A Disciple is Durable

Way back in the year 1920, an old farmer and his wife went to the County Fair. One of the main attractions that year was an airplane. Airplanes were a real novelty in those days, and this little biplane attracted a big crowd. The pilot was a barnstormer. He would go around the country doing air shows and flying stunts. Sometimes he would even take people up for a ride in the back seat of his open cockpit biplane.

The pilot was a dashing fellow, in his silk scarf and leather flying helmet. He happened to notice the old farmer and his wife staring at the airplane with real curiosity. So he went over to the farmer and said “Tell you what, old boy. For just $5, I’ll take you and the missus up for a ride.”

Well, the old farmer was a frugal man, and he said “No, $5 is too much.” But the pilot really wanted to get the old couple up in the air to show them what he could do. So he said to the farmer, “Look. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take you and the little lady up for a ride. If you cry out in fright or scream at any time, then you’ll have to pay me $5 when we land. But if you don’t utter a sound the whole time we’re up there, the ride is free.”

The farmer thought it over for a moment and then he said “Let’s go”. So he and his wife piled into the rear cockpit of that little biplane, the pilot cranked the prop and jumped in, and off they went. They soared over the trees and the fields and the pilot began to put the airplane into a series of rolls. Then he did some loops. Then he deliberately stalled the plane and dived for the ground, pulling out at the last moment. There wasn’t a word from the rear cockpit. That pilot tried every trick he could think of to get the farmer to cry out in terror. But there was only silence.

Finally he gave up and landed the airplane. As they taxied to a stop in front of the big crowd, the pilot leaned back and said to the farmer “Well, old man, I guess you won.” To which the farmer replied “Yep. But I almost lost back there when my wife fell out of the airplane.”

That old man knew how to suffer in silence! Today we’re going to look at the quality of endurance - the ability to bear up under suffering. We’ve been studying the book of 2 Timothy with the question “What qualities does a person need if he’s going to be a disciple of Jesus?”

We’ve seen two so far. In 2 Timothy 1, we discovered that a disciple needs courage. It takes courage to stand up and be counted on the Lord’s side in a world that mocks and persecutes Christians.

2 Timothy 1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God

Then we learned in chapter 2 that a disciple needs inner strength.

2 Timothy 2:1 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

That inner strength comes from discipline. The discipline to get your priorities straight like a soldier. The discipline to submit yourself to the rules of the Christian life, just as an athlete submits to the rules of the game. The discipline to work hard and diligently, just as a farmer does.

Now we come to verses 8-13 of 2 Timothy 2, and we see a third quality that we need - the quality of endurance.

2 Timothy 2:8-10 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

The thing about Paul that made him such an effective disciple maker, was that he led by personal example. He could always point to his own life and say “Here is that quality on display. This is what it means to be courageous, or disciplined, or durable. Look at my life, and you’ll see what I mean.”

Now some people might consider that to be bragging. But Paul was always careful not to take credit for these things himself. He always said that the reason he was a disciple, was that God was at work in his life.

Paul said that endurance is based on two things - looking back, and looking forward.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal.

The truth of the gospel - the message on which Paul had based his life - was one of the two things that kept him going through suffering. As he thought about the gospel, and as he reminded Timothy to remember it, he expressed the gospel in an unusual way. He said “Remember Jesus Christ”… because the gospel is about Jesus. It is about a living relationship with a living person. Christianity is not a set of rules. It is not a creed - a system of doctrine to which you give your mental assent. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

But he said Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. Now that’s a pretty unusual way to talk about Jesus isn’t it? Actually, it isn’t, when you get right down to it. In fact, this was probably a little saying that the early Christians used to express what they believed about Jesus. They would say to each other Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. What does it mean?

Well, Jesus’ resurrection is the one thing above all other things that shows that He is the Son of God. If you had to pick out one thing about his life that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was God, it would be that He rose from the dead. The grave couldn’t hold Him. Although He died an excruciating death on the cross, He conquered death three days later.

And if you wanted to show that Jesus is the Son of Man, you’d talk about his family background, wouldn’t you? You’d say that he was a descendant of David - that David was his ancestor.

So when the early Christians said Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David, they were really saying that Jesus was both divine and human. They were saying that He was the God-man.

