Fellowship of Suffering
2 Timothy 1:1-12
This morning we’re going to be headed to 2 Timothy 1:1-12. The title of the message is “Fellowship of Suffering.”
Ironically, one of my mentors who has poured into me whom I met at Bible college, one of my teachers, sent me a text and said, “Hey. I heard you got ordained.” I said, “Yes.” And he said, “That’s really awesome! Welcome to the fellowship of suffering.” And I thought, what do you mean?
And I really wanted to drive home the message that suffering for the name of Christ isn’t just for the person teaching the Word, but it’s for the believer who says, “God, I’m going to follow you.”
That’s going to bring us here to where we find Paul now in prison for the last time in Rome. But the difference from previous times to now is that Paul is in a prison that’s dark and damp and is a dungeon. It’s not house arrest. It’s not the luxury of a home; it’s in the shadows of darkness underneath, in a Roman prison.
The pivotal point about this letter is that it is the last letter that Paul writes before being beheaded and martyred for his belief and faith in Christ.
And so, with the title, Fellowship of Suffering, the question I am going to repetitively ask for the sole purpose that I want you to go home tonight and think that I said that word a lot. It makes you wrestle with how much are you personally willing to suffer in your fellowship with Christ.
Fellowship and suffering aren’t just for the person who is standing behind a pulpit and teaching the Word of God or who is in ministry. It’s for any person who, at one point in their life, says, “God, I want to follow you, and I desire to know you more today than I did yesterday.”
2 Timothy 1:1 (NLT)
1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.
What Paul speaks of here is the eternal life that comes only from knowing and having a relationship with Jesus.
Friends, I have good news for you. If you’re a believer, you aren’t going to die; you’re simply going to move into the very presence of your Maker when your heart beats for the last time. You see, this promise is added onto us, too, when our faith is placed in Christ – eternal life. Being able to say, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!” What is also a promise to us is that when our faith is placed in Christ, we will also fellowship in his suffering on earth. The promise that we are given is in those seasons of difficulty, of suffering, he will be right there with us.
In Acts 9, verse 16, God got ahold of Paul’s life back in Acts. The Lord sent a man named Ananias to go and get him because the Lord had chosen Paul to be a messenger of his Word. And the Lord said back there in the Book of Acts, “And I will show him (meaning Paul) how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
Paul knew what it meant to die to every area of himself. Paul knew what it meant to fellowship in the suffering of Christ from personal experience. This man was persecuted. This man was flogged. This man was beaten. This man was left for dead after being stoned, all for solely saying, “Jesus loves you. All you have to do is confess him as your Lord and Savior.”
And here, God uses Paul to tell Timothy how he is to endure the fellowship of suffering with Christ.
2 Timothy 1:2 (NLT)
2 I am writing to Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
Timothy had become a spiritual son to Paul. In this journey of following Christ, Paul desired to raise up the next generation. During Paul’s second missionary trip, he invited Timothy to travel with him in sharing and in suffering for the name of Christ.
I am going to break down grace, mercy, and peace.
You see, grace is receiving what we don’t deserve. We are gifted a relationship – not a separation. We are gifted salvation – not damnation. Buuuut, grace is only available to us through faith in Christ.
Now, mercy means not receiving what we do deserve. We deserve an eternity separated from the glorious presence of our Creator, whose name is purely and completely holy. But we are spared from that separation by the mercy given to us by Jesus when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.
Peace. Paul is reminded of peace while in a dark prison. Peace isn’t something a believer has based on their surroundings. True peace is given by God despite the situation. The peace that comes from God guards our hearts and minds despite any season of suffering we will go through for picking up our cross and saying, “Jesus, I will follow you.”
Again, I ask, how much suffering are you willing to go through in your fellowship with Christ?
2 Timothy 1:3-4 (NLT)
3 Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.
In the middle of the persecution, Paul is thankful. Paul is able to have peace and assurance of promises as his fellowship of suffering is ticking closer to his last breath. Paul was filled with thankfulness because he purely served God without the hiding or secrecy of sin in his life.
