Celebrating the Fruit of the Gospel

2 Timothy 4:2-4 - …preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

3 ways the gospel impacts the church of Jesus Christ

I. Sweet Relationships

A. Diverse people who love one another in the Lord

v. 1 – I commend to you our sister Phoebe…

v. 5 – Greet Epaenetus my beloved…

v. 8 – Greet Ampliatus my beloved…

v. 9 – Greet…Stachys my beloved…

v. 10 – Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ…

v. 11 – Greet those in the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord…

v. 12 – Greet Persis the beloved…

v. 13 – Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord…

v. 16 – Greet one another with a holy kiss…

v. 21b – …so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen…

v. 22 – I Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord…

B. Men and women who serve and work together well

v. 1 – Phoebe, who is a servant of the church…

v. 2 – …she has also been a helper of many…

v. 3 – Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers…

v. 6 – Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you…

v. 9 – Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ…

v. 12 – Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord…

v. 12b – Greet Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord…

v. 21 – Timothy my fellow worker greets you…

Galatians 3:26-29 - For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

C. People who risk and sacrifice for the cause

v. 3-4 – Prisca and Aquila…who for my life risked their own necks…

v. 5 – …greet the church that is in their house…

Romans 13:8-10 - Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

II. Doctrinal Purity

A. Loving people keep their eyes open for false teaching

Romans 16:17-18 - Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

“keep your eye” - Skopeo – looking at or observing with intensity

Acts 20:28-32 - Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

2 Timothy 1:13-14 - Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

B. Biblical truth always precedes genuine unity

“Heresy is better than schism, the Episcopal bishop of Virginia said yesterday in a speech that gently chided church conservatives for imperiling the unity of the country’s largest diocese over the consecration of the denomination’s first homosexual bishop last November. ‘If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy,’ said the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to 500 Episcopalians meeting for the annual diocesan council at the Hyatt Regency in Reston.” (Washington Times, January 31st, 2004)

III. Reliable Stability

A. Our God is the One capable of establishing us

v. 25 – Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…

“Stērizō (to establish) means to make firm and stable, to make fast. In this context it refers to being mentally settled, firmly rooted in the truth of the gospel.” (John MacArthur, Commentary on Romans Vol 2, p. 383)

Psalm 40:1-3 - I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.

B. The gospel explains and fulfills our eternal God’s Word

v. 26 – …but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets…

v. 25 – …the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past…

“We are cruel to ourselves. We try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and Who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. In this way you can waste your life and lose your soul.” (J.I. Packer, Knowing God)

C. A Christ-centered church can bring glory to God forever

v. 27 – …to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

Romans 1:16-17 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”