2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 "For When the World Stops Making Sense"

So I've been thinking a lot lately about what it actually means to pastor a church these days. I mean not normal pastor stuff like, you know, trying to remember new people’s names or what somebody told me on the way out of church that I’ll probably forget by the time I get to the car. I mean like the bigger questions. How am I supposed to pastor a church in a culture that seems to be moving further and further away from Christianity?

I mean because for most of my life, I’ve lived in a world that was at least vaguely Christian. Doesn’t mean everybody had saving faith in Jesus, but there was a basic Christian framework underneath Western culture. People knew who Jesus is. They had heard of the Ten Commandments. They understood basic ideas like sin, forgiveness. There were just certain things that most people agreed were good and other things most people agreed were bad.

But I don’t think we live in that world anymore. And I could spend a lot of time complaining about that, 'cause I’m getting old enough that I’m probably entitled to shake my fist at a cloud now and then, and explain how much better everything used to be when telephones were attached to the wall and televisions weighed 500 pounds. But what bothers me more than the culture forgetting Christianity, is all the evidence that Christians have forgotten Christianity too.

And I think pastors like me, I think we have to take some responsibility for that.

I mean that's exactly what happened to Martin Luther. About 10 years after the Reformation, when he went around visiting all those new churches in the 16th century. He was absolutely shocked by how little ordinary Christians knew about their faith. I mean these were baptized people, they went to church, they called themselves Christians, but most of them couldn’t explain the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer to their kids. Luther, he said, “The common people know nothing at all of Christian doctrine; and many pastors are quite unfit and incompetent to teach.”

I mean that's brutal. Luther wasn’t exactly known for trying to phrase things gently. But he doesn’t just roll his eyes at the ignorance of the people, 'cause he looks straight at their pastors and he blames them. So, you know, I have to wonder, have I made sure that the people God has trusted to me know the basics of the Christian faith? Have I made sure that we know those things? Do we as a church, do we know Jack Squat? That's the question that keeps kind of coming to my mind. And it’s why I think we need to go back to the basics.

So we're gonna spend some time in the small catechism.

So what's a catechism? Well, a small catechism is when we got a new kitten that would hide under the stairs and attack Von's feet. A large catechism is two years later when he still did it and Von started carrying around a broom to defend herself. Or was that cataclysm? No, a catechism, catechism actually means teaching the fundamentals of the faith. Usually it's done with a series of questions and memorized answers. It's like the three R's of the Christian faith. Except unlike reading, writing, and arithmetic, all three of these could actually start with R: repentance, redemption, and resurrection.

So anyway, Luther wrote the small catechism to make sure parents could teach the faith to their kids and their grandkids. We have to know these things so we can pass them on to the next generation.

And that's where a lot of us, too many of us have failed. Cause somewhere along the way, a lot of us just stopped intentionally passing our faith on. And our culture, it’s not just becoming less Christian. In some very noticeable ways, it’s becoming spiritually darker. I mean I'm not saying everything was wonderful in 1976. Everything was not wonderful in 1976. For example, Disco Duck was the number one song in the nation. It knocked “Do You Know Where You’re Going To?” out of the number one spot! What were they thinking? But what I am saying is when a culture removes Christianity as the primary authority for answering questions like, what is a human being? What makes life valuable? What’s good? What’s evil? What are the rules about sex? Should there even be rules about sex? What’s marriage? See something is going to answer those questions. And if we stop looking to God to define good and evil, we don’t stop defining good and evil. We just do it ourselves.

So now we live in a country where medically assisted suicide is legal in 13 states and Washington D.C. And right now there are currently bills or amendments to legalize it in 17 more states this year. What are we doing? As a society, we’ve decided that deliberately ending human life can be legally justified as compassion. That is some satanic darkness right there. It just is. And some people are very open about it. Like recently, at a city council meeting in Iowa, they opened the meeting with a real invocation from a member of the Satanic Temple that included the words “Hail Satan.” They weren’t kidding. It was not a Saturday Night Live skit.

