8 Therefore 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, 9 who 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, 10 and 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, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which 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. 13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 

15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. 

2:1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. [6] It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 

8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 

Our text this weekend is a summons to the trenches. It’s a call for blue-collar Christianity, for rolling up your sleeves and putting on your mud boots, and doing the real grunt work that moves the gospel forward. 2 Timothy 2:2 is a challenge from the apostle Paul to his disciple Timothy and to us to invest our everyday lives in the typically under-appreciated, under-celebrated, often menial and thankless work of giving our lives in depth to a few individuals for the sake of their growth and joy and advancement in the faith and the multiplying of their lives in others also. 

Gospel Grunt Work

By “the grunt work of the gospel,” we’re referring to the labor of cold, hard disciple-making. There are very few frills. Rare accolades. Low hype. It’s jolly hard work that doesn’t grab headlines or come off as fascinating to the masses. And so this sermon, in keeping with the text, I hope, is a summons for engaging in the grunt work of gospel advance through personal, intentional, relational, patient, gospel-centered disciple-making. 

Here’s where we’re headed: First, we’ll look at 2 Timothy 2:2 and the call for making disciples. Second, we’ll look more broadly at the context and see how verse 2 relates in particular to what follows. And third and finally, we’ll end with where we find the strength for giving our lives to the necessary but typically unrecognized work of making disciples.

All Christians are Called to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples 

Look again at verse 2: “…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Here Paul is calling Timothy, and I think all Christians with him (I’ll argue for this in a few minutes), to what we might call “disciple-making,” to use the language of Jesus’ Great Commission. The word disciple simply means “learner” or “follower” or “student.” For the Christian, the idea of “disciple” and “disciple-making” comes from the life of Jesus’. For over three years, Jesus mainly trained twelve men who were his “disciples,” his round-the-clock followers—the students of his whole life, not just the masses he addressed in bulk. The disciples spent countless hours with their mentor, not only hearing him teach in public, but traveling with him, eating with him, doing all of life with him. Jesus brought them into his life. 

Disciple-making: Learning From Jesus 

“Disciple”/“learner” does not mean that they learned only in the classroom. Jesus didn’t have classrooms like we think of. The world was his classroom. Everyday life was his classroom. And his disciples weren’t mere learners of information but learners of Jesus’ whole life. And following Jesus’ example, Christian disciple-making is about intentionally and relationally investing oneself in the spiritual growth and maturity of a few disciples—part of which is training those disciples to then disciple others who disciple others. The way Paul says it in 2 Timothy 2:2 is that Timothy should entrust what he’s heard from Paul to faithful men who will in turn do the same for others also.

So, under this first heading “all Christians are called to make disciples who make disciples,” let’s note from verse 2, and its context, what is meant by the kind of disciple-making that Paul modeled and is calling Timothy to—and, I believe, calling us to. I see at least three aspects here to disciple-making (intent, content, and context). 

First, the intent. Disciple-making demands intentionality. This intentionality, or plan for multiplication, is what makes 2 Timothy 2:2 such a memorable verse—it’s the generational awareness and pregnant phrase “others also” at end. “Entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Paul’s charge to Timothy is not only that he be a disciple—and not only that he make disciples—but that he make disciples who make disciples. It’s generational thinking, a strategy for gospel multiplication, not mere addition. It involves seeing and investing in disciples not only as ends in themselves, but also as means to making other disciples, who then make disciples.

Note that Paul explicitly mentions four generations in verse 2: Paul himself, Timothy, the faithful men, and the others also—and implicit in “others also” is the ongoing transmission to spiritual generation after generation. Disciple-making involves being intentional in personally mentoring another believer, or few, younger in the faith (though not necessarily in age), not only be a to disciple himself, but to then turn and invest in others, such that he also makes disciples who make disciples. But there’s not only intentionality here, with a strategy for multiplication. Intentionality on its own will become cold and calculated. 

The second aspect of disciple-making to notice here is the context: deep relationship. Disciple-making is not an event (like new birth), but a process (like sanctification). Where this deeply relational dynamic of disciple-making comes out so strongly in this text is Paul’s relationship with Timothy. In verse 1, Paul calls Timothy “my child.” Back in chapter 1, verse 2, he calls him “my beloved child.” And in 1 Timothy 1:2, he called Timothy “my true child in the faith” and again in 1 Timothy 1:18, “my child.”

