No Shame in Jesus

All right. Well, turn in your Bibles to Second Timothy. Second Timothy, we are in just the very early stages of our exploring this book. So, just the first few verses actually is all we looked at last week. This morning I want to read for you verses 8-12. Verses 8-12 is what we're going to look at this morning. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us unto a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifest through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what he has entrusted to me. Sometimes your eyes play tricks on you when you're reading. Anyway, so Paul begins this little chunk here with the word therefore, which lets us know he's following on from what he has just written right above, which is the whole idea of encouraging Timothy to fan into flames this spiritual gift that he's been given, which would be the idea that he's a preacher and a teacher, and that God hasn't given him a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control. So, moving into this, his encouragement is really twofold. Not to be ashamed of the gospel and to willingly and eagerly suffer for it. We shouldn't think that Paul is correcting Timothy, that Timothy has been previously ashamed of it, but he's just telling him, don't get to that point. You need to be on guard for that. He's in Ephesus. He's in a city that is steeped in paganism, and so the temptation to drift is going to be there. The temptation to also mask or cover up or hide or diminish what he believes is also going to be there. And really what Paul is trying to get Timothy to understand is just for us to be ashamed of him. All that God has given to us, the gracious gifts that he has given to us is far beyond what we could ever believe and deserve. So, Ranger, could you help me out with my slide here? Thank you. So right off the bat, it's pretty clear Paul's main point is to not be ashamed of the gospel. That really runs through this whole thing. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. That is sort of point number one. It's prominent in his counsel. To be ashamed really is maybe embarrassment is the first thing you might think of that if we're ashamed of something we're embarrassed to be associated with it or connected to it. There's a humiliation, maybe a guilt, even if it's a guilt by association, loss of reputation, loss of status, loss of honor, all of that. Now, we don't really live our society. We're not really a shame-based culture, an honor-based culture. If anything, we have no shame. We're, I mean, we just do what we do and who cares, you know. That's not always been the case. And certainly there are lots of places in the world where a shame-based culture is the way that their society operates in the Godfather 2. Okay, so we got to get right there first of all. In one of the flashbacks to Vito Corleone's early life in New York City, Don Fanucci confronts Vito Corleone because Vito's been stealing goods and selling them. And Don Fanucci wants a cut of this and he tells Vito that if he doesn't pay up that then the police are going to visit his house and his family will be ruined. That's the threat. In other words, your family's reputation in the community is going to be lost. You will be humiliated. Your reputation will be ruined because the police have come to your house. Your friends and neighbors will be ashamed to be associated with you and so you'll be done for. And that's maybe a great illustration of that like that shame culture that just to have that negative connotation. Doesn't even matter what the police do, but if people see the police showed up at your house, then nobody's going to want to have anything to do with you. This is even though we don't live in a shame-based culture, this is still super relevant for our lives here, what Paul is challenging Timothy with because rarely, as I point out, rarely do people shame us but we are still often ashamed of our Christian identity. Even in what Chaz was praying just earlier, this confession that we are often embarrassed to bear the name of Christ publicly. And so we diminish our associations. We don't bring it up. We're afraid of what might happen if people find out what we believe or what we do on Sundays or any other part of the week. We are without people doing anything, we often have this assumption that there's something for us to be ashamed of because of what it might mean for us in the wider society. And Paul tells Timothy, and we should hear this as well, really not to be ashamed of two specific things. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord and don't be ashamed of me. Paul says me his prisoner. In Timothy's day, shame would have come because Paul mentions this to the Corinthians because we preach Christ crucified. And in first Corinthians when Paul brings that up, he says that's a stumbling block to the Jews and it's foolishness to the Gentiles. The Jews couldn't accept that the Messiah was not a strong military king who was going to deliver for his people this autonomous kingdom here on earth. He was going to overthrow Rome or whatever ruling authority was over the people of Israel. That's what the Jews' hope was hanging on in that first century. And the Gentiles likewise thought it was ridiculous that you had a God who died. How silly would that be? There was so much more. There would even be the idea, oh, you believe Jesus was God or you believe Jesus was man. You believe Jesus rose from the dead. You believe Jesus was God and man. You believe that Jesus' death paid the penalty for your sins. You believe that Jesus is the only one true and living God. You believe that there's only one way to heaven or eternal life with God. You believe all those things. Even to this day, those are the very same types of claims that people find so hard to believe in Christianity. And so because of that, those are the very same types of beliefs that we are often tempted to be ashamed of. All things that people mock Christians for today. You mean you actually believe that garbage that not even to mention the criticism for biblical morality? You mean you believe what the Bible says about right and wrong? You mean there is such a thing as right and wrong? That it isn't just up to what you think? Yeah. What you feel good about? What makes you happy? You know, like the Sheryl Crow song, if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad. You