For us in this room, if we desire to endure the suffering that we will face as believers, we must have a pure and clean heart before God. Paul looked beyond the walls of that dungeon and beyond his own circumstances and was reminded of the people God had placed in his life to join with him in the fellowship of suffering. He rejoiced in knowing God had placed other believers alongside him in this fellowship.
2 Timothy 1:5 (NLT)
5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
This verse reminds me of my own mom, and the genuine faith and assurance that she has had in God is part of what God has used in my life to draw me closer to himself.
The fellowship of suffering that you experience in your walk with God is what God can use to draw your children and grandchildren to himself.
In this verse, Paul is reminding Timothy of the calling and gifting that God has placed over Timothy’s life. What’s yours? What has God called you to? What has God gifted you with? Stop fighting God and surrender.
It’s better to suffer for God than it is to come to the end of your life and realize the difference between suffering for the name of Christ rather than for your own name. Because your name alone only gets you a tombstone, but the name of Jesus gives you eternity!
In verse 6, Paul adds to the reminder.
2 Timothy 1:6 (NLT)
6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
Fanning into flames requires a response. God gave Timothy spiritual gifts to help him in proclaiming God’s name and sharing in the suffering of Christ. Now, Timothy’s role was to connect to the source that would increase the flame. In other words, increasing the amount of oxygen that a fire is exposed to causes the fire to grow. In the same way, connecting to God allows the gifts God has given us to be more evident, which equips us in proclaiming his name and overcoming seasons of suffering.
But how? We fan into flames the absolute truth that when we invited the Spirit of Christ to dwell within us and begin a transformation in the very core of our existence that it would be so by drawing close to God, and in return, he would draw close to us.
By writing all of this, Paul is getting Timothy ready to endure the suffering that he will face in his fellowship with Christ. Just like Timothy, you and I need the spiritual gifts God has given us to be fanned into flames to outlast any persecution we will be tested by in our fellowship of suffering. We do this by opening, reading, and knowing God’s Word. That is sharper than any two-edged sword.
2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
Not fear nor timidity, Paul is reminding Timothy not to be afraid nor timid, especially after fanning into flames the spiritual gifts God has given him. It’s no different for us, we can’t let fear be what rules and directs our life. Neither in good times nor in seasons of persecution and suffering. Instead, let the power and boldness that comes from fellowshipping with Christ be what directs us in life through any suffering we may face. We will face difficulty in our Christian walk. We will suffer as Christ did in our Christian walk.
As a young man who desires God’s complete will for my life, the highs and the lows, this verse spoke to me. There are times I am fearful and afraid, last Sunday being one of them. After being ordained, I had fear that I would not have the ability to do what I feel God is calling my wife and I to do. I had fear that I wouldn’t have the ability to withstand the fellowship of suffering that comes from knowing Christ. But I was encouraged by this verse, knowing that when we walk in the will of God, we move with his power, with his love, and with his self-discipline.
Paul continues to write.
2 Timothy 1:8 (NLT)
8 So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.
In studying this section of scripture, I almost titled this message “unashamed suffering” because this verse popped out to me. It is a joy in being able to have the privilege of suffering for Christ in saying I love my God against any attack this world can send my way.
Let’s be real with each other this morning. Just about all of us here won’t be shot, or beheaded, or killed for our faith in Christ. So, how does suffering look for you and I? How does the enemy attack us? It is relational.
I will suffer by the hurt the people of God will inflict on me
By the suffering that my wife will cause me
By the suffering that my husband will cause me
By the suffering that my children will cause me
By the suffering that my parents will cause me
By the suffering that my siblings will cause me
By the suffering of the people I’ve helped the most will cause me
And that’s what reminds us and brings us back up to verse 2 in what Paul prays over Timothy. “May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace, mercy, and peace.”
If God has given us grace, mercy, and peace, the biggest connection that we are to make to this section of scripture is that we also are called to have grace and mercy over people who have caused us suffering.
