An Enduring Legacy: Celebrating 130 Years of Ministry
The following is the sermon given by Pastor Aaron Adame last Sunday, September 3rd, 2023 as members and visitors of Canby Christian Church gathered together to worship in Wait Park and celebrate 130 years of faithful gospel ministry here in Canby, Oregon.
There is an old saying, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”
The trees we are gathered under today were planted decades ago by people who likely knew that they would never enjoy the shade we do today. And yet, they planted and cared for them for years. As we celebrate the 130th anniversary of when our church was first incorporated in 1893, we acknowledge that there were pioneer people who planted a church in which we all enjoy the shade of today.
If these trees could talk, they would tell of the things they have seen over their years. And yet, the stories they could tell wouldn’t compare to the stories this old church could tell. Stories of souls being saved. Lives being changed. People moving from darkness to light—from death to life—from hell to heaven! Stories of service and sacrifice for the advancement of the gospel and the benefit of Christ’s church.
But it makes you wonder: What is the secret to an enduring legacy of a Church to make it 130 years?
After all, most churches don’t make it that long. So, what has enabled this place to survive, and at times, thrive? Andthe reason why we want to know is so that we can do our part to make sure it survives and thrives another 130yrs—if the Lord tarries that long. Well, thankfully, in the providence of God, the text we are going to look at today in 2 Timothy 4 is going to help us arrive at an answer to that question.
In fact, the text we will meditate on is one of the most cherished texts in all of Paul’s letters because they are some of the last words he ever wrote. Soon, he will be executed for his faith in Jesus and his ministry as an apostle. And the words he wrote here to Timothy were given to express what the highest level of importance is if the church is going to have an enduring gospel legacy after he is gone and for generations to come. And the answer I am going to argue to you from the text is this:
As seasons change, it’s the faithful preaching of God’s Word that produces an enduring legacy.
II Timothy 4:1-8:“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
Over the last several weeks, through our studies of both letters written by Paul to Timothy, Paul has given Timothy several charges for his ministry as the pastor in the ancient city of Ephesus. And here in this text, Paul gives the one charge to rule them all… which is found there in verse 2—Preach the Word!
In other words, if there is one thing that Timothy, nor this church or any church, can afford to give up or stop doing, it is the faithful preaching of God’s word to God’s people in the midst of changing seasons! A church can meet outside or inside. A church can use instruments or no instruments in their worship. A church can have small groups or none. A Church can have kids ministry or not.
My point is that the church can be flexible in a lot of areas and still survive and thrive for generations—but one thing that can never be given up or taken lightly, if a church is going to remain healthy and provide an enduring gospel legacy for generations to come, is the faithful preaching of God’s word. And this is because of what Paul said about the nature of scripture at the end of chapter 3:
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16–17).
And even right before that, he tells Timothy that it is the “sacred writings” alone that can make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. In other words, if the church is going to make an impact on our world, it is going to come through preaching the whole counsel of God’s word. It is scripture that saves souls and grows a church into a healthy body.
And it is based on this belief in what the word of God is and does that Paul tells him in v2, to preach the word. And let the word of God comfort the weary, correct the wayward, and make complete the believer, preparing them for every good work. It is the word of God alone that does this, which is why Timothy needs to be faithful and steadfast in proclaiming it to the saved and the unsaved. And the church needs to make sure that the word of God and the faithful preaching of it remains primary!
If there is ever a day or season in this church when sermons are being recycled, redundant, reduced, or repacked from someone else… then it is the church’s responsibility to correct the error. Because the preached word needs to be primary if it is going to have an enduring legacy!
That’s why Paul tells him to Preach the word! But connected to that, he adds some related information for preaching week after week and year and year. He tells him, be ready… in other words, don’t ever lose the urgency needed for preaching or miss the opportunity to speak God’s word to people. But be ready for when the moment comes—because you may never get it again! He encourages him to be ready “in season and out of season” in other words, whether you are experiencing seasons of fruitfulness in your ministry or perceived seasons of unfruitfulness in your ministry, you shouldn’t change the process of preaching God’s word.
You see, when there are times of fruitfulness in the church—when people are getting saved, disciples are being made, lives are being transformed, it will be God’s word that gets the credit. But it is also true that God’s word is what tills up the soil of people’s hearts. It will be God’s word that breaks hardened hearts and divides the wheat from the chaff.
Sometimes, before God brings the fruit in to a church through the preaching of his word, he must first do the work of uprooting the hazardous things that stand in the way, but all of it is done through the preaching of the word. This is why Timothy needs to stay faithful—in season and out of season. When the fruit is there, and when there is only toil! When ministry is easy and when it is difficult… he must continue to stay faithful to preach the word! This is why he tells him in v5:
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim. 4:5)
I appreciate that he tells him to do the work of an evangelist. He doesn’t tell him to save anyone because that is what God does. His job is to do the work an evangelist does, which is to proclaim the gospel (the word of God) to those who have yet to hear the good news of Jesus or have yet to believe.
Nevertheless, this is the charge— as seasons change and generations pass—Preach the Word!
It is not the job of the preacher to invent topics, the Word is the message! It is not the job of the preacher to tell stories or entertain the listener or give advice from personal experience. It is the preacher’s job to proclaim God’s word to whomever will listen—in hopes that they too will believe and be saved.
