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My title for this morning is The Church in the New Millennium. And I want to be very basic as we look ahead.

God means the Church to grow. We saw that on Boxing Day as we thought about Stephen. We saw how the early church grew when more full time workers were appointed and when the church was persecuted! Yes, God means the church to grow - in love, in the knowledge of Christ, but also in terms of numbers as more men and women are added to the church day by day. So this church needs to pray for growth. We need to pray for more people to be added to the church this year - as people are converted and as people who are in the spiritual wilderness with no fellowship or no clear teaching find help at Jesmond Parish Church. And we need to be thankful. Praise God for the Christmas services. 3500 came to our carols by candlelight. Then there were the Mission and the Christmas Day services when many more were present. We should be greatly encouraged by what happened. But we mustn't be deluded.

Just before Christmas the Christian Research Association published Religious Trends 2 - facts and figures about the church as we face the new Millennium - and the picture is dire. This week a fuller account is being published in The Tide is Running Out. These are some of the findings.

Sunday church attendance in England has declined 22 percent over the last 10 years. Half of the overall loss in the 1990s was amongst children under the age of 15. The greatest percentage loss was among teenagers, 10-19.

Peter Brierley who heads the Christian Research Association has this as his conclusion: "If present trends continue, we could literally be one generation from extinction." As you look at the Church in other parts of the world, however, there is often growth. And there is good news in England, too. Over the last 10 years Evangelical churches in England have declined only by 3 percent. That is because, while Broad Evangelical churches have declined by 47 percent and Charismatic Evangelical churches by 16 percent, Mainstream Evangelical churches - churches like Jesmond - have, on average, grown over the last ten years by 68 percent. But generally in England it is a very depressing picture.

So what should be our response? The answer, I trust, will be clear as we look at our passage for this morning, 2 Timothy 4.1-8. And I want to talk first, about THE CONTEXT; secondly, about THE CHALLENGE, and, thirdly, about THE COMMISSION that came to Timothy, and still comes to us, at the beginning of this new Millennium.


First, THE CONTEXT

The context is the situation facing the Christians in the province of Asia (modern Turkey) where Timothy, the recipient of this letter, is to be working as a church leader. And it was far worse than anything we are facing today. You needn't turn back to it, but in 2 Timothy 1:15 Paul writes this:

You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

This is 100 percent church decline. There had been significant growth a few years earlier in the province of Asia. That was during Paul's two and a half years stay in Ephesus. Luke tells us in Acts 19.10:

all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

And there was growth (Acts 19.20). But now everyone has deserted Paul. In the words of one commentator:

To every eye but that of faith it must have appeared just then as if the gospel were on the eve of extinction.

Timothy probably felt just like many of us feel in the UK at the moment. And Paul knew that. And he knew that Timothy was not a robust sort of person. He was not the sort who could easily stand up at work or in some public gathering and witness and defy the opposition. Temperamentally he was not a fighter like Paul. He was 'timid' and lacking in self-confidence. Paul tells the Corinthians that 'if Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear' (1 Cor 16.10). And he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.12: 'Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.' And in 2 Timothy he has earlier written (1.7-8):

God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner.

Do you feel a bit like Timothy? If so, listen carefully to Paul's message to Timothy. And it is very simple. In this epistle, in chapter 1 he has been telling Timothy he must guard the gospel (2 Tim 1:14):

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

As Paul explains, that 'deposit' is the biblical message of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone - the message that Richard Clayton preached 150 years ago in Newcastle and the message we must preach today. Guarding the gospel means you have to fight off people who want to destroy it or distort it. That isn't always easy. But it is essential if there is to be hope for the Church. Then in chapter 2 Paul has been telling Timothy that he must suffer for the gospel (2 Tim 2.3,8-9):

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus ... Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained.

If you are going to be faithful to Jesus Christ today and guard the gospel, it will not be easy. You will be opposed at work, at home - if you don't come from a Christian home - and at leisure. But it is not likely at present that you will be imprisoned for your faith as Paul was. Paul is writing this letter from a dark, lonely and cold prison cell. He knows what he is talking about. So are you ready for the cost? Then in chapter 3 Paul tells Timothy that he must 'continue' in the faith (2 Tim 3.13-14):

evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it.

I've seen so many drift from a biblical faith - the gospel as Paul was preaching it and Jesus taught it. Last week I was talking to some one who now has a very influential position. He admitted, virtually, that he had drifted. So Paul says 'be firm - "continue" in what you have learned.' So much for the context.


Secondly, THE CHALLENGE

Paul challenges Timothy in three ways.

First, he challenges him over the reality of God and the fact that one day Jesus Christ is going to return. Paul is not just talking about some sociological change as he outlines the problems facing the church in the province of Asia. He is talking about almighty God, the maker of the universe, who is there and who people are defying. And he is talking about matters of eternal life and eternal death. So Paul challenges Timothy, and everyone else who then reads this epistle - with these words, chapter 4 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.

At the start of this new Millennium will you think, each morning, as you wake up: 'I am living in the presence of God - that is the unseen reality for the whole of what is going to happen today'?And will you say to yourself, 'one day, Jesus Christ is going to appear again - but this time not as the Saviour, but as the judge of all. And he will bring his kingdom or reign to a climax'? Are you ready for that day?

On New Year's Eve, BBC TV showed the fireworks at the Sydney harbour bridge; but unfortunately they didn't show the end of the display. After all the main fireworks had gone off, the word ETERNITY appeared in 100 foot high letters - right across Sydney harbour bridge. Why was that? I was told it goes back to before the Second World War. The word 'Eternity' was being written in chalk all over Sydney on pavements, on walls and in all sorts of public places. This went on and on.

