Christians cannot grow without a careful, committed, and confident trust in the authority of the Scriptures.

The Authority of Scripture

2 Timothy 3:1-17

Introduction

As Paul is imprisoned for the last time he reflects back on his life and writes his spiritual son in the faith, Timothy.  Even in his final days Paul is investing in his most prized disciple.  What words of wisdom would he give him?  What insights into ministry?  In this final letter we are going to look at how..

Proposition:  Christians cannot grow without a careful, committed, and confident trust in the authority of the Scriptures.

Background of 2 Tim 3

Paul says he is living in the last days.  The “last days” or “last times” or “last hour” (greek word is kairos, compared to chronos) is the entire period between his first coming (Heb 1:2) and final coming.  Christ has come and His kingdom is being built.  Jesus Himself said that all authority has been given to me in heaven as it is on earth.  But history has moved on and John says:

1 John 2:18 (ESV) — 18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

So what does Paul think of these last days (19 traits, a catalog of vices).

a)      1-4 are selfishness – they are breaking 1^st commandment to love god with all soul,mind, strength

1. Lovers of self
2. Lovers of money (1tim 6)
3. Proud
4. Arrogant

b)      5-6 socially destructive – if they are destructive in the family they will be destructive in society

1. Abusive
2. Disobedient to parents

c)       7-11 un-words – a painfully negative society

1. Ungrateful
2. Unholy
3. Unloving (heartless)
4. Unappeasable (unreconcileable)

d)      12-13 speech and behavior

1. Slanderous
2. Without self-control

e)      14-15 un-words

1. Brutal (untamed, savage)
2. Not lovers of good (un-lovers of good)

f)       Transition from the characteristics of the age to characteristics of the teachers of the age

1. Treacherous
2. Reckless
3. Swollen with conceit
4. Lovers of pleasure rather than GodThe teachers of the age are difficult to rebuke because they started off well but have slid into becoming treacherous, reckless, but swelling with conceit.  It is easier to counsel someone who has been wrong from the beginning but one who has slid over the course of many years!

g)      Having a form of godliness but denying its power – religion has become a show!  A mad rush of enthusiasm

These false teachers prey on weak willed women.  They sneak and infiltrate into homes.  This is not saying that all women are weak-willed and easy to seduce.  What it is showing is that you have one in power (the false teacher) abusing that power.  Secondly you have women who have no discernment, are open to any form of spirituality that need to hang on to something.

But sooner or later the truth will expose them.  Time and truth (vs 9) go hand in hand, given enough time the truth will come out.

When Paul is painting this picture he is not saying that every false teacher will exhibit each of these vices, rather he is categorizing the sins in general of false teachers.  He is making a list of false teachers who have denied the demands of Scriptures on its teachers.

So what counsel does Paul give to Timothy in light of the last days?  Three points of counsel that all start with the letter C

Be CAREFUL who you follow (vs 10-11)

Be careful who you follow.  Compared to these people who lead the church astray and seduce the sheep, Paul tells timothy to be selective and discerning of his mentors and to hold them in high regard.

In other words you will have many people influencing your life, be discerning in who you follow! There will be competing voices vying for your attention. Paul says, you’ve seen my life, you’ve known my struggles my joys, my discouragements and triumphs.

Paul is instructing Timothy to evaluate him!  Watch me.  Look at my life.  Think of this of this principal that Paul is giving to Timothy: if you want to know what real Christianity looks like in comparison to the falsehoods that is going on in the world, watch me!  When was the last time you ever said that to anybody?  If you have never done that why?  Isn’t that biblical to ask someone to do?  Didn’t Paul tell the Corinthians, “Follow me as I follow Christ or Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ.”

The implication of that question can be indicting can’t it?  Is it because our life is so much like the world’s that a follower may not be able to tell the difference between our Christianity and the world’s moralism?

Watch me!

Notice in verse 10, Paul doesn’t deny teaching.  He says, “You have followed my teaching” but immediately after he says, “my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness.”  In short Paul is saying, “watch me” and consider how I lived, my priorities, my aim, how I use my resources.  I want you Timothy the grace of God in my life.  Now that you’ve seen these things, “choose who you will follow!”  Choose who will be your mentor!

Can you do this to somebody else?  Can you ask them this question without fear?  Yes, because what you are not is a perfect person but “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread!”  Your life should reflect your constant need of grace, constant repentance of sin, constant return to drink from the well of living water found only in Christ Himself!  I am no authority?  That’s right! God has disclosed His Word which is the final authority in all matters pertaining to life and godliness!

