How to Stay Faithful When the World Pushes Back

We're going to do something this morning we don't often do, and that is just look at one verse. 2 Timothy 4:5. 2 Timothy 4:5 says this, "As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

"As for you" — some translations even say, "But as for you" — that's sort of a finger pointed right at Timothy. Timothy, whatever else is going on, this is what you are supposed to do. How many of you know that at our church, we have some vision statements?

We have a mission statement. We have some vision statements. The vision statements of Grace Fellowship are these. Number one, we are guided by the truth of the Bible. We are focused on the worship of God. We express reliance on God in prayer. We learn Christlikeness through discipleship. We proclaim the goodness of Jesus through evangelism. We are united in loving devotion through fellowship.

Now, all of those statements start with the word "we," which communicates all of us, right? We are all participating in that. What that means is, whatever the other people are doing or are not doing as it relates to those things — being guided by the Word, worshiping God, learning through discipleship, proclaiming Christ in evangelism, united in fellowship — whatever other people are doing or not doing, there still is a "but as for you" finger pointed at each one of us in those statements. We work so much better when we are all taking into consideration what the "but as for you" implies for ourselves.

So I want you to keep that in mind as we go through this verse and think about what Paul is telling Timothy, and then draw implications and applications for our own lives. As we've kind of had to focus on throughout this chapter, 2 Timothy chapter 4, so much of it is directed right at Timothy, and it translates very easily over to pastors and elders and teachers in the church. But that doesn't exclude the rest of the church. There are implications for everyone in this chapter, and it is no less true of this verse right here.

So let's think initially about Timothy. What Paul is telling Timothy is that in light of what's going on around him and the potential for this church in Ephesus — where people are trading in truth for myths and whatever scratches their itch — while everyone else is abandoning truth for these self-serving myths, Timothy, you must, number one, not trade the truth and become a purveyor of myth, and number two, you must not give up doing the work of the ministry. In other words, what Paul is saying is you've got to keep doing the work until the work is done. And by the way, the work isn't done until Christ returns. So just keep doing the work.

How is the work to be done? How is Timothy to accomplish this? Well, first, he's supposed to stay focused. "But as for you, always be sober-minded." We don't really use that expression anymore, do we? I would imagine none of us have ever talked to our spouse or our friends or our co-workers and said, "Hey, you need to be sober-minded right now. I really need you sober-minded." We might tell them they need to sober up, but we might not say you need to be sober-minded.

But we do value what that represents. We still value what "sober-minded" connotes. It's the idea of having a well-composed mind, of being self-controlled — in light of this, curbing the controlling influences that would be inordinate emotions and desires that would drag you into something. Maybe this sounds a bit like stoicism. Be stoic. The idea is to keep your head, stay alert.

1 Corinthians 16:13, Paul says this to the Corinthian church: "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." That's the same kind of idea. Be focused, be alert, be prepared, be ready for action.

In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter challenges that group of people in a similar way. He says, "Be sober-minded." But then he goes on to explain. He says, "Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." Just imagine you went to the zoo and you know there are lions there, but you're not on high alert because you know the lion is in an enclosure. You're not afraid. But if you were on a safari somewhere and you never knew there was a lion in the grasses out there, you would be a little more on alert — looking around, prepared, ready to jump back in the Land Rover and take off.

The concern is this present moment in time. This is one of the things where, if you dig into the original language, you see some additional nuances. This "sober-mindedness" is a present-tense reality. This is something that's always supposed to characterize us. It doesn't matter how you were yesterday, whether you were sober-minded or not — you need to be sober-minded today. And it doesn't matter if the future looks hard or easy. You need to be sober-minded today. You need to be focused. You need to be watchful. You need to be on alert. You need to be prepared.

