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All Christians are called to ministry; not just an 'occupation' to keep us busy in the world. Rather, a ministry of eternal value: the souls of the lost. When the Lord returns in glory, we will be judged on whether we did His work. May He say 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'
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Berkshire Hills Baptist Church
September 24, 2023
Yes, You Have a Ministry
2 Timothy 4:1-8
Outline
I. Introduction
II. The Lord has Given Us a Ministry
III. The Lord has Given us a Message to Preach at any time
IV. Rebuke those who need to be rebuked
V. Exhort, Help and Comfort
VI. Why do we have to preach/share the gospel?
VII. Do the Work of an Evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry
VIII. Edward Kimble amongst the great men of God!
IX. Those Who Love Christ's Appearing
X. Invitation and Concluding Prayer
I. Introduction
2 Timothy 4. In case it hasn't dawned on you, if you are born again child of God, you have a ministry. Many Christians go their whole life without doing what God desires them to do. That's sad. That's very sad. But for those who desire to serve God, they need to be mindful of their ministry. Now we have to understand that occupation and ministry are two different things. Now for me, my occupation is my ministry. I'm a Pastor. But even if you have a different occupation, you work in a shoe store, you drive a bus, you work somewhere else, you're the CEO of a company. Maybe you're just retired. It doesn't matter what your occupation is, you still have a ministry.
Now mine's full time. And in reality, so is yours. You just might not get paid for it, at least not by human standards. You're going to get paid for it by the Lord. Now, what is the message of our ministry? Now, remember 2nd Timothy is specific to Timothy, it's Paul writing this young pastor. But it can apply to all of us. That's why it's in the word of God. So let's look at verse 1.
2 Tim 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
So first of all, he just says, "I charge you therefore." And the old saying is, what's the therefore there for? Well, the therefore is for all of chapter 3. So the last few weeks we've been over chapter 3, all the different things and so chapter 4 is a "in conclusion" for chapter 3. You can read that later if you haven't.
But he says that the Lord, the importance of our ministry, the importance of our message is because the Lord is coming back. And when he does, he's going to judge us for what we do. It tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:10 "for we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in their body according that he has done whether it be good or bad."
II. The Lord has Given Us a Ministry
So, we have to first understand that, he's given us a ministry. How do I know he's giving us a ministry? Well, for one thing he's giving each believer, each child of God, each born again, saved, blood bought believer. He's given each of us the Holy Spirit and a gift to use for our ministry, but the ministry goes farther than that. Our ministry has a message. No matter what your ministry is, we have a message and the Lord is going to come back and he's going to judge us for how we fulfill our ministry.
III. The Lord has Given us a Message to Preach at any time
So, he tells Timothy in verse 2 and he's telling us, that ministry for everybody that's a believer is 'preach the word'. You say, "Wait a minute. I'm not a preacher. That's your job. That's why you're standing up there." No. Preach means to proclaim. The word is the word of God. In Chapter 2, it's called the word of God, and it's called the word of truth. So, every believer .. really our job is to proclaim the word of God.
Are you proclaiming the word of God? Are you sharing God's word? Now, specifically it means the gospel. That's the first thing. We should be presenting, proclaiming, preaching the word of the Gospel to everyone. Someone mentioned this morning about how sometimes you know you say to yourself, "Oh man I should have witnessed to this person. I should have witnessed to that person." But something came up.
That's why the next verse that says, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season ..." That means preach the word when it's convenient and when it's not so convenient. Now remember this is written by Paul. Paul, when he wrote this letter, was in prison. He'd been in prison several times, he'd been in jail numerous times. You know what Paul did when he was in jail? He proclaimed the gospel to his captors, to the soldier standing next to him. He had a captive audience, they thought they had him captive but he had a captive audience. And that's what he's telling us.
