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DISCIPLESHIP: LASER OR NIGHTLIGHT?
2 Timothy 2:1-7
05/06/12 © Dr. Ronald W. Scates
Before I step into the pulpit this morning. I wanted to share just a few words with you about my announcement. You’ve
probably gotten a letter announcing my plan, that on my birthday in 2015, I will be 65, my plan is to depart Highland Park
Presbyterian Church, not to retire, Lord willing, I hope I go to age 70 but I’ve always thought from the first day I arrived here, that if
I’m here to age 65, I think that’s a point where this congregation will need a younger Senior Pastor to take HPPC to its next level. So
that is my plan. Why am I announcing it 3 years ahead of time? I’m announcing it because my predecessor, Clayton Bell, announced
that he was going to leave 2 years before he actually did and that 2 year window is about the average time it takes to find a senior
pastor in the PCUSA. Because of things going on in our denomination, I would say that that 2-year time frame has probably been
expanded to about 3 years. The pool of folks who would have the competency and the theological depth to pastor this church is
shrinking as we speak, in our denomination. And so, I believe it’s probably going to take around 3 years to find that person. I
probably know who that person is and I look forward to when that person accepts that call, to cheering him on and encouraging him.
Some of you have come to me and said, “So, you’re a “lame duck.” No, Curt Rathjen took care of that a few years ago with a hip and
knee replacement. Rest assured, my last 3 years here, I’m going to be going at 150% to challenge, to equip, to encourage, to lead
this congregation into what the Lord is calling her to be and that is a globalized, biblically orthodox, missions-driven, renaissance
church, a world-changer, a life-changer. We will not back away from that. We will go right up to my finish line and the starting line of
whoever the Lord chooses to succeed me. Many of you have expressed all kinds of wonderful things to me in the light of that
announcement. I thank you for your encouragement, your prayers and your love. Anne and I love you and our kids love you and
Highland Park Presbyterian Church’s best days are yet to come. And if you’re here after 2015, you’ll see that I am right on target.
Well, one of the most effective ads ever written occurred in the London newspaper in the early part of the 20th Century and it
read like this: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger,
safe return doubtful.” Those words were penned by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous South Pole explorer and there was such an
overwhelming response to that ad that Shackleton said, “It seemed as though all the men in Great Britain were determined to
accompany us.”
Folks, if something doesn’t cost you something, if something doesn’t demand a lot of you and me, it’s probably worth nothing.
A 1st Century pastor, by the name of Timothy, discovered that in his ministry. His ministry bore the weight of all kinds of stress
and things that were pulling and pushing on him to the point where Timothy oftentimes got so discouraged that he wanted to walk
away from his ministry. Discouragement is one of Satan’s key weapons in his little tool box that he uses to wage war, spiritual war,
against anyone and everyone who is serious about following Jesus and Timothy was a discouraged pastor. And so his mentor, his
father in the faith, his discipler, the older, the wiser, the more seasoned Apostle Paul actually wrote two letters to Timothy, two
letters trying to encourage him to hang in there, don’t throw in the towel, fight the good fight. And this morning, we have the
privilege of looking at just a snippet from that 2nd letter and I invite you to turn with me in your bibles now to 2 nd Timothy, chapter 2
as we take a look at the first 7 verses of that chapter. But before we do, please pray with me.
Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds now to Your Word that we might clearly understand it, that we might gratefully receive it
and that we might faithfully apply it to our lives. For Jesus’ sake! Amen.
And now, if you’re able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word this morning, beginning at verse 1 of 2 Timothy, chapter 2:
2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence
of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not
crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Please pray with me again. And now Father, as my words are true to Your Word may they be taken to heart but as my words
should stray from Your Word, may they be quickly forgotten. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen. Please be seated.
If you’ve ever gotten a note, a letter or an email from me, I usually sign it by saying, “Stay strong in the Lord.” Timothy, his
ministry was on the ropes. He was a man who needed strength and so the Apostle Paul writes to him, in verse 1 of our text, and he’s
addressing you and me here today as well and he’s telling Timothy that the strength that he needs is not something that is innate to
Timothy. It’s not something that Timothy or you and me can dig down deep inside and pull up to the surface. No, the strength that
you and I need to tackle the toughness of life is something that comes totally from outside of ourselves. Paul says that strength lies
in the grace of Christ Jesus, Our Lord. Grace meaning undeserved gift, unmerited favor.
In other words, you and me, what do we deserve? What do we merit? Eternal death! Hell! Separation from God! But the grace
of Christ Jesus is that instead He gives us the gift of His cross and all of your sin and mine, all of our condemnation, all of our guilt,
Christ covers through His once-for-all, sufficient perfect sacrifice on the cross. And in doing so, what Christ does is give us an even
greater gift and that’s the securing of, the sealing of your eternal life and mine, in Christ Jesus. My friends, that is completely, totally
unmerited favor. That is sheer, sheer grace.
