s word have the role to teach you the right way to live, does it have the right to rebuke you for the wrongs you commit, does it have the authority to correct you, train you in righteousness, in right behaviors, and does it have the ability to equip you for God’s work?

Is the word of God the foundation that which your life is built to shine?

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[i] http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=135

[ii] ("The holy Scriptures" is ta hiera grammata (lit., "the sacred writings"), an expression found in both Philo (Life of Moses, iii.39) and Josephus (Antiq. x.10.4) for the OT, which is what Timothy was taught as a child. (Gaebelein, Frank E. The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 11. 409. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1978.)

^[iii] William D. Mounce, Word Biblical Commentary : Pastoral Epistles, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002). 563.

[iv] http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:hak5FQ6EpxAJ:www.irr.org/bible-reliable.html+the+accuracy+of+the+bible+manuscripts&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=u

[v] F.F. Bruce The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 6th ed. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1981), 14.

[vi] Peter Williams, Opening Up 2 Timothy (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2007). 83.

Love that destroys… (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

“3 killed in University of Alabama…” a text message from Associated Press appeared on my phone. Yesterday, a biology professor, Amy Bishop, of University of Alabama was charged over triple campus murder. She is 42 years old, a Harvard-trained neurobiologist and an assistant professor; she was at the biology faculty meeting on the Huntsville campus… when Bishop learned she wasn’t going to get what she wanted, tenure status, she got angry and shot and killed three faculty members and injured three other university staffs. It is reported that as police led her away in handcuffs, she said, “It didn’t happen. There’s no way. …They are still alive.”[i] And, late yesterday, a Massachusetts police chief disclosed that Bishop fatally shot her own brother in 1986. It was dismissed as an accident, but now in the light of what she did, some doubts if it was really an accident after all.

From what’s known thus far, Bishop murdered her colleagues for not getting what she wanted... the tenure status she thought she deserved. Her Indignation and her perception of insult to her sense of justice, fairness for herself was so strong that in her mind killing was the right thing to do. To her, those who decided against granting her tenure status deserved to die. The insult to her love of herself was reason enough to kill others. This is what a person does when self-love, selfishness is carried out to its extreme.

Love that destroys…

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1, “in the last days,” the expanse of time between Jesus Christ’s first and his second coming, there will be “terrible times.”

The Greek word translated here, “terrible” occurs in one other occasion in Matthew 8:28. There, “terrible” is translated as “violent” to describe “two demon-possessed men” who came from the tombs and met Jesus. These demoniacs “were so violent that no one could pass that way.”

I want you to see this connection. When Paul describes the last days as terrible times, he is talking about the kind of violence and damages that will be ensued and sustained by the essence of evil; the essence of evil that has wreaked havocs in disguise of subtleness... Where you find troubles of broken trusts, lies, power struggles, conflicts that have shattered friendships, marriages, and families, where you find troubles of peoples being irresponsible and making others responsible for their failures, where you find troubles of people going astray, what you will find in the midst of human troubles is the essence of evil, destructive love of self that traces back to Satan.

God created Satan as a powerful angel to love, worship and serve the Creator, to live out his identity as God’s privileged angel. Yet, he made the choice to reject the creative purpose to love, worship and serve God. Instead, Satan chose to love, worship and serve himself; he sought to make himself like God. And, this is exactly how he seduced Eve and Adam in Genesis 3:5, “… when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He became like the fallen Babylonian king in Isaiah 14:12, “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations”; Jesus said the same thing about Satan in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven.” Satan was rejected because he refused to love, worship and serve his Creator, instead he became lover of himself.

Why have there been terrible times in the last days? The creative purpose to love God has been marred and replaced by the demonic bent on love of self.

“People will be lovers of themselves” says Paul. We are creatures created for love-relationship with God. Love-relationship with God now broken and rejected, what preoccupies people is love for themselves. This obsession for self, this love of self, results in evils that destroy. Love of self without love for God is demonic in nature and it destroys.

Lovers of themselves become lovers of money and lovers of pleasure; lovers of themselves are unable to contain the attitude of pride so they gloat boastfully of what they possess. Since lovers of themselves use people for their own gain, they see nothing wrong in abusing people. Lovers of themselves begin young in their distaste for legitimate authority, so they are indifferent and out right disdainful for anything that their parents have to say to them. Lovers of themselves demonstrate no gratitude to the true Giver of life. Lovers of themselves see no reason to be set apart for God’s purpose; they have no taste for holiness, only for secular. Lovers of themselves have very little room to love others for they waste all their energy on loving themselves. Lovers of themselves relate to others only to the extent that it benefits them; so they are unforgiving and resentful. Lovers of themselves empowers themselves by accusing others slanderously, that is falsely. Slanderous is translation of Greek word diabolos, which is also translated as the devil. The devil, Satan’s trademark is accusing falsely to destroy. Without self-control, lovers of themselves are inflamed with lust. Lovers of themselves lose their humanity and become brutal and cruel. Lovers of themselves are treacherous and act like Judas did betraying their friends even for meager profits. Lovers of themselves are rash so they take no time to be considerate to others. Conceited, they are drunk with self-importance.