mean you're gonna let a book that's thousands of years old tell you how to live your life in 2026? Aren't you ashamed? And then the accent point is the age-old accusation, aren't Christians just a bunch of hypocrites anyway? Boom. Got you. So Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 explicitly, I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed to be called a Christian. I'm not ashamed to be associated with this message. I'm not ashamed to go into cities and to preach and proclaim what God has done for us through his son Christ Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection. I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not embarrassed by that. I'm not humiliated by people's accusations against me. I don't find it scandalous. I don't feel like my honor is threatened or my status. In fact, I really don't care if my reputation is lost. I'm in prison for it and I am glad to have served Christ because I am confident in what he has done for me. Verse 12, he says, "I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what he has entrusted to me." Similarly, in the book of Romans, the first chapter, Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." So the first issue for Paul to Timothy, this challenge to him is don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed to testify about the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. We know this is what he's talking about because he follows it up with encouraging Timothy to share in the suffering for the gospel. We also see this play out in the lives of the apostles in the book of Acts. In our equipping hour, we looked at Acts chapter 4 this morning. And one of the things we look at is Peter and John preaching about Jesus Christ after they healed a man on the Temple Mount. And all the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, they all come pouring out and they confront Peter and John and want to know by whose authority are you? Did you heal this man? And how dare you talk about Jesus Christ that way here on the temple mount. They didn't care. Peter and John basically in the beginning of book of Acts they keep doing that and they keep getting arrested for it. Happens in chapter 5 as well. They use this miraculous healing and even their own persecution just as a springboard to keep talking about Jesus Christ, about his crucifixion, about his resurrection, about the work he has done to make atonement for our sins so that through faith in him, all who believe have eternal life. It's just an opportunity for them to platform Jesus and what he has done. Don't be ashamed of that. And thankfully for Timothy, he does have opportunity to look back at the actions of some of these men like Paul and like Peter and like John who can see that they weren't telling him to do anything they themselves weren't willing to do. They were willing to be out on the front lines of ministry facing the opposition, facing the confrontation, and they were not ashamed of it. They didn't back down. The second issue that Paul brings up into Timothy's sort of view is don't be ashamed of me either. Me, the Apostle Paul, who have been imprisoned for the work of Christ and for his kingdom. Don't be embarrassed to be associated with or to stand alongside of those who have been harassed, those who have been confronted, those who have even been arrested for what they have proclaimed about Jesus Christ. In other words, don't be afraid of guilt by association. Don't be embarrassed because I'm in prison in Rome and I'm going to be executed. Don't be embarrassed by that because that is part of the gospel proclamation. Being willing to accept that kind of response. At the end of second Timothy, sort of a fast forward, Paul says this in verse 16, he says, "At my first defense, no one came to stand by me." So the first time he had to essentially defend himself in a legal setting. There was nobody there to help support him in that. No one stood by me, but all deserted me. In other words, they were afraid or they were ashamed or the people who were there were unwilling to be associated with him in that context. Not unlike the disciples when Jesus is first arrested before his crucifixion. They all freak out too and they're like, "Hey, this could be coming down on us, too. Maybe we'll just, you know, save our own skins and we'll just get out of here." Paul says, "But all deserted me, may it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it." So even in this situation where Paul finds himself writing to Timothy, he acknowledges that there are definitely people, associates of his who were ashamed or afraid of what was happening to him, not wanting to be associated with him and his gospel message, lest they too might get rounded up and thrown in jail and have to give an account for themselves in a legal setting. Don't be ashamed of that. I think we can relate to this, right? I think we can relate to the idea of being ashamed at times of our Christian faith. I mean, you just ask yourself, what keeps you from being more transparent about your faith? Are there any scenarios where you're just like, I'm just going to keep this under my hat right now. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag and let people know who I really am. Are there contexts in which you try and hide the fact that you're a Christian? Maybe. Do you ever get embarrassed to be around certain Christians because they're just too Christian? They're just always talking about it and they won't shut up about it and it's like enough already, you know, knock it off. You know, I mean, if it was their favorite sports team, you know, we might rib them back, but we wouldn't be like, "Oh, oh my goodness." You know, somehow it's different. Even you know we even say like oh we don't talk about religion and politics right that doesn't keep people from talking about politics right I mean people talk about that stuff nonstop but our Christian faith I don't know I think sometimes we are a little bit ashamed or a little bit afraid. Paul's encouragement to Timothy is just simply there is no shame in the gospel. And then he takes it to sort of the next level that there's no shame in the gospel and the gospel is worth suffering for. It's worth any amount of suffering. Listen to all that God has done in these verses verses 8-12. Okay? He said that he has saved us. He's called us to a holy calling. He has shown grace