Do not be ashamed

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Good. Well, good morning everyone. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for a beautiful morning and for freedom to gather around your word. And we pray, please, for you to speak to us and to bring your word to bear on our lives wherever we are.

Help us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen. You’ll find it helpful, I think, to have the handout in front of you as we’re going through. I want to begin this morning by picking up on something that came up a couple of times in conversation with people yesterday. And I’d like to begin with an illustration.

Some years ago, I had a very brief visit, as part of a holiday, to Rome. We spent a couple of days in Rome. On every side— I don’t know if you’ve been to Rome, but on every side, if you go to Rome, there is evidence of this massive civilisation that once ruled the world. The buildings are everywhere. And my overwhelming impression at almost every turn in Rome was they must have thought this could never end.

Imagine what Rome must have been like at its peak. Of course they thought it could never end. But when you look at the ruins now, you know that what they thought was completely wrong. No one even speaks their language anymore, and once upon a time it was heard all over the world. And that’s the danger you see of this letter, that you read it with the could never happen here mindset in place.

You read of a church going wrong, and as Rome no doubt thought, you think, No, we’re big enough not to be subject to such things. We’re different. That couldn’t happen here. You read of church leaders in a Bible-teaching church misleading others and you think, no, not our guys. They could never want to do that.

You read of an outstanding gospel worker overwhelmed by the situation and lacking courage to do the right thing and you think to yourself, No, couldn’t happen here. Our guys don’t look like they could ever be overwhelmed by anything.

They’re outstandingly courageous. It couldn’t happen here. We read that such things happen and we say to ourselves, but it couldn’t happen here. Which only goes to show that we, the Bible-teaching church people, don’t believe the Scriptures, for it is in the Scriptures that we read that such things happen, and we think to ourselves, couldn’t happen here.

Which only goes to show that, of course, such things could indeed happen here, for close to us all is the kind of attitude that’s prepared not to believe the Scriptures when the Scriptures are too uncomfortable to believe. Now, why do I say all that? To depress you and make you feel worried? Well, no, but to make you wise to a variety of things which this letter is doing. One, that such things can happen.

Two, that those in positions of leadership are exposed to great temptations and great pressures. And three, to make you wise to the fact that sometimes a rescue package is needed, and indeed that sometimes you can be part of the rescue package. You see, we need to know these things even if we’re not ourselves the missionary or the pastor, because this letter is not merely a letter to a Christian worker, it’s a letter to other people as well. Look at chapter 4 and verse 22.

Not obvious in English, but 4:22, the Lord be with your spirit, that’s a singular your. Grace be with you, that’s a plural you. This is a letter written to an individual and the people around him. Paul expects that this will be read by other people, not just Timothy. And one of the purposes of this letter is to reconnect this Christian worker, struggling as he is, with people around him who could help him.

Let me give you 2 examples, just 2 examples to show you that. Look at 2:22.

Here’s an instruction to Timothy: Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Do it with others, he says. There are others to do it with. Or look at chapter 4, verse 19.

Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Now, there’s a bit of outstanding New Testament name-dropping going on there. Those are people any church worker ought to be glad to have in the fellowship, if you read the rest of the New Testament. These are the guys, says Paul at the end of the letter, these are the guys that you ought to be hanging out with. These are the people to connect with, to share the burden with.

Do you see, Paul, all the way through this letter, is not just instructing Timothy, but connecting him with relationships which are round about him, which could be of benefit to him in what he’s doing. You do not need to be the leader of the congregation to be a person who is profoundly helpful in time of difficulty.

What you do need to be is a person who does believe that such things can happen. For if you’re not one of those, you’ll just keep saying to yourself, couldn’t happen here, we’re different, so it can’t be happening, even though this person says it’s happening. Okay, today we’re going to look at the great appeal of the letter. Chapter 1, verse 6, chapter 1, verse 14. Please turn to that.