All for the sake of the Good News. All to say, God has forgiven me, God has redeemed me, God has given me mercy and grace. God has given me the opportunity to suffer for him so that I can be a witness to you in a real and tangible way.
2 Timothy 1:9 (NLT)
9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
But the person that caused suffering in my life doesn’t deserve my grace and mercy, and forgiveness. Well, guess what? We don’t deserve the grace and mercy of God, but he just said it’s only because of Jesus Christ that we are able to suffer for him and that we are able to use every opportunity to live a holy life.
The response in our life loves like this: not letting the sun go down today without trying to make peace with people you’ve either hurt or with people that have caused you suffering and hurt.
Remember, Jesus knew who Judas was and what he would do in betraying him. But Jesus still washed Judas’ feet before suffering on the Cross. The most powerful took the lowest role. Suffering isn’t meant to be easy. It’s meant to bring glory to God through your response to it.
So, I’ll ask you again. How much suffering are you willing to go through in your fellowship with Christ? Even if that suffering brings you to the end of your pride?
2 Timothy 1:10 (NLT)
10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.
Guys, don’t forget. This is being written by a man who is in the darkness and coldness of a dungeon who knows he’s close to being martyred. It is through Christ that death loses its power. It is through Christ that we are able to enter into the Kingdom of God. It is for Christ that we have the privilege of entering into the fellowship of his suffering.
Paul writes this in Philippians 3:10. “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death.”
Paul was all in. He desired all of Christ. He made no separation in just wanting to share in his glory and not in his suffering because he knew that the suffering would break him and that his need for Christ would increase.
2 Timothy 1:11-12 (NLT)
11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.
12 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
Paul knew who God had called him to be. Paul knew that God had called him into the fellowship of suffering. As I mentioned before, Paul knows he’s coming close to death. He knows one of two things will happen. Either he will be martyred and enter into the presence of God, or Christ will return for him.
And it’s the same for us. Either we will pass on into eternity, or Christ will return for us. Where do you stand?
Romans 8:18 says, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”
That glory is only revealed to us later if we have confessed Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.
Ironically, one of my mentors who has poured into me whom I met at Bible college, one of my teachers, sent me a text and said, “Hey. I heard you got ordained.” I said, “Yes.” And he said, “That’s really awesome! Welcome to the fellowship of suffering.” And I thought, what do you mean?
And I really wanted to drive home the message that suffering for the name of Christ isn’t just for the person teaching the Word, but it’s for the believer who says, “God, I’m going to follow you.”
That’s going to bring us here to where we find Paul now in prison for the last time in Rome. But the difference from previous times to now is that Paul is in a prison that’s dark and damp and is a dungeon. It’s not house arrest. It’s not the luxury of a home; it’s in the shadows of darkness underneath, in a Roman prison.
The pivotal point about this letter is that it is the last letter that Paul writes before being beheaded and martyred for his belief and faith in Christ.
And so, with the title, Fellowship of Suffering, the question I am going to repetitively ask for the sole purpose that I want you to go home tonight and think that I said that word a lot. It makes you wrestle with how much are you personally willing to suffer in your fellowship with Christ.
Fellowship and suffering aren’t just for the person who is standing behind a pulpit and teaching the Word of God or who is in ministry. It’s for any person who, at one point in their life, says, “God, I want to follow you, and I desire to know you more today than I did yesterday.”
2 Timothy 1:1 (NLT)
1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.
What Paul speaks of here is the eternal life that comes only from knowing and having a relationship with Jesus.
Friends, I have good news for you. If you’re a believer, you aren’t going to die; you’re simply going to move into the very presence of your Maker when your heart beats for the last time. You see, this promise is added onto us, too, when our faith is placed in Christ – eternal life. Being able to say, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!” What is also a promise to us is that when our faith is placed in Christ, we will also fellowship in his suffering on earth. The promise that we are given is in those seasons of difficulty, of suffering, he will be right there with us.