to us before the world began. He has abolished death and brought us life and immortality. And he's clear that it's not because of our works that he's done that. He's letting us know, don't forget that your sin is your biggest problem. That's what separates you from God. There's no solution that you can work for yourself. God has provided the only solution. There's no alternative treatments. You ever hear people that they've been given a terrible health diagnosis and it doesn't seem like the normal course of action is producing the results they want. And so they start looking into these alternative treatments. They're trying to find some help, some hope for their situation. And so they begin to explore any and all options. They're not willing to rule out anything. Well, what the Bible is consistent about when it comes to the problem of our sin and our separation from God and the consequences of that, there's no other alternative treatments. There's no other solutions. You can look all you want. There there's only one solution to it and that has been given to us by God through his grace, freely, not on the basis of our works or anything that we are intrinsically. And in this not being ashamed of the gospel and then taking that being willing to suffer for it, Paul is careful to let Timothy know that listen, the key is not sort of to look within, find, you know, summon your inner strength, you know, just pull up this extra dose of courage from within your heart and live that out. No, there's no degree of inner strength that's going to give you the ability to do that. That's guaranteed failure. In fact, why would anyone purposely endure shame and suffering? Only God can give you that kind of resolve. Suffering for the gospel, Paul says, by the power of God. So, Paul doesn't say, "Hey, Timothy, just be willing to suffer, you know, just be willing to put it all in line. Just be willing to endure whatever comes your way." First of all, he sets it in the context of all that God has done, the motivation, the reason behind the suffering, the reason to not be ashamed of the gospel. And then he also encourages Timothy that, oh, by the way, what I'm encouraging you to do, you're going to do it in the strength and the power of the Lord. In other words, just depend on God. Trust in him. Put your confidence, your hope in him. Let him be the power that is in your life, enabling you to do what scripture calls you to do. But I want you to look at verses 9 and 10. These are probably the most theologically dense verses in this whole letter. They really unpack with amazing precision the nature of our salvation, making it crystal clear that it is 100% a work of God from start to finish. Verses 9 and 10, Paul says, "Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifest through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." So, it's 100% a work of God. He saved us. You didn't save yourself. You, as so many preachers before have said, the only thing you contribute to your salvation is your sin and need of being saved. You are completely dependent on the grace of God. He saved us. He called us to salvation. And his calling is a holy calling. That doesn't mean it's not a reference to the kind of life we are being called to. It's specifically talking about the calling itself. It is from God. So that calling to salvation is a holy, a righteous, a godly calling. He purposed to save us. It is his plan and his design. He is the architect of salvation. He is the initiator of salvation. He is the fulfiller of salvation. Paul makes it clear as he's reminding Timothy of what Timothy already has come to know and believe. He's just laying it all on the table for him, letting him know that this is 100% a work of God. And as if he could, he needs to make it as clear as possible. He removes any possibility that salvation could be a work of ours by saying that his purpose and his gracious gift precedes creation. How can you contribute to something that God has purposed before the world was even created? God is a timeless being. He exists outside of the bonds of space and time. His plan of salvation was worked out in eternity past. But the plan of salvation was made and accomplished by Christ within time within creation, because we are not timeless beings. We do exist within space and time. So that's why he says that even though by God's plan and purpose, this happened before creation, it was manifest in Christ Jesus. He did take on flesh and blood. He did enter into humanity. He did live a sinless life. He did die on the cross. He did rise from the dead. So Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, the eternally begotten son of God, humbled himself to take on humanity, to suffer and die for sins, and to rise from the dead. And this death paid the penalty for sins so that all who believe receive eternal life. Now, there's so much going on in these two verses, this idea that salvation is 100% the purpose, plan and act of God and that this is something that he ordained before the world was even created. I want to read for you a little section from the second London Baptist confession and it says this in the covenant of grace he freely offers to sinners life and salvation through Jesus Christ on their part he requires faith in him that they may be saved and promises to give his holy spirit to all who are ordained to eternal life to make them willing and able to believe. So even in that they're saying that even though faith is required, faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And then it goes on to say this, this covenant is revealed in the gospel. It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman. That's in Genesis chapter 3. After that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament. This covenant is based on the eternal covenant transaction between the father and son concerning the redemption of the elect. That's what Paul's talking about here when he says that this was by God's purpose and grace that he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began that this is an eternal covenant before there was even time itself. Only through the grace of this covenant have those saved from among the descendants of the fallen in Adam obtained life and blessed immortality. So in other words, what that's saying is that salvation is completely a work of God. It's always been a work of God. It's only a work of God. Even the