Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Sermon by Pastor Robert Green, presented by Ralph Buehler, Oct. 21, 2007, Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, PA, No. 640, Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost based on 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Our God certainly understands the human condition. He knows that in the course of human events personal and national tragedy, persecution, and the on-going ordinary difficulties of daily living can cause us to be discouraged and disillusioned. God understands how once discouraged and disillusioned we can be driven to give up on giving faithful service to him. Inspired by God, St. Paul wrote his Second Letter to Timothy to encourage him and Christians of all times to continue in faithful service in the best of times and in the worst of times. When St. Paul wrote this letter it was the best of times and it was the worst of times for Christianity. It was the best of times for the gospel was spreading the world over and had come to Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. However, it was the worst of times, for terrible persecution had broken out against Christians, especially in the city of Rome. Paul wrote this letter after the nearly complete burning of Rome, in 64 AD That fire was probably set by the emperor, Nero, who wanted to rebuild Rome and name it after himself. Nero needed a scapegoat for the fire and so he blamed the Christians and persecuted them like never before. Some were being dressed in wild animal skins and put in arenas with hungry wild dogs. Others were fed to lions in the Coliseum, and others were used as human torches to light up Nero’s gardens at night. It was in this setting that St. Paul wrote while in a dungeon having been arrested waiting his death at the hands of Nero. In the face of all this, Paul sought to encourage Christians to persevere in faithful service to their Lord. Paul wrote this letter to young Timothy, a pastor Paul had trained. His wrote to encourage Timothy, as he encourages us, to continue in faithful service to Christ Jesus by remembering Christ Jesus raised from the dead, descended from David; by enduring everything for the sake of his elect; for Jesus will remain faithful. Hear the words from 2 Timothy 2:8-13 “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. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (NIV) Continue in faithful service to Christ Jesus! I. by remembering Christ Jesus raised from the dead, descended from David; To be sure, you and I are not faced with the kind of persecutions that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have faced. Yet, we too need to listen to this word of encouragement to remain faithful. These words of Paul reminds us, wherever we are and whatever we are experiencing, that we have the greatest reason and the most compelling motive to continue in faithful service. For these words do not simply touch our emotions, rather they touch our very souls for we are encouraged to “to continue in faithful service by remembering Christ Jesus, raised from the dead, descended from David.” Paul tells us that this is his gospel. The word gospel literally means “good news.” The good news that Paul wants us to remember, to keep on reminding ourselves about is Christ Jesus raised from the dead, the one descended from David. Paul is reminding us to keep on remembering that Jesus was the one that God promised to send to all mankind, he is the fulfillment of the promise to Adam and Eve to send a seed of the woman who would crush or destroy Satan and all his work. This seed was to come from King David. Why should “remembering Christ Jesus, raised from the dead” encourage us in faithful service? Christ’s resurrection is the proof to you and me that his sacrifice for our deepest sins was acceptable to God our Father. Christ’s work on the cross has bought us peace with God. What suffering in this world can ever take that away from us? Paul’s good news message to us is that we have the Savior of the world for us, so who can be against us? We remember Christ as true God who loved us enough to become a man to live for us and to die for us. We are to remember Christ Jesus because there is no other name on earth by which we must be saved or can be saved. There is only one true God and only one true faith. We must remember him because he is the only Savior. That is why Paul encourages Christians in the worst of times in times of horrible persecutions, to remember Christ Jesus. He knew that difficult, terrible times were coming for the first century Christians. However, he also is writing to us who are far from the fires of Rome. You and I are not faced with the terrible persecutions of the early church. If anyone needed encouragement to remain in faithful service, it was those early Christians, but we fool ourselves if we think that we do not need encouragement. After all, the need for encouragement is relative. Just because we are not faced with being burned alive does not mean that our temptations are less likely to lead us away from faithful service. If the cry Remember Christ Jesus, can encourage us in the worst of times, then so can it in the best of times. We need encouragement to remain faithful