7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
Introduction
There is nothing in all of this world quite like old-fashioned dependability. The willingness just to hang in there, to stick in there when the going gets tough. That quality of life can make up for almost any other deficiency that a person may have. It can make up for the brightest and keenest of minds, for a lack of talent, or almost any other quality of life. To be able to hang in there and to keep at it is one of the great qualities of life.
Timothy seemed to lack that ability. So, right from the first in this second letter to Timothy, Paul is exhorting this young man to faithfulness, to endurance, to stickability. He begins by reminding Timothy of his own faith in him and his own prayers for him. He says to Timothy, “I believe in you. Timothy, I have prayed for you. Stay true to Jesus.” He reminds him of his heritage. And he talks to Timothy about his grandmother Lois and his mother, Eunice, and their deep abiding faith in God, and challenges him to match their faith. He reminds Timothy of the gift of God that has been given to him and encourages him to use that gift to its maximum ability.
Paul uses his own life as an example. How in the midst of hardships and trials he was not ashamed of the Gospel but stayed true to Jesus, and he sought to challenge Timothy by his own example. He came in chapter 2 to remind him that the very fact that he had entered into the Christian life meant a life of hardship and discipline and endurance.
And he said to Timothy, “Remember that you need to have the dedication of a soldier, the discipline of an athlete, and the diligence of a farmer if you are going to do the work of God well.”
Now if all of that is not enough to keep this young man going—faithful and true in the Christian life—then Paul calls to his mind the essential remembrances. In the passage we have before us today, he reminds Timothy of three things that ought to spur anyone and everyone to a greater life of faithfulness and devotion in the kingdom of God.
You know it is one thing to begin a race and it is another to run to the end. It is one thing to start something and it is something else to finish it. And there are many people who begin well and they end poorly. The challenge of the message today is that we not only begin with faith and trust in Jesus Christ, but that we remain true to him as long as we live. And as Paul challenges us and seeks to inspire us to that kind of lifelong loyalty and devotion, he singles out three things that we need to remember.
He says in 2 Timothy 2:8, “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.” The first thing we need to remember is that Jesus is still alive. And if we ever capture the deep meaning of that truth, the implication of that for our own lives, it will challenge us to greater loyalty and greater devotion to him. Remember Jesus is still alive.
Then in verse 9 he says, “Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.” He reminds Timothy of something that we need to know. And that is that the word of God is alive, it is powerful, it is at work in our world today and there is nothing that can stifle it. Not only is Jesus alive, the grave could not hold him, but the word of God is also alive and powerful and the chains of prison could not hold it.
And the third reminder is in verses 11-13, “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.” And then this clinching statement, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”
And Paul is giving emphasis in that statement to the faithfulness of God. So as he challenges Timothy to a life of faithfulness he reminds him that Jesus is always alive. He reminds him that the word of God is powerful and at work in the world. And he reminds him that God is always faithful to do what he said he would do. You can zero in on those three great truths and remember this: “Jesus is alive, God’s word is at work, and God is faithful, it will help you to be steadfast and true to him.”
As we consider these truths today, I trust that God will bring them home to your heart and life to challenge you to a life of greater faithfulness and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Jesus Christ is alive. The first thing that we need to remember always and ever as the people of God is that Jesus Christ is alive. Paul puts it this way: “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.”
With that statement he gives us the two essential ingredients to the Gospel. The first is that Jesus Christ was born of the seed of David. The second is that he was raised from the dead and he is alive today.
The first statement emphasis the manhood, the humanity of Jesus Christ. It tells us that Jesus lived among us as one of us, and that he was visible, that he was tangible, that he was flesh and blood just like we are. It emphasizes the humanity of Jesus Christ.
Now you might think that in the early history of Christianity the first thing people would doubt would be the divinity of Jesus Christ. That they would doubt that Jesus was really the Son of God, but this was not so. What they doubted first of all about Jesus was not his divinity, but rather his humanity. They didn’t question that he came from God; they questioned that he was born of man.
