Sermon Transcript
Sure good to be together today. I, I don’t know if you’ve been watching the United States women’s soccer team play in the World Cup tournament. Uh, some of you might be watching the game right now. Don’t do that, okay? If you’re watching the score, please do not tell us the score.
Some of us are recording this at home right now. We don’t want to know in advance, so whatever you know, just keep it to yourself. But isn’t it great watching them play so well this year again. And today they’re playing in the final, so they made it to the final. At this very minute they’re playing against the Netherlands and they’re playing for the championship, the World Cup Championship.
Well, in addition to watching several of the games, I’ve been also enjoying the after-game interviews with the players. And I don’t know if you stick around if you watch a game on television, if you like to wait and hear some of those interviews, but typically they focus on the game and things that happen in the game. And it’s very common for the interviewer to ask questions about, you know, what did it take today to win the game? And, you know, what did your team do really well? And things like that.
And I really enjoy hearing from the players’ perspective, you know, what it was that they did that ultimately resulted in a win. For their team. And if you watch a few of these postgame interviews, what you’ll hear are things like, you know, it took intense effort, it took staying strong, it took a lot of team play, strategy, you know, things went our way, a never-say-die attitude. That kind of stuff is said and a lot more as they’re talking about the win that, you know, they experienced. And I got to thinking about that in light of the study that we’re going to enjoy this morning in 2 Timothy, we actually come to the end of the book today.
We’ve been in this book now for about 3 months, and we’re in chapter 4 today, and we’re in the last words that Paul writes in this last epistle that Paul writes. And as I mentioned last week, at least in one of the worship services, I said, you know, lasting words often Last words are often lasting words, and I think that would be the case with the words we’re going to look at this morning because essentially what these words show us is why Paul finished well, why he won. You’ll remember if you were here last week, you’ll remember him saying to Timothy in chapter 4 and verse 7, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I’ve kept the faith. Now that’s incredible. I mean, to be able to say at the end of our life, I did what it was that the Lord wanted me to do.
You know, I kept the faith all the way up to the end. And really, that’s quite an accomplishment for anybody, but it’s this incredible accomplishment in the Apostle Paul’s life when you think about the challenges this guy faced. We think we have challenges that, you know, are enough to freak us out and things that we go through that we’d rather not go through. But this guy had all kinds of obstacles and challenges that could have easily defeated him. They could have easily knocked him out of the race.
I mean, just to name a few of the challenges, he was whipped 5 times with 39 lashes each time. Now, for me, you know, that would be enough to get me thinking about a new occupation. Quite frankly, you know. But not him. He was beaten with rods 3 times.
He was shipwrecked 3 times. Once he was left for dead after he was stoned. And by the way, he wasn’t— that’s not drug-related, the stoned part of it. That would have been easy, quite frankly, in comparison to what he went through. He faced sleepless nights.
He went without food and water. He was exposed to the cold. He was constantly under internal pressure and stress. Due to the churches that he was attempting to help. He lived with a thorn in the flesh that he begged God to take away, but God didn’t take the thorn away.
And if that wasn’t all enough, he was imprisoned several times. He was imprisoned in Jerusalem, in Philippi, in Caesarea, and Rome. I mean, seriously, if you were doing a search for a new pastor, you wouldn’t even look at Paul with all the times that he was in prison. You would say, I don’t think that guy’s qualified. And really, when you look at this and you look at what he went through, it’s enough to— if you think about it, it’s enough to cause you to think, if I had been the Apostle Paul, would have I finished the race, or would I have given up?
Would I just have quit, you know, thrown in the towel? And I think that’s a fair question to ask, especially in our culture, which is a culture that doesn’t always get it right, that doesn’t have a perfect track record when it comes to finishing what it is that we start. We live in a world where there are many broken commitments, there are many broken promises, and many times those promises and commitments are connected to hardships that we’re hit by that ultimately get to us, and so we quit before we cross the finish line. That could be seen in a lot of different ways. You might see it around your house in a half-read book, or maybe all the books that you’d like to read that have still not been read.