And I saw a recent survey that found that 64% of Gen Z had tried at least one psychic or occult practice. Things like tarot cards, seances, astrology, crystals. Trying to contact a dead relative or casting a love spell on someone. I mean maybe we think those things are harmless, but this is dangerous stuff.

But I’m not bringing any of this up so we can sit here feeling superior. Don’t miss the point here. People haven’t stopped believing in the supernatural. They’ve just stopped knowing what to believe.

See, when people stop acknowledging God’s Word as the ultimate authority, they don’t suddenly become purely rational creatures. We’re all spiritual creatures. You take away the true God and we just start looking for another one. We’ll make a god out of anything. It might be our feelings, our sexuality, our political tribe, some social media influencer or celebrity, some podcast host, our AI chatbot, or maybe some woman named Moonbeam with a ring light and a Venmo account. We’re going to believe in something.

And the Bible tells us there’s a lot more going on here than just what we can see. In Ephesians 6 it says,

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil."

There really is an enemy out there who wants to undermine our faith in Jesus. And we have to seek God’s wisdom or we are gonna become fools. Proverbs 8 personifies the Wisdom of God and says: “Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

That might as well be Jesus speaking directly right there, because the New Testament calls Jesus the wisdom of God personified. See there is an absolute connection between rejecting the Author of life and eventually becoming confused about life and death. If we turn away from God’s wisdom to define what is good, we shouldn’t be surprised when we confuse good and evil.

But you know the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our world right now is a lot like the world the Apostle Paul was in when he wrote his second letter to Timothy. Last week we left Paul at the end of Acts in a Roman prison. He is not sitting in some nice Christian society where everybody shares his values. Christians are a tiny minority, Rome does not care what the church believes. And even inside the church, false teachers are spreading all kinds of crazy ideas. So Paul writes this final letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, who is facing massive pressure to compromise. And Paul’s advice, it is still perfect for us today.

2nd Timothy 3:14 says,

"But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus."

See, the culture will do what the culture will do. Rome can believe whatever Rome wants to believe. Pagans will be pagans. Someone can post a twelve-part TikTok series explaining how every Christian for two thousand years has misunderstood Jesus, but fortunately for us, they finally figured it out on Tuesday. Be sure and follow them for more tips. Paul said to Timothy the same exact thing he would say to us today, “Ignore the false teachers. Remain faithful. Stay rooted. Don’t try to reinvent Christianity every time the culture changes its mind.”

And notice what he says the Scriptures do. They give us “the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.” And that is why we are going back to the basics. Back to Scripture, because Scripture just keeps taking us back to Christ.

2nd Timothy 3:16 says,

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work."

“Inspired by God” literally means “God-breathed.” The Bible is not a collection of spiritual opinions about God. It’s God speaking. Of course, you know, we all really like the Bible when it agrees with us. That is always a very encouraging devotional experience. “Wow, God, you and I, we are really on the same page today.” But Paul says God’s Word also corrects and rebukes us. See Christianity is not built on “what seems right to me.” It is built on what God has actually said—whether we agree with it or not.

Now you might be thinking, “Yeah, okay, the Bible. We trust God’s Word. So why should we waste our time studying something Martin Luther wrote?” Why bother with the Small Catechism? I mean, that is a fair question. So here is an answer: Because the whole point of the Small Catechism is to help us understand what God’s Word is actually saying.

All sixty-six books. All 780,000 words. I mean, you could figure it all out on your own. Sure. Just read the Bible several hundred times, preferably in the original languages. Get the whole thing in your head. Synthesize all the concepts. Organize everything into Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification, who we are, who God is, what He has promised us, what He expects of us. Get it all straight, make sure you haven’t contradicted yourself anywhere, and then just test your conclusions against about 2,000 years of other faithful Christians doing the exact same thing. That ought to keep you busy till Thursday.