That's what the word "always" means for Timothy — that whatever ministry looked like, success in ministry for him was going to hang on whether or not he was able to be perpetually involved and perpetually alert to whatever the moment was. You and I know how easy it is to dwell on the past. Sometimes it's past successes and you just never seem to outlive them. You all know those people who never got beyond their high school successes — they were the homecoming king or queen, the valedictorian, the football captain, the cheerleading squad captain — and that was sort of the high point of their life and they've never gotten past it. When you're 45 years old, that's kind of a sad thing, isn't it? Similarly, we know people who have a hard time getting past failures, traumas, or difficulties from their past, and those can just as easily keep us from attending to the needs of right now, in this moment.

So for Timothy, the reality that he is surrounded by individuals who are drifting away from the truth is never supposed to stop him from being focused right here in this moment. Paul isn't suggesting that people tearing apart the spiritual foundation of the church — the sound teaching of the church — is no big deal. But what he is saying is that whatever they're doing, you need to be focused on the mission at hand. You need to be active and engaged. You need to be out there doing the work of the ministry.

Regret of lost opportunities, regret of past missteps — they can be debilitating if they become the focus, if that becomes what we allow ourselves to dwell on. Fear of current realities can also dominate and dictate our actions. In the moment, we have to be fully engaged with what we are doing.

There was a recent Gallup poll gauging people's perceived trust of various occupations. In this particular poll, only 27% of respondents rated pastors' honesty and ethics as high or very high — only 27%. What was interesting is that the same survey has been done for numerous years, and in 1985 that number was 64%. 64% rated pastors as having work ethic and integrity as high or very high. I bring that up because we live in a world where the perception of what the church is, what it stands for, and even the leaders of the church is diminishing rapidly.

Pastors like Timothy could look around and see the writing on the wall. They can see that people are running after these other teachers who are just suiting their own passions, and that's all people seem to care about anymore. The value of truth, the value of Scripture, the value of the church in their world and in their culture was diminishing. And so they might as well get out now while the getting's good. Time to shift careers. Time to go back to just being a tentmaker, if you're Paul. Or Timothy — I don't know — go start a hedge fund. That can never be the option for churches or for pastors.

At the end of the Gospel of John, there is this really interesting interaction between Jesus and Peter, with the Apostle John wrapped up in there as well. If you want to, just turn over to John's Gospel at the very end — chapter 21 of John. What has just happened is this: we all know Peter denied Christ when he was standing trial before his crucifixion. He denied him three times and was absolutely crushed with guilt over that. Jesus was crucified, put in the grave, and rose from the dead. Peter saw the empty tomb, and then John tells us about this really interesting interaction that Jesus and Peter have after they are fishing and see Jesus on the shore.

They all come rushing ashore, and that's when there is this episode of Jesus asking Peter if he loves him more than these — more than these other people. Does he love Jesus most of all? And there's this back and forth between them. Do you feed my sheep? Do you love me? Yes, Lord. Then feed my sheep. Do you love me, Lord? Then feed my sheep. And it says in verse 17 that Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." And Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

"Truly, truly I say to you" — this is Jesus still talking — "when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, "Follow me."

So he is telling Peter how he is going to die — a martyr's death. He was in fact going to feed his sheep and follow him. But then this is the interesting part. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, following them — the one who had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" So Peter sees John, right? Peter has just had this very emotional back and forth with Jesus that ended with Christ affirming that he would not only follow him but would follow him ultimately to his death. And then Peter sees John and says, "Lord, what about this man? What about John? You know what is going to happen to him."

And I love Jesus' response. He says to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me." Jesus is basically saying, don't worry about it. Don't worry about John. You follow me. You be in the moment. You be sober-minded. You focus on the matter at hand. Don't be looking at other people, worrying about what they're doing, worrying about what's happening to them — not even to John, one of his other right-hand men. Don't worry about him. You follow me. In other words, he is saying to Peter, just like Paul is telling Timothy, stay focused, Peter. Stay focused.

Peter in that moment wasn't being drawn away by opposition to Christ and his ministry. He was being drawn away by this idea of fairness or whatever — if I'm going to die for you, well, what about this guy? Is he going to have to die, too? And Jesus says, "Quit worrying about it. Just follow me."

