WADING RIVER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

SERMONS IN PRINT

Peter Vibert 3/19/06

2 Timothy 3:10-4:8 “In View of His Appearing”

In an earlier life in science, I developed a fondness for models – not plastic or clay objects, but simplified pictures of how things work, which can often suggest principles you might not otherwise think of. In theology, models also have their place – you probably have heard or thought of ones yourself to describe the Trinity, or the human and divine natures of Christ.

There are models of time and history in the Bible that I have found helpful. One used often in the latter part of the OT is of “the two ages”: the Present Age, and the Age to Come. The present age is full of struggle, evil often seems to win, and God’s people often suffer. In the age to come, God sets the world to rights, he destroys evil, and he reigns in righteousness. The Age to Come is inaugurated by the great Day of the LORD, when God’s Messiah appears to judge the world and establish peace and justice.

This model of history changes in an important way in the NT. Messiah has come, the Age to Come has begun, but – here is the difference – the Present Age has not ended. The two ages now overlap - with all the resulting confusion that you might expect! One day, Jesus the Messiah will come again, the Present Age will end, and the Age to Come will be prevail. Meanwhile, the times between the first and second comings of Messiah are often called “the Last Days” – although that term is also used to describe a last-minute eruption of evil before the Second Coming.

If it is true that we live simultaneously in the Present Age and in the Age to Come, then a lot of otherwise puzzling things become clearer. We now have a taste of the future world, but we still struggle in this fallen one. And this is true of the world, of the church, and of our individual lives. We know that Christ has done all that is needed to save us, and that he has won the decisive battle with the powers of evil, yet we often do not feel saved. The Age to Come has broken into history, yet much of the world goes on as though it had not. The church marches forward, and billions hear the gospel, yet confusion, weakness, and sin plague all churches.

Theologians have coined a little expression for this state of affairs: “already, but not yet.” We are already saved, but we are not yet saved. Christ has already established the Kingdom of God on earth, but it is not yet present in power and purity. Then the question for us becomes “how do you live in the in-between-times, in the already-but-not-yet?” We will talk for several weeks about the way the Apostle Paul wrestled with that question, as he began to realize that the overlap of the two Ages was going to continue for a while, and that Jesus would not return in glory and power in his lifetime. We must then, says Paul in a variety of texts, learn to live “in view of his appearing.” As believers, we must never forget that we live in anticipation of the day when “the Lord will appear” or “be revealed” in glory.

1) Holding on to the Truth

In Paul’s letter to his young colleague Timothy, who has been with him on many journeys but is now leader of the church in the city of Ephesus, Paul says that his own race will soon be over, and so he wants to encourage Timothy in his. Today’s passage focuses on Timothy’s need to defend the truth of the gospel in the last days.

In the last days, Paul can already see, truth will become a scarce commodity. Deception and lies will be everywhere, and people will embrace leaders who tell them what they want to hear. Does that sound familiar? Just as the Roman Empire of the 1^st C was already declining from within, we too live in an age where the foundations are shifting, where most people do not know the truth about anything.

Our culture works this out in many ways. Philosophically, the intellectuals teach our children in college that there is no Truth, only your story and my story; no meaning to history, only the power of one group over another; no right and wrong, only your preferences and my preferences. Politically, the people we elect to govern us at every level quickly learn to speak only what they determine from polls that we want to hear. Principles are non-existent, pragmatism and political advantage are all that count, power is the only thing worth holding onto. Appearance matters more than substance, “spin” is the only skill that matters, and truth has no meaning.

Sadder yet, churches follow the same trends. Cafeteria religion, where you can pick and choose what suits your tastes, takes over from creeds and doctrines. Consumerism dilutes faith, and our emphasis on individual choice means that we “church-shop” until we find a place that “feels right” and “meets our needs.” The idea that in fact we ought to fit ourselves to the ancient and firmly held creeds and doctrines of the church, rather than to select what suits us, never enters our heads. Churches “market” their “products,” but are then surprised at the constant flow of people in and out through what one theologian calls “the revolving doors of our churches” (David F. Wells).

So here we are – all formerly some other flavor of Christian – trying out different ways of “doing church” to see which we like best. If there were ever any “truth” issues that distinguished one church from another, we either have forgotten what they were or don’t care any more. Today methods take over from content; how we do things matters more than what they are.

2) Myths and Fables

As Paul recognized in his day, instead of tying ourselves to the truth, we prefer the myths and fables of the world.

