Soldiers for Christ: 2 Timothy 2:1-10

And he drew a line in the sand. This is a true story, folks, not a made-up story. He drew a line in the sand. And then he asked the 180 soldiers, you're free to go, he said.

but then he asked how many will stay

and they all knew that if they took a step across the line it was a decision probably not just to suffer but a decision to die and in a few moments we'll talk about what those 180 men decided to do If you have your Bibles, let's turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy chapter 2.

And let's read the first ten verses together.

Everybody with me? Verse 1, you then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to, the NIV translates it, reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs.

He wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.

This is my gospel for which I am suffering, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. but God's word is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Let's pray. Lord, this day as we come to your word, I pray first that we will be receptive, that both in our minds, in our hearts, we will be prepared to receive what you tell us through your word and to change the way we live so that we can live in conformity with your word.

May your spirit open our eyes. May your spirit open our hearts. Do not let us be unchanged by your word, but instead through your word change us, mold us, shape us, bend us to be what you would have us to be. For it is in Christ's name that I pray, and for his sake, and for the sake of those who will be saved through the testimony and witness of those in this class, I also pray, amen.

Our title, Soldiers for Christ, How to Live in Enemy-Occupied Territory.

Quick review from last week. Soldiers for Christ must have courage. Courage was the central quality of a soldier for Christ in our lesson last week. Courage means that we will serve Christ passionately. that we will not be cowardly in our service, nor will we be ashamed of the one we serve, but instead we will join in suffering for Christ, and we, without compromise, will preach the gospel to the world.

Today the question I want to ask is, how do we develop the army of Christ? And I'm going to give us two answers. Step one, we must train people who are first faithful and secondly qualified to teach others. And then step two, we must let the trained train others.

And this comes from 2 Timothy 2.2. the things which you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. In college, called the Navigators.

How many of you know the Navigators? A few of you. They were sort of a military group, but a Christian military group. They are very active on military bases and at military schools, and now they're present on many college campuses. But the Navigators were a group where you were expected to memorize so many verses a week.

You were expected to do your Bible study. There was not much leniency when it came to learning. It was sometimes a little intimidating. be too intimidating at times, but for me it was good training because at the Citadel you're already in that military mode and then they applied it to the gospel and it made you learn a lot of things. But their theme verse was 2 Timothy 2.2. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Let me make a comment on a couple of words there. The key people that we are looking for to train others are people who are themselves faithful. The NIV uses the word reliable and that sense is certainly in the word faithful, but we are looking for believers who are reliable, who will follow through, who will do what they are called to do. We are not looking for the lukewarm to train others. We are not looking for the half-hearted. We are not looking for those who want the easy path. We are looking for the faithful. And Paul says to this pastor Timothy in Ephesus, look here Mr. Pastor, you're the leader of the church. What you need to occupy most of your time is finding the faithful.

and then training the faithful who can go teach others. Most pastors can only effectively teach so many people. The reality is that ministry here on this earth is going to be carried out a lot more, if it's done right, by those of us who are laity than it is by those who are the paid professionals. So the paid professionals, to maximize their ability to spread the gospel on earth, ought to spend most of their time occupied with the faithful, training them, preparing them, getting them ready to go out and preach the gospel. Why did Jesus spend so much time with just 12 people?

The predominant amount of his time on earth. Now, that's not all he did. He certainly talked to large crowds at times, but the predominant amount of his time was spent with 12 people.

he looked for those who could carry the message to the world we need to be finding faithful people who can do that most of your translation it says we need faithful men right most of your English translations use the word men let me say a quick word about the Greek behind that word there are a number of Greek words that get translated as the English word man or men word here is anthropos, which is the general word that doesn't necessarily mean male. In fact, more often than not, it's the word that means man in the sense of a human being. Okay, so when he's saying find faithful men, he means faithful people. So ladies, the church needs to be finding faithful men and women who can be trained to teach others. So the key ingredient is faithful people.

How much time is spent by our pastor and other pastors dealing with the unfaithful? Tons. Tons of time. The danger for pastors and for leaders is that they let the unfaithful occupy nearly all of their time.

