On June 22, 1750, as Jonathan Edwards preached his final sermon at Northampton, his last words were: “Let us all remember, and never forget our future solemn meeting, on that great day of the Lord; the day of infallible decision, and of the everlasting and unalterable sentence, Amen.”¹ This would have been a bold way of speaking regardless of the circumstances, as a pastor says to his congregation, “Do not forget we will meet one another and our Lord in his presence for judgment.” However, the circumstances made the situation even more solemn.

For, this was not Edwards’s final sermon there by accident. That is, it wasn’t as if he died shortly after this without knowing it would be his final words to this congregation. Rather, Edwards delivered this sermon on his final Sunday after having been rejected by his congregation. This was the final sermon of Jonathan Edwards to a congregation that was demanding that he step down as their pastor (because he had (rightly) withheld communion from unregenerate church members). So in this final message, his words were weighed, and the final thing he wanted them to keep in mind was that they would give an account before the Lord.

I think it is not a little interesting to read the last words of individuals who have stood strong in Christ. For it is a reminder to us of what we need to be about and treasure in these days that we live. That is why this letter of 2 Timothy is so appealing to read. As a whole, it is Paul’s last words, the last thing he wanted to pass on to his son in the faith. And within that, chapter four of this letter is probably the most intriguing, for it is the last of his last words. Paul weighs out these words and stresses the solemnity of the occasion (e.g. verse 1) as he delivers these final instructions and exhortations to Timothy. Like Edwards, these are not his last words unsuspecting to Timothy. In fact, he talks as if he is assured these are his final hours. So, he speaks these most crucial words to his son in the faith. Therefore, we would do well to hear and apply them diligently as we look into them this morning.

And as we look at these final words of Paul this morning, I cannot help but think how fitting this text is for this time. For all of us, it comes as we have just ended another year in 2002 and are no doubt in a frame of mind where we are examining what we have been about this past year and are looking to adjust and improve how we live, what we are about. Thus, it is fitting that we hear in this time what Paul wanted Timothy to be about – that which was most important and crucial to communicate to one who would take up the torch of ministry in the next generation. And I find it especially beneficial timing for myself as I am on the brink of taking two weeks of classes at Southern Seminary and going to the Bethlehem Pastors’ Conference in Minneapolis, which are both places I like to evaluate my life and ministry in the prior year and plan and pray toward the new year. Therefore, may all of us this morning ask God to open our hearts and address how we have lived, thought, etc. and show us what we need to be about, what need to be our priorities and actions and labors in the next year as we look into Paul’s last words recorded in scripture.

So what is it that Paul saw as most crucial in these final hours that he wanted to stress to Timothy? He answers in verses 1-2.

He writes: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom …” Now just stop there for a second and hear the weight of this command? He charges Timothy in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ, reminding him of the judgment that awaits him, reminding him of Jesus’ imminent return, and reminding him that Christ is bringing about a kingdom that is not of this world. If someone charges you with that preface, you would no doubt to well to listen to him. But what is the charge?

He proceeds: “ … preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.”

The most critical thing that Paul wanted Timothy to be about was the proclamation of the word of God – and so we should see it as a critical reality in our own lives (4:1-2)

Timothy was not charged to come up with something new, some new thought or philosophy. He wasn’t charged to have a great family – primarily. He was charged to preach the word of God. The imagery here is of one heralding the message of the gospel as one shouts in the open-air marketplace. And that is what we are to be about as well. It is a charge that falls to the church in every age.

Then Paul gives qualifiers in how that word is to be proclaimed. It is to be proclaimed by those who are always ready and urgent to share it at all times. He says to Timothy: “Be ready in season and out of season.” That is to say, we are constantly to look for opportunities to proclaim God’s word in situations.

In other words, imagine that you are standing next to a glass room that is full of one hundred dollar bills on which there is a small window that opens randomly every few minutes for four seconds. And you’re allowed to sit by this room for the next hour and take whatever you can. Do you think that the window of this glass room would open ever without you seizing the opportunity to put your hand in and grab all you can? No. No doubt, you would watch that window like a hawk, just waiting for your opportunity to pounce on the money quickly with your hand and take what you can. You would never miss an opening.

This is a picture of being ready to preach the word in season and out of season.

And Paul adds that Timothy is to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort.” That is, in readiness, as Timothy seizes the opportunities to proclaim God’s word, he will address it to the situation. If he can proclaim the word to exhort someone to obedience, he must. If it may be used to rebuke or correct someone in their behavior, thoughts, etc., he must. He is ready and is looking for whatever means he has to proclaim the word into another’s life.

Finally, Paul tells Timothy to preach the word, “with complete patience and teaching.” So he is not simply to look for an opportunity to say a phrase, without explanation, and demand change in another’s life. Rather, he is to preach the word “with all teaching” and patience. So, as he received opportunity to speak the word, he was to instruct and teach what he was saying so that another might understand, and then he was to be patient with the individual will making such proclamation.

This is something which indeed applies to all of us. One of my fears in using this phrase, “preach the word” is that we are locked into the imagery of what I am doing this morning as I am standing behind the pulpit – and indeed it is preaching and is crucial to what we do when we gather corporately. However, I do not want you to see yourselves as excluded therefore from this command. For heralding the word is something that falls to all of us.

