Introduction

In the last part of the 20^th century, it has been exciting to see the church in China explode in size.  In the early 1900’s it would have been difficult to find any Christians in China and now there is a thriving church.  Now, some of the church is still underground and still faces persecution.  In spite of the tremendous difficulty faced by believers in China, the church continues to grow.  Now the question is whether or not the church in China will grow in a healthy way.

A few years back, a mission leader in China named Sam Ling sent out a disturbing letter to his supporters.  He wrote, “the church in China is feeling the impact of neo-evangelicalism and post-conservatism… Overseas Chinese seminaries are evolving into post-conservative schools.  The church is losing her orthodoxy… We must call the church to faithful adherence to … the inspiration of scripture.”

These words are troubling.  Within two generations of the explosion of Christianity in China, there is already an erosion in the confidence the Chinese have in the reliability of scripture.  It’s a troubling development, but it’s not surprising.  The same phenomena had been happening from the very beginning of the church.  At the root of this problem lies the truth that the Bible is a mirror.

The Bible is a mirror that reveals.

The purpose of a mirror is to reveal the truth about what is really there.  A mirror is truthful… it simply tells it like it is.  I might believe that when I wake up in the morning that I don’t need to shave or comb my hair, but the mirror tells a different story.  I might be offended by what I see in the mirror in the morning, but it’s not the mirror’s fault that I’m imperfect.  It simply reveals the truth.  It’s up to me to do something about what I see.

The Bible compares itself with a mirror.  The Bible is a mirror that reflects not what’s on the outside though, but it reflects the real condition of the heart, the mind, the attitude and the spirit.  It reflects back our real spiritual condition.  Pastor Steve Lawson said, “I never really knew myself until I read the Word of God.”  The Word of God reflects back realities in our lives that we may not have seen without it.  It gives a true reflection of what is really on the inside of a person.

James 1:23-24 says, “for if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like.”

I think the Chinese culture, our culture and Timothy’s culture in ancient Ephesus all have a mirror problem.  When they sit under the accurate preaching and teaching of God’s Word, it reveals some truth back about what is really going on beneath the surface of a person.  I often have people come up to me after the service and say something like, “Did you write that message just for me?  How did you know what I was going through this week?  You addressed issues in my life that nobody knows about…”

Trust me that I don’t have a spy camera in your house.  I have something better – the Word of God.  The Word of God easily penetrates the fake façade people put up.  It penetrates right to the bone and the marrow.  It sees past the surface and opens a window into a person’s heart.  Hebrews 4:12 says “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

When the Word of God reveals the actual thoughts and intentions of your heart or mine, we are brought to a crises of belief.

• Do we deal with the sins the Bible reveals?
• OR… do we make excuses for them?

In order to understand the incredible significance of verse 1, we need to jump ahead to verse 3 to see what was happening in the congregation Timothy was pastoring.  There is a characteristic in the church that Paul singles out in this passage.  He says that these people won’t receive the truth.  He says it in two different ways.

• In verse 3a he says, “a time will come when people will not endure sound teaching.” Then in verse 3b he says, “they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”  Why are they doing this?  Because they won’t receive the truth.
• Then in verse 4 he tells Timothy to expect these people to “turn away from listening to the truth,”  and he warns Timothy that they will “wander off into myths.”

History tells us that the Ephesians heard the Word, received it for a time and then wandered away from it.  Later in Revelation chapter 2, the Apostle John issues this warning to the church at Ephesus:

2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

People are prone to wander

When the mirror of God’s Word is held up by a faithful teacher of the Word, some people can’t stand what it reveals and they refuse to listen to it.  Instead of changing their lives to conform to God’s perfect standards, they change their standards to conform with their lives.

There will always be people who will push aside biblical truth and who will find teachers to tell them what they want to hear.  There will always be false teachers who will move into a community, assess the felt needs of the people and preach another gospel with the sole intention of building their own success rather than building the kingdom of God.

