Peter Barnes: Passing on the Baton, 2 Timothy 2:1-2 (Sunday 26 July 2020 Morning Service, 9.00 a.m.)
Paul mentions four generations, although the emphasis is on the last three: Paul, then Timothy, then those whom Timothy teaches, and finally those whom they teach, like passing a baton in a relay race.
1. Be strengthened in grace and the Word. – 2:1-2a; 2 Tim.4:17; Eph.6:10. Dick Lucas at St Helen’s Church in London made Col.1:29 his motto in ministry. – Thomas Chalmers in 1805: ‘after the satisfactory discharge of his parish duties, a minister may enjoy five days in the week of uninterrupted leisure, for the prosecution of any science in which his taste may dispose him to engage.’ He did not finish that way! – 2:2a. Many say that Paul is referring to Timothy’s ordination, as in 1:6. But it seems not to be a reference to one event. Heb.13:7.
2. Entrust the baton to others. – 2:2b. We do not run solitary races – John 4:38. In 1936 at the Berlin Olympics in the four by 100 metres relay women’s final, the American girls won after the German team, which had been leading, dropped the baton in the final leg. – Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel admitted that he did too many things himself, and did not use his deacons enough.
3. That they might entrust it to the next generation. – 2:2. Paul would not ever meet these men. Frances Ridley Havergal: ‘Lord, speak to me that I may speak’. – we can lose a lot very quickly – Judges 2:10; Gal.1:6. Be strengthened in the grace of Christ and in the word of the apostles that this gospel would be ours, and be passed on, again and again.
Watch the service below.