Taking this all together, all of us are to be ready for opportunities to speak God’s word to address situations, and teach and instruct patiently that others lives might be changed thereby. Thus, mothers, while caring for your situation and fielding all of their questions throughout the day, speak the word of God into their lives with teaching. When you serve them breakfast, for example, teach them to eat thankfully and well, for God commands us that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do to do it to the glory of God, which is the reason we were created – to glorify him. And in this way, you will be teaching them a biblical worldview, that all things are created by and for God, who is himself the center of the universe. It means that as you hear a man saying of his wife, “Yeah she’s lazy, a bad steward, and doesn’t understand much about finances,” you respond by instructing him that as the head of his house (as Christ is the head of the church), he is responsible for her, to gossip is wrong, that gossiping about her sin is an indictment of his own leadership, and that he is commanded to do nothing less that lay down his life if only he might help his wife to live holy.

These are just two examples, but do you see the command here? We are to be about proclaiming the word, for it is nothing less than God’s word and our only hope for eternal life. Thus, it is a charge that falls to all of us.

Second, Paul provides incentive from the depravity of the culture – one which is clearly reflected in our day (4:3-5)

Paul gives the “Why?” of the command in verses 3-4. He writes, “For [signifying purpose for the charge] the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

He tells him that the day is coming – and now is – when people will not tolerate the truth. They will not listen to you and base their acceptance of what you are saying upon whether or not it conforms to that which is revealed in scripture, but they will gather individuals to tell them what they want to hear.

Paul tells Timothy, “People will not want to hear what you have to say.” But instead of this meaning that Timothy should shrink back from declaring the word or cut back his message to fit his hearers desires, Timothy is to be spurred on to preach more.

In a culture that it fickle, he is to be sober-minded, knowing the truth – once for all. In a culture that does not want to hear, he is to speak and bear the suffering it brings. In a culture that will tell him to change his message and not to bother them with it, he is not only to preserve it but to spread it to others. And in the midst of opposition and men not wanting to hear, he is to fulfill the ministry that God has given him. He is to preach precisely because culture does not want to hear.²

So why is this incentive? I think the answer is clearly, because the gospel is necessary. That is, Paul is charging Timothy to preach the gospel, for this culture will demand otherwise, but he must not be deterred, for it alone is what men need. Men will turn to everything but God’s word in our culture and will despise God’s word, but we must continue to proclaim it for it alone tells us how a dirty people might appear right before a holy God; it alone tells us all we need for life and godliness.

Finally, Paul gives himself as an example of one who has traveled the road on which Timothy and we must walk and reminds us of the Lord’s presence in those times (4:6-22)

Another reason it is so crucial that Timothy be about the work of preaching the gospel is that Paul was not going to be around much longer, and so he was passing the torch to Timothy. Thus, he had to take up the cause. So Paul writes, “Fulfill your ministry, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” And as many after Timothy have faithfully persevered in this task, the torch is now passed to us.

But what do we look to in order to find strength in this task? Paul gives himself as an example. And it is quite powerful that he does so. For doesn’t it drive your heart to desire obedience when you read these words from his pen at the end of his life: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing”?

My heart wells up within me as I hear those kinds of testimonies. That is why I love reading some of the old saints. It is simply testimony that others have come before us and have walked faithful until the end. And as we read of such testimonies, we should remember what Stott reminds us: “We cannot rest for ever on the leadership of the preceding generation. The day comes when we must step into their shoes and ourselves take the lead. That day had come for Timothy. It comes to all of us in time.”³ Maybe for us, that time has come right now.

And as Paul finishes his testimony as an example, showing Timothy how he has stood while having no one around him, he reminds him that though no one stood with him, he was not alone. He writes, “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me … But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it … The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

So, we might know this day as well. God does not send us to difficult tasks alone; he is always with us. One thing I saw so clearly last year as I read through the scriptures this past year was that God commands us to difficult tasks and then reminds us that he will be with us. Whether it was with Joshua as he was to conquer the promised land, the church carrying out the great commission, or the church carrying out discipline among God’s people, the promise is sure: he will never leave us nor forsake us, so we may not fear nor be dismayed.

He will not leave, us, for he has a vested interest in our obedience – if you will. He strengthened Paul so that the gentiles might hear the gospel and be saved, and he will strengthen us for the mission that lay before us. And ultimately, he will come to get us to take us home, so that where he is there we may be also.

So, as you review your life from the past year and look unto the next year, be diligent to proclaim God’s word to a culture that desperately needs it, knowing that God will be alongside of you in the task. As Paul reminds us, his grace will be with us.

Indeed, to him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹Jonathan Edwards, The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Wilson H. Kimnach, et al, eds. (Yale: New Haven, 1999), 241.

²This idea is really lost in our day as we are geared and often trained to be about that which works and brings public approval. As the church, we would do well to meditate on these verses and reflect upon the commission received by Isaiah in Isaiah 6:9-13 in which God tells him that he is to preach while no one will heed his message. Fitting to demonstrate our lack of understanding this kind of command, we often cut off our quoting of Isaiah 6 at verse 8, in which Isaiah responds, “Here am I! Send me” without proceeding to what his mission would entail.

³John Stott, The Message of 2 Timothy, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 116.

CRITICAL LAST WORDS: A SOLEMN CALL TO PROCLAIM THE WORD OF GOD