In Acts 9, verse 16, God got ahold of Paul’s life back in Acts. The Lord sent a man named Ananias to go and get him because the Lord had chosen Paul to be a messenger of his Word. And the Lord said back there in the Book of Acts, “And I will show him (meaning Paul) how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
Paul knew what it meant to die to every area of himself. Paul knew what it meant to fellowship in the suffering of Christ from personal experience. This man was persecuted. This man was flogged. This man was beaten. This man was left for dead after being stoned, all for solely saying, “Jesus loves you. All you have to do is confess him as your Lord and Savior.”
And here, God uses Paul to tell Timothy how he is to endure the fellowship of suffering with Christ.
2 Timothy 1:2 (NLT)
2 I am writing to Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
Timothy had become a spiritual son to Paul. In this journey of following Christ, Paul desired to raise up the next generation. During Paul’s second missionary trip, he invited Timothy to travel with him in sharing and in suffering for the name of Christ.
I am going to break down grace, mercy, and peace.
You see, grace is receiving what we don’t deserve. We are gifted a relationship – not a separation. We are gifted salvation – not damnation. Buuuut, grace is only available to us through faith in Christ.
Now, mercy means not receiving what we do deserve. We deserve an eternity separated from the glorious presence of our Creator, whose name is purely and completely holy. But we are spared from that separation by the mercy given to us by Jesus when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.
Peace. Paul is reminded of peace while in a dark prison. Peace isn’t something a believer has based on their surroundings. True peace is given by God despite the situation. The peace that comes from God guards our hearts and minds despite any season of suffering we will go through for picking up our cross and saying, “Jesus, I will follow you.”
Again, I ask, how much suffering are you willing to go through in your fellowship with Christ?
2 Timothy 1:3-4 (NLT)
3 Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.
In the middle of the persecution, Paul is thankful. Paul is able to have peace and assurance of promises as his fellowship of suffering is ticking closer to his last breath. Paul was filled with thankfulness because he purely served God without the hiding or secrecy of sin in his life.
For us in this room, if we desire to endure the suffering that we will face as believers, we must have a pure and clean heart before God. Paul looked beyond the walls of that dungeon and beyond his own circumstances and was reminded of the people God had placed in his life to join with him in the fellowship of suffering. He rejoiced in knowing God had placed other believers alongside him in this fellowship.
2 Timothy 1:5 (NLT)
5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
This verse reminds me of my own mom, and the genuine faith and assurance that she has had in God is part of what God has used in my life to draw me closer to himself.
The fellowship of suffering that you experience in your walk with God is what God can use to draw your children and grandchildren to himself.
In this verse, Paul is reminding Timothy of the calling and gifting that God has placed over Timothy’s life. What’s yours? What has God called you to? What has God gifted you with? Stop fighting God and surrender.
It’s better to suffer for God than it is to come to the end of your life and realize the difference between suffering for the name of Christ rather than for your own name. Because your name alone only gets you a tombstone, but the name of Jesus gives you eternity!
In verse 6, Paul adds to the reminder.
2 Timothy 1:6 (NLT)
6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
Fanning into flames requires a response. God gave Timothy spiritual gifts to help him in proclaiming God’s name and sharing in the suffering of Christ. Now, Timothy’s role was to connect to the source that would increase the flame. In other words, increasing the amount of oxygen that a fire is exposed to causes the fire to grow. In the same way, connecting to God allows the gifts God has given us to be more evident, which equips us in proclaiming his name and overcoming seasons of suffering.
But how? We fan into flames the absolute truth that when we invited the Spirit of Christ to dwell within us and begin a transformation in the very core of our existence that it would be so by drawing close to God, and in return, he would draw close to us.
By writing all of this, Paul is getting Timothy ready to endure the suffering that he will face in his fellowship with Christ. Just like Timothy, you and I need the spiritual gifts God has given us to be fanned into flames to outlast any persecution we will be tested by in our fellowship of suffering. We do this by opening, reading, and knowing God’s Word. That is sharper than any two-edged sword.
