The resurrection of Jesus Christ was his deliverance from the power and curse of death to which he had become subject as the representative covenant head of his people and the bearer of their sins. As long as our head remained under the power of death, sin and Satan remained triumphant. But now is Christ risen from the dead. The sentence of condemnation has been annulled. God’s justification has been pronounced upon the second Adam, and yes–praise God–upon all those united to him by faith.

Hear that word of God from II Timothy 2:8. “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel.” This is the word of God addressed to you by the Spirit–and it is not so much an exhortation as it is an encouragement, an encouragement to you, Christ’s servant, to serve him with renewed confidence, joy, boldness, faith, hope and love. In the hard times of your ministry, in the toughest times of your ministry, keep on remembering Jesus Christ as risen from the dead, David’s greater Son, according to Paul’s gospel and following Paul’s example.

Encouragement to be Faithful

The New International Version gives as a heading for the entire section from 1:3 through 2:13–”Encouragement to Be Faithful.” Actually that could well be considered the theme of the entire letter. And yet, perhaps, that word “encouragement” and our concept of why the minister of the gospel needs encouragement are too weak to convey the apostle’s thought here.

The many frustrations, the “can’t win” character of the ministry today are well known. The pastor is always a prominent and easy target for petty criticisms and conflicting expectations that can make his life difficult. And the ruling elder faces many of the same kind of unwarranted attacks.

But we would certainly be mistaken if we limited the servant of Christ’s need for encouragement to that level. The apostle Paul knew something about real discouragements. He writes this letter to Timothy, his dear son, from a “death row” prison cell in Rome, the capital of paganism. His second imprisonment was evidently far harsher than his first. And this time the apostle knows that he will not leave prison alive. Look at 4:6-8: “the time has come for my departure.” And that departure will be by way of an unjust and violent execution.

But this is not the reason for Paul’s concern. His burden and his sorrow rather is the fact that that young church for which he has undergone the pains of childbirth to bring forth has fallen upon truly terrible times. Heresy, apostasy and persecution, like the many heads of the hydra, are sucking the very life-blood from the church. And it is against these destructive enemies that Timothy must now do battle.

The false teaching that Paul sees attacking the church at that time is the kind that cuts the heart out of the gospel. It is the kind of false teaching that spreads like gangrene (2:17), bringing death to the body. Some of those who had turned away from the faith were among the apostle’s own companions. “You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes” (1:15). And in 4:10 Paul refers to Demas who, because of his love for this world, had also deserted him.

These are the kinds of times when the encouragement of II Timothy 2:8 is so desperately needed. These are the times that try men’s souls. These are the times that lay ahead for Timothy. He will see false teachers deceiving, were it possible, the very elect. He may well see some of his closest friends deserting the faith. He will surely suffer persecution, as will everyone who strives to live a godly life (3:12).

And there are the kinds of conditions that many of you face right now. You’re hurting. God knows it. Many of you have lost loved ones in your family or in the church family, some so close that you hardly know how to go on without them. And much worse than the loss through death has been the loss of a friend who has departed from the faith. There have been great disappointments in your ministry, failed hopes and dreams that you cherished for the church. The goal of one united, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring Presbyterian church in this country continues unattained–and does it look unattainable?

It’s so easy to be discouraged. Every one of you lives to proclaim a message so deeply at odds with the accepted wisdom of our day which blasts forth from every television network, every respected newspaper or magazine, every public school, everything that influences the thought-patterns and values of every citizen twenty-four hours a day–whether that supposed wisdom wears the label of secular humanism or democratic liberalism or, more accurately, of atheistic naturalism. And it’s easy to grow weary of the constant battle against this false teaching and to get tired of facing the ridicule of a society in which the pastor is no longer the “parson,” i.e., the person, the most respected person in the community, but rather is viewed as a fool or a clown to be either laughed at or ignored.

Elder in the church of Jesus Christ, it is to you that the inspired word of II Timothy 2:8 comes. It is spoken directly to you by the Holy Spirit as a word of encouragement, the kind of encouragement you need when you feel you simply can’t go on, the kind of encouragement you need in the morning when you wonder if you can get out of bed to face the day because everything you’re scheduled to do that day seems pointless, so totally in vain–whether your study, or your counseling, or your preaching, or whatever–when the words “in vain” seem to you to be written over your whole ministry and your whole life! When you know that mere positive thinking, or possibility thinking, isn’t going to cut it for you!

And what is that word that comes to you in your deep need? “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David.”

The Seed of David

You are to remember (and the present imperative indicates that this is to be the continual focus and orientation of your mind); you are to keep on remembering Jesus Christ–Jesus Christ himself, not simply certain facts or doctrines about him–but Jesus Christ; but Jesus Christ, of course, as he is presented to us in the gospel–Jesus Christ as risen from the dead, Jesus Christ the seed of David.

Now that reference to Christ’s Davidic descent might strike us as rather surprising here. If Paul chooses just two elements of Christ’s person and work to sum up his gospel, why should one of them be Christ’s Davidic lineage?

It is commonly suggested that the reference to Christ’s being “of the seed of David” lays emphasis here on the humanity of Jesus against any Docetic or Gnostic tendency in the false teachers. Now it’s always dangerous, I believe, to say that a certain application was not in the apostle’s thinking at all, and in Romans 1:3 Christ’s being of the seed of David is linked with his coming in the flesh. But here in our text there is just one focal point in the apostle’s thought, I believe–just as he asks us to have this one focus in our meditation. And that is “Jesus Christ as risen from the dead.” And the seed of David reference comes in, I believe, to remind us who this one is who is risen. He is none other than the Messiah of God, chosen before the foundation of the world, foretold by the prophets of old, revealed in these last times for our sake, suffering vicariously the penalty due our sins and raised from the dead by the Spirit of God.

In other words, his being “the seed of David” is here, I believe, not so much a pointer to the humiliation as to the Messianic dignity of Jesus Christ. In his earlier letter Paul had warned against foolish and endless genealogies. Here he points to the only genealogy worth paying attention to, for it validates Jesus as the Messiah.

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