2 Timothy 2:1-13 Entrust the Gospel

 

Before Jesus returned to heaven, he left us with one last mission, to “go make disciples.” This is at the heart of what the church is all about, it’s our main mission, our “raison d’etre,” as we would say in Quebec. I’m always amazed at how quickly though that we can get distracted away from our main mission, or discouraged because the task is so large and, seemingly, unending. So the question, at least in my mind, is what is the best way to be a disciple-making church, to be a disciple-maker myself? There have been so many programs in the past; there was friendship evangelism, the Jesus project, and others, all designed to help the church make disciples. We embrace them for a while and then go chasing after the next shiny program. But is there another way shown in the scriptures on how to go about making disciples who go and make more disciples?

Paul shows us just such a way here in his letter of encouragement to Timothy, in this passage here this morning. I am part of a discipleship, disciple-making ministry called 222disciple that is based off of Paul’s encouragement found here. At the core of what we’re doing is we focus on making disciples that make disciples. Did you know that if you make a new disciple of Jesus every day for 20 years, you will have led 7,300 people to Jesus? That’s a lot of new disciples! The problem is that doing this is really hard work and the disciples you make still need someone else to help them mature as followers of Jesus, growing stronger and deeper in their faith.

Here in this letter from Paul to Timothy we see a different way, a way to make disciples that will make a huge difference through investing in a few others who will then invest in still others; all growing strong in the faith. Paul encourages Timothy to be strong in the grace that’s in Jesus. This is an echo back to chapter 1:7 where Paul tells us that we’ve been given a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. This spirit is lived out in the grace that is in Christ Jesus who set us free from the power of sin and the fear of death by going to the cross where he paid the penalty for our sin. Jesus was buried, and as Paul reminds us in verse 8, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel.” This all echoes back to so many promises in the Old Testament that pointed to a saviour who would crush the head of the serpent Satan, and come from the family line of King David. God keeps his promises and this is all part of the strength and power we find in Jesus.

This is all stuff that Timothy learned from his grandmother, mother and Paul himself. Timothy is a disciple of Jesus because his family and Paul invested in him to lead him to Jesus and accept Jesus as his saviour. A side note here, investing in our kids and their faith is never wasted time or energy, it’s the best thing we can do for them. Now back to Paul and Timothy, Paul now commands Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” This is the mentoring model of discipleship where you look for someone to invest in and then start investing in them. You do this by sharing and showing them what you’ve learned and how it has shaped your life and influences how you live and make decisions. Then, at a certain point, usually way sooner than we think, this person is now capable of mentoring someone else just as you’re mentoring them.

Who has mentored you in life, in faith? Consider reaching out to them and let them know how much you appreciate them.

Paul repeats his command to join him in suffering. This makes sense, because when you really care about someone else, you find yourself willing to do almost anything for them, including suffering. When you deeply care about a friend, co-worker, neighbour, school friend, you are willing take the chance on speaking up about Jesus and who Jesus is to you so that they can hear about Jesus too. It’s not always easy, we often find it hard to start these conversations about Jesus.

Paul uses a number if examples of other people to encourage Timothy in disciple-making. Paul starts by using a soldier as an example staying focused on the commands they are given by their commanding officer. Paul’s not referring to battle and fighting here, but to pleasing the commanding officer, putting the orders of the officer ahead of his own wants. The soldier’s whole focus is on accomplishing the officer’s command. Our commanding officer is Jesus and his commands are straight forward: love God, love your neighbour, and go and make disciples. As we saw last week, these three orders are all inter-related and all pointing to us going and making disciples.

Paul then uses the image of an athlete. An athlete’s day is shaped around training and practice, learning the game as well as they can so that they’re ready for anything that might come us, for any surprises the other athletes might bring to the game. But Paul focuses in on competing according to the rules. This is about obedience and dedication. You hear an echo here to Jesus telling his followers, “If you love me, you will keep my commands,” obedience is an important part of our relationship with Jesus, an important part of being a disciple. There is also the call from Paul in the chapter before this to live holy lives, the point being that our lives give weight to our words and teaching as we invest in others as we lead them to become disciples of Jesus.

Now Paul moves to an example that many of you can relate to, the image of a hardworking farmer. The farmer puts in the hard work, he adapts to whatever the weather and circumstances are given him, and he places his trust and faith in God, getting on his knees in trust and faith to talk to God, and then gets off his knees and to his feet to put in another day’s hard work, looking ahead to the harvest. Investing in people is hard work, just like the farmer working towards harvest time, a lot of hard work goes into walking together with someone to guide them in becoming a disciple who is trained to make more disciples.

Investing in people, mentoring them into a deeper relationship with Jesus so they also become disciple makers takes a lot of hard work, commitment, focus and even sacrifice on both your parts. There is always a cost involved, as Paul reminds us here. Churches and Christians are often like my dog Bellah: loving, mostly gentle, but also easily distracted. Bellah gets distracted by cats, squirrels, rabbits and almost anything that moves, while churches get distracted from making disciples by new programs, church conferences that promise easy growth, and the people issues that always come up when a group of people commit to each.

Paul is focused, works hard and keeps the command from Jesus to go make disciples. This is one of those areas in Paul’s life where should copy him, as he mentions in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Paul is so focused on helping others discover the salvation found in Jesus, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” His heart and soul are filled with those who don’t know Jesus yet, for those who haven’t accepted Jesus yet as their lord and saviour. That’s what keeps Paul awake at night praying, that’s what keeps him going each day: the desire for others to accept Jesus.

Jesus invested in 12 disciples, training them to teach others, making disciples who would go on to make more disciples. This is the method that Jesus has passed, a method that Paul encourages, often encouraging older men to mentor younger men, and older women to teach younger women.

Paul recognizes the power of mentoring others to train others to teach the gospel news to make new disciples who are trained to teach even more people about Jesus. This is why Paul commands Timothy to teach others who will teach still more people about Jesus. At the beginning of the sermon, I mentioned how if you led one person to Jesus each day over 20 years, you would lead 7,300 people to Jesus. But you would not have had the time to help them become mature disciples of Jesus. But if you invest in 2 people each year who will then each invest in two people more each year, after 21 years you will have led 3 ½ billion people to a mature faith in Jesus. That’s half the world’s population right now! Who are you mentoring, who can you reach out to and offer to mentor them?