What Motivates Us to Preach the Word?

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Ray Ortlund
Welcome back to your not crazy gospel sanity for young pastors. I’m Ray ortlund. I’m with my friend, Sam, all Barry, and we’re glad you’re listening in. Thank you, we really appreciate it. Now, we’re going to think our way through Second Timothy chapter four verses one through eight. In this episode, we’re going right through the book of Second Timothy. Sam, in your view, why does Second Timothy matter to pastors today?

Sam Allberry
It’s a, it’s a field guide for pastoral ministry. And Paul, so obviously lived in the same mold that we do. So whatever we’re facing into it, in our churches. Paul had anticipated it.

Ray Ortlund
It’s not antique, distant and remote. It’s not just a relic. This is perennially relevant. And it’s true to life. It’s an honest book. It’s a, it’s a book that helps me see myself and understand pastoral ministry in realistic categories that are simultaneously hopeful. And that’s what just about every pastor needs all the time. And toward the end of our time together, Sam and I want to bring to your attention and commend to you a book about preaching because Paul says in this passage, preach the Word. And crossway has provided for all of us a terrific new book on expositional preaching that you will want to be aware of

Sam Allberry
right, welcome. Welcome back everyone. Right. Good to see you.

Ray Ortlund
Good to see you, Sam.

Sam Allberry
So right you you let slip just before the recording began that you had made a promise to Jenny not to buy a book for three months. How’s that going?

Ray Ortlund
It’s just this is killing me.

Sam Allberry
There’s you caved yet? Actually, I

Ray Ortlund
have not because you just gave me a book. I know. But I ordered that before I made the promise. Okay. Yeah. And, and I did slip in one final purchase before the promise kicked in. And so technically, I have kept my word. Okay,

Sam Allberry
any any particular ones, where you’ve had to show unusual restraint? Anything? You’ve been to every single

Ray Ortlund
one. And so my wish list at Amazon is growing rapidly. But yeah, I’m trying to be restrained.

Sam Allberry
Is that because you’ve got a lack of space in the house for books? Or that is

Ray Ortlund
part of it? I have literally run out of shelf space. Yeah. So I find myself giving books away to create space for the new books I’m buying. What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing.

Sam Allberry
I’m sometimes the person you give books away to. So I’m encouraging this. Yeah. Great. Ray, we’re back in in second. Timothy, we’re in chapter four. Now it’s a it’s a relatively well known part of the letter. Paul is is really giving us a heavy task to consider. What are your initial thoughts?

Ray Ortlund
Well, I’m just looking at John Stott, here as he makes an observation about the chapter in its totality. He says this chapter contains some of the very last words spoken or written by the Apostle Paul, they are certainly the last which have survived. He is writing within weeks, perhaps even within days of his martyrdom. So there is nothing about Second Timothy in general and Chapter Four in particular, that is a throwaway line. Everything has a glorious dignity, solemnity and finality about it. So he’s not wasting his breath, at any level. Everything he says here, we can sit and stare at Second Timothy chapter four with rapt attention. And we will not waste our time because Paul was not wasting his time. It’s

Sam Allberry
very striking. Paul, come on, we’ll come on to this in a moment. Paul is giving us indications he’s, he’s nearly at the end of his course. Other than Paul occasionally mentioning his chains, you wouldn’t really know this was a letter written from prison. Paul seems so kind of calm and stable. And so little of this letter would be any different if Paul wasn’t in jail. I mean, it’s the same. The task for Timothy is the same. His advice to Timothy is not full of self pity or guys. I mean, here I’m just like, you know, right. Let’s start a letter writing campaign to Caesar. He’s, he’s not lost the plot at all.

Ray Ortlund
That is fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it that way before. The man knows who he is. He knows who his Savior is. He knows what the times call for. And he’s not angry. He’s not there is a sense of calm, isn’t it? Yeah. Even a sense of privilege. Yeah. Gratitude, a sense of finality of satisfaction. I mean, properly defined a sense of success. Yeah, I have finished the course I’ve run the race and so forth. Fascinating. I’m

Sam Allberry
struck, we were just finishing up chapter three. And obviously, the chapter divisions are later insertion. So it’s easy to sort of imagine. Paul finished chapter three and went for a walk and had a weekend away, and then came back to start chapter four. But actually, he’s just been talking about how scripture is God breathed. It’s profitable. it equips us for every good work, that flows straight into this charge, to preach the word this is this is not a new subject. This is the this is the application of what he’s just been saying, if that is what Scripture is, yeah, hey, preach the Word. But he doesn’t just say, Timothy, you know, don’t forget to preach, he kind of layers it with this, a very sort of solemn, you know, charge.