Or it could be connected to an unfinished education, an abandoned diet, a broken marriage. People have been known to walk off the job. Other people have been known to move to Idaho. You say, why Idaho? Well, for a lot of people, it’s a good thing.
I, I hear they have some great potatoes there.
The point is life can be like an athletic contest. It can be hard. It can inflict pain, and it could take every ounce of resolve that you have to continue in this life that you’re seeking to live right now, even when you’re seeking to live for the Lord. You can break down or you can break through. And the The determining factors, we might say, probably are connected to a number of things, but what I want us to see this morning is connected to the commitments that the Apostle Paul made throughout his life, and they’re continuing to show up at the end of his life.
And I think that, you know, for me, when I’m thinking about quitting, oftentimes I’ll let my mind come back to somebody who finished the race, somebody who finished well. And I look at them and I think to myself, well, this is what I can see that was happening in their life that really helped them finish the race. And I think here in the last chapter, the last few words found in 2 Timothy chapter 4, we’ve got a great example. The Apostle Paul, he would be a great choice of somebody to look at and say, you know, I want to finish strong. I want to finish well.
So what was Paul committed to? What can I see in his life that I can glean that could help me right now in the midst of the circumstances that I’m in to not quit, to not give up, but to continue this race and ultimately to finish well? Well, what I want to do is I want to show you 4 commitments, okay? So if you’ve got your Bible, turn there with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We’re going to look at verses 9 to 22.
These 4 commitments we’re going to look at, they’ve actually been commitments that I’ve tried to call to mind on many occasions over the past 30 years of ministry. Probably 30 years ago, I studied this passage. I heard somebody speak on this passage. It got me excited about studying this passage more. And so, I’ve come back to this passage many times, and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this passage.
Maybe you’ve seen it and you just kind of glossed over it. Maybe you actually studied it this past week as you’re preparing for this Sunday, and you said, I’m going to be very interested to see if we can get anything out of this passage. But it’s not one of those passages when you first read it you may be looking at and saying, boy, there’s a lot here for me, until you start digging into it. What you see here are really 4 commitments that are found in Paul’s life that he’s trying to help Timothy grab onto as well. And so Paul writes to Timothy, and this is what he says, and you might follow along in The Message note sheet if you want to jot down a couple of thoughts.
But 2 Timothy 4:9-13, this is how he begins this last part of his letter. Do your best— writing to Timothy— do your best, Timothy, to come to me quickly. For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.
Get Mark. And bring him with you because he’s helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus, and when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. Now go on down to verse 19, and then he says this: Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. And Erastus, he stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.
Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens and Linus and Claudia. And all the brothers. Now, when you read through a list of names like that, there are 18 names there. When you read through a list of names like that, hopefully you let the text just speak to you about the people, in this case, that were important in the Apostle Paul’s life.
So this is a list of people. This is a list we might call them God’s people, people who are brothers and sisters in Christ to the Apostle Paul. So let’s just call them God’s people. God’s people were part of the reason why Paul was able to finish the race. God’s people had a significant place in the Apostle Paul’s life and ministry.
He depended on God’s people. He needed them. Timothy actually tops the list of a very important person in the Apostle Paul’s life. And at this point, if you remember, if you’ve been studying this with us, Paul’s in Rome. He’s in a prison.
He’s in a damp, dark dungeon, and he is thinking about people that are strategic in his life, and one is Timothy. So he says to Timothy, verse 9, you do your best to come to me quickly, which is to say, Timothy, I need you. I need you. And he says in verse 21, do your best to get here before winter. Come quickly.
I don’t have a lot longer to live is what he’s been telling Timothy and what he’s going to finish with here. And Timothy, you know what? I just need you right now. Now let me just stop. I’m not going to do this on every one of these names, but let me just ask you this simple question.