The Bible always gives emphasis to the fact that Jesus Christ was both human and divine. He was born of a virgin. He was born of the seed of David, but he was also the very Son of God. And Paul begins by emphasizing that Jesus Christ who was born of the seed of David was raised from the dead.
The tense of those words in the Greek, “was raised,” suggests an action that took place at a definite time in the past. But it has continuing effect upon the present. And so the verse literally means that Jesus who was born of the seed of David was raised from the dead and is still alive today and he shall live forevermore. And it gives primary emphasis to the fact that Jesus Christ is alive and active in our world today. This like nothing else ought to challenge us as it should have challenged Timothy to a life of faithfulness and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just to remember that no matter what happens to us, no matter what difficulties may confront us, no matter where we may find ourselves, that Jesus Christ the living Lord is there with us to help us and to sustain us in that experience.
Jesus has said himself to those disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19-20). You will never go anywhere, you will never face any experience, you will never undertake any task without me right there by your side to assist you, to help you, to empower you in doing that.
Paul bore testimony to the living presence of Christ in his own ministry. He said later on in this book, “When I stood before Nero the emperor to defend myself, at my first answer no man stood with me, all men forsook me. Nevertheless, Christ stood with me and he strengthened me that by me the preaching of the Gospel might go on.”
The great truth of scripture is that because Jesus Christ lives, he will always be with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. Therefore we need not be afraid of what any person could ever possibly do to us. It means very simply that when they wheel you into the operating room, a time of anxiety and uncertainty, you can know that Jesus Christ will be right by your side and he will go into that room with you.
It means that when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and you go to the cemetery to bury your nearest and your dearest and in the loneliness of that moment you can know that the Lord Jesus is there with you. You will never ever in this life face any experience alone if you love him and if you trust him as your Lord and Savior. And knowing that Jesus Christ who was born of the seed of David was raised from the dead and he is still alive today is one of those great inspiring incentives to remain faithful and true to him as long as you live.
2. God’s word will last forever. The second great incentive is to remember not only that Jesus is alive, but that God’s word is powerful also. Paul says in verse 9, “Wherein I suffer trouble [for preaching the Gospel], as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.”
When Paul wrote these words he was in prison in Rome. And Rome took no chances on prisoners escaping. They not only locked them in a dungeon, but they chained them to a Roman soldier, to a personal guard for 24 hours a day. So Paul found himself constantly chained to a Roman soldier. He wrote to Timothy to say, “Timothy, I am in bonds. Timothy, I am not free. I can’t move about as I would like. I’m always chained to someone else. But I want you to know this, Timothy, that while I am in bonds, the word of God is not bound. It is not chained. It is not limited. It has the freedom to move and work wherever it wants to. There is power in God’s word and man cannot restrict the moving and the working of the mighty power of God.”
Paul is inspiring this young man to stay faithful and true to the Christian task by reminding him that he is dealing in the Gospel with something that human power cannot limit. It goes beyond anything that man can control.
You cannot quench an earthquake. You cannot hem in a hurricane and you cannot chain the word of God. You may lock up the preacher. You may burn the Bible, but there is something here that is alive and dynamic and powerful and it goes forward regardless of the opposition that man may level against it.
There was once a television miniseries called Wallenberg—A Hero’s Story. It was a story about Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish minister who devoted his life to protecting the Jews in Hungary from the atrocities of the Nazis and later the atrocities of the Russians at the end of the war. Toward the end of the story the Russians were approaching Budapest and a Jewish rabbi met in an upper room with some of his followers and he called them to prayer and to Bible reading. One of the young men who was a skeptic said to the rabbi, “What’s the use of reading the Bible? What’s the use of praying? We may not even be here tomorrow.” And the rabbi responded, “But our book will be here.”
God’s word will last forever. And that’s the emphasis Paul is giving to Timothy in this passage of scripture. “Timothy, when you give your life to Jesus Christ, when you devote your life to the Gospel, you are devoting to that which time and eternity cannot destroy. Man in all of his efforts can never limit the word of God.” You are linking your life with that which is eternal.
