How to Live Unashamed of the Gospel

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Sam Allberry
Welcome back to you’re not crazy. It is very good to be with you. We’re going to be thinking in this episode again about second Timothy chapter one opposition to the Gospel, the temptation to be ashamed of the gospel. We’ll we’ll get into that. And do stick around there is a series of books by crossway that we want to highlight a particular volume I’ve been using which has helped with some sermon preparation

Ray Ortlund
Okay, so you’re not crazy gospel sanity for young pastors. Sam, you and I are doing this because really believe in care about wanting to invest in younger pastors. And this is not an easy time to be a pastor. We’re going to talk about that today from the book of Second Timothy. But before we go there, I have a very important question to ask you. This is filled with consequence.

Sam Allberry
Wow. Yeah. Okay.

Ray Ortlund
Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. What are your favorite pizza toppings?

Sam Allberry
Hmm. Well, we don’t shy away from the big issues on this podcast. Although I suspect we may be. We may be about to have a disagreement.

Ray Ortlund
I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah, me too. This

Sam Allberry
could be the end of the beautiful friendship. My favorite pizza toppings actually, I really liked the kind of chicken barbecue II type of pizza toppings, right. The one thing I would basically anything which has lots of meat on it. I had a pizza the other day with a dear friend of ours. Which had like a sausage meat with fennel in it and it was delicious. Friend of mine told me I was it was a nice, a nice place.

Ray Ortlund
It is completely and utterly disgusting. I can’t believe you said that. Okay,

Sam Allberry
but I have a horrible feeling. You’re about to tell us that you think pineapple belongs near pizzas and not in a fruit bowl. Is that right? Of course. And by the way, I just want to apologize to our readers. You may have been distressed by what rageous said.

Ray Ortlund
No, but But here’s what you need to do. You need to go to Chicago. And just off Michigan Avenue is the original who knows.

Sam Allberry
Oh, I love those pizza. Oh, really? Yep. Oh, I’m with you on that? Yeah. Well,

Ray Ortlund
you’re back in the family, then. Thank you. Yes, get deep dish at UNO’s and you will be happy forever.

Sam Allberry
It doesn’t have to have pineapple in it. Well,

Ray Ortlund
Sam, what do you have? Again? God created pineapple.

Sam Allberry
Yes, he did for the fruit genre, which is is dessert. I don’t I don’t put you know, banana or my pizza either. So long as a fruit,

Ray Ortlund
you are forgiven.

Sam Allberry
Okay, gospel culture is about to go out of the window.

Ray Ortlund
Second Timothy chapter one, verses eight through 18. Now, the background music turns to a minor key. All right, there’s there’s trouble in pastoral ministry. Every faithful pastor will be opposed, he will be abandoned. There will be hard times. Let’s get ready. So what stands out to you Sam? And Second Timothy, chapter one, verses eight through 18. Yeah, the

Sam Allberry
the one of the recurring themes seems to be shame, shame of being ashamed of the gospel. Paul begins in verse eight. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me. Paul wouldn’t say that if there wasn’t a chance, Timothy could feel ashamed. There’s that possibility even even for a gospel pastor. Paul continues a bit further down. He talks about why he is not ashamed. And I forgot the metaverse was for that. Oh, there we are verse 12. He says, but I am not ashamed. And you give some reasons why. So I’ve been leaning into that. Because I feel that within myself, I have been in situations where I’ve been the only believer in the room and the prevailing culture of the room has been demeaning towards the Christian faith. And I thought, Do I say something or not? They don’t know. You know, I have felt ashamed of the gospel at times. And so this this is this passage means a lot to me because I feel like I, you know, I need to hear everything Paul is saying, but this really feels like Paul has, has written this for me. So the first thing I’m struck by his word therefore, because it Paul is saying what he’s just told him within the previous paragraph is a reason not to be ashamed of the gospel now. So we were thinking last episode about that that human chain that was involved in Timothy, coming to faith, you use the language of those saints are with us, cheering us on. And the very fact that that Timothy has The same faith that they had, has been given the gift of God. All of those things made me think yes, yes, that is a reason not to be ashamed. Because it isn’t just me, it turns out, it’s me and all of my forebears who I must admire I most of mine, and I really am a Christian in this room. And God has given me the power and the love and the self control to be an ambassador of Christ. So I love that that’s where Paul begins to apply what he’s just said. Because I think I would have taken that first paragraph and applied it in a, you know, getting your study, boy, get it get on with your pastoral visitations, you know, but actually, his application is, therefore don’t be ashamed of the gospel thing.

