Having spent the last few weeks in Paul\u2019s first letter to his friend Timothy, we now step into the second. The context is similar for Timothy, he is still in Ephesus, leading the church there. It seems, however, that Paul\u2019s suffering has increased as he is imprisoned in Rome, and his reflections on that lead him to encourage Timothy to endure and persevere in the challenges he is facing, sharing Paul\u2019s conviction that God is trustworthy, unchanging, and can be depended on to fulfil God\u2019s promises. <\/p>\n
This encouragement to persevere is there in the first verse that we have read this evening. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now, I don\u2019t know about you, but if I\u2019m feeling a bit wobbly I don\u2019t always find it that helpful to be told to \u201cbe strong\u201d. If you\u2019re not feeling strong, you can\u2019t just magic it up from inside you, so what use is it to be told to \u201cbe strong\u201d. Well, if that\u2019s all it is, then not much, but that is not where Paul stops. He says, \u201cbe strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.\u201d This is not strength that we need to magic up from inside us, but a strength that comes from outside us, as a free gift from God. We can\u2019t generate it, we don\u2019t have to generate it, but strength flows from the grace of God as we open ourselves up to it. <\/p>\n
Paul goes on to give three examples of perseverance, of endurance: <\/p>\n
Firstly the soldier. I don\u2019t know why, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for military films showing basic training \u2013 films like An Officer and a Gentleman, Heartbreak Ridge, and perhaps my favourite \u2013 Men of Honour. All of them show the perseverance and endurance needed by members of armed forces to get through training, and also what the outcome of that training is \u2013 that they are prepared for the combat and challenges that face them. If they do not persevere in their training and endure the hardships they face, then they are likely to come to harm, and so are others in their platoon. <\/p>\n
A soldier is formed to work with others, under the direction of commanding officers in order to achieve the goal. They don\u2019t just go about as individuals doing what they think is best \u2013 that way would lie chaos and defeat. <\/p>\n
And why do they do all this? Because of the end goal \u2013 the defeat of the enemy.<\/p>\n
Secondly, the athlete. I wonder if we have anyone here this evening who\u2019s run a marathon? What do you think would happen to someone who attempted to run a marathon without doing any training? I think that they\u2019d probably struggle, maybe injure themselves, and may not even finish. And what about competing within the rules. Well, you\u2019d better watch our for Derek Murphy. He\u2019s an accountant who lives in the US who has made it his life\u2019s mission to catch marathon cheats:<\/p>\n
For instance in 2017, for the Boston Marathon, he flagged a German runner who witnesses said took the underground from Woodland Station (just short of the 17-mile mark) to Fenway and jumped back into the race a little before mile 25. Murphy pulled up the runner\u2019s splits and found he had missed the 18.6- and 21.7-mile checkpoints.<\/p>\n
Murphy found the runner\u2019s blog, which said he intended to finish all the major international marathons in less than three hours. While his other times looked legitimate, his splits in the 2017 Boston Marathon at around 15 miles, headed toward Heartbreak Hill, suggested he wasn\u2019t going to make it under three hours. So apparently he resorted to desperate measures.<\/p>\n
The runner was disqualified.<\/p>\n
If an athlete doesn\u2019t persevere through training and compete within the rules, they don\u2019t win, but if they do, they can. <\/p>\n
Thirdly, the farmer. Farming is hard work \u2013 just ask the folk out at Eyton -getting up early, working all hours, sowing the crops, watering them, weed killing, getting rid of the pests, harvesting, The lazy farmer, who doesn\u2019t persist or endure, doesn\u2019t get a crop, there is no food. But, if they do then there is rightful reward. <\/p>\n
Three people from three different kinds of lives. But in all three, there’s a right way of doing things, it needs effort and dedication, and there is reason for doing it, a goal. The Christian life is similar, it needs endurance and perseverance, there\u2019s a right way of doing things, and there is a goal in sight, a reward. <\/p>\n
And why is it that we endure, for what purpose? Well, for Paul it was for the sake of the elect, for the sake of those that God is calling to salvation \u2013 to share in Christ\u2019s glory. Paul had good news that he was compelled to share, so that others could benefit from it, and he instructs Timothy, and us, to remember it:<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David\u201d.<\/p>\n
This short sentence, just nine words, is such a masterful summary of the gospel. Each word and phrase carries such a depth of meaning.<\/p>\n
Jesus \u2013 meaning God saves \u2013 It is God who takes the initiative to rescue creation from the consequences of sin and death \u2013 it is God\u2019s action alone that saves.
\nChrist \u2013 God\u2019s chosen one to rescue God\u2019s people and is anointed to reign as King and priest, the one who is sovereign over all creation and who opens up the way for people to be in God\u2019s presence.
\nRaised from the dead \u2013 Jesus died to free humanity from death and was raised, by God, to demonstrate that freedom and to enter into glory.