You get the opportunity, whether it's a good opportunity or bad opportunity. This past week, praise the Lord. You all know that you've been praying that my surgeries would go well. I had my right eye finally done, a new lens put in. It went well. As I was leaving the hospital, I've been talking to one of the nurses - I handed her a tract. I didn't have a chance to really witness to her a lot because I mean they were in and out. But I handed her a tract, I said read this, you invited to come to church, hear more about it. Hopefully she will.
IV. Rebuke those who need to be rebuked
"Be instant in season, out of season." In other words, preach the word, proclaim the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And even more than that, the word encompasses all the word of God. That's why the next part of the verse says "reprove, rebuke" and what? "Exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." This is more true with our born-again friends who are trying to live the way of the world then it is for unbelievers.
It's hard to rebuke a sinner of their sin because they don't really care because the're a sinner. But you can still do it and we do that by when they say "Well, I'm just living my life the way I want to." You can say no. God wants you to live a better life. Some people say, "Well, that's all right. When I die. I'm going to hell. That's where all my friends are anyway." That has got to be the dumbest statement anybody's ever made.
And the reason is for this. If you read the the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is in hell. What does the rich man say. He says, "Please send somebody up to tell my brothers. They don't want to be here." The people in hell are going, "You guys, don't be stupid. I missed Jesus Christ, I turned my back on him. Don't you do that because you don't want to be in hell." That's a reproving and rebuking. Thus saith the Lord - don't do this.
V. Exhort, Help and Comfort
But also there's 'exhort'. That's helping people, comforting people sometimes. You can use the word of God as part of your ministry to comfort people with his Word. Especially with believers. But how we're supposed to do it? With all long-suffering and doctrine. How many times .. this happened to me? How many times you been witnessing to somebody and they say, no. And you try again? And they say no. Or you trying to help a believer who's fallen into sin and you're trying to convince them that's not how God wants you to live. And yet, what do they? They keep rejecting what you're saying. Long suffering means have patience. Be patient with people.
And sooner or later, hopefully, the Lord will grab hold on them. Not always. But that's their problem, not yours. If they don't listen, that's their problem. Our job is to what? Do it with long-suffering, be patient, and with doctrine. That means the teachings of the word of God. It's the word of God. It's not your opinion. It's not your political thoughts. I have a hard time saying that because I love to talk politics. But you know the old, don't mix politics with religion. That's really true. It's not the opinion of others you're trying to share. It's the word of God is what you do.
That's why we're to read it. While we're to learn it so that when we get the opportunity to reprove, rebuke, exhort, we can do it with doctrine, with what the word of God says. Now doesn't that make a little bit of sense? That's your ministry. The message of our ministry is the word of God. We preach it. We proclaim God's word and remember ..
Y'all know I'm on Facebook and I got to be real careful. There's some people that, I'm on one group. It's supposed to be all pastors. And some of the comments they make is like, 'Man I'd never go to your church." But, when we reprove, rebuke, or exhort, we don't do it with the purpose of offending somebody. Now, they may become offended. But if we use the word of God, they'll become offended by God. And not by anything you said. That's why we use the word of God.
VI. Why do we have to preach/share the gospel?
That's our message. The timing is to do it all the time. So, why do we have to preach, especially in this world today? Verse 3 & 4. "For the time will come .." Friend, it already has:
2 Tim 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
So why do we have to keep proclaiming the gospel? Why do we have to keep preaching the word of God, proclaiming what God says? Because people want to satisfy themselves and they'll find somebody that will agree with them. And they'll say, 'Well, so and so said what I'm doing is okay. ' But God says, it's a sin "and they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears."
Now remember I told you this is a summation of chapter 3. So if you go over to chapter 3, verse 2 & 3 & 4, it lists similar things.
1 Tim 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
That's what he says. People want to be all these things; they'll find people that will agree with them so they can all live in sin together. That's why we need to present the word of God. Why don't people want to listen to the Word of God?