In sum, love of self without love for God, namely selfishness, is demonic in nature as its destructive force produces evil vices.

Empty shell of destructive love of self

Paul likens love of self without love of God as “having a form of godliness but denying its power” in verse 5. Beneath the shell of godliness, what is missing is love directed to God and for people. The shell of godliness has no substance of corresponding reality of love of God. Without the reality of love of God, there is no divine power to bring about godly changes.

Form of godliness that is not found in the reality of love for God and love for people is counterfeit faith. William Mounce said, “True Christianity consists not in the show of religiosity but in the powerful proclamation of the gospel accompanied by the life of obedience that conforms to the demands of the gospel.”[ii] The essence of the gospel is God in pursuit of the loss generation through the self-giving love of his Son Jesus Christ to bring about real changes, conformity to the image of Jesus. When love of God is replaced with love of self, the empty shell of hypocrisy can only bring about evil destruction.

The religious frauds of Paul’s time showed their true faces when they wormed their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women. Paul highlights some women of his time who were duped into believing the religious frauds as genuine lovers of God. The women of the ancient time were less educated in traditional religion and assumed lower social standing and thereby had less to lose and much more susceptible to the façade of godliness… Because in the Greek society the access to women were restricted in public arena, the religious frauds sought to gain access to the household to win the hearts of vulnerable women, playing on their emotion, passion and even their fear. Winning the wealthy women, these religious frauds gained financial support from them, but entrapped them and burdened them further into sin for they never learned the truth…

Today, it may look like this… A person rebukes you for what is clearly wrong on your part, but you walk away feeling shamed, discouraged, put down, not loved and not cared for; you walk away feeling like something is terribly wrong with you without hope that God can change you for better.

A person encourages you to take the path of the least resistance that pleases people but doesn’t please God.

A person tries to make you do things by shaming you, obligating you, subjecting you, dominating you… their motive is calculating and manipulative to steer you to what works for them for their good, rather than the interest of God and others.

Wow, did you ever think that selfishness can be so destructive? After all aren’t we all selfish to varying degrees? So, what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that love of self without the love of God, the religious frauds empty of God’s love cannot bring about godly changes in themselves or in anyone else for that matter. Only God can bring about godly changes.

That’s what happened to Jannes and Jambres. The facts about Jannes and Jambres were widely known in the resources outside of the Bible as Pharaoh’s magicians who opposed Moses in Exodus 7:11. Initially they were able to counter God’s power by turning their staffs into snakes. But, in the story of Exodus, they couldn’t match the genuine power of God with their silly magic. Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. They failed to copy the plague of gnats (Exodus 8:18-19); they failed to stand against the plague of the boils (Exodus 9:11)… They were fools living in the empty shell while believing that they possessed the power of God to change, when in reality, they were nothing more than frauds bent on destruction. So, soon, their folly became clear to everyone. William Mounces says, “When God is removed as the priority in life and is replaced with self, money, and pleasure, all the other vices naturally follow.”^[iii] Peter Williams says, “when self is on the throne of the personality, then love for God and other people is of little consequence.”[iv]

Whose priority do you follow? Who is sitting on the throne of your personality?  Who do you love the most? The enemy, Satan’s game plan is to seduce you to walk the path of destructive self-love, the path of defiance that rejects God’s rule, the creator’s directive to love, worship, and serve the loving and good God, your Creator… Don’t fall for it.

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[i] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7026077.ece

[ii] William D. Mounce, Word Biblical Commentary : Pastoral Epistles, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002). 547.

^[iii] William D. Mounce, Word Biblical Commentary : Pastoral Epistles, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002). 547.

[iv] Peter Williams, Opening Up 2 Timothy (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2007). 68.

Christian Quality Assurance- Approved by God (2 Timothy 2:14-26)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, February 7 2009

Akio Toyoda, CEO and President of Toyota Motor Corporation and the grandson of the company’s founder bowed and gave a formal apology at an evening news conference in Japan. It was after two weeks since Toyota announced massive and the biggest almost 8 million global recalls due to the issue of sticking accelerator pedals. Adding to the insult, now the U.S. Transportation Department is investigating Toyota’s Prius hybrid car after the Japanese government ordered an investigation of its braking system.

A professor (Dr. Hrebiniak,) in the Department of Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania expressed his trouble by the fact that “Toyota had clues there were quality problems-not only general problems, but that there was an accelerator problem.”[i] Many wonder how the famed Toyota for their reliability and their workmanship failed so miserably lately. Perhaps, it’s the cost-cutting measures, or their push to expand the markets in unsustainable pace… whatever the causes are, the current state of Toyota reveals that they have made seriously compromise the quality of their workmanship.

Paul thinks of Christian life in terms of quality as well. Will you and I be able to pass the quality control as Christians? Will you and I be known for the quality of workmanship? For Paul, the key to the Christian quality is becoming a worker who does not need to be ashamed but approved by God.

