What Paul is talking about here is not simply the ability to endure great difficulty and still to stand at the end. It is to triumph by the Spirit of Christ in such difficulty so that God’s purpose is advanced in your life. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, last time we began the message, complete freedom, and we began to talk about suffering. And we’re going to continue that theme of suffering today and how we don’t have to just endure suffering but in Christ we can be triumphant, victorious in that. Yes, and we’re coming out of a verse in 2 Timothy where Paul speaks out of his own experience. I mean, here’s this man who has served the Lord so faithfully and at the end of his life here he is in prison. And it raises the question of why does God allow suffering for someone who’s so faithful and has served him so well? And yet the Apostle Paul says to us here, I’m not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and I’m persuaded that he’s able to keep what I’ve committed to him. And he says that to Timothy who’s a young Christian. Don’t be ashamed when you suffer. Don’t be ashamed when God allows something really painful in your life. Keep your eye on him. You know whom you have believed and put your trust in him even then. That’s where we’re going today in the scripture. It’s really important and it’s profoundly helpful. Well if you can identify with that, and I think all of us can to some degree, I hope you’ll join us today in the second book of Timothy, chapter 1. As we continue our message, freedom, here’s Colin. Let’s begin here that you need to know who you are in Jesus Christ. That’s the first thing. You need to know who you are in Jesus Christ. And I want to draw your attention in a moment to verses 9 through 11. But before we get there, let’s think for a moment about how you define yourself. Who are you? Past? The problem? Your work? The project? See, define yourself like that and you will never stand in the uncertainty of this world. Can’t do it. So notice how Paul does define himself. Here’s who I am. I am a man in Christ. That’s his position and that’s what comes out in verses 9 to 11. And remember it’s personal. You see, he’s writing this to Timothy and he speaks about God who has saved us and called us to a holy life. Timothy, Timothy, the Lord has saved us. Timothy, the Lord has called you and me to a holy life. And Timothy, remember it’s not because of anything we’ve done, but it’s because of his own purpose and his grace. And this grace was given Timothy to you and to me, to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. He’s destroyed death and he’s brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald, an apostle, and a teacher. Timothy, in the uncertainty of this world, here’s who you are. You’re in Christ. You are saved. Your sins are forgiven and your success is irrelevant because it’s all a matter of the grace of God. And whatever your past, however good, however bad, you take your stand here, I am saved by the grace of God. And the worst about me can’t break through that or destroy it. And the best about me doesn’t render that less than utterly necessary. And more than that, Timothy, you are called to a holy life. A life, a holy life, whatever the problem. This is your unchanging calling in every circumstance of life. The problems may be great, but God’s grace is sufficient. And Timothy, remember this, that for you and for me, Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And so however uncertain life in this world is, your eternity is secure. So don’t define yourself by the past because the past is what it is. What you need to know is that you’re saved by the grace of God. Don’t try and define yourself by the problem or the circumstances. The problem is what it is. Your calling is to a holy life. Don’t try and define yourself by your work because your work is something that you’re given to do here in this world. Your work is what it is. Your eternity is secure. And so Paul is coming to this great statement of Christian confidence that we will come to in verse 12 because he knows who he is in Christ. Are you grasping that? Is that in your spiritual bloodstream as you’re moving through whatever circumstances you’re facing in life right now? Know who you are in Christ. That’s where the freedom begins. Here’s the second thing. Cultivate a biblical view of suffering. Now, if we’re going to stand in this uncertain world, this is something we really have to get sorted out very, very clearly in our minds because you cannot be a Christian, you cannot live in this world without experiencing pain and suffering of different forms, and you need to know how to think about that and how to stand in the light of that, and there is so much confusion on this subject. We desperately need what Paul teaches us here. Verse 12, that is why I am suffering as I am, yet I am not ashamed. Now, I want you to notice how the issue of being ashamed about suffering keeps coming up. Look at chapter 1 and verse 8. Timothy, don’t be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me, his prisoner. Or chapter 1 and verse 16, this guy Onesiphorus, he was not ashamed of my chains. And then Paul’s saying, I’m suffering, but I’m not ashamed. So, this keeps coming up. We have a hard time separating suffering and shame. We feel a sense of shame when suffering is around, and I think there are two reasons for that, and it’s important for us to identify them so that we can resolve them. First, there’s a sneaking suspicion in the back of our mind that suffering might mean that God has failed. I mean, here is the apostle, the number one leader of the church of his day, if we can express it that kind of way, and what does God allow in his life? He ends up in prison. I mean, can you imagine Timothy doing some evangelism over a cup of coffee in the Starbucks in Ephesus, which is where he was ministering, if you see what I mean, right? You’re with me, okay? And he’s sitting there, and he’s sharing the gospel with someone over a cup of coffee, okay? And the guy’s quite impressed with what’s being said about Jesus, and he says, where did you learn all of this? Well, I learned it from the apostle Paul, you know. Oh, really? Yeah, I’ve come to know him, a wonderful man. Oh, really? And where is he now, then? Well, actually, he’s imprisoned in some hole in Rome. Oh, really? So you want me to follow a Jesus who lets the guy who taught you about this end his life in a hole in the earth someplace? Thanks, but no thanks, right? Now, you can see why Paul says don’t be ashamed