Because it will tell them that what they're doing is wrong. What they're doing is a sin against almighty God. And that's why it's up to us. Those who know Jesus Christ as our savior, those who trusted him to share the word of God with them so that they'll see the truth. And hopefully they'll accept it. Unfortunately, we know these are the last days. We know these are the times that will come because if you look at denominations, other churches, and see those that have invited sin within their doors.
I remember years ago when Massachusetts was trying to promote same-sex marriage. I wrote a letter to the editor. Basically said, that's not what God wants. I got phone calls and some people wrote rebuttals in the letters. Then a few weeks later, and this is what's very concerning, a few weeks later .. there was a letter to the editor about same-sex marriage saying that God is love and all these people want to do is share their love with one another, so it must be approved by God. And it was signed by like a dozen ministers from Berkshire County.
They forgot, God is more than love. God is a God of justice. He expects his word to be obeyed. Marriage is between one born male (I hate to have to say that now) and one born female. So I wrote a rebuttal to that one. Used a few Bible verses. And the Berkshire Eagle sometimes puts their own headings on the top of your letters. You know what heading they put on top of the my rebuttal? "Pastors need to study the scriptures."
Alright, I couldn't done better myself. But it's the last days and people say "Well, I'm living in sin. I'm going to go to a church that is approving of that sin." Heaping to themselves teachers. That's not what God wants. God wants us to share the truth of the word of God. Amen? [Pastor got an amen sign] Just in case some of you sleep, I'm going to keep that handy. Getting getting close to the end here notice.
VII. Do the Work of an Evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry
Notice, what are we to do? Verse 5:
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
It means keep your eye out. So what's he telling us to do? First of all, he says to be watchful and means to be to keep alert about what's going on because people will try to .. that's why it's so important to share the word of God the way God has it because if you try to share it the way you think it what it says or your opinion what it says, someone will take it out of context and use it against you. Be careful, that's what that's saying.
He says also to endure afflictions, that means to suffer trouble, undergo hardships. I mean it tells us in verse 12 chapter 3,"yeah all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." That's not a verse that we really want to grasp hold on. But that's the truth. And unfortunately there are many churches that are just teaching the love of God, that are just teaching you're living your best life now - if you're living by faith, everything's going to go hunky-dory. And that's not what the word of God says. It says, if you live Godly, you'll have problems sometimes. Not all the time. But don't be, don't be amazed when you get persecution for standing up for the word of God. God's already told you it's going to happen.
But then he says, do the work of an evangelist. In other words, do the job that God has assigned you to. Now an evangelist is just someone who preaches the gospel, Jesus Christ. We know if you study history, Timothy was a pastor probably at the church of Ephesus. He was a pastor, but he's being told to do the work of an evangelist. That means preach the gospel. And really, that's what we do. Now, evangelists today go church the church and they have good ministries and things. Really, their job was just to preach the gospel.
Then he says make full proof of your ministry. What God has given you to do, the place he's put you, the occupation you're in, the situations you run across. Make full proof means have evidence that you're a Christian in an un-Christian world. And do this of your ministry. In other words, share the gospel. You never know the effect that would have. Let me read you something.
VIII. Edward Kimble amongst the great men of God!
Has anybody ever heard of a guy named Edward Kimble? Well, in 1858, Kimble moved to Boston, going to work in families thing. But Kimble was a young twenty-year-old, taught a Sunday school class. And he was always concerned. There was a young man, 16 year old young, man, teenager in his class who had come from Northfield (just up the road here) and moved to Boston to work in one of the family members' shoe stores in order to help his family out financially.
Kimble went to that shoe store and while the young man was in the back room, stocking shelves, Kimble witnessed to him and won him to the Lord. That young Sunday school teacher, the man he won to the Lord, was D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was one of the greatest evangelist who ever lived. He started colleges, he started boys school, girls school, he did all of that. He preached all over. Preached not just the US, he preached in England too.
