2 Timothy 1:12-18 Suffering for the Mission

In Revelation Jesus encouraged them Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Now it was about a little over a hundred years later and they were suffering again.

Polycarp was 86 years old and had faithfully served as a pastor for several decades. He had seen some of his own people taken away and put to death.

Some were whipped so violently that their insides were made visible and even the crowds had pity and wept. But they themselves did not cry out, but endured faithfully.

Some were burned alive and others were torn by wild beasts.

One of them was a man named Germanicus and after he died the crowds raged yelling “Away with the atheists! Find Polycarp!”

You see, the Christians said Jesus alone was God. All other gods were false gods with no power to save. So the Romans called them atheists because they denied the gods of the Empire.

Now, when Polycarp first heard they were looking for him, he wanted to stay in town, but the church convinced him to flee.

Eventually, he was betrayed and they came to arrest him.

Polycarp offered them food and asked if he could pray for one more hour.

They took him to the arena, and the Roman proconsul urged him to recant. He said “Have respect for your age. Swear by the genius of Caesar; repent; say, 'Away with the atheists!’”

So Polycarp raised his 86 year old hand, motioned to the crowd, and said, “Away with the Atheists!”

Trying one last time the Proconsul said “Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile Christ!”

To which Polycarp said “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

The crowd rushed to build a pyre and as they were about to nail him to the wood, Polycarp said, “Leave me as I am; for the one who enables me to endure the fire will also enable me to remain on the pyre without moving.”

So they did not nail him, but tied him instead.

They lit the fire, and the Martyrdom of Polycarp tells us that the fire swirled around him, but did not touch him. So they ordered the executioner to stab him with a dagger.

And thus Polycarp became the twelfth person martyred in Smyrna.

He is just one Christian in a long line of martyrs. Just one Christian who suffered for the sake of the gospel.

How do all of them do it? How do they endure the shame and the suffering?

How would we if God so chose?

If we want to finish the mission, we will need to suffer for the gospel wherever God has called us.

Persecution is already ramping up in our culture.

Have you heard them compare Christianity to the Taliban?

Have you seen the articles that say Evangelical Christians are to blame for vaccine hesitancy?

And if you don’t think we are starting to see persecution ramping up, ask yourself, What would happen if your family, friends, or work knew what you really believe?

Would you be nervous? Would you lose friendships? Would you be fired or canceled?

We need to prepare ourselves to suffer for the gospel. The question is How?

How do we not be ashamed, finish the mission, and suffer faithfully as the pressure ramps up to shut up about Christ and be embarrassed about the gospel?

2 Timothy 1:12-18 tells us three things we need to do to not be ashamed, in share in suffering for Christ wherever and however God has called us.

1. We need to boldly fulfill our calling.

2. We need to Guard the Faith entrusted to us

and 3. Remember God’s promise of mercy in Christ.

Let’s start with point number 1, if we want to suffer faithfully for the gospel the first thing we need to do is...

I. Boldly Fulfill Your Calling

2 Timothy 1:8-9; 10-12 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling...through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

Paul’s overarching idea in this passage is clear.

Timothy, don’t shrink back! Don’t be ashamed. Fulfill your ministry. Live out your calling. Suffer for the gospel, and finish the mission.

The whole point of this book is Paul passing the torch to Timothy.

Ever since Jesus saved him on the road to Damascus, Paul has given his entire life to the mission of God.

To make Disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything God has commanded us.

And now Paul is about to die. And he needs Timothy to take up the torch, and finish the mission.

Proclaim the gospel. Save sinners. And Disciple them to follow Christ in every sphere of their life. To live all of their lives for the glory of God.

That is the mission of God. And that is the mission God has called every Christian to give their lives to wherever God has placed them.

You might say, “Well I’m not a pastor. I’m not an apostle. I’m not a missionary.” No. But you have a part to play in the Kingdom of God.

You have been saved by Christ. You have been entrusted with the Great Commission. And you have been gifted with spiritual gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish exactly what God has promised.

