This is a new sermon seires Called “Perseverance”. Defenders! 2 Timothy 1:8-18 You can watch more here.
Hasn’t 2 Timothy these last two weeks been great? We’ve been talking about
fighting for the promised life we have been given in Christ Jesus, and last
Sunday we talked about being side-by-side with others as we fight for the
promised life we have been given in Christ Jesus.
So, just for fun, let’s do a little poll, “Who’s excited about the fight?” Raise your
hand! You’re excited to fight for the promised life we have in Jesus. That’s
great! Second question, “Who’s taking steps to find 3-4 people to build side-
by-side relationships in our life?”
Okay, you might not like me for this, but in a church our size we need to see
that number growing every day! In a church of 500-1000 people, you can be
anonymous, but in a church family our size, we can’t just wave and smile on a
Sunday.
We have to be taking steps to find 3-4 people so that we can get a sense of
relational depth in our church in Austin, so that when we see each other
hurting, struggling, discouraged, then we will say something. Amen?
This morning we are going to talk about the biggest obstacle that will keep us
from the fight. It’s one thing to start to fight. It’s another thing to stay in the
fight!
Anyone can get excited about something for a season. We’re wanting to raise
up men and women who fight for decades. Men and women who build
legacies from generation to generation, therefore, we have to stay in the fight.
This morning we are going to see 3 applications to keep us in the fight,
because it’s one thing to start, it’s another thing to stay. Let’s look at 2
Timothy 1:8:
2 Timothy 1:8, “8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel
according to the power of God.”
If you’re new to the Bible, don’t worry. This is in the New Testament. This is
all taking place after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, so that the Apostle
Paul is taking the name of Jesus around the Roman Empire, and he is now
writing a letter to a dear friend named Timothy.
In verse 8 we see the word, “Therefore” and “therefore” is connecting us back
to what we have been talking about the last two weeks. It is saying, “In light of
the fight for the promised life we have been given in Jesus…do not be ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord.” I think understanding a biblical view of shame
is the one of the biggest challenges in life that will keep us from the fight.
How to Stay in the Fight:
2. Biblical Understanding of Shame
Shame is so popular in our culture right now. Our culture says “shame” is a
made-up religious word to make us feel bad, so today we will hear self-
affirmation like, “I am enough, My feelings are valid.”
But acting like something doesn’t exist isn’t going to remove shame. Does that
make sense? This is why Jesus is so important!
Stay with me. Scripture teaches us we were all born with a conscience (with
knowledge) that has been placed there by God, so that deep down we know
there are things that are right and there are things that are wrong, and when
we go against our conscience it begins to create layers of shame in our lives.
I saw this in my children when they were young. One of them would come to
me with a really sad face and say, “Daddy, I’m sorry.” I would say, “Why, what
happened?” They would say, “Last night I told you I brushed my teeth and I
didn’t. Will you forgive me?” That was their conscience creating shame that
moved them to reconcile. That’s a good thing!
There’s also a type of shame for when wrong things have been done to us that
violate our conscience. It’s not us, but it’s done to us, so that in the same way,
we don’t want to ignore that shame, block it out our act like it didn’t happen.
We want to bring that shame to Jesus with confession, forgiveness,
repentance, and healing. Amen?
It’s why in verse 8 the Apostle Paul points Timothy to the “testimony of our
Lord” who took our sin, took our shame, took the offenses of the world upon
Himself, so that by grace through faith in Jesus’ we might find life in Him!
Therefore, if we are going to stay in the fight for years and decades through
the ups and the downs, we need a biblical understanding of shame.
If you are here this morning, and you feel stuck in the cycle of shame, you need
know the enemy wants us to wallow in shame. He wants us to act like it didn’t
happen. He wants us to block it out. He wants us to cover it up with cute
phrases, because He knows it’s only Jesus who can deal with our shame. Look
at verse 9:
2 Timothy 1:9, “9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.”
In verse 9 we see God’s Word lifting our eyes to Jesus who “saved us and
called us with a holy calling!” This is our second application this morning to
keep us in the fight; we are soaking our soul in the gospel!”
How to Stay in the Fight:
3. Biblical Understanding of Shame
4. Soaking Our Soul in the Gospel
What does that mean? I want to make sure we are all on the same page, so
when I say the word “gospel” I am not talking about going to church in Austin,
being a good person, or even going to heaven one day.
The gospel is faith alone in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Write that
down. But the gospel isn’t just biblical words. The gospel permeates every
part of our life.
The gospel goes all the way back to Genesis 2 when Adam and Eve were both
naked and unashamed. Can you imagine? Naked and no shame! No belly fat!
No wrinkles! No broken relationships. No baggage from life. No hurts. No
hiding. No insecurity. Everything is perfect!