In 1966 the Cultural Revolution came to China and the Communists sought to stamp out every trace of Christianity. But we discovered when the doors to China swung open again that in that period of time when the Communists sought to stamp out Christianity, it actually increased. It was estimated that when the Communists took control in 1949 there were fewer than one million Christians in China and yet after a decade of terror and persecution there were three million Christians after the Cultural Revolution. And today there are well more than 100 million people worshipping Christ in China. In a country that for years and years sought to stamp out the word of God we have discovered that what man seeks to destroy, God can overcome and God can cause to prosper. Even in a day when they bound up Christians and put them to death, the word of God kept going forward in a great and dynamic way.
Paul is saying to Timothy, “You link your life and your heart with the word of God and there is nothing on this earth, nothing that man can do, that can ever hinder the progress of God’s work in your life.”
3. God is always faithful to his promises. Remember this, Jesus Christ is alive. Remember this, that God’s word cannot be bound. And then remember this great truth: God is always faithful to his promises.
God is always faithful to do what he said he would do. He tells us this in verses 11-13, beginning with “It is a faithful saying …” And then he gives us that saying that is dependable, that is faithful, that is reliable. In all probability these are the words of an ancient hymn. Perhaps it was a hymn that Christians sang when they went to be baptized. Maybe it was a hymn that they sang as they went to be martyred for the Christian faith. We are not sure where the hymn came from or why it was used. But in all probability these are the words of an ancient hymn.
And then Paul continues: “For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”
“If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him.” That suggests to us what Jesus said on one occasion, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24). The way to life is the way of self-denial. It is the way of dedication. It is the way of commitment.
“If we deny him he shall deny us.” Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” It is as simple as this. If you want the Lord Christ to stand for you in heaven, you must stand up for him on earth. If you want him to claim you before God, then you must claim him before men. And if you deny him in this life, he cannot reasonably claim you in the life that is to come.
So Paul reminds us that self-denial is the way of life. He reminds us that if we deny Christ, it is the way of rejection. Then this great truth, that he cannot deny himself, that he must be true to his own word. And it gives emphasis to the faithfulness of God to keep his word. Whatever God said in this book in the way of promises, in the way of threats, you can bank on it, you can rest assured because God is always faithful.
Christ is alive. The word of God is powerful. God is faithful. Those are anchors in the midst of the instabilities of life.
Do you remember the movie Camelot? It is about the legendary King Arthur and his efforts to bring law to the land of England. In particular he is interested in instituting the jury system in England. He believes that justice can best be served if men are judged by a jury of their peers. After a lifetime of effort and work he finally institutes the jury system in England. But lo and behold, the first person to break the law and to be tried by a jury in England is his own wife, the queen. She had committed adultery. She is charged and tried by a jury. And she is found guilty and condemned to death. The king then faces a great dilemma of whether he should allow his wife to die or he should overrule the law and the jury and pardon her. In his own words he puts it this way, “I must either kill the queen or kill the law. If I kill the queen my life is dead. If I kill the law my life is a fraud.”
Man cannot work all of his life to build something, to establish something, to believe in something like the law and then break it without his life being a fraud. In exactly the same way Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth cannot, cannot be unfaithful to his word. Both the promises and the threats of this book cannot be broken without his whole life and character being a fraud.
You see the character of God is at stake in his faithfulness to do what he says he will do. To bless those who repent. To forgive those who come to him in Jesus Christ. To strengthen and empower those who walk with him. His whole character is at stake in his faithfulness to keep his word. And Paul declares for us in the midst of the uncertainty and the instability of today that there is something you can count on: God is faithful. He must be true to himself.
So as he seeks to inspire Timothy and to inspire you and me to a lifetime of faithfulness in Christian service in devotion to the Lord Jesus, he reminds us of these three great facts: Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and he is still alive. The word of God can never be bound by human power. And God can always be counted on to do what he says he will do.
The challenge then is that we be faithful and true to the living Christ and the powerful word and the faithful God of this book.