Day 1
2 Timothy 4
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge
Second Timothy chapter four is the final training of a young pastor called Timothy. And it opens with a very strong wording:
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
What a message this young pastor has to deal with. You can see the concern of his trainer, Paul, is preached only the word of God. If he doesn’t want the young preacher to forget his main duty is preaching God’s word. It is communicating the gospel, communicating the things the Lord has told him. And not coming up with new teaching, but teaching the word. The word to be preached then is what, I believe, Paul had communicated and the Old Testament.
You know this emphasis on: preach the word, shows that’s the work of an evangelist, that’s the work of a preacher. You can’t call yourself a pastor and you are not taken up to preaching the word. Somebody says that there are some thirty-six references to the idea of a true gospel in Second Timothy alone. And there are seventeen references to false teachings in Second Timothy alone. Paul is concerned that anybody who becomes a Christian will be taught proper doctrine and be protected from wrong teaching or wrong ideas, what he’s calling false prophets. Just as a review of this letter of Second Timothy let us repeat a few things.
In Second Timothy chapter one; verse eight, Paul is telling this young man: “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” In other words, don’t be ashamed of the word. Then in Second Timothy chapter one; verse thirteen, he says something similar: “Hold fast the pattern of sound words.” Same message. Stick with the word of God. Then in Second Timothy chapter two verse two, he is told—same word: “The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men.” The word, the word, the word. Then in Second Timothy two; fifteen, he’s talking about rightly dividing the word of truth. Still on the word. He wants the word rightly divided. Then in Second Timothy two; twenty four, he’s saying be a servant of the Lord—”A servant of the Lord must be able to teach.”
So, the word is something that’s important and you get that from Paul. The idea of you as a Christian knowing the word and you as a Christian sharing the word with others is critical. If you call yourself a servant of the Lord, then you must be able to teach, is the message of Second Timothy two; twenty four.
Then in Second Timothy three; sixteen, we see: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” In other words, you are actually repeating what God has said when you preach. And I think that’s something that will be very important for us to have at the back of our mind. That if there is nothing else, is that if you truly call yourself a child of God, you must commit yourself, like I’ve kept repeating, to be a prisoner of God’s word.
Sometimes you don’t think that is going to be easy to implement; sometimes you think you wish it had been put a different way, but you dare not move away from what the Bible says. You’re a prisoner there.
So, Paul starts by giving him a solemn charge. It is like he is swearing in Timothy to commit to the word: “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom.” What does he mean, “I charge you therefore?” In other words, I’m making you swear, I’m making you commit. It’s a solemn commitment that Paul expects out of the young man. Something that Timothy must heed if he would be a godly pastor. It’s a charge. If you want to be a godly pastor, this is what you commit yourself to. That Is what I think he is saying.
Day 2
2 Timothy 4
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
And then Paul says, just in case you think it’s just between me and you my son, God is involved. I may be in a prison cell, but I’m conscious beyond these walls is the presence of God. So, I’m charging you before God, I’m charging you before the Lord Jesus Christ, I’m charging you before the one that will judge the living and the dead. In other words, here is it’s like a court, it’s like Paul and Timothy are in a court and Timothy is being sworn to keep to something and the court leaders are God the Father, God the Son who will judge the living and the dead. So, I think he really wants this young man to take the matter very, very seriously.
Can you picture Paul in that cell all alone, or chained to a guard as he is writing this letter? And conscious that he himself may be soon dead, he is hoping Timothy will continue with the ministry and is concerned that this young man is going to keep to the word, be a prisoner of the scriptures. Remember he’s reminding him that he may not have a long time to go. God will hold him accountable at his appearing, at his kingdom.
In other words, Paul is clear that we don’t have all the time. You have the second coming, which Paul took as very eminent—very near. If not, Christ coming then our death.
Paul died, but soon after that Timothy also died. Your parents have died; soon enough, you yourselves will also be gone. So, you don’t have forever. So, given this challenge, Paul wants us to be seriously committed to the mission.
But number two, he wants Timothy to be aware that Jesus is coming soon. You don’t have forever. And when He comes, He will be the judge of our quality of ministry, the quality of service you gave to the kingdom of God. Paul was living in hope of Christ soon coming. Before then, he is hoping the Gospel will move far and wide. And wherever it goes, people will be taught the Gospel.
