When your average unchurched person decides to go to church, that person is met with a bewildering array of different choices. There are so many different kinds of churches in our culture today, it can be very confusing trying to sort through them all.
Churches come in different sizes. The average church size in America is 95 people each week in worship. Yet half of all church goers in our culture attend a church of over 1000 people. Churches also meet in different kinds of locations. Some churches meet in elaborate cathedrals, filled with artistic architecture. Others meet in storefronts or industrial parks. Still others meet in homes. Churches have different denominational affiliation. Some have words like Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, or Lutheran in their name. Some are called community churches or neighborhood churches. Some tout themselves as non-denominational.
Churches have different kinds of worship experiences. Some are very traditional and formal, while others are informal and celebrative. Some use an organ, others use a band. Some are in conducted in a different language, while others use video clips. Which kind of church does God use?
With this bewildering array of different kinds of churches, which kind of church does God do his work through? That’s the question we’re going to try to answer today.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy. We’ve called this series Deepening Your Life With God. Throughout this series we’ve seen that one of the essential components to a deeper life with God is being part of a church. Today we’re going to look at what kind of church it is that God works through. We’re going to find five characteristics of the kind of church God works through.
Now the section we’re going to look at today is really advice to a young pastor about how to be an effective pastor. So it’s more difficult to apply this section of the Bible to people who aren’t full-time pastors or church leaders like the majority of you here today. But as I thought and prayed about this section, I realized that the things that make an effective pastor are also things that make an effective church. So even though these characteristics describe pastors, we’re going to apply them to our whole church.
1. What They Know (2 Timothy 4:1)
Look at v. 1. This verse has the sound of a formal charge, much like the kind of solemn charge we might hear a pastor give a bride and groom during a wedding ceremony. Yet this formal charge is given to a young pastor named Timothy. This formal charge is made in the presence of God and of Jesus. This suggests that Timothy lives his entire life under the scrutiny of God. His life is on constant display before God, even those parts of his life that are considered private and hidden. God and his son Jesus Christ will one day judge the entire human race.
So this formal charge has a tone of both hope and warning. Hope because when we’ve trusted in Jesus Christ, we look forward to Christ’s future appearing and the fullness of Christ’s kingdom on this earth. Hope because Christ’s appearing will wipe away every tear and bring suffering to an end. Hope because Christ’s kingdom will bring an end to evil and hatred. But also warning, because on that day we will all be held accountable for how we’ve lived our lives. Warning because even though all our sins are forgiven through our faith in Christ, God still expects us to live in a way that honors him and he will hold us accountable to living that way.
Here we find our first characteristic. God uses churches that know they are accountable to God.
What Paul says about Timothy as a church leader applies just as much to congregations. Every church will give an account of itself to God. Our ministry is on constant display before God, in the presence of God and of Christ. Nothing is hidden from his sight.
I think about this when I see church scandals swept under the rug. When financial mismanagement or clergy misconduct are ignored, I remind myself that that church will answer to God. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can never fool God.
When we know this, it causes us to conduct ourselves differently. Not that we won’t make our fair share of mistakes as a church. We’re people who are often fallible and prone to weaknesses. But to know that we will stand before God for how Life Bible Fellowship Church acts helps us continually strive to live in purity before God.
God uses churches that know they are accountable to God.
2. What They Communicate (2 Timothy 4:2)
Now look at v. 2. This verse contains five commands, but the primary command is for Timothy to preach the word. Clearly "the word" here refers to the Bible, the holy scriptures described in the previous chapter. As a faithful pastor, Timothy is to proclaim the meaning of the Bible to the congregation. The rest of the commands and phrases in the verse describe exactly how Timothy can do this. But the main command is to proclaim the word.
And what Paul says about Timothy as a pastor applies just as much to churches. God uses churches that are committed to communicating the whole Bible.
This is one reason why most of the sermons you’ll hear at Life Bible Fellowship church are expository sermons. Expository preaching is preaching that goes through a section or a book from the Bible verse by verse to explain what it means and apply it to our lives today. You see, our tendency is to focus on those verses of the Bible we find most interesting or appealing, and to neglect those parts that are difficult to understand or hard to obey. So I figure if I preach through Bible books, I’ll not only cover those parts I find interesting and appealing, but I’ll also cover parts of the Bible that I find difficult.
Many churches today don’t share this commitment to communicate the whole Bible. Some churches think they have to avoid certain parts of the Bible if seekers are present in their services. They’re afraid parts of the Bible might be offensive to seekers. They’re right. But I find that most of my unchurched friends are really interested to know what the Bible says. They may not agree with the Bible, but they want someone who will tell them straight what the Bible means.
Other churches avoid certain topics in the Bible that they know will make the members of the church uncomfortable. I met a pastor once who had pastored a church for over 20 years, and he bragged, "I never once preached about money." I didn’t think that was something to brag about, since the Bible says so much about our use of money and possessions as an expression of our love for Jesus. Out of fear of offending his members, that pastor had avoided entire sections of the Bible.
