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HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
7. 2 Timothy (Legacy)
Last week we noted that in Paul’s letters to young apprentices,
they were concerned with two things: One was truth
preservation and two was pastoral succession.
Three levels of pastoral succession in operation:
- There is Paul, who gives authoritative instruction built on
his unique qualifications as an Apostle. Then,
- There were Paul’s young apprentices, Timothy and Titus who are to receive this
truth and pass it along. Then
- There are Church Leaders (Elders also called, Presbyters, Bishops or
Overseers and Deacons, also called Servants or Ministers) as those who are
charged with encouraging others in sound doctrine and refuting those who
oppose it.
Now, as you can see, the first branch of succession is most important, right? The
Apostolic Branch. It’s special. While all further generations of leaders are to guard and
pass on the truth, the Apostles got to deliver that truth once for all time (Jude 3).
- That’s why the early church was devoted to the apostles teaching (Acts 4:42).
But here’s a problem: If that first branch of Apostolic succession is so important, what
happens when it dies out? That’s the main issue in these Pastoral letters. The
death of Paul is lurking behind every one of them but especially behind the last one,
2 Timothy. He knows his time is short.
He says,
2 Tim 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time
has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that
day…
So what now? If there’s a unique role for the apostles to play, how can they play it
when they’ve been dead for 2000 years? Thank God, what the apostles taught was
written down and we have it preserved for us in the New Testament. So Apostle’s
Teaching = Scripture.
Which is why Scripture holds such an important place in the life of the Church. Even
Paul put himself under Scripture (ironic, since his own writings would be added to the
corpus of Scripture one day). He says to Timothy:
2 Tim 3:13-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have
become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and
how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make
you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed
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and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So, some of you will say… OK, job done. No pastoral succession required. Once
the early church formed the Canon of Scriptures we no longer have to be concerned
with succession, because they collected the Apostle’s teaching for us and every
succeeding generation.
Isn’t this the only legacy we ever need worry about?
LEGACY
In short, no. What if God would have just encoded his plan of salvation in our DNA?
That would have preserved it for all generations too! But is that the only succession
plan required? No. What’s missing?
What’s missing is transmission, translation, communication, discipleship, which
all come through? Relationship.
Which is why Paul very specifically wants Timothy to care about discipleship even
though he had a Bible to refer everyone to. He says:
2 Tim 2:2 You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by
many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are
able to pass them on to others.
To every person here I want to say this… along the way of your Christian life, someone
reached a hand down to you to lift you up, mature you, bless you. They found
themselves in this verse… adding another link in this chain. So each of us is called to
one hand up and one hand down.
- One hand reaching up to the person coaching us, the person who will see
our potential and teach us great truths and unleash us for Christ… and
- One hand reaching down, to the person just behind us, the person you can
pour your life into, help disciple.
This is how it keeps on going. This is the legacy we leave behind. Not just a Bible on a
shelf. But LIVING BIBLES, disciples, who have been poured into… pouring into others.
So, who’s in your succession plan? You say, “I’ve got nothing, Rick. I haven’t been in
the faith long enough.” You’ve got a thimbleful at least… you could pour that, couldn’t
you? I’ve been talking for 10 minutes so I KNOW you have a thimbleful…
If you’re stuck on this… let’s talk about pastoral succession from the Master for a
minute.
JESUS SUCCESSION PLAN
Let me ask you something. Why did Jesus spend all his time with 12 guys? Couple of
years ago, a seeker asks me: why did Jesus deliberately not spend time with a
Samaritan woman? He shunned her. Called her a dog! He didn’t want to spend time
with her. “You think that’s bad,” I said, “you should see the number of the Jews he
didn’t want to hang around with…!”
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Look at the story, friends. Jesus pours his life into 12 guys. Which is wild when you
think about it. This is the Son of God, here. Savior of the WORLD. Yet Jesus said,
- I’m not going to go to Joppa,
- I’m not traveling to the town of Dan,
- I’m just going to pass through Samaria,
- I’m not going to camp out for 10 years in Jerusalem talking to the scholars,
- I’m not going to make a missionary trip to Rome.