Day 3
2 Timothy 4
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear
So, preach the Word. The commitment, of all this preamble is so that Paul tells you: preach the Word. In season, out of season,by every means, preach the Word. But this is not the first time he has told him that. That’s whether you go to First Timothy or Second Timothy, the emphasis is preach the Word.
What does he mean? Don’t preach stories that you heard an old man in church give. Don’t give stories that you heard from reading a certain biography. Don’t preach your own experiences. You can use them as additional, but the word is the main thing—you are not preaching those stories and experiences. You must say, like Billy Graham kept saying, ‘Thus says the Lord. The Bible says.’ Never preach and people can’t understand what are you preaching, what passage, where does it come from? Preach the Word, not your stories. Preach what is written. And that will be a very important thing to understand. So, I think for that to happen, Paul is assuming that Timothy will take time to study the Word—to know the Word.
Because, otherwise, how will you stick with the Word or know you are moving out of the Word if you don’t know the Word? Timothy is being told: “Don’t preach experience, preach the word.
You know, when I was younger, one of the statements we liked repeating is that “You know, me, I don’t preach something I’ve not experienced; I only preach what I’ve experienced.” And it was a common thing. It was a way of saying that we had old people who were preaching, and when you look at their lives and look at what they are saying, they do not correlate. So as a way of going against what we are seeing, we said, “We, we only preach what we have experienced.” And I thought that was a very spiritual thing, until I thought about it later as I grew older.
What I’m saying is, if I read what the Bible has said and I myself have not been able to implement it, I will not preach it until I’m able to experience. Then that would mean I’m not preaching the word. Preaching the word means what I’m able to implement, what I’m not able to implement, I simply say what the Bible says. And sometimes it’s very embarrassing when you are preaching something which you yourself are struggling with. Preach the word, I learned, is very different from preaching experience. Put it differently, there’s lots of times you only preach from your own experience, from your experiential theology.
In other words, preaching out of your experience, you look at the Bible for what supports your experience. That’s not preaching the word. Because if you’re preaching experience, if your theology is advised by experience rather than being advised by the Bible, you end up with a cult. Your experiences cannot be the basis of your preaching; it must be the word that advises your experience, rather than experience advising the word. So, Timothy is being told: “Preach the word. Don’t just know it, preach it.” My prayer is that anybody who reads what I’m saying will take it from Paul and not just from me, that we must go back to expository preaching.
Where expository means you just take the word of God and expound it, not the other way around. Not look for verses to support your ideas, but to just say what the Bible itself says. So, we must find a way of getting the church back to expository preaching. My prayer is that that message will reach everybody who is able to read what I’m writing. But then he is being told, so the first thing is emphasizing it is the word, not your experience, no stories, not biographies:but the word. Take the word and say what it says, even if you yourself have not experienced it yet.
Somebody said that hermeneutics, or interpretation of the Bible, demands that you read the word and put yourself in the shoes of the first readers of that word. How would they have understood it? Put yourself in their circumstances, in their history. How would they have understood it? If you start interpreting the word different from the way it would have been understood, you’ll go off. So, the first thing is observe, simply note what the word is saying. Number two, find out what it would have meant to the people of the day. Only after that you have the freedom to seek to apply it to our circumstances today. If you have done the first two, you will not be taken away to creating stories that cannot be based on the passage you have actually just read. But that is the second thing, so the first charge is preach the word.
Day 4
2 Timothy 4
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths
Second part of the charge is: do so in season and out of season. That means preach when it is comfortable to do it and when it is not comfortable to do it. When you are young and when you are old. When you have an educated crowd and when you have old women who have never gone to school. Preach the word in season and out of season. That’s really what we are talking about. And my prayer and hope is that you’ll ask yourself: Are there seasons where you feel justified not to preach the word? “Oh, I’m on holiday,” oh, whatever. You know, I like the story I read, and I want to repeat it to you. I quote:
There was once a Church of England clergyman who was gloriously saved. When Jesus changed his life, he started preaching the gospel to his whole parish, and they all got saved. Then he started preaching in neighbouring parishes, and the clergymen of those parishes were offended.