When he was in England, he was preaching in a little chapel, and the pastor's name was Frederick Meyer. He told a story of his Sunday school teacher, and Meyer decided God wanted him to be an evangelist too. So Meyer became an evangelist. He ended up coming to America. He preached in Moody's hometown of Northfield. There was a young Pastor in that town by the name of J. Wilbur Chapman. And what Meyer in his message said, "if you're not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be willing?"
And young Chapman changed the course of his life because he felt God calling him to be an evangelist also. He was a very effective evangelist. One of his helpers, he had a volunteer helper that would help him set up for his campaigns. A guy who was a recovering alcoholic, former baseball player, and when Chapman retired from being evangelist to work somewhere else within the church, this man took over for him. This man's name was Billy Sunday.
Billy Sunday started doing Evangelistic campaigns and won many to the Lord. Well, Billy Sunday .. there was a group of Christian men had gone to one of his campaigns and they were so impressed, they had an urge to win their city to Christ. So they engaged a man by the name of Mordecai Ham to come preach in their city. One of the farmers in the area loaded up his wagon with a bunch of people. In that wagon was a 16 year old boy. During Mordecai Ham's message, this sixteen-year-old give his life to Jesus Christ, surrendered to do whatever God wanted him to.
That young man was named Billy Graham. So we have a 20 something year, young 20 year old Sunday school teacher who had another job; Sunday school teacher cared about souls. He won somebody who changed somebody else's life, changed somebody else's life, we get Billy Sunday and it said that during his lifetime Billy Sunday, there was 3.2 million people came forward to accept Christ.
Here's the thing. Doesn't matter if your a Sunday school teacher or working on a job. If you have a concern for souls, that's our ministry. And you don't know, it may be that the person you lead to Christ a couple of generations down the line, they'll be somebody that will see revival in our land. Or it could just be the next generation? Like I said, hardly anybody knows who Edward Kimble is. But everybody knows who DL Moody is.
And I mentioned about how some of the denominations have fallen over the years. Edward Kimble went to a Congregational Church. That man Meyer was a Presbyterian. A couple of them were Independent Baptists, and Billy Graham was a Southern Baptist. A lot has changed over the years. But here's what hasn't changed: the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the need of people to hear that God loves them and God cares for them. We all need to finish up our life like Paul did here in this last part. We'll cover the rest of that this afternoon, but in general, what's it say? He's fought the fight. But he also says he's ready for that righteous judge to give him that crown of righteousness.
IX. Those Who Love Christ's Appearing
Verse 1 says, Jesus Christ is coming again to judge. Paul ends up by saying, I'm ready. But notice the crown of righteousness is not just for him, but it says "all that love his appearing". If you're not serving Jesus Christ the way you should, you don't want Jesus coming back and judging you for doing nothing. And that's what it means. Love his appearing.
The ones who love his appearing are the ones are going to get the crown of righteousness are the ones who are saying, I'm going to do my Ministry. I'm going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm going to help people learn the Bible and see what's right and what's wrong. But if you're not, you don't want the Lord coming back and judging you. But as for me and hopefully for you, I can't wait to hear the Lord say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Let's bow our heads.
X. Invitation and Concluding Prayer
Just for a moment bow your heads and think about this section of scripture. Think about how the Lord spoke to you today. First of all, we just need to make sure - Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior. Have you had your sins forgiven because you trusted him by faith, not of your own works. Faith in what he did for you and received his grace and your forgiveness of sin? If you haven't done that, that's the first part.
But after that, you have that gift. You have the Holy Spirit. You have a direction from God to fulfill the ministry of sharing the word of God, especially the gospel with everybody. Whether it's convenient or whether it's not. Are you doing that? If not, let's all go to the Lord and ask him to help us be better. Be better at fulfilling our ministry, of sharing the message of God which all of us have.
Heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you. We praise your name. We ask Lord that all of our hearts were touched, were encouraged Lord to be the servants that we need to be as we wait for your return. Let none of us be caught not serving you. Let us all be caught sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us be caught helping others by using the word of God. By reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine. Help us Lord to do what you left us here to do. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.