Consider the importance of this principal, “follow me as I follow Christ” or “watch my life.”  Where can this take place?  In the local church!  In discipleship in fellowship groups.  This is one of the reasons why rockstar Christianity has harmed the church because new believers, young people are following imperfect people in HD lenses!  Literally they are viewed in conferences, books, sermons all the while having no real person to follow.  The public life of a preacher, author, speaker may differ greatly with that person’s private life.  That’s why Paul safeguards Timothy by saying, “yes follow my teaching”, but also “my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, etc..”

This is Paul’s last letter.  He knew he was about to die.  Instead of writing a church he writes to his son in the faith!

John MacArthur is regularly asked, “what is the greatest challenge the church faces today.”  His answer is always the same, “lack of discernment.”  He’s right so many are unable to live a mature Christian life.   We don’t have men we have boys dressed up as men. Paul said to the Corinthians, “act like men!”  1Cor 16:13.  What he’s saying is mature, grow up in your maturity, not that boys were effeminate or need to start shooting guns and lifting weights.  He saying, “grow up in the faith, be mature in your thinking.”  A boy turns into a man when he shows signs of…. Maturity!  A girl turns into a woman when she shows signs of…. Maturity!  The mature disciple the immature to make them mature!

What was it that allowed Paul to live a life that was so mature in Christ, so rich and full of Christ?  He placed himself, fastened himself to the authority of the word of God (c/f 2Tim 3:17)

Be COMMITED to Christ which has consequences (vs 12-13)

In the 2^nd century Tertullian wrote an apologetic (a reasoned defense) in which he makes the case that Christians should be treated equally among all the other sects in the Roman Empire.  He writes a phrase that has echoed through the halls of Church history when he said, “the blood of the martyr’s is the seed of the church.”  The original phrase reads as:

“kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. Therefore God suffers (allows) that we thus suffer. When you recently condemned a Christian woman to the leno (pimp, i.e. accused her of being a prostitute) rather than to the leo (lion), you made confession that a taint on our purity is considered among us something more terrible than any punishment and any death. Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, avail you; it is rather a temptation to us. The [more often] we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.”

He was saying that when Christians die for their faith it plants more seeds, causing Christianity to further grow.  In other words more blood more Christianity.

While this appears to be true as we see in the book of Acts that Christianity was pushed beyond the borders of Jerusalem and out to the Gentile world.  However there is a danger in establishing that persecution always equals church growth.

Glenn Penner, from Voice of the Martyr’s (persecution.com) offers a reasonable defense in saying that when the church grows persecution grows. [1]

Why are Christians persecuted?  Christians are persecuted when they grow in Christ.  How does a Christian grow in Christ?  They desire and pursue godliness.  Why isn’t there persecution in America?  According to Glenn Penner’s conclusion, it’s because the church isn’t growing.  Persecution is growing in South Korea, in India, in Vietnam, Laos, Ethiopia, and China.. why?  Because the church is growing as people “desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.”

Dear Christian, be committed to following Christ and the consequences that follow.  How is one “committed to following Christ,” by being committed to follow the Scriptures!  There are consequences in following Christ because there are consequences in following the Scriptures.  [Lou Giglio] Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and he also said that “thy word is truth” in John 17:17.

Be CONFIDENT in the Scriptures (v 14-17)

The importance of God’s word runs right through God’s word.  For example Psalm 1 sets out in two directions.  [read Psalm 1]  The righteous prosper while the wicked perish.  The righteous man is confident in the Word of God.  His thinking and therefore his life is shaped by God’s perspective. But why is the Psalmist confident in the Scriptures?

Paul has counseled Timothy to be careful who you follow, to be committed to Christ and the consequences, now he tells him to be confident in the Scriptures.  How could Timothy be so confident?

All Scripture (2Tim 3:16)

“All Scripture is breathed out by God.”  Which scripture?  Scripture is all of the Old Testament but also the New Testament.  The word for Scripture is the Greek word graphe.

“we must realize that the Greek word graphe (scripture) was a technical term for the New Testament writers and had a very specialized meaning.  Even though it is used fifty-one times in the New Testament, every one of those instances uses it to refer to the Old Testament writings, not to any other words or writings outside the canon of Scripture.  Thus, everything that belonged in the category of ‘scripture’ had the character of being God-breathed… But at two places in the New Testament we see NT writings also being called ‘scripture’ along with the OT writings.  2Peter 3:16, Peter classifies ‘all of his [Paul’s] epistles’ with the ‘other scriptures’…. Similarly in 1Tim 5:18, Paul quotes Jesus’ words as found in Luke 10: and calls them ‘scripture.’”[2]

Breathed out

Secondly scripture is breathed out by God (theo-pneustos).