- Here’s what I am going to do, I’m going to pour my life into 12 young Jewish
men.
Aside from His mission of the cross, they were the focus of his life. WHY? Because he
loved them more than the other 65 million people on the planet at that time? NO. It
was.
…Because he was leaving the planet in 40 months.
What if a shrewd businessman knows he’s going to be transferred in 40 months? What
will he do? Does he go about business as usual? No. He puts an amazing amount of
effort into a succession plan. Who will replace him? He puts his finger on a few likely
candidates and he pours what some will say is excessive amounts of energy into them.
But he knows, the future depends on it.
So check this out: at the end of the 40 months, Jesus turns the keys to the Kingdom
over to 12… rookies. Fishermen, second rate revolutionaries, government workers.
Come on, Jesus you can do better than that! But this is what Jesus did, he hands the
Kingdom over to people like impetuous Peter, tax collector Matthew, Simon who
belonged to a terrorist organization!
The point is, he did this, after only 40 months of training! I mean let’s grapple with this,
because some of you think you’re not competent to lead, you’re not qualified to pass it
on, you haven’t arrived yet. Well, Jesus unleashed people just like you to change the
world after only 40 months. Paul set elders in churches after just 18 months in the
faith!
What if right now, you and I were given 40 months to live? We go to the doctor and are
pronounced terminal. What happens to AC3? It will be dead, of course. If we’re dead,
the church is dead.. UNLESS, we set in motion a plan now to turn the church over;
- every elder position,
- every small group position,
- every ministry position
o to someone else who would have to have been in the church 40 months or
less – because that’s all we’d have.
Some of you know this. A visit to the doctors office can sure change your perspective
on your legacy, can’t it? Thank God it’s real likely we’re not all going to die in 40
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months, we don’t have to focus on legacy like Paul was. But I tell you this. Shouldn’t
we? Shouldn’t we pursue disciple making as if we were??!
Men and women, Jesus put the future of disciple making in YOUR hands when he
called your name and said,
“go into all the world and make disciples! Don’t be satisfied with
decisions, big worship attendance, or nice buildings. Make disciples! And
teach them to obey everything I commanded you.”
When Christians get this Commission, they start to act like parents not children, they
take responsibility for others, and for the future of the church. They think about
legacy. What am I leaving behind? And they are no longer intimidated by their past,
their gender, or their age but hear Paul as said to Timothy,
1 Tim 4:12 “Disciple, don't let anyone look down on you because you’re young,
but set an example for others in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
MY DISCIPLERS
Richard Enns;
Al MacLean;
Doug Wiebe
Steve Wile
Merinda Braun;
Ken McKorkle;
These are hugely important people. But you’ve never heard about them. But their
names are etched on my heart – they’re not all best friends, but I know who they are,
and I know what they do, and I keep track of where they are; they’re spread from
Quebec to Vancouver. Who are they? They are my disciplers.
- They were the Morpheus to my Neo,
- The Miagee to my Karate Kid,
- The Obi Wan to my Anikan Skywalker
- The Paul to my Timothy.
Think about the disciple makers in your life. Who’s on your list? Name their names in
your mind. Now, think of another list… on whose list, are you?? When everyone has
a hand up and a hand down, then the circle of disciple making will be complete.
And you won’t be able to stop this church!
NO TRANSFORMATION; NO DISCIPLESHIP
But I believe there’s a crisis in the American church and it has to do with the fact that
- we don’t think about the disciple making circle.
- We think about what we get out of our faith
o Not what someone else is getting out of our faith.
So we’ve been seduced to the point where people sit in chairs, soak up music and
sample the teaching, taste test the programs, assent to a few beliefs and they think
that’s Christianity. And many voices in the Church today are saying, it’s a problem.
J. I. PACKER
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on his 80th birthday, said that the greatest challenge of evangelicalism is to re-catechize
our churches. More than ever, Christians cannot speak intelligently and courageously
about the hope that lies within.