And before we get to the detail, I’d like to introduce you to the lie of the land here. One of the things we don’t always do terribly well in our Bible teaching is to get inside how a letter develops and builds. And indeed, we’re doing it in part this week in that every day we do a chunk. And it means you don’t miss anything out, which is good, but it also means you get used to the idea that the Bible comes to you in neatly divided chunks, and it doesn’t. This letter is not a cut-up letter at all.

It proceeds in a straight line from the beginning to a climax at the beginning of chapter 4, and it is important to try and see how it builds. Let me say, the most helpful thing you could do to get with the flow of this letter is just to read it out loud to yourself every day all the way through. You’ll get how it builds if you do that. Let’s see the whole section. 1:6, this is the first command in the letter: For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God in you through the laying on of my hands.

In fact, I think this is not just the first command of the letter, it’s the command of the letter. Fan into flame the gift of God. Do what you’re supposed to be doing. Is what Paul wants Timothy to do. The rest of the letter fleshes out what that’s going to look like for Timothy.

It gets an initial fleshing out in verses 7 to 14. And then in verse 15, Paul follows it up with some personal illustrations. Personal illustrations, both negative and positive. To push home that initial appeal. Now, we’ll look at those illustrations tomorrow.

They’re worth giving enough time and attention to. Today, we’re going to focus on 6 to 14. What does Paul want Timothy to do? And why does he want him to do it?

Consider the shape of verses 6 to 14 for a moment. You’ll notice that Verses 6 and 7 and verses 13 and 14 are quite similar to one another. Probably just saying the same thing in slightly different ways. In both cases, there’s a command to carry on doing what Paul gave him to do. Verse 6: Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Verse 13, follow the pattern of the sound words you’ve heard from me. That’s just saying the same thing in different words. And in both cases, there’s reassurance that God has given power to help Timothy do that. Verse 7, for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. And verse 14, By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Just saying the same thing again. So the section starts and ends with, do it, there’s power on hand to help. That’s what Paul wants Timothy to do. The bit in between, verses 8 to 12, expands on that Do it, there’s power to help message in important ways. Why is it hard to do what Paul has given him to do?

Why is it worth doing what Paul has given him to do if it’s so hard to do it? Those things are explained in verses 8 and 12, 8 to 12. Okay, now let me introduce you to 2 important threesomes, 2 important triads in in verse 7 and verse 8. In fact, verses 6 and 7 and verse 8. 2 important threesomes.

First, the gift, the hands, and the Spirit. Fan into flame the gift of God in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a Spirit of power and love and self-control. The gift of God, that’s the ministry that God has given Timothy to do, the hands of Paul— Paul was involved in commissioning Timothy for this ministry— and the Spirit of God that has accompanied that commissioning. Evidently, there was an occasion back sometime when Timothy was given his ministry responsibilities, and that involved the Apostle Paul and also some other elders. There’s a couple of references in 1 Timothy which seem to refer to the same event.

This is about as close as you get in the New Testament to anything resembling what we call ordination. But care needs to be taken here, I think, not just to read our way of doing things into the Bible. It’s too easy to build a whole theology of ordination into an example of somebody’s life. You can build in all sorts of unhelpful, I think, ideas. For example, some people will tell you that one must have hands laid on or the Spirit of God isn’t at work.

Or that you have to have hands laid on by a special person— take your pick, the bishop or a papal representative or whoever it happens to be— or you can’t have a proper ministry. Why does Paul cite this event back then when Timothy was commissioned? Well, not, I think, so that everybody in every age has to feel that they have a special magical hands-laying-on moment, but rather to remind Timothy of the job that he’s been given to do. Remember that occasion? Remember the job you were given?

Remember the power of God that accompanied that?

And remember that God gave you the job, not just people.

So, here’s the first triad: the gift of God, you’ve been given a job to do; my hands, I was involved in giving you that job; and the Spirit of God, it was the gift of God and his Spirit makes the job possible. 3 things: Timothy’s gospel work, Paul’s apostleship, and the power of God. They belong together in Timothy’s life. Now, look at verse 8 and you’ll see a similar triad. This time, the gospel, the Lord, and his prisoner.