This text, as I worked on it through this week, took on more than just a theoretical or theological perspective for me. As I
worked on this text, I also was awaiting the biopsy results on my youngest son, Michael, whether or not he had thyroid cancer.
Michael, our brain tumor survivor 12 years ago, what they had to do to save his life then fried his thyroid. He went in for a routine
physical, doctor found a nodule, go to get a scan, discovers 3 nodules in the scan and the doctor was very concerned that at least
one of them was malignant. I get off the plane from Australia this past Monday. I’m waiting at the baggage thing; I call Michael and
he says, “Dad, I’m in the office right now. They’re about to do needle biopsies.”
Tuesday, I’ll just confess to you, I had a meltdown. I had a meltdown. They said, “We’ll let you know Thursday the results,” and
everything just crashed in on me on Tuesday. I cratered. And then strength was offered and I received it.
I found myself on Wednesday, standing in amazement at the sense of peace and strength that I had, particularly in the light of
the fact that the previous week in Australia, because I knew I was coming home to a biopsy, I had flung into God’s face, everyday the
words of St. Teresa of Avila, “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, then it’s no wonder you have so few of them.”
But instead of striking me dead, as God could have, He gave me unmerited favor. He gave me grace. He gave me the strength
to buck up under one of the most toughest situations I’ve ever face in my life. And the results came in—benign. Praise God! Benign!
But I didn’t find my strength in that result; I found my strength in faith in the gospel of grace, that no matter happens in our lives, my
friends, because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus. Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing can snatch my son, Michael or me or any of us who are in Christ, from the
Shepherd’s hand.
Thank God for that faith, the strength that comes from that faith. But Paul goes on in verse 2 to tell Timothy that that faith is not
a faith that you and I devise, it’s not something we think up, it’s not something that we discover, it’s not something that we can
impose on someone else, it’s not something we can rationalize or shape and fashion to suit our fancy. It’s something we merely
receive as gift, as a sheer gift of grace. And that’s one of the key differences between biblical orthodoxy and theological liberalism
progressive faith. Biblical orthodoxy says there is one faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. That’s Jude 3. And our job is to
simply receive that faith as gift and keep it intact and pass that faith on to those around us and to the next generation. Theological
liberalism progressivism sees the Christian faith as something like a wax nose that you can twist and turn to make it more
personally palatable for you and maybe more accommodating to the surrounding culture whose approval we crave so much.
And so you see, verse 2 of our text, is really Paul laying out for Timothy and for you and me a paradigm of disciple-making—
that we receive the faith intact. We don’t add to it. We don’t subtract from it. Some of it grates on us. Some of it’s just hard to live out
but it’s the faith and we then pass that on to others around us and to the coming generation. That’s our mission as this
congregation, to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
But Paul also knows that in real life, any mission suffers under the danger of being diffused. The mission of making disciples,
that laser mission, can easily become diffused into a warm glow of a comforting nightlight. And so, Paul tells Timothy, in verses 3, 4,
5 and 6 of our text, actually out lays out 3 illustrations that hopefully will ground Timothy, anchor Timothy, keep Timothy focused,
keep Timothy on mission rather than get derailed from his mission because, folks, when we get derailed from our mission as
Christians, what happens is you go from authentic disciple to nominal Christian, cultural Christian. You go from being on mission,
where you know God has a purpose for your life, to Christianity as hobby, Christianity as religious social club.
To make sure that we don’t get into that pit, Paul says, “Timothy, remember three things about being a disciple.” He said, “First
of all, being a disciple is like being a soldier.” A good soldier fights the good fight. He doesn’t get tangled up in civilian pursuits.
Be honest, with me! When you woke up this morning, was your first thought, “America is at war.”? That was not my thought
but we are—in Afghanistan. But we pretty much go on with our lives as if we weren’t. Compare our generation to the generation of
1941 through 1945. Every adult, I wasn’t there, but adults that were tell me, you woke up every morning, your first thought was,
“We’re at war.”
And so there was a unity across our nation in sacrifice, rationing, collecting things for the war effort. We today, oh, we pray for
our troops every once in a while but pretty much we go on living as if we weren’t at war. That’s probably the case with most
Christians. We wake up every day and we don’t go, “There’s spiritual warfare going on.” There is but you just go on with your life not
really thinking about it. That’s dangerous! That’s dangerous!
