Sunday 10/16/22 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Proclaim The Message!” (“2 Timothy Series”: Part 3 of 4)
Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 119:97-104
New Testament Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Gospel Lesson: Luke 18:1-8
For
two weeks now I have been preaching a sermon series on the Apostle Paul’s
letter or book of 2 Timothy. I felt called by God to preach this four-week
sermon series, as I have been saying the past two weeks, because there are just
so many good things in these readings. All four of my sermon titles for this 2
Timothy sermon series, in fact, are right out of our scripture readings
themselves. Or to put it another way, all of these sermon titles are a piece of
a verse of scripture from each of our 2 Timothy readings every week.
These four consecutive readings from 2 Timothy are also
ones where the Apostle Paul encourages his young friend Timothy and us to stay
connected to Jesus, and to live like Jesus. In the first week of this sermon
series that Apostle Paul told Timothy and us to “Guard The Good Treasure” that is in
Jesus Christ. Last Sunday, the Apostle Paul told Timothy and us to preach “The
Word Of Truth!” that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In a comparable way in our 2 Timothy 3:14:4-5
reading for this morning, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy and us in 2 Timothy 4:2,
“proclaim the message” From this piece
of 2 Timothy 4:2, my sermon title is called “Proclaiming The Message!” Next
Sunday, I will conclude this sermon series with a sermon called “Fought The
Good Fight!”
So,
what do we have again in our 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 reading for this morning? We
have the Apostle Paul telling Timothy and us to live and preach Christ. The Apostle
Paul really hammers this point home over and over in our 2 Timothy readings.
We
see something similar of the devotion to God, as the Psalmist says of God for
this morning in Psalm 119:102-103:
102 I do not turn away from your ordinances,
for you have taught me. 103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Ps. 119:102-103, NRSV).
Being devoted to God, and in
our 2 Timothy reading for this morning, being devoted to Jesus Christ, is what our
2 Timothy readings are all about. In looking more at our 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
reading for this morning, the scripture says starting in 3:14, once again:
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:14-17, NRSV).
In
this scripture, once again, the Apostle Paul is reminding his young friend
Timothy, and us, to continue what we have learned and firmly believe. The Apostle
Paul is telling Timothy and us that many of us have learned the Bible our whole
lives. The Apostle Paul is telling us to continue to read the:
the sacred writings that are able to instruct
you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15b, NRSV).
The Apostle Paul then tells Timothy and us, that the scriptures,
the Bible,
is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17, NRSV).
Or
another way to say this from our United Methodist Church Articles of Religion,
from our founder John Wesley, is our Article of Religion on salvation in Christ.
What does this article say? Let us hear for ourselves:
Article V — Of the
Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation
The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the church. The names of the canonical books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The First Book of Samuel, The Second Book of Samuel, The First Book of Kings, The Second Book of Kings, The First Book of Chronicles, The Second Book of Chronicles, The Book of Ezra, The Book of Nehemiah, The Book of Esther, The Book of Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, Cantica or Songs of Solomon, Four Prophets the Greater, Twelve Prophets the Less. All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical (BOD, 64-65).
So, the Holy Scripture, the Bible, gives us everything we
need to encounter Jesus, to receive salvation, to know God’s love, and to live
this out in the world. In looking at the rest of our scripture reading for 2
Timothy 3:14-4:5, we pick up in 4:1 that says, once again:
4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: 2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching (2 Timothy 4:1-2, NRSV).
The
Apostle Paul is telling Timothy and all of us, do not wait, preach, and live
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Proclaim Jesus’ love, live it out, and do it
whether it is easy or hard. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy and us:
convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching (2 Timothy 4:2b, NRSV).
Be
about God’s business and show and live the love of Jesus Christ. Or as the Apostle
Paul tells Timothy and us, “Proclaim The Message!” Or as the great Hymn is
called “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”
In
finishing our reading from 2 Timothy for this morning, the Apostle Paul tells
Timothy and us 4:3-5, once again:
3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. 5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
The
Apostle Paul is telling Timothy and us, the work of the church, is that of
Jesus Christ. Love God, love others, and live and be like Jesus Christ. Tell
the world what Jesus has done for you, and who Jesus is. Never stop showing and
living the love of Jesus Christ. In all of our 2 Timothy readings over these four
weeks, as I said, the Apostle Paul pounds these ideas home over and over. To
know perfect love, is to know Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy and
us over and over in our readings from 2 Timothy this month to guard this,
spread this, and this morning, to “Proclaim The Message!”