This is affectionate, familial language reflective of an intimate and deep relationship. Paul’s discipling of Timothy was not mere formal information transfer. It was not a professor-student classroom interchange. It was not held together merely by intentionality and multiplication-strategy and training Timothy to train others. But the context for Paul’s disciple-making was profoundly relational. He deeply knew Timothy. Whenever possible, they did life together. There must have been both quantity and quality time. There was a deep love for and enjoyment of each other, such that Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:4, “I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy.” And this coming of intentionality and relationship made Timothy a kind of spiritual son to Paul, which really illumines the discipling relationship. Disciple-making is a kind of spiritual parenting.

A Word for Dads 

But let me just pause briefly for a word to dads, from a fellow dad, albeit a new and inexperienced one. The call to disciple-making begins in our homes. It begins with being intentional and relational in caring for and leading our wives and being concerned for her spiritual growth and well being, and in exercising the discipler’s mindset toward our children. I do believe God is calling us here in 2 Timothy 2:2 to intentional and relational investment, a kind of spiritual parenting, in a few, specific others outside our homes. But don’t think for a minute that it ever means anything less than disciple-making in our own homes. Or to the detriment of disciple-making in our homes. Disciple-making 101 is caring for and nurturing and growing—discipling—our families. And it’s not the only thing included in disciple-making. God also calls us to invest ourselves in the lives of spiritual children, outside our home. But it starts in the home, as it did for Timothy.

So spiritual parenting, seen in Paul’s affectionate, familial language to Timothy, is a help for us in thinking about the dynamic of intentionality and relationality. But there is one more essential dynamic at work here in 2 Timothy 2:2. There is not only intent and context, but also content.

The Content of Disciple-Making Centers on the Gospel

And here I want to quickly make the case that the phrase “what you heard from me in the presence of many witnesses” refers essentially to the central message of the Christian faith, namely, the gospel that Jesus saves sinners. Note the word “entrust.” In 1 Timothy 1:11, Paul says that “sound doctrine” is that which “is accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” So Paul says that he has been “entrusted” with the gospel. Then seven verses later, in 1 Timothy 1:18, he says, “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child.” And at the end of 1 Timothy, in 6:20, he writes: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.” 

So here’s what we have so far: Paul has been “entrusted” with the gospel; and now he is entrusting this gospel, which he also calls “the deposit,” to Timothy. This is where Paul ends 1 Timothy, and where he goes right away in 2 Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:12, he refers again to the gospel being “what has been entrusted to me,” and then in verse 13, he turns to Timothy and tells him, “Follow the pattern of sounds words that,” notice this phrase, “you have heard from me.” Sound familiar? It’s the same wording of chapter 2, verse 2: “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men.” 

Then in 1:14, Paul charges Timothy to “guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (so here’s the “deposit” and “entrusted” language together). So what’s happening in 1 Timothy and then in the first chapter of 2 Timothy is that Paul is reminding Timothy that in discipling him he has entrusted to him the gospel, which he also calls what “you have heard from me” in verse 13 and “the deposit” in verse 14. And Paul charges Timothy to guard it (verse 14) and to live it out (verse 13).

But then something new and very significant happens in chapter 2, verse 2. In 1:13–14, Paul merely said to guard it and live it out, but now he says entrust it to others. Don’t only guard it and live it out (don’t just be a disciple), but pass it along (making disciples)—and do so in such a way that they make disciples as well (making disciples who make disciples). Build the gospel into them. Be intentional and relational. Be personal and particular and patient. Entrust the treasure of the gospel into other jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7)—in a process, not an event—at such depth and potency that they can’t help but then spend their lives building the deposit of the gospel intentionally and relationally into others.

And so it is the gospel that is the message that Timothy heard from Paul “in the presence of many witnesses.”

And so when he charges his disciple in 2 Timothy 2:2 to turn and make disciples who make disciples, he’s not referring to their backroom conversations, or his own personal hobbyhorses or idiosyncrasies, but the main things, the things Timothy heard from Paul again and again, “the sound doctrine” centered in the gospel of Jesus giving himself at the cross to save sinners like us and its life-transforming implications. 

So the call to disciple-making here has at least these three aspects: 1) intentionality, 2) relationality, and 3) gospel-centrality. 