I’ve become a student of the Battle of Gettysburg, chiefly because my great-grandfather, Captain James Madison Scates of the
40th Virginia fought in that battle. He was in Pickett’s charge and if you know anything about Gettysburg, Lee’s plan was to invade
Pennsylvania, draw the Union Army away from Washington, then circle back and get between the Union Army and the city of
Washington and take a stand at Pipe Creek, Maryland where they would have the high ground and they would fight a defensive
battle. But Lee, once he got into Pennsylvania and split his army into three, was flying blind. Why? Because the cavalry, under
General J.E.B. Stuart, was Lee’s eyes. It was the cavalry that would send couriers back all the time, informing Lee where the Union
Army was. But Stuart had suffered a defeat at Brandy Station a month earlier. His ego was damaged and J.E.B. was a little bit
egotistical and instead of keeping Lee informed of where the Union Army was, he jaunted around Pennsylvania to Carlisle
Harrisburg. Philadelphia was in a panic. They thought they were being invaded. It was headlines in the newspapers, New York Times,
Philadelphia Enquirer. Those newspapers knew where Stuart was but Lee didn’t. And Stuart was out there playing with his ego,
making a name for himself and Lee was blind and so the army of Northern Virginia collides accidently with Union forces in the town
of Gettysburg and Stuart shows up on day 2 of the battle and Lee is not pleased.
Contrast Stuart with a French soldier who was dying on the battlefield with a mortal wound and the medic was working on him,
cutting deep into his chest to try to remove the bullet and in horrific agony, the French soldier cries out, “Cut deeper and you’ll find
emperor,” meaning the core of my being is a laser-like commitment to my commander.
Do you and I as Christians have that kind of commitment to Jesus Christ?
Well, Paul goes on to tell Timothy, being a disciple is also like being an athlete-an athlete who competes according to the rules.
In other words, he’s talking about integrity here.
Integrity—I can’t remember a time in sports where there’s been more scandals all at once. Busts of college and pro sports—
you’ve got the Ohio State Buckeyes, (sorry, Ohio State fans), you’ve the New Orleans Saints and their bounty program, you’ve got,
as we speak, Roger Clemens under trial for allegedly using steroids and then lying to Congress about it. Contrast those folks with
three people that I’m dubbing the “new holy trinity” of pro sports—Tim Tebow in football, Jeremy Lin in basketball, and our own,
Clayton Kershaw in baseball. Those three men have a laser-like commitment to Jesus Christ and because they do, they always play
on a level playing field. They are men of integrity, which means they integrate their relationship with Jesus Christ into every facet of
their lives, particularly on the playing field. And they are always winners. They don’t always win the game but they are always
winners.
In fact, if you’re a man, woman or a boy or a girl and you’re a person of integrity, you will always win. You always win, no
matter what the score is. And if you’re not a man or woman, a boy or girl of integrity, you always lose, no matter what the scoreboard
tells you.
And Paul gives Timothy a 3rd illustration. He says, “Timothy, being a disciple is like being hard-working farmer.
When I was in college, I worked for 3 years on a dairy farm outside of San Antonio, 800 head Holstein cows. I learned how to
plant hay, cut hay, bale hay and a whole bunch of veterinary skills but you know what I learned most? That if you’re a farmer, you
don’t ever punch out. There’s no such thing as a day off. Farmers don’t have vacations. Cows have to be milked twice a day, no
matter what is on your calendar. They have to be cared for. They have to be fed 24/7, 365.
Confirmants, you’re going to get a certificate that says you’re a member now of HPPC. That’s not a time card where you can
punch in and punch out. The part-time farmer experiences crop failure; the part-time Christian, the one who only dabbles in faith
when it’s convenient or comforting—same thing; being confirmed in your faith in Jesus Christ is an all-in or not. No middle ground.
You’re going to be tempted to punch out. You can’t do that! You can’t do that and be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ. When you
try to part-time it, in your service with Jesus Christ, those Christmas-Easter folks, there’s no possible way they can faithfully and
confidently and courageously navigate all the tough things that life throws at them. They don’t have that strength that comes when
they try to dig it down from inside of themselves. They can’t do it. It’s when you’re enveloped by the grace of Jesus Christ, that’s
where that strength comes from.
So we come to this Table this morning, we’re invited. This is sheer grace. This is gift where God offers Himself to you and me.
You and I come to this Table and when we do, it’s our way of saying, “Lord, when it comes to following you, I’m all in. I’m not fooling
around. At this Table is where you and I receive the strength for the journey. It’s at this Table where you and I come and we actually
dine with Our Commander and Chief and receive His favor up close and personal. It’s at this Table, it’s sort of like a training table
where you and I are nourished so we can bring our “A” game to the living of our days for the glory of God. And it’s at this Table we
come and here at this Table, we have the opportunity to trade in Christianity as hobby for…for what?
You’ve read my letter. I’m going to spend the next 3 years thinking about my legacy here at HPPC. Some pastors, as their
legacy, they want to leave a legacy of “bodies, bucks and buildings.” A lot of people! Building campaigns! All of that stuff! I’m not
interested in that.
I’ll tell you what I hope is my legacy: On May 1, 2015, I hope my legacy is that if somebody comes up to you and says, “Who are
you?” and you respond by saying, “I’m so and so and I’m a______(fill in the blank—student, computer programmer, banker, stock
broker, lawyer, doctor), primarily in order to be a minister of Jesus Christ, 24/7, in the here-and-now and on into eternity.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.