They asked the bishop to make the man stop, and the bishop confronted him. He said, “I hear you’re always preaching, and you don’t seem to be doing anything else.” The changed man answered, “Well, Bishop, I only preach during two seasons of the year.” The bishop said, “I’m glad to know that. What seasons are they?” He replied, “In season and out of season.”
Is that something you are not doing? Or You only preach when it’s convenient, you only preach when you have a crowd that is organized. You have limited yourself; you don’t preach in season and out of season.
I still remember as young people in the mid-nineteen seventies, and we got together in a preaching team. Initially we had no name, after we had already been preaching for four years, we finally called it Kinangop Evangelistic Associates Team, because we were mainly preaching in South Nyandarua and Naivasha area of Kenya.
We were young people, we had no cars, we were just using public means to move from place to place. But one of us had a boyfriend who had a car. So, because we were borrowing some equipment to preach in an open air, we asked the girl, “Can’t you ask your boyfriend to come and we preach with him?” We knew if he is coming to preach, he’ll also help us carry the equipment. When the girlfriend went to the man, he said, “Let me be honest, I only preach to organized groups. This idea of going in a marketplace and preaching, I don’t do such a thing.” And I thought, “Eh, he’s instead of just simply telling us he’s not available, he seemed to imply what we are doing is wrong because of preaching in marketplaces, in open airs.”
We were preaching anywhere and everywhere, in season and out of season. I do not know whether this can explain it, but in later years, many years later, I heard that he was no longer walking with the Lord. When you don’t feel like Jesus is the master of your life, and therefore he can make you do things even when you’re out of your comfort zone, that kind of Jesus who is not master in every season will soon be not your master at all.
Day 5
2 Timothy 4
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Paul goes on to tell Timothy that preaching includes many things. You take the word of God and you seek to convince the congregation.
What is it to convince?
It’s to get somebody to accept what you are saying. And sometimes we look like we are preaching but “if you accept it, very good, if you don’t, very good too.” We don’t take the time to give the word of God in a logical manner, in a way it can be understood, and we don’t plead with people. Paul is saying preaching the word means convincing people.
Number two, sometimes it may mean rebuking.
Rebuking means telling people off: what they are doing will get them to hell, they must know that unless they stop it, there are consequences that could end up in hell. So, you rebuke. But others say “No, no, no, you must be seeker-friendly,” and to be seeker-friendly means they must not hear any rebuke. Paul is telling you, “No, no, no, that’s not preaching.” Preaching includes rebuking the sinner, rebuking the Christian who is going off-line. That’s what it will mean.
But preaching also means exhorting.
When you exhort, you are saying they are doing well here, but they can do better. And it’s important that the man of God, using God’s word, is able to help people to see they are doing well but they can do better—exhorting them. And as you do so, you must have patience and long-suffering, not giving up very easily. “I’ve preached to this guy for three years, he has not yet gotten saved.” continue
There is a young man whom I started preaching to in two thousand and eight or two thousand and nine, for he wants me to mentor him. I witnessed to him over the years, and he didn’t get saved. Two thousand and eight, nine, ten. I thought he has now gotten fed up with me, but he was still available for mentoring. So I preached to him, I prayed for him, I sought to show him how important this salvation is. I try to convince him, and when I know he’s going wrong I rebuke him, and at times I exhort him. And sometimes you feel like giving up. And it was after many years, he rang one day and told me, ‘Mr. Ng’ang’a I would like to meet you. And it’s urgent I want us to meet today’. I had to cancel everything to meet him. And he was under heavy spiritual conviction to give his life to God. And that’s how he gave his life to the Lord after many years.
In your ministry, as you preach, do you have patience and long-suffering, or do you give up on people easily who don’t seem to be changing. The word of God says that sometimes what you do is like a teacher; don’t just preach the word of God, but teach it. Bring God’s word to bear on the lives of those within your hearing distance, whether they are interested or not.Christ himself is interested because Jesus died for them. That will be something important to always be aware.
So, Paul says the charge in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead. the Bible goes on to say, in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge. Can you see the company witnessing your preaching, and so the seriousness of the charge?
Day 6
and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.
So now it is within that, that you now look at verse two, ‘Preach the word.’ Prepared in season, and out of season. Correct, rebuke, encourage, but you do so with great patience and careful instruction. That’s really what the word of God is saying. I don’t think anybody would be clearer about how we are supposed to do ministry. Why is he emphasizing that? He goes on to explain why.