I'm reading a book called The Purpose Driven Church with a group of men, a book by Rick Warren. And Rick Warren makes the point that in his church at Saddleback, he spends more time training what he calls the core. Those are the people who are the most committed, most faithful leaders of the church. He spends more time training and preparing them does any other group in the church. And there's a reason for that. He knows that ministry is most effectively done by getting a trained core. So the admonition to pastors and leaders, I think, from this passage would be, don't let all of your time be occupied by the unfaithful. Certainly pastors have to deal with the unfaithful, but we need to find the faithful. We need faithful people who are able to teach others.

There may be some who are faithful who are not necessarily well able or well fit or well qualified to teach others. But if we really want to advance the gospel of Christ, we need our leadership to be training not only faithful people, but faithful people who are then able to teach others. So the idea here is, folks, we're building an army. the leader has to train a set of other leaders who can then train others on down the line and then once people are trained each person then needs to go teach somebody else this is how we're going to conquer the world we're going to conquer the world with a trained army too often we don't think about quote training in the church training implies discipline training implies study training repetition, you practice things over and over until you can do them well. But once those people are trained, the pastor or the leader who is training those people needs to say, go to it.

I'm cutting you loose. You get out there and find some others who are faithful that you can train and train others. Okay? Everybody got the picture? Now,

Now, what do faithful people look like? This is verses 4 through 6, where Paul writes, Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.

Verse 6, the hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. So what Paul does now is he gives Timothy three pictures of what a faithful person looks like. How do you know who the faithful are? they're certainly believers to begin with but beyond that what qualities do they have well the first picture is the picture of the soldier

and there are three qualities of a soldier that are in this text a soldier first joins in the suffering secondly he avoids entanglement in the NIV says civilian affairs It's he avoids entanglement in the affairs of life. And thirdly, the soldier has a single motivation, pleasing the commander. Now, I'm going to really emphasize this picture for a moment here because I'm going to contend that one of the most important pictures that we need to have as the body of Christ, particularly in this country, in the United States, is the picture of the soldier. The soldier who avoids entanglement in everyday affairs of life. Now, let's go back to that picture.

Joining the suffering is the first picture, the first aspect of being a soldier. Everybody remember the story? The commanding officer of the fort, 1836, in the sand. We're at the Battle of the Alamo. Approximately 4,000 soldiers are in the enemy army. And Colonel Travis, commander of the fort, asked the 180 men if they are willing to stay and fight in the battle. And if so, he asked them to step across the line he has drawn in the sand. And Davy Crockett and the 179 other men all step across the line.

They will all suffer and die as a result. Jesus Christ, through the Apostle Paul, is asking us today, will we step across the line? Will we join in the suffering for the gospel?

will we? Will we step across the line? If you are prepared to do so, be prepared to suffer for Christ.

Too often, we let people not make that decision. People who are believers already, who have committed their lives to Christ, ought to be prepared to step across the line, but sometimes we don't maybe ask for that final stepping across the line but that's what the soldier does. He steps across the line because he's prepared to suffer for Christ. He also avoids entanglement in civilian affairs.

That my family is tired of this verse this week almost because all week long during the week when I would be asked, and it got to be a little bit of a joke, but I would be asked to do something around the house And I would say a soldier does not involve in civilian affairs. A soldier involves himself in the things of Christ. And it began to be interesting, though, that throughout the week, how much stuff do we do that tangles us up but has nothing to do with serving Jesus Christ? Now, to be sure, a soldier needs his rest and his relaxation. has to care for his or her family.

We're not saying that the basic necessities of life...

I'm having a hard time.

Testing, testing. Sorry, guys. a soldier has to take care of the basic necessities of life and need some rest and relaxation so I'm not going to argue that we live lives without any kind of entertainment or extracurricular activities but I'm going to focus on the word entanglement we're not to get tangled up in the things of everyday life it's interesting how often the scriptures call us to avoid getting trapped and being consumed with earthly affairs as opposed to heavenly matters you remember the parable of the soils the farmer throws the seed out and it lands on four different types of soils and one of the soils has a lot of weeds and thorns the one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it making it unfruitful how many people who have come to faith in Christ are unfruitful because they've let the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word Jesus in the sermon on the mount says don't worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear How much time do you spend thinking about what you're going to wear? How much shopping went into getting what you wear? How much time do we spend with that kind of thing?

For the pagans run after all these things. Let's don't be like the pagans. And your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Hebrews chapter 12. Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Every encumbrance is every kind of thing or weight that hinders our running for Christ. The love of money. How many of us get tangled up with the pursuit of wealth and riches?

