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How can a believer be fortified to endure hardship and suffering for their faith? He needs to remember the Supreme Person of Christ, realize the Sovereign Purpose of God, and believe the Stunning Promise of heaven.
Biblical Motivations To Endure Suffering
2 Timothy 2:8-13
The history of the church is strewn with noble examples of men who were willing to endure suffering unto death: Stephen was stoned, James was beheaded, and Peter was crucified upside down. More recently, Richard Wurmbrand has done much to make known the horrible sufferings and martyrdom of Christians around the world in the 20th century. The latest statistics report that 200 million Christians face some kind of persecution every year around the world, and 100,000 Christians die for their faith on average every year. That sounds unbelievable doesn’t it. Jeff King has reported that between 1998 and 2003, 10,000 Christians were murdered in Indonesia alone. It is no exaggeration to say that throughout the history of the Christian church, multiplied millions have endured unspeakable sufferings and martyrdom for their faith.
One such man was the apostle Paul. Paul could say, “From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus” (Gal.6:17). Paul was imprisoned, beaten many times, five times received 39 lashes from the Jews, beaten with rods three times, stoned, and in danger of his life constantly. What in the world could motivate Paul to endure such suffering? What will enable you and I to endure through all of the trials and hardships of our Christian life?
In the earlier portion of this chapter Paul has described the Christian life to Timothy as a wholly devoted soldier in a war, a rule-keeping athlete in a competition, and a hard-working farmer in a harvest. The Christian life is like soldiering, but the war we are in is not just a day or two long. It goes on year after year after year. The Christian life is like a runner in a race, but it is not a sprint. It’s more like a marathon. The Christian life is like a hard-working farmer, but he doesn’t just work for 1 planting season. He works year after year. Our problem is that we can do OK for a short period of time. We would probably all do OK in a race as long as it was only a mile or two. But how are we doing after 10 or 15 or 20 or 25 miles?! The Christian life requires endurance to make it through the long haul.
Friends, you have begun the Christian life, but my question to you is “will you finish it?” Will you endure through all of the hardships and suffering you are going to have to face as a Christian, and snap the tape at the end of your life and enter into eternal glory? It’s not how well a person begins the Christian life that counts, but how he ends it.
In 2 Timothy Paul is exhorting Timothy to suffer hardship for the gospel. In 1:8 Paul writes, “Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.” Timothy was naturally timid and would have shrank back from suffering hardship, so Paul urges him on by giving him the bad example of all in Asia who had deserted him, and then the good example of Onesiphorus who had remained loyal to him. Then Paul urges him to receive the strength he needs to endure from the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
But what can Paul say to Timothy to truly motivate him to be willing to endure anything in order to complete his race, win the war, and harvest the crop? Paul in these verses gives Timothy 3 powerful motivations to endure suffering: The Supreme Person of Christ, the Sovereign Purpose of God, and the Stunning Promise of Heaven. In this section Paul points to the experience of Jesus Christ in vs. 8, then his own experience in vs. 9-10, and then the experience of all believers in vs. 11-13.
1. The Supreme Person of Christ
Paul gives Timothy two details about Jesus Christ – that He is risen from the dead, and that he is a descendant of David.
Risen From The Dead
Romans 1:3-4 also speaks both of the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and a descendant of David. In that passage, Paul says that the fact that Jesus rose from the dead declares that He is the Son of God. The fact that Jesus repeatedly predicted that he would be crucified, buried, and then rise from the dead, and then actually do it, shows that he was more than a mere man. It shows that He was and is God! Jesus Christ is a supreme person because He is God.
However, Christ’s resurrection also points to the fact that He died for sins. If He rose, obviously He had died. The Scriptures are clear that Christ died for sins, according to the Scriptures. Well, the fact that He rose from the dead points to His efficacy as a sin-bearing sacrifice. Because He is risen from the dead, He is God, and His sacrifice for sins was effective in forever removing them from those who trust Him.
Descendant Of David
Again Paul says in Romans 1:3 that Jesus was a descendant of David according to the flesh. So, just as His resurrection proves He is God, His descent from David proves that He is a man. By using these phrases, Paul is pointing to the fact that Jesus Christ is both human and divine.
But let’s look a little deeper. What significance does the phrase “a descendant of David” have? In 2 Sam. 7:8-13 God promises that He will raise up a descendant of David, and that He would establish the throne of His kingdom forever. Ps. 132:11 says, “The Lord has sworn to David, a truth from which He will not turn back; “Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.” In Is. 9:7, in a prophecy speaking of Jesus Christ God says, “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.”
So, when would Jesus sit upon the throne and reign? Acts 2:30-33 says, “ “And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” It’s clear from this passage that the promise to sit Christ on David’s throne was fulfilled when He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father’s right hand.