Eventually a journalist tracked down the graffiti writer. He discovered he was someone who slept rough, but who one night had gone into a little Christian meeting to keep warm and see what was going on. He there heard the preacher ask the question, 'if you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?' That was the beginning of his conversion to Christ. He himself then challenged people by writing 'Eternity' everywhere. And now outside St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney he is commemorated by a plaque with the word 'Eternity' on it.

He had learnt that the way to be secure for eternity is to be right with God as you thank Christ for bearing your sin and guilt on the Cross, and as you receive his Holy Spirit for new life. Who this morning, at the start of this new Millennium, needs to get right with God like that and be sure where they will spend eternity? Well, Paul certainly challenged Timothy over the reality of God and over the second coming of Christ for judgment.

Secondly, he challenged him over the doctrinal confusion that he would be facing in the church. Look at verses 3-4:

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. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Do you see what Paul is predicting? He is predicting a time when people will not 'put up with sound doctrine'. They will say, 'I don't like the teaching of the bible. I don't like all this talk about Christ appearing and judgement and heaven and hell and sin and the need to be saved.' So they then, says Paul, try to find people who will teach 'what their itching ears want to hear.' It is not a question of the truth. For, says Paul, 'they will turn their ears away from the truth.' It is a question of their 'own desires'. It is, as Paul says, 'to suit their own desires.' They have wants that will be frustrated if they continue to listen to 'sound [literally, healthy] doctrine.'

So someone says, 'I don't want to be labelled with those Christians who are known for teaching the bible. I don't want my friends to think me narrow. I'll try to find a church where people say "don't bother with the bible; believe what you like. Construct your own theology."' And before you know were you are, you are into 'myths'. There was a clergymen honoured in the New Year's honours who hardly believes the bible; yet he believes in re-incarnation! Or there are those who don't want to give up some immoral relationship. They, too, 'turn their ears away from the truth.' Paul challenges Timothy - and he would challenge us - over false teaching in the church.

Thirdly, by implication Paul challenges Timothy over the fact that he, Paul, is soon going to die. This letter is probably the last thing Paul wrote. He knew that he would soon die. The Neronian persecution was under way and there is evidence from extra-biblical sources that Paul was condemned to death and beheaded. Paul knew, therefore, that others like Timothy must carry on his work of telling people the good news about Jesus Christ. So Paul says, verses 6-8:

I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 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.

Last Sunday I was down in London and had the privilege of hearing John Stott, a great Anglican preacher and writer. But he is an old man now. I had a letter this week from Michael Green, another famous Anglican preacher and writer. He is now 70. Philip Hacking who took our mission is now retired. It is vital that a new generation of people carry on their work.

So to recap - there is the challenge from the reality of God and the second Coming of Jesus Christ for judgment; from the growth of false teaching; and from the fact of an older generation passing on.


Thirdly, what, in the light of these challenges is THE COMMISSION?

Look at verse 2:

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

This is Paul's solution to the decline of the Church. How important this is for today. A friend of mine has analysed collapsing institutions. He says they are marked, first, by denial, secondly, by centralism, then by homogenization; then by frantic activity and finally by cleansing (getting rid of those who will not conform). And all those things people are trying in the modern church as it is collapsing in the West.

But what does Paul say? What is his solution? It is fundamentally to 'preach the Word'. And in the context of this epistle that is God's 'word' that he has spoken. It consists of the Old Testament scriptures together with the teaching of the apostles that Timothy has learnt from Paul - that is what you get in the New Testament. So Timothy and every church leader, but also every church member as they are able to share the faith, is not just to hear God's word and believe it and guard it and suffer for it and remain faithful to it; but they are to preach it, or communicate it to others. That is the fundamental commission for all of us this morning - to tell others.

And you are to do that whether it is convenient to you or inconvenient - that is probably the meaning of 'be prepared in season and out of season'. And you are to 'correct' and 'rebuke'. Yes, negatively, you have to tell people where they are wrong. But, positively, you have to 'encourage' people. A lot in the modern world are fearful. They need to be encouraged. And you need 'great patience' - some people are so hard to deal with; and you need 'carefully [to] instruct' them.

Not all of us have a teaching gift. But all of us should witness as we are able to. So we should first instruct ourselves. We need to think through issues. That is why I have written the book that has just been published, CHURCH and STATE in the NEW MILLENNIUM. It is to help you think through some of the issues people are discussing and need to discuss in the 21st century.

I must conclude. I do so with verse 5:

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

As you go out as a Christian into the new Millennium 'keep your head in all situations.' Things are not good for the church in England or the Church of England. But don't panic. Don't over react and don't under react.

Then endure hardship - in many ways life is going to be hard for Christians and it will get harder. Sacrifices will be called for - sacrifices of time, energy and money. And there will be strong opposition. But endure hardship.


Then do the work of an evangelist. If you have a special gift for telling others about Christ, use that gift. But even if you haven't that gift, witness to Christ as you are able and in your own way. And 'serve'. 'Ministry' literally means 'service'. God has called each one of us to some service. Paul says, 'discharge all the duties of your ministry (or service).' And as we do that with Christ's strength, in this new Millennium, this church will indeed be 'a central point for the maintenance and promulgation of sound scriptural and Evangelical truth in a large and populous town' as our Founders intended.