In Acts 20:28, Paul gives this advice and counsel: "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood." There is this important dynamic as it relates to our involvement in ministry — that we pay attention to ourselves. There is a need to always be self-examining, always considering our own lives. That whole idea of taking the log out of your own eye first before you go help other people, and then also attending to the flock.

There are many traits that can make someone a good pastor, but all pastors, all elders, all church leaders must have the ability to be focused in the present. Too much dwelling on the past can hold us back and distract us. Too much daydreaming or worrying about the future makes us ineffective for the needs of the moment. Too much looking around at what everyone else is doing — for good or for bad — can breed discontentment, jealousy, and pride. There is this delicate balance that has to be struck when it comes to our participation in the ministry to which God has called us. And this is true whether you are a pastor, a church leader, or some other active part of the body of Christ.

Paul is not saying to never look back and evaluate. He is not saying to never look forward and plan. But what he is saying is that wherever you are, you have to be focused. You have to be aware of the ministry right here, right now. Stay focused. "But as for you, always be sober-minded."

There is another thing Timothy is supposed to do if he is going to do the work until the work is done. He is supposed to be resilient. Paul says, "Always be sober-minded. Endure suffering." How is that for encouragement, right? Endure suffering. Just deal with it. No pain, no gain. Or if you are in the military, they have that saying, "Embrace the suck." It's hard. It's tough. It's going to be miserable sometimes, but it is for a purpose. There is a mission to be accomplished. There is a goal to be achieved. Extreme unpleasantness is often unavoidable for progress to happen.

This is very similar but with a very different context in mind. This is ministry. And yet Paul says to him quite clearly, "Endure suffering" — not "endure tickles" or "endure a good joke or a bad joke." Endure suffering. The pain, the misery, the agony, the defeat, the despair, the opposition — opposition is a necessary component of faithful ministry. If we are going to be obedient to Christ's Great Commission, we should expect serious pushback.

Let me just give you some words from Jesus himself. Matthew 5:11-12, Jesus says this: "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Jesus' advice is that you should consider yourself blessed when you experience unjust accusations, false evil, false persecution on account of Christ. Consider yourself blessed. You are in good company. You are going to have great reward in heaven.

Endure suffering. John 15:18, Jesus said this: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." Once again, you are in good company. You are doing something right. We know the world hated Jesus because they crucified him. They killed him.

This is also Jesus, in John 16:33: "In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world." That is Jesus saying, "Endure suffering." And by the way, it is a good thing. You should love it. You should be grateful for it. You should find joy in it.

Listen to Peter's counsel in 1 Peter 3:13-17. Peter is counseling a church that is scattered all over the place. They have endured opposition and are now part of the diaspora. They don't have a place to call home. They are scattered all over the world. And Peter says this: "Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil."

All of this is just layer upon layer upon layer of reminding us that not only should we endure suffering and just put up with it, but this is to be a source of joy for us as believers — that we would be considered worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ should be something we find encouragement in. That is how Peter and John and their disciples responded when they were beaten for preaching Christ in front of the temple. In Acts chapter 5, they went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. So Peter was not just telling them to do something he himself was not willing to do or had not experienced. He knew full well what it was like to endure suffering for the cause of Christ, and he walked away from it with a joyful heart.

Christians in general and pastors in particular cannot crumble, run, and hide every time there is hostility, every time there are threats, every time there are attacks. Neither can we self-censor the message of Scripture simply to appease the fickle demands of an ignorant and indecisive society. That is what is so troubling when you see church leaders — and I'll put that in quotation marks — constantly shifting the message to accommodate the culture, because the culture shifts so often. When you determine your theology by the consensus of society, it is going to be like trying to nail jello to a wall. It will never stick because the goalposts are always moving. The standard is always changing.

