A Word in Season: The Apostolic School (2 Timothy 3:10–12)

The Apostolic Pattern for Pastoral and Preaching Ministry

I imagine that any pastor, teacher, would leap at the chance of being instructed by an apostle in person. Can you imagine the seminary course if there were a genuine apostle who would stand before you and teach you the way of the Lord and how to serve him?

If there was some possibility of having instruction directly from men who had walked with Christ, had seen him in his risen glory. If you could have a Peter or a Paul or a John as your teacher and mentor.

Who would not wish for such an opportunity? Well, let's go for a moment to Paul's course in pastoral and preaching ministry. It's summarized for us in 2 Timothy chapter 3 from verse 10. The apostle's just been talking to Timothy about men like Janice and Jambres who resisted Moses.

And they are like those teachers of Timothy's day who also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved concerning the faith whose folly is going to become clear to all. And Timothy is to be a different man.

Timothy is to be stamped with an apostolic spirit. He is to walk in the apostolic way. And Paul says to Timothy that you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith. And so far it sounds so wonderful.

Wouldn't you want an apostle to teach you those things? These are the things that I believe. This is my system of truth, my manner of life, the way that I've lived, the patterns that I've followed, the obedience to God that I've rendered, the way that I have studied and prayed and preached, my purpose, my determination to make Christ known across the world, my faith, my personal attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ under all circumstances, and the convictions that I hold concerning the truth, my long suffering, my patience.

You might say, oh, well, I'm sure I wouldn't need too much of that. My love, oh, yes, wonderful. Perseverance, absolutely pressing all the way. Persecutions, afflictions. What happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra?

What? Hang on. Hang on, Paul. This is in the course. Yes, this is part of the course, and this is par for the course, because if you, Timothy, are going to understand what it means to follow in the footsteps of apostolic ministry, then you need to appreciate that it's not just doctrine, not just a pattern of life, purpose and faith and long suffering and love and persecution, but you need to understand about persecutions and afflictions, not things that just happen once or twice, but things that happen at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, to name a representative sample.

What persecutions I endured. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. All of a sudden, perhaps, this apostolic training course may not seem so enticing, because it's not just a classroom course, you see.

The Cost of Faithful Ministry

You have to walk with the man. You have to go with the man. You have to live with the man. You have to suffer with the man. You may have to die with the man. You're going to have to learn that faithful ministry, according to the apostolic mould, is a ministry that involves persecutions.

Now, if you have a pastor and a preacher who is seeking to live in that way, or if you are such, then you need to understand that he is going to suffer persecutions. There will be slanders against his reputation.

There will be abuses against his person. There may be angry and bitter conversations toward him or about him. He may have to put up with all kinds of sufferings. He may even, in some contexts, lose his livelihood.

He may lose his liberty. He may possibly lose or be threatened with losing his life. These men need your prayers. If they are to walk in the same way that Paul did in imitating Christ, then they too will suffer as Paul suffered.

The Lord Delivers His Saints

And the note of hope in the midst of it all, and I missed it out when I read it deliberately, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Because the Lord knows how to keep his saints. The Lord knows how to keep not just pastors and preachers, but all those godly who suffer persecution.

So let us pray for one another. Let us support and encourage one another. And let us help one another to live godly in Christ Jesus, regardless of the persecutions that we may face as we do so.