Timothy’s gospel work— where is that involved in verse 8? Well, don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. There’s Timothy’s gospel work. He’s not to be ashamed of the gospel. Where is Paul’s apostleship in verse 8?

Well, Paul gets a mention: me, his prisoner. And where is the power of God in verse 8? Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Timothy’s gospel work, Paul’s apostleship, God’s power— they’re there both in verse 7 and repeated in verse 8. Is Paul merely repeating himself?

Question, what does verse 8 add to verse 7?

Well, it adds 2 things, I think. First, Paul, the one who in verse 7 laid hands on Timothy, is, verse 8, a prisoner.

Put verse 7 and 8 together and there’s a strong reminder that the apostolic work heads in a certain direction. Not the direction of increasing fame and prosperity and ecclesiastical recognition. Paul is not saying, remember the job I gave you? Well, I was made a bishop last week. Welcome to my club.

Not, remember the job I gave you? I’m a senior pastor now. You can be too one day. Not, remember the job I gave you? I’m now head of a globally recognised church planting network and thousands listen to my podcasts.

Online. Not, remember the job I gave you? I now wear a shiny suit and have a huge entourage and a multi-million dollar ministry. No, remember the job I gave you? I’m a prisoner now.

That’s the first thing verse 8 adds. The apostolic ministry has a certain trajectory to it. Second thing it adds is that if Timothy is ashamed of Paul, He is ashamed of the gospel about the Lord. Verse 8, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. They go together, those 2 things.

Paul is God’s prisoner, not Rome’s prisoner. If you’re ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment, you’re ashamed of what God is doing. Put them together. There’s power in verse 7 and power in verse 8. Where is the Spirit’s power demonstrated?

In this, that the apostle is willing to go to prison and that Timothy is willing to be unashamed of his imprisoned mentor. You see, Timothy is presented with a choice in verse 8. It’s either Be ashamed of the gospel and of Paul, or join with Paul in suffering for the gospel. That’s the alternative. If you’re ashamed of the apostle, you’re ashamed of the Lord.

If you’re not joining with him, Timothy, you’re not joining with the Lord. The power of God is shown when Timothy is willing to associate with a suffering apostle. Paul is not saying, Don’t be ashamed of the gospel. He’s saying, don’t be ashamed of me. If you’re ashamed of me, you’re ashamed of the gospel.

Now that is a big claim to make, but this is a huge issue in this letter. The apostle’s hardships are a great embarrassment. We think, prison, why would it be hard to be associated with someone in prison? Let’s just get this in perspective for a moment. Paul had about a decade of unimpeded itinerant ministry in the Greco-Roman world, AD 47 to 57.

During that period, he spent some time in settled ministry, 18 months or so in Corinth, 2 or 3 years in Ephesus. But apart from that, he travelled mainly by walking thousands of miles. Paul Barnett, in an excellent book I’ve been reading recently about the Apostle Paul, estimates that during travelling time Paul walked about 30 kilometres a day on average, through lonely and dangerous country, proclaiming a message that produced offence wherever he went. Repeatedly imprisoned, flogged, stoned on one occasion, a couple of shipwrecks, not a man with money in the bank, not recognisably a person with earthly status at all, of any sort. Working late at night in manual labour to get money to buy food the next day.

From AD 57, he lived between 7 and 10 years longer, the first 5 years of that in prison. A brief period of freedom and then imprisonment again, and that’s where we find him as author of 2 Timothy. I first— we were talking on the first evening about when people first came to summer school, I first came here to help with the children’s programme in 1987. That’s 28 years ago, which is 8 years longer than the maximum possible time Paul spent as an itinerant missionary. He only did that for somewhere between 17 and 20 years.

Getting close to half of it he spent in prison.

And when Paul says, don’t be ashamed of me, he’s prisoner, He’s not saying, don’t be ashamed of me, the guy who happens to be writing from prison at the moment. He’s saying— he’s talking about me, the guy whose work gravitates towards imprisonment and a whole stack of other nasties that come along with it inevitably. That’s what he’s saying. Now, that kind of person is a person one might very easily not want to be associated with, want not to be recognised with. Let me illustrate with a trivial example.