This is the very thing Timothy is working against — people who would only listen to teachers who said what they wanted to hear. And Paul is warning him, you can't do that. And then by implication, if you don't do that, you should expect to endure suffering. You will need to be resilient, Timothy.

I am not trying to toot my own horn. I have tried to maintain a good reputation in our community. I have tried to be, as Paul would say to Timothy or Titus, above reproach. But that doesn't mean I have always been liked, and sometimes what I have preached has offended people. I can remember some specific instances. I remember an instance where a mother and her daughter came to this church and were so excited. They happened to come on a Sanctity of Life Sunday, and I preached the Bible's perspective on abortion, and in the middle of the sermon they got up and left. I never saw them again. My kids have sometimes had to find out the hard way that not all the teens in Dixon appreciate what I've had to say when I preached from the Bible on gender, sexuality, and identity.

Let me give you four keys to being a resilient Christian. Number one, live honorably. This is talked about in Titus 2:7-8. And Peter says this to the group of people he is encouraging to endure hostilities in 1 Peter 2:12: "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Live with integrity. Live with honor. Live above reproach. That is going to help you be a resilient Christian.

Number two, take the high road. Romans 12:17: "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all." Don't go tit for tat with people. Take the high road.

Number three, continue to speak the truth. If you want to be resilient, you have to keep speaking the truth. We just read from 1 Peter 3 where Peter talked about that very thing — that we should always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in us, but to do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when we are slandered, those who revile our good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. In our passage here, 2 Timothy 4, Paul talks about this very thing in verse 2 where he talks about preaching the Word, being ready in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with complete patience and teaching. Keep speaking the truth.

And number four, keep your eyes on the cross. Hebrews 12:1-2: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Live honorably. Take the high road. Keep speaking the truth. Keep your eyes on the cross.

And I will give you a bonus — five for the price of four. Saturate all of those in prayer. You have to be dependent on God in prayer. You cannot go out and soldier through this in your own strength. You will be crushed. You need the strength that God provides. You need to be dependent on him in prayer.

So, working until the work is done means we have to stay focused. We have to be resilient. And then thirdly, we have to show determination. "Always be sober-minded. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry." Do the work. Fulfill your ministry.

Timothy could go to all the Bible conferences he wanted. He could build the best theological library, collecting all the right resources. He could spend hours and hours studying. He could build his skills in leadership, preaching, strategic vision-casting, and ministry strategizing. He could dream and design structures for discipleship, but it would all be wasted if he didn't get up and actually do the work. If it was all theoretical, if it was all just on paper, it would amount to nothing.

Success in ministry is always dependent on the sovereign will of God, but it is never "let go and let God." It is never "Jesus, take the wheel." It is always striving to be obedient to what he commands while fully trusting and depending on him. It is never folding your hands and sitting back and just trusting God without doing anything. The Scriptures command us to be doers of the Word, to be faithful, to be workers. Paul says, "One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." It takes determination to get up and proclaim the gospel when people all around you are telling you to shut up, telling you to abandon it, telling you that it is outdated and old-fashioned and not in step with modern ways of thinking. You have to be like Rocky when Apollo Creed is just pummeling you — you have to keep getting up, keep trading blows, keep getting back up and fighting.

When Paul tells Timothy to do the work of an evangelist, he doesn't mean that he is supposed to be like a Billy Graham and have revival tours and fill stadiums with that sort of thing. Nothing against that. Nothing against those crusades. But he was basically telling him to be active in the gospel ministry — to be preaching and teaching the gospel message as a foundational responsibility to the church as a pastor. The work of an evangelist is just shorthand for being a hardworking pastor. We need evangelism in the church and we need evangelism in the community.

And then he goes on to say, "Fulfill your ministry. Don't get scared. Don't be lazy. Don't get distracted." And this is where you and I — whether you are a pastor or not — can all be diligent. We can all be diligent to fulfill our ministry. Remember that the church is a synergistic organization. Ministry is important, but there are different aspects to the ministry.

