Well, I ask that you open your Bibles please to 2 Timothy, the second chapter, and I’ll begin reading at verse 24.
Dr. Gwen Walters was Preaching Professor at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts and a member of my congregation. He was also one of the most influential men in my life. In the early 1990s, he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He resigned his position at the seminary. The following week, he called me and asked if I would like to meet with him on Thursday mornings to talk about preaching and to assist me with mine. And that we did, for three hours each Thursday for most of the last 18 months of his life. What a gift he was to me. When we met together, there were of course the ordinary exchanges of pleasantries, catching up on the week, but then came matters of eternal consequence – the preaching of the Word, the care for the congregation, and the character of the minister and his work. Dr. Walters’ study was small, only a few feet separated us. Often, I would find myself turning and staring out the window looking at the beautiful lakeside scenery. Whenever I did that, there would be a gentle tap; he would kick me on my shin to get me to focus back on what he was saying, to pay attention to his words! He needn’t have worried. We pay attention to the words of dying men.
Paul’s death fast approaches. He’s in prison. He knows that only death will bring about his release. And his plight is especially painful as he writes this letter. You see, Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Tychichus to Ephesus – all but one of his closest colleagues are gone. And to make matters even sadder, Demas, in love with the present world, abandoned the Lord, the Gospel, and Paul. And he pleads with Timothy to come and see him before winter. “Come before winter, Timothy, otherwise it will be too late. Come before winter, Timothy, or never come at all.” His final letter to Timothy contains his last recorded words. And tonight, on this the last Lord’s Day of the year, won’t you listen to the words of a dying man? If you listen in faith to Paul tonight, I can assure you that in the new year you will live a life devoted to God.
Before I read God’s Word to you, let’s bow for prayer.
Tonight, O God, we seek understanding of Your Word. Grant that to us, we pray. Help us to receive it in such a way that we are humbled, our Savior exalted, and Your Church made more holy. And this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, who with You and the Holy Spirit reign, one God in three Persons, forever and ever. Amen.
Hear God’s Word:
“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
And here ends the Scripture reading, and this is the Word of the Lord.
The words of a dying man. Paul writes to young Timothy, his minister in Ephesus. The son of a pious mother and grandmother, Paul is his father in the faith. Under his leadership, Timothy had become the pastor of this church in the thriving city of Ephesus, a city that was filled with spiritual danger. And in this letter, Paul, knowing that his time is short, prepares the young pastor to serve God’s people faithfully after his death. Now Paul here addresses him as “the Lord’s servant.” It is another name for the minister of God’s church. Timothy, the Lord’s servant, is the church’s pastor. He must set an example for the entire congregation so that the entire congregation can live as the Lord’s faithful servants. And tonight, on this the final Lord’s Day of the year, I want to speak to you, the Lord’s servants. Won’t you listen to the words of a dying man? Listen to Paul, so that in the new year you might live a life devoted to God. Listen, Lord’s servants, as He speaks to you about three realities of eternal consequence.
First, listen to Him as He speaks to you about your Lord. Look at verse 24. “And the Lord’s servant” – let’s stop there. We don’t want to rush past these words. Let’s think about them. “The Lord’s servant.” You’ve heard those words before; they’re not new to you, you students of the Scripture. They send you right back to the Old Testament, to the prophet Isaiah. He foretold the coming of the great servant of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. And his prophecy contains four great servant songs. You’ll find them in chapter 42, chapter 49, chapter 50, at the end of chapter 52, and through chapter 53. The four great servants songs of Isaiah. Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah prepared God’s people to receive that servant who is above all servants – the Savior who came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. The Lord Jesus Christ is the pattern for every other servant of the Lord. He’s the pattern for you and for me. To Him, God gave the tongue of those who are taught and He used it wisely, to sustain with a word him who was weary. “A bruised reed He will not break and a faintly burning wick He will not quench.” Keep your eyes on Jesus. He sets the example of service that I must follow and that you must follow too.