Ray Ortlund
I am so struck by that. He says in verse one, 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, Paul, layers in the most August and eternal and glorious considerations, he, he looks Timothy right in the eyes, as it were. But he’s also aware he is speaking in the presence of the King of King Sam, I remember in 1984, when we were living in Scotland, Billy Graham, was visiting Britain. And one Sunday morning, preached in a church where the Queen was attending the worship service. And that afternoon, this was on the news. That afternoon, someone, a reporter asked him, What was it like to preach in the presence of the Queen. And Billy wisely said, every time I preach, I’m in the presence of the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. That’s not disrespectful to the queen, she would affirm that, yes, and but he had this sense of, it’s as if this very thin veil of phenomena, concealing heaven from us, concealing eternity from us concealing the throne of God from us is, is made transparent or even removed, and Paul can see what’s really going on here. And he’s not looking at the walls of his prison. Now he is by faith, looking beyond that, and he is in the presence of God, and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearance and kingdom, everything is on the line here. And what is Timothy to do with that? Yeah, but preach the word. Yeah, what

Sam Allberry
he says that about Christ Jesus, to judge the living in the dead, and who will, you know, through His appearing a kingdom has been specifically chosen, because this is why we preach the Word. It is precisely because Jesus will judge the living and the dead, the most pertinent thing we can be doing in the light of that judgment to come in the light of where everything is going. There’s nothing more significant than preaching the word. Yes.

Ray Ortlund
You and I revere this profoundly every pastor listening, this really resonates with all of us, doesn’t it? And it’s so wonderful, so uplifting and strengthening, just to stand back and remember what we are doing. Yeah, we’re pursuing our calling of pastoral ministry, not just in relation to a congregation and a community. But we’re doing this in the in the sight of God in the presence of God. And we love those people in the congregation. We love those people in the community. But something more glorious, more profound, more uplifting, so we can be so disheartened by what we see here below. We’ve seen that throughout Second Timothy, there is so much that just takes the heart out of us, and would break our will, and, and cause us just to lie down and die. Yeah. But we are not going to do that because something else is going on here, something more far more glorious, far more wonderful. And the presence of God is never going away, never changing. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We will always be in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus as we pursue our pastoral ministry. I’m

Sam Allberry
struck as well there’s there’s an immediate juxtaposition between what is obvious in the light of heaven. Then being on Earth, something people are oblivious to, because instead of immediately Paul talks about preaching in season and out of season. So although in the light of heaven, it’s obvious that we preach the Word to those on earth it isn’t. People are not going to be in the mood for this. Yes, this is not market driven. There’s not going to be a it’s not as if Earth is aware of the coming of Christ. And if he’s judging the living in the dead, and therefore the world is saying, you know, well, hey, we need to, we need the truth, we need the word of God. We’re going to come up against disinterest, we’re going to come up against antipathy, and opposition, and people are not going to be in the mood for this.

Ray Ortlund
And just indifference. Yeah, I remember reading. And I can’t pull the name up right now. But there was a skeptical philosopher living in London, 19 century who would sometimes go to church to hear Spurgeon preach. And one of his friends asked him, so I’m going to church, why are you going there? You don’t believe that? And the man replied, but Spurgeon does. Wow. And he was willing to go listen to that man, because he believed the gospel, that spirit of faith, that sense of the presence of God and of Christ. That is what makes a man’s voice prophetic, and can crack open hearts that would otherwise be indifferent.