To bless all the families of the earth, and to save the nations through life, death, and resurrection of the King of kings and Lord of lords Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay at home mom. A business owner with employees entrusted to you. A school teacher. Church leader. Or Missionary to an unknown tribe. All of us are called, gifted, empowered by the Holy Spirit to make disciples.

As the great baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon said Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor.

Its worth listening to what Spurgeon said around this idea.

If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself; you will be whispering it into your child’s ear; you will be telling it to your husband; you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent; your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all...If thou knowest Christ, thou art as one that has found honey; thou wilt call others to taste of it.

That is the mentality all of us have to have. All of us should see our lives as Kingdom lives. Everywhere we go, every situation we find ourselves in, our burden should be that of our Lord who came to seek and save the lost.

Our burden should be to make disciples everywhere people need Christ. To bring people to Jesus and to help them follow Jesus.

Paul felt this burden for the mission. This burden for people dead in their sins to know Christ. And this burden made Paul say, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed.

To feel the weight of this, you need to connect this to what Paul said in verse 8. Paul is using himself as an example to encourage Timothy, to boldly fulfill his calling, his orders, his part to play in the mission of God.

Paul commanded Timothy, Do not be ashamed, but share in suffering for the gospel.

There’s a negative - positive here. Don’t do this. Do do this. Don’t be ashamed. Share in suffering.

This is a call for boldness. Courage. A sold out commitment to the mission of God no matter what comes our way. And when the church boldly goes forward with the gospel, we will suffer.

The question is, when we face that suffering, will we be ashamed. Will we shrink back? Fear man. And hide the light God has given us in Christ, under a basket?

But if we are going to suffer faithfully, I think we need a biblical definition of what suffering for the gospel really is.

Because the American church today has a very limited view of suffering and persecution.

And because our standard of persecution is basically being thrown in prison or being killed for the gospel, I think most Christians are actually disobeying Paul’s command to not be ashamed without even realizing it.

What does it mean to suffer for the gospel?

Surely it means prison and martyrdom. Surely. There are brothers and sisters all over the world today facing that fate.

But if that’s our only standard, if that’s the only thing persecution is, then what we are doing is unknowingly cutting ourselves off from the very comfort and promises that can help us endure the lesser persecutions we face in our lives.

So instead, we suffer, but we don’t know we suffer. And because we don’t know we suffer, we don’t take hold of the promises by faith, and the persecution we face does exactly what it is designed to do. Make us feel ashamed and shut us up about Christ and his gospel.

Hear how Jesus defined persecution.

Matthew 5:10-12 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Notice what Jesus said. It’s not just prison and its not just death. Persecution suffering for righteousness sake. What is that? Its obedience to Christ!

So we can suffer for the gospel itself. We can preach the word and be thrown in prison. Or killed.

But persecution also include what we suffer for worshiping God with a clear conscience. What we suffer to obey him.

So for example. If you have a coworker who is a homosexual and they are having a party of what the state allows to be called marriage even though according to God its not a marriage but an abomination.

And you don’t go because you know to do so would be to celebrate sin and disobey the Lord.

And because of that decision to obey Christ you now have tension in the workplace. You’re ostracized. People think you’re a hate-filled bigot. Its just a wedding why couldn’t you go. That shame the world tries to put on you is persecution.

And the world persecutes us not just with prison and death, but with words. With reviling. Uttering all kinds of evil against us falsely on account of Christ.

You’re mean. Unloving. Self-righteous. An evil person, all because you wanted to obey the Lord and not sin against him.

But to hear the way most Christians talk about it, you aren’t actually suffering for the gospel until maybe you’re fired.

Now what I’m not arguing for is a martyr complex. We shouldn’t go out looking for persecution thinking it gives us extra Jesus points.

We also shouldn’t be like the world claiming our victimhood and airing our grievances all the time about how offended or hurt we are. By all means, if you’re discriminated against in your job, use the means available to you to make it right.

