MINISTER UNASHAMED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me His prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.

2 Timothy 1:8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The implementation of God’s new covenant, a covenant that brought the opportunity for salvation to all people who would believe in His Son Jesus, the Lamb who took away the sins of the world (John 1:29), wasn’t easy.

Jesus experienced extreme resistance as He brought the good news to the Jewish nation, especially from the Judaic religious authorities who eventually concocted a plan to put Him to death. Jew or Gentile from that point on were saved as a result of great suffering as Jesus bore their sins while crucified on Calvary’s cross.

After getting rid of Jesus, the Sanhedrin was bent on eradicating any remnants of the Christianity movement, particularly in Jerusalem where a zealous Jew named Saul was a persecuting front-runner who brought great torment and affliction to anyone who claimed loyalty to Jesus. This attack on Christ followers reached a crescendo point when Stephen, one of the seven servants selected by the body of Christ to assist the apostles (Acts 6:1-7), was given the same treatment as Jesus except his execution was by stoning (Acts 7:57-60).

The fallout had to be devastating to the Sanhedrin because instead of thwarting the expansion of Christianity, they actually expanded it and in doing so, fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus who told His disciples this before ascending:

“...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

The dispersion of Christians from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1) served to spread the Gospel to a larger audience and not long after Saul, the chief persecutor would have his personal encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and be transformed to arguably the greatest Christian Apostle who ever lived, the Apostle we know as Paul.

Now, the scriptures clearly lay out three missionary journeys conducted by Paul as he fulfilled the last part of Jesus’ vision of the Gospel going to the “ends of the earth”. Serving Christ now as he traveled into places where the good news of Jesus had not been taken before, the once persecutor became counted among the persecuted and suffered greatly for the cause of the Savior who called Him to go and make disciples. Paul detailed his adversities in his second letter to the Corinthians. He wrote:

“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked (11:23b-27).”  

What we learn from Paul is that ministering and evangelizing for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not an easy undertaking. Just as Jesus suffered to bring salvation to anyone who would believe in Him, those who serve Him will also share in His sufferings as they carry out His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). This is no surprise because the scriptures tell us this will happen:

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:16-18

Gaining salvation through Christ carries with it good and bad news.

On one hand, we will one day share in the glory of Jesus as we enter into eternal life in the Kingdom of God as co-heirs.

On the other hand, we are to labor hard for the cause of the Gospel until that time comes and that labor will bring with it opposition and suffering.

In other words, to be a true Christian is to share in everything Jesus experienced to include His pain, anguish, and suffering.

Knowing this, we are expected to go forth boldly as Jesus did, unashamed of the Gospel we have been given to share with others, as Gospel message intended to rescue, deliver, and save. This is the message we find Paul sharing with Timothy in our verse for today as we continue our study of the first chapter of 2 Timothy. He writes:

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me His prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. v.8

As we have covered throughout our study of 1 and 2 Timothy, the man who Paul wrote to was the pastor of the Ephesian church and there were many challenges, chief of which was the attempt to bring false teaching into the congregation. Staunch opposition was needed and this would naturally bring Timothy into contention and conflict, especially with the perpetrators. It wasn’t going to be easy and suffering of some form was bound to come so we find Paul, a man who was no stranger to being persecuted for the cause of Christ, providing encouragement and exhortation. He urged Timothy to stay the course and not get discouraged to the point where he might shy away from testifying about the Lord or sharing any of the Gospel teaching he had learned from Paul. If suffering came, the call was to join all others who answered the call of the Great Commission and suffered for the cause of the Gospel.

Friends, while we have a lot more freedom today to share the good news of salvation through Jesus without fear of retribution, in many parts of our world, danger lurks each and every day for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Suffering is highly probable as is death. And yet, Jesus believers go forth boldly and unashamed to be obedient to the disciple making they care called to do.

Persecution and peril are alive and well in our world today as Satan continues to try and stop the movement of the Gospel. Let us continue to stay the course bravely and boldly as Jesus did, and be in prayer for one another as we minister and evangelize with courage to the lost.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.