Do you express to others that you need them when you find yourself in a situation where It’s hard. Do you get on the phone? Do you write a letter? Do you send an email? Do you express to others that you need them?
Need them. What the Apostle Paul is expressing here is not weakness. He’s expressing strength. Weakness is an unwillingness to express need. I need you.
Paul was almost alone, we’re told, because Demas had deserted him, verse 10, which suggests that this guy who was once a part of the ministry had abandoned Paul. And there are going to be people like that that once were a part of our lives, but for a variety of reasons or unknown reasons, they just run off. They stay away. Sad but true. And then there are Crescens and Titus that are mentioned here, and evidently they were dispatched to do ministry in other places such as Galatia and Dalmatia.
Sometimes that happens, doesn’t it? You have somebody who’s very close to you and God calls them somewhere else to do other work in other places, and you miss them. But those 2 who could have been with Paul aren’t with Paul. Fortunately, however, Paul’s not alone. There’s one person with him, Luke.
And so Paul says, verse 11, only Luke is with me. Don’t you get the sense of I’m alone in how he stated that? Only Luke. Luke is with me. Luke was a beloved person in Paul’s life.
He called him the beloved physician. He called him a fellow worker. Thank God Luke was there, and thank God for people like Luke who hang out with us in our time of need, and they bring the support that is needed. By the way, do you have a Luke in your life? If you’re going through something really hard right now, do you have a Luke in your life?
Can you be a Luke to somebody who’s going through something challenging right now? And he mentions then Mark, the last part of verse 11, and he tells Timothy, hey, when you come, bring Mark, and bring him because he’s, he’s helpful to me in my ministry. Now you know who this Mark is. This is the John Mark that was with Paul on his first missionary journey when Paul and Barnabas were on this journey together, and this Mark, this John Mark, was the guy that deserted them on this journey. And when they were thinking about taking a second journey, Barnabas suggested they take Mark along.
And you know what Paul said? Absolutely not. We are not going to take that guy. But this is 15 years later, and Mark has been restored, in part because of Barnabas. Who connected with John Mark and helped him along.
And here Mark at the end of Paul’s life is somebody that Paul knows could be an assistant to him, who could be with him. And so of all the people that Paul wants, he only mentions Timothy coming and he mentions Mark and he says, so hey, when you come, would you pick up Mark and bring him because he’s useful to me in the service. He was a failure once, but he’s on a new track now, and Paul embraces that. Isn’t that great? To be able to find people that you’ve come across in your life that have been a part of your life and to see them be restored and to welcome them back.
Can you just imagine what this meant to Mark to have Timothy come and say, hey, Paul wants you to be there with him right now? By the way, this is the Mark that ultimately went on to write the Gospel of Mark, that Mark. And then there was Tychicus, another friend that could have been with Paul, but instead he had been sent to Ephesus. And evidently he was sent on this very important mission. Maybe it was to actually deliver this letter, the letter of 2 Timothy.
And maybe it was also that he was going to go to Ephesus and relieve Timothy, take over for Timothy as he was pastoring the church at Ephesus, so that Timothy then could leave Ephesus and come and be an assistant and a support to Paul in these final days of his life. And then there was Carpus, a friend that was trusted to hold on to Paul’s cloak and other books and other parchments. I love that little thought there. Do people trust us enough that they would leave valuables with us? They know that we’re somebody that can be trusted.
Carpas was that kind of person. So you have 8 people of which only one was with Paul, one out of 8. But this one was significant, Luke, and Paul wanted him to know that. He even is expressing this to others. There’s others that he mentions.
If you go on down to verse 19, he mentions Priscilla and Aquila, fellow Christian leaders that Paul lived and worked with in Corinth where Priscilla and Aquila and Paul made tents together. There’s Onesiphorus and his whole household, verse 19. They were evidently among some who had visited and encouraged Paul while he’s been in prison or in jail in Rome. There was Erastus who was ministering in Corinth, another trusted companion and also a close friend of Timothy. There was Trophimus, verse 20.