Make sure that your character, the writer of Hebrews says, is free from the love of money. being content with what you have for he himself has said i will never desert you nor will i ever forsake you so that we confidently say i will not be afraid what shall man do to me how many of us live by that principle being free of the love of money first timothy chapter six but godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we can take and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. In the book, the Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, a senior demon writes a letter to Wormwood, a little junior demon, and he says to Wormwood, you know, Wormwood's trying to trip up a Christian who's been assigned to him. And Screwtape, this wise old demon, tells Wormwood, prosperity nets a man to this world, which is just what we want.

Screwtape knew we so easily get caught up in the things of this life, entangled in the affairs of everyday life to the point that we cannot serve effectively Jesus Christ. The point that Paul is trying to make says avoid entanglement in the affairs of everyday life is this we need to live simpler lives

unentangled so that we can better serve Jesus we need to have fewer but more focused commitments in life so that we can better serve Jesus we need to have more contentment in our lives so that we can then better serve Jesus. Life is not about bigger houses, bigger cars, a bigger position, a bigger salary. Life is about Jesus Christ. We need to better distinguish between our earthly needs and our earthly desires. Our goal should never be more stuff.

In fact, it probably should be just the opposite so that we're less entangled with the things of life. distinguish as we live everyday life between what is important and eternal versus that which is inconsequential and temporary. Screwtape again, writing to Wormwood says, music and silence, how I detest them both. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. How many of us have so much noise in our lives that we can't even hear the call of Jesus Christ. We're bombarded with information, most of it that makes not one whit of difference. We're bombarded with news from every angle. We have more ways of getting communications than ever at any point in history.

But most of it is noise. We've got to learn to filter out the noise. Just like you can put a Those of you who have email and you can keep all that spam out, we need to develop ways in our lives to get rid of the spam, the noise. We need to quit being fascinated with the inconsequential in life. How many of you, no, don't answer.

How many people spend hours watching Big Brother?

Minutia about how people live with each other that shows how petty and small they are. A soldier does not get involved in the affairs of civilian life or of everyday life. Instead, the soldier has a single motivation. He wants to please his commander. There's no moderation here.

The good soldier always, always, always, before he does anything, asks, will this be pleasing to my commander?

Christians, we need to begin to ask ourselves, is what I am about to do going to be pleasing to King Jesus? We need to encourage extremes in this regard. We don't need halfway, lukewarm, moderate responses to that question. We need people who are 100% for Jesus Christ. As Screwtape wrote to Wormwood, encourage all extremes except extreme devotion to the enemy he called Jesus Christ.

Soldiers, are we going to strip off the things of everyday life so that we can serve Jesus? The reason I think this message is so important for the Christian church in America is that we are so wealthy, so prosperous, have so much leisure time in this country compared to most countries. And we as the church have let the world set the agenda of our lives. We are wrapped up in the affairs of this earth, and we need to do something about it. I know in my own life, my spiritual growth over the last 10 or 15 years has been in large measure making decisions about what I will not do I will not participate in or what I will not spend my time on so that I will have more time to do the things that I need to do for Jesus Christ.

The second picture is the picture of the athlete, and I won't spend as much time on these, but the athlete has two characteristics. He abides by the rules, and he wants the victor's crown. Now, I think there are two senses in which an athlete abides by the rules. according to the rules of the game, and we need to live according to the principles that Christ has given us. But I think the picture here is also that the athlete is a disciplined person who prepares for the contest. Back in Paul's day, before athletes could participate in the Olympic Games, they had to take an oath that they had spent 10 months in disciplined training event. That was part of the rules. And I think Paul is telling us if we're going to compete on behalf in this race of the Christian life, we need to prepare ourselves for the competition.

That means training. That means education. That means learning. That means practice in the things of the Christian life so that we can do it. And when we compete, folks, for Jesus Christ, we compete to win.

In this text, the NIV says the athlete won't win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. That word there is the word from which we get the English word Stephen or the name Stephen. The Stephanos was the crown. There were two types of crowns in the Greek language. type of crown was the crown somebody got because they just happened to be a physical descendant of someone else. If you were the king's son, you got a diadem. But there was another kind of crown, a crown that went to the victor, somebody who had won a competition. That was the Stephanos. That's the victor's crown. We're after the victor's crown, folks. We want to run the race in such a way that we get the reward, that we get the crown in heaven.

