Sermon from Sunday, October 12, 2025

“Remember Jesus Christ and His Word”

(2 Timothy 2:1-13 and other readings)

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

The text for our meditation today is the Epistle lesson, 2 Timothy 2:1-13, along with some thoughts from our other readings. Ten people are cured, in our Gospel lesson (Luke 17:11-19), of the dreaded disease of leprosy, but only one, a Samaritan, comes back specifically to thank Jesus. “He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.”

The other nine were likely Jewish people. They were likely spiritual people, in some way, and thankful for their good fortune in being healed. But too busy or too excited, they missed out on the greatest gift they needed - the gift of Jesus Himself as Savior. Only of the Samaritan who came back does Jesus say, very literally, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” Jesus had worked in him the gift of faith.

Many people today would call themselves spiritual, and they have some sense of God, but they are primarily centered on themselves and their well-being. They tailor their religious ideas to their wishes and desires and their own thinking, and they become in danger of missing out on Jesus Himself and His greatest blessing - and may even think that Jesus is just one choice among many viable choices that people have. They may never even get around to following Jesus very faithfully, if at all.

And could it be that even we in the church could be influenced by such thinking, as common as it is, today? Think about even Naomi, in our Old Testament lesson for today (Ruth 1:1-19a), who says to her daughter-in-law, Ruth: “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return, after your sister-in-law.” It almost sounds as if Naomi thinks that the God of Israel is her choice, but that it’s OK for Ruth to choose any other gods that fit her better. Thank the Lord that Ruth had already come to believe and trust in the one true God, as she says so clearly, “Your God shall be my God” - for there is no other.

Paul is telling, in our Epistle, our text for today, a younger pastor, Timothy, to follow, in his teaching and personal faith, that same God, now more clearly revealed as the One True Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Paul is calling us to that same faith in God’s Word and His saving plan for the world, centered only in Jesus Christ, as Savior.

“Remember Jesus Christ,” Paul says, “risen from the dead, the offspring of David.” Jesus is the very Son of God, who became a real human being, born from the human line of Ruth and later, David, and even later, the Virgin Mary. And by His perfect life and death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, in our place, there is provided for us, Paul says, “the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”

Jesus is not just one of many roads that lead to God and to eternal life. He is the only way, as He Himself said (John 14:6), and as Peter proclaimed: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

This sounds so narrow and exclusive and contradictory to what we constantly hear today - that we should be more inclusive and accepting of others, no matter what they believe and what they do. After all, so many people say, “They have their rights to do whatever they choose.” In this free society, people do have their rights. But that does not mean that they are right or that their words and deeds are right or good or helpful, for themselves or for others.

Paul reminds Timothy, and he reminds us, that we must be centered in Christ Jesus, our Savior, and in the Word of Christ, revealed by His holy prophets and apostles, including Paul himself, as he was inspired by God. Paul tells Timothy to “be strengthened by… what you have heard from me”… “by the Gospel I preached.” Paul says, writing from prison near the time of his death because of his faith, he is “bound with chains as a criminal. But the Word of God is not bound.”

That Word of God is always available to us, to lead and guide us and point us to Jesus. It is only bound if we leave the Scriptures, the Bible, bound and don’t open it up and read it and listen to it and ask God to help us. Paul says, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding,” through His Holy Spirit, who works through that very Word of God and teaches us.

It was not easy to stay centered in Christ and His Word, in Paul and Timothy’s day, and it certainly is not easy today, either. Paul gives three examples of the kind of self-discipline we need.

• It is like being a soldier of Christ, not getting too entangled in civilian pursuits, but listening to the voice of our Lord, our Commander.
• It is like being an athlete, who must stay in training and have discipline, and follow the rules of the competition.
• It is like a farmer, who knows he must put in hard work if he wants a harvest, and he also needs to receive from the harvest and keep believing and receiving and using the Word of God for himself.

The goal is to stay in faith in Christ all our life. “If we endure, we will also reign with Christ.” And there is the sober warning, “If we deny Christ, He will also deny us.”

In a recent Bible study on this passage, someone asked a good question: “Doesn’t this sound like righteousness by our works?” No. Paul had clearly said in the first chapter of this letter that God “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 before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9-10). God had this saving plan for us before all ages and has now completed it in Christ. As believers, we try to do the good and right things in thankfulness for what God has done in Christ, but we trust not in ourselves and our efforts, but in God’s saving work for us, completed in Christ, by His grace.

No wonder, then, that Paul begins this text with those words to Timothy and to us, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” It is only by the grace (the undeserved love and favor of God) that Christ came for us in the first place and that we have been saved. And it is only by the grace of God, in Christ, that we are forgiven of the times that we have failed Christ, in word and deed, and have caved in to the world’s way, and have neglected God’s Word. Christ died for the very purpose of forgiving us of all that and of all our sins, and to restore us to Himself.

How good it is that we are able to be at worship today, remembering Jesus and hearing His Word, and speaking and singing God’s Word to one another - and how good it is to be able to do this regularly.

And when we speak the Confessions of Sins, with our heads bowed, and kneel for Communion and the Lord’s real presence and blessing at His altar, we are right there with the Samaritan in our Gospel lesson, who “praised God… and fell at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks” for His mercy to us, too. And we hear Jesus saying to us, too, “Rise and go your way from this service; your faith has saved you.” Christ has saved you!

One last thought. Jesus also asked in our Gospel lesson, “Where are the other nine?” There’s an old Charlie Brown cartoon where Charlie and his team have lost another baseball game by a huge amount. Charlie says, “How can we keep on losing when we are so sincere?” Our text reminds us that people can be sincerely wrong in what they believe and do - and apart from Christ, they are lost and will lose.

So, Paul encourages Timothy to keep sharing the Word of God faithfully, and he says, “What you have heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Therefore, we pray for more pastors and teachers and church workers who will teach the Word of God faithfully, and all of us can think about ways we can help out some more, too, for the sake of “the nine” - those people who are still spiritually lost - and as we share Christ’s Words and deeds and our love and care for others in Christ. And remember the final Words of our text: “Christ remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” He will help and bless us. That is His promise.

Let us pray: Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe, only where they are safe, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)