2 Timothy 3:15-17 • Baccalaureate Message 2009
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
For those of you who are also proud and thankful, I thought it might just be helpful to think a bit of why these folks do what they do. You've heard already stories of sacrifice and fear, the awareness that sometimes finances are quite tight and they've been hard, they are unlikely to get much easier. These professions are not ones that typically have a lot of financial reward.
Why would you do this crazy thing of advancing toward ministry, of serving God's people with His Word? Why would you do that? The Apostle Paul tells us, I suppose, the chief reason all of us think about why we would have this profession of ministering God's Word from the pulpit or in the counseling chamber or in the teaching place or just as parents. Why would we do this? Paul says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God. To grasp that is to grasp the wonder of the Word of God and the great grace of its provision." Now, more than a decade ago on an April evening, Los Angeles was burning. Many of you will remember it was the evening of the first Rodney King verdict. Remember the one who said, "Can't we all get along?" The reason that Los Angeles was burning, particularly the neighborhoods of South Central LA, was that those residents who very much identified with the poverty of Rodney King and the drug use and the oppression that he'd experienced in much of his life had seen the videotape that was also shown to jurors in a courtroom that showed Rodney King being beaten. And the verdict that day exonerated those who beat him. In rage, in exasperation, riot broke out in South Central LA. It was violent, it was vengeful, it was indiscriminate. Many of you will remember seeing that newsreel where a man driving a service truck through the neighborhood was dragged from his truck by a mob,
pushed to the ground, and was being kicked and beaten until an older man with nothing but a Bible in his hand began to wade into the mob, take the blows on his own back, on the backs of his legs, against his own head, in order to protect the man that was on his ground. All he had to protect him was a Bible. And he said to the mob, "You must stop this. You must stop this. This man has done nothing wrong." As he held his Bible and held his ground, the mob in frustration and exasperation ultimately turned away. His name was Benny Newton, that older minister who took the blows with nothing but a Bible in his hand, and he will forever honor the office of pastor by what he did. But you think, why would he go into such a mob with nothing but a Bible? Well, surely it was a mark of his office. But beyond that, it was a mark of his conviction that he would bank everything on what the Word of God said, his life in the immediate, his eternity in the long term. It's what all of us have done. We have said, "What this Word of God attests, we believe, and we have committed our lives to it, and we have committed our eternities to it, and we believe it is our ministry to commit others' eternities to it as well."
Why so much wait upon a book? Because all Scripture is breathed out by God. In seminary, we call that the doctrine of inspiration, that the Bible is inspired. Now, all seminaries, like colleges and universities, we have to be accredited. And a few years ago, we had an accreditation team who was coming and looking us over and seeing if we were teaching right and managing things well. And the leader of the team that was accrediting us was a dean from the University of Wisconsin. And as he sat with me at the beginning of the accreditation, the beginning of the accreditation process and just said, "Tell me about your school. What do you stand for? What do you believe?" That sort of thing. I said, "Well, you know, one of the primary things that we believe is that the Bible is inspired." And he said, "That's wonderful." He said, "I think the Bible is inspiring too." I said, "That's not exactly what we mean." What do we mean?
The Bible is God's Word breathed out. That word, that theanustos, God breathed, has the notion of actual expiration that when God gave His Word, it's as when you speak, you feel your breath come out. So when God spoke the Scriptures into the presence of humanity, His very breath was coming out. As when God breathed life into adamant creation, so in His Word He breathes new life into us that we might be a new creation. That in here is life for eternity, God's Word that is truth about Him and for us, that which must be believed and which has power for eternity. This Word is God breathed. How that happens, we would all confess to you as something of a mystery. How God can use human instruments with their own personalities and the own settings that they are writing in to, nonetheless, speak His Word. The Apostle Peter says it simply, "That holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." But that action, so special and so under the control of a sovereign God, being used so that God's Word comes to His people. The Apostle Paul would capture it when he would write to those at Thessalonica and he would commend them because he said they were receiving His Word that He had written to them, not as the Word of man, but as it is in truth
the Word of God. Three thousand times plus the Bible uses the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord" in some phrase or form. God is saying, "This is my Word to my people. I have given it to you that you might give it to them." Augustine said it so simply, "Where the Bible speaks, God speaks." And what we believe is that we have been entrusted with the very words of God to give to His people. It might be in a very public setting. It might be in a very private setting. It might be as a parent, a counselor, a teacher, a friend, a co-worker. We are sharing the very Word of God. The Reformers tried to capture the meaning of that in various ways. Martin Luther simply referred to the church as God's mouth house. Isn't that interesting? You know, the church speaks God's Word. I can turn it from a phrase lots of us learned as a child. Remember, here's the church, here's the steeple, open the Word. God speaks to His people. He still does. Through the faithful rendering of the truth of Scripture, God's Word is present. The Reformers caught it in phrases so stark and challenging that we would hesitate to say it ourselves the way they once said it. The second Helvetic confession of the switched Reformers simply saying it this way, "The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God." That is just me up here talking. But to the extent that my Word is true, consistent with what God has said in the Scriptures, God yet speaks to His people. It is common in Reform circles to think about when we proclaim the Word of God. God is the true audience. We are not often accustomed to thinking He's also the true speaker,
that when we speak what is true of God, God Himself is addressing His people. If that sounds a bit bizarre, you have to think of the way John Calvin once said it. And by the way, those of you who are not Presbyterians, whenever we get close to heresy, we cite John Calvin. Safe ground there. Calvin said, "God has chosen so to anoint the lips and the tongues of His servants
that when they speak, the voice of Jesus comes out." God has so chosen to anoint the lips and tongues of His speakers that when they speak, the voice of Jesus yet resounds in the church.