A trusted friend of Paul who was with Paul when he was ministering in Miletus. But then Trophimus, it says, got sick, and so Paul had to leave him there and he moved on. There’s Eubulus and Pudens and Linus. These are 3 names that come from the Latin, and perhaps they indicate they’re individuals that were there in Italy somewhere, and maybe they had even become friends or members of the church in Rome that was started there. There’s Claudia, who was a faithful believer and a close friend of Paul.
Conjecture and legend has it that this is possibly the wife of Linus, but nobody knows for sure. And then there’s all the brothers, verse 21, others that Timothy may or may not have known who possibly came to faith in Christ through Paul’s prison ministry in Rome. What you want to just notice here and make note of is that these 18 people are very important people in Paul’s life. And they’re indicative of the fact that if Paul had been on Facebook or Instagram, he would have had a lot of friends. But they wouldn’t just be friends in namesake.
They would actually be friends who were significant people in Paul’s life supporting him in times of need. And from Paul’s perspective, he needed them. So here’s the first application.
How significant are God’s people in our lives? So as we’re running this race and we come up against prison kind of experiences, we come up against obstacles and hurdles and hardships, health issues, whatever it might be, do we have a list of people that we could turn to and and find help in time of need. Do we have a Luke? Is there a Luke in our life? You know, the time to get connected to a Luke is before hardship comes.
It’s right now.
It’s not to wait. It’s just to begin to build those kinds of friendships, spend time with people, and just begin to make serious connections, not seeking to do this life alone, But with others, is there a Timothy in your life? Is there somebody you could get on the phone and you could call up and say, hey, I need you right now, would you come? And that person would come. Do you have a Priscilla and Aquila people?
You know, are they people in your life who are there to be supportive? And do you have a Crescens and a Titus? Are God’s people important in your life? Are they important in my life? I ask myself that question.
I’ve been thinking back on the value of friendships in my life the last couple of months and how important people are. You know, write it down. The people who run strong to the end of this life are people who are connected to people, and they’re able to continue to run well because they have people that come alongside them and they help them and they encourage them. These close friendships are vitally important in our lives. Well, there’s a second lifetime commitment that’s found here.
Verse 11 says, get Mark, bring him with you. But then he says, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. The second life commitment for Paul was God’s calling. Not only God’s people, but God’s calling. At this point, Paul just has a few days left in his life.
We know that based upon history and what we’re told about what happened to Paul after, not even years after, but perhaps weeks or months after he wrote this final letter. But up to that point, here at the last, he’s still thinking about carrying out his calling. He’s in a less than desirable situation. He’s old in that world. He’s displaced.
He’s in terrible straits, but he still can’t get off of his mind the calling that God placed on him to share the good news with people everywhere. And there in these awful circumstances, Paul is continuing to carry out that calling. He’s speaking the message that he was given, verse 15. He’s declaring this message even though he’s been strongly opposed by people like Alexander, verse 14. In verse 17, it says, the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message the gospel message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.
So can’t you just see Paul? He’s not in any way grabbing a chair. Hey, that rocking chair looks good. I think I’ll just pull up a chair and I’m done. Not the Apostle Paul.
Apostle Paul, up to the end of his life, is still carrying out the calling that God placed on him to spread the good news to others. And by the way, All of us have received this calling if you’re a member of God’s family. He’s made it absolutely clear he wants us to get out there and tell people that God wants a relationship with them. And this relationship is made possible through Jesus Christ. But the problem is sin has separated us from Christ.
But Christ has made it possible for us to have our sins forgiven. We can be saved through Jesus Christ. In fact, God has demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Christ is the one who can save us from our sins. We can start life all over again.
We could be born again. There could be a brand-new start through belief and receiving Jesus as our personal Savior. We are made new. We’re adopted into God’s family. That message, that’s the message that Paul is continuing to talk about, to call others to.
He’s fulfilling his calling. Even though he’s in prison. And God’s placed us in this generation. It would be very easy, even as we age, to get to the place where we say, I’m done now. Come on, really?
