Fulfill Your Ministry

A lecture's work in pointing people to follow Jesus and His Word can be challenging in our current cultural climate. Today on Truth for Life weekend, Alistair Begg looks at the Apostle Paul's timeless exhortations to Timothy to persevere to the end. The message is titled Fulfill Your Ministry.

It's from our series called Guard the Truth. Well, I invite you to turn again to 2 Timothy chapter 4, where our verse for this morning is verse 5. Our text, verse 5. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Or as many of us have learned it over the years in the NIV, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Or if we want to paraphrase it, as far as you're concerned, Timothy, stay steady in all that you're doing. Face up to whatever suffering may come. Make sure you go on steadily preaching the gospel, and leave nothing undone that you ought to do.

That's it. He has provided this very striking and straightforward charge. He has made sure that Timothy understands the challenge of fulfilling that charge in that challenging environment, and now he's calling for Timothy to display his character as a young man and as a pastor as he responds to these final four imperatives that Paul brings to him. In doing so, he is providing Timothy, as someone has said, with a sober, realistic statement of what Christian ministry really is. Now the opening phrase in the sentence, as for you, is a familiar phrase throughout these pastoral epistles. It's two words in Greek.

It's translated variously. If your Bible is open, you will see it here in verse 5 of chapter 4. You will also see it if you go in reverse order to verse 14 of chapter 3. He describes these evil people and impostors in verse 13, and then he says in verse 14, but as for you, I don't want you to be like them.

I want you to continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of. If you go further up the way, as it were, up going towards verse 1, you can find the same thing in verse 10, where he begins again, you, however, or but you, or as for you. And if you care to, you can go through 1 Timothy and also through Titus, and you'll find that Paul does it again and again. And what he's doing is he's setting before Timothy a man-sized task, a calling that is only given to a man, the task of pastoral ministry, and he wants Timothy to be in no doubt as to the nature of what he's facing. Facing opposition, facing isolation, it would be very easy for Timothy to decide just to throw in the towel. Paul is telling him that he's about to face death, he will be leaving, and Timothy could be so scared by the prospect of being left without the apostle Paul's companionship that he may just determine, Well, I think I'll go at the same time.

And God can raise up somebody else to do this. Paul is concerned that that will not take place. So he's saying to him, there's no time here, no opportunity here for self-pity, but rather, this is an opportunity, Timothy, to show some steady persistence. Now, what is Paul saying here? Let's look at the fourfold directive that he gives. As for you, what are you to be about?

Number one, always be sober-minded. There's a sense in which the challenge he has given him in verses 3 and 4, where these people have itching ears, are heaping up for themselves, teachers, accumulating teachers to suit their passions, wandering off into myths—essentially, they've become intoxicated by all these various ideas. There's a headiness about it that will make you lightheaded and to sit around engaging in all of this speculative material. And he's saying to Timothy, I don't want you to be sucking any of that heady wine of mythology and so on. You are working in an environment where people have wandered away. They have drifted into myths. Therefore, it is imperative, Timothy, that you remain sober-minded.

In the NIV, remember, that you keep your head. And the notion is of remaining alert, of being vigilant, of being discerning. Because if you think about it, all of these ideas are sweeping around. People are going hither and yon in search of somebody who will tell them what they want to hear. Very, very possible to be completely destabilized by all of that, to begin to lose your way around, to begin to say to yourself, Well, maybe I'm the one who's wrong. After all, everybody else seems to be over here.

So the call is a realistic call, isn't it? You stay alert. I don't want you susceptible to these speculative fancies. Don't be unsettled when your numbers are diminishing and the false teachers' numbers are increasing. And make sure that you are always sober-minded. Always sober-minded. In the NIV, keep your head in all situations so that all the time and in every situation you've got to stay awake and you've got to make sure that you are alert for these dangers.

Think about it. It is not simply an order that Timothy himself might run the race and complete it, but Timothy has under his care all of these people that are the flock. He has been entrusted with the responsibility of the pastor and the teacher. He, along with his colleagues, keeps watch over these people as one who will give an account keeps watch over their souls, as we saw a few Sundays ago.

Therefore, if he falls asleep, if he loses it, it has ramifications. I want to make sure that you're sober-minded. Secondly, Timothy, not only do you need to be sober-minded, but you need to endure suffering.

Now, once again, he's not introducing a new note. The emphasis on suffering has run all the way through his letter. In fact, his invitation to Timothy at the very beginning of the letter, back in chapter 1, is it?

Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But here's his invitation to join him in pastoral ministry, but share in suffering for the gospel. That's the requirement. By the power of God, those are the resources. He wonderfully puts together both requirement and resource all the time.

How am I going to do this? By the enabling of God. But this you must do. And he has emphasized that all the way through the letter. We only need to go down to verse—where is it?

Twelve. He says, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher—this is chapter 1—which is why I suffer as I do. And when you go into chapter 2, he's saying the same thing. I want to tell you about my gospel, for which I am suffering. So he says, Timothy, I don't want to gild the lily in my departure from you as I get ready to leave you behind. I won't do you any favors by suggesting that this is a soft option.