These teachers hold up a different mirror.  They know that if their congregation looked into the mirror of God’s Word, they might feel convicted.  Some might even leave.  That’s not ok if they are trying to build an empire for themselves, so they cover up the mirror with something more attractive. “Oh Mark, you don’t look like a 40-year-old guy who just woke up.  You look just fine.  Thumbs up!  Now you go be the best you can be.”

People who don’t have a hunger for the truth, will be chasing after novelty instead.  Paul describes them as having “itching ears” in verse 3.  These people are looking for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear rather than what is actually true.  Some people will plug up their ears at the proclamation of truth while they open up to any other teacher who will relieve their tickling ears by scratching them with lies.

It is reminiscent of what happened after Stephen gave his clear defense of the gospel in Acts 7.  It says in Acts 7:57, “…they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.”  After they grabbed Stephen, they cast him out of the city and threw rocks at him until he died.

• How is the Chinese church supposed to deal with people who are second-guessing the inspiration of Scripture?
• How does the American church hold fast to the gospel in the midst of so much criticism from those who are opposed to the gospel?
• How was Timothy supposed to react to a culture that might kill him if he continues holding up the mirror of God’s Word?

Our natural reaction would be to keep quiet and to keep our beliefs to ourselves.  If people won’t receive the truth, then it would be logical to keep the truth from them and to maintain some level of peaceful co-existence.  (You’ve seen the bumper stickers) Our culture promotes this line of thinking constantly.

Do you suppose that is the course of action that Paul promoted?  No.  Paul reaches a totally opposite conclusion from what seems logical and prudent in our culture.  (I saw this one yesterday and I thought it rang true) Paul makes it clear that a healthy church is one that preaches the Word of God without apology… especially when there is opposition! (Especially when people are trying to hurt the church)

Preach the Word without Apology

The faithful minister of Jesus Christ is commanded to publicly proclaim the truths of God’s Word.  Have you ever wondered why we set up the room like this?  You can tell a lot about a church by what is the main focal point of the room.  This room is an illustration of what is important to us as a church.  There is a reason why this pulpit sits right in the middle of the room.  It’s not to focus the attention on the preacher.  All eyes in this room, including my own, are focused on this: the Bible.  When we gather together as a church on Sundays, we gather to hear the Word of God proclaimed.

Now that we have established the context of this passage, let’s go back to verse 1.  In verse 1 we see four reasons why the preaching of the Word is central to the ministry of our church and should be central to the ministry of every church.

Why preaching God’s Word is central to the ministry of a healthy church:

#1 God commands church leaders to preach.

Verse 1, “I (solemnly) charge you…”

John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a writer.  He was a deacon and a priest in the Roman Catholic church at one point, but came under the conviction that the church ought to do what the Bible says and not just what people thought was right.  As a result, he became a leader in the protestant Reformation in Scotland and he was considered to be the founder of the Presbyterian Church there.

He’s known for crying out to the Lord, “Give me Scotland or I die.”  Later, when he felt the solemn charge to preach, he locked himself in a room and wept and prayed for days because of the fearful seriousness of that calling.

I think that is the heart behind those first few words in Chapter 4.  When Paul solemnly charged Timothy with preaching the Word, the seriousness of that calling is drawn from the awesome majesty of the one who commissions men to the ministry.  Those who are called to both proclaim and to explain the Word of God have found it to be the most serious responsibility that God places on the heart of any man.

The serious nature of the calling prompts James to say, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.  For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”  (James 3:1-2)

My extended family owns Olsen’s Grain.  (They still charge me full price for my dog food.) They have a motto, “good enough just isn’t.”  When God gives a person the charge to teach or to preach the Bible, that charge comes with this motto “good enough just isn’t.”

There is no room for sloppy scholarship in ministry.  Every person who is called to teach at any level at the church – whether that is kids ministry, small group, youth ministry, women’s ministry or jail ministry – they are called to take special care in their handling of the text so that they don’t cloud its message or damage the reputation of our King.

Handling the Word is a solemn charge that is made even more serious when you consider that we are carrying out our responsibilities with the scripture “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.”  But… the presence of God in the preaching and the teaching of the Word is the very component that fuels the explosive power of the gospel message.