We went on holiday one year to Devon. We visited Exeter Cathedral, which, as cathedrals go, is an okay cathedral. Harriet was about 4 at the time. Harriet had an unusually clear little voice. In Exeter Cathedral, there is a lady chapel with the usual statues.

All of a sudden, clear as a bell, loud so so that everyone could hear. Mummy, Daddy, they’re worshipping idols. Shall we call the police?

At moments like that, one is filled with intensely convicting emotions. On the one hand, oof, that’s my girl.

On the other, the enormous temptation to say loudly, Whose child is that?

There are times when being associated with a clearly speaking person is just very uncomfortable. But imagine a grown-up version of that.

A guy who will stand up in public in Athens and speak to them about their ignorance demonstrated by their idolatry. Imagine that sort of person who does it deliberately, knowing what the consequences will be. The Apostle Paul gets him— says things all the time that get him into trouble all over the world, habitually. Where is the power of God shown? In the fact that the Apostle is willing to speak the gospel clearly, knowing that it will take him to prison.

And in the fact that people are willing to be associated with him, though he’s like that. Why might Timothy be ashamed? Because there are people in Ephesus, some of them trained by Paul, people who know him well, but are now proclaiming a message that avoids the kind of hardship that Paul goes in for. In Timothy’s situation in Ephesus, being associated with Paul is quite deliberately what people do not want to do at the moment. Now, of course, this happens in every part of human behaviour.

We distance ourselves from the person that others are being hostile towards. It’s an automatic reaction. You’d have to be mad not to, at one level. Why would— why do we do that? Because we know that if people are capable of being nasty to them, they’re quite capable of being nasty to us if we associate with them.

It is very hard to be associated with a person who’s the brunt of other people’s jokes or hostility or scorn.

In part, this letter is written to convince Timothy that if he’s ashamed of Paul, he is departing from the gospel. And the rest of this little section, verses 9 to 12, explain why it is that Paul suffers. And the argument goes, I’m suffering not because I’m an awkward, angular bloke, not because I have an unfortunate personal nail or bad personal hygiene or something like that. No, my suffering is a direct consequence of the truth that I speak. And of course, that means that anyone who does Paul’s message will get the same sort of thing that Paul got.

The suffering is a necessary consequence of the things said. And that’s really what 9 to 12 is all about, a gospel that necessarily brings hardship. Now, what Paul does here is he gives us a little summary of the gospel message. Now, let me just read it. I’ll start in verse 8.

Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. That’s his little gospel summary. I think that this is probably a situationally driven gospel summary.

They’re not— these verses are not a full statement of the gospel message, not everything you might say. I don’t think I’d recommend getting this out instead of Two Ways to Live. I don’t think the things that are chosen here that Paul mentions are everything he might say. For example, There’s nothing in this little Gospel summary about Jesus’ death for sins, and you might think that would be quite important.

Now, I think what Paul focuses on here are things that he knows Timothy may be getting it in the neck for in Ephesus. Certain aspects of the Gospel truth which are particularly pertinent. So let me just pull out 3 things I think this section talks about, which Timothy may be having a difficult time with. One, the gospel calls us to a holy calling.

The amazing news about Jesus calls people to live new and distinctive lives for him. Holy means distinctively different, obviously under new management, no longer the same person I once was, possessed by somebody new, under new ownership. That’s what holy means. Now, of course, that is a wonderful truth.

It is possible to be possessed by something different from what you were once possessed by. It is possible to live a new life. Indeed, God gives his Holy Spirit in order that people might not live the lives they once lived— enslaved, deceived, and all of that— but rather begin to be the people that God made them to be. It’s a wonderful truth.

However, we find in this letter that there were some in Ephesus, people of influence, who instead of wanting to be under new ownership were in fact living life driven by the same things they’d always been driven by. Flip over to chapter 3.

Verse 1, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, and he goes on in a long list. Verse 4, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Verse 5, looking like godly, but not really being. They look like they might be Christian leaders.

I think that’s what it’s talking about here, people in Christian leadership. They look like they might be, but they’re not really.