About that servant of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah says He was not arrogant and boastful, but gave His back to those who struck Him and His cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. He did not hide His face from disgrace and spitting. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Him who suffered for righteousness sake. He sets for you the example of service you must follow as you suffer for God’s kingdom and for His righteousness. The Gospel writer, John, tells us that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory and spoke of Him. Isaiah saw He that did not cling to His own live but gave it up for sinners. He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement that brought us peace fell upon Him. By His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, each turning to his own way, but the Lord has laid upon Him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all.
And on this last Lord’s Day evening of the year, I’m asking you to keep your eyes on Jesus, the servant who loved you and gave Himself for you. You must serve Him and you serve Him as you declare His redeeming love. Won’t you listen tonight? Won’t you listen to the words of a dying man as he speaks to you about your Lord? Tonight I’m speaking to you, the Lord’s servants. I’m asking you to listen to Paul, to the words of a dying man. Listen to him so that in the new year you might live a life devoted to God. That’s our great theme for this year and it carries into the next. Each of us wants to live a life devoted to God, so listen, Lord’s servants, as he speaks to you tonight about three realities of eternal consequence.
First, listen to him as he speaks to you about your Lord, and next, listen to him as he speaks to you about your lifestyle. Hear his admonition. Look at verse 24. “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome.” For some, in Paul’s day and in our own, some seem convinced that the Christian life is to be distinguished principally by stirring up controversy. I remember a man who identified his spiritual gifts as confrontation and rebuke. And I could well believe it by the quality of his relationships! Now tonight, if by chance those are your gifts, you’ll do well to hear Paul’s admonishment. “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome.”
One of my ministerial heroes is Charles Simeon. I reread for the third time a biography of him at the end of the year. What an amazing minister he was. He was converted as a student studying at Cambridge University. At age 23, he was appointed in 1782 to be the minister of Trinity Church in Cambridge, England. He would hold that position for 54 years. Now we would say that this wasn’t a good match, you see, because Charles Simeon, the young man, was a hot-tempered young man, and deeply evangelical, he was placed in a congregation that was hostile to the evangelical faith. And the people showed their hostility. In the days when you rented pews, the pew holders locked their pews so that people who came couldn’t sit in them while they were absent. Well Charles Simeon spent his own money, bought additional seating for those who were coming. What did the church wardens do? They gathered up those benches and they threw them out of the church. Then when evening came and he would offer his evening lecture, sometimes they would lock the doors so that people couldn’t get into the church, and Charles Simeon had to speak outdoors to deliver his lecture. What a disaster waiting to happen! A hot-tempered young man and a congregation hostile to the evangelical faith he proclaimed.
Now Charles Simeon could have gone to the ecclesiastical courts and gotten this nonsense stopped, but he chose another way, a better way. He chose the excellent way. He took verse 24, “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome” – it says in the King James Version of the Bible that he used, “The servant of the Lord must not strive,” and he made that his life verse. “The servant of the Lord must not strive.” And so he chose to love these people that were hostile to him and to the Gospel. He chose to love them, and as the years went by, he won them to the evangelical faith. We say that’s a nice story that has a good ending, a nice story about a pastor reconciled to his congregation through his acts of love.
Well let me tell you the rest of the story. I told you he was there at Trinity Church for 54 years. Under his ministry sat 1,100 men who would become ministers and missionaries and chaplains. And the evangelical faith was spread throughout the world by men who sat under his ministry, many of them who were won to faith in Christ by him. “The servant of the Lord must not strive.” “The servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome.” You must not be. I must not be.
Now Paul tells Timothy what kind of man he must be. He must not be quarrelsome, but these are the things he must be. Let’s look at each one of them. First of all, the Lord’s servant must be “kind to everyone,” verse 24. Paul places a premium on kindness. To Titus he says that Titus must “show perfect courtesy to all people.” No matter wherever a Christian is placed, no matter what the situation, what he owes to the people who are in front of him is kindness, is kindness. I remember in the 1990s when I was working with ministry students it was a time when talk radio was emerging – angry people on the right, angry people on the left. And I began to hear students take on that tone in the pulpit. You can’t do that! You can’t call people names. You must be kind to everyone. There is never a circumstance into which God sends you where you don’t owe to the people in front of you kindness. The Lord’s servant must be kind to everyone. That must be his lifestyle.