In verse three, he says,
‘For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.’
So,note there’ll be a time they don’t listen to you. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
So, why are you preaching in season and out of season? Because the time will be coming, these same people whom you are talking to currently, will not want to hear God’s word at all. The need for true preaching or good doctrine is not always going to be there. And I like the way some versions put it, ‘They will not endure sound doctrine.’ It’s like it’s a painful thing to hear godly doctrine.
Of course, end times is today for it is the same because if somebody has become a homosexual, every time you read the Bible, it hurts him. In fact, I hear of some places the Bible is being called a hate book. And you can be jailed for reading the Bible to somebody because they think the Bible is a hate book. The bible is not accepting them the way they are. They can no longer endure sound doctrine. That’s why you for the time being, as long as there are people to hear, preach the word of God. Preach to the ones who are willing to listen. Preach to the ones available.
There will be a time when they will not accept you, they’ll look for their own teachers. I read a book recently that the homosexuals are now having their own churches, in Africa. And they have their own pastors who are also homosexuals. And I saw a book called ‘Aliens in God’s church’. In other words, the homosexuals are calling themselves aliens, but they’re in God’s church, and they believe they are okay as they are. They do not want to hear the gospel that says otherwise.
Can you see their itching ears? Itching to hear the wrong thing. When you talk about itching, it means some level of curiosity, an insatiable desire for that other type of teaching. And they want somebody who can speak that language, that teaching, you know, that will make them feel happy.
You, man of God, Timothy being told, don’t be like that, preach the real word. You know, when they want to hear God’s word, that time, please obey. That time may come when you yourself will want to hear, but you can’t hear. You want to get saved, but can’t get saved. It means there’s a such time. And I was told somebody who used to come to preach in our church called Alexander Tee, talked of an incident where somebody who had been preached to for a long time, on their deathbed, said ‘I want to get saved but I can’t; something was holding. That he could not accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. So even for you, when you can hear, please listen and act on the message.
This is because it’s God who changes your heart in ways so that you are able to hear and receive God’s word. You know, there may reach a time when you are looking for cults. Looking for people with funny teachings, because you have refused what the Bible is. Now you’re looking for your own type of preacher who preaches the way you want, heaping on yourself false teachers. Do you understand then what’s the danger? That the one teaching the true gospel may not be what they’re itching for, therefore you’ll not be popular. The one teaching wrong is the one they want to follow.
That’s why as people who preach, we should be careful that we don’t start thinking that because a lot of people come to our church or come to listen to us, we are teaching the right thing. Paul is telling his son Timothy, ‘Hey, they may be just coming because of wrong teaching.’ Don’t assume anybody who is popular is necessarily teaching God’s word.
So, there are several things about this generation that doesn’t want God’s word. They have itching ears to hear the wrong thing. And then, they are very happy, to use one version that entertains, for they be turned aside to fables.
They are very happy with the fables. And you go to many churches today and you’ll find that you don’t know what bible chapter he read, don’t know what verse he read, he just tells stories. One story after another. In the end, it’s more of a motivational talk than really preaching God’s word. And he is saying the generation will come who will be turned aside to fables. To hear stories. You know once you don’t want God’s word, you embrace fantasies, stories that are interesting, that are captivating. But in the end, that will not save you, only God’s truth can save you.
Day 7
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
To believe that the universe came about by chance is one such fable. The great bang is a fable because no scientist can prove it, it’s just a fable. And they’ll refuse the creation story and go for the big bang, and both of them require faith because there is no fact, but they don’t believe the Bible. I am told there’s an article that once appeared in a newspaper called Los Angeles Times, and I think it was giving, a fable. Let me just quote it, and I begin of the quote:
‘In the beginning there was light, but also quarks and electrons. The big bang spewed out energy that condensed into radiation and particles. The quarks joined to protons and careened wildly about in a hot dense glowing goop, as opaque as a star. three hundred thousand years or so passed. Space expanded, matter cooled, the electrons and fast protons, electrically irresistible to each other, merged into neutral hydrogen, and from this marriage, the first atoms were born. Space between atoms became as transparent as crystal, pretty much the way it looks today. The rest, as they say, is history. Atoms clumped to form dust clouds, which grew into stars and galaxies and clusters. Stars used up their nuclear fuel, collapsed and exploded in recurring cycles, fusing elements in the process. Occasionally, a step or planet condenses around a second-generational stars where carbon-based life forms grew into among other things, cosmologists the better to contemplate it all.’ End of quote.