Or—and I’m just throwing this out there—we could read our freakin’ Bibles and, at the same exact time, be humble enough to learn from 500 years of faithful Christians who have been reading those same Bibles, wrestling with those exact same questions, and helping the next generation understand what God has actually said.

Then Paul kind of turns up the intensity in chapter four:

2nd Timothy 4:1 says,

"I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching."

Preach the Word whether it’s popular or whether people might send you a long email nastigram on Monday morning.

And then he says why, and it sure sounds like he is describing us:

2nd Timothy 4:3 says,

"For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths."

See ideas and cultures, they change, but God’s word remains forever. We have to make sure we don’t fall for the foolishness of our generation.

2nd Timothy 4:5 says,

"But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you."

If we stand up for God’s truth, there are always going to be people who don’t like it. But our job is to remain faithful to what God says anyway, no matter the cost. And keep telling people to trust in Jesus for life and salvation. Keep trusting God’s word to know what is right and what is wrong.   

Because this is where it stops being about those people out there and it starts coming after us. Paul says people will look for teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear. And that is always our temptation. We want a customized Christianity. We want Build-A-Bear Jesus. You know, pick the parts we like, stuff Him with our opinions, dress Him up in the colors of our team, and then squeeze that little button on His hand to make Him say exactly what we want Him to say.   

We want a Jesus who condemns the sins that we really dislike and ignores the ones that we rather enjoy. We want Him outraged by the people who bother us but remarkably understanding about all the ways we compromise. We want a God who just approves of the life we want to live. We want God to fall in line with our theology and our opinions. And the internet makes this really convenient. If we don’t like what Scripture says, we can just keep searching until somebody with a Ph.D. and a podcast explains why a particular verse doesn’t actually mean what it says. And if we don’t like this preacher, well our itching ears can just find another one on YouTube.

But this is where we really have to be careful. Because otherwise, we hear about things like assisted suicide, and Satanic invocations, and Gen Z flirting with the occult, and we are like, “Look at them. Shame on them.” Meanwhile, God’s Word says, “Look at us. Shame on us.” Remember, God’s word will correct and rebuke us. The same exact confused human heart that sends a nineteen-year-old to a psychic, can send any of us looking for a watered-down, edited version of Christianity that doesn’t challenge what we want to believe.

Now sometimes people reject God publicly and dramatically. But we are usually more subtle about it. We just edit Him. We keep most of the Bible, but maybe not that one verse. We keep Jesus, but not those embarrassing things He said. We keep Christianity, as long as it doesn’t interfere too much with our money, our sex life, our politics, our grudges, our comfort, our pride, or our kid’s sports schedule. And I know, those are things I’m not supposed to talk about. We don’t want to hear anything that rebukes or corrects us. We just want God as a cheerleader—we’d like Him to bless our plans, but we are not really thrilled about the whole “Lord” thing. But you know, when Paul says Scripture corrects us when we are wrong, that means we have to entertain the possibility that sometimes, we might be wrong.

Our hearts lie to us. Our instincts are off. That voice inside our head might not be the Holy Spirit; it might just be too much caffeine and unresolved daddy issues. We need to stay in God’s Word because we don’t even know all the ways we have wandered away from it. Before we get so worked up about what the culture has forgotten, we need to wonder what we’ve forgotten. And the worst part of all this is that just knowing the right answers isn’t going to save us either. Plenty of people can recite the Ten Commandments while breaking them. Plenty of people can say the Creed without trusting Christ. We could memorize the entire Bible and we’d still be sinners who desperately need mercy.   

Which is exactly why Paul’s words in verse 15 are so important. Scripture doesn’t only make you informed. It says they give you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Jesus.   

And that is the whole point of all this. You don’t need to learn all these things because God is going to stand at heaven’s gate with a clipboard. You need to be reminded of all the basics because they put Christ right in front of you.   