Remember in Acts chapter 6 when there were the Hellenistic widows who were complaining that they were not getting the food distribution that the church was supposed to be giving them. The leaders of the church, the apostles, said that it was not good for them to give up the ministry of the Word in order to feed these widows — but they were not saying that feeding the widows was bad, either. The solution was that other people needed to fulfill that aspect of the ministry. And so they appointed men who could organize the distribution of food. That way the apostles could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, and these other men could devote themselves to aiding and supporting these widows. Both were necessary to fulfill the work of ministry.

That is also why Paul lays out the significance of spiritual gifts in so many of his letters — to emphasize the fact that one person not having all the gifts is a benefit to the church, not a hindrance. Because when all are using their gifts and the strength that God provides, the ministry is fulfilled. The work of the ministry is done.

So if you think about what Paul is telling Timothy here specifically — about preaching and teaching the Word and his need to fulfill that ministry — that is only going to be able to happen if other people in the church use their gifts and fulfill the ministry that is supported by those gifts. So don't read this and think it only applies to Timothy because he was a pastor. If you are a believer, you are gifted by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the body of Christ, and so your using your gifts helps all of us fulfill our ministry.

In Ephesians chapter 4, which is one of the places where Paul identifies spiritual gifts — apostle, prophet, evangelist, and teacher — he says those were given to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So even those gifts are there to help others do the work of ministry. Don't hear that fulfilling the work of ministry is just limited to making disciples, also known as evangelism, or equipping those disciples. There are so many aspects to fulfilling ministry that we all need to involve ourselves in.

Now let me plug all this into the gospel. You know that hymn, "Grace That Is Greater Than All Our Sin"? Even if you are not familiar with it, let me read the first verse and chorus. It says this: "Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Grace, grace, God's grace — grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace — grace that is greater than all our sin."

Do you believe that? Do you believe that the grace of God given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, poured out on Calvary, exceeds all of our guilt and all of our sin? If you do believe that, then I am convinced that you will want other people to know it as well — even if it means some people might get angry at you when you tell them about it, even if it means they are going to be completely offended at what you have to say.

And I also believe that if you believe the grace of God shown to us in the death and resurrection of Christ for sins is greater than all of our sins, then you are going to believe that grace can reach even those who hate the gospel — that it can reach even those who are piling up for themselves teachers to suit their own desires. You are going to want to continue to do the work of the ministry. You are going to want to continue to be sober-minded. You are going to want to continue to endure suffering, because you believe this grace is such an amazing thing that you can't believe God would be so kind as to show this grace to you — and you can't believe that there are people out there who don't know about it, but they need to know. They need to hear it. They need to be told about it.

So many people are convinced that their sin is too great, that there is no way God could love them, no way God would be willing to cover their sins because their sins are so dark, so deep, and so treacherous. They need to know — just like everyone else. And some people are convinced of the opposite: that their sins are trivial, that there is no way God would condemn them because who cares about what they are doing? It is no big deal. They, too, need to know that they need to be covered in the grace of God.

So whether you are a pastor or something else in the church, your ministry is valuable and necessary. So you and I, together, all need to trust God and fulfill our ministry.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, we do thank you for your grace. We thank you that it is greater than our sins — that your grace covers the vilest, the most treacherous of sins. You are clear in your Word that all who believe, all who trust in what your Son Jesus Christ has done, will be saved. Blasphemers and murderers and liars and robbers — all of them — their sins can be covered by the blood of Christ. Their sins can be forgiven. They can receive redemption. They can receive adoption into your family. They can receive an eternal inheritance and a reward beyond comprehension — not because of anything that we have done to earn it, or anything they would need to do to earn it, but simply because Christ has been faithful to be obedient and his sacrifice is sufficient. We ask that you would help us to be bold and resilient, to be sober-minded, and to be diligent to do the work. Help us to be faithful. Help us to be dependent on you as we are striving to be obedient. We ask that you would use us to do your kingdom work here on earth. In your name we pray. Amen.