We’re committed to preaching the whole Bible, even those parts that make us uncomfortable.
Now let’s take a closer look at how to do this from this verse. We’re to communicate the Bible persistently. The command to "be prepared in season and out of season" focuses on persistency. This means to communicate the whole Bible when it’s convenient to us and when it’s inconvenient. This is what exactly Pastor Bruce did last week when I called him last Saturday night and told him I was too sick to preach last Sunday. He preached last Sunday even though it was inconvenient because he’s committed to this.
We’re also to communicate the Bible specifically. The word "correct" here means "to show someone what they are doing is wrong." This can only be done when we communicate the Bible in very specific ways. I heard about a town many years ago that revolved around the lumber business (Haddon Robinson, Making A Difference in Preaching p. 93). The town decided that they to hire a new pastor for the town church. One day, the new pastor saw some of his church members dragging logs which had floated down the river from another village upstream. Each log was marked with the owner’s stamp on the end of the log, much like a cattle brand. But to his dismay, this pastor saw his church members sawing off the ends of the logs where the owners stamp appeared. That Sunday the pastor preached a sermon on the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." After the sermon people said, "Great sermon pastor" and "mighty fine preaching." But the next week they were back to stealing logs. So the next Sunday the pastor preached the same sermon, but he ended the sermon by saying, "And thou shalt not cut off the end of thy neighbor’s logs." When he finished that sermon they ran him out of town. Now I don’t know if that’s a true story or not, but it does illustrate the need to communicate the Bible specifically.
We also need to communicate the Bible prophetically. This is what the word "rebuke" refers to. The word "rebuke" means "to express strong disapproval about something." Now by the phrase "prophetically" I don’t mean making predictions, but I mean that certain parts of the Bible will go against the grain of our culture’s value system. For instance, our culture glorifies the pursuit of greed and materialism, and the Bible clearly condemns this as contrary to God’s intention for our lives. We need to be courageous to communicate the whole Bible, including those aspects that disapprove of our culture’s values.
We also need to communicate the Bible expectantly. This is what the word "encourage" refers to. This word means to expect people to respond to the message. When we communicate the Bible here at LBF Church, we really do expect our people to respond, to attempt to apply it to our lives, to obey the commands. This is why I put a Growth Guide together most weeks, to help you actually take steps to apply the Bible to your life. This is why we have Bible studies and community groups, where members try to live out the Bible’s teaching in their lives.
We also need to communicate the Bible patiently. We find this in the phrase "with great patience." Sometimes we can be tempted to give up on people when they don’t get it the first time. We can get irritated when people don’t respond to a biblical principle the first time they hear about it. But instead of giving up on people or resorting to manipulation, we need to communicate the Bible patiently, with gentleness and hope, knowing that some people take longer to get it than others. Far too often churches are strong in correcting and rebuking, but weak on patience, so they blast people with guilt. They start to use the Bible as a club rather than gently and compassionately communicating the Bible.
Finally, we need to communicate the Bible intelligently. This is what the phrase "careful instruction" refers to. We communicate the Bible intelligently when we not only show people what the Bible means and how it applies, but also why the Bible makes the claims that it does. Far too often churches don’t use their minds when it comes to reading and communicating the Bible. They’re afraid that thinking deeply is somehow unspiritual, forgetting that the Bible tells us to not only love God with all our hearts but also with all our minds. Thursday’s Los Angeles Times had an article about a church that’s in legal trouble because the members of this particular church refuse medical treatment. The article says that they refuse medical treatment for themselves and their children because they take the Bible literally. However, I’d suggest that this church’s problem is that it doesn’t take the Bible seriously enough, not that it takes the Bible too seriously. An intelligent reading of the whole Bible’s will lead a church to not only pray for God’s healing of sickness, but to also see medical treatment as a gift of God. This particular church is communicating bits and pieces of the Bible rather than communicating the whole Bible intelligently.
God uses churches that are committed to communicating the whole Bible.
3. What They Refuse (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Now look at vv. 3 and 4. Paul knows that the human heart resists truth when it causes discomfort. He knows that we have a tendency to use religion to justify our own wants and desires. He predicts that a time is coming--a time that had already started in New Testament times--when people wouldn’t want sound doctrine.
This phrase "sound doctrine" is used four different times in 1 and 2 Timothy, and it literally means "healthy teaching." It refers to accurate teaching about God that promotes spiritual health and growth in our lives. "Sound doctrine" is teaching that accurately portrays what the Bible says.
But some people will instead surround themselves with teachers who instead tell them what they want to hear. They’re like a person with itching ears, looking for a teaching that sooths the itch and makes them feel good. The reference to "itching ears" suggests that this is teaching that tantalizes their curiosity with golden nuggets of insight. But these teachers turn them away from the truth about God, taking them down a path of mythology. In 1 Timothy we saw that the false teaching plaguing the Ephesian church involved speculation about myths. A myth is something that simply isn’t true, and these teachings that tickle ears are tantalizing but untrue.
Here’s the third characteristic. God uses churches that refuse to cater to people’s selfishness.
