A STUDY ON PREPARING FOR ETERNAL LIFE
Getting to Reign with Christ
2 Timothy 2:11-13 10/29/17 SCC
The Spiritually Mature Endure to Reign
with Christ 2 Timothy 2:11-12
Think about
how overcoming great odds to take positions of power and authority resonates
with us because it communicates something deeply true about our God-given
eternal purpose and destiny. God created us to rule. God often moves people
from obscurity to reign and rule. It’s interesting to review the recurring
theme of ordinary believers coming to positions of rule and great power in the
Bible.
Abraham was
an unknown who eventually became a wealthy patriarch of a growing powerful
tribe. Joseph went from being orphaned to ruling in Potiphar’s
household and over the whole of Egypt. Moses went from a slave to prince of
Egypt. Esther, David, and Daniel progressed from vagrant to leadership and
ruling status in Babylon, Israel, and Persia. The pattern illustrates God’s
purpose of elevating ordinary believers to rise to power and rule, to control
and direct as godly leaders. For us, today, that means focusing on Jesus
promise that faithful believers will sit with Him on His throne (Revelation
3:21) and together they shall reign
forever and ever (Revelation 22:5).
Preparation through endurance
There are two
key words used for “endure” in the Bible. One means to stand and bear up against
something that is happening. The other means to stand one’s ground, hold out and
remain while experiencing something.
At least
three times it says to endure all things.
·
In
1 Corinthians 9:12 Paul bears up against all
things for the sake of the gospel not wanting to hinder the response of
anyone to it. The all things in this
case is not exercising his right as an apostle to be
supported by the Corinthians. The reason was so that none would presume he was
simply in it for the money.
·
In
1 Corinthians 13:7 Paul described love as standing
one’s ground, holding out and remaining
while experiencing all things. Love
is not something that shifts with the wind or waffles when facing something
that requires holding out, standing and remaining. Love never fails.
·
In
2 Timothy 2:10 Paul states that enduring all
things was essential for the gospel to be heard through his ministry so
those destined to believe would be saved ending in eternal glory. If this
process required suffering for Paul, so be it.
So, what is the all things
to be endured? Persecution (1 Corinthians 4:12); Temptation (1 Corinthians
10:13); Persecution and affliction (2 Thessalonians 1:4); Hardship (2 Timothy
4:5); great conflict of suffering (Hebrews 10:32); Ill treatment (Hebrews
11:25); Discipline (Hebrews 12:7); and Injustice (1 Peter 2:20). We often
misconstrue ministry as extracting people from hard times. We often pray that
God would bring relief and deliverance from difficulty, persecution, and
affliction. However, ministry often involves enduring since that’s God’s desire
in order to reign with Christ. Maturity comes by way of endurance not
deliverance.
NB: So endurance is hanging in when facing hardship because
you agree with God about what is right in the situation. If
you do, and if you continue to move that in a righteous direction, then you are
enduring whether the situation improves or not. This, Paul says, will
qualify you to reign with Christ.
Enduring to reign
The
enduring disciple is promised special reward in Christ’s future kingdom because
of his faithfulness to God during hardship. These fundamental truths are
proclaimed by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 2:11–13.
Paul got this idea from Jesus who connected it to Genesis 1:26-28 our ruling
over creation. In these verses Paul maintained that a believer in Christ is
secure in his ownership of eternal life, yet his Christian life will be
scrutinized by the Lord and special privilege and reward will be conferred on
him, only if one endures. In this passage enduring is necessary in order to
reign in Christ’s Kingdom.
Verse 11: If
we died with Him, we shall also live with Him…
Every
believer who has eternal life died with
Him and is destined to live with Christ (Romans 6:3-11).
Verse 13: If
we are unfaithful, He remains
faithful. He cannot deny Himself…
Since Christ will always be faithful to that which He promised, all
believers, even unfaithful ones, will live with Christ forever. Our eternal security is based on what
Christ promises not on our performance.
Verse 12a: If
we endure, we will reign with Him…
While all
believers have eternal life v 11, even unfaithful ones’ v 13, only believers
who endured in this life will be part of His kingdom administration. Notice it
does not say ‘if you are saved died with
Him you will reign’. Believers must endure if they are going to reign with
Christ. Endure the all things already
mentioned. Life is filled with stuff that will need to be endured because we
aren’t delivered from everything. Many times we are delivered through them—like
Noah and the flood.
Verse 12b: If
we deny Him, He also will deny us…
To deny
Christ is to fail to endure in the Christian life and to be denied by Him is to
be refused the privilege of ruling with Him. So denial of Christ is being
unfaithful to Him. There is no endurance needed in heaven.
The reward
for faithful service in the parable of the Minas (Luke 19:11-21) was receiving
positions of rulership within the kingdom of the
nobleman. In Matthew 19:28 Jesus promised the apostles they would rule over
Israel. Jesus taught this often enough that even the mother of Zebedee’s sons
(James and John) requested that Jesus have each of them rule with Him on his
right and left hands (Matthew 20:20-23). Jesus tells the apostles and the
mother that if they wanted that kind of position, to rule at that level, they would have to suffer v 22-23, because
ruling was conditioned on their faithfulness through trial. Jesus could not
promise positions of authority carte blanche. This had to be earned through
endurance. Hebrews 10:35-36 indicate that
not throw[ing] away your confidence is essential so to receive a great
reward. For you have need of
endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. Believers
sanctification includes endurance that will be rewarded by Christ to rule.
Some implications
1. Enduring in the Christian life has eternal consequences, specifically
the right to rule with Christ.
2. Increased
opportunity to serve Him should be something which is extremely desirable.
3. Believers
are secure in their salvation but their endurance will be analyzed by Christ.
4. The goal
of discipleship is to prepare believers to rule with Jesus Christ to endure hardship.
5. The
biblical evidence of ruling with Christ should spark our imagination to realign
our priorities.
6. Believers must
not be content to ‘get into heaven’ but preparing for heaven by enduring. You
can receive no reward, or a reward, or a full reward. Your choice!
7. Ministry
is not attempting to eliminate suffering in life but to disciple believers to learn
endurance.
8. The
motivation for endurance is the eternal benefit of reigning with Christ.
9. This life
is training time for reigning time.
So What?
·
Bad
life situations are Gods laboratory of spiritual growth (health, marriage,
money, family, career, persecution). These will require endurance by applying
biblical standards in faith knowing that endurance through and not extraction
from these is often God’s agenda.
·
If
one is content not to rule with Christ it means one’s desires do not align with
God’s and are wrong. It is not a sign of humility to not want to rule, but of
disobedience. He did not say if one gets in that one will reign, but only if
one endures will he reign. Why not want that?
·
Relief
contributes to one’s immaturity. Endurance contributes to one’s maturity.
Basically a relief mentality in ministry plays against God’s desire for
enduring hardship in order to reign.
·
Apparently
God knows a whole lot more about how profitable it is for his people to endure.
He has embedded this perspective of enduring into His Word to motivate us to
pursue our eternal welfare by endurance. Don’t escape sinfully but endure righteously.
·
God
is not a socialist nor avoids inequality. He encourages his people to live in
such a way that they profit eternally knowing that each will profit
differently.
·
The
greater the investment the greater the reward. John says we should live in such
a way as to
receive a full reward 2 John 1:8.