Ray Ortlund
I think, Sam, I expect that by now, I would be beyond by age 73. Having been in pastoral ministry for decades, I would be beyond and I would be have grown past. feeling intimidated. Feeling out outclassed feeling small, and so forth. That drama going on between my two ears, and I would be forthright and and bold and brave at all times. But like you there are times when I’m tempted to feel ashamed and just shrink into invisibility and silence. Yeah, in the room. And so this is I love the realism. Yeah, this. Yeah,

Sam Allberry
it actually comforts me that Paul needed to say this to Timothy because it makes me think, Okay, I’m, I’m in good company, then. If I’m and the fact that Paul can then say, I’m not ashamed, gives me hope. So I get the comfort from him saying, Don’t be ashamed and the hope from him saying, here’s why I’m not ashamed. I think, okay, there’s, there’s, it’s, my temptation to be ashamed is seen. God has factored that in through Paul writing this letter. And yet, this is something they’re always gonna help me with, because there’s a way to get through it. That striking.

Ray Ortlund
So feeling that temptation and that seduction, entering my heart and so forth, that itself is not disqualifying. Yeah. Timothy was still in the ministry. Yeah,

Sam Allberry
it’s problematic, but it’s not disqualifying. Yes.

Ray Ortlund
What stands out to me here, it’s a couple of things. But one is, now Paul gets around in a very brief summary form. He sums up the essence of the Christian gospel. In verse nine, he talks about, you know, our holy calling, not because of our works, but because of God’s own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before ages began, this long history, this long build up that this, this eternal commitment that God made to us and then what did God do? Verse 10, Paul sums up the gospel in 17 words, our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Again, the gospel is not not about us, making ourselves more religious. It’s about God in grace and long standing patient deeply committed grace, raising the dead to life again, forever through Christ, and who of us doesn’t want to be alive? So Jesus abolished death. Now that can put some backbone into me. Yeah, because what’s the worst this world can do to me, is take me out. Fine, but death is abolished. Defunct, obsolete, temporary, secondary derivative exhausted. For starters, death is a spent force. It is not ultimate. What’s Ultimate is life and immortality, he has abolished death and brought life not just duty and demand, but life and immortality to light through the gospel. So, when Jesus appeared in history, the Old Testament gave us hints and ad impressions and foreshadowings and whispers, and then Jesus came as this great, compelling, non ignorable declaration, through His life, death and resurrection. So, life was here first, life is going to be here forever. And we now share in the immortality the undeniable life, Sam,

Sam Allberry
and it’s more the word life I love because it’s not just existence. Yes, you can exist and not really have life. This is As Paul gave us a hands off in the very opening sentence of the letter according to the promise of the life, yes, that is in Christ Jesus.

Ray Ortlund
So here I am. I’m, I’m interacting with Sam Albury right now across the table. I am right now looking at an immortal being. And not just an immortal soul. That’s a Greek concept from ancient philosophy, and immortal being body and soul. So when Cornelius in his sort of endearing but wrongheaded humility bowed down before the apostle Peter, in Acts chapter 10. And Peter rightly lifted him back up and said, You’re my friend, we just don’t do that. Peter Cornelius was wrong to bow down to Peter, Peter was right to lift him up as his equal and his peer in Christ. But my thought is this. If in looking at you, and any one of us in Christ, if I’m never, if there’s never any impulse, or thought to do honor to just bow down low before another Christian, have I really thought about the gospel.