Now, anyone who teaches a gospel of being under new ownership, under new management, when people of influence in church are pursuing love of self and money and pleasure rather than love of God is going to have a very hard time doing that. And not just from the teachers, but chapter 4, verse 4, from those who listen to them.

The time is coming, verse 3, when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they’ll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. What are people doing in Ephesus? Accumulating teachers to suit their own passions. And, of course, being under new ownership does not rest well with suiting my own passions.

The holy life is an issue in Ephesus. I imagine that’s why Paul mentions it. Second thing that he pulls out here, not because of works.

Verse 9, saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace. The true gospel package denies that we humans have anything to contribute to the rescue package. We really cannot help ourselves. It’s easy for people to think that the Christian message is all about being a nice person and pulling your socks up and all that kind of stuff, but it really seriously is not that at all. We are far, far too far gone to put ourselves right with God, in much too deep a hole to be able ever to climb out.

And it is fundamentally humiliating to be told that.

You are helplessly stuck until God dives into your life and yanks you out. Now, of course, that’s wonderful news if you grasp it. Wonderful news that God is like that and he reaches down and just grabs people and yanks them out. Not because of themselves, but rather despite themselves. But my guess is that there were people in Ephesus who really hated that message because they thought highly of their own performance.

Do you remember Acts 20, Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders? He says that from among you lot will arise people speaking twisted things to draw disciples after yourselves.

And that is a fundamentally self-centred thing to do. You don’t do that unless you have a high opinion of yourself.

Now, I think the situation in the church in Ephesus is a bit more prominent in 1 Timothy. So let me give you a couple of examples from 1 Timothy of the performance culture in Ephesus. A couple of little hints, I think. 1 Timothy 1:7.

I’ll start at verse 6. Certain persons, by swerving from a good conscience and sincere faith, verse 5, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they’re saying or the things about which they make such confident assertions. There is unhelpful teaching of Jewish law going on somewhere. In the Ephesian setup, probably applying the law in inappropriate ways to the Christian life. Let me give you another example, chapter 4, verses 1 to 5.

The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared— he’s not short on his strong language here, is he?— who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. There is a hyper-religiousness going on, an ascetic denial of things. I guess that looked very impressive. If you’re the sort of person who says, you marrieds, not quite spiritual enough. The really spiritual route is denying marriage.

And, by the way, avoiding all sorts of foods. It looks impressive, doesn’t it?

But I think that kind of thing tends to big up human performance and downplay the need for complete dependence on God. And on what he has done. Now, back to Timothy. If you run into a model of spirituality which is impressive looking like that, it is going to be proud at heart and it is going to hate being reminded that, in fact, God does everything in the rescue, not by works but by his grace. That’s an issue in Ephesus.

That, I think, is why Paul mentions it. Third thing I want to notice is verses 9 and 10, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Do you notice that the field of vision here is much wider than this present age?

He starts off with a plan that started before this age and it’s heading beyond this age. Life and immortality have been brought to light, but they haven’t been fully rolled out yet. Remember yesterday we looked at chapter 1, verse 1?

An apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that’s in Christ Jesus. Life is promised but not yet fully realised. Here, life is brought to light, but you get the impression from that phrase that he means to communicate that there’s more to come.

And I think there are people in Ephesus who are full of what the Gospel delivers right now in this present age, almost to the exclusion of the age to come. Look at chapter 2, verse 16.

Avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened and upsetting the faith of some. What do they teach? Well, they teach something to do with death having been so abolished that the resurrection’s already passed. Paul says, yep to death abolished.

He says that in chapter 1, verse 10. Yes to death abolished, but no, the resurrection is not already passed. You see, we live in a strange age in which it’s true in a sense to say that death has been done away with, and yet it’s also true that death will get every single one of us. Those— both of those things are true.

It has been abolished, but it will catch us all.

Though the deed that has abolished death has been done, the implementation of that deed has not yet been fully rolled out. So, I think there are 3 things here which run into sharp conflict with the kind of thing Timothy is meeting at Ephesus. A holy calling under new ownership, not by works, and it’s not all about this age.