But at the end of the day when you suffer, the answer is not to get even. Vengeance is mine, I will repay declares the Lord.

Our job is to rejoice and be glad for your reward is great and heaven.

So persecution is anything we suffer from the world for righteousness’ sake.

That can be for preaching the gospel. Everyone agrees with that. That’s commonly what we think of when we talk about persecution.

But it can also be anything we suffer for obeying Christ and living before him with a clear conscience.

And that persecution can take the form of imprisonment and death, or just ridicule, reviling, and shame from the world.

And the goal of persecution, however it comes, is always the same. To make us ashamed of Christ and his gospel.

To make us want to hide. Shrink back. Disappear, and be forgotten.

We’ve all seen it. We’ve all been a part of it. Think about when your kid makes a scene at the grocery store. They’re yelling, and crying, being disrespectful…its embarrassing.

Even when its not your kid, even when you don’t have kids, its so embarrassing everyone turns their face in shame.

But that’s what the world wants to do to us. Shame us. Make us turn our face and stop being bold for the gospel.

And they are doing a good job. Why does it take so much courage to tell people about Jesus?

Why do we get a pit in our stomach about how we are going to handle the pronouns of our transgender coworker because we don’t want to lie and bear false witness by using false pronouns, but know if we don’t we might get fired?

Why do some of you women struggle with feeling ashamed that you’re quote unquote “Just a Mom” even though raising your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord is the most important job you will ever have?

Its because the world loves darkness rather than the light. And our gospel and our lives convict them.

But the world loves their sin, so instead of repenting, they try to snuff out the light.

This is why suffering and the gospel go hand in hand.

What is our message? Its that God saved us solely by his grace.

That e were lost and dead in our sins, under the judgment of God and nothing we could do, no amount of good works, could ever earn God’s forgiveness.

But God in his love and mercy sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on our behalf. He bore our sins on the cross and suffered under the wrath of God so that through faith in Him and faith alone, we could be forgiven and saved.

The world hates that gospel because it offends the natural man to his core to have to admit that his sin and his guilt really is so bad that he is completely helpless to save himself.

And what’s more if he did repent, if he did receive God’s grace and forgiveness in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, then he would have to give up all of his sin, and live for the glory of God alone.

That’s why the world persecutes the saints. They love their sin. They hate God. And they want to stay in darkness.

So they persecute and shame you to conform into their own image.

To make you so ashamed of Christ and living for him that you shut up and live just like they do, because if they can do that, if they can snuff out the light or make us hide it under a basket, they can keep their evil works and hide in darkness.

But Paul commands us, do not be ashamed. Do not shrink back. Boldly fulfill your calling wherever God has placed you. Suffer for the gospel no matter what comes because there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved.

So think of persecution as any time the world tries to make you feel small. Embarrassed. Foolish for your faith. Any time you start feeling pressed from friends, family, the general sentiment of the culture to either get on board with the program or take your Jesus and go hide in the corner.

And when that happens Don’t be ashamed, but share in suffering for the gospel.

And then Paul, this man who had suffered so much, and even now was about to suffer the highest price, tells us what kept him from being ashamed. What made him keep going. What made him so bold. How he suffered so much for the gospel without ever shrinking back.

for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

Notice what Paul says. I know whom I have believed.

He doesn’t say what. He doesn’t say I’m not ashamed because I know all these doctrinal facts and truths.

I’m not ashamed because I know Christ. He is the Savior-King of the world.

And Paul was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was able to guard until that day what had been entrusted to him.

In other words, the gospel message.

So Paul was not ashamed, because he knew Christ was the Savior-King of the World, the Messiah, the One who alone has the power to save, and that he would guard the gospel that was entrusted to Paul, even after Paul died.

Paul wasn’t ashamed because he knew Christ would save the world. That no matter what his circumstances said, he was on the quote “right side of history,” and that his suffering would not be in vain.

It was another brick in the road leading to all the nations worshiping Jesus alone.