The Ten Commandments, they expose how you’ve failed, stripping away the fantasy that you’re basically doing fine. And then the Creed tells you exactly what God has done for you. The Lord’s Prayer teaches you to call God Our Father. Baptism reminds you that God put His name on you, and promises that you will take part in Christ’s resurrection. Confession puts actual forgiveness straight into your ears. The Lord’s Supper puts Christ’s promise of life and salvation directly into your mouth.   

It all leads to Jesus. You might forget God, but He hasn’t forgotten you. You might wander off in the weeds, but Christ comes after you. You might believe foolish lies, but He remains the Truth. We have a tendency to choose things that lead toward death, which is exactly why Jesus walked straight into death Himself. He took our customized religion, our secret sins… all those “I can’t believe I did that again” sins, and He carried them to the cross.

And there, objectively, outside of you, before you could clean anything up, Jesus paid for it all. He died for you and rose for you. He keeps His promises even when you don't keep yours. Your salvation doesn’t depend on your ability to perfectly resist the culture that surrounds you. It rests on a hill outside Jerusalem where the Son of God said, “It is finished.” The culture can try to redefine a lot of things, but it can’t redefine an empty tomb. Christ is risen. And that will never change.

So our salvation is safe in Christ, which means we are disciples of Jesus. Christians. Being a Christian means we are always open to learning. We have to stay teachable. It’s good to say, “Maybe there are things I don’t understand as well as I thought.” Some of us have been Christians a long time, and that can fool us into thinking we know something just because we have heard it before.

So stay curious. Instead of walking around like, “What do I think about this issue? Let me tell you what I think about this and that and my opinion and everyone’s an idiot except me,” how about asking, “What has God actually said about it?”

We need to stop being so sure we already know. We need to walk humbly before the Lord.

Do you have a copy of Luther’s Small Catechism? I would love for you to get one. Read the section we are talking about that week ahead of time. If you have kids or grandkids, ask them the questions. There are questions in every section. Ask your spouse the questions, or ask yourself. Be deliberate. Talk about these things before Sunday, then show up ready to learn something.

Because a post-Christian culture doesn’t really need Christians walking around angry that everything's changed. It needs Christians who know Jesus. Christians who can recognize darkness without panicking about it—Christians who can love their confused neighbors without getting confused about what love is. Christians who know the truth without using it as a club. Christians who can suffer without losing hope, forgive because they have been forgiven, and face death when it comes with hope because they know death doesn’t get the final word. God’s wisdom isn’t bondage. It is freedom. Every time we wander away from it, thinking we are going to be free, we just find another set of chains waiting for us.

So what are we supposed to do when Christianity is no longer at the center of our culture? What do we do when darkness and confusion is everywhere, and no one can even agree on what a human being is?

Let’s not make it more complicated than it needs to be. Paul doesn’t give Timothy a ten-point strategic plan for taking over the Roman Empire. He doesn’t tell him to panic, retreat, or reinvent Christianity to make it more attractive, either. He just tells him to continue in what they have learned and to keep preaching the Word. That’s it.

Cultures change. Empires rise and fall. Spiritual fads come and go. There is always going to be another guru promising if we just throw away the dusty old truth, we’ll finally be free. But the Word of God remains.

So before we spend any time worrying about how the world has forgotten Christianity, we need to focus on faithfully teaching the Christian faith to the people God has put in front of us. We are going back to the basics. Because God’s Word is still true. It’s the same unchanging truth the church has always stood on, whether surrounded by the Roman Empire, modern America, or whatever comes next.

Jesus Christ is for sinners. The world can change what it calls good, evil, and true. But it can’t change the truth, and it can’t change what Christ has already done. And no matter how hard the world, the flesh, and the devil try to change what God has promised us—it can’t change jack squat. AMEN.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, Thank You that in a world that keeps changing its mind, Your Word remains forever. Give us humble, teachable hearts. Help us to stay rooted in Your truth, so we can love the people in our lives with the freedom and compassion of Jesus. In His name we pray, Amen.