Sam Allberry
I’m struck as well, Ron Paul talks about in verse to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. It’s not just what we’re to do, but how we are to do it, he adds complete patience. So we’re not to be frustrated at the lack of, you know, at times the total lack of interest in what we’re trying to communicate from God’s Word. Way to Be patient, completely patient. Well,

Ray Ortlund
that’s a rebuke to me. You know, sometimes I along the way, I think I have been exasperated at the incomprehension, slowness of response, and so forth. And that’s completely inappropriate. Jesus wasn’t like that with me. He was completely patient. And has been, he continues to be at this moment, Sam, I should be so much further down the road by now. I thought that, by this time in my life, I would be way more sanctified than I am a basically still a teenager. And the Lord is completely Sam, where would we be without the patience of the Lord? Yeah. So we have every incentive, we pastors to be gentle, understanding, cut people slack, be patient and just keep going. Yeah,

Sam Allberry
there’s, there’s a word here. I think for this, particularly most of our listeners are in the United States, the United Kingdom, apologies to those in other parts of the world. But I think for those of us in the West, there is a growing trend among a lot of pastors to just be getting angry with where cultures going. And I don’t see a biblical justification for that we can be angry at some of the ethical trends we’re seeing, we can be angry at some of the harm that has been done to people around us because of these worldviews and ideologies. But where to where to preach the word with complete patience. When Jesus saw that, the sheep without a shepherd, he had compassion on them in their lostness. He wasn’t angry at them for being lost. He was compassionate. When

Ray Ortlund
Paul says, some will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. They will suffer believing myths. Chesterton said, It is the first effect of not believing in God, that you lose your common sense. Wow. And that never ends well. People suffer there are green pastures and still waters where the Good Shepherd leads his people. And there are horrible desert wastes where myths take us. People wandering off into those mythologies should not be yelled at or scolded, but one over with patient gentleness.

Sam Allberry
Paul also talks about, you know, people having itching years accumulating for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Again, just very telling what human nature is like we, we, we choose the truth that suits us to suit their own passions. It’s a reminder to me of what Paul said earlier on in chapter three about the terrible times where people are lovers of the wrong things are misdirected passions, will make us demand teachers that will say what we want to hear.

Ray Ortlund
I’m really struck by that because in a church going culture, some of those people will be in our churches. Yeah. And so this distinction helps me if in following Christ, I’m doing the things I do anyway. And then my Christianity isn’t obedience. It’s coincidence. And my true lord is myself, Wow, and my own preferences and my own inner compass and so forth. And so these self referential phrases in verse three are very true to life. And how wonderful it is, when we stop following ourselves in the name of Jesus, and follow Jesus. Yeah, it’s very freeing.

Sam Allberry
It’s really interesting, Paul is he’s just told Timothy to preach the Word. He’s now giving us a few verses on why people are not going to hear the preaching unwanted. You would you would think what he’s saying here in verses three and four would be a reason to just sit, sit, sit it out for a while, you know, there’s going to be a time when people are not going to want to hear what you’re saying. So just step back, take a break, wait for that time to pass. And at some point, the word will come back in season and then you can reengage know people’s non responsiveness is a reason to preach. And somebody said to me once that there are two signs, you should always continue fishing, the first sign is that the fish are biting. The second sign is that the fish aren’t biting. Either way, both conditions are a sign that you should keep going. And that seems to be the case here. Why do you preach the word because it’s in season? Why do you preach the word because it isn’t in season. In both cases, that’s the motivation to preach.

Ray Ortlund
And in verse five, Paul doesn’t say, fulfill people’s expectations of you. Although we respect what people think and how they feel, it’s important to say that, but there’s even a grander calling, fulfill your ministry, which was declared in the presence of God, and of Christ Jesus, and fulfill your ministry. There is a large SNESs there is a a fullness to every pastoral ministry. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a big church, medium sized church, small church, fulfill your ministry, what God has called you to leave nothing incomplete. Take your ministry as far as you possibly can have a blessed doing so by God’s grace and for His glory. Go fulfill your ministry. And then Paul himself says, that’s, in fact, that’s the very thing I’ve done. Yeah.