That’s what we need to believe. Jesus is the King. He is the only Savior. And one day, through our suffering and the suffering of Christians all over the world past, present, and future, all the nations will worship him.

What do we have to be ashamed of? Our King reigns, he is saving the world, and no matter how much the nations rage,All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you (Psalm 22:26-27).

If we want to finish the mission, the first thing we need to do is determine ourselves to suffer whatever it takes.

To refuse to be ashamed and boldly fulfill the calling God has given us wherever that is and not let the persecution of the world shame us into covering the light of the gospel that alone has the power to save the world.

Number 2. Not only do we need to boldly fulfill our calling, but to faithfully share in suffering for the gospel, we also need to Guard the Faith entrusted to us.

II. Guard the Faith Entrusted to Us

2 Timothy 1:13-14 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Paul gives two commands in this passage and both of them are related. First, follow the pattern of sound words, and second, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Well what is the good deposit? Its the sound words. That’s another way for Paul to say sound doctrine. Its biblical faith. Christian orthodoxy. The apostolic gospel.

Or the way Jude says it, It was the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

It is the totality of the Christian faith and doctrine. The message of salvation to everyone who believes.

And Timothy is told to follow it, and guard it.

The word Follow can literally be translated as have or hold fast to. In other words, Paul is saying Timothy, hold fast to the faith! Guard it at all costs! Don’t let it be twisted, perverted, or changed. Pass on the words you’ve heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

And that’s exactly what guard means. Keep it. Protect it. Make sure it is not lost.

So here’s what Paul is saying. Suffering faithfully for the gospel, doesn’t just mean enduring and boldly fulfilling your calling. It also means holding fast to God’s Word and preserving what has been entrusted to us.

To keep the gospel and the Christian faith protected from corruption, perversion, and distortion no matter the cost.

And there is a cost.

The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:12-13).

The Word, the Faith exposes our sinfulness. It shines the light of God’s glory on all our death, corruption and misery and exposes us for who we really are.

And what did we say earlier about the world? They will do whatever it takes to hide in darkness.

So they revile the Word and persecute the saints.

And here comes the temptation. The more the pressure ramps up from the world the more tempted we will be to water down the Word.

To soften it. To dull the edge of the sword and take away its cutting and convicting power.

All in the name of being kind, loving, culturally relevant, or seeker sensitive when really all we are doing is everything we can to avoid the shame of the gospel and be loved by the world.

Dear church, beloved by God, may that never be us. May we never seek the approval of the world more than we seek the approval of God.

And the only way we can do that is if we hold fast to the Word, and guard the good deposit entrusted to us by the grace of God.

And this is an epidemic in the church today.

The church is so afraid of being hated, maligned and ashamed of being identified with Christ, they water down the Word to make it more palatable to the world. Something they will love to drink.

2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

The word peddler means a conman or a huckster.

It was a word used to talk about wine merchants who would take their wine and water down the bottles. Dilute it. Weaken it. And then turn around and sell the wine at full price.

This verse could have been written about the American church today.

We are so afraid of being hated by the world around us that Christians, Churches, and Pastors everywhere soften the Word of God and bow down to the idols of the culture.

They try to blend Christianity with the godless paganism surrounding us convincing themselves that they are honoring God and still preaching the good news of salvation.

They are so deceived that if you offend anyone with our faith then you must not be loving, kind, and you’re definitely don’t have the heart of our heavenly Father who gives grace to sinners.

Even though we worship the GodMan who was constantly offending people with the truth and was almost stoned several times because of it.

Many churches today do not have a faithful witness.

And they don’t have a faithful witness, because out of their fear of the world and their shame of the gospel, they have tried to blend Christianity with the New Religion, the new gods, of our culture.

Social Justice

Make no mistake. Social justice is a religion.

And its a religion that touches every aspect of life from issues of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, all the way down to economics, education, and the role of government.

It says there can be no injustice. No oppression of any kind. Sounds good. The only problem is their definition of justice isn’t rooted in God and his Word. True Justice. Its rooted in secular humanism. Sinful man.