September 24, 2023
Yes, You Have a Ministry
2 Timothy 4:1-8
Outline
I. Introduction
II. The Lord has Given Us a Ministry
III. The Lord has Given us a Message to Preach at any time
IV. Rebuke those who need to be rebuked
V. Exhort, Help and Comfort
VI. Why do we have to preach/share the gospel?
VII. Do the Work of an Evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry
VIII. Edward Kimble amongst the great men of God!
IX. Those Who Love Christ's Appearing
X. Invitation and Concluding Prayer
I. Introduction
2 Timothy 4. In case it hasn't dawned on you, if you are born again child of God, you have a ministry. Many Christians go their whole life without doing what God desires them to do. That's sad. That's very sad. But for those who desire to serve God, they need to be mindful of their ministry. Now we have to understand that occupation and ministry are two different things. Now for me, my occupation is my ministry. I'm a Pastor. But even if you have a different occupation, you work in a shoe store, you drive a bus, you work somewhere else, you're the CEO of a company. Maybe you're just retired. It doesn't matter what your occupation is, you still have a ministry.
Now mine's full time. And in reality, so is yours. You just might not get paid for it, at least not by human standards. You're going to get paid for it by the Lord. Now, what is the message of our ministry? Now, remember 2nd Timothy is specific to Timothy, it's Paul writing this young pastor. But it can apply to all of us. That's why it's in the word of God. So let's look at verse 1.
2 Tim 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
So first of all, he just says, "I charge you therefore." And the old saying is, what's the therefore there for? Well, the therefore is for all of chapter 3. So the last few weeks we've been over chapter 3, all the different things and so chapter 4 is a "in conclusion" for chapter 3. You can read that later if you haven't.
But he says that the Lord, the importance of our ministry, the importance of our message is because the Lord is coming back. And when he does, he's going to judge us for what we do. It tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:10 "for we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in their body according that he has done whether it be good or bad."
II. The Lord has Given Us a Ministry
So, we have to first understand that, he's given us a ministry. How do I know he's giving us a ministry? Well, for one thing he's giving each believer, each child of God, each born again, saved, blood bought believer. He's given each of us the Holy Spirit and a gift to use for our ministry, but the ministry goes farther than that. Our ministry has a message. No matter what your ministry is, we have a message and the Lord is going to come back and he's going to judge us for how we fulfill our ministry.
III. The Lord has Given us a Message to Preach at any time
So, he tells Timothy in verse 2 and he's telling us, that ministry for everybody that's a believer is 'preach the word'. You say, "Wait a minute. I'm not a preacher. That's your job. That's why you're standing up there." No. Preach means to proclaim. The word is the word of God. In Chapter 2, it's called the word of God, and it's called the word of truth. So, every believer .. really our job is to proclaim the word of God.
Are you proclaiming the word of God? Are you sharing God's word? Now, specifically it means the gospel. That's the first thing. We should be presenting, proclaiming, preaching the word of the Gospel to everyone. Someone mentioned this morning about how sometimes you know you say to yourself, "Oh man I should have witnessed to this person. I should have witnessed to that person." But something came up.
That's why the next verse that says, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season ..." That means preach the word when it's convenient and when it's not so convenient. Now remember this is written by Paul. Paul, when he wrote this letter, was in prison. He'd been in prison several times, he'd been in jail numerous times. You know what Paul did when he was in jail? He proclaimed the gospel to his captors, to the soldier standing next to him. He had a captive audience, they thought they had him captive but he had a captive audience. And that's what he's telling us.
You get the opportunity, whether it's a good opportunity or bad opportunity. This past week, praise the Lord. You all know that you've been praying that my surgeries would go well. I had my right eye finally done, a new lens put in. It went well. As I was leaving the hospital, I've been talking to one of the nurses - I handed her a tract. I didn't have a chance to really witness to her a lot because I mean they were in and out. But I handed her a tract, I said read this, you invited to come to church, hear more about it. Hopefully she will.
