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I want us tonight to look at the commission Paul gave to his young friend Timothy that we find in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verses 1-8.

A former bishop of Durham, Bishop Handley Moule, said that when he read 2 Timothy he found "something like a mist gathering over his eyes." Imagine the apostle Paul, now quite old, in a dungeon in Rome. And he believes there is no way out except through death. However, he is confident. For his life's work is over and he can say: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race."

But he is concerned that his work will not have been in vain. So he is concerned to ensure that the faith - the good news about Jesus Christ - after his death, will be transmitted (without distortion or dilution) to future generations. Therefore, he gives Timothy a charge or a commission. He tells Timothy to preserve and preach what he has learnt from him (Paul) and, in addition, (as he has said in chapter 2 verse 2) he is to entrust it "to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

But I too find this epistle moving - especially the verses we are going to look at tonight. At the end of the 1960's I was working on the staff of St George's Church in Leeds. One Friday evening, one of our Pathfinder Leaders was driving home down the A1 having been working away, and a lorry on the other lane going in the opposite direction suddenly veered across the carriage way and head on into his car, taking it (and him) completely off the road into a field. And he was killed outright.

The subsequent funeral was very moving. His young wife - he hadn't been long married - said a few words in the service. I shall never forget them. She said that, later that night of the accident, she went up to his little study - or where he had his desk. And there were his notes he had already written for the Pathfinders that coming Sunday morning; and his Bible was open at the passage he was going to be speaking on and teaching. Yes, it was this very passage 2 Timothy 4.1-8 and so she read out the last verses - 6,7 and 8:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.

She said he had died with those words in his recent consciousness. And she knew that they were true of him and his relatively short life.

So that is a challenge for tonight. When the time comes for your departure to be with the Lord - and that can be sooner or later - when that time comes, will you be able to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"?

Let's now look at this passage in more detail. And my headings are, first, THE COMMISSION and secondly, THE REASONS, and, you'll see, there are three reasons.


First, THE COMMISSION

And it is very simple. Look at verse 2:

Preach the Word.

And it is the Word. Timothy knew it equalled that body of doctrine Paul refers to in verse 3 as "sound doctrine"; in verse 4 as "the truth"; and in verse 7 as "the faith".

It is the word about Jesus Christ who "came into the world to save sinners"; who "has destroyed death and has brought immortality to light through the gospel"; and who was "raised from the dead, descended from David" (he was divine and human) as Paul had written earlier. That good news, or gospel, is the word that has to be preached.

And "to preach" literally means "to herald". So Timothy is to communicate the word to others as widely as possible. He is to broadcast it. He is to be like a herald or town crier when there were such men.

And Paul says there is an urgency about it all. Timothy, verse 2, is to ...

be prepared in season and out of season.

Timothy is to keep at it, whether it is convenient or inconvenient - and that could be convenient or inconvenient to Timothy or his hearers. Sometimes it certainly will be inconvenient to Timothy and it will be to us. When it is time to prepare that lesson, or that activity and there is the Premiership on TV and you still haven't finished - which comes first? But the commission is to communicate the word. And that still is the commission because the world's great need is always to hear the truth about Jesus Christ.

You say, "that is not my gift; and I am not directly involved in preaching or teaching." But everyone in this fellowship should be concerned in some way to get the gospel out. Yours may be a supportive ministry that helps someone else get the gospel out. Think of the sidesmen on car patrols at this very minute.

I have told this story before, and I will tell it again. Soon after I came to JPC nearly 30 years ago, John Stott had been invited to preach - for those who do not know, John Stott has had (and still has) a remarkable preaching and teaching ministry all over the world. But when he got up into the pulpit, with a full church as we'd invited other churches to make use of the occasion, the old PA system that we then had, collapsed. And people at the back of the church could hardly hear a word. So who helps getting the gospel out, John Stott or the PA team? Both are absolutely necessary. The point is obvious.

Every ministry is so important. But whatever your ministry you need to realize that the number one calling of God's people - as a body and (as they can) as individuals - is to communicate the truth about Jesus Christ. Supremely that truth is about sin and salvation through the Cross where Christ died in our place, bearing our guilt. But it also involves the truth that God is our creator and how we need to follow his instructions and live as he wants us to.

But you say, "all right, the content of the Word is the truth about Jesus, and we are to communicate it in as broadcast a fashion as we can, whether we find that convenient or not. But what actually is involved in that?" Well, look at the second half of verse 2. Paul there says you are to ...

correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.

"Correct" means to convince someone that they are wrong in their thinking. "Rebuke" means to challenge someone because they are wrong in their behaviour or attitudes. And "encourage" means to give hope and stimulation when someone is depressed or inactive. So you have to be concerned with the mind, the will and the emotions as you preach the word.

And you have to do all that "with great patience and careful instruction" - literally, "with every sort of patience and teaching". People won't necessarily learn what you are wanting to teach them immediately. Sometimes they will draw the opposite conclusions from what you are saying. Do you give up? No! You are to show "great patience". Never forget that some communication theorists reckon it can take 10 goes to get one message across. And there needs to be "careful instruction" or, literally, "every kind of teaching". You need to vary the ways you try to get the message out.

So that is the commission Paul is giving Timothy.

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.

And that commission comes down to us in 2002 to be applied in our own different situations; and when applied, it needs to be obeyed.


Secondly, THE REASONS.

Paul gives Timothy three reasons for this commission.