Lots of times when I'm in churches, there's that little plaque up here on the pulpit somewhere that says, "Sir, we would see Jesus. We would like for you to disappear and Christ Himself to be evident in His Word." I'm waiting for the plaque that says, "Sir, we would hear Jesus."
Because what God has done by equipping those who know His Word to proclaim it to the church is He has enabled His voice to yet resound. He yet speaks. It is the voice of God incarnate among His people. I know that can just be theologically removed until you think, "What are the implications not just for us who are trained to speak to people? What's the implication for those who hear?" When I graduated from seminary, a friend of mine immediately went into a youth pastorate. And I met him at General Assembly a couple of years later. And when I did, we compared stories of ministry that we'd experienced. And he told me about one way that he was trying to communicate to young people that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
He said that what he did was he went to a home of one of the children in the youth group, and he set up chairs in the basement in a circle around the perimeter of the basement. Put a Bible verse in each of the chairs, and then put another chair in the center.
He invited the kids down to the basement, had them sit around the circle,
and said this, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to ask one of you to sit in the middle chair and we'll blindfold you. And we're going to ask you to identify some problem that you're struggling with. And because you're blindfolded, then people are going to read a verse that applies to your problem, and it will be as though God himself is speaking to you."
My friend, the youth leader, thought it was really a great idea.
The young people thought it was really dumb.
Nobody wanted to participate. Nobody wanted to talk about any serious problem. I mean, the worst problem anybody would come up with was, you know, how do you get an A on Mrs. Bailey's math test? And, you know, there just wasn't a good verse to deal with that. [Laughter]
And then one young woman, new to the group, said, "I'll sit in the chair."
They put the blindfold on her, and the first thing she said was, "I am so miserable.
I don't know if I can stand my life anymore." The kids hushed. They were embarrassed. They looked at their shoelaces. Somebody looked at the verse in his hand, and to this young woman who had just said, "I am so miserable, I do not know if I can stand my life anymore," he read. "But I am faithful.
I will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation, also provide a way of escape so that you can stand up under it."
She said, "No one cares about me," and someone else read,
"but I have loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness I have called you." She said in rage, "You do not understand. My parents kicked me out last night. They said, "Never come back." And someone else read, "But I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you." They took the blindfold off of her. She was crying, and she had a question.
Why doesn't God really talk to me that way? What did the youth leader say? He just did. That was the Word of God. We sometimes are so silly, even those of us well schooled in the church. We think we would be happier if God would speak to us by writing His word on the clouds or speaking on the thunder. But if He were to write in the clouds, it would blow away. If He were to speak on the thunder, it would fade away. And so He says, "Would you mind if I just wrote it down?" So that you could always have it with you. And recognizing that great grace, that what this Word of God is, is the presence of God in His Son, the incarnate one, yet being present in the voices by which we speak the Word of God, is allowing God's people again to experience the presence of Christ, His love, His compassion. After all, if God knew the worst about us, our sin, our weakness, our failures, and yet He would still come to be present with us, send His Son to minister to us, have His abiding Word with us, what a great grace that He would provide in our weakness, in our sin, in our failings, such a wonderful provision of His very self.