Sam Allberry
And it may not look like success from a worldly point of view to fulfill your ministry. That’s right. I’m curious, he says, do the work and event of an evangelist in all of that, because we often think of evangelism as being an almost entirely different set of skills and gifts and tasks and being the do the work of pastoral ministry. Glenn Scrivener, who’s a wonderful evangelist based in the UK once he once said that actually evangelism is pastoring unbelievers just as pastoring is evangelizing believers. Well said, and I’ve never thought of myself as an evangelist. But when Glenn said that, I thought, oh, yeah, I feel like I can do that. I feel like I can be someone who is trying to pass to those who are not yet believers.

Ray Ortlund
I’m always troubled by that phrase, do the work of an evangelist, because I’m so academic, and clunky and you know, and I just feel like, I’m all thumbs in evangelism. I just, I’m so lousy at it. But if I put that, that, that charge, do the work of evangelist in the category, get the word out? Yeah. Okay. I can help that cause Yeah, I can contribute to that. And and the longer I live, Sam, the more my heart yearns to reach the masses. We must we pastors was, whatever denomination we’re located in, we must never be elitist. And if you’re smart enough and educated enough and sharp enough, then this ministry at this church will make sense to you. That’s not the heart of Jesus. Our heart should be Let’s go. Just wrap our arms around as many people as we possibly can. Ordinary people, which is 99% of the human race, and it’s me. Yeah. People with all the ordinary problems, the all the ordinary distractions, who people who offer you very little for your big deal ministry, people who just need to be loved, helped, prayed for listened to and introduced to Jesus go wrap your arms or reach the masses. Now, you know, George Whitfield did that in the first Great Awakening. And in the Second Great Awakening, all those pastors the first Great Awakening 1740 1742, of course, was led by these sparkling huge personalities, John Wesley and George Whitfield and others. The second Great Awakening 1800 18 to one Nephi Maybe 30 was a slow burn detonation of blessing in local churches through ordinary pastors. And the Second Great Awakening in the USA, sort of re Christianized the nation and upgraded the culture, child labor laws came in the abolitionist movement got traction, and it had tremendous social advantages. But it’s because by God’s grace through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the pastor’s of ordinary churches all up and down the east coast of of what was then the new nation of America, those pastures were under such mighty blessing. They reached the masses. I longed for that. I’d love to give my life to that. Yeah.

Sam Allberry
Right. We both live in Nashville, Nashville is growing quicker than its infrastructure. So it’s true, traffic’s getting worse. And one of my sins is just ignored. And that frustration when I’m in traffic, it’s not like I’m late and have to get somewhere or I’ve got, you know, life saving medicine in the back of the car that someone desperately needs. I just don’t like being stuck in traffic. So one of the things I’m trying to tell myself now is when I’m in a traffic jam, I’m to look at that, that, that mass of cars ahead of me. And from now on, I’m going to try and think of four verse five do the work of an evangelist. Actually, the traffic jam is a blessing. Yes, because God is bringing more people into Nashville, so that we don’t have to go very far to do the work of reaching the masses. Let’s

Ray Ortlund
never forget a city is never a mere accident of history. A city is a divine strategy for the building of the kingdom of Christ, and the glory of his name in this generation, and the next. Yeah, we can believe that. So the this glorious task the Lord has laid upon us, and it’s such a privilege. And I’m and the other thing that stands out here, just briefly, Sam is is how Paul lays his life down. He dies magnificently. Yeah, I really want to do that, Sam, I just don’t want to die. Well, I want to die magnificently by God’s grace for His glory. Because you and I both believe every pastor listening to that believes. We are not just available to the Lord, we are expendable for the Lord.

Sam Allberry
Yes. There’s something about Paul is not complaining here. I am already being poured out. This is not sort of whinging. It’s not sort of, you know, I’m just so tired. And this is too demanding. And I have no energy left borders, like this is great. This is what I’m here for. We’re here to be pulled out. Yes. It’s an offering to the Lord. And

Ray Ortlund
when we have handed ourselves clear over to Christ, that changes how we die. Yeah, it makes death into the culmination of our life purpose, Sam, I believe because we’re in covenant together as we are all of us together covenanted in Christ. I literally owe you i morally owe you. Not only that, I will live well by God’s grace for His glory, but that I will die well, and even magnificent, magnificently by God’s grace and for His glory. The final statement I want to make is that Jesus is not just worth living, for he’s worth dying for. You and I both feel that every pastor listening to this feels that the apostle Paul describes it. He’s describing his own final thoughts in the final days of his life. You’re absolutely right. I’m so struck. There’s no self pity here. No panic. There’s a sense of, I’m thinking American football, Sam.

