Recently I taught my oldest son, Jeremiah, to iron. A man should know how to iron a shirt, so I set out to teach him. I taught him how to progress through different parts of the shirt, how to use the steam function, and how to lay the shirt on the ironing board. I taught him the potential challenges of which to be aware. I also told him that the key to ironing well is in how you use the iron to your benefit.
Well, Paul is continuing to teach Timothy how to live and lead as a faithful servant of God, and he’s continuing to do so in today’s passage. He’s told him how to lead the church well. Today, he’ll tell Timothy of challenges that he can expect along the way. Then, he’ll remind Timothy of the key to being a faithful servant of God: the Bible.
As we journey through this passage, let’s pay attention as we discover “The Great Future Hope of the Christian.”
Pray with me before we go any further, and let’s ask God to speak to us.
(prayer)
Ok, let’s look at the passage together. Let’s read all of 2 Timothy 3. Follow along as I read:
1 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.
6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions, 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth. They are men who are corrupt in mind and worthless in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be clear to all, as was the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres.
10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all. 12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
I want us to pay attention to four discoveries in this passage.
First, let’s discover that . . .
I. The future for Christians will be challenging.
Paul has told us this before. Jesus has told us this before.
Yet, Paul wants to make sure that Timothy understands this, so he comes back to it again.
Paul says in verse 1, “But know this: Hard times will come in the last days.”
Hard times will come, church; we must not be surprised.
Paul speaks of these hard times coming in the last days. Well, when are the last days?
I really like the way the New American Commentary explains “the last days.” It says, “In the New Testament the phrase [the last days] refers to that entire time from the completion of Christ’s redemptive work until his return.”
In other words, we are in the last days now, and the church has been in the last days since Jesus went back into heaven. Jesus Christ will return, and we are one day closer to that time today than we were yesterday. We are in the “last days.”
Paul then goes on to describe how people will behave. They will “be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Well, we’ve already started to see all of these types of behaviors, haven’t we?
Church, there are some out there who believe that the world will get progressively better for Christians until we approach the time of Jesus’ return, but the Bible seems to paint the opposite picture. It seems that things will get worse for the people of God.
Paul goes on further, in verses 12 and 13, to point out that “all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
There will be persecution for the Christian, there will be evil in the world, and there will be deception among those who profess to follow Jesus.
Some of you have not experienced much persecution. Indeed, most of us have not experienced much persecution for our faith.
So, what is Paul talking about here? Well, I’d like to make two comments that may help explain what Paul is saying:
First, persecution will come at different times, in different ways, to different followers of Jesus throughout the world. Not all persecution is the same.
Second, what Paul is talking about here is built on a general truth that faithfulness to God is not always received well by the ways of the world, and a devotion to the world is not compatible with devotion to God.
James reminds us of this truth in James 4:4 when he says, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.”
So, church, we must understand that as we get closer to Jesus in terms of our personal holiness and our intimacy with him, and as we get closer to the day that Jesus returns, things will get more difficult for us.
The future for Christians will be challenging.
Second, . . .
II. The folly of the godless will be clear.
Look again at verse 5. Paul says that these people will “[hold] to the form of godliness but [deny] its power.”
Here’s what I believe Paul means: these people are pretenders; they are fake Christians. In form, they appear to be Christians, but the power of God is not really in their lives. There is no change in their lives, there is no godliness in their lives, and there is no evidence of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.
Paul also speaks of those who “worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions.”
Now, Paul is certainly not saying that all women are gullible and overwhelmed by sin. However, there were certain women whom Paul was speaking about who were vulnerable to false teaching. These foolish false teachers took advantage of these women and deceived them.
Paul points out that eventually, the foolishness of these false teachers will be found out.
Paul compares these foolish people to two men named Jannes and Jambres. Although these men are not mentioned in the Bible, Jewish legend maintained that these were the names of the two magicians of the Egyptian pharaoh during the time of Moses and the Exodus.
You may remember that these magicians performed certain miraculous signs, but in the end, they could not keep up with the true power of God, as demonstrated through Moses. In the end, they were shown to be weak and worthless.
So, Paul says of these false teachers in verse 9, “for their foolishness will be clear to all.”
The folly of the godless, eventually, will be clear.
Third, . . .
III. The faith of the believer is in Christ.
Paul transitions here in verse 10 to speak of himself and Timothy.
Unlike these false teachers, Paul has been faithful. He has not sought to take advantage of others; rather he has endured persecution so that others may know of Jesus.
Paul has faith in Jesus, which led to faithfulness in how he lived.
He charges Timothy in verses 14-16, “14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Paul wants Timothy to thrive in his faith and as a servant of Jesus. So, he points Timothy back to that which changed his life in the first place, faith in Jesus Christ.
Church, the power of the gospel will change your life, and the gospel is found through faith in Jesus Christ! Timothy can thrive by having faith in Jesus!
Well, where did Timothy discover this faith in Jesus Christ? It was the holy Scriptures, which he had learned since he was a young child.
That brings us to our last discovery:
IV. The foundation of Scripture will make us complete.
Let us all recall this famous passage from verses 16 and 17:
16 All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Now, we must recognize that when Paul speaks of Scripture here, he is speaking of the Old Testament. At the time that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, the New Testament had not been compiled as we have it now.
The Old Testament, primarily written by Moses and the Old Testament prophets, was given by God to His people through the process of Him speaking through human authors.
So also, in the writing of the New Testament, the same Spirit of God inspired the apostles and the early church leaders, God’s servants, to write down God’s message for God’s people.
As the Old Testament is Scripture inspired by God, so also, the New Testament is Scripture inspired by God, that is “profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Church, the Bible must be the foundation on which we hear the message of Jesus and we build a life of godliness.
The Bible is the source by which we know that challenging times will come for Christians. The Bible is the evidence that points to the folly of false teachers. The Bible is the brightly lit path that takes us to the knowledge that Jesus Christ is our Savior and King!
What’s more, the Holy Spirit working through the Bible is the power by which we grow closer and closer to God, both in knowledge and in relationship.
Well, why is the Bible able to do this? Why is the Bible able to do such miraculous work? Because the Bible was given to us directly by God Himself.
When Paul says that the Scriptures are inspired by God, he uses the Greek word theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.”
theo = God
pneustos = breath, spirit, air
So, we must realize that God breathed out the Bible for us so that we might know Him and have a foundation upon which we can become complete.
If you want to be complete, complete in Jesus, complete in who you were created to be, complete in everything, go to the Bible; go to the foundation.
Let this bottom line summarize all that God is teaching us in this passage:
Bottom Line: Salvation in Jesus, as found in the Bible, is our great future hope.
There will be hardships ahead for God’s people, there will be false teachers . . . and there will be hope, as found in Jesus, as revealed in the Bible.
Child of God: don’t lose heart, find hope; and find that hope in Jesus; and find Jesus in the God-inspired Scriptures, made available to you.
Challenge yourself this week in the following ways:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Commit to a future of faithfulness.
Take some time this week and make an intentional decision to be faithful to God.
Perhaps just write the word faithful somewhere where you will see it. Perhaps invite someone else in your life to hold you accountable.
Do something to make an intentional decision to be faithful.
Weekly Challenge #2 – Seek to be made complete.
How are you made complete? You are made complete by the Word of God!
Be equipped for every good work. Be made complete as God prepares you through His Word.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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