And there are some impressive-looking people in the church in Ephesus who I think hated those aspects of the real gospel. Because they like to look impressive now, And they offer something that looks great in this age. And that distinctive otherworldly holiness is not something they aspire to. Paul says, verse 11, it’s because of those things— sorry, verse 11, I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher of those things. And verse 12, that is why I suffer as I do.

You see, he’s explaining why the content of his gospel leads to his suffering. If you say those things, you are going to suffer, especially at the hands of spiritual-looking people who like to have preeminence in churches. People who want to please themselves, really, who are self-righteous, they’re religiously proud, who want to say that their gospel is the real one, but pile all of its blessings into the present age because it looks attractive, because they want people to listen to them.

You’re going to suffer, says Paul to Timothy. That’s why I suffer, and you are too. Verse 12, it is of course possible to suffer for being an idiot.

And awkward and angular fathead. It is possible to be a stupid person and suffer as a result. But, says Paul, that is not why I’m in prison. That is not why my work has that trajectory to it. No, I’m here because of saying true things in a way that confronts self-righteous worldliness and Especially religious worldliness.

Now, there’s an issue here for us, I think. We expect to get a bit of difficulty from the world outside.

We do not expect to get difficulty from church leadership. But that’s where Paul’s big difficulties come from.

From the religious establishment, Jewish or Christian. That’s where his big hardships come from. Why is Paul in prison in Caesarea and then in Rome? Because of hostility from Jewish people who hate his gospel message. People in authority who hate his gospel message.

Why is his apostleship doubted in Ephesus? Because his boys that he trained are now in charge and they don’t want to go in his direction. And that is an unexpected suffering for most of us, but it is where the big stuff comes from, because there are the people who are really challenged by this kind of thing. The religiously self-righteous, the guys who look good in this present age, they will be the biggest opponents to the gospel.

Verse 12, that is why I suffer as I do. But notice the great assurance that there is here. This is a wonderful statement following on the first part of verse 12. But— and contrast this with verse 8, do not be ashamed— but I am not ashamed. Why, Paul, are you not ashamed?

For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

2 wonderful statements: I know him, and I know that he’s able to keep everything safe. Do you notice how Paul’s ministry is not a this-age-focused ministry? It’s an until-that-day ministry. That’s where he’s going for.

What does he mean by that phrase, I am convinced that he’s able to guard what has been entrusted to me? Well, I think first of all, Paul is able to entrust to God the work that God has entrusted to Paul to do.

That is a very important thing to be able to do.

Where did the church in Ephesus start?

With Paul’s ministry there.

Where did the Ephesian elders get trained? By Paul.

Where did Timothy kick off in ministry? Well, with Paul.

How are all those things going at the moment? Answer: pretty rubbish, really.

The current disaster in Ephesus with its leaders, and the current troubles and wobbles of his coworker. That is what Paul’s ministry has come to.

Yet, deep down, he trusts God with it.

Deep down, he knows that God is in control. Deep down, he knows that on the last day, God will bring something useful from that work, even though now it looks really rubbish. He knows, you see, that it is not— that God’s work given to him is not all dependent on him. So what does he do? He tries to rescue Timothy and he tries to rescue Ephesus.

Confidence that God is in control and that God is trustworthy liberates Paul to do the right thing now.

Disaster does not paralyse him and put him off. He’s 10 years down the line. All that good stuff is falling to pieces. Is he discouraged? Well, I imagine it wasn’t fun.

But does he keep at it, or does he just say, blow this for a game of soldiers, and go off on the beach and have a few beers? He might do that, mightn’t he? But he doesn’t. He keeps on at the same thing because he’s confident that the work that God has given him to do, God will bring to fruition. At the last day, even though it looks bad now.

Disaster does not paralyse him, and it should not paralyse Timothy either, from keeping doing the right thing. Now, our time is nearly gone. Let’s pull out a few implications, things we might chat about over coffee and beyond. Observation number 1: you cannot be ashamed of Paul and be unashamed of the Lord. You cannot.