2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
Not fear nor timidity, Paul is reminding Timothy not to be afraid nor timid, especially after fanning into flames the spiritual gifts God has given him. It’s no different for us, we can’t let fear be what rules and directs our life. Neither in good times nor in seasons of persecution and suffering. Instead, let the power and boldness that comes from fellowshipping with Christ be what directs us in life through any suffering we may face. We will face difficulty in our Christian walk. We will suffer as Christ did in our Christian walk.
As a young man who desires God’s complete will for my life, the highs and the lows, this verse spoke to me. There are times I am fearful and afraid, last Sunday being one of them. After being ordained, I had fear that I would not have the ability to do what I feel God is calling my wife and I to do. I had fear that I wouldn’t have the ability to withstand the fellowship of suffering that comes from knowing Christ. But I was encouraged by this verse, knowing that when we walk in the will of God, we move with his power, with his love, and with his self-discipline.
Paul continues to write.
2 Timothy 1:8 (NLT)
8 So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.
In studying this section of scripture, I almost titled this message “unashamed suffering” because this verse popped out to me. It is a joy in being able to have the privilege of suffering for Christ in saying I love my God against any attack this world can send my way.
Let’s be real with each other this morning. Just about all of us here won’t be shot, or beheaded, or killed for our faith in Christ. So, how does suffering look for you and I? How does the enemy attack us? It is relational.
I will suffer by the hurt the people of God will inflict on me
By the suffering that my wife will cause me
By the suffering that my husband will cause me
By the suffering that my children will cause me
By the suffering that my parents will cause me
By the suffering that my siblings will cause me
By the suffering of the people I’ve helped the most will cause me
And that’s what reminds us and brings us back up to verse 2 in what Paul prays over Timothy. “May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace, mercy, and peace.”
If God has given us grace, mercy, and peace, the biggest connection that we are to make to this section of scripture is that we also are called to have grace and mercy over people who have caused us suffering.
All for the sake of the Good News. All to say, God has forgiven me, God has redeemed me, God has given me mercy and grace. God has given me the opportunity to suffer for him so that I can be a witness to you in a real and tangible way.
2 Timothy 1:9 (NLT)
9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
But the person that caused suffering in my life doesn’t deserve my grace and mercy, and forgiveness. Well, guess what? We don’t deserve the grace and mercy of God, but he just said it’s only because of Jesus Christ that we are able to suffer for him and that we are able to use every opportunity to live a holy life.
The response in our life loves like this: not letting the sun go down today without trying to make peace with people you’ve either hurt or with people that have caused you suffering and hurt.
Remember, Jesus knew who Judas was and what he would do in betraying him. But Jesus still washed Judas’ feet before suffering on the Cross. The most powerful took the lowest role. Suffering isn’t meant to be easy. It’s meant to bring glory to God through your response to it.
So, I’ll ask you again. How much suffering are you willing to go through in your fellowship with Christ? Even if that suffering brings you to the end of your pride?
2 Timothy 1:10 (NLT)
10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.
Guys, don’t forget. This is being written by a man who is in the darkness and coldness of a dungeon who knows he’s close to being martyred. It is through Christ that death loses its power. It is through Christ that we are able to enter into the Kingdom of God. It is for Christ that we have the privilege of entering into the fellowship of his suffering.
Paul writes this in Philippians 3:10. “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death.”
Paul was all in. He desired all of Christ. He made no separation in just wanting to share in his glory and not in his suffering because he knew that the suffering would break him and that his need for Christ would increase.
2 Timothy 1:11-12 (NLT)
11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.
12 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
Paul knew who God had called him to be. Paul knew that God had called him into the fellowship of suffering. As I mentioned before, Paul knows he’s coming close to death. He knows one of two things will happen. Either he will be martyred and enter into the presence of God, or Christ will return for him.
And it’s the same for us. Either we will pass on into eternity, or Christ will return for us. Where do you stand?
Romans 8:18 says, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”
That glory is only revealed to us later if we have confessed Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.