So what do you get when sinful man defines what justice is or isn’t? Sinful justice. What you might call injustice. Or if you’re really bold, envy.

And if you step out of line of their gods and their kingdom, the prophets of Baal will start cutting themselves and crying out for their gods to destroy you.

They will cancel you, mock you, judge you, war against you...

And out of fear of the world, how many churches have laid down their Sword, the Word of God, in the battle with these principalities and powers, and watered down the faith entrusted to us?

How many church’s have given in and cow-towed to feminism?

How many have ignored what God has clearly said in his Word and embraced women pastors and egalitarianism in marriage all because they are too afraid of being labeled misogynists or sexists.

Or here’s a sad one. How many churches have you seen soften on abortion? How many Christians did you see mourning Ruth Bader Ginsberg or bemoaning the Texas heartbeat law because it “goes against women’s rights?”

Abortion is not a women’s rights issue. Its a murder issue.

And the reason the world loses it every time access to abortion is threatened is because its the sacrament of their religion.

We have the Lord’s Supper. Every week we celebrate Christ’s death on our behalf to forgive our sins.

Abortion is the world’s sacrament where they celebrate how free and autonomous they are to live their life however they see fit regardless of what God has said.

And if you take away a woman’s right to have an abortion, you take away everyone’s right to determine good and evil for themselves. You take away their right to be their own god.

How many churches have minimized the sin of homosexuality and preached a gospel that says love is love? God accepts you the way you are.

The more subtle ones don’t go quite that far. They will still say homosexuality is a sin, but you can still be same sex attracted and follow Jesus.

As long as you’re celibate, you don’t have to put those passions and desires to death. You can still identify as gay and be a Christian.

Let’s just forget about when Jesus said if you lust after another person, even if you don’t act on those desires, you’ve still committed adultery in your heart.

Or what about issues of racial reconciliation?

How many have churches taken the notes from the world and taught their people that the sin of racism is something they’ve inherited and can never wash away unless they work off the sins of their fathers through racial equality and activism?

How many trample the blood of the cross and preach a gospel that sows more division and tries to answer the sin of racism with more racism?

How many ignore that the Bible says we are to forgive one another as God has forgiven you, and that we are one new man in Christ.

That in Him there is not Jew or Greek. Slave or Free. Male or Female. All of us are sinners before God, and all of us are reconciled to God and one another through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

But how many churches preach social justice light so that they can avoid the hatred and animosity of the world while still convincing themselves they are holding fast to Jesus and his Word?

How many churches bend over backwards to say “See we are on your side. On your team! Please love us! Please don’t hate us!”

They’re ashamed. Ashamed of the gospel and God’s Word, and because of their shame they lose their witness.

Here’s the big idea. When you take a hardline biblical stance on these issues, you will be hated by the world.

They will call you a hate-filled bigot, sexist, misogynist, homophobe, transphobe, prude, hypocrite, racist, white-supremacist...dangerous.

Why? You threaten their gods. But we can’t give in and lay down our sword because we are at war with principalities and powers.

I don’t say all that because I want to bash other churches or point to us as some self-righteous church that has it all figured out.

Listen. The only reason we are what we are is because of the grace of God. Every aspect of this church is his work and grace.

I say that to say we have to be ok with being hated by the world if it means we are holding fast to the Word of God.

In fact, we shouldn’t expect anything less.

Jesus said If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15:18-20).

We need to settle it in our hearts and minds that its ok if the world hates us. Our job is not to get the world to love us. Its to guard the faith and hold fast to the Word.

Its to preach the gospel so that more might be saved.

But we can’t do that if all we have to offer the world is a watered down gospel that saves nobody.

Here’s what we need to ask ourselves. Is the gospel the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes or is it not? (Rom. 1:16).

If it is, we will guard the Word. We won’t rely on gimmicks or tickling ears. We will rely on the preaching of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We will Guard the faith entrusted to us even if the world hates us because we know there is no other gospel that has the power to save.

