2 Timothy 4:1–8

¹In 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: ²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For 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. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (NIV11)

You’re not alone.  You’re not crazy.  The world has changed.  Go back 50 years, 20 years, 5 years, even one year and compare it to the world we woke up to this morning and there are differences.  You’ve probably got more than a few examples in mind already.  Some are good things.  Some are bad things.  Some are things that some of us think are good and some of us think are bad.  But put them all together and they add up to big changes that we can have trouble adapting to — and in many cases, changes people don’t want to adapt to at all.  It’s as though the world has been turned upside down.

Things are not as they were.  You fathers have most likely noticed that much about “being a good dad” has changed, sometimes drastically, since we were growing up — and definitely since our own fathers were growing up.  Sometimes it’s hard to know whether the things we learned as boys can even be taught to our children or grandchildren today.

The Apostle Paul never married or had kids, but he looked on Timothy as his “true child in the faith”.  We have in the New Testament two letters that the Holy Spirit inspired him to write, to prepare and instruct that young pastor for his work in a world turned upside down.  You see, in the time since Paul had begun his own ministry, and since Timothy had first heard and believed the gospel, important things had changed for those who followed Christ and preached his message.  The Roman Empire had become hostile to Christianity under Nero and persecution was becoming more the norm than the exception, but at the same time the gospel had made great strides throughout the world and was beginning to have an influence.  The church was also changing, though — not just because it was growing, but also because it had, as it still has, sinful people within it making sinful choices — and simply doing foolish things.

But all that was really no surprise for Paul or Timothy.  They were familiar, for instance, with the book of Jeremiah, which we read from earlier, which showed a prophet struggling to minister to a nation that had become increasingly hostile to God’s truth even as they more and more needed God’s help — theirs were the last days of Judah before the Babylonian Empire reduced their land to rubble and took the people into exile.  And Jesus, as we read in our Gospel today, from Matthew 10, warned his disciples and all the Church about a world in which 

• they “will be hated by all people because of [Christ],” 
• they will be “called Beelzebul”, because he, their master, had been insulted in that way, and
• “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 

So I guess we could say that the believer should always expect his or her world to be turned upside down.  Whether we’re talking about the positive changes that the gospel brings in people’s lives, the tragic effects of sin in society, or actual opposition to our faith — or even persecution for it — we should recognize the “abnormal” as normal for us as Christians and as Christ’s church.

But that does not mean we just throw up our hands and say, “Woe is us!” or “I don’t know what to do!”  We have been given the perfect answer for a world turned upside down.  It is what the Lord called Jeremiah to do, what Jesus sent his disciples out to do, what Paul’s ministry was all about, and what that apostle here solemnly charged Timothy to keep on doing:  Preach the Word.  Give them the law and give them the gospel.  This is the Holy Spirit’s commission to every minister, and an instruction to every Christian: listen to God’s Word, trust it, share it, and put it to work in your life.  It’s his prescription for all people.

And at all times.  Paul says, “Be prepared in season and out of season” — the basic idea of the Greek is “at opportune times and at inopportune times”.  The apostle recognizes here that there are going to be some occasions when it’s relatively easy, or at least expected, to preach or share the Word of God — and some when it’s not.  On confirmation Sunday, for instance, it’s clearly “in season” for a pastor to preach about faith in and faithfulness to Christ and it’s an “opportune time” for the confirmand to confess his or her faith when examined.  But when the pastor has a text in front of him whose message is going to rub some members the wrong way, it may feel like an “inopportune time” to preach it, and that same confirmand when confronted with a peer at school or online who’s mocking Christ and the cross might find it “out of season” to confess, let alone defend his or her faith.

Certainly there’s a temptation to curl up and clam up about Jesus, truth, and the Scriptures when our world seems turned upside down.  “I’ll know better what to say when things are more settled,” we tell ourselves.  We reason, “It could be trouble if I speak up now; I’ll wait until another day, when I can find a way to talk about the cross without offending anyone.”  But the church and a mixed-up, changing, dynamic society need, now, precisely what we are given to preach: “the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.… [which are] God-breathed, … useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15–17, NIV11)— which is how Paul spoke of the Bible in the verses just prior to our text.   

So let’s walk through his words to Timothy here and see how we are encouraged to do this not just when our message is welcomed but also when it is unexpected or unwanted in an upside-down world.

First, Paul gives his young friend a “charge” “in the presence of God and Christ Jesus”.  

You know, there was a time in our culture when pretty much everyone had some knowledge of and respect for God — not that they all were Christians, but they still had enough sense to recognize that there is a God and that it would be best not to mess with him, at least not too much.  Today those who live with respect for “the presence of God” are in the minority, and his name is taken in vain and used blasphemously, his truth is mocked and rejected, and his authority is denied and defied — even within the church.

So what are we to do?  Preach the Word.  We can’t change people from sinners into saints or from mockers into model Christians through legislation, social media, shaming, violence, or bribery.  The only thing that can do that is the Word properly preached:  the law of God to show us our sin, and the gospel of Christ to show us our Savior from sin.