Sam Allberry
Yet because I’m to borrow language from elsewhere in Paul’s writings, I’m looking at you and thinking, the man in front of me is one day going to judge the angels. And I don’t know what that means. But Paul says that’s, that’s part of our job description in the age to come. Yes. You’re going to you’re a co Ruler of the universe with Jesus.

Ray Ortlund
And what we’re talking about here is not our own wishful thinking, No, it’s our own, you know, our dream or something. Our Savior, Christ Jesus, in His life, death and resurrection, abolished death. We now know it’s a spent force. We know that as a matter of historical record, in this world of death, and brought life and immortality to light. Yeah, he told us about this. He proved this to us, in terms that would be convincing and satisfying to us. So we’re responding to this revelation that God detonated in the first coming of Christ and will consummate in the second coming of Christ.

Sam Allberry
Paul is is getting doctrinal, yes, in these verses, because we need to be doctrinal, ly clear in order to not be ashamed of God, the testimony of Jesus. And Paul says in verse 13, follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith, there is actual real content to what we believe as Christians is not up for grabs. There are words that are sound, and there is doctrine that is unsound. Yes. And we’re going to hear about false teachers in in due course, and they feature all the way through the New Testament. And it’s just a reminder that as we seek to, to promote and to spotlight the need for gospel culture, we are we’re emphatically not. We’re not doing that at the expense of being concerned for forgetting our doctrine. Right, unhealthy?

Ray Ortlund
Absolutely correct. You know, there are those who say, it doesn’t really matter what we believe, as long as we love one another. Yeah. Well, excuse me, that is a belief. Yes. And it’s not a sound belief. It’s not an apostolic belief. Indeed, it is our beliefs that support that support and sustain and create and inspire and energize our love for one another. So you and I are are profoundly abandoned. to true and sound biblical doctrine. Yeah. Because it’s about Jesus whom we love. And we’re so excited about its creative potentialities, in this world where Christian communities called churches can display something imperfectly, but something real of this life that is in Christ Jesus.

Sam Allberry
And even where Paul does talk about these sound words in verse 13, he says, You have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. So even those sound words, again cannot be divorced from the love of Christ that they are to be embodying and speaking of and declaring in which we are to be reflecting in the way that we live.

Ray Ortlund
This whole podcast is about gospel dogs. Turning, creating gospel culture and it’s right here in First Timothy 113 The sound words in the faith and love the intangibles that are in Christ Jesus. I’m also struck Sam by pulse way of putting this in verse 13, follow the pattern of the sound words, this true healthy life giving doctrine. He doesn’t say read the script, no, of the sound words, no reciting the Apostles Creed, the Nicene, creed, and so forth. We love that we we will enjoy that revere that to the end of our days. But I am grateful. And I’m struck by and grateful for the fact that Paul said, Timothy, I have explained the gospel to you, we’ve thought it through together, you understand it, you are ready to go preach, go for it. You don’t have to mouth. What I said. Yeah, follow the pattern of sound words. I’m struck in Hebrews 13. It says, about those who have gone before, imitate their faith, it does not say imitate their style.

Sam Allberry
Yeah. Yeah, that’s important. I’m struck as well. Paul talks about. He’s convinced that God is able to guard what has been entrusted to me. He then says, in Verse 14, God that good deposit entrusted to you there’s, there’s a lovely kind of both and nurse to what is happening there. God, God is guarding what we have been entrusted. And we’re in we’re guarding what has been entrusted. There’s a responsibility that we can trust God for and we don’t have to worry about and yet there is a responsibility he has given us how

Ray Ortlund
striking it’s both and he is able, verse 12, he is able to guard until that day, what has been entrusted to me, verse 14, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard, the good deposit entrusted to you. Here’s what’s fascinating to me about that Sam, guarding the gospel cannot be done, by intellect alone, or by mere doctrinal staunchness. Alone, rock ribbed and so forth. by the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, guard the good deposit, I’m struck by what Richard loveless in his book The dynamics of spiritual life, there’s another classic Richard loveless is it Tim has Keller has said how important that book was to him, it was really paradigmatic. But in in loveless dynamics, page 183. He says this, in our quest for the fullness of the Spirit, we have sometimes forgotten that a spirit filled intelligence is one of the powerful weapons for pulling down satanic strongholds. Sam, it’s right here in verse 14, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is a spirit filled pastor who is equipped in every essential to guard the good deposit, to take it from generation to to generation three, undiminished. undamaged.