Well, how do we do it? How do we guard the faith entrusted to us?

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us...

The same Holy Spirit who is not a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

Paul actually uses a play on words, because he says we are to guard the faith entrusted to us, but earlier he said he was convinced that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is able to guard the faith entrusted to him until the Day of his glorious return.

When you look the world, It can get pretty discouraging. It can start to feel like there aren’t many true Christians left. That most churches are apostate. That the world is winning and the light of the gospel is on the brink of going out.

But Don’t be afraid. God will never let the light go out. Yes, God has entrusted the gospel to our hands, but that doesn’t mean he took his hands off of it.

He is the True Guardian of the faith. He will preserve the gospel no matter how dark things get in the world, and he will save the world just like he promised. Do we believe?

If we want to finish the mission, we will need to suffer for the gospel wherever God has called us.

The question we’ve be asking is how do we do that? How do we not be ashamed and suffer faithfully for the gospel?

First, we need to boldly fulfill our calling.

Second, we need to Guard the Faith entrusted to us from perversion or corruption.

And finally, we need to...

III. Remember God’s Promise of Mercy on that Glorious Day

2 Timothy 1:15-18 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

You might read 2 Timothy and think these verses come out of nowhere.

One minute Paul is telling Timothy how to suffer well for the sake of the gospel, and the next he starts talking about all these other people.

But here’s what Paul is doing. He is giving Timothy examples of what it looks like to suffer for the gospel.

Two of them are negative. Phygelus and Hermogenes. They both abandoned Paul when he was arrested out of fear that they would also have to suffer.

Early Christians were taught to Remember those in prison. And even this was an act of faith because if the government arrested somebody for sharing the gospel, and you went and saw them, who do you think they’d be looking to arrest next?

This is just another example that suffering for the gospel doesn’t just mean you’re preaching on the street and someone comes up to arrest you.

Obeying Christ, and remembering those in prison, if it leads to your own suffering, is also suffering for the gospel.

It’s what we said earlier. Suffering for the gospel includes the ministry of the gospel but also obedience to the gospel.

But another man wasn’t ashamed. He wasn’t afraid to suffer for his obedience to Christ and love for Paul. Onesiphorus went to Rome all the way from Ephesus and searched earnestly for Paul.

He wasn’t ashamed of Paul’s chains. He wasn’t ashamed of suffering for the gospel.

And because of that Paul said may Onesiphorus who didn’t stop searching for me until he found me, find mercy on that Day.

That’s the Day of the Lord. The Day of judgment.

Now this doesn’t mean Onesiphorus earned salvation from the Lord. He didn’t earn mercy.

But his obedience and faithfulness was evidence of his salvation.

Its like what Jesus said. Luke 9:23-26 If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Jesus is not teaching you can lose your salvation. He is teaching that those that genuinely believe in him. Those that have truly taken up their Cross will not be ashamed of Christ but will endure till the end.

Here’s the principle. If we want to stand up to fear and not be ashamed of our Lord, all we need to do is remember that the Lord has promised that he will not be ashamed of us.

The world may reject us and we may lose friends, family, jobs, our very life.

But Jesus will never reject us. He has given us mercy through his cross and we might feel shame now, but on that glorious day we will stand before the Lord in robes of white with no sin, no guilt, and not shame because his own blood has washed it all away.

Conclusion

If we want to finish the mission, we will need to suffer for the gospel wherever God has called us.

That means we will need to boldly fulfill the calling God has given us.

We will need to guard the faith and gospel entrusted to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And endure every shame knowing that on the glorious Day that Christ returns, the King of kings will not be ashamed of us.

The world will use persecution and every weapon at their disposal to make us so ashamed of Christ and his gospel that we will be tempted to put a basket over the light.

Even professing Christian will join them and call us radical for holding fast to the Word of God.

But above all, we are called to guard the gospel. Proclaim it everywhere we can, and suffer for it bravely.

Or as Jesus said...

Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

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Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Matthew 5:3-12 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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