So we need to participate in this life, the things of this earth, in such a way that when we get the glory, King Jesus, the commander, is going to say, well done, athlete David. Here's the victor's crown. And there's an element, I think here, a picture that those who have competed hard for Jesus are going to get extra rewards in heaven. The last image is the picture of the farmer. And the farmer has two characteristics.

First, he's supposed to be hardworking. He's got to take care of that soil every day. This is not something you can do off and on. if you neglect the farm you will not get the crop Christians should be some of the most hard working people when it comes to the things of the kingdom and the picture again is that the farmer who is the hard working farmer will get the reward the reward of the crop when we get to heaven folks we're going to get rewards based on what we have done here on earth Those who have given much for Christ will be the first to get the reward in heaven. So do you see the pictures?

Soldiers, athletes, farmers. We want people with these characteristics in their lives so that we can then train them to better serve Jesus Christ. I gave you a summary here. Beyond warfare, there is victory. Beyond athletic effort, a prize.

And beyond agricultural labor, a crop. One of my great pictures of the year is the picture of Lance Armstrong. Sports Illustrated just had a big article about him. He is somebody who has been hardworking. He's been the athlete who competed according to the rules.

There were stories about how before the Tour de France this year, he would go to France and practice on some of the routes that he would be riding this year. One day he did a 147-mile route. dark when he finally got to the hotel he was going to stay at that night. But his trainer says that Lance Armstrong said he needed to be better prepared for the Tour de France. He didn't feel like he had practiced as hard as he should that day. So in the dark, he goes back to the beginning and rides another 147 miles that night. In the competition, you recall, if you paid any attention to the Tour de France this year, Lance Armstrong is going uphill at a moment when a spectator sort of steps out into his bike path and his bike handle catches on an article that the spectator is holding.

Lance falls down, but the determination when he fell was just enormous, and he jumps back up on the bike, and with all his effort and all his determination, he really extends his lead even after a serious fall. At one point in the race, he actually went off the road into the weeds in a ditch. He keeps riding his bike through the weeds in the ditch. He finally can't go anymore. He jumps off his bike, picks up his bike, and starts charging across the field, leaps across a ditch, leaps back onto the road, and jumps on his bike and goes, we need Christians like that.

Why are we so half-hearted and lukewarm? Why is it that we don't see effort? spectators when Jesus wants athletes in the battle. I'm not fussing at you. I don't mean to sound like I'm fussing at you. I'm talking to myself. We live lives of such ease and luxury, and we don't want one whit of difficulty in our lives. And we're not willing to give one whit for Jesus Christ compared to what we will give for other things in life. Everything else is as nothing compared to Jesus Christ. Paul called it dung, and that's the polite word, compared to the value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count all things but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. We need that kind of attitude. Okay? We need to be motivated. We've got motivations for diligent service.

and our motivations, and I'm just going to hit these quickly. And Paul says it in verses 8 through 10. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel for which I am suffering, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained.

Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. do the difficult stuff as soldiers, athletes, and farmers without a motivation to give. And our motivation is, first, that we serve the resurrected Messiah who is a descendant of David. The resurrection of Jesus Christ confirms that he is who he claimed to be. He is God himself.

psalm 16 10 david had promised or had prophesied that the god would not abandon the holy one to the grave and when peter preaches in acts chapter 2 verse 31 about jesus christ he points the crowd to that prophecy about the resurrection and he says the fact that jesus christ has been resurrected from the dead confirms that he is the holy promised one the messiah from the old testament confirmation that he is the Messiah is that he is a descendant of David. And in 2 Samuel 7, 16, David was promised that one of his descendants would sit on a throne that would never end. Paul says in the text, this is my gospel. That's what he says. What is Paul's gospel? Paul's gospel is he serves a resurrected Lord who is the descendant of David. He is both God and he is man, but He is the promised Messiah resurrected from the dead.

And that's who we need to be proclaiming. But because we serve a resurrected living Messiah, we ought to be willing to give it all. Our other motivation is we desire the salvation of the elect. The word there is eklektos. The elect in this passage are those who will most certainly come to faith in Christ by God's divine plan, but who have not yet come to faith.