to testify, because Timothy might have been very inclined to say, I think I’ll just drink my coffee and not share the gospel today, because it’s too embarrassing that there’s suffering in the life of such a godly man as the apostle Paul. Now, we’ve all felt that, have we not? Evangelism would be much easier if it was not for the fact that unbelievers can point to suffering in the lives of believing and godly people and say, where is your God? Notice Paul’s answer to that. I am not ashamed. And Timothy, there is no reason in the world why you should be ashamed. And let’s get this absolutely clear, that if you are looking for the most comfortable way to live your life, you should not be a Christian. Don’t be a Christian. If you’re looking for the most comfortable way to live your life in this world, don’t be a Christian. Because Paul says, I’m an apostle and that’s why I’m suffering as I am. Jesus says, everyone who lives a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer. Jesus said, if you are going to come after me, here’s what it’s like. You are going to have to deny yourself and take up your cross every day and follow me. There will never be a day in your life where it does not cost you in some way to be the man or to be the woman that I am calling you to be. Now, the surprise of that to us may indicate how far we have moved from a biblical view of what it really means to be a Christian. Remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians in chapter 15, if we had only hoped for Christ in this life, we would be of all men most miserable. Now it’s very interesting to me, you see, that that is the opposite of what some of us say. You see, the sort of thing you hear around church world quite often, I’ve heard it many times is, you know, even if it turned out that heaven wasn’t actually real, you know, I think that I would still have wished that I had lived this life because it’s just such a wonderful thing, and so forth and so on. And isn’t it interesting that that wasn’t Paul’s experience? He said, boy, if it’s not for the reality of everlasting life, I don’t know what I was doing. So there is a big difference, you see, between Paul’s experience of what it means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and the sort of things that we say and expect about what it really means to be a Christian. The question is, which one’s out of line with the scripture? So we desperately need in the church today to rethink, in the light of the scripture, what a realistic expectation of the Christian life really is. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and we’ll come right back to the message shortly. The message is complete freedom, part of our series One Thing I Know, all about having Christian confidence in an uncertain world, and it’s based on the second book of Timothy, chapter one. How well do you know the Bible? Many of us know the stories from the Bible, but do we know the story of the Bible? As Colin likes to say, the Bible is one story, which begins in a garden, ends in a city, and all the way through points to Jesus. At Open the Bible, we want you to know the whole Bible story, or if you know it, then get to know it a little bit more. So we’ve put together a section of our website called Open the Bible Story. It’s a 30-session journey through the Bible story called The Drive, and it will take you deep into the valleys of the Old Testament, the peaks of the glory of Jesus, and the ups and downs of the Christian life. If you’d like to take a look at that course, go to openthebible.org.uk, click on the resources menu, and select Open the Bible Story. Back to our message now, here’s Colin. We desperately need in the church today to rethink, in the light of the scripture, what a realistic expectation of the Christian life really is. There’s another reason why we may end up with this sense of shame, and it’s not so much to do with the unbeliever’s question, you know, has God failed? It’s more to do with the question that sometimes lurks at the back of our minds, have we failed? I don’t know how many times I have sat in my office, and the other pastors here have had the same experience, where someone has come and shared movingly and painfully a deep wound within their lives, and as they work their way into it, it’s normally about half an hour into the conversation, but this is what comes out, and it comes out very hesitantly and often tearfully. The problem’s been described, and then it’s this, I wonder if it’s because of something I’ve done. See, because we’ve got shame right in, locked with suffering in our minds. I’ve heard that, with parents grieving over kids who’ve gone off the rails. I’ve heard that from folks facing financial crisis. I’ve heard that from just about every circumstance of disaster you can imagine. Is it something I’ve done? So we feel this sense of shame. Now, we need to know how to answer this if we’re going to stand in this world in which we live. There is no text in which our Lord Jesus addresses this more clearly than John chapter 9, if you’d like to turn to that with me for just a moment, because we need to know how to answer these lurking fears that are so often within our souls. John chapter 9, as Jesus went along, John 9, 1, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, so notice this, this isn’t the Pharisees asking, this is the believers. The believers asked him, the disciples asked him. This is a question that’s in the mind of believing people, you see, Rabbi, who sinned? Is it this man or is it his parents that he was born blind? In other words, they’re asking the question, he was born blind, so does that mean that there was something that his parents did and that led to this condition, or does it mean that God knew in advance what he would do, the man himself, and therefore this was visited on him from the beginning of his life? That’s their question. Now, notice Jesus’ answer. He says, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. And right there, you see, Jesus cuts through the shame-suffering quagmire. He says, look, your assumption here is completely wrong. Like Job’s comforters, you’re just assuming that if there is pain in a person’s life, that this must mean that they have done something wrong, and you are completely wrong in that direction of your thinking. Here’s what is going on. This has happened, verse 3, so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. So, whatever pain, whatever suffering, whatever frustration, whatever difficulty you are experiencing right now, you can be absolutely