BILLY GRAHAM:
95% of all Christians live defeated lives.
FRANCIS CHAN
Some people claim that we can be Christians without necessarily becoming disciples. I
wonder then, why the last thing Jesus told us was to… go into the world making
disciples of all nations, teaching them to OBEY ALL that he commanded? You’ll notice
that he didn’t add, “but hey, if that’s too much to ask, tell them to just become Christians
– you know, the people who get to heaven without having to commit to anything.”
BILL HULL (pastor of Green Valley church in San Diego):
the evangelical church is weak, self indulgent and superficial. I believe this crisis in the
church is one of product, the kind of people being produced. American churches are
filled with pew-filling, sermon-tasting, spiritual schizophrenics, whose belief and
behavior are not congruent.
GEORGE BARNA:
My research has found
- Christians support the idea that I’m free to do whatever pleases me as long
as it does not hurt others.
- Christians support the idea that nothing in life is more important than having
fun and being happy.
- Christians support the idea that the more you have the more successful you
are.
o What I also found was the proportion of Christians who affirm these values
is identical to the proportion of non-Christians who hold similar views. So
how meaningless has Christianity been in the lives of millions of professed
believers?
SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN?
You look around the church in America today, and tell me you can’t see the same thing?
Blurred lines of distinction between professed Christians and non-Christians on a values
level. I see Christians
- use of money,
- priorities of time,
- attitudes about work and leisure,
- sex and divorce and remarriage,
- increasingly reflect the culture, rather than Christ.
Something is drastically wrong! What went wrong? I believe two problems.
- One is theological and
- the other is practical.
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The theological problem is this:
CONVERSION VS. DISCIPLESHIP
We developed a firewall in our thinking between being a believer and being a disciple.
Like you could be a Christian and have no signs of repentance in your life. We even
coined a term to describe this non-disciple believer:
Carnal Christian.
I believe there’s certainly baby Christians out there. No one starts their Christian life a
fully devoted disciple. We stumble as we grow. But how did we ever separate
conversion from discipleship? Jesus never did:
Matt 10:38 “and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy
of me.”
DISCIPLES MUST BE MADE
So if the theological crisis is “decisions and not disciples,” then what is the solution?
More disciple MAKERS. Which means – every disciple in this room, becomes a
disciple maker.
But how? Jesus said it: “MAKE disciples.” It doesn’t just happen. They don’t just
show ready to play – you’re going to have to TEACH them “everything I’ve commanded
you…” Jesus said. If we’re going to reverse the trends, it begins with catalyzing an
army of disciple MAKERS. You’re it… Tag – you’re it!
But again, you ask, how?: Mark 3:14 Jesus simple strategy is outlined:
He appointed twelve — designating them apostles-that they might be with him
and that he might send them out to preach
- Relationship.
- Unleashing.
o Knowing
o Sending
It’s a two fold strategy of succession. We can’t just print more Bibles and call it good.
- You’re going to have to BE with someone. And
- you’re going to have to at some point, SEND them out, hand it off, give them
real responsibility in the Kingdom.
Paul certainly was doing Jesus succession plan model:
2 Tim 3:10-14 But you know what I teach, Timothy, and how I live, and what my
purpose in life is. You know my faith and how long I have suffered. You know
my love and my patient endurance. … you must remain faithful to the things you
have been taught.
Let me ask you something?
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- How DOES Timothy KNOW all this stuff about Paul? Friends, it’s
Relationship. They did life together.
- How is Timothy in a position of influencing others? Paul put him there!
o Relationship / Unleashing.
o Knowing / Sending
So I’m calling each of us to focus less on who’s doing this for me, and focus more on
who am I doing this for? This is the great adventure! Welcome to it. It will give you a
stake in the succession of the greatest institution in the history of the human race, the
Church. Come in. Play your role. Carry the ball for the time God has given you, and
then ask:
- who will you pass it off to?
You have just a moment on the stage… other actors will follow. How will you leave the
church for them? It’s never too soon to think about Legacy. And if we do, then we too
will have a day where we can say:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day
