This week my parents retired. After a career dedicated to teaching high school kids, they taught their last classes. My dad was given the honor of giving the graduation speech and what follows is a perfect representation of how I was raised and how he lived his life. It also happens to dovetail perfectly with the sermon Andrew preached Sunday from Ephesians 2.
When I received the request of the senior class I was greatly moved by their gesture. I was moved that on the night of one of their great milestones the seniors would ask me to be part of it. When I had accepted the invitation, and word had gotten back to the seniors, my feeling of pride and elation were quickly tempered by the following exchange:
Mr. Fikkert, you are going to speak at our graduation.
Yes, Thank you for asking me….it is an honor.
We know nervous you get when you have to speak so we thought it was one last chance to do that to you.
THANK YOU SENIORS for what is now a rather tempered honor…..but an honor just the same.
Anyone who has looked at the evening news over the past few weeks has had a steady diet of clips of presidents, authors, politicians, captains of industry, politicians, actors, politicians and other notables delivering graduation speeches. Some common themes keep surfacing:
The great things graduates will achieve.
Some will place great emphasis on the potential graduates have to change the world
Some will even go as far as to say that the future of the planet depends on you.
But I will not be going there; rather I will reflect on some of the things your class verse points to.
As I have studied your verse it appears that the emphasis is not so much on what you will achieve in life, rather it has everything to do with how you will live your life; that will be the focus of my comments this evening.
In 1978 three pastors met together. It was not the first time, but it would be the last. One of them was told he did not have long to live and they were together to say goodbye. At one time or another in my life I had sat under the teaching of each of these men so while I don’t know much of what they said to each other I’m confident they read the Bible together and prayed. When their time together was coming to an end they asked their friend:
You were a successful business man when you were called to the gospel ministry. You have had a life as a pastor and been faithful in that role and God has used you to be a blessing to many. You started a Christian school when it wasn’t the thing to do and many have been blessed and that vision carried you onto the founding board of a seminary and a college. And while doing that, you raised your own eight children who honor you and their Lord as educators, lawyers, publishers, faithful spouses.
What is the common thread that ties all of this together?
The answer came quickly and without hesitation, “Hold onto the promises of God with and iron grip.”
What does this have to do with your class verse? Actually quite a bit. We don’t have time for a long word study but it is interesting to see that in I Timothy The words Hold and Keep appear with some frequency and for good measure they sometimes appear together, keep hold. Added to this is the frequent use of guard which is a close cousin to holding and keeping .
But what is it he is talking about? What is to be held, kept and guarded? What he is talking about is foundational to everything else he is going to say. Paul connects the dots for us in 1 Timothy 1.15-16; here is the foundation onto which he holds:
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Paul holds onto what God has done for him because in that he knows who he is. Paul reminds Timothy that he has a heritage of holding on too:
I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also (2 Timothy 1.5). Hold onto that!
As students at MVCHS you have been taught many of God’s promises. Like Timothy you have parents who also claimed those promises for you; MVC Parents are holders and keepers.
Paul continues to build on this foundation:
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.| 2 Timothy 1.13-14
Paul continues to say things like:
Remember, That when you were in your sin, an unable to save yourself God in his great mercy provided a way of escape: His son. For the Christian it all starts there and everything else is built on that.
Take hold of the promise of eternal life.
Take hold of life that is truly life.
Hold onto the hope of heaven. This world and all it has to offer will one day disappear, there is something greater.
Keep the knowledge of your salvation close so that it makes a difference in the way you live and how you will impact others.
In reality, he is reminding him to put into practice what he already knows and to continue growing.
And so we come to your class verse:
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. | 1 Timothy 4.11-12 (ESV)
Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. (MSG)
But perhaps a for this evening we will consider one more translation that will include all of us (Fikkert Sub Standard Version):
Don’t ever let your chronological age get in the way of spiritual maturity and Godly living! (FSSV)
What are some of those things that Paul tells Timothy (and us) here?
Paul provides an outline for his argument exhortation of how his faith is to be exhibited; how we are to go about living our lives. It is interesting to see there is an inner dimension as well as an outward dimension to what he says.
Speech | Paul is very much aware of the power of language as he writes Timothy. While he does not ignore the potential for misuse he sees it as an avenue to share the hope of the gospel with others .
Love | He makes a connection between God’s grace and acting in love. By truly embracing God’s love, and beginning to understand it, we are better able to put others before ourselves.
Faith | When Paul speaks of faith it is often in the context of uncompromising loyalty to God and to his Word.
Purity | Keep yourself in thought and action pure. Not an easy thing for Timothy to hear when in the morally permissive city of Ephesus (or for us today), but we will be measured by this. Purity does not end in shipwrecks….impurity does.
Where does this all take us?
When you are going through good times….Hold on.
When you are going through uncertain times….Hold on.
When you are going through hard times…..Hold on.
There is an important clarification I need to make re: everything I have said thus far.
The truth of the matter is that God’s involvement in your life, your ability to be faithful, is not entirely up to you. No matter how strong or weak your grip the grip of your heavenly Father never loses His grip on his children. Some here tonight might say:
I’m doing a pretty good job with those four points and others. God must be satisfied with the job I’m doing at maturing. I have a pretty good grip on things.
Others may say:
I’ve heard a lot of this before and I’m not sure I totally buy it, especially since I have done some things that make me pretty undesirable to a holy God.
And still others:
I hear what you say about the promises and all, but I’m not sure I can hold on tight enough or long enough.
Wherever you fit into one these categories , or have devised a one of your own of your own, the Bible is clear:
The good news of God’s promises are that if you are His, if you claim the name of Christ, His grip on you is greater than yours will ever be!
Sometimes that grip has you by the back of the neck; that is called discipline.
Sometimes it is the warm grip of hope when people have deserted you and you have no hope
Sometimes it is the grip of assurance like the father who tells his child to jump off a tree branch saying, “it’s all right Daddy will catch you….just trust me.”
No matter how it is manifesting itself right now, you can be sure it is there. This assurance of God’s holding is what allows us to keep going when we want to quit. It is the assurance of God’s holding that pushes back against doubt and fear. It is the assurance of God’s holding which will grow your faith and allow you to mature beyond your years. Trust in His grace and…
Don’t ever let your chronological age get in the way of spiritual maturity and Godly living!