Now, all of that sounds simple and clear enough. However, Paul is not done with explaining this charge to Timothy. You see, not only does Paul give this clear and concise charge to preach the word, he also grounds this charge with three points of contact and they all have some relation to time. In other words, in all times and seasons, the preaching of God’s word is not only primary, it is essential ministry! And the first one he mentions is the present culture.
Preach the Word in light of Our Present Culture
Look again at v3-4…
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Tim. 4:3–4).
The reason why Timothy was charged to preach the word was because there is coming a day when people will not want to hear the truth. But instead, to soothe the itching in their ears they will scratch them by finding people who agree with them.
And what is fascinating is that what was true in Timothy’s day is also true in our own time—and perhaps even greater now—since the availability of information and finding people who will agree with you and what you already think is so easy.
If you have a fascination with end times prophecy, you can find some guru out there who will lead you off into myths all day long. If you have a fascination with politics, you can find the channel that will tell you what you already believe. Whatever topic you desire, you can find someone out there who agrees with you. But once you do, you inevitably shut yourself off from the truth of God’s word and imprison yourself into the echo chamber of your own mind. And though the culture will continue to move in this direction, this doesn’t make preaching less necessary, it makes it even more essential.
Some have tried to find ways to engage this kind of culture by changing the method, assuming that perhaps it is the preaching itself that is off-putting to unbelievers, not just the message of the gospel—which teaches that God exists, and that people are sinners, and that faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation. You see, though some have watered down the message an equal mistake would be to water down the method by exchanging the bold proclamation of the word for comfortable round-table discussions or a question & answer session. But that doesn’t work.
Timothy was to continue to preach, even as the culture continues to not want to hear it—but it is the word of God preached that is exactly what we DO need. We don’t need more conversations… We don’t need dramas… And We don’t need TED Talks! What we need is the word preached—proclaimed as truth that must be believed!
That’s the first point of contact for this charge: the present culture. The second point of contact is the future transition.
Preach the Word in light of the Future Generation
We see this in v6-7
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Tim. 4:6–7)
In other words, what Paul is telling Timothy is that the time has come for Timothy to preach the word because Paul’s time is already over—the time of his departure has come. For roughly 30 years, Paul the apostle had preached the gospel and wrote letters explaining the gospel and how it affects the life of the church. But his ministry was over, and unfortunately, he would not experience retirement by the beach. Instead, his soul was weighing anchor for the eternal shores of heaven.
So, what we have in these verses is Paul’s charge to Timothy grounded in his own life and ministry. That Timothy needs to preach, because Paul won’t be there to do it! What is fascinating about this, is that in Acts 20, when Paul was leaving the church in Ephesus to go to Jerusalem, the church and the elders were afraid for him. They warned him that if he went, chains and imprisonment awaited him. But this is what he said to them:
22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:22–24.)
This is a copy of a letter written on January 23rd, 1893 by an early leader in the establishment of Canby Christian Church.
And now, several years later, as his ministry is coming to an end, he writes to this same church in Ephesus, telling them that his course was finally over. But his message to them is this—the time is now yours!
You cannot rest on the faith of others, nor of those who have gone before you. It is now your time to put in the work of proclaiming the gospel to the lost and entrusting the gospel to the next generation. And we have that same charge.
We can look to the past and be encouraged by the faithfulness of prior generations, but we must look ahead at what God has called us to do in the time He has given to us because, like the man said in that letter we read earlier: “We are all marching on to eternity…” But this is the time that God has given to us. So, we need to consider the future transition.
But the final and most important point of contact for this charge, is in the eternal experience.
Preach the Word in light of the Coming of Christ
At the start and at the finish, in verse 1 and verse 8, Paul reminds Timothy of a time that is coming, the appearing of Christ Jesus, who will come again and judge the living and the dead.
In fact, it is this future reality that Paul uses as the greatest source of motivation for Timothy to preach the word, more than the spiritual erosion of the present culture, and more important than the inevitability of ministry transitions. The greatest cause for faithfulness in preaching God’s Word is because Jesus is coming back again! And when he comes, he will bring judgment to both the living and the dead.
For the unbeliever, this is tragic news because when he comes, there will be nothing to justify them, for everyone stands guilty before the righteous judge apart from faith in Jesus. And so, even more reason to be evangelistic while people still have time to believe.
However, for the believer, this appearing of Jesus will be a good thing because, as Paul explains, he will reward those who kept the faith with the crown of righteousness. Which is a fascinating thing to say because in this moment, Paul was on trial awaiting execution. He would be found guilty of treason against the empire and be sentenced to death. However, he knows that the righteous judge will reward him for his faithfulness to the greater kingdom that is to come, but not just for him, for all who have loved his appearing.
I want to end with a quote from John Stott on this text…
“The torch of the gospel is handed down by each generation to the next. As the leaders of the former generation die, it is all the more urgent for those of the next generation to step forward bravely to take their place… We cannot rest for ever on the leadership of the preceding generation. The day comes when we must step into their shows and ourselves take the lead. That day had come for Timothy. It comes to all of us in time.” - John Stott
Our charge is clear:
