April 19, 2020

2 Timothy 4:9-22: The Faithfulness of God

Preacher: Josh Tancordo Series: 2 Timothy: Faithful to the End Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:9–22

2 Timothy 4:9-22: The Faithfulness of God

If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab that and turn with me to 2 Timothy 4. As many of you know, before the pandemic hit, we were working our way passage by passage through Paul’s second letter to Timothy. And we only had one more passage to go before we finished the letter. So, since I really don’t like leaving things unfinished, we’re going to go ahead and finish out our series on 2 Timothy by looking at chapter 4 verses 9-22. 2 Timothy 4:9-22: 9 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, 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. 22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. 

Relationships are a tremendous blessing, but sometimes they can be painful. Sometimes, a person that you know and love and trust will do something that hurts you or that even leaves a lasting scar on you. Not too long ago, I was able to spend some time with a guy named Steve who had been married to a woman for over 20 years. And after over 20 years of marriage, this woman started listening to Prosperity Gospel teaching about how God supposedly wants her to be rich. And she decided that that was God’s will for her life. So she left both Steve and the child that they had together so that she could marry a much wealthier man. Not surprisingly, Steve was struggling to process that betrayal. And of course there are many others who have felt that pain as well. I’m sure there are many watching this broadcast who have been betrayed or deeply hurt by a person they loved and trusted. And even if you haven’t been hurt on that level, you’ve probably still known people who have let you down. I know that my seven-year-old son Caleb has had one adult in his life—one of the leaders of the Cub Scout pack that he’s a part of—make several promises to him over the past year or so and fail to come through on those promises. And these weren’t big promises, but Caleb was still very disappointed when they weren’t kept. I guess that’s just the way life works, many times. Even the best of people will sometimes disappoint you and let you down.

That’s why I believe this passage of Scripture here in 2 Timothy 4 is such a comfort to us. This passage reminds us that God is always faithful even when people aren’t. That’s the main idea we see here. God is always faithful even when people aren’t. Even when many of Paul’s closest friends deserted him, as he mentions in this passage, God faithfully stood by his side and rescued him from harm. And there are three aspects of Paul’s experience I’d like to focus on that I believe help us get a clearer view of God’s faithfulness. Number one, the opposition Paul faced. Number two, the betrayal Paul suffered. And number three, the comfort Paul enjoyed. 

The Opposition Paul Faced

So first, let’s look that the opposition Paul faced. In verses 14-15, Paul mentions a guy named Alexander. He says, 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. Now since Alexander was such a common name in the first century, it’s difficult for us to know exactly who this is. Since this text identifies him as a coppersmith, it’s possible that he was one of the metalworkers in Ephesus who made their living from crafting and selling idols. Acts 19 mentions that many of these craftsmen were rioting because Paul was preaching the gospel in the city and taking all of their business away. So perhaps Alexander was one of them. Yet regardless of who exactly he was, Paul says that Alexander did him “great harm” and that Timothy also should “beware of him.”

And in addition to facing opposition from Alexander, Paul also faced opposition from the Roman government. You may remember that he was writing this letter from a Roman jail cell. We don’t know exactly what the charges were against him, but they were without question related to his Christian faith. One of most common legal charges that was brought against Christians in that day was, interestingly enough, atheism, since Christians rejected the Roman gods, represented by physical idols, and instead believed in an invisible God—which was a very strange thought for many people. And in addition to being charged with atheism, many Christians were also charged with cannibalism, which related to them eating the Lord’s Supper and thereby partaking of the body and blood of Jesus. Obviously all of that is symbolic, but there were many rumors going around in the first century that it was literal. And finally, Christians refused to engage in worshipful acts toward the emperor. From time to time, everyone in the empire was required to engage in these worshipful acts, and those who refused to do so were seen as subversive and disloyal. So those may have been the legal charges against Paul. 

And Paul’s situation was very serious. We saw back in verse 6 of the chapter that Paul fully expected this imprisonment to result in his death. He says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” Paul believed that the time of his departure was drawing very close. In all likelihood, he would suffer capital punishment. So you can see that the opposition Paul faced as he wrote this passage was very real. 

The Betrayal Paul Suffered

Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if the most difficult thing Paul experienced actually wasn’t the opposition coming from his enemies but rather the betrayal he suffered from his friends. And that’s the second aspect of Paul’s experience that we see in this passage—the betrayal Paul suffered. In verse 10, Paul mentions a man named Demas. He writes that “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica….” Now you have to understand that Demas was one of Paul’s closest associates. He’s listed as such in Colossians 4:14. In addition, Paul calls him a “fellow worker” in Philemon 24. Yet apparently, Demas wasn’t prepared to pay the price for being a Christian and certainly wasn’t prepared to pay the price for being a close associate of Paul. That’s why Paul describes him here as being “in love with this present world.” He loved the comforts and the treasures and the accolades of this world more than he loved Jesus. And that’s probably an indication that he wasn’t truly saved, because 1 John 2:15 says quite clearly, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” So it seems as though Demas was just a fair-weather disciple who had probably been caught up in the idea of aiding in such a noble cause but hadn’t truly considered the cost of discipleship. When things became difficult, Demas bailed. That word translated “deserted” refers to utterly abandoning someone and leaving them helpless in a dire situation. That’s what Demas did to Paul. Even though he was one of Paul’s closest associates, he left him. 