But they were saying more than that. They were saying something about the quality of their salvation. Salvation is based not just on what Jesus did, but on who did it. If Jesus were not God, then His death on a cross as our substitute couldn’t save us. If He were not God, then he would have been just a man like the rest of us. And when he died on the cross, he would have been dying for his own sins, not ours. His sacrifice wouldn’t have been a perfect sacrifice. His couldn’t have borne the sins of the whole world, because he would have been bearing his own.

And if Jesus had not been also a man, then he couldn’t have truly served as our substitute. He would not have been one of us. He would not have been our true representative if he had been only God and not man. He was both. And it is only because he was both that his sacrifice can purchase our salvation.

That’s the PREMISE upon which Paul staked his life - the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But Paul’s life not only had a PREMISE, it had a PURPOSE. He not only looked back, he looked forward.

The purpose of Paul’s life was to see others obtain the salvation that he had obtained. That is why he said:

I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory

When Paul wrote this, he was in a dungeon in Rome. And by the way, he wasn’t in prison because he had been convicted of fraud or misappropriation of funds. He wasn’t there because he had solicited millions of dollars under false pretenses from trusting, naive people. So don’t let anybody try and tell you that Jim Bakker is in the same league as the Apostle Paul because they both went to prison. Paul had gone on trial before Ceasar, and had been condemned to death for preaching that Jesus, not the Roman Emperor, is Lord. Paul was awaiting execution when he wrote these words. But he isn’t down. He isn’t discouraged. He knows that though the preacher was in prison, the sermon was still free. He says:

God’s word is not chained. It’s still out there changing peoples’ lives.

This was Paul’s reason for living. Someone has said that “it would be no Paradise to Paul to live in Paradise alone.” He was a man who endured suffering without complaint because he was convinced not only of the truth of the gospel for himself, but of its power to save others as well. He was ready to undergo whatever it took to spread the good news. His life had both a PREMISE and a PURPOSE.

Now what does all this say to you and me? Well we live in a world where people have neither a PREMISE nor a PURPOSE for living. They don’t have a PREMISE on which to base their lives. The world believes that there is no truth anymore. Everything is relative. Although a majority of Americans still profess to believe in God, they live as though God didn’t even exist, much less that He cared about what they did.

Because people don’t have a PREMISE anymore, they can’t possibly have a PURPOSE. Oh, they try to come up with some sort of purpose for living, but it doesn’t amount to much when you put it under any sort of scrutiny. How many people here on L.I. would say that their purpose is “just to get ahead”. How many businessmen are working long hours away from their families so that they can be in line for that big promotion, or that big raise? Many people are slaving the best years of their lives away so that they’ll be able to relax when they retire. How many women have abandoned their babies and toddlers to day care so that they can work outside the home. And what are they working for? A vacation in the Bahamas? Bigger mortgage payments? A BMW instead of a Chevy?

If you asked most people in our community what they are living for, I’m afraid that’s what they would come up with. And the irony of it all is that the people who actually attain those goals discover that they don’t bring happiness, fulfilment, or contentment.

And when problems come, these people go to pieces. Because a vacation in the Bahamas isn’t going to mean much when the doctor tells you that you have cancer. And a BMW isn’t going to comfort you when your marriage falls apart. People have tried to build their lives on garbage. And one day they wake up and look in the mirror and they realize that they’ve built their lives on garbage. They don’t like what they’ve done with their lives. It isn’t worth anything. They don’t have any sense of fulfilment or satifsfaction. So they have a mid-life crisis. Or they burn out. Or they commit suicide.

It is only when you have a meaningful PURPOSE built on a true PREMISE that you can be durable when the pressure comes.

Have I been talking about non-Christians? Yes, but not entirely. Because many of us in the church who ought to know better have bought into this value system too. If you examined our lives on the basis of PREMISE and PURPOSE, you would come up with many of the same empty answers that you find out there in the world.

What is that you have based your life upon? What’s your premise? And what are you living for? What’s your purpose?

The Bible says that the only valid premise to base your life upon is that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died to save you. And the only valid purpose for your life is to live it in such a way as to help other people come to know Jesus too. You don’t have to go into the ministry to do that. You don’t have to become some kind of super saint to do that. You can do it right where you are - in fact that’s where God wants you to start. You can do it at school, on the job, at home. Parents, you can do it in the lives of your kids - live in such a way as to help them come to know Jesus.

If you’re living this way, my friend, then you will be a disciple. And if you are a disciple, then you will be durable in the crunch. Because you’ll have intelligent answers to the questions of why you’re alive and what you are living for. PREMISE and PURPOSE results in durability.