When God speaks, He speaks truth and His word endures. The bible reminds us:
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:25
In about 1996, Nigel James and I spent a day in someone elses home to seek the Lord about a vision and plan for our fledgling ministry, Big Ideas. One of the things I believe He said to us, is still on our office wall today. It says,
This Generation will see the Greatest move of God this nation has ever seen.
Now this is a pretty bold claim since we were based in Wales, a land famous for revivals. However, we believe it to be true. I believed it then and I believe it now. Since that day, my ministry life has been shaped by that revelation.
However, even more impacting was the bible passage that we were led to. We received it as a mandate on that day and I think it is a relevant now as it was all those years ago.
So, what is this word. This charge, this commission, this mission statement?
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist,discharge all the duties of your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5
It is enduring because although this word was received in Pat Brook’s house in 1996, I have not felt a desire or even a freedom to move from it. It starts like this:
4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom,
Our God is alive and because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we are reminded, He is with us always. He is not just there when we are on our feet preaching, sat around teaching or even leading our teams. No, His presence is with us whenever and wherever.
He is with us, judging us as husbands, fathers, mates, He is with us in our online life, our driving. He is with us at our best and at our worst. He is judging us. And so here is the question. How are we doing?
The passage goes on to say
I give you this charge
This charge! It does not sound passive. It doesn’t sound like an optional extra. It sounds like a command to me.
And it is important to notice that this older leader is not giving the younger mentee an easy passage. No He is setting a high bar. Indeed, He by reminding Him of the presence of God and Jesus, He is giving it the ultimate importance!
Charge is translated from a strong word from Biblical Greek diamarturomai, which is also often translated testified (such as in Acts 8:25). The idea is that Paul gave a solemn testimony to Timothy, testimony that Timothy must heed if he is to be the be the man of God expected of Him.
And so what is this charge, the thing young Timothy will be judges on.….drum roll please!
Preach the word;
It is pretty clear. And I won’t get distracted by any apologists for St Francis who is reputed to have said “preach the word, use words if you have to” Not even he believed it! He was not only modelled Jesus, he also preached about him, all the time!
But here is the confession. For a long time, I did not preach the word. For years, I was the guy who built platforms for others to preach from. I organised major events, European tours for big bands, festivals for international speakers. I somehow allowed myself to believe it was either or but that was never the choice. The charge, the commission was to ME!
If I needed to be reminded, it was in the rest of the verse!
be prepared in season and out of season;
As soon as I realised God still had the calling on my life. A few things needed to happen.
1) I was not to mimic anyone else. This meant as often as possible giving credit to other peoples ideas, theories and stories.
2) Accept every opportunity possible. This started with Nigel being sick and I stepped in an lead devotions for about 20 young people and spoke at a small festival. Since then I have spoken Africa, India, Japan, USA and throughout Europe. I have spoken to thousands and handfuls. I have spoken on big stages, no stages. Big churches and small churches. Growing churches and dying churches (I might even have killed a couple )
3) Never believe my story is less than someone elses and never believe my illustration, however emotive is more powerful than His word. Remember the charge is to preach the Word NOT ourselves!
Doctrine is important! Understanding what this word says and how to apply it is a key part of leadership. When you know it, you can then:
correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.3
We need to have the confidence to use the bible, His word like it is the truth and that we believe it. Sometimes we can fall into 2 camps. Firstly we might think that we can never correct or rebuke because who are we? or the belief that every persons interpretation or lived experience is equal that …their truth is equal to THE truth. Secondly we can be hard and authoritarian. Using the bible like it’s a loaded gun
No we must encourage with great patience and careful instruction!
And then Paul predicts a future point that began in the decade He was writing and continues to today:
.3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
In our accelerated culture this is even more prevalent now. We see, even in the church the adoption of post-modern truth. Where all truths are valid.
I understand that a part of spiritual adolescence is to explore what you truly believe and maybe, perhaps even to roam from the truth. But this is in fact, swapping truth for a lie. I mean humanly who wants to believe in things like hell…an eternal gnashing of teeth? Yuk sounds horrible and how can a loving God send people there…….
However, it depends what you are trying to prove. Are you trying to discover who God is or who you think you want to be or justify what you would like to do or are doing?
However, I encourage you to discover who God says He is!
“We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.” John 4:42
As the missionary Hudson Taylor said, HE is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all!
My advice is to read the Word. See what it says! If you want to find a liberal view of hell, I can give you authors who will support that view. If you would like a sympathetic theology of sexual infidelity, transactivism, queer theology, universalism, hyper-calvinism, hyper-grace or the prosperity gospel. There are writers and thinkers out there who will make you feel better.
So be careful where your teaching is coming from. One of my guys is Tim Keller. I love his teaching. So often he gives me insight into the bible I have not seen before, But occasionally, he will preach something that I think is not quite right (like who am I ?!!). And that is ok. It means that I am much more engaged with what the bible says than what Dr Keller says!
There is within this teaching from Paul, a man, an apostle preaching from prison, he reminds us
. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship,
But YOU! How personal is that. Paul calls out Timothy and I am calling out YOU! You are called to show maturity in all things including the stuff that is hard. Be people who embrace hardship. Who recognise hardship is part of the palate for ministry. We are not crazy people who say bring it on but recognise that all of life will be a part of our experiences, Joy, sadness, plenty and lack. Periods where everything seems to turn to gold and times when everything turns to dust.
8 We are hard pressed on every side,but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Cor 4:8-9
We are people of the cross and the resurrection. Life and death. Joy and suffering!
Do the work of an evangelist
When we see evangelism purely as gift, calling and preference not only do we diminish the command, we also potentially think we have wiggle room to get ourselves off the hook!
No! We are called to the work. So here is my final question, What have you done today to share the good news of Jesus?