Why All Christians

Now briefly, before we touch on verses 3–7, here’s why I think the 2 Timothy 2:2 summons to disciple-making applies not only to Timothy but to all Christians. When Paul appeals to Timothy to engage in the grunt work of disciple-making, he does not do so because Timothy is some kind of special apostolic delegate or has some unique gifting. There is nothing special or irreplaceable about Timothy. Rather, three times in the span of just a few verses, Paul appeals to universal truths about any healthy Christian in his call for disciple-making. In 1:13, he tells Timothy to follow his pattern of sounds words “in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” In 1:14, he says Timothy should guard the gospel “by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us [and note the plural here!].” Then in 2:1, he tells him to be strengthened “by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Three things true of all Christians. So Paul appeals to universal Christian realities—faith and love in Jesus, Holy-Spirit indwelling, and grace in Jesus —not to something special or unique to Timothy, when he instructs Timothy in verse 2—and thus with him, all Christians—to make disciples who make disciples. (And if you’re not convinced that 2 Timothy 2:2 covers it, maybe you’ll be convinced next weekend that the Great Commission does.)

Disciple-Making is Hard Work and Brings Suffering. 

Here’s where we put on the blue collar, get down in the trenches, roll up our sleeves, and talk about the grunt work. While we have this pristine, ideal, undiluted picture of disciple-making in verse 2, we find a surprising reality coupled with it in verse 3: suffering. Don’t miss this: Paul has bookended this section to Timothy on gospel transmission with the same phrase “share in suffering” in chapter 1, verse 8, and then again in chapter 2, verse 3. This whole passage is about Timothy sharing in Paul’s suffering by joining Paul in his mission of gospel advance through disciple-making. 

In verses 4–6, Paul then develops the charge to Timothy to share in suffering, again right on the heels of verse 2, with illustrations of single-mindedness (the soldier), discipline (the athlete), and hard work (the farmer). 

Single-Mindedness

Verse 4 says, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” Satan has a thousand readymade, often event-oriented distractions to divert us from pleasing Jesus in the grunt work of advancing the gospel through the process of disciple-making. He would be happy to have the core of your energy for the completion of the Great Commission be poured mainly into a thousand other good things than making disciples. 

Discipline

Verse 5 says, “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” Disciple-making often feels like a really long lap around the stadium. It would be so much easier to take a short cut across the field. There is great temptation to cut corners by constructing mechanism after mechanism, and program after program, for mass-producing disciples. But disciples who make disciples can’t be mass-produced. I’ve seen it again and again where Christians made by event after event, but not coupled with intentional, relational, gospel-centered disciple-making, go haywire at the strangest times. Defaulting to the easier, often more single-event, hype-oriented methods doesn’t produce the same depth of gospel transformation and then gospel transmission and multiplication as intentional and deeply relational life-on-life disciple-making. There is a place for books and conferences and blogs and classes—a huge place!—but it’s supplemental to, not a replacement for, personal disciple-making. Holistic gospel advance is irreducibly personal, no matter how hard we try to avoid it.

Hard Work 

Verse 6 says, “It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.” We might want to call this “jolly hard work,” because now in verse 6 Paul is drawing out most explicitly the great joy at the end of disciple-making, on the other side of the “hard work.” Which is not material rewards but people rewards, strange as it may sound. It’s being able to say, as Paul does in Philippians 4:1, that those in whom he has invested have become “my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown . . . my beloved.” (Note the connection with the athlete’s crown in verse 5.) It’s the kind of reward that causes our mouths to fall open when we read in 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20: “What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you [Thessalonians]? For you are our glory and joy.” 

The point Paul is getting at in these three illustrations is that entrusting the gospel in a few others who will invest in others also (verse 2) will mean sharing in Paul’s own suffering (verse 3). There will be temptations to diversion, cutting corners, and laxity. But the mission of disciple-making will take single mindedness (verse 4), discipline (verse 5), and jolly hard work (verse 6). Which leads us to this enigmatic verse 7.