IV. Rebuke those who need to be rebuked
"Be instant in season, out of season." In other words, preach the word, proclaim the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And even more than that, the word encompasses all the word of God. That's why the next part of the verse says "reprove, rebuke" and what? "Exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." This is more true with our born-again friends who are trying to live the way of the world then it is for unbelievers.
It's hard to rebuke a sinner of their sin because they don't really care because the're a sinner. But you can still do it and we do that by when they say "Well, I'm just living my life the way I want to." You can say no. God wants you to live a better life. Some people say, "Well, that's all right. When I die. I'm going to hell. That's where all my friends are anyway." That has got to be the dumbest statement anybody's ever made.
And the reason is for this. If you read the the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is in hell. What does the rich man say. He says, "Please send somebody up to tell my brothers. They don't want to be here." The people in hell are going, "You guys, don't be stupid. I missed Jesus Christ, I turned my back on him. Don't you do that because you don't want to be in hell." That's a reproving and rebuking. Thus saith the Lord - don't do this.
V. Exhort, Help and Comfort
But also there's 'exhort'. That's helping people, comforting people sometimes. You can use the word of God as part of your ministry to comfort people with his Word. Especially with believers. But how we're supposed to do it? With all long-suffering and doctrine. How many times .. this happened to me? How many times you been witnessing to somebody and they say, no. And you try again? And they say no. Or you trying to help a believer who's fallen into sin and you're trying to convince them that's not how God wants you to live. And yet, what do they? They keep rejecting what you're saying. Long suffering means have patience. Be patient with people.
And sooner or later, hopefully, the Lord will grab hold on them. Not always. But that's their problem, not yours. If they don't listen, that's their problem. Our job is to what? Do it with long-suffering, be patient, and with doctrine. That means the teachings of the word of God. It's the word of God. It's not your opinion. It's not your political thoughts. I have a hard time saying that because I love to talk politics. But you know the old, don't mix politics with religion. That's really true. It's not the opinion of others you're trying to share. It's the word of God is what you do.
That's why we're to read it. While we're to learn it so that when we get the opportunity to reprove, rebuke, exhort, we can do it with doctrine, with what the word of God says. Now doesn't that make a little bit of sense? That's your ministry. The message of our ministry is the word of God. We preach it. We proclaim God's word and remember ..
Y'all know I'm on Facebook and I got to be real careful. There's some people that, I'm on one group. It's supposed to be all pastors. And some of the comments they make is like, 'Man I'd never go to your church." But, when we reprove, rebuke, or exhort, we don't do it with the purpose of offending somebody. Now, they may become offended. But if we use the word of God, they'll become offended by God. And not by anything you said. That's why we use the word of God.
VI. Why do we have to preach/share the gospel?
That's our message. The timing is to do it all the time. So, why do we have to preach, especially in this world today? Verse 3 & 4. "For the time will come .." Friend, it already has:
2 Tim 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
So why do we have to keep proclaiming the gospel? Why do we have to keep preaching the word of God, proclaiming what God says? Because people want to satisfy themselves and they'll find somebody that will agree with them. And they'll say, 'Well, so and so said what I'm doing is okay. ' But God says, it's a sin "and they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears."
Now remember I told you this is a summation of chapter 3. So if you go over to chapter 3, verse 2 & 3 & 4, it lists similar things.
1 Tim 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
That's what he says. People want to be all these things; they'll find people that will agree with them so they can all live in sin together. That's why we need to present the word of God. Why don't people want to listen to the Word of God?
Because it will tell them that what they're doing is wrong. What they're doing is a sin against almighty God. And that's why it's up to us. Those who know Jesus Christ as our savior, those who trusted him to share the word of God with them so that they'll see the truth. And hopefully they'll accept it. Unfortunately, we know these are the last days. We know these are the times that will come because if you look at denominations, other churches, and see those that have invited sin within their doors.