Paul says he serves for the sake of the elect that they may too obtain salvation. Folks, there are people out there who are going to come to faith in Christ, but it is our role to go out there and spread the gospel so that they will come to faith. So there's motivation to be a soldier, an athlete, a farmer for Christ because the elect are out there. Let's close with Lessons for Life.

let's begin to pray each morning. Lord, empower me today to please King Jesus above all others. I really think we need to consciously begin each day with this mindset. I'm not saying to just say it one morning. I'm saying every morning we should begin with the mindset and the prayer, today let me serve King Jesus above all others and then we work as hard as we can to fulfill that secondly let's simplify our schedules to better serve Christ I would encourage all of us to get out our schedules and look at the commitments we have over the course of a month and begin to ask the question which of these commitments I presently have are distracting me from my ability to serve one of the most important words for a Christian is no.

Will you do this? No. Will you do this? No. Well, why not?

Because it distracts me from my service from Jesus Christ. You don't have to say it in that holy way. I'm not trying to make us sound holier than thou. But we need to begin making serious, take seriously the commitments we make and examine them first in light of how it affects our ability to serve Jesus Christ. Don't let other people take your time that is devoted for Jesus.

I had to cut out some civic clubs that I was a part of. Good things, not bad at all, but distracted me from what I needed to do. I had to give up some positions I held in other organizations because they distracted, took so much time and effort. I don't know what you need to give up, but I suggest we all need to begin with a serious examination of our schedules. buy less and give away more.

Nothing entangles you in the affairs of everyday life like stuff.

I'm not saying you don't need an adequate home for your family and transportation and so forth. But take seriously the question, do you need a second or a third home?

Do you need that expensive a vehicle? Do you need these other things? Debt entangles.

and again, they're not absolute right and wrongs here, but when things begin to take us away from Christ, there's something wrong. Fourthly, live with a settled determination to be a part of advancing Christ's kingdom on earth. I took Kate to, Louise and I took Kate to Clemson yesterday. We now have an empty nest. Caleb had gone the day before to Clemson.

One of those great transition times, and great or tearful, however you want to look at it, an important transition time in life. But you know one thing I loved is we took Kate to Clemson. When you get to Clemson, there were a lot of orange shirts on, a lot of green shirts. The Christian organizations were out there helping people move in. It was the Christians who were at the forefront of serving.

These college students were living with a settled determination that these freshmen that were coming in to Clemson to know Jesus Christ. And there were dozens and dozens of campus crusaders and fellowship of Christian athletes and navigators in shirts telling people they wanted to serve them. I love that kind of determination to do whatever it takes to bring people to Jesus Christ. We need to be more determined as adults to be a part of advancing Christ's kingdom here on earth. Work now on earth for heavenly reward.

There are some folks who say if you're doing something out of a desire for reward, it's not right for you to have that desire. I'm telling you that's a wrong-headed notion. In the scriptures, we are constantly called to think about heavenly reward. I'm working now because I want reward there, folks. I'm doing things here because I want Jesus to say well done when I get there.

think about the notion of how we live here now, what effect that has on when we get to eternity.

So we may do without some things in this life, but it's because we know there's heavenly reward awaiting. Read 1 Corinthians 15. If you've not read that, you need to read it. It's about the resurrection. It's a very important passage. And lastly, I keep singing this verse of the untitled written. If you haven't listened to Chris Rice's The Untitled Hymn, a very new piece of Christian music, I don't care what kind of music you typically like, you ought to listen to this.

Kate sang it last Sunday. The last verse, with your final heartbeat, kiss the world goodbye. And go in peace and laugh on glory's side. And fly to Jesus. Fly to Jesus. Fly to Jesus.

And live. This life may have suffering for us. But folks, glory awaits. I'm going to submit to you, even the suffering here can be a glorious time. If we're suffering for Christ.

But boy, the glorious day is coming. We're going to be laughing one day. But let's serve him here and now. Let's pray. Lord, we are grateful for all that you have done for us.

Forgive us when we have let ourselves be so entangled and distracted by the things of this life.

I pray that we will take a serious look at ourselves, a serious look at our commitment to you, that we will be willing to cut things from our schedules, from our lives that really do take us away from you. I pray for this class Lord that we will be a class that is committed to being good soldiers good athletes good farmers for Jesus Christ that we will not take the commands and directives of scripture lightly but instead we will be motivated to live the way you want us to live

you are our king you are our commander