things that we are called to do in response to what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, even that is a gift of God's grace to us that we are able to respond to that. So if it's 100% a work of God, why would anyone have to suffer for that? Well, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Because God has ordained the means by which he uses to call people to himself and that's through the proclamation of the gospel. And this is exactly what Paul is encouraging Timothy to do. Don't be ashamed to go out and proclaim the gospel and to be associated with the gospel. We trust completely in God to save sinners. We know that it's not on the basis of our ability to say the exact words in the exact right way. It's completely God who does it. But he calls us to be obedient to him and proclaim his message. That's the means by which he has ordained to call people to himself. That's why we might suffer for it because we have to go out and tell people about it. So I wonder, you don't have to raise your hands. I don't even want you to wink at me like I asked last week. This is just between you and the Lord. But do you ever find yourself that you are reluctant, maybe even afraid to talk to people about the gospel. Friends, family members, strangers, doesn't matter. I think most of us are most people do acknowledge that there's a fear or a reluctance there. If it wasn't there, we would all be doing it all the time. Where maybe you have experienced or you anticipate a wide range of negative responses to it. Maybe you're afraid people will be upset about it. Maybe you're afraid that people aren't going to want to be your friend anymore, want to hang out with you anymore. Or maybe you fear that people are going to get angry if you tell them about their need for a savior because of their sinfulness. If you tell them that being good enough is not good enough to get you into heaven. Maybe you're afraid that people are going to get upset when you tell them that God doesn't let anyone into heaven on the basis of their goodness. Maybe all of that you're there's an anticipation that you're going to be, you know, you're going to experience some sort of very hostile reactions. You know, almost like you anticipate some sort of struggle session like they used to do in communist China. People that didn't abide by the party doctrines or the party lines or were just sort of suspected of going against the teachings of Chairman Mao. Maybe you're anticipating something like that being a part of your life. Even if you don't explicitly evangelize people, people are often offended by the simple fact that we believe the gospel message. That we believe there is only one way to salvation. That we do believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. That no one comes to the father except through him. The gospel message is countercultural. And often culture rises up and pushes back against it. And Paul was suffering for it. He was in prison awaiting execution, but he wasn't ashamed of it. He wasn't afraid to be in that position. And so his encouragement to Timothy is that really there's nothing to be afraid of, even if you have to endure difficulties for it. In fact, he also talks about elsewhere in scripture that these momentary light afflictions, they're not even worth considering compared to the glory that awaits the believer. Paul wasn't ashamed of it. He was fully convinced that it was true. He said, "I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced as he is able to guard until that day. That day is the day that he returns what he has entrusted to me." In other words, he's convinced that the gospel, it not only is true, but it's unchanging. He's not going to wake up one morning and God's going to say, "Hey, Paul, you know that gospel that you've preached all these years before?" Well, it's a different gospel now. That gospel is not the gospel anymore. That's not the good news anymore. That's not the way of salvation. I've kind of changed my mind. I've changed I changed the way we're doing things now, and this is what we're going to do from now on. Now, Paul is fully convinced that that's never going to happen. I'm sure that if we lived unashamed of the message of Christ and of our fellow Christians that we might face some criticism. We might face some rejection. We might face some opposition. We maybe even miss out on some opportunities. Maybe people aren't going to want us to invite us to the barbecues and the parties anymore. Maybe we're going to lose out on a promotion. I don't know. Will we ever suffer like the millions of Christians around the world in truly hostile environments? I don't know. Maybe that day will come. But I do know that when Christ is everything and we live dependent on him and not on ourselves that we will be able to suffer that kind of suffering or any other kind of suffering with a joy and clarity of purpose. And that's all Paul is calling Timothy to as well. It kind of reminds me of the saying of Charles Spurgeon that unless Christ be everything, he is nothing. If he be something, he must be everything. Live for Christ. If he's everything, then that's all that matters. Trust in him. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I thank you for this clarity that Paul offers to his friend in the ministry. The encouragement to not be ashamed of what both of them were convinced was true, that to be grateful for their salvation would mean that they would willingly accept any shame or harassment or even suffering that might be lobbed at them. They did live in a world where they could face not only being ostracized from certain sectors of society but as Paul was living out they could even experience imprisonment and even execution for their faith. So the words that he challenged Timothy with were not just theoretical or hypothetical but were very real. And yet the need for them to be unashamed and the motivation for them to be unashamed was real and it's real for us as well. And we ask that you would help us to be bold proclaimers of your truth to be joyful in the reality that our sins are forgiven, not because we've jumped through the right hoops and we've done everything the exact right way, but because we are confident in what Jesus Christ has done for us through his life, death, and resurrection, and may we live boldly for him regardless of how people respond. We ask all that in your name. Amen.