I remember years ago when Massachusetts was trying to promote same-sex marriage. I wrote a letter to the editor. Basically said, that's not what God wants. I got phone calls and some people wrote rebuttals in the letters. Then a few weeks later, and this is what's very concerning, a few weeks later .. there was a letter to the editor about same-sex marriage saying that God is love and all these people want to do is share their love with one another, so it must be approved by God. And it was signed by like a dozen ministers from Berkshire County.
They forgot, God is more than love. God is a God of justice. He expects his word to be obeyed. Marriage is between one born male (I hate to have to say that now) and one born female. So I wrote a rebuttal to that one. Used a few Bible verses. And the Berkshire Eagle sometimes puts their own headings on the top of your letters. You know what heading they put on top of the my rebuttal? "Pastors need to study the scriptures."
Alright, I couldn't done better myself. But it's the last days and people say "Well, I'm living in sin. I'm going to go to a church that is approving of that sin." Heaping to themselves teachers. That's not what God wants. God wants us to share the truth of the word of God. Amen? [Pastor got an amen sign] Just in case some of you sleep, I'm going to keep that handy. Getting getting close to the end here notice.
VII. Do the Work of an Evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry
Notice, what are we to do? Verse 5:
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
It means keep your eye out. So what's he telling us to do? First of all, he says to be watchful and means to be to keep alert about what's going on because people will try to .. that's why it's so important to share the word of God the way God has it because if you try to share it the way you think it what it says or your opinion what it says, someone will take it out of context and use it against you. Be careful, that's what that's saying.
He says also to endure afflictions, that means to suffer trouble, undergo hardships. I mean it tells us in verse 12 chapter 3,"yeah all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." That's not a verse that we really want to grasp hold on. But that's the truth. And unfortunately there are many churches that are just teaching the love of God, that are just teaching you're living your best life now - if you're living by faith, everything's going to go hunky-dory. And that's not what the word of God says. It says, if you live Godly, you'll have problems sometimes. Not all the time. But don't be, don't be amazed when you get persecution for standing up for the word of God. God's already told you it's going to happen.
But then he says, do the work of an evangelist. In other words, do the job that God has assigned you to. Now an evangelist is just someone who preaches the gospel, Jesus Christ. We know if you study history, Timothy was a pastor probably at the church of Ephesus. He was a pastor, but he's being told to do the work of an evangelist. That means preach the gospel. And really, that's what we do. Now, evangelists today go church the church and they have good ministries and things. Really, their job was just to preach the gospel.
Then he says make full proof of your ministry. What God has given you to do, the place he's put you, the occupation you're in, the situations you run across. Make full proof means have evidence that you're a Christian in an un-Christian world. And do this of your ministry. In other words, share the gospel. You never know the effect that would have. Let me read you something.
VIII. Edward Kimble amongst the great men of God!
Has anybody ever heard of a guy named Edward Kimble? Well, in 1858, Kimble moved to Boston, going to work in families thing. But Kimble was a young twenty-year-old, taught a Sunday school class. And he was always concerned. There was a young man, 16 year old young, man, teenager in his class who had come from Northfield (just up the road here) and moved to Boston to work in one of the family members' shoe stores in order to help his family out financially.
Kimble went to that shoe store and while the young man was in the back room, stocking shelves, Kimble witnessed to him and won him to the Lord. That young Sunday school teacher, the man he won to the Lord, was D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was one of the greatest evangelist who ever lived. He started colleges, he started boys school, girls school, he did all of that. He preached all over. Preached not just the US, he preached in England too.