Paul doesn’t focus on the mode of inspiration but focuses on the product of inspiration.

For example, Jeremiah is given words which his secretary Baruch writes down (Jer 36:4).  He is captured and his writings are torn to pieces and then burned.  As a reader what are you thinking of this?  God has just dictated to Jeremiah His very word! Do we think that God will have a short-term memory and forget what He told him the first time?  That’s exactly what happens next, he tells Jeremiah again His word which Jeremiah tells to his secretary Baruch who writes them down again.

This is an example of God telling Jeremiah and Jeremiah commanding his secretary to dictate what God has said.  But there are other passages in Scripture where dictation is clearly not the mode in which Scripture was recorded.  Consider this:

David is tired from a long day and is getting ready for bed.  He hears a voice from God telling him not to go to bed but instead he must write the word of God.  David complies, though tired, is obedient to God’s command.  God says write the following, “The Lord.”  David writes “the lord”, God says “is my shepherd,” David writes “is my shepherd.”, etc.. Clearly David did not dictate these words but experienced them as the shepherd king who prefigures the Great Shepherd, King Jesus.  He wrote Psalm 23 from his own mind, his own vocabulary, his own experience of death and sorrow whom God chose to use in the production of the Scriptures.  So I say again,

“All Scripture is breathed out ” means that the emphasis is not in the mode of inspiration (e.g. dictation) but in the product of inspiration (the text themselves authored by the men God carried along).  The result, which is the scripture themselves, is the product of inspiration.  This means, that whatever mode, whatever means, whatever vocabularies, whatever genres, etc.. you see this in the variety of scripture in genealogy, letter, history, poetry, apocalypse.  Each of those genres has their own unique way of making an appeal to our mind that God is speaking.

By God

Thirdly the Scriptures have authority because they are produced by God himself.  It is authoritative, precisely because it has God’s authority.  Notice how Paul refers to the Scripture in Rom 9:17

Romans 9:17 (ESV) — 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Exodus 9:16 (ESV) — 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

We must not think of Scripture having authority independent from God.  Paul equates the Scripture speaking and God speaking.  We also see how the Scripture is personified as God himself.  Paul says

Galatians 3:8–9 (ESV) — 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Genesis 12:3 (ESV) — 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Paul cites an Old Testament passage in a very unusual way.  He personifies the Scripture as if the Scripture can foresee the future!  In other words, Paul views the Scripture as if they were God speaking!

How do you think this impacted young Timothy when he read the Scriptures?  There was an authority and power behind the scriptures!

Distinguishing between authority and power

In our world we distinguish between authority and power.  For example a bull in a china shop wields much power but not very much authority.  Inversely there are those who have much authority but not much power.  Can you think of examples of those who are of great authority but have no power?  (e.g. a scared police man, a spineless president).

With God it is impossible to divide his authority and his power!  His authority is not delegated but intrinsic to His nature.  It does not change over time, there are no evolving in positions over world-views.  In short his authority is absolute and not relative.

When God discloses Himself to us, His power is seen and felt.

Scripture displays power in wisdom and salvation by faith in Christ! (v 14-15)

Notice in verse 14 Paul makes a staggering statement about the power of Scripture in bringing a person to salvation.

2 Timothy 3:14–15 (ESV) — 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Our kids will grow up and be reared in a Christian home and by God’s grace come to saving faith.  The temptation may be for them is this: “I wish I didn’t grow up in a Christian home!  I wish I lived a wild life of sin so I can experience a glorious testimony of how God saved me.”  That’s such foolish thinking.  It’s foolish because it diminishes the power of sin in our hearts and in the world.  Secondly it removes the power and benefit that comes by being familiar and acquainted with Scripture!

Acquaintance with the Scripture isn’t just the ability to fill your head with the Scriptures but experience the authority and power of the Scriptures as you obey.  Verse 15 says, “are able to make you wise for salvation.”  But wait, it says salvation how?  Through faith in Christ Jesus!  But didn’t Timothy learn the Old Testament scriptures when he was but a child?  What does this say about the content of the Old Testament?  It says that the Old Testament is full of Christ!  He is everywhere to be found and that one can come to saving faith by understanding the Old Testament in a Christ-centered way!

Conclusion

Our confidence in the Scriptures produces a commitment to Christ that gives us discernment as we carefully follow others.  Our confidence in the Scriptures is possible because in the Scriptures we hear God speaking, God disclosing Himself to us!