I mean, aren’t there ways that even though you may not be in the occupation that you used to be in, aren’t there still ways for you to fulfill the calling that God has on your life, the vocation, the most important vocation that God has on your life, which is through your life to help other people come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. As I was working on this message, I received an email from a dear friend who a number of years ago we had the privilege of ministering together. During that time, he stepped down from his ministry role even though as a music pastor he thought he would be doing that the rest of his life. Even though he had been trained at Juilliard, he felt that God was leading him in a different direction. And he stepped down as a music pastor and he became a missionary.
And actually this week, he’s in his 70s now, but this week he’s in Russia. And they’re in Russia right now and they’re telling others about Jesus Christ and they’re helping churches there. He has the health to be able to do it. Sometimes we don’t have the health so we can do something like that, but in other words, He is continuing to fulfill the calling, the calling to share the gospel with people everywhere that God has placed on his life. And you know what?
This guy, his friend, is having the time of his life. In fact, he is a guy that, you know, if the mailman doesn’t know the Lord, he’s going to do what he can to help the mailman come to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. The guy that’s delivering the boxes to the porch, He is on the porch talking to the guys about Jesus Christ. And one after another, guys who’ve come to faith in Jesus— he has been a Paul to so many different Timothées. He has a slew of Timothées coming in and out of his home as he continues to disciple them.
That’s what Paul’s doing here. He could have easily stopped at this point. He could have easily said, you know, 30 years is enough. But not Paul. He’s continuing to live out to the very end this calling that God has on him.
How about us? The reason he’s finishing strong is because he’s committed to God’s people. He’s committed to God’s calling. Can I give you a third one? He says to Timothy, when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
A couple of personal requests that Paul makes of Timothy with winter just around the corner, verse 21 told us. Paul asked Timothy to pick up the cloak that he had left with Carpus in Troas. Evidently, maybe it was during a time when things were warm and he didn’t need the cloak, so he left it with a friend. But now he’s in a cold prison. Now he’s in a dungeon.
Winter’s just around the corner, so he’s thinking about, I need my cloak. A cloak was like a blanket. It had a hole in it for the head to pass through. It was made of heavy wool. And it served both as a coat, but it also served as a blanket in cold weather.
In that world, by the way, people didn’t have a whole bunch of cloaks. They may have had just one cloak for their entire lifetime. And so Paul is saying to Timothy, things are getting cold. Would you mind picking up my cloak and bring it? But then he also says to Timothy, but would you also please pick up the scrolls and especially my parchments.
Now, what were the scrolls? Well, the scrolls were most likely papyrus scrolls that contained portions of the Old Testament. So Paul is saying, you know what, I just need to have these copies of the Scriptures here. So would you pick up these copies of Scriptures— the Scriptures— and would you bring them with you? I need them right now.
And by the way, when he’s talking about the Scriptures, he’s not talking about the New Testament because the New Testament hadn’t been formed at that time. He’s talking about the Old Testament. He’s talking about benefiting from the Old Testament Scriptures, which is a good reminder to us because some of us perhaps have stopped some time ago benefiting by the Old Testament Scriptures. That would be sad. Romans 15:4, Paul writes about that which was written in former times, and he says it was written for our instruction and encouragement so that we might have hope.
So we’re giving up a lot of Scripture that could give us hope if we’re not in the Old Testament Scriptures. So here’s the Apostle Paul thinking about the Old Testament Scriptures and how valuable it could be to him in this time of hardship. As he’s in a dungeon. And then he also asked Timothy to bring the parchments. The parchments were vellum sheets of treated animal hides, which would have been extremely expensive and therefore used for only the most important documents, which would suggest, especially since Paul uses the word especially here, he says especially the parchments, it would suggest that these parchments had very special value to Paul.