#2 God empowers the proclamation of his truth.

Verse 1 says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus…”

When we read this verse, we recognize that Christ is present in the proclamation of His truth.  When someone is speaking truths out of God’s Word, it is not that person who is ultimately talking.  It is God who is speaking through them and through his written Word.  If Jesus was still in the grave, His Word would be dead and powerless.  BUT… Jesus is alive and (very much) at work in His church.  The very Savior, who was victorious over death, is empowering the Word with authoritative, life-transforming energy as it is proclaimed.

The Word of God is like dynamite.  It carries with it tremendous power.

• Just like dynamite, it is so powerful that it must be handled extremely carefully.
• On the other hand, it is so effective (and explosive) that we can be confident in its power.

As God’s Word is applied to walls and stronghold of sin, it is not the spark of the preacher that tears those walls down, but the explosive power of the Spirit that destroys strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

Since God’s Word is powerful and so effective, we don’t have to be salesmen.  We have the Word of Christ and access to all the power that lies behind God’s book.  Through the careful leading of the Holy Spirit, we can express God’s truth with courage and boldness as needed and also with gentleness and compassion as needed.  All the time, we can expect that it is not our words that hold the power for changing anybody, but the energy behind it all is the power of Jesus Christ raised from the dead.

He is raised from the dead and he is coming back again.

#3 Jesus is returning

Verse 1, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead and by his appearing…”

Before we talk about the sober reality of Jesus judging the living and the dead, let’s talk about this reference here to the second coming of Jesus.  The power of God within our ministry efforts compels and motivates you and I to be diligent in carrying out the call the Lord has put on each one of our lives.  But the main reason why the church must be diligent in its calling is because Jesus is coming back.

Paul is convinced that Jesus will personally return.  He wrote extensively about the Second Coming of Christ early in his ministry in his letters to the Thessalonians church.  Although at this point Paul knows that he will die before the Second Coming of Christ occurs, he still lives his life in light of the Second Coming.  He says that those who are looking forward to and anticipating the return of Christ will be specially rewarded.  Skip ahead in the text to verse 8:

“Henceforth it is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (verse 8)

This crown of righteousness is not saved up for just apostles or elders or pastors.  The text says it is for “all who have loved his appearing.”   That means it is for both me and YOU!

The Greek word for “appearing” literally means “a shining forth.”  It was used by ancient Greeks to describe a Roman emperor coming to visit a Provence or a town.  When the Emperor was scheduled to come and visit a city, everything in that city was put into perfect order.  The town is made ready for the “appearing” of the King.

The analogy is clear.  Is your life (and my life) ready for the coming of our King?  His appearance could happen at any time.  The life that is anticipating the arrival of King Jesus will be a life that is rewarded on the Day of Judgment.

#4 Jesus will judge all mankind

Verse 1, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead and by his appearing…”

The Greek word for judgement (krino) has a number of differing degrees of severity.  It can range from offering an opinion to resolving an issue to a more serious tone of condemning a sin.  The New Testament lists three different judgments that Jesus will make on mankind:

• The Bema Seat of Judgment of believers only (1 Cor. 3:12-15, 2 Cor. 5:10)
• The Sheep and the Goats judgment of the nations, where unbelievers will be separated from the believers (Matt. 25:31-33)
• The Great White Throne of judgment of unbelievers only (Rev 20:11-15)

So which of these three judgments is Paul referring to?  In this text, Paul’s focus is on the first judgement, the Bema Seat.  It says in 2 Cor. 5:10 says, “…we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”  The judgment here is not so much based on our abilities, but in the excellence by which we used our abilities.

There is some confusion among Christians in determining the difference between success and excellence.  Many church leaders are striving for success when they should be shooting for excellence instead.  Let me define the difference:

• Success compares me in relation to others… Excellence compares me to myself.
• Success focusses on the external, temporary human standards.  Excellence focusses on the internal as well as on eternal, divine standards.
• Desire for success comes from pride and self-promotion.  A desire for excellence come from humility and from self-sacrifice.