Sam Allberry
And of course you will.

Ray Ortlund
A guy scores a touchdown. He spikes the ball, you know, and he runs up to the fans that are that are closest to the endzone he’s high fiving them at least rejoicing. Actually, I’d love to die that way. Yeah.

Sam Allberry
There’s a really extraordinary thing. And I think it’s in John’s Gospel where John makes that editorial comment that Jesus was speaking of the death by which Peter would glorify God. Yes, even even death can bring glory to God.

Ray Ortlund
Yes. Paul says if we live for the Lord, we also die for the Lord. Yeah, live and die. Okay, so you know, just one other thing that stands out to me, Sam, and that is in verse eight. Paul writes, henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge, by the way, isn’t it great that Nero was not Paul’s final judge? Yeah, Nero was a moron. He didn’t understand anything, 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.

Sam Allberry
You have pulled his again he does not. There is a uniqueness to His Apostle Worship, he knows that that’s a sort of category that is it is it is not fit for every believer. But Paul is so quick to not make himself the special case will award to me not only to me, but also to all this is this is for all of us.

Ray Ortlund
Yes. And I’m struck it doesn’t say to all who have believed in his appearing, you know, eschatology matters. Yeah. Okay, so let’s have our views. But what really sets us apart is that we love His appearing. We love the thought of Jesus coming back. We love the thought of the healing of the nations as the Revelation speaks of it, and the glory of Christ covering the earth as the waters cover the sea and so forth.

Sam Allberry
That’s an interesting bookend to the opening of chapter three, where people will be lovers of self are lovers of money, not lovers of God, and so on, contrasted with those who who love the appearing of Jesus.

Ray Ortlund
Maybe, oh, I’m just I’m thinking out loud. Here. Let me toss this out. See which thing maybe the greatest and final statement we can make in this life is not that we we love what we’ve done for the Lord. Though we do, we’re grateful. We feel so privileged. Not ultimately, that we love our churches and our mission fields that we do. But that we love what’s coming next. Yeah, we love the Lord’s appearing. We love His Second Coming. Yeah, it’s not just a theological item. It’s what our hearts long for. Yeah. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s a love cry coming. Yes. It’s, yeah,

Sam Allberry
there’s there’s something so transcendent and eclipsing about God’s ways that we, we just want to get out of the way of it. Yeah. Well, we, as always grateful to crossway. We’ve been thinking in this passage about the significance of preaching, we have a love of expository preaching, there’s a place for other kinds of preaching as well. But we love the idea of taking out of the passages, what is what has been put there by the Lord for us to see. So a book I’m looking forward to reading is one by crossway, called the beauty and power of Biblical Exposition, preaching the literary artistry, and genres of the Bible. And I’m looking forward to that because that subtitle hits on something I don’t often see giving, being given attention in preaching, which is that the form of God’s word is part of the revelation of it. Yes.

Ray Ortlund
The Bible, the the narratives of Scripture, for example, are written not just to record facts, one after another. But they are I see the word artistry in the in the title, the beauty and power of Biblical Exposition, preaching the literary artistry, and genres of the Bible. The narratives of Scripture, are crafted as beautiful works of art. Yeah. And you’re right, Sam, that is part of the message, for example, and the two authors, Doug O’Donnell and Leland Ryken, Leland Ryken, started teaching English lit at Wheaton College in 1968, for crying out loud. When I was a student there, the man understands literature, I was reading some things he wrote recently about the Samsung narrative in the book of Judges, And it opened my eyes to the Samsung story, what’s actually happening in the literature as such, that helps me understand what God is really saying about Samson and about all of us through that narrative. So crossway keeps hitting homeruns with every book they publish, and here is something that every pastor might really enjoy. And it might be a treasure trove of new insights into Scripture and for preaching as well. Yeah.

Sam Allberry
Well, thanks. Thanks for listening row. Thanks for your time as always, and we’ll see you next time.