It isn't. You need to keep your head, and secondly, you need to be prepared to suffer. Now, Paul suffered physically, didn't he? The record of the New Testament makes this abundantly clear.

He's actually in jail at the present time. Jesus suffered physically. Many of our brothers and sisters today throughout the world are suffering physically. Timothy may be facing physical suffering too.

We know little of that where we are—for the time being, at least. But Timothy's suffering would probably be far more mental and emotional, as he realizes that although he is seeking to be true to this pattern of sound words, sticking with the truth of the gospel, staying with the gospel, he finds that people are running all over the place looking for people who will tell them what they want to hear. Why can't you be far more amenable the way some of these other teachers are, Timothy? Why do you have to keep going on about this gospel? Well, Paul is preparing him for the fact that if he's going to stick with the gospel, then there's a cost involved. There's a cost involved in sticking with the gospel.

Because as we said last time, if we're going to say what the Bible says concerning the situation of man, that man by nature is sinful and guilty and responsible and lost, then there's going to be a cost in telling people that. Well, if it was relevant for Timothy in Ephesus, I suggest to you that it is very relevant for us in Cleveland. You see, the insinuations of the evil one in the mind of the servant of God—Timothy in this case—need to be recognized for what they are. The evil one is going to come to a Timothy, and he's going to attempt to deceive him.

That's why he needs to be sober-minded and alert. He's going to try and just discourage him—just to downright discourage him. So eventually he gets to the point where he goes, You know what? I have had enough of this, and I don't want one more Sunday. That's the insinuation of the evil one.

Why don't you chuck it? And what is he seeking to do? He's seeking to derail the servant of God. Get him off the tracks. Get him off the tracks in terms of his focus on the gospel.

Get him off the tracks any way at all. But if this fellow is at all useful, make sure that you get rid of him. And so Paul says to him, You need to, Timothy, make sure that you endure suffering. Now, he's not suggesting that he should court suffering, like a masochist, or that he should complain when suffering comes, but rather that he should endure it. Okay, so we're supposed to be ready to respond to the questions that come our way. He says, The manner in which you do this is very important.

You must do it with gentleness and with respect, having a good conscience. Then there's a Hinna clause, so that… So that what? So that when you are slandered and when they revile your good behavior… See, when you take verse 15 and you just isolate it to be ready to always have an answer for those who ask a reason for the hope you have, it sounds kind of cozy, doesn't it? Well, I've just got to be ready and so on. He says, Yeah, but you'd better be ready in the context of suffering.

So that when they slander you after you've been ready with your answer, when they revile you and say, Stay away from her, she's a bad act, that you then are able to stand up to the challenge, that you are able to endure. That you're endured. That you're not a chocolate soldier. As soon as they turn the heat up, you're gone.

There actually is something there of substance. And he's already said that to me. He says, It's the hard-working farmer that receives the reward. It's the athlete who competes according to the rules.

It's the soldier who submits to his commanding officer. Endure hardship. If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God. Thirdly, do the work of an evangelist. Is he suggesting that Timothy leaves his charge pastorally in Ephesus and goes on an itinerant journey?

I don't think so. I think that what this means is simply a reinforcement of the charge that he's already given in verse 2, preach the Word. Do the work of an evangelist, Timothy. In other words, go on steadily preaching the gospel. Go on steadily preaching the gospel.

J. I. Packer, in his book A Quest for Godliness, has a wonderful quote that I wrote down years ago, and I still keep it behind a little photograph of myself and one of my daughters. This is Packer, If one preaches the Bible biblically, one cannot help preaching the gospel all the time, and every sermon will be, as Bolton the Puritan said, at least by implication evangelistic. If one preaches the Bible, every sermon will be, at least by implication, evangelistic.

Why? Because the Bible's a book about Jesus. The story of the Bible is salvation belongs to the Lord. The story of the Bible is not the story of how you can do something for yourself to make yourself acceptable to God, but it's the story of what God has done in Christ in order that you might know God and be welcomed by God. It's a wonderful story. Now, why is this so important?

Well, think about it. There are all these things going on around, guys looking for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear so that they can live their lifestyle any way they want to live it, so consequently they won't listen to the truth. What is the truth? That salvation belongs to the Lord. And so, Timothy, make sure you do the work of an evangelist. You don't have to be an astute reader of church history, even recent church history, the history of the last fifty years even in this country, to realize that a number of very good and effective gospel preachers deviated from course as a result of either chasing down the heretics, deciding that their job was to curse the darkness, or to engage in political agendas.

That's the challenge, isn't it? The pastor must not neglect the ongoing work of preaching the gospel. The emphasis of the pastor has got to be that, both in public and in private. It's very easy in pastoral ministry to think that because you have exhorted your people to it that you're actually doing it yourself.

