Sharing the Proof

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 4, 2024.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 2:8-19.

            The Apostle Paul did a lot of writing.  Most of the New Testament is the letters of Paul to various churches or, as in this case, to individuals.  There are thirteen of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, some of them pretty long.  And I have no doubt that Paul wrote a lot of other letters which, for whatever reason, are not included in the Bible.

            And yet, for all of his writing, Paul never lost sight of his essential message.  He states it time and time again.  It’s the very first sentence of our reading for tonight.  “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.  This is my gospel.”

            For all of the things Jesus did while he was on the earth–for all of his teaching and healing and miracles and driving out demons and all that–for Paul, these were the essential things to know about Jesus.  He was descended from David, and he was raised from the dead.

            Why is that?  Why would Paul not focus on the love of Jesus?  Why would Paul not focus on the power of Jesus?  Why would Paul not focus on the wisdom of Jesus?  Why are those two facts–that Jesus was descended from David, and that he was raised from the dead–why are those two things the essentials of Christian faith, according to Paul?

            The reason is because those two things–that Jesus was descended from David, and that he was raised from the dead–are the two things that prove Jesus actually is the Messiah.  He actually is the Savior.  He actually is the divine Son of God.

            After all, there have been lots of people who have talked about the importance of love, and lots of people who have shown love.  There have been lots of people who had power.  There have been lots of people who have wisdom.  And don’t get me wrong, those are all good things.  I’m not criticizing them.  But if those things are all that you know about Jesus–that he loved people, that he had power, that he was wise–you would not recognize him as the divine Son of God.  He might be a great guy.  He might be a great teacher.  He might even be a prophet.  But you would not know he was the Savior.  You would not know he was the divine Son of God.  To know that, you need to know that Jesus was descended from David and that he was raised from the dead.

            Now, today, we sometimes think, what’s the big deal about being descended from David?  But it was a big deal, and really it still is, because of the Old Testament prophecies.  The Old Testament prophets had said the Messiah would be descended from David.  We read in Jeremiah Twenty-three, Verse Five, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’”  That’s why the gospels of Matthew and Luke both give us lengthy genealogies of Jesus, showing that he was, in fact, descended from David.  That Jesus is descended from David was and is proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the divine Son of God.

            But of course, there had been lots of people who had been descended from David, too.  After all, King David lived somewhere around one thousand B. C.   A thousand years later, he’d have had lots of descendants.  Jesus being descended from David was still important, but he shared that distinction with a lot of other people.  What distinguished Jesus from all those other descendants of David is that he was raised from the dead.

            That’s the proof.  Human beings, even great human beings, are not raised from the dead.  When a human being dies, they stay dead, at least in earthly terms.  And when Jesus was killed, everyone expected that to happen to him, too.  

And I mean, everyone.  Even his closest followers.  Remember how the women went out to the tomb on that first Easter morning?  They were not going out there to see if Jesus was in the tomb.  They knew he was in the tomb.  They were going out to prepare his body for burial.  And when they saw that he was not there, they did not assume he’d been raised from the dead.  They assumed his body had been moved, and they were trying to figure out where it had been moved to.

            That Jesus had actually been raised from the dead was the last thing anyone expected.  It was the ultimate proof that Jesus was who he said he was.  That he was the Savior, the divine Son of God.  That’s why, when the Pharisees found out what had happened, they bribed the guards to say that they’d fallen asleep and Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body.  They knew that if the truth came out, if people knew Jesus had been raised from the dead, they would know who Jesus was.  They would know that he was, in fact, the Messiah.

            That’s why, for all the things Paul wrote in his letters, he made sure this stayed at the forefront–that Jesus was raised from the dead.  No matter what else he wrote about, no matter what other issues he was dealing with, Paul made sure not to lose that main point–that Jesus was raised from the dead.  

In fact, he said that was so important that he was willing to endure anything in order to spread the word about it.  He did not care about what might happen to him as a result.  If he died, he’d be with Jesus.  Listen to what he says:  “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.  If we endure, we will also reign with Him.”

That’s faith.  That’s an incredibly strong faith.  To say, if I die for Jesus, it’s okay, because I’ll go to heaven and live with Jesus.  And if I don’t die, but simply have to endure suffering until Jesus comes again, that’s okay, too, because then I’ll reign with Jesus.  Either way, I win.

How strong is your faith?  How strong is my faith?  Could we say what Paul said?  Could we say that if I die for Jesus, it’s okay, if I have to endure suffering for Jesus, that’s okay, too, because as long as I have faith in Jesus, I’ll win?

If not, why not?  Because we’re not the Apostle Paul?  Well, we’re not, but is that really an excuse?  I mean, suppose I’m standing before the Lord, and the Lord asks why I was not able to endure suffering for Jesus, and I say, well, come on, I’m not the Apostle Paul.  You think that’s going to fly?

Paul goes on to say this:  “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”  

That phrase, “do your best”, is important.  It’s good news in one sense, because it says God does not expect perfection from us.  God knows we’re going to slip, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to fail.  There will be times when our resolve does not stay firm, when our faith does not stay strong.  God knows perfection is beyond our ability, and God does not expect it of us.  God just wants us to do our best.

But having said that, it’s also important that we actually do our best.  Because it can be really easy to use that as an excuse, too.  “Sure, I’m not as good as the Apostle Paul, but I’m doing my best.”  Now, if that’s actually true, that’s fine.  But here’s the question–are you doing your best?  Are you really doing your best?  Am I really doing my best?  Or are we settling for something less?  Are we settling for a mediocre faith, a lukewarm faith, a faith that does not want to make waves or cause problems for anyone?  Including ourselves?

Now, I want to make clear I’m not saying we need to earn our way into heaven.  We go to heaven by our faith in Jesus Christ, not by the things we do.  But if we have faith, we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.  And Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  And to make disciples, we need to make sure people know who Jesus is.  And they cannot know who Jesus is unless they know Jesus was raised from the dead.

So, we need to do our best–to truly do our best–to make sure people know who Jesus is.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven by doing it.  But simply because it’s what Jesus told us to do.  Simply because it’s the right thing to do.  Because our goal is to help other people find their way to faith in Christ.  Our goal is to help other people find their way to heaven.

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.”  That was Paul’s gospel.  It needs to be our gospel, too.  And we need to share it with everyone we can.