And to think that we're part of that now. We're channels by which God is actually speaking to us. I mean, what great privilege. I mean, what I'm ultimately contending is that we are not simply being called to speak about Jesus. Not even that we are being called only to speak for Jesus, but in a spiritual way that is altogether real, we are being called to speak as Jesus.
As in this place, He would minister to His people by being true to His Word. Christ is yet encountering that young woman and your brother and your parents and those in your church and the one who's struggling so in heart and mind and body to say, "Jesus is here. Listen to what He says and to the extent that we are true to what His Word says, Christ ministers again to His people."
It is an amazing truth with expectations we should all be aware of. The one is the expectation of purity. That's a tough one. But when the apostle speaks to Timothy, he says, "You have followed my teaching. Now follow my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness." If it is the Word of God, if Jesus is present, then it actually is a legitimate question. What would Jesus do? If I am commending the Word by my action, by my life, by my words, by my expressions,
then they are to be guarded with an understanding that we speak in Christ's place when we proclaim His Word. Not only is purity and expectation persecution is too. Paul says, "Not only should we, as Timothy did, know about His steadfastness but His persecutions and sufferings that happened at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra." You remember what that's about? Those are the places of riots
and rocks where moths were stirred up and Paul was stoned repeatedly. But he was speaking the Word of God, yes. But even when Jesus spoke, there was persecution. It is the way the Master went, should not the servant expect it. Some of you have experienced it already. It may be people even here who don't accept what you're about to do. It may be people at work. It may be people that even in the church, as you are true to this Word, may begin to resist you as they resist Christ.
For that reason, we not only need to remember that persecutions come, but power. All Scripture is God-breathed. And therefore, the Apostle says, "I charge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by His appearing in His kingdom. Preach the Word." I read those words for so many years without recognizing the full impact. In the presence of God in Christ Jesus, preach the Word. I didn't recognize that by the very preaching of the Word, Christ is present. Superintending, looking upon, guarding, safeguarding His own Word. But what that means is we're not alone. You recognize that? We may face ... we're not alone. We may face difficulty. We're not alone. Our logic may fail. We're not alone. Christ here, present, as we are true to the Word, He becomes the advocate for us because He's the advocate for His Word. And when Christ is present, that one who is raised from the dead, who gives life to His people, who communicates through His Word, that which is eternal, then we begin to understand we are conduits of this grace in ways more profound than we can understand. To the extent that we are true to the Word, God is performing divine, eternal grace through us. What a job. What a privilege. What a joy. To recognize the inherent power of the Word is ours to share. Some of you know just last week I was in Australia and there I had the opportunity to minister with a man who was Sri Lankan by heritage, Buddhist by training, who in his university years, just thinking he needed to be a well-educated man of the world, thought he should understand what Christians believe. And so he read the Gospel of John just to find out. Now I know you're thinking that the verse that moved him was John 3 16. It wasn't. What he said was three times in the book of John, when Jesus says to people, "You must believe in me," one way or another, the following words are, "And great division came among the people." I didn't think that was the best evangelistic verse personally. [laughter]
But he said what that began to do in his heart was to recognize he too had to identify what he believed about the Lord Jesus Christ. This just could not be academic understanding. Either he believed or he did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God who came and died for sin, rose the victor over them, and now claimed lordship over the lives of his people. It could not just be an academic decision of your faith versus you. You either believed this or you did not. And he recognized that the Scriptures were calling all of us to understand that you cannot be neutral on this subject. And Jesus himself is saying that in his word. "You cannot be neutral about me."
This is the Word of life. You believe it or you do not. And God says to his people, "Tell them they must believe because this is the great grace that I provided for sinners, for people who are weak and wounded, sick and sore. This is me ministering to them. Tell them they must believe because there will be a division. And at one point then another they will declare, "I believe or I do not."
You believe. And not only do you believe, you've committed your lives, not to a book,
but to the truths of a Savior who has given his Word to his people and his voice yet speaks through you. As you are faithful to it, God in Christ will minister to his people.
What a joy. What a privilege. What power. Be faithful and he will be faithful to his purposes
through you. Father, would you bless these men and women who have committed themselves to you, who have experienced the wonder of a God who would send flesh to represent him. And in that word incarnate, there would be a continuing voice amidst the people. It's resounded through the ages and now it will echo in us. Keep us faithful that Jesus might be heard in us. We pray this for the sake of the people to whom he would minister that we love and that you love to. We ask this blessing in Jesus' name. Amen.