Sermon Tone Analysis

“It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.”

[1]

Paul has presented a variety of images to illustrate the strong spiritual life expected of those who will follow the Master.

As we saw in a previous message, the emphasis in these verbal pictures the Apostle has drawn demonstrates the principle of delayed rewards.

[2] The fourth and final image he presents is that of a farmer.

The teacher is rewarded by knowing that he has enriched and stimulated the lives of his students.

The soldier is rewarded by the knowledge that he has pleased his commander.

The athlete wins the award of a trophy.

The Apostle reminds Timothy that the farmer is rewarded with the first share and the best example of the crops.

*DELAYED REWARDS* — The concept of “hard working” is key to understanding what the Apostle has written.

Farming, even in this day, is a demanding occupation.

When Paul wrote this letter, the vast majority of the population lived close to the land.

Those who were not farmers would have been intimately acquainted with the labour required of a farmer.

That is not necessarily the case today.

As we grow ever more distant from the land, we become less aware of what is entailed in producing food for the nation.

Fewer people than ever are producing more food; and few appear to understand that the food we eat is produced through the hard work of farmers.

Let me illustrate that fact by referring to some published data.

Statistics Canada recorded a decline from 2006 to 2011 in total farm numbers that was consistent across all provinces, and a decline in every new census since 1941.

[3] Another report released by Statistics Canada states that the number of farms in Canada is dropping, while their size is growing along with the age of the people running them.

This study notes that there were 205,730 farms in 2011.

This is a decline of more than 74,000 farms since 1991.

Moreover, the same study notes that the average farm area increased from 80 hectares to 315 hectares.

Report author and agriculture analyst Martin Beaulieu said one reason for larger farms is that they are being consolidated as older operators retire.

[4] Similar studies from the United States make similar observations concerning the number of farms, the size of farms and the age of farmers.

[5]

The collected data on farming in North America speaks of a situation that differs radically from history—fewer and older farmers are producing more food than ever.

North American farmers are producing enough to feed Canada and the United States with enough foodstuffs to supply much of the remainder of the nations of the world.

Land that might have been considered infertile in the past now produces an abundance of crops through newer farming techniques and with the administration of chemical enhancements.

The advent of genetically modified crops allows resistance to common plant diseases or increased yields.

Likewise, domestic livestock breeds provide ever greater yields of dairy products and meats.

To accomplish this provision of foods, farmers must work hard.

In some respects, despite modern farm implements and improved grains and newer breeds of livestock, farm families must work longer hours and assume greater risks than in any previous era.

What I want us to seize on is the idea that Paul is presenting.

He is emphasising to Timothy the reality of delayed gratification.

We seldom see immediate rewards for the work we expend.

We realise intuitively the truth of the Proverb, “In all hard work there is profit” [PROVERBS 14:23a].

We are in substantial agreement with the Preacher when he writes, “I have seen personally what is the only beneficial and appropriate course of action for people: to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all their hard work on earth during the few days of their life which God has given them, for this is their reward” [ECCLESIASTES 5:18, NET BIBLE].

Yet, the modern mind appears inclined to imagine that rewards should be instantaneous.

Do you doubt that last statement?

Listen to the delicate little snowflakes currently occupying college campuses in the United States as the “cri du Coeur” bursts from their lips demanding safe spaces, trigger warnings, free tuition and banishment of all challenges to their worldview.

The thought that they may encounter unpleasantness in the world or that they may meet with ideas that challenge their worldview leaves them weak!

They expect to graduate after four years of campus indoctrination with a degree in some critical field of study such as Women’s Studies or Mongolian Philosophy or Ebonics and immediately receive the offer of a huge salary.

How startled they are when they find they are qualified to flip burgers, work as a greeter at Wal-Mart or drive a cab if the area served is not too large!

An entire generation has been schooled in the idea that they are the centre of the universe and the world is waiting for their unveiling!

They bought into the lie vocalised by an American President who arrogantly crowed, “We are the ones we have been waiting for!” [6] How has that worked out?

Even when teaching preacher boys, now over thirty-five years ago, I was repeatedly startled at the thought many held that they would leave their studies and step into a congregation of ten or twenty thousand souls.

From that lofty perch they would dispense pearls of wisdom that the world eagerly awaited.

When I spoke to them of planting churches in out-of-the-way places, evangelise in spiritually darkened communities, invest a lifetime building saints in smaller communities, many dissented, irritated that I didn’t see their greatness lying latent under a thin patina of poor grammar and ignorance of theology and the original languages.

Inherent in the human psyche is the thought that we are owed adulation and greatness.

That the world doesn’t recognise our prowess and superior intellect is due to the benighted condition of the most of mankind.

This idealisation of our own greatness lies at the heart of our own fallen, sinful condition.

When Satan approached our first mother, he approached her with the lie that God didn’t want competition, and therefore God kept her from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

She deserved better than what God had given.

She could advance herself to where she actually belonged.

Isn’t that the essence of the account provided in the Genesis account?

“The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"’

And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’

But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” [GENESIS 3:1-5].

The Puritan concept of work as divine grows out of the attitude of the redeemed.

We are saved to serve.

Again, we would do well to teach our youth the truth of the Word that teaches,

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,

but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”

[PROVERBS 21:5]

Toil, working hard, labouring is encouraged through the example of the Apostle.

Listen to the conclusion of his final speech to the Ephesian elders.

“You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive” [ACTS 20:34, 35].

Writing the saints in Corinth, the Apostle spoke of life as a servant of the Living God.

He asserted of the Apostles, among whom he counted himself, “I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ.

We are weak, but you are strong.

You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands” [1 CORINTHIANS 4:9-12a].

Apostles!

And yet Paul would say, “We labour, working with our own hands.”

What?

Did the Apostles not live in palaces and receive a large income?

How is this possible?

Paul boldly reminded the Christians of Colossae, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ” [COLOSSIANS 1:24-2:2].

In his earlier letter to Timothy, the aged man of God had written, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.

Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” [1 TIMOTHY 4:7-10].

Writing the Church of God in Corinth, Paul reminded them of his life in Christ.

“I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” [1 CORINTHIANS 15:10].

Those whom he commended are frequently commended for their diligence in their labours.

As he names those he wished to greet in Rome, he spoke of their labours.

“Greet Mary who has worked hard for you” [ROMANS 16:6].

This then continues as he writes, “Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa.