There is one clear big idea throughout this passage: Don’t be ashamed and guard the gospel! It is clear from the text that the apostle Paul is nearing the end of his life here on earth (4:6 – 7); he is about to be beheaded for his faith, he has been faithful to the gospel, he is ready to end his ministry well, and he has a few final words to say to Timothy, his young protégé in the ministry before he dies.

Throughout this letter, the apostle Paul is going to write forcefully and urgently about guarding the gospel (CH. 1), being a faithful soldier and minister of the gospel (CH. 2), avoiding godless people (CH. 3), standing firm on God’s Word (CH. 3), being ready to preach the Word in any season (CH. 4), and then he is going to conclude the letter with a note about what it is like to be abandoned by everyone he knows while relying on the faithful presence of God alone (4:9 – 22).

The words of this letter are the words of a man who has stood faithfully on the message of the gospel, and he is ready to draw his final breathe; they are urgent words; they are words that will be sealed with the blood of his death. Paul’s simple words to Timothy and to us this week are this: Don’t be ashamed – Guard the gospel! It is a natural instinct to guard and to protect what you value or what you are proud of. On the other hand, you and I will not guard or protect the things we are ashamed of. Look at the passage with me…

2 TIMOTHY 1:8 – 14

8Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. 13Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

#1: DON’T BE ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL (VV. 8 – 12)

I remember early on in my relationship with Jesus – maybe a few years after Jesus saved me – I owned a drywall company and one of the contractors I worked for invited Christy and I to a comedy/dinner event at a local bar that he owned in the city. The food was amazing, and the drinks were free, and the comedian was funny at first. Then, slowly but surely the comedian’s act became more and more raunchy, and we both began to feel really uncomfortable. At some point the comedian asked if there were any Christians in the room and the place got really silent, but no one raised their hand; to my shame, I didn’t raise my hand either. The comedian’s next line was something to the effect of: “Good, because you shouldn’t be here if you are a Christian!”

I’ll never forget the shame that I felt in that moment. But that kind of shame (for not being courageous enough to proclaim Christ) is different than the kind of shame that the apostle Paul is talking about. I felt ashamed for failing on the back end. Paul is speaking about the shame on the front edge; the kind of shame that makes you cower in fear as I did. So, how do you not give into that kind of shame; the kind of shame that makes you sit silently on the sidelines when you should open your mouth and act?

  1. We resist being ashamed by being ready to suffer for the gospel (v. 8). Paul says, “do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God”. When you know that you will suffer for the sake of the gospel, just as many before us and even now are suffering, you and I will be less apt to be caught off guard and sidelined in silent shame. Resist being ashamed by being ready to suffer for the gospel.
  2. We resist being ashamed by remembering that God saved us and called us (v. 9). Paul says that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”. I am always humbled and strengthened by the truth that I didn’t do anything to help God save me and I certainly had nothing to do with his calling upon my life as a minister of the gospel. As long as I am obediently following his calling upon my life, I will never have a reason to be ashamed or to cower back in fear of what is coming down the pike because I trust that God has sovereignly saved me and he has sovereignly called me to minister the gospel, and if he has sovereignly saved and called me then he certainly is in control of every circumstance I will face in the pursuit of that calling. When you and I remember that it is God who saves us and calls us, we will not be ashamed of the gospel.
  3. We resist being ashamed by remembering that Jesus defeated death and gave eternal life (v. 10).Paul says that God’s purpose or reason for saving us and calling us into gospel ministry “has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”. You and I have no reason to cower back on the sidelines in shameful silence once we learn that God’s reason for saving us and calling us into gospel ministry was for the purpose of proclaiming the power and the victory of the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus. Jesus defeated Satan, Sin, and Death; therefore we have nothing to fear this side of heaven. We can speak the gospel boldly on behalf of Christ to a culture that has one foot in the grave because of its love for all things sinful and unholy. We can resist being ashamed of the gospel by remembering that our crucified, risen, and returning Jesus defeated death and offers eternal life to anyone who will repent and believe. Here there is no shame!
  4. We resist being ashamed by remembering that we have been appointed by God (v. 11). The apostle Paul new exactly who he was and whose he was; he knew who he used to be – a persecutor and murderer of Christians – but now he had been saved by God in a miraculous way and he had been transformed by the grace of God who had appointed him as “a preacher and apostle and teacher”. You and I can resist being ashamed of the gospel by remembering that God has appointed us as his representatives here on earth until we go to meet him on the day of our death.
  5. We resist being ashamed by remembering that we are protected by God (v. 12). Paul says that the gospel is the reason “why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me”. Paul is absolutely convinced that God will never fail him; God will always protect not only his servants, but also the message he has entrusted to his servants. Man may be able to bring death to our physical bodies, but God promises eternity to our souls. The gospel that saves us is also the gospel that preserves us. We resist being ashamed by remembering that we are protected by the God who saves and preserves us for all of eternity.

So, how do you and I resist being ashamed of the gospel? How do we not cower back in fear and shame when the comedian calls you out, or when the coworker makes fun of you, or when the classmate calls you names, or when your child disowns you, or when the spouse doesn’t agree with your faith, or when your friends abandon you because of your moral stance; how do we not cower back in shame and fear in these moments?

The answer is that we resist being ashamed of the gospel by being ready to suffer for the gospel, by remembering that God saved us and called us, by remembering that Jesus defeated death and gave us eternal life, by remembering that we have been appointed by God, and by remembering that we are protected by God for all of eternity. But it’s not just that we need not be ashamed of the gospel, we also need to guard the gospel.

#2: GUARD THE GOSPEL (VV. 13 – 14)

I said earlier that we will not guard what we are ashamed of and that we will only protect that which are proud of or that which we value above all other things. But the question is: How do we guard and protect the gospel? How do we come to a place where we value the gospel even more than we value our physical lives? 

  1. We guard the gospel by following other faithful leaders (v. 13). Paul says that we will guard the gospel if we “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus”. It is very difficult to find faithful leaders who will endure until the end without shipwrecking their faith and disqualifying themselves from God’s kingdom altogether. A cursory reading of the end of this letter reveals that many of the leaders whom the apostle Paul once trusted, had abandoned him, and caused much harm to the kingdom of God (4:9 – 22). Nevertheless, one of the primary ways we guard the message of the gospel is by following other leaders who have a proven pattern of being faithful to the message of the gospel.
  2. We guard the gospel by trusting the power of the indwelling Spirit (v. 14). Paul knows that following human leaders alone will not be enough to empower us to guard the gospel, so he firms up his instructions to guard the gospel when he says, “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you”. It is the Holy Spirit who deposits the message of the gospel into the brand new hearts he gives us at the moment of salvation. Therefore, it makes complete sense that it is the Holy Spirit who will give us the strength to guard the very message that he has placed into our custody.

In this sense, the gospel is like a precious child, the Holy Spirit is like the proud biological parent of that child, and He (the Holy Spirit) has entrusted us with the custody or the responsibility of caring for and protecting that child with his help. We do not walk this road of gospel proclamation, protection, and preservation alone. The Spirit of the living God has taken up residence within us and he is available to help us guard the gospel when we call out to him and trust in him as we listen to and obey his voice.

CONCLUSION…

The clear and urgent message of the text in front of us today is this: Don’t be ashamed of the gospel and guard the gospel. The apostle Paul himself is a great example of a man who was willing to risk his very life and to ultimately give his life for the cause of the gospel. But even the apostle Paul struggled to do this perfectly. We know that this great apostle confessed to doing what he did not want to do and to not doing what he did want to do in his letter to the Romans.

But the apostle Paul, in his weakness, looked to the perfect example and substitute that we all have in our crucified, risen, and returning Savior, Jesus. If ever there was a man who truly and without fail, was never ashamed of the gospel, who guarded the gospel with his very life, and who embodied the fullest meaning of the gospel, it was Christ Jesus who gave his life as a ransom for sinners like you and me, who left the tomb empty on the third day and who promised eternity in Heaven for all who would repent and believe. He was never ashamed of the gospel; he guarded the gospel with his life and now his Spirit enables us to do the same. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel – Guard the gospel until the day you die!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).