clear that God’s purpose is that His work will be displayed in your life in this and through this. That is what God is doing. And when you see that, it will lift you out of the trap of shame, and it will give you a whole new perspective on what God is doing in your life. I had a conversation with someone along these lines just this week, and to have her permission, though I won’t mention her name, to share this story. Speaking to a lady who is finding herself right in the middle right now of tremendous strain, trying to sort out her parents’ lives. They’re still living, they’re now in care, they’ve had to move into a residential situation in which they’re experiencing that, and their daughter’s now moving in, having to sort out a whole lot of things. And she said, with great emotion, she said, you have no idea that our lives are a mess in every way that a person’s life can be a mess, and I’m having to sort the whole lot out. She’s been working on it for months. Finances, bank statements, a nightmare. And I asked her, I said, can you see any way in which God is working through you right now? And you know what she said? She said, well, you know, it’s probably quite a while since I last shared my faith with someone. You see, the idea was the only way in which I can imagine God ever working is if I sit down in Starbucks over a cup of coffee and tell my testimony, and I haven’t done that for a while. I said, no, no, no, no, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about can you see any way in which God is at work in your life right now in this mess that you’re trying to sort out? She wasn’t sure. I said, think of it this way. Your parent’s life has left a trail of mess, and you are going in to bring order out of chaos. Whose image do you reflect when you do that? And for the first time in the conversation, there was a smile in her face because the sense of shame was replaced by a sense of glory that the image of Christ could be reproduced, a reflection of the living God who brings order out of chaos as his very first creative act, and the spirit of this God is at work in this lady who’s doing it to the glory of God in an extremely difficult situation. You know, it’s a great thing when you find yourself in difficulty to ask that God would help you to see how his work is being reflected in you and how his purpose is being advanced through you, because he’s always doing it. Here’s the last thing, and it’s going to be very brief because we’re going to come back to it throughout the remainder of the series, is that it brings us right up to verse 12. That is why I am suffering as I am, yet I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed. And so the last thing I just want to say in these moments today is simply this, keep your focus on revealed truth. You’re going to stand in this uncertain, troubled world in which we live. You’ve got to know who you are in Jesus Christ. You’ve got to cultivate a biblical view of suffering, and you’ve got to keep your eyes focused on revealed truth, because there are so many things in the world that Paul doesn’t know, that Timothy doesn’t know, that you don’t know, and that I don’t know. And we have to lift our eyes to focus on what we do know, and that’s what Paul is teaching Timothy to do. He’s saying in the middle of all this, Timothy, I know whom I have believed. I know I can trust Jesus Christ. I know that I’ve committed my life to Him, and I know that He’s able to guard what I’ve trusted to Him against that day when I will see Him face to face. Timothy, that’s where I’m at, Paul’s saying. That’s how I’m living in the middle of what I endure. And that’s how you will triumph in the middle of everything that you face now and in the future. Christian confidence in an uncertain world that comes from one thing that I know. I know whom I have believed. Well, may God bring us to a deeper knowledge of Him as we continue to explore this application of His word. What a helpful reminder to us today about what we need to know when we’re suffering, to know who you are in Christ, to keep your focus on revealed truth and that middle point, to cultivate a biblical worldview, to understand that suffering is a normal part of life. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, Complete Freedom, from the series, One Thing I Know. It’s all about Christian confidence in an uncertain world. And if you’ve missed any of the series, you can always come to our website, go back and listen again, or catch up. And you can find Open the Bible’s website at openthebible.org.uk. And as we approach the end of the year, Open the Bible has released a video all about its worldwide ministry. It’s called Celebration of Impact. You can find a link to it on our website, openthebible.org.uk. Also, if you go to YouTube and search for Open the Bible Celebration of Impact 2023, Open the Bible is supported by our listeners. And this month, if you’re able to begin supporting Open the Bible with a new donation in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you a book of prayers called Valley of Vision. Colin, who would you say this book is for? Oh, for every Christian who wants to pray. And it’s beautifully laid out to help us in different areas of prayer. So there are prayers here that will help you in expressing worship to God. There are prayers here that will help you in confessing sin to God. Prayers here that will help you in bringing your own needs to God. And they’re beautifully crafted. These are prayers that have come down to us over centuries from Christian believers who have crafted words that really help us speak from the heart to God. I just love this. I mean, for example, here’s one of the prayers speaking about how the broken heart is the healed heart. The contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit. The repenting soul is the victorious soul. To have nothing is to possess all, and to bear the cross is to wear the crown. Well, you know, you read things like that. They’re not only prayers that you can offer to God, but they stimulate and they enrich the mind and the heart. This is a marvellous resource for a Christian to have. I would love that there was a Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more. Full details of this offer and lots of other information and resources on our website, openthebible.org.uk. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick, and I very much appreciate your time. We hope you’ll join us again soon. At its core, the Christian faith is focused on a person. Find out why next time on Open the Bible.