Churches should meet people’s needs to be sure. But churches should not cater to people’s selfishness.
Throughout human history people have used religion to justify indulging themselves in selfish ways. In the ancient world this often took the form of religious prostitution, where men could indulge their sensual desires under the cloak of religious devotion. The ancient world was filled with these kinds of temples that catered to people’s selfish urges.
I think the health and wealth gospel proclaimed on religious television is a modern example of this. These groups claim that the Christian life is a pain free life of wealth and health. They claim that being a Christian means living the American dream of success and affluence. That’s simply selfishness hidden in religious terminology.
One test to see if your church is catering to your selfishness is to ask whether the preaching ever confronts your selfishness. We’re all prone to selfishness, so the preaching and teaching of a church ought to confront this tendency. This isn’t to say that churches should be heavy handed and mean spirited, using the Bible to club people over the head. We’re to communicate with grace and gentleness, with humility and sensitivity, but we are to call each other out of a self centered life and into a God centered life.
If I’ve never said anything that made you uncomfortable or offended, I’m not doing my job as a pastor. I see this especially happen when it comes to talking about money and finances. Nowhere do we struggle with the battle between a God centered life and a self centered life than in how we spend our money. My preaching about money makes me uncomfortable sometimes, because I’m just as susceptible to this as anyone.
But God uses churches that refuse to cater to people’s selfishness.
4. What They Focus On (2 Timothy 4:5)
Now look at v. 5. This is a serious of several commands, but I want to focus on the command to "do the work of an evangelist." Now this does not mean Timothy should buy television airtime, get a puffy haircut and start a TV ministry where he asks for money every seven minutes. The word Greek word "evangelist" was simply a journalism word for "proclaiming good news." Paul doesn’t want Timothy to be distracted from the main task of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with people. Paul knows all the problems in the Ephesian church might distract Timothy from this all important task.
I find it interesting that Paul doesn’t say, "Timothy, use your spiritual gift of evangelism." Paul doesn’t care whether Timothy is gifted as an evangelist or not. Gifted or not, do the work of an evangelist, share the good news of Jesus Christ with people.
Here we find the fourth characteristic. God uses churches that are outreach focused.
It’s really easy for churches to lose their vision for outreach. We can get overwhelmed with the needs of our own people, we can grow distracted. Even worse, we can grow indifferent to the plight of those who don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is why I love baptisms at our church. At every baptism we get to celebrate the outreach efforts of our congregation, as we hear story after story of how people have discovered a relationship with Jesus Christ. We hear stories about how children were led to faith by their parents or children’s minister. We hear junior high and high school students talk about coming to faith through our student ministry. At our last baptism we heard from a formerly Muslim family who came to Christ and from a guy who was an atheist when he started attending our church.
God uses churches that keep that outreach focus.
5. How They Help (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
At this point Paul shifts from talking about Timothy to talking about himself. Paul knows his death is drawing near. Like a wine offering poured out on an altar, his life is ready to be poured out. Like a ship ready to pull up anchor and depart on a journey, Paul is ready for his journey to heaven.
As Paul looks back on his life, he has regrets, but he also has a sense of satisfaction. He has fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. All three of these phrases are athletic terms used of the ancient Olympic games. "Fighting the good fight" referred to the wrestling competition in the Olympics. Like an Olympic wrestler, Paul sees his life efforts as being worth the battle. "Finish the race" referred to the footrace in the Olympics. Like a runner in a marathon, Paul has come to the finish line and completed the race. "Kept the faith" referred to Olympic athletes who competed fairly and in accordance with the rules. Like an athlete who refused to cheat, Paul has kept his faith in Jesus throughout his ministry.
As Paul anticipates his future, he believes he’ll be on the Olympic platform. Instead of handing out gold, silver, and bronze metals in the ancient Olympics they handed out a garland crown. Paul expects reward from God for a job well done. And Paul knows that he’s not alone, that all who fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith will also receive reward. So v. 8 ends on the same note v. 1 began on, with Christians standing before God at the end of the age, being evaluated for how we’ve lived.
Here we find the final characteristic. God uses churches that help people finish well.
We can’t all be Olympic competitors, but we can all finish well in life. Paul wants Timothy to be able to reach the end of his life and say, "I have fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith." God uses churches that want to help their members be able to say the same thing.
So many people start out strong in the Christian life. New Christians are filled with enthusiasm and idealistic zeal. It’s contagious being around new believers. But life has a way of tempering that enthusiasm and sometimes killing that zeal. This is why so few people finish well as Christians. We lose our sense of vision, our excitement.
We want to not only help you start out strong in your life of following Jesus, but we want to help you be able to say, "I have fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith."
Conclusion
Lord help us be the kind of church you like to use. Help us to know that Life Bible Fellowship Church is accountable to you, help us be faithful to communicate the whole Bible, help us refuse to cater to people’s selfishness, help us keep an outreach focus, and help us enable people to finish well.
That’s my prayer today. Would you join me in that prayer for our church?
