2 Timothy 4:9-22
Life in the Local Church
Relationships Matter
Good Morning and hoping you are all staying healthy and safe and washing your hands! If you would, please open up your Bibles with me to the very end of 2 Timothy. If you are listening at home and you do not have a Bible, there are many websites and apps that you can use to read the Bible from your computer, tablet or phone.
So today, we come to the end of Paul’s letters to Timothy. We come, in fact, to the end of Paul’s recorded letters, period. At some point shortly after this letter, Paul would stand trial before Caesar, be found guilt and history says that he was beheaded at that point.
Paul knew this was coming, and so he wrote these letters to Timothy to encourage, challenge, teach and warn Timothy. Timothy beware of those who are in and will come into the church teaching what is not in and what goes against the Bible. Many will astray. Teach and Preach the Truth. Structure and format the church as it is supposed to be. Stand Firm in the Faith and Stand up to those who oppose you, the Truth and ultimately, God Himself. Our behavior, our faithfulness and our steadfastness during these times and all the way up to the end will be a great testimony to those watching and will be the goof fruit borne from our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our only means of salvation.
So, Paul is done teaching at this point of the letter, though he does have, as with much of his letters, greetings and instructions for Timothy as he closes out his letter.
So, lets go ahead and read this mornings passage, 2 Timothy, verses 9 through the end of the letter, verse 22. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version and I encourage you to have in your hands, your preferred translation and follow along, both here and throughout the sermon as we read the Words of God.
Paul, in the last recorded words of his life, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes to Timothy:
Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,[b] Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles might hear it. So, I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.[c]
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.[
May God Bless the reading of his Holy Word.
Paul knows what time it is. Both of these letters were written when Paul was either imprisoned or under house arrest. He knew ahead of time, as we looked at last week, what the result of the upcoming trial was going to be. And Paul wants to see Timothy one more time before he dies.
One of the things we see with Paul and the progression that takes place over the course of his letters, we can be assured of what comes after this life. We can know that we are going to be with Christ in the kingdom of Heaven and we can be assured of our salvation. We can have a pure trust in Gods perfect timing. We can have true, pure and complete joy, trust and longing to see Jesus and we can be ready to go home to be with Him and yet…
And yet, we can still have things that we want to happen first. We can still have things that we wish could have been different. We can still have things that we wish we could have done. For Paul, one of those things is that he wishes to see Timothy before he passes. Now, we have no biblical evidence that Timothy did, or dint make it to Rome to see Paul. Personally, I hope he did, but I suspect he didn’t. We can see how much Paul wants this by looking back chapter 1 of this letter where Paul says in verse 4 that he longs to see Timothy.
Now, there are also some that Paul does not long to see. Many deserted him during his previous and current troubles, his imprisonments and what not. Demas is an example. Paul says that he was more in love with this world than the world to come. We have to be very careful of that. Love of this world, and the trappings of it can be very persuasive, very seductive. And yet, what does the wisdom of man, the success of money and influence, that love of human beings have when compared the Glory of the Sovereign and almighty God and all the riches and glory that is to be revealed?
But many choose this world over the next. And then, when the going gets tough, they hightail it away and look for their comforts. I shared the quote a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating here, Voddie Baucham says that there is one way to avoid persecution in this World. All you have to do is compromise.
Jesus, during his parable of the sower, talks about two of the seeds in Mark 4:5-7:
Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
Jesus explains these two a few verses later, Mark 4:16-19:
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
Focus on what is to come. Be aware, respond to and acknowledge what is going on around us. A great example is the pandemic going on around us today. That’s why I put up on the church sign: Be safe, Wash Your Hands, Trust Jesus. To totally ignore what is going on in the world would be, not only irresponsible and unloving to our neighbors, but would be unbiblical as well. But our focus, our eyes are to be on the LORD.
There’s an old saying that you can be so heavenly minded as to be no earthly good. But in reality, that’s simply not true. To be truly heavenly minded, to be focused on the glory of God that will be revealed and focused on the truth and the power and the glory of Jesus Christ, one can’t help to do good here on earth. That is the fruit that will be borne through true saving faith.
But Demas was not heavenly minded, he was very much earthly minded, and he left Paul during his time of need. Left him in the lurch. But Paul also acknowledges that not all who left, did so under poor terms. Titus, for example, left to pastor the churches on Crete, so history tells us.
Paul tells us in verse 11that it is only Luke, his friend, his physician, his travelling partner, who is still physically with him. He has been traveling with Paul for a long, long time at this point. He has been recording Paul’s ministry and his missionary travels, which tuned into the last 2/3rds of the book of Acts. He has been investigating, researching and learning the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, turning into the Gospel of Luke. He has been loyal and faithful to Paul, taking care of him as has been needed.
We talked last week about how we are to finish our race. But one application we can take from these couple of verses is that when others are finishing their race, let us be Luke, not Demas. Let us stay faithful, show loyalty and bring comfort to those whose race is ending.
Paul surprisingly asks Timothy to bring Mark with him when he comes to see Paul. Mark and Paul were travelling and ministering together early on in Paul’s missions, but they split after a disagreement, causing Barnabas to leave Paul as well. What we see here is that reconciliation either already had, or more likely was going to occur. Paul wanted to make things right while there was still time.
