Sermon On Importance Of Name

Preach The Word: Why The Scriptures Still Matter

Let's be honest about something that sits quietly in the background of every sermon ever preached. When a preacher stands up and opens a Bible, there is an implicit claim being made. Not just that this is an interesting book, not just that these are ancient words worth studying, but that what is written here is actually true, that it comes from God, and that it has something to say to real people living real lives right now. That is a remarkable claim. And if it is not true, then everything we do on a Sunday morning is a kind of elaborate theater. But if it is true, then the question of how we handle these Scriptures, and what we expect them to do, becomes one of the most important questions we could ever ask.

Paul understood that. And near the end of his life, writing to a young pastor named Timothy, he pressed that question with everything he had. So let us read together from 2 Timothy, beginning at chapter 3, verse 14, and continuing through chapter 4, verse 5. I will be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to have their ears tickled. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, be sober-minded in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Now, Paul is writing this from prison. He knows he is near the end. He says just a few verses later, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race." This is not a man with a lot of time left, and he knows it. So what does he say to Timothy? What does he press into this young pastor's hands as a final charge? He says: stay with the Scriptures, and preach the Word.

That is the center of this passage, and it is the center of what we want to think about together this morning.

Notice first what Paul says about Scripture itself. He calls it "inspired by God," which in the Greek is a single compound word that means, literally, God-breathed. The image is striking. These words did not simply arise from human wisdom or religious reflection. They came from God. He breathed them out. Which means when we open this book, we are not just reading what people thought about God. We are reading what God has said.

And Paul says this God-breathed Scripture is profitable. That word is practical. It is useful. It does something. He lists four things it does: it teaches, it rebukes, it corrects, and it trains in righteousness. Think about what that covers. Teaching gives us what we need to know. Rebuking confronts us when we are going the wrong direction. Correcting helps us get back on the right path. And training in righteousness shapes us over time into people who actually live differently. The Scripture is not just informational. It is formational. It is not just telling us things. It is shaping us into something.

And the goal, Paul says, is that "the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." That word complete carries the idea of being fitted out, ready for the task. The Scriptures do not leave us half-formed. They equip us. They make us ready.

Now here is where we need to slow down and be honest, because this is a claim that can sound very familiar and therefore stop landing with the weight it deserves. We can nod along with "the Bible is inspired" and "the Bible equips us" without ever really letting that claim do anything to us. So let me put it plainly. If this is true, if Scripture really is God-breathed and really does equip us for every good work, then the way we approach it matters enormously. We do not come to it looking for ammunition for our existing opinions. We do not skim it for encouraging phrases. We come to it expecting God to speak, expecting to be taught things we did not already know, expecting to be rebuked when we need rebuking, expecting to be shaped.

That is what Paul is calling Timothy to. And then he takes it a step further.

He solemnly charges Timothy, before God and Christ Jesus, to preach the Word. The language here is almost courtroom-like. Paul is invoking the presence of God and the coming judgment of Christ. This is not a casual suggestion. This is the most serious possible charge. And the command is simple: preach the Word.

Not preach your opinions. Not preach what people want to hear. Not preach whatever is trending or popular or likely to draw the biggest crowd. Preach the Word.

And Paul immediately explains why the stakes are so high. He says the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine. They will accumulate teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will turn from the truth toward myths. Now, Paul is not predicting some distant future catastrophe. He is describing a tendency that is always present in human nature. We all, to some degree, prefer to be told we are right. We all prefer comfort to confrontation. We all have itching ears from time to time. The pressure on any preacher, in any era, is to drift toward what satisfies rather than what saves.

That is why Paul's charge is so urgent. Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. Notice that patience and teaching go together. This is not a call to be harsh. It is a call to be faithful, and to be faithful over the long haul, with the kind of patient, careful, teaching-centered ministry that trusts the Word to do its work.

Now let us talk about what this means for us, because this passage is not just about preachers. It is about the whole people of God and their relationship to Scripture.

Timothy had known the sacred Scriptures from infancy. Paul points to that as a foundation. The Word had been planted in him early, and it had taken root. It had given him wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That phrase is worth pausing on. The Scriptures are able to give wisdom for salvation, Paul says, but that salvation comes through faith in Christ Jesus. The Scriptures are not an end in themselves. They point to someone. They reveal someone. They lead us to Christ. That is their great purpose. Every page of this book, in one way or another, is moving toward Jesus. The law reveals our need. The prophets announce his coming. The Gospels show us his life, death, and resurrection. The letters explain what that means and how to live in light of it. The Scriptures are, at their core, a witness to Christ.

So when Paul says preach the Word, he is ultimately saying preach Christ. To be faithful to the Scriptures is to keep pointing people to Jesus, because that is what the Scriptures themselves do.

What does this mean practically for a congregation like ours?

It means we come to worship expecting to hear from God, not just to feel good or be entertained. It means we bring our Bibles and we follow along, not because the preacher might be wrong but because we are all accountable to the same text. It means we take what we hear and we test it against Scripture, the way the Bereans did in Acts 17, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. It means we do not just hear the Word and walk away unchanged. James says we are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

And it means we take seriously the long, patient work of being shaped by Scripture over time. This is not a sprint. Paul says preach with great patience and teaching. The Christian life is a long obedience. The Scriptures do not transform us in a single sitting. They work on us, season after season, year after year, teaching and rebuking and correcting and training, until we are more and more fitted for the life God has called us to.

For anyone here who is not yet a follower of Christ, this passage has something to say to you as well. Paul says the Scriptures are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That salvation is real. It is available. It is not earned by being religious or by knowing the Bible well. It comes through faith in Jesus, who lived the life we could not live and died the death we deserved to die and rose again so that death would not have the final word. If you have never placed your trust in him, the Scriptures are pointing you toward that moment right now.

So here is the question to carry with you this week. Not just whether you believe the Bible is true, but whether you are actually letting it do its work in you. Are you coming to it with an open hand, willing to be taught, willing to be corrected, willing to be trained? Are you reading it not just to find what you already believe but to be surprised by what God has to say?

The Word of God is living and active. It does not return empty. And the God who breathed it out is still speaking through it today, still pointing us to his Son, still equipping his people for every good work.

Let that be enough. Let that be more than enough.

Sources Consulted

Mounce, William D. Pastoral Epistles. Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 46. Thomas Nelson, 2000.

Towner, Philip H. The Letters to Timothy and Titus. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdmans, 2006.

Marshall, I. Howard. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. International Critical Commentary. T and T Clark, 1999.

Stott, John R. W. Guard the Gospel: The Message of 2 Timothy. The Bible Speaks Today. InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Schreiner, Thomas R. 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. Biblical Theology for Christian Proclamation. Holman Reference, 2019.