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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!