But that Savior, Jesus, is also the King who is coming at the end of all things to “judge the living and the dead”.  There’s nothing to be done for those who have already died — their time for taking hold of his salvation is past — but those who are living still have the opportunity to put their trust in Christ, to have their sins forgiven, to be given his righteousness as their own, and to gain eternal life in heaven.  That means someone has to tell them what the Word says, whether it’s comfortable or not — we have to give them the gospel, which is, as Paul called it in Romans 1, “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, NIV11).

Of course, the Word is not useful only for saving sinners.  It is also to be used, Paul says, to correct and rebuke those within the church.  Maybe it’s a brother who thinks he has some kind of exemption from one or more of the Ten Commandments, perhaps it’s a sister who believes her tongue is best used for sharing the latest gossip about her neighbors and fellow church members. Maybe it’s a father who mistakes harshness and anger for discipline, perhaps it’s a child who has decided dad is a fool unworthy of respect, let alone obedience.  Whatever, whoever, however, whenever:  we apply God’s Word to correct and rebuke sins and errors — first, of course, within ourselves, but then also, in love, with those we are responsible for and have relationships with.

But it’s not all correction or judgment.  Because people who struggle for a long time against sin will have a long-time need for forgiveness applied to that sin. Because good and godly information is needed to reform ill-informed and godless decision-making. Because everyone who still has a sinful nature, which fights against our new nature in Christ — in other words, every Christian — will suffer setbacks in the life of sanctification. So Paul also says, “encourage—with great patience and careful instruction”.  And that encouraging is done every time we speak, listen, use, and share the restoring, strengthening, guiding, healing, living, true and perfect Word of God.

Sadly, the apostle warns us, as Jesus himself warned his disciples, some who had been within the body of believers reach a point where they no longer care for the teaching of God’s Word — they “will not put up with sound doctrine”.  Paul uses a great and memorable image — he describes them as having “itching ears”. “To suit their own desires,” they “gather around them teachers” who will say what they want them to say, and they “turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”  

It’s not hard to see examples of this today in the church.  There are so many things God says in the Bible that we don’t want to listen to because they make us uncomfortable — things that judge our sin or our friends’ choices, or that instruct us to do things that put us at odds with our peers — and so we listen to other voices that tell us good things about ourselves and latch onto ideas that please us. Scratching our itches like that is what the sinful flesh prefers, so Christians must respond with something more powerful than that — something perfect:  the Word of God.  There is no place for compromise or inaction when false doctrine raises its head and demands to be heard; Christ’s church sticks to what he has to say. It’s interested only in sound teaching.

You’re no doubt seeing Paul’s pattern now:

• “Keep your head in all situations” — don’t be confused by confusing times:  stick to Scripture and let it instruct and guide you.  
• “Endure hardship” — don’t be overwhelmed by hard times, hold onto the promises of God that we find in the Bible.  
• Do what an evangelist does — Are there people you know or meet who don’t know Jesus as their Savior and are thus heading for the death and hell he suffered and died to deliver them from?  Give them the gospel of Christ crucified and risen to save them.

Even verses 6-8 here, which begin Paul’s farewell, encourage Timothy and all Christians to stand firmly on the Scriptures, faithfully used and properly applied. He gives himself as an example of one who has “fought the good fight; … finished the race; … kept the faith.”  His whole life since his conversion, his strength and energy, his heart, soul, and mind, have all been poured out before the Lord in service to the message of free and full salvation in Christ.  And while not every believer has the same call to the ministry of the Word that Paul had, every Christian has the same Word of God to hear, trust, love, follow, share, and devote him- or herself to.  It’s what life with God and life under the cross are all about.

And we want to go where it takes us.  The Apostle speaks of the “crown of righteousness” that is reserved for him and that will be given to him on the Last Day, when “the Lord, the righteous Judge” returns.  On that great Day our upside-down world will be turned, finally and forever, right side up. Not only will everything finally make sense to us, he will also give us perfect peace and joy for eternity.  Not because we earned or deserved it, but because of God’s grace to us in Christ — which we trusted, just as Paul trusted.  We will be crowned with perfect holiness because we have taken hold of the gospel with the hands of faith and look longingly, with the eyes of faith, for Christ to appear and take us home.

So we have everything we need and everything the people in our lives, our community, our culture need to live safely, fearlessly, and confidently in an upside-down world.  So what, then?  

So we gather in worship to hear the Word of God, we study the Bible in groups and on our own, we take its truths deep into our hearts and minds and carry them out in our lives.  And we proclaim the Word through our representatives in pulpits, classrooms, and mission fields, we share the gospel with the people in our lives who need to hear it, and we freely and firmly take our stand on the Scriptures — we can do nothing else — because in them we have our identity, God’s authority, and the message everyone most desperately needs for life, peace, purpose, and salvation.  

We have the answer for a world turned upside down. 

Alleluia!  Amen.