Every person, whether they realize it consciously or not, is committed to either being successful or to being excellent.  This is not to say that a person who lives an excellent life is not sometimes successful.  Often excellence leads to success.  But for the person who is motivated by excellence, success is not a big deal to them even if it is achieved because they are simply doing their best to complete the task God has called them to do.  They may be so focused on being excellent they don’t really care if they are successful or not.  They just want to be excellent.  Jesus does not judge us on success… He judges on excellence.

• Those who are driven by success are shooting for a different goal than those who are striving for excellence.  They are trying to attain cultural goals that might elevate them in the eyes of society.  These goals are marked by power, prestige, wealth and privilege.  Excellence, on the other hand, is the pursuit of the highest quality in your own work and effort for the glory of God – whether others approve of that work or not.
• Success is measuring yourself in comparison to others whereas excellence is comparing yourself in light of the abilities and potential God has given you and the calling He’s placed on your life.
• Success seeks to please men whereas excellence seeks to please God
• Only a few people are ever successful, but excellence is available to every person regardless of their abilities, if they are willing to do their best
• Success can be cheap and attained by lying, cheating and stealing.  The price of excellence is never cheap, is never discounted and is never available for a penny less than full-price.

I hope that after seeing this list, you and I stop saying that we want to be successful and we start saying (and meaning) that we are striving for excellence.

If someone is consumed with a success syndrome, they get all caught up in appearances and the things that everybody else can see on the outside.  The person who is striving for excellence is supremely concerned with doing his or her very best for the glory of Jesus (regardless of how their efforts compare to anyone elses).

When Jesus comes again as judge, he will be unimpressed by our success, but He will richly reward those who spent their time and effort and energies pursuing excellence for the Kingdom.

Life Application: Make the Kingdom your top priority

Verse 1 “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead and by his appearing and His kingdom.”

The ultimate reality that must concern Timothy is the coming Kingdom of God.  The coming Kingdom is why the false teachers are such a big deal and why he must Preach the Word.  Men only get one lifetime to surrender their lives over to the control of Christ.  Hebrew 9:27 says, “…its is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement.”  So it’s not time to relax on preaching.  It’s time to be excellent and bold and powerful in proclaiming the truths of God’s Word!

Jesus promises to reward those who diligently seek Him and who love His appearing. He could come back at any time or he could call you home at any moment.  How do we ready ourselves for the appearing of Jesus?  How do we make the Kingdom a priority?

1. Strive for excellence rather than success.  Be faithful, diligent and intentional in using your gifts and abilities for the building of the Kingdom.
2. Know God’s Word and invest in others by sharing God’s truth with them.  God’s Word is powerful as it is applied to both our lives and to the lives of others.
3. Pursue whatever calling that God has placed on your heart.

Strive, Invest and Pursue.  And in it all, keep your eyes on Jesus.  This life and this world will pass away soon, but eternity is a very long time.  Invest your time and money and resources in things that will last rather than on things that will pass away with this world.

Teaching Outline

The Bible is a mirror that reveals – James 1:23-24, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 4:3-4

People are prone to wander – Revelation 2:2-5, 2 Timothy 4:3, Acts 7

Preach the Word without Apology – 2 Timothy 4:2

Why preaching God’s Word is central to the ministry of a healthy church (2 Timothy 4:1):

#1 God commands church leaders to preach – 2 Timothy 4:1, James 3:1-2

#2 God empowers the proclamation of his truth – 2 Timothy 4:1, 2 Corinthians 10:4

#3 Jesus is returning – 2 Timothy 4:1, 8

#4 Jesus will judge all mankind – 2 Timothy 4:1, 1 Cor. 3:12-15, 2 Cor. 5:10, Matt. 25:31-33, Rev. 20:11-15

Application: Make the Kingdom your top priority

1. Strive for excellence rather than success.  Be faithful, diligent and intentional in using your gifts and abilities for the building of the Kingdom.
2. Know God’s Word and invest in others by sharing God’s truth with them.  God’s Word is powerful as it is applied to both our lives and to the lives of others.
3. Pursue whatever calling that God has placed on your heart.