Marks of a True Church – 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Good morning everyone! Hope you’re doing well this morning. Over the last few weeks, as a church we’ve been going through a series titled Understanding Church where we’re trying to understand church through the lens of the Bible. Why is that important? Because we all have a tendency to move away from God’s heart and design for the church. We see that happening in many churches around the world where churches are driven by the culture around them more than God’s heart and design as revealed in the Bible.

For example, if the culture around them doesn’t talk about sin but only talks about self-affirmation, then that’s the same culture that seeps into the church where they only affirm everybody and never talk about sin. But on the other hand, the Bible confronts our sins all the time. It won’t take too long before we are confronted with our sin, our unbelief, our pride and our selfishness. 

That’s why it’s vital that we not only have this series once in a while but actually have routine reminders of what is God’s heart and design for His church. And also to check and see if we are on the same track in line with God’s heart and design as revealed in the Bible.

Couple of weeks back we spoke about the Purpose of the Church. Last week we spoke about Leaders in the Church and this week we will talk about Marks of a True Church. Today as we look around us, we’ll find churches of all kinds. Churches with different kinds of music – traditional churches will have a choir singing along with hymns and an organ.

Modern churches will have more contemporary worship music with more instruments. Even in the preaching, you’ll find preachers of different styles – some who are lighthearted just love to entertain, others who are more serious and focused during the preaching time.

In other words, you’ll most likely be able to find a church that suits your taste or preference. If we simply go by “I like this in a church, I don’t like this in a church” – just by our likes and preferences, we’ll actually end up finding a church that suits our liking because there’s that many varieties of churches out there.

But the question is, is this the right way of evaluating a church simply on the basis of our tastes, liking and preference? How do we know if this is actually a True church or not? How do we know if the Gathering church is a True church or not? Or if God moves us to another city tomorrow where we’ll need to find a new church, how do we know which church to plug ourselves into?

Thankfully we don’t have to go around searching for answers. We have our Bibles and also have faithful men and women in church history who have wrestled with this same question “what are the marks of a True Church?” and they have studied the Scriptures and have provided us with help to navigate through this. Before we go ahead, let’s ask God to help us learn and apply this today.

Pray

In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic church argued that the only true church of Jesus was the one that followed the authority of the pope. Any other church that did not follow the authority of the pope wasn’t considered a true church. They saw all others as false churches. Praise God for raising up faithful brothers and sisters (known as the Reformers) who fought against that and said “No, a true church isn’t one that follows the authority of the pope but one that submits to the authority of God’s Word”. What they said is that their loyalty & allegiance was not to the pope but to the Word. So these Reformers searched the Scriptures, they did a lot of the ground work for us and they boiled it down to 3 Marks of a True Church:

Just one caveat before we proceed. Whatever we study today shouldn’t be something that makes us arrogantly go around judging other churches saying “you’re a false church, you’re a false church, you’re a true church”. This is meant to be an internal check for us to see if our church is actually showing marks of a True Church. With that let’s go to the 3 marks of a True Church:

1. Pure Preaching of the Word (2 Tim 4:1-5)

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

The context of this passage is that this is the last and final letter written by Paul that’s recorded in Scripture. Paul thinks that he’s going to die soon and so he’s writing this personal letter to his spiritual son & dear friend Timothy with some very very important instructions. If you and I were on our death bed, we want our closest family members and friends around us at that time. And what we would want to share with them at that time is not small talk but very very important instructions that the people closest to us need to know. That’s the same theme with Paul’s letter here and above everything else that he wants to tell Timothy, what does he tell him here?

Preach the Word! And did you notice that he’s not making a suggestion to Timothy. He’s not telling Timothy “when you think it’s convenient, do this”. In fact the seriousness of this command is heightened by the fact that he’s saying it “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:” He’s calling God as witness to this instruction which is being made to Timothy. In other words, Paul is reminding Timothy that his accountability doesn’t lie with Paul. Timothy’s accountability to the preaching of the Word doesn’t stop the moment Paul dies. Timothy’s accountability is with the Lord. That’s how seriously this command needs to be taken. 

Preach the Word! Not his own thoughts. Not an inspirational, motivational talk. Not news. Not politics. Not what’s trending. He is called to Preach God’s Word. How does that happen?

• Preaching in Context: When we read a book or watch a movie, we don’t jump into the middle of the book or movie, remove a quote and make our own interpretation of what that quote means. We read the book or watch a movie from start to end and try to understand that quote on the basis of its context. But somehow we do the same thing with the Bible. Everything that is written in the Bible was written in a certain historical context and it’s important to know what that is.
  • For example: A much loved passage for many of us Jeremiah 29:11 – 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope was not said in the context of prosperity but in the context of judgment to assure the Israelites that God would restore them after 70 years.
• Preach with the author’s intent in mind: God used multiple biblical authors to write books of the Bible and each of those books had a specific purpose to why it was written. In many cases, the author of the book mentions the reason explicitly:
  • 1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
• Preach with Gospel centrality: On the road to Emmaus, Jesus tells the 2 disciples that all of the Scriptures from start to end were about Jesus and His sacrificial work on the cross. Lk 24:27: And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. If we’re not bringing out Jesus and His work on the cross through our preaching, we are missing the point of preaching. We can be saying a lot of nice things in our messages, but if there’s no Jesus and no cross, it’s meaningless.

