Sermons on Ministry
When Jesus was ministering on Earth, He taught and did many things. On one such occasion, He went to a desolate place to take a break and rest with his disciples only to be interrupted by a crowd who wanted to see Him perform miracles. What He did at that time provided His disciples with several key lessons that we can still learn from today.
I can identify with Paul here in Acts 20 as he is saying goodbye to the leaders from Ephesus—a place where he had spent at least three years of his life pouring into these brothers and sisters. Paul knew that he could not take the time to see everyone again, but I assume that the emotional turmoil that it would cause would have been equally difficult. So Paul had the Ephesian church leadership come to Miletus to meet with him there. There is a great deal from this passage that could be our focus, but we will spend our time examining Paul’s final encouragement to them.
We are continuing our study through 2 Timothy and considering the concept of exhortation. Paul is exhorting Timothy to fulfill the work of the ministry. In this study, we’ll look first at the motivation for fulfilling the work of the ministry. Next we’ll consider the mandate to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” Finally we’ll spend some time considering the reasons or purposes behind this encouragement.
In the previous chapter, Timothy is encouraged to follow the pattern of Paul’s life in Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now in chapter 2, Paul challenges him to pour himself into others so that he can multiply the ministry by entrusting it to others. He closes this section by sharing three analogies of what faithfulness looks like in a believer. A faithful believer is single-minded in his commitment, disciplined in his actions, and diligent in his work in the ministry.