Enigmatic Verse 7

Verse 7 says, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Here’s how I think Paul might explain this verse in the context of what he’s just said in verses 2–6. “Okay, Timothy, think over what I’m saying here. Jesus entrusted the gospel to me. I’ve given my life to entrusting it others, to multiplying his message in others lives, and what I’ve received for it in this life is suffering and now prison.” (Side-note here: People don’t often get too upset when you’re just being a disciple; but when you start seriously giving yourself to making disciples—and disciples who make other disciples—suffering in some form is not far around the corner. Back to Paul…) “And now, Timothy, I’m calling you to not only be a disciple—to not only guard the gospel and live it out—but to entrust it to others. To build it into others. To make disciples, to use Jesus’ words. To work for gospel advance, at depth, in a few specific lives, such that they in turn disciple others. And, Timothy, the path ahead will not be easy. It will require single-mindedness and discipline and hard work. Like I have suffered, so you will suffer. Think over what I say, Timothy; I’m now in prison for the mission of gospel advance and now I’m calling you to the same mission. Entrust the gospel to faithful men who will be able to teach others also and be ready for the suffering that will come with it in due course."

So Bethlehem, here’s our call to suffering. Here’s our call to do the hard thing: Invest the gospel deeply in the lives of a few, such that they also will invest in a few, who invest in a few. 

So now we face this tension. We’ve seen that 1) all Christians are called to make disciples who make disciples, and that 2) disciple-making is hard work and brings suffering. So now the issue is: Where do we get the resources for the tough task? Where do we find the strength to press through the resistance and hard work and pain and suffering and difficulty with single-mindedness and discipline in making disciples who make disciples? Which brings us back to verse 1 and the final point in our outline.

The Key to Disciple-Making is Gospel Grace

Here’s verse 1: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Disciple-making is essential, and it’s hard, but in Jesus is the grace for it—grace in several senses. As we saw earlier, the grace of the gospel is the content of disciple-making, what we seek to pass along. The gospel is the deposit we entrust to others. We disciple grace—and not just general, ambiguous grace. Not laxity. But the grace, gospel grace, costly grace.

And the grace of the gospel is not only the content of disciple-making but it’s also the power, the strength, the energy for disciple-making. “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Gospel grace is the fuel that runs the discipler’s engine up the hills of resistance and hardship and pain and suffering and obscurity. This in particular is what Paul is getting at in verse 1 (as well as 1:8, “share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God”). 

Jesus Powers Disciple-Making

And notice that Paul doesn’t say in verse 1, “Make yourself strong in Jesus’ grace.” Rather, it’s “be strengthened by the grace”—not first a charge to act, but to be acted upon. Just as Jesus is the ultimate guarder of the gospel, as Paul mentions in 1:12, so also he’s the ultimate advancer of the gospel, the one who promises, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against her” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus is the one who empowers the mission through his blood-bought grace. Jesus does the strengthening for disciple-making, and doesn’t leave us to muster up our own strength for the gospel’s grunt work. He calls us to be receivers of his strength, not originators of our own. But how does this empowering happen? And here’s where we end with the deepest sense of how gospel grace is the key to disciple-making.

The Cross: Our Conscious, Objective Focus 

At the heart of how Jesus energizes us for the hard work of disciple-making is our continual receiving of the grace of the gospel that covers our endless mistakes and failures in disciple-making. Ultimately how the gospel and the cross and grace are central in disciple-making is not merely in being the content, and not in being some kind of mystical empowerment, but in being the objective achievement of Jesus for us at the cross in history that covers our sins and in doing so empowers us for the hard work of extending grace to others. 

Begin the process of trying to build the full-orbed gospel relationally and intentionally into a younger believer and see how quickly and significantly you fail. If you want to destroy your perfectionism, take up disciple-making. One of the few guarantees in disciple-making is that we will not do it perfectly, but poorly—and often, if not frequently, fail miserably. There has only been one perfect discipler, the one who gave his life to discipling 12 men on his way to giving his life to accomplish our redemption. Paul says in 1:9–10, God “saved us, not because of our works”—not because of our disciple-making!—“but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and 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.” The ultimate disciple-making of Jesus’ life on earth culminated with the ultimate disciple-covering when he took our sins at the cross, including all our failures in discipling.

Our Disciple-making Failures Covered

So Jesus is more than the perfect model of disciple-making. He died to save sinners like us who even with new hearts prove so woefully inadequate in making disciples who make disciples. In the end, by his grace, gospel advance through disciple-making is not on our shoulders. Jesus will build his church (Matthew 16:18). Jesus is the one who will guard the gospel he has entrusted to us (1:12). Jesus is the ultimate empowerer of disciple-making. And Jesus is the one whose cross covers all our many failures in, and through that cross energizes us for, making disciples who make other disciples of his lavish and life-transforming grace.