First, there is a reason based on spiritual realities. Secondly, there is a human reason. And, thirdly, there is a leadership reason. Let me explain.

First, or (a), the reason based on spiritual realities. Look at verse 1:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, (I give you this charge).

Do you see how Paul grounds this charge? He grounds it in the fact of the reality of the living God and the risen Christ who, one day, "will judge the living and the dead." You see, Christ is going to appear again when his kingdom will be acknowledged by all. At present he is only known and understood spiritually as the Holy Spirit makes him real to the believer. But one day he will be seen and known by everyone:

every eye will see him, even those who pierced him" (Rev 1.7).

Christ will then come to judge, not to save as he did at his first coming. But that judgment day should motivate Christians to preach the word.

On the one hand, we will all have to give an account of the stewardship of our talents, as Jesus said in one of his Parables. On the other hand, as the word is preached now, men and women will be saved from a Christless eternity as they hear and trust in the Christ who is preached. Paul writes to the Corinthians:

we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men" (2 Cor 5.10-11).

So Paul says to Timothy and to us, "Preach the word" because of these spiritual realities.

Secondly, or (b), there is a human reason for preaching the word. Look at verses 3-5:

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

So the second reason is the possibility of spiritual drift in the church. Luther once famously said:

The word of God is seldom retained in its purity in any one place beyond the period of twenty or at best forty years. The people become accustomed to it, grow cold in their Christian love, and regard God's gift of grace with indifference.

And Luther was so right. We are seeing this happen in the West in the churches at this time. This confirms Paul's prediction that people will "not put up with sound doctrine." Rather they choose teachers who will teach what they want to hear.

So when you find a man has been appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury who denies biblical sex ethics and tolerates most appalling teaching, don't be surprised or say, "I can't believe it". Rather say, "that is just what Paul predicted." Paul says people will prefer their "own desires" (v 3) and "myths" (v 4) to "sound doctrine" (v 3) and "the truth" (v 4).

They will then judge between the various teachers - they did in the early church and they do now - not by virtue of a teacher's keeping to God's word, but simply by whether they like what they hear. So this is the second reason why Paul says, "preach the word".

But before he gives a third reason, he gives some important advice on how to cope with a situation when there is false teaching all around in the church and the world and when the tide is going in the wrong direction. There are, of course, only three options in such a situation.

You can either try to hide and do nothing in some back water. Or you can simply go with the flow and go yourself in the wrong direction - that is the easiest option of all and why so many take it. Or, and the right option, you resist - you don't hide away and opt out; you don't go with the flow; rather, you swim against the tide. But that will be hard and difficult.

So Paul says, "keep your head in all situations, endure hardship" (v 5) - you need a cool head and spiritual nerves of steel as you contend for the truth. And there are people in this congregation doing that at the moment as they take stands for the truth in medicine, in business, in education and in other areas. And they know it is hard. But at the same time as there is to be negative resistance, there is to be positive pro-action - verse 5 again:

do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Don't only denounce the error. Positively state what is true - the truth as it is in Jesus; and be faithful to all that God has called you to - there has to be truth and love; instruction and patience.

So the second reason for preaching the word is the growth of false teaching.

And, thirdly, or (c), there is a leadership reason. Look at verses 6-8 that I read earlier. Paul is coming to the end of his life and ministry. New leadership is required. In our Old Testament reading we heard how Moses came to the end of his life and there was need for new leadership in the person of Joshua.

We are undoubtedly in that sort of position in the Western Christian world at this point of its history. In the evangelical world men like Billy Graham, Jim Packer and John Stott - international leaders for many years - are coming to the end of their earthly ministries. These were men in their prime in the mid-twentieth century and the sixties and seventies.

And one of the Patron's of the Christian Institute, a great Christian woman in Parliament, Baroness Janet Young, a woman like Deborah in the Old Testament - she sadly died on Friday. These now need to be succeeded by a new generation of Timothies (and Eunices - Eunice was Timothy's faithful mother).

So Paul is concerned to have a deputy to succeed him. That is why he is giving Timothy this commission to "preach the word". As he says, "the time has come for my departure." And if Timothy is to be like Paul he will find there is a fight to be fought and a race to be run.

But you say, "is that all a form of spiritual drudgery?" No! Certainly not. There are two sides to the Christian life. Yes, there is a struggle; but, no, it is not a struggle of despair. For there is a great hope - verse 8:

Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.

And how do you keep that hope of heaven alive in a world that is getting more and more earth-bound? Well, Timothy was to obey Paul's command given in chapter 2 verse 8:

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.

It is so easy to forget the truth of the Resurrection. But that is the fact on which everything else hangs. And Christ's Resurrection was a foretaste of our own one day. And Paul says there is going to be a "crown of righteousness" - nor is that just for Paul and other senior leaders. No! It is for "all who have longed for his appearing."

Who are those who are truly right with God, who truly have put their faith in Jesus Christ and now have God's Holy Spirit, and who, like Paul, can be truly confident of heaven? What evidence can we have of such people? Paul here gives a very simply test - they long for Christ's appearing.

Do you long for Christ's appearing - that time when this ambiguous world will end, when there will be true justice as Christ's kingdom is established - and true judgment, but when the book of life will be opened. Is your name going to be in that bookt?

If you respond in faith as the word is preached - as you heed its correction, rebukes and encouragement - you can, indeed, have great hope as you trust in Christ and long for his appearing.