There are many available today. I am an autonomous being, I am all that matters, my “self” and my choices are the most important things in the world, and they trump any outside authority, including God. I will decide for myself what is good for me, and I am free to pursue happiness my way. If my spouse is a pain or a hindrance, I will get another one. If my job is boring, I will quit. If I am asked to commit to an action a month from now, I will either wait until the last moment to agree, or I will do so now with the mental reservation that if something more important to me turns up, I will do that instead. If I am President, I can sign new laws while saying under my breath that I have no intention of being bound by them.

And if my self-centeredness occasionally makes the inner me feel a little lonely and empty, I can always – I imagine - satisfy it with one of those great American pastimes: shopping or sports or sex. (shopping: I would guess that within 20 miles of here, you would find more shops and more merchandise than in entire nations in parts of Africa and Asia. Sports: it’s great to play sports, but how many TV channels, how many pages of every newspaper – national and local – are filled with professional sports every day? Sex: as the government is about to learn from Google, up to 1/3 of all Google searches are reported to be for pornographic websites…) But we imagine that one of these will fill the hours, perhaps even the void, that I feel in my life. And if their pleasures last only a short time, I can always repeat them - over and over. In fact, my life has to move faster than ever these days, because there is so much to do! I have to drive here, and drive there; I have to work this weekend; we have to go on vacation to the sunshine next week; I have so much to do to get the yard in shape this Spring; the living room needs a complete makeover; and I have to get to the grocery store, to Weight Watchers and to the gym today. Life is very busy! And the traffic going to the Mall; the backups on the LIE in the evenings... it’s all quite exhausting! No wonder I feel like sleeping for 15 hours at a stretch.

3) Pursue the Truth

Myths and fables about “the good life” are everywhere, and millions of harried people are rushing about in pursuit of them. God forbid that in the church we should fall into the same trap, either individually or as a congregation. More busy-ness and more hustle do not necessarily get us anywhere important. More choices, more comfort, even more “excellent programs” do not make for a true church.

Paul told Timothy, and the Bible tells us, to hang onto the Truth. First and foremost that means Jesus Christ. It means seeing our lives in the light of his appearing - in the past and in the future, in the world and in our lives. He has broken into our lives, and we must now live for him until the day he appears for us in the clouds or we appear before him after death. Our call is to run the race he has set out for us, to finish our course well, to “keep the faith,” and so to receive the victor’s laurel wreath, the “crown of righteousness” that he is holding for us at the finishing line. It matters that we “finish well.” Being “born again” may start the Christian life, but ending well is the goal.

We must hold onto Christ who is the Truth, and we must hold onto the truth he spoke and that God has spoken to his people through the ages. “All Scripture,” Paul reminds Timothy, “is God-breathed” – the very definition of what we mean when we say Scripture is “inspired.” God has “breathed,” or if you prefer, “enlivened by his Spirit” the writers and the words of Scripture –to us the OT and the NT. We must hold onto these words, speak them, learn them, digest them, obey them, live by them. We must use them to teach one another, to correct one another, to guide one another. We must appeal to one another’s minds, consciences, wills to conform to the Word of God.

We must “keep our heads” and do the ministry that God has called us to in Christ. We must ensure that the Word is taught to the next generation and the one after that. Timothy was a believer who had been raised by a Christian mother (Eunice) and a Christian grandmother (Lois), and who had been taught the Scriptures since childhood. As a man he was taken under Paul’s wing and made a fellow-worker for the Gospel. He is a good example of a “second generation” Christian, who may never have had Paul’s “Damascus Road” conversion, but in the 35 years or so that had elapsed since Jesus lived, died and rose again, Timothy been brought up to know the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We too, whether we are a Paul or a Timothy, must patiently and carefully learn and then teach the truth of the gospel of Jesus, so that we can not only order our own lives, but also shape the lives of the people God makes us responsible for. They may be in our families, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in our churches. We have to be prepared “in season and out of season” (it is not always easy!) to learn, to defend, to teach and to explain the truths of God – so that people will be rescued from their frantic pursuits of they-know-not-what, from the fog of confusion and deceit that suffocates them, from the illusion that they are the center of the universe and that the world owes them a comfortable living.

And if we are going to teach the truth about the world, we had better know it deeply ourselves, as we try to make sense of these days of living in the Present Age and the Age to Come.

Let us pray...