\nDescended from David \u2013 Jesus was a real human being, born of a woman, the Creator becoming part of the creation, the fulfilment of the promises of God made to David and through the prophets.<\/p>\n
There is just so much of the good news packed into this simple sentence, and it is for the sake of this good news, and the life that it brings to people, that Paul calls us to persevere. <\/p>\n
He then rounds off this encouragement to endurance with a fragment of verse describing the stages of Christian life. It may be a fragment of an existing hymn or poem, or more likely, given how closely fitted it is to the themes that Paul is illustrating, a verse written by Paul for this purpose.<\/p>\n
If we died with him, we will also live with him.<\/p>\n
This picks up themes from Jesus\u2019 teaching and from Paul\u2019s other writings. How did Jesus put it in Matthew? \u201cwhoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.\u201d There is something at the core of Christian faith and belief which is to do with us dying to ourselves, to so identify ourselves with Christ, that we die with him \u2013 so that we might live with him, forever in eternity. This is what conversion is \u2013 the death of the old life, the old way of thinking, the old way of being, the old way of doing, and a new birth into a new life \u2013 with new ways of thinking, being, doing. It is not possible to live the new life without the old one dying. We can only live one life at a time. <\/p>\n
If we died with him, we will also live with him<\/p>\n
If we endure we will also reign with him.<\/p>\n
If the previous couplet describes the beginning of the Christian life, this describes the continuance of the Christian life. Again we get this ongoing theme of endurance \u2013 of perseverance. Keep going. I am reminded of the parables of the sower and of the wise and foolish builders. Endurance has many facets \u2013 in the face of persecution, pain, yes, but also endurance in faith against culture and the attritional effect of the world\u2019s way of thinking and being \u2013 Will we remain distinctive or will we lose our saltiness? Will we take a stand for what we believe in the face of scorn, disbelief, misunderstanding? There is a reward if we endure, as Jesus says, \u201cFor the Son of Man is going to come in his Father\u2019s glory \u2026 and then he will reward everyone according to what they have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
If we endure we will also reign with him<\/p>\n
If we disown him, he will also disown us.<\/p>\n
On the flip side is the warning. If we do not endure, if we disown Jesus, then we will also be disowned on the day of judgement. On Thursday we celebrated Ascension Day, when Jesus returned to heaven. When we say the creed we declare that we believe that he is going to return one day, to do what? \u201cTo judge the living and the dead.\u201d On that day those who have disowned Jesus will be disowned by him and will not enter life, will not reign with him.<\/p>\n
If we disown him, he will also disown us.<\/p>\n
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.<\/p>\n
Hold on a minute, I thought that we\u2019d just decided that those who disown Jesus will be disowned. What\u2019s the difference between disowning and being faithless? How come disowning gets you disowned but being faithless doesn\u2019t?<\/p>\n
Well it seems like Paul, having started with the conversion of a new Christian has, in the middle lines, set out the best case and worst case scenario for the a Christian\u2019s ongoing walk of faith. To start with we got the best case- endure and reign, then we got the worst case \u2013 disown and be disowned. Now we get the middle case \u2013 addressed to those who haven\u2019t really endured or persisted but haven\u2019t gone as far as actively disowning God and their faith. There would have been quite a few folk in Ephesus like this \u2013 they\u2019ve faced persecution because of their faith and gone a bit luke warm, or faced illness or grief and wondered if God is really good, or had their head turned by some of the false teaching we\u2019ve talked about in previous weeks. So what\u2019s in store for them them? Paul has good news for them \u2013 despite these human failings and fallings God remains faithful \u2013 if we remain in Christ then we are in God and God cannot disown himself. We see this at work in Peter\u2019s life. In the bit of Matthew we read, we hear Peter trying to persuade Jesus not to go to Jerusalem, not to go to death. Later on we witness Peter denying Jesus in the courtyard outside Jesus\u2019 trial. Peter was faithless, but he was restored. <\/p>\n
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. <\/p>\n
So, through this verse we have a see a flow, a pattern \u2013 a reminder of the Christian\u2019s new life in Christ, and an encouragement to persevere, a reminder of the reward that comes from perseverance, a warning of the consequences of completely disowning Jesus, and an encouragement that there is forgiveness for our stumbles – just because we have not endured up to now doesn\u2019t mean that we should give up \u2013 we can endure in the future and still receive the prize that is promised. <\/p>\n
In all this Christian life, in new birth, in enduring, in getting up again, we do not do it in our own strength. Where does our strength come from? <\/p>\n
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Our strength comes from God. If this evening, you need to die to self for the first time, or anew, and lay hold of the life that is in Christ, then do that. If you are weary of enduring and need to be encouraged to hold on, to keep on keeping on then hear the encouragement here. If you are on the edge of disowning God, then hear the warning of the consequences of that. If you need to hear the encouragement that you can be restored, then hear that, get up and know yourself to be forgiven, for there is good news to share. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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