Perhaps they contained personal notes, kind of like a journal, or thoughts or letters, maybe even segments of Scripture that he had already written that he didn’t know would become Scripture, but that had encouraged other churches. Maybe notes about what it was that he was learning from God in the midst of the circumstances that he found himself in, and he wanted to be reminded of those past notes that he had written. So he asked Timothy to pick them up and to bring them. So essentially what you have here is Paul’s continuing commitment to read and contemplate God’s Word. God’s Word.
A continuing commitment to God’s Word. Now think about this. This is a guy who’s been walking with the Lord, ministering for the Lord for more than 30 years now. 30 years, and he’s still committed to reading and reflecting on the Word of God. He never got to the point where he could say, you know what, I’ve read enough Scripture.
I’m done reading and reflecting on Scripture.
The guy that wrote 13 letters that end up in the New Testament is saying, I need the scriptures. I need to reflect on the scriptures. Would you pick up the scrolls and the parchments and bring them because I need God’s word. I crave it. Now you say, Dave, why are you getting a little, you know, amped up about this?
Well, it’s because the church is missing it in this area. And I say just the church in general, Protestants, people that worship on a regular basis, people that worship in other denominations, we so often miss it in this area. They’ve done recent studies and they now say that it’s gotten to the point where maybe 1 out of 3 regular worship attenders will read the Scriptures daily, or more like 1 out of 4. Maybe 1 out of 4 will read the Scriptures daily, and it gets worse from there in terms of sporadic reading of the Word of God. And when I hear that and I think about a guy like the Apostle Paul who finished well, I know that there was a direct correlation between his time in the Word of God and his reviewing of the Word of God and the place that he was at in his life, a really good place.
Even in the midst of this dungeon, he was at a really good place because he was continuing to stay connected to the Word of God.
My grandmother on my dad’s side, she died at just past 100. And I remember when she was 100, I had the opportunity to visit her, and I saw her Bible sitting by the bed, and I said, Mama— because that’s what we called her, Mama— I said, do you still read the Scriptures? He says, oh, absolutely, David. I read them. I’m encouraged by them.
They continue to help me. At 100 years of age, still reading the Word of God. You know, the more hardship we face in our lives, the more we need the Scriptures. And I fear what’s happening in our culture. I really do.
Where people for the most part now are reading the phone. They’re reading the scriptures off the phone. I mean, sure, that has a place, but people, there’s nothing like pulling out a Bible, underlining the scripture, writing notes, putting your own journaling in, and reading the word of God in such a way that you’re not just sort of reading it, not just glancing through it, but you’re spending serious time contemplating, meditating on the very words of God. Paul finished well because God’s people were an important part of his life. God’s calling was an important part of his life.
God’s Word was an important part of his life right up to the end. And there’s a 4th commitment found in these words, verses 14 through 18. Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
At my first defense no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord— verse 17— the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom, to him be the glory forever and ever.
Amen. Now, what I want you to just notice there, and I hope you already noticed it, is how many times Paul mentions the Lord. He mentions the Lord in those 5 verses 5 times. And so, here’s Paul at the end of his life, and who is he thinking about? Himself?
He’s thinking about the Lord. Well, I tell you, in today’s world where it’s so hard to live a Christian life, we desperately need to be thinking about the Lord and about God’s intervention in our lives. So, the 4th lasting commitment I see here is God’s intervention. He knew that God was working, and he’s still trusting God’s intervention in his life to lift his spirits. His spirits are lifted by the work God’s doing in him.
It’s giving him a whole different outlook on life so that he’s able to continue in the challenge that he’s faced with, to not give it up, to not just say, I’m done. I’m done with people. I’m done with God.
The opposition that he’s faced with here, he kind of puts into 2 categories. First of all, there’s the enemy side, and then there’s the friend side. And on the enemy side, you got toxic Alexander. Verse 14, he was a metalworker who did Paul a great deal of harm. You see that there?
And so how does Paul deal with that? Does he get bitter and angry and all that sort of stuff? Absolutely not. He just says, hey, God’s going to work. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.