If Timothy never made it to see Paul, then it stands to reason that Mark never made it there either. So, despite Paul’s desire to reconcile, there was not enough time left. Don’t wait until the last minute. Don’t wait until the finality of our mortality weighs on you. Reconcile things with the people you know and love and do it now. You never know if tomorrow will come.
We do see that Paul, here towards the end, is still thinking practically as well. In verse 13, he tells Timothy to bring his cloak, expecting to need it during the cold winter that was approaching. He also says to bring his books and parchments. These could be blank parchments, meaning that Paul was planning on writing more letters, continuing to teach and spread the Gospel, or these could be his copies of the Old Testament writings.
Either way, one of the things we see here is that Paul knew the end was coming, but he didn’t know when. He didn’t expect it to be tomorrow. And he was going to keep living, working and studying, right up until the very last minute.
Verse 14 seems to show the opposite of what Paul had to say about Mark. With Mark, there was a separation and then, at least an intended reconciliation, which to me means that there was some repentance, probably on both sides. Here, we see that Alexander the coppersmith did Paul great harm and that there was no repentance, because Paul warns that he will do the same to Timothy if he gets the chance.
I want to point out here a key difference, not in eternal destination, but possibly in heart and potential repentance and reconciliation. Demas also left Paul when Paul needed him. But Alexander seems to have actively opposed Paul and the message of the gospel. Alexander was more direct and purposeful in his actions against Paul. Demas just seemed to have fallen away, and to me, reading into what Paul is saying, if Demas repented and came back, Paul might be open to reconciliation. It doesn’t seem as if Paul sees any chance of that with Alexander.
And that’s something to remember. There are different levels of involvement that people can have in your life. Not everyone has to have full access to your life. Even in these situations that Paul is mentioning we see a variety of levels of forgiveness or at least potential forgiveness. Mark is back in, or will be, if they meet together. Demas, is not, but there is an open door making it possible. If Alexander were to repent and ask forgiveness, I think we know that Paul would forgive him, but I don’t think, the way I read this, that Paul would open up his life or ministry to have Alexander involved in them.
Forgiveness is required from us. But that does not mean that we have to allow people who have hurt us in the past to be in a position to hurt us again. Forgive does not mean that automatically forget. If you need to keep someone out of your life, even after forgiveness and reconciliation occur, you can do just that.
Now, remember that this is Paul’s second Roman imprisonment and his second trial. He mentions that during his first trial, he was all alone. Everyone had left him. They scattered, though Paul asks that it not be held against them. Why? Because God had designed it that way. He had a purpose.
There are very strong allusions here to Jesus on the cross. The Apostles, his followers at the time scattered and went underground. Jesus was alone during his trials and only John and his mother, Mary were there with Him while He was on the cross. Jesus did not hold this against any of them and welcomed them all when he rose and appeared to them again. Jesus knew that the Father had a purpose for all these things.
Paul was lonely during that time, but he trusted God and now, years later, he could see what God was doing in that situation. I know that right now, things can feel very lonely. We are cut off from each other in ways that we have not had to be before.
Trust that God has a plan. Trust that this will all work together for His plan and His glory. Through all that, Paul says, the LORD never abandoned me. God is clear on this all through out scripture, from the Old Testament on through the New. Joshua 1:9, one of my favorites, says:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
And in the New Testament, Matthew 28, the very last words of Matthews Gospel, Jesus says:
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So why did Gpd allow Paul to be put through all this? He used it to spread the Gospel and the name of our LORD Jesus Christ. God brought Paul through all those circumstances to glorify himself. Paul says God brought him through all the tough situations, the hard circumstances and brought him right into His arms and His kingdom. RC Sproul points out that this is “the Ultimate Hope of all who Trust in Christ.” All of this, all things, including our salvation, sanctification, and our glorification, all to the Glory of God.
Soli Deo Gloria
In the last couple of verses here, from verse 19 on, Paul closes this letter how he closes most of his letters. He sends greetings to those around the one he is writing to and sends greetings from those who are around him. Greetings and love to all those mentioned.
And finally, The LORD be with your spirit. Grace be with you. God gives and pours out his grace on us. It is only through his grace that we have faith in Jesus Christ. It is only through his grace that we are saved. It is only through his grace that we have received the forgiveness of sins, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be with you and the Glory be to God.
There are a bunch of minor points that we touched on this morning, but if you only take away one point from Paul’s conclusion to 2 Timothy, know this, meditate on this, remember this. The grace that is with you is purely from and is a gift from God. And all the credit for all things goes to God. He has a plan; he implements it and all of it is done for His Glory. All the Glory goes to God. We don’t always see it. We may not see it right now, we may not see it in the future, but we have the assurance that God works all things together and nothing, not one single thing will happen in this world without God allowing it to happen. Not one single atom can move outside of the will of God.
What a wonderful thought. What a wonderful reminder. What glorious knowledge that we don’t have to worry about anything. God has this all in His hands.
Soli Deo Gloria
Let’s Pray.