Now, what is Paul’s point in all of this? Why does he point to the fact that Jesus suffered, died, rose, ascended and is now reigning from heaven at the Father’s right hand. Simply this – Paul is pointing to Jesus Christ as our example of one who endured great suffering, only to be exalted by His Father. “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Paul is pointing to Christ as Timothy’s example. The Supreme Person of Christ can motivate us to suffer hardship for the gospel. Christ suffered hardship. He endured to the end. And now He is reigning in glory. His experience will be our experience as well, if we follow His example, faithful to the end.
Death is the gateway to life. Suffering is the road to glory. Timothy, when you face suffering and hardship, remember Jesus Christ! He suffered, He died, and now He is exalted. If you are faithful unto death, you too will reign in glory!
2. The Sovereign Purpose Of God
The Word Of God Is Not Imprisoned
Although man may be able to imprison and silence God’s messenger, He can’t stop the message. Although Paul was imprisoned in Rome, God’s Word was still free and bringing forth fruit all over the world. In 197 A.D. Tertullian wrote in his book, Apolegiticus, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” It didn’t matter how many thousands of believers the Romans put to death in the first 300 years of the church, they couldn’t stamp out Christianity. It just continued to grow. When the Communists took over China in 1949, there were about 700,000 Christians. Today the government reports about 30 million Christians (non-government statistics are more like 100 million believers)! Yes, you can persecute and imprison people, but God’s Word will continue to do its work.
Why does God’s Word constantly bear fruit and increase in spite of persecution? Because there is a sovereign God causing His gospel to triumph. Martin Luther, in the 16th century wrote, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever.”
For The Sake Of Those Who Are Chosen
In these words, Paul gives us the reason why he was willing to endure everything that he suffered. It was for the sake of the elect, those who are chosen. Now, Paul could easily have written, “for the sake of those who would believe.” However, Paul lays the emphasis on the sovereignty of God in choosing a particular group of people. The idea is not that Paul was enduring all things for the sake of those who choose Christ, but rather for those whom God has chosen. A lot of Christians get nervous when you start talking about those who are chosen, and do their best to explain it away. However, if you do that, you are just shooting yourself in the foot. The doctrine of election is given to us to help us appreciate our salvation, and to enable us to endure suffering.
A lot of times people say that the truth of God’s sovereign election will put out the fire of evangelism and make believers sit on their hands and do nothing. Let me ask you something – did it do that for the apostle Paul? No! Did it do that for Martin Luther, or the Puritans, or George Whitefield, or William Carey, or Jonathan Edwards, or Charles Spurgeon? If you know anything about these men of God, you know that they devoted all of their energy and lives to bringing the gospel to the lost. If anything, this doctrine made them more zealous, not less. Let me just say this – if your understanding of election makes you passive and sluggish about evangelism, you have a wrong view of election!
So That They Also May Obtain Salvation and Eternal Glory
What are these people chosen for? Well, it’s obvious. They are chosen to obtain salvation. Isn’t that the clear meaning of this text? Paul endures all things for the sake of those who are chosen “so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.” Clearly, these people, whoever they are, have been chosen for salvation and eternal glory, and Paul is willing to endure all his sufferings, so that they might obtain it. In other words, Paul was laboring to become the human instrument by which the elect would obtain the salvation which was predestined for them.
Notice, that although these people have been chosen, they have not yet obtained salvation. They were predestined to obtain salvation, but they hadn’t obtained it yet. Do you know that there are people around the world, and even here in Rancho Cordova that are chosen to obtain salvation, but haven’t obtained it yet? Those are the ones we are trying to find. No, we aren’t trying to reach the world for Christ, we are trying to reach the elect for Christ. God is not going to save the entire world. Jesus said the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. But some will find it. They are the ones God has chosen from the foundation of the world. Paul has already mentioned these people earlier in this letter. In 2 Tim. 1:9 he wrote, “God, who has saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” This is about the closest thing we have in Paul’s epistles to a statement of his purpose in life. Paul lived, suffered, and died, in order to reach the elect. The people of the world are like the sand on the seashore. The chosen ones are like iron filings mixed in with the sand. When we pass a magnet over the sand, the iron filings jump out and are drawn to the magnet. So too, when we preach the gospel, God draws the elect to Christ and they obtain salvation.
You might be thinking, “Brian, you’re taking one verse of Scripture here in 2 Tim. 2:10, and you’re developing a huge doctrine out of it!” My friends, the truth of God’s sovereign election is not just taught in this one little verse of Scripture. It is taught everywhere in your Bibles. Let me give you just a brief sampling:
2 Thess. 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation”
1 Thess. 1:4 “knowing, brethren beloved by God, His chose of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction”
Eph. 1:4, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”
Rom. 9:16 “So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
Rom. 11:5,7 “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice… What then? That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.”
If you would like to study this doctrine further, please get a free copy of my book, “Overwhelmed By Grace” on the book table, and read it. There are hundreds of clear texts of Scripture that teach this truth.
So, what is the point Paul is making to Timothy here? It is simply this. God has a chosen people. They will be saved; they must be saved. And Paul is willing to bear any suffering necessary in order that they will be saved. Paul is giving Timothy his own example to motivate him to suffer hardship for the same reason. Timothy, your suffering will not be in vain. It will be the means through which God will save those people He has chosen from all eternity. Therefore, don’t back down, don’t give up, don’t wash out. Go on for Jesus Christ!
