Devoted to Preaching The Word

Posted on: 12th of January, 2025

Jesus didn’t hide away from our suffering, but came to be with us. He lived the glorious, blameless life that all of us fall short of, and then suffered in our place on the cross. He took the punishment that we have earned so that we could have what He deserves, ‘that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).

For four Sundays at the start of this new year, we will look at four things that God is calling us to be devoted to in 2025. The first is that God wants us to be devoted to preaching the Word; preaching this glorious gospel.

When Paul was with nearing the end of his life, we wrote a final letter in around AD 64 to his ‘son’ Timothy, whom he had sent to Ephesus to strengthen the churches there.

2 Timothy 3:16 – 4:5 (NIV)

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

In this passage near the end of the letter, we find four reasons to devote ourselves to preaching God’s Word:

1. Because it is God-breathed

Every word in the 66 books that make up the Bible were breathed-out by God, as the Holy Spirit ‘carried along’ human writers (2 Peter 1:21). When Paul referred to ‘the Scriptures’, he meant what we now know as the Old Testament, but elsewhere in 2 Peter 3:16 (another 3:16!), Peter refers to Paul’s writings as being the same as the ‘other Scriptures’. Since these are God’s words, they have the power to make people ‘wise for salvation through faith in Jesus’ as Paul writes in 2 Tim 3:15.

2. Because Jesus is alive!

Paul knew that he was writing these words ‘in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus’. Paul had met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and lived his life in constant communication with Him by the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants to be with us! He wants the world to know His forgiveness and presence. He tells the religious leader in John 5:39 that they ‘search the Scriptures for eternal life’ but can’t see eternal life when he’s right in front of them! The Bible points us to Jesus, and when we preach it we are introducing people to Him. In fact Paul says in 2 Co 5:20 that when we preach it is ‘as though God were making his appeal through us’!

3. Because Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead.

Paul echo’s Jesus’ own words (Matt 25:31-46) in reminding Timothy that we need to preach the Word with urgency because Jesus is coming back ‘to judge the living and the dead’. We are to call unbelievers and believers to repentance and holy living because all of us will have to give an account for our lives before Jesus the Judge on His return.

4. Because choosing our own truth is exhausting

Paul describes and predicts here that people will continue to turn away from sound doctrine to choose their own truth from many voices and sources. Our modern culture tells us that freedom is defined as being able to choose. The Bible defines freedom as being able to become who we are meant to be. Choosing our own truth, our own identity, our own gender and even our own death is exhausting and dividing modern society. Some things are not meant for us to choose. There is one ultimate truth and it is found in the person of Jesus as revealed by Scripture. We must preach the truth with love and boldness, the world is crying out for clarity and rest.

Questions:

What did God say to you through this message?
What can you to do about it?
What can you do to you use and preach the Word this year?