But in writing to Timothy, he says, but Timothy, you need to know that this guy could come after you too, so you need to be on guard because he strongly opposed the message, which is to say no doubt he’s going to strongly oppose the message if you come. And a great deal of harm could be done to you as well, which could hurt the good news, the gospel. It might even cause you to stop speaking the gospel. Don’t let that happen when people like Alexander blindside you and knock you potentially out of the game. Don’t you dare grab a bench at this point.
Paul is still continuing in the ministry even though he’s got somebody who wants to harm him, who is totally opposed to him. An enemy, but he doesn’t let this toxic person hurt his attitude. He gives this toxic person to the Lord. He doesn’t give in to feelings of vengeance. He doesn’t give in to feelings of revenge or bitterness or lingering hurts over it.
He just turns it over to the Lord. Another way to say this is, is he processed his feelings not in his thinking, but he processed it as it connected to the Lord. And so he ends up with this forgiving heart knowing that God will take care of it. And then there’s also the other side here. In the midst of this imprisonment, he’s been deserted by friends.
He’s been deserted by those that you think would stand with him. In fact, he says, verse 16, at my first defense, no one came to my support, which is also to say even though Luke was there, not even Luke came to his support. But everyone, you see this, but everyone, everyone deserted me. Now if that was us and all of our friends deserted us in this terrible hardship that we’re going through right now, we might want to, you know, take it out on them in some way. I mean, we might turn to them and say, listen, listen, I want you to know this, if I die Okay, if these situations ultimately get to me, if I die, that means I’m going to get to heaven first.
And if I get to heaven first, I’m going to have a talk to God before you have a talk to God. I’m going to talk to God about how you deserted me.
And that surely won’t be good for you in the last days of your life. So let’s get it together. No, no, no, no. He didn’t take that approach. He turned to the Lord.
He says, but the Lord, verse 17, he stood with me. God stood with me and he gave me strength so that through me the gospel might get out there. In fact, I fully proclaimed it in spite of the fact that, you know, I was facing certain death at the mouth of a lion. Who’s he talking about there? Probably Nero.
Even though Luke had not stood with him, whatever reason, you know, that was, probably was connected to something like anybody who was standing with Paul right now is probably going to die too.
So nobody stood with him. But Paul says, but you know what? The Lord’s been with me and he continues to be with me. And I’m going to continue to not look at my enemies, and I’m not looking even at those who could stand with me. I’m going to look at the Lord who is with me, and he’ll strengthen me, and he’ll empower me, and he’ll continue to do what it was he did in this situation.
He will give me the words I need to share the gospel with others.
Wow. I’d call that a win, wouldn’t you? That in spite of all that Paul was going through, there was a win. And so he says, so, you know what? The Lord will rescue me, verse 18, from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom.
And that— just the thought of that caused Paul to break out in a doxology. To Him be the glory forever and ever.
Amen. You know, sometimes we think about the Lord— for some people, the Lord is this sort of conceptual thing, you know, the Lord’s out there. But for the Lord, Paul had a personal relationship with him. The Lord was somebody that he intimately connected with, made a difference in his life. It wasn’t just something that he thought would be nice.
The Lord was truly making a difference in his life so that when unbearable pain came, he was able to live with a sense of optimism, a no matter what hope. Kind of like so many you read about in the scriptures, right? You remember David, King David? David often found himself criticized and attacked throughout his life, and yet David was able to say essentially what Paul’s saying here. Psalm 62:5, I depend on God alone.
I will put my hope in him. He alone protects and saves me. He’s my defender. I shall never be defeated. My salvation and honor depend on God.
He is my strong protector. He is my shelter. That’s the perspective. That’s the perspective Paul was hanging on to. David hung on to it as well.
It’s the perspective we need to hang on to. It’s the perspective that Paul’s encouraging Timothy to hang on to. That’s what Paul is seeking for Timothy, actually, is to hang on to that be held up by that. So it follows that then he would end the letter by simply saying this to Timothy. So Timothy, the Lord be with your spirit and grace be with you.