Sam Allberry
Right, you said earlier that we use the language we have abandoned ourselves to this, this understanding this faith, these promises that we’ve been given. Abandonment comes to us in another way it isn’t in the last few verses of this of this passage, Paul’s own experience and one that he highlights presumably because it’s not going to be unique just to apostles, but part of the deal when it comes to being a pastor, as we got the good deposit, as we proclaim Christ, we will have to endure hardship. What strikes you about that?

Ray Ortlund
When he says in verse 15, you are aware, there’s here’s the sadness of ministry, you are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me. Paul was forsaken, not by one or two, but by a whole sector of the Christian church. Again, coming back to John Stott and his wonderful commentary on Second Timothy. He says here, the Great Awakening had been followed by a great defection. Wow. Yeah. So here was, here was the Apostle Paul toward the end of his life. He was not a popular figure in many churches. And Timothy then would be understandably intimidated if he been terrified by taking the helm of leadership from Generation One, the apostle Paul, when it looks like the movement is falling apart for crying out loud. Paul faces right into that. And, and immediately then points to the household of Anessa forests, who he says often refreshed me was not ashamed of my chains. So many people were living Christians were living in such fear. They didn’t want to be identified with Paul, who had been imprisoned for the faith. They just looked the other way.

Sam Allberry
And Paul is even thinking it’s it’s not inconceivable that Timothy will feel that way because he says in verse eight, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. So even Timothy, there’s a danger. Timothy might want to kind of put a distance between him and pull.

Ray Ortlund
Yes, but instead this heroic Christian, not an apostle, he, apparently a father with a household Anessa for us, stuck his neck out. And when he arrived in Rome, verse 17, says, He searched for me earnestly and found me. So Anessa forest went into prisons asking, is there a man named Paul? Yes, held in custody here? Yeah, very courageous. And there was such a beautiful solidarity, that Anessa Forrest felt toward Paul. And here’s what strikes me about that. Sam. Paul says in verse 18, May the Lord grant him and so for us to find mercy from the Lord on that day, how we treat one another will matter on that great day of judgment. Yeah, it will be consequential. Yeah. So if we are political with one another, if, if the if we treat one another, like, purchases on the stock market, yeah. And some days the values are up and other days the values are down, if we treat one another perceive one another, through a lens of cost benefit calculation. The Lord sees that. Yeah, he is not pleased with that. Yeah, that’s where is the cross in that kind of relational culture?

Sam Allberry
Yeah. I don’t think it’s an accident that Paul uses a bit of parallelism here because verse 17, he searched for me earnestly, verse 18, May the Lord grant him to find mercy. So in other words, part of the logic of that is, as he’s looking for Paul, to refresh him, to strengthen Him, to stand with him to support him. He’s actually on a journey to finding mercy. So as we as we think of Christians, who might in worldly terms be an embarrassment to us, actually. We’re look, we’re gonna find in them a means of experiencing mercy from God. It’s a sweet thing. But that’s quite dramatic language in verse 15. And by Asia, Paul is not meaning what we think of as, as Asia, it’s not Asia on the risk border, it’s a province in the Roman Empire, but that it’s still a big deal that all who are in Asia turned away from me. It was that it seems to be that widespread, it wasn’t a minority report that we’re abandoning Paul, it was everyone in this in this particular area.