Someone said this, “I really cannot give you the formula for success. But I can give you the formula for failure. It’s this: Try to please everyone.

What Paul taught to Timothy and what he teaches us today is that we have the calling from God to aim our lives to please him. The key to the success for Christian life is becoming a worker approved by God. When testing is done, will you and I emerge as genuine and honorable or will we be ashamed?

• A worker approved by God knows how to correctly handle the word of truth.

In the postmodern world we live in, people reject the notion of absolute truth; they are much more comfortable with relativism, the world where no one can claim to have truth. Truth is determined not by absolutes, but by what makes one feel good. Truth is reduced to matter of preferences, merely what one favors. When you push the world of relativism and tolerance to its logical conclusion, it is whoever has more power gets their way. Dorothy Sayers writes in “The Six Other Deadly Sins” about the world we live in:

"...In the world it calls itself Tolerance; but in Hell it is called Despair. … It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for...."

God envisions a workman approved by him, one who honors his truth, his word. In the age where talk is cheap and words don’t mean whole lot because people don’t live it out, Paul calls us to correctly handles the word of truth. This is a call to live out the convictions that are hammered out of the anvil and the fire of God’s word.

Can you handle the word of truth correctly? The Bible says the word of God is the sword of the truth.

When I was young, I dreamed of being a martial art hero. Walking from school, I would look for that perfect sword made out of tree branch. And, in the privacy of my little world, I became the most powerful warrior anyone has ever known. Well, sadly, if you live with me, you may occasionally find me in my spacious home breaking into my warrior fight with my red broom or the old shower curtain rod. But, really who am kidding? I am no fearsome warrior prince. I cannot handle any kind of sword except kitchen knives to cut fruits and vegetables.

Can you handle the word of truth correctly?

It takes immersing yourself in the word of God where God reveals who he is, his perspectives, his will, his purpose, his character. A month has passed, now we’re in February. I encourage you to continue the reading of God’s word as you planned. Whatever plans you picked reading four chapters a day, a chapter a day, a paragraph, whatever it is. What matters is that you read God’s word consistently.

• A worker approved by God avoids quarrelsome and argumentative attitude.

Paul says a person whose convictions are grounded in God’s word avoids quarreling about words (v. 14), godless chatter (v. 16), foolish and stupid arguments (v.23).

When I speak to you about contending for the faith, wielding the sword of truth, I wonder if I am drawing a picture in your mind of a person who goes around blasting people with the Bible, pounding any who disagree with you with the hammer of truth, out to destroy the heretics, to argue against the opponents into submission.

Well, this isn’t the case at all as you can read from Paul’s letter. The world sees enough of angry and bitter so called Christians who are argumentative, and quarrelsome over trivial doctrinal matters, who justifies killing a doctor who performs abortion, who talks about love of God but shows no concern for the hungry, poor, single mothers, etc.

The world needs to see Christians who are approved by God, something other than quarrelsome and argumentative.

• A worker approved by God instruct gently.

Paul’s take is that we are to be unmovable when it comes to our conviction in the truth of God’s word. We are to never deny Jesus even if someone threatens to kill us for our faith.

But, when it comes to communicating the truth of God’s word to the world, Paul says being argumentative or quarrelsome or militant is not the way to go. After all, are we not serving the Master who laid down his life for the enemies? The way to win the world is not by the sword of that cuts down people but the surgeon’s knife that cuts out the dangerous cancer tissues.

Consider how Jesus treated Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus. We see no record of Jesus treating Judas harshly, as he, a betrayer, deserved. Jesus was stern and firm towards the self-righteous hypocrites like Pharisees and teachers of laws who lived behind the facet of righteousness. But, overall his attitude in instructing people was gentle and kind. Jesus expects the same from us.

• A worker approved by God is set apart.

Paul illustrates a worker approved by God in verse 20-21. He likens workers approved by God as household articles that are for noble purposes and workers unapproved by God as household articles of ignoble purposes. The difference is that the articles of noble purposes are made holy, meaning set apart for the Master’s purpose. Being set apart, workers approved by God are useful for the Master and are prepared to do any good work desired by the Master.

You need to get this in perspective… the ignoble articles of household in the ancient time is what you find in your bathroom. You know the thing that you have to use when things don’t go well after using bathroom. Toilet plunger is dispensable and has no other value than unclogging toilet. Now, picture in your mind your home. Quickly scan in your mind your possessions… what are your possessions that are of great value because they are simply not irreplaceable, priceless…

You need to know this about yourself. As Christians, God treats you not as disposable and only good for ignoble purposes. God is after transforming you into his proud possessions of great value for his great purposes, for his good work. He is after setting you apart for himself. Understand this clearly… this is your identity; this is your destiny; this is your calling. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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God sees each of you and he envisions workers who are set apart by him for his good work, one who knows how to handle his word correctly, not quarrelsome or argumentative, but one who can instruct gently because you are confident in what he can do through you… this is what God wants to accomplish in your life. This is the gospel, transforming unworthy people like us into worthy people to carry out the King’s good works.

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[i] http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2423