We are told this is from a sidebar to a science article in Los Angeles titled “The Big Bang and what followed it.” Isn’t that a fable? But people will choose to follow this fable rather than take the Bible which says, “God created the heavens and the earth.”
So, we are being told by Paul , “Don’t speak fables.” Repeat to everybody, “God is the creator. He’s the one who created everything.” In the beginning was God. Is it possible that some church-goers have already started doubting the Bible in order to follow fables? You know a fable will not take you to God.
Let me tell you another fable. And we have it in Kikuyu, … “God only helps those who are helping themselves.” That’s a fable. The God of the Bible helps the helpless who can’t help themselves.
Another fable: “For you to make it to heaven, you have to work at it. You have to earn your way before God.”
Another fable. “All Christians are better than everybody else.”
Another fable. We are all children of God created in His image so we shall all go to heaven.
So, I think Paul wants Timothy to understand clearly that the reason why this matter is urgent: number one, Christ is coming soon. Number two, people will not always want to hear God’s word. So, while they’re willing to hear, tell them.
Do not wait until they turn their ears away from the truth to myths, like the one I’ve just read.
Then verse five of Second Timothy chapter four:
“But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Given that background, the young man is being told, ‘You don’t be like that.’ You be watchful in all things. There may be affliction in the process, but endure them. You must do your work as an evangelist. In other words, you don’t wait for people to come to you. You go to them. But please note the words, ‘but you.’ In other words, you have just been describing people. Do not copy them.
You are not of the crowd. You must treat yourself different as a child of God. So, you are different from the groups that don’t want to hear God’s word. Maybe of course there are people around you who may have turned aside, but you are dedicated to God’s word, are a prisoner of God’s word, and you want to preach that word completely without changing it. Calvin said, and I quote:
“The more determined men become to despise the teachings of Christ, the more zealous should godly ministers be to assert it, and the more strenuous their efforts to preserve it entirely.” End of quote.
So, Timothy and us are being asked to be watchful. Watch yourself first so you don’t end up teaching something the Bible doesn’t say. Watch out for some of your members going the wrong way. Be watchful. Every good shepherd takes care of his own theology and watches over the theology of others.
And Paul is saying there is a possibility you are going to have to endure affliction. You can’t be teaching what people don’t want to hear and they are comfortable. They will fight you. They’ll persecute you. Yes, there are wonderful blessings in serving God, but you must also be ready for affliction if you stand with God’s word and there are people around us who don’t want it.
I know Paul is telling him, ‘I know you’re a pastor, but you must also be an evangelist.’ And maybe every pastor needs do some evangelistic work and the gifting. Maybe Timothy was not very good.
No wonder he is being reminded to do his work as an evangelist so that he can in the process bring people into the kingdom that we are going to teach.
So, in all that, what are you aiming at? Fulfilling your calling, fulfilling your ministry. And I think that would be important to ask, do you understand your calling? Are you living it? Maybe the reason why you don’t stay within your calling and you’re not fulfilling your calling is because of fear. Paul is saying fear should not make you not stick with your calling. Or is it unbelief? If you don’t believe the Lord who is the creator of heaven and earth, who will you believe? Or is your problem the cares of this world? But see, all those are temporary. You must endure it all.
Or sometimes it’s because you want people to think well of you and you are afraid of men. You wonder If you do it, what will they think? I’m preaching in open air. What about if my uncle passes? I still remember, when must be in twenty-two in nineteen seventy-five, I went with university students to a village near my uncle’s place and we were preaching in the open. A university student was seen as special in those days, more than fifty years ago, there were not many university students. And he saw me, in the middle of market, preaching. He waited until I finished, wanting to be sure I’m the one in the open air.
Sometimes protecting your own reputation can stop you from preaching the right gospel. Or sometimes you don’t want criticism and discouragement from people. But maybe you have a besetting sin that is causing you to feel embarrassed about the gospel. I think it would be important to ask yourself what is discouraging you from sticking with your calling and your ministry.