I mean, Timothy, as you grow in this relationship with God, may God encourage your spirit. May he strengthen your spirit. May he bless you. May you find favor in him. May you grow in grace.
All of that’s found in the God that has come to us through his Son, Jesus Christ.
You know, there are a lot of ways we could finish a race. Best way to finish a race is to finish strong, is to finish well. I have a friend who next weekend is going to compete in the Goleta Beach Half Ironman. Triathlon. In case you’re interested in competing in this triathlon, it’s next Sunday, it’s at 7 AM, it’s in Goleta, California, and all you got to do is swim, bike, and run.
All of that will be done, they say, before lunch. You say, well, that’s not happening with me. So that’s good news though, because you could go do the triathlon and then you could follow that by coming out for the beach baptism because you will have finished the triathlon just before. I mean, hey, listen, it’s just swim a mile followed by a 22-mile bike ride and then a 5-mile run. No big deal, right?
You say, it’s not happening with me. Well, it kind of depends, doesn’t it? The shape you’re in, the training, the commitments that you make, all of that. Maybe who’s been your example, who’s been coaching you along. You’ve been learning from others how to run a race like this.
All the rest of that, and all of that’s going to come together for my friend next week, hopefully, so that he finishes this race strong, not weak. That’s what this book has been. It’s been a training manual. It’s been a training manual written by somebody who’s been down the road, somebody who could have easily said, I’m done, but even in prison, he’s still going strong. He’s running strong, and he’s going to continue to have impact right up to the very end.
I think some of us needed to hear that this morning.
Some of us perhaps have been looking for the chair, been looking for a way to back off. You know, if God’s got us here, he’s still got us in a race. He wants us to finish well. He wants us to impact others through our lives every step that we have in this race. And that’s oftentimes connected to a commitment to God’s people.
It’s connected to the calling. Do we really believe that we have a calling from God? Even if we’re no longer in our occupation, that we still have a calling? Do we truly read and study and take to heart the Word of God? Do we believe in God’s intervention?
We could turn these things that happen to us over to the Lord. Do we— are there lifelong commitments in every one of those areas? Not a one-time commitment, but a lifelong, no-stopping kind of commitment, an enduring commitment, a growing commitment, a lasting commitment. Aren’t you glad Paul finished well? I am.
I mean, we are the benefactors of that. Timothy, the church, the early church were the benefactors of that, and it was for the good of people everywhere. May that be the case even through the lives of the people that are connected to Bridges Community Church, that this is a church where we are committed to finishing well all the way up to the very end.
Let’s pray. Father, thanks for this study that we’ve enjoyed in 2 Timothy. What an amazing book. It has spoken to us several times throughout this series, and you speak to us again today. Our hearts want to be open to what you have for us to hear today, that we might be encouraged, we might be challenged, that we might be comforted.
That we might find in you the strength to, to carry on, to do what it is that you have before us for as long as you give us life. And Father, however that translates into our situations, help us see it. Help us see it from your perspective.
And may our lives be lives that continue to have impact on others for eternity. For your name’s sake. And even today, Lord, now as we celebrate our relationship with you through the acts— the act of communion, we do so remembering that you’ve made it possible for everyone to have relationship with you through your Son. And for those of us that have already come to that place of belief in Christ for salvation, we give you thanks for this new life that we have in you. The fact that we could be your children, it’s incredible.
If there’s anybody here, Lord, that’s not yet come to that place, we pray that even right now might be the moment of salvation for them where they would confess with their mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that you raised Christ from the dead and that they will be saved. If that’s the desire of your heart, tell God that. He’ll hear that prayer. May this be the moment of salvation for you. May today be the day where you receive the gift of life that’s found in Jesus Christ.
It’s a gift. You receive it. You don’t earn it. You don’t pay for it. You receive it.
If that’s the desire of your heart, tell God that right now. Father, we love you. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