You may not be doing it yourself. Timothy, you're the pastor. Make sure you do the work of an evangelist. You see, the exhortations that Paul gives here are timeless. They fit when the culture is on your side.

They fit when the culture is opposing you. And he's saying to Timothy, Timothy, I want you to swim against the tide. I want you to swim upstream. And finally, I want to make sure, Timothy, that you don't quit, that you fulfill your ministry. I think fulfill your ministry, that little phrase, is simply a catchall that kind of wraps it up. It gathers, if you like.

It's a sack with all the rest in. All the things that I've already said, the charge I've given you, the challenge that you face. Now, as you recognize this, as you come to it with a mind that is alert and in tune, as you're prepared to recognize the cost that's involved in doing what you're doing, as you remain in a focused way to proclaim the good news of the gospel—now, Timothy, finish the job.

That's what he's saying. Keep going. In the NIV, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

J. B. Phillips, carry out to the full the commission that God gave you. In secular Greek, the verb denotes the fulfilling of a promise or the repaying of a debt.

That's how it's used in secular Greek. So, make sure that you keep the promise that you've made and that you repay the debt that you owe. Timothy is a debtor to the mercy of God, as was Paul. Timothy has been ordained to the gospel ministry.

That's why Paul has been able to say to him, Do not neglect the gift that was given you at the laying on of the hands. He recognizes this. And so he says to him, Timothy, you know, I won't be here, but you will be here. I'm about to exit.

You have made your entry. Keep your promises. Simeon decided he would stop being a pastor when he was sixty.

Not a bad idea. He said, I will go till I'm sixty, and then I will have a Sabbath evening. In other words, I'm done at that point. Given that his mentality was in that regard, he went then for what he thought was going to be his final visit to Scotland. And up in Scotland, as he walked, having come out of a time of real difficulty in his pulpit in Cambridge where his voice had been reduced at times virtually to a whisper, thus convincing him that it was right for him to draw an end to his ministry, he said that in Scotland, in a way that he couldn't fully understand, he had an encounter with God which set him forward significantly. He said that it was only akin to the healing of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment.

He said it was almost as if that was the case. And he said that he felt that God actually said to him, Listen, I laid you aside because you entertained with satisfaction the thought of resting from your labor. But now you have arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself that satisfaction and have determined instead to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life.

I have doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength that you may execute your desire on a more extended plan. So at sixty years old, he returned to his pulpit in Cambridge, and he preached vigorously for seventeen more years. Preached his final sermon two months before he died. In the course of that, he had an assistant—a number of them, but one in particular—called Henry Martin. If you know anything of church history and the history of India, Henry Martin was a Cambridge student, attended Trinity, became an assistant to Simeon, eventually went to India, where he had a very short ministry. His ministry there lasted six years at the most, perhaps only four.

He died at the age of thirty-one. While he was out there, a painting that was done of him was sent back by Henry Martin to Charles Simeon so that Simeon might have this painting of his young assistant. Simeon then took it and had it put in his study, as a result of which, when he went into his study, Henry Martin's face looked down at him every time he was at his desk.

And when people would come and visit Simeon, he would show the picture to the people who came. And this is what he would say, Do you see that, blessed man? No one looks at me as he does. He never takes his eyes off me.

And he seems always to be saying, The years are short. Be serious. Be in earnest. Don't trifle. Don't trifle.

And then Simeon would add, And I won't trifle. I won't trifle. What a tragedy to trifle your life away, to trifle your ministry away, when the call of God is so clear. Be sober-minded. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. You have a ministry. You have a limited amount of time left.

What do you want to do with the rest of your life? That's the question. Alistair Begg is challenging pastors to fulfill their ministry. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. Please keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer. If you listen to Truth for Life Weekend regularly, you know that we carefully select and recommend books to help you and your family grow in faith.

And that includes even the smallest members of your household. That's why we're recommending a book called Bible Stories Every Child Should Know. This is a beautifully illustrated storybook that retells 120 stories from the Bible. These stories stay true to scripture, but they're told in simple language that young children, even preschool-aged children, can easily understand. One of the things we really love about this book is that it links each story to Jesus and the gospel. There are questions at the end of each story that spark further conversation about God and about his people.

Find out more about the book Bible Stories Every Child Should Know when you visit our website at truthforlife.org. Now here's Alistair with a closing prayer. Father, thank you that you are the one who not only establishes these requirements for us, but also provides the resources to us. What kind of an army are we? We don't look like much. We're not filled up with people who are apparently very, very strong and influential.

Most of us, if we're honest, are aware of our own finitude, of our own smallness, of our own ineptitude. So we are entirely dependent on you to enable us and to quicken us so that we might do as you've called us to do and fulfill the ministry entrusted to us. Help us to this end, we pray. Raise us up. Send us out. For Jesus' sake. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. When the Apostle Paul's death was imminent, his greatest concern was that the gospel would continue to be proclaimed. How could he be so calm and selfless when he was facing his own demise? Find out when you join us again next weekend. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.