Then, Genesis 3 shows up with our sin and everything in humanity starts to
fall apart. You should read Genesis 2-3 on your own. It is awesome! In
Genesis 3 Adam and Eve are hiding from God…in the bushes. What? That’s
silly! Yet, in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve are overcome with shame, so they start
making excuses. They start blaming one another. They start blaming God!
They start trying to cover themselves up with leaves, a pattern that still exists
today as humanity is confronted with our shame, so we hide metaphorically
hide in the bushes of life as we try to cover up our shame with food, sex,
alcohol, shopping, power, security, popularity, and it is in Genesis 3 that the
God of Scripture sets out on a plan to “save us and call us out of that shame
into a holy calling.” Genesis 3!
That’s why verse 9 says, “Jesus has come to save us and call us with a holy
calling!” It’s because all of humanity is hiding in bushes and needs to be
saved!
I don’t mean go to church. I don’t mean walk an aisle. I don’t mean say a
prayer. I mean God created us to dwell with Him in an intimate relationship
for eternity, but we’re all hiding in bushes and Jesus has come to save us with
a holy calling!
2 Timothy 1:9, “9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling…
This is the gospel! All of humanity is trying to save themselves with money,
food, sex, politics, security, approval, and it never lasts. At some point all
those things let us down, which creates shame, and the gospel is that Jesus has
come to clothe us, not in fig leaves, but in His righteousness.
Even this morning, there are times we will try to save ourselves with religious
behavior. We will start going to church. Clean up our life. Get our house in
order, and for a moment it will feel great, but it will never last and shame will
come creeping into our life. Therefore, we must soak our soul in the gospel!
2 Timothy 1:9, “9 …but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all
eternity.”
That is why in verse 9 the Apostle Paul writes, “Not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace.” Do you see that in verse 9? It
means our works will never be enough to remove shame. The best we can do
is rename it, excuse it, ignore it or suppress it, but Jesus’ work in our life isn’t
“according to our works, but His own purpose and grace.”
Which means God’s work in our life is because God chose to come looking for
you, call you to Himself, clothe you in His righteousness, and call you His.
That’s the gospel! If we’re going to stay in the fight for decades, we must soak
our soul in the gospel!
How to Stay in the Fight:
3. Biblical Understanding of Shame
4. Soaking Our Soul in the Gospel
It’s because the gospel is like a diamond. The more you hold it up a diamond
and turn the diamond, the more in awe you are of the diamond. And in a
similar way, the more you learn about justification, adoption, sanctification,
redemption, propitiation, and see how all of life is pointing us to our awe of
Jesus, the more we will stay in the fight.
We have our study books, “Gospel Identity.” You can start there. There’s a
book called, “Gospel in Genesis” by Martin Lloyd Jones. You can read that.
You can read the life of Jesus. You can read Romans 1-6. You can ask someone
for help. But the more you see the gospel, the more you stay in the fight! Let’s
look at verses 10-11:
2 Timothy 1:10-11, “10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and
an apostle and a teacher.”
Isn’t that good? There’s no application here. It’s just more gospel and shame
being defeated by the gospel in verses 10-11.
All throughout the Old Testament there is a foreshadowing of our need for
Jesus through the sacrifices, the law, the temple, the priests, and the kings. So
that verse 10 says, “Now, the ‘foreshadowing’ has been revealed in Jesus!” Do
you see that? We no longer need to look forward to that day. The day has
come for Jesus to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light through
the gospel!
Think about it practically: I know this is a lot, but the result of sin is death
(Genesis 3 / Romans 3). If you eat of this tree you shall surely die, so that
when sin creeps into our lives today it brings death.
Some today will push back and say, “Michael, those are just religious words
people made up to make us feel bad!” That’s what the world says! But, what
happens today when we lie to our friends? Death! Lying is sin and it brings
death! What happens when we abuse our body physically? Ugh, death! When
we eat ice cream over and over, do drugs over and over, alcohol over and over.
We die!
How many of us thought our best friend would be a good roommate? But
then, what happened? Sin happened. Someone doesn’t do the dishes.
Someone doesn’t take out the trash. Someone didn’t pay bills, and now these
two best friends can’t stand each other. It’s called sin and sin brings death!
How many of us have family members that don’t talk to each other? What
happened? Selfishness, anger, bitterness, slander, and envy all crept into
those relationships and sin brings death. Everything dies because of sin. But,
according to God’s own purpose and grace (vs. 9), Jesus has come at the
perfect time to abolish death and bring life! Amen?
It’s because of Jesus we can step out of the bushes, we can receive something
better than fig leaves, we can find forgiveness, and reconciliation, not only
with God but each other!