And unfortunately, Demas wasn’t the only one who deserted Paul when the going got tough. Down in verse 16, Paul writes, “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me…” So apparently, every single one of Paul’s associates who were with him in Rome deserted him at what he calls his “first defense.” By the way, if you’re wondering that the “first defense” is, scholars tell us that “in the Roman court system, an accused person had two hearings, the prima actio, to clearly establish the charge, and the secunda actio, to determine guilt or innocence. Paul’s ‘first defense’ would therefore have been a prima actio.” And at this defense, everyone who was with Paul in Rome deserted him. Now he still had other associates such as Luke and Onesiphorus who apparently hadn’t arrived in Rome yet. But among those who were in Rome at the time, not one of Paul’s associates stuck by him. 

Imagine how painful that must have been. These were the guys that Paul shared life with. They traveled together, lodged together, did ministry together. These were his closest friends—his band of brothers. Yet when Paul was arrested and made to stand trial, not one of them could be found. Apparently, they all had pressing business to take care of elsewhere. That must have hurt. I imagine it hurt more than anything Alexander did or that the governing authorities did. That’s the way it is with relationships. The deepest wounds usually come from those closest to you—and they often hurt more than physical pain. For those of you who are married, I bet you’d rather have any bone in your body broken than find out that your spouse is cheating on you. If you had to choose between those two things, I bet just about everyone would choose the broken bone—because betrayal on that level cuts deep. And I believe the betrayal Paul suffered was very similar to that. 

The Comfort Paul Enjoyed

Yet here’s what’s so amazing in this passage. Even in the midst of such heavy opposition and such crushing betrayal, Paul still experienced comfort in the Lord. So let’s look at the comfort Paul enjoyed. He writes, in verses 17-18, 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. So even when all of Paul’s associates and friends deserted him, God stood by his side. That’s what Paul says—“the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.” Paul wasn’t alone in that courtroom since God was at his side. God is always faithful even when people aren’t. 

Maybe you can identify with Paul to one degree or another in that you also have had people let you down or hurt you—perhaps a parent who abandoned you or neglected you as a child, a relative who abused you at a vulnerable age, a spouse who was unfaithful or abusive, or perhaps a close friend who turned out to be not much of a friend at all. And perhaps you still feel the pain of what that person did to you even to this day. If so, this passage is for you. God is always faithful even when people aren’t. 

Although God never promises us a life free from suffering, he does promise to walk with us every step of the way. As Psalm 23:4 so famously says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Even in the darkest times of your life, God is there. He’s there when you feel like you’re in an impossible situation and don’t know what to do. He’s there when it seems like you just can’t stop living in the shadow of what that person did to you. And he’s there when it seems like nobody else is. As David says in Psalm 27:10, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”

Scripture also tells us that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 8:35-39: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Notice there at the end that this isn’t just any love Paul’s talking but rather a love that’s “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul wrote those words for a reason. He could have ended that verse simply by saying nothing can separate us from “the love of God.” But he doesn’t. He says that nothing can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That means God loves us as we’re united with Christ. We’ve come to recognize that apart from Christ, we’re alienated from God and condemned in our sins. Our rebellion has cut us off from God and made us deserving of his righteous judgment. Yet in an act of extraordinary mercy, God the Father sent Jesus the Son to bear our sins on the cross, taking on himself the full force of the judgment we deserve. Jesus then rose from the dead as a picture of what can happen to us as we put our trust in him. That involves turning away from our sinful lifestyle and looking to Jesus alone as our Savior and Redeemer. And as we do that, the Bible says we’re united with him. We’re in him and he’s in us. And that’s how we receive all of the blessings of the gospel. Those blessings of forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life are ours not by virtue of any intrinsic goodness we possess but rather by virtue of our union Christ. So that’s what Paul means when he refers to the “the love of God” that’s “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s eternal love for us and his unshakeable faithfulness to us grow out of the gospel. The gospel is both the conduit and the guarantee of God’s love and faithfulness. Nothing in all creation can separate us from his love in Christ. And back in our main passage, it’s that love and faithfulness that Paul was experiencing. 