because not one of us has always been faithful. God knows that Christians will be tempted, especially in this time of terror, not to remain faithful. Already, we have seen Christians give into terror by trying to find unity with the rest of mankind in the foolish claim that we all believe in the same god no matter whom we worship. There is only one God, the Triune God, and anyone who does not worship him, does not worship God. It is not enough for us to believe for ourselves, God wants our faithful service by standing on his truth about who he is! Can anyone one of us claim to have always stood for God’s truth in the face of even mild opposition? I confess I have not, have you? But that is why we remember Christ risen from the dead, for by his resurrection all our sins are forgiven, even our sins of failure in service to him. II. by enduring everything for the sake of his elect; Paul understood that there is only one true God and one way of salvation. That is why Paul tells us that the Gospel message cannot be chained. Paul was chained like a common criminal, bound by shackles to a floor, and so rendered ineffective, but the gospel could never be chained, it can never be bound. It is forever free to carry its message of Christ Jesus for all people, for you and for me. It is free for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. That is why he says: “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect.” The elect are all those that God has appointed to come to faith. Since neither Paul nor anyone else knows who the elect are, only God knows, he wants to take the message to all people “that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.” Paul was willing to face death, hardships, and even starvation, all for the gospel. All he had to do to get out of that dungeon would be to deny faith in Christ. That is all any one of those Christians had to do to avoid the tortures they faced, yet so many refused to escape their deaths by denying Christ. Many were, like Paul, willing to endure everything for the sake of the gospel. What if Paul had denied his faith? We have a faithful loving Savior, but make no mistake about it, if we deny him, he will deny us. Our salvation comes to us only through faith in Christ himself. John tells us in John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” Our denial of Christ is a rejection of the only one who can save us. Paul was so willing to endure everything for the sake of the gospel message because there is no other way to heaven than through Christ Jesus. In this day and age, we are not faced with death as a human torch or imprisonment for what we believe. Our sufferings or the things we endure for the sake of the elect are more simple. We live in a free society in which we do not have to die for the sake of what we believe. All we have to do is be willing to share it with friends and relatives, acquaintances and co-workers, fellow students and teachers. The things we endure are the simple rejections we get or the cost of time or money to work towards spreading the gospel. Yet, the call to endure everything for the sake of the gospel is no less real to us than to Paul. It is a matter of the heart. Do we so value this message of salvation that we count nothing in this life more valuable? Are we willing to take a stand on its truth and purity, even when it hurts friends and relatives who do not want to hear the truth? Why would we be willing to endure everything for the gospel? Christ endured everything for us, even hell. He endured the hell that you and I deserve but could never endure, so that we would never have to endure it. That great act of love compelled Paul and us to be willing to endure everything to get the word of the gospel out. Why endure everything for the sake of the gospel? Because we know that in the best of times and in the worst of times our Lord will remain faithful to us and to the gospel message III. for he will remain faithful. No matter how bad things get in this life, we can be assured that Christ remains faithful to us. He remains faithful even if we are faithless. He can not disown himself. To be sure we can lose our faith and our salvation by becoming faithless, but that if that happened that would not mean we had no Savior. It means that we lost the one and only Savior we ever had. That is why we endure all things to bring this message back even to the ones who have wandered off so that they may return to faith and salvation. You and I can endure all things for the sake of the gospel because we know that no matter we have done, Jesus will remain faithful to us. No matter what sin we have fallen into, no matter how poorly we have shared our faith, regardless of how many times we have fled from suffering or adversity rather than to endure it for the sake of the gospel, Jesus remains faithful and ready with forgiveness. He is faithful to forgive us all our sins. St. Paul wrote in the best of times and in the worst of times. He wrote to encourage us in the best of times and in the worst of times to continue in faithful service to Christ Jesus by remembering Christ Jesus raised from the dead, descended from David; by enduring everything for the sake of his elect; for Jesus will remain faithful. To God be all glory, Amen!