3. The Stunning Promise Of Heaven
Verses 11-13 may be part of an early creed, hymn or poem that Paul quoted from. There are 4 lines to this poem. The first two lines show actions which proceed from loyalty to Christ. The second two lines show actions which proceed from disloyalty to Christ. In all of these lines, Paul gives us Christ’s responses to each. He begins this discussion by saying, “It is a trustworthy statement” that appears in the Bible only in the pastoral epistles, and occurs five times. So, what he is about to quote is something you can trust; you can bank on it.
If We Died With Him, We Shall Also Live With Him
“Died with Him” could refer to our union to Christ and our sharing in His death and resurrection. If that is true, then this would refer to a positional truth. However, the context here has nothing to do with our positional union to Christ. Paul is speaking about suffering hardship. Therefore, I believe Paul is speaking about suffering martyrdom for Christ. He is quoting a hymn that points out the truth that if we die with Christ in martyrdom, we will live with Him in glory. If we give up our earthly life, we will only gain a heavenly life with Christ. Jim Elliott once said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Oh, how wise he was.
If We Endure, We Shall Also Reign With Him
Paul is pointing out the truth, that the path to glory is a road of suffering. We must endure hardship if we expect to reign in glory. No Cross – no Crown! Just as Christ endured the agony of the cross, but now reigns in glory, and just as Paul will shortly give up his life but looks forward to a crown of righteousness, so too Timothy must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, because eternal glory awaits him.
If We Deny Him, He Also Will Deny Us
This is not anything new. Jesus Christ Himself taught us this very clearly. In Mt. 10:33 Jesus said, “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” In this statement, we are brought face to face with the horrible possibility of a professing Christian denying Jesus Christ and ending up hearing Jesus say to him, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” In other words, Jesus is going to deny that He knows us, that He has a saving relationship with us. Now, Paul is not talking about someone who may, in a moment of weakness, temporarily deny the Lord like Peter. Rather, he is speaking of someone who makes a permanent and final denial of Jesus Christ.
If We Are Faithless, He Remains Faithful
“Faithless” must refer to denying Christ. If we don’t believe in Christ, He remains faithful. I don’t believe this is teaching He remains faithful to His promises, but rather faithful to His threatenings. Look at the context. Paul has just told us that if we deny Him, we will also deny us. That is speaking about eternal judgment. This harmonizes perfectly with what Paul also taught in 2 Thess. 1:7-8 where he writes, “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
For He Cannot Deny Himself
If God did not punish sin, He would be found a liar, and He would be denying Himself. God has told us clearly in dozens of places in Scripture that He will punish those who don’t believe on Christ. John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” For God to not do what He has told us He will do, would be to deny Himself. God would have to cease to be God to let the guilty go unpunished.
Eternal Glory
We have the stunning promise of eternal glory to motivate us to suffer hardship! What does the Bible say about heaven and eternal glory? We only have faint hints, but let me read some of the things the Scripture tells us about heaven.
Ps. 16:11, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
Ps. 17:15, “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfifed with Your likeness when I awake.”
Dan. 12:3 “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
Mt. 13:43 “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Lk. 20:35-36 “But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
Lk. 23:43, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Jn. 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
1 Pet. 1:4, “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you”
2 Pet. 3:13, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
Rev. 21:3-7, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
Rev. 22:1-5, “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.”
Application
Folks, you will experience hardship if you faithfully serve God. That’s the point of comparing the Christian life to a soldier, an athlete and a farmer. No pain – No gain. For Paul and Timothy it meant persecution and the possibility of death. For us, may mean losing a job, or bearing the ridicule and scorn of unbelievers because you faithfully proclaim God’s truth. It could mean losing a relationship because you must put Christ and His kingdom first in your life.
We must endure to the end if we ever expect to enter into eternal glory. The Bible is clear. He who endures to the end will be saved. When your Christian life gets hard, and you must endure through hardship fix your eyes on these three great truths.
The Supreme Person of Christ – Look to your Lord. He endured before you. He conquered death. He rose victorious and was exalted to the throne. If you endure, you will be exalted as well.
The Sovereign Purpose of God – Your hardship has meaning. God is working out His eternal purpose through your endurance. He is saving His elect through your toil and suffering. Go on. Don’t give up! God will accomplish His sovereign purpose through your labors. Your exertion has meaning!
The Stunning Promise of Heaven – Fix your eyes on the hope of glory. You will be with Christ, shine like the stars, be with holy angels, see Christ face to face, where there is no more sorrow, crying, pain or death. You will be hold Christ’s glory in Paradise. Whatever pain we experience here, we know we are heading to a much better place. Friends, this life is the only opportunity you will have to suffer for your Lord. For a believer this present life is as bad as it gets. But for an unbeliever, this present life is as good as it gets. Let’s look to Jesus, lock arms together, and endure to the end.
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