2 Timothy 2:1-10
In our previous studies we discovered that a church, to be a healthy church, must have at least these four things: 1]The preaching and teaching of the Bible, 2] The fellowship of the Spirit – fellowship with the LORD, 3] Worship, the breaking of bread [The LORD’s Supper] in Spirit and Truth, John 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.]. 4] And there must be prayer and that is not just a Wednesday prayer service.
But a Church can have all that and people will still not come. I used to think if you preached, they would come! But that is not true. I listened to the Pastor telling this story and he has a very large church, a large tv audiences and if I mentioned his name, you know him. He said, I thought if I preached, they would come but they did not, and I preached then with as much passion as I do now. He went on to say, on a 4th of July service they had seven people present and four of the seven was his family.
The Washington Post did this experiment: They took one of the world’s greatest violinists, one of the great pieces of music ever written. And dressed the violinist in street clothes; you know like blue Jeans, a ball cap and he played for 45 minutes in a subway station. Now this man normally played in sold out music halls. It is said he earns 1,000 dollars a minute. This entire experiment was videoed, and during the 45 minutes 1,100 people came by: 7 stopped and listened, 25 tossed monies as they walked by amounting to $32.00.
Why were not more people touched? It was not the music! It was not the violinist! Answer: It was the context of everything and not just one reason. A church is a body of people, not a building and not one person preaching. It is the passion and excitement of the body, and the spirit working in every believer. You cannot come to worship and take notes and leave with no thought of your purpose. That is kinda like trying to leave your life on pew to come back too next week.
Paul knew the material needed to build a church were in the believer. Because that is the plan God chose. [Eph. 4:11-16]. Paul was always preaching and teaching the believer, Col. 1:27-28 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Paul wrote 2 Timothy while in prison, a dungeon cell in Rome, His life coming to an end. Paul uses this letter to hand off the ministry to Tmothy and down through the halls of time to us. You talk about passion listen to these words 4::1-18. Everyone needs a Barnabas, and everyone needs a Timothy.
What are the qualities that makes a church contagious? We did not want to spread covid, and we went to great length not to spread it; but the gospel is not covid, and we need to spread the ministry of Grace. “Paul was cold. He was Lonely. He was coming to the end of His life, and it was time to pass along his insights for the ministry. It is like Paul handing off the baton in a relay and saying, run Timothy run. He was telling Timothy I have fought a good fight and now I give to you the ministry and Timothy I am telling you to hand it off to someone else.
We need to be passionate about giving to someone else the riches of this Grace we have received. 2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. If you brought someone to Christ, you are their mentor. Remember V1, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It is not lectures or condemnation, or fault finding but grace they need to see.
I will not always be here, and I have preached and wrote and talked and shared and gave away books about the sufficiency of Christ. I read a study for Mother’s Day about 5 women in Matthew. And I thought how many times I have talked about the four women [I will use one of these 4 as an illustration] and only by the grace of God are they in the genealogy of Christ. And what God did only He could do because there was nothing in them to command His grace. And there is nothing in us to command His Grace.
1] Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. V 1
We do not believe Grace is Grace. We believe Grace is promising God our goodness and that God’s grace is in our good efforts and intentions, in our prayer that God will answer in our way. We believe Grace is within us, in our hopes, in our faith. Prayer is Grace. Faith is Grace
Grace is not something you can explain. You cannot find it in a book. You find grace in Jesus Christ and a person must experience that grace. Jesus embodies grace. Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
When failure touches our life or the life of others, we withdraw ourselves as if God has failed or that His Grace is not sufficient. It is amazing to me that we preach salvation by Grace through faith [ and even that faith is not of ourselves] and in the same breath preach salvation by works, you must keep yourself saved by works or the theology that if you were really saved you would not have done that.
2] We need to be passionate about grace. Grace empowers [that is what the word strong means: to empower. ] . You cannot tell or explain grace to a hurting heart. A crying heart says, show me grace. “I have heard about grace but show me grace. If you are going to help, then come along side and show them grace. Grace is not words! Our words should be dripping of grace. That crying heart is saying show me grace.
There is nothing about us that commands God’s grace. Mat 1:3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; We find the story in Genesis 38. Let me start with V11-30. It is God who reversed the order of birth. You find Pharez in the line of Joseph and of Mary and of Christ. It is like He took away law and established Grace. He took away condemnation and established acceptance. Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
“Never forget, the God who worked out His plan for the line of David through Judah and Tamar can also make “all things to work together for good” in your life—whatever your circumstances might happen to be” But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Trials are tokens of His Grace, 1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 1Pe 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
Trials take from you something that He wants to replace with Grace. As I was reading the story of Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. You know the story as well as I. And the focus is on how Joseph kept himself unto the LORD in the mist of all his suffering. But there is something else that Joseph learned. When his brother stood before him, Genesis 45:4-8, 50:18-21, he was able to say my trial is from the LORD and God meant it for good.
Jacob once said, in the middle of His trials, “All these things are against me but in reality all those things were for Him. Remember Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
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