However, there are things that we need to do in order to experience and enjoy God’s love and faithfulness to the fullest possible extent in our lives. Of course, I’m not suggesting we can do anything to earn our salvation but simply to enjoy the fullness of the salvation we’ve been given. God promises to provide us with sufficient grace for every trial, but we have to make sure we’re positioning ourselves to receive that grace. We don’t generate the grace, but we do have to put ourselves in position to receive it and experience it. An author named David Mathis compares it to the way utilities work in your house. The electric company supplies your house with electricity, but you have to flip the switch in order to see the light bulb come on. The water company supplies your house with water, but you have to turn the faucet in order to fill your fill your glass with water. And in a similar way, God is the one who supplies sufficient grace for our every need. He’s the one who gets us through difficult times. Yet we have to flip the switch and turn on the faucet, so to speak, in order to receive the grace he supplies. The phrase that’s often been used for this is utilizing the “means of grace”—the habits or practices through which we experience God’s grace. And there are three means of grace I believe are especially important when you’re going through a difficult time. They’re actually the same means of grace that are important all the time, but the key when you’re facing adversity is to keep doing them. 

First, keep reading God’s Word. When you’re plunged neck-deep into the ocean of suffering, don’t let go of the very thing that will keep you afloat. Don’t disengage from the Bible. You need it now more than ever—because you can’t be strengthened by truths you haven’t grasped, you can’t be encouraged by promises you’ve never heard, and you can’t be comforted by a God you don’t know. 

Then, in addition to reading God’s Word, keep seeking God in prayer. And feel free to be very honest with him about how you feel. Many of you know that we offer an in-depth class, now meeting virtually, called the Redeeming Grace Institute. And in the Institute, they’re learning about the Psalms and about how honest the authors of the Psalms are with God. They tell God exactly how they’re feeling in the midst of suffering and, in that way, serve as good models for us. So keep seeking God in prayer. 

Then finally, keep spending time with other Christians. Obviously, you’ll have to be a bit creative in how you do that with the virus going around right now, but there are still ways to do that to a certain degree—even if it’s just connecting over the phone or Facetime or what-not. And certainly we can all anticipate spending time face-to-face once all of this is over. And I realize that if you’ve been hurt by someone, as we’ve been talking about this morning, relationships can be difficult. You may be tempted to isolate yourself so that no one can ever hurt you again. But let me encourage you to resist that temptation at all costs. You need meaningful relationships in the church. And those relationships won’t come automatically; they have to be developed. That means you have to spend time with others in the church and, as difficult as it may be, really open up to them so that they can minister to you. Notice, back in our main passage in 2 Timothy 4, that Paul didn’t respond to all of those people deserting him by saying, “That’s it. From now on, I’m working alone. I’ve had it with people deserting me and betraying me, so now I’m just going to live my life and engage in my ministry by myself.” That’s not what Paul says. Instead, he tells Timothy in verse 9, “Do your best to come to me soon.” He also says in verse 11 that Luke is with him and requests that Timothy also bring along Mark when he visits. And finally, Paul spends verses 19-21 extending greetings to various people in order to strengthen those relationships. So Paul didn’t withdraw or isolate himself, and neither should you. 

Conclusion 

And finally, as we think about the comfort Paul enjoyed as we see it here in this passage, notice the confidence Paul has regarding his future. Paul not only describes how God has been with him throughout his time of suffering but also expresses confidence that God will eventually rescue him. Look again at verses 17-18: 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.  Now we’ve already noted that, earlier in the chapter, Paul says that he fully expects his imprisonment to result in him being executed. He says that the time of his departure has come. However, here he says that the Lord will rescue him from every evil deed. So is that a contradiction? I don’t think so, because if you look at what Paul says, death, in his view, is actually a form of rescue. He says in verse 18 that we just read, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.” In other words, God would provide rescue by bringing Paul to heaven. So we might say that, in the past, God rescued Paul from death—like when he says in verse 17 he was “rescued from the lion’s mouth.” That was a rescue from death. But in the future, God will rescue Paul through death. Either way, it’s a rescue. Rescue can either be from death or through death. 

And let me tell you something: that is such a comfort when we have a loved one who’s a Christian and is nearing the end of their life. Many of you know that I used to be a hospice chaplain. And this passage was probably my favorite passage to turn to when I was visiting a hospice patient who was a Christian. Of course, we almost always prayed for the person’s healing and knew that God could very well answer those prayers. However, this passage helped both the person and their family to prepare themselves for the very real possibility that God would bring about his promised rescue through the person’s death. We could turn to this passage and see that sometimes God rescues his people from death, while other times he rescues them through death. Either way, it’s a rescue. And what an indescribable comfort that is for those who belong to the Lord. 

So no matter what situation you’re in, you can have the same comfort and confidence Paul displays here in this passage. You may experience some incredibly difficult things, as Paul certainly did. Sometimes, that may even involve people who are closest to you hurting you in the deepest way. But in the midst of all of that, you can be sure that God is always faithful even when people aren’t.

other sermons in this series

Mar 15

2020

2 Timothy 4:6-8: Finishing Well

Preacher: Josh Tancordo Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:6–8 Series: 2 Timothy: Faithful to the End

Mar 8

2020