Ray Ortlund
Every young pastor who’s listening to this podcast right now, here’s my personal recommendation. Ask yourself who are the other pastors in my generation, whom I trust and respect? My recommendation is go find those guys have coffee with each one and say to them, Look, we’re not going to get through this faithfully and fruitfully on our own. Can we be friends together through thick and thin? Can we slit our wrists and become blood brothers so to speak? Can we make a commitment to one another, to give our lives to one another in such a way that we can’t take it back? One of my purposes, Sam, in the rest of my life is to stop losing friends. Yeah. I look at the last 20 years of American evangelicalism and I see so much relational loss. Yeah, that is not the power of the gospel. Whatever is going on, that’s not the gospel. What if this rising generation coming up behind me, your generation and younger What if there is a movement of brotherhood? Inspired by the gospel of Christ our brother? Christ searched for us earnestly and found us? Yes, go. Now we know how to live right. Yeah, so let’s go earn as they search out faithful, fruitful brothers, and form friendships like Jonathan and David entering into covenant together and say we’re going to go through this journey together as one we can we can meet maybe once a quarter or once a month, something like figure it, hack it out, figure out a way that where solid inspiring, honest, vulnerable brotherhood can be part of your life from now on with other pastors you trust and respect and would give your life to Yeah.

Sam Allberry
What are the thing I’m struck by here is in verse 16, Paul says that on so for us, he often refreshed me Nearpod may be talking purely, just literally he brought some, you know, bottled water and some Diet Cokes or something. But Paul has has used that language, or she in Philemon, he talks about it in a very similar way. Paul is an apostle, he’s the one writing scripture at this point. But he is not above letting people know that he himself has, has needs. He is He I’m an apostle, but I still need to be refreshed. People still minister to him. He’s not embarrassed to talk about how he has been served, how he has needed that the inputs and Ministry of other people himself, he’s not invulnerable. And again, he’s not self contained. Oh, my goodness. And which means that as we saw, as we, you know, as we seek out all the pastors, we mustn’t think it will be two way. Because Paul here, you didn’t get more senior than than an apostle. But he was being refreshed by the presence of an ESA for us.

Ray Ortlund
I’d never thought of it that way. That’s a great point. Okay, Sam crossway, has the New Testament theology series. And one of their volumes is by Ben Merkel, united to Christ, the theology of Ephesians. It’s just recently come out, I think, and I know this book has been important to you tell us about it. Yeah. Well,

Sam Allberry
this series looks great that the first I think four or five volumes are out. What they’re doing is they’re taking each New Testament book and publishing a theology of that book. So in this case, it’s a here’s a theology of Ephesians. So the passage we’ve been talking about here talks about the importance of sound words and our doctrines and all the rest of it this this series is helping us understand, okay, what is what are the big doctrines of Ephesians. And we’ve been, we’re going through Ephesians, in our Sunday morning sermons, I’ve preached a couple of those recently, and I was just pulling different resources off the shelf for Ephesians. And this was helpful because it takes again, it’s giving you the big themes of Ephesians, and showing you what the whole letter says about those themes. Our union with Christ, the work of the Spirit in us our understanding of the church, it just helped me kind of get a handle on some of the big themes overall, as I was working through particular texts. So I think that’s going to be a great series is edited by Tom Shriner, and Brian wasn’t are those two scholars? I, yes, I’m so grateful for. So I’m excited about this series. I’ve enjoyed using that Ephesians one, I’m looking forward to using the others as well.

Ray Ortlund
The big categories of each book of the Bible, when they they stand out to us we become and they our minds become clear about what they are, then we know what to do with the details, as we’re preaching through a book, and God uses those big categories at to create beauty. I think of the books of the Bible as sort of like the medicine cabinet in my bathroom and I open up by the mirror you know, and behind her the shelves and and I don’t have one medication for every problem and ailment. There are different bottles, different shapes and and I have so many needs. And each book of the Bible is like a medicine for a particular needs. So a book like this, united to Christ theology of of Ephesians by Ben Merkel is a is a medicine a life giving resource for a very real human need. Yeah, and the need is such a sense of Christ that we actually come together can magnificent community. Yeah, a new kind of community.

Sam Allberry
Yeah. These books by the way, from what I’ve seen, they are technically informed but they are they are, they are readable. So they would be you know, I could put put them in church members hands they would be a good accompany. went to a sermon to read through that through that particular book of the Bible.

Ray Ortlund
Fantastic. Well, Sam, thank you for another episode of you’re not crazy gospel Saturday for young pastors. Thank you friends for listening in. See you next time.