Leadership Development
January 14, 2017 • Philip De Courcy • 2 Timothy 2:1–2
Paul sees the writing on the wall. The days are short. His ministry will soon be over. He has kept the faith. He has stayed in the course. He has fought the fight. And so, he needs to know that there's a pipeline of young preachers and pastors just like Timothy, his son of the faith, who will carry on this ministry long after he's gone. In his praying and in his planning, Paul wanted to make a 4G impact. And that ought to be the prayer of every father, every elder, every man of God, every aspiring young preacher here. You want to make a 4G impact. Paul wanted to see the gospel impact the fourth generation. Paul desires that the torch of the heavenly light be transmitted, unquenched from one generation to the next. Leaders must not only produce followers, they must produce leaders. There's a lot of leaders who are producing followers, but they're not producing leaders who will produce followers and leaders. Don’t limit your influence to the day in which you live. If we only produce followers, we are limiting our impact. We are commanded to preserve the Gospel. How do we maintain the transmission of the treasure? By raising up a generation of faithful men. We need to see the distinction of this passage. Paul is telling Timothy they he needs to be the difference. Timothy was to be a man of conviction in a sea of compromise and consensus. As believers, are we willing to be an emphatic you? A standout alone witness for Jesus Christ? A man who doesn't bend and a man who doesn't buy and a man who doesn't burn? Theologically definitive, morally absolutist, gender specific, evangelistically bold? Are you the kind of man who keeps an eternal perspective in a world that lives for the moment? Are you the kind of man who's content in a world that's never got enough? The kind of man who's pure in a world obsessed with sex? The kind man who is given to holiness in a world where anything goes? The kind of man who's got an invigorating passion that drives and defines your life in a world that can't be bothered?” We also need to see the dependance Paul encourages. How can he do it? Only according to the power of God. This passage helps us understand the movement and means of grace. Lastly, we see the development Paul entrusts to Timothy. Christianity can never be silenced or silent and remain true to Christianity. Because by nature, by its Genesis and in the light of the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christianity is a faith that is to be propagated and perpetuated because Jesus even finishes that statement about the great commission with, "And I will be with you to the end of the age." What we start here, man, will ripple light across the centuries as you teach men who teach other men who teach other men to remain faithful to the treasure of the Gospel. That begs the question of who is qualified to be entrusted with this treasure. Among man profiles, purposes, and processes we see that he is a man who is reliable, gifted, able to teach, studious and more.