We live in a time when, for a long time now, people who’ve called themselves Christians have been embarrassed about the Apostle Paul in so many different ways. The big area at the moment, of course, is his views on sexuality.

But the truth is, if we’re ashamed of Paul, we’re ashamed of the Lord. We are ashamed of the Lord if we’re ashamed of his apostles. Second, Our faithfulness to the Lord is often tested in the arena of who we are willing to be associated with publicly, at the human level. Now, of course, we don’t have apostles like Paul wandering around today, but we do have people who follow the apostles’ teaching wandering around today. And often the test of our faithfulness to the Lord is, will we be associated with them when they’re in difficulty?

Or will we do the equivalent of what I was tempted to do with my daughter? Whose apostle is that? Whose preacher is that? Whose pastor is that?

Stepping away from.

Third, you cannot guarantee a success. Successful-looking ministry. You cannot guarantee a successful-looking ministry. Ministry in Ephesus, 10 years on, it looks like it’s going down the pan along with Paul’s best guy.

You cannot guarantee a successful-looking ministry. Why? Because of the content of the message, that’s why.

Now, one of the things we do with this letter when we’re beginning to take it seriously is we say, oh my goodness, we must prevent that happening. And, of course, that’s a good and right thing to do. There are things to do to prevent it happening, but we do need to know that no matter how well we do things, we cannot guarantee a good outcome. How well do you think Paul did the work in Ephesus with his elders, with his co-worker? How well do you think that work was done?

And it looks really bad right now. What you can guarantee is that if you do Paul’s message like him, you’ll run into difficult stuff, especially at the hands of the religiously impressive looking, who will hear what you say and go, whose gospel does he belong to then?

Now, sometimes we’ll be able to put the difficulties right and sometimes we won’t.

Guys, can I say, when you belong to a big church with lots going on, it is very easy to think that if I only do it like it will work out nicely like it seems at the moment. Can I assure you that that’s not the case?

You cannot guarantee that things will go well if you do the right things. In fact, quite the opposite. You can guarantee that there’ll be great difficulties. However, we live in a world where the Sovereign Lord reigns sovereignly.

And in that world, get used to it guys, in that world bad things happen all the time to good ministries. The Sovereign Lord reigns and in his world where he’s sovereign and in control, bad things happen to good ministries. You cannot guarantee something that looks nice and successful. Fourth, the sign of the power of God is at work. Is that you keep doing the right thing even when it’s going wrong.

Disaster can be paralysing, enervating. I imagine it’s been very enervating for Timothy to see things going wrong in Ephesus. He was involved in building that work up too.

What Paul says to Timothy is, verse 6, fan into flame the gift of God. Keep going at it.

The sign of the power of God at work is not in perpetual success, but that when the going gets tough, as it will, the gospel worker keeps doing the right thing.

Just a personal note, you may be on the canvas today, emotionally and mentally speaking, because of something very bad that has happened to you. As a consequence of serving the Lord. Paul says, come on, up off the canvas. Get up again and keep fighting. Why?

Because, verse 12, I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Why would I keep doing that? It was so painful the first time. Paul says, get up off the floor and keep doing it. The Lord knows what he’s doing and will bring good from it in the end, on that day.

Keep at it. Don’t give up.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you’ve heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. There’s power to help you. Get up off the floor and keep doing it. Let’s pray.

Just a moment to respond in the quiet to what God has said to us, and then I’ll lead us in prayer.

Listen to the words of the Apostle again, words that kept him doing the right thing. I am not ashamed, for I know whom I’ve believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day the work that’s been entrusted to me.

Follow this pattern.

We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the realism of the Scriptures.

We pray that you would please, by the Holy Spirit, Spirit that you have given us, help us to keep doing the right things, even when that is hard to do, even when we’ve been hurt doing it the first time. Help us to keep doing it, confident that you know what you’re doing and that you are able to bring everything you want from what you’ve given us to do in the end. Help us not to lose heart, and help us to encourage one another in these things.

Help us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.