The Lord’s servant must be, next in verse 24, “able to teach.” Of course that means skillful in communicating, but it means more than that. He must be able to persuade, to persuade people to believe the Gospel truth as the Holy Spirit is at work in the Word that he proclaims. Next, the Lord’s servant, again verse 24, must “patiently endure evil.” You see, if he loses his temper, if he retaliates, he loses his audience. And for the sake of the Gospel, he mustn’t do that. In a world of angry people, he can’t afford to be just one more angry person. No, he must, you must, I just patiently endure evil.
Paul goes on. The Lord’s servant must be kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, and the Lord’s servant must “correct his opponents with gentleness.” A gentleness is the opposite of bad-tempered, angry and rough. I think here of a physician setting a broken bone. I’ve had a few of those in my lifetime. I don’t want a doctor who delights in inflicting pain, who takes hold of me and wants to make me suffer as much as I can! I don’t ever want to meet a doctor like that, and by God’s grace never have! But neither do I want a doctor who is so timid that every time he sees me flinch he stops and starts over again and just prolongs the agony. No, you see, gentleness is a combination of tenderness and firmness. A gentle person knows how to control his strength for the sake of Jesus Christ and for his Gospel. Kind, able to teach, enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness. That’s the servant’s lifestyle and that must be your lifestyle. Won’t you listen tonight to a dying man as he talks to you about your lifestyle?
And tonight I’m speaking to you, the Lord’s servants. I’m asking you to listen to the words of a dying man. Listen to Paul so that in the coming year you can live a life devoted to God. Listen, Lord’s servants, as he speaks to you about three matters of eternal consequence. Listen to you as he speaks about your Lord, as he speaks to you about your lifestyle, and as he speaks to you about your longing. Let’s look at the servant’s longing. Let’s go back to verse 25 again. What does the Lord’s servant long for? What is his heart’s desire? He longs that, Paul writes, God may perhaps grant his opponents repentance. You hear the echo of Jesus in these words, don’t you? Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Now when you hear these words, “God may perhaps grant his opponents repentance,” don’t let what’s obvious escape your notice. Repentance is granted by God. Put it another way, repentance is the gift of God. Repentance is a gift, but you must personally exercise it. You must repent to be saved. There is no one that can repent for you. You must repent if you are going to be right with God. You must repent and you must long for every person you know to repent – those who are dear to you, those who are indifferent to you, those who are hostile to you. All of them, you must long for their repentance.
So it’s probably wise if we stop here for a moment and ask, “What is repentance?” Well Paul tells us. Repentance is a change from err to truth. Look at verse 25. Paul longs that God may perhaps grant his opponents repentance, leading to a “knowledge of the truth.” You must be able to say to people, not only the minister but you, the congregation, you must be able to say to people, “This doctrine is true; this doctrine is false.” We are always opposed to false teachers. This doctrine is true; this one is false. “This behavior is righteous; this behavior is unrighteous.” “This is the Gospel way that leads to eternal life, and this is the way of unbelief that leads to eternal death.” Repentance is a change from error to truth.
And repentance is also a change from spiritual stupor to spiritual sobriety. Look at verse 26. The Lord’s servant longs that his opponents may “come to their senses.” Repentance is coming to one’s senses. We mustn’t forget that sin deadens the spiritual senses. It blurs reality. It leaves us in a daze. The world is entirely turned upside down. Sin seems normal; holiness an aberration. Wickedness appears attractive; righteousness repulsive. Immorality is popular; godliness held in contempt. And we live in a society that must come to their spiritual senses. Sin deadens the spiritual senses. Well what brings us to our senses? Repentance. When we see who God is – holy, on the throne of righteousness, the one who will by His Son judge the living and the dead – when someone comes to their senses, they see God in all of His holiness, His majesty, His righteousness, His goodness and His truth. They come to their senses, and for the first time see who God is. And then they look at themselves – sinners, justly deserving God’s wrath and curse for their wickedness. They have a clear view for the first time of who they are. They have come to their senses, and then they see Jesus Christ offered in the Gospel – the Savior of sinners, the one by whose perfect life righteousness is won for us, the one by whose substitutionary death our sins are atoned for. Repentance brings us to our senses.