Preaching the Word would involve Context, Author’s intent and Gospel Centrality.

In V3-5, Paul tells Timothy to be always ready to preach the Word because a time is coming when people will grow tired of hearing the pure Word and will want preachers to preach what they want them to preach. And Paul is telling Timothy to not give into that.

And that’s so different from every other field or industry. In the world today, every product or service offered is consumer focused. Success is measured on the basis of how well we’ve understood our consumer and given them what they want. And Paul’s instruction is the opposite. He’s telling Timothy “No, you don’t get into giving people what their itching ears want to hear, you should be faithful in preaching God’s Word. Your accountability lies with God”.

But not only is the Pure Preaching of the Word a mark of a True church, but also

2. Pure Administration of the Ordinances

By ordinances or sacraments we are referring to the rituals that the Lord Jesus instituted and commanded us to partake in namely baptism and the Lord’s Supper. How amazing that God has given us visual reminders of the Gospel through the rituals of baptism and Lord’s Supper?

Baptism: Matt 28:19-20: 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Usually at the Gathering, whenever we have the baptism we usually ask 3 questions to the person getting baptized? Are you aware and admit that you are a condemned sinner before a Holy God? Do you fully trust in the work of Jesus Christ that was done on your behalf on the cross? Do you promise to let go of your old life and follow Jesus for the rest of your life? If the answer is Yes to all, then we go ahead and baptize. Those questions capture the essence of what baptism is. It’s a declaration of our great sinfulness but also a declaration of Jesus’ great saving grace!

Lord’s Supper: Luke 22:19-20: 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Lord’s Supper is a frequent reminder of God’s new covenant with us! We were reading through Joshua yesterday and it was the part where the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the leaders of Israel pretending to be from a far off country. What happened is that Joshua and the leaders believed them and made a covenant with them and later on figured out that they were from Canaan itself. Upon hearing this, the Israelite congregation got angry and wanted to lay their hands on the Gibeonites but didn’t do it because of the prior covenant that was made between them and the leaders of Israel. If that’s how seriously human covenants are taken, you can imagine how much more seriously God takes the covenant He makes with us & He’s graciously given us this visual reminder through the Lord’s Supper every week.

We may tell the Lord, “God, you don’t know how terrible I’ve been. You don’t know how I’ve done the same sin again and again. I don’t deserve to be your child”. And God tells us “I know what you’ve done but that doesn’t change my relationship with you because I’ve made a prior covenant in my Son’s blood. Nothing can change that”. And so when we see the Lord’s Supper in that light, it is actually meant to reassure us.

So there’s the Pure Preaching of the Word and the Pure Administration of the ordinances

3. Practice of Church Discipline

When we usually hear the phrase “church discipline”, we usually think of a negative connotation of punishment/excommunication, but that’s not the reason why God wants discipline. The main purpose of discipline is restoration and repentance. Look with me at Matt 18:15-17:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

I think a lot of the time, we only focus on V17. But even before that there are multiple attempts made to help the sinning brother or sister come to repentance. The goal is restoration and repentance! And if you see the steps taken – it’s not to humiliate or embarrass. It’s one to one & then if that doesn’t work. Then bring two others to speak to the person.

And then when all means are exhausted and the person is simply unwilling to repent, then V17 because then the person isn’t demonstrating a heart to be made right with God. And why is that important to God? Because our God is Holy and He desires holiness among His people as well.

Doesn’t God discipline us? Hebrews 12 tells us that God disciplines us (not punishes) because He treats us as His children. He disciplines us so that we can share in His holiness. Parents out here, we discipline our children because we want them to be corrected not because we want to harm them or embarrass them. When we look at discipline with those lenses, discipline is a loving thing we can do for a brother or sister in Jesus is correct them lovingly and bring them to repentance and restoration. Wouldn’t you do that for your own family member if you loved them?

And so discipline is also a mark to show if the church is a True church. Is the church actually pursuing holiness? Is the church actually lovingly nudging each other to seek holiness in their lives?

Finally, how do we apply this sermon on the marks of a true Church?

1. Ask ourselves if we do see these 3 marks in the Gathering today?
2. If these marks are there, what should our heart’s response be to each one of them?
   1. How should my heart respond to the preaching of the Word each week?
   1. How should my heart respond when I partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper each week?
   1. How should I respond to my brother or sister if I’m aware that they are in sin? How am I to respond to someone who is pointing out a sin in my life?