In
looking at our gospel of Luke reading for this morning, we have one of Jesus’
parables or stories. Jesus often taught through parables and stories, which was
very common in the era and the culture that he lived in. This parable or story,
is called “The Parable of the Widow and the
Unjust Judge.” This parable or story is also only found in the gospel of
Luke.
Picking
up in our gospel of Luke 18:1-8 reading for this morning, it says starting in
8:1 once again:
18 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ 4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk. 8:1-8, NRSV).
So, Jesus is telling us all to always pray
and to not lose heart. Jesus then tells us that in a certain city there was a
judge, who did not know God and did not respect people. In this same city, a widow
woman kept coming to this judge to get justice against her accuser. She was
denied what was hers, and while she had nothing, one thing she did have was
persistence. This widowed woman wore the judge down, until he finally conceded.
The judge did not respect anyone of have any fear of God, but he was tired of
being pestered by the widow woman.
Jesus then says in Luke 18:6:
And the Lord said,
“Listen to what the unjust judge says (Lk. 18:6, NRSV).
Jesus then concludes this gospel of Luke reading, saying once
again, in 18:7-8:
7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to
him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly
grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on
earth?” (Lk. 8:1-8, NRSV).
The point of this parable is that even though the judge had
no faith and respected no one, the persistence of the widow caused him to respond.
In the same way Jesus tells us to persist in our prayer, for as Jesus says, we
have a God of justice. Stay persistent, keep praying, stay close to Christ, and
continue to “Proclaim The Message!”
I read a story from Guideposts recently about the power of
prayer. This story struck me in particular because it was about two Air Force
Pilots. This is the story, by Kyle Swanson:
In 2011, I was in
the Air Force, serving my fifth deployment in Afghanistan. I was the navigator
on a crew that was flying reconnaissance missions, using radar and cameras to
record the locations of roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices. We flew
above the main transportation routes that our supply trucks used. After we’d
pinpointed the locations of bombs, they could be detonated safely. One week
that fall, a cyclone (what we’d call a hurricane back home) created a thick
cloud cover over the whole country. The conditions created a huge problem for
us. Although our radar could penetrate the clouds, our cameras could not.
Without that footage, how helpful could we be to troops on the ground?
The copilot and I
prayed together before our flight took off. “God, will you part the clouds for
us?” I asked. “The way you did the Red
Sea in the Bible?” Our C-130 flew toward the area we were supposed
to record. Visibility hovered near zero because of all the clouds. Maybe it will get better closer to the
target, I thought. But 10 seconds away, I could still barely see the
ground below us, much less any explosive devices hidden in culverts or buried
in the dirt. Soon the plane was directly above our target area. We would have
to make do with whatever the camera could somehow detect through the cloud
cover. That hardly seemed enough when there were lives at stake. We turned on
the camera. Right before our eyes, the clouds
began to part, like curtains being pulled back to reveal the exact
spot we needed to see. “God’s doing it,” the copilot murmured. That’s what it
felt like. Over and over on that recon flight, the clouds would part at just
the right moment for us to capture the images we needed. Our crew located more
bombs that day than we ever had before in a single mission. The analysts on the
ground couldn’t believe the footage we’d recorded. The copilot and I made sure
to tell them who
was really responsible (https://guideposts.org/prayer/power-of-prayer/what-prayer-can-do-our-viewfinder/).
The
situation of the two Air Force pilots could have ended differently, as God does
not always answer our prayers when we want or how we want, but the two Air
Force pilot persisted. In our gospel lesson for this morning, the widow
persisted for justice to the unjust judge. Likewise, this morning the Apostle
Paul persists in telling Timothy and us to “Proclaim The Message!” of Christ. Amen.
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