So you ask, “What is repentance?” It’s a change from err to truth. It’s a change from spiritual stupor to spiritual sobriety. And repentance is also a change from slavery to freedom. The Lord’s servant longs to see that his opponents may – look at verse 26 – “escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” Well what’s life like when we are doing the devil’s will? Well, we get a sense for that in verse 22. Paul commands Timothy to flee youthful passions. He’s talking about pride, greed, obsession with worldly status. He’s talking about sexual lust, making personal pleasure the center of one’s life. He’s talking about the abuse of drugs and alcohol. These are the youthful passions that the devil uses to entice, imprison and enslave a person for his entire life. They leave a man or a woman doing the devil’s will, their eyes blinded to the glory of God, their hearts hardened to His Word, their ears are deaf to the Word of God.
And these are the people that you long to see repent. You’re burdened by them; you pray for them; you witness to them. You long to see them saved. And perhaps you, like me, memorized that verse when you were young, that simple verse with what I think has profound truth – “Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me, and may I gladly do my part to win that soul for Thee.” That’s the longing of the servant of the Lord. Is it your longing? As you think about all the lost people you know, is it your longing that they come to repentance? Won’t you listen to the words of a dying man as he speaks to you about your longings?
Well tonight I’ve spoken to you, the Lord’s servants. I’ve asked you to listen to the words of a dying man. It’s my desire, I know it’s the desire of the pastoral staff and all the officers of the church that you live a life in the coming year devoted to God. And so I’ve asked you to listen to the words of this dying man, Paul, as he speaks to you about your Lord, about your lifestyle, and about your longing.
Henry Martin was a man who was saved while a student at Cambridge University. He was saved under the ministry of Charles Simeon. I spoke to you earlier about him. Martin’s 18th century missionary diary influenced many to become missionaries, including Jim Elliot. I doubt Henry Martin would be accepted for service by missionary organizations today; I really doubt it. You see, he was shy, he found speaking about Christianity intimidating, his chronic illnesses and fatigue only made things worse. But he believed the Lord who said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” He believed the Lord. Henry Martin arrived in Calcutta in April 1806. He would die in Turkey less than 7 years later at the age of 31. But what he accomplished in those 7 short years! He ministered the Gospel to both English citizens living in India and to the indigenous population in their own language. Hospitals were visited. Often neglected members of Indian society were cared for. Schools for Indian children were established. When given the chance, Martin presented and defended the Gospel before Islamic and Hindu teachers and political authorities. What a remarkable ministry he had in such a short amount of time.
Before leaving Calcutta for Persia, Henry Martin commissioned a portrait of himself and he sent it to his beloved pastor and friend, Charles Simeon. Simeon took it and he placed it over the fireplace in the most prominent place in his study at King’s College Cambridge. Visitors would come to see Simeon and he would point to the picture and say, “See that blessed man? He never takes his eyes off me. No one looks at me like he does. And he seems to be saying always, ‘The years are short. Be serious. Be earnest. Don’t trifle. Don’t trifle.’” And then Simeon would say to his guest, “And I won’t trifle and I won’t trifle.”
2024 has flown by, 2025 is almost upon us, so now is the time for you and for me to take stock of our lives, to think about matters of eternal consequence – about our Lord, about our lifestyle, about our longing. Now is the time to renew your commitment to a life devoted to God. As you begin the new year, here’s my challenge to you. Be serious about your service to the Lord. Be in earnest in seeking the salvation of your fellow sinners. And don’t trifle with the things of God. Don’t trifle.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen, and let us pray.Almighty God, we look back over the year that You have granted us. We thank You for the opportunities that You have given us to serve You, but we look forward to this coming year. We pray that You will make it a year in which we grow in our love for our Savior, that with determined commitment we seek to live holy lifestyles, and O grant us as individuals and as a congregation the longing to see men and women, boys and girls, come to know with us the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. And this we ask in His name, amen.