When he was in England, he was preaching in a little chapel, and the pastor's name was Frederick Meyer. He told a story of his Sunday school teacher, and Meyer decided God wanted him to be an evangelist too. So Meyer became an evangelist. He ended up coming to America. He preached in Moody's hometown of Northfield. There was a young Pastor in that town by the name of J. Wilbur Chapman. And what Meyer in his message said, "if you're not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be willing?"
And young Chapman changed the course of his life because he felt God calling him to be an evangelist also. He was a very effective evangelist. One of his helpers, he had a volunteer helper that would help him set up for his campaigns. A guy who was a recovering alcoholic, former baseball player, and when Chapman retired from being evangelist to work somewhere else within the church, this man took over for him. This man's name was Billy Sunday.
Billy Sunday started doing Evangelistic campaigns and won many to the Lord. Well, Billy Sunday .. there was a group of Christian men had gone to one of his campaigns and they were so impressed, they had an urge to win their city to Christ. So they engaged a man by the name of Mordecai Ham to come preach in their city. One of the farmers in the area loaded up his wagon with a bunch of people. In that wagon was a 16 year old boy. During Mordecai Ham's message, this sixteen-year-old give his life to Jesus Christ, surrendered to do whatever God wanted him to.
That young man was named Billy Graham. So we have a 20 something year, young 20 year old Sunday school teacher who had another job; Sunday school teacher cared about souls. He won somebody who changed somebody else's life, changed somebody else's life, we get Billy Sunday and it said that during his lifetime Billy Sunday, there was 3.2 million people came forward to accept Christ.
Here's the thing. Doesn't matter if your a Sunday school teacher or working on a job. If you have a concern for souls, that's our ministry. And you don't know, it may be that the person you lead to Christ a couple of generations down the line, they'll be somebody that will see revival in our land. Or it could just be the next generation? Like I said, hardly anybody knows who Edward Kimble is. But everybody knows who DL Moody is.
And I mentioned about how some of the denominations have fallen over the years. Edward Kimble went to a Congregational Church. That man Meyer was a Presbyterian. A couple of them were Independent Baptists, and Billy Graham was a Southern Baptist. A lot has changed over the years. But here's what hasn't changed: the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the need of people to hear that God loves them and God cares for them. We all need to finish up our life like Paul did here in this last part. We'll cover the rest of that this afternoon, but in general, what's it say? He's fought the fight. But he also says he's ready for that righteous judge to give him that crown of righteousness.
IX. Those Who Love Christ's Appearing
Verse 1 says, Jesus Christ is coming again to judge. Paul ends up by saying, I'm ready. But notice the crown of righteousness is not just for him, but it says "all that love his appearing". If you're not serving Jesus Christ the way you should, you don't want Jesus coming back and judging you for doing nothing. And that's what it means. Love his appearing.
The ones who love his appearing are the ones are going to get the crown of righteousness are the ones who are saying, I'm going to do my Ministry. I'm going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm going to help people learn the Bible and see what's right and what's wrong. But if you're not, you don't want the Lord coming back and judging you. But as for me and hopefully for you, I can't wait to hear the Lord say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Let's bow our heads.
X. Invitation and Concluding Prayer
Just for a moment bow your heads and think about this section of scripture. Think about how the Lord spoke to you today. First of all, we just need to make sure - Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior. Have you had your sins forgiven because you trusted him by faith, not of your own works. Faith in what he did for you and received his grace and your forgiveness of sin? If you haven't done that, that's the first part.
But after that, you have that gift. You have the Holy Spirit. You have a direction from God to fulfill the ministry of sharing the word of God, especially the gospel with everybody. Whether it's convenient or whether it's not. Are you doing that? If not, let's all go to the Lord and ask him to help us be better. Be better at fulfilling our ministry, of sharing the message of God which all of us have.
Heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you. We praise your name. We ask Lord that all of our hearts were touched, were encouraged Lord to be the servants that we need to be as we wait for your return. Let none of us be caught not serving you. Let us all be caught sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us be caught helping others by using the word of God. By reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine. Help us Lord to do what you left us here to do. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.
