God will still be in
charge
sermon by
Manfred Schreyer
>>
2 Tim 4:1 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 men 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.
History:
- Paul is a
Prisoner in Rome at about 64 A.D. He has been in prison for an extended period
of time.
- He has received a visit from the Ephesians church by Onesiphorus, who had
cheered him with frequent visits.
- The charge against Paul is not clear . . . it may have been of being a
Christian
- The end of Paul’s trial is at sight, so he writes his friend (son) Timothy, to
bid him farewell and to charge him for Christ’s sake.
- Timothy is in charge of the church in Ephesus.
Paul is charging Timothy with these words and he makes him take an oath to follow the will of Jesus who will judge the living and the dead.
The real word for the word preach from the Greek (kerusso) is really "to herald," especially divine truth as a public crier. To be unashamed and to give it to all. To be the ambassador of God and to bring the message of God to humankind.
This means to proclaim the Gospel in and out of season. . . .welcome or not welcome, it means anytime.
To do so one must be sound in understanding the Gospel. If facts are wrong, they have to be corrected. Rebuking does not mean to tone a sin or heresy down it means to rebuke.
It does not mean to accept or to allow or to include or to be quite about it. The word rebuke comes from the Greek epitimao, which means: "to forbid and to censor it."
This does not mean to denounce the individual as Paul says, but to teach them in patience and in love. But nevertheless not to allow their lies about the Gospel to be spread.
Well, what is the core message to God to us as humankind? Just think for a minute. If you could place the message of God for us in one sentence. How would these sentences read?
Here is mine: The message from God has to do with redemptive truth, which deals with sin and damnation, with the necessity of inner change, etc.
And when any of these components are changed within our church or within our Christian faith then we are to step in and follow the account of Paul.
Let us look at this world and let us look if it has affected our churches. Let us see if it has infiltrated our faith and what Paul would say about the things he charged us and especially our ministers with:
Below are some basic beliefs of secular humanism
(1) Denies the deity of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Some Christians believe that there could be multiple Gods: For us, for Buddhists, for Hindus, . . .some do not believe in the inspiration of the bible, but believe it was written as a political agenda, or with errors and needs constant reinterpreting.
As much as I like the biblical NRSV translation, this translation does not translate "virgin" in Isaiah . They translated it as "young." Though the translation maybe true, the writer assumed at the time of writing that all young women were virgins.
For us as Christians it is important that Jesus came from a virgin. Leviticus makes it clear that a man must only marry a virgin. (Lev 21:13-14). But out of this new translation doubts among the faithful possibly arises which blemishes our Gospel.
(2) Denies the existence of the soul, life after death, salvation and heaven, damnation and hell.
When you believe that statement then you don’t believe that it matters what you do on this earth. You allow yourself that the stronger one survives and the weaker can suffer. There is no wrong and there can be no right. The fact is that salvation offers you a road which is guided. You know your destination and you act accordingly.
Looking at the landscape of believers today there is the denomination of Universalists that believes we are all saved and there is no hell.
There are churches which do not tell their audiences anymore that there is a final judgment. There are churches where salvation is not preached anymore and there are members in denominations who have no concept of what it means to be saved.
Allow me to say this: I am here to proclaim the Gospel. I am here to proclaim life after death and salvation and damnation! That is the core message for us from God and that is what we are to proclaim to humankind. There is no universal salvation:
2 Th 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. [9] They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power [10] on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed
(3) Believes that there are no absolutes, no right, no wrong -- that moral values are self-determined and situational. Do your own thing, "as long as it does not harm anyone else."
It really follows the argument that there is no life after death, no accountability in this life or thereafter. I the statement "as long as it does not harm anyone else" ironic, because if there are no right or wrongs then you are about to hurt someone who has a different understanding.
When we make up our own understanding of right and wrong, we fall for our desires that please us. It is needless to say that our actions may have long-lasting implications upon generations to come.
In our churches we discuss what is possibly sin what is possibly not sin instead of looking toward the face of God and asking him for His will and His commands, which are really clearly defined in the 10 commandments and in the beatitudes.
The Gospel tells us that we are to love our God and that we shall love each other as God loves us, AND that is the only action that does not harm anyone else. When we love God, we follow His will for us and we do not have to worry if we harm others, because God’s will for us is perfect.
(4) Believes in removal of distinctive roles of male and female.
After years of outcries of feminists that women have to liberate themselves, women are now stepping up to the plate and are telling their story. They tell us that some of the promises were lies. Women can’t have it all, just as man can’t have it all.
Psychologists are finding out what impact life has on their children without their mother or a female role, what tremendous impact breast feeding has on the health and intellectual advancement of children, and many women are disappointed in their new found role as a liberated role.
(5)
Believes in sexual freedom between consenting individuals, regardless of age, including premarital sex, homosexuality and lesbianismHomosexual activities have brought a great plague of aids among us. Though the disease is now also among heterosexuals, it the result of a sinful activity and started in the homosexual society
And although almost all of us recognize homosexuality as a sin we now encourage it in a way of not rebuking the action and even to possibly allow homosexuals to become ministers.
Premarital sex has brought more diseases to our teens then any other disease.
(6) Believes in the right to abortion, euthanasia (mercy killing), and suicide.
"This is my body I can do with it whatever I want to do."
To a large degree some of us in our churches have bought into this argument. And that is truly interesting, because this argument sums it all up: I am my own god, this is my body, I can kill life (even though I have not created it) and I can be the master of my and other’s destiny.
As you can see we as the churches have bought into the idea of secular humanism, because we wanted to be inclusive. Why? Because we were afraid, we would diminish in numbers. But our charge according to Paul is not to accept sin, but to defend and proclaim the ONLY TRUTH: The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We wanted to be accepting of those who sin. But what we have done is brought sin into our faith community. We first tolerated sin and then we have accepted it as normative behavior among us and we are unidentifiable in this world. We have lost our identity as those who are saved.
I ask all of us to start anew, with ourselves. To evaluate our relationship with the will of God and not our desires. To make changes! And then to proclaim the "Truth" as Paul asked Timothy to do.
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