It’s possible some of us thought Jesus was just a ticket to heaven one day, but
verses 10 and 11 are teaching us that through faith in Jesus heaven comes to
you today. That’s how we stay in the fight!
It is why the Apostle Paul writes in verse 11, “I preach it, I teach it, and the
word apostle means to start new works around it.” The Apostle Paul is so in
awe of Jesus. He commits the whole of His life to Jesus, because why would we
not? What else in this life is better than Jesus? Look at verse 12:
1 Timothy 1:12, “12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have
believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
In verse 12 we can see the Apostle Paul in prison, chained to a wall, facing
certain death, and say, “I’ve suffered for Jesus, and I am not ashamed.” God’s
Word never says, “Come to Jesus, and you will get great circumstances.” It
says, “Come to Jesus, because there’s nothing better than Jesus!”
This morning, if you don’t know Jesus, you need to give your life to Him right
now. I know you can think of a lot of excuses that can create barriers for you
to take that step of faith, but I just want to tell you that you should ignore
those excuses and trust in Jesus right now.
If you leave here this morning trying to do this fight on your own, trying to
manage your shame with sticky notes and posters and self-affirmation, you’re
going to go through circles in life.
You’re going to get really excited about some job or some relationship. You’re
going to convince yourself, “It’s going to be different this time!” And it’s not.
Eventually, reality is going to show up. Conflict is going to happen. You’re
going to get discouraged. You’re going to tell yourself, we will never do that
again until after a while, you will, and the cycle starts all over.
In the context of our passage, Paul is chained to a wall, facing death, and yet
Paul is like, “I am not ashamed. I know whom I have believed.” Therefore,
why would we not do the same?
Why would we entrust our life to some relationship, some job, some politician,
some fill in the blank, when we can entrust our life to Jesus? Therefore,
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that Jesus
resurrected from the dead. Do that today! Look at verses 13-14:
2 Timothy 1:13-14, “13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love
which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been
entrusted to you.”
In verses 13-14 we see our third application in our passage to stay in the
fight, and it is that we have to guard the treasure we have in Christ. Do you
see that in verses 13-14? Do you see words like, “Retain, guard, treasure, and
entrust?”
How to Stay in the Fight:
4. Biblical Understanding of Shame
5. Soaking Our Soul in the Gospel
6. Guard the Treasure
By grace through faith in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection we are given the
treasure, therefore, now, through the power of the Holy Spirit we are invited
to, “Guard it and treasure it!”
In Christ, the chains have been broken, the lights have been turned on, sin has
been put to death at the cross, but we won’t experience the fullness of that
truth until we are face to face with Jesus, therefore, until that day, guard it!
Why would we toy with silly ideas of this world? Turn them off and get them
out! Why would flirt with the little whispers of this world? When we see
shame wooing us into a dark place we want to aggressively and quickly get
that shame to Jesus!
It’s possible someone might say, “Uh, why are you making such a big deal
about Jesus?” Uh, I don’t know, why is a light house so important to ships at
night? It’s kind of important!
It’s because the power of God in Jesus is the guiding light in a world of
darkness, so we can’t bend. We don’t give an inch! We don’t flirt with
darkness, because if we want to stay in the fight we must guard this treasure!
Let’s finish off in verses 15-18:
1 Timothy 1:15-18, “15 You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom
are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me
and was not ashamed of my chains; 17 but when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me—
18 the Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day—and you know very well what services he
rendered at Ephesus.”
In verses 15-18 we see the reality that there are going to be some who don’t
stay in the fight. I don’t say that lightly. There are going to be some who don’t
treasure their faith. They don’t soak their soul in the gospel. They don’t grab
hold of biblical view of shame, and as a result some will fall away.
But verse 16 lifts our eyes to the house of Onesiphorus, and it describes him as
a refresher. Isn’t that a great description? Don’t you want to be described as a
“refresher?”
Onesiphorus didn’t just show up to worship on Sundays. He searched for Paul
until He found him! Onesiphorus didn’t just care about people, he acted when
it wasn’t easy! That’s the dream for what we are building in this non-
denominational church in Austin.
It isn’t just some people who sit next to each other on a Sunday. It’s men and
women who are looking to spiritually fight together for decades! It’s men and
women who want to be refreshing to one another. It’s men and women who
are going to point one another to the ever-lasting hope we have in Jesus! But
it won’t just happen. We got to fight for it!
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
NVC Online
Unable to attend this Christian Church in Austin? Don’t worry, because, through God’s provision, we have created NVC online, an Online Church streaming a worship service every Sunday from 10:30am Central Time. You can also watch our short, powerful sermons on demand and follow us on Instagram for daily Christ centered content.